Effective strategies for improving reading comprehension tests scores of grade 12 in the general certificate of secondary education

Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension areknowing meaning of words, ability to understand meaning of a word fromdiscourse context, ability to follow organization

INDEX

1 1 Introduction

1.1 The reason for choosing the topic

1.2 The purpose of research

1.3 Study subjects

1.4 Research Methodology

2 2 3 3 3

2 2 Contents of the initiative experience

2.1 Rationale of the initiative experience

2.2 Situation of the problem before applying the

initiative experience

2.3 The solutions were used to solve the problem

2.3.1 Reading the entire passage

2.3.2 Analyze and Group the questions

2.3.3 Reading Comprehension Test Sample

2.4 The effect of initiative experience for educational

activities, with myself, the colleagues and the school

4 4 4

5 5 6 13 16

3 3 Conclusion and requests

3.1 Conclusion

3.2 Requests

17 17 17

1 Introduction

1.1 The reason for choosing the topic.

English is the compulsory subject in the national Secondary Examination

of the school education system which will be organized by the Ministry ofTraning and Education After finishing secondary schools students have to take

an exam known as National examination for GCSE (General Certificate ofSecondary Education)

Solving English Reading Comprehension tests has become an inevitablepart of almost every standarlized examination, especially in the importantexaminations such as the GCSE or the extrance one before The English test inthis examination consists of two passages with about 400 words and eight orfive questions for each passage It makes up 20 percents of the test However, It

is cosidered as the most difficult section and under time pressure (about 13minutes for 13 questions) So a complaint which I hear often is that the studentsare unable to understand the given reading comprehension and they areconfused Many students seem to choose the answers by their feeling As aresult, their mark is low, this highlight a reading comprehension problem thatwill connect to a student's academic success

Thus, the question that lingers in my mind is “How to improve readingcomprehension tests scores in the GCSE?” I thought a lot of this actualsituation I applied some strategies that help my students in my school to choosethe best answers Thanks to these strategies, my students achieve the surprisingsuccess They got good marks in Reading Comprehension tests after practisingsome reading passages by new methods The most important examination for all

students comes nearer and nearer, I would like to present: “Effective strategies

for improving reading comprehension tests scores of grade 12 in the General Certificate of Secondary Education” Different people have different

reading comprehension strategies to improve their reading comprehension – Iwill try to identify a few strategies for them to consider Hopefully, with thatexperiences could help students to take the reading section easily When thestudents are good at reading comprehension, they can read books, newpapersand other materials in English And, this theme would be shared with anycolleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in this theme

1.2 The purpose of research.

Helping students at Ha Trung High school choose the best answers inReading Comprehension tests section easily

- Research on Methodology of the actual survey, gathering information anddata processing from the illustrative English tests for the NationalSecondary Education Exam (the Ministry of Traning and Education) andtests for the entrance examination for 12th students in groups A1 and D.

- Research methodology through the documents: sources of data come fromreading tasks from the textbooks 12, teacher books internet and relateddocuments

2 Contents of the initiative experience 2.1 Rationale of the initiative experience

We all know that reading comprehension is the ability to process

text, understand its meaning, and to integrate with what the reader alreadyknows Fundamental skills required in efficient reading comprehension areknowing meaning of words, ability to understand meaning of a word fromdiscourse context, ability to follow organization of passage and to identifyantecedents and references in it, ability to draw inferences from a passage aboutits contents, ability to identify the main thought of a passage, ability to answerquestions answered in a passage, etc

And in fact,many of the content area textbooks in middle and high schoolsare designed to cram as much information as possible into the textbook and each

of its texts This density of information may justify the cost of textbooks, butthis density may be at the expense of student reading comprehension.In addition,

a lack of understanding is the high level, content-specific vocabulary (science,social studies, etc) in textbooks, which results in an increase in a textbook'scomplexity A textbook's organization with sub-headings, bolded terms,definitions, charts, graphs coupled with sentence structure also increasecomplexity Most textbooks are rated using a Lexile range, which is a measure

of a text's vocabulary and sentences when reading comprehension tests come tocompetitive exams, the task becomes difficult Unable to understand thevocabulary (meaning of words) and concept of the passage In addition, moststandardized tests have time limits for each section Time constraints can beparticularly troublesome for reading comprehension sections, as the sheeramount of reading that must be done between the passages and questions cantake all of the allotted time, many students become dull and uninterested in thissection

Students need to have a solid understanding of strategies they can use

with this section Thus, I defined the “effective reading comprehension

strategies” as any strategies that have been found by I myself and the teachers inthe team as beneficial for improving reading comprehension tests scores of 12th

graders in the GCSE Importantly, the effectiveness of using a particular readingcomprehension strategy based on teachers’ teaching experiences, rather thanstrategies only found in the literature

2.2 Situation of the problem before applying the initiative experience.

A common mistake among reading comprehension test takers is theassumption that they do not need to read the whole passage presented to them.While it may be possible to skip to the questions and then go back and attempt

to answer each question individually by finding the part of the passage thatdeals with that question, this tactic causes students to have a hazyunderstanding of the passage as a whole and may lead to confusion It is

important to know how many total passages students have to read and roughlyhow many questions there are for each passage before they begin the exam

Let us observe the statistic table of the number of correct answers beforeapplying test taking strategies for reading comprehension part, school year 2018

- 2019 by the students of grade 12 at Ha Trung High school as follows:

2.3 The solutions were used to solve the problem

2.3.1 Reading the entire passage

It is always a good idea to read though the entire passage at least once,even if that read is brief An overall understanding of the themes andarguments in the passage Here are the most common skills that are used forreading comprehension test

* Skimming and Scanning skill.

Students should be able to skim and scan passages to do well in readingcomprehension tests Skimming is reading a passage to get a general idea of thecontent This is recommended to do before they tackle the questions All types

of questions, except one, are given after the passage because it is recommended

to skim read the passage before the questions This does not mean they try tounderstand the passage It’s just a chance to get a sense of the topic and layout Students should skim read the full passage in 2 to 3 minutes-not longer All thesame time, they should underline any key words you see The only types ofquestions which come before the passage is matching headings, for those, theydon’t need to read the passage first Scanning is their ability to locateinformation quiclkly and has no relation to comprehension of the passage

- A car exhibition  an auto show

- To identify problems in the system  to expose defects in the system

+ Use antonym:

Antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word:

For example

The construction will improve the traffic flow The construction will easetraffic congestion.

2.3.2 Analyze and Group the questions.

After students skim read the passage, they go to straight the questions.Pay attention to what type of question type it is Each passage in the reading partusually has from five to eight questions which are divided into three main types

of questions: Main idea questions, stated detail and inference questions,vocabulary in context questions Students should read the questions first to focustheir attention and direct them to the parts of the reading passage that are themost important for them to understand After that, students classify them intodifferent types

* Main idea questions

Main idea questions ask students to identify the "primary purpose" or

"main point" of the passage The questions can be asked with many different

types of questions It is not difficult to recognize this type of questions There

are some common question stems such as:

- What is the topic of the passage?

- What does the passage mainly discuss?

- What is the subject of the passage?

- What is the main idea of the passage?

- What is the author’s main point in the passage?

- What is the author’s main purpose in the passage?

- what is the author primarily concerned?

- Which of the following would be the best title?

Main idea questions ask students to identify the crux of the author's point.You must identify which ideas in the passage play a supporting role and whichidea is being supported In many ways, this is similar to identifying the premisesand conclusion to a critical reasoning argument The correct answer to a mainpoint question is often a paraphrase of the conclusion or thesis statement of thepassage Common incorrect answer choices are those that feature supportingideas These answer choices are appealing to many test-takers because thematerial presented in them is true and based upon the passage So students

should solve this type of question after the detail questions To find out the

answer for these questions Students should implement the following steps:

- Read the first sentences and the last sentences of the passage

- Find the relationship between the first sentence and the sentence after

- Skim the supporting sentences to test the answer they choose While theyskim the passage, they have to identify the words repeated many times

- Eliminate the incorrect answers which might be

+ the ones has no information in the passage

+ contrary to the information mentioned in the passage

+ too general, specific or not mentioned in the passage

At one time, there was a theory accounting for homeschooling: it was traditionally used for students who could not attend school because of behavioral or learning difficulties Today, however, more parents are taking on the responsibility of educating their own children at home due to their dissatisfaction with the educational system Many parents are unhappy about class size, as well as problems inside the classroom Teacher shortages and lack

of funding mean that, in many schools, one teacher is responsible for thirty or forty students The children are, therefore, deprived of the attention they need Escalating classroom violence has also motivated some parents to remove their children from school.

Although there have been a lot of arguments for and against it, homeschooling in the U.S has become a multi-million dollar industry, and it is growing bigger and bigger There are now plenty of websites, support groups, and conventions that help parents protect their rights and enable them to learn more about educating their children Though once it was the only choice for troubled children, homeschooling today is an accepted alternative to an educational system that many believe is failing.

Question Which is the best tittle for the passage?

A Reasons for Homeschooling in the USA

B The Trend of homeschooling in the USA

C Homeschooling - one of the ways of education in the USA

D Education system in the USA

=> The first sentence is: “Increasing numbers of parents in the U.S are

choosing to teach their children at home”

- The phrsases: “being homeschooled”, “behavioral or learning difficulties”,

“dissatisfaction with the educational system”, “remove their children fromschool”

- The last sentence is: “homeschooling today is an accepted alternative to an

educational system that many believe is failing”.

- The answers A is too narrow, the answers D is too large

- The best answer is B because the phrases: “increasing” and “seem to be

growing” are mentioned in the passage

* Stated detail and inference questions

Stated detail and inference questions are divided into four types of thefollowing questions:

 Stated detail questions

Stated detail questions are often prefaced by "according to the passage" or

"the passage states that" Most of the questions that fit into this category could

be called "find the fact" as they rely on your ability to find a specific piece ofinformation, often contained in two or three sentences The following areexamples of detail question stems:

- According to the passage…

- It is stated in the passage

- Passage indicates that…

- According to the passage which of the following is true

Stated detail questions ask students about the specific information such asanecdotes, cited evidence, data, or descriptions and they are used to support themain idea of the passage These questions are usually given with the details inorder in the reading passage Each question has four answers and the bestanswer contains the closest information in a paragraph or is expessed in adifferent way Students should follow these steps to identify the correct answermore easily:

- Underline the key words in the questions.

