Tài liệu The effects of schemata building on improving grade 10 students' reading skills at da tong high school master's thesis of tesol

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY ------------------ MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL BY HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099 Supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. PHAM VU PHI HO BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY ------------------- MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL BY HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099 Supervised by Assoc. Prof. Dr. PHAM VU PHI HO BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022 The thesis entitled THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL was successfully defended and approved on September 18th, 2022 at Ba Ria Vung Tau University. Academic supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr. PHAM VU PHI HO Examination committee 1. Assoc.Prof.Dr. NGUYEN HUU DUC…………Chair 2. Ph.D. BUI THI KIM LOAN……………………Reader 1 3. Ph.D. NGUYEN XUAN HONG……………….Reader 2 4. Ph.D. NGUYEN HUU THE……………………Member 5. Ph.D. DINH LU GIANG………………………Secretary member On behalf of the Examination Committee Chair (full name, title, signature) Assoc.Prof.Dr.NGUYEN HUU DUC i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY BA RIA VUNG TAU, April 2022 MASTER’S THESIS REPORT Student name: Hoang Thi Thu Date of birth: 19/08/1991 ThaiMajor: MTESOL Sex: Female Place of birth: Pho Yen, Bac Student code: 18110099 I- Thesis title: The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading skills at Da Tong high school II- Objectives and contents: The present study was carried out with the aim to explore effects of schemata- building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills. This study adopted quasiexperimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities. The researcher used the quasi- experimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension. A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group. A quantitative research was used in the study. Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method. The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research. The qualitative part of the study was used to crosscheck with quantitative data about the students’ perceptions towards the improvement of schemata building ii activities in reading comprehension. In the scope of the present research, the qualitative data collected from interview was implemented after the quantitative data collected from the pretest and the posttest on the purpose of fostering the understanding and the interpretation of the results. III- Starting date: August 1, 2020 IV- Completing date: December 15, 2021 V- Academic supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. PHAM VU PHI HO iii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled: “The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading skills at Da Tong high school” Ba Ria Vung Tau, 2022 Signature iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of theses deposited in the Library. I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of theses. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is a report of a research that could not have been accomplished withoutthe help and support of many people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Vu Phi Ho, for his advice, critical questions, valuable suggestions, detailed comments, and hands-on experience. His enthusiasm and great care will always be remembered. Second, special thanks are also forwarded to all of my teachers who have taught and guided me with useful knowledge and experience during the M.A. course. Third, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Principal of Da Tong high school – Mr. Cao Xuan Thai, the Head of English group – Ms. Dong Gur K’ Dan, Ms. K’Trinh for their permission and support during the data collection process. Fourth, a big thank goes to the student participants at Da Tong high school who have been willing to fulfill the study’s tests and involve in the interview. This thesis would not be possible without their kindness and willingness. Finally, I would like to express my greatest love and gratitude to my beloved husband who inspired me to take this M.A. course, my beloved father and mothers, who always give me love and care, and my little son, who has been my greatest motivationduring my M.A. course. My dream of fulfilling this academic goal in life would have been impossible without my beloved people vi ABSTRACT This study aimed at exploring effects of schemata-building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills. This study adopted quasi-experimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities. The researcher used the quasiexperimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension. A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group. A quantitative research was used in the study. Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method. The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research. The results of the study have indicated that students can enhance their reading comprehension through using schemata building activities. This utterance was proved by the better performance in the post-test of the experiment group than the performance of the control group. In other words, after treating with schemata building activities, students’ reading comprehension has been improved. Moreover, the participants who are treated with schemata building activities surely know the ways to build schemata building activities on reading comprehension. They also recognized the importance of schematabuilding activities on their improvement of reading learning. Furthermore, they believed that using schemata building activities could help them comprehending texts better. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY................................................................... iv RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ........................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................. vi ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 1.1. Background of the study ................................................................................ 