Using compensation strategies to improve english reading comprehension for students at van xuan university of technology

USING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS AT VAN XUAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION NGHE AN - 2013... USING COMPENSATI

USING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES

TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

FOR STUDENTS AT VAN XUAN UNIVERSITY

OF TECHNOLOGY

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

NGHE AN - 2013

USING COMPENSATION STRATEGIES

TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

FOR STUDENTS AT VAN XUAN UNIVERSITY

OF TECHNOLOGY

SU DUNG CHIEN LUOC BU NHAM TANG CUONG

KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIÈU CHO SINH VIÊN TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC

CÔNG NGHỆ VAN XUAN

FIELD: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY IN ENGLISH TEACHING

CODE: 601410

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr Tran Ba Tién

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this thesis has been possible thanks to the support of many people who set off upon this journey with me and people whom I encountered along the path

First of all, I am greatly indebted to Dr Tran Ba Tien, my supervisor, for his

invaluable guidance, comments, criticisms, corrections and for his kindly constant

encouragement during the course of writing this thesis

Second, I would like to thank all lecturers at Foreign Languages Department, Vinh University for their valuable teaching and tremendous assistance that have enlightened my study path

Third, I am grateful to my colleagues at Van Xuan University of Technology for their constructive suggestions about this research Without their help and cooperation, the research would have been made impossible

I also would like to give my special thanks to the students at Van Xuan University of Technology who have actively participated in my study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family, my classmates at the Master Course Class, my friends, especially my husband, who also encourages and shares the hardship with me

These people deserve all the credit I highly appreciate all their support and contribution

ABSTRACT

Reading is one of the most important skills in study and daily life, there are many studies which have been carried out in this area This study in the first place, deals with the situation of learning reading in a university The study also aims at finding an effective way to improve English reading comprehension by using compensation strategies A quasi experimental was the method chosen to identify whether the use of compensation strategies had any effects on students’ reading comprehension

The participants of the study are 70 second-year non- major students of Group TOEIC A, Group TOEIC B, Van Xuan University of Technology

In the study, all the students in experimental group used compensation strategies in reading lessons with relatively high frequency and students in control group did not use these strategies but used inappropriate reading strategies such as trying to understand every unknown word in the text or trying to understand every single sentence in order to comprehend the whole text A pre- test and a post- test for reading comprehension were administered and the comprehension of the reading texts by the experimental group was compared with those by the control group The result revealed that students in experimental group are fully aware of the importance

of compensation strategies to their reading comprehension improvement The effectiveness of applying these strategies is clearly shown And the other group made less improvement in their reading comprehension which was demonstrated in their smaller increases in their scoring

Therefore, this study suggests that compensation strategies can be useful strategies to improve English reading comprehension among students then these strategies making deserves to be taken into consideration in teaching reading at VXUT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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LIST OF FIGURES

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4.1.3 Students’ assessment on their reading comprehension improvement

4.1.4 Students’ assessment on the role of compensation strategies in learning reading and the effectiveness of using compensation strategies in TEAMING LESSON oo eee .ố ốốốốố ẽốẽố 43

4.1.5 Some difficulties in using compensation strategies in reading 44

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Comparison of mean scores in pre-test of the two groups

Comparison of mean scores in post-test of the two øToups 48

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Types of discourse markers 57

Students’ attitude toward using compensation strafeg1es 41 Change in percentage of students’ comprehension after using

Students’ assessment on the role of compensation strategies

Students’ assessment on effectiveness of compensation strategies 43

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In order to master English, learners need to acquire four language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) which are integrated Among them, reading skills play an indispensable and inseparable part in the process of learning English West (1941) assumes that reading is one of the most important skills in study and daily life Bright J.A Me Gregor (1977) points out the vital role of reading that “in our literate society it is hard to imagine any skilled work that does not require the ability to read” It is the importance of this skill that gives the reasons for the effort of investigating the ways to improve reading comprehension

by researchers Kamhi-Stein (2003) is among the researchers who share the view that as English is essential for learners’ academic success, that is why teachers and researchers attribute their attention to how to success in reading comprehension

It is clear that valuable classroom time should be spent on training our students to English reading Why do students need to read in English? The answer for the question is that if we want our students to use English at all, not only in their time at school but after leaving school, it may well be in reading, as they study text books written in English in their further education program, or read newspapers, magazines and periodicals, for example, to keep themselves up to date in their job

fields, current affairs, social issues, entertainment etc

In Vietnam, English is taught and learned in a non-native environment, then

we have no option to train them reading effectively and reading may be considered

as the best way to help students to understand and use the up-to-date information in many fields

As a teacher of English, the author is often frustrated by the fact that students

do not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native language to reading in a language they are learning Most of students lack suitable

reading strategies for self-instruction without which they will have to depend too much on the dictionaries Students seem to think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary item, translate every line into Vietnamese until they reach the end One of the most important functions of the language teacher, then, is to help students move past this idea An effective English teacher should show students how they can adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, reading purposes and help students develop reading strategies Using appropriate reading strategies is necessary for learners’ comprehension improvement

