VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THANH LOAN A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF READING COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES: A CASE OF 10
TH
FORM STUDENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC
ĐỌC HIỂU: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRUNG HỌC
PHỔ THÔNG) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014
i

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension
strategies: A case of 10
th
form students” is the result of my own research for the degree
of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other
universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can
be accessible for the purposes of study and research.
Hanoi, 2014 Trần Thị Thanh Loan
iii

ABSTRACT

This is the study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies. The target
population is the 10
th
form students at Pham Hong Thai high school. The main aims of
this study are to discover the current situation of applying reading strategies of the 10
th

form students, and to figure out how to enhance their reading comprehension. To achieve
these objectives, the researcher uses (1) survey questionnaire for the students, and (2)
unstructured interview for English teachers. The results of the questionnaires show that
the students are aware of the importance of reading comprehension in general and
reading strategies in particular. Additionally, the reading strategies applied by the
students are restricted and not frequently. Besides, the interview’s result indicates that
teachers also apply only some of the reading strategies in their reading lessons including
scanning, skimming and guessing new words in context. The researcher also finds it
possible to enhance student’s reading comprehension with the use of reading strategies
according to the teaching methods of teachers in the interview. Acknowledging the
obstacles and the students’ positive attitudes towards the use of reading strategies, it is
recommended that more reading strategies be used and adapted in the class time to meet
the individuals’ needs and abilities.
Table 1: Background Information of the Subjects
Table 2: Results of predicting strategy
Table 3: Results of skimming strategy
Table 4: Results of scanning strategy
Table 5: Results of inferring strategy
Table 6: Results of guessing meaning strategy
Table 7: Results of self – monitoring strategy v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1
2. Aims and objectives of the studies 2
3. Significance of the study 2
4. Research methodology of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Design of the Study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Reading comprehension 4


1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Teaching a foreign language in general and English in particular requires great
knowledge, experiences and efforts.
According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most
important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign
language”. Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it
supports learning in many ways. Firstly, reading material is a language input. Students
given a variety of materials to read have many opportunities to absorb vocabulary,
grammar, sentence structure and discourse structure. Secondly, reading for content
information in the language classroom provides students with both authentic reading
material and an authentic purpose for reading. Thirdly, reading helps students broaden
their knowledge of the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are
studying.
Researchers believe that teaching productive reading strategies motivate students
to read and facilitate reading comprehension (Anderson, 2003; Eskey, 2002; Grabe,
2004). It also appears that good students apply a variety of reading strategies to their
learning. Therefore, the importance of teaching reading strategies is to not also facilitate
students’ reading process but help student enrich their vocabulary and grammar as well.
What is more, in the context of the upper secondary school, reading is even more
important than other three skills of speaking, listening, and writing. The reason is that

form students in Pham Hong
Thai high school?
2. How to improve 10
th
form students’ reading comprehension?
3. Significance of the study
Once successfully completed, the study’s findings and discussions are expected to
be beneficial to English teachers, the 10
th
forms students, the researcher herself as well as
other researchers. Firstly, teachers of English can recognize the significant benefits, if
any, of strategies in teaching reading comprehension. Based on the findings, teachers
could adapt their current situation of teaching reading so that they could improve their
students’ reading comprehension. Also, there are some suggested solutions for teachers to
prepare an efficient technique to motivate students’ participation in their studying and to
teach them how to read effectively. Secondly, reading comprehension strategies can
provide students with self-study to improve their reading skills and to face reading
comprehension difficulties. Additionally, this study is expected to bring the researcher an
invaluable experience as it provides her with knowledge and techniques to teach reading
comprehension strategies. Finally, the findings of this study are hoped to offer reliable
and updated information for interested and further studies.
4. Research methodology of the study
This study is conducted as a descriptive study that applied qualitative approach.
The qualitative analysis is employed mainly through the process of data collected from a
3

written survey questionnaire delivered to 10
th
form students to examine the use of reading
strategies, and through an unstructured group interview which is carried out to teachers to


PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this first chapter, t
he theoretical background, literature on
the concept of
reading comprehension, and reading strategies are going to be thoroughly presented. This
chapter also analyzes some studies on reading strategies that have been conducted so far
so that the researcher could discuss
on the results later.

1.1. Reading comprehension
1.1.1. Reading
Reading plays an important part in the success of second language learning. It is
essential to understand the nature of reading.
According to Hamer (1989:190), reading is “an exercise dominated by the eyes
and the brain. The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the
significance of the message.”
When it comes to reading in second language, Williams (1984:2) stated that
reading is “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written… The
reader does not necessarily need to look at everything in a given piece of writing. The
reader is not simply a passive object, fed with letters, words and sentences, but is actively
working on the text and is able to arrive at understanding without looking at every letter
and word.”
Anderson (2003:68) offered another definition of reading, which is “a fluent
process of readers combining information from a text and their own background
knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension.”
Although these definitions are expressed differently, they convey the same idea
that reading is a selective process and characterized as an active process of
comprehending. Thus, the reader’s knowledge of the language and knowledge of the

- an enhanced motivation
- appropriate reading comprehension strategies based on the purposes and
motivation
- good prediction
- sufficient background information and vocabulary
- close attention to the significant bits
- fairly high speed
From these opinions, what comes up as a common point is that reading
comprehension is not only simply understanding what is written, but also is what
stimulates students to remember from their experiences. That knowledge is then used to
get meaning out of printed page, but in the mind of the readers, which included facts,
emotion, belief and critical evaluation. It can be concluded that reading comprehension is
6

the process of understanding what is conveyed in the text. That means, the readers (or the
learners), as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand
what is implied behind these forms.
1.2. Reading strategies
1.2.1. Definitions
Much attention has been paid to the study of reading strategies and there are a
number of definitions of reading strategies.
According to Cohen (1986), reading strategies refer to those mental processes that
readers consciously choose to use in accomplishing reading tasks. Supporting this idea,
Brantmeier (2002) defined reading strategies as the comprehension processes that readers
use in order to make sense of what they read.
Oxford, Levine & Crookall, (1989) indicated that reading strategy is reading
technique and study skill which makes reading more effective and facilitate learning.
They also elaborated that reading strategies is a process used by the learners to improve
reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures.
Brown (1990) considered reading strategies as the ways that help learners read

- Self – monitoring
There are other scholars who support Oxford’s classification of reading strategies
such as Grellet (1986), Kristin, Leah, & Soro (2009) and Smith (1994). Each of the
strategies is as below:
 Prediction
Prediction refers to the technique of using the readers’ prior knowledge to guess
the meaning or the message of the text from the topics, pictures, key words, or
constructions. It is one of the most effective factors that motivate students to read and
understand the meaning of the context (Oxford, 1990).
 Skimming
Skimming refers to the technique of reading passages quickly in order to get its
gist. In skimming, readers do not look for specific information but only for general
information (Grellet, 1986).
 Scanning
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Scanning is quite similar to skimming in that both of them require a quick glance
of a text. The difference is that in skimming, readers try to get the general or main
information of the text but in scanning, the readers would like to obtain specific
information. In scanning technique, readers are looking to find particular information –
the answer to his/her questions.
 Inferring
Inferring refers to activities of reading between the lines which means that readers
need to know how to get the message from the words and sentences in a text. So,
inferring is defined as the interaction between words in a sentence/phrase or between
sentences or phrases (Kristin, Leah, & Soro, 2009).
 Guessing the meaning of new words
Guessing the meaning of new words helps readers to read and understand text
quickly because difficult words usually create problems for students and are obstacles in
reading comprehension (Smith, 1994).

order to become motivated and selective strategy users, EFL learners should self monitor
their reading strategy. In other words, EFL learners need to consciously know what and
when to apply appropriate reading strategy when comprehension fails.
All in all, it can be denied that reading strategies are of great importance towards
second language learners. Hence, students should be exposed to multiple reading
strategies as well as the appropriate use of those strategies for better results. In addition,
students should be taught to become more aware of their own reading behavior and the
processes involved in reading to employ the reading strategies effectively.
This study adopted Oxford’s classification of reading strategies.
1.3. Teaching and learning reading strategies
As acknowledged by many researchers, teaching second or foreign language
readers how to use strategies should be part of every reading lesson.
Learning reading strategies refers to any sets of activities, stages, programs, or
techniques that help students to keep, achieve, or evaluate information (Wenden &
Rubin, 1987). Teachers can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in
several ways.
Firstly, teachers can model the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of
predicting, skimming, scanning, inferring, guessing the meaning of new words and self-
10

monitoring. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know
about a text before they begin to read word by word.
 Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about
content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text
type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge
about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
 Skimming: a process of speed reading for getting general meaning: quickly getting
the gist or overview of a passage or book.
 Scanning: looking through a text very rapidly for specific information.
 Inferring: finding clues and add those clues to what have been known or read

variety of research method and tasks to examine strategy type and frequency of strategy
use including think-aloud reports, interviews, questionnaires, observations and written
recalls.
1.4.1. Foreign research on reading strategies
In a second-language study, Hosenfeld (1977) used a think-aloud procedure to
identify relations between certain types of reading strategies and successful or
unsuccessful second language reading. The successful reader, for example, kept the
meaning of the passage in mind while reading read in broad phrases, skipped
inconsequential or less important words, and had a positive self-concept as a reader. The
unsuccessful reader on the other hand, lost the meaning of the sentences when decoded,
read in short phrases, pondered over inconsequential words, seldom skipped words as
unimportant, and had a negative self-concept.
Carrell (1989) carried out the research with two groups of students: the Spanish-
speaking group and English- speaking group. The instrument was questionnaires to find
out the relationship between the reading strategies used by first and second language
learners and their reading ability. The results indicated that the perception of strategies
between good L1 readers and good L2 readers had some differences. The Spanish-
speaking learners of English perceived global or top down strategies more effectively,
whereas local or bottom-up strategies were associated with English- speaking learners’
reading ability in the L2.
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Anderson (1991) investigated the differences in reading strategy use by adult
second language learners. The results revealed that both high and low scoring readers
appeared to be using the same kinds of strategies while answering the comprehension
questions; however, high scoring students seemed to be applying strategies more
effectively and appropriately.
Block (1992) investigated the comprehension monitoring process used by first and
second language readers of English. The subjects were 25 college freshmen and consisted
of proficient and non-proficient readers of English. While reading an expository text, the

form of comprehension questions, such as word meaning, words in context, literal
comprehension, drawing inferences from single strings, etc. The results suggested that the
same comprehension answering strategies were used by the good and average readers.
However, the good readers were more consistently focused on each question type than
the average ones; they articulated their comprehension answering strategies more often
on each question type than the average readers.
In conclusion, the findings of all the above – mentioned researches in reading
strategies revealed that reading strategies facilitated their comprehension proficiency.
Additionally, there are indeed differences between successful or good readers, and less
successful or poor readers in terms of strategy use. The results showed that successful
readers know how to use reading strategies efficiently.There is also a strong relationship
between reading strategies and proficiency level. Poor readers failed to ask questions,
take notes or use a dictionary as often as good readers. Overall, good readers appear to
use a wider range of strategies with higher frequency than poor readers do. Besides,
there is no significant difference between male and female students in terms of overall
strategy use.
1.4.2. Vietnamese research on reading strategies
Ha (2006) carried out a study named “A study on English reading strategies
employed by the second year Bridge and Road students at University of Transport and
Communications”. The aim of the study was to examine the differences in the reading
strategies employed by the good and poor readers among a group of 13 second year non
English majors at the University of Transport and Communications. In this study, both
quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed. The quantitative analyses was
employed through the process of data collected from a written questionnaire and think-
14

aloud reports to examine the differences between the good and bad readers in their
reading strategies. In addition, the qualitative approach is used to deal with the data
collected from interviews with these two groups of readers. Based on the analysis of data
from questionnaires and think-aloud reports, the study showed that the good or effective

learning English which made their reading more difficult. Moreover, students were not
equipped with necessary skills to become successful readers and some units, reading
tasks were not appropriate for the students’ levels. Finally, inefficient teaching methods
and classroom techniques might be other causes of the students’ difficulties.
Linh (2009) implemented a study among 100 eleventh form students and ten
teachers at Phan Dang Luu high school to investigate the current situation of teaching and
learning reading comprehension of the 11
th
form students to find out advantages as well
as problems facing both teachers and students in reading lessons, and to suggest useful
techniques to develop the reading comprehension skills in the while- reading stage for the
11
th
form in Phan Dang Luu high school. The research method included consulting
related materials, survey questionnaires and reading lessons observations. The thesis
presented some useful techniques accompanied by a number of activities to develop
certain reading skills for students in the while- reading stage, i.e. reading for general
understanding, reading for specific information and reading for further understanding.
Additionally, the statistics indicated that both students and teachers have positive
attitudes toward teaching and learning reading. However the while- reading activities the
teachers used were not sufficient enough to develop their students reading skills.
Huong (2010) conducted a study applying quantitative method including
comprehension tests and survey questionnaires to investigate the reading strategies
utilized by readers among 32 ethnic minority junior first-year English-majored students at
Tay Bac University. The findings confirmed that the readers rarely or sometimes
employed top-down or tended to combine top-down and bottom-up strategies. They
hardly ever or sometimes read questions to know what to focus on while reading,
determined suitable strategies according to their reading purposes, scanned for key
information, skipped unimportant words, guessed meanings of new words in context.
In short, the above researches mainly focus on the use of reading strategies of high


17

CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY
The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for the
present study. This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and
analysis in the study. It starts with setting of the study and the description of the
participants. It then describes data collection instruments and analysis procedures of the
study.
2.1. An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard
textbooks)
2.1.1. Objectives
The English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) was written
by a group of lecturers of ULIS (VNU, Hanoi) and published in 2006. The syllabus of the
textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is the continuation of that of the textbooks at secondary
schools.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, by the end of the 10
th
form
students are expected to achieve the following:
- Listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with
the length of 120 - 150 words of the topics they have learnt.
- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situations relating to the
topics they have learnt.
- Comprehend passages of appropriately 190 - 230 words about the topics they have
learnt.
- Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail. Develop
vocabulary comprehension: gap - filling, matching, etc.
- Write paragraphs (of about 100 - 120 words) relating to the topics they have learnt
according to a model or with prompts.