1 1.2. Research aims and objectives ........................................................................ 3 1.3. Research questions ........................................................................................ 3 1.4. Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3 1.5. Scope of the study.......................................................................................... 4 1.6. Organization of the thesis .............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 5 2.1. Reading comprehension skills ....................................................................... 5 2.1.1. Definition of reading comprehension skills................................................ 5 2.1.2. Models of reading process .......................................................................... 7 2.1.3. Strategies for reading ................................................................................ 10 2.2. “Schemata-building” activities .................................................................... 13 2.2.1. Definitions and characteristics of “schemata”/ background knowledge .. 13 2.2.2. Types of “schemata”/background knowledge .......................................... 15 2.2.3. The positive effects of “schemata-building” activities in reading class ... 17 2.3. Theories of cognitive learning ..................................................................... 21 viii 2.3.1. Definition of cognitive learning ............................................................... 21 2.3.2. Components of cognitive learning ............................................................ 23 2.4. Review of previous studies .......................................................................... 24 2.5. Conceptual framework ................................................................................ 26 2.6. Summary of chapter 2.................................................................................. 28 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ...................................................................... 29 3.1 Research design ............................................................................................ 29 3.2 Research settings .......................................................................................... 31 3.3 Sample and sampling procedure ................................................................... 32 3.4 Material ......................................................................................................... 33 3.5 Research instruments .................................................................................... 34 3.6 Data collection procedures ........................................................................... 38 3.7 Data analysis procedures .............................................................................. 41 3.8 Reliability and validity ................................................................................. 42 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................ 44 4.1 The research results ...................................................................................... 44 4.1.1 The effects of schemata building activities on improving 10th graders reading skills at Da Tong high school ................................................................ 44 4.1.2 The students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning English reading skills ........................................................................... 52 4.2 Discussion..................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................... 60 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 60 5.2 Summary of the main findings of the study ................................................. 60 ix 5.3 Implications of the research .......................................................................... 61 5.4 Limitations of the research ........................................................................... 62 5.5 Recommendations for further studies ........................................................... 63 REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 64 APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 71 APPENDIX B ..................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX C ..................................................................................................... 74 APPENDIX D..................................................................................................... 75 APPENDIX E ..................................................................................................... 75 APPENDIX F ..................................................................................................... 77 APPENDIX G..................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX H..................................................................................................... 80 APPENDIX I: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST .................................................. 81 POST-TEST........................................................................................................ 84 APPENDIX K..................................................................................................... 87 APPENDIX L ..................................................................................................... 89 APPENDIX M: TRANSCRIPTS OF STUDENT INTERVIEWS .................... 91 STUDENT 2 ....................................................................................................... 93 STUDENT 3 ....................................................................................................... 95 x LIST OF TABLE Table 3.1 Sample of the participants .................................................................. 33 Table 3.2 Students’ scores and classification in the pretest and the post-test (Depdikbud,1985; Arisal, 2016)....................................................................................... 36 Table 3.3 Procedueres of the experiment ........................................................... 