MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
QUY NHON UNIVERSITY
DANG THANH HANG
TENTH GRADERS’ PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES
IN DOING INFERENTIAL READING TASKS IN
ENGLISH
Field: Theory and Methodology in English Language Education Code:
Code: 8140111
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN
BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN
ĐẶNG THANH HẰNG
NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƢỢC LÀM BÀI
ĐỌC HIỂU MÔN TIẾNG ANH DẠNG SUY LUẬN
CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10
Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh
Mã số:
8140111
Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn
i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed
in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates and have not been
published elsewhere.
Signature:................................................
Name: Dang Thanh Hang Date:.......................................................
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis would not have been possible without the encouragement
and whole- hearted assistance of many people.
Firstly, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen
Quang Ngoan, whose encouragement, guidance and support from initial to the
final level has enabled me to overcome many difficulties and develop my
research skills.
I would like to extend my special thanks to all the staff, especially the
teaching staff at An Nhon No.3 High School where I have studied for
providing me with knowledge, research skills and facilities.
My special thanks also go to the students who have participated in this
project. Without their assistance, I would not have been able to collect
valuable data for the project.
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family, whose
continuous encouragement, support, and love helped me pass through
insurmountable difficulties during my research.
iii
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to find out tenth graders‟ difficulties in making
inference in reading and examine tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential
reading tasks The population of this study included 120 tenth graders. In
collecting the research data, I used questionnaires and interviews. The
questionnaires consisted of 9 problems and questionnaire which consisted of
11 strategies. Research data were collected both quantitatively and
qualitatively The result showed that the students‟ overall difficulty in making
inference in reading inferiential reading belonged to “moderate” category. It
could be seen that students‟ biggest difficulty was on inferences about the
author‟s attitude. Last but not least, if students use suitably stragies, theit
results will be improved.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... iv
LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................. v
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ vii
LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................... viii
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1
1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 1
1.2. Aims of the study .................................................................................... 3
1.3. Research questions .................................................................................. 3
1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................... 3
1.5. Significance ............................................................................................. 3
1.6. Organization of the thesis ....................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................ 6
2.1. Inferential reading .................................................................................... 6
2.1.1. Reading skills and inferential reading as a reading skill ................... 6
2.1.2. Types of inferences ......................................................................... 10
2.1.3. Skills and factors involved inferences............................................. 14
2.2. The comprehension process ................................................................... 16
2.3. Strategies to enhance reading comprehension ....................................... 17
2.4. Factors affecting reading comprehension .............................................. 18
2.5. Previous relevant studies ........................................................................ 20
2.6. Summary ................................................................................................ 22
CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 24
v
3.1. Participants ............................................................................................. 24
3.2. Data collection instruments .................................................................... 25
3.2.1. Questionnaire................................................................................... 25
3.2.2. Interview ......................................................................................... 26
3.3. Data collection procedure ...................................................................... 26
3.4. Data analysis .......................................................................................... 28
3.4.1. Quantitative analysis ....................................................................... 28
3.4.2. Qualitative analysis ......................................................................... 29
3.5.Summary 30
CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .......................................... 31
4.1. Results ................................................................................................... 31
4.1.1. Results for research question 1........................................................ 31
4.1.2.Results for research question 2 ........................................................ 33
4.1.3.Interview data ................................................................................... 41
4.2. Discussion ............................................................................................. 43
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION ...................................................................... 47
5.1. Conclusions on what difficultities students face when doing inferential
reading ........................................................................................................... 47
5.2. Conculsions on what strategies should be used ..................................... 48
5.3. Implication ............................................................................................. 49
5.4. Limitations of the study ......................................................................... 51
5.5. Suggestions for further studies ............................................................... 52
REFERENCE ............................................................................................ 53
APPENDIX ............................................................................................... 57
Example:.................................................................................................... 59
v
LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS
DRTA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Interview ..................................................................................... 29
Table 4.1 Tenth graders‟ problems in doing inferential reading tasks ....... 32
Table 4.2 Tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential reading tasks ....... 34
Table 4.3 The detail description of item S1 ................................................ 35
Table 4.4 The detail description of item S2 ................................................ 35
Table 4.5 The detail description of item S3 ................................................ 36
Table 4.6 The detail description of item S4 ................................................ 36
Table 4.7 The detail description of item S5 ................................................ 37
Table 4.8 The detail description of item S6 ................................................ 37
Table 4.9 The detail description of item S7 ................................................ 38
Table 4.10 The detail description of item S8 .............................................. 39
Table 4.11 The detail description of item S9 .............................................. 39
Table 4.12 The detail description of item S10 ............................................ 40
Table 4.13 The detail description of item S11 ............................................ 40
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Types of inferences ....................................................................... 13
Figure 2.2: A tetrahedral model of studies on inference generation in reading (
based on Jenkin, 1979). ................................................................................... 14
1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
This initial part states rationale for the study, the aims and objectives
and the scope of the whole paper. Above all, it is in this part that the research
questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research.
