AN ACTION RESEARCH ON READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION FOR 11TH GRAGE STUDENTS AT AN DUONG VUONG HIGH SCHOOL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ TUỆ MINH AN ACTION RESEARCH ON READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION FOR 11TH GRAGE STUDENTS AT AN DUONG VUONG HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ HƯỚNG DẪN CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT AN DƯƠNG VƯƠNG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ TUỆ MINH AN ACTION RESEARCH ON READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION FOR TH 11 GRAGE STUDENTS AT AN DUONG VUONG HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ HƯỚNG DẪN CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT AN DƯƠNG VƯƠNG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr, Đỗ Thị Thanh Hà Hanoi, 2014 THE CANDIDATE’S STATEMENTS I, hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at ULIS or any other educational institutions The thesis has not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at ULIS or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis The candidate Vũ Tuệ Minh i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Do Thi Thanh Ha, for supporting me from the proposal stage to the completion of my thesis She helped me begin my project and provided guidance and suggestions throughout all of my drafts She spent a great deal of time working with me to help me through the multi-step research process by emails or in person She tirelessly edited my thesis proposals, drafts and final thesis I would also like to thank the staff and students at my school for their support They assisted my goals by being flexible, lending resources and engaging in informal discussions about my challenges over the course of the project Most importantly, I wish to acknowledge my family, who has patiently allowed me the time to work on my thesis They were invaluable to the success of this paper and I thank them for believing in my accomplishments Hanoi, September 2014 Vu Tue Minh ii ABSTRACT This action research project was conducted to enhance students’ reading comprehension in a regular 11th grade classroom through their awareness and use of reading strategies Data were collected through a number of instruments: pre and post assessment tests, the Metacognitive Strategy Index (MSI) The results reveal the learners’ development in their use of reading strategies, better knowledge of the reading strategies These results raise interesting issues related to the use of reading strategy instruction in the context of foreign language learning This can help teachers think further what treatment should be conducted for the sake of the students' success in continuing their English learning However, given certain limitations in teaching, teachers should moderate any expectations of achieving rapid success iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1- The Bottom- up and the Top- down Model Processing 10 Figure 2- The Interactive Model Processing 11 Figure 3- Percentage scores for the targeted 11th grade students of the Pre- 17 assessment Test Figure 4- Percentage of correct responses for MSI by the targeted 11 grade 18 students Figure 5- Percentage of correct responses for MSI by the targeted 11 grade 19 students Figure 6- Percentage of correct responses for MSI by the targeted 11 grade 20 students Figure 7- A comparison of percentages of pre-test and post-test responses 29 for the MSI for the targeted 11 grade students Figure 8- A comparison of percentages of pre-test and post-test responses 30 for the MSI for the targeted 11 grade students Figure 9- A comparison of percentages of pre-test and post-test responses 31 for the MSI for the targeted 11 grade students Figure 10- Pre-test and post-test scores for the Assessment Test for the targeted 11 grade students iv 32 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ULIS- University of Language and International Studies EFL- English as Foreign Language ESL- English as Second Language L1- The first language L2- The second language ELT- English Language Teaching ALPs- annual learning plans FL- Foreign Language MSI- Metacognitive Strategy Index PET- Preliminary English Test v LIST OF APPENDICES Page Appendix A- Pre -Assessment Test I Appendix B- Post -Assessment Test VIII Appendix C- Metacognitive Strategy Index XIV Appendix D- Sample Lesson Plan XXI vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CANDIDATE’S STATEMENTS……………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………… iii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………… iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………………… v LIST OF APPENDICES……………………………………………………… vi TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………… vii PART A - INTRODUCTION………………………………………………… 1 General Problem Statement………………………………………………… Objectives of the Study……………………………………………………… The significance of the study………………………………………………… Research questions…………………………………………………………… The scope of the study……………………………………………………… Methods of the study………………………………………………………… Organization of the study…………………………………………………… PART B- DEVELOPMENT………………………………………………… CHAPTER – THE LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………… 1 The concept of Reading and Reading Comprehension…………………… 1.1.Reading………………………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Reading Comprehension………………………………………………… 1.2 Reading Strategies………………………………………………………… 1.3 Importance of Reading Strategies………………………………………… Components of Reading Comprehension Improvement………………… 1.4.1 Vocabulary……………………………………………………………… 1.4 Reading Strategy Instruction…………………………………………… 1.4.3 Cognition………………………………………………………………… vii 1.5 Cognitive Strategy Instruction…………………………………………… 12 1.6 Previous Work on Reading Strategies in EFL…………………………… 14 CHAPTER – RESEARCH METHODS……………………………………… 15 The Research’s Context…………………………………………………… 15 2.1 Immediate Problem Context…………………………………………… 15 2.1 2.National Context of the Problem………………………………………… 15 2.1 Problem Evidence……………………………………………………… 16 2.2 Methods of the Study……………………………………………………… 20 2.2.1 The Action Research Approach………………………………………… 20 2.2 Project Action Plan……………………………………………………… 21 2 Teaching Materials……………………………………………………… 22 2 The syllabus…………………………………………………………… 23 2 The Reading Strategy Instruction …………………………… 24 2 Data collecting instruments…………………………………………… 26 CHAPTER – DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION…………………… 29 3.1 The Findings of the Study………………………………………………… 29 3.2 Discussions………………………………………………………………… 32 PART C- CONCLUSION ………………….………………………………… 34 Conclusions………………………………………………………………… 34 Pedagogical Implications…………………………………………………… 34 Limitations and suggestions for further research…………………………… 35 Reflections…………………………………………………………………… 35 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………… 37 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………… I viii ... NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ TUỆ MINH AN ACTION RESEARCH ON READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION FOR TH 11 GRAGE STUDENTS. .. of reading skills in English using the regular English text book 11 and Interaction Access and to its participants of 11th grade students at An Duong Vuong High School The choice of participants... enhance the students? ?? participation in English reading classes of the 11th grade students at An Duong Vuong High School The second is to propose some effective ways for teaching reading comprehension