A Tentative Study on the Metacognitive Awareness and Strategy for English Majors in Listening Comprehension

Jiao+Bihui

【Abstract】Listening is bearing greater and greater importance in communication and examinations. However， it is widely acknowledged as the most difficult skill to learn among the four skills. Metacognitive strategies show great superiority in improving listening. This paper is trying to put forward some strategies based on the theory of matacognition. It is hoped to help English majors in listening improving.

【Key words】listening； metacognitive awareness and strategies； English majors

【摘要】聽力在日常交際和考試中正變得更加重要，然而它卻是學習者公認的四項技能中最難學會的技能。學生往往會在聽前，聽中，和聽后遇到各種問題。元認知策略在聽力學習方面具有很大的優越性。本文依據元認知策略的原理，嘗試性地提出了一些聽力提高的策略，希望能對英語專業學生聽力提高有所幫助。

【關鍵詞】聽力 元認知意識與策略 英語專業學生

1. The study between the metacognitive awareness and strategy and listening

1.1 The study between the Metacognitive Awareness and strategy and English listening.

It has been argued that metacognition can make a positive influence in language learning. （Byrnes， 1996， Sternberg， 1998； Costa， 2001） But according Vandergrifts study， metacegnitive abilities on a kind of characteristic shared by successful students. It can help students understand their learning style， their capacity， and administrate their learning process in an efficient way， and to find out more effective means to study.

2. THE APPLICATION OF THE METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS AND STRATEGY AND IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION

2.1 The training about the Metacognitive Awareness Strategy.

Because the strategy of delayed production is belonged to the out-breach activities， so it wont be discussed in this part.The rest strategies can be divided into 4 parts： advance organizer， advance preparation and selective attention； directed attention； self-management and self-monitoring； self-evaluation. In every part， well try to bring up some tentative skills to improve the abilities.

2.2.1 The training about advance organizer， advance preparation and selective attention.

2.2.1.1 Setting the listening goal before listening.

The first step to train the abilities of the part is to set the listening goal before listening. Students should have a explicit expectation about their listening or their scores. Psychological studies show that studentsmotivational intensity is proportional to their efficiency. The listening goal based on students listening level is the signal of confidence. Itll help students deal with the practice or exam with a explicit goal. And itll help students to do the evolution or analysis after listening. Setting the listening goal will arouse students enthusiasm and challenge themselves to improve their listening greatly. Its very necessary for students to write down their expected scores on a paper and compare the real scores with the expected scores after listening. It will show the gap between their real abilities and their expectation. And it will point out their learning direction in the future.endprint

2.2.2 The training about Directed Attention

2.2.2.1 Taking notes

Its a very effective strategy to take note in listening. It can help us focus attention and have a better understanding of the listening material. After listening， it can help us to review the messages and summarize our weakness. But many students find its very difficult to make note while listening. They always miss the important message， but catch the unimportant one； as a result， their attention is distracted. All of these affect their understanding. Its very necessary for them to listen to record the situation efficiently.

2.2.2.2skim listening

Skim listening is to neglect the messages irrelevant to the main topic and to catch the important information through prediction.In fact，it is not necessary for listeners to understand all the details of the listening materials，but focus on the main idea and ignore the unimportant details.In skim listening，students should pay their attention to the key sentences in the beginning and the end of the material as well as the key words.

References：

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[2]Goh，C.Learners' self-reports on comprehension and learning strategies for listening.Asian Journal of English Language Teaching，2002：46–68.

[3]Jeremy Harmer.How to Teach English.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2001.

[4]Li li，Chen Zhian，Jiang Yuhong.Strategies，Styles，and Attribution：Learning To Learn English.Shnaghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2005：145-153.endprint