The effects of read ask paraphrase (rap) strategy on students reading comprehension at thanh cong english center

nủm 2O.í.b Trang 5 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “The effects of the Read – Ask – Paraphrase RAP strategy on students’ reading comprehension at Thanh Cong

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

English is currently the most popular second language with so many Vietnamese learners For many years, English has been taught in Vietnamese schools as a foreign language and has been regarded as a mandatory subject Therefore, learners are expected to gain mastery of four different skills, namely Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Within the skills mentioned, reading is a receptive skill that requires students to apply their prior knowledge, experience, and attitude in order to completely absorb the reading text (Adiguzel & Gurses, 2013) Reading gives students the opportunity to learn more about their background knowledge by absorbing information when they have read Furthermore, reading English was a basic form of language intake, and a method of actively reconstructing a communication from written language using psycholinguistics (Lee, 2012) Learning to read and spell sight words is among the most crucially important skills required for learners’ academic acquisition When students are beginning readers, all written words are completely new to them In order to read these phrases accurately and proficiently, students must learn how to decode letters into blended sounds or infer words from context, which trains students to automatically read words from memory by sight (Ehri, 2020) However, at Thanh Cong English Center, learners who took the courses at B1 level, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), were still having trouble in becoming successful readers since it was so difficult for them to entirely understand the reading texts Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine whether or not using the RAP strategy in reading instruction has an impact on students’ reading comprehension RAP is short for: R: Read a Paragraph; A: Ask yourself what is the main idea and two details; P:

Put the main idea into your own words (Surayatika, 2018) In addition, the researcher is expected to contribute to the positive effect on the instruction of the RAP strategy so as to enhance learners’ reading comprehension.

Aims of the study

This study was conducted because numerous studies claim that the RAP strategy had a positive effect on EFL learners (e.g., Afriadeni et at., 2021, Escudero et al., 2019; Flora, 2021; İlter, 2017; Karbalei & Amoli, 2011; Kemp, 2017; Sudarmawan, 2021), however, this approach is not widely applied in classroom environment in Viet Nam The study’s aims are to determine whether using the RAP approach in reading sessions has an effect on students’ reading comprehension and to find out what they think of it at Thanh Cong English Center The findings of this study will enable teachers to create an effective learning environment by stimulating students’ interest in reading and enhance their reading proficiency as well as vocabulary acquisition.

Statement of the problem

It is found that Vietnamese students were not strategic readers since reading instructions frequently used the traditional Grammar Translation Method (GTM), which places the emphasis on teachers and makes students dependent on them passive readers Obviously, in Viet Nam context, instructors and students must adhere completely to the curriculum (Le, 2010) The replies to the comprehension questions that follow the texts typically make up a reading activity, and teachers frequently spend minimal time instructing students the reading methods they will need to perform the reading assignments (Nguyen & Trinh, 2011) This was a circumstance similar to reading comprehension instruction at Thanh Cong English Center, where the study was carried out The writer remarks that students are often taught to be well- prepared for the school exams but not to entirely comprehend the texts in teaching reading skills

As a result, some students found comprehension reading extremely challenging and even lost interest in reading sessions Thus, a different approach should be used in reading courses to help students develop the ability to read not only texts but also non-textual documents like magazines and newspapers Teaching students specific and methodical reading comprehension skills can be a useful strategy for assisting them in overcoming text-understanding challenges (Graham & Bellert, 2004) Due to its three useful phases including Read the text, Ask the questions themselves to identify main ideas and details, and Paraphrase it, the RAP strategy was used by the researcher in this study to teach reading.

Research Questions

The study was conducted in an attempt to find out the answers to the following questions in order to accomplish the aims outlined above:

1) To what extent does the RAP strategy affect students’ reading comprehension?

2) What are students’ attitudes towards the use of the RAP strategy in reading lessons at Thanh Cong English Center?

Significance of the study

The purpose of this study is to ascertain how the RAP technique affects students’ reading comprehension Hence, it is beneficial for both teachers and students Particularly, teachers and students have an opportunity to experience a new strategy in reading lessons in a more interesting and motivating way Furthermore, the application of the RAP strategy enables students digest the texts better, which may lead to their success in reading comprehension The RAP strategy assists students taking B1 level classes at Thanh Cong English Center in developing their reading skills and expanding their vocabulary As a result, the instructions of the RAP strategy in reading lessons help learners to manage various reading materials In addition, this research gives teachers a source of inspiration to use the RAP strategy in reading instructions so that students feel strongly motivated in learning reading.

Overview of thesis chapters

Five chapters make up this study The background of the research is described in the first chapter, along with the rationale for why it is done The second chapter discusses the RAP strategy and theories surrounding reading comprehension The third chapter describes the study’s methodology The findings of the study and the discussions of the findings are thoroughly presented in the fourth chapter The last chapter offers some recommendations and implications for applying the RAP strategy in classes and future studies.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension has been defined in a wide variety of ways up to now Reading comprehension is defined by Williams (1998, as cited in Ayun & Yunus,

2017, p 134), as an activity designed to help students understand the meanings in a specific text Apparently, understanding texts does not constitute reading comprehension, but it does involve word reading and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986) With respect to this, McNamara (2012, p.3) stated that understanding the ideas and connections between the ideas in a text and going beyond just the words are all parts of reading comprehension Understanding the text is only one aspect of reading comprehension; it also involves fully grasping the meaning and connections that the text implicitly conveys based on its context Students also need to grasp that what they read and what is understood are two entirely different things (Shi, 2012) For this reason, reading comprehension strategies are encouraged to instruct from early ages in order that learners may become more experienced in reading skills

Pardo (2004) further noted that reading comprehension is a process in which readers make an effort to connect what they read with prior knowledge and experience that is relevant to the text Similar to this, reading comprehension is a very complex process that includes interactions between readers and the information they transfer to the text, such as prior knowledge, the usage of strategies, and text-related variables (Klingner, Vaughn, & Boardman, 2015) It indicates that the interplay between the reader, the text, and the reading activity leads to reading comprehension These elements each contribute to the reading comprehension process

It is essential to evaluate reading comprehension when teaching English These days, assessing comprehension faces challenges because it is hard to determine how much students really know and what they are actually thinking Hence, teachers need to be proficient in collecting assessment data so that they are able to plan what, how, and when to teach (Haager & Klingner, 2005) The purpose of reading comprehension assessment, according to Madani (2016), is to show how effectively learners can read, grasp, interpret, and examine different sorts of texts Consequently, reading comprehension activities can be included to reading classes to determine how well children can comprehend texts

According to Klingner et al (2015), the purposes of reading comprehension assessments include comparing students’ comprehension levels to those of learners in a norming sample, determining whether they have fulfilled the requirements for their grade level, and informing instruction by identifying when students grasp what they have read and how effectively they use various comprehension strategies Obviously, types of assessment materials and activities that teachers use should be found out by the purpose of the assessment

2.1.3 The factors affecting reading comprehension in EFL context

It is well known that reading comprehension in a foreign language is a highly complex and multi-dimensional process because it involves readers’ factors like language ability and background knowledge, readers’ personalities, which change their learning preferences, and readers’ motivation; and contextual factors like the topic and content of the text, the time available, and the readability of the text (Phakiti,

2006) Thus, it is absolutely vital to look for alternative sources so as to figure out some complicated passages At the upper level of reading, reading strategies prove to increase reading comprehension for the reason that Yeklovich et al (1993) stated the nature of reading is to control components in the human model of processing information Obviously, comprehension must involve not only vocabulary knowledge and reading text organizations but also strategies for developing reading skills Specifically, a body of evidence emerged suggesting that reading strategies are likely to contribute to linguistic competence for an impressive reading achievement (Chamot & O’malley, 1989; Yang, 2002).

Attitudes

Researchers in psychology and education, particularly language learning, discuss several definitions of attitudes based on different circumstances and perspectives Attitude is defined as an individual’s reaction to dealing with actual life, both outside and inside that person (Philpott, 1991) Individuals’ reactions, according to Phipott’s definition, are shaped by group pressures, self-interest, and values Alternatively, Gagné and Medsker (1996) describe attitude as an internal condition that influences an individual’s decision-making for personal actions or responses However, Montano and Kasprzyk (2015) define attitude differently: “Attitude is determined by the individual’s beliefs about the outcomes or attributes of performing the behavior (behavioral beliefs), weighted by evaluations of those outcomes or attributes” Hence, a person who has strong views about positively valued outcomes resulting from performing the behavior will have a positive attitude towards the behavior Conversely, a person with strong views that badly valued results will emerge from the conduct will have a negative attitude To put it simply, an individual has a positive attitude when they experience a favorable outcome from doing something, whereas a poor outcome defines their negative attitude Gardner (1988) defines attitude as a reaction to a referent based on the individual’s beliefs or opinions, which supports this point of view

As can be seen, there are numerous definitions of attitude According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (2008, p.84), attitude is described as the way you think and feel about someone or something, as well as the way you conduct towards that person or object that shows how you think and feel Generally, attitude can be defined as a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, ideas, or just about anything in your surroundings However, negative attitudes can be changed by intentional instructional strategies such as employing a teaching strategy, materials, and activities that assist students achieve success (Brown, 2000) Gardner (1988) divided the term “attitude” into three interconnected components: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional

Behavioral aspect of attitude is concerned with how one behaves and reacts in specific situations In fact, successful language learning allows learners to identify with native speakers of that language It also acquires or adopts a variety of behaviors that distinguish them from the target language community

Cognitive aspect of attitude refers to learners’ beliefs about the knowledge they receive and their process of mastering a learning language The cognitive attitude can be divided into four steps: connecting prior and new knowledge, developing new knowledge, testing new knowledge, and using new knowledge in a variety of contexts

Emotional Aspect of Attitude enables learners to express whether they like or dislike the objects or surrounding situations It is widely acknowledged that the inner feelings and emotions of EFL learners influence their attitudes towards the target language

In this study, the researcher aims to investigate students’ emotional attitudes towards the RAP strategy to see if they express their “like” or “dislike” Moreover, this attitude includes students’ feelings or emotions after the course by observing how they behave under the teacher’s observation and filling out a questionnaire As a result, the RAP strategy is supposed to bring learners a positive attitude about its application.

The RAP strategy

2.3.1 Definition of the RAP strategy

As mentioned above, many studies on reading strategies have been conducted RAP is one of the strategies that is considered as being successful for both teachers and students The RAP strategy was developed by Schumaker et al (1984) This strategy has a beneficial impact on learners’ reading comprehension through a large number of studies (e.g., Afriadeni et at., 2021, Escudero et al., 2019; Flora, 2021; İlter, 2017; Karbalei & Amoli, 2011; Kemp, 2017; Sudarmawan, 2021)

There are three steps in the RAP strategy R: Read a Paragraph; A: Ask yourself what is the main idea and two details; P: Put the main idea into your own words (Surayatika, 2018) The RAP strategy is a tool to improve reading comprehension where readers or students are encouraged to read carefully, ask questions, and provide summaries to make it simpler for students to learn information, knowledge, and new vocabulary across the entire text (Surayatika, 2018; Zahra & Fitrawati, 2017) Paraphrasing specifically makes reference to the process of expressing an idea in one’s own words (Akbar, 2016) According to some researchers, paraphrase is the linguistic integration of semantic and syntactic elements, including synonym substitution, word formation changes, and sentence structure rearrangement (Kissner, 2006; Badiozaman, 2014) In addition, paraphrasing is described as “a process of rewriting, restating, rewording, or even rephrasing sentences to convey the meaning as equal as the original ideas” (Injai, 2015, p.10) It is apparent that paraphrasing is mostly used as a strategy to support learners to improve their writing quality, however, there has been a little research on the RAP strategy to increase students’ reading comprehension Paraphrasing is a crucial instructional approach in the teaching of reading Bailey (2014) indicated that an effective paraphrasing is crucial to have a different structure, widen a range of vocabulary in a various way and especially keep the meaning in the original state Thus, the RAP strategy allows learners to have a profound understanding towards a reading text

2.3.2 The procedures of the RAP strategy

The RAP strategy was considered as a simple strategy since it was easily absorbed into current curriculum (Schumaker et al, 1984) The aim of the RAP strategy was to help students determine the gist of the provided paragraphs through three steps (Hagaman & Reid, 2018) This three-step strategy comprises reading a paragraph, asking questions and paraphrasing Before the RAP strategy is applied in classrooms, teachers have to model the usage of the RAP strategy in a detailed and explicit way so that students can gain a clear knowledge of what to do as well as how to find the main idea and the supporting detail

In this step, students are asked to read the paragraphs of the material silently While reading, teachers are facilitators who can ask students to focus on unknown words in the passage, explore their definitions, synonyms, and the context in which they are used Also, the teacher can advise students to divide their reading assignments into easier units, such as a paragraph or section, since they can readily absorb smaller units rather than bigger ones

After students read the paragraph from the text, students ask themselves some questions that mostly start with What, Who, Where, When, Why, How These questions might assist students in identifying the main ideas of the particular reading passage they have just read If students require further information, Klingner et al

(2015) suggested some ways to locate it such as having a look at the first sentence of the paragraph, searching for material that is repeated in multiple places, or deciding whether the supporting ideas convey anything relevant or not Obviously, teachers are encouraged to describe and clarify what main ideas and supporting details are It is explained to students that the major ideas constitute the section’s main theme, while the supporting details serve as additional information Before expressing the primary idea in their own words, students are encouraged to jot down the ideas they can remember They may read the passage again only if necessary

Put the main idea in your own words or paraphrase (P)

Students are encouraged to reread the paragraph to write down their understanding of the text or report orally This step is crucially important because students understand that the ideas are the same but they are written differently between the question and the text After students have identified the primary ideas and supporting details of the paragraph, put all the main and supporting ideas in their own words When paraphrasing their sentence, students are encouraged to think of synonyms for important words, making sure that it is clear and grammatically correct as well as convey the same meaning as the content students have read With regard to this, Bos and Vaughn (2012) explored some beneficial aspects of paraphrasing including look up unfamiliar words and identify synonyms of these words; change active sentences into passive sentences; use vocabulary, word class and sentence structure in a different way It is essential to provide more materials and explanations for students if they are not able to paraphrase what they read on their own In this step, students can write down their sentence on the notebook, starting with describing one main point and its supporting details

The last step of this strategy may be challenging and need more time, therefore, students should frequently practice Because of this, Paterson (2009) developed a RAP worksheet for students in order to practice paraphrasing It is apparent that paraphrasing gives students opportunity to learn to link between the new and old concepts Additionally, paraphrasing enables students to increase a range of vocabulary Students should practice the strategy in groups first, then in pairs, to scaffold their understanding Using the RAP approach as an instructional strategy should gradually be substituted as a learning strategy on its own when students have mastered what they are expected to accomplish with it while processing the reading text

How to use the RAP strategy

Note Read, Ask, Put in my own words Adapted from LearnAlberta

(https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/ieptlibrary/documents/en/is/read_ask_put_in_ my_own_words.pdf) In the public domain

2.3.3 Benefits of the RAP strategy to reading comprehension

As part of the RAP strategy, students must actively participate in reading materials by asking questions and paraphrasing what they have read (e.g., Chinijani, 2017; Hagaman & Reid, 2018; Kemp, 2017; Que & Wakim, 2020) The strategy instruction, particularly the RAP strategy is considered as an efficient way to improve comprehension skills It might be a useful way to assist students in overcoming issues with text comprehension by giving students a clear guidance on reading strategies (e.g., Graham & Bellert, 2004; Pressley & McCormick, 1995) Obviously, it is essential for teachers to provide an explicit instruction to students during the reading lessons A couple of studies have shown that students’ text understanding is likely to be deepened through teachers’ clear instructions (e.g., Brown & Palincsar, 2018; Pressley, 2000) Additionally, Zhang (2008) presents several procedures and principles in order to provide strategy instructions for students; and steps are explicitly outlined based on pedagogical foci, as shown in the Table 2.1

Procedures and principles in strategy instruction

The RAP strategy, which helps readers concentrate on a passage’s major ideas and particular facts, was taught in reading classes (Schumaker et al., 1984) As a consequence, students were able to read brief sections, pick out the key ideas, and restate the information in their own words in a quick way Escudero et al (2019) indicated that the RAP strategy helped develop learners’ ability to manipulate the reading texts Specifically, students applied the RAP strategy in reading lessons by comparing, looking for similarities and differences between the passages and the questions, which enabled students not only to make extensive modifications of reading comprehension but to enrich a wide range of vocabulary A good level of lexical knowledge is an indispensable part of reading comprehension (Faramarzi, Elekaei & Tabrizi, 2016) According to Best et al.’s (2005) research, students engaging in the RAP strategy were able to get the key ideas and recall the reading texts Additionally, İlter (2017) pointed out that the more paraphrasing students did, the higher scores of reading tests they got Also, the instruction of the RAP strategy allowed learners to acquire the independent performances of reading comprehension in both in the classroom and other settings Teachers could employ the RAP strategy in reading classes without much difficulty Students were able to adapt to the strategy in a variety of functions and activities since it was demonstrated to be simple The strategy is adaptable to many educational levels (e.g., Leidig et al., 2018; Mentari et al., 2018) However, it was inevitable for both the teacher and students to encounter difficulties when the RAP strategy was incorporated in the reading lesson In order to help their students apply the new reading strategy, the instructor must be well informed of these issues

2.3.4 The use of the RAP strategy in reading comprehension

The RAP strategy was supposed to be a good choice for reading comprehension owing to the presented advantages above It was employed as a while- reading activity to increase the students’ reading comprehension and strengthen their motivation in learning reading In addition, the RAP strategy also helped to facilitate knowledge acquisition, boost a range of vocabulary, and encourage student interaction

Reading comprehension has been examined and discussed as a metacognitive skill by numerous authors and for many years The ability to comprehend a text requires a variety of skills, including language, knowledge of cognitive strategies, use of metacognitive processes, motivation, and self-control Moreover, it is of necessity to realize that reading and understanding are two entirely distinct things (Shi, 2012) Accordingly, the application of the RAP strategy as a while-reading activity in the reading lesson appears to be essential to students With regard to this, Escudero, Fuertes, and López (2019) stressed that the RAP strategy should be provided for students in the while-reading stage so that they become more experienced in processing the reading text In view to gaining students’ knowledge about the topic while reading, Escudero et al (2019) applied the RAP strategy in this reading stage Topics pertaining to the RAP strategy were introduced using the Presentation, Practice, and Production methodology Before the teacher asked students to explain what they knew in their own words, the presentation stage provided explicit instructions and examples relating to the reading text from the session After that, the teacher wrote words, phrases or sentences on the board, the students attempted to identify the key terms and highlight them in the original text In the end, the students are asked some questions so that the teacher could monitor their understanding as well as recall the concept of paraphrasing In summary, implementing the RAP strategy in the while-reading stage is highly beneficial to encourage readers to achieve comprehension in reading lessons

Several studies have proven the RAP strategy’s usefulness in improving reading comprehension (e.g., Afriadeni et at., 2021, Escudero et al., 2019; Flora, 2021; İlter, 2017; Karbalei & Amoli, 2011; Kemp, 2017; Sudarmawan, 2021) The RAP strategy helped students to find a connection between key words in the reading texts and synonyms in the question, thereby enhancing the understanding level of the passages As a result, the RAP strategy facilitated enhancing a range of vocabulary and reviewing the words studied In other words, the RAP strategy assisted students improve language knowledge by actively incorporating new information and previous knowledge (Novak & Caủas, 2007) Likewise, Hudson (1982) and Stanovich (1980) stated that readers were encouraged to use prior knowledge and experience to form reasonable inferences Besides, readers can grasp some structures used in the reading texts and paraphrased in the provided questions, which enables students get the information and improve their knowledge with ease Students employing the RAP strategy need a variety of cognitive abilities in order to understand the reading text and acquire knowledge

Students’ poor level of literacy and lack of vocabulary, apparently, contributed to the drawbacks of reading comprehension In light of this, students reported that reading texts was extremely challenging due to the extensive use of specialized and academic vocabulary (Clarke, 2018) Accordingly, paraphrasing proved to be a strategy that readers were encouraged to use in reading lessons, enabling to improve lexical resource and activate critical reading comprehension The RAP strategy’s aim was to express the concepts in different ways in the same language without changing its meaning Because the reading context can give children access to a range of qualities of what it means to know a word, the advantages of learning new words from the context are freely acknowledged (Barcroft, 2009) In addition, Nation (2001) stated that learning vocabulary from context was considered as complementary activities in order to enhance the learning which comes from the other Suwanto (2014) indicated that students may receive a complete language input as well as get much opportunity to learn new vocabulary in various contexts and assimilate the language syntax Also, RAP becomes an effective strategy to develop students’ ability into processing the given reading texts thanks to the application of paraphrasing techniques and creating an output, particularly related to vocabulary range

According to Faramarzi et al (2016), vocabulary knowledge is an integral component of reading comprehension To make sure that reading comprehension is enhanced after the RAP strategy was applied, teachers should not only check the level of comprehension of the text but also words or phrases that students paraphrase from the reading texts and the questions whether they were appropriate in the context or not

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research site

The study was conducted in Thanh Cong English Center, where the researcher is teaching 43 learners in two classes mainly focusing on four skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing Within these skills, the writer chose reading skill to study Students found it difficult to digest the reading texts although the teachers in Thanh Cong English Center have provided several activities in order that students can engage students in reading texts with ease Therefore, the RAP strategy was employed to help students foster their reading ability with expectations In this school, students are learned with the textbook called More!4 written by Herbert Puchta and Jeff Stranks; the books of authentic practice tests from Cambridge for learners who intends to undertake the Cambridge English Qualifications B1 Preliminary examination and a few supplemental materials teachers created for their own use only.

Research design

In the study, a mixed-method was employed to investigate responses to the research questions about students’ reading comprehension and their attitudes towards the implementation of the RAP strategy in reading lessons Thanks to the mixed- method, the researcher has a profound understanding about research problems and explores the relationship between variables thoroughly (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009)

In addition, this approach is considered as a good design to obtain different aspects of the situation in details (Creswell, 2012) Furthermore, the validity and reliability of the research findings were ensured by the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methodologies In order to analyze the relationship between the independent variable, the RAP strategy, and the dependent variable, reading comprehension, a quantitative approach to the study turns out to be appropriate One of the three primary types of quantitative research design is the experiment (Creswell, 2017) There are two distinct sorts of experimental designs including real experiments and quasi-experiments With three distinguishing characteristics, including randomization, control, and manipulation, true-experimental design is also referred to as the control group design (LoBiondo-Wood et al., 2014) The participants were assigned in a random way and the researcher had an attempt to control for all variables except the independent variable The purpose of the researcher was to look at the effect of the RAP strategy on reading comprehension among EFL students at Thanh Cong English Center where the researcher was not allowed to choose the classes for teaching With one control group and one experimental group, this study used a quasi-experimental design The researcher may easily access the subjects with this design, making it noticeably more convenient than the actual experimental design (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989) The modification of the independent variable without randomization is the primary characteristic that sets the quasi-experimental design apart Where randomization was not possible, Bickman and Rog (2008) claim that a quasi-experimental design was utilized to investigate the impact of two or more factors This study aimed to investigate the effect of the RAP strategy on students’ reading comprehension Therefore, experimental research design proved to be the most suitable method It appears that by grouping the subjects, the researcher was able to save a significant amount of time Especially, pre- and post-tests were used to examine students’ performance, and a questionnaire was used to get a feel for how they felt about the RAP strategy’s instruction

To ensure that the students in the two groups had the same level of reading comprehension, an Independent samples t-test was administered after the pretest on reading comprehension Participants were then assigned to either the control group, class PET 1, or the experimental group, class PET 2, depending on which of the two intact groups they belonged to The same textbook, supplementary materials, and teacher were used by both groups in the same research setting, which was the Thanh Cong English Center The researcher observed and compared what occured in the control group to those in the experimental group In addition, to gain in-depth information about students’ attitudes towards the implementation of the RAP strategy, a questionnaire was carried out after the treatment With regard to this, Richards

(2017) stated that a questionnaire can be applied to get information about language use, learning styles and attitudes The application of the questionnaire enabled the researcher to collect the data quickly and easily in a short time.

Participants

The two techniques of sampling are known as probability and nonprobability

In contrast to the other, a probability permits the researcher to be chosen at random (Henry, 1990) To fulfill the study’s objectives, volunteers were thus selected at random from a population using the probability technique Using the nonprobability, researchers can select a sample by using their judgment With regard with this, in nonprobability sampling, Creswell (2012, p.142) stated that “the researcher selects individuals because they are available, convenient and represent some characteristic the investigator seeks to study” Nonprobability sampling is utilized in the study because, in the case of Thanh Cong English Center, courses were set up by the board of management with the purpose of putting students in the comparable academic level in the same class Both classes took a pretest on reading comprehension to gauge their proficiency before the experiment To make sure that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of pretest scores for the two classes, the pretest scores from both classes were entered into an Independent samples t-test Following their class order, they were divided into two groups: PET 1 was the control group with 22 students (12 males and 10 females), and PET 2 was the experimental group with 21 people (8 males and 13 females) The students were selected to take part in this study because of being taught by the researcher Also, doing the study and getting the data was much more convenient for the author In short, the sample was made up of two PET classes taught by the researcher at A2 level, totaling 43 students

Age English ability Male Female

Training procedures

The research was conducted on 43 students of Thanh Cong English Center In the first week, in the experimental group, the teacher delivered a presentation on the RAP strategy to explain to the students what they would be doing and why The process of reading, the requirements for reading, and the tasks associated with reading were explicitly explained to the students This was greatly emphasized in order to encourage students to participate in the study Also, the pre-test was delivered to both the experimental class and the control class in the first week The participants took the test in their own class under the researcher’s close observation

From the second week to the tenth week, the RAP strategy was employed to teaching reading comprehension for the experimental class while the control class was still instructed with the regular teaching method Both classes were taught by the researcher However, the students practiced distinct parts in different weeks In particular, the students practiced part 1 in week 2 and week 3, part 2 in week 4 and week 6, part 4 as the most difficult part in PET test from week 7 to week 10 The sample of PET test is similar to the pre-test or the post-test found in Appendix C and Appendix D

The regular teaching method includes three stages, namely pre-reading, while- reading, and post-reading In the pre-reading stage, the teacher delivered a worksheet and let the students in the control class play a game related to the topic or asked them some topic-related questions to arouse their interest in the topic, then provided some guiding questions to allow the students have a purpose for reading In the while- reading stage, the teacher presented some keywords to help the students read the text easily in form of games before asking students to read the text and answer questions or complete some exercises about the text In the post-reading stage, the students were asked to do more tasks, such as writing a summary of the text or presenting the main ideas of the text

On the other hand, the experimental class was instructed with three-stage process along with the implementation of the RAP strategy Specifically, the participants were handed worksheets containing the RAP table during the pre-reading phase while the researcher drew the RAP chart on the board (In the RAP chart, R stands for “Read the text”, A implies “Ask yourselves some related questions” and P represents “Paraphrase the ideas”) After that, the researcher activated the learners’ schema by asking them some questions to predict the topic of the text In the while- reading stage, the students in the experimental class are asked to read the reading text silently and note down unfamiliar words and synonyms for familiar words to use when paraphrasing; and then the teacher explained unfamiliar words as well as recorded all the information to the first column (R) of the table on the board and asked the students to note it down to their own tables on the worksheets Next, the students were encouraged to make questions about what they wanted to know more about the topic with the teacher’s assistance Then, the researcher helped the students to make the questions by putting six question words (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?) in the second column (A) on the board and asked the students to fill in their own tables In the next step, the teacher asked the students to answer these questions and identify the main idea and the supporting details In the third column (P), the students are asked to paraphrase the information they have identified in the previous column in their own words and shared it with a peer or a group Also, the students had a chance to re-read the text and completed some exercises about the text In the post-reading stage, the teacher asked the students to list the vocabulary and summarize the ideas they have read in the reading text and note down unanswered questions; and the students were suggested further reading to complete those questions

In comparison to the regular teaching method, the RAP strategy focuses on developing students’ self-consciousness of their own learning by providing steps to help students identify the main and supporting ideas related to the topic, actively find reasons for reading on their own rather than being given a guiding question by the teacher, and self-assess their own learning The RAP strategy was taught to the experimental class for 90 minutes every single week The treatment lasted for twelve weeks Both classes undertook the post-test after the treatment in week 11 The purpose of the post-test was to determine whether the students’ reading performance in the experimental group was different from reading performance of the students in the control group who did not experience a different reading approach Then, the results of the pre-test and post-test were analyzed by means of appropriate statistical procedures.

Research instruments

In this study, students were divided into two groups and given a pretest and a posttest to measure their reading comprehension abilities and determine whether there had been any changes in test results after the intervention The researcher made a decision on a pre-test as an instrument since it assesses how similar the study and control groups are at the outset (Lodico, Spaulding, & Voegtle, 2010) The Preliminary English Test (PET) for B1 English level, as determined by the Common European Framework of Reference, served as both the pretest and the posttest (CEFR) There was a likelihood of the enhancement in student’s reading comprehension after the intervention of the RAP strategy The two PET tests were used for the pre-test and the post-test for many reasons First of all, PET was used as a standardized proficiency test with the appropriate content for B1 students to assess learners’ reading comprehension Second, PET was created with school-aged students’ interests, backgrounds, and skill levels in mind Lastly, PET can assess students’ comprehension at many levels, including their recognition of written words, understanding of grammatical structures, comprehension of functional language, and exploration of the primary and supporting themes of given reading texts Consequently, in the current study, PET was a suitable method for evaluating participants’ reading comprehension before and after the implementation of the RAP strategy

The PET reading test takes 45 minutes to complete and has six parts with a total of 32 questions (see Table 3.2) The test places a strong emphasis on evaluating students’ comprehension of the various types of written English at words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and passages Specifically, Part 1 intends to assess learners’ ability to understand the gist of the given notices, messages and short texts in the real world In Part 2, students are required to match five descriptions of people to eight short texts on a particular topic Part 3 is used to assess students’ ability to read for detailed comprehension, gist, inference and global meaning, as well as writer’s attitude and opinion This part consists of five multiple-choice questions with four possible answers and a lengthy text that is drawn from authentic material resources Students’ comprehension of how a text is put together in Part 4 will be evaluated Five sentences have been cut from a lengthy book that students are expected to read Students must read a shorter paragraph in part 5 and select the appropriate vocabulary words to fill in the blanks Lastly, after reading a shorter paragraph, students fill in six blanks with one word each

Pre-test and Post-test’s structure

The researcher adopted six parts taken from the PET reading test for the pre-test and the post-test to assess students’ reading comprehension prior to and after the implementation of the RAP strategy (See Appendix C and Appendix D ) In terms of testing days, students in the control group and the experimental group took the tests on different days because the schedule of both groups does not coincide Also, students had 45 minutes to complete the pre- and post-tests

The perceptions of the students towards the application of the RAP strategy in their reading classes were evaluated using a questionnaire The questionnaire was utilized extensively in many different fields as a means of acquiring data According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007, p.317), it is advantageous to “providing structured, often numerical data, which are comparatively straightforward to analyze” Specifically, Griffee (2012) noted that the questionnaire is a reliable and convenient technique that is used to gather data from a group of participants in a brief amount of time

The researcher also took into consideration which types of questionnaire should be used, namely open-ended, closed-ended or rating-scale questionnaire Cohen et al

(2007, p.325) stated that rating scales “are useful for the researcher as they build in a degree of sensitivity and differentiation of response while still generating numbers” Rating scales provide respondents an opportunity for a flexible response as they change a dichotomous inquiry into a multiple-choice question Despite the benefits of rating scales, they also have weaknesses It was difficult for the researchers to check whether respondents were telling the truth or not

The questionnaire was created based on the designs of Klingner et al (2015) and Hariri (2013), and it included closed-ended questions with responses graded on a five-point Likert scale The responses ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree The advantages of a Likert scale, according to Bertram (2007, p 7), are that they are “simple to create, likely to produce a highly reliable scale, and straightforward to read and complete for participants.” As a result, the study’s use of a five-point Likert scale to measure students’ opinions toward learning to read using the RAP strategy was appropriate Before being given to the members of the experimental group, the questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese in order to obtain accurate data and avoid misunderstanding

The questionnaire was used with the goal of finding out answers to the second research question concerning learners’ attitudes towards the RAP strategy in reading lessons The questionnaire was divided into two parts: part I asked for information on the participants, and part II is students’ perception towards the RAP strategy after the treatment

In part I, participants gave their personal information such as name, gender and age The information in this part was absolutely necessary to identify respondents’ characteristics and help the researcher’s analysis later

Part II consisted of 14 items Students of experimental group showed opinions about the employment of the RAP strategy in learning reading by placing a tick on the degree of satisfaction which goes from strongly disagree to strongly agree The questionnaire was delivered to the participants in the experimental group to ask for their opinions towards the RAP strategy The researcher was encouraged to explain the purpose of the questionnaire to students before it was distributed to all students The researcher also needed to give an explicit instruction to every part and item to make sure that students were able to avoid misunderstanding Moreover, the researcher should spend some minutes checking if there were any items missed To reduce the risk of ideas being discussed among them, the students were also instructed to complete the questionnaire on their own

The questionnaire was piloted on another PET class which shared similar characteristics with the control class and the experimental class, then the researcher made some adjustments to the questionnaire Particularly, statement 9 was made more specific; “I get difficulty in using this strategy” was changed into “I get difficulty in

Pretest, posttest, and a questionnaire were used as the assessment tools in the study to gather data As a result, a quantitative analysis of data was used to examine the information gathered from the instruments, and the 12-week study was conducted The participants in two groups were instructed to take a pretest the week before the treatment The results were retained in order to compare with the posttest results obtained after the intervention of the new method and examine similarities in the students’ reading comprehension performance The students from both groups received instruction on how to learn to read during the same week so that they could understand how to read effectively The experimental group was taught reading lessons using the RAP strategy while the control group completed textbook activities as usual The experimental group’s students received a questionnaire in week 11 to give opinions on what they think about the RAP strategy’s application in reading classes The results of the analysis were then compared with those from the pre-test to determine whether there had been any improvements before and after the treatment

As presented in the previous part, the study used data analysis that was quantitative According to Babbie (2015), the ability to transfer data to a numerical form, including the transformation of the data into machine-readable form so that it may be computed later, is provided by this type of analysis Pretest and posttest tests, as well as a questionnaire given to members of the experimental group in the eleventh week, were used to collect the data The procedures for data analysis were detailed below

The results of the pretest and posttest for the control and experimental groups were analyzed using a two samples t-test in order to determine the impact of the RAP strategy on the students’ reading comprehension Following the pretest, all of the participants’ scores from the two groups were gathered and analyzed to an independent samples t-test analysis In order to determine whether there was any considerable difference in the participants’ reading comprehension prior to the experiment, the mean score values of the two groups were compared The experimental group had the opportunity to experience the RAP technique for the course of the study, whereas the control group continued to acquire reading as they would in any other class After 10 weeks, students from two groups undertake the post-test To determine whether or not students’ reading comprehension may be enhanced after the treatment, another independent t-test was used to compare the post-test results of two groups

At week 11, the participants in the experimental group were given a questionnaire to help answer this study question on students’ perceptions of learning to read using the RAP technique Data were gathered and then manipulated by SPSS software - version 25 Five scales were used to code the questionnaire’s items (1 strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = uncertain, 4 = agree, and 5 = highly agree) The

Cronbach Alpha Coefficient was used to assess the survey’s reliability (George,

2011) To discover responses to the second research question regarding students’ attitudes towards the RAP strategy used in the reading lessons, a questionnaire was developed and based on the findings of analysis of some prior research and literature review It was noticeable because the researcher simply gave the experimental group participants a questionnaire to find out how they felt about learning to read using the RAP strategy This was simply because the researcher expected to see there was any discernible difference between the experimental group’s pre-test and post-test scores after the treatment with the intervention of the RAP strategy

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Research Question 1: To what extent does the RAP strategy affect students’ reading comprehension?

4.1 Research Question 1: To what extent does the RAP strategy affect students’ reading comprehension?

In order to answer this research question, independent samples t-tests were used These tests were used to analyze the data obtained from the results of the pre-test and post-test, which were given to students in both groups before and after the treatment to investigate their reading comprehension performance The reading performance before and after the treatment showed similarities and differences

4.1.1 Resemblance of the two groups before the treatment

4.1.1.1 Distribution of pre-test scores

Chart 4.1 on the next page illustrates the distribution of scores for both the control group and the experimental group in the pre-test It can be apparently seen from the chart that the percentages of obtained scores in two groups were almost similar in regard to the three categories of below average, average and above average Particularly, in the control group, the number of students who achieved low scores accounted for 54.55% while that of those having average scores was 40.91% Likewise, there was a high percentage of the weak scores, followed by average scores in the experimental group, at 57.14% and 38.10% respectively Also, the figure for students who got above-average scores saw a small number of 4.76 % in the control group In other words, the students in both groups had an average performance in the pre-test

Pre-test score distribution ofthe two groups

In the table below, the descriptive data of the pre-test scores for both the control group and the experimental group are presented

Descriptive statistics of the pre-test scores for the two groups

It is apparent from the table shown above that the means of the two groups were approximately equivalent, namely 4.545 for the control group and 4.595 for the experimental group This little different of 05 might be due to chance, therefore, the researcher wants to test the Independent samples t-test Moreover, a disparity could be seen in the standard deviation, 1.133 compared to 957 The experimental group’s standard deviation value was lower than that of the control group

The disparity in the value of standard deviation hindered the researcher from a final conclusion of the reading proficiency of both the control group and the experimental group Thus, an Independent samples t-test was employed to identify whether a small difference in the mean values and the disparity in the standard deviation could lead to a statistical significance or not The results are presented in the following table

Independent samples t-test of the two groups before the treatment

As can be seen that the first line was read for the t-test and related statistics The significance of a two-tailed test in the t-test for equality of means was 877, which was higher than the alpha level of 05 As a result, there was no statistically significant difference in the scores for the control group (M= 4.545, SD = 1.133) and the experimental group (M = 4.595, SD = 957) Consequently, it comes to conclusion that the students for both groups had an equal reading ability at the beginning of the study

The Independent samples t-test must be validated against the hypotheses of equivalent variances and normality

According to Table 4.2, the null hypothesis for the assumption of homogeneity of variance was maintained because the F value for Levene’s test was 054 with a sig (p) value of 817 (p > 05) The variances of the two groups did not differ significantly from one another As a result, the homogeneity of variances assumption was met Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests, the assumption of normality was put to the test The table below displays the results

Tests of normality for the pre-test scores

The p values for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were 119 and 158, which were higher than the alpha of 05 Also, for the Shapiro-Wilk test, the p values for the control group and the experimental group, exceeded the alpha threshold at 146 and 448, respectively Due to the statistical significance of the test, the null hypothesis was maintained Hence, the assumption of normality was met

Moreover, the graphs in Chart 4.2 illustrate the obtained scatterplots for both groups The majority of points followed the diagonal line for the expected value The observed scores were found to be normally distributed, according to Q-Q Plots

The Q-Q Plot of the pre-test scores for the two groups

4.1.2 Difference between the two groups after the treatment

4.1.2.1 Distribution of post-test scores

The distribution of scores achieved by the experimental group and control group on the post-test following treatment is shown in Chart 4.3 below

Post-test score distribution of the two groups

It is evident from the bar graph above that there was a substantial difference between the experimental group and the control group in the three categories of scores

In particular, at 52.38% and 54.55%, respectively, the percentage of the experimental group’s average scores was almost as high as that of the control group Noticeably, there were significantly fewer students who had low scores (below average) in the experimental group the than in the control group (i.e 14.29% compared to 40.91%) Besides, the figure for students receiving good scores (above average) in the experimental group (33.33%) was a lot greater than that in the control group (4.55%) According to the results of the post-tests, the experimental group performed better than the control group

The table below provides the descriptive statistics for the post-test, including mean value and standard deviation, to give the overall view of how students performed on it

Descriptive statistics of the two groups of the post-test

Looking at the table above, there was a considerable difference in the mean values of both the control group and the experimental group The average score of the control group was 4.773, whereas that of the experimental was 5.714 Therefore, the mean made a difference of 941 by subtracting 4.773 from 5.714 Furthermore, the experimental group’s scores were greater than those of the control group due to the standard deviation values (1.079 for the experimental group and 883 for the control group)

The disparity in the mean and standard deviation values offered evidence to come to conclusion Hence, an Independent samples t-test was employed to make it sufficiently evident The results were presented into Table 4.5 on the next page

It is apparent that the first line was read for the t-test and related statistics The significance of a two-tailed test in the t-test for equality of means was 003, which was lower than the alpha level of 05 As a result, the mean value of the experimental group and the control group differed in a statistically significant way Consequently, it comes to conclusion that the treatment of the RAP strategy influenced the students’ reading ability in the experimental group

Independent samples t-test for the post-test scores

The reliability of the Independent samples t-test depends on the testing of the assumptions of equal variances and normality

Looking at the Table 4.5, the null hypothesis for the assumption of homogeneity of variance was maintained because the F value for Levene’s test was 1.560 and the sig (p) value was 219 (p > 05) The variations between the two groups did not differ considerably As a result, the homogeneity of variances assumption was satisfied The assumption of normality was put to the test by using the Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests The table below displays the results

Tests of normality for the post-test scores

As shown in Table 4.6, the p values for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test fell below the alpha 05 They were 033 and 200 The p values for the control group and the experimental group, respectively, exceeded the alpha level for the Shapiro-Wilk test, at 236 and 452, respectively The assumption of normality was thus met

Apparently, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were considered not to be the sole determination of normality It was test in accordance with the following Q-Q Plots

The Q-Q Plot of the post-test scores for the two groups

4.1.3 Comparing the improvement in reading ability of the two groups

On the following page, in Chart 4.5, the mean values of the pre- and post-tests for the control group and the experimental group are shown

Pre-test Post-test Control Group Experimental Group

A comparison of the two groups

The line graph shows the comparison of mean values from the control group and the experimental group’s pre- and post-tests First, it is obvious that reading performance of two groups were improved in the post-test The experimental group’s mean values significantly increased from 4.595 to 5.714 Second, the students in the experimental group made more remarkable improvement than those in the control group The experimental group’s usage of the RAP strategy is what caused the difference

Research Question 2: What are students’ attitudes towards the use of

In order to respond to the second research question regarding the students’ attitudes towards the RAP strategy, the questionnaire data were analyzed Twenty – one copies of the questionnaire were collected without any missing items This section discussed the results collected from the questionnaire data The researcher presented a summary of the students’ responses grouped into various themes in different charts In these charts, obviously, the statements were presented with the learners’ answers expressed by mean values Two main parts of the questionnaire were discussed including students’ self-assessment of their reading skills after the treatment and their attitudes towards the RAP strategy

4.2.1 Checking reliability of the questionnaire

The data gathered from the questionnaire were analyzed for reliability statistics which are described in the table below

Reliability statistics of the questionnaire

Looking at the table in more detail, it is noticed that the survey consisted of 14 items and the value for Cronbach’s Alpha for the questionnaire was 861 This value was greater than 7, therefore, the scale proved to be reliable and the data from the questionnaire were valid for analysis Additionally, the table called Item-Total Statistics was then displayed in detail for each item in correlation with others In the table, most of the Corrected Item-Total Correlation values were above 3, which indicates almost all the items correlate well with the total score

4.2.2 Students’ self-evaluation of their reading skills

In the first part of the questionnaire, the students gave their responses to the way they experienced the RAP strategy during the experiment The students evaluated the degree to what they achieved the progress in reading comprehension In particular, questionnaire items in the theme were divided into three sub-themes of pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading skills

Students’ responses to pre- reading skills

Table 4.9 shows the students’ evaluation of their pre-reading skills on five- point Likert scale Looking at the table in more detail, the majority of students expressed their satisfaction of the pre-reading activities that enabled them to activate their previous knowledge (M = 3.904) and predict what would be in the reading text (M = 3.857) Noticeably, nearly 80 % of the students agreed that they could activate their knowledge to the topic and more than 70 % of the students could make predictions about the content of the reading text

Students’ responses to while- reading skills

The table above shows the students’ assessment of the while-reading skills after they were provided instructions with the RAP strategy With mean ratings above 3, in general, most of the students had positive attitudes toward the effects of the RAP strategy in while-reading For the statement 3, the number of students responded that they were able to identify the main idea of the reading text accounted for 81% For the statement 4, although the percentage of positive responses was quite high (71.4 %), the figure for students who felt uncertain of identifying the main idea more quickly was considerably great (23.8%)

Students’ responses to post-reading skills

Looking at the table above, it is noticed that the mean values of the three statements were way greater than 3 This means that when the RAP strategy was applied in the post-reading, the students appreciated its usefulness Specifically, 76.2% of the students in both Statement 5 and Statement 6 were able to enrich their vocabulary mastery and expressed their confidence in responding to the comprehension answers In Statement 7, the figure for students who could review information, assess their comprehension, and get help as needed utilizing the RAP strategy accounted for the high percentage (81%) In the post-reading stage, this really helped the students check their understanding level of reading comprehension, interact with their peers through the group work activity in the “Paraphrase” stage as well as receive the feedback from the teacher

4.2.3 Students’ attitudes towards the RAP strategy

The attitudes of the students toward the application of the RAP strategy were covered in the second section of the questionnaire This section would include the students’ reactions to the experiment and their thoughts on the application of the RAP strategy

4.2.3.1 Students’ feelings of the application of the RAP strategy

Students’ responses to the application of the RAP strategy

The level of the students’ satisfaction with the experimental treatment is shown in Table 4.12 The majority of the students gave good feedback about the RAP strategy, with mean scores ranging from 3.619 to 4.285

As can be seen from the table, 71.4 % of the students felt actively involved in these activities, 9.5% of the students found it difficult to paraphrase, 76.2 % were motivated in reading, 52.4 % expressed their preference to the new strategy and 66.6 % felt closer to their peers

4.2.3.2 Students’ opinions about the implementation of the RAP strategy

The following table presents the opinions of the students regarding the use of the RAP strategy

Students’ responses to the implementation of the RAP strategy

It is noticeable that the mean values of above 3 for the two statements showed the students’ positive effects on the possibility of applying the RAP strategy Particularly, 71.4 % of the students had a thought of using this strategy as their new experience Besides, they showed the preference with regard to the use of the RAP strategy for self-learning, at 47.6 % However, there was 4.8 % of the students who disagreed with this statement

Apparently, the analysis of the students’ responses shows how efficient the RAP strategy is in the improvement of reading comprehension abilities Moreover, the strategy has made an impression on the students after the treatment.

Discussion of the findings

4.3.1 Findings on the students’ improvement in reading ability

On the pre-test, the students’ reading skills were similar, according to the data analysis reported above, however on the post-test, there was a difference between the experimental group and the control group

As mentioned in section 3.3, the participants were divided into two classes by the school board of administration based on their academic level, thus the researcher could not choose them at random In contrast to the previous studies mentioned in literature review section (e.g., Karbalei & Amoli, 2011; Kemp, 2017; Sudarmawan,

2021), the participants in these two studies were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups for research purposes According to the results of the pre-test, both the control group and the experimental group’s students had an average reading ability Most of them got average and below average scores The figure for students who received above average scores in the control group only accounted for the small number This did not influence the similarity between the control group and the experimental group In addition, the results from the t-test obviously indicated that there was no statistical significance between the two sets of scores In other words, the students’ reading proficiency were equal at the beginning of the experiment Thus, the homogeneity favored the evaluation of the treatment’s effectiveness

The participants in this study were all secondary school students aged 12-

14 while those in other studies were mostly primary and university students Specifically, Flora (2021); İlter (2017); Kemp (2017) worked on primary students while Escudero et al (2019); Flora (2021); Karbalei & Amoli (2011) studied on university students

Both groups took the post-test on reading comprehension in the eleventh week of the experiment The results showed that there was a significant improvement in the experimental group’s reading performance on the post-test Students in the experimental group who used the RAP strategy to study outperformed those in the control group who study in accordance with the usual method of testing reading comprehension Particularly, the figure for students obtaining low scores dropped dramatically and there was a substantial number of students who achieved good scores

The similarity between the experimental and control groups at the start of the experiment and the marked contrast between the two groups after the treatment demonstrated that the RAP strategy was effective in enhancing the students’ reading comprehension

The experimental group was successful in demonstrating that the RAP strategy improved the students’ reading skills after the intervention The majority of students claimed that the RAP strategy was efficient in keeping them interested in the reading content, making it easier for them to understand the ideas, and activating their background knowledge

Also, the data revealed that after the students were taught utilizing the RAP technique, their ability to identify the primary idea was improved The RAP strategy helped the students’ scores improve because they were more actively involved in reading as they looked for the text’s main ideas and supporting details, and they paraphrased the information in their own words while maintaining the context’s meaning

4.3.2 Findings on the students’ attitudes towards the strategy implementation

Besides the results of the pre-tests and the post-tests, the students’ answers to the questions in the questionnaire survey contributed to the effectiveness of the RAP strategy The students’ perceptions about the implementation of the RAP strategy were investigated Two parts of the students’ self-evaluation of their reading proficiency and their feelings are discussed below

4.3.2.1 Students’ self-evaluation of their reading comprehension and reading skills

The findings of the questionnaire provided some insight into how the students felt about how the RAP strategy affected their ability to read better The effectiveness of the treatment was confirmed by responses of the students; self-evaluation Most of the students agreed that they are able to use the particular skills to grasp the reading text and give the answers to the comprehension questions

As presented in the data analysis, the students were in recognition of the advantages of the new reading instruction in accordance with the traditional one The pre-reading stage allowed the students to use their prior knowledge They grasped the significance of the prediction skill in the pre-reading stage As predicting the context of the reading text enabled the students to make sense of the topic

Furthermore, the students had positive remarks on getting the ideas easier through the “Ask” stage They could also identify the main idea and the supporting ideas by asking themselves some questions related to the reading materials before answering the comprehension questions They realized that the “Paraphrase” stage helped them to boost their vocabulary

In conclusion, the students highly appreciated the impact of the RAP strategy on improving their reading skills and facilitating their communication and interaction with their peers

4.3.2.2 Students’ feelings about the implementation of the RAP strategy

The RAP strategy’s impact was examined not only through the students’ improvement in their reading ability but their feelings about its application as well Almost all the students expressed their interests in the new teaching approach, thus, they took part in the learning process in an active way Prediction in the “Read” stage, discussion in the “Ask” stage and interaction in the “Paraphrase” stage are considered the activities that engaged all students in the learning process, motivated them to read the reading text and even helped them enrich their vocabulary mastery This result matches with that of Sudarmawan’s (2021) study The study’s findings revealed that interactive reading strategies, which have many benefits for students in reading activities and can be completed quickly by the teacher in the reading class, can help students comprehend texts and improve their reading comprehension while also providing them with the opportunity to practice material

The RAP strategy provided the advantages for the students, therefore, the students were able to anticipate the context, then ask themselves some questions to identify the main ideas and put the information in their own words before they answered the reading comprehension questions

The novel approach brought about a highly effective learning environment where the students’ participation, preference, motivation and confidence were improved It is obviously clear that most of them show their preference to the application of the RAP strategy in a reading class With regard to this, Dalimunthe

Summary

The data analysis from the two study instruments, namely the tests and the questionnaire, has been presented in this chapter Some statistics of the learners’ scores in reading demonstrated the effectiveness of the RAP strategy Its effects on their attitudes were also shown The researcher based on the test and questionnaire data results of analysis to write the discussion of main findings The discussion revealed that the students’ reading skills and favorable views regarding the RAP strategy treatment both significantly improved The RAP strategy has proven to be an effective and useful method for teaching reading The use of RAP was useful as it made students more involved in the R activities Moreover, they became more interactive with their peers and had positive attitudes towards the implementation of RAP The following chapter, served as the last chapter, presents the study’s conclusion, limitations, and suggestions.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Introduction

The Read-Ask-Paraphrase (RAP) strategy’s effects on students’ reading comprehension at Thanh Cong English Center were examined in the current study Firstly, this chapter aims to draw some main conclusions based on the findings discussed in chapter 4 Next, it presents limitations of the study Then, the researcher presents recommendations for the application of the new reading strategy Finally, some suggestions are offered to English teachers, learners and researchers who may take interest in the same subject.

Conclusions

The purpose of the study is to look into how the RAP method affects students’ reading comprehension as well as how they feel about utilizing it in reading courses Hence, the two study questions listed in chapter 1 were intended to fulfill these objectives 1/ To what extent does the RAP strategy affect students’ reading comprehension? 2/ What are students’ attitudes towards the use of the RAP strategy in reading lessons at Thanh Cong English Center?

A pretest, a posttest and a questionnaire were employed in order to respond to the two questions in this study Thanks to the analysis of the independent t-test, it was proved that the RAP strategy helped the students raise their level of reading comprehension After learning with the RAP strategy, the students of the experimental group were invited to do a five-point Likert scale questionnaire survey about their perceptions towards the implementation of the RAP strategy for developing students’ reading comprehension.

Limitations

In spite of the benefits of the RAP strategy, the study had some limitations It is apparent that the RAP strategy requires learners considerable time and great efforts Particularly, the amount of time for the use of the RAP strategy lasted for twelve weeks The disparity in the post-test scores in both the control group and the experimental group might have been considerably more substantial if the treatment had been applied for a longer period of time or the participants had more opportunity to practice reading by using the RAP strategy Additionally, the lack of assignments given in a random way could also influence the internal validity of the research In order to tackle this problem, a questionnaire was carried out to control several extraneous variables involving the amount of time the participants study English, perceptions of reading English texts, and plenty of exposure to reading English out of classroom setting The research’s results might be affected by these irrelevant variables However, there were other additional variables from the participants that the researcher found really difficult to control, for instances, test anxiety or learning preferences.

Recommendations

The writer proposes some recommendations for English teachers, EFL students and researchers who are interested in the research topic in accordance with the results of the study Because of the RAP strategy’s success in helping students increase their metacognitive awareness and enhance their background knowledge, English teachers are advised to employ it when teaching reading comprehension As a result, students have a much better understanding of provided reading texts Particularly, teachers of English should take advantage of the R step to enable learners to read clearly and slowly the text especially paying close attention to unfamiliar words, their meanings, synonyms and the context Next, English teachers should use the A step to have students ask themselves possible questions that help learners identify the main and supporting ideas of the particular reading text that students have read Last, English teachers should make use of the P step to help them put the information in their own words To make the lesson much more interesting, teachers can turn activities of each step of the RAP strategy into a game For instance, with regard to the P step, teachers can ask students to work in groups in twenty minutes and try to paraphrase the information in their own words, making sure that it is clear, using accurate grammar and staying the original meaning as what they have read out, and the group with the most relevant answer is the winner Moreover, English teachers are encouraged to provide students with much guidance in order that learners are able to apply the RAP strategy independently To improve reading comprehension and develop as active learners, EFL students are encouraged to independently implement the RAP strategy as a learning strategy throughout the reading process EFL students can practice using the RAP strategy while reading in class or outside classroom setting Students can also create a list of synonyms that are found between the questions and the reading text on their notebook, thus enabling learners to boost their vocabulary and improve their reading comprehension.

Suggestions for future research

With respect to futures studies, more research should be conducted to investigate whether or not the RAP strategy affects student’s achievement of other skill, namely writing Despite the fact that numerous studies on the impact of the RAP strategy on reading ability have been conducted, little writing-related research has been done The RAP strategy is being investigated to see if it may enhance students’ language proficiency through writing Moreover, research into the effects of the RAP method on students with varied English proficiency levels, such as intermediate or advanced levels, is encouraged.

Pre-test score distribution of the two groups