Luận văn NGHIÊN cứu về VIỆC sử DỤNG các THỦ PHÁP TRONG làm bài đọc TOEIC đối với SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG đại học HÀNG hải VIỆT NAM

This research has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people. Therefore, I would like to express my deepest and humblest gratitude also warmest appreciation to the following people. First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my ever supportive supervisor, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh, Ph.D. for her valuable guidance, constructive advice, and unconditional support during the time I tried to complete this thesis. I would also express my huge thanks to all of my lecturers at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies as their invaluable lectures and guidance laid the foundation for the fulfillment of this thesis. I would also like to show my gratefulness to my colleagues who spent a great deal of time discussing some of the issues related to my research, offering their insights and perspectives as well as my students at Vietnam Maritime University in data collection process using survey questionnaire and semistructured interview. Last but definitely not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family for their unconditional support and words of encouragement.

This research has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help andencouragement of many people Therefore, I would like to express my deepest andhumblest gratitude also warmest appreciation to the following people

First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my eversupportive supervisor, Ms Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh, Ph.D for her valuableguidance, constructive advice, and unconditional support during the time I tried tocomplete this thesis

I would also express my huge thanks to all of my lecturers at Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies as theirinvaluable lectures and guidance laid the foundation for the fulfillment of thisthesis

Post-I would also like to show my gratefulness to my colleagues who spent a greatdeal of time discussing some of the issues related to my research, offering theirinsights and perspectives as well as my students at Vietnam Maritime University indata collection process using survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview

Last but definitely not least, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my familyfor their unconditional support and words of encouragement

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted at Vietnam Maritime University with a view to exploringtest-taking strategies relative to learners’ performance in TOEIC ReadingComprehension as well as identifying differences in reading strategies among highproficiency and low proficiency students at Vietnam Maritime University

The subjects involved in the study are over 100 students of Vietnam MaritimeUniversity (VMU) chosen randomly from 4 TOEIC classes Two classes are atElementary Level (TOEIC Level 1), the other classes are at Intermediate Level(TOEIC Level 2) The data was collected from survey questionnaires, interviewsand administration of two TOEIC tests for students The results indicated thatstudents at VMU put more emphasis on using reading strategies when they attendedthe TOEIC course In addition, this study also revealed some differences in readingstrategy use among students of different proficiency levels However, when looking

at the data, the researcher found some shared strategies between the two groups.From the findings, the study suggested several pedagogical implications forteachers, students and test-designers at VMU, acknowledged limitations of thestudy and offered suggestions for further research

CFL Center of Foreign Languages

IELTS International English Language Testing System

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOEIC Test of English for International Communication

VMU Vietnam Maritime University

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure1: A Heuristic for Thinking about Reading Comprehension 8

Figure 5: Comparison about the Priority of Reading Passage 27

Table 3: Reading strategies in taking TOEIC Reading Comprehension 26

Table 4: Types of Topic Texts often exploited by Low Proficiency and

High Proficiency Students

29

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration iAcknowledgements iiAbstract iii

Lists of figures and tables iv

Table of contents v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Research aims and research question 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Method of the study 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading 5

1.1.1 Definition of reading 5

1.1.2 Purposes of reading 6

1.1.3 Reading process 6

1.2 Reading comprehension 7

1.3 Reading TOEIC Test 8

1.3.1 Test 8

1.3.2 TOEIC Test 9

1.4 TOEIC reading comprehension strategies 10

1.5 Study of cognitive process 13

1.6 Summary 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Settings 16

2.2 Participants 16

2.3 Research method 17

2.3.1 Data collection instruments 17

2.3.2 Data collection procedures 18

2.3.3 Data analysis 19

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Research question 1 21

3.1.1 Types of Reading Passages and Topic texts often exploited 21

3.1.2 Reading Approach 24

3.1.3 Strategies to Deal with Reading Text 25

3.1.4 Reading strategies in taking TOEIC reading comprehension 26

3.2 Research question 2 27

3.2.1 A comparison about the Priority of Reading Passage 27

3.2.2 Types of Topic Texts often exploited by Low Proficiency and High Proficiency Students 28

3.2.3 A comparison about Reading Approach 29

3.2.4 A Comparison about reading strategies 30

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Summaries of the major findings 31

