Donal CrawfordInternational Pacific College

July 2010

ContentAssessment of Note-taking skills2 methods – ‘Retrieval’ & ‘Direct’AuthenticityPracticalityReliabilityValidityThe Way Ahead?

Notetaking Skills in EAPNote-taking skills in lectures widely seen as

important component of EAP courses (Rost. 2002; Jordan, 1997; Flowerdew, 1994a)

Studies on note-taking & lecture comprehension (Flowerdew 1994b; Rost, 1990, 2002) and published materials (e.g. Lebauer, 2000; Sanabria, 2004)

Very little information on assessment of this skill (King ,1994)

2 methods used in final examination assessment within EAP Foundation Year or year 1 programmes

Retrieval MethodAssessment via questions which

candidates answer using their notesProcedure:

Listen to recorded mini-lecture and make notes

Listen again and improve notesAnswer set of short-response questions

using notesMarked wrt marking scheme

Direct methodAssessment of the notes themselvesProcedure:

Listen to Section 1 of recorded lecture + PowerPoint outline and make notes

Repeat for Section 2Repeat twice for Section 3

Marking: Each section of notes marked/20 based on coverage and accuracy

Each section divided into 4 parts with up to 5 marks for each part.

Markers meet and compare a sample of papers to agree on required levels of coverage.

Marks reduced for missing and/or inaccurate information.

AuthenticityScriptedLack of visual inputRepetition

PracticalityRecorded vs. ‘live’

Live recording?Writing questions for Retrieval methodPre-marking meetings for Direct method

ReliabilityInter-marker reliability

Likely to be higher for Retrieval methodRoutine sampling & double-marking for Direct

Inter-test reliabilityLikely to be higher for Direct method

Validity“The centrality of the purpose for which the test is being

devised or used cannot be understated” (Alderson, Clapham & Wall, 1995)

Powers (1986) key lecture listening activities:1) identifying major themes or ideas of lectures2) identifying relationships among major ideas in a lecture3) identifying the topic of the lecture4) retaining information through notetaking5) retrieving information from notes6) inferring relationships between information supplied in the

lecture7) comprehending key information presented in the lecture8) following the spoken mode of the lecture9) identifying supporting ideas and examples in the lecture.

Validity (Internal)Face (credibility)

Both require students to take notes.Students certainly take the exams seriously

ContentRetrieval clearly tests Powers (5), and,

depending on questions, (1), (6), (7), (8), (9)Dependent on lecture content, delivery & Q-

settingDirect clearly tests Powers (1), (3), (8), (9)Dependent on lecture content & delivery

Response – not yet considered

Validity (External)Concurrent

Retrieval compared with ‘IELTS-style’ listening test, n=97, r=+0.74

Direct data not yet availablePredictive – no data

The Way ahead?

PowerPoint & MoodleStudents often given lecture notes in advanceListening & understanding more important

than note-taking (Shin, 2008)Lecture comprehensionUse of notes

ReferencesAlderson, J.C., C. Clapham & D. Wall (1995). Language Test COnstruction & Evaluation.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Flowerdew, J. (1994a). Research of relevance to second language lecture comprehension -

an overview. In J. Flowerdew, editor, Academic Listening Research Perspectives (pp. 7-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Flowerdew, J. (1994b). Academic Listening Research Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Jordan, R.R. (1997). English for Academic Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

King, P. (1994). Visual and Verbal Messages in the Engineering Lecture: Notetaking by postgraduate L2 students. In J. Flowerdew, editor, Academic Listening Research Perspectives (pp. 219-38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Lebauer, R.S. (2000) Learn to Listen, Listen to Learn. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.Powers, D.E. (1986). Academic demands related to listening skills. Language Testing 3 (1):1-

38.Rost, M. (1990). Listening in Language Learning. Harlow: Longman.Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and Researching Listening. Harlow: Pearson Education.Sanabria, K. (2004). Academic Listening Encounters: Life in Society. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.Shin, I. (2008). Necessary Skills in English for Korean Postgraduate Engineering Students in

London. Educate - Special London Edition, September 2008, 50-61 [online version]. http://www.educatejournal.org