Luận văn teacher’s attitudes towards and practice in cognitive reading strategies instruction

Cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies 1.3, Teacher’s beliefs and classroom practice 1.4, Reading strategy instruction 1.5.. LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Teachers’ familiarity

BUI TI VAN ANIL

TEACHER’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND PRACTICE IN COGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTION

(Nhận thức và thực tiễn của giáo viên vẻ chiến lược dạy

đọc hiểu theo nhận thức)

M A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Cade: 601410

Method of the Study

Scape of the sludy

Significance of the Study

IAA

Organization of the thesis

PART U: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE : LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1, Reading and reading morkals

1.2 Reading stratogies

Definition of reading strategy 1.2.2 Reading strategies and reading comprehension

1.2.3 Cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies

1.3, Teacher’s beliefs and classroom practice

1.4, Reading strategy instruction

1.5 Review of related stuches on teacher’s reading strategy instruction

1.6 Summary

CHAPTER TWO: TUE STUDY

2.1, Context of the study

2.5, Data collection procedure

2.6 Data analysis procedure

2.7, Summary

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Teachers’ beliels aboul cognitive reading strategies

3.2 Correspandence between teachers! beliefs and their self-reported

3, Limitations of the study

4, Suggestions for further study

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Questionnaire on Reading Strategies

Appendix B: Observation Checklist

Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Questions

Appendix D; Paired Sample Correlations

Appendix E: Suggested Activities for Some Strategics

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Teachers’ familiarity with the concept of reading

slralegies

Teachers’ reasons for teaching reading strategies at class

‘Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing pre- reading stralegies in reading comprehension

‘Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing while-reading strategies in reading comprehension Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing

posl-teading strategies in reachng comprehension

Teachers’ beliefs and self-reported practices on reading

Luong Van Tuy

Lnglish as a Foreign Language English as a Second Language

First Language

Second Language Munistry of Education and ‘Training Means

Number of Cases or Subjects of the study

Probability of chance (indicator of significance)

Standard Deviation

Statistic Package for Social Science

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language leamers should acquire, particularly as it helps lo build vocabulary and leads lo lifelong learning and improvement in second language skills (Bermhardt, 1991 as cited in Zhang & Guo, 2005, p 111) In Vietnam, students have historically studied English

as a foreign language mainly hrough reading in classroom setLings Tn most «

introduced into high schools a new standard curriculum which has required teachers

to develop the students’ ability to usc language appropriately by integrating language teaching, with non-linguistic teaching Examples of non-linguistic teaching consist of affective teaching, strategy teaching and inter-cultural awareness Approaches within the classroom began to shift from the predominately grammar- translation method to more communicative approaches which encourage students’ interaction

The irmovative change in language approaches inclusively affects the teaching and learning of reading comprehension In reading lessons, rather than traditionally focus on the decoding of words and sentences, teachers are strongly recommended

to loster both students” inlorprotive and productive skills, aa well as Lo provide thera

with instruction on reading strategies It is proved by over 500 studies in the Jast

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twenty five years that reading strategy instruction greatly improves students’ readmg comprehension (Wellmgham, 2007, p 39) In a lesson of reading strategy

imstruction, teachers guide the use of reading strategies, showing students haw Lo

utilize them in order to cope with texts in an unfamiliar language (Lskey, 1988) Ilelping students develop good reading strategies in particular and language learning strategies in general is considered to be the appreciated characteristics of a

good language teacher (Lessard, 1997, p, 3)

Research in second language reading instruction in the last decades of the 1990's tended to focus on general explanations and descriptions of reading stralegies employed by competent and incompetent readers Less attention was given to the actual implementation of reading strategies instruction from a teaching perspective

a3 woll as (eachers* beliefs of the importance of these strategies (Hua & Kum, 2008) Furthermore, Borg (2003, 2006) explores that significant contributions to

understanding the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their classroom

practices of reading instruction have been primarily made in first language

education contexts whereas there has been a little amount of research in the area of

second and foreign language (ciled in Kuzborska, 2011, p 103) Chou (2008) also contends this gap results into an unclear picture of teachors’ beliefs construct in teaching reading m LL contexts (p 192) ‘Therefore, undeniably, it is essential to

conduct more research on exploring teachers’ beliefs and their actual instructional

practices regarding reading strategies With the aim to contribute some “meaningful pieces” to the unclear picture, this survey research was carried out on the topic given, namely teacher’s attitudes towards and practices in cognitive reading

strategies instruction

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

The main aim of this study was to explore teacher's attitudes towards and practices

in instructing cognilive reading stralegies for mainstream siudents al Luong Van

‘Tuy Gifted High School,

To be more specific, the primary objectives of the study were sct as follows

To find oul beliefs teachers hold aboul cogmiive reading stralegies:

To imvestigale to whal extent teachers’ beliefs correspond to their self-

reported instructional practices

To examme which cogrilive reading strategies teachers actually instruct at

classrooms

To reveal factors affecting the teachers’ instruction of cognitive reading strategies

3 Research questions

PRased on the theoretical framework proposed, the researcher pul forward the

following rescarch questions:

1

2

What beliefs do teachers hold about cognitive reading strategies?

