iii LIST OF TABLES Table 2 1 Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990 119) Table 4 1 Analysis of questionnaires Question 1 Table 4 2 Analysis of questionnaires Questi[.]
iii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990:119) Table 4.1 Analysis of questionnaires: Question Table 4.2 Analysis of questionnaires: Question Table Analysis of questionnaires : Metacognitive reading strategies Table 4.4: Analysis of questionnaires : Cognitive reading strategies Table 4.5 Illustrates responses concerning two subtypes of social/affective strategies Table 4.6 Analysis of interviews : Question Table 4.7 Analysis of interviews : Question Table 4.8: Analysis of interviews: Question iv ABSTRACT “Strategic learning is the key to student success in any endeavor I view learning by strategies as the foundation for lifelong learning” (P Hardin in Anderson, 1999:73) The important role of English reading comprehension is apparent for any students who have a good command of English Good reading comprehension not only widens students’ knowledge but also fulfils other skills For non English major students in Yen Vien high school, reading has been paid more attentions to as they have to take the examinations which are grammar-and reading-based However, they have encountered a lot of difficulties in reading skills Language reading strategies are among the main factors that help determine how - and how well - our students learn a second or foreign language This study aims to investigate the reading awareness of 11th grade students in Yen Vien high school The result of the study varies among good and poor English readers This study has also given some suggestions to reduce their reading difficulties and enhance students’ reading capacity by equipping them with some reading strategies that help students obtain desirable results in learning reading v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration……………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………… ii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………… iii Abstract………………………………………………………………………… iv PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problems and rationale of the study…………………………… 1 Aims of the Study……………………………………………………………… 3 Research Questions…………………………………………………………… Research Methodology………………………………………………………… Scope of the Study……………………………………………………………… Significance of the study……………………………………………………… Design of the Study……………………………………………………………… PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 What is Reading and Reading Comprehension? 2.1 What is Reading? 2.1.2 What is Reading Comprehension? 2 Classification of reading……………………………………………………… 2.2.1 According to manner………………………………………………………… vi 2.2.2 According to the purposes of reading……………………………………… 2.3 Reading strategies and the importance of strategy training…………………… 11 2.3.1 Reading strategies…………………………………………………………… 11 2.3.2 The importance of strategy training………………………………………… 15 2.4 The teacher’s role in strategy training………………………………………… 15 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………… 18 2.1 Participants and settings of the study ……………………………………… 18 2.1.1 Participants: ……………………………………………………………… 18 2.1.2 Settings of the study ……………………………………………………… 18 2.2 Instruments of data collection …………………………………………… 18 2.3 Summary …………………………………………………………………… 19 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………… 19 3.1 Results ………………………………………………………………………… 19 3.1.1 Questionnaires ……………………………………………………………… 19 3.1.1.1 Readers' attitudes to reading comprehension………………………… 19 vii 3.1.1 Readers’ factors affecting reading comprehension …………………… 21 3.1.1 Reading strategies………………………………………………………… 25 3.1.1 3.1 Metacognitive reading strategies …………………………………… 25 3.1.1.3.2 Cognitive reading strategies …………………………………………… 28 3.1.1.3.3 Social/affective strategies ……………………………………………… 31 3.2 Interviews ……………………………………………………………………… 32 3.3 Summaries of main findings ………………………………………………… 37 3.3.1 Reading strategies ………………………………………………………… 37 3.3.2 Readers' attitudes to reading comprehension …………………………… 38 3.4 Discussion of main findings………………………………………………… 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………… 40 4.1 Summary of main findings…………………………………………………… 41 4.2 Implications of the study…………………………………………………… 43 viii 4.3 Limitations …………………………………………………………………… 44 4.4 Suggestions for further research …………………………………………… 45 References…………………………………………… Appendix …………………………………………… -1- PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problems and rationale of the study Internationally, teaching English has changed tremendously over the last few decades More significantly, the traditional teacher-centered approach has been replaced with the learner-centered one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making responsive to learner’s need and interests and allowing to learners to play a more active and participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes Therefore, no longer does the teacher act as the centre of all instructions, controlling every aspect of the learning process Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for successful language acquisition and in doing so, are becoming less dependent on the language teacher for meeting their own individual language needs Students are advised to become more autonomous, to diagnose some of their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to self-direct the process of language development In the field of second language acquisition research, focus has