1.1.
Rationale
Reading is regarded as a natural action in people's daily lives because
they must read a variety of items in order to comprehend what occurs in their
environments. Reading, on the other hand, according to Nuttal (1982), is a
complex activity that entails, on the one hand, identifying and decoding letters
and words and, on the other hand, comprehending and grasping the functional
meaning of a text. For many years, teachers have utilized the reading activity
to measure simply literal comprehension rather than teaching skills to help
children comprehend what they read beyond decoding words and phrases (Harvey
& Goudvis, 2000). Due to the various reasons, the results obtained from class
observations during students' reading activities and other teacher perceptions
about their reading comprehension processes confirmed the above, indicating that
they had difficulties and poor results when reading texts in English.
In reading, the students‟ prior knowledge is really important in
supporting the students‟ understanding in reading the text. A variety of
strategies to interact with the text as well as use their English knowledge are
emphasized (Peregoy & Boyle, 2001, cited in Kopitski, 2007). It means the
more prior knowledge of the reading content and the language knowledge
(such as grammatical structure and vocabulary) the students have, the more
they understand the text. However, understanding school books is difficult
due to the fact that they are usually academic or nonfiction. Not only the
apparent but also the implicit messages of the text are questioned.
Inference making is a fundamental component of being fluent in
reading. It is one of the components that must be considered in reading,
2
especially when the texts encourage the readers to find out beyond
information and when it is supported by text comprehension. The greater the
students' ability to comprehend the text, the more inferences they can make.
As a result, the more fluent they are in reading, the more success they will
have with the reading process.
Bearing this in mind, I decided to develop this study. Through research
methods, data collection methods and data analysis, I want to explore the
problems that my students, the 10th graders are facing. These are students
who have just experienced a level-up exams and are also the students who
have just entered a new learning environment, so it is essential to find out
their problems and come up with useful strategies. The findings could be
applied to my own teaching practices for better learning outcomes for my
students to develop their inferential reading skills.
Furthermore, the study aimed to offer suggestions and recommendations
for making positive change in teaching at high schools. This critical element was
expected to help my colleagues in my high schools or teachers from other high
schools, where the context is similar to the one described in the present study, to
be able to make changes in their teaching practices.
Last but not least, this research and the materials enabled me to think of
myself as a more active participant in the language learning process, rather
than merely a replicant actor. This, I believe, was an opportunity for me to
reflect on my strengths and limitations, as well as seek ways to enhance my
teaching practices in order to encourage students to have a more positive and
willing attitude in the language classroom. Despite the fact that much research
has been done on reading, this study may contribute to the field of reading
strategies by emphasizing the importance of developing appropriate materials
to provide direct instruction of the strategies in order to help students improve
their reading practices in the language classroom.
3
1.2.
Aims of the study
The study aims to find out tenth graders‟ problems and strategies in
doing inferential reading exercises.
The objectives of the study:
-
To explore tenth graders‟ problems in doing inferential reading tasks.
-
To examine tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential reading tasks.
1.3.
Research questions
In order to achieve the above objectives, the following overarching
research question have been formulated as follows:
1.
What are tenth graders‟ problems in doing inferential reading tasks?
2.
What are tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential reading tasks?
1.4.
Scope of the study
This study took place at An Nhon No.3 High School, a public school in
Binh Dinh Province. The school offers education from tenth grade to twelveth
grade. Participants are 120 tenth grade students who have just experienced a levelup exam in the morning shift. The primary objective of the school is to educate
ethical citizens and always put the quality of education as the top goa
The focus of the study lies in finding out tenth graders‟difficulties in
doing inferential reading exercises and strategies students use to develop
inferential reading skill. As students take English at school just three hours
per week, there is little time to develop those skills deeply and improve their
language learning process. The tenthth graders of school become the research
sample, because they have just entered the learning environment and it is also
the first stage of schooling, so it is necessary to detect difficulties so that
teachers can have directions to promptly change teaching methods and
develop skills for students. improve the quality of learning.
1.5.
Significance
The research serves as a reference source for teachers, students, and
4
others who are interested in this topic once it is completed. It is also
anticipated to make recommendations for further research.
This research is expected to give beneficial contribution to teaching and
learning English, not only for English teachers, but also for students, and
other researchers. For English teachers, hopefully, by knowing the students‟
problems it can give important information to improve their skill in teaching
reading. Furthermore, it is expected that they can develop any teaching
methods which are very beneficial to assist students‟ comprehension in
reading the text.
Teachers and students, in particular, would be aware of their current
status in terms of teaching and developing inferential reading abilities in order
to make appropriate adjustments. The research is expected to improve
students' attitudes toward inferential reading and drive them to read
inferentially as a result of the critical comments, as well as teachers' teaching
strategies for inferential reading.
1.6.
Organization of the thesis
This paper has five main chapters. The first chapter is the introduction,
where the rationale, objectives, the significance as well as the scope of the
study are raised. The second one is Literature Review, in which key
theoretical basis, some common challengies of students in doing inferential
reading tasks and previous findings concerning strategies, and inferential
reading skills are discussed. The next chapter is Methodology which is
believed to be an important one. It describes the methods used to collect data,
including research instruments (questionnaire and interview with students ). It
also provides the data analysis methods, the steps that I took in analyzing the
collected data.
The fourth chapter in this part (i.e. results and discussion) presents the
results and discussion of the findings. The final part is the conclusion. In this
5
part, the summary of this study, limitations and recommendations for further
studies are presented.
6
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides insights into the theoretical issues and studies
prior to the present study. The chapter begins with basic concepts concerning
the research issues. It includes a review of studies that have been conducted
related to the topic of this study.
2.1. Inferential reading
To high school learners, simple comprehension of a text is not enough.
To be high-level readers, students need to be able to infer meaning that goes
beyond what the text explicitly tells them. Inferences are the conclusions that
are drawn based on what one already knows and judgments readers make
based on given information. This skill helps students make connections
between their personal experiences and their comprehension of a text. Rather
than stopping students during the reading process to comment on specific
points, inference focuses on their thinking and how new information reshapes
their prior knowledge, which consists of 4 types “syntactical” knowledge,
“semantic” knowledge, “orthographic” knowledge and “lexical” knowledge
(Rumelhart, 2004).
2.1.1. Reading skills and inferential reading as a reading skill
2.1.1.1. Reading skills
Reading comprehension is a complex skill since it needs readers
(students) to combine many reading strategies to understand the text. All
readers need to relate their English language knowledge, world of knowledge
and understanding of print to understand text (Peregoy & Boyle, 2001) in
Kopitski, 2007. It is the ability to draw meaning from the text. It is more
complex than the word reading as it involves a broader range of cognitive
processes and thus it is viewed as the “essence of reading” (Durkin, 1993,
cited in Li, 2012:1).
7
In comprehending a reading text, readers should consider literal
comprehensionand inferential comprehension. Both of them are very
important for them to make them easier to understand the text. In literal
comprehension (e.g., textbase), readers only need a relatively shallow
understanding of what the text states. While in inferential comprehension,
(e.g., situation model) readers need a deep understanding of what the text
states (Li, 2012: 5-6).
In other words, it is obvious that reading comprehension is the activity
of understanding texts not only shallowly but also deeply. Activities of
understanding reading texts need thinking process.
Reading, according to the literacy definition, plays an essential role in
people's lives, and Smith (1971: 35) claims that "reading is the most natural
activity in the universe." This indicates that even if people never read written
material such as books or newspapers, they must read a lot in order to
understand what is going on around them on a daily basis. People are more
likely to read printed things such as adverts, drug labels, traffic signs, and
anything else that provides them with information. As a result, reading must
be seen as a crucial component of people's daily lives because it enables them
to acquire and interpret knowledge and information required to comprehend
their surroundings.
Reading must be viewed as a dynamic and participatory process in
which people employ their language and cognitive knowledge to make sense
of a written passage, according to the above. In this regard, Goodman (1996)
asserts that reading is an active activity in which the reader establishes a
relationship with the text based on his or her own understandings and
experiences in order to make sense of the information offered. Readers are
able to make meaning of the print because of these interactions between new
and old information.
