Tài liệu Nghiên cứu về việc áp dụng kỹ năng đọc phê phán khi làm reading logs của sinh viên năm nhất hệ chất lượng cao khoa sư phạm tiếng anh trường đại học ngoại ngữ đại học quốc gia hà nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER THE APPLICATION OF CRITICAL READING IN READING LOGS ASSIGNMENT AS PERCEIVED BY FRESHMEN OF THE FAST-TRACK DIVISION, FELTE, ULIS, VNU Supervisor: Phạm Thanh Thủy (M.Ed) Student: Nguyễn Phương Liên Course: QH2015.F1.E2 Hanoi – 2019 Signature of Approval: ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC PHÊ PHÁN KHI LÀM READING LOGS CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT HỆ CHẤT LƯỢNG CAO, KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Ths. Phạm Thanh Thủy Sinh viên: Nguyễn Phương Liên Khóa: QH2015.F1.E2 HÀ NỘI – 2019 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyen Phuong Lien, class QH2015.F1.E2, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours Programme) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To be honest, my journey to complete this graduation paper was long and arduous. However, after all, I realized that I learnt more than what was written in this paper. This part is dedicated to the wonderful people, without whom this paper would have never been completed. First of all, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Pham Thanh Thuy. Her attentive guide and tremendous support in 6 continuous months have been the motivation for me to complete this research paper. Without her, I could not have had this paper completed. Second, I would like to express my appreciation to my brothers and sisters in classes 18E1, 18E2 and 18E20, who not only helped me during the data collection process but also sent me continuous support. They are Hai Anh, Huy Hoang, and Bui Ha. Besides, I would like to say thank you to 72 participants for their time and effort taking part in this research. Third, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my seniors – Ms. Nguyen Phuc Cam Nhi and Mr. Nguyen Vu Quoc Duy for becoming my second supervisors by giving me precious advice and motivating me in the hardest time. I want to say ‘thank you’ to my beloved family for the endless love and support in every moment of my life. Thank you, my precious friends, including 9A10 girls, Benzen girls, Cam Tu, Thu Hang and 15E2 buddies. You cried with me, you smiled with me, you stayed up all night with me to finish this paper. Finally, thank you, my dearest Ong Seongwu, for your exceptionally inspiring support for me. i ABSTRACT Infobesity – Information obesity, which means information overload, reflects exactly what people are experiencing in this era of technologies. With technological advancements, people become indecisive when reading different writings written by different people with different viewpoints but about the same issue. Gradually, people’s critical mind gets eroded with the words they read. Being aware of the information trap, it is of the utmost importance for freshmen in the Fast-track program of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education (FELTE) – University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS) to avoid being baited by developing critical reading proficiency. With an aim to foster and improve students’ critical reading proficiency, the Reading Logs assignment has been introduced to these freshmen in their very first semester. In this paper, the researcher aims to investigate into the application of critical reading skills during the process of doing Reading Logs as well as the critical reading proficiency achieved by students after their completing the Reading Logs assignment. To achieve the target, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted for data collection and analysis. Both questionnaires and interviews were utilized to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which then would be analyzed by statistical and thematic data analytic techniques. Based on the framework proposed by Li (2010), the results reveal that students could exploit skills of different levels namely approaching skills, analyzing skills, meaning discovering skills, and evaluating skills. Moreover, after the Reading Logs assignment, they could achieve a certain level of critical reading proficiency. However, there still existed gaps to improve in order to reinforce students’ critical reading proficiency through this assignment. In this research, some suggestions would also be offered for the betterment of the assignment. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................... i Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii List of figures, tables and abbreviations ......................................................................... v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1 1. Rationale of the research ............................................................................................ 1 2. Objectives of the research & research questions ........................................................ 2 3. Scope of the research .................................................................................................. 2 4. Significance of the research ........................................................................................ 2 5. Organization of the research ...................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 4 1. The concept of critical reading ................................................................................... 4 2. Critical reading proficiency framework ..................................................................... 