MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY
4?
TOWARDS IMPROVING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ USE OF METACOGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES AT PHAM NGOC THACH UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)
Trang 2ABSTRACT
Reading is a process that requires effort on the readers’ parts if they want to understand what they are reading A considerable amount of EFL/ESL research has been devoted to understanding the processes that contribute to reading comprehension As part of that research, this study was conducted to investigate PNTUM students’ use of metacognitive reading
strategies and their effects on reading comprehension The study employed a
descriptive method which involved using a survey to obtain information about PNTUM students’ use of these strategies as well as their comprehension level
The investigation was carried out at the end of October, 2011 until the beginning of November, 2011 The subjects of this study consisted of 124 PNTUM first-year students who started learning medical English in the
academic year of 2011-2012 The instruments used in this study to find out
answers for the issues were a 28-item questionnaire adapted from the Survey
of Reading Strategies (SORS) by Mokhtari and Sheorey’s (2002), the
reading comprehension test, and the interviews to the subjects
The findings of the study revealed that the first-year students at PNTUM reported using metacognitive reading strategies at a medium- frequency level The high-reading proficiency students outperformed the low-reading proficiency students in using Problem-Solving strategies; but no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in using Global strategies and Support strategies The results of the study also
showed that some factors such as reading difficulties, vocabulary size,
Trang 3The study presented some suggestions that English teachers at PNTUM focus on increasing the efficiency of reading strategies when
planning reading curriculum and instruction The study also suggested
English reading instructions at PNTUM include teaching vocabulary in context and the teachers raise intrinsic motivation by supplementing students with sufficient extensive reading activities
Trang 4TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ABSTRACT Ey.)27219/2097.4/2./1 00v vn Vv LIST OF FIGURES spsiecsesnnsesneensniipssesaccccnasscarnanmsnneeccniperninaocnaorasiseies ix LIST OF CADILES sgeabiabiisisslilgiEGGEHGDEGDINIGRGITGTRR.HSHGSllt88 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS weswsscassusnesavssssoaipennananeraminnaarcecanaes xi Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION .secssssosrssssssssseosseesssescnconsesacassnensnseeeneee 1
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Chapter 2: REVIEW OEF RELATED LITERATURE 8
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2.3 Reading strategies - ch ri 16
Trang 52.3.4 Classification ofreading strategies s1 2.4 Metacognition 2.4.1 Definition of metacognition 2.4.2 Metacognition and English reading comprehension 2.4.3 Metacognition and instruction - 25
2.5 Metacopnitivereading strategies cc scicsssccscsvesccessusisivessswrsssenmsssesavascuuecss 27, 2.5.1 What are metacognitive reading strategieS? «se sseerey 27 2.5.2 Effectiveness of awareness of metacognitive reading strategies 28
2.5.3 Assessment of metacognitive reading strategies - 29
2.5.3.1 Instruments to measure metacognitive reading strategies 29
2.5.3.2 Why SORS to be chosen as a conceptual framework? 31
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Trang 63.6.1 Analysis of data from questionnaires 43 3.6.2 Analysis of data from interviews
3.7 Summary
Chapter 4: ANALYSIS OF DATA AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
4.1 Participants’ demographic data
4.2 Reliability:of the questionnaite s.isicsssvesvenvsysvisssisesresceeravcosnisosanevsced 46 4.3 Analysis atid discussion sccssssssssssscsessesssssssasssssesensaseussssscsossveasesseavansusions 47 43:1: REsesfcHGIESHOH Ï sitsosssttofsasittgnlottiingbiiqqiiqiasti@nanasanadi 47 14.3:2.R6§S66TGHLdIIESHGHIE cacsáidbii086ã1G00G-00i0ã3QVQGiRRWGfSGiRGSugauqini 54 4.3.3 Research quesfÏOn 3 + ru 62 4.4 SUImIHAïV nọ th nh HH 111111111 xree 65 Chapter 5: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS, AND RECOMMENDATION.G 99948108010010/00 01 JEiB8SS0888 TT
5.1, Sematary Of major findin es ssssssscssssssisnasccveassenssnernersarerecsernmnssnad 67 5.1.1 PNTUM first-year students’ use of metacognitive strategies 67 5.1.2 The differences in use of reading strategies between high- and low-
proficiency sfud€nIfS -s- + + vn ngư 69 5.1.3 Factors affecting straf€gy Se -«- HH ưu 70 5.2 Suggestions for English reading instruction at PNTUM 72 Š.3, LãmilaHons 0Ï te SIHẨN canh gà hà hàn 3E 10g 16x44166613616161040181/00g1 75
5.4 Recommendations for further Study: siscssesssvcsssssssersravevcasceosvsnrsssnvesvesscas J5
5:5: CưBGIUSIOfsaprsraottotttbbttltbiqt\,GiGHESNEIGSSNGSNgORRGidtssYeswgsasali 76
REFERENCES s; cssdneisoerensoiesndzesnsdnsosiodzessteaneedideesbbaenseaoneestonrdudbersbeandddnsest 78
APPENDICES - 3h Hành như 83
Appendix A: LETTER TO PARTICIPANTS . - 5< c5 83 Appendix B: QUESTIONNAIRE TO STUDENTS - 85
Trang 7Appendix C: READING COMPREHENSION TEST
Appendix D: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO STUDENTS
Trang 8LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Trang 9Table 4.1: Table 4.2: Table 4.3: Table 4.4: Table 4.5: Table 4.6: Table 4.7: Table 4.8: Table 5.1: Table 5.2: LIST OF TABLES Page
Reported use of individual strategies in GLOB category 48 Reported use of individual strategies in PROB category 49 Reported use of individual strategies in SUP category 50 Reported use:of stratepy Cate QOries wrsssisosssssisvecressssserereronnwenen 52 Differences in respondents’ use of individual strategies in GLOB
CAO G00 0G GD GGGQESSWSESEAISSVSESEESUSEVSESSGS5855898E59413 32 Differences in respondents’ use of individual strategies in PROB
CAf€BOTY cccccccccreree Lencexoncerenenncnomntenanenensncensn en at 57 Differences in respondents’ use of individual strategies in SUP
CALC ROLY) ssccsssssssswssssssneacansnssnsracsensssavssosarsnesssiouresevssvesavenresr sess 59
Trang 10EFL ESL ESP PNTUM SORS GLOB PROB SUP LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
