Improving students reading comprehension through predicting strategy instruction an action research at cao ba quat upper secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ANDINTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIESHOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ANDINTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH

PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH

AT CAO BA QUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA

VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN:

NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 601410

HANOI, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ANDINTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

HOÀNG THỊ KIM QUẾ

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH

PREDICTING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION: AN ACTION RESEARCH

AT CAO BA QUAT UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

(NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA HỌC SINH THÔNG QUA

VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY CHIẾN LƯỢC DỰ ĐOÁN:

NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CAO BÁ QUÁT)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor : Phạm Minh Tâm, M.Ed

HANOI, 2011

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Language Learning Strategies, O‘ Maley and Chamot, 1990……… ………….… I I

Table 1.2 Reading Strategies in O‘Malley and Chamot‘s Scheme……… 11

Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of Hongkong ……… 11

Table 1.4 Predicting Strategies and Activities to Develop Predicting Strategies………… 12

Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching……….….13

Table 1.6 Task-based Learning Framework Reproduced by J Willis, 1996……….…….II Table 1.7 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction……….…….15

Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction……….……….15

Table 2.1 Background Information on the Participants……….…22

Table 2.2 Procedures for Questionnaire Development……… 22

Table 2.3 Procedures for Test Development……… 23

Table 2.4 Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course……… 25

Table 2.5 Procedures for Predicting Strategy Instruction Development……… 25

Table 3.3 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers in the Pre-test and Post-tests……… 33

Table 3.4 Percentage of the Students‘ Correct Answers to Each Question in the Pre-test and Post-tests……… 333

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Components of Reading………5

Figure 2.1 Action Research Model……… 2121

Figure 3.1 Students‘ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies……… 288

Figure 3.2 Students‘ Awareness and Use of Other Reading Strategies………2929

Figure 3.3 Students‘ Awareness of Predicting Strategies……….3131

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ……… i i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….…… … ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii i LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ……… …. iv

PART A : INTRODUCTION ……….………… 1

1 Rationale for the Study ……… … 1

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study ……….…… 2

3 Scope of the Study ……… 33

4 Significance of the Study ……… 3

5 Research Methodology ……… 3

6 Organization of the Thesis ……… 3

PART B : DEVELOPMENT ………. 4

CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW ……… …… …… 4

1.1 The Nature of Reading Comprehension ……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension……….4

1.1.2 Reading Models……… 5

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up Reading Models ……… 55

1.1.2.2 Top-down Reading Model ……… 6

1.1.2.3 Interactive Reading Model ……… 7

1.1.3 Schema Theory……….7

1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies ……… 7

1.2.1 Foreign Language Learning Strategies……….8

1.2.1.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Learning Strategies ……… 8

1.2.1.2 Classification of Language Learning Strategies ……… 99

1.2.1.3 The Importance of Language Learning Strategies for Students……… 9

1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies……… 1010

1.2.2.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension Strategies ……… 111

1.2.2.2 Classification of Reading Comprehension Strategies ……… 111

1.2.3 Predicting Strategies.……… 111

1.3 Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction ……… 1212

1.3.1 Approaches to Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction ………. 1313

1.3.2 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction ……… 1414

1.3.3 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction ……… 1515

1.4 Related Studies ……… 1717

1.5 Summary ………. 1818

2.1 Research Context ……… 19

192.2 Research Questions ……… 20

202.3 Research Approach ……… 20

202.4 Participants ……… 21

212.5 Data Collection Instruments ……… 22

242.7 Data Collection Procedures ……… 25

252.8 Data Analysis Procedures ……… 26

3.2.1To what extent does the use of predicting strategy instruction improve the students’ reading comprehension?

3.2.2What are effective techniques to teach predicting strategies as perceived by

l Implic

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

Reading is an essential skill for English as a foreign language (EFL) students; and formany, reading is the most important skill to master With strengthened reading skills, EFLreaders will make greater progress and attain greater development not only in English but also

in all academic areas Therefore, ―reading is the most heavily researched single area of thewhole curriculum, and yet, paradoxically, it remains a field in which a good deal offundamental work has yet to be approached, and one in which a great many teachers wouldclaim to be almost wholly ignorant‖ and secondary teachers ―who have generally had notraining at all related to reading but nevertheless feel conscious that the ability to read fluently

is the basis for most school learning, and one of the surest predictors of academic attainment‖(Harrison and Gardner, 1977)

Traditionally, attempts to improve the comprehension of texts for EFL students havefocused on familiarizing the students with vocabulary needed to comprehend the passage.However, within the last 15 years, much of the research conducted in the field of readingcomprehension has concentrated on the knowledge and control of reading strategies, and moreand more emphasis has been put on the importance of training EFL learners to be strategicreaders Studies have revealed that the use of appropriate reading strategies may improvereading comprehension (Olsen and Gee, 1991), and using reading strategies can be of greathelp to non-native readers because they may serve as effective ways of overcoming languagedeficiency and obtaining better reading achievement on language proficiency tests (Wong,2005; Zhang, 1992)

However, empirical research indicates that in most reading classrooms, students havereceived inadequate instruction on reading skills and strategies (Miller and Perkins, 1989) EFLteachers seldom teach a strategy explicitly in class In other words, teachers normally stress onthe production of reading comprehension rather than the reading process Reading lessons aremore of reading tests, in which teachers ask the students to read the text and complete severalreading tasks This problem can be found in many EFL reading classes in the world, andVietnam is not an exception Vietnamese learners of English, in general, and students at Cao BaQuat Upper Secondary School in particular, after several years of learning English, turn out to

be word-by-word readers; they tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning of everysingle word When they encounter unfamiliar words or unfamiliar concepts, they feeldiscouraged and resort to wild guessing to construct the text meaning Some students do not

understand the main idea of a text even when they have translated every word into their mothertongue Very few students deliberately look at the title of a text to think about its topic beforereading Fewer students use their background knowledge to facilitate their comprehension.They are completely dependent on the decoded messages from the text, so once their decodingmechanisms fail due to their deficient language proficiency, comprehension breaks down

