Improving students' reading comprehension through predicting strategy instruction an action research at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary school

With a view to gaining some insight into reading strategies and reading strategy instruction, I chose to study how to improve students‘ reading comprehension through predicting strategy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH

AT CAO BA QUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA

VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN:

NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410

HANOI, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH

AT CAO BA QUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA

VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN:

NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Phạm Minh Tâm, M.Ed

HANOI, 2011

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Language Learning Strategies, O‘ Maley and Chamot, 1990……… ………….… I

Table 1.2 Reading Strategies in O‘Malley and Chamot‘s Scheme……… 11

Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of Hongkong ………

Table 1.4 Predicting Strategies and Activities to Develop Predicting Strategies………… 12

Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching……….….13

Table 1.6 Task-based Learning Framework Reproduced by J Willis, 1996……….…….II Table 1.7 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction……….…….15

Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction……….………

Table 2.1 Background Information on the Participants……….…22

Table 2.2 Procedures for Questionnaire Development……… 22

Table 2.3 Procedures for Test Development……… 23

Table 2.4 Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course……… 25

Table 2.5 Procedures for Predicting Strategy Instruction Development……… 25

Table 3.3 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers in the Pre-test and Post-tests……… 33

Table 3.4 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers to Each Question in the Pre-test and Post-tests……… 33

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Components of Reading………5

Figure 2.1 Action Research Model……… 21

Figure 3.1 Students‘ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies……… 28

Figure 3.2 Students‘ Awareness and Use of Other Reading Strategies………29

Figure 3.3 Students‘ Awareness of Predicting Strategies……….31

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….…… …ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ……… … iv

PART A : INTRODUCTION ……….…………

1 Rationale for the Study ……… … 1

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study ……….…… 2

3 Scope of the Study ……… 3

4 Significance of the Study ………3

5 Research Methodology ……… 3

6 Organization of the Thesis ……… 3

PART B : DEVELOPMENT ……… 4

CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW ……… …… ……

1.1 The Nature of Reading Comprehension ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension……….4

1.1.2 Reading Models……… 5

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up Reading Models ……… 5

1.1.2.2 Top-down Reading Model ……… 6

1.1.2.3 Interactive Reading Model ……… 7

1.1.3 Schema Theory……….7

1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies ……… 7

1.2.1 Foreign Language Learning Strategies……….8

1.2.1.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Learning Strategies ……… 8

1.2.1.2 Classification of Language Learning Strategies ……… 9

1.2.1.3 The Importance of Language Learning Strategies for Students……… 9

1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies……… 10

1.2.2.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension Strategies ………11

1.2.2.2 Classification of Reading Comprehension Strategies ……… 11

1.2.3 Predicting Strategies.……… 11

1.3 Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction ………12

1.3.1 Approaches to Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction ……….13

1.3.2 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction ………14

1.3.3 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction ……… 15

1.4 Related Studies ……… 17

1.5 Summary ……….18

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CHAPTER 2 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………

2.1 Research Context ……… 19

2.2 Research Questions ……….20

2.3 Research Approach ……….20

2.4 Participants ………21

2.5 Data Collection Instruments ……… 22

2.5.1 Questionnaire……… 22

2.5.2 Pre-test and post-tests ……… 23

2.5.3 Teacher’s diary and students’ reflective journal……… 23

2.6 Intervention ……… 24

2.7 Data Collection Procedures ……… 25

2.8 Data Analysis Procedures ……… 26

2.8.1 Questionnaires ……….26

2.8.2 Pre-test and post-test ……… 26

2.8.3 Diary and Journals……… 27

2.9 Summary ……… 27

CHAPTER 3 : RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ………

3.1 Preliminary investigation ………28

3.1.1 Students’ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies……… 28

3.1.2 Students’ Awareness and Use of Other Reading Strategies ……… 29

3.2 Evaluation ……… 30

3.2.1 To what extent does the use of predicting strategy instruction improve the students’ reading comprehension? ……… …

3.2.2 What are effective techniques to teach predicting strategies as perceived by the students and the teachers? ………

3.3 Summary ……….41

PART C : CONCLUSION ……….42

1 Summary of the Main Findings ………42

2 Pedagogical Implications of the Study ………42

3 Limitations of the Research ……… 44

4 Suggestions for Further Research ……… 44

REFERENCES ……… 45 APPENDIXES ……… I

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

Reading is an essential skill for English as a foreign language (EFL) students; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master With strengthened reading skills, EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development not only in English but also

in all academic areas Therefore, ―reading is the most heavily researched single area of the whole curriculum, and yet, paradoxically, it remains a field in which a good deal of fundamental work has yet to be approached, and one in which a great many teachers would claim to be almost wholly ignorant‖ and secondary teachers ―who have generally had no training at all related to reading but nevertheless feel conscious that the ability to read fluently

is the basis for most school learning, and one of the surest predictors of academic attainment‖ (Harrison and Gardner, 1977)

Traditionally, attempts to improve the comprehension of texts for EFL students have focused on familiarizing the students with vocabulary needed to comprehend the passage However, within the last 15 years, much of the research conducted in the field of reading comprehension has concentrated on the knowledge and control of reading strategies, and more and more emphasis has been put on the importance of training EFL learners to be strategic readers Studies have revealed that the use of appropriate reading strategies may improve reading comprehension (Olsen and Gee, 1991), and using reading strategies can be of great help to non-native readers because they may serve as effective ways of overcoming language deficiency and obtaining better reading achievement on language proficiency tests (Wong, 2005; Zhang, 1992)

However, empirical research indicates that in most reading classrooms, students have received inadequate instruction on reading skills and strategies (Miller and Perkins, 1989) EFL teachers seldom teach a strategy explicitly in class In other words, teachers normally stress on the production of reading comprehension rather than the reading process Reading lessons are more of reading tests, in which teachers ask the students to read the text and complete several reading tasks This problem can be found in many EFL reading classes in the world, and Vietnam is not an exception Vietnamese learners of English, in general, and students at Cao

Ba Quat Upper Secondary School in particular, after several years of learning English, turn out

to be word-by-word readers; they tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning of every single word When they encounter unfamiliar words or unfamiliar concepts, they feel discouraged and resort to wild guessing to construct the text meaning Some students do not

understand the main idea of a text even when they have translated every word into their mother tongue Very few students deliberately look at the title of a text to think about its topic before reading Fewer students use their background knowledge to facilitate their comprehension They are completely dependent on the decoded messages from the text, so once their decoding mechanisms fail due to their deficient language proficiency, comprehension breaks down

With a view to gaining some insight into reading strategies and reading strategy instruction, I chose to study how to improve students‘ reading comprehension through predicting strategy instruction The rationale for my focus on predicting strategies is that they are of key importance in the comprehension process It has been found out that efficient reading often includes the use of predicting strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar & Brown, 1984) Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in the text

to generate predictions Although the importance of prediction in comprehending texts has been demonstrated by recent research, much remains to be learned about predicting strategies

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study

The study aims at exploring the impact of predicting strategy instruction on the reading

comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School with a view to giving recommendations on how to teach the students to use predicting strategies effectively to improve their reading comprehension The specific aims of the research are as follows:

 To examine the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the reading comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School

 To determine effective techniques to teach predicting strategies in reading comprehension in their reading classes, from the teacher‘ and students‘ perspectives

In order to achieve the above aims, the following research questions will be addressed

(1) To what extent does the use of predicting strategy instruction improve Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School’s grade 10 students’ reading comprehension?

(2) What techniques are effective to teach these students’ predicting strategy, as perceived

by the teacher and the students?