To what extent do teachers! beliefs correspond to them selfreporied instructional practices?

Which cognitive reading strategies do teachers actually instruct at

classrooms?

What factors affect teachers’ instructional practice of cognitive reading

strategies?

4 Method of the study

PRecauss the purpose of the study was to reveal icachers’ behels and the

comespondence with their classroom practice, the survey research was adopted in

the study with dala colleclion instruments of questionnaires, observalions, and

interviews All ten English teachers of the targeted school were asked to express their opinions on the importance and practice of teaching cognitive reading

siralegics through quesliormaires Later, in order to obtain dircel, information on

actual teaching practices, each teacher was observed in three 45-minute lessons followed by semi-structured interviews.

5 Scope of the study

The study was conducted to explore teacher's attitudes towards and practices in instructing cognitive reading strategies for mainstream students at a high school named Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School in Ninh Binh Province Therefore, no

intention was made to generalize the findings

6 Significance of the study

‘The study is strongly hoped to provide teachers in the targeted school with useful insights into the situation of teaching cognitive reading strategies based on which some implications are made for more clliciont reading comprehension lessons Although no generalization is intended, the findings of the study could inform other teachers of the effectiveness of reading strategies instruction on students’ reading

comprehension

7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is organized in three parts

Part Tis The Eroduction which presents the rationale for the research Lopic, ils aims, scope, significance, as woll as rescarch methods

Part LL is ‘The Development which consists of three chapters Chapter one provides a theorctical framework for the study, including defititions and types of reading, issues in teaching reading skills and reading strategies, teachers’ beliefs and their classroom practices Chapter 2 reports the methodology used in the research including research questions, participants, instruments and the procedures for data collection and analysis Chapter 3 presents detailed discussion of the data given by questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews

Part TT is The Conclusion which discusses the major findings and imitations of the

research, draws pedagogical implications and provides some suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CIIAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

11, Reading and reading models

Reading as 0 research area is an extremely large and complex field about which much has been written Substantial efforts to define and explain the process of reading have brought about various models and views of rcading, Through a very comprehensive review of many reading models, Bamett (1988) categorizes reading models into three basic types, namely “top-down”, “bottom-up”, and “interactive”

models,

Bottom-up modet

‘The bottom-up model suggests that the meaning of the text is contained only in the text itself The reader merely receives mformalion from the printed lexl, building up meaning by decoding the symbols (letters), words, phrases and scutcnces serially In this model, reading was viewed as the process of meaning interpretation in which the language is translaled from one form of symbole represerlalion to another

‘Therefore, the goals of the bottom-up model are automatic word recognition and rapid reading rate The term of ‘text-based’ is frequently used for this type of

model

‘The introduction of bottom-up model has provided justifications for the reading processes of poor or beginning readers who depend substantially on lower-level

processing (Hassan, 1999) However, the notable Jinitation of the model is the

inflexibility of the representation which, on the whole, is serial and linear As a

result, the reader’s creativity and ability to move from lower level processing to ligher level processmg and view versa are not depicted (Rayner and Pollasick, 1989, p.477)

Top-down model

The top-down model is influenced by schema theory, which emphasizes the importance of the reader’s background knowledge in the reading process According to this theory, in order to comprehend a text, readers make use af both the text and their background knowledge In “top-down” processing, the reader begins with higher-order concepts (i.e general knowledge of the world or a specific situation) and full texts (i.e paragraphs and sentences), then works down to the

actual features of the lexts (c.g letlers, words, phrases, and grainmatical structures)

As to top-down teaching model, the leamer’s prior knowledge is activated, therefore, it enhances learner's language learning, and makes possible reading comprehension Tr this model, reading is scen as the process in whivh readers move from the top, the higher level of mental stages down to the text itself Ihe term

‘reader-hased’ is frequently used for “top-down” model

However, the top-down model suflers irom dhe problem of overemphasizing the higher-level processes (Hskey, 1988) ‘he meaning of a text seems to be derived

from contextual clues and the background knowledge of a reacer whereas little

omphasis is given to the lower-level processes of decoding, As a result, the model

seems more suitable for proficient readers (Llassan, 1999)

The limitations of bath the bottom-up and tap-down models of reading have led ta

developments in modeling, reading, as an interactive process

Interactive model

It is easy to draw out that the most salient difference between bottom-up and top-

down mods] is the role ol’ readers: the former as passive decoders while the latter as

active encoders ‘Lhe third category of reading is referred to as interactive since it combines the characteristics of both “bottom-up” and “top-down” models Besides,

the notien of “mteraction” includes the mleraclion between Lext and reatler, that is,

the information in the text and readers’ prior knowledge (Iiskey, 1988).

The interactive model appears to be the most promising in explaining the reading process (Grabe, 1991) ‘The model encompasses different types of first-language and

second-language reading, meorporales both bollom-up and top-down pre and

recognizes the contribution of both the reader and the text ‘Ihe interactive model

also recognizes reader variables such as background knowledge, prediction, and other reading strategies, which are unaccounted for in bottom-up models but

accounted for in all aspects of in top-down reading models

1.2, Reading strategies

121 Definition of reaiing strategy

Several definitions of “reading strategy” are available in the literature on reading;

nevertheless, there has never been consensus among researchers for a clear cut

definition of reading strategics (Ellis, 1994) This diversity is largely due to the way

the term has been used in different contexts such as firsi, second, or foreign

language learning (Cohen, 1998) Paris, Wasik, and Tumer (1991) describe slralegics as “actions selected dehberately to achieve particular goals” (p 692) Tn the same way of emphasizing the “purposeful” characteristic of reading strategies,

Bamett (1988) defines it as the mental operations involved when readers

intentionally approach a text to make sense of what (hey read (p 66) Furthermore,

Koda (2005) characterizes reading strategies with three core elements, namely

liberate, goal4roblem-orienled, and readsr-iniliated/controlled” (p 205) Afferbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008) fñathor clarify Koda’s viewpoint that reading strategies are employed towards the goal of controlling and modifying the reader’s

clTorts fo decode text, understand word, and construct meanings out of lext” (p 15)

For the sake of briefness and clarity, reading strategies are regarded, in the present study, as specific actions consciously employed by the leamer for the purpose of reading,

‘A reading strategy differs from a reading skill in its intemionality and autamaticity status A reading skill is only acquired when using reading strategy becomes

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effortless and aưtomatie with learnors” less deliberate attcntion (Afforbach, Pearson,

and Paris, 2008, p 368)

1.23 Reading strategies and reading comprehension

An impressive number of empirical investigations have established a positive relationship between stratcgics and reading comprehension For instance, Bezei (1998) has found that the use of various reading strategies improved the students! reading comprehension Cerlain studies in second language contexts also affirmed the attribution of reading strategies to the success of leamers’ reading comprehension such as Dermody (1988), and Anderson (1991) According to Anderson (1991), reading stvalegies are “must-have” cloments in the reading process besides the reader and the text (p 68)

1.23 Cognitive strategies and metucognitive strategies

Reading strategies are divided into two major categories: metacognitive and

cognilive reading strategies

% Metacognitive strategies

Metacognitive strategies mvolves thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring of comprehension or production while it is taking place, and scl-evahualion of learning aller the language aclivity is completed (Skchan, 1989,

p 87) Baker & Brown (1984) propose in details six metacognitive strategies

namely checking the outcome of any attempt to solve a problem, planning one's

nexl, move, monitoring the elfectiveness of any allempled action, esting, revising,

and evaluating one’s strategies for learning (p 354),

% Cognitive strategies

Williams and Moran (1989) slate thal cognilive siralegies are seen as mental processes directly concerned with the processing of information in order to obtain, store, retrieve or use information (p 148) They are more limited to specific Iearning lasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material ilself

In other words, cognitive stratcgics concem interacting with learning tasks, manipulating materials mentally or physically, or applying a specific technique to

the canting task: such as note-taking, summa

text, and skimming (cited in Salataci & Akyel, 2002)

Zhang and Wu (2009) categorize cognitive strategies into global strategies (c.2., checking how content fils purpose and using lypographical aides, such as ilalics), problem-solving stratogios (c.g, reading slowly and carefully and visualizing information), and support strategies (e.g., underlining and reading aloud when text becomes difficult) (p 58) Anderson (1991) classifies five categories, namely supervising, support, paraphrasing, establishing coherence, and testing,

On the way of searching for an appropriate classification, the researcher has found out a more teacher-friendly one that is the grouping of cognitive reading strategies

in accordance with pre-, while-, and post-reading phases In other words, the behaviors, which are designed to help students before, during, and after they read, calegorize ihe cogrilive reading strategies This

sification has been preferred by many rescarchers such as Bezei (1998), Ozck & Vivelok (2006), Yurdaisik (2007) However, they propose different strategies under the three stages, which results

from (he involvement of some stralegics in more than one slage such as predicting,

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asking comprehension questions, ctc As a result, in the scope of the study, the researcher aims to put forward the major reading strategies commonly

1 (1987's, tecommended by various scholars These are mainly based on Be:

Yurdaisik (2007)'s and Yigiter et al (2005)'s classifications

* Pre-reading strategies assist students to overcome the common urge to begin reading a text closely right away They also prepare students for actual reading with four specific strategies

