An investigation into reading strategies for doing reading comprehension tests employed by grade 10 english major students at hung yen city high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG ĐỨC HẠNH AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES FOR DOING READING COMPREHENSION TESTS EMPLOYED BY GRADE 10 ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN CITY HIGH SCHOOL NGHI N Ứ HI Đ NG HI N HI NG H Đ H PH Đ INH P NG HI À H I 10 CHUYÊN ANH H NG HÀNH PH H NG Y N M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 HANOI – 2016 ÀI VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG ĐỨC HẠNH AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES FOR DOING READING COMPREHENSION TESTS EMPLOYED BY GRADE 10 ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN CITY HIGH SCHOOL NGHI N Ứ HI Đ NG HI N HI Đ H NG H PH INH Đ P NG HI À ÀI H I 10 CHUYÊN ANH H NG HÀNH PH H NG Y N M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 SUPERVISOR: Assoc.Prof.Dr NGUYỄN VĂN ĐỘ HANOI – 2016 N I E’ E EN I hereby certify that the minor thesis, “An investigation into reading strategies for doing reading comprehension tests employed by Grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School”, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutes Candidate‟s signature: Dated: October 13th, 2016 HOÀNG ĐỨC HẠNH i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ, who helped, supported me when I conducted this study Without his helpful comments, valuable advice and significant assistance, this study could not have been completed I would like to thank all lecturers in the Department of Post-Graduate, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University for their meaningful and interesting lectures I am grateful to Ms Bui Nhu Hoa and her students in class 10D2 who were always willing to join this study and provide it with valuable data I am indebted to Mr Le Hai Doan, Mr Nguyen Duc Ta, Ms Tran Minh Chi, Ms Doan Mai Hoai Anh, as well as a lot of friends, relatives who constantly encouraged and tried their best to make conditions for me to complete this thesis Last but not least, my special thanks must go to my Mum, my Family and my Love for their kindest care for me and my thesis They are my strengths to overcome all difficulties and complete this thesis ii ABSTRACT This study reports on an evaluation of the strategies which are used in reading comprehension tests by some English major students Both quantitative and qualitative data analyses are employed in the study Forty-eight students in Grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School took a three-text reading comprehension test, followed by a 30-item questionnaire of metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies taken in a test; then, two high-proficiency, and two lowproficiency students were invited for an interview for further information of their actual thoughts on the reading comprehension skill and their present status of strategies use as reading test-takers The results suggest that (1) metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies were used with medium frequency by the students; (2) the high-proficiency students reported a higher use of both strategies than the low-proficiency students Then, the discussion and recommendation of strategies for better performance are also presented The researcher believes that this study can be considered as a useful source of reference for not only students but also teachers who share the same concern iii LIST OF ABREVIATIONS ESL : English as a second language EFL : English as a foreign language L2 : Second language iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES TABLES Table Reading strategies: definition and classification (O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990) Table Background information of the participants Table The detailed categories of strategies in Part of the questionnaire Table Two major classes of reading strategies Table Descriptive statistic of eighteen sub-strategies of reading strategies Table Frequency distribution of metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies Table Difference between two groups of students in metacognitive strategies use Table Differences between two groups of students in cognitive strategies use Table List of strategies need to be improved by the high-proficiency group Table 10 List of strategies need to be improved by the low-proficiency group Table 11 List of strategies should be paid attention by the low-proficiency group FIGURES Figure The definition of reading by Anderson (2008) Figure The importance of reading comprehension compared to Ss‟ purpose Figure The students‟ evaluation of difficult levels Figure The evaluation of some factors influencing reading comprehension performance Figure CALLA instructional framework v TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LIST OF ABREVIATIONS IV LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES V PART I – INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Significance of the research Methods of the study Design of the study PART II – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and Reading comprehension 1.1.1 What is reading 1.1.2 What is reading comprehension 1.2 Strategies, reading strategies and classifications of reading strategies 1.2.1 What are strategies 1.2.2 What are reading strategies 1.2.3 Classifications of reading strategies 1.3 Previous studies on strategies for reading comprehension tests in Vietnam and in other countries 12 1.3.1 Previous studies on strategies for reading comprehension tests in Vietnam ………………………………………………………………………….12 vi 1.3.2 Previous studies on reading strategies for reading comprehension tests for reading comprehension tests in other countries 13 1.4 Summary 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Research questions 16 2.2 Participants and settings of the study 16 2.2.1 Participants 16 2.2.2 Settings of the study 18 2.3 Instruments 18 2.3.1 A three-text reading comprehension test 18 2.3.2 A questionnaire 19 2.3.3 An interview 20 2.4 Data collection procedure 21 2.4 Summary 21 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 22 3.1 Findings 22 3.1.1 The questionnaire 22 3.1.2 The interview with the students 31 3.2 Discussion about the research questions 32 3.2.1 To what extent are reading strategies for doing reading comprehension tests used by Grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School? ……………………………………………………………… 32 3.2.2 To what extent the high-proficiency students and low-proficiency students differ in terms of employing reading strategies in reading comprehension tests? 33 3.3 Summary 34 PART III – CONCLUSION 35 Conclusion 35 Recommendations 36 2.1 Strategies that each group of students need to improve 36 2.2 Reading strategies training 38 vii Limitations and suggestions for further research 41 3.1 Limitations ……………………………………………………………… 41 3.2 Suggestions for further research 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX 1: Reading comprehension tests……………………………………… I APPENDI 2: Questionnaire…………………………………………………… VII APPENDI 3: Interview……………………………………………………… XVII APPENDIX 4: Transcription of the interviewer‟s response……… ………… XVIII viii their son to be as successful as they are and so they enter him for every piano competition held They are very unhappy when he does not win “When I was at your age, I used to win every competition I entered,” Duy‟s father tells him Duy is always afraid that he will disappoint his parents and now he always seems quiet and unhappy One of the biggest mistakes any parents can make is to _ A neglect their child‟s education B push the child into trying to achieve too much C make their child become a musician D help their child to be a genius through constant support Parents‟ ambition for their children is not wrong if A they push the children into achieving a lot B they understand and help their children in difficult times C they themselves have been very successful D they arrange private lessons for their children Do An Duc is fortunate because _ A he is very interested in music B his parents are very famous C his parents are good at music D his parents help him in a sensible way Vu Hoang Duy‟s parents push their child so much A He is unhappy because he is afraid he may not be successful B he has passed a lot of competitions C he feels he cannot learn anything about music from them D he has already become a better musician than his father V that The two examples of Do An Duc and Vu Hoang Duy show that _ A it is important to let children develop in the way they want B successful parents often have unsuccessful children C parents who want their child to be a musician should also be good musicians D the more money spent on a child‟s education, the better the child will VI APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE ON STRATEGIES FOR DOING READING COMPREHENSION TESTS  This questionnaire is used to serve my M.A thesis which evaluates the testtaking strategies for reading comprehension tests employed by grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School Please kindly spend your time answering all of the following questions with your most honesty All information that is collected through this questionnaire is completely confidential to outsiders, and will be used for the study purpose only Your help will play a completely important role supporting me to finish my thesis! *Please kindly regard that there is NO evaluation of a right or wrong answer to each question listed below That the truest opinion of your own is what the researcher is searching for Sincerely thanks!  