Reading strategies to improve reading comprehension of students at thai nguyen college of economics and technology

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LẬP READING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION OF STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY Chiến lược đọc nhằm cải thiện kỹ đọc hiểu sinh viên Trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HA NOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LẬP READING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS OF STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN COLLEGE OF ECONOMICS AND TECHNOLOGY Chiến lược đọc nhằm cải thiện kỹ đọc hiểu sinh viên Trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế - Kỹ thuật Thái Nguyên M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: ĐINH HẢI YẾN, M Ed HA NOI - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENT Page PART I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………….1 Rationale of the Thesis ………………………………………………………………….1 Aims of the Thesis ………………………………………………………………………2 Significance of the Thesis ……………………………………………………………….2 Scope of the Thesis …………………………………………………………………… Research Methods used in the Thesis ………………………………………………… Design of the Thesis ……………………………………………………………… .3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ……………………………………………………………….4 Chapter 1: Literature Review………………………………………………………………4 II.1.1 Definitions of Reading………………………………………………………………4 II.1.2 Reading Comprehension…………………………………………………………….4 II.1.2.1 Definitions……………………………………………………………………… II.1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Models………………………………………………….5 II.1.2.2.1 Bottom-up Model……………………………………………………………… II.1.2.2.2 Top-down Model……………………………………………………………… II.1.2.2.3 Interactive Model……………………………………………………………… II.1.2.3 Characteristics of an Effective Reader…………………………………………….7 II.1.2.4 Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills……………………………………… II.1.3 Reading Strategies………………………………………………………………… II.1.3.1 Defining Strategies…………………………………………………………… .9 II.1.3.1.1 Metacognitive Strategies ………………………………………………………10 II.1.3.1.2 Cognitive Strategies ………………………………………………………… 10 II.1.3.1.3 Social/Affective Strategies …………………………………………………….11 II.1.3.2.The Importance of Strategies in the Learning Process ………………………… 11 II.1.3.3 Strategies in Teaching Second Language Reading Comprehension ………… 12 II.1.4 Summary ………………………………………………………………………… 14 Chapter 2: Research Methodology ……………………………………………………….16 II.2.1 Research Questions ……………………………………………………………….16 II.2.2 Participants and Settings of the Study …………………………………………….16 iv II.2.2.1 Participants ……………………………………………………………………16 II.2.2.2 Settings of the Study ………………………………………………………… 17 II.2.3 Instruments ………………………………………………………………………17 II.2.3.1 Tests ………………………………………………………………………… 18 II.2.3.2 Questionnaires …………………………………………………………………19 II.2.4 Data Collection Procedures …………………………………………………… 20 II.2.5 Coding of Questionnaire Data ………………………………………………… 20 II.2.6 Summary ……………………………………………………………………… 22 Chapter 3: Data Analysis and Discussion …………………………………………… 24 II.3.1 Test Results …………………………………………………………………… 24 II.3.1.1 Metacognitive Strategies ……………………………………………………….24 II.3.1.2 Cognitive Strategies ……………………………………………………………25 II.3.1.3 Social/Affective Strategies …………………………………………………… 26 II.3.2 Results of Questionnaires ……………………………………………………… 26 II.3.2.1 Readers’ Attitudes to Reading Comprehension ……………………………… 27 II.3.2.2 Reading Strategies …………………………………………………………… 29 II.3.2.2.1 Metacognitive Strategies …………………………………………………… 29 II.3.2.2.2 Cognitive Strategies ………………………………………………………….30 II.3.2.2.3 Social/Affective Strategies ………………………………………………… 31 II.3.3 Discussion and Recommendations ……………………………………………….31 II.3.4 Summary ……………………………………………………………………… 34 PART 3: CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………………….35 Summary of Previous Parts ………………………………………………………… 35 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………………… 35 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study …………………………………… 36 REFFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………… 37 APPENDIXES……………………………………………………………………… .I Appendix …………………………………………………………………………… I Appendix …………………………………………………………………………… V Appendix …………………………………………………………………………… XVII Appendix …………………………………………………………………………… XX v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CFL : College of Foreign Language VNU : Vietnam National University TNCET : Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Page Tables Table 2.1: Background information about the participants………………………………16 Table 2.2: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories ………………………….20 Charts Chart 3.1: Test Results – Metacognitive Strategies …………………………………… 24 Chart 3.2: Test Results – Cognitive Strategies ………………………………………… 25 Chart 3.3: Test Results –Social/Affective Strategies ……………………………………26 Chart 3.4: Questionnaire Results: Question ………………………………………… 27 Chart 3.5: Questionnaire Results: Question ………………………………………… 27 Chart 3.6: Questionnaire Results: Question 3……………………………………………28 Chart 3.7: Questionnaire Results: Metacognitive Strategies…………………………….29 Chart 3.8: Questionnaire Results: Cognitive Strategies ……………………………… 30 Chart 3.9: Questionnaire Results: Social/Affective Strategies ………………………….31 vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the thesis It is obvious that English language has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, telecommunication, culture, science and technology, and since Vietnam carried out the open door policy towards the regional and global integration, English language has become more and more important Therefore, it is necessary for Vietnamese students