On The Effectiveness Of Web-assisted Autonomous Listening In Junior Middle Schools

Listening is important in the development of English competence, and it is the basis to develop other skills, while the current listening comprehension teaching in junior middle schools demonstrates many problems featuring with lack of training, absence of authentic materials and interaction, and less attention to knowledge in context. As a result, most of students find their listening comprehension abilities are quite poor.As we all know, learner autonomy is necessary to cultivate learners’ self-regulated learning and lifelong study. What’s more, it is essential to realize individualized learning as well as learners-centered teaching and learning methods based on improving learners’ motivation and interest, which are advocated by Constructivist Learning Theory, Humanistic Learning Theory, Input Hypothesis and Affective Filter Hypothesis abroad as well as the new National English Curriculum Standards in our country. Meanwhile, educational technologies as an external factor affecting autonomous learning are attracted more and more attention.With the fast development of Internet education, web-assisted autonomous learning is becoming more and more popular, and even though CALL and WBI have been used in language teaching for a long time, yet in some junior middle schools, especially in rural and small cities, web-assisted autonomous learning in English acquisition is still limited.Considering the current problems and troubles in English listening as well as the advantages of web-assisted autonomous learning, the author attempts to research web-assisted autonomous listening under some learning monitor to testify its effect on solving the above listening problems and fostering learner autonomy ability. And in this study, both quantitative approaches and qualitative approaches are used. The subjects are 145 students in Jining No. 15 Middle School of Shandong Province who are from two classes of Grade 8 taught by the same English teacher, of which one is the experimental class and the other is the control class. The instruments for quantitative study are two questionnaires and six tests, and the qualitative research approaches include an online structured interview and a work log recorded by the author.One of the questionnaires reveals participants’ listening situation and difficulties, and the other is to testify their autonomous learning level under web-assisted environment. Through data analysis, the results indicate that currently students’ listening situation is not satisfactory featuring with lack of regular training, absence of confidence and interest in listening, and unfamiliar with listening strategies. In addition, their listening difficulties reflect in the obstacles of linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. What’s more, their web-assisted autonomous learning abilities are not optimistic in the aspects of students’ attitudes, study plan and time arrangement, learning strategies, monitor and evaluation in learning process, and cooperative consciousness.Then, tests include pre-test, while-test, post-test and final test, totally six tests. And from the pre-test, the author finds students’ listening and English comprehensive competence between the two classes are about the same level, and there is a close relationship between listening and comprehensive proficiency. And next, the “Paired Samples Test” of the two groups in the two parts indicates that there are significant differences in pre-test and post-test, which presents the effectiveness of web-assisted autonomous listening in fostering participants’ listening and comprehensive abilities. Eventually, the analysis of the final exam proves the continuous effect of the study on promoting listening and English comprehensive competence.In addition, from the qualitative study, including the structured interview and work log, the researcher concludes that after the experiment, the subjects’ levels of web-assisted autonomous learning have improved in the aspects of their attitudes, interest and motivation as well as autonomous listening strategies and cooperative awareness, and most of them can adapt to this kind of learning and stick to it consciously.Furthermore, this study has some theoretical and pedagogical implications, and the author hopes that the research can promote teachers to enhance their information qualities and to explore more appropriate listening teaching methods. Simultaneously, learners can improve their English autonomous learning abilities by means of the Internet.