A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University

A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University

ABSTRACT Reading is one of the four important skills in learning English However, the students have faced a lot of difficulties in reading skill and, therefore, failed to become successful readers What, then, are the difficulties that the second- year students at Thuongmai University encounter in reading skill? And what factors influence their difficulties? Therefore, " A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University" is an essential and useful study for clarifying the above problem The study will focus major difficulties in reading skill for second- year English Faculty students and suggest some solutions for students to deal with their reading difficulties Participants in the study are second- year students of English Faculty, Thuongmai University The research also will point out and analyze the common difficulties faced by second- year students of Thuongmai University through data obtained from the questionnaire Research has obviously shown that second- year students have many difficulties in the fields such as reading skill, language, decoding and background knowledge Based on the research results, the research will propose some solutions to improve English reading skill so as to help students in general and students of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University in particular easily overcome those difficulties to become efficient readers ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My graduation paper can be completed thanks to the enthusiastic support from everyone First of all, I would like to express my deep respect and gratitude to my supervisor Hoang Thi Anh Tho MA, one of the enthusiastic lecturers of English Faculty at Thuongmai University Although her time and work are very busy, she always assists and contributes to various drafts of my study throughout the process of implementation and completion of the thesis I would like to express my sincere thanks to the teachers in the English Faculty, Thuongmai University, the second- year students from Thuongmai University who participated in my survey questionnaire enthusiastically Thanks to their support and help in the course of doing the thesis, I have useful information for the analysis of this study Thank you to all my friends and family who have always encouraged me to overcome difficulties in the process of study and research Due to my limited time and capacity, I could not avoid mistakes beyond expectation I hope to receive the comments from teachers and friends in order to enhance my experience and make this research more perfect Finally, I wish you good health, happiness, and success in your life Thank you sincerely! Hanoi, 16th April, 2021 Kim Pham Thi Kim TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TMU : Thuongmai University L1 : First language L2 : Second language LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In the trend of globalization today along with the strong development of science, technology, education, health, English has become an indispensable communication tool in the world Policies for exchange and trade with foreign countries have boosted the demand for learning foreign languages If you know a language in addition to your mother tongue, you will have many opportunities to work in large foreign organized companies with attractive salaries The number of businesses associating with foreign partners in Vietnam is increasing, meaning that using English at work and daily communication is an effective and necessary tool for each individual Therefore, learning English well is considered an opportunity to promote our work, in which the skill that we need to focus on and practice regularly is reading skill Dr Suess (1978) once had a famous quote about the importance of reading skill that the more you read, the more things you know The more that you learn, the more locations you’ll go Reading is the window to help us explore all nooks and crannies of everything in the world Reading skills help us to select useful information and apply it in life and work With a modern society like today, reading skills are more focused and necessary than ever Although learning English is considered compulsory for all English faculty students; students' English ability to meet proficiency requirements is not high, including reading skills At TMU, the second- year students will learn a subject of The Business that includes specialized knowledge from basic to complex In the past, students only read basically English texts on a certain topic in life, the accumulated range and vocabulary were only normal Because of the lack of specialized academic vocabulary and the difficulty of accessing other resources, the second- year students of the English Faculty have some difficulties when studying the subjects related to their major So, students' reading skills become difficult and limited Furthermore, the teaching method at university is far different from the previous one, which is also a barrier This requires students to pay more attention to reading skills to have a certain amount of vocabulary to meet study and work It is obvious that good reading comprehension not only helps us to have a deeper understanding of the knowledge we are learning, but also promotes our careers in the future If we want to learn a language well, we must practice and master the four skills: listening-speaking-reading-writing, in which reading skill is closely related and important to the remaining skills Identifying difficulties and reasons that prevent students from improving