Short conversations in the listening comprehension section of toefl itp in light of systemic functional grammar

TOEFL ITP (Test of English as a Foreign Language: Institutional Testing Program) is now used as part of the test format designed by Vietnam National Foreign Language Project 2020 to test the English proficiency of Vietnamese. However, they tend to do poorly in the listening comprehension section of the tests of the Project, in which short conversations between two people in part A are the first challenge.

Võ Việt Cường Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CƠNG NGHỆ 109(09): 45 - 49 SHORT CONVERSATIONS IN THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION SECTION OF TOEFL ITP IN LIGHT OF SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR Vo Viet Cuong* College of Economics and Technology – TNU SUMMARY TOEFL ITP (Test of English as a Foreign Language: Institutional Testing Program) is now used as part of the test format designed by Vietnam National Foreign Language Project 2020 to test the English proficiency of Vietnamese However, they tend to poorly in the listening comprehension section of the tests of the Project, in which short conversations between two people in part A are the first challenge Besides the high speaking speed of the native speakers in the recordings, the grammatical structures that convey the meaning of each conversation seem to be one of the linguistic components affecting the students’ understanding of each conversation Realizing the students’ problem above, we have conducted an analysis of clause expansion in three selected short conversations consisting of requests and their responses in part A of the listening comprehension scripts of the book “TOEFL Preparation Kit Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1” designed and introduced by ETS, in light of Systemic Functional Grammar The results of the analysis suggest further studies on more conversations of this kind Key words: TOEFL ITP, short conversations, challenge, clause expansion, requests and their responses, Systemic Functional Grammar INTRODUCTION* Besides IELTS (International English Language Testing System), TOEFL ITP (Test of English as a Foreign Language: Institutional Testing Program) is now used as part of the test format designed by Vietnam National Foreign Language Project 2020 to test the English proficiency of Vietnamese In addition, a considerable number of international institutions still accept TOEFL ITP score for admissions to them These indicate that TOEFL ITP is still popular in Vietnam As teachers of English at Thai Nguyen University, we are experienced in instructing quite a large number of students in TOEFL ITP For many years of teaching TOEFL ITP, we have found that listening seems to be a challenge to them To explain this, we, to some extent, need to depend on Schiffrin [5.389-390]’s statement: In order for communication to proceed at all, people must share certain basic knowledge, e.g knowledge about the world, about the language to be used, and so on * She also introduced the principle of intersubjectivity which is the process of dealing with the sharing of knowledge or experience, in which shared knowledge is one product of communication She also added that intersubjectivity both allows communication and is achieved by communication [5.389-390] Our students are graduates, so they probably have the necessary experience and knowledge about the world The knowledge about the language to be used – English, however, is a challenge to them because a majority of them hasn’t been in contact with English since graduation Thus, they tend to poorly in the listening comprehension section of the tests by Vietnam National Foreign Language Project 2020, in which short conversations between two people in part A are the first challenge Besides the high speaking speed of the native speakers in the recordings, the grammatical structures that convey the meaning of each conversation seem to be one of the linguistic components affecting the students’ understanding of each conversation Realizing the students’ problem above, we have Tel: 0983 187 258, Email: vietcuongdhtn@gmail.com 45 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn Võ Việt Cường Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CƠNG NGHỆ conducted an analysis of clause expansion in the short conversations in the listening comprehension section of TOEFL ITP in light of Systemic Functional Grammar to know how it functions to display some of the main discourse features which may affect the students’ understanding of the conversations Thus, the analysis in this article is a grammarbased one, the importance of which was stressed by Halliday [2.xvi]: A discourse analysis that is not based on grammar is not an analysis at all, but simply a running commentary on a text Due to the limited time and framework of an article, we can only focus on the analysis of clause expansion in three selected short conversations consisting of requests and their responses in part A of the listening comprehension scripts of the book “TOEFL Preparation Kit Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1” designed and introduced by ETS, in light of Systemic Functional Grammar DEVELOPMENT An introduction to clause expansion in Systemic Functional Grammar Halliday [2.215-216] viewed