Effects of extensive reading on efl students writing ability (tt)

ABSTRACT This present study was conducted to investigate the effects of extensive reading on the improvement of EFL students’ writing ability, length of text and students’ attitudes toward extensive reading This research was conducted in seven weeks with 53 Tra Vinh university’s EFL students who are different majors in scientific fields Students were randomly assigned into two groups, a control group who worked works by reading texts in the course book, and an experimental group who worked with extensive reading A selection of graded readers, which appropriates to the students’ English level of proficiency as defined in the university curriculum of English learning and teaching for science students The pre-test and post-test of both groups were analyzed to answer the research questions In order to obtain the students’ attitudes towards extensive reading, questionnaires and interviews were administered to the participants in the experimental group The results indicated that the students in the experimental group gained higher mean scores than those in the control group in writing ability and text length Besides, students’ attitudes towards extensive reading had higher mean scores in the post-test compared to the pre-test, however, the statistics did not improve These findings revealed that the use of extensive reading contributed to the improvement of the students’ writing ability and there was a correlation between the text quality and text length By contrast, with five – week intervention, the students’ attitudes towards extensive reading did not change statistically significant v TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Page Declaration .iii Acknowledgement iv Abstract v Table of contents vi List of abreviations viii List of tables ix List of figures x CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aim of study 1.3 Research hypothesis 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Extensive reading 2.1.1.What is extensive reading? 2.1.2.Characteristics of extensive reading 2.1.3 Benefits of extensive reading 2.2 Writing ability 2.2.1 Definition of writing ability…………………………………… ….….8 2.2.2 Components of writing ability……………………………………….…9 [ 2.3 The Impact of extensive reading on writing ability 10 2.4 Related previous studies 11 2.5 Students’ attitudes towards extensive reading 15 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17 3.1 Research design 17 3.2 Research context and participants 18 3.3 Research procedure 19 3.4 Data collection 25 vi 3.5 Measurements 25 3.6 Data analysis 29 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS 30 4.1 Quantitative data analysis 30 4.2 Quatitative data analysis 37 4.3 Supporting findings 39 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 42 5.1 Summarizing and interpreting of the main findings 42 5.2 Discussion 42 5.3 Implications 44 5.4 Limitations of the study 44 5.5 Suggestion for the further research 45 5.6 Conclusion 45 References 46 Appendix 1: Regulation of English proficiency level for General English……….1 Appendix 2: Assessment rubric Appendix and 4: Questionnaires (Vietnamese and English versions) Appendix 5: Sample of student’s writing text Appendix 6: Cover page of English Objective PET course book 10 Appendix 7: Interview questions 11 Appendix 8: Interview transcripts 12 Appendix 9: SPSS output 14 vii LIST OF ABREVIATIONS CG Control group EG Experimental group CB Course book O1 Pre-test O2 Post-test ER Extensive reading EFL English as a Foreign Language CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Language viii LIST OF TABLES Contents Page Table 3.2: Design of the research 17 Table 3.3.1 Tasks and time allocation for two groups in the research 19 Table 3.3.2 Course specification and two conditions 21 Table 3.5.1 Reliability of the writing quality indicator Correlation 27 (r) between the scores of the two raters Table 3.5.2 Reliability of questionnaire (Cronbach’s Alpha) in the 28 study Table 4.1 Means of two measurement occasions (O1-O2) of 30 control group (CG) and experimental group (EG) in three indicators Table 4.2 Independence Sample t-test of pre-tests scores of a 31 variable of writing ability of the CG and EG (with the Standard Deviation in bracket) Table 4.3 Independence Sample t-test of post-test scores of a 32 variable of writing ability of the CG and EG (with the Standard Deviation in bracket) Table 4.4 Significant different between pre-test and post-test 33 within each group in indicator of writing quality 10 Table 4.5 Significant different between pre-test and post-test 35 within each group in indicator of writing fluency 11 Table 4.6 Mean score of the questionnaire on students’ attitudes 36 towards ER 12 Table 4.7 Correlation coefficient of two indicators of variable 39 “writing ability” in pre-test 13 Table 4.8 Correlation coefficient of writing quality and writing text length of two groups in post-test ix 40 LIST OF FIGURES Content Page Figure Significance of difference of students’ writing 33 ability between two groups in post-test Figure Mean scores of two groups in quality of writing 34 ability before and after the treatment Figure Mean scores of students’ fluency in writing of 36 two both groups before and after the treatment Figure The comparison of students’ attitudes of experimental group before and after the treatment x 37 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION The chapter includes six main sections The rationale of the research presents the current picture of issues related to the writing skills of EFL students in the context These realities led to the reasons for conducting the current study The next parts are related to