<Research Papers>Kyoto University Students' Grammatical Abilities and Listening Comprehension as Measured by the TOEFL PBT and GRE

Abstract

Kyoto University students' grammatical and syntactic skills, as well as their short listening comprehension skills, were compared with the corresponding world averages as measured by TOEFL. Grammatical and syntactic skills were operationalized as the structure (gap filling) and written expression (grammatical error detection) section scores from the TOEFL PBT (Paper-Based-Test) and the scores from the GRE's gap filling questions. Short listening comprehension skills were operationalized as the scores from the TOEFL PBT's short listening section. The average English learner, by our definition, has a probability of success on each item which is equal to the world average made available by Educational Testing Service (ETS). Taking advantage of the Rasch-type symmetry between person abilities and item difficulties, the test items were regarded as examinees taking two tests; made of Kyoto University students and all the examinees around the world. This novel symmetric view made extensive correlation studies possible. While Kyoto University students excelled at TOEFL's gap filling task, there was no statistically significant difference in the scores for grammatical error detection, contradicting the common belief that Japanese students have superior grammatical abilities. This may be due to insufficient procedural skills to use declarative grammar knowledge fluently. Lack of procedural abilities may partially explain the markedly poorer performance in the sec ond half of the GRE's gap filling test as well.

京大生の文法・構文の知識をTOFL PBTの文法問題と穴埋め問題、更にGREの穴埋め問題で測定し、同時に短文の聴解力をTOEFL PBTの聴解セクションの最初の30問で測定した。結果をEducational Testing Serviceが発表している全受験者のスコアと比較検討したところ、穴埋め問題では京大生が上回った。しかし、文法問題では、文法に強いはずの日本人学生の成績と世界平均との間に統計的に有意な差異は認められなかった。文法をふくめ、宣言的知識はあっても、それを利用するだけの技能はないという典型的な日本人の英語力の特性の現れであろうと思われる。手続き的知識が身につくに連れ、処理能力も高まるものであるが、未だ十分な手続き的知識の発達していない日本人学生には、GREの穴埋め問題は与えられた時間が十分でなく、これが後半の出来が目立って悪かった理由ではないかと思われる。