been shifted away from finding perfect teaching methodologies to investigating why some learners are very successful in their language learning while others are not although they have made much effort learning the language Several studies have been carried out by Oxford (1990), O’Malley and Chamot (1990) Nunan (1991), Rubin and Thomson (1994) and Cohen (1998) have discovered that one of the most significant factors that distinguish successful learners from unsuccessful one is their learning strategies In other words, successful learners use some effective strategies to deal with the problems that emerge during their learning process while unsuccessful ones are not aware of learning strategies or they may use unsuccessful ones or inappropriate or ineffective strategies resulting in their failure in their language learning This finding has provoked interests among researchers and teachers in identifying learning strategies employed by good language learners with a view to training bad learners to be aware of effective learning strategies and use effective strategies in their English study In Vietnam, the English language plays an important role in the increasing development of science, technology, politics, culture and international relation There is a -2- greater demand for teaching and learning through the country for different purposes Moreover, English has become a compulsory subject in the state examination and it is one of three subjects for the entrance examination of some universities Some studies into this field have been conducted with different types of learners to find out particular strategies employed by effective and ineffective students in order to help the effective ones aware of leaning strategies such as Huyen Tran’s study (2004) on vocabulary learning strategies used by students of English at Qui Nhon university or Mai Duong’s study (2005) on writing strategies employed by the first – year students at HaNoi National University However, Such studies are scare, thus, more research should be done to help more learners use appropriate strategies in their different settings At Yen Vien high school, students are supposed to master all four skills presented in the standard text books “Tieng Anh 10”, “Tieng Anh 11”and “Tieng Anh 12” After three years at high school, they have to pass the GCSE and the entrance examination of some universities and colleges with rather challenging tests Students can not pass such examinations without being equipped with effect strategies However, with the limitations of a high school, the number of students who even not know learning strategies is not small With ten-year experience of teaching English at Yen Vien high school, reading is considered one of the most difficult skill for Yen Vien’s students especially the 11th grade ones Although they know the importance of reading and they have also tried their best, their test scores are not satisfactory due to both subjective and objective causes Their low reading comprehension results from not only their own causes as their lack of vocabulary, grammar and background knowledge, but also some other factors such as the textbook, motivation in class, the teaching staff and their reading teaching methods, schedule, administration and so on With a view to bettering the situation, Both teachers and learners have to adapt However, it is necessary for students to have appropriate reading strategies Therefore, I intend to examine the awareness of English reading (henceforth called reading) strategies of 11th grade students at Yen Vien high school in this study and find out the differences in the strategies used by students of higher reading abilities and those of lower reading abilities Based on the finding, I am going to make some recommendations to improve the students’ reading proficiency -3- Aims of the Study The study aims at finding out the strategies Vietnamese 11th grade students use when they read English so that improvement of the quality of teaching and learning English reading as a second language in the upper secondary education for Vietnamese students could be achieved To achieve this aim, the study sets out to obtain these specific objectives: To investigate the awareness and possible use of reading strategies of 11th grade students at a Vietnamese high school when they read English, To explore possible ways for improving the students’ English reading proficiency level Research Questions To achieve the aims of the thesis, the following research questions were proposed with questions and addressing the first aim and question the second aim): 1) What are the levels of awareness and use of English reading comprehension strategies of Vietnamese 11th grade students? 