the research aims, research hypothesis, research questions, and the significance of the study Lastly, organization of the thesis is introduced 1.1 RATIONALE 1.1.1 The present picture of English teaching and learning to non-English major students at Tra Vinh University The English boom began in December 1986, when at the sixth National Congress, the Vietnamese Communist Party initiated an overall economic reform known as (Renovation) In the context of economic renovation and of the open-door policy, English became the first foreign language to be taught in Vietnam It is one of the six national examinations that students have to pass, if they want to achieve the Secondary School Education Diploma and it is a compulsory subject for both undergraduates and graduates at tertiary level Therefore, English is taught in schools, and in universities The students at Tra Vinh university are not an exception At the undergraduate level, all scientific fields students have to take courses of ten credits of General English The curriculum of English teaching and learning at the university is to prepare the students to achieve a B1 defined in the CEFR after graduating from the university (See Appendix for regulation of English proficiency level for General English students) To achieve the B1 level of proficiency, in the students’ opinion, writing skills seemed as the most challenging skill and students always got lower marks, compared to listening and speaking skills The course book used in General English curriculum is Cambridge English Objective PET Book (second edition) published by Cambridge University Press 1.1.2 The necessity of improving writing skill for EFL students at Tra Vinh University According to the CEFR format at B1 level, the writing part in the CEFR requires three types of writing In type 1, candidates have to complete five questions that aim at testing grammar Type 2, candidates have to produce a short email or letter of between 35 to 45 words in length Type is the most challenging Candidates have a choice of task to write: either a story or an informal letter with 100 words for both tasks For this type of writing, it requires that students should better have their own stance with their imagination and self- expression in the writing Within English language learning, however, I have recognized that when my students writing, they find themselves confused with choice of words word choice, grammatical use, organization and generation of ideas They tend to translate ideas from their respective mother tongue into English, express ideas in long sentences and they cannot convey the idea that they want to express As, Binh, a Vietnamese EFL student majoring in Engineering in my pilot interview, said that “I want to write, but I not have enough vocabulary inputs and it is very difficult to write down what I am thinking in my mind”, interviewed on October 20, 2017 Moreover, their writing products were poor of new ideas and did not include personal views and creative thinking in the writing The reasons are, firstly, because of the influence of Vietnamese culture and social norms on their writing They wrote long sentences in a rather circular manner It is so difficult for the reader to understand As Phan (2011) states, writing is much influenced by the culture and social manner of the writer The author indicates that the indirect and circular manner are two characteristics of Vietnamese students’ writing text, which are against the straightforward quality of English writing A participant in the pilot study mentioned that “when I read an English writing text, I know exactly what is going to be written about, whereas it is not Vietnamese writing’ As Nguyen (2012) states, Vietnamese writers are not used to setting up their own stance in a writing issues and creating and supporting their stance with their own arguments These are true to the current teaching and learning English language of my students Some students in my pilot interview said that the most challenging in the writing is that they not have a large enough vocabulary to express their ideas and they not know how to express the ideas into the written form In order to have a better work of writing, Suleiman (2000) indicates that students should set a scale of hierarchy, which involves critical thinking skills, social skills and linguistic competencies They have to determine the purpose of writing, the personal role of the writer and the audience for whom their writing is intended However, the reading texts in the course book, which are about the facts, and figures In addition to this, the reading text and writing task in the course book not link together, for instance, in unit 18 Shooting a film, the reading text is about “A day’s work at the seaside of the film crew”, but the writing task asks students to write a letter about: “You are spending next weekend with some friends who live in the country Write a postcard to them, you should say how you plan to get there, ask about what you will all and tell them what time you will arrive” The students are not provided with meaningful input for their writing As for the pedagogical context, vocabulary and language structures will be picked up from reading and should be able to make use of them in writing products From the aforementioned problems, the researcher thought that students should be encouraged to engage in the authentic reading material, which is appropriate to their level and interests in order to help them gain quality input from the reading Hence, extensive reading could be considered a powerful teaching activity to help students improve their writing According to Maley (2009), extensive reading offers comprehensive input, especially