Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on non-major English students at University of Economic – Technical Industries

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** LÊ ANH THƯ Developing test-taking strategie

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ ANH THƯ

Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on non- English major students at University of Economic –

Technical Industries

(Phát triển các chiến lược làm bài thi Đọc hiểu của kỳ thi TOEIC cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh tại trường Đại học Kinh tế

- Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

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

LÊ ANH THƯ

Developing test-taking strategies for TOEIC Reading Comprehension Tests: A study on non- English major students at University of Economic –

Technical Industries

(Phát triển các chiến lược làm bài thi Đọc hiểu của kỳ thi TOEIC cho sinh viên không chuyên tiếng Anh tại trường Đại học Kinh tế

- Kỹ thuật Công nghiệp)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

HANOI, 2014

DECLARATION

I, Le Anh Thu, hereby state that, this minor thesis is the result of my own research and all the material in this study which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged I also state that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degree to any other universities institutions

Dated: 25/ 12/ 2013

Lê Anh Thư

First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to my respected supervisor, Dr Ngo Huu Hoang for his generous assistance, invaluable advice, guidance, constructive comments Without his help, this study would not have possibly been completed

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to the Post- Grade Department for their enthusiastic help during the time of studying and writing my thesis

I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues and my students, especially the students at University of Economic – Technical Industries who have helped

me to collect data for the study

Hereby, I also would like to thank all the readers for their attention and I highly appreciate any comments and opinions on this study

ABSTRACT

So far, most Vietnamese universities have tended to choose TOEIC as a measure unit to assess input English level and graduation for students TOEIC score reports provide accurate, meaningful feedback about a test taker‟s strengths and weaknesses, along with a description of the English language strengths typical of test takers performing at various score levels However, when taking the TOEIC test, especially the TOEIC reading comprehension section, many students do meet a lot of difficulties in reading, and therefore fail to be efficient readers and get high scores One of the primary causes is that students seem unskilled or unaware of the use of test-taking strategies for TOEIC reading comprehension tests Then, which strategies should students be used while taking the TOEIC reading comprehension tests?

A number of studies and books have already been released in the area of application of test-taking strategies to TOEIC reading comprehension part This study is concerned with developing test-taking strategies to help non-major English students at UNETI reduce reading difficulties, improve their skills and take the TOEIC reading comprehension tests with higher scores

The result of the study show that non-major English students at UNETI often have difficulties, to different extent, in many areas of the language such as difficulties with vocabulary, with grammar, discourse, and reading strategies Moreover, the data collected

in the study also revealed that the students‟ inefficient use of reading strategies is a great source of reading problems Through the students‟ low frequency of strategy use to deal with question kinds in TOEIC reading comprehension tests, it is shown that students fail to apply reading strategies effectively in responding to questions during tests Therefore, the study suggests that to enable to successfully take the TOEIC reading comprehension test, students should actively use strategies involved as skimming and scanning skills, utilize context clues to understand difficult words and find out the synonym or paraphrase for the word In some cases, if test-takers have no idea about a question, the application of techniques to guess should be needed Besides, the study also recommends several test-taking strategies for each kind of questions in TOEIC reading comprehension test

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Design of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1- THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 Reading Comprehension 4

1.1 Reading and Reading comprehension 4

1.1.1 Definitions of reading 4

1.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension 4

1.2 Models of reading process 5

1.3 Reading comprehension approaches 5

1.3.1 Skimming 6

1.3.2 Scanning 6

1.3.3 Extensive reading 6

1.3.4 Intensive reading 7

1.4 Reading Comprehension Skills and Strategies 7

1.4.1 Reading Strategies 7

1.4.1.1 Reading for specific information 7

1.4.2.2 Finding the main ideas 8

1.4.2.3 Guessing vocabulary from the context 9

1.4.2.4 Making inferences 9

1.4.2 Reading Comprehension Skills 10

2 TOEIC reading comprehension tests 12

2.1 What is the TOEIC test? 12

2.2 TOEIC Test Area 12

2.3 Structure of the Test 13

2.4 Test Scoring 13

2.5 Who takes the test? 15

2.6 Test formats: SP and IP 15

2.7 TOEIC Reading Comprehension Section 16

CHAPTER 2- METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study 17

2.2 Participants 18

2.3 Data Collection Instruments 19

2.4 Data collection procedures 19

2.5 Data analysis 20

CHAPTER 3 – FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Students‟ attitude towards TOEIC tests at UNETI 21

