Difficul ties the reading comprehension skill for the second year students of batf at hpu no 2 and suggested solutions

Difficulties of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill .... Reasons for the difficulties of the the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in t

Also, I would like to express my particular thanks to all the lectures of Foreign Language Faculty whose lectures have my academic knowledge of English

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ABSTRACT

The reading comprehension skill is an interesting aspect of English In order

to address this issue, many authors have documented different management methods to improve the reading comprehension skill However, the reading comprehension skill reffered to in some books have not been deal with in full and sometimes cause confusion to learners of English

As a result, students of English especially non-English major students often have difficulties in reading comprehension skill Therefore, a research with the eighty second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 was carried out The data was collected using questionnaires and classroom observation This research work entails studying the reading comprehension skill and conducting a survey for difficulties analysis

Based on the results of the survey, the types of difficulties and causes have been found, and solutions to the problems have been suggested

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HPU N 2: Hanoi Pedagogical University N

BATF: Biology and Agricultural Technology Faculty

FLF: Foreign Language Faculty

(Graduation paper submitted in particular fulfillment of the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts in English)

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied from any other person’s work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally written

by me under instructions of my supervisor

Date submitted: May 2013

Student Supervisor

Pham Hong Loan Dang Ngoc Nam

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

Statement of authorship v

Table of contents vi

PART ONE INTRODUCTION I Rationale 1

II Research presupposition 2

III Research objectives 2

IV Research scope 3

V Research tasks 3

VI Research methods 3

VII Significance of the proposed research 3

VIII Design of the research work 4

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 Literature review in brief 5

I.2 Reading comprehension skill 6

I.2.1 Definition of reading comprehension skill 6

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I.2.2 Types of reading comprehension skill 7

I.2.2.1 Skimming 7

I.2.2.2 Scanning 7

I.2.2.3 Intensive reading 8

I.2.2.4 Extensive reading 9

I.2.2.5 Reading aloud 9

I.2.2.6 Silent reading 10

I.2.2.7 Recognizing 10

I.2.2.7.1 Recognizing definitions and examples 11

I.2.2.7.2 Recognizing enumerations 11

I.2.2.7.3 Recognizing headings and subheadings 11

I.2.2.7.4 Recognizing signal words 12

I.2.2.7.5 Recognizing main ideas in paragraphs and short selections 13

I.2.2.8 Understanding 14

I.2.2.9 Outlining 15

I.2.2.10 Summarizing 17

I.2.3 Processes of reading comprehension skill 17

I 2.3.1 Bottom-up process 17

I.2.3.2 Top-down process 18

I.2.3.3 Interactive process 18

I.2.4 Strategies of reading comprehension skill 19

I.2.4.1 Definition of reading comprehension strategy 19

I.2.4.2 Types of reading comprehension strategy 20

I.2.4.2.1 Metacognitive strategy 20

I.2.4.2.2 Cognitive strategy 20

I.2.4.3 Elements to build and improve reading comprehension skill 23

I.2.4.3.1 Vocabulary 23

I.2.4.3.2 Patterns of organization 25

I.2.4.3.3 Transitions 27

I.2.4.3.4 Main ideas 28

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I.2.4.3.5 Inferences 29

CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY II.1 Questionnaire survey (Appendix A) 30

II.1.1 Rationale of the use of questionnaire survey 30

II.1.2 Population of the survey 31

II.1.3 Construction of the survey 31

II.1.4 Administration of the try-out 31

II.1.4.1 Preparation of the try-out 31

II.1.4.2 Try-out 31

II.1.5 Methods of data analysis 32

II.2 Classroom observation 32

II.2.1 Rationale of the use of classroom observation 32

II.2.2 Observation sheet (Appendix B) 33

CHAPTER THREE: THE RESULTS III 1 Results of the survey 34

III.1.1 Difficulties of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill 35

III.1.2 Expectations of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N in their reading comprehension skill 36

III.1.3 Reasons for the difficulties of the the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill 37

