LiteratureReviewofListeningStrategyResearchinChina

中图分类号：H319文献标识码：A文章编号：1672-1578（2013)06-0006-03

1Introduction

EnglishlearningandteachinginChinaisinatransitionfromreading-andwriting-centeredphasetoonethatgivesbalancedattentiontoallthefourmajoraspectsoflanguagelearninglistening,speaking,readingandwriting.OneindicatorofthistransitionisthepercentagegiventolisteningpartofCollegeEnglishTestBand4/6(CET4/6)gotarisefrom20%to35%inthenewCET4/6,andaspeakingtestisbeingpromotednationwide.ThedeepreasonforthistransitionisthatprogressineconomyandtransportationtechnologyinChinaincreasetheopportunityforface-to-facemunication.Moreover,“[d]evelopmentsinbroadcastandmultimediatechnologyhegeneratedareadilyailableandvastsupplyofvideotextoruseinsecondandforeignlanguagelearningcontexts”(Cross,2009,p.151).Allthesereasonsentailthetransitionfromtraditionaltext-centeredlanguagelearningandteachingtoawell-balancedonethatattacheoreimportancetolisteningandspeaking.Listening,aswellasspeaking,hasalwaysbeenaweaknessinEnglishlanguagelearningandteachinginChina.Inthistransitionalsituation,howtoimprovestudents’listeningprehensionbeesanurgenttaskthatchallengesbothstudentsandteachers,hencearousinggrowinginterestfromscholars.

ThepurposeofthisarticleistoconductaliteraturereviewofChinesestudentslisteningstrategiesinthepastfiveyears.Morespecifically,wehopethisliteraturereviewwillhelpustoheadeeperinsightintolisteningstrategiesusedbyEnglishlearners,tohethebigpictureofthepresentresearchonlisteningstrategiesincludingstrengthsandweakness,toidentifypossiblegaporourfuturestudiesandtofacilitateourlisteningteaching.

2Selectionofsources

Weusedthebiggestonlinejournaldatabase“ChinaAcademicJournalNetworkPublishingDatabase”onChinaNationalKnowledgeInfrastructure.Wesearchedforthearticletitlesthatinclude“听力”and“策略”publishedfrom2005to2010andnarroweddownthescopebychoosing“corejournals”in“sourcecategories.”Thereare70entrieound.Bygoingthroughtheabstractofeacharticle,wefurtherreducedthenumberto16“good”entriesintermsofrelevance,representativenessandprehensiveness.

3Theresearchscope

MostoftheresearchonlisteningstrategiesinChina(Deng&Zhang,2008,Huang,2005,Shi&Zhang,2010,Sun&Li,2008,Wu&Chen,2006,Xiang&Yao,2007,C.M.Yang,2007)followthetaxonomyoflisteningstrategiesputforwardbyO’Malley&Chamot(1990)whodividedlisteningstrategiesintothreebroadcategories:metacognitivestrategies,cognitivestrategiesandsocio-affectivestrategies.Ofthearticleswereviewed,onlyHe&Bao(2006)andWu&Chen(2006)incorporatedsomeofOxford’sclassificationsintoO’Malley,J.M&Chamot,A.U’sclassification.WecanseethatO’Malley&Chamot’staxonomygainedmorepopularityinChina,whichalsomeansOxford’sclassifications,anotherwidelyusedclassificationininternationalstudies,henotbeengivendueattention.Themajorityoftheresearchselectedfocuseitheronacertainlisteningstrategyorawiderangeoflisteningstrategies.Forexample,Xiang&Yao(2007)andShe(2010)studiedthestrategyofnote-taking,X.Y.Yang(2008)focusedonpredictionandinferencing,Ni(2008)focusedonmetacognitivestrategies,J.M.Lireportedonperceptualstrategies(2007),andP.Li(2008)surveyedonanxietyreducingstrategiesinlistening.Ontheotherhand,He&Bao(2006),Wu&Chen(2006),C.M.Yang(2007),Shi&Zhang(2010)andZhao&Wang(2010)investigatedawiderrangeoflisteningstrategies.

