An investigation into difficulties in learning efl english reading comprehension faces by students at grade 11 a case sudy at no trang long ethnic minority boarding high school daklak province

ABSTRACT This research is carried out to investigate difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension faced by 11th grade students at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding Hig

TABLE OF CONTENT

Content Pages SUBCOVER PAGE

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 4

LIST OF TABLES 5

LIST OF CHARTS 6

ABSTRACT 7

CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales 8

1.2 Aims of the research 10

1.3 Objectives of the research 11

1.4 Research questions 11

1.5 Scope of the research 11

1.6 Significance of the research 12

1.7 The structure of the research 12

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Nature of reading and reading comprehension 13

2.1.1What is reading? 13

2.1.2 What is reading comprehension? 16

2.1.3 The importance of reading 17

2.1.4 Intensive reading and extensive reading 18

4.1.4.1 Intensive reading 18

4.1.4.2 Extensive reading 18

2.1.5 Different approaches in interpreting a text 19

2.1.5.1 Bottom-up approach 19

2.1.5.2 Top-down approach 20

2.1.5.3 Interactive model 21

2.1.6 Factors influencing reading comprehension 21

2.1.6.1 Background/ Schematic knowledge 21

2.1.6.2 Linguistic knowledge 22

2.1.6.2.a Vocabulary 22

2.1.6.2.b Syntax 23

2.1.6.2.c Cohesion 24

2.1.6.3 Readers‟ motivation 24

2.2 The learning of reading 25

2.2.1 Basic skills in reading 25

2.2.1.1 Skimming 25

2.2.1.2 Scanning 25

2.2.1.3 Word attack skill 26

2.2.2 Some strategies in reading 28

2.2.2.1 Knowing what to know in reading 28

2.2.2.2 Knowing how deeply to study the material 28

2.3 The teaching of reading 29

2.3.1 Techniques used in teaching reading 29

2.3.1.1 Techniques used in „Pre‟ reading 29

2.3.1.2 Techniques used in “While” stage 29

2.3.1.3 Techniques used in “Post” stage 29

2.3.2 Dealing with new words in teaching reading 29

2.3.3 The language of teachers‟ questions 30

2.4 The reading curriculum for grade 11 at high school 30

2.4.1 Content map for reading section 30

2.4.2 Requirements for 11th grade students at reading set by the MOET 32

2.5 Summary 32

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research methods 34

3.2 Subjects 35

3.3 Data collection instruments 37

3.3.1Questionnaires 37

3.3.2 Oral semi-instructed interviews 39

3.3.3 Reading Test 40

3.4 Data collection procedure 41

3.5 Data analysis 45

3.6 Summary 45

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION 4.1 Perceptions of students of reading comprehension 47

4.1.1 The purposes of reading comprehension 47

4.1.2 The role of reading skill to students‟ English learning 49

4.1.3 Level of students‟ interest in English reading 50

4.1.4 Frequency that students read in English 50

4.1.5 Students‟ favorite genres for reading 51

4.2 The reality of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension at NTL EMBHS 53

4.2.1 Mental factors hindering students from reading comprehension 53

4.2.2 Psychological factors hindering students from reading comprehension 55

4.2.3 Activities carried out by the teacher in reading sections 57

4.2.4 Activities used to monitor the class in reading sections by the teachers 59

4.2.5 Activities done by the students in learning reading 61

4.2.6 Skills applied by the students in reading a text 63

4.2.7 Factors relating to learning material which usually hindered students from reading comprehension 64

4.2.8 Students‟ result of doing a reading test 65

4.2.9 Skills that students are able to apply in English reading after six years of leaning English reading 66

4.3 Solutions to help students improve their reading competence 68

4.3.1 Things that the teacher should apply in teaching reading comprehension 68

4.3.2 Activities that teacher should do in teaching reading comprehension 71

4.3.3 Things that students should do to be good at English reading 72

4.3.4 Characteristics of a reading text to help students read effectively 74

4.3.5 Overall elements beneficial for students‟ English reading comprehension 76

4.4 Conclusion 77

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1Conclusion 78

5.2 Implications 81

5.2.1For the leaders at NTL EMBHS 81

5.2.2 For the textbook designers 81

5.3 Limitation of the research 81

5.4 Recommendation for further research 82

REFERENCES 83 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Findings from questionnaire

Appendix 2: Findings from the reading test

Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students

Appendix 4: Bảng câu hỏi điều tra cho học sinh

Appendix 5: Questions to interview teachers

Appendix 6: Questions to interview students

Appendix 7: Reading Test

REFERENCES

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

NTL EMBHS : No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School

TEFL : Teaching of English as a Foreign Language

MOET : Ministry of Education and Training

GCSE : General Certificate of Secondary Education

LIST OF TABLES Pages

2.4.1: Content map for reading sections 30

3.4: Data Collection Procedure 44

3.6: Research questions, data collections instruments and data analysis 46

4.1 1: The purposes of reading comprehension 47

4.1.5: Students‟ favorite genres for reading 51

4.2.1: Mental factors that usually hindered students from reading comprehension 53

4.2.2: Psychological factors that usually hindered students from reading comprehension 55 4.2.3: Activities carried out by the teacher in teaching reading 57

4.2.4: Activities used to monitor the class in reading sections by the teacher 59

4.2.5: Activities usually done by the students in learning reading 61

4.2.6: Skills applied by the students in interpreting a text 63

4.2.7:Factors relating to Learning material hindering students from reading comprehension 64

4 2.9: Skills that students are able to apply in English reading after 6 years of learning English reading 66

4.3.1 :Things that the teacher should apply in teaching reading comprehension 68

4.3.2 : Activities that teacher should do in teaching reading comprehension 71

4.3.3: Things that students should do to be good at reading 72

4.3.4: Characteristics of a reading text to help students read effectively 74

4.3.5:Overall beneficial elements for students‟ English reading competence 76

LIST OF CHARTS Pages

4.1.2: The role of reading skill to students‟ English learning 49

4.1.3: Level of students‟ interest in English reading 50

4.1.4: Frequency that students read in English 50

4.2.8: Students‟ result of doing a reading test 66

ABSTRACT

This research is carried out to investigate difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension faced by 11th grade students at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School (NTL EMBHS) in Daklak province and therefore to offer appropriate suggestions to help the students at the school improve the learning

of EFL English reading comprehension To gain this target, data collection instruments, namely a questionnaire for students, semi-instructed interviews with students and teachers of English and a reading test for students, were applied in this research All of data gained from investigation process was analyzed with both qualitative and quantitative methods The result of data analysis showed that 11thgrade students at the school did not face any difficulties relating to the issue of perceptions of reading comprehension However, a number of difficulties hindering the students from reading comprehension were found to be caused by teaching method of the teachers, by learning method of the students and by learning material

