VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE THE EFFECT OF ONLINE EXTENSIVE READING ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS READING AT VUS A thesis submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature in partial fulfillment of the Master‟s degree in TESOL By NGO MAI LAN HUONG Supervised by Le Thi Thanh, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2021 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my most sincere thanks to all the people who have supported and contributed to my thesis. First and foremost, I am really grateful to my supervisor – Dr. Le Thi Thanh for her invaluable guidance, support, and comments throughout my thesis completion.
She has been the most patient and understanding person, helping me get through my toughest challenges with her knowledge and compassion. Without her guidance, I would not be able to complete this study. I would also like to give my special thanks to Vietnam US Society English language center for offering a place and opportunity to conduct this research. Thanks to their support and cooperation, I was able to conduct this research successfully.
I owe many thanks to my students who have enthusiastically participated in research and readily shared their opinions and suggestions for my study. Their contribution was truly priceless to my thesis. Last but not least, I am greatly thankful to my parents who have given me love, strength, and encouragement during my years of studying and completing this paper. They were the force that propelled me forwards in my moments of weakness.
i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certified my authorship of the Master‟s thesis submitted entitled THE EFFECT OF ONLINE EXTENSIVE READING ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS READING AT VUS In terms of the Requirements for Theses in Master program issued by the Higher Degree Committee. The thesis has not previously been submitted for any degree or diploma at any Universities or Institutions Ho Chi Minh, March 8th, 2022 Ngô Mai Lan Hương ii RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS I hereby state that I, Ngo Mai Lan Huong, being a candidate for the M.A in TESOL Degree, accept the requirement of the University relating to the retention and use of Master‟s Theses deposited in the Library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses. Ho Chi Minh, March 8th, 2022 Ngo Mai Lan Huong iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. ii RETENTION AND USE OF THESIS. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION.
vii LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF FIGURES. Background to the study. Statement of the problem.
Aims of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of thesis chapters.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Extensive reading principles. Online extensive reading. Attitude towards reading.
Sample and sampling procedures. Semi-structured interview. Application of OERP. Data collection procedures.
Semi-structured interview. Data analysis procedures. CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Comparing control and experimental groups‟ attitude towards reading English pre- OERP.
Intention for action. Comparing control and experimental groups‟ attitude towards reading English post- OERP. Intention for action. Students reading behavior post-OERP.
Experimental group‟s Students‟ attitude towards OERP. Students opinion about OERP. Students‟ expectations and suggestions for future programs. Discussion of the findings.
OERP effect on students attitude towards reading English. Students reading habits after OERP. Students reflection on OERP. CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
Limitations of the study. Recommendations for future studies. 72 Appendix A1: Instruction for Online Extensive Reading (English version). 72 A e dix A H gd c ch c g i e.
73 Appendix B1: ENTRY QUESTIONAIRE (English version). 74 Appendix B2: ENTRY QUESTIONAIRE (Vietnamese version). 77 Appendix C1: EXIT QUESTIONNAIRE (English version). 80 Appendix C2: EXIT QUESTIONNAIRE (Vietnamese version).
83 Appendix D1: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (English version). 87 Appendix D2: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL (English version). 88 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION IR Intensive Reading IRS Intensive Reading strategies ER Extensive Reading ERS Extensive reading strategies OER Online Extensive Reading OERP Online Extensive Reading Program VUS Vietnam US Society English International JSC vii LIST OF TABLES Tables page Table 3. Comparison of participants of both groups.
The brief summary of pilot questionnaire items .3 Reliability of the pilot questionnaire. Reliability of the official questionnaire. Statistical analysis of Linguistic value of Control and Experimental groups pre-OERP. Statistical analysis of Intention for action of Control and Experimental groups pre-OERP.
Statistical analysis of Comfort level of the Control group‟s pre-and post- program. Statistical analysis of Comfort level of the Experimental group pre-and post-program. Statistical analysis of Anxiety level of the Control group pre- and post- program. Statistical analysis of Anxiety level of the Experimental group pre- and post-program.
Statistical analysis of Practical value of the Control group pre- and post- program. Statistical analysis of Practical value of the Experimental group pre- and post-program. Statistical analysis of Intellectual value of the Control group pre- and post-program. Statistical analysis of Intellectual value of the Experimental group pre- and post-program.
Statistical analysis of Linguistic value of the Control group pre- and post-program. Statistical analysis of Linguistic value of the Experimental group pre- and post-program. Statistical analysis of Intention for action of the Control group pre- and post-program. Statistical analysis of Intention for action of the Experimental group pre- and post-program.
Students‟ opinion about OERP. Students‟ suggestions for OERP. 57 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Extensive reading principles.
Students‟ Comfort level pre-OERP. Students‟ Anxiety level pre-OERP. Students‟ awareness of Practical value of Reading English pre-OERP. Students‟ awareness of Intellectual value of Reading English pre-OERP.
