Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students = Những nhận thức từ một dự án nghiên cứu hành động về việc đọc thêm ở nhà cho học sinh THPT). M.A. Thesis Linguistics: 81401

Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -*** MAI THI NGỌC UYỂN INSIGHTS FROM AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON EXTENSIVE READING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (Những nhận thức từ dự án nghiên cứu hành động việc đọc thêm nhà cho học sinh THPT) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING CODE : 8140231.01 METHODOLOGY HANOI, 2018 Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES -*** MAI THI NGỌC UYỂN INSIGHTS FROM AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON EXTENSIVE READING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (Những nhận thức từ dự án nghiên cứu hành động việc đọc thêm nhà cho học sinh THPT M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 8140231.01 Supervisor : Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 HANOI, 2018 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.Rationale of the study 2.Aims of the study and research questions Scope of the research topic Significance of the study Method of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Attitude 1.2.1 Definition 1.2.2 The efffects of attitude in second language learning 1.3 A literature review on extensive reading in foreign language learning 1.3.1 Empirical studies on extensive reading 1.3.2 The role of extensive reading in language education 1.3.3 The principles for teaching extensive reading 11 1.4 Benefits of extensive reading 11 1.4.1 Improvement in L2 reading motivation and the development of positive L2 readingattitudes 12 1.4.2 Gains in VocabularyKnowledge 12 1.4.3 Improvement inWriting 13 1.4.4 The Development of ReadingStrategies 13 1.5 Chapter summary 14 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Research context 16 2.2 Research questions 16 2.3 Research approach 17 2.3.1 An overview of action research 17 2.3.2 Rationale for the use of an action research 18 Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students 2.4 Description of the research 19 2.4.1 Population 19 2.4.2 Data collection instruments 20 2.4.2.1 Questionnaires 20 2.4.3 The action procedures 21 2.4.4 Data collection procedures 23 2.4.4.1 Planning 23 2.4.4.2 Pre-questionnaire 24 2.4.4.3 Questionnaire 24 2.4.4.4 Post – questionnaire 24 2.4.5 Data analysis procedure 24 2.5 Summary 24 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26 3.1 Initial data and research question 26 3.2 Research question 27 3.3 Conclusion 37 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 Conclusion 38 Implications 39 Limitations of the study 40 Suggestions for further research 41 REFERENCES 42 Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students PART A: INTRODUCTION This study is aimed at gaining understanding students‟ perspectives on extensive reading on their learning of vocabulary, grammar,culture or background knowledge development This understanding is to help the teacher-researcher to gain insights into the opportunities and constraints resulted from an extensive reading project This chapter starts with the rationale of the study Then the aims, hypothesis, scope, significance and method of the study will be presented 1.Rationale of the study Reading is an activity that can be considered as a crucial aspect of one's language ability because this skill helps to develop other language skills and provides knowledge on the target language However, many students experience difficulties in comprehending the reading texts These difficulties appear because the students have low motivation and possess limited vocabulary Students today have become more passive and reluctant in regard to reading, doing no more than what is required Educators are concerned about students' disinterest and therefore, are endeavoring to find ways and sources to encourage students to read Moreover, time for reading lesson at high school is limited There are three English lessons every week and there is only one for reading which means there is not enough time for reading - the most important language skill That is the reason why teachers have to find ways to enhance students to read more That means students have to read extensively Furthermore, the books we read outside our narrow professional field can have an unpredictable effect on our practice within it So much of what we learn is learned sub-consciously Its effects spread more by infection than by direct injection And it is highly individual Individuals form associative networks among the books they read This results in a kind of personal intertextuality, where the patterns form and re-form as we read more different books This gives us a rich mental yeast which we can use to interact with others, while still retaining our individual take on the texts and the world Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students From the important role of exsentive reading, the author wanted to have insights from a extensive reading project for high school students This might help the author recognize the benefits and constraints to students learning English 2.Aims of the study and research questions In conducting this study, the researcher expects to explore the feasibility of using extensive reading as an out-of-class activity for high school students so that they can improve their English and the teacher-researcher can discover the effects of extensive reading to high school students It is hoped to