VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE ENGLISH GRADED READERS: EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF READING FLUENCY AND READING COMPREHENSION A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By HUYNH THI MY VAN Supervised by NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE ENGLISH GRADED READERS: EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF READING FLUENCY AND READING COMPREHENSION A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By HUYNH THI MY VAN Supervised by NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, JULY 2016 i Acknowledgements This thesis would have not been completed without the guidance, encouragement, suggestions and assistance from many members. First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr.
Nguyen Thu Huong, who has supported me and guided me through the thesis, and forgiven me for my occasional tardiness and lateness during the thesis. He has always given me great encouragement, and thanks to that I was more determined to complete my work. Next, I would like to express my special thanks to my beloved colleagues who gave me the valuable suggestions for the thesis, who took time to correct my questionnaire and who frequently asked me about the progress of the thesis so that I could feel a great sense of warmth and care which motivated me to fulfil the thesis more. I would also like to send my thanks to my students, who accompanied with me during the thesis.
Last but not least, I would like send my special thanks to my husband and my brother, who have encouraged me to complete my thesis. ii Statement of originality I declare that the thesis entitled: ENGLISH GRADED READERS: EFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF READING FLUENCY AND READING COMPREHENSION is written by me, Huynh Thi My Van, who takes full responsibility for the contents of the thesis. I declare that the contents of this thesis are original and that no other sources apart from those mentioned in the thesis and its references have been used to create it. Ho Chi Minh City, July 2016 Huynh Thi My Van iii Retention and use of the thesis I hereby state that I, Huynh Thi My Van, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis. Ho Chi Minh City, July 2016 Huynh Thi My Van iv Table of contents Title page. ii Statement of originality. iii Retention and use of the thesis.
iv Table of contents. v List of abbreviations. x List of tables. xi List of figures.
xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION. Background to the study. Aims of the study. Significance of the study.
The organization of the thesis. 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW. A brief account of reading. Successful reading in English as first language.
Components of reading fluency. Definitions of reading fluency. Oral reading fluency versus silent reading fluency. The role of reading fluency in fostering reading comprehension.
Teaching reading in the ESL and EFL context. Features of intensive reading. Features of Extensive Reading. The role of Extensive Reading in fostering learners’ reading fluency.
The impact of the amount of reading on learners’ reading fluency. The role of strategy use in Extensive Reading in fostering reading fluency and reading comprehension. Definitions of GRs. Types of GRs.
Levels of GRs. Learners’ selection of GRs. Relevant studies on students’ attitudes towards GRs. Related studies on students’ practices of using GRs.
Related studies on students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs. Related studies on the impact of GRs on reading fluency and reading comprehension. Al-Homoud and Schmitt (2009)’s study. Gaps from the studies reviewed.
The conceptual framework of the study. Participants of the study. The content of the questionnaire on attitudes and perceptions. The content of the questionnaire on practices.
The reading fluency pretest and posttest. The reading comprehension pretest and posttest. Before the implementation of GRs. During the implementation of GRs.
After the implementation of GRs. The scoring method of the reading rate and reading comprehension pretest and posttest. 46 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Students’ attitudes towards GRs.
Students’ reactions to GRs in the future. Students’ practices of using GRs. GRs selection strategies. Pre-reading strategies.
While reading strategies. Post-reading strategies. Statistical analysis of test results. Statistical analysis of test results on reading rate.
Statistical analysis of test results on reading comprehension that followed the reading rate test. Statistical analysis of test results on reading comprehension. Statistical analysis of test results on reading comprehension of main ideas. Statistical analysis of test results on reading comprehension of details.
Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading fluency. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading comprehension. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the follow-up activities in improving their reading fluency and reading comprehension.
Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the amount of reading required in improving their reading fluency and reading comprehension. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading skills. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their vocabulary. Discussion of the results.
Students’ attitudes towards GRs. Students’ practices of using GRs. Students’ GRs selection strategies. Students’ pre-reading strategies.
Students’ while-reading strategies. Students’ post-reading strategies. The impact of GRs on students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs.
Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading fluency. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their comprehension. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the follow-up activities in improving their RF and RC. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the amount of reading in improving their RF and RC.
Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their vocabulary. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading. Summary of key findings. 76 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Implications of the study. Limitations of the study. Recommendations for further research. 81 Appendix 1: The English version of the questionnaire.
