VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG BUILDING READING HABITS FOR ENHANCING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SELF-LEARNING: A CASE STUDY AT ĐOÀN THỊ ĐIỂM ECOPARK ACADEMY SCHOOL (Hình thành thói quen đọc nhằm thúc đẩy việc tự học tiếng Anh của học sinh: Nghiên cứu trường hợp trường Phổ thông Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES VŨ THỊ TUYẾT NHUNG BUILDING READING HABITS FOR ENHANCING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SELF-LEARNING: A CASE STUDY AT ĐOÀN THỊ ĐIỂM ECOPARK ACADEMY SCHOOL (Hình thành thói quen đọc nhằm thúc đẩy việc tự học tiếng Anh của học sinh: Nghiên cứu trường hợp trường Phổ thông Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Ngô Tự Lập Hanoi, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com AUTHOR’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: “Building Reading Habits for Enhancing Students’ English Self-learning: A case Study at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy.” is complete my own research which was carried out at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School during the school year 2014-2015, and the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other tertiary institution.
Hanoi, September 30th, 2015 Vũ Thị Tuyết Nhung i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been completed without the support of many people, to all of whom I am profoundly indebted. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Ngô Tự Lập, my supervisor, for his great encouragement, constant guidance and enthusiastic support during all the stages of this study. Without his advice and tireless persistence, I would not have been able to finish this work.
My sincere thanks are also sent to my colleagues as well as students at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School who are willing to help me complete the survey questionnaires and the interviews. Last but not least, I am really grateful to my family and friends for their continual encouragement during the time I conducted the research. Especially, I would like to express my thanks to my husband and my son who are always beside me, taking care of me and supporting me mentally and physically. Hanoi, September 30th, 2015 Vũ Thị Tuyết Nhung ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Nowadays, learning a foreign language, especially English, is very important for international integration.
To master a language, students not only need the guiding and encouraging from teachers, but also must have the ability to study by themselves. Nevertheless, students at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School seem to lack methods and skills of self-learning. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide students with ways to enhance their autonomous learning. Reading habits is best to be built up since students are young.
The more they read, the more knowledge and skills they gain. Reading habits help broaden students’ knowledge, as well as, helps them be confident in learning and express more logically and cohesively. When students feel confident about themselves and their learning, they will likely be able to control their studying and be responsible for their learning. Owing to the above reasons, the researcher carries the study to investigate into the effectiveness of building reading habits in developing students’ self-learning at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School.
Moreover, she would like to suggest some recommendations with the hope of helping students build effective reading habits and learn autonomously. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS AUTHOR’S STATEMENT………………………………………………………. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LISTS OF TABLES.
vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale for the study. Aims and objectives of the study. Scope of the study.
Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. Building reading habits. Review of previous studies relevant to the study.
Setting of the study. Procedure of the study. 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Results from the survey questionnaire.
Results from the interview. Discussion of major findings. Implications for teachers. Limitations and suggestions for further research.
35 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. XII v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF TABLES Table 1 : Time for reading per week Table 2 : Reasons for liking reading Table 3 : Reasons for disliking reading Table 4 : Effectiveness of reading habits in students’ self-learning LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 1 : Students’ attitude toward reading Figure 2 : Time for self-learning before building reading habits Figure 3 : Time for reading per week Figure 4 : Time for self-learning Figure 5 : Students’ attitude toward effectiveness of reading habits vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This part includes the rationale, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope and the design of the study. Its task is to help readers have a general view on the research. Rationale for the study Learning cannot happen if learners are not willing to contribute, as Scharle and Szabo (2000, p.4) put it: “Success in learning very much depends on learners having a responsible attitude.” In Vietnam today, English is taught by a modern teaching and learning method named Communicative Language Teaching, in which students are considered as the center of the learning and teaching process.
Hence, students need to be active and responsible for their learning. Learning process is not only passive information receiving but also is students’ frequent critical thinking. That means that students themselves have to learn and practice their skills and knowledge day by day. Moreover, each teachers have their own teaching styles, methods, and experience which are sometimes difficult to follow.
