ABSTRACT
In an attempt to investigate the obstacles encountered by the students at
Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) while sitting for the TOEIC test
and giving some recommendations to improve their test taking skills, the
main purposes of the study were to find out (1) the main difficulties affecting
the students’ test results, (2) and giving the students some suggestions to
better test taking skills. The subjects of the study were 85 third – year students
and 5 TOEIC teachers. The students were invited to answer a survey
questionnaire. The result of the research showed that lack of test taking skills
led to bad results for the students. Besides, the study reveals that teachers
played an important role in instructing the students about necessary
techniques in the hope that they would gain better scores.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my very affectionate and deeply-
felt thanks to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, for his effective instructions
and invaluable advice during the preparation and completion of this paper.
I also wish to acknowledge my debt to all the lecturers of the Faculty of
Post- Graduate Studies at Vietnam National University, Hanoi – University of
Languages & International Studies, whose lectures and ideas have inspired
my thesis.
My appreciation also goes to the lecturers and students at Vietnam
Maritime University for their valuable assistance in completing my survey
questionnaire and providing me with a lot of useful information.
Finally, I would like to send my great thanks to my family, my friends
for their encouragements and advice.
On the whole, without all their help my paper would not have possibly
been completed.
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication

4.Research questions 3
5.Scope of the study 3
6.Organization of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. The TOEIC test 5
1.2. An overview of the previous studies 5
1.3. Theoretical background 6
1.4. Summary 13
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 14
2.1. An introduction about VIMARU and FLC 14
2.2. Students and learning requirements 15
2.3. Teachers and teaching methods 16
2.4. Materials and Assessments 16
CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION, DATA ANALYSIS, MAJOR
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18
3.1. Selection of subjects 18
3.2. Data collection instruments 18
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3.3. Data analysis, findings and discussion 19
3.4. Summary 29
CHAPTER 4: SOME SUGGESTED METHODS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’
TOEIC TEST TAKING SKILLS AT VIMARU 31
4.1. Suggestions for the teachers 31
4.2. Suggestions for the students 34
PART C: CONCLUSION 39
1.Recapitulation 39
2.Conclusions 39
3.Teaching implications 40
4.Limitations of the study 41

right at the first test. They have to do the test again and again to achieve the score
they need before graduation. They have to sit for a Listening and Reading
Comprehension test as their final examination. It’s blamed that lack of test taking
skills leads to students’ test failure.
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Previous researches related to TOEIC test paid attention to either Listening
Comprehension or Reading Comprehension. The researcher challenged herself to
investigate how bad test taking skills affect students’ TOEIC test result.
As a teacher the researcher would like to do something in the hope of improving her
students’ TOEIC test taking skills so that they can do their TOEIC test well.
Therefore, the researcher has chosen the research topic entitled
A survey research on methods to improve students’ TOEIC test taking skills at
Vietnam Maritime University
2. Objectives of the study
The purpose of this study is to examine the areas of difficulties in doing
TOEIC test encountered by students at VIMARU so that techniques can be given to
help them improve these skills.
3. Methods of the study
To bring in full presentation of the thesis, firstly, the researcher spent time
reading books and materials available on teaching reading and listening to get
knowledge of the subject.
The procedure used in this thesis is the quantitative one which consists of the
following tasks:
- Students are invited to answer a survey questionnaire
- Collecting data and information from the students and the teachers at FLC of
VIMARU to exchange the experiences.
- Evaluating the techniques that best fit the teachers and the third year students at
VIMARU.
Besides, this thesis is also carried out through a variety of methods such as
class observation, informal interview and discussion with the teachers and students

Then it provides an overview of the theoretical background of the research. It is
concerned with various linguistic concepts most relevant to the research topic such
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as the nature of reading and listening, types of reading and listening, etc. Then, it
gives a closer look at presenting teaching and learning TOEIC at VIMARU.
Chapter 2 shows the context, description of instruments data collection
Chapter 3 analyzes the results to draw the major findings and then the
discussions about the findings.
Chapter 4 offers some suggested methods to improve TOEIC test taking
skills for the students at FLC of VIMARU.
Part C summaries some major findings and discussions of the thesis. Then
the researcher comes into some conclusions about factors that caused bad TOEIC
test results for the stusdents at FLC of VIMARU and gives some suggestions for
better test taking skills and for further research. With any research paper, the
limitations are unavoidable so the researcher will show her limitations while
conducting this thesis in this part.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, some of the most important issues in the theories related to
the study will be taken into consideration. It is an overview on the TOEIC test,
introduction of previous studies, as well as theories of listening and reading
comprehension are also introduced
1.1. An overview on the TOEIC test
TOEIC is an acronym that stands for Test of English for International
Communication. The TOEIC test measures one’s ability to use English in daily
business situations covering such topics as corporate development, finance and
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budgeting, corporate property, IT, manufacturing, purchasing, offices, personnel,
technical matters, meetings, telephone communications, health and business travel,
etc. Educational Testing Service (ETS) began developing the TOEIC test in 1978 as

