An investigation on reading stratgey use among non English specialized students at High School for Gifted Students = Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến lược đọc hiểu

LIST OF ABBREVIATION HSGS High School for Gifted Students SORS Survey of Reading Strategy LIST OF TABLES Figure 1 A Heuristic for Thinking About Reading Comprehension Figure 2 Sources

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -NINH THỊ LAN ANH

AN INVESTIGATION ON READING STRATEGY USE AMONG NON ENGLISH SPECIALIZED STUDENTS AT

HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến lược đọc hiểu của học sinh

không chuyên Anh ở trường THPT Chuyên

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HANOI- 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

- -NINH THỊ LAN ANH

AN INVESTIGATION ON READING STRATEGY USE AMONG NON ENGLISH SPECIALIZED STUDENTS AT

HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến lược đọc hiểu của học sinh

không chuyên Anh ở trường THPT Chuyên

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Cao Thúy Hồng, M.A

HANOI- 2013

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

HSGS High School for Gifted Students

SORS Survey of Reading Strategy

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 1 A Heuristic for Thinking About Reading Comprehension

Figure 2 Sources of reading comprehension

Figure 3 Levels of the Barrett Taxonomy

Figure 4 Major Aspects of Levels of Comprehension

Figure 5 Distribution of students‘ proficiency levels

Table 1 Use of Each Strategy Category

Table 2 Use of Global Strategies

Table 3 Use of Support Strategies

Table 4 Use of Problem Solving strategies

Table 5 Five Most Frequently Used Strategies

Table 6 Five Least Frequently Used Strategies

Table 7 Reading strategy use between more and less proficient students

Table 8 Five most frequently used strategies by more and less proficient

students

Table 9 Five Least Frequently Used Strategies by high and low proficient

students

TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration ……… i

Acknowledgements ……… ii

Abstract……… iii

Lists of tables ………iv

Table of contents ………v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study……… 1

2 Aims of the study………2

3 The research questions……… 2

4 Significance of the study………3

5 Scope of the study……… 3

6 Method of the study………3

7 Design of the study……….3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of reading………5

1.2 Purposes of reading……… 6

1.3 Reading process……….… 7

1.3.1 Bottom-up model……… 7

1.3.2 Top-down model……… 8

1.3.3 Interactive model……… 10

1.4 Reading comprehension ………11

1.4.1 Definition……….11

1.4.2 Factors involved in reading comprehension………12

1.4.3 Levels of comprehension……….13

1.5 Reading strategy……….16

1.5.1 Definition and characteristics……… 16

1.5.2 Categories of reading strategies……… 17

1.6 Related studies……… 19

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Settings……… 23

2.2 Participants……….23

2.3 Instruments data collection………24

2.5 Data collection procedures………25

2.6 Data analysis……… ………26

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Profile of reading strategies by non English major students at High School for Gifted Students……….……… 28

3.2 A comparison about the reading strategies employed by high proficiency and low proficiency students……… 35

PART III: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion………41

2 Pedagogical Implications……… 41

3 Limitations and recommendations for further study………43

REFERENCES………44

APPENDIX ………I

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

In the context of global integration, English plays an important role in most fields in both personal and professional life The need for English as an international language has put considerable pressure on the education system of many countries This is the same situation in Vietnam where learning English is not only the interest but also the practical demand for many people, especially for those who always have an intention of studying and working abroad Therefore, English is now taught

as a compulsory subject to students at high schools in our country

To have a good command of English, students are required to master four closely related language skills, namely listening, speaking, writing, and reading Among four skills, reading is considered to be the most important because it does not only provide students with knowledge but also help develop other language skills Reading is an important way of expanding the students‘ receptive knowledge of the language and in terms of classroom activities, it is also an effective way of stimulating students to talk and write Anderson (2003) states that reading is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning and strengthened reading skills facilitates greater progress in other areas of language learning That is to say, teaching and learning reading effectively is a central issue

in a language classroom

My teaching experiences at High School for Gifted Students have pointed out some problems students encounter in reading lessons Firstly, while students are quite proficient in other skills, their reading comprehension and reading achievement have not met the demand of the course Students have had numerous difficulties in understanding school – related academic materials Secondly, when encountering a long and complicated reading passage, students are confused about the way to achieve understanding and gain information from the text In other words, they may

