An action research on improving 10th grade students’ reading comprehension through the teaching of lexical inference strategy at high school for gifted students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OFPOST-GRADUATE STUDIES ---NGUYỄN HÀ SÂM READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THE TEACHING OF LEXIC

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-NGUYỄN HÀ SÂM

READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THE TEACHING OF LEXICAL INFERENCE STRATEGY AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION

(NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN NGHĨA CỦA TỪ VỰNG TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN, ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-NGUYỄN HÀ SÂM

READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH THE TEACHING OF LEXICAL INFERENCE STRATEGY AT HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED STUDENTS, HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF

EDUCATION

(NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN NGHĨA CỦA TỪ VỰNG TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG CHUYÊN, ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Võ Đại Quang

Hanoi, 2014

I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “An Action Research on Improving 10 th Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension through the Teaching of Lexical Inference Strategy at High School for Gifted Students, Hanoi National University of Education” is the result of my own work in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Teaching Methodology atFaculty of Post - Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and InternationalStudies, Vietnam National University The research has not been submitted to any otheruniversity or institution wholly and partially

Hanoi, 2014

Nguyen Ha Sam

This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number

of people

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr

Vo Dai Quang, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me throughthe stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions haveinspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to my students, without whom it would never have beenpossible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last by not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice they have devoted

to the fulfillment of this academic work

This study was intended to investigate the impact of lexical inference strategy on

10th grade students‟ reading comprehension ability More specifically, the researcherstrived to (1) examine whether students‟ lexical knowledge had any correlation to theirreading ability, (2) whether the teaching of lexical inferencing had a positive effect toenhance tenth grade students‟ reading comprehension, (3) investigate the students‟attitudes towards the instruction, and (4) propose some recommendations for instructingthis strategy to other teachers

To achieve those abovementioned aims, an action research was conducted withthe participation of 46 tenth grade students from a class at High School for GiftedStudents, Hanoi National University of Education The teaching program aimed atinstructing the students with lexical inferencing to help them enhance their readingcomprehension ability The study included: (1) pretest and a questionnaire (2) theinstruction of lexical inferencing, (3) posttest and a questionnaire, (4) teacher‟s notesand students‟ learning logs Later, (5) interviews were included to support the findings

The main findings of the research were as follows: (1) Lexical competenceserved as good prediction of reading ability in a foreign language The higher scoresstudents got in vocabulary tests, the higher scores they received in readingcomprehension tests (2) Overall, the instruction of this vocabulary-learning strategyimproved their reading comprehension (3) Most of the students held positive attitudestowards the instruction of lexical inferencing (4) The students had a habit of guessingwords from context using local clues or information from around the target word

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: Action Research Model 18

Table 1: Classification of Reading Strategies 7

Table 2: Background Information of the Subjects 17

Table 3: Procedures of the Study 26

Table 4: Results of Question 1 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest 28

Table 5: Results of Question 2 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest 28

Table 6: Results of Question 3 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest 28

Table 7: Results of Question 4 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest 29

Table 8: Results of Question 5 in the Questionnaire After the Pretest 29

Table 9: Correlation between the Two Tests Before Lexical Inferencing Instruction 30

Table 10: Correlation between the Two Tests After Lexical Inferencing Instruction 30

Table 11: Percentage of the Students’ Correct Answers in the Pretest and Posttest 31

Table 12: Results of Question 1 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest 33

Table 13: Results of Question 2 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest 33

Table 14: Results of Question 3 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest 33

Table 15: Results of Question 4 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest 34

Table 16: Results of Question 5 in the Questionnaire After the Posttest 34

Abbreviations

T: Teacher

S1: Subject 1 in the interview

S2: Subject 2 in the interview

S3: Subject 3 in the interview

HNUE: Hanoi National University of Education

L2: second language

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……… ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND FIGURES………iv

TABLE OF CONTENT……… … V PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the Study 1

1.2 Aims of the Research 2

1.3 Objectives of the Research 2

1.4 Research Questions 3

1.5 Scope of the Research 3

1.6 Significance of the Research 3

1.7 Structural Organization of the Thesis 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter 1: Literature Review 5

1.1 Theoretical Background 5

1.1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension 5

1.1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies 6

1.1.2 Lexical Inference Strategy 9

1.1.2.1 Definition of Lexical Inference Strategy 9

1.1.2.2 Value of Lexical Inference Strategy 11

1.1.2.3 Factors that Affect Lexical Inferencing 11

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research Area of the Thesis 12

1.3 Summary 15

Chapter 2: Research Methodology 16

2.1 Research Setting 16

2.2 Subjects 16

2.3 Research Types 17

2.4 Research Approaches 17

2.5 Data Collection Instruments 19

2.5.1 Pretest and Posttest 19

2.5.1.1 Vocabulary Multiple-Choice Tests 20

2.5.1.2 Reading Comprehension Tests 20

2.5.2 Questionnaires 20

2.5.3 Interviews 21

2.5.4 Teacher‟s Notes and Students‟ Learning Logs 22

2.6 Intervention: Instruction of Lexical Inferencing in Class 22

2.6.1 Reading Materials 22

2.6.2 Steps of the Instruction in Lexical Inferencing 23

2.7 Data Collection Procedures 25

2.8 Data Analysis 26

2.9 Summary 27

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions 28

3.1 Preliminary Investigation 28

3.1.1 Findings 28

3.1.2 Discussion 29

3.2 Evaluation 30

3.2.1 Research Question 1 30

3.2.2 Research Question 2 31

3.2.2.1 Results from Pretest and Posttest 31

3.2.2.2 Discussion 31

3.2.3 Research Question 3 32

3.2.3.1 Results from Questionnaire After the Posttest 33

3.2.3.2 Discussion 34

3.2.3.3 Results of the Interview 35

3.2.3.4 Discussion 37

3.3 Summary 37

PART C: CONCLUSION 39

3.1 Recapitulation 39

3.2 Conclusions 39

3.3 Limitations of the Research 40

3.4 Suggestions for Future Research 41

REFERENCES 43

APPENDICES………I

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the Study

In the last few decades, second/foreign language vocabulary acquisition has been anincreasingly interesting topic of discussion for researches, teachers, curriculumdesigners, theorists and others involved in second language learning All considervocabulary as being a very important element in language, especially in reading skills.When mentioning the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension,Nation (1990) claimed that vocabulary knowledge is one of the best predictors ofreading ability and the ability to acquire new information from the text As a result, itcan be said that the threshold for reading comprehension is, to a large extent, lexical.Lexical problems will, therefore, hinder successful comprehension

In fact, second/foreign language readers often cite lack of adequate vocabulary asone of the most common obstacles to text comprehension Kim‟s (1995) study alsoshows that learners‟ lack of vocabulary knowledge or their being unfamiliar with words

is a major problem affecting readers‟ reading comprehension Many readers haveclaimed that they would like to read more, but when they encounter unknown lexis theylose their interest From observations, the researcher also realize that Vietnameselearners of English, in general, and grade 10 students at High School for GiftedStudents (HNUE), in particular, after several years of learning English, turn out to beword-by-word readers They tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning ofevery single word Students feel insecure when they read without the aids of glossing ordictionaries When they encounter a new word in the reading context, they simply donot show any effort to guess its meaning The reason is that they always rely on theglossing of Vietnamese translation of unfamiliar words in reading texts, or resort tousing dictionaries immediately Yet, this habit was proved to be a bad habit and affectstudents‟ reading comprehension (Dechant, 1991) The results are limited vocabularyknowledge and inadequate reading ability

One possible explanation for the abovementioned problem can be found in Millerand Perkins‟ study (1989), in which the researchers indicated that in most readingclassrooms, students have received inadequate instructions on reading skills and

strategies Teachers normally stress on the production of reading comprehension ratherthan the reading process Therefore, a better way of teaching and learning reading skills,

as many researchers have suggested, is to equip students with the strategy of guessingword meaning from context and to help them become independent readers Particularly,

10th grade students may have not been taught any reading strategy before They haveacquired a range of vocabulary and grammar after five to seven years of learningEnglish Now it is urged that they be taught learning strategies to become better andmore efficient learners

With a view to gaining some insight into reading strategies and reading strategyinstruction, I chose to study how to improve students‟ reading comprehension throughthe teaching of lexical inference strategy The rationale for my focus is that lexicalinference strategy plays a critical role in successful reading (Sullivan, 1978) Althoughthe importance of lexical inferencing has been highlighted in a number of empiricalstudies, much remains to be learned about it

1.2 Aims of the Research

The study aimed at improving reading comprehension ability of 10th grade students atHigh School for Gifted Students (HNUE) through lexical inference strategy instruction,and giving recommendations on how to teach students to use lexical inference strategieseffectively to enhance their reading abilities

1.3 Objectives of the Research

The specific objectives of the research were as follows:

 Examine whether there is a correlation between lexical knowledge and reading comprehension

 Apply the teaching of lexical inference strategy to improve reading

comprehension ability of 10th grade students at High School for Gifted Students

 Explore the students‟ attitudes towards lexical inference strategy instruction

 Give recommendations to other teachers of English on how to teach the students

to use lexical inference strategy effectively to improve their comprehension in readingclasses

1.4 Research Questions

In this investigation, the following research questions were addressed:

1 Is there a correlation between students’ lexical knowledge and their reading comprehension ability?

2 To what extent does the teaching of lexical inference strategy have impact on the students’ reading comprehension?

3 What are the students’ attitudes towards the lexical inference strategy

instruction?

1.5 Scope of the Research

This study only focused on the teaching of lexical inference strategy to grade 10students at High School for Gifted Students, so the teaching of other reading strategies

or to other subjects would be beyond scope

1.6 Significance of the Research

This study focused on investigating the effect of the vocabulary learning strategy lexical inferencing - on students at High School for Gifted Students, especially on tenthgraders For students in the tenth grade, exposure to a large amount of reading andlearning new words in reading can develop good habits in terms of English learning asthey begin high school Thus, as mentioned above, if the instruction of lexicalinferencing leads to good results, it can be put to use in wider scale In addition, thisthesis study also investigated students‟ attitudes towards the instruction, so thatteachers could have a better idea about how to help students learn English

-1.7 Structural Organization of the Thesis

The thesis is organized as follows:

Part A - Introduction – provides an overview of the study

Part B - Development - consists of three chapters:

In Chapter One – Literature Review, a review of relevant literature on this issue is presented

In Chapter Two – Research Methodology, a description of research methods isdiscussed in detail, including a description of selection of the participants, datacollection instruments and data collection procedures.

In Chapter Three – Findings and Discussions, the results of the study are presented

In Part C - Conclusion, the researcher provides a summary on main points raised inthe study, the major conclusion drawn from conducting this study, and a discussion of the study‟s limitations, and suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Theoretical Background

1.1.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension

Reading is an important subject in language learning no matter what language thelearner is trying to learn Understanding what one reads is a very crucial skill for alearner to acquire If a person cannot comprehend what they read, they also cannot learninformation on his or her own or enjoy reading Goodman (1982) regards reading as “apsycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as

he can, a message encoded by a writer as a graphic display”

Grellet (1981) defined reading comprehension: “Understanding a written text meansextracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible” In other words,finding information efficiently from the text can help the reader understand what thetext is about Further, Grellet (1981) also explained two main reasons for reading: one

is for pleasure and the other is for acquiring information (in order to discover something

or in order to do something with the information obtained) As for how to sharpenlearners‟ reading comprehension, inferencing is considered one of major readingtechniques Grellet (1981) explained that “inferring means making use of syntactic,logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements” In otherwords, reading is a constant process of guessing

What Grellet (1981) mentions about reading does not aim at any particular readerbackground (i.e whether readers are first language learners or not) nor any specificlevel But, when speaking of second language learning through reading, Barnett (1989)stressed that the reading models mostly widely used for readers are bottom-up, top-down, and interactive Barnett (1989) explained that the bottom-up model is essentiallytext-driven In other words, it focuses on learners‟ decoding ability during reading Itseems that the reader tries to reconstruct the writer‟s meaning by recognizing lettersand words The top-down model is viewed as reader-driven It emphasizes both usinglearners‟ prior knowledge and constructing meaning from written text by predicting,

sampling, confirming, and correcting in reading comprehension It seems that learnerswith more or less reading proficiency have the ability to make predictions, and theirgeneral knowledge becomes more important for their reading comprehension As forthe interactive model, it stresses reader ability to switch between the top-down andbottom-up models during reading comprehension The reading strategy of this model ismore flexible and can be employed according to learner competence.

When the three reading models are applied to second language reading, someproblems still exist For example, foreign language readers are not usually fullyproficient about the phonological system when reading Further, for foreign readers, thedifferences and distance in terms of culture, and the distance inherent in any targetlanguage text can also make reading comprehension more difficult Nevertheless,Barnett (1989) still claimed that the three reading models have their own advantages interms of developing learners‟ reading ability In addition, the goal of each readingmodel is to make foreign language readers succeed in reading target texts Since reading

is a “psychological guessing game” (Goodman, 1982), by guessing through reading,readers can “reduce their dependence on the print and phonics of the texts” (Barnett,1989) However, what can readers do when they encounter unknown words? How canreaders go through reading without any interruption? As mentioned previously, themost useful strategy for coping with vocabulary is guessing words from context orlexical inferencing (Nation, 1990; Nassaji, 2003) Therefore, there indeed exists astrong relationship between coping with vocabulary and fluent reading

1.1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies

Researchers point out that effective readers spontaneously use reading strategies inthe reading process, and the use of appropriate reading strategies may improve readingcomprehension (Oxford, 1990)

Reading strategies can be understood as “the special thoughts or behaviours thatindividual use to help them to comprehend, learn and retain new information from thereading text” (O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990)

According to O‟Malley & Chamot (1990), there are three major categories ofreading strategies, namely, cognitive, meta-cognitive and social/affective Cognitivestrategies help readers to construct meaning from the text whereas meta-cognitivestrategies are utilized to regulate or monitor cognitive strategies; and social/affectivestrategies represent a broad grouping that involves either interaction with another

person Following is the possible classification of reading strategies:

Advance Self- Self- Elaboration Grouping Cooperationorganizers monitoring evaluation

Directed Transfer Deduction Question for

Table 1: Classification of Reading Strategies (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990)

1.1.3 Lexical Development through Reading

Most new second/foreign word learning is thought to occur through reading(Paribakht &Wesche, 1999) At the same time, improvement in reading comprehensionrequires ongoing vocabulary development The way they deal with unknown words that

learners are engaged in when they encounter an unknown word influences how they

interpret the reading (Fraser, 1999) Paribakht and Wesche (1999) reported four lexical

strategies in their research how learners dealt with unknown words in reading texts:

(1) Ignoring words: Learners reported ignoring unknown words when the words were not key words for the text

(2) Retrieving: Learners read the unknown word repeatedly with an attempt to retrieve it from phonetic or graphic cues

(3) Appealing for assistance: This strategy involved directly asking the interviewer for

assistance or verifying the meaning of the target word in a dictionary

(4) Inferencing: When learners actively tried to identify the meanings of unknownwords, the strategy they used was inferencing, which accounted for almost 80% of the

strategy used in Paribakht and Wesche‟s research (1999)

When an instructor aims at developing learners‟ vocabulary through reading, it isnecessary to consider the possible ways of treating the unknown words in texts Theteacher needs to decide the purpose of the lesson If the purpose of the lesson is todevelop reading skills, then the teacher should not spend too much time on vocabularyinstruction However, if the purpose of the lesson is to develop learners‟ vocabulary,then the teacher needs to spend some time on particular vocabulary and on vocabularylearning strategies The strategies of guessing from context, using word parts, anddictionary work require a lot of time, but once these strategies are mastered, they morethan repay the time invested in them (Nation, 1990) Nation (1990) summarized thepossibilities for the instructors to deal with unknown words while teaching reading

1 Ignoring unknown words: It is often recommended that learners should beencouraged not to look up every unknown word that they meet in a reading text Freebodyand Anderson (1983) found that readers skipped unfamiliar words and even parts ofsentences containing them if they did not seem to be necessary to follow the theme of thetext or to do the task they were set Putting a time limit on such reading will also makeignoring some unknown words an advantage (British Council Teachers, 1980)

2 Giving the meaning quickly: In some situations, translation will be the mosteffective way Usually the teacher will give the meaning that works in the context If theword has useful parts, quick analysis of the word will not take much time and will haveuseful effects

3 Pre-teaching vocabulary: One way of stopping vocabulary work from interruptingreading is to pre-teach vocabulary in the text This can be a useful procedure but there areseveral difficulties associated with it (Nation & Coady, 1988) First, the research has notshown the gains in comprehension as a result of pre-teaching vocabulary Second, pre-teaching takes away the opportunity for learners to use their guessing skill

Third, vocabulary teaching will be more meaningful for learners after they have met it

in the text because then they have some experience to attach the teaching to

4 Glossing: One way of dealing unknown words in a text is to provide a shortdefinition somewhere near the text Glossing helps reading by means of providing themeanings of words that are not easily guessed by using contextual clues Learners should beencouraged to use glosses as a way of confirming guessing from context They should notlook up the meaning of a word without first having a guess at its meaning For this reason,glosses are best situated at the end of the text or in the back of the book

5 Referring to a dictionary: Dictionaries are used primarily to check meaning Thenext most frequent uses are to check spelling and pronunciation (Bejoint, 1981;MacFarquhar & Richard, 1983) In guessing words from context, reference to a dictionary isone of the steps used to check if a guess is correct Research on dictionary use andcomprehension has shown that allowing learners to use dictionary while reading does notmeasurably increase their comprehension (Bensoussan, 1983) Moreover, there areconsiderable obstacles to overcome before learners at all levels are able to make efficient use

of a dictionary (Nation, 1990)

6 Guessing from context: This is undoubtedly the most important vocabulary learningstrategy Its aim is for learners to be able to make a well-formed guess at the meaning of anunknown word in context without interrupting the reading too much The effect of guessingfrom the context is the main point of this study and is further described in detail in the nextcontent

1.1.2 Lexical Inference Strategy

1.1.2.1 Definition of Lexical Inference Strategy

Inferencing is defined as the cognitive process a reader goes through to obtain theimplicit meaning of a written text (Chikalanga, 1993) It is considered to be acompensation strategy essential for first language as well as second language readingcomprehension (Bialystok, 1979) Furthermore, it is recognized as an essentialcomponent of the process of reading comprehension, which postulates that readinginvolves an interaction between textual information and prior knowledge of the reader

Lexical inferencing involves making informed guesses of word meanings in light ofall available linguistic cues in combination with the learner‟s general knowledge of theworld (Haastrupt, 1987) If used in an effective way, it can serve for purposes ofimmediate comprehension in a listening, interaction, or reading context, and underfavorable conditions, it may lead to retention of the word form as well as semantic andother lexical information (Patribakht & Wesche, 1999).

Clarke and Nation (1980) proposed a strategy of guessing words from context andthis strategy is considered very simple for learners to use when they encounter unknownwords in context The strategy can be divided into five steps The five steps do not needperforming in order, and they are as follows

Step 1: Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech For example, is

the word a noun, a verb, or adjective?

Step 2: Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word In this

step, learners can ask themselves some questions such as “Who does what to whom?”

or “What does what?” Learners can find clues in the immediate grammar In otherwords, learners use local clues to guess the meaning of unknown word For example,

“Typhoon Nari destroyed the city.” Here “destroyed” is an unknown word and learners

can guess that the typhoon did something to the city With the help of the surroundingclue, learners can guess that the word may have a negative meaning

Step 3: Look at the relationship between the clause and sentence containing the

unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs It means that l earners can use globalclues to guess the word meaning Pay attention to transitional words such as “but”,

“because”, or “in other words” Therefore, it is important to find if sentence patternbelongs to the one such as cause and effect, condition, contrast, clarification, orexemplification

Step 4: Use the knowledge learners have gained from Steps 1-3 to guess the

meaning of the word It means that learners combine the knowledge they gained byfollowing the first three steps and then make a guess of the word meaning

Step 5: Check the guess is correct.

a Check the speech of the word learners guess and the unknown word

b Replace the unknown word with the guess.

c Use prefixes and roots as a guide

d Consult the dictionary

The procedure proposed by Clarke and Nation (1980) is based on language cluesand does not focus on background content knowledge (Nation, 2001) The reason forthis is that linguistic clues can be found in every text, but background knowledgecannot Background knowledge is strongly related to both the textual aspects and thelearners themselves (Nation, 2001) Further, by using this procedure to guess wordsfrom context, learners can pay more attention to vocabulary learning than focusing onbackground knowledge

1.1.2.2 Value of Lexical Inference Strategy

Clarke and Nation (1980) studied learners who used strategy of guessing themeanings of words from context and claimed that there are some advantages to thisstrategy Firstly, it allows the learners to learn vocabulary without the aid of the teacherand learners‟ vocabulary can be expanded through extensive reading Secondly, owing

to several encounters with one word in context, learners can increase their command ofthe word and its various uses Thirdly, with the strategy of lexical inferencing, learnerscan continue their reading without stopping to consult a dictionary, which allows them

to develop independent thinking regarding which unguessable words need to be looked

up in a dictionary Fourthly, learners are encouraged to summarize the information ofthe guessed word they get in context before consulting a dictionary Afterwards, theycan have more impressions and a better understanding of the guessed word Finally, byusing the strategy of lexical inferencing, learners can practice seeking information andmaking predictions of the word in context, which can in turn develop their reading skill.1.1.2.3 Factors that Affect Lexical Inferencing

Paribakht (2005) divided the factors affecting lexical inferencing into two broadcategories: contextual factors and learner-related factors According to Paribakht(2005), contextual factors are referred to as “the number of occurrences of the unknownwords, the importance of the unknown words to text comprehension, the density of

unknown words in the text, text length, comprehension tasks and word characteristicsand the existence of clear contextual clues” It seems that the design of the text and theuse of vocabulary both play a crucial role in the success of lexical inferencing On theother hand, learner-related factors include “learners‟ backgrounds; previous learningexperience; size of receptive vocabulary knowledge; procedural knowledge; attention todetails in context, including ability and inclination to use context effectively;preconceptions about the meaning of the word; and the usefulness of previously knowninformation in cue utilization” From the description of these learner-related factors, it

is obvious that what affects the success of lexical inferencing is strongly connected tolearners‟ knowledge of words and texts

As mentioned previously, lexical inferencing is a very important way of incidentalvocabulary learning However, to achieve successful guessing, in addition to contextualand learner-related factors proposed by Paribakht (2005), some more detailed factorsshould also be discussed Schmitt (2000) proposed seven factors that affect inferencingsuccess These factors are described as follows

1 The context must be rich enough to offer adequate clues to guess a word‟s meaning

2 Readers are better able to use local clues in proximity to an unknown word than moreglobal clues that are located further away

3 Learners may mistake an unknown word for one they already know with a similar orthographic (written form) or phonological form (spoken form)

4 Cognates can help guessing from context if they are used prudently

5 Background knowledge about the topic and the culture being discussed aids

inferencing

7 Learners need to be skilled in guessing

8 Guessing a word from context does not mean that it will be remembered

1.2 Review of Previous Studies Related to the Research Area of the Thesis

Nagy et al (1985) attempted to determine whether students could really acquireunfamiliar word knowledge while reading authentic texts In their study, eighth-gradestudents of average or above average reading ability read either an expository or anarrative text of about 1,000 words in length After reading, those students received two

vocabulary assessment tasks on 15 target words selected from each text An individualinterview and multiple-choice test were also conducted After the experiment, theresults showed that learning from context did take place and vocabulary gain was smallbut statistically reliable Further, the amount of learning from the narrative was thesame as that from the exposition Thus, it seems that word learning from context is notconfined to any specific genre This study shows that here is a close relationshipbetween vocabulary learning and reading After the proof of the existence of vocabularygrowth through learning from context, the efficiency of using lexical inferencing should

be further investigated

Nassaji (2003) claimed that “lexical inferencing has been found to be the mostlywidely used by L2 learners” Based on the perspective, Nassaji‟s (2003) study aimed atinvestigating the use of strategies and knowledge sources in L2 lexical inferencing.Twenty-one ESL learners participated in the study The data were collected fromintrospective and retrospective think-aloud protocols of those participants The learnerswere asked to infer new word meanings from context In a total of 199 inferentialresponses, 51 (25.6%) were successfully inferred, 37 (18.6%) were partially successful,and 111 (55.8%) were unsuccessful Initially, it seems that lexical inferencing was notsuccessful However, when Nassaji observed the processes behind those learners‟lexical inferences, he found that one of the major problems leading to incorrectinferences was that the learners often mistook the target words for another one they arefamiliar with, and that they were easily confused by similar-looking words FromNassaji‟s study, it seems that although lexical inferencing is the strategy most widelyused by L2 learners, most learners could not use the strategy successfully Despite thefindings of Nassaji‟s (2003) study, he still did not deny the worth of the existence oflexical inferencing Instead, Nassaji put strong emphasis on the importance of learnersbeing skillfully trained to use the strategy of lexical inferencing, in order to infer wordssuccessfully

Lo‟s study (2004) aimed at investigating the effect of lexical inferencing on juniorhigh school students‟ vocabulary learning and reading comprehension, including theobservation of the types of knowledge sources and contextual cues the students used

The participants were 68 junior high school student – 34 students respectively were inthe experimental group and in the control one The study procedure included the pretest,the treatment – lexical inferencing instruction that lasted for four months, and theposttest The results showed that there was a significant correlation between students‟vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension It meant that the increase invocabulary knowledge contributed to better reading comprehension Besides, theparticipants of the experimental group who were instructed in lexical inferencingperformed better in vocabulary and reading comprehension tests than those of thecontrol one That is, the instruction of the strategy – lexical inferencing had a positiveeffect Finally, the participants of the experimental group could make use of more types

of knowledge sources and contextual cues in the process of inferencing than those ofthe control one From the findings of Lo‟s study (2004), it is suggested that teachersshould help students to practice the inference strategy

Hsu (2004) focused on an investigation of how to enhance incidental vocabularyacquisition through guessing words from context The participants in her studyconsisted of four classes with a combined total of 186 junior college students inTaiwan The aim of the study was to instruct the students in lexical inferencing toobserve if the strategy could help them enhance incidental vocabulary acquisitionthrough reading The participants were divided into two groups, an experimental groupand a control group, and later each group was further divided into three different levelsbased on English proficiency Afterwards, the experimental group received theinstruction in lexical inferencing as proposed by Clarke and Nation (1980), while thecontrol group received none The results of the study are as follows First, theinstruction of learning vocabulary strategies helped students to enhance theirvocabulary acquisition through reading The incidental vocabulary gains increase inthem experimental group was significantly superior to that in the control group Thisimplies that the students in the experimental group made a lot of incidentalimprovement in vocabulary acquisition after they received the instruction Second, theresearcher al so found those students' vocabulary gains did not absolutely correlate totheir reading comprehension level Finally, based on the collected data of the

questionnaire, most of the students in the experimental group had a positive attitudetoward the strategy of lexical inferencing Therefore, Hsu (2004) suggested that thestrategy of lexical inferencing be implemented in students‟ daily class.

From the above empirical studies supporting vocabulary gains using lexicalinferencing, several conclusions can be reached First, although there are some factorsthat affect successfully guessing from context, the substantial positive effect cannot bedenied Second, it seems that most learners tend to guess word meanings when theyencounter unfamiliar words through reading As a result, instruction in efficiently usingthe strategy of lexical inferencing is strongly recommended

1.3 Summary

Real vocabulary learning comes through use, but teachers can also help the process

by drawing attention to particular words, and by teaching strategies for learningvocabulary Meeting the words in a variety of contexts and using them to express newideas provide the most important opportunities for vocabulary learning There arestrategies to cope with new vocabularies, like guessing the meaning, analyzing wordparts, consulting the dictionary and mnemonic techniques All these strategies makelearners independent of the teacher while reading and learning vocabulary In particular,the most important lexical strategy is guessing from context It is worth spending time

on this strategy It is the most powerful way of dealing with unknown words (Nation,1990) In recent years, researchers have paid a great deal of attention to vocabularylearning and have focused on lexical inferencing processes of learners They haveinvestigated knowledge sources learners use to make inferences, factors that affectinferencing, and the effect of inferencing on reading and vocabulary learning Based onthe literature reviewed in this chapter, this research integrated lexical inferencinginstruction into students‟ English learning to see the effects of lexical inferencing onstudents‟ vocabulary learning and reading comprehension, and thus equip students withthe ability to infer word meanings independently while reading

Chapter 2: Research Methodology 2.1 Research Setting

The study was conducted at High School for Gifted Students (HNUE) There are 33classes with the total number of more than 1,000 students The classes are categorizedinto different majors: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics,Literature, English, and two other non-majored classes: A1 and A2 As the studentscome from different parts in Vietnam, many of them come from the countryside, so ingeneral, the English proficiency of the students is not very high Reading is a difficultskill for them, mostly due to their lack of vocabulary In addition, they tend to be word-by-word readers, and frequently tried to translate the reading text into Vietnamese.The teaching staff is composed of 12 teachers of English, all of whom graduatedfrom University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,Hanoi Their ages vary from 23 to 40 The researcher is also a teacher of English at thishigh school She is 25 years old and has about nearly 3 years of teaching experience

The textbooks used at this school are Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11, and Tieng Anh

12

– standard syllabus for non English majored classes, and advanced one for Englishspecialized classes However, from the researcher‟s observations and from thestudents‟ reflection, the reading texts in this series of textbook are not rich enough incontext to motivate students to practice reading strategies

2.2 Subjects

The subjects of this thesis study were composed of 46 students from class 10A1 atHigh School for Gifted Students (HNUE), which the researcher is in charge of.According to the result of Oxford Placement Test given by the researcher at the verybeginning of the school year, most of the students in this class are at pre-intermediatelevel The table below summarizes the background information of the participantsincluding the gender, age, and their English reading proficiency assessed by the teacher

Total Gender Age English proficiency

Table 2: Background Information of the Subjects

There were three reasons behind the choice of these tenth grade students Firstly,this is the only class of grade 10 that the teacher is in charge of Secondly, all thestudents had received formal English instruction for four years at secondary school andthey were supposed to have a basic knowledge of English words and sentences -enough to read simple texts Lastly, the students were expected to learn more English

by reading longer and more complicated texts to achieve a good academic performance

in English after they entered high school As a result, in the main study, if the lexicalinferencing instruction worked, other students could be trained to use the instruction assoon as they entered high school In this way, they could enhance their vocabulary andreading ability throughout their three years of high school

2.3 Research Types

The ultimate goal of this study is to explore the effects of lexical inference strategyinstructions on students‟ reading comprehension ability To achieve the research goal,the study combined both quantitative and qualitative data Quantitative data werecollected based on the results of the questionnaires, pretest and posttest Further,qualitative data were gathered using interviews, teacher‟s notes and students‟ learninglogs In this way, the study could get more complete results

2.4 Research Approaches

This study was carried out using action research approach Action research is first andforemost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in aspecific context The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs withinthe educational context in which the research is being carried out To put it another word,action research is a “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the

real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention.” (Cohen &Manion, 1994).

The reason why the researcher chose this approach is that the aim of the study was

to improve the current situation of English reading comprehension Secondly, the studywas formed with several uncertainties and suspicions, thus, it needed the alteration andimprovement during the research process Taking everything into consideration, it wasbelieved that action research was the most appropriate approach to this thesis

Susman (1983) put forward this action research model He distinguished five phases

to be conducted within each research cycle (Figure 1) Initially, a problem is identifiedand data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis This is followed by a collectivepostulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emergesand is implemented Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analyzed,and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been At thispoint, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another cycle This processcontinues until the problem is resolved

Figure 1: Action Research Model (Susman, 1983)

In order to conduct an action research, Nunan (1992) suggested seven steps, namely

Initiation, Preliminary investigation, Hypothesis, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination, and Follow-up This study strictly followed the general steps of an

action research cycle suggested by Nunan

2.5 Data Collection Instruments

2.5.1 Pretest and Posttest

In this study, in order to figure out the effects of lexical inferencing on vocabularyacquisition and reading comprehension, the researcher adapted two reading articles

used as pretest and posttest in Hsin‟s study (2008): The Amazon Rainforest and Movie

Stunts (See Appendices 1 and 2) The reason for choosing the two reading articles for

the tests is that only one article for the subjects to read and then be tested on may raiseconcerns regarding validity However, the researcher feared that more than two articlesfor the subjects to read and be tested on would bore them and take too much time.Therefore, the researcher decided to base the thesis project on the two articles

The two articles were used in both the pretest and the posttest According to Carrell

et al (1989), “the rationale for using exactly the same test for both pre-and post-testingwas to assure exactly comparable tests, thus avoiding the problem of equating differentforms of pre-and posttests” In other words, using the same test in both pre-and posttestcan avoid uncertain variables raised by different forms of tests and then can make aconsiderable comparison One of the purposes of this thesis study was to compare theperformance of the class before and after the instruction, so the pretest and posttestwere the same In the pretest, two tests were conducted (i.e one was conducted first andthen after one week the second one was conducted) The posttest was conducted in thesame way as the pretest The exam papers in the pretest were collected as soon as thesubjects finished each test and the subjects were not provided with any correct answersafter the pretest Further, the vocabulary items tested in the pretest did not appear in any

of the following six articles instructed, or in the subjects‟ English textbook for thatsemester, to ensure that the results of the posttest would not be interfered with

2.5.1.1 Vocabulary Multiple-Choice Tests

Two different styles of tests were designed for the pretest and posttest: one was avocabulary multiple-choice test and the other was a reading comprehension test, which

is discussed in the next section

In this thesis study, two vocabulary multiple-choice tests adapted from Hsin‟s study(2008) (See Appendices 3 and 4) were given to all of the subjects Five multiple-choicequestions were designed based on five chosen words in the first and second articlerespectively In other words, ten target words were tested in total

The purpose of the vocabulary multiple-choice test was to discover whether subjectsknew the target word meaning Therefore, the questions mainly focused on finding theappropriate meaning of the target word

As for the evaluation of the score of the vocabulary multiple-choice tests, if thesubject got a correct answer, they received one point

2.5.1.2 Reading Comprehension Tests

Two reading comprehension tests adapted from Hsin (2008) were employed in thisstudy (See Appendices 5 and 6) Each test was composed of five readingcomprehension questions to test if the subjects understood the main ideas of the twoarticles Similar to the design of vocabulary multiple-choice test, questions in thereading comprehension test had four answer options for the subjects to choose from.The evaluation of the score of the reading comprehension tests was performed in thesame way as that of the vocabulary multiple-choice tests If the subjects got a correctanswer, they received one point

concerned subjects‟ opinions about their ordinary reading The first question concernedhow the subjects usually deal with unknown words while reading According to Nassaji(2003), the strategies that learners use when they encounter new words include

“ignoring unknown words, consulting a dictionary, writing them down for furtherconsultation with a teacher, or attempting to infer their meaning from context”.Therefore, the four options for the subjects to choose from in the first question werebased on the strategies listed above As for the second question, it concerned whetherthe subjects could learn new words in their ordinary reading In the third to the fifthquestions, subjects were asked for their point of view towards the second article, whichwas tested in the pretest The reason behind the last three questions focusing on thesecond article instead of the first one was based on the fact that the subjects received thequestionnaire as soon as they finished the second test, so their memory of the secondarticle would be clearer than for the first article, which was read a week earlier

Questions in the questionnaire after the posttest focused on subjects‟ attitudes after theyhad received instruction in lexical inferencing Similar to the design of the questionnaireconducted after the pretest, five questions (See Appendix 8) were presented with either four

or five options for the subjects to choose from The first and second questions concernedwhether subjects had different opinions after they had received the instruction In the third

to fifth questions, the subjects were asked for their opinions about the second article, so as

to discover whether the instruction made any difference

2.5.3 Interviews

Besides the instruments mentioned above, semi-structured interviews wereconducted to elicit the subjects‟ opinions about their ordinary reading habit and theinstruction of lexical inferencing to get more complete results

The questions were presented (See Appendix 9) for the subjects to answer Thefollowing were the questions: (1) What do you think this article is about? (2) How didyou learn the meaning of the word “stunt”? (3) Do you think the article is difficult? (4)How do you deal with new words while reading? (5) Does the instruction of inferringwords from context make any difference for you?

The interviews were tape recorded and notes were taken Five subjects volunteered

to participate in the interviews The interview was conducted during the break time assoon as all of the subjects had finished the posttest In order to avoid anymisunderstandings between the researcher and the interviewees, the interviews wereconducted in Vietnamese

2.5.4 Teacher’s Notes and Students’ Learning Logs

Data were also collected by means of the teacher‟s notes and the students‟ learninglogs during the implementation of the project These provide some reflection on the part

of the teacher as the researcher and the students as the participants respectively Notesand learning logs were used with the expectation that the researcher would have deeperunderstanding and broader perspective of the information

2.6 Intervention: Instruction of Lexical Inferencing in Class

In this study, the strategy of guessing from context, proposed by Clarke and Nation(1980) was used in expectations of enhancing subjects‟ vocabulary and their readingability Further, the instruction of the subjects in the class was carried out over sixweeks: one article per week In this section, materials, the process and the design ofasking the subjects to guess is described

2.6.1 Reading Materials

The textbook used as the official English materials for grade 10 students at the

school are Tieng Anh 10 – standard syllabus However, in this textbook, reading

strategies mostly focus on reading for specific information (8/48 activities) and detailedunderstanding (22/48 activities) Guessing meaning in context, though explicitly spelledout in the syllabus and the book, is not appropriately dealt with (1/48 activities) In fact,many activities are claimed to develop guessing skills but they hardly help to do so.This is mostly because the activities are not properly designed In some activities, thereare insufficient contextual clues for the guess work to be possible (Nguyen, T.T.M,2007) That is the reason why the researcher decided to adopt supplementary materials

in this study

The reading texts selected for this study was a book entitled “Power Content

Reading 1” The researcher chose this book on the grounds that the length, level of

difficulty and content of the articles in the book are suitable for pre – intermediate

students, which corresponds to the condition of the subjects in this study In this study,six reading articles were used as reading materials for the students during the study

In the book “Power Content Reading 1”, 6 out of 20 articles were selected for all ofthe subjects to read in class The titles of the articles were: “Acid Rain”, “The WhiteNights”, “Chris Evert”, “The Flu”, “Something Old, Something New” and “TheOlympic Games” Those articles involve different topics The subjects in the class wereprovided not only with the six reading articles including some bolded, unfamiliar wordsfor guessing, but also the five steps of the strategy of lexical inferencing, proposed byClarke and Nation (1980) Further, an exercise format adapted from Clarke and Nation(1980) was attached to the sheet of paper for the subjects to use when they practicedguessing the words in class (See Appendix 10) Finally, one reading comprehension testfor each article, taken from the book, was provided for the subjects to answer In eacharticle, five target words were selected for the subjects to guess Those target wordswere bolded in order to help the subjects find the words easily

2.6.2 Steps of the Instruction in Lexical Inferencing

The following outlines the steps of the instruction in lexical inferencing, proposed

by Clarke and Nation (1980), used in this study

Step 1: Look at the unknown word and decide its part of speech

Step 2: Look at the clause or sentence containing the unknown word

Step 3: Look at the relationship between the clause or sentence containing the unknownword and other sentences or paragraphs

Step 4: Use the knowledge you have gained from Steps 1-3 to guess the meaning of theword

Step 5: Check that your guess is correct

In the first week, after asking the subjects to read the first article entitled “Acid Rain” inclass, the researcher first demonstrated the steps using the word “toxic”, which appeared inthe article In Step 1, the researcher asked the subjects to read the whole article once and

then look at the word “toxic” to find out what part of speech the word belongs to.Because the word “toxic” was followed by a noun “water”, the subjects could know theword “toxic” was an adjective.

Then, in Step 2, the researcher asked the subjects to look at the clause and sentenceinvolving the word “toxic”: “Although the rain is not acidic enough to burn skin, it coatstree leaves, buildings, and the ground with toxic water” From the words in the sentencethat included the word “toxic”, the subjects knew that “toxic” has a negative meaning

In Step 3, the researcher asked the subjects to look at the relationship between theclause or sentence containing the unknown word and other sentences or paragraphs:

“These dark clouds rain harmful chemicals onto the Erath.” In the sentence, the subjectscould notice that “toxic” is related to “harmful chemicals”

In Step 4, the researcher asked the subjects to use the knowledge they had gained fromSteps 1-3 to guess the meaning of the word

In the final step, the researcher asked the subjects to replace the word “toxic” with theirguess and then to see if the guess was correct Besides, the researcher also asked thesubjects to look up the word „toxic” in a dictionary to see the meaning of the word.The reason why the researcher asked the subjects to consult a dictionary to confirm themeaning of the word “toxic” was that learners can be more successful in reading whenthey combine strategies of consulting and inferencing (Fraser, 1999) In other words, ifthe subjects consult a dictionary after finishing the five steps, they can enhance theirmemory of the guessed word

As for whether the subjects should guess in pairs or individually during the sixweeks of practicing the strategy, Nation (2001) claimed that when teaching students thestrategy of lexical inferencing, it is better for students to work together “with theteacher, in groups, in pairs and then individually” As a result, during the six weeks oftraining, the subjects were asked to practice the steps of word guessing in pairs duringthe first three weeks to become familiar with the five steps In the last three weeks, thesame subjects were asked to work individually to learn independence

As mentioned above, in the six articles distributed during the six weeks (i.e onearticle per week), the handout of five steps and the exercise format (See Appendix 10)