A Study Of Improving Listening Comprehension Through Metacognitive-Strategy-Based Instruction In Middle School

For many years, listening has been gradually understood as an important component in the process of second language acquisition. In terms of helping second language learner develop language listening competence, many learning strategies have been explored by researchers. Among all these learning strategies, metacognitive is a higher-order executive skill which involves an ability of consciously using metacognitive knowledge to plan, monitor and evaluate the learning process. Once having a good command of metacognitive strategies, students are able to assess the situation, to plan, to select appropriate strategies, to coordinate them, to monitor or evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies use and to revise the plan when necessary.So far, many studies have been carried out to investigate the relationship between metacognition and second language acquisition. Especially, research in language learning strategies has pointed to the powerful role of metacognition in language learning, and the potential for greater use of metacognitive strategies. There have been some studies exploring the effect of metacognitive-strategy-based instruction. The aim of this paper is to explore an effective way of improving senior school students' listening comprehension through metacognitive-strategy-based instruction. Then the study explained the correlation between metacognitive strategy and listening comprehension by analyzing the data.The thesis is composed of six parts. Part 1 is introduction, which illustrates the significance of the study and which is to explore an effective way to improve students' listening comprehension through metacognitive-strategy-based instruction in senior school. Part 2 is literature review, which classifies the effects of metacognitive-strategy-based instruction on listening in China and abroad. Part 3 is the theoretical framework. Metacognition is generally defined as cognition about cognition or thinking about one's own thinking, serving as self-directed, executive, self-regulatory function in cognitive activities. It includes metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive strategies. Metacognitive knowledge refers to the set of facts or variables learners acquire about learning as they are applied and used to gain knowledge and acquire skills in varied situation. Metacognitive strategies involve planning, monitoring, evaluating, and modifying learners' learning processes and approaches. In a word, metacognitive strategies can make learning easier, faster, and more effective.Part 4 is a research design. With a training package of metacognitive and listening strategies through intensified practice of both guided and free listening, this study focuses two aspects: the effects of the training on actual listening performance; the effects of the training on students' metacognitive awareness. This metacognitive strategy training program adopted an embedded metacognitive strategy model, which consisted of four parts: developing students' metacognitive awareness; planning and arranging learning; monitoring learning behaviors; evaluating listening performance. First, students were taught to have a better idea of metacognition, what is involved in listening, and the correlation between strategy learning and language learning. In light of the notion that the combination of metacognitive and cognitive strategies would achieve better results, both cognitive and metacognitive strategies of listening were explicitly trained with the three-step approach: presentation of strategies; cued practice; evaluation. The effect of monitoring were reinforced through self-evaluation, peer evaluation and teacher evaluation, which were used to assess the results of decisions made by teachers during a listening task, to allow students to evaluate their ongoing learning and take necessary remedial actions by reviewing difficulties and justifying choices. In addition, after familiarizing with what is involved in learning, students were helped to plan and arrange their learning at the beginning of the term , and then students were asked to check and revise the plans at mid-term since setting goals and objects could promote students to know where they were going, focus their attention on learning process, choose appropriate strategies to learn and seek various practice opportunities. In addition, the teacher monitored the teaching process through questionnaires, reports, exercises or tests.Part 5 is data analysis and discussion. It includes data analysis, and explanation. Part 6 is conclusion and implications. The study achieved encouraging results. Data from both quantitative and qualitative analysis suggested that, through enhancing students' metacognitive awareness, the training not only played a positive role in actual listening comprehension, but also had a potential positive effect on students' learning autonomy. The study implicated that integrating metacognitive strategy training into the classroom instructional plan to urge students to assume "executive control" of the learning experience had a direct payoff on students' outcomes.In a word, metacognition plays a vital role in English listening comprehension.