VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’
ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT
TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL
(Tìm hiểu về các yếu tố gây ra sự lo lắng của học sinh lớp 10 trong các giờ học
đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ở trường THPT Tam Đảo)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2016


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU

AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’
ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT
TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL
(Tìm hiểu về các yếu tố gây ra sự lo lắng của học sinh lớp 10 trong các giờ học
đọc hiểu tiếng Anh ở trường THPT Tam Đảo)

1.2. Types of reading ......................................................................................... VI
1.2.1. Skimming ................................................................................................ VI
1.2.2. Scanning ................................................................................................. VII
1.2.3. Extensive reading ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.2.4. Intensive reading ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3. Stages of a reading lesson ............................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.1. Pre-reading ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3.2. While-reading ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

i


1.3.3. Post- reading ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.4. Anxiety............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.4.1. Definition of anxiety ................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.4.2. Foreign language reading anxiety ............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.5. Previous studies on the effect of anxiety on students’ reading comprehension
............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.6. Summary ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ............................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1. Research method ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1.1. The nature of qualitative research ............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1.2. Selection of survey research as research strategy .. Error! Bookmark not
defined.
2.2. The context of the study ................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2.1. An introduction of Tam Dao high schoolError! Bookmark not defined.
2.2.2. The teaching material and reading tasks in teaching reading ......... Error!
Bookmark not defined.
2.3. Participants...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.4. Instruments...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

4.5. Develop supplementary reading materials ..... Error! Bookmark not defined.
4.6. Create a pleasant and comfortable classroom atmosphere .. Error! Bookmark
not defined.
4.7. Summary ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
PART C: CONCLUSION ......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1. Summary of the study ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2. Limitations of the study ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3. Recommendations for the further study ............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... VIII
APPENDICES........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

iii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
It is indisputable that English plays an important role in teaching and
learning as a foreign language. However, to master English, learners need to grasp a
lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these
skills, reading is the most crucial skill that not only develops other skills such as
speaking, listening and writing but also expands the students’ knowledge of the
language However, according to (Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999), “reading is an
important source of input; however, it is also an anxiety provoking activity”.
Therefore, it can be undeniable that it is a difficult or a challenge to improve and
develop reading skills for both teachers and students.
In fact, in reading lessons in Tam Dao high school, teachers always try to
effectively transmit how to understand and exploit the reading text for students.
However, most of students share that they find that learning foreign language
reading as English is affected by the personal factors, especially anxiety. Therefore,
the effectiveness of students’ reading comprehension is not as expected and they

After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn,
and some suggestions will be made in the thesis.
6. Significance of the study
This study investigates the causes of anxiety on students’ reading
comprehension. It could be of some help to teachers and students at Tam Dao high
school to improve both teachers and students’ awareness of causes of reading
comprehension anxiety. By doing this research, the researcher wishes to help the
10th form students to reduce their reading anxiety through the suggested solutions.
7. Organization of the study
The research consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion.
Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions,
methods, scope, significance and organization of the study.
Part B: Development consists of four chapters:

II


Chapter 1 Literature review gives the concepts of reading, reading
comprehension, its importance, types of reading and stages of a reading lesson.
Next, the concepts of anxiety, foreign language reading anxiety and the previous
studies on anxiety in reading comprehension are presented.
Chapter 2 Methodology includes the research method, the context,
participants, instruments and research procedure with the following main steps:
conducting survey questionnaires and interview collecting data and analyzing data,
and giving out conclusions from findings.
Chapter 3 Analyses were given on students’ attitude and interests on reading,
their sources of anxiety, their opinions of teachers’ teaching methods and how to
cope with their anxiety chapter also focuses on data collections - findings and
discussion.

relationship of reading and understanding is concretely concerned.
According to Grabe (1991, p. 379), reading is such a “complex” process and
“many researchers attempt to understand and explain the fluent reading process by
analyzing the process into a set of component skills”. Therefore, they propose at
least six general component skills and knowledge areas:
1. Automatic recognition skills
2. Vocabulary and structural knowledge

IV


3. Formal discourse structure knowledge
4. Content/ world background knowledge
5. Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies
6. Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring
From those above opinions, reading is considered a process in which a reader
looks at and achieves the comprehension what has been written out.
1.1.2. Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning
reading foreign language. It is defined as a complex process when the readers apply
their ability to read and comprehend a text. Many definitions of reading
comprehension are given from the researchers.
Grellet (1981, p.3) points out the nature of reading comprehension that
“Reading comprehension or understanding written text means extracting the
required information from it as effectively as possible”. It can be understood that
the readers not only decode the meaning of word combination but also work in the
text actively.
When studying the reading comprehension, Snow (2003, p.1) defines reading
comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing
meaning. In other words, extracting and constructing are a process in reading

improve their reading lessons. The next part is going to show the approaches’
strengths and weaknesses.
1.2. Types of reading
According to Macleod (n.d.), reading is categorized into four types:
skimming, scanning, extensive reading and intensive reading.
1.2.1. Skimming
Skimming is referred to as quick reading focusing on the title, headings,
topic sentence to get the main idea. According to Macleod (n.d), skimming is a
more complex task than scanning because it requires the reader to organize and
remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it.
Similarly, Grellet (1981, p.19), “When skimming, we go through the reading
material quickly in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get
an idea of the tone or the intention of the writer.”

VI


Below are some suggestions that may help teachers to set up skimming
activities:


Students must locate facts that are expressed in sentences, not single



Although speed is essential and the teacher often sets a time limit to the

words.

activity, skimming should not be done competitively. Students should be

so students will work quickly.


Students use skills of prediction and anticipation. Students may do any of

the following:
- Make predictions and guesses
- Use titles and tables of contents to get an idea of what a passage is about

VII


REFERENCES
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Issues and strategies for second language classrooms. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
2. Anderson, N. (1999). Improving reading speed: Activities for the classroom.
English teaching forum, 37, 2-5.
3. Brown, H. D. (2001). Principles of Languagr Learning. Beijing: Foreign
Language Teaching and Research Press, 141-142.
4. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education
(6th ed.). Abingdon: Routledge.
5. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
methods approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
6. Draper, A.K. (2004) The Principles and Application of Qualitative Research.
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8. Gebhard, J. G. (1987). A successful Comprehension: What Teachers can do
before students read. English Teaching Forum, 25 (2).
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in Second Language Acquisition, 16, 1-17.
21. Nunan, D. (1992), Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge: CUP
22. Saito, Y., Horwitz, E. K., & Garza, T. J. (1999). Foreign language reading
anxiety. Modern Language Journal, 83, 202 -218.
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24. Snow, C. E., & Sweet, A. P. (2003). Reading for comprehension. In A. P. Sweet
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