An investigation of using strategies to learn reading of english majored freshmen at tay do university

9 2.2.2 Three common strategies in reading: skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning from the context .... The result shows that the students are less interested in learning reading t

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACUTLY OF LINGUISTICS AND

so that I could smoothly finish the research

Secondly, I would like to demonstrate my thanks to the students of English 12 who completed the questionnaire in my study

Finally, I want to send another special gratitude to my parents for their love, belief and support They always encouraged and motivated me during the time of my process

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1

COMMENTS 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

ABSTRACT 5

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6

1.1 Rationale 6

1.2 The significance of the research 7

1.3 Organization of the research 8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Definitions of reading 9

2.2 Reading strategies 9

2.2.1 Definition of reading strategies 9

2.2.2 Three common strategies in reading: skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning from the context 10

2.3 Difficulties in learning reading 12

2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in reading 12

2.3.2 Grammatical structure 12

CHAPTER 3: RESEACH AIM-RESEARCH QUESTION-HYPOTHESIS 14

3.1 Research aim 14

3.2 Research questions 14

3.3 Hypothesis 14

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15

4.1 Research design 15

4.2 Research participants 15

4.3 Instrument 16

4.4 Procedure 16

CHAPTER 5: EXPECTED OUTCOME 17

5.2 Reading strategies 17

REFERENCES 18

APPENDIX 21

QUESTIONNAIRE 21

ABSTRACT

In order to achieve the goal of foreign language learners, students have to balance in studying all skills Without one of the skills, they cannot reach that goal Strategies play an important role in learning reading This present study entitled

“An investigation in using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen

at Tay Do University” focuses on this matter In this process, there were randomly

30 selected participants from class English 12 at Tay Do University Students would finish their opinions about the skill through delivered questionnaires The result shows that the students are less interested in learning reading than other skills because they have lacked reading strategies and vocabulary These findings suggests that English majored freshmen should pay more attention to learning reading if they do not waste more time to improve this skill in next years of university

Nowadays, English is considered as an international language which is the most

common language learning and spoken all over the world As Sozdinler (2008, p.1),

“English has an important role in the fields of medicine, education and engineering” Furthermore, most of documents in the world are translated into

English and saved for human community So learning English has become a great tool for people to approach new information and knowledge beside their mother language In effect, English becomes a compulsory subject that most of students pay much attention today

When learning a language, the students often focus on four basic skills such as Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing Among these skills, reading skill play a

role as important as others According to Cochran (1993, p.1), “Reading has played

a crucial role in the overall development of a language skill and even academic success for decades” Moreover, students can expand more knowledge of target language’s cultures and the world Atienza (2002, p.1) considers that “It is difficult

to approach listening and speaking if the readers do not learn reading skill” Besides, “students can learn how to think in the target language, they can learn how to use vocabulary effectively and they feel more comfortable with written language” (Mikulecky, 1986) Therefore, the attitude of students towards learning

this skill is important to improve this skill to higher levels, and they should spend more time on practicing regularly and actively However, English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University still face difficulties because of three main reasons which are identified as the lack of strategies, grammatical structure and vocabulary

In order to solve these difficulties directly, “it is worth equipping students with useful strategies” (Hismanoglu, 2000) The fact is that using strategies in doing

reading comprehension exercises is important because it could help students to capture the required information in an efficient manner Ben and David (2002, p.1)

states that “Readers often encounter problem in reading texts and have difficulties

in understanding meaning of the context but reading strategies help them in learning foreign language and reading comprehension” In fact, As Chamot (2005, p.25), “Students have their own preference of strategies, but in order to become motivated and select strategies to use, English foreign language learners should self-monitor their reading strategies” Besides, vocabulary is not a small difficulty for many foreign language learners According to Richatt Simcott (Oct 20, 2016),

“Learning vocabulary in any language is often one of the most challenging areas, because it never ends! This is true even of our own native languages We are constantly learning new words, as we could do in our mother tongue too if we continued to explore the language with the same vigor after finishing school”

Students do not need to learn all of words, but they can only learn vocabulary about areas that they pay attention and are curious Therefore, students are able to use multiple strategies, have enough vocabulary to pass the challenges occured in the reading process and even some grammatical structures as well as practice this skill for better result However, they sometimes lack basic strategies, vocabulary to understand and they do not know totally what strategies are and when they can apply them in practice

As my observation, the students are not confident in their reading ability because of the difficulties above Therefore, I wonder what difficulties English majored freshmen face and how they can overcome the difficulties Therefore, I would like

to have a small investigation to explore “Using strategies to learn reading of English majored freshmen at Tay Do University”

1.2 The significance of the research

Most studies have been contented to point out difficulties in learning reading of students, but it does not mention or clarify the strategies that they can use to learn the skill Therefore, this research is conducted to help these freshmen recognize the benefits of strategies in reading as well as apply them in practice Moreover, they can see their strong and weak points so that they will choose suitable solutions to solve their own difficulties effectively and get better result in learning reading and English as well

1.3 The organization of study

The research consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Literature review

Chapter 3: Research aim-Research question-Hypothesis

Chapter 4: Research methodology

Chapter 5: Expected outcome

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews clearly about conditions which are needed in learning

reading The first part makes clear the definition of reading The second part

discusses the definition of strategies and strategies in reading The final part is the vocabulary as well as its role in reading

2.1 Definition of reading

“Reading has been the subject of research for over a century” (Cheng, 1985, p.5)

This shows that there have been many researchers interested in reading before So reading has been defined in different ways based on various points of view The

definition shows that “Reading is a process whereby on looks at and understands what has been written” (Cited in McCarthy, 2002) Moreover, “Reading is a process that reader can see and understand reading information The efficiency of reading should be read in a group of words and try to understand some of the sentences but not all of the information” (William, 1986) This means learners

usually spend so much time understanding all information instead of trying to get some main points and read it in group of words to understand a total meaning as well as the message of texts So the speed and aim of reading are depended on the readers Sharing the same ideas, Aebersold and Field (1997, p.15) claim that

“reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to start” In addition, “The reason for reading depends very much on the purpose for reading The use of authentic materials in the classroom is discussed, with the student benefiting from the exposure to real language being used in a real context”, Sacha (2006)

2.2 Definitions of reading strategies and some common strategies in reading 2.2.1 Definition of reading strategies

According to D’ Arcangelo (2002, p.12-14), “Reading strategies are the tools which allow readers to be more actively involved while reading” Moreover,

when readers approach a text effectively to make sense of what they read” (Citied

in Pani, 2004, p.335) Furthermore, Rigney (1978) believes “Reading strategies are

of interest for what they reveal about the way readers manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension” Therefore,

not all strategies are balanced and equal of reading due to the types that readers apply suitable strategies on In general, reading strategies plays an important role in reading process

In short, reading strategies shows how readers interact and approach the text containing their required information and how their choice of strategies applying to the text, how they apply theory into reality in general as well In fact, there are

seven strategies in learning reading: previewing - is absolutely essential for students

to get a sense of what the text is about, contextualizing - it is always helpful for students to learn to place the text within a context, visualizing - involves organizing

the information in a visual way, usually through the use of a mind map or

other graphic organizers, asking and answering questions - Students need to come

up with questions they would like answered in the text and pay attention to how they are answered, summarizing, skimming, scanning And the following section

will focus on three important strategies in detail that seems useful for English majored freshmen at Tay Do university They are skimming, scanning, guessing the meaning from context, inference and reference

2.2.2 Three common strategies in reading: skimming, scanning and guessing the meaning from the context

Skimming

Skimming plays an important role in the strategy system Through skimming, students know how to get purpose of passage, the main topic, some of supporting details and general overview of the content quickly According to Nuttall (1982,

p.36), “By skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through a text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or to order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us”

Furthermore, Chamot (1987, p.74) indicates that “Skimming is the reading technique that is used to get a quick gist of a section or chapter The reader is not interested in tall the detail, getting the gist is enough Skimmers run their eyes down the page or screen looking for pointers that sum up the contexts” As the points

view above, there is a fact that students refers to the technique of reading passage quickly in order to get its gist Therefore, skimming is a popular strategy which requires an overview about the text as well as implies a good reading ability

In summary, by using this strategy, students can save much more time in reading a form of question types in a limited time In addition, it is also useful in some cases requiring readers point out the main idea of the reading passage

Scanning

Scanning is also an important factor, scanning is a necessary technique in reading

As Douglas (2001, p.308) views “Scanning is quickly searching for some particular piece or piece of information in a text” Sharing the same idea, Brown (2001, p.308) emphasizes “Scanning is a quickly searching for some particular piece of information in a text Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of a key concept, or to list a certain number of supporting details The purpose of scanning is to extract specific information without reading through the whole text” People only try to find specific information in scanning

and just use their eyes scan the text until they get what they are looking for, such as

a number, a name, Therefore, according to Grellet (1986), “Readers need to move their eyes quickly across the passages for particular words or phrases”

In brief, students have to read quickly in this strategy When applying scanning strategy, students can find the detail for question quickly instead of reading all the words in a reading text and easily finish true/false question

Guessing the meaning from the context

Guessing the meaning from the context is not less important than other strategies It

is an effective way for students to predict new words without dictionary According

when they face unfamiliar words” Furthermore, Smith (1964, p.3) says that

“Guessing the meaning of new words helps readers to readers to read and understand text quickly because difficult words usually create problems for students and are obstacles in reading comprehension” Guessing the meaning allows

students to improve vocabulary, know more idioms, texts and save more time when doing tests or a fast reading competition in limited time effectively such as TOIEC’s test, final reading tests at school

2.3 Difficulties in learning reading

2.3.1 Vocabulary and its role in reading

Vocabulary is very familiar to second and foreign language learners

A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language It is the key to communication There is a reason we tend to travel with a dictionary, not a

grammar book As the British linguist, David A Wilkins (2002) puts it: “without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” This proves that vocabulary always play an important role in learning a

foreign language, not only in communication but it is also a tool to test learners’ using English level Especially, in learning reading, readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean As children learn

to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary

2.3.2 Grammatical structure

Besides vocabulary, grammatical structure is also one of difficulties that learners have to face From elementary school, grammar and its structure are considered as main topic or important lessons In English grammar, grammatical structure is the

arrangement of words, phrases and clauses in a sentence “ To learn a language, we

must also learn its principles of sentence structure, and a linguist who is studying a