Fostering Learner Autonomy In English Listening From The Metacognitive Perspective

Since it was introduced into language education in 1980s, learner autonomy has been attached great importance by language educators. English Course Requirements for Non-English Majors issued in 2003 also considers learner autonomy as one of the goals of English teaching (Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education,2004). In order to achieve the goal, English classrooms begin to transfer from teacher-centered teaching mode to learner-centered learning mode. What’s more, a lot of self-access centers are established by universities to widen access to learning materials and facilities for learners. It seems that learner autonomy is one of the major concerns in English learning. However, learners’attitudes and reactions toward autonomous learning are not always positive. It has been reported by several researchers that learners are lacking in learner autonomy to some extent. The present research done by the author also reveals similar problems:some of the learners don’t know how to plan their own study; others rely on teachers to evaluate their learning performance and their use of planning and evaluation strategies is less frequent than that of monitoring strategies. In a word, learners are badly in need of fostering learner autonomy.Listening plays an important role in English learning in that it is an important aspect of English learning and that good listening comprehension is the basis of decent conversations. However, learners’listening proficiency is far from being satisfactory. Many learners perceive listening as the most difficult of the four English skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing. What’s more, for non-English majors, English listening is practiced once every two weeks with teachers’guidance in classrooms, which does not help much to improve their listening proficiency. Under such circumstance, learners should rely on their autonomous listening practice to improve their listening proficiency. However, due to poor learner autonomy, they can’t assure effective listening practice. Thus, it becomes clear to the author of the present thesis that it is necessary to guide learners through certain approaches and help them foster learner autonomy.In order to effectively carry out the discussion of how to foster learner autonomy, the author of the present thesis did a research to evaluate learners’ autonomy in English listening in the first place. Four classes of students that the author was teaching from September 2010 to January 2011 were taken as samples in the research. They were required to fill out a questionnaire designed to assess their level of learner autonomy through two aspects:metacognitive knowledge and the use of metacognitive strategies. Results show that most of them welcome the concept of learner autonomy and consider it important to carry out after-class English listening practice by themselves. Moreover, they believe that through constant practicing, their English proficiency is bound to be improved.However, from the results of the use of metacognitive strategies, they display a relatively low level of autonomy in English practice:learners are apt to feel uncertain when they are to choose appropriate materials for practice although they agree that access to listening materials is not a big problem; learners are not clear with the purpose of listening and they are also unaware of the strategies that would facilitate listening; learners are reluctant to evaluate their listening performance. Besides, learners’use of planning and evaluating strategies is less frequent than that of monitoring strategies. Learners’awareness of monitoring is largely based on the fact that they have to construct meaning from the ongoing information. To ensure correct comprehension, they have to spontaneously monitor their understanding. As for planning and evaluation, it’s a different story. Learners are accustomed to teacher-directed learning where listening activities are planned and outcomes evaluated by teachers. As a result, they don’t exactly know how to plan and evaluate their listening practice.Based on the existing research findings of learner autonomy and metacognition theories, the author suggests a model in an attempt to foster autonomy among learners. The model is the integration of in-class metacognitive strategy training and after class supervision and counseling, the training of planning and evaluating strategies being the focus. What’s more, the model can be incorporated into normal classroom listening activities and hopefully it can be applied to future teaching and researches by the author.