The effects of schemata building on improving grade 10 students reading skills at da tong high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL BY HOANG[.]

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY

-

MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL

THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING

GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS

AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL

BY

HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099

Supervised by Assoc Prof Dr PHAM VU PHI HO

BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY

-

MASTER’S THESIS OF TESOL

THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING

GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS

AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL

BY

HOANG THI THU Student’s code: 18110099

Supervised by Assoc Prof Dr PHAM VU PHI HO

BA RIA VUNG TAU, 2022

The thesis entitled THE EFFECTS OF “SCHEMATA-BUILDING” ON IMPROVING GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING SKILLS AT DA TONG HIGH SCHOOL was successfully defended and approved on September 18th,

2022 at Ba Ria Vung Tau University

Academic supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr PHAM VU PHI HO

Examination committee

1 Assoc.Prof.Dr NGUYEN HUU DUC…………Chair

2 Ph.D BUI THI KIM LOAN………Reader 1

3 Ph.D NGUYEN XUAN HONG……….Reader 2

4 Ph.D NGUYEN HUU THE………Member

5 Ph.D DINH LU GIANG………Secretary member

On behalf of the Examination Committee

Chair

(full name, title, signature)

Assoc.Prof.Dr.NGUYEN HUU DUC

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY

BA RIA VUNG TAU, April 2022

MASTER’S THESIS REPORT

I- Thesis title:

The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading skills at Da Tong high school

II- Objectives and contents:

The present study was carried out with the aim to explore effects of schemata- building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills

at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills This study adopted quasi-experimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities The researcher used the quasi- experimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group A quantitative research was used in the study Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research The qualitative part of the study was used to crosscheck with quantitative data about the students’ perceptions towards the improvement of schemata building

activities in reading comprehension In the scope of the present research, the qualitative data collected from interview was implemented after the quantitative data collected from the pretest and the posttest on the purpose of fostering the understanding and the interpretation of the results

III- Starting date: August 1, 2020

IV- Completing date: December 15, 2021

V- Academic supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr PHAM VU PHI HO

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:

“The effects of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’

reading skills at Da Tong high school”

Ba Ria Vung Tau, 2022

Signature

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use

of theses deposited in the Library

I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Second, special thanks are also forwarded to all of my teachers who have taught and guided me with useful knowledge and experience during the M.A course

Third, I would like to extend my appreciation to the Principal of Da Tong high school – Mr Cao Xuan Thai, the Head of English group – Ms Dong Gur K’ Dan, Ms K’Trinh for their permission and support during the data collection process

Fourth, a big thank goes to the student participants at Da Tong high school who have been willing to fulfill the study’s tests and involve in the interview This thesis would not be possible without their kindness and willingness

Finally, I would like to express my greatest love and gratitude to my beloved husband who inspired me to take this M.A course, my beloved father and mothers, who always give me love and care, and my little son, who has been my greatest motivation during my M.A course My dream of fulfilling this academic goal in life would have been impossible without my beloved people

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at exploring effects of schemata-building on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school and their attitudes towards the adoption of schemata building activities in learning reading skills This study adopted quasi-experimental research, which consisted of an experimental group and a control group The experimental group was taught with the adoption of schemata building activities; whilst the control group was not taught through schemata building activities The researcher used the quasi-experimental design with the aim to explore the effects of using schemata building activities in reading comprehension A pretest and a posttest were used in the experimental group and the control group A quantitative research was used in the study Moreover, the study employed qualitative research method The researcher wanted to combine quantitative method and qualitative method to clarify the objectives of the research The results of the study have indicated that students can enhance their reading comprehension through using schemata building activities This utterance was proved by the better performance in the post-test of the experiment group than the performance of the control group In other words, after treating with schemata building activities, students’ reading comprehension has been improved Moreover, the participants who are treated with schemata building activities surely know the ways to build schemata building activities on reading comprehension They also recognized the importance of schemata building activities on their improvement of reading learning Furthermore, they believed that using schemata building activities could help them comprehending texts better

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY iv

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi

ABSTRACT vii

LIST OF TABLE xi

LIST OF FIGURES xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Research aims and objectives 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Reading comprehension skills 5

2.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension skills 5

2.1.2 Models of reading process 7

2.1.3 Strategies for reading 10

2.2 “Schemata-building” activities 13

2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of “schemata”/ background knowledge 13

2.2.2 Types of “schemata”/background knowledge 15

2.2.3 The positive effects of “schemata-building” activities in reading class 17

2.3 Theories of cognitive learning 21

2.3.1 Definition of cognitive learning 21

2.3.2 Components of cognitive learning 23

2.4 Review of previous studies 24

2.5 Conceptual framework 26

2.6 Summary of chapter 2 28

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 29

3.1 Research design 29

3.2 Research settings 31

3.3 Sample and sampling procedure 32

3.4 Material 33

3.5 Research instruments 34

3.6 Data collection procedures 38

3.7 Data analysis procedures 41

3.8 Reliability and validity 42

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 44

4.1 The research results 44

4.1.1 The effects of schemata building activities on improving 10th graders reading skills at Da Tong high school 44

4.1.2 The students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning English reading skills 52

4.2 Discussion 57

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60

5.1 Introduction 60

5.2 Summary of the main findings of the study 60

5.3 Implications of the research 61

5.4 Limitations of the research 62

5.5 Recommendations for further studies 63

REFERENCES 64

APPENDICES 71

APPENDIX B 73

APPENDIX C 74

APPENDIX D 75

APPENDIX E 75

APPENDIX F 77

APPENDIX G 78

APPENDIX H 80

APPENDIX I: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST 81

POST-TEST 84

APPENDIX K 87

APPENDIX L 89

APPENDIX M: TRANSCRIPTS OF STUDENT INTERVIEWS 91

STUDENT 2 93

STUDENT 3 95

LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.1 Sample of the participants 33 Table 3.2 Students’ scores and classification in the pretest and the post-test

