A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF TEACHING INFERENTIAL READING SKILLS TO EFL

Research in this area hasconcentrated on the categorization of inferences, but an insufficient amount ofinvestigation has been done into the effect of an inferential reading skill course

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

VO NGOC ANH

A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF TEACHING INFERENTIAL READING SKILLS TO EFL

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60140111MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: TRAN THI NGOC YEN

VINH, 8/2017

Inferential reading skill courses have been considered an effective method

to improve learners’ reading comprehension Research in this area hasconcentrated on the categorization of inferences, but an insufficient amount ofinvestigation has been done into the effect of an inferential reading skill course

on students’ reading comprehension development This thesis, in the first place,seeks to determine if teaching inferential reading skills to English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) learners helps them to improve their reading comprehension.The study, in the second place, aims to determine if learning inferential readingskills will motivate EFL learners to read In the experiment, an inferentialreading skill course was delivered to a treatment group Pre-test and post-testwere administered before and after the treatment to assess the participants’reading comprehension It was found that the treatment group outperformed thecontrol group in terms of comprehension The difference was significant

((p<.001) The data also showed that the treatment group were more motivated

to read than the control group

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my distinguished supervisor,

Dr Tran Thi Ngoc Yen, who I believe is the most caring supervisor, for herpriceless direction, keen insight, precious orientation, warm encouragement, andcontinuous support throughout this research Her dedication and positiveattitudes were sparkling in such a way that it helped to make my research thefinal product

I also wish to thank other distinguished lecturers of the Department ofForeign Languages, Vinh University, for instructing me during my entire MAcourse Without that, it would have been harder for me to finish this research.Their dedicated lessons and lectures contributed a significant part in the thesis

I am in debt to the library center of Vinh University for letting me borrowuseful materials as a precious resource to support my reference source for thisthesis

I am grateful to Vo Thi Tieu My and Luu Hoang Nhan, teachers at ChoGao High School (CGHS), for letting me work with their classes while I was

gathering the data for the research and especially those group members of my

e-Learning for English teachers and students in Tien Giang Province social

networking page who are enthusiastically in favor of me while carrying out thisstatistical processing, for helping me out with technical issues

I would also like to thank the administrators, teachers, and students atCGHS, Tien Giang Province for their cooperation and help

I wish to express my deep appreciation to Department of Education andTraining, Tien Giang Province, for facilitating me in agendas, without which Iwould not have been able to sustain the completion of the course, and foradvocating me as always

Finally, I would like to dedicate this work to my parents-in-law andfamily, who have been always supporting me with love and sympathy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Research design of the study 32 Table 2.1: The results of the general test taken by the treatment group and the control group 37 Table 2.2: The results of the pre-treatment test taken by the treatment group and the control group 39 Table 2.3: The students’ performance in the pre- test 40 Table 2.4: The results of the post-treatment test taken by the treatment group and the control group 41 Table 2.5: The students’ performance in the post- test 43 Table 3: The difference in progress of reading comprehension scores between the two groups 44 Initially, there is difference in progress of reading comprehension scores between the two groups As can be seen from the statistical table, the value p of t-test is 0.0000 < 0.05 and proves that the difference between the average scores of the pre-treatment test and the post-treatment test signifies considerably Accordingly, the average score of the post-treatment test surpassses the one of the pre- treatment test thanks to the treatment effect 44 Table 4: The results of the opinions on the students‘ attitudes towards the inferential reading skills instruction by means of the questionnaire 48 Table 5: The responses to three open-ended questions about teaching inferential reading skills to the students 49

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1a and chart 1b: The results of the general test taken by the treatment group and the control group 38 Charts 3a nd 3b: The results of the post-treatment test taken by the treatment group and the control group 42 Chart 4a versus chart 4b: The results of the post-treatment test taken by the treatment group and the control group 45 Chart 5: The distinctive progress of the treatment group over the control group45 45 Next come the detailed data on the results of the students’performance in the post-test after the treatment 45 Regarding the pass-fail balance of the two groups, the test-takers of the treatment group who passed the test accounted for 95% whereas, the control group did 82,5% As a consequence, the treatment group gained a considerable victory over the control group in the reading comprehension test 45 Chart 6: The results of the opinions on the students‘ attitudes toward the inferential reading skills instruction by means of the questionnaire 49

LIST OF DIAGRAMS Diagram 1: The relationship between the key variables of this study 33 Diagram 2: The data collection procedures 34

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Currently, I work as a specialist of English for Tien Giang Department ofEducation and Training (DOET), which means that I am in charge of the Englishteaching and learning of the province It is a common context that duringEnglish tests EFL students are more hopeless at reading comprehension multiplechoice questions (MCQs) than at other kinds of MCQs such as grammar andvocabulary ones Our task is to improve the students’ reading comprehensionskill in order to raise their reading scores in the progress, achievement andproficiency tests Among the students’ problems with reading comprehension isone of inferential reading

The task of ameliorating the students’ reading comprehension hasconstantly been a substantial challenge to teachers The difficulty in readingeven proves to be greater when it comes to dealing with inferential readingMCQs Nevertheless, if special efforts are made, the issue will not be ascomplex as it is thought Hereby in this research, the suggestion is that theproblem be confronted by teaching inferential reading skills to the students

Inferences are the conclusions we offer based on what one already knowsand judgments we make or facts that the information in the passage rules outbased on given information With this strategy, EFL students connect their priorschemata with their comprehension of a reading text This strategy trainsstudents to think to make new information reshape their previous knowledge.Inferential reading is a skill and, as a consequence, can be taught Once studentshave developed inferential reading skills, they learn to relate what is happening

in the text to what they have already known of the world, to give explanationsfor ideas that are presented in the text, to offer details for events or their ownexplanations of the events, to be aware of the author's view of the world even theauthor's biases, to draw conclusions from facts presented in the text, or tocomprehend the tone of discourse participants' words and relationships to one

another Inferential reading can also aid EFL students with unfamiliar orchallenging vocabulary by figuring out 1) antecedents for pronouns, 2) themeaning of unknown words from contextual meanings, and/or 3) the structuralfunction of an unknown word.

Making inferences denotes information that is implied or ‘inferred’ Thismeans that the information is never clearly stated In fact, readers often have tounderstand the writers more than what they say directly Writers provide hintsthat help readers ‘read between the lines’ Using these clues to give readers adeep-down understanding of their reading is called ‘inferring’ By ‘inferring’,readers go beyond the surface details to see other meanings that the detailssuggest or imply (not directly stated) When the connotations of words are notstated clearly in the context of the text, they may be implied, suggested, orhinted at When meanings are implied, readers may ‘infer’ them

For example, if the text says that "all the glasses on the table are full", aninference would be that "there are no empty glasses on the table"

1.2 Aims of study

In an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching of inferentialreading skills to EFL students and to provide the students with convincingevidence for whether mastery of inferential reading skills will work or not, thisresearch is conducted on the impact of the teaching of inferential reading skills

on the improvement of the students’ reading comprehension and their scores inreading in the progress, achievement and proficiency tests

1.3 Research questions

1.3.1 Does, and to what extent if it does, teaching inferential reading skills

enhance EFL high school students’ reading comprehension?

1.3.2 Does teaching inferential reading skills increase EFL high school

students' motivation to read?

1.4 Scope of study

The study is expected to be applied to EFL high school students at CGHS

in Tien Giang Province These students range from age 16 to age 18 and theybelong to the eleventh grade Besides MOET’s English textbooks in the English-official classes, the students selected study Cambridge English books includingKET, PET and IELTS books in their English-intensified extra classes Thesestudents will take not only GCSE exams but proficiency tests as well

1.5 Thesis design

The M.A thesis is composed of five main chapters:

The Introduction states the rationale, aims of study, research questions,

scope of study, and overview of the study

The Literature Review discusses the viewpoints that the researchers hold

about inferences, the ways to teach inferential reading skills and how the waysaffect students’ reading comprehension

The Methodology introduces the methods employed to gather

information Especially, 80 English-intensified students and 1 teacher of English

at CGHS are also involved in the process to provide significant information forthe study Later, the statistical data are processed through Microsoft Excel

The Findings and Discussion publish discoveries, which help reveal the

nature of the issue in question on the impact of teaching inferential reading skills

to EFL high school students Next come recommendations for the teaching andlearning of inferential reading skills

The Conclusion consists of a few final words based on the findings of the

study done for this M.A thesis and a brief evaluation on the methods, thecontributions and the limitations of this study In addition, a prospect forresearching the issue is shown

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Up to now a considerable amount of literature has been published onreading The information that can be seen below all serves to make up of whatresearchers have already known or written of reading and all related

2.1 The elements of reading

Armbruster, B., Lehr F, and Osborn, J (2001) established that theelements of reading include phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency,and comprehension and should be emphasized in children’s reading instructionthroughout their early school years Fluency is the ability to read a textaccurately and quickly Fluent readers recognize words automatically.Comprehension is the reason for reading If readers can read the words but donot understand what they are reading, they are not really reading

Anne Kispal (2008) indicated that understanding the reading processenables us to understand how each of these elements works to help studentsbecome proficient readers Students combine the elements of reading to producewords (from their prior knowledge and background) that may fit in the context

of what they are reading Students immediately filter the meaning of the materialagainst their comprehension of the material, searching for a match Both wordmeaning (vocabulary) and content meaning (comprehension) work together asstudents read and understand their reading

2.2 The reading process

Verbal efficiency theory, as proposed by Perfetti (1985), tries to explainthe reading process by focusing on eye fixations at fast rates He assumed thateach reader has a profile of verbal efficiency The larger the profile, the moreattentional resources are available for higher level skills, the faster the readercan read The large profile makes the attentional resources available for higherlevel skills and leads to the fast reader

Schema theory (Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983)explains how people organize their knowledge using schemas or knowledgestructures Thus, it examines reading as a process for studying rather than typicalreading In other words, their subjects are people who are deliberately reading atext to learn something from it or to memorize it.

Whole language theory (Goodman, 1989; Watson, 1989) holds thatreading is a natural process which has a close link with speaking, listening andwriting, thus if one of these language skills develops, the others will beimproved as a result It advises educators to use a child-centred philosophy toencourage children to learn This theory addresses normal reading but mainlydeals with young readers rather than adult readers

Rauding theory, which was proposed and developed by Carver (1990,1992a, 1993, 2000), focuses on normal reading by both children and adults Asthis theory is the most relevant to the topic of this thesis, it is worthwhileproviding a description of how it works

As termed by Carver (1992b, p 85), there are five basic processes, orreading gears, scanning, skimming, reading 2, studying, and memorizing Carverpointed out that readers shift up to the higher gears or down to the lower gearswhen their reading purposes change For instance, when they do not need tounderstand every single sentence of the text, they usually utilize skimming Onthe other hand, when they have to know the information well enough to use itfor later purposes, they may shift down to studying or memorizing However, in

a typical situation, readers only operate at the third gear, reading 2 or rauding.Although the term rauding in this theory involves both auding (listening) andreading, only the second dimension will be discussed in this literature review asthe thesis particularly concerns fluency in reading

According to Carver (1997), in the rauding process, readers makefixations on almost all of the words in the text and comprehend all, or most ofthe complete thoughts presented in the text If readers understand less thanaround 75 percent of presented thoughts, they are said to have been reading, butnot rauding One of the fundamental factors for this process to occur is that thereading material must be relatively easy If the text is at a higher level than theability level of the reader, the rauding process is unlikely to happen Theinstructions are also an important factor in that if the readers are asked to studythe text carefully so that they will be able to recall the details later, perhaps theywill not utilize the rauding process These features account for the relevance ofthe rauding theory to this research In the two experiments, the speed readingtexts were 20 stories written within the participants’ vocabulary level The speedreading instructions informed the participants that they did not have tomemorize the text for later tests, and that the comprehension level should bearound 70 percent The pre-test and post-test instructions asked the participants

to read at the speed that they would normally read

2.2 The nature of reading fluency

Fluency plays a crucial role in proficient reading as once readers becomeautomatic in decoding, they can devote their attention to comprehending text(Hiebert & Fisher, 2005) Thus fluency has a close link with comprehension(Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; McGlinchey & Hixson, 2004; Oakley, 2005; Pinnell,1995; Rasinski & Padak, 1996; Silberglitt, Burns, Madyun, & Lail, 2006) Iflearners cannot attain fluency, it is likely that they cannot reach the consequentstages of reading ability (Stahl & Heubach, 2005) Fluency also plays a role indeveloping readers’ confidence and motivation in that if readers become morefluent, they tend to enjoy and spend more time reading, which in turn, helps

them to develop additional fluency (Oakley, 2005) Besides, fluency has anassociation with L1 rauding as Carver (2000) commented:

