Luận văn What are the reading strategies employed by readers among TBU ethnic minority junior first-Year English-majored students

ed to process written texts. Participants were ninth grade students who were learning French. Before conducting her study, she classified readers based on a test of L2 reading. Then, in an oral interview, participants were asked to read a text and do think-aloud reports (that is, she directed them to say in their first language whatever came to their mind while processing each sentence in the text). Hosenfield found out that the successful readers used the following kinds of strategies (1977: 233-4): * Keep the meaning of the passage in mind * read in broad phrases * skip inessential words * guess from context the meaning of unknown words * have a good self-concept as a reader * identify the grammatical category of words * demonstrate sensitivity to a different word order * examine illustrations * read the title and make inferences from it * use orthographic information (e.g. capitalization) * refer to the side glossary * use the glossary as the last resort * look up words correctly * continue if unsuccessful at decoding a word or a phrase * recognize cognates * use their knowledge of the world * follow through with a proposed solution to a problem * evaluate their guesses. Poor readers, on the other hand, translated sentences and lost the general meaning of the passage, rarely skipped words or looked up unknown words in a glossary and had a poor concept as a reader. While these results clearly described the strategies the students used to process the text, they did not link the strategy use to comprehension of specific paragraphs or to text as whole. The data only focused on sentence level comprehension so the results of the study did not reveal overall comprehension of the entire text. A decade later, Block's (1986) study compared the reading comprehension strategies used by native English speakers and ESL students who were enrolled in remedial reading course at the university level and she connected these behaviors to comprehension. The participants were identified as non-proficient readers because they failed a college reading proficiency test before they study. Subjects read two exploratory passages selected from an introductory psychology textbook, and were asked to think aloud while they reading (they reported after each sentence). After reading and retelling each passage, the participants answered twenty multiple choice comprehension questions. Block developed a scheme to classify strategies that consisted of two types: general strategies and local strategies. General strategies included the following behaviors: anticipate content, recognize text structure, integrate information, question information, distinguish main ideas, interpret the text, use general knowledge and associations to background, comment on behavior or process, monitor comprehension, correct behavior, focused on textual meaning as a whole, and react to the text. Local strategies were: paraphrase, reread, question meaning of a clause or a sentence, question meaning of a word and solve a vocabulary problem. Of the 9 ESL students in the study, the readers with higher comprehension scores on the retelling and the multiple choice questions integrated new information in the text with old information, distinguish main ideas from details, referred to their background and focused on textual meaning as a whole. This means they all employed "general strategies". On the other hand, readers with low comprehension scores rarely distinguished main ideas from details, rarely referred to their background, infrequently focused on textual meaning and seldom integrated information. Sarig (1987) investigated the contribution of L1 reading strategies and L2 language proficiency to L2 reading, as well as the relationship between L1 and L2 reading strategies. Sarig's subjects were 10 female native Hebrew readers who were studying English as a foreign language. Sarig classified the data from think-aloud reports into four general types of behaviors or responses: (1) technical aids, (2) clarification and simplification, (3) coherence detection and (4) monitoring moves. Sarig's results revealed that subjects transferred strategies from L1 reading to L2 reading and that the same reading strategy types "accounted for success and failures in both languages to almost the same extent" (Sarig, 1987: 118). Top-down, global strategies led to both successful and unsuccessful reading comprehension. The two language dependent strategies, the clarification and simplification strategies contributed to unsuccessful reading comprehension in both L1 and L2. Results also indicated that most of the strategies used during the reading comprehension process were particular to each reader or that each individual read differently and used a different combination of strategies. These results do not duplicate Block's (1986) where global strategies led to successful (not unsuccessful) reading comprehension. Some studies have shown that better readers are also better strategy users. Carrel (1989) for example, conducted a study to investigate the metacognitive awareness of second language reader strategies in both their first and second language and the relationship between this awareness and their comprehension. Her first group of subjects was native Spanish speakers of intermediate and high-intermediate levels studying English as a second language at a university level institute. Her second group consisted of native English speakers learning Spanish as a foreign language in first, second and third-year courses. Carrel first asked subjects to read two texts, one in L1 and one in L2. She controlled for content schemata as both texts were on a general topic of language. The subjects answered multiple choice comprehension questions about the text followed by a strategy use questionnaire. Carrel correlated strategy use with comprehension and concluded that the ESL readers of more advanced proficiency level perceived "global" or top-down strategies as more effective. With the Spanish as a L2 group, she found that at the lower proficiency levels, subjects used more bottom-up or "local" strategies. The last study mentioned here was conducted by Block (1992). He investigated the comprehension monitoring process used by first and second language readers of English. The subjects were 25 college freshmen and consisted of proficient and non-proficient readers of English. While reading an expository text, the participants were asked to think aloud or more specifically, to "say everything they understood and everything they were thinking as they read each sentence" (Block, 1992: 323). The results indicated that when facing a vocabulary problem, proficient ESL readers used background knowledge, decided on whether the word contributed to the overall meaning of the passage, reread the sentence and used syntactic clues. The meaning-based strategies are classified as global behaviors. On the other hand, non-proficient ESL readers focused on identifying lexical problems and did little to figure out the meaning of the words. From the above findings of research in reading strategies, it becomes clear that there are indeed differences between successful or good readers and less successful or poor readers in terms of strategy use. Overall, more proficient readers combine both top-down and bottom-up strategies in reading but tend to use more top-down strategies than bottom-up ones. Specifically, they exhibit the following types of reading behaviors: * overview text before reading * employ context clues such as title, subheadings and diagrams * look for important information while reading and pay great attention to it than other information * attempt to relate important points in text to one another in order to understand the text as a whole * activate and use prior knowledge to interpret text * reconsider and revise hypothesis about the meaning of the text based on text content * attempt to infer information from the text * attempt to identify or infer the meaning of words not understood or recognized * monitor text comprehension * use strategies to remember text (paraphrasing, repetition, making notes, summarizing, self-questioning etc) * understand relationship between parts of text and recognize text structure * change reading strategies when comprehension is perceived not be proceeding smoothly * evaluate the qualities of text * reflect on and process additionally after a part has been read and anticipate or plan for the use of knowledge gained from the reading. (Hosenfield 1977; Block 1986; Carrel 1986) While this list is not priotized or complete, it helps provide a description of the characteristics of successful readers and serves as an important foundation for more research into reading. However, a gap that can be found in these studies on reading strategies is that few researchers who have attempted to classify reading strategies into a more comprehensive scheme except for top-down and bottom-up strategies (or global or local strategies). That is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge by using O'Malley and Chamot's scheme to classify the reading strategies used by readers among the TBU students. As mentioned earlier, this scheme was developed by O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) based on their several descriptive studies on learning strategies in four English skills. It can reflect the actual reading process as it contains both top-down and bottom-up strategies within its categories. The top-down strategies included in this scheme are elaboration (relating prior knowledge to new information), transfer (using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist comprehension), inferencing (using the available information to guess meaning of new items and predict outcomes) and summarizing (making mental or oral summary of new information gained through reading). The bottom-up strategies are grouping (classifying words, terminology or concept according to their attributes or meanings), deduction (applying rules to understand the second language), recombination (constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language sequence by combing known elements in a new way), key word methods (remember a new word in the second language) and translation (using the first language as a base for understanding the second language). In addition, there are metacognitive strategies that involve executive processes in planning for reading, monitoring comprehension and evaluating how well one has achieved a reading activity. Therefore, this classification framework is quite comprehensive and applicable to examining reading strategies. In this study, the TBU subjects' reading strategies are classified according to this scheme. 2.6. Summary This chapter has reviewed related theories on learning strategies in general and reading strategies in particular. Some of the main points can be summarized as follows. Concerning the definition of learning strategies, there have been quite different points of views by different scholars. Some scholars see learning strategies as behaviors while others view them as thoughts and behaviors. However, it is generally agreed that O'Malley and Chamot's definition is the most convincing as it covers the significant features of learning strategies: both mental and behavioral (both observable and unobservable) and individual characterized. The classification of learning strategies is also a complex work done by a considerable number of researchers. Based on descriptive studies on learning strategies of ESL and EFL learners, Rubin (1975), Naiman et al (1978), Wenden (1983), Oxford (1990), O'Malley et al (1985a and 1985b) and O'Malley and Chamot (1990) have proposed useful schemes for classification of learning strategies. Of these schemes, O'Malley and Chamot's framework has been most useful and generally accepted to date. In O'Malley and Chamot's framework, three majors types including metacognotive, cognitive and social/affective strategies are distinguished in accordance with the information processing model, on which their research is based. Such a detailed and sufficient classification learning strategies is presented in table 2.1 and is going to be adopted for the investigation of reading strategies for this study. The second part of this chapter covers