Teacher’s attitudes towards and practice in cognitive reading strategies instruction = Nhận thức và thực tiễn của giáo viên về chiến lược dạy đọc hiểu theo nhận

Table 3.2 Teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of instructing while-reading strategies in reading comprehension 27 Table 3.3 Teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of instructing post-

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-    -

BÙI THỊ VÂN ANH

TEACHER’S ATTITUDES TOWARDS AND PRACTICE IN COGNITIVE READING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTION (Nhận thức và thực tiễn của giáo viên về chiến lược dạy

đọc hiểu theo nhận thức)

M A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410

HANOI - 2012

PART I: INTRODUCTION

2 Aims and Objectives of the study 2

3 Research questions 3

7 Organization of the thesis 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE : LITERATURE REVIEW

1.2.1 Definition of reading strategy 7 1.2.2 Reading strategies and reading comprehension 8 1.2.3 Cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies 8 1.3 Teacher‟s beliefs and classroom practice 12 1.4 Reading strategy instruction 13 1.5 Review of related studies on teacher‟s reading strategy instruction 14

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

2.4 Data collection instruments 18

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2.5 Data collection procedure 21 2.6 Data analysis procedure 22

CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Teachers‟ beliefs about cognitive reading strategies 24 3.2 Correspondence between teachers' beliefs and their self-reported

3.3 Cognitive reading strategies teachers actually instruct at

classrooms 31 3.4 Factors affecting teacher‟s instructional practice of cognitive

PART III: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the main findings 39

4 Suggestions for further study 44

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Questionnaire on Reading Strategies I Appendix B: Observation Checklist IV Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Questions V Appendix D: Paired Sample Correlations VI Appendix E: Suggested Activities for Some Strategies VII

Table 3.2 Teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of instructing

while-reading strategies in reading comprehension

27

Table 3.3 Teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of instructing

post-reading strategies in reading comprehension

vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LVT Luong Van Tuy

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESL English as a Second Language

L1 First Language

L2 Second Language

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

N Number of Cases or Subjects of the study

p Probability of chance (indicator of significance)

SD Standard Deviation

SPSS Statistic Package for Social Science

as a foreign language mainly through reading in classroom settings In most cases, their teachers are also users of English as an additional language, with all sharing Vietnamese as their mother tongue

In the review of the current situation and issues of teaching English in Vietnam, Hoang (2010) stated that until recently, English textbooks in Vietnam were mainly grammar-based, taking the view that grammar could be taught systematically as a set of rules to be mastered and transferred by the learner into proficient language use (p 10) In other words, the grammar-translation method used to be widely accepted in which teachers tended to focus on teaching language points such as grammar and vocabulary However, in 2007, the Vietnamese government introduced into high schools a new standard curriculum which has required teachers

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

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

to foster both students‟ interpretive and productive skills, as well as to provide them with instruction on reading strategies It is proved by over 500 studies in the last

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twenty five years that reading strategy instruction greatly improves students‟ reading comprehension (Wellingham, 2007, p 39) In a lesson of reading strategy instruction, teachers guide the use of reading strategies, showing students how to utilize them in order to cope with texts in an unfamiliar language (Eskey, 1988) Helping students develop good reading strategies in particular and language learning strategies in general is considered to be the appreciated characteristics of a good language teacher (Lessard, 1997, p 3)

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

as well as teachers‟ beliefs of the importance of these strategies (Hua & Kim, 2008) Furthermore, Borg (2003, 2006) explores that significant contributions to understanding the relationship between teachers‟ beliefs and their classroom practices of reading instruction have been primarily made in first language education contexts whereas there has been a little amount of research in the area of second and foreign language (cited in Kuzborska, 2011, p 103) Chou (2008) also contends this gap results into an unclear picture of teachers‟ beliefs construct in teaching reading in EFL contexts (p 192) Therefore, undeniably, it is essential to conduct more research on exploring teachers‟ beliefs and their actual instructional practices regarding reading strategies With the aim to contribute some “meaningful pieces” to the unclear picture, this survey research was carried out on the topic given, namely teacher‟s attitudes towards and practices in cognitive reading strategies instruction

