Abstract:

In the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) grammar education research, testing on student’s achievement has been paid much attention in various exams within higher education as well as commercial exams. This study aimed to investigate the grammar exam in an EFL context with low achievement, night school college students and put the emphasis on the egocentric speech in the "Question-Asking-Answering” process. Based on Vygotsky’s Cultural-historical theories, we examined how the egocentric speech mediates inner speech and social speech in a grammar exam. The results suggested that all the participants utilized egocentric speech at certain degrees. Participants read silently when seeking possible grammatic questions to ask; however, the sentence for answering is created before the question was made. The egocentric speech and reflection played a key role for participants to demonstrate their proficiency in grammar. Implications for EFL grammar education and te...