A study on the improvements in reading outcome of EFL learners taking the intensive IELTS exam preparation course at AMES english language center

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

ĐẶNG THU HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE IMPROVEMENTS IN READING OUTCOME OF EFL
LEARNERS TAKING THE INTENSIVE IELTS EXAM PREPARATION
COURSE AT AMES ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER

Nghiên cứu về mức độ tiến bộ với kỹ năng Đọc của học viên sau khi tham gia
khóa học luyện thi chứng chỉ IELTS tại Học viện Anh ngữ AMES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2018


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

ĐẶNG THU HƯƠNG

A STUDY ON THE IMPROVEMENTS IN READING OUTCOME OF EFL
LEARNERS TAKING THE INTENSIVE IELTS EXAM PREPARATION

COURSE AT AMES ENGLISH LANGUAGE CENTER
Nghiên cứu về mức độ tiến bộ với kỹ năng Đọc của học viên sau khi tham gia
khóa học luyện thi chứng chỉ IELTS tại Học viện Anh ngữ AMES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Hoà

Hanoi, 2018


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to my respectable
supervisor, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Hoa for his restless and sympathetic encouragement,
valuable advice and patient guidance until the completion of this study.
My sincere thanks also go to my dear colleagues at AMES Language
Center for all their help, support and encouragement when I encountered
difficulties.
I wish to acknowledge my thankfulness to the two IELTS preparation
classes for their enthusiastic participation in the project.
Finally, I am deeply indebted to my beloved parents, my daughter, my
siblings, and my post-graduate friends for their sacrifice, encouragement and care.

i


ABSTRACT
In recent time, there has been an increasing number of those who want to sit

an IELTS test to get a desirable score for their academic, recruitment or admission
purposes. This has resulted in the fact that many private English language schools in
Vietnam have included IELTS preparation courses in their training program. These
schools usually state strongly about the effectiveness of their IELTS
preparation classes; however, there has been little investigation on this so far.
This study is intended to explore the improvements made by IELTS learners in
terms of (1) their reading comprehension & test-taking strategies, and (2) their
IELTS Reading band scores.
The participants selected for the study included 30 learners from two IELTS
reading preparation classes at AMES English language center in Hanoi. Through the
instruments of pre-and post-tests, survey questionnaires and interviews for learners,
the study discovered that after taking a 42-hour preparation course, the learners
have well mastered the IELTS reading strategies, which have resulted in their
significant improvement in IELTS Reading band scores. In addition, regarding the
explicit strategy instruction given, the students felt welcome as they could see that
the improvements they achieved are mainly attributed by the teacher‘s careful
modeling and instruction for each type of questions in the IELTS Reading Test.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ iii
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ....................................................................... vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale for the Study ........................................................................................... 1
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study .......................................................................... 2

3. Research Questions ................................................................................................. 3
4. Methodology of the Study ...................................................................................... 3
5. Scope of the study ................................................................................................... 4
6. Significance of the study......................................................................................... 4
7. Organization of the study........................................................................................ 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 6
I. Reading and reading comprehension.................................................................. 6
1. Reading ................................................................................................................... 6
2. Reading process ...................................................................................................... 6
3. Reading comprehension .......................................................................................... 8
II. Reading Strategies ................................................................................................ 8
1. Reading strategies ................................................................................................... 8
2. Strategy use and reading results ........................................................................... 10
III.

Strategy Instruction ...................................................................................... 10

1. Strategy instruction in previous literature............................................................. 10
2. Strategy instruction procedures ............................................................................ 11
3. The roles of modelling and scaffolding in strategy instruction ............................ 14
4. Contextualization and explicitness in strategy instruction ................................... 14
iii


IV.

The IELTS Reading Test.............................................................................. 15

1. What is IELTS? .................................................................................................... 15

2. IELTS Academic Reading .................................................................................... 17
3. IELTS Reading strategies ..................................................................................... 18
V. Test preparation .................................................................................................. 19
1. Definition of test preparation ................................................................................ 19
2. Types of test preparation....................................................................................... 20
3. Previous studies on improvements of learners at test preparation language
courses ....................................................................................................................... 21
VI.

Review of previous studies on reading comprehension strategies among

Vietnamese learners ................................................................................................ 21
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ......................................................................... 23
I. Context of the study .............................................................................................. 23
1. Setting of the study ............................................................................................... 23
2. The IELTS Intensive Reading Course .................................................................. 23
II. Research Questions ............................................................................................. 26
III.

Methodology .................................................................................................. 27

1. Participants............................................................................................................ 27
2. Instruments............................................................................................................ 29
IV.

Procedures of data analysis .......................................................................... 31

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................. 32
I. Results addressing research question 1: Improvements on IELTS reading
strategies .................................................................................................................... 32

I. Reading strategies with highest and lowest ratings before and after the course .. 33
II. Reading strategies with highest and lowest gains and gains in groups of strategies36
III. Results from the open-ended questions .............................................................. 38
II. Results addressing research question 2: Improvements on IELTS band scores .. 40
III. Results addressing research question 3: Learners‘ attitudes towards the explicit
reading strategy instruction ....................................................................................... 42
iv


1. Results from open-ended questions in questionnaires .......................................... 42
2. Results from qualitative data – Interview with high-score and low-score
achieving students ..................................................................................................... 44
IV.

Summary ......................................................................................................... 44

PART C: CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 45
1. Conclusion............................................................................................................. 45
2. Implications of the study ....................................................................................... 46
3. Limitations of the study ........................................................................................ 46
4. Suggestions for further study ................................................................................ 46
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 48
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 54

v


LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Table 1. How IELTS Academic Reading module is scored .....................................17
Table 2. IELTS Reading Course with explicit strategy instruction ..........................26

Table 3. Occupation and exposure to English of learners.........................................28
Table 4. Reasons for taking IELTS Test of the learners ...........................................28
Table 5. Comparison of reading strategies used by learners before and after the
Reading Intensive Course .........................................................................................33
Table 6. The highest rated reading strategies before and after the course ................35
Table 7. The lowest rated reading strategies before and after the course .................36
Table 8. Reading strategies with highest and lowest gains after the course .............36
Table 9. Average of mean and gain of reading strategies in groups .........................37
Table 10. IELTS reading pre- and post-test scores ...................................................40
Figure 1. Learner strategies training cycle ................................................................13
Figure 2. The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components .................................16
Figure 3. Students' biggest problem with IELTS Reading Test before the course ...39
Figure 4. Students' biggest improvements in reading after the course .....................39
Figure 5. Number of students with different gains in the IELTS Reading Test .......41

vi


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the Study
On the global basis, the International English Language Testing System
(IELTS) is generally recognized as an international benchmark of proficiency in
English. Scores on IELTS are widely used as a part of recruitment or admission
procedures set by educational institutions, employers, professional registration
bodies and government immigration agencies. IELTS candidature, in particular, has
witnessed a rapid growth in recent years with over 1.5 million test-takers every year
including thousands of Vietnamese candidates. To meet the demands of the IELTS
preparation market and help more and more candidates succeed in the IELTS test,
private language schools in big cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City which offer
corresponding IELTS preparation courses are developing at an accelerating rate.

The IELTS test consists of two modules: the Academic and General training
modules. As the Academic module is designed for those seeking admission to
undergraduate and postgraduate courses like all the participants involved in this
essay, this study focuses on the Academic reading module.
From personal observation, the researcher realized that many Vietnamese
learners of English, in general, and pre-intermediate students at American English
School (AMES), a private English language school in Hanoi, Vietnam, in particular,
after several years of learning English, turn out to be word-by-word readers. That is
to say, students construct the meaning of the text by decoding at word and sentence
levels. When encountering long and complicated reading passages of the IELTS
Academic reading module, students are confused about the way to achieve
understanding and gain information from the text. They tend to read very slowly
making an attempt to understand the meaning of every single word, or they hardly
show any effort to guess meanings of unknown lexis from reading context. In
addition, they frequently try to translate the reading passages into Vietnamese. As a
result, many of them fail to finish the test under the constraint of time. In other

1


cases, students lose marks for not paying attention to the number of words required
for the reading task. One possible explanation for the above-mentioned problems is
that they are not equipped with adequate and efficient reading strategies even
though students have already acquired a range of vocabulary and grammar after
years of learning English.
Teaching and learning to read effectively under the test condition is a central
issue in most IELTS reading preparation courses in language schools. However,
there is a dearth of studies analyzing the progress of these EFL learners after taking
such courses in Vietnam. As a result, this study is an attempt to investigate whether
the intensive reading preparation course can be effective in raising the learners‘

awareness, encouraging their use of the strategies and improving their IELTS band
scores of the Academic Reading module. This will hopefully give an insight into the
potential of explicit strategy instruction in extending the range of reading strategies
that learners can employ in the domain of IELTS reading and it can also assist
teachers and educators in reviewing IELTS teaching methodology and EFL
teaching in general.
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study
This research is carried out with the aim of assessing the level of learners‘
improvements on academic reading performance in the IELTS test after taking the
intensive preparation course at American English School (AMES). In other words,
by comparing the input and output of one learner and comparing the outputs among
learners, the research will evaluate the effectiveness of the IELTS reading course at
AMES which is based on explicit reading comprehension strategies and test-taking
strategies; whether it could offer candidates an efficient preparation and improve
chances for learners to gain high scores in the real test.
Conjugant with the above-mentioned aim, there are a number of research
objectives required to work on. They are presented as follows:
- Define reading comprehension, reading strategies, reading strategy
instruction, describe their characteristics, and present several models of
classification.
2


- Indicate the purpose, format and components of the IELTS test with their
highlights.
- Investigate factors related to the Academic Reading Module involved in the
IELTS test with the necessary reading strategies to achieve higher band score in this
module.
- Apply and analyze the process of teaching IELTS reading strategies to
improve learners‘ reading performance.

- Explore the learners‘ attitudes towards IELTS reading strategy instruction.
- Give recommendations to other teachers of English on how to teach
students to employ IELTS reading strategies efficiently to improve their scores in
the IELTS Academic Reading Module.
3. Research Questions
In accordance with the aforementioned objectives, the study seeks to answer
these following research questions:
1. To what extent does the explicit reading comprehension strategy
instruction help to improve learners’ use of strategies under the test
condition?
2. To what extent do learners improve their IELTS band scores of Academic
Reading module after completing the test preparation course with explicit
reading strategy instruction at AMES English Language Center?
3. What are students’ attitudes towards the explicit strategy instruction in
IELTS Reading preparation course?
4. Methodology of the Study
It has been decided that the study will make use of both quantitative and
qualitative data. This is to serve the ultimate goal of identifying the level of
improvements the students acquire after taking the reading course with explicit
strategy instruction at AMES. Quantitative data are to be collected with the medium
of two questionnaires supplying the researchers with figures to analyze learners‘
thoughts and approaches. In addition, the reading scores of the pre-tests and posttests were also utilized as they provided a quick and easy way of looking at their
3


improvements made by IELTS learners. Meanwhile, qualitative data will be
obtained through the means of an interview after the post-test. The detail of the
methodology applied in the study is discussed in Chapter 2 of Part B.
5. Scope of the study
American English School (AMES) takes pride in many years of experience

