An Investigative Study On English Listening Strategies Of Junior High School Students

In foreign language learning,listening plays a very important role in the four basic skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing.It can be said that listening level is an important factor restricting students’ English achievement.However,data shows that junior high school students’ listening comprehension ability is comparatively low.Effective listening strategies are the prerequisite and powerful guarantee to improve their listening ability and to develop their autonomous learning ability.At present,researches on listening strategies in China are mainly targeted at universities,vocational colleges and high schools,while the number of studies on junior high school students is relatively small.The number of comparative studies on the use of listening strategies in different grades is even smaller.At the same time,the English Curriculum Standard(2011 Edition),makes requirements of fostering students’ English learning strategies: to encourage students to actively grasp learning strategies.It will bring about theoretical and practical significance to study the current situation of English listening strategies of junior high school students,and then to put forward the improvement measures.Based on the above situation,the author tries to explore the following three problems: what learning strategies junior high school students use in the process of listening learning;which type of listening strategies is most commonly used by junior high school students;what the differences are between male and female students in using listening strategies?The subjects in the study are 884 junior high school students from nine schools in three districts in the city of Shijiazhuang.The research is based on the theory of learning strategy and O’Malley and Chamot’s classification: meta-cognitive strategies,cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies.Quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed.A questionnaire survey was conducted among junior high school students,and the data obtained from the survey was analyzed with SPSS19.0.Descriptive analysis was done on the quantitative data,concerning the maximum score and minimum score,the mean score and the standard deviation in the use of listening strategies.Independent sample t-test was used to find out the gender differences in listening strategies.The results of this study are as follows:Students of different grades in junior high schools do employ meta-cognitive strategies,cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies in English listening.In terms of the frequency of using the three major strategies,Grade 8 and Grade 9 students are more frequent used than those in Grade 7.The junior high school students use a variety of listening strategies in the process of listening,but the frequency level is mediocre.Among the three major strategies,cognitive strategies are used most frequently,followed by meta-cognitive strategies.The least commonly used is socio-affective strategies.With regard to subcategories,the most common meta-cognitive strategies used by the subjects are self-monitoring.As for cognitive strategies,they use imagery and translation most frequently.In terms of socio-affective strategies,the subjects prefer using lowering anxiety strategy.Female listeners use listening strategies more frequently than the male ones.Of all the three categories of strategies,females and males use more cognitive strategies,followed by meta-cognitive strategies.And socio-affective strategies are the least used.In addition,there are significant differences in the application of cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies.However,there is no difference in the use of meta-cognitive strategies.Among the subcategories of three major strategies,significant difference exists in translation and resourcing in cognitive strategies,cooperation and self-encouragement in socio-affective strategies.Based on the results of this study,some enlightenment is drawn for junior middle school English listening teaching and learning,regarding cognitive strategies,meta-cognitive strategies and socio-affective strategies.Last but not the least,teachers are advised to take full consideration of the gender factors of the students when teaching learning strategies in the listening class.