them, the students can success in taking the test and getting required test scores. In
this research, the writer wishes to introduce the typical traps in the TOEIC listening
section and effective strategies for avoiding them. Besides, the writer, at the
position of a language learner would love to make some recommendations for
improving the students’ listening skill for the TOEIC test and building more
effective listening classes at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Lac Hong University.
1.3. Theoretical background
To provide a theoretical background to the study, this section is devoted to the re-
examination of concepts most relevant to the thesis’s topic. They are nature of
reading and reading comprehension, reading process, classification of reading. The
importance of listening, classification of listening and listening process are also introduced.
1.3.1. Reading comprehension
1.3.1.1.An Overview on the Nature of Reading
1.3.1.1.1.Definition of Reading
Attempts have been made to give a definition of what reading is. However, the act
of reading is not completely understood nor easily described.
Rumelhart (1977) defines “reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction
between the reader and the text”. It means the role of learners and reading texts are
placed an important position in reading act.
According to Goodman (1971:135), reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which
the reader, a language users, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has
been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is
viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.”
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William (1986:3) shares the same view on reading when he argues that “written
texts, then, often contain more than we need to understand them. The efficient
reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning.”
Harmer (1989:153) views reading from a different perspective. He considers
reading as a mechanical process that “eyes receive the message and the brain has to
work out the significance of the message.”

models are stated, says the lack of feedback makes it “difficult to account for
sentence-context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating
variables in word recognition and comprehension.”
In Top-down models the reading process moves from the top, the higher level of
mental stages down to the text itself. This approach emphasizes the reconstruction
of meaning rather than the decoding of form, the interaction between the reader and
the text rather than the graphic forms of the printed pages. The readers proves his
active role in the reading process by bringing to the interaction his/her available
knowledge of the subject, knowledge of and expectations about how language
works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text.
Apparently, the strong points of top-down models outnumber those of the bottom-
up as the reader – the central of the reading process as we personally assume –
proves his active role. However, to some researchers, these models still reveal
certain shortcomings because it sometimes fails to distinguish adequately between
beginning readers and fluent readers. Moreover, a purely top-down concept of the
reading process makes little sense for a reader who can be stymied by a text
containing a large amount of unfamiliar vocabulary. What is more, in top-down
models, the generation of hypotheses would actually be more time-consuming than
decoding (Stanovich, 1980).
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The third type – interactive models of the reading process – is proposed in the
thought of the perceived deficiencies of both bottom-up and top-down models.
Interactive theorists appreciate the role of prior knowledge and prediction, and at
the same time emphasize the importance of rapid and accurate processing of the
actual words of the text.
Hayes (1991:7) proposes “in interactive models, different processes are thought to
be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes. The
information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the
most appropriate interpretation of the printed pages.”
To sum up, the appearance and popularity of interactive models show that

determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep
ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to
us.”
Grellet (1981:19) states that “when skimming, we go through the reading material
quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find
the answer to specific questions. … When scanning, we only try to locate specific
information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so.”
Though these two reading techniques are important for quick and efficient
reading, they should not be selected separately because a text can be best tackled
by a combination of strategies.
Unlike skim-read and scan-read which to some extent still have something in
common, extensive and intensive reading are viewed differently. While
extensive reading is associated with reading outside the classroom and fluency
and pleasure in reading are expected as reading fruits while intensive reading,
also called study reading, involves the close guidance of the teacher and require
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great attention to the text. Students need to “arrive at a profound and detailed
understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning
is produced” (Nuttal, 1989:23)
1.3.2. Listening Comprehension
1.3.2.1. The importance of listening
It is now widely accepted that oral communication can not take place
without listening and listening plays a central and possibly predominant part in the
whole process of language learning. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the
four skills of parts of that “indivisible range called communication”. They are
interrelated and interdependent . According to Pearson Ian. (1981), The Functional
Notional Approach in Language Teaching, p. 80 , listening is tied to the essential
cognitive elements of comprehension and understanding. In order to take part in
oral communication, clearly, the first thing anyone must have is the ability to absorb
the pieces of information from the speaker by listening. When nobody listens to a

