A Study On The Correlation Between Test-taking Strategies And Chinese Achievement Of International Students In China

The test-taking strategies is a problem-solving step and process that is consciously selected by test-takers during the process of test,and it can be thought of as a learning strategy applied to the exam scenario(Cohen,1994,2004)or a strategy that is activated to complete the test task(Cohen,1998).The study on strategies used in the course of the examination has guiding significance to the design of the test itemsand the interpretation of the test results.This paper studies the relationship between the test-taking strategies of international students with different Chinese proficiency levels and their Chinese achievement,so as to provide some suggestions for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.The questionnaires used in this study was modified on the basis of Oxford(1990),Anderson(1991)Phakiti(2003),Nikolov(2006)and Miller,Fuqua and Fagley(1990).It is composed of metacognitive?cognitive?affective and test-wiseness strategies.A total of 96 students participated in the survey,including 33 in the beginning class,31 in the intermediate class,32 in the advanced class.The survey was conducted immediately after the final examinations of the tutorial for HSK course.By means of SPSS(20.0),this paper conducts single factor analysis of variance,Kruskal-Wallis test and independent sample T test and Spearman correlation analysis and a series of analysis,try to answer the following questions:1.Do the students with different Chinese proficiency levels have any difference in selecting test-taking strategies?If yes,the sub-questions are:(1)what's the difference among learners with three different Chinese proficiency levels?(2)what's the difference between different genders?(3)what's the difference among learners coming from different regions?2.How do the different test-taking strategies correlate with the achievements of the students with different Chinese proficiency levels?After study,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)In terms of the selection of test-taking strategies,generally speaking,there is a straight upward trend in the use of metacognitive,cognitive and affective strategies with the rise of learners' Chinese proficiency,but for the students in the intermediate class,the growing trend in their use of cognitive strategies has slowed down;as to the test-wiseness strategies,it showed a straight downward trend among all learners with their improvement of Chinese proficiency;(2)In terms of gender differences,the selecting of metacognitive,cognitive and affective strategies among female international students is greater than that of male,but only metacognitive and affective strategies have achieved statistically significant differences;the selecting of test-wiseness strategies among male international students is greater than that of female,and there is no significant difference;(3)In terms of regional differences,the Asian students adopt more test-taking strategies than those coming from Europe and the United States,but there is no significant difference;(4)For the students in beginning Chinese class,metacognitive and affective strategies correlated with Chinese achievements positively,and reached a significant level;cognitive and test-wiseness strategies correlated with Chinese achievements negatively,and did not reach a significant level;(5)For the students in intermediate Chinese class,metacognitive and affective strategies also correlated with Chinese achievements positively,but only the correlation between metacognitive strategies and Chinese achievements reached a significant level;cognitive and test-wiseness strategies correlated with Chinese achievements negatively,and did not reach a significant level;(6)For the students in advanced Chinese class,metacognitive strategies correlated with Chinese achievements negatively,and reached a significant level;cognitive and affective strategies correlated with Chinese achievements positively,and reached a significant level;test-wiseness strategies have no correlation to Chinese achievements.The results of the above studies show that the application of test-taking strategies changes with the development of international students' Chinese proficiency,indicating that the development of the test-taking strategy is dynamic.At different stages and language proficiency level,learners can adapt different strategies to tests,even the use of the test-taking strategies may change according to different tests and circumstances with the same student.In this case,test-taking strategies are dynamic,so the applications of test-taking strategies should be associated with individual factors such as age,gender,and learning habits.On the other hand,teachers should encourage students to apply the correct test-taking strategies,but do not deny the main function and the role of language learning strategy.Only when the language learners have enough background information and language knowledge,can the test-taking strategies help them to achieve better results effectively.This present study extends the research scope of the test-taking strategies,and the correlation study between international students' Chinese achievements and test-taking strategies has some guiding significance for teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the design of Chinese examinations for international students.