The effects of using internet based materials in developing learner autonomy in learning english reading skill for students at my hao high school, hung yen

This minor study is inspired from theidea that whereas many educators enthusiastically embrace the use of Internet-based readingmaterials, little theoretical and empirical research exist

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

STUDENTS AT MY HAO HIGH SCHOOL, HUNG YEN

Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tư liệu trên Internet

để phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học kĩ năng đọc hiểu tiếng Anh của học sinh trường trung học phổ thông Mỹ Hào, tỉnh Hưng Yên

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: DO BA QUY, MEd.

HANOI – 2010

1.3.1 Internet-based reading materials improve reading comprehension 12

1.3.3 Criteria for choosing Internet-based reading materials 17

3.1 Students‟ motivations, learning experiences and attitudes towards learning reading 22before the experiment

3.2 Students‟ attitudes and ability after the experiment: Questionnaire 2 30

4.2 Suggestions for the using of internet-based reading materials 37

APPENDIX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part introduces the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the methods and thescope of the study It concludes with a presentation of the organization of the thesis

1 Rationale for the study

In all of the educational contexts in Vietnam (including primary, secondary, and highereducation), no significant steps are being undertaken to promote autonomous languagelearning within and beyond the classroom, and learning is mainly directed and evaluated bythe instructors With the predominance of teacher-led English language instruction inVietnam, learners are seen as passive receivers of new information and are, therefore, unlikely

to develop the necessary skills to learn how to assess and control their own progress In suchcases, learners do not sufficiently develop the skills to perform real-life communicative taskseffectively Consequently, although Vietnamese learners are more and more highly motivated

to learn English for socio-cultural and economic reasons, teacher feedback and classroomobservation at various institutions lead to the conclusion that their proficiency in English isnot at the desired level In such a context, Vietnamese learners need to develop a criticalawareness of language learning and learning communication These are the mainconsiderations of learner-centred language curricula which promote language learningautonomy as proposed by Brindley (1990), Coleman (1988), the Council of Europe (2001),Hutchinson and Waters (1988), Munby (1991), Nunan (1989), and Wilkins (1976) TheCommon European Framework (CEF) (Council of Europe 2001) further elaborates upon theconcept of language learning autonomy, describing in a comprehensive way what languagelearners have to learn to do in order to use a language for communication and what knowledgeand skills they have to develop to act effectively as autonomous learners

Of the four language skills, reading seems to be the most important one because in thelearning process, it helps students develop other skills and provides knowledge on the targetlanguage Educational researchers have found that “there is a strong correlation between

reading and academic success” In other words, a student who is a good reader is more likely

to do well in school and pass exams than a student who is a weak reader

Being aware of the importance of learning reading, authors of new English 11 havechosen interesting topics for reading lessons with the aim to promote students in reading andimprove their reading comprehension However, some of them are not familiar with students,genres and contents of the readings in the textbooks only are not enough to enhancestudents‟interest in reading and reading comprehension From the researcher‟s teachingexperience, successful reading depends on many factors such as reading stratergies forprocessing the text, background knowledge and linguistic competence Thus, besides thereading texts in the textbooks students need to read more outside the classroom to enrich theirvocabulary as well as their background knowledge That means students must readextensively

Through daily conversations with the teachers and students, the reseacher has foundthat the main reasons why students are not interested in reading lessons are their lack ofbackground knowledge as well as vocabulary about the topics they are reading Some topicsare unfamiliar, some others are boring so the students find it difficult to understand them.Some students say that there are texts that they have read several times without understandinganything Moreover, time for reading lesson at high school is limited There are 3 Englishlessons every week In five or six lessons, there is only one for reading, it means that there isnot much time for reading In extra classes at school the teachers tend to pay more attention togrammar exercises The students have opportunities to practise vocabulary but in separatedsentences, not in reading texts Because teaching reading is time consuming, the teachersoften neglect it Large class size adds to the difficulties the students encounter in the readinglessons Another important reason is their lack of motivation „Practice makes perfect‟, that isthe reason why teachers have to find ways to enhance students to read more so that they canimprove their reading ability

Materials for extensive reading are available everywhere But Internet-based materialsseem to be the most suitable for high school students There are several reasons for choosingInternet-based materials First of all, in recent years, the use of the World Wide Web

