（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）元认知在英语听力理解教学中的运用.pdf

成都理工大学硕士学位论文 iii 元认知在英语听力理解教学中的运用 摘 元认知在英语听力理解教学中的运用 摘 要要 20 世纪 70 年代，美国著名心理学家 flavell 根据自己及他人的多方面研究 提出新概念元认知，即认知主体对自身认知活动的认识。之后国外研究者首先 在语言学习的研究中引用了这一概念，指语言学习者对语言学习方法和学习思 维活动的观念和知识，并开始了语言习得中元认知研究，近些年中国许多语言 研究人员也开始关注如何学习英语。越来越多的证据表明学习者本身在学习中 起着十分重要的作用。学习者通常认为听力是积极的信息处理而不是被动的接 受。他们使用各种听力理解策略帮助理解听力内容。为了更好的理解听力理解 的过程，本研究对大学生英语听力元认知情况进行调查，并对听力元认知意识 程度和听力理解能力的关系做了研究,分析了元认知策略与听力理解的关系， 为 大学英语听力教学提供参考。 该研究通过自己设计的元认知问卷调查表和对成都理工大学 120 名学生听 力测试分析听力理解策略水平。将学生分成两组：实验组和控制组。分析调查 结果表明非英语专业学生运用元认知策略处于较低水平。对实验组进行元认知 策论培训，通过两组数据分析表明元认知策略与听力成绩有着紧密相连。分析 结果给教学带来一定的启示： 英语听力教学中， 教师应致力于帮助学生把元认 知知识与学习实践联系起来，帮助学生缩短二者之间的距离。使元认知知识在 引导学生加强听力联系和运用听力策略方面切实起到作用，提高学生听力理解 能力。 关键词关键词: 听力理解；元认知；元认知策略 成都理工大学硕士学位论文 i a metacognitve approach to teaching college english listening comprehension abstract listening is main technique in language application and the important approach to english learning for most people, the cultivation of listening as a skill and as a way for language input should assume critical importance in instruction. since mr.flavell proposed the conception metacognition in 1970s, linguistic researchers have turned their eyes on how to learn english. there is a growing evidence to show that learners play a big role in their learning. in listening, listeners are now generally viewed as active data decoder instead of passive receivers. various listening comprehension(lc)strategies have been applied to assist them in constructing meaning from the aural input for genuine comprehension. in an attempt to better understand listening learning process, this study aims to investigate the relationship between metacognitive strategies and listening comprehension, and the differences between efficient and inefficient listeners for chinese college non-english majors, which ultimately helps find out some forceful implications for college english listening teaching and learning. the subjects have been divided into two groups: experimental group and control group.this study made comparison between them and analysis of the application of lc strategies through a metacognition questionnaire and a listening comprehension test from cet-4 among 120 college students from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. the results present that chinese college non-english majors are not good at using lc strategies , especially, metacognitive strategies. but metacognitive strategies are closely correlated with listening achievements. there is a big gap in the strategies use between experimental group and control group through comparison and contrast after metacognition training . these findings give rise to some implications: it is essential for college english teachers to enhance their students awareness in using lc strategies, offer them more opportunities to practice some positive strategies, increase metacognitive strategies training in listening and taking majors characteristics into account in both listening strategies 成都理工大学硕士学位论文 ii instruction and teaching. based on the findings of the current research, some pedagogical implications for metacognitive strategies are discussed, limitations and suggestions are included in the thesis so as to facilitate college english teaching of listening comprehension as well as the further study on this. key words: listening comprehension; metacognition; metacognitive strategies 独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的 研究成果。据我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其 他人已经发表或撰写过的研究成果， 也不包含为获得 成都理工大学 或其他教 育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。 与我一同工作的人员对本研究所做的任何 贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。 学位论文作者签名： 年 月 日 学位论文版权使用授权书 本学位论文作者完全了解 成都理工大学 有关保留、 使用学位论文的规定， 有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交论文的复印件和磁盘， 允许论文被查阅和 借阅。本人授权 成都理工大学 可以将学位论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数 据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存、汇编学位论文。 （保密的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书） 学位论文作者签名： 学位论文作者导师签名： 年 月 日 acknowledgements many people have assisted me with the completion of this thesis in many ways. i would avail myself of the opportunity to express my sincerest thanks to all of them. first of all, my profound gratitude goes first to my respected supervisor, professor li wuquan who has provided a constant flow of insightful advice and patient encouragement, throughout my study. without his rigorous and expert supervision, this thesis would have been impossible. secondly, i am greatly indebted to professor luo yijun, professor luo runtian , associate professor duan cheng and other faculty members of school of foreign languages who have taught me and enlightened me in my graduate studies. many thanks would also be extended to my classmates and friends who helped me generously with my investigation, ms. zhang lei, ms. zhang yuan and all other classmates. i am also grateful to all the students who were involved in the empirical study for my thesis. last but not least, a special note of appreciation goes to my wife, my little son, without their support, i could not have come through my difficulties and finish my graduate study. chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction in china, the listening of chinese non-english majors is a little frustrating despite the fact that students are paying increasing attention to the listening. chinese english language teaching level has been lower due to lack of good qualified english teachers and textbooks. they put the emphasis on the traditional reading and grammar rather than the listening. in the past, the non-english major students adapted themselves to the traditional english teaching approach. with chinas opening up to the outside world, the written english cannot satisfy the demands of international communication. at the same time, with the rapid development of mass media, the audiovisual materials has replaced the traditional written materials