39 Table 3.4 Cronbach’ s Alpha of the pretest and the posttest..........................................43 Table 4.1. Descriptive statistics of the control group students’ and the experimentalgroup students’ mean scores in the pretest ........................................ 45 Table 4.2 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the experimental groupstudents’ mean scores in the pretest........................................................................ 46 Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students and the experimental groupstudents’ mean scores in the posttest ...................................................................... 47 Table 4.4 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the experimental group students’ mean scores in the posttest................................... 48 Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students’ and the experimentalgroup students’ mean scores before and after the treatment.................... 49 Table 4.6 Comparative results of the mean scores within each group in the pretest andposttest ................................................................................................50 xi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Conceptual framework of the study .................................................. 27 Figure 4.1 The participants’ reading comprehension in the pretest and the posttest..... 51 xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background of the study Up to now, English has become an international language. The importance of English in our modern world at the moment is undeniable. English is a global language over the world. According to a survey conducted in 2019, English is spoken by over 1.2 billion people worldwide either natively or as a second language. The British Council projects that by the year 2020 two billion people in the world will be studying English. Knowing and mastering English brings us several significant benefits. English is not only a means of communication but also a tool for people to access to mankind’s intelligence. As a result, in all countries of the world, the teaching and learning of English is of great importance. In relation to learning English, English learners should learn four language skills, including reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Moreover, English learners need to master other complements such as vocabulary; pronunciation; and grammar for supporting the development of those skills. Among them, reading skills is considered to be critical for English as foreign language/English as second language learners as it is considered to be one of the most important skills in processing info; from that it can help to build up the language competence and performance of English learners. It is defined as “constructing meaning from a written text” (Ur, 1996). A large number of researchers agree that the readers play very important part in dealing with comprehending reading texts when recognizing written symbols and understanding the intended messages and the whole discourse. Chastain (1988, p. 176) explained reading process as an active cognitive system which activates in printed materials on the purpose of comprehending the reading texts. According to Chastain (1988), during the process of writing, the writer makes an effort to activate background and linguistic knowledge to produce meanings; and what the reader has to do is to activate background and linguistic knowledge to reproduce the writer’s intended 1 meanings. Similarly, Anderson (1999) states that the reader needs to be active in understanding the reading materials so that he/she can build meanings of a reading text. So, reading is assessed to be an active and fluent process. According to Ur (2012), a reader who is fluent in reading needs to have features such as language ability, reading speed, selective attention, vocabulary, prediction, motivation, purpose, and different reading strategies. Among them, content, or background knowledge or “schema” has an important part in learning and remembering text information (Chen & Graves, 1995). Pearson et al (1979) believe that learners who have well-developed background knowledge or “schema” can understand reading texts better than those who have weakly developed background knowledge or “schema”. Anderson (1999) believes that comprehending process is the involvement of people’s knowledge of the world. Numerous researches displayed the important role of background knowledge in reading comprehension abilities of first language and second language (Alptekin, 2006; Carrell & Wise, 1998; Chang, 2006; Hammadou, 2000; Huang, 2009; Johnson, 1982; Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007; Pulido, 2007; Rawson & Kintsch, 2004). It can be seen that the schemata of various knowledge and experiences have an important role in comprehending reading texts Working as an English teacher for 6 years at Da Tong high school in Dam Rong District - a remote area which is far from Dalat, the researcher found that there were several problems in English learning and teaching, especially in the context of reading comprehension. Most of learners got bored in reading class and encounter difficulties in understanding the reading texts. This led to their bad scores in English subject and affects their interest in learning English. There were many reasons for this problem, mainly from their limited knowledge of the world demotivates them understand the text. It raised the question whether the students’ reading skills will be improved through “schemata-building” or not. This study, as a result, is conducted in the hope of examining the effectiveness of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading 2 skills at Da Tong high school. In addition, the research attempts to find out solutions to enable factors of “schemata-building” in order to provide ways of improving reading proficiency. 1.2. Research aims and objectives The current research aims to investigate the effects of “schemata building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school. Based on the research aims, the research objectives are deployed as below: 1) To investigate the effects of “schemata-building” on enhancing 10th grade students’ reading skills 2) To explore the students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning their reading skills 1.3. Research questions The present research is attempted to make clear about the following questions: 1. What are the effects of schemata building on enhancing grade 10 students’ English reading skills? 