ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP ĐỌC SQ3R ĐỂ TĂNG KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC VIÊN NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI MỘT TRUNG TÂM ANH NGỮ TẠI HÀ NỘI
Rationale for the study
Currently, globalization has made the world more connected, and as a result, the need for studying abroad and learning foreign languages has increases Thus, the requirement of teaching and learning English has become a trend all over the country, and the English language is a compulsory subject in many Vietnamese schools Therefore, many students who want to improve their English proficiency choose to learn at English centers Among the four English necessary skills, reading is one of the most necessary skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) that students have to handle to achieve certain language proficiency According to Carnell (as cited in Duong Thi Huyen & Phạm Thi Thanh, 2022, p.81), “For many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language.” Plus, reading is a means for students to gain knowledge; hence, this skill is focused on English lessons
From my experience as a teacher of English, the students at an English center in Hanoi have troubles with reading comprehension, though they acknowledge the importance and urgency of reading skills Reading takes them a lot of time to finish a reading task, and they feel bored as well as inattentive while reading Though the skimming technique is used, in some cases, the students still cannot grasp the main idea of the whole text
In order to improve students’ reading skills, I planned to apply the SQ3R reading method, a new method to understand the texts better and get higher performance in the reading part Therefore, the question needed to be answered about whether this new reading method helps students work more efficiently with reading tasks
Aim and objectives of the research
The research aimed at improving English reading comprehension skills of the students at an English center in Hanoi through the use of the SQ3R method
The objectives of the research were as follows:
Finding out the effectiveness of applying the SQ3R method in improving reading skills for these students
Exploring the students’ attitudes towards the SQ3R reading method.
Research questions
This research is conducted to answer the following questions:
1) To what extent did the use of SQR3 in English reading help to improve the students’ reading comprehension?
2) What were the students’ attitudes towards the use of SQR3 in English reading lessons?
Scope of the research
This research only focused on the teaching of the SQ3R method to the students at an English center in Hanoi in seven weeks, so applying other reading strategies or other subjects would be beyond the scope.
Significance of the research
This research focused on examining the effect of the SQ3r method as a way to improve the students’ reading comprehension ability at an English center in Hanoi If the application of the SQ3R method leads to good results, it can be used as a reference for wider scales Plus, this research also investigated students’ attitudes towards the new reading method so teachers can find better solutions to their problems
Structure of the research
The thesis is designed as follows:
Part A: Introduction presents an overview of the research: rationale, aims and objectives, research questions, scope, significance and structure of the research
Part B: Development includes three chapters: o Chapter I is the Literature Review, which represents theoretical issues related to reading comprehension o Chapter II presents the Methodology of the research, which includes background information on the research context, a description of the participants, data collection instruments and data collection procedures o Chapter III is the Data Analysis which shows findings and discusses findings
Part C: Conclusion provides a summary of the main points mentioned in the research, the conclusion drawn from conducting this research The limitations and suggestions are also mentioned in this part
LITERATURE REVIEW
Reading and Reading Comprehension
As we all know, reading is a form of entertainment, as people spend time reading newspapers, novels, comic books, etc It reduces stress and relaxes people’s minds after a long day of working and studying Reading requires understanding the text, grasping its meaning or the author’s implication, and collecting useful information There are different authors and researchers have their own ideas about how to define reading as follows:
According to Frank Smith (2004, p.2), whose book was about the psycholinguistic analysis of reading, “reading is the most natural activity in the world.” The author gave a broad definition of reading, which means “making sense” of the world we live in from the beginning of our existence It started when we were infants, and we explored the surrounding environment by “reading” it or, like the author claimed, “making sense” of it; therefore, reading is an innate behavior that human beings possess The author also explained that reading was “a matter of interpreting, relating the situations you are in to everything you know already Not part of what you know, but everything, because all our knowledge hangs together.” When discussing reading from a text, Smith (2004, p.2) came to the conclusion that reading was interpreting an event from its context, and “All reading of print is interpretation, making sense of print.” Thus, interpreting the text and taking advantage of prior knowledge are what a reader needs to do when reading
Ur (1996, p.138) put that: “reading means reading and understanding” and gave some detailed features of reading in her book “A Course in Language Teaching”: (1)
We accept and decode letters to read the whole word; (2) We have to understand all the words to understand the meaning of the text; (3) The more letters or words appear in a text, the longer it will take to read it; (4) We come to conclusions from what we read;
(5) Our understanding of a text comes from understanding the words of which it is composed Though the author provided a very direct explanation of reading, she emphasized the need to fully comprehend a text by interpreting individual symbols, understanding words, and ultimately grasping the entire text
Another definition given by Grellet (1981, p.3) showed us: “Understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” It is clear what the author wanted to say: after reading a text, the most important thing is what a reader gets from it Plus, the amount of information that a person collects from the same reading materials is different; therefore, a reader should extract the information as much as he or she can
Moreover, Brown (2003) offered another definition of reading: reading is a process of communication from the author That means the readers have chances to communicate indirectly through the writer’s words, but they also need to understand the writer’s mind and ideas, not just written words
As it can be seen from the mentioned opinions, there is no exact definition of what reading is Each author has his own ideas about reading, and all of them are vital to every aspect of reading Thus, we cannot decide which opinions are the best However, all of their views have one thing in common: they try to identify the core of reading and how the readers process reading activity And we can tell clearly that there is a relationship between reading and understanding, which every language teacher should master to help students read effectively
