Promoting learner autonomy in enhancing reading comprehension skills for students at high school in thái bình an action research

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN TUẤN ANH PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN TUẤN ANH

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENHANCING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL IN

THÁI BÌNH: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH: MỘT

NGHIÊN CỨU ÁP DỤNG)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English language teaching methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi – 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN TUẤN ANH

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN ENHANCING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR STUDENTS AT HIGH SCHOOL IN

THÁI BÌNH: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(PHÁT HUY TÍNH TỰ CHỦ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH MỘT TRƯỜNG THPT Ở THÁI BÌNH: MỘT

NGHIÊN CỨU ÁP DỤNG)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major: English language teaching methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi - 2017

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an action research project conducted with 27 students in a

10th grade math gifted class at a high school in Thai Binh province who show the lack of learner autonomy in their learning process The purpose of the study is to demonstrate how enhancing reading skills by implementing three reading strategies (scanning, skimming, inferring) helps students to promote their learner autonomy in the learning process

The results show that after the intervention, these learners can make the decision to set goals and plan their own learning process they‟ve set In addition, these strategies have encouraged students to build up learner autonomy through their learning style to achieve their goals Furthermore, the use of effective reading strategies helped learners feel motivated while reading because they can read more easily and faster We conclude that these reading strategies helped learners to find out a successful way to develop their learner autonomy

Key words: Autonomy, motivation, reading strategies

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof Hoàng Văn Vân, for his patience, great encouragement, and continuous support during the stages of this study Without his advice and enthusiastic guidance, I would not have been able to finish my thesis

My sincere thanks are also goes to teachers as well as students at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School who provided me the opportunity to carry out the project Without their passionate help, the project could not have been successfully conducted

Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my family and my sincere thanks to my friends who are always by my side during the process of this thesis and throughout my years of study

Hanoi, November, 8th, 2017

Nguyễn Tuấn Anh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES i

LIST OF FIGURES ii

Part A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Identification of the problem 1

2 Purpose of the study 2

3 Method Review 3

4 Scopes of the study 3

5 Structure of the study 4

PART B DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Learner autonomy 5

1.1.1 Definition of terms 5

1.1.2 Characteristics of autonomous learners 6

1.1.3 Factors affect learners‟ autonomy 7

1.1.4 Way to develop learner autonomy 11

1.2 Reading comprehension 14

1.3 Reading strategies 15

1.3.1 Skimming 15

1.3.2 Scanning 16

1.3.3 Inferring 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19

2.1 Research question 19

2.2 Context and Subject of the study 19

2.3 Procedure of the research 19

2.4 Data collection instruments 20

2.4.1 Survey questionnaire 20

2.4.2 Questionnaire 20

2.4.3 Interviews 21

2.4.4 Observation 21

2.4.5 Reading achievement test 21

2.5 Implemented activities 22

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSIONS 25

3.1 Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the projects 25 3.2 Attitude towards learner autonomy before and after the project 28

3.2.1 Autonomy before the project 28

3.2.2 Autonomy after the project 31

PART C CONCLUSION 37

1 Summary 37

2 Findings 37

3 Implications 38

References 40 Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 II Appendix 3 III Appendix 4 IV Appendix 5 V Appendix 6 X Appendix 7 XIV Appendix 8 XVII Appendix 9 XX

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the

projects 25

Table 3.2: The illustration of the improvement of a student's reading skills 27

Table 3.3: Attitude towards learner autonomy before and after the project 28

Table 3.4: Attitudes toward the activities 32

Table 3.5: The illustration of the changes of a student‟s attitude toward learner autonomy 33

Table 3.6: Attitudes towards the benefits of self-directed learning 34

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Students‟ improvement in reading skills 27

Figure 3.2: Students‟ changes in their perception of learner autonomy 34

Figure 3.3: Attitudes of students towards the benefits of learner autonomy 35

Figure 3.4 :Level of students‟ involvement during the project 36

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Part A: INTRODUCTION

1 Identification of the problem

As we all know, English is the most widely used language in the world and its important role in today‟s life of industrialization and modernization is undeniable

In fact, English has been considered as a bridge for economic, political and cultural activities between many countries of a multilingual world Therefore, English is one

of the top requirements needed of those seeking for a good job And that‟s why English is an indispensable subject in the educational system of most countries in the world

In Vietnam, English will become more and more important in the perspective of our government‟s open economic policy The benefits of learning English can be seen

in the economic, social and political life of the people of the country Thus, English teachers in Viet Nam are responsible for training human resources for the country,

so they will have more problems to deal with, and one of those is to help their students to use English correctly, quickly and automatically To do that, I think they need to take one step at a time and may be the first step is to help their students to promoting their role in learning process

Due to the wide application of the learner-centered approach to teaching foreign languages, more pressure is currently put on the role of the learner in the learning process Learners are not considered as passive recipients of information anymore, but they are active in acquiring knowledge, which they learn based on their own interests and needs According to Ellis and Sinclair (1989) there are three reasons for helping learners to promote their role in their learning process First, learning can be more effective when learners take control of their own learning Second, learners who take on more responsibility for their own learning can carry on learning outside the classroom And finally, learners who know about learning can transfer learning strategies to other subjects Stating why learner autonomy is important, Little (1991) supposes that if learners are proactively committed to their

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learning, it is likely to be more efficient and effective than otherwise From the above ideas, it can be seen that learner autonomy plays a crucial role in language learning And in the process of language learning, teachers have a significant role to convince the students about the value of what they are learning After that, the students ought to realize that the lecturer does not have an answer for every question and they have to seek for the answer themselves

Carrell and Eisterhold (1989) argue that there is a significant relationship between autonomous learning and reading skills (cited in Paweena, 2012: 2) Poor reading proficiency can thus be a factor that may hinder students from gaining full language learning progress (Paweena, 2012: 15)

Regarding the context of Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, learner autonomy seems to be a brand new concept to the student there to understand and apply it in their learning process As a matter of fact, in Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, English is considered one of the most important subjects and reading skills have been mainly taught there in every English class However, according to Miss H and Miss D, the two English teachers of Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, the students

of the school seems to have low self-learning ability because of their low reading proficiency Thus, this thesis is an attempt to help students at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School, realize the effect of learner autonomy in enhancing reading comprehension skills therefore they can generate a sense of autonomy in language learning process And the above reason is the motivation for me to carry out the

research “Promoting Learner Autonomy in Enhancing Reading Comprehension Skills for Students at High School in Thai Binh: An Action Research”

2 Purpose of the study

The purpose of the research:

- Identifying the current students‟ autonomy at Phu Duc High School in

reading comprehension skills

- Proposing anappropriate scheme of action to improve the situation

- Finding out the effect of the selected activities in action plan

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- Reflecting the result of the research

It is hoped that the study will offer some useful implications to both the English teachers and students of at Phu Duc Upper Secondary School to promote learner autonomy in enhancing reading comprehension skills

Particularly, the research is carried out to find out the best answer for the following questions:

- Can the uses of the three implemented reading strategies in help students at Phu Duc High School immprove their reading comprehension skills?

- Can the uses of the three implemented reading strategies help students at Phu Duc High Schooldeveloplearner autonomy?

3 Method Review

To reach the mentioned goal, the study will use action research with action plan in form of an autonomy-raising project will be carried out in 12 weeks, first semester 2016-2017 The reason for this choice is that the research is an attempt to improve the teaching situation and learner autonomy in reading comprehension skills, which requires practice over and over again to take place Therefore an action research is a reasonable choice to find out the best answer for the question raised above

4 Scopes of the study

Learner autonomy is clearly a big issue in learning a second language There is a lot

of research to develop autonomy in the past but it is not yet possible to fully exploit the way to develop learner autonomy Hence, this study is just a small contribution

to the development of researches about learner autonomy and it focuses mainly on developing learner autonomy by enhancing reading skills The study was conducted

in 12 weeks within Phu Duc Upper Secondary School with 27 students of the population These students are in a 10th grade math gifted class They show the lack

of learner autonomy in their learning process and most of them spend very little time learning English Especially, their autonomy in reading seems to be a big problem to them and for some reasons they don‟t like reading

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5 Structure of the study

This study is organized into three main sections:

is about the finding and analysis of collected data

Part C: Conclusion

The final part of this paper summarizes the main content and gives conclusions of the study and then gives some suggestions for improving learner autonomy by enhancing reading skills In addition, it also gives a useful suggestion for the future research

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PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.Learner autonomy

1.1.1 Definition of terms

Autonomy in learning is a concept related to empowering learner to take control over his/her leaning in different situations To make learners autonomous and independent is the unquestionable goal and the integral part of new views toward learning in general Recently, making learners autonomous has become one of the main concerns in language teaching (Holec, 1981; Dickinson, 1987; Little, 1991; Dam, 1995; Benson, 2001; Palfreyman, 2003; Lamb and Reinders, 2007).A teacher

in this trend should use his or her pedagogical approaches in such a way to promote greater autonomy in their students To make learners autonomous in language skills teachers should help them gain control over those skills independently Teachers should help his or her students raise the awareness of the importance of autonomy

as an ancient proverb: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime”