2. What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning their reading skills 1.4. Significance of the study The ability to read English texts is still a difficult skill for the author’s students. Over the last ten years, compared with the other two high schools in Dam Rong district, the quality of teaching and learning English in my school has been lower than average height from top to bottom. Therefore, it is hoped that this research is significant for the English Group in Da Tong high school because it 3 will bring attention to the need for implementing a plan of action to improve English teaching and learning quality in the future. More importantly, this study will fill the gap in the recent literature on English reading skills through “schemata building” in remote areas in Vietnam education context. 1.5. Scope of the study The study mainly covers knowledge of reading skills by analyzing the effects of “schemata-building” on students’ comprehension of the texts in language teaching and learning programs in EFL context, and their attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning reading skills In addition, the current research is carried out with a group of students who are given reading texts based on being provided “schemata” by the teacher. The reading abilities are taken place under the guidance of the teacher. 1.6. Organization of the thesis The current research is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 presents the introduction, which introduces the rationale, research aims, research questions, significance of the study, the scope of the study and organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 provides theoretical background as the basis for conducting the study. Chapter 3 deals with research design, sampling, research instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure. Chapter 4 consists of detailed discussions and analyses of the study’s findings. Chapter 5 is to summarize the whole thesis, offer some educational implications and limitations of the research, and recommendations for further research. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Reading comprehension skills 2.1.1. Definition of reading comprehension skills The term “reading” is broadly used in practice. However, the concept of reading has been variously defined based on different areas of defining and points of view. It means that a definition of reading cannot reflect all viewpoints or features of reading. It is, therefore, very significant to have a carefully-considered definition of reading to clear both EFL teachers and learners in their reading learning and teaching process. Alyousef (2005) states that reading comprehension is the process of interaction between the readers and the reading texts, which is the result of reading fluency. Similarly, Coady (1997) defines that reading is considered the process of interactions between background knowledge, linguistic knowledge and ability to comprehend and require readers to use cues from contexts to analyze novel words. Also, Goodman (1998) (as cited in Carrell et al, 1983) clears reading as an interaction between language and thoughts, in which the writer encodes his thoughts via languages and readers decodes that language into thoughts. On the word of Spratt et al (2005), reading is considered as a receptive skill as it is related to response to the texts rather than generating them. McWhorter (1992) expresses that reading comprehension is a complex process; this process needs the involvement of more than just adding the meanings of words together. Its not just about understanding ideas, but also about recognizing relationships and structures between ideas Although there are a lot of different views on the definitions of reading, they seem to have something in common that all concentrate on the nature of reading. 5 Therefore, it is summarized that the ultimate purpose of the reading activity is to comprehend the reading texts. Whenever encountering a reading, readers need to achieve the comprehension. In language teaching, teachers are necessary to clearly understand what reading comprehension is in order to make their reading lessons more effectively. In fact, there are different concepts of reading comprehension. Klingner and Geisler (2008) presents that reading comprehension is an activity that construct meanings from texts and needs the involvement of few various phases such as decoding, reading, fluency and background knowledge and experiences of the readers. According to Bielby (1999), in reading activity, reading comprehension is produced when readers use their own knowledge to understand new information and reorganize what they already know in the light of the new. Thus, reading comprehension is the process of building meaning by coordinating a number of complicated processes including word, word reading, word knowledge and readers’ fluency (O’Shea, Sindelar & O’Shea, 1987). Generally, reading comprehension is a process of making ideas of written texts. On the words of Grabe and Stoller (2002), reading comprehension means a person can acknowledge info expressed in a reading text; and he/she can explain the info properly. Similarly, Miller (2002) defined that reading comprehension is some one’s ability to comprehend and understand meanings from reading texts. As explained by Van den Broek and Espin (2012), reading comprehension is assessed to be complicated because of the combination of automatic and strategic cognitive processes; these processes will allow the reader to create a mental representation of the text. Reading comprehension is a mixture of various skills and strategies in reading such as metacognition and comprehension monitoring. To reinforce the theory of reading comprehension, Fountas and Pinnell (2006) compares that reading is a line of thought; it is also a part of all happens to a person. Acknowledging a reading task is closely related to his/her life. It requires the interaction of elements in the text and readers’ own knowledge and their experience. Woolley (2011) suggests reading comprehension is the process 6