A Study On Listening Comprehension Strategies Used By Chinese Senior Middle School Students

Over the past decades, a great number of researches related to the use of listening comprehension strategies have been conducted all over the world. However, most researchers have addressed this issue either in authentic English-speaking countries or in some places where their official language is English, but little research has been carried out in Chinese schools. Since China boasts more EFL learners than any other countries in the world, it is worthwhile to carry out a research in this area.The purpose of this study is to study how senior high school students use listening strategies in their listening practice. It attempts to find out the overall tendency of listening strategies employed by senior middle school students and the differences in use of these strategies between high-level and low-level listeners.Meanwhile, it also addresses the differences in the use of strategies between males and females. The subjects in this study are 141 first-year senior middle school students from Nanchang Railway No. 1 Middle School. Questionnaire, listening comprehension proficiency test and interview were used to collect research data.Statistical analytic tool SPSS 13.0 was used to analyzed all date. Relevant questions were answered by descriptive statistics and independent sample t-test.Some findings related to senior middle school students’ use of listening strategies was revealed. First, Chinese senior middle school students in general use a variety of listening strategies. However, these listening strategies were used at a medium frequency level. With regard to the use of three major strategies, meta-cognitive strategies were used most frequently by the subjects, followed by cognitive strategies and social/affective strategies. Secondly, high-level students in this study report more application of listening strategies than those low-levels. The use of meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies are significantly different between high-level students and low-level students. Specifically, two groups have some significant differences in the use of subcategory strategies. That is planning, monitoring,resouring, note-taking, deduction/induction and imagery, questioning for clarification and taking emotional temperature. Finally, female students use listening strategies in listening practice more frequently than male ones. Of the sub-categories of threemajor strategies, the sub-category of translation in cognitive strategies shows significant difference.According to the results mentioned above, the study put forward some useful pedagogical enlightenment. Firstly, when it comes to listening process, cultivating students’ awareness of using listening comprehension strategies is necessary. And teachers should encourage them to use these strategies frequently. Secondly, teachers should design different strategy training programs that can adjust to needs of students with different proficiency. In addition, teachers should encourage students to take advantage of social/affective strategies, because social/affective strategies can help students lower their anxiety, ask questions and cooperate with their peers. Finally,gender differences ought to be taken into consideration. Teachers need to give students strategy trainings to cater for their different motivation level, interests,strategy use preference and learning styles.