Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS english reading strategies by students from northern moutainous provinces at the faculty of information technology, thai nguyen university

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES & * & PHÙNG THỊ THANH TÚ ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES BY STUDENTS FROM NORTHERN MOUTAINOUS PROVINES AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN CÁC TỈNH MIỀN NÚI PHÍA BẮC TẠI KHOA CƠNG NGHỆ THƠNG TIN - ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Ha Noi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES *************** PHÙNG THỊ THANH TÚ ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES BY STUDENTS FROM NORTHERN MOUTAINOUS PROVINES AT THE FACULTY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA SINH VIÊN CÁC TỈNH MIỀN NÚI PHÍA BẮC TẠI KHOA CƠNG NGHỆ THƠNG TIN - ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA, Ph.D HaNoi - 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Error! Bookmark not defined Rationale Error! Bookmark not defined Aims of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Methods of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Scope of the study: Error! Bookmark not defined PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.1 What is reading? Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.2 Models of reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.3 Classroom approaches to reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2 Reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.1 What are reading strategies? Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.2 Reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3 Teaching reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.1 Teaching reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.2 Teaching reading activities Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4 Research on teaching and learning reading strategies in second language learning Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.1 Research on teaching reading strategies in second language learning Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.2 Research on learning reading strategies in second language learning Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1 The context of the study Error! Bookmark not defined LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v 2.1.1 Setting of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1.2 Sampling and participants Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2 Instruments of data collection Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Data collection procedures Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4 Data analysis Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 FIT students' opinions and reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.1 FIT students’ attitude to reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.2 Strategies taught to FIT students Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1.3 Reading strategies employed in students' reading Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 FIT English teachers' opinions and reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3 Summary Error! Bookmark not defined.0 3.4 Implications of the study Error! Bookmark not defined.2 PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS Error! Bookmark not defined.4 Conclusions Error! Bookmark not defined.4 1.1 Conclusion Error! Bookmark not defined.4 1.2 Conclusion Error! Bookmark not defined.4 Limitations and suggestions for further study Error! Bookmark not defined REFERENCES Error! Bookmark not defined APPENDIX 1: Questionnaires for students Error! Bookmark not defined APPENDIX 2: Questionnaires for teachers Error! Bookmark not defined LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Rationale Reading is an essential way of obtaining information in contemporary society Research discovered that readers spontaneously use reading strategies in the reading process (Pritchard, 1990) Literature also suggested that the use of appropriate reading strategies may improve reading comprehension (Oxford, 1990) Using reading strategies can be of great help to non-native readers because it may serve as an effective way of overcoming language deficiency and obtaining better reading achievement both for regular school assignments and on language proficiency tests (Zhang, 1992) Reading is an activity with a purpose A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style Another person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts Reading strategies help readers to acquire a text quickly Successful language learners know how to use reading strategies efficiently In language learning, students read to learn the language, to broaden their knowledge, and to assignments The purposes of reading strategies are to have general knowledge, to get a specific detail, to find out the main idea or theme, to learn, to remember, to delight, to summarize and to research In the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT), Thai Nguyen University, English has been considered as the important subject due to the fact that many informational technology documents are now written in English Once students master the English language, or are capable of comprehending satisfactorily documents written in it, they can more easily grasp new technology than those weaker in this language There is a new rule for (FIT) students enrolling this academic year: After graduation, students need to attain an English competency equivalence of 400 points (TOEFL-PBT) This seems to be a bit high of a requirement for the students; however, this is a motivation for them to study and concentrate more on the language It is natural that in order to master a language, learners often want to improve in all four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing For the FIT students, the most important skill is reading as almost all