An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACUTLY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL AN INVESTIGATION OF USING STRATEGIES TO LEARN READING OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor Student Đặng Thị Hạnh, M.A Name: Nguyễn Trọng Nghĩa Code:14D220201035 Class: ENGLISH May 2018 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research proposal would be difficulties to finish without enthusiastic help of many wonderful people First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Đặng Thị Hạnh who took very much time out to guide and help me complete my study This research could not have been completed without her enthusiastic guide She gave me right comments, advice as well as provided me necessary information so that I could smoothly finish the research Secondly, I would like to demonstrate my thanks to the students of English 12 who completed the questionnaire in my study Finally, I want to send another special gratitude to my parents for their love, belief and support They always encouraged and motivated me during the time of my process An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University COMMENTS ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University ACKNOWLEDGEMENT COMMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of the research 1.3 Organization of the research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of reading 2.2 Reading strategies 2.2.1 Definition of reading strategies 2.2.2 Three common strategies in reading: skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning from the context 10 2.3 Difficulties in learning reading 12 2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in reading 12 2.3.2 Grammatical structure 12 CHAPTER 3: RESEACH AIM-RESEARCH QUESTION-HYPOTHESIS 14 3.1 Research aim 14 3.2 Research questions 14 3.3 Hypothesis 14 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15 4.1 Research design 15 4.2 Research participants 15 4.3 Instrument 16 4.4 Procedure 16 CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOME 17 5.1 Vocabulary 17 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 5.2 Reading strategies 17 REFERENCES .18 APPENDIX 21 QUESTIONNAIRE 21 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University ABSTRACT In order to achieve the goal of foreign language learners, students have to balance in studying all skills Without one of the skills, they cannot reach that goal Strategies play an important role in learning reading This present study entitled “An investigation in using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University” focuses on this matter In this process, there were randomly 30 selected participants from class English 12 at Tay Do University Students would finish their opinions about the skill through delivered questionnaires The result shows that the students are less interested in learning reading than other skills because they have lacked reading strategies and vocabulary These findings suggests that English majored freshmen should pay more attention to learning reading if they not waste more time to improve this skill in next years of university An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter includes main parts The first part is the rationale’s details of the research The second part focuses on significance of the research and the last part is the organization of the research 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, English is considered as an international language which is the most common language learning and spoken all over the world As Sozdinler (2008, p.1), “English has an important role in the fields of medicine, education and engineering” Furthermore, most of documents in the world are translated into English and saved for human community So learning English has become a great tool for people to approach new information and knowledge beside their mother language In effect, English becomes a compulsory subject that most of students pay much attention today When learning a language, the students often focus on four basic skills such as Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing Among these skills, reading skill play a role as important as others According to Cochran (1993, p.1), “Reading has played a crucial role in the overall development of a language skill and even academic success for decades” Moreover, students can expand more knowledge of target language’s cultures and the world Atienza (2002, p.1) considers that “It is difficult to approach listening and speaking if the readers not learn reading skill” Besides, “students can learn how to think in the target language, they can learn how to use vocabulary effectively and they feel more comfortable with written language” (Mikulecky, 1986) Therefore, the attitude of students towards learning this skill is important to improve this skill to higher levels, and they should spend more time on practicing regularly and actively However, English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University still face difficulties because of three main reasons which are identified as the lack of strategies, grammatical structure and vocabulary An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University In order to solve these difficulties directly, “it is worth equipping students with useful strategies” (Hismanoglu, 2000) The fact is that using strategies in doing reading comprehension exercises is important because it could help students to capture the required information in an efficient manner Ben and David (2002, p.1) states that “Readers often encounter problem in reading texts and have difficulties in understanding meaning of the context but reading strategies help them in learning foreign language and reading comprehension” In fact, As Chamot (2005, p.25), “Students have their own preference of strategies, but in order to become motivated and select strategies to use, English foreign language learners should self-monitor their reading strategies” Besides, vocabulary is not a small difficulty for many foreign language learners According to Richatt Simcott (Oct 20, 2016), “Learning vocabulary in any language is often one of the most challenging areas, because it never ends! This is true even of our own native languages We are constantly learning new words, as we could in our mother tongue too if we continued to explore the language with the same vigor after finishing school” Students not need to learn all of words, but they can only learn vocabulary about areas that they pay attention and are curious Therefore, students are able to use multiple strategies, have enough vocabulary to pass the challenges occured in the reading process and even some grammatical structures as well as practice this skill for better result However, they sometimes lack basic strategies, vocabulary to understand and they not know totally