In other words, shortcomings relating to students‟ learning motivation, knowledge

of linguistic elements along with shared knowledge and reading habit and teachers‟ guiding questions are those necessary to concern to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension for 11th grade students

at the school Long texts, complicated language and the lack of illustrations in reading texts, additionally, were found to exert negative influences on students‟ reading comprehension Similarly, the lack of supplementary reading material and lack of dictionaries also hindered the students from improving their reading competence Consequently, solutions relating to these shortcoming were pointed out with the desire to make the learning of EFL English reading comprehension of 11thgrade students at the school become more effective

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In the context that Vietnam is undergoing a vigorous change to integrate into the world, foreign languages, especially English, do clearly define their vital roles as

a linguistic bridge between the country and other countries It cannot be denied that English as a Foreign Language is considered as one of the beneficial means of international communication and partly contributes to the development of Vietnam Therefore, English holds essential positions in all fields in the society and especially

in education and training whose main aim is to enrich intellectual human resources for all of working branches at all levels Accordingly, the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language in Vietnam always receive a great deal of concern from governmental and local authorities, from managers and trainers of education and definitely from teachers and learners of English Nevertheless, we have to admit that there are still many problems existing in the teaching and learning English for EFL learners at every region all over the country, at both Plains and High Lands As

a matter of fact, even though many efforts have been done in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Vietnamese learners‟ English competence still hardly meets the proposed educational requirements Recent rate of the students passing in English, which has been taught nationally from lower to higher secondary schools, in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) has showed an alarming situation According to the document No 370/BC-BGDDT by the Ministry

of Education & Training of Vietnam, the average mean of students passing in English in the GCSE in 2010 accounted for only 57,30 %, being lowest in comparison with other compulsory subjects of the exam This number indicates that the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of EFL in Vietnam is still rather limited Particularly, EFL teaching and learning in the Central Highland of Vietnam, especially in Daklak province still leave problems which are worth being concerned Regional characteristics of a mountainous area partly lead to the fact that educational conditions in Daklak province are comparatively poorer than other

areas In detail, mountainous position of the province seems to make it lack essential elements for effective EFL English teaching and learning such as English material, teaching aids, EFL effective learning environment Especially, from the experience gained from my own teaching context, I find that EFL learners face many problems

in their learning They cannot learn English as being expected and therefore English subject tends to be a burden to the learners Some of my students reveal that they feel frightened to EFL learning Moreover, they admit to “know nothing” after a long period spent on EFL learning, which partly leads to the fact that learners‟ motivation in learning foreign language simultaneously becomes affected In reality, there have been many times when I stepped out of EFL classes, with the role of a teacher of English, my mind was full of worries about the students‟ motivation and attitudes in English learning In classes, most of the students seem to be rather passive, unwilling and even lazy in English learning Gradually, these worries have partly made me have unsatisfying feelings in carrying out my teaching job, which generally makes my own teaching ineffective and certainly lead to negative affects

on the learning of students To improve this situation, Nuttal (2000, p.10) pointed

“recognizing that you have problems is the first step to solving them” In other words, with the desire to improve EFL learning and teaching, I find it necessary to find out difficulties and the reasons of this matter

Additionally, the reality of English-skill learning is worth being taken into account in the current context It cannot be denied that in current educational conditions, there are many advantages in EFL learning especially of English They are, for instance, the advantages of foreign language textbooks compiled from communicative approach‟s viewpoints which could help EFL learners practice all of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In addition, facilities equipment for foreign language teaching and learning like CD-players, language laboratory rooms, visual aids and such of things have gradually been improved Besides, EFL learners have also an environment to practice their target language in the real life when there are more and more foreigners coming to many

could improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of language skills Nevertheless, the learning of skills of English language still faces a great deal of difficulties, especially the ones in learning EFL English reading comprehension These difficulties possibly caused by teaching methods, learners‟ motivation, from learners‟ learning styles and partly from remaining shortcomings of learning materials They might also caused by the shortage of supplementary reading material for EFL learners to practice reading skills outside of classroom Besides, the difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension might simultaneously be afffected by the lack of space for extensive reading in English textbooks Such difficulties in the learning of EFL English reading seems to be familiar to many high schools in Daklak province, where the material and intellectual sources mentioned previously tend not to be equipped fully As a matter

of fact, No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School in Daklak province

is no exception

Many educational researches on different issues relating to EFL reading comprehension have been done by different researchers, including both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese ones However, difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension still leave many things to study, especially at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School, Daklak province Meanwhile, I am really concerned and interested in studying difficulties that students at the school encounter in learning EFL English reading comprehension

For these reasons, I managed the time to do this research with the wish to contribute a humble part to improving the quality of EFL learning in general and the quality of learning EFL English reading comprehension in particular

1.2 Aims of the research

This research aims to understand the nature of EFL learning in general and EFL English reading comprehension in particular at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School In addition, the studying of the nature of difficulties that the students face in learning EFL Reading is also targeted and

therefore suitable solutions could be proposed to help the students overcome their difficulties and make the learning of EFL English reading become more effective

1.3 Objectives of the research

The specific purposes of the research are:

- To study the 11th grade students‟ perception of EFL English reading

This research aims to look for the answers to the questions as follows

1 What are the students‟ perceptions of EFL English reading comprehension?

2 What is the reality of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School?

3 What are suitable solutions to help the students overcome the difficulties?

1.5 Scope of the research

As being discussed previously, within a great deal of aspects relating to reading, this research only focuses on the difficulties faced by 11th grade learners in learning EFL English reading at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School Therefore, the findings of this research might reveal obstacles to 11th grade students but not to other grades at this school In other words, the results of this research is only gained from a particular context and therefore should not be applied

to other contexts

1.6 Significance of the research

This research focuses on exploring difficulties that students at grade 11 face

in learning EFL English reading It is supposed that the findings gained from the process of doing research could partly help EFL learners overcome obstacles in learning EFL English reading comprehension Hence, they could be helpful in developing the quality of EFL English learning in particular and in improving learners‟ intellect and knowledge in general

1.7 The structure of the research

This research is divided into five chapters Each chapter is briefly described

- Chapter 3: Methodology, is the place where methodology orientation, data collection instruments, detailed information of the participants, the procedure of doing the research and the data analysis are discussed

- Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions, analyzes and interprets results gaining from the investigating process

- Chapter 5: Conclusion, provides key findings and offers recommendations to partly help the learning of EFL English reading become effective

