The Application Of Metacognitive Strategies To EFL Listening Instruction--A Metacognitive Strategy-centered Instructional Model In Listening Classroom

Due to the importance of listening among the basic foreign language skills, how to improve the efficiency of foreign language listening teaching so as to improve college students' listening proficiency has long been a concern of researchers and foreign language teachers. This dissertation reports a tentative study for solving such a problem from the viewpoint of the metacognitive strategy-centered training. It has combined the research results in cognitive psychology and learning strategies; and then established a metacognitive strategy-centered instructional model in foreign language listening classroom, which means to improve listening teaching efficiency by promoting students' metacognitive awareness and instructing students to use metacongitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies in foreign language listening classroom, so as to lead to the improvement in students' listening performance. Sixty-eight English major students from two intact classes participated in the one-semester study: one class of 34 which received metacognitive strategy-centered instructional model comprised experimental group; the other class of 34 served as comparison group, receiving normal strategy instruction without metacognitive component. Data were obtained and analyzed through the performance of the listening tasks on a pre-post basis by the two groups. Experimental group students were also asked to provide additional data in the form of questionnaire regarding their use of metacognitive strategies and other learning strategies before and after the treatment. The results verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the metacognitive strategy-centered instructional model.