VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ USE OF AUTONOMOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature By NGUYEN THI PHUOC HANH Supervised by TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, MARCH 2023 The thesis entitled HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ USE OF AUTONOMOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS was successfully defended and approved on March 13, 2023 at HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES (HCMUSSH). Academic supervisor: Dr. Trần Quốc Thao Examination Committee 1.
Nguyễn Đăng Nguyên: Chair 2. Phạm Huy Cường: Reader 1 3. Nguyễn Thị Như Ngọc: Reader 2 4. Bùi Thị Thục Quyên: Member 5.
Nguyễn Thị Hồng Thắm: Secretary Member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair Dr. Nguyễn Đăng Nguyên i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES Ho Chi Minh City, 10th February 2023 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: NGUYEN THI PHUOC HANH Sex: Female Date of birth: 28 February 1987 Place of birth: Dong Thap Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Student code: 186014011108 I- Thesis title: High school students’ use of autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading skills. II- Objectives and contents: This study aims to scrutinize high school students’ use of autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading skills at the context of Nguyen Trai High School, Thuan An City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam. The research objectives are as follows: - To find out high school students’ perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension at Nguyen Trai High School; - To examine how high school students use autonomous language learning activities to improve their English reading skills at Nguyen Trai High School.
This study was conducted at the context of Nguyen Trai High School, there are many facilities such as a Vietnamese-standardized library, experimental rooms, LAB, smartboard classrooms, computer rooms with Wi-Fi internet aiming to help students to study English. As such, students are required to take responsibility to learn independently. The participants were high school students at Nguyen Trai High School, Thuan An City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam. In order to gain the results, this study applied the mixed-method: quantitative and qualitative, two instruments were utilized: questionnaire and semi-structured interview so as to collect the data.
ii III- Starting date: January 7th 2020 IV- Completing date: February 10th 2023 V- Academic supervisor: Tran Quoc Thao, Ph. ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR FACULTY DEAN iii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: “HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ USE OF AUTONOMOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS” Ho Chi Minh City, February, 2023 NGUYEN THI PHUOC HANH iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI PHUOC HANH, being a candidate for the degree of Master of 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 Master’s Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and reproduction for theses. Ho Chi Minh City, February, 2023 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I have to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Tran Quoc Thao for his professional guidance, efforts and support he gave me throughout the different phases of writing my Master Thesis. I was very lucky to work on my research under his supervision and patience which inspired me to greater efforts. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank examiners for reading my proposal for their in- depth comments and suggesting future steps they gave during the thesis defense. I am also deeply grateful for the support of students at Nguyen Trai High School, the enthusiastic participation of the students in this research project.
This study would not have been possible without the valuable data they provided. Last but not least, I owe my family wholehearted thanks for the eternal support and encouragement I received. I might not have gone on my academic path without them. vi ABSTRACT Learner autonomy has emerged as an indispensable part in education in general and in English language education in particular.
Accordingly, high school students’ use of autonomous language learning activities should be imperative. This study, therefore, aims to uncover high school learners’ perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension and scrutinize high school students’ use of autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading comprehension at the context of Nguyen Trai High School, Thuan An City, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam. The research participants were 102 high school students conveniently sampled answering the closed-ended questionnaires, and 15 of whom were invited for semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data from questionnaires were processed by SPSS version 25, while the qualitative data from interviews were analyzed using the content analysis approach.
The findings shed light on research participants’ positive perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension and their actual use of autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading comprehension. Among five components of perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension, it was found out that research participants were highly aware of the concepts of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension, they had positive sense of responsibilities for English reading comprehension learning issues, and they implemented some different autonomous language learning activities for learning English outside the classroom because they are well-aware of the importance of learner autonomy. The findings also showed that most of research participants became more autonomous for their language learning and applied more autonomous language learning activities beyond the classroom. Such preliminary findings are hoped to shed light on the enhancement high school students’ perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension and foster the implementation of their autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading comprehension.
