A Descriptive Study Of Learning Strategies For Listening Comprehension Of Chinese College English Learners

The focus of modem language teaching research has gradually shifted from how to teach to how to learn. In fact, in the field of education, more and more people have realized that learners per se play a decisive role in the success or failure of the complicated process of teaching. As such, the research on the language learners including their learning process and their individual differences has become the great concern of many second language acquisition (SLA) researchers.This gives rise to the researches on language learning strategies for L2 listening comprehension (i.e. L2 LC strategies), an integral part of research on L2 learning process. With the findings of cognitive psychology, more and more SLA researchers have realized that the language learners do not merely receive the language input passively, but employ learning strategies to perform the learning tasks actively. Accordingly, in the teaching of listening comprehension much attention should be paid not only to the aural input provided by the teachers, but also to the students' learning process as well as the learning strategies they employ to develop their listening comprehension ability. The researchers show great concern about L2 LC strategies since they might be helpful to reveal the learning process and hence can help L2 learners to improve the listening comprehension ability more effectively. These researches include discussing the definition and classification of L2 LC strategies, identifying the differences between the successful and less successful listeners in using the strategies, etc.. Many researches indicate that the appropriate use of positive L2 LC strategies like metacognitive strategies can not only help the language acquisition, but also promote the establishment of learner autonomy.In order to deepen our understanding of the second/foreign language learning process and the learner, Stern (1999) has called forfurther research in different social contexts, under different language learning conditions, at different age and maturity levels, and at different levels of proficiency. Therefore, based on the previous research findings, this study aims to investigate the learning strategies for listening comprehension used by Chinese EFL students and to examine the relationship between their strategies and the outcome of listening comprehension tests. By employing O'Malley and Chamot's three-way division of learning strategies, the author developed a questionnaire and administered it to 112 college non-English majors. Their replies to the questionnaire were then correlated to the results in two listening comprehension tests. Descriptive analyses, group comparisons (successful and less successful listeners; male and female students), correlational analyses were made and the results were discussed.The results of this study showed that most of the students could manage their approach to listening with metacognitive strategy, and also employed cognitive strategies to aid the listening comprehension. These are in line with many of the research findings of western scholars. But this study also indicated that some positive strategies were not used frequently and appropriately. Take the social/affective strategies for example. Most of the students could adjust their emotions, but could not cooperate actively with their peers or ask the teacher for help. In correlation analysis, the metacognitive strategies and some cognitive strategies like note taking positively correlated with the outcome of two listening comprehension tests. Moreover, apparent differences in strategy use were found between successful and less successful listeners. Therefore, in the classroom teaching of listening comprehension, it is necessary for the teachers to pay more attention to the use of LC strategies of the students and give them instruction in the use the strategies. Besides, areas for further research on LC strategies are also proposed.