Using timed reading activities to increase tenth graders’ reading rate and fluency at tran phu high school, vinh phuc province an action research

v LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Changes in reading rate at the Pretest and Posttest 27 Chart 2: Changes in reading rate of slow readers and fast Chart 3: Changes in reading comprehension of

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT



LÊ THỊ THÙY DUNG

USING TIMED-READING ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE TENTH GRADERS’ READING RATE AND FLUENCY AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, VINH PHUC PROVINCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC TÍNH GIỜ NHẰM NÂNG CAO TỐC ĐỘ ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘ TRÔI CHẢY CỦA HỌC SINH

LỚP 10, TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN PHÚ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 6014.0111

HANOI – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT



LÊ THỊ THÙY DUNG

USING TIMED-READING ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE TENTH GRADERS’ READING RATE AND FLUENCY AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, VINH PHUC PROVINCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC TÍNH GIỜ NHẰM NÂNG CAO TỐC ĐỘ ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘ TRÔI CHẢY CỦA HỌC SINH

LỚP 10, TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN PHÚ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Trần Xuân Điệp

HANOI – 2013

i

DECLARATION

Lê Thị Thùy Dung, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own research It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary action could be taken and penalties imposed in accordance with University policy and rules

Signature

Lê Thị Thùy Dung

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been completed without the help, assistance and support

of many people to whom I am indebted

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mr Tran Xuan Diep, Assoc Prof Dr for the wholehearted guidance he gave me while I was doing this research I am truly grateful to him for his ideas, comments and instructions, as well as his constant support throughout my research

I would like to thank all the lecturers who taught me during the post graduate course They provided me with valuable knowledge in various aspects that I used to carry out my study

I also would like to thank all the staff members of the Department of Post graduate study, Vietnam National University for providing me best help and assistance to fulfill my thesis

I wish to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the administrators of Tran Phu High School, my colleagues at English Group for their constant support, co-operation, and encouragement while the study was in progress

My sincere thanks go to the students of class 10B who participated in my study and helped me with data collection for this study

Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, specially my parents and my younger brother who were standing for me with love, help, consideration and encouragement

This action research has attempted to examine the effectiveness of timed reading activity in increasing 10th graders‘ reading speed and their fluency This study also has investigated into the students‘ attitudes towards timed reading activity To reach these objectives, an action research was carried out The participants of the study were 40 non - English - major 10th graders from one class at Tran Phu High School, which was divided into 2 groups, fast readers and slow readers Timed reading activity was implemented during 8 weeks The data collection instruments were questionnaires (pre-questionnaire, post questionnaire), reading rare chart, and tests (pretest, posttest)

The results obtained from the analyzed data show that the use of timed reading helped raise students‘ reading rate and comprehension, especially in fast reader group Furthermore, most of the students expressed positive attitudes towards timed reading activity

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LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Participants’ background information 17

Table 2: Mean reading rate measured by wpm at the Pretest and

Table 3: The students’ reading comprehension at the Pretest and the Posttest

28

v

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Changes in reading rate at the Pretest and Posttest 27

Chart 2: Changes in reading rate of slow readers and fast

Chart 3: Changes in reading comprehension of slow readers

and fast readers

29

Chart 5: The post-questionnaire’s result (part I) 30 Chart 6: General feelings about timed reading activity 32 Chart 7: Feelings about the operation in timed reading activity 32 Chart 8: Belief on the effects of timed reading activity 33 Chart 9: Opinions about the use of timed reading activity 34

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

wpm: words per minutes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……….i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….ii

ABSTRACT……….iii

LIST OF TABLES……… iv

LIST OF CHARTS……… v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… vi PART A:

Introduction……….Error! Bookmark not defined

I

Rationale……… Err or! Bookmark not defined

II Aims and objectives of the

study……….Error! Bookmark not defined

III Research

Questions……….Error!

Bookmark not defined

IV Scope of the

study……… Error! Bookmark not defined

V

Methods………Erro r! Bookmark not defined

VI Significance of the

study……… Error! Bookmark not defined

VII Design of the

study………Error! Bookmark not defined

PART B:

DEVELOPMENT……….Error! Bookmark not defined

1.4.3 Class-paced

reading………Error! Bookmark not defined

1.4.4 Self-paced

reading……… Error! Bookmark not defined

1.5 Timed reading

activity……… Error! Bookmark not defined

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2.1 Participants and setting of the

study……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.1.1

Participants……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.1

Methods……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.2

Procedures……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.3 Instruments of data

collection……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.3.1 Pretest and posttest

……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.3.2 Students‘ reading rate

chart……… Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.3.3

Questionnaires……….Error! Bookmark not defined

2.2.4 Data collection

procedure……… Error! Bookmark not defined

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND

FINDINGS………Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3 Students‘ attitudes towards timed reading

activity………Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.1 The pre-questionnaire and part I of the post-questionnaire: The participants‘ general perception on

reading……… Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.2 Part II of the post-questionnaire: The participant‘s attitudes towards timed reading

activity……… Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.2.1 The participants‘ feelings about timed reading

activity……… Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.2.2 The participants‘ belief on the effects of timed reading

activity………….Error! Bookmark not defined

3.3.2.3 The participants‘ opinions about the use of timed reading activity in the future

………E rror! Bookmark not defined

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I

Recapitulation………Err or! Bookmark not defined

II Limitations of the

study………Error! Bookmark not defined

III Suggestions for further

research……….Error! Bookmark not

defined

REFERENCES……… E rror! Bookmark not defined

APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1: READING RATE CHART I APPENDIX 2: PRETEST II APPENDIX 3: POSTTET VI APPENDIX 4A: PRE QUESTIONNAIRE (English) X APPENDIX 4B: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN HỌC SINH 1 (Vietnamese) XI APPENDIX 5A: POST QUESTIONNAIRE (English) XII APPENDIX 5B: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN HỌC SINH 2 (Vietnamese) XV APPENDIX 6: SAMPLE OF LESSON XVII

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However, teaching reading is a really challenging job It takes much time and energy to make progress in this skill For teachers, it is a difficult task to get students complete reading activities accurately and punctually For students, they often have to struggle with reading tasks because of the lack of specific skills necessary for proficient reading especially in a limited time, which is popular in Vietnamese high schools And in Tran Phu High school where the writer is working, this problem happens in the same way The 10th graders at Tran Phu High School had great difficulty in doing reading tasks in allotted time Their reading rate, which was measured in the reading test before the research, was very slow (around 80 wpm) whereas many authors prove that the optimal reading speed for L2 readers should be around 200 – 300 words per minute (wpm) (Alderson, 1984; Anderson, 1999; Carver, 1990; Dubin and Bycina, 1991) According to Nuttall (1996), slow reading rate leads to the frustration in her description of the ―vicious cycle of the weak reader‖ Faster reading encourages the reader to read more; as a result, comprehension improves

Increasing reading rate, which is essential, can be done through reading rate activities Later studies show that readers achieve not only rapid-reading skills but also better comprehension when specifically taught rapid-reading techniques (Cranney, Brown, Hansen, and Inouye 1982) There have been a lot of reading rate

II Aims and objectives of the study

The study is aimed at to improving the students‘ reading skills through timed reading activity

Objectives of the study are to examine the effects of timed reading activity on tenth graders‘ reading rate and fluency at Tran Phu High School, Vinh Phuc Province and

to explore their attitudes towards timed reading activity

III Research Questions

In correspondence with the aforementioned aims and objectives, the researcher attempted to answer the following questions:

RQ 1: To what extent does timed reading activity affect learners‘ reading rate and fluency?

RQ 2: What are the students‘ attitudes towards timed reading activities as a technique used to improve their reading rate and comprehension?

IV Scope of the study

The study focuses on testing the hypothesis ―Timed-reading activity can increase tenth graders‘ reading rate and fluency at Tran Phu High School, Vinh Phuc Province‖ The study of factors affecting learners‘ reading rate would be beyond the scope of the study

V Methods

The study is to be conducted as an action research that utilizes quantitative research method The quantitative analysis is used to deal with the data collected from reading rate chart, pretest and posttest, pre-questionnaire and post questionnaire

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VI Significance of the study

The study is significant for the followings Firstly, the study will help the researcher suggest a better way to improve students‘ reading skills in certain contexts Secondly, the study will bring about possible insights into the reading skill development and motivation of the students in the 10th class at Tran Phu high school in Vinh Phuc Thirdly, the study will help increase the student‘s reading rate and comprehension Finally, the study will be initial considerations for future studies on the similar issues on both non-English and English major students at high schools

VII Design of the study

The thesis consists on three parts

Part A deals with the introduction This chapter provides the rationale, aims,

objectives, research questions, scope, method, significance, and design of the study Part B presents the development, which includes three chapters

Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background and academic viewpoints on reading,

reading fluency, reading rate, and timed reading activity Some research works related to the current study are also presented in this chapter

Chapter 2 describes methodology This chapter is composed of description of

methodology of the study, participants and setting of the study, data collection

instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3 presents data analysis and discussion This chapter analyses, discusses

the results achieved from the study and offers some implications of the study

Part C is the conclusion that presents the author‘s reflection and the outcomes of

the study as well as indicates some limitations of the study and finally gives some suggestions for further research

