A STUDY ON ENGLISH READING STRATEGIES USED BY THIRD YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS OF THAI AND MUONG ETHNIC MINORITIES AT TAY BAC UNIVERSITY

The present study investigated the use of reading learning strategies of 12 third year English major students of Thai and Muong minorities at TBU and the possible influence on their choi

DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

of Education I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees

Student’s signature

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people, without those help and guidance, this thesis would not have been completed

First and foremost, I counted myself very fortunate to have had Nguyen Thai Ha, MEd as

my supervisor, and I would like to thank for her patience, corrections, advice and encouragement

Secondly, a special acknowledgement must go to Le Van Canh, MA who suggested the appreciated ideas for this study

Thirdly, I must also express my most sincere appreciation to my colleagues who have helped to gather data, who have had assisted with data analysis, and who have helped by reading and giving useful advice Especially, I would like to acknowledge the assistance given by Mrs Do Thi Thanh Tra, who has always been a well- wishing friend

Fourthly, I am grateful to the students who participated in this study by answering the questionnaires and doing think-aloud reports and contributed considerably to its success Lastly, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my loving parents, my siblings, and my husband who have supported me with their patience, encouragement

ABSTRACT This thesis begins with the premise that learning strategies have been widely accepted as the keys that lead to success in learning a language A lot of research has been carried out in various contexts to investigate the use of language learning strategies by different learners and the effects of such factors as gender, motivation, age, and so forth on the use of language learning strategies Reading comprehension strategies have been identified by various researchers in both second and foreign language contexts However, little empirical research has been conducted to uncover the reading comprehension strategies used by Vietnamese students, especially by students at Tay bac Unuversity (TBU) To address this gap, the present study investigates reading comprehension strategies used by third-year English majors of Thai and Muong ethnic minorities at TBU

The present study investigated the use of reading learning strategies of 12 third year English major students of Thai and Muong minorities at TBU and the possible influence on their choice of strategies by their ethnicity The use of strategies by Muong and Thai ethnic students at TTBU were assessed and measured by think-aloud reports The gathered data was analyzed with the help of t-test The most frequently used strategies were reported were metacognitive, followed by cognitive and social/affective Besides, Thai and Muong ethnic showed that they were significantly different in the choice and frequency of strategy use Muong students had more preference for the use of metacognitive and cognitive strategies, whereas Thai used social/ affective strategies more frequently than their Muong ethnic counterparts These results of the study indicated that ethnicity is a factor that had influence on the use of strategies as the findings of the previous research Based on the findings some discussion and implications were made along with suggestions for further research

LIST OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT III LIST OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF FIGURES VIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Rationale 1

1.3 Aims of the study 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Design of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Introduction 5

2.2 Language learning strategies 5

2.2.1 Definition 5

2.2.2 Classification of learning strategies 6

2.2.3 Factors affecting the learners’ learning strategy choice 12

2.3 The theory of reading 12

2.3.1 Definition of reading 12

2.3.2 Reading processes 14

2.3.3 Reading strategies 16

2.4 Previous studies on language learning strategies 17

2.4.1 Language learning strategies studies 17

2.4.2 Reading strategies studies 21

2.5 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 Introduction 28

3.2 Research questions 28

3.3 Participants and settings of the study 28

3.3.1 Participants 28

3.3.2 Settings of the study 29

3.4 Instruments 29

3.4.1 Questionnaires 30

3.4.2 Think-aloud reports 30

3.5 Pilot – study 30

3.5.1 Stage 1 31

3.5.2 Stage 2 31

3.5.3 Results of the pilot-study 31

3.6 Data collection procedures 31

3.6.1 Administering the questionnaires 31

3.6.2 Administering the think-aloud reports 32

Coding of data 32

3.7.1 Coding of questionnaire data 32

3.7.2 Think-aloud report data 32

3.8 Data analysis procedures 34

3.8.1 Questionnaire data 35

3.8.2 Think-aloud report data 35

3.9 Summary 35

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS 36

4.1 Introduction 36

4.2 Results of Questionnaires 36

4.2.1 Readers’ attitude to reading comprehension 36

4.3 Results of think- aloud reports 39

4.3.1 Students’ use of reading comprehension strategies 39

4.3.2 Difference in strategy use between Muong and Thai ethnic minorities 43

4.4 Summary 48

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS 49

5.1 Introduction 49

5.2 Discussion 49

5.2.1 Muong and Thai ethnic minorities’ attitude to reading comprehension 49

5.2.2 Strategy frequency 50

5.2.3 Difference in strategy use between Muong and Thai ethnic minorities 51

5.3 Reading strategies that Muong and Thai ethnic students need to develop 54

5.3.1 Reading strategies that Muong ethnic students need to develop 54

5.3.2 Reading strategies that Thai ethnic students need to develop 55

5.4 Implications 56

5.5 Limitations and further research 59

5.6 Conclusion 60

REFERENCES 62 APPENDIX 1: OXFORD’S STRATEGY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRES V APPENDIX 3: READING TASK FOR THINK- ALOUD REPORT VII APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE PROTOCOLS XII APPENDIX 5: A SAMPLE OF THE CODED PROTOCOLS XIII APPENDIX 6: RESULTS OF SAMPLE PROTOCOLS XV APPENDIX 7:RAW DATA XVII

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: The first language

L2: The second language

LLS: Language learning strategy

Sm: Muong ethnic student

RS: Reading strategy

St: Thai ethnic student

TBU: Tay Bac University

TOEFL: Teach of English as a foreign language

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: The background information about the participants 29 Table 2: Coding scheme for the use of reading comprehension strategies 33 Table 3: Thai and Muong ethnic students’ preference to reading comprehension 36 Table 4: The role of reading comprehension to Muong and Thai ethnic students’ learning English 37 Table 5: Factor affecting reading comprehension 38 Table 6: Strategy categories used by Muong and Thai Ethnic readers 43 Table 7: Difference in the use of individual strategies between Muong and Thai Ethnic readers 43 Table 8: Reading strategies that Muong ethnic students need to develop 54 Table 9: Reading strategies that Thai ethnic students need to develop 55