English as a Foreign Language English as a Second Language English as Specific Purposes
Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine Survey of Reading Strategies
Global strategies
Trang 11Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter firstly contextualizes the study by discussing rationale
and stating its problem This discussion provides a background to the study then followed by a presentation of the problem Thereafter, the purpose, the research questions, and the significance of the study are outlined Finally, the scope within which the study keeps itself in generalizations, the basic assumptions, and the organization of the thesis report are presented towards the end of the chapter
1.1 Rationale and statement of the problem
From the previous studies, it demonstrates that reading performance relates to the use of reading strategies The reading strategies used by efficient and inefficient learners were different With effective reading strategies, the learners gain better reading achievement On the contrary,
students with reading difficulties are poor strategy users (Harris, Graham, & Freeman, 1988) Some of the studies (Carrell, Pharis, & Liberto, 1989;
Palincsar & Brown, 1989) reveal that non-proficient readers do not have the knowledge about reading strategies Therefore, the use of reading strategies can be regarded as being conducive to reading success
_ Generally, the studies on reading strategies have emphasized the importance of using reading strategies to the success of EFL/ESL learners
However, most of the studies so far have been conducted in contexts not
similar to ones in Vietnam or specifically have dealt with students with the
background (both academic and social) different from ones in PNTUM
Cohen (1998) points out that the contexts of the learning situation may have
Trang 12a strong influence on learners’ choice of language learning strategies Therefore, we cannot entirely base on these studies to draw any conclusions
or generalizations about the effectiveness or success of reading strategies for
the PNTUM students
In PNTUM English learning context, reading is the skill that is emphasized in medical English courses The students are required to take the reading course as one of compulsory sections of medical English courses since they have to read some of the English reference materials in order to gain more knowledge of their specific subject areas Although students have spent much time of their six courses of English learning in improving their reading ability, in fact some of them are still not very confident in and sometimes get confused with their reading comprehension of English materials However, some of students have been successful in exploiting written English materials concerning their specialist areas thanks to their reading ability This problem may be resulted from certain factors but it is most likely that such unsuccessful reading students are not aware of the use of English reading strategies, whilst the others are always actively engaged in texts in meaningful ways by using strategies in their reading process In
such a context, there has been no research undertaken to examine PNTUM
students’ knowledge of reading strategies in English This strongly provokes the researcher the need to investigate how PNTUM students know and use reading strategies in their English classes
Trang 13teachers know what strategies students are aware of, which one they are not, and how they are using them, the teachers can better understand the sources
of students’ strengths and weaknesses with reading strategies, and be able to decide on students’ learning needs and adjust teaching procedures accordingly
In addition, another problem has been derived from a personal point of view In years of teaching the researcher has come to realize that
teachers’ practices on reading instruction are far from teaching reading strategies Rather, the teachers spend the time on reading in practicing one
skill, “silent reading”, and on what they believe are “comprehension questions” This practice involves the first two levels of Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy: knowledge and comprehension However, it is believed that students should learn how to read effectively and reflect on reading by using the strategies in order to go beyond these levels to analysis, syntheses, and evaluation Because of this big gap between the rapid movement towards teaching reading strategies and the reality of reading learning at PNTUM in particular, the researcher has an impulse to think of applying reading
strategies into reading instruction :
But the fact remains that there are range of strategies that may be brought into language as well as reading instruction to assist students with their comprehension According to Stern (1992), there are five main language learning strategies, these are: Management and Planning strategies, Cognitive strategies, Communicative-Experiential strategies, Interpersonal strategies, and Affective strategies O’Malley and Chamot (1990) divided
language learning strategies into three subcategories: Metacognitive
strategies, Cognitive strategies, and Socioaffective strategies However, it
seems to make sense that focusing too many strategies at once could confuse
Trang 14students more than benefit them Furthermore, the scope of the study would become too broad with the associated interventions having less of an impact
on the students; hence, the researcher takes a decision to focus on the
metacognitive strategies with which tertiary students most often deal The choice to emphasize these strategies has been also supported by the discussions between the researcher and some English teachers at PNTUM who have confirmed that these are high priority strategies needed by students for successful reading comprehension
Eventually, the above considerations provide the researcher with the
idea of attempting to conduct an investigation on PNTUM first-year students’ use of metacognitive reading strategies so as to set up an effective strategy-based method of English reading instruction to better students’ reading comprehension
1.2 Purpose of the Study
