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HONG DUC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN READING SKILLS OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Supervisor : M.A Nguyen Thi Ha Student : Le Thi Quynh Class : K20- FFL- HDU Course : 2017 - 2021 THANH HOA - 2021 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to M.A Nguyen Thi Ha - a lecturer of faculty of foreign languages, Hong Duc University for her enthusiastic guidance, assistance and encouragement My sincere thanks go to all the teachers in Faculty of Foreign Languages of Hong Duc University for their endless enthusiast, valuable teaching and tremendous assistance I would also like to thank students of Hong Duc University who enthusiastically help me complete the survey questionnaires Finally, I am very grateful to my family and all my friends who have helped and given me many encouragements as well as supplied me with materials during the time this graduation paper was done Thanh Hoa, May 2021 Quynh Le Thi Quynh ii ABSTRACT This is an action research project conducted in reading skills in the first term for the first-year English majors at Hong Duc University After finding that English reading skills of first-year English majors at Hong Duc University is rather poor, a study is designed to find out the difficulties and some suggested solutions to improve English reading skills for the first-year students of K23 – academic year 2020-2021 The data was obtained from questionnaires The findings showed the students‘ common difficulties is that they don‘t know how to read effectively or how to apply some strategies to read The study took place in 12 weeks of the first semester The findings from the questionnaires with the students during the project showed the helps to improve English reading skills for first-year English majors at Hong Duc University TALBLE OF CONTENS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i ABSTRACT iii TALBLE OF CONTENS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aim of the study Methods of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of reading 1.1.1 Definition of reading 1.1.2 The importance of reading skill 1.1.3 Types of reading skill 1.1.3.1 Intensive reading 1.1.3.2 Extensive reading 1.2 Difficulties in learning the reading skill 10 1.2.1 Decoding difficulties 10 1.2.2 Retention difficulties 11 1.2.3 Comprehension difficulties 11 1.3 Factors affecting reading difficulties 12 1.4 Review of previous studies related to the topic 18 CHAPTER 2: DATA COLLECTIONS AND ANALYSIS 20 2.1 Participants 20 2.2 Instrument 20 iii 2.3 Data collection procedure 21 2.4 Reading difficulties of first-year English majors at HDU 21 CHAPTER SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS TO READING DIFFICULTIES OF FIRST- YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR AT HDU 31 3.1.1 Reading reduces stress 31 3.1.2 Reading helps us build a better vocabulary 31 3.2 Struggling readers need: 32 3.3 Strategies for improving reading skills 33 3.3.1 Before reading, they 33 3.3.2 During reading, they 33 3.3.3 After reading, they 34 3.4 Classroom activities for better achievement in teaching reading skill 36 3.4.1 Pre-Reading Activities: 36 3.4.2 While Reading Activities 37 3.4.3 Post- Reading Activities 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Summary 38 Limitations 38 Recommendations for further study 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX 43 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HDU Hong Duc University EFL English as a foreign language L1 First Language L2 Second Language ELLiE Early Language Learning in Europe v LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table A: Individual factors affecting reading outcomes Table B: In-school & Out-of-school contextual factors affecting reading outcomes Figure 1: Compared to other students in your class, what you think of your English Reading proficiency? Figure 2: How much time you spend on studying reading daily? Figure 3: Are you in a habit of learning new words & completing reading homework assignments after each reading lesson in class? Figure 4: Do you feel confident when communicating with foreigners with your current vocabulary? Figure 5: Do you apply reading strategies to deal with reading texts given in class and at home? Figure 6: Do you often read a variety of English reading materials such as Internet news, printed newspapers, English storybooks and comics, etc to improve your reading skill? Figure 7: Do you have a good exposure to English in school as well as out- ofschool English class via various sources such as foreign TV programs, movies, cartoons, the internet, English music or interacting with English- speaking people? Figure 8: How you feel about teaching method of the reading teacher? Figure 9: What you think about the textbook and the curriculum being used for teaching reading skill at HDU? Figure 10: What you think about extra reading materials given by yoủ teacher with a view to improving your reading skills in class as well as at home? vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale There is no denying that reading is one of the important skills in English and gives a variety of benefits to us Reading is the window of the world because of the fact that people can get more knowledge and information from books, magazines, newspapers, etc It helps readers to discover new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations Many foreign language students often regard reading as one of the most important goals in learning process and social interaction because, first, reading is an indispensable communication tool in a civilized society Second, that the reading materials produced in any period of time in history is most influenced by social background Third, the developments over the period of the recorded history of reading have led to two very different poles In the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and at Hong Duc University (HDU) in particular, reading has always been paid a great deal of attention from both teachers and students Like many other universities in Vietnam, English at HDU is learnt and taught in a non-native environment, therefore, reading is not only considered as a means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place It is a fact that reading in a foreign language is strongly linked with