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.

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 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 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

*

Tel: 0983 187 258, Email: vietcuongdhtn@gmail.com

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 do 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

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

grammar-based 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: 1 2 3… to represent paratactic

structures in a clause complex These

notations are illustrated in the examples in

table 7 (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

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

The examples in the following table illustrate Halliday [2]’s descriptions above:

Table 1 Basic types of clause complex [2.220]

(i) paratactic (ii) hypotactic

(a) elaboration

John didn’t wait;

1

he ran away

= 2

John ran away,

α which surprised everyone

= β (b)

extension

John ran away,

1 and Fred stayed behind

+ 2

John ran away,

α whereas Fred stayed behind

+ β (c)

enhancement

John was scared,

1

so he ran away

x 2

John ran away,

α because he was scared

x β

n (a) locution

John said:

1

‘I’m running away’

“2

John said

α

he was running away

“β

(b) idea

John thought to himself:

1

‘I’ll run away’

‘2

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 do you have to prepare

for exams?///(1)

alternative)

(man) ///I still have a lot//to do … //but maybe a break would do me good.///(2)

1 + 2 (addition: adversative)

(purpose)

Conversation 2:

(woman) ///I really want to see the play at the outdoor theater tonight.//So will you come

with me?///(3)

(cause-effect)

(man) ///You know//I hate battling all those mosquitoes.//But … if you have your heart set on it

….///(4)

1 + 2 (addition: adversative)

Conversation 3:

(man) ///Hi, I’d like to sign up for the film selection committee.//So is this the right place?///(5)

(woman) ///Yes, it is!//In fact, there are a lot of fun people on that committee,//but

you’ll have to put in a lot of hours.//So I hope//your schedule isn’t too tight.///(6)

(addition: adversative) x 4 (cause-effect)

As can be seen from the analysis above, there

are six clause complexes in which the

conjunction “so” was inserted in clause

complexes 3, 5, 6 and the conjunction “in

fact” was inserted in clause complex 6 This

implicit use of conjunctions can be a

challenge to the students because they have

only one time to listen to the conversations in

which the people speak very fast in a short

time The students then have to reword the

utterances in their minds as we do in the

analysis but in a short time without taking

notes to refer backwards or forwards to find

the co-text or context as easily as we do The

appearances of projection in combination

with expansion in clause complexes 4 and 6

also challenge the students because the

structures of the clause complexes then

become more complicated with the added

information through projection of locution or

idea This is common in every day

conversations The conjunction “but” was

used in the three responses in the

conversations The speakers’ intentions are

different, however In clause complex 2,

“but” is used for declining, in 4 for accepting

reluctantly or declining politely, and in 5 for

giving advice The varied uses of the same

conjunction “but” in combination with other linguistic components can cause difficulty to the students in understanding the responses mainly focused on by the listening comprehension questions

CONCLUSION

In this article, we have introduced the concept

of clause expansion and its components in Systemic Functional Grammar After applying it to the analysis of the conversations in this article, we have discussed the possible effects of the displayed discourse features on the students’ understanding of the conversations The analysis implies that further studies on more conversations of this kind need to be conducted and their results can be tried on the students to improve teaching and learning these conversations

REFERENCES

[1] ETS (2004), TOEFL Preparation Kit Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1, Thành phố Hồ

Chí Minh: Nhà xuất bản Trẻ

[2] Halliday, M.A.K (1994), An Introduction to Functional Grammar, London: Edward Arnold

[3] Huỳnh Thị Ái Nguyên & Nguyễn Quang

Vịnh (2008), TOEFL-iBT bí quyết và thành công,

Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục

[4] Nguyễn Quang (2007), Cú điển dụng học Anh

– Việt, Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản 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

Comprehension Section of TOEFL Materials, Unpublished M.A Minor Thesis: Một số đặc điểm diễn ngôn của yêu cầu và đáp lại yêu cầu trong các hội thoại ngắn trong mục nghe hiểu của 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 như một ngoại ngữ: Chương trình thi nội bộ) hiện được sử dụng

như một phần của dạng thức đề thi được Đề án ngoại ngữ Quốc gia Việt Nam 2020 thiết kế nhằm

khảo sát năng lực tiếng Anh của người Việt Nam Tuy nhiên, họ thường có khuynh hướng thực

hiện không tốt mục nghe hiểu trong các bài thi của Đề án, trong đó các đoạn hội thoại ngắn giữa

hai người là thách thức đầu tiên Bên cạnh tốc độ nói nhanh của người nói bản xứ trong các bản

ghi âm thì các cấu trúc ngữ pháp chuyển tải nghĩa của mỗi đoạn hội thoại dường như là một trong

những thành phần ngôn ngữ ảnh hưởng đến việc hiểu mỗi đoạn hội thoại của học viên Nhận thức

được vấn đề trên của học viên, chúng tôi đã tiến hành một phân tích về sự bành trướng cú trong ba

đoạn hội thoại ngắn có các yêu cầu và đáp lại yêu cầu trong phần A của các bản ghi chữ phần nghe

hiểu của cuốn sách “TOEFL Preparation Kit Workbook 2002-2003, Volume 1” được ETS thiết kế

và giới thiệu, dưới ánh sáng của Ngữ pháp Chức năng Hệ thống Kết quả của phân tích gợi ra

những nghiên cứu sâu và rộng hơn về các đoạn hội thoại cùng loại

Từ khoá: TOEFL ITP, các đoạn hội thoại ngắn, thách thức, sự bành trướng cú, yêu cầu và đáp lại

yêu cầu, Ngữ pháp Chức năng 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