This study investigates the technological university freshmen’s performance in the GEPT picture description listening comprehension test. A total of 150 non-English-majored freshmen from a technological university in southern Taiwan participated in the study. The test was sourced from the elementary level GEPT practice tests by the Language Training & Testing Center.
The participants first completed a picture description listening test in a formal setting. In the post-test oral interviews, the participants, examining every single question, were guided to recollect their test-taking strategies and the reasons for selecting the incorrect answers on the foundation of their written responses in the answer sheets. Based on the analysis of the test results and the interviews, the participants’ overall performance was diagnosed as listening microskills insufficient. Additionally, all the factors that hindered the participants’ listening proficiency are linguistic factors (Vocabulary knowledge, Tenses / Aspects, etc.) except for the non-linguistic one - picture interpretation. Confronting the current trend of EFL listening strategies that has tended to overemphasize
macroskill techniques (Wilson, 1998 ; Field, 2003), the study prompts the attention to the microskll training needs of the technological university freshmen.
Furthermore, the main factors emerged from the participants’ listening difficulties
are contributed in the hope of being a reference of the future strategy design and
development. 本研究旨在探討科技大學一年級學生在全民英檢圖片題聽力測驗的表現。參與者為一百五十位南台灣某所科技大學非外語系一年級學生，試題來源為財團法人語言訓練測驗中心官方版聽力練習測驗。學生首先按正式流程完成測試，在測後訪談中，於相同之受測條件根據原始答案逐題回應答題策略及選擇錯誤選項之原因。綜合成績分析及學生訪談結果，本研究發現學生的整體表現突顯其聽力微觀技巧能力之不足。同時，在妨礙學生英語聽力之主要因素中，除「圖片詮釋」為非語言因素外，其他皆隸屬語言因素(字彙、時態等)。面對目前聽力策略潮流傾向過度著力宏觀技巧之景況，本文就分析結果建議正視科技大學一年級學生微觀技巧之學習需求。此外，盼藉此聽力障礙因素之解析提供未來聽力策略設計與發展之參考。
