Nhận thức về kỹ năng ghi chép thông tin của học sinh đang tham gia các lớp luyện thi toefl ibt tại trung tâm tiếng anh

Viet Nam national university Ha noi university of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies phạm thị kim liên Students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test at Equest English center (nhËn thøc vÒ kü ghi chép thông tin học sinh tham gia lớp luyện thi TOEFL iBT Trung tâm tiÕng Anh Equest) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Văn Th Thanh Bình, M.A Hanoi, 2011 i CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test at EQuest English Center” is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Art at College of Language and International Studies, Ha Noi National University, and the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Signature: Pham Thi Kim Lien Date: 25/11/2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge all my lecturers of the Post-Graduate Department, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for their interesting lectures as well as valuable instructions during our M.A course 2009-2011 I would especially like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Van Thanh Binh, M.A for her encouragement and guidance throughout the study Without her help, this study would not be completed I am also indebted to the English teachers and students at EQuest English Center for their assistance in collecting the data for this study Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my parents, my husband who supported and encouraged me during the time I conducted this thesis iii ABSTRACTS This study aimed at investigating students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills, their perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills, their perceptions of difficulties in taking notes, their perceptions of note-taking strategies to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Participants were 50 students who are currently studying for the TOEFL iBT at EQuest English Center, Hanoi Findings from questionnaires revealed that (i) most of the students hold positive attitudes towards note-taking skills; (ii) many students perceived major benefits of note-taking skills such as concentrating on lectures, remembering information in the lectures, organizing the information after the lecture is over, answering the test questions better, feeling at ease; (iii) they encountered some challenges in taking notes like listening to the talks and at the same time take notes, missing important information while taking notes Besides, findings also showed that students perceived a lot of note-taking strategies and frequently employed those strategies such as writing down important information for each main point; significant details; using abbreviations, symbols; paraphrasing (using easier words); using outlining; organizing notes visually; separating different ideas from each other; highlighting particularly important information Some suggestions for improving the effectiveness of note-taking skills have also been given in this study It is hoped that the study would contribute a small part to the improvement of English teaching and learning, particularly to the training of note-taking skills at EQuest English Center as well as to those who concern this issue iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ……………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… ii Abstracts…………………………………………………………………………… iii Lists of abbreviations …………………………………………………………… vi Lists of charts …………………………………………………………………… vi PART A : INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1.Rationale …………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study ………………………………………………………… Scope of the study ………………………………………………………… Methodology ……………………………………………………………… Significance of the study ………………………………………………… Design of the study ……………………………………………………… PART B …………………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………… 1.1 Definition of note-taking ……………………………………………… 1.2 Benefits of note-taking ………………………………………………… 1.3 Difficulties in taking notes ……………………………………………… 1.4 Strategies of note-taking ………………………………………………… Relevance of the problem to the TOEFL iBT ………………………… 1.5.1 Introduction to the TOEFL iBT test …………………………………… 1.5.2 The importance of note-taking skills in the TOEFL iBT test ………… 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………… 13 2.1 The context of the study ………………………………………………… 13 2.2 Methodology …………………………………………………………… 14 v 2.3 Participants ……………………………………………………………… 15 2.4 The questionnaire……………………………………………………… 15 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………………… 16 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills ………………………… 16 3.2 Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills …………… 18 3.3 Students’ perceptions of the difficulties in practicing note-taking skills 20 3.4 Students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies ………………………… 22 Discussion …………… …………… …………… ………………… 29 3.5.1 Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills …………………… 29 3.5.2 Students’ perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills ………… 30 3.5.3 Students’ perceptions of difficulties in note-taking skills ……… 31 3.5.4 Students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies ………………… 31 3.5.5 Conclusion …………… …………… …………… …………… 32 Summary …………… …………… …………… …………………… 33 PART C: CONCLUSION …………… …………… …………… ………… 34 Summary of the study …………… …………… …………… ………… 34 Implications of teaching note-taking skills …………… ………………… 35 Limitations of the study …………… …………… …………… ……… 37 Suggestions for further studies …………… …………… ……………… 38 REFERENCES…………… …………… …………… ……………………… 39 APPENDIX …………… …………… …………… ………………………… I vi LISTS OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills 16 Chart 2: Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills 18 Chart 3: The number of students encounters difficulties in taking notes 20 Chart 4: Students' difficulties in taking notes 21 Chart 5: The number of students taught to take notes 22 Chart 6: How frequently students use note-taking strategies 24 (The strategies that students used most frequently in taking notes) Chart 7: How frequently students use note-taking strategies 26 (The strategies that students used less frequently) Chart 8: How frequently students use note-taking strategies (The strategies that students used least frequently) LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foregin Language ETS: Educational Testing Services Organization HULIS: Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies L1: English as the first language L2: English as the second language TOEFL iBT: Test of English as Foreign Language, internet-Based Test 28 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Note-taking is regarded as a useful study skill because it can assist students not only in remembering what they have heard or read, keeping them focused on the subject area and to the task at hand (Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson, 1982), but also extending their attention span during lectures (Rowntree, 1976) The reason is when taking notes, they use multiple senses and multiple activities including reading or listening then writing, using brain and muscles, etc Besides, note-taking skill is considered an indispensable tool in preparing for the exams in general, and the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) in particular With the emergence of the TOEFL program in which test-takers are not allowed to take notes, notetaking has become an interesting topic to a handful of researchers They mainly concern whether note-taking has facilitative effects on test takers' performance and to decide whether note taking should be allowed or not Some researchers are in favor of the view that notetaking is effective because it serves to focus on the main point of the lecture or conversations, students are, thereby, more likely to answer questions accurately Others are against notetaking because taking note during listening distracts learner's concentration ability, and that they will miss a substantial number of major details Not to mention some arguments supporting the idea that note taking does not help students since they often answer the questions based on their memory without referring the notes at all In other words, it is unimportant whether to take notes or not However, in 2005, the new version of TOEFL, TOEFL Internet-Based Test (iBT), was introduced by Educational Testing Services Organization (ETS), note-taking is permitted throughout the test This means that note-taking, to great extent, plays an important part in students' taking the TOEFL iBT test However, note-taking is regarded to play a critical role in examinees' taking the TOEFL test by mostly teachers and researchers Little is known about students' perspectives of the benefits of note-taking skill for the TOEFL iBT test Whether note-taking is facilitative or detrimental depends on students themselves If they have positive attitude towards note-taking, they will practice taking notes to answer the questions in the test Meanwhile, they will not take notes when the teacher asks them to note down information from listening or reading passage As an English instructor, the author has observed that some students are aware of the role of note taking skill while the others frequently not realize the importance of taking notes Sometimes, they are reluctant to practice note-taking skill, they write down information just because the teacher asks them to so Some students explain that they can remember information, so they not necessarily have to take notes or learn to take notes Others mention that they will be distracted from listening when they note down information, thus, they will not take any notes to avoid missing specific data Why are students not willing to learn and apply note-taking skill in studying for the TOEFL iBT test? What are their perceptions of note-taking skills for the TOEFL iBT test? Two above mentioned questions have drawn my interest in conducting the current research on students' perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Aims of the study The study is carried out with the aims at: - Surveying students' attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Investigating students' perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Discovering students’ perceptions of difficulties in practicing note-taking skills; - Examining students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies; - Giving some recommendations for EQuest teachers to help students improve the effectiveness of note-taking skills It is hoped that the study will be useful for teachers and students in general and for those at EQuest English Center in particular To reach the aims of the study, the following questions are given: What are EQuest students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of difficulties in practicing note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? Scope of the study Because of the framework of a minor thesis, the author only focuses on 50 students currently preparing for TOEFL iBT test at EQuest English Center to figure out their perceptions of