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter reviews theories of reading comprehension in nature, the learning of reading, the teaching of reading and the requirements of reading skills for 11th grade students at high school In detail, within the discussion on the nature

of reading comprehension, the definition of reading and reading comprehension, the role of reading in EFL, types of reading, approaches in processing a text and factors influencing reading comprehension would be clarified The lateral sections focus on basic reading skills and strategies which should be practiced by students in learning reading Similarly, essential elements relating to the teaching of reading such as techniques of a reading lesson are also mentioned in the next part The final section

in this chapter is the discussion of requirements at reading set by MOET for 11thgrade students All of these aspects are expected to form essential theoretical base for the researcher to have a clear and correct direction to conduct the investigation

2.1 NATURE OF READING AND READING COMPREHENSION

2.1.1 What is reading?

Reading is defined in 7th Edition Oxford Dictionary as “the activity of somebody who reads” while “to read” is explained as “to go through written or printed words or symbols or to look at and understand the meaning of written or printed words or symbols” (ibid.) Basing on these definitions, “reading” could be either free from “understanding” or to couple with “understanding” In the first definition, reading might be viewed as pronouncing the words or symbols but it is not necessary to understand them while in the second one, “reading” means not only

“looking at” what appears in front of the readers‟ eyes but also understanding their meanings Sharing the same viewpoints on reading, it was claimed that reading has been defined in three basic ways which leads to three meanings of learning to read Firstly, learning to read means learning to pronounce word Secondly, learning to read means learning to identify words and get their meaning Lastly, learning to read means learning to bring meaning to a text in order to get meaning from it (“Definition of reading”, 2011) Obviously, the definition of reading is just traced

correctly basing on what one intends to do or really can do in dealing with words or discourse Reading intention might depend on various readers and on different things they read (Nutall, 2000) For instance, one reads a label on a medicine bottle because he is just curious about what appears in front of his eyes but one who reads

a telephone directory might want to search for a phone number while one who reads

a novel might want to gain pleasure in his living Meanwhile, one reads a letter from

a friend because he not only wants to get information but also to maintain his relationship with the friend Hence, with the diversity of reading purposes, the nature of reading is not easy to be clarified However, whatever one‟s reason for reading is, it seems that he is not totally interested in the pronunciation of what he reads or in the grammatical structures used The reader reads because he wants to get some information from the writing Hence, reading for meaning is the central goal of reading process (Nutall, ibid) That is the reason why definition of “reading”

in the close relation with “understanding” would be mainly discussed in the following section of this chapter

In detail, reading is defined as “a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of deriving meaning and/or constructing meaning (“Reading (process)”, 2010) To other scholars, reading is also defined in a number

of ways with different words but they seem to have the same view on reading nature which has been discussed in the previous section - reading for meaning In specific, William (1984, cited from Hoang, 2007) claimed that “reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands given text” while Nunan (2003, p.68) pointed that

“reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning” In other words, reading is a perceptive skill that the reader is said to receive and process information given in the written or printed form in order to understand their meaning In this interactive process, Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H.(1984) pointed that two essential elements should be concerned are the reader and the text These two authors put the emphasis

on the mutual connection between the reader and the text in reading They claimed that “text must have readers, readers must have something to read, and reading is

necessarily interactive” (ibid., p.16) In interactive reading, a reader is said to use a number of skills to interpret and “get out” something from a text However, both the process of reading (the use of various reading skills to interpret a text) and the product of reading (the things got out from the text) are not the same to various readers Even when the readers use similar skills, they tend to gain different level of understanding Hence, to have a full discussion on reading, both reading process and products of reading should be taken into account (Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H., ibid.) In other words, in reading, what a reader should do to explore the meaning of the text and how he understands about the text are both worth being concerned

In addition, it cannot be denied that the text with which the reader must engage during reading process has it own features influencing the reader‟s products

or effectiveness in the reading process These features might be the readability and simplification which could be contributed by the level of linguistic units such as

“structures, words, clause and sentence relationships or whatever” (ibid., p.22) From the analysis of interaction between a text and its reader, it logically leads to another definition given by Widdowson (1979, cited from Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H., 1984) which considers reading as “the process of getting linguistic information via print” Widdowson‟s definition is supposed to be a useful, corrective and traditional linguistic view Meanwhile, reading is also viewed as complex cognitive activities (Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H., 1984) On the other hands, Nutall (2000) took the reading into account along with the communication process in which there is another element except for the reader and the text as being discussed by Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H., the element of the writer In brief, the communication process is stimulated through the encoding of the writer‟s message by putting it into words within a text and the reader‟s decoding of the text Nutall (2000) then claimed that “reading means getting out of the text as nearly as possible the message the writer put in it” However, in this communicative process, the reader makes contact with the text and the writer but his role is emphasized not

to be passive in letting all of what is poured into his mind In fact, “not all the

text, simultaneously, could be easy to one person but seems to be difficult to another

In sum, reading is a cognitive, interpretive and perceptive process in which the reader activates his knowledge, using suitable skills to interpret the text, gaining essential information and try to understand it Being defined in this way,

“understanding” could be considered as the final central goal of reading Hence, it is undoubted that even “understanding” is not obligatorily inevitable part but is an essential one of reading For this reason, the giving of “reading comprehension” definition seems to be still beneficial

2.1.2 What is reading comprehension?

To define reading comprehension, Grellet (1981, p.3) stated that

“understating a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible” This definition builds up the “comprehending” of a text as a process in which the reader has to apply reading skills to “extract” and understand the meaning of the text Absolutely, to be successful in this process the reader is expected to find out what is “the required information” of a text, which means that

he is able to reject irrelevant information and focuses on essential one of a text to have effective reading

It can be seen that reading comprehension is defined with the initial focus of

“understanding” while reading is first defined with the focus of “looking at” and then along with “understanding” In other words, understanding or comprehension is the evident nature of “reading comprehension” while those might be one of the goals of “reading” As discussed above, even the purpose of reading is to get information or to read for pleasure; it is very hard for the readers to continue reading without understanding what they are reading In addition, the subjects of this research are high school students whose intention in dealing with reading is to read

to learn Consequently, either stated by the term “reading” or “reading comprehension”, the reading in this research all means to “read for meaning”

With the definition of reading in the close relation with “meaning”,

“meaning” could be considered as one of the things that could be got out from a text Moreover, reading activity certainly bring other benefits To make this matter clarified, the next part of the study is devoted to discuss on the importance of reading

2.1.3 The importance of reading

It is well-known that reading is one of the leisure activities of many people

In the nature of things, an avid reader could spend hours reading since reading does become a passion to him Recently, since more and more kinds of outdoor leisure activities and means of mass media have newly appeared, people tend to spend less time reading than before Nevertheless, reading cannot be negated to offer a great number of benefits for readers to better themselves apart from playing the role of an activity for pleasure Firstly, reading is one of the useful means for information gaining and knowledge consolidation There is a saying that “book is a precious treasure” but how can we discover such treasure without reading? Besides, the habit

of reading could help the readers improve vocabulary and word power (Sofsian, 2010) It is concluded that the more you read, the broader your vocabulary becomes

