Kho tài liệu Ketnooi.com

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES

nguyen thi huyen

AN INVESTIGATION
INTO the reality of teaching reading to
the second -year students at national
Economics university

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree
of Master of Arts in Tesol.

SUPERVISOR : Nguyen thai ha, MA

Hanoi
October, 2006


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into reading strategies of
learners in reading classes at The Military Political Academy” and submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)
is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this
minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to
any other university or institution.

The Hanoi University of Foreign Studies approved the research procedures

2.3. FACTORS INFLUENCING READING STRATEGIES CHOICE OF LANGUAGE LEARNERS..........................11
2.3.1. Proficiency ..............................................................................................................................12
2.3.2. Motivation...............................................................................................................................13
2.4. READING IN SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE ..............................................................................15
2.5. PREVIOUS STUDIES ON READING STRATEGIES................................................................................16
2.6. CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................20
3.1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS......................................................................................................................20
3.2. DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES............................................................................................................20
3.3. THE SETTING OF THE STUDY.............................................................................................................20
3.4. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS....................................................................................................21
3.4.1. Test..........................................................................................................................................22
3.4.2. Questionnaire..........................................................................................................................24
3.4.3. Interview.................................................................................................................................25
3.5. ANALYZING DATA ..........................................................................................................................26
3.5.1. Coding scheme for the use of reading strategies in students’ reading comprehension..........26
3.5.2. Coding scheme for the use of reading strategies while doing reading tasks .........................27
3.5.3. Coding Scheme for factors influencing MPA learners’ reading strategy choice...................27
3.6. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.......................................................................................29
4.1. WHAT READING STRATEGIES ARE USED BY DIFFERENT LEARNER GROUPS AT THE MPA IN THEIR
READING COMPREHENSION?....................................................................................................................29
4.2.WHAT READING STRATEGIES DO THE EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE LEARNERS USE WHILE THEY ARE
DOING READING TASKS?..........................................................................................................................31
4.3. WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE LEARNERS’ LEARNING STRATEGY CHOICE?........................................44
C.........................................................................................................................................................................45
EINTEL.....................................................................................................................................................45
S..........................................................................................................................................................................45
EINTEC.....................................................................................................................................................45




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my thanks to many people who have assisted my research
work.
To my supervisor Mr Le Quoc Hanh, M.A. (TESOLT), a senior lecture at Hanoi
University of Foreign Studies. I am grateful to him for his valuable guidance and
great insight into my thesis writing. His guidance was indispensable to the design
and completion of the study. I am also grateful to him for his comments,
correction and for his kindly encouragement and enthusiasm during the
development of this study.
My special words of thanks also go to the Management Board of the PostGraduate Department of the Hanoi University of Foreign studies for their
consideration and enthusiasm in helping me to pursue the course.
My particular thanks go to Ms. Nguyen Thai Ha, M.A. (TESOLT), a senior
lecture at Hanoi University of Foreign Studies, the Deputy Dean of post graduate
Department for her useful advice, criticism and support while the research was
being done.
I would also like to thank my collueges at Military Political Academy and my
students in the two classes of BT4A, BT4B for their participation and support.
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my husband and my
children for their love, great encouragement and support to me to fulfill this
thesis.

Ketnooi.com

iv


ABSTRACT
This study is an investigation into reading strategies of different groups of


