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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ USE OF ANNOTATING[.]
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE AN INVESTIGATION INTO INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ USE OF ANNOTATING STRATEGY IN READING COMPREHENSION A minor thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By VUONG LY TO NHU Supervised by LE THI THANH, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who support me in completing my research First and foremost, I would like to owe my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thanh for her great patience proofreading my thesis drafts over and over again She also commented on my whole thesis with her expert guidance thoroughly and precisely Moreover, she always offers me positive encouragement to implement the current research I have never completed my thesis timely without her wholehearted support Secondly, I would also like to thank the Board of Directors and Board of Faculty of Foreign Languages at Van Lang University, who gave me good opportunities to take part in Master’s program Thirdly, my special thanks go to my colleague, Mr Nguyen Huu Ngoc, who gave me useful advice along with considerable assistance in accomplishing my thesis Fourthly, I would like to extend warmest thanks to my student participants who have spent valuable time completing my questionnaires as well as answering the interview questions Thanks to their active participation, I have finished my thesis Last but not least, I am profoundly indebted to my beloved parents who always provide me with deep understanding, great encouragement and continuous support Without them, I could have never overcome the obstacles in the way of completing my thesis i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “AN INVESTIGATION INTO INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ USE OF ANNOTATING STRATEGY IN READING COMPREHENSION” is the result of my own work This minor thesis has not previously been accepted for any degree and submitted in any other institutions ii RETENTION OF USE I hereby state that I, Vuong Ly To Nhu, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’ Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original copy of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan and reproduction of theses iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ii RETENTION OF USE iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF PICTURES xi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS x ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Needs for the study 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Scope of the study 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reading comprehension 2.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension 2.1.2 Levels of reading comprehension 2.1.3 Components of reading comprehension 2.2 Teaching reading comprehension in EFL classes 12 2.2.1 Reading comprehension strategies 12 2.2.2 Teaching reading comprehension through stages 13 2.2.2.1 Pre-reading stage 13 2.2.2.2 While-reading stage 15 2.2.2.3 Post-reading stage 16 2.3 Annotating strategy 17 2.3.1 Operational definitions 17 iv 2.3.2 The features of annotating strategy 18 2.3.3 The benefits of annotating strategy in reading comprehension 19 2.3.4 Annotating techniques 20 2.4 Review of previous studies 21 2.5 The conceptual framework 24 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 26 3.1 Research design 26 3.2 Research site 27 3.3 English courses at VLU 28 3.3.1 Levels of courses 28 3.3.2 The coursebook 29 3.4 Participants 31 3.5 Research tools 32 3.5.1 Observations 32 3.5.2 Documents 33 3.5.3 Tests 34 3.5.3.1 Test descriptions 34 3.5.3.2 Reliability and validity of tests 35 3.5.4 Focus group interviews 36 3.6 Data collection procedure 38 3.7 Data analysis procedure 39 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 41 4.1 Data analysis 41 4.1.1 The practice of applying annotating strategy in reading comprehension lessons 41 4.1.2 The effects of annotating strategy on students’ reading comprehension performance 49 4.1.2.1 Quantitative data 49 4.1.2.2 Qualitative data 53 4.2 Discussion 56 4.2.1 The application of annotating strategy in reading comprehension lessons 56 4.2.2 The effects of using annotating strategy on reading comprehension 59 v CHAPTER CONCLUSION 61 5.1 Conclusion 61 5.1.1 Research question 61 5.1.2 Research question 62 5.2 Pedagogical implications 62 5.3 Suggestions 63 5.2.1 For the teachers 63 5.2.2 For the students 64 5.4 Recommendations for further study 64 REFERENCES 65 APPENDICES 74 Appendix Observation form 74 Appendix Pretests 75 Appendix Posttests 80 Appendix The students’ documents 86 Appendix The scores of the pretests and posttests 98 Appendix The interview questions for students 100 Appendix The interview transscript (FG1) 101 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 The list of symbols for annotation proposed by Holschuh 18 and Aultman (2009) Table 2.2 Clarke’s classification of annotating strategy (2014) 21 Table 3.1 Summary of background information about English 29 courses at VLU Table 3.2 Coursebooks used in English courses at VLU 30 Table 3.3 Demographic characteristics of participants 32 Table 3.4 The details of classroom observations 33 Table 3.5 Descriptions of reading parts in PET series 35 Table 3.6 The details about students’ focus group