In light of the depiction of PNTUM reality of learning English reading comprehension, this study, therefore aims to investigate PNTUM first-year students’ use of metacognitive reading strategies This is done with the hope to offering some suggestions for developing reading skills To be more specific, this study has three objectives as follows:
- To examine the extent to which the metacognitive reading strategies are employed by the first-year students in their learning of English reading comprehension
Trang 15- To give some suggestions on improving the students’ English reading comprehension skills in terms of metacognitive strategies
1.3 Research questions
The current study investigates PNTUM first-year students’ use of
metacognitive reading strategies In order to obtain the study’s objectives, three key questions to be addressed are:
1 What metacognitive strategies do the first-year students frequently
employ to develop their English reading?
2 Is there any significant difference in use of metacognitive reading strategies between high-proficiency and low-proficiency students? 3 What factors mostly affect students’ use of reading strategies?
The first question is asked to seek information for the first objective of the study, the second for the second objective The third question is to give supplementary view to the two first questions Data collected from the three questions will be the basis for suggestion to be pointed, which is the third objective of the study
1.4 Significance of the study
In order to improve the teaching of English reading comprehension at PNTUM, research is needed to understand the students’ reading problems and to evaluate their progress through the English curriculum in the medical training system Briefly, after analyzing the data, it is hoped that the findings of this study will provide PNTUM English teachers with new
Trang 16understandings and insights concerning students’ use of metacognitive reading strategies so that they can make their instructional decisions based on sound judgments rather than intuitions The results also help PNTUM students in their academic study by developing effective reading strategies
1.5 Scope of the study
Learners’ success or failure in acquiring a language can be affected by many factors Among these factors, reading strategies should be taken into consideration However, this study only focuses on PNTUM students’ use of metacognitive reading strategies and some implications for handling these strategies in classroom instruction
Additionally, this study bounds itself to PNTUM first-year students in the academic year of 2011 - 2012 These students have some experience in English reading through the high school English curriculum and through reading training in some English language courses Therefore, generalizations and synthesizing information may be made only to students who are at the same level and have similar backgrounds
1.6 Basic assumptions
In this study, it is assumed that all subjects answer the questions both in the questionnaires and in the interviews honestly and truthfully
Moreover, it is also assumed that the subjects thoughtfully answer all items
Trang 171.7 Organization of the thesis
Trang 18Chapter 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter reviews the related literature in terms of definitions of reading, approaches to reading process, reading strategies, metacognition, and metacognitive reading strategies The review provides a theoretical foundation for the study
2.1 Definitions of reading
It should be stressed that reading is the most important skill of all for most students of English throughout the world For students at the tertiary level, reading English is necessary in their studies and for professional success in the future However, it is important to define reading because the way one defines it will influence the type of reading program to be implemented, as well as determine the goals of the reading program and influence its outcome
Trang 19other words, this definition of reading brings a great deal of reader’s knowledge, expectation, and assumptions to the text
Moreover, reading can be defined and described in variety of way, depending on what aspects are emphasized Besides the meaning of reading defined by Goodman (1971), this term has also been defined by different researchers From the viewpoints of some researchers (Bush & Mildred, 1970; Harris & Sipay, 1979) the emphasis of aspect in the meanings of reading is on the thinking about what has been read and relating it to
background knowledge Bush and Mildred (1970) define reading as “a
thinking process whereby one gets meaning from symbols by relating them to his own meaning experience” (p 10) Furthermore, Harris and Sipay (1979) state, “ reading may be defined as the attaining of meaning as a result of the interplay between perceptions of graphic symbols that represent language, and memory traces of the reader’s past verbal and non-verbal experiences” (p 27) In short, these assumptions of reading refers to the process of thinking and constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction of the reader’s existing knowledge and the context of the reading
situation /
However, other researchers think that reading concerns activities
Trang 208) From these viewpoints, it can be defined that reading typically concerns language activity that requires reader’s active contribution
One more definition is taken from a study expanded by Coady (1979) In his study, Coady applied Goodman’s model to reading English as a second or foreign language in which the reader’s background knowledge interacts with conceptual abilities and processing strategies in order to comprehend the texts According to Coady, background knowledge means knowledge of the world Conceptual abilities are defined as a general intellectual ability which is important in reading acquisition And processing strategies refer to various subcomponents of reading ability, for example, the knowledge of phonology, structure of language and semantic systems Thus, this type of reading places an emphasis on the combination of reader’s background knowledge, conceptual abilities, and processing strategies
So far, from what have been mentioned about the definitions of
reading, it can be concluded that reading can take a variety of meanings and aspects depending on the context in which it occurs Nevertheless, it is essential to draw attention to a rationale as a working definition for the purposes of the study Thus, the last type of reading, in Coady’s study, is
