A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ THANH LOAN A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES: A CASE OF 10TH FORM STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC HIỂU: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - TRẦN THỊ THANH LOAN A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES: A CASE OF 10TH FORM STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC HIỂU: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Phuong Nga Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies: A case of 10th form students” is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research Hanoi, 2014 Trần Thị Thanh Loan i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great many thanks to so many people who have supported me all the way throughout my study to this final achievement First and foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude towards Ms Nguyen Phuong Nga, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy for her enlightening guidance, invaluable advice and inspiration Without her careful instructions and critical feedbacks, my study would not have been fulfilled My sincere thanks also go to all the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master course for me with valuable knowledge and experience so that I was able to conduct this study I would like to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at Pham Hong Thai high school for their cooperation and support so that I could complete my necessary data collection for the study Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and friends, who have always been by my side to encourage and support me during the process of this research Without their help and encouragement, I could not have completed this study ii ABSTRACT This is the study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies The target population is the 10th form students at Pham Hong Thai high school The main aims of this study are to discover the current situation of applying reading strategies of the 10th form students, and to figure out how to enhance their reading comprehension To achieve these objectives, the researcher uses (1) survey questionnaire for the students, and (2) unstructured interview for English teachers The results of the questionnaires show that the students are aware of the importance of reading comprehension in general and reading strategies in particular Additionally, the reading strategies applied by the students are restricted and not frequently Besides, the interview’s result indicates that teachers also apply only some of the reading strategies in their reading lessons including scanning, skimming and guessing new words in context The researcher also finds it possible to enhance student’s reading comprehension with the use of reading strategies according to the teaching methods of teachers in the interview Acknowledging the obstacles and the students’ positive attitudes towards the use of reading strategies, it is recommended that more reading strategies be used and adapted in the class time to meet the individuals’ needs and abilities iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES ABBREVIATIONS: EFL English as a Foreign Language ESL English as a Second Language L1 First language L2 Second language PHT Pham Hong Thai N Number % Percentage FIGURES AND TABLES: Figure 1: The importance of reading comprehension Figure 2: Students’ purposes of learning reading in English Figure 3: The difficulties in reading a text Figure 4: The importance of having good reading strategies Table 1: Background Information of the Subjects Table 2: Results of predicting strategy Table 3: Results of skimming strategy Table 4: Results of scanning strategy Table 5: Results of inferring strategy Table 6: Results of guessing meaning strategy Table 7: Results of self – monitoring strategy iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the studies Significance of the study Research methodology of the study Scope of the study Design of the Study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading comprehension 1.2 Reading strategies 1.3 Teaching and learning reading strategies 1.4 Researches on reading strategies 11 CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY 17 2.1 An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) 17 2.2 Objectives and method of the study 19 2.3 The participants of the study 19 2.4 Instruments of data collection 21 2.5 Data collection procedures 22 2.6 Data analysis procedures 23 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH’S RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 24 3.1 The survey questionnaire results 24 3.2 The interview results 32 v PART 3: CONCLUSION 36 Conclusions 36 Limitations of the study 38 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 40 vi PART 1: INTRODUCTION Statement of the problem and rationale for the study Teaching a foreign language in general and English in particular requires great knowledge, experiences and efforts 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” Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in many ways Firstly, reading material is a language input Students given a variety of materials to read have many opportunities to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure and discourse structure Secondly, reading for content information in the language classroom provides students with both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading Thirdly, reading helps students broaden their knowledge of the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying Researchers believe that teaching productive reading strategies motivate students to read and facilitate reading comprehension (Anderson, 2003; Eskey, 2002; Grabe, 2004) It also appears that good students apply a variety of reading strategies to their learning Therefore, the importance of teaching reading strategies is to not also facilitate students’ reading process but help student enrich their vocabulary and grammar as well What is more, in the context of the upper secondary school, reading is even more important than other three skills of speaking, listening, and writing The reason is that students have to take the examinations, which are grammar- and reading- based However, the students’ reading proficiency is not satisfactory Thus, this study is conducted to investigate the use of reading strategies of the 10th grade students at Pham Hong Thai high school Although almost all 10th form students have learnt English since grade 6, many of them not know or use appropriate reading strategies yet As a result, they can become easily frustrated when they not understand what they are reading, and they become demotivated For the above-mentioned factors, the researcher attempted to conduct a study named “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies: A case of 10th form students” Aims and objectives of the studies Firstly, the research is carried out to investigate the current use of reading comprehension strategies applied by the 10th form students in Pham Hong Thai high school Secondly, the study is to figure out how to enhance 10th form students’ reading comprehension Therefore, the research is to seek answers to the following research questions: What are reading strategies currently applied by 10th form students in Pham Hong Thai high school? How to improve 10th form students’ reading comprehension? Significance of the study Once successfully completed, the study’s findings and discussions are expected to be beneficial to English teachers, the 10th forms students, the researcher herself as well as other researchers Firstly, teachers of English can recognize the significant benefits, if any, of strategies in teaching reading comprehension Based on the findings, teachers could adapt their current situation of teaching reading so that they could improve their students’ reading comprehension Also, there are some suggested solutions for teachers to prepare an efficient technique to motivate students’ participation in their studying and to teach them how to read effectively Secondly, reading comprehension strategies can provide students with self-study to improve their reading skills and to face reading comprehension difficulties Additionally, this study is expected to bring the researcher an invaluable experience as it provides her with knowledge and techniques to teach reading comprehension strategies Finally, the findings of this study are hoped to offer reliable and updated information for interested and further studies Research methodology of the study This study is conducted as a descriptive study that applied qualitative approach The qualitative analysis is employed mainly through the process of data collected from a As for students, it cannot be denied that students are the key factor to decide the success of a reading lesson and they must take an active role as listener They need to listen to the teacher’s instructions and explanations carefully to find out the way of recognizing information and way of deducing new words or grammatical structures They must also be active and flexible readers to work on their own during the reading process, make full use of the class time to read and the exercises to achieve a full understanding of the text Furthermore, it is necessary for them to find a suitable reading strategy and use their background knowledge to fulfill their tasks because the significance of the text as well as the information is not always directly stated in printed pages Limitations of the study Although the researcher has devoted herself to conducting this study in a professional manner, it is unavoidable that she encountered some difficulties in the process of implementation, which resulted in the research having limitation Due to the main purpose and the scope of the study, it was conducted on a sample of 150 tenth form students and four tenth form teachers at PHT high school Therefore, the research’s findings and suggestions are only appropriate in PHT context As for other high schools in Hanoi or in other provinces with different conditions from PHT, it is advised to take everything into careful consideration to apply the study’s findings and suggestions Suggestions for further studies With the above limitations, there are some suggestions for other researchers to take this issue into consideration and make necessary changes to carry out further studies Firstly, it would be better if others could extend the range of participants such as all tenth form students at high schools in Hanoi or other provinces so that the situation can be deeply investigated This will help teachers to understand what their students’ expectations, needs and interests and to adjust their teaching Secondly, as the study focuses only on the use of reading strategies in learning English in general, it is highly recommended other researchers to carry out the study on the use of specific reading strategies such as skimming, scanning, or inferring, etc 38 Thirdly, other further studies can be carried out to examine the differences between good readers and bad readers or male readers