The effects of rhetorical signaling cues on the recall of English lecture information by speakers of English as a native or second language

Abstract

The study examined the differences between the lecture information recall of first-language listeners (native speakers of English studying Speech Communication) and second-language listeners (non-native speakers of English) relative to the presence or absence of rhetorical signaling cues in the discourse. Several studies (Chaudron and Richards 1986; Kintsch and Yarbrough 1982) have suggested that devices explicitly signaling text structure are important in both first- and second-language listening comprehension. In the present research, American students (native speakers of English) and international students (students of English as a second language) listened to a lecture on the sinking of the Titanic and the Andrea Doria. The structure of the lecture was organized according to two major rhetorical patterns: narration and comparison-and-contrast. One form of the lecture (the evident form) contained explicit cues as to the rhetorical organizations used to convey the lecture information. In the nonevident form, these cues were omitted. The content remained the same for both forms of the lecture. During the lecture, subjects were encouraged to take notes in their native language. After the presentation, subjects were asked to write down all the information that they could recall in their native language. Both the English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Native Language (ENL) subjects were permitted to use their notes when they wrote their protocols. For purposes of analysis, the ESL protocols and notes were translated into English by native speakers of the foreign languages.