Strategy Training In Listening Teaching In High Schools

Listening plays a crucial role in our daily life as well as in language learning. Of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in second or foreign language learning, listening has now been considered to be the most important. Though students have invested a massive amount of time and energy in the practice of listening comprehension, their listening proficiency, however, neither satisfies the teachers nor themselves. In this situation, more and more attention is being drawn to researches on ways to improve the efficiency of listening teaching. Implementing listening strategy training in listening teaching is one of the ways, though its effectiveness is still under discussion.Deriving from the study of learning strategies, the study of listening strategies has gained a wide concern. Great breakthroughs have been made in this field since the 1990s. It is now commonly acknowledged that strategy use can effectively enhance learners' listening proficiency. However, debate is still going on when it comes to the teachability of listening strategies and the ways to teach these strategies in the listening class. This thesis attempts to validate the effectiveness of listening strategy training in high school classrooms through an empirical study.The thesis begins with a general literature review on the listening process, listening strategies and strategy training researches. Based on the strategy training models proposed by linguistic experts (Oxford, 1990; O'Malley &Chamot, 1990; Weaver & Cohen, 1997; Wen Qiufang, 2004), the author puts forward a four-step training model:(1) determine students' needs in listening strategies(2) conduct strategy training(3) evaluate strategy training(4) revise strategy trainingWithin the framework of this training model, the author conducted a one-term listening strategy training program with 72 students from two classes of Jigang Senior...