A Correlational Study Of Training In Metacognition And College English Listening Achievement

This empirical study is designed to investigate the correlation between metacognition and College English listening achievements of Chinese first-year non-English majors by means of investigating the effects of metacognitive training on the metacognitive knowledge and strategy level of Chinese first-year non-English majors as well as its effects of the improvement in metacognitive knowledge and strategy level on their listening achievements. Evidence is sought in comparing the differences in metacognitive knowledge and strategy level as well as the listening achievements of 81 Chinese first-year non-English majors both before and after the experiment, analyzing the effects of metacognitive knowledge and strategy level on listening achievements, and studying the correlations between metacognition and listening achievements. The statistical techniques employed for analysis are descriptive statistics, Independent Sample T-test,Paired Sample T-test and Pearson Correlational Analysis. Through the interpretation of the quantitative and qualitative results, the following conclusions are generated:1) The subjects'metacognitive knowledge and strategy level has been improved after a period of metacognitive training. By means of teacher-modeling and self-questioning, the subjects have increasingly improved their metacognitive knowledge and strategy level as well as their abilities to employ them in the appropriate situations.2) The improvement in metacognitive knowledge and strategy level has also led to improvement in listening achievements. In the process, the subjects with a certain level of metacogitive knowledge and strategy can gradually make use of their metacognitive knowledge and strategy to better solve the listening problems so as to improve their listening achievements.3) Subjects with different listening achievements represent different metacognitive level after the experiment. Although they are at the same level of metacognitive knowledge, the effective learners show a higher level of metacognitive strategy and they are better at employing specific monitoring strategy than the ineffective learners.4) With the improvement of both metacognitive knowledge and strategy level and listening achievement, metacognition and listening achievement are weakly correlated. That is to say, metacognition is an element that affects the listening proficiency, but it is not a key element.Based on the above conclusions, some pedagogical implications have been made. It is clear to both foreign language teachers and researchers that listening is not always a hard nut to crack. Metacognitive training can be carried out and utilized in the listening process by means of teacher modeling and self-questioning in the listening classes. The learners'metacognitive knowledge and strategy are enriched and abilities to make use of them are enhanced by providing repeated explanation, demonstration and practice. For example, analysing self characteristics beneficial for listnening, building self-confidence in solving the listening problems and setting up attainable goals; enriching strategy knowledge; analysing the nature of the listening tasks and adopting appropriate strategies; activating prior knowledge and making proper predictions in the pre-listening stage; checking their comprehension constantly while listening; evaluating the listening process in the post-listening stage. Therefore, Chinese non-English majors can be more active in solving the listening problems more efffectively so as to improve their listening achievements.。...