IELTS reading test taking strategies employed by high score candidates in academic training module

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** IELTS READING TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES **********************

IELTS READING TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY HIGH SCORE CANDIDATES IN ACADEMIC TRAINING MODULE

(Chiến thuật làm bài đọc EL S được sử dụng bởi những thí

sinh đạt điểm cao trong kỳ thi học thuật EL S)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES **********************

IELTS READING TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY HIGH SCORE CANDIDATES IN ACADEMIC TRAINING MODULE

(Chiến thuật làm bài đọc EL S được sử dụng bởi những thí

sinh đạt điểm cao trong kỳ thi học thuật EL S)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr ư ng c inh

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own original research and writtenentirely by myself Any citing in the thesis is followed by references andacknowledgement

I also hereby state that I agree to the requirements of the University ofLanguages and International Studies in terms of using as well as preserving myM.A thesis This condition means that any access to my thesis for study purposeshould be allowed

Hanoi, 2017

Phí Thị Mùi

This research is one of the most challenging academic tasks that I had to face

I could not have been able to complete without the wholehearted help and guidance

of my supervisor, my family, my friends, and my students

First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to mysupervisor Dr Duong Duc Minh for his useful comments, remarks and engagementthroughout the process of researching and completing my thesis With patience andknowledge, he always steers in the right direction and encourages me to overcomemany difficulties or problems when conducting the study

Furthermore, I would also like to thank the participants in the research, whocontributed greatly to the success of the research and provided a great deal of usefulinformation during collecting data stage

Last but not least, my sincere thanks also go to my family and friends foralways supporting me and giving me confidence when I needed most

This thesis aims to illuminate how the successful IELTS takers perform theirIELTS reading test and provide a useful guidance for anyone concerning aboutIELTS reading test This study is motivated by three research questions: (1) Whattest-taking strategies frequently used by Vietnam test takers in performing IELTSreading tasks? (2) How are those English test-taking strategies related to test takers‟performance? (3) To what extent do the uses of English test-taking strategy ofsuccessful candidates vary significantly with their gender and learning experience?

If yes, what are the main patterns of variation? The research employed multiplemethods including a broad survey questionnaire of 100 participants and a thoroughinterview of 06 English language learners who had taken the IELTS test and gained

at least 7.0 for reading skill to point out the common reading strategies used by highscore test takers and indicate the influence of them on the test takers‟ performance.Moreover, further suggestions on how the strategy use differs among successfulcandidates are also concluded in the study The findings from the research illustratethe variety in application of test-taking strategies and the impact of strategies on theresults when taking the test The findings also prompt an encouragement to learnand sharpen basic approach when taking the reading test, especially in IELTSreading which examine learners‟ proficient language skill

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The number of participant according to gender 18

Figure 2: English experience of participants 19

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Characteristics of good language learners (Brown, 2007: 259-260) 8

Table 2: IELTS: Guide for Teachers (British Council, 2008) 18

Table 3: IELTS Reading test-taking strategies 25

Table 4: Reliability of General Strategies 26

Table 5: Reliability of Text-related Strategies 26

Table 6: Reliability of Question-related Strategies 27

Table 7: George and Mallery‟s cronbach α value range 27

Table 8: Means and Standard Deviations Indicating Test-taking Strategy Use 30

Table 9: Correlation between English Test-taking Strategy Use and Students‟ Test Performance 33

Table 10: Means and Standard Deviations Indicating Test-taking Strategy Use of Male and Female 37

Table 11: Correlation between gender and IELTS test score 38

Table 12: Means and Standard Deviations Indicating Test-taking Strategy Use based on English learning experience ……… ……… 42

Table 13: The correlation between English learning experience and IELTS score.42

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

LIST OF TABLES vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem 1

1.2 Purpose of the study 2

1.3 Scope 2

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Expected outcome and significance of the study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Reading 4

