MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY
HOANG TU LE
USING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES
TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS AT VAN XUAN UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY
MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION
NGHE AN - 2013
Trang 2
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY
HOANG TU LE
USING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES
TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS AT VAN XUAN UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY
SU DUNG CHIEN LUOC BU NHAM TANG CUONG KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIÈU CHO SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC
CÔNG NGHỆ VAN XUAN
FIELD: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY IN ENGLISH TEACHING CODE: 601410
MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION
Supervisor: Dr Tran Ba Tién
NGHE AN - 2013
Trang 3DECLARATION
I certify this thesis entitled
Using Compensation strategies to improve English reading comprehension for students at Van Xuan University of Technology
is my own work
Vinh, July 2013
Trang 4ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The completion of this thesis has been possible thanks to the support of many people who set off upon this journey with me and people whom I encountered along the path
First of all, I am greatly indebted to Dr Tran Ba Tien, my supervisor, for his
invaluable guidance, comments, criticisms, corrections and for his kindly constant
encouragement during the course of writing this thesis
Second, I would like to thank all lecturers at Foreign Languages Department, Vinh University for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path
Third, I am grateful to my colleagues at Van Xuan University of Technology for their constructive suggestions about this research Without their help and
cooperation, the research would have been made impossible
I also would like to give my special thanks to the students at Van Xuan University of Technology who have actively participated in my study
Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family, my classmates at the Master Course Class, my friends, especially my husband, who also encourages and shares the hardship with me
Trang 5ABSTRACT
Reading is one of the most important skills in study and daily life, there are many studies which have been carried out in this area This study in the first place, deals with the situation of learning reading in a university The study also aims at finding an effective way to improve English reading comprehension by using compensation strategies A quasi experimental was the method chosen to identify whether the use of compensation strategies had any effects on students’ reading comprehension
The participants of the study are 70 second-year non- major students of Group TOEIC A, Group TOEIC B, Van Xuan University of Technology
In the study, all the students in experimental group used compensation strategies in reading lessons with relatively high frequency and students in control group did not use these strategies but used inappropriate reading strategies such as trying to understand every unknown word in the text or trying to understand every single sentence in order to comprehend the whole text A pre- test and a post- test for reading comprehension were administered and the comprehension of the reading texts by the experimental group was compared with those by the control group The result revealed that students in experimental group are fully aware of the importance of compensation strategies to their reading comprehension improvement The effectiveness of applying these strategies is clearly shown And the other group made less improvement in their reading comprehension which was demonstrated in their smaller increases in their scoring
Trang 6TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1.5 Organization of the sUỦy - 5:5: 252221223 212312%221312111122121121211122 2.211 cze 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW SH 5 2.1 Overview uốn 5
2.1.1 Definition of reading cece cece 5
2.1.2 Reading comprehennsIOI 5-5 5+2 St SE ‡EEE‡EEEEEE2EeErkrkerkrrerkrrver 7 2.1.3 Overview of reading process model§ - + 5+ ctxctcxrxsrrxerxrrver 8 2.1.3.1 Bottom-up modelo eeseeseeseeseeseeseesneesnsseereesneesnsnesressneeneeesseees 9 2.1.3.2 Top-down model o .cccccceecesesseeseeseseesesseeeseesesneeeeseesesesreeeseeeesneeeeseeesenes 10 2.1.3.3 Interactive model - 22: ©222©2+2222222+t2x2trrtrrrrrkrrkrrrrrrrrerrrrer 12 2.1.4 Classification oŸreading -:- +: + tt nhe 13 2.1.4.1 Intensive reading vs extensiVe reading .- ¿5s cccccsrccec 14 2.1.4.2 Scanning vs sKIimrm1ng + - 5+ St E2 tk grrrrrrrrey 16 2.2 Language learning sfraf€g1€S 5+ St tt 2 HH 17 2.2.1 Definition of language learning strafeg1es - - ¿255cc sxcsc«2 18 2.2.2 Classification of language learning strafeg1es - ¿55s ss>sz s2 20 2.3 Reading strategies
Trang 72.4 Compensation sÍFAf€Ø1€S - - S2 t2 S2 E711 712 Tre 26
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2.4.2 The mportance ofcompensation sfrafeg1es 1n reading - 27
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY msSa.a 29
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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSIONS .ò 40 4.1 The findings from qUe€SfIORIA1T€ 5-5: 522 S2 EE‡E2EEtekkrkrrkrrkrrervrer 40 4.1.1 The use of compensation strategies in reading eects 40 4.1.2 Students’ attitude toward learning with compensation strategies 41
4.1.3 Students’ assessment on their reading comprehension improvement
4.1.4 Students’ assessment on the role of compensation strategies in learning reading and the effectiveness of using compensation strategies in TEAMING LESSON oo eee .ố ốốốốố ẽốẽố 43
4.1.5 Some difficulties in using compensation strategies in reading 44
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AQ Pre-test -
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Trang 8CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS nhe 59
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5.2 Limifations and suggestions for further research -5c- se scscccs>s+ 60 33992.)5102 1N = 61
APPENDIX Aono cecce esse eese ees eesesesesesnnsesscsneeseesesesesessueesneseesueseevesasessuecsneanesseese 65 F130 I00080:/ 0 SS5.a.1 74
