Testing Lecture Comprehension Through Listening-to-summarize Cloze Tasks

Table 6.11 Coding scheme for Phase 3-follow-up interview

Key themes Definition Transcriptions

Task type Students’report about the particular

features and demands of the TEM 8

Mini-lecture and Gap-filling task

Wei: I think it’smyfirst time to do

TEM 8 listening test. So it’s a bit

difficult to me. And in the previous

listening tests, you can see the task

while listening, but TEM 8 is

different, you need to take notesfirst

without seeing the test paper.

In TOFEL test, you also need to take

notesfirst, but then you are given a

MCQ test, there’s still a lot of

information given. But as for the

gap-filling task, if you cannot

remember this point, it’s just gone.

No way out. It has set high demand

for note-taking

Note-taking Students’report about difficulties

involved in note-taking, i.e., writing

notes while listening, writing speed,

etc.

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

Keywords Students’report about the difficulty

to identify key words while listening

to the lecture

Tan: I think the biggest puzzle is I

cannot identify key information in

terms of note-taking and retelling. In

note-taking, I didn’t write down the

key words that were tested and in

retelling, I couldn’t remember. My

memory is not enough

Summarizing

and inferring

Students’report on how they tackle

gaps that need summarizing and

inferring skills

Fan: I would infer or summarize

from what I heard and written down,

because after listening, you can only

infer from the notes, sometimes, you

really wrote down useful words and

sometimes, if you didn’t manage to

write down the words, you will have

to count on your guessing ability.

Guess from the context

Working

memory

Students’report on the importance

of working memory in dealing with

TEM 8 Mini-lecture task

Xue: I think the difficult part is that

you need to understand the

sentences while taking them down,

because short memory span is so

limited

6.5 Transcription of TAPs, Retelling Protocols and Interviews 87