A study on using word guessing strategies in reading comprehension of economics texts of third year students majoring in economics at phuc yen college of industry

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** HOÀNG THỊ MINH CHIÊM A STUDY ON USING WORD GUESSING STRATEGIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF ECONOMICS TEXTS OF THIRD YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ECONOMICS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến thuật đoán từ kỹ đọc hiểu khóa chuyên ngành kinh tế sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kinh tế trường Cao đẳng công nghiệp Phúc Yên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** HOÀNG THỊ MINH CHIÊM A STUDY ON USING WORD GUESSING STRATEGIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF ECONOMICS TEXTS OF THIRD YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ECONOMICS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến thuật đoán từ kỹ đọc hiểu khóa chuyên ngành kinh tế sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kinh tế trường Cao đẳng công nghiệp Phúc Yên) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: PHẠM THỊ THANH THÙY, Ph.D Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby state that I - Hoang Thi Minh Chiem, being an M.A candidate of the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, certify my authorship of the study entitled A STUDY ON USING WORD GUESSING STRATEGIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF ECONOMICS TEXTS OF THIRD YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ECONOMICS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY The thesis is my own research and the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions Hanoi, September 2014 Hoàng Thị Minh Chiêm i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and love to my supervisor, Ms Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, Ph.D for her guidance, patience, comments, and especially her sympathy throughout the whole research process Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this research My sincere thanks also go to Dr Le Van Canh for his helpful suggestions during this study I would also like to thank all teachers at the Postgraduate Department, ULIS, VNU, whose lectures and guidance have contributed to my understanding of the problem and led to the completion of this thesis Especially, I wish to express my thankfulness to the teachers who will take their precious time reading and commending on this thesis I would like to express my special thanks to all the students who have been really helpful and cooperative in the implementation of the study My thanks go to many writers whose important ideas and notions are exploited and developed in the study And thanks also go to all librarians for their effort to make the atmosphere of reading rooms as convenient and friendly as possible I warmly thank my parents for giving birth to me and supporting me spiritually throughout my life And finally, I wish to send my thanks to my lovely sweet daughter for being a nice girl and to my husband who always supports, cheers me up and stands by me through the good and bad time ii ABSTRACT This study aims at examining the general strategies and the word guessing strategies used by the third year students majoring in economics at Phuc Yen College of Industry to deal with unknown words in reading comprehension economics texts in reading lessons; and the difficulties they experience in using these strategies Three research questions are submitted and answered accordingly A survey questionnaire and a task sheets are used as two research methods in this study The results indicate that: the participants of this study make use of various general strategies to deal with unknown words Of all strategies, guessing meaning from context is most frequently used one by the students Using local context and using discourse context are two most preferred guessing strategies by the students Most of them particularly have difficulties in using strategies requiring knowledge of syntactic, association or collocation and extra-textual to work out the meaning of unknown words Discussion, research limitations and implications for pedagogy and further research are also presented iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as foreign language ELT: English language teaching ESL: English as second language ESP: English for specific purpose L2: Second Language PCI: Phuc Yen College of Industry FIGURE AND TABLES Figure: Types of ESP Table 1: Frequency use of general strategies for unknown words Table 2: General strategies use for unknown words: Mean analysis Table 3: Frequency use of guessing strategies for unknown words Table 4: Guessing strategies for unknown words: Mean analysis Table 5: Guessing strategies for unknown words Table 6: Ranks of strategies use in the Questionnaire and the Task sheets Table 7: The outcome of word inferencing iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Methods of the study Organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Overview of ESP 1.1.1 Definitions of ESP 1.1.2 Characteristics of ESP 1.1.2.1 Characteristics of ESP in general 1.1.2.2 Characteristics of English for Economics 1.1.2.3 Characteristics of English Economics Texts 1.2 The Nature of Reading Comprehension 1.2.