6 3. Reading Logs Assignment ........................................................................................ 10 4. Research gap ............................................................................................................. 10 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 12 1. Research methodology ............................................................................................. 12 2. Participants ............................................................................................................... 12 3. Data collection instruments and procedure ............................................................. 13 3.1. Data collection instruments .............................................................................. 13 iii 3.1.1. Questionnaire .......................................................................................... 13 3.1.2. Interview ................................................................................................. 21 3.2. Data collection procedure ................................................................................ 21 4. Data analysis method and procedure ....................................................................... 22 4.1. Quantitative analysis strategies......................................................................... 22 4.2. Qualitative analysis strategies ........................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................... 24 1. Data analysis ............................................................................................................. 24 2. Findings and discussion ............................................................................................ 43 3. Pedagogical implications and suggestions ............................................................... 47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .................................................................................. 49 1. Summary of major findings ...................................................................................... 49 2. Limitations and suggestions for further studies........................................................ 49 References Appendices iv List of Figures 1. The degree of following guiding questions among Fast-track 25 freshmen while reading for Reading Logs assignment 2. Average rate of Fast-track freshmen in each level of CRP 26 inventory 3. The performance of Fast-track Freshmen at Level 1 of CRP 27 inventory 4. The performance of Fast-track Freshmen at Level 2 of CRP 29 inventory 5. The performance of Fast-track Freshmen at Level 3 of CRP 30 inventory 6. The performance of word determination among Fast-track 31 freshmen while reading texts 7. The performance of Fast-track Freshmen at Level 4 of CRP 33 inventory 8. The performance of Fast-track Freshmen at Level 5 of CRP 35 inventory 9. The average rating of Fast-track freshmen on each level of CRP 36 based on Four-level Framework of CRP developed by Li (2010) 10. The rating of Fast-track freshmen on Structure Analysis Level 37 based on Four-level Framework of CRP developed by Li (2010) 11. The rating of Fast-track freshmen on Rhetoric Analysis Level 39 based on Four-level Framework of CRP developed by Li (2010) 12. The rating of Fast-track freshmen on Social Relevance Level 40 based on Four-level Framework of CRP developed by Li (2010) 13. The rating of Fast-track freshmen on Holistic Evaluation Level based on Four-level Framework of CRP developed by Li (2010) v 42 List of Tables 1. Summary of definitions of critical reading (Li, 2010) 4 2. A Four-level Framework of CRP (Li, 2010) 7 3. Table of Critical Reading Proficiency inventory (Li, 2010) 14 4. Table of CRP inventory divided into levels based on Li’s 18 framework List of Abbreviations CR Critical Reading CRP Critical Reading Proficiency CLAST College Level Academic Skills Test FELTE Faculty of English Language Teacher Education ULIS University of Languages and International Studies VNU Vietnam National University vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the research In the era of information and communication technologies, people are offered to get access to an overwhelmingly huge amount of information without paying much cost or putting in much effort (Rev, 2014). However, not all the available information is completely true or agreed on by everyone. About one issue, there can be countless opinions which are backed up by their own bases. Readers are free to take a side or even offer another opinion of their own. Therefore, this availability and freedom pose a need for critical reading from readers so that they will not go with or be controlled easily by anyone’s words. It is not only reading or comprehending a text. More than that, critical reading means that people insert their personal perspectives and make “careful evaluation, sound judgment and reasoning powers” (Millan, 1995: 218). It is of a more significant need for students of Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University (hereafter referred to as FELTE, ULIS, VNU) to demonstrate critical reading in the context of studying to become the English language teachers. However, according to Vu (2015), only a low proportion of FELTE, ULIS students can demonstrate appropriate critical reading skills at the basic level. Being aware of that, the Reading Logs assignment has been designed for the Fast-track freshmen of FELTE, ULIS. As clearly stated in the Course Guide 1A* (Updated