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Trang 9Table 2.1: Table 2.2: Table 4.1: Table 4.2: Table 4.3: Table 4.4: Table 4.5: Table 4.6: Table 4.7: Table 4.8: Table 4.9: Table 5.1 LIST OF TABLES
Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills .22 Indirect Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language SKIS 0n 24
Students” use of compensation strategles 1n reading - 40
Comparison of mean scores in pre-test of the two groups
Pre-test score frequencIes of the fWo ØTOUDsS ¿555cc 46
Frequency of distribution of the tWo ðTOUDS -. 55-5552 47
Comparison of mean scores in post-test of the two øToups 48
Number of students scored less from Xj.0 c.cccccscscscseseseseseecsesescseseseeeeees 48
Statistics of % of studenfs scored less from X¡ : 2525-52 49
"The statistics parameters of the tWo ØTOUS :- ¿5:55 5+ +> 49
Means of pre-test and posf-fesf . ¿5:52 2 S222t2EtSt2xzxzxrxxsrrrrer 53
Trang 10Figure 2.1: Figure 4.1: Figure 4.2: Figure 4.3: Figure 4.4: Figure 4.5: Figure 4.6: LIST OF FIGURES Page
Diagram of a strategy system: VeTVIeW c5 21
Students’ attitude toward using compensation strafeg1es 41 Change in percentage of students’ comprehension after using
Compensation strategies cece eeseseeseeseeesneeesneeeesesteansneeessneesseseesnaneanenee Al
Students’ assessment on the role of compensation strategies
Students’ assessment on effectiveness of compensation strategies 43
Frequency of distribution of the tWo ðTOUDS -. ¿55-5552 48
Cumulative frequency curves ofthe fWo ðTOUDS . + 50
Trang 11CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
In order to master English, learners need to acquire four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) which are integrated Among them, reading skills play an indispensable and inseparable part in the process of learning English West (1941) assumes that reading is one of the most important skills in study and daily life Bright J.A Me Gregor (1977) points out the vital role of reading that “in our literate society it is hard to imagine any skilled work that does not require the ability to read” It is the importance of this skill that gives the reasons for the effort of investigating the ways to improve reading comprehension by researchers Kamhi-Stein (2003) is among the researchers who share the view that as English is essential for learners’ academic success, that is why teachers and researchers attribute their attention to how to success in reading comprehension
It is clear that valuable classroom time should be spent on training our students to English reading Why do students need to read in English? The answer for the question is that if we want our students to use English at all, not only in their time at school but after leaving school, it may well be in reading, as they study text books written in English in their further education program, or read newspapers, magazines and periodicals, for example, to keep themselves up to date in their job
fields, current affairs, social issues, entertainment etc
In Vietnam, English is taught and learned in a non-native environment, then we have no option to train them reading effectively and reading may be considered as the best way to help students to understand and use the up-to-date information in many fields
Trang 12reading strategies for self-instruction without which they will have to depend too much on the dictionaries Students seem to think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary item, translate every line into Vietnamese until they reach the end One of the most important functions of the language teacher, then, is to help students move past this idea An effective English teacher should show students how they can adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, reading purposes and help students develop reading strategies Using appropriate reading strategies is necessary for learners’ comprehension improvement
At Van Xuan University of Technology (hereinafter referred to as VXUT), reading is regarded as one important skill to the students because these students need to read a lot of English books and documents to support their professional studies Also, reading is highly emphasized for their Toeic exam-taking as a graduate requirement However, apart from some students who are quite good at English reading, most students find reading difficult Although the topics for reading are useful and interesting but students have little understanding of the texts they have read and hardly gain any knowledge from their reading Because it takes them a lot of time to find the meaning of words in dictionaries even in allowed time for a reading lesson, they cannot find all the meaning of new words in a particular reading text Having taught the students at VXUT for several years, the author is aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading ability
Trang 13any research on the relation between compensation strategies and reading comprehension improvement
The facts above explain the reasons why the author conducts the study “Using compensation strategies to improve English reading comprehension for students at Van Xuan University of Technology” It is hoped that this study can be of some help to teachers and students at VXUT for having effective reading lessons
1.2 Purposes of the study
The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using compensation strategies in learning reading
I am interested in drawing an overall picture of the fact of reading lessons in a University Furthermore, I want to gain deeper insight into the benefit of using compensation strategies in reading comprehension Also, I intend to propose pedagogical implications and suggestions to help students to develop their reading skill through different guessing reading strategies
1.3 Scope of the study
Having effective reading comprehension lessons is one of the biggest concerns of both the teachers and the learners of English This study is limited to compensation strategies used for reading comprehension by second year students
at VXUT
1.4 Research questions
The mentioned purposes could be achieved by finding answers to the following research questions
1) Is there any significant relationship between compensation strategies and reading comprehension?