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension 1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies 1.2.2.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension Strategy 1.2.2.2 Classification of Reading Comprehension Strategies 10 1.3 Guessing/ Inferencing Strategy 11 1.3.1 Definitions of Strategy 11 1.3.2 Guessing/ Inferencing strategy 12 v 1.3.3 Classification Types of Guessing/ Inferrencing strategies 1.4 College Students’ Characteristics 1.4.1 Definitions of Student 1.4.2 Characteristics of College Students in 1.4.3 Characteristics of Economics Student 1.5 Summary CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research Context 2.1.1 An overview of Phuc Yen College of I 2.1.2 Students’ background 2.1.3 Teachers and teaching methods 2.1.4 Course book for teaching ESP 2.2 Research Questions 2.3 Participants 2.4 Data Collection Instruments 2.4.1 Survey questionnaire 2.4.2 Task Sheets 2.5 Data Collection Procedures 2.6 Data Analysis Procedures 2.7 Summary CHAPTER 3: DATA, DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Data analysis 3.1.1 The students’ general strategies used f 3.1.2 Word guessing strategies used by the 3.1.2.1 The guessing strategies used by the students collected through the questionnaire 3.1.2.2 The guessing strategies used by the students collected through the task sheets vi 3.1.2.3 The comparison of word guessing strategies used by the students in the questionnaire and the task sheets 32 3.1.3 The difficulties the student encounter when using the word guessing strategies to make the guess 33 3.2 Discussion 34 PART III: CONCLUSION 37 Conclusion 37 Pedagogical Implications of the Study 38 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES I vii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the Study In the last three decades, the “learner-centeredness” theory has become very popular It demonstrates that learners are the key component of the language acquisition process There is a fact that in the classroom, learners’ studying results are not the same though they are taught by the same teachers and under the same studying condition Some students can acquire the language successfully but some fail to master it One of the main reasons is that different learners employ different learning strategies In other words, to be success in learning a second language, learners themselves should use some suitable learning strategies to make their learning more effective Reading is not simply a receptive process of getting information from the page in a word-by-word manner (Grabe, 1991, p.1) It is considered a selective process and characterized as an active process of comprehending Therefore, to become more successful, non-English-speaking readers will need to learn to use different strategies to deal with unknown words encountered in reading This is also true for dealing with reading comprehension texts of English for Specific Purpose (ESP) Generally, a good reader has appropriate strategies to deal with unknown words in reading such as guessing or inferring the meaning of unknown words in a text Therefore strategies of guessing word meaning play an important role in dealing with unknown words encountered in reading comprehension With the hope of helping students to be equipped with necessary qualifications to get a good job after graduation, the English Faculty at PCI has applied ESP courses for all majors in this college and major of economics is not an exceptional one Throughout the teaching ESP courses for economics major students at this college, the researcher observed that the students’ results in reading comprehension are not as good as what they have expected though they have tried a lot This situation has made the researcher wonder how the students market participants a lot of new orders (A) a request to ma or supply something buyers scramble (A) to somethin more quickly than around to buy usually because the more rice not much time A good such as (A) to produce mor cars becomes something than is overstocked at wanted or needed the going market price in their rush to unload (A) to let somethin fall, to drop someth unwanted VIII models a balance (or (A) the quality or s equilibrium) of being steady and changing or being disturbed in any wa a balance (or (A) to succeed in