A Study Of Listening Strategies By Higher Vocational-technical College Students

This thesis is a study on the listening strategies employed by students in higher vocational-technical colleges (HVTC). Listening plays a significant role in foreign language acquisition and it is the major input of language in language communication. It was not until 1960s that the focus of research shifted from "how to teach" to "how to learn". Many scholars pointed out that listening strategies are based on the theoretical frame of learning strategies. Lots of experiments on listening show that teaching listening strategies is better than not doing it, which can arouse students' interests and make it a little easier in their following studies.The thesis first points out the need for the study and gives a survey of some influential research on language learning strategies both at home and abroad. Then it introduces the theoretical background: varieties of definitions and classifications of language learning strategies. In this thesis, the author uses questionnaire, interview and listening test to find out: (1)What are the listening strategies employed by HVTC students? (2)Are there differences in the use of listening strategies between good learners and poor learners? The questionnaire designed by Professor Wang Yu is composed of two parts, one is the personal information about the attendants and the other is about 41 listening strategies according to the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning. The subjects of the questionnaire are 224 (valid) term-two non-English major students in Jiangsu Animal Husbandry & Veterinary College (JSAHVC). The data collected from the research is processed by SPSS11.5. The results indicate: (1)Students in HVTC use 5 types of listening strategies. Rank ordered in terms of frequency, they are: meaning-focused strategies, mother-tongue strategies, form-focused strategies, metacognitive strategies and social-affective strategies. (2)In general, listening strategies have certain predicting power on listening score, but the predicting power is weak. Among all the strategies explored in the present study, the predicting power of word strategy and social-affective strategies are comparatively stronger than other strategies. (3)The difference between good learners and poor learners lies in the employment of monitoring strategies, word strategies and grammar strategies.Finally, based on the findings of the research, the author recommends four pieces of suggestions for teaching listening: (1) While practicing strategy instruction, metacognitive strategies should take the remarkable place and be fully taken into the consideration of the instructors. (2) While teaching listening, teachers in HVTC should emphasize the social-affective factors, train students to control and adjust their interests, attitudes, motivations and wills. Moreover, teachers should help students establish an active attitude to listening and take every opportunity to contact with English, inspire students to overcome the fear of listening and establish confidence, encourage students to cooperate with partners and teachers. (3)The major implication drawn from the results of the study is that strategy training should play a role in the listening lecture in HVTC and teachers should be aware of the overall relations between listening strategies and listening proficiency. (4)In strategic training, teachers should help students understand the difference between good and poor learners in using listening strategies. Teachers should help students avoid some unsuccessful strategies and assist them to use effective and appropriate strategies to improve their listening proficiency.