Effects of scaffolding strategies on english reading comprehension skill for non english major students

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYỄN THỊ HIỀN LƯƠNG EFFECTS OFSCAFFOLDING STATEGIES ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION SKILLFOR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS Major: Teac

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ HIỀN LƯƠNG

EFFECTS OFSCAFFOLDING STATEGIES ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION SKILLFOR NON – ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)

The study attempted to examine effects of scaffolding strategies on readingcomprehension skills for non English major students It aims to find out students’difficulties in learning this comprehensive skill, their expectations of teachers’methodology as well as their attitudes towards scaffolding strategies experimented

Both qualitative and quantitative research methodology were utilized in thisstudy The data was collected through the reading proficiency pretest and posttest,questionnaires, interviews and six experimental scaffolding strategies Theparticipants of the research who were divided into two groups, the control andexperimental groups, included 100 non English major students at Vinh university

The results from the study revealed that most students encountereddifficulties in all five aspects of languages namely vocabulary, backgroundknowledge, grammar, discourse structures and reading skills and reading strategies.Most of the students expressed their expectations in term of teachers’ methodologysuch as pre-teaching vocabulary, providing background knowledge and usingappropriate reading strategies The finding also showed that the reading proficiencylevel of non English major students were quite low However, this was significantlyimproved after three months experimental teaching using scaffolding strategies inreading class Additionally, all of the students expressed their positive attitudes andgood appreciations for six scaffolding strategies experimented which helped them todeal with their reading problems

On the basics of the findings, some pedagogical implications were drawn outnot only for students to become effective readers but also for language teachers andthe educational administrators to enhance students’ reading proficiency Limitations

of the study were pointed out and further research was suggested

Above of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my belovedsupervisor Dr Tran Ba Tien for his invaluable support, patient guidance, andencouragement he gave me throughout my research

I also wish to send my sincere thanks to the students of the classes I taught inorder to experiment scaffolding strategies and gather information for my surveyquestionnaire and interview Without their enthusiastic contribution, this studycould not have been successful

I am indebted to my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues fortheir invaluable comments and criticism and also for their continued interest andencouragement

Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my familymembers who are always beside me, creating favorable conditions and supporting

me both spiritually and materially to complete this thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CEFR: The common European Framework of Reference for LanguagesCLT: Communicative Language Teaching

DRTA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

P: Percentage

ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

1.1 Rationale

Being able to understand what one reads is important for learning in schooland for life in general In higher education, reading in English as a foreign language(EFL) requires teachers to explore strategies that can improve students' readingcomprehension At Vinh University, non-English major students tend to have lowlevels of English, which makes reading comprehension challenging Often,instructional approaches promote reading as a product rather than as a process Theformer focuses on the text, while the latter explores the readers, their backgroundknowledge and experience, predictions, and interaction with the text Additionally,reading comprehension skills are usually taught in school in one of two ways Onemethod is to have students read a text and then read comments or answer questionsabout the text This method stresses important components of readingcomprehension, but treats them purely as products (i.e., interpretations) rather than

as processes (i.e., constructing interpretations) In particular, it does not teachstudents what to do when they have difficulty comprehending parts of the text;nor does it teach them how to construct and revise hypotheses about what islikely to occur in the text based on what they have already read Both of theseaspects are important in constructing an interpretation of the text In an effort tofind an effective method of teaching reading skills, recent researches emphasizelearning by engaging learners in knowledge construction (Reiser, 2004) Theconditions of meaningful learning require appropriate strategies, where studentsneed to elaborate, or generate activities, such as self- questioning, semanticmapping, and summary writing, monitor learning, and construct meaning from areading text Such strategies can be considered effective in readingcomprehension (McGriff, 1996) If provided with appropriate assistance,students can attain a goal or engage in a practice task that is beyond their reach.Reiser (2004) points that with scaffolding strategies, learners receive support andassistance to successfully perform certain tasks and move to more complex ones.Similarly, Vacca (2008) suggests that when guided, supported and provided with

the necessary attributes, students become more responsible for their learning,more motivated, and more successful Scaffolding strategies are, therefore,effective for teaching reading , and such strategies influence the development ofhigher functions and skills beyond the confines of learner.

With more than 3 years of experience in teaching English at Vinh University,

I found that EFL learners face serious problems in comprehending facts stated orimplied in an English context; they are unable to realize the main ideas of given text

as well as reflect on the author’s purpose of writing Moreover, they findthemselves confronted with a vast variety of information, vocabulary, grammaticalstructures, culture aspects, and resources that make it extremely hard for them topick their ways through Consequently, if the teachers do not teach scaffoldingstrategies, the better students will develop them on their own, and the worse oneswill find reading very frustrating

All the aforementioned reasons urge the author to carry out the study entitled

“Effects of scaffolding strategies on English reading comprehension skills for English major students” Hopefully, the results could serve as a useful source ofreference for those who are concerned about the subject matter

non-1.2 Aims of the study

With the presented rationale, the specific aims of the study, accordingly, are:1) to investigate the difficulties faced by non English major students inlearning reading skill?

2) to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of scaffolding strategies toimprove reading comprehension for non- English major students

3) to propose some suggestions and recommendations to readingcomprehension teaching and learning

1.3 Scope of the study

This research focuses on investigating how scaffolding strategies affectreading comprehension skills at Vinh University Due to the limitation of time, the

author only fulfilled the study among one hundred non English major students atVinh University We also choose to focus on some scaffolding strategies namelybackground knowledge activation, pre-teaching vocabulary, using mind maps,information transfer, using visual aids¸ and previewing the text.