the important theories related to reading and an overview of studies on reading strategies of successful and unsuccessful learners. These theorists describe a process that moves both bottom-up and top-down, depending on the type of text as well as on the reader's background knowledge, language proficiency level, motivation, strategy use and cultural shaped beliefs about reading. In comparison to the bottom-up and top-down models, interactive models of reading provide a more accurate conceptualization of reading performance and describe exactly what really happens during the reading process. According to this interactive model, good reading can only result from a constant interaction between the bottom-up and the top-down processes. In other words, good readers are those who can "efficiently integrate" both of these processes. This view is now shared by a majority of researchers in a numerous number of studies on reading. The last part of the chapter discusses reading strategies, the focus of the thesis, in details. Most of the researchers have concluded that there are indeed differences between effective and ineffective readers in terms of strategy used. The more proficient readers often employed both top-down and bottom-up strategies but appear to use more top-down ones. A detailed description of reading strategies employed by effective readers is provided so as to serve as the basic for any research into reading strategies. The next chapter is the study on reading strategies used by the TBU students, which has been conducted in the light of the theories discussed above. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for the present study. This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and analysis in the study. It starts with a description of the participants and the setting of the study. It also provides information about the research method. It then describes data collection instruments and analysis procedures of the study. 3.1. The context of the study 3.1.1. Participants There are 54 students at the age of 17 to 22, of them 32 students are from different Ethnic Minority Groups including 14 students from Tay Group, 10 from Nung Group, 5 are from Muong Group, and the rest are from Thai Group. The participants in this study were among these 32 ethnic minority students. Of them there were 26 girls and 6 boys who mostly came from the countryside. Most of these students were 19 years old (16 students), 11 were 20 years old and only 5 students were 21 years old . All of them spent between 4-10 years learning English in which 20 students have been learning English for 8 years. Their proficiency levels were generally reported to be between elementary and pre-intermediate. Table 3.1. summarizes the background information about the participants such as genders, ages, number of years learning English and their self-assessed English proficiency. Total number of participants Gender Age (years) Number of years learning English English proficiency Male Female 19 20 21 4 7 8 10 Elementary Pre-intermediate 32 6 26 16 11 5 7 3 20 2 21 11 Table 3.1. Background information about the participants These junior students are now studying the second semester of the course majoring in English. The course for these students lasts from the first year to the third year of training at the university. They have to learn some professional subjects in English to become teachers of English after three years studying English at the university. Therefore, English in general and reading skills in particular play a very important role in their study at the university. There are some reasons for choosing these freshermen as the participants of this study. Firstly, the training quality of these students is always of great concern to both the authority and teachers at TBU. The findings of the study would provide essential information for teachers to improve TBU students' reading proficiency and hence contribute to enhancing the overall training quality of these students. Secondly, they are suitable participants for the study because they have already finished the first semester in English reading so their English reading proficiency is of great concern for me to conduct the study on reading strategies. In addition, as these students are ones who I have been directly teaching, it is feasible for me to have favourable conditions to carry out all the steps of the research process. 3.1.2. Setting of the study The present study was conducted from mid April to mid June when the participants were in the second semester of the first year. Up to the time of the study, they had been studying English at the university for nearly a year with 3 reading periods per week (nearly 90 periods). They had been learning some books including Practise your reading skills by Hoang Hai Anh-Quach Ngoc Anh-Le Thi Minh Hien, Cause and Effect by Partricia Ackert and some other materials adapted to suit their proficiency levels such as New Headway Pre-intermediate. All of the textbooks and materials aim to provide these students with basic knowledge of English. At the time of the study, they were learning Cause and Effect by Partricia Ackert as a textbook for the first-year junior English majored students at Tay Bac University to study reading skills. While using this book we found that the book matches the objectives of the learning program and students levels of proficiency because the book is for students who know the basic structures of English and have a vocabulary of about 2000 English words. The 25 lessons are in 5 units. The exercises provide practice with vocabulary, comprehension, inference, main idea, cause and effect, context clues, scanning, sequence, summarizing, word forms, articles, prepositions, two-word verbs, compound words, connecting words, and noun substitutes. The topics in the five units are quite interesting and learners-friendly. The book is also easy to study. However, most of tasks are designed in the same way and in the same order so that teachers have to redesign the tasks and the activities quite often to match students interests. Besides, teachers meet difficulties when they use this book because there is no teachers' book to support them and provide appropriate guidance to them. In addition, students' levels of proficiency are not equal. Among these students, 2 have spent 10 years learning English, 20 of them have learnt English for 8 years and the rest ones have learnt English for 4 to 7 years in both local high schools and at the university. In this term (15 weeks) they have to take part in 45 periods equal to 3 modules. Each lesson is often divided into 3 periods so that we have to choose 15 lessons among the five units to study in classroom and the rest is for home reading. During this time, I was the only teacher who directly taught the learner-participants and therefore, quite understand their strengths and weaknesses in English reading. This is a great advantage for me to conduct this study. 