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

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

in instructing cognitive reading strategies for mainstream students at Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School

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

 To find out beliefs teachers hold about cognitive reading strategies

 To investigate to what extent teachers‟ beliefs correspond to their reported instructional practices

self- To examine which cognitive reading strategies teachers actually instruct at classrooms

 To reveal factors affecting the teachers‟ instruction of cognitive reading strategies

3 Research questions

Based on the theoretical framework proposed, the researcher put forward the

following research questions:

1 What beliefs do teachers hold about cognitive reading strategies?

2 To what extent do teachers' beliefs correspond to their self-reported instructional practices?

3 Which cognitive reading strategies do teachers actually instruct at classrooms?

4 What factors affect teachers‟ instructional practice of cognitive reading strategies?

4 Method of the study

Because the purpose of the study was to reveal teachers‟ beliefs and the correspondence with their classroom practice, the survey research was adopted in the study with data collection instruments of questionnaires, observations, and interviews All ten English teachers of the targeted school were asked to express their opinions on the importance and practice of teaching cognitive reading strategies through questionnaires Later, in order to obtain direct information on actual teaching practices, each teacher was observed in three 45-minute lessons followed by semi-structured interviews

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5 Scope of the study

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

6 Significance of the study

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

7 Organization of the thesis

The thesis is organized in three parts

Part I is The Introduction which presents the rationale for the research topic, its aims, scope, significance, as well as research methods

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

Part III is The Conclusion which discusses the major findings and limitations of the research, draws pedagogical implications and provides some suggestions for further study

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Reading and reading models

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

Bottom-up model

The bottom-up model suggests that the meaning of the text is contained only in the text itself The reader merely receives information from the printed text, building up meaning by decoding the symbols (letters), words, phrases and sentences serially In this model, reading was viewed as the process of meaning interpretation in which the language is translated from one form of symbolic representation to another Therefore, the goals of the bottom-up model are automatic word recognition and rapid reading rate The term of „text-based‟ is frequently used for this type of model

The introduction of bottom-up model has provided justifications for the reading processes of poor or beginning readers who depend substantially on lower-level processing (Hassan, 1999) However, the notable limitation of the model is the inflexibility of the representation which, on the whole, is serial and linear As a result, the reader‟s creativity and ability to move from lower level processing to higher level processing and vice versa are not depicted (Rayner and Pollastek, 1989,

p 477)

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Top-down model

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

As to top-down teaching model, the learner‟s prior knowledge is activated; therefore, it enhances learner‟s language learning, and makes possible reading comprehension In this model, reading is seen as the process in which readers move from the top, the higher level of mental stages down to the text itself The term

„reader-based‟ is frequently used for “top-down” model

However, the top-down model suffers from the problem of overemphasizing the higher-level processes (Eskey, 1988) The meaning of a text seems to be derived from contextual clues and the background knowledge of a reader whereas little emphasis is given to the lower-level processes of decoding As a result, the model seems more suitable for proficient readers (Hassan, 1999)

The limitations of both the bottom-up and top-down models of reading have led to developments in modeling reading as an interactive process

Interactive model

It is easy to draw out that the most salient difference between bottom-up and down model is the role of readers: the former as passive decoders while the latter as active encoders The third category of reading is referred to as interactive since it combines the characteristics of both “bottom-up” and “top-down” models Besides, the notion of “interaction” includes the interaction between text and reader, that is, the information in the text and readers‟ prior knowledge (Eskey, 1988)

top-7

The interactive model appears to be the most promising in explaining the reading process (Grabe, 1991) The model encompasses different types of first-language and second-language reading, incorporates both bottom-up and top-down processes, and recognizes the contribution of both the reader and the text The interactive model also recognizes reader variables such as background knowledge, prediction, and other reading strategies, which are unaccounted for in bottom-up models but accounted for in all aspects of in top-down reading models