in August 2018), the Reading Logs assignment offered students a chance to read several texts of different genres and styles. The assignment consisted of three entries, for each of which, students were required to read and analyze one text of about 400-500 words in groups. After group discussions, students were expected to share their reading logs with the whole class within the designated weeks. At the beginning of the semester, a list of guiding questions was provided for students to stimulate their critical reading skills in the reading procedure. Although there were researches which studied the promotion of critical reading in general and the effectiveness of critical reading development in certain particular projects, there was no relevant research about Reading Logs assignment and few chances were offered to students to reflect on their critical 1 reading proficiency. Also, the current marking criteria could hardly measure the proficiency to read critically of learners. Those are the gaps that need fulfilling through this research. 2. Objectives of the research & research questions This study focuses on two main objectives: (1) Analyze students’ ability to utilize critical reading skills during their time doing Reading Logs, specifically what skills and what skill levels they exploited; (2) Assess student’s critical reading proficiency after doing Reading Logs based on their self-reflections. To accomplish these objectives, a combination of qualitative and quantitative researches was employed, aiming at answering two research questions: 1. What critical reading skills did FELTE, ULIS Fast-track freshmen apply when they read a text for Reading Logs assignment? 2. On a Four-level framework of Critical Reading Proficiency developed by Li in 2010, to what level can Reading Logs promote FELTE ULIS Fast-track freshmen’s critical reading proficiency as perceived by ULIS Fast-track freshmen? Based on the findings from these two questions, some pedagogical implications were expected to be contributed to the teaching and learning curriculum of Fast-track program in FELTE, ULIS. 3. Scope of the research The research aims to study the application of critical reading skills among Fast-track freshmen in FELTE, ULIS. Therefore, the participants of this research are students from three QH2018 Fast-track classes, who have just finished their Reading Logs in the previous semester. 4. Significance of the research Being aware of the gap to bridge, this research aims to study the Fast-track freshmen’s application of critical reading skills and evaluate how far they can promote the skills during their reading procedure based on a framework to assess critical reading proficiency developed by Li (2010). Regarding the significance of this research, both 2 learners and teachers can benefit from it. For learners, they can find the flaws in their previous reading strategies and make some adjustments to improve. For the teachers or curriculum developers, it is a chance to review the effectiveness of the assignment in promoting critical reading skills and consider the ways to improve the assignment. 5. Organization of the research This research paper is divided into five chapters namely Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings and Discussion, and Conclusion. Each part plays a distinctive role to accomplish the objectives of this research. In the first chapter, which is the Introduction, the rationale, objectives, scope and significance of the research are clarified, giving an overview of this research paper. The next two chapters, which are the Literature Review and Methodology, play important roles in introducing the development of the research. In the Literature Review chapter, the theoretical bases of the research are proposed. Meanwhile, the Methodology chapter brings a closer look into the data collection methods as well as the data analyzing strategies utilized in the study. All the data analysis results and discussion are presented in the fourth chapter called Findings & Discussion. Moreover, the pedagogical implications derived from the results can also be found in this chapter. Last but not least, the conclusion chapter covers the summary of major findings and points out the limitations of this research. Some recommendations for further studies are also included in this chapter. 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, not only are the key literature concepts and definitions presented, but the correlation of this research with existing works is also be located. 1. The concept of critical reading There have been several pieces of research regarding the topic of critical reading. Li (2010) made a summary of different ways to define “critical reading” over the 30-year period as follows. Author(s) Main points of the definition Year Poulson& It asks for keeping an open mind, retaining a 2004 Wallace conditional willingness to be convinced, etc. Schwegler Critical reading is active reading. It involves some 2004 activity on the reader’s part. Pirozzi It is high-level comprehension of written material 2003 requiring interpretation and evaluation skills. Bean, et al. Critical reading, like writing, is an active process of 2002 composing. Garrigus It requires to explain figurative language and to 2002 identify basic logical fallacies and emotional appeals. Milan It requires to maintain objectivity and not to allow 1995 expectations, biases, or personal prejudices to interfere with understanding. Phillips & It is more than the ability to understand the explicit Sotiriou meaning of the passage. It involves application, 1992 analysis, evaluation and imagination. Adams It refers to distinguishing fact from opinion, recognizing intent, attitude, and tone; recognizing inferences and drawing conclusions. 