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter reviews theories related to the definitions of reading, reading fluency, reading rate and timed-reading activity It also summarizes some previous studies

on timed-reading activities and reading speed

1.1 Reading

Reading is one of the most important skills to master It is known as a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning There have been a lot of different definitions of reading according to various scholars

Kenneth Goodman(Goodman, 1967) describes reading as receptive language process and uses the metaphor of guessing game to describe a reading act

Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game It involves an interaction between thought and language Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time The ability to anticipate that which has not been seen, of course, is vital in reading, just as the ability to anticipate what has not yet been heard is vital in listening (Goodman, 1967)

According to Rumelhart (1977) and Stanovich (1980), reading is the process in which the interaction among the reader, the text and the context occurs In other words, comprehension is a complex process which involves a mixture of elements depending on one another

1.2 Reading fluency

Reading fluency has become a crucial matter in English as a first language (L1) setting (Taguchi, Gorsuch, & Sasamoto, 2006) Segalowitz (2000) states that fluency, regardless of whether in reading, speaking, listening, or musical performance, often refers to three components: accuracy, speed, and fluidity In the case of reading, fluency has been widely characterized as ―the ability to read text

Reading fluency is the ability to recognize words rapidly and accurately (Taguchi,

et al., 2006; Taguchi, Takayasu-Maass, & Gorsuch, 2004) These authors share the same idea that reading fluency requires a certain level of accuracy and rate which readers can decode the texts effortlessly and contribute most of the attention on comprehending In short, the authors agree that three components of fluency include accuracy, reading rate, and comprehension

Of these three components of reading fluency, reading rate is assessed as the fundamental factor Samuels asserts, ―for the purposes of fluency, speed rather than accuracy should be stressed‖ The statement is based on the loss of fluency in efforts to obtain 100% word accuracy Slow reading necessarily results in less reading It is also difficult for a slow reader to comprehend because the rate at which a slow reader moves through a text makes it difficult to hold on to the meaning Besides, slower readers become more frustrated which lowers motivation Finally, instruction must aim to create faster, more fluent readers The fear of losing comprehension, neglecting prosody, ignoring word recognition because of reading rate is evident then and now Still, reading rate cannot be neglected (Rasinski, 2000)

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In the earliest studies on reading speed, it is pointed out that rapid reading is only a skimming strategy used to go through the reading material (Brown, Inouye, Barrus, and Hansen 1981) Recent researchers; however, have shown that rapid-reading techniques help readers gain both faster reading rate and better comprehension (Cranney, Brown, Hansen, and Inouye 1982)

Klaeser (1977, as cited in Jeremy Browning, 2003) presents four benefits from

gaining a faster reading rate The first one is the amount of time students will save

when they are able to raise their speed With an increase in speed, students will be

able to cover more materials than at a slower speed The second advantage is that

readers are able to concentrate better which leads to greater comprehension Of course this area is under debate because there have been studies of students that lost comprehension when they were striving to increase their reading speed This is usually the cause of "rushed reading" and contains little more technique than scanning However, it is believed that through an "effective" timed reading

program, students can attain an increased reading rate and comprehension Thirdly,

with the increase in potential speed and comprehension, academic grades tend to

rise as well Lastly and most importantly, students will enjoy the act of reading

more, which promotes greater extensive reading, an added area for increased reading speed and comprehension With increased reading rate and motivation for extended reading, students will encounter frequent and repeated vocabulary, which will transcend into other areas of language skills development Reading rate activities obviously help students have these four ―positive points‖ to become successful readers

According to Nuttal (1996:127), the frustration resulting from slower reading

is stated in her description of the ―vicious cycle of the weak reader.‖ Readers with poor comprehension often slow down their reading speed and then do not enjoy reading because it takes so much time Therefore, they do not spend much time on this skill, so the vicious cycle is continued Nuttall recommends that by increasing

In fluent reading, word recognition is sufficiently automatic and accurate so that a reader‘s attention is focused on the meaning of the text (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) Fluent reading does not prevent hesitating or pausing to decode unknown words However, it is unlikely that readers will have a high-quality interpretation of a text when many words need to be decoded The breaking point at which the number of known words is insufficient for constructing a useful interpretation of a text is determined by reader proficiency and background knowledge Fluent readers know the majority of the words automatically and attend to less frequent words in texts; thus, the aim of fluency practice would seem to be to increase the automatic response of beginning and struggling readers to the words that account for the majority of the words in texts

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Automaticity usually forms and develops little by little The more traces are added

to memory, the stronger the response of memory to a familiar situation becomes, but in principle, it can occur in a single trial Logan (1991) show that 15 minutes of memorization produces automaticity in an arithmetic analog task that is similar in many ways to the automaticity produced after 12 sessions of practice on the task itself They go on to show that memorization is not more effective than practice on the task itself—subjects in the 12-session practice experiment had many more problems to learn than subjects in the 15-minute memorization experiment—but they make the point that extensive practice is not necessary to produce automaticity LaBerge and Samuels (1974) also help make the way reading fluency builds up clear Automaticity means ability to perform some arbitrary task at a competent level without requiring conscious effort Moreover, if the student is automatic or is