(Depdikbud, 1985; Arisal, 2016) 36 Table 3.3 Procedueres of the experiment 39 Table 3.4 Cronbach’ s Alpha of the pretest and the posttest 43 Table 4.1 Descriptive statistics of the control group students’ and the

experimental group students’ mean scores in the pretest 45 Table 4.2 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the experimental group students’ mean scores in the pretest 46 Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students and the experimental group students’ mean scores in the posttest 47 Table 4.4 Comparative results of the control group students’ and the

experimental group students’ mean scores in the posttest 48 Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics of the control group students’ and the

experimental group students’ mean scores before and after the treatment 49 Table 4.6 Comparative results of the mean scores within each group in the

pretest and posttest 50

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Conceptual framework of the study 27 Figure 4.1 The participants’ reading comprehension in the pretest and the posttest 51

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

Up to now, English has become an international language The importance

of English in our modern world at the moment is undeniable English is a global language over the world According to a survey conducted in 2019, English is spoken by over 1.2 billion people worldwide either natively or as a second language The British Council projects that by the year 2020 two billion people in the world will be studying English Knowing and mastering English brings us several significant benefits English is not only a means of communication but also a tool for people to access to mankind’s intelligence As a result, in all countries of the world, the teaching and learning of English is of great importance

In relation to learning English, English learners should learn four language skills, including reading, listening, writing, and speaking Moreover, English learners need to master other complements such as vocabulary; pronunciation; and grammar for supporting the development of those skills Among them, reading skills is considered to be critical for English as foreign language/English

as second language learners as it is considered to be one of the most important skills in processing info; from that it can help to build up the language competence and performance of English learners It is defined as “constructing meaning from

a written text” (Ur, 1996) A large number of researchers agree that the readers play very important part in dealing with comprehending reading texts when recognizing written symbols and understanding the intended messages and the whole discourse Chastain (1988, p 176) explained reading process as an active cognitive system which activates in printed materials on the purpose of comprehending the reading texts According to Chastain (1988), during the process of writing, the writer makes an effort to activate background and linguistic knowledge to produce meanings; and what the reader has to do is to activate background and linguistic knowledge to reproduce the writer’s intended

meanings Similarly, Anderson (1999) states that the reader needs to be active in understanding the reading materials so that he/she can build meanings of a reading text So, reading is assessed to be an active and fluent process According to Ur (2012), a reader who is fluent in reading needs to have features such as language ability, reading speed, selective attention, vocabulary, prediction, motivation, purpose, and different reading strategies Among them, content, or background knowledge or “schema” has an important part in learning and remembering text information (Chen & Graves, 1995) Pearson et al (1979) believe that learners who have well-developed background knowledge or “schema” can understand reading texts better than those who have weakly developed background knowledge or “schema” Anderson (1999) believes that comprehending process

is the involvement of people’s knowledge of the world Numerous researches displayed the important role of background knowledge in reading comprehension abilities of first language and second language (Alptekin, 2006; Carrell & Wise, 1998; Chang, 2006; Hammadou, 2000; Huang, 2009; Johnson, 1982; Kendeou & van den Broek, 2007; Pulido, 2007; Rawson & Kintsch, 2004) It can be seen that the schemata of various knowledge and experiences have an important role in comprehending reading texts

Working as an English teacher for 6 years at Da Tong high school in Dam Rong District - a remote area which is far from Dalat, the researcher found that there were several problems in English learning and teaching, especially in the context of reading comprehension Most of learners got bored in reading class and encounter difficulties in understanding the reading texts This led to their bad scores in English subject and affects their interest in learning English There were many reasons for this problem, mainly from their limited knowledge of the world demotivates them understand the text It raised the question whether the students’ reading skills will be improved through “schemata-building” or not

This study, as a result, is conducted in the hope of examining the effectiveness of “schemata-building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading

skills at Da Tong high school In addition, the research attempts to find out solutions to enable factors of “schemata-building” in order to provide ways of improving reading proficiency

1.2 Research aims and objectives

The current research aims to investigate the effects of “schemata building” on improving grade 10 students’ reading comprehension skills at Da Tong high school

Based on the research aims, the research objectives are deployed as below: 1) To investigate the effects of “schemata-building” on enhancing 10th grade students’ reading skills

2) To explore the students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning their reading skills

1.3 Research questions

The present research is attempted to make clear about the following questions:

1 What are the effects of schemata building on enhancing grade 10 students’ English reading skills?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning their reading skills

1.4 Significance of the study

The ability to read English texts is still a difficult skill for the author’s students Over the last ten years, compared with the other two high schools in Dam Rong district, the quality of teaching and learning English in my school has been lower than average height from top to bottom Therefore, it is hoped that this research is significant for the English Group in Da Tong high school because it

will bring attention to the need for implementing a plan of action to improve English teaching and learning quality in the future

More importantly, this study will fill the gap in the recent literature on English reading skills through “schemata building” in remote areas in Vietnam education context

1.5 Scope of the study

The study mainly covers knowledge of reading skills by analyzing the effects of “schemata-building” on students’ comprehension of the texts in language teaching and learning programs in EFL context, and their attitudes towards the use of schemata building activities in learning reading skills

In addition, the current research is carried out with a group of students who are given reading texts based on being provided “schemata” by the teacher The reading abilities are taken place under the guidance of the teacher

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The current research is divided into five chapters Chapter 1 presents the introduction, which introduces the rationale, research aims, research questions, significance of the study, the scope of the study and organization of the thesis Chapter 2 provides theoretical background as the basis for conducting the study Chapter 3 deals with research design, sampling, research instrumentation, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure Chapter 4 consists of detailed discussions and analyses of the study’s findings Chapter 5 is to summarize the whole thesis, offer some educational implications and limitations of the research, and recommendations for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reading comprehension skills

2.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension skills

The term “reading” is broadly used in practice However, the concept of reading has been variously defined based on different areas of defining and points

of view It means that a definition of reading cannot reflect all viewpoints or features of reading It is, therefore, very significant to have a carefully-considered definition of reading to clear both EFL teachers and learners in their reading learning and teaching process

Alyousef (2005) states that reading comprehension is the process of interaction between the readers and the reading texts, which is the result of reading fluency Similarly, Coady (1997) defines that reading is considered the process

of interactions between background knowledge, linguistic knowledge and ability

to comprehend and require readers to use cues from contexts to analyze novel words Also, Goodman (1998) (as cited in Carrell et al, 1983) clears reading as an interaction between language and thoughts, in which the writer encodes his thoughts via languages and readers decodes that language into thoughts

On the word of Spratt et al (2005), reading is considered as a receptive skill

as it is related to response to the texts rather than generating them McWhorter (1992) expresses that reading comprehension is a complex process; this process needs the involvement of more than just adding the meanings of words together Its not just about understanding ideas, but also about recognizing relationships and structures between ideas

Although there are a lot of different views on the definitions of reading, they seem to have something in common that all concentrate on the nature of reading

Therefore, it is summarized that the ultimate purpose of the reading activity

is to comprehend the reading texts Whenever encountering a reading, readers need to achieve the comprehension In language teaching, teachers are necessary

to clearly understand what reading comprehension is in order to make their reading lessons more effectively In fact, there are different concepts of reading comprehension Klingner and Geisler (2008) presents that reading comprehension

is an activity that construct meanings from texts and needs the involvement of few various phases such as decoding, reading, fluency and background knowledge and experiences of the readers According to Bielby (1999), in reading activity, reading comprehension is produced when readers use their own knowledge to understand new information and reorganize what they already know in the light

of the new Thus, reading comprehension is the process of building meaning by coordinating a number of complicated processes including word, word reading, word knowledge and readers’ fluency (O’Shea, Sindelar & O’Shea, 1987) Generally, reading comprehension is a process of making ideas of written texts

On the words of Grabe and Stoller (2002), reading comprehension means

a person can acknowledge info expressed in a reading text; and he/she can explain the info properly Similarly, Miller (2002) defined that reading comprehension is some one’s ability to comprehend and understand meanings from reading texts

As explained by Van den Broek and Espin (2012), reading comprehension is assessed to be complicated because of the combination of automatic and strategic cognitive processes; these processes will allow the reader to create a mental representation of the text Reading comprehension is a mixture of various skills and strategies in reading such as metacognition and comprehension monitoring

To reinforce the theory of reading comprehension, Fountas and Pinnell (2006) compares that reading is a line of thought; it is also a part of all happens to

a person Acknowledging a reading task is closely related to his/her life It requires the interaction of elements in the text and readers’ own knowledge and their experience Woolley (2011) suggests reading comprehension is the process

of building meaning from the written text Its goal, hence, is to achieve meanings from words or sentences which are isolated Al Odwan (2012) defines reading comprehension requires readers to decode info written in reading text based on readers’ knowledge and vocabulary so that they can understand the meanings of the text

Connecting the strategies to comprehend the reading, Brown (2015) develops ten strategies He explains some strategies relevant to contextual clues

by guessing when the students are not certain about what they are reading, and analyzing vocabulary as follows:

(1) Recognizing the purpose of a reading text;

(2) Utilizing grapheme rules and patterns to help decoding the bottom up approach; (3) Adopting effective reading strategies to achieve rapid reading comprehension; (4) Applying skimming reading of key ideas of the reading text;

(5) Clarifying detailed info of the reading text;

(6) Utilizing graphic methods such as semantic mapping or clustering;

(7) Predicting the ideas of the reading text, even when readers do not make sure; (8) Interpreting vocabulary;

(9) Recognizing the difference between literal and implied meanings;

(10) Capitalizing on discourse markers to process relationships;

These strategies can be accomplished when students are able to clearly understand and effectively apply them in their reading activity, which leads to successful reading comprehension

2.1.2 Models of reading process

The theory about whole reading process of reading appeared very early, since the decades of 50s and 60s of the 19th century According to Gough (1972); LaBerg and Samuel, (1974), at various times, constructing the models of reading

was affected by behaviorism This means that the reading process has involved tasks from visual information; for example, the recognition of letters or words The visual information, which has been presented in reading texts, encourages the readers to reproduce and infer meanings Moreover, Goodman (1967) recognized that the construction of reading models has also affected by cognitivism, in which the process of reading has involved the attainment of an overview of the understanding of a reading text through the process of information that holds in minds Nowadays, reading process is often considered a major cognitive activity (Urquhart & Weir, 1998)

On the words of Gough (1972) and Goodman (1967), bottom up model and top down model are two well-known contrasting models in the field of teaching over past decades Gough (1972) who has proposed the bottom up argued that the process of reading began at the bottom, which means beginning from letters and words; then ended at the top with bigger units, ultimately create meanings In the model of Gough, it was suggested that the stages at higher level could not be achieved without corresponsive input first from lower stages of the process In other sentence, before starting new stage, the old state must be finished (Urquhart

& Weir, 1998)

However, Eskey (1973) criticized the model of bottom up He argued that this model has not provided sufficient reading models because it underestimated readers’ role and ability in using their language knowledge Moreover, this model was not effective in predicting what may come next in reading texts Rumelhart (1997) also argued that on the basic, the model of bottom up did not consider other elements related to the process of comprehending reading For instance, the reader’s background did not appear to have any contribution in the process of the bottom-up; and this model does not consider the role of the readers who are active

in reading process According to Rumelhart (1977), the bottom-up is considered

to be a linear model This means that learning reading process will be on one way

Specifically, there is no interaction between low and high level info in stages of reading process

Davoudi (2015) proposed the top down model Davoudi (2015) based on the structure of psycholinguistic theories to develop the top down model This model is different from the bottom up In details, the top down concentrates on reading at higher degree It builds text meanings through combining reading strategies like guessing, inferring, and concerning information in the texts with prior knowledge and paying less attention to decoding linguistics In the model of top-down, reading process concentrates on utilizing global common knowledge and info drawn from the text to create hypotheses about the meanings of reading text This looks at critical part that learners play a very important role in carrying out their relevant schemata, background or pre-existing knowledge of the world and leveraging them in the reading process

The bottom-up model was initially based on the research involving only young readers of first language and was later expanded to compose of new learners of second language It affected the process of teaching reading skills of second language and seemed to fit well with a phonetic based approach, which concentrated on letter-sound correspondence at the expense of higher-level elements In addition, the introduction of the top-down model also strongly influenced how researchers and teachers perceive readers of second language This influence can be seen in teaching methods of both first language and second language, in which the learners are promoted to engage in predicting, guessing, and seeking the meaning of texts during the reading process (Davies, 1995; Wallace, 1992)

In response to criticism of earlier models, there was appearance of an associative reading model This model was called the interaction model, which was suggested by Rumelhart (1977, 1980) The aim of this model was to combine

the process of acquiring knowledge from various sources while reading It allows interaction between higher-level processing and lower-level one

In the cognitive process-reading model of Khalifa and Weir (2009), reading patterns were classified according to two aspects, including careful reading and rapid reading and helding at the local or global level Careful reading involved understanding the content of all parts of a text, while speed-reading is related to strategies like scanning, skimming, and searching that aim to extract information from text quickly and effectively Local understanding is defined as the understanding of propositions at the microstructure level; i.e words, sentences and clauses In the model of Khalifa and Weir (2009), the local level is related to decoding operations such as word recognition, lexical access, parsing, and propositional meaning establishment at the sentence and clause level Global comprehension, on the other hand, refers to an understanding of the main ideas and essential details at the level of the macrostructure of a text This includes referencing, building mental models, creating text-level representations, and creating intertextual representations The model of Khalifa and Weir (2009) described authoritative reading behaviors for readers of first language and for readers of second language with sufficient proficiency in the second language The model implies that effective readers of second language need to be able to derive both quick and careful reading strategies and to be able to operate at both the local and global levels This also suggests that learners of second language need to be provided with clear reading strategy guidance

2.1.3 Strategies for reading

Reading skills of the second language is a critical skill in all contexts of English language teaching A teaching reading process is established well in the case of applying reading strategies of English learners Many previous researchers have shown their interest in studying the correlation between the use of reading strategies and reading comprehension When investigating this correlation, the

researchers can identify the effectiveness of using reading strategies in benefiting some extent in reading comprehension of English learners (Afflerbach et al, 2008; Allen, 2003; McKeown & Gentilucci, 2007; Wu, 2011) Brantmeier (2002) indicates that reading strategy is a comprehension process to understand what readers are reading a reading text Reading strategies are displayed as approaches, actions and procedures, which are utilize to enhance reading comprehension May (2001), Walker (2000), and Zare (2013) consider reading strategies as one of features of cognitive psychology which are important and essential for achieving comprehension Cohen (1990) defined reading strategies as mental processes that readers consciously chose to use to successfully complete reading tasks or

“techniques and methods that readers use to make their reading successfully”( Baker & Boonkit, 2004, p 302) Furthermore, reading strategies are defined as plans and behaviors for solving problems when faced with constructive meaning

According to Johnston (1983), when learners had difficulty in understanding reading texts, they need to use reading strategies to get over these barriers On the argument of Harvey and Goudvis (2000), in order to obtain reading comprehension at high level, it is necessary for readers to know which reading strategies to be used, when to apply reading strategies and how to use the reading strategies

Basing on Brown and Palinesar (1982), O’Malley et al (1985) proposed a taxonomy scheme that classifies strategies into metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies Moreover, O’Malley et al added the third category and called

it social mediation As described by Brown et al (1983), metacognitive strategies are related to higher order of executive skills, which involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating the success of learning activities As defined by O’Malley and Chamot (1990), a cognitive strategy is the involvement of mental manipulation or transformation of materials or tasks and used to improve comprehension, acquisition, or retention O’Malley and Chamot (1995) also presented the third category called social/affective strategies, which represent a broad group that

includes interaction with others or ideal control over influence In general, these strategies are considered to be applicable to a wide variety of tasks

In the reading process model of Khalifa and Weir (2009), after choosing the appropriate reading style, reading carefully or reading quickly, the reader will activate suitable cognitive strategies to respond to the purpose of continuous reading to obtain reading understanding at the appropriate level Social and affective strategies are related to the model of reading process through reference and mental modeling At this stage, knowledge of the subject and general knowledge of the world are activated to make sense of the texts According to Khalifa and Weir (2009), knowledge of text structures such as knowledge of genres and rhetorical tasks is also activated to create text-level and intertextual representations

Carrell (1989) used two reading strategies, including local strategy and global strategy Specifically, local strategies are strategies that have to deal with phonetic characters, word meanings, sentence syntax, and textual details On the other hand, global strategies are strategies that have to deal with background knowledge, text gist, and textual organization (Brantmeier, 2009)

Khalifa and Weir (2009) retain the differentiation of Carrell (1989) between local strategy and global strategy in classifying the types of reading Understanding the local level, it means that reading comprehension will concentrate on clarifying code at various levels; for example, recognizing words, accessing vocabularies, accessing grammatical knowledge and understanding details of the text Taking consideration of the global level, reading comprehension happens at higher levels during the process; for example, schemata building, understanding key contents of the reading texts, and organizing the texts Reading strategies models and their taxology seems to propose the requirement for teaching reading strategies In teaching reading strategies, teachers can guide EFL learners to learn reading strategies at the global

level so that they can obtain efficiency in learning reading skills In this level, reading learners can read at high speed and carefully Learners who have not reached reading comprehension well, will follow reading comprehension at the local level Whether reading strategies, the local or global level will be helpful for reading learners to understand reading texts As a result, they can improve their reading performance

In the process of understanding reading, readers can choose one of two appropriate reading ways The one is to read texts carefully The other is to use speed-reading When readers choose a reading pattern to follow, they can change

to the other reading pattern The reason is that they do not get effectiveness in the selected reading pattern This means that they misapply the reading pattern The understanding of a reading article may happen in the reading process at various degrees; for example, in the stage of decoding, the stage of establishing propositional meaning the levels of sentence and clause, and constructing meanings at level of the text

2.2 “Schemata-building” activities

2.2.1 Definitions and characteristics of “schemata”/ background knowledge

Schemata, in singular, it is schema; in plural, it is schemata or schemas It

is quite complex to understand the notation of schema A large number of researchers have named and interpreted in the word schema (in plural: schemata

or schemas) in various ways According to Schank and Abelson (1977), schemata

is defined as scripts Moreover, they and Lehnert (1977) some times called schemata as plans Charniak (1975) and Fillmore (1976) define schemata as frames Sanford and Garrod (1981) defined schemata as scenario According to Warren et al (1979), schemata could be event chains These terms only reflect small parts of schemata and “are not all identical” (Carrell, 1983)

Vice converse, as cited in Pritchard and Woollard (2013); Barlett (1932) and Medin and Ross (1992) said that almost previous researchers regarded schemata as world knowledge, past experiences, prior knowledge, previously acquired knowledge, background knowledge, and existing knowledge Rumelhart (1980) defines schemata as cognitive construction modules and the bones round the situations which are analyzed According to Widdowson (1983), schemata can

be defined as cognitive structures that enable the organization of information in long-term memory and provide the basis for prediction On the word of Alderson (2000), schemata are considered as an interlocking mental structure that represents the knowledge of the reader All of these definitions refer to schemas

as existing or background knowledge

In short, although there are many different definitions of schemata, most of definitions mentioned schemata relating to prior knowledge, previous knowledge, existing knowledge or background knowledge The knowledge can be activated and be changed based on the situation to support comprehension Anderson (2000) stated that schemata or background knowledge or prior knowledge can be interchangeably used In other words, schemata means all prior or existing or previous knowledge or background knowledge that learners used to comprehend the text Clearly, the function of schemata is to connect new information with old information (Perkins & Salomon, 1989) Thus, it is useful to make prediction, inference, and comprehension process (Anderson & Pearson, 1984) According

to Peregoy and Boyle (2000), it can help learners to get high level of comprehension Adams and Collins (1977); Alderson and Urquhart (1988); Carrell and Eisterhold (1983) explained schemata theory as the use of learners’ prior knowledge or previous knowledge or existing knowledge or background knowledge to comprehend and learn the texts

2.2.2 Types of “schemata”/background knowledge

The research on schema theory state that the interactive approach, which is

a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing, is considered to be the most efficient way to process texts (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983; Rumelhart, 1980) Reading comprehension is an interactive process between the text and the readers’ schemata (Adams & Collins, 1977) Many previous researchers made a great effort to classified the term schemata/ schema Some of them classified schemata into three different kinds, including language knowledge, proper schemata, and content schemata (Singhal, 1998) Some others gave other different types of schemata, namely abstract/ story schemata, formal schemata, and content schemata (Alptekin, 2002, 2003, as cited in Karakaş, 2005) However, it is clear that there is clear distinction between two main types of schemata, including formal schemata and content schemata (Alderson, 2000; Brown, 2001) These kinds of schemata have closed relationship with the success of reading comprehension (Weaver & Kintsch, 1991)

Formal schemata are the first type of schema/background knowledge This kind of schemata composed of knowledge of different text types or genres and their respective structural organization, language structures, vocabulary, grammar, level of formality or register, etc (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983; Singhal, 1998) Its use is closely associated with bottom up reading (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983) Formal schema is also labeled as rhetorical schema, linguistic knowledge

or background knowledge of organizational patterns or rhetorical structure of different types of texts (Brown, 2001) or “knowledge of language and linguistic conventions including knowledge of how texts are organized and what the main features of particular genres are” (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983, p.241) Moreover, Alderson (2000) presented that formal schemata composed of knowledge of genre

or text type, metalinguistic knowledge, and metacognition Based on these points

of view, it is said that formal schemata also compose abstract or story schemata, linguistic or language schemata which there is involvement of vocabulary and

grammar (Singhal, 1998) and Alptekin (2002, 2003 as cited in Karakas, 2005) In the context of English as second language or English as foreign language, if readers lack formal schemata, they will get difficulties in comprehending the text (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983), especially lack of vocabulary knowledge Hirsch (2003) also showed that “word knowledge speeds up word recognition and thus the process of reading” (p.123)

The second type of schemata is content schemata This kind of schemata includes knowledge of subject matter or topic, the understanding of the world, and the understanding of culture (Alderson, 2000; Brown, 2001; Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983) The adoption of content schemata is the result in the process of top-down reading (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983) According to Eskey (1986), content schema

is often referred to as background knowledge of the text's content domain or content knowledge Also, it can be labeled as subject knowledge, knowledge topic, subject matter familiarity, prior knowledge of topic, schematic knowledge, domain knowledge, and topic familiarity (Nassaji, 2007) Weaver and Kintsch (1991) expressed that the content schemata is important for the process of comprehension Aebersold and Field (1997) produced an interesting sentence that

“if the topic is outside students’ experience or their knowledge base, they are adrift

to an unknown sea”

Generally speaking, both formal schemata and content schemata are important for learners in the process of practicing ESL/EFL reading comprehension Some previous researchers argued that the content schemata had more influence on comprehension than the formal schemata; nevertheless, learners of ESL/EFL reading must depend on both the formal schemata and the content schemata so that they can be successful in reading comprehension (Carrell

& Eisterhold, 1983; Stanovich, 1980) In the case that the readers cannot activate

an appropriate schema or lack knowledge of vocabulary; have difficulty in language use; and lack knowledge of concepts, they will get trouble in comprehending the text (Al-issa, 2006; Johnson, 1982) Consequently, it is

effective to apply some kinds of pre-reading activity to activate or build schemata and help the readers understand the texts better (Johnson, 1982; Hudson, 1982)

2.2.3 The positive effects of “schemata-building” activities in reading class

Liu (2016) recognized that the understanding of a reading text is awareness and interaction process The schemata building are essential to form reading mode Learners can understand an article thanks to reading So, reading is presented under words, and sentences so that the readers can acknowledge the article Schemata are built depending on what a person experience in his/her life Thus, the readers can judge the content of the article correctly In order to comprehend reading, learners need to have a continuous learning and cognitive process (Liu, 2016) In consideration of new knowledge, teachers should actively instruct their students to read widely, actively deal with information, complete understanding gaps, and create a durable basis foundation for future reading

Schemata have a role in comprehending reading Specifically, schemata provide information for readers to perceive new things in reading process It can

be easier for them to understand familiar titles Moreover, schemata have the role

in adjusting and supplementing reading comprehension The schema structure limits the reader’s perception and understanding to a certain extent, from which the “default value” of things can be correctly and efficiently deduced In addition, schemata play a role in editing During the reading process, schemata will spontaneously sort out, check and process input infor, avoiding excess content that burdens the brain (Zhu, 2015) The schemata help to perceive a text and provide an ideal framework for enabling the readers to quickly deduce the matter

or potential problems Ultimately, schemata will recombine, bring up to date knowledge foundation and information about perception, and disclosure to enhance problem-solving capacity comprehensively

Pham (2020) also presented some positive effects of schemata building activities in reading comprehension Firstly, schemata building activities can facilitate learners’ reading comprehension Concretely, schemata building activities can help learners to make prediction and inference as well as processing information received from reading text to comprehend it (Carrell, 1988; Crilly, 2002; Rivers, 2000; Toprak & Almacıoğlu, 2009; Ur, 1996) O’Malley and Chamot (1990) also stated that schemata building activities guide readers to make predictions Carrell (1988) also stated that schemata building activities “function

to get students to predict within a context area what the text will be about”(p.432) Grellet (1981) stated that the more students expect to read and predict in their heads what the text might hold for them, the easier it will be to grasp the main points of the passage Furthermore, since the text itself has no meaning (Brown, 2001), readers need to make inferences based on their knowledge of the world to understand it (Royer, 2005) Alderson and Urquhart (1984) stated that "schemata provide the basics for filling in gaps in a text" Koda (2005) argues that schemas are important for generating inferences by "influencing thematic state decisions" Therefore, schemata building activities make easier for readers to identify reading text

In order to have better reading comprehension, schemata building activities help learners process information Aylar and Khadijed (2016) stated that schemata building activities can help learners deepen their knowledge to connect with the text they are reading and expand their knowledge in relation to the text Woolfolk (2004) stated, “Information processing entails receiving input, associating that input with what exists in a person's existing schema, storing that information, and calling it when needed” Consequently, schemata building activities could be conducted with the aim to “exploit the students’ existing background knowledge and provide them with new information that helps them understand the passage” (Stoller, 1994) Additionally, in Crilly’s (2002) view, schemata building activities help to provide a “framework for new concepts and vocabulary” Similarly,

Williams (1987) said that schemata building activities “provide when necessary some linguistic preparation for the text”

So as to get reading comprehension better, learners must have specific goal; and schemata building activities have role to guide the learners with specific goal (Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000; Dang, 2012) Concretely, schemata building activities help the learners “aware of what they wish to learn about the topic” (Greller, 1981) According Williams (1987), schemata activities “motivate students by providing reasons for reading or helping them to specify their own reasons” In addition, these activities help the learners practice their critical thinking (Nunan, 1991) Hansen (1981), Johnson (1982) and Langer (1981) also agree with this view, arguing that schemata activities make reading texts more meaningful by connecting the reader's prior knowledge with new concepts As a result, this process speeds up reading, saves readers time and energy, and maximizes their understanding (Aylar & Khadijeh, 2016) Besides, schemata activities enable and build “word knowledge speeds up word recognition and thus the reading process” (Hirsch, 2003) as well as making reading tasks easier Taglieber et al (1988) stated that “schemata activities, either by activating knowledge structures or by building up background knowledge that readers lack, promote deeper comprehension” Lebauer (1998) also emphasizes that “schemata activities can lighten the cognitive burden of students while reading because previous discussions have been integrated”

Secondly, schemata building activities positively affect learners’ feelings They make learners feel more interested and interested in reading as well as help them to be enthusiastic, confident and responsible to complete the task well In particular, Afflerbach (1990) claims that schemata activities make learners interested in the story by associating the text with their previous experiences and thus enhancing its relevance On the word of Lazar (1993), schemata activities stimulate learners' interest in the story If they already have an idea of the content

of the text, they will become more interested in reading Moreover, Aylar and

Khadijeh (2016) state that schemata building activities help learners be more enjoyable in the classroom environment Hansen (1981) also agree that schemata activities make reading become a more enjoyable task With schemata building activities, learners will become more enthusiastic to contribute to the reading activities (Yeeding, 2007) Concretely, learners were highly motivated to read within the adoption of schemata building activities Learners also feel more confident when assigned to read and answer questions during and after reading and take responsibility for their reading

Thirdly, schemata building activities have positive effects on learners’ behavioral intentions and actions Ur (1996) stated that schemata building activities can activate learners in states of reading process Accordingly, it can be inferred that these activities engage learners in the while reading and post-reading phase In the while reading phase, schemata building activities can make the learners want to participate in reading the text (Chastain, 1988) “It is just as important to give the students the opportunity to use what they already know-their prior knowledge- to help them to the task” (Brown, 2011) It meant that schemata building activities make the learners involve in reading process Dutta (1994) added that schemata activities can stimulate the learners, create a mood of receptivity, and give them opportunities to apply acquired knowledge As a result, schemata activities can motivate the learners to do more activities in the phases

of while and post reading on the purpose of completely understanding and acquiring the knowledge from the reading text Such activities can be re-reading, analyzing and synthesizing texts, taking notes and summarizing A good reader can “show understanding by expressing the content of the text – for example, by writing sentences or paragraphs in response to questions or by summarizing the text” (Swan, 1975) Additionally, Taglieber et al (1988) emphasized that schemata activities encourage the learners more extensive reading Shortly, schemata activities can encourage learners to read the text willingly, do all the tasks, reread, analyze and synthesize the text, and take notes on some important

parts After reading, learners may also be ready to summarize the text and apply what they have learned from the text to read other documents on similar topics

2.3 Theories of cognitive learning

2.3.1 Definition of cognitive learning

According to Neisser (1967), cognitive theory is related to the exchange between components of the mental and the information, which is processed through the complicated system On the words of McEntire (1992), learners actively produce cognitive structures in the learning process, which define the learners’ concepts of self and the environment Anderson (1980) stated that the cognitive research does not care about a specific learning; actually, learning is one

of many processes existing in the mind of people Even though all theorists of the cognition considers functions to find out more about behaviors of people and their learning, they still emphasize the difference in the behaviors and learning Some theorists of cognition handle with specific analysis of info processing skills; whilst, the other theorists concentrate on the models of the mental or the growth and development of cognition (Mayer, 1981) So, the cognitive psychologists do not comply with specific rules or methodologies used in their researches

On the word of Baron and Byrne (1987), the cognitive theorists believe that learning process is the involvement of the integration of the facts into an operational storage system which composes organizational structures known as schemata Schemata satisfy some functions in the cognition of humans Adding

to information storage in long term memory, schemata form the framework within which new information must fit to be comprehended Additionally, schemata regulate attention, search organization, environment, and fill the gap in processing information (Bell-Gredler, 1986) Therefore, the human minds use schemata to organize and selectively process all information that that people receive from the world (Baron & Byrne, 1987)

According to Blumenthal (1977), a supervisor that coordinated all of his senses input manages the comprehensive network Cognitive learning is a system

of selecting, sorting, and encoding to store new information based on a learner’s preferences, motivations, and especially perceptions (Bell-Greder, 1986) In this process, attention is related to what learners perceive, while encoding is the involvement of preparing for the data storage In the process of encoding new information, schemata rarely copy the input exactly as it was received Instead, schemata are adjusted to suit to existing schemata or script framework of learners (Baron & Byrne, 1987) In the same aspect, Mayer (1981) stated that when extracting information from learners’ memory, schemata would select only information which is corresponsive to the currently active instruction set Therefore, learners’ learning and application of knowledge depend on their framework

There are some key cognitive components in the process of processing information for storage When learners experience the input of sensory, raw data would be briefly saved in a sensory buffer The learners will have unlimited capacity; however, information will disappear if attention does not shift it to short term memory On the word of Mayer (1981), the short term memory has about seven entries although segmentation techniques can cluster the information to increase this amount In cognition, working memory is similar to short term memory However, working memory is used for specific mental operations such

as addition, but short term memory is not Information in working memory is encoded into organized, meaningful, and permanent long term memory Moreover, long term memory has unlimited capacity (Mayer, 1981) Long term memory has two types of memory, including semantic memory and multi-volume memory Semantic memory composes of information which is received directly from the environment; whilst multi-volume memory revolves around events experienced by the learners (Bell-Gredler, 1986) Each of these components plays

an important role in the process of information processing

Bell-Gredler (1986) stated that learning process is meaningful when the knowledge stored in long term memory is transferred to short term memory to integrate new information into the mind He added that the most important cognitive associations happen in the case that learners associate stored knowledge with sensory input; thus, encode stimuli into long term memory As a result, cognitive learning stresses internal mental associative processes This concept is different from the behavioral view of association based on extrinsic motivation

