VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULITY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
   NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY MINH THE INFLUENCE OF READING TOPICS
ON STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO READ AT VINH BAO
HIGH SCHOOL, HAI PHONG

Ảnh hưởng của các chủ đề đọc tới sự động lực học kỹ năng
đọc hiểu của học sinh trường THPT Vĩnh Bảo, Hải Phòng

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60.14.10
HANOI - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULITY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

DECLARATION…………………………………………………………….i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ivii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions 2
4. Scope of the study 2
5. Significance of the study 2
6. Methods of the study 3
7. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. Overview of motivation 5
1.1.1. Definitions of motivation 5
1.1.2. Types of motivation 5
1.1.2.1. Integrative vs. instrumental motivation 5
1.1.2.2. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation 6
1.1.2.3. Global, situational and task motivation 7
1.1.2.4. Resultative motivation 7
1.1.3. Motivation in second language learning 7
1.2. Overview of reading 8
1.2.1. Definitions of reading 8

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1.2.2. Types of reading 9
1.2.2.1 According to manners of reading 9

PART C: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………33
1. Conclusions……………………………………………………………….33
2. Implications……………………………………………………………….34
3. Limitations and suggestions for further studies………………………… 35
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………… 36
APPENDIXES……………………………………………………………… I
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS….I
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS V
APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONS FOR INTERVIEW …………………….VIII
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
I. LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Students’ reasons for learning reading skill
Table 2: Students’ opinions on the current reading topics

read. In fact, motivation is an essential element in learning in general and in
learning reading in particular, but creating a motivated atmosphere for
students in a reading lesson is a challenging task.
For the above reasons, I would like to carry out “The influence of
reading topics on students’ motivation to read at Vinh Bao high school,
Hai Phong” to investigate the role of reading topics in learners’ motivation to
learn reading skill and to study their interests in reading topics. It is hoped

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that the study will be helpful for English teachers in general and those at Vinh
Bao high school in particular to stimulate their students in a reading lesson.
2. Aims of the study
The study is aimed at:
- Identifying students’ motivation in learning reading skill at Vinh Bao high
school;
- Identifying students’ interests in the reading topics;
- Studying the influence of the reading topics on students’ motivation to learn
reading skill.
3. Research questions
The study was carried out in order to find out answers to the following
research questions:
1. What is students’ attitude towards learning reading skill?
2. What types of motivation do they have in learning reading?
3. How interesting do the students find the current reading topics?
4. What is the influence of the reading topics on students’ motivation to
read?
4. Scope of the study
With the limitation of the time, I will focus on the 11
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methods of the study and the design of the study.
Part B: Development consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review provides theoretical background for the
study. Its focus is on introducing important relevant concepts, discussions of
issues and ideas on theories for motivation, nature of reading and motivation
in learning reading as well as factors affecting motivation in learning reading.

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Chapter 2: Methodology presents the methods used in the study
including research methods, research setting , participants of the study, data
collection instruments, data collection and data analysis procedure.
Chapter 3: Data analysis and major findings shows the detailed results
together with a comprehensive analysis on the data collected from the survey
questionnaires and the interview.
Part C: Conclusion presents the conclusions, implications, limitations
and the suggestions for further study.


In 1972, Gardner and Lambert divided the motivation to learn a
language into two types: integrative motivation and instrumental motivation.

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 Integrative motivation stresses “a sincere and personal interest in the
people and culture represented by the other group”. Integrative motivation is
the desire to identify with and integrate into the target-language culture.
 Instrumental motivation stresses “the practical value and advantages of
learning a new language”. Instrumental motivation is the wish to learn the
language for purposes of study or career promotion.
1.1.2.2 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
Moore, K.D., (1992) separates motivation into two main categories:
extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation.
 Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation refers to “motivation to engage in an activity for its
own sake” (Wlodkowski - 1995). He means that activity itself is our benefit,
so we do not need any other kinds of rewards or punishments. According to
Moore (1992), “intrinsic motivation is what learners bring to learning
environment, that is, their internal attributes: attitudes, values, needs and
personality factors”.
 Extrinsic motivation
Paul (2002) states that extrinsic motivation is “motivation to engage in
an activity as means to an end”. Moore (1992) gives easily understandable
definition that “extrinsic motivation originates outside the individual and is
concerned with external environments factors that help shape students’
behavior”.
It can be said that the main difference between intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation is the goals of the students. With intrinsic motivation, the students
study subject material for the sake of learning. These students find studying

(1996:121) pointed out: “Motivation is important because it directly
influences how often students use second language learning strategies, how

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much students interact with native speakers, how much input they receive in
the language being learned, how well they do on curriculum-related
achievement tests, how high their general proficiency level becomes, and how
long they preserve and maintain second language skills after language study is
over”.
Therefore, teachers should pay attention to developing both intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation for their students in learning.
1.2 Overview of reading
1.2.1 Definitions of reading
In the reading class, what the teacher understands about reading will
have a great influence on what he or she teaches in the classroom. Therefore,
for the teacher of reading, a careful look at definitions of reading is very
important.
However, defining reading is not easy although a lot of attempts have
been made to define it. Different people define the term reading in different
ways and each definition reflects a different viewpoint of reading. According
to Robinson and Good (1987: 9), “reading is best described as an
understanding between the author and the reader Reading is much more than
just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing that the author intends; it
is the process whereby the printed page stimulates ideas, experiences and
responses that are unique to an individual. Reading can simply be thought of
as a personal encounter with the printed page. Basically, an important aspect
of reading is the process of constructing meaning from printed materials.”
Petty and Salzer (1989: 323) held a similar point of view, that is,
“reading involves the identification and recognition of printed or written

information to someone else. In his opinion, “reading aloud can be useful at

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the earliest stage of reading (recognizing letters and words); it can help
students to make the connection between sound and spelling”.
However, Doff (1995: 58) also pointed out that "for reading a text, it is
not a very useful technique" because it is not a natural activity – most people
do not read aloud in real life. In addition, when reading aloud, only one
student is active at a time while the others are either not listening at all or are
listening to a bad model. And students only pay attention to pronunciation,
not understanding the text. Besides, students usually read slowly because they
find it hard to read aloud in their own language, let alone in a foreign
language. Therefore, it takes up a lot of time in class.
Additionally, he wrote "if a teacher wants students to read aloud, it
should be the final activity at the end of a reading lesson". It can be suggested
that to make full use of this type of reading, a reading lesson must be carefully
prepared and carried out in various ways to motivate and encourage the
student to learn.
 Silent reading
Different from reading aloud, silent reading is the normal and natural
activity that most students do in classroom as well as in real life. “Normally,
reading is a silent and individual activity since the writer's expectation was
that the text would be read, not heard” (Abbott and Wingard - 1985: 81).
Doff (1995: 67) added that “it involves looking at sentences and
understanding the message they convey, in other words, "making sense" of a
written text.” This means that when we read, we do not merely sit as "passive
receivers" of the text but we, based on our own knowledge of the world and
of the language, extract the required information and relate it with real life. In
addition, in silent reading, the student can read at his own speed and can go

reading, or to relax. Therefore, this kind of reading is often carried out

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individually outside classroom. In general, the student should be encouraged
to do extensive reading to improve his knowledge of the world as well as of
the target language or simply to foster fluency and pleasure.
 Intensive reading
In contrast with extensive reading, intensive reading requires full
understanding of the text. Nuttall (1989: 23) wrote “intensive reading
involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher , or
under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay great attention to
the text. The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed
understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the
meaning is produced. The "how" is as important as the "what", for the
intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading
strategies.” Accordingly, intensive reading should be a basic activity in a
reading classroom.
In conclusion, the above kinds of reading are closely related. They can
be used either alternatively or in combination in reading one text. The teacher
of reading should vary reading strategies and make full use of each kind of
reading. Furthermore, to make the teaching and learning reading better, the
teacher should select activities suitable for promoting reading skill.
1.2.3 Reading in foreign language learning
In reality, the ability to read is very important to personal development,
academic studies, professional success, etc. Therefore, it is agreed that
1. Where there is little reading, there will be little language learning. It
will be true for a few years yet that the student who wants to learn
English will have to read himself into knowledge of it unless he can
move into an English environment. He must substitute imaginary for

not enough. They also need to have internalized motivation. Reader’s

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motivation has been shown to relate to the quality of the outcome of reading.
Many studies have shown that bad readers lack motivation to read or to spend
time improving their ability to read. Therefore, “it is an important part of a
reading teacher’s job to motivate learners” (Girard, 1977:20).
1.3.2 Common factors affecting students’ motivation in learning reading
skill
1.3.2.1 The students
The most important factor affecting motivation in learning reading is
the students.
Students’ attitude toward reading has a great impact on reading
motivation. Aebersold and Field (1997:39) say that: “The more interested
people are, the more they will preserve in reading”. If students show no
interest in the text, it means that they do not want to read then the reading
activity will become a pressure to them and even the reading process may not
happen at all. In reality, most of what we read such as books, magazines,
advertisements, etc is what we really want to read. So it can be concluded that
the degree of interest has its influence on reading motivation.
Besides, the students’ background knowledge also dominates their
motivation to read. Without background knowledge, the students would meet
a lot of difficulties in comprehending the text and even the language
comprehension could not take place at all. Consequently, the students would
lose their interest in reading and never read any more.
Moreover, the students’ success is a strong factor influencing their
motivation in learning reading. As human being, we generally like what we
do well, and therefore we are more likely to do it again and put in more effort.
If students put in more effort, they will get better results and so this sustains

reading in terms of its level of challenge, its topic and content. Reading

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materials that are interesting and relevant to the students will motivate them to
read more.
Firstly, reading materials should have suitable topics and contents, this
means, the texts should interest the students. Nuttal (1982:70) points out that
“the texts that are considered suitable will tell the students things they do not
know and introduce them to new and relevant ideas”. In the case the topic of
the text is not interesting and irrelevant to their experience and knowledge
they may stop reading because they cannot understand the meaning of the text
enough to satisfy their expectations, need or interests. In general, if students
enjoy what they read, the reading comprehension is the best achieved.
Secondly, reading materials’ vocabulary and grammatical structures
also have an impact on the students’ motivation. The students would also be
tired when encountering with a great deal of new words, complex sentence
structures and so on. In terms of linguistic items, the vocabulary in the
reading text must be of appropriate level. The complexity of grammar must
not be too great. Besides, the background of the text must be within the
students’ imaginative grasp.
Therefore, it is a challenge for the teacher to select or exploit the texts
in the ways that improves students’ interests and motivation in reading.
In summary, some theoretical background knowledge related to
motivation and reading skills has been presented in this chapter. The chapter
has discussed some concepts and ideas concerning motivation, types of
motivation and its role on second language learning. In addition, definitions,
types and roles of reading skill have been presented. Especially, the chapter
has mentioned some aspects related to factors affecting students’ motivation
in learning reading comprehension skill. The following chapter will display

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the students learn the set of basic program textbooks Tieng Anh 10, Tieng
Anh 11, Tieng Anh 12 which includes 315 periods of 45 minutes in the class.
It means that students have 3 classes of English per week, equivalents with
105 classes per school year.
Reading skill is taught in 16 periods per school year, in which students
read 16 different texts of the six themes: You and me, Education, Community,
Nature and environment, Recreation, People and places. Students are trained
to improve such reading strategies as: skimming for gist, scanning for specific
information, drawing conclusion, making inferences and restatements, writing
summaries.
In Vinh Bao high school, the English group has 11 teachers. The oldest
teachers have more than 25 years of teaching experience and the youngest
ones have more than three years of experience. All of them are very
enthusiastic and willing to apply better methods to upgrade their teaching
quality.
2.2.2 Reading section in TIENG ANH 10, 11 textbooks
Every unit in TIENG ANH 10, 11, textbook begins with a reading
section, which is aimed at developing students’ reading skills, getting them
accustomed to the topic and providing language input so that they can speak,
listen and write better in the following lessons. The length of each reading
passage is 240 – 270 words. The reading parts are presented with various
colored pictures to raise students’ interests in the reading topic. A reading
lesson is taught in three stages: before you read, while you read and after you
read. “Before you read” helps students get involved in the topic and content of
the reading passage, presents some new vocabulary required for their
comprehension. “While you read” consists of two or three tasks that ask

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