"a skilled reader, multiple tasks are being performed at the same time, such as decoding the words, comprehending the information, relating the information to prior knowledge of the subject matter, making inferences, and evaluating the information's usefulness to a report he or she is writing" (Samuels)

While automaticity is considered fundamental to fluent reading abilities, working memory in fact is the major factor of this process (Alptekin & Ercetin, 2011; Grabe, 2004) Working memory is composed of a ―limited-capacity intentional control system—limited storage, limited abilities‖ to manage multiple processes at the same moment, and keeping information for just very short periods of time (Chang, 2010) Consequently, due to the rules of working memory, in reading processes, less attention will be put on comprehending content if more attention is expended on completing word recognition tasks (e.g., word decoding) (Chang, 2010)

Reading fluency is generally achieved through automatization of word recognition, which allows one to pay more attention on the meaning of the text rather than on decoding words Grabe (1991) states that ―fluent reading is rapid; the reader needs

to maintain the flow of information at a sufficient rate to make connections and inferences vital to comprehension‖ Reading fluency is usually measured by reading

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rate, calculated by words per minute (wpm) Conflicting data exist regarding the optimal or sufficient reading rate Hinggins and Wallace (1989) suggest that 180 words per minute ―may be a threshold between immature and mature reading and that a speed below this is too slow for efficient comprehension or for the enjoyment

of the text‖ Jensen (1986, as cited in Anderson, 1999) suggests that the optimal rate

is 300 words per minute which helps L2 readers seek to ―approximate native speaker reading rates and comprehension levels in order to keep up with classmates‖ Many authorities shared the similar speed According to Carver (1990), speed is closely tied to reading process and each has a typical rate He concludes that efficient reading takes place at the speed of 300 wpm If a person‘s reading speed is faster or slower than 300 wpm, he is not reading; he would be scanning, skimming, learning, or memorizing the material Dubin and Bycina (1991) state that

― a rate of 200 words per minutes would appear to be the absolute minimum in order to read with full comprehension.‖ Based on the review of literature on the issue of adequate reading rate, the rate of at least 200 wpm with at least 70% comprehension is considerable a reasonable goal for most of the L2 students to attain (Anderson, 1999) However, many L2 college students act far below these figures (Nation, 2005; Taguchi, et al., 2004) Although only automaticity in word processing is not enough to determine reading comprehension, which can be widely affected by many other factors (Fraser, 2007 as cited in Chang, 2010), such as

―reading purposes, tasks, text difficulty (involving grammatical structure and vocabulary), as well as topic familiarity, or even readers‘ physical condition (e.g., being tired or unable to concentrate)‖, it is considered as a good indicator of reading fluency because ―fluent readers usually have fast word recognition abilities‖ (Chang, 2010)

Therefore, to improve students‘ reading fluency, it is necessary to help them have such ―fast word recognition abilities‖ which can be achieved through reading rate activities Up to now, there has been a certain amount of research investigating the

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reading rate activities, each of which has its own advantages in improving students‘ reading fluency These activities will then be presented briefly in the next part

1.4 Reading rate activities

This part will present the activities aimed at improving the students‘ reading rate and then their reading fluency

There have been four significant recommendations related to pedagogical techniques for rapid reading Harris (1966) suggests exercises dealing with word recognition, vocabulary building, and selections used for timed reading ―Reading Improvement Exercises for Students of English as a Second Language‖ The two techniques he recommends are skimming and scanning Students are given instructions to read the passage as quickly as possible Plaister (1968) proposes the use of metronome in increasing reading speed The metronome is used as a pacer with a 3 x 5 index card to read through the teacher‘s prepared materials The goal is

to read a line of text in a fixation of the eye, then moving to the next line with the beat of the metronome Seliger (1972), on the other hand, proposes a method of previewing, scanning, directed reading with the using the finger as a pacer to reduce eye regressions Finally, another method referred to as ―phrase reading‖ is suggested by Riley (1975) Like the one proposed by Plaister, this method advocates teaching students to increase their eye span by reading in units Instructions are given to focus on an imaginary vertical line down the center of the passage and through the use of the eye span to read the materials

The four methods make the use of mechanical devices, specially prepared materials

by the teacher, or simple instructions to ―read as quickly as possible‖

Basing on reading rate development theories and practice in first and second language reading, Anderson, N J (1999) suggests four reading rate activities used

in the second language reading class to increase students‘ reading rate as followed:

1.4.1 Rate-buildup reading

According to Anderson, in this activity students have 60 seconds to read as much material as they can They are then given an additional 60 seconds to read again

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from the beginning of the text They must read more material during the second second period than in the first The drill is repeated a third and fourth time The purpose of this activity is to reread ―old‖ material quickly, gliding into the ―new.‖

60-As their eyes move quickly over the old material, students actually learn how to process the material more quickly The exercise does not really emphasize moving the eyes quickly; instead, the material should be processed and comprehended more efficiently As students participate in this rate building activity, they learn that indeed they can increase their reading rates

1.4.2 Repeated Reading

The repeated reading activity develops reading rates as students read a short passage over and over again until they achieve criterion levels of reading speed and comprehension For example, students may try to read a 100-word paragraph four times in two minutes The criterion levels may vary from class to class, but reasonable goals to work toward are criterion levels of 200 words per minute at 70 percent comprehension

As a method of improving reading fluency, repeated reading, which is developed by

S Jay Samuels, is the practice of rereading a short text passage until a set level of speed and accuracy has been reached Samuels‘s repeated reading method was grounded in the automaticity theory that he developed with his colleague David Laberge, suggesting that comprehending text is less difficult for fluent readers because they decode text automatically

Research such as that by Patricia Koskinen and Irene Blum (1986) finds that repeated reading in assisted or unassisted methods, improves both fluency and comprehension at all reading levels and on novel texts as well as on those that were read repeatedly The work of these scholars collectively emphasizes the repetitive, practiced nature of acquiring a preset level of speed and accuracy

As the student continued to use this technique, the initial speed of reading each new selection was faster than the initial speed on the previous selection Also, the number of re-readings required to reach the criterion reading speed decreased as

1.4.4 Self-paced reading

The procedure for this activity is rather similar to the class-paced reading activity During this reading activity, students determine their own goal for reading rate They then determine how much materials need to be read in a sixty second period to meet their target rate The activity proceeds nicely when each student marks off several chunks of lines and reads silently for five to seven minutes with the instruction calling out minute intervals Students can then determine if they are keeping up with their individual reading rate goals

These four activities have some benefits They do not require specially developed texts or equipment and therefore can be utilized by classroom teachers using class texts or materials Additionally, they are short and can fill small units of time Furthermore, the activities raise the reader‘s awareness of the importance of reading rates Students find these activities worthwhile and see measurable progress in their reading rates as a result of these activities (Anderson, 1999) This will allow

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students to read more with greater understanding, thereby leading to increase language proficiency

1.5 Timed reading activity

According to Champeau de López (1993, as cited in Atkins, 2010), timed reading is the reading of texts of equal length and equal lexical difficulty, regularly over a period of weeks or months Texts are read against the clock and followed by a set of comprehension questions, which are answered without referring back to the text The purpose of the activity is to increase reading fluency It can be assumed that reading speed will increase with practice as well as comprehension (Utsu, 2005), although for some participants, this may not be the case The power law of practice

is a phenomenon that applies to practiced skills of this kind (Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981), where gains at the beginning of a study will be pronounced, but will slowly level off to a stage where the participants become more skillful, and gains are almost unnoticeable (Logan, 1991)

There are several terms used to refer to ways of helping learners to increase their reading speed – timed reading activity These include paced reading (Cushing-Weigle & Jensen, 1996), accelerated reading (Breznitz & Share, 1992), and class- and self-paced reading (Anderson, 1999) These all involve having students read under some degree of time pressure The theoretical framework of the idea that timed reading improves reading fluency is based on research on working memory (i.e., short-term memory), referring to the information that is usually kept in immediate storage and processing, and is characterized by having limited capacity and accordingly the readers often forget that information easily and very quickly (Chang, 2010)

One of the suggested strategies to reduce the functional restrictions of short-term memory in the reading process is timed reading activity Timed reading involves having students read texts of equal length and equal lexical difficulty under time pressure with the purpose of improving reading speed to the highest possible rate that supports comprehension rather than developing speedy readers (Chang, 2010)

There is a structural technique that timed-reading instructors employ to aid in the

speed of reading; this is known as phrase reading This is developed because of

how the eyes move across the page When an individual reads they move their eyes across the text fixating on certain words Between fixations is a short sudden movement of the eyes called ―jerk‖, the occurrence of which will lead to a ―saccadic motion‖ This particular motion doesn't pick up information for the brain to process (Klaeser, 1977, as cited in Browning, 2003) A good reader uses between 85-95% of his reading time fixating and around 5-15% percent moving from fixation to fixation A poor reader spends more time moving and less time fixating This is because a good reader makes use of each fixation ―By seeing two or three words at each fixation, his saccadic movements are rapid jerks from phrase to phrase the poor reader fixates on every single word, sometimes on every syllable or every letter‖ Then, to become a good reader, the readers should use their eyes well in phrase reading, that is they try to read two or three words at a glance (Klaeser, 1977,

as cited in Browning, 2003)

