Relationships between Comprehension, Strategic Behaviours and Content-Related Aspects of Test Performances in Integrated Speaking Tasks

The use of integrated tasks to test English-speaking skills raises questions about the impact of comprehension on test score outcomes, and the impact of stimulus materials on test-taker strategic behaviours. This study analysed speaking performances and verbal report data to examine the strategies used by test takers at different levels of proficiency to relate stimulus text information in response to a TOEFL-iBT reading-listening-speaking task. One-hundred twenty speaking performances were analysed to identify how ideas from reading and listening source texts were reproduced, summarised and/or synthesised. Verbal reports from 38 test takers were also collected. Findings showed that test takers, regardless of proficiency, reproduced more single ideas from stimulus texts than summarised or synthesised information, although high proficiency test-takers summarised information more than low proficiency test takers. Verbal report data further revealed that high proficiency test-takers engage in effective summarisation and synthesising as part of note-taking while reading and listening, suggesting these are aspects of integrated speaking task constructs and supporting the relevance of integrated tasks for assessing entry to tertiary educational domains.