7.5.1 Task Type
The most frequent theme test-takers have mentioned is task type. Ten students
talked about the uniqueness of the task type. They summarized some features of it
as follows:
- listeningfirst, task after listening
- different from multiple-choice questions
- prediction of wanted information
- substantial notes before the task
- note-taking and comprehension the same time
- without much contextual information in an outline format
- differences between test-designers’and test-takers’perspective
- intense focus on details
Students viewed the test type from different perspectives. In a summary, all of
them confirmed the unique difficulty of the gap-filling task: note-taking while lis-
tening in thefirst stage and completing the gap-filling task in the second stage.
7.5.2 Note-Taking
Ten participants mentioned the importance of note-taking. The sub-themes under
note-taking are selection of words to write down; writing speed; the conflict
between writing notes and comprehension; clear structure of notes; using symbols
or acronyms to speed up note-taking; and information retrieval from notes, etc. The
following extracts are quite representative amongst all the participants:
Zhou: Um, for some points, I didn’t write them down. Sometimes, my notes are too messy
that I can’t locate a definite word. It takes time tofind useful information or sometimes just
cannotfind it.
Fu: I heard the word and when I was about to write down the word, I already need to listen
to the following words. Then I would like tofinish listening to the complete sentencefirst,
but after the sentence isfinished, I forgot everything.
On the whole, most of points participants mentioned are already encompassed in
the questionnaire survey items.
Table 7.11 Nodes list for
Phase 3-Interview
Nodes Sources References
Task type 10 12
Note-taking 10 15
Key words 9 10
Summarizing and inferring 7 7
Working memory 4 4128 7 Using Retelling Protocols to Explore Listeners’...