Reading comprehension plays a vital part in learning and teaching reading in a foreign language Reading is to collect information from reading materials as much as possible This skill requires attention, a sufficient amount of vocabulary, prior knowledge, etc The more teachers understand about reading comprehension, the more influence they have on teaching reading in the classroom There are several opinions about reading comprehension, as follows:
According to Day and Bamford (1998), reading is the process by which learners interpret meaning from a printed or written message It involves how learners link what they read from written materials to what they know about related topics in order to achieve the level of understanding that is required by the author Along the same lines, Grellet (2004) assumed reading is a constant process of guessing Plus, the students take advantage of their knowledge to get a better understanding of or to decode unknown elements in the reading texts, which is a requirement of learning to read
Moreover, Klinger et al (1996, p.2) stated that “Ultimately, reading comprehension is constructing meaning by coordinating a number of complex processes that include word reading, word and world knowledge, and fluency.” The author means that if a reader wants to grasp the meaning of the text, he or she has to understand all the words in the text, with a combination of background knowledge about the topic and reading speed in English
In addition, reading comprehension is needed for the process of language acquisition Because of wide access to the Internet and the development of technology, learners are exposed to opportunities to learn English However, English learners still depend on written materials such as textbooks, magazines and newspapers, especially when they are at the beginner level Learners will have chances to learn vocabulary because reading activities put them in situations where they meet new words, word use
7 and linguistic patterns, and they need to guess their meanings and use their knowledge about contexts and the connection among words in texts (Nagy, as cited in Hiebert, E
H & Kamil, M L., 2005, p.27-44) In short, reading is an opportunity for students to improve language learning
From those above opinions, it can be concluded that reading is a process to understand the meanings of reading materials, which asks students to combine prior knowledge, vocabulary, and linguistics knowledge to get writers’ ideas comprehensively
According to David Nunan (1989, p.33), “reading is not an invariant skill, that there are different types of reading skills that correspond to the many different purposes we have for reading.” So the author is certain that reading can have different purposes, but the goal is to grasp what the writer wants to convey Readers cannot save all the needed information and make use of it if they do not comprehend the texts In order to achieve this goal, comprehension skills in reading are needed
Reading skills have many advantages and we cannot deny that one of them is an effective way to collect information This is a very common way to improve knowledge and update the latest news By reading, readers have opportunities to access every piece of information that they are interested in Wallace (1992) agreed with this idea and considered that one of the most important roles of reading is to extend general knowledge
In addition, Hood (2005) assumed that good reading skills would affect learning potential in other areas In fact, becoming a good reader requires a number of factors: abundant vocabulary, good competence in grammar, and fluent reading techniques This is because reading improves students’ ability to think and to read silently Plus,
Reading strategies
Many authors and researchers have studied and had their own definitions of reading strategies According to Garner (1987, p.50), reading strategies are “actions or series of actions employed in order to construct meaning.” Along with the same line, O’Malley and Chamot (1990, p.1) claimed that readers have many “special thoughts or behaviors” to make use of the reading text: comprehend, learn, and retain new information Thus, from these authors’ opinions about reading strategies, they can be understood as the actions learners actively take to make themselves understand the texts’ meaning
According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990, p.118), there are three major categories of reading strategies: Meta-cognitive; Cognitive and Social/ Affective
Affective Planning Monitoring Evaluating Top - down Bottom - up
Self- evaluation Elaboration Grouping Cooperation Directed attention Transfer Deduction Question for classification Functional planning Inferencing Recombination Self-talk
Table 1: Classification of Reading Strategies (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990, p.118)
The authors stated that meta-cognitive strategy is the general management of learning activities, such as controlling learning by planning, monitoring and evaluating the achievement of a specific task goal Cognitive strategy involves the process by which readers try their best to construct the meaning of the text These include the bottom-up process, when readers try to understand the text by constructing the meaning from the smallest to the greatest components, and the top-down process, when readers base on their prior knowledge or experiences to guess and comprehend the text Social/Affective strategies are the management of readers’ emotions, motivation, which affects the learning process, and interaction with other people during lessons.
The SQ3R method
SQ3R is a reading strategy for reading comprehension skills, and its name stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review This reading method has five steps, which are designed to increase understanding by focusing on small details to larger ideas and reviewing back Students can improve their reading ability by raising
10 questions, answering all questions by themselves, taking notes, and reviewing notes and texts at the same time
In this research, the SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review) method was chosen as a reading method and applied in order to help students become more successful readers and increased their understanding of reading articles This way of reading was introduced by Francis P Robinson, an American education philosopher, in his book “Effective Study” (1946)
This kind of method provides five detailed steps and a more comprehensive reading method
At this first step of the SQ3R method, students should glance over the materials: the headlines, headings, table of contents, summary, pictures and bold words to see the main points that need noticing This step should be done really quickly, and it will reveal the core point the author expresses It helps students prepare in their minds the overall picture and structure of the texts
This step requires students to think about what they just read in the first step and turn all the headings, headlines into questions It recalls the information that readers gather from the Survey step and makes important points stand out The questions with
“True-False” or “Yes-No” answers should be avoided Students have to develop questions that require careful reading to find the answers to relationships and subject development For example, in a heading such as “Global warming in New Zealand,” the questions should be “How is global warming in New Zealand? What happens? What is the effect of global warming on New Zealand?”
