A study on IELTS test-taking strateges reading section = Nghiên cứu về chiến thuật làm bài đọc IELTS

Table 1 - Frequencies of various task types Table 2 - Description of True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/ Not Given reading task and suggested test-taking strategies Table 3 - Common study me

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

ĐINH THỊ HÀ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON IELTS TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES:

READING SECTION NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN THUẬT LÀM BÀI ĐỌC IELTS

M.A Combined Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2014

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

ĐINH THỊ HÀ PHƯƠNG

A STUDY ON IELTS TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES:

READING SECTION NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN THUẬT LÀM BÀI ĐỌC IELTS

M.A Combined Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà

Hanoi - 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety I have acknowledged all the resources of information which have been used in the thesis

I also hereby state that I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of M.A Thesis deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian or the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Đinh Thị Hà Phương Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The writing of this dissertation has been one of the most significant academic challenges I have ever had to face I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without the guidance of my supervisor, help from my friends and students, and support from my family and my fiancé

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Do Thi Thanh Ha for her continuous support throughout my thesis with her patience and knowledge I would definitely attribute the level of my Masters Degree to her encouragement and effort, and without her this thesis would not have been completed Her guidance helped me in all the time of the research and writing of this thesis

Besides, I would like to thank the students who participated in the research and my friends for enthusiastically supporting me

My sincere thanks also go to my family: my parents, my elder brother, my sister-in-law and my little nephew who were always encouraging me with their best wishes

Finally, I would like to thank my husband for his patience He was always there cheering

me up and stood by me through all the good and bad times

This study describes the test-taking strategies that test-takers employed in the Reading section of the IELTS test As one of the first attempts to investigate the test-taking strategies in response to the True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given reading tasks, the paper aims at exploring the frequently used strategies and their effectiveness reflected in the test-takers‟ reading performance In the recent study, the possibility of guessing the answers in responding to the True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given is of particular interest To fulfill these primary aims, both quantitative and qualitative methods with the use of stimulated recalls were adopted Verbal protocol data was collected from 10 ISP students who had attended IELTS Preparation Course and achieved an average IELTS score of 6.0 The students were asked to recall their thoughts as they were struggling for the answers to two academic reading texts after they finished reading The participants‟ verbal reports were then transcribed and decoded so that they could reveal the commonly used strategies as well as their effectiveness The findings of the study provide insight into the response behaviors prompted by a specific reading task in the IELTS Test

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Page Figure 1 - Cognitive processing in reading

Figure 2 - A Heuristic for Thinking about Reading Comprehension

Figure 3 - The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components

Table 1 - Frequencies of various task types

Table 2 - Description of True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/ Not Given reading

task and suggested test-taking strategies

Table 3 - Common study methods of strategy

Table 4 - Description of participants

Table 5 - IELTS band score descriptors

Table 6 - Equivalences of common tests to Common European Framework of

Reference levels

Table 7 - Description of the reading passages

Table 8 - Overall strategies used by test-takers: Approach to the task

Table 9 - Reported use of different reading test-taking strategies from

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1

1.4 Expected outcomes and significance of the study 2 1.5 Overview of the rest of the paper 3

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Participants and setting 25

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Reported use of different strategies and their effectiveness 33 4.1.1 Overall strategies used by test-takers: Approach to the task 33 4.1.2 Specific reading and test-taking strategies 36

4.2 Possibility of guessing 63 4.2.1 Dealing with unknown words 63 4.2.2 Handling questions with uncertainty 68

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of the major findings 71 5.2 Implication for IELTS preparation 72 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 72

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

Generally recognized as one of the most reliable means in assessing English language proficiency, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) has gained its popularity in many countries since 1990s The IELTS, as now it stands, serves as a testimony which provides assessment of language aptitude for immigration and study purposes IELTS candidature, in particular, has witnessed a rapid growth in recent years with over 1.5 million test-takers every year including thousands of Vietnamese candidates With the development of the IELTS, much attention was paid on IELTS research with its four skills-based modules that make up the test

Previously, although much literature has been devoted to IELTS related topics; little was revealed about the cognitive processes underlying the performance of Vietnamese candidates in the IELTS Reading Test All of these reasons stated have

become the motivations that stimulate the researcher to conduct “A study on IELTS test-taking strategies: Reading Section.” The paper is among the first attempts

putting the emphasis onto the test-takers‟ test-taking strategies and the hidden cognitive processes in reading comprehension

1.2 Aim and objectives

In the current study, an attempt is made primarily to investigate the test-taking strategies employed in performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given reading tasks Therefore, the term test-taking strategies which is used in the current study refers to not only the general strategies in taking a reading test but also the reading strategies that aid the comprehension

The aim of the study is to gain an insight into how Vietnamese test-takers employ different test-taking strategies in performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No Not Given tasks in IELTS Reading By documenting the process that the testees went through to deal with the reading tasks, the researcher hoped to investigate the real use

of different test-taking strategies in response to each individual testing item Afterwards, all strategies which lead to either correct and incorrect answers were examined so that they could reflect their effectiveness and reveal facts about the possibility of guessing in the test-takers‟ answers To achieve this aim, the recent study sought for the answers to the following research questions:

1 What test-taking strategies are frequently used by Vietnamese test takers in

performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test

(Academic Module)?

