Chuyên đề tốt nghiệp: Factors affecting reading comprehension of BE sophomores in NEU and some pedagogical recommendations

Purposes of the study This study aims at: - Investigating the factors affecting BE sophomores’ readingcomprehension in NEU - Suggesting some pedagogical recommendations for teaching meth

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

NGUYEN THAO HIEN

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OFBUSINESS ENGLISH SOPHOMORES AT NEU AND SOME

PEDAGOGICAL RECOMMENDATIONS

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH

FACTORS AFFECTING READING COMPREHENSION OF BUSINESS ENGLISH SOPHOMORES AT NEU AND SOME

PEDAGOGICAL RECOMMENDATIONS

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thien Huong, M.A

Hanoi, March 2023

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Thien

Huong, for bringing the weight of her considerable experience and knowledge to

this project It’s a pleasure for me to receive your valuable support, advice, andencouragement with superb and constant guidance towards this project

I am also grateful to BE sophomores in NEU for enthusiastically fulfilling

my questionnaires I wish to acknowledge the Faculty of Foreign Languages inNEU for providing me this internship program, without which this work could

have never begun

A debt of gratitude is also owned to my internship group who have helped

me with their valuable suggestions and have been very helpful in various stages ofproject completion

Last but not least, I would also like to give special thanks to my family anddearest friends as a whole for their continuous support and understanding whenundertaking my research and writing my project Your unconditional love for mewas what sustained me this far

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGBEMETNTT co 55-5 5< < HH 0009688088 08080 iTABLE OF COINTTIETN TYS - 5 << << HH HH HH HC 00000804 iiLIST OF ABBREVIA TIHONS 5 <5 HH HH HH mg 001080 iiiLIST OF TABLES 5 <5 << HH HH 090A ivLIST OF FIGURES o- 5-5 <5 5s HH 1000000 0 MCHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 5 << 5< 5< 1S HH 01086850 e6 11.1 Rationale of the SÍUỈY 5 <5 5< 5 4 9 9 0 0.0 000 091688906886 11.2 Purposes Of the SÍU(ỈY <5 5 5 9 9 9.0.9.0 0046009 890406896 21.3 Research Questions Go <5 2G 9 9999 999 999.3699.004 09 04.080940090988689608896 2 1.4.Scope of the Study 6G < 6 52 %9 9699.894.9893 89390988948894989488968866 2

1.5 Research methodology d << 5< 2< %9 9 9 99.9.9054 4090068095 996ø 31.6 Design of the SÍUỈY 5 << 5< S9 9 0 0000 001000086809 0886 3CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK s-scSĂSe<Sessese 42.1 Reading Comprehension o- <5 < <5 2< 69 989 9 995899589996 88996889088906 42.2 Classification of reading comprehenSÏOII ss- s5 «5s ssssssssss s54 52.3 Previous studies about factors affecting students’ reading comprehension 62.3.1 Previous international SÍHHCÏÏC <5 < << S3 9 1 896 62.3.2 Previous VietNaMese SÍH(ÌÏ€S G55 5 1 S31 991 9.1 9 1 1 1 9x me 92.4 Factors affecting BE sophomores’ reading comprehension 102.4.1 VOCADULATY viccsssssssssscsserscsssssccssssccsssnsccssssscesssscessssesesssscssssesessssesessnssssssneees 102.4.2 BACK ground KHOVUÏ©(ÏĐÔ - G5 << <5 < << 9.5 9 1 4 4 8 6 v6 Il2.4.3 Syntax KHOVUÏC(ÏÔ 5= <5 << TT HH T04 122.4.4 ReqdiHg SÍT(Í€ĐÏCS «<< s sọ TH Họ họ HT c4 132.5 Proposed framework of factors affecting reading comprehension of BEsophomores iN TNEÌŨ œ5 5< 5< 5 5 93 9 0 00.00.0009 0000050090 00906096 15CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5 s5 c°sS‡se=see 163.1 Participants and Setting os- 5< < 5s n0 090 163.2 Research instrument 5-5-5 5 << 9999959509395 04 04 040056098090050 163.3 Data collection and aMnallySis d- <6 << G5 99999 965895898968869566868 866 16