notetaking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Methodology The aim of this research is to find out the students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills and perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills, students’ difficulties in note-taking skills and their note-taking strategies A descriptive research is carried out as it is the most suitable method to obtain the aim Although this method has its own limitation, specifically, the results collected may not reflect the matter proposed precisely To lessen the invalidity and unreality, the researcher explained instructions meticulously to students, and collected questionnaires right away to make sure that students answered each questions themselves The answers are completely objective and not controlled by the researcher 32 information Besides, students often used strategy-reviewing notes after the lecture to confirm comprehension to answer test questions The least frequently used strategies were general ones, that is, writing down everything the lecturer said; writing complete sentences; using diagrams or pictures; using neat handwriting This supports Carrell’s study (2007) in which strategies were reported as least frequently used and less helpful were using diagrams, numbers, lists, arrows, and neat handwriting (pp.25) 3.5.5 Conclusion Findings in this study reveal that the students, by and large, are positive toward note-taking skills They perceived of most major benefits of note-taking such as remembering the information in the lectures, organizing the information after the lecture is over, etc Additionally, most of them encountered difficulties in note-taking skills, specifically, listening to the talks and at the same time take notes, missing important information while taking notes, lectures’ new words, length and speed However, many of them took notes since they were advised to so In terms of note-taking strategies, most of them are taught to take notes, therefore, they perceived of most strategies suggested by the author They most frequently used strategies related to the content, efficiency and organization of the notes while least often employed general strategies like writing down everything lecturer said, or writing in complete sentences This study supports the findings of many researchers such as Hale & Courtney (1994), Carrier (2003), Lin (2004), Carrell (2007), Shang (2007), Nguyen (2009), Teng (2011) that students had positives toward note-taking skills, perceived of many benefits ot taking notes, yet encountered certain difficulties in note-taking, and were aware of many note-taking strategies in note-taking However, this study’s result is different from some other researchers to some extent like Cheng (1996), Lin (2004), Carrell (2007) 33 Summary In this chapter, the author has presented the data analysis and the discussion on the findings The data analysis demonstrated that students generally had positive attitudes towards notetaking skills Also, they perceived a great deal of benefits that note-taking can bring about such as remembering information from the lectures, answering questions better, etc Besides, students encountered many different difficulties, for example, missing important details, new words, fast speed, or the length of the lectures, etc In accordance to the last research question, a great majority of students perceived the strategies to take notes, partly because they were taught how to take notes in advance These findings will be the basis for the author to give some recommendations for teachers of EQuest to help students improve the effectiveness of note-taking in the next chapter 34 PART C: CONCLUSION This chapter summarizes some major points of the study, introduces implications for teaching note-taking skills more effectively and provides some limitations of the study Suggestions for further studies will be also presented in this section Summary of the study This study aims at investigating students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test In order to reach the aims of the study, four research questions were given The study was conducted over 50 students at EQuest English Center Questionnaires were used as a means to collect data Based on the findings discussed in the previous chapters, it is possible to draw out some conclusions as follows: (1) EQuest students had positive attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; (2) Students perceived major benefits of note-taking skills They stated that note-taking skills benefit them in many ways such as remembering information in the lectures, organizing the information after the lecture is over, answering the test questions better, feeling at ease (3) When taking notes they also encountered some difficulties like listening to the talks and at the same time take notes, missing important information while taking notes, difficulties lie in lectures’ new words, length and speed, etc (4) Students have good grasp of note-taking strategies They also frequently make use of those strategies such as writing down important information for each main point; significant details; employing abbreviations, symbols; paraphrasing (using easier words); using outlining; organizing notes visually; separating different ideas from each other; highlighting particularly important information All of the findings presented will be the basis for the author to give some recommendations for EQuest teachers to help students improve note-taking skills in the next part 35 Implications of teaching note-taking skills It is undeniable that note-taking skills facilitate students’ learning TOEFL iBT test, yet mastering