A Study Of Interrelationships Among Motivation Orientations, Metacognitive Strategies And Listening Proficiency Of Non-English Major Undergraduates

Listening comprehension lies at the heart of L2 learning, and the development of L2 listening skills has demonstrated a beneficial impact on the development of other skills (e.g. Dunkel 1991; Rost 2002). Traditionally, research has focused on the product of listening. A process-oriented approach to investigating L2 listening begins recently and needs more research attention (Vandergrift, 2003b).The present study attempts to investigate the interrelationships among motivation orientations, metacognitive listening strategies and proficiency in L2 listening. The investigation was carried out among 125 non-English major undergraduates at an university in Suzhou via questionnaire surveys and interviews, specifically to address the following three questions: (1) What are the motivation orientations of EFL learning among Chinese non-English major undergraduates? (2) What are the metacognitive strategies employed in the listening process by Chinese non-English major undergraduates? (3) What are the interrelationships among motivation orientations, metacognitive listening strategies and listening proficiency? The purpose of the study is to probe into the motivation orientations and metacognitive strategies involved in listening comprehension among Chinese non-English major undergraduates.The present study generates the following findings:1. Non-English major undergraduate students are much more internally motivated than they had been expected to be. The majority of the participants feel it worthwhile learning English, with their personal development as the greatest motivator.2. Non-English major undergraduate students participate actively in regulating and managing their own listening. Ranked in terms of total frequency, the strategies used by the participants are Direct Attention, Problem Solving, Person Knowledge, Mental Translation, and Planning and Evaluation.3. (1) There is a negative relationship between amotivation (AM) and listening proficiency. Intrinsic motivation (IM) is significantly related with listening proficiency while extrinsic motivation (EM) has a weak low relationship with listening proficiency.(2) Most strategies correlate negatively with AM, but not as strongly as expected. The level of EM is not the indicator of the tendency of listening strategy use. The relationship between IM and these listening strategies is as strong as anticipated and it is much more significant than that in the case of EM.(3) There is a significant positive relationship between overall listening strategies and listening proficiency. However, the correlations between proficiency and the five factors are not all positive and significant. Direct Attention and Problem Solving correlate positively and significantly with listening proficiency. Mental Translation has a significant negative correlation with listening proficiency. There are no significant relationships of listening proficiency to Planning and Evaluation, and Person Knowledge.These findings provide evidences that L2 learners need metacognitive strategies in the Chinese EFL context to facilitate L2 acquisition, and suggest that metacognitive strategies be taught in class with a focus on the effective strategies.