considered the fundamental of the study
It is also noted that in attempting to understand the nature of reading, several researchers proceed by analyzing it in terms of a set of approaches to reading process which are dealt with the section to follow
2.2 Approaches to reading process
Trang 21categories which are bottom-up, top-down, and interactive approaches These approaches describe what happens when people look at a text, and also what the complementary ways of processing a text are Readers use them with unconscious processes, or adopt them as conscious strategies when approaching a difficult text
2.2.1 Bottom-up approach
Usually described as “linear”, the bottom-up theory of reading was widespread in the 1960s According to the views of bottom-up approach, the
reader starts with letters in the decoding; proceeds to words; and then, ultimately, understands sentences This process mainly utilizes the textual elements to construct the meaning of a passage, becoming so automatic that sometimes the fluent reader is unaware of it Since the bottom-up approach
emphasizes sight-reading of words in isolation, rapid word recognition is essential
An important aspect of the bottom-up approach as its strength is its focus on lexical recognition This view emphasizes the role of vocabulary knowledge, which facilitates automatic decoding in the prefixes, suffixes, and foreign root words This aspect is confirmed that fast decoding improves
comprehension (Breznitz, 1997; as cited in Pressley, 2000) In addition,
bottom-up process is also hierarchical, which means that one needs to know not only all the letters of a word to access its meaning but also all the words
in a clause or a sentence to access their total meaning Therefore, the
Trang 22units of meaning, whose comprehension is a prerequisite for that of the entire text
However, one of weaknesses of bottom-up approach is its view of word recognition Although that word recognition is mediated by letter recognition, Terry, Samuels, and Laberge (cited in Samuels & Kamil, 1984) found frequent words to be processed and identified as holistic units They found no difference in the processing time between short and long words,
which supports a holistic word-recognition processing Another problem
with the bottom-up is that it does not seem to consider the contribution of the context or the readers background knowledge to reading comprehension Thus, it can be said that going beyond the printed letters seems to receive little or no attention in this approach
In summary, bottom-up approach is a model where the reader begins with the printed words, recognizes their graphic stimuli, and decodes them to sound and meaning Therefore, this model can help readers make use of some of their resources to achieve better comprehension by executing the
recognition of letters, then words, phrases, and eventually sentences On the other hand, this model remains its inadequacies which are holistic word
recognition and reader’s contribution Knowing these inadequacies leads to the emergence of other approaches
2.2.2 Top-down approach
Goodman (1967) introduced the top-down approach to reading, in
Trang 23reconstruction of the meaning of the text Based on their background knowledge, readers start with certain expectations concerning the text
(Aebersold & Field, 1997) They then use text features, context clues, or
typographical aids in the text to confirm, disconfirm, or modify previous expectations This process is usually called “sampling” of the text Describing the process, Cohen (1990) maintains, “The reader does not read
all words and sentences in the text, but rather choose certain words and
phrases to comprehend the meaning of the text” (p 75)
In specific, the top-down approach focuses on some reading skills, such as prediction, inferences, and content guessing Unlike the bottom-up, in this approach, texts have no stand-alone meaning It is the reader who reconstructs the meaning of the text by fitting it into his prior knowledge Samuel and Kamil (1984) note, “It is more accurate to assert that Goodman’s model always prefers the cognitive economy of reliance on well-developed linguistic (syntactic and semantic) rather than graphic information” (p 187) This would entail the existence of well-developed linguistic knowledge, of which lexical knowledge may be the most
important ˆ
Moreover, the top-down model assumes that readers would have no
decoding problems to use the text as the prompt for activating and implementing global and top-down processes and strategies Therefore,
some researchers in reading (e.g., Stanovich, cited in Samuels & Kamil,
1984; Eskey, 2002) believed that the top-down model seems to explicate the reading process of fluent readers but not for poor or beginning ones
Despite the fact that bottom-up approach plays a central role in reading, the top-down is still of great importance Studies on reading (e.g.,
Cohen, 1990; Aebersold & Field, 1997) have shown that predictable words
Trang 24are fixated on for shorter periods of time Besides, readers tend to skip these
words more often than the less predictable ones
Since the main purpose of reading in this approach is comprehension, learners should always deal with whole texts, which are reading for authentic purposes (whole language instruction) Breaking the process down into isolated pieces is counterproductive to comprehension It deprives the learners from using all the cue systems and from engaging in a full cyclic use of reading strategies in the pursuit of meaning (Purcell-Gates, 1997)
In short, the top-down approach emphasizes meaning and is considered to be an active process as it involves higher order concepts and skills based on prior experience or background knowledge that readers already know or process Therefore, teachers who adopt this model will encourage their students to read the texts that they want to The teachers, for example, will not focus on reading fluency Rather, their focus will be on helping students make sense of texts by the use of prediction, inferences, and content guessing However, top-down strategies should not be taught as an end in themselves but combined with bottom-up strategies
2.2.3 Interactive approach