2 What is the effectiveness of test-taking strategies reflected in learners‟

scores in True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test

1.4 Expected outcome and significance of the study

By conducting this research, the researcher expects to find out the most commonly used test-taking strategies among the students and evaluate the effectiveness of those techniques

Once finished, the paper could serve as a good reference for those who wish to have a closer view into the test-taking strategies employed by the students in response to a specific reading comprehension task, True/ False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given

IELTS candidates who are planning to sit for the test could also refer to the findings

of the study so that they could draw their own lesson for more effective use of taking strategies in reading test The paper could be also of great use for IELTS trainers who want to have a closer look at how their trainees would actually perform

test-in the real test for better IELTS preparation test-instruction

1.5 Overview of the rest of the paper

The rest of the paper includes the following chapters:

Chapter II – Theoretical Background – provides the background of the study

Chapter III – Methodology – describes in details the participants, instruments of the study as well as the procedure which the research follows

Chapter IV – Findings and discussion – analyzes data found out and discusses the outcomes of the study

Chapter V – Conclusion – summarizes the main issue of the paper, the limitations of the research and gives some suggestions for further studies

The References and Appendixes includes a list of references that the researcher used for the research, the reading test, guided questions for stimulated recalls, samples of background questionnaire and verbal protocol transcripts

CHAPTER II - THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Key words: Reading comprehension, Reading strategies, IELTS Reading, Test-

taking strategies, retrospective study

So far, many scholars have been working out the definition of reading According to Smith (1973), reading is to understand the author‟s thought Rumelhart (1997) proposed a different view on reading which is, in his opinion, actually an interaction between reader and text This view was shared by a number of researchers (Silberstein, 1994; Goodman, 1971, cited in Falke, 1982; 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 best

as he can, a message which has 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, a comprehensive view should account for the active process of using one‟s won prior language knowledge and experience and the cues found in the text to understand

what the writer has encoded (Saengpakdeejit, 2009), since reading is not simply a cognitive skill, nor does it have a straightforward outcome as the same text can be understood in different ways by different readers For the recent study, however, reading also refers to the active thinking process that IELTS test-takers take so as to understand and complete different reading tasks of the test

2.2.2 Purposes of reading

The purposes of reading refer to readers‟ aims and objectives Therefore, different readers may have different purposes in their mind with the reading text in their hand According to Ruiqi (2007), basically there are two main reading purposes including reading for getting information and reading for pure fun or enjoyment

Grabe and Stoller (2002), however, divided reading purposes into seven subtypes which are more specific: reading for search for simple information, reading to skim quickly, reading to learn from the text, reading to integrate information, reading to write, reading to critique the text and reading for general comprehension

2.2.3 Reading process

Reading process is claimed by Gascoigne (2005, cited in Saengpakdeejit, 2009) to be

a selective process which is characterized as an active process of comprehending So far, there have been three widely accepted reading models developed to depict the act

of reading or the way and procedure that readers use to construct meaning from the reading texts The three 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 to play a rather passive role The basis of bottom-up reading model lies in the linguistic 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 In

this model, readers actively use their background knowledge Goodman (1971) described reading using top-down model like a “psycholinguistic guessing game” in which the “reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded

by a writer as a graphic display” (p.135)

Interactive model is a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches This model was discussed as the process of combining textual information with the information the reader brings to a text (Widdowson, 1979); therefore, the meaning of the text is, in fact, “synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources” (Stanovich, 1980, p.35)

Weir, Hawkey, Green and Devi (2006) summarized the cognitive processes contributing to reading comprehension outline by Khalifa and Weir (forthcoming) in the following figure:

Figure 1 - Cognitive processing in reading

(Khalifa and Weir forthcoming, cited in Weir, Hawkey, Green and Devi, 2006, p.161)

2.2 Reading comprehension

Sedita (2001) claimed that reading comprehension is the ability to determine meaning from text It is a complicated, interactive process where readers construct meaning based on information they get from the text combine with their own knowledge Gough and Tunmer (1986) supported that reading comprehension is actually a process of decoding According to the RAND Reading Study Group, reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language which entails 3 elements: 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 between these elements of reading comprehension can be depicted in the following figure