2) Do the good readers (11th grade students) have different awareness and use of reading strategies from the medium and weak ones? 3) What can be done to help Vietnamese grade 11th poor readers to improve their reading comprehension level? Research Methodology This study is to be conducted as a descriptive one that employed a written questionnaire and interview to collect information about students’ awareness and possible use of reading strategies The data collected were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to help the author achieve the aim of the study, that is answers to research questions and to deal with aim number and research question with aim Scope of the Study -4- The study is designed to explore the 11th students’ awareness and possible use of reading strategies in Yen Vien high school in order to make some methodological recommendations for English learners This study is, therefore, descriptive by nature The subjects of the study are three groups of 11th grade students in seven classes Three hundred and eighteen students divided into three groups based on the levels of English measured by end-term English test scores All of them are living in Gia Lam district They all have learned English for five years ( four years in lower secondary school and one year in upper secondary school) Based on their English test score of the final examination and the whole year, I divide three hundred and eighteen 11th grade students into three groups: 1st group consists of 68 students (with the total test score from to 10), 2nd group consists of 200 students (with the total test core from to 6) and 50 students in the third group (with the total test below 5) Significance of the study The study helps solve the problem of uplifting the quality of English reading of Vietnamese grade 11 students It would enable the teaching and learning of English to be more effective and efficient Above all, it would help to promote reading power of students and this is very important to them in study as well as in their future jobs It is also hoped that the study would make some valuable contributions to the field of language teaching methodology Results obtained from the study can help English teachers to enhance their teaching with Vietnamese students especially with poor readers On the other hand, students can use the suggested techniques to self-improve their English learning Design of the Study: This study consists of parts with part dividing into chapters: Part 1: Introduction This part supplies an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the methodology and the design Part 2: Chapter deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of the research It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research such as reading and reading comprehension, classification of reading, strategies and the importance of strategy training as well as the teacher’s role in strategy training - 11 - Besides, we will have to consider the seven main factors connected with reading success They are: Physical condition, Speed of reading, Oral reading, Vocabulary , Reading comprehension , Ability to use references, Pattern of reading All these relate to the success for the students in developing the skills, habits, and attitudes that contribute to efficient reading Among these factors, whether students make use of effective reading strategies for their comprehension or not is chosen as a theme of this study as it is within the reach of students or students can be better trained for these purposes Reading strategies and the importance of strategy training 2.3.1 Defining strategies Nunan (1991) defined learning strategies as “a communicative procedure learners use in order to learn and use a language” According to Scarcella and Oxford (1992: 63) learning strategies are “ specific actions, behavior, steps, or techniques – such as seeking out conversation partner, or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task – used by students to enhance their own learning” Language learning strategies have been classified by many scholars For example, Rubin classified them as language learning strategies, Communication Strategies and Social strategies Oxford (1990: 9) divided language strategies into two main classes, direct and indirect The former consists of memory, cognitive and compensation strategies while the latter includes metacognitive, affective and social strategies According to Stern (1992:262-266), there are five main language learning strategies, these are Management and Planning Strategies, Cognitive Strategies, CommunicativeExperiential Strategies, Interpersonal Strategies, Affective Strategies O’Malley and Chamot’s framework has been the most useful and generally accepted In their framework, there are three major types name as metacognitve, cognitive, social awareness “Metacognitive” strategies are responsible for planning, and arranging learning, centering one’s learning, and self-monitoring “Cognitive” strategies involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself and are responsible for marking new words in a text, memorizing by sentences, taking notes, etc - 12 - “Socio/affective” strategies have to with cooperation with other learners, relaxation, asking questions (see Table 2.1) Table 2.1 Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990:119) Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990:119) Learning strategies Definition A METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES Planning advance organizers Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to be learned, often by skimming the text for the organizing principle |Directed attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to ignore irrelevant distracters Functional planning Planning for and rehearing linguistic components necessary to Selective attention carry out an upcoming task Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often by scanning for key words, concepts and/ or linguistic markers Self - management Understanding the conditions that help one learn and arranging for the presence of those conditions Monitoring Self - monitoring Checking one's comprehension during listening or reading checking the accuracy and/or appropriateness - 13 - of one's oral or written production while it is taking place Evaluation Self - evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's own language against a standard after it has been completed B COGNITIVE STRATEGIES Resourcing Using target language reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, or textbooks Repetition Imitating a language model, including overt practice and silent rehearsal Grouping Deduction Classifying words, terminology or concepts according to the attributes or meaning Applying rules to understand or produce the second language making up rules based on language analysis Imaginary Using visual images (either mental or actual) to understand or remember new information Auditory representation Planning back in one's mind the sound of a word, phrase or longer language sequence Key word method Remember a new word in the second language by: (l) identifying a familiar word in the first language that sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word, and (2) generating easily recalled images of some relationship with the first language homonym and the new word in the second language - 14 - Elaboration Relating new information to prior knowledge, relating different parts of new information to each other, or making meaningful personal associations with the new information Transfer Using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist Inferencing comprehension or production Using available information to guess meaning of new items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information Notetaking Writing down key words or concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numerical form while listening or reading summarizing Making a mental, oral or written summary of new information gained through listening or reading Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language by combining known elements in a new way Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or producing the second language C SOCIAL / AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES Question for clarification Eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanations, rephrasing, examples or verification Cooperation Working together with one or more peers to solve a problem, pool information, check a learning task, model a language activity, or get feedback on oral or written performance - 15 - Self – talk Reducing anxiety by using mental techniques that make one feel competent to the learning task 2.3.2 The importance of strategy training Training is a key component on the adoption of a new system and the efficient and effective use by the end users Just think of all the ‘shelf-ware’ and wasted money because nobody knew how to use the software Also think of all the times that users have complained that the tool does not work, yet the real cause is inadequate training To assist in this a training strategy must be developed A training strategy is basically an explanation of the process that will be used to provide training Below are some of the things to consider when creating a training strategy + Identify your targets training needs in terms of their involvement with the software being deployed Ensure that you also include the value each target group will receive by taking training + Review the training needs and define and current gaps and any potential future gaps + Define the training objectives + Create the training action plan (for each target audience) This should also define the necessary systems that are required to deliver training, and also define the training delivery mechanisms + Define how the training content will be created + Define how the training will be monitored + Define how the training will be assessed + Define the schedule training revisions The Teacher's Role in Strategy Training The language teacher aiming at training his students in using language learning strategies should learn about the students, their interests, motivations, and learning styles The teacher can learn what language learning strategies students already appear to be using, observing their behavior in class Do they ask for clarification, verification or correction? Do they cooperate with their peers or seem to have much contact outside of class with proficient foreign language users? Besides observing their behavior in class, the teacher - 16 - can prepare a short questionnaire so that students can fill in at the beginning of a course to describe themselves and their language learning Thus, the teacher can learn the purpose of their learning a language, their favorite / least favorite kinds of class activities, and the reason why they learn a language The teacher can have adequate knowledge about the students, their goals, motivations, language learning strategies, and their understanding of the course to be taught (Lessard-Clouston 1997:5) It is a fact that each learner within the same classroom may have different learning styles and varied awareness of the use of strategies The teacher cannot attribute importance to only one group and support the analytical approach or only give input by using the auditory mode The language teacher should, therefore, provide a wide range of learning strategies in order to meet the needs and expectations of his students possessing different learning styles, motivations, strategy preferences, etc Therefore, it can be stated that the most important teacher role in foreign language teaching is the provision of a range of tasks to match varied learning styles (Hall 1997:4) In addition to the students, the language teacher should also analyze his textbook