Learner autonomy was put forward first by Henri Holec, the father of learner autonomy Holec (1983: 3) defined learner autonomy as “the ability to take charge

of one‟s own learning” He states that the learners should plan, monitor and evaluate the learning process in such a way to support their autonomy so that the learner willbe able to gain his own learning opportunities Nunan (1995) also considers ability as an essential factor and states that learners who are able to define their own goals and produce their own learning opportunities become autonomous

Linguists and educationalists do not reach a consensus as to what autonomy really

is For example, David Little (1994: 4) defines autonomy as “essentially a matter of the learner‟s psychological relation to the process and content of learning, a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision-making, and independent action” While Leni Dam (1995)defines autonomy in terms of the learner‟s willingness and capacity to control or oversee her own learning More

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specifically,she, like Holec (1981), agrees that someone qualifies as an autonomous learner when he independently chooses aims and purposes and sets goals; chooses materials, methods and tasks; exercises choice and purpose in organizing and carrying out the chosen tasks; and chooses criteria for evaluation Candy (1991: 115) states that autonomy “is learned at least partly through educational experiences and interventions”

Dickinson (1987) believes that the learner is considered as the center of learning process and learning is considered as a self-initiated process that is different from behaviorist perspective in which the learner has a passive role and learning is synonym with rote memorization The key factor that can be understood in these definitions is the idea that autonomy is an attribute of learners, rather than learning situations (Dickinson, 1987:11) Benson (2001) says that almost all research in the field of autonomy focuses on the three hypotheses: the nature of autonomy and its components, the possibility of fostering autonomy among learners and the effectiveness of some approaches to fostering autonomy in terms of language learning (Benson, 2001:183)

1.1.2 Characteristics of autonomous learners

Scharle and Szabo (2000) stated that an autonomous student must have built four

blocks:

1) Motivation and self-confidence

2) Monitoring and evaluation

3) Learning strategies

4) Cooperation and group cohesion

Sharing the same ideas, (Omaggio, 1978, cited in Wenden, 1998, pp 41-42; Holec, 1981; Dickinson, 1987; Little, 1991; Broady & Kenning, 1996; Barnett, 1993) distinguish the characteristics between dependent learners and independent learners

as below:

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1 do not set learning goals

2 only work when extrinsic

motivators such as grades or rewards are

offered

3 do not reflect on how well they are

learning and stick to the fixed hypotheses

4 cannot make decisions about their

learning

5.do not know their own strengths

and weaknesses

6 do not know their learning

styles and different strategies for

learning

7 make mistakes or not knowing is

shameful

8 rely heavily on teachers and think

teachers is wholly responsible for

their learning

9 study, translate and memorize

knowledge

10 do not connect classroom learning

with the real world

1 plan their learning and set goals 2.are intrinsically motivated by making progress in learning

3 often reflect on the learning process and progress, reject hypotheses that do not apply

4 can make well-informed learning decisions

5.are aware of their strengths and

weaknesses 6.have insights into their learning styles

and strategies 7.learn from mistakes orquestionmaking

8 are self-reliant for own learning

9 use and practice skills, analyzea little

10 connect classroom learning with the real world

Basing on these theoretical backgrounds, I will analyze the data to see whether the population students are autonomous learners or not

1.1.3 Factors affect learners’ autonomy

Teacher’s role

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Some wrongly consider autonomous learning as learning alone or without the help

of teacher Reinders (2000) argues that if one takes a closer look at it, he would find

a kind of continuum in which dependence on the teacher would be a part of autonomous learning Holec(1981) states that language learners take charge of their learning in all respects According to him, teachers partially can help learners take

on the responsibility their learning, but learners absolutely can do it themselves Teachers should support and challenge students so as to make them autonomous Therefore the role of teacher in makinglearners autonomous is very important Boud (1981: 25) argues: It is compatible with autonomous learning for learners to opt to

be „taught‟ in situations in which they have decided that it is desirable for their own ends Developing autonomy does not simply involve removing structured teaching;

it may require a greater degree of structure than didactic teaching, but of a different

kind

The role of the teacher in autonomous learning may change, but it would not be removed The changes in the teachers‟ views were related to their roles, and the changes in the students‟ views were related to motivation, meaningfulness of learning, responsibility of learning and learning opportunities beyond the language classroom (Nordlund, 1997: 71-89).Teacher should support students to become autonomous and encourage them to believe that they can develop their learning in a promising way