English books about Information Technology are LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com written in English Moreover, Vietnamese books about Information Technology are sometimes out of date and difficult to understand due to bad translation FIT students are taught reading skills from their first academic year Through observing English reading classes, this author has realized that most students read the text and then translate it into Vietnamese They don’t know what or how to use reading strategies to comprehend the text When dealing with a reading lesson, students often suffer from a lack of reading strategies which are essential for them to overcome the reading comprehension challenges in the classroom A large body of research has found that effective readers are aware of the strategies they use and that they use strategies flexibly and efficiently (Garner, 1987; Presley, Beard EL, Dinary & Brown, 1992 cited in Nguyen (2007)) Researchers believed that these strategies can be taught to ineffective language learners so that they can then become more successful at language learning Besides developing reading proficiency for students, teachers who train students to use reading strategies can also help them become autonomous language learners Consequently, teaching students learning strategies is an important duty of the language teachers since learning strategies can help students monitor and take responsibility for their own learning Helping students understand good language learning strategies and training them to develop and use them can be considered the desired characteristics of a good language teacher (Lessard C., 1997:3) Due to the aforementioned reasons, it's necessary for this author to investigate what English reading strategies students use and ascertain what reading strategies English teachers in FIT teach Therefore, implications for teaching and learning reading strategies can be obtained via the results of the research titled "English Reading strategies by Students from the Northern Mountainous Provinces at the Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University" Aims of the study This study aims to: - Investigate what reading strategies FIT students employ when reading in English - Explore what reading strategies FIT English teachers teach LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims of the study, the following major research questions will be posed: - What are the reading strategies in English used by students at Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University? - What reading strategies the English teachers in FIT teach? Methods of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned previously, the study employed quantitative methods including survey questionnaires for students The survey questionnaires for students were used to determine what reading strategies employed by the students when reading in English And survey questionnaires for teachers were also administered to explore what reading strategies English teachers in FIT taught After the data is analyzed and discussed, all comments, remarks, recommendations, assumptions and conclusions pertaining to the study will be available and some suggestions will then be raised concerning the thesis Scope of the study: A learners' success or failure in acquiring a language can be affected by many interrelated factors Among these factors, the teaching of reading strategies should be taken into consideration However, this study only focuses on the learning reading strategies of students at the Faculty of Information Technology – Thai Nguyen University and includes suggestions for employing these strategies in those classrooms In order to survey learners' reading strategies and investigate the teachers' teaching methods, numerous ways of collecting data may be used However, the present study employs only the questionnaire Therefore, there is a limitation concerning the reliability of the data used As Dornyei Z (2003) states questionnaires have some serious limitations, and some of these have led certain researchers to claim that questionnaire data are not reliable or valid LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews theories related to reading and reading activities in general and reading strategies in particular It also reviews current research on teaching and learning reading strategies that have been conducted so far All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into reading strategies in English employed by students from northern mountainous provinces at Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University which is carried out and presented in the next chapter 1.1 Reading 1.1.1 What is reading? The definition of reading has changed substantially during the past few decades, from a focus on reading as decoding or as set of decontextualized or context free skills, to a view of reading as information processing (Goodman, 1967, Pang S.E., Muaka A., Bernhardt B E and Kamil L M., 2003) or as an interactive process in which reader is actively involved in using available content knowledge to construct the meaning of the text (Anderson & Pearson, 1984, Richards and Schmidt, 2002, Anderson, 2003) Richards and Schmidt (2002) define reading in Pang S.E., Muaka A., Bernhardt B E and Kamil L M.(2003) perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents This can be done silently called silent reading The understanding that results is called reading comprehension Saying a written text aloud which can be done with or without an understanding of the contents is called oral reading Pang S.E., Muaka A., Bernhardt B E and Kamil L M.