| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 104 === ABSTRACT
This study aimed to investigate the effect of the metacognitive listening strategy training (MLST) on English listening comprehension and responses of seventh graders in southern Taiwan. To begin with, the students’ English listening comprehension and their responses to English listening before and after the MLST were compared. In addition, the student responses to the metacognitive strategy use after the MLST and to the MLST were explored. Finally, the students’ preferences, gains, difficulties, and suggestions for the MLST were investigated.
In this study, 46 seventh-graders were recruited from two classes in Kaohsiung Shan-Lin Municipal Junior High school (SLM). In a twelve-week study, the students received the MLST with three selected metacognitive listening strategies, including the advanced organization strategy, the auditory monitory strategy, and the problem identification strategy in English classes. After data collection, the English listening comprehension tests and questionnaires between the pre-study and post-study were compared by a paired-sample t-test and descriptive statistics quantitatively. Additionally, some student responses to the open-ended questions on the post-study questionnaire were analyzed qualitatively. Based on the data analysis, the findings of the study are summarized as follows:
1. There is a significant difference in the students’ English listening comprehension before and after the MLST. In addition, the mean score of the post-test is higher than that of the pretest, indicating the MLST facilitated the students’ English listening performance.
2. There are three significant differences in the student responses to English listening before and after the MLST. Specifically, the MLST was effective in raising students’ interests and confidence in English listening. Furthermore, the students also considered that the MLST could facilitate them in improving their English listening comprehension.
3. Most of the students were positive about the metacognitive strategy use in English listening procedures after the MLST. Based on the student responses, it is found the students attempted to employ the advanced organization strategy to derive comprehension before listening to English, to employ the auditory monitory strategy to decode what they listened with their personal experiences and prior knowledge, and to utilize the problem identification strategy to identify causes for their English listening problems.
4. Most students tended to present positive responses to the MLST. From the student responses, it is found the students tended to employ the three selected metacognitive listening strategies in their learning to improve English listening comprehension. Moreover, they also claimed that they have increased their confidence by employing the three strategies. In addition, the students approved of the effectiveness of the MLST in enhancing their English listening and thus were willing to apply them to their future tests of English listening.
5. Among the students’ preferences of the three strategies, most students regarded that employing the problem identification was the most beneficial to improve their listening comprehension. As for the gains from the MLST, the students benefited mostly in improving their English listening comprehension and in the practicality of the three selected strategies. As for the difficulties in the MLST, most of the students indicated that they had difficulties in catching up with the English listening speed and feeling unable to understand how to apply the strategies. As for the suggestions, the students anticipated more interpretations for the selected strategies and a slower version of the aural messages.
According to the study findings, students may apply the metacognitive listening strategies of planning, monitoring, and evaluating into learning. Moreover, EFL teachers may incorporate the instruction of the MLST into their regular English lessons. In addition, textbook compilers may employ the metacognitive listening strategy training into the textbook for junior high school students to enrich their strategy learning effectively and efficiently. As for the suggestions for further research, researchers may enlarge the sample size. There were only 46 seventh-graders recruited in this study. Such a small sample size makes it limited to generalize the findings to larger and different populations. Next, further studies are suggested extending the training or adopting a longitudinal design to accurately keep track of the effects and changes over time. The present study was implemented for only 12 weeks, which makes it difficult to evaluate into long-term influence on the students’ English listening comprehension. Last, only three metacognitive strategies were selected and instructed in the MLST. They may not be enough to for the learners to cope with their learning problems based on individual needs. Therefore, further researchers can investigate the effectiveness of strategy training by applying more metacognitive listening strategies.
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