3.2 Students‟ perception of their difficulties in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests at UNETI 21

3.2.1 In the area of Vocabulary 21

3.2.2 In the area of Grammar 22

3.2.3 In the area of Discourse 23

3.2.4 In the area of Reading Strategies 24

3.2.5 Causes of Reading Difficulties 24

3.2.6 Summary 26

3.3 Students‟ frequency of strategy use across four main kinds of questions in TOEIC reading comprehension test 26

3.3.1 Vocabulary questions 26

3.3.2 Inference Questions 28

3.4 Recommendations on developing test-taking strategies in TOEIC reading

comprehension test 29

3.4.1 General test-taking reading strategies 29

3.4.1.2 Read the questions carefully 29

3.4.1.3 Answer every question 30

3.4.1.4 Read the questions before reading the passage 31

3.4.1.5 Skimming 31

3.4.1.6 Scanning 32

3.4.1.7 Use Context Clues to understand difficult words 33

3.4.1.8 Guessing 34

3.4.2 Specific test-taking reading strategies for common question types 35

3.4.2.1 Test-taking reading strategies for vocabulary questions 35

3.4.2.2 Test-taking reading strategies for factual questions 37

3.4.2.3 Test-taking reading strategies for inference questions 37

PART III – CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 39

2 Limitations and of Recommendations for further Research 40

REFERENCES 41 AppendiX I

LIST OF TABLES

1 Table 1 Student‟s perception about the importance of the TOEIC test at UNETI 21

2 Table 2 Difficulties in the area of vocabulary 22

3 Table 3 Difficulties in the area of Grammar 23

4 Table 4 Difficulties in the area of Discourse 23

5 Table 5 Difficulties in the area of Reading Strategies 24

6 Table 6 Students‟ personal views of the sources of difficulties 25

7 Table 7: Frequency of Strategy Use for Vocabulary Questions 27

8 Table 8: Frequency of Strategy Use for Inference Question 29

TOEIC RC test TOEIC Reading Comprehension test

TOEIC LC test TOEIC Listening Comprehension test

PART I – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Reading as an active, receptive, and decoding language skill is the main source of meaningful input in the process of learning a foreign language Besides, according to Kim and Anderson (2011, p 30), “reading is essential for successfully completing all college-level courses In other words, college students who are more proficient readers are most likely to experience more success in their courses” Meantime, tests are the most common evaluating method in nearly all educational systems and academic institutions worldwide Generally, tests express the most students‟ total grades, particularly at the college level Whether the goal is college admission, certification, detection of specific behavior, or personal selection, a decision about an individual‟s ability is usually made based on his or her scores in specific tests Therefore, it is certain that test takers have developed numerous techniques for finding correct answers to reading tests without fully or even partially understanding the text However, in a test, to evaluate academic reading ability, the primary needs for test takers is to actually use academic reading skills in responding to items, rather than to rely on test-wiseness tricks The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) has made great efforts to evaluate the reading comprehension abilities of test takers dealing with academic-like texts It is clear that the reading tasks in TOEIC are able to discriminate better readers from poorer readers However, how exactly

do test-takers try to complete the tasks? What reading and test-taking strategies do students use to complete the tasks?

For ages of applying TOEIC tests as the standard to assess the level of English proficiency in the workplace and everyday communication of non- major English students

at University of Economic and Technical Industries (UNETI), I realize that many students

do not know how to utilize multiple test-taking strategies to enhance their performance in successfully taking TOEIC tests in general, and TOEIC reading comprehension tests in particular In details, when approaching the TOEIC reading comprehension part, they frequently read the questions and carelessly scan the passage, merely guessing answers in the end, due to insufficient knowledge about text types and task design Some can not complete the whole reading test because they lack the fast reading skill and active application of scanning or skimming strategies Some seem unaware of the test-taking strategies Hence, the significance of a study on developing test-taking strategies for

TOEIC reading comprehension tests as a way of helping non- major English students at UNETI do well in their tests seems undeniable

2 Aims of the Study

This study was carried out with following specific purposes:

1) To investigate difficulties and causes of difficulties which non- major English students at UNETI encounter in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests

2) To investigate the frequency use of test-taking strategies which non- major English students at UNETI deal with question kinds in TOEIC reading comprehension tests 3) To develop test-taking strategies to help learners reduce difficulties, improve their reading skills and take the TOEIC reading comprehension tests with higher scores

3 Research questions

The study was carried out in order to find out the answers to two research questions:

1) What are the difficulties and causes of difficulties encountered by non- English major students at UNETI in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests?