: English as a foreign language

ESL

: English as a second language

SIIL

: Strategy inventory for language learning

LSs

: Learning strategies

LS

: Learning strategy

RSs

: Reading strategies

RS

: Reading strategy

MPA

: Military Political Academy

vii


CHAPTER i: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the thesis
English is one of the most important of Vietnam’s foreign languages. It is used
not only by Vietnamese to communicate with native speakers of English but also
as an important international language in communicating with people from nonnative English countries. Although English functions as a foreign language,
Vietnamese who are likely to be in contact with foreigners in various areas, for
example, education, politics, tourism, industry, business and in general social
contexts, need considerable proficiency in English. In fact, many people
nowadays realize that a command of English has become essential for their future
occupations, since it is a pre-requisite for success in both the public and private
sectors.
Of the four macro skills in language (listening, speaking, reading and writing),
there has been growing and justified concern about reading in Vietnam. This
concern is due to the increasing amount of printed English material in the society.
Various sources of modern knowledge and technology needed in developing the
country at large are usually reported in English. Proficient readers in English are
high demand.
In connection with the matters, in recent years, together with the increasing needs
for English learning at colleges or universities in the Army in general and at the
MPA in particular, great efforts have been made to improve the quality of the
teaching reading. To meet the demand of the state military, every year, the MPA
trains about one thousand political officers at different levels, who are not only
expected to be competent at their specialties but also have good knowledge of
foreign language. Every year, about a thousand officers at different levels,
hundreds of potential teachers and many post-graduate students of different social
sciences and humanities are trained here. Foreign language is a compulsory
subject at the MPA, because it is very important and necessary for the learners’

but it also involve the logic and value relations between sentences.
Some other learners think that it is difficult to understand the English text
because of lacking background knowledge. And some students say their reading

Ketnooi.com

2


skills are very poor only because they do not know how to get the meaning of
some new words which appear in the texts. In this sense, they even cannot
understand “skills” very well. The notion of “skills” in learners’ minds is limited.
All the above show that learners focus too much on the texts, while they ignore
their own abilities to infer the meaning. Actually, reading is a cognitive process
“whereby the meaning of a text is recreated or reconstructed by the reader” (Shi,
2000: 28). Therefore, it is necessary to arouse learners’ awareness of their own
ways to read and help learners get some ideas of how to read.

From the

experiences in learning and teaching English as a foreign language, the
researcher finds it necessary to study learning strategies, which can help MPA
learners, especially in learning reading comprehension.

1.2. The aims of the study
The aim of the study is to examine what reading strategies are used by the third
year students at MPA in their learning reading comprehension and look at the
factors affecting their reading strategies choice. And the research aims to arouse
the awareness of the learners’ own way to read and to get some new ideas to
improve their reading skills.

In Chapter V, the conclusion mentions some applications of the study for strategy
training to students at the MPA, the limitation of the work, and makes
suggestions for further studies, and conclusion.

Ketnooi.com

4


CHAPTER ii: LITERATURE REVIEW
In the field of second language acquisition, language learning strategies are
attracting a great number of language teachers and researchers’ consideration.
Language learning strategies investigations attempt to identify, describe and
classify specific language learning strategies used by second or foreign language
learners to facilitate their own learning (Oxford, 1985b). This chapter will begin
by reviewing important background theory on reading model and reading
strategies as a basis for the present research and relevant literature related to
learning strategies, which contain terminological definitions, classification
systems and major characteristics of language learning. This is followed by a
discussion of factors affecting the language learning strategy choice of language
learners such as motivation and personality traits. Finally, it provides an overview
of previous studies that involved language learning strategies used for improving
reading competence. This review is done with the purpose of providing a
theoretical foundation for an investigation into reading strategies used by students
at the Military Political Academy, especially the strategies that help them to
improve their reading competence.

2.1. Definition of reading
Reading has been defined in various ways. Smith (1982) stated that “reading is an
imprecise, hypothesis-driven process, and the reader contributed more than did

relying heavily on other knowledge sources, such as topic recognition or use
of genre or content schemata ( top- down skills) in order to comprehend
texts. (Stanovich, 1980: 35)

The schema-theoretic model focuses on “how the reader’ schemata, or knowledge
already stored in memory, function in the process of interpreting new information
and allowing it to enter and become a part of the knowledge store” (Carrell, 1988:
10). Background knowledge really plays an integral role in reading
comprehension.