1.2 Reading strategies

1.2.1 Definition of reading strategy

Several definitions of “reading strategy” are available in the literature on reading; nevertheless, there has never been consensus among researchers for a clear cut definition of reading strategies (Ellis, 1994) This diversity is largely due to the way the term has been used in different contexts such as first, second, or foreign language learning (Cohen, 1998) Paris, Wasik, and Turner (1991) describe strategies as “actions selected deliberately to achieve particular goals” (p 692) In the same way of emphasizing the “purposeful” characteristic of reading strategies, Barnett (1988) defines it as the mental operations involved when readers intentionally approach a text to make sense of what they read (p 66) Furthermore, Koda (2005) characterizes reading strategies with three core elements, namely

“deliberate, goal/problem-oriented, and reader-initiated/controlled” (p 205) Afferbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008) further clarify Koda‟s viewpoint that reading strategies are employed towards the goal of controlling and modifying the reader‟s efforts to decode text, understand word, and construct meanings out of text” (p 15) For the sake of briefness and clarity, reading strategies are regarded, in the present study, as specific actions consciously employed by the learner for the purpose of reading

A reading strategy differs from a reading skill in its intentionality and automaticity status A reading skill is only acquired when using reading strategy becomes

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effortless and automatic with learners‟ less deliberate attention (Afferbach, Pearson, and Paris, 2008, p 368)

1.2.2 Reading strategies and reading comprehension

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

1.2.3 Cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies

Reading strategies are divided into two major categories: metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies

 Metacognitive strategies

Metacognitive strategies involves thinking about the learning process, planning for learning, monitoring of comprehension or production while it is taking place, and self-evaluation of learning after the language activity is completed (Skehan, 1989,

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

namely checking the outcome of any attempt to solve a problem, planning one's next move, monitoring the effectiveness of any attempted action, testing, revising, and evaluating one's strategies for learning (p 354)

 Cognitive strategies

Williams and Moran (1989) state that cognitive strategies are seen as mental processes directly concerned with the processing of information in order to obtain, store, retrieve or use information (p 148) They are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself

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In other words, cognitive strategies concern interacting with learning tasks, manipulating materials mentally or physically, or applying a specific technique to the learning task: such as note-taking, summarization, imaginary, making inferences

Cognitive strategies aid the reader in constructing meaning from the text (Salataci & Akyel, 2002) In general, studies in both first language and second language provide

a binary division of cognitive strategies into bottom-up and top-down strategies such as Carrell‟s (1989), and Davis & Bistodeau‟s (1993) (cited in Salataci & Akyel, 2002) Davis & Bistodeau‟s (1993) define bottom-up strategies as those readers employ when processing information at the sentence level In other words, they focus on the identification of meaning and grammatical category of a word, sentence syntax, text details, and so forth Differently, as they process information that each sentence gives them, they check to see how this information fits, using top-down strategies such as background knowledge, prediction, getting the gist of a text, and skimming (cited in Salataci & Akyel, 2002)

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

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

in accordance with pre-, while-, and post-reading phases In other words, the behaviors, which are designed to help students before, during, and after they read, categorize the cognitive reading strategies This classification has been preferred by many researchers such as Bezci (1998), Ozek & Vivelek (2006), Yurdaisik (2007) However, they propose different strategies under the three stages, which results from the involvement of some strategies in more than one stage such as predicting,

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asking comprehension questions, etc As a result, in the scope of the study, the researcher aims to put forward the major reading strategies commonly recommended by various scholars These are mainly based on Bezci (1998)‟s, Yurdaisik (2007)‟s and Yigiter et al (2005)‟s classifications

 Pre-reading strategies assist students to overcome the common urge to begin

reading a text closely right away They also prepare students for actual reading with

four specific strategies

 Activating already-known knowledge about the topic

Prior knowledge should be discussed before reading the text to help set the stage for what is coming During reading, students should be encouraged to make connections to the text from their experience and the teacher should model this process using his or her own connections After reading, the discussion should center on how the connections helped students to better understand the text and how the text helped them to build their foundation of prior knowledge

