Integrating Student-Developed Strategy-Based Tutoring Video to Enhance TOEIC Reading Comprehension Among Thai EFL Undergraduates

Abstract

The ability to employ strategies to achieve reading comprehension is recognized as an indicator of CEFR B2 proficiency, corresponding to a TOEIC reading score of 385. Despite the clear advantages of strategy training to improve reading comprehension, limited reading competency has often been reported. This study sought to address three research questions: (1) Which strategies should be adopted to address TOEIC reading comprehension questions, and how can these strategies be integrated into a tutoring platform from the perspective of novice test takers?  (2) To what extent does the tutoring improve tutees' reading comprehension, as measured by pre- and post-test scores? and (3) What is the level of tutees’ satisfaction with the tutoring? Three English for Communication (EC) majors who recently attended the TOEIC test contributed their insights regarding appropriate reading strategies. A tutoring video was subsequently developed from these strategies, which can be applied for reading emails, letters, news articles, advertisements, and announcements. Ten strategies were built into the video, including getting acquainted with common questions, previewing questions prior to reading, identifying locations of possible answers before reading the given texts, and applying inferential reasoning when responding to opinion-based questions. A group of 32 English for Communication majors participated in the study by completing pre- and post-tests, viewing the tutoring video, and responding to a satisfaction questionnaire. The results revealed that students' post-test scores (M = 22.53) were significantly higher than their pre-test scores (M = 9.72). The participants also reported a high level of satisfaction with the video across all evaluated aspects (M = 4.79), particularly with respect to its usefulness in developing their strategic reading skills (M = 4.50–4.90). Most studies using reading strategies to enhance reading comprehension were based on instructors’ perspectives. This study took learners and fresh TOEIC test takers into account. It is believed that this approach is another effective way to improve learners’ reading comprehension and performance on standardized English tests.