(WWW) as a resource for language learning materials has gained increasing popularityamong language teachers and learners The Internet can now be used for supplementing andreinforcing what we do in the classroom as well as providing rich opportunities whereby studentscan start learning languages on their own Moreover, students generally have positive feelings aboutlearning languages via the Internet For example, Kung and Chuo (2002) conducted a study ofstudents‟ attitudes towards learning English through websites Despite some difficultiesencountered, they found that students had an overall positive attitude to using websites in theirlearning of English Secondly, the Internet facilitates individualization of instruction and introduces

a more interesting platform to learn by incorporating multimedia into the process (Soboleva, &Tronenko, 2002) Thirdly, it enhances the accessibility of information, language materials in thiscase, as well as offering various ways to connect with the target speech community (Warschauer,1996) Unlike traditional textbook-based teaching, language materials on the Internet can beupdated periodically Recent literature on methodological and pedagogical considerations requireslanguage learners to become active participants in the process rather than passive recipients ofinformation In this age of information explosion, language learners are encouraged to be explorersand creators of language, and assessors of their own linguistic progress (Brown, 2001; Su &Kinshuk, 2002) Two other important aspects are the issues of learner autonomy and motivation.Learner-oriented Internet-based language teaching materials demand that the individual background

of learners, their needs, and learning styles are accommodated (Soboleva, & Tronenko, 2002) Inother words, learner-directed language instruction provides learners with the control of choosingmaterials, sequencing it, as well as deciding on the pace of delivery (Su & Kinshuk, 2002).Communicative language teaching and learner autonomy have become increasingly important forlanguage teachers in the last few decades Students are no longer expected to memorize

lists of grammar rules and vocabulary items but to understand and convey meaning with anadequate knowledge of the form, use, and appropriacy of the language (Brown, 2001) They

do not need to be spoon-fed all the time Mistakes are natural in the language acquisitionprocess and learners are encouraged to be willing to learn and to take responsibility for theirown progress Finally, students at this age are curious and they like reading something new,atractive and linked with modern technology Internet-based materials are plentiful withvarious topics

In fact, at My Hao High school, teaching and learning reading are mostly based ontextbooks Therefore, the sutents don‟t seem to be interested in reading lessons Many of themfind reading difficult and boring and even some are afraid of reading After reading a text,they don‟t understand much about its content or they misunderstand the author‟s ideas As ahigh school teacher, I think that something has to be done about raising students‟interest inreading and helping them comprehend the texts better This minor study is inspired from theidea that whereas many educators enthusiastically embrace the use of Internet-based readingmaterials, little theoretical and empirical research exists that demonstrates how Internet-basedreading materials are useful in improving high school students‟ reading comprehension skillsand how to organize Internet-based reading activities effectively Moreover, when seeking formaterials to design the lessons, I realise that Internet is a useful source of information for highschool students to increase their background knowledge And that‟s the reason why I decided

to choose the topic “The Effects of Using Internet-based Materials in Developing Learner Autonomy in Learning Reading Skill for Students at My Hao High School, Hung Yen”.

In light of these circumstances, this paper will investigate whether Internet-basedmaterials are effective in developing learner autonomy in learning reading skill for students at

My Hao High School, Hung Yen To achieve this goal, the study will focus on the exploration

of factors that affect the students‟ reading comprehension in My Hao High school, whetherthey are able to set language learning goals and work towards them, how the Internet-basedreading materials used within and beyond the classroom promote autonomous learning

2 Aims of the study

This study aims at improving the quality of teaching/learning to read English as asecond language for grade 11 students at My Hao high school by using Internet-basedmaterials

To achieve this aim, the study sets out to obtain the three following specific objectives:

1 To investigate the situation of learner autonomy in learning reading among high school students in My Hao high school

2 To apply Internet-based materials in teaching reading and find out how effective they are in helping develop learner autonomy in learning reading skill

3 To offer recommendations for the application of Internet-based materials to improvelearner autonomy in reading comprehension skill of grade 11 students in My Hao high school

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the mentioned aims, the study is intended to find answers to the following questions:

1 What is the current situation of students‟autonomy in learning reading?

2 What are the effects of Internet-based reading materials on the level ofstudents‟autonomy?

3 What are the recommendations for improving learner autonomy in learning reading

at My Hao high school?

4 Methods of the study

With the aim of finding out the role of Internet-based reading materials in helpingimprove learner autonomy in learning reading comprehension skill for students in highschool, a survey approach is adopted for this study Participants will be 48 students of class11A12 of My Hao high school First, interviews will be conducted on a group of 24 students.These students will be randomly selected among the students of class 11A12 All the

interviews will be fully written down and analysed At the same time, a questionnaire will begiven to discover the students‟attitudes towards reading skill and their learning experiences.Data will be analyzed to identify the situation of learning reading, the factors affecting theirreading comprehension Then all 48 students will be guided to use Internet-based readingmaterials for 2 months Questionnaires will be conducted after that to find out if Internet-based materials help improve the students‟autonomy in learning reading comprehension skill.