equilibrium) reaching a particula between buyers goal, status or stand and sellers will especially by makin be restored an effort for a long time 10 classical triad (A) a group of thre of land, labor related people or th and capital 11 job (A) attracting your opportunities attention because it will be more special, exciting or IX favorable in the unusual computing field 12 The shift in (A) the process of relative wages replacing something with something new different X Reading Passage Direction: Read the following text and the vocabulary task Microeconomics ( Adapted from Economics by Fischer Dornbusch, and Schmalensee) Microeconomics deals with the economic behavior (1) of individual economic agents-mainly households and firms, and of particular markets and industries The focus is on the prices and outputs (2) of particular goods and services and on how markets interact to determine (3) the allocation of scarce (4) resources among millions of alternative uses Typical (5) microeconomics questions include: What determines the relative prices of particular goods, the prices of cars and stereos and bread and books? How does the total national output get divided (6) among various goods and services? Through microeconomics theory, one can see how the system of market prices allows equilibrium (7) to be reached between people’s tastes for different goods and the scarcity (8) of total resources to produce them Supply and demand analyses are two of the basic tools of microeconomic analysis and can be used to see how taxes affect prices and quantities (9), how government interference (10) with markets can cause shortages (11), and what happens when a small number of producers come to dominate (12) a market XI Post quiz I Vocabulary task Directions: Please work through the following list and put a circle around the best definition of the underlined word This is not a test so please not use a dictionary or other text to assist you If you not have any idea about the meaning of a word, please leave it blank No Target words Microeconomics (A) a way of be deals with the is not sincere bu economic to have a particu behavior others The focus is on (A) the amount the prices and something that a outputs of machine or an or particular goods produces markets interact to determine (A) to think care the different pos XII the allocation of that are available scarce resources one of them markets interact (A) having or co the allocation of large number or scarce resources something Typical (A) having the u microeconomics quantities or feat questions particular type o thing or group the total national output get (A) something i with others to fo divided thing the system of (A) enough in q market prices good enough in q allows particular purpos XIII equilibrium to be reached the scarcity of (A) not availabl total resources amount or numb to see how taxes (A) the standard affect prices and something when quantities compared to oth like it 10 government interference (A) the act of m something becom with markets possible for som something by something o them giving something 11 can cause shortages (A) a situation w not enough of th XIV things that are ne 12 (A) price or cos a small number of producers come to dominate a that it prevents p buying somethin something market AI Answer the following question that covers the guessing strategies you employed to deal with the unknown words in the text Which strategies you employed to deal with the unknown words in the text? Put a circle around the number of your choice You can choose more than one strategies Guess using local (sentence level) context Guess using association or collocation knowledge (i.e a clue word) Guess using syntactic knowledge Guess using visual form (similarity or morphological understanding) Guess using extra textual (thematic or world) knowledge XV Guess using discourse context i.e outside the sentence in which the word occurred (using forward or backward context) You used the other strategies or skills that were not listed above to deal with the unknown words in the article, they are _ Tasks Answer Key No Task 1 C A C A D A B C D 10 B 11 B 12 A XVI APPENDIX B Questionnaire on Strategies Used to Deal with Unknown Words in Reading (English Version) SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE Dear my students, Thank you very much for participating in this survey questionnaire Currently, I am doing my MA thesis on “A Study on Using Word Guessing Strategies in Reading Comprehension of Economics rd rd Texts of Years Students Majoring in Economics at Phuc Yen College of Industry” Its purpose is to find out what the year students majoring in economics actually to deal with unknown words, the guessing strategies you used and the difficulties you encountered when using these guessing strategies to work out the meaning of unknown words in reading comprehension of economics texts This survey questionnaire is designed to ask you what you actually do, not what you think you should so please complete it honestly to help me complete successfully this thesis You can be sure that this questionnaire is for research only and that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data You are kindly requested to fill in the following information and answer the questions that follow I General Information English? 