3.2. Research method This study is to be conducted as a descriptive study that utilized quantitative approach. The quantitative analysis is employed through the process of data collected from tests and a written questionnaire delivered to TBU first-year junior English-majored readers to examine their reading strategy use. 3.3. Instruments of data collection The present study utilized quantitative method including tests and survey questionnaires to collect data on the reading strategies employed by TBU students. First, the two reading comprehension tests were given to the subjects in order to identify their English reading proficiency levels. Then, the questionnaires were administered to find out their reading strategies. 3.3.1. Tests A test is a procedure to collect data on subjects' ability or knowledge of certain disciplines. In second language acquisition research, tests are generally used to collect data about the subjects' ability and knowledge of the second language in areas such as vocabulary, grammar, reading, metalinguistic awareness and general proficiency. As Vu and Do (2004) stated, all good tests should have five main characteristics including validity, reliability, discrimination, practicality and backwash in order to accurately assess the learners' ability. In this study, two reading comprehension tests taken from De thi tuyen sinh vao Dai hoc Hue- 2001 and De 4 tuyen sinh vao Dai hoc va Cao dang nam 2002 were given to the subjects in two periods. The reason for selecting them as the reading tests for my study is that both of these can be regarded as standardized tests. They were developed by experts and therefore considered to be well constructed. When deciding the tests for my students, I had to take into consideration their reading abilities. At the time of the study their English proficiency was at elementary level. Therefore, I only chose short and quite simple reading tasks which were more appropriate for my students. Based on the analysis of the test scores from these two tests, the students levels of proficiency were identified. 3.3.2. Questionnaires Questionnaires are printed forms for data collection, which include questions or statements to which the subject is expected to respond, often anonymously. Questions can range from those that ask for yes-no responses or indication of frequency (e.g. 'never', 'seldom', 'sometime', 'often' and 'always') to less structured questions asking respondents to describe or discuss language learning behavior in detail. It is believed that surveys are the most commonly used descriptive method in educational research. There are a few advantages to use survey questionnaire as a research method. "The main attraction of questionnaires is their unprecedented efficiency in terms of (a) researcher time, (b) researcher effort, and (c) financial resources." (Zoltan Dornyei, 2003: 9). In the history of learning strategy research, "the most frequently used method for identifying students' learning strategies is through questionnaires." (Chamot, 2005). As Selinger and Shohany (1989) pointed out, questionnaires have the following advantages. Firstly, they do not take so much time to administer as other procedures. Secondly, since the same questionnaire is given to all subjects at the same time, the data are more uniform, standard and accurate. Lastly, questionnaires can be easily quantified because multiple choice questions are used. Because of these advantages, I have used questionnaires as a main data collection method in my study. The questionnaire used in this study consists of two main parts. The first part required the subjects to give information about their names, ages, genders, the number of years learning English, their English certificates (if available) and their self-evaluated English proficiency levels. The second part contains 17 questions mainly about the participants' reading strategies and some questions about their views on reading comprehension. 3.4. Data collection procedures The data collection procedures commenced in mid April and ended in mid June 2008. All of the procedures involved the following steps. Step1: In April, the subjects were given a reading comprehension test one a week. This work is done in two weeks to get the test scores from two different reading comprehension tests. The test scores were collected and then analyzed to identify students' level of reading proficiency. Based on the results, effective and ineffective readers were classified. Step 2: In early May, a questionnaire that included 20 questions was developed and given to another group of 20 students for a trial purposes. Some ambiguous questions were identified and adjusted to improve the questionnaire. Then the questionnaires were administered to the TBU subjects to find out their reading strategies in general. After the data is analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be raised in the thesis. All of these work was completed in June. 3.5. Data analysis One set of data was obtained from the data collection. The data set comprised 32 questionnaires answered by those readers who were identified based on the test scores. The following section reports the coding and analysis of the data set. 3.5.1. Coding of questionnaire data The questionnaire included 20 questions, in which 17 items were reserved for asking about the subjects' reading strategies. These reading strategies were coded into three main types of st