Test çözme stratejileri ve öğrencilerin yabancı dil olarak İngilizce okuma sınavı başarıları

Bu araştırma, üniversite hazırlık sınıfı öğrencilerine verilen okuma testi yanıtlama stratejileri eğitiminin öğrencilerin İngilizce okuma testlerindeki başarılarına etkisini incelemek amacıyla yapılmıştır. Araştırma Kayseri Erciyes Üniversitesinin farklı bölümlerini kazanmış, yabancı dil olarak İngilizce eğitimi alan 90 hazırlık sınıfı öğrencisi ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışmanın başlangıcında, başlangıç seviyesindeki 250 öğrenciye, okuma testi yanıtlama stratejileri farkındalığını ölçmek ve ne sıklıkla bu stratejileri kullandıklarını tespit etmek amacıyla anket uygulanmıştır. Anket sonuçlarına göre ortalamanın altında kalan öğrencilerden rastgele seçilen 90 öğrenci eşit üç ayrı gruba ayrılmıştır. Birinci gruba altı hafta boyunca okuma testi yanıtlama stratejileri üzerine eğitim verilirken ikinci grup sadece konu başlıklarından haberdar edilerek internet üzerinden bireysel çalışmaları sağlanmıştır. Rastgele seçilen 30 kişilik son grup ise hiçbir eğitim ya da yönlendirme almamıştır. Öğrencilere verilen strateji eğitiminin, okuma test puanlarına etkilerini araştırmak amacıyla öğrencilerin test sonuçları karşılaştırılmıştır. Ayrıca öğrencilerle yüz yüze yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapılmış ve bu görüşmeler içerik çözümlemesi yöntemiyle incelenmiştir. Bulgular üç temel sonucu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Öğrencilerin test çözme strateji farkındalıkları ile test başarıları paralellik göstermektedir (a). Yüz yüze strateji eğitimi alan öğrencilerin okuma testi başarılarının bireysel çalışmalara yönlendirilen öğrencilerin ve hiçbir eğitime dâhil edilmeyen kontrol grubu öğrencilerinin okuma testi başarılarından yüksek olduğu saptanmıştır (b). Okuma testi strateji eğitiminden sonra yapılan görüşmelerde, öğrencilerin okuma testlerinde en çok zorladıkları stratejilerin, kelime anlamlarının bağlamdan tahmin edilmesi ve çıkarım yapma sorularında olduğu saptanmıştır (c). Öğrencilerin en kolay bulduğu ve en rahat uygulayabildiğini ifade ettiği stratejiler ise; soru türünün tespit edilmesi, ana fikrin bulunması, detaylı ve yüzeysel okuma olarak tespit edilmiştir. Bu çalışmadan elde edilen bulgular ışığında, okuma testi strateji eğitiminin mevcut eğitim programlarına dâhil edilmesi ve öğrencilerin test çözme stratejileri farkındalıklarının artırılması ve okuma teorileriler ve stratejilerinin güncel müfredata dâhil edilmesinin faydaları vurgulanmıştır.

Test-taking strategies and students’ achievement in EFL reading tests

This research aims at investigating the effects of reading test-taking strategy training on EFL students’ performancein English reading tests. The participants of the research were 90 prep-class students chosen randomly and dividedinto three groups of 30 students as face-to-face training group, online self-training group, and control group. Thefirst group was involved in strategy training sessions for six weeks in school context (face-to-face) whereas thesecond group was only informed about the contend of the training sessions and directed to study through onlinestrategy videos (online self-training). The last group was the control group the who were excluded from strategytraining sessions. The reading test scores of the participants were analyzed via SPSS 16 with the aim of revealingwhether or not there is an impact of strategy training. Moreover, semi-structured interviews were carried out withthe participants, and the findings were analyzed through content analysis. Results of the research revealed that (a)the students’ awareness of test taking strategies are in parallel with their test scores; (b) face-to-face strategytraining was found to be more effective than online strategy training; (c) strategies related to ‘drawing inference’and ‘guessing the meaning from the context’ were found to be the most effective ones while strategies such asdetecting the question types, finding the main idea, skimming and scanning were other important strategies. Theresults suggested that strategy training on test taking might be included in the regular curriculums; students’awareness of test taking strategies should be fostered starting from the early stages of formal education; readingtheories and strategies might be integrated into current reading courses with an inter-disciplinary model.

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