have some problems with reading strategies Finally, despite having taken English

as a compulsory subject in the entrance examination into the school, grade 10 students in different classes in our school are at different proficiency levels in general and at reading comprehension levels in particular Padron and Waxman (1988) indicates that the gap in reading comprehension levels between more proficient and less proficient students is in close relationship with the differences in reading strategies used As a teacher of English, I myself think that it is essential to conduct a research on reading strategies used among students to find out the reading strategies used by students as well as see whether high and low proficiency group

differ in their strategy use As a result, I decide to choose the thesis title: “An investigation on reading strategy use among non English specialized students at High School for Gifted Students”

2 Aims of the study

The aim of the study is to investigate reading strategies used by non English major students at High School for Gifted students In particular, the study

 uncovers the overall use of reading strategies among students when reading academic materials

 explores the frequency of reading strategies that students use while dealing with academic reading text

 finds out the differences (if possible) in reading strategies used by high proficiency and low proficiency students

3 The research questions

1 What reading strategies are used by non English specialized students at Grade 10 at High School for Gifted Students?

2 Are there any differences between the reading strategies employed by high proficiency and low proficiency students at grade 10 at High School for Gifted Students?

4 Significance of the study

This study is significant for some reasons Firstly, for teachers who are teaching reading to high school students, it revealed students‘ general awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading academic materials Secondly, the study uncovered reading strategies used most commonly and least commonly by the students Finally, it may point out the differences in reading strategies between high and low proficiency students Thus, teachers can identify effective reading strategies for their students and have proper ways to promote more reading strategy instruction in class

5 Scope of the study

Reading strategies are interrelated with many other factors including reading comprehension, students‘ proficiency level, text types, etc In the scope of this study, reading strategies are only investigated in relationship with student‘s proficiency levels In addition, the sample of the study was drawn from non English major students at Grade 10 at High School for Gifted Students

6 Method of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, data were collected through the survey questionnaire and students‘ profile of proficiency levels

The quantitative research method is used with the aim of obtaining information on reading strategies used among students in general and between more proficient students and less proficient students in particular

7 Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

Part I: Introduction: presents the rationale for the study, the aims, the method, significance, the scope of the study as well as the design of the thesis

Part II: Development: consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 discusses the theoretical background relevant to the research topic

including the reading, reading process, reading comprehension, reading strategies

and reviews research conducted in the fields of reading strategies

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology of the study, which focuses on the participants, the instrument, data collection procedure, and data analysis

Chapter 3 presents the results of the study, analyzes the data and solves the requirements in the research questions

Part III: Conclusion: offers major findings, pedagogical implications and provides limitations for the study, also some suggestions for future study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter briefly discusses the theoretical background related to the study Review of aspects of reading in foreign language relevant to the study will be

included in: reading comprehension, reading process, reading comprehension level,

and reading strategies In addition, a brief overview on related studies will be presented

1.1 Definition of reading

Reading is a very personal activity which can be omnipresent in various forms By reading a lot, people can grasp what is happening all over the world and keep pace with the humankind civilization At the times of explosion of information, reading plays a greater role in our lives However, the ability to read is such a natural part of human being that people find it impossible to give an exact definition of reading Different scholars define it in different ways

According to Smith (1985: 102), ―reading is understanding the author’s thought‖

It means that the readers ―read the author’s mind not the author’s words.” If the

readers only understand the words in isolation in the text without understanding the author‘s mind, their reading is useless

Rumelhart (1997) indicates that reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between reader and text It can be seen that the reader and the text are

two essential components of reading process; it is, however, the interaction between

them that composes actual reading Sharing the same idea with Rumelhart,

Silberstein (1994: 12) states that ―reading is a complex cognitive process in which

reader and text interact to (re)create meaningful discourse‖ From these definitions,

it is apparent that reading is a process in which the reader interacts with the text to

gain some kind of meaning This meaning mainly depends on the reader who is the cognitive subject of the text

