Taiwanese Five-year Junior College EFL Students’ Beliefs

• Main Authors: Yang, Ming Nuan, 楊名暖
• Other Authors: Yang, I Li
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/95382690348439846544

博士 === 國立政治大學 === 英國語文研究所 === 95 === Despite the importance of studying listening in foreign language learning, we still have very limited understanding of learners’ listening beliefs, and a more comprehensive system of listening beliefs is still not in sight. Hence, this study investigated junior college students’ listening beliefs, their listening strategy use, the relationship between their listening beliefs and strategies and the possible effects of English listening proficiency on junior college students’ listening beliefs and listening strategy use. This study mainly employed a quantitative approach to understanding junior college students’ beliefs about English listening comprehension, their strategy use and the relationship between listening beliefs and strategies. The participants were 406 students from one junior college in northern Taiwan. The instruments of the study were the Learner Profile Questionnaire (LPQ), the Belief About English Listening Comprehension Questionnaire (BELCQ), and English Listening Strategy Questionnaire (ELSQ) and the listening comprehension test. The results of the study suggested that: (1) most learners endorsed the belief that listening plays an important role in their English learning process and may facilitate the development of other language skills, (2) learners showed a medium level use of listening strategies and used a wide variety of strategies including cognitive and metacognitive strategies, (3) learners’ listening beliefs were associated with their use of listening strategies, (4) compared with ineffective learners, effective learners tended to report positive beliefs about listening comprehension, and (5) effective learners used a wider variety of strategies than ineffective listeners. Results of this study regarding junior college students’ listening beliefs and listening strategy use may provide rich implications for English education in Taiwan. It is hoped that through this study, more attention will be drawn to listening instruction in junior college students. Understanding students’ beliefs about listening may help English teachers become more aware of students’ frustrations and difficulties in listening to English. Moreover, it might enable EFL teachers to help students develop effective learning strategies and ultimately improve students’ English listening abilities.