In reading, one could acquire a huge source of vocabulary and this is very helpful for them to apply their vocabulary appropriately and correctly in both spoken and written forms In detail, reading activity could help the readers “decipher new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations (Sofsian, ibid.) and assist them in expressing orally their own ideas more easily Simultaneously, reading could also help the readers get familiar with various writing style and therefore they gradually find it easier to express their own ideas in written form This is the reason why reading skill- a receptive skill, is said to assist two other skills- speaking and writing Moreover, Sofsian (2010) claimed that reading helps in

“mental development”, improving concentration ability and stimulating the muscles

of the eyes and “children and teenagers who love reading have comparatively higher IQs….are more creative and do better in school and college”

In conclusion, reading is clearly a skill which offers a great deal of benefits for the readers However, to make use of such benefits, the reader should be concerned with a number of elements, some of which are types of reading and approaches in processing a text

2.1.4 Intensive reading and extensive reading

The aim of reading, the choice of text and the size of the text content leads to

a distinction between two different reading types: intensive and extensive reading

2.1.4.1 Intensive reading

Intensive reading is described as an approach which requires readers to deal with short texts to train reading skills (Nutall, 2000) Using this approach, the reader expects to understand both meaning of the text and how the meaning is produced (ibid.) In the context of reading to learn, Nguyen et al (2003, p.116) claimed that in intensive reading “students look at every word, take notice of punctuation, sentences and paragraphs, understand the grammar” In this process, the students approach the text under the guidance of a teacher or the instruction in a task which force the students to focus on the text In sum, reading intensively means reading short texts and then doing exercises to train reading strategies which could be useful for readers

to interpret other texts It can be seen clearly that training reading through texts in textbooks for high school student is mostly the process of intensive reading Reading for students at 11th grade students is absolutely no exception

2.1.4.2 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is “to read for gist, not detail, and to read much more quickly” in compared with intensive reading (Nguyen et al, 2003, p.116) and therefore this type of reading is used to get on with long texts such stories, novels, books or such kinds of text In the daily life, dealing with long texts as mentioned above seems not to be very unfamiliar thing since “understanding a text without grasping every part of it” is said to be possible (Nutall, 2000) In addition, Nutall (ibid.) claimed that there are some reading strategies which can be trained only by

using long texts Moreover, it is pointed that the ability to understand the relationship between different parts of a long text or to understand pieces of information related to each other in different parts of the long text is very important With such reasons, students should be encouraged to develop reading extensively Meanwhile, according to the official curriculum for high school level, a reading class lasts for only forty-five minutes, which is not really enough for the practice with long texts Accordingly, it seems to be advisable for Vietnamese teachers of English to apply suitable long texts in having their students practice extensive reading outside of classroom

In conclusion, it can be seen that both intensive reading and extensive reading are beneficial, necessary and especially complement each other Hence, both types of reading should be applied appropriately in EFL English teaching and learning

Additionally, to be successful in reading, it is necessary for the readers to employ effectively different reading approaches to interpret a reading text

2.1.5 Different approaches in interpreting a text

2.1.5.1 Bottom-up approach

According to bottom-up model, a reader is said to “process each letter as it is encountered” (Nunan, 2000) or build up a meaning from what printed or written in a text with the recognition of letters and words of the text and the working with sentence structure (Nutall, 2000) In more detail, this approach is clarified to be a process in which “students start with the fundamental basics of letter and sound recognition, which in turn allows for morpheme recognition followed by word recognition, building up to the identification of grammatical structures, sentences, and longer texts Letters, letters clusters, words, phrases, sentences, longer text, and finally meaning is the order in achieving comprehension” (Nunan, 2003, p.70) In other words, the cognition in bottom-up processing is built up from “smallest elements” such as letters and words (the bottom) to lager units at the top like phrases, clauses, sentences (Rivers, 1964; Plaiser, 1968; Yorio, 1971, cited from

Nguyen, 2009) Thanks to this cognition, the reader finally reaches to

“comprehension of what is being read” (Nunan, 2003) In addition, Nutall (2000) claimed that this process could even happen when the reader‟s general knowledge is inadequate or he does not share the same viewpoint with the writer Accordingly, applying this process, the reader only bases on his linguistic knowledge and focuses

on linguistic elements but not other essential ones affecting the reading comprehension Obviously, with this process, the reader might “master” small elements in a text It is, however, not easy for him to gain an overall understanding

of the whole text Consequently, this process could not play the role of a perfect process for the reader to apply to interpret and understand a text adequately

2.1.5.2 Top-down process

Differently from bottom-up process, in top-down one, the reader tries to understand the text‟s overall meaning by interpreting the text in the connection with his intelligence and experience or the schemata (Nutall, 2000) In other words, the reader is said to move from the top (their own background knowledge) down to the text itself They make predictions, assumptions and then search the text to confirm

or reject such predictions (Nutall, 2000; Nunan, 2003) This helps him have general understanding of the passage even though all of individual words in the text are not understood (ibid.) This process seems to show a more active role of the reader who could make use of his knowledge, common sense, etc to understand a written text However, this process was argued to leave some shortcomings Stanovich (1988, cited from Nguyen 2009) stated that it takes more time to give assumptions, to generate the hypotheses than to decode the written words of a text Accordingly, the only use of top-down process in reading comprehension could not help the reader completely successful in the reading comprehension

In sum, both bottom-up and top-down approaches have their own strong and weak points but both are claimed to be vital approaches for readers The readers should not overlook any of the two approaches In contrast, they are expected to make use of the two reading approaches‟ good points to gain more effectiveness in

reading This desire tends to lead to the third model of reading: the Interactive model which is discussed further in the following part

of the text Absolutely, in order to gain the cognition and communication through reading, the reader is always expected to play an active role and apply reading approaches probably to gain effectiveness in reading process

2.1.6 Factors influencing reading comprehension

The complex cognitive process reading is said to be influenced by a great deal of linguistic and non-linguistic factors With the scope sharpened previously, this research focuses on the factors exerting effects on the reading comprehension process as follows

2.1.6.1 Background/ Schematic knowledge

As stating the definition of reading as a cognitive process in which the reader is expected to activate his own general knowledge along with a number of reading skills to gain adequate understanding of the text, the role of “schematic knowledge” is simultaneously being defined The term “schematic knowledge” is used by Nunan (2003) while Nutall (2000) defined this knowledge as “schema” or

