Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS using online english newspapers to improve students’ reading skills an action research project at a high school in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY USING ONLINE ENGLISH NEWSP

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY

USING ONLINE ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS‟ READING SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(Sử dụng báo tiếng Anh mạng để nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho học sinh:

Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm tại mô ̣t trường trung ho ̣c phổ thông ở Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY

USING ONLINE ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS‟ READING SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN VIETNAM

(Sử dụng báo tiếng Anh mạng để nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho học sinh:

Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm tại mô ̣t trường trung ho ̣c phổ thông ở Việt Nam)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Dương Thị Nụ

HANOI - 2017

DECLARATION

I, Nguyễn Thị Thủy, hereby confirm that this minor thesis entitled ―Using online English newspapers to improve students‘ reading skills An action research project at a high school in Vietnam‖ is my own study in fulfilment of the

requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi And it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees

Hanoi, 2017

Nguyễn Thi ̣ Thuỷ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this graduation thesis, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to many people

First and foremost, I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Dr Dương Thị

Nụ, who gave me precious advice, critical comments and great encouragement without which this thesis would not have been completed

I am also deeply indebted to the lecturers at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures and enthusiasm during my course

In addition, my thanks go to the administrators, my colleagues and students

at Minh Khai high school for their willingness and enthusiasm to participate in this project

Last but not least, I would like to express my special gratitude to my family who have always encouraged and supported me during my writing of the thesis

ABSTRACT

This action research was conducted to test the ideas that using online English newspapers improves students‘ reading skills and cultivates their positive attitude towards extensive reading (ER) The participants were 40 students at grade 12 at Minh Khai high school, Đức Thọ district, Hà Tĩnh province Reading materials were selected from a local online English newspaper, vietnamnews at http://vietnamnews.vn/ Then, 16 reading tasks were designed with the adaption

from academic reading tasks suggested by Pauline Cullen et al (2014) in ―The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS‖ The whole project was carried out in 10

weeks A pre-test and post-test were used before and after the application of the ER program Also, a questionnaire with three parts was administered to students before and after the project In addition, observation sheets were provided to two English teachers to observe students‘ attitudes The achieved results showed significant improvement in students‘ reading skills, namely skimming and scanning and most

of the students expressed their positive attitudes towards the ER program However,

to create a habit of reading extensively with an online English newspaper for students, there seems to be a need of consideration of some factors like time or a variety of local online English newspapers for students to choose

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF CHARTS viii

LIST OF TABLES ix

PART A - INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Method of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B - DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Definitions of key terms 5

1.1.1 Reading 5

1.1.2 Reading skills 6

1.1.3 Attitude 9

1.1.4 Online English newspapers 10

1.2 Theoretical framework: Extensive reading (ER) 13

1.2.1 Definition of ER 13

1.2.2 Benefits of ER 14

1.2.3 Principles of running an ER program 16

1.3 Previous studies 17

1.3.1 Research on using English newspapers for reading 17

1.3.2 Studies on students‘ attitudes 19

1.3.3 Studies on skimming and scanning skills 20

1.4 Chapter summary 21

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 22

2.1 Context 22

2.2 Participants 22

2.3 Research method 23

2.3.1 Reasons to use action research 23

2.3.2 Action research procedures 24

2.3.3 Data collection instruments 32

2.3.4 Data collection method 33

2.3.5 Data analysis procedures 34

2.4 Chapter summary 34

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 35

3.1 Results of the tests 35

3.2 Results of questionnaires and teachers‘ observation sheets 37

3.2.1 Results of questionnaires 37

3.2.2 Results of teachers‘ observation 39

3.3 Discussion 42

3.4 Chapter summary 43

PART C – CONCLUSION 44

1 Conclusions 44

2 Limitations of the study 45

3 Recommendations for further research 45

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 VI APPENDIX 3 XI APPENDIX 4 XV

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

Std Deviation Standard Deviation

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: http://vietnamnews.vn/ 28

Figure 2: Eileen Ferrance‟s Action Research Cycle 32

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: Percentage of students practising reading outside class 25

Chart 2: Students‟ opinions of the difficulty of reading skills 25

Chart 3: Students‟ opinions of factors causing difficulty in reading 26

Chart 4: Students‟ opinions about the old ER program 26

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Types of reading tasks 28

Table 2: The ER program with vietnamnews 30

Table 3: Results of the pre-test 35

Table 4: Results of the post-test 35

Table 5: Results of two tests 36

Table 6: Paired sample correlation 36

Table 7: Paired sample T-test 37

Table 8: Results of the questionnaire (Question 12 to question 18) 38

Table 9: Results of teachers‟ observation 40

PART A - INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Due to the growth of globalization, English has become a lingua franca and

is considered as a means to bring about development and prosperity for a nation

Vietnam is trying to integrate into the globalized world and placing great emphasis

on teaching and learning English English, therefore, is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum In Vietnam‘s National Foreign Languages 2020 Project, the Ministry of Education and Training requires English language teachers to improve their level and innovate teaching methods Therefore, all innovative English language teaching methods are highly appreciated Along with grammar and pronunciation, the English syllabus focuses on four skills- reading, speaking, listening and writing This research focuses on an innovative way to teach reading skills with the application of online English language newspapers

Every day everyone needs to read a variety of materials from a book to a comic to obtain necessary information or to relax Reading, therefore, plays an important role in our daily life Like other high schools in Vietnam, the teaching of reading skills at Minh Khai high school is text-based During each of three years at school, students learn sixteen periods of reading with controlled topics At Minh Khai high school, students in grade 12 are given two more periods per week to improve their English and get a good result in their graduation examination in which English is a compulsory subject Among four skills, reading seems to be the most challenging For students, they lack vocabulary and background knowledge to complete reading tasks For teachers, choosing suitable reading materials and designing appropriate reading tasks for their students are big problems During my teaching process, I observed that students‘ reading habit is to translate reading passages into Vietnamese in order to find the answers to the given questions In addition, results from 45 minute tests showed that most of my students were weak

at required reading skills in the syllabus such as skimming and scanning and they are ―afraid‖ of learning reading A solution to these problems needs to be found

With up-to-date information in every field, English newspapers are really a rich source for English language teachers to teach reading (Grundy, 1993 and Sanderson, 1999) With comparison to printed English newspapers, online English newspapers are more accessible This makes me think that using online English newspapers can improve my students‘ reading skills and help to cultivate their positive attitude towards extensive reading (ER) which is the basis to create a reading habit out-of-class To achieve those aims, I did action research ―Using online English newspapers to improve students‘ reading skills at Minh Khai high school I asked my students to do a pretest and a posttest to see the improvement in their reading skills and answer a questionnaire to express their attitudes Also, observation from two teachers was analyzed to evaluate students‘ attitudes objectively

2 Aims of the study

There seems to be little research about using online English newspapers to improve students‘ reading skills and make them interested in learning reading, especially the research conducted with upper secondary students in Vietnam

Therefore, the findings from the study are expected to be useful for both English language teachers and upper-secondary students They will have a supplementary interesting way to teach and learn reading skills As a result, teachers‘ teaching materials will be enriched and students‘ reading skills will be improved

3 Research questions

The study aims to answer the following questions:

1 To what extent can online English newspapers help to improve students‘

reading skills?

2 What are students‘ attitudes towards the ER program with online English newspapers?

4 Scope of the study

The study was conducted in a class of 40 students in grade 12 at Minh Khai

on the using of online English newspapers to improve their reading skills, which are required in their curriculum Eighteen articles were used to design sixteen reading tasks which focused on skimming and scanning skills All of the tasks are adapted from academic reading tasks introduced by Pauline Cullen, Amanda French and Vanessa Jakeman (2014) in ―The Official Cambridge Guide to IELTS for Academic and General Training‖ Because the socio-cultural background knowledge plays an important part in understanding newspaper articles, the local online English newspaper, vietnamnews at vietnamnews.vn was exploited This newspaper belongs

to Vietnam News Agency and it has native English sub-editors, which contributes

to the standard of languages used

5 Method of the study

In this study, the author followed Eileen Ferrance‘s model of action research (2000) including the following steps:

Step 1 Identification of the problem area Step 2 Collection and organisation of the data Step 3 Interpretation of data

Step 4 Action based on data Step 5 Reflection

6 Design of the study

Within the scope mentioned above, the study is structured as follows:

Part A - Introduction

This part covers rationale, aims, scope and design of the study to introduce

and appeal the reader

Part B- Development

This part consists of three following chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review -presents some theoretical background about

reading, reading skills, online English newspapers, ER, and an overview of previous

studies on using English newspapers as an ER program and those on students‘

attitude towards ER This chapter aims to provide the readers with background knowledge to have more understanding about the paper

Chapter 2: Methodology - mentions the methods or approaches employed

by the author to collect the data for the study The reasons why those methods were chosen are also provided

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion - analyses the data collected in the

research process and develops analytic and critical thinking on the achieved results and analysis with reference to theoretical arguments presented in the literature review

Part C – Conclusion- presents a summary of the findings, conclusions,

limitations, and recommendations for further research Following this part are References and Appendices

PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This section presents definitions of key terms and points out the direction of the study In this research, using online English newspapers is relevant to ER and students‘ attitudes Also, previous studies about using English newspapers to develop students‘ reading skills and students‘ attitudes towards reading are mentioned

1.1 Definitions of key terms

whose aim is to extract a message from the written text (Harmer, 1930; Ur, 1996;

Richard and Platt, 1992) However, the concept ―receptive skill‖ appears to reflect the passive role of readers who pick up information from the page

Other researchers tend to have a deeper look into reading They realize that reading is a complex process with the involvement of various elements Smith (2004: 73) points out that:

Access to visual information is a necessary part of reading, but not sufficient… Knowledge of the relevant language is essential for reading, but you can‘t expect to find it on the printed page Rather it

is information that you must have already, behind the eyeball It can

be distinguished …by being called non-visual information or prior knowledge

Anderson (1999:1) shares the same view and he considers ‗non-visual information‘ as the reader‘s background knowledge and experience In other words, reading is not a passive process Reading is an ―interactive‖ process between a

reader and a text, which leads to automaticity In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as he or she tries to elicit the meaning and various kinds

of knowledge being used: linguistic or systemic knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top-down processing) (Bernhardt, 1986; Carrell, Devine & Eskey, 1988; Rumelhart, 1977; Nuttall, 2000)

These factors have been summarized and synthesized by MacLachlan and Reid (1994:3-4) as the interpretive framing which consists of four following types of framing:

- Extratextual framing - using information outside the text, your background knowledge and experience, to understand texts

- Intratextual framing - making use of cues from the text, such as headings and headings and referential words such as "this" and "that" to understand texts

sub Intertextual framing sub making connections with other texts you are reading to help

to understand your text

- Circumtextual framing - using information from the cover of the book, title, abstract, references etc to understand the text

The author of this study follows the view that reading is an interactive process between the reader and the text which is visualized by decoding process of the written texts and supported with a variety of knowledge mentioned by MacLachlan and Reid in which socio-cultural background knowledge plays an

important role

1.1.2 Reading skills

Woolley (2011: 33-34) considers reading skills as the means to ―gain meaning from text by constructing a text-based model while at the same time they (skilled readers) draw upon and use their own background knowledge to construct

a situation model of the understandings related to the text passage.‖

Different researchers have proposed different types of reading skills Davis (1944) (as cited by Afflerbach, Person and Paris , 2008: 367) suggests nine skills of

reading comprehension: word meanings, word meanings in context, follow passage organization, main thought, answer specific text-based questions, text-based questions with paraphrase, draw inferences about the content, literary devices, and author purpose Similarly, Harmer (1986) mentions a number of reading skills such

as predicting, guessing word meaning, reading for specific information, reading for general comprehension, scanning, skimming, inferring from texts, interpreting texts, surveying text organisation, and critically evaluating texts Grellet (1981:3) shares the same view and he gives a list of shorter terms such as predicting, skimming, scanning, and inference

This study mainly focuses on the reading skills in Tiếng Anh 12 whose chief editor is Hoàng Văn Vân (2007), namely skimming and scanning which are considered as ―the two most valuable reading strategies for learners as well as

native speakers‖ (Brown, 1994:283)

1.1.2.1 Skimming

To skim an article, readers can use different strategies such as reading the headline, the first paragraph, the last paragraph or focusing on nouns, etc All of these help readers to seek the main idea or get the ―gist‖ (Maxwell, 1969) or ―the general sense‖ (Allen, 1997) of the reading material This useful activity is essential for choosing a newspaper item Its aim is to train students to skim through the text to get some kind of rough idea of what the newspaper is about or of the way it is written to see the important information Skimming does not require high level of comprehension so it is quite appropriate for students at intermediate level

Therefore, skimming is considered as part of top-down reading approach or

―concept-driven‖ process which is ―a psycholinguistic guessing game‖ (Goodman, 1971:135) This process is described as ―skapa‖ by Maxwell (1973), which

includes three steps: select clue words, label or classify clue words, and construct

or synthesize the main idea from the collected labels These steps will be applied in the ER reading program with the online English newspaper

skimming, scanning belongs to the bottom-up reading process which is driven‖ reading process and it requires in-depth reading (Goodman, 1971:135)

―data-Also, scanning plays an important role in increasing students‘ reading comprehension because ―rapid scanning speeds are associated with higher accuracy‖ (Maxwell, 1972)

Therefore, I do not follow Nunan‘s view that considers both skimming and scanning ―involve fairly rapid superficial reading and both are aimed at searching, rather than deep processing of the text or reflection upon the content of the text‖

(Nunan, 1999:251) On the contrary, I follow Nuttall‘s view (1996) that these skills

do not remove the need for reading carefully and they help readers select parts of the text, that are worth spending time on With these two skills, students can get enough ideas about articles Beale (2013) adds that ―people who know how to skim and scan are flexible readers They read according to their purpose and get the information they need quickly without wasting time…Their skill lies in knowing what specific information to read and which method to use‖

1.1.2.3 How to use skimming and scanning

With regard to the strategies of reading, Richards (1989:145) proposes some

- Strategy D: Read the questions and skim for the answers This is the fastest strategy

However, Nuttall (1996) points out that whether skimming or scanning is used, there is need to read carefully to determine the location of different parts of the text Also, Richards (1989:20) emphasizes that different types of reading materials require different strategies

With respect to the purpose of reading newspapers (to update news), readers often read titles (skim) to know what is going to be mentioned in the article and then read for key words or numbers (scan) to know more about the news When the author of this research designs the reading tasks from articles, this principle is not emphasized because Push (1978) points out that scanning can be introduced first because it is less complicated in comparison with skimming which requires greater fluency and more practice And to improve these two skills, Maxwell (1972) suggested that adequate skimming and scanning training should be incorporated in

a rapid- reading course The ER program with an online English newspaper, thereby, is expected to achieve great improvement in students‘ skimming and scanning skills

