Tài liệu Sử dụng các chiến lược đọc trong việc dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 tại trường thpt trại cau

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LE THI THU HUONG USING READING STRATEGIES IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION FOR THE 11TH GRADE STUDENTS AT TRAI CAU HIGH SCHOOL Sử dụng các chiến lược đọc trong việc dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 tại trường THPT Trại Cau M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Pham Lan Anh THAI NGUYEN - 2019 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I declare that this research report entitled “Using the reading strategies in teaching reading comprehension for the 11th grade students at Trai Cau High School” has been composed by myself, and described my own work, unless otherwise acknowledged in the text. I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master at School or Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University. This work has not been and will not submitted for any degree at any institution of higher education. Author’s signature Le Thi Thu Huong Approved by SUPERVISOR Pham Lan Anh, Ph.D. Date: May, 2019 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Ms. Pham Lan Anh, Ph.D. for the wholehearted guidance she gave me while I was doing this research. I am truly grateful for her valuable support, inspiring suggestions, and timely encouragement during the accomplishment of the research. Without these, the thesis could not have been completed. Secondly, I would also acknowledge my great gratitude to all the professors as well as lectures at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University for the valuable lectures, which have contributed to lay the foundation for this thesis. Thirdly, I take this opportunity to show my gratitude to my colleagues and Trai Cau High School administrations help and comments. Also, my special thanks go to my students of class 11A2 for their active taking part in research. Without help, this study could not have been fulfilled. I owe great debt of gratitude to be my beloved family – my parents, my husband and my children whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of strength that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete this thesis. Finally, I would like to send my special thanks to my readers for their concern, interest and constructive comments. iii ABSTRACT This action research study aims to solve the problem of reading comprehension difficulty experienced by the 11th grade students at Trai Cau High School with an intervention of using reading strategies. Having identified the problem, a plan for implementing and giving three specific reading strategies was set up and carried out during 6 Units with the aim to seek for the effectiveness of using reading strategy. First, the researcher conducted questionnaire survey of teaching and applying reading strategies for students. The results of the questionnaire implied that students did not have awareness of using reading strategies. Thus, the researcher implemented the second step to find out the effectiveness of using reading strategies by students’ reflection of three strategies in 6 reading Units. The results of the students’ reflection point out that these strategies had the dissimilar level of the difficulty, but almost students felt interesting when applying these strategies and saw that they were useful. At the end of the action research cycle, the researcher interviewed students to get the deep information about the effectiveness of using reading strategies. The results of this interview indicated students like using reading strategies to deal with reading tasks. Moreover, although students faced the difficulties in using reading strategies, they all saw that these strategies helped them not only to enhance reading comprehension but also to solve reading tasks’ problem. In general, using reading strategies had positive impact on the students’ reading comprehension. Based on the findings of the study, some discussions and implications were made along with suggestions for further research. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1 1. Rationale for the study .................................................................................. 1 2. Aims of the study .......................................................................................... 2 3. Research questions of the study .................................................................... 3 4. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 3 5. Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3 6. Methods of the study ..................................................................................... 4 7. Structure of the study .................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................... 6 1. Reading comprehension ................................................................................ 6 1.1. Definitions of reading comprehension ....................................................... 6 1.2. The importance of teaching reading .......................................................... 7 2. Language learning strategies ......................................................................... 7 3. Reading strategies ......................................................................................... 8 3.1. Definitions of Reading Strategies .............................................................. 8 3.2. Classification of Reading Strategies ........ Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.3. Models of reading strategy instruction .................................................... 11 3.4. Benefits of reading strategy ..................................................................... 11 4. Review of the previous studies ................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY............................................................... 14 3.1. Restatement of research questions ........................................................... 14 3.2. Rationale for the use of action research ................................................... 14 3.4. Action research model of the study ......................................................... 15 3.4.1. Action research process ........................................................................ 