After making questions, students should read carefully to answer their own questions and can use any reading techniques that may be useful to them They also need to write the answers and highlight important information It stimulates students as they have to find the information from the readings themselves
This step asks students to be independent from the materials as they should try to look away from them Students need to answer the questions briefly with their own words, including an example from their own experiences if needed If they cannot answer the questions and cannot give an example, they can glance over the materials again Then they should write a summary or make notes about the paragraph or section they just read They can also create a mind map of the ideas and how the ideas are related to each other This way helps students retain information after reading and checks their level of understanding
Three reminders on the Reciting Step: o no notes are written until the whole section completely read o notes jotted from memory, not from the texts o notes in their own words, and brief
When finishing all the steps, students look over their reading notes to get a comprehensive view of the points and make connections between readings and notes This kind of review will confirm what you know, while highlighting what you still need to study for better recall In order to have better performance at the test, students should redo this step, for instance, shortly after reading, then a week later, and again briefly before an exam
The SQ3R method is a significant approach to reading comprehension because it is used with materials that contain a lot of information and requires the students to learn materials through deep reading It allows students to use their own background
12 knowledge to understand and retain the content The method helps to identify the topic sentence and the important items of a text in order to remember the text’s content for a long time
1.3.3 The importance of the SQ3R method
Artis (2008) claimed that using the SQ3R method as a reading strategy can have some advantages First, SQ3R is easy to use, so it gives students chances to work alone and reduces passive learning The teacher can become a guide to help students improve academic performance instead of spoon-feeding or interpreting authors’ ideas for them
It makes students become independent learners Second, it encourages students to build understanding over time and avoid last-minute practice before exams The method is for information retention, so only important information is needed “By surveying headings and subheadings, and converting them into questions, subjects are better able to focus on the important information.” (Martin, 1985, p.73) Third, SQ3R requires no contextual understanding because the first two steps of the method make students familiar with each the topic to create a foundation Finally, because it is used privately and easy to understand, it helps students who are not good at reading skills feel less negative when doing their assignment They can design this method to fit their learning style and skill level
1.3.4 Previous studies related to the use of the SQ3R method
Carlston (2011) discussed the effect of implementing the SQ3R method on students’ performance and content retention There were 324 students at a Midwestern university in Texas, USA, who participated in the study The author asked them to have a handwritten note packet where they demonstrated the implementation of the method Then he divided the students into four groups based on their completion of a handwritten note packet: consistent completers (who completed a note packet in both exams); consistent non-completers (who did not complete a note packer for both
13 exams); initiators (who only completed a packet for the second exam); and desisters (who only completed the note packet for the first exam) The results of both exams indicated that the consistent completers had the highest improvement, while the consistent non-completers had no improvement at all Plus, the desisters and the initiators only improved when they completed their own note packet The findings showed that students who used the SQ3R method retained more information and achieved higher exam scores It also emphasized the need for the students to engage with course material independently of academic success
Summary
This chapter has introduced the relevant literature that is needed to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for this thesis It begins with the definition of reading and reading comprehension, as well as their importance It also focuses on a review of the SQ3R method with its definitions, how to apply the method in the classroom, its importance, and previous related studies This chapter gives a basis for action research on using the SQ3R method to improve students’ reading comprehension skills
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research context
This research was conducted at an English language center in Hanoi, Viet Nam There are 36 classes with a total of about 432 students The classes are categorized by students’ English proficiency: A1, A2, B1 and B2
The teaching staff consists of 8 teachers of English, all of whom graduated with an English language major from different universities in Hanoi Their ages vary from
24 to 30 The researcher is also a teacher of English at this language center with about two years of teaching experience
The researcher took 20 students from class B1 as the subjects of this research These students took a placement test when they attended the course and were then placed in the same class with the same level of English proficiency They were taken as subjects because the researcher was in charge of them at the time
There were 11 boys and 9 girls in this class The reason for choosing this class was because the researcher was in charge of it Plus, because their English proficiency ranked A2-B1, the students were expected to read longer and more complicated texts in order to achieve a good academic performance in English As a result, if the SQ3R method worked, the students could use this method during the learning process at schools
The textbook used as the materials was the New Headway Intermediate Students Book, published by Oxford University Press in 2012, the publishing house of Oxford
University, which is prestigious in research, scholarship, and education The authors of this book are Liz and John Soars who are highly experienced in EFL teaching.
Research design
This research was action research, a popular research design when applied in the classroom Action research is a form of research in which researchers recognize issues and then come up with practical solutions to them This kind of research is commonly used in education and is defined in different ways
Tran Thi Thu Hien (2009, p.97) acknowledged the role of action research and claimed that “As a matter of fact, action research is widely used in education, especially by teachers who use it to improve their teaching.” She also argued that this research is employed by teachers from all over the world as a part of their teaching and research because its nature, characteristics, “circle within circle” process, etc well match with education
According to Parson and Brown (2002), action research in education is a form of investigation designed and used by teachers to solve problems and improve professional practices in their own classrooms
Action research is also defined as “a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be utilized by teachers in order to improve the rationality and justice of (i) their own practices, (ii) their understanding of these practices, and (iii) the situations in which these practices are carried out.” (Carr, W and Kemmis, S., 1986, p.162) Kemmis and McTaggart's (as cited in Burns, 2010, p 9) proposed an action research model as follows:
Figure 1: Kemmis and McTaggart's (1988) cyclical AR model, as cited in Burns (2010, p 9)
Action research has characteristics that are suitable for classroom investigation, and it is a useful and practical tool for teachers and researchers to approach, improve problems, and then use as reference materials for problem-solving in the classroom Therefore, action research was applied to find out if the SQ3R method was a useful method to enhance students’ reading comprehension and then how it affected their attitudes towards reading tasks
The research was conducted at the center within seven weeks, from the second week of June to the final week of July All the participants were treated with the same intervention The English classes were held once a week for reading skills only and lasted for 75 minutes This action research was performed using the action research cycle suggested by Nunan (1992), whose research cycle consists of seven phases:
Initiation, Preliminary investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination and Follow-up
When teaching the students in class B1, the teacher found out that many students had gained not much after the lesson Some of them could not understand and give a review of reading texts when being asked Some students used to read the texts slowly and focus on finishing exercises in the textbook instead of understanding the whole text Though some of them already got the general idea by skimming the passage, came to inaccurate conclusions, and had limited deep comprehension of the text Thus, when dealing with questions related to text comprehension, they felt challenged This motivated the researcher to apply the SQ3R method to reading in order to handle the situation
The intervention followed the five steps of the SQ3R method, and the students were asked to finish the post-test and questionnaire Then the data was collected and analyzed Finally, the teacher discussed the effect of the method on the students’ reading comprehension skills and suggested further research.
