Tài liu lun vn s phm 1 of 63.

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TRINH THI THANH HUONG

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES
IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K43A EFL
(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN CỦA LỚP
K43A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG)
Major: English Language Teaching

Hanoi, 2019

Footer Page 1 of 63.


Tài liu lun vn s phm 2 of 63.

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TRINH THI THANH HUONG

A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES
IN EXTENSIVE READING IN CLASS K43A EFL
(NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN CỦA LỚP
K43A SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH
TRONG VIỆC SỬ DỤNG ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG)

TRINH THI THANH HUONG

TRAN THI NGAN

Footer Page 3 of 63.


Tài liu lun vn s phm 4 of 63.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research was supported by Mrs. Ngan, Mrs. Dung, Mrs . Thao and
Mrs. Huong, the lecturers of FFL at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2. I would
like to express my sincere appreciation to them. This research could not have
been completed without the wise guidance and hearty support from my
supervisors and teachers. I have the knowledge and courage to employ statistics
in my study.
I would like to thank Miss. Hoa, my friend, for sharing her opinion to
make my study better and giving comments that greatly improved the
manuscript.
I am also thankful to Hang, Trinh, Phuong, my sincere friends, for
enlightening me on critical analysis of participant’s views. It is truly fortunate of
me to have experienced not only their academic but also their help.
I would like to take this opportunity to express gratitude to my parents for
the unceasing encouragement, support and attention.
Also, I would like to express my gratitude to 25 students who participated
voluntarily in this study.
And, I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all, who
directly or indirectly, have given me their hand in this study.


Footer Page 5 of 63.


Tài liu lun vn s phm 6 of 63.

6.1. Limitations of the research……………………………………………………24
6.2 Directions for Future Research ...................................................................... 25

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................... 27
REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 32

Footer Page 6 of 63.


Tài liu lun vn s phm 7 of 63.

ABSTRACT

It is an utter necessity to become fluent, self-sufficient and independent
English readers with highly skilled reading comprehension abilities. There is no
point to doubt that extensive reading can be the best strategy to attain this. There
are a huge number of previous studies conducted to evaluate the impact of
applying Extensive reading in learning language in EFL class. However, the
purpose of this study is to find out and identify the difficulties that the learners
have to face with when applying Extensive reading in learning English. The
intervention was conducted in the same language as the students’ core reading
instruction (English). Twenty - five the second - grade students from the class
K43A EFL at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 were invited to participate in this
study. They, under the guideline of the lecturer, applied Extensive reading in
studying English 3 months ago. The researcher investigated their obstacles and

FFL:

Faculty of Foreign Languages

HPU2: Hanoi Pedagogical University 2
IR:

Intensive Reading

L2

Second Languge

*:

A cloze test (also cloze deletion test) is an exercise, test, or assessment
consisting of a portion of language with certain items, words, or signs
removed (cloze text), where the participant is asked to replace the
missing language item. Cloze tests require the ability to understand
context and vocabulary in order to identify the correct language or part
of speech that belongs in the deleted passages. This exercise is
commonly administered for the assessment of native and
second language learning and instruction.

Footer Page 8 of 63.

2


Tài liu lun vn s phm 9 of 63.

further benefit of extensive reading is students’ positive attitudes toward reading
might increase. As Sweet (2000) pointed out that an “effective reading

Footer Page 9 of 63.

3


Tài liu lun vn s phm 10 of 63.

instruction can develop engaged readers who are knowledgeable, strategic,
socially interactive, and motivated”.
Some lecturers of Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at Hanoi
Pedagogical University 2 have applied this technique in their major classes.
Therefore, this study is carried out in order to find out the students’ difficulties
toward the application of ER in learning English at HPU2. It can be no doubt
that the application of English learning has great effects for learners; however
,students could face with many difficulties and certain challenges in the process
of applying this method. Therefore, this study was conducted to find those
difficulties and challenges, and solutions were proposed to deal with them. It is
hoped that the findings and suggestions herein will provide ideas for enhancing
the experiences of students who use Extensive Reading as part of their L2
learning if applied.
1.2 The aims of the study:
The purpose of the present study is to gather and evaluate the students’
viewpoints and difficulties in applying Extensive reading in learning English
language. In addition, the results of this study can give a suggestion for learners
in using ER technique in the language acquisition process if applied in the
future.
1.3 The Questions of the study

vocabulary and structure, and to encourage a liking for reading” (Richards, Platt,
&Platt, 1992, p. 133). Susser and Robb (1990) gave the definition of extensive
reading using criteria. Extensive reading means reading a large quantity of
material or long texts; reading for global or general understanding; and reading
with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text, which is important for
language learning. Hedge (2000: 2002) stated extensive reading with the special
characteristics:
• Reading large quantities of material such as short stories and novel,
newspaper and magazine articles, or professional reading.
• Reading consistently over time on a frequent and regular basis.
• Reading longer texts (more than a few paragraphs in length) of the
types listed in the first point above.
• Reading for general meaning, primarily for pleasure, curiosity, or
professional interest.
• Reading longer texts during class time but also engaging in individual,
independent reading at home, ideally in self-selected material.