Figure 2: A Heuristic for Thinking about Reading Comprehension (RAND

Reading Study Group, 2002)

2.3 Reading strategies

2.3.1 Language learning strategies

As language learning strategies is the broader term which covers other learning strategies for different skills including reading, it is worth reviewing literature on it for better understanding of the general background before investigating the use of reading strategies in details Since 1960s when research into language learning strategies began, there have been a lot of attempts in defining the term by a number

of scholars (Tarone, 1981; Ellis, 1985, Weinstein and Mayer, 1986; Chamot, 1987; O‟Malley and Chamot, 1990; Nunan, 1991; Oxford, 1990 and Cohen, 1998)

The definition that is believed to be most comprehensive and widely accepted,

however, was proposed in O‟ Malley and Chamot‟s book titled Learning Strategies

in Second Language Acquisition in which learning strategies was defined as “special

thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information” (1990, p.1) Despite of different approaches in defining the term, most of the definitions suggest a similar goal of language learning strategies which is

to facilitate the language learning process and to help the learner achieve their aim in using the target language

O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) also classified learning strategies into three major types:

 Metacognitive strategies: are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring or evaluating the success of learning activity (p.44)

 Cognitive strategies: operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in ways that enhance learning (p.44)

 Social strategies: involve the interaction between the language learner with others either their language instructor or peers

2.3.2 Reading and test-taking strategies

So far, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of gaining a better insight into how reading and test-taking strategies are employed during the test as

a Reading strategies

Since reading strategies are parts of language learning strategies in general, it have all

of the characteristics of language learning strategies

According to Cohen (1990), reading strategies refer to behaviors that a reader engage

in at the time of reading and consciously applied However, Barnett (1989) argued that reading strategies could be either conscious techniques controlled by the reader

or unconscious processes applied automatically Although the two terms reading skills and reading strategies are often confused, in this study, the term reading strategies is used to refer to techniques used to monitor or manage their reading, aid the readers in comprehending the text (Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001)

According the classification of Sheorey& Mokhtari (2001) and Karbalaei (2010), there are three types of reading strategies: Global reading strategies, Problem-solving strategies, Supporting Reading Strategies

 Global Reading Strategies (GLOB): generalized or global reading strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act Examples this kind of strategies are setting a purpose for reading, previewing text content, predicting what the text is about, etc

 Problem-Solving Strategies (PROB): localized, focused problem-solving or repair strategies used when problems develop in understanding textual information Examples of this kind of strategies can be checking one‟s understanding upon encountering conflicting information, re-reading for better understanding, etc

 Support Reading Strategies (SUP): involve using the support mechanisms

or tools aimed at sustaining responsiveness to reading, e.g use of reference materials like dictionaries and other support systems

Pressey and Afflerbach (1995) classified reading strategies into three broad categories including (1) planning and identifying strategies which help in understanding the meaning of the text, (2) monitoring strategies which regulate comprehension and learning and (3) evaluating strategies to reflect or respond to the

text The same array of reading strategies was present in many studies on second language reading

As mentioned earlier, reading comprehension consists of the three elements which include comprehension strategies (RAND Reading Research) (Rezvani et.al, n.d.) pointed out that reading comprehension is, in fact, the interactive cognitive process in which readers interact with texts and authors‟ perspective During this process, readers construct meaning of the text by using their knowledge of language

Gass and Mackey (2000) defined the cognitive process as the search and storage mechanisms, inferential mechanisms and retrieval processes These processes are thought to operate at an unconscious level While cognitive process is claimed to be unconscious, reading strategies are the skills which are consciously used to aid the reading comprehension Therefore, the strategies employed by readers during the task completing process can reveal the fact about the way readers manage their interaction with written text, to make reading more effective and to improve comprehension (Singhal, 2001) In short, reading strategies can reveal the actual cognitive process and can be considered as part of the cognitive process

b Test-taking strategies

According to Rogers and Harley (1999), test-taking strategies help test-takers make

use of the characteristics and the format of the test to increase their scores in testing

conditions These test-taking strategies may include: reading the instructions

carefully, scheduling the given time properly, making use of clue words in the

questions, etc Test-taking strategies, therefore, can be defined as those test-taking

processes which are selected by the respondents and to some degree conscious (Cohen & Upton, 2007) These strategies may constitute shortcuts to arriving at answers

In their previous study, Cohen and Upton (2007) proposed a coding scheme which clearly classifies reading strategies, test-taking strategies and testwiseness strategies Their checklist of strategies consists of 28 reading strategies, 28 test-taking strategies and 3 testwiseness strategies in total

