How to teach the stated and unstated detail questions effectively in the g c s c test for students at nhu xuan high school

When teaching non – major English students at Nhu Xuan High School, I found out that all my students can not answer the stated and unstated detail questions when they do tests.. Aims of

CONTENT PAGE PART I: INTRODUCTION

I An overview about the stated and unstated questions 2

2 What is the unstated detail question 2

3 Major issues of the English teaching 2

II The material of the stated and unstated questions 2

V Compared to the amount of the initial survey 11

II Limitations and suggestions forr futher research 12 References

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

Reading is one of the most important activities any successful student does in any course of study It is important to note that reading is an active process, you need to apply strategies that will enable you make sense of

What you read In the GCSE 2020, there are twelve reading comprehesion questions which are tested in 2 passages That is why they account for 24 % of the total marks Learning English to prepare for the GCSE seems quite difficult for all students, especially for students in Nhu Xuan high school Most students here fear the reading comprehension Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text/message This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message There is only one type of question in reading comprehension that is, Multiple-Choice question ask you to select the best answer to question about the information given in the reading passages A multiple-choice question on the paper test may ask about the main ideas, directly answered details, indirectly answered details, vocabulary, or overall review ideas

When teaching non – major English students at Nhu Xuan High School, I found out that all my students can not answer the stated and unstated detail questions when they do tests Therefore, In my research, I only pay attention to find out the ways to answer the stated and unstated questions in the test for students to get higher marks in the test

II Aims of the study

The major aims of the study are:

- To improve the quality of the lessons

- To help students understand themes and answer correctly the stated and unstated detail questions

- To contribute a small part to the improvement of teaching and learning about reading skills at Nhu Xuan high school

III Research Subjects

This subject will help students interested in accessing reading passages in the GCSE test to improve their skills

IV Method of study

- Research in the teaching of English at Nhu Xuan High School

- School year 2019 - 2020

- Grade 11A1, 11A8, 12B5, 12B7

- Using the material of stated and unstated questions

- Using comparison in percent before and after studying to assess the quality of teaching and study

V Participants

The subjects chosen for the research include students in class 11A1, 11A8,12B5,12B7 of Nhu Xuan High School with the survey questionnaires, and 7 teachers who are currently teaching English Their experience of teaching

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English varied from one year to 20 years The research was carried out during the first term of the academic year 2019 – 2020 at Nhu Xuan High School

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT I.An overview about the stated and unstated questions:

1 What is the stated detail question:

We can notice that this type of question really means that three of the

answers are stated, mentioned, or true in the passage, while one answer is not.

You should note that there are two kinds of answers to this type of question: (1)

there are three true answers and one that is not true according to the passage, or (2) there are three true answers and one that is not mentioned in the passage It is

called the stated detail question

2 What is the unstated detail question:

This type of questions really means that three of the answers are stated, mentioned, or true in the passage, while one answer is not Your actual job is to find the three correct answers and then choose the letter of the one remaining answer You should note that there are two kinds of answers to this type of question: (1) there are three true answers and one answer that is not discussed in the passage, or (2) there are three true answers and one that is false according to the passage It is called the unstated detail question

3 Major issues of the English teaching

Nhu Xuan district is a mountainous area It is considered a poor district

As the school has 1250 students, but the quality is not very high

Teachers do not pay attention to teach reading skills

Results before doing the research

School year: 2018-2019

Class

Number

of

students

Amoun

t

(%

)

Amoun

Amoun

Amoun

You can see the above table, good students accounted for zero percent for four classes in term of being interested in learning English, the weak students accounted for high percent ( from 13 to 25)

II THE MATERIAL OF STATED AND UNSTATED QUESTION

1 STATED DETAIL QUESTIONS

A stated detail question asks about one piece of information in the passage rather than the passage as a whole The answers to these questions are generally given in order in the passage, and the correct answer is often a restatement of what is given in the passage This means that the correct answer often expresses the same idea as what is written in the passage, but the words are not exactly the same

If there are stated detail questions, students should identify those questions The questions of stated detail questions are as follow

1 How to identify the question

- According to the passage…

- It is stated in the passage ……

- The passage indicates that ………

- Which of the following is true ……

2 Where to find the answer

- The answer to these questions are found in order in the passage

3 How to answer the question

- Choose a key word in the question

- Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for the key word or idea

- Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

- Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices

2 UNSTATED DETAIL QUESTIONS

Students will be asked in the Reading Comprehension section of the G.C.S.E test to find an answer that is not stated or not mentioned or not true in the passage It is called unstated detail question This type of questions really means that three of the answers are stated, mentioned, or true in the passage, while one answer is not Your actual job is to find the three correct answers and then choose the letter of the one remaining answer

To answer the unstated detail question, I always ask students to follow the same steps as to find the stated detail question But then sudents have to come up with the untrue answer

1 How to identify the question

- Which of the following is not stated…?

- Which of the following is not mentioned…?

- Which of the following is not discussed…?