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Reading comprehension strategy category frequency for Thai and 40 Figure 2: Individual strategy frequency within Metacognitive category for Thai and Muong ethnic students 41 Figure 3: Individual strategy frequency within Cognitive category for Thai and Muong Ethnic Students 41 Figure 4: Individual strategy frequency within Social/Affective category for Thai and Muong Ethnic Students 42 Figure 5: CALLA Instructional Framework 58

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the rationale and the aims of the study The scope of the study and the significance as well as the design of the thesis will also be presented in this chapter

1.2 Rationale

Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills “Reading is an essential skill for English as a second/foreign language (SL/EFL) student; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999) Carrell states (1989) “For many students, reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in a language as a second or foreign language” This is true for Vietnamese learners who have studied English through reading since English is taught and learned as a foreign language and in non- native environment But acquiring and mastering this skill is likely to become a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience On the other hand, the findings of many ESL/EFL research projects have shown the positive effects of learning strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of learners or to overcome comprehension failures “The employment of appropriate language learning strategies can result in improved proficiency and greater self-confident.” (Oxford, 1990)

The current explosion of research in second language reading has begun to focus on readers’ strategies These strategies consist of whole range of strategies including skimming, scanning, reading for meaning, guessing meaning of unknown words, recognizing text structures and so forth Most of the reading strategies research focus on the investigation into reading strategies employed by successful and unsuccessful learners Less attention was given to the relationship between strategy use and such factors as

gender, age, motivation, and ethnicity There is a need, therefore, to exam how these factors affect on the use and the choice of reading strategies

Since the early seventies, most research on reading strategies concerned about teaching second language students to use a variety of language strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieve of information in order to read better This seems

to suggest that training students to use reading strategies means training them to become autonomous readers Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to raise learners’ awareness of strategy use

In reality, in reading lessons for English majors at TBU, more was done to link reading comprehension and student background knowledge in order to equip them with strategic learning method However, these students still find reading is the most challenging skill, and they complain that they do not know how to get the right answers of the reading tasks, how to find the information in the reading texts effectively and so forth

To be their teacher who is interested in teaching the reading skill, I really want to help them to overcome these obstacles and improve their reading comprehension capacity

For all of these reasons, I would like to carry out this study to investigate reading strategies used by third-year English majors identified as Muong and Thai ethnic learners

in terms of the frequency of strategy use and strategy choice

It is expected that the findings of this study will be helpful for researcher and other teachers in some ways to exploit appropriate techniques to train students the use of reading strategies and raise students’ awareness of employing suitable reading strategies

1.3 Aims of the study

The study focus on investigating the reading strategies employed by third-year English majors at TBU Particularly, it examines the effects of ethnicity on the frequency of strategy use and the choice of reading strategies Thus, others factors that influence on reading strategies and LLS in other skills would be beyond the scope of this paper

1.4 Scope of the study

The study was conducted on the third- year students of Thai and Muong ethnic minorities of English department at TBU only These students’ reading strategy use was investigated This means the study was not intended to investigate the strategies in other skills such as speaking, listening, or writing

1.5 Significance of the study

This study is significant for several reasons Firstly, it expands the limited research into RSs with the emphasis on ethnicity for Vietnamese learners, particularly for students at TBU Secondly, the identification of reading comprehension strategies contributes to an understanding of how readers actively attempt to comprehend the texts Finally, the study will have many important implications for training third-year students of English at TBU

in RS use

1.6 Design of the thesis

The thesis is divided into five chapters as follow:

Chapter 1, Introduction, presents an overview of the study in which the rational for the research, the aims and the scope of the research were briefly presented The significance of the study was also discussed

Chapter 2, Literature Review, reviews the theoretical basis which underpins the study This chapter contains four sections: language learning strategies in terms of definitions and taxonomies of LLSs, reading comprehension strategies including definitions, reading comprehension processes and reading comprehension strategies, factors affecting RSs choice and previous studies on language learning strategies

Chapter 3, Methodology, is a detailed discussion of the method used to gather and analyze data in this study First, research questions are addressed Then, instruments for data collection, subjects, and procedures are described The chapter ends with data analyzing Chapter 4, Results, presents significant findings of the study

Chapter 5, Discussion and Implications, discusses major findings, provides implications, recommends, and directions for future research and makes a final conclusion

1.7 Summary

This chapter has presented an overview of the study which includes the rational for the study, the aims, the scope, the significance as well as the design of the study The next chapter will review the relevant literature which provides a theoretical framework for the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a brief review of the theory and research into language learning strategies in general and reading learning strategies in particular including the researchers’ findings relating to definitions of learning strategies and reading, reading strategies, previous studies on language and reading learning strategies, their taxonomies, data collection methods and the factors affecting learners’ choice of reading learning strategies

A justification on the basis of the literature review for the learning strategies definitions and framework adopted by the researcher of the present study are also presented

2.2 Language learning strategies

2.2.1 Definition

In the last two decades, there have been numerous studies of learning strategies used by language learners by such well-known researchers as Tarone (1981), Oxford (1990), Richard and Plat (1992), Cohen (1998) According to Tarone (1981), a learning strategy is

“an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language to incorporate these into one’s interlanguage competence” Clause & Casper (1983) defined language learning strategies as learners’ trial to achieve linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language These definitions are too narrow when they only focus

on the linguistic and sociolinguistic competence without mentioning to other aspects of language learning such as cultural understanding

Learning strategies in MacIntyre’s (1994) study are defined as “the actions chosen by language students that are intended to facilitate language acquisition and communication”,

or learning strategies are “ intentional behaviors and thoughts used by learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information” (Richards & Platt, 1992: 209) It can be seen that these researchers emphasized the learners’ awareness and intention of using language strategies

As clearly shown in O’Malley and Chamot’s definition (1990), language learning strategies are “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them

comprehend, learn, or retain new information” In this definition, language learning strategies can be either observable or unobservable (mental and behavioral), and language learning strategies are individually characterized

Oxford’s definition (1990) is often considered as the most comprehensive and widely accepted for its full conveyance of affective aspects of language learning strategies by saying “language learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations”

Given the fact that there is hardly any definition that can work in all contexts, a working definition of language learning strategies for this study is needed Considering various definitions offered previously and the context of the study, the present research based on definition of language learning strategies by O’Malley& Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990) as the key directions to its investigation

2.2.2 Classification of learning strategies

Research into what learners do to learn a language has resulted in identification of specific strategies and in attempt to classify them in some ways Language learning strategies have been classified in different systems, such as Bialystok (1987), Rubin (1981), Wenden (1985), Naiman et al (1987), Oxford (1990), O’Malley& Chamot (1990)

In Bialystok’s model (1978), there are four types of strategies: (1) functional practicing, (2) formal practicing, (3) monitoring, and (4) inferencing The first strategy used for functional purposes, such as completing a transaction at a store Formal and monitoring involve in strategies that utilized for language practice in the classroom And guessing meaning from context refers to the last strategy, inferencing Obviously, the emphasis of this model is on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of learning An alternative classification scheme proposed by Naiman et al (1978) consists of five major categories of learning strategies and a number of secondary categories The five-primary classification contains an active task approach, realization of language as a means of communication and interaction, management of affective demand and monitoring second language performance

Rubin (1981) identified two kinds of learning strategies: those which contribute directly to learning and those which contribute indirectly to learning In direct learning strategies, she divided into six types (classification/ verification, monitoring, memorization, guessing/ inductive inferencing, deductive reasoning and practice), and indirect learning strategies are divided into two types (creating opportunities for practice and production tricks) Similarly to the model of Bialystok (1978), the limitation in Rubin’s taxonomy is that it does not contain social and affective strategies

Further step in language learning strategy classification has been made by Wenden (1985) who conducted a research with adult foreign language learners to examine their language learning strategies Data analysis led to their classification of learning strategies with three types: (1) Knowing about the language (relating to what language and learning involves), (2) planning (relating to what and how of language learning), and (3) self- evaluation (relating to progress in learning to the learners’ response to the learning experience)

The more comprehensive and widely accepted framework is the classification systems

of O’Malley & Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990) The strategy system proposed by Oxford (1990) consists of both direct and indirect strategie (See appendix I) Direct strategies required mental processing of the target language Indirect strategies, on the other hand, support and manage language learning often without involving the target language directly

Direct strategies are classified into:

• Memory strategies (9 items) are used for entering new information into memory storage and for retrieving it when need for communication (e.g., grouping, representing sounds in memory, structured reviewing, using physical response)

• Cognitive strategies (14 items) are used for linking new information with existing schemata and for analyzing and classifying it Cognitive strategies are responsible for deep processing, forming and revising internal mental models and receiving and producing messages in the target language (e.g., repeating, getting the idea quickly, analyzing and taking notes)

• Compensation strategies (6 items) include such strategies as guessing and using gestures Such strategies are needed to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the language (e.g., switching to the mother tongue, using other clues, getting help and using a synonym)

On the other hand, indirect strategies are divided into Metacognitive, Affective and Social:

• Metacognitive strategies (9 items) are techniques used for organizing, planing, focusing and evaluating one's own learning (e.g., linking new information with already known one, seeking practice opportunities, and self-monitoring)

• Affective strategies (6 items) are used for handling feelings, attitudes and motivations (e.g., lowering anxiety by use of music, encouraging oneself and discussing feelings with others)

• Social strategies (6 items) are used for facilitating interaction by asking questions, and cooperating with others in the learning process, (eg Asking for classification, cooperating with others and developing cultural understanding)

In comparison with other classification schemes above, Oxford’s “perhaps the most comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date” (Ellis, 1994, p 539), and it is more systematic since “it links individual strategies, as well as strategy groups, with each

of the four language skills” (Vidal, 2002, p 47) Affective and social strategies are also discussed in greater details However, it is fairly confusing when memory strategies are separated from cognitive ones

In O’Malley & Chammot’s (1990) framework, strategies are divided into three major types: metacognitive, cognitive, and social (affective Metacognitive strategies are “higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring or evaluating the success of

a learning activity” (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990, 44) Cognitive strategies “operate directly

on incoming information, manipulating in ways that enhance learning” (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990, p.44) Social or affective strategies “involve either interaction with another

person or ideational control over affect” (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990, p.45) These strategies were presented in table 1

Table 1 Learning strategy definication and classification (O’Malley and Chamot ,1990, pp.119-120)

- M Metacognitive strategies involve thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring the learning task, and evaluating how well one has learned

Advance organizers Previewing the main ideas and concepts of the material to be

learned, often by skimming the text for the organizing principle

Directed attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to

ignore irrelevant distracters

Functional planning Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary to

carry out an upcoming language tasks

Selective attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often

by scanning for key words, concepts, and/or linguistic marker Self-management Understanding the conditions that help one successfully

accomplish language tasks and arranging for the presence of those conditions

Self-monitoring Checking one's comprehension during listening or reading or

checking the accuracy and/or appropriateness of one’s oral or written production while it is taking place

Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's own language performance

against a standard after it has been completed

Cognitive strategies involve interacting with the material to be learned, manipulating the material mentally or physically, or applying a specific technique to a learning task

Deduction Applying rules to understand or produce the second language or

making up rules based on language analysis

Imagery Using visual images (either mental or actual) to understand or

remember new information

Auditory

representation

Planning back in one’s mind the sound of a word, phrase, or longer language sequence

Keyword method Remembering a new word in the second language by: (1)

identifying a familiar word in the first language that sounds like

or otherwise resembles the new word, and (2) generating easily recalled images of some relationship with the first language homonym and the new word n the second language

Elaboration relating new information to prior knowledge, relating different

parts of new information to each other, or making meaningful personal associations with the new information

Transfer :Using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist

comprehension or production

Inferencing using available information to guess meanings of new items,

predict outcomes, or fill in missing information

Note taking Writing down keywords or concepts in abbreviated verbal,

graphic, or numerical form while listening or reading Summarizing Making a mental, oral, or written summary of new information

gain through listening or writing

Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language sequence

by combining known element in a new way

Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or

producing the second language

Social and affective strategies involve interacting with another person to assist learning or using affective control to assist a learning task

Questioning for

clarification

Eliciting from a teacher or peer additional explanations, rephrasing, examples, or verification

Cooperation : Working together with one or more peers to solve a problem,

pool information, check a learning task, model a language activity, or get feedback on oral or written performance

The brief overview of language learning strategies classification above shows that all

of these researchers made strenuous efforts in describing, interpreting, and classifying various strategies However, according to Goh & Foong (1997), these strategies fall under four broad categories: (1) comprehend, store, retrieve, and use information, (2) manage and direct their learning through reflection and planning, (3) control their emotions, (4) create opportunities to practice the target language with other people

In brief, to discuss the result of our study, we have adopted the O’Malley & Chammot’s framework

2.2.3 Factors affecting the learners’ learning strategy choice

The choice of strategy use by different learners varied due to different factors, such as language proficiency, motivation, gender, cultural background, attitudes and beliefs, types

of task, learning age and L2 stage, learning style and tolerance of ambiguity (Oxford, 1990) A great number of studies carried out to examine differences in strategy use in relation with factors such as school year, gender and level of language proficiency (These studies will be presented in 2.5.1) It is undeniable that the learner’s choice of language learning strategies is much affected by the factors mentioned above in which learners’ ethnicities seem to have a strong influence on the kinds of strategies they use (Grainger, 1997; Oxford, 1994; Politzer & McGrroarty, 1985; Reid, 1987)

In fact, over the past two decades, ethnicity has been neglected as a variable in most research on language learning strategies, however, the effects of ethnicity on the use of LLS has not received due attention in the literature (Yang, 2007) Moreover, Reid (1987) insisted that since ESL students of different ethnicities demonstrated the tendency to use or avoid certain strategies, more research should be conducted in this area Thus, our interest focuses on whether this factor has any influences on learners’ frequency of strategies and choice of reading strategies or not If reading strategies used by learners with different ethnic backgrounds are identified, more insights will be gained into the characteristics and learning process of these learners The situation leads to the need to study the relationship between LLS use and language learners’ ethnicities

2.3 The theory of reading

2.3.1 Definition of reading

Reading has been the subject of research for over a century (Cheng, 1985) In fact, a lot

of trials have been made by those who are interested in this approach However, working out a thorough definition of reading is a hard nut to crack since different researchers have various points of views about it Anderson (1999) confirmed that “reading is an active,

fluent process which involves the reader and the reading materials in building meaning.” What can be inferred from this definition is that reading is considered as a process of working out the intended meaning from a reading text Harmer’s definition has some points in common: “Reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages.” Obviously, this definition fails to the ways that help readers understand the message in text The definition given by William (1990, p.2), which says that “reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” also encounters this shortcoming

The definition that seems to be more satisfying than those mentioned above is the one introduced by Rumelhart (1977) In Rumelhart’s words, reading entails three elements: the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text Sharing the same point

of view, Aebersold and Field (1997, p.15) stated that

“Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to

the written symbols in that text The text and the reader are the two physical

entities necessary for the reading process to start It is, however, the

interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual meaning.”

What makes the definitions of reading by Rumelhart (1977) and Aebersold and Field (1997) different is the interaction between purpose and manner of reading that determines how people read a text or what reading strategies they bring to reading process

To sum up, it is obvious that attempts to define reading have been various but only Aebersold and Field’s (1997) definition reveals the features and ideas of reading as it indicated that reading takes three elements for the occurrence of process of transferring meaning from writer to reader: the reader, the text, and the interact between these two factors

So far, general views on reading have been mentioned, the next section will look into the models that describe the reading process in order to have a full understanding about the nature of reading

2.3.2 Reading processes

A lot of research has been done on reading strategy over the last twenty years and different views of reading approaches that emphasis the interactions between readers and text have been proposed These views can be grouped to three processes One is the bottom-up approach, the other is top- down approach, and the last one is the interactive one

2.3.2.1 Bottom- up model

Goodman refers to the bottom up model as the "common sense notion" (1998, p.11) In this approach, reading is meant to be a process of decoding; identifying letters, words, phrases, and then sentences in order to get the meaning

Alderson (2000) defined that “Bottom- up approaches are serial models, where the reader begins with the printed words and recognizes graphic stimuli, decodes them to sounds, recognizes words and decodes meaning Each component involves subprocesses which take place independently of each other” Those definitions show that bottom- up processing is analogous to field- independent cognitive styles

It can be seen that, in bottom- up processing, readers are passive decoders of essential graphic- phonemic- syntactic- semantic system (Alderson, 2000) Therefore, the sophisticated linguistic knowledge of the reader is essential

Although bottom-up approach was considered as “the best way to teach reading” (Brown, 2001), it was claimed to be “difficult to account for sentence-context effects and role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension.” (Samuel and Kamil, 1988, p.3) In other words, in this model the interaction between the reader and the text includes little or no interference from the reader’s own background knowledge

On other hand, as we will see in the next part, much research has emphasized the importance of the knowledge in the reading process

2.3.2.2 Top- down model

The top-down model is influenced by schema theory, which emphasizes the importance

of the reader's background knowledge in the reading process (Carrell, 1998, p 4) According to this theory, so as to comprehend a text, readers make use of both the text and their background knowledge Therefore, interaction of the background knowledge and the text is essential for efficient reading Top-down rejects the notion that identification of letters to form words, and the derivation of meaning from these words is efficient reading Smith (1971) indicated that reading process includes the reader’s experience, knowledge of the context of the text, familiarity with the structures and patterns of the word and specific subject matter knowledge Reading, in Goodman’ word, is described as “a guessing game” because readers must infer meaning, decide what to retain and not to retain, and move on (Brown, 2001) What can be inferred from this point of view is that readers use the maximum of existing, activated knowledge and the minimal information of the texts to predict the meaning of the texts This perspective was also supported by Carrell (1988), Clarke and Silberstein (1977), and Widdowson (1978) as they claimed reading is “an active process in which the second language reader is an active information processor who predicts while sampling only parts of the actual text” (in Carrell, 1988, p.3)

The main drawback of top-down approach is that the reader does not know “how prior knowledge is called upon from memory and how it is then used in understanding” (Alderson, 2000, p.18) Another problem of top-down process, according to Samuel and Kamil’s point of view (1988), is that generating a prediction may take more time than recognizing the words Moreover, for many texts, the reader has no or little knowledge of the topic, as the result, they cannot make any predictions about the text’s meaning