to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing requirements in a developing country like Vietnam In the process of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL), reading is an essential skill For many people, reading is the most important skill to gain the knowledge and the only means by which learners can access to further study So with well-developed reading skills, ESL/ EFL readers will have a chance to make greater progress and achieve greater development in all academic areas Because under Vietnam circumstances, English language is taught and learnt in a nonnative environment, reading is both a means to gain knowledge and a means by which further study takes place According to Carrell (1984:1): “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” This is really true to the students at Thai Nguyen College of Economics and Technology (TNCET) They find that reading not only gives them a wide range of interesting information but also offers them chances to enlarge their vocabulary, structures and language expressions which are useful for developing other skills Nevertheless, students at TNCET often have difficulties in reading lessons because of the lack of appropriate reading strategies which are essential for them – ESL/EFL readers Researchers believe that effective readers are aware of the strategies they use and that they use strategies flexibly and efficiently Therefore, teachers should consider and choose effective reading strategies to teach students, and help them develop the given strategies effectively In the present process of teaching methods innovation in Vietnam generally, and at TNCET particularly, equipping students with learning strategies can help them be more active, take charge of their own learning, and have more positive learning spirit For these reasons, it would be necessary to have an investigation into reading strategies and classroom practice Through the study, we could recognize useful reading strategies and how efficiently they are used in an ESF/EFL classroom to improve reading comprehension skills of students at TNCET Aims of the thesis The aims of the study are:  To investigate the reading strategies and equipping students with these reading strategies to improve students‟ ability of reading in English at TNCET  To examine how efficiently the reading strategies are used in reading classes Significance of the thesis The findings of the thesis will be useful not only to the researcher, but also to the teaching staff and especially to the students at TNCET in learning reading skills Besides, the study will make a great contribution to improve the quality of teaching and learning English at TNCET Further more, it will offer the theoretical basis for the application of reading techniques in classroom Scope of the thesis In teaching and learning a language as an ESL/EFL, there are many factors that influence the learners‟ success or failure A part from reading, there are also other main skills in language learning including speaking, listening, and writing However, due to the limited scope of a minor thesis, this study only focuses on the investigation of reading comprehension needs of students at TNCET in the process of teaching methods innovation, the limitation and difficulties of their reading activity, and the application of reading strategies in classrooms Research methods used in the thesis To achieve the aims mentioned above, the author would like to employ tests and survey questionnaires to investigate how efficiently the reading strategies are used and analyze them through data collection instruments Design of the thesis There are three main parts in this thesis: introduction, development, and conclusion The introduction provides the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, the methods, and the design of the thesis The development consists of three chapters: Chapter presents a review of literature including definitions of reading comprehension and reading processes, reading comprehension models, teaching comprehension skills, and reading strategies It discusses the three reading strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, and social/affective strategies; the importance of strategies in learning process; and strategies in teaching SL reading comprehension Chapter focuses on the methodology employed in this thesis including research questions, participants and instruments The instruments consist of tests and classroom observation Chapter reports the results of tests and classroom observation This chapter discusses in the three strategies The conclusion provides a brief summary of main parts being present in the study, the conclusions drawn out and the limitations of the study It also suggests directions for further study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review This chapter reviews theories related to reading, reading comprehension, and reading strategies All of these serve as a basis for the aim of the thesis which is to use reading strategies to improve reading comprehension skills of students at TNCET II.1.1.Definitions of reading The act of reading is not easily understood and described In the most general terms we may say that reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between reader and the text (Rumelhart 1977) The process of reading has been intensively studied, and there have been many different approaches to it, and the term „reading‟ has been given many interpretations Mitchell has a basic definition of reading: Reading can be defined loosely as the ability to make sense of written or printed symbols The reader uses the symbols to guide the recovery of information from his or her memory and subsequently uses this information to construct a