to see whether the textbook already includes language learning strategies or language learning strategies training The language teacher should look for new texts or other teaching materials if language learning strategies are not already included within his materials The language teacher should also study his own teaching method and overall classroom style Analyzing his lesson plans, the language teacher can determine whether his lesson plans give learners chance to use a variety of learning styles and strategies or not The teacher can see whether his teaching allows learners to approach the task at hand in different ways or not The language teacher can also be aware of whether his strategy training is implicit, explicit, or both It should be emphasized that questioning himself about what he plans to before each lesson and evaluating his lesson plan after the lesson in terms of strategy training, the teacher can become better prepared to focus on language learning strategies and strategy training during the process of his teaching (LessardClouston 1997:5) The review of literature above points to the need to investigate the awareness and possible use of reading strategies so that improvement could be done that is the aim of the current study which seeks answers to the three research questions: - 17 - What are the levels of awareness and use of English reading comprehension strategies of Vietnamese 11th grade students? Do the good readers (11th grade students) have different awareness and use of reading strategies from the medium and weak ones? What can be done to help Vietnamese grade 11th poor readers to improve their reading comprehension level? - 18 - CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY The previous chapter has presented a literature review on learning strategies, theories of reading and reading strategies and provided a necessary theoretical background for the present study This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and analysis in the study It starts with a description of the participants and the setting of study It then describes data collection instruments and analysis procedures of the study 2.1 Participants and settings of the study 2.1.1 Participants: The research was carried out at Yen Vien high school with the participation of 318 11th form students, aged 16, both males and females To students, English is a compulsory subject in the schedule the English The classification of good readers, weak readers and average or medium readers was based on their English final results and their marks in second term examination with the assumption that the tests of English are both valid and reliable Good readers were the ones who got above 7, bad readers were the ones who got below and the medium readers are the ones who got their marks from to 2.1.2 Settings of the study The present study was conducted from early April to mid June 2011 when they were in the second semester of the school year Up to the time of the study, they have been studying English at Yen Vien high school for nearly two years and all of them have learned English for or years 2.2 Instruments of data collection and data analysis methods To obtain data for the study, two different instruments were employed: a survey questionnaire and interview a The questionnaire The questionnaire was designed with two main parts Part one asked about the students’ attitude towards the importance of reading skill (question 1) and the factors affecting this skill (question 2) Part two was about their reading strategies b The interview Besides questionnaires, interviews are regarded as a useful tool for collecting data in second language acquisition research and they are proved to be a very effective instrument - 19 - for data collection in strategies study Twelve students were chosen randomly from these three groups for more in-depth data which mainly focus on their awareness and possible use of strategies including metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies The reason why I used multiple approaches to data collection is that different method of data collection procedures may lead to different conclusions about their awareness of reading strategies Individual structured interviews were used to supplement the data collected from survey questionnaires Interviews were conducted in Vietnamese with three different groups of good, medium and weak readers in order to know the level of awareness and use of reading strategies and identify differences among them These interviews have truly provided a lot of valuable information about the reading habits of the subjects However, this process took me a lot of time and effort to complete Another disadvantage of interviews is it they may introduce elements of subjectivity and personal bias, and rapport may cause interviewees to respond in a certain way to please the interviewer To avoid these problems I had to assure my students that their answers did not affect the way I judged them so that they should answer honestly I also told them that only true answers contributed to the success of my study The collected data from questionnaire and interview were then analyzed both quantitatively (for descriptive statistics) and qualitatively (for tendency and patterns) according to the “interpretive model” proposed by Hatch (2002) 2.3 Summary This chapter reported the methodology employed for the study in terms of collection methods, participants, data collection procedures Description of participants and settings of the