However, Cohen (1998) also put forward the argument that test-taking strategies

consist of language use strategies and testwiseness strategies Language use strategies, according to Cohen, refer to actions that individuals consciously take in order to enhance their use of the target language to accomplish language tasks Hirano (2009, cited in Pour-Mohammadi & Abidin, 2011) supported that there are distinct types of strategies that respondents employ as they do the language tests which include language learner strategies: the way learners operate their basic skills

of listening, reading, speaking, writing with the related skills of grammar, vocabulary and translation

The term test-taking strategies, in general, refers to the strategies which can be

applied to a variety of tests and may include the general approaches like preparing for the test, reading the directions, allocating the time, avoiding making errors, etc and specific techniques for various kinds of tests such as multiple-choice, matching, essay, short-answer, true-false, etc (Pour-Mohammadi & Abidin, 2011) However,

test-taking strategies in responding to a reading test, as discussed above, should not

be separated from reading strategies, one of the language learner strategies (Hirano, 2009)

In the current study, an attempt is made primarily to investigate the test-taking strategies employed in performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given

reading tasks Therefore, the term test-taking strategies which is used in the current

study refers to not only the general strategies in taking a reading test but also the reading strategies that aid the comprehension

2 4 The IELTS test

The IELTS test is considered a typical proficiency test with 2 characteristics which involve its relation to the application of what has been learnt, its base on a specification of the language that is going to be needed in these applications Therefore, it is believed to be helpful testing tool in a number of circumstances to decide whether a student is likely to cope with a course of specialist study (Harrison, 1983)

The IELTS Test composes of four skills namely Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing and there are two modules of the test and test takers can choose either IELTS Academic or IELTS General Training to sit for This really depends on their academic or professional aspirations The recent study, however, only focuses on Academic module of the test which measures English language proficiency needed for an academic, higher education environment The IELTS Academic module procedure and components, then, can be visualized by the following chart

(IELTS Handbook, 2007)

Figure 3: The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components

• Candidate listen to a number of recorded texts These include a

mixture of monologues and conversations and feature a variety

of English accents

• The recording is heard only once, and candidates are given time

to read the questions and write down their answers

Listening (approximately 30 minutes)

• There are three reading passages with tasks Texts are taken

from books, magazines, journals and newspapers, all written for

a non-specialist audience At least one of the texts contains a detailed argument

Reading (60 minutes)

• The first task requires candidates to write a description of at

least 150 words This is based on material found in a chart, table, graph or diagram and demonstrates their ability to summarise the main features of the input

• The second task requires candidates to write a short essay of 250

words in response to a statement or question They are expected

to demonstrate an ability to present a position, construct an argument and discuss abstract ideas

Writing (60 minutes)

• The test is a face-to-face interview Candidates are assessed on

their use of spoken English to answer short questions to speak at length on a familar topic, and also to interact with the examiner

Speaking (11-14 minuties)

2 5 IELTS Reading

Despite of two IELTS modules, the distinction between academic and general lies in relation to reading and writing skills only since the listening and speaking components are the same for both versions There are two modules of IELTS Reading namely Academic Reading and General Training Reading While texts in General Training Reading are mainly taken from notices, advertisements, official documents, booklets, … and tend to focus on survival reading skills, Academic Reading, as its name suggests, deals with issues which are of great importance to those who want to enter undergraduate or postgraduate courses or seeking professional registration Since in the recent study, the reading tasks in Academic Reading is of central concern, the topics and the task types of the test will be discussed in more details

2.5.1 Topics

The topics of IELTS reading passage may vary, but are all of “academic nature” These topics may include general science themes, the environment, health and social psychology, technological and social developments, developing countries, gender issues and others (Everett & Colman, 1999) The topics of IELTS passages which are taken from authentic sources are generally international but neutral (Brook-Hart, 2012) since “texts which may cause the reader offence or anxiety, texts which require specialist knowledge, are too specific in content or rely on world knowledge or knowledge outside the texts would not conform to the guidelines of an objective testing procedure” (Everett & Colman, 1999, p 23)

 Labeling a diagram

 Matching headings for identified paragraphs/ sections of the text

 Identification of writer‟s views/ claims – yes, no or not given

 Identification of information in the text – true, false or not given

 Classification

 Matching lists/ phrases

The various types of questions expected in the IELTS Reading have been considered one of the advantages of the test in assessing the test-takers‟ competence

As stated by Brook-Hart (2012), the three most frequent IELTS reading tasks are

Multiple Choice, True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/ Not/Given and Matching Headings In their study with the aid of an IELTS corpus which consisted of 13

academic reading tests collected from two major sources (IELTS Practice Test and official test material published by Cambridge University Press), Moore, Morton and Price (2007) identified various task types as well as their relative frequencies as showed in the following table:

Table 1 - Frequencies of various task types

As can be seen, the top five common task types include True/False/Not Given, Section Summary Match, Gapped Summary, Information-Category Match and Multiple choice which took up more than three quarters of the total number of testing

items with True/ False/ Not given (or Yes/ No/ Not Given) as the most common task type which accounted for 21% of the task type in the corpus

True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given task requires test-takers to locate the

pieces of information or writer‟s views or claims and decide their semantic relationship with the prompts The relationship can be either synonymy (True or Yes)

or non-synonymy (False or No) The additional component of the task, Not Given, tests the ability of test-takers in deciding whether the propositional content of the prompt statement presents in the reading passage This question type was considered one of the most challenging one as perceived by both teachers and students in the study of Everett and Colman (1999) since the wording of the question often causes confusion among test-takers Also, to decide a statement Not Given, test-takers need

to appraise the content of the whole text at a global level rather than just stop at the semantic unit of sentential level Green (1998) argued that tasks that require Yes/No

or True/False responses are very much like guessing since the answers are not always apparent due to confusing wording of the prompts; therefore, unlikely to yield much useful information of knowledge and processes employed by an individual as she or

he make a genuine attempt at the task However, Weir, Hawkey, Green and Devi (2006) suggested further studies should give close attention to this type of question since when compared to some certain item types which appear to provoke the use of certain strategies, True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given encourages the use of expeditious reading strategies rather than just simple direct word matching

While other types of reading tasks are supposed to test certain skills namely reading for gist and reading for specific details, True/False/Not Given is claimed to provoke the use of expeditious reading For these reasons, the researcher chose to focus on

True/False/ Not Given or Yes/ No/Not Given (T/F/NG or Y/N/NG) tasks in the recent

study to see whether there is a difference between the test-taking skills of test-takers

as they deal with this specific kind of reading task Since the emphasis of the current study is put on this particular kind of reading task, it will be discussed in more details

in the next section

2 6 IELTS Reading and Test-taking Strategies

There exists a need for learning reading strategies since the reading texts used in the IELTS test is long and complex Because a variety of question types is used in the reading passages, IELTS test-takers need to be familiar with certain techniques for each question type The following tables summarize the requirements for the focused type of questions in the recent study, True/False/ Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given, as well as the strategies needed to perform the tasks

True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given

Example of task

instruction

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage

In boxes 12-14 on your answer sheet, write:

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information FALSE if the statement contradicts the information NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

Task descriptions In True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given exercise,

you have to analyze the passage by stating whether the information given in a series of statements if correct, contradictory or if there is no information about the statement in the passage

Skills needed Scanning for specific information

Understanding factual information (T/F/NG) Understanding the writer‟s views/ claims (Y/N/NG) Test-taking

strategies

Identify the focus of the statement Scan the passage to find the relevant part(s)

Table 2 - Description of True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/ Not Given reading

task and suggested test-taking strategies

2.7 Study of strategies

To study the test-taking strategies which are parts of a complex cognitive process which cannot be observed, a number of research techniques can be employed The following table summarizes the procedure of the five common methods 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

the problem-solving task but at intermediate points chosen by the subject

Questions and

prompting

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

Dialogue observation This method can be applied for problem-solving tasks

which involve dialogue

Think aloud The subject is asked to talk aloud while solving a

problem and this request is repeated if necessary during the problem-solving process thus encouraging the subject to tell what he or she is thinking

Table 3 - Common study methods of strategy ((Someren, Barnard & Sanberg, 1994)

Among all of the five methods used for studying cognitive processes, retrospection is claimed to produce the list disturbance to the participants‟ cognitive process since the subjects are not interrupted during the problem-solving process (Someren, Barnard & Sandberg, 1994) The use of retrospective verbal protocol, however, has its own disadvantage since 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)

and Choi, 2006; Stathopoulou and Nikaki, 2009; Karbalei, 2010)

In late 1970s, Hosenfeld (1977) examined the types of cognitive operations that successful and unsuccessful readers used to process reading texts The data collected from think-aloud report in the follow-up oral interviews of the study reveal the relationships between certain types of reading strategies and successful or unsuccessful second language readers The findings suggest that good readers appeared to think of the meaning of the text in their mind, direct their focus to large phrases, ignore unimportant vocabulary they encountered while less advanced readers failed to get the main ideas, focus on short sentences and hardly skipped less important words