“schemata”; Alderson & Urquhart (1984) addressed it as “general knowledge” and Pergegoy & Boyle (1993) used the term “background knowledge” Even different terms were used, all of them address to the world knowledge that one has known, the notions that have been stated in his brain, the previous experience that he has

gained from his own life or education foundation All of the researchers do share the common viewpoints on the role of schemata in reading comprehension It is claimed that in interpreting a text, the more knowledge of the topic or issues discussed in the text the reader has, the more comprehension he could gain from the reading (Alderson & Urquhart,1984; Pearson & Johnson, 1987, cited from Nunan 2000; Pergegoy & Boyle, 1993; Nunan, 2000; Nutall, 2000) The process of activating general knowledge in reading is said to be a mental process which confirms cognitive nature of reading process Absolutely, the schemata are different from various learners and, what is more, the activating of schemata in reading comprehension does vary from learner to learner This is one of the reasons explaining why to some learners a text is understandable while to the other it seems difficult to gain an adequate comprehension

In sum, the general knowledge or the schematic knowledge obviously plays the supplementary role in the effectiveness of reading process Thus, it is useful to have an adequate concern on the role and the effect of general knowledge in the teaching and learning of English reading at language classroom

2.1.6.2 Linguistic knowledge

Obviously, in reading process, the reader aims to seek for the meaning that the writer encoded in the written/printed text The encoding was conducted via a great deal of linguistic elements and instruments like letters and words These linguistics elements definitely do not come together at random In contrast, the string of the letters and words are combined basing on many rules of sentence structure Therefore, the knowledge of language, especially vocabulary, syntax and cohesion, exerts a great deal of impacts on reading comprehension

2.1.6.2.a Vocabulary

The term “vocabulary” refers to “all the words that a person know or use” or

“the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject”(Oxford Dictionary, 7th edition) Obviously, the efficient language using that a person could obtain is partly affected by the scope of his vocabulary Especially, the language

using seems to be more challenging in the concept of foreign language learning Simultaneously, the impact of vocabulary becomes more considerable in foreign language learning in general and in learning of reading in particular In order to confirm this impact, Cooper (n.d.) (cited from Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H, 1984) conducted a test for a group of students named “unpracticed readers” They have pursued their previous education through the medium of their first language and have studied English as a foreign language This group along with another one named “practiced readers” who have pursued a large part of their previous education through the medium of English and may be expected to cope adequately with the demands of university textbook These two groups are subjects in his study of non-native readers‟ linguistic competence Firstly, Cooper observed the fact that

“unpracticed readers are severely handicapped by poor vocabularies” and then he conducted the checking through having the students to do a test to check his assumption One of general conclusions that the author came to was:

Unpracticed readers were severely disadvantaged by their poor knowledge of vocabulary”

In particular, they were incident in their understanding of the semantic relationships between words- relationships which writers exploit and create in order to make sentences cohere; they were unsure of the meaning of common sentence connector; and their sub- technical vocabularies were generally very poor.(p.124.)

It cannot be denied that the bigger size of vocabulary a reader has, the more advantage he/she could gain in interpreting a text

2.1.6.2.b Syntax

“Syntax” is defined by Oxford Dictionary (7th edition) as “the way that words and phrases are put together to form sentences in a language; the rule of grammar for this” In terms of the affect of syntax to reading, it is said that “long sentences and difficult syntax can block comprehension even when vocabulary is familiar” (Nutall, 2000, p.78) Similarly, Anderson (1982, cited from Martohardjono et al, 2005) revealed that “poor readers exhibit syntactic deficiencies in the written language”

Additionally, the author of this research has assumed that the more differences there are in syntactic characteristics between the native language and the target one, the more difficulties foreign language learners encounter in learning reading in the target language Accordingly, it is supposed that the effect of syntactic components to reading comprehension is worth taking into account

2.1.6.2.c Cohesion

Language is said to have hierarchical structure in which linguistic components like words, phrases, clauses and sentences are linked to each other to create a text (Throne, 1997) It is also claimed that there are different forms of cohesion: lexical cohesion, substitution, ellipsis, referencing, and linking adverbs and conjunction (ibid.) Similarly, Nutall (2000) pointed that in order to communicate successfully to a discourse, a reader is expected to equip himself essential knowledge of cohesive devices which are used by the writer to make his mind linked and presented in the discourse

2.1.6 3 Readers’ motivation

Motivation is said to be a great importance in reading (Grellet, 1981) In natural reading, we tend to read what we want to read Similarly, in learning reading the readers tend to get engaged with the reading text with a great deal of interests when they are motivated Similarly, Corder (1987, p.164, cited from McDonough,

S H, 1986) claimed that “given motivation” is inevitable for people to learn a second language From the view of psychology in foreign language learning, motivation is also confirmed as one of the most important factors influencing either the success or the failure of the learners Particularly to the learning of reading, Fransson (n.d.) (cited from Alderson, J C & Urquhart, A H., 1989) shared the same opinion on this issue with the assumption that readers are forced to cram but not understand a reading passage in case there is a lack learners‟ learning motivation, or in particular reading motivation

Accordingly, motivation is supposed to be one of the factors influencing the learning of reading and necessary to be concerned to find out difficulties faced by readers in learning reading

2.2 THE LEARNING OF READING

2.2.1 Basic skills in reading

As being discussed previously, gaining reading skills is an integral objective

in teaching and learning reading That is the reason why readers, especially EFL readers need to gain reading skills and strategies to become effective and efficient readers Some of the skills and strategies within the focus of learning reading at language classroom of this research are skimming, scanning and dealing with new words All of these skills will be discussed in succession as follows

to the process of reading only main ideas within a passage to get an overall impression of the content of a reading” (Scrempanichakul, C., 2005) Skimming is used when the reader wants to identify the main ideas of a text without necessarily reading it word-by-word For this reason, skimming tends to be faster than normal reading and to be used as the reader “need to cover a large amount of material in limited time”(Rongsa-Ard & Poolsaward, 1996, p.56)

2.2.1.2 Scanning

Scanning “involves moving your eyes quickly down the page seeking specific words and phrases” (Lamb & Johnson, 2001, p.1) In other words, the aim

of scanning is to find out specific information like a name, a date, a word in the telephone book or dictionary or such of piece of information In scanning, the reader does know what he is searching for in dealing with a text and therefore just reads the passage to find out the answer for the questions in his/her mind, ignoring irrelevant information This means that the reader always understands clearly what he needs to search for within a text and therefore just focuses only on what essential but not unrelated information

In sum, both scanning and skimming are helpful, important and supplementary for the reader to gain their purposes in reading To understand a text adequately, a reader is advisable to use these two skills effectively Simultaneously, one of the major objectives in the reading curriculum for 11th grade students set by Vietnamese MOET is to have students practice and master skills of scanning and skimming (Vu, T.L & Nguyen, H.C., 2009) Therefore, the practice of these two skills also should be concerned significantly at reading lessons

