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摘 要

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 3

2.1. Definition of metacognitive awareness 3

2.2 Metacognitive awareness and L2 listening 4

2.3 Empirical studies 4

2.4 Limitations of previous studies 5

3. Methodology 7

3.1 Research Questions 7

3.2 Participants 7

3.3 Instrument and procedure 7

3.4 Data collection and analysis 8

4. Results and Discussion 9

4.1 Results 9

4.1.1 Descriptive statistics of listening competence 9

4.1.3 Descriptive statistics of the five aspects of metacognitive awareness. 9

4.1.4 Relationship between metacognitive awareness and listening competence 11

4.1.5 Relationship between five aspects of metacognitive awareness and listening competence 11

4.1.6 Difference of metacognitive awareness between two groups 12

4.1.7 Difference of five aspects of metacognitive awareness between two groups 13

4.1.8 Interview 14

4.2 Discussion 15

4.2.1 Correlation between learners’ metacognitive awareness and listening competence 15

4.2.2 Correlation between five MALQ subscales and listening competence 16

4.2.3 Difference of metacognitive awareness between two groups 16

5. Conclusion 17

5.1 Major findings 17

5.2 Implications 17

5.2.1 Theoretical implications 17

5.2.2 Pedagogical implications 17

5.3 Limitations and suggestions 18

References 19

Acknowledgments

My thanks firstly go to Professor Han Yawen, my supervisor, who has been paying close attention to my study in the course of my thesis formulation. For me, he has been more than a supervisor. Here I want to express my deepest gratitude for his insightful criticism, valuable suggestions and continuous support during the progress of thesis writing, without which this dissertation would not be possible. Without his enlightenment and encouragement, I would not have finished this thesis in such a smooth way.

My appreciation also goes to all my classmates and friends. I enjoyed their company, their brilliancy and their friendship. They offered generous help by searching valuable references and information for me when this thesis was still in the conceptual phase. I know I could learn a lot from them through my four-year campus life.

All the students in Class English 1501 and English 1502 at Nanjing Tech University have helped me a lot in the process of the investigating survey of the thesis. Their participating in the tests provided me with the first-hand information, which is the indispensable foundation of my thesis. Without their involvement, I cannot even finish my work. So thanks a lot for their valuable contributions.

Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to and deepest respect for my family and my best friends, who have been constantly concerned with the progress. It is their encouragement that gave me spiritual strength and confidence to overcome all the difficulties arising in the paper and other aspects of my life.

Abstract

This paper reports a research conducted among two classes of university freshmen, base on hypothetical correlation suggested by previous theory and research, in order to uncover the correlation between the metacognitive awareness and listening competence. To be specific, it addresses the following research questions:

1.Is there any correlation between learners’ metacognitive awareness and listening competence?

2. Is there any correlation between the five aspects of metacognitive awareness and listening competence?

3. What is the difference between high-score group and low-score group in metacognitive awareness?

The research was conducted among 48 freshmen from English major whose mother tongue was Chinese and English became their second language since the primary school. Data were collected through a MALQ questionnaire, an official sample TOEFL listening test and an interview. The students completed the test during regular class time.

The major findings are as following:

1. There is a positive and moderate correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening competence. With the increase of metacognitive awareness level, learners’ listening competence gets improved.
2. Strategies of problem-solving and directed attention show significant correlation to the listening competence. It means that the higher using frequency results in the higher listening test score.
3. There is a significant difference of metacognitive awareness between high-score group and low-score group, and as to the five aspects of the awareness, significant difference of problem-solving is found between the two groups. Skilled listeners are advanced in self-management and self-regulation while because of the lack of systematic training of metacognitive awareness, there is no specific difference of other four aspects between the two groups except problem-solving.

According to the finding that metacognitive awareness may influence listening competence in a positive way, teachers are suggested to encourage students’ autonomous learning ability and establish an effective strategy-centered listening teaching pattern.

Key words: metacognitive awareness; listening competence; high-score group and low-score group; MALQ

中文摘要

基于前人实验得出的相关性，本文对大学一年级两个本科班新生的元认知意识与听力能力之间的相关性进行了探究。具体研究问题如下：

1. 元认知意识与听力之间是否存在相关性？
2. 元认知意识的五个方面是否与听力能力存在显著相关？
3. 高分组与低分组在元认知意识方面有没有区别？

实验对象是48名英语专业大一新生，他们的母语都是汉语，并且都从小学开始学习英语。实验数据来源于MALQ调查问卷、托福样卷听力测试以及个人访谈。测试在正常上课时间进行。实验结果主要显示：