plausible interpretation of the writer’s message (Mitchell 1982:1) Goodman (1971:35) defines reading as a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display Simply and clearly, Eddie Williams (1984: 2) defines reading as “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” This definition of reading does not mean that a reader needs to understand everything in text Reading can be a struggle after understanding, especially where language learners are concerned He emphasizes that part of the teacher‟s job is therefore to develop within the learner strategies that will help them in this struggle From the ideas above, we can come to the conclusion that reading is a complex process which involves a triangular interaction between the reader, the writer and the text Reading is also an interaction between purpose and manner of reading, and it is an interaction through reading strategies (J.A Aebersold and M.L Field, 1997) II.1.2 Reading comprehension II.1.2.1 Definitions 24 Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion The previous chapter presented the methodology used for the study including the participants, data collection instruments, and data collection procedures By using such instruments as tests and questionnaires, the researcher collected three sets of data on the participants‟ reading strategies In this chapter, results of the two tests and questionnaires are analyzed and discussed respectively II.3.1 Test results As mentioned in chapter 2, in this study two reading comprehension tests were given to the first year Economics and Business and Management students The first reading comprehension test was given to the students to investigate their reading strategies and the second one was given after the reading strategies had been introduced to them The following parts present the results of the two tests in terms of metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies II.3.1.1 Metacognitive strategies Metacognitive strategies with planning, monitoring, and evaluation strategies were designed in the first tasks of the two reading comprehension tests (from question1 to question 3) Bar chart 3.1 presents the percentage of the students who gave correct answers Evaluation Test Monitoring Test Planning 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.1.Test Results – Metacognitive Strategies The data presented in chart 3.1 revealed that students‟ metacognitive strategies used in reading comprehension were generally not very good in the first test As for planning, there were 63.3% of the students who did the correct answers As regards to monitoring, nearly 70.0% of them were correct Particularly, only 43.3% of them gave correct answers in 25 question regarding evaluation strategy After they were guided and practiced these reading strategies with teacher‟s guidance, their results increased significantly in Test For planning, more than four fifth of the students (83.3%) did correct answers Nearly 90.0% of them gave well-done answers for monitoring and for evaluation, the percentage of the students who gave correct answers increased remarkablly from 43.3% to nearly 73.3% The data show that their reading strategies were improved with the teachers‟ help and guidance II.3.1.2 Cognitive strategies Results from the students‟ tests about cognitive strategies are shown in bar chart 3.2 below Sumarizing Inferencing Transfer Eleboration Test Imagery Test Deduction Grouping Repitition 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.2.Test Results – Cognitive Strategies Chart 3.2 clearly demonstrated the two test results from the participants In comparison with metacognitive strategies, their cognitive strategies were much worse in Test The cognitive reading strategies with the highest percentage of the students who gave correct answers were summarizing and inferencing (66.7%, and 75.0%) As for repetition strategy, only more than half of them were correct For imagery and transfer strategies, nearly 60.0% of them gave correct answers The cognitive strategies with the lowest percentage of the participants who gave correct answers were grouping (36.7%), elaboration (36.7%), and deduction (41.7%) However, their cognitive strategies were gradually advanced as represented in Test As shown above, the numbers of the students who did correct answers for repetition strategy increased incredibly from 51.7% to 90.0% Having the same percentage of the students 26 who gave correct answers with repetition, elaboration strategy increased by 40.0% (from 36.7% to 76.7%) As regards to grouping strategy, 60.0% of them gave the correct answers instead of 36.7% in Test On the other hand, the percentage of deduction strategy also increased rather higher than the other strategies accounting for 35.0% (from 40.0% to 76.7%) The percentage of the remaining cognitive strategies such as imagery, transfer, and inferencing slightly increased II.3.1.3 Social/affective strategies Social/affective strategies are now believed to be very important to students in the present process of teaching methods innovation As already mentioned in the previous section, cooperation strategy was utilized in this study The following chart will present the percentage of the participants who did correct answers for this strategy in the two tests Cooperation Test Cooperation Test 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.3.Test Results – Social/Affective Strategies Bar chart 3.3 clearly reveals the students‟ cooperation strategy in test and test More than half of them (53.3%) gave the correct answers in Test It was found that they did not know how to work together effectively to solve the questions However, their cooperation strategy improved significantly