15 3.4. 2. Data collection instruments .................................................................. 18 3.5. Data analysis ............................................................................................ 19 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .......................................... 21 4.1. The findings from students’ reflection ..................................................... 21 v 4.1.1. Data from students’ reflection............................................................... 21 4.2. Specific Cases .......................................................................................... 23 4.2.1. The difficulty of reading strategy ......................................................... 23 4.3. The usefulness level of reading strategy .................................................. 26 4.4 The students’ enjoyment level of reading strategy ................................... 28 4.5. The students’ satisfaction level of reading strategy ................................. 31 4.6. The findings from the interview............................................................... 33 3.4. Discussion ................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION ............... 40 5. 1. Recapitulation ......................................................................................... 41 5.2. Implication and conclusion ...................................................................... 41 5.3. Limitation of the study and recommendations for further research. ....... 43 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 45 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATION AR: Action Reseach RS: Reading Strategies ESL: English as a Second Language vii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1. Students’ overall reflection ............................................................ 21 Chart 4.1.2. Students’ reflection on the use of reading strategy in 6 Units .... 22 Chart 4.2.1 Students’ reflection on the difficulty level of reading strategy in 6 Units ................................................................................................................ 25 Chart 4.3.1 Students’ reflection on the usefulness level of reading strategy in 6 Units ................................................................................................................ 27 Chart 4.4.1. Students ‘reflection on the enjoyment level of reading strategy in 6 Units ................................................................................................................ 30 Chart 4.5.1. Students’ reflection on the satisfaction level of the .................... 33 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1. Plan for 6 Units .............................................................................. 16 Table 4.2 .1.Data of the difficulty of reading strategy .................................... 23 Table 4.3.1 Data of the usefulness level of reading strategy .......................... 26 Table 4.4.1 Data of the students’ enjoyment of reading strategy ................... 28 Table 4.5.1. Data of the students’ satisfaction of reading strategy ................. 31 ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study English is considered as the international language, Pressly (2008) said that “Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign language because it is the foundation of all content knowledge”, today’s world requires that the goal of teaching reading comprehension should improve students’ reading comprehension skill, because only in that way, students can understand more about the outside word. The learners are informed of the events, culture, people, and many other fields in foreign countries through English newspaper, magazines, books or internet. Reading is the key that unlocks the door in the world of enlightenment and enjoyment. Among the four skills in learning English as a foreign language, reading comprehension is the most challenging and difficult task for the learner in studying English. Reading comprehension is a complex process for many students, it is even more complicated to read in a foreign language. Vietnamese teachers and learners of English in high school are facing many difficulties in teaching and learning reading comprehension skills. For the learners, it is sometimes very difficult to understand a text or a passage in English because they do not know the ways to improve their English reading comprehension skill. It is necessary to use strategies to improve English reading comprehension skill of students at high school because reading comprehension is a complicated activity that involves many skills, literal understanding, distinguishing fact/opinion, grammar and vocabulary. Many Vietnamese teachers today are using reading strategies to make students easier to improve English reading comprehension skills. It includes guess from context, define expectations, make inferences about the text, skim ahead to fill in the context, Finding the main idea – skimming, Selecting details – scanning, Interpreting graphics, Vocabulary, Summarizing, outlining, Figure of speech Appeal to senses, making conclusion, Paraphrasing, Interpreting, Getting the idea quickly, Highlighting, Using linguistic clues … and any other strategy instruction which may contribute to teaching reading comprehension. 1 Using reading strategies can help students to become more interested in reading comprehension and encourage them to read. During reading comprehension, the reader processes the text with regard to the purpose. Processing the text involves, beyond decoding, higher-level linguistic and semantic processing and monitoring. Each process is more or less important in different strategy instructions of reading, including Getting the idea quickly, Highlighting, Using linguistic clues. Using reading strategies in teaching reading comprehension, students need prior knowledge of a subject activated or built. This can be done by first establishing a purpose for reading; Getting the idea quickly, Highlighting, Using linguistic clues. Next, teachers guide students to generate questions about the topic and make predictions and inferences. The text structure needs to be evaluated to identify any supports present; comprehension should be taught using the context of the selection In using reading strategies in teaching reading comprehension process, students need to monitor their comprehension by asking themselves questions, making inferences, and creating mental images. If confused or not understood, the student must know how to reread a passage. Students can be summarized, analyzed. Among the many advantages of using reading strategy instructions are the control they give to the individual learner over his or her own rate and sequence of learning, their interactive nature which ensures the learner's active participation in the learning process and immediate reinforcement they provide. At Trai Cau high school it was observed that majority of students’ are lack of using reading strategies which are needed to become effective readers. To help the students enhance reading comprehension skill, the researcher would like to establish the using reading strategies for students with the purpose of helping teachers find possible, effective ways and means to improve the reading comprehension skills of the students. Thus making them realize that reading problems may be minimized if not totally remedied. 2. Aims of the study This action research study aimed to solve the 11th grade Trai Cau students’ problem in reading comprehension by using reading strategies. 2 3. Research questions of the study The purpose of this study is to examine if the solution for the 11th grade students’ problem in reading comprehension is effective or not. Specifically, this sought to answer the following question: To what extent is the use of reading strategies effective in teaching reading comprehension? To answer the research question, the researcher carried out the following three steps: - The first step is investigating what and how reading strategies have been used by the 11th grade students up to the time this thesis was started. - The second step is taking the action of using reading strategies when teaching reading comprehension. - The third step is examining how students use reading strategies. 4. Scope of the study The study was conducted with the participation of 30 11th grade students at Trai Cau High School. Due to time and energy constraints, the study hardly cover all types of reading strategies. So, it focuses on three reading strategies among direct strategies suggested by Oxford 1990. They are: getting the idea quickly, highlighting, and using linguistic clues in teaching reading comprehension. 5. Significance of the study This research might be beneficial to people who are interested in enhancing the students’ ability in reading comprehension. It can benefit the students and teachers. This study is significant because of several reasons. Firstly, the reality has shown that learning reading skills Trai Cau High School is far from satisfaction, so it is expected that the study would make the students at Trai Cau High School more aware of the importance of reading strategies in improving reading comprehension. Especially, the study points out how the use of reading strategies, particularly three reading strategies: getting the idea quickly, highlighting, and using linguistic clues in teaching reading comprehension Trai Cau high school. Secondly, the results of the study probably 3 suggest the efficient ways to help not only students at Trai Cau High School to improve their reading comprehension skill, but also teachers there know how to improve their students’ reading comprehension skill. Finally, it is hoped that the study will bring new ideas in teaching and developing students’ reading skill. It will also raise their interest in reading. 6. Methods of the study To achieve these aims, both qualitative and quantitative methods were exploited in this action research. The data were collected via student’s reflection, and semistructured interview. Specifically, the data about the effectiveness of students’ use of strategies on their reading skills during the action of the study, were collected via students’ reflection and semi-structured interview. 7. Structure of the thesis The thesis comprises of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1: “Introduction” - covers the reasons why the study is carried out, defines the aims of the study as well as the research questions. The significance of the study and the organization of the thesis will be covered. Chapter 2: “Literature review” - gives an overview of reading strategies different definitions and classification systems. Furthermore, reading comprehension and reading strategies were also referred to, followed by the definitions and classification of reading strategies. This chapter also addresses the review of previous research into reading strategies use in general and reading strategy use in particular. Chapter 3: “The research methodology” - discusses the methodology for this study as well as the procedure to carry out. It includes issues like instrumentation and process of data collection, data analysis. Chapter 4: “Research findings and discussions” - presents the results after data collection was analyzed. The findings of the research will also be discussed in comparison with ones mentioned in the study. Chapter 5: “Implications and conclusion” - proposes some implications in the field of language teaching and learning based on the results from the study. The next 4 part is about the limitation of the research and suggestion for further research as well. After that, the conclusion of the study is made to summarize the whole study. 5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature relevant to the study. It gives an overview of reading strategies - different definitions and classification systems. Furthermore, reading comprehension and reading strategies were also referred to, followed by the definitions and classification of reading strategies. This chapter also addresses the review of previous research into reading strategies use in general and reading strategy use in particular. 