The Effect of Note-Taking Strategy Training on Passage Listening Comprehension

This study aims at exploring the effects of note-taking strategy on passage listening performance of college students and its implications for listening teaching. For this purpose, the author carried out a study for 15 weeks in Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities. The subjects are divided into experimental class and control class. The teaching method used in the experimental class focuses on incorporating the note-taking strategy training into listening courses and the teaching method used in the control class follows the normal one without the training process of note-taking strategy. The instruments include the pre-test, the post-test, pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire, and the data collected from the study are analyzed through SPSS17.0. The major findings show note-taking strategy has a positive effect on college students’ passage listening comprehension. After a period of note-taking training, students’ comprehensive competence in listening has improved to some extent. 2) Taking notes as much as possible is not an efficient way to get high-quality notes. The number of questions answerable from the notes is proved closely correlated with achievement of listening comprehension. The other three indices of the total number of notes, the content words notes and the notations have no significance with subjects’ quality of answer.


Introduction
Among the many learning strategies, note-taking strategy is often neglected. Listening note-taking strategy is a basic skill that English learners should master. It is also an indispensable auxiliary means in TEM 8, IELTS, TOEFL and other important examinations. Students' listening note-taking ability is supposed to improve under the direction of the teacher. However, teacher nowadays neglect the cultivation of students' note-taking ability. Although some teachers require students to take notes while listening, they do not tell students what to take and how to take. As a result, students just aimlessly record non-key information, which will not only increase the listening burden and hinder listening comprehension, but also affect the effect of listening training.
This study aims at exploring whether the college students' competence of short passage listening comprehension can be improved through the training of note-taking strategy. It tries to answer two questions: develops five-index assessment for the content of notes: 1) the total number of words and notations; 2) the number of information units; 3) the number of test questions answerable from the notes. 4) the completeness of the notes and 5) the efficiency of the notes. In a technical report of the ESL center at University of Hawaii, Chaudron (1988) further summaries the measurement of the content of notes as shown below:  : Chaudron, 1988. Table 1 provides us a full scale of measurement and reflects the features in both quantity and quality of the content of notes. In Chaudron and his fellows' study, the results present that numbers, diagram, notations and content words are proved significant correlation with recalling performance.
The author in this research decides to use Chaudron's (1988) and Liu (2001) views and some previous studies for reference. Dunkel (1985) studied the performance of note-taking behavior of second language learners in listening comprehension test. The subjects were allowed to take notes, but were not allowed to see the contents of notes before and during the test. This study did not find a positive effect of learners' note-taking behavior, but subjects' English proficiency had a positive effect on listening comprehension and test results. In addition, Dunkel found that learners who were good at short-term memory did better on listening tests.

Previous Studies on Note-Taking
Carrel, Dunkel and Mollaun (2002) conducted a study to examine the effects on ESL listening comprehension of note-taking (allowed or disallowed) in relation to lecture length and topic. Two hundred and thirty-four ESL students took tests of listening comprehension. The results revealed in 1) interaction between note-taking and topic: on arts topics listeners performed least well when no note-taking was allowed, better when note-taking was allowed, and about the same on physical science topics whether note-taking was allowed or disallowed. 2) interaction between note-taking and lecture length: on short lectures listeners performed better when note-taking was allowed, less well when note-taking was not allowed, and about the same on longer lectures whether note-taking was allowed or not. Carrier's (2003) study tested the hypothesis that targeted listening strategy instruction in the ESL classroom results in improved listening comprehension that can be useful in English language learners' academic content classes. After receiving 15 listening strategy training sessions, participants showed a statistically significant improvement in discrete and video listening ability, as well as note-taking ability. This study suggests that targeted listening strategy instruction should be part of the ESL curriculum. Chaudron, Cook and Loschky (1988) studied the influence of external storage function of notes on second language learners. Different from Dunkel's (1985) experiment, subjects were allowed to take notes and could view or not view notes in the test. The results showed that whether or not they looked at their notes did not affect their performance.
It is worth mentioning that most of the studies abroad focus on native English learners, and few on non-native English learners. Even so, the research conclusions of foreign scholars are quite different: some studies show that note-taking strategies have a negative effect on listening comprehension; some studies show that note-taking strategies have a positive effect on listening comprehension, and some studies show that note-taking strategies have no effect on listening comprehension. It can be seen that foreign scholars have not reached a unified conclusion on the impact of note-taking strategies.
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All these can ensure the reliability and validity of the research results.

