VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNDERGRADUATE THESIS EXPLORING L2 READING HABITS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATES AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY NGUYEN HOANG PHUC AN GIANG, 6-2022 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY AN GIANG UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES UNDERGRADUATE THESIS EXPLORING L2 READING HABITS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATES AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY NGUYEN HOANG PHUC I.: DAV187047 ADVISOR: DR. NGUYEN THI THUY DAO AN GIANG, 6-2022 Thesis Title: EXPLORING L2 READING HABITS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATES AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY By: NGUYEN HOANG PHUC Field of Study: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION Advisor: DR. NGUYEN THI THUY DAO Accepted by the Faculty of Foreign Languages, An Giang University on. Tran Thi Thanh Hue) Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages Examination Committee …………………………………………… Advisor (DR.
NGUYEN THI THUY DAO) …………………………………… Faculty Examiner 1 (DR. TRAN THI THANH HUE) …………………………………… Faculty Examiner 2 (MA. HUYNH CHI XUAN HUYEN) i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish my undergraduate thesis, which is probably my most major academic work throughout my four-year period at An Giang University, can contribute to the learning contexts in Vietnam as well as other academic contexts worldwide. This research represents all of the motivation, encouragement and supports from my family, my advisor, my tutors and my friends.
First and foremost, I would like to express my sincerest and deepest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Dao, who gave me an opportunity to receive her constant support, detailed recommendations, and insightful feedback based on her encyclopedic knowledge to carry out this research. It is an honor to work with her in my study. My thesis would not have been completed without her invaluable help and gracious guidance.
Second, I extremely appreciate all the help from my tutors in the Faculty of Foreign Languages. I would like to express my enormous gratefulness to Dr. Nguyen Duc Hanh, MA. Nguyen Thi Anh Guong, MA.
Huynh Chi Xuan Huyen, and MA. Le Do Thai who give me considerable encouragement, immeasurable demonstration in collecting and analyzing the data of my study. In addition, I would love to show my greatest appreciation to all of the participants involved in my study, particularly the 109 students from Classes DH21AV, DH21TA1, and DH21TA2, who provided me with sufficient and informative data for the research analysis. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my friends at university who are always there when I need help and encourage me from the first day I wrote the research proposal to the last stage of my study.
I also send my sincere thanks to my family members who put trust in me and accompany me in my journey at university. ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled EXPLORING L2 READING HABITS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED UNDERGRADUATES AT AN GIANG UNIVERSITY represents my own work and that has not been previously submitted to any other university or institute in application for admission to degrees or other qualifications. June 2022 Nguyen Hoang Phuc iii ABSTRACT This study was carried out to investigate the current L2 reading habits among English-majored sophomores at An Giang University and explore the relationship between students’ L2 reading habits and their English language skill development. The data was collected by using a mixed methods research design in which the researcher employed questionnaires to acquire statistical data about the L2 reading patterns of 109 second-year English-majored undergraduates and semi-structured interviews with 11 university students to obtain their perspectives.
Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that EFL sophomores have poor reading habits; nonetheless, their attitudes towards reading English materials were quite favourably positive. The majority of students preferred to develop their L2 reading habits on their own in the evening at home, and they were particularly interested in literature-related materials, especially English lyrics. Besides, EFL sophomores were mostly intrinsically motivated to read English materials by a desire to improve their English language skills. However, most students encountered several time-related problems associated with their university studies when they developed their L2 reading habits.
In terms of students’ perspectives, they reported that they largely developed their L2 reading habits for academic purposes. Reading habits were thought to assist students improve their English language skills, such as reading skills, writing skills, and speaking skills, since they could expand their lexical resources, acquire new knowledge about diverse topics, and enhance their skimming ability in reading due to regular L2 reading activities. Moreover, most students believed that their L2 reading habits helped them improve their reading and writing results. The study also provided some implications for enhancing the current state of students’ L2 reading habits and suggested some recommendations for future research.
Key Words: L2 reading habits, EFL university students, language skill development iv CONTENTS Page APPROVAL. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES.
viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the research .4 Definitions of terms.5 Significance of the research.6 Structure of the thesis. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Overview of reading .2 Reading in a second language (L2 reading) .4 Reading habits at university settings .5 Related studies on L2 reading habits .2 Context of the study .3 Description of the participants .5 Data collection procedures .7 Validity and reliability of the study .8 Summary of the research process. 27 v CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Findings of research question 1 .2 Findings of research question 2 .1 Summary of the results .2 Implications of the study .3 Limitations of the research .4 Recommendations for further studies.
62 Appendix 2: Interview questions (English version). 68 Appendix 3: Interview questions (Vietnamese version). 69 Appendix 4: A sample of one interview audio transcript. 70 Appendix 5: Results of the interviews.
72 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Description of the questionnaire participants. Description of the interview participants. Structure of the questionnaire.
