CHUYÊN ĐỀ: How to Help Students Overcome test anxiety Thiều Thị Thu Dung Trường THPT Chuyên Nguyễn Tất Thành, tỉnh Yên Bái TABLE OF CONTENT Content Page Part 1: Introdction Reasons for choosing the study Aims and significance of the study Part 2: Content I Characteristics of test anxiety II Suggestions to help students overcome test anxiety 1.Make test preparation fun 2.How to proceed 3.Tips for giving your students success on test 4.Some other pieces of advice to reduce the level of anxiety III Effectiveness of the study Part III: Conclusion and recommendation Conclusion Recommendation REFERENCENCES 2 13 14 14 15 16 How to Help Students Overcome test anxiety PART 1: INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the study Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty that typically appears when an individual perceives an event as being a threat to the ego or self-esteem (Sarason, 1988) In some instances, such as avoiding dangerous situations, anxiety can be helpful However when taken to extremes, it may produce unwarranted results One of the most threatening events that causes anxiety in students today is testing When students develop an extreme fear of performing poorly on an examination, they experience test anxiety Test anxiety is a major factor contributing to a variety of negative outcomes including psychological distress, academic underachievement, academic failure, and insecurity (Hembree, 1988) Many students have the cognitive ability to well on exams but may not so because of high levels of test anxiety Because of the societal emphasis placed on testing, this could potentially limit their educational and vocational opportunities (Zeidner, 1990) Tests are essential because they allow both you and your students to evaluate their performance You will discover what areas they are struggling with and they will find out where they need to focus their attention Tests may hold the key to our educational success—as long as educators are willing to commit the time and effort required to design tests that foster learning rather than impede it Aims and significance of the study This study aims at: - Introducing some characteristics of test anxiety - Providing both teachers and students of English some suggestions to overcome the problems PART 2: CONTENT I Characteristics of Test Anxiety Test anxiety is composed of three major components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral Students who experience test anxiety from the cognitive perspective are worriers lacking self confidence They may be preoccupied with negative thoughts, doubting their academic ability and intellectual competence (Sarason & Sarason, 1990) Furthermore, they are more likely to overemphasize the potential negative results and feel helpless when in testing situations (Zeidner, 1998) Some students may feel the need to answer every question on the test correctly When 2 this does not occur they may think of themselves as being incompetent, thus fueling negative thoughts such as, "I knew I was not going to pass this test," "I know I am going to make a poor grade," or "Everyone knows I am not smart." In order for students to have the best opportunity for academic success, negative thinking must be minimized and controlled From the affective perspective, test anxiety causes some students to experience physiological reactions such as increased heart rate, feeling nauseated, frequent urination, increased perspiration, cold hands, dry mouth, and muscle spasms (Zeidner, 1998) These reactions may be present before, during, and even after the test is completed In conjunction with the physiological reactions, emotions such as worry, fear of failure, and panic may be present When students are not able to control their emotions, they may experience higher levels of stress, thereby making it more difficult for them to concentrate Test-anxious students express anxiety behaviorally by procrastinating and having inefficient study and test-taking skills Zeidner (1998) contends that testanxious students have a more difficult time interpreting information and organizing it into larger patterns of meaning In addition, some students may physically feel tired or exhausted during test administration because they not have a healthy diet, have poor sleeping habits, and fail to routinely exercise II.Suggestions to help students overcome test anxiety Make test preparation fun Your current unit has come to a close, and you have put your heart and soul into your classroom activities over the past weeks Your students have had a good time and have learned, too, and now comes the most dreaded part of all It is not the unit end test but getting your students ready to take it With all the creativity and energy you put into the lessons along the way, how can a review of the material be at all interesting? Here are some ideas to try the next time you have to get your students ready for the test 1.1 Let your students write the test 3 Maybe you not want them to write the test themselves, but you may want to let your class write the review questions By assigning each person to write a specific number of review questions, either in class or for homework, they become the teachers during the review As any teacher knows, teaching a subject only makes you know it even better, so having your students write the review and conduct their parts in class will make them experts on the information assigned to them Depending on what your unit covered, you will need to break the information up among individuals or groups in your class You can divide the information by page numbers (give each person one or more pages and the information on those pages), by topic (assign certain topics you have covered to individuals or groups), or randomly assign content by pulling topics out of a hat No matter how you break the information into pieces, assign each person or group to write five or more review/potential test questions that cover the information You may want to motivate them to the best job they can by choosing to include one or more of the best questions in the test itself and letting them know you will be doing it That way, the writer of that question should have no problem getting the answer right and neither should your class if they pay attention during the review! 