“If the term fluency is used to refer to the silent reading of relatively easy text wherein the words are recognized effortlessly at the typical reading rate of the individual while the complete thoughts in these sentences are being comprehended as they are read, then fluency and rauding are synonymous terms” (p 5)

Fluency implies more than what is mentioned in the quote because theresearch involves learners of English in a foreign language environment Many

of them may not be able to recognize English words effortlessly whilecomprehending most of the sentences being read However, it can be said thatthis kind of fluency is the optimal goal of the language program at the universityand of the treatment Only when the participants reach the level at which theycan decode words effortlessly and understand most of the thoughts presented in

a text can they be said to achieve rauding For this reason, a broader review ofthe literature on fluency development is necessary

Most definitions of fluency were proposed in research on L1 reading.Studies in L2 reading commonly took the theories of L1 reading fluency as theunderpinning In L1 oral reading, fluency has been defined as reading aloud fastand accurately (Good & Kaminski, 2002; Oakley, 2005; Welsch, 2006) orreading aloud with accuracy, and appropriate expression (Armbruster, Lehr, &Osborn, 2001; Chard, Pikulski, & McDonough, 2005; Huey, 1968; Meyer &Felton, 1999; Rasinski, 1989; Schreiber, 1987) Appropriate expression includessuch aspects as speed, phrasing, and smoothness

Although appropriate expression, to some extent, can show the reader’sunderstanding of the text (Allerson & Grabe, 1986; Pinnell, 1995; Rasinski,2003b), fluency is integral to comprehension and the definition of fluency

should include comprehension (John & Berglund, 2006; Kuhn & Stahl, 2003;Rasinski, Blachowicz, & Lems, 2006; Stahl & Heubach, 2005).

In L1 silent reading, fluency is commonly understood as the ability toread and to comprehend accurately at the same time (Rasinski, 2000, 2003b;Rasinski, et al., 2006; Samuels, 2006) A fluent reader is a person who has

“freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension”(Harris & Hodges, 1995, p 85) This is because in order to have good readingcomprehension, a reader has to be able to identify words easily and quickly(Samuels, 2002) This definition comes from automaticity theory, which holdsthat if a subcomponent skill becomes automatic, that means, it can be donewithout using many attentional resources, and the other subcomponent skillswill be more likely to work effectively (Baker & Brown, 1984; Pressley &Afflerbach, 1995; Walczyk, 2000) Researchers also emphasize the role ofsmoothness and appropriate reading rate in reading fluency (Nation, 2005;Oakley, 2005)

In second and foreign language learning, fluency is defined as “the ability

to speak or write a particular foreign language easily and accurately” (Pearsall,

1998, p 707) or “making the most effective use of what skills are alreadyknown” (Nation, 1997, p 30) In particular, reading fluency has receivedrelatively scant attention However, a few researchers have consistently regardedforeign reading fluency as the ability to read and comprehend a text in theforeign language at an adequate speed and two observable signals of this aspectare speed and accuracy in comprehension (Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008; Nation,2005; Segalowitz, Segalowitz, & Wood, 1998; Yamashita & Ichikawa, 2010)

2.3 The indicators of reading fluency

Although researchers approach reading fluency from differentperspectives, a consensus on the indicators of reading fluency has beenestablished There is popular agreement that automaticity, accuracy, and readingspeed (for silent reading) or prosody (for oral reading) are the three fundamentalindicators (Grabe, 2004b; Harris & Hodges, 1995; Kuhn & Stahl, 2003;Rasinski, et al., 2006; Richards, 2000; Tompkins, 2003; Worthy & Broaddus,2001-2002)

Automaticity is widely accepted as one of the indicators of fluency inreading Automaticity is, in general, a term used to define the ability to complete

a task without a large amount of attentional resources being used In reading,automaticity is understood as the effortless, accurate and fast recognition ofwords in texts Studies in L1 reading have shown that automaticity is a crucialcomponent of skilled reading as it allows the reader to save cognitive resourcesfor more complicated tasks (Schwanenflugel, et al., 2006) and influencescomprehension (Adams, 1994; Just, Anderson, & Carpenter, 1987; Rayner &Pollatsek, 1989) In other words, word recognition and comprehension competefor readers’attention It is likely that readers will not be able to reserve theirattention for comprehension if they have to spend too much time identifyingwords (Samuels, 2002) Therefore reading instructors should help readers to

“shift the blend toward automaticity by eliminating or reducing reliance on some

of the controlled processes” (Segalowitz, et al., 1998, p 54) The overallprinciple of chunking is most human beings can apprehend about “sevenrecently learned chunks of similarly classified data” (Gobet, et al., 2001, p 236).From the reader’s perspective, the chunking principle requires them to groupwords into information units In other words, they no longer process every wordseparately but instead process a certain number of words as one unit of

information This in turn will increase their word recognition skills Thus

“fluency development involves not just becoming faster, it also involveschanging the size and nature of the basic unit that the reader is working with”(Nation, 2005, p 25) Since assessment of the recognition unit in reading isdifficult, this aspect of reading fluency has been usually neglected in previousstudies In the last two decades, there has been an increasing but still smallamount of literature on automatization in L2 reading (Anderson & Pearson,1984; Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983; Stanovich, 1992) Past research has found thatamong L2 university students, those who were more fluent readers also hadbetter word recognition automaticity skills (Segalowitz, et al., 1998) and thatthere is a strong link between high proficiency levels and automatic wordrecognition in L2 (Kroll, Michael, Tokowicz, & Dufour, 2002)

Prosody is an important indicator of fluency in oral reading Previousresearch in L1 oral reading has established a set of language features thatcompile prosody These features include stress or emphasis, pitch variations,intonation, pace, phrasing, and pausing (Dowhower, 1987; Rasinski, 2003a;Schreiber, 1987)