3 Scope of the Study

This study only focuses on the teaching of predicting strategies to 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, so the teaching of other reading strategies or to other subjects would be beyond the scope

4 Significance of the Study

The study examines the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the participants‘ reading comprehension and suggests effective techniques to teach predicting strategies, so it would be of great value to the teaching of reading skill In the light of the research, teachers can adjust their reading instruction so as to help to train strategic readers

5 Research Methodology

In order to achieve these aims, an Action Research was employed to measure the

influence of the intervention-predicting strategy instruction-on the students' reading

comprehension The data was collected via a number of instruments including a questionnaire,

a pre-test, two post-tests, teacher’s diaries and students’ journals After a preliminary

investigation had been carried out, a predicting strategy instruction course was designed, and then implemented in the second semester of the school year 2010 - 2011 with the participation

of 50 students from Group 10A10 at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School The data was then

analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method The results

indicated that with the combination of these instruments the study yielded reliable findings

6 Organization of the Study

The thesis consists of three main parts: INTRODUCTION which provides an overview

of the study, DEVELOPMENT which is the main part and consists of 3 chapters, and CONCLUSION which includes the summary, pedagogical implications, limitations of the

study and suggestions for further study

Three chapters in the main part are as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature Review is review of the literature related to the research topic,

which serves as a theoretical foundation of the study

Chapter 2: Research Methodology provides information about the research context,

participants, research approach, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion is the main part of the study, which reports and

discusses the main findings according to the research questions

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is primarily concerned with the nature of reading comprehension, including some definitions of reading comprehension, models of reading and the schema theory This will be followed by a review of language learning strategies, classifications of language learning strategies, the importance of language learning strategies, reading strategies and predicting strategies The next part presents a review of approaches to reading comprehension strategy instruction, the model of reading comprehension instruction, and models of reading strategy instruction Finally, it is a summary of related studies

1.1 The Nature of Reading Comprehension

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension

For many students, reading is a very important skill, particularly in English as a second

or foreign language Concerning the role of reading, Anderson (1999) confirms that ―the more exposure the student has to language through reading, the greater the possibilities that overall language proficiency will increase‖

There are numerous definitions of reading and reading comprehension which range from simple to complex ones, from the decoding view to the comprehending view, from readers‘ passive role to their active one

Goodman (1971, p 135) regards reading as ―a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message encoded by a writer as a graphic display‖

Reading comprehension is a process of deriving meaning from the print and integrating the new information with the old one (Koda, 2005, p 14; Sweet and Snow, 2003, p 1) The old information is the reader‘s prior background knowledge and experience Goodman (1975) added that reading should be ―an active, purposeful and creative mental process‖ of extracting meaning partly from textual clues and partly from their prior background knowledge In this way, readers show their active parts in the process of comprehending a written text; they are not normally a decoding machine, but they must think and consider what sort of old information should be activated and when it should be made use of to facilitate the comprehending process In other words, reading is the construction of meaning of a written text through the interactions between text and reader (Durkin, 1993)

Reading can also be defined as ―a fluent process of readers combining information from

a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning The goal of reading is

comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency, and strategies combined together define the act

of reading‖ (Anderson, 2003, p 68) The following figure represents the definition of reading:

Figure 1.1 Components of Reading

The definitions presented above give us an overview of reading comprehension With the literature review of reading models, we can determine what factors are involved in efficient reading

1.1.2 Reading Models

In the last 40 years, reading researchers have been studying the link between the reading process (what goes on in the brain) and how to teach reading Although there are many models of reading, reading researchers tend to classify them into three kinds: Bottom-up, Top-down and Interactive

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up Reading Model

All the proponents of bottom-up models agree that comprehension begins by processing the smallest linguistic unit (phoneme) and working toward larger units (syllables, words, phrases, sentences), and proceeds from part to whole In this way, bottom-up theorists view reading as a passive process dependent on the written or printed text

Gough (1972, as cited in Hudson, 2007) considers reading process as a sequential or serial mental process of detecting the parts of written language (letters) and converting them into phonemes, combining these phonemic units to form individual words, and finally putting the words together to understand the author‘s written message, hereby the mechanism called Merlin is utilized to apply syntactic and semantic rules in order to determine the meaning of the sentences The process ends with the oral realization of the sentence based on phonological rules (pp 34 – 5)

Strategies Fluency

The Reader

The Text Reading

Nuttall (2005) indicates that reading is a process of identifying letters and words, figuring out sentence structures and then constructing a meaning from the printed words He also compares ―bottom-up‖ processes with the image of a scientist with a magnifying glass investigating every minute part of the little area to grasp it thoroughly (p 17) However, in many cases, readers can read aloud almost all the text, or they know almost all the words in the text, but they can hardly recall any of its meaning

These models depend too much on the reader‘s linguistic knowledge and overlook their prior background knowledge The bottom-up or decoding model of reading was also criticized

by Eskey (1973) for its failure to account for the contribution of the reader, whose expectations about the text, which are informed by his/her knowledge of language and his/her prior background knowledge, are employed as part of the reading process For these limitations, together with the advent of top-down models, bottom-up models fell into disfavors

1.1.2.2 Top-down Reading Model

This model, beginning in mind of the readers with meaning-driven processes, or an assumption about the meaning of a text, emphasizes what the reader brings to the text; reading

is driven by meaning, and proceeds from whole to part From this perspective, readers identify letters and words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text Goodman (1967) views reading process as a ―psycholinguistic guessing game‖- a process of predicting, sampling, and confirming in which readers interact with texts by combining information they discover there with the knowledge they bring to it in constructing a comprehensive meaning for the text as coherent discourse (pp 364 - 5) ―The knowledge, experience, and concepts that readers bring to the text, in other words, their schemata, are part of the process‖ (Dechant,

1991, p 25), and reading is more a matter of bringing meaning to than gaining meaning from the printed page (Dechant, 1991; Goodman, 1985; Smith, 1994)

Stanovich (1980) criticizes the top-down models by arguing that the generation of hypotheses would be actually more time-consuming than decoding would be Another criticism

by Samuels and Kamil (1988, p 32) reveals that a reader will be unable to generate hypotheses about a text if he/she has insufficient prior knowledge of the topic, so according to the top-down theory, reading process will not occur

In the light of the perceived shortcomings of both bottom-up and top-down models, another model of reading process called interactive model is put forward

1.1.2.3 Interactive Reading Model

An interactive reading model attempts to combine the valid insights of bottom-up and top-down models It attempts to take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models, and tries to avoid the criticisms leveled against each, making it one of the most promising approaches to the theory of reading today As in top-down models, the reader uses his or her expectations and previous understanding to guess about text content and, as in bottom-up models, the reader decodes what is in the text Text sampling and higher- level decoding and recoding operate simultaneously

In Rumelhart‘s (1977) model, the ―visual information store‖ receives input from the text to be processed These data then go through the ―feature extraction device‖ into the

―pattern synthesizer‖, which utilizes input from the ―syntactic, semantic, orthographic, lexical and pragmatic knowledge‖ to comprehend the text During the reading process, all sources of data are made full use of simultaneously, and provide the basis on which readers can accept or reject their prior expectations and put forward the new ones as long as they make their final decisions on the meaning of the text (as cited in Hudson, 2007, pp.41- 2)

Stanovic (1980) refers to his model as an ―interactive compensory‖ one in which weaknesses in any levels of processing the inputs can be compensated for by others Those deficient in a low-level skill such as word recognition can be made up for by higher-level skills such as use of knowledge about the topic of the text, whereas those with few clues of the topic

of the text can be helped by their good word recognition skill (as cited in Hudson, 2007, p 46)

Nuttall (1996, p 16) assumes that top-down and bottom-up processing are

―complementary ways of processing a text They are both used whenever we read; sometimes one predominates, sometimes the other, but both are needed.‖ This author adds that ―in practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top-down approach to predict the probable meaning, then moving to a bottom-up approach to check whether that is really what the writer says‖