5 Scope of the study

Internet-based reading materials play a more and more important part in raising theeffectiveness of teaching and learning foreign languages in general, English in particular Thisstudy focuses on the role of Internet-based reading materials in helping improve readingcomprehension skills for students in My Hao High school and offers some suggestions for theintergration of Internet-based materials in high school teaching and learning curricular inVietnam

6 Organization of the thesis

This minor thesis consists of three parts

The first part “Introduction” includes the rationale for the study, the aims, researchquestions, methods, scope of the study as well as the organization of the thesis

Part B “Development” consists of four chapters The first chapter “Literature Review”discusses the knowledge relevant to the research topic including the theoretical background ofreading comprehension, learner autonomy and the roles of Internet-based materials Thesecond chapter “Research methodology” presents the context of the study, the participants,research methods The third chapter deals with data and data analysis The fourth chaptermentions the major findings and recommendations to use Internet-based materials inimproving learner autonomy in learning reading

The last part of the study “Conclusion” summarizes the findings, giving out somelimitations and recommendations for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the relevant literature relating to reading comprehension, learnerautonomy and the role of Internet-based materials in improving reading comprehension skill.The chapter begins with definitions of reading and some information about extensivereading The second section of the chapter presents background knowledge about learnerautonomy The last section discusses the role of internet-based materials in helping to developstudents‟autonomy in learning reading

1.1 Reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading

Reading is a huge topic It is a receptive skill Reading can be defined as a process,which involves a reader, a text and a resultant interaction between the two (Goodman, 1996;Rumelhart, 1977 as cited in Singhal, 1998) Brindley (1994) in her introduction to the reading

section of teaching English offers a helpful starting point: “Reading is a complex area We

can use the term to mean the process itself, or a respond to literary text It can mean theretrieval of information in a non-literary text, or take on the wider meanings like „reading thesituation‟ Reading is not confined to print in a book It is central to the debate about meaningand the construction of the reader It is linked to the issues of standards in education, and toone of the functions of education itself – the production of the literate society” This is a

relatively focused view of reading Anderson et al (1985) provides a broader view of the same

territory: “The majority of scholars in the field now agree on the nature of reading: Reading isthe process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a complex skill requiringcoordination of a number of interrelated sources of information.”

Reading is a holistic act Success of reading comes from practice over long periods oftime And also, there may be more than one interpretation of a text The interpretationdepends on the background of the reader, the purpose for reading, and the context in whichthe reading occurs Reading is very necessary for daily life Harmer (2003) emphasized the

importance of reading as follow “it will helps us to achieve some clear aims Thus, forexample, we read a road sign so that we know where to go We read the instructions on aticket machine because we need to know what to do next”.

Different scholars of different approaches provide different definitions of reading.However, “In spite of the constant shift in focus throughout the history of reading research, ithas been generally recognized that reading is a very complicated process involving a variety

of factors that interact with one another” (Kim, 2002) Due to this complex nature of readingand the fact that it is one of the most important language skills, most scholars in languagemethodology agree that there is a need for incorporating multimedia into reading instruction.Reading should be supported with pictures, diagrams, video, and audio (Brown, 2001).Learners need to be provided with sufficient scaffolding to be able to achieve more effectivereading comprehension (Brandl, 2002)

be “unable to promote its students‟ language development in all aspects as effectively as ifsuch a programme were present” (1995:335), he also claimed that such a programme wouldmake students more possitive about reading, improve their overall comprehension skills, and

give them a wider passive and active vocabulary Strong (1996) also stated that “extensivereading of literature can encourage students to develope possitive attitudes toward reading”.

1.2 Autonomy

1.2.1 Definition

Since the primary concern of this study is EFL student teachers'autonomy as languagelearners, definitions of autonomy here refer to both students and teachers'autonomy just aslearners Holec (1981, p.3) defines the term as "the ability to take charge of one's owndirected learning" Little (2003) points out more precisely that "the practice of learnerautonomy requires insight, a positive attitude, a capacity for reflection, and a readiness to beproactive in self-management and in interaction with others" (cited on line) In this sense,autonomous learners decide what to learn, when and how to learn it by taking responsibilityfor their learning This process of personal responsibility in monitoring their own progressentails the use of self-assessment as one of the instruments to determine their level ofknowledge and skills (Gardner, 1999) It is seen as one of the pillars of learner autonomybecause it helps learners to focus on their own learning (Harris, 1997)

1.2.2 Why develop learner autonomy?

Good learners are learners who are capable of take responsibility for their ownlearning They know how to make all the decisions involved In other words, “… They knowhow to learn” (Holec, 1981, p.147) More and more research has been done on learnerautonomy and independence (Holec, 1981; Benson, 2000) and its importance to a successfullearning process Learner autonomy as described by Holec (1981) promotes the independence

of the learner throughout the entire learning process within a course of study and beyond.Borrowed from the field of language learning is the notion that learner autonomy is central tothe learning process and promotes the idea of the effectiveness of a resource centre in whichlearners can actively learn (Esch, 1994; Sheerin, 1989, 1997; Sturtridge, 1997; Benson, 2000)

In language teaching, teachers can provide all the necessary circumstances and input, butlearning can only happen if learners are willing to contribute Learner autonomy is crucial to

an effective language learning experience.There‟s a saying “you can bring the horse to water,but you can not make him drink”.

