Jian Xu Chinese University Students’ Test-taking Motivation, Metacognitive Awareness, and Test Performance in EFL Listening

About this book

This book builds on the expectancy-value of test taking motivation framework, going beyond merely ascertaining whether test taking motivation-related variables have direct effects on listening test performance as measured by listening test score in College English Band 4 (CET-4) listening testing context in China. Rather, what is of great interest is to determine how such effects, both directly and indirectly, come to be, and to describe the mechanism through which test taking motivation-related variables (expectancy, importance, interest, listening test anxiety) transmit their effects via listening metacognitive awareness in a mediation model. More importantly, the present study tries to answer what other factors, if any, and how they influence test takers’ L2 listening test performance. A concurrent embedded mixed method approach was used in this study to answer research questions. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were utilized to validate the constructs of listening test-taking motivation-related factors (four-factor model) as well as listening metacognitive awareness (four-factor model), and to test the total, indirect and direct effects of the structural pathways respectively. The interviewed data were coded and analyzed step by step to confirm and supplement the quantitative findings.

Quantitative results showed that expectancy and interest significantly predicted listening test score; listening metacognitive awareness mediated the relationship between expectancy, importance, interest, and listening test score. Qualitative results identified the effect of characteristics of testing conditions (test preparation, testing environment, time limits, and test format), text characteristics (pronunciation, content of the listening input, speech rate, and genre of the listening input), test-taker’s listening knowledge and experience (past test-taking and learning experience, vocabulary knowledge, memory, background knowledge, and listening competence), test takers’ listening metacognitive awareness (planning and evaluation, direct attention, problem solving, and mental translation), test takers’ test taking motivation (expectancy, perceived importance, individual interest, and listening test anxiety), as well as their perceptions of the validity of the CET-4 listening test. The present study identifies the influencing factors and provides the empirical support to expectancy-value theory of test taking motivation and has implications for teachers on how to enhance test takers’ test-taking motivation and listening metacognitive awareness.