The similar procedure with the use of think-aloud protocols was also employed to examine the effects of different strategies on reading comprehension by Block (1986) In his study, Block made a comparison between native English speakers and nonnative speakers who were attending remedial reading course at the university level The participants were then asked to read two reading passages, answer twenty multiple choice comprehension questions and report all the thoughts that occurred to them while reading The results showed that non-native readers did not particular strategies The findings also suggested that readers with higher reading scores employed top-down approach by integrating new information in the text with the old information, extracting main ideas from details, referring to their background

knowledge and focusing on textual meanings of the words Readers with low scores,

on the other hand, hardly employed these strategies

With the purpose of studying the processing of reading comprehension tests in the first language (Hebrew) in comparison with the target language (English) and the cognitive strategies utilized by the respondents during the test-taking process, Nevo employed both introspective and retrospective methods to document the strategies of forty-two tenth-grade students when they took a multiple-choice reading test given in both languages The findings of the study indicated that in both languages, most of the correct responses were picked up by the use of contributory strategies and there was a greater use of strategies that did not actually lead to correct answers in the second language than in the first language

Aimed at investigating the relationship between the test-taking behaviors and reading comprehension of a group of college students, Farr, Pritchard and Smitten (1990) employed introspective interviews and retrospective interviews after the participants completed a multiple-choice reading comprehension test The data analysis of the study reveal interesting patterns in the test-taking behaviors with three broad categories of reading comprehension behavior which include an overall approach to the task, the specific reading strategies and test-taking strategies The findings of the study also reported difficulties encountered by the test-takers during the process The results of the study indicate that the most commonly used strategy utilized was using the questions to direct a search for relevant information in the text to answer the questions The findings also put forward some implications relevant to the validity of the questions and the test design

In a later study, using the same method of collecting data, the study of Block (1992) documented the comprehension-monitoring process of first and second language readers of English who were then classified as proficient readers and non-proficient readers The discussion that followed the findings directed attention to a search for a referent and a vocabulary problem The findings showed that proficient readers used their background knowledge and made use of context clues to figure out the meaning

of the word while less proficient readers did not attempt to find out the word‟s meaning and failed to identify the key words in the reading text

Employing a multi-method approach including think-aloud protocol analysis, retellings, in-depth interviews and casual observations, Sugirin (1999) wanted to investigate the comprehension strategies of EFL readers The findings of the study indicated that there existed a remarkable gap among EFL readers in the degree of comprehension and a number of strategies used were also reported Good readers appeared to process the text using the top-down approach which include skimming the whole text, inferring, making association with prior knowledge and evaluation and paraphrasing The less proficient readers‟ strategies, meanwhile, showed that they paid much attention to the meaning of a word or phrase before making a paraphrase and an inference This indicated that poor readers tended to be characterized by their bottom-up processing

Intended to examine the gender differences in cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in reading comprehension, Phakiti (2003) conducted a study on a large population of three hundred and eighty-four Thai students at university level as they took a multiple-choice reading test The participants were asked to do a questionnaire

of their strategy use after they had completed the task The findings of the study indicated that there was almost no significant difference between males and females

in their reading comprehension performance and their use of cognitive strategies However, male participants reported higher use of metacognitive strategies than female participants In another study, Phakiti (2006) focused more on the nature of cognitive and metacognitive strategies and their relationship to English reading test performance Employing the same method of studying, Phakiti asked 358 students to take a reading comprehension test and immediately after the test, complete a questionnaire on their strategy use The results from structural equation modeling approach that he employed in the study showed that memory and retrieval strategies facilitated during the test performing procedure, monitoring strategies functioned as

an executive skills and planning strategies did not directly regulate other strategies by the cognitive ones The findings also highlighted that the only strategies that were

found to directly influence EFL reading test performance were comprehending strategies

Ahmad and Asraf (2004) conducted another research on the underlying strategies employed by second language learners in comprehending both L1 (Malay) texts and L2 (English) texts The case study aimed at testing the hypothesis of whether there is

a difference between good and average readers in their use of eight reading comprehension sub-skills The participants were carefully chosen by a number of criteria regarding their mid-year language test scores, monthly test scores of English and their verbal communication ability The results from the analysis of a series of face-to-face open-ended interviews supported the proposed hypothesis and that the difference in strategies used by good and average readers was remarkable as good readers were much more focused on each question type than average readers The implication of the study suggested that students needed to be equipped with reading comprehension skills and vocabulary learning skills in particular in order that it could help to foster the learners‟ ability to „react critically to text.‟

In a later study, cognitive interviews were also used by Rupp, Ferne and Choi (2006)

to investigate the reading construct of 10 non-native adult English readers through their responses to text passages followed by multiple-choice questions The findings

of the study show that multiple different representations of the construct of reading comprehension are revealed through the characteristics of the testing items The analysis also suggests that responding to multiple-choice questions was viewed as a problem-solving task rather than a comprehension task by the learners and a variety

of unconditional and conditional response strategies were employed by the learners

to seek for answers to the questions

Focusing on the KPG Reading Test, the study of Stathopoulou and Nikaki (2009)

was aimed at identifying the most popular reading strategies used by KPG candidates during the testing conditions The results of the study show that the candidates do display certain awareness of the test-taking strategies and tend to have employed a range of cognitive, metacognitive, support and test-wiseness test-taking strategies Besides the widely known test-taking strategies in performing reading tasks namely

cognitive, metacognitive and support strategies, the study proposes the addition of one more category which is test-wiseness strategies

