A Study Of Listening Training Strategies For High School Students

At present, listening test is an essential part to many important examinations. More and more attention is paid to listening comprehension by both students and teachers, but how to give students effective listening training in classroom teaching bothers teachers, many of whom just play the recorders, let the students do listening test papers, and then check the answers. In this procedure teachers are not clear about their role in listening course, and students gradually lose interest in such listening teaching.English Course Criteria made by the National Education Commission in 2003 sets a clear demand on listening teaching, and it points that helping students master study strategies is a task of English course. Research shows listening strategy is one of the most important factors which affect the process of listening comprehension. Strategy training can motivate students' interest, and improve their listening comprehension.In this study, listening strategy is divided into metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. Metacognitive strategies refer to strategies of advance preparation, selective attention, self-management, self-monitoring and self-evaluation. Cognitive strategies mainly include strategies of note-taking, inferencing, associating, keyword-using.Social/affective strategies refer to strategies of cooperation, reducing anxiety.A cohort of 150 (two classes) Grade One students in a key high school participated in the study. A class was given strategy instruction with the integration of classroom teaching. Based on a pre-listening questionnaire which identified the students' listening difficulties and strategies they often used, eleven metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies were selected for instruction. The classroom teaching stages of strategy training consist of strategy introduction, strategy demonstration, strategy application and strategy tetrospect. The training lasted for a duration for 4 months. The effect of the training on students' listening ability was investigated by means of analyzing test results and the questionnaire. Results show that strategy training enable EFL senior students to improve their listening comprehension, and that listening strategy instructionwith the integration of classroom teaching is effective.The study indicates that teachers should combine the listening strategy instruction with the regular classroom teaching. Strategy training proves to be an effective way to develop students' autonomy in their learning. Training should be given based on students' actual conditions. Strategy instruction should be part of course book writing and teachers' training.