INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
Nowadays, as English is becoming a widely utilized language for communication, learning English is becoming increasingly popular among students and young learners Especially, in the age of technology and the influence of “the flat world", learners tend to emphasize listening and speaking skills but forget the function of reading skills when studying English Al-Nafisah (2011) stated that many students are unaware of how important reading has always been in academics and how it is regarded as the most crucial of the four language skills
Reading is a vital ability that helps learners learn more about English Students can learn things they did not know previously by reading Additionally, reading helps students develop their language and experience
Learning to read well is necessary for students' academic achievement It can aid them in passing standardized exams like the national high school exam or competence assessment exam in many universities Consequently, it is crucial to develop students' reading abilities in the classroom When reading a text, comprehension is just as important as reading ability Students who demonstrate comprehension can show that they have read the material and have learned the information it contains
Nunan (2003: 68) declares that “Reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their background knowledge to build meaning” Reading is a method for transferring scientific knowledge from the writer of the book to the reader's brain, and if readers do not comprehend the text's meaning, they will not be able to absorb the information Pronunciation issues and a lack of vocabulary are further reading difficulties Therefore, the instructor should be better knowledgeable about tactics, techniques, and strategies for learning English as these will help the teacher's efforts to improve the effectiveness of his/ her instruction
According to Kruidenier (2002: 77), “Reading comprehension can be described as understanding a text that is read, or the process of constructing meaning from a text” Reading comprehension is an active activity that the reader must engage in It is also a purposeful process that is teachable Words are associated with their meaning in the reader's memory as understanding takes place, and phrases and sentences are processed as clearly as possible to prevent the meanings acquired from one word, phrase, or sentence from being lost before the next is processed
It can be said that in Vietnam, reading skills are crucial for learning English since it is taught and mastered in a non-native language setting As a result, reading can be utilized for a variety of activities, including education, exploration, and amusement By improving their reading comprehension, learners will also improve their writing and speaking
According to Carrell (1989), for many students, of the four language acquisition skills, reading is the most crucial and is regarded as a prerequisite for lifelong learning Today's students must read a variety of books and publications in English in order to learn new concepts and theories in addition to the English- language reading materials that they are required to use Thus, to acquire other language skills and the necessary professional information, students will need to improve their English reading comprehension
Thereby, how to improve reading comprehension for learners and what strategy is used by teachers to improve reading comprehension for learners must be taken into consideration during the teaching and learning process, especially in the teaching and learning context of high schools where the learners are still young and lack of language learning experiences.
Statement of the problem
A large number of students did not understand the value of reading According to Utara (2020), many students struggled to understand the meaning of the words, extract general and specific information from the text, and interpret the reading text
Nevertheless, Anggraini (2018) claimed that a lack of vocabulary made it difficult for students to comprehend the reading passage It was due to the student’s lack of reading habits and laziness when it came to looking up unknown words in dictionaries The students were unable to achieve high marks on their reading tests as a result
Besides that, due to their lack of comprehension skills, students find reading to be incredibly boring and find it very challenging to deal with They, therefore, require certain methods or strategies that could aid them in reading narrative texts with comprehension Finding engaging strategies to teach reading comprehension of narrative texts requires creativity on the part of the teacher
According to Denton et al (2007: 201), students may find the Context Clues Strategy useful in determining the meaning of a word Whether it is in the same sentence as the unfamiliar word or in sentences that come before and after it, hints are placed around it Hence, the Context Clues Strategy helps students become more adept at understanding what they read
Furthermore, according to Yuen (2009:5), “The use of context clues is to gain knowledge of new words during reading” The ability to read texts more fluently will be improved Teachers who use the Context Clues Strategy will gain new knowledge about the teaching methodology to improve their teaching-learning process and add excitement to the study As a result, the students' reading motivation will increase
For the above demonstrations, using Context Clues Strategy to improve reading comprehension for students is certainly necessary and its study results will be beneficial for education managers, teachers, and students in teaching and learning English in general and reading comprehension in particular
At Vo Thi Sau High School in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, language teaching, especially English teaching is highly focused Among the four skills of English including reading, writing, speaking, and listening, reading comprehension is much paid attention to by teachers and students because they all know the importance of this skill A lot of strategies are employed to teach reading comprehension to students at the school, and Context Clues Strategy is one of them However, how effective teachers use this strategy to develop reading comprehension abilities for students is still questioned
Therefore, a study on the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy in enhancing the reading comprehension abilities of students, teachers and students’ attitudes towards Context Clues Strategy should be done at Vo Thi Sau High School in order to gain insights into the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy in developing reading comprehension abilities of students Hence, study results will reveal implications for teachers, students, and administrators during the English teaching and learning process.
The aims of the study
In the context of the increasing number of English learners in Vietnam, research on learning strategies in general, and reading comprehension strategies in particular, is still limited Within the scope of teaching and learning English at high schools in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, there have been no studies that provide scientific data demonstrating the effect of using Context Clues Strategy to develop reading skills of students
This study aims at investigating the teaching and learning of reading comprehension skill through Context Clues Strategy for grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province The goals of this research are as follows:
- To investigate teaching and studying of reading comprehension skill for the grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School;
- To find out what Context Clues Strategy teachers and students use during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill;
- To explore the attitudes of teachers and students to Context Clues Strategy used during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill;
- To check whether Context Clues Strategy used can help students to improve their reading comprehension skill;
- To suggest solutions to employ Context Clues Strategy successfully and effectively for teachers and students during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill.
Research questions of the study
To achieve the required aims as mentioned above, the following research questions were formulated:
RQ1 What Context Clues Strategy do teachers and students use when teaching and studying reading comprehension skill?
RQ2 What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of Context Clues Strategy when teaching and studying reading comprehension skill?
RQ3 How effective does Context Clues Strategy used help students to improve their reading comprehension skill?
Scope of the study
The study will be conducted at Vo Thi Sau High School in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province This study mainly finds out what Context Clues Strategy teachers and students use during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill; and focuses on investigating the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy in improving reading comprehension for students at Vo Thi Sau High School
There will be 150 students from grade 11 of the school year 2022 – 2023 They are divided into 2 groups: 75 students belong to the experimental group; the other 75 students belong to the control group The experimental group will be taught Context Clues Strategy for 6 weeks whereas the control group will not be given any knowledge about Context Clues Strategy After that, the experimental group is asked to complete a questionnaire The researcher also interviewed 5 random students for their attitudes about Context Clues Strategy and the way Context Clues Strategy affects their reading comprehension In addition, five teachers who are in charge of teaching English for grade 11 at Vo Thi Sau High School will be invited for semi- structured interviews
Besides, the study used a mixed-methods approach Information was gathered through questionnaires and a semi-structured interview SPSS (20.0) and content analysis were used to evaluate the data.
Significance of the study
As mentioned above, the goal of this study is to help grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School to read more effectively by using Context Clues Strategy As a result, it is possible to anticipate that the study results will have both theoretical and practical implications for English teaching and learning in Vietnam in general and in
Vo Thi Sau High School in particular and it is also hoped to be useful for other high schools of Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province in English teaching and learning
Theoretically, it is hoped that this study’s results will add detailed knowledge on enhancing reading comprehension to the literature on the use of Context Clues Strategy in Vietnam The results of this study may encourage future researchers and scholars in education to develop methods for incorporating the Context Clues Strategy into English teaching to meet the various needs of students and develop productive learning environments for English in the classroom
Practically, these research results may aid English teachers in better understanding how Context Clues Strategy is used in teaching reading comprehension at Vo Thi Sau High School Additionally, it is hoped that the study results will lay a solid basis for other teachers so that they will be more inspired to use the Context Clues Strategy in their English teaching and research the related issues to enhance the caliber of English teaching and learning in the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.