Y Activating already-known knowledge about the topic

Prior knowledge should be discussed before reading the lexl to help set the stage for what is coming During reading, students should be encouraged to make

connections to the text from their experience and the teacher should model this

process using his or her own vormections Aller reading, the discussion should

center on how the connections helped students to better understand the text and how

the text helped them to build their foundation of prior knowledge

Y Previewing the text

Previewing enables readers to get a sense of what the text is about and how it is organized without aclually reading the main body of the lext To preview, students can read the title, author details, main headings and sub headings, chapter summaries, any highlighted text, any illustrations

Y Make predictions about the probable meaning of the text

When a student makes a prediction, he or she is making a guess about what is going

to happen next in a story or what a character is going to do or think Predicting also helps students become actively involved in reading and highly interested when they can compare their predictions with the content of the text

v Finding the text structure

Text structure refers 1o how the iformation within a written text is orgarived This strategy helps students understand that a text might present a mam idea and details,

a cause and then its effects, and/or different views of a topic Teaching students ta

recognize common text struoturos can help students monitor their comprehension

‘The text structure can be modeled using a graphic organizer to chart

— While-reading strategies will belp students cope with problematic and areyer areas of the text Due to the fact that students need different strategies to acquire the proficiency level, while-reading strategies are sometimes difficult to

teach and leam so they are considered as challenging strategies (Alvarez & Risko,

1989) ‘The seven while-reading strategies are proposed

Y Skimming io get the overall meaning of the text

Skimming involves running your eye very quickly over large chunks of LexL TL is

different from previewing because skimming involves the paragraph text Skimming allows students to pick up same of the main ideas without paying

allention to details

Y Scanning to find specific information

Scanning involves moving eyes quickly down the page seeking specific information

¥ Using context to guess meaning of unknown words

‘This strategy helps to figure out what the word means by thinking about the words

around il

Y Taking notes or marking text

‘Teaching students text-marking strategies accomplishes two objectives Virst,

students are more focused on what they are reading because they are making decisions about what to mark Second, they are emphasizing words and phrases that will allow them to quickly find information in the passage to answer test questions

Y¥ Questioning while reading the text

Some questions may be asked to clarify confusion about the content of the text Strategically asking and answering questions while reading helps students with

difficulties engage with text in ways that good readers do nalurally, thus “improving

This strategy involves students’ ability to draw meaning from text through explicit details and implicit clues urthermore, they can connect prior knowledge and

lo the text in order to make good gue

have happened, or will happen in the future

¥ Mapping the text

Ideas are recorded during reading Students can see the relationships among ideas, and distinguish between main ideas and supporting details

*% Post- reading strategies help students deepen their understanding of the

content, build further comeclions, and expand (heir prior knowledge of the subject

matter ‘here are four major post-reading strategies

¥ Summarizing

The main ideas are idenlified and reslaled in student’s own words

Y Evaluating

Students express personal responses (opinions, comments) ta beliefs and values

stated in the text

¥ Drawing conclusions

The conclusion is made based on both the text information and sludent’s evaluation

¥ Extend understanding in critical and creative ways in follow-up activities

‘To extend the reading, students may participate in activities such as speaking, drama, writing, art, or more reading

1.3 Teachers’ beliefs and classroom practice

From the viewpoint of Mansour (2008) and Richard (2003), teachers’ belies are described as being the most valuable in the psychological composition of the

teacher However, behels have been acknowledged as beng notonously dillicull to

define Pajares (1992) labels them as “a messy construct [that] travels in disguise and often under alias” (p 2) Ghaith (2004) proposes teachers’ beliefs comprise

the beliefš on cducalion and (eacking, curricula and the teaching prof ork ah

general, which form the “education culture” affecting pedagogical objectives and

values Teachers’ belicf arc also defined as “judgments” by Yero (2002) “untosted assumptions” by Calderhead (1996), and “theories for practices” by Bums (1996)

Teachors’ beliis can promote leaching practice; nevertheless, they may also work

as barriers to changes (Pajares, 1992)

Through the review of previous definitions, teachers’ beliefs are understood, in the

present study, to be a set of teacher’s pedagogical principles that play a central role

in guiding his/her teaching, behaviors

1.4, Reading strategy instruction

For most second language leamers who are already literate in a previous language, reading comprehension is “primarily a matter of developing appropriate and efficient comprehension strategies" (Wilhelm & Li, 2008, p 291) Both first and second language studies have revealed that strategies are teachable, and when they arc taught, students utilize training to a large extent (Janzen & Stoller, 1998) The strategies that successful readers employ can be taught to less successful readers via explicit strategy instruction which aims to raise learners’ cansciousness of strategic nature of reading (McDonough, 1995) In fact, even efficient readers can benefit from strategy instruction because they may also face many problems due to the lack

of awareness of their own strategic behaviors, or the difficulties occurring in the adjustment of strategies according lo their needs (Rubin, 1987) This the teacher whe must introduce and provide practice in using reading strategies for coping with texts

in an unfamiliar language (Fskey, 1988)

The case is very strong that teaching clementary, middle school, and high school students to use a repertoire of comprehension strategies increases their comprebension ol’ lex The awareness of reading strategies is of crucial importance especially for these beginning readers (Abdullah et al, 2009, p 312) ‘Teachers should model and explain comprehension strategies, have their students practice

using such stralegics with teacher support, and lel students know they are expected

to continue using the strategies when reading on their own (Pressley, 2000) Such

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teaching should occur across every school day so as to ect all readers using the strategies independently, which means including it in reading instruction for years

Sirategy instruction should be a part of cach Jesson in an ongoing prox through the whole curriculum rather than taught separately, since strategic reading improves only if readers are exposed to a lot of practice in a long-term training program (Grabe, 1991) While the original aim of instruction is to promote comprehension in readmg, the ultimate goal is to create independent and effective readers who can build their own purposes and adopt the relevant strategies (Cohen, 1998) Thus, stralegy mstruction develops auloriomous Isarmmers with high motivation and selͬ

esteem responsible for their own performance in reading (Allen, 2003)

15 Review of related studies an teacher’s reading strategy instructian

Allan and Bruton (1997) explored teachers’ perceptions on teaching reading and reading strategics to support reading development The study was cared out in a context in which many teachers made explicit their concems about those students who had difficulty in understanding texts The study aimed to find out teachers’ understanding of reading process and their teaching of reading strategies in secondary schools in Scotland The results showed that most of the teachers they studied considered reading strategies important that should be taught and developed

m condary school The majorily, however, did nol sce themselves knowledgeable

about the reading strategy instruction

Abdullah et al (2009) investigated the effectiveness of teaching reading strategies towards developing students’ reading competency among primary school teachers

A questionnaire survey was administered to determine whether the teachers have knowledge of reading strategies and lo tench their students The (mdings of the study showed that while teachers were aware of the use of reading strategies in developing reading competencies, they did not fully utilized them in teaching reading to primary school students Effective reading strategies such as selling context, relating the text to students’ schemata and predicting or interpreting text

wore less frequently used Apart from that, teachers also faled to chcourago

readers” interaction with the text

Chon (2008) conducted a sludy based on the assumption that teachers were highly influenced by their beliefs He investigated teachers’ beliefs about reading approaches among 42 university instructors and explored the degree of discrepancies or consistencies between teachers’ beliefs and their practical teaching activities in the HFL setting of Taiwan based on teacher reading strategies questionnaires The findings showed that there were no significant differences between the participants’ beliefs and their use of each reading approach

Differently, rather than reading theories, Khonamri & Salimi (2010) aimed to

investigate reading strategies about which Iranian EFL high school teachers hold corlaitr beliefs and employ certain practical teaching activities Based on questionnaire data from 57 teachers, teachers’ beliefs and their self-reported classroom employment of reading strategies were explored Findings indicated that teachers believed reading strategies played an imporlanl role in reading comprehension and that it was necessary to teach reading strategies in reading classes The results also revealed that there is inconsistency between leachers’ belicfs and their self-reported classroom practice

In the context of Vietnam, Nguyen (2007) explored teachers’ beliefs about teaching reading strategies and reading strategies instruction by high school teachers Employing interviews and class observations to collect data, she found out that teachers’ beliefs about teaching reading strategies were not always consistent The lack of knowledge about reading strategies caused them problems, which they both consciously and unconsciously were aware of Furthermore, teacher’s classroom practices did not always correspond to their beliefs Ta some extent, their classroom prachces were based on their coguition and theories To olher extent, their beliefs

were not reflected The beliefs of the teachers in tis study were affeeted by a

variety of extemal factors (teaching context, materials and curriculum, student’s

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motivation) and inferal ones (tacher”s sbilily, teachot”s training, and toacher”s view) These factors interplayed to influence them in their process of teaching,

Tw bricl, the studies above have revealed different findings on Lhe congruence

between teachers’ beliefs and their instructional practice Choosing the school where the researcher is teaching Dnglish, she asked for participation of the same group of subjects as Khonamri & Salimi’s and Nga’s ones ie high school teachers; however, various data collection instruments were employed to contribute meaningful findings to the controversial issue of teacher’s and their instructional

practice

1.6 Summary

‘This chapter reviews the literature on the different models as well as approaches of teaching reading comprehension The vital role of reading strategies is also further discussed together with the concept of teachers’ beliefs with relation to their classroom practice ‘These are followed by a brief review of related studies on teacher's reading, strategy instruction already published in the foreign and Vietnamese contexts Next chapter- Chapter [1- will describe the study including the context and the design of the study

CHAPTER TWO: TIIE STUDY 2.1 Context of the study

The study was conducted at Luong Van Tuy high school, which is situated at the cenler of Ninh Binh vity, Ninh Binh province As the only specialized high school

in the province, it attracts almost all advanced students from the city as well as different districts of Ninh Binh

For the 2010-2011 academic year, the school had aver one thousand and two hundred students being grouped in 30 gifted classes, with an average of 30 students per class There were 10 teachers of English and 100 others in teaching staff The

school has a quite big brary with plentifid sources of reference books, mags ngã

and newspapers convenient for all students to make references Moreover, it has five well-equipped classrooms with projectors, screens, computers, etc available In fact, iL is considered to be the best school in Ninh Buth in terms of teaching and

learning facilities

As for the students of the school, most of them five in the city or near the city so

they have favorable conditions for their learning both at school and at home All the

classes except 3 Linglish gifted ones receive 3 Linglish periods a week with the texthooks and workbooks prescribed for mainstream level by MORRT

2.3 Research design

Since the study disclosed the pedagogical beliefs among teachers in teaching reading strategies and the correlation between pedagogical beliefs among teachers and their practice at classrooms, the methodology adopted by the researcher is the survey research methodology The teachers’ beliefs in this stidy were measured by

a designed questionnaire in which they expressed their opinions about the importance of cogmtive reading strategies instruction Additionally, in

questiormaires, teacl also sel{seported their practice of cach reading stratcgy based on Likert seales i to 5 ranging from hardly ever to almost always

Furthermore, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were alsa

adopted to reveal (cachers’ actual practice of instructing reading strategies and

factors affecting their instructions

2.4 Dala collection instruments

The methods utilized in the study were:

revealed lcaghers’ allitudes towards cognitwe reading stralegies in terms of their

familiarity with cognitive reading strategies and reasons for teaching these strategies in class Section II explored teachers’ beliefs of instructing reading

strategies im which they were asked to express their agreement on the importance of

each strategy Section IV investigated the teacher’s self-reported instruction of

reading strategies at reading classes These two sections included 15 identical

clements that were considered important cognitive stratogics in roading

comprehension Items 1-4 referred to pre-reading strategies, items 5-11 were related

to whilo-reading strategies and the others concerned post-reading ones The Likert

Scale 1 to 5 was adopted in both Section JI and IV In the former, 1 indicates the

least important or the least agreement on a certain statement, while 5 refers to the most important or strongest agreement of the item Whereas, in the latter, the frequency of teaching increases in accordance with the higher number from “hardly ever” (1) to almost “always” (5) In order to minimize the possibility of omitting any olher imporlanl cognilive reading stralegies employed by teachers, iwo open- ended questions were added in Section ILI and LV for respondents to freely express their ideas without the constraints of fixed options In this way, the questionnaire inight be able to “provide a far grealer ‘richness’ than fully quantilalive dala”

(Domyei 2003, p.47)

Reliability of questionnaire

Research conducted by Bradburn and Suchnan (1988) suggests (hal response rales

are higher for individuals with a higher education, which inehides teachers, who are familiar with the format of forms and questionnaires These authors also find that

teachers often prefor questionnaires to interviews because they can be completed at

a convenient time lurthermore, questionnaires can also be completed anonymously

A major concem with the use of any questionnaire is that the instrument be understandable to the participant A questionnaire must be easy to read and the directions should be self-explanatory To insure clarity of the instrument, the initial form of the questionnaire was given to 5 experienced and capable arbitrators in the Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training who directly manage the English leaching of high school teachers in the whole province They were asked lo define the appropriateness of the questionnaire style, the clarity of words and the language soundness After returning the tool, the propased amendments cited by arbitrators in their recommendations were made Furthermore, they were piloted with the Š

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teachers in another high school in Ninh Binh province The reliability index based

on Cronbach’s alpha for the questionnaire was 0.93 Besides, after the pilot study, teachers were given an orientalion on how in code the questionnaire

Validity of questionnaire

The external validity is hoped to be ensured when all the 10 teachers responsible for teaching mainstream students participated in the study However, a major threat to the internal validity is the issue of truthfulness on the part of the participants, especially in a study in which the participants may be familiar with the researcher (Weiss, 1975) Teachers may hesitate {o admit they do not use several of the reading strategies included on the survey in their classrooms ‘Ihis may be even more

common if the researcher is a colleague The challenge of soliciting honest

Tesponisc: (rom the participants was addressed by reminding leachers al a faculty meeting, and in an email, that the purpose of this study was to improve knowledge

in the field of reading strategies instruction Teachers were also repeatedly assured anonymity of their responsas,

Lesson Observation

Gebbard (1999) defines classroom observation as “non-judgmental description of classroom events that can be analyzed and given interpretation” (p 35) The purpose of observation in the context of the present study was not to evaluate the teaching Rather, observing the teachers in action allowed a means of assessing the extent to which the teachers’ self-reported practices corresponded to what actually happened in the classroom It was also a form of data triangulation, particularly

because key observations made were discussed with the teachers in follow up

discussions as a further attempt at validating the observations Three 45-minute

lessons per teacher were observed The lessons were audio and video recorded and

later analyzed for teacher’s actual practice of reading stralegies imsiruction The

items in the observation checklist were similar to the items in the questionnaire,

which was used to figure out the correspondence between teacher's self-reported practice and aclual one A schedule recording the questions generated by the

observation data was also produccd after cach lesson and used for interviews with the teachers

Semi-structured interviews

‘The in-depth interview was conducted to probe more deeply into the teacher’ perceptions regarding their attitudes and practice of instructing reading strategies Specifically, it helped to reveal detailed information about the teachers” concerns on reading strategies, how teachers decided which strategies to teach as well as their explanation for their most frequent and least frequent instruction of certain reading stralegies The interview questions (Appendix C) were semi-structured so hal the participants may not be restricted within the confines of the interview questions and could openly discuss the reading strategies they utilize The recorded voices were transcribed and analyved immecialely afler the sessions

It is noteworthy that taking part in the interview was voluntary The interviews were conducted in Vietnamese, the teachers’ mother tongue in order to encourage the teachers to comment freely and to reduce any anxiety, which might occur when communicating in a non-native language

2.5 Data collection procedure

In the process of testing the instrument and collecting data for the final study the following procedures were followed

Before the final study was made, a pilot study was conducted to test the reliability

of the questionnaire The pilot study was conducled in one high school found in the

zone with 5 teachers

So as to dispatch the questionnaire and conducting classroom observation, consent was oblained (rom principals, teachers and sluderts through lace to face discussion about the relevance of the study

Tor the final study, after announcing the objectives and data collection procedures

of the study to the English faculty of Luong Van Tuy Gifled High School, the researcher distributed the Questionnaire on Reading Strategies to all teachers’ in

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one faculty meeting After the questionnaires were completed, teachers were called for participation in classroom observation After consent was received,

unannounced observations were conducted i order to observe the actual instruction

of reading strategies by teachers at classrooms All grade levels were represented

and classes were visited at random Immediately following each classroom visit, the

data was recorded on the Observation Checklist of Reading Strategies Each item on the checklist that was observed was designated with a check If the strategy was not

observed, the item was left unmarked

2.6 Data analysis procedure

Dala [rom three major data sources were used in this research The sources included

teachers’ questionnaires, classroom observations and teachers’ interviews ‘The procedures for analyzing the data inckuded: (a) organizing the data; (b) generating categories, themes, and pattcrns; (c) and examining the data to answer the research questions identified m the introduction of this study

The teachers’ questionnaires provided quantitative data for the study while the

recorded data from the classroom observations and interviews offered qualitative

data The quantitative data were entered into a data file and analyzed statistically using the compnter software program Statistical Package for Social Sciences, v.12

Tn order lo answer the fish research question, means and standard devialions were

given to each item in teachers’ beliefs about the importance of reading strategies in teading comprehension A correlation was run between the teacher’s stated altitudes and self-reported practice of instructing reading strategies in their classrooms Later,

the fifteen items which were inchnded on both the questionnaire and the observation

checklist were analyzed (or frequoney The researcher theu ranked the resulls according to frequency and compared the frequency with which teachers self- reported using these strategies to the frequency of which the researcher observed them being used in the classroom,

The researcher also tallied the nurber of reading strategies by cach toachor ss recorded on the observation checklist Pearson correlation tests were run between the demographic charaoleristics of dhe subjects and how frequently they were

observed instructing reading strategies in their classrooms

CIIAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapler 1s divided into four differant scetions m order to present the data and

provide answers to the four research questions investigated in this study

3.1 Teachers’ beliefs about cognitive reading strategies

The following presented data were extracted from the questionnaire (Section II and TIT} together wilh teachers’ intsrviews Tn the first place, teachers solf-assessed their

degree of familiarity with the concept of reading strategies

Somewhat Slightly Not at all

Figure 3.1 Teachers’ familiarity with the concept of reading

The results of the first question show thal half of the teachers considered themselves

as being ‘very’ familiar with the concept of reading strategies Among 10

parheipanis, 4 of them said thal they were ‘somewhat’ familiar whereas only one

teacher indicated the ‘slightly’ option for this question As a whole, teachers reported having been familiar with the reading strategies and having some ideas about them

The results from the semi-structured interviews also supported those from questionnaires in which teachers were asked what the concept of reading strategies

meant to them They defined reading strategies as:

- “the strategies that help readers do reading comprehension tasks with the best results” (Teacher 2)

Similarly, teacher 3 said,

“Reading strategies are to make reading tasks easier for a student and make the student

gain speed while reading."

It can be said that the interviewed teachers have a basically similar concept in their

minds regarding the reading strategies They had a general idea about what reading

strategies were, which was quite similar to the definition of reading strategies in the

literature review, ie specific actions consciously employed by the leamer for the

purpose of reading

The questionnaire results further clarified teacher’s opinions on the importance of

reading strategies instruction by asking them the reasons why they taught reading

strategies (Question 2, Section II) In this question, participants were presented

various reasons for teaching strategies to choose, together with one extra option

where they could write their personal reasons, if any, other than ones presented

1

Figure 3.2 Teachers’ reasons for teaching reading strategies at

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As scon in Figure 3.2, all the participants agreed that teaching reading strategies helped students understand texts better, develop sub-skills, improve the students’ enjoyment of the texts and prepare for the test Nine of the participanis appreciated the importance of teaching reading strategies to students’ awareness of the language The advantage of saving time when reading strategies were instructed

was agreed by most participants (8 teachers) Surprisingly, only 6 of them reported

that teaching reading strategies enhanced autonomy or helped students to be independent readers None of the respondents gave a reason other than the ones

provided

In the interviews, the benefits of teaching reading strategies on time saving, skill development and test preparation were emphasized again by the three participants

- ‘Without teacher's instruction on reading strategies, students may da not know how to

complete the reading tasks in « limited time” (Yeacher 1)

- ‘Reading strategies instruction is essential to equip students with important reading

skills” (Teacher 2)

- “Students should be taught the reading strategies so that they could apply various

strategias for different reading texts in the tests” (Teacher 3)

Further than general attitudes on reading strategies instruction, the rescarcher continued to seek data on teachers” beliefs about the importance of each reading strategy in Section II of the questionnaire Below are means and standard deviations given to each item in the three categories of pre-reading, while-reading

and post-reading strategies

Pre-reading strategies

1 Activating already-known knowledge about the topic 46 316

The results showed that the means of all the four items were in the high range

(means 3.5-5), which revealed teachers’ positive attitudes towards the importance of the four pre-reading strategies Among ther, the activation of sludenls’ prior knowledge about the topic was considered to be the most important (Mean 4.6, SD

0.516) whereas predicting was the least important (Mean 3.7, SD 1.059) It is

noteworthy that the high standard deviation of the third pre-reading strategies (SD 1.059) revealed a lower level of agreement in teacher’s responses in comparison to the three other strategies In other words, some teachers acknowledged the high importance of instructing students io predicl while some expressed their disagreement fo its necessity

While-reading strategies

3 Skimming to gel the overall meaning of the text 46 316

7 Using context to guess meaning of unknown words 44 516

Table 3.2 Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing while-reading

siralegies in reading comprehension

The results showed thal there was a high level of agreement among the participants when evaluating the importance of instrueting 7 while-reading strategies Moreover, the means of 5 out of 7 items were in the high range (mean 3.5-5), while 2 items fited in the medium range (inean 2.5-3.4) In other words, most while-reading

strategies were considered to be essential to imstruct students by the participants, in

which skimming and scanning were the most important In contrast, many teachers

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scomed to doubt the importance of teaching students to make inferences and map the text while reading when their agreement was close to 3 (unsure) Additionally, it

is noteworthy lo highlight thal while-roading stratogics were evaluated less important than pre-reading ones with overall means of 4.1 and 4.4 respectively

Postereading strategies

Table 3.3 Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing posi-reading

strategies in reading comprehension

It was revealed that among the four post-reading strategies, summarizing was regarded as the most important to be instructed to students (mean 4.2) followed by follow-up avlivilies (mean 4.7) Most participants were nol sure about the importance of evaluating and drawing conclusion strategies (mean 3.2, SD 422) Surprisingly, the instruction of post-reading strategies was regarded as the least important (nean 3.7) in comparison with thal of pre-reading strategies (mean 4.4) and while-reading ones (mean 4.1)

3.2 Correspondence between teachers' beliefs and their self-reported

instructional practices

In this section, descriptive statistic results of the participants’ evaluation of the importance of the fifteen reading strategies and their self-reported frequency of covering those strategies in teaching practices were concurrently presented in Table 3.4, All strategies were listed in the same order as in the questionnaire Mean score

and standard deviation (SD) of the participants’ responses to the entries in terms of two different scales were computed

1 Activating already-known knowledge 46 | 316 | 44 516

11 Questioning witle reading the Lex 44 | Sl6 | 41 568

15 Extending comprehension im critical and] 4.1 | 568 | 38 432

creative ways in follow-up activities

Table 3.4 Participants’ heliels and self-reported practices on reading strategies

As shown in Table 3.4, ten out of the fifteen reading strategies obtained an average score higher than 4 in the imporlance scale, imdicaling that the majority of strategies

(66.7%) were considered important to instruct students by the participants On the

other hand, only eight strategies were reported by respondents to be covered in

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