An Empirical Study On English Listening Teaching Guided By The Meta-cognitive Strategy Training In Junior Middle School

In FL learning, listening is one of the most important language skills among the four basic language skills:listening, speaking, reading and writing. As an input skill, LC is not a passive activity, but a complicated and active process. Its improvement has a positive effect on improving the learners’ overall language level. Therefore, LC plays a very important role in the process of the SLA. The topic that how to improve the learners’ LC ability is worth of paying attention and studying.Following scholars’ in-depth researches on learning strategies at home and abroad, meta-cognition’s role in language learning is growing gradually, and more and more people get to know the potential of meta-cognitive strategies and the importance of its application. Among all learning strategies, meta-cognitive strategies are more advanced, and they refer to using meta-cognitive knowledge consciously to plan, monitor, and evaluate the learners’ learning process reasonably. Since the1970s, many linguists at home and abroad have done a lot of. work on meta-cognitive theory. In recent years, Chinese scholars have put meta-cognition into the listening teaching. Their researches have opened up a new thought for listening teaching, but how to apply meta-cognitive strategies more scientifically and effectively to English listening teaching in junior middle school remains to be discussed and studied further.In this study, Class62is EC, and Class63is CC, which come from grade8of Dadeng Junior Middle School in Xiangfen County of Linfen City, Shanxi Province. The authorproposed the concept of combining the meta-cognitive strategy training with English listeningteaching, and carried out two months’listening teaching experiment guided by themeta-cognitive strategy training. In Class62, the teacher taught students meta-cognitivestrategy knowledge, and then trained students to apply meta-cognitive strategies effectively tothe three stages of LC: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening, aiming to improvestudents’LC level. While the EC didn’t accept the interpretation and training ofmeta-cognitive strategies.This study discusses the following four questions:1.What impacts does themeta-cognitive strategy training have on EC students’ listening meta-cognitive strategyawareness and strategy use?2.What impacts does the meta-cognitive strategy training have onEC students’ listening comprehension ability?3.What impacts does the meta-cognitivestrategy training have on EC students’ cognitive strategy, social/affective strategy awarenessand strategy use?4.What is difference on listening meta-cognitive strategy use between thestudents of different gender after meta-cognitive strategy training?Through comparing and analyzing the pre and post learning strategy questionnaires andpre and post-listening test scores of the two classes, the findings of this study are thefollowings:1.Meta-cognitive strategy training helps to enhance the students’ meta-cognitiveawareness and meta-cognitive strategy use.;2.Meta-cognitive strategy training helps studentsimprove their listening level. Listening comprehension level can be strengthened throughtraining;3.Meta-cognitive strategy training is helpful to improve the students’ cognitive,social/affective awareness and strategy use;4.Listening meta-cognitive strategy trainingimproves the learners’ awareness of meta-cognitive strategy use as a whole. In addition, onthe whole, whether accepting listening meta-cognitive strategies training or not, the girls isbetter than boys in the overall level of listening meta-cognitive strategy use.The study shows that English listening teaching guided by meta-cognitive strategytraining in junior middle school not only helps enhance the students’ meta-cognitiveawareness, meta-cognitive strategy use and LC ability, but also can make students study moreactively. Thus, the author suggests that meta-cognitive strategies should be taken as a teachingcontent, helping students understand, consolidate and use meta-cognitive strategies effectively, and reduce the blind study, learning to learn.