in training high quality English according to international standards. AMES
provides English language training for all school & university students, working
people and large enterprises in Vietnam. AMES English training programs include:
English for preschoolers, young learners & junior, IELTS, TOEFL iBT, TOEIC,
and teacher training course (TESOL).
For the IELTS preparation program, AMES offers courses for two different
age groups: IELTS preparation for teens (12-15 years old) and IELTS preparation
for adults (over 16). This study focuses on the second course of intensive 160-hour
IELTS preparation with the goal of achieving 6.0+ output. Although candidates
taking the IELTS test are assessed for four skills of listening, speaking, reading and
writing, in order to match the scope and time, the research will focus only on the
level of progress of the students with the Reading module.
6. Significance of the study
In Vietnam, there are thousands of IELTS tests taken in one year. However,
there is a significant limitation in terms of number as well as publication of studies
carried out in this field. This research is hence conducted with the hope of
contributing to the knowledge of IELTS trainers who want to have a closer view
into how their trainees would actually perform in the Reading Academic module for
better IELTS preparation instruction. The paper consequently suggests some
practical recommendations to people of interest who plan to sit for the test so that
they could make more efficient use of reading strategies in the IELTS test.
7. Organization of the study
It is necessary to provide an overview of the research to the audience so that
the information and discussion can be well kept track of. According to the aims and
objectives that have been discussed and presented in the sections above, the study
will consist of three parts which relate to the following issues:

4

Part A: Introduction presents a brief introduction of the rationale, the aims
and objectives, scope, significance, methods and organization of the study.
Part B: Development, the main part of the study and is composed of three
chapters as follows:
Chapter 1: Literature Review provides the theoretical knowledge and
results from the recent studies for the issues relevant to the field under
investigated.
Chapter 2: Methodology describes the processes of sampling, designing
research instruments, collecting and analyzing data employed in the study.
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion presents the discussion of the findings
of the study.
Part C: Conclusion summarizes the main findings, presents the limitations
of the study, and suggestions for further studies.

In addition, the study also includes the sections of References which
displays the sources of referenced information and Appendices which presents the
survey questionnaires, and the pre- and post-test papers.

5


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter provides the theoretical knowledge and results from recent
studies for the issues relevant to the field under investigation. The chapter covers
the following main areas: (1) Reading and reading comprehension, (2) Reading
strategies, (3) Reading strategy instruction, (4) The IELTS Reading test, (5) Test
preparation, and (6) Review of previous studies on reading comprehension
strategies among Vietnamese students.

I.

Reading and reading comprehension

1. Reading
In our daily life nowadays one can easily recognize the presence of reading
and its role. Reading can live up to the personal purpose of gaining information or
for leisure. Scholars agree that reading is a mental process which can be
complicated. This process is activated with the engagement of the reader, the text,
and the interaction between the reader and the text (Rumelhart, 1997), and happens
when this interaction creates or recreates meaningful discourse (Silberstein, 1994).
Whether the meaning is recreated and to what extent or in which way primarily
depends on the reconstruction of the reader – the cognitive subject of the text, as a
language user (Goodman, 1967).
Regarding learning processes in general and particularly language learning,
reading accounts for a prerequisite and fundamental part as it aids the learning of
other skills. When it comes to learning English as a second language (ESL) or as a
foreign language (EFL), reading is deemed as the most crucial language skill to
learners (Robertson, 1983). This is because reading does not only provide the tool
for acquiring knowledge but also aids the enrichment of language proficiency
(Krashen, 1985).

2. Reading process
Reading can be approached in different ways, and the three most commonly
used reading models are bottom-up model, top-down model and interactive model.

6

Bottom-up reading model is heavily focused on the text while the reader has
a rather passive role. The reader in this model reconstructs the meaning based on
recognizing and decoding words of the text (Barnett, 1989). As a result, reading
process follows a pattern from part to whole, or bottom-up. Meaning
interpretation

mainly

rests

on

morpho-phonemic

and

morpho-syntactic

processing (Eskey, 2005), as opposed to the lack of consideration for sentencecontext effects and previous knowledge of text topic, which is the drawback of
this model (Samuel and Kamil, 1988).
Top-down reading model refers to a more reader-driven approach of reading.
On the contrary to bottom-up model, in top-down model the reader reconstructs the
meaning not only based on letter and word recognition but also in relation with
syntactic cues and semantic cues available (Goodman, 1967). Using top-down
model, the reader also put into practice his or her prior knowledge together with
the use of written text at a higher level, with predicting, sampling, confirming,
and correcting in reading comprehension (Barnett, 1989). Hence, the interaction
between the reader and the text in this approach is of higher level than in bottomup one.
Although being two mostly complete opposites, bottom-up and top-down
reading processes have their each essential role in EFL/ESL reading. Koda (2005)