While in oral reading children’s comprehension can be, to some extent,conveyed through prosody, in silent reading, there are no immediatelyobservable clues of readers‟ understanding of the text Thus many researcherssuggest including comprehension accuracy as an indicator of fluency in silentreading (Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008; Nation, 2005; Segalowitz, et al., 1998;Yamashita & Ichikawa, 2010) It is believed that reading faster will bemeaningless if the reader comprehends little of the text A fluent reader should

be able to both read quickly and comprehend the text at the same time.Therefore, comprehension accuracy should be one of the indicators of fluency insilent reading Some researchers have suggested a goal of at least 75%

comprehension in L1 reading (Carver, 1981, 1992b) or around 70% accuracy inL2/FL reading (Millett, Quinn, & Nation, 2007) In oral reading, accuracy isusually associated with decoding It refers to “the ability to correctly generate aphonological representation of each word, either because it is part of the reader’ssight-word vocabulary or by use of a more effortful decoding strategy such assounding out the word” (Penner-Wilger, 2008, p 1) Accuracy in decoding isusually measured by counting the number of correct words read per minute.

Silent reading speed, or silent reading rate is also popularly accepted asone of the indicators of silent reading fluency It is generally understood as therate of word recognition, which is the total number of words per minute a personcan recognize A considerable amount of literature has been published on thisaspect The studies on L1 reading investigated what people really do when theyare reading fast, including how many fixations, saccades and regressions theymake during the process, how much they can comprehend the text, how people’sreading rates change and so forth Researchers have pointed out that a normalskilled L1 reader reads at around 250-300 wpm and makes approximately 90fixations per 100 words (Just, et al., 1987; Nation, 1997) while a normal speed

in L1 oral reading should range from 100 to 200 wpm (Nation, 2005) Amongthe large volume of published studies exploring how reading rate changes in L1reading, the most influential studies were undertaken by Carver, who examinedthis topic from various perspectives In his research on the rate of reading prose,Carver (1982) claimed that there exists an optimal reading speed called raudingrate at which readers can maximize their efficiency of comprehension and that

300 wpm is a good speed for college students to achieve the best efficiency.Although the rauding rate may vary among different people it is normally lessthan 400 wpm (Carver, 1985) Some very good readers such as speed readers,professionals, college students, and people who had exceptionally high scores on

tests, tend to read at around 300 to 600 wpm For individuals, the rauding rate isapproximately constant as long as the measurement is modified for word length(Carver, 1983) Thus, it is possible that teachers can predict how fast a studentwill read a text if they know the difficulty level of the text.

This is surprising because it has been commonly thought that readingspeed is affected by such factors as the purpose of reading, the difficulty of thetext, and the reader’s engagement level (Nell, 1988) However, it is worth notingthat rauding rate in Carver’s theory is not identical to the term reading speedwhich is commonly used by many other researchers and teachers Besides,Carver’s research examined L1 reading and thus his rauding theory may notapply in the same way in L2 reading

Research on reading speed in L2/FL silent reading is a relatively newarea Researchers have suggested that a reasonable goal for second languagelearners who are reading materials with no new words should be around 250wpm (Nation, 2005) but mention that reading speed in L2/FL is slower than inL1 (Droop & Verhoeven, 2003; Fraser, 2007; Segalowitz, Poulsen, & Komoda,1991; Taguchi, Gorsuch, & Sasamoto, 2006) Although recently L2/FLresearchers and educators are focusing on methods to increase L2 and FLreading rate (Day & Bamford, 1998; Grabe, 1991, 2004a; Silberstein, 1994), thearea of reading speed in L2/FL is still in its infancy

2.4 Assessing reading fluency development

Various studies have been done about how to design a good readingprogram to help learners develop their reading fluency A large and growingbody of literature has investigated how fluency improves and hasrecommended activities for fluency development With respect to L1 oralreading, researchers have proposed conditions to improve fluency andrecommended techniques and activities that can be used in the classroom or

outside class to help develop children’s reading fluency Among thosesuggestions are using high-success texts, altering teachers’ patterns of responses

to reading errors (pause-prompt-praise), modeling fluent reading, encouragingfree, voluntary reading, repeated reading, extended and deliberate practice,orienting student choice (Allington, 2009; Ehri, 1995; Rasinski, 1989; Stahl,Heubach, & Cramond, 1996; Stahl & Heubach, 2005; Welsch, 2006) Linguistsand language practitioners have also explored activities to promote fluency inL2/FL reading Some of these techniques include repeated reading, pairedreading, the 4/3/2 technique, extensive reading aloud, read and look up, speedreading courses, easy extensive reading, silent repeated reading and issue logs(Day & Bamford, 1998; Donnes, 1999; Hill, 1997; Krashen, 1995; Nation, 1997,2005; Paran, 1996; Perfetti, Van Dyke, & Hart, 2001; Redfield, 1999; Taguchi,Takayasu-Maass, & Gorsuch, 2004)

Several studies also applied the curriculum-based measurement (Deno,1985) to assess L1 oral reading fluency This is a general outcomes measure of astudent’s performance in reading, writing, and spelling In reading, accuracy isdetermined by dividing the number of words read correctly per minute by thetotal number of words read and comparing the students’ performance against thetarget rate norms Meanwhile the rate is measured by calculating the totalnumber of words read correctly per minute and comparing thestudents’performance against the target rate norms

This test allows students and teachers to do an evaluation every weekinstead of every month Another method that has been used for decades to assessL1 oral reading is informal reading inventories which assume that worddecoding ability is a crucial benchmark to mark a reader’s improvement(Johnson, Kress, & Pikulski, 1987) Along similar lines, some researchersdeveloped rubrics or fluency norms to assess fluency and overall reading

proficiency (Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Walz, & Germann, 1993; Good &Kaminski, 2002; Hasbrouck & Tindal, 1992; Marston & Magnusson, 1985;Rasinski, 2000; Zutell & Rasinski, 1991).