2.1.1 Definition of reading 4

2.1.2 Purposes of reading 4

2.2 Language learning strategies 5

2.3 Strategies of successful language learners 6

2.4 Reading comprehension and test-taking strategies 8

2.4.1 Reading comprehension strategies 8

2.4.2 Test-taking strategies 9

2.5 The IELTS test 10

2.6 IELTS reading test 11

2.7 Summary of previous studies 12

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 16

3.1 Participants and setting 16

3.2 Research method 20

3.3 Research Instruments 20

3.3.1 Survey questionnaire 20

3.3.2 Individual interview 21

3.4 Data analysis procedure 22

3.4.1 Data collection procedure 22

3.4.2 Data analysis procedure 23

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26

4.1 Reading test-taking strategies used by IELTS candidates in performing IELTS reading tasks 26

4.1.1 Testing the reliability of data 26

4.1.2 Reading test taking strategies used by IELTS candidates 27

4.2 How are those English test-taking strategies related to test takers‟ performance? 33

4.3 Is there any difference in English test-taking strategy use among successful candidates? 35

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 44

5.1 Summary of the major findings 44

5.2 Implications for IELTS test takers and IELTS trainers 45

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 46

REFERENCES 47

APPENDENCES I

APPENDIX 1 I

APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3………III

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Test-taking strategies have been playing a crucial role for language learners

as nowadays test is used as a reliable way of checking and evaluating learners‟knowledge The International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which isthe world‟s leading English language proficiency test, with over 2.5 million IELTStests taken annually, has been recognized as one of the most secure, valid andreliable means in assessing English language proficiency for education, immigrationand professional accreditation IELTS test, which is a high stake test, success orfailure, can have a life changing impact on candidates As a result, smart and criticalreading and thinking strategies need to be used sufficiently in order to be successful

or achieve the best possible score in the test (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Rogers &Harley, 1999)

There are numerous factors affecting the candidates‟ results except forknowledge and ability One of the most important factors is learning and test-takingstrategies (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; O‟ Malley & Chamot, 1990) Test-takingstrategies are simply defined as specific actions or techniques taken by users to aidthem overcome the test easier, faster and more accurate As Oxford defines, learningstrategies are “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster,more enjoyable, more self-directed and more transferrable to new situations”(Oxford, 1990)

Reading is considered as a complex cognitive process of decoding, derivingand receiving message from the writer It is a complicated and meaningful skill oflanguage acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas,which requires continuous practice, development, and refinement, especiallycreativity and critical analysis

1.1 Statement of the problem

IELTS test, which serves as a testimonial system, has been gaining itspopularity in many countries around the world For many candidates, IELTS plays

an important role for their future career or further study IELTS is the test oflanguage ability, it concerns with the capacity to use various aspects of languageincluding vocabulary, structure, grammar efficiently so having clear and strategicskills to handle the task would certainly helpful.

Test-taking strategies have been the focus of many studies In spite of manyattempts have made towards learning and test-taking strategies, few was devoted totest-taking strategies used in reading modules of IELTS while for many Vietnamesecandidates, reading is regarded as the most challenging one All of these reasonsstated have become the motivations that stimulate the researcher to carry out the

study named “IELTS reading test-taking strategies employed by high score candidates in academic training module”.

1.2 Purpose of the study

Test taking strategies are considered as keys to success for not onlyresearchers, teachers but also for learners, especially test takers For globallydifficult standardized test like IELTS, it is necessary to have clear strategies to dealwith the test best The study will examine the test taking strategies used by highscore candidates in the reading module of IELTS and evaluate the effectiveness ofthose techniques, further indicate the differences in English test-taking strategies useamong winning candidates The research will provide helpful guidance, exampleand assistance for readers in order to achieve their greatest potential

1.3 Scope

The study is aimed to document the test-taking strategies of 100 VietnameseEnglish foreign language (EFL) learners who had already attended the IELTS testand gained their latest IELTS band score for reading module of at least 7.0.Furthermore, exclusive interviews among chosen candidates (06 people) who showdiversity in their reading strategies are carried out

1.4 Research questions

The study is going to answer the following research questions:

1 What test-taking strategies frequently used by Vietnam test takers in performing IELTS Reading tasks?

2 How are those English test-taking strategies related to test takers‟

performance?

3 To what extent do the uses of English test-taking strategy of successfulcandidates vary significantly with their gender and learning experience? If yes, what arethe main patterns of variation?

1.5 Expected outcome and significance of the study

By conducting this research, the researcher expects to find out the mostcommonly efficient used test-taking strategies among IELTS candidates andevaluate the effectiveness of those techniques Furthermore, an analysis of thedifference in test-taking strategy among users will be revealed to answer thequestion how much is the variable?