Goodman (1971: 135) claims that reading is ―psycholinguistics process by which

the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display‖ Goodman thought that this act of

reconstruction is viewed as ―a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and

confirming.‖ William (1986: 3) shares the same view on reading as Goodman,

especially on the act of reconstruction He argues that ―written texts, then, often

contain more than we need to understand them The efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning.‖

From a different perspective, Harmer (1989: 153) views reading as a mechanical

process that ―eyes receive the message and the brain has to work out the

significance of the message‖ It means that he focuses on two actions that

dominated by the eyes and the brain

In short, each author defines reading from different perspectives However, most of the definitions reveal some common features, that is, the close relationship between reading and understanding; and reading process which involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text

1.2 Purposes of reading

Reading purposes refer to readers‘ aims and objectives in reading texts That is to say, different readers have different purposes of reading Therefore, reading purposes are one of the important factors which can lead us to be successful readers Ruiqi (2007) claims that reader‘s reading purpose is an integral part of successful reading

According to Ruiqi (2007), there are two major reading purposes: reading for getting information and reading for pure fun or enjoyment Additionally, Grabe and

Stoller (2002) have classified the reading purposes under seven main headings as follows: 1) Reading to search for simple information; 2) Reading to skim quickly; 3) Reading to learn from the text; 4) Reading to integrate information; 5) Reading to write (or search for information needed for writing); 6) Reading to critique texts; 7) Reading for general comprehension

In short, many scholars such as Grabe, Stoller, and Ruiqi have recognized the importance of reading and demonstrated the reading purposes As mentioned earlier, there are a number of different reading purposes; therefore, recognizing the reading purposes is one factor which can help the students succeed in their reading tasks For the present study, only reading academic texts has been considered Therefore, the main purpose of reading for this study is to read for getting the information

1.3 Reading process

Numerous efforts to define and explain the process of reading have done in various research areas These efforts have brought up different models and views of reading, among which are: the bottom-up model (Gough, 1972), the top-down model (Goodman, 1967) and the interactive model (Rumelhart, 1977) are most frequently mentioned

1.3.1 Bottom-up model

Bottom-up reading model emphasizes the written or printed text, and it indicates that reading is compelled by text and that reading proceeds from part to whole Specifically, in bottom-up model, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom), and constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases and sentences found within, and then processes the text in a linear direction In the process of meaning interpretation, the language is translated from one form of symbolic representation

to another (Nunan, 1991) According to Eskey (2005), bottom-up processes are

composed of a broad array of various complex skills, such as word recognition, spelling, morpho-phonemic processing and morpho-syntactic parsing

In this model, the reader seems to play a relatively passive role because the basis of bottom – up processing is the linguistic knowledge of the reader Samuel and Kamil (1988) pointed out the shortcomings of these models as follows:

―Because of the lack of feedback loops in the early bottom – up models, it was

difficult to account for sentence – context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension.”

Sharing the similar viewpoint with Samuel and Kamil, Rumelhart (1977) indicates that the linear process in the bottom-up model 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

1.3.2 Top-down model

A top-down reading model is a reading approach that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text, and it states that reading is compelled by meaning and proceeds from whole to part Specifically, in the top-down process, readers predict what will come next, test their predictions and adjust or confirm them They use background knowledge to create inferences and decode symbols only when necessary for comprehension In this model it is evident that the flow of information proceeds from the top downward so that the process of word identification is dependent upon meaning first Thus the higher level processes embodied in past experiences and the reader's knowledge of the language pattern interact with and direct the flow of information, just as listeners may anticipate what the upcoming words of speakers might be This view identifies reading as a kind of ―psycholinguistic guessing game‖(Goodman, 1967)

This approach emphasizes the interaction between the reader and the text Readers have a prior sense of what could be meaningful in the text, based upon their previous experiences and their knowledge about language Readers are not restricted only to one source of information—the letters before their eyes, but have applied two other important kinds of information which are available at the same time: semantic cues (meaning), and syntactic cues (grammatical or sentence sense) The reader proves his/ her active role in the reading process by bringing to the interaction his/ her available knowledge of the subject, expectations about how language works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text (Goodman, 1967)

