To What Extent Is Spoken English Proficiency of Chinese University Student Relate to the Auditory Vocabulary Acquired through Watching English Program?

This study adopts the design of pre-test, watching English TV programs and timely post-test to test the correlation between watching English TV series and the oral ability of English as a second language (ESL) learners, as well as the correlation between listening vocabulary acquired through watching English TV series and the oral ability of ESL learners. Participants (N = 45) were stratified by pre-test vocabulary scores to ensure baseline equivalence. In this study, 45 college students from a Chinese University were divided into three groups through questionnaires. The purpose of the questionnaire is to divide learners into different frequency continuums of watching English TV programs according to their habits, duration and frequency of watching English TV programs. Each group presented the English TV series with English subtitles in the same way. The oral test before watching TV, the listening vocabulary test after watching TV and the plot retelling test were set. The results showed a significant positive correlation between viewing frequency and oral proficiency (r = 0.42, p p = 0.008). This study provided further support for the use of second language (L2) television programs for language learning.