The effects of discourse structure awareness on efl university students reading conprehension m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF DISCOURSE STRUCTURE AWARENESS ON EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfilment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By ĐỖ NGỌC QUỲNH CHI Supervised by Nguyễn Thu Hương, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2015 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that this thesis entitled “The effects of discourse structure awareness on EFL university students’ reading comprehension” is my own work This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, September 25 2014 Do Ngoc Quynh Chi i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Do Ngoc Quynh Chi, being the candidate for the degree Master of TESOL, accept the requirement of the university related to the retention and use of Master Theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original copies of my thesis deposited at the Library should be accessible for research purposes only, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, September 25 2014 Do Ngoc Quynh Chi ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals and organizations I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them I am highly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr,Nguyen Thu Huong for his guidance and constant supervision as well as for his immense knowledge regarding the study His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my M.A thesis My sincere thanks also goes to Ms Đặng Nguyễn Anh Chi and Ms Bùi Huỳnh Thủy Thương, two of my colleagues at English Faculty, who generously accepted to coteach with me two classes serving for the research purpose of this thesis and who have created favorable conditions for the completion of this thesis I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Ms Hồ Thị Phương Nam, Ms Nguyễn Thị Như Quỳnh, Mr Lê Hoàng Ân, Mr N.T.Minh for their consent to join in this thesis as independent raters for the tests and their constant encouragement and motivation in the process of conducting and writing this thesis I would also like to show my gratitude to all of my teachers and colleagues at Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature for their assistance and dedication to my development Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family: my beloved parents and husband, Đỗ Văn Thắng, Nguyễn Thị Bích and Cao Quang Thuận for giving the greatest care, support, and love throughout writing this thesis and my life in general iii ABSTRACT Discourse structure awareness is considered to be an essential component distinguishing advanced readers from novice readers in both L1 and L2 settings The explicit and intensive instruction of discourse structure awareness could be conducted via the use of discourse structure graphic organizers (DSGO) This thesis attempts to verify the effectiveness of discourse structure awareness and the use of DSGO in improving EFL learners’ reading comprehension A total of 48 college-level Vietnamese learners participated in this study under the membership of two different groups: Experimental Group and Comparison Group The Experimental Group received explicit training on how to use DSGOs to represent and organize a specific discourse structure, while the Comparison Group strictly followed the syllabus outlined by their traditional course books A Toefl iBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language) reading comprehension test, a graphic organizer test, and a recall protocol test were administered to participants before and after the treatment The results showed DSGO instruction significantly improved students’ performance on a number of measures: general reading comprehension ability, discourse comprehension, and their recall of idea units Moreover, the data obtained from the questionnaire indicated that participants believed that DSGO instruction is beneficial in helping them relieving the cognitive strain when reading According to most of the respondents, DSGO instruction had a positive effect on their motivation and their future reading habits The main research questions about the effects of DSGO instruction, therefore, were answered with satisfactory results iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Authorship………………………………………………………………… i Retention and use of the thesis……………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………… iii Abstract………………………………… ………………………………………………iv Table of contents………………………………………………………………………….v List of abbreviations…………………………………………………………………… xii List of tables………………………………… ……………………………………… xiii List of figures and charts……………………… …………………………….