Test-taking strategy use by Chinese young EFL learners in an authentic international standardized English test

• Autores: Feifei Han
• Localización: Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, ISSN 1697-7467, Nº. 39, 2023, págs. 265-280
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.30827/portalin.vi39.24390
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Uso de estrategias para hacer exámenes por parte de jóvenes estudiantes chinos de inglés como lengua extranjera en un auténtico examen de inglés estandarizado internacional
• Enlaces
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• Resumen
  • español

    El estudio actual examinó las estrategias de realización de pruebas de idioma utilizadas por los jóvenes estudiantes chinos de inglés como lengua extranjera  en una prueba de inglés estandarizada internacional auténtica: Cambridge Young Learners English Test: Flyers Test. Adoptó un enfoque de métodos mixtos: la parte cuantitativa fue una encuesta administrada a 138 participantes, y la parte cualitativa consistió en sesiones de pensamiento en voz alta y entrevistas retrospectivas con seis participantes. Los resultados cuantitativos muestran que, en general, los niños adoptaron estrategias de realización de pruebas metacognitivas con más frecuencia que estrategias de realización de pruebas cognitivas, independientemente de las habilidades lingüísticas; y los de alto rendimiento utilizaron estrategias para tomar exámenes con más frecuencia que los de bajo rendimiento. Los efectos de interacción bidireccional entre los niveles de rendimiento de la prueba ☓ tipo de estrategia y entre las habilidades lingüísticas ☓ tipo de estrategia también fueron significativos. Los resultados cualitativos demuestran que los de alto rendimiento no solo utilizaron una gama más amplia de estrategias cognitivas que los de bajo rendimiento, sino que también utilizaron las mismas estrategias metacognitivas a un nivel más profundo y de una manera más sofisticada que los de bajo rendimiento.

  • English

    The current study examined language test-taking strategies used by Chinese young learners of English as a foreign language (EFLs) in an authentic international standardized English test–Cambridge Young Learners English Test: Flyers Test. It adopted a mixed-methods approach: the quantitative part was a survey administered to 138 participants, and the qualitative part consisted of think-aloud sessions and retrospective interviews with six participants (three were high-achievers and three were low-achievers). The quantitative results show that in general, children adopted metacognitive test-taking strategies more frequently than cognitive test-taking strategies irrespective of language skills; and the high-achievers used test-taking strategies more frequently than their low-achievers. The two-way interaction effects between levels of test performance ☓ strategy type and between language skills ☓ strategy type were also significant. The qualitative results demonstrate that the high-achievers not only used a broader range of cognitive strategies than low-achievers, they also used the same metacognitive strategies at an in-depth level and in a more sophisticated way than low-achievers. The results of the study suggest that expanding Chinese young EFL learners’ repertoire of test-taking strategies and modeling desirable ways of using strategies may help them improve their test-taking strategy use.

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