The effects of extensive reading on grade 10 students’ reading comprehension – an action research project at a high school in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** TRẦN THANH THÚY THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE READING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TRẦN THANH THÚY

THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE READING ON

GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION – AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

(Ảnh hưởng của việc đọc mở rộng với khả năng đọc hiểu của học sinh khối 10 – Nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường

trung học tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

TRẦN THANH THÚY

THE EFFECTS OF EXTENSIVE READING ON

GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION – AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

(Ảnh hưởng của việc đọc mở rộng với khả năng đọc hiểu của học sinh khối 10 – Nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường

trung học tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã

Hanoi, 2018

DECLARATION

I certify my authority of the Study Project Report entitled “The effects of extensive

reading on grade 10 students’ reading comprehension at a high school in Hanoi”

is the result of my own research in the fulfillment of the requirement for Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies – University of Languages and International Studies, Hanoi I commit that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree

Trần Thanh Thúy Hanoi, 2018

I would like to take this opportunity to express my special thanks to Dr Lê Văn Canh, from the Faculty of Post Graduate studies, University of languages and international studies for his interesting and informative lectures that suggested the idea for this study

I would also like to say the sincerest thanks to 48 students at class 10 C1, Vietnam – Poland high school who have participated in the study Their participation has been crucial to the completion of the research

Last but never least, my sincere thanks to my family and friends whose support has been a great significance to the success of my thesis

ABSTRACT

The role of reading in second and foreign language acquisition has been widely acknowledged Among different approaches to teaching and learning reading, extensive reading has received worldwide acceptance from researchers and educators for its many benefits to the learners Despite a wealth of research data in this area, there is a significant gap in insight into how extensive reading is practiced in the context of Vietnam, particularly at Vietnam – Poland high school In an attempt to improve the reading comprehension for grade 10 students, the researcher decided to carry out an action research with 48 students at class 10C1, Vietnam – Poland high school in 17 weeks A Questionnaire and two tests were used to explore student‟s attitudes towards reading extensively and its effectiveness The results of the study revealed that the program had positive effects on students‟ reading comprehension Besides, through the program, most students indicated that they improved their writing, speaking skills, and mastery of vocabulary and grammar structures Most of them also agreed that they gradually created reading habits in their free time It is hoped that the findings from the study will benefit not only researchers and teachers interested in reading but also students by raising their awareness of their own practice

Table of Contents DECLARATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.2 A IMS OF THE STUDY AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

1.3 S IGNIFICANCE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY 3

1.4 O UTLINE OF THE THESIS 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2 1 READING AND READING COMPREHENSION 5

2.1.1.OVERVIEW OF READING AND READING COMPREHENSION 5

2.1.2.THE ROLE OF READING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING 6

2.2 EXTENSIVE READING 6

2.2.1.DEFINITION OF EXTENSIVE READING 6

2.2.2.EXTENSIVE READING AND READING COMPREHENSION 7

2.2.3.EXTENSIVE READING AND INTENSIVE READING 8

2.2.4.PRINCIPLES OF EXTENSIVE READING 9

2.2.5.BENEFITS OF EXTENSIVE READING IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING 12

2.3 READING MATERIALS 14

2.3.1.GRADED READERS 14

2.3.2.UNSIMPLIFIED TEXTS 16

2.4 READING ATTITUDES 17

2.5 PREVIOUS STUDIES 18

2.6 SUMMARY 20

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 RESTATEMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS 21

3.2 PARTICIPANTS 21

3.3 SETTING 21

3.4 RESEARCH DESIGN 22

3.4.1.DEFINITION OF ACTION RESEARCH 22

3.4.2.RATIONALE FOR USING ACTION RESEARCH 23

3.4.3.BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF AR 24

3.4.3.1 Benefits of action research 24

3.4.3.2 Limitations 25

3.4.3.3 Students‟ and teachers‟ role 26

3.4.3.4 Action research procedures 26

3.4.3.5 Action research procedures of the current study 28

3.5 READING MATERIALS 29

3.6 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 31

3.6.1.TESTS 31

3.6.2.QUESTIONNAIRES 32

3.6.3 WEEKLY REPORT 32

3.7 DATA ANALYSIS 32

3.7.1 Mean score 33

3.7.2 Negative item and reverse scoring 33

3.7.3 Size of standard deviation (SD) 33

3.8 SUMMARY 34

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35

4.1 T O WHAT EXTEN DOES THE EXTENSIVE READING HELP STUDENTS IMPROVE THEIR READING COMPREHENSION ? 35

4.1.1.PRE-TEST RESULT 35

4.1.2.POST – TEST RESULT 36

4.2 R ESEARCH QUESTION 2: W HAT ARE THE STUDENTS ’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE EXTENSIVE READING ? 37

4.2.1.DATA COLLECTED FROM THE WEEKLY REPORTS 37

4.2.1.1 The students‟overall attitude towards reading materials 37

4.2.1.2 The students‟opinions on the level of difficulty of reading materials 39

4.2.2.DATA COLLECTED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES 41

4.3 D ATA COLLECTED FROM TWO OPEN – ENDED QUESTIONS 49

4.4 EVALUATION OF EXTENSIVE READING PROJECT 51

4.4 SUMMARY 52

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 54

5.1 C ONCLUSION 54

5.2 R ECOMMENDATIONS 56

5.2.1.RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 56

5.2.2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEARNERS 57

5.3 L IMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 58

REFERENCE

APPENDICES

Extensive reading project

English as a Second Language

English for Specific Purposes

General English

RC: Reading comprehension

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1 Tri – component of reading attitudes

Figure 2 Action research process

Table 4.1.1 The reading comprehension pre – test result

Table 4.1.2 The reading comprehension post – test result

Table: 4.2.1.1: Students general feelings about the books

Table 4.2.1.2 The students‟opinions on the level of difficulty of reading materials Table 4.2.2 (a): Students „attitudes towards the extensive reading project (beliefs) Table 4.2.2 (b): Students‟atitudes towards the extensive reading (feelings)