thinking in that language If you want to read well in English, you must think in English as you read If you think in another language and translate into English, you will usually have difficulty with comprehension Hong Duc University EFL students are less exposed to training in reading skills The students not know how to activate their schemata Thus, they encounter difficulties in comprehension Nonetheless, in my opinion, the problem is about their approach to a text If the students understand how the information is presented in English texts and are aware of the cognitive processes, they will be better at comprehension For the first-year students of English, although they have been learning English for at least several years, it is still often difficult for them to understand text or a passage in English, since they still lack vocabulary, grammar, reading skills and poor background knowledge Identifying the areas of students‘ difficulty at HDU and the causes of their unsuccessful reading comprehension is necessary Therefore, these reasons have inspired the writing of a study on main causes of difficulties faced by first-year English majors at HDU as well as some suggested solution It is hoped that the study will make some contributions to improve learning English in general, and reading in particular among the 1st year English majors at HDU The author also hopes that it will be possible to make useful suggestions for the teachers to improve the situation of teaching and learning reading at HDU Aim of the study The general aim of this study is to identify the difficulties in reading skill experienced by first-year English majors at HDU In addition, the study is expected to give some solutions for students to deal with their reading difficulties To achieve these purposes, the study will focus on the following research questions: What are the difficulties in reading skill experienced by first-year English majors at HDU? What are possible solutions to students’ reading difficulties? Methods of the study The study was carried out on the basis of quantitative research methods in which questionnaire was chosen as the main tool Questionnaires were designed as a means to make the researcher's evaluation more objective The questionnaires were given to the first-year students at HDU with the hope to find out their difficulties in reading skills and some suggested solutions to their difficulties Analysing statistics from the survey questionnaire on reading activities was conducted with the cooperation of first-year English major students at Afraid of communicating with native speakers Awkward and shy when they meet foreigners Pronunciation, grammar is not accurate English vocabulary is not enough to express ideas, resulting in the misunderstanding among speakers Undoubtedly, practicing English with Native Speakers will teach authentic and practical use of vocabulary They will be practicing English with Native Speakers, they will be exposed to more idioms, dialect, slang and a generally more extensive vocabulary than with a non-native speaker Too much slang is, of course, not a good thing, but exposure to this side of the language is always useful to understand what people really mean As they hear their native English partner use different vocabulary depending on what topics they discuss and what opinions partner have, they can ask about and highlight new words to use by themselves Also, if they are struggling to find the word for something they can try and describe what they mean to their native conversation partner and native English partner can identify the correct word for them Besides, in order to read a paragraph or even a long text become easily, they should apply reading strategies to deal with reading texts As first-year students at HDU, they are asked to read increasingly complex informative and graphical texts in their courses The ability to understand and use the information in these texts is the key to a student‘s success in learning So it is believed that successful students have a repertoire of strategies to draw upon, and know how to use them in different contexts 3.2 Struggling readers need: knowledge of different types of texts and the best strategies for reading them multiple and meaningful opportunities to practise reading in subject specific contexts opportunities to practise reading with appropriate resources 32 opportunities to talk about their reading and thinking background knowledge in subject areas expanded sight vocabularies and word-solving strategies for reading subject-specific texts strategies for previewing texts, monitoring their understanding, determining the most important ideas and the relationships among them, remembering what they read, and making connections and inferences strategies for becoming independent readers in any context And in this respect, Ontario Ministry of Education (2007) stated that effective readers use strategies to understand what they read before, during, and after reading 3.3 Strategies for improving reading skills 3.3.1 Before reading, they: • use prior knowledge to think about the topic • make predictions about the probable meaning of the text • preview the text by skimming and scanning to get a sense of the overall meaning For example, in book Active skills for reading intro, in chapter 1: Meeting friends online Before you read, you will be asked to think about answers to the following questions: What social networks you use? How many friends online you have? How often you meet friends? What you do? By brainstorming about these questions, it helps students to have an overall knowledge about the reading text and then it is easier to approach the text 3.3.2 During reading, they: • monitor understanding by questioning, thinking about, and reflecting on the ideas and information in the text While you read, Teachers would like to ask students questions based on text and will ask them to predict what will happen next 33 3.3.3 After reading, they: • reflect upon the ideas and information in the text • relate what they have read to their own experiences and knowledge • clarify their understanding of the text • extend their understanding in critical and creative ways For example in book Active skills for reading You will be asked to clarify your answers based on the reading text And then, you have to give answers to some questions related to