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CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES B. A Thesis Field of study: English Language Teaching Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Researcher: Dang Chi Hai Code: 7086625 Class: NN0852A2 30TH, MAY 2012 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES ii Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been completed without help, encouragement and support from many people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation. First of all, I would like to send the deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Ms. Luu Hoang Anh who has given me valuable suggestions, advice, encouragement, and support to complete the writing of my thesis. I will never forget the period of time working with her. I would also give my thanks to Mr. Do Xuan Hai for his advice that finishes the thesis. Secondly, I want to give my deep appreciation and thank to Ms Nguyen Thi Van Su and her students for their enthusiasm and support in providing the data for this study, without their valuable assistance, this work would not have been possible. Last but not least, I thank my family whose unconditional support and encouragement helped me much during the process of carrying out this project. I thank them for always being there for me, enabling me to be who I am and where I am today. i Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES ABSTRACT Reading has always been the most influential activity to all English learners. The different levels of reading require many different strategies for each stage of education. From basic to advanced level, there are always more and more methods for readers to master the target language. However, the English-majored freshmen in Cantho University can find themselves introduced to Basis Reading skills in their first year course. This reading class enables students to practice reading with interactive view and strategies. Through the use of interactive reading strategies, teachers can help their students upgrade their reading skills and gain suitable results. This is a descriptive research with a twenty-one-item questionnaire of five-point scale to know students’ attitudes on the use of interactive reading strategies and if they thịnk they make improvement in reading after using these strategies. The data results from the questionnaire were treated via SPSS. The results showed that the students liked interactive reading strategies and had positive attitudes as well as they thought these interactive reading strategies made them improve their reading comprehension. ii Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES TÓM TẮT Việc đọc đã luôn là một hoạt động có tầm ảnh hưởng lớn đối với những người học tiếng Anh. Những mức độ khác nhau trong môn đọc đòi hỏi những chiến thuật học khác nhau ở từng giai đoạn giáo dục. Từ cơ bản tới nâng cao, luôn có ngày càng nhiều những phương thức để người đọc có thể hoàn thiện kỹ năng ngôn ngữ của bản thân. Những học sinh chuyên ngành Anh văn đang theo học năm đầu tại Đại học Cần Thơ được học lớp Kỹ năng Đọc cơ bản trong chương trình niên học đầu tiên. Kỹ năng Đọc này giúp họ rèn dũa với phương pháp và chiến thuật Đọc theo phương thức tương tác. Thông qua việc sử dụng những chiến thuật đọc tương tác, thầy cô có thể giúp học sinh của mình cải thiện kỹ năng đọc và có được những kết quả thích hợp. Đây là một bài nghiên cứu mô tả với cô ng cụ là bảng câu hỏi gồm 21 câu với thang điểm 5, dùng để nghiên cứu thái độ của sinh viên chuyên ngành năm nhất với các chiến thuật học Đoc tương tác, cũng như xem xét sinh viên có nghĩ là mình tiến bộ sau khi áp dụng những chiến thuật này vào trong việc Đọc . Thông tin thu được được xử lý bằng phần mềm SPSS. Kết quả đã chỉ ra rằng những sinh viên này thích các chiến thuật học Đọc tương tác, cũng như nghĩ là họ đã tiến bộ sau khi học những phương thức này. iii Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... i ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ii TÓM TẮT ..............................................................................................................iii CHAPTER 1 .......................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 4 1.1 Rationale ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Hypotheses............................................................................................................................. 4 1.3 Research aims ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.4 Research questions ............................................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 2 .......................................................................................................... 6 LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 6 2.1. Definition ...................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Reading ................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2 Importance of teaching reading ............................................................................................ 7 2.2 Interactive reading ........................................................................................................................ 7 2.2.1 Definition................................................................................................................................ 7 2.2.2 Reading strategies of interactive reading ............................................................................. 9 2.2.3 The Top Down (Concept-Driven) Approach (Knowledge/background/schemata-based) 10 2.2.4 Bottom-up (Serial) Approach (Text-based) ......................................................................... 12 1 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES 2.3 Related studies ............................................................................................................................ 13 CHAPTER 3 ........................................................................................................ 15 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 15 Section 1.01 3.1 Research design ............................................................................................ 