It‟s obvious that autonomy is essential in the learning process and it is the goal of thecurrent dominant learner-centered approach In classes, learners are the centre of the learningprocess, they should be provided with chances to show their activeness, creativeness andabilities Autonomy “empowers learners within the learning process and prepares them to belifelong learners” (Pulist, 2000, p.1) To promote learning results of the students, developinglearner autonomy is “an unavoidable methodological option” (Narcy, 1994)

1.2.3 Characteristics of autonomous learners

Rousseau ([1762] 1911, cited in Candy, 1991: 102) regards the autonomous learner assomeone who is obedient to a law that he prescribes to himself Within the context ofeducation, though, there seem to be seven main attributes characterising autonomous learners(see Omaggio, 1978, cited in Wenden, 1998: 41-42):

1 Autonomous learners have insights into their learning styles and strategies;

2 take an active approach to the learning task at hand;

3 are willing to take risks;

4 are good guessers;

5 attend to form as well as to content, that is, place importance on accuracy as well as appropriacy;

6 develop the target language into a separate reference system and are willing to revise and reject hypotheses and rules that do not apply; and

7 have a tolerant and outgoing approach to the target language

(cited on line)However, to develop learner autonomy, besides the above characteristics need to

be taken into considerations the following skills:

1 Choosing instructional materials;

2 Setting learning objectives and prioritizing them;

3 Determining when and how to work on each objective;

4 Assessing progress and achievements;

5 Evaluating the learning program

1.2.4 The role of teachers in learner autonomy?

The language teacher had a significant role as a resource person for autonomouslanguage learning Railton and Watson (2005, p.192) likewise emphasize the significance ofguidance in the autonomous learning process: "Autonomous learning is as much a skill aslearning to drive - it must be taught, it requires practice, and it is assessed against specificcriteria Unless they are taught, how to take the wheel for themselves, learner students, likelearner drivers, may be at risk."

Holden and Usuki (1999) who questioned Japanese students'perceptions of learnerautonomy likewise concluded that it was not the learners who were innately passive, but itwas the educational system that created an environment which discouraged learner autonomy.The follow-up studies of Usuki (2001; 2002) provided more evidence that Japanese studentswere aware of their needs as autonomous learners, but a gap between their awareness andtheir actual behavior seemed to be the main problem because of the negative effect of theeducational system Ho and Crookall (2000), in investigations into learner autonomy in themore traditional organization of classrooms in China, discussed in detail the cultural traits thatboth hindered and encouraged autonomy in such a setting, concluding that it was throughconcrete actions of taking responsibility that genuine autonomy was learnt

The general impression is that the Vietnamese educational system is mainly directed andevaluated by the authority and, as a result, has a significant influence on learner autonomy inVietnamese context The majority of the students lacked necessary critical thinking andreflection skills to cope with the requirements of academic life such as skills of how to plan,conduct and evaluate research Most importantly, there is reality in Vietnamese High schoolsthat teacher factors hindered the development of learner autonomy because the teachersthemselves had been trained within the same education system, and were unable to changetheir habits

Little (1995), McGrath (2000), Smith (2000), and Tort-Moloney, (1997) also provideevidence that teachers who themselves are not autonomous language learners may have anegative influence on the development of autonomy in their students Stiller and Ryan (1992),and Clemente (2001) likewise suggest that teacher autonomy support and involvement (andparental support for autonomy and involvement) have direct links with students'assimilation

of their classroom context and subsequent academic outcomes Usuki, (2002) attractsattention to teachers'attitudes towards their students which may play a key role in learnerautonomy Probably, those are the reasons why most of the things have stayed the same inVietnamese educational system although it has been changed periodically for decades Forexample, the last trend is towards the innovation in teaching and learning methods Yet,traditional approaches to learning and teaching are still being used by many teachers with oldbeliefs since the beliefs that individuals have play a decisive role in the process ofautonomous learning (Cotterall 1995)

There may be some other factors hindering teachers from effectively involvingthemselves in this process Firstly, they may be afraid of the students who improve fastindependently while the teachers make little or no progress because they are not autonomouslearners themselves Secondly, some schoolteachers can earn money without trying hard, andthen they do not strive to learn new things In that connection, introducing new things tostudents can be a good starting point

1.3 Internet-based reading materials

1.3.1 Internet-based reading materials in improving reading comprehension

Thanks to the ever expanding flexibility and versatility of IT in performing many jobs,most of the language teaching authorities support using it in facilitating teaching in general,teaching English in particular With recent advancements in software technology, multimediacomputing and extensive use of the Internet (Soboleva, & Tronenko, 2002), computers havebecome so widespread in schools and language institutions and their uses have expanded sodramatically that language teachers must now begin to reconsider the implications of usingcomputers for teaching languages (Warschauer, 1996; Blake, 1997)

