reckoned she had probably missed some information because the word in the
outline is“ways”. She wrote“organized”in her notes andfilled in the gap with the
same word. Gao’s retelling is“take comprehensive notes in an organized way”and
in Phase 1, she picked“comprehensive”from two key words—“comprehensive”
and“logic”. Therefore, except Wu who wrote“thinking before writing”in Phase 1,
all the rest participants’Phase 1 and Phase 2 protocols are in consistency. Though
Fan and Gao retold the relevant complete clause in Phase 2, they failed tofill in
both“comprehensive”and“organized”in thefifth gap of the task in Phase 1.
We have an interpretation to address the incompleteness of the participants’
answers. In the sentence of“take comprehensive notes in an organized way”, there
are two propositional units“take comprehensive notes”and“in an organized way”.
When the two propositional units are mixed with other clauses, whether both of
them can be selected for processing is related to participants’proficiency and
working memory capacity. Since there’s no conspicuous discourse cue to signal
that“comprehensive”and“organized”are two points parallel to each other with
equal weight, it’s hard for participants to assign both of them to the“ways”of
note-taking in the gap-filling task (Table7.9).
Table 7.10 Retelling protocols related to Gap Type 4-Summary gaps of 2010 TEM 8
Protocol 1 (Gap No. 8; Wrong answer;
TEM 4: 70; TEM 8 Mini: 4)Li: Then, she talked proximity is person,
culture-bound and what, I didn’t hear the word, then
she said when you talk to superior, standing close is
not good, then, it might be related to status, I
remembered in the related blank, I should put in
social status, which sounds more appropriate. I think
status is independent of culture and person, it’s not a
repetition of meaning
Protocol 2 (Gap No. 8; Wrong answer;
TEM 4: 63; TEM 8 Mini: 1.5)He: Closeness indicates threat. Distance means lack
of interest
R: Did you catch anything else?
He: I only catch“informal”and“party”. Nothing
else
Protocol 3 (Gap No. 8; Correct answer;
TEM 4: 78; TEM 8 Mini: 5)Zhang: Closeness for example can show intimacy or
threat, distance on the hand can show formality and
lack of interest. Once again, I have to say the
proximity between two speakers are personal style
and culture-bound. So what may seem common,
seem normal in one culture maybe unappropriate in
another and closeness may be appropriate in some
situations, such as informal party, but completely
out of place at another, at othersituations
R: Can you cite an example of such situation?
Zhang: No, I forgot it. Such as meeting with your
supervisor, maybe...7.3 Consistency Between Phase 1 and Phase 2 119