Difficulties in test of Toeic reading comprehension by the final year students of high quality classes at faculty of mechanical engineering, HaUI

he question. 
While skimming skill and scanning skill were shown to be less challenging, more than 
40% respondents admitted their difficulties in inferring skill towards the inference 
questions, namely “who is likely the intended reader?” or “who would use the 
information?” or “where would you find the product?”. It can be concluded that the 
respondents were skillful at finding the correct answers from factual questions when the 
language of the text matches the required information. However, they were less capable of 
drawing inferences because they had limited ability of connecting information among 
sentences. Moreover, they spent too much time achieving the targeted answer due to their 
comparatively low reading rate. Therefore, the students in the study need to be trained with 
guessing new word in vocabulary question; inferring skill with the enhancement of fast 
reading skill and the improvement of making inferences. 
Table 2: Difficulties in reading skills 
No. Problems with 
Number of 
students 
Percentage 
(%) 
1 Skimming the text for general information 11 36,67 
2 Scanning the text for specific information 9 30 
3 Guessing new word in the vocabulary question 14 46,67 
4 Itnferring skill for inference question 13 43,33 
3.3. Difficulties in reading question types 
The statistics have shown the participants had problem with the majority of reading 
question types. “NOT/TRUE” and “synonym questions” were rated as the hardest kinds of 
question for the respondents in the study while information questions seemed not to cause 
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the participants much trouble. Interviewees clarified the reason that in order to answer one 
NOT/TRUE question, it took time three times as much as they spent on one information 
question. For synonym questions, the participants’ obstacle was likely due to their study 
skills. When they practiced outside the test room, they focused on learning a few popular 
meanings of each word. Rarely had they found or collected the words or phrases which are 
similar or have the closest meaning. These findings figured out that the participants need to 
be supplied with exercise of developing synonymous vocabulary range and techniques to 
deal with “NOT/TRUE” questions with the shorter time. 
Table 3: Difficulties in reading question types 
No. Problems with 
Number of 
students 
Percentage (%) 
1 Information questions (Wh_questions) 7 22,33 
2 NOT/TRUE questions 19 63,33 
3 Inference questions 16 53,33 
4 Synonym questions 19 63,33 
3.4. Difficulties in kinds of reading passages 
It is clear from statistics of questionnaire that double passages were considered to be 
harder than single passages by 76,67% participants. When interviewed, they explained 
about advantages of single passages that it didn’t take much time to read each 
advertisement, form, letter, e-mail, fax, memorandum, table, index, chart, instruction, or 
notice separately. However, these students in favor of single ones stated that they used to 
lack time for the last ten questions of double passages in the exam. Therefore, it was very 
significant for the participants to learn how to manage time for each question as well as 
how to fulfill the reading passages with the allowed time. 
In contrast, nearly one-third respondents faced bigger obstacles in single passages in 
comparison with double ones. One interesting truth was found about good points of double 
passages that the participants felt it effective to answer five questions for pairs of passages. 
Additionally, as they experienced in the test, difficult degree of double passages was the 
same while for the single passages, some first ones were simple but some last ones were 
confusing. It was clear that if the participants had mastered the format of each group of 
reading passages, they would have been more skilled and strategic readers. 
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Table 4: Difficulties in kinds of reading passages 
No. Aspects 
Number of 
students 
Percentage (%) 
1 Single passages are more difficult than double ones 7 23,33 
2 Double passages are more difficult than single ones 23 76,67 
3 Single passages are as difficult as double ones 0 0 
4 Single and double passages are not difficult. 0 0 
4. SUGGESTIONS 
Based on the results of the study, the following suggestions could be made. 
4.1. Vocabulary 
Vocabulary is described by Beglar and Hunt [1] as the “central component” or “the 
heart of a language” in getting insight into foreign language. Therefore, in order to improve 
basic vocabulary range and get over difficulties in vocabulary about economics and health, 
the senior students of high quality classes at FME are recommended to follow three basic 
steps. The first step is to revise and master an enormous amount of popularly-used basic 
vocabulary as shared by the website onthitoeic.com at basic vocabulary category. 
Secondly, the students need to build TOEIC vocabulary self-study strategies at pre-
intermediate level. It is likely that the book 600 essential words for the TOEIC test by Lin 
Lougheed would be appropriate in the process of building crucial TOEIC vocabulary. 
Thirdly, when practicing passages in test books, it would be helpful if the students keep 
writing new words into their vocabulary notebook which is classified into each theme and 
spend more time on the theme of health and business activities. 
In order to obtain higher marks in TOEIC internal test at HaUI, it is very essential for 
the final year students of high quality classes to enhance the understanding capacity of 
passages. Nation’s study (1993) could have great sense in this case. In accordance with his 
advice, the students should be provided with the fact that to improve their achievement 
dramatically, they need to enrich from 2000 to 5000 words in order to understand from 
85% to 95% of the text [7]. 
4.2. Reading skills 
When the students have a huge amount of vocabulary as presented above, the students 
can reduce the difficulties in guessing new word in the vocabulary question. Additionally, 
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the students can replace the given word in vocabulary question by each word of the answer 
A, B, C and D. In case, any answer of which meaning is appropriate with the content of the 
passage seems to be the best choice. 
The research’s results revealed that the seniors of two high quality classes at FME, 
HaUI had comparatively slow reading speed. There are two effective ways to help them 
speed up their reading skill according to Debat (2006, p.13), [3]. The first technique is to 
practise eyes’ movement with a pen. When the pen in the hand moves from the left to the 
right of texts, the eyes run after the pen. The second technique results from reading 
keywords aloud that are shown on reading questions for a few seconds, and then quickly 
identify them in the passages. The kind of exercise is worth training the students in the 
speedy visual recognition of targeted information positions. 
Aiming to improve inferring skill, the researcher suggests that the senior high quality 
students at FME should get familiar with “top-down” and “bottom-up” reading process 
which they were hardly trained before the test date. To be specific, as explained in [10], the 
top-down process focuses on exploiting readers’ background knowledge or the previous 
experiences about the text structure or the subject matter of a text to create frameworks to 
make sense of new experiences whereas the bottom-up process aims at combining each 
familiar word, each simple grammatical structure to create the meaning of phrases; then 
through the understanding of phrases can more complex passage structures be analyzed 
and interpreted. When top-down and bottom-up strategies are practiced regularly, the 
inferring skill will be enhanced [4]. 
4.3. Reading questions 
Firstly, for purpose of answering “NOT/TRUE” questions quickly and effectively, 
from the researcher’s teaching experience, it is advisable for the students to find out the 
key word(s) in the question and discover where passage’s part(s) state(s) about key words 
or their paraphrased phrases to identify targeted information scope. Afterwards, the 
students should look at answers A, B, C, D before finding them in a passage. For TRUE 
question, leave out options which are not included in the passage. For NOT question, leave 
out options which are included in the passage. 
Secondly, to enhance competence in dealing with synonym questions, the students had 
better enlarge synonymous vocabulary range due to practicing exercise “practicing 
paraphrasing the following sentences by choosing the correct option” designed by David 
Cho [2]. 
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 Last but not least, recommendations by Forster et al are valuable to the students. In 
the first place, they warn that the passage questions may not impose as the orderly 
information in the text. The second point is that wrong answers in TOEIC passages may 
result from choosing too general or too specific answers to the question of main ideas. 
Finally, in case the exam candidates have no idea for the answer to a specific question, 
Forster et al. (1997) recommend that it is worthy to mark B or C because answers B and C 
are the two most popular answers to questions in TOEIC [5]. 
4.4. Reading passages 
The study’s findings have showed that the students lacked time for last ten questions 
due to inefficient time management skill, so students are suggested to wear a watch to 
control test time. From the researcher’s experience in TOEIC test, 28 minutes should be 
spent on 28 questions of single passages; 20 minutes ought to be taken to answer 20 
questions of double ones. It can be inferred that one minute is expected to be enough time 
to answer one passage question. Therefore, when the students have employed more than 
four minutes for reading passage of four questions, they are supposed to move to other 
ones to keep reading in control of time. 
Concerning single passages, as Muller presents, there exist four main passage 
structures in TOEIC reading passages, namely problem/solution, general/specific, 
claim/counterclaim and question/answer [6]. Thus, students are recommended to 
investigate and remember above passage structures because they could find the answer to 
test questions of each passage very quickly when they are conscious of where, at the 
beginning, middle or end of the passage, they may look for. 