15 3.2 Participants ................................................................................................................................. 15 3.3 Instruments ................................................................................................................................. 15 3.4. Research procedures ................................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 4 ........................................................................................................ 17 DATA RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ........................................................... 17 4.1 Data results ................................................................................................................................. 17 4.1.1 Overview of statistical procedures ..................................................................................... 17 4.1.2 Descriptions of results ......................................................................................................... 17 4.1.2.1. Student’s attitudes towards top-down strategy ...................................................... 17 4.1.2.2 Students’ attitudes toward bottom-up strategy ........................................................ 18 4.1.2.3 Attitudes towards interactive reading and its strategies............................................ 19 4.1.2.4 Students’ improvement in reading .............................................................................. 19 4.2 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 20 4.3 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 20 IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ............................... 22 5.1 Implications ................................................................................................................................. 22 5.2 Limitations ................................................................................................................................... 22 5.3 Suggestions.................................................................................................................................. 22 5.4.. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 23 2 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 24 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................... 26 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Clusters of the questionnaire..................................................................................17 Table 4.1 Reliability Coefficient of the questionnaire...........................................................19 Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics of students’ toward top-down strategy in interactive reading...................................................................................................................................20 Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of students’ toward bottom-up strategy in interactive reading...................................................................................................................................20 Table 4.4 Descriptive statistics of students’ attitudes on interactive reading.....................................................................................................................................21 Table 4. 5 Descriptive statistics of students’ attitudes on improvement in reading.....................................................................................................................................22 3 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I would like to state (1) the rationale of this research, (2) the hypotheses, (3) the research aims and (4 )the research questions. 1.1 Rationale In the past decades researchers discovered a mutual relationship between a student’s academic reading skills and academic success. Success at the university level mainly depends on existing pre-entry college attributes, including the mastery of some fundamental academic skills (Tinto, 1993). These include – reading, writing, and critical thinking, oral presentation, and media literacy... Among those features, reading is recognized as one of the most important to EFL teachers and students. That reading is so practical for learning a second language (SL) and it plays an important role in students’ improvement on language acquisition. I always have a deep interest in reading with my inspiration given by my professor at Cantho University. The English majored freshmen are trained with basic reading skills in their first year. They are guided with reading materials and strategies focusing on interactive reading. Therefore, I wonder what they think about interactive reading and its 2 approaches. Now I want to do a research on English majored freshmen’s attitudes towards interactive reading strategies. This research intends to find out to what extent the English majored freshmen in CTU like the strategies in interactive reading. 1.2 Hypotheses I hypothesize that (1) These students often use strategies when practicing interactive reading. (2) These students would like these strategies as they would improve their comprehension. Hopefully, the thesis would help the teachers of English as well as students realize the importance of practicing reading strategies in interactive reading. 1.3 Research aims Firstly, the aim of this research is to find out the attitudes of English-majored first year students in leaning and practicing the strategies of interactive reading. Secondly, this research would find out which improvement students make in reading after applying the strategies of interactive reading to their work. 4 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES . 1.4 Research questions To carry out this research, I attempt to find out the answers for these 2 questions: 1. To what extent do students like top-down and bottom-up strategies in practicing interactive reading? 2. Do students think their reading comprehension will be improved after using these reading strategies? 5 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, I would like to state some ideas of researchers about the definition of reading and its importance in teaching and learning English. Besides, eliciting with its definitions, interactive reading and its approaches, benefits and drawbacks, and some related studies on the use of interactive reading strategies in teaching are mentioned. 