an investigation into reading strategies used by vietnamese non english major students at kien giang university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI NGOC MINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES USED BY VIETNAMESE NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT KIEN GIANG UNIVERSITY MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI NGOC MINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES USED BY VIETNAMESE NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT KIEN GIANG UNIVERSITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: Nguyen Thuy Nga (PhD.) Ho Chi Minh City, 2019 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled “An Investigation into Reading Strategies Used by Vietnamese Non-English Major Students at Kien Giang University” is my own work Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis This thesis has not been submitted the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution Ho Chi Minh, September 2019 Nguyen Thi Ngoc Minh ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The long journey of the study cannot be completed without the encouragement of many people in a variety of ways First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thuy Nga (PhD) for her on-going support, invaluable feedback, and patience throughout the study I am also thankful for my students at Kien Giang University for their contribution as willing participants Lastly, my special thanks go to my family, friends, and colleagues who always love and support me unconditionally during the time I conducted the study iii ABSTRACT The current research aimed at investigating the frequencies of reading strategies employed by Vietnamese non-English major students while taking a reading comprehension test at Kien Giang University Furthermore, the study took into consideration the correlation between students’ utilization of reading strategies and their reading performance, as well as the difference between successful and less successful students in terms of reading strategy use Data was collected through a reading comprehension test and a questionnaire from 117 sophomores who majored in Economics, Accounting and Construction at Kien Giang University The results from the descriptive statistics showed that Vietnamese non-English majors were medium strategy users Of the three types of reading strategies, cognitive strategies were the most frequently used, followed by metacognitive and support reading strategies As for their preference for individual reading strategies, students reportedly used item number 14 “I read the text again for better understanding” at the highest frequency while rating item number “I determined what the type of the text is” the least frequency Besides, the Pearson correlation found that there was a statistically significant correlation between students’ use of reading strategies and their reading performance While positive correlations were reported for metacognitive and cognitive strategies, negative correlation was stated for support strategies Regarding strategies used by successful and less successful students, the independent samples t-test revealed that significant differences were found in the use of 20 reading strategies Successful students scored highest in seventeen strategies while less successful students scored higher than their counterparts in only three strategies Furthermore, students with a higher proficiency in English seemed to preferred “top-down” strategies, whereas students with lower proficiency in English appeared to favor “bottom-up” strategies iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix Chapter INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 Statement of the problem 1.3 Research aims 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Definition of terms 1.7 Thesis structure Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The theory of reading 2.1.1 Definition of reading 2.1.2 Models of reading 2.1.2.1 Bottom-up model 2.1.2.2 Top-down model 2.1.2.3 Interactive model 11 2.2 Reading strategies 12 2.2.1 Definition of reading strategies 12 v 2.2.2 Classification of reading strategies 13 2.3 Successful and less successful students 16 2.4 Previous related studies 18 2.4.1 Studies on reading strategies used by ESL or EFL learners 18 2.4.2 Studies on the relationship between reading strategies use and reading comprehension performance 20 2.5 The research model 24 2.6 Summary of chapter 26 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Participants 27 3.2 Instruments 28 3.2.1 Reading comprehension test 28 3.2.2 Questionnaire 29 3.3 