Internet technology is a “medium of global communication and a source of limitless authenticmaterials” (Warschauer, 1996) With the emergence of the Internet technology, e-mail, list-serves, streaming audio-video, chat rooms, audio-video and message boards, languagelearners now have more chances to improve their language competence Easier access interms of distance and time considerations, self-paced language study, low affective filter,increased motivation, opportunities to access and use authentic language, and hence enhancedlearner autonomy are among the advantages of using the web in language teaching andlearning Internet-based reading provides language learners with a much better opportunity forinitiative in language learning, enhancement of learning strategies Engagement in meaningfulauthentic exercises promotes enthusiasm and motivation on the part of the learners Internet-based reading helps create relaxed (in terms of learner anxiety) environments Internet-basedreading establishes a basis for reflecting on the experience of language learning, self-correcting, self-evaluating, and searching for information on any linguistic and/or socio-cultural aspect learners might want to learn more about right on the spot, something thatcannot be realized easily in traditional type of media (Kennedy, 1989).

The Internet as a resource can enrich and expand language instruction There arenumerous reasons in favor of integrating the Internet into a language curriculum Chun andPlass (2000, p 161) mention general capabilities of features of the WWW that have thepotential to enhance language learning These are a) the universal availability of authenticmaterials, b) the communication capabilities through networking, c) the multimediacapabilities, and d) the nonlinear (hypermedia) structure of the information The mostcompelling reason is definitely the convenience in accessing and obtaining an endless supply

of authentic materials in target languages The WWW has brought the world to the fingertips

of each learner Applying the WWW to foreign language teaching also provides theopportunity to meet the Standards in several ways (Walz, 1998): "Competence in more thanone language and culture enables people to gain access to additional bodies of knowledge; …all students learn in a variety of ways and settings; … language and culture education

incorporate effective technologies; and using the Web is consistent with learning theoriesabout learning to read authentic materials" (p 104).

Son (2003) carried out a research study to examine the effectiveness of three differenttypes of reading text formats, namely paper-based format, computer-based non-hypertextformat, and computer-based hypertext format The motivation in conducting this researchstudy was to find out the degree of usefulness of hyperlinks on the online lexical resources,which provide readers with optional assistance during independent reading Another questionSon was interested in was the learner attitudes towards the effectiveness of incorporation ofhyperlinks into reading materials Defining hypertext as „non-sequential text which isorganized to allow readers to access to non-linear information‟ and pointing out thathypermedia applications can enrich learning tasks by providing learners with various types ofonline information, Son (2003) contends that the integration of text with sound and imageseventually paves the way for greater comprehension of the reading text as well as betterpronunciation and contextual use of lexical items in a way that traditional paper-based textscannot achieve

In his article on net-based reading Brandl (2002) investigated the ways of exploration

of authentic reading materials on the World Wide Web and found out that there are a lot ofpossibilities of integrating online reading resources into reading classes whereby highermotivation, more effective and faster reading comprehension can be attained

1.3.2 Types of Internet-based reading

In this section, I will present three different types to Internet-based reading, which canhelp students improve their reading comprehension skills using the materials from theInternet Based on these three types of reading I will conduct the study to find out howInternet-based materials help improve reading comprehension skills of the students at MyHao High school

* Teacher-determined lessons

The reading activities and materials of this type are comparable to the computer as anonline electronic workbook The teacher prescreens and selects reading materials or culturalreadings from Internet-based, designs comprehension activities, and makes them availablethrough his/her Web page By pre-selecting and preparing the readings, the instructor tailorsthe contents and tasks to the students' proficiency level The tasks are designed to support thereader'scomprehension process focusing on textual, linguistic and cultural features Reading is

a silent process that is best done individually The learners get to explore authentic readingmaterials outside of class at their own pace This frees up classroom time that can be spentmore effectively getting students involved in communicative language learning activities.Furthermore, depending on the instructional program design, students'answers may beforwarded to the instructor Students'responses to reading tasks are limited by the capacity ofthe teachers‟packages Tasks can be true/false, matching, or multi-choice answers, or shortanswers To create such activities, skills and expertise in language pedagogy, instructionaldesign, and some programming are required The latter may include experience with HTMLeditors, HTML or Internet-based authoring packages such as Half-Baked Software, orWebCT Other technological skills such as the use of scanners and graphic programs arerecommended

* Teacher-facilitated lessons

Internet-based reading activities that have gained most wide-spread attention andpopularity among language teachers and students are those in which the instructor provides aset of learning tasks that engage the learners in exploring reading materials in their authenticenvironments The instructor determines a particular topic and set of goals for his lesson, suchexploring English wedding, American education The teacher prescreens and selects a set ofsites to ensure its contents are appropriate for their pedagogical goals Through a particulartask design, the instructor facilitates the students'reading process and guides the learners toexplore a variety of pre-selected resources, thus providing a clear goal to be accomplished bythe students Furthermore, the tasks should be designed so that they are not so broad thatstudents wander aimlessly through the material yet open enough to provide multiple paths,outcomes, and interpretations, which can form the basis for classroom interaction In this way,

the teacher controls the navigational scope and the number and kind of Internet sites that thestudents access Despite the restriction, the learner has some autonomy as the tasks providethe learner a choice in the sites he or she accesses and explores Task types usually includecomparisons, gathering factual information, descriptions, and short summaries The outcome

of the student assignments is clearly defined, but open-ended The teacher's role can best bedescribed as a guide and facilitator The students follow the teacher's lead but get to explorethe contents themselves Teachers should list the most popular search engines such as Google,Yahoo