1.5 Significance of the study

The study is expected to be a good reference for teachers and students toimprove students’ reading comprehension skills In addition, it is also hoped that thefindings of this study will contribute to further understandings of scaffoldingstrategies in improving this receptive skill Moreover, through this study, teachers,along with their students, will become more aware of the crucial role of scaffoldingstrategies, and be able to use those strategies appropriately to their learningrequirements

1.6 The organization of the study

The study includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 – Introduction – provides the rationale, the aims of the study, thescope of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, and theorganization of the study

Chapter 2 – Literature Review and Theoretical Background – presents thereview of previous studies related to the thesis and some concepts as theoreticalbasis for the study

Chapter 3 – Research Design and Methodology – describes the researchdesign, instruments for data collection, data collection, data analysis, and researchprocedures, which gives details of the research method and describes how thehypothesis of the thesis is interpreted and explained.

Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussions – presents the results and discussionsdeveloped after the linguistics figures are analyzed

Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Implications – summarizes the main issuestouched upon in the research, the limitations of the research and some suggestionsfor further studies Following the chapters are the references and appendices

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Introduction

With the aim of providing a theoretical background to this study, the chapteralso provides a literature review which focuses on previous studies related to thepresent research It then discusses theoretical issues most relevant to the research:communication language teaching approach, nature of reading, the process oflearning and teaching reading skill, Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD),scaffolding, and scaffolding strategies

2.2 Literature review

In the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language,reading is considered as an important component because it provides inputlanguage Assuming its importance, in past years, many educators and scholars havegiven greater attention to reading comprehension (e.g Ben Davis, 2002; Bowman,1998; Hendricks, et al., 1996; Stauffer, 1957) Some of the ideas put place on thefactors that affect reading comprehension and proposed possible solutions toimprove learner’s reading comprehension Stauffer (1976) listed some techniquesthat teachers should use to teach reading as a thinking process He also proposedDirected Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) to involve reading for a purposedetermined by the students DRTA helps students develop skills in reading andthinking It encourages risk-taking via prediction Allan Collins and Edward E.Smith (1980) indicate that current methods for teaching reading comprehensiontend to emphasize the products of comprehension, and neglect the process ofcomprehension They also suggest two sets of processing skills to teach arecomprehension monitoring skills and hypothesis formation and evaluation

In term of scaffolding reading comprehension skills, a great number ofstudies have been conducted in order to find out an effective model in teaching andlearning this comprehensible skill Arthur N, Langer and Judith A (2003) discussed

a model for teaching reading and writing in which skilled language users providesupport for new language activities in context They also gave examples of typicalclassroom activities that provide too little or too much support for natural languagegrowth and of activities with balanced instructional "scaffolding." Graves, Michael;Graves, Bonnie in the book entitled “Scaffolding Reading Experiences: Designs forStudent Success” offered practical examples, updated listings of qualitychildren's literature, and new activities to promote successful readingexperiences for K-8 learners The book contains practical information on prereading, during reading, and post reading activities, along with ideas forincorporating scaffolding reading experiences into the classroom Margaret M.William (2013) found that learning to read and comprehend fiction and non-fiction text in a foreign language is a complicated task Teachers, therefore, canscaffold, i.e., providing needed support or accommodation for thecomprehension skills that will help English language learners to reach a betterunderstanding of what they are reading He also suggested some of scaffoldingstrategies such as: activating students’ prior knowledge; using read aloud tosupport reading comprehension; making comprehension learning tangible…

A more specific study of scaffolding is presented by Donovan and Smolkin(2002) They take a critical look at the issue of scaffolding in children's writing.They research the role of different levels of scaffolding in children's understandingand demonstration of their knowledge of genre Tasks range from those that provideminimal or low level support to those that provide middle or high levels of support(contextual and visual support) Interestingly, the highest level in their range ofscaffolding is described as a "direct instruction with revision" (Donovan &Smolkin, 2002, p 435) Their research revealed, however, that while scaffoldingcan assist children it may also, at times, hinder children in demonstrating their fullrange of genre knowledge (Donovan & Smolkin, 2002, p 428) This findingconfirms our concern that scaffolding, when understood as direct instruction, might

become counterproductive Furthermore, some texts for pre-service educators alsorefer to direct instruction as at the highest level of scaffolding (Berk, 2000, p 261).

Some other texts focus on the techniques of scaffolding as various forms ofadult support: demonstration; dividing a task into simpler steps; providingguidelines; keeping attention focused (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002) as well asproviding examples and questioning Breaking content into manageable pieces alsoseems to be a common feature of scaffolding that has been emphasized in the texts(McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002; Krause et al., 2003)

The most recent work on scaffolding and its relationship with students’performance in reading comprehension is that of Pishghadam and Ghardiri (2011).They compared the effects of Symmetrical (S) and Asymmetrical (AS) scaffolding

on reading comprehension of adult learners of English as a foreign language Thestudy was conducted on 52 participants, who were learners in one of the Englishlanguage institutes in Mashhad, Iran The results of the study revealed that thegroups’ performance varied on reading comprehension and results indicated thatbetter performance of students who received instructions through the ASscaffolding strategy, whereas the students of the S group had the lower mean on thepost-test The interviews revealed that most of the respondents highly preferred tohave a partner and read in pair for psychological reasons In addition, mostrespondents were believed that their presence would enhance their However, somerespondents took a more moderate view, stating that it is ok to work with a lesscapable peer to share information and experience with him

In can be seen that most researchers mentioned focused on studying howscaffolding strategies are effectively used in teaching reading comprehension skills