with the teacher‟s specific guidance The percentage of the students who gave correct answers increased from53.3% to 86.7%, over 30.0% increase in percentage as compared to Test II.3.2 Results of questionnaires The questionnaire that was administered to 30 readers included 16 questions, of which, the first three questions asked about students‟ personal opinions on the importance of reading comprehension, their evaluation on their own reading speeds, and their ideas of some 27 factors affecting reading comprehension The remaining 13 questions examine the reading strategies that they used while reading II.3.2.1 Readers’ attitudes to reading comprehension Question asks the participants how important reading comprehension is to their purpose of English learning Chart 3.4 presents the percentage of the students‟ answers to the first question Very important Important A little important Not important Not important at all 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.4 Questionnaire Results: Question The data in chart 3.4 indicates that all of the students appreciated the importance of reading comprehension to their learning English purpose The majority of them (86.7%) thought reading comprehension was very important There was a small percentage of them (13.3%) thought reading comprehension was important to their purpose while none of them (0%) thought it was not important to their purpose of English learning Question asks the students to evaluate their reading speeds Chart 3.5 shows the participants‟ answers to the second questions Very fast Fast Average Slow Very slow 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Chart 3.5 Questionnaire Results: Question 60% 28 As shown in chart 3.5, no one evaluated their reading speed as very fast or very slow Over half of students (56.7%) evaluated to be at average level themselves Some of them (20.0%) thought they read slowly and the remaining students (23.0%) judged their speed as fast Question asks the participants to indicate the importance of the following factors to reading comprehension A have a large English vocabulary B have a good knowledge of English grammar C have a good knowledge of the reading topic D have effective reading strategies The results of participants‟ answers to the 3rd question will be presented in the following chart Not important at all Not important Question 3D Question 3C A little important Question 3B Question 3A Important Very important 0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.0 120.0 % % % % % 0% 0% Chart 3.6 Questionnaire Results: Question For question 3A, as shown in the chart, 43.3% of the students assumed that having a large English vocabulary was very important, and more than half of them (56.7%) thought this factor was important For question 3B, the same percentage of the participants (43.3%) responded that having a good knowledge of English grammar was very important 53.3% of them thought this factor was important Meanwhile, there was a small number of students (3.3%) thought it was a little important 29 As for question 3C, there were 20.0% and 53.3% of them responded that having a good knowledge of the reading topic was very important and important respectively A small number of the students accounting for 26.7% thought this factor was a little important Particularly, as regards to question 3D, all of the interviewees appreciated the importance of reading strategies on reading comprehension II.3.2.2 Reading strategies The next 13 questions asked students about their reading strategies The strategies were classified into metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies on the basis of O‟Malley and Chamot‟s framework (1990) As already mentioned in the previous section, the following analysis utilized this framework and the two reading tests‟ form in order to clarify the effectiveness of the reading strategies employed by the participants II.3.2.2.1 Metacognitive strategies The first part deals with the questionnaire results of the participants‟ metacognitive strategies As discussed before, the metacognitive reading strategies were categorized into three subtypes including planning, monitoring, and evaluation and there were four questions for these subtypes coded in items 4, 5, 6, and Chart 3.7 presents the percentage of responses given by the participants Item Item No Yes Item Item 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.7 Questionnaire Results: Metacognitive Strategies As shown above, most students employed the three given metacognitive strategies while reading For planning, coded in item and item 5, 86.7% of the students previewed the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading In addition, 90.0% of them 30 skimmed through the text to understand the main ideas before focusing on details The second strategy, monitoring, coded in item had the same percentage of the students who practiced this strategy in comparison with item There were 90.0% of them checking their comprehension or checking the accuracy of the written production during reading The third strategy, as the result shows, 86.7% of them checked their answers after reading II.3.2.2.2 Cognitive strategies The second part shows the questionnaire results of the cognitive reading strategies performed by the participants There were subtypes including repetition, grouping, deduction, imagery, elaboration, transfer, inferencing, and summarizing coded from item to item 15 respectively The students‟ responses will be demonstrated in the following chart Item 15 Item 14 Item 13 Item 12 No Item 11 Yes Item 10 Item Item 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00% Chart 3.8 Questionnaire Results: Cognitive Strategies The results in chart 3.8 