VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* HỒ PHƯƠNG ANH AN ANALYSIS ON THE READABILITY OF ENGLISH READING TEXTS IN THE TEXTBOOKS TIẾNG ANH 9 OF THE 10-YEAR CURRICULUM FOR LOWER- SECONDARY SCHOOLS Phân tích độ khó của các bài đọc tiếng Anh trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 9 mới M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES ********************* HỒ PHƯƠNG ANH AN ANALYSIS ON THE READABILITY OF ENGLISH READING TEXTS IN THE TEXTBOOKS TIẾNG ANH 9 OF THE 10-YEAR CURRICULUM FOR LOWER- SECONDARY SCHOOLS Phân tích độ khó của các bài đọc tiếng Anh trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 9 mới M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2022 CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “An analysis on the readability of English reading texts in the textbooks TIẾNG ANH 9 of the 10-year curriculum for lower-secondary schools” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is my own study, and that it has not been submitted for any degree to any other universities or institutions. Where other sources of information have been used, they have been identified and acknowledged. Signature Hồ Phương Anh i ABSTRACT This study aimed to examine the readability of reading passages in the two volumes of the English textbook Tiếng Anh 9 joint published by Viet Nam Education Publishing House and Pearson Education.
Two methods for determining readability were applied, namely the Flesch Reading Ease formula and Cloze procedure test. To obtain the data for the Flesch Reading Ease formula, Microsoft Word was employed to generate the Flesch Reading Ease score automatically. Additionally, to involve the target readers in the analyzing process, a cloze test was distributed to twenty ninth graders at an English center. The Flesch Reading Ease scores suggested the estimated reading grade and the scores gained from the Cloze test were compared to the criterion level of reading materials.
The results from the Flesch Reading Ease formula suggested that six out of twelve examined texts were above ninth graders’ level. Regarding the Cloze test score, 75% of the texts could be read by students on their own, while the rest might require teacher’s help. It was recommended that further changes be made to certain texts before they can serve as in-class materials. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a rewarding experience to acknowledge people who have, out of kindness, helped along the journey of my MA.
I am grateful to so many for their encouragement and support. My sincerest thanks are expressed to my respectable supervisor, Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân, for his detailed and critical feedback. I also wish to extend my gratitude towards Dr.
Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa and Dr. Trần Thị Ngọc Liên for their thorough comments. Without their guidance, this thesis has not been completed. Another person I wish to acknowledge my thanks is Dr.
Lan Anh who has suggested the topic for my thesis. A number of people helped with the collection of data, my beloved students, are all thanked for their contributions. To my many friends and family, your love and support was worth more than I can express on paper. To Na - thank you for always being there with a word of encouragement or listening ear.
Without your companion, I would have been so lonely during this journey. Besides, an extensive amount of time has been spent in the house of Na’s grandmother and your dad’s company where we have written our thesis. To Mai, Phương Anh, Hằng, and Vân - I am very grateful to you who have given me your friendship, put up with my odd hours and provided me with lifts. To my family, specifically my loving parents, thank you for your unconditional love and support and for the food and drinks you have prepared for me.
To my brother’s family, you knew it would be a long and sometimes bumpy road, but encouraged and supported me along the way. Thank you Hồ Lô, my nephew, for being one of my sources of emotional comfort when I need it. Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to myself who have sailed through this strenuous journey without losing a single kilogram, not to mention a couple of kilograms I have gained. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION OF ORIGINALITY.
iii LIST OF TABLES. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Statements of the problems and rationale for the study. Aims of the study and research questions.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Method of the study. Structure of the thesis.
3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of readability. Factors affecting readability. Previous studies on the readability of English textbooks.
Population and sampling techniques. Flesch Reading Ease Score. Cloze Readability Test. Data collection procedure.
Data from the readability formula. Data from the cloze test. Data analysis procedure. 26 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Results from the Flesch Reading Ease Score. Results from the Cloze test. Results from the Flesch Reading Ease Score. Results from the Cloze test score.
Comparison between the two scores. 37 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Implications and recommendations. Limitations of the study.
Recommendations for further research. 43 APPENDIX: The Cloze test. I v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The score corrected grade levels by Dale-Chall (1948).
Flesch’s Reading Ease Scores. Cloze scores and the purpose of reading (Bormuth, 1971). The structure of one unit of the textbook Tiếng Anh 9. The standard length of texts for lower secondary school.