2) What is the frequency use of the test-taking strategies which non- major English students at UNETI deal with question kinds in TOEIC reading comprehension tests?

3) How to develop students‟ test-taking strategies for TOEIC reading comprehension tests?

4 Scope of study

As the title of the study has indicated, the author only focuses on developing test-taking strategies via TOEIC reading comprehension part Besides, because of limited time and scope of the minor thesis, the researcher can only conduct a survey on non- English major students at UNETI

5 Methods of study

In order to fulfill the aims of the study, the study has been carried out using both quantitative and qualitative methods The data were collected from survey on 120 non- English major students at the UNETI The survey questionnaire included both closed and open-ended questions to ensure data

6 Significance of the study

Results of the study will help provide a better understanding of test-taking strategies for the TOEIC reading comprehension test placed on non- major English students at UNETI and they are expected to successfully perform in their tests

7 Design of the study

This study consists of three parts:

Part I: Introduction This part supplies an overview of the study with specific reference

to the rationale, the aims, the methodology and the design

Part II: Development In this part, four chapters are presented

Chapter 1 – Literature Review deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of

the research It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: reading and reading comprehension, and an overview of TOEIC reading comprehension tests

Chapter 2 – Methodology presents the background information of the subjects of the study,

the instrument used to collect the data, the procedure of data collection

Chapter 3 – Findings and Discussion is aimed at describing data analysis in detail and a

thorough discussion of the findings of the study Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also presented in this chapter

Part III: Conclusion In this part, the limitations and some recommendations for further

research are also explored

The Appendices lie on the last part of the study, following the References

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 – THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

According to Goodman (1975, p.135), 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” This act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming”

Harmer (1989, p.153) considers reading as a mechanical process that “eyes receive the

message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” Harmer

focuses on not only two actions dominated by the eyes and the brain but also the speed of

the process: “a reading text moves at a speed of the reader”, which means it is the reader who decides how fast he wants to read the text

Sharing the same opinion, Smith (1985, p.102) defined: “reading is understanding the

author‟s thought” It means that the readers “read the author‟s mind not the author‟s

words”

To sum up, it is obvious that attempts to define reading have been various but no definitions can reveal all the features and ideas of what reading is However, the definitions all focus on the nature of reading that is the interaction between readers and authors

1.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension takes an important role in teaching and learning reading It is the

ability to get information from the text as efficiently as possible There are three elements involving in the reading process: the text being read, the background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

According to Grellet (1990, p.3), “reading comprehension or understanding a written text

means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible” Richard and

Thomas (1987, p.9) also stated: “reading comprehension is best described as an

understanding between the author and the reader”

As mentioned by Swan (1975, p.1), “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read

accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum understanding” After reading, readers can master the grammatical structures,

words pronunciation, understanding the context of the texts and use it in real life as effective as possible

In short, reading is to comprehend the ideas in the material Without comprehension, reading would be empty and meaningless

1.2 Models of reading process

As can be seen, there have been a great number of discussions and arguments among methodologists about the reading process According to Nuttall (2005), this process is shown such some ways as bottom-up approach, top-down approach and the interaction of top-down and bottom-up processing

In the bottom-up reading process, Nuttall (2005, p 17) points out that the reader

constructs meaning from a written text such as recognizing letters and words, working out sentence structure This model pays special attention to grammatical skills and vocabulary development Alderson (2000, p 16), sharing with Nuttall‟s idea, states that “the reader experiences an automatic process in which he begins with the printed words, recognizes graphic stimuli, decodes them to sounds, recognizes words and decodes meanings” Comprehension at this process results in a relatively shallow understanding of what the text stated directly As a result, this process underestimated the contribution of the reader