2 Pedagogical Implications 32

3 Limitations 34

4 Recommendations for further study 34

REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VII APPENDIX 3 VIII APPENDIX 4 XVI APPENDIX 5 XVII

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In the age of economic growth and global integration, English obviously plays avery important role However, the criteria for evaluating one’s English competenceare more and more difficult In today’s context, the A, B, C certificates used forpeople wishing to find a job are out-of- date, and the so-called IELTS, TOEFL orTOEIC have been the best choices TOEIC, together with other requirements for jobseekers, is preferred by most companies in order to assess their employees’qualifications Therefore, a lot of people are trying hard to achieve the success in aTOEIC Test

In addition, being a lecturer of English at VMU, through my teaching experience, Ihave found out that my students are always afraid of reading as compared to otherskills Students find reading difficult and stressful, and unfortunately, they have tosit for a TOEIC- based test which includes Reading and Listening comprehensionfor the final examination Therefore, many of the students get an awful resultsbecause of low scores in English subject in which reading is always a target ofblaming

Previously, although much literature has been devoted to TOEIC related topics;little was revealed about the cognitive processes underlying the performance ofVietnamese candidates in the TOEIC Reading Test, except for the exploratory study

by Phạm Đức Long (2013) on “teaching and learning of TOEIC readingcomprehension skill”

For all of the reasons stated, this paper is among the first attempts putting the

emphasis onto “test-taking techniques for TOEIC Reading Comprehension to students at Vietnam Maritime University” so as being help to solve out their

problems

2 Research aims and research questions

The original aim of this study is to gain an insight into how test-takers employdifferent reading strategies in TOEIC Reading comprehension As the first attempt

to explore the ongoing thinking processes during performing reading tasks, oncefinished the paper could serve as a useful source for TOEIC candidates who areplanning to sit for the test as well as TOEIC trainers who want to have a closer look

at how their trainees would actually perform in the real test for better TOEICpreparation instruction To achieve this aim, the following research questions will

Investigating the “test-taking techniques for TOEIC Reading Comprehension test tostudents at Vietnam Maritime University”, this study is expected to make certaincontributions to the related populations including students taking TOEIC test,teachers teaching TOEIC, and researchers of the same subjects

results Moreover, by noticing the students’ difficulties in reading, teachers canhave their in-time consideration and correction in teaching reading effectively.

In addition to the benefits given to the two above subjects, the study may serve asthe foundation based on which further related research would be carried out.Particularly, future research could be made better after the limitations of the studyare considered

5 Method of the study

In the current study, the researcher decided to employ immediate retrospectiveverbal report approach to explore the test-taking strategies of 100 students as well asthe cognitive processes underlying their performance in reading TOEICcomprehension Retrospection is a data-collecting method in which participants areasked to report their mental processes after solving a matter

Firstly, apart from the surveyed 100 students, 15 students were chosen to participate

in the semi-interviews as soon as they finished taking TOEIC Test With the aim ofmaking the responses more confident in the interview, all the questions are simpleand understandable for students to answer

Secondly, questionnaires are delivered to the students after they take the TOEICtest They were offered to tick or circle the answer that best reflects theirviewpoints

6 Organization of the study

The rest of the study includes two parts as follow:

Part 2 consists of:

Chapter 1, Literature Review, presents related theoretical background of the study

in which concepts of reading and test-taking strategies for TOEIC ReadingComprehension test would be discussed

Chapter 2, Methodology, covers four major parts, namely, participants, instruments,data collection, data collection procedures, and data analysis

Chapter 3, Results and Discussions, presents, analyzes and discusses the findings inorder to answer the research questions of the study.

Part 3, Conclusion, provides summaries of the main findings, suggestions for betterresults, limitations of the study, and lastly, recommendations for further relatedresearches

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review

In this chapter, relevant knowledge collected from various sources will be presented

so that it can suitably serve as a foundation for the research The paper is dividedinto two parts including theories on reading difficulties and TOEIC reading

1.1 Reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading

According to Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, reading can be defined asthe process of perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents which can

be done silently, and the understanding that result is called reading comprehension.However, the term reading can also be understood as saying a written text aloudwhich can be done with or without understanding the text Another definition ofreading which can be found in Collins English Learners’ Dictionary is an act oflooking at and understanding point This definition puts the emphasis on theinvolvement of the act of the eye during the process of reading and was supported

by Harmer (1989) as eyes receive the message and the brain has to work out thesignificance of the message (p.153)

So far, many scholars have been working out the definition of reading According toSmith (1985), reading is to understand the author’s thought Rumelhart (1997)proposed a different view on reading which is, in his opinion, actually an interactionbetween reader and text This view was shared by a number of researchers(Silberstein, 1994; Goodman, 1971; Alderson, 2003; Griffiths et al., 2011; Falke,

1982) Goodman (1971) in his book titled Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game put forward the definition that reading is a psycholinguistics process by

which the reader, a language user, reconstructs as well as he can, a message whichhas been encoded by a writer as a graphic display, a cyclical process of sampling,predicting, testing and confirming (p.135) As Falke (1982) defined, in English the

“graphic display” can be either printed or written.