show some differences and similarities among the responses given by the participants For repetition, 70.0% of them performed this strategy by focusing on a new sentence pattern and putting it in their knowledge For grouping, 80.0% of them could recognize some words that had the same group of meaning while reading Nearly all of the students accounting for 90.0% performed deduction strategy For imagery strategy, 23.0% of the students did not use their own visual images to understand or remember a new word, or information while reading 31 There was the same percentage of the students who practiced elaboration and transfer strategies accounting for 86.7% For the strategies of inferencing and summarizing, there were 83.3% of them using these strategies They could guess meaning of new words using the available information and mentally summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading II.3.2.2.3 Social/affective strategies The last type of reading strategies to be discussed is social/affective strategy As mentioned earlier, only one strategy namely cooperation is discussed in this part Chart 3.9 illustrates the questionnaire results of cooperation strategy Cooperation No Cooperation Yes 0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00 % Chart 3.9 Questionnaire Results: Social/Affective Strategies As indicated in chart 3.9, 90.0% of the participants worked together with their classmates to solve the questions in the reading texts The statistical figure clearly revealed the importance of this reading strategy to the students II.3.3 Discussion and recommendations Based on the results of the study, some issues regarding the students‟ attitudes to reading comprehension and reading strategies will be discussed below Firstly, the results from questionnaires gave an interesting point that is almost all students confirmed the importance of reading comprehension in their learning English language When being asked to give opinions about factors affecting their reading comprehension, nearly all of the students confirmed the importance of having effective reading strategies Secondly, as presented earlier, the students‟ reading strategies will be discussed in terms of the three types of reading strategies including metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies 32 Regarding the metacognitive strategies including planning, monitoring, and evaluation in the two reading tests and the questionnaires, the results proved that the students could practice and acquire these reading strategies effectively The results of Test showed that their metacognitive reading strategies were not very good at first, especially for the evaluation strategy for many of them did incorrect answers However, after over two months for absorbing and practicing the given strategies, there was a significant progress in Test The results in the questionnaires also proved that fact in these reading strategies In order to introduce these strategies to the students, the researcher designed some reading texts with the questions regarding the strategies One of the reading texts was implemented in a classroom for a period of 60 minutes The researcher guided the students these strategies and helped them answer the reading comprehension questions Other reading texts were given to students to practice at home Concerning the cognitive strategies including repetition, grouping, deduction, imagery, elaboration, transfer, inferencing, and summarizing, the effectiveness of applying these reading strategies was also shown in the data analysis of tests and questionnaires The results in Test revealed that the students‟ cognitive reading strategies were worse than their metacognitive reading strategies Nevertheless, their cognitive reading strategies results increased in Test Some of their cognitive reading strategies improved with high results, such as repetition and elaboration However, according to the data collected, the strategies of transfer and imagery did not improve much though the students responded in the questionnaires that they had practiced them carefully This is perhaps due to some possible reasons that can be listed below The first is that the students had some limitations in their reading comprehension competence They were lack of effective reading skills for years Another possibility is that most of them came from the countryside and mountainous areas They might not have many opportunities to practice English language and there were not many English materials for them As regard to social/affective reading strategies, the statistical figures in the tests and questionnaires showed the efficiency of the social/affective reading strategy the students employed Earlier they used to work in pairs or groups to practice speaking, not reading comprehension before When dealing with a reading comprehension text, they often worked individually from the beginning to the end and they just skipped some difficult comprehension questions Then the researcher helped them change their habit by asking 33 them to work in pairs or groups to solve problems with the reading comprehension texts After two months, they could work together with their classmates or friends to solve a problem in a reading text In short, the results of the study basically proved that once having effective reading strategies the students could improve their ability of reading comprehension Nevertheless, the results of the study also reflected some weaknesses and drawbacks when these strategies were practiced by students Therefore, the researcher can come to the conclusion that these reading strategies can be used more efficiently in reading classes at TNCET if proper teaching and learning English reading methods