As we all know, listening has always been a weak point in students' English learning. Doing English listening tests often encounter some difficulties. At the same time, many students have a serious fear of listeni...As we all know, listening has always been a weak point in students' English learning. Doing English listening tests often encounter some difficulties. At the same time, many students have a serious fear of listening test, and listening itself has a transient effect, so students should be able to calmly cope with the listening test to play the best level. In addition, students need to understand the types of the college entrance examination listening test , listen to more listening practice and lay a solid foundation. Students should also master some listening skills, so as to obtain high scores.展开更多
The present study investigates the testees' test-taking process for banked cloze, focusing on the following two aspects: the information sources and strategies. Employing simultaneous introspection and immediate r...The present study investigates the testees' test-taking process for banked cloze, focusing on the following two aspects: the information sources and strategies. Employing simultaneous introspection and immediate retrospection, the study is conducted among 18 non-English major students. After examining their test-taking processes, a framework for analyzing testees' test-taking processes for banked cloze test is put forward. And then the researcher applies this framework to analyze the testees' protocols. Results show that regarding information sources, clause-level information accounts for the largest proportion, followed by text-level information, sentence-level information and extra-textual information, and in terms of strategies, the testees show a clear preference for bottom-up processing strategies, followed by top-down processing strategies and test-wise processing strategies. The verbal protocols have further revealed that the proficient readers seem to have a context-based reading model and they prefer to grasp the gist of the text, whereas the less proficient readers often employ word-based approaches and they are apt to identify parts of the text.展开更多
Visual and pictorial materials are extensively used in teaching listening comprehension textbooks. Although the use of still image is currently implemented in some distinguished testing systems, video test is not a po...Visual and pictorial materials are extensively used in teaching listening comprehension textbooks. Although the use of still image is currently implemented in some distinguished testing systems, video test is not a popular modality due to the fact that this kind of test may result in test-takers＇ confusion during the test. In the present study, a sample of 80 Iranian EFL （English as a Foreign Language） students was selected to compare their performance on three different modalities of listening test： audio-only test, pictorial （listening with still image test）, and visual （video） listening test. The analysis of one-way repeated measure ANOVA （Analysis of Variance） was used to compare the students＇ scores. The results of Bonferroni Post Hoc Test confirm that there were significant differences in scores among audio-only, pictorial, and visual tests. The results of this study highlight the greater performance of students in pictorial listening test which is statistically significant.展开更多
As far as we are concemed, one of the elements of assessing EFL/ESL （English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language） learners＇ language proficiency in institutions and universities in our country ＂lran...As far as we are concemed, one of the elements of assessing EFL/ESL （English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language） learners＇ language proficiency in institutions and universities in our country ＂lran＂ are multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. We also know that, it comprises one major section of the standard and TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language） tests. Taking into account its importance and the problems which EFL learners have answered them, I get motivated to uncover some of the test-taking strategies which they employ to answer multiple-choice reading comprehension questions when dealing with familiar versus unfamiliar topics. To get a better conclusion, I choose 20 advanced male and female candidates whose English proficiency is at an acceptable level and at least at the same age level, and they major in English language from different colleges and universities. They are given two reading comprehension passages （familiar and unfamiliar）, each one with five final questions and allotted time to answer the questions. Two main instruments in this study are a retrospective think-aloud protocol and a semi-structured interview. The results of the reading comprehension tests and interview part revealed that advanced learners＇ high scores in the familiar topic were not because of their strategy use but because of their high linguistic and background knowledge on the topic. I also concluded that the number, kind, and sequence of strategies employed, were greatly dependent on the degree of testees＇ familiarity on the topic. In other words, test-takers used more strategies to compensate for their lack of linguistic knowledge.展开更多
This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and thro...This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and through semi-structured retrospective interviews. The study explores relationships between the test-takers＇ actual performance and the instructions for the compound dictation test, the language abilities measured, any major construct-irrelevant factors affecting the test-taking processes, and the performance patterns of performance across test-takers of different overall proficiency levels. Findings are as follows. （1） Test-takers＇ actual performance does not apparently relate to the instructions given in the compound dictation test, which may raise doubts over the effectiveness of the instructions, thereby posing a potential threat to test validity. （2） Test-takers may pay more attention to the pronunciation of the words to be used to fill the blanks than to the actual meaning of the words, their difficulties in spelling and sentential expression possibly interfering with test performance even though they appear to use a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies throughout the test. （3） A number of construct-irrelevant factors posing a potential threat to test validity were found in the test-taking processes. Some of these factors are related to the test-takers, for example, memory capacity, attention failure and psychological factors, while others relate to the test, including speech rate and time constraints. （4） Test-takers in the study at all three proficiency levels appeared not to follow the instructions given in the compound dictation test. However, higher proficiency test-takers appeared to make more frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and they appeared to be less influenced by construct-irrelevant factors.展开更多
文摘As we all know, listening has always been a weak point in students' English learning. Doing English listening tests often encounter some difficulties. At the same time, many students have a serious fear of listening test, and listening itself has a transient effect, so students should be able to calmly cope with the listening test to play the best level. In addition, students need to understand the types of the college entrance examination listening test , listen to more listening practice and lay a solid foundation. Students should also master some listening skills, so as to obtain high scores.