Cohen (2002: 62) has expressed a view of the learning strategy, which focuses on helping learners “to be more in touch with (1) their learning style preferences and language strategy choices on specific tasks, and (2) their motivational temperature”, rather than strategy instruction Learning strategies, learner training and learner development continue to be a focus of interest in the recent literature on autonomy (Gao, 2002; Jim´enez- Raya & Lamb, 2003; Huang, 2006) Autonomy is also related to the way learners take control over the different language skills It focuses

on encouraging learners to learn independently in different situations

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Nordlund et.al (1997: 207) states that: Language skills can best be developed if the learner develops awareness of his or her own learning, and of the strategies and styles that are available Strategic competence means being able to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate one‟s learning, and making use of all available opportunities both in and outside the classroom Oxford (1990: 10) states: “Owing to conditioning

by the culture and educational system, however, many language students (even adults) are passive and accustomed to being spoon-fed” Students should not be considered as empty vassals that need to be filled with knowledge Education has to prepare learners for this, which involves teaching them the skills necessary to take control over the processes and content of learning Learners can reach the proficiency of all the four language skills if theycan generate a sense of autonomy

in language learning process Reading as one of the indispensable skills in language acquisition because “the more you read, the more you learn”, therefore students should exercise autonomy through this area to prepare for long-life learning process Most contexts of life call for some level of reading skill and recently with most of human knowledge conveyed in written language it has become one of the necessary skills required

Motivation

The importance of motivation in language learning has been considered the prime focus of linguistics for many years There are plenty of different ways to define motivation for example, according to Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008: 55-56):

Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate second or foreign language learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process Without sufficient motivation, individuals with the most remarkable abilities cannot accomplish long term goals Also, appropriate curricula and good teaching are not enough on their own to ensure student achievement

Wenden (1998: 52) defines attitudes as “learned motivations, valued beliefs, evaluations, what one believes is acceptable, or responses oriented towards approaching or avoiding” Attitude toward the learning situation can be assessed

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through attitude toward the language course and teacher Motivation in this model is composed of three components: (1) effort expended to achieve a goal, (2) desire to learn the language, and (3) attitude toward the task of learning the language (Tremblay & Gardner, 1995)

According to Masgoret and Garder (2003), a motivated learner “expends effort, is persistent and attentive to the task at hand, has goals, desires, and aspirations, enjoys the activity, makes attributions concerning success and/or failure, is aroused, and makes use of strategies to aid in achieving goals.”

Grabe (2009:192) states that “Motivation for reading is essential so that students choose to develop their reading skills and persist and make strong efforts to overcome any limitations Students only become skilled readers when they read a lot, and motivation for reading is critical for addressing this challenge”.Reading Motivation – the individual‟s personal goals, values, and beliefs with regard to the topics, processes, and outcomes of reading (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000, as cited in Becker, McElvany, & Kortenbruck, 2010)

In Grabe (2009)‟study we find a table where he describes factors that support reading motivation These factors are:

1 Opportunities for learning success and gains in conceptual knowledge

2 Real-world interactions (demonstrations, data collection, observations, etc.)

3 Autonomy support, student self-direction

4 Interesting texts for instruction

5 Opportunities for extended reading

6 Strategy instruction

7 Social collaboration and relationship building for academic tasks

8 Evaluation and feedback that support learning (Grabe 2009: 191)

In my opinion, the motivation of learning comes first and it determines the learning result because after all, we do anything with intention and purpose And the purpose

to achieve a successful result motivates us to do our best In this study, I will generate students‟ motivation by demonstrating to them that the activities we have

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done will bring successful results Once they see the good result of what they are going to do, they will have the motivation to accomplish the goal they set And I believe that motivation is the main factor in order to learn a foreign language more effectively, especially in this study, because our population group doesn‟t have the motivation to read and do homework This is considered to be a key point in this context since most learners only have 2-4 hours a week for reading and doing homework allows them to practice and build up self-learning We believe that promoting reading strategies as well as giving learners the opportunity to choose reading topics will motivate them to conduct meaningful reading

1.1.4 Way to develop learner autonomy

Nunan (1988) lays out a nine-step program for learner training These nine steps will help the student to change from dependent learners to autonomous learners However, regarding to the context of Phu Duc High School, It‟s infeasible to follow all nine steps Thus, the researcher has skipped some unecessary steps during the activities :

Step 1 – Make instructional goals clear to learners

A very first step in generating learner autonomy is to help learners recognize their goals after the lesson

For example: Today we‟re going to practice scanning strategy and we‟re going to read about music and movies and stuff OK?

Now, I want you to open your reading materials and look quickly over the first text then tell what the main idea of the text is

UNIT GOALS

After this unit you will able to recognize the main idea of a text

Step 2 – Allow learners to create their own goals

The next step to get learners involved in and take the responsibility for their own learning process would be to allow learners to create their own goals I‟ll let them get used to setting their own goals and time to accomplish goals For example, I‟ll

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let them pick up three texts from their favorite topics and then let them set time to find out the main ideas of the chosen texts

Step 3 – Encourage learners to use their second language outside the classroom

In this research, I encourage them to set time to read about their interest in life May

be it takes them one hour, two hours or more It‟s up to them

T: Nhung, What is your hobby?

