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CHUYÊN ĐỀ:How to Help Students Overcome test anxiety Thiều Thị Thu Dung Trường THPT Chuyên Nguyễn Tất Thành, tỉnh Yên Bái TABLE OF CONTENT Part 1: Introdction Part 2: Content II.. Sugge

CHUYÊN ĐỀ:

How to Help Students Overcome test anxiety

Thiều Thị Thu Dung Trường THPT Chuyên Nguyễn Tất Thành, tỉnh Yên Bái

TABLE OF CONTENT

Part 1: Introdction

Part 2: Content

II Suggestions to help students overcome test anxiety

3.Tips for giving your students success on test 7 4.Some other pieces of advice to reduce the level of anxiety 8

How to Help Students Overcome test anxiety

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for choosing the study

Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty that

typically appears when an individual perceives an event as being a threat to the ego

or self-esteem (Sarason, 1988) In some instances, such as avoiding dangerous

situations, anxiety can be helpful However when taken to extremes, it may produce unwarranted results One of the most threatening events that causes anxiety in

students today is testing When students develop an extreme fear of performing poorly on an examination, they experience test anxiety Test anxiety is a major factor contributing to a variety of negative outcomes including psychological distress, academic underachievement, academic failure, and insecurity (Hembree, 1988) Many students have the cognitive ability to do well on exams but may not do so because of high levels of test anxiety Because of the societal emphasis placed on testing, this could potentially limit their educational and vocational opportunities (Zeidner, 1990)

Tests are essential because they allow both you and your students to evaluate their performance You will discover what areas they are struggling with and they will find out where they need to focus their attention Tests may hold the key to our educational success—as long as educators are willing to commit the time and effort required to design tests that foster learning rather than impede it

2 Aims and significance of the study

This study aims at:

- Introducing some characteristics of test anxiety

- Providing both teachers and students of English some suggestions to overcome the problems

PART 2: CONTENT

I Characteristics of Test Anxiety

Test anxiety is composed of three major components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral Students who experience test anxiety from the cognitive perspective are worriers lacking self confidence They may be preoccupied with negative thoughts,

doubting their academic ability and intellectual competence (Sarason & Sarason, 1990)

Furthermore, they are more likely to overemphasize the potential negative results and feel helpless when in testing situations (Zeidner, 1998) Some students may feel the need to answer every question on the test correctly When this does not occur they may think of themselves as being incompetent, thus fueling negative thoughts such as, "I knew I was not going to pass this test," "I know I am going to make a poor grade," or "Everyone knows I am not smart." In order for students to have the best opportunity for academic success, negative thinking must be

minimized and controlled

From the affective perspective, test anxiety causes some students to experience physiological reactions such as increased heart rate, feeling nauseated, frequent urination, increased perspiration, cold hands, dry mouth, and muscle spasms

(Zeidner, 1998) These reactions may be present before, during, and even after the test is completed In conjunction with the physiological reactions, emotions such as worry, fear of failure, and panic may be present When students are not able to

control their emotions, they may experience higher levels of stress, thereby making

it more difficult for them to concentrate

Test-anxious students express anxiety behaviorally by procrastinating and having inefficient study and taking skills Zeidner (1998) contends that test-anxious students have a more difficult time interpreting information and organizing

it into larger patterns of meaning In addition, some students may physically feel tired or exhausted during test administration because they do not have a healthy diet, have poor sleeping habits, and fail to routinely exercise

II.Suggestions to help students overcome test anxiety

1 Make test preparation fun

Your current unit has come to a close, and you have put your heart and soul into your classroom activities over the past weeks Your students have had a good time and have learned, too, and now comes the most dreaded part of all It is not the

unit end test but getting your students ready to take it With all the creativity and energy you put into the lessons along the way, how can a review of the material be at all interesting? Here are some ideas to try the next time you have to get your

students ready for the test

1.1 Let your students write the test

Maybe you do not want them to write the test themselves, but you may want

to let your class write the review questions By assigning each person to write a specific number of review questions, either in class or for homework, they become the teachers during the review As any teacher knows, teaching a subject only makes you know it even better, so having your students write the review and conduct their parts in class will make them experts on the information assigned to them

Depending on what your unit covered, you will need to break the information up among individuals or groups in your class You can divide the information by page numbers (give each person one or more pages and the information on those pages),

by topic (assign certain topics you have covered to individuals or groups), or

randomly assign content by pulling topics out of a hat No matter how you break the information into pieces, assign each person or group to write five or more

review/potential test questions that cover the information You may want to motivate them to do the best job they can by choosing to include one or more of the best

questions in the test itself and letting them know you will be doing it That way, the writer of that question should have no problem getting the answer right and neither should your class if they pay attention during the review!

