An investigation into both efl reading difficulties and a reading course as attempt to resolve the problems at soc trang collecge of education

MINIST RY OF EDUCATION ANDTRANINGVIETNAM NATI ONAL UNIVERS ITY OF HOCHI MINH CITYHOCHIMI NH CITY UNIVE RSITY OF SOC IAL SCIENCES AND HU MANITI ES LAM QUANG TUYET MINH AN INVESTIGATION IN

MINIST RY OF EDUCATION ANDTRANINGVIETNAM NATI ONAL UNIVERS ITY OF HOCHI MINH CITY

HOCHIMI NH CITY UNIVE RSITY OF SOC IAL SCIENCES AND HU MANITI ES

LAM QUANG TUYET MINH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO BOTH EFL READING DIFFICULTIES AND

AT SOC TRANG COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

SUBMITTED IN PARTI AL FULFILMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEG REE OF

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorsh ip of the the sis s ubmitte d tod ay entitled:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO BOTH EFL READING DIFFICULTIES

AND A READING COURSE AS AN ATTEMPT TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEMS AT SOC TRANG COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

In terms of the statement of Requirement s for The se s in

Ma ster' s Progr ammes i ssued by the Higher Degree Committee.

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2005

LAM QUANG TUYET MINH

I also wish to thank Mr Huynh Huu Nhi, the Principal of Soc Trang College of Education, who has given me the opportunity to attend the TESOL Graduate Programs.

In addition, I would like to show my gratitude to all of my lecturers of the Postgraduate Section of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature of

Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their interesting and professional lectures

Finally, I greatly appreciate the staff of the English Department at my College for their support and concern, and all of my students at Soc Trang College of Education for their participation in this thesis

11

Reading has been the skill most emphasized in traditi on al and even tod a yEFL teaching in many countrie s For many stude nts, reading is the mostimportant of the four language skills in English as a sec o nd lan guage and aforeign language

At Soc Trang College of Education, however, stude nts find readin g

compre he nsion difficult and unfamiliar because the y have been lack ing ofvocabulary, grammar, and especially reading technique s which have not be en

much equipped during stude nts ' EFL courses In addition, mo st EFL course s atthe college level in this school that I have observed either ignore the reading

skills or deal with it inadequ ately

Based on the abo ve reason s, I am very interested in finding out thedifficulties in reading encountered by students attending in some non- En gli shmajor classes at Soc Trang College of Education Then a reading stra te gy coursewith a modified teaching method and sup ple me nte d with the additional readingmaterial is applied with the aim of trying to resol ve the stude nts' probl ems intheir reading lessons Before the reading course, the pre-te st and thequestionnaire before the course are used to se e the stude nts' reading difficulties,then the post-te st and the questionnaire after the course are conducted toexamine whether the students can get much progress in learning EFL reading

The study report is presented in five chapters Chapter one is anintroduction involved three concrete parts, the sco pe of the study, the ration al e

of the study, and the aims with so me research question s Chapter two presents

III

an overview of some aspects relating to reading skills Methodology of the study

is especially addressed in chapter three Chapter four offers the finding s, some discussions from the data collection The last chapter end s with some conclusions and recommendations on teaching reading and reading instructions.

I V

1.3 Aims ofthe Stud y and Re se arch Questions 5

2.3 Some Approach es Affecting Read ing Proce ss 1

2.3.2 The Bottom -Up and Top -Down Approache s 1

2.4.1 Readers and Readers ' Contribution to Comprehen sion 1

2.4.2 Reading Te xt and Benefits ofReading Texts 1

2.9 Reading Task 3

2 10 Background of Teaching and Learnin g English a nd Some Student s '

3.3.1 Identifying stude nts' pr obl ems in re ading 44

3.3.2 Tryin g a Trainin g Course to Re sol ve the Probl em s 45 3.3.2 1 Som e maj or criteria f or building the additio na l materi al s 45

3.2.2.4 Skill s devel op ed during th e training co urse 48

3.3.3.2 Practical Fa ctors on Running the Readin g C ourse 51

4.1.1 Results from the questionnaire s before the cour s e 6 1

V I

4.1.2 Results from the pre-test 64

4.2 The post-test Resultsand Analysis 664.2.1 Comparison of the Pre-te st and Post-test 66

Appendix I:Questionnairesbefore the course SI

Appendi x4: Questionn aires after the course 91

V II

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANOY A: analysis of varian ce

DF:Differ en ce s in Means scores betw e en the te sts

EFL: English as a Forei gn Lan guage

ESL: English as a Sec ond Lan guage

ESP: English for Specific Purpose s

ETR: English - Te xt- Rel ati onship

FL:Fore ign Language

M:Mark s obtai ne d formthe te sts

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1.1: Students' Opinion on the Four Language Skills

Figure 2 l.a: Psycholinguistic Model (Coady, 1979)

Figure 2.1.b : The Traditional View of the Readers

Table 2.1: Differences between the Old and New Definitions of Reading Figure 2.l.c: Comprehension Strategies (R.A Kuth & B.F Jone s, 1991)

Figure 2.4 1: Presupposition and Communication (Nuttall, 1982)

Table 2.6: Strategies-Based Approaches to reading Tasks (Nunan, 1999) Figure 2.10: Degrees of English Language Training in High School

Table 2.1O.a: Results of the English Subject in the First College Year

Table 2.1O.b: students' Motivation in Studying English

Table 4.1: Students' Experiences on Their Reading Difficulties

Table 4.2.1.a: Results Obtained from the Pre-test and Post-test

Figure 4.2.1: Results Obtained from the Pre-test and Post-test

Table 4.2.1.b: Means and Standard Deviation Obtained in Pre-te st and test

Post-Table 4 2.I c: Differences in Means Scores among the Tests

Table 4.2.1 d: Descriptive Statistic for the Effect of the Study Program on the Mean Value of the Tests

Table 4.3: Results of the Questionnaire after the Training Course

I X

Chapter 1: ltr oduetion

1.1 Scope of the Study

To carryon the goals of enha nci ng the te a ch ing and le a rn ing quality the te a ch er ne eds to ha ve: firs tly the way of te a ch ing in accordance with

stude nts' le vel s, secondly the abi lity to help studen ts participa te in the le sso ns to

de vel op stude nts' sense ofinitiati ve and crea tiveness

In order to use Eng lis h as a comm unica tive to ol, the le arn ers are not

on ly fully eq ui pped with gra m mar, struc tures, vocab u lary , pronun ci at ion but

also tra ine d in four skills: listenin g , speaking, read ing and writi ng There for e

we eas ily find out that every unit of an Eng lis h le sson often includ e s most ofthe

activ ities that can help the le arn ers de vel op the ir ab ility in learning a lan gu a ge

a ll-sidedly Amo ng the se lan gua ge ski lls, lis te ning and re adin g are thou ght asthe pa ssive skills or recepti ve skills Both invo lve highl y com plex cognitiveproc e ssin g ope ra tio ns Accordin g to Nuna n ( SlSlSl:24Sl) the obv io us diIlcrc nccbetwe en the two skills , re ad in g and list enin g , is ephe me ra l: whe n the wordslistened are gone as soon as the y are utte red , writte n words in readi ng areperman ent, and can be re v isit ed whe n re ad ing In fact, re ad in g is not someth ing

that every individual ca n do It is prob abl y true to see tha t an lot of time , mon e y

and effortis spe nt in te aching and le arnin g re adin g at schoo ls aro und the world

During a coup le of de cad e s, in the world ,there ha ve be e n treme ndo uscha nges III the field of te ach ing and le arnin g lan g ua ge , especia lly English

No wad ays III man y universit ie s and colleges in Vietna m, Eng lis h is a

com pulso ry subjec t, so there is a re al ne ed ofte a chin g and le arnin g Eng lish For

1

.n 11.l ~S· " in-T£ SOL Chapter 1: Itroduction

many students at Soc Trang College of Educati on , re ading is one of theinteresting lan guage skill in learning English as a second or fore ign la ngu age(se e the table I bel ow ) I may find that re ading is one of the ma in re a son s whymany stude nts le arn the lan guage, just be cause Engli sh , a fore ign lan gu age , can

se rve their need of mastering a fore ign lan gu age and supp lementing theknowl ed ge on their spe cia listas wellas higher educa tion

Students at Soc Tran g Coll e ge of Educa tio n ha ve be en tra ine d tobec om e future te ach ers in some fields of Ped agogy: Engli sh lan gu age.Math emati cs-Ph ysic s, Chemistr y-Bi ol og y, Literature-Hi stor y Civics -His tory.Biology-G ymn astics, etc set bySocTran g Bure au of Educa tion and Train ing forthe annua l local ne ed of the educa tion Be sid e the mat erial s in Vie tna meseprovided by the te achers in classes, stude nts are enco uraged to re ad specia lize dmaterial s availa b le in Eng lish to get mor e knowled ge and informa tion for theirfurthe r study Students are now consc ious ofthe import an ce and the ne ce ssity ofEnglish for their future job s as well as internati on al inte gr ati on A que st ionn a ire

se nt to 119 EFL seco nd-yea r stude nts is used to ask which skills intere st the mthe most whe n the y were le arn ing Eng lish as foreig n lan gu age The data fromthe que stionn aire be for e the training course to exam ine the stude nts' re adin g

difficult ie s sho ws the percentag e ofattrac tionofthe four lan gu age skills

Table 1.1:Students ' opinionon the fourlan gu age skills

Based on the re sults from the tabl e above, readi ng compre he nsion

ma y get a grea t deal of atte ntion fro m stude nts at this college It is clear that

re ading is the skill that interests the stude nts and satisfies the ir ne eds In fact ,

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chapter 1: itroduction

the stude nts like to learn reading and they are re all y aware of h w much thisskill affe cts their study In reality, how e ver, stude nts usu all y meet someproblems when the y are reading

1.2 Rationale of the Study

We are now living In an inform at ion age with the explosi on ofdocuments, book s, magazine s, new sp ap ers, adve rtise me nts instruction s and

especia lly the dev el opment of the Internet allover the world The ne ed to read

in English hasbe en mor e import antthan ever befor e

In Vietn am , te ach ing Engli sh genera lly provides stude nts with certain

abilities to understand the writte n mate rial s and to inte gr at e into a modernworld It is true that the stude nts ca n le arn a lot of Eng lis h ins ide and outside theclassroom Along with the modern trend of te ach ing and le a rni ng Englis h, the

te achers of the Eng lish Department at Soc Tran g College of Educa tion have

be en trying to apply the improved ways for mor e effective purposes in language

te aching and le arnin g proce ss Amo ng the four lan gu age skills, I am ve ryinte res te d in doin g a survey on stude nts' re ading diffi cultie s.Then I de cide todo

an inves tiga tio n into EFL re ading difficulti e s and an atte mp t to de al with the

re adin g probl ems by applying a stra tegy train ing cou rse in whic h readin g istau ght to the stude nts inte gr ated with the other lan gu a ge skills to hel p the m feel

at ease and understand the way how to inte rna lize re ad ing a foreign lan guageeffective ly The re are some major re asons to ca rry out this currentstudy

Firstly , at Soc Tran g Coll e ge of Educat ion whe re stude nts are traine d

to becom e tea chers, re ading comprehe ns ion is tau ght in the integ ra tion withlistening , spea king, writing activiti e s every semes te r of a three-yearcourse.EFLstude nts at this college who will get the ele me nta ry le vel of Eng lis h proficien cyhav e sixty period s for eac h semes te r of the first year and forty -five periods for

3

M.A The si s in TESOL Chepter 1: Itrad uc tion

the othe r four semeste rs The textbook that S IX teache rs of the English

Department have been using to te ach for the se classes is "The New English

Cambridge Course , Student Book 1- Michael Swan, Cathe rin e Walter, 1990

Cambridge University Pre ss ".This te xtb ookcle arly focuses on the integrationof

four lan gu age skills in which the main focus is on listening and speaking There

is not eno ug h knowledge and activities to de vel op re ad ing and writing skills,

especia lly reading skills

Sec ondl y, it seems that the re is not eno ug h time and cha nces for

te achers as well as stude nts to develop the stude nts' own re ading skills My own

experience as a te acher of English sugges ts that te ach e rs shou ld spend more

time for re ad ing skills and supply suitab le mat e rial s that suit the studen ts'

knowled ge and le vel of English Why do 1 thi nk so? Firstly, because EFL

stude nts ne ed to re ad othe r material s in the ir moth e r ton gu e as well as in Englishfor their extra study, and there is a certai n matt er that after the y finish every

semes te r, stude nts are always te sted by a te st pa per that can measure the ir

abilities throu gh English gra mmar, lan gu age in use , reading, and writing

compre he nsion Because stude nts are not train e d much in re adin g, hen ce they

did the te st with the low scores, especia lly in re ad ing comp re hension part The

re sult s obta ine d from the te sts at the endof each semester ha ve not satisfie d the

te achers as well as the stude nts

The final fundam ental re ason of this study is base d on the ne e d of

having an improved way of teaching From the independen ce day of our country

to the end of Februa ry 200 I this school was known as a Secondary Educat ion

Schoo l After that time , with the allowa nce of Minis try of Education and

Training, it has got the authority in be comin g a Coll e ge of Education where

stude nts are train ed to te ach at seconda ry schools in the future In thre e -ye ar

working as a ne w schoo l, the board of college governors and the teaching sta ff

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chep tzr I ltroduetion

has been ove rco ming difficulties In te achin g during the early days of a new

period The matter of h w to help students get success in the ir le arn ing process

is alwa ys in our mind Particularl y in the Department of Engl ish the

Communicati ve Approach has be en widel y employed in te aching the language

to students All of the te ach ers k ow that this approa ch is exp ected to facilit at e

active learning and language acquisition It give s the learners oppo rt unities to

develop andintegra te naturall y with the community where Eng lish is spoke n

With the vital re ason s mentioned above the writerof this study trie s to

carry out a re sea rch on An investigation into b oth EFL r eading diffi culties and

a reading cour se as an attempt to resolve the problem s at S oc Trang C ollege of Education"tohelp students to study Eng lishbetter

1.2 Aims of the Study and Research Questions

The princip le aim of the study is to inve stiga te curre nt settin of

le arn ing EFL read ing at Soc Trang College of Ed ucation to find out thedifficultie s in reading that ha ve be en obstacles to the students experie nced by

themselvesJuring the readingproce ss

The second purpose of this study is to point out some implicat ion s b

conduc ting a training course in which additional readi ng mat erials are applie d to

te ach EFL re adingtostudents.The se are the things that the write rexpe cts todo:(a) De finin g the difficulti es expe rienced by the stude nts while the y arc

learn ing EFL re din g

(b) Based on the students' difficultie s de signing additonalre adin g mate rials

to teach EFL with a modified wa y

(c) Finding the effects ofre adingstrategy trainin g tostudents

(d) Estimating stude nts' read ing ability by the post-test compa re d with the

pre-test

5

M.A Thesis in TESOL Cheptz r 1: Itroductio

In fact, the primary work that the study has to carry out is to ans we rthese major research questi on s:

(I) What are the difficulties in EFL re ading le arnin g proc e ss experie nce d

mainly by elementary level stude nts at SocTran g Coll e ge ofEduca tion?(2) Doe s the training course with supple me nta ry re adin g material s enha nceEFL college stude nts ' reading proficiency?

The second question can be spe cifie d as the foll owing subques tio ns:

(2.1) Doe s the modified teachin g meth odology have a positi ve effect on

stude nts ' reading ability?

(2.2) Do the supple me nta ry material s help stude nts to get over their re ad ingdifficulti e s?

M.A Thesis in TESOL

2.1 A Brief History On EFLIESL Reading:

Re se arch on ESL reading an efforts to impro ve ESL re ad ing

instructi on have grown the last twenty years It has be come difficult to synthes ize

the re se arch and introdu ctional lite rature in ESL/EFL academ ic re ading andforeign langua ge re adin g

Re adin g can be defin ed in a varie ty ways according to differe nt

authors ' conce ption of the re adin g proces In the mid-to la te 1 60s Silberstein

noted that re ad ing was seen as little more than reinforcement for oral lan uage

instruction The main purpose to te a ch read ing was to exa mine gra mma r andvocabula ry , or to practise pronunciation (Silbe rste in, 19 87) Throu gh the early to

mid- 1970s, a large number of re sea rch e rs and te ach er train ers argued andsupporte d the greater importance ofte ach ing re adin g, e.g Eskey, 1973

The the ory of re adin based on the work of Goodman (1967 19 X5 )

and Smith (1 7 1, 19 2) be gan to be arg ue d by other re se arche rs by mid-to late

1970s.Re ad ing was seenby Goodman and Smi th as a psych linguist ic guessing

game " that the reader, a lan guage user, re con structs a me ssa ge which has be en

encode d by a writer as a gra phic displa y." By this puzzle-sol ving proce ss, the

read ers must infer the me aning and mak e a de cisi on to ke ep or not to ke ep

some thing in mind, then move in their re adin g Good added that readin g is not

prima rily a proc e ss of picking up information from the written te xt lette

r-by-letter, word-b y-word;he also confirmed that re adi ng is also a selective process

Chastain (197J:313) described the wa y in which the reader is

expected to perform in order to get the me aning from the written te xt He

beli eved that "in comprehending a written passa ge , the re ader first senses the

7

M.A Thesis in TESOL

ove ra ll me aning, then segments the passage into sma ller units of spe cific

informa tion and fina lly re ache s a le vel of knowledge "

Based on a psycholingui stic mod el of re ading, Clarke and Silberstein(1977) drew out some implication sfor instru ctor in whic h reading was viewed as

an active proce ss of compre he nding and stra tegies were used to teach stude nts

for more efficie nt purpose s, e.g guessing from the context, defining

expecta tio ns, maki ng infe ren ce s abo ut the te xt, skim mi ng, etc Teachers used

the goal of re adin g instru ction to hel p stude nts define goals ami strategies for

re ad ing, employ some activities to enha nce concep tua l re adiness and to help

stude nts with some strategies to de al with difficult syntax, vocabulary andorganiza tio na lstruc tures

Coad y (1979) cite d that a conce ptua liza tio n of re adin g proce ss

r equ ires three compo ne nts: proce ss stra teg ies, background know ledge and

conce ptua l abilities Accordin g to this psycho lingu istic model, he suggested that

a mod el in which the EFLIESL reade r's background knowled ge interacts with

concep tua l abilities and proce ss strategies, more or le ss suc e ss fully, to produce

compre he nsio n

Con ce ptu al Abilities

Figure 2.l.a:Psycholin gu istic Mod el (Coady , 1979)

In additio n, to Coad y, concep tua l abilities me an genera l intellectu a l

capac ity; processing strate gies me an various subcompo ne nts of re adi ng ability(e.g gra pheme-mor pho-phon eme corres po nde nces, sylla ble-mo rphemeinformati on , syntac tic info rma tio n, le xical me anin g, andcontextua l me anin g)

M.A The sis in TESOL Chapter 2: 6iterature'Review

Accordi ng to Coady, be ginning re ad e rs focus on process strategieswhe re a s more proficient re a de rs pay much atte nt ion to concep tual abilities anmak e better use of ba ckground knowl edge Co ad y mentione d little mor e to therole ofba ck groundknowledge:

Backgroun d know ledge bec ome s an important variab le when wenotice , as many have,that studen tswitha Western back ground ofsome kindlearn English faster, on the average, than those with ut such a b ack gr oun d,(Coady 1979:7)

During 19 80 s, Good ma n and Smi th focuse d much on ESL readingtheory and pra cti ce Othe r re se ar ch ers indicat ed tha t what the readers bring tothe re adin g task is more perva si ve and more powerful than the psych lingu isticmod el The y sugges te d:

The re ad e r brings to the ta k a formidable amount of information

and ide as attitude and belie fs This knowle dge coup led with the abiity

to ma ke lingu istic pred iction s, det e rmines the expectations the readerwill de vel op a he reads Skill in re ading depends on the efficientinte rac tio n bet we en lingui stic knowled ge and k owledge of the world

(Clarke andSilberstei n 1977:136-1 37 )

In 1985 , David Pearson re ferred to "the comp re he nsion revolution "

In essence, he was talkin g abo utthe mo vement from tradition al views of readi ngbas ed on beha viorism to visio ns of re adin g and readers ba sed on cogni ti ve psyc h o log y.

The tra diti on al vie w of the le arn er as an "emp ty" vessel to be filledwith knowl edg e from exte rna l sources is exem plifie d by this statue at the

Unive rs ity of Leuven (Belg ium)

9

M A Thesis in TESOL

Figure 2.l.b:

The trad ition al view

ofreaders(T he sta tue at the

Unive rs ity ofLe ure n(Belgium))

Pe ar son D also indicate d the diffe ren ces betwee n old and new

de finition s of re ad ing

Tradition al Views Ne w De finition ofRe adin g

GoalsofRe adin g Mastery of isolat ed facts Constr ucting meaning and

and skills self-regulate d le arn ing

Re adin g as Proce ss Me chani call yde cod ing Aninteraction among he

words; memori zin g by rote reader,the text,and the

contex t

Learn er Passive , vessel re ce iving Active, strateg icreader,

RolelMetaphor knowl ed ge from exte rna l goodstra tegy user,

sources cognitiveappre ntice

Tabl e 2.1: Diffe rence s bet ween the Old and New De fin itions of Reading

R A Knuth and B F Jon e s (1991) in the ir article on reading

compre he nsion collecte d the opinio ns of the re ad ing expert rese archers an

summe d up some important findings fromcognitivesciences asthe following

Me aning is not in the words on the page The reader co nst r uc t s

m eaning bymakin g inference s andinte rpre ta tio ns

Re adin g researche rs believe that informa tion is store d in long- te rm

memor y in organize d" knowled ge struc tures" The essence of le arnin g is linking

M.A Thes is in TESOL

new informati on to prior kn o wledg e abo ut the top ic, the te xt struct ure or genre,and stra te gie s for le arning

How well a re ad er con stru ct me anin g de pen ds 10 part on

m etacognition, the re ad er' s ability to think abo ut and contro l the learning

process, and attributio n, bel ie f abou t the re lati on sh ip amo ng performance effort

and re spon sib ilit y

R eading a nd W riting a re i ntegratedly r elated. That is, reading andwriting ha ve man y cha rac te ristics in commo n Also, re ad ers can increase the ir

compre he nsion by writing, and re ading abo ut the topic improves writing

perfo rma nce

C ollaborati ve l earning is a powerful approach for te ach ing and

le arn ing The ma in goalisto estab lish a community of learners in whichstuden tsare able to genera te que stion s and discu ss ide as freely with the te ache r and each

othe r Students ofte n engage in te achin g roles to help othe r stude nts le arn and

tak e re sp on sibility for learning

Mor e over, R A Knuth and B F Jon e s (199 1) concre tized the

C omprehension Str ategies from the Guide to Curriculum Plann ing in Reading

Cont e xt

from the Wiscon sin Dep artmen t ofPubl ic Instru ction

Re ad e r

Com preh en sion re sults from an interacti on amo ng the re ade r, the

stra te gies the re ad er employs, the materi al bein g re ad, and the contex t in which

re ading tak e s place

11

M.A Thesis in TESOL

2.2 Reading Process

Reading is not sole ly a process of extract identification of letters,word s, and ultimately sentences; reading to comprehen sion built from lett er toword to phrase to se nte nce (Goodman, 1967) During this process, read ers mak euse of their existing background knowledge (sche mata) to predict about what iscomin g next in the text and abo ut how to comprehend the unfamiliar piec e ofinform ation (Rume lhart, 1980; Rumelhart & Orthon y, 1977 ) It is cle ar that basic

decoding proce sse s are very important for comprehension and are used byreaders in interaction with the more complex proce sse s of me anin g generati on(Eskey , 1987; Grabe, 1985; Rurnelhart, 1977) How ever, it is equa lly cle ar thatreadersengage in reading in orde r togain inform ati on

2.3 Some Approaches Affecting Reading Process

2.3.1 The Schema Theory Model

Schema theory can be understood as the mental structure whichstores

in our mind or knowledge,called Sch emsts The the ory ofcompreh en sion based

on schemata is sche ma theory This theory is proposed firstly by the psychologistBarlett (1932) According to schema theory , comprehending a text is aninteractive process between the reader's background knowl edge and the te xt.That means to be a good read er; one can relat e efficie ntly his/he r ownbackground knowledge to the text

To sche me theory, the process of interpretation is guided by theprinciple that every input is mapped against some existin g sche ma and all

aspe cts of that sche ma must be com patible with the input inform at ion Thisprinciple results in two basic mod e s of inform ati on proce ssin g , nam el y bott om-

up, and top-down processing

M.A Thesis in TESOL

2.3.2.The Bottom-Up and Top-Down Approaches

written symbo ls into aura l equiva le nts According to this approach , a read er

decodes to tran slate letters into sounds, then blends these le tte rs and sounds into

words and puts words togeth e r into sente nces and finally builds up the te xt andits me an ing Thus, the bottom-up is call ed "dat a-dri ven ", outside the he ad" or

"phonics approa ch "

Accord ing to Frank Smith (1978) in his book U nderstanding R eading.

he pre sented a "psyc ho linguistic" approach to reading He point ed out that

phonics approach simply does not work Smith and othe rs de veloped an

alte rna tive calle d top-down approach This is also viewed as the "inside-out ",

conce ptua lly drive n", "inside the he ad " or psych linguistic approach" It

sugges ts that the me an ing of the text exists in the re ade r' s mind and not in the

te xt itse lf He nce , it emp hasizes the reconstruction of meanings rather than the

decoding ofthe forms

approaches, both bottom-up and top-d own approaches, calle d an

interactive-co mpensatory-sim ultaneous a pproach to re adin g This approach suggests that

me anin gexists in the he ad of the re ad er and also in the te xt ;ther e fore the reader

can combine both the printed inform ati on and theirknowl edge about the world to

compreh end the te xt Furthermore , to Nunan (1995), re ad ers can use thei r

knowled ge of the conte nt of the te xt as well as the knowledge of the te xt

structure to re constru ctthe write r's origina l commu nica tive inwriting the te xt

2.4 Readers and Reading Lessons

2.4.1 Readers and Readers' Contribution to Comprehension :

13

M.A Thesis in TESOL

Rivers and Temperly (1978:187) suggeste d that there are sev e n ma in

purpose s for re ad ing :

(1 )To obtai n inform at ion for some purpose s or because we are curiousabout the topic;

(2)To obtai n instru ction s on how to performsome task for our work or

dail y life (e.g know inghow anapplia nce works);

(3)To act ina play,play a game ,do a puzzle;

(4) To ke ep in tou ch with friends by corres po nde nce or to unde rstand

(7 )For enjoyment or excite me nt

Actu all y, people ' s re asons for re ading can be divide d 10 three main

catego ries:

(1 )Readi ng for surviva l

(2)Read ing for le arnin g

(3)Reading for ple asure

It might be expecte d that many profi cien cy stude nts would choose to

read for ple asure in their own language , altho ug h moti vati on for doin g so in

English might be the impossibil ity Re adin g for surviva l can obviou sly be

expec te d in an Eng lish spea king country, but in othe rcoun tries re ad ing might forwork

Most of be ginn ing stude nts' re ading purpose in L2 is reading for their

le arning - more specifica lly the le arning of English Really, what do the y want

M.A Thesis in TESOL C hapt er 2: 6il\Zraluf\z'R.\Z vi\Z\v

to le arn? Sim ply they re ad to impro ve their vocabulary, to maste r rules of

gramma r, but put "learni ng to re ad " ata lower level of priority

It has been acknowledge d that re ad ing is a se lf-discov e ry proce ss, and

in this process, re ad ers interact with writte n te xts by investing cognitive as well

as met acogni tive efforts to deconstru ct the incoming information in orde r to

mak e or infe r the me anin g From thisproce ss, readi ng comprehension isthe final

produ ct

This study is dealing with an instru cti on al fra mewor k that views

readin g in anothe r la ngua ge This framework rel at es to two areas: the read ers

and the text

As mention ed above, at the be ginn ing of the late 1960s and 1970s,

rese a rch demonstrated that the roles of the readers pla y an importan t part in

comp re he nsion based on the schema theory

According to schema theories, all knowledge is packa ged into

units.These unitsare the schemata (plura lofschema) Embedd ed in

these packages of knowledge is, in additionto the k owled ge itself,

informa tionab ut howthis knowledge isto be used Aschema,then,

is a data structure for re presentin g the gene ric conce pts stored in

mem ory (Rumelhart 1980:34)

Based on the " sche ma ta"- person al knowledge and experie nce about

the world , re ad ers contribute much work to comprehens io n Rumelhart (1977)

proposed an interacti ve model in which there is an existing of different kinds of

kno wledge sources in different le vels of lingu ist ic re presentat ion (fea ture, letter

cluster, le xical, syntac tic, and sema ntic k owledge ) In this model, these

compone nts of knowl edge interact simultaneously and in paralle l on the

incom ing writte n input Lee and Vanpatt en (1995:190) demonstra ted tha t each

read e r re lie s on to und e rstand and re ctsdiffe rently to the source of informat ion;

for example, two learners of Ital ian with the same lang age profi ciency might

15

M.A Th esis in TESOL

each re ad an article ofItalian politi cs with differe nt re sults The reader wh has

politi cal background knowl edge will likely compre he nd more than the one wh

has music al back ground just be cause the y proce ss different kind of knowledge

andapply diffe rently that knowl ed ge

According to inte rac tive mod el , compre he nsion is built up by the

inte raction betwe en re ad ers' knowled ge sources and the writte n input In fact,

reade rs ca n connect new inform ati on on the printed page and the ir existing

knowledge

McNeil (1984 :5) sugges te d that the proc e ss of readi ng involves

"active ly cons truc ting me an ing amo ng the parts ofthe te xt and bet we en the te xt

and person al expe rie nce The te xt itse lf is a blueprint for me a ning " Lee and

Vanp att en (1995: 192) expla ine d that someo ne must ta ke a bluep rint and use to

make the building; "blue print" is not the build ing Simi lar ly, the te xt guides

compre he nsio n but it isnot compreh en sion The reade r tak e s the te xt and give s i

m eanm g.

Uns wo rth (1985 ) also indicat ed that "the kno wle dge that already

exists insid e the re ad er' s he ad, e.g knowledge of the world, of langu age

functions , of the purpose s of written mat e rial s and con vention s of writte n

lan guage, etc is more importa nt to compre he ns ion than the inform at ion tha t

actuall y appears on the printed page." This view is In agree me nt with

Goodm an ' s opinion (1982) He adde d that the rel at ion shi p bet we en the readers

and the writer is esta blishe d throu gh te xts Mor e over, Nuttall (1982) found tha t

"the write r and the re ad er sho uld ha ve certai n assumptions abo ut the world and

the wa y it look s." In her vie w , a simple way of sho wing how the write r and the

re ad er ma y sha re certai n kind s ofexperie nce can be illustrat ed as follow:

M A Thesis in TESOL

Area ofsha r ed assumptions

Figure 2.4 1:Pre supp osition and Communicat ion (Nutta ll, 1982)

The sha de d area where the two circles overla p repre sent s the things

that the two pe opl e have in commo n: knowled ge of the lan gu age But there arc

still intan gible things like attitudes , beli e fs, values and all unspoken assumptions.Thus, the unshaped area is the thing that is not sha re d: expe rience and

knowledge that bel ong to each individu al

In gene ra l, re ad er s' contribution to the compre he ns ion is their

per sonal "da ta struc tures"-sche ma ta They bring thei r own know ledge and

experie nce tothe ta sk of re ad ing

2.4.2 Reading Texts and Benefits of Reading Texts

It is cle ar that during the re ad ing proce ss, the re ad er must engage with

the text, the secondele me ntofthe interaction

A te xt always cont ains me aning, and re ad er extrac ts me ani ng from it

It is observe d that every re ad er gets the me aning from the te xt in a differe nt

way, since this text which is easy to one person but might seem difficult to

another in le xis, synta x, conce pt, etc In additio n, Le e &Vanpa tten (1995)

claim ed that "lang uage of the te xt doe s have a role in re adin g compre he nsion,but instru ctors should not vie w the lan gu age of the te xt as the only criterion forjudgin g the te xt' s appro pria te ness."

17

M.A Thesis in TES OL

Beside the be nefits that the texts bring to the read ers, Nuttall (1982)

listed three main difficultiesthat the te xt bringsto the process ofcompre he nsion

They are the amountof b ackgro und kn owledge that the re ad er brings to the text;

the c o mplexity o f th e c on cepts ex pressed, and the v ocab ul a r y p rob lem. Lee an

Vanp att en (1995) adde d that not only d es ch ice the l exical p rob l em affect

compre he nsion; the w ay inf orm ati on i s o r ga ni ze d does too While Berman(1984) sh wed the ditti cult y o f s y nt a x ,Cooper (198 ) emp hasized the problem swith co hesive d evices - the relation ship betwe en sentences He also claimedthat the se are the problemsthat the te xt brings to re ad ers

To understand a te xt, it is ne ce ssar y for re ad ers to understan d the

sentence in it It is not really a simple task at all In fact, the me an ings of the

sente nces dep end on the meanings of the words, the structure relati on betwe en

the sente nces in the text Furthermore, to get the me anin g of the wh le text, the

read ers must understand the meaning of a discourse - a text - by combining the

sente nces The finalproduct isa full interpretation

In brief, re ad ing is viewed as a complex process In the sense that it

involves thre e ele me nts - r eader, te xt, and th e w riter. But the interaction

between the reader and the text is mor e emphasiz ed than the one of the re ader

and the writer

2.5 LI and L2 Interferences

Grabe, W (1999) in his article clai ms that re adin g in a secon

lan gu age is influen ced b man y factors, which are normally not con sid ered inL I

re ad ing re se arch These factors ma y be rel ated to L2 acquisition and tra ining

background differences (lan gu age processin g differen ce s an social conte xtdifferences)

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chapter 2: 6itereture'Rl2vie\v

L2 learners typical1y have not already learnt a large store of orallanguage vocabulary; nor do they have a fairly complete sense of the grammar

of the language

Differences between Ll and L2 can be seen in the aspects of

voca bulary recognition, syntactic and discourse levels, and reading abilitiesbased on social contexts

On a very basic level, language-processing differences can influenceL2 students' vocabulary recognition In fact, students' Ll syntactic knowledgecan cause interference In addition, word-order variation, relative clauseinformation, complex noun phrase structures, complex structural differencesbetween Ll and L2 can also mislead ESL readers, especially at beginningstages Orthographic differences between students' Ll and English can beviewed as additional difficulties

Linguistic differences at syntactic and discourse levels are more likely

to have an influence on reader comprehension Research by Bernhardt (]YX7)cited by Grabe (1999), which used eye-movement studies of German readers,has found that German readers focus more attention on function words than dotluent readers in English This suggests that German need to pay more attention

on the syntactic information encoded into functional words On the discourselevels Carrel1 (1984a) in her study on different language background stude nts

conclude s that different cultures may prefer different ways of orgaruzinginformation

Differences in reading abilities of ESL students may also be attributed

to the social contexts in students' first language Smithies (1983) claims thatstudents who come from the communities with limited literacy among thepopulation may downplay the importance of literacy skil1s and do very little inextensive reading Moreover, Grabe (1991) added that the social context of

19

M.A Thesis in TESOL Cheptzr 2: 6illZralurlZ 'RpJilZWstudents' uses of reading in their first languages and their success to the textsmay have a profound effect on their abilities to develop academic reading skills

in English

2.6 Reading Skills

Grellet (1981: 12-13) developed a useful typology of reading strategies

He identified three main types of strategy: sensitizing, improving readingspeech, going from skimming to scanning

1 Sensitizing is subcategorized into:

o making inferences

o understanding relations within the sentence

o linking sentences and ideas

2 Going from skimming to scanning includes:

3 Classroom techniques using these strategies includes:

o ordering a sentence of pictures

o comparing texts and pictures

o matching, using illustrations

o completing a document

o mapping it out

o jigsaw reading

o reorganizing the information

o comparing several texts

o summanzmg

M.A Thesis in TESOL

o note taking

According to Nuttall (1982), there are a number of reading skills:

1 Word- attack skills:

o morphological information

o structural clues

o inference

o active,receptive vocabulary

o learning to ignore difficult words

o using a dictionary

2 TeXI- attack skills: Signiticstion and Cohesion

o understanding sentence syntax

o recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices

o interpreting discourse makers

3 TeXI- attack skills: Discourse

o recognizing functional value

o tracing and interpreting rhetorical organization

o recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text

o recognizing implications and making inferences

o prediction

o integration and application

Harmer (1991) in his work categorizes reading skills into main type:

Type I and Type 2.Type I skills are those operations that students perform onthe text itself when they read it at the first time They might be asked to look atthe text and extract specific information They might read to get the general

ideas or to perform another task Type I skills are those that include ofpredictive skills, extracting specific information, and getting the general picture

r , L A 1 ~ : : ; ;' ~ i 21

L ~ - : " J

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chepter 2: Litzreturz 'R~\li ~\vType 2 skills are generally concerned with a more detailed analysis of the text.They may help students to develop their ability in guessing, identifying thediscourse markers and investigating the writer's opinion and attitude Those areextracting detailed information, recognizing function and discourse patterns anddeducing meaning from context.

Grabe (1999) sums up a set of six component skills in reading based

on the work of many researchers Carpenter & Just (1986); Carr & Levy (1(90):Haynes& Carr, (1990); Rayner& Pollatsek (1989):

1 Automatic recognition skills

2 Vocabulary and Structural knowledge

3 Formal discourse structure knowledge

4 Content/ world background knowledge

5 Synthesis and evaluation skills/ strategies

6 Metacognitive knowledge

Many cognitive psychologists now see the development ofautomaticity in reading, particularly in word identification skills, as critical totluent reading (Adams, 1990; Beck & Me Keown, 1986; Gough & Juel, 1991;Perfetti, 1991; Stanivich, 1991) Automaticity may be defined as occurring whenthe readers are unaware of the process (Adams, 1990; Just & Carpenter, 1987;Stanovich, 1990) Many of the researchers believe that automatic lexical access

is a necessary skill for the tluent readers, and many less-skilled readers lackautomaticity in lower-level processing

Nunan (1999: 265-266) sum m a rize s the strategies-based approache s

to reading tasks developed by teachers in the ELTU at Chinese University Heclaimed that by choosing the best strategies for different texts and purposes, it ispossible for second language readers to significantly increase both their readingspeed and their comprehension The typology is set out in the table:

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chapter2: Litzretur«'R.~vi ~w

It is important for studentsto have a clear purpose

1.Having a purpose and to keep in mind what they want 1: 0 gain from

the text

Conducting a quick survey of the text toidentify

2 Previewing the topic,the main idea ,and the organ iza tionof

the text

Looking quickly through the text toget a gen eral

3.Skimming idea of what is about

Looking quickly through the text inorde r to locate

4.Scanning specific information

5.Clustering Reading clusters of wordsas a unit

6 Avoiding bad habit Avoiding habits such as readingword-b y-word

7 Predicting Anticipating what is to come

8.Reading actively Asking Question s and then reading for answe rs

9.Inferring Identifying ideas that are not explicitlystated

Identifying the overall organizational pattern ofaIO.Identifying genres text

Identifying the organizationa lstructure of a

11.Identifying paragraph,for example , whatev er it follows anparagraph structure inductive or deductive pattern

12.Identifying sentence Identifying the subject and the main verbin

structure complex sentences

13.Noticing cohesive Assigning correct referents toproforms ,and

devices identifying the function of conjunctions

Using contexts as well asparts ofwords (e g

14.Inferring unknown prefixes, suffixes, and stems)to work out the

vocabulary meaning of unknown words

15.Identifying Understanding the use of figurative language andfigurative language metaphors

16.Using background Using what one already knows to understand newknowledge ideas

Understanding the writer's purpose in using17.Identifying style and different stylistic devices, such as a series of shortits purpose or long sentences

Reading critically and assessing the truth-valueof

18.Evaluating textual information

Tracking ideas that are developed acro ss the text

23

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chapter2: 6ilflralurfl'R.flviflw

Understanding the text fully and then presenting it

before the students have seen the text The main purpose of while-reading stage

ost-reading is intended to help students consolidate and reflect upon what has beenread

Lead-in: In this stage the teacher and the students prepare themselves for

the reading tasks and familiarize themselves with the reading topic The major

read and arouse their interest in the subject matter

Teacher directs comprehension task: at the beginning of this stage, the

This is where the teacher explains and directs the students' purpose for reading

M.A Thesis in TESOL Chapter 2: 6iteraturc'R.cvic\v

Teacher directs feedback This is the stage in which students can checktheir answer with each other first When students have performed the task theteacher will help students to see if they are successful with their task completionand find out how well they have done

Teacher directs text-related task The teacher will then organize somekind of follow-up task related to the text The materials, which ha ve the follow-

up tasks, are called the text-related task The reason for text-related tasks is veryclear When students have finished their work on comprehension skills, in otherwords, the teacher could expect them to read or to do something with the text,for example, giving opinions about what they have just read, writing a post card.summarizing the content of the text, etc

Doff, A (1988) claimed that the pre-reading stage is very important Hepersuaded by focusing on talking about reading in general To Doff, in our reallife, we normally read because we want to read, not ha ve to read. We usuall yhave specific purpose in reading: we want to find out some thing, we want tocheck or classify some information, we want to match against our own opinions

to others, etc Moreover, some time s we read for our pleasure: we want to seehow the story develops and what happens next, etc The teachers, in fact, havecertain questions in our mind before we read, and also make a number ofpredictions or guesses Particularly, A Doff suggested variety of tasks in the pre-reading stage, such as giving a few guiding questions or signpost question s;students are given a summary of the text with gaps; stude nts decide true or falsefor the given statements referring to the text; students write a list of things theyknow about the topic, or stude nts discuss the topic and give their point of vie w.Next, in the last stage of reading procedure, Doff also pointed out that questionsare still necessary to check comprehension and bring stude nts full understandingthe text In fact, asking questions give two main aims to stude nts : to chec k