In sum, it can be concluded that scaffolding literacy enhances students’ confidence, self-regulation, improves critical thinking and higher order skills andhas an impact on the students’ progress and teaching practices

self-In the context of Vietnam, many studies have put emphasis on the teachingand learning reading skill Huynh Thi Mong Thuong (2009) conducted a study on

the impacts of pre-reading strategies instruction on Hung Vuong High Schoolstudent’s reading skill The author pointed out that pre-reading strategy such assemantic mapping, skimming for the main ideas, scanning for details… have apositive effect on reading comprehension skills Nguyen Thi Trinh Huyen (2009)investigated reading strategies of non-major English students at An GiangUniversity In her study, the findings showed that non major English students tend

to pay a little attention to strategies used during reading comprehension process.This author also suggested some reading strategies to improve readingcomprehension skill

In summary, the above researchers have considerably contributed toimproving the teaching and learning reading skills in some aspects However, sincethe term “scaffolding” was introduced in teaching methodology, there still havebeen no studies on the effects of scaffolding strategies in reading comprehensionskills Therefore, the researcher of this thesis finds it essential to conduct the study

2.3 Theoretical Background

2.3.1 Communicative Language Teaching

Also called Communicative Approach, Communicative Language Teaching(CLT) is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages, emphasizesinteraction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language.Historically, CLT has been seen as a response to the Audio- Lingual Method andthe Situational Language Teaching method which were questioned by prominentlinguistics like Chomsky (1957) during the 1960s This linguist rejected thestructuralist view of language and demonstrated that there is a distinction betweenperformance and competence For Chomsky the focus of linguistics was to describethe linguistic competence that enables speakers to produce grammatically correctsentences Dell Hymes held, however, that such a view of linguistic theory wassterile and that it failed to picture all the aspects of language He advocated the need

of a theory that incorporates communication competence It must be a definition of

speech community Later, Canale and Swain (1980) described four dimensions ofcommunicative competence as follow:

• Grammatical competence: refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence,

in other words, the speaker is able to use a structured comprehensible utterance(including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling)

• Sociolinguistic competence: refers to an understanding of the social context inwhich communication takes place (role relationships, shared beliefs and informationbetween participants …)

• Discourse competence: refers to the interpretation of individual messsageelements in terms of their interconnectedness and how meaning is represented inrelationship to the entire discourse or text

• Strategic competence: refers to the coping strategies that participants use toinitiate terminate, maintain, repair and redirect communication

At the level of language theory, CLT has a rich theoretical base Some of thecharacteristics of this communicative view of language can be outlined as follows:

1 Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2 The primary function of language is to allow interactions and communication

3 The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

4 The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structuralfeatures but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified indiscourse

Nunan (1991) gave a list of most recognized five features of CLT:

1 An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the targetlanguage

2 The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

3 The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language but also

on the learning process itself

4 An enhancement of the learner’s own experiences as important contributingelements to classroom learning.

5 An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outsideclassroom

In summary, CLT has gained widespread acceptance in the world oflanguage study CLT can succeed, providing that teachers don’t completely rejectthe need for the structure provided by grammar In other words, CLT, in the hands

of a balanced teacher, can bring new life and joy to the classroom Its vitality makes

it an important contributor to language learning approaches

2.3.2 The teaching of reading

2.3.2.1 The nature of reading

Being considered a receptive language skill, reading, according to Goodman(1971, p 135), is “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader - a language user,reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as agraphic display” The traditional method considered reading as a passive processand neglected the role of readers as well as their background knowledge andstrategies Current views, however, states that reading is an active process in whichreaders relate information in the text to what they already know Thecomprehension of a written text is the result of the interaction between knowledge

of the world and various types of the language knowledge Reading comprehension,therefore, is the ability to retain information of a written text to the fullest of thereaders Grellet defines that “reading comprehension or understanding a written textmeans extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”(Grellet, 1981, p 34) From this point of view, Grellet focuses on readers’ ability ofunderstanding the meaning of a written text based on the individual’s backgroundknowledge Having the same point of view with Grellet, Swan states that “A student

is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as

to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding”

expressing the content of the text in many ways such as summarizing the text,answering questions, etc.

2.3.2.2 The process of teaching and learning reading comprehension skills

2.3.2.2.1 The bottom –up reading process

Bottom-up theories hypothesize that learning to read progresses fromchildren learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding whole text(meaning) Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the readingprocess say that the reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an examination ofeach piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make a picture Twobottom-up theories of the reading process remain popular even today: One Second

of Reading by Gough (1972) and A Theory of Automatic Information Processing byLaBerge and Samuels (1974) Gough’s (1972) One Second of Reading modeldescribed reading as a sequential or serial mental process Readers, according toGough, begin by translating the parts of written language (letters) into speechsounds, and then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece thewords together to arrive at an understanding of the author’s written message.Teachers who believe that bottom-up theories fully explain how children becomereaders often teach subskills first: they begin instruction by introducing letter namesand letter sounds, progress to pronouncing whole words, then show students ways

of connecting word meanings to comprehend texts Although bottom-up theories ofthe reading process explain the decoding part of the reading process rather well,there is certainly more to reading than decoding To become readers, students mustcompare their knowledge and background experiences to the text in order tounderstand the author’s message Also called date- driven reading process, thismethod obviously requires a sophisticated knowledge of the language itself Fromamong all the perceived data, the reader selects the signals that make some sense,that cohere, that “mean” Stanovich (1980) states that an important shortcoming ofthis model is the fact that it is difficult to account for sentence-context effects andthe role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition

and comprehension (because of lack of feedback) According to Swan (1973), thedecoding model is inadequate because it underestimates the contribution of thereader who makes predictions and processes information It fails to recognize thatstudents utilize their expectations about the text, based on their knowledge oflanguage and how it works Goodman (1970) claims that all reading involve a risk-

a guessing game- because readers must, through a puzzle- solving process, infermeanings, decide what to retain and what not to retain and move on This is where acomplementary method of processing written text is imperative: top-down, orconceptually- driven, processing in which we draw on our own intelligence andexperience to understand a text