improve students' extensive reading as well as their language proficiency In addition, this paper was carried out to find out advantages and disadvantages of extensive reading activity Specifically, two main research questions was following addressed: What are the students‟ attitudes towards extensive reading? What are the students‟ perceived benefits and challenges of extensive reading? How they overcome those challenges? Scope of the research topic The research project was conducted with a group of 46 students of Grade 10 in Nguyen Binh Khiem high school located in Ha noi The project lasted one school-year (nine months) The research limited itself to the students‟ perceptions of the benefits of extentive reading to their learning English Significance of the study Once completed, the study is aimed to provide empirical information about the feasibility of extensive reading with EFL high school students via their perceptions of how useful extensive reading was to their learning English This information is helpful to high school teachers who wish to provide more exposure to English for their students by means of extensive reading Method of the study An action research approach was adopted in this study because its aim is to provide understanding of how extensive reading works in a particular context of the researcher‟s classroom and students In order to get data, a combination of different Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students instruments, namely questionnaire, focus group interviews, is used The data collected through the sets questionnaire will be analyzed by quantitative method, using an ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) through SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Science) To complete the research effectively and logically, and researcher‟s diaries are also used to take notes the process carefully Organization of the study The study consists of three parts: Part A – Introduction: presents the rationale, aim, scope, significance and method of the study Part B – Development: comprises three chapters: - Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature Review covers the overview of the literature which includes relevant theoretical background and reviews of related studies concerning extensive reading skill and its effectiveness in language teaching - Chapter 2: Research Method continues with the research method including the participants of the study, the instrumentation, the methods and procedures of data collection and data analysis - Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion demonstrates the findings accompanied by data analysis and discussion Part C: Conclusion: recapitulates the major findings of the study and represents further recommendations Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Introduction Reading activity can be regarded as a important aspect to develop the ability in language as well as social interaction, this skill; moreover, helps to develop other language skills and provides knowledge on the target language However, many students seem not to recognize the role of reading activity, they have low motivation and possess limited vocabulary Students today have become more passive and reluctant in regard to reading, doing no more than what is required In this paper, a review of literature in theory and practice on reading is provided First, the definition and role of reading, especially extensive reading in language teaching are introduced Second, benefits were reveales before by some researchers Next, the definition and effect of attitude on language learning are discussed Following this, the studies related to the subject conducted are reviewed 1.2 Attitude 1.2.1 Definition According to Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, attitude is "a way of feeling or thinking about someone or something, especially, as this influences one‟s behavior" Language attitudes, however, are different from other general attitudes in the sense that they are specifically about language We normally believe that language attitudes are concerned with attitudes with regard to the language itself – its variety, its sound system, its semantic quality and so on and so forth In fact the term language attitude as it is applied by sociolinguists today, includes the outlook and stance towards speakers of a particular language as also a variety of behavior concerning language Ellis (2000) mentioned that positive attitudes towards the L2 and its speakers can be expected to enhance learning while negative attitudes impede it Therefore, learner attitudes have an impact on the level of L2 proficiency achieved by individual learners who are themselves influenced by this success Thus, learners with positive attitudes, who experience success, will have these attitudes reinforced Similarly, learners‟ negative attitudes may be strengthened by lack of success (Ellis 2002) Baker (1988) suggested that attitudes are complex constructs; there may be both positive and negative feelings attached to a language situation According to Lambert (1967), attitudes consist of three components - the cognitive, affective and conative (related to action) components The cognitive component refers to an Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students individual‟s belief structure, the affective to emotional reactions and the conative component includes the tendency to behave in a certain way towards the attitude Wenden (1991) as cited in Atez & Munir (2009) gave a broader definition of the concept "attitude" He