Ketnooi.com

6


2.2. Language learning strategies
2.2.1. Reading strategies
Strategy derives from the ancient Greek word “strategia” and means generalship
or art of war. In general, strategy means a plan, step, or conscious action toward
the achievement of an object (Oxford, 1990: 8). Nowadays, the term strategy is
used widely in language learning teaching and learning methodology to refer to
procedures used in learning, thinking, etc. which serve as a way of reaching a
goal. In language learning, strategies are those conscious or unconscious
processes which language learners make use of in learning and using a language
(Richards, 2000: 445).
Second language reading is a process of how the mind functions during reading
rather than the product of reading. The focus on individual readers’ abilities to
cope with specific texts and textual elements makes readers’ strategies integral to
a study of the second language reading process. Readers use strategies in varying
ways to activate appropriate schemata, to guess meaning of unknown words, to

learner to employ second language knowledge they have already acquired
efficiently, clearly with minimum effort, and communicate meaning for which
they lack the essential linguistic knowledge (Ellis, 1986; Brown, 1994).
O’Malley and Chamot (1993:1) depicted learning strategies as “the special
thought or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or
retain new information.” In this way, learning strategies are also conceivable as
techniques, approaches or deliberate actions that students take in order to
facilitate the learning and recall of both linguistic and content area information.
These authors have also extended the sphere of description of learning strategies,
which may include:
... focusing on selected aspects of new information, analyzing and
monitoring information during acquisition, organizing or elaborating on new
information

during the encoding process, evaluating the learning when it is

completed, or assuring oneself that the learning will be successful in order to
allay anxiety (O’Malley and Chamot, 1993: 43).

Ketnooi.com

8


Similarly, this view is also advocated by Oxford (1990). She has expanded this
definition by saying that learning strategies are specific actions taken by the
learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more
effective and transferable to new situations. Perhaps, the best way to understand
what is meant by learning strategies is to look at major characteristics of
language learning strategies.

independent in their learning process.

2.2.4. Classification of language learning strategies
In studies of language learning, overall strategies that appear to contribute to
learning have been identified largely from teachers and students’ reports,
interviews and classroom observations in language learning contexts. Then these
strategies are classified according to different functions of specific strategy
groups.
The classification scheme proposed by Oxford (1990), for example is both
comprehensive and practical. Language learning strategies are distinguished into
two major classes, direct and indirect strategies. These two classes are subdivided
into six strategy groups such as memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive,
affective and social.
Oxford (1970: 37) also pointed out in her study that the first major strategy class
is learning strategies that directly refer to the purpose of learning language and
are called direct strategies. They all require mental processing of the language,
but in different ways and different purposes. This type is subdivided into three
groups: memory strategies, cognitive strategies and compensation strategies. The
first group contains memory strategies that enable language learners to store and
retrieve new information needed for communication. The second group of
cognitive strategies facilitates learners “understanding and production of new
language by many different means.” The third group of compensation strategies
helps learners to overcome their knowledge limitations in language use.
The second major strategy class is all learning strategies that “support and
manage language learning without directly involving the target language”,
Oxford (1990:135) called indirect learning strategies. They are separated into
three groups: metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies,
which are discussed below. Firstly, metacognitive strategies are actions, which

Ketnooi.com

proficiency and motivation.

Ketnooi.com

11


2.3.1. Proficiency
The study of proficiency has attracted the attention of researchers and teachers.
According to Honsenfeld, C. (1977), the term “proficiency” can be understood as
“knowledge, competence or ability in the use of a language, irrespective of how,
where, or under what condition it has been acquired”. Some studies have
investigated the reading strategies used by proficient and less proficient readers
and revealed that more proficient readers tend to use a wider range of learning
strategies in a greater number of situations than do less proficient learners
although some studies reported more learning strategies used by unsuccessful
learners than their successful ones. For example, Hosenfeld (1977) used thinkaloud procedure to identify relations between certain types of reading strategies
and successful or unsuccessful readers. The proficient reader, for example, kept
the meaning of the passage in mind while reading, read in broad phrases, skipped
inconsequential or less important words, and had a positive - concept as a reader.
The non-proficient reader on the other hand, lost meaning of the sentences when
decoded, read in short phrases, seldom skipped word as unimportant, and had a
negative self-concept. It is generally agreed that “strategic reading is not only a
matter of knowing which strategies to use, but in addition, the reader must know
how to apply strategies successfully. This may be one factor contributing to the
relationship between proficient level and reading strategies uses by readers”
(Anderson, 1991, p.25).
Olshavsky’s (1977) study was designed to identify reader strategies and to relate
their usage to three factors: interest, proficiency and writing styles. A 2x2x2
design was used with two types of reader interest, high and low; two types of