what strategies are and when they can apply them in practice As my observation, the students are not confident in their reading ability because of the difficulties above Therefore, I wonder what difficulties English majored freshmen face and how they can overcome the difficulties Therefore, I would like to have a small investigation to explore “Using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University” An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 1.2 The significance of the research Most studies have been contented to point out difficulties in learning reading of students, but it does not mention or clarify the strategies that they can use to learn the skill Therefore, this research is conducted to help these freshmen recognize the benefits of strategies in reading as well as apply them in practice Moreover, they can see their strong and weak points so that they will choose suitable solutions to solve their own difficulties effectively and get better result in learning reading and English as well 1.3 The organization of study The research consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Research aim-Research question-Hypothesis Chapter 4: Research methodology Chapter 5: Expected outcome An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews clearly about conditions which are needed in learning reading The first part makes clear the definition of reading The second part discusses the definition of strategies and strategies in reading The final part is the vocabulary as well as its role in reading 2.1 Definition of reading “Reading has been the subject of research for over a century” (Cheng, 1985, p.5) This shows that there have been many researchers interested in reading before So reading has been defined in different ways based on various points of view The definition shows that “Reading is a process whereby on looks at and understands what has been written” (Cited in McCarthy, 2002) Moreover, “Reading is a process that reader can see and understand reading information The efficiency of reading should be read in a group of words and try to understand some of the sentences but not all of the information” (William, 1986) This means learners usually spend so much time understanding all information instead of trying to get some main points and read it in group of words to understand a total meaning as well as the message of texts So the speed and aim of reading are depended on the readers Sharing the same ideas, Aebersold and Field (1997, p.15) claim that “reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to start” In addition, “The reason for reading depends very much on the purpose for reading The use of authentic materials in the classroom is discussed, with the student benefiting from the exposure to real language being used in a real context”, Sacha (2006) 2.2 Definitions of reading strategies and some common strategies in reading 2.2.1 Definition of reading strategies According to D’ Arcangelo (2002, p.12-14), “Reading strategies are the tools which allow readers to be more actively involved while reading” Moreover, Barnett (1988) indicates, “Reading strategies are the mental operations involved An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University when readers approach a text effectively to make sense of what they read” (Citied in Pani, 2004, p.335) Furthermore, Rigney (1978) believes “Reading strategies are of interest for what they reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension” Therefore, not all strategies are balanced and equal of reading due to the types that readers apply suitable strategies on In general, reading strategies plays an important role in reading process In short, reading strategies shows how readers interact and approach the text containing their required information and how their choice of strategies applying to the text, how they apply theory into reality in general as well In fact, there are seven strategies in learning reading: previewing - is absolutely essential for students to get a sense of what the text is about, contextualizing - it is always helpful for students to learn to place the text within a context, visualizing - involves organizing the information in a visual way, usually through the use of a mind map or other graphic organizers, asking and answering questions - Students need to come up with questions they would like answered in the text and pay attention to how they are answered, summarizing, skimming, scanning And the following section will focus on three important strategies in detail that seems useful for English majored freshmen at Tay Do university They are skimming, scanning, guessing the meaning from context, inference and reference 2.2.2 Three common strategies in reading: skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning from the context Skimming Skimming plays an important role in the strategy system Through skimming, students know how to get purpose of passage, the main topic, some of supporting details and general overview of the content quickly According to Nuttall (1982, p.36), “By skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through a text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or to order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us” 10 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Furthermore, Chamot (1987, p.74) indicates that “Skimming is the reading technique that is used to get a quick gist of a section or chapter The reader is not interested in tall the detail, getting the gist is enough Skimmers run their eyes down the page or screen looking for pointers that sum up the contexts” As the points view above, there is a fact that students refers to the technique of reading passage quickly in order to get its gist Therefore, skimming is a popular strategy which requires an overview about the text as well as implies a good reading ability In summary, by using this strategy, students can save much more time in reading a form of question types in a limited time In addition, it is also useful in some cases requiring readers point out the main idea of the reading passage Scanning Scanning is also an important factor, scanning is a necessary technique in reading As Douglas (2001, p.308) views “Scanning is quickly searching for some particular piece or piece of information in a text” Sharing the same idea, Brown (2001, p.308) emphasizes “Scanning is a quickly searching for some particular piece of information in a text Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of a key concept, or to list a certain number of supporting details The purpose of scanning is to extract specific information without reading through the whole text” People only try to find specific information in scanning and just use their eyes scan the text until they get what they are looking for, such as a number, a name, Therefore, according