Among the many definitions of reading that have arisen in recent decades, acomprehensive view should account for the active process of using one’s won priorlanguage knowledge and experience and the cues found in the text to understandwhat the writer has encoded (Saengpakdeejit, 2009), since reading is not simply acognitive skill, nor does it have a straightforward outcome as the same text can beunderstood in different ways by different readers For the recent study, however,reading also refers to the active thinking process that TOEIC test-takers take so as

to understand and complete different reading tasks of the test

1.1.2 Purposes of reading

The purposes of reading refer to readers’ aims and objectives Therefore, differentreaders may have different purposes in their mind with the reading text in theirhand According to Ruiqi (2007), basically there are two main reading purposesincluding reading for getting information and reading for pure fun or enjoyment Grabe and Stoller (2002), however, divided reading purposes into seven subtypeswhich are more specific: reading for search for simple information, reading to skimquickly, reading to learn from the text, reading to integrate information, reading towrite, reading to critique the text and reading for general comprehension

1.1.3 Reading process

Reading process is claimed by Gascoigne (2005) to be a selective process which ischaracterized as an active process of comprehending So far, there have been threewidely accepted reading models developed to depict the act of reading or the wayand procedure that readers use to construct meaning from the reading texts Thethree reading models are bottom-up, top-down and interactive (Barnett, 1989)

In bottom-up model, reading is compelled by the text, proceeds from part to whole,constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases, sentences Readers process the text

in linear direction (Nunan, 1991) Therefore, in this model, readers are believed toplay a rather passive role The basis of bottom-up reading model lies in thelinguistic knowledge of the reader (Samuel & Kamil, 1988)

In top-down model, the understanding of the text is constructed from whole to part.The readers predict what come next, test their prediction and adjust or confirm Inthis model, readers actively use their background knowledge Goodman (1967)described reading using top-down model like a “psycholinguistic guessing game” inwhich the “reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has beenencoded by a writer as a graphic display” (p.135)

Interactive model is a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches Thismodel was discussed as the process of combining textual information with theinformation the reader brings to a text (Widdownson, 1979); therefore, the meaning

of the text is, in fact, “synthesized based on information provided simultaneouslyfrom several knowledge sources” (Stanovich, 1980, p.35)

1.2 Reading comprehension

Sedita (2001) claimed that reading comprehension is the ability to determinemeaning from text It is a complicated, interactive process where readers constructmeaning based on information they get from the text combine with their ownknowledge Gough and Tunmer (1986) supported that reading comprehension isactually a process of decoding According to the RAND Reading Study Group,reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructingmeaning through interaction and involvement with written language which entails 3elements: the reader who doing the comprehending (bring his own capacities,abilities, knowledge and experiences), the text to be comprehended and the activity(the purposes, the processes, the consequences) The dynamic interaction betweenthese elements of reading comprehension can be depicted in the following figure

Figure1: A Heuristic for Thinking about Reading Comprehension (RAND

Reading Study Group, 2002)

1.3 Reading TOEIC Test

1.3.1 Test

Towards the meaning of a test, many different authors have different definitions.According to definition cited in Longman dictionary, a test is: “any procedure formeasuring ability, knowledge or performance” Alphonse (2008), on the other handsays that testing is one of the best ways to enable the teacher to monitor students’performance and progress However, the researcher finds that the definition made

by Rubayee (2008) is the most effective in which “tests are important indetermining the students’ learning achievements in the classroom; at the same timethey also help teachers to monitor his/her teaching methods in the classroom” (cited

in To and Nguyen, 2008)

There are many ways to classify tests including basing on their uses and purposes,the ways to mark them, or on the types of test tasks, etc According to test purposes

as the grouping principle, we can classify tests into four common types as below:

Proficiency

tests

To see how good students are at language, or use of the language Thecontents of a proficiency tests are not chosen according to what hasbeen taught, but according to what is needed for a particular purpose

Achievement

tests

To see how well students have learnt the language taught in class.Achievement tests are often at the end of term or end of the year andtest the main points of what has been taught in that time