il

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS < << 184.1 Students’ perception on the importance Of ẨACẦOFS -«<<<<<<ss<e5 194.4.1 Background KHOWUÌC(ÏĐ© o5 s < SE 9 TH te 204.1.2 REAdING StVALCQICS 0n e 214.1.3 Students’ Vocabulary KHOVVÌC(ÏUÔ << << << 4 91 9.5 9 S994 991 84 696 224.1.4 Students’ Syntax KHOVVÌC(CÏUÔ c- << 3 9 4 g6 234.2 The impact of factors on students’ reading comprehension 244.2.1 Impact on literal COIDT€HCTISÏOIH G5 2< Ă <1 31 1 9 9 3v ng 244.2.2 Impact on Interpretation COIDYCÌHLSÏOH c s5 < su 264.2.3 Impact on Critical reading COIHDT€HCTSÏOHH eo c5 55553333891 39355 59% 27CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDA TIONS on ng nga 31CHAPTER 6: CONCLUUSIONN 0G HH 00 00 33REEFERENCESS co G5 <5 cọ TH cọ TH TT 0000000 00000000 00966096 60 373APPENDICES - 6c << cọ 0 0104.010000006008090080 37

ill

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Framework of factors affecting reading comprehension of BE

Sophomores 1n NEU - - - <1 191 HH HH gen 15

Figure 4.1 Students’ reading comprehension leVelL - ¿+ +-s++ss+s++exsss 18

Figure 4.2 The importance of factors to reading comprehension 19

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Previous studies about factors affecting students’ reading

COMPTEhENSION, PP nm 14Table 4.1 Students’ perception of the effect of four factors on reading

lU9119ã9)1911310 088 raẢÝỞỔỒ 19Table 4.2 Students’ ability to use background knowledge in reading

COMPTEheNSION 0.0 eeeceesecescceeecesceceeeeesecececececsaeceeaeceaeceseecseeeeaeeeseeeeeeseaeeneaees 20Table 4.3 Students’ ability to use reading strategies in reading comprehension 21Table 4.4 Impact of students’ vocabulary on students’ reading comprehension 22Table 4.6 Model Summary s11 TH HH key 24

Table 4.7 ANOVA of Literal ComprehenS1on -. 5555 * + sseesseerss 24

Table 4.8 Coefficients of literal comprehenSIOn ‹- 55s ss+ss+s+seexss 25Table 4.9 ANOVA of Interpretation Comprehension - - 5 «5s ss+<++xc+ 26Table 4.10 Coefficients of Interpretation Comprehension - - «+ +s« 26

Table 4.11 ANOVA of Critical Reading Comprehension eee 27Table 4.12 Coefficients of Critical Reading Comprehension 28

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION1.1 Rationale of the study

In the age of modernization and globalization, English is an internationallanguage that occupies a vital place in all parts of the world, especially in Vietnamand the Vietnamese educational system Remarkably, English has been taught

widely as a compulsory subject at all levels of education in the Vietnamese context

Among the four skills in language, reading has always been a key role

which is a basic means to improve other skills According to Krashen and Brown(2007), reading is the most essential of the four language skills, as it may increase

a language learner's overall competence Barnett (1989) maintains that readinghas always played a vital role in foreign and second languages She adds that

reading is now seen in a different light "as communication, as a mental process, as

the reader's active participation in the creation of meaning, as a manipulation ofstrategies, as a receptive rather than a positive skill” According to Stephanie(2020), reading is one of the fundamental language abilities that can impact aperson's language development by helping them acquire new vocabulary andstructure of sentences as they read Similarly, Alfassi (2004) notes that reading is

a crucial ability in language learning and acquisition to properly function and

collect information in society because it requires complex cognitive activityincluding the integration of memory and meaning formation Walker (2001)further elaborates that reading is a process whereby the readers elaborate meaningand strategies from sources of information, thus evaluating their understanding andthe application of social context to reflect their response The importance of readingcomprehension as a technique for producing successful written communication isalso highlighted by Sadiku (2015) Most significantly, mastering readingcomprehension is essential for students’ success in their studies (Bernhadt, 2011)