8
Furthermore, Aebersold and Field (1997: 50) stated that "reading is what
happens when people look at a text and give meaning to the written symbols
in a general sense”. As a result, reading cannot be reduced to a basic process
of decoding letters and words. Reading, on the other hand, is a meaningmaking process in which the reader interacts with the text. This interaction
occurs when a reader connects information from the text with prior
knowledge; it is a dialogue between language and cognition that allows the
reader to develop a personal understanding of the text.
To summarize, when reading a text, readers' language knowledge helps them
to recognize printed words and sentences, while their world knowledge allows
them to comprehend these words and phrases (Goodman, 1996). As a result,
reading is an active process in which readers relate information from the text
to what they already know, rather than a passive skill. Readers who are
proficient make sense of the print and hunt for meaning; they do not decode
each letter or word; instead, they take the text and apply it to what they
already know. The process of reading, then, is a constructive and interactive
one in which readers learn to recognize, understand, and comprehend the
message of a written text.
2.1.1.2. Inferential reading as a reading skill
As students develop inferential reading skills, they learn to understand
the intonation of characters' words and relationships to one another, provide
explanations for ideas that are presented in the text, recognize the author's
view of the world including the author's biases and offer conclusions from
facts presented in the text. In teaching reading comprehension in a reader‟s
workshop Keene and Zimmerman (1997) state that differently proficient
readers who infer are able to draw conclusions from text, make reasonable
predictions while and after reading, use the combination of background
knowledge and explicitly
9
stated information from the text to answer questions they have as they read. It
is clear that proficient readers easily create new background knowledge for
themselves, discriminate and critically analyze text and authors, and engage in
conversation and/or other analytical responses to what they read while
struggling readers have difficulty with some or all of these comprehension
skills. Chikalanga (1993) shows the performance on different types of
interference questions of two groups of Zambian secondary school at grade 8
and grade 10; that is, grade 10 students performed significantly better than
grade 8 students.
Inference is increasingly recognized as an essential component of the
process of reading comprehension. According to the psycholinguistic models
of reading comprehension (i.e., schema-theoretic view of reading), inferences
are important in integrating the text with the knowledge base (Spiro, 1980;
Sanford et al.,1981).
In addition, Chikalanga (1993) shows that inference is defined as the
cognitive or mental process of reader goes through to obtain the implicit
meaning of a written text on the basis of two sources of information, the
propositional content of the text (i.e., information explicitly stated) and prior
knowledge of the reader as cued by test items. Some previous work has
revealed (Paris and Lindauer, 1976; Paris and Upton, 1976; Omanson et al.,
1978) the ability to infer improves with age.
An inference is an event or conclusion reached based on information
contained in a text or story, but not stated explicitly (Trabasso & Magliano,
1996). Making inferences is as central to story comprehension as
understanding causal relationships and recognizing importance of story events
(van den Broek, et al., 2005; van den Broek, 1989; van Kleeck, 2008).
Generally, inference is a cognitive process used to construct meaning.
Inference in reading comprehension is a constructive thinking process
10
because the reader expands knowledge by proposing and evaluating
competing hypotheses about the meaning of the text in an attempt to
progressively refine understanding. The importance of inference in
understanding even the simplest text has been pointed out by Thorndike
(1917). Inference makes it possible for a reader to comprehend the
information that the author presents (Goetz, 1977) and is an integral part of
the comprehension of and memory for text (Anderson & Pearson, 1984;
Bransford & McCarrell, 1974; Harris & Monaco, 1978; Kintsch, 1988).
Inference making, which is one of the aspects that have to be considered in
reading, especially when the texts ask the readers to find out the beyond
information, and when it is supported by the text comprehension, is a key
component to be fluent in reading (Davoudi, 2005). The more the students are
able to comprehend the text, the more they can make inference. Thus, the
more fluent they are in reading and the more success the reading process will
be obtained.
When students are able to make inference, reading is felt to be easier,
no matter how long the text is. In making inference, the students have to read
between the lines (Preszler, 2006: 4). They have to understand the text
implicitly – finding out themeaning beyond the text.
It comes as no surprise that readers' background knowledge has also been
shown to be an integral factor in the comprehension of text through inference.
Pearson, Hansen, and Gordon (1979) find that background knowledge has a
facilitating effect on inferential comprehension.
2.1.2. Types of inferences
According to Li (2012: 5-6), there are two main types of inferences.
One type consists of coherence inferences which connect different pieces of
information from within the text, and the other type consists of elaborative
inferences which connect information from the text with prior knowledge
- Xem thêm -
.PDF 
73 
1 
50 
