An Investigation On The Effectiveness Of L1-L2 Glossing In Reading Comprehension Lessons Of The First Year Non-English Major Students At Food Industry College.pdf

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU NGA AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF L1 L[.]

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU NGA AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF L1-L2 GLOSSING IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS OF THE FIRST YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FOOD INDUSTRY COLLEGE Nghiên cứu tính hiệu lời giải ngôn ngữ thứ ngôn ngữ thứ hai đọc hiểu sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hà Nội- 2015 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU NGA AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF L1-L2 GLOSSING IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS OF THE FIRST YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FOOD INDUSTRY COLLEGE Nghiên cứu tính hiệu lời giải ngôn ngữ thứ ngôn ngữ thứ hai đọc hiểu sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà Hà Nội- 2015 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation on the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College.” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees Ha Noi, October 2015 Tran Thi Thu Nga i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like primarily to thank Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been possible without her constant support and encouragement Her patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper I regard myself extremely fortunate in having her as my dissertation supervisor I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical as well as practical knowledge My special thanks go to my colleague at the English Group, Department of Basic Sciences and Technique Studies at Food Industrial College (FIC) who has helped me enthusiastically teach reading lessons by applying L1-L2 glossing technique and collect data through the interview I never forget to express my thanks to 40 first-year students in the class K8TP at Food Industrial College Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my devoted parents, my sister, my husband and my lovely daughter who gave me time and encouraged me to complete this study ii ABSTRACT Some researchers (e.g., Anderson, 2003 & Carrell, 1988) claim that reading is one of the most essential and important skills which language learners need to master However, the majority of students at FIC express that reading in English is a challenging problem for them because most of the reading texts in English contain a lot of unknown words; whereas their amount of vocabulary is limited This causes students‟ reading comprehension to decrease sharply Accordingly, it is necessary to find out an effective way to increase the students‟ reading comprehension This study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College and the students and the teacher‟s attitudes toward using this technique The participants included one English teacher and 40 non-major English students from the class K8TP The participants took part in the intervention stage in an action research project which L1-L2 glossing technique was applied in the second semester of the first academic year The data were collected through classroom observation, survey questionnaire for students and interview for the teacher The results showed that L1-L2 glossing improved considerably students‟ reading comprehension in three aspects: students‟ reading comprehension ability, motivation and vocabulary extension In addition, the study also indicated that the teacher and most of the students had positive attitudes toward this technique Some pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies were included in this study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS vi LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study .1 Aims of the study .3 Research questions of the study .3 Scope of the study .3 Methods of the study .4 Significance of the study Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW Reading and reading comprehension 1.1 Definition of reading 1.2 Definition of reading comprehension The roles of vocabulary in reading comprehension .9 The overview of glossing .10 3.1 Definition of glossing 10 3.2 Types of vocabulary glossing .11 3.3 Positions of vocabulary glossing 12 3.4 The importance of vocabulary glossing in reading comprehension 13 Related previous studies on the effect of glossing on reading comprehension 16 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 18 2.1 Context of the study .18 iv 2.1.1 Setting of the study 18 2.1.2 Participants .19 2.1.3 Reading materials 20 2.2 Research method 21 2.3 Research procedure .22 CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 26 3.1 The effectiveness of L1-L2 vocabulary glossing in reading comprehension lessons 26 3.1.1 Improvement in terms of students‟ reading comprehension ability 26 3.1.2 Improvement in terms of students‟ motivation 27 3.1.3 Improvement in terms of vocabulary extension 29 3.2 Students’ attitudes in the lessons using L1-L2 glossing 31 3.2.1 Findings from survey questionnaire for students 32 3.2.2 Findings from classroom observation and interview for the teacher 35 3.3 The teacher’s attitudes when using L1-L2 glossing in reading lesson 36 3.4 Concluding remarks 37 PART III: CONCLUSION .38 Summary of the study 39 Pedagogical implications 39 Limitations and suggestions for further research 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX III APPENDIX 3A V APPENDIX 3B VI APPENDIX IX APPENDIX X v LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes FIC: Food Industry College GE: General English L1: First language L2: Second language OHP: Overhead Projectors vi LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS Figure 1: Action research cycle…………………………………………………….22 Table 1: Students‟ attitudes toward the benefits of L1-L2 glossing …………… 32 Chart 1: Students‟ improvement in reading comprehension ability……………….26 Chart 2: Students‟ improvement in motivation…………………………………….28 Chart 3: Students‟ improvement in vocabulary extension…………………… .29 Chart 4: Students‟ interest in L1-L2 glossing….………………………………… 32 Chart 5: Students‟ attitudes toward the benefits of L1-L2 glossing… 34 Chart 6: The learners‟ view on the use of L1-L2 glossing in the future… .35 vii PART I: INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the design of the study Rationale of the study In today‟s world, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored since English is used as an effective medium of international communication With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including education, trade, science, technology, tourism, sport, music and many other fields of life To master English, the students need to grasp all the four skills that are closely related to one another: listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly when it helps build a variety of language expressions and structures; widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills According to Anderson (2003:2), "reading is an essential skill for learners of English For most of learners it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning With strengthened reading skills, learners of English tend to make greater progress in other areas of language learning” Carrell (1988:1) also argues that “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” For many university and college students in Vietnam who study English as a part of their general education requirement, reading has long been considered an essential skill For them; however, reading in English can be an ordeal, often because of the great amount of unknown vocabulary that makes it difficult or even impossible to get the main ideas or specific details of a text One of the common techniques many researchers used to make L2 reading more effective is to gloss unfamiliar words or ... investigating the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College and the students and the teacher‟s attitudes... reading comprehension; the role of vocabulary in reading comprehension; the overview of glossing including definition, types and positions of glossing, the importance of glossing in reading comprehension; ... investigation on the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College.” is the result of my own research for the Degree