The use of reading strategies when reading ESP by 4th year english majored students at the people’s security academy

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP BY TH -YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP BY TH -YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa Hanoi, 2013 DECLARATION ***** - I hereby declare that the thesis entitled: “The use of reading strategies when reading ESP by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy” is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts and that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree Hanoi, December 2013 Author’s signature Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing Furthermore, I am grateful to her close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement to me during the process of writing up the thesis I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lessons and suggestions, which aroused the thesis for this study to be realized I also owe my sincere thanks to English teaching staff and fourth-year English majors at the People’s Security Academy who have enthusiastically participated in my study Finally, my heart-felt thanks go to my beloved parents, my wife and my son who have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study Hanoi, December 2013 Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng ABSTRACT Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master During the process of acquiring English language in the light of communicative approach, reading English for public security seems to be the most challenging and difficult for teachers and learners The present study primarily th investigated the use of reading strategies of English for public security by -year English majors at the People’s Security Academy Data was collected via survey th questionnaire for 35 -year English majors and interviews for teachers of English The findings revealed that both teachers and students at the People’s Security Academy strongly advocated the importance and necessity of using reading strategies and students used metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies more frequently than social/affective reading strategies From the findings, some suggestions were given with the hope that they might be a reliable source of reference for teachers of English at the People’s Security Academy to improve their students’ reading proficiency TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES, ABBREVIATIONS vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Significance of the study Method of the study Scope of the study Organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Language learning strategies 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 The importance of learning strategies 1.1.3 Classification of learning strategies 1.2 Reading11 1.2.1 Definitions of reading 11 1.2.2 Models of reading 11 1.2.2.1 Bottom-up model 12 1.2.2.2 Top-down model 12 1.2.2.3 Interactive model 13 1.3 Reading strategies 14 1.2.2 Definitions of reading strategies 14 1.2.3 Review of reading strategies research 15 1.4 Summary 18 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19 2.1 The context of teaching and learning listening skill to English majors at the PSA 19 2.2 Participants 20 2.2.1 Students 20 2.2.2 Teachers 21 2.3 Instruments of data collection 22 2.3.1 Questionnaires 22 2.3.2 Interviews 22 2.4 Data collection procedures 23 2.5 Data analysis 24 2.5.1 Coding of questionnaire data 24 2.5.2 Analysis procedures 26 2.6 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28 3.1 Questionnaire 28 th 3.1.1 PSA -year English-major students' attitudes to reading comprehension 28 3.1.2 Reading strategies 31 3.1.2.1 Metacognitive reading strategies 31 3.1.2.2 Cognitive reading strategies 33 3.1.2.3 Social/affective reading strategies 35 3.2 Interviews 37 3.3 Summary 39 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 Summary of major findings 40 Implications of the study 41 Limitations and suggestions for further research 42 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX IX APPENDIX XIV APPENDIX XV LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: PSA students’ attitude to Chart 2: PSA students’ perceptio Chart 3: PSA students’ attitude toward the importance of factors to their reading comprehension Chart 4: Questionnaire results: Metacognitive reading strategies Chart 5: Questionnaire results: Cognitive reading strategies Chart 6: Questionnaire results: Social/affective reading strategies LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Learning strategy definition and classification (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119) Table 2: Background information about the participants: Students Table 3: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories adapted from O'Malley and Chamot (1990: 119) LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL/EFL: English as a second/foreign language The PSA: The People’s Security Academy L1: first language L2: second language ESP: English for special purpose PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, telecommunication, culture, science and technology In the current context of global integration, English which has become more and more important is not only a means of but also a key to accessing the latest scientific and technological achievements Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese students to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing demands in a developing country like Vietnam Internationally, teaching English has changed tremendously over the last few decades More significantly, the traditional teacher-centered approach has been replaced with the learner-center one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making responsive to learner’s need and interest and allowing learners to play a more active and participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes Therefore, no longer does the teacher act as the centre of all instructions, controlling every aspect of the learning process Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for successful language acquisition and in doing so, are becoming less dependent on the language teacher for meeting their own individual language needs Students are advised to become more and more autonomous to diagnose their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to self-direct the process of language development Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills “Reading is an essential skill for English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) student; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999) Carrell (1984:1) states “For many students, reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in a language as a second or foreign language” This is true for Vietnamese learners who have studied 10 English through reading since English is taught and learned as a foreign language and in a non-native environment But acquiring and mastering this skill is likely to be a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience On the other hand, the findings of many ESL/EFL research projects have shown the positive effects of learning strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of learners or to overcome comprehension failures The use of suitable language learning strategies can improve proficiency and greater self-confidence In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and at the People’s Security Academy (PSA) in particular, reading has always been attracted a great deal of attention both from the teachers and the students Reading is regarded as an important skill to the students because these students need to read a lot of English books and documents to support their professional studies Having taught English majored students at PSA for several years, I am aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading ability Therefore, I conducted a survey research on their use of reading strategies Based on the findings, I worked out some solutions to improve PSA students' reading proficiency Aim of the study The major purpose of this study is to identify the reading strategies utilized by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA In order to achieve the above the aim of the study, the following major research question was addressed: What are the reading strategies employed by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy? Significance of the study The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of reading strategies research at the PSA It helps give a detailed description of reading strategies used by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA More importantly, the findings of their reading strategies can help teachers to understand more about their students and they can serve as the foundation for some recommendations on how to improve the 60 According to you, in order to learn reading comprehension of English for public security well, how important are the following factors? (Circle the most suitable option for you) 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 very important important a little important not important Not important at all PART 3: Mark (V) on the suitable option of how you read Reading strategies Item 1: I skip the words that are not essential for comprehending the texts while reading Item 2: I skim through the text to understand main ideas of the texts before focusing on details Item 3: I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions in order to answer them Item 4: I use own visual images 61 to understand or remember a new word, or new information while reading Item 5: I check if my answers to the questions are correct or wrong after reading Item 6: I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading Item 7: I guess meanings of new words using the available information Item 8: I determine the function of words (noun, verb, adjectives, subject, predicate, etc) in a sentence while reading Item 9: I often check my comprehension during reading or checking the accuracy of the written production while reading Item 10: Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted Item 11: I write down key words while reading Item 12: I mentally summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading Item 13: I translate the reading 62 text into Vietnamese to understand it more clearly Item 14: I use a dictionary to look up words when encountering a new word while reading Item 15: Read aloud when text becomes difficult Item 16: I use my knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to help understand difficult parts in reading texts Item 17: I choose reading strategies according to my reading purposes Item 18: I work together with my classmate or friend to solve a problem in the reading text Item 19: I ask my teacher or my friends to explain difficult parts in the reading text Item 20: I relate my prior knowledge to the information of the texts I am reading Thank you very much for your help and cooperation! 63 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS Part 1: Readers’ attitudes to reading comprehension Options A Not important at all B Not important C A little important D Important E Very important Table 2.1.1 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ attitudes toward the importance of Options Frequency A Very slow B Slow C Medium D Fast E Very fast Table 2.1.2 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ perception of their reading speeds Frequency Participants A B C D Table 2.1.3 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ attitudes toward the importance of factors to reading comprehension Part 2: Reading strategies Metacognitive strategies 64 Participants Planning 1.1 Advance organizers Item 2: I skim through the text to understand main ideas of the texts before focusing on details Item 6: I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading 1.2 Directed attention organizers Item 10: Before read the questions to decide important information that noted Item 17: I strategies choose according reading purposes 1.3 Selective attention Item 1: I skip the words that are not essential comprehending the texts while reading Item 3: I scan for key words or concepts related to the questions in order to answer them Monitoring Self-monitoring that are Item 9: I often check my comprehension during reading or checking the accuracy of the reading written 65 Evaluation Self-evaluation Item 5: I check if my answers 11.42% 17.16% 14 40.00% 10 28.57% 2.85% to the questions are correct or wrong after reading * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.4 Results of questionnaires: Metacognitive reading strategies Subjects Resourcing Item 14: I use a dictionary to look up words when encountering a new word while reading Grouping Item 8: I determine the function of words in a sentence while reading Imagery Item 4: I use own visual images to remember a new word, or new information reading Transfer Item 16: knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to understand difficult in reading texts Elaboration Item 20: I relate my prior knowledge information of the texts I am reading 66 Inferencing Item 7: I guess meanings of new words using the available information Note-taking Item 11: I write down key words while reading Translation Item 13: I translate the reading text Vietnamese to understand it more clearly Summarizing Item 12: I mentally summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.5 Results of questionnaires: Cognitive reading strategies Social/affective strategy Participants Question clarification Item 19: I ask my teacher or my difficult parts in the reading text Cooperation Item 18: I work together with my classmate or friend to solve a problem in the reading text friends to 67 Self-talk Item 15: Read aloud when text becomes difficult * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.6 Results of questionnaires: Social/affective reading strategies 68 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Xin cho biết khó khăn mà học sinh gặp phải học đọc Theo cô đâu giải pháp cho vấn đề đó? Cơ có dạy chiến thuật đọc thường xun hay không? Cô dạy học sinh chiến thuật đọc gì? What are the difficulties that your students face in the reading lessons? What kind of solutions you suggest to the problem? Do you often teach reading strategies in your reading lessons? What reading strategies you teach your students in your reading lessons? 69 APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Interview transcript with Ms Tu Question 70 ... the thesis Scope of the study The present study investigated ? ?the use of reading strategies when reading ESP th by -year English- majored students at the People’s Security Academy? ?? The study of. .. investigated the use of reading strategies of English for public security by -year English majors at the People’s Security Academy Data was collected via survey th questionnaire for 35 -year English. .. reading strategies employed by fourth -year English- majored students at the People’s Security Academy? Significance of the study The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of reading strategies