At Van Xuan University of Technology (hereinafter referred to as VXUT), reading is regarded as one important skill to the students because these students need to read a lot of English books and documents to support their professional studies Also, reading is highly emphasized for their Toeic exam-taking as a graduate requirement However, apart from some students who are quite good at English reading, most students find reading difficult Although the topics for reading are useful and interesting but students have little understanding of the texts they have read and hardly gain any knowledge from their reading Because it takes them a lot of time to find the meaning of words in dictionaries even in allowed time for a reading lesson, they cannot find all the meaning of new words

in a particular reading text Having taught the students at VXUT for several years, the author is aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading ability

There is a variety of strategies that can be employed in reading skill such as memory strategies: cognitive strategies; compensation strategies; metacognitive strategies; affective strategies, and social strategies (Oxford, 1990) However, compensation strategies which involve in the ability of guessing intelligently from linguistic clues and other clues are of great help to students These strategies help students to overcome their limitations to guess what is read There have been some studies focusing on the use of learning strategies by students but there has not been

any research on the relation between compensation strategies and reading comprehension improvement

The facts above explain the reasons why the author conducts the study

“Using compensation strategies to improve English reading comprehension for students at Van Xuan University of Technology” It is hoped that this study can be

of some help to teachers and students at VXUT for having effective reading lessons 1.2 Purposes of the study

The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of using compensation strategies in learning reading

I am interested in drawing an overall picture of the fact of reading lessons in

a University Furthermore, I want to gain deeper insight into the benefit of using compensation strategies in reading comprehension Also, I intend to propose pedagogical implications and suggestions to help students to develop their reading skill through different guessing reading strategies

1.3 Scope of the study

Having effective reading comprehension lessons is one of the biggest concerns of both the teachers and the learners of English This study is limited to compensation strategies used for reading comprehension by second year students

- The mean for the experimental group is significantly higher than that for the control group?

1.5 Organization of the study

The study includes 5 chapters:

Chapter 2 is the literature review which discusses the previous research that

is relative to the topic Specifically, it provides the theory about reading, learning strategies, reading strategies as well as compensation strategies in reading Also, this part covers surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic with description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted

Chapter 3 provides a detailed description of the experiment carried out to get the results of the study First, it will be started with formulating the research question and research hypothesis Then, the processes of carrying out the experiment are discussed in details such as the participants, instruments, as well

as the procedures of data collection and analysis Information collected will be analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to seek answers to the research questions

Chapter 4 is concerned with the findings of the study These findings are based on the analysis of the data This part also gives some discussions about what has been found Chapter 5 summarizes the main points based on the results of the study This part will also give some recommendation to develop reading skill Further research

is recommended further study based on this research

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter offers a review of the literature that is generally related to reading, reading strategies and compensation strategies In each section, the definition or explanation of the key terms will be presented

2.1 Overview of reading

Reading is a common habit in human life To master English, every English learner needs to master at least four language skills among which reading play an important role Because of this importance, a considerable amount of literature has been published on reading in the history of language development There are many different approaches towards the linguistic term- reading and each of which reflects

an individual opinion of reading

2.1.1 Definition of reading

Reading is simply defined as “reading is to understand author’s thought” (Smith, 1985:102) or “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written.” (William: 1984:2) This simple definition doesn’t mean that a foreign learner needs to understand everything in a text He goes on to say “the reader does not necessarily need to look at everything in a given piece of writing The reader is not simply a passive object, fed with letters, words and sentences, but is actively working on the text, and is able to arrive at understanding without looking at every letter and word” (1984:3) In other words, efficient readers often take in the whole chunk of the text relying on their knowledge of the language and the subject matter to make predictions about what is meant if possible From William’s view, it means that

“merely reading aloud without understanding doesn’t count as reading” (1984:3) According to Rumelhart (1977) “reading involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the reader and text” Aebersold and Field (1997: 15) shares the same view on reading, he points out that: “Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text The text and

the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to start It

is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes actual

meaning” As can be seen, the reader and the text are two essential components of the reading process; it is, however, the interaction between them that constitutes actual reading where meaning can be extracted from the text These interactions are the interactions between purpose and manner of reading and through reading strategies and schema Purpose determines how people read a text People may read the text to understand it (reading for full comprehension), or simply to get the general idea (skimming), to find the part that contains the information they need (scanning) Readers also use some mental activities that are often referred to as reading strategies to construct meaning from a text In addition, readers base on their previous knowledge that they bring to the text to assist their reading comprehension This prior knowledge is known as the schema Research in reading has shown that schema plays an important role in helping the reader to comprehend

a text Widdowson (1979) states that “meaning does not reside in text, but rather text has potential for meaning” (Cited in Alderson & Urquahart, 1986: xxv) In other words, it is the reader that assigns meanings to the text basing on his personal knowledge and experience This is clearly shown in the point of Anderson (1999: 1), “Reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning Meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the head of the reader A synergy occurs in reading which combines the words on the printed page with the reader’s background knowledge and experiences.” This can help to explain why different readers may come up to different conclusions about the same text as reading is a cognitive process According to Richarch and Thomas (1987:15), reading is best described as “an understanding between the author and the reader Reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends; it is the process whereby the printed page stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual”

