The effect of know want learned strategy on eighth graders’ reading comprehension at an phu dong secondary school

Trang 1 --- ∞0∞--- LE PHUONG THAO THE EFFECT OF KNOW - WANT - LEARNED STRATEGY ON EIGHTH-GRADERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AT AN PHU DONG SECONDARY SCHOOL MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Trang 2

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

In an era of globalization and integration, English has become an international language that is widely used in many aspects of life Language learners endeavor to master this language for several reasons according to their individual needs Because of its universality, diversified English teaching methods and strategies have been a central of attentions of many educators In Vietnam, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) supports and promotes the quality of teaching and learning English for meeting the current international standards and developing relation and cooperation between countries (Hoang, 2010)

It is frequently known that the natural order of acquisition starts from listening, speaking, reading to writing In linguistics, listening and reading are considered as receptive skills while speaking and writing are productive skills (Schmitt, 2010) However, it does not mean that receptive skills are underestimated compared to the others It should be known that all of four skills are also equivalently significant elements in the contribution of the accomplishment of language learning The mastery of reading skill also contributes to the enhancement of the language proficiency According to Erten and Razi (2003), reading acts as a bridge which links learners with a source of materials Indeed, one term that worth considering in reading is “comprehension” “Comprehension is the ultimate goal of teaching reading.” (Azizifar, Roshani, Gowhary & Jamalinesari, 2015, p.189)

As a matter of fact, in the researcher’ situation, reading comprehension is demanding because English is a foreign language that seems new to secondary students, as a result, some students may find it tough to acquire reading skill The misunderstanding exists that the provision of new words, structures, grammatical patterns are enough in comprehending the text Yet, this is not an actual reading comprehension (Jafari and Shokspour, 2012) In reading, students constantly expose to a variety of genres, text types; consequently, to become fluent readers, learners should be instructed to employ reading strategies effectively

Know-Want-Learned is one of the paramount instructional techniques which is used in teaching reading comprehension around the globe As Utami, Syarif, Refnaldi (2014) believes “Through KWL strategy, the activity of before – during - after reading will be fully integrated.” (p.26) This strategy can be used during the whole reading stages, from the first stage to the final stage of reading The Ogle (1986) studied and developed this strategy with the hope of assisting readers in accessing and decoding the meaning from the written texts Wang and Dong (2013) also highlight the good advantages of KWL is that each step fully requires different reading activities: schema activation, self- questioning, comprehension monitoring, summarization The combination between the new and the old knowledge leads to the promising fact that unfamiliarity decreased, interest is aroused, and prediction in reading is possible This makes the reading procedure more effective and motivative However, Know-Want-Learned strategy has been still scarcely applied in reading lessons for secondary schools in Vietnam As a result, there is a call for investigating the effectiveness of this strategy on readers’ comprehension and their attitudes.

Statement of the problem

In fact, on account of some discourse texts included with complex unfamiliar words, complicated syntactic structures or unaccustomed cultural aspects, reading comprehension can be challenging for some students especially for low level ones, which prevents their understanding about the main ideas or specific details of the texts At An Phu Dong Secondary School where the present study took place, the results of English subject in many school year is rather low compared to those of other subjects Taking a deeper look at the marks of students from 4 grades, most of them achieved low scores on reading comprehension tasks Thus, the researcher made some observations to find out the reasons lying behind this undesirable outcome Based on the researcher’s observation in three reading classes of three different teachers in the first semester, it was popular to see that teachers often used common ways in teaching reading, beginning with checking students’ pervious vocabulary, then they provided warm up activities to lead into the new lesson Pre-teach vocabulary and grammar was followed to help them understand the incoming texts and then some comprehensive questions, true/false statement related to the texts were posed Translation was the most important part in the reading lessons In this methodology, time spent for explaining the meaning and grammar rule was much longer than the other steps (Phan, 2018) To make clear of this matter, the researcher conducted a formal conversation with a teacher in this school, Truong (personal communication, December, 18th, 2019) expressed some difficulties lying behind this way of teaching reading Besides, by virtue of the overall low level in language competence of students, most of the time, teachers put more focus on grammar and vocabulary in order that students could gain better scores in different exams Class size also put much pressure on the teachers’ shoulders The number of students in secondary schools often range from 45-52 students (Le, 2001) can hinder teachers’ creativity in teaching style because classroom management is also a problem in a large classes with mixed-ability learners with various learning preferences Therefore, teachers in this school rarely adopts the new teaching method

There still exists the fact that teachers play a role of knowledge imparters and students are knowledge receivers despite the promotion of learner-centered approach in the teaching language by Minister of Education Training (Nguyen & Hall, 2016) In lieu of giving the answers straightforwardly, according to the article “Former British teacher discusses Vietnamese teaching methods, textbooks” (https://tuoitrenews.vn/, online newspaper, March, 22 nd , 2019, West (2019) suggests that teachers “should show students how and where to find answers rather simply just regurgitating facts” Ergo, there is an alarming need for innovative methods in order to stimulate students’ interests and evoke their potential ability

Additionally, through personal communication with a student, Thuan (personal communication, December, 2019) expressed the feeling that they encountered the feeling of boredom and lose concentration with the reading class Gambrell as cited in Hoang and Nguyen (2019) support a clear evidence for this assumption that the reading performance is different between students with high interest in reading and students who do not enjoy reading Besides, as stated earlier, reading comprehension requires knowledge beyond linguistic knowledge; vocabulary and grammatical structures is not enough to contribute to the success of reading comprehension Students should be offered chances to express themselves and share ideas Carrel and Eisterhold (2000) believe that the interaction between students’ background knowledge and the text values many important contributions to the reading comprehension Therefore, currently, finding out an approach which can help students improve their learning attitude is necessary

These aforementioned situations and challenges triggered reseacher’s interest to explore a promising instructional strategy in teaching reading comprehension for secondary school students in a hope of addressing these problems, helping students reach their full potential to achieve higher level of reading ability Based on Ogle (1986), KWL is a framework which provides students opportunity to become active constructors of meaning Usman, Fata and Pratiwi (2018) confirm that KWL is effective in motivating and encourage students to be autonomous learners It not only activates students’ schema but also monitors their reading with a certain purpose and reviews the information in visual organization to get better insight of any subjects in reading lesson The effectiveness of this application on students’ reading comprehension achievement and attitudes in reading classes at An Phu Dong secondary school is still unexplored It results in the purpose which was mentioned in the next section.

Research purposes

The potential benefits of KWL strategy in facilitating the reading comprehension process together with the current problems faced by students urged the researcher to conduct this study with the aim of investigating the impact of Know – Want – Learned strategy on eighth-graders’ reading comprehension achievement through the test scores In addition, learners’ attitudes towards the use of this strategy was also explored since their attitudes in learning also contributes to the success of this application in teaching and learning reading.

Research questions

With the purposes mentioned above, this study tries to answer two following research questions:

1 To what extent does Know – Want – Learned Strategy affect eighth-graders’ reading comprehension?

2 What are eighth-graders’ attitudes towards Know – Want – Learned Strategy?

Significance of the study

The results of this study would disclose the effect of KWL strategy on the eighth-graders’ reading comprehension achievement at An Phu Dong Secondary school In terms of the theoretical contributions, the conduction of this study would fill the research gaps about the effectiveness of this strategy on learner’s reading comprehension in Vietnamese middle school contexts The final results can also be a reference to other researchers, which make this research theoretically significant Besides, it provides a clear picture of creating, gathering and analyzing the attitudinal information towards the new strategy for other teachers to get deeper insights about what learners think, feel and act in this KWL class

As regards to practical contributions, if the use of KWL strategy is proved to be effective, learners in the experimental group would gain benefits from it by having an opportunity to experience the new strategy and their reading comprehension scores could be improved Furthermore, teachers in this school and other secondary schools could consider adopting and integrating it in future English lessons to help learners strengthen their language skills, not only reading.

Scope of the study

This study concerns the effect of KWL strategy on eighth-graders’ reading comprehension at An Phu Dong Secondary School Therefore, this research was bounded to the context of this school with the participation of 80 learners from two intact classes (8/6, 8/7) in the school year 2020-2021 Reading skill is an important skill for grade 8 students because the final exams always include reading comprehension tasks For that reason, this research aims to explore whether KWL strategy has significant influence on learners’ reading comprehension performance during 16-week treatment.

Organization of the research

This thesis consists of five main chapters Detailed information was mentioned as follows

Chapter 1 (Introduction) introduces the background of the study, statement of problems Based on it, the research purpose was then presented followed with two research questions The significance of the study and organization of the study are the last two sections in this chapter

Chapter 2 (Literature review) reviews many studies, research related to the topic thoroughly First, the insights about reading, reading comprehension is defined in details Then, the definition and benefits of KWL strategy, the application of KWL in reading lesson are pinpointed The third aspect is about attitudes Together with it, the theoretical framework of the study is the essence of this section Finally, previous studies in the world and Vietnam are scrutinized which is the foundation for eliciting the research gaps

Chapter 3 (Methodology) presents the research site, participants, materials, research designs, appropriate research instruments, teaching procedures and the procedure of collecting data for later analysis

Chapter 4 (Results and discussion) illustrates the analysis and interpretation of the data from the test scores, questionnaire and interview after the treatment Then, the discussion of the findings is clearly described for answering the two raised research questions

Chapter 5 (Conclusion, implications and recommendations) recaps the overall findings and comes to a final conclusion Also, the implications are stated clearly for educators and teachers In the end, it reveals some limitations and recommendations for further studies.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The concept of reading

It is a common belief that successful learners are expected to possess the solid competence of literacy of all four skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing in which reading is one of these four fundamental skills in language learning process Reading competence is a need for learners of all ages and languages to attain other knowledge of every aspects of life (Simin, 2012; Tabatabaei & Khalili, 2014) According to Nunan (1999), reading skill does not merely require readers’ ability to interpret the written symbols and characters but it is about the integration of previous acquired knowledge with message conveyed by the authors Chastain (1988) points out that reading is a basic skill which is a foundation for developing other skills in EFL learning process Therefore, its importance also received much attention from linguists and educators given that people can access a source of information with a large amount of data by reading Throughout the history of teaching and learning development, reading was often considered as a passive skill together with listening However, Jahangard, Moinzadeh and Karimi (2011) argue that reading is not actually a passive skill because readers must take an active role in assimilating the written information It can be implied that reading tasks have an ultimate target at enhancing learners’ comprehension and thus boosting their literacy skill in second language (Jung & Révész, 2018) Therefore, Khoshsima and Tiyar (2014) come to a conclusion that reading is an actual comprehension process In similar vein, Erten and Razi (2003) confirm the significance of reading skill in exposing students to target language and equipping them with valuable linguistic input to build up language proficiency, extending and consolidating one's knowledge of the language In general, reading in nature requires readers to take active role involving in the texts to understand the messages presented in the printed paper in a multidimensional way Construction of meaning is a key concept and consideration in modern definitions of reading

Many scholars believe reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of the reading process Fry (1965) defines comprehension is to get the message of authors and therefore understanding the underlying meanings the writers want to convey In the same vein, Anderson (1999) postulates that the association in constructing the meaning between the readers and reading materials contribute to the accomplishment of comprehension It is because of the fact that reading is an interactive process among the readers’ knowledge, reading contents and the text situation (Hashemi, Mobini & Karimkhanlooie, 2018) Meniado (2016) think that comprehension is a collective integration of the acknowledgement and reaction towards lexical meanings According to Khoshsima and Tiyar (2014), this constructive process requires our own knowledge incorporating with what we read Nation (2001) also holds a notion that the success in reading comprehension performance is attributable to the mastery of sufficient lexical knowledge and schema The more words and schema students have, the easier students get the meaning from the written texts In order to make it easier to comprehend the content, the use of current knowledge is essential Also, comprehension skills can be strengthened when readers get familiar with the topic, let alone intelligence or mental abilities (El-Dean, 2009) Therefore, some factors that affect comprehension should be taken into consideration

2.1.2.2 Factors Contributing to Reading Comprehension in EFL

There are many factors that have a profound influence on the comprehension process It should be considered thoroughly in order to gain success in the decoding procedure Based on Sadeghi’ conclusion (2007), in general, the success of reading comprehension relates to internal and external factors Internal factors mean something from each reader that is cognitive intelligence, background knowledge or affective features whilst external factors refer to the text characteristics or environmental factors In terms of internal aspects, the most salient factor is vocabulary knowledge According to Paynter, Bodrova and Doty (2005), students who possess handsome range of words can deal with interpreting the written texts in a quicker and more effective way Dennis (2008) also explains that the mastery of vocabulary gives learners a hand in guessing the meaning of the unknown words based on their own knowledge or points of view about the topic of texts, which leads to the more accurate prediction of the meaning in the context In contrast, little vocabulary leads to the fact that the comprehension will take place with quite struggling (Iqbal, Noor, Muhabat & Kazemian, 2015) In other words, lack of vocabulary results in more effort in understanding the text To be more specific, psycholinguists find out that metalinguistic awareness play a vital role in the comprehension (Tánczikné, 2017) In simpler terms, morphological consciousness, phonological awareness and orthographical apprehension make a huge contribution in grasping the meaning of lines of words in texts (Liping & Wu, 2014) For that reason, morphological awareness is highly appreciated when reinforcing reading performance

It is understandable that a word is made up of smaller units called phonemes; therefore, the knowledge of it is very helpful for students to guess the meaning of the words, phrases or sentences (Perfetti & Hart, 2002)

Background knowledge or prior knowledge is also a part of the accomplishment of reading (Altin & Saracaloğlu, 2018; Singhal, 1998) Especially, the ability of understanding various cultures will come in handy when they encounter a passage about specific culture in any countries Students thus have advantages and need less effort to grasp the whole meaning in the passage

In addition, motivation and anxiety is considered as vital factors affecting reading comprehension as well Pachtman and Wilson (2006) as cited in Ahmadi (2017) come to a conclusion that reading materials also affect students’ mood, engrossment or intrinsic motivation for reading comprehension Berardo (2006) points out if the reading texts are attractive or authentic, they can draw readers’ attention and they will have real goals for reading instead of reading for its own sake Consequently, students gradually turn to be more confident in reading and thus understanding without suffering from nerves Reading under high pressure will lead to results which are not as expectation, while reading for fun can be better because they have a reason to read (Abdullah, Rahim, Setia, Mohamad, Ghazali, Sabapathy, Nair, Muniandy, Theethappan, Hassan & Hassan,

2012) It is about the psychology, some students perform badly when dealing with pressure because of time limitation or unclear requirement In contrast, anxiety will affect reading performance negatively, especially for higher level of language competence and female readers (Hayati & Ghassemi, 2019) Pressure also puts more hardship in reading However, Vazalwar (2011) concludes that the low level of anxiety in boys can help them achieve the high level of comprehension Thus, to some extent, the moderate amount of tension is acceptable in text comprehension

Next, environmental factor as external factor will influence the reading comprehension more or less In a chaotic place, students are easy to lose concentration on reading compare with those who read in a quiet place (Gilakjani & Sabouri, 2016) Suppose that students read a passage in a noise, the effectiveness of completing the reading tasks will reduce accordingly

Brown, Armbruster and Baker (1986) also suggest the need of metacognition in reading comprehension Understanding own planning, monitoring their thinking and action make readers become more aware learners (Baker & Beall, 2009) In general, background knowledge and metacognition are factors that could influence the success of reading and they will be reviewed thoroughly in the next sections

2.1.3Schema theory and reading comprehension

KWL strategy was developed based on two underlying theories: schema and metacognition Thus, these two factors will be briefly concerned The term “schema” has originally been developed for a long period of time Kant was the first philosopher developing this term “schema” in 1781, then Bartlett (1932) was interested in its functions and decided to put it in the research of psychology field He defines schema as

"an active organization of past reactions or experiences" (p.201) Another definition proposed by Widdowson (1983) was schema is a construction block in which knowledge is organized and stored in long term memory In the same vein, Kramsch (1993) mentions it as a frame of background knowledge which can be useful in the process of cognition

There are three types of schemata in reading comprehension including linguistic schema, content schema and formal schema Linguistic schema is about the readers’ existing linguistic proficiency including knowledge of words, phrases, idioms or syntactic structures presented in the text to see the way how words are combined and organized together into larger sentences of the speech or text For that reason, instructors often pay attention on pre-teach vocabulary and grammar in order to equip students with enough language preparation

Because of its foundation of other schemata, it is advisable and necessary if readers accumulate and obtain linguistic knowledge to decode the text (Obi, 2016) Therefore, the more linguistic schema a reader has in his mind, the faster the reader acquires information and the better understanding the reader may get (Alhaisoni, 2017) The second schema is content schema It is described as a topic-based familiarity or certain background knowledge related to themes of the texts (Carrell, 1988) Clearly, the accumulated conceptual knowledge gradually builds up into a whole meaning If readers are familiar with the content, it is easier for them to process the new information by predicting or guessing meaning from contexts clues This type of schema can recompense the lack of insufficient linguistic knowledge in case readers encounter obstacles in deciphering the linguistic features of the text correctly The last one is about formal schema It is “abstract, encoded, internalized, coherent patterns of meta- linguistic, discoursed, and textual organization that guide expectations in our attempts to understand a meaningful piece of language.” (Carrell, 1983) It refers to the apprehension of a diverse range of genres of texts and their specific structures including formality, rhetorical and organizational forms or even the language use The language structures vary among text gernes The specific difference on display help readers to facilitate the understanding because somehow the text visually gives a hint for readers to understand the content of the text

In general, schemata have a profound influence on the attainment of the incoming information According to McCarthy (1991), Ajideh (2003), Zhao & Zhu (2012), lack of relevant background knowledge or the failure in activating it leads to the difficulty in understanding the text In other words, being prepared for an incoming text are beneficial to readers in comprehension easily Schema’s presence has greatly contribution on the text decoding in the cognitive process (Mousavian & Siahpoosh, 2018) Those who have strong schema are likely to achieve the success in comprehension easily In contrast, weak schema owners need more efforts to attain the reading goals However, it does not mean that we need to recall all of the knowledge and experience we know to understand it, only relevant and appropriate schema should be recalled and modified to fit the text Hashemi, Mobini and Karimkhanlooie (2016) recommend that in case readers have weak schema about the specific topic, instructional strategies need to be integrated to activate their knowledge Besides, schema relates to everyone’ own experience and knowledge, if it is activated properly, their motivation would be enhanced They tend to be more engrossed in what they are reading to find out something new The combination between the new and the old knowledge, unfamiliarity decreased, interest is aroused, and prediction in reading is possible In the light of this approach, readers could understand the message conveyed in the text even though they do not know the meaning of every single words

In K column, students are encouraged to come up with facts, ideas from their pre-existing knowledge towards the specific topic of the text there are many types of pre-reading activities that have essential roles in facilitating reading process which are brainstorming, previewing, pre-teaching vocabulary, predicting or questioning For instance, previewing is regarded as one of the strategies to get students ready for the text Swaffar, Arens and Byrones (1991) point out that by this technique, students are able to formulate hypotheses about the text and this makes the reading process easier Also, Roe and Ross

The overview of Know – Want - Learned strategy

KWL has been widely used in several areas of education, such as science: math, physics or language KWL is a graphical chart which can aid comprehension and retention It is also used to teach reading communicatively According to Oxford & Crookall (1989), employing strategies is a cognitively purposeful activity which aids readers to decipher and construct the meaning throughout reading phases Therefore, it deserves many investigations into the effect of it

2.2.1 Definition of Know – Want – Learned strategy

With traditional reading teaching method, reading lesson seems to less attract students’ interests because students tend to easily get bored with full of written input and assigned tasks This teaching method is considered to demotivate students’ willingness (Chatwirote, 2003) Therefore, in today’s era, it is responsible for teachers to provide and instruct students to have a certain amount of background knowledge because it is a stepping stone for students to have better understanding of the incoming reading texts (Graves, Watts & Graves, 1994) Therefore, Ogle (1986) proposed the KWL instructional strategy which is partly based on the metacognitive aspect in an effort of guiding students in comprehending the text in a more appealing way during the reading process In particular, according to Youniss (2013), KWL is a strategy which requires students to come up with lexis, phrases or concepts that linked with the given topics or the headings offered by the texts or elicited by the instructors Basically, at first, before starting to read, students need to generate ideas related to the topic based on their own knowledge and list them into the “K” column In this column, brainstorming the ideas is a common activity that is often used to activate students’ schema Readers’ pre-existing knowledge can be activated to guess the main idea of the ready-to-read texts based on factual evidences such as tittles, pictures or graphic figures (Gilani, Ismail, Gilakjani,

2012) By doing this, students are capable of narrowing their knowledge to be fit with the topic In the next step of KWL chart, which is “W” part, students are required to point out something they would like to know or wonder about the topic This indicates that students are setting a clear purpose to decode the content in the passage (Feathers, 2004) This implies that no longer do they take passive roles in the reading process by letting the teachers control the whole thing in their way The role has changed compared to the traditional method It is a powerful way to evoke their curiosity, ignite their interests about the topic thus teachers are able to make them engaged in the flow of reading activities (Roozkhoon, Bagheri & Yamini, 2013) Teachers could engage students in a discussion with partners in pair or in group to accumulate more ideas about the subject (Kusumaningrum and Widiyanto, 2018) Afterwards, teachers have students read the text Students themselves figure out the answers for indicated questions in W column Students can skim to have an overall understanding about the text (Grellet,1986) so that they can find the answer for their curiosity about the topic broadly (Williams, 1996); scanning the text is also a quick way to find specific information The significant vocabulary, information and answers for the questions are collected and recorded in the following column, named “Learned” to show what students have acquired by reading through the whole text (Hornby, 2010) After going through the previous three steps to complete the chart, students are encouraged to discuss, synthesize and categorize the written information to consolidate their learning As cited in Alsoudi (2017), it is teachers’ responsibility to scaffold students, encourage them to find out and determine what they need to know

2.2.2 Benefits of Know – Want – Learned strategy on reading comprehension

Riswanto, Risnawati, Detti Lismayanti (2014) assert that KWL is an instructional strategy that alleviates the difficulty in interpreting the meaning of the reading text Especially, it assists students to go through the reading steps smoothly given that they have certain purpose for reading, stimulation to think out loud the questions and the willingness to answer them Therefore, they tend to involve actively in the reading procedure instead of just listening or doing exercise under teachers’ control To be more specific, in the “K” section, those activities can enable learners to not only activate existing relevant schema related to the text but also build up the brand new schema (Ajideh, 2006) To complete some posed questions in the W column, they need to find information in the text Thus, their metacognition will be enhanced since they know what they are learning, then monitor and control the learning process For the last activity, this offers the chance for the students to review and reflect what they have already learned through the text (Utami et al., 2014) It is time for them to self-evaluate the learning which is useful for strengthening their metacognition Furthermore, in some cases, it is highly recommended for teachers to encourage students to research any questions in the

W column that were not answered by the text in order that they could enhance their knowledge, achieve higher level of thinking It can be put in the additional column with modification mode “What I Still Want to Know” This helps to make them become independent learners at home and expertise in a particular field (Taheri and Mohamadi,

In general, the use of KWL encourages readers to utilize the schema and metacognitive awareness Both of them are considered as two critical factors that have profound influence on the reading comprehension Thus, it can be implied that KWL plays a bridge to reinforce students’ reading comprehension.

Attitudes

Apart from some indicated factors that possess the influence on reading comprehension, attitude towards learning also plays integral part in the reading achievement In order words, attitude is a central topic of consideration in education since attitude towards learning is one of the factors that can affect the learning outcomes more or less

The definitions of attitude vary among many researchers Allport (1935) states: “an attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual response to all objects and situations with which it is related.” (p.810) Also, according to Gardner (1980), attitude belongs to inner feeling including concepts, thoughts, perception about specific things, people, ect What is more, in the perception of Rusch & Perry (1999) as cited in Rahimi & Naderi

(2014), attitudes are defined as “the interplay of feelings, beliefs and thoughts about actions” (p.291) In other words, attitudes are students’ reactions to the learning contexts such as the learning environment, peers, instructors, materials, activities, or anything related to the lessons (Zhao, 2015; Jain, 2014) In simpler terms, attitude is a feeling or perception/evaluation about a particular thing in any situations

Anwar and Shukur (2015) point out that there are three components of attitudes which are:

(1) Cognitive Component: This refers to learner’s beliefs and thoughts about the knowledge they have achieved in the learning process This construct can be divided into four stages: connect the former knowledge with the contemporary one, process new information, analyse the new information and adapt new knowledge in many circumstances

(2) Affective/Emotional Component is about learners’ feeling towards the surroundings Clearly, it is the way students express their feeling of favour or disfavour of something The internal sense will determine the reaction or response emotionally towards the learning Choy and Troudi (2006) states that their emotion has intense impacts on the attitude in learning language

(3) Behavioral Component refers to the tendency of behaviors and actions for something For example, students with positive attitude have more enthusiasm in joining class discussion or activities (Gajalakshmi, 2013) An individual with positive attitude will result in the demonstration of positive behaviour towards learning new language It means that their attitude will be reflected and exposed by the actions It is from inside state that can influence the behaviours

2.3.3The relationship between attitude and learning

Fatiha, Sliman, Mustapha and Yahia (2014) postulate that each learner’s attitudes can be positive or negative and this results in the degree of how successfully learners gain in the learning process Gardner, Lanlonde and Moorcroft (1985) prove this statement with the clear explanation that attitude empowers the potential ability to fulfill the learning since the attitude prompts students to put more attempts on learning Agree with that fact, Gardner (1985) also states that there is a high correlation between attitude and achievement Agustiani (2017) conducted a research at one university and confirmed the relationship between students’ attitude and reading performance If the level of positive attitude is high, leaners have more stimuli in learning language and vice versa Thus, teachers have a mission in driving learners’ potentially internal interest to help them perform better as well as avoid failure or obstacles Prodromou (1992) as cited in ệzer and Yılmaz (2016) sheds light on this with a certain that those who achieve higher level of language demands is the ones having more optimistic attitude Additionally, attitude is a factor that helps to increase the motivation of students in learning a target language

In the classroom setting, Salikin, Bin-Tahir, Kusumaningputri & Yuliandari (2017) posit that if students find their drive in reading, they are willing to join the reading lessons with full of enjoyment Therefore, some instructional methods and teaching practices should be designed and planned appropriately (Guthrie & Klauda, 2014, p 24).

Previous studies

Farha and Rohani (2019) highlight that the close association of students’ current knowledge and the new information will become a part of long term memory Therefore, with the features based on schema-building strategy and metacognition, KWL is a powerful approach that appeals many educators to conduct a wide range of researches to investigate the effect of KWL on reading comprehension According to Do and Nguyen

(2014), KWL as a metacognitive strategy can be exploited to use not only for in-class activities but also for extensive reading Inspired by its mentioned advantages, many empirical studies have been conducted to examine whether the KWL instruction have impact on EFL learners’ reading comprehension

For example, teachers in Zhang (2010)’s research also acknowledged the efficacy of KWL instructional strategy with the conclusion that KWL enables teachers to modify their instructional styles to become more intriguing and attractive In this study, the researcher aimed to find an effective way to integrate KWL into the lesson plan of the writing class for English-non majored learners and simultaneously found out their interests towards KWL instructional scheme Eighty first-year students majoring in medicine and chemistry participated in this experiment Half of them were in the experimental group instructed with KWL scheme with the hope that this reading strategy strongly connected with relevant prior knowledge activation which were expected to benefit the writing stage later Whilst, the others in the control group were taught with Grammar Translation Method in which grammatical structures and sentence translations gained priority During 3-period treatment, it was advisable for learners to write a summative discussion of the science text which was the preparative step for writing The topic, body and conclusion of the writing piece were based on K-W-L column and the summative discussion as process earlier Through group discussion and question- answering sections, learners could enhance their listening and speaking skills as well The result of t-test show that t=2.161, which illustrated the significant difference in the means between two groups Teacher indicates that KWL has effect on comprehension and writing performance Additionally, the question of how students’ attitudes towards the KWL scheme were answered by the questionnaire instrument using Likert scale of agreement The mean (4.05) indicated that the majority of the participants had a positive attitude towards the integration of KWL into their classes Moreover, the result of their studies shows that such integration involves efforts of both learners and instructors However, this study mainly focused on the writing skill, but not reading comprehension Another research is Roozkhoon, Bagheri and Yamini’s (2013), which examines the impacts of KWL charts strategy on learners’ reading comprehension of culturally unfamiliar texts A total number of participants are forty-two students in intermediate level The female participants were chosen based on the scores of PET test to make sure that the homogenous among samplings They were divided randomly into two groups: experimental group and control group In the control group, students were taught through questioning and summarizing technique while the others in an experimental group were instructed with KWL chart Before the treatment, both groups were delivered a pretest to identify their level on reading comprehension achievement The pretest was selected from Insight into PE to ensure the standard of the test When the intervene was over, the post test was analysed to see whether KWL has influence on students’ reading comprehension The posttest includes quizzes which evaluate their understanding of the text The results indicated that there was no significant improvement in Iranian EFL learners’ performances on reading comprehension quizzes by using KWL charts and there are no significant differences between posttests’ scores in KWL and control groups KWL charts did not have any positive effect on Iranian EFL learners’ comprehension This contrasts with findings mentioned below

Hamdan (2014) conducted a quantitative research in an effort of exploring the effectiveness of KWL Plus on students’ reading achievement 50 students from one public high school and one private high school in Jordan were selected to participate in the research during the 10-week treatment The average age for the sample was around

16 years old Male students of public school were chosen to be the members of experimental group and KWL Plus was used to guide students through reading stages while private school male students were taught with the conventional one In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of KWL Plus strategy, pretest and posttest were used to collect the data Each test included 20 multiple choice questions and a retention test in which students are expected to summarize the text by writing a passage based on the information they had noted in the “L” column The major findings of this study indicate that the use of KWL in the experimental group significantly enhanced the reading comprehension The researcher concluded that KWL would be used to increase students’ reading ability The strength of this study is the reliability of the results because the level of participants is at equivalent proficiency by the assessment before the intervention The participants were limited to male students at high school Therefore, it is necessary to conduct study that includes both male and female participants at other ages to consolidate generalization

Likewise, Sinambela, Manik & Pangaribuan (2015) also had an agreement on the positive effect of KWL on reinforcing students’ reading skill Their initial intention is to examine students’ reading comprehension with KWL strategy for English - majored students in a university in Indonesia It is clearly seen from the research results that those who are at higher level and higher age still gained significant benefits from KWL During the treatment, students in an experimental group were recorded that they actively took part in the activities of KWL while their background knowledge was activated at the beginning of the reading lesson, which can prepare the students with comparatively adequate information for the new reading texts Besides, their critical thinking was also developed Meanwhile in the control group, conventional teaching was applied where students find out the meanings of unknown vocabulary by using dictionary, then answer questions based on the text’s content In a similar vein, they also used tests to measure students’ ability in reading comprehension Students were required to complete 25 multiple choices in 40 minutes By applying t-test formula, the mean score of the students who were taught by applying Know - Want - Learn technique ( K-W- L) (73,36) was higher than mean score of students who were taught without K-W-L (68,73) Nevertheless, the limitation of the treatment was time pressure The period of applying KWL was only 4 meetings which cannot reach a noticeably convinced result

There are a variety of reading strategies that are implemented in the process of extracting the meaning of texts and each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages Rosari and Mujiyanto (2016) were interested in comparing the effectiveness of two reading strategies which were KWL and Collaborative Strategic Reading for both positive and negative learners The data were collected and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively Eleventh-grade students with positive and negative attitudes in SMAN 2 Mranggen, Demak were selected to be the participants of this study The participants were purposively selected based on the teacher’s consideration on students’ ability in English subject Rosari and Mujiyanto employed Factorial 2x2 design to examine the effects of

2 independent variables and find out differences in results between two experimental groups Each group had both positive and negative students The instrument was pre- reading test and post-reading test assigned in two experimental groups to examine students’ reading comprehension ability Besides, to identify students with positive and negative attitudes, the researcher used observation, questionnaire and interview of teachers who observed the teaching and learning process in the 6 meetings to explore learners’ cognitive, behavioural and affective aspects Based on the results of these instruments, there were 23 students with positive attitudes in both classes and there were

13 students with negative attitudes in both classes Finally, the outcomes from the analysis of students’ scores demonstrate that KWL and CSR were effective approaches for positive students because the statistical analysis between them was not uneven (which were 81.74 and 83.04) In other words, for students with positive attitudes, none was more productive between two strategies However, in respect to negative students, CSR were more effective than KWL in the way of facilitating students’ reading procedure The strength of this study is the researchers aim at discovering more insights into the topic because it employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer two research questions Nevertheless, the analysis of data from questionnaire, observation and interview was not presented in this study

KWL still has a significant effect on youngsters in the research conducted by Amelia and Kamalasari (2018) The purpose of the study is to discover how effectively one of the metacognitive effect - KWL plus have on second graders’ reading comprehension at MTsN Kampar At first, the researchers found that the reading class appeared to be not interesting in a traditional way of teaching, which led them to find a way to improve the better reading of narrative texts The researchers employed a quasi-experimental research with the total of 56 students By using lottery, class VIII.A were assigned in an experiment group and class VIII.B was in control group In conclusion, the effectiveness of using KWL Plus strategy on students’ reading comprehension of narrative text was manifested by the analysis of the t-test Both pre-test and post-test included 20 multiple choice items The strength of this study is that they conducted a standard of level of difficulty of the tests to assure test items were not too difficult or easy, ranging >0.30 and elevator (n) + force sb to do sth

- Pay attention and take note into notebooks

=> revival (n) + overheat (v) + blanket (n) + alcohol (n) + tissue (n) + damage (v)

=> sterilize (v) + bandage (n) + cool the burns:

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

So as to/ in order to + V-inf : để/ để mà Dùng để diễn tả mục đích

Ex: Minh studies hard in order to / so as to get good grades

Checking technique: Slap the board

- Call the Vietnamese meanings, Ss slap the word

- Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Translate the text into Vietnamese and have

Ss do the exercises in the textbooks

Task 1: Choose a correct case for each of the following treatments

1 The victim should not sit or stand

2 Victim cannot drink wine or beer

3 The victim’s head should be below the level of the heart

4 You should ease the pain with ice or cold water packs

5 The victim should drink a cup of tea when reviving

1) If someone has a shock a) We shouldn’t overheat him/her with blankets

b) We should give him/her some food and drugs

2) If someone has burns a) We should cool the burns for him/her b) We should cover the burned area with a thick sterile dressing

3) If someone has a fainting a) We should leave him/her lying flat b) We shouldn’t give him/her some tea when he/she revives

1) If someone has a shock a) We shouldn’t overheat him/her with blankets (True) b) We should give him/her some food and drugs (False)

2) If someone has burns a) We should cool the burns for him/her

(True) b) We should cover the burned area with a thick sterile dressing (True)

3) If someone has a fainting a) We should leave him/her lying flat (True)

- Decide True or False for each statement

- Exchange the answers b) We shouldn’t give him/her some tea when he/she revives (False)

- Ask Ss to exchange the answers with their partners

- Ask Ss to do the exercises using “in order to/so as to”

1 He went to Ha Noi He wanted to meet his grandmother

2 My sister studies English She wants to work for a foreign company

3 We are saving money We plan to travel around Europe next year

4 Ed took some change from his pocket He wanted to buy a newspaper

1 He went to Ha Noi in order to/so as to meet his grandmother

2 My sister studies English in order to/so as to work for a foreign company

3 We are saving money in order to/so as to travel around Europe next year

4 Ed took some change from his pocket in order to/so as to buy a newspaper

Learn new vocabulary, structures and prepare for the next section

APPENDIX 1B – LESSON PLAN FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to get information about how to do in some situations requiring first-aid and practice skills in reading comprehension

2 Structures: so as to/ in order to + V-inf

III Skills: brainstorming, scanning, skimming, guessing meaning, summarizing

IV Teaching aids: Pictures, textbooks, projector, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Divide the class into 8 groups to play a game

Nose bleed Burn Bee sting Power shock Bad cut

- Work in group and find those who experienced some situations

- Draw a KWL on the board, Ss discuss this questions “What do you do for each cases: fainting, shock and burns”

What we know What we want to know

- Fill in the “K” column or generate words, phrases, ideas

- When Ss fill in the K column, T shows some pictures to activate their background knowledge

- Ask students to write down any questions that they want to know in the W column

- Teacher explains new words by using pictures, examples, explanation, synonym, ect

=> elevator (n) + force sb to do sth + victim (n)

- Write questions that they wonder and expect to be answered from the text into the “W” column

- Pay attention and take note into notebooks

=> sterilize (v) + bandage (n) + cool the burns:

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

Checking technique: Back to the board

T invites two Ss from two groups come to the board and face the other Ss, then guess the meaning of the words

- Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Ask students to read the text and find answers to their questions posed in the W column

- Go around the class and give help if necessary

- Have Ss do more exercises

Task: Choose a correct case for each of the following treatments

6 The victim should not sit or stand

7 Victim cannot drink wine or beer

8 The victim’s head should be below the level of the heart

9 You should ease the pain with ice or cold water packs

10.The victim should drink a cup of tea when reviving

- Ask students to list vocabulary and ideas related to the texts

- Have Ss summarize and discuss what they have learned from reading

- Answer questions that have not been answered yet

- Encourage them to research further

- Have students play “True or False Repetition

Teacher read the sentence with the grammar point and information from the text If it is true information, students repeat after teacher If not, do not repeat

We have to make them sit or stand

We should not give them some tea when he/she revives

Learn new vocabulary and prepare the next section

APPENDIX 2A – LESSON PLAN FOR THE CONTROL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to remember vocabulary, structures, and get information about how things are recycled, reused and reduced

III Skills: translation, scanning, skimming

IV Teaching aids: Pictures, lesson plan, textbooks, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Gives some pictures about recycled things

- Pay attention to the pictures

- T gives a list of some new words then explain the meaning

- Pay attention and take note into notebooks

+ empty (v,adj) + to refill (v) + industry (n)

+ compost (n) + glassware (n) + refill (v) + melt (v) >< freeze ( v) + break up – broke – broken + make from

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

Ex1: Lan waters flowers everyday

=> Flowers are watered by Lan everyday

Ex2: I bought that book yesterday

=> That book was bought (by me) yesterday

- Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Translate the text into Vietnamese and have Ss do the exercises in the textbooks

- Translate and do the exercises

Task 1: Answer the questions a) What do people do with empty milk bottles? b) What happens to the glass when it is sent to the factories? c) What did the Oregon government do to prevent people from throwing drink cans away? d) What is compost made from? e) If you have a recycling story to share, how can you share it?

Keys a People cleaned and refilled empty milk bottles with milk b The glass is broken up, melted and made into new glassware when it is sent to factories c The Oregon government made ạ new law that there must be deposit on all drink cans The deposit is returned when people bring the cans back for recycling d Compost is made from household and garden waste e If we have a recycling story to share, we can call or fax the magazine at 5 265 456

Task 2: Complete the sentences to make a list of recycled things

Car tires Milk bottles Glass

Car tires are recycled to make pipes and floor coverings

Milk bottles are cleaned and refilled with milk

Glass is broken up, melted and made into new glassware

Drink cans are brought back for recycling

Household and garden waste is made into compost

- Go around the class and give help if necessary

- Ask Ss to exchange the answers with their partners

- Have students take turn to translate the text into Vietnamese with the help of teacher

Learn new vocabulary and prepare the next section

APPENDIX 2B – LESSON PLAN FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to

+ get information about things that can be recycled, reused and reduced

+ practice skills in reading comprehension

III Skills: brainstorming, scan, skim, guessing meaning, summarizing

IV Teaching aids: Pictures, textbooks, projector, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Divide the class into 8 groups to play a game “Network”

- Show a picture and asks students some questions to activate their background knowledge

- Brainstorm and make a list of recycled things

Things we can reuse and recycle

1 What can people do with used bottle?

2 What can people do with drink cans?

Draw a KWL on the board, Ss discuss about

What we know What we want to know

- Ask students to write down any questions that they want to know in the W column

- Teacher explains new words by using pictures, examples, explanation, synonym, ect

+ tire (n) + pipe (n) + covering (n) + sandals (n) + empty (v,adj) + to refill (v) + industry (n)

- Fill in the “K” column or generate words, phrases, ideas related to “Recycling”

- Write questions that they wonder and expect to be answered from the text into the “W” column

- Pay attention and take note into notebooks

+ compost (n) + glassware (n) + refill (v) + melt (v) >< freeze ( v) + break up – broke – broken + make from

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

Checking technique: Matching task - Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Ask students to read the text and find answers to their questions posed in the W column

- Have Ss to complete this task

Task : Work with a partner Complete the sentences to make a list of recycled things

Car tires Milk bottles Glass

Ex: Car tires are recycled to make pipes and floor coverings

- Go around the class and give help if necessary

- Ask students to list vocabulary and ideas related to the texts

- Have Ss summarize and discuss what they have learned from reading

Why should we make compost?

 It makes soil softer and richer

 It makes our environment cleaner

 It helps trees grow quickly……

- Answer questions that have not been answered yet

- Encourage them to research further

Learn new vocabulary and prepare the next section

APPENDIX 3A - LESSON PLAN FOR THE CONTROL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to remember vocabulary and get information about some places in the USA

III Skills: translation, scanning, skimming

IV Teaching aids: Lesson plan, pictures, textbooks, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

Have Ss to match the name with its picture Match the name with its picture

- T gives a list of some new words then explain the meaning

+ institute (n) + oceanic (adj) + giant (adj) = very big + Buddha (n)

+ daily (adj) + destination (n) + waterfall (n) + railway (n) + tribe (n) + recognize + heritage (n) + magnificent (adj) + cave (n)

- Confirm the meaning in Vietnamese

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary - Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Ask students to read the brochures about the resorts and translate into Vietnamese

- Have Ss do the exercises in the textbooks

Task 1: Write what Mrs Quyen did and saw in each of these places

Place What she did and saw

Hawaii New Work Chicago Mount Rushmore San Franciso

Place What she did and saw

Hawaii went swimming, visited Kilauea Volcano went shopping

New Work bought lots of souvenirs

Mount Rushmore Saw the heads of four

Wharf, the Napa Valley growing area and the Alcatraz prison

1 How did Mrs Quyen go to Kilauea Volcano?

2 Where in San Francisco did Mrs Quyen see the famous prison?

3 What is special about Mount Rushmore?

4 What is the other name of Chicago?

5 What did Mrs Quyen do while her husband was visiting the Statue of Liberty?

1 She went there by plane

2 She saw the prison on the island of Alcatraz

3 People can see Mount Rushmore from more than 100 kilometres away

4 It is also called ‘‘The Windy City”

- Ask Ss to exchange the answers with their partners

- Let Ss practice more exercises

1. is often called “The Windy City”

3 The heads of 4 American presidents are carved into the rock on

C Empire State Building 4. _ is in New York

5 is a mountain with a large, circular hole in the top through which lava are forced out

- Have Ss take turn to translate the text again to make sure they understand the meaning of the text and remember the vocabulary

Learn new vocabulary and prepare the next section

APPENDIX 3B - LESSON PLAN FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to get information about some attractions in the USA and practice skills in reading comprehension

III Skills: brainstorming, scan, skim, guessing meaning, summarizing

IV Teaching aids: Pictures, textbooks, projector, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Asks Ss to name some cities in the USA

- Let Ss guess and match some pictures of attractions that belong to each place below

- Draw a KWL on the board, Ss discuss with peers and list names or symbols of some famous places in the USA

What we know What we want to know What we learned

- Fill in the “K” column or generate words, phrases, ideas

- Ask students to write down any questions that they want to know in the W column

- Teachers explains new words by using pictures, examples, explanation, synonym, ect

+ volcano (n) + volcanic (adj) + to pour out + to erupt + eruption (n) + lava (n) + wine-growing (n) + fame (n)

+ famous for (adj) >< infamous + ridiculous (adj)

+ prison (n) + to imprison (v) + imprisonment (n) + Mount Rushmore (n) + Napa Valley (n) + Fishermen’s Wharf (n) + to carve into

+ to situate (v) + situation (n) + Empire State Building (n)

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

- Write questions that they wonder and expect to be answered from the text into the “W” column

- Pay attention and take note into notebooks

- Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Have Ss read the postcards and check the predictions in the pre-reading stage

- Go around the class and give help if necessary

- Ask students to read the text and find answers to their questions posed in the W column

Task 2: Write what Mrs Quyen did and saw in each of these places

Place What she did and saw

New Work Chicago Mount Rushmore San Franciso

Place What she did and saw

Hawaii went swimming, visited Kilauea Volcano went shopping

New Work bought lots of souvenirs

Mount Rushmore Saw the heads of four

Wharf, the Napa Valley growing area and the Alcatraz prison

- Ask students to list vocabulary and ideas related to the texts

- Have Ss summarize and discuss what they have learned from reading

- Answer questions that have not been answered yet

- Encourage them to research further

- Have Ss work in group and discuss these questions

- Share the ideas to the class

1 If you have a vacation abroad, which country do you want to visit?

2 What will you do and see there?

Learn new vocabulary and prepare the next section

APPENDIX 4A - LESSON PLAN FOR THE CONTROL GROUP

I Objectives: By the end of the lesson students will be able to remember vocabulary, structures, and get information about Christmas

III Skills: translation, scanning, skimming

IV Teaching aids: Lesson plan, pictures, textbooks, boards

Stages Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Ask Ss to guess some special things at Christmas

+ lights and ball + Christmas tree + Santa Claus + presents + snowman

Guess some special things at Christmas

- T gives a list of some new words then explain the meaning

=> poetic (adj) + professor (n) + to base on sb / sth + to describe

- Confirm the meaning in Vietnamese

- Ask Ss to listen and repeat new vocabulary

Form: be + Vpp Ex: The pizza was made by my mom

- Listen and repeat in choral/ individual

- Have Ss translate the text into Vietnamese

- Have Ss do the exercises in the textbooks

Christmas Specials Place of origin Date

Christmas tree Christmas card Christmas carols

Christmas tree Riga early 1500s Christmas card England mid-19 th century Christmas carols (no information )

800 years ago Santa Claus The USA 1823

Task 2: Answer the questions a) How long ago did the Christmas tree come to the USA? b) Why did the Englishman have someone design a card? c) When were Christmas songs first performed? d) Who wrote the poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas? e) What is Santa Claus based on?

READING COMPREHENSION PRE-TEST

Task 1: Which notice (A-H) says this (1-5)? For question 1-5, mark the correct letter A-H

Task 2: Read the text below and decide whether the following statements (6-9) are True or False

In the home you must keep matches, lighter and candles out of children’s reach because the can cause a fire You must have a smoke detector on each floor, and test them monthly In the kitchen, you must keep knives, scissors, hot meals and drinks out of the reach of children Children must not play in the kitchen while you are cooking In the bathroom, you must check the bath water temperature before children get in, and always run the cold water first before adding the hot In the bedroom, you must keep the furniture away from the windows, to make sure children do not climb up and fall out of open window

6 Keep children away from the kitchen

7 Matches, candles, and lighters can cause fire

8 It is safe to put furniture near the windows

9 You don’t have to check the bath water temperature before children get in

Task 3: Read the text below For each question (10-14), circle the correct letter

Alexander Graham Bell was born in 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland His father was an expert in phonetics, the study of the sounds of languages As a boy, Bell became interested in sounds and speech In 1870 the Bells decided to emigrate to America

They lived in Boston, where Alexander taught in a school for the deaf There he began experimenting with a machine to help the deaf hear While experimenting with this machine, Bell had an idea Why not use electricity to send the human voice from one place to another? Bell began work on a new invention

10 When was Alexander Graham Bell born?

11 He went to live _ with his family when he grew up

12 What does the word ‘ emigrate ’ in line 3 mean?

A leave somebody’s country to live in another country

B to go to a place for a short time

C travel a long way from home to work every day

D get away from something dangerous

13 What does the word ‘ they ’ in line 4 refer to?

14 Which of the following is not true?

A Bell’s father was an expert in phonetics

B Bell became interested in sounds and speech since he was a boy

C Bell learned in a school for the deaf

D He experimented a machine to help the deaf hear

Task 4: Read an article about doing homework Choose the best word (A, B or C) for each space

It is a good idea to start your homework early If you can do it (15) your evening meal, you will have (16) _time later to do things that you enjoy, like talking (17) the phone

It is also better to do homework as soon as possible after the teacher has given it to you Then, if the homework is difficult and you (18) time to think about it, you will still have time to do it Always turn off your mobile phone and the tevevision when you are doing homework You will work a lot (19) without them Make sure you will have a quiet place to do work, with (20) light and a comfortable chair

READING COMPREHENSION POST-TEST

Task 1: Which notice (A-H) says this (1-5)? For question 1-5, mark the correct letter A-H

Task 2: Read the text below and decide whether the following statements (6-9) are True or False

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb of Pharaoh Cheops in 2720 BC Although it was built a long time ago, its construction makes it one of the true wonders of the world The four sides of the pyramid are put almost exactly on true north, south, east and west Explorations and detailed examinations of the base of the structure reveal many interesting lines Further scientific study indicates that these represent a type of line of event - past, present and future Many of the events have been interpreted and found to coincide with known facts of the past Was this super structure made by ordinary beings, or one built by a race far superior to any known today?

6 The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb

7 It is one of the true wonders of the world because of its construction

8 Four sides of the pyramid aren’t put on true north, south, east and west

9.The base of the structure represents a type of line of event - present and future

Task 3: Read the text below For each question (10-14), circle the correct letter

Yesterday, when I was riding along a busy street, I saw an accident A woman was knocked down when she crossed the street at a zebra crossing Many people stopped to offer their help A policeman arrived and asked a young man to telephone for an ambulance While waiting for the ambulance, the policeman and some people tried to stop the bleeding They used a handkerchief to cover the wound, then put pressure on it and held it tight They tried to talk to her in order to keep her awake After about ten minutes, the ambulance arrived and the woman was taken to the hospital

10 Where did the accident happen?

A On the sidewalk B At the crosswalk

C In a main street D On a pavement

11 Who telephoned for an ambulance?

C The young man D The driver

12 They used a handkerchief to cover the wound in order to _

A Put a pressure on it B Hold it tight

C Wait for the ambulance D Stop the bleeding

13 They tried to talk to her so that _

A She couldn’t fall asleep B She could ease her pain

C She could recognize them D She couldn’t be afraid

14 Which of the following sentences is not true?

A The woman had a traffic accident

B The woman was helped by many people

C The woman was unconscious for a while

D The woman was taken to the hospital by the ambulance

Task 4: Read an article about Mount Fujisan Choose the best word (A, B or C) for each space

Mount Fuji is called Fujisan in Japan It is 3776 metres high and is visited (15) _ people from all over the world It is a very beautiful mountain and many artists have used it in (16) _ work It is (17) cloudy to see it clearly The (18) time to see the mountain is during the colder months of the year, and in the early morning and late evening A very pleasant place to enjoy Mount Fuji from is Fuji Five Lake (Fujigoko), (19) _ is just north of the mountain Mount Fuji is open for climbing in July and August, but not at (20) times of the year

ANSWER KEY FOR THE PRE- AND POST-TEST

ANSWER KEY FOR THE PRE-TEST

- Task 2: 6 True, 7 True, 8 False, 9 False

ANSWER KEY FOR THE POST-TEST

- Task 2: 6 True, 7 True, 8 False, 9 False

QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE VERSION

BẢNG KHẢO SÁT HỌC SINH

Các bạn học sinh thân mến,

Cô đang làm một nghiên cứu về đề tài ứng dụng phương pháp giảng dạy KWL để nâng cao kết quả đọc hiểu của học sinh khối 8 trường THCS An Phú Đông Các câu hỏi ở bảng khảo sát này được thiết kế với mục đích tìm hiểu ý kiến của học sinh về việc sử dụng tài liệu thực trong giờ học đọc, vì vậy không có câu trả lời nào đúng hoặc sai Sự hợp tác của em là vô cùng quan trọng đối với bài nghiên cứu này Thông tin của các em sẽ được giữ bí mật vì nó chỉ được sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Cảm ơn thời gian và sự hợp tác của các em

Số năm học tiếng anh: _năm

Học tiếng Anh (em có thể chọn nhiều hơn 1 lựa chọn):

II Thái độ của học sinh đối với phương pháp giảng dạy KWL trong lớp đọc Đánh dấu (√) vào ô phản ánh đúng nhất ý kiến của em về từng câu sau đây:

1 Chiến lược KWL giúp em liên kết kiến thức có sẵn của bản thân với chủ đề bài học

2 Chiến lược KWL đòi hỏi em phải suy nghĩ và đặt câu hỏi về nội dung của bài đọc

3 Chiến lược KWL giúp em đọc đoạn văn với mục tiêu cụ thể

4 Chiến lược KWL giúp em nhận biết được ý chính của bài đọc

5 Chiến lược KWL giúp em nhớ được thông tin bài đọc lâu dài hơn

6 Em có khuynh hướng nhận biết thông tin nào quan trọng hay ít quan trọng hơn khi học với chiến lược KWL

7 Chiến lược KWL làm em hứng thú hơn trong việc đọc

8 Em cảm thấy tự tin hơn khi học đọc với chiến lược

9 Chiến lược KWL làm cho quá trình học vui hơn

10 Chiến lược KWL thúc đẩy em có động lực đọc

11 Em thích học đọc hiểu với chiến lược KWL

12 Em tích cực tham gia vào cuộc thảo luận với bạn bè

13 Em muốn giáo viên sử dụng chiến lược KWL trong tiết học đọc

14 Em muốn sử dụng bảng KWL cho việc tự học của mình tại nhà

15 Em muốn bảng KWL được sử dụng ở các môn học khác tại trường.

QUESTIONNAIRE IN VIETNAMESE VERSION

I am doing a research entitled “The effect of Know – Want- Learned strategy on eighth- graders’ reading comprehension at An Phu Dong secondary school” This questionnaire is designed with the aims of asking for learners’ attitudes towards the use of KWL in reading classes, so there are no right or wrong answers Your cooperation is extremely important for my study Your information will be kept confidential because it is only used for my research purposes Thanks for your time and cooperation

Years of learning English: _years

Studying English (you can choose more than one):

At school  Outside the school 

II Students’ attitudes towards the use of KWL strategy in reading class

Please tick (√) in the box that best reflects your opinion about each of the following statements using this scale:

1 KWL strategy helps me dig up my prior knowledge to connect with the learning topic

2 KWL strategy challenges me to wonder myself and make questions about content of text

3 KWL strategy makes me read with a specific goal

4 KWL strategy helps me to identify the main ideas of a reading text

5 KWL strategy helps me to remember the information in a text longer

6 I tend to recognize important or less important information when learning with KWL strategy

7 KWL strategy makes me more interested in reading

8 I feel confident when reading a text with KWL

9 KWL strategy makes the learning process fun

10 KWL strategy motivates me to read the text

11 I prefer learning reading with KWL strategy

12 I actively joined in class discussions with classmates

13 I would like teachers to use KWL strategy in the reading classes more often

14 I would like to use KWL chart for my independent learning at home

15 I would like KWL to be used for any other subjects at my school.

INTERVIEW SCRIPT

H1: From my perspectives, I found out that the learning environment was interesting Especially, I didn’t think that my background knowledge fits with the content of the text, which makes me surprised

H2: I was involved in the learning process and almost forgot the time

R1: I love the feeling of finding answers for the raised questions It motivated me to read

R2: This is a new experience for me I feel that learning with KWL was more fun I love to interact with my peers

L1: It seems little pressured for me since I fell behind my groupmates in most of activities

L2: I felt less scared of reading English when interacting with friends The learning was interesting than before

Question 2: How does KWL strategy facilitate your reading comprehension?

H1: My knowledge was broaden and I often searched at home what we would like to know but not stated in the text

H2: I tended to retain the information better and had chance to practice scanning and skimming the information to do the exercises

R1: I could link what I had known with the content of the text which helped me to comprehend the passage I was happy when finding the information to answer some questions that my group wondered

R2: I could grasp the main idea of the text, thus finding information to do the exercises more easier

L1: I don’t know With insufficient knowledge of vocabulary and previous knowledge,

I was not confident in discussing what I had known, thus my friends ignored me

L2: I could remember the text better than before although I did not improve a lot

Question 3: Do you prefer learning reading with KWL strategy or with traditional method? Explain your response

H1: I am into this new strategy more than the old one It is a new experience for me to learn I get interested in scanning, skimming, trying to answer the questions by any ways

I often encountered some sleepiness and boredom in traditional class

H2: KWL strategy is my choice Compared with the old one, translation is boring and I felt that the new strategy helps me highlight the main idea of the text which assists me to perform well in the final test It is helpful in reading

R1: I am reluctant to choose, uh… With my introvert personality, the traditional method is also suitable for me but with this new strategy, I can have opportunities to practice English speaking and improve my communication skill

R2: I love the new one With this way of learning, I can solve reading tasks easier but I don’t know why my final tests didn’t improve, maybe my mood affected the result of the test score that day

L1: I think that I am familiar with the old method and I feel comfortable with the old It is difficult for me to adapt the new one

L2: I can memorize the content of the text better and it is more interesting than the old method I agree

Question 4: What are your challenges or difficulties when doing tasks?

H1: Some of my teammates lacked of vocabulary, so I needed to think questions by myself and it took time to explain the meaning for them I prefer to work with better learners

H2: I did not have any difficulty in class The learning went well

R1: With insufficient knowledge of vocab, I found inconvenient with the first activity, so I just noted down Vietnamese words Gradually, I did not encounter problems

R2: The noise of class made it hard for me to concentrate on ideas from my teammates L1: Time was limited with my level It was hard for me to find answers in the reading text

L2: I was not confident to ask teachers for more provision on vocabulary and some teammates did not participate in

Question 5: Do you have any suggestions or expectations to improve the teaching and learning through KWL strategy?

H1: I would love to work with different students each time I meant I would love if the teacher could change the group members more frequently

H2: I am fine with this strategy

R2: I need support from teachers in every tasks

L1: Can you spend more time explaining the vocabulary and give us time to remember it before moving on the next step?

L2: I like more games to compete with other groups.

THE CONTROL GROUP’S SCORES

No Control Group Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest

THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP’S SCORES

20 4.5 5.5 40 4.5 6.5 https://www.turnitin.com/newreport_classic.asp?eq=0&eb=0&esm=0&oid37947222&svrC&rV.21589219705165&lang=en_us 1/22

Le Phuong Thao's master thesis of TESOL By Thao

Similarity by Source exclude quoted exclude bibliography exclude small matches mode: quickview (classic) report print download

3% match (student papers from 12-Aug-2019) Submitted to Benedictine University on 2019-08-12

1% match (student papers from 11-Oct-2021) Submitted to Ho Chi Minh City Open University on 2021-10-11

. comes to the conceptual framework of the study on page 39, which simply includes only the

_■ ■/’ ; '■ j ■■ two main variables of the study although this framework is not really comprehensive.

Page45: Taking ^ other English courses outside? I ; What does this mean in research?

Pp 47-48: Is it an old textbook? Relevance to the focus of this study?

Pp 49-50: Why was the control group taughtwith the stages of warm up, presentation, practic^andjco-nsoliTation while the experimental group was with warm up, pre-reading, while-r^^ing^^pd-postyreading? ■

Page 491 What rs'therlihk between the lesson plan for the experimental group with KWL and ị; L ' the learning outcomes! for Teaching reading f42 2 13]: understanding main ideas and details?

Page 49: While-reading: Providing some tasks for students to complete: Do these tasks have

■ ;i I J ■ J • • • • ; 1 • i : anything to do with the w column in the pre-reading?

3 Strengths and limitations of thesis regarding content, organization and format

Basically, the format of the study complies with a conventional structure for a master’s thesis interms of its fundamental components besides the reference system and appendices.

However, Chapter 2 should be revised to focus on only the main variables of the study and Chapter 3 needs to be re-organised to highlight the main components of a research study.

What is the purpose of Table 2.1 on pages 36-37.

There arestill many errors’and mistakesinrelation to both reference system and mechanics. Regarding the former, the following should’be taken into account:

- The citation of three ormore authors in the text even for the firsttime according the latest edition of APA, the 7th one.

- The use of an ampersand and the word and

As for the latter, the following can be found:

- Many too long paragraphs: For instance, section 1.1 Background of the study consists of only,ppp, paragraph on three pages 1.-3 r

- Punctuation: Tiiè use of'two periods between à source

Especially, too much verbosity can be found in the candidate’s writing She should have learned how to write in a more concise wdy, observing all the conventions of academic writing

II THESIS REyiEVyER ’S QUESTIONS (optional)

1 It is -mentioned in the thesis that KWL “is also used to teach reading communicatively” [19 p'ii? }: r :.c'T'/r

33]FWhat is:“communicative reading”? ily-A T’ọn f A! r - /A !■ I f- ' • ■ :! I

3 The thesis makes a strong claim about the process of meaning construction in teaching and

|W ' ; I '■ ■ : I •' !; yy ■, ' ! k • ■ ■ ■' learning Did the candidate really do this in her study?

4 It seems that this study is “an old product in new packaging”, or, to put it another way,

“old wine in a new bottle” as the three phases of pre-reading, while-reading, and post- reading are what teachers have practised in teaching reading so far What makes KWL differ from the conventional method?

5 Can we say the KWL strategy is more appropriate for teaching content areas / science content [37 Alsalhi]?

6 In the curriculum, students are expected to understand main ideas and details [42 2 13].

Why does a typical lesson plan consist of these stages: warm up, presentation, practice, and

7 What is the link among the following components: objectives (p 42), syllabus pp 47-48), methodology '(p 49), and evaluation' (tests: pp 52-53) for the control group and experimental group? Why is i