51. Aina Razmalia

Research in English and Education (READ), 2 (4), 1-9, December 2017

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E-ISSN 2528-746X

Students’StrategiesinTakingTOEFLListeningTest

AinaRazmalia* andSofyanA. Gani

Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

English Department students, as a department at Syiah Kuala University, are expected to be able to answer TOEFL listening questions effectively since they have been studying English as their major subject and concentration. However, it was found that some students still have problems in TOEFL test, especially in part A of Listening Comprehension section. This study is carried out to analyze the students’ strategies in Listening of TOEFL test. Descriptive quantitative approach was applied. 31 students who are in semester 8 to 12 were chosen incidentally as the subjects of this study. Meanwhile, the object of this study was the students’ strategies in Listening Comprehension of TOEFL test. The writer used survey techniques in collecting the data. The data were collected by using questionnaire sheet as the instrument. The result showed that the strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) in part A of Listening in TOEFL test are implemented 69% by the students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University. To conclude, the students apply the strategies with the frequency of “sometimes”. Therefore, it is suggested that students implement more strategies, and teachers or instructors are recommended to motivate them and build their awareness to use more strategies when taking a TOEFL.

Key Words: Strategies, part A of Listening of TOEFL test

1. INTRODUCTIONDue to the importance of English for current life, several tests have been

established to evaluate the ability of English. One of them is TOEFL test. TOEFL is a standardized test which aims to test students’ knowledge and English language usage. According to Al-Rawashdeh (2011), the non-native students or applicants who have willingness to continue their study at American or English-speaking schools or universities, whether through scholarship program or non scholarship program, are needed to take the TOEFL test as the requirement of the universities. English Testing Service (2007) pointed out that TOEFL scores are acknowledged by

Students’ Strategies in Taking TOEFL Listening Test by Aina Razmalia, Sofyan A.Gani, and Faisal Mustafa

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more than 6,000 institutions in more than 100 countries. The test is also utilized for scholarships and exchange programs.

Due to the fact that an excellent score of TOEFL is essential for a promising academic life, this kind of test is also applied in Syiah Kuala University, namely TEOFL Equivalent Test. According to Mahmud (2014). a TOEFL-like or a TOEFL-equivalent or a TOEFL prediction test is also eligible to be administered by a university, such as by the center of language studies within the university. The TOEFL test is only useable for internal usages. The TOEFL Equivalent test is also given to Syiah Kuala University students. The test were designed based on the procedures proposed by Mustafa (2015) and Mustafa and Apriadi (2016). Each students of Syiah Kuala University ranging from Doctoral program to Diploma program have to take TOEFL Equivalent test held by Language Center of Syiah Kuala University. The TOEFL Equivalent test is in paper-based form.

English Department students, as one of the program in Syiah Kuala University also must take TOEFL Equivalent test and gain certain score in order to be eligible graduated from Syiah Kuala University as stated in English Department of Syiah Kuala University website. The TOEFL score used as one of the requirements for registering oral examination in English Department should be ≥ 450 and for having graduation should be ≥ 475. This policy is made to help and ease the students to continue their study abroad after graduating from Syiah Kuala University.

In reality, many students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University face difficulties in passing the minimum score of the TOEFL test, especially in Listening Comprehension section. Some of them already take the test more than three times, but the result is still under the minimum requirement for having graduation. This also can be seen from the data provided by Language Centre of Syiah Kuala

Mahlil (2010) already conducted a study on students’ difficulties in listening section of the TOEFL test at English Education Department of Syiah Kuala University. His research was intended to find out the students’ obstacles in listening section of the TOEFL test and which part of the listening section is the most difficult for the students. Based on his research findings, it was revealed that the most difficult part in the listening section of the TOEFL test was part A (short dialogues), followed by part B (longer conversations) and part C (talks).

