Extensive reading patterns and attitude of EFL adult learners in australia international english center a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of maste

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY Extensive reading patterns and attitude of EFL adult learners in Australia International English Center A thesis sub

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

Extensive reading patterns and attitude of EFL adult learners in

Australia International English Center

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master

of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by TRINH THI NGOC THAM

Supervisor DANG TAN TIN, Ph.D

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text

of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016

Trinh Thi Ngoc Tham

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank such important people for their great help and encouragements

First, I want to express my deepest appreciation to Dr Dang Tan Tin for his guidance and constructive comments during my study He is my great supervisor

Next, I would like to say I am greatly indebted to my teacher- Mr Le Huy Liem for helping me complete my thesis

I also readily acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr Pham Vu Phi Ho for being always supportive and understanding In fact, without him I couldn’t complete my thesis Moreover, I owed my students for their great contribution in the paper

Finally, I do not know how to express my deep gratitude to my parents, grandma and siblings who always stood by me during this hard time, and especially, to my partner who gave me motivation to complete the thesis and to win myself since I nearly gave

up

I am greatly indebted to all lecturers of TESOL program at Ho Chi Minh City Open University for their insightful knowledge which set a solid foundation for me to carry out my thesis

ABSTRACT

Extensive reading (ER) is an approach to teaching and learning a foreign language without looking up unknown words in the dictionary or answering comprehension questions, but aiming to have learners read extensively for pleasure The approach follow strictly Day and Bamford (2002) guideline of having learners choose books and read on their own pace for general comprehension and enjoyment (Day and Bamford 1998; Prowse 1999) It was conducted in the Vietnam context with English as a foreign language (EFL) in Australia International English Center (AIEC) during a period of nine weeks from August 1st to October 3rd in 2015

37 learners (N=37) at intermediate level from 18 to 22 years old who are taking a two-year communication course taught by the researcher in Australia International Center (AIEC) They were invited to join into the extensive reading program At the beginning, the researcher met the participants in her AIEC to discuss the materials and provide reading diary for recording during the treatment time Learners were given instruction to select an easy interesting book, and to read as much as possible, preferably

at least one book a week Keeping and completing the reading diaries in order to submit for the researcher in late of week ninth of the treatment time

The current research aimed at investigating two questions First, what patterns of

ER the learners employ during the period of ER practice Second, do the learners hold

a positive attitude toward ER after their ER practice Three main instruments were used

to collect data to achieve the current research purposes First, reading diary was used to collect data to answer what patterns of ER the learners employ during the period of ER practice Reading diary was considered one of the key instrument to collect dada for such a primarily qualitative research Second, the post experiment questionnaire was delivered and collected after the treatment to gather data to answer if the learners’ hold

a positive attitudes towards ER after their ER practice Third, the in- depth interview was also considered a supplement for the interpretation of the results of the attitude questionnaire The findings suggest four pattern of ER that the learners employed during

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Research aims 3

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 The significance of the study 5

1.5 Scope of the study 6

Chapter 2 Literature review 7

2.1 Theoretical framework 7

2.1.1 Definition of reading skill 7

2.1.1.1 The Bottom-up Reading Model 8

2.1.1.2 The Top-down Reading Model 9

2.1.1.3 The Interactive Reading Model 9

2.1.2 Reading sub-skills used in the study 10

2.1.2.1 Scanning 10

2.1.2.2 Skimming 10

2.1.2.3 Careful reading 10

2.1.2.4 Predicting 10

2.1.3 Extensive Reading 11

2.1.3.1 Definitions of ER 11

2.1.3.2 The nature of ER 11

2.2 Review of related literature 14

2.2.1 Patterns of ER 14

2.2.2 Positive attitudes towards ER 14

2.2.3 Implications for the study 18

2.3 Chapter summary 18

Chapter 3 Methodology 20

3.1 Research context 20

3.2 Participants 21

3.3 Research design 22

3.4 Instructional design 23

3.4.1 Teaching Material: Four Corners 23

3.4.2 Treatment materials: Graded readers 23

3.4.3Training procedure 24

3.5 The measurement instruments 25

3.5.1 Reading diary 25

3.5.2 Post experimental questionnaire 25

3.5.3 The in- depth interview 26

3.6 Methods of analysis 26

3.6.1 Reading diary 27

3.6.2 Post experiment questionnaire 28

3.6.3 The in- depth interview 28

3.7 Data collection 29

3.7.1 Reading diary 29

3.7.2 Post experiment questionnaire 29

3.7.3 The in- depth interview 30

3.8 Summary 30

Chapter 4 Results and Discussion 32

4.1 Result and Discussion regarding Patterns of ER 32

4.1.1 Results regarding Patterns of ER 32

4.1.2 Comparison of the four ER patterns 41

4.1.3 Discussion regarding patterns of ER 45

4.1.4 Summary on the four patterns of ER in the current study 49

4.2 Results and Discussion regarding Attitudes toward ER 50

4.2.1 Results regarding Attitude toward ER 50

4.2.1.1 Results of Attitude Post- Questionnaire 50

4.2.1.2 Results of Attitude In-depth Interview 53

4.2.2 Discussion on Attitude toward ER 58

4.2.3 Summary on Attitude toward ER 61

Chapter 5 Conclusion 64

5.1 Summary of the findings 64

5.2 Contributions of the study 66

5.3 Limitations of the study 66

5.4 Suggestion 66

5.5 Recommendations for further research 68

References……… 69

Appendix A: Post experiment questionnaire 79

Appendix B: Grade Readers used in the study 81

Appendix B1: Graded Readers Learners Selected 85

Appendix C: Reading Diary 88

Appendix C1: A typical reading diary from a learner 89

Appendix C2: Summary of Learners’ Diary in Pattern 1 91

Appendix C3: Summary of Learners’ Diary in Pattern 2 94

Appendix C4: Summary of Learners’ Diary in Pattern 3 97

Appendix C5 : Summary of Learners’ Diary in Pattern 4 99

Appendix D: Results of Post- Questionnaire 102

Appendix E: In- depth Interview 104

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.4 : Data collecting instruments used in the present study 27

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The number of books read during 9 weeks of learners in pattern 1 34

Table 2: The number of books read during 9 weeks of learners in pattern 2 36

Table 3: The number of books read during 9 weeks of learners in pattern 3 38

Table 4: The number of books read during 9 weeks of learners in pattern 4 40

Table 5: The average number of books read per week of learners in four patterns 42

Table 6: Learners’ attitudes toward ER 52

Table 7: The Frequency of positive statements seen in learners’ diaries 61

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: The number of books read among 10 learners in pattern 1 34

Chart 2: The number of books read among 5 learners in pattern 2 36

Chart 3: The number of books read among 10 learners in pattern 3 38

Chart 4: The number of books read among 12 learners in pattern 4 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATION

AIEC: Australia International English Center

EFL : English as a foreign language

ER : Extensive Reading

L1 : First Language

L2 : Second Language

xi

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Rationale of the study

In Vietnam, English, which is viewed as the most dominant foreign language, is

an important subject taught in all educational levels It is also the compulsory subject and the most popular elective subject among several foreign languages since it is regarded as the language for international communication It is also one of the world’s most important languages (Graddol, 2004) Most Vietnamese students, thus, take English as their foreign language subject Moreover, in Vietnam, the national entrance examination focuses much on grammar and reading comprehension therefore studying English in schools is synonymous with learning intensive reading and grammar more than speaking or listening Thus, most Vietnamese teachers who teach English focus their teaching on reading, grammar and reading comprehension more than speaking In other words, reading is the most important among the four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – since students have more opportunity to read in English than to use that language in spoken communication (Rattanavich 1987: 1) In fact, A reading ability is often all that is needed by learners of EFL (Alderson 1984: 1) According to Waring and Takahashi (2000), ER is one of the best solution for learners

at every level of English because:

Extensive Reading can provide wonderful opportunities for the learners to revise what they have done in class by reading lots of simple text at their own reading ability level A huge advantage of having an Extensive Reading program is that it does not take up much class-time, because the reading practice is done out of class

Waring and Takahashi (2000: 2) Even though researchers in Singapore, Thailand and many countries in Asia have paid attention to ER as an effective approach for teaching and learning to read because many researchers asserted that the more students expose in ER, the more they develop their language knowledge (Nation, 1997:31) since ER builds vocabulary and improve reading comprehension, spelling, grammar usage and writing (Cho and Krashen 1994,

necessary to conduct studies on ER use Vietnamese learners subjects to figure out ER patterns used in reading and their attitude toward ER to lay the foundation for further studies on ER in Vietnam

In addition, one of the big problems among the EFL learners in Vietnam is the lacking of reading habit In fact, a recent statistic of Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism reveals that a Vietnamese read 0.8 book a year, on average Consequently, a question raising to many teachers is that how to foster reading among EFL adult learners and how to inspire them the love for reading Given this problem, it is of interest to study about ER patterns and attitude of EFL adult learners in Australia International English Center with expectation to foster reading habit among EFL leaners in the language center Teacher’s job is to help students learn to read by themselves because teacher cannot do the reading for them and ER is an effective approach to teach learners

to read by themselves The study was conducted at Australia International English center (AIEC) where the researcher has been working now that most English classes at AIEC do not provide adequate opportunity for students to develop their reading skills Students do not actually read much, either in class or out of class Moreover, the condition of reading is usually controlled by teachers, not students, that is teachers will tell students what, when and how to read This is the typical English teaching performance at AIEC in general and also the typical teaching of English reading in particular, which is taught by translation procedure and focused on intensive reading Consequently, it has not been successful Students have gained knowledge of the language and reading skills acquired in intensive reading but it is not sufficient to improve students’ overall reading ability Therefore, one of the most effective ways to help students improve their English is to provide extensive comprehensible language through reading As Nuttall (1982) stated, go and live among its speakers is the best way to learn a foreign language The next effective way is to read extensively in it since

ER builds vocabulary and improve reading comprehension, spelling, grammar usage and writing (Cho and Krashen 1994)

However, recent studies on ER have not reported the ER patterns the learners employed when experienced ER It is therefore significant to investigate and analyze

the ER patterns in this current research It will provide teachers and researchers in Vietnam more deep understanding about how the learners proceed their reading outside classroom and the way EFL learners respond to ER practice Yet, researchers have paid much attention to learners’ attitude toward ER because attitude may be a decisive factor

to the learners’ decision to read Most of them reported positive attitude toward ER Still , it is rare reports on Vietnamese students’ attitude regarding ER Thus, hopefully, this research will provide more understanding about EFL adult learners attitude toward

ER and pioneer for more studies on ER to foster ER in AEIC and in Vietnam

to EFL learners EFL instruction in many parts of Vietnam is mostly accomplished through a traditional learning model and the grammar-translation method Students are teacher-dependent and book-dependent Thus, to the researcher’s best knowledge, this current study is one of rare studies in Vietnam to introduce ER as a practice in EFL classroom settings in a language center with adult learners subjects However, there is

a fact that Vietnamese EFL learners have studied English for many years since kindergarten or primary schools but their English proficiency is rather low This may

is devoted to learning about the language, that is learning grammar and learning to read through translation Learners are taught in a traditional way They approach their reading assignment by putting all of their effort and concentration into the passages they read They carefully read the passage word by word When reading and encountering

an unfamiliar word, they stop reading and look up the meaning of the word in a dictionary This reading behavior not only slows down their reading speed, but also hinders their reading comprehension (Nuttall, 1982)

In this regard, ER is one of the best solutions to solve the problem above In this present research, learners have opportunity to self- select reading easy and interesting graded readers, read without anxiety for comprehension questions, read without looking

up for unknown words in the dictionary The first purpose of this paper is to investigate what patterns of extensive reading the learners employ during 9-week-exposure in ER the fluctuation of reading amount every week, the feeling when reading independently outside classroom, their sense of achievement and the reasons for pause or stop reading will be recorded to provide data for analyzing Investigation of the ER patterns is supposed to provide teachers in AIEC a general understanding of how EFL adult learners proceed their ER outside classroom in the context of rare research on ER in Vietnam The criteria to identify the reading patterns will be explained clearly in chapter

4 Moreover, with an intention to bring ER closer to all learners of English in AIEC, it

is necessary to investigate students’ attitudes towards reading after their ER practice It

is hoped that the findings and suggestions in this present research will provide more ideas for enhancing the experiences for both leaners and teachers who use extensive reading as part of their language learning and teaching and especially love to read among EFL learners in AIEC Hence, the study seeks to investigate

1) Patterns of ER the learners employ during the period of ER practice

2) Learners’ attitude toward ER after their ER practice

1.3 Research questions

The following research questions are formulated to achieve the above objectives

1) What patterns of ER do the learners employ during the period of ER practice?

2) Do the learners hold a positive attitude toward ER after their ER practice?

1.4 The significance of the study

This extensive reading program seeks to investigate ER patterns and attitude of EFL adult learners in Australia International English Center The researcher hypothesize that the participants will hold a positive attitude toward ER after their ER practice

Besides its contribution to the limited Vietnamese literature on using ER on teaching and learning by pioneering in introducing and applying the ER approach, which is quite unfamiliar to Vietnamese teachers and learners, to foster reading ability into Vietnamese educational context Particularly, the study has a great contribution to AIEC, its teachers, and its learners

To begin with, the ER approach has certain contributions to AIEC in the efforts

of creating an environment for EFL learners to practice English In fact, a lot of seminars and workshops for enhancing teaching and learning English have been conducted quite frequently in AIEC Thus, this research is the key to open a new window for researches about this matter Hopefully, this study will bring the bright light for the school’s education Then, the school will advantage from students’ contentedness That would contribute to step up the school’s reputation

Most importantly, the ER program take part in rising teachers and learners’ awareness of reading in the target language outside classroom Teachers may pay more attention for ER and consider it as a supplemental choice for homework Teachers can also build good rapport with learners by reading and discussing the stories together Students will enjoy reading more and make themselves join in the reading activities when the reading materials touch their needs and interests and especially when they have the real feeling of self-engagement in the lessons It is undeniable that teachers’ encouragement is also significant to learners to read learners’ attitudes towards reading will create great motivation for teachers to stand firm and be non-stop creative in their

Last but not least, once the learners read extensively in English outside classroom, they have chance to expose in the language and study it naturally as the way the native speakers learn the language Hopefully, they will find graded readers interesting to read and maintain reading and form good reading habit Usually, EFL learners found reading

is boring or challenging, especially in English; hence, it’s crucial when learners realize graded readers are enjoyable and easy Moreover, learners are likely to use their spare time more properly once they enjoy ER

For those reasons above, it draws a necessity to introduce ER approach to students

at AIEC in order to foster teaching and learning English in general and reading in particular

1.5 Scope of the study

The scope of this research is defined as an investigation into ER in AIEC Therefore, the study is limited to the context of AIEC The subjects in the study involve

37 Vietnamese undergraduate students enrolled in an two-year English Communication Course which focus on 4 skills at Australia International English Center (AIEC) The students come from different universities in Ho Chi Minh City The attitude post- questionnaire as well as the in- depth interview were conducted by the researcher to investigate learners’ attitude toward ER after their ER practice Moreover, the ER patterns the learners employed during their ER practice were also identified by the reading diaries Since research findings can be interpreted differently in different contexts, the research tools involved should help to reveal the scope of the study which will be presented in chapter 3 and the extent of the implications which will be discussed

in chapter 4

Chapter 2 Literature review

This chapter sheds some light on previous studies in order to build the general theory in the studied field It also deals with such kinds of questions as follow: Why is the subject of this study important? Who else thinks that this study is important? Who has done something similar study? or what are the gaps in the research? (Murray, 2002: 115) The chapter first give some general view of the theoretical framework of the research, the definitions and nature of ER and finally the review of related literature to figure out the gaps for the current research

2.1 Theoretical framework

2.1.1 Definition of reading skill

Reading is always considered as a fundamental skill to learn a foreign language Many researchers believe that reading is the most important among the four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing since students have more opportunity

to read in English than to use that language in spoken communication (Rattanavich 1987: 1) In fact, reading skill is necessary to acquire a language since its positive impacts on the other skills involve listening, speaking and writing in term of spelling, vocabulary knowledge, colloquial expression, vocabulary size, word recognition, grammar, fluency, etc, (Leung, 2002; Asraf and Ahmad, 2003; De Morgado, 2009; Benettayeb,2010; Tamrackitkun, 2010)

Reading can be regarded as a process of interaction between a reader and a text

in which that reader construct meaning pre, while and after reading by using his possessive knowledge to decode the information taken from a text In other word, reading is also called an interactive process between the reader and the writer in which the reader interact with a message to understand the message of the passage and then to

decode (Goodman, 1973)

Grabe (1991) believed that reading is a complex cognitive process while Johnston (1983) assumed it is a complex behavior It is because reading requires the reader not

many times to be familiar with it (Birch, 2014) Johnston (1983, as cited in Tamrackitkun; 2010) also added that the using of these different strategies can be conscious or unconscious to build a model of the meaning that the writer want to convey.

Mention to the model of the meaning is mention to three popular "models" which are used to explain for the nature of reading in a foreign learning First, bottom-up model which is also called data driven since it emphasizes the reader’s ability to decode the words which are seen in the text without understanding the entire text Second, top-down processing model, which requires the reader a background knowledge to comprehend a reading passage The third model is the combination between top-down and bottom-up processing models called interactive model (Grabe and Stoller, 2013, as cited in Dentisak, 2010)

2.1.1.1 The Bottom-up Reading Model

Bottom-up model which is also called data driven since it emphasizes the reader’s ability to decode the words which are appeared in the text without understanding the entire text Simply, it happened when a learner is unfamiliar with the text topic and has

to use his knowledge of the vocabulary in the reading text to comprehend a text (Mikulecky, 1990: 3) In other word, the bottom-up model suggests that comprehension the whole text processes from meaning of single printed words in that text As Nunan viewed:

[…] These letters or graphemes are matched with The Phonemes

of the language Theses phonemes, the minimal units of meaning

in the sound system of Language are blended together to form

words The derivation of meaning is thus the end of process in

which language is translated from one represent action to another

(Nunan, 1991:64)

It means that comprehension is achieved after the process of decoding the letter, encoding the sound and then build the text meaning (Dentisak, 2010) However, many

researchers argue that bottom-up model results in slow and laborious reading due to the overloaded short-term memory so that the readers’ tend to forget what they have read right away after finishing their reading (Nuttall, 1996) Alderson (2000) found that low proficiency learners prefer bottom-up processing model than top-down model

2.1.1.2 The Top-down Reading Model

Top-down is different from bottom-up model that readers bases more on their existing knowledge rather than what is written in the text (Smith, 2004) The idea is in line with Chinwonno (2001) that the readers’ guessing from context, predictions, getting the main idea and their background knowledge are the decisive elements in their reading comprehension Hence, top-down reading model is applied much in L1 and L2 English teaching to foster learners’ guessing from context, predictions and getting the main idea In the reading process, readers engaged in a cyclic process of making guesses about the writer’s message and checking the text to reject or confirm the cues, based on the contextual clues (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983, as cited in Dentisak, 2010)

2.1.1.3 The Interactive Reading Model

The interactive reading model is viewed as the most sufficient in reading

comprehension since it is “an integration of top-down processes that utilize background knowledge and schema , as well as bottom-up processes that are primarily text or data driven ” (Richards, 1990:77) Grabe (1991) believed that the term “interactive” comes

from the concept of the readers achieve the comprehension a half from the given knowledge in the reading text and a half from their own prior knowledge (Barnett 1989,

as cited in Tamrackitkun; 2010) It means that “while reading, readers actively combine their bottom-up processes, for example, the ability to decode and recognize words and grammatical forms with their top-down processes, such as using background knowledge to predict and confirm meaning” (Dentisak, 2010:12) This interaction

between the reader and the text caused interactive reading model the two-way exchange

of information

In sum, a reader usually combine both bottom-up and top-down reading process

out an unknown word’s meaning base on his background knowledge of a known topic and conversely, for those who have knowledge of the vocabulary in the reading text but have no clue of text topic will mainly count on word knowledge to comprehend a text (Mikulecky, 1990: 3)

2.1.2 Reading sub-skills used in the study

There are four main types of learning strategies were used in this current paper to make reading easier, effective enjoyable and self- directed (Oxford, 1990) According

to Oxford (1990) reading strategies here refers to skimming, scanning, careful-reading and predicting techniques that will help learners solve the problems encountered in reading The four strategies are also called sub-skills of reading in English

2.1.2.1 Scanning

Scanning is viewed as a speed-reading technique that a reader use when he need

to get a purposive information such as a specific name or date or number without reading the whole text All a learner need to do is move his eyes over the text until finding out that information

2.1.2.2 Skimming

Skimming is a useful technique in order to figure out the main ideas in reading comprehension Learner just moving his eyes over a text rapidly to follow the general gist of the text This technique can help learner cover a great deal reading amount in the shortest time

2.1.2.3 Careful reading

This reading strategy is used when a reader need to get detailed information from the a text This will take learner more time than skimming and scanning Learner uses this reading strategy can read more slowly at their own pace or reread many times until

he get completely the information

2.1.2.4 Predicting

Predicting is one of the four sub- skills a reader use when encountering unfamiliar words in a reading text in order to guess the idea of writer’s intention Learner usually

forecast what will be read based on his background knowledge While reading learner then reject or confirm their forecast

2.1.3 Extensive Reading

2.1.3.1 Definitions of ER

Elley (1981) calls extensive reading as ‘book flood’ while Krashen (1993) named

it "Free Voluntary Reading" (FVR) Clarity (2007) defines extensive reading is reading

a lot for pleasure that taking places over a sustained period Moreover, Benettayeb (2010) called ER “rapidly, reading book after book” According to Benettayeb, ER plays a significant role in foreign language learning It provide learners opportunity to expose in the target language outside classroom Davis (1995, as cited in Sheu, 2003) summarized that extensive reading is read pleasurably, at the learner own speed, as many books as possible, without any testing Day and Bamford (2002) further define extensive reading is an approach to language teaching where learner can read many easy materials in the target language and can stop reading if the material is not attracting or not very easy to read However, Sheu (2003) also believes that extensive reading is indispensable means for learners’ to improve their reading ability and enrich knowledge

of the language and the world

2.1.3.2 The nature of ER

Here are the 10 principles of extensive reading of Day and Bamford (2002) that guide the teacher- researcher in this paper:

1) The reading material is easy

Bamford (2002) believe that more than one or two unknown words a page may make the reading text become so difficult for overall understanding So, teacher or researcher keep in mind that there will be no more than five difficult words per page so that the learners can read independently It means that learners must know at least 98%

of the words in a reading text (Day and Bamford, 2002)

2) A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available

The success of extensive reading activities depends mainly on inspiring students the love to read Teacher can interview or ask learners for what they want to read Teacher can encourage learner’s desire to read by providing or giving them source to varied kinds of text such as books, newspapers, magazines, any texts provided that learners are interested (Day and Bamford 2002) Different kinds of reading material can also encourage a flexible approach to reading Students learn to read in different ways (e.g., skimming, scanning, more careful reading) and for different reasons (e.g., , passing the ,intertainment, information) In this case, we appreciate using graded readers

of very famous publishers in the world written for EFL learners In fact, graded readers are so far the best solution for many researchers when conducting an ER program

3) Learners choose what they want to read

Allowing learners to choose what they love to read is the key to extensive reading Learners are free to select what, where and when they want to read However, learners can stop reading if they find the text is too easy, difficult or boring Day and Bamford (2002) believed that when a learner read on his/her own way can encourage that person

to become responsible for their own learning

4) Learners read as much as possible

As noted in Principle 1, the more the learners read the greater benefits they gain Day and Bamford (2002) also believed that a book per week is the minimum amount of reading necessary for learners to achieve the benefits of extensive reading and to form

a good reading habit To do that, teacher can set reading targets for learners like minimum amount of reading is a book a week

5) The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information, and general understanding

Learners are encouraged to read like every day reading in their mother tongue, from entertainment to finding specific information Achievement of one's purpose is more important than a hundred percent of comprehension Indeed, 100%

comprehension is not always the goal Only sufficient understanding to achieve the readers’ purpose is required

6) Reading is its own reward

Obviously, ER is quite different from intensive reading that the learners are not required to do any kinds of comprehension tests with questions after finish reading

7) Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower

It is obvious that reading easy and appropriate-level material a reader may begin

to read faster Another reason is that readers are encouraged against using dictionaries since it interrupts the reading process, causes fluent reading to be impossible Learners are advised skipping the word or guess the meaning in case they encounter with unknown words

8) Reading is individual and silent

ER is also called reading for pleasure so that it is done outside classroom, at home,

on the learners' own time, whenever and wherever they desire to read ER creates a very individual and silent space for reading

9) Teachers orient and guide their students

Carefully giving explanation and instruction the benefits of ER at the beginning

of an ER program is what a teacher should take into consideration since the learners may be unfamiliar to the freedom of making choices in school According to Hitosugi and Day (2004) ER may benefit learners’ vocabulary knowledge as well as reading, writing, and oral fluency Learners must be announced by the teacher about the freedom

to choose easy and appropriate materials to read at whenever and wherever they want without tests or comprehension questions Therefore, the choice of easy materials, self-selection and reading for overall understanding must be discussed clearly

10) The teacher is a role model of a reader

Example is the most powerful instructor, said Hitosugi and Day (2004) It is very beautiful if the teacher read and suggest reading material to individual learners or the teacher and learner read the same material and then discuss together what they read In this way, both teacher and learners create an informal reading community where they experience the value and pleasure of written works together

2.2 Review of related literature

The goal of this section is as its name literature review to describe previous research on EFL extensive reading that provide some general understanding of concepts

of this research This section involves two main parts The first part will be used to review past research which was undertaken to investigate pattern of ER Yet, to the best

of my knowledge, there is no investigation of patterns in ER using reading diary in an

ER program

2.2.1 Patterns of ER

As we mentioned above, this part will review past research which was undertaken to investigate pattern of ER Yet, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, there is no investigation of patterns of ER among EFL adult learners Among the number of studies related to extensive reading, the researchers mainly investigated the effect of extensive reading on EFL learners’ in term of reading comprehension (Krashen, 1993; Lai, 1993; Nation, 1997), gain in vocabulary knowledge (cho & Krashen 1994; Coady 1997; Nation 1997), perception/attitude (Camiciottoli, 2001; Robb & Susser, 1989), grammatical knowledge (Elley, 1991; Elley & Mangubhai, 1983; Tudor & Hafiz, 1989), reading speed (Bell, 2001) but there is no report for pattern

of ER

2.2.2 Positive attitudes towards ER

There are four previous studies on attitudes toward reading in L1 and L2 such as Chiang (2009), Lao and Krashen (2000), Leung (2002), Al-Homoud and Schmitt (2009) and few toward reading in the target language, Asraf and Ahmad (2003), Camiciottoli (2001), Hitosugi and Day (2004) Day and Bamford’s (1998) asserted that attitude is not the only factor affecting motivation to read but it is one of the central components

since good reading attitude increases motivation to read Yamashita (2013) defined reading attitude is an acquired predisposition and it is formed by readers’ individual experiences In her study about effects of extensive reading on reading attitudes she reported that attitude is one of the factors that influence the decision to read and that extensive reading can foster a positive attitude, thereby further enhance learners’ engagement in reading However, McKenna (1994) pointed out that feeling, cognition (thought and belief), and conation (intention for action) are three traditional components

of reading attitude are affected They are served as a foundation for the conceptual development of reading attitude In this paper, we focus most on learners’ cognition (thought) toward extensive reading Under are research findings of positive attitudes toward both reading and the target language as an effect of ER

Camiciottoli (2001) investigated habits and attitudes of a groups of Italian university EFL students toward ER in English A questionnaire was used to administer

to 182 Italian EFL students at the University of Florence The result of the study revealed that even the frequency of reading in English is quite low, attitude towards it

is clearly favorable Moreover, multiple regression analysis was a plus to identify

potentially influential factors Reading in Italian and experience abroad were identified

significantly correspond with students’ reading frequency and attitude The correlation between past access to English books and reading attitude approached the significance level A negative correlation was found instead between the number of years of past English study and reading attitude These findings are useful for defining appropriate instructional actions and identifying areas for further research, with the aim of more effectively promoting extensive reading in English

Asraf and Ahmad (2003) conducted an extensive reading program in three rural secondary or middle schools in Malaysia during a period of four months to motivate students to read extensively in English Asraf and Ahmad hoped the program can help these students deal with their problems in understanding English texts and increase their English proficiency as well They considerately decided the principles of extensive

program The results suggested that extensive reading is really helpful in developing students language proficiency The students did learn the language incidentally and their positive attitudes towards reading were also increased through this longitudinal reading program However, the study also reveal that the success of a reading program depends on factors such as: How teacher motivate students to read; how the program is organized; and how the reading is monitored It also depends on how teachers feel about extensive reading It means that the teacher with positive attitude toward extensive reading can inspire her students to read English books and developed positive attitudes towards reading in English

Hitosugi and Day (2004) successfully incorporated an extensive reading program into a second semester Japanese course at the University of Hawai`i using Japanese children's literature According to the researchers, ten weeks is fairly short to expect significant gains in reading ability in a language but the result is far from their expectation The 14 students read an impressive number of books and did well on a three-part measure of their reading ability Also, it is quite apart from the fact that there was an increase in positive responses on the affective questionnaire from the beginning

to the end of the semester The results of the affective questionnaire displays the differences for both classes in the two administrations of the affective questionnaire The results indicate that the ER students reported a greater overall increase in positive affective responses than the students who followed the regular curriculum Besides, there are many interesting findings drawn from the research For example, the participant who read 53 books told us that she had had little in common with her Japanese-speaking grandmother, who had limited English ability However, this changed dramatically when the grandmother noticed her reading Japanese children books They began to read books together The student said that she developed a much closer relationship with her grandmother as they continued to read together and discuss the books Another example pertains to a student who read 40 books during the program He was initially perceived by the instructor as a marginal student But after the introduction of ER, he blossomed His attitude changed and he became more active

in participating in regular class activities and appeared more confident and comfortable

in class

In 1989, Robb and Susser when compared two classes (one involved in extensive reading and the other still studied with a traditional method focusing on reading skills) discovered that the ER class outperformed the other class in two aspects: interest in homework and perception of the usefulness of writing at home Even though there was

no difference between the two groups Robb and Susser found that the students who were involved in extensive reading program really enjoyed their given homework and revealed positive thinking toward reading

Takase (2003) result in his study to investigated high school EFL students’ motivation to engage in a one-year extensive reading program in Japan The results of questionnaire and interview indicated that the number of the participants think positively toward ER and reading English books They also expressed their self-confidence gaining as a result of taking part in the ER program

Fujita and Noro (2009) investigate the effects of 10-minute extensive reading on the reading speed, comprehension and motivation of Japanese high school EFL learners The learners’ motivation was examined with a 30-item questionnaire at the beginning and the end of ten extensive reading sessions The study found that learners' reading speed is improved significantly but not their reading comprehension Moreover, the construct of reading motivation changed positively after the experience of extensive reading The study also found that higher-ability students tended to enhance their intrinsic motivation (e.g., “I want to broaden my view by reading English books”), whereas lower-ability students read extensively with class-related extrinsic motivation (e.g., “I read English books to pass entrance exams”)

Matsui and Noro (2010) in their study of the effect of 10-minute ER on junior high school students’ EFL reading motivation found that the ER did increase students’ self-confidence This means the self-confidence just appeared in the experimental group

The results of Yamashita’s study in 2013 concurred with Day and Bamford (1998) about the effect of extensive reading on L2 reading attitude that positive feelings fostered through ER indeed enhance the decision to read The proof is that a student in Yamashita’s study who was a great fan of Sherlock Holmes, read all the Sherlock Homes stories in the stock of graded readers, regardless of her linguistic level

2.2.3 Implications for the study

First, a number of studies were conducted with the population of L2 but EFL language learners e.g Day and Bamford (1998), Lao and Krashen (2000), Coady, (1997) Second, some researchers did not anticipate factors might influence their findings such as the presence of a concurrent English classes Hence, it is confused to determine if the results were influenced by ER or other factors e.g Hafiz and Tudor (1989), Robb and Susser (1989) Third, instruments used in some previous studies were not carefully designed and controlled in terms of the piloting and trialing of their feasibility e.g Lao and Krashen (2000) Fourth, some researchers did not conduct pilot study to examine the feasibility of the study e.g Coady, (1997), Benettayeb (2010) Last but not least, though ER has been adopted, adapted and studied for many years in some Asian country such as Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong, we have not found any reports of pattern in ER Moreover, in spite of many successful research and a rising interest in ER in the countries mentioned above, we found that ER has not receive as enough attention as it might in EFL learning environment in Vietnam Thus, this current research of ER is primarily qualitative analysis to figure out the ER patterns and attitude toward ER of EFL adult learners in AIEC where reading and ER have not

been paid attention to yet

2.3 Chapter summary

This chapter focuses on two main related literatures: the theory of reading skill as well as the definitions and nature of extensive reading It also has explored previous ER studies pertaining to benefits of ER and limitations which lead to the aspects of language that the current study examines To the research best knowledge, this current research

of ER is the first primarily qualitative analysis to figure out the ER patterns and attitude toward ER of EFL adult learners in AIEC in Vietnam The next chapter deals with the

research methodology used in the study as well as the instruments used for collecting the main data

Chapter 3 Methodology

This chapter will carefully describe the methodology of the study including an overview of pedagogical setting, participants, measurement instruments, instructional design (including teaching materials and training procedure), methods of data analysis and data collection

3.1 Research context

The paper was conducted in Australia International English Center where the research was teaching 51 learners in 2 intermediated communication classes which focused on 4 skills listening, speaking, reading and writing Among such the skills, the researcher took out only reading skill to study The paper was conducted to investigate learners’ attitude reading in the context of lacking reading habit in Vietnam In fact, this

ER program was conducted with expectation to foster reading among EFL learners in AIEC in particular and in Vietnam in general Usually, as the researcher experienced, EFL English teachers in AIEC tend to focus exclusively on intensive reading with a small amount of grammar and comprehension questions under each text This means that there is very little attention was paid to reading as well as reading for pleasure in AIEC Conducting this reading program, we hope that leaners can learn to read better Hopefully, the experiment with ER can inspire our learners love for reading and take part in making reading easier to learn

At the beginning, the researcher met the participants in her AIEC to discuss the materials and provide reading diary for recording during the treatment time Students were given instruction to select an easy interesting book, and to read as much as possible, preferably at least one book a week Keeping and completing the reading diaries in order to submit for the researcher in late of week ninth of the treatment time Learners then selected their first graded reader The teacher- researcher took the advantage of seeing the participants three time a week in class to provide them an ongoing support and to remind learners to read as much as possible

The course book focuses on four skills but the researcher took out one skill - reading to investigate what patterns of ER the learners employ in their ER practice and

the learners’ attitude toward ER as well On the other hand, by means of learners’ diaries during nine weeks, there are 37 (8 males and 29 females) over 51 students experienced reading extensively and the others did not read However, this research was lasting for nine weeks from August 1st to October 3rd in 2015 It is said that August is the time for summer vacation and that students have much free time in a year so it’s an ideal time to conduct a research on extensive reading

of these learner were from 350 to 550 (in which reading was from 185 to 305)

First, we introduced ER to the learners and invited them to participate in the extensive reading program 14 among them refused to join in the program due to their very busy learning schedule at school 37 (8 males and 29 females) acceptances were received back among 51 students They are all adult learners from 18 to 22 year olds Among them, there are 6 students from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE), 5 from University of Information Technology (UIT), 8 from Ho Chi Minh City National University, College of Social Sciences and Humanity,

8 from Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, 6 from The University

of Science (US), 3 from Ho Chi Minh City International University (IU) and 1 from Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy An orientation in 20 minutes was hold at the very beginning of the program to tell the learners exactly what they would

do and why they would be doing it Participants were also introduced reading strategy used to read extensively in the program They seemed to be excited to join in the program

3.3 Research design

This research is primarily qualitative analysis to figure out what patterns of ER the learners employ during their ER practice and the learners’ attitude toward ER after their ER practice The main instruments used in this current study were reading diary, post experiment questionnaire and in- depth interview

In this current study, the teacher- research used her learners and classroom at Australia International English Center (AIEC) as subjects and setting and the results aim at the improvement of our practice as a teacher At the beginning, the teacher- research encouraged autonomy reading to figure out what patterns of ER that learners employ during their ER practice and investigate to what extent the learners’ attitude toward ER after their ER practice is Therefore, it is very important to explain clearly about extensive reading (reading for pleasure) and suggested learners a number of interesting book titles which are available in various topic Explaining but not interfering much on what they want to read and respect their own speed The learners are free to read any kinds of book and can stop reading if the book is boring or difficult and choose another one as long as they like The research also had the learners write their reading diary of what they read, how much and what they feel after each week After nine-week-experiment of the extensive reading program, the post- questionnaire were constructed with the main purpose of investigating learners’ attitudes toward ER after their ER practice In addition, the in- depth interview was also considered a supplement for the interpretation of the results of the attitude questionnaire in this study

to have an overall view about the students’ attitudes toward ER, to further investigate the learners’ view on the ER program, and to check the actual number of books the students read and understood It was helpful in offering a general view about the picture

of what happened during the ER practice and why The interviews were conducted at the end of the ER program with 8 (22%) out of 37 learners (involves 6 females and 2 males students) Two random learners from each pattern were invited to take the interview All the participants were cooperative to share their views Each interview was lasting for approximately 10 to 15 minutes The eight interviewees were willing to

be recorded using digital recording during their interviews

3.4 Instructional design

3.4.1 Teaching Material: Four Corners

The material used in normal teaching is a course book, Four Corners of Jack Richards and David Bohlke As the authors’ introduction of the course book, Four Corners is an integrated four-skills course for adults and young adults who want to use English to communicate effectively in daily life Easy and enjoyable to teach It combines proven communicative methodology with a practical outcomes-based approach Four Corners features a clear presentation of vocabulary, a thorough grammar syllabus, and an everyday functional language lesson in every unit together with systematic practice of all four skills Each unit in the course book of Four Corners involves four lessons A, B, C and D which cover four skills listening, speaking, reading and writing Especially, lesson D is always for practice reading skill The reading texts are usually retrieved from an authentic source such as a small chatted conversation on

a web page, blog posts or online profiles, etc In general, the reading texts in this book are very interesting and attractive to learners but they’re too short to meet the learners’ need of reading In that way, the teacher- researcher realized the necessity for introducing ER to her learners by building a reading program with such kinds of easy and interesting reading text The researcher got carried away and took out the reading skill to investigate what patterns of motivation in ER appear during the treatment time and the learners’ attitude toward ER

3.4.2 Treatment materials: Graded readers

Graded readers that used in the experiment are short stories written within a limited vocabulary and selective grammatical structure for second language and foreign language teaching which people specially created for EFL/ESL learners (Tamrackitkun, 2010) The reading texts are available at different levels (200 to 2300 headwords) and various topics from three famous publishers of Oxford Bookworms Library, Macmillan Readers, Cambridge English for learners to select (Appendix B1) For example, Oxford Bookworms Library publish graded readers at six levels from 400 headwords to 2500 headwords available in various topic for selection 400 headwords book was predicted

total suggestive 86 graded readers were written in either British English or American English from three publishers, Cambridge English Readers, Macmillan Readers and Oxford Bookworms Library The participants can read books online (the teacher- researcher gave them links) or make photocopies and exchange to each other (with the finance support from the teacher- researcher) The only requirement is that they keep a record of what they read in the reading diary during the treatment time To answer the question of how the learner can select their appropriate book level, the learners’ course book, Four Corners 2 of Jack Richards and David Bohlke (2011), was considered carefully at every unit in order to have an overall understanding of the subjects’ English proficiency level, which was identified an intermediate level Therefore, the readers were suggested selecting graded readers on this intermediate level Besides, the learners were not limited in selecting pre- intermediate or even upper- intermediate in case they want to try as long as the material satisfy their proficiency level Prior to selection graded readers to read, three learners at intermediate level were invited to select and read books at their level and the finding showed that there are two learners who can complete a book a week and the other one can complete 2 books of 400 headwords on that week In sum, it is possible for learners to at least one book per week

3.4.3 Training procedure

The research adapt the training procedure of Tamrackitkun (2010) in his study about ER An orientation was to tell the learners what they would do and why they would be doing it The learners were explained clearly about the reading procedure, requirements, reading materials and reading activities The teacher- research told the learners what, when, where and how to read Before reading a book, learners can take a look at the back-cover blurb, the lists of chapter titles at the front, and the glossary at the back Learners can select a book they like and turn to any pages in random, read the page and count the unknown words If the page has more than five unknown words learners can read another page or choose another book even Moreover, teacher also told learners that looking up words in the dictionary may interrupt the reader’s fluency and makes them read less Learners were also encouraged to try to skip or guess the meaning of unknown words rather than look the word up Teachers then raised learners’

awareness of the differences between intensive and extensive reading Next, the researchers announced the requirements that every participant need to meet First, they had to arrange time for reading at least one graded reader per week Second, they had

to write reading diary every week to avoid forgetting and missing information Most importantly, the teacher- researcher introduced books in graded readers and explained the numbers of headwords correspond with the difficulty levels in which the books are carefully arranged by the publisher In case a passage is boring or difficult or contains more than three unknown words, learner can skip it and read another one or even choose

a new book to read Finally, the teacher- researcher introduced two main activities The first was “book talk by the teacher” This activity represents the teacher as a role model (as Day and Bamford’s (2002) guideline number 10 for a teacher or researcher when conducting an ER program) The teacher gave a 1-minute book report to the whole class, holding the book and showing the cover to the class as she talked The other was “book talk by the learner” Individual students can share a book’s title’s link on the class’s internet web page to classmates if they found the book interesting and shouldn’t miss This activity is expected to create an informal reading community among the participants and motivate them to read

The teacher- researcher also spent 20 minutes to answer all kinds of questions related to ER and the ER program from participants to make sure that the participants all know what they would do and why they would be doing it

3.5 The measurement instruments

3.5.1 Reading diary

Taking notes on reading diary will help learners reflect their reading amount during nine weeks The reading diary serves three main purposes: (1) it helps learners process and document readings; (2) it provides a forum for honing synthesis; (3) It helps

to demonstrate that learners really read

3.5.2 Post experimental questionnaire

The post- questionnaire has been seen as the most widely used technique for

information In addition, a questionnaire “is relatively economical, has standardized questions, can ensure anonymity and questions can be written for specific purposes” (McMillan and Schumacher, 1993)

3.5.3 The in- depth interview

The in- depth interview was also considered a supplement for the interpretation

of the results of the attitude questionnaire in this study to learn more about the students’ attitudes toward ER, to further investigate the learners’ view on the ER program, and to check the actual number of books the students read and understood This in- depth interview

is a qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents

to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation… to examine the changes they perceive in themselves as a result of their involvement in the program

(Boyce & Neale, 2006:3)

3.6 Methods of analysis

In order to answer the below research questions:

1) What patterns of extensive reading do the learners employ during the period of

ER practice?

2) Do the learners hold a positive attitude toward ER after their ER practice? The instruments are deployed in the present study as the following tables:

Figure 3.4 : Data collecting instruments used in the present study

3.6.1 Reading diary

First, reading diary (Appendix C) was used to collect data to answer both the research question 1 of what patterns of extensive reading the learners employ during the period of ER practice Reading diary was also considered as a supplement for the interpretation of the results of the attitude questionnaire to answer research question 2

of to what extent the learners’ attitude toward reading relevant to their practice of ER

is Reading diary was considered one of the key instrument to collect dada for such a primarily qualitative research like this Reading diary provides information of what exactly the participant felt during the treatment time, what did they read and reasons why pause reading Most importantly, reading diary is a very sufficient tool to see how learners’ attitude toward ER and reading change during the reading process To make sure that the participants can use the diary form for the right purpose and avoiding carelessness, the teacher- researcher spent 15 minutes in the first day of treatment time

to give them very clear instruction and explanation The learners are asked to fill their personal information to provide information for the population of the current paper The diary involves three main items The first item is for writing the number and tittle of books read in a week The second is to note the learners’ feeling in each week or reasons why they stop reading in this week The last item is to provide information of what time

RQ 1 Patterns of extensive reading

RQ 2 Learners attitudes toward ER

Reading diary

Post- Questionnaire

& In- depth Interview

required information about what they experienced after every week The diaries then were collected in the last day of week ninth

3.6.2 Post experiment questionnaire

In this current paper, the questionnaires were constructed with the main purpose

of investigating learners’ attitudes after the treatment time The questionnaire was administered during class hour with the teacher-researcher’s clear explanation to avoid ambiguity in understanding and make sure that all the learners taking the questionnaire understand all of the items in the same way Using a questionnaire employing a Likert scale is a common approach to the measurement of attitudinal variables In the current paper, a questionnaire of this style constructed in O’Malley & Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990) was adopted It was designed to measure an aspect of reading attitude– cognition (thinking)–based on a five-point scale ranging from 1 to 5 points, explaining

5 means Strongly disagree

The post- questionnaire then was adapted, pilot-tested, reoriented, and then delivered to the experimental participants (Appendix A) It was piloted for appropriateness and difficulty of the language used 10 learners are invited to involve

in the pilot test Their opinions were appreciated to make the questionnaire more better

To assess student attitudes toward ER, the questionnaire content focuses on two aspects, one pertaining to the improvement in reading skills as an effect of ER (items 3, 4, 7, 8, 9), and the other pertaining to student feelings about ER (items 1, 2, 5, 6, 10)

3.6.3 The in- depth interview

The interview was helpful in offering a general view about the picture of what happened during the ER practice and why The interviews were conducted at the end

of the ER program with 8 (22%) out of 37 learners (involves 6 females and 2 males students) That is 2 participants from the each pattern (as identified in research question 1) were invited randomly to take the interview All the participants were cooperative to share their views Each interview was lasting for approximately 10 to

15 minutes The 12 interviewees were willing to be recorded using digital recording during their interviews

3.7.2 Post experiment questionnaire

The post-questionnaire (Appendix A) for learners was administered at the end of the ER practice The data collected from the post- questionnaire was used to respond to investigate to what extent the learners’ attitude toward ER after their ER practice is To