Goodman (1967) shares the same view that no two readers will ever produce the same meaning for a given text and no reader’s meaning will ever completely agree with the writers meaning Making sense of texts involves complete control, by both the readers and the writers, of how language work and how texts are constructed

In fact, when the teachers ask students to think about what reading is, the

students usually give answers such as, reading is: figuring out words, spelling the word and knowing the letter Not very many students understand that reading is more than decoding words and figuring out word or knowing the letters Although there have been a considerable number of definitions of reading but they have some common views Reading involves thinking, and it is the teacher’s job to educate students even from early stages of reading the authentic meaning of reading because reading encompasses both decoding and making of meaning

2.1.2 Reading comprehension

It should be considered that without comprehension, reading would be meaningless Thus, to teach reading comprehension, language teachers should be aware of what it is

Francoise Grellet (1981:3) notes that “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way Two equally important components of reading comprehension is decoding and language comprehension Decoding can be understood as the ability

to translate text into speech The other component- language comprehension- is the ability to understand spoken language The readers, as they read, receive information from the writer via words, sentences and paragraphs and so on, and make an attempt to understand his/her feelings William (1984:4) and Nuttal (1996:3) share the same view on the ground that “reading accounts for understanding what has been written; reading is the act of reconstruction”

In any language classes, there are different levels among learners in the view

of reading comprehension Some learners may understand the reading text better than others because of many reasons one of which is learners’ different prior knowledge It

is clear that when “synthesizing information”, learners take information from a few different places and bring it all together to come up with a explanation that is also based on prior knowledge (Harvey& Goudvis, 2000) These authors go on to say that

to get comprehension, the readers always relating the reading text to other experiences such as the story of his own life, certain stories that he had read or other global issues Thus, reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge Harris and Hodges (1995: 39), “reading comprehension is the construction of the meaning of a written communication through a reciprocal, holistic interchange of ideas between the interpreter and the message” (cited in Brassell and Rasinski, 1997: 16) This means that reading comprehension requires an action on the part of the reader That action involves the use of the existing knowledge that the reader has on the topic of the text as well as the text itself in order to create meaning

Lee and Vanpatten (1995:191) argue: “Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers make connections between the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge store

From these ideas above, it can be concluded that there is no consensus of

what reading comprehension is as each writer comprehends and gives its different definitions through his own point of view However, they share some certain characteristics that reading comprehension requires an action on the part of the reader That action involves the use of the existing knowledge that the reader has on the topic of the text as well as the text itself in order to create meaning

2.1.3 Overview of reading process models

Reading is a complex process As can be seen, the reader and the text are two essential components of the reading process Up to now, there have been a great

number of discussions and arguments among methodologists about this interaction

in reading process According to Nuttall (2005), reading process is shown such some ways as bottom-up approach, top-down approach and the interaction of top- down and bottom-up processing

2.1.3.1 Bottom-up model

A bottom-up reading model is a reading model that emphasizes the written or printed text, it says that reading is driven by a process that results in meaning (or, in other words, reading is driven by text) and that reading proceeds from part to whole

To elaborate, Gough (1972) proposes a phonics-based or bottom-up model of the reading process which portrays processing in reading as proceeding in serial

fashion, from letter to sound, to words, to meaning as follow: First, the graphemic

information enters through the visual system and is transformed at the first level from a letter character, that is from a graphemic representation to a phonemic representation Second, the phonemic representation is converted, at level two into a word The meaning units or words then pass on to the third level and meaning is assimilated into the knowledge system Input is thus transformed from low-level sensory information to meaning through a series of successively higher-level encodings, with information flow that is entirely bottom-up, no higher level processing having influence on any lower level processing There are a number of researchers sharing the same view with Gough They agree that the bottom-up model of reading is primarily concerned with the recognition of individual letters, phonemes and words The “phonics” movement would best typify this view About the bottom-up reading process, Nuttall (2005: 17) points out that the reader constructs meaning from a written text such as recognizing letters and words, working out sentence structure This model pays special attention to grammatical skills and vocabulary development Alderson (2000: 16), states that “the reader experiences an automatic process in which he begins with the printed words, recognizes graphic stimuli, decodes them to sounds, recognizes words and decodes meanings” Bloomfield (cited in Dubin & Bycina, 1991) defines first language reading as the manipulation of the phoneme-grapheme relationship

