will, nearlysleep in the class or what? Um. I just getreading newspapers,chat what
classmates. I don’t remember the examples. Um. Butactive learners willlisten to
the teachers, willengage in the lectures and listen to the lecturesentirely carefully.
They willthinking and taking notes carefully. (87 words)
Observation
Gao retained more propositional units based on quantity. The main idea of the third
characteristics is that active learners“listen actively bytaking comprehensive notes
in an organized way”. Gao retold the main idea almost verbatim while Wang only
retold“comprehensive notes”, missing out“in an organized way”. While elabo-
rating on the third characteristic, the lecturerfirst exemplified passive learners and
later contrasted passive learners with active learners. Both participants used gen-
eralization to summarize the examples in relation to passive learners, such as“they
doevery other things except taking the notes”in Gao’s retelling and“that aremore
interested in activitiesthan lectures” in Wang’s retelling. Compared with the
structure used in the original lecture“engaged in activitiesother than listening and
note-taking”, the two participants’paraphrases are equally acceptable. As far as
what active learners do is concerned, Gao focused on the point that active learners
are“more than simply present”and later actively paraphrased the last sentence
“think about the information before you write”as“contact the lecturer’s ideas”
while Wang was more succinct as she deleted other propositional units but only
retained the key information“thinking and taking notes”. On the whole, Gao is
morefluent in paraphrasing what she heard than Wang.
7.4.5 The Fourth Characteristic of Being an Active Learner
High Achiever
Gao: Before access toseek the assistance when theyencounter some problems
because the active learnersconstantly know, check their understandings, so they
will knowwhere and when they will encounter thosedifficulties.Active learners
will seek assistancefrom their professors or their peers. Um, before this sentence
is...Um. I know something, but I cannot recall it...Theypredict what the course
will said, theypredict the course andspecific content of the course. And they will
turn to the professors or peers.Passive learners do ask questions. But they aretoo
little andtoo late and because theydon’treflect with their ideas, with ideas in the
course, so they...(110 words)
Low Achiever
Wang: Um. The fourth characteristic isask for help because active learners, they,
they knowwhat they not understand and they don’t want to, theydon’t want to
know somethinguntil the last, theydon’t want tobe the last one.Active learners
will also aboutseek assistance from peers and theirprofessors, but I don’t get the
former paragraph. Passive learners willask little questions, they nearlydon’t ask
questions because they evendon’t know they have questions. (78 words)
7.4 Comparison Between a High-Achiever... 123