VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN TUẤN ANH PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENHANCING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL IN THÁI BÌNH: AN ACTION RESEARCH (PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ÁP DỤNG) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English language teaching methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi – 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN TUẤN ANH PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENHANCING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL IN THÁI BÌNH: AN ACTION RESEARCH (PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ÁP DỤNG) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Major: English language teaching methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof.
Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi - 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This article reports on an action research project conducted with 27 students in a 10th grade math gifted class at a high school in Thai Binh province who show the lack of learner autonomy in their learning process. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate how enhancing reading skills by implementing three reading strategies (scanning, skimming, inferring) helps students to promote their learner autonomy in the learning process. The results show that after the intervention, these learners can make the decision to set goals and plan their own learning process they‟ve set. In addition, these strategies have encouraged students to build up learner autonomy through their learning style to achieve their goals.
Furthermore, the use of effective reading strategies helped learners feel motivated while reading because they can read more easily and faster. We conclude that these reading strategies helped learners to find out a successful way to develop their learner autonomy. Key words: Autonomy, motivation, reading strategies LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân, for his patience, great encouragement, and continuous support during the stages of this study.
Without his advice and enthusiastic guidance, I would not have been able to finish my thesis. My sincere thanks are also goes to teachers as well as students at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School who provided me the opportunity to carry out the project. Without their passionate help, the project could not have been successfully conducted. Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my family and my sincere thanks to my friends who are always by my side during the process of this thesis and throughout my years of study.
Hanoi, November, 8th, 2017 Nguyễn Tuấn Anh LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iii LIST OF TABLES .i LIST OF FIGURES. ii Part A: INTRODUCTION.
Identification of the problem. Purpose of the study. Scopes of the study. Structure of the study.
5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 Definition of terms. Characteristics of autonomous learners. Factors affect learners‟ autonomy. Way to develop learner autonomy.
Context and Subject of the study. Procedure of the research. Data collection instruments. 20 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Reading achievement test. 22 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSIONS. Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the projects. Attitude towards learner autonomy before and after the project.
Autonomy before the project. Autonomy after the project. XX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the projects .2: The illustration of the improvement of a student's reading skills .3: Attitude towards learner autonomy before and after the project .4: Attitudes toward the activities .5: The illustration of the changes of a student‟s attitude toward learner autonomy .6: Attitudes towards the benefits of self-directed learning .34 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: Students‟ improvement in reading skills .2: Students‟ changes in their perception of learner autonomy .3: Attitudes of students towards the benefits of learner autonomy .4 :Level of students‟ involvement during the project .36 ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part A: INTRODUCTION 1. Identification of the problem As we all know, English is the most widely used language in the world and its important role in today‟s life of industrialization and modernization is undeniable.
In fact, English has been considered as a bridge for economic, political and cultural activities between many countries of a multilingual world. Therefore, English is one of the top requirements needed of those seeking for a good job. And that‟s why English is an indispensable subject in the educational system of most countries in the world. In Vietnam, English will become more and more important in the perspective of our government‟s open economic policy.
The benefits of learning English can be seen in the economic, social and political life of the people of the country. Thus, English teachers in Viet Nam are responsible for training human resources for the country, so they will have more problems to deal with, and one of those is to help their students to use English correctly, quickly and automatically. To do that, I think they need to take one step at a time and may be the first step is to help their students to promoting their role in learning process Due to the wide application of the learner-centered approach to teaching foreign languages, more pressure is currently put on the role of the learner in the learning process. Learners are not considered as passive recipients of information anymore, but they are active in acquiring knowledge, which they learn based on their own interests and needs.
According to Ellis and Sinclair (1989) there are three reasons for helping learners to promote their role in their learning process. First, learning can be more effective when learners take control of their own learning. Second, learners who take on more responsibility for their own learning can carry on learning outside the classroom. And finally, learners who know about learning can transfer learning strategies to other subjects.
