TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ DẦU MỘT KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ *********** GRADUATE PAPER TITLE: DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY Sinh viên thực hiện : ĐỖ THỊ THỦY TIÊN Lớp : D19AV04 Khoá :2019-2023 Ngành : NGÔN NGỮ ANH Giảng viên hướng dẫn : TRẦN NGỌC MINH Binh Duong, DECEMBER/2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ DẦU MỘT KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ *********** GRADUATE PAPER TITLE: DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS OF ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY Sinh viên thực hiện : ĐỖ THỊ THỦY TIÊN Lớp : D19AV04 Khoá :2019-2023 Ngành : NGÔN NGỮ ANH Giảng viên hướng dẫn : TRẦN NGỌC MINH Binh Duong, DECEMBER/2022 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Student full name: Do Thi Thuy Tien Student ID: 1922202010906 Title of paper: Difficulties in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented. Where the work of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s bibliography. I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources. All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text.
__________________ ______________________ Place, Date Signature ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, the researcher would like to thank Thu Dau Mot University for introducing Research Methods into the curriculum. In particular, the researcher would like to thank the subject teacher - Ms. Tran Ngoc Minh who devotedly taught in detail so that the researcher could have enough knowledge and apply it to this report. This will be valuable knowledge, laying the foundation for us to be firm in the future.
Research methodology is an interesting, extremely useful and practical subject. Ensure to provide enough knowledge associated with the practical needs of today's students. However, due to limited knowledge and practical learning ability, there are still many surprises. Although I have tried my best, the essay is bound to have shortcomings and inaccuracies in many places.
We would like to ask for your consideration and suggestions to make the researcher's essay better. Sincerely, thank! iii ABSTRACT After a period of studying English at Thu Dau Mot University, the English reading comprehension skills of English majors are still very limited. As a result, after studying, students cannot apply their knowledge and experiences to study or work because they cannot read and understand English in the best and standard way. To practice reading skills in the best way, learners must go through a long and difficult time.
There are many factors of difficulty that you will encounter, whether you are a final year student or a beginner. The topic is related to the problem “Difficulties in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university”. The tool used by the researcher for the study was a questionnaire distributed via Google Forms. Based on the survey results, researchers have pointed out factors that can make it difficult for English reading comprehension skills.
Basic knowledge problems, reading method problems, language problems, may be a big barrier that prevents them from focusing on learning this skill well. Some effects on students' reading skills and some suggestions are also given to improve English reading ability better. We will conduct a survey to find out the answers to the questions posed in this study. iv Contents STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF TABLE. ix LIST OF FIGURES .1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY .2 AIMS OF THE STUDY .4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .5 STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 DEFINITION OF READING.
THE IMPORTANCE OF READING SKILLS. DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS .1 BASIC KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM .2 READING METHOD PROBLEMS .4 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' DIFFICULTY IN READING SKILLS .1 LACK OF MOTIVATION .2 LACK OF CONCENTRATION .2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING. DATA COLLECTION PROCESS. DATA ANALYSIS PROCESS .1 PART 1: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION.1 STAGES OF STUDY .2 HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LEARNING ENGLISH? .3 HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND ON STUDYING DAILY? .4 DO YOU LIKE SUBJECTS RELATED TO ENGLISSH READING SKILL?.2 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS .3 Part 3: FACTORS LEADING TO STUDENT DIFFICULTIES IN READING SKILLS .1 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS .2 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' DIFFICULTY IN READING SKILLS .1 SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTION.3 FOR FUTURE RESEARCHERS .41 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS [1] TDMU: Thu Dau Mot University viii LIST OF TABLE Table 3.3 Distribution of questionnaire items Table 4.2 : Difficulties in learning English reading skills Table 4.3 : Factors leading to student difficulties in reading skills ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Student's level Figure 4.2: Student's English learning time Figure 4.3 : Students' frequency in learning reading skill Figure 4.1 :Students' attitudes toward learning English reading skill x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher will explain the reason for choosing this topic as well as background to the study, aims of the study. Then research questions,and significance of the study 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY English has been playing an important role in many fields. In the current trend of globalization, along with the strong development of science and technology, society, education, health, people, English has become an indispensable communication tool in the world (Price & Mechelli, 2005). If you know a foreign language in addition to your mother tongue, you will have many opportunities to work in large foreign companies and organizations with attractive salaries (Clark, 1999).
Today, with the emergence of English as a prominent language in an increasingly technological and global society (Butler,2009). The number of businesses associated with foreign partners in Vietnam is increasing. The use of English in work and daily communication is an effective and necessary tool for everyone (Nguyen, 2021). Therefore, learning English well is considered an opportunity for career advancement, in which the skill that we need to focus on, and practice regularly is reading comprehension (Clark, 1999).
The more you read, the more you will know. The more you learn, the more places you can go, and your jobs will open. (Suess, 1978) To learn English, we must learn and master four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which reading skills are an important skill and it is linked to all the remaining skills. Byrness (1984) and Barnett (1989) argue that reading has always held an important place in foreign and second languages, 1 except in periods when the phonological-linguistic method prevailed in the classroom in America, in the early 1960s.
Reading comprehension is an important skill because it gives students not only a deeper understanding of what they learn but also more intensive knowledge (Siegel, 1993). According to Barnett (1989), through reading, students can expand their social and cultural knowledge , and improve their thoughts. However, many students find it challenging to read in English. For example, Nguyen& Kim (2017) have shown the level of difficulty as well as the two most serious problems hindering students' reading: insufficient vocabulary and background knowledge problems.
In addition, Ho (2012) said that the most serious problems preventing students from reading are: (1) insufficient vocabulary; (2) language problems. The above two studies have presented common difficulties in students' reading skills, and at the same time provide researchers with useful knowledge for the current study. At TDM as well as the practice of reading skills is also very important, and students need to identify difficulties and hinder student reading skills, thus providing solutions to help students overcome these difficulties. For all of the above reasons, I decided to conduct a study on difficulties in learning English reading skills of English students at Thu Dau Mot University.
Hopefully, this study will contribute to improving the ability to learn English in general, as well as reading skills in particular for English students at Thu Dau Mot University.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY This study aims to find out some common problems in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university. It also aims to find out factors contributing to the reading difficulties of English majors 2 at Thu Dau Mot University. The researcher fully hopes that this study will help students better understand the importance of reading and problem-solving skills to become more professional in their future jobs 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS To achieve the above objectives, the study will be guided by the following questions: • What are the difficulties students majors at Thu Dau Mot University encounter when learning English reading skills? • What factors lead to difficulties in learning English reading skills among students majors at Thu Dau Mot University? 1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study offers a number of contributions. Firstly, it provides an insight into the difficulties that English-majored students may encounter when learning English reading skills.
This research is very useful for students and lecturers at Thu Dau Mot University, and some other researchers to understand more deeply about this issue. For teachers, they can improve some aspects of teaching. For students, they know what problems need to be improved. Universities, can use these methods to apply to the curriculum of a number of subjects related to reading skills.
The researcher wishes that English majors and all students of Thu Dau Mot University can apply this method to actively practice reading comprehension skills more effectively and progress in study and future work.5 STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER The thesis consists of six main chapters: 3 Chapter 1 (Introduction ) , provides information about the background of the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, and the thesis outline. Chapter 2( Literature Review) review related theories as well as related research, which will then be summarized as a framework for data presentation and analysis in this study. Chapter 3( Methodology) describes the research methods used in the present study. The researcher details about research design the reasons why to choose the quantitative method.
It then presents population and sampling, research instruments, pesearch instruments. The last sections involve data analysis process, and chapter summary. Chapter 4 (Findings/Results) reports the results of the statistical analyses which are presented in three main sections. The first section deals with demographic information.
The second section focuses on the difficulties in learning english reading skills. The last section deals with the factors leading to student difficulties in reading skills. Chapter 5 (Discussion) the research results will be discussed to see if they are as expected and compared with previous studies. Chapter 6 ( Conclusion) summarizes what has been gathered over the past 3 months, offers limitations and recommendations for others in the future.
And then, the conclusions of the study will be presented. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this part, the researcher provides theories related to the study such as the definition of reading, the importance of reading skills, difficulties in learning English reading skills and factors leading to students' difficulties in reading skills.1 DEFINITION OF READING Over the years, many studies have been done to determine reading comprehension. Here are some typical definitions of famous researchers. The definition of reading emerges from many different angles.
Reading is the process of building meaning from written text. This is a complex skill that requires the coordination of several interrelated information sources (Hosp & Suchey, 2014). Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction between: (1) the reader's existing knowledge; (2) information suggested by the text being read; and (3) the context of the reading situation (Share & Silva, 2003). According to Rumelhart (1997), reading, whether in a first or second language context, is concerned with the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text.
From all the above comments, researchers reflect the definition of reading from their point of view.