1.2 Foster creativity

Another way to let your students do the review starts once again by assigning topics to groups of students This time, instead of writing review questions, ask each person to do one of two things The first option is to teach the material to the class a second time They can use any method they choose, and making them responsible for the review will ensure that they engage throughout the process The second

option is to present the information to the class in a creative way They may choose

to do a skit, a song or another presentation that will free them to think out of the box The more outrageous the presentation, the more of an impact it will have on the viewers, and your class will be sure to remember the information during the test If you make a habit of reviewing in this manner, your students just may get

competitive about how creative they can be, and the end of every unit will become a celebration and students will look forward to it with energetic anticipation!

1.3 Make a game of it

Perhaps the best method of test preparation is to play games with your class You can find several ideas for ESL games They work well specifically for review

of material Not only will your students have fun, they will be energized with

creativity and showmanship To review content, try Jeopardy with your students Though you will have to write the questions ahead of time, your students will have fun buzzing in, working in teams and getting in some terrific practice forming

questions in English If your students wrote test review question in the first activity, use those questions to play classroom baseball Divide your class into two teams and get one team “up at bat” first Designate each corner of the room as a base Ask a question, and if the first person answers correctly, he walks ahead a base If the answer is incorrect, he is out Continue to play and only count points as players pass home plate After three outs, the other team is up at bat If you really want to make things tough on the teams, let the team “in the field” choose the review questions to ask of the players at bat They must know the answer to the question they ask, but they can use their books and notes and work together to come up with the questions

If the team asking the questions gives a bad question, the other team automatically scores a point.Test review does not have to be the most boring part of the unit

In fact, it can be fun and engaging and something your students look forward to the day before a test By putting the material in the hands of your students, they not only review the material but also put themselves in the role of teacher cementing the information in their minds like no other activity can

2 How to proceed

You may have horrible memories of taking tests as a student but now that you are teaching, it is important to test your students on the material you cover in

class Here are some things to remember when testing students

2.1Frequency

Rather than save material from the whole year to include in one massive

exam, consider quizzing students at the end of each chapter and then every quarter or semester to break material up into more reasonable amounts It may seem like

students are always preparing for a quiz or test but as long as they have clear goals and material is covered thoroughly, they should adapt to the routine easily Another benefit is that with more tests, each one is a lower percentage of the overall grade so there is less anxiety about performance on individual tests

2.2Content

Sometimes tests should focus on very specific material while others should be more comprehensive It is important to check that students are retaining information

in the long term and not just memorizing information Use questions or question types that students have already seen in class Springing a new type of question or activity on them during an exam can be incredibility confusing while including the exact questions from the study guide can be too easy Take the middle ground

here Use familiar formats and ask different questions or variants of questions This will give students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned without getting bogged down in reading directions

2.3Variety

If possible try to include a variety of exercises in your tests Not every school

is able to do this but interview tests can be very effective because students have to demonstrate their ability to listen and speak as well as read and write Since the first two are critical for students who will have the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom, they are also very important in the evaluation process You can also use projects to grade students if you are willing to attempt something new Perhaps for one semester skits can be the primary factor in determining overall grades While

these can be a challenge to evaluate compared to multiple choice questions, they also give students who do not perform well on tests the chance to more fully demonstrate their abilities

2 4 Preparation

It is important to help students prepare for exams so that they can feel

confident going in to them By creating a study guide, reviewing material in class, giving students information about the test, and answering any questions students have, you will help them immensely Stress can reduce student performance so simply encourage them to study the material and do their best By reducing their anxiety, you have ensured that they will be more successful

2.5Incentive

You can also set goals for your students when it comes to exams so that they have something specific to work towards Depending on your students, you should consider individual and class goals Make these reasonable but challenging and do not reveal individual test scores to the class as this might cause some students some embarrassment You may decide the goal should be a class average of 85%

Assuming that students performed about this well on past exams, this should be a reasonable and attainable goal The incentive might be that you will not

assign homework for one week which will help motivate students to achieve their target score

