An Exploratory Study On Improving Listening Comprehension Via Listening Strategy Training

Listening comprehension (LC) is a conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning from oral language by making use of various knowledge and multiple strategies. As a fundamental and important language skill, it has been studied by some foreign language teachers and researchers from different perspectives. Listening strategy training has assumed great importance in that it can stimulate learners' interest and promote learner's autonomy. However, studies on listening strategy training are scarce in China. The teaching of listening is experiencing a change from simply providing learners with opportunities to practice to how to teaching listening skills.In accordance with this change, this thesis is a tentative study of improving students' listening proficiency from the viewpoint of strategy training. It attempts to explore the effects of strategy training on the subjects by examining the relationship between their listening problems and their strategy use both before and after the training .To be specific, how do the foreign language students undertake LC? What strategies do they use to facilitate LC? How does the use of Listening strategies (LS) affect the effectiveness of LC? How many changes are there in strategy use before and after training?The paper attempts to illustrate the nature of LC as well as the role of strategies and the changes of listening strategy training in the process systematically. This study consists of two phases: a descriptive phase and an intervention phase. The strategy training includes metacognitive strategy training and cognitive strategy training.To summarize, LS is one of the most important factors which determines the effectiveness of LC, though it may not be the only one. (The use of LS is likely to be influenced to some extent by the general language proficiency of language learners.) The training of listening strategy, especially the combination of metacognitive strategy training and cognitive strategy training can stimulate learners' motivation. It is helpful to improve learners' metacognitive and cognitive level and optimize learning method, strengthen learners' self-control abilities. The most important, it can improve learners' achievement. Therefore much time and effort should be devoted to the study and training of LS in the teaching of LS in order to improve LC of students.