reading skills, and giving out solutions is very necessary With all of the above reasons, I decided to “A study on difficulties in reading skills of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University” Therefore, there are some suggested solutions to improve reading skills for them It is hoped that this study will provide contributions to improve learning English in general, as well as reading skills in particular of second year English major students at Thuongmai University 1.2 Previous research In this part, the previous studies related to this study will be selected for reference Firstly, the study “Difficulties in Reading of Quy Nhon Second-Year NonEnglish Majors” written by students of Foreign Language departments (Đoan Tran Thuy Van, Doan Thi Thanh Hieu, Bui Thi Huynh Hoa, Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam), (2017) is a meaningful and helpful study that the researcher has used as a source of reference In this study, researchers pointed out a number of difficulties faced by second- year students in reading, they are: (1) vocabulary difficulty; (2) grammar difficulty; (3) discourse difficulty; (4) difficulty in reading comprehension skills Besides the above difficulties, the researchers also have found out a number of reasons that make reading comprehension ineffective and difficult for students, which are: consciousness and attitude of students learning English; curriculum; learning methods; teaching methods With the aim of overcoming students' difficulties in reading skills, researchers pay more attention to difficulties in reading comprehension skills suitable for students To help students develop effective reading skills, teachers must teach students to be aware of basic reading skills including steps as follows: pre-reading, while- reading and after reading activities At the end of the study, after clearly identifying the basic difficulties and the causes leading to those difficulties, researchers have proposed remedial measures for both students and teachers The second study has the title: “A study on the causes of difficulties in reading skill experienced by first year English majors at Haiphong Private University and some suggested solutions (Nguyen Thi Huong Nga, 2019) This study is intended to point out the major causes of difficulties in reading skill experienced by first-year English majors at Haiphong Private University and provide solutions for both teachers and students to solve problems related to reading skills, etc The researcher expressed concern about students spending less time practicing reading skills, which is the reason why students are prevented from improving their reading skills Finally, “A study of reading comprehension problems in English in English encountered by first year students of faculty of Vietnamese Studies at HNUE” was conducted by Ho Van Chung (2012) The researcher focused on two main research questions: the main reading comprehension problems encountered by first year nonmajor English students at HUE and the strategies students use in processing a text and solving their comprehension problems The result of the study indicated the degrees of difficulties as well as showed that the two most serious problems preventing the students ‘s reading were: (1) insufficient vocabulary; (2) the need to reread All the studies mentioned above have helped researchers point out the key difficulties in students' reading skills, and then find solutions to overcome those difficulties Previous studies on this topic not only bring the researcher useful knowledge, but also contribute significantly to the researcher to carry out the “A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University” to collect a variety of students' opinions on reading skills, find out difficulties and offer suggested solutions to improve English reading skills of students 1.3 Aim of study From all of causes mentioned in part 1.1 (Rationale), the general aim of this study is: ✔ Finding out the major difficulties in reading skill by of second year English major students at Thuongmai University ✔ Suggesting some solutions for students to deal with their reading difficulties The researcher finds that study on difficulties in reading skills of students is necessary, helping them find out the difficulties in reading skills and its causes in order to improve the quality of reading skills for the English learning process The researcher hopes fully this study will help students to better understand the importance of reading skills, solve problems to become more professional while working at the company In order to achieve the goals mentioned above, the study will focus on the following questions: ✔ What are the attitudes of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University toward reading skill? ✔ What are common reading difficulties of second-year English major students at Thuongmai University? ✔ What factors affect the difficulty in reading skill of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University? ✔ What are possible solutions to student’s reading difficulties? 