Placement

tests

To identify a student’s level of language and find the best class forthem These are essential in large institutions that frequently receive

1.3.2 TOEIC Test

In 2005, the Ministry of Education and Education testing Institute- based in USregarded the use of TOEIC to asset students’ English language proficiency Thus,universities in Vietnam can apply the TOEIC program to teach and evaluatestudents’ learning outcomes instead of the old program and tests for A, B, Ccertificates

Firstly, the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) is astandardized, multiple-choice proficiency test which is built to measurecommunicative English for “non-native speakers” (Wilson, 2000, p.1) In order toscore well on the new TOEIC test, you must have two goals: improve yourproficiency in English and improve your test- taking skills The test has twosections: Listening Comprehension (100 multiple choice questions) and ReadingComprehension (100 multiple choice questions) Total time allowed for the test(including administrative tasks) is approximately 2.5 hours The ListeningComprehension section takes 45 minutes; the Reading section takes 75 minutes.The content of the TOEIC is not specialized; the vocabulary and content arefamiliar to those individuals who use English in daily activities

In TOEIC reading section, there are 100 multiple-choice questions which take 75minutes Reading score scale ranges from 5 to 495 (Examinee handbook – Listening

& Reading, 2012, p.2) TOEIC reading test is divided into three parts including

incomplete sentences, text completion, and the last one is reading comprehension

Part 5- Incomplete Sentences has 40 sentences in which test-takers are asked to

select the best answer to complete the sentence, then mark the letter (A), (B), (C), or

(D) on their answer sheet Regarding part 5, 40 questions are presented to testlearners’ grammar and vocabulary extensively.

Part 6- Text Completion consists of 12 questions in which there will be 4 texts and

3 questions for each text In this part, test-takers are asked to select the best answer

to complete the text (type of questions and the way to do are as same as part 5)

Part 7- Reading Comprehension includes 48 questions in which there will be 28

questions in single passages Test takers will only read advertisement, form, letter,e-mail, fax, memo, table, index, chart, instruction, or notice separately There are atleast 2 questions and 20 questions in double passages The test-takers, in this part,must choose the best answer among four for each question

1.4 TOEIC reading comprehension strategies

As in all reading comprehension exercises, a variety of skills are required to deducethe right answer These include skimming, scanning, paraphrasing, andunderstanding vocabulary in context Readers must be able to identify synonymsand implied information A clue is that the order of the questions follows the order

to the information in the reading passage

Lougheed (2007b) suggests that reading skills such as “skimming, scanning, usingthe context and reading fast” (p.228, see more in the 5th Appendix) should bepracticed sharply to enhance reading comprehension He goes on to add that acompetitive tip is to “read the questions before read the passage” (IntroductoryCourse, p.151) It might be inferred that when readers have a particular question intheir mind, they can read fast and purposefully Furthermore, TOEIC examinees “donot read the answer before they read the passage” (Lougheed, 2007a, p.151) It may

be understood that when test-takers master each reading question, they should findthe answer in the passage instead of looking for answer options (A), (B), (C), (D)after each question It can be seen that Lougheed (2007c) reveals that TOEICexaminees should find not only direct answer but also “synonyms, paraphrases, andimplied answers” (p.170) It is not enough without mentioning four main question

types: “main idea questions, detail questions, inference questions and vocabularyquestions” (Lougheed, 2007a, p.151) which readers are highly recommended toprepare for the new TOEIC test

According to www.masterthetoeic.com, one of the most important skills readerswill need to develop for the TOEIC is Skimming - this will help readers with manyQuestions in Part 6: Text Completion and Part 7: Reading Comprehension,especially with Inference Questions Skimming means to quickly look through aText, focusing only on certain words These words give you an understanding ofthe general information or ideas in the Text The key to Skimming is to NOT READevery word

Instead, focus on the following kinds of Key Words:

 Subject or Object of each sentence

 Action Verbs (i.e., verb that describe a clear action, such as “delete”)

 Helping Verbs (i.e., verbs such as “need to”, “can”, or “will”)

 Strong Adjectives

 Skimming will help readers: more quickly understand the General Ideas

of Texts, without having to read every word

 Skimming will also help readers: know the Location of different kinds ofinformation

Another TOEIC skill you need to develop is the ability to quickly Scan Questions,Answer Choices and Paragraphs for Words and Ideas The key to Scanning is toNOT READ Instead, Look

When readers scan, they look for specific words - Key Words -from an AnswerChoice or Question These Key Words give the most important information or theinformation that makes that answer choice unique (different from the other AnswerChoices)

After they have chosen Key Words from an Answer Choice, go to the Text Taketheir pencil and run it across the sentences of the Text, moving from one word to the

next in each sentence Their eyes should follow just behind the pencil as it movesover the words.