Trang 25that neither bottom-up nor top-down approaches can by themselves describe the reading process Each type of processing is sent to contribute to the reconstruction of the message encoded in the text (Eskey, 2002) Hence, the important contributions of the bottom-up and the top-down are used in
combination in analyzing and understanding the text
In addition, an important aspect of the interactive approach is that the bottom-up and top-down processes should occur at all levels simultaneously According to this approach, reading starts with the perception of graphic
cues and as soon as these are recognized as familiar, both linguistic
schemata and word knowledge are brought into play (Grabe, 1991) Furthermore, in this model, texts cannot be considered either generally easy or difficult on the basis of linguistic features; texts become easier if they correspond with the reader’s prior knowledge (Clark & Silberstein, 1987)
Thus, failure in reading comprehension can occur if there is a breakdown in
compatibility between bottom-up and top-down processes
What is more, the interactive approach to reading has led many researchers to emphasize that effective and efficient EFL/ESL reading requires both top-down and bottom-up strategies operating interactively When the readers lack the appropriate content schema for a certain text, they
will rely more heavily on bottom-up processes to compensate for a lack of
necessary background knowledge The opposite could be true about some readers who lack the bottom-up processes necessary to compensate a text (Cohen, 1990) In other words, they use the top-down model to compensate for deficiencies in the bottom-up and vice versa
So far, the implication of the interactive approach is that successful reading requires the interaction of both top-down and bottom-up strategies
Trang 26Therefore, any reading strategy instruction should be designed taking
account of both top-down and bottom-up processes
In conclusion, the discussion on approaches to reading above, i.e
bottom-up, top-down, and interactive approaches, indicates that the reading
process is interactive It involves a mixture of bottom-up and top-down processes This is a widely accepted view by researchers, in which both models interact during the reading process An inappropriate balance between the bottom-up and the top-down leads to a failure in reading
comprehension, thereby producing unsuccessful readers For example, a
student who has good word-recognition skills, but poor inference skills will
still encounter problem with comprehension as he/she will not be able to fill
in the missing links in a text Therefore, the literacy of approaches to reading which forms the framework of this thesis is viewed as an interactive process involving a combination of both bottom-up and top-down approaches
2.3 Reading strategies
In order to see through the aspects of reading strategies as the fundamentals of the study, there are necessary considerations to be taken
into account In this section, therefore, the researcher mentions the
definitions of reading strategies, reading strategies of high-proficiency and low-proficiency readers, the instruction of reading strategies, and the classification of reading strategies
Trang 27Literature on reading provides several definitions of reading strategies According to Cohen (1990), reading strategies are “those mental processes that readers consciously choose to use in accomplishing reading tasks” (p 83) Similarly, Aebersold & Field (1997) consider reading
strategies as the mental activities that readers use in order to contact meaning from the text
While some researchers regard reading strategy as an action, or a
series of actions that a reader employs in order to construct meaning in the reading process Garner (1987) defines reading strategies as “generally deliberate activities undertaken by active learners, many time to remedy perceived cognitive failure” (p 50) Carrell et al (1989) addressed, “The term ‘strategies’ is used deliberately .to refer to actions that readers select
and control to achieve desired goals or objectives” (p 97) Additionally, it is
emphasized that reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task,
what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they do not understand (Anderson, 1991)
For this study, the definition of reading strategy follows Mokhtari and
Sheorey’s (2002) descriptions owing to its fitness for the study Accordingly, reading strategies mean 1) intentional, carefully planned techniques by which readers monitor or manage their reading, 2) actions and
Trang 28Several studies were carried out to examine the differences between good and poor readers in using reading strategies (e.g., Hosenfeld, 1977;
Palinscar & Brown, 1989; Anderson, 1991; Aebersold & Field, 1997) The
studies mention that skilled readers know how to use effective strategies to facilitate the functioning of various cognitive processes and construct meaning understanding of the text, but poor readers simply read the text word by word without any using any strategies
Hosenfeld (1977) reported a study in which learners with high and low reading abilities were asked to self-report as they read unassigned texts The study found that those with a high-reading proficiency tended to keep the meaning of the passage in mind, read in broad phrases, skip words, and possess a positive self-concept Low-reading proficiency students, however,
lost the meaning of sentences as they decoded them They read word by
word or in short phrases, rarely skipped words, turned to the glossary for the meaning of new words, and had a poor self-concept as readers
O’Malley and Chamot (1990) found that high-proficiency readers are more able to monitor their comprehension and also more aware of the strategies they use than low-proficiency readers are According to these researchers, high-proficiency readers use strategies more flexibly They adjust their strategies to the type of text they are reading and to the purpose for which they are reading They distinguish between important information and details as they read, they use contexts more efficiently and are able to
relate new information with information already stated, as well as to notice
inconsistencies in the text and employ strategies to make these inconsistencies understandable
