International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
abbreviations and symbols instead. This study is concerned with speed because to be efficient readers and notetakers,
students need to achieve their reading and note taking goals as quickly and easily as possible.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The current study is designed to answer two primary questions:
$ What is the nature of the relationship between reading speed and note- taking speed? Are they totally
independent or correlated variables?
$ What are the habits that slow/ rapid readers and note- takers report on using when dealing with both skills?
THE HYPOTHESIS
We hypothesize that third year English Students to be slow readers and slow note takers. Thus, students’
reading speed (or pace) and note –taking speed and habits correlate positively.
METHODOLOGY
METHOD
The investigation is conducted through a descriptive diagnostic methodology. It focuses, on the other hand,
on another common type of research which is the correlational one. This latter is carried out to explore the nature
of the relationship among variables a researcher is interested in (J. Charles Alderson, Caroline Claphan and
Dianne Wall, 1995, p. 77). Hence, the current study is constructed following two steps: reading and note taking
speeds tests correlation, and reading and note taking speeds questionnaires correlation.
PARTICIPANTS
Our study population is that of third year students preparing a license degree in English as a foreign language.
The primary sample consisted of forty eight (n= 48) students. Their proficiency level was assessed through their
performance on a test measuring reading speed and note taking speed. It is limited to this size for the sake of
being time economist, practical and accurate. However, the secondary sample represents two hundred and sixty
two (n= 262 university students majoring in English-language too). They are randomly selected from the target
population. It is important to note that sex differences have not been given any predictions in the study.
MATERIALS:
Two tests were used in this study. The reading speed section of the test was used to measure participants’
reading rates. Another test, which was the reading section of a note taking test, served as the note taking speed
test.
Through the reading speed and the note taking speed questionnaires, respondents are said to have gone
through retrospective reporting. The rationale behind these questionnaires is to find out wealthy information
about the students’ reading and note taking backgrounds, perceptions, speed and type of strategies mostly used
by English students and which can act negatively or positively, either directly or indirectly on their reading and
note taking speeds.
PROCEDURES
As a first step before administering the tests, students were given several instructions as regards the setting of
the tests. They were reminded too to work independently and silently. The study was conducted over one
Monday morning and the text was provided for each student. The instructor doesn’t read it for subjects of the
test group. The reading passage is a narrative text containing 550 words long under the title “the missing
painting”. It does not include technical words or any culture specific ideas. This aids foreign language readers in
tackling the text and helps them in achieving comprehension and taking notes easily.
Students in this investigation go through a timed reading task in which they read the passage for the first time
at their casual, normal and comfortable speed but they have to note their starting and finishing reading times.
After the first reading was over, in order to evaluate students’ note-taking speeds, they were required to read the
passage for the second time and take notes, after which they had 15 minutes to finish and employ their usual
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