It can be understood from the bottom-up model that that learners learn to read through their ability to sound out letters Only when the learner has the decoding skills can the learner move on to the meaning of the words The emphasis

of this process is on the printed text and what the reader receives from this, rather than the knowledge that the reader brings to this text (Lipson & Wixson, 1991) According to Brown (2001: 299) The bottom-up process “ obviously require

a sophisticated knowledge of language itself From among all the perceived data,

the reader selects the signals that make some sense, that cohere, that “mean”

The bottom-up model reveals several shortcomings in describing the actual reading process It does not give a full account of the process of reading, as it gives

no account of a reader’s prior knowledge In fact, readers look at the text through the lens of expectations from prior knowledge of the subject area The reader then adjusts the lens based on outcomes of the reading, and in so doing, confirms or denies expectations (Smith, 1978) For Bottom-up model, comprehension results in

a relatively shallow understanding of what the text stated directly As a result, this

process underestimated the contribution of the reader Also, the weaknesses of the

bottom-up model is that it emphasizes a single- direction in which implies that no higher level information ever modifies or changes lower level analysis In some cases, readers are able to identify a word correctly only by employing higher level semantic and syntactic processing

2.1.3.2 Top-down model

Top-down processing emphasizes the importance of the reader’s background knowledge, or the schemata This theory argues that when reading a text, a reader has his own knowledge, expectations, and questions, which he matches with the text The top-down reading model suggest that processing of a text begin in the

of the printed text only to confirm and/or generate new hypotheses (Lipson & Wixson, 1991) If the bottom-up model emphasizes a one direction, part to whole

processing of text, the top-down reading process contends that reading is driven by meaning and proceeds from whole to part

According to Nuttall (2005: 16), this process helps readers see the overall purpose of the text as well as enables them to predict the writer’s purpose Goodman (1982, cited in Alderson, 2000: 17) calls reading “a psycholinguistic guessing game” in which the reader has an active role In their view, the reader reconstructs meaning from written language by using the graphonic, syntactic and semantic systems of the language, but he/she merely uses cues from the three levels

of language to predict meaning, and most important, confirms those predictions by relating them to his/her past experiences and knowledge of the language This means that together with the letters before readers’ eyes, readers possess both important types of information which are available at the same time: meaning and grammatical or sentence sense Thus, what readers bring to the text separately in terms of both their prior knowledge of the topic and their knowledge about the language assists them in predicting what the upcoming words will be

Thus, the top-down model of reading emphasizes the higher order skills inherent in reading which are primarily the use of predictions and inferences in the process of constructing meaning from past experiences, and the reconstruction of these predictions based on new information incongruent with past knowledge Brown (2001, 299) points out that with top-down process “we draw on our own intelligence and experience to understand a text”

Just like bottom-up models, top-down models do have some limitations (Alderson, 2000:18) discusses that the main drawback of top-down approach is that the reader does not know “how prior knowledge is called upon from memory and how it is then used in understanding” Samuel and Kamil (1988) show the weakness

of this model that for many texts, the reader has little knowledge of the topic and cannot generate predictions A more serious problem is that even if a skilled reader could generate predictions, the amount of time necessary to generate a prediction may be greater than the amount of time the skilled reader needs simply to recognize

the words Stanovich (1980) gives the problem of the process that and top-down models do not account for the situation in which a reader has little knowledge of a text topic and, therefore, cannot form predictions

2.1.3.3 Interactive model

Since neither the bottom-up nor top-down model of the reading process totally accounts for what occurs during the reading process, it seems that with a combination of bottom-up model and top-down model can the process of reading be adequately characterized This combination is referred to as the Interactive model in which both letter features or data-driven sensory information and non-sensory information come together at one place

In Interactive model, reading is viewed as a synthesizing of patterns, calling for the application or integration of all of the previously identified knowledge sources Rumelhart (1977) suggests that the processing of text is an interaction between the different forms of information available to the reader in the text and within the reader’s own higher order thinking skills, (i.e inferences, and long term memory) Reading comprehension, in accordance with the interactive model, involves the use of the reader’s linguistic decoding processes to tap into his or her psycholinguistic strategies and schematic knowledge The interactive model also allows for the selective annotation skills involved in reading In these selective annotation skills, a reader might be attending to psycholinguistic strategies (for example, making inferences and predictions) while not needing to pay particular attention to the individual phoneme-grapheme relationship at the letter and/or word level

According to Eskey (1988, 94), in the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each source of information contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text From this view, good readers are those who have both ability of good decoding and interpreting of texts, their decoding skills becoming more automatic but no less important as their reading skill develops Eskey also believes that to achieve both fluency and

accuracy in reading, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-

up recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies In other word, good reading - that is, fluent and accurate reading- can result only from a constant interaction between these two processes

Stanovich (1980) proposes an interactive-compensatory model, which adds a new feature to the interactive Rumelhart model by suggesting that strength in one processing stage can compensate for weakness in another Stanovich argues that with his interactive model, the limitation of both the bottom-up and top-down models can be reduced This researcher makes it clear that “Interactive models assume that a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources The compensatory assumption states that a deficit

in any knowledge source results in a heavier reliance on other knowledge sources, regardless of their level in the processing hierarchy”(1980: 63)

The interactive model emphasizes both the identification skills, which are

represented in the bottom-down model, and the global interpretation skills, which come from the knowledge of the top-down model of making predictions and inferences It seems that the interactive model is the best one that can truly reflect the reading process Therefore, only when the language teacher develops in students abilities to approach a text both top-down and bottom-up is the reading skill of students to be improved as Brown (2001) states: “a combination of top-down and bottom up processing, or what has come to be called interactive reading, is almost always a primary ingredient in successful teaching methodology because both processes are important”

2.1.4 Classification of reading

There are a numerous ways to classify reading and the first distinction that can be made is whether the reading is orals, or silent This part of study do not deal with oral reading, only silent reading According to Carell and Carson (1997), within the category of silent reading, in term of different purposes, skills and strategies we have two main types of reading which are intensive reading and

extensive reading Other specific types of reading which are often used with technical, scientific or professional materials involve scanning and skimming 2.1.4.1 Intensive reading vs extensive reading

Intensive reading, usually a classroom-oriented activity, means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning is produced In this case, it is important that you understand each word, number or fact “Intensive reading calls

students’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface

structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships and the like” (Brown, 2001:312)

Francoise Grellet (1981:41) defines: “Intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” Nuttall (2005) describes intensive reading in a language class as follow:

“Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher, or under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay great attention to the text The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced The “how” is as important as the “what’.”

To this kind of reading, readers have to know every idea, every piece of hidden information in the text They also have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed In his views, Nuttall emphasizes the role of teacher’s guidance and the attention paid to the language elements of the reading text as well as the goal of the reading lesson Intensive reading has certain limitation There is little actual practice of reading because of the small amount of text used This also results in a fact that learners do not have many chances to learn language patterns Especially, in a class with multi-reading abilities, students may not be able to read at their own level because everyone in the class is reading the same material chosen by the teacher,

these materials even do not make learners feel excited as they are not of learners’ interest Besides, because there are many procedures that are required in doing intensive reading such as listening to the instructions from teacher, reading comprehension questions, writing answers to comprehensive questions, discussing the content of the text, doing post-reading activities then learners spent really little time on actual reading

Harold Palmer (1917) in Britain and Michael West (1926) in India were the first to pioneer the theory of extensive reading as an approach to foreign language teaching and to reading, in particular Palmer choose the term "extensive reading" to distinguish it from "intensive reading"

Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity According to Grellet (1981:2), extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding” Harmer (1989:497) also has the same view He states “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension” In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purposes

Extensive reading is reading as much as possible, at a difficulty level at which you can read smoothly and quickly without looking up words or translating

as you go This means that, instead of spending a half hour decoding a tiny part of one book, readers may choose the books that are at or slightly below the level at which they can read fluently This lets them get used to reading more complex sentences with ease, reinforces the words they already know and helps they learn new words from context

If intensive reading used on texts which are usually not more than a page or

so in the length are intended to train learners in the strategies needed for successful reading, extensive reading shows many opportunities to practice reading strategies and develop different type of knowledge

To have a clearer view of extensive reading, many researchers consider the distinction between this type of reading and intensive reading Quach (2007) points out six negative features of intensive reading in comparison with extensive reading Firstly, intensive reading forces readers at different levels of proficiency to read the same materials chosen, not by the readers themselves, but by the teacher Secondly,

as the result of the materials being chosen by teachers, intensive reading materials fail to meet the readers’ varied interest Thirdly, not much learning time is actually spent on reading and longer texts “are liable to get forgotten.” Fourthly, intensive reading is reading for accuracy, which may lead to the learners’ negative impression that reading is test- oriented Next, “learners are assumed to interact more with the teacher than with the text” Lastly, reading speed may be slow Such a distinction may be helpful in clearing the confusion between the two approaches and highlight the benefits of extensive reading

In contrast to intensive reading which may still have some disadvantage, extensive reading is good for language development When learners read a lot, they will enlarge their vocabulary items, improve grammar understanding, and build reading speed and reading fluency

In fact, Intensive reading and Extensive reading are complementary and language teachers should use both A balanced reading program uses Intensive reading to introduce new language, and complements this with Extensive reading which consolidates and raises awareness of this language leading to reading fluency 2.1.4.2 Scanning vs skimming

Scanning is a fast reading, focusing on finding specific information Scanning involves quick eye movements, not necessarily linear in fashion, in which the eyes make a quick look, do not concentrate on any words or line which would stop them scanning successfully, until the reader finds the piece of information needed

Brown (2001: 308) discusses “the purpose of scanning is to extract specific information without reading through the whole text Jeremy Harmer (2007: 100) shares the same view by saying that readers “ need to be able to scan the text for a particular bit of information they are searching for (as, for example, when we look

for a telephone number, what’s on television at a certain time or search quickly through an article looking for a name or other detail”

