The Influence of Listening Strategy Instruction on Rural Junior High School Students’ English Listening Performance

• Main Authors: Yu-Ting Wu, 吳鈺婷
• Other Authors: Shu-Chu Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28086008528564250483

碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系 === 103 === The purpose of the study was to examine the influences of listening strategy instruction on rural junior school students’ English listening comprehension, listening strategy use, listening anxiety, and their attitudes toward English listening and strategy instruction. The participants of the present study were 50 eighth graders from a rural junior high school in Shihu, Yulin County. The researcher used a quasi-experimental design, with 25 subjects in the experimental group and 25 subjects in the control group. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed in this study. The quantitative data were collected from six instruments, including an English proficiency test (a GEPT Elementary Level Practice Test), eight listening comprehension tests, questionnaires of background information, listening strategy use, listening anxiety and attitudes toward English listening. The qualitative data was collected from an opinion survey of English listening comprehension strategy instruction. Descriptive statistic, independent-sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used for data analysis, and both groups didn’t have any significant difference in their English proficiency test, as well as the pretests of listening comprehension, listening strategy use survey, listening anxiety survey, and their attitudes toward English listening survey. The experimental group received 12-week listening strategy instruction while the control group received the regular listening practice. The results of the study indicated that there was no significant difference in listening anxiety between both groups. However, there were significant group differences on the listening comprehension after the listening strategy instruction. The experimental group had better performance than the control group. In addition, the frequency of listening strategy use in the experimental group also significantly increased, especially the metacognitive strategies. Furthermore, a significant difference was found on the participants’ attitudes toward English listening between the two groups and students’ attitudes in the experimental group showed positive improvement after the teaching implementation. The participants also held positive and active attitudes toward this listening strategy instruction and were willing to learn more listening strategies and apply them in their future English listening learning. Finally, some pedagogical implications and the suggestions for future research were provided at the end of the thesis.