2.3.2.2.2 The top- down reading process

Top-down reading models teach students to read by introducing them toliterature as a whole Instead of teaching students to read by sounding out eachword in a sentence, teachers read whole passages of a text Students begin to usecontext clues to decipher unfamiliar words The National Capital LanguageResearch Center reports top-down reading models are helpful to those learning asecond language because they help students concentrate on the whole meaning of apassage The theory also works with those just learning to read, as readers rely ontheir previous knowledge to decipher text or unfamiliar words This reading processbegins with the reader’s hypothesis or predictions about the text he or she is going

to read The reader, afterwards, reads and checks whether or not his or herpredictions are correct This method is, therefore, a process of constructinginterpretations rather than decoding forms and the reader only turns to decoding ifnecessary, that is, if other means fail The advantage of top- down reading process

is it considers the reader an active participant in the reading process From earlierviews of SL reading as a passive linguistic decoding process (bottom-up) to morecontemporary views of SL reading as an active predictive process However, one ofshortcomings of this method, according to Stanovich (1980) is for many texts, the

skilled reader can generate predictions, this would take much longer than it would

to recognize the words Strang (1984), therefore, claims that a top-down model ofreading is essentially a model of the fluent reader and does not account for all theneeds of students who are acquiring reading skills These limitations of top-downmodel make reading specialists find out a compensatory approach which is calledinteractive reading (Stanovich)- a combination of top- down and bottom- upprocessing The interactive reading is almost a primary ingredient in successfulteaching methodology because both processes are important “In practice, a readercontinually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top- down approach topredict probable meaning, then moving to the bottom- up approach to checkwhether that is really the writer says” (Nuttall, 1996, p 17)

2.3.3 Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Scaffolding

2.3.3.1 Zone of Proximal Development

The zone of proximal or potential development perhaps is the best knownconcept of Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology Vygotsky defines Zone ofProximal Development (ZPD) as “the distance between the actual developmentlevel as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potentialdevelopment as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or incollaboration with more capable peer” (1978, p 86) Initially, it was elaborated forpsychological testing in schools (Vygotsky, 1962) Vygotsky stated that testingshould be based not only on the current level of a child's achievements but also (andmainly) on the child's potential development The actual level of development (level

of independent performance) does not sufficiently describe development Rather, itindicates what is already developed or achieved; it is a “yesterday of development”.The level of assisted performance indicates what a person can achieve in the nearfuture, what is developing (potential level, “tomorrow of development”, what aperson “can be”) (Vygotsky, 1978) Thus, the zone of proximal development is thedistance between what a person can do with and without help The term proximal(nearby) indicates that the assistance provided goes just slightly beyond the

learner’s current competence complementing and building on their existing abilities(Cole & Cole, 2001).

The concept of the ZPD can be fully understood only in the context and aspart of Vygotskian theory on the whole "In fact, failure to see the connectionsbetween the zone and the theory as a whole means that it is difficult to differentiateVygotsky's concept from any instructional technique that systematically leadschildren, with the help of an adult, through a number of steps in the process oflearning some set of skills" (Cole & Cole, 2001)

There is a consensus that Vygotskian socio-cultural psychology and thenotion of the zone of proximal development are at the heart of the concept ofscaffolding (Berk, 2001; Daniels, 2001; Wells, 2001; McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002).However, the interpretations and explanations of the exact ways that scaffoldingrelates to it have been different These range from understanding scaffolding as adirect application and operationalization of Vygotsky's concept of teaching in thezone of proximal development (Wells, 1999), to the view that the notion ofscaffolding only partially reflects the richness of Vygotsky's zone of proximaldevelopment ( Daniels, 2001)

Mercer and Fisher (1993, in Wells, 1999) view the ZPD characteristic oftransfer of responsibility for the task to the student as the major goal of scaffolding

in teaching In order to qualify as scaffolding, they propose, a teaching and learningevent should: a) enable the learners to carry out the task which they would not havebeen able to manage on their own; b) be intended to bring the learner to a state ofcompetence which will enable them eventually to complete such a task on theirown; and c) be followed by evidence of the learners having achieved some greaterlevel of independent competence as a result of the scaffolding experience (Wells,

1999, p 221) The emphasis of their definition is on the collaboration between theteacher and the learner in constructing knowledge and skill in the former

Field (2004) describes the relationship between scaffolding and ZPD as

attention in a task, guiding him toward appropriate goals, marking prominentfeatures of a task and showing related strategies Scaffolding has a significant role

in supporting a child to progress into his ZPD ZPD provides educational experts aclear and a simple guideline about how to support learners at each learning stage

2.3.3.2 Scaffolding strategies

In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used

to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately,greater independence in the learning process The term itself offers the relevantdescriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels of temporary support helpstudents reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they wouldnot be able to achieve without assistance Like physical scaffolding, the supportivestrategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and theteacher gradually shifts more responsibility over the learning process to the student

Scaffolding is widely considered to be an essential element of effectiveteaching, and all teachers—to a greater or lesser extent—almost certainly usevarious forms of instructional scaffolding in their teaching In addition, scaffolding

is often used to bridge learning gaps—i.e., the difference between what studentshave learned and what they are expected to know and be able to do at a certain point

in their education For example, if students are not at the reading level required tounderstand a text being taught in a course, the teacher might use instructionalscaffolding to incrementally improve their reading ability until they can read therequired text independently and without assistance One of the main goals ofscaffolding is to reduce the negative emotions and self-perceptions that studentsmay experience when they get frustrated, intimidated, or discouraged whenattempting a difficult task without the assistance, direction, or understanding theyneed to complete it

Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976, p 90) define scaffolding as “A process thatenables a child or a novice to solve problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goalwhich would be beyond his unassisted efforts” They coin the term scaffolding as a

metaphor to describe the effective process by which an adult, a peer, or a competentperson assists a child to perform a task beyond his or her current capability Sincethen, a great number of educational specialists and experts have used the concept todescribe and explain the role of adults or more knowledgeable peers in guidingchildren’s learning and development (Stone, 1998; Wells, 1999; Hammond, 2002).Scaffolding, however, can be traced to Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of “the zone ofproximal development (ZPD)”, which is the actual developmental level of thelearner compared with the level of potential development that can take place withguidance or collaboration with a more competent person It directs attention to theneed for support in the learning process, and does so in a way that emphasizes thatexcellence in teaching is necessarily responsive to the state of understandingachieved by particular learners In computer mediated technologies, a human tutor,peer students or intelligent agents can provide scaffolding so that learners couldattain new skills, concepts and knowledge (Mc Loughlin, 2004)

One of the most common questions that a responsible teacher may pose tohimself is “What are the most beneficial strategies for my struggling readers?” Infact, by scaffolding reading instruction with various strategies, you will improve thereading abilities of most students The key is to apply reading strategies persistentlyand imaginatively As with any new skill, these reading strategies should be taughtthrough a scaffolding method, which includes modeling the strategy, providingstudents with opportunities for guided practice with strategy, and then havingstudents independently apply the strategy Because students have different readingstyles, they are not likely to find all reading strategies equally useful While aparticular strategy may reinforce strength that one student has or may provide thekey to overcoming a reading difficulty, the same strategy may prove to be tedious

or useless to another student For this reason, the explicit teaching of readingstrategies should also include opportunities for students to reflect on theeffectiveness of the strategy By considering questions such as:

- How does this strategy relate to something I already do or don't do as a reader?

- How might I use this strategy with texts from other subject areas?

students will become increasingly aware of the strategies that help them to readmore effective Strategies, in their turn, make students become active learners andtherefore, their zone of proximal development can be maximized through the help

of their peers and teacher Scaffolding, however, should be temporarily providedand it is gradually removed bit by bit as the learners become more competentindependently (Collins, 2004) From my own experience in teaching English, I havefound some useful scaffolding strategies which can activate and stimulate students

in learning reading comprehension skills as follow:

2.3.3.2.1 Prior knowledge activation

Widely used as a before reading strategy, Prior Knowledge Activation wassuggested in the literature by knowledgeable researchers According to Rumelhard(1994), activating background knowledge for learning involves helping Englishlearners make “connection between their own knowledge and experiences and thenew information being taught” Cummins (2009) affirms that activating andbuilding prior knowledge help ESL (English as Second Language) students learncontent, and suggests strategies such as brainstorming or discussion, using bothvisuals and graphic organizers Similarly, Carrel (1988, p 245) suggests numerousways in which relevant schemata may be constructed: visual aids, demonstrations,discussions, role-play, text-previewing, key vocabulary, key word/key conceptassociation activities, questioning and brainstorming Research has shown thatcomprehension can be improved when a reader’s relevant prior knowledge isactivated before reading (Nunan, 1991) By assisting students to recall knowledgeneeded for a given text, the teacher helps them in building bridges from the new tothe known Prince (1987) found that comprehension was even improved byconducting certain enrichment activities before reading rather than afterward.Comprehension is also enhanced by adding important background knowledge thatstudents lack Carell (1988) affirms that "Activating prior knowledge is something

that we do naturally as adult readers, as mature readers We always relate whatwe're reading to something we know As a matter of fact when we read we reallyhave to think about those connections.” This author also suggests that teachersshould choose texts that content familiar topic to help students activate theirbackground knowledge Some following questions can be used to begin a readingassignment:

• What do I already know about?

• Have any of you ever experienced?

• What have you read before about?

Teachers can use Preview Guide based on the assignment to help studentsstart to explore their opinions or knowledge on as topic Preview Guides are series

of key statements from the text that students are assigned to read Students readeach statement and respond as to whether they agree or disagree The statements tapand share students’ prior knowledge and help them to set purposes during reading.Important tips for an effective Preview Guide are: only select the statements thatrepresent the key concepts in the text; limit the number of total statement to eight ortwelve which is arranged in the same order that they appear in the text Here is anexample of Preview Guide for the reading “The world’s first megalopolis” – NewHeadway Pre-intermediate

I agree I don’t agree

China is a communist country

One in five people in the whole world is Chinese

Chinese people love tradition

Chinese people prefer bicycles to cars

The biggest city in the world is in China

Chinese families can have only one child

A K-W-H-L Chart can help students organize their thoughts before they beginreading They should concentrate on completing the first three columns of the chart

What I know What I want to

• Introduce background knowledge as outlined in your reading program andactively engage students

• “Front load” passage reading by teaching additional background knowledgeneeded to better understand the passage.

