Trang 1 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING READING SKILL OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT UTEHY NGHIÊN
HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING READING SKILL OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT UTEHY (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Doan Thi Thu Thuy, M.A Student: Tran Thi Ha Student number: 11317089 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON FACTORS AFFECTING READING SKILL OF THE SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT UTEHY (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC YẾU TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Tran Thi Ha Student number: 11317089 Supervisor: Doan Thi Thu Thuy, M.A (kýtên) Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own work of study report entitled:” A study on factors affecting reading skills of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” This thesis of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution and that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed in accordance with university policies and rules Hai Duong, June, 2021 Signature Tran Thi Ha ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of doing the graduation paper, I have received lots of helps, assistance, guidence, precious ideas, and encouragement from my teachers, family, and friends I would like to thank all my teachers in Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their useful advice First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Ms.Doan Thi Thu Thuy,MA, who gives me a great deal of supports and guidance Without her helps, my paper would have never been completed Besides, my sincere thanks are also extended to all the teachers in the faculty of foreigner language at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their lectures and whole-hearted advice to help me complete this study In my study, it is inevitable that the ideas of many writers in the field are reflected and developed To all the authors of the publications in the list of references, I offer my sincere thanks I also to express my special thanks to the second year students at UTEHY who helps me with research Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends who have encouraged and supported me a lot iii ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate the factors effect on reading skills of second year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education The main purposes of the study are to find out: factors affecting students’ skills in reading English and the last give some suggested solutions for teachers to stimulate students to read To achieve the aims of the study, the author used quantitative methods through a survey questionnaire The subjects of the 87 students of the second year English major at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education The students were invited to answer the questionnaire The survey questionnaire is carried out with the participation of 87 students of the second year on three campuses After collecting, analyzing the data, and getting the finding found, the research has an overview about the factors effect on reading skills In addition, the results of the study show the factors influence students’ skills in reading English The study also suggests some solutions to improve methods for second year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….…… .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………… .ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………… … iii TABLE OFCONTENTS………………………………………………… iv LIST OFF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………… .………vi LIST OF CHART AND TABLES……………………………………… vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………… 1.1 Rationale of the study………………………………………… .1 1.2 Aims of the study……………………………… ……………………… 1.3 Research questions……………………… ……………………………….2 1.4 Scope of the study……………………………… ……………………… 1.5 Methods of the study…………………………… ……………………… 1.6 Design of the study…………………………………… ………………….2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………….…… .………… 2.1 Overview of reading …………………………………………… .…………….4 2.1.1 Definition of reading……………………………………………… .……… 2.1.2 Importance of reading skill………………………………… .….……………6 2.2 Difficulties in reading English skill………….……………… .……………… 2.3 Causes of difficulties in reading English skill………… ………… ………… 2.4 Factors affecting English reading skill………………………… ……… .10 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY…………………………………………………… .13 3.1 Paticipants…………………………………………………………………………… 13 3.2 Methodology and Data collection……………………………… 13 3.2.1 Methodology……………………………………………………………… .13 3.2.2 Data collection…………………………………………………………… .13 3.2.2.1 Questionnaire…………………………………………………………… 13 3.3 Procedures……………………………………………………………………… 14 3.4 Data analysis………………………………………………………………… .14 3.5 Discussion of the finding……………………………………………………… 23 3.6 The solutions for the students to learn English Reading skill……….….…………… 23 v CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………… 26 4.1 Summary of the study………………………………………………………… 26 4.2 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………… 26 4.3 Suggestions for further study……………………………………………… .26 REFERENCE…………………………………………………………………… .27 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS…………………………… .…… 29 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L2: Second language UTEHY: Hung Yen University of Technology and Education vii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES LIST OF CHARTS Chart 3.1: the time that students spend practicing reading English per day at home……15 Chart 3.2: The importance of reading skill compared to other skills .16 Chart 3.3: Reading topics given to students in class 17 Chart 3.4 Teacher give students feedback 18 Chart 3.5 The causes of difficulties that students encounter in reading 20 Chart 3.6: The ways may help you improve your reading skill 21 Chart 3.7: The factors that influence on their reading skill 22 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: The reason why students choose to learn English .14 Table 3.2: Reading activities students asked to take in class 18 Table 3.3 The difficulties that students encounter in learning reading 19 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study In recent decades, English has been more and more important in Vietnam English is now widely known as the major language of intercommunication, international commerce and business, science and technology, and so on Thus people with good English proficiency are extremely needed in any field of society Reading is one of the important skills in English and it gives many benefits for us Reading is the window of the world By reading, people can get more knowledge and information from books, magazines, newspapers, and others Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes Reading is an activities that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired consistently The habit of reading also helps readers to discover new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations The habit can become a healhty addiction a In today’s world, reading is basic to everyday life As children we learn to read, and as adults, we read to learn We read to learn about the news, to learn about rules,nd adds to the information available on various topics It helps us to stay in-touch with contemporary writers and nakes us sensitive to global issues (Van,2009) “Of all the skills students learn, reading is arguably one of the most important learning skill Today, especially in the developed world, it is considered a fundamental skill required for succes Unfortunately, for many children with reading difficulties, learning to read is one of the most frustrating activities they will ever face All too often, the barriers they face overshadow their desire to read, without proper guidance, they never overcome them (Smit, 1994, p.26) Many students have problems in understand this subject and they always confused to master the reading text Reading is the important subject to be taught in the school In reading learning process the student must understand what the content of text to get the information from it With years of experience in studying English at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, I have realized that reading skill is one of the key factors that determine students’ success or failure in language learning but not everyone is good at reading skill this is the reason why I choose “ a study on factors affecting reading skill of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the topic for my minor thesis This 18 Questions 5: How often does your teacher give you feedback? 4,3% 38,6% 52,9% 4,3% rarely sometime never often Chart 3.4 Teacher give students feedback The chart shows the number of students who sometimes received teacher comments, accounting for the majority of students participated in the survey, accounting for 52.9% (37 students) The chart also shows that the number of students who often received comments from teachers accounts for quite a lot, 38.6% (27 students) The number of students who never received teachers’ feedback and received rarely feedback from teachers was the same and accounted for a very small percentage of 4.3% Question 6: What types of reading activities are you asked to take in your class? Student (No) Percentage (%) Discussion 43 60,6 Pair work and group work 39 54,9 Skimming and scanning 33 46,5 19 Topics summary 47 66,2 Others 18 25,4 Table 3.2: reading activities students asked to take in class Based on the table above, it can be seen that there are some outstanding activities held during reading lessons Topic summary is the most common activity with 66.2% Discussion and work in groups or pairs are also familiar activities in class with the rate of 60.6% and 54.9% respectively 46.5% of students applying skimming and scanning method in reading classes The group of students who applied other methods accounted for a much lower percentage than the previous groups, with only 25.4% From this analysis, it is obvious that the most used methods are more effective in the process of improving reading skill in class Question 7: How often you encounter difficulties while learning reading skill? always often Sometimes Rarely Cannot decoding the context 9,86% 46,48% 40,84% 3,28% Cannot get comprehension of the text 14,08% 53,52% 25,35% 7,05% Retention Difficulties 14,08% 49,29% 28,17% 8,46% cannot use own words in note taking, 23,94% 46,48% 21,12% 8,42% taking brief Cannot identify key ideas 22,53% 40,84% 30,98% 5,65% Cannot understand specialist vocabulary 23,94% 46,48% 23,94% 5,64% Do not know the meaning of a new word 29,57% 53,52% 12,67% 4,24% 19,72% 49,29% 21,13% from sentence or paragraph Cannot read out loud 9,86% Table 3.3 the difficulties that students encounter in learning reading Data from the table shows the difficulties that students encounter in learning English reading skills From this table, most students cannot get comprehensive of the text and not know the meaning of a new word from sentence or paragraph with equal percentage is 53.52% which are the most difficulties to students Cannot read out loud and 20 Retention Difficulties are the two difficulties that the students encountered They make up equally 49.29% All of them are evaluated always by students In addition, students cannot understand specialist vocabulary and cannot recording to the context which the same percentage accounts for 46.48% of the total survey And cannot identify key ideas sometimes gets difficult for students with 30.98% Question 8: the causes of difficulties that you encounter in reading skill? 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Column1 percentage (%) students (No) lack of vocabulary lack of grammar knowledge lack of confidence poor pronunciation 77.5 67.6 49.3 28.2 55 48 35 20 Chart 3.5 the causes of difficulties that students encounter in reading The chart shows the causes of difficulties that students encounter in reading skill According to this chart, most of students agreed that they had a lot of difficulties because they were lack of grammar knowledge, lack of vocabulary and lack of confidence This number of students is from 35-48 students out of 71 students participating in the survey (49.3%-77.5%) Only 20 students out of 71 students (28.2%) think that their difficulties are poor pronunciation Which indicates that the second year student have encountered problems about vocabulary This is one of important factors that students should improve more and more to overcome the difficulties in learning reading skill Besides, students also need to improve their grammar, confidence and pronunciation 21 In short, the main cause of difficulties for students in reading skill is lack of vocabulary, grammar knowledge and confidence So, students should improve those difficulties more and more Question 9: Which of the ways may help you improve your reading skill? Others 18.3% Choose the right enviroment 47.9% Read as often as you can 38% Write down new words you want Read out loud 57.7% 29.6% Take notes on your reading Scan your reading before you read 47.9% 46.5% Identify key words and concepts Review what you are reading by… 71.8% 80.3% Chart 3.6: The ways may help you improve your reading skill The column chart above shows the followings that can help the students improve reading skill We can see clearly that review what are reading by is the most effective way It accounts for 80.3% The second way is identify key words and concepts at 71.8% Many students choose “write down new words you want” is a good way This way represents 57.7% The proportion of taking notes on your reading is as high as choosing the right environment at 47.9% Followed the survey, the rate of scanning your reading before you read is lower than two rates previous at 46.5% In contrast, read as often as you can and read out loud are quite low They make for 38% and 29.6 % respectively And some students has another answer and it only accounts for 18.3% 22 Question 10: According to you, which factors influence on the reading skill of the students? 90.0% 80.3% 80.0% 71.8% 70.0% 60.0% 49.3% 43.7% 50.0% 42.3% 38% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Background knowledge Vocabulary Active reading Critical thinking Phonological awareness Time Chart 3.7: The factors that influence on their reading skill The chart above has shown some factors for the second-year students at UTEHY influence on their reading skill Firstly, background knowledge is highly chosen by mostly students (80.3%) Secondly is “vocabulary” with 71.8% vote by students They also agree with the idea “critical thinking” has direct impact on their reading skill at 49.3% Besides, 43.7% of students said that agree with “active reading” is one of the main factors This proportion is nearly as high as time factor at 42.3% In addition, phonological awareness is also the factor that influence on their reading skill Through the chart, we can see that there are many factors which influence on the second-year English major students at UTEHY One of them, background knowledge is the most important factor and it direct impacts on their reading skill 23 3.5 Discussion of the findings This chapter discusses the findings of the study in order to answer two research questions proposed in the introduction Firstly, the survey questionnaires show the awareness of students about factors affecting student’s reading skill in English Researcher also asks questions to better know about the reading of the students in learning process Survey about the level of liking, the answers of the students also showed a positive attitude to reading Data shows that students have certain interests and are also knowledgeable about their own problems Students encounter many difficulties in learning reading skill There are some popular difficulties such as lack of vocabulary, grammar, knowledge and so on In most cases, lack of vocabulary also impacts a lot There are students who have few difficulties, but there are also students who have many difficulties This depends on the learning force as well as the initiative in the learning process Therefore, in the questionnaire, researcher allowed students to choose many answers when asking questions about the difficulty of learning to read in order to have the most accurate data for the research Finally, there are some suggestions recommended in order to ease students' difficulties All students need a lot of efforts Most students thought that improving vocabulary about society, culture, as well as grammar structures is very important Besides, correcting pronunciation and self-confident are good ideas for learning reading skill All students have their own options to suit their English proficiency and level 3.6 Solutions for the students to learn English Reading skill Many people have trouble with reading Reading well takes time, patience, and practice! The most important thing to figure out is the purpose of your reading: looking at instructions to build furniture and studying a textbook are not the same thing! Once you’ve figured out your purpose, you can choose to focus on what are known as intensive reading techniques that stress things like vocabulary and speed, or instead on extensive techniques that will help you engage with the meaning of a text in a deeper way Scan your reading before you begin Whatever the purpose of your reading is, taking a few minutes to look the piece over is very helpful Check and see how the work is structured and presented These are easy ways to increase your understanding.Does the work have a title?Is there a table of 24 contents you can scan?Is the work divided into separate sections?Does the work have any “extras,” like bolded key words, illustrations, or graphs? For read out loud This can improve your reading skills because it makes you be involved with the text in two ways: with your eyes, as you look at the words, and with your ears, as you listen to them Reading out loud is also key if you’re trying to practice pronunciation.Try to guess the meaning of any new words When you come to a word youdon’t know, try not to reach for the dictionary right away Instead, try to guess the meaning of the word based on the other words around it (the context).For example, say you read the following sentence and wanted to know what "pessimist" means: My mother is always happy and optimistic, the total opposite of my brother, the pessimist.From the sentence, you can gather that "pessimist" means the opposite of happy: being moody and angry Write down new words you want to learn If you come to any words that you can’t figure out, write them down and look up their meaning in a good dictionary That way, you can study the words later, too Read as often as you can The more you read, the easier it becomes Practicing for at least 15 to 30 minutes a day, every day, will make a big difference.Read whatever interests you, if you’re just trying to improve your basic skill.Rereading things you’ve already gone through can build your confidence Take notes on your reading If you want to read to understand something on a deeper level, like studying a textbook, it helps to read more actively Keep a notebook out and make notes on important things you notice as you read For instance, you can make bullet points to summarize every time you come to a major idea.If there are key terms or dates in whatever you’re reading, make a note of those as well.If there are parts you don’t understand, write down the questions you have and come back to them later Review what you’re reading by summarizing it Every so often, stop and write a few sentences in your notes to summarize what you’ve read so far Putting the main ideas into your own words and writing them out is a way of checking that you understand whatyou’re reading Going back over the material also helps you remember what you’ve read.If you have trouble summarizing or 25 remembering any part of what you’ve read, go back over it again.You can also try writing out a summary in an outline form, rather than full sentences Identify key words and concepts When you encounter a word or concept that seems essential to a text's meaning, make a note of it If you are reading a textbook, these might even be set apart in bold print, or in a separate vocabulary section You can write the words or concepts down to study them later, or even make a set of flash cards If you come across a word or concept that seems important but is not clearly defined in the text, look up its meaning in a dictionary or encyclopedia (either online or print).If you see certain words being used over and over again, that’s another sign that they’re important for what you’re reading and worth looking up Choose the right reading environment If you really want to concentrate on your reading, step away from television, music, phones, computers, and chatty people These distractions make it hard to focus, dragging out reading and causing frustration.Try reading in a quiet, well-lit place with a desk and comfortable chair, if you can 26 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study The aim of thesis is to find out factors affecting reading skill of second- year English major students at UTEHY Basing on the findings, the author offers some solutions to help the students become more advanced in learning this skill To achieve this aim, the researchers conduct the survey research with the participation of 71 students of classes of Faculty of Languages at UTEHY Specially, the author studied the issues: 1) What factors influence the reading skill of the second year English major students at UTEHY? 2) What are solutions to promote reading skill of the second year English major students at UTEHY? Basing on the data analysis, the researcher concludes that there are many problems which make students difficult in learning reading skill The study points out many solutions for students to improve their reading skill such as improving vocabulary, grammar, enhancing their vocabularies knowledge about culture, science, … and a little entertainment 4.2 Limitation of the study Although the author makes effort toward carrying out this study such as the data collection methods, survey questionnaires Due to limitation of time, lack of resources and the researcher’s abilities, shortcomings are unavoidable The first limitation is the extent of research The number of participants in the study isn’t big enough for abroad generalization Secondly, subjects of the study are only students at Faculty of Languages, not all students at the university Therefore, further studies should investigate students studying other majors In spite of these limitations, the study has been successful in providing the secondyear English major students at UTEHY some useful solutions to help students learn reading skill more effectively 4.3 Suggestions for the further study The following directions should be taken into consideration in the future research: - The study on the role of vocabulary in improving reading skill to students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education - The study on using applications to improve reading skill for second year English major students at UTEHY 27 REFERENCE Alderson, C J 2000 Assessing Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Anderson, N J (2003) Metacognitive Reading Strategies Increase L2 Performance The language teacher online Vol 27(7): pp.1-3 Baumann, J.F., (2009), “Vocabulary and reading comprehension: The nexus of meaning” In: S.E Israel and G.G Duffy, (eds) Handbook of research on reading comprehension New York: Routledge pp 323-46 Celce-Murcia, M 2001.Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Boston:Heinle&Heinle Thomson Learning Goswami, U., Ziegler, J C., & Richardson, U (2005) The effects of spelling consistency on phonological awareness: A comparison of English and German Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92(4), 345-365 https://www.oxfordlearning.com/why-students-struggle-with-reading/ Kamil, M L & Hiebert, E H (2005) Teaching and learning vocabulary: perspectives and persistent issues, in E H Hiebert and m L Kamil (eds), teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Klingner, J.K., Vaughn, S and Boardman, A 2011 Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties New York: The Guilford Press Leu, D., & Kinzer, C (1987) Effective reading instruction in the elementary grades Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing Company 10 McKeown, M G., & Beck, I L (2009) The role of metacognition in understanding and supporting reading comprehension In D J Hacker, J Dunlosky, & A C Graesser (Eds.), Handbook of Metacognition in Education The Educational Psychology Series (pp 7-25) Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 11 McKeown, M G., Beck, I L., & Blake, R G K (2009) Reading comprehension: Focus on content or strategies? Perspectives (International Dyslexia Association), 35(2), 28-32 12 Nuttall, C (2000) Teaching reading skills in a foreign language London: Heinemann 13 Pang, E.S et al., (2003), Teaching Reading, the International academy of Education (IAC),PalaisDedAcademics.rue Ducale 100 Brussels, Belgium, 28 http://www.ibe.unesco.org.publications/educanalpractcesSeriesPdf/prac12e.pdf, downloaded on 09/04/2011 14 Paris, S., Lipson, M & Wixson, K (2005).Becoming a Strategic Reader Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol 8, pp 293–316 15 Richard, J.C.,and Schmidt, R.,(2000), Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, Pearson education limited, London 16 Richard,N.,(2008),“Phonics”,http://grammar.about.com/od/pa/g/phonics_terms.htm, downloaded on 15/04/2011 17 Tarigan, H G 2008 Membaca sebagai Suatu Keterampilan [19] Berbahasa Bandung: Angkasa 18 Torgesen, J K., Wagner, R K., & Rashotte, C A (2010) A Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) Austin, Texas.: PRO-ED 19 Torgesen, J K., Wagner, R K., Rashotte, C A., Burgess, S R., & Hecht, S (1997) Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to the growth of word-reading skills in second- to fifth-grade children Scientific Studies of Reading, 1(2), 161-185 29 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed for the study:" A study on factors effecting reading skill of second year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" Your assistance in responding to the following questions is highly appreciated You can be confident that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data In completing these questions, please choose the answer by tick or fill the blanks Thank you very much for your cooperation! How long have you been studying English? Your gender………………… 1) Why you learn English? A To get a nice job B To make friend with foreigners C To pass the exams D To go oversea E Others 2) How many hours per day you spend practicing reading English at home? A hours B 30 minutes C hour D others 3)According to you, what is the importance of reading skill in comparison with other skills? A More important than other skills B less important than other skills C As important as other skills 4) What you think about reading topics given to you in class? A Boring B Interesting C Very interesting 30 D Nomal 5) How often does your teacher give you feedback? A Never B Sometimes C Rarely D Often 6) What types of reading activities are you asked to take in your class? A Discussion B Pair work and group work C Skimming and scanning D Topics summary E Others 7) How often you encounter difficulties while learning reading skill? always Often sometimes Cannot decoding the context Cannot get comprehension of the text Retention Difficulties Cannot use own words in note taking, taking brief Cannot identify key ideas Cannot understand specialist vocabulary Do not know the meaning of a new word from sentence or paragraph Cannot read out loud 8) The causes of difficulties that you encounter in reading skill? A Lack of vocabulary B Lack of grammar knowledge C Lack of confidence D Poor pronunciation Rarely 31 9) Which of the followings may help you improve your reading skills? A Review what you’re reading by summarizing it B Identify key words and concepts C Scan your reading before you begin D Take notes on your reading E Read out loud F Write down new words you want to learn G Read as often as you can H Choose the right reading environment I Others 10) According to you, which factors influence the reading skill of students? A Background Knowledge B Vocabulary C Active Reading D Phonological Awareness E Critical thinking F Time G Others Thank you for your help! The end! 32