Impacts of the Test of English Listening Comprehension on students' English learning expectations in Taiwan

Abstract

In Taiwan, English language learning in senior high school has predominantly focused on reading, with a heavy emphasis on memorising vocabulary and grammar rules. English listening has been marginalised and is not officially taught until the first year of university. In 2012, the Joint Board of College Recruitment Commission in Taiwan passed legislation that made the new Test of English Listening Comprehension (TELC) a requirement for university application and a part of the College Entrance Examination for senior high school students. The implementation of this new English listening test policy is likely to have unpredictable impacts on its major stakeholders, particularly the students. The present study explored the extent to which the TELC affected Taiwanese senior high school students' language learning and their expectations about the teaching of listening in English classes. The findings revealed that the TELC had a general influence on the participants overall and that certain components of the TELC resulted in more significant differences in students' perceived English listening proficiency than did their subject specialisation. These results suggest that the introduction of this new listening test might serve as leverage for change in the English language teaching in Taiwanese secondary schools in the future.

Impacts of the Test of English Listening Comprehension (TELC) on teachers and teaching in Taiwan

“…Hughes (2003) suggests that direct testing involving students in performing authentic tasks in speaking or writing tests provides teachers with a clearer judgment on, and interpretation of, students' abilities to use the target language in more real-life contexts than answering multiple-choice questions. Chou (2015), in her investigation of senior high school students' expectation of listening instruction, discovered that the students preferred to have oral communication in their English classes. In the current study, several teachers had involved a certain degree of oral interaction by asking the students to express their opinions, or to give feedback towards issues raised in the listening extracts.…”

“…The contents of the TELC follow the official English language curriculum for senior high school education. The test has four purposes: (1) to assess learning outcomes of English listening based on the senior high school curriculum for English, (2) to foster listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, (3) to bridge the gap between students' listening and communicative abilities in everyday situations, and (4) to link high school English education with globalisation (Chou 2015(Chou , 2016. As regards content, the TELC comprises 'picture identification' , 'question and answer' , 'short talk' , and 'short report' subtests.…”

“…The focus of washback research has shifted over the past few years from an emphasis on high-stakes international English language testing preparation courses (e.g., Alderson and Hamp-Lyons 1996;Green 2006;Read and Hayes 2003) to attention to test stakeholders' perspectives, particularly those regarding assessment, learning, and teaching in school (e.g., Cheng et al 2011;Chou 2015). Washback effects can be positive, negative, or both.…”

Modelling the Relationship among Prior English Level, Self-efficacy, Critical Thinking, and Strategies in Reading Performance

“…English is the major foreign language that is tested for university admission purposes in Taiwan, as in many Asian countries. Reading ability, grammar drills and vocabulary memorization are highly emphasized in high school English classrooms because the English test content of the University Entrance Examination (UEE) consists mainly of grammar and vocabulary tests, reading comprehension tests, and Chinese-English translation (Chou, 2015(Chou, , 2017. The development of reading skills has a central place in secondary English education in Taiwan.…”

Strategy Use for Listening in English as a Foreign Language: A Comparison of Academic and Vocational High School Students

“…However, in the case of second (L2) and foreign language (FL) learning, this skill is frequently marginalized in the language classroom and is often developed incidentally through speaking activities (Beall, Gill‐Rosier, Tate, & Matten, ; Field, ). In recent years, English as a medium of instruction has become popular in many universities in Taiwan (Chen & Tsai, ); however, English language teaching, particularly at the secondary level, has not prepared students for this situation, with its traditional focus on tests, grammar drills, and vocabulary practice through reading (Chen & Tsai, ; Chern, ; Chou, ; Tsao, ).…”