1. 元认知意识与听力能力之间呈正相关，尽管关联不强。结果表明听者元认知意识提高，听力能力也会相应增高。
2. “问题解决”策略与“针对性注意”策略与听力能力显著相关。结果表明这两项策略使用频率越高，听力结果越好。
3. 高分组与低分组在元认知意识上存在显著差异，并在“问题解决”策略中显示显著差异。这表明水平高的听者更善于自我管理与自我规范，而因为缺少系统性的训练，除了“问题解决”策略，两组受试未在其余四个方面体现出具体差异。

文章建议，教师在教学过程中注意培养学生的这方面的自主学习能力并构建以策略为中心的有效听力教学模式。

关键词：元认知意识 听力能力 高分组与低分组 听力元认知意识问卷

1. Introduction

Metacognition has been regarded as an important role in academic learning (Borkowski, 1996) and language learning (Victori amp; Lockhart, 1995; Wenden, 1991). It is also recognized to be a predictor of learning (Van Hout-Wolters, Veenman, amp; Afflerbach, 2006). Despite the fact that metacognition is important to learning, its position in foreign language learning has only been confirmed in recent two decades (Cross, 2010; Goh, 1997; Vandergrift amp; Tafaghodtari, 2010). Empirical studies that support the efficacy of instruction that raises learners’ awareness of listening process through strategy training are becoming more and more (Cross, 2001; Liu amp; Goh, 2006; Vandergrift amp; Tafaghodtari, 2010).

L2 listening is an cognitive, interactive process, which involves neurological, semantic, and pragmatic processing (Rost, 2011). Hence, the factors may show impact on the listening are considered crucial. Since the studies of metacognitive awareness and listening are relatively new in learning and teaching of English listening, it is necessary to explore the relationship between the two variables more broadly and more deeply.

In China, there is a lack of studies on the difference in metacognitive awareness between skilled and unskilled listeners (Shi, 2009). This study was designed to investigate this kind of correlation, and specially the influence five sub-factors of metacognitive awareness may exert on L2 listening competence. The Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) was adopted to represent learners’ knowledge of their use of listening strategies and perceptions of themselves. In spite of the fact that some studies have used MALQ to study the concept, this paper would present a more detail-oriented illustration of the correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening competence.

This thesis could be divided into five parts. The first chapter served as the general introduction, in which research background, research purposes and the organization of the research were stated. Chapter Two was an overview of the literature, including the definitions of metacognitive awareness and some previous research. In chapter Three, methodology was adopted in this research, including research questions, participants, instruments and data analysis. Chapter Four reports the statistical results of the research questions in the current research and the discussion concerning major findings. The thesis ended with the summary of the major findings, the theoretical and implications, limitations in the paper and suggestions for the future research in Chapter Five.

1. Literature Review

There is no doubt that an upsurge in the number of studies focusing on metacognition has attracted more and more attention. In this paper, the correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening competence will be analyzed. This chapter begins with a review of the definition of metacognitive awareness, followed by the theoretical studies and empirical studies on the correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening competence.

2.1. Definition of metacognitive awareness

Flavell, the foundation researcher in the area of metacognition, made a definition of metacognition as the following: "In any kind of cognitive transaction with the human or non-human environment, a variety of information processing activities may go on. Metacognition refers, among other things, to the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear, usually in service of some concrete goal or objective." (Flavell, 1976). Paris and Winograd (1990) summarized numerous definitions and they thought that metacognition, which featured by self-evaluation and self-management, included declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Second language researchers have reached an agreement that metacognition plays a significant role in improving the ability of thinking and understanding (Byrnes, 1996; Costa, 2001). The present paper adopts Flavell’s definition.

After many years of research, the problems come up that how can second language researchers extract the language learners’ awareness during listening process by an effective tooling system on the base of metacognition theory. After reading a lot of literature and repeating modifying, Vandergrift designed Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) in 2006 to evaluate the metacognitive awareness during listening process. When designing the questionnaire, Vandergrift used Flavell’s (1979) metacognition model (person knowledge, task knowledge, and strategy knowledge) and Wenden’s (1998) metacognition process model (planning, monitoring, evaluating and problem-solving) for reference. He divided metacognition knowledge into five aspects: problem-solving, planning amp; evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge and directed attention.

2.2 Metacognitive awareness and L2 listening

Basing on Flavell’s (1979) conception of metacognition, Vandergrift and Goh proposed a metacognitive framework L2 listening (Vandergrift amp; Goh, 2012). They claimed that features of metacognition could be demonstrated in three ways: metacognitive experience, metacognitive knowledge and strategy use (Vandergrift amp; Goh, 2012). Metacognitive experience and metacognitive knowledge are both crucial dimensions of metacognition as they can encourage learners to form a system of plans, managements and self-control awareness in the learning process in various ways.

