Investigating The Use Of Metacognitive Strategies In Reducing Listening Anxiety

Listening is a basic skill in language learning,which plays an important role in language communication.However,listening is usually a huge obstacle for most English learners.As researches show that listening anxiety is a negative factor that affects listening understanding,it is meaningful to find a way to reduce listening anxiety.One solution to reduce listening anxiety could be metacognitive strategy use.Researches show that metacognitive strategy is a very effective therapy for anxiety and depression.So,there are some possibilities that learners’ listening anxiety can be reduced with the use of metacognitive strategies.Considering the possibility of metacognitive strategies in reducing anxiety,the author decides to investigate whether metacognitive strategy training reduces students’ listening anxiety.Empirical research is used to investigate the effect of metacognitive strategy on reducing listening anxiety.In this research,participants are 66 freshman English majors from Hunan Foreign Languages Institute.30 students from class A are the experimental group,and 36 students from class B constitute the control group.Two instruments are employed: CET-4 listening test paper and the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale.This study employs quantitative and qualitative methods to figure out the following questions:(1)What is the feature of listening anxiety of English-major freshmen?(2)What causes listening anxiety?(3)What is the effect of metacognitive strategy training on reducing listening anxiety of the freshmen?There are three findings of the study.First,there is a serious listening anxiety problem among the freshmen of English majors.Most of them suffer a lot from high or middle listening anxiety.Second,listening anxiety is triggered by low listening proficiency,lack of confidence and inappropriate learning strategies.Third,students who have received metacognitive strategy training have less listening anxiety than before.The findings are significant and meaningful.Theoretically,it is of great value to enrich the researches about the effect of metacognitive strategy on anxiety reducing.Practically,for teachers,it reminds them of teaching metacognitive strategy to help students lessen listening anxiety;for students,it provides them an effective way to reduce anxiety while listening.