1.1.3 Attitude

According to Kerlinger (1984), attitude is a ―multidimensional‖ factor which predisposes a person‘s selection of behaviours toward something Similarly, Ajzen (1987) and Mager (1986) state that attitudes determine a person‘s emotion and response to a person, a thing or an activity Also, they divide attitude into two types: positive (favorable) and negative (unfavorable) In language education, attitudes play an important role Fakeye (2010) stated that learner‘s attitude is one

of the most important factors having effect on learning a language Also, Dornyei (1996) confirms that students with more favorable attitudes toward the second language and its speakers are likely to be more successful in the language learning than otherwise

With regard to elements of attitude, Mathews (1994) lists three ones:

affective, cognitive and behavioral In other words, it includes emotion, thought and response This view is explained more by Visser et al (2004) who confirmed that once a person is sure and confident with his thought and belief toward a matter, he will have a positive behaviour to it

When learning to read, students show their reading attitude which has been defined by many researchers with different focuses According to Alexander &

Filler (1976:1), reading attitude is ―a system of feelings related to reading which causes the learner to approach or avoid a reading situation‖ They emphasize the affective component of attitude and its role in determining learners‘ behaviour

Meanwhile, Smith (1990: 215) includes all of the three elements of attitude in his definition of reading attitude- ―a state of mind, accompanied by feelings and emotions, which makes reading more or less probable‖ As a result, when an ER program is applied, students certainly express their reading attitude which reflects the appropriateness and efficiency of the program

The author of this research follows the view that attitude is a factor affecting students‘ feeling, thought and behavior With the aim to test the appropriateness and efficiency of the ER program through students‘ attitudes, a survey focusing on these three elements of students‘ reading attitude was conducted The results of the questionnaire were also supplemented by two teachers‘ observation

1.1.4 Online English newspapers

1.1.4.1 Characteristics of online English newspapers

Online English newspapers as well as printed ones are authentic materials because they are ―…real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes‖ (Wallace 1992: 145) According to Reah (2002: 13), newspapers are ―ephemeral texts, that is, they are intended only for the day they are delivering the news‖ Compared to printed English versions and other materials, online English newspapers are more updated, more visually stimulating and more interactive Grundy (1993), Sanderson (1999) and Reah (2002) have summarized some prominent features of online

English newspapers as follows:

Firstly, they include a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means serving the purpose of informing, instructing, and entertaining the reader Because of these diverse purposes, newspaper language involves a wide range of styles

Secondly, online newspapers have both general educational and cultural values They keep us informed about what is happening in the world, thereby extending our knowledge and deepening our understanding In addition to that general educational value, any newspaper of a given target community reflects its culture through the language it contains because culture permeates language through references to the people, places, institutions, customs and traditions of that community

Last but not least, like printed ones, online English newspapers use language naturally and cover many things which are not included in textbooks but popular in real life Reading newspapers, students will know how to use language naturally and widen their banks of vocabulary, especially economic terms or political terms, newspaper clichés, and neologisms

Seeing that students may encounter a problem of vocabulary and cultural knowledge, Grundy proposes using local English newspapers in non-native English speaking country In Vietnam, students can have access to some local online English newspapers such as vietnamplus (en.vietnamplus.vn) or vietnamnews (vietnamnews.vn) which cover information in all fields - politics & laws, society, economy, life & style, sports, and environment When running the ER program, I chose Vietnamnews.vn, whose sub-editors are English, to ensure that students can make most of their background knowledge and experience in reading for gist as well as for specific information

1.1.4.2 Benefits of using online English newspapers

In a foreign language classroom, online English newspapers as well as

printed ones are a rich source of reading materials with many positive effects

Grundy (1993) and Sanderson (1999) confirm the importance of using English newspapers in the classroom because of the following benefits:

Firstly, students are informed about the latest information in the world, thereby enriching their knowledge and deepening their understanding Their socio-cultural knowledge can be widened

Secondly, in terms of linguistics, students can know current changes in the language and they become familiar with a wide variety of text types and language styles

Thirdly, online newspapers are authentic materials With real-life events, newspapers make students curious to read Reading newspapers as a pastime will motivate students to read outside the classroom, thereby extending their contact with English

Moreover, online English newspapers are a limitless supply of teaching and learning materials with a wide range of levels from Elementary to Advanced They have items with different length and styles, so readers can progress from short items

to longer ones They are rich in information, so students have many subjects to choose and ―reading about interesting new things in one‘s specialist subject undoubtedly helps motivation‖ (Sanderson, 1999)

Finally, working with online English newspapers not only gives students opportunities for improving their language skills, but also for increasing their critical-thinking and collaborative abilities Incorporating news media into the ESL classroom gives them the tools and the confidence to follow the news in class, and also to continue to follow the news well into the future

To achieve these benefits, teachers should prepare carefully the reading materials and guide students clearly The size of vocabulary and cultural knowledge has to be taken into consideration before applying the ER program Procedures of running it must be designed in compatibility with the theoretical framework of ER which is mentioned in the following part

1.2 Theoretical framework: Extensive reading (ER)

1.2.1 Definition of ER

Different researchers have different definitions of ER Hafiz and Tudor (1989: 4) consider ER as ―the reading of large amounts of material in the second language over time for personal pleasure or interest, and without the addition of productive tasks or follow up language work‖ Also, Davies (1995:329) provides a detailed description of ER in the context of ELT classroom According to him, an

ER program in an ELT course is compared to an additional class-library idea where students are provided not only with a large number of books but also with enough time, motivation and encouragement to read them He emphasizes that there is no pressure of formal assessment or marking in an extensive program, the pupils do not have to worry about competing with others Similarly, Hedge (2000) states that ER

―enables student to achieve independency by reading the material they want in consideration to content, level of difficulty, and length and they are promoted to learn how to increase their reading speed through which, by sure, they learn how to locate certain information to help them reach the main and basic ideas‖ This view

is shared by Walter (2003) who defines ER as reading of texts chosen by the learners themselves to get information with enjoyment and the texts do not seem problematic Nuttall (2004: 35) also emphasizes that because ER offers a large amount of reading materials, it occurs mainly out-of- class

All the researchers point out that ER involves reading a large amount of reading materials which are chosen by students themselves according to their interest , with no time pressure and the purpose that is to have general understanding, enjoyment and fluency Therefore, ER has two prominently contrastive features (high volume and low difficulty) in comparison with intensive reading (low volume and high difficulty) which occurs mainly in class Moreover, Hedge (2000: 218) states that ―since ER helps in developing reading ability, it should be built into an EFL/ESL program provided that the selected texts are

"authentic - i.e." not written for language learners and published in original

language"

Undoubtedly, with the features of online English newspapers mentioned above, the ER program in this project is quite appropriate and is expected to achieve good results thanks to the benefits of ER which will be presented in the next part

1.2.2 Benefits of ER

Ellis (2004: 217) states that ―successful instructed language learning requires

extensive second language input‖ and the effectiveness of ER to develop students‘

language competence has been demonstrated by many studies The researchers of those studies have proposed different lists of benefits of ER which can be analyzed

in two levels: the knowledge and skills learners can get from ER, and better qualities established in the self of the learner (Day, 1998; Bell, 2001; Nation, 2001;

Porcaro, 2009) In terms of the knowledge and skills, students can get comprehensible input, improve their banks of vocabulary and grammar, enhance reading fluency, and develop general language competence In regard to the qualities of a learner, ER increases students‘ motivation and confidence in reading, develop their autonomy by instilling in them a love of reading

Firstly, ER provides comprehensible input (i) for learners, which is ―constant massive exposure‖ to language According to Krashen‘s input hypothesis, comprehensibility is one of the most important factors in deciding students‘ interest

Krashen (1985) uses the formula i+1 while Day Richard (1998) uses i-1 to describe their ideas The author of this study follows Krashen‘s criteria of input which is also appropriate with the features of newspapers Students can read a large amount of their favorite materials, as a result, they are sure to have a great deal of exposure to the language Through this way, they will be able to encounter new sources of language, consolidate what they have learnt and develop their prediction skills This benefit will facilitate the learning conditions for students and enhance their learning results, which helps both teachers and students overcome the problem of time constraint in class

Secondly, vocabulary and grammar are developed by reading extensively

Reading different topics will supply students with different banks of lexical and syntactic forms Specifically, ER builds automaticity of word recognition from the word meanings in the context and its phonological representation, which enhances students‘ vocabulary knowledge Grammatically, ER builds awareness of grammatical structures and the ability to quickly and accurately process sentence structures, which Bell (2001) considers as the ability ―to pick up a sense of how the language fits together‖

Thirdly, ER constructs the fluency of reading which plays an important role

in the efficiency of reading With the aim to get the overall meaning, students will ignore difficult words and try to guess the meanings of key words from the context with the support of their knowledge about the language and the topic As the result, the reading speed will increase and the comprehension will be improved because there is a close link between the fluency and comprehension

Another linguistic benefit of ER is that ER helps students to develop their general language proficiency In other words, other areas of language namely writing, listening and speaking are also improved In addition to the knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, the more students read, the more background knowledge they accumulate Thanks to ER, Rob Waring (2006) states that students get the comfort from ―the experience with the language The more it has to enter their comfort zone and the greater chance there is for it to become available for production‖, and they are ready to speak, write and listen

Moreover, ER promotes learners‘ positive attitude toward reading It fosters their confidence and motivation to read Because topics address students‘ needs, they are motivated to read them Therefore, Bell (2001) says: "ER is the only way

in which learners can get access to language at their own comfort zone, read something they want to read at the pace they feel comfortable with…‖ Also, when students‘ reading fluency has been built, they can read without being frightened by new words They feel confident because they know that they can get the meaning of the text without knowing every word and more importantly, they can guess word

meanings from the context

Last but not least, ER develops learner autonomy ER seems to be the cheapest and the most effective way to enhance learner autonomy Students can read anywhere, at any time of day and at the speed they feel comfortable with ER raises students‘ conscious awareness of its purpose and perception of language use

Students themselves engage in reading and evaluate their reading by writing a summary or report Appreciating pleasures of reading and its practical value as a tool for learning, students themselves take the responsibility to learn reading by reading widely

Within the scope of this study, the author aims to exploit the two benefits of

ER, namely develop students‘ reading skills and create their positive attitudes to develop their motivation and confidence in reading extensively These benefits can

be brought thanks to the comprehensible input and authenticity of the ER program

Undeniably, ER has a wide range of benefits Therefore, Nuttall (1982) proposed that ER should be considered as ―standard practice‖ in second language learning and she believed that ―the best way to improve your knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among the speakers The next best way is to read extensively.‖ (p.168) To get those benefits, an ER program must follow some crucial principles presented in the following part

1.2.3 Principles of running an ER program

Many researchers have proposed different principles of running an ER reading program (Bell, 1998; Schmitt, 2000; Day, 2002; Lee and Hsu, 2009) All of them have emphasized the scope of ER, the criteria of reading materials and roles of teachers and students in an ER program as follows:

Firstly, ER should offer an input of various topics and genres because students need to read widely to get a great deal of exposure to language

Secondly, the reading materials should be long enough and appropriate with students‘ current levels In ER, students should be given easy materials with 98 percent of known words (Nuttall, 1996, Day, 1998) Readability will keep their

motivation to read

Furthermore, the selected texts should be "authentic - i.e." not written for language learners and published in original language" This will help students to sense how language is used naturally in real life

Also, ER is mainly for pleasure, so reading materials should be interesting to students They should meet students‘ needs and stimulate their interest To solve this problem, Richard Day and Julian Bamford (2002) proposed the principle that

―learners choose what they want to read‖

Last but not least, teachers must keep track of students‘ progress

Theoretically, there are no tests and students are willing to read Practically, teachers must think of ways to evaluate students‘ reading, especially to ―reluctant students‖ (Stephen Krashen, 2004) Some suggestions are made such as writing summary, report and making presentation In this study, tests are used to measure students‘ improvement in reading skills because tests are a means to ―determine a student‘s ability to complete certain tasks or demonstrate mastery of a skill or knowledge of content‖ (Terry Overton, 2008)

All of these principles will be adapted in the ER program using online English newspapers with reading tasks designed academically When all of the requirements mentioned above are met, it means that the ER program is conducted

in an ―optimal condition‖ as Stephen Krashen called (2004) However, Krashen (2004) also emphasized that ―because optimal conditions are not always possible, it

is important to determine not only optimal but also acceptable conditions‖ and in that case, ―a reading program may only succeed in discouraging reading‖

1.3 Previous studies

1.3.1 Research on using English newspapers for reading

Many studies of the benefits of using authentic materials in general and English newspapers in particular have been conducted The positive effects of printed and online English newspapers on students‘ reading skills have been proven

by many studies

Tavakoli and Esmae‗li (2013) undertook a longitudinal study of the effect of using print media on the development of foreign language reading abilities of 30 Iranian children aged between 7-8 and they found the considerable improvement in the children‘s reading ability Similarly, Bhaskar and Soundiraraj did a quasi- experimental research on the application of reading strategies through newspapers

to develop the reading ability of 54 engineering students who were divided into two equal groups, experimental and control groups The pre-test and post-test results indicated that newspaper reading applied with proper reading strategies enhanced the reading ability of second language learners significantly Elmadwi (2014) had the same conclusion about the significance of using newspaper as an instrument to develop reading and comprehension skills for learning English as a Second Language after conducting a descriptive and analytical study among Libyan and Indian teachers and students Interestingly, although Libyan teachers and students realized the advantages of using newspapers, they did not use them as teaching and learning materials just because of the inaccessibility of English newspapers in Libya

Many researchers have also been trying to study the effect of online English newspapers in helping students learn outside the classroom This is explained by Al-Segheyer (2001) as follows: "In the realm of second language acquisition, the most recent effort to enhance the process of language learning has involved computer technology" which is "referred to as CALL" (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) Chun and Plass (1996) confirmed the positive effect of applying the software- CyberBunch in improving overall reading comprehension and vocabulary for 160 German students Also, Krajka‘s study (2000) on using online newspapers‘ headlines for first year Thai students showed the improvement

of their language skills and their cognitive knowledge via performing network tasks, namely translating headlines by using free translating machine system Similarly, Awatif Abu-Al-Sha‘r (2009) recommended using reading newspapers headlines via the internet because his experimental study with the participation of 47 students of

English Language Classroom Teacher major at Al-al-Bayt University enrolled in CALL course during the second semester 2007/2008 showed the significant progress of their reading skills

From these findings, the author of this research believes that with the popularity of the internet in Vietnam, the accessibility of online English newspapers

is possible for both teachers and learners In other words, this research is feasible to

be conducted and it is expected to improve students‘ reading skills

1.3.2 Studies on students’ attitudes

Many studies on students‘ attitudes towards learning English in general and reading in particular have been conducted Most of those studies showed the positive relationships between students‘ attitudes and their achievement in learning English in general and reading in particular

Considering the influence of students‘ attitudes on learning English, many researchers have found a positive relationship between these two factors Shams‘

study (2008) discovered that 77 students had affirmative attitudes and high level of enthusiasm towards English language and its learning, which influences students‘

language learning outcomes

Similarly, Fakeye‘s (2010) research with the participation of 400 senior secondary students from 5 randomly chosen schools found the significant correlation between attitude and learning achievement

Also, Shahrzad Eshghinejad (2016) conducted a study among 30 randomly selected students of Kashan University and found that students had a positive attitude towards learning English

With regard to the relationship between students‘ attitudes and their reading skills, many studies have been carried out

Penny Jo Nielsen (1978) measured student attitude toward reading and reading-related concepts among 260 grade four and grade six students from three elementary schools A significant difference was found in attitude toward reading

in relation to reading achievement with the most positive attitude found among

students with high reading achievement

The same results were found in Lindsey Seitz‘s research (2010) She did a case study on students‘ attitude towards reading and found that reading specialist candidates‘ consistent involvement plays an essential role in students‘ success

Besides, she discovered that it was very difficult to assess students‘ attitudes towards reading

However, Lukhele‘s study (2013) which was conducted among 84 first-and third year students studying for a Primary teacher‘s diploma at a college in Manzini, Swailand found no relationship between reading attitude and reading ability

In short, most studies had positive results of the correlation between students‘ attitudes and their language learning achievements as well as their reading skills Yet there still raises a question about the must-be correlation between reading achievements and students‘ attitudes

1.3.3 Studies on skimming and scanning skills

Among various reading skills, skimming and scanning have been studied by many researchers

In terms of skimming, Agudelo et al (2007) conducted a project on how to improve sixth graders‘ reading comprehension through the skimming technique 44 sixth grade students participating in the research showed their familiarity with the skimming and found reading was easier and more interesting Similarly, Rahmawati‘s action research (2008) conducted on six strategies to improve reading comprehension for 7 students at Senior high school in Indonesia achieved positive results Skimming as well as other strategies were improved after the study Also,

he confirmed that the students‘ background knowledge was activated However, he did not mention much about the reading material given to students

With regard to scanning, Maxwell (1978) carried out an 80-trial scanning experiment with the population of 20 high school students who were asked to locate and respond to target phrases randomly embedded in a page of connected

prose discourse The study got a significant improvement in the scanning rate of both slow and fast scanners However, Maxwell emphasized that faster scanners got more accurate answers and after the experiment, students were able to read their textbooks faster Also, Maxwell confirmed that attitude is a crucial factor because students must overcome negative attitudes to improve their reading skills

Both skimming and scanning were studied in the action research conducted

by Díaz and Laguado (2013) Participants of the research showed their improvement in reading comprehension and positive perceptions toward skimming and scanning techniques As other studies mentioned above, details about reading materials are not supplied and only reading skills or techniques are focused If students‘ perceptions are analyzed, they are only relevant to the studied skills, not the whole reading program This causes difficulty for other researchers who would like to duplicate the same study

In short, both skimming and scanning have been studied by different researchers They all got positive results However, there is lack of details about a specific reading program applied and the focus on the prospect of creating a good reading habit for students by reading extensively

1.4 Chapter summary

So far, all the definitions of key terms along with the theoretical framework have been mentioned clearly in the literature review The review of previous studies has shown the necessity and feasibility of the study In the next section, details about the context of the study as well as descriptions of the subjects, the research method, the research instruments and specific steps of conducting the study will be presented

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This section presents details about the method applied in this study The context, the participants and the procedures of the action research are described clearly with the aim to provide readers with an overview of the study

2.1 Context

Minh Khai high school is situated in Đức Tho ̣, a northern district of Hà Tĩnh province Although located in a developing rural area, Minh Khai school has been well-equipped with good teaching facilities, especially it has one lab with 40 computers connected with the internet and five classrooms with projectors These things facilitate teaching and learning conditions in general and teaching and learning English in particular

Minh Khai high school has over 1,500 students from grade 10 to 12, all of whom learn English because it is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum

The administrators of the school place a great importance on the English level of the twelveth graders because their results of English along with other subjects at the graduation examination will be considered as a criterion to assess the teaching quality of the school Therefore, two extra periods (90 minutes) per week are added

to the English learning syllabus of students in grade 12

Regarding to the teaching staff, all of English language teachers at Minh Khai school graduated from universities with a Degree of Bachelor in teaching English As mentioned above, during the teaching process, English language teachers here find it difficult to teach reading skills due to the lack of appropriate reading materials and an effective teaching method to raise students‘ interest in reading lessons Therefore, an action research on using online English newspapers

to improve students‘ reading skills and their positive attitude towards extensive reading is necessary

2.2 Participants

The subjects of the study are 40 students of class 12A1 at Minh Khai high

school I chose all the students in a class for convenience (convenience sampling)

More specific information about samples was collected through part 1 of the questionnaire All of the students have learnt English for 12 years They started to learn English since they were in grade 2 with the series ―Let‘s go‖ With respect to the time of learning English at school they have 3 periods plus 2 extra ones On average they have 3 periods for reading per month

