HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DOAN NGOC AI THU USING INTERACTIVE FICTION IN EXTENSIVE READING: ACTION RESEARCH FOR ENGLISH-MAJOR FRESHMEN AT A UNIVERSITY IN CENTRAL VIETNAM MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Foreign Languages, Hue University THUA THIEN HUE, 2021 HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DOAN NGOC AI THU USING INTERACTIVE FICTION IN EXTENSIVE READING: ACTION RESEARCH FOR ENGLISH-MAJOR FRESHMEN AT A UNIVERSITY IN CENTRAL VIETNAM MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAN QUYNH NHU THUA THIEN HUE, 2021 ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ĐOÀN NGỌC ÁI THƢ NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG SÁCH TƢƠNG TÁC (INTERACTIVE FICTION) TRONG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TẠI MỘT TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC Ở VIỆT NAM LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHAN QUỲNH NHƢ THỪA THIÊN HUẾ, 2021 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed: Date: / / i ABSTRACT This research aimed to explore the attitude of Vietnamese English-major freshmen towards the use of interactive fiction (IF) in extensive reading, as well as to examine the students‘ perception on the IF impacts on their reading skills. Action research was adopted as the research method, with the population of 40 freshmen of English major at a university in central Vietnam and the researcher acting as the teacher delivering the reading lessons using IF for one course of 15 weeks. The research instruments consisted of the teacher‘s journals and three questionnaires for the students. Data collected were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively with the use of SPSS, version 18 and thematic content analysis.
The findings revealed that most of the student participants engaged in the study had a positive attitude towards the use of IF in extensive reading. Evidence accumulated through this study indicated that IF could boost students‘ motivation to read in English outside their reading classes. Furthermore, a vast majority of the students held the perception that IF including illustrations, sounds, and manipulation, matched with their diverse learning styles better. They strongly believed that reading IF brought about benefits to not only their linguistic knowledge, reading skills but also their reading strategies and critical thinking skills.
The findings represented an important implication for teaching aspects in a sense that IF can be integrated into specific areas of language teaching (e. Also, regarding learning aspects, it is suggested that IF can help enhance students‘ self-studying skills and study habits. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Phan Quynh Nhu, my supervisor, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques at every stage of the development of this study.
Secondly, I wish to thank Assoc. Truong Vien for his advice and ideas to this thesis. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all of the college librarians for their enthusiasm. Also, I am indebted to 40 first year students from Reading 2-Group 11 at Hue University of Foreign Languages for giving me the chance to do my research conveniently and providing me with the most favorable conditions to collect the needed data.
My grateful thanks are also extended to my beloved friends Daniel, Hoang Nguyen, Phuong Huyen, Thien Trang, Phuong Nam, Harvey, and Hoang Anh and colleagues from my M.A class Hanh An, Nha Quan, Thao Trinh, and Vu Khanh whose assistance keeps my progress on schedule and give me so much motivation to finish my work. Finally and always, my heartfelt thanks go to my family, especially my mother, for always supporting me to pursue my goals. I would also like to thank my dearest niece Anh Minh-Kitty for showing me how to be patient. My family’s encouragement is indispensable for the fulfillment of my thesis.
ii List of Tables Table 3. Demographic information of student participants Table 3. Description of Questionnaire 3 Table 3. Description of Reliability Statistics of Questionnaire 3 Table 3.
Procedure of the research Table 4. Students‘ attitudes towards the learning activities with IF Table 4. Students‘ attitudes towards the IF used in the reading class Table 4. The changes of the classroom situation before and after research implementation Table 4.
Students‘ attitudes towards the IF used as extensive reading material Table 4. Perceived impacts of IF readings on students‘ reading abilities iii List of Figures Figure 2. A CYOA book Figure 2. A map illustrating how interactive fiction storylines work Figure 3.
An illustration of the action research model Figure 4. Students‘ motivation on the reading activities before action research Figure 4. Students' time spent on reading in English after school per week before the research implementation Figure 4. Students' time spent on reading in English after school per week after the research implementation Figure 4.
Students‘ self-perceived benefits Figure 4. Students‘ self-perceived obstacles iv List of Abbreviations Abbreviation Meaning CEFR. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages EFL. English as Foreign Language ESL.
English as a Second Language ER. Extensive Reading HUFL. Hue University of Foreign Languages IF. Second language/ Target language v Table of Contents STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP.
i List of Tables. iii List of Figures. iv List of Abbreviations. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the study. Reading approaches: Intensive reading and Extensive reading.
Definition of Extensive Reading. Characteristics of Extensive Reading. The Benefits of Extensive Reading. Interactive Fiction in Language Learning.
Choose Your Own Adventures and Interactive Fiction Database. Types of Motivation. Enhancing Extrinsic Motivation. Enhancing Intrinsic Motivation.