this skill is time-consuming and not straightforward In order to help students improve the effectiveness of note-taking, the teacher should base on students’ typical difficulties and make use of strategies to teach students to note Based on the findings of the study as well as my own teaching experience in TOEFL iBT preparation courses, I highly recommend the following steps to teach note-taking skills Firstly, teachers should pre-teach new words, provide background knowledge of the lectures before practicing listening or reading since many students claim their difficulty due to lectures’ vocabulary and content related problems In terms of new words for TOEFL iBT test, it is understandable because the lectures in the test simulate university-level academic, thus, teachers should recommend students some useful books to strengthen their vocabulary capacity such as 400-must have words for TOEFL iBT, Vocabulary for TOEFL iBT, 1700 TOEFL Words, Check Your English Vocabulary for TOEFL, etc Besides, teachers can pick up key terms or difficult words in the lectures to teach before letting them listening Next lessons, trainers can check these new words, which encourages their vocabulary learning More importantly, students should be taught how to learn new words effectively such as guessing the meaning from context, learning prefixes, suffixes and roots, etc Concerning lecture’s content which makes it difficult for students to take notes, teachers should activate their prior knowledge by open-ended questions or discussions; facilitate them with some necessary information to comprehend lectures For example, in archaeology class, professor may talk about fossilization; the teacher can elicit students what steps for an animal to become a fossil Or the teacher can provide them vital information in diagram or pictures to make lesson more interesting to students 36 The second step related to the content of the notes because students reported not knowing how to take notes effectively, specifically what to write and how to write Actually, it is occasionally challenging for students to differentiate major points from minor ones, they are more likely to note whatever they hear or note subjectively Therefore, teachers should provide them with some sample or examples of note-taking for some common topics to visualize how information is considered significant For instance, the lecture is in a biology class, professor may talk about a particular species like primates, so important details probably consist of classification of primates, main features of primates If conversation takes place in a library, significant information students should take down may be their purposes (to borrow books, to return books, to pay fine for late return), requirements to use library services, other principles in library, etc In terms of how to note efficiently, the teacher should always ask students not to write down complete sentences, they can easily omit auxiliary verbs, determiners, pronouns and prepositions Teachers should also recommend students systems of abbreviations, symbols, personal short hand to save time without distracting their concentration on reading or listening A case in point is that learners can use the first syllable of the word and drop the others: reference – ref; omit the vowels from the words: people – ppl, problem – pblm; use an apostrophe: admitted – adm’d, as long as they subsequently can comprehend what they write The third step is related to the organization of the notes; teachers can provide them with typical organizing methods depending on the organization of the lectures It’s is very important for students’ notes to be clear and well-connected, as the notes will them no good afterwards if they can not read what they have written According to this study’s findings, many students in reality did not use or review their notes before answering test questions, probably because they could not understand what they wrote, or the link between different ideas was not transparent In other words, their inefficiency of taking notes lies in their organization of the notes It is very common that information in lectures be delivered in chronological order, in steps in a process, causes and effects, classification, from major points to minor ones, problems to solutions, etc Students’ notes, therefore, should also be in logical form, which can be done by using mind map, flow chart, or outline format with major points 37 and sub-points Eventually, teachers had better instruct students to highlight or circle important facts, use arrows to show the relationship between ideas They should be given some seconds to reviews their notes which will gradually become their beneficial habits Finally, the teacher should train students to familiarize with listening and noting simultaneously Students will often lose concentration or miss important information when doing these two tasks at the same time, considered the most challenge in taking notes (as mentioned in data analysis part) Regarding note-taking skills, students should be advised to write down major points and important details that may not be familiar or remembered, instead of writing down everything Not to mention, it is impossible to so when professor is lecturing As students listen, the teacher should remind them focusing on the main points and ideas, which can be recognized by the pause that is made before the essential information, by the repetition of some information, the emphasis that is placed on certain points, word signals (…two main aspects…, …second…,…essential…) etc Besides, it is advisable to guild students