A Study Of Listening Comprehension Strategies In College English Autonomous Learning Environment

Listening takes up an extremely important position in college English teaching. It is not only one of the basic ways to acquire linguistic knowledge but an important means of ensuring languages standardization and strengthening language practice. The College English Curriculum Requirements (2004) state: "The objective of College English is to develop students' ability to use English in an all-round way, especially in listening and speaking." If students' listening comprehension ability can be improved and their English leaning interests be motivated, they may learn English more autonomously.Since 1970s, many language acquisition researchers at home and abroad have given the concept of learning strategies from different angles such as information processing theory, the relation of strategies and language materials, the aim of using strategies, the relation of strategies with learning process, and so forth. O'Malley & Chamot (1990) believed learning strategies were special thoughts or behaviors that individuals used to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information. Oxford (1992) regarded learning strategies as adopted actions, act procedures and methods to improve second language skills which could stimulate the internalization, storage, correction and utilization and so on of the new language. O'Malley & Chamot (1990) classified learning strategies as metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies on the basis of information processing theory according to Anderson's cognitive theoretical framework. This classification is more comprehensive and representative compared with other classifying methods. Many scholars at home and abroad have already drawn on it and used it as their quotation. In line with this classifying method, many scholars have carried out analyses in a good many of aspects on English listening comprehension strategies. With practical learning methods offered by these scholars, English listening teaching has got great development in our country in these years.Meanwhile, since 1960s, western educationalists have advocated making cultivating learning autonomy as one of the aims of educational reform. A good many professionals and scholars have been undertaking explanation, analysis, summing-up and practice of self-regulating learning, such as Benson, P , Candy, P., Dickinson, L, Little, D.., Littlewood, W., Sheerin, S., van Lier, L, Voller, P., Wenden, A., etc. McDevitt (1997) thought training independent learners was the ultimate result of education. Holec (1981) stated that the aim of foreign languages teaching was to help learners acquire not only languages and communicative skills but autonomy, i.e. learn how to study on their own. These scholars' viewpoints make up the ideological base on which learning autonomy exists.Based on a survey of the listening strategies used by a group of college English students in autonomous listening classes, the present study aims to investigate levels of strategy use among the students, to examine the relationship between listening strategy use and listening comprehension achievement, and to analyze the characteristics of listening strategy use in autonomous listening classes.The subjects selected were 112 non-English major first-year undergraduates from two natural classes of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. The experiment instruments included a questionnaire on listening comprehension strategies and tests of listening comprehension proficiency. The test papers were extracted from nationwide College English Test of Band Four (CET4). The questionnaire was based on O'Malley & Chamot's typology of learning strategies (1987). It was partly integrated with Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and author-designed questions on the basis of her own teaching experience. The questionnaire was adopted 5-point Likert scale.First, the two classes took the pre-test and did the pre-training questionnaire. The results suggested that there was no significant difference between the two classes in the listening comprehension proficiency and in the employment of listening strategies. Two classes were appointed as experimental class and control class randomly. This experiment was done both in class and after class, to the experimental class the author explained the significance of the strategy and the specific usage to direct their listening comprehension in class, and the author asked students to practise and apply this strategy into their listening assignments. The students were required to finish the following assignments: twenty minutes' whole-class morning listening every day, thirty minutes' VOA/BBC listening every night, two hours' autonomous listening in the language lab every week, and English film appreciation every month. To the control class, the author didn't perform this training and asked them to finish the same tasks by using their routine methods. After one-semester's experiment, students from both classes were required to receive the post-test and did the questionnaire again. SPSS 11.5 was employed to derive information from collected data.Both statistical and qualitative results indicate that after one-semester's strategy training and autonomous listening, there existed significant difference between the two classes in the employment of listening strategies and in the listening comprehension proficiency. The frequency of listening strategy application and proficiency of the experimental class were comparatively higher than that of the control class. Correlation analysis was also conducted between the application of listening strategy and outcome of listening comprehension tests. The results revealed that listening proficiency was positively correlated with the use of listening strategies. The present research suggests listening strategy training combined with autonomous listening can enhance students' strategy awareness, increase the frequency of listening strategy use, and improve students' listening comprehension proficiency, which confirms the effectiveness of listening strategy training to autonomous learning of listening in autonomous learning environment.