A study on students difficulties in extensive reading in class k43a EFL = nghiên cứu những khó khăn của sinh viên của lớp k43a sư phạm tiếng anh trong việc sử dụng đọc mở rộng

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRINH THI THANH HUONG A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K43A EFL (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN CỦA LỚP K43A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG) Major: English Language Teaching Hanoi, 2019 HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRINH THI THANH HUONG A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K43A EFL (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN CỦA LỚP K43A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG) Major: English Language Teaching Main Supervisor: TRAN THI NGAN Co – Supervisor: DO THI THANH DUNG Hanoi, 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K43A EFL (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN CỦA LỚP K43A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG) I certify that no part in this study has not been copied by me from any other person‘s report without acknowledgment and this work is written by my best under the instruction from my supervisor Date of submission: May, 2019 Student Supervisor TRINH THI THANH HUONG TRAN THI NGAN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research was supported by Mrs Ngan, Mrs Dung, Mrs Thao and Mrs Huong, the lecturers of FFL at Hanoi Pedagogical University I would like to express my sincere appreciation to them This research could not have been completed without the wise guidance and hearty support from my supervisors and teachers I have the knowledge and courage to employ statistics in my study I would like to thank Miss Hoa, my friend, for sharing her opinion to make my study better and giving comments that greatly improved the manuscript I am also thankful to Hang, Trinh, Phuong, my sincere friends, for enlightening me on critical analysis of participant’s views It is truly fortunate of me to have experienced not only their academic but also their help I would like to take this opportunity to express gratitude to my parents for the unceasing encouragement, support and attention Also, I would like to express my gratitude to 25 students who participated voluntarily in this study And, I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who directly or indirectly, have given me their hand in this study TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 The Definition of Extensive Reading: 2.2 The Distinction between IR and ER 2.3 Effects of Extensive Reading CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 10 3.1 Participants 10 3.2 Instruments 10 3.3 Procedures 11 3.4 Description of intervention 12 CHAPTER ANALYSIS OF THE DATA AND DISCUSSION 13 4.1 Evaluation of the results of Questionnaire for Students 13 4.2 Evaluation of the results of Interview Questions for the Teacher 18 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 20 5.1 Extensive Reading: A Key to Improvement 20 5.2 Challenges of the application Extensive reading in learning English 21 5.3 Suggestions for EFL Pedagogy 22 CHAPTER IMPLICATION……………………………………………………24 6.1 Limitations of the research……………………………………………………24 6.2 Directions for Future Research 25 APPENDIX 27 REFERENCES 32 ABSTRACT It is an utter necessity to become fluent, self-sufficient and independent English readers with highly skilled reading comprehension abilities There is no point to doubt that extensive reading can be the best strategy to attain this There are a huge number of previous studies conducted to evaluate the impact of applying Extensive reading in learning language in EFL class However, the purpose of this study is to find out and identify the difficulties that the learners have to face with when applying Extensive reading in learning English The intervention was conducted in the same language as the students’ core reading instruction (English) Twenty - five the second - grade students from the class K43A EFL at Hanoi Pedagogical University were invited to participate in this study They, under the guideline of the lecturer, applied Extensive reading in studying English months ago The researcher investigated their obstacles and challenges when experiencing this application during class The study pointed out that there are at least six problems that make learners difficult in using Extensive reading Besides, the number of students in class is also a reason causing out of control for teachers to ensure the quality of this application project It is hoped that the findings will be the suggestions for enhancing the experiences of students who use Extensive Reading as part of their L2 learning if applied Key words: Extensive reading, challenges, difficulties, learning language ABBREVIATIONS ER: Extensive Reading ESL: English as a Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages HPU2: Hanoi Pedagogical University IR: Intensive Reading L2 Second Languge *: A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment consisting of a portion of language with certain items, words, or signs removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the missing language item Cloze tests require the ability to understand context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct language or part of speech that belongs in the deleted passages This exercise is commonly administered for the assessment of native and second language learning and instruction CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 The rationale and significance of the study In reality, for a student studying English as a foreign language, it can be seen that there are few opportunities to approach English input outside of the classroom due to the teachers of traditional teaching methods Most of the teachers in their language classrooms apply the intensive reading (IR): careful reading of