Hiệu quả của việc thảo luận bằng ngôn ngữ thứ nhất đối với việc đọc hiểu tiếng anh cho học sinh lớp 12 tại trường THPT phú lương

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Objectives of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER TWO: LITERATUR

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN HONG NHUNG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE DISCUSSION ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR 12TH GRADE STUDENTS IN PHU LUONG HIGH

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN HONG NHUNG

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE DISCUSSION ON ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR 12TH GRADE STUDENTS IN PHU LUONG HIGH

I certify that the minor thesis entitled “The effectiveness of the first

language discussion on English reading comprehension for 12 th grade students

in Phu Luong high school” is my own research in the fulfillment of the

requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty, ThaiNguyen University

Signature:

Nguyen Hong Nhung

Thai Nguyen, 2019

First of all, I would like to thank the thirty students who participated in mystudy I would not be able to finish my study without their cooperation and help and

I am grateful to those students for investing the time in the project

I owe Prof Dr Le Van Canh and Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Loan my deepestgratitude for his and her enthusiastic guidance through the research Particularly, Iappreciate their useful promptness and feedback in response to all my questions onthe drafts, their willingness to give advice in the very kind and supportive manner

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the Phu Luong High Schoolfor allowing me to undertake this study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the first languagediscussion on reading comprehension The study also aimed to explore the Englishlearners’ personal opinions about the use of the first language in their own process

students at elementary English level (A1) at Phu Luong High School This studyadopted the quasi-experimental research design and the results were reflectedthrough the pre-test and post-test The results pointed out that the first languagediscussion had positive effectiveness on facilitating students’ English readingcomprehension It was recommended that teachers and students should beencouraged to use the first language discussion strategy in the readingcomprehension

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

1.2 Objectives of the study

1.3 Scope of the study

1.4 Significance of the study

1.5 Organization of the study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Views of the first language in the second language learning

2.1.1 The negative views of using the first language

2.1.2 The positive views of using the first language

2.1.3 The benefits of using the first language

2.2 The first language in the second language reading

2.2.1 Views of using the first language in the second language reading

2.2.2 Linguistic transfer

2.2.2.1 Definition

2.2.2.2 Views of linguistic transfer

2.3 Collaborative group discussion

2.3.1 Definition

2.3.2 Views of using group discussion

2.3.3 The benefits of using group discussion

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2.4 Previous studies 17

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 Research questions 21

3.2 Research design 21

3.3 Participants 22

3.4 Data collection instruments 22

3.4.1 Reading comprehension test 22

3.4.2 Questionnaire 25

3.5 Data collection procedure 27

3.5.1 Pre-test 27

3.5.2 Training 28

3.5.3 Post-test 32

3.5.4 Questionnaire 32

3.6 Data analysis 33

3.6.1 Test result analysis 33

3.6.2 Questionnaire analysis 33

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 34

4.1 Findings 34

4.1.1 Research question 1 34

4.1.2 Research question 2 37

4.2 Discussion 40

4.2.1 Research question 1 40

4.2.2 Research question 2 41

CHAPTER FIVE: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 43

5.1 Implications 43

5.1.1 To English teachers 43

5.1.2 To the students

5.2 Limitations of the study

5.3 Suggestions for the future study

5.4 Conclusion

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Reading comprehension test

APPENDIX B: Questionnaire for students APPENDIX

C: Lesson plan for the control group APPENDIX D:

Lesson plan for the experimental group

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

This chapter presented the rationale, objectives, scope, significance and organization

of this study

1.1 Rationale for the study

Reading is considered as an active, constant process in which the readerconcurrently constructs and extracts meaning through involvement and interactionwith a text (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002) Reading comprehension happenswhen the reader integrates and extracts diverse information from the text andconnects it with what is already known (Koda, 2005, p 4) The reader combines theinformation taking from the text with their own background knowledge throughassimilating what they read on memory (Graesser & Clark, 1985) as they look forconstructing a dynamic and mental representation of text (Anderson & Pearson,1984; Madden & Zwaan, 2004; Teng, 2009) These mental representations areconstantly updated during and after reading Tey are also the foundation which thereader depends on their comprehend and interpretation the text The readerbases on background and linguistic knowledge to construct preliminary expectationabout a rejected, confirmed or refined text (Goodman, 1970, p 260) through theprocess of reading as they aim to form a mental, coherent representation ofcomprehended information (Kintsch, 1974; Van Dijk & Kitsch, 1983; Garrod &Sansford, 1990; Gernsbacher, 1990; Mackay and Mountford, 1979)

Because the reader creates meaning by combining the incoming information

of text with their existing knowledge (Kintsch, 1998), it is necessary that skilledreaders interact efficiently between the incoming textual information and theirbackground knowledge to form meaning These researches have also recommendedthat the type of a text can play a role in the way that the reader interprets andcomprehends a provided text including the types of prediction strategy that thereader selects at the beginning of the reading process to build initial inferences(Afflerbach,

1990) The reader comprehends and processes texts in different way according to their specific textual genres, knowledge and expectation (Einstein, McDaniel, Owen,

& Coté, 1990; Geiger & Millis, 2004; Zwaan, 1994; Zwaan & Rapp, 2006).

Collaboration through group discussion activity provides the readers with anoptimal knowledge constructing environment (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003)through encouraging the readers to be active in the learning process (Farzaneh &Nejadansari, 2014) However, it is not much to know the extent of the first languageuse and the appropriate reasons for its use in reading discussion groups in thesecond reading classroom (Seng & Hashim, 2006, p 29-30)

The need to facilitate English reading comprehension effectively has become

students were interested in the higher education and percentage of being gettingaccepted at graduation and post-graduation courses has raised with the result of

grade student Every year, Phu Luong high school usually promote and investeducation which has supplied better chances for students to get higher results andthis played an important role in developing progress of Phu Luong high school

Nevertheless, it has been realized that after completing their pre-intermediateEnglish level, students were unable to improve their English reading comprehensionwhich prevented them from comprehending the reading materials successfully Thestudents became attractive towards memorization and they cared about keeping theknowledge in memory for the benefit of passing in exams without understanding itsmeaning and application English textbooks which were used in educational systemare written in English Additionally, the book was impossible to satisfy the demand

of the students and concepts of reading materials made it even more difficult forstudents to understand The teachers who teach in Phu Luong high school expressedtheir concerns about the students’ ability in reading comprehension It is requiredthat the students are able to read and can improve better understanding with theteacher’s guidance The shortage of the ability to facilitate the readingcomprehension was very difficult for both the students and the teachers tocomplete the programme as schedule Also, inability in comprehension resulted in

a fear in the minds of the students There was a necessary requirement to discoverwhich strategy should be

used by the teachers while teaching at 12th grade students level, and this strategywould also help the students to put their interest in English reading comprehension,thus they could study effectively For all reasons above, the writer would like toconduct a study on using the first language discussion strategy to improve students’reading comprehension The study was expected to contribute to teaching and

school

1.2 Objectives of the study

The purpose of study was to investigate the effectiveness of the first languagediscussion on the learners’ English reading comprehension The study also aimed toexplore the learners’ personal opinions about the use of the first language discussion

in their own process of reading comprehension

1.3 Scope of the study

This thesis only focused on the effectiveness of the first language discussion

the first semester of school year 2018 – 2019 at Phu Luong high school

1.4 Significance of the study

The practical consideration was the significance of this research Therefore,the result of the research was expected to be effective and useful to the teachers, thestudents and the researcher in using the first language discussion in teaching andlearning the reading comprehension

The research was expected to discover and demonstrate the effectiveness ofapplying the first language discussion in teaching and learning English readingcomprehension Therefore, teachers and students at Phu Luong high school wouldimplement the teaching and learning more effectively

English teachers at Phu Luong high school were looked forward tointensifying this strategy in teaching reading comprehension and the writer hopedthat this study would give a contribution in the educational development oflanguage teaching and learning about reading comprehension by applying the firstlanguage discussion strategy

This research was expected to overcome the students’ difficulties at PhuLuong high school in facilitating their reading comprehension and it could make thestudents be interested in learning reading comprehension.

For the researchers, it was believed that this study would be one of thereferences for other researchers to find out information about readingcomprehension through the first language discussion

1.5 Organization of the study

This research was divided into five chapters:

Chapter I: “Introduction” – provided an overview of this research, including

rationale for the study, purposes of the study, scope of the study, significance of thestudy and organization of the study

Chapter II: “Literature review” – provided the theoretical background of the

research, namely views of the first language in the second language learning, views

of the first language in the second language reading, linguistic transfer, collaborativegroup discussion, reading comprehension and previous studies

Chapter III: “Methodology” – described the main components of the method

including research questions, research design, data collection instruments, datacollection procedures and data analysis

Chapter IV: “Finding and discussion” – presented, analyzed and discussed

the collected results of the research The answers for two research questions arefound in this chapter

Chapter V: “Conclusion” – summarized the main issues of this research,

presented the limitations, pedagogical implications of the research and suggestionsfor further studies

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provided general knowledge about the first language in the secondlanguage learning, the first language in the second language reading, collaborative group discussion and review of relevant researches

2.1 Views of the first language in the second language learning

2.1.1 The negative views of using the first language

Despite of using the first language in the second language reading process for

a long time under-researched area, Kern (1994) declared that it keeps unclearexactly what role the first language plays in the second language readingcomprehension at present (p 441), it became increasingly clear that the secondlanguage reading is not simple a monolingual event (Upton, 1997) Historically, theuse of the first language was considered significant in the second language learningvia teaching as the Grammar Translation Method in the mid-nineteenth century(Rodgers, 2014) Teaching was depended on the concept that the first language iskept as the reference framework within the acquisition of the second language(Stern, 1983, p 455) However, the reform development during the mid-to-latenineteenth century saw a rise in restriction against the style of the first languagelearning (Rodgers, 2014) and, in response to thoughts raised by researchers such as

L Sauveur and F Franke (Chomsky, 1975), who recommended that the secondlanguage learning should be attempted in the target language, modern kinds ofnatural teaching such as the Direct Method started to emerge (Rodgers, 2014) Theseteachings pointed use of the first language in the second language learning asnegative, and saw a change from use of the first language to a total avoidancetogether

Such lessons and activities were done exclusively within the target language(Rodgers, 2014, p.12) without use of the first language However, what this neededwas the second language teacher accomplished enough in the target language toabstain from using the first language, hence disregarding the fact that sometimes ashort, simple explanation in the learner’s native language would be a more efficientway to comprehension (Rodgers, 2014, p 13) This view on the second language

learning stated by the 1920s, giving a number of teaching methods such asSituational

Language Teaching, the Oral Approach and the Audiolingual Method (Rodgers,2014) However, according to Chomsky (2002), each of these methods had lack ofthe communicative and functional characteristics that language implies A modernteaching style was known as the Communicative Approach appeared in the 1970sand

1980s (Savignon, 1991) Communicative Language Teaching concentrated onlanguage in use through communication of learners in the second language for realmeaning (Rodgers, 2014) Hence, instead of actively limiting the use of the firstlanguage in the Direct Method, Communicative Language Teaching tended ittowards neither good nor bad, just something to avoid (Cook, 2001) It is said thatmany teachers intend to use Communicative Language Teaching today activelyworried about the use of the first language as an evidence by the constantrequirement of the first language for the second language learners in many Asianschools

Stern (1992) stated that intra-lingual teaching - using only the secondlanguage was widely permitted as the best teaching style, therefore, cross-lingualstrategies of learning were not considered by many teachers and learners, instead ofsupporting the traditional idea that use of the second language in the secondlanguage classroom is positive and using the first language is negative

Cook (2001) declined that the pressure of unacknowledged anti-the firstlanguage opinion had prevented teaching language from looking carefully at ways

in which the first language can be appeared in the classroom (p 410) Atkinson(1993) stated that the reason for this negative attitude on the use of the firstlanguage in the second language classroom is that second language acquisition,particularly English as a second language, was historically based in classroom inwhich the teacher cannot speak the first language

2.1.2 The positive views of using the first language

Researchers recognized that, because learners inevitably accepted and usedtheir the first language through the second language learning process (Cook, 1992),

there was no appropriate reason why learners should ignore its use (Cook, 2001) as

it supported necessary scaffolding for learners This concept was permittedby

researchers as Anton & DiCamilla (1999), who claimed that the first language isconsidered as a powerful tool between learners (p 415) Cook (2001) pointed outthat avoiding the first language restricted the possibilities for teaching language (p.405) Stern (1992) argued that connection between the first language and the secondlanguage is an obvious fact of life (p 282), and making an effort to keep the twolanguages segregate in the classroom against the learner’s natural mind (Cook,2001) Language teaching that involves in the fact of life is more likely to bebetter than teaching against it (Cook, 2001, p 408) In recent years, there is achange in traditional based methods of teaching Brooks & Donato (1994) claimedthat use of the first language is a natural psycholinguistic process that makes thesecond language production and admits the learners to sustain and initiate verbalcommunication (p.

268) Cook (2001) declined that the first language can be used to form knowledge ofthe first language and the second language in the learners’ minds and helps them tocomplete activities and tasks through collaborative discussion with the secondlanguage learners In addition, this can give opportunities for learning approachesand new teaching

2.1.3 The benefits of using the first language

Many researchers provided a variety of theories on the benefits of using thefirst language in the second language reading For instance, when reading in theirthe second language, learners often base on the first language vocabulary to translatethe second language vocabulary (Paribakht, 2005), think about the meaning in theirthe first language (Macaro, 2005) and efficiently use it to achieve comprehension ofthe second language (Seng & Hashim, 2006), which results in improvingcomprehension, decreasing stress levels, and increasing confidence in their ownability of reading (Phakiti, 2006) These results occur from teaching methods asthe Alternating Language Approach, in which the teacher and the learners use boththe first language and the second language equally Cook (2001) declined thatbringing the first language back from prevention cannot lead to the improvement

on existence of methodology innovations and teaching methods Particularly, it can

release the task- based learning approach, so it can make the learners' naturalcollaborative efforts in

the classroom via their first language as well as their the second language (p 419).

Cook (2001) pointed out four factors that can be considered when using thefirst language in the second language learning process: learning, efficiency, externalrelevance and naturalness Firstly, the term of learning answers the question whetherthe learner will benefit by using the first language in the classroom Next, theconcept efficiency relates to whether or not is it more practical and efficient to usethe first language over the second language Third, the term of external relevance isthat using the first language would help learners to improve the second languageskills outside the classroom environment And finally, the notion naturalness refers

to whether or not the learners are more appropriate to use the first language forspecific aspects of the second language acquisition

From the views mentioned above, using the first language had both negativesides and positive sides in the second language learning

2.2 The first language in the second language reading

2.2.1 Views of using the first language in the second language reading

The use of the first language by the second language learners in the secondlanguage reading comprehension process was mentioned by researchers (Kern,1994; Jiménez, García, & Pearson, 1996; Upton, 1997) Cook (1992) recommendedthat all the second language learners accept and use their first language through thesecond language learning process, claimed that the second language learner does notefficiently turn off the first language while operating the second language Thesecond language knowledge that was built in them is linked in all kinds of wayswith their first language knowledge (p 571)

In study by Sweetnam Evans (2011), learners were given the opportunity torespond to a type of the second language text in either the first or second language.Participants preferred their first language in supporting indirect responses andusually switch code between the first language and the second language through therecall process Sweetnam Evans stated that all participants would rather the firstlanguage to achieve higher level of comprehension, but students may favour it fortasks that they felt difficult and students may have been removing their cognitiveknowledge

by returning to the first language She mentioned that this had been noted before.Scott & De La Fuente (2008) stated that use of the first language reduced thecognitive knowledge while the second language could increase it Sweetnam Evans(2006) found that students would make use of the first language frequently whenthey struggled between their understanding and difficult concepts or ideas of thetext She argued that this finding identified the notion that teachers should stop fromprohibiting the first language in the second language classroom, instead ofencouraging its use for facilitating comprehension through a variety ofcomprehension strategies.

Bernhardt (2011) pointed out two language channels active in the secondlanguage learners, a degraded channel and a clear channel The clear channel goesfrom learners’ the first language knowledge and supports them with suchfundamental terms as processing strategies, phonology, word recognition strategies

It is the readers clear channel of first language literacy and the first languageculture that instructs the conceptual model development on which understanding isrelied (p 5) For the second language learners, however, the degraded channelfocuses on a learner’s the second language knowledge in regarding to the secondlanguage such as grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure With both of thesechannels controlling together simultaneously, learners have to accept bothlanguages, forming a certain combination of factors relating to the goal ofreading comprehension Similarly, the learners have both the first language and thesecond language resources, which is easy to facilitate in the reading comprehensionprocess, Sweetnam Evans (2013) refered to the fact that comprehension monitoringand the use of higher order comprehension processes in bilingual reading seem to

be facilitated if readers feel free to use their first languages (p 48)

2.2.2 Linguistic transfer

2.2.2.1 Definition

One of the most basis beliefs with regard to the second language learning isthat particular aspects of a learner’s the first language and the skills can bedeveloped to aspects of the second language (Hakuta, 1986; Koda, 2007; Royer &Carlo, 1991)

Many researchers (Bialystok, 2001; Cook & Bassetti, 2005; Koda, 2007) had ideasabout this concept, commonly known as crosslinguistic influence or transfer.Transfer can be explained as the ability to study new skills through drawing onprevious resources (Koda, 2007, p 17) or as the effect of the first language basedcomponents and the first based process of producing the second language text andunderstanding (Ringbom, 1992, p 87) Obviously, transfer is to use the firstlanguage knowledge to facilitate the second language comprehension Through thisprocess, proficient the second language learners can obtain background knowledgeand the first language reading strategies to support in the overall the secondlanguage process of reading comprehension.

2.2.2.2 Views of linguistic transfer

Transfer can be referred to both positive and negative (Benson, 2002), withpositive transfer is similar to the two languages to evolve acquisition, however,negative transfer sometimes results in interferences of the learning process whenthere is a difference between the two languages Benson (2002) argued that transfercan be known as both unconscious and conscious process Transfer is also worked

as an intentional comprehension strategy to fill in gaps of the learner’s knowledge(conscious), or as a strategy that the correct structure is unknown by students or isnot effectively linked in their memory of working (unconscious)

Through the 1950s and 60s, many people thought that the errors of thesecond language learner could be based on the differences between their firstlanguage and the second language (Benson, 2002) and that negative transfer madethe second language interferences from the first language (Koda & Reddy, 2008).The reason for this, Benson (2002) outlined that because of behavior theories in thesecond language acquisition in which the second language learners created habitsdepended on the first knowledge and interfered with learning habits of the secondlanguage However, in recent years, this view has seen a significant change and it isnow widely accepted that transfer happens in a far more complex way than this inthe past (Benson, 2002) and the first language and the second language have animportant role in the second language acquisition process For this modernviewpoint, Koda & Reddy (2008, p

497) stated that the language proficiency based on cognitively demanding tasks such

as academic learning and literacy, was widely shared across languages, therefore, itpromoted literacy development in another

Taillefer & Pugh (1998) had look on the reading strategies of English assecond language learners and discovered they would often use the first languagecomprehension strategies through the second language reading process witheffective the first language reading strategies which often balance for weakeraspects of the second language This finding was suitable for the compensatoryviewpoints of the second language reading comprehension (Bernhardt, 2011) Kern(1994) claimed that if students have a large percentage of the second languagemeaning in the text with their first language during reading process, they wouldlogically produce recall of the first language in higher levels, despite the secondlanguage production difficulties

Royer & Carlo’s (1991) studied on transfer between English and Spanish,bilingual learners discovered that not only reading skills transfer was donesuccessfully from the first language to the second language, but listening skillscould also be transferred into reading skills in the second language, which theauthors suggested an indirect effect of linguistic ability on reading process, carryingout through the means of oral language acquisition This finding also recommended

a connection between the transfer of reading skills and verbal communication.However, the study also pointed out that general language ability did not play animportant role in the reading skills transfer This finding was provided by Cummins’(1984) that the basic interpersonal communication skills of the first language did notnecessarily transfer into the basic interpersonal communication skills of the secondlanguage, and by Hornberger (1989) who stated that the interrelationship betweenthe first language and the second language was not simple for learners and allelements of the first language would not promote development in the secondlanguage

2.3 Collaborative group discussion

2.3.1 Definition

Olsen & Kagan (1992) defined the collaborative group discussion as anorganized group learning activity Hence, learning was depended on the sociallystructured interchange of information between the learners in groups and eachlearner was held responsible for the learning and was motivated to improve theothers’ learning The writer used this concept in the research because it providedimportant insights into the features of cooperative learning, so that it wasconstructed, learners connected with and depended on one another for motivation,and they were accountable for their own learning Learners contributed to thecooperation equally, a definition that Olsen & Kagan (1992) referred to as positiveinterdependence, but take accountability for their own learning as well In addition,

it was the accountability for the whole group to confirm that everyone understoodthe discussion context (positive interdependence) However, this depended onindividual learners to ensure their own understanding and general comprehension

of the text (individual responsibility) (Kirby, 2008)

2.3.2 Views of using group discussion

The previous research (Beck, McKeown, Worthy, Sandora and Kucan, 1996;Klingner, Vaughn & Schumm, 1998) investigated students for facilitating what theyread through peer interactions and collaborative discussions However, whatresearch mentioned in group discussions among students predominantlyconcentrated on groups of learners with various native languages (Hancock, 1997),and very little focused on collaborative discussions between learners with the samenative background

Seng (2006) claimed that not much was known with regards to the extent ofusing the first language and the possible causes for its use in small groups of reading

in the second language classroom However, with new study offering the advantages

of working with the first language in the second language learning environment andthe illustrated results that work in collaborative group could improve in the secondlanguage awareness process It was only simple that the thesis would explain these

two concepts in cooperation with other one For instance, Villamil & De Guerrero’s(1996) research pointed out five strategies applied by collaborative students, three ofwhich involving the first language use They explored that for majority of thelearners, the first language was a necessary tool for making textual meaning,recovering language from memory, discovering and widening content, instructingtheir action by the task and preserving dialogue.

Arnold & Ducate (2011) stated that learning is improved through socialinteraction in the zone of proximal development, in which the cognitivedevelopment will occur for learners Robin (2012) explained the zone of proximaldevelopment as concept of the distance between the required abilities for thepurpose itself and what the learners can do by themselves with an instructional aim.Having learners use the first language in activities of the second language as groupcollaboration permits them to work in the zone of proximal development bysupporting scaffolded help for one another (Rommetveit, 1985)

Anton and Dicamillas (1999) researched the first language use in the learningtasks of the second language pointed out that the first language gives an importantopportunity for the second language acquisition to occur through discussion groupsand collaborative interaction between learners For their results, they claimed thatthe first language is deployed to supply scaffolded aid in the zone of proximaldevelopment By using of the first language, the learners maintain and enlist eachother’s interest through their performance in the task, develop strategies for doingthe task manageably, maintain their concentration on the aim of the task, foregroundvital aspects of the task, exchange what needs to be done to deal with specificproblems, build and explicate each other’s partial answers to specific problemsthrough the task

Sweetnam Evans (2013) stated that discussion itself was used as a form ofreading comprehension monitoring and provided opportunities for re-reading andbacktracking Learners could ask other questions about parts of the texts that theydidn’t understand They could work together, scaffolding one another whenconstructing meaning socially by pooling and activating their background

knowledge, comparing their inferences and creating coherent mental texts relied on their the same input.

In terms of the first language discussions on the second language texts ofpost- reading, the learners can work together to connect one another by using theirown individual strengths The learners give the support to each other that will reach

to the solutions of the problem by using the first language (Long & Porter, 1985) So

as to facilitate comprehension, the learners can create the meaning of a text byconnecting their background knowledge, forming their own mental symbol of thetext, comparing and contrasting initial intentions of the text (Sweetnam Evans,2013)

Recent tendencies in pedagogical techniques showed an inclination towardslearners’ active participation in the process of learning Many researchersrecommended the construction of collaborative discussions or cooperative learninginto the classroom environment (Farzaneh & Nejadansari, 2014) Collaborativegroups were known to be effective in improving learners’ engagement with the text,and facilitating general comprehension of the text (Finlay & Faulkner, 2005)

2.3.3 The benefits of using group discussion

Group discussions provided the second language learners with a number ofadvantages in terms of the second language acquisition They provided learners withchances for communicative input and output and the vital negotiation betweenlearners (Gass & Varonis, 1984) Besides, the contributions of learners in a groupcould exceed the individual achievements, created an environment to developoptimal knowledge (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003), and allows for the socialconstruction and sharing of knowledge (Martin-Jones, De Mejia & Hornberger,2008)

McGroarty (1989) listed a number of favorable factors relating tocollaborative groups in the language classroom She claimed that group discussionsprovided learners with chances for negotiation of meaning and learners’ interaction.Also, they allowed learners to become more active in their own process of languagelearning, support to one another and depend less on the teacher Moreover, she

stated that they provided students with a great variety of topics to discuss andinteract

instead of dealing individually with language because group discussion could be made use of any content in the classroom.

Long & Porter (1985) referred to a traditional teaching method – lockstep.They defined lockstep as follows The teacher set up the same instructional pace andcontent for students by lecturing, explaining a point of grammar, leading drill work

or asking questions for the whole class Flanders (1970) showed that the lockstepmethod was employed in the classroom, the teacher spoke at least half of the timeand students had less time or chances to practice themselves, so that this methodseemed negatively by some people Consequently, Long & Porter (1985) stated thatcollaborative group discussion was an effective way for learners’ interaction tominimize the negative results of the lockstep method They presented 5 pedagogicalviewpoints for using the group discussion in the process of the second language:

+ Increasing opportunities to practice language

+ Improving quality of learners’ speech

+ Helping individualized instruction

+ Promoting positive, affective atmosphere

+ Increasing motivation for learners

Sweetnam Evans (2013) provided some benefits of the first language groupdiscussions directly following the second language text reading including the aid oflearners achieving their first language reading skills and the improvement of astrong situation model and textual characteristics of the first language reading andnecessary for any comprehension

Collaborative groups involved in discussion of texts, which was indicated tofacilitate comprehension and develop peer interaction (Brown & Palincsar, 1984) Interms of reading, collaborative groups showed to facilitate comprehension andstimulated to using this strategy (Klingner, Vaughn, Arguelles, Hughes & Leftwich,2004)

up less than 6 percent of the variance The findings demonstrated that the secondlanguage proficiency accounted for 30 percent of the variance in the secondlanguage reading comprehension while failing to evidence that the first languageliteracy accounted for 20 percent of the variance in the second language reading.

The other research of Khaled Karim & Hossein Nassaji (2013) This researchintended to investigate the role of the first language transfer in second languagewriting The research was carried out through discussing the different viewpoints ofthe first language transfer and how they changed over time After that, reviews anumber of major studies to examine the role of the first language transfer as acommunicative strategy and learning tool in the second language writing The result

of this research provided many suggestions for the second language writinginstruction They used the first language to generate ideas, search for topics, developconcepts and organize information The research showed that learners transferred anumber of other the first language-based strategies including cognitive,

metacognitive and affective/ social strategies to the second language writing and these strategies were transferred across languages obviously.

The other research of Blake Turnbull (2015) The aim of the study was toinvestigate the effect of the first language group discussion on the second languagereading comprehension The research questions were carried out by using aqualitative approach with fifteen intermediate level English students in university ofJapan Written recalls were gathered from participants following the text anddiscussion of each text Participants were required to recall what they remembered

in the texts and provide their opinions or comments The researcher recorded theverbal discussions and collected the questionnaires based on participant opinionsabout using the first language in their process of the second language learning Theresult of this study showed that the first language group discussions had animportant effect on learners’ the second language reading comprehension.Therefore, it was recommended that teachers and students considered the firstlanguage as a learning tool to improve and develop the second language acquisition

as well as find ways to assimilate them in the learning process

The fourth previous research of Laya Larijani, Morad Bagherzadeh Kasmaniand Narjes Banou Sabouri (2015) This study attempted to investigate the effects offirst language reading on second language reading comprehension across differentproficiency levels The participants of this research were the first year students ofEnglish translation in Ramsar and Rudsar Payam Nur university To achieve theobjectives of the study, 118 students were choosen out of 150 students and dividedinto three groups replied on their scores in NELSON test This test wasimplemented to evaluate students’ proficiency level and to synchronize them Afterthat, the students were divided into three proficiency levels including beginner,intermediate and advanced For the first section of the study, they took Englishcloze tests, then they took Persian cloze texts, which were the precious translation

of English cloze tests The multiple regression and paired-samples T-test were used

to evaluate their cloze tests answers The results of this research demonstrated thatthere was no significant difference, so that constructing the null hypothesis of theresearch

Another previous research was of Alexandra Marx (2015) The aim of thisresearch was to investigate the components of reading comprehension in adolescentfirst-language and second-language students from low-track schools In the research,

479 9th grade students took part in the reading test of the Program for InternationalStudent Assessment and was measured by working memory, reading vocabulary,reading fluency, morphological-syntactic skills and phonological awareness Results

of the research indicated that the second language students fell behind their firstlanguage peers on most evaluations After controlling for status of students, only thesecond language students with first language - Turkish first language showedweaknesses in linguistic skills Linguistic comprehension and reading fluency wereconnected with reading comprehension in all student groups They observed thatthere were only a few group differences in the connection between readingcomprehension and component reading skills of reading The research suggestedthat reading fluency was an important factor for reading comprehension of the firstlanguage and the second language readers from low-track schools and the socio-economic conditions partially accounted for group differences in component readingskills

All researches referred to the first language, group discussion or the secondlanguage reading comprehension However, there were some differences betweenthis research and these previous research The participants of all researches were thestudents of university and secondary school students, but the high school studentswere the participants of this research Besides, the tests were instruments of researchand were mostly used in all researches to evaluate the results In conclusion, thisstudy only focused on the first language discussion and the 12th grade students.Therefore, the aim of this study was to make on contribution to provide newknowledge relating to this topic

In summary, this chapter dealt with the theoretical background for the wholeresearch with the first language, group discussion, reading comprehension and anumber of related previous researches on this topic

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

This chapter provided a comprehensive description of the research methodologyemployed in this research Section 3.1 presented research questions Design andparticipants were described in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 respectively Section 3.4described the data collection instruments including a reading comprehension testsand questionnaire Section 3.5 presented the data collection procedure Lastly,Section 3.6 showed the way of data analysis

2 What are the students’ perspectives of using the first language discussion

in their own English learning process?

3.2 Research design

As the purpose of this study was to explore the effect of the first languagediscussion on English reading comprehension, a pretest – posttest comparison groupdesign was suitable for the purpose of this research and was adopted According toCook & Campbell (1979) they were the only way to demonstrate the existence of acause and effect relationship between two variables Besides, it attempted todetermine causal relationships by using a treatment or condition to one group andcompared the outcome with a control group Also, it was more feasible and practical

to conduct research and was more appropriate for setting of real natural world thantrue-experimental design This design allowed the researchers to measure the impact

of quasi-independent variables under naturally occurring conditions

In this research, there were two kinds of variables, independent variables anddependent variables Independent variable was the first language discussion strategy

that was provided to the students and dependent variable was the students’ scores in the reading comprehension tests.

3.3 Participants

High School This research was carried out in the first term of the school-year

for taking part in the national entrance examination, which was very important for

apply the first language discussion strategy on English reading comprehension, thewriter had to choose the 12th grade students Phu Luong high School was in amountainous district in the north of Thai Nguyen province, thus English was not afavorite subject Almost all students at Phu Luong high school focused on learningthe social-science oriented subjects like literature, history, geography, etc

grade students would have to reach pre- intermediate (A2 level) after graduation.There were 70 12th grade students participating in the lessons and tests, and afterthat they would answer the questions in the questionnaires These students wererandomly divided into two groups: the control group (Group A) with 35 studentsand the experimental group (Group B) with

35 students

3.4 Data collection instruments

3.4.1 Reading comprehension test

3.4.1.1 Justification

A test was chosen as data collection instrument to measure a person’sknowledge, ability or performance in a given domain (Brown, 2004) Thisinstrument allowed the researchers to compare the scores in the two pre-test groupsand ensure that the process of ra n d o m ization was effective Besides, theresearchers could see how both groups changed from pre-test to posttest, whetherone, both or neither improved over time If the control group also demonstrated a

significant improvement, then the researchers had to attempt to uncover the reasonsbehind this.

Lastly, the researchers compared the results of post-test between the two groups andpresented viewpoints of the overall effectiveness of the treatment and intervention.These evaluations showed the efficiency of the randomization process and alsodetermined whether the group using treatment showed a significant difference.

3.4.1.2 Description

The reading comprehension test was adapted from the national entranceexamination in Vietnam 2017 Each test in this exam included five parts:pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing Only the readingcomprehension section was chosen This part consisted of a text of about 300 - 500words that conveyed an attitude or opinion as well as factual information It focused

on reading to understand the writer's purpose and attitude about the pollution ofocean or on reading for specific information of a kind of the book The readingcomprehension test consisted of two texts The first text included seven multiple-choice questions The second text consisted of eight multiple-choice questions Eachquestion had four options There were a total of 15 multiple- choice questions in thereading comprehension test The reading comprehension test was employed as boththe pre-test and post-test to evaluate the students' reading comprehension A weekbefore training, the students in the class were given a reading comprehension test asthe pre-test Eight weeks later, when the students finished 16-session training, theywere given the same reading comprehension test as the post-test The test lasted 30minutes

Relating to the test, validity and reliability were two aspects concerning aboutthe test

Validity was the state of being legally acceptable or logically Validitypointed out the level to which evidence provided any inferences made by aresearcher, depended on using a particular instrument to collect data In addition,validity is related to the accuracy of an evaluation and referred to the test ability tomeasure what need to be measured Using a written test in the multiple choice form

so as to reach a high validity (Fraenkel & Wallen, 1990) Therefore, using exactlythe same test for both pre-and post-testing was to assure a preciously comparabletest, thus

avoiding the problem of equating different forms of pre-test and post-test The week interval seemed long enough to control for short-term memory effect Besidesthe students were not provided with the correct answers after the pre-test, even werethey remember how they had answered the first time, they had no way of knowingwhether their answers were correct Moreover, any influence due to experience withthe test would be comparable for every student.

eight-Reliability involved in the consistency of the obtained scores, how consistentstudents were for each person from the organization of an instrument to others andfrom a set of items to others In conclusion, reliability was the repetition of themeasurement to calculate the reliability of the test (Fraenkel & Wallen, 1990) Thewriter used the reading comprehension test in the national entrance examination inVietnam 2017 In addition, a teacher of Phu Luong high school would score againbased on the key of the test Results of scoring between two teachers were the same.All items of the students' answers were scored as correct if they circled with theanswer key in gist

Thus, validity and reliability of the test was completely exact and reliable toevaluate the students’ results

TEST DESCRIPTION

items

Test types

The students were able to:

- develop reading skill through

comprehension of the passage

- identify the meaning of the

words in the passage

- comprehend the passage

The words and phraseswere related to the topic: Book and Pollution

choices

through answering the

or job interviews This instrument allowed the researchers to reach a large number

of people and obtain the information they need to make better decisions Some ofthe benefits of questionnaires included their convenience, flexibility and scalability.The questions were standardized All respondents were asked exactly the samequestions in the same order This meant a questionnaire could be replicated easily

to check for reliabili t y Therefore, the researchers could use the questionnaire toshow that the results were consistent The respondent of questionnaires providedinformation which could be easily transformed into quantitative data (e.g., count thenumber of answers yes/ no) and the researchers would use the statistical analysis ofthe responses Compared to other instruments, questionnaires were a relativelysimple way to collect data and involved in lower costs The results were easy toprocess and could provide useful insights into the subject's strengths, weakness andpreferences

3.4.2.2 Description

QUESTIONNAIRE DESCRIPTION

Objectives - Carry out the survey to discover the perspectives of the

students about the benefits and difficulties in using the firstlanguage discussion in their own English reading

high school

Materials - Question 1 about techniques which teachers have used to

teach English reading comprehension (Defining new words,Highlighting heading and subheadings, Summarizingparagraphs, The first language discussion, Categorizinginformation)

- Question 2 was asked if students have never/ ever beentaught English reading comprehension by using the firstlanguage discussion

- Questions 3 about the benefits and difficulties of using thefirst language discussion on English reading comprehensionprocess to evaluate students’ perspectives

Question items 3

Question types - Multiple choices

3.5 Data collection procedure

Data was collected through 4 periods The procedures were demonstrated as follow:

70 12 th grade students PRE - TEST

CONTROL GROUP (A) (35 students)