基金a small part of the research project,"A Chronological Study on the CET Washback"(07BYY030)National Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of China
文摘The present study investigates the testees' test-taking process for banked cloze, focusing on the following two aspects: the information sources and strategies. Employing simultaneous introspection and immediate retrospection, the study is conducted among 18 non-English major students. After examining their test-taking processes, a framework for analyzing testees' test-taking processes for banked cloze test is put forward. And then the researcher applies this framework to analyze the testees' protocols. Results show that regarding information sources, clause-level information accounts for the largest proportion, followed by text-level information, sentence-level information and extra-textual information, and in terms of strategies, the testees show a clear preference for bottom-up processing strategies, followed by top-down processing strategies and test-wise processing strategies. The verbal protocols have further revealed that the proficient readers seem to have a context-based reading model and they prefer to grasp the gist of the text, whereas the less proficient readers often employ word-based approaches and they are apt to identify parts of the text.
文摘Visual and pictorial materials are extensively used in teaching listening comprehension textbooks. Although the use of still image is currently implemented in some distinguished testing systems, video test is not a popular modality due to the fact that this kind of test may result in test-takers＇ confusion during the test. In the present study, a sample of 80 Iranian EFL （English as a Foreign Language） students was selected to compare their performance on three different modalities of listening test： audio-only test, pictorial （listening with still image test）, and visual （video） listening test. The analysis of one-way repeated measure ANOVA （Analysis of Variance） was used to compare the students＇ scores. The results of Bonferroni Post Hoc Test confirm that there were significant differences in scores among audio-only, pictorial, and visual tests. The results of this study highlight the greater performance of students in pictorial listening test which is statistically significant.
文摘As far as we are concemed, one of the elements of assessing EFL/ESL （English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language） learners＇ language proficiency in institutions and universities in our country ＂lran＂ are multiple-choice reading comprehension tests. We also know that, it comprises one major section of the standard and TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language） tests. Taking into account its importance and the problems which EFL learners have answered them, I get motivated to uncover some of the test-taking strategies which they employ to answer multiple-choice reading comprehension questions when dealing with familiar versus unfamiliar topics. To get a better conclusion, I choose 20 advanced male and female candidates whose English proficiency is at an acceptable level and at least at the same age level, and they major in English language from different colleges and universities. They are given two reading comprehension passages （familiar and unfamiliar）, each one with five final questions and allotted time to answer the questions. Two main instruments in this study are a retrospective think-aloud protocol and a semi-structured interview. The results of the reading comprehension tests and interview part revealed that advanced learners＇ high scores in the familiar topic were not because of their strategy use but because of their high linguistic and background knowledge on the topic. I also concluded that the number, kind, and sequence of strategies employed, were greatly dependent on the degree of testees＇ familiarity on the topic. In other words, test-takers used more strategies to compensate for their lack of linguistic knowledge.
基金part of the achievements funded by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China (No. 0205005201030)the National Scholarship Council of China (No. 2010850066)granted to the first author to support a one-year visiting professorship
文摘This study investigates the cognitive and metacognitive processes used by EFL test-takers in completing a compound dictation test through analyses of their verbal protocols obtained immediately after the test and through semi-structured retrospective interviews. The study explores relationships between the test-takers＇ actual performance and the instructions for the compound dictation test, the language abilities measured, any major construct-irrelevant factors affecting the test-taking processes, and the performance patterns of performance across test-takers of different overall proficiency levels. Findings are as follows. （1） Test-takers＇ actual performance does not apparently relate to the instructions given in the compound dictation test, which may raise doubts over the effectiveness of the instructions, thereby posing a potential threat to test validity. （2） Test-takers may pay more attention to the pronunciation of the words to be used to fill the blanks than to the actual meaning of the words, their difficulties in spelling and sentential expression possibly interfering with test performance even though they appear to use a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies throughout the test. （3） A number of construct-irrelevant factors posing a potential threat to test validity were found in the test-taking processes. Some of these factors are related to the test-takers, for example, memory capacity, attention failure and psychological factors, while others relate to the test, including speech rate and time constraints. （4） Test-takers in the study at all three proficiency levels appeared not to follow the instructions given in the compound dictation test. However, higher proficiency test-takers appeared to make more frequent use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies, and they appeared to be less influenced by construct-irrelevant factors.
