An investigation into factors causing the 10th students’ anxiety in english reading comprehension classes at tam đảo high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu yếu tố gây lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường THPT Tam Đảo) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu yếu tố gây lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường THPT Tam Đảo) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng HANOI - 2016 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certificate that this combined thesis entitled “An investigation into factors causing the 10th students‟ anxiety in English reading comprehension classes at Tam Đảo high school” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this combined thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions Hanoi, 2016 Triệu Thị Hoài Thu i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study would not have been possible without the assistance of special and wonderful people First of all, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to Assoc Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng, for his unfailing encouragement, constant support and supervision during all stages of the study His enthusiastic assistance, guidance, support, and his wisdom greatly contributed to the fulfillment of my thesis I would also like to thank my supervisor for his patience in reading and editing my draft It must be an excruciating experience My heartfelt gratitude is also to the English teachers and students of Tam Dao high school for their tremendous supports in the collection of data and information for my study Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to my beloved parents, my husband, my sisters who continually gave me a lot of support and encouragement for the fulfillment of this challenging work Last but not least, I wish to express my acknowledgment to other individuals who have indirectly contributed to the completion of this thesis To all these people I only hope that the achievement of my thesis will be favorable enough to satisfy their expectation ii ABSTRACT The purpose of this study aimed at finding the sources of the students‟ English reading anxiety at Tam Dao high school, Vinh Phuc The study has been conducted in the form of survey research with the informants of 70 students in grade 10 were taken as the subjects The main instruments employed for the data collection were survey questionnaires for the students of the school Besides, to back up the validity of the collected data from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were conducted to randomly selected students who have already done the survey questionnaires The results of this study have shown that the 10th form students often have anxiety with the reading text factors, the personal factors and time constraint As a result of the study, some suggestions for dealing with reading anxiety were proposed to reduce their reading anxiety and helps students to obtain desirable results in learning reading Finally, it is hoped that the results of this study could be of much benefit for developing teaching and learning reading English at Tam Dao high school, Vinh Phuc iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English foreign language ESL : English second language L2 : Second language FL : Foreign language FLRA : Foreign language anxiety LA : Language anxiety RA : Reading anxiety iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Students' attitude towards the importance of reading 22 Chart 2: Students‟ interest in English reading lessons 23 Chart 3: Students‟ opinions on teachers‟ teaching method .29 Table 1: Anxiety caused by reading text factors .23 Table 2: Anxiety caused by personal factors 25 Table 3: Anxiety caused by time constraint 28 Table Teaching methods in helping students overcome anxiety in reading 30 v TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions .2 Scope of the study Methodology Significance of the study .2 Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading .4 1.1.1 Definition of reading? 1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension 1.1.3 The importance of reading 1.2 Types of reading 1.2.1 Skimming 1.2.2 Scanning .7 1.2.3 Extensive reading .8 1.2.4 Intensive reading 1.3 Stages of a reading lesson .10 1.3.1 Pre-reading .10 1.3.2 While-reading 10 vi 1.3.3 Post- reading .11 1.4 Anxiety 11 1.4.1 Definition of anxiety 11 1.4.2 Foreign language reading anxiety 13 1.5 Previous studies on the effect of anxiety on students‟ reading comprehension .14 1.6 Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17 2.1 Research method .17 2.1.1 The nature of qualitative research 17 2.1.2 Selection of survey research as research strategy 17 2.2 The context of the study 18 2.2.1 An introduction of Tam Dao high school .18 2.2.2 The teaching material and reading tasks in teaching reading 18 2.3 Participants 19 2.4 Instruments 19 2.4.1 Questionnaire 19 2.4.2 Semi-structured interview 20 2.5 Data collection procedure .20 2.6 Data analysis procedure 21 2.7 Summary 21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 22 3.1 Students' attitude towards the importance of reading .22 3.2 Students‟ interest in English reading lessons 22 3.3 Reading anxiety caused by each reading factors 23 3.3.1 Anxiety caused by reading text factors 23 3.3.2 Anxiety caused by personal factors 25 3.3.3 Anxiety caused by time constraint 28 3.4 Students‟ opinions on teachers‟ teaching method 29 vii 3.5 Teaching methods in helping students overcome anxiety in reading .30 3.6 Discussion .31 3.7 Summary 33 CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS .34 4.1 Raise students‟ self - awareness of anxiety 34 4.2 