Table 4.2.2 (c): Students‟attitudes towards the extensive reading project (intention)

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

The current study was conducted to explore the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension of grade 10 students at a high school as well as their attitudes towards reading in English This chapter including five sections presents the background to the study and the statement of the problems, the aims, the scope and the significance of the study The outline of the thesis is also stated in this chapter

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Nowadays, English has become one of the most important languages in the world Especially in the globalization trend, it is spoken as a second language and

an official language in many countries, and as a foreign language in the global world as well Almost all the people from many different countries around the world use it to communicate At high schools in the whole country, English is now

a compulsory subject for all students In view of this, the curriculum plan and syllabi of the high school education in Vietnam have focused on English learning

In language learning, reading is a very important part among such other language skills as speaking, listening, and writing Especially, in EFL/ESL environment, reading is the basis of instruction in all aspects such as writing, listening, developing vocabulary and acquiring grammar With strengthened reading skills, ESL/ EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development in all academic areas (Anderson, 2003) Additionally, reading is a crucial skill in universal learning and communication In this sense, reading ability has always been viewed as critical to academic success (Carrell, 1991; Grabe & Stoller 1997, 2002) Furthermore, Nation (1997) states that success in reading and its associated skills makes learners come to enjoy language learning and value their study of English It is obvious that reading helps students become better readers Research

in both L1 and L2 shows that we learn to read by reading The more our students read, the better reader they would become And the more vocabulary they know, the better they can read In addition, Krashen (1988) posited that the best way to

improve reading is by reading Research has shown reading helps facilitate reading comprehension, reading speed, and reading ability, develop reading fluency, and improve vocabulary learning (Day & Bamford, 1998) Having read about the benefits of ER, the author wants to find out how ER can affect the grade 10 students

in their English learning, especially reading comprehension

Like many other high schools in Vietnam, the researcher‟s high school has been applying the English curriculum promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), and prescribed to all high schools nationwide since 2006 Tiếng Anh 10, one in the series of the prescribed textbooks, consists of 16 theme-based units Each unit comprises five sections including four language skills as reading, listening, speaking, writing and language focus Teaching and learning time for each section is 45 minutes; therefore, a total of 135 minutes per week is scheduled for all language skills including language focus and vocabulary instruction Students have to read a texts ranging from 250 to 300 words in length and then do the reading comprehension tasks With only one reading text to read each week, the amount of reading is somewhat too limited to help students become good readers And the students rarely have time for extra reading materials in class because of the tight schedule Additionally, poor vocabulary knowledge also causes difficulties to students and they often get stuck when they read and do the reading exercises very slowly Besides, the test result is low and a concern of not only students but also teachers to find a way to help students solve this problem This situation leads to the assumption that the learners‟ reading comprehension is weak due to limit reading materials and practice Therefore, in this study, I would like to apply an extensive program to help my students improve their reading comprehension ability

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions

This action research aims to study the possible changes in grade 10 students‟ reading comprehension ability through extensive reading at a high school and

provide practitioners with suggestions and recommendations for future extensive reading programs

In particular, it aims at the following questions:

1 To what extent does extensive reading (ER) help students improve their reading ability?

2 What are students‟ attitudes towards the extensive reading program?

1.3 Significance and scope of the study

The action research originates from the learners‟ poor reading comprehension, one of the most important reading skills Meanwhile, reading itself plays an important role among the four skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing) to ESL learners As mentioned above, reading comprehension (RC) is very important to the students at a high school Therefore, helping students to improve their reading comprehension is a necessity What is more, as elaborately presented above, this study aims to develop students‟reading habits outside class through ER

By this way, ER helps students enrich their vocabulary and reading rate ER has been proved to bring many effects on students‟ RC in many countries (Japan, The USA, India, Singapore, etc.) by different researchers whereas no similar program has been conducted at Vietnam – Poland high school This encourages the author to conduct this research study It is hoped that the findings of the study will provide convincing information about the ways to run extensive reading program (ERP), the value of ER on EFL learning, ESL students as well as better understanding about action research

1.4 Outline of the thesis

This thesis comprises five chapters A brief summary of the content of each chapter

is described as follows

Chapter 1: Introduction, presents the background to the study including the

statement of the problems, the aims, the scope as well as the significance of the study The outline of the thesis is also stated in this chapter

Chapter 2: Literature review, discusses academic view points on ER It

summarizes the most critical ideas about the role of extensive reading in reading comprehension and its principle, benefits, reading attitudes; graded readers as the reading material of the present study Previous studies related to the current study are also reported in this chapter

Chapter 3: Methodology, describes the methodology of the study, provides the

readers with definition of action research, procedures of action research, detailed description of the participants and data collection instruments

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion, presents the results of the study It also

provides discussion about the results

Chapter 5: Conclusion is expected to provide final conclusion to the study, the

limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further study

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will explore some theoretical background to the study It firstly discusses the concept of reading and reading comprehension and later discusses the concept of extensive reading and reading attitudes In addition, the chapter will also review the concept of reading materials and reading attitudes

2 1 READING AND READING COMPREHENSION

2.1.1 Overview of reading and reading comprehension

Reading is a process undertaken to reduce uncertainty about the meanings a text conveys It is also the process resulting from a negotiation of meaning between the text and its reader The knowledge, expectations, and strategies a reader uses to uncover textual meaning all play decisive roles in the way the reader negotiates with the text's meaning

Among reading skills, reading comprehension (RC) is an important part in teaching and learning a foreign language in general and reading in particular Someone has said that it is the act of understanding what you are reading and is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing RC has been defined in different ways by different researchers

Anderson and Pearson (1984) defines RC in terms of how language is “A schema-theoretic view of the basic processes in reading comprehension” in which schemas or packages of background knowledge were represented in a series of models called interactive models of reading comprehension (as cited in Reutzel, 2008) Besides, Richards et al (1992) states that RC is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader RC is considered as the process of decoding language to think or work out the meaning of a reading by Davies and Whitney (1979)