considerable interest is whether they have the same kind of motivation.
To answer this, Harmer (1991) divided language learning motivation into two
types: the extrinsic concerning with factors outside the classroom, and the
intrinsic, relating to activities in the classroom. In their study of extrinsic
motivation, Wenden and Rubin (1987) distinguished between integrative and
instrumental orientations of the learners. The students who have instrumental
motivation need the second language as means to attain a particular goal such as
better jobs, position or status, etc. Motivation in this case is the reflection of an
external need, not of what the learners want. The students who have integrative
motivation wish to integrate themselves into the culture of the target language
group or desire to know as much as possible about the target culture.

Ketnooi.com

13


A number of studies, nevertheless (e.g. Spolsky,1969) indicate that integrative
motivation is a more significant influence on language proficiency than
instrumental motivation, but other studies (Lukami,1972) show that instrumental
motivation sometimes results in better language learning than does integrative
motivation. It is suggested that the two types of motivation are not necessarily
mutually exclusive and most situations involve a mixture of both types of
motivation. O’Malley and Chamot’s (1993:19) empirical research findings
enlarge this definition of second language learning motivation in which, a
taxonomy based on an interaction between two motivational characteristics,
internal and external.
Their model of motivation is subdivided into seven aspects such as 1) interests in
second language rely on existing attitudes, experience, and background
knowledge on the learner’s part; 2) awareness of relevance; 3) expectancy of

Reading is one of the most important skills in language learning. Especially,
second or foreign language learning has aroused much attention among many
researchers for many years. All the researchers have been working on how to read
and how to help readers make reading easier to achieve. According to Grabe’s
(1991) view, reading involves fours factors: knowledge of the language, ability to
remember the previous cues, and ability to make the necessary associations
between the different cues that have been selected. Far from being a “passive”
skill, reading is, in fact, an active process in which readers relate information in
the text to what they already know. Knowledge of the language allows readers to
identify the printed words and sentences. Knowledge of the world allows them to
comprehend these words and sentences. Good readers read for meaning. They do
not decode each letter or each word. Instead, they take in chunks of the text and
relate it to what they know. In fact, reading involves a variety of skills, and
mastering reading skills can lead to the least time-consuming and the most costeffective reading. According to schema theory (Goodman, 1985), the main
reading skills are listed bellow:
a.

Word-attack skills consist of:
- Morphological information: attention should be paid to free and bound

morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, derivational and inflectional morphemes, roots,
and word formation, clipping, abbreviation)

Ketnooi.com

15


- Structural clues: structural clues establish not exactly the meaning but at
least the type (grammatical category) of word represented by the new item.

16


the message and the brain then has to work out the significant of the message”.
(Harmer, 1991: 153).That means Harmer not only focuses on two actions
dominated by the eyes and the brain but also the speed of the process “ a reading
text moves at a speed of the reader”, which means that the reader who decides
how fast he wants to read the text. In addition, while reading readers not only
want to know how to read, to master the symbols, the sound, the language, the
grammar etc., used in the text but also to understand the ideas, the information
expressed in that text or to develop the ability of reconstructing its content in own
words. For these reasons in a number of recent reading studies, researchers have
attempted to identify the different kinds of strategies and cognitive activities that
learners carry out when reading and the effectiveness of the reading strategies
they employ. In other words , instead of focusing on the ability to read the text or
products, reading researchers became much more concerned with the process that
include the strategies their students used to go through in reading passage.
Olshavsky (1977) observed a short story reading of twenty - four 10 th grade
students of native English background. The purpose of the study was to identify
their reading strategies. He used readers’ verbal protocols as an observation
procedure. The students were told to verbalize their reading behaviour during the
reading. This behaviour was audio-taped. Then the readers’ protocols were
transcribed and analyzed in order to infer their strategies. This study identified
ten strategies which were then classified into three main categories. These can be
summarized as follows:
1. Word-related strategies: these comprise using context to define a word,
synonym substitution and stating failure to understand a word.
2. Clause-related strategies: these comprise re-reading, inference, addition of
information, personal identification, hypotheses and stating failure to
understand a clause.