Reading skills are of great significance to students’ English language learning.The study attempts to explore the teaching and learning the reading skills for grade-10students in Binh Du
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
It is clear that the growing demand for mastering a foreign language, particularly English, is a bi-product of the increasing number of foreign sectors and participants in society Therefore, the important roles of English cannot be denied or ignored since it is the right language spoken universally Besides, it is the language of choice in the majority of inter-regional or inter-continental conversations and negotiations in the United States (Rao, 2019) Despite the fact that English is one of the most difficult languages to teach and learn due to its use in cross-cultural exchanges, it reveals a profound significance in education and training (McKay, 2018).
In Binh Duong province, there are actually many schools which have even offered English as an obligatory course to students since the first grade; as a result, most students have spent between 7 and 10 years in school learning English Students are expected to master four basic language skills including reading, writing, speaking, and listening according to their appropriate levels from primary school to high school. Besides, the topics included in the program are also found both familiar and challenging for students Thus, their achievements in English fall short of the expectations of the program despite the fact that they finish learning English for a minimum of three years in a row Consequently, students are generally weak in a wide range of skills.
Regarding the reading skills, it is stated by Snow, Burns and Griffin (1998) that reading is vital for human activities and crucial people’s success in the society In terms of educational setting, according to Clarke et al (2013), sufficient reading comprehension skills are essential for the students to reach their educational goals and expectations For instance, if the students have good abilities in reading and understanding the texts, they can successfully locate and interpret the information and messages of the texts as well as identify which is the focus information or irrelevant one to the texts Furthermore, in order to gain academic success, it is crucial that students can read, understand and apply the information acquired from reading in their enhancing other skills (Clarke et al., 2013), and their reading comprehension also becomes much improved in different levels when students have to deal with more complicated texts in higher levels (Clarke et al., 2013; Wong, 2011).
Statement of the problem
It is undoubted that English is an official language in over 53 countries, and it is also spoken as the first language by nearly 400 million people worldwide According to the British Council, about two billion people in the world will be studying English by 2020 In addition, English is considered the international and most popular language in the majority of inter-regional or inter-continental conversations and negotiations Obviously, together with their mother tongue, understanding and mastering a new language generally and English particularly definitely open a wide range of opportunities for people in terms of approaching novel ideas and inventions in the world as well as job career development, which promises potential salary, promotion, networking, and an innovative working environment Therefore, bearing the perspective that English language education is a strategy to speed up national development, international communication, and a tool to successfully approach other cultures (Chang 2011), English has become a privileged international language taught in Asia (Kirkpatrick 2012), including Vietnam.
In recent years, English has been considered a compulsory subject among some others for the entry examination into high school and a conditional factor for earning admission into top and middle-ranked universities Admission also prioritizes students who have earned an English on the innovation scheme on foreign language learning of the Ministry of Education, and the shift in learning and mastering foreign languages right after graduating from high school.
In terms of learning English skills, according to Clarke et al (2013), reading skills are among the most important skills for learners of English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) Clemens and Simmons (2018) defined reading skills as the ability to extract and construct meaning of texts through the learners’ involvement and interaction with written texts Fletcher-Janzen et al (2013) also elaborated that such reading skills (the ability to interpret words’ meaning, the ability to understand the author’s points of view, the ability to make inference, etc.) are among the key skills that facilitate the language learners’ reading comprehension Furthermore, it is also revealed by Hall and Barnes (2017) that reading skills are the key for language learners to achieve their academic goals and expectations within the classroom settings. Conversely, insufficient and poor reading skills which may result in students’ failure to learn and retain the information may negatively influence on their academic achievements and other aspects of life (Katz & Carlisle, 2009; Yukselir, 2014).
As a teacher of English working over 10 ten years in Binh Duong Province, the researcher has realized that grade-10 students have overall low language proficiency and even poor performance of reading skills Some other teachers of English also express the same opinions on this problem when kindly requested for responses in an interview This is convincingly supported with the students’ results in English tests,which show low scores for reading sections This proves the fact these students can hardly meet the objectives of the curriculum Actually, this impulses the writer to conduct the study to find out the challenges and appropriate solutions for their improvement, which is titled “An investigation into the teaching and learning of reading skills for Grade 10 students in Binh Duong Province”.
Aims and objectives of the study
The overarching aims of the study are to investigate the difficulties of reading skills they have faced with Then, the researcher gives some suggestions for the students to improve their reading comprehension skills, which is in need to meet the current standards of the English curriculum at high school by the Ministry of Education.
+ To satisfy the aims mentioned above, some steps are clarified with the specific points as follows:
+ Identify the difficulties in reading skills that grade-10 students in Binh Duong province have been facing with.
+ Suggest some solutions for those students to improve their reading comprehension skills
Research questions
The researcher tries to find out responses for the below research questions to deal with the problem:
(1) What are the difficulties of reading skills that grade-10 students in Binh Duong province have faced with?
(2) What are the suggestions for those students to improve their reading comprehension skills?
Scope of the study
The study is conducted with grade-10 students at three high schools in BinhDuong Province including Ben Cat high school, Tran Van On high school, and BauBang high school Students have encountered a number of difficulties in acquiring good reading skills; However, in the current study, the researcher just focuses on some categories of difficulties such as language use (vocabulary, grammar, text structure),common knowledge (background knowledge, text coverage) and others (motivation,timing, strategies, materials).
Significance of the study
It is expected that the current study can generate significant, valuable contributions, both theoretically and practically In terms of theoretical contributions,the current study is important to address the identified deficiencies in the reading comprehension literature and fill a gap in the current knowledge Particularly, the current study’s findings will enrich the literature in terms of teaching and learning reading skills in the Vietnamese high school context In term of practical contributions,the research findings can provide English teachers with a holistic understanding of students’ reading difficulties and solutions as a guideline for teachers to select appropriate reading strategies to improve their students’ reading skills.
Organization of the study
The thesis concludes five separate chapters:
Chapter 1, Introduction, provides a preliminary review of the information related to the topic Besides, the purpose, research questions, significance, scope and outline of the study have been stated.
Chapter 2,Literature Review, provides the definition of key terms in this study. This chapter also reviews some previous studies to explore theoretical foundation involving reading skills, reading difficulties and reading strategies Considering the literature, it is identified that Vocabulary, Main ideas, Background knowledge, Text structure, Grammar, and other factors (motivation, timing, strategies, and materials) are the major challenges to EFL students Furthermore, such reading strategies as skim/scan techniques, information synthesis techniques, collocation/paraphrasing techniques, and building reading habits, following the process of reading can be used to tackle these difficulties.
Chapter 3, Research Methodology, explains the methodology employed in the research This chapter clarifies the research participants, subjects, instruments, and describes how data are collected and analyzed.
Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, presents the description and interpretation of the collected data in light of research questions.
Chapter 5, Conclusions present the summary of results and then offers some suggestions Besides, the author also clarifies the limitations of this research and gives recommendations for further studies in the future.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of key terms
The following key terms are used through the current study:
+ Reading: It is defined by Nuttal (2000) that reading means a result of interaction between the writer’s mind and the reader’s mind It is the way how the reader tries to get the message or the intended meaning from the writer In this process, the reader tries to create the meanings intended by the writer to get the point.
+ Reading comprehension: Pang et al (2003) define comprehension as a process of deriving meanings from connected texts Readers should interpret written symbols that represent language, and they also employ their background knowledge to acquire the messages included.
+ Reading strategy: Reading strategy is the broad term used to describe the planned and explicit actions that help readers translate print to meaning Strategies that improve decoding and reading comprehension skills benefit every student, but are essential for beginning readers, struggling readers, and English Language Learners(Johns, 2007).
Theoretical background
It is defined by Bernhardt (2011) that reading skills refer to receptive language skills which involve the learners’ ability to involve and interact with written language to understand and present the meaning of texts Grabe (2009) also defines reading skills as the language learners’ competence to understand written texts by extracting the required information from them efficiently.
Reading skills expose EFL students to the target language as well as vital linguistic information hence boosting their language proficiency (Erten & Razi 2003). The nature of reading is the process of extracting meaning from written material. During the process of reading, readers use information from the text in combination with their background knowledge to interpret further meaning (Shin, Dronjic, and Park 2019) Therefore, the reader, the text, reading skills, and fluency are all important components in the process of generating sense from print.