The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has

located what he was searching for It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory or even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching Scanning is a valuable skill for second language learners to develop because often they do not require a detailed read of a text Skimming is a quick reading with purpose is to know the general meaning of

a passage, to know how the passage is organized and to get an idea of the intention

of the writer In comparison with scanning, skimming is a more complex task because it requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the writer, not just to locate it Skimming is a tool in which the author's sequence can be observed, unlike scanning in which some predetermined information is sought after

Brown (2001:308) points out that skimming happens when the reader runs his eyes quickly across a whole text such as an essay, article, or chapter, for it gist Skimming helps the reader to be able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or message, and possible some of the developing or supporting ideas Jeremy Harmer (2007: 101) also makes it clear that readers “need to be able to skim a text-

as if they were casting their eyes over its surface- get a general idea of what it is about (as, for example, when we run our eyes over a film review to see what the film is about and what the reviewer thought about it, or when we look quickly at a report to get a feel for the topic and what its conclusion are)”

Depending on certain kind of texts, the purpose of reading (what they want

or need to get out of it) that the readers scan or skim Skimming and scanning are sometimes referred to as types of reading and at other times, as skills And as Brown (2001: 308) suggests “perhaps the two most valuable reading strategies for learners as well as native speakers are skimming and scanning

2.2 Language learning strategies

Research on language learning strategies has really been a growth area since 1970s, when the emphasis on teachers and teaching shifted to the learners and learning, especially since Rubin and Stern first introduced the concept to the second language literature in 1975

2.2.1 Definition of language learning strategies

Since the effective use of language learning strategies by learners plays an important role in language learning, several attempts have been made to define the concept of language learning strategies

Rubin and Stern suggest that the “good language learner” might be doing something special that we could all learn from From these very first initiatives, more and more researchers have come to recognize the significance of special learner techniques or strategies in second language acquisition

Bialystock (1978: 71) states in his study that learning strategies are “optimal means for exploiting available information to improve competence in a second language” Therefore, language learning strategies are beneficial for those who hope

to improve his language skills in a better way

Tarone (1980b) defines a language learning strategy by distinguishing between production strategies, communication strategies and learning strategies Tarone (1980b) considers the first two of these “strategies of language use”, and refers to learning strategies as "an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language." (cited in Ellis, 1999: 530)

In O’Malley and Chamot’s study, learning strategies are “the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.” (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990: 1) In this definition, language learning strategies can be either observable or unobservable (mental and behavioral), and language learning strategies are individually characterized

Learning strategies in MacIntyre’s (1994) study are defined as “the actions chosen by language students that are intended to facilitate language acquisition and communication”, or learning strategies are “intentional behaviors and thoughts used

by learners during learning so as to better help them understand, learn, or remember new information” (Richards & Platt, 1992: 209) It can be seen that these researchers emphasized the learners’ awareness and intention of using language strategies

According to Cohen (1998: 4), language learning strategies can be seen as

“processes which are consciously selected by learners and which may result in

the storage, retention, recall, and application of information about that language”

In Ellis (1999) study, the main characteristics of language learning strategies are mentioned as:

1 Strategies refer to both general approaches and specific actions or techniques used to learn an L2

2 Strategies are problem oriented- the learner deploys a strategy to overcome some particular learning problem

3 Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and can identify what they consist of if they are asked to pay attention to what they are doing/ thinking

4 Strategies involve linguistic behaviour (such as requesting the name of an object) and non- linguistic (such as pointing at an object so as to be told its name)

5 Linguistic strategies can be performed in the L1 and in the L2

6 Some strategies are behavioural while others are mental Thus some strategies are directly observable, while others are not

7 Some strategies contribute indirectly to learning by providing learners with data about the L2 which they can then process, while others may contribute directly (for example, memorization strategies directed at specific lexical items or grammatical rules)

8 Strategy use varies considerably as a result of both the kind of task the learner is engaged in and individual learner preferences

(Ellis, 1999: 532-533)

Oxford’s definition (1990) of this term is often considered as the most comprehensive and widely accepted for its full conveyance of affective aspects of language learning strategies The researcher indicated language learning strategies are "operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information" This definition is further expanded to include "specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self- directed, more effective, and more transferrable to new situations" (Oxford, 1990: 8) This definition is clearly reflects the nature of language learning strategies

It is impossible to cover all definitions of learning strategies offered by researchers; even it is a challenge to decide which definition is helpful to all research purposes Due to the comprehensiveness of Oxford’s definition and the characteristics of learning strategies in this definition also lend themselves well in the context of this study This definition serves as guideline and key direction for the following parts of the study

2.2.2 Classification of language learning strategies

Research into what learners do to learn a language has resulted in identification of specific strategies and in attempt to classify them in some ways There are many classifications of reading strategies offered by many researchers such as Bialystok (1987), Rubin (1981), Wenden (1985), Naiman et al (1987), Oxford (1990), O’Malley& Chamot (1990), Stern (1992) These systems bear some basic similarities To serve the purposes of study, this study presents some learning strategies from Oxford’s classification which seem to classify language strategies in

to specific categories and these categories was considered superior than others and has been used widely by other researchers This has been confirmed by many researchers as “the most comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date” (Ellis, 1999) or “‘ the inventory has a well-understood underlying structure for strategy categorization and employs a wide range of strategies, all items of which are checked and rechecked for validity and reliability.” (Gamage, 2003:2)