III.1.3.1 Difficulties in unfamiliar vocabulary 37

III.1.3.2 Difficulties in the lack of background knowledge 37

III.1.3.3 Difficulties in grammatical structures 38

III.1.3.4 Difficulties in making accurate inferences 38

III.1.3.5 Difficulties in unfamiliar topic 38

III.1.3.6 Difficulties in finding the main ideas and supporting ideas 39

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III.2 Suggested solutions 39

PART THREE CONCLUSION Conclusion 42

References 45

Appendix A: Questionnaire survey 47

Appendix B: Observation sheet and checklist 51

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PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

It cannot be denied that English is very important since English is the most common language spoken everywhere We need to know English language in order to not only communicate effectively among people from different countries but also study any science subject As a result, English has become an international language

Nowadays, in Vietnam as well as other countries, English is taught as an obligatory subject at every educational level from primary school, secondary school, high school to college and university In fact, English is a compulsory subject at all universities, especially involving in HPU N 2 where I have been studying However, learning English is not easy to both English major students and non-English major students in my university It may bring problems, especially non-English major students In fact, there are many non-English major students having problems on understanding English text It is difficult for them how to read the text, how to identify key words, how to find important information, how to understand the text correctly in order to do the tasks This proves that the reading comprehension in learning English is complex and often causes embarrassment to them They do not master definition, types and processes of the reading comprehension skill like skimming, scanning, reading aloud or silent reading and

so on In addition, strategies to build the reading comprehension skill including vocabulary, patterns of organization, transitions, inferences and main ideas are not improved Due to not master the reading comprehension skill and no ways to improve reading comprehension skill, there are many difficulties to non-English major students

As a prospective teacher, I would like to make a contribution to the English teaching in Vietnam For the reasons above, this study is conducted, which focuses

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on difficulties as well as solutions in the reading comprehension skill among the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION

Reading comprehension is one of the most significant skills of the year students of BATF at HPU N 2 During the research, some questions are raised:

1 What are difficulties in the reading comprehension skill that the year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic of 2012-2013 often have?

second-2 What are expectations of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2

in their reading comprehension skill in the academic of 2012-2013?

3 What are the causes of difficulties in reading comprehension skill that the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic of 2012-2013 often have?

4 What are effective ways to help the second-year students of BATF at HPU

N in the academic of 2012-2013 overcome difficulties in the reading comprehension skill?

Based on the questions above, I am eager to find out the problems and make

an analysis so that the major difficulties in reading comprehension skill may be found

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The research focuses on the reading comprehension skill of the second-year students of BATF at HPU 2 The study is aimed at the following goals:

1 To find out the common difficulties in reading comprehension skill that the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013 often have

2 To find out the common expectations of the second-year students of BATF

at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013

IV RESEARCH SCOPE

The research is limited about reading comprehension skill of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013 The reading comprehension skill is carried out at the classroom

The population involved in the study is eighty students of BATF at HPU N 2

in the academic year of 2012-2013

V RESEARCH TASKS

The study involves fulfilling the following tasks:

1 To overview the reading comprehension skill such as the definition, classification and processes

2 To study the strategies of improving the reading comprehension skill

3 To conduct a survey to find out expectations, difficulties and causes On the basis of the findings, possible solutions to the problems are found to minimize the students’ difficulties

VI RESEARCH METHODS

To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied:

1 Observing some reading comprehension lessons at class

2 Collecting documents from books listed in the references

3 Consulting the supervisor, experienced teachers and friends

4 Conducting a survey and analyzing the results

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH

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After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful to provide:

1 Input for learners of English in order to minimize their difficulties in the reading comprehension skill

2 Input for teachers of English with information on expectations, difficulties and solutions to the problems so that they can choose good methods of teaching the reading comprehension skill

The study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in the reading comprehension skill

VIII DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK

The research work has three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion The “Development” consists of three chapters Chapter one is entitled “Theoretical Background” It consists of two sections Section one reviews literature review in brief Section two deals with things related to overview of reading comprehension skill such as definition, types, processes, strategies

The chapter two is named “The Methodology” It describes the research method It is composed of the description of the subjects and the data collection instruments Detail information about the research procedures is also provided Chapter three is named “The Results” It has two sections Section one is devoted to the survey The other presents solutions to the problems on the reading comprehension skill

PART TWO

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DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF

Reading comprehension skill is one of the most important parts of English Therefore, reading comprehension skill has been researched by many authors like John Langan (2002), Grellet (1981), Nuttall (1982), Patricia Glenn (1995), Doff (1988), Cambourne (1979), Nell K Duke (2003) and so on They each have their own way to describe the reading comprehension skill

John Langan (2002) in the book Reading and Study Skills deals with some

types of reading comprehension skill to help students know how to recognize definitions and examples, enumerations, headings and subheadings, main ideas in paragraphs and short selections; know how to outline, summarize and understand graphs and tables

Grellet, F (1981) in the book Developing reading skills gives definition of

reading comprehension skill and also deals with some main types of reading comprehension skill including scanning, skimming, intensive reading and extensive reading In addition, the book helps students know some ways to develop reading comprehension skill

In the book Teaching reading skills in a foreign language, Nuttall (1982)

also focuses on definition and some types of the reading comprehension skill consisting of intensive reading, extensive reading and reading aloud and so

on Besides, Nuttall (1982) mentions the processes of the reading comprehension skill such as bottom-up process, top-down process and interactive process

Cambourne, B (1979) in the book “How important is theory to the reading teacher?” also shows that there are three processes of the reading

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comprehension skill combining bottom-up, top-down and interactive process Moreover, the author provides theories to the reading teacher

Doff, A (1988) in the book Teaching: A Training Course for Teachers

focuses on types of reading comprehension, especially reading aloud

Nell K Duke (2003) in the book Comprehension Difficulties decribes the

number of detailed difficulties that learners have in the reading comprehension skill, main causes and solutions for the reading comprehension skill

To sum up, much research has been done on the reading comprehension skill but only Nell K Duke (2003) points out difficulties on the reading comprehension skill In fact, there are far more difficulties that learners of English often make Therefore, it is essential to have a really full study of difficulties in the reading comprehension skill

I.2 READING COMPREHENSION SKILL

I.2.1 Definition of the reading comprehension skill

According to Wikipedia, a reading comprehension skill is defined as the level

of understanding of a text or a message This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text or the message

Limor Cohen Naftali – The IACC, Department of Learning in the book

Reading Comprehension Workshop shows that the reading comprehension skill is

understanding a written text by extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible

According to Johnson (1998) in the material Teaching Comprehension Skills,

reading comprehension skill is the act of constructing meaning with text The reader plays an active role – filtering, organizing, interpreting and generating relationships with incoming information Reading comprehension is an interaction between word identification, knowledge and comprehension skills

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Karlin and Kartin (1982, p.2) in the book Teaching of Elementary Reading

states that reading without comprehension is meaningless

I.2.2 Types of the reading comprehension skill

I.2.2.1 Skimming

Skimming is a very useful reading skill for students to locate a specific item

of information that they need Grellet (1981, p.19) in the book Developing Reading Skills stated: “When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions.” Because of its nature, the key to skim is to know

where to find the main idea of paragraphs and to be able to synthesize them by way

of generalization

Nuttall (1982, p.36) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language says “by skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through the text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about materials that are not of great importance to us.” When skimming, students should go through the reading

material quickly in order to get the gift of it, to know how it is organized, or to get

an idea of the tone or the intension of the writer

According to Mickulecky and Jeffries (1992, p.8), skimming is high-speed reading that can save time and help the readers get through lots of material quickly

By skimming, the readers can get general sense of passage or book, not specific details The goal in skimming is not to read the text throughly, but it is used to find out the kind information that the readers seek, and if it does determine what to read more closely Thus, in skimming the text, a reader needs to practice in order to learn the key words and phrases which can cover all the materials

I.2.2.2 Scanning

Scanning is another useful skill to locate a specific item of information that

students need Williams (1986, p.100) in the book Reading in the language classroom says: “scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly

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in order to find a particular point of information” In contrast with skimming,

scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving need information This kind of reading is widely used in the reading comprehension skill