Flesch’s Reading Ease Scores. Cloze test score analysis (Bormuth, 1971, as cited in Wagner, 1986). Topics and length of the twelve texts. Results of the FLesch Reading Ease Score.
The twelve texts in the cloze test. Results of the Cloze test. Summary of Flesch Reading Ease score and Cloze Test score. The scores of texts 2, 3 and 9.
38 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter provides background information and rationale of the study. It is divided into six sections, namely statements of the problems and rationale of the study, aims of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, method of the study and structure of the thesis. Statements of the problems and rationale for the study During academic life, people have been exposed to a variety of materials, and among them, the most common type may be textbooks. In order to internalize the knowledge packed in this source of information, apart from the teacher’s guidance, students need to have basic reading comprehension skills.
Textbooks that are quite challenging to read may hinder student’s motivation. On the other hand, students who are highly motivated may lose their interest in reading books which are too easy or less challenging. Therefore, it is essential that educators make sure inputs are comprehensible to students; in other words, textbooks must be selected with careful consideration, with a view to motivating students’ learning. In their work, Manzo and Manzo (1990) consider the difficulty level of a text as the text’s readability.
When it comes to reading texts in English textbooks for EFL learners, readability of texts is likely to become more important as in this case, besides the content, students are also learning the English language. As a result, readability of texts in English textbooks has received considerable attention from educators. Many readability formulas have been developed to predict the readability of reading materials. Many of these formulas calculate the readability of a text using figures relating to sentence length and number of syllables per word (Khodadady, 2017).
A number of studies have been conducted to examine the readability of certain English textbooks employing these types of formulas. Apart from these above quantitative features of a text, according to Manzo (1990), readability also depends on other factors such as print size, number and quality of 1 pictures. Additionally, Lapp, Moss and Grant (2015) propose a framework of considerations in assessing text difficulty which consists of three qualitative features. They are lexical density, text structure, language features, meaning, author’s purpose and knowledge demands.
Numerous studies have been conducted around the world for the last century using various formulas or frameworks to investigate the readability of English reading passages in the context of L1 and L2. In the context of Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject at primary, lower and upper secondary schools. Specifically, in the four English textbooks for lower secondary education, reading is stated to be “the first of the four language skills that receives special attention”. It can be said that almost all reading texts in textbooks are used in the classroom.
As a result, it is essential to gain a thorough understanding of the readability of the English reading texts of these textbooks. Suitable English reading texts for students’ level can assist them to improve their reading comprehension. However, there is just a limited amount of research concerning this issue in countries where English is taught as a foreign language like in Vietnam. This constitutes the main drive for the researcher to conduct this research: “An analysis on the readability of English reading texts in the textbooks Tiếng Anh 9 of the 10-year curriculum for lower-secondary schools.
Aims of the study and research questions The study aims at analysing the readability of reading texts in the session Skills 1 of each unit of the textbooks Tiếng Anh 9, Tập một (English 9, Student’s book 1) and Tiếng Anh 9, Tập hai (English 9, Student’s book 2). Specifically, the study tries to answer the following two research questions: 1. What are the readability levels of the reading texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 9 (English 9)? 2. To what extent are the reading texts in the chosen textbook suitable to the English proficiency level of ninth graders in urban Hanoi? 2 1.
Significance of the study The study helps the audience to be aware of the characteristics of the reading texts present in the textbooks Tiếng Anh 9. This would also enable teachers to effectively exploit and adapt, modify or supplement the materials if necessary. The study has been also beneficial to the researcher herself. It is essential that a teacher know how to evaluate teaching materials and teach students successfully, therefore it has been a golden opportunity to review main theoretical knowledge relating to material evaluation, especially reading text evaluation.
Once equipped with such a basis, the teacher might have a critical mind towards the material she is using. Besides, this paper is also of great usefulness for the writer to gain insights into the nature of the reading comprehension tasks in the textbooks. Scope of the study As the title suggested, this study is confined to exploring the readability of the reading texts from the textbook Tiếng Anh 9 (English 9) in terms of their syntactic complexity and lexical density. Specifically, the present study concentrates on investigating the twelve reading texts in Session Skills 1 of the twelve units in the two volumes of the textbook Tiếng Anh 9.
Besides, twenty ninth-grade students at an English center in urban Hanoi participated in this research. Method of the study In order to find the answer for the above research questions, the writer used two research instruments: (1) the readability formula by Rudolph Flesch (1949) and (2) a cloze test designed by the author for the participants. Structure of the thesis The study will consist of five chapters.