are implemented Recommendations on what reading methods should be provided and practiced will be suggested by the writer as follows Recommendations for teachers It is necessary for teachers to teach the reading strategies in the entire year, present these strategies as applicable to texts and tasks, and teacher should give students opportunities to practice the strategies they have been taught Specifically, teachers should consider when and where the reading strategies are implemented in the course Teachers should prepare and design reading tasks and activities in accordance with the objectives of the course In addition, teachers should provide students with systematic practice and reinforcement of their reading strategy use while attending to reading activities Furthermore, teachers should also assign a variety of reading texts to students at schools and at home More reading exercises should be designed or compiled in order to not only improve students‟ reading comprehension but also consolidate their vocabulary and knowledge of grammar As the findings of this study shows, most of the students seemed to practice reading based on bottom-up model It is a reason that the students did not display well in some reading strategies Thus, teachers should help students combine both bottom-up and top-down reading models in reading classes In other words, as mentioned earlier, teachers need to take full advantage of these models and therefore can apply them in each reading task Recommendations for students First of all, it is important that students should realize that reading comprehension is an active process which involves using a number of strategies at the same time Therefore, they should try to maximize the chances to practice the given reading strategies Their reading comprehension ability would certainly improve gradually 34 In addition, students should be willing to practice reading both at school and at home When taking part in a reading comprehension task, students should: Preview the headings, illustrations and the text to guess the main idea of the text before reading; Read questions to know what to focus; Determine suitable strategies according to their reading purposes; Cooperate with the classmates or friends; Use a dictionary for new words or expressions; Seek teachers‟ assistance for difficult parts in the reading texts if they fail to comprehend it even after they have worked in groups/pairs Last but not least, students should also concentrate on improving their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary which help them much in their reading comprehension In turn, reading comprehension will help students enrich their grammar structures and vocabulary II.3.4 Summary In this chapter, the results of the tests and questionnaires were analyzed and discussed in terms of the three types of reading strategies including metacognitive, cognitive, and social/affective strategies which were based on O‟malley and Chamot‟s framework (1990) Firstly, the results of the two tests regarding the 12 reading strategies were presented and analyzed Secondly, the questionnaire results regarding the students‟ attitudes to reading comprehension and the employment of the strategies were also analyzed Finally, some discussions of the data were reported and recommendations were given to make the reading strategies be more efficiently used in reading classes 35 PART 3: CONCLUSION The objectives of the study were to investigate the reading strategies, and examine how efficiently these were used in reading classes by a group of first year non English major students at TNCET This part summarizes the previous parts of the study, presents the conclusions, the limitations of the study and proposes some suggestions for further research Summary of previous parts The study consists of three parts including introduction, development, and conclusion Part provides a brief introduction to the research including the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, and design of the thesis Part is the development with chapters presenting a review of literature concentrating on the issues related to reading comprehension and reading strategies (chapter 1); the methodology employed in this study in terms of participants, data collection instruments, and data collection procedures (chapter 2) Also, in this part, presentation of data results, discussion of the findings of the study, and some recommendations are given (chapter 3) Part provides the conclusions drawn out and the limitations of the study It also suggests directions for further study Conclusions It is obvious that knowledge of learning strategies is very important in Vietnam generally and in TNCET particularly Learning strategies have also become a topic of interest in recent years when the concepts of „self-learning‟, „life-long learning‟, and „teaching methods innovation‟ have been familiar to both teachers and students As regards to language reading comprehension, reading strategies have been considered essential means to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures As stated in the introduction part, the study addressed two research questions: What are effective reading strategies that help students improve their ability of reading comprehension in English at TNCET? How efficiently the reading strategies are used in reading classes? The major findings can be concluded as follows Research question Based on the analysis of data from tests and questionnaires, it is concluded that all of the 12 reading strategies including metacognitive, cognitive and social/effective strategies 36 which were suggested by O‟malley and Chamot‟s framework (1990) were proved to be effective to help