Extensive Reading, Interactive Fiction, and Motivation. Review of Previous Studies. Data Collection Instruments. Reliability and Validity.
Findings and discussion. Students‘ Pre-motivation. Students‘ Attitudes towards the use of Interactive Fiction in Extensive Reading. Perceived Possible Effects of Using Interactive Fiction in Extensive Reading on their Reading Skills.
Students‘ Attitudes towards the Use of Interactive Fiction in Extensive Reading. Perceived Possible Effects of Using Interactive Fiction in Extensive Reading on their Reading Skills. Conclusion and Implication. Summary of the research findings.
Limitations of the Study. Recommendations for Further Research. Introduction This chapter introduces the thesis and describes its significance. Specifically, the chapter presents (1) the contextual background, (2) the rationale of the study, (3) the aims, research questions, and scope of the study, and (4) the significance of the study.
In addition, this chapter concludes with an overview of the thesis. Contextual Background According to Le Thi Anh Phuong (2005), in many colleges and universities in Vietnam, Reading Skill is taught either as part of an integrated skills class or as a separate subject. In both cases, a great deal of attention is paid to intensive reading, and little or none to extensive reading. In the context of Hue University of Foreign Languages, students enrol in practical language skill courses in which reading skills are taught as a discrete subject, which aims at extensively developing their reading subskills and lexical knowledge.
As indicated in Hue University of Foreign Languages‘ official curriculum (HUFL, 2018), students of English-major and English language teaching are required to study 2-credit courses of four practical English language skills, including listening, speaking, reading and writing in the first five semesters of the training program. The courses are Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing 1-4 as compulsory subjects with target outcomes of B2 (CEFR) or level 4 (KNLNN-VN) by the end of the fourth semester. Thereby, the students are required to obtain 32 credits in total for the strand of English language practical skills. In addition, they are required to take Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing 5 or other relevant courses as optional courses, and continue further practicing English language skills through other content-based courses and self-study in order that they can obtain C1 by their graduation as the target outcome of the training program.
1 Specifically, the Reading Skill courses are offered in a two-credit-per-semester format (2 credits are equal to 30 periods per semester). In an academic year, first-year students enrol in two Reading Skill courses, namely Reading 1 and Reading 2. Each course consists of 30 periods of lectures and practice in class and 60 periods of self-study. The current core coursebooks are NorthStar 1 and NorthStar 2 and supplementary materials are also recommended by lecturers.
During each course, students are asked to read up to about 20 passages in the textbooks to practice basic reading skills such as predicting, skimming, scanning, guessing meaning from context and reading for details. Improving learners‘ lexical knowledge is an additional focus in the Reading courses‘ syllabus. The learning and teaching activities in Reading courses are considered as intensive reading (Le Thi Anh Phuong, 2005), which at its best can assist students in developing fundamental reading techniques with the aid of the teacher. For instance, upon reading passages in the textbooks, students are required to respond to different comprehension and vocabulary tasks to guide their comprehension process.
Within the time limit of 2 periods (100 minutes) per week, if they always rely on the textbooks for passages and questions and teachers‘ instruction on how to deal with the tasks, their autonomy may be constrained. Thus, this way of teaching does not optimise students' reading ability since it makes inefficient use of their autonomy and time. The students are recommended to further practice their reading skills with materials of similar themes and question types outside class as their self-study; nevertheless, their learning rarely extends beyond the classroom walls. Given the limitations of intensive reading, extensive reading would be a viable alternative to expand the students‘ reading opportunities (Doan Ngoc Ai Phuong, 2020).
To be informed by the students in informal conversations, the researcher realise that although a large number of students express their interest in different genres of reading, including comics or non-fictions in 2 Vietnamese, they often have trouble in selecting reading resources and neglect reading them in English as they thought they would not be able to comprehend. In short, the students in the research‘s context have little experience in extensive reading, which has been acknowledged to be efficient in developing learners‘ reading ability and lexical knowledge in a substantial body of literature in different contexts (Doan Ngoc Ai Phuong, 2020). Rationale In recent years, owing to globalization and the growing demand for international communication and trade, English has been given a great deal of due consideration in Vietnam. Students of different age groups are expected to learn and master the four skills of the language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
Of these skills, reading has been regarded as ―the most important academic language skill for the second language ….[and] provides the foundation for synthesis and critical evaluation skills‖ (Murcia, 2001, p. However, to our knowledge of Vietnamese learners of a foreign language or English language, many of the learners seem to be reluctant to reading or find it struggling to comprehend long reading texts or novels. Grabe and Stoller (as cited in Murcia, 2001) claim that second language learners typically have weaker linguistic competence and more limited vocabulary than first-language learners. Hence, there are still certain difficulties for language learners to grasp the way in which texts are arranged and information is provided, leading to possible issues of comprehension.
Clearly, many students find it hard to comprehend text in some circumstances.