• Prior to passage reading, select and read aloud a book that provides necessarybackground knowledge

Recognizing the importance of KWL chart in activating backgroundknowledge, this author emphasizes that to increase student success, teachers should

“front load” before having students respond to KWL chart If this is done, studentswill “know” something and will have a basic for formulating questions about whatthey want to find out

2.3.3.2.2 Pre-teaching vocabulary

The famous linguist David Wilkins sums up the importance of vocabulary bysaying “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothingcan be conveyed” Similarly, many researchers agree that vocabulary is related toreading comprehension Osborn and Hiebert (2004) state that “Indeed, one of themost enduring findings in reading research is the extent to which students’vocabulary knowledge relates to their reading comprehension” Similarly, Baker,Simmons, and Kame’enui (1997) contend that “Children who enter school withlimited vocabulary knowledge grow more discrepant over time from their peerswho have rich vocabulary knowledge” In fact, for a long time, reading specialistshave though that simplifying syntax helps make text readable However, Strotherand Ulijin (1987) compared reading comprehension scores of native and non-nativesubjects reading original texts and texts that had been simplified syntactically butnot lexically The results did not reveal any difference and so they came to aconclusion that simplifying syntax does not necessarily make text more readable.They suggested that a conceptual rather than a syntactic strategy should be used (inAlderson, 2000, p.73) This involves processing content words, and thus requireslexical and content knowledge Their findings concur with Berman (1984), whoalso found that syntax was not a significant factor Vocabulary knowledge is the

the vocabulary, the more swiftly the reader can make accurate associations withprior knowledge and comprehend a text (Beatrice S Mikulecky; A short course inteaching reading).

For these reasons, it is crucial to pre- teach key words from a readingassignment, particularly when students are still at a quite low level Menzo et al.contend that “pre-teaching selected words from a reading selection before studentsread greatly improves their comprehension of the material” (2001, p.165) Research

by Laufer (1989), and Liu and Nation (1985) also shows that readers need to knowabout 95% of the words in text to achieve adequate comprehension, and to be able

to guess the unknown words from the context (in Alderson, ibid p 35) Thisactivity helps to make the language input comprehensible (Krashen, 1982) andserves as a kind of scaffolding, which derives from Vygotsky’s (1978) concept ofthe Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) – the area between what they can doindependently and what they can do with assistance However, pre-teachingvocabulary doesn't mean pulling a dozen words from the reading text and havingstudents look up definitions and write them out Instead, teachers should introducethe words to kids in photos, and in context to things they know and are interested in.Using analogies, metaphors and inviting students to create a symbol or drawing foreach word are also effective ways The dictionaries will be used only to comparewith those definitions they've already discovered on their own

There are a number of methods to pre-teach key vocabulary The easiest way

is to give definitions One of the advantages of this technique is time-saving, butsuch dictionary explanation “rarely generates excitement, enthusiasm, or emotion”(Manzo et al 2000, p 163) Willis also points out that “there are sometimesproblems with direct pre-teaching a list of useful words and phrases Students whodon’t know them will want to spend sometime writing them down and practicingthem, while others who know them already will be bored and feel they are wastingtime” (1996, p 43) It is therefore advisable to help students find the meaningthemselves by doing vocabulary building activities, such as matching, multiple

choice questions, gap-filling, words in context, or by ways of semantic maps orother word games, etc The following are some examples of pre-teachingvocabulary introduced by Beaumont (2002).

1 Guessing words’ meaning from context and gap filling

Instructions: Read the words and sentences containing the words and guess themeaning Then complete the sentences with one of the words

Color (noun)

• Red, orange, yellow, green are each a color

• A photo can be in color or in black and white

Property (noun)

• A property is a characteristic used to tell one substance from another

• Fluidity is a property, or attribute, of water

Size (noun)

• Size is how big something is

Jen is taller than I am, so her jeans are a larger size than mine

• My favorite cookie cutter is in the shape of a heart

• It is hard to draw the shape, or form, of a perfect circle

Matter (noun)

• Matter is the same as material substance

• A horse, a rock, and oxygen are each an example of matter

1 The……….of her clay pot is like a globe

2 Blowing more air into a balloon changes its………

3 All,………has mass, or substance

4 She used a different……….of paint for each strip of the rainbow

5 Synonyms for……….include characteristic and attribute

6 Metal is a………used to make bodies of cars

2 Definitions and gap-filling

Instructions: Read the words and their definitions, and then complete each sentencewith one of the words

Ability: A skill or talent; the power to do or act (noun)

Habitat: the natural environment of a plant or animal (noun)

Predator: an animal that hunts and eats other animals to survive (noun)

Prey: an animal that is hunted and eaten by a predator (noun)

Rodent: a small mammal such as a mouse or rat that has large front chewing teeth

(noun)

Field guide: a book that helps people identify things in nature (noun)

• An eagle is a ……… of mice

• Animal hunted by other animals are called………

• Sara is the star of her soccer team because of her…… to scoregoals

• A wetland………is home to many birds

• We looked in a ……….to identify different types of hummingbirds

• Almost every type of……….eats plant, especially seeds

a thief

a will

a legstocks and shares

a childragged closes

a lot of money from someone

Amputate a lot of money in something

4 Student- Friendly- Explanation

As mentioned above, the easiest way to pre- teach vocabulary is givingdictionary definition This method, however, “rarely generates excitement,enthusiasm, or emotion” (Manzo et al 2000, p.163) In order to compensate thisshortcoming, Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2003) proposed Student- Friendly-Explanation which focuses on using known words to give an easy understandingdefinition Observe the table comparing dictionary definition and Student- Friendly-Explanation of some words below:

Word Dictionary Definition Student-Friendly-Explanation

Train (verb)

Teach a particular skill or type

of behavior through practice andinstruction over a period of time

When you teach an animal to dosomething, you train the animal

Migrate

(verb)

Move from one region or habitat

to another especially regularlyaccording to the seasons

When birds or other animals movefrom one place to another at acertain time each year, theymigrate

Survive

(verb)

Continue to live or exist,especially in spite of danger orhardship

When people or animal don’t diewhen thing are very bad or verydangerous, they survive

Anita L Archer (2008) contends that Student- Friendly- Explanation isabsolutely useful because it may compensate the disadvantage of dictionary

definitions which are usually difficult to understand for students She also gave afour- step- instruction to introduce new words as follow

• Step 1: Introduce the word by writing it on the board: This word is relieved.What word?