Similar patterns of strategy awareness between EFL and ESL readers were reported

by Karbalei (2010) The findings of the study showed that both ESL and EFL college

students reported select problem-solving as the most used strategies while other useful and effective strategies for better comprehension such as summarizing, underlining, note-taking are not well employed

Most recently, a number of studies have been carried out in Middle East to investigate test-taking strategies on multiple choice tests of Iranian, Iraqi and Saudi Arabian learners (Salehi, 2011; Fraidan & Khalaf, 2012; Pourdana, Bornaki, Fard & Sarkhoh, 2012) The results of the studies suggested interesting strategic behaviors of the EFL learners and emphasized on the importance of attending to the cognitive processes in taking language tests

A comprehensive review of previous studies on the subject can be found in Cohen (2007) In his article, Cohen (2007) summarized the five important themes in test-taking strategy research including conceptual frameworks for classifying strategies, L1 and L2-related strategies, proficiency level and test-taking strategies, strategies as

a function of testing method and appropriateness of the research methods A recapitulation of more than twenty-five years of research on test-taking strategies proposed by Cohen puts forwards important implications for test validation and highlights the significance of think-alouds and retrospective verbal reports

2.9 Summary of previous studies

In conclusion in the previous discussions, despite of the fact that a lot of attempt has been made to investigate reading strategies, the majority of the studies focused on either making a comparison between groups of readers or finding the strategies used for answering standardized reading tests with the multiple choice testing format So far there has been little attention paid to studying the reading and test-taking strategies in the IELTS Test, an increasingly popular standardized test these days Moreover, there has been almost no previous effort directed to reading strategies to

deal with True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given question type This is the perfect gap for the current study to fill in For this reason, the researcher decided to conduct a study on test-taking strategies in response to a specific reading question format – T/F/NG or Y/N/NG with the primary aim of investigating the common test-taking strategies employed by the test-takers for this specific reading task and their effectiveness In short, the recent study sought for the answers to the following research questions:

1 What test-taking strategies are frequently used by Vietnamese test takers in

performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test

(Academic Module)?

2 What is the effectiveness of test-taking strategies reflected in learners‟ scores in

True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test (Academic

Module)?

3 What can be learnt about the possibility of guessing in True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given test format?

CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY

This describes in details the participants, instruments of the study as well as the procedure which the research follows to seek answers to the three research questions:

1 What test-taking strategies are frequently used by Vietnamese test takers in

performing True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test

(Academic Module)?

2 What is the effectiveness of test-taking strategies reflected in learners‟ scores in

True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given of IELTS Reading Test (Academic

Module)?

3 What can be learnt about the possibility of guessing in True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given test format?

3.1 Participants and setting

To select the participants, convenience sampling method was employed First, the purpose of the study announced to the pool of the potential participants that are ISP students Then those who got their latest IELTS band score of 6.0 and were interested

in the study could register by leaving their contact details They were then contacted

to set a suitable schedule to participate

The research sample was a group of 10 students aged 19 at Vietnam National University, Hanoi These students, despite majoring in different fields, were recruited because they had all attended International Standard Program In their first year at university, they were asked to study English to achieve an average IELTS band score

of at least 6.0 so that they can be admitted to continue their study in the affiliated universities of Vietnam National University All of these students had finished an IELTS Preparation course in their second semester and got an overall IELTS band score or 6.0 Of the students, five were males and five were females They had generally had experience with T/F/NG or Y/N/NG reading tasks as they studied for the IELTS exam The following table summarizes the information about the participants with reference to their experience in learning English in general, and in preparation for the IELTS test in particular The table also includes information about

the participants‟ experience with T/F/NG or Y/N/NG testing format as well as their comfort level in performing this task

Table 4: Description of participants

O: 6.0

As the table shows, 40% of the participants reported having „much‟ experience with this

kind of task, but only one of them reported to be „much‟ comfortable with this testing

format and half of them rated T/F/NG or Y/N/NG as „much difficult‟

All of the students achieved an IELTS band score of 6.0, but their scores of reading ranged

from 5.5 to 7.0

Table 5 - IELTS band score descriptors (IELTS Guide for Teachers, 2012)

The band score explanation, however, can map onto the CEF (the Common European

Framework) in the following table which clearly reflects the approximate equivalence

between the IELTS and other tests and how it fits to the CEF levels (the Common

European Framework):