1.1.3 Schema Theory

Schema theory deals with the reading process, where readers are expected to combine their previous experiences with the text they are reading Carrell and Eisterhold (1983) formalise the role of background knowledge in language comprehension as schema theory, and claim that any text either spoken or written does not itself carry meaning, and that ― a text only provides directions for… readers as to how they should retrieve or construct meaning from their own, previously acquired knowledge.‖ Therefore, a reader‘s comprehension depends

on her ability to relate the information that she gets from the text with her pre-existing background knowledge According to Harmer (2001), only after the schema is activated is one able to see or hear, because it fits into patterns that she already knows

Many reading researchers intend to subcategorise the term schema, with the most popular categorisation being the distinction between formal and content schema Formal schema is background knowledge relating to the formal and rhetorical organisational structures

of different types of texts (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Alderson, 2000) Carrell (1985) says reading comprehension is affected by the reader‘s formal schemata interacting with the rhetorical organisation of a text In the meanwhile, content schema is defined as background knowledge of the content area of the text that a reader brings to a text (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Carrell, 1987) such as knowledge about people, the world, culture, and the universe (Brown, 2001) Carrell and Eisterhold propose that appropriate content schema is accessed through textual cues According to Alderson (2000), readers need knowledge about the content

of the passage to be able to understand it

From the schema theory, meaning is reconstructed or created during the reading process through the interaction of text and the reader‘s background knowledge So what the teacher should do is to teach the students to link their prior knowledge with the text so that the students better understand the global meaning of the text

1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies

1.2.1 Foreign Language Learning Strategies

1.2.1.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Learning Strategies

Over the last two decades, the study of language learning strategies has seen an

―explosion of activity‖ (Ellis, 1994) with the contributions of such well-known researchers as O‘Malley and Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990)

According to Oxford (1990), learning strategies are ―specific actions taken by the learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferable to new situations‖ (p 5) This definition is not precise in the sense that it regards learning strategies as ―specific actions‖, which are mostly observable while it has been shown in numerous studies in this field that learning strategies are sometimes difficult to observe

The definition that has been widely accepted was proposed by O‘Malley and Chamot (1990) Learning strategies are ―the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information.‖ (p 1) Though short, this definition covers

the most important characteristics of learning strategies, both behavioral and mental (therefore, both observable and unobservable), and individually characterized (learners‘ strategies are different) Because of its comprehensive features, the present study utilizes this definition as the key direction

1.2.1.2 Classification of Language Learning Strategies

Language learning strategies have been classified in a number of ways

Oxford (1990, pp 16 - 22) classifies second language learning strategies into two major classes: Direct Strategies (strategies which directly involve the subject matter) and Indirect Strategies (strategies which do not directly involve the subject matter itself, but are essential to language learning) Direct Strategies are classified into memory strategies; cognitive strategies; and compensation strategies Indirect strategies include metacognitive strategies; affective strategies; and social strategies

In O‘Malley and Chamot‘s framework, there are three major types of language learning strategies named metacognitive, cognitive and social/ affective In comparison with Oxford‘s classification, this framework is far less complicated but sufficient and applicable to learning strategy studies on the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing Therefore, the current study will adopt O‘Malley and Chamot‘s classification of learning strategies as the theoretical framework for investigation (see Appendix 1: Table 1.1)

1.2.1.3 The Importance of Language Learning Strategies for Students

Language learning strategies can enable students to become more independent, autonomous, lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991 as cited in Oxford, 2003, p 9) Thanks to appropriate language learning strategies, students are freer to act, to make their own decision and able to learn continuously and permanently In addition, language learning strategies ―make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations‖ (Oxford, 1990, p 8) They ―are tools for active, self – directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence‖, and those who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self – confidence and learn more effectively

However, the effectiveness of language learning strategies ―may depend largely on the characteristics of the given learner, the given language structure(s), the given context, or the interaction of these‖ (Cohen, 1998, p.12) Besides, effective second language/ foreign language learners are aware of the language learning strategies they use and why they use them (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990)

1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies

1.2.2.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension Strategies

Researches reveal that effective readers spontaneously use reading strategies in the reading process (Pritchand, 1990, as cited in Zhang, 1993), and the use of appropriate reading strategies may improve reading comprehension (Oxford, 1990; Olsen and Gee, 1991; as cited

in Zhang, 1993) Using reading strategies can be of great help to non-native readers because it may serve as an effective way of overcoming language deficiency and obtaining better reading achievement both for regular school assignments and on language proficiency tests (Zhang, 1992)

According to Garner (1987), reading strategies are ―actions or series of actions

employed in order to construct meaning (as cited in AD-Heisat, M.A, et al., 2009) Reading

strategies can also be understood as ―the special thoughts or behaviors that individual use‖ to help them to comprehend, learn and retain new information from the reading text (O‘Malley and Chamot, 1990) More specifically, reading strategies are special actions students take on paper, in their heads, or aloud that help them understand what they are reading Therefore, they are both observable and unobservable

It is a common mistake that skills and strategies are interchangeable Strategies are deliberate and goal-directed (Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris, 2008), whereas skills are

automatic, and they lead to increasingly fluent and efficient reading (Afflerbach, et al., 2008)

Readers who are aware that they must apply a cognitive strategy and do so may become less reliant on the strategy over time As this happens, a cognitive strategy becomes a skill

1.2.2.2 Classification of Reading Comprehension Strategies

In the scheme of O‘Malley and Chamot (1990), there are three major categories of reading strategies; cognitive, meta-cognitive and social/affective, but this study only focuses on cognitive and metacognitive ones Cognitive strategies help readers to construct meaning from the text, whereas metacognitive strategies are utilized to regulate or monitor cognitive

strategies (Devine, 1993; as cited in Sani, et al., 2011) According to Block (1986), Carrell (1989), Davis and Bistodeau (1993) (as cited in Sani, et al., 2011), in the actual reading,

cognitive strategies can be classified as bottom-up and top-down Following is the possible classification of reading strategies:

Metacognitive Cognitive

Advance organizers Self-monitoring Self-evaluation Elaboration Grouping

Table 1.2 Reading Strategies in O’Malley and Chamot’s Scheme

Previous research in reading strategies proved there were differences between good readers and poor readers in terms of strategy use Overall, more proficient readers combine both top-down and bottom-up strategies in reading, but tend to use more top-down strategies than bottom-up ones Specifically, effective readers tend to use the following strategies:

Reading Strategies

1 Having a purpose 8 Inferring 15 Identifying sentence structure

2 Previewing 9 Predicting 16 Inferring unknown vocabulary

3 Skimming 10 Reading actively 17 Identifying figurative language

4 Scanning 11 Identifying genres 18 Using background knowledge

5 Clustering 12 Reading to present 19 Identifying style and its purpose

6 Evaluating 13 Integrating information 20 Identifying paragraph structure

7 Reviewing 14 Noticing cohesive devices 21 Avoiding bad habits

Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of

Hongkong (as reviewed by Nunan, 1999)

1.2.3 Predicting Strategy

It has been proved that predicting is of key importance in reading comprehension Efficient reading often includes the use of prediction strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar & Brown, 1984) Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in the text to generate predictions Predicting is also an integral part of competent readers' metacognitive strategies, which are used to monitor comprehension as the text is read (Collins

& Smith, 1982)

According to Duke and Pearson (2002), predicting is better conceived as a family of strategies than a single strategy It entails such pre-reading activities as activating prior knowledge, previewing and overviewing, which encourage readers to use their existing knowledge to facilitate their understanding of new ideas encountered in text, and while-reading

activities to confirm the prior predictions The theoretical foundations for this strategy are schema theory (Anderson and Pearson, 1984), and comprehension as the bridge between the known and the new (Pearson and Johnson, 1978)