• Step 2: Present a student- friendly explanation by telling students theexplanation or having them read the explanation with the teacher: “When somethingthat is difficult is over or never happened at all, you feel relieved.”

• Step 3: Illustrate the word with examples by giving concrete examples, or/and visual representations and verbal examples: “When the spelling test is over, youfeel relieved”

• Step 4: Check students’ understanding by choosing one of four optionsbelow:

- Option 1: Ask deep processing questions: When Maria was told that the soccergame had been cancelled, she said, “I am relieved” Why might Maria be relieved?

- Option 2: Have students discern between examples and non- examples: “If youwere nervous singing in front of others, would you feel relieved when the concertwas over?”

- Option 3: Have students generate their own examples : “Tell your partner a timewhen you were relieved”

- Option 4: Provide students with a “sentence starter” Have them say the completesentence: “Sometimes your mother is relieved Tell your partner when your mother

is relieved Start your sentence by saying, “My mother is relievedwhen………””

2.3.3.3.3 Using mind maps

A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information thatincludes a central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics Amind mapping strategy is a strategy using a diagram to represent words, ideas,tasks, or other information connected to and arranged around a central key word or

idea The Mind Mapping concept was popularized widely by Tony Buzan (Buzan &Buzan, 2004) It is based on the theory of Radiant Thinking- each bit of informationentering your brain (sensation, memory, thought) can be represented as centralsphere which radiates tens, hundreds, thousands, millions of hooks, each of whichrepresents an association and each association has its own infinite arrays of linksand connections (Buzan & Buzan, 2004) Buzan & Buzan further argue thathuman’s brain contains maps of information, which has an ability to make patternsusing data it already processes and ability to process vast amount of informationusing radiant instead of linear structures Using mind map means employing orfunctioning our brain naturally in receiving, processing information, and enhancingmemory, concentration, and creativity Now, it has been widely used as a learningtechnique in various disciplines to generate structure, visualize, and classify ideas It

is therefore, crucial to train students to take notes or learn to use a mind mappingstrategy Through mind mapping, they will be able to take notes the importantpoints, classify or summarize them, and link relationships among the points Sujana(2012), in her research “Integrating a mind mapping technique and information gapactivities in teaching academic reading in English” concludes that if mind mappingtechnique is practiced continually in teaching and learning reading, it can improvestudents’ ability in comprehending text quickly and comprehensively She furthercontends that Mind Mapping avoids students from just copying the informationfrom the text, improves their creativity in expressing ideas, make them get used tosummarizing as needed in reading texts In fact, having just the keys words ratherthan sentences in the mind mapping notes will make learning more internalized, andmore creative; therefore, the learning will be more effective, meaningful and well-organized

In order to make comprehensive and meaningful mind maps, students should

be trained continuously to do step by step procedures Here are the suggested steps

in using a Mind Mapping strategy:

1 In the center of the page, write the title of the passage/ article

2 On the first layer, write the key words of subdivision/ subheading whichshow parallel ideas.

3 On the next layer, write the key words on each subheading

4 Draw lines to see the relationships among the ideas

After completing the mind map, students should be trained again to express the content of the passage based on the result of the mind map They are notallowed to look back to the passage It is important for the teacher to check whetherthey understand what they take notes or not by asking the students to use their ownwords to re-express- this will make learning more challenging for them Thispractice will also train students’ memory for retaining important information Hereare an example ofusing mind map to teach a reading text- an article from TargetPet- a course book for target CEFR- B1 level for non English major

re-2.3.3.3.4 Information transfer

Information transfer is defined as an activity involves getting students to putspoken or written texts into another form, such as a chart, grid, picture, table or

diagram – or vice-versa With this strategy, the teacher can prevent the studentsfrom copying chunks without understanding them by requiring a differentorganization to the text These tasks encourage deep processing of information Theinterpretation of text, diagram or tables is a skill that is very useful both in academicand everyday life According Aderson (1982), it can assist students in applyingspecific criteria in the evaluation of a text Information transfer is ideal for testingand helping comprehension of nonliterary discourse Other types of informationtransfer include ordering a sequence of pictures, comparing text and pictures, andcompleting documents Information transfer devices focus on the function oflanguage in a given text and draw students' attention to the logical organization ofthe text, to the ways in which the writer has deployed information, and to howlanguage reflects this organization These activities require students to concentrate

on what words, sentences, and other language units do in a given text One of theadvantages of Information Transfer is that it involves only a few necessary words toget the idea across and students are required to recast the information in spokenform, and then in written forms Doing this kind of work, therefore, helps them gainconfidence that they can be articulate on their own words, rather than just repeating

or copying the words of others Another benefit to Information Transfer is that it isopen-ended This kind of data gives the students a topic and quite a bit ofinformation, but it is always possible for the students to add their own idea andinterpretation In fact, Information Transfer in a visual form is comprehensivewhether a student is linguistically gifted or not In addition, students can worktogether to complete a task, thus encouraging an open and sharing atmosphereamong students with a range of talents and personalities Tran Thi Diem Thi andNguyen Thi Loan in their research paper entitled “Information Transfer use inEnglish teaching” content that there are three reasons why introducing InformationTransfer strategy in teaching reading could be advantageous:1) it diversifies thetechniques used; 2) it helps students read the whole; 3) and it helps with real lifecommunication In daily life, for example, we can see most information is presented

in visual and symbolic form such as timetables, memos, plans, maps, immigrationand application forms……So, if language teachers can apply this strategy in class,this will be a wonderful preparation for students’ life later Students should beencouraged to practice and get acquainted with these types of reading text and bydoing so, students can develop the ability to decode information from visual anddiagrammatic texts at the same time with the ability to transfer information fromlinguistic forms into a kind of symbolic form The following are examples of usingInformation Transfer Strategy in teaching reading.

