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Abstract：The survey aims at 31 postgraduates in two majors，Linguistics ﹠ Curriculum and Teaching Methodology in Yunnan Normal University. We used two sets of test papers，one is the paper of recognized vocabulary measurement，and the other is a segment of listening material from VOA. We also used some statistics' methods to compare the correlation between their vocabulary size and listening comprehension. Finally we found they are correlative in a way，which guides us to probe the interaction between vocabulary teaching and listening teaching. We naturally bring about some suggestions which can make our vocabulary and listening teaching in English better.
Key words：vocabulary size；Listening comprehension；correlation survey；Listening teaching
Ⅰ、Introduction
Some psycholinguists have studied the vocabularies stored in the brains. The results demonstrated that vocabulary plays a very important role in language learning. Professor Guishichun in Guangzzhou University of Foreign Language has sampled among the students studying English throughout the country to test their vocabulary size and other English skills. His findings indicated that the coefficient between vocabulary size and listening comprehension is equal to about 0.65（ p=0.001） . According to the correlative level delimited by Connolly ﹠Slukin，the findings were highly correlated.
Professor Liusi from Hannan University also did some studies on the relationship between vocabulary size and listening comprehension. The conclusion also proved that the results of Professor Guishichun are correct.
Different from two professors，who aim to sum up a series of scientific methods in measuring vocabulary size，meanwhile to find out the relationship between vocabulary size and other English skills，and to prove whether the measurement methods of vocabulary can be used to estimate other English skills or not，This survey wants to inquire the correlation between vocabulary size and listening comprehension，and to find the theoretical evidence and methods，which can help student improvetheir ability in English
According to the above theoretical and experimental results，this survey lies to the following hypothesis： vocabulary size and listening comprehension of investigated target have correlation.
Ⅱ、Researching methods
（一）Investigated target
The target of this survey is 31 post students major in Linguistics ﹠Curriculum and Teaching Methodology in Yunnnan Normal University. They are all in Grade two. All of them have past the Entrance Examination of pastgraduation. The textbooks they learned，the hours of learning，and the teachers are all the same，so they have coherence and typicality in some levels.
（二）Survey methods
This survey is an experiment about correlation. We designed the vocabulary testing paper，namely we listed a single English word，and enclosed four multiple choices in Chinese meaning. The words we chosen are sampled from 1，0000-2，000 in The New Major English Teaching Syllabus. The Sampling carried on in different levels. We chose 150 words to be paper A. The tested items and choices are all arranged with the test theory principles.
The listening comprehension materials are chosen from VOA.
The survey was also analyzed the two kinds of papers by SPSS program，the specific results lie in the following charts and graphs.
1.Histogram
From the above graphs，we can find that
（1）The scores of dictation and vocabulary do not display normal distribution；
（2）The means of dictation and vocabulary are respectively 56.3 and 71.5；
（3）The scores of dictation range from 40 to 70，while those of vocabulary from 60 to 85.These points argues that the students did a better job in vocabulary test that the students did a better job in vocabulary test than the dictation one.
2.Bivariate correlations
Descriptive Statistics
MeanStd. DeviationN
听力成绩词汇成绩56.322671.51616.57976.41293131
Correlations
听力成绩词汇成绩
听力成绩Pearson CorrelationSig.（2-tailed）N1.000.31.219.23531
词汇成绩Pearson CorrelationSig.（2-tailed）N.219.23531.1000.31
Generally，the coefficiency is defined between -1 and 1，if the value of coefficiency is close to -1 or 1，then we can say the analyzed variables is relatively correlated； if the value of coefficiency tends to be 0，then we can say the analyzed variables are hardly correlated.
As the Linguistics Statistics shows，（杨端和：1998）
Correlated coefficiencythe correlation degree of the variablescorrelatedclosely correlated0.4-0.7correlated0.2-0.4slightly correlated
Below 0.2almost not correlated（the Linguistics Statistics shows，（杨端和：1998）the Pearson Correlation coefficiency between the dictation and the vocabulary test is 0.219 which is within the scope of 0.2-0.4，so they are slightly correlated.
At the level of 95%，the value of significance between them is 0.235，far beyond 0.005 which demonstrates that the significance level is not remarkable.
Ⅲ、Analyzing and discussing
The results of histogram，demonstrated that students generally did a better job in vocabulary than listening. In another word，the students have more difficult to gain listening skill than to remember vocabulary. The reason is that when we learn a word，we pay more attention to its form，meaning，and pronunciation. But we always feel that is not easy to extract it during the listening context. For in the limited time，we couldn't search the appropriated word in our brains.
The results of bivariate correlations indicated that the correlations between vocabulary size and listening comprehension are slight or substantial. （0.29），not "marked" （0.70-0.90） or very strong"（0.90-1）. That demonstrated there are different between understanding sentences or texts and understanding the words. Because in our brains. There is not only storing the phonetic or semantic of a word，but also storing the information of grammar and morpheme. In the test of vocabulary，the students only concerned with the word spelling and the word meaning，while in the listening test ，except the two factors，the tested also concerned with other information's exchange ，such as，grammar，morpheme and other factors. And the dialogues and stories also involve time，place，context，background knowledge and so many elements. This is why the vocabulary size and listening comprehension are correlated，but not too strong.
