Students' self-regulated listening during a transition period in an English-medium university in China
Keywords: English medium instruction (EMI)
listening strategy
higher education
listening difficulties
motivation
self-regulation
self-efficacy

English-medium-instruction (EMI) has become an established phenomenon worldwide against the backdrop of the internationalisation of higher education (HE). However, given the combination of new academic subject knowledge and an unfamiliar instructional language, listening in the context of EMI HE classes is especially challenging for students who come from secondary schools with subjects instructed in their mother tongue. As such, students might need to become strong independent learners to strategically regulate their listening to survive and thrive amid the challenges. This doctoral research therefore focuses on this critical period of transition when students first enter an English-medium university. The study explores the longitudinal development of the listening difficulties perceived by first-year students, and their strategic self-regulatory listening during the first semester at an EMI transnational university in mainland China.
The aim of the study is three-fold: first, to examine listening difficulties perceived by students in the context of EMI at the beginning, and during the semester; second, to explore students’ self-regulated listening both in and out of EMI classes; third, to investigate the role of key learner-related variables (i.e., Baseline English listening proficiency (BELP), self-efficacy in listening to EMI classes, and motivation in learning EMI courses) within listening difficulties and the strategic self-regulatory processes of listening.
This study adopts a fully longitudinal mixed methods design, collecting data via a questionnaire battery survey and semi-structured interviews at the beginning (Week 2 and 3), midterm (Week 8 and 9), and the end (Week 13 and 14) of the first semester to capture the trajectory of students’ listening experience over time. A total of 316 first-year undergraduate students majoring in Business, Humanities and Social sciences completed the survey at all three time points. A sub-cohort of 35 students were sampled from the survey participants for the interviews, balancing across three BELP levels (high, medium, low), all of whom (except for one drop-out) were interviewed at all three time points during the semester.
Regarding the first research aim, the findings identify a variety of listening difficulties that students encountered in EMI classes upon arrival, corresponding to the cognitive processes outlined in listening models. Students’ perceptions of the difficulties changed over time, and discrepancies existed among BELP groups regarding the changes. For the second research aim, results suggest that students engaged in strategic and self-regulated learning (SRL) both for listening in EMI classes and for listening practice out of class at the term start. These processes seemed to be interrelated and cyclical, cohering to Zimmerman and Moylan’s (2009) social cognitive SRL model. Longitudinally during the term, it was found that the students developed a top-down listening approach with increasing focus on content learning, and improved their strategic competence in listening. Students also became more selective in multiple SRL processes after the midterm ‘watershed’ moment. Finally, for the third research aim, BELP was associated with listening difficulties, whereas motivation (i.e., intrinsic goal orientation and task value) seemed important for self-regulated listening. Self-efficacy significantly predicted and reciprocally interacted with both constructs.
The study offers various pedagogical implications for EMI practice. Its contribution to research is three-fold: to bring in a longitudinal lens to EMI challenge-related research, to diversify self-regulation research with a social cognitive SRL model, and to factor in learner variables for precise investigation of learning experience during EMI transition.