Date of Award

5-2016

Access Control

Open Access

Degree Name

Multidisciplinary Studies - Individualized Option, M.A.

Department

Multidisciplinary Studies

Advisor

Jing Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Reading

Department Home page

http://graduateschool.buffalostate.edu/

First Reader

Jing Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Elementary Education & Reading

Second Reader

William White, Ed.D., Professor of Social & Psychological Foundations of Education

Abstract

As the world is experiencing language globalization, English has been playing an important role in this transition. It is important to master English as a language skill in many non- English speaking countries. These learners, have limited authentic English language environment, and Chinese learners face particular challenges because of the differences of cultural and thinking modes. Feature films have been used to help English Language learners to get the opportunities into authentic English environment. This study aims to investigate how watching English feature films impact Chinese college students’ perception on English language learning. 131 Chinese college students from different majors participated in this study. These participants completed a five-point Likert-type scale survey with 21 items. Results showed that different major college students have different opinions on how watching feature films impact their English learning. English majors and humanities/social study majors are more likely to agree that watching feature films improve their knowledge of language usage in different context comparing to their peers majored in medical science. Moreover, medical science majors are less likely to agree that watching feature films improve their knowledge of different language usage within a context comparing to other peers. Furthermore, significant differences were found in receptive skill improvement when comparisons across between majors and grades. Except English major and engineering and technology science majors, other general majors agree that watching feature films improves their receptive skill the most when they are freshman or senior, and a significant decrease showed when they are sophomore and junior.

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