Increase student‟s self-confidence 34 4.3 Improve students‟ background knowledge .35 4.4 Apply appropriate reading strategies 35 4.5 Develop supplementary reading materials .36 4.6 Create a pleasant and comfortable classroom atmosphere .36 4.7 Summary 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Summary of the study 38 Limitations of the study .39 Recommendations for the further study 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I viii Items Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always 10 I feel nervous when I have to read in a short period of time 11 I get upset whenever I encounter unknown grammar in reading texts 12 I become anxious when I have to after-reading tasks What you think of teachers’ teaching method? A Not create more interesting and suitable tasks B Teach too fast to catch C Not instruct the tasks clearly and effectively D Organize little activities in pairs and in groups What should the teacher to help you overcome anxiety in reading? Give more than one choice A Create a comfortable learning atmosphere B Provide you with clear guidelines for reading tasks C Make you more aware of the importance of reading D Suggest more useful supplementary reading materials to you E Ask students to work in pairs or in groups III Appendix 1B: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA CHO HỌC SINH Các em thân mến! Cô tiến hành khảo sát đề tài với chủ đề là: “Tìm hiểu yếu tố gây lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường THPT Tam Đảo” với mục đích điều tra nguyên nhân gây e ngại Các em trả lời câu hỏi cách trung thực, thẳng thắn suy nghĩ việc học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh Xin em điền đầy đủ thông tin vào phiếu điều tra Cô xin cảm ơn! Thông tin chung Em tuổi? Em học tiếng Anh bao lâu? Theo em, khả hiểu đọc hiểu có tầm quan trọng nào? A quan trọng B quan trọng C quan trọng D không quan trọng chút Mức độ thích học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh em nào? A thích B thích C thích chút D không thích chút II Những nguyên nhân gây lo lắng cho học sinh trình đọc hiểu tiếng Anh Hãy tích vào cột với câu trả lời em nhất: (1) Không (2) Hiếm (4) Thường xuyên (5) Luôn IV (3) Thỉnh thoảng Những nguyên nhân (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên Em không hài lòng với mức độ khả đọc tiếng Anh Em cảm thấy lúng túng chủ đề đọc sách giáo khoa không quen thuộc khó Em cảm thấy e ngại em thiếu kiến thức từ vựng liên quan đến chủ đề ok Em thấy ngại gặp đọc dài Em thấy bối rối có nhiều từ đọc mà em đoán Khi đọc tiếng Anh, em trở nên lúng túng không nắm bắt ý đọc Trong lớp học đọc, em hay lúng túng quên hết nghĩa từ mà em học V Những nguyên nhân (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên Khi đọc tiếng Anh, em biết nghĩa từ câu em hiểu câu Trong lớp học đọc, em chuẩn bị kỹ lưỡng em thấy bối rối mắc lỗi 10 Em cảm thấy e ngai phải đọc thời gian ngắn 11 Em thấy ngại học gặp phải quy tắc ngữ pháp mà em hiểu đọc tiếng Anh 12 Em cảm thấy khó khăn trả lời câu hỏi thảo luận sau đọc Em nghĩ phương pháp giảng dạy đọc hiểu tiếng Anh giáo viên? A Không tạo nhiều tập thú vị phù hợp B Dạy nhanh để hiểu C Không hướng dẫn tập rõ ràng hiệu D Tổ chức hoạt động theo cặp theo nhóm VI Giáo viên nên làm để giúp học sinh vượt qua lúng túng đọc? Có thể đưa nhiều lựa chọn A Tạo không khí học không gò bó B Đưa cho học sinh hướng dẫn cụ thể cho tập C Làm cho học sinh nhận thức tầm quan trọng việc đọc D Gợi ý cho học sinh nhiều tài liệu đọc thêm hữu ích E Yêu cầu sinh viên làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm VII Appendix 2A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Do you often feel anxious in reading lessons? (if yes, it is due to the texts, your reading laziness or lack of concentration) What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? How you comment on the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? According to you, what should the teacher to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? VIII Appendix 2B: CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH Em có thường cảm thấy lúng túng hay căng thẳng học đọc tiếng Anh lớp không? (nếu có, nguyên nhân từ đọc đó, tính lười đọc hay thiếu tập trung em?) Nguyên nhân làm em e ngại việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh? Em nhận xét phương pháp giảng dạy giáo viên dạy em học đọc tiếng Anh? Theo em, giáo viên nên làm để giảm bớt căng thẳng học đọc? IX Appendix 3: TRANSCRIPTS OF STUDENTS’ ANSWERS IN THE INTERVIEW Transcript 1: T: Hello S: Hello T: Let‟s start our interview, shall we? S: Yes T: When did you start learning English? S: I started English five years ago T: Do you like learning English? S: Uhm, not very much T: What about reading classes? S: I find it a bit difficult T: Do you often feel anxious in English reading lessons? S: Yes T: Ok Why? It is due to the texts or your reading laziness or lack of concentration S: Yeah, (…) my reading laziness T: Ok What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? S: (…) I think the factors make me anxious, you know (…) I am not confident about my reading ability T: Really? S: Yes I feel anxious because my own background knowledge is limited T: Can you explain more clearly? S: In the textbook, the small units of some topic are mixed with those of others, so it is not easy to link general knowledge together T: Anything else? X S: There are unknown words that appear in the reading text I am unable to understand every word that makes me confused to understand the text and the tasks T: Have you ever forgotten any words you have learnt? S: Of course, very much T: Ok, What you think about the tasks? S: Uhm, I not have enough time to post-reading tasks T: Is it short? S: Yes… T: How you comment on the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? S: The way she conveys knowledge to us is not really effective, quite boring and uncreative to understand the content of the lesson T: According to you, what should the teacher to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? S:(…) I prefer a warm and friendly teacher who makes me ease my anxiety when learning without fear of negative evaluation T: Of course, I think so S: Yeah… T: Thanks for your cooperation S: Yeah Transcript 2: T: Hi S: Hi, teacher T: Ok Now are you ready to have an interview? S: Yes T: Ok When did you start learning English? S: I started English five years ago T: Do you like learning English? XI S: Uhm, very much T: What about English reading classes? S: I find it interesting; however, sometimes I feel confused T: Do you often feel anxious in English reading lessons? S: Yes T: Ok Why? It is due to the lessons or your reading laziness or lack of concentration S: Uhm… it is because of the texts, I think so T: Ok What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? S: For me, I not completely want to read the texts because of lack of reading skill T: How you often read the texts? S: (…) When I read, I often focus on pronunciation not on meaning T: Why not the meaning of the text? S: Because my reading strategies are not good, so I not know how to read for general idea As usual, I feel of being laughed by other better students when I make my pronunciation mistakes T: Oh, Fear of making mistakes is one of your main sources of anxiety, isn‟t it? S: Yeah I suppose T: How you comment on the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? S: My teacher often pays attention to a few students she likes or ask good students in the class for the answer T: Is it favoritism? S: (…) Yes T: What should we to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? S: I like a friendly learning atmosphere with the motivated reading activities T: What else? XII S: The teacher should also motivate and encourage us by creating more extra activities such as using the games and visual aids T: (Laugh) I hope so Thanks for today S: Yeah Bye Transcript 3: T: Hello S: Hello, teacher T: Let‟s start our talk Are you ok? S: Yes T: When did you start learning English? S: I started English five years ago T: Do you like learning English? S: Uhm, a bit T: What about reading classes? S: I find it a bit difficult T: Do you often feel anxious in English reading lessons? S: Yes T: Ok Why? It is due to these lessons or your reading laziness or lack of concentration S: Uhm My reading laziness T: What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? S: I think the factors are lengthy texts, new words, lack of background knowledge and lack of reading strategies, etc T: Can you explain them more clearly? S: Yeah When learning English reading period, I cannot understand the whole reading text without preparation at home T: Oh, well-prepared S: (…) I suppose some texts are rather long T: Do you have any difficulties in reading the text? XIII S: I personally feel frustrated and difficult in reading when I not know the meaning of a word T: So, what about the content of the text? S: Sometimes I cannot predict the content of the text (…) because I only have little prior knowledge of the topic T: How often you read some text? S: When I read in front of the class, I tried to read every word; however, the problem I face is that I cannot catch the general idea of the text because I only focus on reading accurately T: What you think of the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? S: Sometimes, she reads through reading texts quickly without explaining anymore and then ask us to the tasks T: According to you, what should we to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? S: I want to have a stress-free, safe and relaxing learning atmosphere in the class T: What else? S: Moreover, I prefer my teacher of English who is warm and friendly makes me ease my anxiety when learning without fear of negative evaluation T: Thanks for your ideas Good bye S: Yeap Bye Transcript 4: T: Hi S: Hi, teacher T: Are you ready for our interview? S: Yes T: When did you start learning English? S: I started English seven years ago XIV T: Do you like learning English? S: Uhm, not very much T: What about reading classes? S: I find it a bit difficult T: So, Do you often feel anxious in English reading lessons? S: Yes T: Ok Why? It is due to these lessons or your reading laziness or lack of concentration S: Uhm… my reading laziness T: What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? S: With the reading texts, I feel nervous because I find myself unable to understand the text even my teacher has just translated it into Vietnamese T: I think it is easy to understand, isn‟t it? S: Uhm Sometimes I also ignore unknown structures in the reading text, so I cannot understand what the author says T: Oh, really? How often you read the text in front of the class? S: (…) I find it uncomfortable to commit errors so that I try to read correctly without understanding about the text T: And reading tasks? S: I have to spend too much time reading the whole text because of my bad pronunciation, so my teacher is rather hard to instruct me how to read accurately T: How you comment on the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? S: My English is bad so I cannot understand how to the tasks if she does not instruct carefully T: According to you, what should the teacher to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? S: I think I want to have clear explanation on how to the tasks from my teacher XV T: What else? S: The teacher should motivate and