Readability is defined as the ability of the reader to reconstruct a message encoded by the writer According to Goodman (1971), reconstruction behavior is described as a cyclical process that includes sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming the message To do so, readers must learn not only how to read a text and comprehend its grammatical structures, but they must also learn how to comprehend the information contained within it Reading, according to Souhila (2014), is the active process of comprehending printed and graphic text Specifically, it is concerned with how readers can convey meaning through written symbols and incorporate them into their mental processes According to Harmer (1989), reading is a mechanical process in which the eyes receive data and the brain deciphers the message sent by the eyes. Also necessary for a complete comprehension of the contents of reading material is the ability to think critically while carrying out the skill of reading and comprehending the material (Soto et al., 2019) Understanding is a critical component of reading activities because, in essence, understanding of reading material can aid in the development of reading skills and the achievement of specific objectives Thus, reading ability could be defined as the ability to comprehend the content of a piece of reading material The goal of reading is to gain understanding rather than to read quickly (Amin, 2019) When reading, comprehension entails connecting what has been read to previous knowledge and beliefs about all of this information until it is fully comprehended by the reader (as cited in Mohammadi & Davarbina, 2015).
Furthermore, Redcay and Preston (2016) argued that if students can acquire strong reading skills, they can not only successfully obtain high academic achievements but also read effectively for their further professional careers It is challenging for language learners who have poor reading skills to read and understand the meanings of the written text they read, address topics in the texts, link what they read with their knowledge to capture the main points of the text (Nilsson, 2013; Oakhill et al., 2015) Klingner (2014) also affirmed that reading skills can be trained. Teaching reading skills involves the use of activities and methods which enable the learners to actively and effectively read and use reading strategies for understanding the texts.
It is impossible to say which of the aforementioned definitions of reading is superior because each takes a different, more concentrated approach to the topic, but there is a strong correlation between reading and comprehending what is being read. Following Van den Broek and Espin (2012), reading comprehension is a complex interaction between instinctive and strategic cognitive processes that allows the reader to form an image of the text in his or her mind According to the findings of the study, the ability to precisely and effectively extract information from text is essential A number of factors influence the reading process including the text, the reader's prior knowledge, and the context in which the text is to be comprehended (or not) Reading is a difficult skill to master because it necessitates not only the ability to read but also the ability to comprehend and interpret the information that is being presented When it comes to reading comprehension, the reader is expected not only to comprehend the contents of the reading, but to be able to analyze or evaluate the reading and relate it to his or her own experiences and prior knowledge (MS & Rachmadtullah, 2018) In addition, reading comprehension has its own set of goals that must be accomplished. Achieving complete understanding of logical arguments, textual patterns, symbolic patterns, emotional extra tones, and language strategies employed to achieve goals is the goal of reading comprehension In another word, the purpose of reading comprehension encompasses a wide range of activities, and it is clear that reading comprehension is satisfactory if we are to learn about and comprehend the problem we are reading thoroughly.
As a result, as language teachers, it is highly essential to comprehend the nature of reading in order to assist students in reading effectively It is believed that one of the root factors for the students, particularly EFL students in achieving good results in reading skills relates to the classroom pedagogies, including reading strategic techniques (Ali & Razali, 2019).
According to Ahmadi et al (2013), there are different reading comprehension models which can be used by teachers to support their learners to deal with reading comprehension difficulties during the reading process to enhance students’ reading comprehension ability Among the reading comprehension models, the bottom-up model, the top-down model, and the interactive model are the most commonly used models Eskey (2005) also explained that each model has its own advantages and disadvantages in relation to the concentration in each method which can be applied by readers to acquire and interpret the meanings of texts For instance, if readers employ the bottom-up model, they need to decode separate words in the text to capture the whole text meaning Contrastively, when employing the top-down model readers need to utilize their existing background knowledge and personal experiences about the given topic in the text to understand what messages the text intends to convey. Regarding the last model – interactive model, this model requires the integrations of two interactions into reading process, including texts - readers’ previous experiences and texts – reading strategies (Ahmadi, Ismail, & Abdullah, 2013; Eskey, 2005; Grabe, 2004) Particularly, the three models are presented in more details. a) Bottom-up model
According to Pressley (2000), readers who use the bottom-up model are those who have ability to decode the text to support their reading comprehension during the learning process However, this model looks at the readers who are not able to quickly decode words in the text as struggling readers whose comprehension process is interrupted by their failure to decode The researcher explained that if the readers have an ability to decode text, they are able to easily and rapidly understand letter chunks,prefixes, suffixes, and the original vocabulary As a result, readers’ ability to rapidly decode words can exploit more memory capacity in their brains for reading comprehension On the other hand, struggling readers spend more time and effort trying to figure out the meaning of each word or phrase in the text, which results in losing a lot of the processing capacity in the brain that is needed for understanding the text (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2012; Pressley, 2000). b) Top-down model
In contrast to the bottom-up model, when employing the top-down model, readers’ background knowledge and prior experiences about a specific topic are utilized to extract the meaning of the texts Therefore, Eskey (2005) considered the top-down model as a process of “from the brain to text” Within the top-down model, it is required that readers establish their own expectations about the text at the beginning of the reading process These expectations are created by sourcing readers’ own prior knowledge and experiences of the given topic After defining the expectations, readers utilize their knowledge for word decoding within the texts to affirm the expectations or modify them Hence, within the top-down model readers’ prior knowledge and experiences take an important role to the readers’ understanding and interpretation of text meaning rather than the text itself (Ahmadi et al., 2013; Wang, 2009). c) Interactive model
Because both the bottom-up and top-down models have benefits and drawbacks, the interactive model is used to identify and tackle these limitations by integrating features of these two models Therefore, the interactive model is preferred by language teachers and learners to explain the process of reading comprehension and confirm the importance of the interaction between a reader and the text (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2012) The major concern of interactive model refers to the notion that the bottom-up and top-down models cannot be separately used to support the reading process; therefore, it is necessary to promote the interactions between the model to ensure the efficiency of the bottom-up and top-down models (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2012; Ahmadi, Ismail, & Abdullah, 2013).
Grabe (2001) also explained that the interactive model requires the combination of both lower-level processing skills (word recognition and decoding) and higher-level skills (inference and reasoning skills) to understand the text meaning.Accordingly, the interactive model considers reading comprehension process as a product that emerged as a result of gaining meaning through the interaction between both readers and written passages, instead of looking at reading comprehension as an easy transmission of the textual passage and information to the reader’s brain (Eskey,2005) In sum, the researchers point out that expert readers are those who can reciprocally use bottom-up or top-down models in their reading process to synthesizes information and interpret the meaning of the texts (Ahmadi et al., 2013; Eskey, 2005;Wang, 2009).
Relevant factors in students’ learning the reading skills
Reading skills, particularly reading comprehension, are critical for all students learning a language and cannot be overlooked This is founded on the notion that students acquire the majority of their information through reading activities (Lindeblad, 2016) Reading comprehension abilities are defined as the process of interaction between readers and texts throughout a reading session The focus of the activity or reading is on skills and mastering the substance of the reading Readers must be able to master and comprehend what they are reading According to (Martin-Beltrán, 2019), understanding is the factor that must be present in every reading action Therefore, unsatisfied reading skills can cause a variety of problems including slow speed of reading, failure to understand and summarize the main ideas of a reading text, and being unable to guess or predict the meaning of words or phrases used in contexts As a result, such students have to spend hard time succeeding in their reading They do not fully comprehend the content, which is one of the reasons they do not want to continue reading Furthermore, various aspects such as motivation, time, and strategy have a role in the reading process It may have serious impacts on reading outcomes such as speed, pleasure, and comprehension.
The investigation into reading comprehension literature reveals that EFL students have to deal with many difficulties during their reading process as well The researchers pointed out some prevalent difficulties including poor language use(insufficient prior knowledge (Gersten et al., 2001; Graham & Bellert, 2005),insufficient vocabulary knowledge (Clemens & Simmons, 2014; Gersten et al., 2001;Graham & Bellert, 2005; Jitendra et al., 2004), text coverage (Graham & Bellert,2005), text structure (Gersten et al., 2001; Graham & Bellert, 2005)), grammatical patterns (Hall & Barnes, 2017; Jiménez-Fernández, 2015) and other factors such as motivation, timing, etc (Sencibaugh, 2007).
A lot of students have actually experienced a wide range of challenges due to their poor abilities of language processing in general and poor language use in particular. a) Vocabulary
One indicator related to poor language is vocabulary If a student understands a word, it's likely that he or she also understands the concepts that go along with it.
Vocabulary is found to be one of the biggest indicators of comprehension in a study of reading comprehension, and it indirectly influences whether a student would use problem-solving skills when meaning is lost (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007) Actually, vocabulary is essential for fluent second language use Learners need a large amount of vocabulary to communicate successfully in a second language, leading to a significant impact on reading comprehension In the field of foreign language reading, there has long been a fascination in the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension (Schoonen, Hulstijn, and Bossers 1998; Qian 2002) Researchers have emphasized the importance of vocabulary as a predictor of overall reading ability when studying the performance of foreign language readers who are challenged with unfamiliar terminology (Grabe 1991) Incidental vocabulary learning is absolutely the key to vocabulary acquisition for student reading success.
The lack of proper vocabulary is frequently considered as one of the impediments to text comprehension by second language readers (Oakhill, Cain, andElbro 2019) In fact, the quantity of an English vocabulary has a significant impact on how well pupils comprehend a reading lesson They cannot understand a reading text when there are so many words in it; they do not have a good understanding of the reading themes; and they frequently read word by word, so they do not understand exactly what the writer intended to express in the text In the course of reading,students frequently encounter difficulties in the form of vocabulary activities such as previewing vocabulary, grasping meaning, and comprehending parts of speech.
Addressing to this problem, vocabulary might receive some attention in the English curriculum in Vietnamese schools, but it is mostly to aid reading and grammar exercises Given the significance of vocabulary in second/foreign language learning and instruction, vocabulary in Vietnam's English curriculum arguably requires its own section Besides, vocabulary has just lately become a focus of ELT research in Vietnam. b) Grammar
Grammar is an essential component of a language Typically, grammar can be described as abstract in the thought and tangible in application Without the presence of grammar, students’ understanding a language can be problematic There is a wide range of evidence that grammar plays a key role in success of reading comprehension, which reveals a link between syntactic or grammatical sophistication and reading comprehension over time To be more specific, children learn to use more complex sentences in their oral and written language, and their ability to comprehend the readings is also improved In addition, grammaris defined as the sound, the structure, and the meaning system of a language Grammar is found in all languages, and each one has its own set of rules (Beverly, 2007) For students, grammar is a barrier to approach accurate information Students may find it difficult to master the use of grammatical points such as verb tenses, forms and verb phrases, Several students admit that it is obviously hard to identify the forms of verb phrases or noun phrases in English They struggle not only with pursuing concepts or employing academic vocabulary, but also with the way of sentence building Some writers utilize long and complex sentences, which might make it difficult for readers to understand the material "Grammatical structures have become one of the most important difficulties in academic English reading," Rose said (2006) Because they lack expertise of reading issues, they have found various reading challenges connected to the usage of sophisticated grammatical structures in academic publications For good reading materials in English, there are countless barriers for students when they do not understand the grammatical qualities of noun phrases or verb phrases As a result, a reader needs be knowledgeable with language use and structures to understand the texts For readers who are reading in a second or foreign language, this should be seriously considerable because not all readers are able to absorb enough vocabulary and grammar to read what they want to Therefore, readers with limited knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical points will be cautious to study the text. c) Text structure
Text structure is a crucial aspect of any written document (Meyer and Poon 2001) Text structure has been found to be one of the major issues that EFL students must deal with to improve their reading comprehension (Al-Jarrah and Ismail 2018).
To take an example, when readers choose to read titles and paragraph headings to receive a quick overview of a piece, they are intentionally paying attention to the text structure In this respect, text organization can be regarded as a cognitive strategy (Williams, J.P, 2018) The extent to which such knowledge can be explicitly taught to students for better comprehension is a fundamental topic concerning the influence of text structure Summarizing, semantic mapping, forecasting, generating questions from headings and subheadings, and using adjunct questions are all strategies that support to improve text structure awareness and comprehension (Ghorbani Shemshadsara, 2019). Gersten et al (2001) also revealed that owing to the understanding of text structures readers are motivated to raise questions about the reading text, facilitating their comprehension of textual information Previous studies also empirically emphasized that students’ reading performance is greatly influenced by their understanding of text structures (Englert & Hiebert, 2004) Meyer, Brandt, and Bluth (2010) also explained that with adequate knowledge of text structures students are able to organize and connect information in the reading text, contributing to their improvement in retelling skills Graham and Bellert (2005), in particular, explained that during the students’ learning from primary to higher education students are expected to deal with a number of types of text structures; hence, the knowledge of text structures is crucial to students’ comprehension Accordingly, the limited understanding of text structures may generate great difficulties for students in reading comprehension.
Background knowledge, which is also known as previous knowledge, is a collection of "abstracted residue" that was accumulated over time, stated by Jonh Gurthrie (2000) As far as prior information concerned, there is no doubt that it is an important component of learning because it aids students in comprehending new concepts and experiences They use their prior knowledge to connect what they already know to the content they are reading in an attempt to comprehend it Apart from vocabulary and grammar problems, the lack of prior knowledge is also striking problem, which can lead to poor connections to the text Comprehension of a culturally familiar text, because readers, facing up with unfamiliar context, may mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience. Background knowledge has a significant impact on student performance, accounting for up to 81% of the variation in post-test results (Dochy et al 1999) Furthermore, there is a well-known link between background knowledge and reading comprehension (O’Reilly, Wang, and Sabatini 2019) Hence, background knowledge is connected to positive academic behaviors and improved academic achievement.
To solve this problem, the reader needs to be exposed to several perspectives on the material Besides, some other support materials such as magazines, newspapers, books, films, … can help enlarge experience and supply the necessary vocabulary in different topics to aid comprehension Individual readers will obtain diverse views on themes in the work by reading and debating it. b) Text coverage
Ehrman et al (2013) also indicated text coverageas one of the predictors of reading skills of the language learners, which relates to main ideas to some extent. According to Nation (2006), main ideas refer to the proportion of words the learners can understand within a whole written text For example, if the language learners obtain 80% main ideas, they can understand 80% of the running tokens of the text In other words, if the main ideas are out of control, they got troubles with the understanding of text meanings In addition, Aebersold and Field (2007) also affirmed that reading strategies with reference to text coverage involve the language learners’ ability to generalize the meaning of a paragraph and the ability to explain the meaning of the passage/ the process because of the context.
There are some scholars attempting to explore the main ideas in their studies to investigate the influence of main ideas on readers’ comprehension Laufer (2012) administered a study with 92 EFL leaders to measure the relationship between main ideas and reading comprehension ability measured by reading test scores Different groups of students with different sizes of vocabulary knowledge (5000 words, 3000 words and 2000 words) were selected as research participants Data analysis revealed that students with the vocabulary at the range of more than 3.000 words or 5.000 words understand the meaning of texts better than those with about 2.000 words, resulting in different test scores among these students Also in this study, 56% comprehension was established by the researcher as the standard of comprehension level The researcher affirmed that only students with vocabulary range of more than
5000 words can achieve the comprehension level at 70% However, the researcher did not draw the conclusion that a 95% coverage or a vocabulary size of 3,000 words was required for standard text comprehension The reason was attributed to the fact that Some learners below the mark had adequate comprehension of the texts, and many above this mark may have had only limited understanding of the passages Moreover, some concerns with the Laufer (2009) study involve the fact that main ideas were estimated based on learners underlining unknown words in the text, and the study participants were instructed not to underline previously unknown vocabulary that they were able to guess from context while reading Thus, their pre-reading main idea was not actually measured.
Another research demonstrated that reading abilities are required to capture information or ideas communicated by the author through written text, as well as to comprehend ideas presented in the text, both explicitly and implicitly (Woolley, 2016). Besides, reading comprehension is the process of extracting meaning from a piece of text The goal is to get a general idea of what is being explained in the text rather than to get the meaning of the content in the discourse so that the discourse may be read. (Duff, Tomblin, & Catts, 2015) Therefore, it is undeniable that there is a strong correlation between reading comprehension, vocabulary size and lexical coverage.
Being a crucial component, motivation determines “the direction and magnitude of human behavior or, in other words, the choice of a particular action, the persistence with it, and the effort expended on it” and it takes responsibility for “why people decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, and how hard they are going to pursue it” (Dornyei, 2001) Reading motivation may be found to have a part in the second language reading process Students may learn the majority of academic knowledge via reading; thus, throughout their school years, students must read frequently Reading motivation is the desire to read even if it is not needed, and it comprises looking for opportunities to read for a number of reasons. According to Girard (1997), reading is frequently the most difficult and uninteresting of the four practical skills for most English learners Furthermore, pupils' enthusiasm to learn to read is poor; some are hesitant to participate in reading activities, while others just read the material without interest Based on these findings, reading teachers should encourage or raise their students' enthusiasm in engaging with reading tasks, particularly at the start of the class.
