VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
 TRẦN THỊ KHÁNH

A STUDY ON READING STRATEGY TRAINING FOR
GRADE 11 ENGLISH MAJORS AT BINH XUYEN HIGH
SCHOOL, VĨNH PHÚC PROVINCE

Luyện một số thủ thuật đọc hiệu quả cho học sinh chuyên Tiếng
Anh lớp 11, trường THPT Bình Xuyên, tỉnh Vĩnh Phúc M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr, Võ Đại Quang
HA NOI, 2013

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STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY
I, Trần Thị Khánh, certify that the thesis “Training strategies to 11
th
grade
English non-majors at Binh Xuyen high school, Vinh phuc province”, partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts is the result of my
own and has not been submitted for a degree to any other universities or
institutions.


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ABTRACT
Reading is one necessary and important skill in learning English. Reading is also
the means to gain success in learning other subjects. However, teaching strategies
are still not paid attention at Binh Xuyen high school so as for students to overcome
difficulties in this skill school. As a teacher of English, I recognized that their
results in graduation and university entrance exam are not high at Binh Xuyen high
school and frequently complained by other teachers. The students felt bored and
afraid to cope with reading lessons. With the desire to improve students‟ reading
skill, the author carried out the research on the training reading strategies at Binh
Xuyen high school, Vinh Phuc province. The purpose of the study was to
investigate the effect of the training the strategies, give findings and useful
implications in learning and teaching reading.
This study consists of three main parts:

Control and Experimental group
Table 9:Mean and Standard Deviation of Posttest according to categories of test
items and overall results of the Control and Experimental group
Table 10: Mean and Standard Deviations of Overall Pretest and Posttest of Control
and Experimental group. v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL/ESL : English as a Foreign Language/ English as a second language
ELT : English Language Teaching
FL : Foreign Language
L2 : Second language
N : The number of students
VNU : Vietnam National University

1.4. Reading strategies 8
1.4.1. Definition of reading strategies 8
1.4.2. Classification of Reading strategies 10
1.4.3. The role of Reading Strategies 13
1.4.4. Reading Strategy Instruction and Principles for Strategies Instruction 14
1.4.5. Research on learning and teaching reading strategies 16
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 26
2.1. Setting of the study 26
2.2. Restatement of research questions 27

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2.3. Research methods 27
2.3.1. Type of method 27
2.3.2. Population sampling 28
2.3.3. Data collection instruments 29
2.3.4. Data analysis techniques 30
2.4. Procedure 31
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 33
3.1. Data analysis 33
3.1.1 Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Results within each group 33
3.1.2. Comparison of the Pretest and Posttest Results of Experimental group 34
3.1.3. Comparison of the Pretest Results between Control and Experimental group36
3.1.4. Comparison of the Posttest Results between the Control group and
Experimental group 38
3.1.5. Comparison of the Overall Pretest and Posttest of the Control Group and
Experimental group 40
3.2. Findings 41
3.2.1. Finding 1 and comments on this finding 41
3.2.2 Finding 2 and comments on this finding 42
3.2.3. Finding 3 and comments on this finding 43

information or verify existing knowledge, do research and so on.
In addition, reading also develops some skills in real situations in life such as
scanning the timetable when they fly by plane to go abroad or look for information
in TV or magazines in English. In other cases, students can read to understand other
cultures, the relationship between people or social communication. The more they
read, the more knowledgeable they become. Therefore, it is crucial for them to read
English effectively. However, English reading is often said to be difficult in spite of
students‟ effort. The requirement for teachers is to teach their students how to
overcome the difficulties, but this is not an easy task.
At Binh Xuyen high school, English is a compulsory subject. Moreover, for the
majors of English, after graduation they will have to take a university entrance

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exam. However, through observing English reading classes, the author has realized
most of the students read texts at low speed. They lack strategies to take advantage
of their vocabulary, linguistic or prior knowledge to do tasks. Besides, the method
of teaching is sometimes not suitable; for example, some teachers translate the texts
into Vietnamese or explain too many new words, which is waste of time without
dealing with the tasks. For aforementioned reasons, it‟s necessary for the author to
investigate what strategies should be trained to bring effects and whether the
teaching of strategies benefits students‟learning of reading or not.
2. Aims and objectives of the study
This thesis is aimed at gaining an insightful look into reading strategies with a
view to improving the teaching of reading skills at Binh Xuyen high school.
Objectives are set for investigation:
- Identifying the effects brought about by the 4 reading strategies to the teaching
and learning of reading skills at Binh Xuyen high school: Scanning, Skimming,
and guessing vocabulary in context and Inference
- Identifying the techniques possibly applicable to the teaching of reading
3. Research questions for the study

and objectives, research questions, the scope and the significance and design of the
study.
Part B, Development including three chapters, presents the contents of the
study:
Chapter one – Literature review - provides theoretical background of the
study focusing on learning and reading strategies which are discussed and analyzed
by experts and researchers.
Chapter two – Methodology – describes how the authors carried out the
study with the participating of the students (group 11A10 and 11A11) at Binh
Xuyen high school, Vinh Phuc province. The process includes administrating the
pretest and posttest, teaching reading four strategies and the way of collecting,
analyzing data.

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Chapter three – Analyses and Findings – includes the analyzing data,
findings and the comments for each finding.
Part C is the conclusion which summarizes all the main contents of the
study, reviews objectives, limitations of current research and gives suggestions for
further studies.
Appendixes with supplementary materials and references are included in
Part D and Part E.

learning strategies as “specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques…used by
students to enhance their own learning” (Oxford & Ehrman, 1998, p.8). He explains
that “Strategies are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of
operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and
manipulating certain information.” Oxford (1990:8) also defines language learning
strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster,
more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new
situations”. In spites of any expressions or terms, language strategies are
acknowledged to facilitate the learning.
1.1.2. Classification of language learning strategies
Together with the definition of language strategies is its classification. Alderson
(2000) reviews the classification from Rubin (1987:19) in terms of cognitive, meta-
cognitive, and communication strategies as the following:

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“Cognitive learning strategies (clarification/verification; guessing/ inductive
inferencing; deductive reasoning; practice; memorization; and monitoring)
Meta-cognitive learning strategies (choosing, prioritization, planning, advance
preparation, selective attention and more);
Communication strategies (including circumlocution/ paraphrase, formulae use,
avoidance strategies and clarification strategies)
Social strategies”
(Rubin, 1987:20 passim)

Lee (2010:140) summarizes another classification according to Oxford (1990).
Strategies are divided into direct and indirect ones. Direct strategies are “used to
deal with new language” while “indirect ones do not directly involve using the
language, but they support language learning.” Three groups that belong to the
direct one are memory, cognitive, and compensation strategies. The indirect
strategies also include three groups: meta-cognitive, affective and social strategies.

everything in the text.
The aforementioned definitions make an effort to identify what the reading is and
what is involved in reading. Another term often appearing in studies on reading is
reading comprehension which is presented in the next part.
1. 3. Reading comprehension
Many studies confirm that the final goal of reading instruction is
comprehension and one of the most important goals of skilled reading is decoding
and understanding written text. However, the decoding and the ability to recognize
words in texts are only the beginning stages of reading and reading comprehension
(Adam, 1990). The concept of comprehension is explained in a higher level by
Grellet (1981), he states that “Understanding a written text means extracting the
required information from it as efficiently as possible.” He also shows the examples
in which a good reader will omit unnecessary information and find out what he or
she is searching for.

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Other people believe that reading comprehension is not just a receptive
process. It requires many other skills in combination. “It implies a complex process
in which the readers identify basic information and are able to predict, to infer, to
argue and to recognize writers‟ points of view.” Díaz& Laguado (2003,p.6).
Pang, Muaka, Bernhardt and Kamil (2003), also states that “Reading is a
complex activity” in the combination of related processes: word recognition and
comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written
symbols correspond to one‟s spoken language. Comprehension is the process of
making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use
of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with
text and other strategies to help them understand written text.”
Harris and Hodges (1995) suggest that reading comprehension is “the
construction of the meaning of a written text through a reciprocal interchange of
ideas between the reader and the message in a particular text”. Aebersold (1997: 15)

group of researchers such as Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008: 365) who try to
make a distinction claim that skill is related to the “proficiency of a complex act”
and strategies refer to “a conscious and systematic plan”. Skills come from
“learning through practice” but strategies from “constructive, self-controlled
theories of information processing.” They also show that using skills and strategies
depends on students‟ knowledge. They tend to use skills when their tasks are easy
and “their knowledge is strong” while strategies are used when they do not have
enough knowledge to confront a difficult text. A number of distinctions are listed:
“Skills make up strategies.”
“Strategies lead to skills.”
“Skill is the destination, strategy is the journey.”
“We learn strategies to do a skill.”
“Skills are automatic, strategies are effortful and mediated.”
“We use strategies as tools.”
“Strategies that work require a skill set.”

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“We have to pay attention in learning skills, but eventually we use them
automatically.”
“You don‟t think about skills, and you do think about strategies.”
Hudson (2007:105) says: “Other researchers restrict reading skills to automatic
processes and contrast those to the view that strategies are conscious and deliberate
repair strategies”. He also cites the differences between skills and strategies by Paris
Walsik and Turner (1996):
“Skills refer information- processing techniques that are automatic, whether at the
level of recognizing phoneme-grapheme correspondence or summarizing a story.
Skills are applied to text unconsciously for many reasons including expertise,
repeated practice, and compliance with directions, luck, and naive use. In contrast,
strategies are actions selected deliberately to achieve particular goals. An emerging
skill can become a strategy when it is used intentionally. Likewise, a strategy can

- Locate thesis statement, topic sentences, generalizations.
O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) classify reading strategies into cognitive, meta-
cognitive and social/ affective. Some items such as “Clarification or verification,
guessing or inductive inferencing, deductive reasoning, practice, memorization, and
monitoring” belong to cognitive strategies. Other items like “a conscious overview
of the learning process; making decisions about planning, monitoring, or
evaluating” are included meta-cognitive strategies.
Alderson (1999:82) also gives the list with 24 strategies in while reading that is
classified into three different groups: cognitive reading strategies, meta-cognitive
reading strategies, and compensating reading strategies:
Cognitive Reading Strategies
1. Predicting the content of an upcoming passage or section of the text.
2. concentrating on grammar to help you understand unfamiliar constructions.
3. Understanding the main idea to help you comprehend the entire reading
4. Expanding your vocabulary and grammar to help you increase your reading
5. Guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words or phrases to let you use what you
already know about English.

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6. Analyzing theme, style, and connections to improve your comprehension.
7. Distinguish between opinions and facts in your reading
8. Breaking down larger phrases into smaller parts to help you understand difficult
passages.
9. Linking what you know in your first language with words in English
10. Creating a map or drawing of related ideas to enable you to understand the
relationships between words and ideas.
11. Writing a short summary of what you read to help you understand the main
ideas.
Meta-cognitive Reading Strategies
12. Setting goals for yourself to help you improve areas that are important to you.

5. Scan the text for specific information (quickly searching for some particular piece
or pieces of information in a text)
6. use semantic mapping or clustering (group ideas meaningful clusters, helps
readers to provide some order to the chaos)
7. guess when you aren‟t certain (guess a meaning of a word, guess a grammatical
relationship, guess a discourse relationship, guess a discourse relationship, infer
implied meaning, guess about a cultural reference and guess content messages)
8. analyze vocabulary (look for prefixes, look for suffixes, look for roots that are
familiar, look for grammatical contexts that may signal information, look at
semantic context for clues)
9. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings;
10. Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships.
1.4.3. The role of Reading Strategies
Reading strategies play an important role in reading comprehension. They are
considered as centered in learning process to gain success and nowadays more and
more attention is paid to them. It is the reason that Anderson (1999) states “recently,
there has been a shift in attention from a focus on the product of reading (such as a
score on a reading comprehension test) to an emphasis on determining the strategies
that readers use in various reading contexts.

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Various studies on reading strategies show that reading strategies can support
students‟ reading comprehension (Cohen, 1998; Chamot, 1999). Researchers
acknowledge that efficient readers know how to operate their reading strategies to
achieve success while poor readers lack the development of reading strategies.
O‟Malley & Chamot ( 1990) also add that students using strategies perform better
in reading than that of students who are not provided with reading strategies
instruction. Moreover, according to (Allen, 2003; Rubin, 1987), reading strategies
activate autonomic independent learning. In the reading process, students can do
self-direct their learning or reading.

ability and the depth of the training”. He also argues that instruction is only become
the most effective when the instructor:
1. carefully explains the nature and purpose of the strategy
2. models its use through reading and thinking aloud
3. provides ample practice and feedback for the students
4. reminds students of the benefits of strategy use and encourages the independent
transfer of these skills to new learning situation
5. provides a content base so that strategy learning is embedded in authentic
purposes.
Other his implications for instruction are the instructional time for direct-strategy
instruction and modeling available for strategy instruction to be effective. The
strategies need to be taught in “a sufficient duration for the training to be effective”
The strategies taught must be “determined through task analyses of strategies
needed.” They are suitable enough for students to do, not too difficult or not too
easy. Finally, strategies “should be presented over a number of contexts with a
variety of texts.” (p.136)
Yang (1995, p.6, cited in Shang, 1996, p.24) generalizes steps as follows:
1. Diagnosis: Developing students‟ awareness toward different strategies;
identifying and assessing students‟ current strategies through observations
questionnaires, interviews, diaries, self-report surveys, think-aloud procedure, etc.

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2. Preparation: Explaining the concept and importance of learning strategies;
providing students with knowledge about language learning strategies and
information on motivation and belief, etc
3. Instruction: Providing direct and informed instructions on learning strategies
through explanation, modeling, practice, and integration; and providing different
practice opportunities with various learning tasks.
4. Evaluation: Helping students evaluate their own strategy use, evaluating the
whole strategy training and revising the training component if necessary.