VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

VŨ THỊ HOÀI
AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING OF
TOEFL IBT SPEAKING SKILLS AT EQUEST HANOI CENTER
Nghiên cứu thăm dò về việc học viên trung tâm EQuest Hà Nội học
luyện thi kỹ năng Nói theo bài thi TOEFL iBT

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************
of study.

Hanoi, 2014

Vu Thi Hoai ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great many thanks to so many people who have supported me all the
way throughout my study to this final achievement.
Firstly, it is with heartfelt gratitude that I wish to thank Ms. Pham Thi Thanh
Thuy, Ph.D for her professional guidance, valuable suggestions and academic
advice, leading me through great hindrances and inspiring me to conduct the study.
I am grateful to all the lecturers in the Master course, who supplied me with
useful knowledge.
I would like to extend my appreciation to my colleagues and students at
EQuest Academy for their enthusiasm for responding to my questionnaires and
participating in my interviews.
Last but not least, words are not enough to express my gratitude to my family.
Without their help and encouragement, I could not have finished this study.

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Format of TOEFL iBT Speaking Test
Table 2: Students’ strategies used in responding to TOEFL iBT Speaking
Independent Tasks
Table 3: Students’ strategies used in responding to TOEFL iBT Speaking
Integrated Tasks
Table 4: Learners’ difficulties in learning to respond to Independent Tasks from
teachers’ views and learners’ views
Table 5: Learners’ difficulties in learning to respond to Integrated Tasks from
teachers’ views and learners’ views
Table 6: Teachers’ recommendations and students’ expectations for teaching and
learning



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION………………………………………………………………
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………
ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………
iii
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………….
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………
vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………

vii

2.2. Classification of learner test-taking strategies…………………………….
8
3. Difficulties in learning Speaking skills of EFL/ESL learners…………
12
3.1. Difficulties from teachers…………………………………………………
13
3.2. Difficulties from students…………………………………………………
14
3.3. Difficulties from objective factors………………………………………
17
Chapter 2: Methodology……………………………………………………
19
1. Context of the study…………………………………………………………
19
2. Participants………………………………………………………………….
19
3. Instruments………………………………………………………………….
20
4. Data collection procedures………………………………………………….
21
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion………………………………………
23
1. Some strategies students often use to respond to TOEFL iBT Speaking
questions…………………………………………………………………….

23
1.1. Students’ strategies used in responding to TOEFL iBT Speaking
Independent Tasks…………………………………………………………

studies………………………………………………
38
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………
39
APPENDIX 1: Questionnaire for
Learners…………………………………….
I
APPENDIX 2: Questionnaire for Teachers……………………………………
V
APPENDIX 3: Guided Questions for Student Semi-structured Interview…….
VIII
APPENDIX 4: Respondents’ Personal Information…………………………
IX
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PART A - INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It is widely known that English is playing an important role in opening up
new opportunity for people in many developing countries, including Vietnam.
English is regarded as a passport for those who wish to have good jobs or study
abroad. As a result, many proficiency tests have been spawned to help English
learners measure their competence. Among these tests, TOEFL iBT (Test of English
as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based Test) emerges as a reliable one, so TOEFL
iBT score, according to Educational Testing Service (ETS), is accepted by over
9000 colleges, universities, and agencies in more than 130 countries all over the
world.
A considerable amount of money and effort is invested in test preparation by
test-takers; nonetheless, the results are not always satisfactory. Many candidates
report that Speaking skills pose a great challenge to them in this new generation of
the TOEFL test as they need to deploy multiple skills ranging from listening,

any teachers having the same concern.
4. Scope of the study
Because of the framework of a minor thesis, this study focuses on 78
students who were at the level of 65 points (out of 120) of TOEFL iBT and above,
preparing for their upcoming exams at EQuest center to explore the problems they
had. At the same time, seven EQuest teachers were involved in the research.
5. Method of the study
To address the presented research questions, a combination of questionnaires
and semi-structured interviews were deployed. Two sets of survey questionnaires
were used to gather data from 78 EQuest students and seven EQuest teachers.
Participants were asked to choose the answers best reflecting their viewpoints, and
expand their answers if they wish to. Interviews with 10 students were conducted to
get more in-depth information about the students’ opinions in the questionnaire.