such as newspaper, english magazine and so on. most college students complain that listening is a big headache for them because it is more energy-consuming and time-consuming in comparison with other techniques such as reading and writing. in listening, the learners only have the linear information, unlike reading, in which the missing information can be picked up after repeating if they have neglected some information. on listening trainings, english teachers find it difficult to teach the subject. although they often hand out a lot of materials to the students to listen to , but the students still find that a lot of listening practice cant help the students achieve their desire. in addition, great importance has been attached to listening comprehension in college english curriculum requirements in which the three levels of listening requirements are set as follows: basic requirements, intermediate requirements and higher requirements. on basic requirements: students should be able to follow classroom instructions, everyday conversation, and lectures on general topics conducted in english. they are expected to be able to employ basic listening strategies to facilitate comprehension. for higher requirements, students should be able to understand longer dialogues and passages, and grasp the key points even when sentence structures are complicated and views are only implied. on this point, it is essential for the students to grasp the listening comprehension strategies in second language acquisition. last but not the least, listening is a good way to pick up a second language. krashen claims that “comprehensible input” is a precondition for language learning. 成都理工大学硕士学位论文 2 in his “input hypothesis”, krashen says that comprehension is necessary in order for input to become intake.(michael rost,1994)based on the second language acquisition theory, the language input gained from listening plays a key role in language acquisition(tricia hedge,2000:228). it is very necessary to study the listening strategy. some researchers have found some clues on how to improve listening comprehension. for instance, situational method, communicative method, cognitive methods and silent way played a certain role in the english teaching. however, many students found that these methods cant improve their listening comprehension. only depending on the teachers teaching can they reach their goals. many linguistic researchers started to do some studies on the learners themselves. whats more, the current society urges the individuals to have self-access learning which will exert a big influence on their future career. as a result, it is necessary for the learners to know how to learn. yet, few studies on how to learn have been conducted, especially on the metacognitive strategies. in the view of omalley and chamot(1990:44), metacognitive strategies including planning, managing and monitoring, will change their ways to improve listening comprehension based on their own situation. metacognitive strategies can be applied to all subjects(wenden,1998,baker2)investigate the subjects level of metacognition through the questionnaire and the level of listening comprehension through the listening part of cet-4;3)compare two groups use of metacognitive strategies in chapter one introduction 3 listening comprehension;4)anayze the effectiveness of metacognitive approach to training listening comprehension. hopefully, the findings of this study can motivate all english learners to exploit metacognitive strategies and help the teachers to seek some effective approaches to improve the learners listening comprehension. this thesis consists of four chapters. chapter one briefly introduces why the study of listening comprehension and metacognitive strategies should be conducted. in chapter two the author defined the listening comprehension and explained the process in which reviews classification of learning strategies this chapter also makes a detailed discussion about listening strategies and the possible factors of revealing the relationship between students application of metacognitive strategies to listening comprehension. chapter three shows the methodology of the study, including instrument, data collection and data analysis. chapter four reports on the findings from the study of the current study through comparison between experimental group and control group. finally, it is a conclusion of the whole thesis which covers major findings, implications limited as well as the suggestions for further research. chapter two literature review 5 chapter two literature review 2.1 listening comprehension whats the listening comprehension? it is very essential for us to define it and obtain the nature of listening comprehension. influenced by behaviorism, listening has been defined as a receptive language skill. carl weaver defined it as a process that took place when a human organism received data orally. some scholars maintained that it was “an inevitable byproduct of speech”(temple and gillet 1989:53)and they maintained that listening was a process received passively in which a listeners major task while listening was simply to bear it in mind what the speaker had spoken. on this point, passiveness was considered as the main characteristic of listeners. consequently, in the listening activities, listeners were pictured as passively assimilating the messages, which the speakers sent. in terms of the teaching of listening, the teachers focused on how to motivate the english learners rather than on how to acquire the meaning of the study materials under the guidance of this point of view. listening was merely to help students to recognize the vocabulary and the pattern drills they have learned in the classroom or after the class. the introduction of cognitive theories helps all researchers to know the essence of listening comprehension. listening covers a lot besides perceiving aural stimuli, and listeners involved are not equal to the tape recorders. the present researchers have believed that listening process is a process from passively receiving sound waves to intaking the information as an active one of information. so now more researchers advocated that listening comprehension is an active process, in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aural input, construct meaning from passages, and relate what they hear to existing knowledge. (omalley by analyzing subjunctive mood, it is more convenient for the listeners to grasp the real intention of the speakers. in brief, the three complex processes of listening comprehension mentioned above can help the listeners to adopt appropriate strategies to detect or infer the meanings. 2.2.1the models of listening comprehension many scholars have proposed a large number of models for the purpose of helping training the english teachers to improve the listening comprehension. isfu model put forward by g.brown is designed to identify information to search existing memory, to file new information and to use information respectively. in the sier model proposed by lyman steil, listening comprehension is classified into four stages: sensing, interpreting, evaluating and responding. brownells hurier model argues that there are six components in listening process, including hearing messages, understanding messages, remembering messages, interpreting messages, evaluating messages and responding to messages. among all the models, the most influential ones are the psycholinguistic models, which include bottom-up models, top-down models and interactive models. in the following part, the three models will be discussed one by one in detail. chapter two literature review 9 2.2.2 bottom-up models in bottom-up models, the incoming data is the base for the listeners to understand the meaning of target language. listening comprehension is that the listeners received the information from the listening materials to make an analysis about the sounds, words, clauses, sentences, paragraph receiveduntil the listeners can fully understand the meaning of the input. as nunan says, “successful listening is a matter of decoding the individual sounds we hear to derive the meaning of words and thence utterances”.(nunan,1991) in the model, grammar and lexicon are of great importance. the listeners should grasp the main ideas of the listening materials with the help of grammatical structure. the core of bottom-up model is that listening is continued process in which the listeners should decode the aural input. clark and clark(1977) explain this model of listening comprehension from the perspective of following points. 1.the listeners receive the information from the aural input and recognize phonological features. 2.they try best to link the phonological recognition with the content of input. 3.if they successfully relate the phonological elements to the content, they will keep the content in their mind without the negative influence of unfamiliar knowledge concerning the topic. after the bottom-up model was proposed, it is welcome in the field of english teaching. however, from the perspective of psychology, if the listeners only depend on the rote learning of words and phrases, they can not gain good understanding of the meaning of listening materials. omalley and chamot have pointed out three inefficient points in the following way: first of all, the meaning of any word was often determined based on the linguistic context and extralinguistic context in the materials. the word meaning in the dictionary can not cover all-facet meaning and help the students to grasp the meaning. however, in contrast, it is more advisable for listeners to interpret the word meaning in the context. thirdly, the application of bottom-up processing to the oral text may be more difficult than it applied to the written text. (omalley and chamot,1990) 2.2.3top-down models in top-down models, listeners seek the background knowledge to catch the 成都理工大学硕士学位论文 10 meaning of a message. background knowledge may be the knowledge they have learned related to the topic. so in listening activities, by employing top-down models, listeners can take all kinds of knowledge to interpret the incoming date, such as special information in their mind. brown thinks, “when listening, the listeners are active searchers for meaning. the active listeners will use all relevant background knowledgeknowledge of the physical context of the utterance(the immediate, surroundings, the place, the time of the lay, etc.),knowledge of the speaker(gender, age, known opinions),knowledge of the topic(and what the speaker is likely to know about it, or feel about it),etc. armed with this activated knowledge the listeners monitors the incoming acoustic signal, which will simultaneously shape and conform his expectations”(brown,1990:11) the focus of the model is to activate what they have learned in their mind for good comprehension. rost explained this model as follows: 1.listeners should use the existing knowledge in their memory to predict aural input. 2.listeners focus their attention on some important points, explaining the implied meaning through the grammatical knowledge. 3.listeners infer the possible intention of the speakers in making the utterances in the specific context. 4.listeners order interpreted propositions into a hierarchical representation to be retained in long-term memory.(rost,1994:95) top priority has been given to the construct meaning instead of the language form. when listeners start out to practice their listening skills, it is almost impossible for them to reach their expectation with the guidance of bottom-up models. nevertheless, the model is not perfect. if they only rely on the background information, they could not make it without the help of the grammar analysis. 2.2.4 interactive models both bottom-up and top-down models are not perfect, each having its own advantages as well as disadvantages. if the listeners depend on onl