Teaching strategies for enhancing the reading skills
For years there are various researchers classifying reading strategies into different categories in view of a wide range of criteria (Oxford, 1990; O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Chamot & O’Malley, 1996; Chamot, 2005) For example, Chamot and O’ Malley (1990) divided strategies into three broad categories: metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies Meta-cognitive strategies are about knowing about learning and controlling learning through planning and evaluating the learning activity Cognitive strategies involve the manipulation or transformation of the material to be learned Social/affective strategies mainly involve the learner in communicative interaction with another person (Liu, 2010) Oxford (1990) proposes that the language learning strategies can be divided into direct (including memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies) and indirect groups (metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies) The reading strategies which will be studied in this paper are based on O’Malley and Chamot’s learning strategies because their classification is clearer and easier to understand compared with that of others As such, the reading strategies are classified into four major groups: cognitive, metacognitive, social, and affective strategies, which were also adopted in many studies (Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001; Seyed & Nasab, 2015; Yu
& Wang, 2009) Each group comprises specific strategies selectively presented in the study as below.
According to Ozek and Civelek (2006), and Zhang and Guo (2020) cognitive strategies are defined as mental processes directly related to handling information through using prior knowledge and various strategies in their efforts to make a prediction and construct meaning from the text Therefore, the reader can use cognitive strategies to solve difficulties in the reading process and complete reading tasks (Dinsmore & Fryer, 2019; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001) The specific strategies in this group include: adjusting the speed of reading – read slowly to understand the content of the text; relating the title to the text content; guessing the meaning of a word from the context; reasoning deductively – predicting or inferring based on prior knowledge or what is implied; skipping some unknown words; reading without translating word- for-word; re-reading – reading more than once to understand the text better; analyzing the organization of the text; summarizing – making a summary from a long passage to comprehensive the content of the passage; taking notes – writing down main ideas, important points, keywords; translating – switch into the first language to understand more clearly.
In the studies on metacognitive reading strategies, Ozek and Civelek (2006) consider these strategies as routines and procedures that help readers to monitor or regulate cognitive strategies Metacognitive reading strategies consist of planning for reading, monitoring of reading tasks, and evaluating reading after the language activities (Kung, 2019) Planning is the process of setting goals for reading, skimming a text, and making questions Some strategies for planning are activating prior knowledge – linking the present topic with previous relevant knowledge; analyzing a title, pictures, illustrations, headings, or subheadings; reviewing the length of the text and text structure (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002) Monitoring relates to regulating reading by paying attention to reading – deciding what to pay attention to and what to ignore; self-testing – self-questioning and checking understanding to make sure understanding (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002; Shang, 2017). Evaluating strategies is a self-evaluating strategy that includes reflecting on what readers have just read, and summarizing (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002; Shang, 2017).
The third group of reading strategies is social reading Hong-Nam and Leavell (2007), Lee (2012), and Yu and Wang (2009) mention social reading related to cooperation in learning and interaction in communication Social strategies are defined as using assistance from other people These strategies include interacting with others while reading; cooperating with others – working with peers or groups and asking them when not understanding something; asking for clarification or verification – asking a teacher, friends, or a native speaker to explain or give examples when not clearing about what to do with a reading task.
The fourth strategy group is affective reading strategies Lee (2012), as well as Yu and Wang (2009) mention affective strategies as a strategy to control emotions, attitude, and motivation while Seyed and Nasab (2015) define affective strategies as a way to interact and negotiate with other EFL speakers in a relaxed and less stressful situation Therefore, the affective reading strategies can be seen as self-motivating in the reading process through activating supportive emotions, beliefs, and attitudes; discussing feelings with others; reading materials for satisfying joy and pleasure; using special techniques (e.g deep breathing or meditation for relaxation) to reduce anxiety about a reading task; interacting and negotiating with other EFL speakers in a relaxed and less stressful situation.
2.4.2 Strategies for enhancing the reading skills according to pedagogical approaches
Since 20th century, there have been four different teaching approaches used in reading instruction for L2 students, including grammar-translation, textbook passages,skills and strategies, and extensive reading (Bamford &Day, 1998) These four approaches are not always applied separately but instead they can be mixed for certain purposes of the course Traditionally and historically, grammar-translation has been heavily favored around the world, even till this very day because it can easily fit to the context of local educational and cultural practices (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Richards &Rodgers, 2014) Together with this approach is using comprehensive question-based approach in textbook to prepare students for standardized exams However, since the1980s, the skills and strategies approach made an impressive emergence to the pedagogical theories and practices, and by now it is considered as one of the most important and popular methods to teach reading English for L2 students (Bamford &Day, 1998) The first reason behind this influence is that teachers can directly enhance the way how their students read documents by teaching skills and strategies in reading,which is much more flexible and advanced compared with the traditional approach where the lessons only allow them to work on specific contexts and passages.Secondly, strategic reading practices provide an opportunity for L2 students to increase the frequency of interaction with the text by utilizing background knowledge(Bamford & Day 1998; Lee 2017; Nasri & Biria 2016).
In a review study on reading strategies in the context of teaching reading comprehension to EFL students (Ali &Razali 2019), the authors identified two major genres of strategies: cognitive reading strategies and metacognitive reading strategies. Cognitive reading strategies are strategies that help students improve their reading comprehension skills A cognitive reading strategy refers to specific learning tasks that are used during the learning process, whereas a metacognitive reading strategy refers to the planning, thinking, monitoring, and evaluating learning that occurs after tasks are completed Reading the text again, scanning it, analyzing it, and summarizing it are all tactics of cognitive reading strategies They also include the use of primary language to develop ideas and guide students in understanding the reading content, as well as rereading, scanning, analyzing, and summarizing All cognitive strategies, including Comprehending Strategies (dictionary, translating), Memory Strategies (underlining and highlighting information, visualizing read material), and Retrieval Strategies, are closely related to one another (i.e., previewing text before reading, using prior knowledge, using context clue to ascertain the meaning) They are used to encourage students to read slowly in order for them to be able to evaluate and visualize the information they are reading The metacognitive strategies, on the other hand, assist language teachers in better understanding the various reading styles of their students and in determining the most effective reading strategies to teach in the language classrooms In this review study, Ali and Razali (2019) came to the conclusion that, despite acknowledging the importance of teaching reading strategies, the reason for their choices of teaching strategies was not explained It was also discovered that teachers have a tendency to use common reading strategies, which may limit students' opportunities to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension that they are experiencing Instead, it was critical for teachers to gain a thorough understanding of their students' needs, difficulties, and preferred strategies in order to introduce them to the most effective strategies that would work best for them.
There have been several concerns around the issue of teaching reading Grabe(2004) found that there are certain similarities regarding the cognitive activities between L1 and L2 reading skills but the differences are not that insignificant to be ignored (Bernhardt 2003; Koda 2005) The evidence and literature review for L2 reading practices for teachers and students are sufficient, hence it remains controversial whether L1 settings is compatible for L2 classes (Akamatsu 2002; Chiappe, Siegel, and Wade-Woolley 2002; Koda 2005).