As they move the pencil, be looking for the Key Words, or synonyms of the KeyWords, from the Answer Choices When you find a Key Word from an AnswerChoice, look for Key Words from the Question–are they nearby? If “Yes”, thenthat is probably the correct answer

Another strategy is time management (time limit strategy) Good time management

is essential when taking tests such as TOEFL, TEFL, etc It is especially true of theTOEIC test The time limit strategy is the easiest way to improve TOEIC score Thestrategy involves planning how much time test-takers should spend on eachquestion and limiting yourself accordingly

For example, if test-takers had a 10 minute test with a total of 10 questions and eachquestion was worth 1 point, they should spend about 1 minute on each question Ifthey spent 9 minutes doing the first question, they would have less than 1 minute forthe other 9 questions!

By not wasting time on the hard questions, test-takers should have time at the end ofthe test to come back and do the rest It is possible that you may even find hints forhard questions further on in the test This strategy is best applied to the TOEICReading section

Forster et al (1997, p.129) continue to reveal that reading the questions withcarefulness is the first step followed by predicting possible correct answers The

second step comes to information-identifying skills In “Strategies 1: Building TOEIC/TOEFL test-taking skills”, it is pointed out that the questions asked may not

impose as the orderly information in the text In addition to that, from my teachingexperience, I agree with such researchers in term of wrong answers in TOEICreading comprehension which may be resulted in by choosing “too general, toovague or too specific” answers (p.129)

As Forster et al (1997, p.9) recommend, answers B and C are the two most popularanswer to questions in TOEIC, so it is worthy to advise students to mark B or C

when they have no idea for the answer to a specific question Moreover, theseresearchers suggest that when students encounter a new word which they have notseen before, it is better to depend on surrounding words in the sentences forguessing the new word in the context.

1.5 Study of cognitive processes

To study the content of cognitive process which cannot beobserved, a number of research techniques can be employed Thefollowing table summarizes the procedure of the five commonmethods with the use of verbal protocol

Retrospection The subject solves a problem and is questioned afterwards about

the thought processes during the solving of a problem

Introspection

The subject is instructed to report not after completing theproblem-solving task but at intermediate points chosen by thesubject

Questions and

prompting

The subject is questioned during the problem-solving process ormay be prompted at given intervals to tell what he is thinking ordoing

(Someren, Barnard & Sanberg, 1994)

In the current study, the researcher decided to employ immediate retrospectiveverbal report approach to explore the test-taking strategies of 100 students as well asthe cognitive processes underlying their performance in reading TOEIC

Retrospection is a data-collecting method in which participants are asked to reporttheir mental processes after solving a problem Among all of the five methods usedfor studying cognitive processes, retrospection is claimed to produce the listdisturbance to the participants’ cognitive process since the subjects are notinterrupted during the problem-solving process (Someren, Barnard & Sandberg,1994) The use of retrospective verbal protocol, however, has its own disadvantagesince it may affect the cognitive process itself as a consequence of being aware that

“one is going to be asked questions afterwards” (Someren, Barnard & Sandberg,

1994, p.25) and produce “incomplete verbalization” (Xiangdong & Chunyan, 2012,p.405)

Nevertheless, this method has been utilized in a number of second language studies

to investigate students’ test-taking strategies (Wu, 1998; Weir, Hawkey, Green, &Devi, 2006; Xiangdong & Chunyan, 2012) To lessen the negative points of themethod, in the current study, the researcher choose to conduct retrospectiveinterview immediately after the reading process along with the use of actionprotocol which, in this case, would be the reading answer sheets, the immediateproducts of the reading task, to help the subjects better recall their cognitiveprocesses while reading

1.6 Summary

To sum up, this chapter provides different current theories of both reading andsources of reading difficulty in order to give a clear overview on the matter of thestudy The following chapter will deal with the methodology with which the studywas conducted

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

After reviewing a theoretical basis for the study in the previous part, in this chapter,the researcher will discuss the methodology used to implement the research Thechapter will cover four major parts, namely, participants, data collectioninstruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.1 Settings

