Investigating a Hungarian Language Learning Aptitude Test with ...

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Extract 4It is not convenient if I am saying what I am thinking. My time is runningout if I am thinking aloud.In all the items András had time to attend to he translated the sentences by extrapolatingthe necessary linguistic patterns and forms from the sample sentencesand words, and sometimes from the previous items:Extract 5The dog chased the cat. (item 2) Which is the expression of kau meud biwhere kau is the dog, and here we are not talking about chasing butwatching, which is so, so that’s why I think the answer to question two iskau meud so.In Extract 5, as this was in the beginning and he was still not comfortable withthinking aloud, András had already found the response by the time I asked him toreport on his thoughts. In items 2 and 3 he ignored the fact that the sentences werein the past tense. In item 4 he realised that the only difference between this and theprevious sentence was the tense. Although he extrapolated how to form the pasttense successfully, and realized that he had done something incorrectly in the previousitems, he did not go back and correct his former responses accordingly, buthe said: “I might have screwed the whole thing?” However, subsequently he managedto indicate the past and the present tense appropriately.One of the grammar rules of this artificial language the test-takers are supposedto extrapolate from the sample sentences is that when both the subject andthe object, which stand directly next to each other in sentences, are pronouns, theseparate words merge into one word, and the last letter of the objective pronoun isomitted. When András first came across this unique grammatical structure in item5 he sounded surprised: “Oh, my god.” Nevertheless, he managed to find the correctanswer because after applying the linguistic patterns and formulas he hadpreviously deduced, only one possible answer was left, but he was still not sure ofhimself:Extract 6I am checking the expressions on the above list. (8 sec) You is xa, us is pa,watch is so (.) Xa (.) Pa (.) Xa (.) Xa (.) Pso. I think so. I don’t know. (...)No. It just doesn’t add up. But I have no other idea.Subsequently, when this formula was necessary to call for (items 7, 8 and 9), heused it appropriately without hesitation, even when a distracter was similar to thecorrect one, but ignored the rule of the omission of the objective pronouns’ lastletter (item 11) among the four alternatives. In item 10 a new grammatical structure,the negative appeared. At first he was taken aback (“By golly!”), but afterstudying the sample sentences for a while he could extrapolate and apply the rulein this and the following sentences. Within the allocated 15 minutes András couldattend to twelve out of 20 items, out of which he managed to solve 10 correctly.262 UPRT 2007: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics
Kata had no difficulty with the sample item provided before the task itself. Shepaid close attention to the instructions on the CD player, and did not seem lost atall in the beginning. Without any hesitation she started off by reading and studyingthe sample sentences thoroughly for a while. As the following extract recordedwhile Kata was studying the sample sentences and words shows, she tried to findand extrapolate the linguistic patterns even before she began solving the items:Extract 7Well, then there is kau, meu, kau meu bo, kau meud bi, so, ciu, pa, xa, pasaumeud bo, (..) Pa meud bo, paxbo (.) Pa meud bor. Once again to see what iswhat. (.) I don’t know what is so ciu. Pa xa pasau meud bo pa meud pa (..)Our dog chases the cat. How did this come here? Kau became pasau? (.)We chase the cat. (..) Pa meud bo we chase, we paxbo (.) Meud bor We don’tchase. Well, let’s see.Consequently, in the first four and the sixth items, which were similar to the sampleitem and contained only the problem of the past tense that she could quicklyattend to, Kata’s information processing was so fast she did not have time to thinkaloud. She only said the responses out loud. In items 5, 7, 9-12, 17 and 19 shequickly extrapolated the necessary linguistic patterns and formulas from the samplesentences, or used the ones she had already deduced during the previousitems:Extract 8You don’t watch the cat (item 10). How was the negative? (.) Oh, I see,there is only an i at the end. Right. Then you is xa (..) Watch is in the present,so it is (..) and meud, because we need an accusative, so this is B.As she also stated after completing Language analysis (“Who does it? When doeshe do it? Is it in the negative? And you can exclude a whole lot of alternatives, andyou can decide much faster what it starts with, and in this way, half, or almost halfof the cases drop out”), when she came across linguistic structures she had previouslyused a few times or proved easy (items 8, 13, 14, 18 and 20), she appliedthose first to exclude as many alternatives as possible, and then she could come upwith the response more quickly:Extract 9We didn’t chase you. (item 14) Then it starts with pa, didn’t chase so it is birbecause it is in the past, then B.When she faced a complicated rule, such as the possessive case in item 16, she alsoapplied extrapolation and exclusion simultaneously:Hild, G. Investigating a Hungarian language learning aptitude test with think-aloud protocol 263
Page 3 and 4: test-takers can study a list of 24
Page 5 and 6: (Mackey & Gass, 2005). Consequently
Page 10 and 11: Extract 10Your cat chases the mouse
Page 12 and 13: demanding situations, thinking alou
Page 14: Appendix A1. Életkora?2. Legmagasa

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