(2003:6) also consider "reading is about understanding written texts Reading is a complex activity that consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text" LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1.1.2 Models of reading Researchers have created models that describe what happens when people read According to Aebersold J A & Field M L (1997), in Hudson T (2007), there are three main model of how reading occurs identified as bottom-up, top-down and interactive * Bottom-up theory In bottom-up theory, the smallest units of a text from letters to words to phrases to sentences, etc are constructed by a reader Bottom-up processing focuses on how readers extract information from the printed page, claiming that readers deal with letters and words in a relatively complete and systematic fashion According to Nunan (1991), reading was viewed as ― "the process of meaning interpretation'' in which ―the language is "translated from one form of symbolic representation to another" The bottom-up theory (Hudson T (2007) to reading focus fairly on text rapid processing and word identification By mapping the input directly on to some independent representational form in the mental lexicon, the reader can have the ability to recognize words in isolation Researchers of bottom-up model are primarily interested in how a reader reads rather than in what the reader comprehends The view from Perfetti (1997) in Hudson T (2007) is that reading comprehension is equal to language comprehension, plus decoding, plus some minor other contributing variable In other words, in the bottom – up model, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom) and constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases and sentences found within, and then processes the text in a linear fashion Theories of reading that stress bottom-up processing claim that the reader processes all of the letters in the last word of the sentence, regardless of its predictability Obviously, in the view of this driven model, the reader seems to play a relatively passive role because the basis of bottom – up processing is the linguistic knowledge of the reader Another shortcoming of the bottom-up model shown by Samuel and Kamil (1988: 31) is that "because of the lack of feedback loops in the early bottom – up models, it was difficult to account for as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension" Because of this drawback, and as well as the introduction of the top-down model of reading, many researchers was not interested in the bottom-up model * Top-down theory LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Top-down model rejects the notion that identification of letters to form words, and the derivation of meaning from these words is efficient reading On the contrary, it assumes that efficient reading requires the readers to make predictions and hypothesis about the text content by relating the new information to their prior knowledge and by using as few language clues as possible It is further assumed that the readers can check whether the hypothesis are correct or not by sampling the text Kenneth Goodman and Frank Smith are the researchers who are most closely identified with top-down theory to the reading process Goodman use the term "psycholinguistic guessing game" (also Carrell, 1998: 2) to "value the cognitive economy of linguistic information over graphemic information" He specifies four processes in reading: predicting, sampling, confirming, and correcting In top-down process, the reader guesses the meaning of the text and samples the print to confirm or disconfirm the guess In other words, the reader brings to bear not only knowledge of the language, but also internal concepts of how language is processed, past experiential background and general conceptual background The top-down model is influenced by schema theory, which emphasizes the importance of the reader’s background knowledge in the reading process (Carrell, 1998:4) According to this theory, so as to comprehend a text, readers make use of both the text and their background knowledge Therefore, interaction of the background knowledge and the text is essential for efficient reading Smith (1971, 1994) in Hudson T (2007) see that reading instruction should take place when comprehension of a text is possible, rather than focus on isolated phoneme-grapheme correspondence activities and drills The readers bring a great deal of knowledge, expectations, assumptions, and questions to the text and, given a basic understanding of the vocabulary, they continue to read as long as the text confirms their expectations (Goodman, 1976) Apparently, according to Eskey (1988), the top-down model tends to emphasize higher level skills as the prediction of meaning by means of context clues or background knowledge at the expense of lower skills like the rapid and accurate identification of lexical and grammatical forms In making the perfectly valid point that fluent reading is LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 24 omitted items including "I think about whether the content of the text fits my reading purpose (GLOB)" and "I adjust my reading speed according to what I am reading (PROB)" are not very suitable with teaching and learning English academic reading in FIT They are more suitable for extensive reading A 5-point Likert scale following each item indicates the frequency of strategy use ranging from (never do) to (always do) And the last part required the participants to give information about their names, genders, ages and the number of years studying English The questionnaires for teachers (see Appendix 2) comprise two main parts The first part is about the subjects’ names, gender, age, degrees and number of years teaching English The second part includes questions concerning their teaching reading strategies 2.3 Data collection procedures The data collection procedures commenced in November and ended in December 2009 In early November, two questionnaires for teachers and students were developed and given to another group of teachers and 20 students for piloting Some unclear questions were identified and adjusted to improve the questionnaires Then the questionnaires were ministered to FIT subjects to find out which strategies FIT students use and what reading strategies FIT English teachers teach In December, after the data was analyzed and discussed, some conclusions would be drawn, and some suggestions would be raised in the thesis 2.4 Data analysis There are 28 items adapted from SORS and each item uses a five-point Likert Scale ranging from (never) to (always) The 100 subjects were asked to circle the number that applied to them, indicating the frequency with which they used the reading strategy described in the statement All the data were entered into SPSS 12.0 for Windows for statistical analyses, where descriptive statistical procedures and further calculations were carried out For the reading strategy use as reported in the SORS, three categories have been identified: low (mean of 2.49 or below), medium (means between 2.5-4.00), and high (mean of 4.1 or higher) The other information was calculated using Microsoft excel software LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 25 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS This chapter addresses the research questions ―What are the reading strategies in English used by students from northern mountainous provinces at FIT, TNU? And what reading strategies the English teachers in FIT teach? It was based on the survey questionnaires data collected from 100 students and 11 teachers at FIT 3.1 FIT students' opinions and reading strategies The questionnaire was administered 100 FIT students comprising parts The first part includes two questions which asked students’ personal opinions on the importance of reading strategies and which strategies they have been taught in class The second part contains 28 reading strategy items investigating the students' reading strategies 3.1.1 FIT students’ attitude to reading strategies Question 1: According to you, how is the importance of reading strategy to your studying reading in English? A Not important at all B Not important C A little important D Important E Very important 60% 50% A: Not important at all 40% B: Not important 30% C: A little important 20% D: Important E: Very important 10% 0% 1st Qtr Table 3.1 FIT students’ attitude to reading strategies LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 26 Table 3.1.1 shows that the most of the students thought that reading strategy was important to their studying reading in English As shown in table 4.1, 51% (51 students) thought that reading strategy is important and 48% (48 students) found reading strategy is important to them 3.1.2 Strategies taught to FIT students Question 2: Which reading strategies have you been taught in class? Percent Using reference materials, e.g.: dictionaries 72% Reading comprehension questions before reading to identify the important information 58% Skimming and scanning the text to get information 56% Taking notes while reading 50% Underlining, highlighting information in text 48% Summarizing the main ideas of the text 48% Identifying part of speech and structural grammar of words or phrases in sentences 46% Reading in groups 43% Guessing meaning of unknown words or phrases 39% Using text features, e.g.: tables, figures for better understanding 34% Using prior knowledge when reading 32% Reading aloud when text becomes difficult 31% Previewing the text to see what it’s about before reading it 23% Paraphrasing for better understanding 17% Checking to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong 15% Skipping parts of text thought unimportant 9% Table 3.1.2 Strategies taught to FIT students In the answer to question 2, the results show that all the strategies mentioned in question were taught in class However, the ideas from the students are quite different between the strategies 72% (72 students) agreed that they were instructed to use dictionaries in reading About 50% to 58% of the students were in the same agreement that the three strategies including Reading comprehension questions before reading to identify the important information, skimming and scanning the text to get information, and taking notes while reading were trained to use Not many students believed that the rest strategies LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 27 were taught As shown in table 3.1.2, from 15% (15 students) to 48% (48 students) agreed that they were learnt these strategies Finally, only 9% (9 students) had the same idea that the strategy ―skipping parts of text thought unimportant‖ was trained 3.1.3 Reading strategies employed in students' reading The next 28 questions were about the subjects’ reading strategies These strategies were adapted from the basic of Mokhtari and Sheorey framework (2002) The following analysis utilized this framework in order to find out the reading strategies employed by the FIT subjects NAME READING STRATEGIES MEAN GLOB I have a purpose in mind when I read 3.00 GLOB I think about what I know to help me understand what I read 3.91 GLOB I take an overall view of the text to see what it is about before reading it 4.10 GLOB I review the text first by noting its features like length and organization 3.25 GLOB When reading, I decide what to read closely and what to ignore 2.91 GLOB I used tables, figures and pictures in text to increase my understanding 3.05 GLOB I use context clues to help me better understand what I am reading 3.93 GLOB I use typographical features like bold face and italics to identify key information 2.93 GLOB I critically analyze and evaluate the information presented in the text 3.38 GLOB 10 I check my understanding when I come across new information 2.23 GLOB 11 I try to guess what the content of the text is about when I read 2.37 GLOB 12 I check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong 2.89 SUP 13 I take notes while reading to help me understand what I read 3.43 SUP 14 When text becomes difficult, I read aloud to help me understand what I read 2.62 SUP 15 I underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it 4.53 SUP 16 I use reference materials (e.g., a dictionary) to help me understand what I read 3.98 SUP 17 I paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what I read 2.78 SUP 18 I go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it 2.83 SUP 19 I ask myself questions I like to have answered in the text 3.22 SUP 20 When reading, I translate from English into my native languages 4.74 SUP 21 When reading, I think about information in both English and my mother tongues 3.12 PROB 22 I read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I’m reading 3.93 PROB 23 I try to get back on track when I lose concentration 3.44 PROB 24 When text becomes difficult, I pay closer attention to what I’m reading 3.29 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 28 PROB 25 I stop from time to time and think about what I’m reading 2.73 PROB 26 I try to picture or visualize information to help remember what I read 3.23 PROB 27 When text becomes difficult, I reread to increase my understanding 3.93 PROB 28 When I read, I guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases 3.27 Table 3.1.3 Reading strategies employed in students' reading Table 3.1.3 shows the perceived reading strategy use of the subjects while reading study related materials, in terms of individual strategies, as well as strategy groups (that is, global (GLOB), support (SUP), and problem solving (PROB) strategies) As one can see, the means of the individual items range from the high 4.74 (SUP27) to the low 2.23 (GLOB21) mean (in bold) There are individual items in the high usage category (mean of 4.1 or above) Most of items are in medium usage (mean between 2.50-4.00), and items fall in the low usage (mean of 2.49 or below) category Name Strategy most often used SUP When reading, I translate from English into my native languages SUP I underline or circle information in the text to help me remember it Mean 4.74 4.53 GLOB I take an overall view of the text to see what it is about before reading it 4.10 SUP 3.98 I use reference materials (e.g., a dictionary) to help me understand what I read PROB I read slowly and carefully to make sure I understand what I’m reading 3.93 GLOB I use context clues to help me better understand what I am reading 3.93 PROB When text becomes difficult, I reread to increase my understanding 3.93 GLOB I think about what I know to help me understand what I read 3.91 PROB I try to get back on track when I lose concentration 3.44 SUP 3.43 10 I take notes while reading to help me understand what I read Name Strategy least often used Mean GLOB I have a purpose in mind when I read 3.00 GLOB 2.93 I use typographical features like bold face and italics to identify key information GLOB When reading, I decide what to read closely and what to ignore 2.91 GLOB I check to see if my guesses about the text are right or wrong 2.89 SUP I go back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it 2.83 SUP I paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what I read 2.78 I stop from time to time and think about what I’m reading 2.73 PROB SUP When text becomes difficult, I read aloud to help me understand what I read 2.62 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 29 GLOB I try to guess what the text is about when I read 2.37 GLOB 10 I when I come across new information 2.23 Table 3.1.4 Reading strategies used most and least often by students Table 3.1.4 illustrates the 10 most often and 10 least often used strategies, as reported by the students The findings from questionnaire provided evidence that what students used were: translating to their own language, underlining and circling, taking an overall view of the text, using dictionary, reading slowly and carefully, using context clues, using background knowledge, re-reading, getting back on track, and note-taking However, the strategies they did not pay much attention to were: purpose reading, noticing what to read closely and what to ignore, checking the guesses, finding the relationships among the ideas, paraphrasing, reading aloud to help them understand what they read, thinking about what they are reading, guessing the content of the text, and check the understanding 3.2 FIT English teachers' opinions and reading strategies Eleven FIT English teachers were asked to complete the questionnaire to clarify what reading strategies FIT English teachers teach The first two questions inquired the teachers to give their opinions to the definition of reading strategy and how important it is In general, most of the teachers were aware of the reading strategy and its importance As mentioned in chapter 2, Hudson T., (2007:107) defined reading strategy: "any interactive process that has the goal of obtaining meaning from connected text, and reading skills operate within the context of such reading strategies The strategies of predicting, confirming, monitoring, reflecting, and evaluating are consciously brought to bear Strategies operate to lessen demands on working memory by facilitating comprehension processing" Most of the teachers (9 of them) chose this concept To the response to the importance of reading strategies, all of them agreed that it was necessary to teach reading strategies to their students The third question posed the teachers to identify which strategies they had taught their students Table 3.2.1 shows the results No Reading Strategies taught by FIT teachers Reading comprehension questions before reading to identify the important information Percent 90.9% LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 30 Skimming and scanning the text to get information 90.9% Underlining, highlighting information in text 90.9% Summarizing the main ideas of the text 90.9% Previewing the text to see what it’s about before reading it 72.7% Guessing meaning of unknown words or phrases 72.7% Reading in groups 72.7% Using prior knowledge when reading 54.5% Taking notes while reading 45.5% 10 Skipping parts of text thought unimportant 45.5% 11 Identifying part of speech and structural grammar of words or phrases 27.3% in sentences 12 Using reference materials, e.g.: dictionaries 18.2% 13 Using text features, e.g.: tables, figures for better understanding 18.2% 14 Paraphrasing for better understanding 18.2% 15 Checking to see if the guesses about the text are right or wrong 9.1% 16 Reading aloud when text becomes difficult 0% Table 3.2.1.Reading strategies taught by FIT teachers It can be seen in table 3.2.1 that 90.9% (10 teachers) thought that they taught reading strategies including reading comprehension questions before reading to identify the important information; skimming and scanning the text to get information; Underlining, highlighting information in text; and summarizing the main ideas of the text The same percent of the teachers (72.7%) agreed to teach next three reading strategies such as previewing the text to see what it is about before reading it, guessing meaning of unknown words or phrases, and reading in groups However, there are reading strategies that were not taught by many teachers From 9.1% (1 teacher) to 18.2% (2 teachers) reported that they explained those strategies Surprisingly, no teacher gave the idea that they taught reading aloud when text becomes difficult 3.3 Summary Not unexpectedly, student opinions about reading strategies are relatively positive Most of them see the importance of employing reading strategies They may trust that one can acquire comprehension of a text quickly and correctly with personal, effective reading strategies Moreover, the students assigned to the major of Information Technology can LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 31 become better students if they know how to completely comprehend information technology documents written in English by employing correct reading strategies Concerning students' opinions about reading strategies taught to FIT students, the results indicate that they were not instructed much as to employing effective reading strategies in class From to nearly half of them believed that they were taught reading strategies by their teachers It is likely that FIT English teachers have taught these strategies implicitly and not very carefully; therefore, many of them have much the same conclusions Of the 28 items concerned with students' reading strategies included in the survey, only two fall in the low usage category: checking understanding when coming across new information and critically analyzing and evaluating information presented in the text These are not likely to be employed because of the nature of the reading and the students' culture When students read academic texts, they probably think that they must try to finish reading the text without comprehension and after finishing reading they may not think about content critically One of the two highest used items by students concerns translating from English into Vietnamese This proves the author's ideas concerning her students knowing a few reading strategies when observing her students' reading The fact is that the reading strategies most used by the students are probably those most simple and easy to apply Some of them can be acquired by the students themselves without any instructions such as using dictionaries to assist understanding, translating into their native languages, and taking an overview of the text to see what it is about Regarding the reading strategies least often used reveals that many students not value basic support mechanisms that aid comprehension to the extent considered desirable Simultaneously, the low values attached to the strategies of reading aloud and paraphrasing the restated ideas probably show that students would rather avoid using time consuming strategies; furthermore, they were previously probably warned against reading aloud The least often used strategies seem rather difficult for students since they need to use higher mental processes to comprehend a text using these strategies This strongly suggests that they might not be trained well enough to use reading strategies effectively in accordance with their reading purposes LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 32 An interesting finding in the data reported in the FIT English teachers' opinions concerning reading strategies is that most of them instructed their students in only out of 16 items which seem to be common to the teachers Few teachers indicated that they taught the item using dictionaries, while the highest percentage of students indicates that they were taught using this strategy Moreover, non FIT English teachers pointed out that they taught reading aloud while 31% of students agreed that they were taught in this manner This suggests that students are unable to apply the strategies that their teachers have taught The causes for this situation might be: (1) Teachers might not teach any strategies to their students or might train some of them carelessly; (2) Teachers might train reading strategies to their students implicitly, but not really know the names and usage of these strategies; (3) Teachers might have little knowledge about reading strategies, their instruction therefore is superficial 3.4 Implications of the study The findings of this study have provided evidence that the students employed a variety of reading strategies in their academic reading as well as which strategies the teachers have taught them This helps instructors in determining students’ strengths and weaknesses in terms of strategies use This in turn will help in developing effective and appropriate strategy instruction that should permeate the whole curriculum Therefore, the following pedagogical suggestions might be provided from this study First, exploring what reading strategies the students use at the beginning of instructions is a prerequisite This benefits instructors get to know the students’ strengths and weaknesses so that they might provide students with opportunities to employ new strategies by direct and explicit instructions This is especially helpful for the students who are struggling in reading Second, the results have indicated that the students were less aware of the