S: I like cooking

T: Then tell me how to make chicken soup

S: Sorry, I don‟t know how to make chicken soup

T: Ok! Then where can you find the information about the recipe of chicken soup? S: I‟m going to find it in some books or on the internet

T: Alright! Just do it then tell me how you‟re going to make chicken soup, ok? The teacher tells class to read as much as possible about their hobbies then taking in pairs about their hobbies next lesson

Step 4– Raise awareness of learning processes

As I mentioned above learners should be allowed to decide what to learn However, according to Nunan (Ibid.), it‟s also important to give them a voice in how they learn

Step 5 – Help learners identify their own preferred styles and strategies

The next step in the development of a learner-centered classroom would be to train learners to identify their own preferred learning styles and strategies According to Simensen (2007), “teachers, it is important to always give the pupils a reason for why they are reading a text, or else they will often skim or scan the text without being able to remember or learn a lot from it” They will also in most cases have trouble choosing whether to read extensively or intensively The pupils must know the purpose for, or the goal with, the reading activity, and by knowing this many will automatically adjust their reading strategy The reason for doing so is that when the pupils have learned how to read different texts in different ways, they will find it

a lot easier to read all the various texts required in the classroom

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In Hellekjær (2007: 2)‟study we find that “the most common ways of reading are skimming, scanning, or careful reading for detail, and an experienced reader will automatically adjust his or her way of reading according to reading purpose” In this context, I will help the readers to use reading strategies that suit for their reading purpose

The purpose of the reading activity is important for the pupils to know, as a different purpose can change the reader‟s view of the text:

A reader's interaction with a text derives from the purpose for reading In extensive reading, the learner's goal is sufficient understanding to fulfill a particular reading purpose, for example, the obtaining of information, the enjoyment of a story, or the passing of time (Day and Bamford 2002: 2)

Step 6 – Encourage learner choice

As stated previously, providing students with the opportunity to choose what kinds

of text they‟re reading has a positive influence on their attitude toward reading which in turn positively influences reading comprehension (Block, Whiteley, Parris, Reed, & Cleveland, 2009; and Guthrie, McRae, Coddington, Klauda, Wigfield, & Barbosa, 2009) When students are offered choice it leads to a sense of control, and from control leads to a sense of ownership of his/her achievements To support reading motivation it is important to afford students with control and choice (Guthrie et al., 2009) Reading comprehension is most successful when “teachers match students‟ interests and their reading ability to ensure a successful reading experience,” (Kasten, Kristo, & McClure, 2005, p.38)

In this regard, Goodman (1972: 117 cited in Sinhaneti, 2008) argues that “readers should be encouraged to select material on the basis of their own criteria of interest

…a major aspect of joyful reading is that students should be able to choose what they read both in terms of genre and, crucially, level They are much more likely to read with enthusiasm if they have made the decision about what they read.”

Step 7: Allow learners to generate their own tasks

Knowledge about and choice of adjusted strategies are considered as one of the most important competencies pupils can have, not least because they in the long run

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should be able to become independent of the teacher, and that they are able to manage on their own later in life (Artelt et al, 2001, as cited in Hopfenbeck and Roe 2010: 119 My translation)

Benson (2001: 75) argues that “… fostering autonomy does not imply that we simply leave learners to their own devices, but that we actively encourage and assist them to take control of their learning.”

Step 8 – Encourage learners to become teachers

This step encourages students to give the explanation or share their understanding

of the lesson to their friends.Assinder (1991: 228) believes that the goal of „teaching each other‟ was a factor of paramount importance Being asked to present something to another group gave a clear reason for the work, called for greater responsibility to one‟s own group, and led to increased motivation and greatly improved accuracy The success of each group‟s presentation was measured by the response and feedback of the other group; thus there was a measure of in-built evaluation and a test of how much had been learned Being an „expert‟ on a topic noticeably increased self-esteem, and getting more confident week by week gave

[the learners] a feeling of genuine progress

Step 9 – Encourage learners to become researchers

Finally, it is possible to encourage students to become language researchers According to Heath (1992: 42):

“ Students were asked to work together as a community of ethnographers, collecting, interpreting, and building a data bank of information about language in their worlds They had access to knowledge I wanted, and the only way I could get that knowledge was for them to write to me They collected field notes, wrote interpretations of patterns they discovered as they discussed their field notes, and they answered the questions I raised about their data collection and their interpretations.”

1.2 Reading comprehension

There are plenty of different definitions of reading comprehension, for example:

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Reading comprehension is the process of making meaning from text The goal, therefore, is to gain an overall understanding of what is described in the text rather than to obtain meaning from isolated words or sentences In understanding text information children develop mental models, or representations of meaning of the text ideas during the reading process There are two classes of mental models: a text-based model, which is a mental representation of the propositions of the text and a situation model consisting of what the text is perceived to be about (Kintsch

1998; Van Dijk and Kintsch 1983)

According to Harris & Hodges (1995: 39) reading comprehension is the construction of the meaning of a written or spoken communication through a reciprocal, holistic interchange of ideas between the interpreter and the message The presumption here is that meaning resides in the intentional problem-solving, thinking processes of the interpreter,… that the content of the meaning is influenced

by that person‟s prior knowledge and experience

Comprehension is the essence of reading and the active process of constructing meaning from text (Durkin, 1993) Reading comprehension is a complex interaction among automatic and strategic cognitive processes that enables the reader to create

a mental representation of the text (Van den Broek & Espin, 2012)

In my opinion, reading comprehension is a process of collecting and gathering the information from texts based on readers‟ prior knowledge in order to understand the texts as well as possible

1.3 Reading strategies

1.3.1 Skimming

Skimming: reading for gist, it is a type of rapid reading which is used when the

reader wants to get the main idea or ideas from a passage (Richards et al., 1992)

Skimming deals with getting main ideas of the text without reading every single word An example could be previewing a newspaper “by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs” (Hedge, 2003:1995)

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Nuttall (1996:49) defines skimming as:glancing rapidly through a text to determine its gist, for example in order to decide whether a research paper is relevant to ourown work or to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us

1.3.2 Scanning

Scanning has to do with looking for “specific information, for example, the relevant times on a timetable, items in a directory, or key points in an academic text”

(Hedge, 2003: 195) Williams (1996: 107) states that “scanning is reading for

particular points of information It is a selective reading, and its purpose is to

achieve very specific reading goals”

Nuttall (1982: 36) states that “By scanning we mean glancing rapidly through a text either to search for a specific piece of information (e.g a name, a date) or

to get an initial impression of whether the text suitable for a given purpose (e.g whether a book on gardening deals with the cultivation of a particular

vegetable)

1.3.3 Inferring

According to Anderson & Pearson (1984): “The ability to make inferences from given information in a text and from background information has been described as the heart of the reading process.”

Making inference often considers as the ability to read between lines It requires readers to interpret the content of the text usingtheir critical thinking with their prior knowledge, intuition, and imagination According to Keene & Zimmerman (1997),

“Making inferences forces the reader to engage in building meaning When readers infer, they are interacting personally with the text Skilled readers make inferences almost subconsciously by filling in the blanks with logical assumptions based on text clues and prior knowledge This allows for some creativity and leads to a wider variety of interpretations of most fictional genres When it comes to nonfiction, where texts deal with facts, interpretations are more limited Regardless of whether readers are making inferences with fiction or nonfiction, they must be able to

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defend their inferences by explaining what prior knowledge and text information they are using”

Keene and Zimmerman (1997) showed that when successful readers infer, they:

 Draw conclusions from text

 Make reasonable predictions as they read, test and revise those predictions as they read further

 Create dynamic interpretations of text that are adapted as they continue to read

 Use the combination of background knowledge and explicitly stated information from the text to answer questions they have as they read

 Make connections between conclusions they draw and other beliefs or knowledge

 Make critical or analytical judgments about what they read

In a different aspect, Barrett‟s Taxonomy of Reading Comprehension (1974) identifies the following eight factors that proficient readers often use when they infer:

 Inferring supporting details – guessing about additional facts the author could have included in the selection that would have made it more informative, interesting, or appealing

 Inferring the main idea – providing the main idea, general significance, theme, or moral that is not explicitly stated in the selection

 Inferring sequence – guessing what action or incident might have taken place between two explicitly stated actions or incidents or making hypotheses about what could happen next

 Inferring comparisons – inferring likenesses and differences in characters, times,

2.2 Context and Subject of the study

Founded in 1965, from a mere 8 class school with 10 teachers, Phu Duc Upper Secondary School now has 42 classrooms, 96 officials, employees, teachers and nearly 2,000 students; the physical facilities of the schools are spacious, clean and beautiful In teaching, the teachers of the school focused on improving the quality of education, they actively created new teaching methods that help their students learn better Thus, the percentage of students of the school graduated annually at 98% or higher and university entrance exam results of the school consistently achieved high group in the province The subject of this study will be 27 students of the 10A2 from Phu Duc Upper Secondary School who have been learning English as a compulsory subject for at least 9 years and they have negative attitude towards English because of their poor reading scores This study was conducted with a group of 27 students in the 10th grade consisting of 6 girls and 21 boys aged 18-20 in Phu Duc Upper Secondary School in Thai Binh province where one of the researchers taught English These students are in the math gifted class and most of them spend very little time learning English Especially, their autonomy in reading seems to be a big problem to them and for some reasons they don‟t like reading

2.3.Procedure of the research

Starting with the problem of students‟ low level of autonomy(by discussing with other colleagues), the researcher has thought about the solution to solve the

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problem and realized the most reasonable choice to conduct the research in the context of Phu Duc High School is to carry it out in reading field After thathe has used the data collection instruments to investigate students‟ level of autonomy as well as students‟ level of proficiency for more detailed information After that he has made the intervention by implementing the students three reading strategiesusing the theoretical background from the literature reviewto enhance students‟ level of reading proficiency as well as improvetheir level of learner autonomy.During the intervention, he has made sixobservationsof the classfor every two lessons according to Nunan(1995)‟s theory Then the data collection instruments were used to collect the data after the intervention for analyzing and reflecting the result of the research

2.4 Data collection instruments

To ensure the reliability and the validity of the data, all the interviews were

conducted in Vietnamese in order for the students to understand the interview

questions precisely With the same purpose, the survey questionnaire and

questonnaire were also carried out in Vietnamese, then all questionaires and

interview tapesciptswere stranlated into English because this is an English thesis

2.4.1 Survey questionnaire

According to Nunan (1993), using survey questionnaire is helpful because researchers can save considerably the time of delivering and collecting the questionnaires Furthermore, the subjects are free to state out their ideas without having to worry about personal information to be leaked As can be seen in almost action researches, questionnaire isstill the main tool to collect data for this study; however, to ensure the validity and the reliability of the data, I have used the survey questionnaire to investigate whether the answers of students are matched with the statistics in the questionnaire or not

2.4.2.Questionnaire

The questionnaireconsists of four parts for multiple selections:

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Part 1 is designed to find students' attitudes and behaviour towards the project by committing to project implementation that demonstrates the student's level of autonomy

Part 2 is used to find out if students have improved their speaking skills The data not only shows the student's level of proficiency, but they also show an improvement in their autonomy

Part 3 was based on Broady (1996) and Chu, Lee, Sakai, and Takagi (2008)‟ theory about learners‟ attitude towards self-learning It is used to explore the changing attitudes of students towards self-learning after the intervention

Part 4 is used to confirm the conclusions drawn from Parts I, II, III It is also used to find out whether the answers of the students for the questions in the four sections are consistent or not In short, all of fourparts aims to prove if the studentshas improved their reading proficiency and become autonomous after all interventions

2.4.3 Interviews

Interview questions (appendix 4) were also conducted to have deeper understanding

of each issue and to provide more details about the reasons for choosing the responses in the questionnaire For this reason, semi-structured interviews seem to

be an appropriate tool to solve problems 5 out of 27 students were randomly selected for interviews to get their feedback on the project

2.4.4.Observation

The researcher made six observations to check the student‟s participation in every lesson and their level of autonomy in reading during 11 lessons of the project This observation sheet(see Appendix 9) was the application of Nunan‟s observation sheet(1995) to get more information about the students‟ involvement in the activities so as to ensure the reliability of the data It is used for observing the involvement of the whole class, not an individual

2.4.5 Reading achievement test

A reading achievement testwas administered at the end of the project This test was important to know if students havereally known how to apply the three

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strategiesand improved their reading skillsor not Moreover, another significant purpose of the test is to see whether the results between the statistics collected from different sources and the scores of the students from the test are consistent or not

2.5.Implemented activities

Meeting number 1consists of 3 activities:

Activity 1: Introduce the project to the class and

Activity 2: Discuss about learner autonomy and its benefits in learning process Activity 3: Have students complete two questionnaire on self-evaluation towards learner autonomy and “What kind of learner are you?” (an independent learner or a dependent learners)

Meeting number 2 consists of 4 activities:

Activity 1: Have students sign a learner commitment

Activity 2: Convince the learners about the benefits of three reading strategies to improve their learner autonomy

Activity 3: Raising awareness of 3 strategies (scanning, skimming, inferring) for enhancing reading comprehension skills (have students do exercises using 3 strategies)

Activity 4: Have students complete questionnaires on pre-project self-evaluation form of reading comprehension skills

Meeting number 3-4-5: Discuss and practice on scanning skill

In these activities, students had to practice finding the specific information in a text

In the pre-reading phase, the researcher gave students some suggestions about the topics and attracted their interest in the topics by providing some language preparation for the text In other words, in this phase, he has given the students the opportunity to explore their prior knowledge related the reading materials For example, in the meeting 3, the students had to look at pictures or read the headings

of the texts to guess topics and discuss about them During the reading phase, they were asked to look up specific information in short texts In the post reading phase, the students were reinforced the scanning skill and reflect what has been read For

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example, in the post reading phase of meeting number 3, the research has asked his students to right 2 two statements and two false ones about the text they have read

Meeting number 6-7-8: Discuss and practice on scanning skill

In these activities, students had to practice identifying the main idea of a text In the pre-reading phase, the researcher has explored students‟ prior knowledge related to the reading materials In the while reading phase, they were asked to identify the main idea in short texts For example, in meeting 6, the researcher has asked his students to take a rapid glance at the text and match the headings (A-D) with the paragraphs (1-4) In the post reading phase, the students were reinforced the skimming skill and reflected what have been read For example, in the post reading phase of meeting 7, the research has asked his students to summarize the text they have read in their own words

Meeting number 9-10-11: Discuss and practice on inferring skill

In these activities, students had to practice making inferences about the implicit information in a text In the pre-reading phase, the researcher has provided some language preparation for the text by exploring students‟ prior knowledge related the reading materials During the reading phase, they were asked to make inferences about the implicit information in texts For example, in meeting 10, the researcher has asked his students to do a ten-question exercise which required them to pick one out of four words that has the closest meaning to the underlined word from the text The post reading phase, the students were reinforced the inferring skill and reflected what has been read For example, in meeting 9, the researcher has asked his students

to determine whether 10 statements about the text are true, false or uncertain

Meeting number 12:

- Have students complete questionnaire on post-project self-evaluation on autonomy

- Have students complete questionnaire on post-project self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills

- Select 5 students randomly to conduct the interviews

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The program was organized based on Williams (1996), who suggests that for the effective teaching of reading in the classroom, the lesson should be divided into three consecutive phases: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading The first phase, according to Williams (1996: 37), “aims to introduce and raise interest in the topic, to motivate learners by giving them a reason for reading and to provide some language preparation for the text” Therefore, in this phase we gave our learners the opportunity to explore their prior knowledge regarding the readings According to Williams, the second phase, while-reading enables the students to understand the writer‟s purpose, the text structure and to clarify text content

In the post-reading stage, the teacher should ask the students about their feedback to the text This stage is also important because it is supposed to access the output and feedback from the students about the selected texts

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CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSIONS

3.1 Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the projects Table 3.1: Self-evaluation of reading comprehension skills before and after the projects

(1.Strongly disagree 2.Disagree 3.Agree 4.Strongly agree)

4 I can make inferring

about content and

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After the project 1(4%) 3(11) 15(55%) 8(30)

7 I feel confident when

doing reading tests

Before the project 10(37%) 15(55%) 1 (4%) 1(4%) After the project 2(8%) 2(8%) 14(51%) 9(33%)

As can be seen in the Table 1, before being equipped with the strategies, 84% of students often rely on dictionaries to look up unknown words In addition, 85% of them are not confident in making inferences about content and vocabulary in texts One more shortcoming of their reading comprehension skills is that 85% of them can‟t summarize texts in their own words while the percentage of students who don‟t understand the main ideas in texts is 88% and the proportion of those who can recognize the specific information in texts is up to 85% Thus, for them, reading exercises like a torture and 92% of them are not confident when doing reading exercises

The statistics of self-evaluation questionnaire before the project have shown that the students are very passive in improving reading comprehension However, these statistics have changed positively after the teacher helped them with three useful reading strategies: scanning strategy, skimming strategy and inferring strategy After equipped the three strategies, almost students have significantly improved in terms of reading skills when 88% of them can recognize the specific information in texts, while the statistics of those who can make inferences about content and vocabulary in texts is 81% and 85% is the proportion of the students who can understand the main idea in texts In addition, 85% of students think that they can summarize the main idea of a text after read it Thus, for them, reading has become easier with the power of the three skills and that the reason why 84% of them think that they can deal with reading test confidently Another good sign of the project is that the proportion of the students who often read outside the classroom has increased up to 84% compared to only 8% before the project The improvement of a student's reading skills is shown in Table 1

Thetable below shows the improvement of a student's reading skills:

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Table 3.2: The illustration of the improvement of a student's reading skills

(1.Strongly disagree 2.Disagree 3.Agree 4.Strongly agree)

4 I can make inferring about content and vocabulary in

to the left the student will be minus one point for each step Accordingly, if a student gets

7 points plus, it can be inferred as a considerable change, 1-7 points implied a slight change, 0 point or below 0 point meant no change For example, from the above chart, the student will receive 1 point because the letter X moves one step (from 2 to 3)

Figure 3.1: Students’ improvement in reading skills

18 %

82%

no improvement slight impveoment significant improvement