Making predictions can help students to become good readers and make reading more fun Anderson (1976) found that procedures which encourage predictions facilitate learning Predicting also arouses readers‘ interest (Mason & Au, 1986; Nichol, 1983), sets the purpose for their reading and focuses on important details According to James N Nichols (1983), by using this strategy in combination with such strategies as skimming and previewing a text, students are motivated to read and encouraged to study the text carefully to confirm their prior hypothesis (p 225)

The researcher considered the definition by Duke and Pearson (2002) the most comprehensive However, all of these are only pre-reading strategies, predicting should also involve reading to confirm or modify the prior predictions and anticipating the upcoming information and events Therefore, predicting strategy can be used both before reading and while reading The table below is a summary of predicting strategies and some activities that are usually used to develop these strategies:

 Look at the title and the headings for each section

to predict what the reading text is about

 Look at the pictures to predict what the reading text is about

Overviewing  Read the first and the last paragraphs each

paragraph to predict what it is about

WHILE READING

Reading and Confirming Prior

Predictions  Read and confirm or reject the prior predictions

Predicting What to Come Next

 Use the prior knowledge about the topic to predict what to come next in the passage

 Use the prior knowledge about the textual structure of the text to predict what to come next

Table 1.4 Predicting Strategies and Activities to Develop Predicting Strategies

1.3 Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction

1.3.1 Approaches to Reading Comprehension Instruction

Among numerous methods and approaches ever emerging and still existing nowadays are the two approaches language teachers often use in their teaching of reading comprehension; Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching Approach

Grammar-Translation Method Communicative Language Teaching

Theory of

language

- Detailed analysis of grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences or texts into and out of the target language

- A system for the expression of meaning; primary function-interaction and communication

Theory of

learning

- Little more than memorizing rules and facts to understand the morphology and syntax

- Real communication activities; meaningful tasks and meaningful language

Objectives

- To be ―scholarly‖ or, in some instances, to gain a reading proficiency in a foreign language

- Reflecting the needs of the learner and including functional skills and linguistic objectives

Syllabus

- Include ―endless lists of unusable grammar rules and vocabulary and perfect translations of stilted or literary prose‖

- Include some/all of the following; structures, functions, notions, themes, tasks and is order by learner needs

Activity types

- Drills in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

- Communicative activities; involving information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction

Learner roles - Memorizer and translator - Negotiator and interactor

Roles of

materials

- Exercises in grammatical analysis

- Primarily promoting communicative language use; task-based materials; authentic

Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching

Like other modern approaches and methods, Communicative Language Teaching Approach bears the following features:

The learning principle underlying the task-based approach is that learners will learn language best if they engage in activities that have interactional authenticity (Bachman, 1990), e.g., require them to use language in ways that closely resemble how language is used naturally outside the classroom According to Willis (1996), the task-based framework consists of three

main phrases, provides 3 basic conditions for language learning; Pre-task, Task-cycle and Language focus

(1) Pre-task: introduces the class to the topic and the task activating topic-related

words and phrases

(2) Task Cycle: offers learners the chance to use whatever language they already know

in order to carry out the task and then to improve their language under the teacher‘s guidance while planning their reports on the task There are three components of a task cycle: Task, Planning, and Report

(3) Language Focus: allows a closer study of some of the specific features naturally

occurring in the language used during the task cycle Learners examine the language forms in the text and look in detail at the use and the meaning of lexical items they have noticed Language focus has two components: Analysis and Practice

A more detailed task-based framework is given in Table 1.6 in APPENDIX

1.3.2 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction

It is common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while-, and reading (William, 1984; Dubin and Bycina, 1991; as cited in the course book ―ESL/ CFL Classroom Techniques and Practices‖ used at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University

post-of Languages and International Studies) According to these authors, each stage has its own aims and procedures as followed:

Stages Aims

Pre-reading

(1) To activate or build the students‘ knowledge of the subject

(2) To get the students become familiar with some of the language needed in coping with the text

(3) To motivate the students to read

(1) To review the content

(2) To work on bottom-up concerns such as grammar, vocabulary, and discourse feature

(3) To consolidate what has been read relating the information from the text to the students‘ knowledge, interests and opinions

Table 1.7 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction 1.3.3 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction

In the past decades, a great deal of research has been done in the field of comprehension strategy instruction Several sophisticated instructional models composed of specific reading strategies have been identified, and they provide solid frameworks of effective comprehension strategy instruction Among these models are four prevalent models ; Reciporal Teaching by Palincsar and Brown (1984), the Direct Explanation by Duffy et al (1987),

Transactional Strategy Instruction by Presley et al (1992), and the Collaborative Strategic Reading by (Klingner et al., 1998)

Reciprocal Teaching

(Palincsar and Brown, 1984)

The Collaborative Strategic Reading

(Klingner et al., 1998)

 The teacher explicitly models the four

strategies

 Students take turns leading the group dialogue

and practicing the strategies, and the teacher

becomes a mediator guiding and giving feedback

 The teacher gradually diminishes the

scaffolded assistance as students begin to control

the four strategies

 The students understand and share most of the

thinking responsibilities

 An explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should be used

 Teacher and/or student modeling of the strategy in action

 Collaborative use of the strategy in action

 Guided practice using the strategy with gradual release of responsibility

 Independent use of the strategy

The Direct Explanation model

(Duffy et al., 1987)

Transactional Strategy Instruction

(Presley et al., 1992)

 The teacher gives detailed explanations of

the reading strategy and contributes mental

modeling of their use

 The teacher applies a think-aloud model

that includes the reasoning involved in

using the strategy, thereby revealing his/

her reading processes

 Students proceed to guided practice on the

strategy just presented

 The teacher gives detailed explanations of the reading strategy and contributes mental modeling of their use

 The teacher applies a think-aloud model that includes the reasoning involved in using the strategy, thereby revealing his/ her reading processes

 Students proceed to guided practice on the strategy just presented

 Students transact with the text and among group members to construct meaning together

* A small number of comprehension strategies are instructed and practiced over a long period of time including predicting, generating images, seeking clarification and summarizing

Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction

Among the four models of reading comprehension strategy instruction reviewed above,

the present study adapts Direct Explanation model (DE) (Duffy et al , 1987) for three reasons

Firstly, before the study the informants may have no idea of any reading comprehension strategies, and they, therefore, need explicit instruction of the strategy Secondly, the study was conducted in a short period of time whereas the Reciporal Teaching and Transactional Strategy Instruction require a great deal of time as well as effort Finally, the Direct Explanation model does not require the class to be divided into groups including a better reader and poorer readers However, independent practice stage was added to this model

During the course of applying a reading strategy instruction, it is advisable to take into consideration some factors (Andreassen and Braten, 2010) Firstly, reading strategies should be

―explicitly labeled and taught not only by explanation but also repeated modeling and scaffolding support, with the goal being self-regulated strategy use on the part of the students‖ (Hilden and Pressley, 2007) Secondly, activation and generation of background knowledge, as

proved in empirical studies to play an influential role in reading comprehension, are important instructional concerns Thirdly, cooperation in small reading groups where students share thoughts about how texts can be comprehended by means of multiple reading strategies was claimed to facilitate self-regulated strategy use because in such groups students of various abilities and skills are supposed to provide scaffolding support for each other‘s reading processes Fourthly, interesting texts and exciting reading activities should be used to create reading motivation, which facilitates the strategy use In addition, effective strategic reading instruction should provide opportunities for all learners to reflect on their thinking during reading, so corrective and performance feedback can be given to them (Aek Phakit; 2006)