claimed that the term "attitudes" includes three components namely, cognitive, affective, and behavioural A cognitive component is comprised of the beliefs and ideas or opinions about the object of the attitude The affective one is made up of the feeling and emotions that one has towards an object, "likes" or "dislikes", "with" or "against" Finally, the behavioural component refers to one's consisting actions or behavioural intentions towards the object To sum up, attitude is a mental and neural state, expressing the individual's responses to an object, a person, a thing or an event 1.2.2 The efffects of attitude in second language learning The concept of learners' attitude has been the focus of attention in explanation and investigation of human behavior offered by social psychologists Attitude is usually defined as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing such as an idea, object, person, or situation A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between attitude and proficiency in the language (Bachman, 1990; Coleman, Strafield, and Hagan, 2003) Gardner (1985) believed that attitude and other affective variables are as important as aptitude for language achievement According to Ismet (2005), attitude is one of "the determinants of success in EFL learning" Depending on the learners' attitudes, learning language can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment Positive attitudes towards L2 is beneficial to L2 learners because positive attitudes help to create motivation to achieve success in acquiring that language (Holmes, 1992); whereas, negative attitudes towards the foreign language and group which often comes from stereotypes, can impede the learning of that language (Brown, 2000) In sum, from these studies into the learners' attitudes towards L2 learning, it can be concluded that learners' attitudes play a significant role in enabling learners effectively Having positive or negative attitudes towards a certain language can exert considerable influence upon their performance on the language itself Consequently, L2 teachers need to take learners' attitudes into consideration Teachers should be aware of a positive correlation between language learners' attitude and language proficiency This awareness can help language teachers make decision about their Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students teaching, and this decision making can call for some teaching implications which refer to teaching practice orientation to learners' attitudes 1.3 A literature review on extensive reading in foreign language learning Extensive reading, free reading, book flood, or reading for pleasure is a way of language learning, including foreign language learning, through large amounts of reading As well as facilitating acquisition and learning of vocabulary, it is believed to increase motivation through positive affective benefits The promotion of extensive reading in foreign language learning is based on the assumption that extensive exposure to language input willhelp develop many aspects of language Ithas now been well-established that ER has a positive impact on cognitive and affectivedomains of reading in L2 (Yamashita, 2015) Scholars (e.g Krashen,1989) claim that reading alone will increase encounters with unknown words, bringing learning opportunities by inferencing The learner's encounters with unknown words in specific contexts will allow the learner to infer and thus learn those words' meanings While the mechanism is commonly accepted as true, its importance in language learning is disputed (Cobb 2007) In language learning, extensive reading is contrasted with intensive reading, which is slow, careful reading of a small amount of difficult text – it is when one is "focused on the language rather than the text" Extensive and intensive reading are two approaches to language learning and instruction, and may be used concurrently Intensive reading is however the more common approach, and often the only one used Both intensive and extensive readings are important and necessary for effective readings, and they are complementary to each other To be an efficient reader, one must carry on both these two processes, as Williams (1986: 44) suggests, “For every hour of intensive reading, a learner should be doing at least another hour of extensive reading.” Davis (1995: 329) defines an extensive reading as a supplementary class library scheme, attached to an English course, in which pupils are given the time, encouraged, and materials to read pleasurably, at their own level, as many books as are only competing against themselves As for extensive reading as an informal reading habit, it is something that the educated blend and stretch their formal-educationinduced ER into their future lives for profit (in terms of gaining knowledge) alone or pleasure alone or both (Lakshminarayanan 2015) Student: Mai Thị Ngọc Uyển K25 - QH2016.1.E3 ... UYỂN INSIGHTS FROM AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON EXTENSIVE READING FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS (Những nhận thức từ dự án nghiên cứu hành động việc đọc thêm nhà cho học sinh THPT M.A MINOR THESIS. .. QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students individual‟s belief structure, the affective to emotional reactions and the conative component includes... K25 - QH2016.1.E3 Insights from an action research project on extensive reading for high school students teaching, and this decision making can call for some teaching implications which refer to