Someresearchtouchupontheeffectivenessoflisteningstrategies.Forexample,She(2010)provedtheeffectivenessofnote-takinginimprovinglisteningproficiency,J.M.Li(2007)arguedabouttheeffectivenessofperceptualstrategiesbasedonpersonalviewinsteadofdata,C.M.Yang’sstudy(2007)leadstotheconclusionthereisonlyeryweakcorrelationbetweenlisteningstrategiesandlisteningachievement,whichisinpliancewithCross’findings(2009,p.151),butShi&Zhang(2010,p.117)arguedthatitiscertainthatlisteningstrategyuseisapredictoroflisteningachievements.Obviously,theaboveresearchleadtoevencontradictoryconclusionsabouttheeffectivenessoflisteningstrategies,whichindicatethatmorestudiesshouldbedoneandresearchersshouldrefrainfromjumpingtoaconclusionabouttheeffectivenesswithoutsupportfromadequateempiricalstudies.

Afewoftheselectedstudiesinvestigatedawiderrangeoffactorsthatmightaffecttheuseoflisteningstrategies.Forexample,Huang(2005)probedintotheinfluenceofstudentsinterestonstrategyuse,J.M.Li(2007)examinedthelisteningstrategiesusefromthepsychologicalfactorsandespeciallyfromstudents’priorknowledge(presuppositions)ofsentencepatterns.Shi&Zhang(2010)examinedtheinfluenceofstudents’major(medicalstudents)onlisteningstrategyuseandarguedthatthereisnotjustonefactorthataffectslisteningachievement.Otherfactorsarelearningmotivation,learningstyle,learningconcept,gender,etc.He&Bao(2006)reportedonasurveyonlisteningstrategyusebetween174studentromakeyuniversityinChinaand166studentromanordinaryuniversity.Deng&Zhang(2008),fromtheperspectiveofdifferentethnicgroups,conductedaqualitativestudyontheminoritystudents’Englishlisteningstrategiesinparisonwithmajoritystudents(Han).However,therecentfiveyears’studiesinChinaignoredtheothertwofactors“differentlevelsoflanguageproficiency”and“awiderrangeoftasks”(Vandergrift,2003,p.465).ItisespeciallyweirdthatitishardtofindstudiesonthelisteningstrategyusebyprimaryandsecondaryschoolstudentsinChinawhereEnglishlearningbeginsatgradethreenationwide.ItisunreasonablebothintermsofthenumberofEnglishlearningstudentsandtheprimepubertytimeregardedas“criticalperiod.”Theremightbetwomajorreasons:oneisthattheresearcherdonotwantbothertodoexperimentsinprimaryandsecondaryschoolortheycaneasilyfindcollegestudentsassubjectsintheuniversity,theotheristhatadministratorsandteachersinprimaryandsecondaryschoolsarereluctanttohetheirstudentsbeingexperimented,whichmightaffectstheirstudents’normallearningschedule.Inshort,theresearchersshouldgivedueandimmediateattentiontothelisteningstrategyusebybeginninglevellearners.Onthecontrary,researchersoutsideChinahealreadydonesomeresearchonthelisteningstrategyuseinprimaryandsecondaryschoolstudentsandgotalotachievement.Forexample,Vandergrift(Vandergrift,2003)didaclassicstudyongrade7Frenchlearners’listeningstrategies,Graham,SantosandRobert(2008)observedthedevelopmentofstrategyuseinlisteningprehensionmorethan6monthsofL2FrenchlearnersinsecondaryschoolsinEngland.