In short, timed reading activity has been discussed and proved to have a certain benefit on improving students‘ reading rate and then reading fluency

1.6 Previous related studies

While timed reading activity is found to be very useful in L1, it has not received much attention in L2 context (Grabe, 2004) Here is little research on speed reading effects on L2 learners (Chung & Nation, 2006; Macalister, 2008; Chang, 2010) Chung & Nation's 2006 study on Korean students of English point out that the average reading rate increased by 73 wpm or 52% after a speed

In 2008, Crawford conducted an experiment of applying timed reading activities with two intact classes of first-year Japanese This study investigates the effects of timed reading activity on the development of reading rate of slow and fast readers The results indicate timed reading is effective for developing the reading rates of the students in this study Statistically significant reading rate gains are found for students in both groups, and it is shown that both slow and fast readers benefit from timed reading

Atkins (2010) attempts to investigate the effectiveness of concurrent timed reading and extensive reading programs in intermediate and low ability classes in a university context The classes are streamed into five levels by the results obtained

on a proficiency test created by the university The results show that in the first four stages of the study that there are continued improvements for all classes However, the reading scores for the three low level classes in the last stage indicate a decrease

in performance due to the performance on one reading Most of the students report that their reading fluency increases after the course Although the results of this study provide further support that timed reading leads to gains in reading fluency, they are not conclusive and this needs to be tested with further research

Another study by Chang (2010) also involves a timed reading activity integrated within an English proficiency program This study investigates changes in reading rate, reading comprehension and students‘ perception towards timed reading The participants are 84 college students from two intact classes served as experimental and control group The results show that the experimental group that undertake a

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speed reading course increased 25% (29 wpm) in reading speed vs 5% (7 wpm) for the control group Nevertheless, the experimental group gain only marginally in their comprehension score compared to the control group The students‘ perception towards timed reading is rather favorable The vast majority of the students report that they obtain a great deal of knowledge through reading and become more skilled in searching for main ideas by scanning within a limited time The speed gain results are not statistically significant, however In her discussion, Chang posits that " it is likely that the low frequency of the weekly meetings and varied quantities of reading were the most important factors in the results" (Chang, 2010)

In Vietnam, there have been few studies related to reading speed Nguyen (2008), in her thesis, makes an effort to test the effectiveness of rate buildup reading technique

on reading speed She concludes that rate buildup reading activities and repeated

reading activities increase the students‘ reading speed

In conclusion, all the authors agree that timed reading has some positive effect on improving reading speed and they add that this improvement is a gradual process rather than a sudden jump in speed Significantly, many students believe they perceive gain from reading speed at the same time as feeling a greater pleasure

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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

The previous chapter reviewed theory of reading, reading fluency, reading rate, and provided a necessary theoretical background for the present study This chapter reports the methodology used for the data collection analysis in the study Starting with a description of the participants and the setting of the study, it then represents data collection instruments and analysis procedure of the study as well as discusses both the advantages and disadvantages of each data collection instrument

2.1 Participants and setting of the study

2.1.1 Participants

This action research was carried out with 40 non-English major students in grade 10B at Tran Phu High School while they were studying their second term of the school year, beginning from 4 March Their age ranged from 14 to 15 There were

35 females and 5 males, two-third of whom came from the city Their English proficiency levels were reportedly at the pre-intermediate level Table shows the participants‘ background information such as the gender, age, and their self-assessed English proficiency

Table 1: Participants’ background information

Number of

participants

Male Female 14 - 15 Pre-intermediate

On the basis of the pretest results, the participants were divided in two groups: slow readers whose reading rate was below 100 wpm and fast readers with reading rate above 100 wpm, which is helpful for the later analysis producer

2.1.2 Setting of the study

This study was conducted at Tran Phu High School with forty non English major students of class 10B, from early March to mid May 2013, when they were at their second term of the school year with one reading period as the optional period per week All of them had learnt English for four years at lower secondary schools Up

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to the time of the study, they had been studying English at Tran Phu High School for six months with more than 60 compulsory periods for textbook and 20 optional periods for supplementary speaking, listening, writing, language focus and word study but not reading lessons Many students commented that they had great difficulty in completing the reading test in allotted time and their scores were not high Observing my students I realized that they often spent a lot of time reading the text again and again It seemed that they were counting the words, some of them even pointed to words by words while reading

Basing on the result of the pretest, I found out that the students‘ reading rate was far below the reasonable target speed for most of the EFL students to attain which is

