A Study On The Correlation Between The Application Of Cognitive Strategies And Listening Proficiency For Non-english Majors

Abstract: In recent years, with the in-depth development of economic globalization,the demand for English talents who adapt to the increasingly frequent international intercommunication is growing. Listening, as a main inputting way among listening, speaking, reading and writing, takes a noticeable important position in foreign language learning and communication. However, due to the influence of various factors,the English listening proficiency of non-English majors’ is still not so satisfying. Among the potential factors that may lead to non-English majors’ low English listening proficiency,more and more scholars start focusing their attention on the decisive role of learner’s individual factors. Take learning strategies for example, researches show that the use of learning strategies has a positive effect on promoting students’ English listening proficiency. Since listening comprehension in its nature is a complex and active cognitive process, survey on students’ application of cognitive strategies in the process of listening and investigation on the correlation between their application of cognitive strategies and listening proficiency will certainly have a significant impact on the enhancement and improvement of students’ listening comprehension ability.On the basis of the previous researches, this study is carried out within the theoretical framework of cognitive strategies. By employing the method of combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the current research was conducted on 232 non-English major sophomores from Xi’an Polytechnic University. First, subjects’ application of cognitive strategies in the process of listening was investigated through a questionnaire study. Then the SPSS software was applied to help analyze the 212 valid questionnaires as well as its correlation with students’ CET-4 scores of the listening part. Meanwhile, through an in-depth interview with 20 randomly selected subjects, the differences in application of cognitive strategies during listening between high-level listeners and low-level ones were compared and analyzed as well.The research results show that:(1) Non-English majors in general employ cognitive strategies at a medium level in the process of listening. Although most of them know a bit about cognitive strategies, they still lack systematic understanding of how to effectively implement cognitive strategies accordingly while listening. Among the eleven cognitivestrategies surveyed in this study, inferencing, associating and meaning-focused strategy are frequently used by students. Other seven cognitive strategies such as resourcing,note-taking, deduction, imagery, summarizing, repetition and grouping are sometimes employed the subjects. Only the strategy of mother-tongue-avoidance is seldom applied.(2)There are significant differences between high-level and low-level listeners in the employment of cognitive strategies in the course of listening. On the whole, the frequency of use of each concrete cognitive strategies of high listening proficiency group is higher than that of low listening proficiency group. The two groups are different significantly in application of resourcing, inferencing, note-taking, mean-focused, summarizing and grouping.(3) There does exist a significant positive correlation between non-English majors application of cognitive strategies and their listening proficiency. Seven of the eleven concrete cognitive strategies including resourcing, inferencing, note-taking,meaning-focused, summarizing, grouping and mother-tongue-avoidance have the intimate relation with students’ listening achievements, which are the important approaches to improve non-English majors’ listening proficiency.