 Previewing the text

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

 Make predictions about the probable meaning of the text

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

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

 Finding the text structure

Text structure refers to how the information within a written text is organized This strategy helps students understand that a text might present a main idea and details;

a cause and then its effects; and/or different views of a topic Teaching students to

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recognize common text structures can help students monitor their comprehension The text structure can be modeled using a graphic organizer to chart

 While-reading strategies will help students cope with problematic and

greyer areas of the text Due to the fact that students need different strategies to acquire the proficiency level, while-reading strategies are sometimes difficult to teach and learn so they are considered as challenging strategies (Alvarez & Risko, 1989) The seven while-reading strategies are proposed

 Skimming to get the overall meaning of the text

Skimming involves running your eye very quickly over large chunks of text It is different from previewing because skimming involves the paragraph text Skimming allows students to pick up some of the main ideas without paying attention to details

 Scanning to find specific information

Scanning involves moving eyes quickly down the page seeking specific information

 Using context to guess meaning of unknown words

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

 Taking notes or marking text

Teaching students text-marking strategies accomplishes two objectives First, students are more focused on what they are reading because they are making decisions about what to mark Second, they are emphasizing words and phrases that will allow them to quickly find information in the passage to answer test questions

 Questioning while reading the text

Some questions may be asked to clarify confusion about the content of the text Strategically asking and answering questions while reading helps students with difficulties engage with text in ways that good readers do naturally, thus “improving their active processing of text and their comprehension” (National Reading Panel,

2003, p 51)

 Meaning inferences

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This strategy involves students‟ ability to draw meaning from text through explicit details and implicit clues Furthermore, they can connect prior knowledge and experiences to the text in order to make good guesses about what is happening, may have happened, or will happen in the future

 Mapping the text

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

 Post- reading strategies help students deepen their understanding of the

content, build further connections, and expand their prior knowledge of the subject

matter There are four major post-reading strategies

The conclusion is made based on both the text information and student‟s evaluation

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

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

1.3 Teachers’ beliefs and classroom practice

From the viewpoint of Mansour (2008) and Richard (2003), teachers‟ beliefs are described as being the most valuable in the psychological composition of the teacher However, beliefs have been acknowledged as being notoriously difficult to define Pajares (1992) labels them as “a messy construct [that] travels in disguise and often under alias” (p 2) Ghaith (2004) proposes teachers‟ beliefs comprise their beliefs on education and teaching, curricula and the teaching profession in general, which form the “education culture” affecting pedagogical objectives and

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values Teachers‟ beliefs are also defined as “judgments” by Yero (2002) “untested assumptions” by Calderhead (1996), and “theories for practices” by Burns (1996) Teachers‟ beliefs can promote teaching practice; nevertheless, they may also work

as barriers to changes (Pajares, 1992)

Through the review of previous definitions, teachers‟ beliefs are understood, in the present study, to be a set of teacher‟s pedagogical principles that play a central role

in guiding his/her teaching behaviors

1.4 Reading strategy instruction

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

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

in an unfamiliar language (Eskey, 1988)

The case is very strong that teaching elementary, middle school, and high school students to use a repertoire of comprehension strategies increases their comprehension of text The awareness of reading strategies is of crucial importance especially for these beginning readers (Abdullah et al., 2009, p 312) Teachers should model and explain comprehension strategies, have their students practice using such strategies with teacher support, and let students know they are expected

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

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teaching should occur across every school day so as to get all readers using the strategies independently, which means including it in reading instruction for years Strategy instruction should be a part of each lesson in an ongoing process through the whole curriculum rather than taught separately, since strategic reading improves only if readers are exposed to a lot of practice in a long-term training program (Grabe, 1991) While the original aim of instruction is to promote comprehension in reading, the ultimate goal is to create independent and effective readers who can build their own purposes and adopt the relevant strategies (Cohen, 1998) Thus, strategy instruction develops autonomous learners with high motivation and self-esteem responsible for their own performance in reading (Allen, 2003)

