PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY NGO HUONG HOA AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEMS OF READING SKILLS AMONG ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY MAJOR: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS BINH DUONG, 2022 PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE OF BINH DUONG PROVINCE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY NGO HUONG HOA AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEMS OF READING SKILLS AMONG ENGLISH MAJORS: A CASE STUDY AT THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY MAJOR: THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CODE: 8 22 02 01 MASTER THESIS SUPERVISOR: TRAN THANH DU, Ph. BINH DUONG, 2022 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Apart from the references, this thesis does not contain any material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. This thesis has not also been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution. Thus, I hereby certify my authority of the thesis submitted entitled “An Investigation into The Problems of Reading Skills Among English Majors: A Case Study at Thu Dau Mot University” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.
Binh Duong, December 2022 Ngo Huong Hoa i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To fulfill this thesis, I owe great debt to my supervisor, my lecturers, and my family. I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Thanh Du, whose wisdom and interesting lectures has inspired me to conduct this thesis. His encouragement, guidance, patience, and support of material from the very initial stage to the final stage in accomplishing this thesis have been invaluable.
I am greatly indebted to all my lecturers at Thu Dau Mot University for their endless enthusiasm and undeniable helpful lectures. I would be very grateful to the staff of the Post-graduate Institution for their support during the time of studying. Last but not least, my warmest thanks are due to my family for their motivation and encouragement. To all of them, I dedicate this study.
Binh Duong, December 2022 Ngo Huong Hoa ii ABSTRACT The current research was carried out to investigate the problems of reading skills that English majors at Thu Dau Mot University have had/encountered, to examine whether students’ demographics (gender, living areas, academic levels and favorite skills) affect their reading comprehension, and to make suggestions for learning and teaching reading comprehension. Through mixed methods consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods, the data for the analysis were collected through questionnaires and interviews. In particular, the quantitative data were from 129 valid questionnaires returned by English majors and 19 ones by English teachers at TDMU. The qualitative data were from the interviews with ten students and five teachers.
The results show that English majors at TDMU currently have some problems with reading skills. In particular, they currently encounter many problems with reading skills in terms of their attitude, decoding and fluency, linguistic knowledge (vocabulary and text structures), reading comprehension strategies, and reading motivation. However, the survey found out that English majors at TDMU do not currently have problems with reading skills about their perception of the factors affecting reading comprehension, their grammar knowledge, and reading environment. Moreover, the analysis also shows some statistically significant differences in reading comprehension among groups of participants divided according to their living areas, academic levels, and favorite skills.
Based on these results of the analysis, the researcher makes some suggestions for learning and teaching reading comprehension, acknowledges several limitations, and makes suggestions for further research. Key words: reading; reading comprehension; problem of reading skills. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Authorship. iii Table of Contents.
iv List of Tables. viii List of Figures .x List of Abbreviations. Objectives of the Study. Scope of the Study.
Significance of the Study. In Terms of Theory. In Terms of Practice. Overview of the Thesis.
Definition of Reading and Reading Comprehension. The Importance of Reading Comprehension. Types of Reading. Modes of Reading.
Comparison of Oral Reading and Silent Reading. Approaches to Reading. Reading Comprehension Strategies. Recognizing Text Organization.
Meta-cognitive Strategies. Effective Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension Skills. Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension Skills. Studies in the World.
Studies in Vietnam. Population and Sampling. Instrument Validity and Reliability. Reliability of student questionnaire.
Reliability of teacher questionnaire. Data Collection Procedure. Data Collection Procedure of Questionnaires. Data Collection Procedure of Interviews.
Data Analysis Procedures. Procedures of Data Analysis of Questionnaires. Procedure of data analysis of student questionnaire. Procedure of data analysis of teacher questionnaire.
Procedures of Data Analysis of Interviews. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Problem About Attitude Towards Reading Comprehension. Problems About Perception of the Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension 48 4.
Problems About Decoding and Fluency. Problems About Linguistic Knowledge. Problems About Vocabulary Knowledge. Problems About Grammar Knowledge.
Problems About Text Structure. Problems About Reading Comprehension Strategies. Problems About Reading Motivation. Problems About Reading Environment.
CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS AND LIMITATIONS. For Faculty of Foreign Languages and English language Program. Suggestions for Further Research. Questionnaire for student.
Questionnaire for teacher. Interview Questions for Students. Interview Questions for Teachers. Teachers’ suggestions for students’ reading comprehension improvement.
Transcriptions of Student Interviews. Transcriptions of Teacher Interview. Results of Student Interviews. Results of Teacher Interviews .150 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 4.
Students’ Gender Difference. Students’ Academic Levels. Students’ Living Region. Students’ Living Area.
Students’ Family’s Economics Status. Students’ English Learning Time. Students’ Favorite Skills. Students’ Attitude Towards Reading Comprehension.