2) How are compensation strategies applied to improve English reading comprehension at Van Xuan University of Technology
3) What recommendations should be made for improvement in students’ reading comprehension by using compensation strategies?
Trang 14- The mean for the experimental group is significantly higher than that for the control group?
1.5 Organization of the study The study includes 5 chapters: - Chapter 1: Introduction - Chapter 2: Literature Review - Chapter 3: Methodology
- Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions - Chapter 5: Conclusions
Chapter 1 is the introduction which provides a brief introduction, rationale, the purposes, the scope and an overview of the study
Chapter 2 is the literature review which discusses the previous research that is relative to the topic Specifically, it provides the theory about reading, learning strategies, reading strategies as well as compensation strategies in reading Also, this part covers surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic with description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted
Chapter 3 provides a detailed description of the experiment carried out to get the results of the study First, it will be started with formulating the research question and research hypothesis Then, the processes of carrying out the experiment are discussed in details such as the participants, instruments, as well as the procedures of data collection and analysis Information collected will be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to seek answers to the research questions
Trang 15CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter offers a review of the literature that is generally related to reading, reading strategies and compensation strategies In each section, the definition or explanation of the key terms will be presented
2.1 Overview of reading
Reading is a common habit in human life To master English, every English learner needs to master at least four language skills among which reading play an important role Because of this importance, a considerable amount of literature has been published on reading in the history of language development There are many different approaches towards the linguistic term- reading and each of which reflects an individual opinion of reading
2.1.1 Definition of reading
Reading is simply defined as “reading is to understand author’s thought” (Smith, 1985:102) or “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written.” (William: 1984:2) This simple definition doesn’t mean that a foreign learner needs to understand everything in a text He goes on to say “the reader does not necessarily need to look at everything in a given piece of writing The reader is not simply a passive object, fed with letters, words and sentences, but is actively working on the text, and is able to arrive at understanding without looking at every letter and word” (1984:3) In other words, efficient readers often take in the whole chunk of the text relying on their knowledge of the language and the subject matter to make predictions about what is meant if possible From William’s view, it means that “merely reading aloud without understanding doesn’t count as reading” (1984:3)
Trang 16the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to start It
is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual
Trang 17Goodman (1967) shares the same view that no two readers will ever produce the same meaning for a given text and no reader’s meaning will ever completely agree with the writers meaning Making sense of texts involves complete control, by both the readers and the writers, of how language work and how texts are constructed
In fact, when the teachers ask students to think about what reading is, the
students usually give answers such as, reading is: figuring out words, spelling the word and knowing the letter Not very many students understand that reading is more than decoding words and figuring out word or knowing the letters Although there have been a considerable number of definitions of reading but they have some common views Reading involves thinking, and it is the teacher’s job to educate students even from early stages of reading the authentic meaning of reading because reading encompasses both decoding and making of meaning
2.1.2 Reading comprehension
It should be considered that without comprehension, reading would be meaningless Thus, to teach reading comprehension, language teachers should be aware of what it is
Trang 18In any language classes, there are different levels among learners in the view of reading comprehension Some learners may understand the reading text better than others because of many reasons one of which is learners’ different prior knowledge It is clear that when “synthesizing information”, learners take information from a few different places and bring it all together to come up with a explanation that is also based on prior knowledge (Harvey& Goudvis, 2000) These authors go on to say that to get comprehension, the readers always relating the reading text to other experiences such as the story of his own life, certain stories that he had read or other global issues Thus, reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge Harris and Hodges (1995: 39), “reading comprehension is the construction of the meaning of a written communication through a reciprocal, holistic interchange of ideas between the interpreter and the message” (cited in Brassell and Rasinski, 1997:
16) This means that reading comprehension requires an action on the part of the reader That action involves the use of the existing knowledge that the reader has on the topic of the text as well as the text itself in order to create meaning
Lee and Vanpatten (1995:191) argue: “Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers make connections between the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge store
From these ideas above, it can be concluded that there is no consensus of
what reading comprehension is as each writer comprehends and gives its different definitions through his own point of view However, they share some certain characteristics that reading comprehension requires an action on the part of the reader That action involves the use of the existing knowledge that the reader has on the topic of the text as well as the text itself in order to create meaning
2.1.3 Overview of reading process models
Trang 19number of discussions and arguments among methodologists about this interaction in reading process According to Nuttall (2005), reading process is shown such some ways as bottom-up approach, top-down approach and the interaction of top- down and bottom-up processing
2.1.3.1 Bottom-up model
A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text, it says that reading is driven by a process that results in meaning (or, in other words, reading is driven by text) and that reading proceeds from part to whole To elaborate, Gough (1972) proposes a phonics-based or bottom-up model of the reading process which portrays processing in reading as proceeding in serial
fashion, from letter to sound, to words, to meaning as follow: First, the graphemic
Trang 20It can be understood from the bottom-up model that that learners learn to read through their ability to sound out letters Only when the learner has the decoding skills can the learner move on to the meaning of the words The emphasis of this process is on the printed text and what the reader receives from this, rather than the knowledge that the reader brings to this text (Lipson & Wixson, 1991)
