VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THI ̣THU HIỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN HONORS PROGRAM AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE (Nghiên cứu những chiế n lươ ̣c đo ̣c hiể u tiế ng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhấ t hê ̣chấ t lươ ̣ng cao ta ̣i Ho ̣c viêṇ Nông nghiêp̣ Viêṭ Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi – 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THI ̣THU HIỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS IN HONORS PROGRAM AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE (Nghiên cứu những chiế n lươ ̣c đo ̣c hiể u tiế ng Anh của sinh viên năm thứ nhấ t hê ̣chấ t lươ ̣ng cao ta ̣i Ho ̣c viêṇ Nông nghiêp̣ Viêṭ Nam) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ Hanoi - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Degree of Master in English Teaching Methodology.
I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees. Hanoi, 2015 Trầ n Thi Thu ̣ Hiề n i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people whose help and guidance have encouraged me to complete this thesis. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my admirable supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, whose patience, prompt consultancy and encouragement were the most essential factors to the fulfillment of this research.
Secondly, I also counted myself as fortunate to have the six students (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 and S6) as my research participants. Without much of their time devoted to several survey and think-aloud procedures, this thesis would not have been finished. Thirdly, I must also express my most sincere appreciation to my colleagues who have assisted me with data analysis and useful advice. Lastly, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my beloved parents and husband whose constant support and patience have encouraged me through the most difficult times.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The present study explores reading strategies used by the first-year students in Honors program at Vietnam National University of Agriculture and find out the differences in strategy use by successful readers and less successful readers. Six first-year students were chosen as the participants. The research instruments were questionnaires and think-aloud reports. Metacognitive was found to be more preferred than Cognitive by both groups.
Successful readers reported utilizing metacognitive and cognitive categories more frequently and employed a wider range of reading strategies than less successful readers. Also, significant differences between successful readers and less successful readers were found on some prominent Metacognitive and Cognitive strategies. From these findings, the research pointed out some reading strategies the students need to develop. Some teaching implications were that teachers should provide students with instruction on reading strategies, make them aware of self-monitoring their reading strategy use and apply think-aloud reports in the curriculum.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PART A: INTRODUCTION. Objectives of the study. Methods of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Organization of the study .5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Language learning strategies. Classification of learning strategies.
Definition of reading. Different approaches to reading process. Previous studies on reading strategies. Settings of the study .18 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Data collection instruments. Think-aloud reports. Procedures of data collection. Results of the pilot-study.
Administering the questionnaires. Administering the think-aloud reports. Coding of data. Procedures of data analysis .23 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Research question 1: What reading comprehension strategies are used by successful readers and less successful readers?. The use of reading strategy categories. The use of individual strategies within strategy categories. The use of individual strategies within metacognitive category.
The use of individual strategies within cognitive category. Research question 2: How does the use of reading comprehension strategies by successful readers differ from that by less successful readers?. Differences in the use of strategy categories. Differences in the use of individual strategies.
Differences in the use of individual metacognitive strategies. Differences in the use of individual cognitive strategies. Recapitulation of major findings .33 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Reading strategies that the students need to develop.
Reading strategies that successful students need to develop. Reading strategies that less successful students need to develop. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies .I vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. Learning strategy definition and classification (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119) .8 Table 2: Reading strategy framework adapted from O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) .14 Table 3: Summary of previous reading strategy studies adapted from Nguyen (2006: 17).
Background information about the participants .17 Table 5: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories adapted from O'Malley and Chamot (1990: 119) .20 Table 6: Strategy categories used by successful and less successful readers .26 Table 7: Difference in the use of individual strategies by SRs and LRs .28 Table 8: Reading strategies that successful students need to develop .34 Table 9: Reading strategies that less successful students need to develop .35 Figure 1: Strategy category frequency for successful and less successful readers .24 Figure 2: Individual strategy frequency within Metacognitive category for successful and less successful readers .25 Figure 3: Individual strategy frequency within Cognitive category for successful and less successful readers.26 Figure 4: The use of individual metacognitive strategies by successful readers .29 Figure 5: The use of individual metacognitive strategies by less successful readers .29 Figure 6: The use of individual cognitive strategies by successful readers .30 Figure 7: The use of individual cognitive strategies by less successful readers .31 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VNUA Vietnam National University of Agriculture RSs Reading strategies LLSs Language learning strategies SRs Successful readers LRs Less successful readers L2 Second language viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Over the last few decades, views on good instruction in language learning approach have shifted from teacher- centeredness to learner-centeredness, which means the focus is on improving student‟s active learning, rather than on the transmission of information. Another issue has been raised concerning the question why some learners shine in language learning while others do not. Researchers have suggested that their use of learning strategies is a crucial factor affecting learners‟ achievement (Rubin, 1975; Oxford, 1990).
In other words, successful learners do make an effective use of learning strategies to deal with problems that emerge during their learning process while less successful ones do not. A firm grasp of language learning strategies, thus, is a must for both teachers with an aim to encourage their students‟ language learning process and students with a desire to master language skills. It is also important for both successful and less successful language learners to recognize the differences in their strategy uses so that a deep awareness of how to use strategies effectively can be gained. This finding has provoked interest among researchers in investigating how language learners use strategies to acquire vocabulary, grammar and to excel in language skills (Rubin, 1975; Oxford, 1990; Cohen, 1998).
Empirical research, however, has been little conducted to uncover the learning strategies in general and reading comprehension strategies in particular, especially by students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA). In Honors Program at VNUA, reading is an essential language skill for the students to support their professional studies as most of the compulsory courses are delivered in English and require a lot of English reading materials. However, apart from some students with high level of English reading proficiency, many of them find reading skill challenging, especially when they deal with academic texts though they have studied English for more than ten years. They have shown worries about little understanding of the documents they 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com have read and their unsatisfactory studying results.
As an English teacher at VNUA with two-year experience in teaching English reading skill to these students, the research is well aware of their problems and has been attempting to support them in dealing with such obstacles. This study, hence, mainly focuses on investigating the use of reading comprehension strategies by first-year students in Honors Program and find out the differences in strategy use by successful readers and less successful readers. Objectives of the study The present study aims to examine current situation of using reading strategies among first-year students in Honors Program at VNUA. To be more specific, the objectives of the study are (1) to find out the frequency of reading strategy use of SRs and LSRs among the first-year students in Honors Program at VNUA; (2) to investigate the differences in the frequency of reading strategy use between SRs and LSRs 3.
Research questions Question 1: What is the frequency of reading strategy use of successful readers and less successful readers? Question 2: How does the frequency of reading strategy use of successful readers differ from that of less successful readers? 4. Methods of the study The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires and think-aloud reports (a research method in which participants speak aloud any words in their mind as they complete a task). The quantitative data was collected through a survey on the use of reading strategies and qualitative data was obtained through think-aloud protocol to investigate the learners‟ reading strategies. Significance of the study Since research into reading strategies has never been carried out in the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com context of Honors Program, VNUA, this study is hoped to identify the detailed description of reading strategies used by readers of two different levels.
Besides, it is also expected to provide an elaborative analysis of the differences in reading strategy uses between SRs and LSRs. The findings will then be informed to the students so as to help them make right decisions on how to use reading strategies. The findings also serve a pedagogical foundation for the teachers to draw out some plans to help improve their students‟ reading competence. Scope of the study The participants of this study were at the end of their first year of the Honors Program at VNUA with their major being agricultural economics.
The subjects were categorized into two groups of successful readers and less successful readers according to their reading test scores throughout two first semesters at the university together with the researcher‟s observations. It should essentially be noted that the primary concerns of this study are the use of reading comprehension strategies used by successful and less successful readers and the differences in the use between these two groups. Investigations into subjects‟ strategies in other aspects of language such as listening, speaking or writing as well as their learning styles and their teachers‟ instructional methods are beyond this study‟s concerns. Organization of the study The study will be presented in 3 parts.
Part A– Introduction- states the reasons for choosing the topic, the objectives of the study, the questions, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study. Part B – Development - includes 4 chapters.