clause complex as the grammatical unit above the clause He also introduced two types of interdependency among clauses depending on their status which are hypotaxis and parataxis Hypotaxis is the relation between a dependent clause and its dominant one on which it is dependent Parataxis is the relation between two clauses of equal status, one initiates and the other continues [2.218] Halliday [2.218] used the Greek letter notations: α β γ δ… to represent hypotactic structures and the numerical notations: 3… to represent paratactic structures in a clause complex These notations are illustrated in the examples in table (2): Basic types of clause complex in [2.220] cited in the next page of this article Besides the interdependency among clauses, Halliday [2.219-220] also introduced the logico-semantic relations among the clauses in a clause complex which are expansion and 109(09): 45 - 49 projection Projection is not the main issue of the analysis; it still contributes to the expansion of the clauses in a clause complex, however According to Halliday [2.219], expansion is the case in which the secondary clause expands the primary clause by elaborating it, extending it, or enhancing it Projection is the case in which the secondary clause is projected through the primary clause, which instates it as a locution or an idea Following is the description of each of the categories of expansion and projection created by Halliday [2]: In elaboration, one clause elaborates on the meaning of another by further specifying or describing it The secondary clause does not introduce a new clement into the picture but rather provides a further characterization of one that is already there, restating it, clarifying it, refining it, or adding a descriptive attribute or comment The thing that is elaborated may be the primary clause as a whole, or it may be just some part of it – one or more of its constituent [2.225] In extension, one clause extends the meaning of another by adding something new to it What is added may be just an addition, or a replacement, or an alternative [2.230] In enhancement, one clause enhances the meaning of another by qualifying it in one of a number of possible ways: by reference to time, place, manner, cause or condition [2.232] In projection of locution, one clause is projected through another, which presents it as a locution, a construction of wording [2.220] In projection of idea, one clause is projected through another, which presents it as an idea, a construction of meaning [2.220] In summary, according to Halliday [2.225], elaborating, extending, and enhancing in expansion can be compared with three ways of enriching a building in which we can elaborate its existing structure, extend it by addition or replacement, and enhance its environment Halliday [2.219] used (=) for elaboration, (+) for extension, and (x) for enhancement in expansion He used (“) for projection of locution and (‘) for projection of idea 46 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn Võ Việt Cường Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 109(09): 45 - 49 The examples in the following table illustrate Halliday [2]’s descriptions above: Table Basic types of clause complex [2.220] (1) Expansion (a) elaboration (b) extension (2) Projection (c) enhancement (a) locution (b) idea (i) paratactic John didn’t wait; he ran away =2 John ran away, and Fred stayed behind +2 John was scared, so he ran away x2 John said: ‘I’m running away’ “2 John thought to himself: ‘I’ll run away’ ‘2 (ii) hypotactic John ran away, α which surprised everyone =β John ran away, α whereas Fred stayed behind +β John ran away, α because he was scared xβ John said α he was running away “β John thought α he would run away ‘β An analysis of requests and their responses in the short conversations in light of Systemic Functional Grammar In this part of the article, we analyze the three conversations consisting of clause complexes in the requests and their responses cited from Cuong [6.27,29,30] selected as Nguyen and Vinh [3.182] and Quang [4.151-160]’s suggestions We use the notation “///” for clause complex boundary and the notation “//” for clause boundary in a clause complex The conjunctions inserted as Halliday [2.239]’s suggestion are in bold type The original conjunctions are highlighted in both bold and underlined type for easy distinction in the analysis We still apply the notation system introduced by Halliday [2.219] to the analysis of the clause complexes Following is the analysis of the clause complexes in the requests and their responses in the conversations: Conversation 1: (woman) ///Can you come to the concert with me this weekend,//or you have to prepare for exams?///(1) + (variation: alternative) (man) ///I still have a lot//to … //but maybe a break would me good.///(2) + (addition: adversative) xβ α (purpose) 47 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn Võ Việt Cường Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 109(09): 45 - 49 Conversation 2: (woman) ///I really want to see the play at the outdoor theater tonight.//So will you come with me?///(3) x (cause1 effect) (man) ///You know//I hate battling all those mosquitoes.//But … if you have your heart set on it ….///(4) + (addition: adversative) … α ‘β xβ Conversation 3: (man) ///Hi, I’d like to sign up for the film selection committee.