PERSONAL INFORMATION Full name : Male Gender: Female Class : You have learnt English for: years PART INSTRUCTION: Please circle the choice which are the most suitable for you In your opinion, how important reading comprehension is compared to your English learning? Not important at all Not important Quite important Important VII Very important How you feel about the reading comprehensions texts? Very easy Easy So so Difficult Very difficult * In your opinion, in order to reading comprehension tests well, how important the following factors are? Not Not important at all Quite important important Im Very portant important Having a wide range of vocabulary Having a good grammatical knowledge 5 5 Having a good knowledge of the text‟s content Applying suitable strategies for reading tests PART INSTRUCTION: These are some strategies which are used to reading comprehension tests Please read carefully and show your strategies For each strategy, you will circle ONE number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Each number represents: I I never rarely I sometimes VIII I often I always N Strategies o Frequency Before doing a reading comprehension text, I look at the title and pictures (if any) of Before doing a reading comprehension text, I make a plan of how to it I determine what to by reading the instruction carefully I try to find out the topic and main ideas by scanning and skimming strategies I pay attention to and remember questions before reading I know what to read carefully and what to ignore I guess the content of the next parts while reading I try to understand the inferred meaning of the text I translate what I am reading into Vietnamese 5 5 the text to guess in advance content of the text as well as main ideas of the text 1 I relate what I am reading to my prior knowledge I summarize the important information When the text becomes difficult, I re- read it to increase my understanding I underline or circle important words IX or sentences while reading I guess the meaning of unknown words or phrases basing on the context or clues in the I make use of my grammar to analyze the long and difficult sentences to better I determine and mark the topic sentence of each paragraph I know exactly how much work needs finishing I stop from time to time and think whether I understand content of the text that I 5 5 5 5 5 am reading 2 I adjust my reading speed basing on what I am reading and the tasks I correct my guess basing on the content of the text I try to picture or visualize information to help remember what I read understand them text I take note while reading to remember useful information I make use of the transitional words, such as first, second, however, but, because, etc to know the logical connection among the main ideas of the text I determine easy and difficult questions, and spend more time on difficult ones X I correct my mistake immediately when I know that I wrongly understand the text When the text becomes difficult, I whisper/ read the text aloud to myself for better 5 5 5 understanding I paraphrase (restate ideas in my own words) to better understand what I read I check carefully all answers before submitting I evaluate my work and my working progress when I am completing the test or the task I try to keep on track when I begin losing my concentration  Thank you for your cooperation  XI BẢNG CÂU HỎI NGHIÊN CỨU CHI N Đ C HI U TI NG ANH Bảng câu hỏi nghiên cứu nhằm phục vụ đề tài luận văn thạc sỹ đánh giá chiến lược làm thi đọc hiểu em học sinh lớp 10 chuyên Anh trường THPT Thành phố Hưng Yên Rất mong em dành chút thời gian trả lời câu hỏi sau cách trung thực Mọi thông tin em đưa bảng câu hỏi nghiên cứu giữ bí mật hồn tồn, sử dụng cho mục đích phục vụ nghiên cứu Sự giúp đỡ em đóng vai trò vơ quan trọng giúp tơi hồn thành luận văn thạc sỹ *Các em lưu ý KHƠNG CĨ đánh giá câu trả lời hay sai với câu hỏi nêu bên Các em cần thể ý kiến thân em Xin chân thành cảm ơn! THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN Họ tên : _ Giới tính : Nam Nữ Lớp : _ Số năm học tiếng Anh tính tới năm nay: _ năm Em tự đánh giá khả đọc hiểu (khoanh tròn): Tốt Khá Yếu PHẦN H ỚNG DẪN: Hãy khoanh tròn phương án em thấy phù hợp Theo em, đọc hiểu quan trọng việc học tiếng Anh em? Hồn tồn khơng quan trọng Khơng quan trọng Khá quan trọng Quan trọng XII Rất quan trọng Em có cảm nhận làm thi đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ? Rất khó Khó Bình thường Dễ Rất dễ * Theo em, để làm thi đọc hiểu tốt, vấn đề sau quan trọng em? Hồn tồn khơng quan trọng Khơ Khá ng quan quan trọng trọng Qua Rất n trọng quan trọng Có vốn từ tiếng Anh rộng Nắm vững ngữ pháp tiếng Anh 5 Có kiến thức tốt nội dung đọc 5 Có phương pháp làm thi đọc hiểu hiệu PHẦN H ỚNG DẪN: Sau số phương pháp người áp dụng làm thi đọc hiểu Em đọc kỹ cho biết phương pháp làm em Với phương pháp, em khoanh tròn vào MỘT số (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Mỗi số có ý nghĩa sau: Em không làm Em làm Em Em thường xuyên làm làm XIII Em luôn làm S Phương pháp Tần suất TT Khi bắt đầu đọc đọc tiếng Anh em nhìn vào tiêu đề xem tranh ảnh minh họa kèm theo đọc (nếu Trước làm thi đọc hiểu, em lên kế hoạch xem nên làm Em xác định xem đề câu hỏi yêu cầu em