the use of reading strategies when reading esp by 4th year english majored students at the people s security academy

The findings revealed that both teachers and students at the People’s Security Academy strongly advocated the importance and necessity of using reading strategies and students used metac

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG

THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP

AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY

(VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH

VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ 4 TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG

THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP

AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY

(VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH

VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ 4 TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

Hanoi, 2013

DECLARATION -***** -

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled: “The use of reading strategies when

reading ESP by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy” is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts and that this

thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree

Hanoi, December 2013 Author’s signature

Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing Furthermore, I am grateful to her close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement

to me during the process of writing up the thesis

I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lessons and suggestions, which aroused the thesis for this study to be realized

I also owe my sincere thanks to English teaching staff and fourth-year English majors at the People’s Security Academy who have enthusiastically participated in my study

Finally, my heart-felt thanks go to my beloved parents, my wife and my son who have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study

Hanoi, December 2013

Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng

ABSTRACT

Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master During the process of acquiring English language in the light of communicative approach, reading English for public security seems to be the most challenging and difficult for teachers and learners The present study primarily investigated the use of reading strategies of English for public security by 4th-year English majors at the People’s Security Academy Data was collected via survey questionnaire for 35 4th-year English majors and interviews for 4 teachers of English The findings revealed that both teachers and students at the People’s Security Academy strongly advocated the importance and necessity of using reading strategies and students used metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies more frequently than social/affective reading strategies From the findings, some suggestions were given with the hope that they might be a reliable source of reference for teachers of English at the People’s Security Academy to improve their students’ reading proficiency

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES, ABBREVIATIONS vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Method of the study 3

5 Scope of the study 3

6 Organization of the study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Language learning strategies 5

1.1.1 Definitions 5

1.1.2 The importance of learning strategies 6

1.1.3 Classification of learning strategies 7

1.2 Reading11 1.2.1 Definitions of reading 11

1.2.2 Models of reading 11

1.2.2.1 Bottom-up model 12

1.2.2.2 Top-down model 12

1.2.2.3 Interactive model 13

1.3 Reading strategies 14

1.2.2 Definitions of reading strategies 14

1.2.3 Review of reading strategies research 15

1.4 Summary 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19

2.1 The context of teaching and learning listening skill to English majors at the PSA 19

2.2 Participants 20

2.2.1 Students 20

2.2.2 Teachers 21

2.3 Instruments of data collection 22

2.3.1 Questionnaires 22

2.3.2 Interviews 22

2.4 Data collection procedures 23

2.5 Data analysis 24

2.5.1 Coding of questionnaire data 24

2.5.2 Analysis procedures 26

2.6 Summary 27

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

3.1 Questionnaire 28

3.1.1 PSA 4th-year English-major students' attitudes to reading comprehension 28

3.1.2 Reading strategies 31

3.1.2.1 Metacognitive reading strategies 31

3.1.2.2 Cognitive reading strategies 33

3.1.2.3 Social/affective reading strategies 35

3.2 Interviews 37

3.3 Summary 39

PART III: CONCLUSION 40

1 Summary of major findings 40

2 Implications of the study 41

3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 42

REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IX APPENDIX 3 XIV APPENDIX 4 XV

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: PSA students’ attitude toward the importance of reading strategies 28

Chart 2: PSA students’ perception of their reading speeds 29

Chart 3: PSA students’ attitude toward the importance of factors to their reading comprehension 30

Chart 4: Questionnaire results: Metacognitive reading strategies 32

Chart 5: Questionnaire results: Cognitive reading strategies 34

Chart 6: Questionnaire results: Social/affective reading strategies 36

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Learning strategy definition and classification (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119) 8

Table 2: Background information about the participants: Students 21

Table 3: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories adapted from O'Malley and Chamot (1990: 119) 24

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESL/EFL: English as a second/foreign language

The PSA: The People’s Security Academy

L1: first language

L2: second language

ESP: English for special purpose

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, telecommunication, culture, science and technology In the current context of global integration, English which has become more and more important is not only a means of but also a key to accessing the latest scientific and technological achievements Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese students to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing demands in a developing country like Vietnam

Internationally, teaching English has changed tremendously over the last few decades More significantly, the traditional teacher-centered approach has been replaced with the learner-center one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making responsive to learner’s need and interest and allowing learners to play a more active and participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes Therefore, no longer does the teacher act as the centre of all instructions, controlling every aspect of the learning process Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for successful language acquisition and in doing so, are becoming less dependent on the language teacher for meeting their own individual language needs Students are advised to become more and more autonomous to diagnose their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to self-direct the process of language development

Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills “Reading is an essential skill for English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) student; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999) Carrell (1984:1) states “For many students, reading is

by far the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in a language as

a second or foreign language” This is true for Vietnamese learners who have studied

English through reading since English is taught and learned as a foreign language and in a non-native environment But acquiring and mastering this skill is likely to be a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience On the other hand, the findings of many ESL/EFL research projects have shown the positive effects of learning strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of learners or to overcome comprehension failures The use of suitable language learning strategies can improve proficiency and greater self-confidence

In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and at the People’s Security Academy (PSA) in particular, reading has always

been attracted a great deal of attention both from the teachers and the students Reading

is regarded as an important skill to the students because these students need to read a lot

of English books and documents to support their professional studies Having taught English majored students at PSA for several years, I am aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading ability Therefore, I conducted a survey research on their use of reading strategies Based on the findings, I worked out some solutions to improve PSA students' reading proficiency

2 Aim of the study

The major purpose of this study is to identify the reading strategies utilized by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA

In order to achieve the above the aim of the study, the following major research question was addressed:

What are the reading strategies employed by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy?

3 Significance of the study

The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of reading strategies research at the PSA It helps give a detailed description of reading strategies used by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA More importantly, the findings of their reading strategies can help teachers to understand more about their students and they can serve as the foundation for some recommendations on how to improve the

students' reading proficiency They are also an important basis for reading strategies based instruction to be implemented in the future

4 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aim mentioned above, the present study utilized survey research with two instruments the questionnaire for 35 fourth-year English-majored students of class AV41 and interviews for 4 teachers to collect data on the students’ reading strategies

The questionnaire designed as a means to make the researcher’s evaluation more objective was developed and given to 35 fourth-year English-majored students of class AV41

The interviews were conducted among four teachers who have been teaching reading for 4th-year English-majored students to obtain their perceptions, comments and evaluation toward the matter under investigation

After the data was analyzed and discussed, some conclusions were drawn, and

some suggestions were raised in the thesis

5 Scope of the study

The present study investigated “the use of reading strategies when reading ESP

by 4 th -year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy” The study of

learning strategies in other English skills was beyond the scope

6 Organization of the study

The study is divided into three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

Part I: Introduction includes the rationale, scope, aims, significance, methods and organization of the study

Part II: Development consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the literature relevant to the topic of research and summarizes some selected studies on reading strategies, which serve as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the study

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology of the study It provides information about the participants, the research method, the instrumentation, the data collection procedures and data analysis

Chapter 3 presents the results of the study, analyzes the data

Part III: Conclusion summarizes the findings, presents the implications and limitations of the study and finally gives some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews theories related to language learning strategies in general and reading strategies in particular It also summarizes current research on reading strategies that have been conducted so far All of these serve as a basis for an investigation into reading strategies which is carried out and presented in the next chapter

1.1 Language learning strategies

1.1.1 Definitions

Over the last two decades, the study of learning strategies has seen as "explosion

of activity" (Ellis, 1994) with the contributions of such well-known researchers as Tarone (1981), O' Malley and Chamot (1990), Oxford (1990) and Cohen (1998) These studies have helped figure out a comprehensive overview of learning strategies

Although research on learning strategies is becoming increasingly popular, there have been some considerable differences in the definition of learning strategies in the literature Tarone (1981: 295) claims that "Learning strategy is an attempt to develop linguistic and sociolinguistic competence in the target language" Learning strategies, according to Weinstein and Mayer (1986) (in O' Malley and Chamot 1990), have learning facilitation as a goal and are intentional on the part of the learner The goal of strategy use is to "affect the learner's motivational or affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge." (Weinstein and Mayer, cited in O' Malley and Chamot 1990, 1986: 43) These definitions are too general in comparison to the complex nature of learning strategies

Oxford (1990:5) defines learning strategies as "specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations" This definition is judged to be quite comprehensive as it not only covers the cognitive but also the affective aspects of learning strategies (i.e to increase enjoyment in learning) However, Oxford's definition

is not sufficient in the sense that it regards learning strategies as "specific actions", i.e learning strategies are behavioral, and therefore, they are mostly observable However, many studies in this field have shown that learning strategies are difficult to observe as they are not only behavioral