Research Instruments
The main experimental tools used in this experiment are the listening test paper (including pre-test paper and post-test paper), the questionnaires and as well as SPSS 17.0.
The listening comprehension test papers consist of a pre-test and a post-test to be finished during class times. The items are all selected from Section B (short passages) of Part Three (listening comprehension) in CET-4 papers that have been tested from 2012 to 2016 so that the difficulties of the listening materials are at the same level. In addition, the reliability and validity of the CET-4 tests are relatively high. Both the pre-test paper and the post-test paper consist of three short passages, with totally ten items and a score each item. Although the short passages require no prior knowledge in any subject-matter area, they are nevertheless classified according to whether the topic related to: a) personal biographies or stories, b) humanities and customs, or c) a subject of general interests. One passage of each type is used in pre-test and one of each type is used in post-test. The items are all presented in the form of multiple choices and they are arranged at the left side of the test paper, with the right side left blank for the use of taking notes. At the beginning of the study, the students in EC and CC are required to take the pre-test paper on March 1st, 2017 and neither of the two classes are urged to take notes during listening progress, that is to say, they can take notes or they may not as they wish. Then after twelve weeks, the students in these two classes take the post-test on July 1st, 2017, and this time, the students in EC are urged to take notes using the methods they have learned while the students in CC still don't receive any urged requirement. At the same time, all the students in the two classes are assigned to do some exercises or quizzes during class times to test whether they have certain improvement. The students in EC are requested to use the methods of note-taking learned in the class while the students in CC don't receive this kind of note-taking training and don't have urged requirement in the process of listening.
Two questionnaires are administered in the present empirical study. Both of them are modeled closely on Hale and Courtney's (1994) and Carrell, Dunkel and Mollaun's (2002). Furthermore, the students are requested to write down their names on the questionnaire paper. The first questionnaire is presented immediately after the pre-test of listening comprehension and is finished by both EC students and CC students. It probes the students' perceptions about their note-taking experiences and habits in their daily study life and the present testing situation. This part of questionnaire is in the form of multiple choices. The second questionnaire is handed out to the students immediately after the post-test and is finished only by the EC students, with the purpose of probing their perceptions about the present testing situation and their attitude towards the two-month training of taking notes. The questionnaire is designed according to the three-point-Likert-scale. The students are given three options: 1 = agree; 2 = disagree; 3 = no feelings either way. The statistics are collected and analyzed to be conducted on the results. The two questionnaires are both written in Chinese.

Research Procedures
The experiment was conducted from Mar. 1st, to July 1st, 2017 and lasted for twelve weeks with two listening sessions every week. Each session is 45 minutes. The methods used in CC followed the routine one without the training process in note-taking strategy. The teacher method used in EC focuses on incorporating note-taking strategy training into listening courses. All the subjects are never told that they are involved into the present study during the whole process of the research for the purpose of ensuring that the subjects' performance will not be influenced.

Pre-Test
All the subjects in both EC and CC are required to take a listening comprehension test at the first listening class of this semester. It aims to check the students' original listening proficiency before the experiment. The pre-test involves three short passages excerpted from CET-4 tested over the past several years. In order to guarantee the quality of test, the teacher should tell the students before the test that their achievements of the test belong to their class performance and would be account for certain proportion of their final examination scores. All the test papers are collected to be marked and all the notes taken by the students are analyzed in detail by the English teacher according to the indices measuring the content of notes.