4Theresearchmethods

Thewidelyusedmethodstoobservetheuseoflisteningstrategiesare:interview,questionnairesurvey,diary,verbalreport(includingthink-aloud,introspectionandretrospection)andtest.Themajorityoftheaboveselectedarticleainlyusedquestionnairesurveyandtestsaethodsandtools.Mostofarticleseitherusedquestionnairesadaptedfromwesternscholars,butfailedtoprovethereliabilityandvalidityofquestionnairesandnoneofthemhasprovidedsamplequestionnairestheyused.Theconsequenceisthatotherresearchersareunabletoknowwhatthequestionnairesarelikeandwhetherthedesignofthosequestionnairesisworthtrusting.Forexample,Huang(2005),whosearticleisrelatively“good”oneamongtheselected,motionedhisarticleinthisway:therearetwosetsofquestionnaires,bothdesignedbytheauthoronthebasisofOxford’sStrategyInventoryforLanguageLearningandtherearefive-pointscaleoreachofthe25questions.HowcouldtheauthorexpectotherresearcherstotrustthedatacolletedthroughhisorheradaptedversionofthequestionnairewithsosimpledescriptionOnemoreproblemis,domesticstudiesarelimitedtothemethodofquestionnairesurveyonly,ignoringothermethods,especiallythink-aloudmethod,whichiswidelyacceptedasgoodwaytoobservestrategyuseinlistening.Inallthesixteenstudiesselected,onlySun&Li(2008)usedthink-aloudmethod.Thesecondproblemisalltheselectedarticles,excludingpositionpapers,universallyusedquantitativeanalysis,nonehingusedqualitativeanalysis.Butquantitativeanalysishassomedrawbacks:

Althoughaquantitativerepresentationcanprovideuswithnumericaldifferencesinstrategyusebetweenmoreskilledandlessskilledlisteners,itcannotcapturehowagivenstrategyisusedortheparticularbinationsofstrategiesusedtobuildmeaning.Neithercanitcapturetheeffectiveuseofastrategy,suchastheaccuracyofaninference,anappropriateconnectiontopriorknowledgeorthedepthofsummarization,allreflectiveofthedepthofthelistener’sinteractionwiththetext.(Vandergrift,2003,p.477)

Soresearchersreallyneedtousequalitativestudiestomakeupthedrawbacksofquantitativeanalysissoastodescribeamoreaccurateandpletepictureofstrategyuseinlisteningprehension.

Anotherproblemisthattherecentdomesticresearchersaresoeagerforquicksuccessandinstantbenefitthattheyoftenoverusequestionnairesurveyinsteadofusinglongitudinalstudy,andcontrolandtreatmentgroupstoprobeintotheinfluenceofdevelopmentoflisteningstrategiesonlisteningprehension.Incontrast,internationalscholars’experimentsoftenlastforsevenmonthseventoseveralyears.Forexample,Graham,SantosandRobert(2008)observedthedevelopmentofstrategyuseinlisteningprehensionmorethan6months.

Onemoreproblemisdomesticacademicpublishingmunityandsometimesresearchersareinforofpublishingarticleswithshortpageoreconomicreasons.Alltheselected“good”articlesusednormallytwopagesandsixpagesatmost.Inparison,thesimilararticlespublishedininternationallyfamousjournalsusuallycovertensofpages.Idonotmeantojudgethequalityofarticlesintermsoflength,butintermsoftheresearchscaleandtheallegedmajorfindingsthedomesticresearchersdoneedtoprovidemoredetaileddescriptionoftheexperimentalmethods,toolsandprocessedsoastoincreasecredibility.

5Conclusion

Inthisarticle,wereviewedsixteenarticlesselectedfromseventyarticlesaboutlisteningstrategyusepublishedfrom2005to2010.Theconclusionisthat:anincreasingnumberofresearchersshowinterestsinresearchonlisteningstrategiesandtheybegantousethemainstreamtheoriesandmethodstoobservelisteningstrategies.However,theoverallqualityofresearchonlisteningstrategiesshouldbeimproved.Weshouldexpandourresearchscopetoincludeprimaryandsecondaryschoolstudents’listeningstrategyuseandstudythecorrelationsoflisteningstrategieswithotherfactorsthataffectlisteningprehension,suchastasktypes,listeningcontexts.Inaddition,arietyofresearchmethods,suchasthink-aloud,interviewsandqualitativeanalysisshouldbeadoptedtoobservetheuseoflisteningstrategiessoastogetanaccurateandpletepictureoflisteningstrategyuse.References：

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