asserted that the level of bottom-up and top-down processes is used in a specific
reading context is determined by the text‘s nature, the reader‘s reading purposes,
their available background knowledge of the text topic, their language proficiency
as well as their attitudes and interest in reading that text.
As two contrasting reading models gaining in popularity, the criticism
towards them accumulated, necessitating the advent of the third one, the interactive
reading model. This model emphasizes on the role of both the reader and the text.
Interactive reading model was devised in order to combine the higher-level processing
and the lower-level processing in acquiring knowledge from various sources in reading
process. Meaning is reconstructed from the use of three different cueing systems,
namely graph phonic, syntactic and semantic systems (Rumelhart, 1977).
7


3. Reading comprehension
Basically, reading comprehension refers to the understanding of a reader
with a text. Grellet (1981) suggested a definition of reading comprehension in his
work ―Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from
it as efficiently as possible‖ (p. 3). The RAND Reading Study Group defined
reading comprehension as ―the process of simultaneously extracting and
constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language‖
(2002, p. 11).
From some perspectives, reading comprehension can be viewed as a product
of the combined use of some particular language components such as spelling,
phonological and orthographic awareness, phonics knowledge and listening
comprehension, vocabulary and verbal intelligence b). However, there are two
essential components of reading comprehension that elude decoding and listening
comprehension, which are fluency and strategies. Fluency, according to Wolf and
Bowers (1999), concerns with the speed of word recognition so that the reader can
process the joint meaning between the previous and later words. Strategies,

however, helps the reader in dealing with rather long and/or complex text, as well as
when difficulties or obstacles arise in reading process.

II.

Reading Strategies

1. Reading strategies
When language learners encounter language learning tasks like reading, they
can apply several different language learning strategies to complete the tasks.
Therefore, as part of language learning strategies, reading strategies have all of the
characteristics of language learning strategies.
Since the late 1970s, second or foreign language learners have been taught to
use different reading strategies in order to improve their reading comprehension
ability. Reading strategies are defined as "the mental operations involved when
readers purposefully approach a text and make sense of what they read" (Barnett,
1988). These processes may include skimming, scanning, guessing the meaning of

8


unknown words from context, making inferences about the text, etc. In fact, reading
strategies show how readers conceive a task, what textual cues they attend to, how
they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand.
According to Anderson (1991), reading strategies are deliberate, cognitive steps that
learners take in acquiring, storing, and retrieving new information. Although the
distinction between reading ‗skills‘ and reading ‗strategies‘ is not always clear, and
sometimes they are used interchangeably, in this study the term reading strategies
refer to those mental processes that readers consciously choose to use in
accomplishing reading tasks (Cohen, 1986).

Based on various criteria, scholars have categorized reading strategies
differently. Many identify two broad categories of strategies including those
employed to create meaning of a text as a framework for global understanding and
those employed to monitor comprehension and take action as needed. On the other
hand, other researchers in reading strategies studies have used different strategies
types when classifying reading strategies. For instance, Sheorey & Mokhtari (2001)
used a cognitive framework to group reading strategies into three sub-categories:
Global Reading Strategies, Problem-Solving Reading Strategies and Support
Reading Strategies. Their classification scheme is followed by many researchers:
(i) Global Reading Strategies: generalized, intentional reading strategies
aimed at setting the stage for the reading act. Examples of this type of strategies are
―having a purpose in mind, evaluating what to read or ignore, noting text
characteristics, guessing what the material is about, etc.‖
(ii) Problem-Solving Strategies: localized, focused techniques used when
problems develop in understanding textual information. These strategies provide
readers with action plans that allow them to navigate through the text skillfully.
Examples of these strategies include re-reading for better comprehension, going
back when losing concentration, adjusting speed of reading when the text becomes
difficult or easy, pausing and thinking about reading, etc. In general, in a secondlanguage context, it is believed that readers often have to use more problem-solving
strategies to construct the meaning of a text, due to limited linguistic knowledge.