Trang 29high and low scoring readers appeared to use the same kinds of strategies while answering the comprehension questions; however, high scoring students seemed to be applying strategies more effectively and appropriately
According to Aebersold and Field (1997), the reading strategies are categorized that high-proficiency readers do when they read text The ways that most high-proficiency readers use when reading to help them comprehend texts well are; recognize word quickly, use text features, analyze unfamiliar words, guess about the meaning of the text, adjust strategies to the purpose for reading, identify or infer main idea, tolerate ambiguity in a text, paraphrase, use context to build meaning and aid comprehension, and finally continue reading even when unsuccessful, at least for a while
To wrap up, it can be suggested from the studies that high-proficiency readers seem to read successfully than low-proficiency readers They use their reading strategies such as set a purpose of reading, monitor their comprehension or look for meaning to help them comprehend the texts that they read In contrast, low-proficiency students are weak in using previous mentioned strategies For example they read without setting the purposes or the goals or they may lack of background knowledge to familiar with the
texts
2.3.3 Reading strategy instruction
As mentioned above, considerable research documents show that
good readers are strategic readers who use more strategies than poor readers
as they read Besides, some previous studies have proved that reading
Trang 30strategies are effective in promoting reading comprehension (e.g., Palinscar
& Brown, 1989; Carrell, Pharis, & Liberto, 1989; Anderson, 1991;) It is
argued that the use of various strategies is found to be useful in improving
student’s reading comprehension (Palinscar and Brown, 1989) Therefore,
teaching EFL readers how to use specific reading strategies should be a prime consideration in the reading classes In addition, English teachers should be aware of the need for the students to become effective strategy users through teacher modeling in reading instruction
Grabe (1991) found that a primary goal for EFL/ESL reading theories
and instructions was to understand what fluent L1 readers did, and moved EFL/ESL students in that developmental direction However, second
language reading may be even more complex than first language reading The obvious reason is that the language skills used by the second language learner for information processing are still in developmental stages and they
are not firmly established in the learner’s mind Thus, it takes more
instruction and training to help students achieve effective and efficient reading strategies as L1 readers do
Moreover, it is emphasized that English reading teachers should train students to apply strategies to their reading, and provided them with practice in using a minimum number of syntactic and semantic clues to achieve the
maximum amount of information (Clarke and Silberstein, 1987) Most importantly, in this view, students should be encouraged to risk, to guess, and to ignore their impulses to be always correct
Trang 31In conclusion, from the above discussion one may find it important to
identify good and poor readers in order to determine the type of strategies to be adopted as an obviously proper way to English reading instruction Hence, a pedagogical choice to be made of what type of reading strategies for the students in improving reading comprehension is the absolutely essential point
2.3.4 Classification of reading strategies
In the reading strategies research field, many researchers categorized
the classification of reading strategies as follows
Cohen (1990) divided reading strategies into four types The first group is support strategies such as skimming, scanning, skipping The
second is paraphrase strategies such as finding synonyms for words and phrases, looking for basic ideas The third group is strategies for establishing coherence in text such as looking for organization, using context The last group is strategies for supervising strategy use such as planning, self-evaluation, identifying misunderstandings “
In addition, Chavez (1994) classified reading strategies into four levels based on the derivation of meaning The first level is supertextual strategies which help readers expose to the cultural framework of the text The second level is contextual strategies which reveal the syntactic structure of cohesion underlying the text The third level is intratextual strategies, which aim at understanding individual constituents in the text, especially at the lexical levels Finally, the fourth level is subtextual strategies which help readers translate the text-bond into text-independent meaning
Trang 32Besides, Jemenez et al (1996) considered reading strategies as three major groups Firstly, text-initiated strategies include using text structure, summarizing, and rereading Secondly, interactive strategies consist of
inference, predicting, and questioning Thirdly, reader-initiated strategies
comprise visualizing, evaluating, and making prior knowledge
Moreover, Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002) use another classification scheme involving metacognition to classify the reading strategies They
classify reading strategies into three categories The first type is global strategies such as having purpose in mind, previewing the text The second one is problem-solving strategies such as adjusting reading speed, rereading the text The final group is support strategies such as using dictionaries, taking notes
Thus far, while a wide range of reading strategies have been mentioned, in this investigation the scope of the study will determine one type of reading strategies as the last classification since this type mentions the metacognitive strategies at which the study aims as explained earlier in Chapter 1 (c.f 1.1)
2.4 Metacognition
In this section, therefore, a description of some of theoretical aspects
Trang 332.4.1 Definition of metacognition
One of the definitions of metacognition that is taken into
consideration comes from Flavell (1976), who describes, “one’s knowledge
concerning one’s own cognitive processes and products or anything related
to them” (p 232) He also asserts that metacognition includes “the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of information
