Viet Nam national university Ha noi university of languages and international studies Faculty of post-graduate studies phạm thị kim liên Students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test at Equest English center (nhËn thøc vÒ kü ghi chép thông tin học sinh tham gia lớp luyện thi TOEFL iBT Trung tâm tiÕng Anh Equest) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Văn Th Thanh Bình, M.A Hanoi, 2011 i CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Students’ perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test at EQuest English Center” is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Art at College of Language and International Studies, Ha Noi National University, and the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Signature: Pham Thi Kim Lien Date: 25/11/2011 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge all my lecturers of the Post-Graduate Department, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, VNU for their interesting lectures as well as valuable instructions during our M.A course 2009-2011 I would especially like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Van Thanh Binh, M.A for her encouragement and guidance throughout the study Without her help, this study would not be completed I am also indebted to the English teachers and students at EQuest English Center for their assistance in collecting the data for this study Finally, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my parents, my husband who supported and encouraged me during the time I conducted this thesis iii ABSTRACTS This study aimed at investigating students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills, their perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills, their perceptions of difficulties in taking notes, their perceptions of note-taking strategies to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Participants were 50 students who are currently studying for the TOEFL iBT at EQuest English Center, Hanoi Findings from questionnaires revealed that (i) most of the students hold positive attitudes towards note-taking skills; (ii) many students perceived major benefits of note-taking skills such as concentrating on lectures, remembering information in the lectures, organizing the information after the lecture is over, answering the test questions better, feeling at ease; (iii) they encountered some challenges in taking notes like listening to the talks and at the same time take notes, missing important information while taking notes Besides, findings also showed that students perceived a lot of note-taking strategies and frequently employed those strategies such as writing down important information for each main point; significant details; using abbreviations, symbols; paraphrasing (using easier words); using outlining; organizing notes visually; separating different ideas from each other; highlighting particularly important information Some suggestions for improving the effectiveness of note-taking skills have also been given in this study It is hoped that the study would contribute a small part to the improvement of English teaching and learning, particularly to the training of note-taking skills at EQuest English Center as well as to those who concern this issue iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ……………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… ii Abstracts…………………………………………………………………………… iii Lists of abbreviations …………………………………………………………… vi Lists of charts …………………………………………………………………… vi PART A : INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1.Rationale …………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study ………………………………………………………… Scope of the study ………………………………………………………… Methodology ……………………………………………………………… Significance of the study ………………………………………………… Design of the study ……………………………………………………… PART B …………………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………… 1.1 Definition of note-taking ……………………………………………… 1.2 Benefits of note-taking ………………………………………………… 1.3 Difficulties in taking notes ……………………………………………… 1.4 Strategies of note-taking ………………………………………………… Relevance of the problem to the TOEFL iBT ………………………… 1.5.1 Introduction to the TOEFL iBT test …………………………………… 1.5.2 The importance of note-taking skills in the TOEFL iBT test ………… 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………………… 13 2.1 The context of the study ………………………………………………… 13 2.2 Methodology …………………………………………………………… 14 v 2.3 Participants ……………………………………………………………… 15 2.4 The questionnaire……………………………………………………… 15 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ……………………………… 16 3.1 Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills ………………………… 16 3.2 Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills …………… 18 3.3 Students’ perceptions of the difficulties in practicing note-taking skills 20 3.4 Students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies ………………………… 22 Discussion …………… …………… …………… ………………… 29 3.5.1 Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills …………………… 29 3.5.2 Students’ perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills ………… 30 3.5.3 Students’ perceptions of difficulties in note-taking skills ……… 31 3.5.4 Students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies ………………… 31 3.5.5 Conclusion …………… …………… …………… …………… 32 Summary …………… …………… …………… …………………… 33 PART C: CONCLUSION …………… …………… …………… ………… 34 Summary of the study …………… …………… …………… ………… 34 Implications of teaching note-taking skills …………… ………………… 35 Limitations of the study …………… …………… …………… ……… 37 Suggestions for further studies …………… …………… ……………… 38 REFERENCES…………… …………… …………… ……………………… 39 APPENDIX …………… …………… …………… ………………………… I vi LISTS OF CHARTS Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills 16 Chart 2: Students’ perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills 18 Chart 3: The number of students encounters difficulties in taking notes 20 Chart 4: Students' difficulties in taking notes 21 Chart 5: The number of students taught to take notes 22 Chart 6: How frequently students use note-taking strategies 24 (The strategies that students used most frequently in taking notes) Chart 7: How frequently students use note-taking strategies 26 (The strategies that students used less frequently) Chart 8: How frequently students use note-taking strategies (The strategies that students used least frequently) LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foregin Language ETS: Educational Testing Services Organization HULIS: Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies L1: English as the first language L2: English as the second language TOEFL iBT: Test of English as Foreign Language, internet-Based Test 28 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Note-taking is regarded as a useful study skill because it can assist students not only in remembering what they have heard or read, keeping them focused on the subject area and to the task at hand (Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson, 1982), but also extending their attention span during lectures (Rowntree, 1976) The reason is when taking notes, they use multiple senses and multiple activities including reading or listening then writing, using brain and muscles, etc Besides, note-taking skill is considered an indispensable tool in preparing for the exams in general, and the Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) in particular With the emergence of the TOEFL program in which test-takers are not allowed to take notes, notetaking has become an interesting topic to a handful of researchers They mainly concern whether note-taking has facilitative effects on test takers' performance and to decide whether note taking should be allowed or not Some researchers are in favor of the view that notetaking is effective because it serves to focus on the main point of the lecture or conversations, students are, thereby, more likely to answer questions accurately Others are against notetaking because taking note during listening distracts learner's concentration ability, and that they will miss a substantial number of major details Not to mention some arguments supporting the idea that note taking does not help students since they often answer the questions based on their memory without referring the notes at all In other words, it is unimportant whether to take notes or not However, in 2005, the new version of TOEFL, TOEFL Internet-Based Test (iBT), was introduced by Educational Testing Services Organization (ETS), note-taking is permitted throughout the test This means that note-taking, to great extent, plays an important part in students' taking the TOEFL iBT test However, note-taking is regarded to play a critical role in examinees' taking the TOEFL test by mostly teachers and researchers Little is known about students' perspectives of the benefits of note-taking skill for the TOEFL iBT test Whether note-taking is facilitative or detrimental depends on students themselves If they have positive attitude towards note-taking, they will practice taking notes to answer the questions in the test Meanwhile, they will not take notes when the teacher asks them to note down information from listening or reading passage As an English instructor, the author has observed that some students are aware of the role of note taking skill while the others frequently not realize the importance of taking notes Sometimes, they are reluctant to practice note-taking skill, they write down information just because the teacher asks them to so Some students explain that they can remember information, so they not necessarily have to take notes or learn to take notes Others mention that they will be distracted from listening when they note down information, thus, they will not take any notes to avoid missing specific data Why are students not willing to learn and apply note-taking skill in studying for the TOEFL iBT test? What are their perceptions of note-taking skills for the TOEFL iBT test? Two above mentioned questions have drawn my interest in conducting the current research on students' perceptions of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Aims of the study The study is carried out with the aims at: - Surveying students' attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Investigating students' perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Discovering students’ perceptions of difficulties in practicing note-taking skills; - Examining students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies; - Giving some recommendations for EQuest teachers to help students improve the effectiveness of note-taking skills It is hoped that the study will be useful for teachers and students in general and for those at EQuest English Center in particular To reach the aims of the study, the following questions are given: What are EQuest students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of difficulties in practicing note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of note-taking strategies to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? Scope of the study Because of the framework of a minor thesis, the author only focuses on 50 students currently preparing for TOEFL iBT test at EQuest English Center to figure out their perceptions of notetaking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test Methodology The aim of this research is to find out the students’ attitudes towards note-taking skills and perceptions of the benefits of note-taking skills, students’ difficulties in note-taking skills and their note-taking strategies A descriptive research is carried out as it is the most suitable method to obtain the aim Although this method has its own limitation, specifically, the results collected may not reflect the matter proposed precisely To lessen the invalidity and unreality, the researcher explained instructions meticulously to students, and collected questionnaires right away to make sure that students answered each questions themselves The answers are completely objective and not controlled by the researcher ... students'' attitudes towards note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Investigating students'' perceptions of benefits of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test; - Discovering... of note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions of difficulties in practicing note-taking skills to prepare for the TOEFL iBT test? What are students’ perceptions. .. problem to the TOEFL iBT 1.5.1 Introduction to the TOEFL iBT test There are a large number of resources providing information of the TOEFL iBT test, yet this study takes information from the official