The limitations of bottom-up and top-down approaches have led to new, insightful models, interactive approach Interactive approach is a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing (Brown, 2001)

2.3.2.3 Interactive model

Anderson has indicated that, reading has begun to be described as ‘interactive’, which combine elements of both bottom-up and top-down models as the most comprehensive description of the reading process

Widdowson (1978) inserts that reading is a process of combining textual information and the world knowledge that readers bring to the text In this model, arriving at the text’s meaning, the reader not only simply activates his knowledge to extract information from the text, but also uses this information to extend the general knowledge in his mind This opinion is quite similar to Aldersons’ definition of interactive model He states that interactive approach is a process in which every components can interact with any other components

In Rumelhart’s (1977) model, reading process is the continuous and simultaneous interaction among linguistic, world knowledge and visual input This model is a bit different from other models as it investigates the importance of visual input

Stanovich (1990), on the other hand, indicates that the degree of interaction among components depends upon knowledge deficits in individual components, where interaction occurs to compensate for deficits, therefore, the reader who is not good at recognizing words can use his general knowledge to compensate

In sum, the interactive approach is a process of interaction of different knowledge sources (both linguistic and subject matter knowledge) It is generally agreed that this is the most adequate model because both top-down and bottom-up approaches play important role in reading as Nuttall’s (1996) opinion “in practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top-down approach to predict probable meaning, then moving to the bottom-up approach to check whether that is really what the writer says” 2.3.3 Reading strategies

2.3.3.1 Definition

Reading strategies, as defined by Brantmeier (2002), are “the comprehension processes that readers use in order to make sense of what they read” (2002, p.1) and reading strategies are summarized as follows:

“The strategies may involve skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing

cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting, activating

general knowledge, making inferences, following references, and separating

main ideas from supporting ideas”

According to Anderson (1999), there are six reading strategies: (1) A activate prior knowledge, (2) C cultivate vocabulary, (3) T teach for comprehension, (4) I increase reading rate, (5) V verify reading strategies, (6) E evaluate progress

Brown (1990) considered reading strategies as the ways that help learners read more quickly and effectively

In short, reading strategies can be defined as the ways show readers how to manage their interaction with the written text to comprehend and learn new information from the reading texts effectively

2.4 Previous studies on language learning strategies

2.4.1 Language learning strategies studies

Over the years, a great deal of research into language learning strategies have been done in which the focus is on classification of language learning strategies, the differences

in the use of language learning strategies between successful and unsuccessful learners, factors affecting strategy choices, and effects of strategy instruction

For the studies involving successful and unsuccessful language learners, Rubin (1975) was one of the earliest researchers who concluded that good language learner pay attention

to both forms and meaning in their language, they are not afraid of making mistakes, and try to guess what they are not sure for their strong desire to communicate Naiman et al (1978) conducted interviews and observations with 34 successful college students and suggested that language learning strategies form only one part of a broader picture of what constitutes a “good language learner”, i.e what that learner does and what kind of environment facilitates this learning process Also, O’Malley et al (1985a) investigated the relationship between language learning strategies and success in language development by beginning and intermediate level students in the United States Data were collected by means of interviews and observation The result of the study revealed that metacognitive strategies were used more frequently by higher level students and this drew a conclusion that the more successful students are probably able to exercise greater metacognitive control over their learning However, the result of a study by Ehrman and Oxford (1995)

who investigated the relationship between end-of-course proficiency and a number of variables including language learning strategies indicated that cognitive strategies had a positive relationship with success in learning language Interestingly, after interviewing 15 under-achieving learners in private language schools in London, Porte (1988) comes to the conclusion that these ineffective students are aware of their strategies and use just as many

as do the more effective learners In addition, Hosenfeld (1976), Abraham & Vann (1987, cited in Bremner, 1998), Chamot & Kupper (1989) observed the use of language learning strategies by unsuccessful language learners These studies discovered that less effective language learners do not know what strategies they use, and they use fewer strategies than those of more successful learners

In sum, one major finding among the studies on the use of strategies by successful and unsuccessful learners is that successful language learners used more and better language learning strategies than poorer learners did (Oxford, 1989, 1993)

Apart from studies on language learning strategies used by successful and unsuccessful language learners, there have been several studies that concerned with factors affecting the choice of LLS

The relationship between sex and strategies was addressed by Politzer (1983) He reported that females used social learning strategies more often than males Oxford, Nyikos, and Ehrman (1988) summarized four studies concerning gender differences in language learning, confirming that females use a greater range of language learning strategies Ehrman & Oxford (1989), using SILL with both students and instructors at the U.S Foreign Service Institute, came to the conclusion that females use more LLS in general study strategies, functional practice strategies, strategies for searching for communication meaning and self- management strategies than males Oxford and Nykios (1989) came to conclusion that gender differences had a “profound influence” on strategy use, and that males used less often than females when they carried out a study with 120 university students Zimmerman and Martinez-Pons (1990) discovered that girls use metacognitive strategies, such as goal-setting, planning, keeping records, and monitoring, more than boys According to Green and Oxford (1995), 15 out of 50 strategies on the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL; Oxford, 1990) showed differences between women and men

in terms of strategy use, with women using them more frequently, while only one strategy was used more often by men than women Oxford and Ehrman’s (1995) comprehensive study, with 520 language learners for an average of 20 weeks, also discovered that females’ use of strategies was more frequent than males’ The result of the study by Tokeshi (2003) revealed that female listeners employed a larger number of LLS than female ones In contrast to these significant gender differences, there are also studies showing a less clear distinction in strategy use between males and females (Oh, 1996; Park, 1999)

The effects of motivation on LLS were the focus of a study by Ehrman & Oxford (1989) when they conducted a study at the Foreign Service Institute and discovered that career choice had a strong effect on LLS

Another factor that can have significant impact on the kinds of strategy used is task type Acording to Oxford (1990), O’ Malley and Chamot (1990), task demands have a heavy influence on the strategies selected

Also, language course level influences how learners learn foreign or second language Shmais (2003) attempted to identify the relationship between proficiency and LLS use by

99 English majors at An-Najah National University in Palestine Questionnaires were adopted to collect the data The result of the study showed that proficiency had no effects

on strategy use However, Politzer (1983) found that course level influenced the learning strategy choice of foreign language learners, higher- level students used more functional and communicative strategy than the lower- level ones Similarly, the study by Goh and Foong (1997) that used questionnaires to survey the use of LLS by 175 ESL students from the People’ Republic of China at Nanyang Technology University-Singapore reported that there were significant differences in the use of cognitive and compensation strategies among the learner at low, medium and high proficiency level

The effects of national origin or ethnicity on LLS use were highlighted by a great number of studies Politzer & McGroarty (1985) found out the significant differences in the use of kinds of strategies between Hispanics and Asians Bedell’s study (1993), found that metacognitive strategies were often used by Chinese students, but not used as often

among Puertt Rican, Egyptian, Indonesina and Korean in the study performes by Yang (1993) Similarly, Oxford (1994) found that Taiwanese learners of English tend to be more structured, analytic, memory-based, and metacognitively oriented in language learning Therefore, learners of different backgrounds differ in the use of LLS However, Grainger (1997) surveyed 133 learners of Japan from various cultural backgrounds and found that there is no significant difference in the frequency of overall strategy use among the students of Asian backgrounds

Instructions in LLS has been done with strategies that facilitate the acquisition of declarative knowledge (general referred to as memory training) and of procedural knowledge (such as reading comprehension and problem solving) (O’Malley and Chamot,

1990, p.151) For this reason, great deals of research into LLS instruction have been conducted

Tang and Moore (1992) carried out a study on the effects of the teaching of cognitive and metacognitive strategies on reading comprehension in the classroom The result of the study showed that cognitive strategy instruction improved comprehension scores; however, this improvement was not maintained upon the withdrawal of the treatment And metacognitive strategy instruction led to improvement to the end of the treatment

When O’Malley (1987) and his colleagues trained 75 students in three groups in: (1) metacognitive, cognitive and socio/affective strategies, (2) cognitive and socio/affective strategies, (3) no special instruction in LLS for listening, speaking, and vocabulary acquisition skill by O’Malley (1987) and acquisition skill, they discovered that the controlled group for vocabulary actually scored higher than the treatment group

Using classroom observation and interviews, in another classroom based study which aimed to discover the decision-making processes and choices made when teaching the lesson, Li and Wihelm (2008) concluded that awareness of how strategies can be affectively taught and how teachers base classroom practices on their own learning experiences and the context within they work should be increased

What is noticing in the previous LLS studies mentioned above is that learning strategies have been examined by researchers through interviews, questionnaires,

observation and all these studies provided insights into understanding the learning process

by learners of a second language in the following three areas The first area of research identifies strategies used by successful and unsuccessful learners The second examines the effects of such factors motivation, gender, and proficiency on LLS Finally, the research explores the effect of explicit instruction in strategies to produce better performance 2.4.2 Reading strategies studies

A quick search of literature review of LLS would end with a considerable number of studies in this field of reading strategies

On the whole, the relationship between success and the use of reading strategies is the specific focus of a great deal of studies

One of the earliest pieces of research on the first language strategies was conducted by Olshavsky (1976) with the use of a think-aloud technique His study involved readers of low standard who were asked to speak out what they were thinking about at a particular point in the text Olshavsky found that L1 readers differed in frequency of strategy use The strategies were used more often by more successful readers for more difficult and interesting materials

Hosenfeld (1984) used an interview and think-aloud protocols to examine the strategies that good readers seemed to be doing that poor readers were not The result of his research showed that successful readers used the following kinds of strategies (Hosenfeld, 1984, p.233-234):

• keep the meaning of the passages 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 different word order

• examine illustrations

• read the title and make inferences from it

• use orthographic information (e.g capitalization)

• refer to the side gloss

• use the glossary as a last resort

• look up words correctly

• continue if unsuccessful a decoding a word or phrase

• recognize cognates

• use their knowledge of the world

• follow through with a proposed solution to a problem

• evaluate their guesses

Working at much the same time as Hosenfeld, Block (1986) also collected data from a think-aloud method to explore approaches to reading for educational purposes by a number

of readers of low standard His subjects were both non-native and native readers who had failed a college reading – ability test The reading strategies employed by these readers were classified into general and local ones General strategies consist of the following behaviors: (1) anticipate content, (2) recognize the texts structure, (3) integrate information, (4) question information in the text, (5) interpret the text, (6) use general knowledge and associations, (7) comment on behavior or process, (8) monitor comprehension, (9) correct behavior, (10) react to text Local strategies were: (1) paraphrase, (2) reread, (3) question meaning of clause or sentence, (4) question meaning of

a word, (5) solve vocabulary problem As a whole, the readers employed general strategies got higher comprehension scores than the ones who did not

It can be said that although Hosenfeld’s and Block’s research have proved to be valuable in bringing the overall picture of the process of reading various texts, “their result are limited not only by the small number of readers involved but also the actual text being read.” (Mc.Donough, 1995, p.54)

In the favor of exploring readers’ perceptions of their strategies in silent reading of their first and second language, Carrell (1989) carried out the research with two groups of students: the Spanish- speaking group and English- speaking group Questionnaires were administered to subjects as the instrument to find out the relationship between the reading strategies used by first and second language learners and their reading ability Carrell concluded that the perception of strategies between good L1 readers and good L2 readers had some differences The Spanish- speaking learners of English perceived global or top-down strategies more effectively, whereas local or bottom-up strategies were associated with English- speaking learners’ reading ability in the L2

Sharing the same interest in comparison of strategy use when reading in L1 and L2, Sarig (1987) used a think-aloud protocol method to investigate relationship between the use of reading strategies in L1 and L2 His study involved 17-18-year-old Hebrew girls who were studying English as a foreign language He found that there were similarities in strategy use, the relation between strategy use and success in comprehension, especially, his work classified strategies into four categories: (1) technical aids move, (2) clarification and simplification moves, (3) coherence- detecting moves, (4) monitoring moves

Research in the area of reading has also begun to focus on the role of metacognition While previous research has focused on strategy use, researchers are examining readers' awareness of strategies during the reading process - their metacognitive awareness Metacognition is a relatively new label for a body of theory and research that address learners' knowledge and use of their own cognitive resources (Garner, 1987) Metacognitive knowledge or awareness is knowledge about ourselves, the tasks we face, and the strategies we employ (Baker & Brown, 1984) Knowledge about ourselves may

include knowledge about how well we perform on certain types of tasks or our proficiency levels Knowledge about tasks may include knowledge about task difficulty level For example, in the area of reading, we may know that familiar-topic material is easier to understand than unfamiliar material; explicit sentences assist us in tasks that require reduction of texts to their gist About strategies, we may know that verbal rehearsal and elaboration of material assist in retrieval, or that prediction of article content based on titles improves comprehension, and so forth Metacognitive awareness therefore, also involves the awareness of whether or not comprehension is occurring, and the conscious application

of one or more strategies to correct comprehension (Baumann, Jones, & Seifert-Kessel, 1993) This body of work has enormous explanatory power for description of the reading process in both the L1 and L2 contexts First language reading researchers, most notably Baker and Brown (1984) have investigated several different aspects of the relationship between metacognitive ability and effective reading Two dimensions of metacognitive ability have been recognized: 1) knowledge of cognition or metacognitive awareness; and 2) regulation of cognition which as stated includes the reader's knowledge about his or her own cognitive resources, and the compatibility between the reader and the reading situation For example, if a reader is aware of what is needed to perform effectively, then it

is possible to take steps to meet the demands of a reading situation more effectively If, however, the reader is not aware of his or her own limitations as a reader or of the complexity of the task at hand, then the reader can hardly be expected to take actions to anticipate or recover from difficulties (Carrell, 1989)

Related to this is the reader's conceptualization of the reading process Devine (1983) has investigated L2 readers' conceptualizations about their reading in a second language Analysis of transcripts of reading interviews provided information on beginning ESL readers' theoretical orientations toward reading in their second language Devine's results are reminiscent of first language reading research which has generally shown that younger and less proficient readers tend to focus on reading as a decoding process rather than as a meaning-making process Some of these first language studies using self-report data have also found a lack of correlation between what readers say they do and what they actually

do when reading While at other times, a reader does not describe how to use a particular strategy but in fact does use it when reading To explain this, Baker & Brown (1984) point

out that "knowing that" (declarative knowledge) is different from "knowing how" (procedural knowledge), and that knowledge that a particular strategy is useful (awareness) precedes its routine use, which in turn precedes the ability how it is used

Some studies have shown that better readers are also better strategy users Carrell (1989) for example, conducted a study to investigate the metacognitive awareness of second language readers about reading strategies in both their first and second language, and the relationship between their metacognitive awareness and comprehension in both first and second language reading Two groups of subjects of varying proficiency levels including forty-five native speakers of Spanish enrolled at an ESL intensive program at a university, and seventy-five native speakers of English studying Spanish were involved in the study A metacognitive questionnaire was developed to elicit relevant information from subjects to tap their metacognitive awareness and judgments about silent reading in their first and second language Subjects were also tested in both their first and second languages by reading a text in each language and then answering comprehension questions pertaining to the text The findings of the study yielded some interesting results For reading in the L1, local reading strategies such as focusing on grammatical structures, sound-letter, word meaning, and text details tended to be negatively correlated with reading performance For reading in the L2, there were some differences between the Spanish L1 and the English L1 groups The ESL group, of more advanced proficiency levels, tended to be more global (used background knowledge, text gist, and textual organization) or top-down in their perceptions of effective and difficulty-causing reading strategies, while the Spanish-as-a-foreign language group, at lower proficiency levels tended to be more local or bottom-up, perhaps because they may have been more dependent on bottom-up decoding skills Carrell (1989) cautions these results are to be taken as suggestive as further research in this area is needed

In another recent study of L2 reading involving 278 French language students, Barnett (1988) investigated the relationships among reading strategies and perceived strategy use

on reading comprehension The initial part of the study required students to read an unfamiliar passage and write in English what they remembered The second part of the study asked the students to answer a series of background knowledge questions before

reading a text, and the third part of the study required students to continue the ending of a text The final part required the subjects to answer a seventeen-item questionnaire in English about the types of reading strategies they thought best described the way they read

"Background knowledge scores", "comprehension scores" and "strategy-use scores" were used for analysis which revealed that students who effectively consider and remember context as they read, (i.e strategy use) understand more of what they read than students who employ this strategy less or less well Moreover, students who think they use those strategies considered most productive (i.e perceived strategy use) actually do read through context better and understand more than do those who do not think they use such strategies"

Given the above discussion, there appears to be a strong relationship between reading strategies used by readers, metacognitive awareness, and reading proficiency In essence, successful readers appear to use more strategies than less successful readers and also appear to be used more frequently Better readers also have an enhanced metacognitive awareness of their own use of strategies and what they know, which in turn leads to greater reading ability and proficiency (Baker & Brown, 1984; Garner, 1987) Researchers in this area have found that in general, more proficient readers exhibit the following types of reading behaviors: Overview text before reading, employ context clues such as titles, subheading, and diagrams, look for important information while reading and pay greater 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 hypotheses about the meaning of text based on text content, attempt to infer information from the text, attempt to determine the meaning of words not understood or recognized, monitor text comprehension, identify or infer main ideas, use strategies to remember text (paraphrasing, repetition, making notes, summarizing, self-questioning, etc), understand relationships between parts of text, 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 (Aebersold & Field, 1997) While this list is not prioritized or complete, it does

provide one with a description of the characteristics of successful readers, and continues to grow as more research into reading is conducted

2.5 Summary

The chapter so far has presented the relevant literature which forms underpinnings for this study The major issues such as language learning strategies, reading leaning strategies, previous research and factors influencing learners’ strategy choice have been addressed In terms of LLS, first the definitions of LLS have been discussed and definitions of language learning strategies by O’Malley& Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990) has been adopted as the working definition of the current study Second, some of classification schemes of LLS have been mentioned, the framework of O’Malley and Chamot has been selected to code for evidence of reading learning strategies Besides that, the brief overview of previous LLS studies as well as factors affecting the choice LLS has been presented Regarding the theory of reading and reading learning strategies, definitions

of reading and reading strategies have been defined in various ways With an attempt to seek the most appropriate method for this study, the previous reading learning strategy studies have been reviewed with their methods and specific findings

The following chapter will be devoted for discussion of methodology of this study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction

It is believed that the reliability and validity of a study is mainly evaluated by the research methods that are employed Therefore, it is important for researchers to choose the most suitable methods in a variety of research methods for the aims and objectives of the study In line with this belief, this chapter will present the issues of methodology used

in this study It begins with the research questions It then describes the participants and settings of the study, instruments data collection, coding of data, and analytic procedures 3.2 Research questions

The aim of the present study is to investigate the reading comprehension strategies employed by the third-year English majors at TBU The study tried to answer the following questions:

1 What reading strategies are employed by third year English majors of Muong and Thai ethnic minorities?

2 Does the frequency of strategy use differ between Thai and Muong ethnic minorities among the third-year English majors at TBU?

3.3 Participants and settings of the study

3.3.1 Participants

Twelve third-year English majors at TBU were the participants of the study, six of them were Muong ethnics and the rest of the group was Thai ethnics All of them were females at the age of 21, and spent 3 to 6 years learning English Their overall English proficiency was roughly at the level of high-intermediate These participants were selected

on the basis of the following criteria First, they were grouped under two ethnicities: Muong and Thai Second, the third- year English majors were selected with the assumption that they had been trained in reading strategies, therefore, their learning experience would

help them develop reading strategies and these strategies could be identified and analyzed

to meet the objectives of the study Finally, they were willing to take part in the study

Table 2: The background information about the participants

Total of

participants

Ethnicity Gender Number of

years learning English

Age English proficiency

3.3.2 Settings of the study

The current study was carried out from mid Sep 2007 to Oct 2008 The number of third-year English majors at TBU was 66 By the time of the study, they had access to the four main language skills (Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing) for two years with 480 periods in total in which reading accounted for 45 periods a semester When the research was conducted, they were studying Between The Lines by Jean Zukowski/ Faust, Susan S and Clark S This text book aimed to provide students with skill and strategies for purposeful reading

3.4 Instruments

Literature on LLS indicated that the data on what LLS learners employed can be collected by several ways such as: learning strategy inventories, interviews, observation, verbal reports, diaries, dialogue journals and computer tracking The study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires and think-aloud reports The quantitative data was collected through a survey on language learners’ individual background while qualitative data was obtained through think-aloud reports to investigate the learners’ learning strategies

3.4.1 Questionnaires

Questionnaires are used as they are one of the most popular method of collecting data Their popularity can be explained by the fact that they provide a “quick fix” for research methodology with low cost in time and money, less pressure, the time chosen for completing is flexible and the analysis of answers to closed questions is relatively straightforward (Gillham, 2000) Howerver, the honesty of answers to questionnaires is impossible to be checked The participants might choose the answers they think are best not the thing they really do In this study, questionnaire was used to collect information about participants’ background (See Appendix II)

3.4.2 Think-aloud reports

The think-aloud (self-revelation), one of the three types of verbal report, is known as

“stream-of-consciousness disclosure of thought processes while the information is being attended to” (Cohen, 1998, p 34), was used to obtain information about reading strategies employed by third year students at TBU There were several reasons for researcher of this study to use this method Firstly, the think- aloud was adopted as a major source of data in several reading researchers (Hosenfeld, 1977; Sarig, 1987; Block, 1992) Secondly, “the think-aloud approach would be suitable for receptive tasks” (O’Malley and Chamot 1990: 90) Another reason is that think-aloud “are, in fact, valuable and thoroughly reliable sources of information about cognitive process” (Cohen, 1998)

3.5 Pilot – study

This was the first time the instruments used in a setting mentioned above It is necessary for these instruments to be piloted prior to the main study carried out to achieve the following objectives:

1 To ensure the instruments were understood by the participants as they intended to be

2 To familiarize the researcher and participants with the instruction to be given

Data were collected at two stages; the participants were given the handouts of questionnaires followed by the think-aloud reports

3.5.1 Stage 1

Before the questionnaires were administered, the instructions for answering the questionnaires were explained to the participants They then were given the handouts of questionnaires The participants were asked to take note or mark in their questionnaires any difficult or unclear words and items to them It took participants about 10 minutes to answer the questionnaires

3.5.2 Stage 2

After the think-aloud technique was presented to the participants; they were explained about what to do with think-aloud reports First, students were given a reading text with 20 questions Then they were required to report what they were thinking while they were reading They could verbalize in English or Vietnamese This stage took approximately an hour and a half

3.5.3 Results of the pilot-study

According to the comments received from the participants, the instructions given by the researcher were clear, the questionnaires were understood as they were intended by all participants and they could report what they were thinking in their mind when they were doing a reading comprehension task

3.6 Data collection procedures

3.6.1 Administering the questionnaires

Handouts of the questionnaires were delivered to twelve students at the beginning of the first semester of the third year (in Mid September) A brief explanation of the purpose

of the study was given The questionnaires were administered by the researcher during reading class The students were informed that their responses to the questionnaires would

be kept confidential The completed questionnaires were collected right after the participants completed them Approximately 10 minutes were taken by the participants to answer the questionnaires

3.6.2 Administering the think-aloud reports

The think-aloud reports were conducted in early Oct Firstly; the purposes of the study were given Then they were explained about how to do with think-aloud reports When the participants were given a reading text of about 800-1000 words with with three parts: comprehension questions, vocabulary from context, and critical reading (see Appendix 3), they were required to report what they were thinking while reading The participants had

an option to verbalize in Vietnamese or English To stimulate the participants to verbal reports, the researcher asked them such question “what are you thinking?” All of the think-aloud reports were tape-recorded and then transcribed

Coding of data

3.7.1 Coding of questionnaire data

The responses to each question were coded using the scale which ranges from 1 to

5 as follow

Very important: 3,5-4

Important: 2.5-3.4

Not very important: 1.5-2.4

Not important at all: 1-1,4

3.7.2 Think-aloud report data

After the think-aloud reports were tape-recorded and then transcribed, the researcher followed the four steps in coding the protocols (Young, 1997): (1) read the think aloud report carefully several times, (2) underlined the corresponding think-aloud verbalization, (3) classified the strategies used in the excerpt, and (4) wrote the strategies code in the protocol Tale 3 presents a framework of individual items within three categories