The role of elaborative tactics in encoding spoken text

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of two different tactics, questioning and notetaking, on students' encoding of spoken text. The questioning tactic was developed by King (1990, 1992a) as a means to help students both acquire knowledge and develop higher levels of thinking in their first language (L1) when listening to text. King's work was adapted for this study to include notetaking as well as questioning. Training in both questioning and notetaking alerted the students to the possibilities of elaboration (Barnett et al. (1981) contend that elaboration occurs when a listener makes connections between what is heard and material beyond the text). The subjects in the present study were students of two unstreamed fourth form science classes with wide ranging abilities and from diverse language backgrounds (for half the students involved English was their L2). Each class was divided into two groups, questioners and notetakers, comprising equal numbers of high and low encoders (as categorised by a pre-test). The questioning and notetaking tactics were taught to the two groups over four sessions using partnership teaching (collaboration between the science teacher and the language specialist teacher). The training in the tactics was embedded in a package which emphasised not only the elaborative possibilities of each of the tactics, but also the importance of being able to articulate and control the mental processes underpinning each of the tactics. To ascertain the effects of the tactics, post-tests measured questioners' and notetakers' ability to retrieve information on factual, inferential and elaborative tasks. Finally, a delayed knowledge test measured the differential effects of training in the two tactics on students' ability to remember the material covered during the training sessions three weeks after the study. It was predicted that notetakers would learn to use the notetaking tactic more quickly than questioners learnt questioning, as notetaking was a more common tactic already used for encoding spoken text. However it was predicted that questioners would outperform notetakers on the inferential and elaborative items in the post-tests as well as in all items of the delayed knowledge test. Questioning was thought to be a more demanding mental activity than notetaking, naturally encouraging more elaboration and thus stronger memory traces. Conversely the notetakers were expected to gain their highest scores in the factual items of the post-tests, as notetaking was considered to focus listeners' attention on acquiring and selecting ideas. Finally it was predicted that high and low encoders would respond differently to the study in terms of both attitude and application of skills. Analysis of students' questions and notes from the four days of treatment suggested that questioning and notetaking tactics could be taught to students of differing abilities over a relatively short period of time. Results in the post-test indicated that while most students could retrieve information to complete factual items, only high encoders could use these encoding tactics to complete inferential and elaborative items. Although notetakers outperformed questioners in the post-tests, this was not replicated in the delayed knowledge test, where low questioners outperformed low notetakers. The metacognitive activities seemed to encourage autonomy and engagement. Partnership teaching was reported to be an effective way of helping learners and teachers develop new insights and tactics.