According to Brown (2001: 299) The bottom-up process “ obviously require a sophisticated knowledge of language itself From among all the perceived data,
the reader selects the signals that make some sense, that cohere, that “mean”
The bottom-up model reveals several shortcomings in describing the actual reading process It does not give a full account of the process of reading, as it gives no account of a reader’s prior knowledge In fact, readers look at the text through the lens of expectations from prior knowledge of the subject area The reader then adjusts the lens based on outcomes of the reading, and in so doing, confirms or denies expectations (Smith, 1978) For Bottom-up model, comprehension results in a relatively shallow understanding of what the text stated directly As a result, this
process underestimated the contribution of the reader Also, the weaknesses of the
bottom-up model is that it emphasizes a single- direction in which implies that no higher level information ever modifies or changes lower level analysis In some cases, readers are able to identify a word correctly only by employing higher level semantic and syntactic processing
2.1.3.2 Top-down model
Top-down processing emphasizes the importance of the reader’s background knowledge, or the schemata This theory argues that when reading a text, a reader has his own knowledge, expectations, and questions, which he matches with the text The top-down reading model suggest that processing of a text begin in the
mind of a reader with a meaning- driven processes of prediction or assumption ideas
about the meaning of a text based on one’s prior knowledge The reader has the use
Trang 21processing of text, the top-down reading process contends that reading is driven by meaning and proceeds from whole to part
According to Nuttall (2005: 16), this process helps readers see the overall purpose of the text as well as enables them to predict the writer’s purpose Goodman (1982, cited in Alderson, 2000: 17) calls reading “a psycholinguistic guessing game” in which the reader has an active role In their view, the reader reconstructs meaning from written language by using the graphonic, syntactic and semantic systems of the language, but he/she merely uses cues from the three levels of language to predict meaning, and most important, confirms those predictions by relating them to his/her past experiences and knowledge of the language This means that together with the letters before readers’ eyes, readers possess both important types of information which are available at the same time: meaning and grammatical or sentence sense Thus, what readers bring to the text separately in terms of both their prior knowledge of the topic and their knowledge about the language assists them in predicting what the upcoming words will be
Thus, the top-down model of reading emphasizes the higher order skills inherent in reading which are primarily the use of predictions and inferences in the process of constructing meaning from past experiences, and the reconstruction of these predictions based on new information incongruent with past knowledge Brown (2001, 299) points out that with top-down process “we draw on our own intelligence and experience to understand a text”
Trang 22the words Stanovich (1980) gives the problem of the process that and top-down models do not account for the situation in which a reader has little knowledge of a text topic and, therefore, cannot form predictions
2.1.3.3 Interactive model
Since neither the bottom-up nor top-down model of the reading process totally accounts for what occurs during the reading process, it seems that with a combination of bottom-up model and top-down model can the process of reading be adequately characterized This combination is referred to as the Interactive model in which both letter features or data-driven sensory information and non-sensory information come together at one place
In Interactive model, reading is viewed as a synthesizing of patterns, calling for the application or integration of all of the previously identified knowledge sources Rumelhart (1977) suggests that the processing of text is an interaction between the different forms of information available to the reader in the text and within the reader’s own higher order thinking skills, (i.e inferences, and long term memory) Reading comprehension, in accordance with the interactive model, involves the use of the reader’s linguistic decoding processes to tap into his or her psycholinguistic strategies and schematic knowledge The interactive model also allows for the selective annotation skills involved in reading In these selective annotation skills, a reader might be attending to psycholinguistic strategies (for example, making inferences and predictions) while not needing to pay particular attention to the individual phoneme-grapheme relationship at the letter and/or word level
Trang 23accuracy in reading, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom- up recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies In other word, good reading - that is, fluent and accurate reading- can result only from a constant interaction between these two processes
Stanovich (1980) proposes an interactive-compensatory model, which adds a new feature to the interactive Rumelhart model by suggesting that strength in one processing stage can compensate for weakness in another Stanovich argues that with his interactive model, the limitation of both the bottom-up and top-down models can be reduced This researcher makes it clear that “Interactive models assume that a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources The compensatory assumption states that a deficit in any knowledge source results in a heavier reliance on other knowledge sources, regardless of their level in the processing hierarchy”(1980: 63)
The interactive model emphasizes both the identification skills, which are
represented in the bottom-down model, and the global interpretation skills, which come from the knowledge of the top-down model of making predictions and inferences It seems that the interactive model is the best one that can truly reflect the reading process Therefore, only when the language teacher develops in students abilities to approach a text both top-down and bottom-up is the reading skill of students to be improved as Brown (2001) states: “a combination of top-down and bottom up processing, or what has come to be called interactive reading, is almost always a primary ingredient in successful teaching methodology because both processes are important”
2.1.4 Classification of reading
Trang 24extensive reading Other specific types of reading which are often used with technical, scientific or professional materials involve scanning and skimming
2.1.4.1 Intensive reading vs extensive reading
Intensive reading, usually a classroom-oriented activity, means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning is produced In this case, it is important that you understand each word, number or fact “Intensive reading calls
students’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface
structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships and the like” (Brown, 2001:312)
Francoise Grellet (1981:41) defines: “Intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” Nuttall (2005) describes intensive reading in a language class as follow: “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher, or under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced The “how” is as important as the “what’.”