2.2.1.3 Word attack skill

It is undoubtedly stated that vocabulary plays a vital role in reading comprehension The more vocabulary a reader knows, the more advantages he might have in understanding a reading passage However, for Vietnamese students, English is a foreign language, they seem to face a great deal of new words in dealing with a text In other words, “students probably consider not having a big enough vocabulary is their main problem in reading” (Nutall, 2000, p.62) Accordingly, the skill at overcoming problems caused by new words or vocabulary

in reading comprehension is said to be beneficial for EFL learners to read more effectively

According to Nutall (ibid.), using dictionary is sometimes advisable because

a number of words could be learnt from reading However, as dictionary is used far too much by readers, it becomes undesirable, especially, as the reader uses dictionary to “look up every new word” (ibid, p.62) The reason is that as looking up

a new word in dictionary, the reader has to take more time in reading and therefore

the reading is slowed down and the reader‟s thinking is interrupted In other words, the use of dictionaries in reading seems to be similar to a double-edged sword The reader is expected to use them appropriately Sometimes, they are to free from dictionaries and to try to train relaxing attitude in dealing with new words in reading comprehension

Additionally, the EFL English readers are also expected to learn to ignore difficult words appropriately Nguyen et al (2003) pointed that in English language there are around 2500 high frequency words which comprise 90 percent of conversations and therefore they are worth learning for EFL students Especially, the time for English classes at high school level is really limited so the teacher cannot have enough time to teach all new words in a reading text for their students Moreover, it is said that the students themselves could not remember “a large list of vocabulary” (Nguyen et al, 2003, p.117) Hence, in reading to learn, the students are expected to develop the ability to guess meanings of new words and therefore they could carry out their reading independently To support this skill, Nutall (2000) pointed that one of the useful ways to guess the meaning of a new word is to use structural information to assign it Two kinds of information which are really relevant and beneficial for a reader to consider in the dealing with a new word in a reading passage is its grammatical function (its place in the sentences) and its morphology (its internal structure) In terms of grammatical function of a word, “by looking at the position of a word in a sentence, we can establish at least is grammatical category (whether it is a noun, a verb, etc.) This tells us the kind of meaning to look for and is thus a first step on the road to understanding” (Nutall, ibid p.69) From understanding the grammatical categories of a word, the reader is said to meet more advantages in dealing with complicated structures and therefore they can give answers for reading passage‟s questions more easily To the studying morphology of a word, it is claimed that the morphology of a word may offer valuable clues to its meanings In detail, Nutall (ibid.) suggested that EFL learners are to study affixation, the ways in which compound words are built and the way

can be identified by capital letters or adverbs or adjectives can be identified by their position in the sentence As a matter of fact, understanding of essential aspects relating to morphology of a word, EFL readers could gain more advantages in understanding the reading passage‟s meaning However, to have students be skillful

in guessing the meaning of new words, the teacher himself is to consider on how to deal with new words in teaching reading, which would be discussed in section 2.3 -

“the teaching of reading”

2.2.2 Some strategies in reading

Apart from reading skills, readers are said to use a number of reading strategies which can help them to read in an efficient way Two of the essential reading strategies pointed by Mindtools Association (2010) are described as follows

2.2.2.1 Knowing what to know in reading

Knowing what to know in reading a text could be the first thing one should concern about before starting reading It is advisable for the readers to ask themselves about the reason why they read the text, about the purpose of reading the text and about what they want to know after reading the text This is very helpful for the readers to “examine the text to see whether it is going to move” them towards this goal

2.2.2.2 Knowing how deeply to study the material

It is advisable for the reader to state what kind of information they want to get from a text in order to apply reading skills like skimming and scanning effectively It is, for instance, the reader should skim a text when he wants to get the main ideas while he should scan it when he/she expects to get specific pieces of information from the text

In conclusion, the readers are to apply reading skills and strategies in reading process to read effectively Especially, for students who read to learn, the practice of these skills and strategies is really very important In the curriculum, they are

trained to practice reading skills and strategies through a number of reading texts However, the further educational objective of the curriculum is to help the students

be able to apply the skills and strategies effectively whenever they deal with a text both inside and outside classroom environment To gain this target, the role of the teacher is also very substantial Accordingly, it is useful to take the teaching of reading into account

2.3 THE TEACHING OF READING

2.3.1 Techniques used in teaching reading

According to Nguyen et al (2003), the following techniques are said to be applicable for stages of a reading lesson

2.3.1.1 Techniques used in ‘Pre’ stage

In Pre-Stage, the following techniques could be used: Open prediction; True/False prediction; Ordering pictures; Pre-questions; Vocabulary exercise

2.3.1.2 Techniques used in ‘While’ Stage

It is said that to carry out While-stage in teaching reading, the teacher could use the following techniques: Multiple choice; Gap-Fill; Ordering; Answers given; Grids; Matching; Comprehension questions

2.3.1.3 Techniques used in ‘Post’ Stage

Two familiar techniques used in Post stage are Discussion and Summarizing

2.3.2 Dealing with new words in teaching reading

As discussed previously, to help the students deal with new words successfully, the teacher is to know clearly what to do in dealing with new words of

a reading text In detail, they are expected to make some decisions about which words to be taught actively, which words to be guessed from context and which words to be ignored To have a suitable decision on this matter, the teacher is said to concern on two things: the essentials and the difficulty level of the word In detail,

“if the new word is essential for understanding the passage and at the students‟

level, it should be taught passively: the teacher should explain or translate it as quickly as possible If the word is not essential for understanding the passage but not too difficult, students should guess the meaning If the word is both non-essential and difficult…Then students should ignore it.” (ELTTP, part 2, p.31)

2.3.3 The language of teacher’s questions

It is obvious that questioning is one of the crucial ways used by the teachers

in order to guide and check students in reading comprehension To make the questions promote effectively their own roles, it is beneficial for the teacher to concern the language of the questions According to Nutall (2000, p.187) “the language used for questions …should be as clear as you can make it” In detail, the language of questions is expected not to be difficult than the language of the text itself What is more, the questions are to be understandable and play the role of an assistant tool to guide the students to interpret a text in the right direction

2.4 The reading curriculum for grade 11 at high school

2.4.1 Content map for reading section

Content of reading section presented in Tieng Anh 11 is described as the table as follows

Units & Topics Practiced skills

Unit1: Friendship  Guessing meaning in context

 Identifying main ideas

 Passage comprehension Unit2:Personal Experiences  Guessing meaning in context

 Understanding the sequence of events in a story

 Passage comprehension Unit 3: A Party  Scanning for specific information

 Identifying and correcting false information Unit4: Volunteer Work  Word formation

 Extensive reading: multiple choice questions

 Passage comprehension Unit 5: Illiteracy  Dictionary skills

 Identifying main idea

 Passage comprehension Unit 6: Competitions  Word meaning in context

 Passage comprehension

 Scanning for specific information Unit7: World Population  Guessing meaning in context

