Why are some high achievers on the course final exam unsuccessful on the proficiency exam in English?

Abstract

This study examined why some high achievers on the course nal exam were unsuccessful on the prociency exam in English. We hypothesized that the learning motives and learning behaviors (learning strategy, learning time) had di唖 erent e唖 ects on the outcomes of the exams. First, the relation between the variables was investigated using structural equation modeling. Second, the learning behaviors of students who got good marks on both exams were compared with students who did well only on the course nal exam. The results were as follows. The students who got good marks on both exams performed the learning behaviors that were useful on the prociency exam more frequently than the students who did well only on the course nal exam.

Why are There Differences between Student Performance on Term Tests and External Achievement Tests? (Course name: What does a test measure?)

“…The same seems to apply to differences in test scores and performance between term and external tests. Matsunuma 2) stated that some students receive relatively high scores on term tests but low scores on external tests in the subject of English because English passages on term tests are usually the same as those in the textbook, and students are likely to obtain high scores even when they do not understand the essence of the English language. Saito 1) further stated that similar phenomena can be observed in other subjects such as math and Japanese.…”

“…Another concept that seems related is adaptation to the test, in which learners change their studying and testtaking actions 4) and teachers change their teaching behaviors based on their perceptions and beliefs about test purposes or patterns [5][6][7][8] . Differences between term and external test scores are also affected by students' (a) learning strategies, (b) motivation for learning, and (c) test belief (i.e., the beliefs a test taker has about a test) 1,9) , all of which change students' learning and test-taking behaviors 2,10) . The following review will cover the three student factors (a) to (c) because of their particular importance and relevance to term tests 1) .…”

“…Learning strategies have been shown to affect differences between term and external test scores 2) . Matsunuma 2) examined why some students who achieve high scores on English term tests score low on external English tests and reported that learning strategies and learning time had different effects on the two types of tests.…”

“…Orthodox learning and fake study seem to invoke different types of learning processing: deep processing and surface processing 2,10) . Deep processing involves aiming to understand content and involves considering the relations and connections among the content as well as knowledge that they have already learned 10) .…”

“…Saito suggested the importance of considering learning motivation and test belief as well as learning strategies to understand students' test performance, calling for empirical studies 1) . Motivation for learning can be classified in various ways 1,2,11) . Asano 11) divided learning motivation into five orientations: orientation related to human interactions, self-improvement orientation, orientation related to occupation or specialty, task orientation related to experience, and special task orientation.…”