Apparently, top-down models have proved their pre-eminence compared with bottom-up models as the reader – the centre of the reading process proves his active role However, these models still revealed certain shortcomings by some researchers The top-down model focuses on the assumption that good readers bypass the letter sound correspondence when they read because they read so quickly That is, because good readers read at a faster speed, they do not depend upon the phonemic code However, recent evidence presented by Stanovich (1980) discredits this assumption He claims that instead of depending on meaning only, good readers may well markedly attend to graphic information, especially when they are uncertain about a word Moreover, a purely top – down concept of the reading process makes little sense for a reader who can be confused by a text containing a large amount of unfamiliar vocabulary Besides, in top-down models, the generation of hypotheses would actually be more time- consuming than decoding (Stanovich, 1980)

In short, both processes are regarded as equally important in L2 reading The extent

to which top-down or bottom-up reading process is involved more or less in a particular reading context depends on the nature of the reading text, the readers‘ reading purposes, their language proficiency, their attitudes toward reading, their

interests in reading a particular text, and their available background knowledge associated with the text they read (Koda, 2005)

1.3.3 Interactive model

As can be seen, both top-down and bottom-up models have revealed their shortcomings, the interactive theories that were popularized by Rumelhart (1977) were seen as a compromise between these two models An interactive model is one

in which bottom-up processing combines top-down processing to cooperatively determine the most likely interpretation of the input Roughly speaking, processing

in an interactive model of reading proceeds in the following way: the reader begins with a set of expectations about what information is likely to be available through visual input These expectations, or initial hypotheses, are based on our knowledge

of the structure of letters, words, phrases, sentences, and larger pieces of discourse, including nonlinguistic aspects of the current contextual situation As visual information from the page begins to become available, it strengthens those hypotheses that are consistent with the input and weakens those that are inconsistent The stronger hypotheses, in turn, make even more specific predictions about the information available in the visual input To the degree that these hypotheses are confirmed, they are further strengthened, and the processing is facilitated

Apparently, interative models place the emphasis on both the text and the reader From the text perspective, reading is seen as the application of three cueing systems – graphophonic, syntactic, and semantic – in constructing meaning From the reader‘s perspective, reading is viewed as an active process of constructing meaning through the interaction between the reader and the text Specifically, the reader‘s affective state, language competence, and prior knowledge of content and of reading processes interact with text structure, tasks, and contexts

1.4 Reading comprehension

1.4.1 Definition

The RAND Reading Study Group (2002) defines reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language Comprehension entails three elements:

• The reader who is doing the comprehending

• The text that is to be comprehended

• The activity in which comprehension is a part

The reader refers to all the capacities, abilities, knowledge, and experiences that a person brings to the act of reading Text is broadly construed to include any printed text or electronic text In terms of activity, the purposes, processes, and consequences associated with the act of reading are included

These three dimensions define a phenomenon that occurs within a larger sociocultural context (see Figure 1) that shapes and is shaped by the reader and that interacts with each of the three elements The identities and capacities of readers, the texts that are available and valued, and the activities in which readers are engaged with those texts are all influenced by, and in some cases determined by, the sociocultural context The sociocultural context mediates students‘ experiences, just

as students‘ experiences influence the context Reader, text, and activity are also interrelated in dynamic ways that vary across pre-reading, reading, and post-reading

Figure 1 —A Heuristic for Thinking About Reading Comprehension

1.4.2 Factors involved in reading comprehension

Gough and Tunmer (1986) proposed the simple view of reading, in which reading

comprehension is seen as the product of decoding and listening comprehension That is to say, the ability to decode words with the help of phonological awareness, naming speed, orthographic awareness, phonics knowledge and listening comprehension, specifically including verbal intelligence, vocabulary, prior knowledge are absolutely essential for skilled reading

Two important factors beyond decoding and listening comprehension can be

mentioned: fluency and strategies According to (Wolf & Bowers, 1999), fluency is

not an issue in listening as the speaker controls the pace, but it is needed for reading comprehension because of working memory limitations If word recognition is slow, then previous words will have faded from working memory before later words are recognized, and their joint meaning will not be able to be processed Strategies (Dole et al., 1991; National Reading Panel, 2000) are important in reading, and more useful than in listening, because the text stays present and allows re-inspections Strategies are particularly useful when the text is long and/or complex, and the reader has many options about where to attend We expect skilled readers to

extract more from text than they would from speech, and some of that comes from strategic, goal-directed, deliberate processing Reading strategies are the focus of this study, so I will go into details in the next part