Top-down processing emphasizes the importance of the reader‟s background knowledge,

or the schemata This theory argues that when reading a text, a reader has his own knowledge, expectations, and questions, which he matches with the text Silberstein (1994,

p 7) presents that “readers use prior knowledge to make predictions about the data they will find in a text” According to Nuttall (2005, p 16), this process helps readers see the overall purpose of the text as well as enables them to predict the writer‟s purpose Goodman (1982, cited in Alderson, 2000, p 17) calls reading “a psycholinguistic guessing game” in which the reader has an active role This approach, therefore, emphasizes the importance of building and activating the reader‟s background knowledge in enhancing his reading skill

However, reading process is not full understanding without the combination of these approaches Only with a combination of those two approaches can the process of reading

be adequately characterized This combination is referred to as the interactive processing whose advocates argue that “top-down and bottom-up processes are occurring, either alternatively or simultaneously” (Alderson, 2000, p 18) With the share of Alderson‟s

point of view, Nuttall (2005, p 17) suggests that “bottom-up and top-down approaches are used to complement each other”

In short, the abilities to approach a text both top-down and bottom-up are of equal importance as these processes cannot be separated And the interactive processing can maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the bottom-up and top-down processing

1.3 Reading comprehension approaches

Efficient reading comprehension consists of clearly identifying the purposes in reading something By doing so, the readers know what they are looking for and can weed out potential distracting information Certainly, different purposes require different kinds of reading Therefore, according to the purposes of reading, Wood (1985), Williams (1986)

and Grellet (1990) categorize reading into intensive, extensive, skimming, and scanning

1.3.1 Skimming

Skimming differs from general rapid reading in that the readers go through the text extremely quickly, merely dipping into it or sampling it at various points Skimming is the technique that is used widely in reading comprehension Grellet (1981, p 19) states that the purpose of skimming is simply to see what a text is about Because of its nature, the key to skimming is to know where to find the main idea of different paragraph and to be able to synthesize them by way of generalization

1.3.2 Scanning

Like skimming, scanning is also one of the two most valuable reading strategies It is a useful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, if it has been cultivated systematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, co-operative work on the study

of texts can be greatly expected and made easy Francois (1981, p 19) understands that

“when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow

the linearity of the passage to do so We simply let our eyes wander over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of information” The key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we can

look for and where to find it The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading through the whole text

1.3.3 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice in interring meaning from the context of the

text Basing on the importance of extensive reading, Nuttal (1982, p.168) shows that “the

best way to improve one‟s knowledge of a foreign learner in is to go and live among its

speakers: the next best way is to read extensively in it” Lewis and Hill (1985, p.109) state

that “extensive reading means students have a general understanding of the text without

necessarily understanding every word” It is obvious that when reading extensively,

readers do not need to have intense concentration on the content of a long text and total comprehension because the objective of extensive reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in the shortest time Extensive reading promotes reading out the class and gives them opportunity to use their own knowledge of the language for their own purposes

1.3.4 Intensive reading

The remaining two kinds of reading activity, content study reading and linguistic study reading are also often grouped together and called intensive reading Different form extensive reading – reading for fluency, readers can read without the aid of the teacher and without understanding the text in detail – intensive reading is regarded as reading for

accuracy It “involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher or

under the guidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the text in order to arrive at a profound to detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced The “How” is as important as the

“What”, for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies”, (Nutall, 1982, p.23)

Sharing this opinion, Lewis (1985, p.109) states that intensive reading means students understand everything they read and be able to answer detailed vocabulary and comprehension questions In other words, the aim of intensive reading is to obtain the fullest possible response in the students‟ head to the black mark in his book Response cannot be achieved by instruction about what he ought to see and feel, or by repetition of what others see and feel, although knowledge of what can be seen by others sometimes helps us to see for ourselves

In sum, there are different ways of reading and they are determined not by the texts but by the reader‟s reasons for reading In order to understand a text effectively, the readers should not use these ways independently They must know how to use suitable ways to achieve their reading purpose