and female readers when they use reading strategies Last but not least, researchers can conduct other studies which focus on the use of strategies to learn three other skills such as listening strategies, speaking strategies and writing strategies In summary, this study addressed two research questions and still had some shortcomings Together with the summary of the study’s main findings, the suggestions for further studies on this issue are also presented in this chapter 39 REFERENCES Ahmad, I S & Asraf, R M (2004, April) Making sense of text: Strategies used by good and average readers Reading Matrix, 26-37 Retrieved March 10th, 2014, from:http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/asraf_ahmad/article.pdf Anderson, N (1991) Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing Modern Language Journal, 75, 460-472 Anderson, N (1999) Exploring second language reading: Issues and strategies, Canada: Heinle & Heinle Publllishers Anderson, N J (2003) Teaching reading In D Nunan (Ed.), Practical English language teaching (pp 67-86).New York: McGraw Hill Publishers Barnett, M (1988) “Reading through context: How real and perceived strategy use affects L2 comprehension” Modern Language Journal, 72, pp 150-162 Block, E 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Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Sugirin (1999) Exploring the comprehension strategies of EFL readers: A multi-method study Retrieved from ERIC database (ED 428 548, FL 025 735) Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wenden, A., & Rubin, J (Eds.) (1987) Learner strategies in language learning London, UK:Prentice Hall 42 Williams, E (1984) Reading in the language classroom Oxford: Macmillan Publishers 43 APPENDICE Appendix SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is designed with the aim of getting necessary information for study “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies: A case of 10th form students” Please give your opinions to the questions below Your opinions are valuable to the evaluation research and would help improve the material Your cooperation is highly appreciated PART 1: BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Gender: Age: Male 15 Female 16 17 Your years of learning English: years years years Your proficiency level: Elementary Pre – Intermediate Intermediate **** PART 2: In completing these questions, please choose the answer by circling the letter next to your choice You could also have more than one choice in some questions or give your own answers How important is reading comprehension? Very important As important as other language skills (listening, speaking, writing) Not as important as other language skills (listening, speaking, writing) Not important at all What is your purpose of learning reading in English? To reinforce vocabulary and grammatical structures To improve language skills To improve background knowledge To fulfill the compulsory requirements What difficulties you often have in reading a text? There are many new words in the text I Grammatical structures are difficult The texts often have strange topics The reading comprehension tasks are difficult How important is having good reading strategies to reading comprehension? Very important Important A Little important Not important at all Circle the most suitable option to clarify you use of reading strategies? Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often I choose reading strategies according to my reading purposes I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea 5 5 5 of the text before reading Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted I skim through the text to understand main ideas of the texts before focusing on details I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions in order to answer them I skip the words that are not essential for comprehending the texts while reading I guess meanings of new words using the available information I use my knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to help understand difficult parts in reading texts II I relate my prior knowledge to the information of the texts I 5 am reading 10 I check if my answers to the questions are correct or wrong after reading 11 I summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading Name other reading strategies that you apply when learning reading? (Please specify) …………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… What you want the teachers to help enhance your reading comprehension? (Please specify) ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION! III Appendix BẢN KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH Bản câu hỏi thiết kế để thu thập thông tin cần thiết cho nghiên cứu “Việc sử dụng chiến lược đọc hiểu Tiếng Anh học sinh lớp 10” Chắc chắn khơng có câu trả lời hay sai, nên trả lời câu hỏi theo ý kiến Cảm ơn hợp tác em! PHẦN 1: THƠNG TIN CÁ NHÂN Giới tính: Nam Nữ Tuổi : 15 16 Số năm học Tiếng Anh: năm 17 năm năm Trình độ Tiếng Anh em (Tự đánh giá): Elementary Pre – Intermediate Intermediate **** PHẦN 2: TRẢ LỜI CÂU HỎI Đánh dấu tất đáp án em thấy phù hợp với thân học đọc hiểu: Đọc hiểu quan trọng nào? Rất quan trọng Quan trọng kỹ khác (nghe, nói, viết) Khơng quan trọng kỹ khác (nghe, nói, viết) Khơng quan trọng chút Mục đích đọc hiểu Tiếng Anh em gì? Để củng cố từ vụng cấu trúc ngữ pháp Để cải thiện kỹ ngôn ngữ Để mở rộng kiến thức Điều kiện bắt buộc Khó khăn em thường gặp phải đọc hiểu? Có nhiều từ đọc Nhiều cấu trúc ngữ pháp khó IV Các đọc thường có chủ đề lạ Bài tập đọc hiểu khó Chiến lược đọc hiểu tốt quan trọng đọc hiểu? Rất quan trọng Quan trọng Khá quan trọng Không quan trọng chút Khoanh vào lựa chọn thấy mực độ sử dụng chiến lược đọc hiểu em dùng Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Rất dùng thoảng dùng xuyên dùng thường dùng xuyên dùng Chọn chiến lược đọc hiểu theo mục tiêu đọc Xem trước tiêu đề minh họa để biết ý đoạn trước Đọc trước câu hỏi để định thông tin cần thiết Đọc lướt qua đoạn văn để hiểu ý trước tập trung vào 5 Đọc từ khóa khái niệm gần với câu hỏi để trả lời chúng Bỏ qua từ không cần thiết đọc Sử dụng thơng tin có sẵn để đốn nghĩa từ Sử dụng kiến thức ngữ pháp từ vựng để hiểu Liên hệ kiến thức sẵn có với thơng tin đọc 10 Kiểm tra lại xem câu trả lời hay sai sau đọc 11 Tóm tắt ý sau đọc đọc chi tiết phần khó Những chiến lược đọc hiểu khác mà em áp dụng? (Hãy ghi rõ) V ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… Em muốn giáo viên làm để giúp em cải thiện kỹ đọc hiểu? (Hãy ghi rõ) ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… THANKS FOR YOUR COOPERATION! VI Appendix Interview Transcription Interviewer: I Teacher A, B, C, D Good morning! I am conducting a study named “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies: A case of 10th form students” and your valuable information will help me carry out my study successfully Now let’s start our interview! I: First of all, how important is reading comprehension and reading strategies? Teacher A: We all agree that they are of great importance as they facilitate the students’ learning not only in reading itself but other skills as well I: “What you think about the reading texts in the course book?” Teacher C: the reading texts cover all the basic topics with reasonable length which are familiar with the students in general Teacher B: I think that some topics are boring and teachers find it difficult to motivate students to study (unit 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8) Some reading texts are too simple (unit 2, 7), whereas there are some texts really difficult for students to acquire in a lesson such as unit 3, and 15 Teacher A: I think the requirements towards students are not the same Some reading texts are very easy to read while others are much more difficult with many new words and phrases I: What reading strategies you often teach your students? Teacher A: I often teach my students how to scan and skim VII Teacher C: Yes, me, too Teacher D: So I Teacher B: I also teach my students to guess the meaning of new words in context I: What you to motivate your students to read? Teacher D: because the students’ reading ability are various (some are good, some are very poor), the teachers have to organize variety of activities (pair works, group works, and role play) to encourage students to read However, I encountered difficulties in applying these activities in reading lessons, namely lack of materials, limited time, large size class, and grammar – based test Teacher C: I often prepare interesting “warm – up”, and designs authentic material like magazines or short stories for students to read I: What will you to enhance Ss’ reading comprehension? Teacher A: my students not applied reading strategies often and some students even not understand the importance of reading strategies Therefore, before reading, I will let my students determine their reading purposes in order to select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively It could significantly enhance their reading efficiency Besides, reading strategies play an integral part in reading comprehension, so I will ask her students to predict, skim and scan and set time for them to (speed – reading strategy) Teacher C, I will collect and define vocabulary terms from the text that would assist students in understanding words by using flash cards in pre – reading stage This helps the students increase their vocabulary in a meaningful, relevant way I will also get my students to preview comprehension questions so that they can focus on answering those questions as they read VIII Teacher B: improving reading fluency is important for stimulating reading comprehension I will help students improve reading fluency such as self-monitoring while reading, enhancing vocabulary and improving reading rate I also arrange my students to work in pairs or groups because she thought that using cooperative learning frequently in classes and considering arranging my classroom could facilitate learning, maximize student engagement, reduce class tensions, as well as promote student learning Teacher D: As for me, I offer my students a variety of texts covering different topics beside the course book, help them to activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content I also let her students check comprehension while reading, and summarize, ask questions, predict things going to happen next relied on what they have just read in post reading stage I: This is the end of the interview Thank you very much for your cooperation! IX ... consciously know what and when to apply appropriate reading strategy when comprehension fails All in all, it can be denied that reading strategies are of great importance towards second language... between reading strategies and proficiency level Poor readers failed to ask questions, take notes or use a dictionary as often as good readers Overall, good readers appear to use a wider range of strategies. .. views on the importance of reading comprehension as well as reading comprehension strategies in learning English All of the teachers agreed that they are of great importance as they facilitate