An Investigation On The Use Of Meta-cognitive Strategies In English Listening Learning Among Senior High School Students

Among the basic language skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing,“listening”plays an irreplaceable role in daily communication and language learning.However,due to the influence of traditional teaching models,high school students are often passive in their approach to listening.Many students attempt to improve their listening skills through repeated training but find that results are unsatisfactory.Therefore,the strategies for improving high school students’ English listening skills have attracted a lot of attention from scholars at home and abroad.Listening comprehension involves actively predicting,filtering,interpreting,and evaluating heard information through mental processes.Given the characteristics of English listening comprehension,the importance of meta-cognitive strategies in listening learning cannot be underestimated.The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of meta-cognitive planning strategies,monitoring strategies,and evaluating strategies in high school students’ English listening learning.Based on meta-cognitive and self-directed learning theories,this paper aims to address two aspects:(1)What is the current situation of high school students’ use of meta-cognitive strategies in listening learning?(2)What are the differences in the use of meta-cognitive strategies in listening learning among students of different listening levels?The research instruments used in this study included questionnaires,listening tests,and interviews.The authors first administered a questionnaire survey to 176 sophomore students at the third senior high school in M city.Afterward,they used SPSS statistical software to quantitatively analyze the listening test scores and questionnaire results.Finally,five highand low-level students were selected for retrospective interviews and qualitative analysis of the results.The findings:(1)The survey results on the use of meta-cognitive strategies showed that all second-year high school students adopted meta-cognitive strategies,including planning,monitoring,and evaluating.The frequency of using these strategies was moderate,with monitoring being the most frequently used followed by planning and evaluating.(2)There were significant differences in the use of meta-cognitive strategies among students with different levels of English proficiency.The low-level learners exhibited lower levels of meta-cognitive strategy usage compared to high-level learners.Therefore,it is necessary to further strengthen the strategy levels of low-level students.In response to the above findings,the author makes the following two suggestions:(1)Students should raise their awareness of listening strategy use,pay attention to listening comprehension in their daily listening training,identify problems and weaknesses,and make corresponding adjustments to their listening strategies.(2)Strengthening teachers’ guidance on students’ meta-cognitive strategies can help improve students’ ability to plan,monitor,and evaluate their listening learning process effectively.Students should use meta-cognitive strategies rationally to arrange for making listening plans,self-monitoring the listening process,and evaluating listening effects,so as to motivate listening learning,optimize their learning styles,and improve their listening skills.