shorter and more difficult foreign language texts In fact, this technique is appropriate for serving for tests As the result, many teachers admitted failing to make the students acquire their target language To overcome this problem, a number of teachers, in recent years, have used extensive reading (ER) as an effective technique for improving students’ foreign language acquisition in their classes Extensive reading is generally understood: read a large amount of materials for the purpose of getting an overall understanding, read for enjoyment Extensive reading is considered to be successful program that can help students learn the foreign language In Extensive reading, thanks to reading a lot of books, journals and research papers that contain comprehensible inputs, readers get more anxieties for the meaning of the text rather than the meaning of individual words and sentences There have been a number of previous researches that carried out in order to study applying ER to language acquisition Nuttall (1982) noted that “the best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers and the next best way is to read extensively in it” Reading these kind of materials can enrich the students’ cultural background by making interaction with the target culture Also, according to Yamashita (2015), it has now been well-established that ER has a positive impact on cognitive and affective domains of reading in L2 In addition, many experts have claimed that extensive reading holds the key to improving learners’ reading ability, vocabulary acquisition, grammar and other skills A further benefit of extensive reading is students’ positive attitudes toward reading might increase As Sweet (2000) pointed out that an “effective reading instruction can develop engaged readers who are knowledgeable, strategic, socially interactive, and motivated” Some lecturers of Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at Hanoi Pedagogical University have applied this technique in their major classes Therefore, this study is carried out in order to find out the students’ difficulties toward the application of ER in learning English at HPU2 It can be no doubt that the application of English learning has great effects for learners; however ,students could face with many difficulties and certain challenges in the process of applying this method Therefore, this study was conducted to find those difficulties and challenges, and solutions were proposed to deal with them It is hoped that the findings and suggestions herein will provide ideas for enhancing the experiences of students who use Extensive Reading as part of their L2 learning if applied 1.2 The aims of the study: The purpose of the present study is to gather and evaluate the students’ viewpoints and difficulties in applying Extensive reading in learning English language In addition, the results of this study can give a suggestion for learners in using ER technique in the language acquisition process if applied in the future 1.3 The Questions of the study The present study took a different approach by investigating EFL learners’ difficulties and challenges of this application for learning while the previous studies on extensive reading mainly were focused on its effects on learners’ development Specifically, the research questions were addressed as follows: What difficulties student encounter when applying Extensive Reading in learning English? What are the factors that associated with those difficulties? provide participants with adequate input, which is the fourth characteristic of efficacious input 5.2 Challenges of the application Extensive reading in learning English In spite of the previously mentioned passage supporting ER, the usage of this application has been not exactly a total achievement A few scientists showed such this problem is resulted by choosing perusing materials and deficient planning of educators (as refered to in Jacobs, 2002) Others recommended that the key obstacle to effective ER usage lies in an instructor focused perspective on perusing guidance (Day and Bamford, 1997, as refered to in Jacobs, 2002) Elley (1991, pp 378-9) credited the accomplishment to five components: 1.) broad contribution of significance print; 2.) Incidental learning; 3.) The mix of oral and composed action; 4.) Focus on importance instead of structure; 5.) High inherent inspiration In any case, little attention has been paid to EFL students' worries and disposition relating to their own learning The current study was designed to examine What factors make students difficult during the process of applying extensive reading in class of K43 EFL class at Hanoi Pedagogical Six factors were predicted and tested The most difficulty in this application is the textual difficulty in the materials Students have to look up new words in the dictionary a lot when finishing the material Repeating this action many times drives them frustrated and even lose their excitement in reading The second most difficult factor found out is self selecting materials Because of a lot of sources and topics of materials, students sometimes get confused when choosing themselves a suitable document for their 21 level and own preferences The fifth position is the Peer cooperation, including group work, discussions, and presentations Most of the participants agreed that factors existed and affected to the effectiveness of applying Extensive reading in learning English in their 11 weeks Most of participants in this study have their perceptions that they have no challenge in class activities Moreover, according to some survey opinions, they believe that activities in the classroom help them somewhat regain the interest in extensive reading To sum up, in presenting the six aspects which influence the success of the application Extensive reading in class, the author has no way to against the advantages of Extensive Reading even with