Table 6 - Equivalences of common tests to Common European Framework

of Reference levels

The selection of the students at Upper-Intermediate (B2) in the recent study is based on the

notion that when going beyond B1 level, most language learners reach a linguistic plateau

and their language acquisition naturally slows (A Teacher‟s Guide to the Common

European Framework) A more detailed and comprehensive description of students‟

language proficiency can be found in the self-assessment grids proposed by CEFR

Regarding reading comprehension competence in particular, students at B2 level (band

score 5.0-6.0 in IELTS) are described to have the ability to understand articles and reports

concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular attitudes or

viewpoints

3.2 Research method

In the current study, the researcher decided to employ retrospective study method with the

use of stimulated recalls which is viewed as a subset of introspective measures (Gass &

Mackey, 20001) to explore the test-taking strategies of 10 Vietnamese EFL learners

through their performance in reading IELTS passages Gass & Mackey (2001) added that

stimulated recall is a methodology used to explore learners‟ thought processes (or

strategies) at the time of an activity or task This is achieved by asking learners to report

those thoughts after they have completed a task or activity Support for the recall includes

showing a videotape to learners so that they can watch themselves carrying out the original

task, giving learners their L2 written product (in the recent study, it should be the reading test paper with their answers) so that they can follow the changes they made

To lessen any possible negative points of the method, in the current study, the researcher choose to conduct retrospective interview immediately after the reading process along with the use of action protocol which, in this case, would be the reading answer sheets, the immediate products of the reading task and the video tapes as the stimulation to help the participants better recall their test-taking strategies while doing the reading tasks

3.3 Research Instruments

3.3.1 Background questionnaire

A background questionnaire with items relating to the participants‟ age, gender, and current level of English as well as their English learning experience will be used to provide the researcher with a comprehensive knowledge of the participants‟ experience in learning English

3.3.2 Reading test

The reading tests include two IELTS Academic reading passages followed by five True/False/Not Given or Yes/No/Not Given questions each The reading texts were carefully chosen from less popular IELTS Preparation materials so that it helps to assure the objectivity of the test In fact, none of the participants reported encountering the reading passages before Moreover, the topics of the reading passages were of general interests, hence, did not cause difficulties for students of different backgrounds to comprehend Following is a brief description of the two reading passages used in the study Title Type of

634 words

The article reviews the trend in leisure time spending in the recent decades by reporting the figures of several surveys, thereby making a prediction about the possible trend

in the future

Creative

families

Article IELTS Practice

Tests Plus (Jake &

McDowell, 2001) p.72-74

1031 words

The article starts by proposing some common beliefs about intelligence and talent, then discusses the relationship between talent and family basing on previous scientific evidence This is followed by the analysis of some typical successful and talented people

Table 7 - Description of the reading passages

Also, the test paper with the marks that the participants make during the reading process would serve as useful data for further analysis Every notes or marks on the paper will be kept to help the researcher trace back the participants‟ test-taking strategies employed as they performed the reading tasks

3.3.4 Immediate retrospective account of strategy use

Immediate retrospective interviews were conducted and audio recorded with the use of semi-structured guiding questions so that it encourage the participants express their thoughts whilst performing T/F/NG Reading tasks The questions were repaired in advance but still flexible enough to encourage the participants to talk of their thinking processes and they were mostly “what” questions rather than “why” to enable the participants recall more information relevant to their test-taking processes (Xiangdong & Chunyan, 2012) and to collect a direct report rather than just interpretation (Someren, Barnard & Sandberg, 1994)

Following are the instructions for the stimulated recall used to explain to the participants

As we watch the tape, I will be asking you questions about what you were doing At times, I‟ll even stop the videotape so we can examine a marginal note, an underlined word, a revision, etc As you watch your reading task completion unfold, try to recall what you were thinking at the time, try to put your mind back into the task Anytime you remember something, say it, interrupt me, stop the tape if you want I‟m interested in finding out what you were thinking when you were answering the questions, and it doesn‟t matter at all if those thoughts were reasonable or not I‟ll record our conversation

During the interview, some prompts for stimulated recall (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997) were employed They were mostly questions concerning the difficulty of each testing item, the words they have worked with, how they dealt with unknown words, the words/parts of the text that helped them decide their answers As suggested by Paribakht & Wesche (1997), the prompts should encourage the participants to talk about what they were actually thinking and doing

Following are some examples of the prompts that the researcher used during the stimulated recall interview:

E.g:

- I can see you‟re shaking your head, tell me what you‟re thinking?

- Why have you put your finger on that word?

- Where can you find the clues for the question?

- What were you thinking at that moment?

- Which words did you focus on?

- Why you read that part?

- Why have you underlined those words?

- You look puzzled?

These prompts were carefully made and selected so that it should be more like a discussion

as the researcher and the participant watched the videotape together