Vocabulary Knowledge and Listening Performance in English Language Learning: Case Studies in China

The primary aim of this book is to enhance English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening proficiency and provide pedagogical implications for vocabulary and listening teaching practice. This book gives particular attention to mastery of aural vocabulary knowledge to enhancement of listening performance in Chinese context. It provides a comprehensive picture of the role of vocabulary acquisition approaches and strategy practice in listening performance.

This book evaluates the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL), which has not been sufficiently investigated empirically. In particular, it has an added focus on the use of aural vocabulary knowledge tests in detecting the role of vocabulary knowledge in listening comprehension. It highlights the role of vocabulary knowledge in determining listening success. Specifically, it draws scholars’ attention to the contributions of aural vocabulary knowledge to listening comprehension. The study also confirms the previous hypotheses of higher correlations between aural vocabulary size knowledge and listening comprehension. Pedagogically, it confirms the significance and necessity of improving both aural and written forms of vocabulary knowledge and focusing on strategy-embedded listening activities in EFL listening education. In this book, each chapter is dedicated to a specific theme in EFL learning and acquisition, providing a China case study dedicated to further development of EFL education.

Han Dongjing is a senior lecturer in the faculty of Business English at Shenzhen Polytechnic. She received her Doctor of Applied Language Sciences from Hong Kong Polytechnic and is currently pursuing her doctorate in education from the University of Hong Kong.