2.4.3 The effective process of reading comprehension
Each unit in textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, which is currently in use at high schools in Binh Duong province, refers to guidance and requirements of four basic skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing Among them, the reading part suggests the instructions for successful reading comprehension with three stages: pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading (Wallace 2003; Toprak & Almacıoğlu 2009). a) Pre-reading stage
Different researchers like Lazar (1993), and Graves (1995) have provided many definitions of pre-reading To serve an example, Lazar defined pre-reading activities as activities helping students with cultural background, stimulate student interest in the story, and pre-teach vocabulary Besides, Graves defined pre-reading activities as “devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’s schemata” Depending on each lesson, pre-reading phase often lasts from 10-15 minutes This stage is all-important because teachers are supposed to instill in students a desire to read by activating or expanding their previous knowledge of the subject and familiarizing them with some of the language they will need to cope with the text. Tudor (1989) called pre-reading activities as enabling activities because they provide a reader with the necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend the material Therefore, instead of answering pre-determined questions that dictate how to understand the texts, teachers should encourage students to construct questions, statements, or hypotheses during this stage In this so-called critical approach to reading, students are encouraged to ask more questions when reading This is not a conventional reading assignment in which the primary purpose is for students to find solutions. b) While-reading stage
When all students actually set their eyes on the text and this stage is the main part of reading comprehension lesson, while-reading stage is carried out The goals of this stage are to get students excited about the process of comprehending the entire text and interpreting what the author wrote Furthermore, it not only assists students in breaking up the order of the text but also educates them to consider additional concepts that arise from the text, resulting to improve their reading speed and techniques. Teachers might provide pupils alternate interpretations of a work during this time. Students should be encouraged to think critically and examine the many discourses that they may encounter in the book They should be educated that there is not just one type of discourse in a text, but that there are others Teachers must be innovative in devising reading exercises that allow students to "read" the material in a variety of ways The use of literary texts in a reading lesson is one example of how literary texts may help students in developing diverse discourses. c) Post-reading stage
The final stage of the reading lesson, as the title suggests, is conducted at the conclusion of the reading lesson, but its significance cannot be overstated because students will be required to apply what they have learned from the book to real-life communication during this process According to Arwijati Wahjudi (2010), post- reading activities are simple actions that are carried out after the completion of during- reading activities have been completed successfully At this point, the students are experiencing a transient change in status or condition, which means that they have learned something that they did not previously know They have gained knowledge of new vocabulary, sentence structures, idiomatic expressions, and information about a specific topic or topical issue Something must be done to assist students in putting what they have learned into practice in order for these new skills to become more than just facts Students in the post-reading stage are not studying the language of the book, and they are also not comprehending the information contained within it When students reach the post-reading stage, they should be able to apply what they have learned in previous stages to comparable reading, and they should be able to make connections between their reading abilities and other language skills such as listening skills, speaking skills, and writing skills One of the goals of the post-reading stage is to assist students in becoming more integrated into the foreign culture so that they can summarize the reading material using important terms and structures (Arif Saricoban
2002) Teachers should plan activities that encourage students to consider alternative approaches to the problem presented in the reading text.
Meaningful learning occurs when students make connections between new material and their own lives and experiences after they have finished reading Each student is invited to provide feedback on specific sections of the material that she or he has read and comprehended Due to the fact that they are engaged in responding to the texts that they have been assigned, students feel empowered and, to some extent, in control of their activities, while their teacher remains in the background This may pave the way for greater student autonomy Students' ability to communicate, which includes their willingness to take risks and be self-assured, is improved as a result of the expectation that they will be well-prepared to participate in the post-activities. When students are given a variety of responsibilities, they are given numerous opportunities to use the language, both verbally and in writing, to express themselves.
In another word, the reading process can be interpreted as illustrated in the figure below:
Figure 1 The reading process with three stages
Previous studies
International studies have conducted on both academic environment (Brevik2019; Fathi & Afzali 2020; Sparks & Patton 2016; Abaeian & Samadi 2016) and non- academic context (Lee 2017) On one hand, Brevik (2019) and Fathi & Afzali (2020) explored the presence and the influence of strategy instruction on reading in daily reading classes Other studies on the other hand, such as that of Sparks & Patton (2016) and Abaeian & Samadi (2016), focused on the model and techniques applied in reading classes to boost up the efficiency of L2 students Overall, it was suggested that the second language students in either academic environment or non-academic environment will benefit greatly from strategic and comprehensive reading instructions, which improves critical literacy and metadiscursive awareness in them.
There have been several studies conducted under the context of Vietnamese high school students Some studies have created a fundamental background for this topic by studying the nature and habits of students in studying reading skills; however, these studies used their target subjects as university students only (Stoller & Nguyen 2020; Thuy 2018) In the meantime, the perspective of teachers was also considered to find the most popular approach used by teachers to attract and get their students engaged (Tran & Nguyen 2017; Thư, Anh & Nam 2019) Tran & Nguyen (2017) suggested that using context clue was the most frequently used option, while the four most favorite reading strategies to get students’ attention in reading classes included games, pair work, group work, and role play In 2017, a studty of Lap and Trang (2017) conducted on sixty-nine tenth-grade students revealed that task-based learning techniques are beneficial for students’ motivation in learning reading because they are encouraged to take risk, make efforts and take more responsibility to reach their goals.
Nevertheless, the literature background on the challenges that high school students are struggling with regarding reading comprehension as well as the in-class instruction and practicing techniques that they prefer to solve these issues is still in adequate.
Conceptual framework
The interactions and engagements between EFL students and teachers have been found to be immensely diverse and complicated in multiple dimensions (Halverson and Graham 2019; Sari 2019; Weizheng 2019; Al-Zahrani and Al-Bargi 2017) Halverson and Graham (2019) investigated the learners’ engagement (including cognitive and emotional energy) and found that there were multiple factors that could influence this engagement By contrast, research conducted by Al-Zahrani and Al- Bargi (2017) suggested that questions given by teachers to students have a correlation with engagement of students to the classroom and lessons The pattern of interactions in the classroom has never been one-sided: most students perform actively in any classroom activity (Sari 2019); hence teachers’ organization of classroom activities might produce more fruitful interactions and engagement Nevertheless, it has been pointed out that teachers are utilizing most of class time on presentation, leaving just an insignificant amount of time for interactions, which negatively impact the intensity of communication between students and teachers (Weizheng 2019).
For high school students, particularly students in Vietnam, the intensity of English classes and the interconnection between students and teachers is vital in accumulating reading skills Students, on one hand, have their conscious awareness in the application and maximization of their personal strategies to solve reading issues in reading comprehension (Bagci and Unveren 2020; Al-Mekhlafi 2018; Jun Zhang 2001; Al-Mekhlafi 2018) In the meantime, teachers' choices of pedagogies root from both their values, knowledge, and institutional functions However, the overall pedagogic system is not only a network of choices but is also a system containing the interactions of both students and teachers (Rose 2018) And from the previous studies and aforementioned literature review, the successful choices of reading strategy and instructions should adapt and vary according to students’ needs and performances. Conceptual framework is a concept used in many social science researches to avoid conceptual confusion by functioning as visual organizing tools and mental maps to lead the research (Van der Waldt 2020) Based on various references and researchers’ perspectives, the writer outlines the conceptual framework of this study to present the most influential difficulties of students in reading comprehension as well as the corresponding reading strategies that should work most effectively and accordingly.
Teaching and learning reading skills Grade-10 students
Reading difficulties Solutions to improve reading skills languagePoor Common knowledge Others Pedagogical approaches Effective process of reading skills
Figure 2 Conceptual framework of the teaching and learning of reading skills for grade-10 students in Binh Duong province
(Source: Adapted from various researchers)
To sum up, this chapter goes through significant previous studies to explore theoretical foundation involving reading skills, reading difficulties and reading strategies Considering the literature, it is identified that poor language use (vocabulary,grammar, text structure), common knowledge (background knowledge, text coverage),and other factors (motivation, timing, strategies, materials) are the major challenges toEFL students Furthermore, such reading strategies as skimming/scanning techniques,reading the text carefully again, following the process of reading, information synthesis techniques, collocation/paraphrasing techniques, summarizing and building reading habits.
METHODOLOGY
Research design
In order to determine the answers to the research questions, the quantitative and qualitative methodologies are used in combination in this study.
Quantitative research has traditionally provided a measurement orientation in which data can be gathered from many individuals and trends assessed across large geographic regions (Creswell, 2008) On the other hand, qualitative research yields detailed information reported in the voices of participants and contextualized in the settings in which they provide experiences and the meanings of their experiences (Creswell, 2008) When researchers bring together both quantitative and qualitative research, the strengths of both approaches are combined, leading, it can be assumed, to a better understanding of research problems than either approach alone.
With reference to the quantitative approach, this approach involves gathering and analyzing numerical data to describe, discuss, explain and predict the studied issues(Best & Khan, 2006) In the field of L2 research, the quantitative approach is one of the predominant methodologies (e.g., Norris, Ross & Schoonen, 2015; Plonsky, 2013,2014; Plonsky & Gass, 2011; Purpura, 2011) Quantitative research uses numbers,quantification, and statistics to answer research questions It involves the measurement and quantification of language and language- related features of interest, such as language proficiency, language skills, aptitudes, and motivation The data collected are then analyzed using statistical tools, the results of which are used to produce research findings.
To begin, the writer decided to conduct surveys on both students and teachers in order to gain a better understanding of the issue from both perspectives The writer focused much on the complicated problems students have encountered while attending the reading lessons Teachers' strategies for teaching and the difficulties they encounter in their classrooms can both influence the effectiveness of learning As a result, the writer created two surveys for teachers to assess their strategies for teaching and the difficulties they encounter in their classrooms in their teaching the reading comprehension skills The results of these surveys will be used to quantitatively assess teacher and student problems.
Currently, English is taught is as compulsory subject for grade-10 in all three selected high schools In terms of curriculum, grade-10 students are taught with the textbooks designed within Vietnam's National Foreign Language 2020 Project with three periods per week (105 periods in total) According to British Council (2020), the objectives of language learning and teaching of high school students include: 1) Students will have mastered Level 3 of the Vietnam 6-level language proficiency framework Specifically, students can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc., deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken, produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest, and describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans Furthermore, through English, students will have more extensive understanding of the landscape, people and culture of English- speaking countries and other countries in the world; have positive attitudes towards English language learning; understand and respect cultural diversity, and basically reflect on the values of Vietnamese culture in English; develop qualities including love for the country and people, honesty, compassion, and responsibility for the environment and community (British Council, 2020).
In terms of reading, it is expected that graders 10 can understand the main points of short texts of 220-250 words about current and familiar topics, understand the most important information in everyday notices and brochures, and understand simple messages and standard communications.
Sample and sampling procedure
The current study was conducted at three high schools in Binh Duong Province including Bau Bang high school, Ben Cat high school, and Tran Van On high school There were totally 420 grade-10 students in these three schools that were targeted as the research population.
To select the participants, the researcher employed purposive sampling. According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007), purposive sampling is also known as judgment, selective or subjective sampling.
In the current study, it was judged by the researcher that grade-10 students who shifted their education from secondary school to high school started to learn English reading skills at a different level and may employ some strategies in reading for their reading comprehension; therefore, they were purposively selected by the researcher as the samples to identify their reading learning activities concerning factors influencing their reading comprehension and reading strategies According to Saunders et al (2012), the implementation of purposive sampling has some advantages, including: (1) Purposive sampling is one of the most cost-effective and time-effective sampling methods available; (2) Purposive sampling may be the only appropriate method available if there are only limited number of primary data sources who can contribute to the study; and (3) This sampling technique can be effective in exploring anthropological situations where the discovery of meaning can benefit from an intuitive approach Criteria for purposive sampling in the current study included: 1) Participants are grade-10 students and 2) Participants expressed their concerns of improving reading comprehension in the preliminary study Table 3.1 showed demographics of 420 students selected as research participants in the current study.
Table 3.1 Demographic characteristics of student respondents
Years of learning English 5-7 years 268 63.81%
Interest in learning reading skills Yes 321 76.43%
As shown in Table 3.1, more than a half of student respondents were female(64.52%) Of all 420 students participating in the current study, there were 268 students, accounting for 63.81%, learning English for 5-7 years Interestingly, 321 students (76.43%) affirmed their interest in learning reading skills.
Research instruments
The first technique of collecting the data in this research was questionnaire. The subjects of the survey are both students and teachers In the current study, a close- ended questionnaire was employed to collect quantitative data According to Cohen et al (2018), the questionnaire is the most commonly, useful research instrument which allows the researchers to collect numerical, structured data for the analysis For the benefits and relevance of questionnaire, the researcher decided to administer the questionnaire to the participants to collect data to answer research questions.
In terms of questionnaire for student respondents, there were total 39 items that were divided into two parts, Part A and Part B Part A involves; 18 items concerning six major difficulties of reading comprehension to students, including vocabulary, grammar, text structure, background knowledge, text coverage, and others.
In the second section, 21 items were used to explore the students’ reading habits All the questionnaire items were designed in the five-point Likert-like scale (1- Strongly disagree; 2- Disagree; 3- Neutral, 4- Agree, 5- Strongly agree for Part A; 1- Never; 2- Rarely; 3 – Sometimes; 4- Very often; 5- Always for Part B).
In terms of questionnaire for English teachers, the format of questionnaire was similar to that for student respondents with two parts and negatively navigated 5-pointLikert In the first section, 18 questionnaire items were designed with the scale of 1-Strongly disagree; 2- Disagree; 3- Neutral, 4- Agree, 5- Strongly agree that examined the teachers’ perceptions of the reading difficulties encountering their students covering six aspects, vocabulary, grammar, text structure, background knowledge, text coverage, and others In the second section, 21 items were used to explore the teacher’s frequency use of reading strategies to promote their students’ reading comprehension with reference to skim/scan technique, information synthesis technique, collocation/paraphrasing technique, following the process of reading, and building reading habits.
Table 3.2 Design of the questionnaire
Part Name Aims Number of items
Introduction Before getting started with the questionnaire, participants were introduced to the research topic and the survey's purpose, as well as instructions on how to do the questionnaire and the privacy commitments from the author.
Participants were requested to provide some background information in order to identify their characteristics
II The difficulties of reading skills
This section found out the grade-10 students' perspectives on the most challenging problems they faced in reading skills These difficulties were divided into six categories:
Vocabularies difficulties, text structures, main ides, grammar difficulties background knowledge and Others (motivation, timing, strategies, materials)
III Reading strategies The final section will cover various activities that grade-10 students engage in to improve their English reading skills.
The data may be invalid if the researcher collects data using only one technique In order that, need of using other is accepted So, the researcher used The second research instrument in the current study was semi-structure interview Talmy (2010) stated that interviews have been used for decades in empirical inquiry across the social sciences as one or the primary means of generating data.
Interview data was used to validate and complement data collected from the questionnaire There are seven main questions and some follow-up questions in the interview protocol which are used by the researcher to explore Grade 10 students’ andEnglish teachers’ perceptions and experiences with their students’ reading difficulties and their use of reading strategies to improve reading skills
The participants responded to all the same questions prepared by the author.Their responses and opinions were completely recorded with their agreement using an audio recorder.
Data collection procedures
The data in this study were synthesized and analyzed with the help of the IBMSPSS Statistics It will be used to answer the questions that were posed at the outset of the research, and probabilistic statistical methods such as descriptive analytics and correlation analytics will be used to do so.
Data analysis
Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed respectively The quantitative data that was collected from the students’ and teachers’ questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 25.
The details of mean scores could be based on five-point Likert–scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree Five- point Likert-scale of agreement is presented as follows:
In this study, conceptual content analysis was employed to analyze qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews with students In other words, the researcher attempted to figure out similar views in students’ and teachers’ perceptions towards reading comprehension activities, influencing factors, and reading strategies.
In this current study, the researcher employed the following procedure for data analysis:
(2) Step 2: Determine the unit of analysis
(3) Step 3: Arrange and classify information
(4) Step 4: Identify models and link topics
(7) Step 7: Report the research results
Reliability and validity
Research reliability and validity are considered necessary criteria in the study to ensure that the findings are accurate and consistent According to Dửrnyei (2007), research validity related to the whole research process includes internal validity and external validity while research reliability concerns measurement theory and the consistencies of data, scores, and observation by using research instruments.
First, participants in the survey were voluntary, so the result of the study ensured objectivity and validity Also, the researcher used two instruments including the questionnaire and the interview protocol to triangulate the research findings and find out a reliable result Both instruments were piloted before they were administered to participants This helped to limit errors while analyzing data To avoid the participants’ misunderstanding, the questionnaire was designed in Vietnamese language Moreover, items that belonged to different reading strategies were not arranged following distinctive strategies to enable the students’ objective choices Also, interview recordings were used to ensure the reliability and validity of the result.
Second, research reliability and validity are considered through using methods to analyze the data The researcher used SPSS version 25 to measure the reliability of the questionnaire by using the Cronbach’s Alpha to find the internal consistency coefficient The researcher also used the descriptive statistics method in SPSS to calculate and find the results Besides, the researcher cleaned data in the interview to exclude the error value and transform the recording into the text form to understand the interviewee’s responses exactly In addition, coding and explaining the data also helped the result of the study to obtain validity and reliability Finally, comparing from data of two instruments helped obtain more accurate results of the study.
To sum up, this chapter describes how the researcher selected research design to gather sufficient data in response to research objectives and questions A mixed method was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data from the questionnaire and interview 420 sets of questionnaires were administered to grade-10 students while 48 sets of questionnaires were delivered to eighteen English teachers at three selected high schools Then, semi-structured interviews were performed with nine students and three teachers Furthermore, procedures to collect and analyze data were also discussed with as focus on data analysis techniques of quantitative data and qualitative data Finally, issues of reliability were addressed.
CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this chapter, the researcher presented research findings obtained from the students’ and teachers’ respondents to the questionnaire and interview concerning the reading difficulties encountering the students and the strategies used to improve students’ reading comprehension ability Results of each research questions are presented, including both descriptive statistics from the questionnaire and qualitative results from interview.
Research questions are repeated as follows:
(1) What are the difficulties of reading skills that grade-10 students in Binh Duong province have faced with?
(2) What are the suggestions for those students to improve their reading comprehension skills?
4.1.1 Responses by students from questionnaires
In order to explore the students’ perceptions of reading difficulties, the researcher employed 18 items concerning three categories of difficulties, including poor language use (vocabulary, text structure, grammar), common knowledge, and others Descriptive statistics with the values of mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) were presented for the analysis.
In terms of difficulties caused by poor language used, the researcher firstly used three items to find out the extent to which vocabulary challenged students in reading comprehension Table 4.1 showed the results.
Table 4.1 Students’ perceptions of difficulties caused by vocabulary
1 Challenges of words/ phrases with contextual meanings 4.62 0.37 1
It is shown in Table 4.1, the student respondents expressed their strong agreement towards reading difficulties caused by vocabulary with the mean range from 4.38 to 4.62 Specifically, the highest level of agreement was reported with the students’ inability to understand words/phrases with contextual meanings in reading passages (M = 4.62; SD = 0.37), followed by their insufficient vocabulary knowledge to understand the texts because there were too many new words/ phrases in a passage/ reading (M = 4.43; SD = 0.55) Another difficulty of related to vocabulary perceived by students in the current study was confusion of use for words/ phrases with different meanings (m = 4.38; SD = 0.47) Overall, it was strongly agreed by grade-10 students that they got difficulty in reading comprehension because of challenges caused by vocabulary. b) Grammar
Among different factors that may generate the difficulties for the students in their reading regarding poor language use, grammar was identified as one of the most important factors by many researchers Therefore, in the current study the researcher also investigated how grammar related factors can pose the challenges for grade-10 students in their reading comprehension Four items were employed by the researcher to explored reading difficulties caused by grammar; results were shown in the following table.
Table 4.2 Students’ perceptions of difficulties caused by grammar
4 Hard identification of main ideas of complex sentences 4.42 0.594 1
2 Too many new words/ phrases in a passage/ reading 4.43 0.55 2
3 Confusion of use for words/ phrases with different meanings 4.38 0.47 3
Hard understanding English tenses in texts due to their different uses compared to
6 Misunderstanding the meaning of linking words 3.12 0.560 3
7 Problems of the use of pronouns in sentences 3.08 0.603 4
There were four statements used by the researcher to explore the students’ reading difficulties caused by grammatical factors such as complex sentences, tenses, linking words, and pronouns Notably, the respondents only affirmed the difficulties generated by the complex sentence structure (M = 4.42; SD = 0.594) and verb tenses (M = 3.92; SD = 0.442) while a neutral position was reported with two items concerning linking words (M = 3.12; SD = 0.560) and pronouns (M = 3.08; SD 0.603) In general, the respondents still agreed that grammar was a cause of difficulties in during their reading. c) Text Structure
Another reading difficulty perceived by the students in the current study related to poor language used referred to text structure Two items were used by the researcher to explore how the structure of the text generated the difficulties for students Descriptive statistics of these two items were shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Students’ perceptions of difficulties caused by text structure
As presented in Table 4.3, the student respondents agreed that they found it difficult to understand the text because of the Complicated organization of paragraphs
No Text structure Mean Standard
8 Complicated organization of paragraphs in the same passage/ reading 4.25 0.512 1
9 Hard uncoding the structure of the reading texts for getting right ideas 4.09 0.398 2 in the same passage/ reading (M = 4.25; SD = 0.512) The respondents also expressed their affirmation of challenges in reading comprehension caused by text structure by stating hard uncoding the structure of the reading texts for getting right ideas (M = 4.0;
After exploring the difficulties caused by poor language use, the researcher used four items to identify how students were challenged by issues related to common knowledge Results were presented in the following table.
Table 4.4 Students’ perceptions of difficulties caused by common knowledge
Four aspects concerning how background knowledge may generate the difficulties for students in their reading that were investigated in the current study included unfamiliar topics, limited background knowledge, ability to identify the main ideas of text, and ability to understand the texts in terms of meaning in detail In more detail, it was strongly agreed by the student respondents that they found it difficult to deal with reading texts involving unfamiliar topics (M = 4.53; SD = 0.663) and that students were challenged to understand English reading texts because of limited background knowledge of the reading texts (M = 4.41; SD = 0.491) Accordingly, the student respondents also found it hard to identify the main ideas of texts (M = 4.28;
SD = 0.408) and hard to understand the texts in term of meaning in detail (M = 4.23;
No Common Knowledge Mean Standard
11 Limited background knowledge of the reading texts 4.41 0.491 2
12 Hard to identify the main ideas of texts 4.28 0.408 3
13 Hard to understand the texts in term of meaning in detail 4.23 0.358 4
Finally, the researcher also looked into other factors such as reading topics, reading purpose, or visual supports to explore whether they were the sources of difficulties for the students’ reading comprehension Five items were used in the questionnaire for the student respondents Descriptive results of these eight items are presented in the following table.
Table 4.5 Students’ perceptions of difficulties caused by other factors
Table 4.5 revealed that students agreed that they encountered the difficulty in reading texts because of shortage of time management for reading (M = 3.85; SD 0.674) and translation habits in reading process (M = 3.72; SD = 0.552) Regarding the difficulties caused by other factors, the researcher held a neutral position, including low speed of reading (M = 3.12; SD = 0.329), lack of purposes/ motivation for reading
(M = 3.08; SD = 0.385), and uninteresting or inappropriate topics/ materials (M= 3.03; SD = 0.651).
4.1.2 Responses by students from interviews
Six students were randomly selected for the interview In the first question, when being asked “what are the barriers that prevent you from good reading comprehension?” It is affirmed by the students that there are no overarching strategies and lack of vocabulary that is believed to be the leading causes of preventing them from becoming good readers “My reading is just average because I lack vocabulary and some strategies when doing reading exercises and I read so slowly” Then, students mention “Lack of vocabulary and background knowledge Sometimes I do not know how to scan, skim and summarize a paragraph” Another one states that the
No Other Factors Mean Standard
14 Shortage of time management for reading 3.85 0.674 1
15 Translation habits in reading process 3.72 0.552 2
17 Lack of purposes/ motivation for reading 3.08 0.385 4
18 Uninteresting or inappropriate topics/ materials 3.03 0.651 5 difficulties she often gets in learning reading are lack of vocabulary and grammatical structure Through this question, it is clear that most students have difficulty in vocabulary shortage, and realize that they have to practice more to improve their vocabulary and skills By common consent, some students usually have difficulties in finding main ideas, summarizing main ideas, choosing topic of the paragraph exercises.
Another student also affirms that he confuses when he does exercises about skimming and filling in the blank because he lacks strategies and gets difficult about word choice Just like the question above, students encounter grammar, strategies and vocabulary problems in reading exercises.
CONCLUSION
Implications
Basing on the research results, there are two implications that the researchers would like to recommend Firstly, grade-10 students in Binh Duong Province must know the difficulties they are facing It can be seen that while students appreciate that reading is not the most difficult subject in English skills, but the difficulties they encounter also indirectly affect other skills in general and reading in particular. Accordingly, they need to address their reading difficulties of reading comprehension. Second, the teachers' responses to the questionnaire and interview prove that many reading strategies can be used by English teachers to improve students’ reading comprehension After realizing their own difficulties, they want to apply the solution in the best way for their reading ability For this reason, it will be essential for students to be able to cultivate their reading competence better as well as to get fruitful achievements and to become readers with high qualifications Understanding the importance and difficulty of reading comprehension, the researcher proposed some recommendations based on the results of the survey.
First and foremost, most students affirmed that they had difficulties in reading comprehension Students should think that reading is an important skill that is needed and related to their future work That means they need to find the problems and fix them, all just a matter of time.
Secondly, teachers need to help students use strategies as well as ways to improve their reading ability In addition, even though grade-10 students have to learn by themselves, it will be much more helpful if teachers give their students a little bit more profound instruction and explanation to apply strategies to improve their reading competence As a result, improved measures help students gain better access to their reading as well as their understanding A good case here is that the students can employ guessing word meaning, scanning and skimming, and questioning to improve their reading comprehension.
In short, for many students, recognizing their difficulties or using strategies can turn into differences in learning and vice versa As a result, students should practice and apply regularly solutions to continuously improve their reading ability and be able to achieve the desired results.