The definition that has been widely accepted to date was proposed by O' Malley and Chamot (1990) According to them, learning strategies are "the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information" (O' Malley and Chamot, 1990: 1) In spite of being quite short, their definition covers the most important aspects of learning strategies, that is learning strategies are both mental and behavioral (therefore both observable and unobservable), and learning strategies are individually characterized (i.e every learner's strategies are different) Because of its comprehensive features, the present study utilized this definition as the key direction in its investigation

1.1.2 The importance of learning strategies

When commenting on the role of learning strategies, Weinstein and Mayer (in O' Malley and Chamot 1990) say that learning facilitation is the goal of learning strategies, which are intentional on the part of the learner The goal of learning strategy use is to

"affect the learner's motivational or affective state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge." (Weinstein and Mayer cited in O' Malley and Chamot, 1990: 43)

Oxford (1990), one of the leading teachers and researchers in language learning strategies field, also gives her own evaluation on learning strategies: "strategies are especially important for language learning because they are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence" (Oxford, 1990: 1)

As a teacher of English, my strong belief is that "It takes better teachers to focus

on the learner" (Peter Strevens, cited in Oxford, 1990: 193) and "We cannot teach another directly; we can only facilitate his learning (Carl Rogers, cited in Oxford, 1990: 193) The current approach that is encouraged to be taken to teach English in our

country in general and in our own language setting in particular is communicative language teaching in which learners are central to the learning process Helping learners

to be independent during their learning process is a task of every teacher To gain this aim, one of the suggestions is that learners should be equipped various strategies so that they control their own learning process confidently and independently

1.1.3 Classification of learning strategies

Much of the earlier research (Rubin 1981; Stern 1975; Naiman 1978) focused on compiling inventories of the learning strategies that learners were observed to use or reported to use

Rubin (1981) proposes a classification scheme that subsumes learning strategies under two primary groupings and a number of subgroups Rubin's first primary category, consisting of strategies that directly affect learning, includes clarification/verification, monitoring, memorization, guessing/inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning and practice The second category, consisting of strategies that contribute indirectly to learning, includes creating practice opportunities and using production tricks such as communication strategies An alternative classification scheme proposed by Naiman (1978) contains five broad categories of learning strategies and a number of secondary categories The primary classification includes

an active task approach, realization of language as a means of communication and interaction, management of affective demands and monitoring of second language performance

Subsequent descriptive studies have endeavored to identify broad classes of learning strategies, under which a large number of more specific strategies can be grouped The works by Wenden (1983), Oxford (1990), O'Malley and Chamot (1990) have made an important contribution to our knowledge of learning strategies Wenden's (1983) research examines the strategies that adult foreign language learners use in order

to direct their own learning She identifies three general categories of self-directing strategies: (1) knowing about language (relating to what language and language learning involves), (2) planning (relating to what and how of language learning), and (3) self-

evaluation (relating to progress in learning and learner's response to the language experience) Wenden's framework devises as a basic for learner training

Oxford (1990) builds on the earlier classifications with the aim of subsuming within her taxonomy virtually every strategy previously mentioned in the literature Oxford (1990) draws a general distinction between direct and indirect strategies The former consists of memory, cognitive and compensation strategies while the later includes metacognitive, affective and social strategies However, Oxford's classification

of learning strategies is somewhat complicated and confusing as she treats compensation strategies as a direct type of learning strategies and memory strategies as separate ones from cognitive strategies

Perhaps, the framework that has been most useful and generally accepted is O'Malley and Chamot (1990)'s In O'Malley and Chamot's framework, three major types

of strategies are distinguished in accordance with the information processing model, on which their research is based Metacognitive strategies are "higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring or evaluating the success of learning activity" (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 44) Cognitive strategies "operate directly on incoming information, manipulating it in ways that enhance learning" (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 44) The last subtypes of these strategies presented in Table 1 were identified by O'Malley and Chamot on the basis of their several descriptive studies on learning strategies used by second language learners

Directed attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and to

ignore irrelevant distracters

Functional Planning for and rehearsing linguistic components necessary to carry

planning out an outcoming task

Selective attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often by

scanning for key words, concepts and/or linguistic markers Self-management Understanding the conditions that help one learn and arranging for the

presence of those conditions

Monitoring

Self-monitoring Checking one's comprehension during listening or reading or checking

the accuracy and/or appropriateness of one's oral or written production while it is taking place

Evaluation

Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's own language against a standard after

it has been completed

Deduction Applying rules to understand or produce the second language or

making up rules based on language analysis

Imagery Using visual images (either mental or actual) to understand or

remember new information

Auditory

representation

Planning back in one's mind the sound of a word, phrase or longer language sequence

