2.1.2 Nature of listening comprehension 3

2.1.3 Process of listening comprehension 3

2.2 Theoretical discussion on indirect speech acts theory 4

2.2.1 Definition of indirect speech acts 4

2.2.2 The classification of indirect speech acts theory 6

2.2.3 The characteristics of indirect speech acts theory 8

2.2.4 Relationship between indirect speech acts theory and listening comprehension 8

2.2.5 Summary 9

3. Method 10

3.1 Participants 10

3.2 Instruments 10

3.3 Procedures of date collection 10

4. Date analysis 11

4.1 Analysis of questionnaires 11

4.2 Analysis of two tests 16

4.2.1 Analysis of Pre-test 16

4.2.2 Analysis of Post-test 17

5. Conclusion 18

5.1 Findings 18

5.2 Suggestions on infiltrating indirect speech acts theory into listening comprehension teaching 18

5.3 Limitations and further research suggestions 19

References 20

Appendix Ⅰ 21

Appendix Ⅱ 23

Appendix Ⅲ 26

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background and purpose

    Listening is an important means for people to communicate with each other and it is also an important element in foreign language learning and teaching. Listening is a process starting from hearing to understanding. The purpose of listening comprehension is not only getting the literal meaning of single word or sentence but also understanding the speaker’s intended meaning. And listening comprehension has always been playing an important role in English teaching and testing.

     However, based on some previous surveys made among students in high school, it is found that the students’ cognition of listening comprehension is limited and the most difficult problem students encounter in listening comprehension is the interpretation of the intended meaning of speaker. So the ability for students to infer the intended meaning of indirect speech in listening is more and more highly required. Nevertheless, the current listening teaching usually stays at the level of micro-linguistic meaning comprehension, but ignores the real meaning of the contents and the listening skills. Thus, it is not effective in developing the students’ listening comprehension ability.

     The application of indirect speech acts theory for teaching English listening in senior high school can help students improve their listening comprehension ability. But from the literature review we can see that there are only a few studies on the indirect speech acts theory and listening teaching. And these studies mainly focus on how to understand the indirectness but lack systematic analysis for teaching listening comprehension guided by the indirect speech acts theory. Therefore, the analytical study of the application of indirect speech acts theory for teaching English listening in senior high school is necessary and instructively meaningful. This paper attempts to study the indirect speech act theory and listening comprehension systematically and think that the indirect speech act theory can be applied to listening comprehension that can help the learners interpret the speaker’s intended meaning. Finally, by analyzing some related data, the paper concludes and gives some suggestions on how to apply the indirect speech acts theory to English listening comprehension teaching in order to help the learners improve their listening comprehension ability aiming at improving the level of English listening teaching.