1.4 Reading Comprehension Strategies and Skills

1.4.1 Reading Strategies

1.4.1.1 Reading for specific information

Reading for specific information is the way we read the passage and only pay attention to the relevant parts or information needed, we don‟t need to take care of all printed words on the page We are suggested to skip unnecessary information or irrelevant parts in the passage With respect to reading for specific information, readers are advised to run their

eyes very quickly and only stop reading when they found the information wanted Hence, the reading sub-skill is close to scanning In other words, scanning is reading strategies for locating specific information Brown (1994, p 293) refers to reading for specific information is the way of “quickly searching for some particular pieces of information in a text” Grellet (1981, p 19) also claims that when locating specific information, we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so, the way we should do is to “let our eyes wander over the text until we find what we are looking for” Clearly, the skill has strong relationship with scanning If a reader doesn‟t recognize this relationship, he/she will take

a lot of time to deal with the task on locating specific information

1.4.1.2 Finding the main ideas

Finding the main ideas requires readers to gain their reading comprehension at both literal and inferential level If the main information is directly stated in the paragraph or in the passage, readers only understand the text at their literal reading comprehension level, if not, they have to infer the main ideas and readers must gain their reading comprehension at inferential level

Finding the main ideas is the ability to find the most important thing an author is trying to say It is perhaps the most important of all reading comprehension skills Harris (1962, p 240-241) expresses “without it, the reader gets lost in a mass of detail” As a result, he/she will become confused about the principal topic that is discussed Therefore, grasping main points from the text is crucial for mastering content information

Finding the main ideas in a passage is more complicated than that in a paragraph because readers have to find the main ideas of different paragraphs and then to synthesize them into

an organic whole The main idea of a paragraph or a passage refers to the central points or thought being expressed in the paragraph or in the passage In order to grasp the main idea,

a reader should ask himself/herself the question “what is this paragraph or this passage about?” If he/she answers this question perfectly, he/she will succeed in recognizing the main idea

In a paragraph, the main idea usually lies in the first or in the last sentence, and the main idea of the text is usually in the introductory or in the concluding paragraph On occasion, the main ideas of paragraphs are not states explicitly but have to be inferred In this case,

readers should decide what the topic is and determine the main ideas from the details

Finding the main ideas is related closely to skimming because “skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic or message, and possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas This gives them “head start” as they embark on more focused reading” (Brown 1994, p 293) It means that, in skimming,

readers have to find the general and overall ideas of the whole text in order to catch the gist of it

1.4.1.3 Guessing vocabulary from the context

It cannot be denied that vocabulary plays an essential role in reading Wilkin (1972, p 110) states its role in reading comprehension that “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing conveyed” Studies by different investigators show that knowledge of word meaning is the most important single factor that accounts for variability in reading comprehension Hence, the more number of vocabularies a reader knows, the better he/she can gain reading comprehension However, it is the fact that no readers can know all English words while dealing with reading materials They can cope with unknown words but the matter is that they know a small number of words or a large number of words In the case they deal with unfamiliar words, they are suggested to make

a guess at the meaning of the words they do not know rather than look them up in a dictionary When readers guess meaning of an unknown word, they must gain their reading comprehension at inferential level

In order to guess meaning of an unknown word, we should put it in its context The meaning of a word in context is its meaning in the particular sentence and paragraph in which it is used A single English word can gave many different meanings, its precise meaning always depends on the context it is used Contextual clues are used to make a good guess at the word‟s meaning Learning how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of unknown words is an essential reading strategy and vocabulary builder

in the passage From that they can draw a logical conclusion about what might happen next Hence, reading for inference involves reading the text and recalling prior experience Once readers make inferences from the text, it means they gain their reading comprehension at inferential level

There are different types of inference one can draw from written discourse They are explained below in terms of bridging inference, contextual inference and structural inference

- Bridging Inference: Bridging Inference is drawn to establish coherence between a

present piece of information and a preceding piece of information Here, we have to infer the relationship or link between these two pieces of information

- Contextual Inference: Contextual Inference is drawn to infer the implied idea or

suggestion in a text It concerns expectations about what events will take place in the world described by the text, not about what events will actually be stated explicitly in the text In order to infer the implied idea, the reader has to use several types of information in the text

- Structural inference: It refers to the reader using his implicit knowledge of text

structures to facilitate his comprehension of texts Text structure refers to how the ideas in the text are organized by the writer

1.4.2 Reading Comprehension Skills

Duffy (1993, p 232) reveals that “reading strategies are plans for solving problems encountered in constructing meaning” The two terms “reading skills” and “reading

strategies” are often used interchangeably According to Karlin, R and Karlin, A.R (1988,

p 43-44), they make a list of reading comprehension skills which are categorized into five

groups:

 Word recognition skills:

- use of contextual clues: Context is associated with meaning, and it is meaning, as

well as visual elements, that aids readers in recognizing words or identifying

unknown words Contextual clues are related to syntactical clues

- phonic analysis: studying letter-sound relationships as a means of analyzing

words

- structural analysis: breaking word apart, it involves the recognition of prefixes,

suffixes, root words, syllables, and accents in analyzing words Structural components within familiar words would consider structural clues in identifying

unknown words

- use of dictionary: learning how to locate entry words This involves knowledge

of alphabetical order and of the use of guidewords, and the ability to recognize root words

- acquisition of sight vocabulary: the ability of recognizing words without having

to examine them carefully

 Word meaning skills:

- use of contextual clues

- structural analysis

- use of dictionary

- recognition of multiple meanings

- recognition of figurative language: the ability of distinguishing between the literal and the figurative meanings of words

 Comprehension skills:

- recognition of literal meaning

- recognition of inferred meaning

- critical evaluation of material

- assimilation of material

 Study skills:

- location of information: How to use sources of information from the table of

content, the index, the encyclopedia

- selection of information: Making decisions about what ideas and facts are

important It consists of recognizing subjects, recognizing topics, recognizing main ideas, key sentences, noting important details

- organization and retention of information: seeing relationships among ideas and

thinking about them in an organized way furthers understanding and facilities recall They include preparing outlines, preparing summaries, taking notes

- use of graphic and typographical aids: Illustrations to make abstract ideas clearer

and concrete such as: maps, diagrams, charts, and pictures

- ability to preview: taking a quick look at a reading before trying to understand

the whole thing

- flexibility: when to read slowly and carefully and when to read quickly, and how

to vary their reading styles according to their purposes and the nature of the material It deals with scanning for specific information, skimming for general ideas

 Appreciation skills:

- recognition of the language literature

- recognition of the form of literature

It can be seen that there are various sub-skills of reading comprehension by different authors However, such sub-skills of reading comprehension as reading for specific information, finding the main ideas, guessing vocabulary from the context, and making

inferences are considered basic reading skills to understand the author‟s thought Therefore, the study would focus on the four reading sub-skills

2 TOEIC reading comprehension tests

2.1 What is the TOEIC test?

TOEIC, which stands for Test of English for International Communication, measures English proficiency in a work related environment at advanced and intermediate levels It

is designed to give an accurate measurement of the English capabilities of people who do not use English as their mother tongue The first TOEIC test was administrated in December 1979 and was taken by 2,773 people The average score was 578 Since those early days the test has seen a dramatic increase in test taker numbers It is currently used in over 60 countries and taken by more than 4.5 million people per year

Every year, a great deal of investment goes into test item creation, piloting, and analysis The results of each test sitting are statistically analyzed and adjusted to ensure consistent scores between sittings

Beginning in May 2006, the New TOEIC has been designed to better address the real demand of workplace communication English Tasks are “more authentic” and “more closely resemble what a person using the language in the real world would have to do” According to Educational Testing Service (ETS), the new TOEIC test emphasizes authentic language contexts which require learners to use multiple strategies and abilities

to comprehend and connect information While the number of test items and the basic test format remain unchanged, several major changed are introduced, which reflects the test designers‟ commitment to continuous reevaluation and improvement of the test while addressing the need to ensure high TOEIC scores actually correlate with real ability to communicate in English

2.2 TOEIC Test Area

As TOEIC measures the candidate‟s proficiency in the workplace and everyday communication, the test questions are based on real life work setting in an international environment (meeting, travel, telephone conversation, etc.) To ensure that the test measures what it is supposed to in a fair, valid and reliable way, these characteristics are common of the test items:

- Vocabulary, grammar and idioms are not specifically American English

- Culture specific and job/profession specific situations are avoided

- Names from different countries are included

- Different English accents are used throughout the test – mainly American, British, Canadian and Australian accents

2.3 Structure of the Test

The New TOEIC test is a two-hour, paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice test that consists of

200 questions divided into separated-timed sections:

Section Part Task Number of

Questions Time

Maximum Score

Although speech is not equivalent to that of a native speaker, the individual has a strong grasp of vocabulary, grammar, and structure

situations

Understands ordinary conversation well and can respond naturally The individual also has the ability to respond in some fashion, even when the topic relates to specialized fields There are typically no great barriers to communicating in usual business situations