Mahlil’s research results were also strengthened by the research of Yuliandani, Ikhsanuddin, & Sumarni (2014) at FKIP Tanjungpura University. They conducted a research on the title ‘Analyzing Students TOEFL Listening Comprehension Test Performance’. Their research was also intended to find out the most difficult part of the TOEFL listening comprehension, the most problematic and the most mastered aspects in each section. The research revealed that the most difficult part of the TOEFL test was part A (short dialogues) with 51,67%, then the most problematic aspect was double negative expression and the most mastered aspect was passive. In part B and part C (conversations and talks), topic was found as the most problematic aspect and detailed information was the most mastered aspect.

Reviewing the previous related studies presented above, the writer was interested to examine and conduct a research based on the findings of Mahlil and Yuliandani et.al. However, the writer focused on the students’ strategies in taking the listening section in the TOEFL test. In addition, the writer carried out the research using quantitative approach and questionnaire as her instrument.


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Based on the consideration above, the researcher was interested to figure out the students’ strategies in taking the listening section in the TOEFL test. Furthermore, the research question of this study can be formulated as follows: What strategies are used by English Department students in taking Listening Comprehension of TOEFL test? 2. LITERATUREREVIEW 2.1 TOEFLTest

TOEFL is a standardized test which aims to test students’ knowledge and English language usage as used in North American academic life (Higby & Hudon, 2014). According to Al-Rawashdeh (2011), the non-native students or applicants who have willingness to continue their study at American or English-speaking schools or universities, whether through scholarship program or non scholarship program, are needed to take the TOEFL test as the requirement of the universities.

According to English Testing Service (2007), TOEFL test has three forms of test, namely Paper-Based TOEFL Test, Computer-Based TOEFL Test, and Internet-Based TOEFL Test (they are also called as TOEFL PBT, TOEFL CBT, and TOEFL IBT, respectively). The First version of the test is TOEFL PBT, that is still available today in some certain centers which do not have internet access (Pierce, et al, 2015).

In answering the demands and criticism of TOEFL PBT, ETS established new version of TOEFL, namely Computer-Based TOEFL Test (TOEFL CBT), which was administered worldwide in 1998 (English Testing Service, 2007). According to Higby and Hudon (2014), this kind of test applied direct skill testing beside discrete-point testing in order to provide more reliable information about the testees’ competence of the language. Discrete-point testing means the questions asked are about the isolated aspect of language knowledge, such as in testing the examinees’ ability in writing, the aspect of language knowledge tested in TOEFL PBT is the structure, then the examinees’ ability in writing English is predicted from the result, while in TOEFL CBT, direct skill testing was applied (Higby and Hudon, 2014). For instance, to measure writing ability, the questions proposed are in the form of English sentence structure knowledge as well as applying that knowledge in writing essay.

Finally, in 2005, ETS launched new and the latest version of TOEFL test namely Internet-Based TOEFL Test or TOEFL IBT (English Testing Service, 2007). Higby and Hudon (2014) state that this kind of test has no discrete-point testing. There are some main features in the TOEFL IBT, such as it investigates all four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) and it uses integrated tasks to test in the real academic setting. As the result of TOEFL IBT’s emersion, TOEFL CBT was discontinued today and its latest administration was held in September 2006 (English Testing Service, 2007). Then, even though TOEFL PBT is still used currently, the TOEFL test-takers are strongly recommended to take TOEFL IBT nowadays since the test has more complete assessment of the English language ability and more widely accepted throughout the world (Pierce et al, 2015).

2.2 ListeningComprehensionSectionListening section of TOEFL PBT tests the listening ability of the examinees

about the comprehension in the level of sentence, dialogs, extended conversations, and mini talks (Sulistyo, 2009). In listening section, there are three parts tested, namely Part A (short dialogues) which consists of 30 questions, Part B (longer


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dialogues) which consists of 8 questions, and part C (lecture or talks) which consists of 12 questions (Ananda, 2016).

The short conversation is in short form that is only 2-4 sentences between two people followed by 1 question. The points tested in this part are synonyms of the keywords stated in the listening, certain vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, conditionals, wishes, causatives, modals, negative expressions, inferring meaning from intonation, and listens for language functions (Dang, 2016).

The second part of listening comprehension is longer conversation. In longer conversation, the dialogs provided are much longer, that is 16-20 sentences, performed by two people followed by 4-5 questions (Hartono, 2009). The points asked included in this part are identifying main idea and topic, and identifying detail information (Dang, 2016).

The last part is lectures or talks. It is in the form of narration by a single speaker about history, geography, science, art and culture, or education. This part has 10-15 complex sentences followed by 4-5 sentences. The testing points in this section are similar to long conversation part, namely identifying main idea and topic, and identifying detail information (Dang, 2016). 2.3StrategiesinAnsweringListeningTest In order to be able to answer the questions in Listening section of TOEFL test, many strategies have been proposed. Phillips (2001) suggests several strategies that can be applied in Listening section of the TOEFL test, especially in each part of Listening section. In part A (short dialogues), the strategies offered among others are concentrate on the last line of the dialogues, choose answers with the synonym of the words or phrases stated in the dialogue, refrain the answers the provide words which have similar sound with the words stated in the dialogue, and attempt to grab specific information about who, where, and when from the dialogue.

Then the strategies that can be implemented in part B and part C (long conversations and talks) are anticipate the topic, anticipate the questions, determine the topic, draw conclusion about specific information (who, what, when, where), and listen for answers in order (Phillips, 2001).

Furthermore, Higby & Hudon (2014) provide several general strategies to gain good score in listening, such as stated in their statement as follows, ‘There are several things you need to do to perform well on the Listening section of the TOEFL. You must familiarize yourself with the question types, hone your active listening skill, take good notes, and avoid incorrect answers”.

3. METHODS

The research method applied in this study was quantitative with survey design. Muijs (2004) points out that survey research is a non-experimental study using questionnaires as its instrument in collecting the data. The descriptive quantitative method with survey design in this study was applied by collecting the data on description of the students’ strategies in Listening Comprehension section of TOEFL test. Then the research report for this study was in the form of narration.

In this research, 31 students who are in semester 8 to 12 were chosen incidentally as the subjects. Meanwhile, the object of this study was the students’ strategies in Listening Comprehension of TOEFL test. The writer used survey techniques in collecting the data. The data were collected by using questionnaire sheet as the instrument.


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4. FINDINGSANDDISCUSSION4.1 Findings

The result shows that the students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University are between “sometimes” and “often” categories, but they are more likely to be in “sometimes” category.This is proven by the following calculation of the research score and ideal score:

Table4.1.ResearchScoreperSkill

No Item Skill Score Percentage

1 Skill 1 Focus on the last line 114 74%

2 Skill 2 Choose answers with synonyms 109 70%

3 Skill 3 Avoid similar sounds 101.5 65%

4 Skill 4 Draw conclusions about who, what, where 115.25 74%

5 Skill 5 Listen for who and what in passives 101.75 66%

6 Skill 6 Listen for who and what with multiple nouns 116 75%

7 Skill 7 Listen for negative expressions 97 63%

8 Skill 8 Listen for double negative expressions 107 69%

9 Skill 9 Listen for ‘almost negative’ expressions 107 69%

10 Skill 10 Listen for negatives with comparatives 100 65%

11 Skill 11 Listen for expressions of agreement 101 65%

12 Skill 12 Listen for expressions of uncertainty and

suggestion 118

76%

13 Skill 13 Listen for symphatic expressions of surprise 116 75%

14 Skill 14 Listen for wishes 100 65%

15 Skill 15 Listen for untrue conditions 105 68%

16 Skill 16 Listen for two- and three-part verbs 109 70%

17 Skill 17 Listen for idioms 113 73%

Total score 1830.5 69%

The lowest percentage of implementation Skill 7 63%


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The highest percentage of implementation Skill 12 76%

Based on the table above, it is found that the research score of the strategies

applied in the listening test part A of TOEFL test by English Department students of Syiah Kuala University is 1830.5. Afterwards, the ideal score found is 2635. The calculation shows that skill 7 (listen for negative expressions) gets the lowest percentage among the other skills, while skill 12 (listen for expressions of uncertainty and suggestion) gets the highest percentage of implementation. In addition, item 7 [I attempt to grab specific information about who, where, and when from the dialogue], which is one of the four items in skill 4, gets the highest percentage.

It also reveals that, overall, not all of the strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) are implemented by the students of English Department at Syiah Kuala University Banda Aceh in answering questions of listening test part A of TOEFL test. There are some strategies that are implemented only 63% by the students. Many of students do not implement one or more strategies suggested so that their ability in answering the question of Listening of TOEFL test are not maximum. For instance, skill 11 is ‘never’ implemented by two students in taking Listening test, and many other strategies are not implemented by one or two students. For clearer explanation, the writer presents the figure below.

Figure4.1percentageoftheuseofstrategiesinansweringpartAofListeninginTOEFLtest

Afterwards, the writer also provides figure about the classification of the students’ usage of strategies in answering part A of Listening in TOEFL test. Here, first the writer divide the ideal score (2635) by 5 because there are 5 categories in the interval, namely ‘always’, ‘often’, ‘sometimes’, ‘rarely’, and ‘never’. The writer creates five intervals by based on Sugiyono (2009), resulting the interval of 527. The following figure provides illustration to ease the readers imagining the intervals.

69%

31%

Implementation of Strategies in Listening Part A

implemented

unimplemented


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0 527 1054 1582 2109 2635 never rarely sometimes often always

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

1830.5 (research score)

Figure4.2Intervalcategoryofstudents’frequencyinimplementingthestrategiesinpartAofListeninginTOEFLtest

Based on figure 4.2, it shows that the students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University are between “sometimes” and “often” categories in applying strategies in part A of Listening in TOEFL test (1830.5 is between point 1582 and point 2109). However, 1830.5 is nearer to1582 rather than to 2109 or in other words tends to be in “sometimes” category rather than in “often” category. Therefore, it can be said that the students of English Department of Syiah Kuala University implement the strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) in part A of Listening in TOEFL test in sometimes frequency.

4.2 DiscussionFrom the result, it is revealed that the students of English Department of

Syiah Kuala University implement strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) in part A of Listening in TOEFL test with the frequency of “sometimes”. Then it is also found that some of students do not implement all of the strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) in answering questions of listening test part A of TOEFL test. It means that many students did not apply all strategies suggested by Phillips (2001) in answering questions of listening test part A of TOEFL test. Many students might not implemented the strategies because they do not often practicing in Listening classroom or in Listening test; therefore they are unfamiliar with the strategies.

In this research, the lowest implemented strategy is skill 7 (63%), followed by skill 3, 10, 11, 14 (65%), and so on. The research findings of Mahlil (2010) reveals that the most difficult skill to achieve in part A of Listening comprehension section of TOEFL test was to comprehend almost negative expression (skill 9). Here, strategy for skill ‘listen for almost negative expression’ is implemented 69%; however, it is not the lowest implemented strategy.

On the other hand, the highest implemented strategy is skill 12 (76%). Yuliandani, Ikhsanuddin, & Sumarni (2014) found that the most problematic aspect of part A (Short conversation) of Listening section of TOEFL test was double negative expression (skill 8) and the most mastered aspect was passive (skill 5). It shows that the strategy of the most mastered aspect is applied lower than the strategy for the most complicated aspect. The strategies were applied higher for the most complicated aspect because the students were difficult to answer the questions without applying the strategy. Therefore it can be said that there is no positive collation or relation between the most difficult skill and the lowest implemented strategy in Listening section of TEOFL test, and vice versa.


