To Copy Verbatim, Paraphrase or Summarize:Listeners’ Methods of Discourse Representation While Recalling Academic Lectures

It is unanimously agreed that comprehension of academic lectures is cognitively demanding; however, few studies have focused on a listener’s real-time discourse representation of a lecture. Based on the qualitative analysis of the verbal protocols, the present study investigated sixteen Chinese university students’ verbal recall of an academic mini-lecture to explore how they made sense of the lecture and represented its discourse when they recalled it episode by episode, and to what extent they differed in discourse representation. The results show that listeners’ discourse representation involved a range of cognitive processes such as paraphrasing, summarizing, and verbatim copying. Paraphrasing and summarizing were the main methods of discourse representation used by the participants when they verbally recalled the lecture. Those who correctly paraphrased more idea units recalled more content of the lecture. They were able to select and retain more idea units in their short-term memory, build more associations between the selected idea units, integrate them with the existing discourse structures and ensure contextual coherence in the construction of the local discourse structures. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of how listeners comprehend academic lectures and confirm that improving students’ paraphrasing skills and hierarchical discourse construction in recall are conducive to better comprehension of academic lectures.<br/

Researching classroom-based assessment for formative purposes

This article aims to help teacher-researchers engage in empirical research on classroom-based assessment for formative purposes. We will first introduce the key features of classroom-based formative assessment (CBFA), and analyze the research questions asked in round-one projects funded by the Fund for Assessment Research (FAR) in Foreign Language Education in China. Next, we will illustrate how some research questions can be answered by analyzing a video-taped lesson from a round-one FAR project. We conclude by calling for more teacher-led research and argue that research on CBFA by teachers will not only produce valid interpretations and applicable findings, but also constitute a viable model for teacher professional development