Especially, teachers do not always teach and help students; therefore, it is necessary to raise students’ awareness of the significance of autonomous learning. In addition, teachers should provide them with essential knowledge and skills to build up and develop their self-learning during school time and in their future lives. Among the four major skills of learning a foreign language in school, reading seems to be the most important because of its obvious benefits. Not only provides knowledge of the target language, reading helps students experience about the target culture and life.
And simply, reading brings them fun. According to recent studies, children who read regularly from a young age do examinations with more assurance, so that their performance is better. As they grow into adults, this strong reading foundation stands them in good stead (Usha, 2008, p. Learning starts when students are at their very young ages through their sense.
When they observe their 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com daily life, they are eager to know about and discover the strange and wonderful world. Furthermore, it is obvious that books are available, cheap, informative, accurate, and systematic; meanwhile, teachers are changeable, not always available, and have different levels of English proficiency. As a result, to have life-long learning, students need to build up self-learning ability, and one way to enhance autonomous learning is building reading habits. As can be concluded from Takase’s study, students who gradually develop good reading habits can become autonomous learners.
However, at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School, students have low self- learning ability. They are often passive and depend much on teachers in learning. The reason is that they do not have good reading habits. Moreover, they are not guided to read effectively.
Carrell and Eisterhold (1989) argue that there is a significant relationship between autonomous learning and reading skills (cited in Paweena, 2012, p. Poor reading proficiency can thus be a factor that may hinder students from gaining full language learning progress (Paweena, 2012, p. Because of these reasons, I do my research on “Building Reading Habits for Enhancing Students’ English Self-learning: A case Study at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School”. Its purpose is to study the effectiveness of building reading habits as a tool for developing students’ self-learning ability at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School.
Aims and objectives of the study The aim of the study is to investigate into possibility and effectiveness of developing students’ self-learning by building reading habits. The objectives are: - To investigate the reading habits and self-learning of students - To study the influence of reading habits on students’ self-learning at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research questions The study was carried out in order to find out the answers to the following research questions: 3. What are students’ reading habits and self-learning at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School? 3.
How does building reading habits influent developing students’ English self- learning at Đoàn Thị Điểm Ecopark Academy School? 4. Scope of the study Self-learning or learner autonomy is obviously a vast issue in the second language learning. It covers many different aspects and areas. Therefore, this study focuses mainly on developing learning autonomy by building reading habits.
The subjects of the study are 140 Secondary students who are not major in English and show the lack of autonomy in learning. Design of the study The study includes three main parts: Part A is the Introduction, which is aimed at clarifying the rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scopes, and design of the research. Part B is the Development which contains 3 chapters: Chapter 1 is Literature Review to find what is already known about some previously related studies including definitions of key concepts and what the researcher can develop in this study. Chapter 2 is Methodology in which the researcher gives information about setting of the study including the research place and participants; research instruments and research procedure.
Chapter 3 is Data Analysis and Discussion to state what was found, and to analyze and explain why the results came out as they did, and how they helped to achieve the objectives of the study as well as to answer the two research questions. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Part C is the Conclusion, which summarizes the main issues covered in the paper, presents the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies in the research area. Following this chapter are the References and Appendixes for the whole research. PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides a brief review of the works and ideas on self-learning, reading, reading habits, and influence of reading on autonomous learning.
Definition of self-learning Self-learning has become a key concern in the foreign language instruction context in recent decades. There have been a huge number of studies related to the concept.3) defines self-learning as “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning.” In addition, the author describes autonomous learners as those who are aware of the purpose of their learning, learning goals, independently make their learning plans, and activities, regularly review, and evaluate their learning. Sharing the same idea, Dickinson (1987: 11) states that “learner is totally responsible for all the decision concerned with his or her learning and implementation of those decisions,” which mean that students should take responsibility for organizing and planning their learning as well as the results of their work. In a similar view, Little (1991: 4) defines self-learning as “a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making, and independent action.” According to Wang and Pevely (1986), autonomous learners are those who are able to be active and independent in learning process; can identify and formulate their own goals, and can change the goals to suit their learning needs and interests (Cited in Dickinson, 1995, p.
For Richards and Schmidt (2002, p.