Stating why learner autonomy is important, Little (1991) supposes that if learners are proactively committed to their 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com learning, it is likely to be more efficient and effective than otherwise. From the above ideas, it can be seen that learner autonomy plays a crucial role in language learning. And in the process of language learning, teachers have a significant role to convince the students about the value of what they are learning. After that, the students ought to realize that the lecturer does not have an answer for every question and they have to seek for the answer themselves.
Carrell and Eisterhold (1989) argue that there is a significant relationship between autonomous learning and reading skills (cited in Paweena, 2012: 2). Poor reading proficiency can thus be a factor that may hinder students from gaining full language learning progress (Paweena, 2012: 15) Regarding the context of Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, learner autonomy seems to be a brand new concept to the student there to understand and apply it in their learning process. As a matter of fact, in Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, English is considered one of the most important subjects and reading skills have been mainly taught there in every English class. However, according to Miss H and Miss D, the two English teachers of Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, the students of the school seems to have low self-learning ability because of their low reading proficiency.
Thus, this thesis is an attempt to help students at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, realize the effect of learner autonomy in enhancing reading comprehension skills therefore they can generate a sense of autonomy in language learning process. And the above reason is the motivation for me to carry out the research “Promoting Learner Autonomy in Enhancing Reading Comprehension Skills for Students at High School in Thai Binh: An Action Research”. Purpose of the study The purpose of the research: - Identifying the current students‟ autonomy at Phu Duc High School in reading comprehension skills. - Proposing anappropriate scheme of action to improve the situation.
- Finding out the effect of the selected activities in action plan. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com - Reflecting the result of the research. It is hoped that the study will offer some useful implications to both the English teachers and students of at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School to promote learner autonomy in enhancing reading comprehension skills. Particularly, the research is carried out to find out the best answer for the following questions: - Can the uses of the three implemented reading strategies in help students at Phu Duc High School immprove their reading comprehension skills? - Can the uses of the three implemented reading strategies help students at Phu Duc High Schooldeveloplearner autonomy? 3.
Method Review To reach the mentioned goal, the study will use action research with action plan in form of an autonomy-raising project will be carried out in 12 weeks, first semester 2016-2017. The reason for this choice is that the research is an attempt to improve the teaching situation and learner autonomy in reading comprehension skills, which requires practice over and over again to take place. Therefore an action research is a reasonable choice to find out the best answer for the question raised above. Scopes of the study Learner autonomy is clearly a big issue in learning a second language.
There is a lot of research to develop autonomy in the past but it is not yet possible to fully exploit the way to develop learner autonomy. Hence, this study is just a small contribution to the development of researches about learner autonomy and it focuses mainly on developing learner autonomy by enhancing reading skills. The study was conducted in 12 weeks within Phu Duc Upper Secondary School with 27 students of the population. These students are in a 10th grade math gifted class.
They show the lack of learner autonomy in their learning process and most of them spend very little time learning English. Especially, their autonomy in reading seems to be a big problem to them and for some reasons they don‟t like reading. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Structure of the study This study is organized into three main sections: Part A: Introduction This part aims to give a description of the reasons, objectives, scope, methods and design of the study.
Part B: Development This section is divided into different chapters. Chapter 1 provides a theoretical foundation for this study, presenting definitions of key terms and related theories. Chapter 2 provides an overview of teaching and learning situation at Phu Duc high school. Chapter 3: Methods, Objects and Procedures for Data Collection.
Chapter 4 is about the finding and analysis of collected data. Part C: Conclusion The final part of this paper summarizes the main content and gives conclusions of the study and then gives some suggestions for improving learner autonomy by enhancing reading skills. In addition, it also gives a useful suggestion for the future research. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of terms Autonomy in learning is a concept related to empowering learner to take control over his/her leaning in different situations. To make learners autonomous and independent is the unquestionable goal and the integral part of new views toward learning in general. Recently, making learners autonomous has become one of the main concerns in language teaching.