Limitations
The current study has some limitations in methodology Firstly, the sample size of the current study was relatively small in comparison to the total number of grade-10 students and English teachers in Binh Duong Province The small sample size may influence the reliability and generalizability of research findings Secondly, the current study only employed the questionnaire and interview as research instruments to explore the respondents’ perception of students’ reading difficulties and reading strategies used to improve students’ reading comprehension There was no instrument used to collect data measuring the effectiveness of reading strategies Therefore,research findings were not comprehensive.
Suggestions for further studies
It is suggested that in further studies the researchers can employ a larger sample size which will allow them to improve the reliability, and generalizability of research findings Furthermore, the present study identified the reading comprehension strategies that grade-10 students used to read a single text in English, the foreign language they were learning Future research might explore whether there is a connection between strategies used by readers of different proficiency levels and the extent to which they comprehend an L2 text Also, research might examine whether successful L2 readers and struggling L2 readers use the same or different strategies.Finally, future research might focus not only on identifying strategies but also on determining if they are successfully used by readers, meaning whether they actually lead to better comprehension over other possible strategies by using the competence tests of reading comprehension.
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APPENDICES Appendix A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS
You are kindly invited to participate in the survey on the topic “An investigation into the teaching and learning of reading skills for Grade 10 students in Binh Duong province.” Your responses are absolutely confidential for scientific research purposes, and your participation is highly appreciated for my research results.
Thank you very much for your support.
2 Years of learning English a Less than 5 years b 5-7 years c 7-10 years
Question1 Are you interested in learning speaking skills? a Yes b No
PART II DIFFICULTIES IN READING COMPREHENSION
What are the difficulties in reading skills that grade-10 students in Binh Duong province have faced with?
Please make a tick (✓) for your responses.
No Difficulties in reading skills 1 2 3 4 5 Poor language use
1 Too many new words/ phrases in a passage/ reading
2 Challenges of words/ phrases with contextual meanings
3 Confusion of use for words/ phrases with different meanings
4 Hard identification of main ideas of complex sentences
5 Hard understanding English tenses in texts due to their different uses compared to Vietnamese ones
6 Misunderstanding the meaning of linking words
7 Problems of the use of pronouns in sentences
8 Hard uncoding the structure of the reading texts for getting right ideas
9 Complicated organization of paragraphs in the same passage/ reading
11 Limited background knowledge of the reading texts
12 Hard to identify the main ideas of texts
13 Hard to understand the texts in term of meaning in detail
14 Uninteresting or inappropriate topics/ materials
15 Lack of purposes/ motivation for reading
16 Shortage of time management for reading.
18 Translation habits in reading process
PART III SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE READING SKILLS
What are the suggestions for those students to improve their reading skills? Please make a tick (✓) for your responses.
No Strategies to improve the reading skills 1 2 3 4 5
1 Increasing the number of vocabulary
2 Using reference materials as glossaries/dictionaries
3 Asking (teachers/ friends) for help to paraphrase/explain unclear grammatical points
4 Guessing the meanings of unknown parts of the reading due to hard points of grammar in context
5 Interpreting/ Identifying the ideas of the reading in both
6 Paraphrasing the unclear part of reading for better understanding
7 Doing the reading (newspapers, magazines, books, articles, …) more frequently
8 Discussing with friends and others for more information in different topics
9 Building up good reading habits
10 Trying to keep in mind the contents of reading by using visual aids (mindmaps, diagrams, note-taking, highlighting, …)
11 Working with friends to understand the reading/ clarifying the unclear points of the reading.
12 Re-reading to make sure of accurate understanding.
13 Following the process of reading
14 Focusing on text, skipping unimportant parts
16 Confirming a purpose in mind before reading.
17 Skimming the text, reading the text carefully again.
19 Using other clues, e.g titles/headings, introduction, transitions, etc.
20 Inferring the reading (to what is not clearly stated in the text)
You are kindly invited to participate in the survey on the topic “An investigation into the teaching and learning of reading skills for Grade 10 students in Binh Duong province.” Your responses are absolutely confidential for scientific research purposes, and your participation is highly appreciated for my research results.
Thank you very much for your support.
1 Age a Less than 30 years old b 31-40 years old c More than 40 years old
3 Years of teaching English a Less than 3 years b 3-5 years c 5-7 years d 7-10 years
PART II DIFFICULTIES IN READING SKILLS
What are the difficulties in reading skills that grade-10 students in Binh Duong province have faced with?
Please make a tick (✓) for your responses.
No Difficulties in reading skills 1 2 3 4 5 Poor language use
1 Too many new words/ phrases in a passage/ reading
2 Challenges of words/ phrases with contextual meanings
3 Confusion of use for words/ phrases with different meanings
4 Hard identification of main ideas of complex sentences
5 Hard understanding English tenses in texts due to their different uses compared to Vietnamese ones
6 Misunderstanding the meaning of linking words
7 Problems of the use of pronouns in sentences
8 Hard uncoding the structure of the reading texts for getting right ideas
9 Complicated organization of paragraphs in the same passage/ reading
11 Limited background knowledge of the reading texts
12 Hard to identify the main ideas of texts
13 Hard to understand the texts in term of meaning in detail
14 Uninteresting or inappropriate topics/ materials
15 Lack of purposes/ motivation for reading
16 Shortage of time management for reading.
18 Translation habits in reading process
PART III SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE READING SKILLS
What are the suggestions for those students to improve their reading skills? Please make a tick (✓) for your responses.
No Strategies to improve the reading skills 1 2 3 4 5
1 Increasing the number of vocabulary
2 Using reference materials as glossaries/dictionaries
3 Asking (teachers/ friends) for help to paraphrase/explain unclear grammatical points
4 Guessing the meanings of unknown parts of the reading due to hard points of grammar in context
5 Interpreting/ Identifying the ideas of the reading in both
6 Paraphrasing the unclear part of reading for better understanding
17 Doing the reading (newspapers, magazines, books, articles, …) more frequently
8 Discussing with friends and others for more information in different topics
9 Building up good reading habits
10 Trying to keep in mind the contents of reading by using visual aids (mind-maps, diagrams, note-taking, highlighting, …)
11 Working with friends to understand the reading/ clarifying the unclear points of the reading.
12 Re-reading to make sure of accurate understanding.
13 Following the process of reading
14 Focusing on text, skipping unimportant parts
16 Confirming a purpose in mind before reading.
17 Skimming the text, reading the text carefully again.
19 Using other clues, e.g titles/headings, introduction, transitions, etc.
20 Inferring the reading (to what is not clearly stated in the text)
Topic: An investigation into the teaching and learning the reading skills for grade -10 students in Binh Duong Province
1 What are the barriers that prevent you from good reading comprehension?
Would you please give me some more examples about your reading problems?
2 Can you tell me about the reading techniques that your teachers use to help you improve your reading comprehension skills?
- Do you often follow the reading process (pre-reading, while reading, post- reading) when dealing with a reading?
3 Do you think that reading techniques used by your teachers are really helpful for you? Please provide me with an example.
4 Do you think that your teachers consider the following criteria to encourage your reading improvement?
If yes, please provide me with an example.
5 Do your teachers give you a lot of exercises for practice to improve your reading skills?
6 Would you like to share with me more about your own experience of reading techniques or the ones proposed by your teachers?
Thank you for joining this interview I highly appreciate your willingness to participate in this study All the information you shared is very valuable and will be treated with complete confidentiality The next step will be for the audio-recording to be transcribed Once the reordering of your interview is transcribed, I will contact you; so you may review the transcription to ensure that it is accurate and reflects what you said Do you have any question?
Topic: An investigation into the teaching and learning the reading skills for grade-10 students in Binh Duong Province
Years as a teacher: What grade level(s)
1 “What are the barriers that prevent your students from successful reading comprehension”?
- “Would you please provide me with examples about those reading problems”?
2 “ Please tell me some effective reading strategies that you often use in order to improve reading skills of your students”.
- “The frequency of applying the reading process in your teaching the reading skills”
- “The use of the same strategies for all students”.
3 “Do you usually come up with strategies on your own or do you use research- based strategies’?
4 “What criteria do you use to select the appropriate strategies for your students?
Do you consider the following criteria to encourage your students’ reading improvement"?
- If yes, please provide me with an example.
5 What types of reading questions do you give your students to practice to improve their reading skills
6 Would you like to share with me about your experience of utilizing some reading strategies with your students?
Thank you for participating in this interview I appreciate your willingness to participate in this study All the information you shared is very valuable and will be treated with complete confidentiality The next step will be for the audio-recording to be transcribed Once the reordering of your interview is transcribed I will contact you, so you may review the transcription to ensure that it accurate and reflect what you said.
Do you have any question?