To this kind of reading, readers have to know every idea, every piece of hidden information in the text They also have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed In his views, Nuttall emphasizes the role of teacher’s guidance and the attention paid to the language elements of the reading text as well as the goal of the reading lesson
Trang 25these materials even do not make learners feel excited as they are not of learners’ interest Besides, because there are many procedures that are required in doing intensive reading such as listening to the instructions from teacher, reading comprehension questions, writing answers to comprehensive questions, discussing the content of the text, doing post-reading activities then learners spent really little time on actual reading
Harold Palmer (1917) in Britain and Michael West (1926) in India were the first to pioneer the theory of extensive reading as an approach to foreign language teaching and to reading, in particular Palmer choose the term "extensive reading" to distinguish it from "intensive reading"
Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity According to Grellet (1981:2), extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding” Harmer (1989:497) also has the same view He states “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension” In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purposes
Extensive reading is reading as much as possible, at a difficulty level at which you can read smoothly and quickly without looking up words or translating as you go This means that, instead of spending a half hour decoding a tiny part of one book, readers may choose the books that are at or slightly below the level at which they can read fluently This lets them get used to reading more complex sentences with ease, reinforces the words they already know and helps they learn new words from context
Trang 26To have a clearer view of extensive reading, many researchers consider the distinction between this type of reading and intensive reading Quach (2007) points out six negative features of intensive reading in comparison with extensive reading Firstly, intensive reading forces readers at different levels of proficiency to read the same materials chosen, not by the readers themselves, but by the teacher Secondly, as the result of the materials being chosen by teachers, intensive reading materials fail to meet the readers’ varied interest Thirdly, not much learning time is actually spent on reading and longer texts “are liable to get forgotten.” Fourthly, intensive reading is reading for accuracy, which may lead to the learners’ negative impression that reading is test- oriented Next, “learners are assumed to interact more with the teacher than with the text” Lastly, reading speed may be slow Such a distinction may be helpful in clearing the confusion between the two approaches and highlight the benefits of extensive reading
In contrast to intensive reading which may still have some disadvantage, extensive reading is good for language development When learners read a lot, they will enlarge their vocabulary items, improve grammar understanding, and build reading speed and reading fluency
In fact, Intensive reading and Extensive reading are complementary and language teachers should use both A balanced reading program uses Intensive reading to introduce new language, and complements this with Extensive reading which consolidates and raises awareness of this language leading to reading fluency
2.1.4.2 Scanning vs skimming
Scanning is a fast reading, focusing on finding specific information Scanning involves quick eye movements, not necessarily linear in fashion, in which the eyes make a quick look, do not concentrate on any words or line which would stop them scanning successfully, until the reader finds the piece of information needed
Trang 27for a telephone number, what’s on television at a certain time or search quickly through an article looking for a name or other detail”
The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has
located what he was searching for It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory or even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching Scanning is a valuable skill for second language learners to develop because often they do not require a detailed read of a text
Skimming is a quick reading with purpose is to know the general meaning of a passage, to know how the passage is organized and to get an idea of the intention of the writer In comparison with scanning, skimming is a more complex task because it requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the writer, not just to locate it Skimming is a tool in which the author's sequence can be observed, unlike scanning in which some predetermined information is sought after
Brown (2001:308) points out that skimming happens when the reader runs his eyes quickly across a whole text such as an essay, article, or chapter, for it gist Skimming helps the reader to be able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or message, and possible some of the developing or supporting ideas Jeremy Harmer (2007: 101) also makes it clear that readers “need to be able to skim a text- as if they were casting their eyes over its surface- get a general idea of what it is about (as, for example, when we run our eyes over a film review to see what the film is about and what the reviewer thought about it, or when we look quickly at a report to get a feel for the topic and what its conclusion are)”
Depending on certain kind of texts, the purpose of reading (what they want or need to get out of it) that the readers scan or skim Skimming and scanning are sometimes referred to as types of reading and at other times, as skills And as Brown (2001: 308) suggests “perhaps the two most valuable reading strategies for learners as well as native speakers are skimming and scanning
Trang 28Research on language learning strategies has really been a growth area since 1970s, when the emphasis on teachers and teaching shifted to the learners and learning, especially since Rubin and Stern first introduced the concept to the second language literature in 1975
2.2.1 Definition of language learning strategies