Pre-Questionnaire
Pre-questionnaire is in the form of multiple choices and aims to probe the students' perceptions about their ijel.ccsenet.org International Journal of English Linguistics Vol. 10, No. 6; 2020 note-taking experiences and their habits of using note-taking strategy in their daily study life and in the present testing situation. This part of questionnaires is in the form of multiple choices and written in Chinese in order that the students comprehend each item correctly. All the students are required to answer the questionnaires in class and are supervised by their teacher so that students have more cooperative and serious attitude towards the questionnaires. The students are requested to fill out the questions truthfully and to sign their names at the designated spot of the paper. Fifty-one questionnaires are distributed to students in EC and forty-eight to the students in CC. Finally, all the questionnaires are handed in.

Training Model
Some prominent researchers have put forward certain kinds of models of strategy training. One prominent model is developed by Pearson and Dole (1987) in relation to the study of first language but still applicable to foreign language learning as well. This model aims to research isolated strategies including explicit modeling and explanation of the benefits of a specific strategy, extensive functional practice with the strategy, and an opportunity to transfer the strategy to new learning context. In this research, the author adopts Pearson and Dole's model to train the EC students' note-taking strategy in short passage listening comprehension with the reason that this approach is appropriate for single strategy training.
The following steps introduce how this training model functions in note-taking strategy.

1) Introduction to note-taking strategy through examples
2) Definition and explanation.
3) Guided practice with note-taking strategy ① To take notes systematically ② To take notes selectively ③ To be good at using identifiable notations, such as abbreviation, symbols, Chinese characters or even stick figures ④ Not to depend heavily on the notes 4) Self-regulation with note-taking strategy

Post-Test
At the end of the research, a post-test is given to the students both in EC and CC to testify that how much their competences of short passage listening comprehension have been improved from note-taking training and normal practice respectively. The three short passages in the post-test are also excerpted from CET-4 with different passages from the pre-test, and all the items as well as the instructions are arranged in the same way as is used in the pre-test. The only difference in the requirement is that the students in EC are requested to take notes and use the techniques of note-taking they have learnt while in CC there is no specific demand. When the listening comprehension is over, all the test papers are collected to be marked and all the notes taken by the students are analyzed in detail by the English teacher according to the indices measuring the content of notes.

Data Collection
The data collected in this experiment come from the pre-test and post-test paper as well as two questionnaires.
After the data collection, the effective data from the pre-test and post-test are typed into the computer and analyzed through SPSS 17.0 for analysis. The Independent Samples T-test, the Paired Samples T-test and Stepwise Regression Technique are used as the statistical methods in the data analysis. Two kinds of comparisons are made. The Independent Samples T-test is used to compare the results of the pre-test and the post-test between EC and CC respectively to see whether there are significant differences in the data. The Paired Samples T-test is adopted to test the other comparisons of the results between the pre-test and post-test in EC and that of in CC respectively to examine whether there are some significant differences in the data. The result of content of the notes is analyzed by the Stepwise Regression Technique to decide which independent variable is closely correlated with the students' performance of listening comprehension test.

