고려대학교

초록/요약

Since the introduction of the College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) in 1994,the speech rate in the CSAT English listening test has long been criticized for its low validity and authenticity for having failed to reflect the normal speech rate of real life English. It has been argued that too much exposure to this relatively slow rate of speech represented in the CSAT has been depriving EFL learners of the critical opportunity to acquire listening skills required to comprehend English at a natural rate of speech. Given this persistent problem,the present research attempts to investigate the extent to which varying degrees of speech rate impact overall listening comprehension on the part of secondary EFL learners. A breakthrough in digital technology referred to as speech rate conversion technology (SRCT) has made it possible to generate oral input of varying speech rates for the present research. The research findings reveal that varying degrees of speech rate do exert significant impact on overall listening performance, especially on listening comprehension of students with limited English proficiency. The survey results suggest that the respondents in general endorse being exposed to the normal speech rate of real life English