2.1.2 The role of reading in second language learning

It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was one of primary leisure activities Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes Additionally, it is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader It is observed that children and teenagers who love reading have comparatively higher IQs So, reading skills are essential for not only students‟ academic success but also their social and business advancement Walter (2004) stated that reading in a second language calls for fast, automatic word decoding and access to the mental lexicon (dictionary); this means working on building speed and fluency and on learning to recognise at least 10,000 words in the new language By reading, students got familiar with many topics, acquired a lot of new words and were easy to deal with a number of reading texts without difficulty Students would gradually be more confident about the topics in the text and could read and write well Hoang et al (2006) considered reading as the most effective means of improving students‟ language competence (as cited in Thanh, 2009)

2.2 EXTENSIVE READING

2.2.1 Definition of extensive reading

A lot of trials have been made on working out a thorough definition of ER Among them is the one by Lewis and Hill (1992) in which extensive reading means that “students have general understanding of the text without necessary understanding every word” Obviously, this definition fails to help learners imagine the whole picture of ER since only one aspect of it is shed light on, that is, the purpose of ER (general understanding) The definition by Carrel and Carson (1997) which says that “extensive reading generally involves rapid reading of large quantities of material or long reading” concerns with only the length of the reading Bamford and Day (1997) defined ER as an approach to foreign language teaching in general, and to the teaching of foreign language reading in particular

To support the opinions of Bamford and Day (1997), Bruton (2002) said that

ER can apply to a number of "amounts": The amount of new text that is read; The breadth of reading as in "wide reading" (Stoller and Grabe, 1993, p 31) as opposed

to "narrow reading" around a particular topic or particular genres of text (Schmitt and Carter, 2000, p 5); The amount of text consumed, but not necessarily new text,

as in "repeated reading" (Samuels, 1997, p 377); and the amount of time spent reading

The definition that seems to be more satisfying than those mentioned above is the one introduced by Robb and Susser (1989) They defined ER as a language teaching/learning procedure because it was reading “(a) of large quantities of material or long text; (b) for global or general understanding; (c) with the intention

of obtaining pleasure from the text; (d) individualized, with students choosing what they want to read; (e) the books are not discussed in class”

2.2.2 Extensive reading and reading comprehension

A number of studies have demonstrated reading comprehension gains from extensive reading Sims (1996) carried out a study on two groups of Taiwanese university freshmen, where one group was exposed to extensive reading while the other group was exposed to skill-based reading The extensive group scored better

on written recall protocols and on reading comprehension tests Likewise, Hitosugi and Day (2004) found improvements in their participants‟ reading ability over the period of 10 weeks They studied one extensive reading class and another regular reading class, which did not have the extra extensive treatment The reading comprehension of both groups was pre- and post-test The study found that the extensive reading group outperformed the traditional group on a reading ability test Mason and Krashen (1997) found a similar effect for general language learning, with their extensive reading groups in Japan making greater gains on a 100-item cloze test than traditionally-taught groups

Other studies have found positive results for extensive reading, although various methodological problems lower the rigor of these studies For example,

Robb and Susser (1990) found some advantage for an extensive reading methodology over a skill-building one, in terms of understanding important facts and guessing vocabulary from context, but not for getting the main idea or making inferences However, the two methodologies were not clearly differentiated from each other and were similar in many ways Bell (2001) found that an extensive reading group outperformed an intensive reading group after a two-semester period, but he questions the reliability of all of his tests

2.2.3 Extensive reading and intensive reading

The discussion of ER often requires some attention to intensive reading as well, since the former is believed to help fix a number of problems encountered during the practice of the latter, and the two of them are sometimes held in opposition Intensive reading is a process whereby students read materials which is usually above their linguistic level The material usually contains a large number of unknown vocabulary items and grammatical forms that are difficult for, or unknown

to, the learner The purpose is usually to have learners explicitly study new vocabulary and use a host of reading skills such as skimming, scanning, and guessing meaning from context Bruton (2002) characterizes intensive reading as

“having comprehension and language-focused tasks completed communally by the whole class.” (para 2) Brown (2007), similarly, states that intensive reading is usually “a classroom-oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic details of a passage Intensive reading calls students' attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning” (p 373) Another similar but useful description is given by Bamford and Day (1997), who state that intensive reading

“often refers to the careful reading (or translation) of shorter, more difficult foreign language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding is also

associated with the teaching of reading in terms of its component skills.”

After defining intensive reading, it is possible to contrast this with ER in order

to get a firm idea about what it involves ER involves a learner reading a large

quantity of material which is within, or quite often below, learners‟ linguistic or comprehension level “For extensive reading to be possible and for it to have the

desired results, texts must be well within the learners' reading competence in the

foreign language.” (Day and Bamford, 2002, p 139) It is important that learners read regularly and cover a large quantity of material However, it is not necessary for the reader to understand every word in the text, as the purpose is for the reader

to comprehend the overall message and gain a general understanding of the text Bamford and Day (1997) referred to these points when they stated that extensive reading is “generally associated with reading large amounts with the aim of getting

an overall understanding of the material Readers are more concerned with the

meaning of the text than the meaning of individual words or sentences.” (p 6)