1.2 Foster creativity Another way to let your students the review starts once again by assigning topics to groups of students This time, instead of writing review questions, ask each person to one of two things The first option is to teach the material to the class a second time They can use any method they choose, and making them responsible for the review will ensure that they engage throughout the process The second option is to present the information to the class in a creative way They may choose to a skit, a song or another presentation that will free them to think out of the box The more outrageous the presentation, the more of an impact it will have on the viewers, and your class will be sure to remember the information during the test If you make a habit of reviewing in 4 this manner, your students just may get competitive about how creative they can be, and the end of every unit will become a celebration and students will look forward to it with energetic anticipation! 1.3 Make a game of it Perhaps the best method of test preparation is to play games with your class You can find several ideas for ESL games They work well specifically for review of material Not only will your students have fun, they will be energized with creativity and showmanship To review content, try Jeopardy with your students Though you will have to write the questions ahead of time, your students will have fun buzzing in, working in teams and getting in some terrific practice forming questions in English If your students wrote test review question in the first activity, use those questions to play classroom baseball Divide your class into two teams and get one team “up at bat” first Designate each corner of the room as a base Ask a question, and if the first person answers correctly, he walks ahead a base If the answer is incorrect, he is out Continue to play and only count points as players pass home plate After three outs, the other team is up at bat If you really want to make things tough on the teams, let the team “in the field” choose the review questions to ask of the players at bat They must know the answer to the question they ask, but they can use their books and notes and work together to come up with the questions If the team asking the questions gives a bad question, the other team automatically scores a point.Test review does not have to be the most boring part of the unit In fact, it can be fun and engaging and something your students look forward to the day before a test By putting the material in the hands of your students, they not only review the material but also put themselves in the role of teacher cementing the information in their minds like no other activity can How to proceed 5 You may have horrible memories of taking tests as a student but now that you are teaching, it is important to test your students on the material you cover in class Here are some things to remember when testing students 2.1Frequency Rather than save material from the whole year to include in one massive exam, consider quizzing students at the end of each chapter and then every quarter or semester to break material up into more reasonable amounts It may seem like students are always preparing for a quiz or test but as long as they have clear goals and material is covered thoroughly, they should adapt to the routine easily Another benefit is that with more tests, each one is a lower percentage of the overall grade so there is less anxiety about performance on individual tests 2.2Content Sometimes tests should focus on very specific material while others should be more comprehensive It is important to check that students are retaining information in the long term and not just memorizing information Use questions or question types that students have already seen in class Springing a new type of question or activity on them during an exam can be incredibility confusing while including the exact questions from the study guide can be too easy Take the middle ground here Use familiar formats and ask different questions or variants of questions This will give students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned without getting bogged down in reading directions 2.3Variety If possible try to include a variety of exercises in your tests Not every school is able to this but interview tests can be very effective because students have to demonstrate their ability to listen and speak as well as read and write Since the first two are critical for students who will have the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom, they are also very important in the evaluation process You can also use projects to grade students 6 if you are willing to attempt something new Perhaps for one semester skits can be the primary factor in determining overall grades While these can be a challenge to evaluate compared to multiple choice questions, they also give students who not perform well on tests the chance to more fully demonstrate their abilities Preparation It is important to help students prepare for exams so that they can feel confident going in to them By creating a study guide, reviewing material in class, giving students information about the test, and answering any questions students have, you will help them immensely Stress can reduce student performance so simply encourage them to study the material and their best By reducing their anxiety, you have ensured that they will be more successful 2.5Incentive You can also set goals for your students when it comes to exams so that they have something specific to work towards Depending on your students, you should consider individual and class goals Make these reasonable but challenging and not reveal individual test scores to the class as this might cause some students some embarrassment You may decide the goal should be a class average of 85% Assuming that students performed about this well on past exams, this should be a reasonable and attainable goal The incentive might be that you will not assign homework for one week which will help motivate students to achieve their target score 2.6 Review After returning the graded tests to students, go over the answers so that students can figure out what they did incorrectly Simply telling them the answers will not help them understand their mistakes You can mark the papers without correcting them and then go over each and every question in class so that students can correct their answers and ask questions While students really should take advantage of this opportunity to correct their mistakes so that they 7 have correct material to review another time, you may need to use an incentive to encourage students to make corrections Tips for giving your students success on tests 3.1 Practice makes imperfect One struggle many ESL students have when taking standardized tests is over preparation Now, I don’t mean students can know too much English or have too advanced