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

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

in secondary school The majority, however, did not see themselves knowledgeable about the reading strategy instruction

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

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

Differently, rather than reading theories, Khonamri & Salimi (2010) aimed to investigate reading strategies about which Iranian EFL high school teachers hold certain beliefs and employ certain practical teaching activities Based on questionnaire data from 57 teachers, teachers‟ beliefs and their self-reported classroom employment of reading strategies were explored Findings indicated that teachers believed reading strategies played an important role in reading comprehension and that it was necessary to teach reading strategies in reading classes The results also revealed that there is inconsistency between teachers' beliefs and their self-reported classroom practice

In the context of Vietnam, Nguyen (2007) explored teachers‟ beliefs about teaching reading strategies and reading strategies instruction by high school teachers Employing interviews and class observations to collect data, she found out that teachers‟ beliefs about teaching reading strategies were not always consistent The lack of knowledge about reading strategies caused them problems, which they both consciously and unconsciously were aware of Furthermore, teacher‟s classroom practices did not always correspond to their beliefs To some extent, their classroom practices were based on their cognition and theories To other extent, their beliefs were not reflected The beliefs of the teachers in this study were affected by a variety of external factors (teaching context, materials and curriculum, student‟s

1.6 Summary

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

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CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

2.1 Context of the study

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

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

For the 2010-2011 academic year, the school had over one thousand and two hundred students being grouped in 30 gifted classes, with an average of 30 students per class There were 10 teachers of English and 100 others in teaching staff The school has a quite big library with plentiful sources of reference books, magazines and newspapers convenient for all students to make references Moreover, it has five well-equipped classrooms with projectors, screens, computers, etc available In fact, it is considered to be the best school in Ninh Binh in terms of teaching and learning facilities

As for the students of the school, most of them live in the city or near the city so they have favorable conditions for their learning both at school and at home All the classes except 3 English gifted ones receive 3 English periods a week with the textbooks and workbooks prescribed for mainstream level by MOEET

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2.3 Research design

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

a designed questionnaire in which they expressed their opinions about the importance of cognitive reading strategies instruction Additionally, in questionnaires, teachers also self-reported their practice of each reading strategy based on Likert scales 1 to 5 ranging from hardly ever to almost always Furthermore, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were also adopted to reveal teachers‟ actual practice of instructing reading strategies and factors affecting their instructions

2.4 Data collection instruments

The methods utilized in the study were:

Reliability of questionnaire

Research conducted by Bradburn and Sudman (1988) suggests that response rates are higher for individuals with a higher education, which includes teachers, who are familiar with the format of forms and questionnaires These authors also find that teachers often prefer questionnaires to interviews because they can be completed at

a convenient time Furthermore, questionnaires can also be completed anonymously

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

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

on Cronbach‟s alpha for the questionnaire was 0.93 Besides, after the pilot study, teachers were given an orientation on how to code the questionnaire

Validity of questionnaire

The external validity is hoped to be ensured when all the 10 teachers responsible for teaching mainstream students participated in the study However, a major threat to the internal validity is the issue of truthfulness on the part of the participants, especially in a study in which the participants may be familiar with the researcher (Weiss, 1975) Teachers may hesitate to admit they do not use several of the reading strategies included on the survey in their classrooms This may be even more common if the researcher is a colleague The challenge of soliciting honest responses from the participants was addressed by reminding teachers at a faculty meeting, and in an email, that the purpose of this study was to improve knowledge

