VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
****************** ĐINH THỊ THU HIỀN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES
USED BY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT LE VIET TAO HIGH SCHOOL.

Nghiên cứu các chiến lược đọc hiểu của học sinh lớp 10 trường
trung học phổ thông Lê Viết Tạo.

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

entitled:
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE READING STRATEGIES USED
BY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT LÊ VIẾT TẠO HIGH SCHOOL.
The thesis is the study of my own research and the substance of the thesis has
not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other universities or
institutions.
Hanoi, August, 2014 Đinh Thị Thu Hiền
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude and love to my
supervisor, Dr. Tô Thị Thu Hương for her guidance, comments, and especially her
encouragement throughout the whole research process.
I am also grateful to all teachers at the Postgraduate Department, ULIS,
VNU, whose lectures and guidance have contributed to my understanding of the
problem and led to the completion of this thesis. My words of thanks would also go

reading for grade 10 students at Lê Viết Tạo High School are made.
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Planning and evaluating strategies.
Table 2: Strategies of monitoring and tackling challenges of comprehension.
Table 3: Strategies of extracting and working on ideas from a text.
Table 4: Strategies of using noting features and supplementary aids.
Table 5: Guessing and deciding on ideas from a text.
Table 6: Social/ Affective reading strategies.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF TABLES iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. The research questions .2
4. Significance of the study .2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Method of the study 3
7. Organization of the thesis 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1 Definition of reading 4
1.2. Reading process 5
1.2.1 Interactive model 5
1.3 The importance of reading in foreign language learning .6
1.4. Factors involved in reading comprehension 7
1.4.1.Teacher‟s role 7

3.2 Discussion 33
PART C: CONCLUSION 37
1. Summary 37
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 37
LIST OF REFERENCES 39
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1 .I
APPENDIX 2 VI
APPENDIX 3 VII 1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
To have a good command of English, students are required to master four
closely related language skills, namely listening, speaking, writing, and reading.
Among four skills, reading is considered to be the most important because it not
only provides students with knowledge but also helps develop other language skills.
According to Krashen (1993), reading is extremely important in learning English.
He emphasizes reading is the only way to “become a good reader, develop a good
writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar”, and the only way to
“become a good speller”. That is to say, teaching and learning reading effectively is
a central issue in a language classroom.
Traditionally, researchers have agreed that reading was a passive or receptive
process in which the reader attempted to decode the intended meaning of the author
through recognizing the letters and words as meaningful units, the reader was
merely a recipient of information from the printed pages and brought nothing to the
text ( Barnett, 1988). However, modern research on reading has found the reading
process active rather than passive as well as individualized and complicated.
Many studies such as “Teaching How To Learn- Learning Strategies in ESL”

2. What effective English reading suggestions could be suggested to help 10
th
- grade students at Lê Viết Tạo High School improve their reading comprehension?
4. Significance of the study
This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective way
to develop students‟ reading skills. Its findings hopefully would help the 10th-form
students find out the suitable way for improving their reading skills. Regarding
teachers, the study would raise their awareness concerning the topic and provide
them with useful pedagogical suggestions in deciding to use the new teaching
method to better develop their learners‟ reading skills. Finally, with regard to
researchers, those who happen to share the same interest in the topic could certainly
rely on this research to find reliable and useful information for their related studies
in the future.

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5. Scope of the study
To improve reading (skills and comprehension) for Lê Viết Tạo High School
10th – form students, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number
of things should be done. However, in this study, the author only focuses on the
perceived English reading strategies by the 10th – form students and opinions of
English teachers of Lê Viết Tạo High School to suggest some reading strategies that
can be applied in teaching and learning English reading so as to help the students to
become effective readers.
6. Method of the study
To achieve the aims mentioned above, data were collected through the
survey questionnaire and interviews. Both quantitative and qualitative methods
were used to obtain information on reading strategies used by 10
th
– form students.
7. Organization of the thesis

increase”. Anderson (1999:1) defines reading as “an active, fluent process which
involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning”. Aebersold &
Field (1997:15) share the same view on reading as “reading is what happens when
a text is looked at and meaning is assigned to the written symbols in that text. The
text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for reading process to
begin. It is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes
the actual meaning”. Goodman (1971: 135) regards reading as “a psycholinguistic
process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a
message encoded by a writer as a graphic display”. Rumelhart (1977) also considers
reading involving the reader, the text and the interaction between the reader and the
text. Reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting
information in the text with the knowledge the reader brings to the act of reading. It
is seen as an active cognitive process in which the reader‟s background knowledge
plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney and Pearson 1994). Reading is
an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in

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comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that
encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine
what that meaning is. 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 comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency, and
strategies combined together define the act of reading” (Anderson, 2003: 68).
In short, each author defines reading from different perspectives. However,
most of the definitions reveal some common features, that is, the close relationship
between reading and understanding; and the reading process which involves the
reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text.Therefore, being
a language teacher, we must understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our
students read effectively.
1.2 Reading Models

(1991: 378) illustrates this nicely when he points out that: reading is interactive,
firstly, the reader makes use of information from his/her background knowledge as
well as information from printed page. Secondly, in the sense that many skills work
together simultaneously in the process.
To sum up, interactive model is the best one that can truly reflect the reading
process that takes place in reader‟s mind. In this process the reader constantly
shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes without which he can not be
successful in reading comprehension. Interactive model can maximize the strengths
and minimizes the weaknesses of both bottom-up and top-down models.
1.3 The importance of reading in foreign language learning
Reading helps readers:
- To improve pronunciation.

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Reading aloud helps learners learn better, especially pronunciation. Whisper
reading can help learners understand the conceptual information and inspire their
imagination as well as guessing. Both types of reading are very useful for learners.
Determining when we should use intensive and extensive or combination of both is
really important.
- To enrich vocabulary
Through reading, readers gain a vast vocabulary and essential knowledge,
structures of individual sentence as well as a piece of writing. Therefore, the best
way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. It is understandable that anyone who
has a large vocabulary is usually a good reader.
- To enhance the writing skill.
Reading and writing are the mutual interactive skills. There is a close
relationship between reading and writing format. The more they read, the better
their writing ability is and the more skillful in using words in writing is.
- To continuously update knowledge
Reading helps the readers to stay in-touch with contemporary information

this skill is to talk about texts in class.
- Taking risks: Students have to take the risk of making mistakes because a
mistake is an opportunity to learn.
- Learning not to cheat oneself: Learning to read is learning to give students
enormous advantages in life. It may lead to better jobs, to personal development,
interest and enjoyment. Students who do not want to learn to read can easily cheat
but they are only cheating themselves
1.4.3 The reading texts
Reading texts play a crucial role in teaching and learning reading because
through them, new grammar, phonetic and lexical items of the target language are

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introduced. Furthermore, texts are also a means to help students enrich their
background knowledge and vocabulary as well. In reading lessons, students are
supposed to understand the texts correctly as much as possible, learn some new
language items e.g. words, structures, and use what they have got from the text
through reading tasks and communication activities that follow. Therefore, in
teaching reading, the teacher should pay much attention to the following aspects
such as language content, vocabulary and grammatical structures, types of reading
activities, though it is not simple things to do as Buck, G (2001) points out because
it takes time, effort and expertise.
1.5 Reading Strategies
1.5.1 O’Malley and Chamot’s (1990) language learning strategies
Reading strategies are, in fact, parts of language learning strategies.
According to O‟Malley and Chamot (1990:1), language learning strategies are “the
special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or
retain new information.” This definition has been widely accepted. Though short, it
covers the most important characteristics of language learning strategies, both
behavioral and mental (therefore, both observable and unobservable), and
individually characterized (learners‟ strategies are different).

learning a second language because they can enable students to become more
independent, autonomous, lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991 as cited in
Oxford, 2003: 9). With appropriate language learning strategies, students are freer
to act, to make their own decision and able to learn continuously and permanently.
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).
Oxford also gives her own evaluation on learning strategies based on two
reasons. Firstly, for language learning strategies are especially important because

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they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for
developing communicative competence. Secondly, having developed appropriate
learning strategies learners have greater self- confidence and learn more effectively
(Oxford, 1990: 1). In her opinion, language learning strategies:
- contribute to the main goal, communicative competence
- allow learners to become more self-directed
- expand the role of teachers
- are problem-oriented
- are specific actions taken by the learners
- involve many actions taken by the learner, not just the cognitive
- support learning both directly and indirectly
- are not always observable
- are often conscious
- can be taught
- are flexible
- are influence by a variety of factors (Oxford 1990: 9)
1.5.4 Reading strategies in teaching second language reading
1.5.4.1 Definition of reading strategies
Reading strategies are the comprehension processes used by readers to make

Finally, these strategies are considered to be effective as they help learners
enhance their reading ability.
1.5.4.2 Classification of Reading Strategies
Scholars classified reading strategies in various ways. The differences can be
observed only on the way they express the concept. For example, Rubin (1987) and
O‟Malley and Chamot (1990) grouped the strategies into three clusters: learning

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strategies, communication strategies and social strategies. On the other hand, the
difference that we see in Cohen‟s (1996) classification is that he named the
communication and social strategies as use strategies.
In the literature on language learning strategies at the end of the 20
th
and at
the beginning of the 21
st
centrury, reading strategies are grouped into three
categories. These are meta cognitive, cognitive and social or affective strategies
(O‟ Malley and Chamot, 1990), Oxford (1990; 2002).
- Meta Cognitive reading strategies
This strategy involves the general management of the course and the
outcomes of the cognitive process, like planning for the process, controlling or
monitoring the process and checking or evaluating the achievement of the specific
task goal.
To be specific, it constitutes three sub- strategies in which there are more
activities to be performed by the reader.
- Planning: which involves identifying the nature of the task, clarifying the
purpose, setting goals and organizing.
- Monitoring: which requires controlling the degree of understanding,
tolerating ambiguity and disruption, monitoring the effectiveness of the strategy

abbreviations.
- Summarizing: writing summary of the text.
- Underlining/highlighting: underlining the parts needed to be remembered.
- Using cognates: using cognates in L1 and L2 to facilitate understanding and
translate words/ phrases/ sentences into L1.

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- Reacting to the text: questioning the truthfulness and the relevance of the
idea.
- Making inferences: inferring the less explicitly stated idea of the writer
using the context and the prior knowledge.
- Referencing: making anaphoric and cataphoric references and using tables,
pictures and charts.
- Social (Affective) reading strategies
The main features of these strategies are co- operation or working with peers,
and creating motivational and mental readiness for a task. Affective reading
strategies are techniques for managing emotions, feelings and motivations. It
involves relaxing oneself and making positive statement about the task and one‟s
ability (Chamot, 1990). These strategies are applicable to all learning activities, but
less directly than the cognitive and meta cognitive ones. The sub strategies of the
social/ affective strategies are:
- Working with peers: seek opportunities to work with peers and asking
for clarification.
- Convenience: choosing a convenient place and situation for reading and
the right setting or position.
- Motivating oneself: making positive statement about yourself and the
reading task.
- Collect attention: relaxing oneself to reduce anxiety by muscle relaxation
and deep breathing, listening to music, etc.
1.5.5 Studies on reading strategies