Keywords: learner autonomy; autonomous language learning activities; English comprehension reading vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS .viii LIST OF TABLES. xii LIST OF FIGURES .xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
xiv CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION .1 Background to the study.2 Statement of the problem .3 Aims and objectives of the research .5 Scope of the research .6 Significance of the research .7 Organization of the study. 6 CHAPTER II- LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Reading and reading comprehension .1 Definitions of reading .2 Definitions of reading comprehension.3 Models of reading .1 The bottom-up model .2 The top-down model .3 The interactive model .4 Types of reading .1 Definitions of LA .2 Types and levels of autonomy .3 Principles of LA .4 Characteristics of a responsible learner .5 Characteristics of autonomous learners .6 Significance of LA and responsibility .4 LA in ERC.5 Autonomous language learning activities (ALLA) .1 Concept and benefit of ALLA .2 ALLA to improve English reading skills. 26 CHAPTER III- METHODOLOGY .2 Semi-structured interview .8 Validity and reliability. 34 CHAPTER IV- RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Students’ perceptions of LA in ERC .1 Levels of LA in ERC .2 Learners' independence in ERC .3 Promotion of LA in ERC.4 Psychology of learning ERC .5 Students’ responsibility for ERC learning issues .2 Students’ ALLA to improve ERC .1 Using and monitoring ERC learning strategies .2 Monitoring ERC learning process and performance .3 Formulating ERC learning objectives and plans .4 Monitoring the use of ERC learning methods .5 Identifying the importance of outside classroom learning ERC .1 Students’ perceptions of LA in ERC .2 Students’ ALLA to improve ERC.
54 CHAPTER V- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .3 The implications of the research .1 Students’ positive attitudes towards ALLA .2 LA training for teachers and students .3 The support from the stakeholders .4 Limitations of the research .5 Recommendation for further research. 68 SECTION 1: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF LA IN ERC. 68 SECTION 2: STUDENTS’ ALLA TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION. 76 SECTION 1: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF LA IN ERC.
76 x SECTION 2: STUDENTS’ ALLA TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION. 77 xi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Levels of Learner Autonomy (Nunan, 1997) .1 High school students’ perceptions of LA in ERC .2 High school students’ levels of LA in ERC .3 High school students’ independence of LA in ERC .4 High school students’ promotion of LA in ERC .5 High school students’ psychology of learning ERC .6 High school students’ responsibilities for ERC learning issues .7 High school students’ ALLA to improve ERC .8 High school students’ using and monitoring ERC learning strategies .9 High school students’ monitoring ERC learning process and performance 46 Table 4.10 High school students’ formulating ERC learning objectives and plans .11 High school students’ monitoring the use of ERC learning methods .12 Identifying the importance of outside classroom learning ERC. 51 xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Models of the reading process (Perfetti, Landi & Oakhill, 2005) .2 Conceptual Framework for Ss’ Autonomous Language Learning Activities .1 A Sequential Explanatory Design (Creswell, 2009) 27 xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LA Learner autonomy RC Reading comprehension ERC English reading comprehension ALL Autonomous language learners ALLA Autonomous language learning activities NTHS Nguyen Trai High School PALAQ Students’ perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension and their autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading comprehension questionnaire PALAI Students’ perceptions of learner autonomy in English reading comprehension and their autonomous language learning activities to improve English reading comprehension interview ESL English as a second language EFL English as a foreign language PPAL Perceptions and practices of autonomous learning OLA Out-of-class learning activities xiv CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION In this chapter one, general educational background to the study and statement of the problem, aims and objectives, two research questions and scope, significance and organization of the study are presented.1 Background to the study In the trend of integration and globalization, it is a widely open opportunity for those who master English language and use English proficiently because it is a substantial consideration for employment opportunities (Muller et al. Contrary to all learners’ expectations, Nguyen and Pham (2016) point out that university graduates do not meet recruiters’ English requirements and are out-of-work afterwards, so unemployment becomes more serious and alarming.
This explains why over last three decades, many scholars, researchers, educators, and policy-makers have carried out Vietnam education system reforms in training qualification and teaching methods of teachers, upgrading teaching equipment, and recomposing textbook curriculum in a better way several times, but the quality of teaching and learning English still remains ineffective. While some researchers presume that successful English language learners get actively involved in their target language acquisition (Ceylan, 2015; Haddad, 2016), university students are not accustomed to studying independently and autonomously, paradoxically, they still remain passive study habits of high schoolers, like rote learning with spoon-fed knowledge in a short time, and over-reliance on instructors (Alzubi & Singh, 2017; Chikwa, Al-Damen, & Mathew, 2018). Such over-dependent and passive learning habits may simply aid students to achieve high grades rather than further their knowledge and a sought-after skill in the job market (Nguyen, 2016). In other words, those learning styles can hinder students from developing learner autonomy (Chikwa, Al-Damen, & Mathew, 2018) – an autonomous learning skill helps retain their learnt knowledge longer and deeper for using it in their real life and future jobs.
For this reason, individual learner needs to practice how to self-study independently or promote learner autonomy (LA) through cooperative learning (Shi & Han, 2019), thus formulate a “teacher-less” study habit for the time being (Masouleh & Joomeghani, 2012) in order to adapt to the self-reliant and proactive setting of the university or win in a today’s global competitive labour market.