Ⅳ、 Some improved suggestions on listening teaching
Actually，the process of listening is the process of listening from the words. According to the correlation between vocabulary size and listening comprehension，we got some suggestions in the following：
1. To connect the pronunciation，spelling and meaning of a word in vocabulary teaching. In our traditional teaching，we often focus on the spelling and meaning of a word，ignoring its pronunciation. As a result，students can be strong in English reading，but weak in the listening. So，the fundamental to improve the listening comprehension is to add the students' hearing words as many as possible.
2. To guide students to read words while listening. It is a good way to improve listening comprehension from language acquisition. Teacher should let students read following to the tape，which can correct the students' pronunciation，and connect the form and pronunciation of a words，to active students' lexical access ability.
3. To require students do more extensive listening. In the daily conversation，we have little necessary to hear every word cleanly. The things we need is to catch the key words and key phrases. Sometimes we can get the meaning from the tongue of the speaker. So the more extensive listening students do，the better listening comprehension students will get. During this process，teachers should help students pay more attention to the whole characteristic，not the single words.
4. To do intensive listening in the class is necessary. In the process of intensive listening，students need to listen word by word，sentence by sentence，which can active the familiar words and to predict the unfamiliar ones. So teachers should make students do some retelling practice，or some exercises of filling in blank.
Ⅴ、Conclusion
From the survey did above，we learn that the vocabulary size of an English learner more or less influences their listening comprehension. So we need to vary our vocabulary and listening teaching methods，making full use of their interaction to improve the students’English comprehensive level.
Notes：
①桂诗春著，《应用语言学与中国教学》。山东教育出版社，1988年，P 342。
②刘思著，英语听力词汇量与阅读词汇量——词汇研究调查报告，《海南大学学报》（社会科学版），1995年第二期，P36。
References：
［1］杨端和著，《语言研究应用SPSS软件实例大全》。中国社会科学出版社，2004年4月。
［2］杨端和，杨传哲著，《语言统计学》。云南大学出版社，1998年3月。
［3］王连瀛著，《大学英语听力理论和技巧》。天津科技翻译出版公司，1992年4月。
［4］刘思，英语听力词汇量与阅读词汇量——词汇研究调查报告，《海南大学学报》（社会科学版），1995，（2）36。
［5］Forster，K. 1981. Priming and the Effects of Sentence and Lexical Contests on Naming Time： Evidence for Autonomous Lexical Processing. Quarter Journal of Experimental Psychology. 33a： 465-95。
Key words：vocabulary size；Listening comprehension；correlation survey；Listening teaching
Ⅰ、Introduction
Some psycholinguists have studied the vocabularies stored in the brains. The results demonstrated that vocabulary plays a very important role in language learning. Professor Guishichun in Guangzzhou University of Foreign Language has sampled among the students studying English throughout the country to test their vocabulary size and other English skills. His findings indicated that the coefficient between vocabulary size and listening comprehension is equal to about 0.65（ p=0.001） . According to the correlative level delimited by Connolly ﹠Slukin，the findings were highly correlated.
Professor Liusi from Hannan University also did some studies on the relationship between vocabulary size and listening comprehension. The conclusion also proved that the results of Professor Guishichun are correct.
Different from two professors，who aim to sum up a series of scientific methods in measuring vocabulary size，meanwhile to find out the relationship between vocabulary size and other English skills，and to prove whether the measurement methods of vocabulary can be used to estimate other English skills or not，This survey wants to inquire the correlation between vocabulary size and listening comprehension，and to find the theoretical evidence and methods，which can help student improvetheir ability in English
According to the above theoretical and experimental results，this survey lies to the following hypothesis： vocabulary size and listening comprehension of investigated target have correlation.
Ⅱ、Researching methods
（一）Investigated target
The target of this survey is 31 post students major in Linguistics ﹠Curriculum and Teaching Methodology in Yunnnan Normal University. They are all in Grade two. All of them have past the Entrance Examination of pastgraduation. The textbooks they learned，the hours of learning，and the teachers are all the same，so they have coherence and typicality in some levels.
（二）Survey methods
This survey is an experiment about correlation. We designed the vocabulary testing paper，namely we listed a single English word，and enclosed four multiple choices in Chinese meaning. The words we chosen are sampled from 1，0000-2，000 in The New Major English Teaching Syllabus. The Sampling carried on in different levels. We chose 150 words to be paper A. The tested items and choices are all arranged with the test theory principles.
The listening comprehension materials are chosen from VOA.
The survey was also analyzed the two kinds of papers by SPSS program，the specific results lie in the following charts and graphs.
