TEACHING IELTS AND SAT READING: IDENTIFYING COMMON PATHWAYS AMID ROUTES OF
DIVERGENCE.
Sarah Abedi Abdullah, Noorkhaida Abdul
Murad and S. Namasivayam
International Education Centre UiTM,
Shah Alam
ABSTRACT
The
need to be multi-skilled in today’s world is a challenge no ESL teacher can
ignore. This adaptability includes the ability to guide and prepare students
for any internationally recognised English standardised test. This paper
highlights a small-scale study conducted on the teaching of the IELTS Academic
Reading and the SAT Critical Reading components, with the objectives of
identifying the features that distinguish both tests and common core strategies
that can be applied for teaching and preparing students for both tests. The
procedure employed included doing qualitative and quantitative text analyses
and comparing the target reading skills and teaching strategies. The
effectiveness of the strategies used was evaluated based on student performance. The paper concludes by
highlighting student performance
analyses for both reading tests and
recommending some areas for further investigation.
Introduction
In this age of globalisation, cross-disciplinary
integration and inter-programme linkages, ESL teachers are confronted with many
challenges. Among these is the need to be multi-skilled in order to be
multi-functional, especially when it comes to teaching different kinds of
reading programmes in the ESL/EFL scene. This is important not only to meet the demands of different academic disciplines
and current technology but also to lend
ourselves for flexible deployment. We have thus to be prepared, confident and
able to teach on any ESL proficiency
programme.
This paper shares a small-scale study we
conducted among INTEC (International Education Centre, UiTM) students in
relation to the teaching of the Reading components of the IELTS (International
English Language Testing System) and SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) [Verbal]. At this point, it has to be
emphasised that we are limiting our scope of study to the IELTS Academic
Reading (AR) and the SAT Critical Reading (CR) components.
The questions that we framed for our
investigation are:
• What are the
features that distinguish the IELTS (AR) from the SAT (CR) which may require a different
teaching approach or treatment?
• In spite of these differences, is it possible to
arrive at a common repertoire or menu of teaching strategies which any ESL
teacher can use to teach both the IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) components
effectively?
IELTS and SAT
Different Tests, Different Pathways
Students who sit for the IELTS usually have the
intention to pursue their tertiary education in UK, Australian or Canadian
universities. Those who take the SAT however, are usually US-bound. Apart from
these divergent academic pathways for candidates taking the IELTS and SAT, it
is obvious that different education systems vary in their degrees of emphasis.
The IELTS marks the end of required
English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learning. Whereas, US-bound students
continue to take EAP courses after sitting for the SAT.
Nature of Examination Questions
IELTS (AR) questions require limited production skills
and a fairly high degree of accuracy. SAT (CR), on the contrary, requires
candidates to identify the best answers from 40 multiple choice questions. The IELTS encourages students to attempt all
questions and make intelligent guesses.
Candidates are not penalised for wrong answers (O’Sullivan &
Lindeck, 2000:3). In the SAT however,
each wrong answer given will result in a deduction of 0.25 of a mark to
discourage guessing.
Nature of Testing Packages
IELTS (AR) passages are dictated by what
undergraduates should or are expected to read. Passages included in SAT (CR),
however, are raw passages which are not doctored to be reader friendly. The
text, graphics and question layout of the IELTS (AR) has more white spaces in
between for visual relief. In the case of the SAT (CR) the printed text is
tightly compressed on 2-columned pages. Some of the SAT (CR) questions have
very long and complex stems with lengthy A to D choices which require much time
and reasoning to single out the correct
answer.
Confidentiality
IELTS actual past year tests are not available to the
public. Only a specimen pack is available from the British Council or IDP
Education Australia. In contrast, SAT past year tests are published and sold.
Procedure
For
our investigation, we adopted the following procedure: We started off by doing
a qualitative text analysis. The objectives of this analysis were to identify
differences between
• the IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) passages
• the question types commonly used in both tests and
• the target reading skills that students need to hone.
This was followed by a Quantitative text analysis. For
this, we used the Fog Readability Index. (Readability
Tests. GNOME Documentation style guide available at : <http:// developer.Gnome.Org/documents/style-guide/usability-readability.html>)
• The Fog Index can establish the density or compactness
of the IELTS and SAT
reading passages and
• Ascertain the number of years of ESL education that a
reader needs, to understand
the text.