processing activities” (p 232) Baird (1990) used these ideas to provide the following succinct formulation: “Metacognition refers to the knowledge, awareness and control of one own learning” (p 184) Metacognitive development can therefore be described as a development in one’s metacognitive abilities, i.e the move to greater knowledge, awareness, and
control of one’s learning
When considering part of metacognition, Flavell (1979) divided it into two aspects, namely the- students’ self-awareness of a knowledge base in
which information is stored about how, when, and where to use various
cognitive strategies and the students’ self-awareness of and access to
strategies that direct learning This awareness is developmental arid lies on the continuum According to the researcher, proficient readers use one or more metacognitive strategies to comprehend texts
In addition, Pintrich, Wolters and Baxter (2000) define three main aspects of metacognition: metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive monitoring, self-regulation and control The first group consists of cognitive learning strategies which the learner uses to regulate the process of knowledge acquisition These include, for example, elaboration strategies such as the building of links to prior knowledge, or memory strategies such as note-taking The second group consists of metacognitive control
Trang 34strategies Central here are activities like the planning and monitoring of
learning activities, the evaluation of learning outcomes and the adaptation to varying task demands and (unexpected) difficulties, for example, an increase
in directed efforts In addition to these two groups, which are dominant in
this study and crucial for learning process, a third group of strategies is dedicated to resource management These strategies are concerned with the
control of the general conditions associated with learning, for example, time
management and management of learning environment
In short, metacognition refers to a level of thinking that involves active control over the process of thinking that is used in learning situation Planning the way to approach a learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating the progress towards the completion of a task: these are skills that are metacognitive in their nature
2.4.2 Metacognition and English reading comprehension
As teachers of English, we may be impressed by the type of students who can understand the materials after their first reading or give well-
thought-out oral or written responses to the teacher’s questions promptly In
contrast, teachers may not be content with the type of students who can hardly grasp the materials despite the four-to-five time reading or who simply give thoughtless responses Students of the first type are indisputably
given labels such as “successful, high, or proficient,” while the others as “weak, low, or less proficient.”
Trang 35poor EFL readers often finish reading passages even without knowing that they have not understood them Also, poor readers are less able to adjust their reading rate to suit the purpose of reading When they fail to comprehend the reading test, poor readers are not as flexible as good readers in using different strategies to solve the problem Thus, it seems quite clear that poor readers are less efficient in monitoring their understanding of the material or are deficient in metacognitive skills
In contrast, it is highlighted that good readers automatically employ metacognitive strategies to focus their attention, to derive meaning, and to
make adjustments when something goes wrong Affirmed by Harris et al
(1988), EFL readers who have higher metacognitive skills are able to check for confusion or inconsistency, undertake a corrective strategy, such as re- reading, relating different parts of the passage to one another, looking for topic sentences or summary paragraphs, and relating the current information to their past knowledge Harris et al (1988) go on to report that these readers do not label these skills while performing them but if asked, they can describe their metacognitive processes accurately They have a conscious awareness of their own knowledge and the conscious ability to understand, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes
In general, it should be certainly said that metacognition plays an important role in English reading comprehension Since metacognition is potentially conscious and potentially controllable, students with good metacognition are able to monitor and direct their own reading processes quite efficiently
2.4.3 Metacognition and instruction
Trang 36Flavell (1979) claims that metacognition played an important role in oral communication of information, oral comprehension, reading comprehension, etc He adds, “I think that increasing the quantity and quality of children metacognitive knowledge and monitoring skills through systematic training may be feasible as well as desirable” (p 910)
From that point of view, research on metacognition sought to answer questions, such as: “How does metacognition develop?” “Can instruction of metacognition make a difference in learning in general?” “Does direct instruction on metacognition lead to better regulation of one’s cognitive activities?” Empirical research has shown that metacognition has the potential to increase the meaningfulness of students’ learning in different domains (Palinscar & Brown, 1989) Ganz and Ganz (1990) also note that metacognition has the potential to empower students to take charge of their own learning, increase perceived efficacy, and decrease the potential for learned helplessness, all of which are desirable educational goals They add that developing one’s metacognitive skills might be the route through which
affective and attitudinal variables are affected, which suggests that
metacognition is a key factor for educational endeavours ˆ
To reading, the purpose of metacognitive instruction is to help readers to become more aware of their own thinking during the reading process
During instruction, teachers provide explicit instruction on the use of
Trang 37Teaching students reading comprehension in the way concerning metacognition, therefore is a gift that will empower them to support their own learning needs through reading instruction