1.4 Related Studies

In terms of predicting strategy in reading, Goodman and Burke (1980) describe the successful reader as one who actively constructs meaning, using prediction and confirmation strategies According to these researchers, competent readers are adept at using their language experience and world knowledge to choose appropriate cues in text to help generate predictions In turn, these predicting strategies help the reader anticipate the meaning of the text Once a prediction is made, the reader's task is to monitor and check the prediction against subsequent information from the text (Collins, Brown, & Larkin, 1980) Thus, the generation

of a prediction is a crucial step in the development of a metacognitive system, in which information concerning the appropriateness of a prediction is obtained from the text through self-monitoring

Accomplished readers actively control the generation of predictions (Bruce & Rubin, 1984) For example, if several predictions have been made and are still pending verification, the reader might decide to forego the generation of further predictions until the pending predictions have been verified or modified Bruce and Rubin also propose that the reader with little applicable prior knowledge for the content or form of the text being read may "limit the proliferation of hypotheses" (p 112) That is, as predictions are educated guesses about what will happen in the text, competent readers monitor the appropriateness of making a prediction,

a strategy which includes an on-going assessment of applicable prior knowledge for the text and task at hand In contrast, readers' failure to monitor predictions may inhibit text comprehension, as predictions made without an appropriate prior knowledge base, and without subsequent monitoring of their accuracy, can be a liability to comprehension (Kimmel & MacGinitie, 1984)

It has been found out that the generation of predictions and the verification of these predictions through the text contribute a great deal to readers‘ comprehension, but most researches are biased to narrative texts (Pearson and Fielding, 1991) Through their works, Hansen (1981) and Hansen and Pearson (1983) proved that by generating expectations about what the characters might do based on their experience in similar situations, students could improve their comprehension of the stories Fielding, Anderson and Pearson (1990) noted that prediction activities promoted overall story comprehension only if the predictions were explicitly compared to text ideas, suggesting that the verification process may be as important

as making predictions

Investigating readers‘ predicting strategies as they read two specific genres; expository and narrative, Olson, Mack and Duffy (1981; 1984) proposed that readers of the former did not engage in ―rich‖ prediction and hypothesis testing, whereas readers of the latter did Thus, these researchers concluded that text genre had a significant influence on whether or not readers used predictions in constructing meaning for a text In contrast, Afflerbach (1990) and Johnston and Afflerbach (1984) noted that competent readers used predicting strategies while reading expository texts Results from these studies suggested that prior knowledge for the content of the text, in addition to knowledge of text genre, influenced readers‘ predicting strategies Familiar materials, which may engage readers‘ formal and content schema, ensured more appropriate predictions in the reading process (Anderson, Pichert, and Shirey (1983)

1.5 Summary

This chapter has highlighted the key issues related to the study; the nature of reading comprehension, language learning strategies, reading strategies, predicting strategies, approaches to reading comprehension instruction, models of a reading comprehension lesson, models of reading strategies The literature review shows that reading is a process composed of the text, the reader, fluency and strategies Among these components, strategies play a very important role in the reading comprehension As a fraction of reading strategies, predicting strategies are beneficial to the reading comprehension in many ways A thorough review of predicting strategies together with the reading strategy instructions strongly supports the hypothesis that predicting strategies could improve the students‘ reading comprehension With this theoretical background, it is hoped that the study would yield satisfactory results

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a detailed description of how the research was carried out including the research context, research questions, research approach, participants, data collection instruments, intervention, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.1 Research Context

The study was conducted at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, a public school in the suburb of Hanoi There are 40 classes with the total number of more than 1,000 students from some villages and towns nearby, and 10th grade students make up 13 classes These students‘ English proficiency is, on average, not very high even though they have learnt English for at least seven years Reading is a very difficult skill for them, and their most common problem with this skill is that they cannot understand a reading text due to their lack

of vocabulary, as perceived by themselves and their teachers Besides, their teachers complained that they were word-by-word readers and, consequently, read at very low rates, and they frequently tried to translate the text into Vietnamese

The teaching staff includes eight teachers of English, all of whom graduated from the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Among them, four teachers have more than 10 years of teaching experience, two others have more than 5 years, and the rest has less than 3 years Their ages vary from 25 to 50; 4 of them are under 30 All of these teachers attended the training workshop on implementing the new methodology, organized by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, in the summer of

2006 The researcher is also a teacher of English at this school She is 35 years old and has about 10-year teaching experience She is pursuing the post-graduate study of English at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Therefore, she has certain experience and knowledge in teaching English as a foreign language, which is valuable for the implementation of the strategy instruction course

The textbooks used as the official English materials for the students at this school are

Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11 and Tieng Anh 12 - standard syllabus According to their authors,

they are theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the ‗two currently popular teaching approaches, i.e the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach Task-based

learning is regarded as ―the leading methodology‖ (Van et al., 2006, p 12) The themes or

topics covered in the textbooks series consist of education, community, nature, environment and recreation It is expected that within this task-based framework, students actively engage in meaningful interaction and negotiation of meaning through individual, pair, and group work

(Van et al., 2006, p 10) However, in the light of task-based teaching and from the researcher‘s

teaching experience, these series of textbooks seem to be far beyond their authors‘ expectation The tasks included in these textbooks are not ―activities where the target language is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome‖ (Willis, 1996, p 23), and the aim of tasks is not ―to create a real purpose for language use and to provide a natural context for language study" In addition, the main stages of tasked-based learning are not explicitly presented Consequently, to what extent this approach is realized in the actual teaching mainly rests on the teachers As regards Vietnamese teachers of English, in general, and Cao Ba Quat Upper School teachers of English in particular, task-based learning is quite unfamiliar to them For all these reasons, Vietnamese students, including students may not be accustomed to task-based approach

It was the students‘ reading problems that urged the researcher to conduct a research to find a new way to improve her students‘ reading comprehension, and predicting strategy instruction was chosen

2.2 Research Questions

To achieve the aims of the study, (1) to examine the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the students‘ reading comprehension and (2) to determine effective techniques to teach predicting strategies in reading comprehension, two research questions were addressed:

(1) To what extent does the use of predicting strategy instruction improve Cao Ba Quat school’s grade 10 students’ reading comprehension?

(2) What techniques are effective to teach these students’ predicting strategy, as perceived by the students and the teacher?

2.3 Research Approach:

The study is carried out under the approach of Action Research Before dealing with the

specific steps in the research procedure, it is essential to explain the selection of the methodology because good understanding of action research is indispensable for a deep understanding and analysis of the research

Action research, as defined in Cohen and Manion (1994, p.186), is ―small-scale

intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention‖

Some characteristics of action research are stated in Hult and Lennung (1980) and Mc Kerman (1991) as follows:

- Aiming at improving the quality of human actions

- Being on an on-going cycle process, e.g., feedback from data collected can be used to improve the next steps in the research

- Being formative, e.g., their research may witness the alteration in definition, aims and methodology

- Contributing to a science of education

- Being collaborative, e.g., the research involves all contribution to the understanding and action

These features were reflected in this study First, the aim of the study was to improve the current situation of English reading comprehension Second, the study would contribute to the science of language education Third, the study included the researcher‘s intervention, that

is, predicting strategy instruction, on other participants‘ reading comprehension Finally, the study was formed with several uncertainties and suspicion, thus, it needed the alteration and improvement during the research process

Following is Stephen Kemmis‘ simple action research model:

Figure 2.1 Action Research Model

In order to conduct an action research , Nunan (1992) suggested seven steps, namely

initiation, preliminary investigation, development of research questions, intervention, evaluation, dissemination, and follow-up The study strictly follows the general steps of an

action research cycle suggested by Nunan (1992), and this will be demonstrated in Chapter 3: Results and Discussion

