A Metacognitve Approach To Teaching College English Listening Comprehension

Listening is main technique in language application and the important approach to English learning for most people, the cultivation of listening as a skill and as a way for language input should assume critical importance in instruction. Since Mr.Flavell proposed the conception metacognition in 1970's, linguistic researchers have turned their eyes on how to learn English. There is a growing evidence to show that learners play a big role in their learning. In listening, listeners are now generally viewed as active data decoder instead of passive receivers. Various listening comprehension(LC)strategies have been applied to assist them in constructing meaning from the aural input for genuine comprehension. In an attempt to better understand listening learning process, this study aims to investigate the relationship between metacognitive strategies and listening comprehension, and the differences between efficient and inefficient listeners for Chinese college non-English majors, which ultimately helps find out some forceful implications for college English listening teaching and learning.The subjects have been divided into two groups: experimental group and control group.This study made comparison between them and analysis of the application of LC strategies through a metacognition questionnaire and a listening comprehension test from CET-4 among 120 college students from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The results present that Chinese college non-English majors are not good at using LC strategies , especially, metacognitive strategies. But metacognitive strategies are closely correlated with listening achievements. There is a big gap in the strategies use between experimental group and control group through comparison and contrast after metacognition training . These findings give rise to some implications: it is essential for college English teachers to enhance their students'awareness in using LC strategies, offer them more opportunities to practice some positive strategies, increase metacognitive strategies training in listening and taking majors'characteristics into account in both listening strategies instruction and teaching. Based on the findings of the current research, some pedagogical implications for metacognitive strategies are discussed, limitations and suggestions are included in the thesis so as to facilitate college English teaching of listening comprehension as well as the further study on this.