Abstract
According to the Year 99 Senior High School Curriculum Guidelines (Department of Secondary Education, 2011a), every English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) student in Taiwan should be equipped with the four skills of English: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, back in 2011, the two nationwide English assessments, namely, the General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT, 大學學科能力測驗) and the Department Required Test (DRT, 大學入學指定科目考試), only had multiple-choice questions for testing reading and open-ended/essay questions for testing writing. To achieve the pedagogical goals and balance the importance of the four skills, the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC) created the Test for English Listening Competence (TELC) to be used as a tool for improving the English listening ability of the EFL students in Taiwan (College Entrance Examination Center, 2010). Since the TELC is a new test in Taiwan, there is a need to conduct a study to explore the senior high school students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the test. Because when the test was first introduced to the public in 2011 one of the top five groups of test takers came from a senior high school in Hsinchu (College Entrance Examination Center, 2011), this study involves senior high school students from that school and three additional senior high schools in the city. Through student questionnaires and teacher interview, we can identify the relationship between the TELC and English instructions and the perceptions that students and teachers had towards the test. The result showed that the students who chose to take the TELC in 2011 and 2012 were those who had more confidence on their English ability and came from schools that already put emphasis on English listening. But although both the students and teachers realized the importance of English listening, in reality students did not spend much time to practice English listening compared to the time that they spent on vocabulary, reading, and grammar. The TELC test takers also viewed the test to be easier than their regular schools’ English tests and other English listening tests that are available in Taiwan. Thus, they were not sure whether the test could really test their English listening ability. Still, most students accepted that the TELC results matched their expectations. Moreover, the more confident the students were about their English language ability, the higher grade of the TELC they received. The test, however, could not give students more motivation to study English nor did it make the students felt like changing any behavior. As for the TELC policy, most students preferred the test to be kept optional. From the teachers’ interviews, many issues regarding the TELC and the teaching of English listening in general was raised. To solve the proficiency gap as well as the gaps between the stronger and weaker schools, much more than the TELC policy will have to be implemented.