…………xv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….1 1.1 Background of the study…………………………………………………………… 1.2 Context of the study……………………………………………………………… …4 1.3 Aim of the study……………………………………………………………………….5 1.4 Research questions…………………………………………………………………….5 1.5 Research hypotheses………………………………………………………………… 1.6 Significance of the study………………………………………………………………6 1.7 Organization of the thesis…………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………8 2.1 An overview of reading processes…………………………………………………….8 2.1.1 Bottom-up approaches………………… ………………………… …………….8 2.1.2 Top-down approaches………………….…………………………………………10 v 2.2 Discourse Structures…………………… ………………………………………… 11 2.2.1 Definition of Discourse Structures……………………………………………….11 2.2.2 Narrative and Expository prose… ………………………………………………14 2.2.3 Taxonomies of Discourse Structures…………………………………………… 15 2.2.4 Discourse Structures and Second language reading comprehension……………19 2.2.5 Pedagogical approaches to teach discourse structures………… ……………….20 2.3 Graphic Organizers………………………………………………………………… 23 2.3.1 Definition of Graphic Organizers………………………………….…………… 23 2.3.2 Criteria in designing DSGOs for classroom use…………………………………25 2.4 Empirical Research………… ………………………………………………………25 2.4.1 Studies on the instructional effect of discourse structures on reading comprehension…………………………………………… ………………………… 26 2.4.2 Studies on the use of GOs as an instructional tool to teach discourse structures to improve reading comprehension……………………………………………………….31 2.5 Conceptual Framework………………………………………………………………38 2.6 Chapter Summary……………………………………………………………………43 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .45 3.1 Research site………… …………………………………………………………….45 3.2 Participants………… ……………………………………………………………….45 3.3 Design of the study………………………………………………………………… 47 3.4 The Quasi-experiment……………………………………………………………… 47 vi 3.4.1 Context of the experiment………….…………………………………………….47 3.4.2 The experimental teaching……….………………………………………………48 3.5 Instruments………………………………………………………………………… 52 3.5.1 Toefl iBT Reading Test…… ……………………………………………………52 3.5.2 Graphic Organizer Test….…………….………………………………………….58 3.5.2.1 Construct and Design of the Graphic Organizer test………………………….58 3.5.2.2 Scoring procedure for the Graphic Organizer test………… ……………… 60 3.5.2.3 Reliability of Graphic Organizer test…………………………………………63 3.5.3 Recall Protocol test………………… …………………………………………63 3.5.3.1 Construct and Design of the Recall Protocol test………… …………………63 3.5.3.2 Scoring procedure for the Recall Protocol test……………………………… 64 3.5.3.3 Reliability of the Recall Protocol test…………… ………………………….66 3.5.4 Questionnaire……………… ………………………………… ……………… 67 3.5.4.1 Construct and Design of the questionnaire………………….……………… 67 3.5.4.2 Reliability of the questionnaire………………………….……………………69 3.6 Research Procedure…………………….……………………………………………70 3.7 Data Analysis Procedure…………………………………………………………….70 3.7.1 Experimental Data Analysis……………….…………………………………… 71 3.7.2 Questionnaire Data Analysis……………… ……………………………………71 3.8 Chapter Summary…………………………… …………………………………… 71 vii CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS…………………………………………………… 72 4.1 Statistical analysis of pre-test results……… ………………………………………74 4.1.1 Statistical analysis of Toefl iBT Reading pre-test……………………………… 74 4.1.2 Statistical analysis of GO pre-test…………………… ………………………….75 4.1.3 Statistical analysis of Recall pre-test………… …………………………………76 4.2 Statistical analysis of post-test results……………… ………………………………78 4.2.1 Statistical analysis of Toefl iBT Reading post-test ………… ………………… 78 4.2.1.1 Paired Sample T-test for the Toefl iBT Reading post-test……… ………… 78 4.2.1.2 Independent Sample T-test for the Toefl iBT Reading post-test….… ………80 4.2.1.3 In-depth analysis of Toefl iBT Reading post-test results……….…………….81 4.2.2 Statistical analysis of GO post-test results…………… … …………………….85 4.2.3 Statistical analysis of Recall post-test results…………………………………….87 4.2.4 Summary………………………………………………………………………….89 4.3 Results of the questionnaire……………… ……………………………………… 90 4.3.1 Participants’ prior experience with Discourse Structure and Graphic Organizer……………………………………………………………………………….90 4.3.2 Participants’ attitudes towards the treatment…….