2.1. Definition 2.1.1 Reading The natural sequence of learning a language is that first it is listened and spoken, and then it is read and written. There are many definitions of reading. Reading is a way of getting information from something that is written, “an outstanding achievement of human brain” (Micheal Dambacher). It involves decoding symbols that make up a language. For many years, three basic definitions of reading have driven literacy programs in the United States (Foertsch, 1998). According to the first definition, learning to read means learning to pronounce words. According to the second definition, learning to read means learning to identify words and get their meaning. According to the third definition, learning to read means learning to bring meaning to a text in order to get meaning from it. Reading is the process of acquiring the meaning through decoding symbol. It is a kind of “receptive language process”. (Kenneth Goodman 1967).” Reading as an active process in which the reader uses linguistic cues embedded in the text to reconstruct a message that the writer has encoded in written language” (Goodman, 1988). Reading is one of human beings’ most popular ways to share the information and ideas together. According to Rulmehart D.(1985), it is “at once a perceptual and a cognitive process”. It is also a “complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated”. (Wikipedia) The reading process asks for stable practice, concentration and enhancement. Reading comprehension is simply an essential part of any foreign language learning, including English. In his book “The importance of reading comprehension in second language learning” (1965, p. 24), Fry stated that it was very difficult to define comprehension. Reduced to its simplest elements we might say that comprehension is a part of the communication process of getting the thoughts that were in the author’s mind into the reader’s mind. This is a 6 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES difficult process “because it involves the transmission of an idea through several imperfect media. Everything we do with language improves our comprehension of what we read” (Fry, 1965, p. 127). 2.1.2 Importance of teaching reading Learning to read is the most important task of early childhood. Success and failure of this skill has a profound effect on the future of every child. Therefore, the methods used to teach this crucial skill must be the best possible. Reading in the classroom is one of the most important skills students should be able to accomplish as well as enjoy. For many students, reading by far is the most important of the four skills in a foreign language, particularly in English as a second language (L2). A precise language learner can’t make his way to the top without possessing good reading skills. Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in multiple ways. Whatever level you are in, kindergarten, high school or college, there is always reading with different requirement for each process. In recent years, the emphasis on reading in classroom has been mentioned in media and publicly discussed as an important issue of national education for L2 teaching. ” Reading in a foreign language is a very useful and relatively painless way to improve the command over the target language. When students already have a thorough understanding of the basic structure and vocabulary of the language, they are able to tackle and enjoy authentic texts on subjects of their interest. The benefits of reading widely and relatively long texts are enormous for students with a relatively high level of proficiency in the language. They have different needs and different problems from those which they faced at lower educational levels. “The ability to read the written language at a reasonable rate with good comprehension has long been recognized to be as important as oral skills, if not more important."( "Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading", Eskey, 1970, p.1). Teaching reading is always a major issue over the years. This will enable students to train their mind in reading process. Teaching reading helps students read various subject frequently and increase their background knowledge. It is also important to show students how to paraphrase drill and summarize ideas to understand the passage. Also, it helps students build up the ability of skimming and scanning to get the main point. 2.2 Interactive reading 2.2.1 Definition “Interactive reading is a form of reading in which you are not just looking at words on a page to understand the text. But rather you are reading and as you read you ask questions and think 7 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES about what the authors means, what is his purpose for writing”. (Zbonark, 2008) This type of reading allows you to stimulate your thinking as well as to help you remember what you are reading. While teaching reading, the teacher must always keep in mind that the goal is to understand what the author meant (p. 26) “Interactive reading can help students with pronunciation, especially English as a second language (ESL) learners and can help improve their confidence level” (Miller 2009). Interactive reading awakes the true passion for ESL students who find themselves really emerging in reading the usual material with new motivation. It is always said that the trend for education now is student-centered, which means all teaching plan and procedure must be built with the base as students who would find themselves more active and motivated to get involved in learning process more and more. Interactive reading has become has a useful aid for teaching reading all around the world. Due to its flexibility and strength in applying to the practical environment in classroom, the reading with interactive methods soon becomes worldwide popular for all levels of ESL students. An interactive reading model attempts to combine the valid insights of bottom-up and topdown models. It attempts to take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models, and tries to avoid the criticisms leveled against each, making it one of the most promising approaches to the theory of reading today. (McCormick, T. 1988). An interactive reading model is a reading model that recognizes the interaction of bottom-up and top-down processes simultaneously throughout the reading process. Dechant E. (1991) stated that the interactive model suggests that the reader “constructs meaning by the selective use of information from all sources of meaning (graphemic, phonemic, morphemic, syntax, semantics) without adherence to any one set order. The reader simultaneously uses all levels of processing even though one source of meaning can be primary at a given time.” Reading can be thought of as being on two levels at once. First of all the reader should get the objective information i.e. facts. According to Fry (1965, p. 26), these facts require little interpretation or judgment. Then on a higher level, the reader should be able to get subjective information, i.e. the tone and the mood of the story, unstated ideas or the overall information. The interactive view of reading holds that readers interpret the author's meaning using their prior knowledge, purposes for reading, and the contextual constraints of the literacy event. The aspect is that readers combine what they know (reader-based inferencing) with information from the text (text-based inferencing) to construct meaning (Pearson & Johnson, 1978). Readers use textual information such as pictures, the letters in words, headings, and the structure of sentences to figure out the author's meaning (Stanovich, 1986). They use this textual information in combination with their prior knowledge. 8 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES 2.2.2 Reading strategies of interactive reading The methods which are used to teach reading convey attitudes about reading that influence students’ beliefs. In his study “Reading and its approaches towards students” (1992), Smith found that many students approached reading half-heartedly because they view reading as a transmission of information that was not regulated by the teacher. Smith also found that many students related reading with correctness (Smith, 1992). These two views minimize the role of individual learners play in the reading process and stress the accumulation of information. As emphasized by the interactive-constructivist model, learners should play the primary role in getting meaning from text (Smith, 1992). “When a student has learnt reading strategies, he could find himself improve to become more fluent in English.” (Sasson 1997). Many students can read the words but they just don’t understand the meaning. Whether it is kindergarten or high school reading strategies, it’s up to the teacher to help those struggling readers do what the good readers do. One way to bridge the gap between decoding and comprehension is to teach reading fluency activities . But teaching comprehension is also about directly teaching students how to understand better, using what we call reading comprehension strategies. Language instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native language to reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary item, until they reach the end. When they do this, students are relying exclusively on their linguistic knowledge, a bottom-up strategy. One of the most important functions of the language instructor, then, is to help students move past this idea and use top-down strategies as they do in their native language. Selecting strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and using them flexibly and interactively is a work for all reading instructors. “Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning.”, Rulmehart (1977) said. Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading purposes. They help students develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate strategies to each reading situation. Check comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies 9 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES The approach (to teaching reading) that is accepted as the most comprehensive description of the reading process is an interactive approach. This combines elements of both bottom-up (fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition) and top-down (comprehension is achieved by using background knowledge and making predictions) approaches. The best readers in any language are those who combine elements of both. For example, most readers begin reading by using top-down reading strategies until there is a problem, and then they shift to bottom-up strategies. When a student reads something quickly and suddenly come to several new words, he is required to slow down his reading to decode the new words. When he does this, he is using bottom-up strategies to understand the word. 2.2.3 The Top Down (Concept-Driven) Approach (Knowledge/background/schematabased) In most cases of a reading classroom practice, learners tend to focus on grammar and vocabulary without developing positive learning strategies, believing that good grammatical and lexical knowledge helps to develop a good comprehension. However, some research and theory have proved that other elements have an effect on comprehension. Schema theory, for instance, has revealed the psychological process of reading and to some extent accounted for poor comprehension of some students despite their good linguistic knowledge. A schema is a cognitive framework that is comprised of a number of organized ideas. Schemata are theorized to be abstract knowledge structures, or models, that may be used in the solving of problems by individuals. Schema theory assumes that such knowledge structures are stored in an individual's memory. Schema theory posits, thus, that an individual solves a problem through the application of knowledge models that are stored in that individual's memory. The application of schema theory in reading research has emphasized both "(a) the constructive nature of comprehension, and (b) the crucial role of the reader's prior knowledge in that construction" (Sadoski, Paivio, and Goetz, 1991, p. 465). Schema theory, since the mid-1970s, has constituted an alternative explanation of the reading process to the data-driven models of reading (Sadoski, et al.). Schemata theory emphasizes the role of preexisting knowledge (a reader’s “schemata”) in providing the reader with information that is implicit in a text. Reader expectations are based on readers’ prior knowledge ( Silberstein, 1994:7 ). Schemata are defined as highly organized, generic knowledge structures composed of slots or placeholders and have s big effect on reading comprehension (Anderson , Reynolds, Schallert and Geotz, 1977: 367-382 ). The background information, or the schema, a reader brings to the text is often more important to comprehension than what they are reading. Experiences and sociocultural backgrounds all affect comprehension. Each person interprets the same text a bit differently. 10 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES Top-down reading model is a reading model that emphasizes what the reader brings to the text. It says reading is driven by meaning, and proceeds from whole to part, also known as concept-driven model, or inside-out model. Top-down reading models suggest that processing of a text begins in the mind of the readers with meaning-driven processes, or an assumption about the meaning of a text. From this perspective, readers identify letters and words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text. (Dechant 1991) Reading is a matter of bringing meaning to print, not extracting meaning from print. (McCormick, T. 1988). The "top down" approach emphasizes readers bringing meaning to text based on their experiential background and interpreting text based on their prior knowledge (whole language). Authors may not state the main purpose of a piece of writing. It is for the reader to bring his background knowledge and thinking ability to get the main idea, because “readers who can only read facts and nothing more can never be called good readers”. The content and quantity of texts that second language students are asked to read may be the most important determinants of whether, and to what degree, such students develop top-down reading skills. This model starts with the hypotheses and predictions then attempts to verify them by working down to the printed stimuli. This view of reading was called the psycholinguistic guessing game. “Word predictability from a previous context is an important factor for efficiency of language process”. Readers, in top-down approach to reading, can comprehend a selection even though they do not recognize each word because reading for meaning is the primary object of reading rather than mastery of letters, letter/sound relationships and words ( Gove 1983). The focus of students’ reading will be the amount of their work or the information they gained, which defines the quality of their reading. Reading requires the meaning activities than the mastery of word-recognition skills. As its concept is schema-driven, the top-down approach has its focus on the reading of sentences, paragraphs and whole selection. “Top” means higher order mental concepts such as the knowledge and expectations of the reader.“Bottom” means the physical text on the page. The top-down model of reading focuses on what the readers bring to the process (Goodman, 1967; Smith, 1971,1982). The readers sample the text for information and contrast it with their world knowledge, helping to make sense of what is written. The focus here is on the readers as they interact with the text. Goodman model describes the reading process as a cyclical model, in which the mind processes the optical structure (the written symbols), the syntactic structure (relationships among words), and the meaning structure (the message the reader reconstructs). Processing the different structures to arrive at meaning is the goal of each reading cycle. Proficient readers move seamlessly from one cycle to another as they progress through a text. As readers move through cycles of reading, they employ certain processes. According to Goodman, 11 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES readers employ 5 processes in reading: (p.16)Recognition-initiation, Prediction, Confirmation, Correction, Termination. The 1st process occurs when the brain recognizes written symbols as text and begins the reading process. 2nd process, prediction, is the one of actively predicting what will come next in the text. In the confirmation process, the brain seeks to verify previous predictions based on input. Correction occurs when prediction are not verified and must be modified. And termination, which occurs when the reading is finished or stopped. While initiation and termination normally only occur once in a reading situation, prediction, confirmation, and correction occur cyclically throughout the reading. The success of the reading process is based on confirming or correcting predictions. In other way, “successful reading depends on good predicting skills. Readers who predict well will need fewer cues to comprehend text than poor predictors” ( Goodman, 1987). 2.2.4 Bottom-up (Serial) Approach (Text-based) Most words have a specific meaning but understanding that meaning may sometimes require thinking about the context that the word is used within. By using a context-based approach, students can learn to determine the meaning of most unknown words they encounter when reading. The skills gained from using context clues can also help students in academic areas outside of reading, such as science and social studies. A bottom-up reading model emphasizes a single-direction, part-to-whole processing of a text. In the beginning stages it gives little emphasis to the influences of the reader's world knowledge, contextual information, and other higher-order processing strategies. (Dechant 1991).A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text. It says reading is driven by a process that results in meaning (or, in other words, reading is driven by text), and proceeds from part to whole, also known as part-to -whole model. The "bottom up" approach stipulates that the meaning of any text must be "decoded" by the reader and that students are "reading" when they can "sound out" words on a page. (Phonics) It emphasizes the ability to de-code or put into sound what is seen in a text. It ignores helping emerging readers to recognize what they, as readers, bring to the information on the page. The meaning of the text is expected to come naturally as the code is broken based on the reader's prior knowledge of words, their meanings, and the syntactical patterns of his/her language. (McCormick, T. 1988). 