Many studies on measuring L1 oral reading fluency have neglectedcomprehension until Allington (1983) called for the incorporation ofcomprehension in fluency assessment He identified ways to assesscomprehension One of these methods is retelling the story, which requiresreaders to remember anything they can about the story In this method, someteachers use idea units to make it easier to compare the original story and thestory recalled by the reader Recently researchers have shown increased interest

in measuring reading comprehension (Daane, Campbell, Grigg, Goodman, &Oranje, 2005; Pinnell, et al., 1995) Some of them have used a four-point scaleand the results showed a strong link between fluency and readingcomprehension performance (Pinnell, et al., 1995)

Recent developments in teaching and learning the reading skill haveheightened the need for measuring silent reading fluency As a result, researchershave attempted to formulate methods to measure reading rate andcomprehension both for L1 silent reading (Juel & Holmes, 1981; Vacca &Vacca, 1999) and L2/FL silent reading (Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008) Regardingreading speed, which is conventionally measured by the words per minutecalculation, the one-minute reading probe and the entire text method have beenused in both L1 reading research (Harris & Sipay, 1985) and L2/FL readingresearch (Iwahori, 2008; Lai, 1993; Taguchi, et al., 2004) Particularly in L2/FLresearch, the three-minute probe and the ten-second interval method have beenused (Bell, 2001; Macalister, 2008; Millett, 2005b, 2005d; Millett, et al., 2007;Nuttall, 1982; Sheu, 2003) With respect to comprehension assessment, the mostpopular methods to measure comprehension are true-false questions, multiple

choice questions, short answer questions, recall tests and participant self-reports(Alderson, 1990; Gorsuch & Taguchi, 2008; Iwahori, 2008; Lai, 1993; Paretz &Shoham, 1990; Taguchi, et al., 2006) Typically, in a speed reading course, thelearners are asked to keep a graph of their speed in words read per minute and agraph of their comprehension score on the accompanying questions In this way,the teacher can see students’ progress in reading speed and at the same time beinformed about their comprehension level (Macalister, 2008; Millett, et al.,2007).

2.5 Fluency, accuracy and complexity

According to many language practitioners and researchers, L2/FLperformance and competence are complex terms as they contain variouscomponents The majority of past research has relied on three factors to describeand assess L2/FL performance and competence: fluency, accuracy, andcomplexity (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Skehan, 1998) Since the 1990s, thesethree variables have come into focus in L2/FL learning research It is believedthat fluency, accuracy, and complexity can be used as both performancedescriptors and proficiency indicators Fluency refers to using the language withnative-like rapidity, accuracy refers to being error-free, complexity refers to theability to handle a wide range of structures and vocabulary (Wolfe-Quintero,Inagaki, & Kim, 1998, p 4)

Accuracy has been distinguished from fluency since the 1980s whenresearchers were trying to depict and measure second language oral skills.Previous research has distinguished fluency-oriented activities and accuracy-oriented activities in a language program Fluency activities help to improvespontaneous oral linguistic production while accuracy focuses on the accurateproduction of language structures (Brumfit, 1984) Complexity, the thirdcomponent of the triad, came into focus in the 1990s after Skehan (1998) for the

first time added it to his L2 model Since then complexity has been commonlycharacterized as “the extent to which the language produced in a performing task

is elaborate and varied” (Ellis, 2003, p 340) or “the scope of expanding andrestructured second language knowledge” (Wolfe-Quintero, et al., 1998, p 4) Inthe L2/FL acquisition literature, complexity relates itself to language tasks andlanguage production Some researchers also broke down the notion ofcomplexity into two kinds: cognitive complexity and linguistic complexity(Housen, Daele, & Pierrard, 2005; Williams & Evans., 1998) While cognitivecomplexity concerns the second language learner and is determined by suchfactors related to the learners, one of which is memory span, linguisticcomplexity concerns the second language system Some indicators of thelearner’s linguistic complexity are the variety of structures and the large stock ofvocabulary

Prior studies investigating the effect of external factors on the learner’saccuracy, fluency, and complexity in language performance have proposedmethods to assess the three components and explanations of how these threedimensions develop In L1 learning, Wigglesworth (1997) confirmed thatplanning time provides greater advantages for high proficiency learners to makecomplex and fluent language production but the results were not unambiguousenough to decide whether accuracy was also developed Conversely,Wigglesworth and Storch (2009) reported that in their research on the effect ofcollaborative writing on fluency, accuracy and complexity of the secondlanguage learner, accuracy was positively affected but fluency and complexitywere not In L2/FL learning, the majority of developmental measures ofcomplexity, accuracy and fluency have been used to explore the effects of atreatment or an external factor on oral and written language production Forexample, Yuan and Ellis (2003), and Mehnert (1998) examined how planning

time helps learners to write better and assessed the learner’s writing in threedimensions: fluency (syllables per minute (spm)), accuracy and complexity Theresults showed planning time resulted in greater fluency, accuracy, andcomplexity However, other authors, such as Ellis (1987) and Crookes (1989),argued that planning time affects the learner’s language production in terms ofcomplexity but did not significantly influence it in terms of accuracy RecentlyAhmadian and Tavakoli (2011) indicated that their findings showed carefulplanning time positively influenced complexity and accuracy but resulted indysfluency

Although a considerable amount of literature has been published on theassociation between the three aspects of language, there has not been agreementthat fluency, accuracy, and complexity develop simultaneously This experimenttherefore set out with the aim to determine if development in fluency throughthe speed reading course leads to improvement in accuracy and complexity

2.6 First and second language reading fluency

There have been numerous studies on L1 reading fluency (Breznitz &Share, 1992; Dowhower, 1987; Kuhn & Stahl, 2003; Perfetti, 1985; Samuels,2006; Stanovich, 2000) and L2 reading fluency (Arevart & Nation, 1991;Chang, 2010; Kroll, et al., 2002; O’Brien, Segalowitz, Freed, & Collentine,2007; Yamashita & Ichikawa, 2010) A great deal of research found that L1reading is a dominant variable in L2 reading performance (Bossers, 1992;Brisbois, 1995; Carrell, 1991; Hacquebord, 1999; Roller, 1988) Researchershave also proposed the short-circuit hypothesis, also known as the languagethreshold hypothesis, which holds that learners have to reach a certain level inL2 knowledge in order to transfer their L1 reading ability to L2 reading (Clarke,1980) or attempted to determine the link between word recognition andcomprehension in L2 reading (Levy, Abello, & Kysynchuk, 1997) Besides, past

research also found that not only L1 strategies transfer to reading L2 texts (Seng

