MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY ------------------ MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL BY HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099 Supervised by Assoc. PHAM VU PHI HO BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY ------------------- MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL BY HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099 Supervised by Assoc. PHAM VU PHI HO BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022 The thesis entitled THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL was successfully defended and approved on September 18th, 2022 at Ba Ria Vung Tau University. Academic supervisor: Assoc.
PHAM VU PHI HO Examination committee 1. NGUYEN HUU DUC…………Chair 2. BUI THI KIM LOAN……………………Reader 1 3. NGUYEN XUAN HONG……………….
NGUYEN HUU THE……………………Member 5. DINH LU GIANG………………………Secretary member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (full name, title, signature) Assoc.NGUYEN HUU DUC i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY BA RIA VUNG TAU, April 2022 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Hoang Thi Thu Sex: Female Date of birth: 19/08/1991 Place of birth: Pho Yen, Bac ThaiMajor: MTESOL Student code: 18110099 I- Thesis title: The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading skills at Da Tong high school II- Objectives and contents: The present study was carried out with the aim to explore effects of schemata- building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills. This study adopted quasi- experimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities.
The researcher used the quasi- experimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension. A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group. A quantitative research was used in the study. Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method.
The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research. The qualitative part of the study was used to crosscheck with quantitative data about the students’ perceptions towards the improvement of schemata building ii activities in reading comprehension. In the scope of the present research, the qualitative data collected from interview was implemented after the quantitative data collected from the pretest and the posttest on the purpose of fostering the understanding and the interpretation of the results. III- Starting date: August 1, 2020 IV- Completing date: December 15, 2021 V- Academic supervisor: Assoc.
PHAM VU PHI HO iii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: “The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading skills at Da Tong high school” Ba Ria Vung Tau, 2022 Signature iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of theses deposited in the Library. I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of theses. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is a report of a research that could not have been accomplished withoutthe help and support of many people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.
Pham Vu Phi Ho, for his advice, critical questions, valuable suggestions, detailed comments, and hands-on experience. His enthusiasm and great care will always be remembered. Second, special thanks are also forwarded to all of my teachers who have taught and guided me with useful knowledge and experience during the M. Third, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Principal of Da Tong high school – Mr.
Cao Xuan Thai, the Head of English group – Ms. Dong Gur K’ Dan, Ms. K’Trinh for their permission and support during the data collection process. Fourth, a big thank goes to the student participants at Da Tong high school who have been willing to fulfill the study’s tests and involve in the interview.
This thesis would not be possible without their kindness and willingness. Finally, I would like to express my greatest love and gratitude to my beloved husband who inspired me to take this M. course, my beloved father and mothers, who always give me love and care, and my little son, who has been my greatest motivationduring my M. My dream of fulfilling this academic goal in life would have been impossible without my beloved people vi ABSTRACT This study aimed at exploring effects of schemata-building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills.
This study adopted quasi-experimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities. The researcher used the quasi- experimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension. A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group.
A quantitative research was used in the study. Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method. The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research. The results of the study have indicated that students can enhance their reading comprehension through using schemata building activities.
This utterance was proved by the better performance in the post-test of the experiment group than the performance of the control group. In other words, after treating with schemata building activities, students’ reading comprehension has been improved. Moreover, the participants who are treated with schemata building activities surely know the ways to build schemata building activities on reading comprehension. They also recognized the importance of schematabuilding activities on their improvement of reading learning.
Furthermore, they believed that using schemata building activities could help them comprehending texts better. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY. iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS. vii LIST OF TABLE.
xi LIST OF FIGURES. xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Background of the study. Research aims and objectives.
Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Organization of the thesis. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Reading comprehension skills. Definition of reading comprehension skills. Models of reading process. Strategies for reading.
“Schemata-building” activities. Definitions and characteristics of “schemata”/ background knowledge. Types of “schemata”/background knowledge. The positive effects of “schemata-building” activities in reading class.
Theories of cognitive learning. Definition of cognitive learning. Components of cognitive learning. Review of previous studies.
Summary of chapter 2.3 Sample and sampling procedure .6 Data collection procedures .7 Data analysis procedures .8 Reliability and validity. 42 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The research results .1 The effects of schemata building activities on improving 10th graders reading skills at Da Tong high school .2 The students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning English reading skills. 57 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.2 Summary of the main findings of the study .3 Implications of the research .4 Limitations of the research .5 Recommendations for further studies. 80 APPENDIX I: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST.
89 APPENDIX M: TRANSCRIPTS OF STUDENT INTERVIEWS. 95 x LIST OF TABLE Table 3.1 Sample of the participants .2 Students’ scores and classification in the pretest and the post-test (Depdikbud,1985; Arisal, 2016).3 Procedueres of the experiment .4 Cronbach’ s Alpha of the pretest and the posttest. Descriptive statistics of the control group students’ and the experimentalgroup students’ mean scores in the pretest .2 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the experimental groupstudents’ mean scores in the pretest.3 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students and the experimental groupstudents’ mean scores in the posttest .4 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the experimental group students’ mean scores in the posttest.5 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students’ and the experimentalgroup students’ mean scores before and after the treatment.6 Comparative results of the mean scores within each group in the pretest andposttest .50 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Conceptual framework of the study .1 The participants’ reading comprehension in the pretest and the posttest. 51 xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.
Background of the study Up to now, English has become an international language. The importance of English in our modern world at the moment is undeniable. English is a global language over the world. According to a survey conducted in 2019, English is spoken by over 1.2 billion people worldwide either natively or as a second language.
The British Council projects that by the year 2020 two billion people in the world will be studying English. Knowing and mastering English brings us several significant benefits. English is not only a means of communication but also a tool for people to access to mankind’s intelligence. As a result, in all countries of the world, the teaching and learning of English is of great importance.
In relation to learning English, English learners should learn four language skills, including reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Moreover, English learners need to master other complements such as vocabulary; pronunciation; and grammar for supporting the development of those skills. Among them, reading skills is considered to be critical for English as foreign language/English as second language learners as it is considered to be one of the most important skills in processing info; from that it can help to build up the language competence and performance of English learners. It is defined as “constructing meaning from a written text” (Ur, 1996).
A large number of researchers agree that the readers play very important part in dealing with comprehending reading texts when recognizing written symbols and understanding the intended messages and the whole discourse. 176) explained reading process as an active cognitive system which activates in printed materials on the purpose of comprehending the reading texts. According to Chastain (1988), during the process of writing, the writer makes an effort to activate background and linguistic knowledge to produce meanings; and what the reader has to do is to activate background and linguistic knowledge to reproduce the writer’s intended 1 meanings. Similarly, Anderson (1999) states that the reader needs to be active in understanding the reading materials so that he/she can build meanings of a reading text.
So, reading is assessed to be an active and fluent process. According to Ur (2012), a reader who is fluent in reading needs to have features such as language ability, reading speed, selective attention, vocabulary, prediction, motivation, purpose, and different reading strategies. Among them, content, or background knowledge or “schema” has an important part in learning and remembering text information (Chen & Graves, 1995). Pearson et al (1979) believe that learners who have well-developed background knowledge or “schema” can understand reading texts better than those who have weakly developed background knowledge or “schema”.
Anderson (1999) believes that comprehending process is the involvement of people’s knowledge of the world. Numerous researches displayed the important role of background knowledge in reading comprehension abilities of first language and second language (Alptekin, 2006; Carrell & Wise, 1998; Chang, 2006; Hammadou, 2000; Huang, 2009; Johnson, 1982; Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007; Pulido, 2007; Rawson & Kintsch, 2004).