As stated by Bell-Gredler (1986), "successful learning depends on the actions of the learner rather than on events in the environment" (p 171)

2.3.2 Components of cognitive learning

According to Weinstein and Mayer (1986), there are five components of cognitive learning strategies, including rehearsal, elaboration, organizational, metacognitive, and affective strategies Specifically, rehearsal strategies are usually linked with repetition on the purpose of reproducing the material in some form Rehearsal strategies can include activities like creation of acronyms, the underline of information, or copy of documents Constructive strategies include the involvement of processes of learners to try to make content easier to understand or to attach new information to a context of the personal meaning Construction strategies include summarizing information strategies and relating new information to present knowledge In organizational strategy, grouping information, organizing information into meaningful categories, and drafting concept maps are needed According to Alexander et al (1991); and Garner and Alexander (1989), metacognitive strategies are related to monitoring and controlling learners’ own cognitive processes These processes consist of test comprehension, self-question, learning assessment, and monitoring cognitive strategies Learners use affective strategies to influence learners’ own internal state like preventing external disturbances or using thought stopping to keep the learning process focused Although this classification provides a general

framework for the range of strategies, it does not suggest any particular strategy that is superior

2.4 Review of previous studies

Keun (2011) implemented an investigation to explore the effect of schemata activation on reading comprehension of Korean high school graders The researcher used experimental research in this study Two groups joined in the research, namely a control group who did not take part in different kinds of schema activation; and an experimental group who took part in various types of schemata activation The experimental group was required to make cards, watch video clip, and discuss specific topics prior to reading The result revealed that schemata activation tasks could help the students to improve reading comprehension, enhance guessing skills, and positively improve their perceptions towards English reading learning

Zhang (2008) conducted a research to investigate the effectiveness of the formal schemata activation on achieving reading comprehension The qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study 45 students from non-English major at X University took part in the research They were chosen from three classes of comparable English level and were divided into three groups Each group was asked to recall the text and complete a transcription test after reading one of three versions of a passage with identical content but different formal data: descriptive schema, compare and contrast schema, and problem solution schema The result indicated that subjects had better text recall with a schema which was highly constructed than subjects with a schema which loosely structured This suggested that formal schemata had an important influence writing; and formal schemata is necessary to improve students’ writing ability

In another study, Ah and Hyun (2020) examined the effectiveness of schemata activation and the use of reading strategies on reading comprehension, strategy use, motivation, and learner beliefs The researcher used an experimental

research to analyze the data, which was collected from a pre-test, a post-test, a delayed English reading comprehension test, and a questionnaire 89 Korean college students were selected to join in the study; administered into two groups:

an experimental group (they got schema building or reading strategy instruction), and a control group (they did not receive reading lessons with the application of schema building activities or the instruction of reading strategy The result showed that both the schema building task group and the reading strategy group showed significant improvements in immediate learning performance, but the reading strategy group showed a greater degree of improvement than the control group and construct a long-term readability schema Based on the findings, this study suggests pedagogical implications for L2 reading classrooms

Moreover, Hidayatullah et al (2019) made a study with the aim to explore the improvement of the reading comprehension through the use of schema activation strategy An action research with two cycles and four phases for each cycle was employed in the study Each cycle would be conducted through planning, acting, observing, and reflecting The sample of the study was 34 students of class VIII A of SMP Muhammadiyah 1 Godean The instruments of the study were pre-test and post-test, observation and interview The findings displayed that the use of schema activation strategy successfully improved the students’ reading comprehension Additionally, the students were interested and paid attention to the process of teaching and learning English, especially reading skills They can also discover many words related to the topic of the lesson With regard to their ability to understand English texts, students can correctly identify the main ideas and supporting details of a passage

In the study of VetiMardianti et al (2014); they wanted to find out the improvement of the students’ reading comprehension through the use of schema activation strategy The first grade students of SMA Negeri 4 Palu was the population of the research Class X D (32 students) and Class XE (36 students) were selected to be the sample of the study, and to be the control group and the

experimental group respectively The instruments of the study composed observation and a pre-test and a post-test The result of the research showed that schema activation strategy could significantly improve the students’ reading comprehension

Arisal (2016) conducted a study to investigate the use of schema activation strategy to increase the students’ reading comprehension The researcher used a pre-experimental research for his study He purposively selected eleventh graders

of SMA Negeri I Bontonnompo Kab, Gowa to take part in this research Reading test was the research instrument The students would join in a pre-test and a post-test The research findings indicated that the students increased their achievement

in reading comprehension after using schema activation strategy It was proved in the increase of mean scores of reading comprehension in the pre-test and in the post-test Based on the research results, the researcher concluded that teaching English using the Schema Activation Strategy can increase students' reading comprehension

In Vietnamese context, Pham and Le (2020) also conducted a study with the aim to access the matters and review the relationships and benefits of using schema building activities in ESP reading classroom Basing on the theoretical framework and previous researches, the study pointed out research gaps and built

a conceptual framework to investigate the extension that pre-reading schema building activities (Pre-SBA ) has been used in reading teaching for ESP students

at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education

2.5 Conceptual framework

In order to improve English learning results of students, English teachers have applied many new and modern different teaching methods in learning and teaching English language in general and reading skills in particular One of effective methods used in teaching reading skills is the use of schemata building