Investigation into the Listening Strategies of College English Learners in Henan Province

ABSTRACT: In order to make specific investigation into the listening strategies， 169 college students from four colleges in Henan province are involved in the study. This thesis explains listening strategies and makes classification of it according to the research out of listening strategies abroad and at home. Then analyze college students’ use of listening strategies from two aspects through statistics methods.

摘要：為了詳細研究聽力策略，來自河南省的四所高校的169名大學生參與了此項調查研究。本文根據國內外對聽力策略的研究闡述了聽力策略及其分類，然后從兩個方面通過統計學的方法分，析了大學生聽力策略的使用。

KEY WORDS：college students， listening comprehension， listening strategies

關鍵詞： 大學生；聽力理解；聽力策略

[中圖分類號]：G455[文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-10-0168-02

College English is a required course for undergraduate students in China. The objective of College English is developing students’ ability to use English ， especially in listening and speaking， so that in their future work and social interactions they will be able to exchange information effectively through both spoken and written ability， and at the same time， they will be able to improve their ability to study independently and improve their cultural quality so as to meet the needs of China’s social development and international exchanges.

The difficulties of students also mean challenge to teachers. This thesis focuses on college English learners’ listening situations in terms of listening strategies.

1、Literature Review

1.1、Review of Researches on Listening Strategies Abroad

Some researchers in the past have found that some students were always good learners no matter what kind of textbooks or teaching methodologies were adopted. This led to the study of learners’ strategies in the 1970s. Then， the strategies on listening comprehension started in the west in 1980s and were originated from learning strategies. Within 20 years， the study has been active. Although the results vary due to their different subject groupings， different classifications of strategy， and different methods， research has repeatedly shown that conscious， proper use of such strategies is related to language achievement and proficiency .

Listening can be classified by how the listener processes the input . This method classifies listening strategies into two general strategies: top-down strategy and bottom-up strategy. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. The other is bottom-up strategy. That is， the combination of sounds， words， and grammar that creates meaning.

With the opening statement， the topic is established: Three forces helped to shape the Carolingian Empire. Three forces are written on the blackboard and they’ll be discussed one by one during the lecture:

1). religion

2). social structure

3). economic factors

Seen from the above discussions， a combination of top-down and bottom-up information processing is more effective. First， the groupings of the subjects are different. Second， the controversial issue embedded in the classification of strategies. Third， the methodologies mainly adopted in these researches verbal report.

1.2、Review of Researches on Listening Strategies at Home

The earliest study was conducted by Jiang Zukang in 1994 on the relationship between learning strategies and listening comprehension with eleven universities and colleges， based on a large-scale study on Chinese students . Statistics indicate that difference exists between the two groups: English majors use strategies more frequently than non-English majors， particularly in the use of functional， formal and writing strategies and listening， reading strategies. No difference exists in the use of speaking and listening strategies.

Wen Qiufang conducted a case study and found that successful learners attached importance to both form and content， and did both the practices of intensive listening and semi-intensive listening， while unsuccessful learners only paid attention to content， neglecting form， deploying extensive listening more.

2、Theoretic Foundation

According to cognitive psychology， second language learning is interacting with cognition. Second language acquisition cannot be understood without addressing the interaction between the language and cognition. Learning strategy， ‘the behaviors and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning intend to influence the learner’s encoding process’(Wenstein and Mayer， 1986)， is viewed as complex cognitive skills which will be discussed in the following aspects.

2.1、Classification of Learning Strategies

Foreign language learning strategies are specific actions， behaviour， steps， or techniques students often use to improve their processes in apprehending and using the second language . According to O’Malley et al ， learning strategies have been differentiated into three categories ， which includes metacognitive strategies， cognitive strategies and social strategies etc.

2.2、Explanation of each strategy

Metacognitive strategy is the higher skills that may entail planning for monitoring or evaluating the success of a learning activity .

Cognitive strategy is that by using mental processes， they affect listening process directly and involve conscious ways of tackling listening practice. They account for a large percentage in listening strategies， including formal strategies， meaning strategies， translation.

Formal strategies are the bottom-up processing information

According to linguistic ， including new words and grammar strategies. Processing information based on tone， sentence pattern or key words， topic sentence， etc.

Meaning strategies is the top-down processing information based on the real world knowledge， including predication， elaboration strategies.

Social strategies indicate that learning with others， such as doing

dictations，sharing effective strategies， managing emotional control over affection， like regulating， self-feeling， self-encouragement， relieving the extent of anxiety， etc.

3、Methodology

3.1、Research Questions

What strategies do the college students commonly employ?

How do the strategies that the college students adopt affect their performance in listening comprehension?

3.2、Subjects

169 freshman students from four universities in Henan province，were involved in the study. Samples were related to 149 questionnaires. In these samples， 98 (66%) were boys， 51 (34%) were girls. 116 (78%) coming from countryside.

4、Analysis from the tables above

As mentioned before， the meaning strategy is used most frequently ， the formal strategy is the secondary. Meaning strategies reflected on the application of non-linguistic ， formal strategies are carried out through linguistic knowledge， which indicates that students applied non-linguistic more than linguistic . This might be due to the poor linguistic knowledge， particularly in pronunciation and intonation. Most studengts come from countryside. The heavy local accent makes them difficult to follow teachers and depressed in English class. They could not rely on the linguistic to finish listening task. So it is not surprising that during listening process they had to turn to meaning strategies by translating or inferring information. This may be a reason for the fact that the more use of the non-linguistic strategies but lower listening performance， for linguistic knowledge practice is the foundation for the non-linguistic knowledge and the latter is just compensatory to listening comprehension. The central aim of traditional education is to distribute knowledge. Teaching and learning should guarantee knowledge. On the other hand， They are deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture and the Chinese modest psychology that it is a virtue to remain reticent about one’s strengths. Moreover， they trust working hard better than working in effective ways and to them it is working hard that counts. They believe in their own effort.

Translation is least preferred by all subjects， which is consistent with the previous findings . With the development of their English-learning， college English learners come to realize the negative transfer of their mother tongue but might avoid it consciously， so the least use of translation strategy appears in their report.

5、Conclusion

Today， teaching methods are characterized by student-centered model. The research on listening strategies of college students in Henan province is significant in helping improving learners’ language proficiency.

After investigation and analyses， the two main problems about linguistic competence and non-linguistic competence in listening comprehension are found out. So college teachers should increase the quality of input to show students models. Meanwhile， attention should be paid to the comprehensible output of students， because both output and input enable language comprehension to progress faster.

We suggest that teachers should conduct classroom teaching as much in English as possible and encourage students to participate in all kinds of extracurricular activities in English， ask them to watch TV programs in English and listen to English broadcast on the radio， organize English corner activities so that students can have more chance to practice their English. Encourage the students to keep on practicing， and they will have good habits of listening. By practicing more， they will strengthen the sense of language， improve the integrative competence in using English and raise communicative efficiency.

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