interviews 37 Table 3.7 The summary of the research procedures 39 Table 4.1 The mean differences in the pretest and posttest 49 Table 4.2 The ranks of the pretest and posttest 50 Table 4.3 The p-value of the tests 51 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2.1 The model of reading comprehension components 10 Figure 2.2 A 11 Heuristic for Thinking About Reading Comprehension Figure 2.3 The conceptual framework 25 Figure 4.1 The boxplot of the difference between the pretests and 52 posttests viii LIST OF PICTURES Page Picture 4.1 The sample text with annotation shown by the teacher 44 Picture 4.2 The students’ summaries of each paragraph on the 46 Padlet platform ix Unit 4: Saving Our Seas 90 91 Unit 5: Memory and Learning 92 The posttest 93 94 95 96 97 APPENDIX The scores of the pretests and posttests 98 99 APPENDIX The interview questions for students Did you apply any reading strategies in completing reading tasks before the course? What you think about the test you did on the first day of the course? Did you have any problems doing it? What problems were there? What you think about the test you did on the last day learning reading? How did you it? How many annotating techniques were you instructed in this course? Among the three annotating techniques, which one is your favorite? Why? 100 APPENDIX Interview transcript (FG1) T: Hi everyone, how are you today? All students: I’m fine T: Good We’ll start now Is it ok? All students: Ok T: First, thank you all for being here today Now I have some questions to ask you about your application of the annotating strategy, the strategy that you learnt in the previous course Are you all ready? All students: Yes, ready, Miss! T: Good The first question… um… Did you apply any reading strategies in doing reading tasks before the course? All students: No… No… S3: This strategy was kind of new to me S4: Uh huh T: So, what you think about the test you did on the first day of the course? Did you have any problems doing it? All students: yes…yes…sure T: Can you share with me more? S1: It was so hard for me to the first reading test at the beginning of the course The test was so long and I could hardly find the answers for the reading questions S4: I must say it was too difficult for me I couldn’t manage to finish it within the time allowed I remember leaving almost half of the number of questions unanswered 101 T: What about you? What you think? S2: I have the same ideas as S1 S3: Me too S5 and S6: I think it was hard, too T: Ok, but I would like to know more details about that Can you tell me the reasons why you struggled with that test? S1: I believe the reason was that there were three reading texts and they were too long and as a result, I could not find all the answers for the questions S4: I think the major problem was that the reading texts were too long S2: I also think so T: OK What about the test you did on the last day learning reading? How did you it? S1: I found it easier because I knew how to approach it S2: I think I could it more effectively than the first test because I learnt how to each kind of question in the test S5: Yes, I agree The annotating strategies the teacher taught us are so useful I could apply them in the second test and I feel that I could it better S3: With the use of annotating strategies, I did the second test a lot more easily The recorded ideas in the margins helped me to keep track of the flow of the text and hence I finished the test without getting lost in a “jungle of words” T: Uh huh, so you think that the annotating strategies you learnt are very useful in helping you the reading tasks easily and more effectively? All students: Yes…That’s right… 102 S5: I believe my reading skills have improved a lot after I started to use annotating strategies I could better complete the reading tasks in the books as well as in the tests Also, I can see that I understand the reading content more than before S2 and S3: I think so, too S1: I agree T: Ok, thank you So far so good And how many annotating techniques were you instructed in this course? You remember? S1,2,3,5: S4: I don’t remember so clearly Maybe two or three So sorry S6: I think T: Really? Ok no worries Let’s review Can you help me to name them? All students: writing summaries, making the text and adding comments T: Yes, that’s correct You’ve got such a good memory So among the three annotating techniques, which one is your favorite and why? S2: I like writing summaries most because it helps me to actively focus on the points presented by the writer in the paragraph Hence, I can refer back to each summary to get to know the general ideas of the whole text S5: My favorite one could be writing summaries for each part of the text It is practical because it can be applied in reading any kind of text, not just doing reading exercises S6; I don’t know I think I like them all S4: To me, I found it interesting to annotate by marking the text with symbols For example, I could use a heart to mark something important, a flower for an interesting idea and a confusing face icon to mean something that I am doubtful about I can even draw in the text Marking the text in this way is so fun! 103 T: Ok, that’s good Thank you very much By the way, will you apply these strategies in reading next time? All students: Yes, for sure T: Very good I think that’s enough for our interview today Thank you again for being here and supporting me 104