While grammatical and structural mistakes sometimes occur and some isolated disparities exist in terms of correctness and fluency, they are not so frequent that speech is

misunderstood

C

Has sufficient knowledge for daily activities and conducting business within certain limits

Can understand the gist of ordinary conversation and has no trouble forming responses However, the individual shows some disparities in the ability to respond correctly and making himself/ herself understood

in more complicated situations The individual has acquired a fundamental knowledge of grammar and structure and has the vocabulary

to communicate essential information, even when lacking

220

Knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and structure is generally inadequate However, if the other party is used to dealing with non-native speakers, the individual can manage to get a point across

himself/ herself understood

2.5 Who takes the test?

Since its relatively humble beginnings in 1979, test taker numbers have steadily increased and today the TOEIC test is one of the most common internationally recognized English proficiency exams in the world The reason for this is that TOEIC is increasingly being seen as a reliable standard measure for making both employment and academic decisions

Business test takers – An increasing number of companies worldwide use the TOEIC to set

targets for English proficiency for the purposes of hiring new workers, transfers to different companies, or for promotion to management positions This is especially true of large multinational corporations, or companies that export their products internationally

Academic test takers – Although originally aimed at English use within a business context,

TOEIC Listening and Reading Test is increasingly being used within academic contexts

In Japan, a significant proportion of the universities and colleges surveyed used the test for purposes of accreditation, course placement, and measuring progress within a curriculum

A growing number of universities around the world have adopted TOEIC as a way of screening candidates for their graduate programs, especially in the fields of business or international studies In some institutions candidates who achieve high TOEIC scores also earn the right to be recommended for scholarships or for special certification

2.6 Test formats: SP and IP

There are two main formats to the TOEIC test, the Secure Program (SP) and the Institutional Program (IP) The differences between these relate primarily to the way they are administered

Secure Program (SP) – This is the standard and most common form of the test SP tests

are administered directly by the TOEIC Steering Committee or their local representatives

Institutional Program (IP) – IP tests are not administered according to the terms and

conditions specified by the TOEIC Steering Committee, but by individual companies and schools on days and at locations decided by the institutions that conduct them Score results are usually reported to the institution within five working days of receipt of the answer sheets

IP tests are generally used for assessment of new employees, as a placement test for company English lessons or for self-development

in-2.7 TOEIC Reading Comprehension Section

In the TOEIC Reading Comprehension section, there are 48 questions in total It presents examinees with the first part to read followed by two to five questions to answer The 48 questions are based on a variety of reading materials like announcements, reports, letters, forms, bulletins, faxes, memos, tables, charts, newspaper and magazine articles, and advertisements The second part has 20 questions and you get two related texts to read There will be five questions to answer which cover the content of both passages In these paired texts, they may be an e-mail and a memo, a form and a fax, a table and a letter, a letter and a letter (p 227)

According to ETS (2003), the Reading Comprehension of the TOEIC tests consists of four main kinds of questions: (1) vocabulary questions, (2) factual information questions, (3) inference questions, and (4) summary questions The first kind measures examinee‟s ability to comprehend the meanings of individual words or phrases as used in the context

of the passage

The second one requires examinees to identify responses to questions about important factual information that are explicitly stated in a text In inference questions, the distinctive mark is that the correct answer is not actually found in the document Therefore, readers should make a prediction based on the given information in the text to choose the best answer To answer the last kind of questions, test-takers must understand the major ideas and the relative importance of information in a text They are asked to select the major text ideas by distinguish them from minor ideas or ideas that are not in the text

CHAPTER 2 – METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study

The study was conducted at the University of Economic and Technical Industries (UNETI),

at 353 Tran Hung Dao street, Nam Dinh city The university was established in 1956 It has had its own reputation in training technicians, engineers, mechanics, accountants and bankers to be with skillful hands and intensive academic knowledge It offers various courses, including undergraduate, vocational, and in-service courses The University currently has an enrollment of more than 15,000 students

Students at the UNETI has finished high school and joined the course after passing the compulsory entrance examination in mathematics, physics and chemistry to the university They may have learnt English for either three or seven years before starting the university depending on the English program adopted at their school This means their language competence is at different levels

