Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on non-major English students at University of Economic – Technical Industries

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** LÊ ANH THƯ Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on nonEnglish major students at University of Economic – Technical Industries (Phát triển chiến lược làm thi Đọc hiểu kỳ thi TOEIC cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh trường Đại học Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** LÊ ANH THƯ Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on nonEnglish major students at University of Economic – Technical Industries (Phát triển chiến lược làm thi Đọc hiểu kỳ thi TOEIC cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh trường Đại học Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Ngơ Hữu Hồng HANOI, 2014 DECLARATION I, Le Anh Thu, hereby state that, this minor thesis is the result of my own research and all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged I also state that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degree to any other universities institutions Dated: 25/ 12/ 2013 Lê Anh Thư i Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my respected supervisor, Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his generous assistance, invaluable advice, guidance, constructive comments Without his help, this study would not have possibly been completed I would like to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to the Post- Grade Department for their enthusiastic help during the time of studying and writing my thesis I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues and my students, especially the students at University of Economic – Technical Industries who have helped me to collect data for the study Hereby, I also would like to thank all the readers for their attention and I highly appreciate any comments and opinions on this study ii ABSTRACT So far, most Vietnamese universities have tended to choose TOEIC as a measure unit to assess input English level and graduation for students TOEIC score reports provide accurate, meaningful feedback about a test taker‟s strengths and weaknesses, along with a description of the English language strengths typical of test takers performing at various score levels However, when taking the TOEIC test, especially the TOEIC reading comprehension section, many students meet a lot of difficulties in reading, and therefore fail to be efficient readers and get high scores One of the primary causes is that students seem unskilled or unaware of the use of test-taking strategies for TOEIC reading comprehension tests Then, which strategies should students be used while taking the TOEIC reading comprehension tests? A number of studies and books have already been released in the area of application of test-taking strategies to TOEIC reading comprehension part This study is concerned with developing test-taking strategies to help non-major English students at UNETI reduce reading difficulties, improve their skills and take the TOEIC reading comprehension tests with higher scores The result of the study show that non-major English students at UNETI often have difficulties, to different extent, in many areas of the language such as difficulties with vocabulary, with grammar, discourse, and reading strategies Moreover, the data collected in the study also revealed that the students‟ inefficient use of reading strategies is a great source of reading problems Through the students‟ low frequency of strategy use to deal with question kinds in TOEIC reading comprehension tests, it is shown that students fail to apply reading strategies effectively in responding to questions during tests Therefore, the study suggests that to enable to successfully take the TOEIC reading comprehension test, students should actively use strategies involved as skimming and scanning skills, utilize context clues to understand difficult words and find out the synonym or paraphrase for the word In some cases, if test-takers have no idea about a question, the application of techniques to guess should be needed Besides, the study also recommends several testtaking strategies for each kind of questions in TOEIC reading comprehension test iii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1- THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Reading Comprehension 1.1 Reading and Reading comprehension 1.1.1 Definitions of reading 1.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension 1.2 Models of reading process 1.3 Reading comprehension approaches 1.3.1 Skimming 1.3.2 Scanning 1.3.3 Extensive reading 1.3.4 Intensive reading 1.4 Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies 1.4.1 Reading Strategies 1.4.1.1 Reading for specific information iv 1.4.2.2 Finding the main ideas 1.4.2.3 Guessing vocabulary from the context 1.4.2.4 Making inferences 1.4.2 Reading Comprehension Skills 10 TOEIC reading comprehension tests 12 2.1 What is the TOEIC test? 12 2.2 TOEIC Test Area 12 2.3 Structure of the Test 13 2.4 Test Scoring 13 2.5 Who takes the test? 15 2.6 Test formats: SP and IP 15 2.7 TOEIC Reading Comprehension Section 16 CHAPTER 2- METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study 17 2.2 Participants 18 2.3 Data Collection Instruments 19 2.4 Data collection procedures 19 2.5 Data analysis 20 CHAPTER – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Students‟ attitude towards TOEIC tests at UNETI 21 3.2 Students‟ perception of their difficulties in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests at UNETI 21 3.2.1 In the area of Vocabulary 21 3.2.2 In the area of Grammar 22 3.2.3 In the area of Discourse 23 3.2.4 In the area of Reading Strategies 24 3.2.5 Causes of Reading Difficulties 24 3.2.6 Summary 26 3.3 Students‟ frequency of strategy use across four main kinds of questions in TOEIC reading comprehension test 26 3.3.1 Vocabulary questions 26 3.3.2 Inference Questions 28 v 3.4 Recommendations on developing test-taking strategies in TOEIC reading comprehension test 29 3.4.1 General test-taking reading strategies 29 3.4.1.2 Read the questions carefully 29 3.4.1.3 Answer every question 30 3.4.1.4 Read the questions before reading the passage 31 3.4.1.5 Skimming 31 3.4.1.6 Scanning 32 3.4.1.7 Use Context Clues to understand difficult words 33 3.4.1.8 Guessing 34 3.4.2 Specific test-taking reading strategies for common question types 35 3.4.2.1 Test-taking reading strategies for vocabulary questions 35 3.4.2.2 Test-taking reading strategies for factual questions 37 3.4.2.3 Test-taking reading strategies for inference questions 37 PART III – CONCLUSION Conclusion 39 Limitations and of Recommendations for further Research 40 REFERENCES 41 AppendiX .I vi LIST OF TABLES Table Student‟s perception about the importance of the TOEIC test at UNETI 21 Table Difficulties in the area of vocabulary 22 Table Difficulties in the area of Grammar .23 Table Difficulties in the area of Discourse 23 Table Difficulties in the area of Reading Strategies 24 Table Students‟ personal views of the sources of difficulties 25 Table 7: Frequency of Strategy Use for Vocabulary Questions 27 Table 8: Frequency of Strategy Use for Inference Question 29 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATION UNETI University of Economic Technical Industries ELT English language teaching TOEIC Test of English for International Communication ETS Educational Testing System TOEIC RC test TOEIC Reading Comprehension test TOEIC LC test TOEIC Listening Comprehension test viii such as, including, consists of, for instance, is like Even without specific words introducing the meaning of an unknown word, phrases and sentences in the paragraph give further explanation, often enough to make a logical or educated guess as to the meaning of the word  Definitions are sometimes included in the text For example, “After the fire, the entire office was restricted, that is only a few people could enter, for several days.” In this example, the author built the definition directly into the sentence  Sometimes surrounding words or phrases contain synonyms of the unknown word For example, “The boss complained when he was tardy, or late, for work for the third time this week.”  Antonyms can also be used to help readers figure out the meaning of a word For example, “Joe was exhausted after the trip but Tom was wide awake and alert.”  Experiences can also be used to explain unknown words 3.4.1.8 Guessing When taking TOEIC RC section, if test-takers have no idea about a question, they still have a 25% chance of getting it right by guessing Guessing can significantly contribute to their final score Once guessing, students should take steps as followed:  Eliminate as many choices as you can  Among the remaining choices, only pick your “best guess”  Otherwise, guess randomly by picking the first remaining choice There are some techniques to guess Students can base on slang, extreme statements, similar answer choices, or hedging, etc Several examples are listed as followed: Slang Scientific sounding answers are better than slang ones In the answer choices below, choice B is much less scientific and is incorrect, while choice A is a scientific analytical choice and is correct Example: A To compare the outcomes of the two different kinds of treatment B Because some subjects insisted on getting one or the other of the treatments Extreme Statements Avoid wild answers that throw out highly controversial ideas that are proclaimed as established fact Choice A is a radical idea and is incorrect Choice B is a calm rational statement Notice that Choice B does not make a definitive, uncompromising stance, using a hedge word “if” to provide wiggle room 34 Example: A Bypass surgery should be discontinued completely B Medication should be used instead of surgery for patients who have not had a heart attack if they suffer from mild chest pain and mild coronary artery blockage Similar Answer Choices When there are two answer choices that are direct opposites, one of them is usually the correct answer Example: A Paragraph described the author‟s reasoning about the influence of his childhood on his adult life B Paragraph described the author‟s reasoning about the influence of his childhood on his adult life These two answer choices are very similar and fall into the same family of answer choices A family of answer choices is when two or three answer choices are very similar Often two will be opposites and one may show equality Example: A Plan I or Plan II can be conducted at equal cost B Plan I would be less expensive than Plan II C Plan II would be less expensive than Plan I D Neither Plan I nor Plan II would be effective Note how the first three choices are all related They all ask about a cost comparison Beware of immediately recognizing choices B and C as opposites and choosing one of those two Choice A is in the same family of questions and should be considered as well However, choice D is not in the same family of questions It has nothing to with cost and can be discounted in most cases Hedging When asked for a conclusion that may be drawn, look for critical “hedge” phrases, such as likely, may, can, will often, sometimes, etc, often, almost, mostly, usually, generally, rarely, sometimes Question writers insert these hedge phrases to cover every possibility Often an answer will be wrong simply because it leaves no room for exception Avoid answer choices that have definitive words like “exactly,” and “always” 3.4.2 Specific test-taking reading strategies for common question types 3.4.2.1 Test-taking reading strategies for vocabulary questions The vocabulary questions proved to be among the challenging question types on the TOEIC test It may be due to the fact that many students tend to rely heavily on their background knowledge when answering these if they were already familiar with the 35 targeted word rather than making a focused effort to be sure their understanding of the word made sense in the context of the sentence Sometimes, the test required the students to transform their understanding of a word, an idiomatic expression or a phrasal verb into a synonymous form To deal with this task, the test-takers have to understanding the meaning of the original word or sentence within the larger context of the paragraph This seems to be a fairly difficult task Therefore, in the vocabulary area, it was seen to require test-taking reading strategies as follows: a) To understand unfamiliar words and idiomatic expressions When reading the TOEIC reading materials such as announcements, reports, letters, forms, table, charts or newspaper articles, students are commonly faced with vocabulary words they not understand In such situations, several options are available to students for learning the meanings of unknown terms:  The students should reread the sentence containing the unknown word, or perhaps a few sentences preceding or following, to determine if the meaning can be derived from the context The students could summarize, paraphrase or make an inference of the passage containing the unfamiliar words or idiomatic expressions to get a better grasp of what was being discussed and answer the question correctly  If no clues may be gleaned from the context of the word or the test question may not be long enough to provide adequate context for predicting the meaning of the word, try deciphering the word itself based on morphological analysis Defining suffixes, prefixes, and root words within the unfamiliar term is helpful in deciphering the meanings of these unknown words  In case the students failed to guess the word meanings from the context, they should select options through elimination of other options as unreasonable based on paragraph or overall passage meaning b) To find synonyms and antonyms  The students always took notice of direction carefully Some tests asked for synonyms and some ask for antonyms To find a synonym or antonym for a word that is in a phrase or sentence, the context should be considered to look for clues In this case, the students minimally required understanding at the sentence level, but normally the paragraph level, and even in a couple of cases at the passage level They should be mindful of cohesion and coherence issues when attempting to fit the portion of text into the larger discourse 36  Sometimes, the students had to use powers of inference when they did not recognize the word  Because the texts were so long, the test-takers had to draw more on their memory of what they had read, as well as on what they had learned about the passage from responding to previous questions 3.4.2.2 Test-taking reading strategies for factual questions In the Reading Comprehension section of the TOEIC, it is important to recognize factual questions that ask specific information about the text in a straightforward way This type of question does not use the same language that is used in the passage Instead of using key words, the question will reword or restate the information It often asks about basic facts, excluded facts and computational facts Questions about basic facts ask direct questions about the passage These question types require the test-takers to demonstrate a basic understanding of the passage by restating the information presented The students had to pick specific information out of the passage and understand it well enough to be able to recognize it in other words Obviously, a good working knowledge of synonyms is handy However, in some cases, the students should always be prepared to use the process of elimination to arrive at the correct answer Questions about excluded facts require that the students choose from the possible answers the one answer that was not mentioned or discussed or the answer that is least likely to be correct or included in a given set of criteria To determine the correct answer, the students must use the process of elimination to decide which fact is not mentioned or least important Questions about computational facts require that the students some quick math to solve a problem They not require the use of any sophisticated mathematics; rather they test the students‟ understanding of the information presented by making them demonstrate the relationships presented To deal with them, it is very important that the students must recognize the factual information closely related together and not confuse options regarding possible inferences with the correct answer 3.4.2.3 Test-taking reading strategies for inference questions One of the hardest questions on TOEIC is inferencing It demands that students consider the facts in a passage, demonstrate an understanding of what it means or suggests and draw a conclusion based on the facts presented in the passage Sometimes, not only does the task require a high level of understanding of the text, but the test-takers also have a harder time understanding the meaning and intent of the question itself In TOEIC RC tests, this 37 question kind is often used in double passage set The information needed to answer a question is not always stated directly Therefore, students need to connect two passages, scan and make inference from the information provided in two passages They had to possess the understanding of the discourse structure, other grammatical structural features (use of pronouns for nouns, etc.), and lexical and logical links within a paragraph, a passage or a double passage set Following are several suggested strategies for inference questions:  Students required understanding of the text at the paragraph level, and in many cases, for double passage set, at the passage level Strategies involved this question kind include rereading, reading purposefully and carefully, and paraphrasing of translating to facilitate comprehension  Inference questions often test examinees to recognize an idea that was strongly implied but not explicitly mentioned; lexical, grammatical and logical links in order to determine where to best insert a new sentence Therefore, students had to clearly draw on their understanding of overall paragraph and passage meaning and structure to consider and evaluate, and then select or eliminate options in order to complete the inference questions  Because of the length of the double texts, students had to draw more on their memory of what they had read, as well as on what they had learned about the passage from responding to previous questions They would gain information from one set of questions, which they then were able to apply to the next set of questions 38 PART III – CONCLUSION Conclusion So far, to standardize the output quality of students in order to provide the labor market with workforce having not only qualifications but also fluent foreign language skill, in most universities involving University of Economic – Technical Industries (UNETI), TOEIC has been conducted to evaluate students‟ English proficiency as well as to assess their progress in English in the course of their studying at the university Therefore, in order to help students complete the TOEIC RC tests successfully with high scores, this study developed several test-taking strategies for TOEIC RC tests The study was carried out in terms of both theory and practice The study started with some concepts on reading and reading comprehension together with theoretical background to the TOEIC tests The next chapter described the current situation of teaching and learning English at UNETI In this study, the instrument employed to collect data was a survey questionnaire to students The ultimate goal of all these instruments is to find out difficulties and causes of difficulties as well as the frequency of strategy use to deal with question kinds as perceived by non- major English students at UNETI when taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests This is done with the purpose of helping the author be aware of the situation of students‟ test-taking strategy use and then, find out how to suggest useful strategies for students to get high results in TOEIC RC test The findings of the study reveal that the students have some difficulties in many areas of the language such as difficulties with vocabulary, with grammar, discourse, and reading strategies The lack of their use of testtaking strategies when taking TOEIC RC test is one of the primary causes Besides, it is also shown that students not know how to apply these strategies effectively through their low frequency of strategy use to deal with question kinds From the results of the study, the author has presented some suggestions to develop students‟ test-taking strategies for TOEIC RC tests They consist of several general testtaking reading strategies involving skimming, scanning, guessing, using context clues to understand difficult words and more, along with specific test-taking reading strategies for common question types Finally, it is hoped that what has discussed in the study might be beneficial to students of English to get the best results in fulfilling TOEIC RC tests It is also hoped that the study 39 will prove worldwhile to those who want to carry on research in this area and those who are concerned with this problem Limitations and Suggestions for further study In most research projects, limitations are inevitable The study presented in this thesis is of no exception Firstly, since this was essentially a qualitative analysis, the study is limited in the fact that the data may not fully reflect all aspects of difficulties encountered by nonEnglish major students when taking the TOEIC RC tests Secondly, since the author‟s practical experience in teaching reading, taking TOEIC RC tests and knowledge of this field are limited, there undoubtedly were other strategies in use that were not described in the study In addition, there could have been strategies that were actually used more or less than indicated Besides, the suggestions for test-taking strategies in TOEIC RC tests are likely to be subjective and incomplete Future work, therefore, should overcome this shortcoming Thirdly, within the scope of the study, there was no chance for the investigator to develop other important test-taking strategies for the TOEIC Listening Comprehension, Speaking and Writing for student to totally complete the TOEIC tests with the best results All calls for further research 40 REFERENCES Alderson, J.C (2000) Reading in a foreign language Essex: Longman Group Limited Anderson, N J (1999) Exploring second language reading: Issues and Strategies Canada: Heinle & Heinle Publishers Brown, J.D (1995) The Elements of Language Curriculum: A Systematic Approach to Program Development Boston, Massachusetts: Heinle & Heinle publishers; Cohen, A D (1998) Strategies in learning and using a second language London: Longman Douglas E Forster, R K (1998) Teaching TOEIC/ TOEFL Test-taking Strategies Retrieved 20 December, 2010, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERIC ExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED427543&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno =ED427543 Duffy, G.G (1993) Improving Classroom Reading Instruction: A Decision Making Approach New York: Random House, 232 Harmer, J (1989) The Practice of English Language Teaching 1st ed Longman Hirano, K (2008) Research on Test-taking Strategies in L2 Reading Bull Joetsu Uni Educ., 28, 157-165 Hudson, T (2007) Teaching Second Language Reading U.K: Oxford University Press 10 Goodman, K (1975) The Reading Process in Carrell, P.L., Devine, J and Eskey, D.E (1988) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading Cambridge: CUP.12 11 Grellet, F (1990) Developing Reading Skills- a Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 12 Karlin, R & Karlin, A.R (1988) Teaching Elementary Reading: Principle and Strategies (4th ed) Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers 13 Lewis, M & Hill, J (1985) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching London: Language Teaching Publication 41 14 Lougheed, L (2003) How to prepare for the TOEIC tests (3rd ed) New York: Barron's Educational Series 15 Lougheed, L (2008) Preparation Series for the New TOEIC Test London: Longman 16 Nuttall, C (1982), Teaching reading skills in a foreign language (1st ed.) London: Heinemann Educational Books 17 Nuttall, C (2005) Teaching reading skills in a foreign language (3rd ed) London: Heinemann 18 O‟ Malley, J.M & Chamot A U (1990) Learning Strategies in second language acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19 Reading (process) (2008) Retrieved December, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process) 20 Richard, A &Thomas, M (1987) Frameworks for Comprehending Discourse Harlow, Essex, England: Longman 21 Richards, J & Lockhart, C (1994) Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classroom Cambridge: CUP 22 Seliger, H.W & Shohamy, E (1995) Second Language Research Methods Oxford University Press 23 Smith, F (1985) Reading without Nonsense (2nd ed) New York: Teachers College Press 24 Spears, D (2006) Developing Critical Reading Skills (7 ed.) New York: McGrawHill Higher Education 25 Swales, J (1990) Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press 26 Swan, M (1975) Inside meaning Cambridge: CUP 27 Taylor, A (2006) TOEIC Analyst (2nd ed.) Texas: Compass Publishing 28 Test-Taking Strategies for Three Subject Areas Retrieved 20 December, 2010, from http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=8091 42 29 TOEIC Listening and Reading Examinee Handbook (2008) Retrieved 20 December, 2010, from http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEIC/pdf/TOEIC_LR_examinee_handbook.pdf 30 Upton, T A., & Lee-Thompson, L.-C (2001) The role of the first language in second language reading Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 23(4), 469-495 31 Uruquhart, S., & Weir, C (1998) Reading in a second language: Process, product and practice Harlow, Essex, England: Longman 32 Warren, J (1996) How students pick the right answer: A „think aloud‟ study of the French CAT In J Burston, M Monville-Burston, & J Warren (Eds.), Australian Review of Applied Linguistics (Occasional Paper No 15; pp 79-94) Canberra, Australia: Applied Linguistics Association of Australia 33 Williams, E., & Moran, C (1986) Reading in a foreign language at intermediate and advanced levels with particular reference to English Language Teaching, 22(4), 217228 34 Willkins, D A (1972) Linguistics in Language Teaching London Edward Ar 35 Wood, M.J (1985), Reading Oxford: Oxford University Press 36 Zamel, V (1983) The composing processes of advanced ESL students: Six case studies TESOL Quarterly, 17(2), 165-187 43 APPENDIX: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE (for students) This questionnaire is conducted in order to collect data for my thesis “Developing testtaking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on non- English major students at University of Economic - Technical Industries” I hereby certify that all the information achieved from this questionnaire would be dealt with anonymously Thank you for your cooperation Please tick (√) or provide appropriate answer(s) for the following questions: How many years have you studied English? How many terms have you studied English at UNET? What is your opinion about the importance of the TOEIC test at UNETI?  Very important  Important  Not very important  Not important Other ideas: How many times have you taken the TOEIC test at UNETI? When did you last take the TOEIC test at UNETI? How you find the TOEIC test at UNETI?  