This study was conducted at the Center of Foreign Languages, VMU At VMU,students have to take sit for a TOEIC-test which includes Reading and Listeningcomprehension for the final examination Therefore, in each English class, normally

ranging from 25 to 30 students per class, there is a mixture of different that means students came from different departments and levels of English Often,students coming from Maritime Economics Department are better in English thanthe other Departments, and Navigation students are normally worse To make thesituation better, CFL held the placement test to classify students into differentlevels Low proficiency students took part in TOEIC Level 1 that TOEIC scoreranged from 200 to 300, high proficiency ones did in TOEIC Level 2 that TOEICscore ranged from 350 t0 450 At the end of 50 classes, they are asked to sit for afull TOEIC- based test

students-They must get scores of 450 as one of the conditions to graduate To meet therequirements for a TOEIC 450 course, students should be at intermediate level ofEnglish in order to catch up with advanced curriculum However, the Englishabilities of students are different, using strategies is the most effective way to getthe score The subject is mainly taught in formal settings according to thenationwide course distribution

2.2 Participants

The number of participants in the study was 100 who had been chosen from 4TOEIC preparation classes at the CFL Most of them were second year students inthe academic year 2013-2014 at VMU They came from different departments atdifferent levels Most of them were ranging their age from 19 to 20 Of the 100students, 50 were at elementary level whose current TOEIC band scores rangedfrom 200 to 300, attend TOEIC Level 1, the other 50 were at intermediate levelwhose TOEIC band scores ranged from 350 to 450, attend TOEIC Level 2 Theband score 450 was then considered as the level border line

2.3 The research method

2.3.1 Data collection instruments

2.3.1.1 Immediate retrospective account of strategy use

Immediate retrospective interviews will be conducted and audio recorded with theuse of semi-structured guiding questions so that it encourage the participantsexpress their thoughts while performing reading tasks The questions will bechangeable in advance but still flexible enough to encourage the participants to talk

of their thinking processes and they will be mostly “what” questions rather than

“why” to enable the participants recall more information relevant to their test-takingprocesses (Xiangdong & Chunyan, 2012) and to collect a direct report rather thanjust interpretation (Someren, Barnard & Sandberg, 1994)

2.3.1.2 Questionnaire

A questionnaire for students who had finished TOEIC courses (see Appendix 1)with items relating to the subjects’ strategies , current level of English as well astheir English learning experience will be used to provide the researcher with acomprehensive knowledge of the subjects’ experience in learning English and theirunderstanding of different reading strategies In order to help the participants tounderstand the questionnaire completely, Vietnamese was used

2.3.1.3 Reading test

The reading tests include one full TOEIC Reading Test administered by the centerwhich the researcher learn about the subjects’ current English reading proficiencymarked in accordance with the TOEIC marking scale and two other partial tests.These two tests are carefully chosen from TOEIC Preparation materials so that theyinclude three parts: Incomplete Sentences, Text Completion, Readingcomprehension

Also, the test paper with the marks that the subjects make during the readingprocess would serve as useful data for further analysis Every notes or marks on thepaper will be kept to help the researcher trace back the subjects’ cognitive process

as they perform the reading tasks

2.3.2 Data collection procedure

The procedures of data collection went through three main phases in chronologicalorder: delivering questionnaires, holding semi-structured interviews and carryingout the observations.

2.3.2.1 Delivering questionnaires

120 questionnaires for students were randomly distributed to four classes havingstudents from different levels in foreign language center at VMU The reason todeliver such number of questionnaires was to eliminate the invalid ones and getback 100 most comprehensible ones, and to avoid losing the questionnaires made bythe students

On the day of giving questionnaires, the researcher asked for the help of theteachers teaching those periods to deliver the papers to the students afterintroducing the purposes and explaining some necessary information in case ofhaving any problems The reason to let the teachers send out the questionnaires wasthat under the “authority” of the teachers, students would complete the papersseriously

2.3.2.2 Holding the semi-structured interviews

One-by-one interviews for the students were done in their dormitory rooms Thefirst part of the interviews was to introduce and establish the close rapport betweenthe interviewer and the interviewees Then, the researcher started the interviews andasked the permission to the use of tape-recording along with the confirmation ofconfidentiality of the interviews Under a friendly and open atmosphere, therespondents were encouraged to express their views and share their opinionstowards the questions raised by the researcher During the interviews, in addition toasking for the respondents’ point of views, the researcher also let them chances toclarify and explain what strategies they used A part from the use of tape-recording,the researcher took notes on some important information through the interviews forthe sake of later transcription

The data collection procedure will include three phases Firstly, the participants whoare asked to join the research will be informed of the purpose as well as instructed

on the procedure of the study At this phase, they will also take some reading tasksand perform pilot immediate retrospection afterwards At the second phase, theywill do the reading and their immediate retrospection protocol will be collected.Finally, the transcription phase of data will be conducted

2.3.3 Data analysis

As the data collected from immediate retrospection is transcribed, it will becategorized and analyzed to reveal the answers to the focused research questionsconcerning

1) Which test-taking techniques became more effective for TOEIC ReadingComprehension test to the students at Vietnam Maritime University?

