A Multi-dimensional Study Of Strategies For Listening Comprehension Oriented To Learners

Along with China's entry into WTO and the ever-increasing exchanges between China and other countries in various fields, English as the global language is playing an ever-growing significant role. Job-markets now require that graduates from universities should have a better English proficiency than ever before. To some extent, English proficiency is a key factor that affects a student's chance to be hired upon his or her graduation. Hence for College English teachers to carry out a reform in their teaching performance is not merely a need to do academic research but also a need to improve students'ability to use English so as to adapt themselves to their future social interactions. As for the ability to use the language, many students will feel it much more difficult to listen and speak than to read and write. The present dissertation is motivated by such difficulties that most of the students are confronted with. The discussions in this dissertation will center round the students-oriented strategies for listening comprehension within the framework of learning strategy and the students'ability to study independently. That is because listening comprehension is a key channel to the mastery and practical use of a foreign language; and it is also a main channel in input and output of information. A quick response in daily conversation and other communicative situations calls for listening comprehension in the first place. Besides, if we take into an overall consideration the real situation of strategy study, we will come to an understanding that there is still much room for the research on strategies for listening comprehension, and that oriented to students in particular. This dissertation consists of six chapters. The gists of each chapter are described as follows: Chapter One is an Introduction, which is the exposition of the aim, approach and significance of the research. Chapter Two presents the Theoretical Grounds of the dissertation, in which are involved different definitions of learning strategy, its classifications, functions, characteristics and attributes, and the relevant training methods and approaches set forth by different scholars both at home and abroad. Their viewpoints are at once of revelation and indispensable to this sort of research. Chapter Three is a General Account of the Related Literature, which gives a larger academic horizon, and which aims at a clear idea of the already scored achievements in this field, of a series of issues in relevance the process, goal, difficulties, training modes and strategies of listening comprehension. Chapter Two and Chapter Three are theoretical basis of a positive approach. They are the major premise of Chapter Four. Chapter Four, the Survey, in it an analysis of the data has been made and the data are collected from the questionnaire designed by the author herself. The questionnaires forms are distributed among 253 second-year undergraduates who are non-English majors at Guangxi Normal University. The survey made by the author by way of questionnaire in this dissertation is intended for a better understanding of how much the students know of and believe in listening strategies in order to help them strengthen their autonomy in the training of listening comprehension. Of the 253 subjects to the investigation, 229 have answered the questions in an earnest way and handed in the valid questionnaire copies, which have produced the data that serve to identify what the real picture of the students'listening comprehension performance is and what the students at such universities as Guangxi Normal university are in need in their improvement of the ability to listen and speak. Chapter Four begins with description of the questionnaire, the carrying-out procedure and analyzing instrument. And then a larger space is devoted to the analysis of Section I and Section II of this chapter. Section One deals chiefly with the frequency analysis mainly. Section Two deals with the following issues: 1. The average scores of each valid case and the state of their distributions; 2. A comparison in average scores obtained by students of Liberal Arts and by students of Natural Sciences in term of listening strategies; 3. A comparison between the average scores obtained by the students of Class A and the average scores obtained by the students of Class B; 4. The analysis of the average scores of the seven subsets; 5. The average scores of each item under the seven subsets. The findings from the survey are as follows: 1. The average scores of non-English majors with regard to their knowledge of listening strategies are not optimistic; 2. The average scores the students of Liberal Arts have got are obviously higher than that of the students of Natural Sciences have got in terms of listening strategies; 3. The average score in listening strategies of Class A is higher than that of Class B; 4. The average scores of each subset descend in the following order: Pre-listening Strategies→While-listening Strategies →Anxiety →Strategies Adopted During the Face-to-face Communication with Native English Speakers →Self-management in the Listening Practice →After-listening strategies →Strategies for multiplication of the chances to listen, each lower than its proceeding one; 5. The average scores of each item in its subset fluctuate considerably. Some of the reasons why so are the findings from the survey are given by way of analysis in this chapter. Chapter Five provides the Implication and Suggestions deprived from this survey. In brief, it is advisable and necessary to identify the learning strategy training for students. The relevant training methods directed to students are offered in this chapter. Besides, some suggestions, such as creating life-like language environment for students and establishing listening center for students to practise listening comprehension independently, etc., are listed in this chapter. Chapter Six is where the Conclusion of this dissertation arrives at. It points out that, according to the research, the chief hindrance of the students'improvement of listening comprehension is their size of vocabulary but we can not dismiss the impact that the listening strategies have on their improvement of listening comprehension, which measures up to 30 percent degree in the role of impediment. The students'beliefs in listening strategies are strong enough to let them be a favorable condition for the sort of training. The research also results in the discovery that the teachers'training approaches need to be diversified, and that the students-oriented training in relevance to listening strategy is a demanding job for College English teachers to take, because the non-English majors lack the knowledge in the respect, which cause them many troubles, such as anxiety and proper use of the listening strategies. The deaf-and-mute English phenomenon calls for a solution. This dissertation attempts a way out for this phenomenon from the perspective of learning strategy, in which many existing problems related to listening strategies are tackled and a positive or tentative approach is adopted. Suggestions put forward in this dissertation are intended for a solution to the deaf-and-mute English also from the standpoint of listening strategies.