FROM PERCEPTION TO PERFORMANCE: TO ESTABLISH

THE LEVEL OF INFLUENCE OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ON

THE SCORES OF THE READING SECTION OF THE

Zulema Peña Alvarez

zulema.pena.alv[email protected]m

https://orcid-org/0000-0003-1164-2634

Universidad Nacional de Educación

Ecuador

their performance in the aforementioned international test. For the sample, 28 students were selected,

which were approached by two key instruments for the study, such as: the simulated test and the survey.

The results obtained showed that the students' perceptions of their prior knowledge do not correlate

with their performance in the reading section of the International English Language Testing System

(IELTS). Also, there was a high incidence of students who felt that reading does not help much in

learning about a topic, however, they think it is of great help for vocabulary improvement.

Keywords: performance, students, IELTS, reading, perceptions

RESUMEN

El objetivo general de este artículo es determinar si las percepciones de los estudiantes de nivel B1 de

una universidad pública del Ecuador sobre sus conocimientos previos influyen en los puntajes de la

sección de lectura del International English Language Testing System (IELTS). El tipo de investigación

fue mixto ya que de forma cuantitativa se recopilaron los datos numéricos para luego generalizarlos, y

mediante un estudio cualitativo se examinaron aspectos importantes respecto a los conocimientos

previos de los estudiantes y si éstos influyen en el desempeño de la prueba internacional antes

mencionada. Para la muestra se seleccionó la cantidad de 28 estudiantes, los cuales fueron abordados

Palabras clave: desempeño, estudiantes, IELTS, lectura, percepciones

Artículo recibido 28 enero 2024

Aceptado para publicación: 29 febrero 2024

cited in Campos et. to the. (2024) It refers to the fact that reading is not a passive act, but rather demands

from the reader a set of mental structures that are manifested during this process, such as: analysis,

reasoning, etc.

Cassany (2006) says that reading is about understanding and designing meanings that do not appear

explicitly in the text. However, this process needs an active reader who synthesizes and examines the

literary work (Solé, 2011). Furthermore, the reading process is basically an instrument of interactivity

between the reader, the linguistic signs and the ideas that the reader has about each text (Acosta, 2024).

Likewise, reflective, creative, critical thoughts, imagination and the ability to memorize emerge

Eigler cited in (Vázquez, 2019)states that the knowledge that the student has about reading impacts the

composition of the text, in addition, a study carried out by Mateos and Peñalba (2003), indicate that

there were significant differences in favor of students who had more prior knowledge compared to the

does not act effectively when carrying out the reading, stating that said knowledge acts as an

independent variable within the reading. Furthermore, it reiterates that the problem arises when the prior

have the ability to visualize signs and repeat them or the ability to decode a given text. However, this is

not reading comprehension, but rather the first phase of reading that still needs to be developed so that

it can reach definitive and conscious understanding.

of these students about their prior knowledge can be aligned with their performance in the reading

section of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). .

Thus, the general objective of this article is to determine whether the perceptions of B1 level students

from a public university in Ecuador about their prior knowledge influence the scores of the reading

section of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

METHODOLOGY

Kind of investigation

The type of research in this article is mixed, since on the one hand, a quantitative study will be carried

them between groups of people or explain a particular phenomenon. Therefore, in this article the test

scores will be identified by numbers, on the other hand it will be qualitative since the responses obtained

through a survey were analyzed in order to find a relationship with the results of the tests, that is,

previously been evaluated to determine their proficiency in English ; however, according to teacher

Adriana Mora, they were found suitable to belong to the advanced B1 Level.

from various sources in order to find answers to a specific situation. Therefore, a simulated test and a

survey were used, so that the application of both instruments allowed us to identify the relationship

between the participants' perception and performance in a reading section of the IELTS.

13 to 14 questions, which are characterized by being true or false.

For its part, the survey application made it possible to compile the perceptions of the participants about

their knowledge on the topic of the reading passages. It was also composed of 14 questions that were

divided into two sections, the first had the purpose of asking to students about their familiarity with the

topics presented in the passages and, in general, to know how much they know and to what extent that

knowledge influences their reading comprehension (Lin, 2002).

The second section was focused on knowing the personal background of the students, that is, their

reading habits and preferences, which according to Ameyaw and Anto (2018)are related to their

Data collection procedure

1. A duplication of the original IELTS test format was made.

2. So that the students could complete the test, it was transcribed into a Google Form, without altering

Form and sent to the email of each participant.

Ethical considerations

interfere with their performance or their grades within the course taken. . This consent was signed by

the students and sent via email.

Table 1. Student scores/performance in the mock test.

IELTS test generates results through a band score from 0 to 9 to assess whether the student is ready to

study English. Consequently, the participants managed to obtain very good, good, competent and

modest levels of English, obtaining that 35.71% of participants are competent users of English, while

21.43% demonstrated to be a good user of this language.

However, it should be taken into account that authors such as Persky et. al (2020)state that students'

perceptions of how much they know very rarely show their knowledge, therefore it is not reliable to

consider students' perceptions as indicators of adequate or sufficient learning.

The following table shows the percentage of accuracy which allows us to further demonstrate whether

the students' perceptions correlate with their scores:

62.75%.

RESULTS OF THE TEST

The results of the survey composed of 14 questions were able to demonstrate the prior knowledge and

familiarity that the students have with the topics presented, the following figures are shown below:

Figure 1. Participants' familiarity with the topics before reading the passages