Footer Page 11 of 63.

5


Tài liu lun vn s phm 12 of 63.

In summary, ER is considered as an approach to the second language
acquisition. When reading extensively, students are allowed to choose the books
depending on their interests, and being at their own level of difficulty. On the
other word, students learn to read by actually reading rather than examining
texts by studying the vocabulary, and grammar. According to Davis (1995), ER
programs should be “without the pressures of testing or marks.” Moreover, the



Tài liu lun vn s phm 13 of 63.

texts. Pleasure, information and general understanding are the purposes of
extensive reading. Having a balanced approach between these two is the most
essential element in any foreign language reading program. So what are the
differences between intensive and extensive reading? Schorhbuker (2008, p. 2)
noted that: there are several differences between these two reading approaches.
Waring (2006) proposes the difference between intensive and extensive reading
approaches in a visual way based on Welch‘s model (1998) (Table 1.1.).
First of all, pay attention to the peculiarities of intensive reading and then
examine those of extensive reading.

Intensive Reading
Analysis
language

ofthe

Extensive Reading
LINGUISTIC FOCUS Fluency, skill forming

Usually difficult

DIFFICULTY

Very easy

Little


Footer Page 13 of 63.

7


Tài liu lun vn s phm 14 of 63.

It is informative to bring into the comparison between Intensive Reading
and Extensive Reading. In reality, teachers should apply both IR and ER method
in teaching, because the relationship between these methods is complementary
to each other. IR, the type of reading most often found in foreign language
learning programs, is a technique used to provide new words, and to be
appropriate for serving for tests. In intensive reading, students work with much
shorter texts, materials under the guidance of the teacher in shorter terms than in
extensive reading. All of the students in a class have the same material despite of
having different levels. The aim of intensive reading is to help students construct
detailed meaning of the text; to develop reading skills, such as identifying
general and specific ideas and recognizing text signals, analyzing the language
in short texts; and enhancing their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar.
Meanwhile, when teachers apply ER to students in foreign language class, it can
not only enhance the background knowledge deeply, consolidate the academic
one, but also raise their enjoyment of reading which leads to reading fluency. In
extensive reading approach, students are involved in group discussion where
critical readers and learners are more likely to happen; students engage in daily
discussions about what they read in class or even at their home. Each student
will have a different material depending on their interest and level.
Subsequently, students can share the result of their discussion in a classroom by
narrating the book, and presenting the events or the information they got.


improve from 235 to 327 words per minute. Last but not least, Mason and
Krashen (1997) performed three successive extensive reading experiments with
various groups of college students in Japan. The findings indicated that
extensive reading can increase EFL learners’ performance in English as
measured by pre- and post cloze tests *.
In the context, there are many studies that have been done on applying ER
for the ESL. However, there has not been many researches investigating to the
EFL to evaluate its effectiveness in the language acquisition. Moreover,
previous studies have not focused on exploiting the factors affecting the success
of applying this method in EFL. The researcher believes that the implementation
of this research is necessary to initially find out the factors that influence the
success of the project applying Extensive reading in English classes.
To sum up, these studies convey the notion that as long as an extensive
reading program is conducted by following the implementation guidelines well,
EFL learners are likely to benefit from it. Among the guidelines are the
principles of providing learners with reading materials that they can comprehend
with ease and are interested in reading.

Footer Page 15 of 63.

9


Tài liu lun vn s phm 16 of 63.

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

3.1. Participants



Tài liu lun vn s phm 17 of 63.

difficulties of applying Extensive Reading in learning English.
Interview Questions: (Appendix C) The second instrument was used in
this study in order to have deep insight into the teachers’ difficulties in applying
Extensive Reading in class. By the interview method,

the teacher’s opinions

will be gathered through her voices. In reality, the results of this study could be
in validity. Going with using the questionnaire as a tool, interview method will
help the researcher have more authentic documents and basis, and get more
ideas from stakeholders. As a result, the students’ weakness, challenges as well
as the teaher’s obstacles in applying this method in class were shown more
clearly. The questions in this study were accepted from an earlier study by two
teachers Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dieu Ha and Mr. Pham Hoang Long Bien, from
Hanoi National University.