& Hashim, 2006), but also attitudes in L1 transfer to L2 reading and this mayhelp them reduce affective barriers and gain more confidence in L2 reading(Yamashita, 2004)

More recently Pitchette, Segalowitz and Connors (2003) undertook astudy to investigate the relationship between L1 reading ability, L2 knowledgeand L2 reading ability The informants of the study were Bosnians, who had justmoved to Quebec City, a French speaking milieu They had already finished theQuebec government’s French program and were enrolled in French courses atthe time of the research The informants were asked to do the tests twice in aperiod of one year so that their L1 reading ability, L2 reading ability and L2knowledge could be assessed The researchers used cloze tests as a means toevaluate the informants’reading ability They provided the informants with twocloze tests in L1 and two cloze tests in L2, each of which had 40 words deleted

In order to assess the informants’ L2 knowledge, the researchers utilizedsections of the standard test that is used in most Quebec universities Besides,they also asked the informants to answer a questionnaire to indicate theirexperience in L1 and L2 They found that both L1 reading ability and L2knowledge have close links with L2 reading ability, but among the high levelgroup, L1 reading ability is a significant indicator while among the low levelgroup, L2 knowledge is a significant indicator The results also indicated that theinformants continued to transfer their L1 reading ability to L2 reading eventhough they ceased to practice L1 reading Nevertheless, the informants whomaintained L1 reading practice improved their L2 reading ability while non-active informants did not

The research previously mentioned investigated the effect of readingspeed development in one language on reading speed in another language Thefindings may help educators to decide how much practice should be done in L1and L2 reading in order to gain benefits for the other and to at least ensure theL2 reading improvement is accompanied by L1 reading instruction However,far too little attention has been paid to the effects of reading practice in alanguage on other aspects within that language In this thesis, the focus is on theeffect of reading speed increase in an EFL course on other aspects of EFLdevelopment

2.7 Comprehension and speed in reading

In order to comprehend a text, readers modify the organisational structure

of the texts for their own purposes (Calfee & Curley, 1984) A large and growingbody of literature has investigated the components of comprehension One of themain themes in the literature is the simple view of reading, which holds thatcomprehension can be decomposed into linguistic comprehension and readingcomprehension (Dombey, 2009; Dreyert & Katzt, 1992; Gough & Tunmer,1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) Linguistic comprehension refers to the action ofusing vocabulary knowledge to interpret the text and reading comprehension isthe same ability, which, on the other hand, relies on printed information arrivingthrough the eye In order to assess linguistic comprehension, testers should askquestions about the contents of a text presented orally while to test readingcomprehension, they must ask questions about a text in printed form Someother researchers divide comprehension into two components: comprehensionand interpretation (Urquhart, 1987) Comprehension involves what the readerutilizes according to his reading aims Interpretation concerns the differencesbetween people who read the same text, or within one person when reading

different texts These differences may be due to such factors as backgroundknowledge and cultural presuppositions

Prior studies have proposed numerous methods to predict and assesscomprehension in L1 For oral reading, the compensatory encoding model(Stanovich, 1980) holds that the basic resource necessary for textcomprehension is the time available Therefore, in reading without timepressure, we cannot see the correlations between verbal efficiency andcomprehension since the reader has enough time to utilize compensatorybehaviours and strategies to comprehend the text Compensatory behaviours andstrategies are adjustments to help the reader overcome the inefficiency of otherreading subcomponents Apparently they take time to operate and thus add to thetime needed to comprehend the text Of the two kinds, compensatory behavioursconsume less time than compensatory strategies Consequently, whencompensatory behaviours do not work effectively readers will invokecompensatory strategies Some examples of compensatory behaviours andstrategies are slow reading rate, pausing, regressive eye movement, rereadingtext, reading aloud, and shifting attention While it can explain the differentamounts of time different people need to read the same text, the compensatoryencoding model does not apply to beginning readers The advocates claim that it

is only true for readers beyond the fourth grade The benefit of this model is that

it “accounts for the weak correlations between verbal efficiency andcomprehension” that many researchers have pointed out from their tests(Walczyk, Marsiglia, Bryan, & Naquin, 2001, p 751) It also predicts that underreading without time pressure, the relationship between efficiency andcompensatory mechanisms is negative in that the more efficient readers are atusing other verbal skills, the less compensatory mechanisms they have to use.Yet compensatory encoding mechanisms fail to explain why many readers still

cannot comprehend the text even though they have utilized compensatorybehaviours and strategies Furthermore, readers who have to slow down theirreading rate often fail to comprehend the text since the information stored intheir short-term memory has gone away by the time they manage to finish thereading unit For silent reading, rauding theory (Carver, 1981, 1984, 1990,1992a), on the other hand, aims to predict L1 silent reading comprehension byusing a formula involving three variables: accuracy, rate and efficiency.Accuracy concerns two factors: the number of thoughts presented by the writerand the number of thoughts comprehended by the reader In most readingcontexts, the accuracy of comprehension is the number of comprehendedthoughts in relation to the number of presented thoughts Rate is the number ofthoughts presented during a certain length of time Efficiency of comprehension

is the number of thoughts comprehended during a certain length of time Thecentral idea of rauding is the number of thoughts in a text that have beencomprehended (comprehension level) may be predicted from a knowledge oftwo characteristics of the text (presented thoughts and level of difficulty), twocharacteristics of the reader (reading ability level and rate), and the amount oftime the reader spends reading the text Prior knowledge, prediction activitiesand text type do not strongly affect comprehension (Carver, 1992a)

Although some other researchers put comprehension aside when definingreading fluency (Allington, 2009; Nation, 2005; Rasinski, 2003b), theycomment that comprehension and decoding can be connected by fluency, whichincludes speed, and that comprehension is the optimal goal of the readingprocess, thus it should be given equal attention in fluency development

While reading speed is generally thought to be associated withcomprehension and past research has given insight into the relationship betweenthese aspects, there still has been much controversy on this issue A strong

relationship between reading rate and comprehension in L1 reading has beenreported in previous studies (Bowey, 2005; Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins,2001; Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2005; Pinnell, et al., 1995; Stanovich, 2000).Specifically, Tan and Nicholson (1997) and Levy, Abello and Lysynchuk (Levy

et al., 1997) found that poor readers benefit from rapid decoding training andsuggested that in L1 children’s oral reading, speed increases facilitatecomprehension (Nicholson & Tan, 1999) However, other researchers havedemonstrated a weak relationship between fluency skills and readingcomprehension level (Carver, 1992b; Kuhn & Stahl, 2003) Bell, before showingthat an extensive reading program can help to improve both reading speed andcomprehension, pointed out that “techniques employed on speed reading coursestend to cause readers to suffer lower levels of reading comprehension” (Bell,

2001, p 1) Another influential study on this aspect was done bySchwanenflugel et al (2006), who found that comprehension was substantiallyaffected by reading fluency and autonomy However, this role decreases as ageincreases The results indicated that once a reader has reached a fluent level,factors other than fluency affect reading comprehension

The link between comprehension and speed in L2/FL reading has not beenclearly portrayed Past research found that speed and comprehension are notcompeting components in L2 performance, and that the two factors have asupporting relationship in that speed promotes accuracy in comprehension andaccuracy is one of the indicators of fluency development (Alessi & Dwyer,2008; Segalowitz & Segalowitz, 1993) In Chang’s (2010) study, a readingactivity was integrated into the usual program for 13 weeks to improve 84college students’reading rates Results indicated that the participants increasedtheir reading speed by 25% and their comprehension level increased by 4% This

low increase is probably due to a ceiling effect in the measurement, but it showsthat speed increase does not result in a drop in comprehension

Since a consensus on the association between speed and comprehension inboth L1 and L2/FL reading has not been established, it would be helpful to putsome effort into investigating the relationship between speed and comprehension

in L2/FL reading by looking at the comprehension scores on other types of texts

to determine if reading fluency development facilitates comprehension

2.8 Reading fluency

Fluency is the ability to read "like you speak." Hudson, Lane, and Pullendefine fluency this way: "Reading fluency is made up of at least three keyelements: accurate reading of connected text at a conversational rate withappropriate prosody or expression." Non-fluent readers suffer in at least one ofthese aspects of reading: they make many mistakes, they read slowly, or they donot read with appropriate expression and phrasing

Reading fluency defined as the ability to read text accurately is a crucialskill for all school going children as it sets the foundation of intellectualdevelopment due to its intricate relationship with comprehension 1) Readingfluency has also been related to academic success and as such it must beacquired during early childhood education 2) Its acquisition is determined byseveral factors identified as acquisition of oral language and the child’s earlylinguistic experiences

Yen, Thi Ngoc Tran (2011) indicated that consultation on speed readinghelps students to make more improvement in their reading rate and readingfluency development gives rise to language complexity development

Sen (2009) noted that reading is the most fundamental tool from learningfor students Learning and implementing special reading strategies and

specializing in the implementation of such strategies enable not only a moreefficient use of time but also an easier and more sustained period of reading.Increasing brain power at the time of reading is directly related to developingstrategic reading skills.

2.9 Inferential reading

Smith (2008) indicated this way about inferences: “Inferences areevidence-based guesses They are the conclusions a reader draws about theunsaid based on what is actually said Inferences drawn while reading are muchlike inferences drawn in everyday life.”

Power (2013) discussed drawing inferences: “Proficient readers use theirprior knowledge about a topic and the information they have gleaned in the textthus far to make predictions about what might happen next When teachersdemonstrate or model their reading processes for students through think-alouds,they often stop and predict what will happen next to show how inferring isessential for comprehending text”

According to Anne Kispal (2008), inference questions are often prefaced

by "The passage implies" or "The author implies", where "suggests" issometimes substituted We can identify inferences from common question stems:

“The passage implies that which of the following was true of x”, “It can beinferred from the passage that”, “The passage suggests which of the followingabout x”, “The author implies that x occurred because”, “The author implies thatall of the following statements about x are true EXCEPT”

Anne Kispal (2008) added that Tone & Style are, besides, types of inferences Tone questions ask you to identify the attitude or mood of a specific

part of the passage or of the entire passage A common characteristic of thisquestion type is answer choices that are marked by one to three word phrases

containing adjectives Tone questions test your ability to recognize an attitude or

disposition of the author, which is signaled by the use of a handful of triggerwords Never base your guess about the author's tone on a single word-this is notenough to define the tone of the entire passage Tone questions tend to be amongthe more infrequent question types We can identify tones from commonquestion stems: “The attitude of the author of the passage toward x is bestdescribed as one of”, “The tone of the author is best described as”

2.10 Inferential reading skills

Marzano (2010) stated that inference is a "foundational skill" - aprerequisite for higher-order thinking and 21st century skills Inference skills areused across the curriculum, including English language arts, science and socialstudies Because inferring requires higher order thinking skills, it can be difficultfor many students However, it can be taught through explicit instruction ininferential strategies Observations occur when we can see somethinghappening In contrast, inferences are what we figure out based on anexperience Helping students understand when information is implied, or notdirectly stated, will improve their skill in drawing conclusions and makinginferences These skills will be needed for all sorts of school assignments,including reading, science and social studies Inferential thinking is a complexskill that will develop over time and with experience

Marzano (2010) suggested that teachers pose four questions to students tofacilitate a discussion about inferences The four questions are worthconsideration The first one is “What is my inference?” This question helpsstudents become aware that they may have just made an inference by filling ininformation that wasn't directly presented The second one is “What informationdid I use to make this inference?” It's important for students to understand thevarious types of information they use to make inferences This may includeinformation presented in the text, or it may be background knowledge that a

student brings to the learning setting The third one is “How good was mythinking?” According to Marzano (2010), once students have identified thepremises on which they've based their inferences, they can engage in the mostpowerful part of the process — examining the validity of their thinking Thefourth one is “Do I need to change my thinking?” The final step in the process isfor students to consider possible changes in their thinking The point here is not

to invalidate students' original inferences, but rather to help them develop thehabit of continually updating their thinking as they gather new information

Marzano (2010) added that teaching students to "read inferentially" helpsthem learn how to read more strategically This technique is derived from theteaching model that students develop knowledge via the process of interpretingnew information in light of past experiences and rethinking past knowledgebased on new information

2.10.1 Categorization of inferential reading skills

According to Chikalanga (1991), the inference taxonomy has three basiccategories: lexical, propositional, and pragmatic or scriptal inferences Thesuggested taxonomy is summarized in the table below:

RelationshipLEXICAL

(a) Pronominal inferences(b) Ambiguous / unfamiliarword meanings

Textually /ScriptallyImplicit PROPOSITIONAL (a) Logical inferences

- referential

- spatio-temporal(b) Logical Explanatory –motivational

- causative

- causative

- enablement(c) Evaluative

ScriptallyImplicit

Anne Kispal (2008), in Effective Teaching of Inference Skills for ReadingLiterature Review, noted that very many different types of inference have beenidentified and that these are the main categories that are frequently mentioned inthe literature:

Coherence or

intersentence or

text-connecting

Peter begged his mother

to let him go to the party

Maintains textual integrity.The reader would have torealise that the pronouns

‘his’ and ‘him’ refer toPeter to fully understandthis sentence

Elaborative or

gap-filling or

knowledge-based

Katy dropped the vase

She ran for the dustpanand brush to sweep up thepieces

Enriches the mentalrepresentation of the text.Drawing upon lifeexperience and generalknowledge, the readerwould have to realise thatthe vase broke to supply

the connection betweenthese sentences.

He rushed off, leaving hisbike unchained

Creates a coherentrepresentation at the locallevel of sentences andparagraphs

As above The reader would realisethat the tree is assigned to alocation role

The reader would infer thatDan was in a hurry and lefthis bike vulnerable to theft

Global

Inferences about the

theme, main point or moral of a text.

To create a coherentrepresentation of the wholetext, the reader would inferoverarching ideas bydrawing ideas on localpieces of information

On-line

Superordinate goals ofcharacters or causalantecedents that explainwhy something ismentioned in the text

These inferences arenecessary to understanding

automatically duringreading

episodes in a text

strategically after reading,usually during a laterretrieval task Not essential

to understanding.

Also according to Anne Kispal (2008), cognitive processes involved indrawing an inference are: For Start, an inference is prompted either by theactivation of a whole schema or by firing one of Graesser’s ‘production rules’.For Middle, a mental puzzle or syllogism is formed either through construction

of an unsolved equation or by noticing an inconsistency in the text For End, aninference is produced, the ‘mediating idea’ or the ‘solution’ to the equation is theinference; the inference is verified by a ‘reality check’ against backgroundknowledge

2.10.2 Teaching inferential reading skills

Furthermore, Anne Kispal (2008) summarized the instruction ofinferential reading skills The following is a summary of all the specificsuggestions that have been shown by research to have a place in inferenceinstruction: First, in terms of word level work, Anne Kispal (2008) suggesteddeveloping fluent basic reading skills (e.g practice in decoding print),vocabulary building (denotation and connotation): orally and in reading andlexical training: local cohesive devices (pronouns, connectives) Second, interms of text level work, Anne Kispal (2008) suggested making explicit thestructure of stories, making explicit the usefulness of a title, emphasising thatfiction allows multiple interpretation and inference making Third, in terms ofquestions asked by the teacher, according to Anne Kispal (2008), the question

“How do you know?” is asked whenever an inference is generated in discussion

of a text, questions about relationships between characters, goals and

motivations, questions that foster comprehension monitoring, such as Is there

information that doesn’t agree with what I already know? Are there any ideas that don’t fit together (because of contradictions, ambiguous referents,

misleading topic shifts)? Is there any information missing or not clearly explained? Fourth, regarding cautionary note about questions, according to

Anne Kispal (2008), teachers are advised not to interrupt students by askingquestions during reading time, not to launch into questioning too soonafterwards The teacher must allow time for consolidation of what has been read

as a mental representation, and practise inferential questions on aurally

presented texts Last but not least, regarding question asked by students, Anne

Kispal (2008) posited that why-questions train students to acquire the habit ofasking themselves why-questions occasionally while they are reading, as theseare most supportive of understanding In addition, ‘Who-’, ‘When-', ‘Why-' etc.questions, show examples of how all types of questions can be derived from atext In small groups, students generate questions using these question wordsfrom a text and group-members answer Students take turn in asking andanswering the questions

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Methodology

The experimental, quantitative and qualitative methods are employed

3.2 Research questions

1 Does, and to what extent if it does, teaching inferential reading skills

enhance EFL high school students’ reading comprehension?

2 Does teaching inferential reading skills increase EFL high school

students' motivation to read?

to both groups right after the selection

(See Appendix E)

3.4 Materials

The Reading Material: textbook English 11, Nha xuat ban Bo Giao duc;Cambridge books such as KET, PET and IELTS books by British Counciland IDP

3.5 Procedures

Research Design

This study is conducted following the research design in Table 1 below

Table 1: Research design of the study

Research question Instruments Subjects Statistical

tools

1 Does, and to what

extent if it does,

teaching inferential

reading skills enhance

EFL high school

students’ reading

comprehension?

2 Does teaching

inferential reading skills

increase EFL high

school students'

motivation to read?

* Pre-test andPost-test withinferentialreadingquestions

Questionnaire

Grade-11students –CGHSn=80 (40 each);

The ReadingMaterial:

Englishtextbooks 11,Nha xuat banGiao duc;

Cambridgebooks includingKET, PET, andIELTS books byBritish Counciland IDP

* Mean

* Frequencycount

* Percentage

* 1- tail t-test

* 2- tail t-test

3.5.1 Independent and Dependent variables

Diagram 1: The relationship between the key variables of this study

This dependent variable is measured through reading tests with inferential questions.

- Students’ motivation to read This dependent variable is measured through

a questionnaire to verify students’ attitudes toward the treatment.

Independent Variable

Teaching inferential

reading skills to EFL

high school students

- Teacher will categorize

into different inferences.

- Teacher will teach

common question stems or

clues for each type to EFL

students.

- T gives t-test to check how

well students perform.