Select Readings – Pre-Intermediate by Linda Lee and Erik Gundersen The book

consisting of 14 topically based reading texts focuses on two key areas of reading – comprehension and vocabulary The length of the reading texts range from 300 to

500 words that introduce the most commonly used vocabulary found in English today On the basis of the students‘ pretest results and the researcher‘s teaching

experience, Select Readings – Pre-Intermediate was chosen as suitable material for

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2.2.2 Procedures

This action research project was conducted with the following steps adapted from a cycle for action research suggested by Nunan (1992, p 19):

Step 1: Initiation / Problem Identification:

During the reading lessons, the students often complained that they did not have enough time to cover the reading text within the time allowance and they tended to need more extra time for the reading tasks

Step 2: Preliminary Investigation:

To identify the actual reading rate of the students in class 10B at Tran Phu High School, the researcher conducted a pretest The forty non - English major students took the test in which they had to read the two texts and then completed ten multiple choice comprehension questions As a result, the reading rate was very low, around

80 wpm

The questionnaire designed to investigate the students‘ general perception on reading was then administered to them Most of them were well aware that their own reading rate was not high (68%) and they did not understand the reading passages much (48%), leading to their less concentration (64%) and pleasure (60%) while reading

Step 3: Hypothesis

The student‘s reading fluency was low as a result of low reading rate After reviewing the initial data, the research came to the assumption that if students take part in a timed reading course, their reading rate would increase, then leading to their improved reading fluency

Step 4: Intervention

This action research was carried out aiming at applying timed reading activity to students in order to improve their reading rate and reading fluency Following the hypothesis, these steps were taken to implement the plan

Firstly, the students were given information to raise their awareness of the importance of reading rate The teacher and researcher also introduced, explained

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and modeled timed reading activity to them It was emphasized that timed reading did not mean reading as quickly as possible but reading at adequate rate with adequate comprehension which is defined as 70% by Anderson (1999)

The class then met for each 45-minute period per week during 8 weeks (from week two to nine, 11/3/2013 to 6/5/2013), excluding week one for the pretest and week nine for the posttest In each period, the students would deal with 1 reading lesson Then, after 8 weeks, they would cover 8 reading lessons

In each reading lesson, the students were instructed that they would try to read one text fluently at the target rate of that lesson and make every effort to understand what they were reading A stopwatch was shown on the computer screen while they were reading to measure the amount of time elapsing from starting reading time to finishing time After finishing the text, the students looked up at the stopwatch and noted down their reading time on their page they read and turned to another part – checking comprehension They would answer the multiple choice comprehension questions that followed the reading text without referring back to the text (see APPENDIX 6: SAMPLE OF LESSON) The researcher supervised the class to make sure that there were no discussions or no use of dictionary during the task After that, the teacher gave the students the correct answers and necessary explanation The students‘ reading rate and reading comprehension score were recorded on the reading rate chart at the end of each lesson The researcher collected them and then compared and analyzed the information from this result carefully to identify whether timed reading activity would help students improve their reading rate and then raise their reading fluency

In each lesson, the target reading time was set for students In the first week the target reading rate was 125 wpm because most of the students could read at current speed of 65 – 120 wpm They were encouraged to keep up with the target rate Those who read faster than the target rate were not expected to slow down their reading rate They could finish the reading task as quickly as possible Basing on the result in Chang (2010)‘s and Crawford (2008)‘s studies in which the researchers

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calculated the student‘s increasing reading rate was 3 wpm each week, the target reading time in this research was, as a result, increased by the same rate as 3 wpm each week It means that the time reading was 128 wpm for the second week, 131 wpm for the third, 134 wpm for the forth, and so on After the reading course of 8 weeks, the students were expected to raise their reading rate to 146 wpm

Finally, after 8 weeks, the students were asked to take the posttest and complete the post questionnaire

Step 5: Evaluation

In order to clarify to what extend the timed reading activity would affect the students‘ reading rate and fluency, information and results from the students‘ reading rate chart, tests and questionnaires were collected, analyzed and interpreted

2.2.3 Instruments of data collection

The present study employed quantitative method including tests, reading rate chart, and questionnaires

Tests: tests were administered to explore the students‘ reading abilities, their

reading rate and reading comprehension

Reading rate chart: Reading rate chart was used to record the students‘ reading rate

and comprehension score each week

Questionnaires: Questionnaires were delivered after the students had finished the

tests

The combination of various data collection instruments would provide a comprehensive overview of the participants‘ reading proficiency in general and their reading rate in particular before and after the treatment The following part discusses each data collection instrument used in this study in detail