students improve their ability of reading comprehension Research question Basing on the findings, the researcher came to the conclusion that with teacher‟s proper guidelines and sufficient time given to practice, students could acquire and use most of the 12 reading strategies efficiently in reading classes However, more time and practice should be given to a small number of the reading strategies with limited results such as transfer and imagery strategies To make these strategies more effective, some recommendations were also given As for teacher, it is necessary to prepare and design more appropriate reading tasks and activities through which students would have chances to practice and reinforce the given strategies As for students, it is necessary to maximize the chances to practice the given strategies both at school and at home Students should also concentrate on improving their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary Limitations and suggestions for further study While the study is expected to have some contributions to the learning and teaching reading at TNCET, it is not free from limitations Firstly, limitations were found in the number of the participants: 30 first year non English major students who were tested and interviewed may not apply for all the students in colleges and universities Secondly, the study was conducted within a short time frame, so the validity of the results is obviously limited As the present study only investigated the reading strategies used by the students of the same major at TNCET, it would be useful if further research considers examining the reading strategies employed by students of different majors to see whether the same efficiency is yielded for various reading strategies These directions for further research, without doubt, would bring a better insight into the betterment of teaching and learning reading comprehension in English classrooms at TNCET 37 REFERENCES Adler C R., (2004) Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension Retrieved October 13th, 2009 from http://www.readingrockets.org Admin, (2006), Theories of Reading Retrieved December 12th, 2009 from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk Brown (1990) Strategies for Developing Reading Skills Retrieved December 10th, 2009 from http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/strateread.htm Carrell, P L, (1989) Metacognitive Awareness and Second Language Reading Modern Language Journal, 73, 121 – 133 Caroline Clapham, (1996) The development of IELTS: A study of the effect of background knowledge on reading comprehension Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Christine Nuttall, (1982) Teaching reading skills in a foreign language Hong Kong: Macmillan Heinemann English Language Teaching Cindy Brantmeier, 2002 Second Language Reading Strategy Research at the Secondary and University Levels: variations, Disparities, and Generalizability Retrieved December 15th, 2009 from http://www.readingmatrix.com Cohen, A (1998) Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language New York: Longman Day, R and Bamford, J (1998) Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 10 Eddie William, 1984 Reading in the Language Classroom Oxford: Macmillan Publisher 11 Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second language Acquisition Oxford: Oxford University Press 12 Goodman, K (1979) The Reading Process, In P.Carrel, J Devine & D Eskey (eds) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 13 Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 14 Jo Ann Aebersold, Mary Lee Field, (1997) From reader to reading teacher: Issues and Strategies for second language classrooms New York: Cambridge University 38 Press 15 J M O‟Malley and A.U Chamot, 1990 Learning Strategies in Second language Acquisition New York: Cambridge University Press 16 Lorraine C.Smith and Nancy N Mare (1993) Insights for Today The U.S.A: Heinle & Heinle Publisher 17 Mayer, Richard, (2003) Learning and Instruction Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc 18 Nunan, D.(1991) Language Teaching Methodology Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education 19 Patricia L Carrell, (1998) Can Reading Strategies be Successfully taught? Retrieved October 23rd, 2009 from http://www.thelanguageteacher.com 20 Robinson, R & Good, T.L, (1987) Being an Effective reading Teaching New York: Harper and Row Publisher 21 Rubin, J and Thompson, I (1994) How to be a more Successful Language Learner Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publisher 22 Ruddell B R (EDs), 2004 Theoretical models and processes of reading Newark Delaware: International Reading Association 23 Samuel, S and Kamil (1998) Models of the Reading Process, in Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 24 Selinger H, W & Shohany E (1989) Second Language Research Methods Oxford : Oxford University Press 25 Tarone, E (1981) Some Thoughts on the Notion of Communication Strategy TESOL Quarterly 15, pp.285-295 26 Wassaman, R & Rinsky, L.A (1993) Effective Reading in Changing World Great Britain: Prenticehall ... investigate the reading strategies and equipping students with these reading strategies to improve students? ?? ability of reading in English at TNCET  To examine how efficiently the reading strategies. .. theories related to reading, reading comprehension, and reading strategies All of these serve as a basis for the aim of the thesis which is to use reading strategies to improve reading comprehension. .. investigation of reading comprehension needs of students at TNCET in the process of teaching methods innovation, the limitation and difficulties of their reading activity, and the application of reading