1 Ask students to read the text describing a family and complete a family treediagram

2 Ask students to read the text describing a form of government and complete adiagram

2.3.3.3.5 Using visual aids

There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words When itcomes to comprehension, this saying might be paraphrased “a visual display helpsreaders understand, organize, and remember as much as a thousand words canhelp” Visual aids such as educational posters, graphic organizers, projectors,pictures, maps, power point presentations, and films…… are useful tools inteaching reading comprehension skills In fact, in our daily life, we learn 3 %through taste, 3 % through smell, 6% through touch, 13 % through hearing, and 75

% through seeing Though we use all our senses to learn, it seems that seeing is thesense where most of our learning comes from So this tells us that the most effectiveways to clarify and bring understanding to what is being taught is to actually showthe students In addition, visual makes learning more permanent because manyscientific researches prove that typically in 3 days we will remember 10 % of all wehear, 35 % of all we see, and 65 % of all we hear and see at the same time This tells

us that if we want to effectively have the students remember the lesson taught, weneed to show and tell them This conclusion is also supported by another researchwhich contents that there are 83 % of people learn by seeing This means that 83 %

of our students are visual learners in comparison with 11 % auditory learners (learn

by hearing), and 6 % kinesthetic learners (learn by moving, doing and touching).According to Berman (1984), consistent use of visual aids provides EFL studentswith a more memorable learning environment This is supported by the researchentitled “Using visual aids as a motivational tool in enhancing students’ interest inreading literacy texts” in which the author agrees that the use of visual aids isrelevant and enjoyable This author also explains that this was probably because theuse of visual aids makes it easier for the students to understand the abstract ideas inthe texts The following are example of using visual aids as a strategy in teachingreading comprehension skill

1 Using photographs in teaching a text from a travel guide: What to see in Montreal(Target Pet- students’ book): The text presents a lot of monuments, beautifulsightseeing, places and famous statues in Montreal The teacher, therefore, can usephotos in color to illustrate them and it is easier for the students to imagine andremember them It is also interesting if the teacher use a map to facilitate thelocation of Montreal city as well as to activate students’ background knowledge

2 A film or movie about natural disasters is useful to teach the text “Unless we actnow…….” (Target Pet- students’ book) After watching the film, the teacher canask students to discuss about the causes, consequences as well as the solutions forthe disaster

2.3.3.3.6 Previewing Strategy

Previewing, along with predicting are two reading strategies that involvetapping prior knowledge, thus activating mental networks of information that willhelp students to comprehend what they read Being considered a high-speed andpowerful reading skill, previewing enable students to gain enough information fromthe text to begin hypothesizing about its contents and to engage many part of thebrain in the cognitive process of matching new information with what is alreadyknown

We all preview in our daily lives For example, when students sign up for anew course, they are encouraged to read the syllabus to find out what to expectduring the semester; many people, before reading a new book, has the habit ofpreviewing it by reading the front and back covers, the table of contents and theauthor’s name….However, students who may preview something in their personallives often neglect this important step when they are reading in a second language.

It is, therefore, helpful for teachers to teach students how to preview in readingcomprehension skills According to Beatrice S Mikulecky, previewing has manybenefits First, it allows students to establish the genre, context, topic, level ofdifficulty, and organization of the text to be read By being aware of the topic,students can activate background knowledge which allows him to read for themeaning, even if many of the words in the text are unfamiliar The students realizeone again that it is not necessary to read every word to understand and gaininformation from a text Training in previewing helps students to develop the habit

of giving texts a quick “once-over” before reading, the groundwork for learning toskim, which is a much more complicated task Students, however, often do not have

a systematic approach to previewing Teachers, therefore, should point out thefollowing steps before the class begins to work on the previewing exercises (thesteps are suggested by Beatrice S Mikulecky (2012)):

1 Read the title

2 Look at any pictures

3 Notice if the text is divided into parts

4 Read the first sentence of each paragraph

5 Read the last paragraph or at least the last sentence

6 Notice names, numbers, dates, and words that stand out

In order to make sure that students realize how helpful previewing is, theteacher can begin with an exercise that allows students to experience the power ofpreviewing and begin to recognize the importance of background knowledge This

can be done by having students preview a passage and then answer several multiplechoice questions about the passage It is important that the passage would be at thestudents’ reading level and would be followed by eight to ten multiple- choicequestions After the students have completed answering the questions, hand out theanswers and ask them to check their work and explain how they got their answers.According to Beatrice S Mikulecky, students can usually have several of correctanswers, which surprises them and they can gain confidence from thisdemonstration of the importance of background knowledge

It is also important to notice that previewing differentiates according to thereading text’s types such as articles, essays, text books, and text book chapters

2.4 Summary

This chapter has presented theoretical background to the teaching of readingskill as well as some scaffolding strategies which will be used in order to improvereading comprehension skills for non English major students There has beensignificant international research related to the improvement of the teaching andlearning of reading skills However, importantly, in the context of Vietnam, there isvery few studies on scaffolding strategies for non English major who are not, tosome extent, at a high level of English in general, of reading proficiency inparticular Therefore, the present researcher aims to develop this study with the goal

of experimenting suitable scaffolding strategies and examining the effects of thesescaffolding strategies on reading comprehension skills of non English majorstudents The next chapter will examine in detail the methodology to be used tocarry out the study