Key word method Remembering a new word in the second language by: (1) identifying a

familiar word in the first language that sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word, and (2) generating easily recalled images of some relationship with the first language homonym and the new word

in the second language

Elaboration Relating new information to prior knowledge, relating different parts

or new information to each other, or making meaningful personal associations with the new information

Transfer Using previous linguistic knowledge or prior skills to assist

comprehension or production

Differencing Using available information to guess the meanings of new items,

predict outcomes or fill in missing information

Note taking Writing down key words or concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or

numerical form while listening or reading

Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language sequence by

combining known elements in a new way

Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding and/or producing

the second language

Cooperation Working together with one or more peers to solve a problem, pool

information, check a learning task, model a language activity, or get feedback on oral or written performance

Self-talk Reducing anxiety by using mental techniques that make one feel

competent to do the learning task

Table 1: Learning strategy definition and classification

(O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119)

This classification of learning strategies is comprehensive and sufficient and it is applicable to learning strategy studies on four English disciplines Therefore, the current study will adopt O'Malley and Chamot's classification of learning strategies as the theoretical framework for investigation

1.2 Reading

1.2.1 Definitions of reading

For many foreign language or second language learners, reading is a very important skill Concerning the role of reading, Anderson (1999:3) confirms that "the more exposure a student has to language through reading, the greater the possibilities that overall language proficiency will increase"

Reading plays such a significant part in the success of second language learning and it is essential to understand what reading really is However, the act of reading is not completely understood nor easily described In a general term, (Anderson, 1999:1) defines reading as "an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning" This definition of reading has been generally shared by other researchers

According to Rumelhart (1977), reading involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the reader and text Aebersold and Field (1997:15) share the same view on reading: "Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in that text The text and the reader are the two physical entities necessary for the reading process to start It is, however, the interaction between the text and the reader that constitutes the actual meaning"

The above-mentioned views on reading are only general ones In order to understand more about the nature of reading, it is necessary to take a closer look at the actual process that really takes place in the reader's mind So far, several models have been proposed to describe this process The next section is going to present these models of reading and discuss their strengths and weaknesses

1.2.2 Models of reading

Up to now, attempts to describe the interaction between reader and text have been numerous and different views of the reading process have been proposed These

views are often grouped under three different reading models named the bottom-up, the

top-down and the interactive ones

1.2.2.1 Bottom-up model

According to Nunan, (1991), bottom-up model of second language reading was viewed as the process of meaning interpretation in which the language is translated from

one form of symbolic representation to another In other words, in the bottom-up reading model, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom) and constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then processes the text in a linear fashion The coming data from the text must be received before the high level mental storage of understanding transform and recode the data

However, this model reveals several shortcomings in describing the actual reading process An important weak point of this model, as pointed out by Samuel and Kamil (1988: 31), is "the lack of feedback, in that no mechanism is provided to allow for processing stages which occur later in the system to influence processing which occurs earlier in the system Because of the lack of feedback loops in the early bottom-

up models, it was difficult to account for sentence-context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension." Because of this drawback, and together with the advent of Goodman's top-down view of reading, many researchers were not in favor of the bottom-up model

1.2.2.2 Top-down model

In this model, reading was seen as the process in which readers move from the top, the higher level of mental stages down to the text itself The readers prove their active role in the reading process by bringing to the interaction their available knowledge of the subject, knowledge of and expectation about how language works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text (Goodman, 1988)

According to Ur (1996:138), “reading means reading and understanding” and according to Anderson (1999:1), “reading is not a passive process but an active fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning” Just like bottom-up models, top-down models do have some limitations These models "tend

to emphasize such higher-level skills as the prediction of meaning by means of context clues or certain kinds of background knowledge at the expense of such lower skills as the rapid and accurate identification of lexical and grammatical form That is, in making the perfectly valid point that fluent reading is primarily a cognitive process, they tend to deemphasize the perceptual and decoding dimensions of that process" (Eskey, 1988:93)

Due to the above limitations of both bottom-up and top-down models, a new and more insightful model of reading process has been proposed by Rumelhart (1977), and

Eskey (1988) under the name of interactive model

1.2.2.3 Interactive model

Because the interactive model combines elements of both bottom-up and down approaches, using that "a pattern is synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources" (Stanovich, 1980:35), it is accepted by most researchers and teachers (Hudson T., 1998)

top-Eskey (1988) defines the interactive model as a reading model that "posits a constant interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each source of information contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text" (Eskey, 1988: 94) According to this view, good readers are regarded as "both good decoders and good interpreters of texts, their decoding skills become more automatic but no less important as their reading skill develops" (Eskey, 1988: 94) Eskey also believed that to achieve both fluency and accuracy in reading, developing readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies In other word, good reading - that is, fluent and accurate reading - can result only from a constant interaction between these two processes