Validity and reliability of instruments 30 3.3.1 Validity and reliability of the reading comprehension test 30 3.3.2 Validity and reliability of the questionnaire 31 3.4 Data collection procedures 31 3.5 Data analysis procedures 32 3.6 A summary of chapter 34 Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 35 4.1 Results for research question 35 4.2 Results for research question 40 4.3 Results for research question 45 4.4 Discussion of the findings 51 4.4.1 Research question 51 4.4.2 Research question 53 vi 4.4.3 Research question 55 4.5 A summary of chapter 58 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 59 5.1 Conclusion 59 5.2 Pedagogical implications 60 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 62 5.4 A summary of chapter 63 REFERENCES 64 APPENDIXES 73 Appendix 73 Appendix 82 Appendix 85 Appendix 87 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Bottom-up model Figure 2.2 Top-down model 10 Figure 2.3 The research model 25 Figure 4.1 The number of strategies by level of use 40 Figure 4.2 The number of strategies by level of use between successful and less successful students 48 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 A summary of previous studies 22 Table 3.1 The participants’ background information 27 Table 3.2 Cronbach’s alpha test results 31 Table 3.3 Frequency scale designed by Oxford (1990) 33 Table 4.1 Students’ mean scores of employing all strategies and each individual categories 35 Table 4.2 Students’ mean scores of employing metacognitive reading strategies 36 Table 4.3 Students’ mean scores of employing cognitive reading strategies 37 Table 4.4 Students’ mean scores of employing support reading strategies 38 Table 4.5 Most and least frequently used strategies 39 Table 4.6 Correlation between students’ use of all reading strategies and reading test scores 41 Table 4.7 Correlations between students’ use of each category of strategies and their reading scores 41 Table 4.8 Positive correlations between students’ use of individual strategies and their reading performance 42 Table 4.9 Negative correlations between students’ use of individual strategies and their reading performance 44 Table 4.10 Differences in the use of overall reading strategies between successful and less successful students 45 Table 4.11 Differences in the use of individual reading strategies between successful and less successful students 46 Table 4.12 Reading strategies most frequently used by successful and less successful students 48 Table 4.13 Reading strategies least frequently used by successful and less successful students 50 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 Appendix Questionnaire on the use of reading strategies Class: Age: Gender: Directions: Listed below are statements about what you when you were doing reading comprehension tests Read each statement carefully and indicate how you thought while you were doing reading comprehension tests Five numbers follow each statement (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and each number means the following: means I never this means I this rarely means I sometimes this means I usually this means I always this After reading each statement, write down the number 1, 2, 3, 4, or which corresponds to your own situation in the column of degree Please note that there are no right or wrong answers to the statements Thank you all for your kind cooperation! 83 No Reading strategies Metacognitive reading strategies I set plans on how to complete the text I determined what the type of the text is I used the title, pictures or tables in the text to predict the content I skimmed the text quickly for understanding the general idea of the given text I determined what to read and what to ignore I paid attention to the beginning and the end of each paragraph I guessed the meaning of unknown words or phrases using clues from the context I confirmed predictions I predicted what will come next Cognitive reading strategies 10 I read the text slowly and carefully 11 I used prior knowledge to help complete the text 12 I made a picture in my mind about information what I read 13 I read the questions several times to make sure that I completely understand them 14 I read the text again for better understanding 15 I adjusted reading speed depending on the difficult of the text 16 I paused and thought about reading 17 I translated what I read into Vietnamese 18 I skipped unknown words 19 I tried to understand the text without translation Degree 84 20 I tried to stay on reading 21 I evaluated what was read Support reading strategies 22 I went back and forth in the text to find