- All of the following are true except

2 Where to find the answer

- The answer to these questions are found in order in the passage

3 How to answer the question

- Choose a key word in the question

- Scan the appropriate place in the passage for key word (or related idea)

- Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

- Look for answers that are definitely true according to the passage Eliminate those answer

- Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage

III PRACISE

1 Stated Question

- PASSAGE ONE

Finally, for a fear to truly be a phobia, it must be recurring That is, if the man on the plane had flown before without incident and continued to use planes after this one panic attack without experiencing further bouts of unreasonable

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fear, then he would not be said to be suffering from a phobia A true aviophobic could never contemplate flying in any form without experiencing severe symptoms of acute nervousness In this case, the man’s single onset of severe panic would most likely be viewed as symptomatic of some other mental disorder, perhaps brought on by unrelated stresses in his life Obviously, the fact that phobias are recurring fears, or rather, that they involve constant fear of the object of the phobia, should not be taken to mean that the fear can never be overcome A person who is suffering from a phobia may, either through great effort of will, or, more likely, through a course of psychiatric treatment, conquer his phobia and cease to be frightened of whatever it was he was formerly afraid of

Question:

1.According to the author, in paragraph 4, what might be one cause of a single instance of a phobic-like episode?

a Seeing plane crashes on the news

b Watching too much violent television

c Possessing a desire for public attention

d Having too much stress in one’s life

Analysis:

(D) is the correct answer It is stated directly in the text (A) is incorrect Seeing plane crashes on the news is mentioned as something that might cause non-phobic nervousness in airline passengers (B) and (C) are not mentioned in the passage

- PASSAGE TWO

Flutes have been around for quite some time, in all sorts of shapes and sizes and made from a variety of materials The oldest known flutes are about 20,000 years old; they were made from hollowed-out bones with holes cut in them In addition to bone, older flutes were often constructed from bamboo or hollowed-out wood Today’s flutes are generally made of metal, and in addition

to the holes they have a complicated system of keys, levers, and pads The instrument belonging to well known flautist James Galway is not just made of any metal; it is made of gold

Questions:

1 According to the passage, the oldest flutes

a had holes cut in them

b were made of metal

c were made 200,000 years ago

d had a complicated set of levers and pads

2 The passage indicates that James Gaiway’s flute is made of

e Bones

f Bamboo

g Wood

h Gold

Analysis:

The answers to the questions are generally found in order in the passage,

so you should look for the answer to the first question near the beginning of the passage Since the first question asks about the oldest flutes, you should see that this question is answered in the second sentence The passage states that the oldest flutes were bones with holes cut in them, so the best answer is answer (A) Answers (B) and (D) are true about today’s flutes, but not the oldest flutes,

so they are incorrect Answer (C) is an incorrect number; the oldest flutes are 20,000 years old, not 200,000 years old

The answer to the second question will probably be located in the passage after the answer to the first question Since the second question is about James Galway’s flute, you should skim through the passage to find the part of the passage that discusses this topic The answer to this question is found in the statement that the instrument belonging to well-known flautist James Galway is not just made of any metal; it is made of gold The best answer to this question

is therefore answer (D)

2 Unstated Question

- PASSAGE ONE

In English, there are many different kinds of expressions that people use

to give a name to anything whose name is unknown or momentarily forgotten

The word gadget is one such word It was first used by British sailors in the

1850s and probably came from the French word gachette, which was a small hook In everyday use, the word has a more general meaning Other words are also used to give a name to something unnamed or unknown, and these words tend to be somewhat imaginative Some of the more commonly used expressions

are a what-d’ye-call-it, a whatsis, a thingamabob, a thingamajig, a doodad, or a doohickey.

Question:

1.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage as an expression for something that is not known?

a A what-is-it

b A gadget

c A thingamabob

d A doohickey

Analysis

This question asks for the one answer that is not mentioned, so three of the answers are listed in the passage and one is not You should look for the

three answers that are mentioned Since gadget, thingamabob, and

doohickey are listed in the passage, the second, third, and fourth answers are

incorrect A what-is-it is not listed in the passage, so the first answer is the best answer to this question

- PASSAGE TWO

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The Florida Keys are a beautiful chain of almost 1,000 coral and limestone islands These islands form an arc that heads first southwest and then west from the mainland U.S Highway 1, called the Overseas Highway connects the main islands in the chain On this highway, it is necessary to cross 42 bridges over the ocean to cover the 159 miles from Miami on the mainland, to Key West the farthest island on the highway and the southernmost city in the United States

Questions:

1.Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Florida Keys?

a The Florida Keys are a chain of islands

b The Florida Keys contain coral and limestone

c The Florida Keys are in the shape of an arc

d The Florida Keys are not all inhabited

2 Which of the following is NOT true about U.S Highway 1?

1 It is also known as the Overseas Highway

2 It joins all of the islands in the Florida Keys

3 It has more than 40 bridges

4 It connects Miami and Key West

Analysis:

The first question asks for the one answer that is not mentioned about the Florida Keys The passage states that the Florida Keys are a chain (answer A) with coral and limestone (answer B) in the shape of an arc (answer C), so these

answers are not correct The best answer is therefore answer (D) The passage

does not discuss whether or not the keys are all inhabited

The second question asks for the answer that is not true about U.S Highway 1 The passage states that it is called the Overseas Highway (answer A), that it has 42 bridges (answer C), and that it cover(s) the 159 miles from

Miami to Key West (answer D), so these answers are not correct The best answer is answer (B) The passage states that the Overseas Highway connects

the main islands in the chain, so it does not connect all of the islands

IV FURTHER PRACTISE:

To make students understand more and use them fluently, I gave Enghlish tests for the G.C.S.E in 2019 in order to practise

In 401 code: I ask students to realise type of questions in the reading passage

Students answer that there are three stated questions and one unstated question

I let them do it Almost my students can choose the correct answer when they put these tips into practise with number 32 is C, 34 is B 40 is D, 41 is D

In 402 code: there are two stated questions and one unstated question: number 41 is D, number 42 is D, 49 is C

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V Compared to the amount of the initial survey

Result before applying the research to teach

School year: 2018-2019

Cla

ss

Number

of

students

Amoun

t

(%

)

Amoun t

(%) Amoun

t

(%) Amoun

t

(%)

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