Reading comprehension is one of the most significant components inlanguage acquisition for every student since it offers the framework for a large

amount of learning in education (Alvermann & Earle, 2003) This is supported by

Hermosa (2002) and Meniado (2016), who claim that reading comprehension is acollection of cognitive activities that cover many different aspects, such as the

comprehension of words and their meanings, attentive response, and integration.Hence, reading comprehension problems among ESL learners have been a focus sincethe beginning of the 1960s (Vellutino et al., 2004) This is due to the fact that languagecomprehension requires not just word-level understanding but also the capacity toactively engage with the content to create a mental image (Rashid, 2012).

In Vietnam, numerous research has been carried out to find out the

importance as well as factors affecting the reading comprehension of EFL students.However, there seem to be a limited number of officially published articlesfocusing on factors affecting reading comprehension of second-year BE students,especially at National Economics University Based on the mentioned reasons, thisstudy is conducted to discover and analyze “Factors affecting reading

comprehension of BE sophomores in NEU and some _ pedagogical

recommendations”

1.2 Purposes of the study

This study aims at:

- Investigating the factors affecting BE sophomores’ readingcomprehension in NEU

- Suggesting some pedagogical recommendations for teaching methods toenhance NEU students’ reading comprehension

1.3 Research questions

This research is conducted to answer these questions:

- What are the factors affecting second-year BE students’ readingcomprehension?

- What solutions can be done to develop second-year BE students' readingcomprehension?

1.4 Scope of the study

Geographical scope: this study is conducted at The Faculty of ForeignLanguages of NEU

Time scope: the data and figures were collected and analyzed from 2023January to 2023 March

Sample size: 60 BE sophomores at NEU were taken in for research.

Content scope: Reading comprehension of second-year BE students andfactors affecting their reading comprehension

1.5 Research methodology

This research implement the quantitative approach Primary data is gatheredthrough responses to questionnaires About 60 National Economics Universitybusiness English majors participated in the survey during the second semester ofthe 2022—2023 school year Participants participated in an online survey that included

a series of questions and were able to express their own ideas and attitudes on thevariables that influence their reading comprehension The self-administered surveyallows the researchers to get credible data in an unbiased way The data collected

throughout the investigation is then coded, examined and analyzed The study used

SPSS software to get the most accurate inferences from the data Through deskresearch, secondary data is collected from a variety of available sources

1.6 Design of the study

The study consists of six chapters

Chapter 1 is the introduction which presents the rationale, aims, scope,

method, and design of the study

Chapter 2 is the theoretical framework which deals with the concepts ofreading comprehension and reviewing previous studies of factors affecting reading

comprehension of Business English sophomores in NEU

Chapter 3 is about the methodology of the study which presents researchquestions, participants, methods of the study, instruments, data collection

Chapter 4 is about the data analysis, discussion and major findings

Chapter 5 presents some pedagogical recommendations to enhancestudents’ reading comprehension

Chapter 6 is the conclusion which presents the summary of the study,limitations and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKThe chapter presents the theoretical review of reading comprehension.

2.1 Reading Comprehension

Reading for general comprehension refers to the capacity to comprehendand accurately interpret the content in a book (Grable and Staller, 2002) Similarly,

Pressley (2000) and Birsch (2011) define reading comprehension as the capacity

to derive meaning from what is read Reading comprehension, according to Block(2004) and Graves, Juel, and Graves (1998), is a challenging process in whichreaders have a significant part in deriving meaning from the text by putting currentabilities to use For the reader to quickly absorb information from the text, itrequires a variety of reading skills, including word recognition, fluency, lexical

knowledge, and prior knowledge

Tompkins (2011) and Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, and Seidenberg

(2001) also claims that reading comprehension is the degree of understanding atext, which results from the interaction between the written words and theknowledge they evoke outside the message Similarly, RAND Reading Study(2002) describes comprehension as the act of extracting out and creating meaning

from written language via interaction and engagement

McNamara and Magliano (2009) contend that this process, which occurs in

a larger social context, incorporates both reader and text characteristics Duke(2003) also holds the view that comprehension is a process in which readers engage

with material to understand it using a combination of prior knowledge andexperience, the information in the text, and their own opinions about the text It is

not the purpose of reading comprehension to infer meaning from specific words orphrases, but rather to understand the passage as a whole Reading comprehensionresults in a mental representation of a text's meaning paired with the readers’ priorknowledge This is referred to as a mental model or a scenario model (Johnson-Laird, 1983) (Kintsch, 1998)

According to Tompkins (2011), developing reading comprehension is a

creative process that depends on the four abilities of phonology, syntax, semantics,and pragmatics The process of orchestrating the readers' background knowledge

of both language and the world is known as reading comprehension, whichincludes activities like predicting, questioning, summarizing, determining out thecontext of terminology, checking one's own comprehension, and reflecting.(Weaver, 1994: 44) According to Shankweiler (1999), language comprehensionand decoding are two essential parts of reading comprehension Pasquarella (2009)showed that decoding is a low-level skill that just needs a basic understanding ofspelling letters in order to detect and comprehend written words Hence, sincecomprehension is the core of reading, decoding by itself is insufficient to explainthe process Drawing meaning from the reading material by actively participating

in it is called reading comprehension As a result, understanding and decoding are

interconnected and eventually affect reading comprehension

Based on the foregoing explanation, reading comprehension is the reader's

ability to simultaneously understand and extract information from a text In thisprocedure, three elements are involved: the reader, text, and activity These threeelements connect to one another at different stages of reading comprehension

These are: reading activities before, during, and after

2.2 Classification of reading comprehension

Researchers have attempted to categorize these abilities using a variety ofcriteria A review of the various classifications addressing reading comprehensionskills (Koda, 2005; Hudson, 2007) identifies three fundamental categories: Literalcomprehension, Inferential/ interpretive comprehension and _ Criticalcomprehension

Literal comprehension is the initial stage, where understanding relies on

surface meanings This involves recalling factual information from the text The

ability to read for literal meanings i.e expressed concepts is impacted by one's

understanding of word meanings in context, according to Karlin (1971)

The second level of comprehension is interpretive or referential, wherereaders read for deeper meanings in addition to what is stated They are required

to use personal experience and context clues to gain a deeper insight and have theability to read attentively and evaluate what they have read carefully Interpretive

or referential comprehension involves cognitive processes including inferences,

generalizations, and outcomes predictions.

The third stage of understanding is critical reading, in which ideas and factsare analyzed Making judgments about the author's style and assessing the text'smain points, supporting information, linguistic style, and logic are all parts ofcritical comprehension Beyond the explicit meaning, the reader infers predictions

and hypotheses, and opinions are formed regarding the text's quality and reliability(Ismail, Yusof, Abdul Rashid & Lin, 2015)

2.3 Previous studies about factors affecting students’ reading

comprehension

A variety of aspects of reading comprehension has been researched

2.3.1 Previous international studies

In 2019, Rossana C Torres carried out research named “Factors Affectingthe Reading Comprehension of Intermediate Level Learners: Basis for AnIntervention Program” The overall goal of the study is to identify the factorsinfluencing the reading comprehension of intermediate-level students at City ofMalolos Integrated School-Babatnin as a foundation for the construction of anintervention program This study used survey methods and texts as readingassignments for the students in order to conduct a quantitative sort of researchutilizing the descriptive-survey technique to characterize "what is," which was theprocess of this research Based on the results, the study reached the followingconclusions: “(1) the teacher's strategy did not affect the students’ reading

comprehension; (2) home-related factors affected the students’ reading

comprehension; (3) students’ reading comprehension skills were affected whenthey did not read at home or at school; and (4) learner-related factors, such asbackground knowledge, understanding, and low motivation, hampered thestudents' reading comprehension abilities” Several recommendations were made,including the following: (1) carry out the same study in various schools and grade

levels; (2) implement programs to encourage students to read and enhance their

reading abilities; (3) orient parents about the crucial role of reading materials intheir children's improvement of reading skills; and (4) consider additional methods

to encourage students to read

The study “Factors affecting reading comprehension” by Szilvia in 2017provided a brief review of the major elements impacting readingcomprehension As comprehension is highly complicated, it is impossible to agree

on the most vital factors Nevertheless, researchers generally agree that childrenneed regular instruction to learn morpheme phoneme correspondence and establishphonological awareness While both concern the relationship between sounds andwords, phonological awareness and phonics are closely connected concepts.Research has shown that morphological awareness affects both spelling andreading comprehension According to study findings, morphological awarenessaids in text comprehension The degree of the association between morphologicalawareness and reading comprehension appears to depend on the age group as well

as the language itself In all the research, it is stated that systematic training in both

phonological and morphological awareness should be part of reading teaching.Metacognitive reading methods can be used to improve student's readingcomprehension, but they only function when students are aware of the

phonological and morphological characteristics of the text Furthermore, they are

familiar with the text's terms and have a basic grasp of linguistic principles

In the research “Three key factors that influence reading comprehension”

(2022), Denise Michelle Cates-Darnell investigated the factors influencing the

comprehension skills of intermediate students: the instructor, the supportstructures, and the effectiveness of the specific comprehension skills taught The

instructor is a key influence in the first place A friendly, supportive classroom

climate promotes greater levels of student engagement and participation inprolonged extensive reading experiences This could help learners read and writemore effectively Second, effective support systems are essential for improvedliteracy development Volunteers, resource personnel, and family participation canimprove program efficacy It is also especially important to provide scaffoldingand allow enough time for learning activities In addition, additional instructionalelements include modeling and regular feedback Finally, specializedcomprehension techniques can have a favorable impact on how well studentsabsorb a teaching strategy These techniques include (a) making connections

between the known and unknown, (b) identifying importance, (c) questioning, (d)visualizing, (e) inferring, and (f) synthesizing Students have a greater chance ofconnecting more complicated texts in meaningful ways when these three criteriaare balanced When these three elements are combined in the classroom, studentsare able to acquire the skills they need to properly comprehend the complexity of

written texts

The study “The Effects of Vocabulary Knowledge and Background Knowledge on Reading Comprehension of Taiwanese EFL Students” by Peter andMing (2011) evaluated the hypothesis that there would be a difference in readingcomprehension scores when participants were exposed to one of two variables:background knowledge or vocabulary knowledge A number of intriguing results

were discovered by the one-way ANOVA The research revealed that vocabularyhas a major role in aiding students' comprehension of the reading passages

Participants in the vocabulary knowledge group outperformed those in thebackground knowledge and control groups in terms of test scores The resultssupport the theory advanced by Qian (2002) that a reader's ability to decode and inferthe meaning of texts depends on how much vocabulary she or he knows In contrast,the background knowledge group did not significantly outperform the control group

on the reading comprehension assessment This finding may be explained by the factthat the study's participants only had a general understanding of the subject and didnot process any prior knowledge, such as terminologies and information that might

have assisted them in reaching inferences Additionally, it shows that background

knowledge includes understanding of the terminology and terminology used todiscuss the subject, in addition to familiarity with the subject itself

According to the findings in “A Study of Factors Affecting EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Skill and the Strategies for Improvement” of Abbas &Narjes, reading comprehension techniques enable EFL students to readilycomprehend texts Reading more authentic materials will help EFL students graspthe various kinds of written texts in their language better Despite the fact thatcertain readings may not be relevant to their interests, having a solid reading habitaids students in understanding real materials Good readers use a variety of

characteristics and talents to decipher the meaning of texts It is important for EFLteachers to help their students recognize the elements that might help themcomprehend what they read deeply These students should participate in thereading process by using a variety of meaning-monitoring tactics, which makemeaning processing simple and efficient The results of this study demonstratedthat EFL teachers should encourage their students to read a variety of materials,

identify their students' comprehension problems, and have a positive attitude

toward their reading assignments in order to help their students easily comprehendthe various texts To help their students improve their reading comprehension

abilities, EFL instructors should advise them about their student's weaknesses

2.3.2 Previous Vietnamese studies

The study “The impact of Background Knowledge and Time Constraint onReading Comprehension of Vietnamese Learners of English as a second language”was conducted by Trang Nguyen in 2007 The goal of the current study was toinvestigate how background knowledge and time constraints affected second-

language readers' comprehension The findings showed that backgroundknowledge and a lack of time restrictions considerably improved second-languagereaders' understanding Moreover, a substantial relationship between background

experience and time constraints was discovered Given the importance ofstandardized and classroom reading performance assessments, these findings havesignificant implications for second language instruction

In 2019, Hoang Thi Thu and Phung Thi Thu Ha conducted research on

factors influencing first-year AP students at Thai Nguyen University ofTechnology's reading comprehension (TNUT) It is more logical to compare andcontrast the impacts of certain individual factors to determine if vocabularyknowledge, syntax knowledge, reading methods, or background informationspecifically was a more significant factor in academic reading comprehension Theresults show that students’ reading comprehension is not much affected by theirsyntactic knowledge or reading techniques, and more influenced by vocabularyand background knowledge

The study “Vai trò của các chiến lược đọc trong phát triển kĩ năng đọc hiểu

của người hoc” of Ms Ly Thi Thu Nga in 2022 has emphasized the crucial role ofreading strategies in students’ reading comprehension The finding proved that theimplementation of reading comprehension techniques helps to build students’reading comprehension skills by making it simple for readers to access during text

learning and enhancing understanding Their reading comprehension abilities will

continue to advance as a result of instructors assisting students in becomingindependent learners who can understand, integrate, criticize, infer, analyze,connect, and evaluate concepts in texts

2.4 Factors affecting BE sophomores’ reading comprehension

2.4.1 Vocabulary

One of the factors that determines an ESL learner's reading comprehension

level is their vocabulary knowledge Many studies have been conducted todemonstrate the association between vocabulary knowledge and readingcomprehension According to Laufer (1989), for readers to properly comprehend

a reading material, there must be 95% of common vocabulary Nation (2011), onthe other hand, contends that a reading material must have at least 98% ofvocabulary that is recognizable When reading speed, decoding, and

comprehension are all considered, Joshi and Aaron (2000) discover that

vocabulary knowledge is a powerful predictor of reading ability According toMartin-Chang and Gould (2008), there is a significant relationship between

reading comprehension and vocabulary as well as between reading speed andfamiliarity with the primary print media Vocabulary facilitates students in

decoding, a crucial component of reading (Qian, 2002) These studies show thatword richness is essential to determining learners’ reading comprehension skills.Conversely, a restricted vocabulary size, as well as an inadequate knowledge ofword meanings, frequently prevents learners from grasping the content of the text

In academic contexts, Qian (1999, 2002; Qian & Schedl, 2004) investigates thecontributions of vocabulary depth and breadth to reading comprehension Aperson's vocabulary size is referred to as their breadth of vocabulary knowledge,and a word's level of understanding is referred to as their depth of vocabulary

10

knowledge Because second language learners are more likely to encounterunfamiliar terms, these two variables are crucial According to Qian (2002),

“having a larger vocabulary gives the learner a larger database from which to guessthe meaning of the unknown words or behavior of newly learned words, havingdeeper vocabulary knowledge will very likely improve the results of the guessingwork” (p 518)

According to Carrell and Wise (1998), learners can do better in reading

comprehension if they have considerable amounts of prior knowledge about the

subject matter The impacts of prior information on text reading, comprehension,and memory in second-language learners have been investigated by Lee (1986)

He discovered that when one of the three background knowledge, context,transparency, and familiarity components is offered to learners, their capacity for

memory is improved One explanation for why prior knowledge influences

comprehension is the students’ ability to infer Hammadou (1991) definedinference as a cognitive process that requires reasoning outside of the text throughgeneralization and explanation in order to create meaning By examining theinference techniques employed by learners and discovering that background

information influences the understanding procedure, the study indicates that

beginner readers employ greater inference in recollection than more experiencedreaders This also suggests that the readers’ prior knowledge influences thecomprehension process and that memory and comprehension are not the exclusiveresults of the text According to Floyd and Carrell (1987), providing culturalknowledge of the target language to students who lack it can help them becomebetter readers Furthermore, analogies might be utilized to assist readers to connectnew, unknown content to familiar knowledge in their memory in addition tomaking inferences Hammadou (2000, p 39) states “for an analogy to aid

11

comprehension optimally, the underlying structures of each part of the analogy

must be similar, but the surface features should be very different”.

In contrast, findings from Brantmeier (2005) and Hammadou (2000)indicate that giving analogies to readers of second languages does not enhancetheir reading comprehension, particularly for longer and more challengingsections This is due to the fact that using analogies might occasionally make thereading passages more complex and challenging to interpret (Brantmeier, 2005).The analogies in the reading passages thus become a burden Similar findings weremade in Pulido (2004 & 2007), who discovered that prior knowledge has no

influence on the link between reading comprehension and meaning retention

Therefore, it is of paramount importance to examine whether backgroundknowledge affects students’ reading comprehension at NEU.

2.4.3 Syntax knowledge

It has been shown that syntactic awareness and knowledge are related andhelp with reading comprehension According to research by Cutting andScarborough (2006), syntactic knowledge alone accounted for 1-3% of the

variance in reading comprehension Meanwhile, syntactic awareness substantially

contributed 4-5% of the variance in reading comprehension, compared to

reasoning, memory, and language proficiency, according to Gaux and Gombert's

(1999) research Bernhardt's (2000) research also proved that second languagelearners’ syntactic proficiency influences their reading comprehension However,some experts argued that vocabulary is more crucial to reading comprehensionthan readers’ grammatical expertise "The contribution of knowledge of syntax hasbeen largely ignored in comparison with the attention focused on vocabulary"Shiotsu and Weir (2007) said (p 99) Rayner (1990) noted that language teachers

or second language learners typically considered that readers used their vocabularyknowledge to interpret the reading text without employing any syntactic parsingprocesses Nevertheless, there is an underlying grammatical structure that affectsreaders’ understanding of text Nonetheless, there have always been conflictingresults between vocabulary and syntactic understanding in terms of readingcomprehension Ulijn's early study (1984) asserted that in order to comprehend a

12

reading, readers of second languages require greater lexical knowledge thangrammatical or syntactic expertise.

2.4.4 Reading strategies

Fatma (2013) described reading comprehension strategies as “the cognitivestrategies that the reader uses pre-reading, during reading and post-reading tounderstand the text better” Reading comprehension strategies are the cognitivetechniques that readers employ before, during, and after reading to better grasp thecontent The reader employs several techniques both consciously andsubconsciously This distinction is used by Ellis (1994:533) to distinguish between

strategies and skills: if such cognitive operations happen consciously, he refers to

them as "strategies," and if they happen automatically, he refers to them as "skills."

Williams and Morgan (1989: 223) also shared the same idea that a skill is an

instinctive, subconscious talent, but a strategy is a conscious method employed toaddress a challenge As a result, it is evident that students use the abilities theylearn in regular situations automatically and employ methods when they encounter

a challenge in the text When evaluating the efficacy of reading strategy treatments

in enhancing reading comprehension, it is critical to evaluate the whole range ofreading strategies accessible Researchers Pressley (2002) and Guthrie and

Humenick (2004) discovered that when reading strategies aiming at cognitive andmetacognitive comprehension were used in instruction, student readingperformance increased dramatically

13

Table 2.1 Previous studies about factors affecting students’ reading

comprehension

No | Authors Research Factors

1 Rossana C “Factors Affecting the Reading I Level of Comprehension

Torres (2019) Comprehension of Intermediate II Educational and

Non-Level Learners: Basis for An Educational Non-Level

Intervention Program” 1 Home-related factors

2 Teacher-related factors

3 Learner-related factors

2 Szilvia Varga “Factors affecting reading 1 Morphological awareness

Tanczikné comprehension’ 2 Phonological awareness

(2017) 3 Vocabulary

3 Denise “Three key factors that influence 1 Teacher

Michelle Cates- | reading comprehension” 2 Productive supportDarnell (2022) structures

3 Specific comprehensionstrategies

4 Peter Tze-Ming | “The Effects of Vocabulary 1 Vocabulary Knowledge

Chou (2017) Knowledge and Background 2 Background Knowledge

Knowledge on Reading

Comprehension of TaiwaneseEFL Students”

5 Trang Thi Thuy | “The impact of Background 1 Background Knowledge

Nguyen (2007) | Knowledge and Time Constraint on |2 Time Constraint

Reading Comprehension ofVietnamese Learners of English as

a second language”

6 Hoang Thi Thu, | “Factors affecting First-year AP 1 Vocabulary

Phung Thi Thu | Students’ Reading Comprehension | 2 Background knowledge

Ha (2019) at Thai Nguyen University of 3 Syntax knowledge

Technology”

14

Abbas “A Study of Factors Affecting EFL |1 The complexity of the texts

Pourhosein Learners’ Reading Comprehension | 2 Environmental Conditions

Gilakjani & Skill and the Strategies for 3 Pertinent to the anxiety

Narjes Banou Improvement “ 4 Interest and motivation

Sabouri (2016) 5 Decoding/Word

Recognition Speed

6 Medical Problems

Ly Thi Thu “Vai trò của các chiến lược đọc Reading Strategies

Nga (2022) trong phat trién ki nang doc hiéu

của người học”

Tran Van Dat | “Khám Phá Các Yếu Tố Ảnh 1 Metacognitive Reading

(2015) Huong Dén Thanh Céng Doc Strategies

Hiểucủa Sinh Viên Chuyên Ngành | 2 Syntactic Awareness Tiếng Anh” 3 Vocabulary Knowledge

2.5 Proposed framework of factors affecting reading comprehension of BE

sophomores in NEU

ReadingComprehension

VocabularyKnowledge

BackgroundKnowledge

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe chapter demonstrates participants, data collection method and procedure as

well as data analysis procedure

3.1 Participants and setting

60 second-year students from the Business English faculty at NEU wereasked to participate in the online survey with the intention of acquiring factual

data regarding the factors influencing the reading comprehension of second-yearBusiness English students at NEU

3.2 Research instrument

A questionnaire was utilized as an instrument to acquire data with the goal

of obtaining accurate and trustworthy answers and achieving the research'sobjectives There are two sections to the questionnaire In the first section,background information about the participants is collected The second section,which consists of 17 closed-ended questions divided into 4 categories, is meant toelicit participants’ perspectives regarding the elements influencing their reading

comprehension The Likert five-point scale was employed by the researchers, with

degrees corresponding to "Strongly disagree", "Disagree", "Neutral", "Agree", and

"Strongly agree."

The framework, which was built from the evaluation of the literature and

described in 2.4, served as the foundation for the questionnaire For bettercomprehension from responders, the online survey was also translated into

Vietnamese

3.3 Data collection and analysis

The data were collected among BE students at NEU from March 20th toMarch 25th with a target on 60 second-year students The students were invited

to participate in the self-administered survey questionnaire via social platform andtheir participation was based on a voluntary basis The questionnaire was sent to

80 participants and opened to respond in 5 days 60 responses were collected,indicating 80% rate of response

16