2) What are differences between the reading strategies employed by highproficiency and low proficiency students at Vietnam Maritime University?For the first category, the descriptive statistics of frequency method was employed

to illustrate the most strategically-planned strategies and the most exploited practical experience among the students

popularly-For the second category, the researcher also exploited the descriptive statisticsbetween the reading strategies by high proficiency and low proficiency students

2.3.4 Summary

The second chapter gave a clear view on the methodology of the research includingparticipants, data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysisprocedure Based on the aims of the study, using triangulation of questionnaires,observations and semi-structured interviews was considered as the best choice tocollect the thorough and in-depth information from the respondents and can makethe data gained afterward reliable and comprehensive All of those findings are asfollow in the next chapter

CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data, after being collected from the questionnaires, the observations, and thesemi-structured interviews, would be analyzed and interpreted to answer the tworesearch questions

3.1 Research Question 1

Which test-taking techniques became more effective for TOEIC Reading Comprehension test to the students at Vietnam Maritime University?

The results collected from 100 students towards the first research question areconveyed into figures and tables as follows:

3.1.1 Types of Reading Passages and Topic texts often exploited

a Priority in Reading Passages

The above figure is showing whether single passages or double passages should becompleted first And as can be seen it shows that Single Passages are much morepaid attention In 100%, 87% chose to work on single passages first The mostconvincing reason for students’ strategies of doing single passages before doublepassages displayed in the 3rd figure It was sad to say that the percentage got by theDouble Passages is only 13% because students do not give much more focus if thereare lots of passages to read Thirteen of 100 students who chose double passage toexploit first have the same opinion that “Double passages take more time to do thansingle passages However, we can answer effectively when we have strong interestand careful attention” The other part of students liked to do single passages whichare both shorter and easier One student added to the interview “In order to get highscore and greater fulfillment of test, test-takers must follow the order of completionand time allowed as they had experienced”

Reasons for Reading Single Passages First

As seen from the figure 3, it further indicates that in a percentage of 100% studentstop reason in reading single passages is that Single Passages are short and easy sothat is why it got a big part of this section with a percentage of 64%, second reason

is Single Passages are familiar so that is why it got a percentage of 15%, thirdreason is Single Passages have fewer questions so in this part it got a percentage of13% And the very last reason is that Students can use reading strategies better sothat is why it only got a percentage of 8%

In this case students’ comprehension ability can only fall under single passages andthat is why students give much more attention and focus in single passages than todouble passages

b Types of Topic Texts often exploited

Manual 10%

Table 1: Types of Topic Texts often exploited

Based on the data from survey questionnaire collected in Table 1, it shows the

“Types of Topic Text often Exploited” it further indicates that Letter is the highestpercentage in this table with a percentage of 43%, Advertisement which is thesecond to the highest percentage in this table and Type of the Topic texts with apercentage of 41% So that means there are lots of types of topic texts to use inreading comprehension in TOEIC but the students much often exploited through theuse of type of topic texts which is the Letter and Advertisement In regard to thequestionnaire’s result, the first interviewed student said: “Letter and Advertisementlook easier and clearer to do than the other types Besides, some kinds of letter such

as thanks-giving letter, refusal or asking for information letter were carefully taught

in TOEIC class As the result, we got familiar with letter Whenever I did thesetypes of reading, I felt confident and accurately sure” One of the Types of TopicTexts which is Notice got a percentage of 28%, Report got a percentage of 15%,12% as the percentage for Form, next is Manual with a percentage of 10% As youseen in this table Memorandum is the lowest percentage in this table with apercentage of 4%, and the last but definitely not the least in Type of Topic Texts isthe News and Article with a percentage of 14%

According to students, Memorandum and Manual are difficult for them to dobecause given information in these types are extremely complex andmisunderstanding That is the reason why these types got lowest percentage

