A Study On Relationship Among Listening Style Listening Strategy Language Aptitude And English Listening Proficiency

Listening style is a branch of learning style which is regarded as an important aspect of individual differences. Listening strategy at the same time is the necessary part in the development of students’ listening ability, which also affects the listening styles of students. Language aptitude is another important factor when learning and teaching are considered. The present research aims to explore the correlation between them and listening achievement of students. The current study seeks to find out:1) the overall listening style and listening strategy preference of non-English major students;2) the development and changes of listening styles and strategies after the strategy training;3) the correlation between listening style, listening strategy, language aptitude and listening achievement;4) the differences between high and low proficient listeners on listening style. Through implementing a series of listening strategies training and observing the students’development in applying strategies and their listening styles, the author makes a conclusion that listening strategies training is helpful for developing students’listening style.Totally57students from Software College of Taiyuan University of Technology participated in the present study, the study consisted of survey and case study. The survey study is to investigate the overall situation of non-English major students’use of listening strategy and listening style preference and their language aptitude. Then the author adopts a16weeks training on students’use of listening strategies, and the case study is adopted among6students with different listening styles. The author aims to explore whether there are changes that happen to the students’use of listening strategies and development of their listening styles by contrasting students’ performance in pretest and posttest and analyze their listening achievements and journals. The case study is aimed at finding out how the trained strategies take effects in improving their listening styles. Six students selected from the survey study participated in the case study, their listening achievements, interviews and journals have been analyzed. The major findings of the current research are listed as follows:Firstly, it seems that the most preferred listening style among the students is analytic compared to global and synthetic style.Secondly, as for the listening strategy, it is found that non-English major students sometimes use them. There are significant differences in overall use of listening strategies before and after the strategy training. Students with different listening styles prefer different strategies. The frequency of use of strategy improves after the strategy training.Thirdly, based on the data analysis, there are correlations between listening strategy, listening style, language aptitude and students’listening achievement. With proper training students can make better use of appropriate listening strategies, through which students’ listening style could be developed or changed into the most comprehensive one---the synthetic style.Fourthly, there is a significant difference between high and low proficient listeners on their listening styles. The synthetic style has the highest correlation with listening scores of the high-proficient students, and students with synthetic style got the highest average score among the three styles.In brief, knowing the listening styles of students’before the class and training them with appropriate strategies based on their styles are effective in promoting students’English listening achievement. Careful observation of the development of listening styles through the training process would help students develop comprehensive listening style so as to enhance their listening ability.