 Passage comprehension Unit 8: Celebrations  Dictionary skills

 Deciding on True or False statements

 Passage comprehension Unit 9: The Post Office  Word meaning: antonyms

 Scanning for information

 Passage comprehension

 Gap-filling Unit 12: The Asian Games  Guessing meaning in context

 Scanning for specific information

 Passage comprehension Unit 13: Hobbies  Dictionary skills: explaining meaning in context

 Passage comprehension Unit 14: Recreation  Guessing meaning in context: multiple-choice

 Passage comprehension Unit 15: Space Conquest  Identifying main ideas: matching

 Passage comprehension

 Summarizing skills Unit 16: The Wonders of

The World

 Guessing meaning in context

 Passage comprehension

 Scanning for specific information

Table 2.4.1: Content map for reading section in New Tieng Anh 11

2.4.2 Requirements for 11 th Students at Reading Set by The MOET

According to Vu & Nguyen (2009) Vietnamese 11th grade students are expected to meet the general requirements for reading as follows

- Read and understand the main ideas and the content of a text containing around 240-270 words in length which are about the topic in the curriculum

- Improve vocabulary skill: use the dictionary, basing on context, basing on synonyms, antonyms

- Recognize grammatical structures, the link of ideas in a text

2.5 SUMMARY

In conclusion, this chapter does focus on the nature of reading comprehension, the learning of reading comprehension and the teaching of reading comprehension In addition, essential information on the reading curriculum for 11thgrade students has also been discussed

The result of the theoretical background confirms that one of the vital purposes of reading is to find out meaning of a text In other words, reading for

“meaning” is the obvious inevitable nature of reading In the nature of things, reading always confirms its own importance in the relation with other language skills in particular and in daily life in general However, to make reading promote its essential role, the readers are expected to be flexible in choosing appropriate approaches to interpret a text This process is not advantageous at all since there are

a number of factors influencing on the reader‟s reading comprehension They are, for instance, the reader‟s schematic knowledge, linguistic knowledge and reader‟s motivation Consequently, in the context of reading to learn, the learners are

expected to be able to apply vital skills and strategies in reading Especially, to 11thgrade students, the skills and strategies essential for their reading are: scanning, skimming, word attack skill and other reading strategies Besides, it is supposed that the effectiveness of reading learning is undoubtedly influenced by the teaching of reading Accordingly, it is beneficial to consider necessary issues of the teaching of reading such as activities used in teaching reading, dealing with new words of a text and the language of questions used to guide and check students‟ reading comprehension

The first focus of this study is to find out the students‟ perceptions of reading comprehension The second focus is the reality of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension basing on following points: general hindrance caused by elements of knowledge, by mental elements, by teaching methodology,

by learning methodology and by the reading text Accordingly, the third focus of the study is to find out suitable solutions to help the students improve their reading comprehension In order to make the study meet the set targets, it is also vital for the researcher to have a good choice of methodology for the research to be conducted in the right direction

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the choice of methods employed for the research Additionally, detail information on subjects, data collection instruments like questionnaire, interviews and reading test, data collection procedure and the process

of data analysis could be explained in this chapter

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

To gain the target set previously, this research is conducted in a combination

of qualitative and quantitative methods The reason for the choice of the two research methods could be explained by a couple of reasons Firstly, the vital aims

of the research are to understand the learners‟ perceptions of EFL English reading;

to understand the reality of the learning of EFL English reading at the school; and to find out solutions to overcome difficulties in learning EFL English reading faced by the students at grade 11th It can be seen that most of the information in such three aspects could be obtained through consideration of thoughts, opinions and experience of the subjects of the study To gain this target, one of the data collection instruments used in this research is the interviews with a number of teachers and students at the school In fact, interview is one of the collection methods of qualitative research (Tewksbury, R., 2009) and to analyze response of interviews, qualitative method ought to be employed Moreover, it is said that “Quality refers to the what, how, when and where of a thing- its essence and ambience Qualitative research thus refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols and descriptions of things” (Berg, 2007, p.3 cited from Tewksbury, R., 2009) Accordingly, qualitative method is considered as a superior means for conducting this research It is expected that with the result gained from applying qualitative research, the researcher could gain a depth of understanding of essential concepts However, mainly focusing on “meanings”, “definitions”,

“characteristics” or such of things, qualitative method can not provide a specific result as the numerical one can do Meanwhile, this research is expected to provide specific numerical result gained from the process of investigating in order to make

the result more reliable Hence, quantitative method is also employed to help the researcher have statistical analysis of findings from the questionnaires It is pointed that “Quantitative methods are, in general, supported by the positivists or scientific paradigm, which leads us to regard the world as made up of observable, measurable facts” (Glense & Peshkin, 1992, cited from Nguyen, 2009) Quantitative research is said to rely on numbers in reporting results, sampling and providing estimates of instrument reliability and validity In other words, specific numbers of results gaining from quantitative research tend to be helpful for the researcher to have a clear view on what she wants to investigate and to give estimations

3.2 SUBJECTS

The subjects of this study includes: 12th grade students, 11th grade students and four of the teachers of English teaching at NTL EMBHS To explain for the choice of subjects in this research, it is necessary to discuss again but more clearly the objectives of the research The objectives of this research are stated previously

to find out difficulties in learning EFL English Reading faced by students at grade

11 and therefore to suggest some solutions to overcome such problems Firstly, the research aims to students at grade 11 but not other grades because it is supposed that

11th grade students do face a great deal of difficulties in learning EFL English reading The real teaching condition of the researcher, additionally, shows that the reading ability of the students seems to be very low Hence, this research is conducted with the desire to find out difficulties that 11th grade students face in learning EFL English reading and then have base to offer some solutions which partly help the students improve their reading However, it is necessary to notice that the research targets to 11th grade at the school in general but not only 11th grade

at specific school year Details of information expected to get are learners‟ perceptions, reality of learning reading and solutions to overcome the difficulties These aspects of information tend to be provided deeply by students who have finished and passed grade 11 Meanwhile, this research has been conducted since the beginning of the school year 2010- 2011 This is the time when the current 11th

grade students have just started their learning at the grade 11 Their understanding about matters mentioned above might only suit the present point of time but is not totally reliable for the whole year Accordingly, the students who are expected to provide targeted information are 12th grade ones while the current 11th grade students would also contribute to this research by doing a test which aims to check students‟ reading competence In detail, the students participants in this research contains two sub-groups The first sub-group contains sixty 12th grade students, aging from 17 to 18 years old They are both female and male and have learnt English for six years The second sub-group contains sixty students at grade 11, aging from 16 to 17 years old They are both female and male and have learnt English for five years At present time, there are six classes of grade 12 and six classes of grade 11 at NTL EMBHS Accordingly, the group of 12th grade students was formed by ten students in each of the six classes, chosen at random and the group of 11th grade students was formed by ten students in each of the six classes, chosen at random too