skills to take a test What I mean is that some students have taken too many practice exams For some students, taking practice exams can actually hinder their ability to succeed on standardized tests The students who tend to overtake practice exams are those who feel insecure in their language abilities to begin with And the combination of the two can lead to lack of confidence when it comes to taking the real test In other words, students can psych themselves out Eliminate this problem before your students get to it by limiting the number of practice tests you administer and encouraging students not to take too many on their own time, either 3.2 Lather, Rinse,Repeat You can overcome lack of confidence in your students (which will have a detrimental effect when they sit down to take standardized tests) by repeating activities in class By giving students an activity that they have already done at least once in class, your students will be primed for success Try repeating a worksheet or activity as an opener for class or as a review activity Not only will your students feel good when they know the answers, an encore performance of given activity will solidify those concepts in your students’ minds, eliminating questions as well as lack of confidence 3.3 The circle of life Repeating a particular activity in class isn’t the only way to give students confidence and prepare them for success Try covering the same topic in class at regular intervals You can either teach the same material (with different methods, of course) several days in a row, or spend one day each week teaching a particular piece of information Do this until students find the task or material 8 easy, and then add a second or third element to your instruction (while still teaching the material you already covered) This way, students build on what they already know instead of tossing out the old unit when it’s time to start the new one 3.4 Slow and steady Your students, no matter what standardized test they are planning to take, will have a listening portion And preparing them for this section of the exam is necessary for success But sometimes throwing them into exam level material, even if you cover it in small chunks and review it copiously in class, isn’t good enough Some students will benefit far more from a simple slowing down of the listening material If you have a good classroom tape player or digital recorder, you should have a slowdown function where you can adjust the speed at which the recorded information is played Try slowing down your listening material for your students until they can successfully perform the task you assign them Then, as the days and weeks go by, speed the material up little by little until your students are able to successfully accomplish their tasks with the tape running at normal speed, the speed they will have to manage on the exam 3.5 Clozed for practice Cloze activities are great for getting an overall read of your students’ skills in English When you replace a blank every five to ten words in a given reading passage, your students will have to rely on all of their language skills to successfully complete the exercise You can create a simple cloze activity with any reading passage your students have read or will read Don’t require students to fill in the blanks with specific words As long as what they write is grammatical and makes logical sense, they have succeeded at the task 3.6 Keep it simple But sometimes testing all areas of language at the same time is not the right choice, and that is particularly true when preparing ESL students for standardized exams Instead of focusing on all areas of language competency at one time, try choosing only one area for a preparation activity If you are creating a cloze 9 exam, replace only verbs or only conjunctions This way students will focus on one area of language competency rather than all areas at one time In so doing, students will gain confidence from the more manageable challenge 3.7 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Using one reading passage for multiple tasks in test preparation will also be of benefit to your ESL students Try using a reading passage as the basis for a cloze activity, then having students a reading comprehension activity with the same material, and then using it again for a grammar lesson 3.8 All in This Together Multiple choice activities don’t have to give students a choice from A to D for every question Instead, try mixing up all of the answer choices at the bottom of the page with several questions We often this with a word bank for cloze activities and fill in the blanks, but you can change things up with any multiple choice acidity this way, too In addition to finding the correct answers to your questions, students will also have to determine which answers can be used with each of the questions, adding an element of grammar and comprehension to any multiple choice exercise 3.9 Give them the answers Can it really help your students if you give them the answers to questions that are supposed to test them? Yes! Giving your students a set of questions with the answers already marked will challenge them in a different way Instead of trying to find the correct answer to the question, you can ask them to explain why that answer is the right one That might entail going to a source paragraph and locating specific information, or it may be that they explain a grammatical concept or particular vocabulary word Either way, when students are on the explaining end of instruction, they will understand the information better and remember it more easily 3.10 Make prioritizing a priority Timed tests are a challenge, but with standardized exams, all the questions are worth the same amount of points You can help your students succeed on 10 10 test day by teaching them to answer the easiest questions first Give your students some exam style questions, and have them skim through the list without answering any questions Instead, have them mark the questions they immediately know the answers to with a star, the questions they think they can answer with a circle, and the toughest questions, the real stumpers, with an exclamation point Then have students answer the questions in that order – starred, circled, and then exclamation pointed Point out to them that they should follow this pattern on test day, looking to answer the easy questions first before going back to the tougher ones It may make a big difference in how many points they are able to score on the big day Some other pieces of advice to reduce the level of anxiety during an exam 4.1General