VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu về các yếu tố gây ra sự lo lắng của học sinh lớp 10 trong các giờ học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ở trường THPT Tam Đảo) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu về các yếu tố gây ra sự lo lắng của học sinh lớp 10 trong các giờ học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ở trường THPT Tam Đảo) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Ngô Hữu Hoàng HANOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I certificate that this combined thesis entitled “An investigation into factors causing the 10th students‟ anxiety in English reading comprehension classes at Tam Đảo high school” is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledge and that this combined thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other universities or institutions.
Hanoi, 2016 Triệu Thị Hoài Thu i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this study would not have been possible without the assistance of special and wonderful people. First of all, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness and gratitude to Assoc. Ngô Hữu Hoàng, for his unfailing encouragement, constant support and supervision during all stages of the study. His enthusiastic assistance, guidance, support, and his wisdom greatly contributed to the fulfillment of my thesis.
I would also like to thank my supervisor for his patience in reading and editing my draft. It must be an excruciating experience. My heartfelt gratitude is also to the English teachers and students of Tam Dao high school for their tremendous supports in the collection of data and information for my study. Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to my beloved parents, my husband, my sisters who continually gave me a lot of support and encouragement for the fulfillment of this challenging work.
Last but not least, I wish to express my acknowledgment to other individuals who have indirectly contributed to the completion of this thesis. To all these people I only hope that the achievement of my thesis will be favorable enough to satisfy their expectation. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The purpose of this study aimed at finding the sources of the students‟ English reading anxiety at Tam Dao high school, Vinh Phuc. The study has been conducted in the form of survey research with the informants of 70 students in grade 10 were taken as the subjects.
The main instruments employed for the data collection were survey questionnaires for the students of the school. Besides, to back up the validity of the collected data from questionnaires, semi-structured interviews were conducted to 5 randomly selected students who have already done the survey questionnaires. The results of this study have shown that the 10th form students often have anxiety with the reading text factors, the personal factors and time constraint. As a result of the study, some suggestions for dealing with reading anxiety were proposed to reduce their reading anxiety and helps students to obtain desirable results in learning reading.
Finally, it is hoped that the results of this study could be of much benefit for developing teaching and learning reading English at Tam Dao high school, Vinh Phuc. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English foreign language ESL : English second language L2 : Second language FL : Foreign language FLRA : Foreign language anxiety LA : Language anxiety RA : Reading anxiety iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Students' attitude towards the importance of reading .22 Chart 2: Students‟ interest in English reading lessons .23 Chart 3: Students‟ opinions on teachers‟ teaching method .29 Table 1: Anxiety caused by reading text factors .23 Table 2: Anxiety caused by personal factors .25 Table 3: Anxiety caused by time constraint. Teaching methods in helping students overcome anxiety in reading .30 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
iv LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES. Rationale of the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Organization of the study.4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of reading?. Definition of reading comprehension.
The importance of reading. Types of reading. Stages of a reading lesson .10 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Definition of anxiety.
Foreign language reading anxiety. Previous studies on the effect of anxiety on students‟ reading comprehension. The nature of qualitative research. Selection of survey research as research strategy.
The context of the study. An introduction of Tam Dao high school. The teaching material and reading tasks in teaching reading. Semi-structured interview.
Data collection procedure. Data analysis procedure .21 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Students' attitude towards the importance of reading. Students‟ interest in English reading lessons.
Reading anxiety caused by each reading factors. Anxiety caused by reading text factors. Anxiety caused by personal factors. Anxiety caused by time constraint.
Students‟ opinions on teachers‟ teaching method .29 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Teaching methods in helping students overcome anxiety in reading .33 CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS. Raise students‟ self - awareness of anxiety. Increase student‟s self-confidence.
Improve students‟ background knowledge. Apply appropriate reading strategies. Develop supplementary reading materials. Create a pleasant and comfortable classroom atmosphere.
Summary of the study. Limitations of the study. Recommendations for the further study. I viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the study It is indisputable that English plays an important role in teaching and learning as a foreign language. However, to master English, learners need to grasp a lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these skills, reading is the most crucial skill that not only develops other skills such as speaking, listening and writing but also expands the students‟ knowledge of the language However, according to (Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999), “reading is an important source of input; however, it is also an anxiety provoking activity”. Therefore, it can be undeniable that it is a difficult or a challenge to improve and develop reading skills for both teachers and students.
In fact, in reading lessons in Tam Dao high school, teachers always try to effectively transmit how to understand and exploit the reading text for students. However, most of students share that they find that learning foreign language reading as English is affected by the personal factors, especially anxiety. Therefore, the effectiveness of students‟ reading comprehension is not as expected and they have little attention or motivation in reading lessons. While a certain amount of research has been conducted to investigate foreign language anxiety and its effect on learn a foreign language, little has been done on anxiety in learning four skills, especially reading alone in Vietnam.
As a teacher of English in this school, I recognize the importance of reading, it is strongly desirable for me to propose “An investigation into factors causing the 10th students‟ anxiety in English reading comprehension classes at Tam Đảo high school” to be the subject of this thesis. Aims of the study The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of students‟ anxiety on reading comprehension and then suggests some solutions to reduce their reading anxiety. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research questions To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions are proposed: 1).
What are the causes that affect students‟ anxiety at Tam Dao high school in reading lessons? 2). What are some suggested solutions to reduce students‟ anxiety on reading comprehension? 4. Scope of the study This study focuses on students‟ anxiety on reading comprehension. Due to the limitation of page numbers of the minor thesis, the research only involves the 10th form students at Tam Dao high school.
Methodology To achieve the aims of the study, qualitative method is employed. The data was collected by means of survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis. Significance of the study This study investigates the causes of anxiety on students‟ reading comprehension.
It could be of some help to teachers and students at Tam Dao high school to improve both teachers and students‟ awareness of causes of reading comprehension anxiety. By doing this research, the researcher wishes to help the 10th form students to reduce their reading anxiety through the suggested solutions. Organization of the study The research consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, methods, scope, significance and organization of the study.
Part B: Development consists of four chapters: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 1 Literature review gives the concepts of reading, reading comprehension, its importance, types of reading and stages of a reading lesson. Next, the concepts of anxiety, foreign language reading anxiety and the previous studies on anxiety in reading comprehension are presented. Chapter 2 Methodology includes the research method, the context, participants, instruments and research procedure with the following main steps: conducting survey questionnaires and interview collecting data and analyzing data, and giving out conclusions from findings. Chapter 3 Analyses were given on students‟ attitude and interests on reading, their sources of anxiety, their opinions of teachers‟ teaching methods and how to cope with their anxiety chapter also focuses on data collections - findings and discussion.
Chapter 4 Some suggested solutions of the study for improving reading skills to the students at Tam Dao high school are proposed. Part C: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary, some limitations and suggestions for further studies. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Definition of reading? Reading is the most crucial aspect of any teaching program and for the teachers to decide what they will teach in the classroom.
This definition of reading has been generally shared by other researchers. It is simply stated as “a psycholinguistic guessing game” and involves “an interaction between thought and language” (Goodman, 1976). He proposes that reading is not primarily a process of identifying all elements in a letter-by-letter, word-by-word manner, but the ability to guess which are right the first time based on cues. Reading is generally defined as the interaction between the reader and the text.
Aebersold and Field (1997, p.15) points out “Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbol in that text”. Therefore, it is a process of negotiating understanding between the reader and the author. For the notion of reading, Harmer (1991) defines “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eye receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” (p.