1.4 Research subjects Study subjects are second-year students of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University in the academic year 2021-2022 The researcher studies about 80 students from the English Faculty Furthermore, these study subjects were randomly selected and not based on their English reading proficiency 1.5 Scope of the study The article only focuses on the difficulties that second- year students of the English Faculty at Thuongmai University face in learning to read English, the causes and factors that affect reading skills, and suitable solutions for them to improve their English In addition, due to the limitations of time, funding, facilities and experience of the researcher, the study is only conducted based on 80 secondyear students of the English Faculty (2021-2022) at Thuongmai University Hopefully the study will help students have an overview of common difficulties in reading skills and necessary solutions in improving English reading skills 1.6 Research methodology In order to complete this study, with the help of teachers and students in the English department of Thuongmai University, the researcher conducted a survey questionnaire for 80 second-year students of the English Faculty who are selected at random To obtain accurate information and data, the study must include the collection, classification and analysis of the data, as well as the description of the results The questionnaire was used as a primary research tool to collect data as Dornyei (2007: 101) states that: “The popularity of questionnaires is due to the fact that they are relatively easy to construct, extremely versatile and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily accessible” The questionnaire was considered a means of presenting more objective research results from each student's point of view to identify some difficulties in reading skills of second year students, English Faculty at Thuongmai University Based on the questionnaire data collected from 80 students, the researcher calculated and converted to the percentage related form corresponding to each chart of the question After collecting results from the questionnaire, the researcher gave some suggestions to improve English reading ability 1.7 Organization of the study My graduation thesis includes four chapters: Chapter (Overview of the study): In this part, the researcher will explain the reason for choosing this topic as well as Rationale, Previous research, Aims of the study, Research subjects, Scope of the study, Research methodology and Organization of the study 10 item D (Do not understand " How the text is organized?” and “How the sentences are linked together?) (accounts for 19%), item A (17.5%), and item C (15%) From Table we can see that the percentage of students selecting the responses on “Sometimes” level to the difficulty “(Do not understand " How the text is organized?” and “How the sentences are linked together?)” and “The text with many new grammatical structures”, were higher than other difficulties This may indicate that students are reading very little on subject related topics, and note new structures useful for reading This is considered a big problem hindering students in the reading process Moreover, students are still influenced by the previous reading style, which applies to simple text, without many new grammatical structures and specialized vocabulary This makes English reading skill not good and students have to spend a lot of time reading long materials, which greatly affects the working process in the future, especially in professional working environments This is a weakness that students need to overcome to improve reading skill results in the future 3.2.3 Reading method problem Table Difficulties in reading method problem of second- year student at TMU Reading method problem Do not know how to use appropriate 12.5% 60% 24% 3.5% 22.5% 50% 17.5% 10% 20% 47.5% 25% 7.5% Lack of concentration during reading 15% 65% 16.25 3.75% Inability to connect ideas in a passage 27.5% 55% 12.5% 5% reading methods Cannot summarize the mains ideas of reading text Cannot predict meaning of new word used in the text 34 As we can see, student responses to this difficulty were different A majority of students (82.5% including 27.5% with “Always” and 55% with “Sometimes”) agreed that “Inability to connect ideas in a passage” is the most common difficulty 12.5% of the students confirmed that they rarely meet this difficulty and only students said that they never face it (account for 5%) Students also encounter some difficulties with reading skill including: Do not know how to use appropriate reading methods (72.5%), Cannot summarize the mains ideas of reading text (72.5%), Cannot predict meaning of new word used in the text (67.5%), Lack of concentration during reading (80%) Students rarely use appropriate reading methods and encounter some of the following errors in the reading process such as “have a habit of reading word for word, waste a lot of time, fear of long readings, etc.” This leads to a situation of feeling bored during the process of reading as well as difficulty in finding main information in the reading text and as a result, the reading failed 3.3 Research question 3: What factors affect the difficulty in reading skill of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University? Chart 3.8 Factors leading to second-year students’ difficulties in reading skill 35 A Lack of motivation B Poor concentration C Poor comprehension D Words “moving around on the page” E Skipping words and whole lines of text The bar chart above shows the factors that affect the difficulty of reading skills by students Each factor is divided into two comments “Yes” and “No”, calculated by percentage and illustrated in Chart 3.9 Most of the factors greatly affect students’ reading skill, typically the factors “Lack of motivation”, “Poor concentration”, “Poor comprehension” We can see that 87.5% (70 out of 80 participants) found the main factor of their difficulties is “Lack of motivation” Some students declare that this factor has no effect on their English reading skill, accounting for 12.5% (10 students) This result shows that most second- year students have no interest in reading skills