The Application Of Meta-discourse To The Teaching Of English Listening Comprehension In Senior High School

English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017)attaches great importance to the teaching of English listening comprehension,which is to focus on cultivating students' communicative competence and comprehensive ability of language use.Listening is one of the four basic abilities of language and plays an important role in high school English teaching.However,the current situation of high school listening teaching is not optimistic.As a result,students' ability is limited in listening comprehension.Therefore,to find a way out,the present paper tries to introduce meta-discourse into high school English listening teaching.Meta-discourse refers to the organization of the text.Although it does not increase the content of the text,it can help the listener organize,summarize,explain and respond to the text.This study aimed at exploring the following questions[1]:(1)Is meta-discourse training effective to improve the ability of listening comprehension for senior school students?(2)If it is,do all dimensions of meta-discourse produce the same effect?In the study,before the experiment,150 high school students were selected as subjects.Based on their scores of entrance examination,students were divided into three equal groups: Group A,Group B,Group C.During the experiment,subjects of the three groups were instructed in their early classes different dimensions of meta-discourse words and expressions respectively.After the experiment,a listening comprehension test was conducted,and all subjects participated in it.The experimental data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0.Research results were as follows:(1)Meta-discourse training is effective in improving the ability of listening comprehension for senior school students.(2)Not all dimensions of meta-discourse produce the same effect.The meta-discourse words and expressions that were used for converting(transition markers)and that for showing the frame(frame markers)had a significant effect on listening comprehension.But the linear relationship between listening comprehension and meta-discourse words and expressions of showing ambiguity(fuzzy)was not significant.The above findings indicated that instructions of meta-discourse words and expressions related to discourse structures are effective for high school English listening comprehension and its teaching.