Independent Sample T-Test
The following results are about the independent sample t-test of pre-test between EC and CC.  As is shown from Table 2, the mean score of EC is 5.67 while that of CC is 5.65. The difference of mean score between the two classes is little and of not significance. The standard deviation of EC and CC are similar. This means listening competence of the two classes is almost equal. The significant difference (sig.) is 0.953 (> 0.05) and the Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.947, both of which are more than 0.05, and the two variables' 95% confidence interval of the difference is from -0.605 to 0.646, with zero between them. All These data mean there is no great difference between EC and CC.  Table 4 shows the mean score with question answerable notes of experimental class is only 1.2353 while that of control class is only 1.2292, both being very low and almost having no difference with each other. Table 5 shows the significant difference (sig.) is 0.611 (> 0.05), and the Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.974, both are more than 0.05, and the 95% confidence interval of the difference is from -0.37329 to 0.38613, with zero between them. All these data mean there is no great difference between experimental class and control class with the use of note-taking strategy. Therefore, it can be concluded that the subjects' application to note-taking strategy in the two classes are both in the same level and not very well.
The following results are about the independent samples of post-test between experimental class and control class.  It can be seen from Table 6 that the mean score of experimental class is 8.1373 which is almost 2 points higher than that of control class (6.4792). Besides, the standard deviation of experimental class is 1.20033 and control class is 1.51573, which means that the gaps among the students in experimental class are much smaller than those in control class. It can be seen from Table 7 that the significant difference (sig.) of Levene's Test for Equality of Variances is 0.052 (> 0.05) but the Sig.
(2-tailed) shows 0.000 (< 0.05), besides the two variables' 95% confidence interval of the difference is between -2.84941 and -2.09177, with no zero between them. These three groups of data mean that there is a significant difference between experimental class and control class in the abilities of listening comprehension. In other words, the statistical data in the two tables indicate the students in experimental class improve much more than the students in control class. As is shown in Table 8, the mean score in experimental class for post-test (8.1373) is almost 2.5 points higher than the mean score for pre-test (5.6667). In the meantime, the standard deviation is decreased by 0.38 (pretest: 1.58325; posttest: 1.2033), which means that more students' scores are close to the man score, indicating their gaps are getting smaller. The paired samples t-test is conducted in order to check whether there is significant difference between pre-test and post-test. As is seen from Table 9, the correlation between score of pre-test and post-test is 0.561 and the significant difference (sig.) is 0.000 (< 0.05), it is proper to go to the paired sample t-test.  As is shown from Table 10, the two variables' (pre-test scores and post-test scores for experimental class) 95% confidence interval of the difference is between -2.84941 and -2.0917, with no zero between them, which indicates there is a significant difference between them. Besides, the Sig (2-tailed) is 0.000, far less than 0.05. Tables 8,9 and 10 show that the difference of experimental class's subjects performances in pre-test and post-test are significant. They performed much better in post-test than in pre-test. As is seen from Table 11, the mean score of the students in post-test is 8.1373 while the mean score according to answerable notes is 6.4706. This group of data shows that the correct item numbers according to the notes accounts for a large proportion in the total number of correct items, in other words, the note-taking strategy plays an important role in the process of listening comprehension.  Table 12 shows the subjects' mean score in control class for post-test is 6.4792 while the mean score for pre-test is 5.6458, only 0.8 points increase, which means that the students' performance in post-test is a little better than in pre-test. Table 13 shows the significant difference is 0.000 (< 0.05), which indicates the significant difference exists between the two test results.  Vol. 10, No. 6; of the difference is between -1.25405 and -0.41262, with no zero between them, which indicates that there is a significant between them. In addition, the Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.000, far less than 0.05.

Paired Sample T-Test
Tables 12, 13 and 14 show that the difference between the control class subjects' performances in pre-test and post-test is significant. They perform a little better in post-test than in pre-test but the improvement is not as obvious as the students in experimental class.