3

6. Organization
The research is composed of three parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion.
Part A: Introduction supplies a brief sketch of the study, including the
rationale, aims and research questions, significance and scope of the study.
Part B: Development consists of three chapters.
Chapter 1:Theoretical background deals with the theory and previous
research relevant to the study.
Chapter 2: Methodology presents the methodology of the study, explaining
the context of the study, instruments and the procedure of data collection.
Chapter 3: Results and Discussion states the findings relating to students’
strategies to respond to the test, their difficulties in learning as well as suggests
some recommendations to improve the situation.
Part C: Conclusion summarizes the main findings of the research, exposes

and it takes about four hours to complete the whole test, not to mention the time for
checking identification and other procedures. There is no requirement for the score
to pass the test, but it varies from institution to institution. Each section of the test is
scored separately, and then converted to a scaled score of 0-30. The total possible
score is 120. The test can be taken as many times as given. The records of scores are
kept for two years by ETS.
1.2. Format of TOEFL iBT Speaking Section
The Speaking sub-test is designed to assess the speaking abilities of the
candidates whose native language is not English but want to study in an English-
speaking context. This section is delivered via computer, and candidates are
equipped with headphones and microphones. Test-takers have to speak to a
microphone and their answers are recorded and saved.
In this section, test-takers are asked to speak about a range of topics that
“draw on personal experience, campus-based situations, and academic-type content
material” (The Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT, Third Edition, p. 165).

5

Section
Number of Questions
Timing
Score
Speaking
2 Independent Tasks
(preparation: 15 sec. / response: 45 sec.)
 1 personal experience
 1 personal choice/ opinion
2 Integrated Tasks: Read-Listen-Speak
(preparation: 30 sec. / response: 60 sec.)
 1 campus situation topic

opinion about the topic related to the reading. The question will be about what they
have read and heard. Question 4 requires candidates to read a short academic
reading passage and listen to a professor giving a brief lecture on the subject
presented in the reading. The topics may vary from different fields, including life
science, social science, physical science and the humanities. Questions 5 and 6 are
not accompanied by reading passages. For Question 5, a short conversation about
campus-related situation will be played. Its topics may be about any everyday
situation arising in the college or university. In this listening, two people discuss a
problem and suggest two possible solutions. The problem directly concerns one or
both of them. After listening, test-takers need to briefly describe the situation in the
listening and give their own opinion about solutions to the problem. The last
question, Question 6, is based on academic content. A short lecture focusing on a
single topic is presented by a professor. The lectures might be about a process,
method, theory or idea of any type. Normally, the lecture is started with a definition
of a concept, or highlight of an issue, and then goes on with discussing some
important aspects related to it. Test-takers are supposed to summarize the
information they heard from the listening.
2. Learners’ strategies used when learning and responding to TOEFL iBT
Speaking Section
2.1. Definitions of learner strategies
There has existed considerable debate over the definition of learner strategies
and different terminologies have been coined within the field of second-language
acquisition (SLA) (Cohen, 1998; Ellis, 1994). According to Abhakorn (2008),
learner strategies are “conscious actions in learning and using a second or a foreign
language” - one of the variable factors that have profound effects on how individual
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learners approach language learning and how successful they are. From the point of
view of McDonough (1999), the term “learner strategies” is related to “learning a
second language, for using the language, for communicating in the language and for

use situations, strategy use is pertaining to “the ongoing working memory in
association with the short-term memory regarding the language to retrieve
necessary declarative (knowing what), procedural (knowing how) and conditional
(knowing when) knowledge in the long-term memory to solve task difficulty.”
Cohen (2002) viewed that language test-taking strategies consist of both language
use strategies and test-wiseness strategies.
 Test-wiseness strategies
Test-wiseness strategies depend on the respondents’ knowledge of how to
take the tests. They allow test-takers to utilize the features and formats of tests
and/or test-taking situation to gain better scores. Benson (1988) and Rogers and
Bateson (1991) supposed that test-wiseness strategies are “a cognitive ability or a
set of test-taking strategies a test taker can use to improve a test score no matter
what the content area of a test.”
A number of taxonomies for test-wiseness strategies have been devised so
far. Nitko (2001) categorized test-wiseness strategies into three groups: (1) Time-
using strategies (starting to work as fast as possible with reasonable assurance of
accuracy); (2) Error-avoidance strategies (determining the nature of the task and the
intended basis of response and paying careful attention to directions); (3) Guessing
strategies (always making guesses if only right answers are counted). Sarnacki
(1979) devised a taxonomy of five categories: (1) Test-using strategies (working as
fast as possible with reasonable assurance of accuracy); (2) Error-avoidance
strategies (paying serious attention to directions); (3) Guessing strategies (keeping
guessing if there is no penalty for incorrect answers); (4) Deductive reasoning
strategies (utilizing relevant content information in other test items and options); (5)
Intent consideration and cue-using strategies (using any idiosyncrasies of the test to
distinguish correct answer from other incorrect choices). Watter & Siebert (1990)
and Wenden (1991) classified test-wiseness strategies into three major categories:
9