2.2.3.1 Pretest and posttest

Tests are considered a very effective tool in the assessment of the research In second language acquisition studies, tests are used to collect data about the subjects‘ ability in and knowledge of the second language In this study, in order to assess the students‘ ability before the treatment and their achievement after treatment, two

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types of tests were administered: Pretest and Posttest The test items were taken from New English File Pre-intermediate Test Booklet All of these reading test tasks are included in Appendix 2 and 3 The reason for choosing these test items is that all of them can be regarded as standard tests They are developed by experts and therefore considered to be well constructed In addition, selecting these test items were done in consideration to the subjects‘ reading ability At the time of the study, their English proficiency was at pre-intermediate level, so short and simple reading tasks were chosen to be more appropriate for the subjects

Reading rate was assessed based on two texts A comprehension test followed after finishing each text Both texts contained five multiple choice questions with a total

of ten multiple choice questions Each question contained three options

Reading rate and reading comprehension were calculated in the same way in Chang (2010)‘s study Reading speed was measured in words per minute by the formula – total words divided by total seconds times 60 For example, if a student takes three minutes and ten seconds to read a 300-word text, his speed will be: 300/(3*60+10)*60 = 95 words per minute When the reading speed of each text was calculated, the two reading speeds were added and then divided by 2

Reading comprehension was calculated by the total of correct items timed ten and then divided by the total items in the task If a student finished a ten– item exercise with seven right answers, his score was 7*10/10 = 7

Although the greatest advantage of tests is that they can measure the students‘ language proficiency, and that the test scores can be marked objectively, so the test result can be concise and objective enough for the study, the main weakness of using test cores to assess students‘ language proficiency is that they do not always reflect students‘ real ability as some students may not perform well in tests due to some psychological factors such as nervous or anxiety or other reasons such as lack

of reliability and validity in some available tests Therefore, other instruments including students‘ reading rate chart and questionnaire were employed to gather more information about the participants

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2.2.3.2 Students’ reading rate chart

The students‘ reading rate and comprehension score gained each week were also recorded in reading rate chart in Appendix1 The researcher applied the individual charts for the students to note their reading time, reading rate and reading comprehension score These statistics were written down by the students right after

each lesson

2.2.3.3 Questionnaires

Nunan (1992) points out that, ―A questionnaire is an instrument for collecting data, usually in written form, consisting of open and/or close questions and other probes requiring a response from the subjects‖ One of the reasons for using questionnaires

is that it can reach a large number of people in a short time As Gillham (2000) guarantees, ―the responses to even a large-scale questionnaire can be pulled in within a matter of weeks‖ (p 6) According to Seliger and Shohamy (1989), a questionnaire is a common instrument for collecting data on unobservable phenomena such as attitudes, motivation, and self-concept They also indicates that

a questionnaire can be designed and distributed to large participants at the same time so the data are more uniform and standard A questionnaire provides an easier way to collect and analyze data than interviews, and gives less pressure for an immediate response as respondents can complete the question when it suits them

In this study, there are two types of questionnaires: Pre-questionnaire and questionnaire

post-The pre-questionnaire includes 5 questions designed in order to get information

about the students‘ perception on reading (see Appendixes 3A, 3B) This

questionnaire consists of 5 questions with a scale from 1 to 5 for students to choose

a suitable one

The post-questionnaire (see Appendixes 4A, 4B) consists of 2 parts: part I with the aim of gaining information on the students‘ perception on reading, part II with the aim of finding out the attitudes of students towards timed reading activity The

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result of part II is maybe the reason to confirm the result gained in the part I, and then confirm the effects of timed reading activity on students

The post-questionnaire has 2 parts:

Part I: The same as the pre-questionnaire

Part II: Statements here relate to the students‘ attitudes towards timed reading

activity This part includes 3 sections

Section 1 consists of 3 statements to investigate how the students feel when they take part in practicing timed reading

Section 2 gathers information about students‘ belief in the effects of using timed reading activity

Section 3 is designed to prompt the subjects to elaborate on their opinion about the use of timed reading activity for reading practice in the future

Here, a Likert scale is used in the closed questions in order that the responses could readily be quantified and analyzed The participants are required to rate each item

on a 5-point scale by circling the response (1, 2, 3, 4 or 5) which coded for different levels of agreement or other categories

2.2.4 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedures were implemented in early March and ended in Mid May 2013 All of the procedures involved the following steps

i In the first week of March, 40 students of 10B were given the pretest These test scores were gathered and then analyzed to identify the students‘ current reading rate and comprehension before the treatment The questionnaire designed to investigate the students‘ general perception on reading was then administered to them

ii After that, the treatment of Timed reading technique was applied to the students for 8 weeks from 11/3/2013 to 6/5/2013 Each week, the students kept recording their reading time, reading rate and reading comprehension score on reading rate chart after each lesson