Data collection instruments
In this research, data played the most important role in identifying and handling problems It was collected using quantitative and qualitative data According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2002), quantitative data is numerical and used to explain phenomena by applying mathematically based methods (in particular statistics) And qualitative data is non-numerical data that is analyzed to understand how an individual subjectively perceives and gives meaning to their social reality (Denzin and Lincoln,
2.3.1 Pre-test and Post-test
Tests are one of the most popular tools in education to assess students’ learning abilities According to Brown (2003, p.3), “tests are a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain.” Johnson and Cassady (2002) had the same idea as him and mentioned the importance of testing to the people who are involved in the education process They are designed to measure not only ability but also quality and knowledge to examine how students complete certain tasks or skills Therefore, in order to check the effectiveness of the new treatment in improving students’ reading ability, pre-test and post-test are needed
In this research, in order to find out the effects of the SQ3R method on reading comprehension, the researcher used a pre-test and a post-test Both tests had the same format and level of difficulty as each other The students were given 45 minutes to do each test Each of the tests consisted of two articles from the textbook New Head Way Intermediate Students’ Book, with 20 multiple-choice questions All reading tests are included in the Appendix The reason for choosing these articles was because they came from the same book which was appropriate for the subjects’ pre-intermediate level
Two different tasks were designed for both tests: the first was questions related to the main ideas and the other was a reading comprehension task o The purpose of the first task was to discover if the subjects knew how to identify the topic of the text or the main or supporting ideas of the passages If a subject got a correct answer, he or she would receive 0.5 points o The reading comprehension task included five multiple-choice questions per article, which meant 10 questions per test The purpose was to test other factors of a reading test besides finding the main ideas: the meaning of vocabulary in
20 context, finding detailed information, and identifying references If the subject got a correct answer, he or she received 0.5 points
In this research, the teacher used a questionnaire as one of the ways to collect data because of several advantages This kind of data collection helps researchers gather a large amount of information about attitudes, behaviors, activities, and responses to events in a short time A questionnaire with twelve questions was written in English and given to the subjects after they finished the post-test This took the students 15 minutes to finish and then they submitted the questionnaires to the researcher
The questionnaires were designed based on the Student Evaluation of Educational Quality Questionnaire (SEEQ) which was introduced by Marsh (1982) SEEQ was designed to assess various aspects of a course quality from the students’ perspectives There are nine factors measured by SEEQ: Learning/ Value; Enthusiasm; Organization; Group Interaction; Individual Rapport; Breadth of coverage; Examinations; Assignments, and Workload However, because this questionnaire was about the students’ attitude towards the SQ3R method, so Learning/ Value and Enthusiasm factors were used to design the questionnaire The first item was used to find out if the students had known about the SQ3R method before their participation in the research The next two items concerned the students’ enthusiasm towards the method, and the last two items were about the method’s effect on the students’ performance Similarly, in the second set of items that are related to the students’ beliefs about the method’s impact, the first three items were to assess their personal experience with the method, and the other items were to discuss whether the method benefited their learning
In this section, participants were to tick in a checkbox if they learned a certain aspect or if they did a certain activity They did this by rating the items on a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 being “Strongly Disagree/ Dislike”, 2 being “Disagree/ Dislike”, 3 being “Neutral”, 4 being “Agree/ Like”, and 5 being “Strongly Agree/ Like”
The qualitative data was collected from the teacher’s observations relating to students’ attitudes in class All class activities and class situations during lessons were noticed by the teacher to determine the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process It also showed if there were any changes in students’ behaviors and attitudes during reading lessons and how far the action reached the target This is a helpful research tool because it includes observations, reactions, interpretations, reflections, and explanations
In this research, the teacher chose this kind of tool because the changes during class could be noted and kept as evidence for teaching improvement The teacher could look back to see what had happened in each lesson and find a way to adjust the teaching and make use of the method “…without such a record, the teacher often has no substantial recollection of what happened during a lesson and cannot use the experience of successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) teaching as a source for further learning.” (Richards and Farrell, 2010, p.69) It was also an effective way to avoid missing data for later data analysis
The teacher wrote a teaching diary after each reading lesson because the teacher wanted to have a closer look into how the students reacted and what happened during class Except for the first and last weeks of the course, the teaching diary was written from the second week The findings of the teaching diary helped to examine the effect of the SQ3R method on the students’ participation and attitude towards reading comprehension skills
Beside the questionnaire and teaching diary, an interview is also needed because it is used to “elicit desired information from someone” (Lankshear, C., & M Knobel,
2006, p.20) It included a list of open-ended questions (how, what, and why questions with unlimited space for response) to identify students’ opinions and preferences about the method, what they think about the method’s benefits and disadvantages, how they felt about it, and their preferred steps among five steps of the method The interview was conducted through Zoom, and each interviewee had an average 10 to 15 minutes
It was conducted in the participants’ native language, Vietnamese The participants’ answers were transcribed and analyzed in Vietnamese Relevant transcript extracts were then translated to English
The researcher chose three students among twenty to interview One student who had a better score in the post-test, one got a lower score, and one remained the same The reason for choosing them was that the teacher wanted to listen to different perspectives from different students who achieved different academic performances Another reason was that the teacher did not have enough time to interview the whole class The interview was conducted after the implementation, at the end of the course.