Comprehension involves the relating of two or more pieces of information (Kintsch, 1999) Those pieces of information can come from long-term memory (prior knowledge), but in reading comprehension at least one piece must come from the text The pieces of information can be simple or quite complex ideas The information to be integrated is held in working memory (Baddeley, 1986), and the relating operation takes up space there too As we read, we update our mental representation of the text's meaning; these mental representations are known as mental models (Johnson-Laird, 1983) or situation models (Kintsch, 1999)

1.4.3 Levels of comprehension

Reading is a thoughtful process; it embraces the idea of levels of comprehension Different readers can respond to text at different reading comprehension levels because their ability to get the information from the text and their prior knowledge are not similar With relation to levels of reading comprehension, language specialists don‘t measure reading comprehension in the same way Barrett (1968) gives five reading comprehension levels which were cited by Jack Richards in

Reading in a Foreign Language, Alderson & Urquhart, Longman, 1984 The Barrett

taxonomy dealt with reading and listening as well It is a good guide to the levels at which we are trying to measure comprehension Five reading comprehension levels are illustrated as follow

+ Level 1: Literal comprehension

Literal comprehension is the lowest level and requires the reader to be able to tell

what the book says, it means that the reader concerns with information stated

explicitly in the text

+ Level 2: Reorganization

At this level, readers have their ability to analyze, synthesize, and organize information that has been stated explicitly in the text

+ Level 3: Inferential comprehension

Readers can use information explicitly stated along with their own personal experience as a basis for conjecture and hypothesis

+ Level 4: Evaluation

Readers can give their judgments and decisions concerning value and worth

Appreciation Evaluation Inferential Comprehension Reorganization

Literal Comprehension

Figure 3: Levels of the Barrett Taxonomy

It is the highest reading comprehension level at which there is psychological and aesthetic impact of the text on the reader

However, Vacca & Vacca (1989: 155) show levels of comprehension in terms of 3 major aspects They are presented in the diagram below:

The literal level is another way of saying readers can ―read the lines‖ of content materials They can stay with print sufficiently to get the gist of the author‘s message In simple terms, a literal recognition of that message determines what the author says

The second level of comprehension-interpretation-requires the reader to work out ideas that not stated, to read between the lines The interpretive level is laced with inferences about the author‘s intended meaning How the reader conceptualizes implied ideas by integrating information in light of what they already know is part and parcel of the interpretive process Recognizing the thought relationships that the author weaves together helps the reader to make inferences that are implicit in the material

express opinions and

form new ideas

Reading the lines

Reading between the lines

Reading beyond the lines

Figure 4: Major Aspects of Levels of Comprehension

The highest level- applied level is undoubtedly akin to the act of discovery It underscores the constructive nature of reading comprehension Also, Standal & Betza (1990: 80-83) share the same view with Vacca & Vacca (1989), they range reading questions due to three comprehension levels: Literal level, Inferential level and Higher-Than-Inferential Level In general, all three views on reading comprehension levels clearly reflect levels of readers‘ understanding

1.5 Reading strategy

1.5.1 Definition and characteristics

Reading strategies are referred to as behaviors that a reader engages in at the time of reading and that are related to some goals, or as the mental operations or processes involved when a reader purposefully approaches a text to make sense of what he reads (Cohen, 1990) However, while Cohen (1990) claims that reading strategies are consciously applied, Barnett (1989) states that they could either be conscious techniques controlled by the reader or unconscious processes applied automatically The term ‗reading skills‘ and ‗reading strategies‘ have confused scholars, teachers, and students Afflerbach et al (2008) clarified the differences between these two

terms as follows: ―Reading strategies are deliberate, goal-directed attempts to

control and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand words, and construct meanings of text Reading skills are automatic actions that result in decoding and comprehension with speed, efficiency, and fluency and usually occur without awareness of the components or control involved.‖ Carrell et al (1998)

pointed out the different involvement of reader in the comprehension process: ―The term strategies emphasizes reader‘s active participation and actual way of doing something, or the reader‘s performance, whereas the term skills may suggest the reader‘s competence or only passive abilities which are not necessarily activated‖ (p 97) In this study, reading strategies are used to refer to intentional, carefully

planned techniques by which readers monitor or manage their reading

comprehension, actions and procedures that the readers use while working directly with a text, and basic support mechanisms intended to aid the readers in

comprehending the text (Mokhtari & Sheorey, 2002)

Reading strategies have at least three features The first is that strategies are effective when they are related to solutions in specific ways Second, they are systematic Readers do not create or come across the best strategies, instead reading strategies are drawn from experience and employed systematically Finally, the strategies are finite; that is to say, a limited number of strategies can be identified (Bialystok, 1990)

1.5.2 Categories of reading strategies

Numerous studies have categorized reading strategies into different types Traditionally, recognized reading strategies are clasified as the following: skimming and scanning, rereading, contextual guessing or skipping unknown words, tolerating ambiguity, making predictions, confirming or disconfirming inferences, using cognates, activating background knowledge or schemata, and recognizing text structure (Carrell et al., 1998)

As reading research progresses, researchers have been interested in identifying the variety of reading strategies used by language learners and classifying those strategies Some studies have demonstrated three groups of strategies involved in any academic reading, namely the cognitive, metacognitive, and affective strategies (Weinsten and Mayor, 1987; Alexander and Jetton, 2000) O‘Malley, Russo, and Kupper (1985) assumed that metacognitive strategies involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring of comprehension or production while it is taking place, and self-evaluation of learning after the language activity is completed Cognitive strategies are more directly related to individual learning tasks and entail direct manipulation or transformation of the learning materials The cognitive strategies include adjusting speed of reading, guessing the meaning of

unknown words, skipping a word, rereading the text to improve comprehension, and visualizing information in the text However, Grabe (2009) recently claims that there are no distinct metacognitive strategies as a counterpart of cognitive strategies Rather, readers use reading strategies with varying levels of metacognitive awareness according to their reading goals or purposes Finally, affective strategies are the procedures that readers use to make the reading environment conducive (Teoh, 1996) Weinstein and Mayer (1987), on the other hand, proposed that affective strategies are strategies that readers use to focus attention, maintain concentration, manage performance anxiety, establish and maintain motivation, and manage time effectively Normally these are done before reading so as to enable the readers to ‗approach the reading tasks with ease and comfort‘

Mokhtari and Sheorey‘s (2002) used another classification scheme to classify the reading strategies SORS classifies the reading strategies into three different types

of strategies: Global, Problem-solving, and Support strategies Global Reading Strategies (GLOB), which can be thought of as generalized or global reading strategies aimed at setting the stage for the reading act (for instance, setting purpose for reading, previewing text content, predicting what the text is about, etc.) Problem-Solving Strategies (PROB), which are localized, focused problem-solving

or repair strategies used when problems develop in understanding textual information (for instance, checking one‘s understanding upon encountering conflicting information, re-reading for better understanding, etc.) Support Reading Strategies (SUP), which involve using the support mechanisms or tools aimed at sustaining responsiveness to reading (for instance, use of reference materials like dictionaries and other support systems) These three classes of strategies interact with and support each other when used in the process of constructing meaning from text

From my point of view, SORS is quite clear and suitable for instructing and using reading strategies in modern language learning context In addition, SORS has been

revised and tested for internal reliability (Cronbach‘s Alpha =.89 or better) Therefore, the application of this classification is convenient in terms of the practicality and effectiveness

1.6 Related studies

Most of the researchers investigate the strategies of L2 readers in comparison with L1 reading strategies or some of them compare the strategies of good and poor; successful and unsuccessful; or skilled and not so much skilled L2 readers