Once finished the paper could serve as a good reference for those who wish tohave a closer view into the test-taking strategies employed by students in response

to some specific comprehension tasks Both IELTS candidates and IELTS trainerscould refer to the findings of the study to have more effective using as well asteaching reading IELTS strategies

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Reading

2.1.1 Definition of reading

According to Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1986), reading can

be defined as the process of “perceiving a written text in order to understand itscontents This can be done silently The understanding that result is called readingcomprehension.” Collins English Learner‟s Dictionary describes reading as “an act

of looking at and understanding point” On the other hand, Anderson (1985)considered reading as a complex process in which the reader had to construct themeaning of the text and used various interconnected informative sources tounderstand the real meaning of the passage Moreover, skilled reading needed to beconstructive, fluent, strategic, motivated and a lifelong pursuit Another interestingdefinition of reading is reading is an energetic interactive process of “the reader'sexisting knowledge; the information suggested by the text being read; and thecontext of the reading situation” (Wixson, Peters, Weber, & Roeber, 1987) Simplydefined, reading is a process of reducing the uncertainty about meanings a textconveys and it can be understood as a negotiation of meaning between the text andits reader The way the readers interact with the text is decided by the knowledge,expectations and strategies the readers use Importantly, most texts are understood

in different ways by different readers

2.1.2 Purposes of reading

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessmentframework indicates that there are two main purposes of reading: reading for

literary purposes and reading for informational purposes.

Grabe and Stoller (2002) devided the purposes of reading into seven subtypes,including: searching for simple information; skimming quickly; learning from texts;integrating information; writing or searching for information needed for writing;

criticizing text and getting general comprehension Actually, the aims andobjectives of reading depend greatly on the readers and different readers will havedifferent reading purposes.

2.2 Language learning strategies

“Learning strategies” is a familiar term since it can be applied into varieties offields regarding both content and context such as math, science, history, languagesand other subjects According to Weinstein and Mayer (1986), broadly definedlearning strategies are "behaviours and thoughts that a learner engages in duringlearning" which are "intended to influence the learner's encoding process"(Weinstein & Mayer, 1986) In 1988, Mayer developed the definition morespecifically and described learning strategies as "behaviours of a learner that areintended to influence how the learner processes information.”

Speaking of language learning strategies, there have been numerousdefinitions about this category Foreign or second language learning strategies arespecific actions, behaviors, steps or techniques students use often consciously toimprove their progress in apprehending, internalizing, and using foreign language(Oxford, 1990) Strategies are the tools for active, self-directed involvement neededfor developing foreign or second language communicative ability (O‟Malley &Chamot, 1990)

Many scholars have attempted to categorize language learning strategiesincluding some famous linguists like Wenden and Rubin 1987; O'Malley et al.1985; Oxford 1990; Stern 1992; Ellis 1994, Wenden and Rubin in 1987 classifiedlanguage learning strategies into three main forms, consisting of learning strategies,communication strategies, and social strategies In contrast, Oxford‟s (1990)taxonomy includes direct and indirect strategies

In 1985, O'Malley and Chamot developed a classification of three types oflanguage learning strategies:

 Metacognitive strategies that comprise of thinking about (or knowledge of) the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring learning while it is taking place, and self‐evaluating of learning after the task had been completed.

 Cognitive strategies, which involve mental manipulating or transforming ofmaterials or tasks, it is intended to enhance comprehension, acquisition, or retention

 Social/affective strategies, as the name suggests, they concern with usingsocial interactions to assist in the comprehension, learning or retention of information

Nevertheless, different scholars have proposed different categorizations forlearning strategies (Brown, 1987; O‟ Malley & Chamot, 1990) Most of themrecommend that students develop the following strategies:

 Cognitive strategies: Learners employ cognitive strategies to focus on the important aspects of material to be learned, to comprehend input, to store for future use what they have learned, and to develop facility in using the learned material

 Communication strategies: These strategies are developed to initiate

conversation, to maintain conversation, to negotiate meaning, and to terminate

2.3 Strategies of successful language learners

There have been many studies investigated the characteristics and styles ofgood language learners as a way to improve and transfer them to less successfullanguage learners Moreover, there have been many studies proved the close

relationship between strategies application and the possibility of success of students(Rubin (1975), Stern (1975) and Naiman, Frolich, Stern, and Todesco (1978)).According to Rubin (1975), it was essential to enlighten less proficientlanguage learners by encouraging them to learn the strategies of those who weremore talented and she listed seven strategies which good language learners oftenapplied, including: guessing, communicating, avoiding inhibition, attending to form,practicing, monitoring and attending to meaning.

