A Longitudinal Study On English Listening Ability Development Of The Students At Tertiary Level

English listening ability plays an important part in English learning. As the first step of language learning, the level of listening ability affects the following ability of speaking, reading, writing and translation.This research takes five English major (EM) freshmen and five non-English major (NEM) freshmen of Dalian Maritime University (DMU) as the subjects through selection. The author uses listening tests, diaries and interview survey method to study students'listening ability development. This study is a longitudinal study. Collecting students'diaries cost about one year.This research uses students'two listening scores, diaries and interview and uses qualitative study and quantitative study method in order to find out the development of listening ability during one year study in college. This research analyzes students' listening ability development from the perspectives of listening input in class, listening input after class and learning motivation towards listening.The result of the survey shows: There are apparent differences between EM students and NEM students in listening input:EM students have more time and chances to express themselves in English, related pronunciation class and oral English class improve their listening ability. After class, because of the major required, EM students spend more time on listening. The forms of listening practice are various, including morning reading, attending English association and English corner and so on. NEM students spend less time on listening compared to EM students. The form of listening practice is simple, including listening to the self-paced listening and listening material of the textbook.1.There is apparent difference between EM students and NEM students in motivation towards English listening study:For EM students, some have the motivation of speaking excellent colloquial English or some want to go abroad to study in the future. For NEM students, they have the motivation of passing different kinds of English tests or get a good job with good English ablity in the future. Students have their own motivation towards English listening. 2.EM students and NEM students both feel their listening ability have been improved greatly during one-year English listening study.At last, based on the above study, this research gives some suggestions on improving college students'listening ability for future college English teaching of listening.