A Tentative Study On The Language Levels Presented In Classroom Dicto-comp Quiz

Language testing and language learning closely relate with each other. Effective language testing may offer some valuable backwash information, thus leading to positive effects on improvements in second language teaching and learning.With the continuous development of language testing, applied linguists and test specialists have done lots of researches to prompt it more rational and scientific. However, most of the researches have mainly focused on large-scale standardized tests. Few researchers have investigated the reliability and validity of teachers' self-designed classroom tests, let alone researches on specific test formats in classroom testing. The study mainly probed the different-level knowledge presented in the classroom dicto-comp quiz through both qualitative and quantitative analyses.One class of 36 university sophomores participated in the tentative study as samples. The study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, the participants were required to write down whatever they think in the process of taking the dicto-comp quiz. The written protocol was analysed to probe the different-level knowledge used by the participants in the test-taking process. In the second part, the participants were required to take part in the final quiz and the final examination. The results of the dicto-comp quiz, the final quiz and the final examination were analysed to investigate the relationship between the dicto-comp quiz and the final exams.Through analyzing the results of tests and the written protocol, the author aims at answering the following questions:·What kind of knowledge do test takers use in the process of taking the dicto-comp quiz?·What kind of knowledge is frequently used in the process of taking the dicto-comp quiz?·What is the relationship between the dicto-comp and the final exam? Do they correlate significantly with each other?According to the data collection and analysis (i.e. correlation analysis, factor analysis, analysis of written protocol), the results are listed below:·The dicto-comp quiz tests all the language knowledge in different levels, including words, phrases, sentences and texts. Moreover, most participants tend to use more than one-level knowledge in finishing the dicto-comp.·The knowledge most frequently used is text-level knowledge. Thus, the dicto-comp quiz turns out to be an integrative test format, to test different-level knowledge.·The dicto-comp quiz and the final examination significantly correlate with each other. The results of matrix and factor analysis show that the dicto-comp serves as an effective measure of testing the participants' listening comprehension, writing ability and the ability of using vocabularies, phrases and grammar points.However, due to the limitations as the source of the samples, the scope of the research and time, the results should not be overgeneralized to all EFL classroom tests. Further studies need to be conducted to confirm the findings to improve the effectiveness of classroom tests from the account of test formats.