Difficulties in reading comprehension of grade 10 students at asian international highschool

DECLARATION The thesis entitled “Difficulties in reading comprehension of grade 10 at the Asian International Highschool” is conducted under the supervision of M.A.. The purpose of this

DECLARATION

The thesis entitled “Difficulties in reading comprehension of grade 10 at the Asian International Highschool” is conducted under the supervision of M.A Nguyen Thanh Tuan an instructor of English at English Department, Saigon International University

I declare that the information reported in the current paper is a result of my own work, except where due to reference is made The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted to any candidature for any other degree or diploma

Ho Chi Minh,

Signature

Beside the support of Mr Nguyen Thanh Tuan, I am very grateful to my parents for their metal support and encouragement They are the biggest motivation for me to overcome all the difficulties to completing the study In addition, I would like to say “Thank you” to my friends, thank you for their support and being side by side with me

I am really in debt to my family and my friends for their all usefull help and great encouragement during the time I has done this paper

INTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS

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ABSTRACT

The reading comprehension skill is considered as one of the four fundamental language skills that an EFL learner must perform Actually, it is not an easy skill since most of learners have many reading issues The purpose of this present work is to investigate on these reading difficulties that grade 10 students at the Asian International Highschool face, and to identify their reading problems and the reasons behind their weaknesses in performing the reading task The questionnaire and interview have been used as research instruments which are addressed, respectively, to third-year learners and teachers at Asian International highschool The results reveal that most of the learners have difficulties in reading comprehension at the level of ambiguous words, reading strategies, as well as the nature of the selected materials

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… ii

SUPVERISOR’S COMMENT……… iii

ABSTRACT……….iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTENT OF THE THESIS……….1

1.1 Statement of problem……… 1

1.2 The significance of the study………2

1.3 Scope of the study………2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………4

2.1 Definition of key-terms ……… …… 4

2.1.1 What is reading? ……….4

2.1.2 Comprehension ……… 6

2.1.3 Reading comprehension……… 6

2.1.4 Types of reading comprehension……… 6

2.1.4.1 Oral reading ……….…6

2.1.4.2 Silent reading ……… 6

2.1.4.3 Intensive reading……… 7

2.1.4.4 Extensive reading ……… 7

2.1.5 Skills of reading comprehension……… 9

2.1.5.1 Scanning……… 9

2.1.6.2 Skimming……… 10

2.1.6 Difficulties ………11

2.1.6.1 Difficulty in understanding long sentence……… 12

2.1.6.2 Difficulty in using reading strategies………13

2.1.6.3 Losing your place……….13

2.1.6.4 Losing your focus……….13

2.1.6.5 Not getting the point ………13

2.1.6.6 Forgetting what you have read……….13

2.1.7 Solutions……… 14

2.1.8 Strategies for reading comprehension ……….…15

2.1.8.1 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text……… 17

2.1.8.2 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text………19

2.1.9 Method in teaching reading……… 21

2.2 Preview previous work ……….22

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……… 24

3.1 Research method……… 24

3.2 Research questions………25

3.3 Description………25

3.4 Participants……… 26

3.5 Tools to collect data……… 26

3.6 Procedure……… 27

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION………28

4.1 Data analysis……… 28

4.1.1 Opinions about reading materials……….29

4.1.2 The purpose of reading……… 30

4.1.3 Opinions about the effective and essential of reading strategies……… 31

4.1.4 Difficulties and time sufficiency……… 33

4.1.5 Students’ strategies……… 36

4.1.6 The essential of vocabulary and grammar………39

4.2 Discussion of the results………42

CONCLUSION……… 45

English has been taught in many general- educational schools We know that teaching and learning English are very important Which are the best learning methods and strategies for students who learn English at Asian International High school? What difficulties that students have when they learn English ?

The Asian International School’s International English program is designed according to American Education Reaches Out (AERO) and Common Core State Standard – United State The school curriculum is drafted and evaluated by the Science Council of the school Students

of the Asian International School benefit from an advanced education program with a diverse knowledge base

However, not all students of the Asian International High school can keep up with the international English program Some students had problem with English skills in the learning process and most students had difficulties in reading skill

The biggest obstacle for grade 10 students at Asian International High school is that they have

no methods and strategies in reading comprehension This topic is great interest in studying it

So this is the reason make me want to find out the cause and understand more about these to find some solutions

1.2 The significance of the study

As above introduction, I carry out this study with the hope to find out the difficulties received

by the grade 10 students at Asian International high school in reading comprehension, the way

to improve reading comprehension, and also support students of grade 10 at the Asian International Highschool who are learning English to pass the difficulties in reading comprehension easily follow three steps:

Step 1 : To find out difficulties perceived by grade 10 students at Asian International High

school in reading comprehension

Step 2 : To improve the difficulties perceived by grade 10 students at Asian International High

school in reading comprehension

Step 3 : To develop and enhance skills in reading

1.3 Scope of the study

Nowadays, English is a language that plays an important role in learning and work In order to learn and use English well, leaners must grasp English skills and it takes a lot of time and wisdom

English as well as English skills is a very wide field of knowledge but due to the time to complete a research is short It is only in 2 months and personal knowledge is still limited so I just emphasize English skills especially reading comprehension in Asian International Highschool

This study aimed at investigating the problems in English reading skill as perceived by 115 students who are learning English program at Asian International Highschool

Reading is making meaning from print It require that we :

a Construct an understanding from them - a process called comprehension

b Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate - an achievement called fluency

Most of us think of reading as a simple, passive process that involves reading words in a linear fashion and internalizing their meaning one at a time But reading is actually a very process that requires a great deal of active participation on the part of he reader

To get a better sense of the complexity of reading, read what some experts in the field have said about the reading process:

What do we read ? The message is not something given in advance or given at all - but

something created communicative situation - Roy Harris in Rethinking Writing (2000:254)

Reading is asking questions of printed text And reading with comprehension becomes a

matter of getting your questions answered - Frank Smith in Reading With Nonsense (1997:41)

Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game It involves an interaction between thought and

language Efficient reading does not result from precise reception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening - Kenneth Goodman in Journal of the reading Specialist (1967:26)

Reading involves many complex skills that have to come together in order for the reader to be successful Proficient readers recognize the purpose for reading, approach the reading with that purpose in mind, use strategies that have proven successful to them in the past when reading similar texts for similar purposes, monitor their comprehension of the text in the light of the purpose for reading When unknown words arise and their meaning is needed for comprehension, proficient readers have a number of word attack strategies available hat will allow them to decipher the meaning of the words Reading is also a complex process in that from the text by using their own prior knowledge and experiences Proficient readers are constantly making predictions while reading It is this continuous interaction with the text that allows readers to make sense of what they are reading

2.1.4 Types of reading comprehension

Several types of reading may occur in a language classroom One way in which these may be categorized, as suggested by Brown (1989:216) can be outlined as follows:

2.1.4.1 Oral Reading:

Oral reading means reading aloud The oral translation of printed or written material, often used as measure of a student’s overall reading performance to examine aspects of reading accuracy, fluency

2.1.4.2 Silent Reading:

Silent reading is complex set of skills The purpose of silent reading is to enable the learners

to comprehend the meaning of what they read

2.1.4.3 Intensive

Brown, D.S (1989) explains that intensive reading “calls attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literial meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like

It sometimes called “Narrow Reading”, may involves students reading selections by the same author or several texts about the same topic The success of “Narrow reading” on improving reading comprehension is based on the premise that the more familiar the reader is with the test, either due to the subject matter or having reading other works by the same author, the more comprehension is promoted

Intensive reading is used to teach or practice specific strategies or skills The text is treated as

an end in itself Intensive reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantities of material, direct and fluently It may include reading simply for pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material

The aims of Extensive Reading are to build reader confidence and enjoyment Extensive Reading is always done for the comprehension of main ideas, not for specific details

‘Extensive reading means reading in quantity and in order to gain a general understanding of what is read’ (Richards, 1992) Extensive reading is often reading for pleasure With respect

to the importance of extensive reading, Grable (1995) has drawn up on the work of, among other, Elley (1991); Krashen (1989, 1993); Stanovich and Cunningham (1993) that extensive reading can or may contribute to effective reading According to Grable (1995), extensive reading helps develop ability in word recognition both in quantity and quality The more extensively students read, the larger and more automatic recognition vocabulary students will gain

2.1.5 Skills of reading comprehension

As in all reading comprehension exercises, a variety of skills are required to deduce the right answer These include skimming, scanning, paraphrasing, and understanding vocabulary in

context You must be able to identify synonyms and implied information A clue is that the order of the questions follows the order to the information in the reading passage This

should save time when scanning for specific details Make sure the answer you choose answers the question, as many of the answer choices may simply repeat information in the

reading passage Lastly, you might prefer reading the questions before skimming the passage, to give you a better idea of what's to come.- by Catherine Snow (2012:10)

2.1.5.1 Scanning

Scanning is a skill that requires that you read quickly while looking for specific information

Scanning is used when a specific piece of information is required, such as a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase, is required The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has located what he was searching for It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory or even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching

Generally, scanning is a technique that is helpful when you are looking for the answer to a known question

performing a quiz Besides that, use keywords is also very important in reading comprehension

It is an accepted view today that efficient readers are not passive They react with a text by having expectations and ideas about the purposes of the text as well as possible outcomes

They reflect on expectations as they read, anticipate what will come next In other words,

they "interact with the text"

2.1.5.2 Skimming

Skimming is the most rudimentary type of reading Its object is to familiarize you as quickly

as possible with the material to be read

Skimming is a quick reading to get the general meaning of the passage, how the passage is organized, that is the structure of the text and to get an idea of the intention of the writer

Skimming is a more complex task than scanning because it requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it It is a tool in which the author's sequence can be observed, unlike scanning in which some predetermined information is sought after

When it is used ?

Skimming is used as part of the SQ3R method of reading, often for speed reading This

method involves the student in surveying, questioning, reading, reviewing and reciting

Skimming is used for the initial survey and for review It is used in making decisions on how

to approach a text such as when determining if a careful reading and deserving

By determining text, learners able to understand that it is possible to gaining meaning without reading every word in a text

2.1.6 Difficulties

Difficulty is something that complicated to do (Richard 2007) It will be seen from students’ mistake or error learning process In fact, many senior high school students often find the difficulties in reading comprehension These difficulties result the student’s poor performance in reading test Thus, from these factors arise some difficulties in reading comprehension

There are some internal factors that influence the students in reading comprehension that are generally found by the reader during reading, namely; difficulty in understanding long sentence and text, difficulty that is caused by limited background knowledge, difficulty in using reading strategies and difficulty in concentration (Fajar: 2009)

2.1.6.1 Difficulty in understanding long sentence

In a common problem that most of students finds difficulty in understanding the long sentence with complicated structure It is supported by report of Barfield (1999 as cited by Fajar 2009) that shows almost 12 percent of students had difficulty in understanding long sentences in graded story and 20 percent in academic text Therefore, the effect of this problem is the students who cannot comprehending long sentence they fail to understand the main idea presented in the text

2.1.6.2 Difficulty in Using Reading Strategies

The students who lack of reading strategies often fails in understanding the text The students who are not familiar with reading strategies such as skimming and scanning will feel down and frustrated because they lack of tool necessary to succeed in reading comprehension test (Duarte, 2005) There are characteristics of the students who lack in use of reading strategies First, the students read word by word within the text, relying too heavily on their visual information, which greatly impedes their reading speed and hampers their reading comprehension Second, 15 the students spent a lot attention on detail with the result they often miss the main idea of the text Third, they just focused too much attention on form of the expense meaning Furthermore, the students who do not possess effective reading strategies may be difficulty to deal with reading comprehension test (Mei-yu, 1998 as cited

by Fajar, 2009)

Common difficulties while reading and solutions (Paul,2009)

2.1.6.3 Losing your place

You can lose your place two different ways: you can lose track of what word you are on at any point, or you can lose track of what line you are on when moving from one line to the next Losing your place wastes time and can inhibit your comprehension

2.1.6.4 Losing your focus

How many times have you been reading a passage, and realized halfway through that you have no idea what you have just read? Instead of paying attention to the text, you are thinking about what you are going to do later, what some friend said This wastes time and energy, and makes comprehension impossible

2.1.6.5 Not getting the point

Even though the words and sentences may make sense, you may not be able to put them together to get the meaning of the passage

2.1.6.6 Forgetting what you have read

Just because you don't have to memorize all of the facts does not mean that you can completely forget everything that you have read You still need to recall the main ideas of the passages If you come to the end of the passage and cannot recall what it was about, you need

to improve your retention

2.1.7 Solutions

There are certain steps you can take to alleviate the damage done by some of the previously mentioned reading problems Just knowing about these techniques is not enough; be sure to use and practice them as you read the sample passages

a Take breaks

Remember, cognitive fatigue can lead to all of the aforementioned problems, and to other problems as well If you do not rest your mind, you will likely get fatigued and it will cost you points

b Trace your place

You can mark your place either by pointing to each word as you read it, or by placing a sheet of paper underneath the line you are reading Pointing to each word with a pencil or your finger can help your eye see where it should be reading Placing a piece of paper under the line you are reading can help you to move smoothly from one line to the next

c Take Notes

If you are thinking about what is important enough to write down, you will pay more attention

to the reading This will keep your mind from wandering, help you process the main point of the passage, and improve the likelihood you will remember things In addition, the notes you take are a record of the passage that you can refer back to if you do forget elements

You should note the subject of the passage and summary of each paragraph Besides, taking note anything important happens with regard to the subject or anything that is discussed for more than a few sentences in the passage is very essential

Notes should be written in the margin next to the relevant text, so you can easily find the portions to which they refer Notes about the entire passage (the thesis) should be at the bottom

of the page

You will lose many of the benefits of note taking if you underline or highlight text instead Highlighting does not require you to think as clearly about the passage, will not trigger your memory as well, and will force you to rely on the author's confusing wording

2.1.8 Strategies for reading comprehension

Comprehension, or extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading Experienced readers take this for granted and may not appreciate the reading comprehension skills required The process of comprehension is both interactive and strategic Rather than passively reading text, readers must analyze it, internalize it and make it their own

In order to read with comprehension, developing readers must be able to read with some proficiency and then receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982)

The process of comprehending text begins before learner can read, when someone reads a picture book to them They listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and may start to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent

In order to learn comprehension strategies, students need modeling, practice, and feedback The key comprehension strategies are described below

Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing

When students preview text, they tap into what they already know that will help them to understand the text they are about to read This provides a framework for any new information they read

Predicting

When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations based on their prior knowledge about similar topics As they read, they may mentally revise their prediction as they gain more information

Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization

Identifying the main idea and summarizing requires that students determine what is important and then put it in their own words Implicit in this process is trying to understand the author’s purpose in writing the text

Visualizing

Studies have shown that students who visualize while reading have better recall than those who do not (Pressley, 1977) Readers can take advantage of illustrations that are embedded in the text or create their own mental images or drawings when reading text without illustrations

2.1.8.1 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Narrative Text

Narrative text tells a story, either a true story or a fictional story There are a number of strategies that will help students understand narrative text

Story Maps

Teachers can have students diagram the story grammar of the text to raise their awareness of

the elements the author uses to construct the story Story grammar includes:

Setting:

When and where the story takes place (which can change over the course of story)

Characters:

The people or animals in the story, including the protagonist (main character), whose

motivations and actions drive the story

Plot:

The story line, which typically includes one or more problems or conflicts that the

protagonist must address and ultimately resolve

Answering Comprehension Questions

Asking students different types of questions requires that they find the answers in different ways, for example, by finding literal answers in the text itself or by drawing on prior

knowledge and then inferring answers based on clues in the text

Example:

2.1.8.2 Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Expository Text

Expository text explains facts and concepts in order to inform, persuade, or explain

The Structure of Expository Text

Expository text is typically structured with visual cues such as headings and subheadings that provide clear cues as to the structure of the information The first sentence in a paragraph is also typically a topic sentence that clearly states what the paragraph is about

Expository text also often uses one of five common text structures as an organizing principle

is Cause and Effect or problem and solution These are the 2 most commonly used structures

in the expository text There are also 3 text structures such as Compare and Contrast,

Description and Time order (sequence of events, actions or step)

Teaching these structures can help students recognize relationships between ideas and the overall intent of the text

Main Idea/Summarization

A summary briefly captures the main idea of the text and the key details that support the main idea Students must understand the text in order to write a good summary that is more than a repetition of the text itself

K-W-L

There are three steps in the K-W-L process by Ogle, D (1986), 564-570

a What I Know: Before students read the text, ask them as a group to identify what they already know about the topic Students write this list in the “K” column of their K-W-L forms

b What I Want to Know: Ask students to write questions about what they want to learn from reading the text in the “W” column of their K-W-L forms For example, students may wonder if some of the “facts” offered in the “K” column are true

c What I Learned: As they read the text, students should look for answers to the questions listed in the “W” column and write their answers in the “L” column along with anything else they learn

2.1.9 Method in teaching reading

Reading strategy can be define as “a plan of problems encountered in constructing meaning” (Duffy, 1993; 232) The range from bottom-up vocabulary strategies such as looking up known word in the dictionary to more comprehension actions such as connecting what is being read to reader’s background knowledge

There are four-step strategies for reading and taking notes from chapter in a textbook Each latter stands for one step in the strategy Using SQRW (Survey, Question, Read and Write) will help the students to understand what they learned, their written record will be valuable when the students have to participate in class and again when the study for a test four steps in SQRW strategies

Survey

Survey brings to mind what the students alread know about the topic of a chapter and prepares them for learning more To survey a chapter, read the title introduction, heading and summary or conclusion By surveying a chapter, the students will quickly learn what thechapter is about

Question

Students need to have question in their mind as they read Question give them a purpose for reading and help them stay focus on the reading assignment Forming questions by changing each chapter reading into a question

Read

Students read the information that follow each heading to find the answer to each question formed As student do this may decide they need the change a question a turn into several questions to be answered