relationships among ideas in it 23 I took notes while reading 24 I underlined main ideas while reading 25 I paraphrased the text for better understanding 26 I asked myself questions when having understanding 27 I marked topic sentences of each paragraph problem 85 Appendix BẢNG CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT VỀ CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC HIỂU Lớp: ……………………………………………………………………………………… Tuổi……………………………………………………………………………………… Giới tính:………………………………………………………………………………… Dưới chiến lược đọc hiểu mà bạn sử dụng q trình làm kiểm tra kĩ đọc Vui lòng đọc kĩ câu sau cho biết bạn suy nghĩ bạn làm kiểm tra kĩ đọc hiểu Với chiến lược đọc hiểu, bạn có cấp độ để lựa chọn: 1- Tơi chưa bao giở làm điều 2- Tôi làm điều 3- Tôi làm điều 4- Tôi thường xuyên lảm điều 5- Tôi luôn làm điều Sau đọc kĩ câu, vui lòng viết số 1, 2, 3, 4, biết mức độ bạn sử dụng chiến lược vào cột “Mức đô” Xin nhớ khơng có sai cho câu Rất cảm ơn hợp tác bạn Chiến lược đọc hiểu STT Tơi lên kế hoạch hồn thành đọc Tôi xác định đọc dạng Tôi tận dụng tiêu đề hình ảnh có đọc để đốn nội dung Tôi đọc lướt đọc để nắm ý Tơi định phần nên đọc, phần bỏ qua Tơi ý đến phần đầu phần cuối đoạn Mức độ 86 Dựa vào bối cảnh bải đọc, tơi đốn nghĩa từ cụm từ Tôi kiểm tra lại điều tơi đốn đọc Tơi đốn nội dung phần đọc 10 Tôi đọc đọc thật chậm cẩn thận 11 Tôi tận dụng kiến thức thân để hồn thành đọc 12 Tơi phác họa ý đọc thành tranh đầu 13 Tôi đọc câu hỏi nhiều lần để hồn tồn hiểu nội dung câu hỏi 14 Tơi đọc lại đọc để hiểu rõ nội dung 15 Tôi điều chỉnh tốc độ đọc tùy theo độ khó phần 16 Thỉnh thoảng tơi dừng lại suy nghĩ đọc 17 Tơi dịch phần đọc tiếng Việt 18 Tôi bỏ qua từ 19 Tôi cố gắng hiểu nội dung đọc mà không cần dịch tiếng Việt 20 Tôi cố gắng tập trung vào đọc 21 Tơi đánh giá lại đọc 22 Tơi đọc đọc lại để tìm mối quan hệ ý 23 Tôi ghi lại ý đọc 24 Tơi gạch ý đọc 25 Tơi tóm tắt đọc 26 Tôi tự đặt câu hỏi cho thân gặp khó khăn việc đọc hiểu 27 Tơi đánh dấu câu chủ đề đoạn 87 Appendix Correlations between reported reading scores and frequencies of reading strategy use Cate- Strategies gories r pvalue n MET I set plans on how to complete the text 438 * 028 117 MET I determined what the type of the text is -.037 688 117 MET I used the title, pictures or tables in the text to 702 ** 000 117 000 117 765 117 513 117 001 117 predict the content MET I skimmed the text quickly for understanding 736 ** the general idea of the given text MET I determined what to read and what to ignore 619 MET I paid attention to the beginning and the end -.061 of each paragraph MET I guessed the meaning of unknown words or 705 ** phrases using clues from the context MET I confirms predictions 139 143 117 MET I predicted what will come next 411 * 021 117 COG 10 I read the text slowly and carefully -.337* 026 117 COG 11 I used prior knowledge to help complete the 737 ** 000 117 144 117 007 117 text COG 12 I made a picture in my mind about -.136 information what I read COG 13 I read the questions several times to make sure 423 ** that I completely understand them COG 14 I read the text again for better understanding 694 ** 003 117 COG 15 I adjusted reading speed depending on the 489 ** 001 117 difficult of the text 88 COG 16 I paused and thought about reading 028 767 117 COG 17 I translated what I read into Vietnamese -.789** 004 117 COG 18 I skipped unknown words 695 ** 004 117 COG 19 I tried to understand the text without 130 162 117 translation COG 20 I tried to stay on reading -.112 230 117 COG 21 I evaluated what was read 069 527 117 SUP 22 I went back and forth in the text to find 792 415 117 relationships among ideas in it SUP 23 I took note while reading -.611** 002 117 SUP 24 I underlined main ideas while reading 460* 034 117 SUP 25 I paraphrased the text for better understanding -.605** 000 117 SUP 26 I asked myself questions when having 085 364 117 038 117 problem understanding SUP 27 I marked topic sentences of each paragraph ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) -.483* ... EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI NGOC MINH AN INVESTIGATION INTO READING STRATEGIES USED BY VIETNAMESE NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT KIEN GIANG UNIVERSITY Major: ... teaching and learning of English reading for Vietnamese non- English major students at Kien Giang University 1.4 Research questions 1) What kinds of English reading strategies are often used by Vietnamese. .. Vietnamese nonEnglish major students at Kien Giang University when taking a reading test? 2) What is the relationship between students? ?? use of reading strategies and their English reading performance?