προκειμένου να βοηθηθούν οι υποψήφιοι κάθε γλώσσας το ε.κ.π.α. δημοσιοποίησαν τα θέματα των τελευταίων ετών καθώς και τα δείγματα διαβαθμισμένων β1/β2 τεστ. We covered pride and prejudice by jane austen, romeo and juliet and the taming of the shrew by shakespeare, murder on the orient express by agatha christie, my fair lady based on george bernard's shaw's pygmalion and 1984 by george orwell. The latter gave birth to a prezi presentation for which my students and i are very proud. The overall aim of the project is to investigate the test taking strategies used by greek users of english when performing the activities of the greek state language exams, known as kratiko pistopiitiko glossomathias kpg and whether these can be successfully taught.

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It firstly aims at discussing findings regarding the test taking strategies candidates claim to use when responding to the kpg reading tasks and, secondly, at presenting the research instrument used for such an investigation. The research instrument, which is a closed response questionnaire, has been designed at the rcel and adminis athens, sheds light on the relatively unexplored area of test taking strategies, which are viewed as the techniques or ‘tricks’ consciously used by test takers when responding to test requirements cf. The first two phases have been completed and some findings that concern the strategies used in the writing test of the kpg exam have already been published dendrinos and stathopoulou 2009, stathopoulou 2008, stathopoulou in press, stathopoulou and nikaki 2008, 2009. Results derived from the third phase concerning the reading strategies used by candidates in testing conditions are presently discussed while findings related to the rest of the subprojects, i.e.

The development of the research tool as described in the present paper was a multi level and complicated process involving different groups of research participants at various stages of the research project see also dendrinos and stathopoulou 2009. Employ when responding to language test tasks and we believe that their successful use depends on how appropriately test takers apply them to a given task. A more detailed discussion on strategies in the efl teaching and testing context is provided in section 2. Strategies in the efl teaching and testing 2.1 language learning, language use and test taking strategies: how they differ the term ‘strategy’ has been one of the mostly referred terms in applied linguistics and second language acquisition sla studies.

A review of the literature reveals a bewildering array of different terms, instead of strategy. �technique’ stern 1983 , ‘tactic’ seliger 1984 , or ‘move’ sarig 1987 are some of those terms. Generally, the term strategy suggests ‘effort made for the achievement of a goal’. More specifically, in the second or foreign language learning context, the particular term has come to be applied to the conscious moves made by second language users which are intended to be useful in either learning or using the second language caudery 19, cohen 1998a, 1998b, 1996, ellis 1994, hsiao and oxford 2002. Language learning strategies are thus distin guished from language use strategies. While language learning strategies are used with a goal of facilitating learning or improving learners’ knowledge of a particular language cf. 1996, dadour and robbins 1996, leaver and oxford 1996, oxford 1996 , language use strategies focus primarily on helping language users to utilize the language they have already learned to whatever degree that may be cohen 1998a.

Additionally, oxford 1990 as cited in griffiths 2003: 368 has described language learning strategies as steps taken to facilitate the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of informa tion. Not only can they assist learners in promoting their own achievement in language proficiency bremner 1998, green and oxford 1995, oxford 1990, politzer 1983 but also they can foster learners’ autonomy holec 1981 and self regulation in language learning hsiao and oxford 2002. On the contrary, cohen 1998b points out that language use strategies are cohen 1998a, 1998b mentions that since the late 1970s, as is the case with learning strategies, researchers have started to show an interest in testing from the point of view of the strategies employed by test takers e.g. Abraham and vann 1996, brunch 1981, cohen 1984, 1998b, gordon 1987, homburg and spaan 1981, nevo 1989 but the research is yet at an embryonic level. However, some researchers have examined issues such as effective and non effective test taking strategies e.g. 2.2 reading strategies reading strategies, which the present study explores, constitute types of language use strategies and they can be defined as the conscious techniques used by readers to enhance their performance in reading tasks.

According to urquhart and weir 1998: 95 , they are ways of getting round difficulties encountered while reading. Olshansky 1977: 56 defines them as purposeful means of comprehending the author’s message while pritchard 1990: 275 sees them as deliberate actions that readers take voluntarily to develop an understanding of what they read. In relation to the types of reading strategies, sheorey and mokhtari 2001 divide them into cognitive, metacognitive and support strategies. Other researchers have distinguished between global, problem solving and support strategies e.g. However, sheorey and mokhtari’s classifica tion has been adopted for the purposes of this paper. Specifically, cognitive strategies are the procedures readers use while working directly with the text, as for example, inferencing/guessing through the use of text features, reading the text before the instructions, activating and using prior knowledge, reading the text more than once, adjusting reading rate, etc.

Metacognitive strategies are those carefully planned techniques by which learners monitor and manage their reading i.e. 1996, mokhatari and reichard 2002, mokhatari and reichard 2004, pressley 20, rao 2003 among many others , only few have focused on reading strategies during test taking e.g. Just to refer to few of them, bachman, cushing and purpura 1993 showed that strategy use affects test performance either directly or indirectly. Focusing his attention on reading tests, anderson 1991 also attempted to explore the relationship between strategy use and performance and found that high achievers use more memory strategies and less translation. By using data from introspections, allan 1992 as cited in alderson 20 examined strategies employed by test takers to handle multiple choice questions in reading tests. More recently, in a qualitative survey, nokolov 2006 investigated children’s uses of strategies while being engaged in efl reading and writing test tasks.

The study provided insights into what young candidates think while doing english tests. According to her findings, some strategies involve cognitive processes and personality traits while others involve ‘tiny tricks’ ibid: 46. The present study 3.1 aims of the research and the present paper the purpose of the tsrp as a whole was to investigate the test taking strate gies candidates claim to use in the different modules of the kpg exam.