encourage us by creating more extra activities such as using the games and visual aids T: I hope so That‟s all S: Yeap T: Thanks for your cooperation Transcript 5: T: Hello S: Hello T: Let‟s start for our interview S: Yeah T: When did you start learning English? S: I started English five years ago T: Do you like learning English? S: Uhm, not very much T: What about English reading classes? S: I find it difficult to understand the reading text T: Do you often feel anxious in English reading lessons? S: Yes, often T: Ok Why? It is due to these lessons or your reading laziness or lack of concentration S: Uhm I not usually concentrate your English lessons T: What are the factors that make you anxious on reading comprehension? S: I like to read the short text because they are easy to understand T: What type of reading you like? S: I like silent reading to avoid making mistakes in front of my classmates T: Why don‟t you want to correct your mistakes? S: Yes, because making mistakes is the terrible thing towards me I will not understand the text if I not read it slowly and silently XVI T: What else? S: Too many structures need memorizing make me confused T: How you comment on the teaching method of English teacher in reading classes? S: My teacher often pays attention to a few students she likes or ask good students in the class for the answer T: According to you, what should the teacher to alleviate the anxiety in reading classes? S: I want to have a stress-free, safe and relaxing learning atmosphere in the class where students can take part in lessons motivationally and the teacher pays more attention to all of us, not just good ones T: That‟s all? S: Yes T: Thanks for your cooperation XVII [...]... word combination but also work in the text actively When studying the reading comprehension, Snow (2003, p.1) defines reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning In other words, extracting and constructing are a process in reading comprehension to get the meaning and the information of the text In addition, Linse (2005, p.71) mentions that reading comprehension. .. confidence in reading English, lack of necessary reading skills, lack of English linguistic knowledge and lack of interest in reading English Therefore, some measures were suggested to alleviate student‟s anxiety in learning reading To sum up, there are many studies involved in the relationship between language anxiety, reading anxiety and reading comprehension After that, they also 15 made out whether foreign... year EFL students at the Institute of Foreign Languages and how they were related to gender and reading comprehension, and to explore the sources of their English reading anxiety The findings revealed that they had a low level of English reading anxiety and this is not different between males and females In addition, the sources of English reading anxiety was found such as linguistic features of texts,... to investigate foreign language anxiety and its effect on learn a foreign language, little has been done on anxiety in learning four skills, especially reading alone in Vietnam As a teacher of English in this school, I recognize the importance of reading, it is strongly desirable for me to propose An investigation into factors causing the 10th students‟ anxiety in English reading comprehension classes. .. about the wider population The use of survey research is to investigate the students‟ anxiety in reading lessons at Tam Dao high school seems to be appropriate because it can be useful in identifying important aspects of students‟ experience and attitude when reading and doing the reading tasks 2.2 The context of the study 2.2.1 An introduction of Tam Dao high school The study was conducted at Tam Dao high. .. for the study include Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire The findings showed that there was a negative relationship between FLRA and reading comprehension; furthermore, no such relationship was found between foreign language reading anxiety and finally compared to males, females suffered more from anxiety 14 Cabansag (2013) investigated the relationship... written symbol in that text” Therefore, it is a process of negotiating understanding between the reader and the author For the notion of reading, Harmer (1991) defines reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eye receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” (p.90) From this point of view, the relationship of reading and understanding is concretely... to reading for meaning, understanding, and entertainment He adds that there are two main reasons that people read: the first is for pleasure and the second is for information” To sum up, in reading comprehension, the readers must understand what is conveyed in the text 1.1.3 The importance of reading Reading has a significant role in the development of the readers‟ overall communicative competence and... aspects concerning the topic of the study It has discussed the theory of reading, reading comprehension and its importance as well as stages of reading also reviewed The most important issues including the definitions of anxiety and foreign language reading anxiety have been given Basing on this review and realization of the effect of anxiety on reading comprehension, we will be carrying out a survey... translate the sentence into the reader‟s first language by writing down the translation of words, or speaking the translated sentence aloud” In fact, beneficial to language learners as it helps them understand vocabulary by deducing the meaning of words in context In intensive reading, the reading materials are selected from the instructor, not the reader According to Paran (2003, p 40) as cited in