your own experiences What is more, to make reading become easier and more interesting The foreign TV programs, movies, and foreign cartoons are good options for students‘ free time because these tools help them to have a variety of vocabulary and English sentence structures Additionally, the words and phrases are often 34 repeated many times in combination with lively, which will help learners remember new words longer As a matter of fact, most of the students at HDU have a good exposure to a variety of sources to study reading skill, however they not take advantage of those means for their study, mainly for their entertainment Thus, they need to limit their time on entertainment or they can combine between playing and learning by participating in games such as: Word Bingo, Game hangman, Game Concentration, Prepositions of Place Game and Scattegories, or they can listening to English songs Another way to help you improve both reading skills and other skills is watching English films Some suggested websites that you can access to find a lot of interesting films such as: Popcorn Time, Ororo.TV, Toomva… 35 Besides watching, you can also read a lot of books that make you feel more excited than several academic books A few websites that I want to recommend you like: Loyalbooks, The Online Books Page… Furthermore, the teaching method of reading teachers is an important factor to improve reading skill of students First, the teachers must help students get the right understanding about the importance of learning English in general and learning reading skills in particular Lectures in class must be suitable for all students In other words, they must be appropriate methods, inspiring students to study The more fascinating the teacher‘s teaching methods are, the more motivated students feel to study reading subject 3.4 Classroom activities for better achievement in teaching reading skill It has been suggested that evaluating reading comprehension inside the classroom should compose three phases; pre-reading activities, while- reading activities and post -reading activities 3.4.1 Pre-Reading Activities: Guessing the story from the chapter headings and predicting what will happen from the pictures The teachers should choose new and difficult vocabulary from the story and would write them on the board and pre teach them or review it with the students After explaining the vocabulary words teachers must ask questions 36 about the chosen words Students will be asked to use vocabulary in their sentences The teachers will choose random sentences from the story and will write the sentences on the board not in the order they appear in the story Learners will be asked to discuss in groups how they think that these sentences will be placed in the correct order When they will read the story they can see how the sentences appear in it 3.4.2 While Reading Activities While reading teachers would like to ask questions based on text and will ask them to predict what will happen next When learners are reading the story they should be asked to find information from the paragraphs While reading the text, it is recommended that the teachers should ask students to identify previously discussed vocabulary words Teachers should ask learners to read the text in pairs 3.4.3 Post- Reading Activities After reading the text teachers would ask questions based on the text and will ask them to predict what will happen next Once students read the text they will be asked to think of different endings in group and each group will be asked to share their endings in class Students will be asked to summarize the story in their own words Students will be divided into pairs and each pair will be asked to talk about their favourite character in the story In addition, teaching materials are also of great significance in learning reading skill Hence, the teacher should choose materials which are easy for their learners to understand about the content Only by doing so, students feel more excited about learning reading subject 37 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary It can be clearly seen that the research paper was carried out with the view to helping the first-year English major students at Hong Duc to realize their difficulties in reading skill At the same time the research also gave some solutions for both students and teachers in order to tackle all their problems related reading skill Based on the findings and interpretations in the data analysis, the following conclusion could be drawn Undoubtedly, students‘ difficulties in reading are originated from both individual and contextual factors Concerning individual factors, students spend too little time on studying reading Additionally, they never learn new words and even are not in the habit of reading materials, internet news, stories or comics in English Moreover, students have a good access to foreign TV programs, movies, cartoons, to study reading skill However, they not make full use of those means to study, but to entertain Besides, they not know how to apply reading strategies in handling reading texts Regarding contextual factors, teaching method and extra reading materials are too hard for learners to understand As a consequence, the students show their rebellious behaviour These factors make reading periods ineffective and lead to a lot of troubles for students in learning reading skills All the individual and contextual factors considered inspired the researcher to give some useful suggested solutions to reading difficulties faced by first-year English majors at HDU Limitations Although this research was carefully prepared, I was still aware of its limitations and shortcomings Due to the shortage of time and knowledge, the study could not cover three other skills, namely, listening, speaking, and writing and in a variety of participants such as sophomore, junior or senior at HDU This study only focused on the difficulties in reading skill of st year English majors at HDU 38 Recommendations for further study From the limitations of this study, the researcher would like to give some suggestions for further study First, there exists a limitation concerning the data collection for the study Due to the limited time and a small number of students, the designed exercises were only administered to a small population of first-year (30), which had a great influence on the