Stern (1975) also proposed 7 language learning strategies which he believed

to be characteristics of good language learners, consisting of experimenting,planning, developing the new language into an ordered system, revisingprogressively, using the language in real communication, developing the targetlanguage into a separate reference system and learning to think in the targetlanguage

Brown in 2007 described an account of good language learners‟ personalityand he emphasized the need for teachers to enhance students‟ acquiring informationprocess instead of just delivering it

1 Finds their own way

2 Organize information about language

3 Are creative, developing a “feel” for the language by experimenting with its grammar and words

4 Make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the language classroom

5 Use memories and other memory strategies to recall what has been learned

6 Make errors work for them and not against them

7 Use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first language, in learning a second language.

8 Use contextual cues to help them in comprehension

9 Learn to make intelligent guesses

10 Learn chunks of language as wholes and formalized routines to help them

11 Learn certain tricks that help to keep conversation going

12 Learn certain production strategies to fill in gaps in their own competence

13.Learn different styles of speech and writing and learn to vary their languageaccording to the formality of the situation

Table 1: Characteristics of good language learners (Brown, 2007: 259-260)

Generally, many writers such as O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), Oxford(1990), Wenden (1991), Cohen (1998), Cohen and Macaro (2007) and Griffiths(2008) have suggested that learners might be able to learn language more effectively

by the use of language learning strategies and those language learning strategiesdiffer from users to users

2.4 Reading comprehension and test-taking strategies

2.4.1 Reading comprehension strategies

Comprehension is always the foremost purpose of any readers with differentproficient level and the defining factor to decide the degree of command is readingstrategies Most of the previous studies indicated that using effective andappropriate reading strategies would certainly enhance comprehension

Different learners will have distinctive reading comprehension strategies.However, generally there exist two most popular ones, they are top-down andbottom – up strategies The top-down strategies facilitate readers to comprehend alarger piece of text, such as paragraph This type of strategies help readers recognize

the whole meaning of the passage easier On the contrary, the bottom-up strategiesdeal with sentence-by-sentence, which means in order to understand the whole text,readers need to read and understand each sentence first (Cohen, 1998; Phakiti, 2003;Rogers & Harley, 1999).

2.4.2 Test-taking strategies

Each test taker has favorite strong tactics to deal with the test and it isimportant to explore and identify those strategies so that high-qualified ones should

be encouraged to be adopted by test takers

There have been a number of studies into this field since as Cohen (1998)indicated, “In order to assess reading comprehension in a second or foreignlanguage, it is necessary to have a working knowledge of what that process entails.”

As a result, an approach to taking strategies is necessary to understand how takers handle the task Test takers use different test-taking strategies, this isdemonstrated in many studies (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Cohen, 1998; Phakiti,2003; Roger & Harley, 1999) According to Rogers and Harley (1999), test-takingstrategies were processes which helped learners to use “the features and format of atest” to get more correct answers in a test-taking situation The test-taking strategiesmight be talked about were: “reading the rubrics and instruction carefully, planningthe allocated time properly, making use of key words in the questions, delayinganswering complex and difficult questions, and reading and evaluating the work inorder to check the answers” In other aspects, Cohen (1998) claimed that test-takingstrategies involved language use strategies and testwiseness strategies To “keep”,

test-“retain”, “remind”, and “apply” the information for the test, there were four usefulkinds of language use strategies, consisting of retrieval, rehearsal, cover andcommunication strategies, meanwhile testwiseness strategies related more to test-taking experience and knowledge (Cohen, 1998; Goh, 2002) Phakiti in his study in

2003 concluded that the use of metacognitive and cognitive strategies hadconstructive association with the reading comprehension test performance

Moreover, higher examinees tended to use more metacognitive strategy than thelower successful examinees.

