| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立屏東大學 === 應用英語學系碩士班 === 106 === English proficiency tests have become a powerful tool for college students to survive in highly competitive societies such as Taiwan. These tests are often utilized to evaluate their English abilities as the benchmark for graduation, admission for further education, or for job selection. How to do well on English proficiency tests, therefore, is a major issue with which both students and teachers must contend. The purpose of this study was to explore Taiwan college students’ reading strategies and test-taking strategies on the TOEIC exam. The main instruments were survey questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaire, which comprised 50 items on reading and test-taking strategies, was adapted from the studies of Hsu (2008), and Oxford (1990). The study recruited 213 participants in one university in southern Taiwan. A total of six students were interviewed. The participants were divided into two English proficiency levels: high, and low, based on their TOEIC test scores. Independent Sample t-test was utilized to analyze whether there are differences in the use of reading and test-taking strategies between the participants with different English proficiency levels. Three major findings were discovered: 1) the most often used test-taking strategies were the metacognitive strategies of planning, and the least often used were the cognitive strategies of recognizing and using formulas and patterns; 2) the most often used reading strategies were the cognitive strategies of repeating, and the least often used were the metacognitive strategies of self-evaluating; and 3) students with different abilities choose different reading and test-taking strategies. Pedagogical implications and suggestions were further provided to conclude the study.
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