Estudios en el contexto local

This section presents the findings regarding the students’ reading in phase one and phase two. The findings are presented into five parts: the total score and the paired sample t-test, the students’ reading proficiency levels, the students’ scores for each section of the reading part, and the strengths and weaknesses of the reading skills of the students. Lastly, a summary of the results of the reading part is presented.

125 4.2.1.3.1The total score and the t-test of the reading part

The maximum score for the reading part was 100 items in both phases. As seen in Table 4.4, the mean values and the t-test of the 45 students showed some differences. Although the mean value was lower than half of the maximum score. The t-test showed a significant difference between the mean values in phase one and in phase two (t(44) = -3.30, p<.002). The results suggest that the students improved their reading skills significantly by phase two. The results showing that the students improved their reading skills agreed with those of the students’ total score.

Table 4.4 The differences between the mean scores for the reading part for the 45 students in phase one and phase two

Tests N Mean S.D. t-test d.f. Sig.

(2-tailed)

Phase one 45 29.93 4.97 -3.30 44 .002*

Phase two 45 33.93 7.70

(*p<.05)

Similar to the levels of listening proficiency, the students’ total scores in the reading part were converted to the seven levels of reading proficiency based on the descriptors of the TOEIC. They were “No Useful Proficiency,” “Memorized Proficiency,” “Elementary Proficiency,” “Advanced Elementary Proficiency,” “Basic Working Proficiency,” “Working Proficiency,” and “Professional Proficiency.” The full descriptors for each level are presented in Appendix 7. The descriptors for the proficiency serve as a guideline for understanding the reading competency reflected in the corresponding scores of the students. The next section presents the levels of reading proficiency of the 45 students.

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4.2.1.3.2 The levels of reading proficiency of the students

Like the listening part, the analysis showed that the majority of the 45 students varied their reading proficiency levels from “No Useful Proficiency” level to “Memorized Proficiency” level in both phases of the study (Figure 4.3). Some students shifted to a higher level in phase two. The results in phase two suggested that students improved their level of reading proficiency during the time of the ESP programme. This result agreed with the 45 students’ total scores and the paired samples t-test, where the students reading scores improved significantly in phase two.

Levels of Reading Proficiency of the 45 Students

Figure 4.3 The distribution of the reading proficiency of the 45 students based on their reading scores in phase one and phase two

In addition, the students’ strengths and weaknesses could be inferred based on the TOEIC descriptors for reading proficiency level. The students at the “No Useful Proficiency” level in the reading part scored too low to evaluate their real reading proficiency. The students at the “Memorized Proficiency” level might be able to read individual words or phrases, e.g. numbers, names, or simple forms, but cannot usually read full sentences. The students at the “Elementary Proficiency” level might be able to read simple texts with simple and very

27 17 1 17 19 9 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

No Useful Proficiency Memorized Proficiency Elementary Proficiency

No.of student

Phase one Phase two

127 frequently-used grammar and vocabulary or familiar tasks; however, they need to read the reading materials several times to be sure that they understand.

Like the listening part, the scores of the students in each section of the reading part were also analysed to find out the reading tasks that the students had the most or least difficulty with. These findings were expected to reveal the present language information of the learners in the needs analysis model of this study.

4.2.1.3.3The scores for the students in each section of the reading part

The scores for the 45 students were reported in terms of mean percent. The reading part of the TOEIC consisted of four sections: Incomplete Sentences, Text Completion, Reading Comprehension with a Single Text, and Reading Comprehension with Double Texts. The reading section with the highest mean percent was assumed to be the least difficult section, whereas the section with the lowest mean percent was assumed to be the most difficult one.

The results showed that the mean percent of the 45 students was less than 50 percent in all reading sections in phase one and phase two. They got a slightly higher mean percent in all reading sections in phase two. The lowest mean percent was for Reading Comprehension with Double Texts in both phases. The highest mean percent was Incomplete Sentences in phase one (33.61%) and Reading Comprehension with a Single Text in phase two (38.70%) (Table 4.5).

Table 4.5 Mean per cent of the correct responses in the four reading sections for the 45 students in phase one and phase two (%)

Reading sections

The 45 Students

Phase one Phase two

Incomplete Sentences 33.61 35.72

Text Completion 32.41 33.89

Reading Comprehension with a single text 26.76 38.70

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It can be inferred that the Reading Comprehension with Double Texts was the most difficult reading section for the 45 students in both phases. The Incomplete Sentences and the Reading Comprehension with Single Text sections were the least difficult in phase one and phase two, respectively.

Since most of the 45 students did not achieve half of the maximum score for the reading part and the mean percent in each reading section was relatively low in both phases, the next step of this study was to investigate the students’ strengths and weaknesses in reading skills according to the number of correct responses in each section. The test questions where most of the students had a correct response were assumed to be the students’ strengths, whereas the

questions where the least number of students had a correct response were assumed to be their weaknesses. An examination of each reading test question and the corresponding explanation from the test booklet of the TOEIC revealed some key reading skills that the students had difficulties with.

4.2.1.3.4 The strengths and weaknesses of the reading skills of the students

The findings from the analysis of the test questions are reported based on the four sections of the reading part: Incomplete Sentences, Text Completion, Reading Comprehension with a Single Text, and Reading Comprehension with Double Texts.

Incomplete Sentences section

The in-depth examination of the 40 reading test questions in the Incomplete Sentences section showed that 33 students responded correctly to question no. 110 in phase one and phase two. Based on the corresponding explanation, this question evaluated the students concerning preposition indicating a change in time. This implied that most of the students had some knowledge of using prepositions of time.

129 However, only 2 students of the 45 in phase one and 3 students in phase two had a correct response to question no. 102. The question asked the students about the noun as a direct object. According to the low number of the correct response, it might be inferred that the students had difficulty in the language feature being tested.

Text Completion section

According to the results of the 12 questions in the Text Completion section, 29 students in phase one and 28 students in phase two had a correct response to question no. 148. The question tested the students on the if-clause for a future real condition. From the high number of students getting a correct response it can be assumed that most of them had some knowledge of using this type of if clause.

On the other hand, 10 students in phase one had a correct response to question no. 151, testing them about subject-verb agreement. In phase two, 7 students had a correct response to question no. 146 testing the use of a noun after article “the.”According to the low number of the students that had a correct response, it might be interpreted that most of the students had difficulty with subject-verb agreement and noun for this particular purpose.

Reading Comprehension with Single Text section

Of the 24 test questions in the Reading Comprehension with Single Text section, 22 students in phase one and 38 students in phase two had a correct response to question no. 164, asking the students to read a press release and answer a context question. In addition, 38 of them also had a correct response to question no. 174 in phase two. This question asked the students to read a memo and answer a positive factual question. According to the high number of students that had correct answers to the two questions (no. 164, and no.174) it can be assumed that the majority of the 45 students had some knowledge of answering a context question and a positive factual question for a short message in press releases and memos.

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In phase one, only 2 students of the 45 had a correct response to question no. 172, which was related to invoices and asked them to answer a context question. In phase two, 2 students of the 45 had a correct response to question no. 156 regarding reading news newspaper articles on a business issue and answering a viewpoint question. According to the low numbers the students that had correct response to these questions can be inferred that most of the 45 students had difficulty with the context and types of questions mentioned.

Reading Comprehension with Double Texts section

The results of the 24 questions in the Reading Comprehension with Double Texts section showed that 23 students in phase one and 23 students in phase two had a correct response to question no. 177. The question asked the students to read a contract and an addendum to the contract and then answer a factual question. From the high number of the students that had a correct response, it can be inferred that the majority of the 45 students have been familiar with the context of the reading.

However, only 4 students of the 45 in phase one had a correct response to questions no. 185 and 199, while 3 students had a correct response to test question no. 186 in phase two. Questions no. 185 and no. 186 asked the students to read a ticket and a letter and answer a context question for question no. 185, and then answer a negative factual question for question no. 186. Question no. 199 asked the students to read an excerpt from a magazine article and then answer a factual question. From the low number of the students getting a correct response to these three questions it can be implied that most of them had difficulty with the contexts and types of questions being tested.

4.2.1.3.5 Summary of the findings for the reading part of the test

The findings for the reading part for the 45 students showed that none of them scored higher than 50 percent of the minimum score of 100. The paired samples t-test showed a significant

131 difference between the total score of the 45 students in phase one and that in phase two, indicating that the students improved their reading skills during the ESP programme.

The reading results are also summarised under levels of reading proficiency. Based on their total scores in both phases, most of the 45 students were at the “No Useful Proficiency” level and “Memorized Proficiency” level and few of them moved up a level tothe “Elementary Proficiency” level. The results suggest that the students’ reading proficiency levels were still at the low level. The results also suggest that only the t-test might not be sufficient for identifying the improvement of the proficiency of the students effectively. However, the t-test can be used to compare the means of the correct responses in phase one and phase two. This present study also applied a TOEIC descriptor to explain the reading proficiency of an individual student.

A comparison of the correct responses in the four reading tasks shows that a considerable number of the 45 students got the highest score in the Incomplete Sentences section in phase one, and in the Reading Comprehension with a Single Text section in phase two. The lowest number of students that had correct responses was in the Reading Comprehension with Double Texts section in both phases. The analysis of the 100 test questions from the four reading sections based on the descriptors of the TOEIC revealed the areas of English language skills in which the 45 students had strengths and weaknesses. Although most of the 45 students had correct responses to some questions, the overall mean score was lower than 50 per cent of the maximum score and showed that all of the students also had problems with all of the reading skills tested. The results suggest that the 45 students need more opportunities to practise all of the reading contexts and some language functions.

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