Listening Strategies Awareness: A Diary Study in a Listening Comprehension Classroom

English.Edu, Vol. 8, No. 1, January 2008, p. 39-62Despite the importance of listening as one of the language skills (Ridgeway, 2000:180) its teaching methods have not been fully implemented. With traditional listening classrooms focusing more on the result of the listening activities, it is important to direct students’ attention towards the comprehension processes and the enabling listening skills and strategies. Goh (2002) suggests the use of listening diaries as a tool to reflect on the listening events and strategies used. Using listening diaries in the Listening Comprehension 3 course of the Faculty of Language and Literature of Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga, Indonesia, this study aims at identifying the effectiveness of diary studies to help students become more aware of the listening skills and strategies. To help reach the goal, this study investigates what strategies are used by students and how they learn from their reflection in the diaries, how the awareness of the students listening strategies develops, and how the development is related to their performance in listening comprehension classrooms. It is expected that the result of the study could contribute to the development of better listening classes