Difficulties in learning english reading skills of english majored students at thu dau mot university

Báo cáo tốt nghiệp ngành ngôn ngữ anh tại trường đại học thủ dầu một, tên đề tài Difficulties in learning english reading skills of english majored students at thu dau mot university STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIPI hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented. Where the work of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s bibliography. I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources. All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text.

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ DẦU MỘT

Giảng viên hướng dẫn : TRẦN NGỌC MINH

Binh Duong, DECEMBER/2022

Giảng viên hướng dẫn : TRẦN NGỌC MINH

Binh Duong, DECEMBER/2022

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all, the researcher would like to thank Thu Dau Mot University for introducing Research Methods into the curriculum In particular, the researcher would like to thank the subject teacher - Ms Tran Ngoc Minh who devotedly taught

in detail so that the researcher could have enough knowledge and apply it to this report This will be valuable knowledge, laying the foundation for us to be firm in the future

Research methodology is an interesting, extremely useful and practical subject Ensure to provide enough knowledge associated with the practical needs of today's students However, due to limited knowledge and practical learning ability, there are still many surprises Although I have tried my best, the essay is bound to have shortcomings and inaccuracies in many places We would like to ask for your consideration and suggestions to make the researcher's essay better

Sincerely, thank!

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ABSTRACT

After a period of studying English at Thu Dau Mot University, the English reading comprehension skills of English majors are still very limited As a result, after studying, students cannot apply their knowledge and experiences to study or work because they cannot read and understand English in the best and standard way To practice reading skills in the best way, learners must go through a long and difficult time There are many factors of difficulty that you will encounter, whether you are

a final year student or a beginner The topic is related to the problem “Difficulties in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university” The tool used by the researcher for the study was a questionnaire distributed via Google Forms Based on the survey results, researchers have pointed out factors that can make it difficult for English reading comprehension skills Basic knowledge problems, reading method problems, language problems, may be a big barrier that prevents them from focusing on learning this skill well Some effects on students' reading skills and some suggestions are also given to improve English reading ability better We will conduct a survey to find out the answers to the questions posed in this study

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Contents

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

LIST OF TABLE ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 DEFINITION OF READING 5

2.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF READING SKILLS 5

2.3 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS 7

2.3.1 BASIC KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM 7

2.3.2 READING METHOD PROBLEMS 7

2.3.3 LANGUAGE PROBLEM 8

a LIMITED VOCABULARY 8

b POOR GRAMMAR 9

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2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' DIFFICULTY IN READING

SKILLS 9

2.4.1 LACK OF MOTIVATION 9

2.4.2 LACK OF CONCENTRATION 10

2.5 PREVIOUS STUDIES 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 12

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 12

3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING 12

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS 13

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCESS 14

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS PROCESS 14

3.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY 14

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS 15

4.1 PART 1: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 15

4.1.1 STAGES OF STUDY 15

4.1.2 HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LEARNING ENGLISH? 16

4.1.3 HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND ON STUDYING DAILY? 16 4.1.4 DO YOU LIKE SUBJECTS RELATED TO ENGLISSH READING SKILL? 18

4.2 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS 19

4.3 Part 3: FACTORS LEADING TO STUDENT DIFFICULTIES IN READING SKILLS 25

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION 28

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5.1 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS 28

5.2 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' DIFFICULTY IN READING SKILLS 29

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 31

6.1 SUMMARY OF THE MAIN FINDINGS 31

6.2 LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTION.S 32

6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS 33

6.3.1 FOR LECTURERS 33

6.3.2 FOR STUDENTS 33

6.3.3 FOR FUTURE RESEARCHERS 33

6.4 IMPLICATIONS 34

REFERENCES 35

APPENDIX 41

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 41

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

[1] TDMU: Thu Dau Mot University

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LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.3 Distribution of questionnaire items

Table 4.2 : Difficulties in learning English reading skills

Table 4.3 : Factors leading to student difficulties in reading skills

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1.1 Student's level

Figure 4.1.2: Student's English learning time

Figure 4.1.3 : Students' frequency in learning reading skill

Figure 4.1.1 :Students' attitudes toward learning English reading skill

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will explain the reason for choosing this topic as well as background to the study, aims of the study Then research questions,and significance of the study

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

English has been playing an important role in many fields In the current trend of globalization, along with the strong development of science and technology, society, education, health, people, English has become an indispensable communication tool in the world (Price & Mechelli, 2005) If you know a foreign language in addition to your mother tongue, you will have many opportunities to work in large foreign companies and organizations with attractive salaries (Clark, 1999) Today, with the emergence of English as a prominent language in an increasingly technological and global society (Butler,2009)

The number of businesses associated with foreign partners in Vietnam is increasing The use of English in work and daily communication is an effective and necessary tool for everyone (Nguyen, 2021) Therefore, learning English well is considered an opportunity for career advancement, in which the skill that

we need to focus on, and practice regularly is reading comprehension (Clark, 1999) The more you read, the more you will know The more you learn, the more places you can go, and your jobs will open (Suess, 1978)

To learn English, we must learn and master four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, in which reading skills are an important skill and

it is linked to all the remaining skills Byrness (1984) and Barnett (1989) argue that reading has always held an important place in foreign and second languages,

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except in periods when the phonological-linguistic method prevailed in the classroom in America, in the early 1960s Reading comprehension is an important skill because it gives students not only a deeper understanding of what they learn but also more intensive knowledge (Siegel, 1993) According to Barnett (1989), through reading, students can expand their social and cultural knowledge , and improve their thoughts

However, many students find it challenging to read in English For example, Nguyen& Kim (2017) have shown the level of difficulty as well as the two most serious problems hindering students' reading: insufficient vocabulary and background knowledge problems In addition, Ho (2012) said that the most serious problems preventing students from reading are: (1) insufficient vocabulary; (2) language problems The above two studies have presented common difficulties in students' reading skills, and at the same time provide researchers with useful knowledge for the current study

At TDM as well as the practice of reading skills is also very important, and students need to identify difficulties and hinder student reading skills, thus providing solutions to help students overcome these difficulties For all of the above reasons, I decided to conduct a study on difficulties in learning English reading skills of English students at Thu Dau Mot University Hopefully, this study will contribute to improving the ability to learn English in general, as well

as reading skills in particular for English students at Thu Dau Mot University

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

This study aims to find out some common problems in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university It also aims to find out factors contributing to the reading difficulties of English majors

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study offers a number of contributions Firstly, it provides an insight into the difficulties that English-majored students may encounter when learning English reading skills This research is very useful for students and lecturers at Thu Dau Mot University, and some other researchers to understand more deeply about this issue For teachers, they can improve some aspects of teaching For students, they know what problems need to be improved Universities, can use these methods to apply to the curriculum of a number of subjects related to reading skills The researcher wishes that English majors and all students of Thu Dau Mot University can apply this method to actively practice reading comprehension skills more effectively and progress in study and future work

1.5 STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER

The thesis consists of six main chapters:

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Chapter 1 (Introduction ) , provides information about the background of the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, and the thesis outline

Chapter 2( Literature Review) review related theories as well as related research, which will then be summarized as a framework for data presentation and analysis in this study

Chapter 3( Methodology) describes the research methods used in the present study The researcher details about research design the reasons why to choose the quantitative method It then presents population and sampling, research instruments, pesearch instruments The last sections involve data analysis process, and chapter summary

Chapter 4 (Findings/Results) reports the results of the statistical analyses which are presented in three main sections The first section deals with demographic information The second section focuses on the difficulties in learning english reading skills The last section deals with the factors leading to student difficulties

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this part, the researcher provides theories related to the study such as the definition of reading, the importance of reading skills, difficulties in learning English reading skills and factors leading to students' difficulties in reading skills

2.1 DEFINITION OF READING

Over the years, many studies have been done to determine reading comprehension Here are some typical definitions of famous researchers The definition of reading emerges from many different angles Reading is the process

of building meaning from written text This is a complex skill that requires the coordination of several interrelated information sources (Hosp & Suchey, 2014) Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction between: (1) the reader's existing knowledge; (2) information suggested by the text being read; and (3) the context of the reading situation (Share & Silva, 2003) According to Rumelhart (1997), reading, whether in a first or second language context, is concerned with the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text

From all the above comments, researchers reflect the definition of reading from their point of view Reading is a complex process involving many stages

by which the reader can recognize the entire message of the text and understand the implications of those messages, and finally be able to decipher them

2.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF READING SKILLS

No one can deny the important role of reading skills for development in the fields of economy, politics, education, academic research, and career success (Clay, 1985) Reading skills are important in all fields For example, in the field

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of economics, schools, import-export and logistics, office workers, all fields of English use need to read industry-related terms and understand it to do their job well (Woolley, 2011) Thus, reading is valued and important in the workplace, and people with good reading skills often solve problems quickly and are seen

as more trustworthy (Warner, 2012) Many people overlook the importance of good reading, but it is an important career element and the basis of successful communication

Reading is one of the four language skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) that are very important for every individual, especially for those who are, or work in, academia This is an important skill that helps us grasp information quickly and efficiently (Goswami, 1999) By reading, you can remember a lot of information, think well, improve vocabulary, thereby helping other skills such as writing and listening also improve significantly "Reading"

is the process of looking at a series of symbols written down and deriving meaning from them (Nassaji, 2014) When we read, we use our eyes to pick up

on written symbols (letters, punctuation, and spaces) and we use our brains to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs to convey something that's for us (Meyer, 1982)

English is a global language, knowing how to read and understand English opens an endless knowledge horizon because almost all books, magazines, and research articles are written or published in English

Reading skills play an important role for students and greatly influence future job success, as well as the foundation for other language skills “Reading

is the fastest and simplest way to improve people's education” (Geers, 2003, p59–68)

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2.3 DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILLS

In fact, students who do not have good reading skills, may be afraid to read

in class Basic knowledge problems, reading method problems, language problems ,may be a big barrier that prevents them from focusing on learning this skill well (Lipka & Siegel, 2007)

2.3.1 BASIC KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM

The main purpose of students going to school is to learn, but if students do not have the necessary background knowledge, reading comprehension is considered a barrier(Adams & Bruce,1982) Foundational knowledge plays an important role in students' reading skills (Concepción, 2004) In fact, students with a good background will read better and save more time than students with

a poor background (Carrell, 1983) Students often associate what they read with what they know, essential background knowledge helps students extract data and capture content quickly (Deshpande, 2016)

2.3.2 READING METHOD PROBLEMS

Essential reading skills such as: recalling word meanings, drawing inferences about word meanings in context, interweaving ideas in content, drawing inferences from content, recognizing purpose (Alderson,2000) However, in practice, students do not know how to use appropriate reading methods or use them incorrectly (Supriyadi & Julia, 2019) In other words, the reader cannot summarize the main ideas of the passage in paragraphs, and of course the passage is very difficult for them (Wurr, 2003) Reading is an active, repetitively practiced skill that involves judging and predicting words and text meanings (Tindal & Almond, 1999)

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The limited reading method of students also raises many problems For example, students have some problems with reading skills such as reading slowly, not understanding the content of the article to summarize the main idea, not guessing the meaning of words used in the text Students can get caught in the following vicious cycle: reading poorly, reading slowly, reading not much or not being interested in reading (Olshavsky, 1976) In addition, “Lack of concentration while reading” and “Inability to connect ideas in a passage” are the main causes of barriers in reading methods (Hollingsworth, 1978, p.624-626)

2.3.3 LANGUAGE PROBLEM

Research suggests that reading problems may be more clearly related to language proficiency than reading comprehension In particular, Alderson (1984) has shown that reading ability is really language proficiency and that students who read fluently are more likely to become effective readers than poor readers Similarly, Yorio (1971) states that a successful reader is largely due to proficiency in a second language and first language interference

a LIMITED VOCABULARY

Most students encounter problems related to vocabulary when reading in English Some students do not know the meaning used in the text because there are many words with many different meanings (Freebody & Anderson, 1983) Therefore, when encountering a long text with many new words, students still apply the method of reading "word by word", not focusing on memorizing the main points in the text (Nation & Coady, 1988) If there are too many unfamiliar words, it will be difficult for students to grasp the overall concept conveyed in the sentence (Stothard,1992)

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b POOR GRAMMAR

Grammar is a major component of all the world's languages Without grammar, students cannot understand, for example, the timing of the action whether it happened in the past or present Grammatical structure becomes one

of the most serious problems in reading English for academic purposes (Rose, 2006)

Students find many reading difficulties related to the use of complex grammatical structures in academic papers, because of their lack of knowledge

of the reading topics (Silva & Roehr-Brackin, 2016) It occurs when learning to read a text with rather strange content along with many new grammatical structures (Fanselow & Schlesewsky, 2002) As a result, they cannot understand the meaning of long sentences and even whole texts (Reid, 1968)

Furthermore, prepositions in English are a problem because different languages use different prepositions to express the same idea (Potter, 1962) In fact, the biggest problem is that students find grammar lessons too boring and make them tired of reading (Alderson & Kremmel, 2013)

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' DIFFICULTY IN READING SKILLS

2.4.1 LACK OF MOTIVATION

Lack of motivation is an important part, another challenge students face when learning to read (Guthrie, 2002) There are many reasons why students are not active reading power is the absence of interest in reading (Reeve, 2015) In

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addition, while reading, students do not find any information, so when they read, they get bored very quickly (William & Burden, 1997) It is not because they are lazy to study that students do not like to sit and read a book for 1-2 hours (Ahmadi)., 2017) While studying, students feel too tired, or do not want to study anymore, it shows a lack of motivation (Louicket et al., 2016) If students are not inspired to read every day, it is likely that their academic performance will be worse (Mata, 2011) Therefore, Motivation plays an important role not only in learning but also in reading skills (Wigfield & Ho, 2012)

2.4.2 LACK OF CONCENTRATION

Reading skill requires a highly concentrated effort to retrieve all the data,

so your brain is always thinking about reading and ignoring any outside influences (Wolfgramm et all, 2016) Therefore, lack of concentration may lead

to difficulty and ineffectiveness in reading skills

It is not surprising that any form of inattention makes learning to read very difficult because this is a skill that takes practice and long application to master (Baron, 2017) There are many theories on how to help a student who has difficulty concentrating, but the key is to keep them interested in the task and keep the sessions short (Lo,2006)

2.5 PREVIOUS STUDIES

The first study “Difficulties in reading comprehension of English majored sophomores at Tay Do university, Can Tho, Vietnam'' was conducted by Nguyen ,2017).The researcher focused on two main research questions: Difficulty in reading and understanding English of second-year students of Tay Do University Several factors affect reading skills Research results have shown the

is the reason why students are hindered in improving their reading skills

Finally, " A study of reading comprehension problems in English encountered by first year students of faculty of Vietnamese Studies at HUE" was conducted by (Ho, 2012) The researcher focused on two main research questions: problems The main reading comprehension problems encountered by HUE non-English first-year students and the strategies students use in word processing and solving their comprehension problems The level of difficulty as well as shows that the two most serious problems preventing students from reading are: (1) insufficient vocabulary; (2) the need for rereading

All of the above studies have helped researchers to identify the main

difficulties in students' reading skills, thereby finding solutions to overcome those difficulties Previous studies on this topic not only provide the researcher with useful knowledge, but also make a significant contribution to the

researcher to carry out " difficulties in learning English reading skills of

English-majored students at TDM university" to collect students' opinions on reading skills, find difficulties and offer suggested solutions to improve

students' English reading skills

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research methods used in the present study The researcher details about the reasons why choosing the quantitative method It then presents population and sampling, pesearch instruments The last sections involve data analysis process, and chapter summary

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

This study employed a quantitative research design to explore difficulties

in learning English reading skills of English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot university

Quantitative research is basically understood as the collection and analysis

of data From there, it helps researchers make predictions, examine causal relationships, and aggregate results for broader populations (Pritha,2020) Another researcher also offered a similar, quantitative research is a way to learn about a specific group of people, called a sample population Using scientific inquiry, quantitative research based on observed or measured data that examines questions about a sample population (Allen, 2017)

The reason I chose this method is because I use online survey questionnaires on all social platforms as long as you have a smart device Quantitative data can be interpreted by statistical analysis Because statistics are based on mathematical principles, the quantitative method is considered the scientific and rational method (Bloomfield & Fisher2019) Research results are highly reliable, analyzed quickly, and analysis software helps to process large amounts of data quickly and accurately (Dimitrov,2008) Therefore, researchers use this method to study

3.2 POPULATION AND SAMPLING

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This study was conducted on 100 English majors in the academic year 2021-2022 at Thu Dau Mot University Most of them have studied English from grade 6 to grade 12 When studying at Thu Dau Mot University, they study in the same environment, but the reading ability of the students is different, they do not know how to apply strategies and measures to improve their reading ability Even though they were in high school, they only learned about a few simple topics For this reason, students find it difficult to learn reading skills in college because they are faced with many strange and scientific topics

3.3 RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

The researcher uses a questionnaire to collect information To check the correctness of the answers, students were randomly selected to complete the survey

The main instrument for the study was a questionnaire consisting of 3 parts as presented in Table 3.3 below

Table 3.3 Distribution of questionnaire items

Part 2: Difficulties in learning English

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reading skills Part 3 includes 6 questions about factors leading to students’ difficulties in reading skills

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCESS

The researchers designed a questionnaire to find out what problems students often face in reading skills, what tools or solutions are currently being used to solve these problems, and what solutions are available most suitable for students A group of participants who were majoring in English at TDM University were

selected Next, the participants were asked questions related to the research paper and asked to answer a list of multiple choice, short, and simple questions It took the students about 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire Then, for analysis purposes, the researchers filtered the collected data and compiled them into a word file

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS PROCESS

Collected data is analyzed and classified according to a number of predefined procedures The researchers then illustrated the results with pie charts and bar graphs, as well as a horizontal bar chart, to get a better picture of the results The goal is to find out the causes and causes of reading difficulties that students are having With knowledge of why these problems occur, researchers can come up with answers to research questions and will be able to suggest satisfactory solutions

3.6 CHAPTER SUMMARY

In this chapter, the researcher shows the research method to conduct the research at the same time specifying the participants, collecting data and analyzing data

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS

This chapter reports the results of the statistical analyses which are presented in three main sections The first section deals with demographic information The second section focuses on the difficulties in learning English reading skills The last section deals with the factors leading to student difficulties in reading skills

4.1 PART 1: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

4.1.1 STAGES OF STUDY

The first question enquiries about student stages of study The responses to the question are illustrated in Chart 4.1 below

Chart 4.1 Student's level

Based on the results, there are 100 students participating in the survey, of which the highest is senior students with 43%, followed by junior students with

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31% Followed by sophomore students with 14%, the last one is freshmen students with 12% In general, all students in the whole school participated in the survey

4.1.2 HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN LEARNING ENGLISH?

Chart 4.1.2: Student's English learning time

According to the survey results, 80% of students study English for more than 10 years, this is quite a long time for students to hone their English language skills And 20% of students study English for 7-10 years; 0% of students study English for 3-5 years and 5-7 years However, with such a long time to learn English, students still have many difficulties in the learning process and need to improve every day

4.1.3 HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND ON STUDYING DAILY?