* Learner-determined lessons

Learner-determined lessons follow an approach to integrating Internet-based resourcesthat is entirely learner-centered The learners determine the topics, reading materials, and theway they go about exploring the readings themselves They decide on the process and theproduct, formulate the goals, identify Internet-based resources, and make a decision on howthe outcomes should be evaluated In this way, the students take on the roles of self-directedand autonomous learners, and take full charge and responsibility for their outcomes Theteacher only gets involved in the role of a facilitator offering support and guidance throughoutthe process as much as necessary Types of assessment may include teacher-, self-, or group-assessment Assessment of learner outcomes may be teacher-directed or student-determined.Examples are short writing assignments, essays, or mini-projects or presentations that showthe students'analytical and interpretative skills of cultural readings and texts Thetechnological skills required to implement this approach are minimal If the teacher is toprovide guidance to his/her students on searching the Internet, then knowledge about Webbrowsers, search engines and their effective use are indispensable

There is no doubt, the vast amount of authentic resources on the Internet provideslearners an opportunity to improve their reading skills Yet, to make the integration of WWW-based activities a successful learning experience, it requires effective organization andpresentation of that information

1.3.3 Criteria for choosing Internet-based reading materials

The number one selection criteria for Internet-based materials is that they help fulfill thelearning outcomes for the students The teachers as well as the students should pay attention

to choosing appropriate materials because there may be some criteria that prevent achievingthe primary goal If the reading level is too far beyond the level of the students or if thecontent is too complex for the target group, then the students will never access theinformation Here are some criteria for choosing Internet-based reading materials

Criteria 1 Topic The materials provide opportunities for reading more in depth on a subject,which can facilitate second-language acquisition, especially when most of the vocabulary andstructures are recycled

Criteria 2 Background Knowledge of the Reader Materials should make sure that the

passage is on a topic known to students Reading texts with so many new words is as hard as learning about scientific programming

Criteria 3 Exploitability: Will the passage allow the teacher to accomplish the objectives ofthe reading lesson? Consider thematic, lexical and structural appropriateness in light of thetext you chose Do they have the potential to match up with the objectives of the subject? Canstudents explore the text meanings through the structure and text conventions, and acquiresome new vocabulary as well?

Criteria 4 Lexical Appropriateness Materials is considered suitable if the new vocabularymatches the level of the students‟ abilities

Criteria 5 Readability and Length of Passage Consider also the length of the passage andhow long it would take you to complete the reading lesson Five relatively short mini textsmight be better than one infinitely long text

Criteria 6 Syntactic Appropriateness Syntactic constructions in a passage affect itsreadability If the new structures have been taught, the students can be instructed to scan thetext and underline syntactic constructions that are new or difficult, or which they do notquickly recognize or understand Otherwise you may need to reteach certain structures

Criteria 7 Organization: Logical/Rhetorical Ordering of Ideas One of the main objectives

of reading lessons is understanding the main ideas and significant details of a text

Criteria 10 Appearance of the Reading Passage: layout, print, type size It is a good idea tochoose the text that has accompanying photos or pictures with captions that illustrate thetopic? Are paragraphs in each text/file clearly defined? Are the lines numbered? Is the fontclear and attractive? This can enhance reading speed Materials that are visually appealing canreinforce students‟motivation

1.3.4 Considerations in using Internet-based materials

As pointed out above, there are numerous convincing arguments in favor of integratingInternet-based materials into a foreign language curriculum At the same time, severalarguments can be made that ask for a more cautious approach when using the Internet TheInternet is not an ideal way of delivering instruction, and there are numerous challenges toovercome First, there are still many limitations on interactivity and bandwidth Second, thehyper-linked structure and presentation of information on the Internet may easily causestudents to get lost Third, we have no control over the quality and accuracy of the contents ofthe information In other words, the use of the Internet resources completely depends onreader judgment, which presupposes solid language proficiency and critical reading skills.Fourth, little theoretical and empirical research actually exists that demonstrates how to makeuse of Internet-based materials or how to design tasks that allow the learners to explore thesematerials and yield expected learning outcomes In the same vein, little is known aboutstudents'attitudes towards the integration of Web-based readings in the foreign languagecurriculum

1.4 Summary

Through the brief literature review, it is clear that there are many factors involved in L2reading comprehension process Autonomy is seen as a capacity or ability for active andindependent reading The relevant literature emphasizes the role of Internet-based materials inlanguage learning It can be concluded that internet-based reading materials can help developlearner autonomy in learning reading skill

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODS

This chapter deals with the methods that have been applied to achieve the aims andobjectives of the study It gives a detailed description of the setting and participants of thestudy as well as data collection instruments

2.1 Setting of the study

Founded in 1961, My Hao High school is located in My Hao district, a highlydeveloped industrial area Having got good teaching and learning traditions, it is consideredone of the best high schools in Hung Yen province

Having been upgraded to a national standardized high school, in recent years, the schoolmanagement board has considered the application of IT in not only managing but also inteaching and learning to make real innovation on its way to develop The school has a localnetwork with nearly 100 computers granted to learning activities The computers areconnected to the LAN, providing access to the Intranet and Internet 25 computers of these areinstalled with software called Magic Class, which supports teaching and learning English.Many other softwares are installed to help the teachers prepare E-lessons more easily.Available Internet-based materials are useful sources that help motivate students in learningEnglish

The English division has 13 qualified and responsible teachers who know how to attracttheir students to learning environment and encourage them to take part in extracurricularactivities Many students here are interested in learning English They find English animportant subject

2.2 The participants

The subjects of this study are the students of class 11A12 It is a selected class It has

48 students (41 females and 7 males) The students are interested in learning English All ofthem desire to enter a foreign language college after they finish school They have beenlearning English for 6 years Generally, they are at the same proficiency level However,during the years in lower secondary schools, the main method that their teachers often used toteach them was the grammar-translation one Furthermore, they were not provided with

modern facilities that were necessary for their learning such as cassettes, videos, computers….Therefore, the students are not very active in class.

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2.4 Data collection instruments

The data is collected by means of questionnaires and interviews

2.3.1 Interview

Kvale (1996) states that interviews are a particular useful research method for getting indeep information about a specific research issue or question He supposes that this is apersonal form of research and interviewer works directly with the respondents, theinformation about opinions or impressions is often easier to collect through oral interviews.Nunan (1992) characterized interviews in terms of their degrees of formality In anunstructured interview, the interviewee is allowed to talk freely with little intervention fromthe interviewer In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer does not prepare questions inadvance but can control the scope of the talk by raising a topic or an issue Predeterminedquestions are only needed in a structured interview which is mostly a “questions and answers”session

In this study, a structured interview was carried out among twenty four students of class11A12 at My Hao high school Here, the researcher would like to get information about thestudents‟reading habits, the factors affecting their reading comprehension and whether theyuse the Internet-based materials for extensive reading

2.3.2 Questionnaires

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and otherprompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents According to Richards(2003) questionnaire is an effective way of information gathering about some aspects oflearners “such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences” Questionnaires haveadvantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not require as mucheffort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answersthat make it simple to compile data (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

2.3.2.1 Questionnaire 1

Questionnaire 1 (see Appendix 2) was given to 48 students before the experiment toinvestigate the goals of the students in learning English, their attitudes towards learningreading skill, the current situation of the students‟autonomy in learning reading and thematerials they use in learning reading Forty eight copies of the questionnaire were given tothe students and collected in class after 45 minutes Questionnaire 1 consists of 5 questions.Question 1 aimed to investigate the students‟ goals in learning English

Question 2 investigated their attitudes towards reading skill

Question 3 asked information about the types of reading materials they often used forindependent learning

Questions 4, 5 aimed to discover the students‟opinions about Internet-based readingmaterials and if Internet-based reading materials could promote autonomous learning or not

2.3.2.2 Questionnaire 2

Questionnaire 2 (see Appendix 3) was given to the 48 students after the experiment to findout the students‟attitudes towards Internet-based reading materials and to see if they helpedthe students promote autonomous learning There were six questions in the questionnaire Thequestionnaires were given to the students and collected after 30 minutes

Question 1 aimed to find out what they thought of the Internet-based materials providedfor this study

Questions 2, 3 aimed to investigate the difficulties they encountered when they usedInternet-based materials and their opinions about the role of Internet-based materials inhelping to promote autonomous learning

Question 4 asked the students to evaluate their progress

The last two questions investigated the benefits of Internet-based materials in improvingreading comprehension skill and what should be done to improve learner autonomy inlearning reading skill

CHAPTER 3: DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter provides information about the current situation of learning Englishreading skill at My Hao high school before the experiment and the students‟attitudes towardslearning reading after the experiment It consists of two sections of data analysis, which aim

at answering the three research questions at the beginning of the study

3.1 Students’ motivations, learning experiences and attitudes towards learning reading before the experiment.

3.1.1 Interview

Twenty four students (randomly selected) were interviewed for about 20-30 minutes foreach student from February 15th to March 6th, 2010 The interviews took place in an informalatmosphere, so that the students felt free to express themselves The researcher took notesduring the interviews since the students did not feel comfortable talking on tape Four mainquestions constructed for the students are as follows:

1 Are you interested in learning reading? Why and why not?

2 What are the main factors that affect students‟ reading comprehension?

3 How much time do you spend for independent learning?

4 Have you ever used Internet-based reading materials? If yes, how do you find them?

The students' responses to the questions have been classified and calculated aspercentages Below is the detailed data:

3.1.1.1 Responses to question 1:

Are you interested in learning reading? Why and why not? Please explain.

The interview data showed that 71% of the students (see Chart 1) were not interested inreading lessons The main reasons are their lack of background knowledge as well asvocabulary about the topics they are reading Some topics are unfamiliar, some others areboring so the students find it difficult to understand them Some students say that there aretexts that they have read several times without understanding anything Moreover, time for

reading lesson at high school is limited There are 3 English classes every week In five or sixclasses, there is only one for reading, it means that there is not much time for reading In extraclasses at school the teachers tend to pay more attention to grammar exercises The studentshave opportunities to practise vocabulary but in separated sentences, not in reading texts.Because teaching reading is time consuming, the teachers often neglect it Large class sizeadds to the difficulties that the students encounter in the reading lessons Another importantreason is their lack of motivation To solve the problem, teachers should find ways to enhancestudents to read more so that they can improve their reading ability.

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

A- The number of students interested

in learning reading B- The number of students not interested

in learning reading

Chart 1: Students’interests in learning reading

3.1.1.2 Responses to question 2:

What are the main factors that affect students’ reading comprehension?

Most of the students stated that the most influential factor that affected students‟readingcomprehension was the limited capacity of vocabulary Some said that if there were too manynew words in a text, they would find it difficult to comprehend the text and as a result, theycouldn‟t do the tasks Another factor was the lack of background knowledge About 20% ofthe students said that if the topics of the text were strange or they had never read about those

topics before, they would hardly understand the text The same number of the studentsclaimed that the reading passages were not interesting enough to motivate them to read.Nearly 30% of the students believed that they didn‟t have appropriate reading strategies,which influenced their comprehension Some others (3 students) told that the long readingtexts and time limitation also affected their reading comprehension See the table below:

Main factors affecting students’ reading comprehension Number of %

responses

Table 1: Main factors affecting students’ reading comprehension

3.1.1.3 Responses to question 3:

How much time do you spend for independent learning?

Amount of time the students spend for independent learning Number of %

responses

Table 2: Time for independent learning

The information from Table 2 showed that the students were not very interested inlearning reading They didn‟t spend much time for extensive reading 7 out of 24 studentsread every day, of which only one student spent more than one hour a day, the rest spent lessthan one hour a day 62% didn‟t read often (41.2% read several times a week, 20.8%sometimes read) Worse than that more than 10% of the students never read extensively at all.

3.1.1.4 Response to question 4:

Have you ever used Internet-based reading materials? If yes, how do you find them?

As can be seen from the table below, one third of the students (33.3%) have never usedInternet-based materials Meanwhile, two thirds have ever used Internet-based materials(66.7%) That is a rather high rate Most of them said that it was interesting to use this kind ofmaterial because the topics were various The students could freely choose the texts that weresuitable for their abilities and amount of time they had However, some said that it was time-consuming to find suitable reading passages

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

A - The number of students having used Internet based materials

B - The number of students having never used Internet- based materials

Chart 2: Number of students using Internet-based materials

3.1.2 Questionnaire 1

3.1.2.1 Question 1:

What are your goals in learning English?

Question 1 aimed to find out the students‟goals in learning English Motivation is an essentialfactor determining their willingness to take the responsibility of their own learning The data

in Table 3 showed that the most common reason why students learned English is because theyhad to pass university exams and that English was a compulsory subject at school (92.7% and85.4% of students respectively) Many students responsed that they would like to please theirparents and teachers (77.1%) This means that the students were not highly motivated inlearning English Therefore, it is difficult to say that they will actively take charge of theirown learning and that they are autonomous learners To motivate the students, great effortsand appropriate teaching methods from the teachers are required

See the table below:

Students’ goals in learning English Number of %

responses

I'd like to improve my English in order to find a good job 12 25

Table 3: Students’ goals in learning English

3.1.2.2 Question 2:

What are your attitudes towards reading skill? Give reasons for your choice.

Question 2 explored the students‟attitudes towards reading skill Most of the students(91.7 %) had positive attitude to reading in which 66.7% said that reading was a veryimportant skill The result showed that most of the students were aware of the importance ofreading skill in language study The reason was that reading skill gave chances to getinformation easily Besides, students could learn grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation throughreading passages Only two students (8.3%) didn‟t realize the importance of the reading skill.They thought reading was a receptive skill, it didn‟t help students improve communicativecompetence No one agreed with the idea that English is not important at all The data iscalculated and presented in Chart 3 below:

C- Not very important D- Not important at all

Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards reading skill

3.1.2.3 Question 3:

What materials do you use for independent learning? Give your own reasons.

This question investigated the students‟preferences for reading materials they often used for independent learning As can be seen from Chart 4 below, students didn‟t use