In short, ER is to read more rapidly and its purpose is for pleasure and information, whereas intensive reading means that the readers take a text, study it line by line, and refer at very moment to the dictionary about the grammar of the text itself Hence, with a little time for reading in the class, ER is a good choice for

students to practice reading skill at home without any pressure

2.2.4 Principles of extensive reading

Day and Bamford (2002) set out ten points which provide a list of clear principles that will both help further define RE and act as a guide for teachers who are interested in including an extensive reading aspect within their own teaching contexts Firstly, they discuss a point which will be dealt with in the next section: the reading materials should be easy An additional point highlighted is that a wide range of material covering a variety of topics should be made available to learners They state that material should ideally include not only fiction and non-fiction books, but also texts such as newspapers and magazines However, although there is undoubtedly a broad range of graded readers available which cover a wide range of genres, topics and writing styles, there is at present only a very limited number of newspapers and magazines of a sufficiently low level available to learners Another important principle highlighted by Day and Bamford (2002) is that the material or

text should be of high interest to, and therefore ideally chosen by, the student who is

to read it They go on to say that it is also important that learners feel free or are even encouraged to stop reading a text if they find it too difficult or of low interest

to them Therefore, the fact that the material is interesting to the reader could be seen as being of key importance, and this is why the name 'pleasure reading' is often used to discuss this type of reading A number of authors including Day and Bamford (2002) and Renandya and Jacobs (as cited in Richards & Renandya, 2002) mentioned that for ER to be most beneficial to learners, they must read large amounts, and do so regularly This will be much more likely to happen if the students are given the choice as to what they read in order for them to select topics, authors and genres of books that are interesting to them There is no set amount of reading specified 'as the minimum' but a number of authors and researchers recommended one book a week as a minimum In addition, there seems that there is

no upper-limit to how much students could read as the more that is read the more benefit it would have

Another key feature differentiating ER from intensive reading is that ER is usually not followed by comprehension questions or explicit exercises or tests The process of reading for pleasure and gaining a general understanding is seen as paramount The fear is that if students are tested on what they have read it will no longer be seen as a pleasurable activity, which of course will be fatal to any ER program However, there are a large number of follow-up activities that learners could complete, some of which will be discussed later

A further point raised by Day and Bamford (2002) is that of reading speed It

is expected that reading speed in ER should be “faster than slower” (p 138) The goal is to increase reading speed and reading fluency which are closely related to enjoyment and understanding Due to the lower level of the materials and the fact that speed, general understanding, fluency and enjoyment are keys, it is suggested that readers use dictionaries as little as possible, if at all Furukawa (2006) referred

to this point by stating that “excessive use of dictionaries puts too much stress on students and hinders them from leaning English.” (p.3)

The eighth principle supplied by Day and Bamford (2002) is that ER should

be individual and silent Learners should read silently and at their own pace, whether this is on their own, at a time and place of their choosing or within a classroom setting This process allows learners to discover that reading is a personal interaction with the text, and an experience that they have responsibility for If done

in the class, it is essential that the teacher allows enough time for silent reading and remains silent themselves; not interrupting the class by talking or asking questions This leads on to the next principle of teaching ER: the role of the teacher The teacher should guide the students and clearly introduce the benefits of extensive reading to them Teachers should introduce the methodology and practices related

to ER, explain the differences from other forms of reading and outline the benefits Additionally the teacher should act as a role model for the students The teacher needs to be enthusiastic about reading, be frequent readers themselves and also should try to read the materials that their students are reading This is sometimes difficult if the school does not have sufficient copies, but the teacher should still be able to read the book either before or after their students

After discussing the above issues, it is felt that it would be beneficial to outline the ten principles of teaching ER given by Day and Bamford (2002)

1 The reading materials are easy

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

3 Learners choose what they want to read

4 Learners read as much as possible

5 The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information

& general understanding

6 Reading is its own record

7 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower

8 Reading is individual and silent

9 Teachers orient and guide their students

10 The teacher is a role model of a reader

2.2.5 Benefits of extensive reading in second language learning

In two recent decades, a considerable amount of experimental research has been published that deals with some aspect of second language ER There have been studies that investigate whether subjects can learn from ER (including incidental learning from reading experiments) Besides, other studies compared ER approaches with other treatments (such as with 'normal' approaches or 'translation' approaches) And some of them looked at the effect of ER on other aspects of language learning (such as on writing, confidence, motivation and so on) to find out the benefits that learners achieved Hafiz and Tudor (1989) maintained that the aim

of ER is to flood learners with larger quantities of second language input with few

or possibly no specific tasks to perform on the material (as cited in Hedge, 2000) In addition, Day (2010) provided an overview of the studies which can help teachers become familiar with both the benefits and the research So ER is believed to have considerable benefits for learners both in terms of learning gains and motivation and

it seems to become more and more popular in the ELT world Elley (1991, cited in

Nation, 1997) attributed the success of ER to five factors:

1 Extensive input of meaningful print

2 Incidental learning

3 The integration of oral and written activity

4 Focus on meaning rather than form

5 High intrinsic motivation

Bell (2001) also discussed ten key benefits of ER, which are:

1 It can provide 'comprehensible input'

2 It can enhance learners' general language competence

3 It increases the students' exposure to the language

4 It can increase knowledge of vocabulary

5 It can lead to improvement in writing

6 It can motivate learners to read

7 It can consolidate previously learned language

8 It helps to build confidence with extended texts

9 It encourages the exploitation of textual redundancy

10 It facilitates the development of prediction skill

The benefits of ER are numerous and widespread By reading a large amount and rich variety of materials that are within the learners‟ linguistic ability, they are exposed to significant quantities of what is referred to as comprehensible input The benefits will be an increase in not only vocabulary and reading ability, but also the fluency in a number of areas including writing and possibly speaking Through the volume of language covered, learners are offered a great deal of repetition and consolidation of language, which Nation (1997) saw as key to improving vocabulary retention and fluency

It is also necessary to mention the benefit which is to learn to read Some studies (Bndaka, 2007; Hitosugi & Day, 2004; Renandya, 2007, Yamashita, 2004) convincingly demonstrated that learners who engaged in ER would become better readers in the target language Not only did their reading comprehension improve, but also students who read extensively learned reading strategies and increased their reading rates Improving reading rate, which is examined in some researches (Bell, 2001; Iwahori, 2008; Taguchi, Takayasu Maass & Gorsuch, 2004), is important because it is the basic feature of fluent reading Researchers also mentioned that fluent readers were better readers than slow readers