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In brief, the result of this research reveals that the strategies proposed by Phillips (2001) are not efficient in improving the students’ score in Listening of TOEFL test. Hence, it is suggested for students who are preparing to take TOEFL test, especially in Listening section, that they enhance their ability in Listening by watching English movie (Adnan, 2014) and listening English songs (Hidayat, 2013) beside learning the strategies of listening such as proposed in TOEFL preparation books.

Mahlil. (2010). The students’ difficulties in listening section of the TOEFL test at English Education Department of Syiah Kuala University. Syiah Kuala University.

Mahmud, M. (2014). The EFL students’ problems in answering the test of English as

5. CONCLUSIONANDSUGGESTIONSBased on the result of analysis of the research, it shows that the students

apply the strategies with the frequency of “sometimes”. Furthermore, skill 7 (listen for negative expressions) gets the lowest percentage among the other skills, while skill 12 (listen for expressions of uncertainty and suggestion) gets the highest percentage of implementation. Therefore, it is suggested that students implement more strategies, and teachers or instructors are recommended to motivate them and build their awareness to use more strategies when taking a TOEFL.

REFERENCES

Adnan, A. (2014). Improving students’ listening ability through movie report. SELT, 69–75.

Al-Rawashdeh, H. (2011). Difficulties that face graduate students during their TOEFL preparation program at Jordanian Universities. Abhath Al-Yarmouk “Hum. & Soc. Sci, 2307–2329.

Ananda, R. (2016). Problems with section two ITP TOEFL test. Studies in English Language and Education, 3(1), 35–49.

Dang, N.T. (2016). Engaging Students in the TOEFL PBT Test Preparation Listening Course through Games and Activities. TTU Review, 1(2), 1–13.

Engish Testing Service. (2007). Test and score data summary for TOEFL computer-based and paper-based tests. Princeton: www.ets.org.

Engish Testing Service. (2016). About the TOEFL PBT test. Acccessed from http://TOEFL_ Paper-delivered Test_ About the TOEFL Test.html on October 15, 2016

Hartono, S. (2009). The smart guide to the new TOEFL: trik super lihai memenangkan TOEFL. Yogyakarta: Book Marks.

Hidayat, A. (2013). The use of songs in teaching students’ listening ability. Journal of English and Education, 1(1), 21–29.

Higby, E., & Hudon, E. (2014). TOEFL IBT premier (Fifth Edition). New York: Kaplan Publishing.


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Muijs, D. (2004). Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS. London: Sage Production.

a foreign language (TOEFL): A study in Indonesian Context. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(12), 2581–2587.

Muijs, D. (2004). Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS. London: Sage Production.

Phillips, D. (2001). Longman Complete Course for the TOEFL test: preparation for the computer and paper tests. New York: Pearson Education.

Pierce, D., Kinsell, S., & the Staff of the Princeton Review. (2015). Cracking the TOEFL test (2016 Edition). Massachuset: Princeton Review.

Sugiyono. (2009). Metode penelitian kuantitatif,kualitatif, dan R&D. [Quantitative, qualitative and R&D research methods]. Bandung: Alfabeta.

Sulistyo, G. H. (2009). TOEFL in a brief historical overview from PBT to IBT. Bahasa Dan Seni, 37(2), 116–127.

Yuliandani, R. ., Ikhsanuddin, & Sumarni. (2014). Analyzing Students TOEFL Listening Comprehension Test Performance. Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Pembelajaran, 3(10), 1–11.

Mustafa, F. (2015). Using corpora to design a reliable test instrument for English proficiency assessment. In TEFLIN International Conference (pp. 344–352). Denpasar.

Mustafa, F., & Apriadi, H. (2016). DIY: Designing a reading test as reliable as a paper-based TOEFL designed by ETS. In Current Trends in Languages and Education (pp. 402–407). Banda Aceh.

51. Aina Razmalia

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