A study on the benefits of reading english newspapers to expand the english reading capacity of english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL A STUDY ON THE BENEFITS OF READING ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS TO EXPAND THE ENGLISH READING CAPACITY OF ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Student’s name: Huynh Hong Ngoc Dang Thi Hanh, M.A Student’s Code: 1652220201013 Class: English 11A Can Tho, May 2020 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University ACKNOWDGEMENTS In this internship, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the teachers of Tay Do University, especially the instructors in English faculty who giving encouragement, support and attention, many valuable advices I thank to the instructors who always create conditions for us to study in the best and most effective environment With deep gratitude, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms Dang Thi Hanh who enthusiastically instructed me to complete this thesis Besides, my sincere thank is also extended to all the students who help me fulfill the survey questions Finally, I am grateful to my family and friends who have given me much encouragement during the time I carried out this paper It is difficult to avoid errors during making this paper, I hope to receive comments from teachers so that I can improve my knowledge i A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University COMMENTS ii A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWDGEMENTS i COMMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABSTRACT v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 The significance of study .2 1.3 The organization of study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of Reading 2.2 Definitions of reading comprehension 2.3 The atititude of reading 2.4 The importance of reading comprehension 2.5 How to reading efficiently 2.5.1 Aloud reading 2.5.2 Silent reading 2.5.3 Scanning reading .7 2.5.4 Skimming 2.6 Definition of Newspapers 2.7 Types of newspaper 2.8 How to read newspaper 2.9 Benefits of reading newspaper .9 iii A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 2.10 Previous studies 10 CHAPTER 13 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13 3.1 Research aims – Research questions – research hypotheses .13 3.1.1 Research aims 13 3.1.2 Research questions: 13 3.1.3 Hypotheses 13 3.2 Research design 14 3.3 Participants 14 3.4 Instruments 14 3.4.1 Questionnaire 15 3.4.2 Observation .15 3.5 Procedure 15 CHAPTER 17 EXPECTED OUTCOME 17 REFERENCES vi APPENDIX ix QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS ix iv A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyze a study about “The benefits of reading English newspaper to expand the English reading capacity of English majored freshman at Tay Do University The subjects used for this study are 40 first year regular students of Tay Do University The author chooses it randomly The descriptive research design is used for collecting and interpreting the quantitative and qualitative data The analysis is made using the eclectic approach of data analysis The result indicated that first year students of Tay Do University have defined different benefits of reading English newspaper Based on these findings, therefore, the following outcome are forwarded The results of the study also show that most students acknowledge that reading newspaper can help them to improve their vocabulary, improve their grammar skills, help them gain a lot of knowledge in many different fields, have leisure time during classes v A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I will present rationale, the significance of the study and the organization of the study 1.1 Rationale Today, English is considered to be the most popular language in the world It is an effective means of international communication in many different fields More and more English learners, especially English students, consider it a significant factor for their future and career development In Vietnam, English has been included in the school curriculum as a compulsory subject The majored freshmen at Tay Do University are required to master the four language skills such as: reading, writing, listening, and speaking Among these four skills, reading plays an important role and brings many benefits for learners such as enriching general knowledge in many fields for students, practicing the expression skills, vocabulary, etc Due to the importance of reading, more and more learners are interested in how to find ways of reading that can help learners acquire their knowledge, expressions, etc Of the ways, reading newspaper is one of the interesting choices because newspaper articles are written clearly and directly, making them perfect for language learning The language used in newspaper is a day to day language Reading English newspapers can help students learn a lot of vocabulary, raise reading skills and increase reading speed because the contents of the English newspapers are rich and vivid Moreover, the language of the English newspapers is a very authentic one which students can use in their daily conversations Besides, English newspapers help students to enjoy reading, based on their interests So, the English newspapers can be learners ‟personal English classroom” and can help students acquire higher level of proficiency in English A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Aware of its importance, I decided to select "A study on the benefits of reading English newspaper to expand the English reading capacity of English majored freshman at Tay Do University" as my research topic 1.2 The significance of study This research paper is based on the findings of the scientific research