to Grellet (1986), “Readers need to move their eyes quickly across the passages for particular words or phrases” In brief, students have to read quickly in this strategy When applying scanning strategy, students can find the detail for question quickly instead of reading all the words in a reading text and easily finish true/false question Guessing the meaning from the context Guessing the meaning from the context is not less important than other strategies It is an effective way for students to predict new words without dictionary According to Hocking (1993), “guessing the word meaning is also a useful advice for students 11 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University when they face unfamiliar words” Furthermore, Smith (1964, p.3) says that “Guessing the meaning of new words helps readers to readers to read and understand text quickly because difficult words usually create problems for students and are obstacles in reading comprehension” Guessing the meaning allows students to improve vocabulary, know more idioms, texts and save more time when doing tests or a fast reading competition in limited time effectively such as TOIEC’s test, final reading tests at school 2.3 Difficulties in learning reading 2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in reading Vocabulary is very familiar to second and foreign language learners A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language It is the key to communication There is a reason we tend to travel with a dictionary, not a grammar book As the British linguist, David A Wilkins (2002) puts it: “without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” This proves that vocabulary always play an important role in learning a foreign language, not only in communication but it is also a tool to test learners’ using English level Especially, in learning reading, readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary 2.3.2 Grammatical structure Besides vocabulary, grammatical structure is also one of difficulties that learners have to face From elementary school, grammar and its structure are considered as main topic or important lessons In English grammar, grammatical structure is the arrangement of words, phrases and clauses in a sentence “To learn a language, we must also learn its principles of sentence structure, and a linguist who is studying a 12 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University language will generally be more interested in the structural principles than in the vocabulary", Margaret (1990) This means that grammatical structure is the most basic and hardest parts to learners In addition, new grammatical structures are more important for students who have to pass final exams (TOEIC, B2) to get graduation of university nowadays, because there are many upgrade levels of grammatical structures appearing during reviewing as well as doing the test Therefore, capturing new grammatical structure is the first important step for learners in in learning process 13 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Chapter 3: RESEACH AIM-RESEARCH QUESTION-HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Research aim This research is conducted to find out the strategies English-majored freshmen use in learning reading at Tay Do University In addition, the research also helps them solve the problems they face during learning reading and apply in practice 3.2 Research questions This research is required to answer the following search questions: a Have English-majored freshmen heard strategies in learning reading at TDU? b How they use the strategies to overcome their difficulties in learning reading? 3.3 Hypothesis According to most of English-majored students at TDU, reading is familiar skill but using reading strategies is a new experience to them After observation the literature review and research questions, it is hypothesized that the students could get better results in learning reading thanks to their positive attitudes affecting to their improvement and development 14 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research design The present study carried out with English-majored freshmen at TDU to investigate how they use strategies in learning reading as well as help them find ways to be able to go through reading skill in learning process It follows a descriptive design In the research, a kind of questionnaire was employed to investigate the use of strategies of English Majored Freshmen at TDU when reading a particular English document There are 30 selected students of class English 12 joining this study as a sample group The research lasted 12 weeks 4.2 Participants There are randomly thirty selected students from English-majored students 12 for sample They are both female and male Their ages range from 18-20 They all spoke Vietnamese as mother language and English was their foreign language They are of equal level 4.3 Instrument The questionnaires as an instrument focused on finding out what the students know about strategies and how they use them in learning reading The questionnaire comprised of questions and 20 statements in total English is the only language with simple words which are common in high school All of the items in the questionnaires were categorized into the following groups: Group Summary of the content of question group a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Students’ background b 7, Students’ attitude toward reading c From to 14 The problems students have met in reading d From 15 to 20 How students use reading strategies e From 21 to 26 The positive effects of reading strategies on students’ reading skill as well as their learning process 15 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University 4.4 Procedure Duration (12 weeks) Step 1: First three weeks Activities in study process - Designing the framework of the research - Designing questionnaires Step 2: Next three weeks The questionnaires’ grammar mistakes would be fixed and checked clearly and made sure that everything was easy for participants to understand Step 3: Next three weeks The questionnaires were given to participants After all of students finished, the researcher had taken back the questionnaires Step 4: Last three weeks The researcher analyzed the results, compared and gave the results of these questionnaires 16 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOME Reading is considered as one of the four basic English skills During learning reading, students meet some problems There are two main mentioned difficulties in this research They are vocabulary improvement and reading strategies 5.1 Vocabulary and new grammatical construction Students are opportune to get new words as well as practice old words by reading English documents They also learn many new English idioms, antonyms, synonyms which are useful a lot in their learning process In addition, through reading, students can apply academic words into their research in future In another hand, students can also learn more about the ways to improving their grammatical construction using because a good sentence is usually considered that not only does convey the message but it also has a right construction 5.2 Reading strategies Reading strategies are very useful for students to practice their thinking, lead them to an active status as well Furthermore, these strategies also help students have many more creativity not only in learning but also their future job Their background knowledge is improved a lot when applying strategies in learning reading They can get the meanings of the cases as well as the structures that the native usually uses in their writing 17 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University REFERENCES Aebersold and Field (1997) from reader to reading teacher: Issues and strategies for second language classrooms New York: Cambridge University Press Atienza (2002) Verbal Protocols of Reading Erlbaum, Hillsdate, NJ Barnett (1988) ‘Teaching through context: how real and perceived strategy use affect L2 comprehension’ The Modern Language Journal 77/2: 150–62 Ben-David, R (2002) Enhancing comprehension through Graphic Organizers Unpulished master’s thesis Kean University (ERIC Document Reproduction Service) No ED461907.http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.9100&rep =rep1&type=pdf Brown (2001) Brown, H.D 2000 Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (second edition) America: Longman Chamot, A U (1987) The learning strategies of ESL students Leaner strategies in language learning, 71-84 Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Chamot A U (2005) Language learning strategy Instruction: Current Issues and Research Annual Review of Applied Linguistic, 25 Cochran-Smith, M Lytle S L (1993) Inside/Outside Teacher Research and Knowledge New York, New York: Teachers College Press Wilkins, David A (1972) Linguistics in language teaching Edward Arnold, London D’ Arcangelo, M (2002) The Challenge of Content Area Reading Educational Leadership, 12 - 15 18 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Douglas (2001) Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Grellet F (1986) Developing reading skill: A practical Guide to Reading comprehension Exercise Cambridge University Press Hismanoglu M (2000) Language learning strategies in foreign language learning and teaching, Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey) Hocking (1993) Margaret J Speas (1990) Phrase Structure in Natural Language https://www.thoughtco.com/sentence-structure-english-grammar-1691891 McCarthy, A C (2002) An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Mikulecky, S B (1986) Reading power, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., USA Nuttall, Christine (1982) Teaching reading skills in a foreign language, Oxford: Heiemann Educational books Pani, S (2004) Reading strategies instruction through mental modeling ELT Journal, 355-362 Richatt Simcott (2016) Why is Vocabulary important and how I learn it? https://www.italki.com/article/867/Why-Is-Vocabulary-Important-And-How-Do-Ilearn-It%3F?hl=vi Rigney (1978) Learning Strategies: A Theoretical Perspective In H.F O’Neil Jr (ed) Learning Strategies New York: Academic Press Sacha A B (2006) The reading Matrix: The Use of Authentic Materials in the Teaching of Reading, 6(2), p60 Smith F (1964) Understanding reading Holt, Rinechart and Winston, New York 19 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Sozdinler, M (2008) Inportance of English Retrieved January 20th, 2015 From http://toeflgencligi.blogspot.com/2008/11/importance-of-english.html William E (1986) Reading in the language classroom London: Macmillan publishers 20 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University APPPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE Dear friends, My name is Nguyen Trong Nghia and I am currently a English-majored senior at Tay Do University I am very grateful to you for spending your valuable time helping me Today, I am carrying out a research named “An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University” This is the questionnaire used to collect the necessary information from you, so please take your time to finish these questions carefully because your answers are very helpful and important for my research Thank you so much! Student’s full name:………………………………………………Age……… Gender: Male Female Class: Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question Give specific answer if needed How long have you studied English? .years Where are you from? a Urban area/city b Rural area/ countryside Which subject did you learn when you were in high school? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing 21 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University Which subject you like best? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing What you think about reading? a Very important b Important c Normal d Not important What you think about your reading skill? a Very good b Quite good c Average d Bad e Very bad 22 An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University This below table is about what you know about and how you use reading strategies Please read the following statements and mark  in suitable column to express your opinions Statements Strongly agree (1) Agree (2) Learning English reading subject is not easy for you You have faced difficulties when learning the subject 9.You not have enough vocabularies to understand the main point as well as details of the reading document 10 You also forget some words you have learned because you not review the old words regularly 11 You usually look up dictionary during reading a text 12 You find it slower to capture main point while spending much time on looking up words 13 You cannot catch the meaning of some new antonyms, idioms, synonyms by reading 14 You realize some grammar points used by the natives that you have not known before 15 You have ever heard about reading strategies 16 You usually use strategies in learning reading 17 You use reading 23 Neutral (3) Disagree (4) Strongly disagree (5) An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University strategies pretty well 18 You can find out main topic fast thanks to skimming 19 You find out necessary information through scanning in limited time 20 You not need to look up vocabularies by using guessing the meaning 21 Reading strategies help you feel more excited in learning reading 22 You learn how to organize your sentence structure 23 You can easily capture points which native speakers mention in the texts 24 You learn some new words through reading 25 Your background knowledge is improved a lot in reading 26 You are able to use reading strategies professionally 24