Oxford’s scheme is detailed system of six strategies, classified as direct and indirect which is shown as following diagram

Memory strategies

Figure 2.1: Diagram of a strategy system: Overview

(Adapted from Oxford, 1990: 16)

Direct strategies: The strategies used directly in dealing with a new language are called direct strategies These strategies require mental processing of the target language There are three main groups of direct strategies Each group processes the language differently and for different purposes

- Memory strategies: These strategies involve mental processes used in arranging information in order, making associations, and reviewing

- Cognitive strategies: These involve processing the target language so that meaning becomes clear through processes such as reasoning and analyzing

- Compensation strategies: These enable learners to make up for gaps in their knowledge and skills, by, for example, guessing meanings

Indirect strategies: These strategies support and manage language learning often without involving the target language directly The three groups belonging to this category are:

- Metacognitive strategies: These enable learners to plan, coordinate,

evaluate, and direct their own learning as well as to monitor errors

- Affective strategies: These help learners gain control over their emotions,

attitudes, and motivation through anxiety reduction, self-encouragement, and self-

Table 2.1: Direct Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills

(Adapted from Oxford, 1990)

Memory

a Recognizing andusing | All Skills

material

elements

j Analyzing contrastively | Listening, Reading

Reading, Writing

Reading, Writing

Output

23

Compensation

1 Guessing

Intelligently

a Using linguistic clues

b Using other clues

Listening, Reading Listening, Reading

2 Overcoming

Limitations in Speaking and Writing

c Using mother tongue for

an expression without translating it

d Getting help

e Using mime or gestures

f Avoiding communication

g Selecting the topic

Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing

Speaking, Writing Speaking, Writing

Table 2.2: Indirect Learning Strategies to be Applied to the Four Language Skills

(Adapted from Oxford, 1990)

a Over viewing and linking, All Skills

1 Centering with already known material

Learning b Paying attention All Skills

g Identifying the purposes of a | All Skills language task

h Planning for a language task | All Skills

i Seeking practice All Skills opportunities

3 Evaluating j Self-monitoring All Skills

Learning k Self-evaluating All Skills

a Using progressive All Skills

1 Lowering relaxation, deep breathing, or

Anxiety mediation

b Using music All Skills

c Using laughters All Skills

d Making positive statements | All Skills

8 2 Encouraging e Taking risks wisely All Skills

Ÿ Oneself f Rewarding oneself All Skills

ầ ø Listening to the body All Skills

Š 3 Taking h Using a checklist to assess | All Skills

§ Emotional feelings about language

Temperature learning

i Writing a language leaming diary | All Skills

j Discussing feelings with someone else All Skills

1 Asking a a Asking for clarification or | Listening, Reading Questions verification

b b Asking for correction Speaking, Writing

Š 2 Cooperating c Cooperating with peers All Skills

Ÿ with d Cooperating with proficient | All Skills

ầ Others users of the new language

3 3 Emphathizing e Developing cultural All Skills

with Others understanding

f Becoming aware of others’ | All Skills

25

2.3 Reading strategies

Brown (2001) states that helping learners to find learning strategies may be a worthy goal In learning languages, particularly in learning reading, learners use a variety of strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information (Rigney, 1978) Strategies are defined as learning techniques, behaviors, problem-solving or study skills which make learning more effective and efficient (Oxford and Crookall, 1989) Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive of a task, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do when they don't understand Such strategies are processes used by the learner to enhance reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures Reading strategies can be considered as an action or series of actions employed by learner in order to construct meaning (Garner, 1987)

Considering reading strategies, Duffy (1993: 232) defines that “reading strategies are plans for solving problems encountered in constructing meaning” Brantmeier (2002:1) considers reading strategies as “the comprehension processes that readers use in order to make sense of what they read” This researcher summarizes “The strategies may involve skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting, activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references, and separating main ideas from supporting ideas”

Sharing the similar point of view, Baker and Boonkit (2004) defined

“Reading strategies are techniques and methods that readers use to make their reading successful Some of reading strategies include skimming, scanning, summarizing, guessing, predicting, making inference, underlying words or phrases, and taking note”

In short, reading strategies can be considered as the ways readers use in their interaction with the written text to help them get effectiveness in their reading 2.4 Compensation strategies

