A Case Study Of Test-taking Strategies Employed By Successful English Learners In Listening Section In Advanced Interpretation Test

This study was undertaken to find out what strategies successful English learners employed in listening section before and during Advanced Interpretation Test, The theoretical basis in this study is Attribution Theory and the methodological basis of this study is Grounded Theory. The significance of this study is to enrich the existing test-taking strategies and provide future test takers with some test-taking strategies to choose from in their listening tests in China.The subjects in this study were three MA students in Grade Three, two of whom were girls from College of International Studies, Yangzhou University majoring in English Literature and Applied Linguistics respectively, and one of whom was a boy from Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade majoring in Business English. They all passed Advanced Interpretation Test with above75points in listening section (full mark,100). They were selected by purposive sampling. For the convenience of research, the two girls were labeled as S1and S2and the boy as S3. The instrument of the study was the researcher herself according to Chen (2000). Three interviews were conducted with the three subjects respectively at different time in different places, covering the two aspects:test-taking strategies employed by successful English learners before and during Advanced Interpretation Test. The interviews were held in Chinese in a daily conversational style to make them express their ideas freely. With the interviewees’permissions, the three interviews were recorded and then transcribed and translated. Data analysis involved coding, categorization and summarization. The major findings yielded from the study are summarized as follows:First, the test-taking strategies employed before the exam included strategies in terms of review and mental preparations. In terms of review, there were making-specific-preparations strategy and making-no-specific-preparations strategy. The former included making-plan strategy, familiarizing-test-items strategy, utilizing-others’-experience-for-reference strategy, employing-authentic-tests strategy, repeatedly-practicing-shorthand strategy and focusing-on-weak-items strategy. The latter consisted of doing everything as usual, following his old study habit, i.e., there was a time for everything. This indicates that all roads lead to Rome and that good study habits are as important as strategies for the success of a test. With regard to mental preparations, they applied being-calm strategy, being-confident strategy, and adjusting-attitude strategy.Second, the test-taking strategies employed during the exam were applied in accordance with the order of test items. In terms of Dictation, they applied scanning-passage-first strategy and taking-notes-on-draft-paper strategy. In terms of Listening Comprehension, they employed writing-down-main-points strategy and relying-on-intuition strategy and inferring strategy. For Note-taking and Gap-filling, they applied listening-with-a-focus strategy, shorthand strategy and logical-deduction strategy. For Listening and Translation, they applied skipping-strategy and polishing-version strategy. These various strategies indicate that specific strategies are needed to deal with different test items.Third, all the test-taking strategies yielded from this study formulate a model, which can be considered as a system, where its components are independent, interrelated and hierarchical. By "independent", it means that every strategy itself in the system exists distinguished from other strategies. By "interrelated", it means that every strategy is related to other strategies. By "hierarchical", it means that any system is a part of a supra-system and is divided into subsystems.This study has three limitations.First, the three subjects of this study were all MA students majoring in English who had learned English professionally for nearly seven years. However, the test takers of Advanced Interpretation Test have various education background and English levels, which may be different from the three subjects. Thus, some strategies yielded from this study may not be generalized to all test takers.Second, the categorization of the test-taking strategies was all made by the researcher herself, which might not100%avoid subjectivity. Besides, some of strategies they employed are overlapping, dealing with more than one test item, e.g., shorthand strategy.Third, there was a relatively long period of time between the test and the interview, which might inevitably make the subjects forget something. An immediate interview right after the test might produce more convincing data.