Since the effective use of language learning strategies by learners plays an important role in language learning, several attempts have been made to define the concept of language learning strategies
Rubin and Stern suggest that the “good language learner” might be doing something special that we could all learn from From these very first initiatives, more and more researchers have come to recognize the significance of special learner techniques or strategies in second language acquisition
Bialystock (1978: 71) states in his study that learning strategies are “optimal means for exploiting available information to improve competence in a second language” Therefore, language learning strategies are beneficial for those who hope to improve his language skills in a better way
Tarone (1980b) defines a language learning strategy by distinguishing between production strategies, communication strategies and learning strategies Tarone (1980b) considers the first two of these “strategies of language use”, and refers to learning strategies as "an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language." (cited in Ellis, 1999: 530)
In O’Malley and Chamot’s study, learning strategies are “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.” (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990: 1) In this definition, language learning strategies can be either observable or unobservable (mental and behavioral), and language learning strategies are individually characterized
Trang 29by learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information” (Richards & Platt, 1992: 209) It can be seen that these researchers emphasized the learners’ awareness and intention of using language strategies
According to Cohen (1998: 4), language learning strategies can be seen as “processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in
action taken to enhance the learning or use of a second or foreign language, through
the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about that language” In Ellis (1999) study, the main characteristics of language learning strategies are mentioned as:
1 Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn an L2
2 Strategies are problem oriented- the learner deploys a strategy to overcome some particular learning problem
3 Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they consist of if they are asked to pay attention to what they are doing/ thinking
4 Strategies involve linguistic behaviour (such as requesting the name of an object) and non- linguistic (such as pointing at an object so as to be told its name)
5 Linguistic strategies can be performed in the L1 and in the L2
6 Some strategies are behavioural while others are mental Thus some strategies are directly observable, while others are not
7 Some strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the L2 which they can then process, while others may contribute directly (for example, memorization strategies directed at specific lexical items or grammatical rules)
8 Strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is engaged in and individual learner preferences
Trang 30Oxford’s definition (1990) of this term is often considered as the most comprehensive and widely accepted for its full conveyance of affective aspects of language learning strategies The researcher indicated language learning strategies are "operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information" This definition is further expanded to include "specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self- directed, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations" (Oxford, 1990: 8) This definition is clearly reflects the nature of language learning strategies
It is impossible to cover all definitions of learning strategies offered by researchers; even it is a challenge to decide which definition is helpful to all research purposes Due to the comprehensiveness of Oxford’s definition and the characteristics of learning strategies in this definition also lend themselves well in the context of this study This definition serves as guideline and key direction for the following parts of the study
2.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies
Research into what learners do to learn a language has resulted in identification of specific strategies and in attempt to classify them in some ways There are many classifications of reading strategies offered by many researchers such as Bialystok (1987), Rubin (1981), Wenden (1985), Naiman et al (1987), Oxford (1990), O’Malley& Chamot (1990), Stern (1992) These systems bear some basic similarities To serve the purposes of study, this study presents some learning strategies from Oxford’s classification which seem to classify language strategies in to specific categories and these categories was considered superior than others and has been used widely by other researchers This has been confirmed by many researchers as “the most comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date” (Ellis, 1999) or “‘ the inventory has a well-understood underlying structure for strategy categorization and employs a wide range of strategies, all items of which are checked and rechecked for validity and reliability.” (Gamage, 2003:2)
Trang 31Memory strategies Direct Cognitive strategies strategies Compensation strategies Language Strategies Metacognitive strategies Indirect Affective strategies strategies Social strategies
Figure 2.1: Diagram of a strategy system: Overview
(Adapted from Oxford, 1990: 16) Direct strategies: The strategies used directly in dealing with a new language are called direct strategies These strategies require mental processing of the target language There are three main groups of direct strategies Each group processes the language differently and for different purposes
- Memory strategies: These strategies involve mental processes used in arranging information in order, making associations, and reviewing
- Cognitive strategies: These involve processing the target language so that meaning becomes clear through processes such as reasoning and analyzing
Trang 32Indirect strategies: These strategies support and manage language learning often without involving the target language directly The three groups belonging to this category are:
- Metacognitive strategies: These enable learners to plan, coordinate,
evaluate, and direct their own learning as well as to monitor errors
- Affective strategies: These help learners gain control over their emotions,
attitudes, and motivation through anxiety reduction, self-encouragement, and self-
reward
- Social strategies: These are ways of involving other people in enhancing learning through questions, cooperation and increased cultural awareness
This classification of LLS is summarized in the two below tables with its 2 main groups, 6 subgroups, 19 sets and 62 specific strategies as well as the application of each in the equivalent language skills
Table 2.1: Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills (Adapted from Oxford, 1990)
Strategy Strategy Applied to
groups sub-groups Specific strategies language skills
a Grouping Listening, Reading
1 Creating b Associating/ Elaborating | Listening, Reading
Mental c Placing New Words into | All Skills
§ linkages context
Ÿ d Using Imaginary Listening, Reading
& 2 Applying e Semantic Mapping Listening, Reading
= Images and f Using Keywords Listening, Reading
$ Sounds g Representing Sounds in | Listening, Reading
Memory
3 Reviewing well | h Structured Reviewing All Skills
4 Employing i Using Physical Response | Listening, Reading
Trang 33Actions or Sensation
j Using Mechanical Listening,
Techniques Reading, Writing
a Recognizing andusing | All Skills
1 Practicing formulas and patterns
b Repeating language All Skills
material
c Practicing with sounds Listening,
and writing systems Reading, Writing
d Recombining known Speaking, Writing
elements
5 e Practicing naturalistic All Skills
& f Getting the ideas quickly | Listening, Reading
§ g Using resources for All Skills
a 2 Receiving and | receiving and sending
Ặ Sending messages
S Messages h Reasoning deductively | All Skills
i Analyzing expressions Listening, Reading
j Analyzing contrastively | Listening, Reading
3 Analyzing and | k Translating All Skills
Reasoning 1 Transferring All Skills
m Taking notes Listening,
Reading, Writing
n Summarizing Listening,
Reading, Writing
4.Creating o Highlighting major Listening,
Structures for | points by using Reading, Writing
Input and emphasizing techniques
Output
Trang 34
Compensation
Strategies
1 Guessing Intelligently
a Using linguistic clues b Using other clues
Listening, Reading Listening, Reading 2 Overcoming Limitations in Speaking and Writing
c Using mother tongue for an expression without translating it
d Getting help
e Using mime or gestures f Avoiding
communication g Selecting the topic h Adjusting/ Approximating the message i Coining words j Using a circumlocution or synonym Speaking Speaking Speaking Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing
Table 2.2: Indirect Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills (Adapted from Oxford, 1990)
Strategy Strategy sub- Applied to
Specific strategies
groups groups language skills
a Over viewing and linking, All Skills 1 Centering with already known material
Learning b Paying attention All Skills
Metacognitive
Strategies c Delaying speech production
to focus on listening
Listening, Speaking
2 Arranging and
Planning Learning d Finding out about language learning
e Organizing learning
f Setting goals and objectives All Skills
All Skills All Skills
Trang 35
thoughts and feelings
g Identifying the purposes of a | All Skills language task
h Planning for a language task | All Skills i Seeking practice All Skills opportunities
3 Evaluating j Self-monitoring All Skills Learning k Self-evaluating All Skills a Using progressive All Skills 1 Lowering relaxation, deep breathing, or
Anxiety mediation
b Using music All Skills c Using laughters All Skills d Making positive statements | All Skills 8 2 Encouraging e Taking risks wisely All Skills Ÿ Oneself f Rewarding oneself All Skills
ầ ø Listening to the body All Skills
Š 3 Taking h Using a checklist to assess | All Skills § Emotional feelings about language
Temperature learning
i Writing a language leaming diary | All Skills j Discussing feelings with
someone else All Skills
1 Asking a a Asking for clarification or | Listening, Reading Questions verification
b b Asking for correction Speaking, Writing Š 2 Cooperating c Cooperating with peers All Skills
Ÿ with d Cooperating with proficient | All Skills ầ Others users of the new language
3 3 Emphathizing e Developing cultural All Skills with Others understanding
f Becoming aware of others’ | All Skills
Trang 36
2.3 Reading strategies
Brown (2001) states that helping learners to find learning strategies may be a worthy goal In learning languages, particularly in learning reading, learners use a variety of strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information (Rigney, 1978) Strategies are defined as learning techniques, behaviors, problem-solving or study skills which make learning more effective and efficient (Oxford and Crookall, 1989) Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive of a task, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they don't understand Such strategies are processes used by the learner to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures Reading strategies can be considered as an action or series of actions employed by learner in order to construct meaning (Garner, 1987)
Considering reading strategies, Duffy (1993: 232) defines that “reading strategies are plans for solving problems encountered in constructing meaning” Brantmeier (2002:1) considers reading strategies as “the comprehension processes that readers use in order to make sense of what they read” This researcher summarizes “The strategies may involve skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting, activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references, and separating main ideas from supporting ideas”
Sharing the similar point of view, Baker and Boonkit (2004) defined “Reading strategies are techniques and methods that readers use to make their reading successful Some of reading strategies include skimming, scanning, summarizing, guessing, predicting, making inference, underlying words or phrases, and taking note”
In short, reading strategies can be considered as the ways readers use in their interaction with the written text to help them get effectiveness in their reading