Therefore, they feel difficult to find information, ideas and find specific answers to the questions in the text The poorer their motivation in reading is, the more difficult they will encounter with other students The chart also shows that the big proportion of students who have a “Yes” comment with the factor “Poor concentration” is 80% Whereas, the percentage of participants who not think that it affects their reading skill difficulty, accounts for 20% The percentage of participants who agree with the factor “Poor comprehension” is the largest (accounting for 90%), only 10% of students (8 out of 80 students) choose “No”, meaning that their reading comprehension is good enough with certain background knowledge to deeply understand the text 90% of 36 second- year students with poor vocabulary and grammar, combined with not enough background knowledge find it harder than ever They will even misinterpret what they are reading in a text Besides, other factors less affect students’ reading skill than other factors including (Words “moving around on the page”) account for 65%, “Skipping words and whole lines of text” (25% of students) It is clear that second-year students used skimming and scanning techniques so as to briefly grasp the content of the text and capture keywords, avoid ignoring words and sentences containing the main content of the text 37 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Summary of the findings This study provides an analysis of some difficulties in reading skill and the factors of these difficulties as faced by the second- year English major students at TMU This study is conducted with the purpose of helping the students to find the difficulties and give ways to solve them The findings of the study show that the students encountered four difficulties in English reading skill The most common difficulties are in the area of reading skill problem, related to vocabulary and reading skill The decoding problem appears to be the least difficult of all The background knowledge problem and language problem are perceived to have approximately the same difficult level The findings of the research also show that despite the awareness of the importance of learning reading skill, some students still pay less attention to practice reading every day, which made their reading more difficult In addition, the students were not equipped with necessary reading skills to become sufficient readers and lacked background knowledge Another cause of difficulties came from limited knowledge of words which were highly specialized and contained multiple meanings that the students not have memorizing ability Also, poor fluency, poor focus and poor comprehension might be causes of the students’ difficulties in reading skill Based on the results of the study, the researcher has presented some suggestions for both students and teachers to develop English reading skill and to train students to become successful readers It is hoped that what has been discussed in the study might be beneficial to students as they help them overcome the difficulties in reading skill, and thus, create a premise for future improvement and development in their reading skill 4.2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Despite the useful information the present study provides, in the process of completing study, there are still some unexpected unavoidable limitations 38 Firstly, it’s the language limitation Despite great efforts in the process of completing study, the researcher is Vietnamese so writers inevitably suffer from the style, structure and vocabulary while writing the research Secondly, because of the limitation of time and the lack of experience, the researcher could not design a more specific questionnaire as well as the study cannot cover all aspects of the difficulties in reading skill The researcher only focused on four main difficulties including reading skill problem, language problem, decoding problem and background knowledge problem Thirdly, the research is designed in a small range – 80 second- year students of English major at TMU, so it is just on the surface and not really objective to all second-year students Many other students not have an opportunity to express their opinions Finally, the study used only one instrument “questionnaire” Therefore, the participants are most likely to be affected by the researcher’s study It means that the answers to the questionnaire may not reflect exactly what the respondent actually thinks Thus, future studies should use additional methods besides questionnaires such as observation and interviews It is an appropriate choice for a study to use multiple methods 4.3 Some suggested solutions to reading difficulties faced by second- year English major students at Thuongmai University 4.3.1 Building background knowledge A best solution for students to solve reading difficulties is summarized in one word- practice Students can successfully improve their reading comprehension skills by practicing asking and answering questions while they are reading You should summarize, note what's important for the next reading and more Honestly, it is actually difficult to improve reading comprehension in the short term, but that doesn't mean it's impossible It is worth it if you work hard every day, reading more literature on a wide variety of topics to master information processing and retrieval You should read a variety of books of different topics and genres Through more reading, you will possess diverse knowledge of topics and your new word 39 volume becomes increasingly richer You can practice your reading skills through specialized documents on the school library, or