We then proceeded to compare the Fog Index for the
IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) passages, the reading skills which students need to do
well and the teaching strategies which can be used for teaching both the IELTS
(AR) and SAT (CR). To obtain an assessment of the effectiveness of the
strategies used, we monitored the scores our students obtained in 5 practice
tests for the IELTS and 8 practice tests for the SAT (Verbal). For the SAT, we
also monitored the mean number of errors students made in each of the tests and
the mean scores they obtained for the
Practice Tests.
Qualitative Text Analysis - IELTS (AR)
and SAT (CR) Passages
Table 1 summarises the features which distinguish the
IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) passages in the
areas of time allowed, number of passages,
number of questions to be answered for each passage and the kinds of
passages or text types that students have to read.
Table 1: Features that
distinguish the IELTS (AR) and the SAT (CR) Passages
The tabulated findings below (Table 2)
show that the IELTS (AR) questions are more varied. Each passage can have up to
4 types of questions set on it. For the SAT (CR) however, students have 40
multiple choice questions to answer. Apart from the 3 common question types (in italics), the IELTS (AR) and the SAT
(CR) do not have the same range of questions types. Candidates who have taken
the IELTS usually do not complain about the pressure of time. Most agree that
the variety of questions makes it interesting and challenging. As for the SAT
(CR), although the question types are not so varied, they demand much in terms
of reasoning and critical thinking.
Table
2: Text Analysis – Question Types
Table 3: Common and specific target reading skills for IELTS (AR) and
SAT (CR)
From Table 3, it can be seen that an
identical menu of target reading skills is necessary for students to
prepare them for the IELTS (AR) and the SAT (CR). Since these two tests differ in particular areas of their
question formats, it is also essential to equip students with a package of
specific target reading skills to help them meet the different requirements
associated with these two tests.
Quantitative Text Analysis - How to Work out the Fog Readability Index
The Fog Index
(Readability Tests. GNOME
Documentation style guide available
at : <http:// developer.Gnome.Org/documents/style-guide/usability-readability.html>)
gives the number of years of education that a reader needs to understand
a text. The Fog Index formula implies that short sentences written in plain
English achieve a lower score than long sentences written in complex language,
loaded with technical terms. Technical documentation usually aims for a Fog Index of between 10-15.
Steps to work
out the Fog Index
• Count the number of words in
the paragraph (W)
• Count the number of
sentences in the paragraph (S)
• Count the number of hard
words of 3 syllables or more (HW)
• Use the formula: (W/S + HW/W
x 100) x 0.4
To
calculate the average number of hard words per practice test, we followed these
steps.
1. Count the number of hard words for each
paragraph in every passage. Divide the
total number of
hard words by the number of
paragraphs to obtain the overall
average
for each passage. (To begin with a “hard” word in our view is any word
with
more than 3 syllables which is not among the list of 2,000 high frequency
words.)
2. Average the
number of hard
words for every test by totalling the mean of
every passage and dividing the sum by the total number of reading passage
in each test [i.e. 3 for the IELTS (AR) and 4 for SAT(CR)].
From Figure 1, it can be
seen that the IELTS (AR) passages are more uniform or consistent where the
number of words per sentence is concerned with an average of 18-20 words per
sentence. In comparison, the SAT (CR) passages are of uneven sentence length.
Some may even have 30-word long sentences! This will of course increase their
density and readability index scores.
Figure 1: Text analysis: IELTS and SAT reading
passages - comparison
of
average number of words per
sentence
The longer sentences in the SAT (CR) passages will naturally
result in their having fewer sentences. This is confirmed in the findings presented
in Figure 2 below which compares that the average number of sentences per
passage for the IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) practice tests. Longer sentences also
exert greater demands on students to establish intra and inter-sentence
relationships, the pattern of text development and meaning.
Figure 2: Text analysis: IELTS and SAT reading
passages - comparison of
average number
of sentences per passage for each practice test
Figure 3: Text analysis: IELTS and SAT Reading passages -
comparison of average number of hard words per
practice test
In the comparison of the Fog Readability Indices
for IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) passages, it can be seen that the average for SAT
(CR) [13.3] is much higher than that
for IELTS (AR) [10.06]. In fact, the SAT (CR) Practice Test 5 has the highest
Fog Index of 15.1 which puts it in the same class of difficulty as that for
technical documentation.
Figure 4: Text analysis:
IELTS (AR) and SAT (CR) passages -
comparison of the Fog
Readability Indices
Tips on How to Improve Students’
Performance in the IELTS(AR)
1. To
begin with, it is crucial for students to manage their time well besides being
able to read efficiently and
effectively. Initially, they should
spend at least 2 minutes to critically
preview the titles, headings, illustrations, diagrams and any print inbold or
italics.