làm 5 Em ý ghi nhớ câu hỏi trước đọc đọc Em biết cần đọc kỹ bỏ qua Em dự đoán nội dung đoạn văn phần đọc Em cố gắng hiểu ý nghĩa ẩn đọc cho Em dịch đọc sang tiếng Việt 5 có) để đốn trước nội dung mà đọc Em cố gắng tìm chủ đề ý sử dụng kỹ thuật đọc quét (scanning) đọc lướt (skimming) Em tóm tắt thơng tin quan trọng ý đọc cho Em liên hệ vừa đọc với XIV kiến thức em có từ trước Khi đọc câu hỏi trở nên khó hiểu, em đọc lại đọc câu hỏi để hiểu 4 5 5 5 5 5 Em gạch chân khoanh tròn từ câu quan trọng đọc Em đoán ý nghĩa từ cụm từ chưa biết dựa vào ngữ cảnh gợi ý đọc Em tận dụng kiến thức ngữ pháp em học để phân tích câu dài, khó hiểu nhằm giúp hiểu ý nghĩa câu tin để ghi nhớ nội dung tốt Em điều chỉnh tốc độ đọc dựạ vào nhiệm vụ nội dung đọc khác Em nắm rõ phần thi cần phải hồn thành Em dừng lại nghĩ xem hiểu hết nội dung vừa đọc chưa 2 Em xác định đánh dấu câu chủ đề đoạn Em sửa lại thơng tin dự đốn trước dựa nội dung đọc Em cố gắng hình ảnh hóa thơng Em ghi đọc để giúp ghi nhớ thơng tin hữu ích XV Em tận dụng từ chuyển tiếp, first, second, however, but, because,…để giúp hiểu mối liên hệ logic 5 5 5 5 ý đọc Em xác định câu hỏi dễ câu hỏi khó, dành nhiều thời gian với nhiệm vụ đọc khó em hiểu sai đọc nhiệm vụ đọc Em đánh giá phần làm tiến trình làm hồn thiện thi Em kiểm tra lại câu trả lời cẩn thận trước nộp thi Khi đọc trở nên khó hiểu, em lẩm nhẩm đọc thành tiếng để hiểu đọc Em tự ghi nhớ lại thông tin đọc cách diễn giải em (paraphrasing) Em sửa lỗi em nghĩ Em cố gắng tập trung đọc thấy bắt đầu bị phân tâm  Chân thành cảm ơn giúp đỡ em!  XVI APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Do you like English reading comprehension? Why Yes?/ Why No? Which strategies you often apply when taking a reading comprehension test at school? Does your teacher of English often instruct you the way to reading comprehension test? Give some samples (if any) CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN Em thích đọc hiểu tiếng Anh khơng? Vì thích? / Vì khơng thích? Phương pháp em thường áp dụng làm thi đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường? Cơ giáo có hay hướng dẫn cách làm thi đọc hiểu tiếng Anh cho em khơng? Nêu ví dụ (nếu có) XVII APPENDIX 4: A Transcription of the interview with high-proficiency students Student 1: I not like English reading comprehension tests because my vocabulary is quite poor, my grammar is not so good When having a reading comprehension test, I often spend to minutes underlining all key words; then I start doing the test I think this strategy is quite effective for reading comprehension tests My teacher often instructs us She often advises us to the easy questions first, the difficult one later If we like that, we can get higher scores Student 2: I not like English reading comprehension test because it requires good vocabulary, and good knowledge of society My favorite strategy is to read the text and look at the pictures, after that, I read the text and questions thoroughly I look at the information in the question, underline and look at the questions carefully, look at the information and find the answers My teacher often instructs us some methods Before doing the test, we must read the text thoroughly to see the title, and know the main content of the text After that, we read the questions, find the key words, and underline the key words, read carefully the words in the text, in the questions, translate the questions, find the answer in the underlined words B Transcription of the interview with low-proficiency students Student 1: English reading comprehension is important and I like it because it is an easy part to gain scores For answers which I not know, I can circle my choice randomly My favorite strategy is to apply grammatical knowledge and my vocabulary I think this part is interesting XVIII My teacher instructs us how to reading comprehension tests For example, copy exactly the key words in the text and answer the question Student 2: I not like English reading comprehension because it is quite boring I often look at the pictures and guess the next part I think this strategy is easy with me, I take this strategy quite effectively I not get high mark but I can complete the test My teacher often instructs us and prepares tests for us to She often advises us to look at the pictures and title to the tests effectively and get high scores XIX ... (i) To investigate the reading strategies employed by the students of Grade 10 English major at Hung Yen City High School for doing reading comprehension tests; and (ii) To investigate the difference... the answer to the following question: To what extent are reading strategies for doing reading comprehension tests used by Grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School? To what... current strategies use of Grade 10 English major students at Hung Yen City High School employing for doing English reading comprehension tests, as well as finds out the differences among the strategies