Very difficult  Difficult  Easy  Very easy Other ideas: In your opinion, what difficulties you often encounter when taking the TOEIC reading comprehension test at UNETI? For each common area of difficulties listed below, please circle one of the numbers from to to indicate what level it is The numbers correspond to the following categories of frequency: Very Difficult Difficult Easy Very Easy It is possible that you encounter some difficulties which are not listed, so please write any others that you employ in taking the TOEIC reading comprehension test in the “OTHERS” spaces and circle the numbers to show its level I a) Difficulties in the area of VOCABULARY No Difficulties in the area of Vocabulary Finding the meaning of unfamiliar words Finding the appropriate meaning for polysemantic words Finding synonyms 4 Understanding idiomatic expressions Understanding the meaning of phrasal verbs OTHERS: ……………………………………………………………….…… ………………………………………………………………….… ……………………………………………………………….…… b) Difficulties in the area of GRAMMAR No Difficulties in the area of Grammar Recognizing the word‟s part of speech Understanding and using verb tenses and forms Understanding and identifying the types of sentences 4 Identifying unfamiliar syntactic structures Identifying the correct word order OTHERS: ……………………………………………………… …………… ………………………………………………………………… … ………………………… ………………………………………… 4 c) Difficulties in the area of DISCOURSE No Difficulties in the area of Discourse Understanding the relationships between sentences/ paragraphs/sections in a text Understanding the relationships between paragraphs in a text Understanding the graphs, diagrams, and figures 4 Identifying conjunctions and discourse makers Identifying lexical clues Identifying organization of ideas OTHERS: II ……………………………………………………… …………… ………………………………………………………………… … ………………………… ………………………………………… Difficulties in the area of Reading Strategies Skimming for the main idea Scanning for the specific information 4 d) Difficulties in the area of REDING STRATEGIES No Guessing the meaning of words in context and predicting the content of the text Recognizing implications and making inferences and conclusions Summarizing the content of the text OTHERS: ……………………………………………………… …………… ………………………………………………………………… … ………………………… ………………………………………… In your opinion, what are the most common causes/ sources of your difficulties when taking the TOEIC reading comprehension test at UNETI? Would you please point out whether each of items below is true for you? Please tick (√) the appropriate box: No Causes/ Sources of Difficulties I lack knowledge of the language, especially vocabulary I lack background/ general knowledge I lack cultural understanding about the topics I am reading I not use reading strategies/ skills skillfully and effectively Some texts are very long and full of new words and strange grammar structures I lack knowledge of the language, especially vocabulary * OTHERS: (Please indicate) III True Not True Not Sure What strategies you use when you answer each question type in the TOEIC reading comprehension section? For each strategy listed below, please circle one of the numbers from to to indicate how often you use the strategy for answering each kind of questions The numbers correspond to the following categories of frequency: never rarely sometimes usually always It is possible that you use some strategies which are not listed, so please write any others that you employ in learning vocabulary in the “OTHER” spaces and circle the numbers to show the frequencies of using them a) Vocabulary Questions No Strategy description Read the question then read the passage to look for clues to the answer, either before or while considering options Read a portion of the passage carefully Select options through vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, or passage overall meaning Eliminate options based on vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, or passage overall meaning as well as discourse structure Select options through background knowledge Eliminate options based on background knowledge 5 5 5 OTHER: 5 5 b) Inference Questions No Strategy description Read the question then read the passage/portion to look for clues to the answer, either before or while considering options Select options through using contextual clues to understand vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, or passage overall meaning Eliminate options based on using contextual clues to understand vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, or passage overall Scan to find specific information meaning as well as discourse structure IV Go back to the question for clarification: Reread the question 5 5 10 Consider the options and paraphrase the meaning Repeat; paraphrase; or translate words, phrases, or sentences; Predict or produce own answer after options or summarize paragraphs/passage to considering aid or improve understanding OTHER: THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND COOPERATION! APPENDIX C – V ... 1.4 Reading Comprehension Strategies and Skills 1.4.1 Reading Strategies 1.4.1.1 Reading for specific information Reading for specific information is the way we read the passage and only pay attention... and active application of scanning or skimming strategies Some seem unaware of the test-taking strategies Hence, the significance of a study on developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC reading. ..VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** LÊ ANH THƯ Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading