Luận văn an action research on improving 10th grade students’ reading comprehension through the teaching of lexical inference strategy at high school for gifted students hanoi national university of education

DECLARATION I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “An Action Research on Tmproving 10% Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension through the Teaching af Lexical Inference Strategy

VIETNAM NATIONAL, UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN HA SAM

AN ACTION RESEARCH ON IMPROVING 10" GRADE STUDENTS?

READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THE TEACHING OF

LEXICAL INFERENCE STRATEGY

AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, HANOT NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

(NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG

ĐỌC HIẾU CỦA TIỌC SINII TIÔNG QUA VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY

CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN NGHĨA CỦA TỪ VỰNG

TAI TRUONG TRUNG HOC PHO THONG CHUYEN,

DAL HQC SU PHAM HA NOD

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 6014.0111

Hanoi, 2014

VIKTNAM NA TIONAL, UNIVERSILTY, HANOL UNIVERSTTY OE LANGUAGES AND TNTERNATTIONAT STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN HA

ACTION RESEARCH ON IMPROVING 10" GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSLON THROUGH THE TEACHING OF

LEXICAL INFERENCE STRATEGY

AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS,

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

(NGIIÊN CỨU IIANIL DONG VE VIEC NANG CAO KIIA NANG

POC HIEU CUA HOC SINH THONG QUA VIEC GIANG DAY

CIHÉN LUGC DOAN NGIIA CUA TU VUNG

TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HOC PHO THONG CHUY

ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Ficld: English Teaching Mcthodology

Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr V6 Dai Quang

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “An Action Research on Tmproving 10% Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension through the Teaching af

Lexical Inference Strategy at High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi National

University of Education” is the result, of my own work im partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching Mothodology at

Faculty of Post - Graduate Studies, Llanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University The research has nol been subrmitted to any other

‘university or institution wholly and partially

Hanoi, 2014

Neuyen Ha Sam

ACKNOWLEDGEM

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number

of people

Hirst and foremost, 1 would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr

Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has patienlly and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

‘A special word of thanks goes to my students, without whom it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last by not least, 1am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice they have devoted

to the fulfithnent of this academic work

ii

ABSTRACT

‘This study was intended to investigate the impact of lexical inference strategy on

10" grade students’ reading comprehension ability More specifically, the researcher

atrived to (1) examine whether students’ lexical knowledge had any correlation to their

yeading ability, (2) whether the teaching of lexical inferencing had a positive effect to

enhance tenth grade students’ reading comprehension, (3) investigate the students’

allitudes towards the instruction, and (4) propose some recommendations Lor instructing

this strategy to other teachers

To achieve those abovementioned aims, an action research was conducted with

the participation of 46 tenth grade students from a class at High School for Gifted

Students, Llanoi National University of Liducation ‘he teaching program aimed at instructing the students with lexical inferencing to help them enhance their reading

comprehension ability The sludy imcluded: (1) pretest and a questionaire (2) the

instruction of lexical inferencing, (3) posttest and a questionnaire, (4) teacher’s notes and

students’ leaming logs Later, (5) inlerviews were included to support the findings

The main findings of te research were as follows: (1) Lexical compelonce served

as good prediction of reading ability in a foreign language ‘The higher scores students got

in vocabulary tests, the higher scores they received in reading comprehension tests (2) Owerall, the instruction of this vocabulary-leaning strategy improved their reading comprehension (3) Most of the students held positive attitudes towards the instruction of lexical mferencing (4) The students had a habit of guessing words from context using local

clues or information from around the target word,

ili

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2: Background Information af the Subjects - - 17

Table 3: Procedures of the Study

Table 4: Results of Question I in the Questionnaire xe the Pretest - 28

Table 5: Resulis of Question 2 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest - 38 fable 6: Results of Question 3 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest

Table 7: Resulis of Question 4 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest - 29 able 8: Results of Question $ in the Questionnaire After the Pretest

Table 9: Correlation between the Two Tests Before Lexical Inferencing Instruction 30

Table 10: Correlation between the Two Tests After Lexical Inferencing Instruction .30

Table 11: Percentage of the Students’ Correct Answers in the Pretest and Posttest

Table 15: Results of Question 4 in the Questionnaire After the Postlest 34

Table 16: Results of Question 5 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest

Abbreviations

T: Teacher

ST: Subject 1 in the inderview

S82: Subject 2 in the interview

$3: Subject 3 in the ierview

INUE: Hanoi National University of Education

12: second language

iv

TABLE OF CONTENT

PART A: INTRODUCTIO!

1.1 Rationale for the Stu

12 Aims of the Research

13 Objectives of the Research

1.4 Research Questions

Scope of the Research

16 Significance of the Research

17 Structural Organization of the

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature Review

1.1 Theoretical Background

1.1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension

1.1.2, Reading Comprehension Strategies HH

1.1.2, Lexical Inference Strategy

1.1.2.1 Definition of Lexical Inference Stratepy

1.1.2.2 Value of Lexical Inference Štrategy ” is

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related Lo the Research Area of the Thesis 1

Dala Collection Instruments

5.1 Pretest and Posttest

2.5.1.1, Vocabulary Multiple-Choice Tests

2.5.1.2, Reading Comprehension Tests

3.5.4 Teacher's Notes and Studonbs’ Tearing Togs

2.6, Intervention: Instruction of Lexical Inferencing, in Class

2.6.1 Reading Malorials - - - + 2.6.2 Steps of the Instruction in Lexical Inferencing,

3.7 Data Colleetion Pzoeedures

3.231 Results from Questionnaire After the Posttest

3.23.2 Discussion

3.2.3.3, Results of the interview

3.234, Discussion

3.3 Limitations of the Research

3.4 Suggestions for Future Research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationalc for the Study

In the last few decades, second/foreign language vocabulary acquisition has been an increasingly interesting Lopic of discussion for researches, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists and others involved in second language learning, All consider vocabulary as being a very importam element in language, especially in reading skills When menGoning the relatienship belween vocabulary and reading comprehension, Nation (1990) claimed that vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading ability and the ability to acquire new information from the text As a result, it can be said that the threshold for reading comprehension is, to a large extent, lexical

Lexical problems will, therefore, hinder successful comprehension

Tn fact, second/foreign language readers often cite lack of adequate vocabulary as

one of the most common obstacles to text comprehension Kim’s (1995) study also shows that learners’ lack of vocabulary knowledge or their being unfamiliar with words

is a major problem affecting readers’ reading comprehension Many readers have claimed that they would like to read more, but when they encounter unknown lexis they

lose their interest From observations, the researcher also reahve that Vietnamese

leamors of English, in general, and grade 10 students at High School for Gifted Students (LINUL), in particular, after several years of learning Linglish, tum out to be word-by-word readers They tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning of every single word Students feel insecure when they read without the aids of glossing or dictionaries When they encounter a new word in the reading context, they simply do

nol show any effort lo guess ils meamng The reason is Lal they always rely on ihe

glossing of Vietnamese translation of unfamiliar words in reading texts, or resort to

using dictionaries immediately Yet, this habit was proved to be a bad habit and affect

studonls’ reading comprehension (Dechant, 1991) The results are imited vocabulary Imowledge and inadequate reading ability

One possible explanation for the abovementioned problem can be found in Miller

and Perkins’ study (1989), in which the researchers indicated that in most reading

classrooms, students have received inadequate instructions on reading skills and

strategies Teachers normally stress on the production of reading comprehension rather than the reading process Therefore, a better way of teaching and learning reading skills, as many researchers have suggested, is to equip students with the strategy of

guessing word meaning from conlexL and to help (hem become independent, readers

Particularly, 10" grade students may have not been taught any reading strategy before

They have acquired a range of vocabulary and grammar after five to seven years of learning Fnglish Now il is urged Uhl Gicy be taught learning strategies to become

better and more efficient leamers

With a view fo gaining some insight inlo reading strategies and ready sbategy

instruction, I chose to study how to improve students’ reading comprehension through the teaching of lexical inference strategy ‘I'he rationale for my focus is that lexical inference strategy plays a critical role in successful reading (Sullivan, 1978) AHhongh the importance of lexical inferencing has been highlighted in a number of empirical

studies, much remains to be learned about it

12 Aims of the Research

‘The study aimed at improving reading comprehension ability of 10" grade students at

High School for Gifled Studets (HNUF) through lexical sference strategy instraclion,

and giving recommendations on how to teach students to use lexical inference strategies

effectively to enhance their reading abilities:

1.3 Objectives of the Research

The specitic objectives of the research were as follows:

¢ Examine whether there is a correlation between lexical knowledge and reading comprehension,

¢ Apply the teaching of lexical inference stratogy to improve reading comprehension ability of 10" grade students at High School for Gifted Students

© Lxplore the students’ attitudes towards lexical inference strategy instruction

Give recommendations to other teachers of English on how to teach the students

to use lexical inference strategy effectively to improve their comprehension in reading classes

tờ

14, Research Questions

In this investigation, the following research questions were addressed

1 Is there a correlation between students’ lexical knowledge and their reading

comprehension ability?

2 To what extent does the teaching of lexical inference strategy have impact an the

students’ reading comprehension?

3 What are the students’ attitudes towards the lexical inference strategy

instruction?

1.5 Scope of the Research

This study only focused on the teaching of lexical inference strategy to grade 10

students al High School for Gified Students, so the teaching of oiher reading strategies

or to other subjects would be beyond scope

1.6 Significance of the Research

‘This study focused on investigating the effect of the vocabulary learning strategy - lexical inferencing - on students at [igh School for Gifted Students, especially on tenth graders For students in the tenth grade, exposure to a large amount of reading and learning new words in reading can develop good habits in terms of Linglish learning as they begin high school Thus, as mentioned above, if the instruction of lexical inferencing Ieads to good results, il can be pul to use in wider seale In addition, (his thesis study also investigated students’ attitudes towards the instruction, sa that teachers

could have a better idea about how to help students learn English

7 Structural Organization of the Thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

Part A - Introduction provides an overview of the study,

Part B - Development - consists of three chapters:

1n Chapter One Literature Review, a review of relevant literature on this issue is

presented

In Chapter Two — Research Methodology, a description of research methods is discussed in detail, including a description of selection of the participants, data

collection instruments and data collection procedures

Tn Chapler Three — Findings and Discussions, the resulls of the study are presented

In Part C - Conclusion, the researcher provides a summary on main points raised in the study, the major conclusion drawn from conducting this study, and a discussion of

the study's Timntations, and suggestions for further rescarch

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1, Theoretical Background

1.1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension

Reading is an important subject in language learning, no matter what language the leamer is trying to learn Understanding what one reads is a very crucial skill for a

learner Lo acquirc Tf'a person cannol compreherul what they read, they also carmol learn

information on his or her own or enjoy reading Goodman (1982) regards reading as “a

psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as

lie can, a message cnooded by a wriler as a graphic display”

Grellet (1981) defined reading comprehension: “Understanding a written text means oxlracting the required information from il as efficiently as possible” Tn other words, finding information efficiently from the text can help the reader understand what the text is about Further, Grellet (1981) also explained twa main reasons for reading: one

is for pleasure and the other is for acquiring information (in order to discover something

or in order to do something with the information obtained) As for how to sharpen leamers’ reading comprehension, inferencing is considered one of major reading techniques Grellet (1981) explained that “inferring means making use of syntactic,

logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements” In other

words, reading is

What Grellct (1981) mentions about reading docs not aim at any particular reader

constant process of guessing,

background (ie whether readers are first language learners or not) nor any specific level Bul, when speaking of sceond language learning through reading, Barneil (1989) stressed that the reading models mostly widely used for readers are bottom-up, top-

down, and mleractive Bamnell (1989) explained thal he bottom-up model is

text-driven In other words, it focuscs on leamors’ decoding, ability during reading It seems that the reader tries to reconstruct the writer’s meaning by recognizing letters and

sampling, confirming, and correcting, in reading comprehension It seems that learners with more or less reading proficiency have the ability to make predictions, and their general knowledge hecomes more important for their reading comprehension As for

the interactive model, if stresses reader ability 10 switch between the top-down and

bottom-up models during reading comprehension ‘Ihe reading strategy of this model is more flexible and can be employed according to leamer competence

When the three reading modcls arc applied to sccond language reading, some problems still exist For example, foreign language readers are not usually fully

proficient about the phonological system when reading Further, for foreign readers, the

differences and distance in terms of culture, and the distance inherent in any target language text can also make reading comprehension more difficult Nevertheless,

Bart (1989) still claimed that the three reading models have their own advantages in

terms of developing learners’ reading ability In addition, the goal of each reading model is to make foreign language readers succeed in reading target texts Since reading is a “psychological gnessing game” (Goodman, 1982), hy guessing through reading, readers can “reduce their dependence on the print and phonies of the texts” (Bamett, 1989) However, what can readers do when they encounter unknown words? How can readers go through reading without any interruption? Às menliemed previously, the most useful strategy for coping with vocabulary is guessing words from

context or lexical inferencimg (Nation, 1990; Nassayi, 2003) Therefore, there indeed

exists a strong relationship between coping with vocabulary and fluent reading

1.1.2, Reading Comprehension Strategies

Researchers point out that effective readers spontaneously use reading strategies in

the reading process, and Ihe use of appropriate reading strategies may improve reading comprehension (Oxford, 1990)

Reading strategies can be understood as “the special thoughts or behaviows that individual use to help them lo comprehend, lear and relain new information from the

readmg text” (O’Malley & Chamof, 1990).

Aecording to O'Malley & Chameot (1990), there are three major categories of readug strategies, namely, cognitive, meta-cognitive and sociaV/affective Cognitive

strategies help readers to construct meaning from the text whereas meta-cognitive

stralegies are ved lo regulale or monilor cogmilive strategies; and social/affective

strategies represent a broad grouping that involves either interaction with another

person Following is the possible classification of reading strategies:

Planning Monitoring Evaiuating | Top-down Bottom-up

organizers motntoring evaluation

requires ongoing vocabulary development The way they deal with unknown words thal

leamers are engaged in when they encounter an unknown word influences how they

interpret the reading (Fraser, 1999) Paribakht and Wesche (1999) reported four lexical

strategies in (heir research how learners dealt with unknown words in reading lexis

(1) Ignoring words: Leamers reported ignoring unknown words when the words were

not key words for the text

(2) Retrieving: Learners read the unknown word repeatedly with an attempt to retrieve

it from phonetic or graphic cues

(3) Appealing for assistance: This strategy involved directly asking the interviewer for

assistance or verifying the meaning, of the target word in a dictionary

“4

(A) Inferencing: When learners actively tried to identify the meanings of unknown words, the strategy they used was inferencing, which accounted for almost 80% of the strategy used in Paribakht and Wesche’s research (1999)

When an instructor aims al developing leamers’ vocabulary through reading, it is necessary to consider the possible ways of treating the unknown words in texts ‘Ihe teacher needs to decide the purpose of the lesson If the purpose of the lesson is to develop reading skills, then the teacher should noi spend Loo tach time ơn vocabulary instruction However, if the purpose of the lesson is to develop leamers’ vocabulary,

then the teacher needs to spend some time on particular vocabulary and on vocabulary

leaming strategics The stratogics of guessing from context, usme word parts, and dictionary work require a lot of time, but once these strategies are mastered, they more

than ropay the time invesled in them (Nation, 1990) Nation (1990) surnmarized the

possibilities for the instructors to deal with unknown words while teaching reading,

1 Ignoring unknown words: It is often recommended that leamers should be

encouraged not to leok up every unknown word that they meel in a reading text

Iireebody and Anderson (1983) found that readers skipped unfamiliar words and even

parts of sentences containing them if they did not seem to be necessary to follow the theme of the lext or lo do the task they were set Putting a time mil on such reading

will also make ignoring some unknown words an advantage (British Council Teachers,

1980)

2 Giving the meaning quickly: In some situations, translation will be the most effective way Usually the teacher will give the meaning that works in the context If the word has useful parts, quick analysis of the word will nol take much lime and will

have useful effects

3 Pre-teaching vocabulary: One way of stopping vocabulary work from interrupting readmg is to pre-teach vocabulary in the text This can be a useful prooedure but there are several difficulties associated with it (Nation & Coady, 1988) Tirst, the research has not shown the gains in comprehension as a result of pre-teaching vocabulary

Second, pre-teaching takes away the opportunity for learners to use their guessing skill.

Third, vocabulary teaching will be more meaningful for learners after they have met it

in the text because then they have some experience to attach the teaching to

4 Glossing: One way of dealing unknown words in a text is to provide a short

definition somewhere near the ext Glos

the book

5 Referring to a dictionary: Dictionarics are used primarily to check meaning The next most frequent uses are to check spelling and promueiation (Bejoint, 1981;

MacFarquhar & Richard, 1983) Tu guessing words from context, reference to a

dictionary is one of the steps used to check if a guess is correct Research on dictionary use and comprehension has shown that allowing learners ta use dictionary while reading does nol measurably increase their comprehension (Bensoussan, 1983)

Moreover, there are considerable obstacles to overcome before learners at all levels are able to make efficient use of a dictionary (Nation, 1990)

6 Guessing from context: This is undoubtedly the most important vocabulary learning strategy Its aim is for learners to be able to make a well-formed guess at the meaning

of an unknown word in context wilhoul inferrupking the reading to0 much, The effect of

guessing from the context is the main point of this study and is futher described in

detail in the next content

1.1.2 Lexical Inference Strategy

1.1.2.1 Defimtion of Lexical Inference Strategy

Inferencing is defined as the cognitive process a reader goes through to obtain the implicit meaning of a wrillen text (Chikalanga, 1993) TL ix considered to be a compensation strategy essential for first language as well as second language reading comprehension (Bialystok, 1979) Furthermore, it is reengnized as an essential component of the process of reading comprchension, which postulates that reading involves an interaction between textual information and pricr knowledge of the reader.

Lexical inferencing involves making informed guesses of word meanings in light of all available linguistic cues in combination with the leamer’s general knowledge of the world (IIaastrupt, 1987) If used in an effective way, it can serve for purposes of

immediate comprehension am a listening, interaclion, or reading conlexl, and under

favorable conditions, it may lead to retention of the word form as well as semantic and other lexical information (Patribakht & Wesche, 1999),

Clarke and Nation (1980) proposed a strategy of gucssmg words from conlext and this strategy is considered very simple for learners to use when they encounter

unknown words in context, The strategy can be divided inlo five sleps The five steps

do not need performing in order, and they are as follows

Step 1: Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech, For example, is

the word a noun, a verb, or adjective?

Step 2: Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word in this step, learners can ask themselves some questions such as “Who does what to whom?”

or “Whal does what?” Learners can find clues in the immediate grammar Tn olher

words, learners use local clues to guess the meaning of unknown word or example,

“Typhoon Nari destroyed the city.” Here “destroyed” is an unknown word and learners

can guess [ai the typhoon did something to Ihe cily With the help of the surrounding clue, learners can guess that the word may have a negative meaning,

Step 3: Look at the relationship between the clause and senlence containing the

unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs It means that ] earners can use global clues to guess the word meaning Pay attention to transitional words such as “but”,

“because”, or “in other words” Therefore, it is imporlant lo find if sentence pation belongs to the one such as cause and effect, condition, contrast, clarification, or

exemplification

Step 4: Use the knowledge learners have gained from Steps 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word It means that leamers combine the knowledge they gained by following the first three steps and then make a guess of the word meaning

Step 5: Check the guess is correct

a Check the speech of the word leamers guess and the unknown word

b Replace the unknown word with the guess

o Use prefixes and roots as a guide

d Consult the dictionary

The procedure proposed by Clarke and Nation (1980) is based on language clues and does not foous on background content knowledge (Nation, 2001) ‘Lhe reason for this is that linguistic clues can be found in every text, but background knowledge camol Background knowledge is strongly related lo both the textual aspeols and the leamers themselves (Nation, 2001) Further, by using this procedure to guess words

from context, learners can pay more altenlion lo vocabulary learung than focusing on

background knowledge

1.1.22 Value of Lexical Inference Strategy

Clarke and Nation (1980) studied learners wha used strategy of guessing the meanings of words from context and claimed that there arc some advantages to this strategy Firstly, it allows the leamers to learn vocabulary without the aid of the teacher and loamers’ vocabulary can be expanded through extensive reading, Secondly, owing

to several encounters with one word in context, learners can inerease their command of the word and its various uses Thirdly, with the stralegy of lexical inferencing, learners can continue their reading without stopping to consult a dictionary, which allows them

to develop independent thinking regarding which unguessable words need to be looked

up ina dictionary Fourthly, learners are encouraged to summarize the information of the guessed word they get in context before consulting a dictionay Afterwards, they can have more impressions and a better understanding of the guessed word Finally, by using the stalegy of lexival inferencing, learners can practice seeking information and making predictions of the word in comext, which can in tum develop their reading skill

1.1.2.3 Factors that Affect Lexical Inferencing

Paribakht (2005) divided the factors affecting lexical inferencing into two broad categories: contextual factors and leamer-related factors According to Paribakht

(2005), vortextual factors are referred to as “Ihe rramber of occurrences af the unknown

words, the importance of the unknown words to text comprehension, the density of

unknown words in the text, text length, comprehension tasks and word characteristics and the existence of clear contextual clues” It seems that the design of the text and the use of vocabulary both play a crucial role in the success of lexical inferencing On the other band, learner-related factors include “leamers’ backgrounds, previous learning experience; size of receptive vocabulary knowledge; procedural knowledge; attention to details in context, including ability and inclination to use context effectively: preconceptions about the meaning of Ihe word; and the usefulness of previously known information in cue utilization” From the description of these leamner-related factors, it

is obvious that what affects the success of lexical inferencing is strongly cormected to lcamers’ knowledge of words and texts

As mentioned previously, lexical inferencing is a very important way of incidental voabulary learning However, to achieve successful guessing, in addition lo contextual and leamer-related factors proposed by Paribakht (2005), some more detailed factors should also be discussed Schmitt (2000) proposed seven factors that affect inferencing success These faslors are described as follows

1 The context must be rich enough to offer adequate clues to guess a word’s meaning

2 Readers are better able to use local clues in proximity to an unknown word than more global clues Qual are located further away

3 Leamers may mistake an unknown word for one they already know with a similar

orlhographie (writlen form) or phonological form (spoken form)

4, Cognates can help guessing from context if they are used prudently

5 Background knowledge about the topic and the culture being discussed aids inferencing

7, Leamers need to be skilled in guessing

8 Guessing a word from context does not mean that it will be remembered

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research Areca of the Thesis

Nagy et al (1985) attempted to determine whether students could really acquire

unfamiliar word knowledge while reading authentic lexis In their study, eighth-grade students of average or above average reading ability read either an expository or a

narrative text of about 1,000 words in length After reading, those students received two

12

vocabulary assessment tasks on 15 target words selected from each text An individual interview and multiple-choice test were also conducted After the experiment, the results showed that leaming from context did take place and vocabulary gain was small

bul slatisically reliable Further, the amourd of learning from the narrative was the

same as that from the exposition ‘Thus, it seems that word leaming from context is not confined to any specific genre This study shows that here is a close relationship between vocabulary learning and reading Alier the proof of the existence of vocabulary growth through learning from context, the efficiency of using lexical inferenciny should be further investigated,

Nassaji (2003) claimed that “lexical inferencing has been found to be the mostly

widely used by L2 learners” Based on the perspective, Nassaji’s (2003) study aimed at investigating the use of sialogics and knowledge sourecs in 1.2 lexical inferencing

‘Twenty-one ESL leamers participated in the study ‘The data were collected from introspective and retrospective think-aloud protocols of those participants The learners

were asked lo infer new word meanings from context Tn a total of 199 inferential

responses, 51 (25.6%) were successfully inferred, 37 (18.6%) were partially successful,

and 111 (55 8%) were unsuccessful Initially, it seems that lexical inferencing was not

successful However, when Nassaji observed the processes belind those Icarners’

lexical inferences, he found that one of the major problems leading to incorrect

inferences was (hal the learners oflen mistook the target words for another one they are

familiar with, and that they were easily confused by similar-looking words From Nassaji’s study, it seems that although lexical inferencing is the strategy most widely used by L2 learners, most learners could nol use the stralegy successfully Despite the findings of Nassaji’s (2003) study, he still did not deny the worth of the existence of lexical inferencing Instead, Nassaji put strong emphasis on the importance of learners being skillfully trained to use the strategy of lexical inferenoing, in order to infer words successfully

T.o’s study (2004) aimed at investigating the effect of lexical inferencing on junior high school students’ vocabulary learning and reading comprehension, including the observation of the types of knowledge sources and contextual cues the students used

The participants were 68 junior high school student — 34 students respectively were in the experimental group and in the control one ‘he study procedure included the

pretest, the treatment — lexical inferencing instruction that lasted for four months, and

the posltesl The resulls showed thal there was a sigmificarl, correlation between

students’ vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension It meant that the increase

in vocabulary knowledge contributed to better reading comprehension Besides, the participanis of the experimental group who wore instrucled in lexical inforcricing performed better in vocabulary and readme comprehension tests than those of the

control one Thal is, the mstructon of the siralegy — lexical imfereucing had a positive

offect Finally, the participants of the oxperimental group could make use of more types

of knowledge sources and contextual cues in the process of inferencing than those of the control ome From the findings of Lo’s study (2004), it is suggested (hal leachers should help students to practice the inference strategy

Iisu (2004) focused on an investigation of how to enhance incidental vocabulary

ig words from context The participants in her study acquisition through guessing

consisted of four classes with a combined total of 186 junior college students in

Taiwan The aim of the study was to instruct the students in lexical inferencing to

observe if the slralogy could help therm enhance incidental vocabulary acquisition through reading The participants were divided into two groups, an experimental group and a control group, and later cach group was further divided into three different levels based on Hnglish proficiency Afterwards, the experimental group received the instruction in lexical inferenoing as proposed by Clarke and Nation (1980), while the control group received none The resulis of the siudy are as follows First, the instruction of leaming vocabulary strategies helped students to enhance their vocabulary acquisition through reading The incidental vocabulary gains increase in them experimental group was significantly superior to that in the control group ‘This implies that the studems in the experimental group made a lot of incidental

improvement in vocabulary acquisition after they received the instruction Second, the

researcher al so found those students’ vocabulary gains did not absolutely correlate to their reading comprehension level Ifinally, based on the collected data of the

questionnaire, most of the students in the experimental group had a positive attitude toward the strategy of lexical inferencing, ‘Therefore, Hsu (2004) suggested that the strategy of lexical inferencing be implemented in students’ daily class

From the above empirical studies supporting vocabulary gains using lexical inferencing, several conclusions can be reached Iirst, although there are some factors that affect successfully guessing from context, the substantial positive effect cannot be denied Second, it scems tal most learners tend 1o guess word meanings when they encounter unfamiliar words through reading As a result, instruction in efficiently using the strategy of lexical inferencing is strongly recommended

1.3 Summary

Real vocabulary leaming comes through use, but teachers can also help the process

by drawing alicntion lo particular words, and by teaching strategies for learning vocabulary Meeting the words in a variety of contexts and using them to express new

ideas provide the most important opportumities for vocabulary learning There are

strategies to cope with new vocabularies, like gucssing the meaning, analyzing word parts, consulting the dictionary and mnemonic techniques All these strategies make learners independent’ of the teacher while reading and learning vocabulary In

particular, the most important lexical strategy is guessing from context it is worth

spending time on this strategy It is the most pawerful way of dealing with unknown words (Nation, 1990) In recent years, roscarchers have paid a great deal of attention to vocabulary leaming and have focused on lexical inferencing processes of leamers They

have investigated knowledge sources learners use to make inferences, factors that affect

inferencing, and the effect of inferencing on reading and vocabulary learning Based on the literature reviewed in this chapter, this research integrated lexical inferencing

instruction into students’ English learning lo see the effects of lexical inferencing on

students’ vocabulary learning and reading comprehension, and thus equip students with the ability to infer word meanings independently while reading,

Chapter 2: Research Methodology

2.1, Research Setting

The study was conducted at Iligh School for Gifted Students (IINUIE) There are 33

classes with the lotal number of more than 1,000 students The el

Ss are calegorived

into different majors: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics,

Literature, English, and two other non-majored classes: Al and A2 As the students

cone from differert, parts m Vie!

m, many of them come from the countryside, so in general, the English proficiency of the students is not very high Reading is a difficult skill for them, mostly due to their lack of vocabulary In addition, they tend to be ward- by-word readers, and frequently tried to translate the reading text into Vietnamese

The teaching staff is composed of 12 teachers of Lnglish, all of whom graduated from University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University Hanoi, Their ages vary from 23 to 40, The researcher is also a lcacher of English at his high school She is 25 years old and has about nearly 3 years of teaching experience

The t chool are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh 12

2.2, Subjects

The subjects of this thesis study were composed of 46 students from class 10A1 at High School for Gifted Students (HNUE), which the researcher is in charge of According lo the resull of Oxford Placement Test giveu by the rescarchor al the very beginning of the school year, most of the students in this class are at pre-intermediate level, The table below summarizes the background information of the participants including the gender, age, and their English reading proficiency assessed by the teacher

Totat Gender Age English proficiency

participants intermediate intermediate | intermediate

Table 2: Background Information of the Subjects

There were three reasons behind the choice of these tenth grade students Firstly, this

is the only class of grade 10 that the teacher is in charge of Secondly, all the students had received formal English instruction for four years at secondary school and they were supposed to have a basic knowledge of English words and sentences - enough to read simple texts, Lastly, the students were expected to learn more English by reading longer and more complicated texts to achieve a good academic performance in English after they entered high school As a resull, in the main sludy, if the lexical inferencing instruction worked, other students could be trained to use the instruction as soon as they entered high school In this way, they could enhanee their vocabulary and reading ability throughout their throc years of high school,

2.3 Research Types

The ultimate goal of this study is to explore the effects of lexical inference strategy

instructions on students” reading comprehension ability ‘lo achieve the research goal, the study combined both quantitative and qualitative data Quantitative data were

collected based on the resulls of the questionmaires, pretest and posttest Further,

qualitative data were gathered using interviews, teacher’s notes and students’ learning logs In this way the study could get more complete results

2.4, Research Approaches

This study was carried out using action research approach Action research is first and

foremost situational, bemg concerned with the ident:fication and solution of problems

ina specific context ‘The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs

within the educational context in which the research is being carried out To put it

another word, action research is a “stnall-scale imtervenlien m the functioning of the

real world and a close examination of the effects of such mtervention.” (Cohen &

Manion, 1994)

‘The reason why the researcher chose this approach is that the aim of the study was

to improve the current situation of English reading comprehension Secondly, the study

was formed with several uncertainties and suspicions, thus, it needed the alteration and

improvement during the research process Taking everything into consideration, it was

believed that action research was the most appropriate approach to this thesis

Susman (1983) put forward this action research model He distinguished five phases

to be conducted within each research cycle (Figure 1) Initially, a problem is identified

and data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis This is followed by a collective

postulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emerges

and is implemented Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been At this

point, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another cycle This process continues until the problem is resolved

DIAGNOSING Identifying or

defining proklem

ACTION SPECIFYING

In order to conduct an action research, Nunan (1992) suggested seven steps, namely Initiation, Preliminary investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination, and Fallow-up This study strictly followed the general steps of an

action research cycle suggested by Nuran,

2.5 Data Collection Instraments

2.5.1 Pretest and Posttest

In this study, in order to figure out the effects of lexical inferencing on vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension, the researcher adapted two reading articles used as

pretest and posttest in LIsin’s study (2008): The Amazon Rainforest and Movie Stunts (See

Appendices | and 2) The reason for choosing the two reading articles for the tests is that only one article for the subjoels to read and then be tested on may raise concerns regarding validity Ilowever, the researcher feared that more than two articles for the

subjects to reat] and be tested on would bore them and take 100 much time Therefore, the

rescarcher decided to base the thesis project on the two articles

‘The two articles were used in both the pretest and the posttest According to

Carrell ct al (1989), “the rationale for using cxacily the same tesl for both pre-and

post-testing was to assure exactly comparable tests, thus avoiding the problem of equating different forms of pre-and posttests” In other wards, using the same test in both pre-and posttest can avoid uncertain variables raised by different forms of tests and then can make a considerable comparison One of the purposes of this thesis study was to compare the performance of the class before and after the instruction, so the pretest and

posttest were the same Tn the protest, Iwo lesls were conducted (1.¢ one was conduetcd

first and then after one week the second one was conducted) The posttest was conducted

in the same way as the pretest The exam papers in Lhe prelest were collected as soon as

the subjects finished each test and the subjects were not provided with any comect answers after the pretest Further, the vocabulary items tested in the pretest did not appear in any

of the following six articles instructed, ur im the subjects’ English textbook for thal

semester, to ensure that the results of the posttest would not be interfered with

19

2.5.1.1 Vocabulary Multiple-Choice Tests

Two different styles of tests were designed for the pretest and posttest: one was a vovabulary mulliple-vhoice test and the other was a treading comprehension test, which is

discussed in the next section

Tn this thesis study, two vocabulary rauluple-choice lesls adapted from Hsin’s study

(2008) (See Appendices 3 and 4) were given to all of the subjects Five multiple-choice

questions were designed based on five chosen words in the first and second article

tespectively In other words, len largel words were tested in total

‘The purpose of the vocabulary multiple-choice test was to discover whether subjects imew the target word meaning Therefore, the questions mainly fooused on finding the appropriate meaning of the target word

As for the evaluation of the score of the vocabulary multiple-choice tests, if the

subject got a comect answer, they received one point

2.5.1.2 Reading Comprehension Tests

Two reading comprehension tests adapted from Hsin (2008) were employed in this siudy (See Appendices 5 and 6) Fach test was composed of five roading coruprchension questions to test if the subjects understood the main ideas of the two articles Similar to the design of vocabulary multiple-choice test, questions in the reading, comprehension test had four answer options for the subjects to choose from

The evaluation of the score of the reading comprehension tests was performed in the

same way as that of the vocabulary multiple-choice tests If the subjects got a correct

answer, ley received one poinl

In the questionnaire after the pretest, five questions (See Appendix 7) were designed

with either four or five options for them to choose from The first and second questions

20

concemed subjects’ opinions about their ordinary reading The first question concerned how the subjects usually deal with unknown words while reading According to Nassaji (2003), the strategies that leamers use when they encounter new words include “ignoring,

unknown words, consulting a dictionary, writing them down for further consultation with

a teacher, or attempting to infer their meaning from context” ‘'herefore, the four options for the subjects to choose from in the first question were based on the strategies listed

above As for the second question, il concerned whether the subjecis could lear new

words in their ordinary reading, [n the third to the fifth questions, subjects were asked for

their point of view towards the second article, which was tested in Ihe pretest The reasor

‘behind the last three questions focusing on the second article mstead of the first one was

based on the fact that the subjects received the questionnaire as soon as they finished the

second test, so ther memory of the second article would be clearer than for the first

article, which was read a week earlier,

Questions in the questiomnaire after the posttest focused on subjects’ attitudes after

they had received instruction im Jexical imferencing Similar lo the design of the

questionnaire conducted after the pretest, five questions (See Appendix 8) were presented

with either four or five options for the subjects to choose from The first and second

questions concerned whether subjects had different opinions after they had reecived the instruction, In the third to fifth questions, the subjects were asked for their opinions about

the second article, so as to diseover whelhir the instruction made any difference

2.5.3 interviews

Besides the instruments mentioned above, semi-structured interviews were conducted

to elicit the subjects’ opirnons about their ordinary reading habil and the instruction of

lexical inferencing to get more complete results

The questions were presented (See Appendix 9) for the subjects to answer The

following were the questions: (1) Whal do you think this article is about? (2) How did

‘you learn the meaning, of the word “stunt”? (3) Do you think the article is difficult? (4) How do you deal with new words while reading? (5) Does the instruction of inferring

words from context make any difference for you?

The interviews were tape recorded and notes were taken Five subjects volunteered to participate in the interviews ‘Ihe interview was conducted during the break time as soon

as all of the subjects had finished the posttest In order to avoid any misunderstandings between the researcher and the interviewees, the interviews were conducted in

Vietnamese,

2.5.4, Teacher's Notes and Students’ Learning Logs

Datla were also collected by means of the teacher's noles and the students’ leanmng

logs during the implementation of the project ‘hese provide some reflection on the part

of the teacher as the researcher and the students as the participants respectively Notes and leaning logs were used with the expectation that the researcher would have deeper understanding and broader perspective of the information

2.6, Intervention: Instruction of Lexical Inferencing in Class

In this study, the strategy of guessing from context, proposed by Clarke and Nation (1980) was used in expectations of enhancing subjects’ vocabulary and their reading

alniity Further, the instruction of the subjects in the class was carried oul over six weeks:

one article per week In this section, materials, the process and the design of asking the subjects to guess is described

261 Reading Materials

‘The textbook used as the official English materials for grade 10 students at the school

are Tieng Ank 10 — standard syllabus However, in this textbook, reading strategies

mostly focus on readmg for specific information (8/48 activitics) and detailed understanding (22/48 activities) Guessing meaning in context, though explicitly spelled out in the syllabus and the book, is not appropriately dealt with (1/48 activities) In fact, many activities are claimed to develop guessing skills but they hardly help to do so This is mostly because the activities are not properly designed In some activities, there are insufficient contextuat clues for the guess work lo be possible (Nguyen, TT.M, 2007) ‘That is the reason why the researcher decided to adopt supplementary materials

in this study

The reading texts selected for this study was a book entitled “Power Content Reading

‘the researcher chose this book on the grounds that the length, level of difficulty and

content of the articles in the book are suitable for pre — intermediate students, which corresponds lo the condition of the subjecis in this study In this siudy, six reading articles were used as reading materials for the students during the study

In the book “Power Content Reading 1”, 6 out of 20 articles were selected for all of

and Nation (1960) Further, an exercise format adapled from Clarke and Nation (1980)

was attached to the sheet of paper for the subjects to use when they practiced guessing the words in class (See Appendix 10) Finally, one reading comprehension test for each arlicle, taken front the book, was provided for the subjects to answer Tn each article, five target words were selected for the subjects to guess ‘Those target words were bolded in order to help the subjects find the words easily

2.6.2, Steps of the Instruction in Lexical Inferencing

The following outlines the steps of the instruction in lexical inferencing, proposed by

Clarke and Nation (1980), used in this study

Step 1: Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech

Step 2: Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word

Step 3: Look at the relationship between the clause or sentence containing the unlnown word and other sentences or paragraphs

Step 4: Use the knowledge you have gained from Steps 1-3 10 guess the meaning of the

word

Step 5: Check that your guess is correct

Tn the first weck, afler asking the subjeels 10 read the first article entitled “Acid Rain”

in class, the researcher first demonstrated the steps using the word “toxic”, which appeared

in the article In Step 1, the researcher asked the subjects to read the whole article once and

then look at the word “toxic” to find out what part of speech the word belongs to Because

the word “toxic” was followed by a noun “water”, the subjects could know the word

“toxic” was an adjective

Then, in Step 2, the researcher asked the subjects to look al the clause and senlence

involving the word “toxic”: “Although the rain is not acidic enough to burn skin, it coats

tree leaves, buildings and the ground with toxic water” From the words in the sentence

that included the word “toxic”, the subjecis know thal “oxic” has a negative meaning

In Step 3, the researcher asked the subjects to lool: at the relationship between the clause

or senlence contaming the unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs: “These dark

clouds ram hannful chemicals onto the Erath.” In the sentence, the subjects could notice that “toxic” is related to “harmful chemicals”

Tn Stop 4, the rescarcher asked the subjects 1o use the knowledge they had gained from Steps 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word

In the final step, the researcher asked the subjects to replace the word “toxic” with their

guess and lhen to see if the guess was correct Besides, the researcher also asked the

subjects to look up the word ‘toxic” in a dictionary to see the meaning of the word

The reason why the researcher asked the subjects to consult a dictionary to confirm the

meaning of the word “loxic” was (hal learners can be more successful im reading when

they combine strategies of consulting and inferencing (Fraser, 1999) In other words, if the subjects consul a dictionary afier finishing the five steps, they ca enhance their memory of the guessed word

As for whether the subjects should guess in pairs or individually during the six weeks

of pracliving the strategy, Nalion (2001) claimed that when

of lexical inferencing, it is better for students to work together “with the teacher, in

aching students the strulegy

groups in pairs and then individually” As a result, during the six weeks of training, the subjects were asked to practice the steps of word guessing in pairs during the first three weeks to become familiar with the five steps In the last three weeks, the same subjects were asked to work individually to learn independence

As mentioned above, in the six articles distributed during the six weeks (ic one article per week), the handout of five steps and the exercise format (See Appendix 10)

designed by Clarke and Nation (1980) was included in each article sheet handout to

cusure thal the subjects could remember the steps correelly

2.7 Data Collection Procedures

The following was the procedure of the main sludy

The 1* week ‘Ihe first round of the test for the pretest was administered to the subjects The procedure was as follows The researcher distributed the first reading article to the subjects and asked the subjects to read the article for ten minutes Later, the researcher distributed the first vocabulary multiple-choice test, and the subjects were asked to do the vocabulary test for fifteen minutes After the subjects finished the vocabulary test, the subjects were asked to retum the paper Next, the researcher distributed the first reading comprehension test to the subjects and allowed them fifteen minutes to finish it,

Finally, the subjects were asked to retum the paper along with the first reading article

The 2 week: The procedure for the second round ef the test for the pretest was the same

as for the first one The only difference was that after all the test papers were finished and collected, the subjects wore asked to [ill in the questionnaire

The 3% to 5“ week: three articles were used (Le one article per week) im class for the

subjects They also received the lexical inferencing instruclion Further, in order to make the familiar with the five steps, they were asked to do the lexical inferencing activities in pairs for the first three weeks

The 6 to 8! week: The process of practicing was the same as that during the first three weeks, except that the subjects were asked to do the guessing individually, rather than in pairs

The 9° week: The first round of the Lest for the postlest was done in both classes: the

process of conducting the posttest was the same as that for the pretest

The 10" week: The second posttest was given in both classes and after all the test papers

wel

frushed and collceted, the subjects were asked to fill m the questionaire Finally,

five volunteer subjects in the experimental class were recruited for the retrospective interview All the sudy procedures are shown in Table 3.