iii
LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot,
1990:119)
Table 4.1. Analysis of questionnaires: Question 1
Table 4.2. Analysis of questionnaires: Question 2
Table 4. 3. Analysis of questionnaires : Metacognitive reading strategies
Table 4.4: Analysis of questionnaires : Cognitive reading strategies
Table 4.5. Illustrates responses concerning two subtypes of social/affective strategies
Table 4.6. Analysis of interviews : Question 1
Table 4.7. Analysis of interviews : Question 2
Table 4.8: Analysis of interviews: Question 3 iv


v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration………………………………………………………………………
i
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………
ii
List of Tables…………………………………………………………………….
iii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………
iv
PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problems and rationale of the study…………………………….
1
1. 2. Aims of the Study……………………………………………………………….
3
1. 3. Research Questions……………………………………………………………
3
1. 4. Research Methodology…………………………………………………………
3
1. 5. Scope of the Study……………………………………………………………….
4
1. 6. Significance of the study………………………………………………………
4
1. 7. Design of the Study………………………………………………………………
4
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW


18
2.2. Instruments of data collection ……………………………………………

18
2.3. Summary ……………………………………………………………………

19
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………….
19
3.1. Results …………………………………………………………………………

19
3.1.1. Questionnaires ………………………………………………………………

19
3.1.1.1. Readers' attitudes to reading comprehension…………………………

19
vii
3.1.1. 2. Readers’ factors affecting reading comprehension ……………………

21
3.1.1. 3. Reading strategies………………………………………………………….

25
3.1.1. 3.1. Metacognitive reading strategies …………………………………….

25
3.1.1.3.2. Cognitive reading strategies ……………………………………………


45
References…………………………………………… Appendix …………………………………………… - 1 -
PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problems and rationale of the study
Internationally, teaching English has changed tremendously over the last few
decades. More significantly, the traditional teacher-centered approach has been replaced
with the learner-centered one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making responsive
to learner’s need and interests and allowing to learners to play a more active and
participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes. Therefore, no longer
does the teacher act as the centre of all instructions, controlling every aspect of the learning
process. Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for
successful language acquisition and in doing so, are becoming less dependent on the
language teacher for meeting their own individual language needs. Students are advised to
become more autonomous, to diagnose some of their own learning strengths and
weaknesses and to self-direct the process of language development.
In the field of second language acquisition research, focus has been shifted away from
finding perfect teaching methodologies to investigating why some learners are very

in the standard text books “Tieng Anh 10”, “Tieng Anh 11”and “Tieng Anh 12”. After
three years at high school, they have to pass the GCSE and the entrance examination of
some universities and colleges with rather challenging tests. Students can not pass such
examinations without being equipped with effect strategies. However, with the limitations
of a high school, the number of students who even do not know learning strategies is not
small. With ten-year experience of teaching English at Yen Vien high school, reading is
considered one of the most difficult skill for Yen Vien’s students especially the 11
th
grade
ones. Although they know the importance of reading and they have also tried their best,
their test scores are not satisfactory due to both subjective and objective causes. Their low
reading comprehension results from not only their own causes as their lack of vocabulary,
grammar and background knowledge, but also some other factors such as the textbook,
motivation in class, the teaching staff and their reading teaching methods, schedule,
administration and so on. With a view to bettering the situation, Both teachers and learners
have to adapt. However, it is necessary for students to have appropriate reading strategies.
Therefore, I intend to examine the awareness of English reading (henceforth called reading)
strategies of 11
th
grade students at Yen Vien high school in this study and find out the
differences in the strategies used by students of higher reading abilities and those of lower
reading abilities. Based on the finding, I am going to make some recommendations to
improve the students’ reading proficiency.

- 3 - 1. 2. Aims of the Study
The study aims at finding out the strategies Vietnamese 11
th

questionnaire and interview to collect information about students’ awareness and possible
use of reading strategies. The data collected were analyzed both qualitatively and
quantitatively to help the author achieve the aim of the study, that is answers to research
questions 1 and 2 to deal with aim number 1 and research question 3 with aim 2.

1. 5. Scope of the Study
- 4 - The study is designed to explore the 11
th
students’ awareness and possible use of
reading strategies in Yen Vien high school in order to make some methodological
recommendations for English learners. This study is, therefore, descriptive by nature.
The subjects of the study are three groups of 11
th
grade students in seven classes.
Three hundred and eighteen students divided into three groups based on the levels of
English measured by end-term English test scores. All of them are living in Gia Lam
district. They all have learned English for five years ( four years in lower secondary school
and one year in upper secondary school). Based on their English test score of the final
examination and the whole year, I divide three hundred and eighteen 11
th
grade students
into three groups: 1
st
group consists of 68 students (with the total test score from 7 to 10),
2
nd
group consists of 200 students (with the total test core from 5 to 6) and 50 students in

proposed for improving 11
th
grade students; points out the limitations and some
recommendations and directions for further research and makes a final conclusion of the
study.
The appendixes lie on the last part of the study, preceded the References
- 6 -
It was also understood as the process of recognizing the printed letters and words
and building up a meaning from the smallest textual units at the bottom (letters and words)
- 7 - to larger units at the top (phrases, clauses, intesentential linkages) (Rivers 1964; Yorio
1971)
Top down model
In this model reading was seen as the process in which readers move from the top,
the higher level of mental stages own to the text itself. The readers prove their active roles
in the reading process by bringing to the interaction their available knowledge of the
subject, knowledge of and expectation about how language works, motivation, interest and
attitudes towards the content of the text.
Ur (1996: 138) indicated that reading means “ reading and understanding” and according
to Anderson (1991: 1) “reading is not a passive process but an active fluent process which
involve the reader and the reading material in building meaning”
Interactive model:
Interactive theories appreciate the role of prior knowledge and prediction and at the
same time emphasize the importance of rapid and accurate processing of the actual words
of the texts
As defined by Hayes (1991: 7) “interactive models, different processes are thought
to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes. The
information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most
appropriate interpretation of the printed pages”
Thus, obviously, definitions of reading have been various in using words and
expressions but they all focus on two activities: looking with eyes and understanding with
brains in which the latter is more important.

2.1.2. What is Reading Comprehension?
Reading comprehension results in the fact that when readers know which skills and

focus adequately on the text's meaning when they highly concentrate on pronouncing the
words. His point of view implied that there are also some negative effects that should
betaken into account in the process of teaching and learning that involves reading aloud.
First of all, when reading aloud, students only focus on the pronunciation not on the
meaning of the text. The second thing is that when students take turn to read a text aloud,
only one student is active; the others will do something else, since they do not have to read.
In addition, this way of reading usually waste much time because students read in turn so
they have to wait one after one. It can be inferred that there is little value in reading aloud
if we want to improve the readers' reading skills. Therefore, students should decide
whether to apply reading aloud or not as a reading strategy.
* Silent reading
- 9 - Silent reading is "the method we normally use with our native language and on the
whole quickest and most efficient" Lewis (1985: ll0). Sharing the same idea, Doff (1988:
67) defined silent reading as followed: “silent reading involves looking at sentence and
understanding the message it conveys, in other words making sense of a written text. It
does not normally involve saying the words we read nor even silently in our heads".
Therefore, we can see that silent reading is an effective skill for reading comprehension
since students do not need to read all the words of a text, they can read at their own speed
and in case they do not understand a sentence they can go back to read again. When
reading silently, students not only obtain its main ideas in the shortest length of time but
also deeply understand its details and can answer the questions as well.
To summarize, silent reading is one effective skill for reading process in general
and reading comprehension in particular. Therefore, it should be applied in teaching and
learning a foreign language.

2.2.2. According to the purposes of reading
Theorists have tried to set up a catalogue of reading strategies (reading skills and

only on a rather superficial level. Because of its nature, the key to skimming is to know
where to find the main idea of different paragraphs and to be able to synthesize them by
way of generalization.
Scanning
Scanning is another useful skill to locate specific item of information that we need
and often we do not even follow the linearity of the message, but focus only on the needed
information. In contrast with skimming, scanning is far more limited since it only means
retrieving needed information.
In the teaching of reading as a language skill, Kenedy and Bolitho (1991: 74) designate
some necessary reading skills: skimming, scanning, reference skills, relating diagram to
text, predicting and sequencing the structure of a text and reading notices and instructions.
However, students will never read efficiently unless they can adapt their reading speed and
techniques to their aims when reading. So the main conclusion to be drawn from all above
mentioned is that students would waste time and fail to remember points of importance to
them because they would absorb too much non-essential information if they are not helped
to read appropriately. Hence, to understand a text effectively, the readers should not select
types of reading separately but in combination of purpose oriented strategies so that they
can cope with more and more sophisticated texts and tasks, and deal with them efficiently:
quickly, appropriately, and skillfully.

- 11 - Besides, we will have to consider the seven main factors connected with reading
success. They are: Physical condition, Speed of reading, Oral reading, Vocabulary ,
Reading comprehension , Ability to use references, Pattern of reading. All these relate to
the success for the students in developing the skills,
habits, and attitudes that contribute to efficient reading. Among these factors, whether
students make use of effective reading strategies for their comprehension or not is chosen
as a theme of this study as it is within the reach of students or students can be better trained


Table 2.1. Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot,
1990:119)
Learning strategy definition and classification (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990:119)
Learning strategies
Definition
A. METACOGNITIVE
STRATEGIES

Planning

advance organizers

Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material
to be learned, often by skimming the text for the
organizing principle

|Directed attention
Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning
task and to ignore irrelevant distracters.
Functional planning
Planning for and rehearing linguistic components
necessary to carry out an upcoming task
Selective attention
Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of
input, often by scanning for key words, concepts
and/ or linguistic markers
Self - management
Understanding the conditions that help one learn and
arranging for the presence of those conditions.

language making up rules based on language analysis
Imaginary
Using visual images (either mental or actual) to
understand or remember new information
Auditory representation
Planning back in one's mind the sound of a word,
phrase or longer language sequence
Key word method
Remember a new word in the second language by: (l)
identifying a familiar word in the first language that
sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word, and
(2) generating easily recalled images of some
relationship with the first language homonym and the
new word in the second language.
- 14 - Elaboration
Relating new information to prior knowledge, relating
different parts of new information to each other, or
making meaningful personal associations with the new
information.
Transfer
Using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to
assist comprehension or production.
Inferencing
Using available information to guess meaning of new
items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information.
Notetaking
Writing down key words or concepts in abbreviated

Training is a key component on the adoption of a new system and the efficient and
effective use by the end users. Just think of all the ‘shelf-ware’ and wasted money because
nobody knew how to use the software. Also think of all the times that users have
complained that the tool does not work, yet the real cause is inadequate training. To assist
in this a training strategy must be developed.
A training strategy is basically an explanation of the process that will be used to
provide training. Below are some of the things to consider when creating a training
strategy.
+ Identify your targets training needs in terms of their involvement with the software
being deployed. Ensure that you also include the value each target group will receive by
taking training.
+ Review the training needs and define and current gaps and any potential future gaps.
+ Define the training objectives.
+ Create the training action plan (for each target audience). This should also define the
necessary systems that are required to deliver training, and also define the training delivery
mechanisms
+ Define how the training content will be created.
+ Define how the training will be monitored.
+ Define how the training will be assessed
+ Define the schedule training revisions.
2. 4. The Teacher's Role in Strategy Training
The language teacher aiming at training his students in using language learning
strategies should learn about the students, their interests, motivations, and learning styles.
The teacher can learn what language learning strategies students already appear to be using,
observing their behavior in class. Do they ask for clarification, verification or correction?
Do they cooperate with their peers or seem to have much contact outside of class with
proficient foreign language users? Besides observing their behavior in class, the teacher
- 16 -
possible use of reading strategies so that improvement could be done that is the aim of the
current study which seeks answers to the three research questions:
- 17 - 1. What are the levels of awareness and use of English reading comprehension
strategies of Vietnamese 11
th
grade students?
2. Do the good readers (11
th
grade students) have different awareness and use of
reading strategies from the medium and weak ones?
3. What can be done to help Vietnamese grade 11
th
poor readers to improve their
reading comprehension level?


second term examination with the assumption that the tests of English are both valid and
reliable. Good readers were the ones who got above 7, bad readers were the ones who got
below 5 and the medium readers are the ones who got their marks from 5 to 7.
2.1.2. Settings of the study
The present study was conducted from early April to mid June 2011 when they
were in the second semester of the school year. Up to the time of the study, they have
been studying English at Yen Vien high school for nearly two years and all of them have
learned English for 6 or 7 years.
2.2. Instruments of data collection and data analysis methods
To obtain data for the study, two different instruments were employed: a survey
questionnaire and interview.
a. The questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed with two main parts. Part one asked about the students’
attitude towards the importance of reading skill (question 1) and the factors affecting this
skill (question 2). Part two was about their reading strategies
b. The interview
Besides questionnaires, interviews are regarded as a useful tool for collecting data in
second language acquisition research and they are proved to be a very effective instrument
- 19 - for data collection in strategies study. Twelve students were chosen randomly from these
three groups for more in-depth data which mainly focus on their awareness and possible
use of strategies including metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies.
The reason why I used multiple approaches to data collection is that different
method of data collection procedures may lead to different conclusions about their
awareness of reading strategies. Individual structured interviews were used to
supplement the data collected from survey questionnaires. Interviews were conducted in
Vietnamese with three different groups of good, medium and weak readers in order to
know the level of awareness and use of reading strategies and identify differences among