2.4 Participants

The sample group was composed of fifty 10th grade students in total with the proportion

of 48% (24) female and 52% (26) male, from Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School All of the participants completed 7 years of mandatory English education (from grade 3 to grade 9), but some started to learn English earlier, from grade 1 or even from the nursery school According

to the syllabus, they have three periods of English each week, and every five periods of English they have one lesson of reading comprehension The table below summarizes the background information on the participants including the gender, age, number of years learning English and their English reading proficiency assessed by the teacher

English proficiency

Pre-intermediate

Table 2.1 Background Information on the Participants

The rationale for the researcher‘s choosing grade 10 students as the population of the research is based on her belief that they may have not been taught any reading strategy before She selected 10A10 students the subjects of the study as this is the only 10th group that she is in charge of this year

2.5 Data Collection Instruments

In order to collect sufficient data for the study, a number of instruments were

employed: questionnaire, pre-test and post-tests, teacher’s diary and students’ journals:

2.5.1 Questionnaire: This ―vital tool in the collection of data‖ (Gajendra, 1999, p 117) seems

to be the easiest and most effective method for collecting data from students For this reason, the researcher chose it as a data collection instrument for preliminary investigation aimed at identifying the problem analyzing the participants‘ needs

The construction of the questionnaire involved a number of phases:

1 Review relevant literature and previous related research

2 Develop the draft questionnaire; adapt the questionnaire from Mokhtari and

Reichard (2002) and Oxford (1990)

3 Submit to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage pilot

4 Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

5 Revise the questionnaire carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.2 Procedures for Questionnaire Development

The major topics addressed in the questionnaire included: (1) awareness of predicting strategy and (2) use of predicting strategy Under each major topic were eleven Yes/ No questions translated into Vietnamese ―With certain specific areas such as study habits, it may

also be more appropriate to apply true-false items when the questions ask about occurrences of various behaviours‖ (Dornyei, 2003)

2.5.2 Pre-test and post-tests:

To investigate the students‘ improvement in their English reading comprehension, the researcher developed two reading tests, one of which was conducted at the beginning of the research as the pre-test and after the intervention as a delayed post-test and the other after the

intervention as an immediate post-test These tests were adapted from the reading tests in the

course book Interaction Access Obviously, the researcher made the necessary changes to fit

the purpose of the study, and to guarantee their equal value in terms of vocabulary, content and difficulty level These tests were designed as achievement tests, which normally ―aim to find out how much each student, and the class as a whole, has learnt of what has been taught, to provide feedback on students‘ progress to both teacher and students, to show how effectively the teacher has taught‖

Each test consists of two reading passages, which are followed by five multiple-choice reading questions The participants were required to read the passages to choose the best answer for each question The time allowance for each test was fifteen minutes To ensure that the tests can give a reliable answer to the first research question, the researcher bore in mind such qualities of a good test as validity, reliability, discrimination, practicality, and washback Here is the procedure for constructing these tests:

1 Design the two tests based on the study purpose, the course syllabus and the

students‘ reading competence

2 Submit to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage pilot

3 Modify if necessary

4 Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

5 Revise carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.3 Procedures for Test Development 2.5.3 Teacher’s diary and students’ reflective journal

Data were also collected by means of the researcher‘s diary and the students‘ journals

during the implementation of the project As can be inferred from Kemmis‘ cycle, reflection is one of the major steps Teacher‘s diary and students‘ journals provide some reflection on the part of the teacher as the researcher and the students as the participants respectively

Diaries as open-ended narrative texts are ―first-person account of a learning and

teaching experience” (Bailey, 1990, p 215, as cited in McDonough, 2001), and they are “the kind of subjective text” (McDonough, 2001, p 122) which are essentially private documents

written immediately after a teaching event, when the details are fresh in the mind It is considered a reliable source of reflection as the writer can be totally honest in his/ her comments

Journals have many of the attributes of diaries, but they can be written to be read as

public documents They contain “both subjective and objective data” (McDonough, 2001, p

122) Therefore, they can be edited in the process of composition, which makes them lacked in truthfulness in comparison with diaries However, they are an excellent tool for reflection

In this study, diaries and journals were utilized to provide ―reflection on action‖, which is defined as ―the retrospective contemplation of practice undertaken in order to uncover the knowledge used in practical situations, by analyzing and interpreting the information recalled‖ (Fitzgerald, 1994, p 67) They were written retrospectively - just after each lesson

Guided diaries and journals were used with the expectation that writing about questions enables the researcher to ―have the potential to produce greater critical reflection by turning reflection away from the natural tendency of emotional release‖ and ―might bring to light assumptions and biases in teaching‖ (Gorman, 1998, as cited in Boyd J and Boyd S, 2005, p 111)

In short, with the combination of these methods, it was expected that the researcher

would have ―deeper understanding” and ―broader perspective‖ of the information (Mertens,

2005, p.21) so as to get more reliable results

2.6 Intervention: Predicting Strategy Instruction

The most emphasized feature of action research, as mentioned in ―Research Method‖, was the process of the researcher‘s intervention To achieve the research aims, the intervention should be designed to raise the participants‘ awareness of predicting strategy and, therefore, improve their reading comprehension through the introduction of predicting strategies

During the predicting strategy instruction course, the students received two minute lessons and one ninety-minute lesson in which predicting strategies were taught explicitly in combination with such reading strategies as skimming and scanning These lessons were developed by the researcher for the sake of the study The Direct Explanation

forty-five-model (Duffy et al , 1987) was embedded within the lessons Based on this framework, the

strategy instruction included an explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should

be used, teacher and/or student modeling, guided practice with gradual release of responsibility and independent use During the process of designing the lesson plan, the researcher took into consideration of not only the strategy instruction but also such components as background knowledge, reading group organization, reading materials and activities, and feedbacks

1 To develop the strategies of predicting the topic from the title and predicting the

content from the picture

2 To develop the strategies of predicting the main idea of a paragraph from the first

sentence

3 To develop strategies of using prior backgrounds knowledge of the content and

the knowledge of the textual structure to predict what to come next in the text

Table 2.4 Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course

And here is the procedure for the construction of the lesson plans:

1 Identify the objectives of the course and of each lesson

2 Select the teaching approach: task – based learning

3

Select the material; expository texts from the book Interaction Access, based on

students‘ content and formal schema, language proficiency, the time allowance and the text content

4 Design the tasks, plan and sequence the activities

5 Design the diary and journal format

6 Submit the lesson plans to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage

pilot

7 Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

8 Revise the lesson plans carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.5 Procedures for Predicting Strategy Instruction Development

2.7 Data Collection Procedures

The data collection procedures commenced in early April and ended in late July, 2011 All of the procedures involved in the following steps:

Step 1: In early April, the preliminary questionnaires were administered to the students

from group 10A10 of Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School.: Each respondent was handed a copy of the questionnaire, and asked to answer all the question items in the questionnaires

However, in order to increase the quality and quantity of participant response, the researcher: (1) announced the questionnaires to all the respondents in advance, sent a printed leaflet of the study purpose and nature and a few sample items, and invited participation, and (2) explained the purpose and the potential significance of the research once again, and the rationale for the sample, assured the confidentiality of their answers, and monitored questionnaire completion process

Step 2: In the middle of April, a fifteen-minute reading comprehension test was

conducted in the classroom of group 10A10 Before the test, the participants were told that they were expected to do the test as best as they could although the result of this test score would not be recorded in their school report During the pre-test, no participant was allowed to consult his/ her classmates‘ work When the time was up, all the papers were handed in immediately

Step 3: From the beginning of May to the beginning of July, the predicting strategy

course was implemented, and at the end of each lesson, the teacher made a diary on the real teaching and the students were asked to write journals about that lesson

Step 4: In the middle of July, another reading comprehension test was given as the

post-test, and one week later the first test was given again as the delayed post-test The procedures of conducting these tests were the same as that of the pre-test However, the participants were reminded that they should exploit what they had learned from the predicting strategy instruction to complete the test