Intervention: Instruction of the SQ3R method in reading lesson
In this research, the SQ3R method invented by Francis Robinson (1946) was applied in order to improve the students’ reading comprehension skills The instructions for the method, the process and the materials are described in this section
The reading articles for this research were chosen from a book called the New Head Way Intermediate Students’ Book 4 th edition The teacher chose this book because the length, level of difficulty, and content of the articles were appropriate for
23 the students’ B1 in English level During reading lessons, the teacher used three articles as reading materials for the students
Two articles were selected for all the participants to read in class and one as homework Their titles were: “The Cook/ The Gardener”; “Book clubs – from strength to strength” and “Wonders of the modern world” The teacher provided the students with the first two articles to practice in class and the last one to do at home
2.4.2 Steps of the Instruction in the SQ3R Method
The following are the steps of the SQ3R method, proposed by Francis Robinson
Step 1: Survey: Look at the materials: the headlines, headings, table of contents, summary, pictures, and bold words to predict what the text is about
Step 2: Question: Think about what they just read at the first step and turn all the headings and headlines into questions
Step 3: Read: Read carefully, then answer your own questions Write the answers and highlight important information
Step 4: Recite: Look away from reading materials and answer questions independently Write a summary or make notes on the paragraph or section they just read Create a mind map of the related ideas if needed
Step 5: Review: Look over their reading notes to gain a comprehensive understanding of the key points and establish connections between the readings and their own notes
In the 2 nd week, the teacher gave the article “The Cook/ The Gardener” to all the students in class The teacher gave them detailed instructions of the SQ3R method and explained if there were questions from the students At the 1 st step of the method, the teacher divided the whole class into small groups and required students to work in pairs The students were asked to read the headline, bold words, and introduction to predict what the text’s topic was Besides, they looked at the illustrated pictures and
24 also gave hints about the topic This step helped the students gain prior knowledge about the text’s structure, length, and difficulty so they could prepare more carefully
At the 2 nd step, the teacher asked them to make questions based on what they had already learned from the first step “True/ False” and “Yes/ No” questions should not be made The students were told to use WH-questions (who, what, where, when, and why) and HOW-questions to turn headings, titles into questions The reason for this step was to set purposes for reading the text in more detail
The 3 rd step required the students to read carefully to answer their own questions The answers were brief, and the important information should be highlighted Plus, the answers included the paragraph’s main idea with supporting details The students were encouraged to take notes or use a mind map to write down information that they did not understand
At the 4 th step, the students put the answers into their own words without looking at the materials In case they could not answer the questions, they were allowed to look at the text again Then they were asked to write a summary or make notes of what they had just read Mind maps were encouraged to be used at these steps in order to show connections among ideas This improved the students’ information retention and checked their level of understanding
At the end of the reading lessons, the final step was applied The students reread what they noted to have a better understanding of the main points and made connections between readings and notes They finished all the steps in pairs, and discussion was required, which was an efficient way to review all the information The teacher called on some pairs to read out loud what they gained so the teacher could confirm their level of understanding
When first applying the SQ3R method, the students finished reading text in pairs for three weeks in order to get used to this new way of reading Then, for the next two weeks, they were asked to do the same process individually rather than in pairs
Because this method required self-study, so the teacher applied Pearson & Gallagher’s Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (2002) when the teacher instructed and guided how to apply the SQ3R to the students, then the students practiced in pairs first, then they did it alone without the teacher’s help
Figure 2: Pearson & Gallagher’s gradual release of responsibility model (2002)
First, the teacher introduced the new method and showed how it should be used in reading texts Second, the teacher guided students step by step and answered all their related questions when applying the method At this step, collaboration between the teacher and students was needed Third, the teacher divided the whole class into small groups and let them practice in pairs The teacher called on some pairs to check if they had completed the practice for each step Finally, the students were asked to practice the SQ3R method independently under the teacher’s guidance, and the teacher gave them homework so they could practice at home However, though the method seemed very clear with five steps and the students knew what to do, they were confused about
26 applying the method to real reading activities Because of that, the teacher had to focus on guidance more strictly, and the class seemed to work better later on.
Data Collection Procedures
The following was the procedure of the main research:
The 1 st week: The students were given the pretest and had 45 minutes to finish the test and submitted the paper after finishing the test
The 2 nd to 4 th week: The first article was used as an exercise in class for the students They also received the SQ3R instruction and finished the exercise in pairs
The 5 th to 6 th week: The second article was given to the students, and the practicing process was the same as the first article However, at this time, the students had to do it individually rather than in pairs In order to make them familiar with the method, the teacher gave them the third article as homework The students were asked to accomplish this task following the steps of SQ3R and write down all these steps
The 7 th week: The students were given 20 minutes to prepare before using the SQ3R method for the post-test Then the post-test was given to them After they submitted the paper, they were asked to fill out the questionnaire
The following table describes the data collection procedure:
Week 1 Students were given the pretest
Week 2 - 4 Students received the SQ3R method instruction through the first article
Students were asked to practice the method in pairs
Week 5 - 6 Students received the SQ3R method instruction through the
Students were asked to practice the method individually Students were given the third article as homework
Week 7 Students were given the posttest
Students filled in the questionnaire
After week 7 Data was collected, evaluated and analyzed
Conclusion, implications and suggestions were developed
Data Analysis
After collecting data from all the tools, the researcher analyzed them carefully to see if the students worked well with the method There were four sets of data from the data collection They included 20 questionnaire responses, 20 pre-test papers, 20 post- test papers and the researcher’s teaching diary
2.6.1 Pre – test and Post – test
The results of both tests, which were quantitative data, were represented by numbers and put into tables, charts, and graphs for better visual presentation for readers to understand After the tests had been marked, the correct answers were counted, and the scores were computed on the Excel program to discover any improvement in the students’ reading comprehension skills Then the collected scores of the pre-test and post-test were compared after the implementation
2.6.2 Questionnaire, Teaching diary and Interview
The data was collected from the students’ questionnaires, interview and teaching diary during the learning and teaching process Because the data from these tools was qualitative, “there is no single right way to analyze qualitative data.”(Coffey & Atkinson, 1996, p.32) However, this type of data needs transcription in written form
28 for further analysis This process was time-consuming so the teacher transcribed only the parts that were relevant to the research
The data from the teaching diary and the interview were presented in detail about what happened during the lesson as “the act or practice of paying attention to people, events, and/or the environment.” (Reed & Bergemann, 2005, p.6)
The data from the questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics, which meant they were described based on percentage This kind of data helped the researcher find out the attitudes of the students towards the SQ3R method.