25

M.A The sis in TESOL

compre he ns io n and to help stude nts to re ad the te xt Furthe rmo re, one of the

simples t kinds of readin g task is for stude nts to re ad a te xt and note down the

ma in infor ma tio n in the form of a tabl e or a cha rt; this helps stude nts to organize

the informati on in the te xt in a cle ar and logical way Fina lly, in post-read ing

task , he sugges te d eliciting a person al re sp on se , whic h concl udes of some kinds

of pe rson al que stion s The se que sti on s, to him, also focu s stude nts' atte ntio n on

the te xt itself and mak e them re ad itcarefully

In othe r studies, there are some effective stra tegy te ach ing method s that

mod e rn re adin g re se ar ch ers usu all y divide re adin g stra teg ies into two maj or

cate gorie s: cog nitive st rategies in r eading and m etucognitive s trategies i n

r eading. In gene ra l, studies in both first lan gu age (L l) and second lang uage (L2)

reading re se ar ch pro vide a binary divisi on of cognitive stra tegies as bott om- up

and top -d o wn (Bloc k, 1986 ;Carrell, 1989;Da vis & Bistod e au , 1993)

Acc ordin g to Aebersold and Fie ld (1997), during read ing, re ade rs' minds

repea ted ly engage in a varie ty of pro ce sse s Using bott o m-up stra teg ies, re ad ersstart by pro ce ssing informa tion at the sente nce le vel In other words, they focus

on identificati on of the me aning and grammati cal catego ries of a word, sente nce

syntax, te xt det ail s, and so forth As the y proce ss info rma tio n that each sente nce

give s them, the y chec k to see ho w this inform at ion fits, usin g top -do wn

stra teg ies suc h as back gr ound knowl edge , predi cti on , getting the gist of a te xt,

and skimmi ng (Ba rne tt, 1988; Carre ll, 1989)

Met acogniti ve stra te gies are stra teg ies that functi on to monitor or re gula tecognitive stra teg ies (Devi ne, 1993; Fla vel, 1981 ) The y include checking the

outco me of any atte mpt to solve the probl em, plannin g one's next move ,

monitoring the effec tive ness of any atte mpt actio n, te sting, revisi ng, andevalua ting one's stra teg ies for le arn ing (Ba rke r& Bro wn , 1984 : 354)

M.A Thesis in TESOL

Bereiter and Bird (1985) in their study in 11 contex t identified four rep airstrate gie s: r estatement, r e-reading, d em anding r elationship, a nd p roblem

to rmulation. Using the se four stra tegies, they cond uc te d an experime nta l study

with a "m odeling-plus-cxplsn stion " instructi on, which incl ude d an expla na tio n

of situa tio ns Bereiter and Bird conclude d that stude nts would not readilyacq uire

read ing stra tegies simply by imita ting mod el s; the y also ne ed compre he ns

ion-monitoring activities, which cons ist of re cogn izing comprehen sio n proble ms and

selecting repair stra teg ies

Emeksiz, Z E (2002) in his study cla imed that one of the commo n tools

the te ach e rs use to initia te interac tion in the classro om is asking que stion s This

study pro ved the effect on re ad ers' re adin g comprehe ns io n from the te ach e rs'

que stion s This study sugges te d some kinds of effective que stion s, suc h as

back ground que stion s, literal question s , impli cit que sti ons, and interp ret a tion

que sti ons In fact, b ackground qu estions are ask ed to act ivate / construct

back ground sche me essentia l for the le a rne rs ' interact ion with the te xt Lit eral

qu estions call for explic it info rma tion, which req uire the stude nts to find the

answ er simply ide ntify ing the right place in the te xt without giv ing a high er level

of cognitive effo rt The purpose of asking explicit que stion s is pro vidin g the

le arners a further ste p to find implicitl y give n informat ion Implicit qu estions arc

aske d when the inform ati on is contex tua lly implici t The le arn er is expec te d to

draw inference be yond surface meaning giv ing a high e r le vel ofcognitive effo rt

to re ad betwe en the line s So the learne r is engage d in high er-l e vel skill to find

the ans we r In terpretution qu estions call for producing ope n-e nde d answe rs suc h

as an event and express ing one's feelings abo ut the write r's opinio n, etc these

que sti on s,too, require le arn ers to use high er-le vel skills to find the ans wer

27

M A The sis in TESOL Chapter2 : 6iteraturiZ'RiZviiZ \oJ

In the firs tarticle ofRich ard R Da y,he discu ssed gra mmar tra nslati on

Ano the r article , he focused on the goal of compre he ns ion question s

and then do tasks compre he ns ion que sti on s and exercises foll owed In fact the

goa l of this approach is to get the knowl ed ge of gra mma tica l structures of a

fore ign lan gu age ,but not reading

a nd s trategies. Gene ra lly , a skills and stra tegies read ing le sson be gin s with the

ofte n invol ve s "pre -teac hing" certa in vocabula ry that appears in the reading

mind some of While -re adi ng que stion s After re adin g, the y share the answers in

require them to demon str ate a goalcompre he nsion of the text and their grasp of

particular reading skills or stra te gies, e.g.; findi ng the main idea; ma king

most influential book s on FL re adin g ski lls, claimed in that book that the focus is

M.A Thesis in TESOL

In fact, reading strategies indicate how readers conceive the task,

what textual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, andwhat really do when they do not understand (Block, 1996) Reading strategiescan be seen as a range from simple strategies such as simply rereading difficultsegments and guessing the meaning of unknown words from the context, to morecomprehensive strategies such as summarizing and relating what is being read tothe reader's background knowledge (Janzen, 1996)

Since the late 1970s, many ESL researchers have also begun torecognize the importance of the strategies EFLIESL students use while reading.Several empirical investigations have been conducted on reading strategies andtheir relationships to successful and unsuccessful second language reading(Kight, Pardon, & Waxman, 1985; Block, 1986; Jimener, Garcia, & Pearson,1995) Research in ESL indicated that more and less readers use different types

of strategies while reading Moreover, these studies have investigatedmetacognitive awareness of strategies and the relationships among awareness orperception of strategies, strategy use, and reading comprehension (Barnett,

1988; Carrell, 1989)

In recent years, a great deal of research in L I and L2 fields has beenconducted on reading strategies training Many studies have shown that readingstrategies can be taught to students and strategies can improve students'

performance on tests of comprehension and recalls (Carrell, 1985) Bolek ( 1986)also supported that reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, whattextual cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and whatthey do when they do not understand

In other studies on strategic reading, reading researchers usuallydivide reading strategies into two major categories:cognitiveand metacognitive.

29