3.3. Procedures

This research began in the week of December, 26th, 2018. In the first week of
class, the teacher introduced either the extensive reading of graded readers or
Internet extensive reading to respective groups. The introduction included the
purpose of the extensive reading program, students’ expected amount of reading
per week and related assignments, and a suggested list of graded readers for the
group of linear text and Web sites of narrative stories for the group of multimodal
text. Then students were given the informed consent form to read, ask questions
about, ask them to be participants. After eleven weeks, the researcher gave
participants a questionnaire to survey their problems, and challenges during the

CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS OF THE DATA AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Evaluation of the results of Questionnaire for Students

As a result of the evaluation of questionnaire for participants, we found
that despite bringing many benefits to English learners, the application of
extensive reading in the process of English language acquisition has many
difficulties and challenges for stakeholders. The current study was designed to
examine What factors make students difficult during the process of applying
extensive reading in class of K43 EFL class at Hanoi Pedagogical 2. Six factors
were predicted and tested. The fingdings show that the success of the application
of extensive reading is formed by at least six elements.

Always

Mostly

Sometimes

bitlittleA

Hardly
1. Vocabulary in the material very difficult
and I have to look up them in the dictionary.

0%

20% 48% 20% 12%




Tài liu lun vn s phm 20 of 63.

6. Teachers help me with my processing
reading an extensive reading material

0%

24%

20% 40% 16%

0%

12%

32% 56% 0%

0%

8%

28% 48% 16%

4%

16%

32% 48% 0%

participants realized that discussions with other students in the class were
effective for them to read the material. On comparing to the figure 36 % of the
participants who are chosen reading materials by the teacher, the researcher
Footer Page 20 of 63.

14


Tài liu lun vn s phm 21 of 63.

found out that students face with a challenge to choose the reading materials
matching with their abilities and personal preferences. Specifically, 16% of them
still find it difficult to find reading materials that are compatible with their level
and interests.
Another factor that is investigated to consider whether it affects the
success of extensive reading, is the role of teachers in asking, create activities
and helping students with choosing appropriate materials. In addition, they also
play a role as people organizing projects, and evaluating students' improvement
after applying extensive reading methods in learning English in the classroom.
The percentage of students who have the reading material be appropriate to their
level is only 20%. Meanwhile, the percentage of students reading material that is
suitable for their abilities accounts for 48% of the 25 respondents. However,
they received enthusiastic help from teachers when they had difficulties in
reading the material. The figures 40% and 16% represent that the rate of
students who mostly and always receive the help of teachers, respectively.

Regardless of the tremendous benefits of the application Extensive reading
in improving the reading ability of learners, this method also brings many
difficulties and challenges for them. When overcoming difficulties, at least those
above factors, they can succeed in make learning language better, thanks to this

40%

Peer cooperation
Text difficulty

30%
20%
10%
0%
No. 1 No. 2 No. 3

No.4 No. 5 No. 6

Figure 4.1. Percentages of the rank of factors’ difficulty during applying
Extensive reading in class from No.1 to No.6

The above column chart shows the ranking of factors causing difficulties
which influence on the success of using Extensive reading in learning English.
According to feedback the researcher received from them, over 96% of the
participants felt the vocabulary of the material the most difficult when reading
and investigating. The difficulty of the vocabulary makes them spend a lot of
time investigating the meaning of the word. Moreover, even if they investigated
the meaning, they still could not translate and understand the meaning of the
whole paragraph clearly.
A participant in this study, expressed: “ I found text difficulty the most
difficult because many topics are not familiar with me. I sometimes
misunderstand and cannot guess the meaning, even though I tried a lot.” This

Footer Page 22 of 63.


the classroom activity is the factor that participants do not face many difficulties
in this item. The percentage of participants who agreed to place this factor in the
ranking No. 6 of the table is about 64%. The reason of this is that: “Teacher's
help in creating, and organizing reasonable and effective activities has made
them feel no challenge when working together”, a K43A participant said.
Exchanging and consulting activities among learners take place excitingly and
enthusiastically. It can be clearly seen that although they have to face with a lot

Footer Page 23 of 63.

17


Tài liu lun vn s phm 24 of 63.

of difficulties in the extensive reading process, taking part in class activities to
share and summarize the content of the material makes students excited without
obstacles.
To summarize, the current study was designed to examine What factors
make students difficult during the process of applying extensive reading in class
of K43 EFL class at Hanoi Pedagogical 2. Six factors were predicted and tested.
During the process of investigating, the researcher found out that the most
difficult factor for students when reading the extension documents was text
difficulty, besides, there were 5 other difficulties mentioned above. In order to
effectively apply this method in teaching English, the teacher should take this
result as a suggestion to find the direction of the activity taught appropriately.

4.2. Evaluation of the results of Interview Questions for the Teacher

After surveying the opinions of the students, the researcher investigated

smaller size, so that the performance and efficiency will be improved.

Footer Page 25 of 63.

19