do exercises or other activities. The passage should be short so that learners have
chances to get to grip with the content, have several tries at difficult parts and to be
fitted within the time allowed of a lesson. Learners also feel it easy, interesting and
encouraging when they listen to a short passage. Therefore, they often listen with a
great concentration and stretching effort.
1.3.2.2.2. Extensive listening
Extensive listening is free and general listening to natural language for
general ideas, not for particular details. The listening passages for extensive
listening can be long (reports, talks, etc) or short (introductions, instructions, phone
messages,etc). The language that is used in this type of listening is often within the
students’ current ability so that students find it pleasing and interesting when they
are listening. Students feel satisfied as they can understand the passage well. They
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are not asked to do any language work and they can do their listening freely without
any pressure. Moreover the topics are various and entertaining, it, therefore,
motivates students to develop their listening skill as well as exposes them to
valuable extra contact with spoken language.
1.4. Summary
In short, this chapter focuses on the concepts which are useful for the
accomplishment of the paper. Firstly, it is an overview of the TOEIC test. Next, it is
overview of the previous related studies to this thesis. And then that is an
introduction of theories about reading and listening comprehension.
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLODY
To realize the objectives of this study, chapter 3 first starts with an overview on
VIMARU and FLC, whose background and facility are mainly presented. Then, for
a better understanding about VIMARU and FLC, some information about the
lecturers, the students and learning requirements are addressed. In addition, an
analysis on teachers, their teaching methods, materials, and material assessments
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will be very important for the realization of the study, for without it the researcher

Alongside with many of evening classes, FLC has full-time classes and classes for
TOEIC training. Apart from this, the center also has training cooperations with
other colleges, universities, or institutes within Vietnam such as Hanoi University
of Science and Technology; Vietnam National University, Hanoi; International
School of Education, etc.
With its new position as a member of Vietnam Maritime University, the Center
goes on with upgrading teaching and learning facilities, training teachers, expanding
the teaching areas.
2.2. Students and learning requirements at FLC
Students who join TOEIC classes normally come from VIMARU. There are also
many students who come from other universities in Haiphong city as Haiphong
Medical University, Haiphong Private Univerisity as well as Haiphong University.
They can be freshmen or final – year students. But most of them have the same
purpose to gain TOEIC certificate. The students come from different departments of
VIMARU and levels of English. Normally, those who come from Maritime
Economics Faculty are better than any other Falcuties. However, these students are
trained with the same course book Starter TOEIC in 6 periods of English per week.
They have to study English at least three times a week and within 15 weeks of
studying, each class has 3 TOEIC-based progress tests designed by the teacher of
the class. The content and length of the tests are different from classes. At the end
of fifteen weeks, they are asked to sit for a full TOEIC- based test and then the
score will be converted into10- mark scale as a traditional way of marking.
2.3. Teachers and Teaching Methods
At FLC, there are totally 14 teachers of English aged from 22 to 45. Most of them
had formal ELT training in different tertiary institutions inside Vietnam. The oldest
teachers have more than 20 years of teaching experience, and the youngest just has
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more than a year. The teachers in FLC are assigned to teach at different levels, and
different classes. Class time is often 2 hours, and teachers have to go to class at least
once a day. Each teacher is responsible for one class separately.

CHAPTER 3: DATA COLLECTION, DATA ANALYSIS, MAJOR
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Selection of subjects
The survey was conducted with the participation of 85 third- year students at classes
TOEIC 7 and TOEIC 5. These classes did not start at the same time. This means the
students are not learning the same lesson when the survey was carried out.
However, they have finished 20 lessons of the course so they all know what their
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teachers in each practice skill often present. About the students, there are 75 of them
are male, and only 10 of them are female. All of them have one thing in common:
they are all officially trained at VIMARU and have at least 6 years of learning
English. These figures show that the data collected from the survey will surely be
reliable because the learners are well aware of their mission, and have enough
knowledge of English to answer the questions given.
3.2. Data collection instruments
To arrive at the reliable data, survey was conducted and questionnaire was
administered to 85 students at two TOEIC classes. The questionnaire was used as
instrument for data collection. It was designed to get information concerning:
1, Students’ attitude towards TOEIC test (Questions 1, 2, 3)
2, Students’ attitude towards TOEIC listening class (Questions 4, 5, 6)
3, Factors that cause difficulty in TOEIC listening texts (Question 7)
4, Factors that cause difficulty in TOEIC reading texts (Question 10)
5, Students’ attitudes towards TOEIC reading class (Questions 8, 9)
6, Students’s preparation for TOEIC listening skill (Questions 11, 12)
7, Students’ preparation for TOEIC reading skill (Questions 13, 14, 15, 16)
8, Students’ expectation from the teachers (Questions 17, 18)
9, Students’ attitudes towards TOEIC supplementary materials (Questions 19, 20,
21, 22)
All the questions in the survey were designed in the hope that the researcher can get
the students’ opinions about the TOEIC supplementary materials they are using, the

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