……………………………….91 4.3.2.1 Participants’ general attitudes towards the treatment…… ………………… 91 4.3.2.2 Reasons for favorable attitudes towards the treatment…….…………………92 4.3.2.3 Reasons for unfavorable attitudes towards the treatment………………….…94 viii 4.3.3 Conditions for successful using of the treatment…………………………………95 4.3.4 Participants’ future intention of using discourse structure awareness and graphic organizers……………………….………………………………………………………96 4.4 Chapter Summary……………… ………………………………………………… 98 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS…… ………………………… 99 5.1 Research question 1a…………………………….………………………………… 99 5.2 Research question 1b……………………… ……………………………………102 5.3 Research question 1c………………………………………………………… ……103 5.4 Research question 2……… ……………………………………………………….104 5.5 Chapter Summary……………………….………………………………………….106 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS………… ……….107 6.1 Summary of the key findings……………………………………………………….107 6.2 Implications………………………… …………………………………………….109 6.3 Limitations of the study…………………………………………………………….110 6.4 Recommendations for future research…………… ………………………………111 6.5 Chapter Summary…………………… ……………………………………………112 REFERENCES…… …………………………………………………………………113 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………119 Appendix 1: Graphic Organizers of generic format…………… …………………….119 Appendix 2: Syllabus of Language Skills 2A………………………………………….123 ix Khá thích □ Khơng □ Khơng thích □ Rất khơng thích □ Để trả lời câu 4-7, đánh dấu (√) vào mà bạn chọn (5 = hồn tồn đồng ý, = đồng ý, = không chắc, = khơng đồng ý, = hồn tồn khơng đồng ý) Bạn thích phương pháp a Phương pháp giúp thơng tin đỡ rối b Bạn dễ dàng đọc đoạn văn dài c Bạn biết cách ưu tiên hóa thơng tin (dành nhiều thời gian cho ý quan trọng thời gian cho ý phụ không quan trọng) d Bạn hiểu ý e Bạn hiểu đọc rõ ràng sâu sắc f Bạn dự đoán thông tin phần đọc g Bạn đốn nghĩa có từ lạ h Bạn rút suy luận xác từ đọc i Bạn cải thiện khả tư phản biện Khác: Bạn không thích phương pháp a Cấu trúc văn Công cụ tư đồ họa phương pháp mới, khiến bạn bỡ ngỡ lúc đầu b Việc sử dụng cấu trúc văn công cụ tư đồ họa thời gian c Bạn cho thời gian học lớp nên dành cho việc thực tập 196 d Bạn gặp khó khăn việc sử dụng cơng cụ tư đồ họa để xếp diễn đạt ý kiến Khác: Theo bạn, để sử dụng thành công phương pháp a Sinh viên nên dành thêm thời gian thực hành nhà b Giáo viên nên dành thêm thời gian hướng dẫn lớp c Các đoạn văn thực tế nên sử dụng trình luyện tập d Các tập rèn luyện kỹ viết công cụ tư dụy đồ họa nên sử dụng để củng cố kiến thức cấu trúc văn Khác: Sau học xong phương pháp này, bạn Luôn Thường Thỉnh Hiếm Không xuyên thoảng a nhân diện cấu trúc văn đọc? b sử dụng cơng cụ tư đồ họa để tóm tắt ý đọc? CẢM ƠN SỰ GIÚP ĐỠ CỦA BẠN 197 APPENDIX 8B: QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire aims at collecting data for the study entitled “Effects of discourse structure awareness on EFL students’ reading comprehension” which was conducted at English Faculty, University of Social Sciences & Humanities, HCMC Please answer either by ticking (√) the boxes or by briefly writing your feedback in the blanks We highly appreaciate your efforts in helping us to collect data for our study You should be assured that all the information you provide in the questionnaire will be used for research purpose only, and not for other purposes Thank you for your time and effort I Personal Information Name: Gender: Male □ Female □ Age: How long have you been studying English? years II Questions For question 1-3, choose ONE answer by ticking (√) the box of your choice Have you ever learned about text patterns before? Yes □ No □ Have you ever learned about graphic organizers before? Yes □ No □ What is your overall feeling about the application of Discourse Structure instruction and the use of Graphic Organizers during the course? I like it very much □ I rather like it □ 198 I cannot decide □ I don’t like it much □ I dislike it □ For question 4-7, please answer by ticking (√) the box of your choice (5 = strongly agree, = agree, = not sure, = disagree, = strongly disagree) You like this reading strategy because a it makes the information less confusing b you are more comfortable reading texts with long passages c you can prioritize text information (i.e spend more time concentrating on main ideas and less on extraneous information) d you understand key points of the text e you comprehend the text clear and deeper f you can anticipate what kind of information will be presented subsequently g you