Students‟ awareness of Linguistic value of Reading English pre-OERP. Students‟ Intention for action pre-OERP. Students‟ Comfort level pre- and post-OERP. Students‟ Anxiety level pre- and post-OERP.
Students‟ Practical value pre- and post-OERP. Students‟ Intellectual value pre- and post-OERP. Students‟ Linguistic value pre- and post-OERP. Students‟ Intention for action pre- and post-OERP.
54 x ABSTRACT This paper investigated the effect of Online Extensive Reading Program on students‟ attitude towards reading English. Positive attitude towards reading English can help students foster reading autonomy outside of the classroom environment and from there get more exposure to English texts and develop their proficiency. Nevertheless, students were mostly introduced to only one form of reading. That is intensive reading which offers students no enjoyment in the activity of reading and gives no purpose and motivation for them to continue the activity in their daily life.
Most of the students were unaware of the other approach to reading– extensive reading or had no idea how to apply it. For that reason, this research was carried out attempting to present and guide students to utilize the extensive reading approach and nurture their interest in reading English. The research was conducted with the participation of 30 intermediate- leveled students. A quasi-experimental design with a convenient sampling process was applied to this research.
There were two groups of participants. Half of the students were in the Control group, and the other half were in the Experimental group, who would participate in the Online Extensive Reading Program. After the program, questionnaires and an open-ended interview were deployed to collect data about students‟ attitude towards reading English and their reading habits after OERP. The collected data was then analyzed using independent samples two-tailed t-test to compare the mean scores of the two groups of students.
The findings disclosed that after the program, the Experimental Group‟s attitude towards reading improved drastically, stating that they felt more comfortable with English texts and had more confidence in the values that regular reading activity could bring to them. Most significantly, students in this group promptly initiated reading sessions outside of the classroom environment after the program, even without encouragement and monitoring from the teacher. In contrast, students in the Control Group showed no significant change. With reference to xi the findings, implications for teachers and education administrators were suggested to implement Online Extensive Reading Program in the learning environment to help boost students‟ favorable opinion of reading English.
Keyword: online extensive reading, students‟ attitude xii 1. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter will elucidate the context from which the research problem emerged, and then explain the main purpose of the study, and state the research questions. Consequently, the scope and the significance of this paper will be specified. In the last part of this chapter, the organization of this thesis will be introduced.
Background to the study Being one of the receptive skills, reading serves as a channel for language input. However, teaching reading skills has always been a difficult task for teachers, especially with students at the intermediate and above levels, where the reading tasks become daunting and taxing. In Vietnam – an increasingly competitive and expanding job market, English has become a common standard in job requirements. Candidates today are not only expected to deal with basic communicative English, more demanding jobs will also require them to deal with more advanced documents to develop their expertise.
On that account, in preparation for student‟s future career, the aim of English programs curriculum is to equip students with the competency necessary for employment (Doan & Hamid, 2019). In accordance with this, reading in recent years has integrated more complex materials. Particularly, reading passages for undergraduate students have incorporated information about cultures of some English-speaking countries, and knowledge of other subjects, allowing students to use English as a tool for further education (To, 2010). This development gave students more exposure to a broader range of texts and knowledge.
Simultaneously, it presented new challenges to students. Reading passages were longer and required more background knowledge to comprehend. The accompanying instruction was usually in intensive reading (IR) style which is a ubiquitous approach in many language classrooms (Renandya, 2007). This approach to reading required great effort and energy from readers.
Students in constant contact with this type of reading would feel exhausted, and eventually, 1 lose their interest in reading. This tendency was predicted in several papers conducted by Tom (2000) and Mu and Green (2012). Students‟ aversion to reading English texts may have a deeper impact on the development of their English skills. It created a psychological barrier between students and voluntary reading.
Students‟ reluctance to read may have a link with their insecurity and unease generated from their past experience with Intensive Reading. In the reading process, students, regardless of their English competency, often feel frustrated when encountering too many unfamiliar words, complex grammatical structures, or incomprehensible topics (Brown et al. High frequency of those in a reading text may dampen readers‟ enthusiasm for reading. On this account, it is important to construct a program to help students get used to reading in large quantities without feeling overwhelmed or bored by using undemanding reading materials.
This will help ameliorate the strained relationship between students and English reading activities. On that note, Extensive reading (ER) can be described as a complementary approach to IR. It holds a student-centered perspective with every critical component built around students. In extensive reading programs, students are given more control of the reading activity.
Most of the quintessential decisions are made by students: selection of materials, level of difficulty, reading quantity, the purpose of reading. This freedom could lift the tension students feel when facing English texts and stimulate students to read English more on their own accord. However, it should be noted that extensive reading was relatively unpopular in EFL classrooms.