Hosenfeld (1977) explored the variations in strategy use of successful and unsuccessful L2 readers through the implementation of think-aloud procedure The study reveals that the successful reader keeps the meaning of the passage in mind while reading, reads in broad phrases, skips words that are seen unimportant, and has a positive self-concept In contrast, the unsuccessful reader loses the meaning of sentences as soon as they are decoded, reads in short phrases, seldom skips unimportant words, and has a negative self-concept (p 120)

Anderson (1991) attempts to identify 28 Spanish adult ESL students‘ individual differences in reading strategy use through think-aloud protocol procedure The findings of the study indicate that high scorers and low scorers of the reading measures seem to use the same strategies while performing the reading activity and taking reading tests He concludes that ―strategic reading is not only a matter of knowing what strategy to use, but also the reader must know how to use a strategy successfully and orchestrate its use with other strategies It is not sufficient to know about strategies; a reader must also be able to apply them strategically‖ (pp 468-9) Some researchers diverted their attention to the use of metacognitive strategies and metacognitive awareness of L2 readers Flavell defines metacognition as

―knowledge that takes as its object or regulates any aspect of any cognitive endeavour‖ (as cited in Baker & Brown, 1984, p 353) For Baker and Brown, this definition covers two aspects; knowledge about cognition and regulation of

cognition Knowledge of cognition consists of the readers‘ knowledge about her or his own cognitive resources, and the compatibility between the reader and the reading situation The researchers claimed that ‗metacognition‘ included checking the outcome of any trial to solve problems, planning the next action, monitoring the effectiveness of an action, and testing, revising, and evaluating one‘s strategies for learning (Baker & Brown, 1984)

Carrell (1989) attempt to explore the metacognitive awareness of L2 readers about their reading strategies and the impact of perceived reading strategy use on reading comprehension in both first and second language The participants were grouped into two at different proficiency levels Group one consisted of 45 native speakers

of Spanish whereas group two consisted of 75 native speakers of English A metacognitive questionnaire and reading texts were used to achieve the data The results revealed that for reading in the first language, local strategies or bottom- up strategies tended to be negatively correlated with reading comprehension For reading in the second language, ‗global‘ or top-down strategies tended to be positively correlated with reading comprehension Also, that local strategies tended

to correlate negatively with reading comprehension, perhaps because those with the low proficiency may have been dependent on decoding skills

Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) examined differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native English speakers when reading academic materials Participants were 150 native-English- speaking US and 152 ESL students The data on perceived reading strategy use was collected through metacognitive awareness of reading strategies inventory The results revealed that the high reading ability participants reported higher frequency of the perceived use

of reading strategies than low reading ability participants Secondly, the five most reading strategies used and the five least reading strategies used for US and ESL participants were the same Thirdly, both US and ESL participants showed awareness of almost all of the strategies contained in the survey

The reading research depending on the outcomes associated with the use of strategies and reading comprehension has defined good and poor, successful and unsuccessful, skilled, unskilled, and not-so-much skilled, and high-proficient readers It should be emphasized that there is a clear relationship between the readers‘ proficiency level and their strategy use, and the outcome of the reading process The good readers are also good strategy users because by using the cognitive and metacognitive operations, they enhance their reading comprehension They not only use a number of reading strategies but also employ them more frequently than less successful or poor readers Good strategy users not only benefit from bottom-up but also top-down reading strategies (Singhal, 2001; 2006) Moreover, good strategy users are better at declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge which assist them to employ which strategy or strategies, when and how

to apply Also, orchestrating strategies is another characteristic of good strategy users (Anderson, 1991) On the other hand, poor strategy users have misconceptions about the reading process, in other words, they are not aware of what the reading process demands They also make use of their mental capacities less because they show less cognitive effort They are not good at monitoring comprehension They apply less effective reading strategies and during processing the text they employ fewer reading strategies

In Vietnam, Dao Thi Minh Huong (2010) conducted a research on the relationship between motivation and reading strategies The results showed that motivation did have important influence on students‘ use of reading strategies The more motivation generated both the necessity and desire for the employment of a wider rang of reading strategies Additionally, some special motivation types often led to the choice of certain types of reading strategies

In conclusion, although reading strategies have been researched worldwide, it is still new to Vietnamese educational institutes There has not been any formal study

on reading strategy use among non major English students at high schools in