graded readers The detailed discussion of the list of difficult aspects in fact shows that ER is still a successful method of learning However, there is doubt that a lot of obstacles and challenge for stakeholders existed and made them confused when applying this method Even though there are only six difficult aspects discussed in this article, it is possible there are other unfavorable aspects of ER that have not been covered In addition, students needs (time, self-regulation, preferences in learning) and teacher needs (time, self-expression, freedom in curriculum and lesson development) should be considered Hopefully further research (with the improvements suggested above) will yield not only better results (fewer negatives but even more positives), but results which help show the best way of implementing ER 5.3 Suggestions for EFL Pedagogy The current study’s suggestion is incorporating an extensive reading program into EFL students’ formal curriculum This proposal is mainly derived from relevant contextual data collected from participants’ feedback on the Extensive Reading Questionnaire (Appendix F) Most participants’ overall comments on the extensive reading they had experienced was it was a good and helpful activity, and brings them a lot of benefits However, on average, they spent not even half of the expected 120 minutes per week on the activity, and the 22 most frequent reason checked by at least half of those who spent less than 100 minutes on the activity weekly is not having time for it because of course work.In addition, the class’s size should be small so that teachers could manage and train them in the best way when applying this method To sum up, an extensive reading program of either linear or multimodal text should serve English language learners equally adequately when easy access to only one type of text is provided in an academic institute When access to both types is available, the pedagogical recommendation is learners have the freedom of choice and those who choose to read on the English Internet should be introduced to the genre of informational text Finally, when it is implemented, an extensive reading program should be part of the English learners’ formal curriculum with a clear schedulea because of avoiding having students and teachers encounter factors that affect the effectiveness of extensive reading 23 CHAPTER IMPLICATIONS 6.1 Limitation of the Research To gain those above advantages, however, the EFL learners have to go through a lot of certain difficulties That is a reason why this study is carried out The researcher found out the difficulties that students faced with and then ranked those factors from the most to the least in using extensive reading in learning EFL class However, the limitation of this study is that it is not possible to conduct a direct assessment per a week or a month by using tests In addition, the study could not perform the conduct classroom observation regularly in order to achieve the highest efficiency Moreover, the scale of this study is not enough large The study only worked the survey in a group with 25 students and teacher The study has, also, not investigated the extent to which these factors influence the success of this method through a test or assessment through classroom activities and at home The researcher really desires that future studies can overcome these limitations to achieve the best possible results 24 6.2 Directions for Future Research Four directions for future research arise from statistical findings, contextual data obtained from questionnaires and relevant reviewed studies One direction is identifying the level and interest of each student before asking them to apply Extensive Reading technique in learning English Many scholars (e.g., Bearne, 2005; Coiro, 2003; Evans, 2005; Kress, 2003; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006; Leu and Kinser, 2000; Leu et al., 2004; Luke, 2003; Smolin & Lawless, 2003; Warschauer and Ware, 2008) emphasize that the choice of the contents as well as the level of text is indispensible in this case Based on such collected data, the researcher suggests that one direction for future research be focused on English learners’ perceptions and attitudes when students are asked to apply Extensive Reading in class The third suggestion for future research is identifying essential elements and measures of challenges for EFL The final direction for future research is examining how the challenges that students face with the Extensive Reading program can affect on EFL learners’ learning results Whether they can pass those challenges or not, what will the results be? In a nutshell, the previous study findings posit that an extensive reading program of multimodal text is pedagogically worthy of implementation as much as that of linear text for the purpose of improving EFL learners’ English proficiency The current study found out six factors that makes learners difficult in applying Extensive Reading in class at Hanoi Pedagogical University It should also be beneficial for future research to explore ways that extensive reading can facilitate learners’ development of efficient EFL reading strategies No matter what future studies in these directions will reveal and inform both the pedagogy and the research of EFL in Vietnam, it should be practical to consider Spiro’s (2004) sharing of his belief: My research has led me to believe that all credible approaches are useful 25 on some occasions, that none are always useful, and that the relevance of one does not preclude the simultaneous relevance of others with which it might be fruitfully combined (pp 657-658) 26 APPENDIX A Questionnaire for Students I GENERAL INFORMATION How long have you learned English? ………… years What think about the importance of reading in learning English? A Important B Not important C Uncertain Do you think that applying Extensive Reading helps