Like the above two dimensions, the use of special learning strategies or skills is also a key component of metacognition. It is helpful in facilitating the listening process and reducing the difficulty of materials. Listening strategies are categorized as cognitive, metacognitive, and social-affective (Cross, 2009; Goh, 1998; Goh amp; Hu, 2014). Cognitive strategies are used to manipulate listening input directly in order to arrive at meanings of words and interpretations of a message. Metacognitive strategies are used to manage these cognitive processes by influencing their operations through processes of planning, monitoring, problem-solving and evaluation. Social interaction strategies involve getting the help and input of other participants in an interaction, while affective strategies are needed to help learners manage some debilitating emotions such as nervousness and anxiety (Elkhafaifi, 2005; Goh amp; Hu, 2014; Vogely, 1999).

2.3 Empirical studies

The last three decades witnessed a growing number of research focusing on L2 listeners’ metacognitive awareness. Researchers home and abroad conducted empirical studies on metacognitive strategies used by second language listeners, for example, Vandergrift (2005) explored relationships among metacognitive awareness, motivation orientations and proficiency in the second language Listening. In 2009, Chang and Li conducted an empirical study on the correlation among metacognitive strategies, listening comprehension and incidental vocabulary acquisition. Some studies indicated that there was a link between metacognitive knowledge and listening level (Suzanah amp; Gurnam, 2013; Vandergrift, 2006; Yang, 2003). Suzanah and Gurnam (2013) found that students who frequently use metacognitive strategies in the lecture listening tended to score higher in the listening test. By comparing the students’ scores before and after the metacognitive awareness training, Yang drawn the conclusion pointing to the importance of metacognitive awareness. There are also studies found that good listeners would use appropriate strategies to help themselves succeed more frequently (Chen, 2009; Goh,1998; Goh, 2002; Vandergrift, 1997; Zeng, 2012). Goh (2002) found that language learners with higher listening level were more likely to be aware of the problems encountered in the listening process. Zeng (2012) reached a conclusion that Chinese students had a fairly high degree of metacognitive awareness of listening in aspects like problem-solving, person knowledge and planning and evaluation. Some researchers claimed that weak listeners would easily blocked by vocabulary of information they had predicted before the listening process and did not tend to facilitate their understanding with their contextual knowledge (Christing C.M. Goh amp; Guangwei Hu; Graham, Santos amp; Vanderplank (2008).

Research that studied L2 listeners’ self-knowledge of the listening process has claimed that listeners do have the ability to evaluate their learning outcomes or metacognitive knowledge about themselves more or less (Cross, 2010; Goh, 1997). Variations as knowledge about the listening and usage of strategies could be influenced by other personal or social factors such as age (Goh amp; Taib, 2006), motivation (Vandergrift), nature of peer dialogues (Cross, 2010), and listening ability (Goh, 1999). Goh (1999) made the conclusion that low-competence listeners were less clear about strategies and techniques which could facilitate their listening comprehension. Not only that, their knowledge about how other factors such as speakers’ positions may impact on their listening was limited.

Furthermore, diachronic studies on metacognitive awareness and listening also could not be ignored. In 2014, Yu and Zhang combined MALQ and the listening test, and finally found that in the different periods of listening process, the regulatory effect of five aspects of metacognitive awareness on listening are different too (Yu amp; Zhang, 2014).

In general, the results of the previous studies have been similar broadly, but there still exists the necessity to explore the issue more deeply.

2.4 Limitations of previous studies

In the past few decades, an increasing number of researchers and scholars have come into notice the necessities of studying the potential correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency. However, there are still some insufficiencies in former researches.

On one hand, as mentioned before, previously studies which adopt MALQ as the instrument are relatively new, especially in China. Furthermore, there are fewer studies on the correlation between metacognitive awareness and listening proficiency compared with those on the metacognitive awareness and reading comprehension. Therefore, more studies are needed to enlarge the research field.

On the other hand, lots of research just take the metacognitive awareness as a whole and explore the potential correlation from a macro perspective. In other words, both macro and micro analyses should be taken into consideration.

To sum up, there are still many gaps in the previous studies that need to be filled, which call for the implement of the current study.

3. Methodology

This chapter shows the methodological approach adopted in this research. It begins with the research questions. Then it continues with the experimental design, a description of participants, instruments. It ends with the data collection and analysis。

3.1 Research Questions

The study explores the relationship metacognitive awareness and listening competence. The specific research questions are the following:

Question 1: Is there any correlation between L2 learners’ metacognitive awareness of listening and their listening performance?

Question 2: Is there any correlation between the five aspects of metacognitive awareness and listening competence?

Question 3: What is the difference between high-score group and low-score group in metacognitive awareness?

3.2 Participants

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