In addition, the gains in motivation and attitude were stated in some researches: Mori (2002); Nishino, T (2007); Ryoko de Burgh-Hirabe & Feryok, A (2013); Takase (2007); Yamashita, J (2004) These studies showed how attitudes toward reading in English changed and how the students became eager readers The students developed very positive attitudes toward books as their literacy levels in English were improved The studies also demonstrated the importance of

understanding learners' attitudes (particularly feelings) to reading both in first language and second language for encouraging second language learners' involvement in extensive reading

Finally, one important benefit of ER is increasing vocabulary acquisition, which has been mentioned in many researches: Hirsh and Nation (1992).Horst (2005); Kweon & Kim (2008); Nation & Ming-tzu (1999); Pigada & Schmitt (2006); Pitts, White & Krashen (1989); Soltani (2011); Yamamoto (2011) Nation (2001) claimed that when learners read, they not only learn new words and enrich their known ones, but they can also improve their syntactic knowledge To him, the aim of extensive reading is to read, or listen to, massive amount of comprehensible language within one's comfort zone with the aim of building fluency Besides, Leung (2002) conducted an investigation into the impact of ER on an adult's self-study of Japanese over a 20-week period to show that extensive reading can enhance vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension, and promote a positive attitude toward reading So "extensive reading is the only way in which learners can get access to language at their own comfort zone, read something they want to read,

at the pace they feel comfortable with, which will allow them to meet the language enough time to pick up a sense of how the language fits together and to consolidate what they know" (Bell, 2001)

2.3 READING MATERIALS

2.3.1 Graded readers

Richards and Schmidt (2002, p.230) defined graded readers as a text written for children learning their mother tongue, or for second or foreign language learners, in which the language content is based on a language grading scheme A graded reader may use a restricted vocabulary or a set of grammatical structures Currently there are a wide variety of graded readers‟ series available worldwide, like the Oxford Bookworms by Oxford University Press, Penguin Graded Readers

by Longman, or Cambridge English Readers by Cambridge, just to name some of them As observed by Nation (2005, p.13), although “the levels in these series are

not identical with each other in number of levels, the amount of vocabulary at each level, or the vocabulary lists on which they are based”, they still share a lot of the vocabulary covered Thus, “it is not important to stick to only one series of graded readers.” To many language teachers and learners, graded readers are an attractive option for several reasons Graded readers not only offer controlled, systematic, and comprehensive development of vocabulary and grammar, they also cater to the different interests and levels of learners However, there exist some objections to graded readers as well As Nation (2005, p.17) noted, some teachers and researchers see graded readers as “being unauthentic, watered-down versions of richer original texts” and “vocabulary simplification is also seen to result in more complicated grammar.” These concerns over graded readers should also be considered when choice of the use of graded readers is made Regarding the current context of English language learning in Vietnam, graded readers, however beneficial, are not widely used by foreign language teachers and learners mostly due to the availability

of these readers and partly due to ER being rather new

To select appropriate level for extensive reading, EFL teachers and learners may use the scale offered by Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF), a non – profit organization which aims to promote extensive reading

It can be seen that the EFR graded scale is divided into seven levels, each with sub – level for further classification Teacher should find the headword count of the books they wish to categorize (for example, 300 headwords) and see where it fits the Scale The books can then be labeled at that level for easy selection by students

For example, a Penguin Graded book, level 1 is about 300 – headword book and should be label Early Elementary

2.3.2 Unsimplified texts

Simply put, unsimplified texts include texts written for native speakers who read for pleasure and information rather than in order to learn a foreign language The most popular sources of unsimplified texts include articles from newspapers and magazines, and unabridged fictions These can be considered authentic materials – materials that were not originally developed for pedagogical purposes (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p.42) The major benefits of unsimplified texts lie in the opportunity for the learners to get exposed to realistic and natural examples of language use Besides, these same authors also suggested that “native speaker materials can be motivating for learners whose reading ability approaches native competency” As regards newspaper and magazines in particular, James & Lange (1974, p1-2) elaborated on three types of materials taken from these texts that can

be used for language learning: “(1) technical information, consisting of headlines, column headings, tables of contents; (2) short materials, comprising advertisements, want ads, weather reports, and other short items; (3) long articles, including full feature stories, fiction, comic strips, editorials.” The authors suggested that all these materials can be used for “intensive, extensive, or supplementary reading purposes.” Besides, these materials can meet the requirement for successful extensive reading that most educators and researchers would agree on: large quantity and wide range

of topics However, for those readers whose competency of the target language is not high, authentic reading materials can cause some frustration and discourage the readers due to the large number of news, or low-frequency words as well as the wide background knowledge required for comprehension of these texts

In this study, the students are encouraged to read graded readers instead of unsimplified texts because of the following reasons: First of all, newspaper and magazine articles and fictions, online texts in English are not available in the book

stores or the school library and unfamiliar in the student‟s daily life Students rarely read newspapers or magazines while they like reading stories much better

Secondly, some of my students do not have much time to find online texts in English or new words on the internet because they come from remote areas, poor families Asking them to buy reading materials themselves is not feasible, either, as they cannot afford to do this; a set of graded readers to be bought by the teacher and shared among students during the ER program is the only solution

2.4 READING ATTITUDES

It is undeniable that students‟attitude plays a vital role in contributing to their success in the process of language learning With regards to extensive reading, it is important to get insight of elements forming students‟ reading attitudes Following

is the review of some beliefs in language learning theories relevant to reading attitudes

Alexander and Filler (1976, p.1) define reading attitudes as “a system of feeling related to reading which causes the learners to approach or avoid a reading situation” More complicatedly, according to Smith (1990, p.215), reading attitudes

is “a state of mind, accompanied by feelings and emotions that make reading more

or less probable”

To make the concept “state of mind”, “feelings and emotions” clearer to help teachers understand students‟ reactions to reading, some researchers use three elements to describe reading attitudes including cognition, affect and conation These three components which seem to have served as a foundation for the conceptual development of reading attitude are viewed by Mathewson, 1994; Mc Kenna, 1994 According to the authors, the first component, cognitive, relates to an individual‟s evaluation or opinion (belief or disbelief) about the nature and value of reading The second component, affective, indicates feelings and emotions towards reading The last component, conative, refers to action readiness and behavioural intentions In other words, the conative component involves actions and behaviours which may promote or hinder reading

Based on the views of Mathewson (1994) and Mckenna (1994), the three components of reading attitudes can be illustrated in the following diagram:

Figure 2.1 Tri – component of reading attitudes

According to a review of literature by Yamashita (2004), there is considerable agreement among researchers on this tri – component model to reading attitudes In her study, Yamashita (2004) uses this tri – component model to examine the impact

of attitudes towards reading in native language (Japanese) and target language (English) on extensive reading in English among 61 Japanese second – year students The author mentions such attitude variables as what learners think (value), what they feel (comfort, anxiety) and what they intend to do It is very clear that learner‟s attitudes, particularly feelings should impact their performance or engagement in extensive reading

with particular reference to reading and writing The results showed a marked improvement in the performance of experimental subjects, especially in terms of their writing However, this study was carried out among ESL students in the United Kingdom, where English is used widely; this makes it less reliable to conclude that students‟ improvement in writing is the effect of ER

Six years later, Davis, the author of the article “ER: an expensive

extravagance” in ELT Journal 49 (1995), conducted ER programs in Singapore and Cameroon on 40 weakest secondary students for five years The results showed that

pupils had more positive attitudes toward starting new texts, their imaginative responses improved, as did their personal engagement with what they have read Their overall comprehension skills improved and they found it easier to read on other subjects Overall they came to see reading as a pleasurable, rather than a stressful activity

Besides, Hitosugi and Day (2004) incorporated an ERP through reading book

on 12 students in a second semester Japanese course at the University of Hawai After collecting data through reading test and effective questionnaire, they saw that students improved scores according to a traditional measure of reading comprehension and they also found positive results in an affective questionnaire that measured attitudes toward and motivation for learning

Macalister (2008) carried out an action research project on 18 students in a university in New Zealand in 12 weeks He used Pre-course questionnaire and interviews to collect initial data Mid-course questionnaire, mid-course letters, and observation were used to collect action data End-of-course questionnaire was used

to collect post data By analyzing the data collected, he came to the conclusion that

ER brought a number of benefits to students‟ reading ability and it should be implemented in an EAP program

In the same year, Phuong (2008) carried out a case study to explore the vocabulary development through extensive reading on the 44-year-old subject in 12 weeks Two tests (pre-test and post-test) and participant‟s diary were used to collect

the data By analyzing the collected data, the author came to conclude that even older governmental officials could significantly improve in vocabulary stock which took place in a such relatively short period of three months; and, ER really led to vocabulary development in terms of increasing number of words and word knowledge (from perspectives of meaning and grammatical behavior or using of words) The subject‟s reading comprehension and her attitude toward reading were also increasing positively after the period of extensive reading practicing

Thanh (2009) conducted an action research study at class K50A5 in the National Economics University to investigate the effects of guided extensive reading on EFL students' reading comprehension and motivation The author used a pre-test and survey-questionnaire to identify the level of student‟s reading comprehension and background knowledge After 6 week action research, the post-test and post-action-questionnaire were used to evaluate the possible changes in the students‟ reading comprehension and motivation The result revealed that the ER program had positive effects on students‟ reading comprehension and motivation In the post questionnaire, most students indicated that their speaking, writing skills as well as computer and internet skills were improved Besides, most of them agreed that they could read faster and built reading habits in their free time

2.6 SUMMARY

In summary, the literature on ER and some previous studies reviewed above provide evidence of the positive impact of ER on learners‟ language acquisition, particularly the beneficial effects of this kind of reading on students‟ reading comprehension Therefore, implementing an extensive reading program (ERP) is very necessary to help students improve their reading comprehension in general

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes in detailed the implementation of an extensive reading project in a class of forty – eight students The description of this research is preceded by the restatement of the two research questions, research design, participants, reading materials, data collection instruments and data analysis

3.1 RESTATEMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS

As stated in Chapter 1, Introduction, this study aims to investigate the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension of grade 10 students at Vietnam Poland high school and their attitudes towards extensive reading To achieve the aims, an action research project was carried out to address the following questions: The research was carried out to answer the following questions:

1 To what extent does ER help students improve their reading comprehension?

2 What are students‟ attitudes towards the ER program?

It is hypothesized that extensive reading can help learners improve their reading comprehension It is also assumed that learner can have positive towards language learning in general and reading in particular

3.2 PARTICIPANTS

The participants of the study were 48 grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi The students are at the age of 15, 33 girls and 15 boys These students were young, energetic and a little active and work well in pairs and group work In addition, they have learnt English for 7 years (from grade 3 to grade 10) Some students are interested in learning English and want to spend more time on it They participate well in the activities in class and do homework regularly But some others dislike learning English and are reluctant to participate in learning activities

3.3 SETTING

The action research was conducted during 17 weeks (23rd August, 2017 – 13th December, 2017), class 10C1 At this school, all the subjects are conducted in Vietnamese; therefore, students learn and use English only in English lesson In

terms of learning English, students learn and do exercises in the new textbook Tieng Anh 10

3.4 RESEARCH DESIGN

There are a lot of methods to be used in the field of applied linguistics such as experimental method, case study, survey, etc However, action research was selected as the method of the study because of its advantages discussed below The rationale for choosing action research procedure for this study will be explained in detail

3.4.1 Definition of action research

AR is defined in different ways by different researchers

In 1988, Kemmis and Mac Taggart defined that “an AR is teacher initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the teacher understanding of classroom teaching and learning, and therefore, brings about improvement in classroom practices”

Four years later, it was stated by Nunan (1992) that AR was “problem focused”, mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation, and tried to find solutions to the problem in focus It not only encouraged teachers to compare methods and ideas with a critical eye and to adopt these ideas into their teaching environment but also engaged them in their teaching in a deeper way

Wallace (1998) also defined “AR” as the work done by systematically collecting data on teachers‟ everyday practice and analyzing them in order to come to some decision about what teacher‟s future practice should be or the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make change and improvement or solve problems

It was believed by Cohen and Manion (1994, as cited in Burns, 2000) that action research aims to identify problematic situations or issues worth investigating for the sake of the participants According to Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988, as cited in Burns, 2000), there are four phases that process as evolving process: planning, action, observation and reflection

Planning: An action research usually starts with an observation or a question raised

by a researcher or students about their difficulty in learning As soon as the problem

is defined, the researcher will develop a plan of action which results in some improvement to the problem in the research context

Action: The plan is put into action for a certain period of time

Observation: Researchers are about to observe the effects of the action and to

collect the data afterwards In other words, any changes are about to be noted and/

or recorded

Reflection: Researchers take time to review what have been done so far and make

some evaluation to the effects of the action which become the basis for further cycles of the study

3.4.2 Rationale for using action research

Action research is considered the most recent type of research design which started only in the 1940s by the social – psychologist Kurt Lewin in his paper “Action research and Minority Problems.” Initially, it was mainly used in social sector to deal with multi – cultural groups discussing involving four steps of planning, acting, observing and reflecting Not until the mid – 1950s, action research has spread to education Then, in the 1970s, many action projects were carried out in Great Britain and the United States Since then, it has represented a trend among research designs (Creswell, 2014) In educational field, action research on their own problems or issues in their own educational setting

Kemmis and Mctaggart (1998) argue that attempting to educate without paying attention to action is not education at all An action research project is not only about research, it is about action, too An action research having the primary goal of finding ways of solving problems, bringing about social changes or practical action, therefore, should be done by all teachers at any time

Creswell (2014) analyzes key characteristics of action research Firstly, by conducting an action research, researchers study practical issues and seek to solve

an immediate, actual problem Secondly, action research provides opportunities to

better understand improve their educational practices Another characteristic of action research it involved the participation of many individuals and groups whose roles may vary and be negotiated Moreover, action research is “a spiral of activities” involving continuous reflection about problem, data collection and action The final characteristic of an action research is that its results can be easily share and immediately used among teachers, school personnel, and parents associations and other stakeholders

After considering all the characteristics mentioned about, the research decided to choose action research as the research design for his study in order to examine his own practices in teaching and learning vocabulary and find ways to improve his students‟ reading comprehension

3.4.3 Benefits and limitations of AR

3.4.3.1 Benefits of action research

It can be said that the primary purpose of action research is to help teachers understand their students and improve their practice in specific, concrete ways And both teachers – researcher and students are change-receivers profit much from action research There are some benefits which are mentioned in the following researches

When looking at educational dimension of action research, Gay and Airasian (2003) summarized the benefits resulted from the application of action research to education as following:

- Teachers investigate their own practice in new ways, looking deeper in what they and their students actually do and fail to do

- Teachers develop a deeper understanding of students

- Teachers are viewed as equal partners in deciding what works best and what needs improvement in their classroom or classrooms

- In most cases, solutions for identified problems are arrived cooperatively among teachers

- Teachers are often more committed to action research because they identify the areas they view as problematical and in need of change

- Action research is an ongoing process and its strategies can be widely applied

- Professional development and school improvement are core aspects for any teacher who engages in action research

- Teacher reflection can be conducted individually or in a school-based team composed of students, teachers and administrators

In addition, Borgia and Schuler (1996) admitted the importance of action research

in education by adding that action research:

- Encourages change in schools;

- Fosters a democratic approach to education;

- Empowers individuals through collaboration on projects;

- Positions teachers and other educators as learners who seek to narrow the gap between practice and their vision education;

- Encourages educators to reflect on their practice; and

- Promotes a process of testing new ideas

In summary, action research is a process that allows educators to experience problem solving and model it to their students and colleagues Moreover, action research can revitalize the entire learning and professional community Very practical and ongoing, action research can be used in an educator‟s everyday experiences while on-the-job

Besides, the positive changes occur in the school environment through the action research process Teachers become continuous learners, and students experience success in learning It is important to realize the benefits and purposes of action research, specifically in relation to the current professional demands and responsibilities in ESL language learning

3.4.3.2 Limitations

Denscombe (2003) stated a number of disadvantages of AR as following:

- The necessary involvement of the practitioner limits the scope and scale of the research

- The integration of research with practice limits the feasibility of exercising controls over factors of relevance to the research

- The nature of the research is constrained by what is permissible and ethical within the workplace setting

- Ownership of the research process becomes contestable within the frame-work of the partnership relationship between practitioner and researcher

In conclusion, although some people may critique that action research is an informal research since teachers are not academic researchers, it is widely believed that action research is extremely suitable for education as its main purpose is to help teachers as researchers solve their own teaching problems “in action”

3.4.3.3 Students‟ and teachers‟ role

In such an extensive reading program, the students play the leading role who will actively take part in the reading as well as all the activities that follow under the instructions of the teacher This focus on the students‟ role does not mean that the teacher‟s role can be ignored In this program, the teacher acts as an instructor As extensive reading can be said to be quite new to the students, instructions on how to read should be made clear to them Therefore, the teacher should make sure that all

of the students are certain of all the procedures of the program

In short, the reading materials and the students and teachers‟ role during the extensive reading program are considered to be the key factors that contribute to the success of such a program The program conducted in the study was, therefore, in the light of these considerations

3.4.3.4 Action research procedures

There have been some different models on action research procedures given by researchers

MacIsaac (1995, as cited in O‟Brien, 2001) suggested that the AR procedure should consist of four steps which are mentioned in figure 3.1 as follows:

Figure 3.1: Process of action research This model consists of four steps which can be described as:

- Step 1: Planning – a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action is developed in order to bring about improvement in specific areas of the research context

- Step 2: Action – the plan is put into action over an agreed period of time

- Step 3: Observation – the effects of the action are observed and data are collected

- Step 4: Reflection – the effects of the action are evaluated and become the basis for further cycles of research

In comparison with MacIsaac‟s action research model, Susan (1983, as cited in O‟Brien, 2001) suggested another model including five steps to be conducted within each research cycle (Figure 3.2) Initially, a problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis This is followed by a collective postulation

of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emerges and is implemented Data on the results of theintervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been At this point, the problem is re-assessed and another cycle of the process begins This

process continues until the problem is resolved

3.4.3.5 Action research procedures of the current study

The procedure of the current action research project can be described as follows

Stage 1: Planning, including problem and situation analysis (week 1)

* Identify a problem

The researcher‟s teaching experience, her discussion with learners and colleagues, and students‟ previous reading scores helped to find out that reading comprehension ability of learners was low Therefore, this feature was selected to be the focus in this study

* Develop a plan of action

A plan of extensive reading project (ERP) was designed in 17 weeks The researcher chose graded readers according to the difficulty level of graded readers Oxford Bookworms, Macmillan Readers and Penguin Readers were selected for his project Students selected one graded readers from a list of 50 graded readers for two levels, level 1 with 300 to 400 headwords and level 2 with 600 and 700 headwords, to read per week A pre – test was given to students at the beginning of the research

Stage 2: Action – implementing the plan (from week 2 to 13)

The reading plan was implemented from August to November, 2017 The students had to read twelve chosen from 50 graded readers (which are available on Drive –

an online storage website of Google) during 12 weeks out of class (one book a week) To monitor the reading procedure, an adapted weekly report by Bamford (19840) was used because this report is a simple procedure, it involves only students writing brief summaries of and personal reactions to the books they read Besides, this weekly report is also adapted widely by many researchers in the world

as well as in Vietnam The researcher attempted to use weekly report as a diary of reading After finishing a book, the students had to fill in a form of weekly report to write about what they read whether they found the books enjoyable or interesting and why as the original version of Bamform (1984) In addition, the researcher made some adjustment to fit the context of the study They were also asked whether the reading was easy or difficult for them and what difficulties the students meet during reading materials to offer guidance to keep the project on track The weekly report was collected at the end of the week by the researcher As students had English lessons three times a week, the researcher spent 10 minutes at the beginning

of the first lesson letting students share their extensive reading experiences and express their difficulty in reading graded readers

Stage 3: Observation (week 14 – week 16)

In this stage, the effects of the action were observed and data were collected

As mentioned above, the students participated in the extensive reading were guided

to read extensively in 12 weeks Through these weeks, the researcher found that most students prepared and read carefully, and enjoyed reading graded readers They also adjusted their way of reading when the researcher commented and gave feedback to their weekly report

Then post – test was used to measure the effects of extensive reading on reading comprehension The questionnaire was used to investigate the students‟attitudes towards extensive reading project

Stage 4: Reflection (week 17)

The action research (AR) was evaluated based on the results synthesized from the initial data, action data and post data Based on the findings of the AR evaluation, some conclusions and recommendations would be made for further research

3.5 READING MATERIALS

In the present study, an extensive reading project was developed and carried out from August to December, 2017 of the school year 2017 – 2018

The selection of books for extensive reading project was based on following principles:

First of all, the books were within the participants‟ English level There was difference in English proficiency among participants but in general, their English levels were under or upper elementary a little bit Thus, the researcher selected graded readers in level 1 with 300 to 400 headwords and level 2 with 600 – 700 headwords

The second point that must be taken into account in selecting materials for the extensive reading project was that the books were selected from different publishers because of their varying quality and classification of graded readers The researcher chose three familiar publishers which are Oxford Bookworm, Macmillan Readers and Peguin Readers

Thirdly, there must be a variety of reading materials in terms of genre and topics to satisfy the students‟need The selection of books may consist of novel, adventure, short story, legend, fantasy, fairy tales and classic fiction It would be better if selected books include a wide range of topics It is undeniable that reading will bring enjoyment if the books match students‟ interest

Fourthly, in choosing reading materials, students‟background knowledge must be considered It is obvious from psychological view that students are interested in books about which they have some sorts of background knowledge They would be interested to see how these were written in English Besides what is learned in school, film and television also provide background knowledge for students The good thing here is that the books which sound familiar to students may attract them For example, those who watched detective film “Sherlock Holmes” may be interested in reading the story in English

Based on the above principles, the researcher selected graded readers by different authors from three publishers for the extensive reading project Fifty graded readers books with audio, 300 – 700 headwords from Oxford Bookworm, Macmillan Readers and Penguin Readers were picked (see Appendix A) The graded readers

were uploaded to Drive – an online storage of Google In current time, all students have got an own smartphone, laptop and/ or tablet They are easy to download soft – copies of books to their smart devices to read anywhere they want

3.6 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

The instruments that were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data in this study include tests, weekly report and Questionnaire

3.6.1 Tests

The first tool used in this study is test It is considered a good instrument to get information, as “it can provide about general ability level of the students about specific problems that the students may be having with the language, and about their achievement in previous programs” (J.D.Brown, 1995, p.48) In this study, the data from the test was used as a source to find out the learners‟ progress after the action plan implementation

To investigate the impact of extensive reading on learner‟s reading comprehension, tests were administered to collect test scores as quantitative data for the study The Pre-Test (APPENDIX C) and the Post-Test (APPENDIX D) adapted from Paribakht and Wesche (1999) were used to evaluate students‟ RC before and after implementing the ERP The researcher decided to adapt these tests for her students because of two reasons: Firstly, they are suitable for students‟ level and the topics of the passages in the tests were familiar to the students Secondly, they are the sample paper-based test and students had to answer all the questions by writing the full answers Therefore, the researcher can avoid the fact that students could get high marks by choosing the answer randomly

The Pre-Test consists of two reading passages and 15 questions in which question 1

is question about the name of a person, questions 2, 4, 7, 8, 11 and 14 are questions about the things, questions 3 and 13 are quantitative questions, questions 5 and 10 are filling questions, 6 and 12 are reference questions, question 9 is question about the reason, questions 15 is an example question The time allowance for the test is

45 minutes for students to answer 15 questions