reliability and accuracy of the collected data to some extent Therefore, other studies can be carried out on other subjects such as second-year, third-year or final-year students Second, within the scope of minor research, the study mainly aims at finding out the causes of difficulties in reading skill experienced by first-year English majors at HDU and gives some solutions Hence, the forthcoming researches may be conducted in other skills like speaking, listening, writing and assess more aspects of students‘ language competency In brief, it is hoped that the study will be of great help in enhancing the teaching and learning quality and become an invaluable reference source for both teachers and students at HDU 39 REFERENCES Cable, C., Driscoll, P., Mitchell, R., Sing, S., Cremin, T., Earl, J., Eyres, I., Holmes, B., Martin, C., & Heins, B (2010) Languages learning at key stage - A longitudinal study Great Britain: The Open University, University of Southampton, Canterbury Chirst Church University Ofsted, Modern Languages – Achievement and challenge 2007-2010 David, H (2007) Every School a Great School Maidenhead, Berkshire: Open University Press / McGraw Hill, 2007 [ISBN-10: 0335220991] 200 pages Davies, F (1995) Introducing Reading Carter, R Nunan, D (eds) London: Penguin Group Dörnyei, Z (2009) The psychology of second language acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press Dörnyei, Z (2014) Motivation in second language learning In M CelceMurcia, D M Brinton & M A Snow (Eds.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (4th ed) (pp 518-531) Boston, MA: National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning Ellis, R (2008) The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press Enever, J (Ed.) (2011) ELLiE:Early language learning in Europe London: The British Council European Commission (2012) Key data in teaching languages in Europe Brussels: Eurydice Grabe, W (1991) ―Current Developments in second language reading research‖ TESOL Quarterly 25.3 (396) 10 Hafiz, F.M and Tudor, I (1989) Extensive Reading and the Development of the language skills ELT Journal Vol.44 p.1-13 Harmer, J (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching (3rd Edition) Pearson Education Limited 41 11 Klinger, L (2011) Preventing Reading Difficulties A Report of the National Research Council Washington, DC: Academy Press Козак, M (2017) what is reading? In The types of reading and exercises for teaching reading Retrieved February 10, 2019, from http://www.eosnova.ru/PDF/osnova_10_0_696.pdf 12 Long, Michael & Richards, J (1987) Methodology in TESOL, Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers 13 McKay, P (2006) Assessing young language learners Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 14 Mihaljević Djigunović, J (2013) Early EFL learning in context: Evidence from a country case study British Council ELT Research Papers, 1, 159-182 15 Mihaljević Djigunović, J., & Lopriore, L (2011) The learner: individual differences matter? In J Enever (Ed.), ELLiE:Early language learning in Europe (pp 43-59) London: The British Council 16 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology Prentice Hall International Heartfordshire 17 Ontario Ministry of Education (6/7/2007) Reading strategies Retrieved March 15, 2019, from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/files/Reading pdf 18 Palmer, H F (1964) The principles of language Oxford : Oxford University Press 19 Šamo, R (2009) The age factor and L2 reading strategies In M Nikolov (Ed.), Early learning of modern foreign languages: Processes and outcomes (pp 121-131) Bristol: Multilingual Matters 20 Saville-Troike, M (2006) Second language acquisition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 21 Williams, E (1996) Reading in the language classroom Malaysia : Modern English Publications 42 APPENDIX Questionnaire for students This questionnaire is meant for a study on the difficulties in reading skill of first-year English majors at Hong Duc University Your answers will be strictly confidential and used only for the purposes of the research Your cooperation will be highly appreciated Section I: Personal information Name …………………….……………………………… Age :…………………………………………………………….… Hometown:…………………………………………….…… …… Class :………………………………………………………….… Years of learning English :………………… ……………………… Section II: Questions Compared to other students in your class, what you think of your English READING proficiency? Elementary Pre-intermediate Intermediate Upper-intermediate Advanced How much time you spend on studying reading daily? 30 minutes a day An hour a day Two hours a day Other:………………… Are you in a habit of learning new words completing reading homework assignments after each reading lesson in class? Always Usually Sometimes 43 Hardly ever Never Do you feel confident when communicating with foreigners with your current vocabulary? Yes No Do you apply reading strategies to deal with reading texts given in and at home? Always Usually Sometimes Hardly ever Never Do you often read a variety of English reading materials such as Internet news, printed newspapers, English storybooks and comics, etc to improve your reading skill? Always Usually Sometimes Hardly ever Never Do you have a good exposure to English in school as well as out- of- school English class via various sources such as foreign TV programs, movies, cartoons, the internet, English music or interacting with Englishspeaking people? Always Usually Sometimes Hardly ever Never 44 How you feel about the teaching method of the reading teacher? Very Interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring What you think about the textbook and the curriculum being used for teaching reading skill at HDU? Very Interesting Interesting Normal Boring Very boring 10 What you think about extra reading materials given by your teacher with a view to improving your reading skills in class as well as at home? Difficult Easy Normal Thank you for your cooperation! 45 HONG DUC UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES IN READING SKILLS OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HONG DUC UNIVERSITY AND SOME SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Supervisor : M.A Nguyen Thi Ha Student : Le Thi Quynh Class : K20- FFL- HDU Course : 2017 - 2021 THANH HOA - 2021 46
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