Summary
This chapter presents a complete description of the methodology of the research
It includes the research context (the research setting, participants, and materials) and the research design (research approach and research procedures) The data was collected from a pretest, a post-test, and a questionnaire for students, and then analyzed by data analysis methods It was expected that the combination of these instruments would be the key to the research questions
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Findings of the research
3.1.1 The impact of the use of SQR3 in English reading lessons on the students’ English reading comprehension
The purpose of the reading tests was to answer one of the research questions: to what extent the SQ3R method affected the students’ reading comprehension skills in reading tests Both tests were given to all participants in the first and last weeks of the research The results of these tests would show how much students had improved on their reading comprehension skills
All of them were tested on the same day at the beginning and the end day of the course The scores of these tests in this research were divided into five categories based on the high school grading scale assigned in Decision No.40/2006/QD-BGDDT dated October 05, 2006 These five categories include: o Good grade: 8.0 to 10 o Rather good grade: 6.5 to 7.9 o Medium grade: 5.0 to 6.4 o Weak grade: 3.5 to 4.9 o Poor grade: The remaining cases
In order to find out to what extent the SQ3R method impacted the student’s reading comprehension after implementing the method in teaching, the pretest and posttest were carried out The scores are illustrated in the same way in five categories as above The results of both tests are shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3: Results of pre-test and post-test
From the figure above, it can be seen that there were some fluctuations in the scores of students before and after applying the SQ3R method Overall, there were no students who had scores below medium grade in both tests The only category that remained the same was the number of students who had rather good grade (40%) In addition, the scores in medium grade and good grade showed some changes The number of students getting medium grade decreased considerably, from 15% to 5% Meanwhile, the good grade group had an upward trend: from 45% to 55% It can be concluded that there was a positive change in the scores between pretest and posttest, which indicated a slight improvement in the students’ reading skills
Medium grade Rather good grade Good grade
Because the tests included two types of tasks: identifying main ideas and reading comprehension, the table below describes the improvement of the students’ reading skills through the number of correct answers to each task
Table 3: Percentage of the students’ correct answers in the pretest and posttest
The table shows that after the implementation, there was an improvement in the students’ reading skills Before the implementation, the correct answers for finding main ideas reached 67.5%, which increased to 74.5% at the posttest Regarding the questions about the reading comprehension task, the figure climbed slightly from 83.5% to 88% It proved that the students had improved in terms of identifying the main ideas as well as the reading comprehension task
The researcher wanted to determine if there was statistical evidence that the mean difference between two observations is significantly different from zero; therefore, the researcher utilized SPSS to calculate the Paired Sample t-Test The two following tables showed the results of the calculation
Table 4: Mean of the students’ correct answers in the pretest and posttest
The table shows the number of students who attended the research (N) and the mean from both tests It is clear that the mean of the pretest is lower than that of the post-test (7.625 < 8.125) This leads to the conclusion that the average score of the pretest was lower than the average score of the post-test This means the participants performed better in the post-test than they did in the pre-test
Paired Differences t df Sig (2- tailed)
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Pretest -
Based on the Paired Samples Test results, the data can be interpreted and analyzed as follows:
Mean difference between Pretest and Posttest was 0.5 This indicated that, on average, the participants' scores after the intervention (Posttest) increased by 0.5 points compared to before the intervention (Pretest)
Standard Deviation showed that the change in scores varied across individuals, with some participants experiencing greater or lesser changes compared to the average increase of 0.5 points
The standard error of the Mean (Std Error Mean) indicated the precision of the estimate of the mean difference
95% Confidence Interval of the Difference: meant that in 95% of similar samples, the true mean difference between Pretest and Posttest could lie between - 1.03 and 0.03 This interval includes 0, suggesting that there may not be a significant difference between Pretest and Posttest
Significance level (Sig.(2-tailed)): This is the probability that the observed difference between Pretest and Posttest occurred by chance p-value = 0.002 was smaller than the 0.05 significance level, meaning that the difference between Pretest and Posttest was statistically significant In other words, there was enough evidence to conclude that the intervention had an impact on the participants' score significance level.