Step 5: Based on the result of the first cycle of the study, the researcher decided

whether to carry out the next cycle

2.8 Data Analysis Procedures

Three sets of data were obtained from the data collection The first one comprised 50

questionnaires, the second one 50 pre-test papers and 50 post – test papers, and the last the teacher‘s diaries and the students‘ journals

2.8.1 Questionnaires

After the questionnaires had been collected, the researcher embarked on the coding of

the items As the questionnaire is composed of closed-ended items, a straightforward coding frame was used: the answer ―Yes‖ was assigned number 1, and the answer ―No‖ number 2, this

is done only for scoring purposes and the missing data were coded 999

Once having been coded, the data were analyzed quantitatively in descriptive approach, and the descriptive analyses were then reported in percentages After that these descriptive

statistics were graphed so that the results of the preliminary investigation were clearly demonstrated

2.8.2 Pre-test and post-test

The pre-test and post-test, aimed at exploring any improvement in the participants‘ reading comprehension after they had been given a predicting strategy instruction, include two reading texts, each of which was followed by 3 multiple-choice reading comprehension questions were administered to these sample group After the tests had been checked, the correct answers were counted manually The data collected from these tests were then analyzed quantitatively with the statistical tool – comparing the percentage of correct answers Based on this significance, the researcher could explore any improvement in the participants‘ reading comprehension after the intervention

2.8.3 Diary and Journals

The procedure for analyzing the teacher‘s diaries and the students‘ journals consisted of reading and re-reading the text to allow significant themes to become gradually foregrounded After that the researcher took into account three key features: frequency of mention, distribution of mention and the strength of the expression with which a topic was recorded

2.9 Summary

In order to explore the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the reading

comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, and to identify

effective techniques to teach predicting strategies, an action research was carried out in the

researcher‘s own class at this school The data was collected from a questionnaire, a pre-test,

two post-tests, the teacher’ diaries and the students’ journals and then analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method It is hoped that the combination of

these instruments would enable the research questions to be answered

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the main stages of this action research will be presented under the

following headings: Preliminary investigation (preliminary questionnaire) and Evaluation

(teacher‘s diaries, students‘ reflective journals, pre-test and post-test)

3.1 Preliminary investigation

To investigate the students‘ awareness and use of predicting strategies before the instruction, a questionnaire was administered to the participants The participants gave Yes or

No answer to each item, and then the answers were counted and analyzed

3.1.1 Students’ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies

Figure 3.1 Students’ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies

The figure shows the percentage of the participants who are aware of predicting strategies and those who actually use them In term of awareness, the majority realize that predicting facilitates their reading comprehension Specifically, 90% and 78% of the sample consider it necessary to employ contextual clues like the title and the picture to think about what they are going to read respectively 80% of the students appreciate activating and using prior background knowledge of the topic to make hypotheses on the upcoming information In the fourth and the fifth place is the percentage of the students conscious of using the knowledge

of the textual structure to generate predictions about what to come next and that of the subjects putting an emphasis on the bottom-up skill – reading to confirm the prior prediction (71% and 63% respectively) Nevertheless, only one-third of the respondents think that predicting the main idea of a paragraph from its first sentence is also useful

1 Predicting the topic from the title

2 Predicting the content from the picture

3 Predicting the main idea from the first sentence

4 Using the knowledge of the topic to predict the upcoming information

5 Using the knowledge of the textual to predict the upcoming information

6 Reading to confirm the prior predictions

Comparing students‘ actual use of predicting strategies with their awareness of this strategy, the researcher found that fewer students actually use these strategies, but the rank of predicting strategies perceived to be used by the students is nearly the same as those reported to

be aware of

3.1.2 Students’ Awareness and Use of Other Reading Strategies

Figure 3.2 Students’ Awareness and Use of Other Reading Strategies

This chart reveals the students‘ awareness and use of other reading strategies As can be seen in the chart, most of the students think that they should read the text slowly and translate it into their mother tongue to understand the text thoroughly (77% and 80% respectively), and nearly those numbers report their use of these strategies On the other hand, only a small number of the participants consider it necessary to read aloud the text to comprehend it and do this strategy (6%) Surprisingly, the students who skip difficult parts such as difficult words and concepts to read on outnumber those who think that readers should do it, and those who think that they should read the text from beginning to the end accounts for about 30%

Taking all the reading strategies above into consideration, firstly, it is found out that a large number of the students (more than 60%) are aware of predicting strategies, and use them

in their reading comprehension Nevertheless, there is a small mismatch between the awareness and the use; the latter is outnumbered by the former Besides, many students think that it is necessary to read the text slowly and carefully, and translating it into Vietnamese to understand

it better The result indicates that that the students are conscious of their active roles in the reading process; they interact with the reading text by utilizing the linguistic and contextual clues to construct meaning, and enable the reading text interact with them by using their prior

(1) Reading from beginning to end before thinking of the content (2) Reading slowly and carefully (3) Reading aloud

(4) Translating into Vietnamese (5) Skipping difficult parts

knowledge to make it understood to them During their reading process, the students seem to use both top-down and bottom up strategies, but which ones dominate the others is unknown

The other finding is that the students sometimes unintentionally skip difficult words or concepts that they find in the text, and if they skip most of the text or its important parts, they will fail to understand it There may be two reasons for this Firstly, they lack both vocabulary and knowledge related to the topic, which means that there is no interactive compensation between their word recognition skill and their knowledge about the topic of the text Secondly, they may not know how to employ effectively both contextual and linguistic clues together with their existing knowledge to make up for their deficient language proficiency

To sum up, the preliminary investigation suggests that the predicting strategy instruction should raise the students‘ awareness of predicting strategies; their nature, their benefits and the procedures to use them to facilitate reading comprehension, and train them to use these strategies effectively The rationale underlying this implication is that successful reading comprehension is ―not simply a matter of knowing what strategy to use, but the reader must also know how to use it successfully‖ (Anderson, 1991, p 19) In addition, it is advisable that during the strategy instruction course, the teacher should ensure that the language as well

as the information in the text is not far beyond the students‘ reach

Students’ Awareness of Predicting Strategies

When being asked to recall the predicting strategy just taught in each lesson, most of

the participants could name exactly each one As can be seen from Figure 3.3 below, 92%,

stated that in the first lesson, they learned and practiced looking at the title and the picture of a text to predict its topic and some of its content Regarding the predicting strategy - reading the first sentence of a paragraph to predict its main idea- in the second lesson, there was a slight decrease in the students‘ recognition (84%) 80% and 68% of the respondents confirmed that the third lesson was about using the background knowledge of the topic and using the

knowledge of the textual structure to predict what to come next in the reading text-

respectively

Figure 3.3 Students' Awareness of Predicting Strategies After the Course

In her diaries, the teacher also reported that all the students were aware of the predicting strategy taught in each lesson

Reflecting on the benefits of predicting strategies, a large number of the students agreed that predicting strategies provided them effective tools to facilitate their reading comprehension as they help them :

 grasp the text content more quickly and

easily

 save their reading time

 identify the reading purpose before reading

 focus on their reading

 raise their motivation

 develop their cognitive abilities

 create greater self-confidence

 reduce their dependence on the words

 engage actively in reading process Following is the typical piece of writing that supported this assumption:

I think that predicting is a necessary reading strategy Before this lesson, I didn’t make predictions, but read the text from beginning to end, and when I didn’t understand any words, I felt discouraged In the lesson, by making predictions about the content of the text prior to reading, I felt reading much easier Predicting helps to set purpose for my reading Thanks to this, I can use my background knowledge to understand the text without knowing some words This strategy also enables us to feel confident during the reading process; therefore, we can understand the text more easily and better