87 Appendix 2: The Vietnamese version of the questionnaire. 92 Appendix 3: Al-Homoud and Schmitt’s questionnaire. 97 Appendix 4: The reading fluency pretest. 106 Appendix 5: The reading fluency posttest.
109 Appendix 6: The reading comprehension pretest. 111 Appendix 7: The reading comprehension posttest. 119 Appendix 8: IELTS Reading answer sheet. 128 Appendix 9: Book report form.
129 Appendix 10: Sample quiz. 130 Appendix 11: Raw score conversion of the IELTS test. 132 ix List of abbreviations IR Intensive Reading ER Extensive Reading GRs Graded Readers RF Reading fluency RC Reading comprehension FFL Faculty of Foreign Languages UTE University of Technology and Education CORI Concept-oriented reading instruction BNESC Books for native English speaking children AAO Academic Affairs Office RCFPre Reading comprehension of reading fluency pretest RCFPost Reading comprehension of reading fluency posttest RCMIPre Reading comprehension of main idea pretest RCMIPost Reading comprehension of main idea posttest RCDTPre Reading comprehension of details pretest RCDTPost Reading comprehension of details posttest x List of tables Table Page Table 2.1 Processes involved fluent reading comprehension .2 A list of reading strategies .3 Publishers’ headwords at each level of GRs .4 A summary of the reviewed studies on students’ attitudes, practices and perception of Graded Readers .5 Experimental studies on the impact of GRs on learners’ RF and RC 28 Table 3.1 A summary of the participants.2 The organization of the questionnaire and its related categories .3 A summary of the questionnaire on attitudes and perception .4 A summary of the questionnaire on practices .5 The structure of the RC pretest .6 The structure of the RC posttest .7 Information about the chosen GRs .1 Results on students’ enjoyment of reading GRs.2 Results on students’ confidence as a result of reading GRs .3 Results on students’ reactions to GRs in the future .4 Results on students’ GRs selection strategies .5 Results on students’ pre-reading strategies .6 Results on students’ while reading strategies .7 Results on students’ word attack strategies .8 Results on students’ post-reading strategies .9 Descriptive statistics of pre- and post-reading rate test .10 Descriptive statistics of pre- and post-RC test that followed the reading rate test .11 Descriptive statistics of pre- and post-reading comprehension test .12 Descriptive statistics of pre- and post-reading comprehension of main ideas .13 Descriptive statistics of pre- and post-reading comprehension of details .14 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their RF .15 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their RC .16 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the follow-up activities 62 Table 4.17 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the amount of reading required .18 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their reading skills .19 Students’ perception of the effectiveness of GRs in improving their vocabulary. 65 xii List of figures Figure Page Figure 2.1 The conceptual framework of the study .1 Students’ GRs selection strategies .2 Students’ pre-reading strategies.3 Students’ while reading strategies .4 Students’ word attack strategies .5 Students’ post-reading strategies.
56 xiii ABSTRACT Extensive Reading has been recognized for long as a means to improve learners’ attitudes and perception towards reading, to develop their reading fluency and reading comprehension and to improve their language skills. This study investigated the attitudes and practices of 21 first-year English majors towards the 15-week application of Graded Readers. In addition, it also looked into the impact of Graded Readers on students’ reading fluency and reading comprehension as well as students’ perception of the effectiveness of Graded Readers in improving their reading fluency, reading comprehension, reading skills and vocabulary. This study adopted quantitative research method by which a questionnaire was administered to probe into students’ attitudes, practices and perception of the effectiveness of Graded Readers, and one-group pretest-posttest design was used to discover students’ changes in their reading fluency and reading comprehension after the application of Graded Readers.
The results indicated that (a) students showed positive attitudes towards Graded Readers in terms of enjoyment and positive reactions to Graded Readers in the future, but not in terms of confidence, (b) students employed a variety of strategies when reading Graded Readers, some of which are not appropriate for developing reading fluency, (c) Graded Readers improved students’ reading fluency, but not reading comprehension, and (d) students showed positive perception of the effectiveness of Graded Readers in improving their reading fluency, reading comprehension, reading skills and vocabulary. Several implications are drawn from the results of this study in terms of reading instruction and guidelines for Extensive Reading practices. xiv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Background to the study Reading is an important skill to English learners.
It is the most popular means to acquire knowledge, not only knowledge of their subjects but also knowledge of the world. In addition, it is also a source of entertainment.