1. Reading comprehension 1.1. Definitions of reading comprehension The term “Reading” is defined in Longman Dictionary of Language teaching and Applied Linguistic (2002) as: “perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents. This can be done silently (silent reading). The understanding that results is called reading comprehension.” and “saying a written text aloud (oral reading). This can be done with or without an understanding of the contents. a, Literal comprehension: reading in order to understand, remember, or recall the information explicitly contained in a passage. b, Inferential comprehension: reading in order to find information which is not explicitly stated in a passage, using the reader’s experience and intuition, and by inferring. c, Critical or evaluative comprehension: reading in order to compare information in a passage with the reader’s own knowledge and values. d, Appreciative comprehension: reading in order to gain an emotional or other kind of valued response from a passage”. However, some researchers argued that reading is a selective process. For example, Goodman (1967); Harmer (1991); Anderson (2003); Woolley, G. (2011); Snow (2002); Abu Shamla (2010); Swihart (2009); Chio (2009); Moreover, there are a lot of useful things that we get when reading. Other skills such as spelling, vocabulary and pronunciation, and so on are improved through reading. Besides, Fitzgerald (1989) points out that most of these studies focus on reading and its 6 influence on other skills. Thus, teaching reading is essential thing, and we need to concern about this problem. 1.2. The importance of teaching reading Reading is the important element of knowledge because we need to read written materials. Swihart (2009) states that “reading is a very pivotal skill in our life and it is important for the mind and the success of students’ academic career as people who can not read well, don’t do well in school and lose a lot of important things in life”. Moreover, Chio (2009) states that reading is asserted to have close relationship with other language leaning processes and play an important role in language learning in general. Besides, Fitzgerald (1989) points out that most of these studies focus on reading and its influence on other skills. Thus, teaching reading is essential thing, and we need to concern about this problem. 2. Language learning strategies * Definition of language learning strategies For many years, Language learning strategies have been one of the most researched topics of second and foreign language education. Based on Language learning strategies, scholars and researchers will propose specific strategies. Following, Rubin (1975) defines learning strategies as “the techniques or devices, which a learner may use to acquire knowledge”. In another study, Rubin (1987) states that “Language learning strategies are strategies which contribute to the development of the language system which the learner constructs and affect learning directly”. In Cohen’s words (1996, cited in J.Liu, 2010), Language learning strategies are defined as “learning processes which are consciously selected by the learner which may result in actions taken to enhance learning”. According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990) offers another definition of Language learning strategies as “the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information”. Oxford (1990) states that Language learning strategies are “specific action taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, 7 more effective and more transferable to new situations”. These definitions points out that strategies help students to achieve comprehension and to learn new information. To sum up, language learning strategies are actions or techniques that are used to improve and develop the second language skills. 3. Reading strategies 3.1. Definition of reading strategies Reading strategies are necessary for students when they want to improve their reading skills. Reading strategies are often taught by teachers or used by students in various ways. Farrell (2001) stated that students can benefit from learning reading strategies and that these strategies can be taught. Yang (2006) determined that the procession and utilization of comprehension monitoring strategies provide readers greater help in the comprehension of material. Most individuals have personal strategies that they develop as ways to understand what they read. To have a deep understanding of reading strategies, it is necessary to make clear the terms “strategy” and “learning strategy”. Strategy is defined as a plan or method that is designed to reach a goal. According to Brown (2007) strategies are defined as the specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information. Learning strategies can be defined in various ways. An early definition by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) stated that learning strategies are “the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information” (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990, p.1). Another definition given by Oxford (1990) “Learning strategies can be defined as conscious “steps taken by students to enhance their own learning”. Oxford (2003) expands and defines learning strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more selfdirected, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford, 2003, p.9). It can be understood that learning strategies are taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, and more effective. Reading strategies are defined differently by researchers. Davies (1995) defined reading strategy as a physical or mental process used consciously or unconsciously in 8 order to facilitate text comprehension and learning. Similarly Abbott (2006) stated that reading strategies are “the mental operations or comprehension processes that readers select and apply in order to make sense of what they read.” (Abbott, 2006, p.637). According to Garner (1987), reading strategies are defined as “Generally deliberate, playful activities undertaken by active learners, many times to remedy perceived cognitive failure” (Garner, 1987, p.50). Carrell (1998) stated that “Reading strategies are of interest not only for what they reveal about the ways readers manage interactions with written text but also for how the use of strategies is related to effective comprehension” (Carrell, 1998, p.97). Another definition suggested by (Baker & Boonkit, 2004) is that reading strategies are “techniques and methods readers use to make their reading successful”. Also Yang (2006) stated that reading strategies include things such as predicting content, posing questions, recognizing text structure, integrating information, reflecting, monitoring comprehension, utilizing general knowledge, and reacting to the text. According to Baker and Brown (1984), reading strategies contain cognitive and metacognitive strategies in reading. Cognitive strategies are conscious ways in dealing with learning, such as resourcing, deduction, grouping, note-taking, translation and elaboration. Metacognitive strategies are used to monitor or regulate cognitive strategies, which include checking the outcome of any attempt to solve a problem, planning one’s next move, monitoring the effectiveness of any attempted action, revising, and evaluating one’s strategies for learning. Additionally, Barnett (2002) has used the term reading strategy to refer to the cognitive operations when readers approach a text in order to make sense of what they read. In this sense, reading strategies can be understood as the comprehension processes that are used by readers to make sense of the reading text. From another perspective, Janzen (2003) defined reading strategies as plans and behaviors for solving problems when faced in constructing meaning. He believes that these strategies range from bottom-up strategies to top-down strategies. Bottom-up strategies are defined as making use of information such as understanding the text by analyzing the words and sentences in the text itself, or looking up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary. Top-down strategies make use of previous knowledge such as connecting what is being read to readers’ background knowledge. 9 From the various opinions of linguists, it can be concluded that reading strategies are actions and techniques that help readers to comprehend the written and achieve reading tasks. It is important to note that there are many types of reading strategies and they are used in many different ways according to contexts and learners. Therefore, finding out which reading strategies are employed effectively in improving reading skill is essential for both teachers and learners. Also it is important for teachers to determine which strategies should be included in the syllabus when teaching the reading comprehension skill. 3.2. Classification of reading strategies Reading strategies are categorized in many ways by various researchers. Some researchers classified reading strategies according to the time namely before, during, or after reading. Before-reading or pre-reading strategy is used to activate prior knowledge of the readers in relevance to the reading text. During reading strategies are used to identify main idea, make reference and cross-reference whereas after reading, or postreading, strategies are used to review the text content. Some others categorize these strategies as either global or local according to the part of the text on which they focus. Block (1986) classified reading strategies as general strategies (comprehensiongathering and comprehension-monitoring) and local strategies (understanding specific language Units). Meanwhile, Anderson (1991, p.463) proposed a detailed classification of reading strategies including five major groups: supervising strategies, support strategies, paraphrase strategies, coherence strategies and test-taking strategies. The O’Malley and Chamot (1990) used three categories to classify the types of strategies in their framework: metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, and social/affective strategies. Metacognitive strategies involve learning and controlling learning through planning, monitoring and evaluating the learning activity. Cognitive strategies involve the manipulation or transformation of the material to be learned, such as resourcing, repetition, grouping, deduction, imagery, auditory representation, key word method, elaboration, transfer, note taking, summarizing, and translation. Social/affective strategies mainly involve the learner in communicative interaction with another person. 10 3.3. Models of reading strategies There are many similar features in these instructional models. All of them agree on the importance of developing students’ metacognitive awareness of the value of learning strategies and suggest that this is facilitated through teacher demonstration and modeling. All these models emphasize the importance of providing opportunities to practice with the strategies so that students can use them autonomously. All suggest that students should evaluate how well a strategy has worked and choose appropriate strategies for a task, and actively transfer these strategies to new tasks. As mentioned in 1.2.2, we can see typical models of learning language srategy. However, although these instructional models have some differences in effectiveness, the explicit reading strategy instruction suggested by Chamot & O’Malley (1993) is chosen for this study because it is suitable for my training program and kind of the text and reading tasks. The application of this model was discussed in 2.5.1.2. 3.4. Benefits of reading strategies Obviously, reading strategies bring the positive effect for the users. Macalister (2010) believes that “in order to teach learners how to read, there needs to be focus on developing strategies that will assist further reading”. In Sergio’s study (2011), he pointed out the benefits of using reading strategies. For the foreign language readers, reading strategies helps them to improve in reading comprehension. Also, students apply the reading strategies, their performance becomes confident and their motivation enhances considerably. Moreover, the use of a dictionary reduces as they read or fulfill reading tasks. In a study, Carrell et al. (1989) conducted a research study to examine the effects of cognitive and metacognitive reading strategy teaching on high-intermediate level adult ESL students of various first language backgrounds. The students were trained in semantic mapping and the experience-text-relationship method to activate background knowledge. Each group of students also received training in metacognitive awareness and regulation of the two strategies. The findings from the post-tests positively indicated that the metacognitive and cognitive strategy instruction were successful in enhancing reading comprehension. 11