3-5 years Gender: Male XVII II Question Content Part Questionnaire of Students’ General Strategies Use for the Unknown Words Direction: Please place a tick (√) in the corresponding boxes against each of the items below to show your response to unfamiliar words when reading English texts No Items Ignore the word Look for clues to meaning in the word itself Guess its meaning from the context Ask a friend if they know the word Ask a teacher for assistance Look up the word in an English – Vietnamese dictionary Look up the word in an English – English dictionary Others (take notes, underline, etc.) _ Part Questionnaire of Students’ guessing strategies use to deal with the unknown words in the text Direction: Please place a tick (√) in the corresponding boxes against each of the items below to show what guessing strategies you use to guess the meaning of unknown words in reading English texts No Strategies Guess using local context (meaning from the word and sentence itself) Guess using association or collocation knowledge (e.g corporate XVIII finance, market share, etc.) Guess using syntactic knowledge (sentence structures and word order) Guess using visual forms (word derivations such as prefixes and suffixes) Guess using extra textual knowledge (back ground knowledge) Guess using discourse context i.e outside the sentence in which the word occurred (using forward or backward context) Other strategies or skills used to deal with the unknown words in reading comprehension of English texts Thank you very much for your cooperation! XIX APPENDIX B: Questionnaire on Strategies Used to Deal with Unknown Words in Reading (Vietnamese Version) CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT Các em học sinh thân mến! Hiện cô thực đề tài nghiên cứu luận văn thạc sỹ với tiêu đề: "Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng chiến thuật đoán từ đọc hiểu khóa chuyên ngành kinh tế sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kinh tế trường Cao đẳng Cơng nghiệp Phúc n” Mục đích nghiên cứu nhằm tìm hiểu mà thực tế sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành kinh tế làm gặp từ nghĩa, chiến thuật đốn từ khó khăn em việc áp dụng chiến thuật này việc đoán nghĩa từ đọc khóa chuyên ngành Bản câu hỏi kháo sát thiết kế nhằm tìm hiểu em thực làm khơng phải em cho nên làm trả lời câu hỏi theo em làm để giúp hồn thành thành cơng đề tài nghiên cứu Các em chắn câu hỏi thiết kế với mục đích nghiên cứu thơng tin em bảo mật thảo luận II Thông tin cá nhân 3-5 năm Giới tính: Nam XX II Nội dung câu hỏi Câu hỏi chiến thuật chung em sử dụng cho từ Hướng dẫn: Em đánh dấu (√) vào ô tương ứng cho mục sau để cách thức em làm gặp từ đọc khóa tiếng Anh STT Chiến thuật Bỏ qua từ Tìm manh mối từ Đốn nghĩa từ dựa vào ngữ cảnh Hỏi bạn bè Hỏi giáo viên Tra từ từ điển Anh – Việt Tra từ từ điển Anh – Anh Cách khác (ghi chú, gạch chân, v.v) _ Câu hỏi chiến thuật đoán từ em sử dụng để đoán từ đọc Hướng dẫn: Em đánh dấu (√) vào ô tương ứng cho mục sau để chiến thuật đoán từ em sử dụng để đoán nghĩa từ mà em khơng biết đọc khố tiếng Anh STT Chiến thuật Đoán từ dựa vào ngữ cảnh (dấu hiệu từ câu chứa từ không biết.) XXI Đoán từ dựa vào kiến thức kết hợp từ hiểu biết cụm từ thường với (VD: corporate finance, market share, v.v) Đoán từ dựa vào kiến thức cấu trúc câu, trật tự từ Đốn từ dựa vào việc phân tích hình thái từ Đốn từ dựa vào kiến thức bên (kiến thức nền, kiến thức chủ đề liên quan) Đoán từ dựa vào dấu hiệu bên ngồi phạm vi câu có chứa từ khơng biết (sử dụng ngữ cảnh câu trước câu sau) Các chiến thuật kỹ khác mà em sử dụng để đốn từ khơng biết đọc khoá tiếng Anh Xin chân thành cảm ơn em tham gia trả lời bảng câu hỏi khảo sát này! XXII ... title: ? ?A Study on Using Word Guessing Strategies in Reading Comprehension of Economics texts of third Year Students Majoring in Economics at Phuc Yen College of Industry? ?? Aims of the Study The study. .. STUDY ON USING WORD GUESSING STRATEGIES IN READING COMPREHENSION OF ECONOMICS TEXTS OF THIRD YEAR STUDENTS MAJORING IN ECONOMICS AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY The thesis is my own research and... and the word guessing strategies used by the third year students majoring in economics at Phuc Yen College of Industry to deal with unknown words in reading comprehension economics texts in reading