Effects Of Meta-Cognitive Strategies On English Listening Of Senior High School Students

This study,based on O'Malley&Chamot's metacognitive strategy theory,investigates the changes of senior-high school students' metacognitive strategy before and after an teaching experiment and the effects on their English listening.The data sources include a questionnaire,interviews,classroom observation and student products.Based on the data analyses,the major findings of the study are drawn as follows:First of all,the overall data analyses show that after one semester's teaching experiment on metacognitive strategies,the participating students had some positive changes in all three strategies.Specifically,the monitoring strategy gains the highest mean(M=3.8),followed by the planning strategy(M=3.0)and the evaluating strategy(M=2.9).Further analysis indicates that the teaching experiment exerts the greatest impact on students' planning strategy use(Mean increase=0.5),followed by evaluating strategy(Mean increase=0.3)and the monitoring strategy(Mean increase=0.2).The less frequent use of the latter two strategies might be attributed to the traditional listening practice,in which students rely too much on teachers'assistance and teaching materials.The questionnaire results were supported by interviews and other qualitative data.Secondly,data analysis finds some effects of metacognitive strategy on the senior-high school students' English listening regarding their learning attitude,process and outcomes.Specifically,the use of metacognitive strategies helped increase the learners' interest in listening practice and decreased their anxiety particularly before listening.Metacognitive strategy use also helped improve the learners' overall awareness and application in the listening practice.They were found taking initiative in planning,gradually monitoring their own learning process by reflecting on their choice of strategies and making some adjustment accordingly.As a result,their English listening test scores were improved,particularly the middle-score group.Based on the above findings,some tentative suggestions are put forward to help senior-high students learn to practice metacognitive strategy as well as to help teachers to improve their listening instruction.