- Carefully the sentences containing the key words.

- Eliminate the incorrect answers which might

+ not be mentioned in the passage

+ has any part of an answer choice which is wrong

- Find the correct answer among four answers.

For example

According to airline industry statistics, almost 90 percent of airline accidents are survivable or partially survivable But passengers can increase their chances of survival by learning and following certain tips Experts say that you should read and listen to safety instruction before take off and ask questions

if you have uncertainties You should fasten your seat belt low on your hips and

as tightly as possible Of course, you should also know how the release mechanism of your belt operates During take offs and landings, you are advised to keep your feet flat on the floor Before take off, you should locate the nearest exit and an alterative exit and count the rows of seats between you and the exits so that you can reach them in the dark if necessary

Question: According to the passage, airline travelers should keep their feet flat

A especially during landings B throughout the flight

C only if an accident is possible D during take-offs and landings

=>The key words in the question are “airline travelers” and “feet flat’’ we can

see them in the sentence: “During take offs and landings, you are advised tokeep your feet flat on the floor”:

Basing on the clue we we can easily find the correct answer D during take offs

and landings.

 Unstated detail questions

This type of the question is often given with words: “not mentioned”, “notstated”, “all following options are true Except” or “not true” The question hasthree choices contained the information which is mentioned in the passage andone choice isn’t The following are examples of unstated detail questionstems:

- Which of the following is not stated…?

- Which of the following is not mentioned…?

- Which of the following is not discussed…?

- All of the following are true Except….

In order to answer for those question, students should follow these steps toidentify the correct answer more easily:

- Read the question and answer choices carefully, underline key words.

- Skim the passage rapidly to get proper information for key words.

- Read carefully the sentences containing the information in choice part.

- Eliminate the answer choices which are mentioned or true in the passage.

- Choose the answer which is not mentioned or not true in the passage Example

According to airline industry statistics, almost 90 percent of airline accidents are survivable or partially survivable But passengers can increase their chances of survival by learning and following certain tips Experts say that you should read and listen to safety instruction before take off and ask questions

if you have uncertainties You should fasten your seat belt low on your hips and

as tightly as possible Of course, you should also know how the release mechanism of your belt operates During takeoffs and landings, you are advised

to keep your feet flat on the floor Before take off, you should locate the nearest exit and an alterative exit and count the rows of seats between you and the exits

so that you can reach them in the dark if necessary In the event that you are forewarned of a possible accident, you should put your hands on your ankles and keep your head down until the planes comes to a complete stop If smoke is present in the cabin, you should keep your head low and cover your face with napkins, towels, or clothing If possible, wet these for added protection against smoke inhalation To evacuate as quickly as possible, follow crew commands and do not take personal belongings with you Do not jump on escape slides

before they are fully inflated, and when you jump, do so with your arms and legs

extended in front of you When you get to the ground, you should move away from the plane as quickly as possible, and smoke near the wreckage.

Question: Airline passengers are advised to do all of the following EXCEP

A ask questions about safety

B locate the nearest exit

C fasten their seat belts before take-off

D carry personal belongings in an emergency

=>The key word in the question is “advised” and we find the incorrect

information

A: Ask questions about safety is in the sentence “Experts say that you should

read and listen to safety instruction before take off and ask questions if you have uncertainties”:

B: Locate the nearest exit is in the sentence ““Before lake off, you should

locate the nearest exit and an alterative exit and count the rows of seats between you and the exits so that you can reach (them) in the dark if ecessary”

C: Fasten their seat belts before take-off is in the sentence “ You should

fasten your seat belt low on your hips and as tightly as possible.”:

So the best answer is D carry personal belongings in an emergency.

 Inference questions

Inference questions ask students to make a very small logical conclusionthat is strongly implied based upon information in the passage Answer choicesthat require significant assumptions or inferences will NEVER be correct Ininference questions, the answer lies directly in the text and requires a very smalllogical step Inference questions require us to draw a conclusion, based uponwhat the passage states explicitly This question type asks for an answer that isoften a near paraphrase of a fact in the passage or a fact that the information inthe passage rules out The answer to inference questions is a conclusion made inthe passage

Questions of this type will often contain words like “implied”, “suggested”,

or “inferred” in the question prompt

Common Question Stems:

- The passage implies that……….

- It can be inferred from the passage that……….

- The passage suggests which of the following about …….

The correct answer to these questions is usually an obvious logical consequence

of a sentence in the text It should be the last question they find the answer.Students can do the following steps:

- Read all four answers and find key words in the questions

- Skim the passage to find key words where in the passage

- Finding the specific sentence in the passage that provides the premise forthe conclusion in the correct answer It is quite difficult

- Eliminate the incorrect answers, answer choices that do not directly andclosely follow from a statement in the passage, even if this statementseems plausible based upon the general idea of the passage or commonlyaccepted knowledge

For example