can guess unknown words in reading texts h you can make inferences of the reading texts i you can improve your critical thinking skills Others: You don’t like this reading strategy because a Discourse Structure knowledge and Graphic Organizers are so new, thus causing some confusion at the beginning b The use of Discourse Structure and Graphic Organizers are so time-consuming c You think class time should be devoted to completing assignments d You have difficulty in suing Graphic Organizers to explain, represent or organizer knowledge Others: 199 According to you, to use this strategy succesfully, a students should spend more time practice at home b teachers should spend more time modelling in class how to construct a graphic organizer c more authentic texts should be included in the practice session d writing activities using graphic organizers should be introduced to reinforce text patterns awareness Others: After acquiring the strategy, Always Usually Occasio nally how often you a recognize text patterns of a reading passage? b use graphic organizers to summarize ideas in a reading passage? THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION 200 Rarely Never APPENDIX 9: INTER-RATER RELIABILITY OF TEST RESULTS GO Test Results Inter-rater Reliability GO Test Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Based on Cronbach's Standardized Alpha Items 823 N of Items 825 Recall Test Results Inter-rater Reliability Recall Test Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Based on Cronbach's Standardized Alpha Items 816 N of Items 816 201 APPENDIX 10A: NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF TOEFL IBT READING TEST RESULTS Tests of Normality a Kolmogorov-Smirnov Group Toefl-premean Toefl-postmean Statistic df Shapiro-Wilk Sig Statistic df Sig Control 137 24 200 * 937 24 143 Experimental 130 24 200 * 975 24 789 957 24 380 930 24 098 Control 117 24 200 * Experimental 130 24 200 * a Lilliefors Significance Correction * This is a lower bound of the true significance Boxplots 202 203 APPENDIX 10B: NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (GO) TEST RESULTS Tests of Normality a Kolmogorov-Smirnov Group GOPremean GOPostmean Statistic df Shapiro-Wilk Sig Statistic df Sig Control 094 24 200 * 949 24 259 Experimental 126 24 200 * 951 24 288 Control 150 24 175 928 24 090 Experimental 121 24 200 * 931 24 105 a Lilliefors Significance Correction * This is a lower bound of the true significance Boxplots 204 205 APPENDIX 10C: NORMAL DISTRIBUTION OF RECALL TEST RESULTS Tests of Normality a Kolmogorov-Smirnov Group Recall-premean Recall-postmean Statistic df Shapiro-Wilk Sig Statistic df Sig Control 133 24 200 * 931 24 101 Experimental 128 24 200 * 967 24 582 Control 118 24 200 * 950 24 276 Experimental 119 24 200 * 955 24 343 a Lilliefors Significance Correction * This is a lower bound of the true significance Boxplots 206 207 APPENDIX 11A: GROUP STATISTICS OF TOEFL IBT READING TEST RESULTS Pre-test Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 38 82 5125 09114 Experimental 24 36 62 4975 06758 Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 40 62 5117 06155 Experimental 24 62 82 7125 06319 Post-test 208 APPENDIX 11B: GROUP STATISTICS OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZER (GO) TEST RESULTS Pre-test Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 4.00 5.20 4.5792 37724 Experimental 24 4.00 5.52 4.6975 45160 Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 3.50 5.50 4.5017 66487 Experimental 24 6.84 8.50 7.5767 54609 Post-test 209 APPENDIX 11C: GROUP STATISTICS OF RECALL TEST RESULTS Pre-test Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 58.00 70.00 63.7917 3.84458 Experimental 24 57.00 70.00 63.4583 3.71810 Group N Min Max Mean Std Deviation Comparison 24 58.00 71.00 64.3750 4.03045 Experimental 24 64.00 80.00 72.2083 4.78202 Post-test 210 ... that above GOs can only depict one or another relational organization; for example, Venn diagram and matrix specialized in displaying comparison and contrast, tree diagram in classification, and... information found in a text (Alderson, 2000) 10 Schemata are divided into major types: content schemata and formal schemata Content schemata are related to content area and cultural knowledge Formal... In narratives, the organization of ideas is termed as story structure/ story grammar The main reason for such names is that components creating a narrative usually include episodic information