Evaluation and Research in Education
Editor: Professor Keith Morrison, Inter-University Institute of Macau
Associate Editor: Professor Stephen Gorard, University of York
Statistical Adviser: Professor Colin Baker, University of Wales Bangor
Reviews Editor: Dr. Emma Smith, University of York
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Volume: 16 Number: 4 Page: 218–239
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'Ducks' and 'Parrots': Elaboration, Duplication and Duplicity in a Cartoon Discourse Completion Test
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Yeo Bom Yoon and David Kellogg
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Interviews, questionnaires and tests may fail as evaluations of pragmatic competence in a foreign language because they cannot reproduce contexts in sufficient detail and/or because they cannot constrain
discourse options without contaminating the learner response. In this study a cartoon Discourse Completion Test (DCT) prompt was used, providing a pictorial context which constrains the response but allows
the learner freedom to elaborate language. Data gathered from 505 Korean learners of English showed that picture description in the written mode provided the most elaborated language whereas written dialogue
was more lexicalised. There was a realistic 'opening up' of discourse options as the cartoon progresses, and a realistic 'narrowing down' of discourse options within each exchange, as the initiating utterance
within each frame constrained the rejoinder. But the data also revealed two less realistic ways of coping with a pragmatic task: 'ducking', in which information is ignored or reinterpreted in ways that
are easier to deal with, and 'parroting', where language in one frame of the cartoon by one speaker is recycled in another frame by another. Although these blur the effectiveness of the instrument as a
summative test, they offer interesting possibilities for formative testing and teaching.
Keywords: DISCOURSE COMPLETION TEST, FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING, SOCIOLINGUISTICS, SOCIO-PRAGMATICS
© Multilingual Matters 2002
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