7.5.3 Key Words/Selective Information....................
Nine students reported the difficulty or importance to identify key words while
listening to the lecture. In one representative extract of the interview data, the
participant summarized her way of identifying key information:
Fan: For example, in a sentence, you need to grasp the main idea of it, whether it’s positive
or negative, one is the theme of the sentence, the other is speaker’s attitude, yes, these two
things are the most important. With these two points, we can grasp the key information,
then, if we can write down the exact words, that would definitely facilitate doing the
gap-filling task.
R: So what kind of words would you write down?
Fan: I usually write down the words that I cannot think of. It just means the words you
seldom think of when you are explaining the similar concept. It’s based on one’sintuition.
R: You mean the words representative of that concept?
Fan: Yes.
But, under stress in the testing situation, selecting key information to write down
is rather the crux. The word“intuition”emphasized by the participant resonates in
others, for selection of key words varies with individuals and there is no universal
principle guiding it.
7.5.4 Summary/Inferences
Seven students reported how they tackle gaps that need summarizing and inferring
skills.
Gao: For inference, I think I should count on my own attempt. For summarizing, I will have
a look at all my notes and then try to summarize. It’sokifIfinally succeeded in making a
summary. But if I couldn’t...um...I will still try to summarize from my notes because notes
should be the key points. Summarize the common feature from their characteristics.
We can see that tackling inference or summary gaps, a prerequisite is still notes.
Without notes, inferring the answer becomes groundless.
7.5.5 Working Memory
Four students reported the importance of working memory in dealing with TEM 8
Mini-lecture task.
Tan: My short-time memory is a bit poor, if the sentence contains more than two clauses, I
will forget the other two if I cannot refer to my notes. Seems comprehension, note-taking,
and short-time memory are all important.7.5 Interview Data 129