English Listening Strategy Instruction: An Action Research

The purpose of the present research is to provide a feasible reference for active EFL listening instruction with the aid of listening strategies. The present research develops an initiative EFL listening strategy instruction model through action research(AR). The essential purpose of AR is to improve practice, thus the EFL listening strategy instruction model is modified based on reflections from subjects and the teacher. The modification combines scientific strategy instruction theories with personal theories, in which way the present instruction model is in accordance with specific teaching situation. Besides, the validity and practicability of the modified model is scientifically testified. The established EFL listening strategy instruction model and AR model could afford initiative EFL listening comprehension a practical reference. The ultimate purpose of the present model is to enhance EFL learners? listening comprehension performance and listening strategy awareness in both daily communications and examinations by enhancing their listening strategy awareness. Two general research questions are expected to be solved. First, which aspects of the present listening strategy instruction model have been developed through action research? Second, whether the modified instruction model has been examined by the practice, i.e. whether learners? listening strategy awareness has been improved and consequently leads to the improvement of listening comprehension performance?The present listening strategy instruction model is deployed based on the AR plan by the teacher as well as the researcher in a real undergraduate class(N=48) in some university in Chongqing, and students are all EFL learners. During experiment students are required to listen to authentic aural materials four times to complete listening comprehension missions. This step is guided by the EFL listening strategy instruction model, which has been established based on listening strategy instruction theories, the teacher?s experience and participants? situation. Through active discussions among peers and interaction with the teacher, students explicitly acquire certain listening strategies(generally including metacognitive strategy and cognitive strategy). Learners? listening strategies acquisition is integrated into an intact listening process. Two methods are used to measure participants? listening performance and listening strategy awareness under the impact of the instruction model. The first way is, to ensure learners? listening comprehension performance is improved, by comparing their pre-test scores with posttest ones. The second way is, to ensure listening comprehension performance improvement contributing to the improvement of listening strategy awareness, by using Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire(MALQ)(Vandergrift et al., 2006), and the questionnaire is used before and after instruction. MALQ also is used as stimulated-recall protocols after instruction to ensure the improvement of listening strategy awareness contributes to listening strategy instruction rather than practice. The results show that participants? listening comprehension posttest scores are improved significantly compared with that of pretest. Qualitative MALQ analysis and quantitative transcript data from recall protocols proved that under the influence of the present EFL listening strategy instruction model, the improvement of EFL learners? listening performance contributes to the growing listening strategy awareness, since MALQ response changed over the duration of the instruction.It is difficult to strictly control factors in teaching experiments since teaching requirement is continuously changing, thus AR has its superiority compared with qualitative and quantitative positivist experiments. The flexibility of AR allows teaching experiments to be modified based on learners? and the teacher?s requirement. Theories got from qualitative and quantitative experiments are abstract, while solutions acquired from AR could offer direct answers to specific teaching problems. Thus the present study brings forth a new research idea. Unlike most of previous listening strategy instruction researches which focus on positivist scientific validity of listening strategy instruction models, the present instruction model is modified and verified through action research based on EFL learners in China. The present study also embeds listening strategies into authentic audio materials, aiming at improving learners? listening performance and listening strategy awareness in both test and daily communication situations. The listening strategy instruction model developed in the present study is expected to provide a new paradigm for initiative listening comprehension instruction.