4 1989 Clegg It distinguishes between truth and distortion, 1988 information and propaganda, public policy and personal prejudice. Hancock It requires to question, compare, and evaluate, to 1987 detect faulty logic and information… and then to determine to accept or reject the information. Maker & Critical reading enables to size up the author’s Lenier arguments and to evaluate how well he supports them. 1986 A reader must think beyond what is stated and decide what the author is trying to imply Wassman Paye & Critical readers evaluate the writer’s information and 1985 draw conclusions of their own. Raygor & It requires to distinguishes among humor, satire, Raygor sarcasm, irony, and straightforward writing; to 1985 recognize implicit assumptions or inferences the author is making, etc. Spache & It is the ability to read with analysis and judgment. 1984 Berg Hafner It is a thinking process that is improved by way of 1974 using language more constructively and clarifying concepts through discussion and questioning. Table 1. Summary of definitions of critical reading (Li, 2010) All definitions have their own merits. This research eventually followed Spache’s and Berg’s definition in 1984 for the fact that it could involve all ideologies from other definitions. According to Spache and Berg (1984), ‘critical thinking is the ability to read with analysis and judgement’ and it requires the combination of both writers’ and readers’ ideologies, which may lead to a new way to avouch a problem or an idea in the text. Moving beyond the one-way communication by which writers can convey their ideologies, attitudes or beliefs, and readers are meant to read and comprehend all of 5 those, an “interaction” is built up to connect the writers and readers’ perspectives. Some of the ideas, attitudes and beliefs are synchronized, but there exist conflicts between two ways of processing information: one coming from the reading materials and one coming from the readers’ own experiences and ideologies. Therefore, reading with analysis and judgment becomes vital to develop a high level of comprehension of the written text. According to Pirozzi (2003), by analyzing carefully, readers are able to make the decision on what is important in a text, whether one idea is a fact or writer’s opinion and sometimes, readers make evaluation on both writers’ arguments and their own reading of the texts. 2. Critical reading proficiency framework Before approaching the critical reading proficiency assessing framework developed by Li in 2010, it is necessary to clarify the variable levels of reading proficiency. Entailing from Pirozzi’s definition (2003), being able to read a written text critically means that the readers are more likely to comprehend the materials effectively. Lower than that, it is categorized into literal comprehension skills. As cited in Li’s research in 2010, the College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) has classified different identities of literal comprehension and critical comprehension as below: Literal comprehension skills are divided into three areas. 1) Recognize the main idea/ideas in a passage 2) Identify supporting details 3) Determine meanings of words on the basis of context clues Critical comprehension skills are divided into nine areas. 1) Recognize the author’s purpose 2) Identify the author’s overall organization pattern 3) Distinguish between statements of fact and statements of opinion 4) Detect bias in the passage or by the author 5) Recognize the author’s tone 6 6) Recognize explicit and implicit relationships within sentences 7) Recognize explicit and implicit relationships between sentences 8) Recognize valid/invalid arguments 9) Draw logical inferences and conclusions (The CLAST website, 2007) Based on the aforementioned categories of CLAST (2007) and checklists illustrating the critical reading proficiency of Garrigus (2002), Bean (2002), Clegg (1988), Milan (1995), Pirozzi (2003), Poulson & Wallace (2004), Raygor (1985), Li finally came up with a hierarchical framework of critical reading proficiency consisting of four levels, which is demonstrated in Table 2 below. This framework was chosen as the theory base for this research. Level Description At structure analysis Being able to guess words in context level Being able to summarize the main idea of the paragraph Being able to summarize the main idea of the text Being able to deduce sentence inference in context Being able to separate major ideas from minor ideas Being able to recognize developing methods Being able to recognize the pattern of paragraph organization Being able to distinguish facts and opinions Being able to distinguish among opposing viewpoints Being able to understand graphics At rhetoric analysis Being able to recognize text register and genre level Being able to recognize the writer’s purposes Being able to recognize the writer’s tone Being able to evaluate word choice Being able to recognize misused and abused language Being able to explain figurative language Being able to recognize and understand the rhetorical devices 7 Being able to uncover arguments Being able to assess arguments Being able to recognize appeals in arguments Being able to recognize logical fallacies Being able to recognize manipulative techniques At social relevance Being able to relate the text to culture