To read double passages fast and effectively, it is consulted by David Cho [2] that the 
students should get accustomed to format of groups of reading passages: letters/E-mails, 
announcements, advertisements, articles and forms. I take double passages which are 
concerned about letters/emails as example. They often contain (1) a passage for conference 
postponement and another for reply to that request or (2) an email for complaints about a 
product and a reply to that complaint. When the final year students studying in high quality 
class of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering are supplied with strategies for (1) and (2) 
regarding letters/emails, they are more confident in exam. 
5. CONCLUSION 
The paper found the answers to research question relating to difficulties faced by the 
final year students of high quality classes at FME, HaUI in test of TOEIC reading 
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comprehension. Due to limited time and small scope, the study was restricted to difficulties 
in vocabulary, reading skills, reading questions and kinds of reading passages with 
participation of 30 seniors in questionnaire and 10 participants in the interview. Based on 
the discovered difficulties, some feasible solutions are recommended to improve TOEIC 
reading comprehension competence in particular and TOEIC skills in general. Specifically, 
the seniors of high quality program at FME are recommended to develop clear strategies in 
vocabulary enhancement; become familiar with “top-down” and “bottom-up” reading 
process and to master the passages’ structure. Moreover, they should arrange suitable time 
for each question, each single passage and double one. 
REFERENCES 
1. Beglar, D. & Hunt, A. (2005), “Six principles for teaching foreign language vocabulary: A 
commentary on Laufer, Meara, and Nation’s “ten best ideas”, The Language Teacher, 29 (7), 
pp.7-10. 
2. Cho, D. (2012), Hackers TOEIC start reading, Nhan Tri Viet Ltd.Co, Hanoi. 
3. Debat, E.V.D. (2006), “Applying current approaches to the teaching of reading”, English 
Teaching Forum, pp.8-15. 
4. Eskey D. E. (1988), Holding in the bottom: An interactive approach to the language problems 
of second language readers, in interactive approach to second language reading, Cambridge 
University Press, Cambridge, pp.74-93. 
5. Forster, D., Karn, R., Suzuki, S. & Tateyama, T. (1997), Strategies 1: Building 
TOEIC/TOEFL test-taking skills, Aratake Publishing Co., Ltd, Tokyo. 
6. Muller, T. (2007), “Innovating the Longman Preparation Series for the TOEIC Test: Advanced 
course with discourse analysis”, The Asian ESP Journal, 3 (1), pp.35-55. 
7. Nation, I. S. P. (1993), Vocabulary size, growth, and use, Schreuder & B. Weltens (Eds.), The 
bilingual lexicon, Amsterdam, Philadelphia. 
8. Nguyen Thi Yen (2013), Difficulties in teaching TOEIC speaking skills to students at Bac Ha 
International University, The master thesis, Hanoi University of Languages and International 
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. 
9. Nhu Ha Phuong (2012), Common errors made by pre-intermediate students in the TOEIC 
listening test and some suggested solutions, The master thesis, Hanoi University of Languages 
and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. 
10. Pham Duc Long (2013), An exploratory study on the teaching and learning of TOEIC Reading 
Comprehension skills at EQUEST ACADEMY, The master thesis, Hanoi University of 
Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. 
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NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN KHI THI DẠNG BÀI ĐỌC HIỂU TOEIC CỦA 
SINH VIÊN NĂM CUỐI HỆ CHẤT LƯỢNG CAO KHOA CƠ KHÍ, 
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI 
Tóm tắt: TOEIC từ lâu đã được thừa nhận là chiếc chìa khóa vàng giúp người lao động 
mở cánh cửa việc làm. Ở Trường Đại học Công nghiệp Hà Nội, chứng chỉ TOEIC còn là 
điều kiện cần đối với sinh viên hệ chất lượng cao để được công nhận tốt nghiệp. Sau khi 
tham dự bài thi TOEIC nội bộ tháng 11 năm 2014, nhiều sinh viên năm cuối khoa Cơ khí 
hệ chất lượng cao đã bày tỏ những khó khăn lớn đối với phần thi đọc hiểu. Bài viết này 
tìm hiểu những khó khăn cơ bản trong phần thi đọc hiểu TOEIC, từ đó khuyến nghị 
những giải pháp để khắc phục những khó khăn đó. 
Từ khóa: TOEIC, đọc hiểu, khó khăn, từ vựng