of linguistic experts who study the benefits of newspaper reading and the development of reading features Therefore, this is an essential document and the reference for language learners, helping readers realize the essential role of reading newspapers Moreover, suggestions for reading techniques can help students improve their reading skills 1.3 The organization of study The thesis is divided into chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Research Methodology Chapter 4: Expected Outcome A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter I will present the definition of reading, reading comprehension, the importance of reading comprehension and the benefits of reading newspaper 2.1 Definition of Reading The term “Reading” is widely used in practice However, reading is differently defined due to the areas of defining in term of activities or goals at any one level on grade That is why no definition of reading can possibly include all points of views and features Moreover, each one’s definition only reflects what reading means to that person Herein, I would like to mention some definitions of reading extracted from different sources on the theme According to Walker (1992:37), reading is a positive problem-solving process, involving predicting or guessing what the author says, based on expectations about story events He stated that reading involves remembering an individual's life experience and trying to understand what is written Hill and Holden (1990:91) state that reading is the most useful skill for students to improve understanding of the text, and it is essential because learners receive instant feedback on the text Reading as a process by which one sees and understands what has been written in the text Elias and Ingram (1977:55) state that reading was defined as an abstraction of meaning from a visual configuration, and was shown to involve desirably not a painstaking grapheme – by – grapheme decoding but the postulation of alternatives of meaning which one reduced by the parsimonious interaction of the component process with the visual configuration From those opinions, reading is considered a process in which a reader looks at and understands what has been written out A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 2.2 Definitions of reading comprehension Concerning to reading, there are many definitions of reading comprehension I summarize definion as below: According to Van den Broek & Espin (2012) reading comprehension is the ability to read and comprehend a text Reading comprehension is considered one of the basic conditions for success in life Effective readers are known to understand what they read and to learn better from texts Reading ccomprehension is considered as the process to give meaning to the written text and during this process the reader creates a mental representation of the meaning of the text According to Meneghetti, Carretti, & De Beni (2006) reading comprehension is a complicated process by nature, which requires readers to integrate their knowledge with the information in the text Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading When a person reads a text he engages in a complex array of cognitive processes He is simultaneously using his awareness and understanding of phonemes (individual sounds “pieces” in language), phonics (connection between letters and sounds and the relationships between sounds, letters and words) and ability to comprehend or construct meaning from text This last component of the act of reading is reading comprehension It cannot occur independently of the other two elements of the process According to Grellet (1981:3) “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way Kendeou and Trevors (2012) state that reading comprehension depends on implementation and integration with the cognitive process To understand a sentence, one must handle the visual words, identify and represent semantic representations, and connect these representations to form an understanding of the underlying meaning of A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University of news such as politics, games and sports, business, education, entertainment, science and technology, literature, poetry, national and international issues, etc., It is beneficial because it helps refresh the knowledge of the readers in the fields that they want to know Provide grammar: Newspaper not only provides news about the global political situation but also covers a variety of topics such as economics, sports, entertainment, lifestyle, health, etc For those who learn English, when we come into contact with many sentence structures in English, it helps readers gradually form common grammatical structures, which will undoubtedly be useful for the measurement Newspapers can help readers present ideas more confidently and accurately Collect information: As stated above, when reading the newspaper, The reader can collect much information from various sources When reading such a paper, The ability to collect information in an article will increase from which the reader can synthesize the information in an essay most accurately This is entirely beneficial for readers When readers read different types of newspapers, they will have a large amount of data, which will also lead to the ability to argue and judge more accurately Have judgement ability: When reading a newspaper, many readers will gather much information from different sources Reading the newspaper helps them gain the ability to analyze situations, situations, unexpected situations, etc Over time, they will have their judgment Readers will gather much information that knows how to analyze and identify problems from which the ability to judge and analyze situations, unexpected situations and so on, the ability to judge the situation will be more and more developed and expanded 2.10 Previous studies Previously many studies have been conducted in the field of newspaper reading Researchers all over the world have contributed through their findings and recommendations 10 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University According to Gough and Tunmer (1986), they describe that the two central components of successful reading: the ability to read words on the page correctly and (at the same time) the ability to understand or understand the message or content being read To read correctly, students need to understand the principle of letters - that is, knowledge that has predictable and reversible relationships between the sounds (phonemes) in the words we speak and the letters It is now widely accepted that the most effective approach to teaching reading and spelling correctly includes an integrated, structured, synthesized pronunciation program, which is systematically taught and have many opportunities to practice and apply (NICHD, 2005; Rose, 2006; Hattie, 2009) Plaut (2005) says as children develop reading skill, they also need to be taught - and used - knowledge of spelling, morphology and semantics to read and spell correctly (Unfortunately, understanding of the best way to teach reading comprehension has not been extensively studied, or documented, as the recommended strategies for developing reading accuracy, albeit of importance it is clear According to Cheyney (1982), the newspaper is the textbook that provides up-to-date information on local, provincial, national, and world affairs Reading builds vocabulary skills and background knowledge that strengthens reading skills and increases the enjoyment of reading (Strommen and Mates, 2004) The practice of reading newspapers has been associated with improvement in students‟ attitudes towards reading overall (Palmer and Eriksen, 1999) In a recent study, Bndaka (2007) found that newspaper articles help to develop students reading skills in senior high school He made a survey on thirty, 15-year old, monolingual Greek boys and girls Students developed their reading skills through exploitation of an authentic reading text Again Mylopoulos (1985) says, “Reading English newspaper gives educational support to language development” Academic American Encyclopedia (1989:171) describes newspapers as “an unbound publication issued at regular intervals that seeks to inform, influence and entertain” Newton (1993) says, “Reading newspapers improves literacy skills.” So it is evident from the previous 11 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University studies that reading English newspapers helps learners develop vocabulary and reading skills They can learn to scan a text and understand the key ideas 12 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This section, the author deals with research aims, research question and hypotheses The author also talk about the design of the study, the instrument used in this study and the procedure 3.1 Research aims – Research questions – research hypotheses 3.1.1 Research aims Nowadays, together with improvements in other skills of English learning, reading has been put into consideration at many student because as time goes by They realize the importance of reading during their English learning process There are many different ways to develop this skill Reading newspapers is one of the ways that learners can improve their reading ability as well as other benefits Therefore, this paper is based on the purpose of clarifying the benefits of reading newspapers for the learners In order to fulfill this thesis, questionnaires are conducted to English learners Especially, English majored freshmen at Tay Do University to get more details of the reality of learning reading and what is benefits of reading new papers in expanding the English reading capacity 3.1.2 Research questions: The research is required to address the following research questions: 1/ Does English newspaper expand reading capacity of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University? 2/ To what extend does it benefit the learners? 3.1.3 Hypotheses Based on the literature review and the research questions above, it is hypothezed that English newspaper increases reading capacity of English-majored freshmen at Tay Do 13 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University University It is also hypothesized that English newspaper brings a lot of benefits for them 3.2 Research design In terms of research design, this study employs descriptive qualitative research and qualititative reseacrh design As explains from the experts, English newspaper brings a lot of benefits for the readers, therefore, the author design the research based on the previous studies The autho choose the participant randomly The authors choose 40 participants to ask the about what English newspaper can bring benefits to them There are some methods of instrument commonly used to guide and help the author to generate the data such as observing, interview, and delivering the datas 3.3 Participants The participants in the study are forty English-majored freshmen students who are currently studying at Tay Do University There are 20 female students and 20 male students Their age is from 19 to 20 years old They speak Vietnamese as their mother tongue and English is considered as their foreign language They learn reading skill at the beginning of the course Students are given a questionnaire to survey their opinion towards newspaper on reading capacity 3.4 Instruments To carry out this study, the following instruments are used: Using survey questionnaire: To find out whether reading English newspaper helps to increase reading capacity to majored freshmen at Tay Do University their attitude towards reading skill The survey questionnaire, are conducted among 40 students at Tay Do University Observing classes: Class observation is also a useful instrument It gives a chance to observe the teaching and learning of reading From the observation, the author can see how perfomance of majored freshman at Tay Do University in reading section 14 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 3.4.1 Questionnaire Before conducting the survey, the author explored documents related to reading the development newspaper and expanded the learner's ability to use English from linguistic researchers Newspaper is considered as a tool to improve reading ability The author realizes that reading English newspapers really brings a lot of benefits to learners To implement this survey, the author designs the following questionnaire: Group Question Question to Students’ background of learning reading Question to Students’ attitudes towards reading English newspaper Question to 11 Benefits of reading English newspaper on vocabulary Question 12 to 16 Benefits of reading English newspaper on reading skills Question 17 to 18 Benefits on entertainment of different fields 3.4.2 Observation In addition to designing the questionnaire observations are made in the classroom during reading class The purpose of this observation is to learn more about how students perform reading in the classroom After observing a few classes, the author notes all the situations in the learning process By observing, the author can analyze the data more easily Observations contribute to consolidation and persuasion in this paper 3.5 Procedure Regarding the procedure of this paper, the author relies on the actual situation when surveying to classify the activities in the research process in the most reasonable way 15 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Week Week – Week Week – Week Week – Week Week Week 10 – Week 12 Activities - Finding out the documents or research related to the benefits of using newspapers in improving the capacity of learners - Designing the frame work of the research - Designing the questionnaire based on the research documents - Make the survey by delivering the questionnaire - Collect the information from the quetionnaire - Observating the majored fresman during class - Recording and noting the collected information when observating - Analysis the data basesd on the collected information - Completed the paper 16 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER EXPECTED OUTCOME In this chapter, the researcher would like to summarize the content of the report about the benefits of reading English newspapers to expand the English reading capacity of majored freshman at Tay Do University and the results the researcher expects to achieve in this report As we all know, in today's development period, learning English is extremely necessary for everyone English major freshmen at Tay Do University are among those who need to learn more and to improve their English skills Within the scope of the research and the limitations of this newspaper, the researcher presented the research content on how to develop students' reading ability One of the ways to improve their English learning capacity is by reading the English newspapers In this study, the researcher hypothesized that the reading of articles gives excellent benefits to students, especially students at Tay Do University, the researcher also presented the benefits and usefulness that reading newspapers bring to learners However, as a result of this survey, learners not read the paper regularly to expand their English skills The results of the study also show that most students acknowledge that reading newspaper can help them to improve their vocabulary, improve their grammar skills Besides, reading the newspaper frequenly will not only help them gain more abundant knowledge in many different fields, but it is also a means to help students have leisure time during classes This shows us that reading newspapers brings a lot of benefits for students Besides, the research results also show that when reading English newspapers, it is a common problem that there are many types of vocabulary that they not know, they tend to skip that vocabulary and read to the next vocabulary It is also effortless to understand because when reading newspapers, majored freshman often tend to have fun, so asking questions does not care much about receiving these at the time of reading However, some majored freshmen say they have a habit of writing unknown words to their notebook 17 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University After this study, the reseacher learned that reading newspapers is of great benefit to English language learners The researcher hopes that this research paper can provide useful information for majored freshmen 18 A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University REFERENCES Academic American Encyclopedia (1989) Effectiveness of reading English newspapers for improving vocabulary and reading skills of students of Dhaka University Bangladesh: The Millennium University Ahmmed, R (2016) Effectiveness of reading English newspapers for improving vocabulary and reading skills of students of Dhaka University Bangladesh: The Millennium University Bndaka, E (2007) Using newspaper articles to develop students reading skills in senior high school The Reading Matrix, (1), 166-175 Broughton, G., & Brumfit, C (1978) Teaching English as a foreign language London: University of London Institude of Education Brown, H D (2001) Some techniques in improving students’ IELTS general reading skill in doing matching headings into paragraphs task for 11 specialized high school Chau Thi Hoang Hoa (2002) Developing reading comprehension by reading English newspaper Cheyney, A B (1982) Teaching reading skills through the newspaper New York: International Reading Association Mulopoulos Doff, A (1988) Using while – reading techniques to improve reading comprehension for the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu High School Elias, G C., & Ingram, D E (1977) Cultural components of reading : an examination of psycholinguistic processes in reading and implications for the bilingual classroom Singapore : Singapore University Press for SEAMEO Regional Language Centre Gough & Tunmer (1986) Reading comprehension is not always the product of nonsense word decoding and linguistic comprehension: Evidence from teenagers who are extremely poor readers Grellet, F (1981) Developing reading skills Cambridge: Cambridge University Press vi A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Hill, D., & Holden, S (1990) Developing reading comprehension by reading English newspaper Kendeou & Trevors (2012) Reading comprehension theories: A view from the top down In the routledge handbook of discourse processes, second edition Lewis, M., & Hill, J (1992) Reading loud and llear: Reading aloud in ELT Logan & Johnston (2009) The impact of student attitudes about reading on reading progress The college at Brockport: State University of New York Meneghetti, C., & Carretti, B., & Beni, R ( 2006) Components of reading comprehension and scholastic achievement Learning and individual differences Italy: University of Padova Mylopoulos (1985) Trends in multicultural programming Canadian Library Journals Newton, J (1993) Task based interaction among adult learners of English and its role in second language development Unpublished PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington NICHD (2005) & Rose (2006) & Hattie (2009) Reading proficiency and comprehension among English language Students in selected department in Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola, Nigeria Palmer, J W., & Eriksen, L B (1999) Digital newspapers explore marketing on the internet communicationof the ACM Plaut, D C (2005) Connectionist approaches to reading In M J Snowling & C Hulme (Eds.) Blackwell handbooks of developmental psychology The science of reading: A handbook Blackwell publishing Strommen, L T., & Mates, B F (2004) Learning to love reading: Interviews with older children and teens Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy vii A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Van den Broek, P., & Espin, C A (2012) Connecting congnitive theory and assessment: Measuring individual differences in reading comprehendsion School psychology review Neitherlands: Leiden University Walker, B J (1992) Developing reading comprehension by reading English newspaper Williams, E.(1984) Reading in The Language Classroom London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd Internet online: http://fajarwatiagustian25.blogspot.com/2013/06/developing-readingcomprehension-by.html viii A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Dear friends, My name is Huynh Hong Ngoc and I am currently a senior of a Foreign Language Department at Tay Do University Initially, I would like to thank all of you for spending your valuable time helping me The questionnaire is one of the most significant parts of my research about “The benefits of reading English newspaper to expand the English reading capacity of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University” thanks to your answer, I will be able to collect information that will be absolutely useful to the whole study Therefore, please take your time to complete it carefully Once again, thank you so much Student’s full name:…………………………… Please a tick () in the brackets or fill in the information Age:……… Gender: ☐ male ☐female Class: ………… Please read the following questions carefully 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 What you think of learning reading skill? a Very important b Important as other language skills c Less important than other language skill d Not important at all ix A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University How often you read newspaper to expand your reading capapacity? a Always b Very often c Somes times d Rarely How long have you been reading English newspaper? a months b A year c More than a year d Other:……… What is your opinion about reading texts in English textbook? a Interesting b Suitable to student’ level c Boring d Not suitable to students’ level When you meet unknown words in newspaper, what you often do? a Check dictionary b Guess it c Skip it d Associate with other words Please read these sentences below and tick () the box which suitable for your opinion (1) Strongly agree (2) Agree (3) Uncertain (4) Disagree (5) Strongly disagree x A Study on The Benefits of Reading English Newspapers to Expand The English Reading Capacity of English Majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Statements (1) Reading newspaper helps to improve the vocabulary Reading newspaper helps to improve grammar 10 Reading newspaper helps to improve background knowledge 11 Keeping a diary is useful for learning vocabulary in newspaper 12 Reading newspaper helps to improve reading skills 13 You skim to get the main ideas of the newspaper article 14 You read twice to get the main ideas of the newspaper article 15 You take help from others to get to get the main ideas of the newspaper article 16 You can recognize the meaning of the headlines 17 Reading newspaper helps to entertain yourself 18 Reading newspaper helps in majoring fields THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! xi (2) (3) (4) (5)