background level Being able to relate the text to event background Being able to relate the text to author background Being able to relate the text to situational context Being able to relate the text to intertextual context At holistic Being able to read from critical distance evaluation level Being able to evaluate the text objectively Being able to summarize the questions the text addresses Being able to critique information presentation channels Being able to examine the source Being able to examine a text’s ideology Being able to know who are the intended audience Being able to understand how the author supports the thesis with reason and evidence Being able to perceive how the author hooks the intended reader’s interest Being able to read and then write a reasonable brief summary of the text Table 2. A Four-level Framework of CRP (Li, 2010) Following this framework, a CRP test focus inventory was developed by Li in 2010. However, this inventory did not provide the guiding questions like what the course developers did in the Course Guide 1A*. Instead, it pointed out the details of each facet in a component. More importantly, the inventory focused on critical reading skills rather than the general guiding questions used in the current curriculum. To evaluate the CRP, the inventory would perform better. 8 At the very first level, Li concentrated on the smallest unit of text which was paragraph. In this level, readers were required to generate a general understanding of main ideas of paragraphs and texts, viewpoints and the overall developing methods. At a higher level called Rhetoric Analysis level, readers were expected to be able to identify writers’ tone. Besides, readers could evaluate word choice, assess the arguments, recognize the appeals and fallacies in terms of logic. Moving beyond the meaning discovery in Rhetoric analysis, readers were expected to be able to relate to backgrounds and contexts for better comprehension of the texts. Finally, at the highest level of the framework, Li pointed out that at Holistic evaluation level, readers should be able to understand the way writers supported his or her thesis, the hooks he or she brought to readers as well as the ideology of the text. Entailing from this ability, readers were expected to summarize the text in their own words and express their personal points of view. There existed other researches that studied and developed frameworks or criteria to assess CRP. In 2014, Woodbeck introduced a holistic assessment rubric to evaluate critical reading proficiency regarding four dimensions namely comprehension, explication, reflection and application. However, this work of criteria was mostly concerned about the ability to recognize and evaluate texts’ ideology and thesis development, which meant several factors that might influence the ability to read critically such as word usage, backgrounds and contexts. Of all the relevant researches, Li’s framework was thorough and easy to follow. The requirements in each level were clear and presented meticulously. Therefore, it was chosen to be the core theory base of this research. In general, all Li’s framework and inventory were built on general language teaching and learning context. If being applied in the right way, it would be the ultimate tool for teachers to evaluate learners’ critical reading proficiency more appropriately and precisely. 9 3. Reading Logs Assignment Reading Logs assignment was specially designed for Fast-track freshmen in Semester 1 of 1st year in FELTE, ULIS. Reading skills, writing skills and even speaking skills were integrated into this assignment. At the first stage of this assignment, students worked in groups of four and were required to finish three entries in one semester. For each entry, groups were asked to read a text of between 400-500 words and of required genres such as Fiction/Literature reading, Informative reading and Argumentative reading. After the individual reading process, a group discussion was conducted for students to share and analyze the text together. Besides the group presentation, individual reports of students’ own analysis were also submitted by the end of the entries. Working on this assignment offered every student opportunity to closely read, analyze and evaluate the texts based on the guiding steps and guiding questions. The guidance is can be found in Appendix 1. The procedure is believed to follow the strategies to develop students’ critical reading skills. Students’ compliance with the guidance of the Course Guide 1A* (2018) and the Reading Logs assignment’s effectiveness in critical reading promotion would be the main focus of this research. 4. Research gap There have been a number of studies conducted on the development of critical reading skills as well as its effectiveness. In the nature of FELTE - ULIS, the promotion of critical reading was the focus in two pieces of research which were conducted by Vu (2015) and by Nguyen and Tran (2016). While Vu conducted the research on the exploitation of case-study on critical reading skills and his participants were the thirdyear Fast-track students in 2015, Nguyen and Tran (2016) focused on the effectiveness of critical reading in one project called Scrapbook, which was specially designed for the sophomores of Fast-track program. In 2015, Vu mentioned the necessity to integrate reading and writing in the syllabus as well as in the training curriculum in order to develop critical reading proficiency. Scrapbook was one of the projects in the curriculum. According to the study of Nguyen 10