websites related to multiple topics such as VOA Learning English, BBC Learning English, English Language Learning, etc is a great treasure trove of knowledge you should consult Besides, you can also apply other fundamental knowledge enhancement techniques that you find yourself interested in, such as note-taking content from class subjects that you consider important Because of poor reading skill, students often have poor vocabulary, and understand less the content of the text It’s helpful to teach the meanings of new words through the use of multiple instruments like visual aids, pictures, etc It is not only very helpful in motivating students to learn reading skill but also helps students understand the meaning of words clearly and memorize them quickly, especially in the case of difficult vocabulary specialized in nature It is clear that readers have a good vocabulary, so they will more easily understand the entire text and become successful readers In other words, the more you read, the richer your vocabulary gets Improving their vocabulary increases the likelihood that they will understand well the words they encounter in reading text 4.3.2 Improving language problem Because of poor reading skill, students often have poor vocabulary, and understand less the content of the text It’s helpful to teach the meanings of new words through the use of multiple instruments like visual aids, pictures, etc It is not only very helpful in motivating students to learn reading skill but also helps students understand the meaning of words clearly and memorize them quickly, especially in the case of difficult vocabulary specialized in nature It is clear that readers have a good vocabulary, they will more easily understand the entire text and become successful readers In other words, the more you read, the richer your vocabulary gets Improving their vocabulary increases the likelihood that they will understand well the words they encounter in reading text In addition, it is essential if you always note new grammatical terms, idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs related to each topic in a small notebook This habit 40 will help you avoid difficulties if you encounter difficult words and new structures the next time you read 4.3.3 Improving reading method It is obvious that students with a good reading skill are more successful academically The students grasp all of the information in the reading, earn better scores and experience less stress than those who struggle to fully understand what they're reading Before reading a text, students should apply appropriate reading strategies to get a sense of the overall meaning This will give you a general idea of the text, so your reading will be more efficient The first thing you should read is the chapter title and subtitles, which provide you with the overall topic of the text, and will provide your reading direction in the next chapter Next, you should read the first sentence of each paragraph and even second sentence of each paragraph to know what the paragraph is about Throughout the process, you make sure that you focus on general information, not specifics In addition, you can apply a combination of methods such as: Skimming Reading Details - Summary of the text in your language Skimming: Read through the title, underline words, italicize, and bold in the paragraph to guess the basic content of the text Read details: This time you will read more details, you can highlight new words, important phrases and understand the content of the text Summary: After completing reading comprehension, summarizing to check your knowledge after reading 41 you practice CONCLUSION English reading skill is one of the extremely important skills contributing to the success of students in the future If you have a good reading skill, you will have more chances than others after graduation However, students face many numerous difficulties and challenges in this skill, especially second-year students at TMU Therefore, “A study on difficulties in reading skills of second year English major students at Thuongmai University” has been conducted This graduation paper is divided into four main chapters The first chapter is “Overview of the study” This chapter is a short description that provides general information about rationale, previous studies, aim of the study, research subjects, and scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study Next, the second chapter is “Literature review”, it provides theoretical background of reading related to the study such as definitions, importance, classification, difficulties in learning reading skill and factors affecting reading difficulties The third part is called “Research findings” through questionnaires The last one is called “Recommendations and suggestions” In this chapter, some suggestions were given to help students have effective methods to reduce the difficulties in reading skill and improve the quality of learning reading skill Because of the limitations of my knowledge and experiences, this study only focused on the difficulties of second- year students in English reading skills Therefore, the study cannot avoid the shortcomings beyond expectation I look forward to receiving feedback from everyone to make this graduation paper complete perfectly The review and comment in this study are probably valuable knowledge and are the foundation for my future research I hope that there will be further and more comprehensive studies on this topic in the future 42 REFERENCES Alderson, J C (2000) Assessing reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Alderson, J C (2000) Assessing reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Birch, B M (2008) English L2 reading: Getting to the bottom (2nd ed) New York: Routledge Brown, H G (2001) Teaching by Principles: Interactive Approach to Language Chandran, Y and Shah, P (2019) Identifying Learners’ Difficulties in ESL Reading Comprehension Creative Education Chung, H V (2012) A study of reading comprehension problems in English in English encountered by first year students of faculty of Vietnamese Studies at HNUE Deepak Singh (2008) Problems in Reading comprehension in English in the District of Segamat Dornyei, z (2007) Research Methods in Applied Linguistics Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methodologies Oxford University Press Farzami, F (2016) Comprehension Difficulties in The reading skill ,p10 10.Grallet, Francoise (1981) Developing Reading Skill A Practical guide to reading comprehension exercise 11 Hung & Tzeng (2001) Reading is Simplest, (https://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/bitstream) 12 Jared Turner (2014) The Vicious Cycle of the Poor Reader 13 Lado, R (1977) Language Testing London Longman Group 14 Leipzig, D H (January, 2001) What is reading? WETA http://www.readingrockets.org/article/whatreading 15 Nga, N T H (2019) A study on the causes of difficulties in reading skill experienced by first year English majors at Haiphong Private University and some suggested solutions 43 16 Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning Heinz& Heinz Publishers 17 Ratih Laily Nurjana (2018) The Analysis on Students’ Difficulties in Doing Reading Comprehension Final Test 18 Salim RAZI (2010) Effects of a metacognitive reading program on the reading achievement and metacognitive strategies 19 Saville-Troike, M (2006) Second language acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p85 20 Thanh, H T (20110) A study on second- year students’ difficulties in reading ESP materials at automobile technology Department in Vietnam- Korea technical College 21 William, M & Burden, R.L (1997) Psychology for Language Teachers ASocial Constructive Approach, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p120 22 Yorio (2006) Some Sources Of Reading Problems For Foreign Language Learners 23 Козак, M (2017) What is reading? In The types of reading and exercises for teaching reading 44 APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES The survey is about the difficulties in reading skills of second- year English major students at TMU Thank you very much for spending your time answering my questionnaire! Part I: The attitudes of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University toward reading skill (Circle the answer representing your choice) What you think about the importance of learning reading skill? A Extremely important B Important C Less important D Unimportant Compared to other students, what you think of your English reading level? A Very good B Good C Average D Bad How much time you spend on studying and reading daily? A Less than hour B 1-2 hours C 2-3 hours D More than hours Do you like subjects related to English reading skill? A Really like B Like C Average D Do not like Part II Student’s perception of reading skill difficulties What are common reading difficulties of second-year English major students? (Tick the appropriate box according to the level of difficulties you have) Never Rarely Sometimes Always 4 Background knowledge problem Language problem Reading method problem Here are some details of the difficulties you may encounter in reading skill: 5.1 Background knowledge problem Do you often read a variety of English reading materials such as Internet news, English storybooks, printed newspapers, etc to improve your Background knowledge in reading skills? A Always B Sometimes C Rarely D Never 5.2 Language problem (Please tick the appropriate box according to the level of difficulties you have) Always Sometimes Difficulties related to vocabulary Limited knowledge of words Lack of memorizing ability Rarely Never 4 Troubles in using idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs (get back to, run this by, count on, etc.) Do not know what meaning is used in the text with multiple meanings Difficulties with Grammar The text with many new grammatical structures Cannot understand the meaning of long sentences Cannot remember all grammatical structures Do not understand " How the text is organized?” and “How the sentences are linked together? 5.3 Reading method problem Reading method problem Do not know how to use appropriate reading methods Cannot summarize the mains ideas of reading text Cannot predict meaning of new word used in the text Lack of concentration during reading Inability to connect ideas in a passage Part III: Factors leading to second-year students’ difficulties in reading skill The level of factors of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University: Factors Yes No Lack of motivation Poor concentration Poor comprehension Words “moving around on the page” Skipping words and whole lines of text -THE ENDThank you so much for your help! ... English major students at Thuongmai University toward reading skill? ✔ What are common reading difficulties of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University? ✔ What factors affect the... Research question 1: What are the attitudes of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University toward reading skill? 3.1.1 Students? ?? attitudes toward the importance of learning reading. .. 3: What factors affect the difficulty in reading skill of second- year English major students at Thuongmai University? Chart 3.8 Factors leading to second- year students? ?? difficulties in reading