Generally speaking, test-taking strategies are skills which can be learned andacquired It is obvious that among candidates with the same proficiency, the oneequipped with specific test-taking strategies will certainly get higher score thanlearners that have not learned any test-taking strategies (Anderson, 2002; Bachman

& Palmer, 1996; Cohen, 1998; Khaldieh, 2000; Phakiti, 2003; Rogers & Harley,1999) In addition, the knowledge of how to prepare for exams and take them can have asignificant impact on learners‟ perceptions towards exam, decrease their test-anxiety,increase their self-confidence, make a difference in exam scores, and finally, help them to

be more successful (Pour- Mohammadi & Abidin, 2012)

2.5 The IELTS test

Generally recognized as one of the most reliable testing system, IELTS- theInternational English Language Testing System is specifically designed to assess thelanguage ability of candidates needing to study or work in English speakingcountries IELTS certificate is the valuable ticket for those who wish to enter touniversity in not only the UK but also in other countries in the world Moreover, it

is highly regarded by employers in many countries, including Australia, Canada,Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA IELTS is jointly managed by theUniversity of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL), British Counciland IDP: IELTS Australia IELTS conforms to the highest international standards oflanguage assessment

There are two forms of IELTS testing: Academic and General Trainingversions Each test includes 4 skills: Speaking, listening, reading and writing Thispaper is going to focus on reading skill of Academic Training module, whichmeasures English language proficiency needed for academic, higher educationalenvironment

2.6 IELTS reading test

There is a distinctive difference between Academic and General Trainingmodules in reading and writing tasks, while listening and speaking are the same forboth versions General Reading texts are mainly taken from notices, advertisements,official documents, booklets… and tend to focus on survival reading skills, whichaim at workers or employees On the contrary, Academic Reading, as its namesuggests, is targeted at those who want to enter undergraduate or postgraduatecourses or seeking professional registration This paper only concentrates onReading test-taking strategies of Academic Training module that is of great concern

in recent years

The topic chosen in Academic Reading module are various, including generalscience themes, the environment, health and social psychology, technological andsocial developments, gender and other issues (Everett & Colman, 1999) All ofIELTS passages are taken from authentic sources and are generally international butneutral (Brook-Hart, 2012) since “texts which may cause the reader offence oranxiety, texts which require specialist knowledge, are too specific in content or rely

on world knowledge or knowledge outside the texts would not conform to theguidelines of an objective testing procedure” (Everett & Colman, 1999, p23)

In the IELTS Reading Test (Academic Module), there are a number of types

of questions to compose the test, consisting of:

- Matching heading for identified paragraphs/ sections of the text

- Identification of information in the text: true, false or not given

- Matching lists/ phrases

Being familiar with reading strategies is essential for test takers as most of thereading texts in the IELTS test are complicated and challenging Moreover, avariety of question types is used in the reading passages so knowing certaintechniques for each question type will be definitely helpful

2.7 Summary of previous studies

Cognitive process underlying readers‟ performance has been a controversialtopic for many scholars There have numerous studies related to this topic, some ofthe outstanding researches we can name, including Hosenfeld, 1977; Block, 1986;Nevo, 1989; Block, 1992; Farr, Pritchard and Smitten, 1990; Sugirin, 1999; Ahmadand Asraf, 2004; Rupp, Ferne and Choi, 2006; Stahopoulou and Nikaki, 2009;Karbalei, 2010…

By using think-aloud protocol and follow-up oral interview, Hosenfeld (1977)

illustrates clearly the close relationship between certain types of reading strategies

and successful or unsuccessful readers He indicates that poor readers or lessadvanced readers tend to process language according to Bottom-up model, whichmeans the reading process is considered a text-driven decoding process wherein thesole role of the reader is to reconstruct meaning embedded in the smallest unit of thetext They tend to focus on individual words or phrases, on sequential manner oflanguage itself Whereas, good readers take an opposite position which considersreaders‟ interest, world knowledge, and reading skill as the driving force behindreading comprehension

Applying a multi-method approach including think-aloud protocol analysis,retelling or retrospection, in-depth interviews and casual observations Sugirin(1999) demonstrated that poor readers tended to apply bottom-up model in readingcomprehension, while good readers prefered to use top-down model whichconsisted of skimming the whole text, inferring, making association with prior

knowledge, evaluating and paraphrasing As a result, there was a significant gap inthe degree of comprehension and number of used strategies among EFL readers.

In late 1990s, Block (1986) compared native and nonnative English-speakingcollege students using the similar procedure with the use of think-aloud protocols.The outcomes were illuminating; all participants mentioned a variety of strategies,but only a few were successful in using them to aid comprehension The findingsalso suggested that readers with higher reading scores employed top-down approach

by integrating new information in the text with the old information, extracting mainideas from details, referring to their background knowledge and focusing on textualmeanings of the words Readers with low scores, on the other hand, hardlyemployed these strategies In another study carried out in 1992, Block used the samemethod of collecting data to document the comprehension-monitoring process ofEnglish readers who were then classified as proficient readers and non-proficientreaders The findings showed that proficient readers tend to assess their backgroundknowledge and made use of context clues to figure out the meaning of the wordwhile less proficient readers did not attempt to find out the word‟s meaning andfailed to identify the key words in the reading text

Aimed at investigating the relationship between the test-taking behaviours andreading comprehension of a group of college students, Farr, Pritchard, and Smitten(1990) employed introspective interviews and retrospective interviews after theparticipants completed a multiple-choice reading comprehension test The dataanalysis of the study revealed interesting patterns in the test-taking behaviors withthree broad categories of reading comprehension behaviors which included anoverall approach to the task, the specific reading strategies and test-taking strategies.The finding of the study also reported difficulties encountered by the test-takersduring the process The results of the study indicated that the most commonly usedstrategy utilized was using the questions to direct a search for relevant information

in the text to answer the questions Moreover, there were certain test-takingstrategies that were shared among a number of language skills (test taker

prefered to read the questions first on both reading and listening comprehensiontests administered in a multiple-choice format) Second, while reading strategieswere generally used when readers engaged in a reading activity and thus “are related

to text comprehension (Singhal, 2001, p1), test-taking strategies were only usedwhen dealing with a test and were thus more “driven by the test questions” (Farr,Prichard, Smitten, 1990, p.218)

According to Nevo (1989), since reading test-taking represented a solving situation, high proficiency test takers tended to employ strategies thatincreased their chance of getting question items correct to a greater extent whencompared to low-level test takers Having the same point of view, Bachman (1985)proposed that test takers who were highly proficient also exhibited skillfulness inusing text-level comprehension Phakiti (2003) once again, counted the proficiencylevel as another factor affecting strategy use He suggested that high-proficiency testtakers tended to exhibit more automatic use of such strategies as checking ormonitoring than their low-proficiency counterparts did

problem-Another research on the underlying strategies employed by second languagelearners in comprehending both the source text and target text was conducted in

2004 by Ahmad and Araf The author aimed at testing the hypothesis of whetherthere was a difference between good and average readers in their use of eightreading comprehension sub-skills The result proposed that there were remarkabledifference in strategies used by good and average readers as good readers weremuch more focused on each question type than average readers The researcherssuggested that to foster the learners‟ ability to react “critically to text”, readingcomprehension skills and vocabulary learning skills should be equipped forstudents

On the whole, there have been a great number of studies concentrate onreading strategies Most of those tried to differentiate the difference in approachused by high-proficient and low-proficient readers However, little attention was

paid to studying the reading and test taking strategies in the IELTS Test For this

reason, the researcher decided to conduct the study on the topic “IELTS reading test-taking strategies employed by high score candidates in academic training module” with primary aim at seeking the most frequent and effective used

strategies to handle the test

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY This chapter is going to describe in details the subjects, instruments as well as the procedure of collecting data to answer the study’s questions.

1 What test-taking strategies frequently used by Vietnam test takers in

performing IELTS Reading tasks?

2 How are those English test-taking strategies related to test takers‟

performance?

3 To what extent do the uses of English test-taking strategy of successful candidates vary significantly with their gender and learning experience? If yes, what are the main patterns of variation?

3.1 Participants and setting

In the context of IELTS test receives lots of attention of many Englishlearners, who aim at achieving specific score to serve different purposes such asinstitution‟s requirement, studying abroad or academic pursue, studies aboutreading strategies are encouraged to serve as guidance for learners The researcherdecided to follow this approach

In order to select enough suitable participants, the study was announcedwidely to many subjects including teachers, students, English foreign languagelearners in many parts of Vietnam and having got at least 7.0 for Reading module inIELTS test taken placed at British Council or IDP centers The respondents weremainly researchers‟ friends, colleagues, and students studying and working atUniversity of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National Universityand School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University The reason why 7.0scorers are considered by researcher to be appropriate is according to BritishCouncil, 7.0 scorers are good users who have “operational command” of the Englishbut only some irregular random mistakes and they have ability to comprehendcomplex argument

IELTS score and interpretation

9 Expert user Has fully operational command of the language:

appropriate, accurate and fluent with completeunderstanding

8 Very good user Has fully operational command of the language

with only occasional unsystematic inaccuracies andinappropriate words Misunderstandings may occur

in unfamiliar situations Handles complex detailedargumentation well

7 Good user Has operational command of the language, though

with occasional unsystematic inaccuracies andinappropriate words Misunderstandings may occur

in unfamiliar situations Handles complex detailedargumentation well

6 Competent user Has generally effective command of the language

despite some inaccuracies, inappropriate words andmisunderstandings Can use and understand fairlycomplex language particularly in familiar situations

5 Modest user Has partial command of the language despite some

inaccuracies, inappropriate words andmisunderstandings Can use and understand fairlycomplex language particularly in familiar situations

4 Limited user Basic competence is limited to familiar situations

Has frequent problems in understanding andexpression Is not able to use complex language

3 Extremely limited Conveys and understands only general meaning in

user very familiar situations Frequent breakdowns in

communication occur.

2 Intermittent user No real communication is possible except for the

most basic information using isolated words orshort formulae in familiar situations and to meetimmediate needs Has great difficulty understandingspoken and written English

1 Non user Essentially has no ability to use the language

beyond possibly a few isolated words

0 Did not attempt No assessable information provided

the test

Table 2: IELTS: Guide for Teachers (British Council, 2008)

The link to answer the survey‟s questions on google form was sent to over

100 people; thus, only 100 received feedbacks were satisfactory overall due tounqualified score As a result, the research sample was a group of 100 people atdifferent aged groups and fields The primary requirements are meeting the score (atleast 7.0 for Reading module) and certainly having taken the IELTS test Of theselected participants, 79 were female and only 21 were male

21 %

79 %

Figure 1: The number of participant according to gender.

The participants also had diverse experience in English learning andteaching, 50 respondents reported to be the most experienced language learners(>10 years), 22 are experienced ones (5-10 years ), and 28 are less experienced (<5years).

Figure 2: English experience of participants

Generally, all participants had some familiarity with the test as they prepared

to take the IELTS test Accordingly, a survey conducted widely on high scoreIELTS Reading Academic module participants is revealed, lots of valuableinformation about the degree of adopting some specific strategies in IELTS readingskill can be gained thanks to carrying out this investigation After that, a thoroughinterview on 06 participants coming from different groups to have a deepunderstanding about why and how they followed those strategies were conducted.Some key information about 100 participants consisting of English learningexperience in general and IELTS skill in particular were also concluded in thesurvey

3.2 Research method

In this research, the researcher decided to choose survey and descriptiveresearch methods to explore the test-taking strategies of 100 Vietnamese studyingEnglish foreign language, most of them concentrate on English language major As

a matter of fact, a mixed method study was applied At the beginning, a surveyquestionnaire which consists of two sections was conducted Section 1 includes 04personal questions about sex, English learning experience, IELTS Reading score,and purposes of taking the IELTS Section 2 comprises of 26 listed Readingstrategies proposed by Farr, Pritchard and Smitten (1990), Rupp, Ferne and Choi(2006), Cohen & Upton (2007), and Dinh Phuong (2014) The participants wererequired to tick the box according to likert scale or the degree that they follow fromnever to always After that, based on the results of the survey, participants werecategorized into different typical groups and then selected to take part in anindividual interview In this semi-structured interview, questions were designed toask how and why they chose to take on those approaches

At the beginning, survey questionnaire was used as the first and foremosttool to identify the strategies applied by different users By applying this researchinstrument, a huge amount of information concerning both general understanding of

the subjects and specific traits of different users could be collected in a short period

of time Moreover, survey questionnaires, in this situation, facilitated researcher tocollect three types of data which were extremely important for the findings of thestudy, including factual, behavioral and attitudinal information ( Dornyei, 2003)

“Factual questions”, in other word, “classification” questions or “subjectdescriptors” in the study are questions related to Gender, English learningexperience, IELTS Reading score, purpose of taking the IELTS test “Behavioralquestions” are used to identify participants‟ habits, in this case, are the frequency oflanguage learning strategies “Attitudinal questions” concerns test-takers‟ attitudes,interest in specific reading strategies (Dornyei, 2003) Overall, survey questionnaire

is a perfect choice, especially in this research, which investigates frequency ofstrategies use of a group of high score IELTS test takers Based on Dornyei(2003)‟s framework, the questionnaire was designed into five parts: title,instructions, questionnaires items, additional information and final thank.Furthermore, all the contents were examined with awareness in advance by askingfor comments from researcher‟s supervisor and colleagues about the questionnaires.Some corrections relating to appearance and questions were made beforeannouncing to participants Apart from that, in order to ensure the quality ofresponses, Cronbach‟s alpha is applied to measure the reliability as well as “sharedcovariance” among responses

3.3.2 Individual interview

Individual interviews were conducted after the result of the surveyquestionnaire were collected and classified Based on Hatch (2002)‟s framework,interview questions were mainly semi-structured or open ones with What-, Why-,and How- to encourage interviewees share and describe their actual thought whileremembering the way they often do the reading tasks in IELTS Moreover, thequestions depend greatly on respondents‟ strategies so there is no fix prompt ofinterview Because some interviewees are far from the researcher, 04 of them wereinterviewed through Skype, the rest are researcher‟s colleagues, who were talked to

directly In this situation, interview was like a discussion section between test-takersand researcher However, still a prepared version with some basic questions andguidelines were necessary and arranged in advance.

Some typical questions which appeared in most of the interview promptswere:

- Do you often use the reading test-taking strategies in IELTS test? (This question aims at asking the degree of adopting the test-taking strategies of test takers)

- Can you describe in details some basic / familiar steps to do the IELTS reading tasks in general? (This question aims at understanding the basic steps of doing different tasks in IELTS test of different users)

- Why do you follow the described steps? (This question aims at

comprehending the reasons of taking the reading strategies)

- Do you think the reading strategies that you often follow affect the results of the test? If not, why? (This question aims at recognizing the relationship between test-taking strategies and test performance)

- In your opinion, what are the advantages of your reading strategies? (This question aims at identifying the benefits of employing reading strategies)

- In your opinion, what are the disadvantages of your reading strategies? (This question aims at identifying the drawbacks of employing reading strategies)

This follow-up interview part supposed to be an in-depth investigation into thestrategies of different test takers and would reveal a great deal of useful informationwhich certainly could not be gained in the survey part

3.4 Data analysis procedure

3.4.1 Data collection procedure

There are two phrases in the data collection procedure, including broadsurveying and profound interviewing In the first stage, participants were asked toprovide some key information related to English studying experience in general andIELTS in particular At the same time, 26 listed general and specific IELTS readingstrategies were offered and the responsibilities of the participants were to mark ofthose tactics in line with their preferences A record of all answers was then groupedand analyzed cautiously in order to choose interviewees for the next step, which wasone-to-one dialogue The participants who showed diverse opinions and feedbacks

in the survey would be chose to be interviewed In the follow-up interview, structured questions such as How- and Why- were mainly used to discover in detailshow and why each strategy was applied From this, the effect as well as thedifference of each strategy in use by successful IELTS performers were realized andaccessed

semi-3.4.2 Data analysis procedure

The data collected from the survey and the interview were explained more bythe researcher After that, a detailed examination was carried out by categorizingand synthesizing critically to answer three proposed questions of the study:

1 What test-taking strategies frequently used by Vietnam test takers in performing IELTS Reading tasks?

2 How are those English test-taking strategies related to test-takers‟ performance?

3 To what extent do the uses of English test-taking strategy ofsuccessful candidates vary significantly with their gender and learning experience? If yes,what are the main patterns of variation?

Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were applied thoroughly

in the study In order to have a deep insight into the problem and to uncover thetrends in thought and opinions, in this case, the strategies of individual or individualinterviews were conducted Based on the real feedback of interviewees, the