2.4.1 Definition

Compensation strategies are classified as one of the direct strategies in Oxford’s classification Learners use compensation strategies for comprehension of

the target language when they have insufficient knowledge of the target language The deficiency here is in both grammar and vocabulary In other words, compensation strategies are needed to fill any gaps in the knowledge of the language When learners do not know new words and expressions, they guess the meaning Learners bring their own life experience to interpret data by guessing Compensation strategies are also divided into two strategy sub-groups: Guessing intelligently and overcoming limitations in which guessing intelligently is used for developing reading skill When talking about compensation strategies, Oxford (1990) clustered 10 compensation strategies in to two set: linguistic clues and other clues Linguistic clues include suffixes, prefixes and word order Other clues

include using text structures such as introductions, summaries, conclusions, tittles,

transitions, ways of dividing the text and using general background knowledge According to Oxford, in reading a text, readers do not have to recognize and understand every single word before they can comprehend the overall meaning The reader can actually comprehend a lot of reading passage through systematic guessing without necessarily comprehending all details (Oxford: 90) It is clear that the best way to identify an unfamiliar word in a text was to draw inferences from the rest of the text rather than looking it up on a dictionary Depending on the context to interpret words is a good strategy in reading

Many guidelines on applying compensation strategies are constructed by researchers to help learners to become accurate guesser The two major possible ways to learn the meaning of unfamiliar words are:

- Using what you know about word stems, word formation, and textual structure

- Using different kind of context clues

Researchers also draw detail techniques in using compensation strategies which would be applied in this study

2.4.2 The importance of compensation strategies in reading

According to Willing (1989:130) “the importance of willing and accurate guessing has long been recognized by language teachers everywhere” In process

of learning reading, most of students encounter the problem of unfamiliar vocabulary and unknown concept to interfere the comprehension Compensation strategies are served as tools that help students achieve comprehension easier According to Winstead L (2004), using compensation strategies in reading can not only help reader overcome a limited vocabulary but also help them guess about the theme of article Such learning strategies can significantly increase the reading efficiency

Among many strategies applied in reading, compensation strategies are prominent because they are tools for active and self-directed involvement Students become independent with compensation strategies which contribute to students’ achievement in their gain to reading comprehension Oxford (1990: 90) stated the importance of intelligently guessing that it helps readers to overcome knowledge limitation in reading

In short, learning reading in English learning is not an easy task; it is a laborious task Students always encounter a lot of problems in their reading lessons Compensation strategies help smoothen this laborious task Brown (2001: 309) assumed that “Reading is, after all, a guessing game of sorts, and the sooner learners understand this game, the better they are.”

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Setting of the study

The study looked closely at the situation of reading learning at Van Xuan

University of Technology School factor, student factor, teacher factor and material

factor would be considered

3.1.1 The school

The study was conducted in VXUT It is a newly established private school found in 2008 As a new born university, VXUT has to cope with many difficulties and challenges In spite of those problems, the school is striving to become a quality, socially recognized and honored institution Despite the five -year operation, the initial results have partially confirmed the effectiveness of the University’s right steps

of development Along with the construction of modern facilities, beautiful environment and landscape, and ensuring security, its efforts in training, scientific research, staff build-up, international co-operation are remarkable

The university's goal is to continuously improve training quality for the undergraduates to be capable of working well in integrating environment It is also concerned with and implementing the construction of training program to update with newly renovating trend in higher education in the world The training program

is designed in two ways: career - application and research - development, and applies flexible training model combining traditional pattern with multi-stage one

As the focus on foreign language capability for students, English is always considered great importance by all the leaders and teachers here because it equips students with additional skills to supplement and upgrade their knowledge and then find better jobs after graduation Teachers of English at VXUT always make great efforts to find out appropriate teaching methods to teach English more effectively Especially, to give the best chance for English teachers and students in approaching

to new methods of teaching and learning, a joint training with IIG Viet Nam, the

only representative of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the United States on TOEIC- oriented foreign language teaching, has been signed The school equips language teachers with modern teaching facilities There are two modern, well- equipped lab rooms each of which has 45 internet-connected computers which are often available for students to get access in their study of English In addition, most

of the classrooms have been equipped with modern teaching aids devices, computer, white boards, and projectors

Although the school is now in its first steps with many difficulties, but with the objectives of teaching English effectively and developing students’ language abilities, it is allowed to divided all students in to English classes with around 35 students per class at the most

However, there also some factors that still affect English teaching and learning Students are of different levels from elementary to intermediate There are even some students who have never learnt English before They also differ in their abilities, language competence, learning styles, interests, etc

English courses at VXUT are divided into two stages: one for General English and the other for TOEIC- oriented foreign language teaching In the first year at university, all students accumulate 7 credits of General English Generally students have 3 periods per week in the first semester and 4 periods per week in the second semester each period lasts 45 minutes The proportion of English compared

to other subjects is relatively large 12 credits in the second and thirst year is for training students TOEIC- oriented English which focus mainly reading and listening skill Students learn 3 periods of English per week during these 4 following semesters After three years of learning English, all students may confidently take part in any TOEIC test

3.1.2 The teachers

The school now has 6 English teachers aged between 25 and 36 Two teachers graduated from College of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National University, Hanoi One teacher studied at Academy of Finance and the rest