1.Histogram
From the above graphs，we can find that
（1）The scores of dictation and vocabulary do not display normal distribution；
（2）The means of dictation and vocabulary are respectively 56.3 and 71.5；
（3）The scores of dictation range from 40 to 70，while those of vocabulary from 60 to 85.These points argues that the students did a better job in vocabulary test that the students did a better job in vocabulary test than the dictation one.
2.Bivariate correlations
Descriptive Statistics
MeanStd. DeviationN
听力成绩词汇成绩56.322671.51616.57976.41293131
Correlations
听力成绩词汇成绩
听力成绩Pearson CorrelationSig.（2-tailed）N1.000.31.219.23531
词汇成绩Pearson CorrelationSig.（2-tailed）N.219.23531.1000.31
Generally，the coefficiency is defined between -1 and 1，if the value of coefficiency is close to -1 or 1，then we can say the analyzed variables is relatively correlated； if the value of coefficiency tends to be 0，then we can say the analyzed variables are hardly correlated.
As the Linguistics Statistics shows，（杨端和：1998）
Correlated coefficiencythe correlation degree of the variablescorrelatedclosely correlated0.4-0.7correlated0.2-0.4slightly correlated
Below 0.2almost not correlated（the Linguistics Statistics shows，（杨端和：1998）the Pearson Correlation coefficiency between the dictation and the vocabulary test is 0.219 which is within the scope of 0.2-0.4，so they are slightly correlated.
At the level of 95%，the value of significance between them is 0.235，far beyond 0.005 which demonstrates that the significance level is not remarkable.
Ⅲ、Analyzing and discussing
The results of histogram，demonstrated that students generally did a better job in vocabulary than listening. In another word，the students have more difficult to gain listening skill than to remember vocabulary. The reason is that when we learn a word，we pay more attention to its form，meaning，and pronunciation. But we always feel that is not easy to extract it during the listening context. For in the limited time，we couldn't search the appropriated word in our brains.
The results of bivariate correlations indicated that the correlations between vocabulary size and listening comprehension are slight or substantial. （0.29），not "marked" （0.70-0.90） or very strong"（0.90-1）. That demonstrated there are different between understanding sentences or texts and understanding the words. Because in our brains. There is not only storing the phonetic or semantic of a word，but also storing the information of grammar and morpheme. In the test of vocabulary，the students only concerned with the word spelling and the word meaning，while in the listening test ，except the two factors，the tested also concerned with other information's exchange ，such as，grammar，morpheme and other factors. And the dialogues and stories also involve time，place，context，background knowledge and so many elements. This is why the vocabulary size and listening comprehension are correlated，but not too strong.
Ⅳ、 Some improved suggestions on listening teaching
Actually，the process of listening is the process of listening from the words. According to the correlation between vocabulary size and listening comprehension，we got some suggestions in the following：
1. To connect the pronunciation，spelling and meaning of a word in vocabulary teaching. In our traditional teaching，we often focus on the spelling and meaning of a word，ignoring its pronunciation. As a result，students can be strong in English reading，but weak in the listening. So，the fundamental to improve the listening comprehension is to add the students' hearing words as many as possible.
2. To guide students to read words while listening. It is a good way to improve listening comprehension from language acquisition. Teacher should let students read following to the tape，which can correct the students' pronunciation，and connect the form and pronunciation of a words，to active students' lexical access ability.
3. To require students do more extensive listening. In the daily conversation，we have little necessary to hear every word cleanly. The things we need is to catch the key words and key phrases. Sometimes we can get the meaning from the tongue of the speaker. So the more extensive listening students do，the better listening comprehension students will get. During this process，teachers should help students pay more attention to the whole characteristic，not the single words.
4. To do intensive listening in the class is necessary. In the process of intensive listening，students need to listen word by word，sentence by sentence，which can active the familiar words and to predict the unfamiliar ones. So teachers should make students do some retelling practice，or some exercises of filling in blank.
Ⅴ、Conclusion
From the survey did above，we learn that the vocabulary size of an English learner more or less influences their listening comprehension. So we need to vary our vocabulary and listening teaching methods，making full use of their interaction to improve the students’English comprehensive level.
Notes：
①桂诗春著，《应用语言学与中国教学》。山东教育出版社，1988年，P 342。
②刘思著，英语听力词汇量与阅读词汇量——词汇研究调查报告，《海南大学学报》（社会科学版），1995年第二期，P36。
References：
［1］杨端和著，《语言研究应用SPSS软件实例大全》。中国社会科学出版社，2004年4月。
［2］杨端和，杨传哲著，《语言统计学》。云南大学出版社，1998年3月。
［3］王连瀛著，《大学英语听力理论和技巧》。天津科技翻译出版公司，1992年4月。
［4］刘思，英语听力词汇量与阅读词汇量——词汇研究调查报告，《海南大学学报》（社会科学版），1995，（2）36。
［5］Forster，K. 1981. Priming and the Effects of Sentence and Lexical Contests on Naming Time： Evidence for Autonomous Lexical Processing. Quarter Journal of Experimental Psychology. 33a： 465-95。