Incorporating Strategy Instruction Into Listening Comprehension Class

Ethnic preparatory education is the transitional period from high school education to college education. Its main target is to prepare ethnic students for college education during one or two years'study. English, as one of the key subjects, deserves great importance in this period. However, due to the limited educational resources, the majority of ethnic students only begin their English study in junior high schools, or even in senior high schools, or receive no English education at all. Consequently, their four basic English skills are at a very low level. Therefore, how to make better use of this one or two years to improve their English proficiency and fill in the gap between them and their Han peers seems particularly urgent.Listening comprehension, as a highly integrative skill, plays an important role in the process of language learning, facilitating the emergence of other language skills. Due to the poor English learning condition in the minority areas, such as unavailable listening facilities, to the majority of the ethnic students, listening to a foreign language might be a daunting task. It is clear that these beginners need more aids to assist comprehension and these aids naturally include listening comprehension strategies. According to Gary and Vandergrift, giving pre-eminence to listening comprehension, particularly in the early stages of second language teaching/learning, is perhaps most crucial for language learning.All these prompt this present study to incorporate strategy instruction into listening comprehension class of ethnic college preparatory students. A cohort of 54 ethnic college preparatory students participated in this study, which is composed of a descriptive study and an intervention study. In the descriptive study, the researcher employed the questionnaire to survey students'use of listening comprehension strategy before instruction. In the intervention study, a series of instruction schemes were prepared by the researcher, which serves as guidelines for the class teacher to conduct direct and integrated instruction during 10-week period. After the instruction, the researcher investigated the effect of strategy instruction by means of listening comprehension tests, questionnaire and interview. The researcher analyzed the results from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The findings are as follows:1. As a whole, the ethnic college preparatory students use listening comprehension strategies with low frequency. Among the three major categories of listening comprehension strategies, cognitive strategies are the most frequently used by the subjects. Metacognitive strategies tend to be used sometimes, ranking the second. To them, the least used listening comprehension strategies in listening activities are social/affective strategies. As far as the 18 subcategories are concerned, they frequently use advance preparation, directed attention, inferencing and elaboration and seldom use self-evaluation, grouping and cooperation. Other 11 strategies are sometimes used by the subjects in this study.2. The direct and integrated strategy instruction could enhance ethnic college preparatory students'awareness of strategy use to a large extent. When comparing the results of pre-instruction questionnaire with that of post-instruction questionnaire, the researcher found that metacognitive strategies experience greatest improvement among the three categories, which indicates students'taking more control of listening comprehension process. In addition, the effect of strategy instruction on students'listening comprehension performance is obvious, as is shown in the comparison among the pre-, mid- and post-tests. The results gained from interview lend to support the above findings.3. The direct and integrated strategy instruction can enhance ethnic college preparatory students'self-regulated learning. The analysis of interview transcripts reveals that these students are more active and purposeful in English learning, with clearer direction. What's more, the strategy instruction contributes to the building-up of the students'learning confidence and enables them to develop a more positive attitude towards learning English.The above findings not only definitely demonstrate the necessity and possibility of listening comprehension strategy instruction to ethnic college preparatory students, but also convince the effectiveness.