preparation/building confidence: Review your personal situation and skills Developing good study habits and strategies Managing time(dealing with procrastination, distractions, laziness) Organizing material to be studied and learned Take a step by step approach to build a strategy and not get overwhelmed outside pressures Reviewing your past performance on tests to improve and learn from experience Use whatever strategies you can to personalize success: visualization, logic, talking to your self, practice, team work, journaling, etc View the exam as an opportunity to show how much you've studied and to receive a reward for the studying you've done Learn your material thoroughly and organize what materials you will need for the test Use a checklist Avoid thinking you need to cram just before 11 11 Strive for a relaxed state of concentration Avoid speaking with any fellow students who have not prepared, who express negativity, who will distract your preparation A program of exercise is said to sharpen the mind Get a good night's sleep :the night before the exam Don't go to the exam with an empty stomach Fresh fruits and vegetables are often recommended to reduce stress Stressful foods can include processed foods, artificial sweeteners, carbonated soft drinks, chocolate, eggs, fried foods, junk foods, pork, red meat, sugar, white flour products, chips and similar snack foods, foods containing preservatives or heavy spices Take a small snack, or some other nourishment to help take your mind off of your anxiety Avoid high sugar content (candy) which may aggravate your condition 4.2During the test: Read the directions carefully Budget your test taking time Change positions to help you relax If you go blank, skip the question and go on If you're taking an essay test and you go blank on the whole test, pick a question and start writing It may trigger the answer in your mind Don't panic when students start handing in their papers There's no reward for finishing first Use relaxation techniques If you find yourself tensing and getting anxious during the test: Take slow, deep breaths Don't think about the fear Pause: think about the next step and keep on task, step by step Use positive reinforcement for yourself: Acknowledge that you have done, and are doing, your best 12 12 Expect some anxiety It's a reminder that you want to your best and can provide energy Just keep it manageable Realize that anxiety can be a "habit" and that it takes practice to use it as a tool to succeed III Effectiveness of the study Design tests that will allow your students to succeed if they’re really learning Some of the most important sections of this study, though, are those that will help me design tests that really evaluate my students based on whether they’re learning Instead of “high stakes” all-or-nothing questions, learn how to design tools like informal assessments that allow me to give my students a chance to really shine during testing If your reviewing and testing is leading to student dread, it’s time for you to read this topic today After applying these tips in my teaching I have found that my students are more confident when doing the test Moreover, it takes my students much less time to come up with the answers so they have more time to devote to the other parts of the test, therefore, produce rather good test results As a part of the plan, I evaluated the learners’ achievement after the applying the ideas I decided to use qualitative approaches to collect the data Firstly, we made the direct observations before, during and after applying to evaluate the learners’ behavior towards these new techniques of teaching Then, we designed forty-five minute tests to examine the learners’ achievement after each lesson Lastly, we interviewed a group of students in each class to show their opinion about issues Here are the observation results after applying the study in class 10A (majoring in English) Group 10A: 13 13 The number of The number of The number of The number of students getting students getting students getting students getting mark 0-4 Before After mark 5-7 Before After mark 8-9 Before After mark 10 Before After applying applying applying applying applying applying applying applying the study the study the study the study the study the study the study the study 10/34 = 2/34 12/34 8/34 = 8/34 = 14/34 = 4/34 = 10/34 = 29,42% =5,87% =35,30% 23,53% 23,53% 41,18% 11,75 29.42 PART III : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion Test anxiety is something that impacts students from all ethnic backgrounds and grade levels Helping students learn to effectively manage such anxiety is a challenging task that requires a genuine team effort Students, parents, teachers, school counselors, and school administrators must all find ways to be actively involved in reducing test anxiety We live in a test-taking society and when students are anxious during tests, they are less likely to perform up to their academic potential Recommendation What I would like to recommend in this study is that how to avoid test anxiety is an important part in the process of language learning It makes the teaching and learning process run smoothly, and helps students acquire knowledge in a pleasant way Thus, it is crucial that teachers of English find the ways to motivate their students in learning English in general and in developing their skills in dealing with the problem Due to the limitation of knowledge and little experience in teaching, a lot of defects and mistakes are unavoidable I would like to thank all readers for their criticism as well as comments for the betterment of the study 14 14 REFERENCES Hembree, R (1988) Correlates, causes, effects, and treatment of test anxiety Review of Educational Research, 58, 7-77 15 15 Sarason, I G (1988) Anxiety, self-preoccupation, and attention Anxiety Research, 1, 37 Sarason, I G., & Sarason, B R (1990) Test anxiety In H Leitenberg (Eds), Handbook of social and evaluative anxiety (pp 475-496) New York: Plenum Press Syncamore, J E., & Corey, A L (1990) Reducing test anxiety Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24, 231-233 U S Department of Education (1993) Help Your Child Improve in Test-Taking Washington, DC: U S Government Printing Office Wilkinson, C M (1990) Techniques for overcoming test anxiety Elementary School Guidance & Counseling, 24, 234-237 Zeidner, M (1990) Does test anxiety bias scholastic aptitude test performance by gender and sociocultural group? Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 145-160 Zeidner, M (1998) Test anxiety: The state of the art New York: Plenum Press 16 16