THE PERCEIVED EFFECTS OF TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTION ON EFL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS OF READING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether the use of a text-taking strategy could enhance EFL high school learners' reading comprehension. It draws on the test-taking strategies suggested by Cohen and Upton (2007), to focus on the two main aspects, (1) the influence of applying test-taking strategies on EFL high school students’ reading comprehension tests and (2) their attitudes toward these strategies. In the pretest-posttest one-group design and descriptive quantitative research, the reading comprehension test and the questionnaire were used to collect the data of 90 EFL high school students in a school in rural Can Tho City. These students were assigned to apply test-taking strategies in a workshop every week in the second Semester of 2021-2022. The findings showed that (1) participating students’ reading comprehension scores improved after following the test-taking strategies after 07 weeks; and (2) students were positive about their being active in their testing practice despite certain challenges. As a result of such positive attitudes, they had high motivation for continuing their practice test-taking strategies for the future examination.  Article visualizations: