Motivated Training Of College English Listening Strategies

Listening is considered as one of the four macro-skills of language learning. Listening comprehension has always been one of the main problems of college English learners. Thus, how to improve college students' listening comprehension is the subject that college English teachers have constantly been exploring. It has also been evidenced in the literature that listening strategy plays a significant role in listening learning and teaching. Correspondingly listening strategy training can exert a facilitatory influence upon language learners' use of listening strategy and listening proficiency.There have been a wide variety of studies on listening strategy training in the literature, but up to now importance has not been attached enough to listening strategy training in a task-based and motivated design. Therefore, this research investigated the effects of task-based training and more importantly task-based motivated training in listening strategy use upon Chinese college students' development in their English listening as well as in their use of English listening strategy.111 sophomores majoring in English from three intact classes were involved in the experiment. One of the two experimental classes received task-based motivated listening strategy training, while the other experimental class received only task-based listening strategy training integrated in regular classes. In contrast, the control class received regular courses without any listening strategy training. Data were collected from pre-training and post-training listening tests and questionnaires about the use of listening strategy and English learning motivation.The results showed that task-based motivated listening strategy training was effective in promoting college English learners' use of listening strategies and improving their listening proficiency. Additionally, the results also proved the significant role of English learning motivation in listening strategy training and in the development of English listening as well. The results suggest that strategy instruction is indispensable in college English listening teaching, and that task-based motivated listening strategy training is an ideal mode to be advocated.