following reading strategies: reading with purpose, noticing what to read closely and what to ignore, checking the guesses, finding the relationships among the ideas, paraphrasing, reading aloud to help them understand what they read, thinking about what they are reading, guessing the content of the text, and check the understanding However, the results from FIT English teachers' opinions show that the teachers taught some of those strategies It is LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 33 concluded that the students could not acquire what the teachers taught Therefore, FIT English teachers should the following instructions:  Improve their knowledge about reading strategies  Improve their teaching methods concerning teaching reading strategies  Have close and friendly relationships with the students to see what problems they encounter while studying reading strategies Then the teachers can adjust their ways of teaching Third, teaching reading strategies should be focused on reading instructions, which might strengthen students to solve problems by utilizing the strategies appropriately Teachers should model the strategies they are teaching and provide much practice using authentic, real-world tasks Students should learn and practice only one or two new strategies at the same time This is a Model of Comprehension Instruction adapted from Duke N K and Pearson P D (2002) including the following five components: An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used Teacher and/or student modeling of the strategy in action Collaborative use of the strategy in action Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility Independent use of the strategy Throughout these five phases, it is important that neither the teacher nor the students lose sight of the need to coordinate or organize comprehension strategies Strategies are not to be used singly—good readers not read a book and only make predictions Rather, good readers use multiple strategies constantly LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 34 PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS Conclusion The study's aim was to investigate reading strategies employed by FIT students and which strategies were taught by FIT teachers As illustrated in the figures presented, the results of 100 students and 11 English teachers’ questionnaires held during the study in term of reading strategies used and taught The study addressed two research questions: (1) The reading strategies in English used by students from northern mountainous provinces at Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University; (2) And what reading strategies English teachers in FIT teach The major findings are summarized as follows: 1.1 Conclusion 1: Results concerning the students’ employing strategies have shown that the number of strategies used was medium and low (only three strategies were considered high from 4.1 to 4.74) They used mainly basic and easy strategies such as translating to their own language, underlining and circling, taking an overall view of the text, using dictionary, reading slowly and carefully, using context clues, using background knowledge, rereading, getting back on track, and note-taking which didn’t involve a great deal of effort and motivation Regarding their thoughts about strategies taught by their teachers, some results were not similar to the findings from FIT English teachers For instance, many students agreed that they were taught the strategy ―using dictionaries to find out meanings of new words‖, but less FIT English teachers indicated that they taught it to their students And only one forth to half of the students pointed out that they were taught reading strategies This may be explained that the students might not acquire what the teachers taught them or might comprehend the strategies equivocally leading to the uselessness of those strategies Conclusion 2: Concerning the results of teachers’ questionnaires, many reading strategies were instructed by them However, there is a limitation in teaching these strategies In other LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 35 words, only some strategies were paid attention to and practiced while some strategies had not been taught Evidently, the ways the teachers trained reading strategies to their students might not successful Therefore, the teachers and the students had different ideas on reading strategies training and reading strategies using Limitations and suggestions for further study Though this study was carried out with the researcher’s great deal of effort, it is not free from limitations due to the limited time, lack of recourses and the researcher’s ability First, only questionnaire data collection instrument of this study with not large number of participants could be insufficient to ensure the reliability of the study findings Second, the target subjects of this study are only the second-year mountainous-area students of FIT, not all students in FIT, hence the findings of the study could not generalize to every students in Thai Nguyen University as well as other universities Based on the findings from this study, it would be useful if a further research on training reading strategies will be conducted Therefore, explicit instructions would be determined to improve 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luanvanchat@agmail.com ... Reading strategies by Students from the Northern Mountainous Provinces at the Faculty of Information Technology, Thai Nguyen University" Aims of the study This study aims to: - Investigate what reading. .. chapter addresses the research questions ―What are the reading strategies in English used by students from northern mountainous provinces at FIT, TNU? And what reading strategies the English teachers... teaching of reading strategies should be taken into consideration However, this study only focuses on the learning reading strategies of students at the Faculty of Information Technology – Thai Nguyen