concentrate on important words, like nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs Teacher can also draw students’ attention to the questions both professors and students ask and answer because they often refer to major ideas or they move on another important idea Limitations of the study Although the study was conducted with the best of my effort, it is still has some limitations such as the participants of the study are limited (50 students in TOEFL iBT preparation courses at EQuest) Thus, findings of the study can not generalize to all the students of EQuest In addition, due to the lack of time and limitations of knowledge, the author has not considered all aspects of the issue, and mistakes of the study may be unavoidable The author would like to receive comments from the lecturers and those who concern this issue for further study with sincere gratitude 38 Suggestions for further studies Actually, this study is only viewed from students’ perspective For further studies, the perceptions of both teachers and students may be considered with a larger scale Additionally, other methods of study can be employed such as interviewing, observing the class to see the current situation more clearly, or collecting students’ notes to compare what they perceived and what they really did in note-taking activity 39 REFERENCES Carrell, P L., Dunkel, P A., & Mollaun, P (2002) The effects of notetaking, lecture length and topic on the listening component of the TOEFL 2000 (TOEFL monograph Series No MS-23) Princeton, NJ: ETS Carrell, P L (2007) Notetaking strategies and their relationship to performance on listening comprehension and communicative assessment tasks (TOEFL monograph Series No MS-35) Princeton, NJ: ETS Chen, Y (2006) Barriers to acquiring listening strategies for EFL learners and their pedagogical implication, from http:/www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/teslej/ej32/a2.html, n.d Cheng, P S (1996) The effects of notetaking on Chinese college students’ listening comprehension performance Unpublished master thesis, National Kaohsiung Normal University Chang, H (2007) A study on lecture note-taking by GITI students Proceedings of the 24th Conference on English Teaching and Learning, pp.212-227 Taipei: Taiwan ELT publishing Clerehan, R (1995) Taking it down: Notetaking practices of L1 and L2 students English for specific purposes 14, pp.137-155 Crawford, C.C (1925a) The correlation between college lecture ntoes nad quiz 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L2 students’ lecture notes and its relation to test performance TESOL Quarterly 22, pp 259-281 15 Dunkel, P (1988b) Academic listening and lecture notetaking for L1/L2 students: The need to investigate the utility of the axioms of good notetaking TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada 6, pp 11-26 16 Dunkel, P., & Davy, S (1989) The heuristic of lecture notetaking: Perceptions of American and international students regarding the value & practice of notetaking English for Specific Purposes 8, pp 33-50 17 Einstein, G O., Morris, J., & Smith, S (1985) Notetaking, individual differences, and memory for lecture information Journal of Educational Psychology 77, pp 522532 18 Engraffia, M., Graff, N., Jezuit, S., and Schall L (1999) Improving listening skills through the use of active listening strategies Master Action Research Project, Sain Xavier 19 Frase, L T (1970) Boundary conditions for mathemagenic behaviors Review of Educational Reseach 40, pp 337-347 20 Faraco, M., Barbier, M-L., & Piolat, A (2002) A comparison between notetaking in L1 and L2 by undergraduate students In S Ransdell & M Barbier (Eds.), Studies in writing, Volume 11: New directions for research in L2 writing, pp 145-167 The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers 21 Fisher, J L., & Harris, M B (1973) Effect of note taking and review on recall Journal of Educational Psychology 65, pp 321-325 41 22 Hale, G., & Courtney, R (1991) Notetaking and listening comprehension on the Test of English as a Foreign Language Master thesis, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N J Retrieved April 15, 2006, from the ERIC database (ED 384 662) 1991 23 Hale, G., & Courtney, R (1994) The effect of notetaking on listening comprehension in the Test of English as a Foreign Language Language Testing 11, pp 29-47 24 http://www.ets.org/toefl/ibt/about/ 25 Keselman-Turkel J & Peterson F (1982), Note-taking Made Easy, Contemporary Books, Lincolnwood (IL) 26 Kiewra, K A (1987) Notetaking and review: The research and its implications Instructional Science, 16, pp 233-249 27 Kiewra, K A (1989) A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond Educational Psychology Review 1, pp 147-172 28 Lin H H (2005) A preliminary study on the effects of notetaking strategy on different proficiency levels of junior high school students Unpublished master thesis, National Chengchi University 29 Lin, T Y (2004) Effects of notetaking on EFL learners’ listening comprehension Unpublished master thesis, National Taiwan Normal Univeristy 30 Liu, Y (2001) A cognitive study on the functions of note-taking and the content of notes taken in a context of Chinese EFL learners Unpublished master thesis, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China 31 McKenna, E (1987) Preparing foreign students to enter discourse communities English for speficic Purposes 6, pp 187-202 32 Palmatier, R A., & Bennet, J M (1974) Notetaking habits of college students Journal of Reading 18, pp 215-218 33 Peck, K L., & Hannafin, M J (1983) The effects of notetaking pretraining and the recording of notes on