Metacognitive Strategies. Hearing Teaching Guidance

Listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life. Researchers estimate that we listen twice as much as we write. Listening may well be the most important skill involved in the learning of foreign languages. However, in comparison with the skills of speaking, reading and writing, listening comprehension is a relatively late concern in EFL teaching in China. A common phenomenon is that some senior students, who have learned English for at least three years, are still incompetent in communicating with native English speakers. This phenomenon stems from various reasons, in particular, inappropriateness of the methodology adopted in the teaching of listening comprehension of the traditional teaching method. Many traditional teaching methods not only ignore learning strategies, but may actually hinder their development. Therefore, the question of how best to facilitate the development of learning strategies needs to be studied.Influenced strongly by the findings of cognitive psychology, O'Malley and Chamot (1985) have differentiated learning strategies into three categories depending on the level or type of processing involved. They are metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and social/affective strategies. Recent studies on the differences in strategy use between effective and less effective listeners point to the potential role of metacognitive strategies for enhancing success in second language listening. Metacognitive strategies are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring, or evaluating the success of a learning activity. The few studies carried out in listening strategy instruction suggest that students can indeed be instructed in strategy use to enhance their performance on listening tasks.In the domain of learning strategies, the teacher also has an important role to play. The instruction of learning strategies implies a redefinition of the role of the teacher. A potentially beneficial shift in teacher roles is from that of being exclusivelythe manager, controller, and instructor to that of being a change agent.This paper used a questionnaire and an interview for surveying students' strategies in listening comprehension. A three-term in-class metacognitive strategy instruction was given to senior-Grade one students. The comparison between the pre-test and post-test of listening comprehension proves that strategy instruction helps improve students' listening comprehension.