2.5 Metacognitive reading strategies
2.5.1 What are metacognitive reading strategies?
The reading strategies that function to monitor or regulate cognitive strategies are called metacognitive reading strategies It involves the reading process a) Planning for reading, b) Monitoring of comprehension, and c) Evaluation of reading after the language activities is completed (Skehan,
1993)
a) Planning for reading is the way that the readers set the reading purposes or goals, and then keep purposes or goals in mind, figure out what needs to be accomplished, identify reading task expectations, plan steps or actions before reading, and finally overview texts before
reading :
b) Monitoring of comprehension is checking if comprehension occurs, checking comprehension when coming across new information, controlling concentration or attention during reading, noticing when confusion occurs, and double-checking comprehension when encountering ambiguous information
c) Evaluation of reading is accessing levels of text difficulty and reading
demands, engaging self-questioning while reading, and evaluating accuracy in reading such as via task completion performance
(Skehan, 1993)
Trang 38In addition, metacognitive reading strategies included “checking the outcome of any attempt to solve a problem, planning one’s text move, monitoring the effectiveness of any attempted action, testing, revising, and evaluating one’s strategies for reading” (Brown, 1994: 115) In other words, metacognitive reading strategies are used to plan, monitor, and regulate the reading as it occurs
2.5.2 Effectiveness of awareness of metacognitive reading strategies
When regarding English reading instruction relating to metacognition,
the teachers have then to care for the question that whether the students can improve their English reading comprehension from their awareness of metacognitive reading strategies
According to Cohen (1990), metacognitive reading includes readers’ conscious awareness of strategic reading processes, of the reading strategy repertoires, and of their actual utilization of the strategies to maximize text comprehension Therefore, students with more skilled metacognitive reading strategies display hints to interpret a reading task based on context requirements They select reading strategies in relation to reading purposes, task demands, and their own cognitive style The students also monitor the process of comprehension, evaluate the effects of the selected strategies, and
adjust the strategies when needed
Trang 39authors concluded that EFL students benefited from the treatment of metacognitive reading strategies in their first and foreign languages, and developed appropriate usage of these strategies Their study is distinctive in
that all students showed great improvement, whereas in other studies, only
the high-level students improved the most
Also, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) examined differences in
awareness of matacognitive strategies among ESL and native English
speakers The findings revealed that both ESL and native English readers in the more advanced groups were applying metacognitive strategies more often than those who were in the less advanced groups Moreover, among ESL and native readers, ESL students used metacognitive strategies more often Overall, the study supported the effectiveness of using metacognitive strategies for both types of students The study also showed correlation between high-proficiency students and the high frequency use of the strategies
As what have been shown, it is clear to suggest that the effectiveness of metacognitive reading strategies has a positive influence on EFL/ESL learners Learning how to be aware of particular strategies, when and where to use them, therefore, is the key to the development of reading comprehension for students whose first language is not English
2.5.3 Assessment of metacognitive reading strategies
2.5.3.1 Instruments to measure metacognitive reading strategies
Trang 40Beside verbal protocol analysis, interviews, anecdotal records and observations, and student self-assessment, multiple-choice questionnaires
have widely been used to measure learners’ reading processes
Among the questionnaires used to assess metacognitive reading strategies, the Index of Reading Awareness (IRA) with 22 items, developed originally as a research tool by Paris and Jacobs (1984), was recommended for use by classroom teachers as an informed instrument to measure elementary school children’s metacognitive awareness Miholic’s (1994) 10-item multiple choice inventory aimed at stimulating students’ metacognitive awareness of reading strategies for junior high school
students Pereira-Laird and Deane (1997) used a Reading Strategy Use
(RSU) questionnaire to assess the perceptions of adolescent students’ use of cognitive and metacognitive strategies when reading narrative and expository texts
In recent years, some studies have also introduced questionnaires as powerful tools in determining learners’ metacognitive awareness in reading processes The metacognitive reading strategy questionnaire (MRSQ) by
Taraban et al (2004) includes an analytic-cognitive component which aimed at reading comprehension, and a pragmatic-behavioral component which aimed at academic performance A Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) by Mokhtari and Reichard (2002) aimed at assessing native English speakers’ metacognitive awareness of reading
processes