Organization of the study
This study consists of five chapters which are structured as follows:
This chapter presents the problem and gives an overview of the study It also covers the scope of the study, the significance of the study, the aims and objectives, and the research questions
This chapter discusses the literature review which aims to discuss published information on previous related works in the research area Additionally, for a deeper comprehension of the study, it provides relevant information about definitions of key terms, and conceptual framework
This chapter explains the details of the selected methodology that is going to be used in the study, including details on the setting, participants, research designs, instruments, data collection, and data analysis procedures
This chapter presents the results for each of the research questions beginning with the quantitative data followed by the qualitative evidence and includes a discussion of the findings
This chapter discusses the conclusion, limitations, recommendations, and suggestions for future research.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Reading comprehension skill
The concept of "reading" is construed differently by different scholars The definition of "reading" provided by Anderson (1999) is that it is "an active, competent process involving the reader and the reading material in constructing meaning." Taking context-based information and mixing it with other parts to create a new whole is the process of reading comprehension It is a process where the reader uses the knowledge they already possess (schemas) to interpret the text and create meaning It is a cognitive process where the reader extrapolates meaning from a text
According to Anderson et al (1985), reading is the process of interpreting written content It requires the harmonization of numerous connected informational sources Besides, Wixson, Peters, Weber, and Roeber (1987) mentioned that reading is the act of making sense of a text using the reader's prior knowledge, the text's content, and the reading setting Additionally, Gilakjani and Sabouri (2016) asserted that the main goal of reading is to extract the message from a book that the author intended for the reader to retain
Aebersold and Field (1997) state that reading is composed of three components: the reader, the text, and their relationship with it According to them, reading is the process by which a reader examines a text and gives the symbols within its meaning The reader and the text are two actual physical beings that are required for reading to occur The real meaning, however, is created by the reader and the text's interaction
Grabe and Stoller (2002: 9) stated that reading is the ability to infer information from a written page and apply it effectively It is a method through which individuals acquire knowledge and concepts via publications such as books, newspapers, letters, magazines, and other materials Reading involves engaging in a dialogue with the author through the text, which is another cognitive process
In a nutshell, reading is a fundamental part of everyday life Also, reading is the process through which a reader creates meaning by interacting with prior knowledge, information provided by the written word, and context Dubin (1982) stated that for students in non-English-speaking nations, reading appears to be the language skill that is the easiest to pick up
Reading skills refer to a person's ability to read, understand, interpret, and decode written language and texts Comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and strategies are several important aspects that help readers interpret and find meaning in texts Reading abilities, or how effectively a learner can read and comprehend what they are reading, are influenced by reading skills Students grow and work on a wide range of reading abilities throughout their education and after On the words of Foorman and Torgesen (2001), decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and interference are the four basic categories that can be used to group these abilities The majority of a student's reading ability is made up of these fundamental reading skills Overall, its aim is to provide students with the tools they need to comprehend what they read This is not only essential for their English lessons and their other school subjects, but also for all areas of life beyond their education Essential skills needed for reading comprehension include:
Decoding is a skill that depends on students’ capacity to pronounce words they have only ever heard orally Phonemic awareness, or the capacity to distinguish between particular sounds in words and relate those sounds to letters, is a necessary component The first stage in "sounding out" or decoding words is to correlate the sounds that a letter or set of letters make with each other
A variety of factors combine to make up fluency It starts by emphasizing students' capacity for fluent, unambiguous reading Fluency also emphasizes a reader's capacity to quickly decode new words while reading Fluency is how reading sounds, which directly affects a reader's capacity to understand what they read For instance, when a student improves their reading fluency, he or she will be able to quickly understand and discover meaning in what they have read, which helps them comprehend the text
Reading comprehension can also be impacted by the reader's capacity to decipher or interpret new words Students can boost their capacity to make assumptions, create concepts, and overall better understand the texts they read when they can swiftly interpret new meanings and recognize connections between new terminology and well-known phrases
An important aspect of reading comprehension is inference When students draw conclusions from texts, they relate information to their thoughts and viewpoints, which aids them in understanding the meaning of what they have read A student might assume, for instance, that recycling will help them to limit the quantity of plastic garbage they generate after reading an article about plastics in the oceans When pupils read a work with its aim and meaning not explicitly indicated, they infer Additionally, the capacity for connecting concepts and drawing conclusions can aid in improving retention
Kintsch (1998) and Van Dijk (2006) defined reading comprehension as the process of deriving meaning from text The objective is to understand the text in its entirety, not to infer meaning from certain words or sentences A mental picture of a text's meaning combined with the readers' past knowledge is the result of reading comprehension Keenan, Betjemann, and Olson (2008) contended that for reading comprehension to be successful, a variety of lower- and higher-level processes and skills must be properly enlarged and ordered
Reading, R A N D Study Group (2002) defined comprehension as the process of extracting and generating meaning from written language through engagement and interaction This process, according to McNamara and Magliano (2009), takes place within a larger social context and takes into account both reader and text characteristics According to Duke (2003), comprehension is a process in which readers engage with the content to make sense of it by utilizing a combination of prior knowledge and experience, the data in the text, and their judgments about the text
Comprehension is the goal of reading McNamara (2007) stated,
“Comprehension is the interpretation of the information in the text, the use of prior knowledge to interpret this information and, ultimately, the construction of a coherent representation or picture in the reader’s mind of what the text is about” It implies that comprehension is the ability to understand and express the subject matter of the text For students to comprehend a text, they must have adequate vocabulary or a sufficient understanding of the meanings of an appropriate number of words
Snow (2002: 11) indicated that “Reading comprehension is defined as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” In order to fully understand the written text, the reader must connect words to their meanings, drawing on both prior knowledge and new information from the text Also, according to Durkin (1993), reading comprehension has evolved into the "essence of reading” Pritchard et al (1999), and
Strydom (1997) also mention that reading comprehension plays a crucial role in lifelong learning as well as academic learning across all subject areas
Davis (1994) proposed that “Comprehension skills are deemed most important by authorities in the field of reading” According to Davis, there are nine basic skills for comprehension in reading:
- The capacity to decide which meaning, given a word or phrase's specific context is suitable
- Being able to follow a passage's arrangement and recognize its antecedents and references
- Ability to identify a passage's key idea
- Ability to respond to inquiries that a text specifically answers
- The capacity to respond to inquiries that are addressed in a passage but not in the words used to pose the inquiry
- The capacity to infer information about the content of a passage from it
- Ability to assess the tone and mood of a piece and identify the literacy strategies used
- Ability to deduce information about a writer, such as their goals, intentions, and points of view
According to McNamara (2007), word reading proficiency, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge, memory, and discourse level skills such as the ability for inference, familiarity with text structure, and metacognitive abilities are some of the abilities that contribute to successful reading comprehension
2.1.4 Definition of Context Clue Strategy
The aspects of “Context Clues Strategy”
2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of “Context Clues Strategy”
The term “context clues” is used as a way of referring to the bits of information within a text that can serve as hints to help a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar or unusual word or passage In practice, context clues can be anything that aids in determining or inferring the meaning of a phrase or passage when readers are unsure of it Context clues can be found in a statement itself, the text immediately before or after it, or both
According to Denton et al (2007), Context Clues help students understand what a term might signify The text's unfamiliar words are surrounded by hints In other words, context clues are details from the text that can be used to determine the meaning of words that are unclear
Pirozzi (2000) defines that the surrounding words in a sentence are what gives a word its particular meaning So, without using a dictionary, students can use context, particularly Context Clues, to help them comprehend the meanings of unknown or new words Therefore, using Context Clues can aid students in understanding new or obscure words They can quickly understand reading content as a result
2.2.2 Types of “Context Clues Strategy”
Humes (1978) indicated that contextual clues include the use of synonyms, antonyms, explicit examples, contrasts, and restatement
Glass (2015) stated that Context Clues Strategy can be used in reading comprehension in seven different ways
Word parts: The concept is to determine a word's meaning by dissecting each component, including the base word (also known as the word stem or root word), prefixes, and suffixes Some words have a prefix only (reread), a suffix only (reading), both prefix and suffix (prereading), a combination (unreasonableness), or neither (read)
For example: The story is incredible
The root word “cred” means “to believe”, while the prefix “in” indicates “not” Therefore, if a story is incredible, it is unbelievable
Definition/explanation: The principle is to seek out a definition or an explanation within the sentence
For instance: His emaciation, that is, his skeleton-like appearance, was frightening to see
“Skeleton-like appearance” is the definition of “emaciation”
Synonym: The concept is words that are close to an unfamiliar word may serve as a clue that a synonym exists
For example: Discrimination or bias can cause distress towards the targeted group
Example: The concept is that by providing examples of unknown words, readers can better comprehend what they mean
For instance: Celestial bodies, including the sun, the moon, and the stars, have fascinated man through the centuries
“Celestial” objects are the things in the sky
Antonym/Contrast: The concept is that words and phrases like unlike, as opposed to, and different from can be used to express opposing information about an unfamiliar word
For example: Discrimination , as opposed to fairness for all people, can have damaging effects on a targeted group
“Fairness” means the opposite of “discrimination”
Analogy: The concept is that comparisons help to understand the meaning of a word
For example: Vulnerable people can be like fragile glass in need of care and attention
“Fragile glass” is compared to the state of “vulnerable” people
Appositive: The concept is to search for grammatical structures of appositives that can provide a definition, synonym, or example
For example: Discrimination , the act of showing bias to one group, can have damaging effects
“The act of showing bias” means “discrimination”
According to Innaci and Sam (2017), Context Clues Strategy is divided into four categories, including:
Definition or Restatement: The sentence in which the vocabulary first appears either defines or restates the word
For example: The arbitrator , the neutral person chosen to settle the dispute, arrived at his/ her decision
“The neutral person” is the definition of “the arbitrator”
Synonym: A similar term is used in the sentence to describe the meaning of the vocabulary
For example: The slender woman was so thin, so her clothes were too big for her
Antonym / Opposite / Contrast: The sentence uses a term with a definition that is the opposite of the vocabulary word in order to explain its meaning
For example: Unlike Jamaal’s room, which was immaculate , Bob’s room was very messy
“Immaculate” means the opposite of “messy”
Example or Explanation: The reader can derive the meaning of the vocabulary term from this type of context information by using examples
For example: Piscatorial creatures, such as flounder, salmon, and trout, live in the coldest parts of the ocean
“Piscatorial” clearly refers to fish
The researcher adopted the theory of Glass (2015) about Context Clues Strategy to the study
2.2.3 The positive and negative effects of “Context Clues Strategy” in reading class
Carnine, Kameenui, and Coyle (1984) stated that Context Clues Strategy has a lot of advantages over other strategies First of all, it does not rely on a dictionary or glossary Next, by using Context Clues Strategy, the reader's focus can stay on the text, thus decreasing the likelihood that the reading process will be interrupted Lastly, because this method is independent of previous teacher input concerning the passage being read, the reader can use it independently
According to Munthe (2017), Context Clues Strategy has certain benefits First, the reader can expand their vocabulary by using context clues to help them understand unfamiliar words Second, readers can determine how to pronounce words thanks to Context Clues Strategy Third, readers who can understand what they are reading by using Context Clues Strategy may find reading to be enjoyable
Besides, in the words of Al-Jumaily (2021), students' vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills can all be enhanced by using Context Clues Strategy
Schatz & Baldwin (1986) also stated that Context Clues Strategy should make it easier for readers to deduce the meanings of challenging or unfamiliar terms, which will speed up comprehension and eliminate the need for readers to stop reading to consult dictionaries, glossaries, or other external sources of information
The usage of Context Clues Strategy, according to Innaci & Sam (2017), also spares students from wasting time looking up unfamiliar words in dictionaries Also, it promotes students’ confidence and stimulates their critical thinking Students are not required to consult the dictionary each time they come across a new word Only by paying attention to the context in which a term is used can students choose the right definition for the situation Another advantage is that students may complete tests more quickly and simply
In contrast, Rynette & Kjesbo (2010) mentioned that the use of Context Clues Strategy has some drawbacks First, it takes more time for beginning readers It calls for more flare and inventiveness from novices Second, sometimes the context information is insufficient and causes the reader to guess incorrectly Unknown word contexts in literature are not always useful and, in certain situations, can lead students to draw erroneous conclusions about word meanings Thirdly, prior knowledge is especially important to take intelligence into account when using context clues
Innaci & Sam (2017: 67) asserted that because students lack awareness of the part of speech, it is also challenging to infer the significance of unknown terms A second possibility is that they lack the knowledge necessary to determine whether unknown words are independent nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc Additionally, students may find it challenging to employ the Context Clues Strategy if they are unsure of the connection between clauses and sentences with unknown words Because the students did not understand, they misunderstood the context of the words and committed blunders.
Previous studies
Many scholars and professionals are interested in this topic according to a review of the literature on the use of the Context Clues Strategy as a useful tool in teaching and learning reading comprehension
Context Clues Strategy was used by certain researchers to conduct their research Herinovita et al (2016) previously looked into the impact of employing the Context Clues Strategy on first-year students' reading comprehension There were 28 students in the experiment class and 33 students in the tryout class The results of the data analysis demonstrated a considerable impact of the Context Clues Strategy on reading comprehension Additionally, the results demonstrated that while students' average scores were only 71.17 on the pre-test, they increased to 84.00 on the post- test Herinovita et al (2016) recommended that teachers adopt Context Clues Strategy as a substitute method for assisting students in improving their reading comprehension
Then, Harahap (2018) conducted a research on the impact of eleventh-grade students' knowledge of Context Clues Strategy on their reading comprehension of procedural texts Before mastering the use of Context Clues Strategy, students' reading comprehension of procedure material was rated on the mean at 73.23; however, after mastering the use of Context Clues Strategy, their reading comprehension of procedure text was rated on the mean at 85.81 It is clear that students performed better on the reading comprehension test for procedural texts after mastering the use of Context Clues Strategy than they did before Besides, Harahap also suggested that the students become more engaged in their reading comprehension of procedural texts after mastering Context Clues Strategy
Apriliyanti & Pangaribuan (2018) conducted a study on the eighth students of SMP Dharma Wanita Medan The findings of the study showed that the student’s performance on the post-test had significantly improved The comparison between the pre-test mean score (47.26) and the post-test mean score demonstrated this improvement (80.33) Additionally, it is evident from their complete focus throughout the teaching and learning process that the students were interested in the Context Clues Strategy They came to the conclusion that the Context Clues Strategy was a useful tool for teaching students to read comprehension, particularly in narrative texts
The 23 eighth-grade students in Utara's earlier study (Utara, 2020) were examined for their mastery of Context Clues Strategy in reading comprehension of descriptive texts In terms of literal understanding, the pre-test mean for students was 6.73, and the post-test mean was 7.64 While the students’ average score before treatment was 4.13, it increased to 6.08 on the post-test The outcome has shown that applying Context Clues Strategy significantly increased the students' comprehension
Similarly, Indriana et al (2021) completed a survey of the eighth-grade students of SMPN 20 Sigi The results of the data analysis indicated that when it comes to literal comprehension, the Context Clues Strategy helps students' reading comprehension By comparing the experimental group's mean score before and after the treatment, it may be demonstrated It suggests that by utilizing the Context Clues Strategy, students' reading comprehension might be enhanced
In the context of Vietnam, Tran & Tran (2018) conducted a study to find out how boosting students' awareness and reading comprehension skills at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture affected the use of English reading techniques To take part in the research that would last for 10 weeks, 170 students were chosen as a sample The findings of the study showed that using Context Clues Strategy helped students' reading comprehension abilities to grow Additionally, it assisted readers in overcoming reading-related challenges and improving their comprehension of material written in foreign languages Through it, the lecturer assisted them in developing into self-sufficient learners who were capable of interpreting, integrating, critiquing, inferring, analyzing, connecting, and evaluating ideas in texts They would thus continue to improve in terms of reading comprehension
Huynh et al (2019) explored the impact of Context Clues Strategy on 80 non- majored English students at Hue University of Foreign Languages Two sets of students received a questionnaire with 30 items covering three categories of reading methods: global strategies, problem-solving strategies, and supporting strategies Results revealed that both groups utilized nearly all of the tactics They reflectively acknowledged using those strategies at a medium level, despite some disparities in the two groups' levels of English ability In order to consciously improve students' lifetime learning, reading strategy training should be given more thought by both EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers and students
In short, the studies on the advantages of the Context Clues Strategy showed some beneficial effects on students' reading comprehension More significantly, teachers and students generally consider the Context Clues Strategy as a useful tool in reading comprehension lessons
Nevertheless, studying the effectiveness of using Context Clues Strategy to enhance reading comprehension abilities for students at a particular high school has still not been done yet This may be considered a research gap for the study of this thesis The study results will provide true data for related parts so that they can have suitable adjustments to improve student’s reading comprehension abilities during English teaching and learning Hence, English academic achievements were obtained as expected.
Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework of the study
The teaching graph that will be offered to students can be seen from the study of the conceptual framework presented above Students' prior knowledge from the old method will be processed with the new connection analysis, which will be processed through several stages of Context Clues Strategy This new output of student reading comprehension and their capacity for very clear analysis will allow them to be more aware when reading conditions in text The utilization of Context Clues Strategy to infer the meaning of words and the development of reading comprehension for students at Vo Thi Sau High School are thought to be positively correlated.
Summary
This chapter has presented some concepts of reading comprehension and the theory of Context Clues Strategy Moreover, it gives some effects of Context Clues Strategy on reading comprehension, which were studied by previous studies In Student’s previous knowledge
The student’s achievement in learning reading comprehension addition, previous studies have been mentioned The conceptual framework is provided at the end of the chapter.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Aims and research questions
This study aims at investigating the teaching and learning of reading comprehension through Context Clues Strategy for grade 11 at Vo Thi Sau High School in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province The objectives of this study are as follows:
- To investigate teaching and studying of reading comprehension skill for the grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School;
- To find out what Context Clues Strategy teachers and students use during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill;
- To explore the attitudes of teachers and students to Context Clues Strategy used during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill;
- To check whether Context Clues Strategy used can help students to improve their reading comprehension skill;
- To suggest solutions to employ Context Clues Strategy successfully and effectively for teachers and students during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill
To achieve these required aims, the following research questions were formulated:
RQ1 What Context Clues Strategy do teachers and students use when teaching and studying reading comprehension skill?
RQ2 What are the attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of Context Clues Strategy when teaching and studying reading comprehension skill?
RQ3 How effective does Context Clues Strategy used help students to improve their reading comprehension skill?
Research design and participants
This study used a control group and an experimental group in a quasi- experimental design Context Clues Strategy was introduced to the experimental group during instruction, but it was not introduced to the control group The goal of the study was to examine how the Context Clues Strategy affected students' reading comprehension Each member of the experimental group and the control group took a pre-test and a post-test The study also employed a quantitative research method by using a questionnaire Additionally, it used a qualitative research methodology by using interviews
To make the research aims clearer, the researcher intended to blend quantitative and qualitative methods The quantitative data about the student's perceptions of the enhancement of the Context Clues Strategy in reading comprehension was cross-checked with the qualitative portion of the study To aid in the comprehension and interpretation of the findings, the qualitative data from the interview were used in the context of the current study after the quantitative data from the pre-test and post-test In every research or series of research, data are acquired and reviewed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative forms to identify a study issue, according to Creswell & Clark (2011)
The results offer a better understanding of a study topic thanks to the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods instead of using only one of the approach ways (the qualitative or quantitative method) As a result, the research method can be quickly represented and declared; it may be useful if a previous study comes to an unexpected conclusion; the qualitative evidence can be more easily generalized; creating and certifying an instrument is also made easier; and the research can be posted in a different model
The study was conducted at Vo Thi Sau High School in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province This study mainly found out what Context Clues Strategy teachers and students use during teaching and learning reading comprehension skill; and focused on investigating the effectiveness of used Context Clues Strategy in improving the reading comprehension of students at Vo Thi Sau High School
There were 75 students from classes 11A5 and 11A6 of the school year 2022-
2023 (the experimental group) taking part in the research of 6 weeks They were asked to do a pre-test, a post-test, and complete a questionnaire Also, five students among them were chosen to complete a semi-structured interview 75 students from classes 11A3 and 11A4 were in the control group The control group learned reading comprehension without knowledge about Context Clues Strategy The experimental group was introduced to Context Clues Strategy during their reading comprehension learning In addition, five teachers who were in charge of teaching English for grade
11 at Vo Thi Sau High School were invited for semi-structured interviews
Gender: In the experimental group, there were 25 male students and 50 female students respectively, making up 33.33% and 66.67% of the total enrollment The gender numbers show a small variance The fact that there were more girls than boys was undeniable
Age: The age of participants was 16 to 17 years old
Three instruments were used to gather data: tests (pre-test & post-test), a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews
There were 25 multiple-choice questions in the pre-test The pre-test questions were based on the website https://eslgold.com/practice-reading/short-articles/
The researcher chose this website because it has a similar format to the exam questions for the 11th grade Moreover, it is also a prestigious website that has been used by a lot of teachers in Vietnam recently The test time lasted for 30 minutes
After using the Context Clues Strategy to develop reading comprehension, the post-test was used in the current study to measure how the students' reading comprehension abilities had changed The testing period was 30 minutes long After the experiment, both the experimental group and the control group received the post- test The pre-test's design was similar to the post-test There were 25 multiple-choice questions on the post-test Besides, the post-test’s level was equivalent to that of the pre-test Therefore, the results of the pre-test and the post-test were reliable The scores of the participants were based on the table below:
Table 3.1 Students’ scores and classification in the pre-test and the post-test
To measure the students' attitudes towards the application of Context Clues Strategy, a questionnaire was used as one of the research tools The researcher utilized closed-ended questions because, as noted by Oppenheim (2000), they are useful for testing specific hypotheses, saving time and money, processing data quickly, and making it simple to compare data from different groups Ten questions were included in the questionnaire's design The questions from 1 to 5 asked students to provide general information about themselves, including why they were learning English and their prior experiences with the language From questions 6 to 9, students had the opportunity to discuss their English language proficiency and their opinions of Context Clues Strategy for enhancing reading comprehension
Particularly, in question 10, students were asked to complete 17 items, in which a Likert scale was used to assess their attitudes towards the Context Clues Strategy The responses include '5' for Totally Agree (TA), '4' for Agree (A), '3' for
No Idea (NI), '2' for Disagree (D), and '1' for Totally Disagree (TD) The questionnaire was also translated into Vietnamese to make it simple for students to answer and to prevent misunderstandings and gather the best findings
In this research, a semi-structured interview was chosen to check the participants’ attitudes towards using Context Clues Strategy in learning reading skills According to Guion, Diehl, and McDonald (2011), the characteristic of a semi- structured interview is to interview an individual to collect the details of information except for beginning responses In addition, a semi-structured interview was also conducted to greatly pay attention to probing responses
The interview questions followed the format of open-ended format and relied on the enhancement of the English learners in English reading skills and their attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in learning reading skills In this study, five questions were created In the semi-structured interviews, five students who had been chosen randomly from the sample pool would take part
The researcher used the semi-structured interview procedure described by Bryman and Teevan (2005) Firstly, the researcher logically arranged these questions Secondly, the words and sentences used in the interview were made understandable Thirdly, the researcher recorded the information from the interview to ensure successful interpretation
The interview included five questions related to the application of Context Clues Strategy in improving the participants’ English reading comprehension skills and their attitudes towards using Context Clues Strategy in studying reading skills
Data collection instruments
The questionnaire, which was developed from earlier studies by Bushisso (2019), was used to determine students' attitudes towards Context Clues Strategy at
Vo Thi Sau High School It was composed of 17 items on a five-point Likert scale from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree
To evaluate the data, the following criteria in the Likert type scale were used: Strongly
For the respondents to understand the questions, the questionnaire was also translated into Vietnamese The validity and reliability of this 17-item questionnaire were tested on 15 students in grade 11 who were also taking part in the current study SPSS (20.0) was used to analyze the respondents' scores Cronbach Alpha for questionnaire was 0.859, which demonstrated its high level of dependability
There were interviews with 5 teachers who were teaching grade 11 at Vo Thi Sau High School At the beginning of the interview, the teachers were asked if it was possible for the interview to be recorded During the interview, all interviewees said that it was all right and they had no objections to the interview being recorded The questions used to ask the teachers dealt with their opinions of Context Clues Strategy and the way it was used in their reading classroom The interviews lasted between 20 and 40 minutes The researcher conducted a pilot interview in advance of these interviews as well The pilot interview resulted in the deletion of some of the questions; others were rephrased, and some new questions were added
3.3.3 The pre-test and the post-test
To guarantee an equal level, on the first week of the trial, both the control group and the experimental group were required to complete the 30-minute pre-test The post-test in the sixth week then took 30 minutes for each group to complete There were 25 questions on the pre-test and post-test Furthermore, the researcher designed both tests in a similar format so that the participants could understand them clearly The scores of the respondents were examined by using SPSS (20.0) Both pre-test and post-test were strictly monitored to ensure the reliable data collected.