Data from Pre-Questionnaire
The following table is concerned with the frequency and percentage of the students' different background of note-taking instruction and habits. The first four questions indicate the note-taking strategy situation in English class and in Chinese class. In English class, six students received note-taking training in experimental class. Among them, three students received less than one-hour training, four students one to three hours training and only one student more than five hours. The situation is similar in control class. Altogether five students received training. Among them, three students received training for less than one hour, one student one to three hours and one student three to five hours. In Chinese class, the situation is much better for both experimental class and control class, for more than two thirds of students have received note-taking training. Training hours are more than three hours.
Questions five and six suggest that quantities of notes students take in English class and Chinese class are almost same. About half of students (40% in experimental class and 44.9% in control class) take down some notes in English class, about another half (48% in experimental class and 42.9% in control class) choose "few" or "a lot", while the rest about 12% students don't take notes in English class at all. The use of note-taking in Chinese class is much wider, nearly half choosing "a lot" (48% in experimental class and 49% in control class. Question eight and nine indicate the quantities of notes the students take on their daily English listening comprehension tests and on the test today. As is seen from the table, most of them choose "few" (48% in experimental class and 43% in control class), following with the percentages who choose "none" and "some, and very few students choose "a lot" (8% in experimental class and 6.1% in control class).
Question seven and ten are the use of language when taking notes. More than half of the students (52% in experimental class and 55.1% in control class) can use both English and Chinese to write down notes and some use only English in English class. Most students can use English to take notes, a few less students can use both English and Chinese and very few use only Chinese in today's test.
The eight statements are about the general aspects of note-taking effect on students and the statements from nine to fifteen are about the specific aspects.
More than half of the students reaped benefits from the training of note-taking strategy, as is seen from the Table  16. 62% think that taking notes helps them answer the questions better; 74% students felt more at ease when they could take notes than when they could not; 72% students felt taking notes helps them listen carefully to the passage. 60% students felt that taking notes helps them remember the information more easily. 40% students agree taking notes helps them understand the passage, 20% students didn't agree with that and another 40% students didn't have any strong feelings either way, which indicates the significance of note-taking strategy in understanding the whole passage is not obvious. 46% didn't agree taking-notes make them more difficult to understand the passage and 24% students agreed with that. 70% students didn't believe taking notes made the answering more difficult and 64% disagreed taking notes distracted their attention.
Most students didn't agree the statements that taking notes has little help in listening process or finding the correct answers. 64% students didn't think they want more time to review their notes before answering the questions, while only 6% students think so, which indicates most of them can use their notes immediately when they want to use without any time wasting. More than half (56%) students didn't agree they find it difficult to listen to the test questions and at the same time to look for specific information in their notes; only 16% students agree with that. 74% students opposed the idea that passage were too short and too easy for taking notes to help ijel.ccsenet.org International Journal of English Linguistics Vol. 10, No. 6; them very much; only 6% students thought so. 36% disagreed that the speed was too fast to takes notes, 48% students agreed with that and another 16% didn't have strong feeling either way. From the finding of statements 10, 11, 14, we know most students agree that they could use the strategy much better. 70% students felt they could use the notes when answering the questions; 64% felt they could find the answers from the notes they had taken. 40% students agreed that they have enough time to take notes.

Results of the Contents of Notes
A stepwise regression analysis is used to identify which of the four indices, including the number of content words, the number of notations, the number of questions answerable from the notes and the total number of all the notes collected from every experimental class student's post-test notes has the most important effect on the students' performance of listening comprehension test. The following table shows the descriptive statistics on all the variables in the analysis. The extensiveness of the notes ranged from 12.00 to a maximum of 36.00 in the experimental students' post-test and the mean number of notes is approximately 27.80 for every student who took notes. The mean number of content words is nearly 13.51, which is similar to the mean number of notations (14.29). The range for content words is from 5.00 to 19.00 and that for the index of notations is from 7.00 to 19.00. The number of questions answerable from the notes ranges from 4.00 to 9.00, with the mean score of 6.45. The mean of total score is 8.13 with the maximum score of 10.00 and the minimum of 5.00.
The following table presents the Pearson correlations of the four indices with the subjects' listening comprehension achievement.  (2-tailed); *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
The Pearson Correlation of questions answerable from the notes is 0.702 and Significant Difference is 0.000 (< 0.01), which indicate that the index of questions answerable from the notes correlates significantly with the students' listening comprehension performance. But the index of the total content words (r = 0.022, p = 0.880 > 0.05), notations (r = 0.043, p = 0.767 > 0.05), and total number of notes (r = 0.039, p = 0.786 > 0.05) don't correlate significantly with the students' listening comprehension performance. Therefore, only the index-the number of questions answerable from the notes-enters the simple regression equation except the other three. It can be seen from the Table 19 that correlation between the two variables is 0.702, which means that the number of questions answerable from the notes is closely correlated to the subjects' performance in post-test. The determination coefficient is 0.493, which shows that there is a significant correlation between the total score and the number of questions answerable from the notes and it also means that nearly half of the test performance results could be predicted by the variable of the number of questions answerable from the notes. As is shown from Table 20, the T value is 6.908, far more than 2, which means that the number of questions answerable from the notes is a useful predictor for the total score.  The partial correlations are much small, too. All the data indicate that there is no co linearity relationship between the three indices and the total score in post-test. In other words, the three variables are not the predictive variables to the test performance.
Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn there is no significant relationship between quantity of the notes and the quality of the answer, and only the number of questions answerable from the notes is a predictor for students' good performance in the listening comprehension test.