2. They
should also study key parts of each passage to see how they relate and try to
establish its pattern of organisation.
3. At
least 2 minutes should be spent to interpret the instructions and
questions correctly. Question stems have to be carefully read and understood to determine what is
required and in what form. Students do
not score marks if they paraphrase and
write 4 or more words when the instructions say: “Use not more than 3 words”.OR
when they identify the right answer but present it in the form not asked
for.They should not confuse count nouns with non-count ones, quantities of
measurement like hectares with square miles, litres with gallons, minutes with
seconds and so forth.
4. Students
should be taught to identify key information (about 1 minute per question) from the text through speed reading
strategies and train their eyes to move rapidly to perform ‘visual gymnastics’.
5. When
they are unsure of an answer, they should make a sensible guess or use strategies to work out meanings of
unfamiliar or difficult words and phrases.
6. Students
should always check their answers (3 minutes) to make sure that the instructions are strictly followed and
to verify they are the BEST choices.
7. Lastly,
they have to be very sure of Grammar and Spellings.
Tips on How to Improve Students’ Performance in the
SAT(CR)
1. Skimming
is needed to to enable them to read quickly to elicit the main ideas.
2. Scanning
is important to search for the answers. Students have approximately 45
minutes
to read four different passages and to answer 40 questions so they must
be
able to read quickly and accurately.
3. Close reading is also essential to detect
the writer’s tone and stance. There are also
questions that require students to determine the author’s attitude
towards the topic. In many cases, the author’s real intention is not
obvious without acareful reading of the passage.
4.
Students need to hone
critical thinking and analytical skills to identify paragraph development,
text organisation, to work out
inferences and predict unstated outcomes.
Teaching Strategies to Help Students Improve their
IELTS (AR) Scores
The following
strategies were used to help our students improve their IELTS (AR)
scores.
• Vocabulary
expansion and dictionary skills
• Language awareness exercises to develop strategies to
fortify grammar, identify
errors in sentence structure, complete and combine
sentences and cloze techniques
• Text mapping and flow charting techniques to
follow paragraph and text development
• Understanding
the requirements of key question words to arrive at and provide the required
answer
• Practice exercises with the Critical Thinking
Guide (Jacklin, & Jacklin, 1999:5) as preparation to predict patterns of
text development for reading passages.
Apart from the above,
students were also encouraged to do the following:
• Write critical reviews to
identify the writer’s tone, style, purpose and intent from word choice, opinion and content
presentation. Through these reviews, students were better equipped to evaluate
supporting details – fact vs fiction/ true vs false/ stated vs
implied. In the process, they also
learned to evaluate the degree of the writer’s credibility/belief/conviction
etc
• Do demonstrations in
class – research, show and explain
using realia, newspaper articles, pictures, models etc.
• Plan their own extensive
reading assignments. These developed
writing and presentation skills through
web-based research projects on current/recent
breakthroughs in the medical front. These projects done in pairs or
small groups exposed them to a wider net of reading sources which sparked off
their creativity and helped them to establish associations which were both
concrete and abstract
• Do exercises for
classifying concepts through tree diagrams or hierarchical boxed charts. These
enabled students to draw relevant generalisations, practise deductive and
inductive thinking and to develop
inferencing skills.
Teaching Strategies To Help
Students Improve their SAT(CR) Scores
• Practise with
SAT (CR) passages from past year papers on a weekly basis.
• Do intensive exercises to identify main and implied
ideas, to identify the tone or mood of the passage from writer’s choice of diction etc.
• Conduct class discussions for sharing ideas on the
more difficult passages.
• Guide students to monitor their own progress by
keeping an error analysis account of
their own scores of every passage attempted. Passages and questions which have
a high frequency of errors are explained.
• Plan on-going vocabulary work (word lists/
strategies to unlock meaning/tests) to increase students’ wordpower to help them understand the passages better.
• Practise speed reading exercises.
Students are encouraged to have a reading speed of around 500 w.p.m or above.
• Plan lessons in close
cooperation with teachers handling the other English components like Writing, Reading and Study Skills and
Language Awareness to ensure students develop
their skills integratively.
Effectiveness of Strategies Used
Figure
5: Students’ performance in IELTS reading practice tests and the actual IELTS reading
As students are taken through the test
preparation process, the above shows the average scores obtained in 5 Practice
Tests and in the actual IELTS that they took in February 2002. For the 5
Practice Tests, out of a total possible score of 40, these are the average
scores students obtained. The equivalent band scores are also shown alongside.