you improve your English language skills? A Agree B Neutral C Disagree INSTRUCTIONS: Read a statement Decide how well the statement describes your present reading* in English either of printed materials Put a check ( ) in the box under the expression that describes your situation the most appropriately (If you don’t think that you understand a statement well, ask your instructor for clarification) an extensive reading material 27 Always It takes me a lot of time to finish Mostly I look up the new words in the dictionary, but still don’t understand the context meanings clearly Sometime s difficult and I have to look up them on the dictionary bitlittleA Hardly Vocabulary in the material very I feel depressed when wasting a lot of time finishing an extensive reading material Teachers choose the materials I like and they are suitable for my level Teachers give me explanation whenever I ask her about misunderstanding something in my materials Teachers help me with my processing reading an extensive reading material I myself choose the appreciate materials that are on my level with Discussing the content of the materials I read with my friends is effective 10 I understand the content of the materials clearly, so I am confident to present for other students Do you have any other difficulties when reading extensively? 28 B Rank the difficulties in applying Extensive Reading Please rank the following items from number to depending on their significance which factors make you difficult for reading extensively successfully Rank Difficulties Explain it clearly Text difficulty (vocabulary, syntactic complexity, context) Peer cooperation (group work, discussions, presentation) Materials selection (i.e genres) Teacher’s roles (i.e explanation, help) Self-selecting reading materials Classroom activities 29 C Question Interview For Teacher The purpose of these questions is to find out the difficulties that teachers maybe face with during applying Extensive Reading in teaching English language Please complete the following survey to help me with a more effective course in the future Thank you for your co-operation in completing these question! What are the difficulties confronting you when you teach critical reading skills? (You can circle one more choice) A Low level of students B Strict time schedule (i.e lack of class time for critical reading activities) C Reading materials in the textbook are not suitable for designing critical reading activities D Work overload of first year students (i.e first-year students are overloaded with homework, assignment of and presentations) E Others: (Please specify) What have you done to overcome these difficulties? 30 What are your suggestions for enhancing second year students’ extensive reading skill? 31 REFERENCES Al-Othman, N M A (2003) The relationship between online reading rates and performance on proficiency tests The Reading Matrix, 3(3), 120-136 Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H (1984) Postscript on Hosenfeld In J.C Alderson & A.H Urquhart, Reading in a Foreign Language (pp245-249) New York: Longman Arnold, N (2009) Online extensive reading for advanced foreign language learners: An evaluation study Foreign Language Annals, 42(2), 340-366 Asraf, R M., & Ahmad, I S (2003) Promoting English language development and the reading habit among students in rural schools through the Guided Extensive Reading Reading in a Foreign Language, 15(2), 83-102 Baker, L., & Wigfield, A (1999) Dimensions of children’s motivation for reading and their relations to reading activity and reading achievement Reading Research Quarterly, 34, 452-477 Banford, J and Day.(2004) Extensive Reading Activities for Teaching Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Barnett, M.A (1988) Reading through context: How real and perceived strategy use affects L2 comprehension The Modern Language Journal, 72: 150162 Bearne, E (2005) Multimodal texts: What they are and how children use them In J Evans (Ed.), Literacy moves on: Popular culture, new technologies, and critical literacy in the elementary classroom (pp 13-29) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Bell, T (2001) Extensive reading: Speed and comprehension The Reading Matrix, 1(1), 1-13 Caskey, M M (2008) Comprehension strategies that make a difference for struggling readers In S Lenski & J Lewis (Eds.), Reading success for struggling adolescent learners (pp 170-188) New York, NY: Guilford Press 32 Coady, J & T Huckin (eds) (1997) Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Coiro, J (2003) Reading comprehension on the Internet: Expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies The Reading Teacher, 56(5), 458–464 Coiro, J., & Dobler, E (2007) Exploring the online reading comprehension strategies used by sixth-grade skilled readers to search for and locate information on the Internet Reading Research Quarterly, 42(2), 214-257 Crossley, S A., Louwerse, M M., McCarthy, P M., & McNamara, D S (2007) A linguistic analysis of simplified and authentic texts The Modern Language Journal, 91(1), 15-30 Davis, C (1995) Extensive Reading: An expensive extravagance? 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DIFFICULTIES IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K4 3A EFL (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN C? ?A SINH VIÊN C? ?A LỚP K4 3A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG) I certify that...HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRINH THI THANH HUONG A STUDY ON STUDENTS? ?? DIFFICULTIES IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K4 3A EFL (NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN C? ?A SINH VIÊN... VIÊN C? ?A LỚP K4 3A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG) Major: English Language Teaching Main Supervisor: TRAN THI NGAN Co – Supervisor: DO THI THANH DUNG Hanoi, 2019 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP