VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
HOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ
IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH
PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH
AT CAO BA QUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA
VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN:
NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT)

M.A. Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology
Code : 601410

HANOI, 2011 iv

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Language Learning Strategies, O‘ Maley and Chamot, 1990……… ………….… I
Table 1.2 Reading Strategies in O‘Malley and Chamot‘s Scheme………………………… 11
Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of
Hongkong ………………………………………………………………………….
Table 1.4 Predicting Strategies and Activities to Develop Predicting Strategies………… 12
Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching……….….13
Table 1.6 Task-based Learning Framework Reproduced by J. Willis, 1996…………….…….II
Table 1.7 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction……………………………….…….15
Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction…………………………………….……….
Table 2.1 Background Information on the Participants…………………………………….…22
Table 2.2 Procedures for Questionnaire Development……………………………………… 22
Table 2.3 Procedures for Test Development………………………………………………… 23
Table 2.4 Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course……………………………… 25
Table 2.5 Procedures for Predicting Strategy Instruction Development…………………… 25
Table 3.3 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers in the Pre-test and Post-tests……… 33
Table 3.4 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers to Each Question in the Pre-test and
Post-tests………………………………………………………………………… 33
5
21
28
29
31
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………………………………….…… …ii
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ………………………………………………………………………………… …. iv
PART A : INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………….…………
1. Rationale for the Study …………………………………………………………………………………………………… … 1
2. Aims and Research Questions of the Study …………………………………………………………………….…… 2
3. Scope of the Study ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
4. Significance of the Study ………………………………………………………………………………………………………3
5. Research Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
6. Organization of the Thesis …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
PART B : DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………………………………………………………. 4
CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW …………………………………………………………… …… ……
1.1 The Nature of Reading Comprehension ……………………………………………………………………………… 4
1.1.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension………………………………………………………………….4
1.1.2 Reading Models…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

3
4
4
4
4
5
5
6
7
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
11
11
11
12
13
14
15
17
18
vi


4. Suggestions for Further Research ……………………………………………………………………………………… 44
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 45
APPENDIXES …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. I
19
19
20
20
21
22
22
23
23
24
25
26
26
26
27
27
28
28
28
29
30

30

36
41
42

2005; Zhang, 1992).
However, empirical research indicates that in most reading classrooms, students have
received inadequate instruction on reading skills and strategies (Miller and Perkins, 1989). EFL
teachers seldom teach a strategy explicitly in class. In other words, teachers normally stress on
the production of reading comprehension rather than the reading process. Reading lessons are
more of reading tests, in which teachers ask the students to read the text and complete several
reading tasks. This problem can be found in many EFL reading classes in the world, and
Vietnam is not an exception. Vietnamese learners of English, in general, and students at Cao
Ba Quat Upper Secondary School in particular, after several years of learning English, turn out
to be word-by-word readers; they tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning of every
single word. When they encounter unfamiliar words or unfamiliar concepts, they feel
discouraged and resort to wild guessing to construct the text meaning. Some students do not

2

understand the main idea of a text even when they have translated every word into their mother
tongue. Very few students deliberately look at the title of a text to think about its topic before
reading. Fewer students use their background knowledge to facilitate their comprehension.
They are completely dependent on the decoded messages from the text, so once their decoding
mechanisms fail due to their deficient language proficiency, comprehension breaks down.
With a view to gaining some insight into reading strategies and reading strategy
instruction, I chose to study how to improve students‘ reading comprehension through
predicting strategy instruction. The rationale for my focus on predicting strategies is that they
are of key importance in the comprehension process. It has been found out that efficient
reading often includes the use of predicting strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar & Brown,
1984). Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in the text
to generate predictions. Although the importance of prediction in comprehending texts has
been demonstrated by recent research, much remains to be learned about predicting strategies.
2. Aims and Research Questions of the Study
The study aims at exploring the impact of predicting strategy instruction on the reading

would be of great value to the teaching of reading skill. In the light of the research, teachers
can adjust their reading instruction so as to help to train strategic readers.
5. Research Methodology
In order to achieve these aims, an Action Research was employed to measure the
influence of the intervention-predicting strategy instruction-on the students' reading
comprehension. The data was collected via a number of instruments including a questionnaire,
a pre-test, two post-tests, teacher’s diaries and students’ journals. After a preliminary
investigation had been carried out, a predicting strategy instruction course was designed, and
then implemented in the second semester of the school year 2010 - 2011 with the participation
of 50 students from Group 10A10 at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School. The data was then
analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method. The results
indicated that with the combination of these instruments the study yielded reliable findings.
6. Organization of the Study
The thesis consists of three main parts: INTRODUCTION which provides an overview
of the study, DEVELOPMENT which is the main part and consists of 3 chapters, and
CONCLUSION which includes the summary, pedagogical implications, limitations of the
study and suggestions for further study.
Three chapters in the main part are as follows:
Chapter 1:
Literature Review is review of the literature related to the research topic,
which serves as a theoretical foundation of the study.
Chapter 2:
Research Methodology provides information about the research context,
participants, research approach, data collection instruments, data
collection procedures, and data analysis procedures.
Chapter 3:
Results and Discussion is the main part of the study, which reports and
discusses the main findings according to the research questions.
added that reading should be ―an active, purposeful and creative mental process‖ of extracting
meaning partly from textual clues and partly from their prior background knowledge. In this
way, readers show their active parts in the process of comprehending a written text; they are
not normally a decoding machine, but they must think and consider what sort of old
information should be activated and when it should be made use of to facilitate the
comprehending process. In other words, reading is the construction of meaning of a written text
through the interactions between text and reader (Durkin, 1993).
Reading can also be defined as ―a fluent process of readers combining information from
a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is

5

comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency, and strategies combined together define the act
of reading‖ (Anderson, 2003, p. 68). The following figure represents the definition of reading:
Figure 1.1 Components of Reading
The definitions presented above give us an overview of reading comprehension. With
the literature review of reading models, we can determine what factors are involved in efficient
reading.
1.1.2 Reading Models
In the last 40 years, reading researchers have been studying the link between the
reading process (what goes on in the brain) and how to teach reading. Although there are many


6

Nuttall (2005) indicates that reading is a process of identifying letters and words,
figuring out sentence structures and then constructing a meaning from the printed words. He
also compares ―bottom-up‖ processes with the image of a scientist with a magnifying glass
investigating every minute part of the little area to grasp it thoroughly (p. 17). However, in
many cases, readers can read aloud almost all the text, or they know almost all the words in the
text, but they can hardly recall any of its meaning.
These models depend too much on the reader‘s linguistic knowledge and overlook their
prior background knowledge. The bottom-up or decoding model of reading was also criticized
by Eskey (1973) for its failure to account for the contribution of the reader, whose expectations
about the text, which are informed by his/her knowledge of language and his/her prior
background knowledge, are employed as part of the reading process. For these limitations,
together with the advent of top-down models, bottom-up models fell into disfavors.
1.1.2.2 Top-down Reading Model
This model, beginning in mind of the readers with meaning-driven processes, or an
assumption about the meaning of a text, emphasizes what the reader brings to the text; reading
is driven by meaning, and proceeds from whole to part. From this perspective, readers identify
letters and words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text. Goodman
(1967) views reading process as a ―psycholinguistic guessing game‖- a process of predicting,
sampling, and confirming in which readers interact with texts by combining information they
discover there with the knowledge they bring to it in constructing a comprehensive meaning for
the text as coherent discourse (pp. 364 - 5). ―The knowledge, experience, and concepts that
readers bring to the text, in other words, their schemata, are part of the process‖ (Dechant,
1991, p. 25), and reading is more a matter of bringing meaning to than gaining meaning from
the printed page (Dechant, 1991; Goodman, 1985; Smith, 1994).
Stanovich (1980) criticizes the top-down models by arguing that the generation of
hypotheses would be actually more time-consuming than decoding would be. Another criticism
by Samuels and Kamil (1988, p. 32) reveals that a reader will be unable to generate hypotheses

―complementary ways of processing a text. They are both used whenever we read; sometimes
one predominates, sometimes the other, but both are needed.‖ This author adds that ―in
practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top-down
approach to predict the probable meaning, then moving to a bottom-up approach to check
whether that is really what the writer says‖
1.1.3 Schema Theory
Schema theory deals with the reading process, where readers are expected to combine
their previous experiences with the text they are reading. Carrell and Eisterhold (1983)
formalise the role of background knowledge in language comprehension as schema theory, and
claim that any text either spoken or written does not itself carry meaning, and that ― a text
only provides directions for… readers as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning
from their own, previously acquired knowledge.‖ Therefore, a reader‘s comprehension depends

8

on her ability to relate the information that she gets from the text with her pre-existing
background knowledge. According to Harmer (2001), only after the schema is activated is one
able to see or hear, because it fits into patterns that she already knows.
Many reading researchers intend to subcategorise the term schema, with the most
popular categorisation being the distinction between formal and content schema. Formal
schema is background knowledge relating to the formal and rhetorical organisational structures
of different types of texts (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Alderson, 2000). Carrell (1985) says
reading comprehension is affected by the reader‘s formal schemata interacting with the
rhetorical organisation of a text. In the meanwhile, content schema is defined as background
knowledge of the content area of the text that a reader brings to a text (Carrell and Eisterhold,
1983; Carrell, 1987) such as knowledge about people, the world, culture, and the universe
(Brown, 2001). Carrell and Eisterhold propose that appropriate content schema is accessed
through textual cues. According to Alderson (2000), readers need knowledge about the content
of the passage to be able to understand it.
From the schema theory, meaning is reconstructed or created during the reading process

language learning). Direct Strategies are classified into memory strategies; cognitive strategies;
and compensation strategies. Indirect strategies include metacognitive strategies; affective
strategies; and social strategies.
In O‘Malley and Chamot‘s framework, there are three major types of language learning
strategies named metacognitive, cognitive and social/ affective. In comparison with Oxford‘s
classification, this framework is far less complicated but sufficient and applicable to learning
strategy studies on the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing. Therefore,
the current study will adopt O‘Malley and Chamot‘s classification of learning strategies as the
theoretical framework for investigation. (see Appendix 1: Table 1.1)
1.2.1.3 The Importance of Language Learning Strategies for Students
Language learning strategies can enable students to become more independent,
autonomous, lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991 as cited in Oxford, 2003, p. 9).
Thanks to appropriate language learning strategies, students are freer to act, to make their own
decision and able to learn continuously and permanently. In addition, language learning
strategies ―make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and
more transferable to new situations‖ (Oxford, 1990, p. 8). They ―are tools for active, self –
directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence‖, and
those who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self – confidence and
learn more effectively.
However, the effectiveness of language learning strategies ―may depend largely on the
characteristics of the given learner, the given language structure(s), the given context, or the
interaction of these‖ (Cohen, 1998, p.12). Besides, effective second language/ foreign language
learners are aware of the language learning strategies they use and why they use them
(O'Malley and Chamot, 1990).

10

1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies
1.2.2.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension Strategies
Researches reveal that effective readers spontaneously use reading strategies in the


11

Metacognitive
Cognitive
Planning
Monitoring
Evaluating
Top-down
Bottom-up
Advance organizers
Self-monitoring
Self-evaluation
Elaboration
Grouping
Directed attention Transfer
Deduction
Functional planning Inferencing
Recombination
Selective attention Summarizing
Translation

14. Noticing cohesive devices
21. Avoiding bad habits
Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of
Hongkong (as reviewed by Nunan, 1999).
1.2.3 Predicting Strategy
It has been proved that predicting is of key importance in reading comprehension.
Efficient reading often includes the use of prediction strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar &
Brown, 1984). Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in
the text to generate predictions. Predicting is also an integral part of competent readers'
metacognitive strategies, which are used to monitor comprehension as the text is read (Collins
& Smith, 1982).
According to Duke and Pearson (2002), predicting is better conceived as a family of
strategies than a single strategy. It entails such pre-reading activities as activating prior
knowledge, previewing and overviewing, which encourage readers to use their existing
knowledge to facilitate their understanding of new ideas encountered in text, and while-reading

12

activities to confirm the prior predictions. The theoretical foundations for this strategy are
schema theory (Anderson and Pearson, 1984), and comprehension as the bridge between the
known and the new (Pearson and Johnson, 1978).
Making predictions can help students to become good readers and make reading more
fun. Anderson (1976) found that procedures which encourage predictions facilitate learning.
Predicting also arouses readers‘ interest (Mason & Au, 1986; Nichol, 1983), sets the purpose
for their reading and focuses on important details. According to James N. Nichols (1983), by
using this strategy in combination with such strategies as skimming and previewing a text,
students are motivated to read and encouraged to study the text carefully to confirm their prior
hypothesis (p. 225).
The researcher considered the definition by Duke and Pearson (2002) the most
comprehensive. However, all of these are only pre-reading strategies, predicting should also


13

1.3 Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction
1.3.1 Approaches to Reading Comprehension Instruction
Among numerous methods and approaches ever emerging and still existing nowadays
are the two approaches language teachers often use in their teaching of reading comprehension;
Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching Approach.

Grammar-Translation Method
Communicative Language Teaching
Theory of
language

- Detailed analysis of grammar
rules, followed by application of
this knowledge to the task of
translating sentences or texts into
and out of the target language
- A system for the expression of
meaning; primary function-interaction
and communication.
Theory of
learning
- Little more than memorizing
rules and facts to understand the
morphology and syntax.
- Real communication activities;
meaningful tasks and meaningful
language.

counselor, and process manager.
Roles of
materials
- Exercises in grammatical
analysis.

- Primarily promoting communicative
language use; task-based materials;
authentic.
Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching

14

Like other modern approaches and methods, Communicative Language Teaching
Approach bears the following features:
- Learner-centered teaching
- Cooperative and collaborative learning
- Interactive learning
- Whole language education
- Content-based instruction
- Task-based instruction
(Brown, 2001, pp. 46-51)
The present study adopts Communicative Language Teaching approach as the
framework for the teaching of predicting strategy in reading comprehension, and task-based
language teaching is applied in the lesson of reading strategy instruction.
The learning principle underlying the task-based approach is that learners will learn
language best if they engage in activities that have interactional authenticity (Bachman, 1990),
e.g., require them to use language in ways that closely resemble how language is used naturally
outside the classroom. According to Willis (1996), the task-based framework consists of three
main phrases, provides 3 basic conditions for language learning; Pre-task, Task-cycle and

While-
reading
To help the students to understand the content and become aware of the
rhetorical structure of the text
Post-
reading
(1) To review the content
(2) To work on bottom-up concerns such as grammar, vocabulary, and
discourse feature
(3) To consolidate what has been read relating the information from the text to
the students‘ knowledge, interests and opinions
Table 1.7 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction
1.3.3 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction
In the past decades, a great deal of research has been done in the field of
comprehension strategy instruction. Several sophisticated instructional models composed of
specific reading strategies have been identified, and they provide solid frameworks of effective
comprehension strategy instruction. Among these models are four prevalent models ; Reciporal
Teaching by Palincsar and Brown (1984), the Direct Explanation by Duffy et al. (1987),
Transactional Strategy Instruction by Presley et al. (1992), and the Collaborative Strategic
Reading by (Klingner et al., 1998).
Reciprocal Teaching
(Palincsar and Brown, 1984)
The Collaborative Strategic Reading
(Klingner et al., 1998)
 The teacher explicitly models the four
strategies.
 Students take turns leading the group dialogue
and practicing the strategies, and the teacher
becomes a mediator guiding and giving feedback.
 The teacher gradually diminishes the


 The teacher gives detailed explanations of
the reading strategy and contributes
mental modeling of their use.
 The teacher applies a think-aloud model
that includes the reasoning involved in
using the strategy, thereby revealing his/
her reading processes.
 Students proceed to guided practice on
the strategy just presented.
 Students transact with the text and among
group members to construct meaning
together.
* A small number of comprehension
strategies are instructed and practiced over a
long period of time including predicting,
generating images, seeking clarification and
summarizing.
Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction
Among the four models of reading comprehension strategy instruction reviewed above,
the present study adapts Direct Explanation model (DE) (Duffy et al , 1987) for three reasons.
Firstly, before the study the informants may have no idea of any reading comprehension
strategies, and they, therefore, need explicit instruction of the strategy. Secondly, the study was
conducted in a short period of time whereas the Reciporal Teaching and Transactional Strategy
Instruction require a great deal of time as well as effort. Finally, the Direct Explanation model
does not require the class to be divided into groups including a better reader and poorer
readers. However, independent practice stage was added to this model.
During the course of applying a reading strategy instruction, it is advisable to take into
consideration some factors (Andreassen and Braten, 2010). Firstly, reading strategies should be
―explicitly labeled and taught not only by explanation but also repeated modeling and

proliferation of hypotheses" (p. 112). That is, as predictions are educated guesses about what
will happen in the text, competent readers monitor the appropriateness of making a prediction,
a strategy which includes an on-going assessment of applicable prior knowledge for the text
and task at hand. In contrast, readers' failure to monitor predictions may inhibit text
comprehension, as predictions made without an appropriate prior knowledge base, and without
subsequent monitoring of their accuracy, can be a liability to comprehension (Kimmel &
MacGinitie, 1984).

18

It has been found out that the generation of predictions and the verification of these
predictions through the text contribute a great deal to readers‘ comprehension, but most
researches are biased to narrative texts (Pearson and Fielding, 1991). Through their works,
Hansen (1981) and Hansen and Pearson (1983) proved that by generating expectations about
what the characters might do based on their experience in similar situations, students could
improve their comprehension of the stories. Fielding, Anderson and Pearson (1990) noted that
prediction activities promoted overall story comprehension only if the predictions were
explicitly compared to text ideas, suggesting that the verification process may be as important
as making predictions.
Investigating readers‘ predicting strategies as they read two specific genres; expository
and narrative, Olson, Mack and Duffy (1981; 1984) proposed that readers of the former did not
engage in ―rich‖ prediction and hypothesis testing, whereas readers of the latter did. Thus,
these researchers concluded that text genre had a significant influence on whether or not
readers used predictions in constructing meaning for a text. In contrast, Afflerbach (1990) and
Johnston and Afflerbach (1984) noted that competent readers used predicting strategies while
reading expository texts. Results from these studies suggested that prior knowledge for the
content of the text, in addition to knowledge of text genre, influenced readers‘ predicting
strategies. Familiar materials, which may engage readers‘ formal and content schema, ensured
more appropriate predictions in the reading process (Anderson, Pichert, and Shirey (1983).
1.5 Summary

they frequently tried to translate the text into Vietnamese.
The teaching staff includes eight teachers of English, all of whom graduated from the
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Among them, four teachers have more than 10 years of teaching experience, two others have
more than 5 years, and the rest has less than 3 years. Their ages vary from 25 to 50; 4 of them
are under 30. All of these teachers attended the training workshop on implementing the new
methodology, organized by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, in the summer of
2006. The researcher is also a teacher of English at this school. She is 35 years old and has
about 10-year teaching experience. She is pursuing the post-graduate study of English at the
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Therefore, she has certain experience and knowledge in teaching English as a foreign language,
which is valuable for the implementation of the strategy instruction course.
The textbooks used as the official English materials for the students at this school are
Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11 and Tieng Anh 12 - standard syllabus. According to their authors,
they are theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the ‗two currently popular teaching
approaches, i.e. the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach. Task-based
learning is regarded as ―the leading methodology‖ (Van et al., 2006, p. 12). The themes or
topics covered in the textbooks series consist of education, community, nature, environment
and recreation. It is expected that within this task-based framework, students actively engage in
meaningful interaction and negotiation of meaning through individual, pair, and group work

20

(Van et al., 2006, p. 10). However, in the light of task-based teaching and from the researcher‘s
teaching experience, these series of textbooks seem to be far beyond their authors‘ expectation.
The tasks included in these textbooks are not ―activities where the target language is used by
the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome‖ (Willis, 1996, p. 23),
and the aim of tasks is not ―to create a real purpose for language use and to provide a natural
context for language study". In addition, the main stages of tasked-based learning are not
explicitly presented. Consequently, to what extent this approach is realized in the actual