The total possible is a Band Score of 9. It is evident from the results that
students did make considerable progress and responded well to the teaching
strategies used. In fact, in the actual IELTS, out of 39 candidates, 2 scored
the perfect Band 9 for Reading.
As for students’ performance in the SAT,
Figure 6 shows that despite a few dips in performance (Practice Tests 3, 4 and
7), students generally showed quite a sure and steady trend of improvement. In
fact, from Figure 7 below, it can be seen that there was an average increase of
71 points in the performance of the four classes (8A, B, C and D) from the
average Diagnostic Test score of
386.5 to the average Real SAT
test score of 457.5.
Figure 6: Students’ mean
scores for SAT diagnostic test, practic tests and the cctual SAT
Figure 7: Student performance
in the diagnostic test and the actual SAT test
Finally, when the mean number of errors students made
in each of the 8 practice tests was monitored, Figures 8a and 8b show that there were noticeable error
reductions in the scores of students
from 8A (the better class) and 8B. In fact, the mean number of errors dropped from 26.67 (in the first practice
test) to 14.47 (in the final practice test) for 8A students.As for Class 8B, the mean number of errors made also saw
a drop from 26.33 (in the first practice test) to 19.37 (in the final practice
test). These findings generally reflect that students were receptive of the
teaching strategies used and consciously applied them to reduce their error counts.
Figure 8a: Mean number of
errors in practice tests (8A)
Figure 8b: Mean number of
errors in practice tests (8B)
Overall,
our study has given us a few insights for handling these SAT (CR) examination
classes:
1. Scores will increase because
students make fewer errors as they are taken through the paces. For example, in
one SAT class (8A), the mean score rose from 451 to 536 (Figure 7, see Class
8A) while the number of errors made decreased as the course progressed. (Figures 8a and 8b).
2. We need to expose students to
extensive reading from a variety of
difficulty levels. We also need to sensitiSze students to the text to identify
the nuances of meaning and discreet messages of writer’s intent.
3. The study suggests that the Reading
Study Skills (RSS) component should be specifically targeted at reading
passages of similar topic range and level of difficulty. As such, there is a
need to streamline the objectives of the RSS component more closely with those
of the SAT (CR).
4. Training in speed reading is very
essential for rapid and efficient skimming and scanning within the set time
given for each section of the SAT (CR).
5. Training in intensive reading is
also important as the answers of 2 given questions may lie within the same
chunk of text.
Areas for
Further Research
It will be highly relevant and interesting to find out
if students who do well in the IELTS will
do equally well in the SAT and vice-versa. If a correlation can be
established then it may be logical to
propose that admission into universities worldwide be based on either IELTS or
SAT performance. This will leave students with the choice of taking the
entrance exam that they are more comfortable with or the one that suits their
budgets. It will also be worthwhile to investigate the correlation between
student performance in the SPM 1119 English Paper and the IELTS or SAT 1
(Verbal) for the 4 language components as a longitudinal study to identify
which components need more intense and formalised instruction at post-SPM
level. Finally, it will be useful to investigate whether success in the IELTS
and or the SAT is adequate to ensure students’ academic success in their
tertiary studies.
Conclusion
“Society has always expected an awful
lot from its teachers, and now we are expecting even more from them.”
~ Royal Bank of Canada Newsletter, Sept 2000 ~
Available at
<http://www.rbs.com/community/letter/sept2000.html>
This quote taken from the Royal Bank of Canada’s
September 2000 Newsletter encapsulates the essence of our discussions. In
teaching and preparing students for any important English examination, there
are no short cuts or easy fixes as there is always a lot to be done. To groom students for tertiary
studies, they have to be guided through the whole repertoire of reading skills
and examination strategies. Society certainly has always expected teachers to do a lot more
although the fair degree of recognition
has been slow in coming so far. In this age of globalisation and
multi-disciplinary integration, ESL teachers like us are indeed confronted with
many challenges. We need to be multi-skilled to fit our teaching potentials
into a variety of teaching settings and dimensions to respond to the
expectations of academia. To teach
confidently on any programme, our pool of core skills has to be constantly
honed and applied with flexibility and dexterity. Above all, we need to be sensitive to what is needed on the
socio-economic front and to be aware of the
shifts in emphasis and focus as dictated by tests, texts and courses.
With careful preparation and the will
to survive and succeed, there is no doubt that every ESL teacher will be able
to offer more to cope with the demands of teaching the Reading components of
not only the IELTS and SAT but also those of the 1119 English, TOEFL, TOIEC, MUET and other important English examinations.
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