where the target language is hardly contacted to Besides, extensive reading also helps improving the writing of students There is a well-established link between reading and writing The more we read, the better we write These are proved in numerous studies (see discussion in Tsang, 1996; Mermelstein, 2015) To examine the students’ interest in the new teaching materials, which are not in the course book, the researcher has run the pilot study of using extensive reading to encourage creative thinking of General English at the Tra Vinh University in one day of teaching The students were given three stories in a set of graded readers of Cambridge sources with level A2 After two hours of reading, the researcher gained a surprising evidence from the students’ reports They were a little bit confused about the ways of narration used in the stories; for example, they did not understand the “direct speech” used in the stories The students, 20 in 25 students, reported their interests in this kind of reading They said that “the vocabulary is easy to understand; the setting is clear and the pictures in the book help us understand the general idea of the story” 1.2 AIM OF STUDY The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is any relationship between extensive reading and the improvement of EFL students’ writing ability The focus of the investigation is on the influences of extensive reading on the participants’ writing ability Also, the study examines students’ attitude towards the use of extensive reading 1.3 HYPOTHESIS From the aims above this study hypothesized that Extensive reading has positive effects on non-English major students’ writing ability Students have a positive attitude towards the use of extensive reading in helping them improve their writing skill 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS The data was collected to answer these following research questions: Is there an effect of extensive reading on the improvement of EFL students’ writing ability? If yes, to what extent is the effect? What are students’ attitudes towards extensive reading? 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The findings of the present research could provide further evidence for the effects of extensive reading on the improvement of EFL students’ writing ability Teachers may answer the question of how to effectively integrate extensive reading into teaching writing Furthermore, the result of this study could make contribution to enhancing teacher and student’s awareness of the advantages of integration extensive reading in language teaching and learning in the local context 1.6 THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS This research consists of five chapters: Introduction, Literature Review, Research Methodology, Research Findings, Discussion and Conclusion Chapter One presents rationale, aim of research, research questions, significance and organization of the research Chapter Two reviews literature which consists of two parts: Part is theoretical concepts related to extensive reading and writing ability, relationship between extensive reading and writing ability; and related previous studies are the second part of the Chapter Chapter Three, which describes the methodology of research consists of six parts Research design is the first part of this Chapter Next, the research context and participants part will be described in detail The materials used in the research and course specification of the research will be presented in the procedure part In measurement part, the measurement instrument of the study is presented in detail The chapter concludes with the data collection, and analysis parts Chapter Four reports the findings from the data collected through the use of tests, questionnaires, and interviews Chapter Five presents the summary of the major research findings, the discussion of the issues evolving from the results and the pedagogical implications for the use of extensive reading on the improvement of EFL students’ writing ability Moreover, the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research are recommended at the end of the chapter REFERENCES Abbott, R., Berninger, V., & Fayol, M (2010) Longitudinal relationships of levels of language in writing between writing and reading in grades to Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 281-298 Acar, S., Burnett, C., & Cabra, J (2017) Ingredients of creativity: Originality and more Creative Research Journal, 29(2), 133-144 Alexander, J., & Filler, R (1976) Attitudes and reading Neward, DE: International Reading Association Applebee, N (1984) Writing and reasoning Review of Educational Research, 54, 577-596 Asraf, R., & Ahmad, I (2003) Promoting English language development and the reading habit among students in rural schools through the guided extensive reading program Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(2), 83-120 Bamford, J (1987) Extensive reading using graded readers and beyond Osaka, Japan: JAKT Osaka Chapter meeting Bell, T (1998) Extensive reading: Why? and How? 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(2010) Effects of extensive reading on students' writing ability in an EFL class The Journal of ASIA TEFL, 7(1), 285 - 308 37 Kozol, J (2005) The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid... The focus of the investigation is on the influences of extensive reading on the participants’ writing ability Also, the study examines students attitude towards the use of extensive reading 1.3... that Extensive reading has positive effects on non-English major students writing ability Students have a positive attitude towards the use of extensive reading in helping them improve their writing