Difficulties in reading comprehension of grade 10 students at asian international highschool

Hochiminh City …………………………………… GRADUATION THESIS Major English Language Topic DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT ASIAN INTERNATIONAL HIGHSCHOOL Instructor Nguyen Thanh Tuan,MA Student Luu Khanh Quyen ID: 97011501055 i DECLARATION The thesis entitled “Difficulties in reading comprehension of grade 10 at the Asian International Highschool” is conducted under the supervision of M.A Nguyen Thanh Tuan an instructor of English at English Department, Saigon International University I declare that the information reported in the current paper is a result of my own work, except where due to reference is made The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted to any candidature for any other degree or diploma Ho Chi Minh, Signature ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of doing this study, I have received useful help from my teachers, my family, my friends First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my instructor Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan who has help me much in choosing the title of this study and giving me valuable suggestion as well as guidance so that I can fulfill this graduation thesis paper He gave me encouragement at all the stages of completing my study During the process of my research, I am not only instructed carefully by him, but also learn many valuable things from method of doing research, the way to consider and solve problem independently Without his guidance, help and support, I would not have completed my study Beside the support of Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan, I am very grateful to my parents for their metal support and encouragement They are the biggest motivation for me to overcome all the difficulties to completing the study In addition, I would like to say “Thank you” to my friends, thank you for their support and being side by side with me I am really in debt to my family and my friends for their all usefull help and great encouragement during the time I has done this paper iii INTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS …………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… , Date Month Year Mark: …………………………………… Sign: ……………………………………… iv ABSTRACT The reading comprehension skill is considered as one of the four fundamental language skills that an EFL learner must perform Actually, it is not an easy skill since most of learners have many reading issues The purpose of this present work is to investigate on these reading difficulties that grade 10 students at the Asian International Highschool face, and to identify their reading problems and the reasons behind their weaknesses in performing the reading task The questionnaire and interview have been used as research instruments which are addressed, respectively, to third-year learners and teachers at Asian International highschool The results reveal that most of the learners have difficulties in reading comprehension at the level of ambiguous words, reading strategies, as well as the nature of the selected materials v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………………………… ii SUPVERISOR’S COMMENT…………………………………………………………… iii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………….iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTENT OF THE THESIS………………….1 1.1 Statement of problem…………………………………………………………………… 1.2 The significance of the study………………………………………………………………2 1.3 Scope of the study…………………………………………………………………………2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………4 2.1 Definition of key-terms ………………………………………………………… …… 2.1.1 What is reading? ……………………………………………………………………….4 2.1.2 Comprehension …………………………………………………… 2.1.3 Reading comprehension……………………………………………………………… 2.1.4 Types of reading comprehension…………………………………………………… 2.1.4.1 Oral reading …………………………………………………………………….…6 2.1.4.2 Silent reading …………………………………………………………………… 2.1.4.3 Intensive reading………………………………………………………………… vi 2.1.4.4 Extensive reading ……………………………………………………………… 2.1.5 Skills of reading comprehension…………………………………………………… 2.1.5.1 Scanning………………………………………………………………………… 2.1.6.2 Skimming……………………………………………………………………… 10 2.1.6 Difficulties ……………………………………………………………………………11 2.1.6.1 Difficulty in understanding long sentence……………………………………… 12 2.1.6.2 Difficulty in using reading strategies………………………………………………13 2.1.6.3 Losing your place………………………………………………………………….13 2.1.6.4 Losing your focus………………………………………………………………….13 2.1.6.5 Not getting the point ………………………………………………………………13 2.1.6.6 Forgetting what you have read…………………………………………………….13 2.1.7 Solutions…………………………………………………………………………… 14 2.1.8 Strategies for reading comprehension …………………………………………….…15 2.1.8.1 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text………………………… 17 2.1.8.2 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text…………………………19 2.1.9 Method in teaching reading………………………………………………………… 21 2.2 Preview previous work ………………………………………………………………….22 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………… 24 vii 3.1 Research method……………………………………………………………………… 24 3.2 Research questions………………………………………………………………………25 3.3 Description………………………………………………………………………………25 3.4 Participants…………………………………………………………………………… 26 3.5 Tools to collect data…………………………………………………………………… 26 3.6 Procedure……………………………………………………………………………… 27 CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION……………………………………………28 4.1 Data analysis…………………………………………………………………………… 28 4.1.1 Opinions about reading materials…………………………………………………….29 4.1.2 The purpose of reading…………………………………………………………… 30 4.1.3 Opinions about the effective and essential of reading strategies…………………… 31 4.1.4 Difficulties and time sufficiency…………………………………………………… 33 4.1.5 Students’ strategies………………………………………………………………… 36 4.1.6 The essential of vocabulary and grammar……………………………………………39 4.2 Discussion of the results…………………………………………………………………42 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………… 45 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTENT OF THE THESIS 1.1 Statement of problem Nowadays, English does not only become popular but it is also a main international language When you go to another country, or communicate with foreigner, you have to understand their language but be side that you can use English to communicate with them As you know, today about 2/3 countries in the world use English as their mother tongue or as a second language English has been taught in many general- educational schools We know that teaching and learning English are very important Which are the best learning methods and strategies for students who learn English at Asian International High school? What difficulties that students have when they learn English ? The Asian International School’s International English program is designed according to American Education Reaches Out (AERO) and Common Core State Standard – United State The school curriculum is drafted and evaluated by the Science Council of the school Students of the Asian International School benefit from an advanced education program with a diverse knowledge base However, not all students of the Asian International High school can keep up with the international English program Some students had problem with English skills in the learning process and most students had difficulties in reading skill The biggest obstacle for grade 10 students at Asian International High school is that they have no methods and strategies in reading comprehension This topic is great interest in studying it 37 Figure 4.1.5.1: Students strategies Question 10: Do you look up the word you could not figure out? Most of informants (57.1%) said that they use dictionary to look up the words they don’t understand and 42.9% left chose “No” Figure 4.1.5.2: Students use dictionary for reading texts 38 Question 11: Do you often use the information you have read to guess the meaning of the word that you not understand? For some reading texts, students cannot understand all the words in the text So students use in formation to guess the meaning and the main idea of the reading texts is a step to support students complete the readings The survey chart has given results that most of students (42.9%) said that they just sometimes use the information to guess the meaning Up to 35.7% chose the answer “Never” for using information and only 21.4% of students chose “Usually” The results is shown below Figure 4.1.5.3: Students use information for reading comprehension Question 12: Do you try to grasp the general idea of a sentence before going to read the next sentence? As mentioned in Chapter (p.16), identify the main idea is one of the reading strategies But large number of informants (61.5%) assumed that they not grasp the main idea of sentence 39 when reading Only 38.5% chose the answer “Yes”, which is show part of problems that most students are suffer with reading comprehension Figure 4.1.5.4: Students identify main idea in reading comprehension The purpose of these questions is to know if the students’ strategies in reading comprehension is effective or not The results showed that most of students focus on translate the reading texts, the words but forget the important factor in reading strategy was identify main idea Which is one of the factors leading to the difficulties that students often suffer 4.1.6 The essential of vocabulary and grammar Question 13: How you rate the essential of vocabulary and grammar in reading comprehension? 47.4% of the informants assumed that vocabulary and grammar essential in reading comprehension As the data mentioned in Figure 4.5.2, it is not really difficult to understand when most students choose the answer “Essential” Some informants 36.8% stated that 40 vocabulary and grammar are less essential and only 15.8% of informants chose the answer “Not essential” Figure 4.1.6.1: Essential of vocabulary and grammar Question 14: What is the most important component in doing reading comprehension? Most of the answer on vocabulary have a high percentage Similar to this chart is no exception, most of the answer (40%) assume that vocabulary is the most important component in reading comprehension 26.7% of informants chose the answer “Summarize the main idea” , 20% for the answer “background knowledge” and only 13.3% of students chose “Grammar” 41 Figure 4.1.6.2: The important component in reading comprehension Question 15: Do you understand the grammatical structure of the test ? Figure 4.6.3 indicates that most of the students (39.1%) chose “Sometimes” and 30.4% chose “Seldom”, meanwhile just only 21.7% chose the answer “Usually” It means that the students have difficulty in understanding grammatical structure of the test In addition, just 8.7% answered “Never” It can be concluded that the most students have problem in understanding grammatical structure of the test and grammar is also show the essential of grammar in reading comprehension Figure 4.1.6.3: Students’ understanding of grammatical structure of the text 42 4.2 Discussion of the results In the previous chapter the researcher had stated that the purpose of this research was to find out the difficulties faced by the grade 10 students of Asian International Highschool in reading comprehension The students’ difficulties were related to the question types of reading comprehension test After analyzing the data gained from the test and questionaire, the writer concluded that the grade 10 students of Asian International Highschool have difficulties in answering reading comprehension test 15 questionnaires were categorized according to parts listed above The results of the survey show that students are too focused on vocabulary when, leading to a doing reading test, and it took a lot of time to finish, not meeting the required time In addition, students cannot grasp the main idea nor guarantee the accuracy of the answer This study also provided reasons factors why the students faced difficulties with these questions Mostly, the students failed in the reading comprehension tests because of poor vocabulary, poor mastery of grammar, difficult to understand long sentences and text, poor of media learning or support from the family, and lack of knowledge about strategies of reading comprehension 43 CONCLUSION Language acquisition /learning require the desire to learn the language first, then the mastery of the language skills Among them, there is the reading skill Reading is an important element in the learning process of any language The main concern of this research is about reading comprehension difficulties in grade 10 students at Asian International Highschool This research work was divided into three chapters; this chapter strives to identify the reading comprehension task with reference to its different types, models, it also presented the reading strategies and dealt with the impact of text selection on reading comprehension achievement, it also stated the reading comprehension difficulties, as well as the teaching of reading comprehension whereas, the second chapter is the practical part of the present research methodology It explains the research methodology and the sample population that the study is concerned with, as well as the research instruments, data analysis and the main results The third chapter states some suggested activities for the of teaching / learning reading comprehension skill, they aim at enhancing the students’ capacities and at enriching their vocabulary knowledge for the sake of facilitating the task for better understanding The main results reveal that grade 10 students have problems in reading comprehension performance at the level of pronunciation, and coming-across ambiguous words which prevent them from understanding the passage It has been also noticed that the reading materials and text selection have an impact on the learners’ reading achievement Some limitations were raised during the accomplishment of this research work, in which teachers were on strike, and this made data collection difficult Another factor was the students low 44 proficiency level that obliged the researcher to write the questionnaire in dialectal Arabic for the sake of obtaining valid data 45 REFERENCES Brown, D.S (1989) A World of Books: An Annotated Reading List for ESL/EFL Students (2nd ed.) Washington, DC: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Brown, D.S (1994) Books for a Small Planet: A Multicultural-Intercultural Bibliography From Young Young English Learners Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Devine, T G (1986) Teaching reading comprehension: From theory to practice Boston: Allyn and Bacon Harris, R (2000) Rethinking writing Indiana University Press Frank, S (1997) Reading with nonsense Teachers College Press Goodman, K (1967) Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game Journal of the Reading Specialist, 6, 126-135 Richards, Platt, J and Platt, H (1992) Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics London: Longman Leipzig, D H (2001) What is reading? WETA Paul, O (2009) LD SAT Study Guide: Test Prep and Strategies for Students with Learning Disabilities, New York, Alpha Publisher 10 Grable, W (1995) Why is it so Difficult to Make Extensive Reading the Key Component of L2 Reading Instruction? TESOL Quarterly, 25, 375- 406 11 Catherine, S (2014) Reading for Understanding: Toward an R & D Program in Reading Comprehension Washington, RAND Corporation 46 12 Pressley, M (1977) Imagery and children’s learning: Putting the picture in developmental perspective Review of Educational Research 47, pp 586–622 13 Hornby, A.S (2001) Oxford advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English Sixth Edition, New York: Oxford University Press 14 Ogle, D M (1986) K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text The Reading Teacher 38(6), pp 564–570 15 Tierney, R J (1982) Essential considerations for developing basic reading comprehension skills School Psychology Review 11(3), pp 299–305 16 Duarte, N and Barner V (2005) Reading Comprehension in Teaching English as Foreign Language 17 Fajar, S (2009) The Difficulties Faced by Students in Reading Comprehension Section of National Examination (Unpublished) Banda Aceh: Syiah Kuala University 18 Pugh, L (1978) Pratice Makes Perfect English Articleand Determines Up Close New York, Mc Graw Hill Education 19 Elley, W B (1991) Acquiring literacy in a second language: the effect of book-based programs.Language Learning 41(3) 375-411 20 Krashen (1989,1993) Second Language Acquisition Theory and Pedagogy New York and London 21 Stanovich, K E., & Cunningham, A E (1993) Where does knowledge come from? Specific associations between print exposure and information acquisition Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 211- 229 47 APPENDIX What type of reading materials you most prefer? Notes Books for school Books for pleasure Newsprint Other What is your purpose from reading? Reading for getting the general knowledge Reading for pleasure Reading to enrich the vocabulary knowledge Reading for academic researches Do you think that reading strategies would improve your reading skills? Agree Neutral Disagree Do you usually reading strategies such as KWL, scanning, and other skills when taking a reading comprehension test? Usually Rarely 48 No using What difficulties that you face when reading? Ambiguous words Reading aloud Pronunciation difficulties Meaning of words Do you find it difficult and lack of confidence when reading long sentences? Yes No Sometimes Is the time devote for reading session is sufficient? Yes No How long does it take to complete a reading test? 10 minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes 49 What will you if you not understand when reading? Translate to Vietnamese Use dictionary Stop reading 10 Do you look up the word you could not figure out? Yes No 11 Do you often use the information you have to guess the meaning of the word that you not understand ? Usually Sometimes Never 12 Do you try to grasp the general idea of a sentence before going to read the next sentence? Yes No 13 From 1-3 as the essential to less essential How you access the essence of vocabulary and grammar in reading ? Essential 50 Less essential Not essential 14 What is the most important component in doing reading comprehension? Vocabulary Background knowledge Grammar Summarize the main idea 15 Do you understand the grammatical structure of the test? Sometimes Usually Seldom Never The data will be collected by giving the task to the students and asking them to answer the questionnaire Then the data will be gathered from students and analyzed by the researcher 51 ... skill since most of learners have many reading issues The purpose of this present work is to investigate on these reading difficulties that grade 10 students at the Asian International Highschool. .. comprehension in Asian International Highschool 3 This study aimed at investigating the problems in English reading skill as perceived by 115 students who are learning English program at Asian International. .. researcher had stated that the purpose of this research was to find out the difficulties faced by the grade 10 students of Asian International Highschool in reading comprehension The students? ?? difficulties