2.6 Review

After returning the graded tests to students, go over the answers so that

students can figure out what they did incorrectly Simply telling them the answers will not help them understand their mistakes You can mark the papers without correcting them and then go over each and every question in class so that students can correct their answers and ask questions While students really should take

advantage of this opportunity to correct their mistakes so that they have correct material to review another time, you may need to use an incentive to encourage students to make corrections

3 Tips for giving your students success on tests

3.1 Practice makes imperfect

One struggle many ESL students have when taking standardized tests is over preparation Now, I don’t mean students can know too much English or have too advanced skills to take a test What I do mean is that some students have taken too many practice exams For some students, taking practice exams can actually hinder their ability to succeed on standardized tests The students who tend to overtake practice exams are those who feel insecure in their language abilities to begin with And the combination of the two can lead to lack of confidence when it comes to taking the real test In other words, students can psych themselves out Eliminate this problem before your students get to it by limiting the number of practice tests you administer and encouraging students not to take too many on their own time, either

3.2 Lather, Rinse,Repeat

You can overcome lack of confidence in your students (which will have a detrimental effect when they sit down to take standardized tests) by repeating

activities in class By giving students an activity that they have already done at least once in class, your students will be primed for success Try repeating a worksheet or activity as an opener for class or as a review activity Not only will your students feel good when they know the answers, an encore performance of given activity will solidify those concepts in your students’ minds, eliminating questions as well as lack

of confidence

3.3 The circle of life

Repeating a particular activity in class isn’t the only way to give students confidence and prepare them for success Try covering the same topic in class at regular intervals You can either teach the same material (with different methods, of course) several days in a row, or spend one day each week teaching a particular piece of information Do this until students find the task or material easy, and then add a second or third element to your instruction (while still teaching the material

you already covered) This way, students build on what they already know instead of tossing out the old unit when it’s time to start the new one

3.4 Slow and steady

Your students, no matter what standardized test they are planning to take, will have a listening portion And preparing them for this section of the exam is

necessary for success But sometimes throwing them into exam level material, even

if you cover it in small chunks and review it copiously in class, isn’t good enough Some students will benefit far more from a simple slowing down of the listening material If you have a good classroom tape player or digital recorder, you should have a slowdown function where you can adjust the speed at which the recorded information is played Try slowing down your listening material for your students until they can successfully perform the task you assign them Then, as the days and weeks go by, speed the material up little by little until your students are able to successfully accomplish their tasks with the tape running at normal speed, the speed they will have to manage on the exam

3.5 Clozed for practice

Cloze activities are great for getting an overall read of your students’ skills in English When you replace a blank every five to ten words in a given reading

passage, your students will have to rely on all of their language skills to successfully complete the exercise You can create a simple cloze activity with any reading

passage your students have read or will read Don’t require students to fill in the blanks with specific words As long as what they write is grammatical and makes logical sense, they have succeeded at the task

3.6 Keep it simple

But sometimes testing all areas of language at the same time is not the right choice, and that is particularly true when preparing ESL students for standardized exams Instead of focusing on all areas of language competency at one time, try choosing only one area for a preparation activity If you are creating a cloze exam, replace only verbs or only conjunctions This way students will focus on one area of

language competency rather than all areas at one time In so doing, students will gain confidence from the more manageable challenge

3.7 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Using one reading passage for multiple tasks in test preparation will also

be of benefit to your ESL students Try using a reading passage as the basis for a cloze activity, then having students do a reading comprehension activity with the same material, and then using it again for a grammar lesson

3.8 All in This Together

Multiple choice activities don’t have to give students a choice from A to D for every question Instead, try mixing up all of the answer choices at the bottom

of the page with several questions We often do this with a word bank for cloze activities and fill in the blanks, but you can change things up with any multiple choice acidity this way, too In addition to finding the correct answers to your questions, students will also have to determine which answers can be used with each of the questions, adding an element of grammar and comprehension to any multiple choice exercise

3.9 Give them the answers

Can it really help your students if you give them the answers to questions that are supposed to test them? Yes! Giving your students a set of questions with the answers already marked will challenge them in a different way Instead of trying to find the correct answer to the question, you can ask them to explain why that answer is the right one That might entail going to a source paragraph and locating specific information, or it may be that they explain a grammatical concept or particular vocabulary word Either way, when students are on the explaining end of instruction, they will understand the information better and remember it more easily

3.10 Make prioritizing a priority