Like in many other universities, English is a compulsory subject for all students at the UNETI The teaching of English is divided into two phases from the second to the seventh term In the first phase, students acquire General English with the four language skills and grammar through the course book New Headway Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate (Liz and John, 2003), of which Pre-Intermediate is taught for the second and third term and Intermediate for the fourth and fifth term At the end of these terms, TOEIC tests (Test of English for International Communication) are used as the standard to assess the level of English proficiency of students; therefore, students at the UNETI are required to pass a 60 minute TOEIC test Because the main purpose of this examination is to test learners‟ grammar and reading skills, the TOEIC test at this stage only involves the second section, the Reading Section, which consists of 100 questions divided into three parts: Incomplete Sentences (40 questions), Incomplete Texts (12 questions) and Reading Comprehension (48 questions)

In the second phase, students acquire and practice TOEIC test because students at the UNETI are asked to score mark 350 on TOEIC test to get their diploma The selected textbooks are Longman Preparation Series for the TOEIC® Test: Introductory and Intermediate Course by Lin Lougheed The aim of the last two terms is to help students prepare for the TOEIC tests by giving them practice with question formats commonly found on the TOEIC and skills, techniques, and confidence they need to improve their performance on each section of the test To pass these terms, students have to complete

full-length TOEIC tests with both the Listening Section and the Reading Section which are designed to simulate the actual TOEIC

The students have English classes almost every week They learn English for four 45 minute periods per week from the second to the fifth term and three minute periods for the sixth and seventh term Hence, it is clear that the class time allocated in the second phase might not be sufficient for the students to comprehend and practice multiple strategies of all parts in TOEIC tests in general and of the reading comprehension part in particular They are even exposed to a variety of topics and in a variety of formats, and other common methods of presenting information in print

Consequently, after three years of adopting TOEIC as a component of tertiary-level exit requirements at the UNETI, it can be seen that the TOEIC scores of most of students have not been successful as the university managing board and teachers expect When taking the TOEIC test, students have not made full use of learned strategies and techniques to enhance their TOEIC test-taking skills For example, approaching the TOEIC reading comprehension part, they frequently read the questions and carelessly scan the passage, merely guessing answers in the end, due to insufficient knowledge about text types and task design Some seem unaware of the test-taking strategies Consequently, a small minority has not achieved TOEIC standard as set

pre-These students were selected on the basis of cluster sampling from 120 non-English major students in the seventh term belonging to two classes (one from Technical Sector and one from Economics Sector) The researcher, who is also the teacher of these classes, was in charge of teaching them during this semester With the method of cluster sampling, the researcher ensures the variety of the students‟ background, which varies from one to

another as the group was chosen by chance This also enables for a wider range of application to other classes, which to some extent, shorten the limitation of this study

2.3 Data Collection Instruments

Richard and Lockhart (1994) state that questionnaires are an effective way of yielding data quickly in respect of “effective dimension of teaching and learning as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences” The administration of the questionnaires was convenient for the data collection procedure In addition, it can be given to large groups of subjects at exactly the same time; hence the data are more uniform, standard and accurate (Seliger and Shohamy, 1995)

In order to fulfill the aims of the study as presented, the study has carried out with both quantitative and qualitative methods by collecting data from a questionnaire on 120 non- English major students at the UNETI The questionnaire was chosen because it has many advantages It can be seen as one of the most popular instruments due to its time saving and its simple and cheap operation The survey questionnaire was designed in such a way that both closed and open-ended questions to ensure deep data It aimed at getting information concerning:

- The students‟ background (Questions 1 & 2)

- The students‟ attitude towards TOEIC tests at UNETI (Question 3)

- The students‟ experience in TOEIC tests (Questions 4 & 5)

- The students‟ perception of their difficulties in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests at UNETI (Questions 6 & 7)

- The students‟ causes of reading difficulties in taking TOEIC reading comprehension tests at UNETI (Question 8)

- The students‟ frequency of strategy use to deal with four main kinds of questions

in TOEIC RC tests (Question 9)

2.4 Data collection procedures

The study was conducted during the academic year 2012 (from February 2012 to June 2012) The data was collected in the following steps:

Step 1: The researcher conducted an English questionnaire to 120 students The

participants were clearly explained the purpose of the research before they fulfilled the