The scores of the finding the main idea task and reading comprehension task in both the pre-test and post-test were collected and analyzed in order to see if there was a correlation coefficient between them and the level of their connection The researcher utilized the Excel program to calculate and see if reading comprehension level could be predicted by finding the main ideas task This was calculated to test if there was a correlation between the identifying the main idea task and the reading comprehension task before and after the implementation The data was analyzed by Pearson product- moment correlation
Table 6: Correlation between the two tasks before the SQ3R method
It can be seen from the table above that the correlation between the two tasks was positive Because the correlation coefficient was between -1 and +1 (-1 < 0.991073 < 1), the data were strongly correlated with each other
The same process was also applied to the posttest The result in the following table showed the correlation between two tasks after implementation
Table 7: Correlation between the two tasks after the SQ3R method
The result was 0.9428187, which was positive (-1 < 0.9428187 < 1) This means that the score of identifying main ideas and that of reading comprehension had a significant correlation
The strong correlations proved that the better scores students achieve in the finding the main idea task, the better scores they have at the reading comprehension task The worse they get in finding the main idea task, the lower scores they receive in the reading comprehension task The result provides statistical evidence that finding main ideas is vital to reading comprehension skills in foreign languages Therefore, based on the increase or decrease in scores of the finding main ideas task, it can be predicted that there will be an increase or decrease in reading comprehension skills
In short, the result of the posttest was the evidence that led to the conclusion that the use of the SQ3R method had a positive impact on the students’ reading comprehension
3.1.2 Students’ attitudes towards the use of SQR3 in English reading lessons
The students’ belief about the impact of the SQ3R method on their reading comprehension competence
The students’ agreement about the impact of the SQ3R method on their reading comprehension skills is shown in Table 7
(1) Strongly Disagree (2) Disagree (3) Neutral (4) Agree (5) Strongly Agree
1 The SQ3R method makes me feel motivated and interested in reading lessons
2 The SQ3R method makes me actively engage in the reading process
3 The SQ3R method makes reading become more interesting
4 The SQ3R method helps me understand the reading texts
5 The SQ3R method helps me identify the main ideas more effectively
6 The SQ3R method helps me retain information longer
Table 8: Students’ agreement in their improvement in reading aspects after applying the SQ3R method
The table showed that many students acknowledged the SQ3R method’s positive influence on their reading skills 70% of the students agreed that they were better at understanding the text, and they found finding the main ideas easier thanks to
Discussions
The following discussion attempts to explain the findings of the research and compare them against other studies that were conducted by researchers as relevant studies on the impact of the SQ3R method on students’ reading comprehension
The impact of the use of SQR3 in English reading lessons on the students’ English reading comprehension
Findings from the test results suggest that, in this research, the SQ3R method has a positive influence on the students’ reading comprehension, with more than haft of the students achieving good grades Findings from previous studies also found positive outcomes in students’ reading comprehension skills (Trinh Van Sy, 2023; Carlson,
2011) However, these findings show an opposite trend compared to those of other international researchers Both findings from Mary Donald’s research (1967) and
Wooster’s research (1953) showed that there had not been any significant changes in the students’ comprehension statistically
While findings from test results reveal the positive influence of the SQ3R method on the students’ academic performance, the findings from other researchers make it challenging to determine the method’s overall impact on the students’ English reading comprehension
Students’ attitudes towards the use of SQR3 in English reading lessons
Regarding the second research question, the students’ responses to the questionnaire, the interviews, and the analysis of the teaching diary indicated that the students had positive attitudes towards the first two steps of the method, especially when working in pairs Later on, their attitudes changed when it came to other steps because they took longer to accomplish The situation was the same when they worked individually However, they still acknowledged the effective influence the method had on their reading comprehension skills and academic performance
Additionally, the students’ answers expressed negative perspectives about the method, including time requirements, an inattentive attitude, and decreasing reading speed This led them not to use this method in the future and to refuse to introduce it to anyone Plus, one of the interviewees thought that the method was not suitable for testing in class as it required time to finish, and also one of them confessed to not finishing all the steps In addition, findings from Wooster’s research (1953) also found that many students skipped many steps of the method However, findings from Trinh Van Sy’s research (2023) showed a complete opposite trend, in which more than half of the students were excited about using the method and had a very positive attitude towards it In brief, the method received negative responses due to the disadvantages claimed by the students despite the benefits it offered
Summary
Firstly, regarding the first research question, the research proved that the students got higher academic performance after using the method Plus, the students who achieved better scores in the main idea task also performed better in the task of reading comprehension Hence, it can be said that identifying the main ideas is important to the comprehension of English written texts Students who know how to find the main ideas of paragraphs and texts achieve better reading comprehension
Secondly, regarding the second research question, after implementing the method, most of the participants held mixed feelings about the method The results of the data from the interviews and teaching diary showed some findings Many students believed that the method had a certain influence on their grades; however, they thought the method take too much time Generally speaking, they knew how to use this method and approved the instruction, but they refused to apply this strategy to other future readings
Lastly, based on the findings, it is suggested that the teacher should design more exciting tasks in order to motivate the students to be more attentive and let them work in pairs and in small groups This would make implementing the method less miserable for the students.
Limitations of the research
Though the researcher tried to conduct this research in the most professional way, there were some limitations, as follows:
Action research is an ongoing cycle process, in which feedback from the collected data is used to improve the next cycle However, the data collection procedure of this research only lasted seven weeks with one implementation cycle
This was because usually a course in the language center takes only ten weeks, so the researcher only had enough time for one cycle
Secondly, there were only 20 participants, so the results may not represent all students at this center The results could have been more convincing if there were more participants.
Implications of the research
The research emphasizes the importance of identifying main ideas to enhance students’ English reading comprehension Teachers should focus on guiding students to identify and pay attention to the main ideas during reading Lessons can be designed to provide students with repeated practice in finding main ideas, not only to understand the content but also to summarize these ideas This could be applied into daily reading exercises, helping students to gradually develop their reading comprehension skills
Additionally, teachers should provide structured activities for each step of the SQ3R method; students can gradually learn each part of the process before applying the entire method
While the SQ3R method has proven effective in improving academic performance, students’ mixed reactions regarding the time-consuming nature of the process suggest a need to balance efficiency with practicality This implies that teachers should find ways to make the learning process more engaging and less overwhelming to maintain students’ motivation
Furthermore, using visual aids such as mind maps or note-taking charts could make the process more accessible Teachers might also create a more interactive learning environment by working in groups or discussions
This study also offers insights for future research, particularly on how to improve the balance between academic effectiveness and student engagement Future studies could focus on adjusting the SQ3R method to fit students’ needs or developing methods to boost student motivation during the learning process
In conclusion, to achieve the SQ3R maximum effectiveness in improving reading comprehension skills while sustaining student motivation, its application needs to be flexible and tailored to the specific educational purposes Moreover, continuous research is necessary to adapt this method for future applications.
Recommendation and suggestions for future research
The following suggestions for future research aim to address the disadvantages of this research
First, it is suggested that more students should be chosen in order to make the results more reliable In addition, if the research was conducted with students at different English proficiency levels in different places, the outcome would be different
In this research, the participants were in the same class and had the same English level, so the findings cannot be generalized to all the students’ reading comprehension skills at the center
Second, the researcher used reading articles that were only from the book “New Headway Intermediate Students’ Book” with familiar topics, so in future research, more diverse topics should be included, which may affect the results of applying the SQ3R method
Third, the design of the test can be done differently for future research In this research, the tests were made up of multiple-choice questions The students may have guessed the answer, which considerably affects the findings The future tests may contain more questions for more reliable results Thus, the design of tests can be structured differently in the future
Finally, the procedure of this research, from the pretest to the outcome, took seven weeks, with a five-week training process In addition, the method required a lot of time for self-study and preparation, so the students may not have enough time to practice Therefore, future research can lengthen the training time in order to have different results when applying the SQ3R reading method
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In search of good English food
By Verona Paul ad Jason Winner
A How come it is so difficult to find English food in England? In Greece you ear Greek food, in France French food, in Italy Italian food, but in England, in any High Street in the land, it is easier to find Indian and Chinese restaurants than English ones
In London you can eat Thai, Portuguese, Turkish, Lebanese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Swiss, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian – but where are the English restaurants?
B It is not only in restaurants that foreign dishes are replacing traditional British food In every supermarket, sales of pasta, pizzas and poppadoms are booming Why does this happen? What is wrong with the cooks of Britain that the prefer cooking pasta to potatoes? Why do the British choose to ear lasagna instead of shepherd’s pie? Why do they now like cooking in wine and olive oil? But perhaps it is a good thing After all, this is the end of the 20 th century and we can get ingredients from all over the world in just a few hours Anyway, wasn’t English food ii always disgusting and tasteless? Wasn’t it always boiled to death and swimming in fat? The answer to these questions is a resounding “No”, but to understand this, we have to go to before World War II
C The British have in fact always imported food from abroad From the time of the Roman invasion foreign trade was a major influence on British cooking English kitchens, like the English language, absorbed ingredients from all over the world – chickens, rabbits, apples, and tea All of these and more were successfully incorporated into British dishes Another important influence on British cooking was of course the weather The good old British rain gives us rich soil and green grass, and means that we are able to produce some of the finest varieties of meat, fruit and vegetables, which do not need fancy sauces or complicated recipes to disguise their taste
D However, World War II changed everything Wartime women had to forget 600 years of British cooking, learn to do without foreign imports, and ration their use of home- grown food The Ministry of Food published cheap, boring recipes The joke of the war was a dish called Woolton Pie (named after the
Minister for Food!) This consisted of a mixture of boiled vegetables covered in white sauce with mashed potato on the top, Britain never managed to recover from the wartime attitude to food We were left with a loss of Ministry recipes we began to believe that British food was boring, and we searched the world for sophisticated, new dished which gave hope of a better future The British people became tourists at their own dining tables and in the restaurants of their land! This is a tragedy! Surely food is as much a part of our culture as our landscape, our language, and our literature iii
Nowadays, cooking British food is like speaking a dead language It is almost as bizarre as having a conversation in Anglo-Saxon English!
E However, there is still one small ray of hope British pubs are often the best place to eat well and cheaply in Britain, and they also increasingly try to serve tasty British food Can we recommend to you our two favorite places to eat in Britain? The Shepherd’s Inn in Melmerby, Cumbria, and the Dolphin Inn in Kingston, Devon Their steak and mushroom pie, Lancashire hotpot, and bread and butter pudding are three of the gastronomic wonders of the world!
I Choose the best answers (A, B, C or D)
1 What is the main idea of paragraph A?
A England does not have its own distinctive dishes
B England is the land of foreign food
C It is not easy to find English food even in England
D Food from other countries is better than English food
2 What is the author’s opinion about English food?
A It has always been tasteless and disgusting
B It was good until World War II
C It is good because it is international
D English people change their appetite
3 What are factors that affect English food?
A Roman invasion and English language iv
B Rich soil and green grass
D Foreign trade and the weather
4 Why did World War II have a great influence on British cooking?
A Because cheap recipes were made in place of traditional food
B Because people could not cook with foreign ingredients
C Because British people found their own food boring
D Because people thought home-grown food was the best
5 Which paragraph gives historical context regarding the influence of foreign trade and weather on British cooking?
6 Which best expresses the meaning of the word boom in paragraph B?
7 Which best expresses the meaning of the word home-grown in paragraph D?
8 Why does the author mention Woolton Pie in paragraph D? v
A Because the author takes it as an example of The Ministry’s boring recipes
B Because that dish was represented the struggles during the war
C Because the author is confident that is one of the best dishes of English food
D Because British people feel strange to the food made with foreign ingredients
9 Which best expresses the meaning of the word bizarre in paragraph D?
10 What word expresses the author’s attitude to British Cooking at the end of text?
The life of a hard-working future King