2.4 Compensation strategies 2.4.1 Definition
Trang 37the target language when they have insufficient knowledge of the target language The deficiency here is in both grammar and vocabulary In other words, compensation strategies are needed to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the language When learners do not know new words and expressions, they guess the meaning Learners bring their own life experience to interpret data by guessing
Compensation strategies are also divided into two strategy sub-groups: Guessing intelligently and overcoming limitations in which guessing intelligently is used for developing reading skill When talking about compensation strategies, Oxford (1990) clustered 10 compensation strategies in to two set: linguistic clues and other clues Linguistic clues include suffixes, prefixes and word order Other clues
include using text structures such as introductions, summaries, conclusions, tittles,
transitions, ways of dividing the text and using general background knowledge According to Oxford, in reading a text, readers do not have to recognize and understand every single word before they can comprehend the overall meaning The reader can actually comprehend a lot of reading passage through systematic guessing without necessarily comprehending all details (Oxford: 90) It is clear that the best way to identify an unfamiliar word in a text was to draw inferences from the rest of the text rather than looking it up on a dictionary Depending on the context to interpret words is a good strategy in reading
Many guidelines on applying compensation strategies are constructed by researchers to help learners to become accurate guesser The two major possible ways to learn the meaning of unfamiliar words are:
- Using what you know about word stems, word formation, and textual structure - Using different kind of context clues
Researchers also draw detail techniques in using compensation strategies which would be applied in this study
2.4.2 The importance of compensation strategies in reading
Trang 38of learning reading, most of students encounter the problem of unfamiliar vocabulary and unknown concept to interfere the comprehension Compensation strategies are served as tools that help students achieve comprehension easier
According to Winstead L (2004), using compensation strategies in reading can not only help reader overcome a limited vocabulary but also help them guess about the theme of article Such learning strategies can significantly increase the reading efficiency
Among many strategies applied in reading, compensation strategies are prominent because they are tools for active and self-directed involvement Students become independent with compensation strategies which contribute to students’ achievement in their gain to reading comprehension Oxford (1990: 90) stated the importance of intelligently guessing that it helps readers to overcome knowledge limitation in reading
Trang 39CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Setting of the study
The study looked closely at the situation of reading learning at Van Xuan
University of Technology School factor, student factor, teacher factor and material
factor would be considered 3.1.1 The school
The study was conducted in VXUT It is a newly established private school found in 2008 As a new born university, VXUT has to cope with many difficulties and challenges In spite of those problems, the school is striving to become a quality, socially recognized and honored institution Despite the five -year operation, the initial results have partially confirmed the effectiveness of the University’s right steps of development Along with the construction of modern facilities, beautiful environment and landscape, and ensuring security, its efforts in training, scientific research, staff build-up, international co-operation are remarkable
The university's goal is to continuously improve training quality for the undergraduates to be capable of working well in integrating environment It is also concerned with and implementing the construction of training program to update with newly renovating trend in higher education in the world The training program is designed in two ways: career - application and research - development, and applies flexible training model combining traditional pattern with multi-stage one
Trang 40only representative of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States on TOEIC- oriented foreign language teaching, has been signed The school equips language teachers with modern teaching facilities There are two modern, well- equipped lab rooms each of which has 45 internet-connected computers which are often available for students to get access in their study of English In addition, most of the classrooms have been equipped with modern teaching aids devices, computer, white boards, and projectors
Although the school is now in its first steps with many difficulties, but with the objectives of teaching English effectively and developing students’ language abilities, it is allowed to divided all students in to English classes with around 35 students per class at the most
However, there also some factors that still affect English teaching and learning Students are of different levels from elementary to intermediate There are even some students who have never learnt English before They also differ in their abilities, language competence, learning styles, interests, etc
English courses at VXUT are divided into two stages: one for General English and the other for TOEIC- oriented foreign language teaching In the first year at university, all students accumulate 7 credits of General English Generally students have 3 periods per week in the first semester and 4 periods per week in the second semester each period lasts 45 minutes The proportion of English compared to other subjects is relatively large 12 credits in the second and thirst year is for training students TOEIC- oriented English which focus mainly reading and listening skill Students learn 3 periods of English per week during these 4 following semesters After three years of learning English, all students may confidently take part in any TOEIC test
3.1.2 The teachers