Attitude Towards Reading Comprehension According to Students’ Favorite Skills. Attitude Towards Reading Comprehension According to Students’ Academic Levels. Students’ Perception of the Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension Skills. Perception of the Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension Skills According to Students’ Favorite Skills.
Perception of the Factors Affecting Reading Comprehension Skills According to Students’ Academic Levels. Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Decoding and Fluency. Frequency Statistics of Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Decoding and Fluency. Teachers’ Evaluation of Students’ Reading Speed.
Teachers’ Observation of Students’ Reading Mode. Problems of Reading Skills due to Decoding and Fluency According to Students’ Favorite Skills. Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Vocabulary. Problems of Reading Skills due to Vocabulary According to Students’ Academic Levels.
Problems of Reading Skills due to Vocabulary According to Students’ Living Area. Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Grammar. Frequency Statistics of Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Grammar. Problems of Reading Skills due to Grammar According to Students’ Academic Levels.
Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Text Structures. Descriptive Statistics of Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Text Structures. Students’ Reading Strategies Observed by Teachers. Problems of Reading Skills due to Text Structures According to Students’ Academic Levels.
Students’ Use of Reading Strategies According to Their Academic Levels. Students’ Use of Comprehension Strategies. Use of Comprehension Strategies According to Students’ Academic Levels. Students’ Problems of Reading Skills due to Reading Motivation.
Teachers’ Reading Teaching Activities. Problems of Reading Skills due to Reading Motivation According to Student’s Favorite Skills. Relation Between Students’ Favorite Reading Environments and Their Comprehension .91 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3. Student sample size calculated by Yamane’s (1967) formula.
Sampling error in student sample size calculated by Yamane’s (1967) formula. Sampling error in teacher sample size calculated by Yamane’s (1967) formula. Reliability checking 1 for student questionnaire. Reliability checking 2 for student questionnaire.
Reliability checking for teacher questionnaire. Teachers’ options when their students cannot finish reading the text within the allotted time. Teachers’ roles while students read .94 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as Foreign Language TDMU : Thu Dau Mot University xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION As a background of the study, this first chapter tells the readers why this thesis is carried out as well as what results it hopefully contributes to the future of reading comprehension research and English language learning and teaching.
In particular, the author states the reasons why the current study is carried out. Then, the objectives, research questions, scope and significance of the thesis are presented. Finally, the overview of the thesis is outlined so that the readers of the thesis can keep track. Rationale From the past till now, reading has been playing a very important role in our lives because it is a significant skill that helps us not only have access to new knowledge but also deepen our thoughts.
Moreover, this skill is seen as an important tool in every professional field around the world to be able to recognize, understand and comprehend written or printed materials, which helps the readers to get engaged with the world around them. Let’s take an example of a man who has just been promoted from mechanic to manager in a big company. It’s plain that this man is really good at fixing things because he has done the jobs a long time before. However, when it comes to managing, this man has neither knowledge nor experience.
In this case, what should he do so that he can perform his new position. As a natural response, he jumps into reading as many kinds of managing books as possible in the hope that he has basic knowledge about managing. Moreover, he can deepen his understanding of all the aspects of managing a job through reading from famous and successful managers’ stories around the world. Hence, through reading, we become more knowledgeable.
More importantly, one of the most important elements and essential tools in English language learning is reading skill (Pandian, 1997; Mokatsi, 2005) because English learners are able to develop good writing style, an adequate vocabulary and advanced grammar and become excellent spellers through reading process (Krashen, 1993). In this regard, it is undeniable that reading skill is the master of all language learning skills because without it, one is considered having no intelligence and blind in language knowledge. 1 Although reading is really necessary and important especially for those who learn English as foreign language or second language because it helps them build and expand their language knowledge, not all people can do well with reading because reading is an interactive process in which the writer and the reader dialog through a text (Ruiz, 2015). As Barnett (1989, cited in Omaggio, 1993) defined, reading is seen as communication, as a mental process, as the reader’s active participation in the creation of meaning, and as a manipulation of strategies.
Moreover, Day and Bamford (2000) posited that reading is the construction of meaning from a printed or written message. In addition, Pressley (2002) and Henderson and Buskist (2011) pointed out that readers are asked to be active while reading so that they have explicit aims related to the text, to look through the text before reading and while reading so that they can guess what is going to happen in the next session, to look through the passages and try to guess the meaning of words from the context, to use their background knowledge and check their understanding, to restructure the meaning, repeat it and question it, to think about the characters and events when reading fictional texts so that they tend to summarize informative texts, and to assume reading as a productive process. Hence, reading requires the readers to not only read the text but also understand the writers. In keeping with this sense, the call for efficient reading skills is significant and is a necessity in most of the aspects in learning, since every aspect of the students’ academic life involves it.