(1) Strategies used before answering the test (starting with easy questions, outlining,

performance that includes two major components: language ability and test
method”. However, there are some disagreements from other researchers.
Chalhoub-Deville (2001) considered it a theoretical model lacking congruence
between theoretical models and operational assessment frameworks. McNamara
(1996) suggested that the Bachman model does not take the social dimension of
language proficiency into consideration.
Oxford’s (1990) taxonomy of language learning strategies has been used as a
frame of reference by many researchers. According to this classification, there are
four groups of strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social. Cognitive
strategies are “test-takers’ ongoing mental activities to use their language and world
knowledge to solve the test tasks.” Metacognitive strategies are deliberate mental
processes to direct and control the cognitive strategy processing of test-takers to
have a successful test performance. Affective strategies are related to the learner’s
emotional requirements and social strategies are pertaining to interaction with the
target language.
Swain et al. (2009) synthesized a list of strategies drawn from both second-
language acquisition and language testing fields as follows.
A List of Strategic Behaviors
This is a compilation of L2 use, learning, test-taking, and communication strategies
found in the literature.
Communication Strategies: Involving conscious plans for solving a linguistic
problem in order to reach a communicative goal
Reduction Strategies:
Topic avoidance: Avoiding topic areas that pose linguistic difficulties
Message abandonment: Leaving a message unfinished because of
linguistic difficulties
Semantic reduction: Changing a message (e.g., reducing the scope of
message) rather than abandoning the message
Achievement Strategies:
11

12

Retrieval or using
Recombining
Applying rules
Transferring
Translating
Practicing naturalistically
Using outside resources
Rehearsing

Metacognitive Strategies: Involving a conscious examination of the learning/test
taking process in order to organize, plan, and evaluate efficient ways of learning/test
taking
Goal formation
Organizing
Planning
Evaluating

Affective Strategies: Involving self-talk or mental control over affect
Lowering anxiety
Encouraging self
(Source: The Speaking section of the TOEFL iBT (SSTiBT): Test-Takers’ Reported
Stratgic Behaviors (Swain,M., Huang,L., Barkaoui,K., Brooks,L., & Lapkin,S.
(2009))

3. Difficulties in learning Speaking skills of EFL/ESL learners
Speaking skills, to many students, are a considerable challenge because
“some language learners may be good at learning other skills but when it comes to
learning to speak another language, they claim to have a “mental block” against it

feedback since some shy students might feel embarrassed to be corrected publicly
(Ellis, Loewen & Erlam, 2006).
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3.2. Difficulties from students
A number of factors might cause students difficulties in learning, namely fear
of public failure, fear of making mistakes, lack of confidence, low English
proficiency, inability to keep up with native speakers, incompetence in the rules and
norms of English conversation, disorientation, etc (Dwyer and Murphy, 1996). This
claim is supported by many other scholars: Jones (1999), Cortazzi & Jin (1996);
Jackson (1999, 2001); Li (1998); Zou (2004).
Tsui (1996) listed some factors causing learners’ difficulties in learning
speaking in class: “students’ fear of making mistakes and losing face in front of
their peers, students’ low opinion of their own proficiency level, teachers’
intolerance of silence, uneven participation and incomprehensive input.”
Burns and Joyce (1997) suggested that cultural, linguistic, and affective factors
are three main reasons for students’ difficulties in learning a foreign language.
3.2.1. Cultural factors
Cultural factors are related to students’ prior learning experiences and the
expectations that are formed on their basis. According to Sapir (1992), if a learner
expects to speak a language well, he must appreciate the way it is used in social
contexts. Each language has its own rules of applications as to when, how and to
what degree a speaker may impart a given verbal behavior to one’s conversational
partner. Therefore, it is challenging for non-native speakers to choose the
appropriate forms for different communicative situations (Berns, 1990). The
cultural differences between that of learners and the target language seem to be an
important anxiety-producing factor. Tanveer (2007) claimed that the more students
are uncertain or unfamiliar with the target language culture, the more it is likely to
be anxiety-provoking. Ellis (1994) observed that learners having positive attitudes
towards their own ethnic identity and towards the target culture were likely to

meaningful way.
Nair, Krishnasamy, & de Mello (2006: 27) noted that “Despite having a good
grasp of vocabulary and the grammatical rules of the English language, speakers
would be unintelligible if they have poor pronunciation.” Ha (2006), in her study on