Discussion
The conclusion can be drawn from the data that note-taking strategy has a positive effect in college students' short passage listening comprehension after a session of training.
The results of two independent samples t-test of pre-test proves that the listening proficiencies between the two classes are almost at the same level before the experiment, and students' application to note-taking strategy in the two classes are both in the same level. The results of Independent Samples T-test for post-test shows compared with the pre-test, both of the two classes' students' listening abilities have been improved, but the students in experimental class have improved much more than those in control class. The data in Paired Samples T-test of control class for pre-test and post-test shows they performed a little better in post-test than in pre-test but the improvement is not as obvious as the experimental class's students. Checking the test papers, the teacher discovers that the students in control class still seldom take notes as they have done in pre-test, which indicates their improvement has nothing to do with note-taking but because of traditional listening training. The data in Paired Sample t-test of experimental class for pre-test and post-test proves indicate the students in experimental class have improved a lot in post-test than in pre-test.
The data analysis from pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire strengthens this conclusion.
From pre-questionnaire, it can be concluded that the general note-taking habits and experiences for both experimental class and control class students are quite similar before the experiment. The students have received much more instructions about how to take notes in Chinese class than in English class and in English listening comprehension they usually record no or very few notes, which also means they have the plasticity in English note-taking. They use both English and Chinese in note-taking in listening class but often give priority to English in listening comprehension test. Therefore, students in experimental class should be given intense note-taking training in order to find out whether note-taking strategy has a positive effect on college students' short passage listening comprehension.
From the post-questionnaire, it can be concluded that most of the students who have received the note-taking strategy training agree the strategy is very helpful for their short passage listening comprehension and their application to the strategy have also been improved, which is shown from statements 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14. This result is consistent with the result of note-taking from pre and post-tests. From statements 2 and 7, it can be seen that the effect of note-taking strategy on the comprehension of the whole passage is not very obvious, which indicates they only noted down the specific details rather than paying attention to the general ideas about the passage. From statements 11 and 15, we know 37% students feel they don't have enough time to take notes while listening. They think the speech speed is too fast. Probably we could find the explanations for it after analysis of the content of the notes.
From the research of the content of the notes, it can be seen the index of content words is not significantly correlated with the students' listening comprehension performance and the index of the number of questions answerable from the notes is significantly correlated with the students' total scores in the test. Therefore, for the students who feel speech speed is too fast, they maybe need practice in detecting and recording the information-carrying words while ignoring structure words and other syntactic elements which do not add the information but only to increase the total number of the notes. It can be found from the questionnaire some students are in favor of writing down the full spelled content words rather than notations, which is not right. Although the notations are not significantly correlated with the listening performance, it is a very useful tactic to speed up writing down notes.

Findings
The major findings of the study can be summed up as follows: Firstly, the results of data analysis indicate note-taking has a positive effect on students' listening performance and on listening comprehension test. This can also be explained in the aspect of memory mechanism and listening process. Di Vesta and Gray (1972) propose that note-taking has two functions: encoding function and external storage function. The former suggests taking notes facilitates information processing, while the latter suggests the review of notes stored in written form facilitates performance. The study also proved note-taking strategy training is helpful to short passage listening comprehension. The results in experimental class demonstrates the significance and necessity of note-taking strategy training in English listening teaching class and the students show higher enthusiasm in learning than those in control class who are taught in routine approach. The teacher's systematical introduction and reinforcement of note-taking strategy improved the experimental students' performance in listening a lot. The results from questionnaires show that students of experimental class hold positive attitude towards the two-month training of note-taking strategy. Although there are some distraction effects as a result of note-taking, this distraction can be overcome by practicing, by listening and talk notes simultaneously with sufficient listening and note-taking practice.
Secondly, taking notes as much as possible is not an efficient way to get high quality of notes. The number of questions answerable from the notes is proved closely correlated with the achievement of listening comprehension. The other three indices of the total number of notes, the content words notes and the notations have no significant correlation with subjects' quality of answers.
It can be concluded from all the above analysis, that the effective note-takers are those who compact large amounts of complicated monologue into useful information units and who transform content words (e.g., names, dates, statistics) to understandable abbreviations, symbols and so on.

Implications
The results of the study have positive implication not only in English listening comprehension teaching and learning but also in the whole process of foreign language teaching and learning.
It is imperative that the teachers should abandon the unreasonable aspects in the traditional method and pay more attention to the process of listening and choose appropriate practices which are suitable for note-taking strategy and for students' present ability so that students get used to taking notes to increase their ability of listening rather than simply add comprehensive input on them.
Although note-taking instruction is very helpful not only in the listening comprehension test but also in the academic learning in courses and interpreting work, some students still haven't had any note-taking instruction in their listening class. Therefore, it is urgent that note-taking should be considered as an important part in listening classes.

Limitations
Although the study has received many useful findings, still it has some defectives that should be improved.
Firstly, the study has focused on the note-taking strategy without regarding to other strategies.
Secondly, some variables such as different personalities, interests, learning styles and learning backgrounds of the subjects might affect the results of the study but without control of them.
Thirdly, because of the limitation of time and restriction of conditions, the scale of this empirical study is comparatively small to some degree.

Suggestions
We recommend that the following research be conducted to further pursue the findings of the study.
Firstly, all the subjects are from Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities. They might not be globally representative for all the Chinese EFL learners. Therefore, it's better to choose a great number of subjects at various levels in different universities by random sampling.
Secondly, in the further studies, incorporation of the well-defined variable of proficiency level into the design would introduce more accurate results.
Lastly, the relationship between the high quality-notes and the test performance should be explored more deeply. Indices in the present study have not been defined in a very systematic way. Thus, a more detailed classification of the indices measuring the content of notes is desirable. And the contributions of the indices of content word notes, notations and the total number of notes to achievement on listening comprehension are not measured directly in the study. Therefore, continued investigation of the content of students' notes may uncover additional indices of note-taking quality that more accurately reflect the performance of the note takers.

Supporting Agencies
This is the achievement of scientist research projects "Practical Research on English Listening Teaching Model of MOOC + SPOC + Flipped Classroom (YB20200034)", "Study on the Ways of Cultivating English Key Competencies of College Minority students (NGJGH2019080)" "Study on foreign language learning motivation and Teaching optimization of Mongolian teaching students in ethnic areas(2020JDMY09)" "The fourth (JGH2017088), fifth (JGH2018070), sixth (JGH2019054) and seventh (JGH2019012) blended teaching reform of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities", "Analysis of English Majors' Pragmatic Failure and Countermeasures from the Perspective of Intercultural Communication (NMDYB19007)".
10) In what language did you take notes on the test today?
A. English B. Chinese C. Both

Post-questionnaire
Dear students, Thank you for taking the time to read and complete the questionnaire. This questionnaire adopts the form of 3 subscales. Please select the intention consistent with your own situation from the three dimensions of "agree", "disagree" and "feel nothing" and draw "√" in the corresponding box. Please write down your name and class before answering the questionnaire. Thank you very much for your cooperation! Name: ___________ Class: ______________ Agree disagree No strong feeling Statement 1 Taking notes helps me answer questions better. Statement 2 Taking notes makes it more difficult for me to understand the passage. Statement 3 Allowing me to take notes makes me feel more ease to answer the questions.

Statement 4
Taking notes makes it harder for me to answer questions. Statement 5 Taking notes helps me listen more carefully.

Statement 6
Taking notes tends to distract me from the passage. Statement 7 Taking notes helps me understand the article better. Statement 8 Taking notes helps me remember the information more easily. Statement 9 I need more time to review my notes before I answer the question. Statement 10 I can use the notes I have taken when answering questions. Statement 11 I have enough time to take notes. Statement 12 I find it difficult to listen to the test questions and at the same time to look for the specific information in my notes.

Statement 13
The article is too short and easy for me to take notes. Statement 14 I can find the answer from the notes I have taken.

Statement 15
The speed is too fast to take notes.

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