'Bottom-up' reading is based on the assumption that reading is initially learned by manipulating the smallest units of language - letters and words, so phonemic awareness is considered the most necessary factor in bottom-up approach of reading. Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness in which listeners are able to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound that can differentiate meaning. Phonemic 12 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES awareness relates to the ability to distinguish and manipulate individual sounds, such as /f/, /ʊ/, and /t/ in the case of foot. It is important to helps students with word recognition and comprehension, also helps them to spell the word correctly. Readers must recognize that spoken words are composed of individual sounds (also known as phonemic awareness). Then, readers can learn the letters of the alphabet representing these sounds. This strategy involves the understanding of small language features, which requires the readers with amount of knowledge of phonic clues and word part clues. Because of its features that confirm the focus of reading from part-to-whole, this process has its students pay their attention the smallest units. Readers eventually watch the word with all of the features such as prefixes, suffixes and inflectional endings. The quality of reading is on small parts of the process. Unlike top-down approach that focus on the amount of reading, the bottom-up approach relying exclusively on linguistic knowledge. Readers will look up to sentences structures, word orders and syntactic clues in the text to solve the task part by part. 2.3 Related studies There have been many deep researches on the application of interactive strategies ( approaches). The first is Interactive approaches to second language reading, which is implemented in 2000 by Patricia C.Lerell, David Eskey and Joanne Davide . They mainly focused on introducing and exploring all features of those strategies of interactive reading, giving very basis knowledge that will be invaluable in teaching and practicing these strategies. The view of this book includes up-to-date theory, researches and classroom application from interactive perspectives. This book supports that reading in a second language involves more than decoding; instead, reading is seen as an interactive process whereby the learner's own background. The second research is “The Interactive model”, which is implemented in 1977 by Rulmehart. His research proposed that interactive reading is a type of the reading process in which reading is a complex task of simultaneously combining "bottom-up" processes (in which the reader analyzes text in small pieces and builds meaning from these) and "top-down" processes (in which the reader makes "guesses" about the content of a passage). His research confirmed two reading strategies from perspective views. Micheal Dambacher, Postdam University, on his book “Bottom-up and top-down process in reading”, 2009, has told that both frequency (bottom-up) and predictability (top-down) has a very strong influence upon readers, through the research about eye movements and eventrelated potential. 13 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES These have been many researches that survey the types of interactive reading strategies, its influence upon readers, its process from perspective views of teaching. I am interested in interactive reading and conduct this research to find out another aspect of learning interactive reading, the attitudes of English-majored freshmen toward interactive reading strategies, and if they think they can make improvement after using these strategies in reading. I hope my research can contribute to the general knowledge of interactive reading and the usage of its strategies of English-majored students in Can tho University. 14 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625 CANTHO UNIVERSITY ENGLISH MAJORED FRESHMEN’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS INTERACTIVE READING STRATEGIES CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter, I will present the research design, description of participants and instruments, and research procedures. 3.1 Research design This research follows the descriptive approach in which attitudes of English majored freshman of Cantho University toward interactive reading’s strategies are surveyed. Moreover, the improvement of reading skills and results of reading after knowing these strategies are also concentrated. 3.2 Participants Eighty-five students, thirty-one males and ninty-four f e males of course 37, Cantho University were invited to participate in the study. The participants consisted of majored English students who attended the Basis reading II classes of Ms Su . These students were recruited to be the subjects of the study for two reasons. Firstly, the students are the first- year students who have just been introduced to interactive reading through Basis Reading classes in two terms. Secondly, their attitudes towards newly taught skills can represent their expectations for those strategies. In short, these students are good representatives for English-majored freshmen in Cantho University. 3.3 Instruments The questionnaire that includes 21 items is employed to know students’ attitudes toward strategies in interactive reading. The questionnaire was partly adapted from Tin (2010). The questionnaire was also partly designed based on what I read from the books of researchers such as Eskey (1970), Miller (2009), Zbonark (2008) etc. The items of the questionnaire were arranged in a random order and were grouped into 4 clusters: (1) Attitudes in using the top-down strategy (2) Attitudes in using the bottom-up strategy (3) Students’ attitudes towards the strategies of interactive reading that they are taught and practice now (4) The improvement in reading including speed, passion and reading text results. 15 Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh Dang Chi Hai 7086625
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