Differences: The afore-listed protocols show all of the participants retold the
relevant information about “distance”: distance signals “formality” and
“lack/absence of interest”. Thefirst participant successfully recalled the detailed
information but failed to write down the key word“distance”in his notes and hence
got the wrong answer for the gap in Phase 1. But, at a closer look, there are still
differences between these retelling protocols, especially the last one. Participant
Xue, with the highest score of the same mini-lecture task, substituted“formality”
and“lack of interest”with“respect”and“doesn’t care”in his retelling, which
indicates that his paraphrase is actually transcoding abstract and formal concepts
into less formal daily speech. In another word, the interpretation here is that this
piece of audio input is internalized in the participant’s mind and is stored as a
familiar expression to him, proving the argument that more proficient students tend
to use paraphrase techniques to form mental discourse representations (Table7.6).
Table 7.6 (continued)
Protocol 4 (Gap No. 7; Correct answer;
TEM 4: 79; TEM 8 Mini: 6)Xue: Then is about proximity and echoing.
Proximity means the distance between people to
show certain meanings
Xue: Closeness may mean intimacy or privateness
anddistance may mean, meanrespect or doesn’t
care
R: What does distance mean?
Xue: I am not sureTable 7.7 Retelling protocols related to Gap Type 3-Inference gaps of 2013 TEM 8 (1)
Protocol 1 (Gap No. 7; Wrong answer;
TEM 4: 78; TEM 8 Mini: 3.5)Zhou: Active learners don’t ask everything, but they
will raise necessary questions, um, what? Yes, they,
the next sentence, I think the key words are too long
to remember. It sayssomething evaluate the
information and um...stilljust remember conclusion
or something. It seems that I can only remember
what I have written
R: Then what happens to the new information?
Zhou: Ah, the new information, it doesn’tfit in their
already exist knowledge. They will, yes, ask
questions
R: Did you catch the word before conclusion?
Zhou: Um. No, even if I do, I can’t remember it now
Protocol 2 (Gap No. 7; Wrong answer;
TEM 4: 82; TEM 8 Mini: 3.5)Zhuo: The active learners do not question
everything in their mind but they doevaluate what
they read, what they read or hear. When the new
things they learned contradict with what they had
learned before, they may,they may differ from the
conclusions and inferences they made. What’s the
exact sentence then? Differ what?
R: They differ in the conclusions they draw or the
inferences they make
(continued)114 7 Using Retelling Protocols to Explore Listeners’...