The third group of participants of this research includes four of five teachers

of English at NTL EMBHS Four of them were in charge of teaching English for

11th grade students last year and one is undertaking the teaching of English for 11th grade students this year The teachers are supposed to be the most appropriate ones

to estimate correctly the learning of EFL English reading of their 11th grade students All of the teachers are female Their ages range from 25 to 38 with the teaching duration from three to fifteen years In detail, one of them has 15-year-experience in teaching; one has 8-year-experience; the last gains 3-year-experience Even the last teacher has worked in the teaching job for three years, she is absolutely a qualified teacher and has also got a great enthusiasm in taking part in the interview In other words, the teachers are supposed to be experienced enough to provide reliable, thoughtful discussion on necessary issues

3.3 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

Tthe survey questionnaire, a reading test, and interviews with some of the students and with the four teachers of English, all of which are described as follows, were used to collect data for this research

3.3.1 Questionnaires

Sixty copies of the survey questionnaire were used to solicit information from student respondents because of a couple of reasons Firstly, questionnaire is the data collection instrument which could help the researcher save more time and relatively economical in compared with other techniques for obtaining information from subjects (McMillan, J.H & Schumacher, S., 1993) Secondly, this kind of data collection instruments was found to be used appropriately and effectively to investigate information “with a large number of subjects” (ibid., p.243) Thirdly, questionnaire is supposed to be easy to hand out to respondents and collect from them For such reasons, a questionnaire was designed and used as the main data collection of this research

Initially, the questionnaire was created in English language but after it is piloted, a translation of questionnaire is supplemented to help the students find it easy for them to give the answers This will be discussed more clearly in the data collection procedure in the following part In sum, each copy of the questionnaire is distributed to every student with two versions, one is compiled in English and the other is complied in Vietnamese- the native language of the respondents

The questionnaire consists of two parts: Part I asked about the respondents‟ general background and Part II sought for the answers to three research questions mentioned previously Accordingly, questions in Part II of the questionnaires are divided into three clusters as followed

The first cluster of the questions including first six questions aims to search information of students‟ perceptions on the purpose of reading comprehension, the

role of reading skill to their English learning, their attitude to English reading, the time that the students spend on reading and genres that students like to read

The second cluster of the questions including next nine questions aims to study the reality of the learning of EFL English reading at NTL EMBHS In detail, elements of knowledge and mental elements which hinder the students from reading effectively; teaching method used by the teachers in reading sections of Tieng Anh 11; methods in interpreting reading texts applied by students; difficulties in reading caused by the texts and the students‟ reading competence would be discussed within the second part of the questionnaire

The third cluster of the questions including five last questions is designed to find out solutions to help the students overcome difficulties explored in the second part of the questionnaire The solutions are mainly divided into teaching methods of the teachers, reading methods of the students, characteristics of an appropriate text and overall solutions to helps students overcome knowledgeable and mental obstacles that students faced in learning EFL English reading

In order to obtain essential information for the research, the items in the questions of the questionnaire are compiled in close-ended, open-ended and scaled forms The consideration to design the items in these forms is explained as follow Firstly, data in close-ended questions “in which the subject chooses between predetermined responses” (McMillan, J.H & Schumacher, S., 1993, p.243) can be categorized easily and therefore is easy to score In addition, McMillan and Schumacher (1993) pointed that as dealing with close-ended items in a questionnaire, the subject can answer the items more quickly, which helps the researcher to save time to obtain information from the subjects Reya et al (2003, Abstract section, para.1) proved that close-ended questions are to “avoid the bias may result from suggesting responses to individuals” Nevertheless, in case the categories created in close-ended questions do not indicate the respondents‟ opinions and thinking correctly, they are supposed to be not very useful (McMillan,

J H & Schumacher, S.,1993) Accordingly, partly overcome weaknesses of

close-ended items, the questions in the questionnaire of this research are also created in open-ended forms which could “discover the responses that individuals give spontaneously” (Reya et al, 2003) This simultaneously helps the questions lessen the control on the respondents (McMillan, J.H & Schumacher, S., 1993) However,

to reduce the large number of irrelevant answers of ended questions, ended questions in this research are created under the form of “Other” line at which the respondents can freely express their own ideas

open-It can be seen clearly that the use of questionnaire to obtain information from the subjects offers a great deal of benefit and advantages Nevertheless, questionnaire also has some weak points It is said that the data gained from questionnaire may be superficial (George, 2010) and the reliability of the data partly tends to depend on the willingness and honesty of the respondents while they are asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire Accordingly, to support for reliability of some pieces of information gained from the questionnaires, other kinds

of data collection instruments like oral interviews and the reading test are also applied in this research

3.3.2 Oral Semi- Structured Interviews

The interviews conducted in this research are semi-structured interviews in which the interviewer has a “general idea of where he or she wants the interview to

go, and what should come out of it” (George, 2010) In semi-structured interview, the interviewer can add some more questions if necessary depending on what she gained from the answers of the interviewees for provided questions This means that the semi-structured interview is rather flexible in compared with other kinds of interviews (“Semi-structured interview”, 2010) In addition, it is pointed that

“because of its flexibility, the semi-structured interview has found favor with many researchers, particularly those working within an interpretative research tradition” (Nunan, 1992: 149, cited from George, C 2010)

The interviews in the research contain two lists of six guided questions, the first one used for five of the students who have answered the questionnaire and the

other used for three of the teachers of English at NTL EMBHS The guided questions for the interviews with the teachers of English were complied in English language and therefore the interviews were conducted in English language too On the contrary, the guided questions for the interviews with students were complied in Vietnamese and the interviews were also conducted in Vietnamese Thanks to this the interviews with students were carried out without language barrier and therefore the students could express their opinions more easily

The interview checklists for the teachers are expected to gain information in terms of 11th grade students‟ reading competence or reading result, the difficulties in teaching and learning of EFL English reading at NTL EMBHS, the reason of such difficulties, improvement of reading texts, contribution of the students and the teachers to help the students read effectively

The interview questions for the students are addressed to confirmed some pieces of information gained from the questionnaire in terms of difficulties faced by the students in reading; the reasons of such difficulties, their belief and use of the skills in reading to learn within the curriculum for 11 grade, the students‟ suggestions for the text, for teachers and for the learners themselves to overcome such difficulties and to help them read better Between sixty students completing the questionnaire, five students were chosen at random to attend the interview for students

3.3.3 Reading Test

The reading test is a support tool for the researcher to check learners‟ real reading competence in general and in applying specific skills in reading From the result of the test, the researcher could know to what kind of questions the students can give correct answers and to what kind of questions they cannot give correct ones The result of the test was a base for the researcher to understand whether the learners are good or bad somewhat at reading Thus, shortcomings that the students face in learning reading could be partly clarified