the retention of aural instruction Journal of Educational Research 77, pp 100-107 42 34 Rost, M., Beglar, D & Murray, N (2002) Contemporary Topics 3, Advanced Listening and Notetaking skills, Pearson Education, Inc 35 Rickards, J P., Fajen, B R., Sullivan, J F., & Gillespie, G (1997) Signaling, notetaking, and field independence-dependence in text comprehension and recall Journal of Educational Psychology 89, pp 508-517 36 Rowntree D (1976), Learn How to Study, Macdonald and Co.Rowntree, London 37 Shang, H (2007) The impact of notetaking on University EFL learners’ listening comprehension Journal of Cheng Shiu University 20, pp 257-266 38 Teng, H (2011) Exploring notetaking strategies of EFL listeners Journal of Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15, pp 480-484 39 Van Meter, P., Yokoi, L., & Pressley, M (1994) College students’ theory of notetaking derived from their perceptions of notetaking Journal of Educational Psychology 86, pp 323-338 40 Yeh, M.C (2004) The effects of motivation and listening strategies on the English listening comprehension of junior high students in Taiwan Unpublished thesis, National Kaohsiung Normal University 41 Williams, R L., & Eggert, A (2002) Note taking predictors of test performance Teaching of Psychology, 29(3), pp 234–237 I APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is intended for the thesis “Students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT at EQuest English Center.” It is designed in order to collect your opinions of note-taking skill I am grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in completing it Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential Please give your answers truthfully for a guaranteed success of the investigation Directions: Put a tick (√) next to your answers to the following questions and write the answers when necessary Do you take notes when studying for the TOEFL iBT test? Yes  No Do you use your notes when answering the test questions? Yes  No Do you think students should take notes when taking the TOEFL iBT test? Yes  No Do you think note-taking is important for you to get a better score on the TOEFL iBT test? Yes  No Read each of the following statements and indicate your agreement or disagreement with the statements Circle or Put a tick next to the number (5, 4, 3, 2, or 1) that best describes your opinion about the statements II Disagree strongly Disagree Neither agree or disagree Agree Agree strongly No Statements Points I find note-taking skill useful to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Taking notes helps me to concentrate on the lectures Taking notes helps me to remember the information in the lectures Taking notes helps me to understand the lectures 5 Taking notes helps me to organize the information after the lecture is over Taking notes helps me to answer the test questions better I feel at ease when I take notes I am advised to take notes Do you think you have difficulties in taking notes? Yes  No If your answer is no, you can stop here If your answer is yes, please go on question 7 Which difficulties you think you encounter in taking notes?  I can not concentrate when taking notes  I miss important information when taking notes  I find it difficult to listen to the talks and at the same time take notes  I don’t know how to take notes III  I find it difficult to take notes because I not know the new words  I find it difficult to take notes because the lectures are too fast  I find it difficult to take notes because I don’t understand the lectures’ contents  The lectures are too long for note-taking  Taking notes makes it more difficult to understand the lectures  Others: ……………………………………………………………… Are you taught note-taking strategies in English? Yes  No Please indicate how frequently you use each strategy Circle or put a tick (√) next to the number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that best describes how frequently you use the strategy Very Not frequently, Sometimes, Frequently, Very frequently, only about half the a lot of the almost all of the occasionally time time time infrequently, rarely or never No Note-taking strategies Points I use abbreviations for some words I use shorter and easier words than the lecturer used I use special symbols for some words I write complete sentences 5 I organize my notes visually on the page IV I use outlining I use diagrams or pictures I use neat handwriting I use content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and omit function words (words like of, to, the) 10 I write down important details about each main point 11 I write down important facts, numbers, and names that would be 5 difficult to remember without my notes 12 I use ways to highlight particularly important information (e.g., circles, underlining) 13 I separate different ideas from each other 14 I review my notes after the lecture to be sure I understand the 5 lecture 15 I try to write down everything the lecturer said THANK YOU VERY MUCH! ... Relevance of the problem to the TOEFL iBT 1.5.1 Introduction to the TOEFL iBT test There are a large number of resources providing information of the TOEFL iBT test, yet this study takes information... Relevance of the problem to the TOEFL iBT ………………………… 1.5.1 Introduction to the TOEFL iBT test …………………………………… 1.5.2 The importance of note-taking skills in the TOEFL iBT test ………… 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY... preparing for TOEFL iBT, they are about 16 to 25 years old There level of English is intermediate or high intermediate (75-90 TOEFL iBT scores) They are planning to take the TOEFL iBT within months with