Data collection procedures
Before starting the study, the researcher would use the pilot test to assess the experiment's dependability Specifically, the pre-test would be piloted by two other teachers and ten students from a different class who would not then take part in the test Based on the pilot results, the researcher would conduct an official experiment Two groups took the pre-test to ensure the same level on the first week of the study The test time lasted 30 minutes From the second week to the sixth week, the researcher experimented on both of the two groups Accordingly, the experimental group was treated through Context Clues Strategy whilst the control group was not treated through Context Clues Strategy Specifically, the lesson plans for the control group and the experimental group had the same contents in terms of description of the class, time to be allowed, objectives, assumption, and anticipation of problems The only difference between these two groups was that the teacher used Context Clues Strategy to teach reading skills to the experiment students, but the control group was not taught through this strategy
The post-test in the sixth week was completed by each group in 30 minutes Five members of the experimental group then took part in the semi-structured interview The researcher used SPSS software (20.0) to calculate the test results
The table below specifically shows the procedure of the experimental class:
Table 3.2 Procedures of the Experiment
First week Pretest on reading comprehension Both two groups 30’ Second week to fifth week
Teaching reading comprehension with Context Clues Strategy
Teaching reading comprehension without Context Clues Strategy
Posttest on reading comprehension Two groups 30’ Semi-structured interview Experimental group
First, the researcher collected feedback from 5 students who completed the pilot questionnaire They were asked about the clarity of the questions, the appropriateness of the response options, and any difficulties they encountered while completing the questionnaire Based on the feedback, the researcher made appropriate modifications to improve the questionnaire's quality Next, the researcher provided clear instructions to the 75 students of the experimental group about the purpose of the questionnaire They were asked to complete the questionnaire in 15 minutes to check their attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy Lastly, by using SPSS (20.0) to analyze the questionnaire responses, the researcher gained valuable insights into the students' attitudes and perceptions regarding Context Clues Strategy
The semi-structured interview included five grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School Firstly, the researcher used one day to conduct semi-structured interviews with five experimental group students In order to make the participants feel relaxed and comfortable, the researcher described the goals of the study and the interviewing process to the participants clearly
Besides, the researcher also used several warm-up questions to increase their engagement at the beginning of the selected interview To cross-check the quantitative data, a semi-structured interview was performed The researcher used about 15 minutes to interview each participant To make the interview effective, the researcher invited them to come to a quiet room so they could avoid noise and disruptions In addition, the researcher was constantly eager and willing to explain anything related to the interview questions All of the responses were recorded carefully.
Data analysis procedures
After collecting test scores from the pre-test and the post-test, the researcher used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (20.0) to analyze the data
In order to check the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy on improving the students’ reading comprehension before treating with Context Clues Strategy and after treating with this strategy, descriptive statistics in terms of mean scores and standard deviation were adopted The researcher continuously employed the Pair samples test to assess the data The goal of employing these strategies was to analyze the mean scores of each group both before and after using Context Clues Strategy
After gathering the questionnaire data containing the students' responses about their attitudes towards Context Clues Strategy, the researcher began by computing descriptive statistics to get an overview of the data Because the questionnaire includes a Likert-type scale to measure attitudes, the researcher assessed the reliability of the scale by Cronbach's alpha of SPSS (20.0) This helped determine if the questions used to measure attitudes were internally consistent The answers from the experimental group are displayed in the table below:
Table 3.3 Answers to the Questionnaire of the Experiment Group
Item Totally Disagree Disagree No Idea Agree Totally Agree
This type of interview involved five students, whose responses were translated and transcribed Based on the variables of the study, the researcher organized qualitative data into different themes before coding and analyzing it Also, the researcher would use a content analysis approach to analyze the interviewee’s responses The content analysis approach included three steps such as familiarizing and organizing, coding and recoding, and summarizing and interpreting Five different students were assigned the codes S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5.
Reliability and validity of the study
According to Khosla (2021), reliability is related to the level of agreements or regularity of a tool, including substantiality, internal uniformity, and correspondence The researcher used pilot tests to assure the validity and reliability of the tests and the semi-structured interview for the current study In the view of Bordens and Abbott (2014), pilot tests may be useful for making clear guidance, verifying the appropriateness of the independent variables, and confirming the reliability and validity of the observational methods
After making the pilot for the students, the researcher considered and required some necessary changes in the tests and interviews In addition, the researcher’s supervisor and her experienced colleagues also checked and corrected the tests and the interview In order to assess the validity of the pre-test and post-test, the researcher also calculated Cronbach's Alpha coefficient index The Cronbach’s Alpha was collected from the results analyzed by using SPSS 20.0 Johnson and Christensen (2012) determined that the pre-test and post-test were reliable if the coefficient of
Cronbach's Alpha was 0.70 or above Therefore, all question coefficients below 0.70 would be disregarded The researcher, English teachers, and the head of the English group verified all contents, information collected from literature, and interviews to make sure reliability of the research
Table 3.4 Cronbach’s Alpha of the pre-test and the post-test
Instruments Cronbach’s Alpha Number of items
Table 3.3 shows the Cronbach's Alpha of the pre-test and post-test of the research The results indicated that Cronbach’s Alpha of the pre-test and the post-test were 0.745 and 0.812 respectively, which indicated higher than 0.70 As a result, the pre-test and the post-test of the research are reliable.
Summary
This chapter emphasizes the methodology of the study The research design and research site were described clearly Moreover, more details about the research participants were mentioned, such as gender and age Additionally, the research instruments consisting of a pre-test and a post-test, a questionnaire, and an interview were conducted in a semi-structured format In the two last parts of this chapter, the way that data were collected and analyzed was introduced in detail The following chapter shows all the results derived from these forms.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Results
4.1.1 The types of Context Clues Strategy that teachers and students use
This part shows the types of Context Clues Strategy the teachers and students usually use during teaching and learning reading comprehension Most of the teachers said that their students found it difficult to learn reading comprehension, so they usually used Context Clues Strategy to help their students improve it The result indicated that there were some Context Clues Strategies being used including antonym, synonym, definition, example, word part, and analogy
Most of the teachers confirmed that Context Clues Strategy that they used in teaching students reading comprehension helped them engage greatly in the reading lessons Through that, students’ learning motivation was enhanced so much As a result, their reading comprehension abilities were improved significantly Therefore, it can be sure that the Context Clues Strategies being used by teachers including antonym, synonym, definition, example, word part, and analogy can help students at
Vo Thi Sau High School improve their reading comprehension abilities in a great deal
Here are the teachers’ statements
“…I often apply techniques such as antonym, synonym, and explanation, etc I must say that Context Clues Strategy helps my students a lot in reading comprehension…” (T1)
“…Some techniques that I have been using in my class include definition, examples, antonym, synonym, word parts, etc…” (T2)
“…To teach students reading comprehension, I frequently employ the Context Clues Strategy Some examples include word part, synonym, antonym, and analogy…” (T3)
There were 75 students from the experimental group answering the questionnaire They would express their opinions about the types of Context Clues Strategy they found it easy to use 39 students (20,1%) chose definition or explanation; 42 students (21,65%) chose synonym and antonym; 31 students (15,98%) chose word part; 38 students (19,59%) chose example; 27 students (13,92%) chose analogy; and 17 students (8,67%) chose appositive
Figure 4.1 The types of Context Clues Strategy Students use
By analyzing the statistics of the questionnaire, the researcher found that students had an interest in using synonym & antonym, definition/explanation, and examples, which is similar to the teachers’ opinions
4.1.2 The students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy
This section will present the attitudes of the students and the teachers towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in the acquisition of English reading comprehension The results were collected from interviews with five random students of the experimental group and five teachers who are teaching English in grade 11 The results indicated that the students had positive attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in learning reading skills The teachers, in addition, agreed that using Context Clues Strategy helped their students overcome difficulties in reading comprehension classes The results below were the answers to the second research question
4.1.2.1 The students’ attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy
The qualitative result from the interviews with the students presented that Context Clues Strategy is helpful in facilitating their reading comprehension The majority of the students agreed that after the treatment, their reading comprehension had improved They were more active and motivated to engage in reading lessons When students looked at the new words, they attempted to determine what kind of strategy they could employ to guess those words, such as synonyms, antonyms, definitions, analogies, etc Then, they could infer the words' meanings and comprehend the content of the reading text
To prove the statement that the students had positive attitudes towards Context Clues Strategy which has facilitated their reading comprehension, the students’ voices are as follows:
“… In my opinion, reading comprehension skill is vital not only for my studying but also for my work in the future When I go to work, I will have to read a lot of English materials As a result, if I master this skill, I can understand them and do my work better Also, Context Clues Strategy is helpful for me English vocabulary is enormous and not easy to learn, so I can use Context Clues Strategy to guess the meaning of new words quickly and easily It helps me to expand my vocabulary ” (S2)
“…I think reading comprehension is really necessary in learning English At schools, it will help students do the tests better and get higher marks Besides, in daily life, it makes us understand English materials more clearly and exactly As for Context Clues Strategy, it is also useful Before I learned it, I used to guess the meaning of the new words by instinct However, at present, after I learned Context Clues Strategy, I feel that it is not difficult and easy to remember As a result, I can acquire it better and improve my vocabulary ” (S3)
The semi-structured interview with the students also showed that Context Clues Strategy can have a beneficial emotional impact on the students The students’ feelings were shown in their interest in learning reading comprehension They are active, enthusiastic, confident, and fun to complete reading tasks They are encouraged to participate in the reading lessons Before implementing Context Clues Strategy in learning reading skills, the students lacked motivation, confidence, etc to take part in the reading lessons They claimed that they usually felt stressed, bored, or afraid whenever learning reading skills Because they did not comprehend the reading content, they were terrified of having to respond to questions in it In the reading lessons, several students were reluctant to share their responses They did not pay attention during the class either As a result, their reading scores on the pre-test were very low Nevertheless, after the treatment of Context Clues Strategy, their reading scores were positively improved Now, their test results were better; therefore, they had pleasant emotions The majority of interviewees expressed their positive feelings towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in learning reading lessons They were eager, engaged, and confident enough to participate in classes Students may complete tests more quickly and simply Also, it helps students stimulate their critical thinking The following citations are some examples of student statements
“… I feel more interested when using Context Clues Strategy to learn reading Now
I can apply the knowledge of this strategy to infer the new words and the reading texts It makes me feel joyful…” (S1)
“…I used to be sad when reading texts because I did not know the meaning of the difficult words and I did not do the test well However, after learning Context Clues Strategy, I feel it fun because I can understand more new words and I also do the tests better ” (S2)
“…Actually, my English was very bad At home, I can use the dictionary to check every new word However, at school, I must not look at the dictionary, so I feel embarrassed when I cannot answer the teacher’s questions in reading lessons correctly Now I know Context Clues Strategy and I think I can use it to help me understand more new words and do the reading text better, which makes me feel more confident ” (S4)
Last but not least, most students agreed that Context Clues Strategy had a beneficial impact on their behavioral intentions or actions Students could think actively and eagerly in the process of reading Because reading activity emphasizes comprehension, students’ critical thinking abilities become a crucial component that cannot be ignored When students actively participate in a procedure that requires them to apply critical thinking to collect, interpret, and evaluate what type of Context Clues Strategy is suitable for each situation to make a decision about the meaning of the new words, they can develop critical thinking skills
These interviewees presented their opinions to express their attitudes as below:
“…Before learning Context Clues Strategy, I just chose the answers randomly However, at present, I can use what I have learned about Context Clues Strategy, then I try to choose a suitable type of strategy to guess the meaning of the words It makes me deduce a lot from the context to find out the results…” (S2)
“…I can have self-study to expand my vocabulary more actively I also find out more information I need by myself…” (S3)
4.1.2.2 The teachers’ attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy
Most of the teachers agreed that Context Clues Strategy was useful for the students to develop reading comprehension skill Nevertheless, a teacher mentioned that Context Clues Strategy was only helpful for advanced students because low-level students could not use it effectively
Here are some of the teachers’ statements
“…When the students are in the exam room, they are not allowed to use the dictionary, so if they can implement Context Clues Strategy, they will guess the meaning of the words and complete the exercises effectively…” (T1)
Discussions
This section is to discuss the effects of Context Clues Strategy on reading comprehension; and the students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the effects of Context Clues Strategy in learning and teaching English reading comprehension
In this study, the results of the pre-test revealed that both groups had the same issue Both groups had quite low knowledge of reading comprehension before participating in the experiment The mean score for both groups was lower than 5.00 and few students passed the pre-test The majority of students had trouble deducing the meaning of the unfamiliar words and understanding the content of the text It was difficult for the students to infer new words from the text Therefore, they were unable to achieve better results on their pre-test
After finishing the pre-test, both groups took part in the treatment The experimental group was taught to learn reading comprehension with Context Clues Strategy Nevertheless, the control group did not have any knowledge about Context Clues Strategy
During the treatment, the researcher discovered numerous problems The students were noisy because they were given time to do the task independently Also, even when they were familiar with the meaning of the words, some students would copy their classmates' work However, the most difficult was that some poor students lacked the basic knowledge to identify whether unknown words were independent nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc They chose the wrong definitions for the challenging terms because they guessed the meaning of the words incorrectly based on the context To lessen the drawbacks of this study, the researcher actively participated in the classroom by examining the assignment of each student It was done to stop the students from copying their friends’ answers and make them more attentive to their tasks
After the treatment, the mean scores of the post-test of the control group and the experimental group were higher than that of their pre-test Additionally, the post- test mean score for the experimental group is noticeably higher than the post-test mean score for the control group The post-test mean difference for both groups is
MD = 2.29 And the sig value is 0.000 It is undeniable that the student’s reading comprehension has been improved In other words, the Vo Thi Sau High School students in the eleventh grade can increase their reading comprehension by employing Context Clues Strategy
The result from the semi-structured revealed that most students felt that Context Clues Strategy had a favorable impact on their ability to understand what they were reading When reading a text, they could predict the meaning of unfamiliar words and make inferences about the text This shares the same results with previous studies such as Herinovita et al., (2016), Harahap, (2018); Apriliyanti & Pangaribuan, (2018); Utara (2020) According to Apriliyanti & Pangaribuan (2018), the use of context clues strategy can help students enhance reading comprehension The application of the Context Clues Strategy leads to an improvement in the students' reading comprehension performance on narrative texts from the pre-test to the post- test The rise in the students' overall mean score is 47.26 on the pre-test, 69.8 on the formative exam, and 80.33 on the post-test
Additionally, the results from the students’ interviews suggested that they had positive attitudes towards the application of Context Clues Strategy on their behavioral intentions or actions With Context Clues Strategy, students could deduce the meaning of challenging words quickly and actively participate in the reading process It could also help students develop their critical thinking skills Previous research, such as, have found similar results (Tran & Tran, 2018; Huynh et al., 2019) Tran & Tran (2018) stated that through Context Clues Strategy, teachers help students become independent learners who are able to interpret, integrate, critique, infer, analyze, connect, and evaluate ideas in texts, thereby, their reading comprehension will continue to grow
Last but not least, the results of the teachers’ interviews showed that it was very useful to teach Context Clues Strategy to students It would bring a lot of benefits for them When the teachers used a lot of time to arouse the students’ interest and teach suitable strategies for their levels, it would make students feel more confident in reading Also, the interest in learning reading comprehension and critical thinking was created This study's findings align with that of Indriana et al.’s (2021) study in that teachers taught students Context Clues Strategy by utilizing simple examples before moving on to more complex ones and giving them more time to practice.
Summary
This chapter presents all the results of the research The data of the pre-test and the post-test, the attitudes of the teachers and students were described and analyzed clearly Moreover, more detail about the comparative results of mean scores in the pre-test and the post-test was mentioned Additionally, a chart of the participants’ reading comprehension in the pre-test and the post-test was drawn The result of research instruments consisting of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with the students and teachers were shown to discover their positive attitudes towards Context Clues Strategy The study results are also discussed and linked to the research results of the previous studies.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter begins with a description of the results of the study on how the Context Clues Strategy affected the reading comprehension skill of grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School The topic of how to increase students' reading skills is then briefly covered Finally, the researcher showed some limitations of the study and made some recommendations for further research.
Summary of the main findings of the study
This study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of using Context Clues Strategy in improving reading comprehension of students and suggest solutions to employ Context Clues Strategy successfully and effectively for teachers and students while learning reading comprehension skill In order to collect data, the researcher used quantitative data from the pre-test, post-test, questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews The overall results from data collection have answered three research questions of the research
5.2.1 The types of Context Clues Strategy teachers and students use
Overall, according to the results of the study, teachers and students in grade
11 at Vo Thi Sau High School appreciate several of Context Clues Strategy such as antonym, synonym, definition, example, word part, and analogy They found it accessible and appropriate to use them
5.2.2 The attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of Context Clues Strategy
The results from the interviews and the questionnaire also revealed that both the students and the teachers had positive attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in teaching and learning reading comprehension Moreover, the teachers suggested some efficient solutions to make Context Clues Strategy more approachable; for instance, teachers should explain the advantages of Context Clues Strategy, teach suitable examples for their levels, or give them more time to practice in every reading class
5.2.3 The effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy on improving students’ reading comprehension skill
According to the results of the study, students can improve their reading comprehension by employing Context Clues Strategy This statement was proved by the better performance in the post-test of the experiment group compared to the performance of the control group Namely, students’ reading comprehension skill has been improved after being treated with Context Clues Strategy They also discovered how crucial the Context Clues Strategy was to their improvement of reading learning Moreover, some students were convinced that applying the Context Clues Strategy would improve their ability to understand reading texts better Besides, relating to reading comprehension, Context Clues Strategy could support them in finding out the meaning of the challenging words, and infering information from the reading texts
As a result, employing Context Clues Strategy can help increase students' interest in learning to read.
Implications of the study
The results of this study have implications for students, teachers, and administrators of the English language
For students, the most important thing to consider is that they should practice applying Context Clues Strategy continually and frequently to ensure a successful application If students want to remember word meanings that they infer from context, intense practice in the form of numerous appearances to challenging words is especially crucial (Jenkins & Dixon, 1983) They also should attentively listen to the teacher's instructions on how to use this strategy so that they can develop it correctly and enjoy utilizing it Furthermore, they need to be patient when using this strategy because it makes them think and deduce a lot Next, students should cooperate and interact with their classmates and teachers in order to share their problems, experiences, or viewpoints during the learning process Lastly, students should keep practicing inferring word meanings using Context Clues Strategy at home through extensive reading Students should always use this strategy both inside and outside of the classroom to boost their reading development Certainly, if students can take advantage of using Context Clues Strategy, it will become a helpful self-learning method for them
For teachers, first of all, they should persuade students that reading comprehension is not difficult to learn although some reading texts are rather long
In addition, teachers should take time to explain the advantages of using Context Clues Strategy to their students so that they can understand its significance in the reading learning process and develop positive attitudes and motivation for Context Clues Strategy Second, to keep students’ interest, teachers should teach Context Clues Strategy at an easy level and in simple contexts at the beginning After that, teachers can increase the advanced level gradually so that students understand it clearly, apply it to each situation, and find the correct answers During the teaching process, teachers should also provide students the chance to practice this strategy intensively in reading tasks Teachers should remember that “feedback in the form of model answers can be effective” (Carnine, Kameenui, and Coyle, 1984), so teachers should give corrective feedback promptly and efficiently Finally, since some Context Clues Strategy exercises may be difficult for low-level students, teachers should encourage students by having them practice this method in pairs or groups This will increase the students’ enthusiasm for applying this strategy
For administration, the government and school administration may take into consideration conducting training to acquaint teachers with the Context Clues Strategy to maximize the quality of teaching and learning.
Limitations of the study
There are several limitations that can not be avoided in this study
First of all, the size of the data was rather small With the participation of 150 students, the data was not large enough Besides, the research was only conducted over six weeks The results of the study might be more generalized if the sample size is bigger and the participants are from different levels Also, because this research was restricted to grade 11 students at Vo Thi Sau High School, its results cannot be considered to be an example for all Vietnamese students
Second, because of the lack of treatment time, the usage of Context Clues Strategy could not be taught more specifically, and students did not have enough time to practice each type intensively As a result, some low-level students could not use Context Clues Strategy effectively
Finally, in an effort to use words that students would not have in their reading, speaking, or listening vocabularies, the researcher designed the present passages which were sometimes different from usual classroom materials This limits the generalization of this study's results to classroom materials.
Recommendations for further studies
It is strongly suggested that further studies should overcome all the limitations which were mentioned above
Firstly, other researchers should expand their studies over a longer period of time, with more participants from different levels, in different contexts, such as elementary, secondary, college, or university contexts
Next, this study only emphasizes the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy on reading comprehension skills, so the researcher hopes that the impact of the Context Clues Strategy on other skills like grammar, writing, speaking, listening, and vocabulary retention may be the subject of other future studies
Lastly, future research should create passages with vocabulary and structure that have a closer relation to classroom materials In addition, students that are weak in English should be taken into consideration when designing future studies
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APPENDIX B SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS
Thank you for your completion of the consent form and your willingness to participate in the interview which is expected to last between 10 minutes and 15 minutes During the interview, you will answer some questions, and you may wish to stop the interview at any time The purpose of this interview is to gain a better understanding of your attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in learning reading comprehension With your permission, the interview will be audio-recorded All information you share is treated confidentially and anonymously Do you have any questions before we start the interview? If not, we are about to start now
Number of interviewees: Name: Class: _ How long have you been learning English? _ Ever been abroad: _ What country / countries: _
1 In your opinion, how important reading comprehension skill is in English acquisition? Explain why?
2 Do you think that Context Clues Strategy is useful? How beneficial it is to improve your reading comprehension?
3 How does Context Clues Strategy facilitate learners’ reading comprehension?
4 How does Context Clues Strategy positively affect learners’ feelings?
5 How does Context Clues Strategy positively affect learners’ behavioral intentions/actions?
The purpose of the questionnaire is to discover the use and attitude of using Context Clues Strategy in reading comprehension Your answers will be used for research only Thank you for your cooperation
3 How long have you been teaching English?
PART B: USING OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY IN READING
1 Is it difficult for your students to learn reading comprehension?
2 Have you ever used Context Clues Strategy to help your students learn reading comprehension? What type of Context Clues Strategy did you use to teach reading comprehension skill?
3 To what extent does the use of Context Clues Strategy help to improve reading comprehension skill of students?
4 What do you like about the Context Clues Strategy?
5 What do you dislike about the Context Clues Strategy?
6 What is the most challenging aspect when you encourage your students to use Context Clues Strategy in reading class?
7 What suggestions would you like to make for the improvement of the Context Clues Strategy in order to make it more effective and relevant to students’ needs? Thank you very much for your time and participation
APPENDIX C THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS
Thank you for your willingness to answer the questionnaire which is expected to last between 10 minutes and 15 minutes You will answer some questions relating to learning English The purpose of this questionnaire is to gain a better understanding of your attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy in learning reading comprehension All information you share is treated confidentially and anonymously
1 Why are you learning English? Tick (✓ ) more than one option if applicable a ( ) because it is a subject that I must study at school b ( ) because I like to talk to people from other cultures c ( ) because I need it in order to pass my course/degree d ( ) because I will need it to open up better job opportunities e ( ) because I want to know what appears in video games f ( ) because it is fun! g ( ) because it will help me to be a famous gamer h ( ) because I can easily travel anywhere in the world i ( ) because I want to study/live in an English-speaking country j ( ) because I want to watch English movies and listen to English music k ( ) because it will make me a better-educated person l ( ) because it helps me make new friends on the Internet m ( ) because it is a global language to study all over the world n ( ) because it can improve my confidence o ( ) because it will help me to read English books/magazines/newspapers p (Others) please specify
2 How long have you learned English? Tick (✓ ) a suitable option
Below 2 years 3 years – 6 years 7 years - 9 years Over 9 years
3 How much do you enjoy studying English at school?
Very much Quite much Not very much Not at all
4 How important do you think these skills are in your learning English at the school?
Skills Very important Quite important Not very important
Not important at all Listening
5 How important is reading comprehension skill for your learning English at school?
Very important Quite important Not very important
6 Please rate each SKILL/AREA below TWO TIMES First, rate your current ability in each skill/area, and THEN indicate to what extent the Context Clues Strategy had helped you in improving the skill/area Please put a tick (✓) in the box that best expresses your opinion
My current ability in this skill/area is:
Skills / Areas The help of the Context Clues
Strategy in improving this skill/area was:
Excelle nt Very good Good Satisfact ory Poor Very poor Very helpful Somew hat Not very helpful Not helpful at all
Speaking Listening Writing Reading Grammar General Vocabulary Pronunciation English overall
7 What language skill do you think the Context Clues Strategy you studied at the school improved most? Please choose one
8 To what extent, do you think, in general, that the currently used lessons in teaching the Context Clues Strategy are appropriate to your needs?
Very appropriate Quite appropriate Not very appropriate
9 How would you evaluate the Context Clues Strategy for improving your reading comprehension? Please put a tick (✓) under the box that best expresses your opinion
Very effective Quite effective Not very effective Not effective at all
10 Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with the following statements:
1 When I learn reading comprehension, I enjoy using
Strategy to learn vocabulary, it is more exciting and enjoyable
Strategy in reading classes, I feel more confident
4 It is advantageous to learn reading comprehension with
5 This Context Clues Strategy motivates me to read more
6 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown definition/explanation
7 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown synonym and antonym
8 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown word parts
9 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown examples
10 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown analogy
11 I was able to learn vocabulary better when I was shown appositive
12 I was able to have a wider range of vocabulary activities using Context Clues Strategy
13 Using Context Clues Strategy to test my vocabulary was interesting
14 Using Context Clues Strategy helped me learn more vocabulary effectively at school
15 Using Context Clues Strategy helped me learn more vocabulary effectively outside of my textbooks
16 Using Context Clues Strategy helped me do tests at school better
17 Using Context Clues Strategy helped me understand and read texts more quickly
Item Totally Disagree Disagree No Idea Agree Totally Agree
APPENDIX D STUDENTS’ ANSWERS FROM THE SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
Question 1: In your opinion, how important is reading comprehension skill in English acquisition? Explain why?
Student 1 Reading comprehension skill is very important because it helps me do exercise and tests at school and I also need it in daily life when I read English books sometimes
Student 2 In my opinion, reading comprehension skill is vital not only for my studying but also for my work in the future When I go to work, I will have to read a lot of English materials As a result, if I master this skill, I can understand them and do my work better
Student 3 I think reading comprehension is really necessary for learning
English At schools, it will help students do the tests better and get higher marks Besides, in daily life, it makes us understand English materials more clearly and exactly
Student 4 Reading comprehension is essential for me because it makes me understand the content of the sentence and the passage
Student 5 To me, reading comprehension is a very important skill to acquire because it helps me to understand the content of the reading texts Also, it can enhance my memorization
Question 2: Do you think that Context Clues Strategy is useful? How beneficial would it be to improve your reading comprehension?
Student 1 To me, Context Clues Strategy is very useful It improves my vocabulary and it helps me guess the meaning of the new words that I do not know
Student 2 Context Clues Strategy is helpful for me English vocabulary is enormous and not easy to learn, so I can use Context Clues Strategy to guess the meaning of new words quickly and easily It helps me to expand my vocabulary
Student 3 As for Context Clues Strategy, it is also useful Before I learned it,
I used to guess the meaning of the new words by instinct However, at present, after I learn Context Clues Strategy, I feel that it is not difficult and easy to remember As a result, I can acquire it better and improve my vocabulary
Student 4 Context Clues Strategy is beneficial in many ways I can guess the meaning of the words, so I understand the sentences and find more correct answers
Student 5 Context Clues Strategy is very useful First, it helps me to mitigate the linguistic barrier I am not afraid of reading texts anymore because now I can guess the meaning of new words, I understand the content of the reading text and I can do it better Second, I feel more active in learning reading comprehension
Question 3: How does Context Clues Strategy facilitate learners’ reading comprehension?
Student 1 When I see new words in the sentence or in the text, I apply what I have learned about Context Clues Strategy, and I try to guess the meaning of them
Student 2 Actually, my vocabulary is not really good Now Context Clues
Strategy aids me to infer unfamiliar words, so I understand the content of the texts better
Student 3 There are always a lot of unknown words in a reading passage I can employ Context Clues Strategy to guess the meaning of them and comprehend the content of the texts
Student 4 When using Context Clues Strategy in reading, I think that I can do the tests better
Student 5 I guess the meaning of the new words at first Then I try to understand the content of the passage After that, I began to do the whole exercise
Question 4: How does Context Clues Strategy positively affect learners’ feelings?