Grallet (1981, p.19) in the book Developing Reading Skills states: “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so” Scanning occurs when a reader goes

through the text quickly searching for a specific piece of information or seeing if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose

Brown (2000, p.308) states that scanning is quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text Scanning is quickly reading to find the specific information By scanning, a reader means to glance rapidly through a text either to search a specific piece of information (e.g name, date) or

to get an initial impression of whether the text is suitable for a given purpose When scanning the reader lets his or her eyes wander over the text until he or she is looking for, whether it is a place, a kind of food, a kind of verb, or specific information To enable the student to scan effectively, he or she should know what kinds of information he or she needs

I.2.2.3 Intensive reading

Intensive reading means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding The objective

of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning is produced

Nuttal (1982, p.36) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language defines: “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus on the text” Grellet (1981, p.4) in the book Developing Reading Skills states: “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details”

To this kind of reading comprehension, readers are required a profound and detailed understanding of the text They have to know every idea, every piece of

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hidden information in the text They also have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed In short, intensive reading is reading in detail for a complete understanding of every part of the text

I.2.2.4 Extensive reading

Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity According to Grellet

(1981, p.4) in the book Developing Reading Skills, extensive reading means

“reading longer texts usually for one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding”

Harmer (1989, p.497) in the book The Practice of English language teaching also has the same view He states: “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension”

The purpose of extensive reading is to train students to read directly and fluently in a foreign language for their own enjoyment, without the aid of the teacher to achieve a general sense of the text, skimming for the gist and scanning for the some key details Extensive reading is a relatively rapid and efficient process of reading a text for global or general meaning In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purpose

I.2.2.5 Reading aloud

According to Doff (1988, p.70) in the book Teaching English: a training course for teachers states that reading aloud involves looking at the text,

understanding it and also saying it Though reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessary information to the others, it is unpopular activity outside classroom For the teacher, reading aloud is more of a speaking exercise of

pronunciation Nuttal (1996) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language sees reading aloud as an important aid for beginners to improve their pronunciation However, Greenwood (1985) in the book The Teaching of English

as an International Language criticizes this idea He fears that students may be

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unable to focus adequately on the text’s meaning when they concentrate too hard

on pronouncing the words

As for Doff (1988, p.58) in the book Teaching English: a training course for teachers mentions, reading aloud is not very useful technique for some reasons

below:

- Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all

or listening to a bad model

- Students’ attention is focus on pronunciation, not on understanding the text

- It is an unnatural activity, most readers do not read aloud in real life

- Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class

By whispering the words while reading, reading aloud slows the readers down and forces them to read every word so it can distract them from understanding the text

I.2.2.6 Silent reading

Lewis (1985, p.110) in the book Practical Techniques for Language Teaching states that silent reading is the method we normally use with our native language,

and on the whole the quickest and most efficient Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is often used in both real life and classroom

With silent reading, readers can best understand the reading material in the shortest possible time because they do not need to read all the words in the text, they can read at their own speed and if readers do not understand what they are reading, they can read again or slow down for intensive reading For the teachers, silent reading is helpful for controlling the class In silent reading, students are in fact concentrating on the text, obtaining the meaning and extracting what they need

In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop the students’ reading ability However, it is more beneficial when the teacher sometimes combines it with reading aloud to improve students’ pronunciation and intonation because reading also has its own advantages

I.2.2.7 Recognizing

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John Langan (2002) in the book Reading and Study Skills has list of

recognizing skill: Recognizing definitions and examples; Recognizing enumerations; Recognizing headings and subheadings; Recognizing signal words; Recognizing main ideas in paragraphs and short selections

I.2.2.7.1 Recognizing definitions and examples

Definitions are often among the most important ideas in a selection They are particularly significant on introductory courses, when much of your time is spent mastering the specialized vocabulary of the subject You are, in a sense, learning

the “language” of sociology or biology or whatever the subject might be Most

definitions are abstract, and so they are usually followed by one or more examples that help clarify their meaning

I.2.2.7.2 Recognizing enumerations

Enumerations are keys to important ideas Enumerations are lists of items that may actually be numbered in a text More often, however, a list of items is signaled

by such words as first of all, second, moreover, next, also, finally, and others Typical phrases that introduce enumerations are: “There are three reasons why ”;

“The two causes of ”; “Five characteristics of ”; “There are several ways to ”;

and so on

I.2.2.7.3 Recognizing headings and subheadings

Headings and subheadings are important visual aids that give readers a quick idea of how the information in a chapter is organized The model below shows a typical use of heads in a selection

CHAPTER TITLE The chapter title is set off in largest print in the chapter The title represents the shortest possible summary of what the entire chapter is about

THIS IS A MAIN HEADING

Appearing under the chapter title are a series of main headings Main heads may

be centered or may start at the left margin; they are often set off with capital letters and, sometimes, a different color of ink They represent a breakdown of the main

I.2.2.7.4 Recognizing signal words

Signal words help readers follow the direction of a writer’s thought They are like signposts on the road that guide the traveler Common signal words show emphasis, addition, comparison or contrast, illustration, and cause and effect

+ Emphasis words: Among the most valuable signals for readers to know are

emphasis words, through which the writer tells readers directly that a particular idea or detail is especially important Look over the following list of emphasis words

important to note especially valuable the chief factor

most of all most noteworthy a vital force

a significant factor remember that above all

+ Addition words: Addition words tell readers that the writer’s thought is

going to continue in the same direction The writer is going to add on more points

or details of the same kind Look over the following addition words

also first of all last of all and

another for one thing next second

finally furthermore moreover the third reason

+ Comparision or contrast words:

- Comparision words signal that the author is pointing out a similarity

between two subjects They tell readers that the second idea is like the first one in some way Look over the following comparision words

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like just as in the same way similarly

likewise alike in like manner equal

- Contrast words signal a change in the direction of the writer’s thought

They tell readers that the author is pointing out a difference between two subjects

or statements Look over the following contrast words

but yet variation on the other hand

however differ still conversely

in contrast difference on the contrary otherwise

+ Illustration words: Illustration words tell readers that an example or

illustration will be given to make an idea clear Look over the following illustration words

for example specifically for instance

to illustrate once such as

+ Cause-and-effect words: Cause-and-effect words signal that the author is

going to describe results or effects Look over the following cause-and-effect words

because reason since

therefore effect as a result

so that thus consequently

I.2.2.7.5 Recognizing main ideas in paragraphs and short selections

Almost every effective communication of ideas consists of two basic parts:

(1) a point is made, and (2) evidence is provided to support that point The purpose

of textbooks is to communicate ideas, and they typically do so by using the same basic structure: A point is advanced and then supported with specific reasons, details, and facts Readers will become a better reader by learning to look for and take advantage of this basic structure used in textbooks

Many textbook paragraphs that readers read will be made up of the same two basic parts The point is usually expressed in one sentence called a main-idea, or topic-sentence The other sentences in the paragraph contain specific details that

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support or develop the main-idea sentence Learning how to recognizing these two basic parts quickly is sure to increase reading comprehension

I.2.2.8 Understanding

Munby (1978) in the book Communicative Syllabus Design has list of

understanding skill: Understanding explicitly stated information; Understanding information when not explicitly stated; Understanding conceptual meaning, Understanding the communicative value (function) of sentences and utterances; Understanding relations within the sentence; Understanding relations between the parts of a text through lexical cohesion devices; Understanding relations between the parts of a text through grammatical cohesion devices

John Langan (2002, p.439) in the book Reading and Study Skills focuses on

understanding graphs and tables Sometimes, being a skillful reader means more than just having the ability to read words It can also mean being able to read the visual information presented in graphs and tables As a student, reader will probably encounter many graphs and tables in textbooks Such visual material can help students understand important ideas and details Knowing graphics will probably also help in a career work as well, for occupations in a computerized age increasingly rely on graphics to convey information Graphs and tables present information by using lines, images, or numbers as well as words They often compare quantities or show how things change over a period of time Reading a graph or table involves four steps

- Step 1: Read the title and any subtitles This important first step gives

readers a concise summary of all the information in the graph or table

- Step 2: Read any information at the top At the bottom, and along the sides

Such information may include an explanatory key to the material presented It may also include a series of years, percentages, or figures

- Step 3: Ask yourself the purpose of the graph or table Usually, the title can

be turned into a question beginning with What, How much or many, or How The

purpose of the graph or table is to answer that question

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- Step 4: Read the graph or table When reading, keep in mind the purpose of

the material

I.2.2.9 Outlining

John Langan (2002, p.409) in the book Reading and Study Skills says that

outlining is another reading comprehension skill that will improve students’ reading comprehension as well as provide additional benefits Outlining is an organizational skill that develops their ability to think clearly and logically It will help as students prepare textbook and classroom notes It will also help as they plan speeches that they have to give or papers that you have to write Students have already learned a good deal about outlining in marking enumerations, noting relationships between heads and subheads, and identifying main idea in paragraphs In an outline, students reduce the material in a selection to its main and supporting points and details Special symbols are used to show how the points and details relate to one another There are four points to note about outlining:

- First: The purpose of an outline is both to summarize material and to show

the relationships between different parts of the material An outline is a summary

in which letters and numbers are used to mark the main and supporting points and details In an outlining, a sequence of symbols is used for the different levels of notes For example, capital letters (A, B, …) are used for the first level, numbers (1, 2, 3, ) for the second level, and small letters (a, b, c, ) for the third level

- Second: Put all the headings at each particular level at the same point in

relation to the margin For example, A and B are both at the margin; 1, 2, and 3 are all intended an equal amount of space from the margin; and a, b, and c are all an equal, greater amount of space from the margin as follows:

- Third: Most outlines do not need more than two or three level of symbols In

textbook note-taking, two levels will often do

- Fourth: Every outline should have a title that summarizes the information in

the outline

in the long box at the top

Balloon Diagram has the shape as follows:

Box Diagram has the shape as follows:

Title

A.Main idea 1

1.Sup idea 1

2.Sup idea 2

3.Sup idea 3

4.Sup idea 4

Title

1 Supporting idea 1 1 Supporting idea 1

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I.2.2.10 Summarizing

According to John Langan (2002, p.424 – 425) in the book Reading and Study Skills, a summary, like an outline, is a reduction of a large quantity of information

to the most important points Unlike an outline, however, a summary does not use

symbols such as A, 1, a, and so on, to indicate the relationships among parts of the

original material The preceding summary includes the most important points – the definition of rationalization and an example that makes the definition clear – but the other material is omitted

Summarizing is helpful because it requires that readers thoroughly understand

the material they are reading They must “get inside” the material and realize fully

what is being said before they can reduce it to a few words Work in summarizing material will help build their comprehension power It will also markedly improve your ability to take effective classroom and textbook notes

The length of a summary depends on readers’ purpose in summarizing The shortest possible summary is a title If their purpose requires more information than that, a one-sentence summary might be enough Longer passages and different purpose might require longer summaries For example, in writing a report on an article or book, students might often want to have a summary that is a paragraph or more in length

I.2.3 Processes of reading comprehension skill

I.2.3.1 Bottom-up process

According to Cambourne (1979) in the book “How important is theory to the reading teacher?”, the bottom-up process is the basis of a large number of reading

comprehension schemes

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The bottom-up process occurs when readers begin with a text, construct meaning of the text through recognizing or decoding letters, words and phrases, working out sentence structures, and then interpreting paragraphs and the whole text In this process, reading comprehension is a linear process because readers comprehend the text by moving eyes from letters to letters, words to words, phrases to phrases, sentences to sentences to identify the exact meaning When first reading makes readers confuse or they are not really sure of what writers intended, understanding of the meaning a sentence can help them fully grasp what writers conveyed

I.2.3.2 Top-down process

The reading process moves from the top, the higher level of mental stages, down to the text itself In these models, the reading process is driven by the reader’s mind at work on the text (reader-driven model)

Cambourne (1979, p.41) provides the following schematization of the

top-down approach

Tierney and Peason (1994) states that reading is a dialogue between the reader and the text, it is considered as an active cognitive process in which readers’ background knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning

I.2.3.3 Interactive process

Nuttall (1996, p.17) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language says that in practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to

another, now adopting a top-down approach to predict probable meaning, then moving to the bottom-up approach to check whether that is really what the writer says

Rumelhart (1977, p 573) in the book Understanding Reading Comprehension

indicates that the reading comprehension is a perceptual and a cognitive process It

In short, there are three processes which readers should use to solve the text: using the bottom-up process to get details comprehending of the text, using the top-down to comprehend main ideas of the text, and especially using interactive process to get both details and main ideas comprehending Readers usually need to use interactive process (combine both the top-down and bottom-up process) to deal with difficult texts

I.2.4 Strategies of the reading comprehension skill

I.2.4.1 Definition of the reading comprehension strategy

According to Ellis (1994) in the book The Study of Second Language Acquisition, 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 strategy

Paris, Wasik, and Turner (1991, p.692) in the book Handbook of research in the English language arts describe strategies as “actions selected deliberately to achieve particular goals”

In the same way of emphasizing the “purposeful” characteristic of reading

strategies, Barnett (1988, p.66) in the book Modern Language Journal defines it as

the mental operations involved when readers intentionally approach a text to make

sense of what they read Furthermore, Koda (2005, p.205) in the book Insights into second language reading: A Cross-linguistic approach characterizes reading strategies with three core elements, namely “deliberate, goal/problem-oriented, and reader-initiated/controlled” 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

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In the book The Reading Teacher, Afferbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008,

p.368), a reading comprehension strategy differs from a reading skill in its intentionality and automaticity status A reading skill is only acquired when using the reading strategy becomes effortless and automatic with learners’ less deliberate attention

I.2.4.2 Types of the reading comprehension strategy

I.2.4.2.1 Meta-cognitive strategy

In the book Individual differences in second language learning, Skehan

(1989, p.87) says that meta-cognitive 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 complete

Baker & Brown (1984, p.354) in the book Handbook of reading research propose in details six meta-cognitive 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

I.2.4.2.2 Cognitive strategy

Williams and Moran (1989, p.148) in the book Language Teaching 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 They are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the learning material itself In other word, 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, summarizing, imaginary, making inferences

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

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+ Pre-reading strategy assists 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 summarizes, 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 student 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 recognize common text structures can help students monitor their comprehension The text structure can be modeled using a graphic organizer to chart

+ While-reading strategy 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,

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1989, Reading Research and Instruction) The seven while-reading strategies are

proposed

- Skimming to get the overall meaning of the text: Skimming involves running

eyes very quickly over the 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)

- Making inferences: 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 ideas

+ Post-reading strategy helps students deepen their understanding of the content, build further connections, and expand their prior knowledge of the subject matter There four major post-reading strategies

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- Summarizing: The main ideas are identified and restated in students’ own

words

- Evaluating: Students express personal responses (opinions, comments) to

beliefs and values stated in the text

- Drawing conclusions: The connection 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

I.2.4.3 Elements to build and improve the reading comprehension skill

I.2.4.3.1 Vocabulary

Improving vocabulary includes using the dictionary efficiently (Deanne Milan, 2000), regular reading (John Langan, 1998), using context clues (Deanne Milan, 2000)

+ Using the dictionary efficiently

Students have to use their dictionary if they cannot identify a word or figure

out its meaning from the context Hence, in the book Improving Reading Skills

Deanne Milan Spears (2000) will give students some pointers so that they can use this wonderful resource efficiently First, students should have a good, up-to-date dictionary or they can manage two dictionaries: an unabridged and an abridged version An abridged dictionary is usually published in an inexpensive paperback format, is shorter than a complete dictionary and does not contain as many as words as an unabridged version However, no matter which dictionary, all contain the same features Here is a brief overview of the important ones:

- Guide words: The guide words are printed in boldface type in the top margin

of each dictionary page They indicate the first and last words on that page and they are used to locate words quickly

- Entry: Entry is simply a fancy term for the word It is printed in boldface

type against the left margin