However, a few students complained that the predicting strategy-reading the first sentence of a paragraph to predict its main idea was not useful because it only worked with a

100% Reading the Title to Predict the Topic

Looking at the Pictures to Predict the Content

Reading the First Sentence of a Paragraph to Predict its Main Ideas

Using Background Knowledge to Predict the Upcoming Information

Using Knowledge of the Textual Structure to Predict the Upcoming Information

paragraph, the first sentence of which was also the topic sentence

The similar answers about the students‘ awareness of the predicting strategies together with their benefits can be found in the teacher‘ diaries:

In the lesson, my students learnt and practiced looking at the title and the picture of a text to predict its topic Well, I think these strategies are very useful because they help my students set the purpose of reading before they actually read the text Having some idea about what they were going to read, my students were quite motivated and worked very well; they understood the text more easily and much better

Concerning how to do each of these predicting strategies, a majority of the students (86%) agreed on the following procedures:

Before reading the text, I look at its title and the picture to predict the topic

I read the first sentence of a paragraph to anticipate its main idea

I use my prior knowledge of topic of the text and the textual structure to predict the upcoming information in the text

Only a minority of the students wrote like this about how to do the strategies:

Whenever I read a text, firstly, I should look at its title and the picture accompanied to predict its main idea and some of its content Then, I must read the text very quickly to make sure whether this prediction is true or false and choose the best topic for the text

After reading the first sentence of a paragraph, I make a prediction about its main idea After that, I read the text quickly to confirm this prediction and choose the most suitable one

The results indicated that most of the students were generally aware of the predicting strategies, especially their benefits that they ―make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed‖, and create ―greater self-confidence‖ (Oxford, 1990) Besides, the students claimed that these strategies help to reduce their dependence on the lower-word recognition skill However, disappointingly, the students were not fully aware of the nature of predicting strategies; they overlooked the verification of prior predictions, which is as important as the generation of predictions In comparison with the results of the preliminary investigation, there was significant improvement in the students' awareness of predicting strategies

Students’ Improvement in Their Reading Comprehension

Pre-test Immediate Post-test Delayed Post-test

Table 3.1 Percentage of the Students’ Correct Answers in the Pre-test and Post-tests

Testing Items

Pre-test

Immediate Post-test

Delayed Post-test

Predicting the main idea of the text from the title 40% 70% 66%

Predicting the content of the text from the picture 54% 92% 68%

Predicting the main idea of a paragraph from its first

Using the background knowledge of the topic to

Using the knowledge of the textual structure to

Table 3.2 Percentage of the Students’ Correct Answers to Each Question in the Pre-test

and Post-tests

Table 3.1 and Table 3.2 shows that after the implementation of the predicting strategy

instruction, there has been some improvement in the students‘ reading comprehension After the intervention, 72% and 64% of the participants got the right answers to the reading comprehension questions in the two post-tests in comparison with 50% in the pre-test 40% of the students got the correct answer to the question of the main idea in the pre-test whereas 70% and 66% succeeded in choosing the right answer to this question in the immediate post-test and delayed post-test respectively After the course, the correct answers for the question related to predicting the content of the text from the picture has increased from 54% to 92% and 68% Outstandingly, the number of the students who got the right answer to the question of the textual structure has doubled (from 40% in the pre-test to 80% and 80% in the post-tests) However, it is shown in the table that the training on predicting the main idea of a paragraph from its first sentence and using the background knowledge did not help to improve the students‘ comprehension There has been only a little increase in the number of the correct answers to the two questions concerning these strategies

The data analysis indicated that thanks to the predicting strategy instruction, there has been a slight improvement in the students‘ reading comprehension The students were significantly better at finding the topic, answering the detailed questions with the help from the picture, and anticipating the upcoming information However, it was proved that the course did not work well in promoting the students‘ reading competence in identifying the main idea paragraph and identifying specific information with the help of their background knowledge

Several possible factors may have contributed to this improvement in the students‘ reading comprehension

Firstly, perhaps it was the students‘ awareness of predicting strategies Knowing the benefits of these strategies, the students made use of them in their reading comprehension tests Thanks to their intensive practice on such easier predicting strategies as predicting from the title and the picture, they performed better in finding the main idea of the text and answering the detailed questions related to the content inferred from the picture In addition, the students‘ awareness of the predicting strategy – using knowledge of the textual structure enabled them to succeed in the question of anticipating the upcoming information However, their misconception of nature of these predicting strategies inhibited their application of these strategies to their reading comprehension They misunderstood that these strategies only involved making predictions from the contextual and linguistic clues In the meanwhile, according to Fielding, Anderson and Pearson (1990), prediction activities promoted overall comprehension only if the predictions were explicitly compared to text ideas, so the verification process may be as important as making predictions Due to this misconception, the students seemed to underestimate the reading tasks, and they tended to use the top-down reading process; they over-relied on their prior predictions, and in many cases their failure to monitor predictions inhibited their comprehension

Secondly, the students‘ vocabulary of the topic may have influenced their application of the predicting strategies to their reading comprehension As Goodman (1975) and Wardhaugh (1977) mentioned, reading should be ―an active, purposeful and creative mental process‖ in which the reader extracts meaning partly from textual clues and partly from their prior background knowledge The students, hereby, needed vocabulary to understand the title, the first sentence and the given part of the text to make predictions, and then to construct some ideas from the text to verify these prior predictions In the test, in order to answer the questions about the main idea of a paragraph, the students had to understand the first sentence, or to anticipate the upcoming information of the text with the help of their prior knowledge, they had

to figure out the earlier information, but they failed, in both cases, due to their lack of vocabulary As a result, the generation of predictions did not occure Moreover, because of their insufficient relevant vocabulary, the students could not monitor their predictions, so their wrong hypotheses led to their misunderstanding of the text

Last but not least, the students‘ prior knowledge of not only the topic but also the textual structure accounted a lot for their application of predicting strategies to the reading

comprehension Schema theory proposes that readers use their prior knowledge, or their schemata, to anticipate the structure and contents of text (Anderson and Pearson, 1984), and prior knowledge for the content of the text influenced readers‘ predicting strategies (Afflerbach, 1990; Johnston and Afflerbach, 1984) In the tests, with the text about ―Niagara Falls‖, the students had little content schemata, so they could not make as many predictions as with the text ―Rain Forests and the Earth‘s Climate‖ Therefore, their comprehension of the former was poorer than that of the latter Regarding textual knowledge, readers tend to resort

to it when specific content domain schemata are lacking or poorly developed In the test, the students‘ knowledge of the textual structure could make up for their lack of vocabulary, so they did very well with the question on anticipating the upcoming information from the textual structure

Among the three factors above, the last two ones were the most influential Even if the students had been aware that they should make predictions and then read the text to verify these predictions, they may have not succeeded in their reading comprehension because they possessed such insufficient prior knowledge and vocabulary related to the text

To conclude, the predicting strategy instruction has made a slight improvement in the students‘ reading comprehension It is reasonable because reading is not a single process it is the combination of four main factors; the reader, the text, fluency and strategies (Anderson, 2003) Meaning does not rest in the text, but the reader‘ background knowledge integrates with the text to create meaning Moreover, language learning strategies ―make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations‖, but they are not the only factors that guarantee the successful reading comprehension Besides that, predicting strategies are only a fraction of language learning strategies Therefore, it is safe to say that the predicting strategy instruction helped to improve the students‘ reading comprehension Once more, it is necessary that teacher bear in mind the main factors contributing to the effective reading and their correlations

3.2.2 What are effective techniques to teach predicting strategies as perceived by the students and the teachers?

The students‘ journals and the teacher‘s diaries allowed more precise insights into how the strategy instruction course was implemented, and then recommended effective techniques

to teach predicting strategies