Therefore, it is generally agreed that the interactive model is the best one that can truly reflect the reading process that takes place in the reader's mind In this process, the reader constantly shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes and he can not be successful in reading comprehension without either of these two processes As this study focuses on reading strategies, the next part is going to summarize some outstanding studies on reading strategies that have been carried out

1.3 Reading strategies

1.3.1 Definition of reading strategies

Reading strategies have been studied by many researchers Reading strategies are

of interest for what they reveal about the way the readers manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension

As mentioned earlier, research in second language learning suggests that learners use a variety of strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information Brantmeier (2002) defined reading strategies as "the comprehension processes that readers use in order to make sense of what they read" (Brantmeier, 2002:1) This process may involve skimming, scanning, guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting, activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references and separating main ideas from supporting ones (Barnett, 1988) Obviously, some strategies may be more useful than others with different types of reading texts and tasks

Based on O'Malley and Chamot's (1990), reading strategies can be understood as the special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to help them to comprehend, learn and retain new information from the reading text These strategies are both observable and unobservable and individually different According to O'Malley and Chamot's (1990), reading strategies can be classified into three main types including metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies

1.3.2 Review of reading strategies research

A considerable number of studies examine the comprehension strategies that second language readers utilize to process a text In these studies, the participants are quite diverse, some from elementary, secondary and university levels, some from remedial reading classes and others enrolled in courses taught at non-university language centres Obviously, the participants are of many different ages and backgrounds Furthermore, the investigators use a variety of research method and tasks

to examine strategy type and frequency of strategy use including think-aloud reports, interviews, questionnaires, observations and written recalls (Brantmeier 2002:1)

Second language reading research started to concentrate on reading strategies in the late 1970s and early 1980s Several studies – often exploratory, descriptive investigations with small numbers of individual learners, and using think-aloud

techniques One of the earliest pieces of research on individual learners' reading strategies was conducted by Hosenfeld (1984) who examined successful and unsuccessful readers using think-aloud protocols Participants were ninth grade students learning French Hosenfeld (1984: 233) found out that the successful readers used the following kinds of strategies: keep the meaning of the passage in mind; read in broad phrases; skip inessential words; guess from context the meaning of unknown words; have a good self-concept as a reader On the other hand, unsuccessful readers translated sentences and lost the general meaning of the passage, rarely skipped words or looked

up unknown words in a glossary and had a poor concept as a reader While these results clearly described the strategies the students used to process the text, they did not link the strategy use to comprehension of specific paragraphs or to text as whole The data only focused on sentence level comprehension so the results of the study did not reveal overall comprehension of the entire text

Sarig (1987) investigated the contribution of L1 reading strategies and L2 language proficiency to L2 reading, as well as the relationship between L1 and L2 reading strategies Sarig's subjects were 10 female native Hebrew readers who were studying English as a foreign language Sarig classified the data from think-aloud reports into four general types of behaviors or responses: (1) technical aids, (2) clarification and simplification, (3) coherence detection and (4) monitoring moves Sarig's results revealed that subjects transferred strategies from L1 reading to L2 reading and that the same reading strategy types "accounted for success and failures in both languages to almost the same extent" (Sarig, 1987: 118) Top-down, global strategies led to both successful and unsuccessful reading comprehension The two language dependent strategies, the clarification and simplification strategies contributed

to unsuccessful reading comprehension in both L1 and L2 Results also indicated that most of the strategies used during the reading comprehension process were particular to each reader or that each individual read differently and used a different combination of strategies These results do not duplicate Block's (1986) where global strategies led to successful (not unsuccessful) reading comprehension

Barnett (1988) investigated the relationships among reading strategies and perceived strategies use on reading comprehension in a two-part study, the first looking

at strategy use, and the second looking at the effect of a teaching intervention designed

to help students develop more effective reading strategies before, during, and after reading The subjects were 272 college level students in fourth-semester French classes The reading strategy training focused on skimming, scanning, guessing, and predicting She used “text-level” and “word-level” coding scheme Barnett concluded that students who were taught strategy use did show a greater ability to read through context than did their more traditionally taught peers The students also increased their self-perception of effective strategies use Moreover, the treatment group had significantly higher scores for strategy use Nevertheless, the groups did not differ in term of perceived strategy use

as well as their comprehension scores This finding may show the importance of quality and intensity of the strategy instruction

Some studies have shown that better readers are also better strategy users Carrell (1989) for example, conducted a study to investigate the metacognitive awareness of second language reader strategies in both their first and second language and the relationship between this awareness and their comprehension Her first group of subjects was native Spanish speakers of intermediate and high-intermediate levels studying English as a second language at a university level institute Her second group consisted of native English speakers learning Spanish as a foreign language in first, second and third-year courses Carrell first asked subjects to read two texts, one in L1 and one in L2 She controlled for content schemata as both texts were on a general topic

of language The subjects answered multiple choice comprehension questions about the text followed by a strategy use questionnaire Carrell correlated strategy use with comprehension and concluded that the ESL readers of more advanced proficiency level perceived "global" or top-down strategies as more effective With the Spanish as a L2 group, she found that at the lower proficiency levels, subjects used more bottom-up or

"local" strategies

The last study mentioned here was conducted by Block (1992) He investigated the comprehension monitoring process used by first and second language readers of English The subjects were 25 college freshmen and consisted of proficient and non-proficient readers of English While reading an expository text, the participants were asked to think aloud or more specifically, to "say everything they understood and everything they were thinking as they read each sentence" (Block, 1992: 323) The results indicated that when facing a vocabulary problem, proficient ESL readers used background knowledge, decided on whether the word contributed to the overall meaning of the passage, reread the sentence and used syntactic clues The meaning-based strategies are classified as global behaviors On the other hand, non-proficient ESL readers focused on identifying lexical problems and did little to figure out the meaning of the words

From the above findings of research in reading strategies, it becomes clear that there are indeed differences between successful or good readers and less successful or poor readers in terms of strategy use Overall, more proficient readers combine both top-down and bottom-up strategies in reading but tend to use more top-down strategies than bottom-up ones Although this list is not prioritized or complete, it helps provide a description of the characteristics of successful readers and serves as an important foundation for more research into reading

However, a gap that can be found in these studies on reading strategies is that few researchers have attempted to classify reading strategies into a more comprehensive scheme except for top-down and bottom-up strategies (or global or local strategies) That is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge by using O'Malley and Chamot's scheme to classify the reading strategies used by the 4th-year English majors at the PSA As mentioned earlier, this scheme was developed by O'Malley and Chamot's (1990) based on their several descriptive studies on learning strategies in four English skills It can reflect the actual reading process as it contains both top-down and bottom-

up strategies within its categories The top-down strategies included in this scheme are elaboration, transfer, inferencing and summarizing The bottom-up strategies are

grouping, deduction, recombination, key word methods and translation In addition, there are metacognitive strategies that involve executive processes in planning for reading, monitoring comprehension and evaluating how well one has achieved a reading activity Therefore, this classification framework is quite comprehensive and applicable

to examining reading strategies In this study, the PSA subjects' reading strategies are classified according to this scheme

1.4 Summary

This chapter not only provides an overview of background to the study, including key concepts and theories relating to the research topic (learning strategies in general and reading strategies in particular) but also discusses previous studies of this field to reveal the research gap which needs filling The next chapter is the study on reading strategies used by the PSA students, which has been conducted in the light of the theories discussed above

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

Introduction

Chapter 3 presents the methodology applied in the study including the context of teaching and learning reading strategies to English majors, problem formulation, participants, plan of action, instrumentation and the procedure of data collection and data analysis In addition, it provides justifications for the selection of research methods

2.1 The context of teaching and learning reading skill to English majors at the PSA

This study was conducted at the PSA, where the author is teaching The

Academy has been in operation for sixty-seven years Unlike other universities under

Ministry of Public Security, the PSA has two kinds of students: non-English-majors and English-majors Therefore, the aims of the two curriculums are different Non-English-majored students are expected to be fluent in English communication meanwhile it is compulsory for English-major students to master English both spoken and written in order to meet the needs of their later work Both non-English-major and English-major courses in the university last five years

The learning materials for English-majored students in the first two years are designed by teachers of English from Foreign Languages Department A large number

of students come from different parts and provinces of the country where English is belittled, and they have few opportunities to get a full access to the learning of English four skills Consequently, this learning stage mainly focuses on the development of four skills in order to help students get a general background of English proficiency From the third year, English-majored students concentrate on other specialized subjects such

as Linguistics, Lexicology, British Literature, Cross Culture and Translation Especially,

in the last two years, they will learn English for special purpose (ESP) textbook The ESP materials for English-majored students, which are designed by teachers of English from Foreign Languages Department, focus on special vocabulary as well as translation

and interpretation development At the end of the course, the English proficiency levels

of English-majors are expected to be advanced

The present study was conducted from mid February to mid May when the participants were in the second semester of the fourth year Up to the time of the study, they had been studying English at the university for nearly 4 years with 2 reading periods per week (nearly 90 periods) They had been learning some books including

“Mosaic 1, 2 – Reading” by Brenda Wegmann - MikiKnezewic, “Interactions 1, 2 – Reading” by Elaine Kirn – Pamela Hartmann, Improve IELTS reading skills by Barry Cusack Sam McCarter, Toefl reading and some other materials adapted to suit their proficiency levels such as American Headway 5, New Headway - advanced All of the textbooks and materials aim to provide these students with basic knowledge of English and skills which serves as a foundation for the ESP course to be delivered in the fourth year

2.2 Participants

The participants of this study are 35 fourth-year English-majored students whose English proficiency is upper-intermediate and 4 teachers of English at the PSA While the first group was involved in the questionnaire, the latter asked for in-depth information in semi-structured interviews

2.2.1 Students

The target population of this study was 35 fourth-year English-majors at the PSA including 28 males and 7 females taking part in this study due to the fact that there is only one English-majored class for each course The class met once a week, for two hours each time, for 15 weeks There were only five students from Hanoi and the rest were from other provinces in the country Most of them were 22 years old (33 students), only one was 23, and only one was 21 Most of them have been learning English for at least ten years (i.e from lower secondary) Table 2 summarized the background information about the participants such as gender, age, and number of years studying

Total

number of

Gender Age (years) Number of years studying English

Male Female 21 22 23 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

The four teachers are varied in terms of gender and teaching experience The youngest aged 27 teaches English for four years while the oldest aged 55 with 33 years

of teaching All of these teachers teach English-majored classes However, only one teacher is being in charge of the class under investigation

There are some reasons for choosing these students and teachers as the participants of this study Firstly, concerning the students, they finished more than three years studying general and advanced English Hence, they have had knowledge about reading skill as well as reading strategies and relatively ready to use them in reading English materials for public security Secondly, concerning the teachers, the training quality of these students is always of great concern to both authority and teachers at the PSA since new teaching methods have been applying for them Consequently, the findings of the study would provide essential information for teachers to improve PSA students’ reading proficiency and make contributions to enhancing the overall training

of these students

2.3 Instruments

The present study utilized survey research with two instruments: a questionnaire for 35 English-majors and interviews for four teachers of English at the PSA to collect data on the use of students’ reading strategies and attitudes towards the importance of reading strategies

2.3.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire including 20 questions was designed as a mean to make the researcher’s evaluation more objective and was developed and given to 35 fourth-year English-majored students The questionnaire was described as follows:

The questionnaire for students (see Appendix 1) included three main parts The first part asked students to give information about their names, genders, ages, and the numbers of years studying English The second part required the subjects to answer three questions about the importance of reading strategy, assessment of reading speed, the role of such factors as vocabulary, grammar, knowledge of lessons, effective methods The last part contained 20 questions mainly about the subjects’ perception of reading strategies

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to facilitate students’ understanding

as well as to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the questions The items

in the questionnaire were both close and open-ended in format, allowing respondents not only to select one from among a limited number of responses but also to reply in their own words Furthermore, difficult terminologies were simplified and clarified in the process of translation to aid students’ comprehension of each questions To ensure the validity of the questionnaire, the questions were reviewed by three individuals who had experience in teaching and conducting research studies

2.3.2 Interviews

The semi-structured interviews were conducted among four teachers who taught reading for 4th-year English-majored students at the PSA The interviews consisted of two parts, namely personal information and interview questions The face-to-face interviews aimed at investigating teachers’ perception, and evaluation toward the matter under investigation on English majors in reading class Thereby, the opinions and comments of the teachers helped the researcher anticipate the problem and implement some modifications in teaching reading The interviews were made in Vietnamese due

to the preference of all respondents This choice of language did not threaten the reliability of the data but avoid any misunderstanding between interviewees and

interviewers The result of the interviews was part of the database which the researcher used to make modifications

2.4 Data collection procedures

The results of the study were developed on the basis of empirical data collected through questionnaires and interviews The data collection procedures commenced in early March and ended in mid May 2013 All of the procedures involved the following

steps

Firstly, a questionnaire including 20 questions was developed and given to 35

4th-year English-majored students

Secondly, the interviews were conducted among four teachers to obtain their perceptions, comments and evaluation toward the matter under investigation The results of the interview were used to supplement the data collected from survey questionnaire

The last step was to classify and analyze the data collected from the questionnaire and interviews For the questionnaire, the results and answers to close-ended questions were input into Microsoft Excel and automatically calculated and reported in percentages and frequencies As regards open-ended questions in the questionnaire, contributive information was fully interpreted Meanwhile, the interviews among four teachers were minutely recorded

2.5 Data analysis

2.5.1 Coding of questionnaire data

The first questionnaire included three parts, in which 20 items were reserved for asking about the subjects' reading strategies in the last part These reading strategies were coded into three main types of strategies including metacognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategies Following is the reading strategies coding table used for the questionnaire (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119)

Item 6: I preview the headings and

illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading

Item 2: I skim through the text to understand main ideas of the texts

before focusing on details

Directed

attention

Deciding in advance to attend in general to a learning task and ignore irrelevant distracters

Item 10: Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted

Item 17: I choose reading strategies

according to my reading purposes

Selective

attention

Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects of input, often by scanning for key word, concepts and/or linguistic markers

Item 1: I skip the words that are not essential for comprehending the texts while reading

Item 3: I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions

in order to answer them

Self-monitoring Checking one’s comprehension

during listening or reading, checking the accuracy and/or appropriateness of one’s oral or written production while it is taking place

Item 9: I often check my comprehension during reading or checking the accuracy of the written production while reading

Self-evaluation Checking the outcomes of one's

own language against a standard after it has been completed

Item 5: I check if my answers to the questions are correct or wrong after reading

B Cognitive

strategies

Resourcing Using target language reference

materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, or textbooks

Item 14: I use a dictionary to look up words when encountering a new word while reading

Grouping Classifying words, terminology or

concepts according to their attributes or meaning

Item 8: I can determine the function of a

word in a sentence while reading

Imagery Using visual images (either mental

or actual) to understand or remember new information

Item 4: I use own visual images to

understand or remember a new word, or new information while reading

Transfer Using previous linguistic

knowledge or prior skills to assist comprehension or production

Item 16: I use my knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to help understand difficult parts in reading texts

Elaboration Relating new information to prior

knowledge, relating different parts

of new information to each other,

or making meaningful personal associations with the new information

Item 20: I relate my prior knowledge to the information of the text I am reading

Inferencing Using available information to

guess meanings of new items predict outcomes or fill in missing information

Item 7: I guess meanings of new words using available information

Note taking Writing down key words or

concepts in abbreviated verbal, graphic or numerical form while listening or reading

Item 11: I write down key words while reading

Translation Using the first language as a base

for understanding and/or producing the second language

Item 13: I translate the reading text into Vietnamese to understand it more clearly

Summarizing Making a mental, oral or written

summary of new information gained through listening or reading

Item 12: I mentally summarize the main ideas of the text after reading

Item 19: I ask my teacher or my friends

to explain difficult parts in reading texts

Cooperation Working together with one or

more peers to solve a problem, pool information, check a learning task, model a language activity, or get feedback on oral or written performance

Item 18: I work together with my classmate or friend to solve a problem

in a reading text

Self-talk Reducing anxiety by using mental

techniques that make one feel competent to do the learning task

Item 15: Read aloud when text becomes difficult

Table 3: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories adapted from O'Malley

and Chamot (1990: 119)

2.5.2 Analysis procedures

With the result of survey questionnaire, the researcher worked out the students’ use of reading strategies on English for public security The questions in the questionnaire were analyzed one by one in their strategies use by counting its percent

Based on the data collected from interviews, a lot of truthful information about teachers’ perception and attitude toward the teaching of reading strategies, improvement

of students’ reading competence was provided

The analysis of the data was carried out in statistical procedure Descriptive analysis was used and often reported in frequencies and percentages These descriptive statistics were numbers used to classify, summarize and report the data

All the results collected from two sources were comprehensively analyzed and discussed in the next chapter – Findings and discussion

3.6 Summary

This chapter so far has reported the methodology employed for the study in terms

of the context of teaching and learning reading skill to English majors at the PSA, participants, instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis Firstly, settings

of the study and detailed description of participants were given Then, data collection instruments including questionnaires and interviews were presented in details Finally, coding scheme employed for data analysis was given and statistical procedures were explained