MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ NGUYEN NHU HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES APPLIED IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION BY GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE MA THESIS IN EDUCATION HUE, 2011 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------ NGUYEN NHU HA AN INVESTIGATION INTO LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES APPLIED IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION BY GRADE 11 STUDENTS AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN THUA THIEN HUE FIELD OF STUDY: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.10 MA THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. LUU QUY KHUONG HUE, 2011 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------ NGUYỄN NHƯ HÀ NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC ĐỌC HIỂU TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 11 Ở MỘT SỐ TRƯỜNG PHỔ THÔNG TRUNG HỌC TẠI TỈNH THỪA THIÊN HUẾ CHUYÊN NGÀNH: LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.10 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ GIÁO DỤC HỌC NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC PGS. LƯU QUÝ KHƯƠNG HUẾ, 2011 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Nguyen Nhu Ha -i- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to a number of people, without whose support and involvement, this thesis would not have been completed. Above all, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Assoc. Luu Quy Khuong, for his helpful comments and whole-hearted guidance at every stage of the development of this study, continuous support, encouragement, and critical feedback. Also my warm thanks go to my colleagues and students of Quoc Hoc and Thuan An high schools who generously and enthusiastically spent their time on my interviews and questionnaires for helping me collect data for my study.
In addition, I am grateful to my beloved teachers and friends and Information Resource Center at Hue University – College of Foreign Languages who have created favorable condition for the development of this thesis. Finally, my deep appreciation and special thanks are given to my dear husband and my family who enormously sympathized, eagerly took more work-load and always encouraged me while I was doing the course and the thesis. -ii- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page SUB COVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.4 LIST OF TABLES .5 LIST OF FIGURES .6 LIST OF APPENDICES.2 Background of the Study .3 Reasons for the Study .4 Purposes of the Study .6 Scope of the Study .7 Significance of the Study .8 Organization of the Study .13 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .2 Previous Studies Related to the Topic .3 Definition of Language Learning Strategies .4 Classification of Language Learning Strategies .1 O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) .5 Language Learning Strategies Applied in English Reading Comprehension .1 Definitions of Reading .2 Direct Strategies Applied to Reading Comprehension .3 Indirect Strategies Applied to Reading Comprehension .6 Significance of LLSs in Language Teaching and Learning .33 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .4 Instruments for Data Collection.6 Data Collection Procedures .39 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Findings and Discussion. Teachers‟ Perception of Grade 11 Students‟ Application of LLSs in Reading Comprehension. The 11th Grade Students‟ Perception of the Application of LLSs in Reading Comprehension. LLSs GESs Frequently Employ in English Reading Comprehension.
The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying LLSs to Reading Comprehension .63 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .2 Summary of the Findings.1 To Teachers of English.5 Suggestions for Further Studies .71 APPENDICES -3- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. LLSs : Language Learning Strategies 2. LSs : Learning Strategies 3. CLT : Communicative Language Teaching 4.
GESs : Grade 11 students -4- LIST OF TABLES Page Table 4.1 Teachers‟ Perception of GESs‟ Application of LLSs in Reading Comprehension .2 Teachers‟ Agreement on GESs‟ Least Used LLSs in Reading Comprehension .3 GESs‟ Use of LLSs in Reading Comprehension.4 GESs‟ Perception of the Necessity of Applying in Reading Comprehension .5 Frequency of six LLSs Groups Used by GESs .6 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Memory Strategies in Reading Comprehension .7 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Cognitive Strategies in Reading Comprehension .8 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Compensation Strategies in Reading Comprehension .9 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Metacognitive Strategies in Reading Comprehension .10 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Affective Strategies in Reading Comprehension .11 The Difficulties GESs Meet in Applying Social Strategies in Reading Comprehension .61 -5- LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 2. Interrelationship Between Direct and Indirect Strategies and Among Six Strategy Groups (Source: Oxford, 1990:15). Diagram of Oxford‟s Strategies Classification System (Oxford,1990, pp.22 -6- LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire (A) for Teachers of English Appendix 2: Questionnaire (B) for Students Appendix 3A: Questionnaire (C) for Students Appendix 3B: The Findings from LLSs GESs Frequently Employ in English Reading Comprehension Appendix 4: Questionnaire (D) for students Appendix 5: Interview Questions for Teachers of English Appendix 6: Interview Questions for Students -7- ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis was to investigate Language Learning Strategies applied in English reading comprehension by grade 11 students (GESs) at some high schools in Thua Thien Hue. First, it attempted to clarify teachers and students‟ perception of their application of LLSs to reading comprehension.
Second, it tried to find out LLSs the GESs frequently employed in English reading comprehension. Finally, it identified the difficulties the GESs met in applying LLSs to reading comprehension. The participants of this study consisted of 10 teachers and 160 GESs at Quoc Hoc and Thuan An high schools in Hue. The data for this thesis were collected and analyzed based both on the quantitative and qualitative approaches.
The results of the questionnaire firstly revealed that most of the teachers and students were well aware of the importance of LLSs, especially LLSs applied in reading comprehension. In addition, the survey of reading comprehension strategies was adapted from Strategy Inventory for language learning (SILL) for students as a second/ foreign language by Oxford (1990). It was found that students had a general tendency to use cognitive and social strategies with the highest frequency and affective and memory, the lowest frequency. Finally, by identifying difficulties faced by the GESs to find possible solutions, the results identified the effect students had when applying LLSs in reading comprehension.
Based on these findings, in-deep pedagogical implications related to LLSs were made by the researcher at the end of the research.1 Overview This chapter firstly presents the rationale of the study in which the context of the study and the reasons for the research are mentioned. Additionally, the purpose of the research, research questions, research scope, significance and organization of the study are also given.2 Background of the Study There has been a considerable enhancement in demand for English as a foreign language in many countries in general and in Vietnam in particular over the last decade. English is considered as a means and an effective key to access the world. As we can see Vietnam is one of the developing countries where English is learnt as the most common foreign language.
Hence, it has become a compulsory subject in the Vietnamese educational curriculum in high schools and it is an obligation subject in the National High school Graduation Exam, along with mathematics and literature. In the acknowledgment of the importance of English subject, numerous specialists in language teaching have paid much attention to discovering and applying new methods to teaching process with the hope of enabling learners to become more proficient in learning language. That is to say we tend to focus on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and the aim of this approach is to guide students to communicate effectively. As we know, reading comprehension is usually recognized as an essential skill for learners of English and one of the four practical skills to master.
In high schools, it is perhaps the most important skill to ensure success in English learning. Thus, all students need to improve this skill. -9- However, achieving the effectiveness in this ability is not an easy task. Firstly, students might face many difficulties in learning reading process, especially in doing reading exercises such as unfamiliar words, grammatical structures, knowledge of cultures, and so on.
The limited ability influences their learning result. Secondly, the pedagogical practice in Vietnam is traditional. Looking at a deep-root attitude in Vietnam towards teachers‟ states in their classrooms, we can see that teachers are generally honored and respected. They are the most powerful people in the class and are the source of knowledge.
Students often passively depend on their teachers. These factors affect students‟ ways of learning. They often fail to improve their autonomy in language learning and they cannot control their learning themselves. These prevent them from better language acquisition.
Besides, one of the remarkable factors that both teachers and students face is the load of the curriculum. They often complain about the limited time to carry out the activities relevant to the lesson to stick to the compulsory contents in the textbook. Therefore, students often have difficulties in controlling their learning; managing the time to study and having very little chance to self- direct them in order to be independent, confident and better learners. The solutions of the challenges which learners often encounter during process of learning are urged to provide students with appropriate learning strategies.
For some time now, it has been recognized that language learning strategies (LLSs) play an important role in foreign language learning and teaching procedures especially in reading comprehension process. In fact, LLSs can help to facilitate learners‟ learning and develop their competence in both linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects to become more proficient in learning language. In order to raise learners‟ awareness about their learning strategies especially in reading comprehension, one of the main tasks for students is to develop reading strategies. Consequently, how to learn reading comprehension effectively has become one of the hot topics that high school students focus on.
However, learners do not learn some strategies in school and they tend to learn the strategies on their own without much guidance. -10- The context of teaching and learning English mentioned above profoundly influences students‟ language acquisition. Consequently, to become better English reading learners, they need to have knowledge of LLSs. This could be achieved through instructing learners to apply reading comprehension strategies to their reading learning reality.
Therefore, the central and urgent job of teachers is to find out the students‟ LLSs that they are using first and then provide them with further strategies guidance as well as to help them become more aware of strategies through strategies instruction.3 Reasons for the Study LLSs play such an important part in learning English. However, not every high school student is aware of the importance of LLSs applied in reading comprehension. In teaching process, the fact that if teachers grasp their students‟ learning strategies, they will help them organize activities successfully and this obviously offers opportunities for success to the students. Therefore, in teaching, teachers should make their students access a wide range of strategies aiming at helping them train the strategies they need most and choose the appropriate ones in learning process.
Moreover, everyone learns differently, learners may have a decision to adjust their reading comprehension as their own personal learning style to expand their learning. Good reading learners are also the ones who use learning strategies effectively and employed such strategies consciously. It is clear that learners can control their learning and make much progress when they use appropriate learning strategies. It has been suggested that one way to speed up the learning of a second or a foreign language is to help the learners learn more efficiently and efficiently.
To fulfill this, teachers should assist students to use learning strategies to become independent and confident learners.