The Application Of Prediction Strategy In English Listening Teaching In Junior High School

As a widely used language,English ia palting a more improtant role than ever in our life.In our country,students are required to learn English form tureis grade in prinary school. However,for non-English speakers,many people still find it difficult to understand spoken English though they have been learning the language for years.Some students can get high scores in vocabulary,grammar and reading conprehension while their listening abilityis relatively poor.Investigations on middle school school students show that listening conprehensiom is the part that thet easily fail to gain marks.Researchera abroad and at home have realized the signinficance of strategy training and proved than strategy training cnhance students lisening abilities.Among the listening stragies.many schoold and teachers advocate the strategy of predction. Prediction aliows liseners to judge what they will hear correctly and thus ignore the redundant information.Numan(2001) also clains that prediction is one of the main strategies that should be trained in listening class.Therefore it is wssential to train students to predict in junior high school.The research aims to explore an effective way to improve the English listening ability of junior high school students by idtructing prediction strategy.This study mainly focuse on the three questions:1)Is prefiction strategy effective to improve students Englishi listening abilities in junior high school?2)What is the students’ use of prediction strategy?3) what is their sttitude towards prediction strategy?4) Has students’ interest in Englishi lisrening increased after learning prediction strategy?Subjects in this study consisted of87thrid-year-students from Jincheng Exprimental Middle School.The instruments of the experiment included questionnaires.listening tests. abd ibterview. The research apporinted the class of44studengts to the experimental calaa.the other class of43to the control class. Before the experiment, all the subjects participated in thepre-test and their scores were analyzed to examine whether the English listening ability of thetwo classes was at the same level. At the same time, a questionnaire was also applied toinvestigate the use of prediction strategy. In the experimental class, the researcher adoptedprediction strategy training in listening class, while in the control class, the researcher usedthe traditional way. The strategy training lasted16weeks. After that, the subjects participatedin the post-test and the same questionnaire was used. At last, the researcher randomly selectedand interviewed10students in experimental class about their opinions on prediction strategy.The data collected in this study were analyzed by SPSS17.0. By comparing the averagescores of listening tests and the results of the questionnaires, it is founded that after asemester’s training, there is significant difference between the experimental class and thecontrol class in their English listening levels and listening abilities. Besides, the results of theinterview show that the students’ interest in listening is also increased. The findings indicatethat prediction strategies have positive effect on students’listening comprehension.