study was given The data collection instruments including questionnaires and interviews were also presented - 20 - CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The methodology used for the study was presented in the previous chapter including the participants, the data collection instruments and data analysis procedures By using such instruments as questionnaires, interviews, the study collected three sets of data on the participants' reading strategies This chapter reports results gained from the analysis of data elicited from each instrument 3.1 Results 3.1.1 Questionnaires The questionnaire that was administered to three hundred and eighteen 11th grade English learners including 68 good ones, 200 medium ones and 50 bad ones (respectively the school result of English reported at the end of the school year 2010-2011) There were 22 questions, of them, the first two questions asked about students' personal opinions on the importance of reading comprehension, their ideas of some factors affecting reading comprehension The rest of 20 questions investigated their reading strategies 3.1.1.1 Readers' attitudes to reading comprehension Question asks the participants how important reading comprehension is to their purpose for English learning by circling the most suitable option A Not important at all B Not important C A little important D Important E Very important Table 3.1 presents the different answers of the importance of reading comprehension among these three groups to the first question Table 3.1 Analysis of questionnaires: Question The importance of reading comprehension G (68 pupils) M (200 pupils) W (50 pupils) Im Un Im Un Im Un 62 173 27 13 37 91.18% 8.82% 86.50% 13.50% 26.00% 74.00% Number of participants Percentage (%) G-Good M-Medium W-Weak - 21 - Im-Important Un-Unimportant As can be seen in table 3.1, there was a significant difference among the good readers', medium readers’ and weak readers' answers to the first question of the importance of English reading comprehension Most 11 grade students at Yen Vien high school including good, medium ones think that reading comprehension important They were aware of the benefits of learning English The data about the importance of reading comprehension showed that 91.18% of the participants in good group and 86.50 % of the participants in average ones learn reading skill purposely For weak students, 26% students like English and they know that English is really important for them However, 74.00 % of weak students don’t know what they learn English for This gap really made me worried Almost all of participants thought that reading comprehension was important to their purpose of English learning The number of students who didn’t know that reading skill is important in these three groups, they didn’t pay attention to improving their reading efficiency or in other words they learned English without motivation Students having this attitude towards reading skill especially the weak ones must be taken into consideration Therefore, it is the teachers’ responsibility to change their attitudes and draw their attentions to this skill during their lesson Motivation and interest appear to be keys to any learning, especially to a foreign language It is easy to assume that without the strong motivation of the students, reading lesson would become boring and inefficient Teachers should vary pre-reading techniques and use them appropriate and flexibly such as using visual aids, using brainstorming web and giving pre-reading questions and so on so that they can make their lessons more attractive to weak learners and the others 3.1.1 Readers’ factors affecting reading comprehension Question 2a asks the 11th form student if they are aware of reading strategies for effective reading comprehension Analysis of questionnaires: Question 2a Factors contributing to good reading comprehension Theme G (68 pupils) Y N M (200 pupils) Y N W (50 pupils) Y N - 22 - 50 Question 2.a 18 92 G-Good M-Medium Y-Yes N-No 108 45 W-Weak Question 2.a 120 100 80 60 Question 2.a 40 20 Y N G (68 pupils) Y N M (200 pupils) Y N W (50 pupils) Looking at the chart, we can find out that poor readers are not as much aware of reading strategies as the good and the medium ones 73.58% of good readers used reading strategies while reading meanwhile only 10% of poor readers paid attention to reading strategies Only nearly half of the medium students not concentrate on reading strategies This can inferred that English reading strategies are not much used by 11th grade students at Yen Vien high school Question 2b asks the 11th form student to indicate the importance of the following factors to reading comprehension by circling the most suitable option A have a large English vocabulary B have a good knowledge of English grammar C have a good knowledge of the reading topic D have effective reading strategies Table 3.2 Analysis of questionnaires: Question 2b Factors contributing to good reading comprehension Theme G (68 pupils) M (200 pupils) W (50 pupils) - 23 - A Vocabulary B Grammar C Content D Strategies Im Un Im Un Im Un 61 188 12 45 52 16 178 22 42 48 20 145 55 17 33 59 103 27 33 96 This table was illustrated in the following chart below 200 150 Vocabulary Grammar 100 Content Strategies 50 Im Un Im Un Im Un G (68 pupils) M (200 pupils) W (50 pupils) Vocabulary 61 188 12 45 Grammar 52 16 178 22 42 Content 48 20 145 55 17 33 Strategies 59 96 103 27 33 Table 3.2 presents the results of good readers and bad readers' answers to the second Tải FULL (59 trang): https://bit.ly/3A2BgQ9 question in the questionnaire Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net As clearly shown in the table, there was no significant difference among responses given by good, medium and weak readers to question 2b A The good learners’ response to the importance of vocabulary totaled 89.71% (61/68), the average learners’ response accounted to 99% (188/200) and 90% (45/50) was the percentage of the weak group The greater percentage of participants of these three groups thought that a - 24 - large English vocabulary was important to reading comprehension Vocabulary, actually, is a language component that plays an important role in deciding a learner’s language proficiency It is central to language because it is considered as the basic building block of language, the unit of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and the whole text are formed For methodologists, vocabulary is considered as the strong foundation for learners to build up their communicative castles Concerning the significance of vocabulary, Wilkin (1972: 110) stated that “vocabulary is one of the three dimensions of a language Without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” I am very excited at the figure collected in the survey However, it will not be an advantage if learners pay too much attention on the meaning of words without concerning other Tải FULL (59 trang): https://bit.ly/3A2BgQ9 factors Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net For question 2b.B, students’ response on the importance of grammar was considered As can be seen from the chart, medium students had the largest percentage of students who were in favor of having a good grammar in reading comprehension ( 89% ), There was a slight fall in the number of weak students who considered grammar important (84%) While weak and medium readers were at nearly the same, those of good readers were a little varied 76% of them thought that grammar was important to their good reading comprehension In all, less students denied the importance of grammar when they did reading comprehension This trend was understandable At high schools, tests, examinations and event homework checking are grammar based Teachers and students focused on it most of the time However, in reading comprehension, paying too much attention to grammar may not lead to success For question 2b.C, attitudes of readers towards the importance of having a good knowledge of English grammar was measured From the chart, the differences between the responses given by the good and medium groups was small 70.59 percentage of good students and 72.50 percentage of medium cared for the content of their reading lessons but only 34 percentage of weak readers understand the reading topics when doing reading test Therefore, both good readers and medium readers thought that identifying the content of the reading was necessary On the other hand, only 34 % of the weak students agreed on the importance and 66% of them didn’t think the content of the reading was important - 25 - This gap may be a barrier banning the weak students have better marks and made them less successful As opposed to the results of the above questions, the last question (2b.D) concerning with the importance of reading strategies on reading comprehension showed a significant difference among the three groups 86.76% of good readers, 56.50% of medium readers and 60% of weak ones were in favor of the importance of reading strategies on reading comprehension The good readers claimed that effective reading strategies were important whereas nearly half of the bad and medium readers thought they were not important to reading comprehension 3.1.1.3 Reading strategies The next 20 questions were about the subjects' reading strategies These strategies were classified into metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies on the basis of O'Malley and Chamot's framework (1990) The following analysis utilized this framework in order to clarify the differences and similarities in the reading strategies employed by three different groups 3.1.1.3.1 Metacognitive reading strategies The first part deals with the analysis of 11th form learners’ metacognitive reading strategies As discussed in the previous chapter, the metacognitive reading strategies was categorized into three subtypes including advance organizers, directed attention and selective attention and there were two questions for each subtype Question 3: Advance organizers I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading Question 4: Selective attention To save time I read the text once or twice and I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions in order to answer them at the same time Question 5: Directed attention Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted Question 6: Directed attention I choose reading strategies according to your reading purposes 6815362 ... levels of awareness and use of English reading comprehension strategies of Vietnamese 11th grade students? 2) Do the good readers (11th grade students) have different awareness and use of reading. .. levels of awareness and use of English reading comprehension strategies of Vietnamese 11th grade students? Do the good readers (11th grade students) have different awareness and use of reading. .. quality of English reading of Vietnamese grade 11 students It would enable the teaching and learning of English to be more effective and efficient Above all, it would help to promote reading power of