MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRỊNH THỊ HUYÊN EFL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ACADEMIC TASKS Field Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code 8140111 SUPER[.]
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY TRỊNH THỊ HUYÊN EFL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN READING ACADEMIC TASKS Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: LÊ NHÂN THÀNH, PhD BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN TRỊNH THỊ HUYÊN NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG CÁC LOẠI BÀI TẬP ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH Ngành: Lý luận phƣơng pháp dạy học môn Tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN: TS LÊ NHÂN THÀNH i STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Date: Signed: Trinh Thi Huyen ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been completed without the encouragement and support from several individuals and groups to whom I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude during the stressful time of writing this paper First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr Le Nhan Thanh, for his support, patience, and encouragement throughout my study His technical and editorial advice was essential to the completion of this paper and has taught me innumerable lessons and insights on the workings of academic research in general I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work My sincere thanks also go to the teachers at the Department of Foreign Languages, Quy Nhon University for the useful knowledge that they taught me during the time I attended the M.A course I would also like to thank the teachers and students at Ly Tu Trong school for their untiring supports to this research paper Without their passionate participation and input, the study could not have been successfully conducted Last but not least, I owe an unpaid debt to all the generous support, love, and care from my beloved families and friends, which has given me more strength, belief, and motivation to overcome all the troubles in the whole process of this research Finally, I offer my regards and blessing to all of those who supported me in the completion of the thesis iii ABSTRACT Reading comprehension is an important skill in learning English because students with poor reading comprehension often face academic challenges In order to help students acquire good reading competence at school, it is essential to find out what difficulties they face in reading comprehension tasks Therefore, this study aims to explore difficulties that secondary school students encounter in their English reading comprehension tasks by investigating their perceptions of the causes of the difficulties The study was conducted at Ly Tu Trong Secondary School, Gia Lai Province with the participation of 90 students The data for this study was collected through questionnaires and 12 semi-structured interviews Among eight groups of factors, including both linguistic or non-linguistic factors, poor grammar knowledge was perceived as the factor causing most difficulties for the students in their reading comprehension tasks, followed by lack of content knowledge, lack of vocabulary, lack of background knowledge, and lack of reading strategies In contrast, non-linguistic factors including psychological factors, institutional factors, and physical factors were not perceived as the causes for difficulties with reading comprehension tasks The results from the analysis of the interviews supported those from the questionnaires They affirmed that lack of vocabulary, grammar knowledge, background knowledge, content knowledge, and reading strategies were the major causes of difficulties for the students in doing reading comprehension tasks Based on the findings, implications for educators, school administrators, and EFL teachers are addressed, and further studies are suggested iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1.BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.2.RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1.3.AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.3.1 Aim of the study 1.3.2 Objectives of the study 1.4.RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.5.SCOPE OF THE STUDY 1.6.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.7.ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.READING AND READING COMPREHENSION 2.2.THE IMPORTANCE OF READING COMPREHENSION 10 2.3.TYPES OF READING 12 2.4.READING DIFFICULTIES AND FACTORS INFLUENCING READING DIFFICULTIES 16 2.4.1 Reading difficulties 16 2.4.2 Factors influencing reading difficulties 17 2.4.3 Previous studies 30 2.4.4 Research gaps 34 2.5.SUMMARY 34 v CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 35 3.1.RESEARCH APPROACH 35 3.2.RESEARCH SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS 36 3.3.DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 37 3.3.1 Questionnaires 38 3.3.2 Interviews 40 3.4.DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES 41 3.4.1 Administering the questionnaires 41 3.4.2 Administering the interviews 42 3.5.DATA ANALYSIS METHODS 43 3.6.RESEARCH RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 44 3.7.LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 45 3.8.SUMMARY 45 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 47 4.1.RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES 47 4.1.1 Difficulties caused by linguistic factors 49 4.1.2 Difficulties caused by non-linguistic factors 51 4.2.RESULTS FROM THE INTERVIEW 57 4.3.DISCUSSIONS 60 4.3.1 Discussion of difficulties caused by linguistic factors 60 4.3.2 Discussion of difficulties caused by non-linguistic factors 62 4.4.SUMMARY 65 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 67 5.1.SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS 67 5.2.RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS 68 5.2.1 Implications for students 68 5.2.2 Implications for school administrators 71 5.2.3 Implications for teachers 71 vi 5.3.LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 72 5.4.RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 73 REFERENCES 75 APPENDICES v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language FL: Foreign language L1: First Language L2: Second Language SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences vi LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Background information of the participants 37 Table 3.2 Process of conducting the survey 39 Table 3.3 Mean Range for Agreement Degree 44 Table 3.4 Reliability Statistics 45 Table 4.1 Students‟ perceptions towards causes of difficulties in reading comprehension tasks 47 Table 4.2 A comparison between linguistic and non- linguistic factors 56 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Quantitative data collection procedure 42 Figure 3.2 Qualitative data collection procedure 43 ... 2.1 .READING AND READING COMPREHENSION 2.2.THE IMPORTANCE OF READING COMPREHENSION 10 2.3.TYPES OF READING 12 2.4 .READING DIFFICULTIES AND FACTORS INFLUENCING READING DIFFICULTIES. .. of the difficulties of students in doing reading comprehension tasks and which factors explain these difficulties Therefore, the research findings will provide important insights into looking at... an in- depth analysis of the arguments and concepts of EFL reading comprehension and related issues like reading and reading comprehension, reading difficulties, and factors attributed to reading