3.1.2 Reading Approach

The figure above is the “Reading Approach” it shows and indicates the differentapproaches used in reading a particular text The biggest part of this section got ahighest percentage of 43% and that is the Bottom-up Approach This approach ismuch used by the students is that because it was from part to whole meaningstudents wants to read a certain text part by part before they go to whole story of thetext, next to that is Interactive Approach with a percentage of 39% and the second

to the highest percentage in this section This approach means that students give sort

of focus using this approach maybe because there is some cases that the story thatthey read is much needed to use both Top-down and Bottom-up approach Lastly,the lowest part of this section is the Top-down approach with a percentage of only18% is that because some students cannot easily understand a certain text or story ifthe teacher started to discuss the story from whole to part of a particular story ortext

In this case teacher must be aware of the reading approach that they are going to use

in dealing with a certain texts or stories

3.1.3 Strategies to Deal with Reading Text

A Read questions before looking at the texts 10% 17% 43% 30%

B Read instruction to know reading passage types and

G Choose B/C if I can’t find the answer 23% 56% 11% 10%

Note: N= never (0%), S= sometimes (30%), O= Often (70%), A= always (100%)

Table 2: Strategies to Deal with Reading Text

The above table is shows the result on the survey that is already done and that isstudents’ strategies to deal with reading text and there is a rating use N=Never (0%),S= sometimes (30%), O= Often (70%), A= always (100%)

In section A, students always and often read questions before reading text Beinginterviewed, these students said that they could focus on what they needed to readand save time to do the tasks As you can see in section B, only six percent ofstudents always read instruction to know reading passage types and questionnumbers first while 39 percent students never did One student revealed that she hadknown the instruction so it was waste of time doing that The number of studentssometimes read the instruction to know reading passage types and question numbers

is 45%, they answered that it was not necessary to read because the instructions inTOEIC tests are the same In section C, half of students never adjust structures toknow the organization of reading texts, they said: “It’s no use adjusting structures toknow the organization of reading text” Next, Section D are the same as C Look atsection E, nearly three-forth often and always classify question types to arrange inorder of priority, only four percent of students never do this One of the studentswho belonged to category always answered: “Classify question types is extremelynecessary, it plays an important role in doing test When you classify well, your

choice will be correct And in our class, our teacher focused in this lesson” Incontrast to section E, more than three-forth students never or sometimes watch outtoo general, too vague or too specific answers In fact, researcher observed in testroom, students had to control the time doing test and they had no time to evaluatewhether the answers were general, vague, specific or not Finally, over a half ofstudents sometimes choose B or C if they can’t find the answer while one-forthnever do this One student said: “In case of doing nothing, I choose B or C becauseour teacher advised to do that”.

3.1.4 Reading strategies in taking TOEIC reading comprehension

A Skimming the text for general information 34%

B Scanning the text for specific information 31%

D Predicting the content of the texts 11%

E Reading quickly to answer quickly 19%

F Summarizing the content of the texts 4%

Table 3: Reading strategies in taking TOEIC reading comprehension

As can be seen in table 3, the most frequently used strategy is skimming the text forgeneral information, three interviewed students answered: “Our teachers advised us

to use all reading strategies and we think skimming and scanning are the mostimportant to all reading passages In TOEIC class, we are taught all strategies butsome of them such as guessing new words in the context and summarizing thecontent of the texts are too difficult for us to follow, that is the reason why thesestrategies are rarely used”

Figure 5: Comparison about the Priority of Reading Passage

This figure shows “A Comparison about the Priority of Reading Passage” and thehighest percentage is seen that top priority in reading passages is fall under theSingle Passages with a percentage of 94% as Low Proficiency and 80% as HighProficiency This number proves that students are afraid of texts that have morepassages However, students who chose double passages are very good at Englishand they didn’t mind any types of exercises

Reasons for Reading Single Passages First

Figure 6: Reasons for Reading Single Passages First

It can be seen from the above figure, there’re only a few differences between twogroups It further indicates the students top reasons is that SP are short and easy so itgains a percentage of 60% as Low Proficiency and 68% as High Proficiency Thelowest reason is Sts can use reading strategies better and this only gain a percentage

of 10% as Low Proficiency and 6% as High Proficiency

3.2.2 Types of Topic Texts often exploited by Low Proficiency andHigh Proficiency Students

Types of topic texts Low Proficiency High proficiency

Table 4: Types of Topic Texts often exploited by Low Proficiency and High

Proficiency Students