//So is this the right place?///(5) x (cause-effect) (woman) ///Yes, it is!//In fact, there are a lot of fun people on that committee,//but = (clarification) +3 you’ll have to put in a lot of hours.//So I hope//your schedule isn’t too tight.///(6) (addition: adversative) x (cause-effect) α ‘β conjunction “but” in combination with other As can be seen from the analysis above, there linguistic components can cause difficulty to are six clause complexes in which the the students in understanding the responses conjunction “so” was inserted in clause mainly focused on by the listening complexes 3, 5, and the conjunction “in comprehension questions fact” was inserted in clause complex This CONCLUSION implicit use of conjunctions can be a challenge to the students because they have In this article, we have introduced the concept only one time to listen to the conversations in of clause expansion and its components in which the people speak very fast in a short Systemic Functional Grammar After time The students then have to reword the applying it to the analysis of the utterances in their minds as we in the conversations in this article, we have analysis but in a short time without taking discussed the possible effects of the displayed notes to refer backwards or forwards to find discourse features on the students’ the co-text or context as easily as we The understanding of the conversations The appearances of projection in combination analysis implies that further studies on more with expansion in clause complexes and conversations of this kind need to be also challenge the students because the conducted and their results can be tried on the structures of the clause complexes then students to improve teaching and learning become more complicated with the added these conversations information through projection of locution or REFERENCES idea This is common in every day [1] ETS (2004), TOEFL Preparation Kit conversations The conjunction “but” was Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1, Thành phố Hồ used in the three responses in the Chí Minh: Nhà xuất Trẻ conversations The speakers’ intentions are [2] Halliday, M.A.K (1994), An Introduction to different, however In clause complex 2, Functional Grammar, London: Edward Arnold “but” is used for declining, in for accepting [3] Huỳnh Thị Ái Nguyên & Nguyễn Quang Vịnh (2008), TOEFL-iBT bí thành cơng, reluctantly or declining politely, and in for Hà Nội: Nhà xuất Giáo dục giving advice The varied uses of the same 48 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn Võ Việt Cường Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ [4] Nguyễn Quang (2007), Cú điển dụng học Anh – Việt, Hà Nội: Nhà xuất Từ điển bách khoa [5] Schiffrin, D (1994), Approaches to Discourse, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing [6] Võ Việt Cường (2010), Some Discourse Features of Requests and Their Responses in Short Conversations in the Listening 109(09): 45 - 49 Comprehension Section of TOEFL Materials, Unpublished M.A Minor Thesis: Một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn yêu cầu đáp lại yêu cầu hội thoại ngắn mục nghe hiểu tài liệu luyện thi TOEFL, Tiểu luận văn thạc sĩ không xuất bản, Hà Nội: Trường đại học ngoại ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội TÓM TẮT CÁC ĐOẠN HỘI THOẠI NGẮN TRONG MỤC NGHE HIỂU CỦA TOEFL ITP DƯỚI ÁNH SÁNG CỦA NGỮ PHÁP CHỨC NĂNG HỆ THỐNG Võ Việt Cường* Trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Kỹ thuật – ĐH Thái Nguyên TOEFL ITP (Bài thi tiếng Anh ngoại ngữ: Chương trình thi nội bộ) sử dụng phần dạng thức đề thi Đề án ngoại ngữ Quốc gia Việt Nam 2020 thiết kế nhằm khảo sát lực tiếng Anh người Việt Nam Tuy nhiên, họ thường có khuynh hướng thực không tốt mục nghe hiểu thi Đề án, đoạn hội thoại ngắn hai người thách thức Bên cạnh tốc độ nói nhanh người nói xứ ghi âm cấu trúc ngữ pháp chuyển tải nghĩa đoạn hội thoại dường thành phần ngôn ngữ ảnh hưởng đến việc hiểu đoạn hội thoại học viên Nhận thức vấn đề học viên, chúng tơi tiến hành phân tích bành trướng cú ba đoạn hội thoại ngắn có yêu cầu đáp lại yêu cầu phần A ghi chữ phần nghe hiểu sách “TOEFL Preparation Kit Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1” ETS thiết kế giới thiệu, ánh sáng Ngữ pháp Chức Hệ thống Kết phân tích gợi nghiên cứu sâu rộng đoạn hội thoại loại Từ khoá: TOEFL ITP, đoạn hội thoại ngắn, thách thức, bành trướng cú, yêu cầu đáp lại yêu cầu, Ngữ pháp Chức Hệ thống Ngày nhận bài: 21/5/2013; Ngày phản biện: 17/6/2013; Ngày duyệt đăng: 02/10/2013 Phản biện khoa học: ThS Mai Văn Cẩn – Trường Đại học Sư phạm- ĐH Thái Nguyên * Tel: 0983 187 258, Email: vietcuongdhtn@gmail.com 49 Số hóa Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn ... analysis of clause expansion in the short conversations in the listening comprehension section of TOEFL ITP in light of Systemic Functional Grammar to know how it functions to display some of the main... fast in a short Systemic Functional Grammar After time The students then have to reword the applying it to the analysis of the utterances in their minds as we in the conversations in this article,... short conversations in light of Systemic Functional Grammar In this part of the article, we analyze the three conversations consisting of clause complexes in the requests and their responses cited