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

Lesson Observation

Gebhard (1999) defines classroom observation as “non-judgmental description of classroom events that can be analyzed and given interpretation” (p 35) The purpose of observation in the context of the present study was not to evaluate the teaching Rather, observing the teachers in action allowed a means of assessing the extent to which the teachers‟ self-reported practices corresponded to what actually happened in the classroom It was also a form of data triangulation, particularly because key observations made were discussed with the teachers in follow up discussions as a further attempt at validating the observations Three 45-minute lessons per teacher were observed The lessons were audio and video recorded and later analyzed for teacher‟s actual practice of reading strategies instruction The items in the observation checklist were similar to the items in the questionnaire, which was used to figure out the correspondence between teacher‟s self-reported practice and actual one A schedule recording the questions generated by the

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

2.5 Data collection procedure

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

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

of the questionnaire The pilot study was conducted in one high school found in the zone with 5 teachers

So as to dispatch the questionnaire and conducting classroom observation, consent was obtained from principals, teachers and students through face to face discussion about the relevance of the study

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

of the study to the English faculty of Luong Van Tuy Gifted High School, the

researcher distributed the Questionnaire on Reading Strategies to all teachers‟ in

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one faculty meeting After the questionnaires were completed, teachers were called for participation in classroom observation After consent was received, unannounced observations were conducted in order to observe the actual instruction

of reading strategies by teachers at classrooms All grade levels were represented and classes were visited at random Immediately following each classroom visit, the

data was recorded on the Observation Checklist of Reading Strategies Each item on

the checklist that was observed was designated with a check If the strategy was not observed, the item was left unmarked

2.6 Data analysis procedure

Data from three major data sources were used in this research The sources included teachers‟ questionnaires, classroom observations and teachers‟ interviews The procedures for analyzing the data included: (a) organizing the data; (b) generating categories, themes, and patterns; (c) and examining the data to answer the research questions identified in the introduction of this study

The teachers‟ questionnaires provided quantitative data for the study while the recorded data from the classroom observations and interviews offered qualitative data The quantitative data were entered into a data file and analyzed statistically using the computer software program Statistical Package for Social Sciences, v.12

In order to answer the first research question, means and standard deviations were given to each item in teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of reading strategies in reading comprehension A correlation was run between the teacher‟s stated attitudes and self-reported practice of instructing reading strategies in their classrooms Later, the fifteen items which were included on both the questionnaire and the observation checklist were analyzed for frequency The researcher then ranked the results according to frequency and compared the frequency with which teachers self-reported using these strategies to the frequency of which the researcher observed them being used in the classroom

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The researcher also tallied the number of reading strategies by each teacher as recorded on the observation checklist Pearson correlation tests were run between the demographic characteristics of the subjects and how frequently they were observed instructing reading strategies in their classrooms

2.7 Summary

This chapter presents the context and the design of the study The research procedures and research instruments are also presented Next chapter presents the findings and the discussion of the study

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CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into four different sections in order to present the data and provide answers to the four research questions investigated in this study

3.1 Teachers’ beliefs about cognitive reading strategies

The following presented data were extracted from the questionnaire (Section II and III) together with teachers‟ interviews In the first place, teachers self-assessed their degree of familiarity with the concept of reading strategies

Very

Somewhat

Slightly

Not at all

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

as being „very‟ familiar with the concept of reading strategies Among 10 participants, 4 of them said that they were „somewhat‟ familiar whereas only one teacher indicated the „slightly‟ option for this question As a whole, teachers reported having been familiar with the reading strategies and having some ideas about them

The results from the semi-structured interviews also supported those from questionnaires in which teachers were asked what the concept of reading strategies meant to them They defined reading strategies as:

- “the strategies used by readers to read the text effectively” (Teacher 1)

Figure 3.1 Teachers’ familiarity with the concept of reading

strategies

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- “the strategies that help readers do reading comprehension tasks with the best results”

(Teacher 2)

Similarly, teacher 3 said,

“Reading strategies are to make reading tasks easier for a student and make the student gain speed while reading.”

It can be said that the interviewed teachers have a basically similar concept in their minds regarding the reading strategies They had a general idea about what reading strategies were, which was quite similar to the definition of reading strategies in the literature review, i.e specific actions consciously employed by the learner for the purpose of reading

The questionnaire results further clarified teacher‟s opinions on the importance of reading strategies instruction by asking them the reasons why they taught reading strategies (Question 2, Section II) In this question, participants were presented various reasons for teaching strategies to choose, together with one extra option where they could write their personal reasons, if any, other than ones presented

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Table 3.1 Teachers’ beliefs about the importance of instructing

pre-reading strategies in reading comprehension

class strategies

As seen in Figure 3.2, all the participants agreed that teaching reading strategies helped students understand texts better, develop sub-skills, improve the students‟ enjoyment of the texts and prepare for the test Nine of the participants appreciated the importance of teaching reading strategies to students‟ awareness of the language The advantage of saving time when reading strategies were instructed was agreed by most participants (8 teachers) Surprisingly, only 6 of them reported that teaching reading strategies enhanced autonomy or helped students to be independent readers None of the respondents gave a reason other than the ones provided

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

- “Without teacher’s instruction on reading strategies, students may do not know how to complete the reading tasks in a limited time” (Teacher 1)

- “Reading strategies instruction is essential to equip students with important reading skills” (Teacher 2)

- “Students should be taught the reading strategies so that they could apply various strategies for different reading texts in the tests” (Teacher 3)

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

Pre-reading strategies

1 Activating already-known knowledge about the topic 4.6 516

4 Identifying the text structure 4.3 675

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The results showed that the means of all the four items were in the high range (means 3.5-5), which revealed teachers‟ positive attitudes towards the importance of the four pre-reading strategies Among them, the activation of students‟ prior knowledge about the topic was considered to be the most important (Mean 4.6, SD 0.516) whereas predicting was the least important (Mean 3.7, SD 1.059) It is noteworthy that the high standard deviation of the third pre-reading strategies (SD 1.059) revealed a lower level of agreement in teacher‟s responses in comparison to the three other strategies In other words, some teachers acknowledged the high importance of instructing students to predict while some expressed their disagreement to its necessity

While-reading strategies

5 Skimming to get the overall meaning of the text 4.6 516

6 Scanning to find specific information 4.6 516

7 Using context to guess meaning of unknown words 4.4 516

8 Taking notes or marking text 4.4 516

11 Questioning while reading the text 4.4 516

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

strategies in reading comprehension

The results showed that there was a high level of agreement among the participants when evaluating the importance of instructing 7 while-reading strategies Moreover, the means of 5 out of 7 items were in the high range (mean 3.5-5), while 2 items fitted in the medium range (mean 2.5-3.4) In other words, most while-reading strategies were considered to be essential to instruct students by the participants, in which skimming and scanning were the most important In contrast, many teachers

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

strategies in reading comprehension

It was revealed that among the four post-reading strategies, summarizing was regarded as the most important to be instructed to students (mean 4.2) followed by follow-up activities (mean 4.1) Most participants were not sure about the importance of evaluating and drawing conclusion strategies (mean 3.2, SD 422) Surprisingly, the instruction of post-reading strategies was regarded as the least important (mean 3.7) in comparison with that of pre-reading strategies (mean 4.4) and while-reading ones (mean 4.1)

3.2 Correspondence between teachers' beliefs and their self-reported instructional practices

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

1 Activating already-known knowledge 4.6 516 4.4 516

2 Previewing the text 4.5 516 4.0 000

10 Mapping the text 3.4 699 2.6 699

11 Questioning while reading the text 4.4 516 4.1 568

12 Summarizing 4.2 422 4.0 471

13 Evaluating 3.2 422 2.9 738

14 Drawing conclusions 3.2 422 3.1 316

15 Extending comprehension in critical and

creative ways in follow-up activities

4.1 568 3.8 632

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

As shown in Table 3.4., ten out of the fifteen reading strategies obtained an average

score higher than 4 in the importance scale, indicating that the majority of strategies (66.7%) were considered important to instruct students by the participants On the other hand, only eight strategies were reported by respondents to be covered in