Besides, two colleagues who have more teaching experience were invited to observe to give critical evaluation about the new reading program This made evaluation more objective

2.3 Research method

This study used action research A pre-test and a post-test were used to increase the validity of the results

2.3.1 Reasons to use action research

According to Schmuck (1997:1), action research is an approach used ―to improve education through change, by encouraging teachers to be aware of their own practice, to be critical of their own practice, to be prepared to change it It is participatory, in that it involves the teacher in his own enquiry, and collaborative,

in that it involves people as part of a shared enquiry…It encourages teachers to become adventurous and critical in their thinking, to develop theories and rationales for their practice, and to give reasoned justification for their public claims to professional knowledge.‖

In this study, action research was chosen as the research method because of three important reasons Firstly, action research is carried out by practitioner (classroom teachers) rather than outside researchers This is quite appropriate for the researcher of this study- an English language teacher with seven years of experience Secondly, action research is practical and situational This study is conducted at Minh Khai high school and students‘ reading skills need improving

Last but not least, the aim of action research is suitable with the aim of this study

According to Cohen and Manion (1985), the aim of action research is ―to improve

the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out‖ This study was conducted to improve students‘ reading skills

With the advanced technology equipped in Minh Khai high school along with the popularity of the internet in the neighborhood, the researcher hypothesized that using online English language newspapers can improve students‘ reading skills and make them have a positive attitude towards ER To test these hypotheses, action research is the most appropriate research method

2.3.2 Action research procedures

According to Nunan (2002:18), there are three major steps in an action study:

- Find a problem and make a preliminary investigation

- Form a hypothesis and conduct a number of strategies for improvement action

- Review and evaluate the results and run a workshop for discussion These major steps can be divided into different ways In this research, the author followed Eileen Ferrance‘s model (2000) whose steps are specific and easy for the author of this study to follow Ferrance divided these main steps into five smaller steps as follows:

Step 1 Identification of the problem area

The researcher‘s experience, her discussion with learners, her observation during reading lessons and results of 45- minute tests helped her realize that the students‘ reading skills need to be improved Therefore, this problem was selected

to be the focus in this study

Step 2 Collection and organisation of the data

To have more information, the researcher collected the data relating to students‘ reading skills and their difficulties in learning reading skills The researcher observed students in reading lessons to evaluate their reading skills The questionnaire with two parts was administered to students to get a deeper knowledge about their opinions of reading skills

Part 2 of the questionnaire provided the researcher with specific problems students encountered in learning reading In addition to formal learning, the number

of students practising reading outside class was small The results of this part are illustrated in the following charts:

Chart 1 Percentage of students practising reading outside class

Chart 2 Students‘ opinions of the difficulty of reading skills

Chart 3 Students‘ opinions of factors causing difficulty in reading

Chart 4 Students‘ opinions about the old ER program

According to the survey administered to students, over 70% students had

English newspapers With regard to the level of difficulty of reading skills, students had different opinions and 95% of them agreed that reading was a difficult skill

Considering factors causing the difficulty, most of students (70%) thought of vocabulary and background knowledge Interestingly, most of students (75%) took time into consideration They need more time to complete a reading task This leads

to the problem of reading speed which can be improved by knowing how to read

According to the response of the students to question 6 to 10, their teachers used supplementary reading materials However, all of the students did not know the source of the reading materials This implies that the students did not pay attention to the purposes of different reading materials and their teachers did not teach them to distinguish those Furthermore, reading texts were often added to the lessons of other skills when time was available There was no extra lesson for only reading skills

With respect to evaluation of the supplementary reading materials their teachers had applied, students had various opinions A large number of students (80%) did not have a high opinion of what they had been taught about reading

Clearly, they need a new ER program

Step 4 Action based on data

From the data, action research was conducted with the following procedures:

With the aim to improve students‘ reading skills, the researcher used online English newspapers A specific plan was made and conducted during the ten weeks

of the initial part of the second term of the academic year 2016/2017, from January

to March, 2017 At the end of the second semester, the students will sit for a national final examination in which English is compulsory

Week 1: The teacher introduced the reading program with online English

newspapers, namely vietnamnews She took students to the lab to demonstrate how

to surf and choose articles to read at this web Then she carried out a pretest

From week 2 to week 9: The teacher gave different reading tasks for students

to practice Each week students practiced two tasks with different newspaper

articles of different topics such as Environment, Fashion, Sports, Education and so

on

Figure 1: http://vietnamnews.vn/

Different reading tasks were adapted from ―The Official Cambridge Guide

to IELTS for Academic and General Training‖ by Pauline Cullen et al (2014) with the guide on reading skills for IELTS exams (p.44-p.90) This book was chosen in order to ensure the academic standard of reading tasks and facilitate the task designing process

After considering the suitability of all suggested reading tasks, the author decided to choose nine types of reading tasks and classify them as follows:

Table 1: Types of reading tasks

Reading skills

Reading tasks What do students have to do?

-Matching headings and subheadings/ articles

Match given headings to the correct subheadings or articles Match the main ideas with

paragraphs

Match a list of main ideas to the corresponding paragraphs