Guiding questions used in the interview of the research. Descriptive information of the administration of the interviews 25 Table 6. Cronbach’s Alpha of the questionnaire in the pilot study. Cronbach’s Alpha of the questionnaire in the main study.
EFL sophomores’ L2 reading frequency. EFL sophomores’ L2 reading preferences. EFL sophomores’ L2 reading motivations. Descriptive statistics of extrinsic reading motivations and intrinsic reading motivations.
EFL sophomores’ difficulties in reading English materials. 39 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. EFL sophomores’ past encouragement to read English materials by their teachers. EFL sophomores’ L2 reaidng comprehension levels.
EFL sophomores’ perceptions towards reading English materials 38 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No. Full words Acronyms 1 An Giang University AGU 2 Cumulative grade point average CGPA 3 English as a foreign language EFL 4 English Language EL 5 English Language Teacher Education ELTE 6 Faculty of Foreign Languages FFL 7 First language L1 8 Second language L2 ix CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION There are six sections in this chapter representing the general information of the study which includes the rationale of this research, the research objectives, the research questions, the definitions of terms, the significance of the research as well as the structure of the thesis.1 Rationale of the Research 1.1 Theoretical background It is generally accepted that reading is an essential part of life occurring in and reflecting on every situation and context throughout the history of the world. Reading is a means of connecting of time when it brings together the past, the future and the present (Chettri & Rout, 2013) illustrated by symbols or word patterns.
The very first reading process is believed to have happened at the same time when a prehistoric man illustrated his world on a wall or stone, creating petroglyphs that were then seen and interpreted by other early humans. Such recognition and interpretation of rock carving symbols could even serve as a means of communication among the cavemen. With the passage of time, simple symbol patterns evolved into the modern language system, including linguistics units; thus, reading has evolved into the recognition and comprehension of words (Alderson, 2000). Reading has played a major role in the current society (Bano et al., 2018) since people living in the modern world can obtain more knowledge preparing themselves to face unexpected challenges through the reading process (Akanda et al.
Some people read in order to acquire a particular knowledge while others turn to reading as a way of chilling out. The reading activities are carried out frequently day by day in such a way that they grow repetitive (Méndez, 2018), and purposeful (Chettri & Rout, 2013) to eventually turn into one’s reading habit. In regards to EFL learning contexts, developing L2 reading habits among EFL learners is crucial since reading itself is among the most vital skills for success in English proficiency and it appears in most of the academic work. Moreover, learners with a consistent and frequent habit of reading in English can experience better learning outcomes, enhance academic achievements (Whitten et al., 2016), and widen their English language knowledge (Khoirunnisa & Safitri, 2018).
A lot of researchers like Akarsu and Dariyemez (2012), Balan et al. (2019), Camiciottoli (2001), Iftanti (2012) and Lone (2012) have done work on the L2 reading habits of EFL students in tertiary settings. It is concluded that such essential parts of undergraduates’ L2 reading habits including reading frequency, reading preferences, reading motivation, and reading attitude, should be examined and analyzed to produce valuable information about not only how students read English materials, but also the significant correlation between their L2 reading patterns and their English language skills including their academic performance. Therefore, EFL students’ reading patterns can be understood and give teachers a general look at the way students like to engage in English reading activities.
Teachers can then adjust their teaching methods and encourage more students to read. Consequently, it 1 can eventually improve the English language skills and academic achievements of EFL students. As a result, this study is aimed at identifying the students’ L2 reading patterns to assist them in becoming better L2 learners.2 Practical background Despite the fact that reading habits have received much attention recently, there exists very little research on reading habits in Vietnamese learning contexts, especially on English reading habits (L2 reading habits) in university settings. Most research on reading habits conducted in Vietnamese learning contexts has recently concentrated on relationships among the aspects of reading habits such as reading attitudes and reading habits (Ho, 2016) or text medium and language preference (Stoller & Nguyen, 2020).
There exist very few studies with attention paid to L2 reading habits among Vietnamese EFL undergraduates in general. As a result, it leads to a lack of comprehension of students’ L2 reading habits among teachers in Vietnam; hence, conflicts between teachers’ reading instructions and students’ L2 reading patterns can result in poor L2 reading habits which can create inadequate English language skills for EFL undergraduates (Balan et al. Therefore, fewer and fewer L2 students may engage in reading English materials. With regard to EFL students studying in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at An Giang University (AGU) where the author has been spending four years majoring in English Language Teacher Education, the author observes the fact that L2 reading seems not to be a habitual activity while many EFL students at the university show little interest in reading English materials, but rather participate more in other leisure activities; their English reading comprehension scores are quite low in terms of average value as well.
Still, most of the previous studies done at the university by previous researchers who used to be undergraduates at the university concentrated too much on other aspects of the English language, such as English listening and speaking skills, the study patterns of EFL students, as well as new and Internet-related fields.