9


(iii) Support Reading Strategies: provide the support mechanisms aimed at
sustaining responses to reading. Examples of these strategies are use of outside
reference materials such as dictionaries, taking notes, highlighting key information
to better comprehend the text, etc.

2. Strategy use and reading results

The relation between using strategies while reading, especially in reading
comprehension tests. In a study conducted by Carrell (1989), it was found out that
high-scoring students did a better job at using global strategies; this is a similar
result to those of Block (1992) and Al-Melhi (1999). Meanwhile, Anderson (1991)
revealed that the strategies the efficient and less efficient students used were almost
the same. However, the key factor lay in the frequency of applying those strategies
in their reading process. Also, the results were determined by when and how these
students implement reading strategies. Skilled readers employ a range of
appropriate strategies, moving from one to the other as they read to get the meaning
of the text (Cohen, 1998) while less successful learners use strategies in a random,
unconnected and inconsistent manner (Chamot et al., 1996).
Therefore, the key to teaching reading strategies is through a combined
strategies-instructional approach rather than as discrete strategies taught
independently of one another (Hudson, 2007). In addition, it has been indicated in
several studies that using efficient and appropriate strategies depends clearly on the
reader‘s characteristics (gender, age, relevant background knowledge and
proficiency level), the text to be read (topic familiarity, the language of the text, text
layout and structure, the length of the text) and the nature of the question items
asked about it.

III.

Strategy Instruction

1. Strategy instruction in previous literature
Generally, reading strategies can be learned and acquired, and if a learner has
been trained to acquire specific techniques of taking tests, that learner is expected to
score significantly higher in tests than learners with same proficiency level in the

10

subject area that have not learned any strategies (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Cohen,
1998; Phakiti, 2003; Rogers & Harley, 1999). The aforementioned studies revealed
that strategy explicit instruction along with the use of such strategies lead to
development in test-takers‘ performance, particularly reading comprehension
results, for learners with different proficiency levels.

2. Strategy instruction procedures
As learning strategy instruction has been receiving a great interest among
scholars, there are a significant number of studies either proposing or
recommending the procedures of strategy instruction. Winograd and Hare (1988)
introduced five components needed in an effective strategy instruction, including
(1) description of the strategy, (2) explanation of the strategy‘s importance and
benefits when in use, (3) demonstration of use, (4) clarification of utilization
context, and (5) teaching of how to evaluate the success of strategy use. By a same
vein, Beckman (2002) suggested a few steps for reading teachers to follow in order
to achieve effective reading strategy instruction:
(i) Describe the strategy: Students obtain an understanding of the strategy
and its purpose—why it is important, when it can be used, and how to use it.
(ii) Model its use: The teacher models the strategy, explaining to the students
how to perform it.
(iii) Provide sample assisted practice time: The teacher monitors, provides
cues, and gives feedback. Practice results in automaticity so the student does
not have to ―think‖ about using the strategy.
(iv) Promote student self-monitoring and evaluation of personal strategy use.
Students will likely use the strategy if they see how it works for them; it will
become part of their learning schema.
(v) Encourage continued use and generalization of the strategy. Students are
encouraged to try the strategy in other learning situations.

In general, there has been a consensus that three primary steps involved in
strategy instruction are Orientation, Modelling, and Application (Winograd and

11


Hare, 1988; Duffy, Roehler, and Herrmann, 1988; Grant, 1994). In the first step,
Orientation, the students are informed about the strategy, what it is and why it
should be used. At the stage of Modelling, the students are demonstrated how to use
the strategy by observing the teacher performing each step and simultaneously
thinking aloud of strategy implementation. Finally, Application enables the students
to carry out the execution of the strategy learned either in groups or individually. By
this way, they can find out themselves how effective the strategy can be and how
efficiently their use of the strategy is. This stage can also enforce the confidence of
the students with strategy utilization and gives them incentives for further
implementation.
In terms of cycle, strategy instruction was devised by Macaro in his 2001
book Learner strategies in second and foreign language classroom, and is
presented in Figure 2 below (adapted from Macaro, 2001, p. 176).

12


1. Raise the
awareness
of the
students

9.
Monitoring

strateggy
use and
rewarding
effort

2.
Exploration
of possible
Stratgies
available

8.
Evaluation
by students
(and
teachers)

3. Modelling
by teacher
and/or
other
students

4.
Combining
strategies
for a specific
purpose or
task

7. Gradual
removal of
scaffloding

5.
Application
of strategies
with
scaffolded
support

6. Initial
evaluation
by students

Figure 1. Learner strategies training cycle

It can be seen from these models that it is of uttermost necessity for teachers to
include awareness raising in the procedures of learning strategy instruction.
Researchers agree that this step should be incorporated with the introduction of the
strategy so that the students are able to gain the perceptions and cognitive acquisition
of the strategy. Besides, it is worth noting that self-monitoring and evaluation should
be given appropriate attention in strategy instruction procedures. After all, the
responsibility of learning had better be shifted to the learners. With regards to
teachers‘ role in strategy instruction, focus is put on modelling and scaffolding.
13


3. The roles of modelling and scaffolding in strategy instruction
Modelling plays a tremendous role in the cycle of stategy instruction

(Winograd and Hare, 1988; Duffy, Roehler, and Herrmann, 1988; Grant, 1994).
Modelling means that the teacher demonstrates a new approach to or concept in
learning so that students can observe and learn (Eggen and Kauchak, 2001). In other
words, any time in the class a teacher demonstrate a concept or approach, modelling
occurs (Haston, 2007). With regards with the students, modelling is the process of
accomplishing new knowledge or information or skills via observation, instead of
direct experience (Holland and Kobasigawa, 1980). Assessing the value of
modelling, studies point out that modelling is one of the most effective modes of
learning when one person wishes to acquire a new idea or skill (Bandura, 1986), for
the reason that students are not only shown a new concept but they can also observe
how the teachers approach the problem. To put it in another way, the students are
enabled to observe the teacher‘s thought process in modelling (Salisu and Ransom,
2014). And this is one of the key points in learning reading.
Another substantial component of the strategy instruction cycle is
scaffolding. Scaffolding entails the teacher to offer support to an appropriate extent
so that learners are able to gain advances in their learning process. To put it in
another way, by scaffolding teachers first model the strategy use, provide
explanations and examples; once the students get more hold of the strategy, teachers
lessen their involvement by just giving a prompt or a hint, thereby enabling the
students to have more control and responsibility with learning (Rubin, 2014).

4. Contextualization and explicitness in strategy instruction
According to Macaro (2001), learning strategy instruction is characterized by
some features, among which the most important are contextualization, and
explicitness. Contextualization indicates that strategies need to be instructed in the
context of a language course, otherwise training would achieve no ends.
In addition, explicitness is another essential component in learning strategy
training. Explicit strategy instruction is a term, according to Van Keer (2004),
coining to ―the purposive activities of a teacher to make children fully aware of the
active character of the reading process and of the importance of comprehension-

14


fostering and monitoring activities‖ (p. 38). In the same vein as Macaro, Cohen and
colleagues (1996), and Chamot (2004) both stressed the importance of explicit
training in effective language learning strategy instruction (Jurkovic, 2010).
Furthermore, in terms of teaching reading comprehension, Coyne et al. (2009) made
a conclusion that there is a relation between learner outcome and explicitness in
teachers‘ reading strategy instruction, particularly among less efficient readers.

IV. The IELTS Reading Test
1. What is IELTS?
IELTS, or International English Testing System, as Hughes (2003)
mentioned is a typical example of proficiency tests. The function of the IELTS test
like other proficiency tests is to screen test-takers for language ability regardless of
any training they may have experienced in that language. Therefore, it is believed to
be a helpful testing tool in a number of circumstances to decide whether a student is
likely to cope with a course of specialist study (Harrison, 1983). Specifically,
IELTS is widely accepted as a proof of English language skills used for recruitment
or admission purposes set by educational institutions, employers, professional
registration bodies and government immigration agencies (Hallows, Lisboa and
Unwin, 2006). IELTS is jointly managed by the University of Cambridge ESOL
Examinations (Cambridge ESOL), the British Council and IDP: IELTS Australia.
According to British Council, the number of IELTS tests taken in the last year alone
is over 2.9 million. The high-stakes nature of the test, coupled with its rapid growth,
has attracted a burgeoning international industry in test preparation courses and text
books.
As there is no requirements for age, the candidates of IELTS can vary from
schoolchildren who may want to study overseas, university students who do courses

in English, to people who are already in employment but may seek for promotions.
These differing purposes of taking the test are satisfied with two versions:
Academic and General Training and test-takers can choose either of them. Both
share the same Listening and Speaking modules, and differ in the other two, namely
Reading and Writing modules. In this study, the focal point is on the IELTS
Academic reading. Hereby, IELTS mentioned in the following parts is implied as
IELTS Academic. The IELTS procedure and components, then, can be visualized
by the following chart.

15


Listening (Time: approximately 30 minutes)

Candidate listen to a number of recorded texts. These
include a mixture of monologues and conversations and
feature a variety of English accents.
The recording is heard only once, and candidates are given
time to read the questions and write down their answers.

Reading (Time: 60 minutes)
There are three reading passages with tasks. Texts are
taken from books, magazines, journals and newspapers,
all written for a non-specialist audience. At least one of
the texts contains a detailed argument.

Academic Writing (Time: 60 minutes)
The first task requires candidates to write a description of at
least 150 words. This is based on material found in a chart,
table, graph or diagram and demonstrates their ability to

summarize the key features of the input.
For the second task, candidates write a short essay of at least
250 words in response to a statement or question. They are
expected to demonstrate an ability to present a position,
construct an argument and discuss issues.
Speaking (Time: 11-14 minutes)
The test is a face-to-face interview.

Candidates are

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

(Information for Candidates, Introducing IELTS to test takers)
Figure 2. The IELTS Academic Procedures and Components

16


IELTS scores range from band 0 to band 9, each of which corresponds to a
descriptive statement which summarizes the candidate‘s English language
competence. There is no pass or fail score, each of the skills is assessed distinctively
and then added to make up the overall band.

2. IELTS Academic Reading
Academic Reading module, as its name suggest, deals with issues which are
of great importance to those who want to enter undergraduate or postgraduate
courses or seeking professional registration. There are three reading passages
totaling approximately 2,500 words; each of them is followed by 13 to 14 items or

questions, adding up to 40 questions (Cullen, French & Jakeman, n.d.). The
passages can be taken from a variety of authentic sources of information, including
journals, books, magazines and newspapers, and topics vary widely, but are all of
―academic nature‖. The 40 items are a selection of various question types, including
short-answer questions, completion of a specific structure (note, summary, sentence,
flowchart, or table), labelling a diagram, matching headings for identified
paragraphs, multiple-choice, classification, identification of writer‘s views/ claims –
YES/NO/NOT

GIVEN,

identification

of

information

in

the

–

text

TRUE/FALSE/NOT GIVEN, and matching lists/phrases (Black & Capel, n.d.).
The candidates are required to complete this module within 60 minutes.
Regarding scoring, one correct answer equals one point, making up a certain
number out of 40, and this ratio is then converted into a band score from 0 to 9 with
half scores. With this band score, the test taker‘s capability of English, hereby

Reading skill, can be interpreted as of ‗Did not attempt the test‘ (band 0), to ‗expert
user‘ (band 9) (Cambridge, n.d.). The following table depicts the number of correct
answers needed to get the desired band score.
Band Score
Score / 40

9

8.5

8

7.5

7

6.5

6

5.5

5

4.5

4

39- 37-

35-

32-

30-

26-

23-

18-

16-

13-

10-

40

36

34

31

29

25

22

17

15

12

38

Table 1. How IELTS Academic Reading module is scored

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3.5

3

2.5

8-10 6-7 4-5