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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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?
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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,
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Supervisor: Luu Hoang Anh
Dang Chi Hai 7086625
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