With a view to gaining some insight into reading strategies and reading strategyinstruction, I chose to study how to improve students‘ reading comprehension throughpredicting strategy instruction The rationale for my focus on predicting strategies is that theyare of key importance in the comprehension process It has been found out that efficientreading often includes the use of predicting strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar & Brown,1984) Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues in the text

to generate predictions Although the importance of prediction in comprehending texts has beendemonstrated by recent research, much remains to be learned about predicting strategies

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study

The study aims at exploring the impact of predicting strategy instruction on the readingcomprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School with a view togiving recommendations on how to teach the students to use predicting strategies effectively toimprove their reading comprehension The specific aims of the research are as follows:

 To examine the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the reading

comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School

 To determine effective techniques to teach predicting strategies in reading

comprehension in their reading classes, from the teacher‘ and students‘ perspectives In order to achieve the above aims, the following research questions will be addressed

Quat Upper Secondary School’s grade 10 students’ reading comprehension?

perceived by the teacher and the students?

3 Scope of the Study

This study only focuses on the teaching of predicting strategies to 10th grade students atCao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, so the teaching of other reading strategies or to othersubjects would be beyond the scope

4 Significance of the Study

The study examines the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the participants‘reading comprehension and suggests effective techniques to teach predicting strategies, so itwould be of great value to the teaching of reading skill In the light of the research, teacherscan adjust their reading instruction so as to help to train strategic readers

5 Research Methodology

In order to achieve these aims, an Action Research was employed to measure the

influence of the intervention-predicting strategy instruction-on the students' reading

comprehension The data was collected via a number of instruments including a questionnaire,

investigation had been carried out, a predicting strategy instruction course was designed, andthen implemented in the second semester of the school year 2010 - 2011 with the participation

of 50 students from Group 10A10 at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School The data was then

analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method The results

indicated that with the combination of these instruments the study yielded reliable findings

6 Organization of the Study

The thesis consists of three main parts: INTRODUCTION which provides an overview

of the study, DEVELOPMENT which is the main part and consists of 3 chapters, and CONCLUSION which includes the summary, pedagogical implications, limitations of the

study and suggestions for further study

Three chapters in the main part are as follows:

Chapter 1: Literature Review is review of the literature related to the research topic,

which serves as a theoretical foundation of the study

Chapter 2: Research Methodology provides information about the research context,

participants, research approach, data collection instruments, datacollection procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion is the main part of the study, which reports and

discusses the main findings according to the research questions

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is primarily concerned with the nature of reading comprehension,including some definitions of reading comprehension, models of reading and the schematheory This will be followed by a review of language learning strategies, classifications oflanguage learning strategies, the importance of language learning strategies, reading strategiesand predicting strategies The next part presents a review of approaches to readingcomprehension strategy instruction, the model of reading comprehension instruction, andmodels of reading strategy instruction Finally, it is a summary of related studies

1.1 The Nature of Reading Comprehension

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading Comprehension

For many students, reading is a very important skill, particularly in English as a second

or foreign language Concerning the role of reading, Anderson (1999) confirms that ―the moreexposure the student has to language through reading, the greater the possibilities that overalllanguage proficiency will increase‖

There are numerous definitions of reading and reading comprehension which rangefrom simple to complex ones, from the decoding view to the comprehending view, fromreaders‘ passive role to their active one

Goodman (1971, p 135) regards reading as ―a psycholinguistic process by which thereader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message encoded by a writer as agraphic display‖

Reading comprehension is a process of deriving meaning from the print and integratingthe new information with the old one (Koda, 2005, p 14; Sweet and Snow, 2003, p 1) The oldinformation is the reader‘s prior background knowledge and experience Goodman (1975)added that reading should be ―an active, purposeful and creative mental process‖ of extractingmeaning partly from textual clues and partly from their prior background knowledge In thisway, readers show their active parts in the process of comprehending a written text; they arenot normally a decoding machine, but they must think and consider what sort of oldinformation should be activated and when it should be made use of to facilitate thecomprehending process In other words, reading is the construction of meaning of a written textthrough the interactions between text and reader (Durkin, 1993)

Reading can also be defined as ―a fluent process of readers combining informationfrom a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning The goal of reading is

comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency, and strategies combined together define the act

of reading‖ (Anderson, 2003, p 68) The following figure represents the definition of reading:

Fluency Strategies

Reading

The Text The Reader

Figure 1.1 Components of Reading

The definitions presented above give us an overview of reading comprehension Withthe literature review of reading models, we can determine what factors are involved in efficientreading

1.1.2 Reading Models

In the last 40 years, reading researchers have been studying the link between thereading process (what goes on in the brain) and how to teach reading Although there are manymodels of reading, reading researchers tend to classify them into three kinds: Bottom-up, Top-down and Interactive

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up Reading Model

All the proponents of bottom-up models agree that comprehension begins by processingthe smallest linguistic unit (phoneme) and working toward larger units (syllables, words,phrases, sentences), and proceeds from part to whole In this way, bottom-up theorists viewreading as a passive process dependent on the written or printed text

Gough (1972, as cited in Hudson, 2007) considers reading process as a sequential orserial mental process of detecting the parts of written language (letters) and converting theminto phonemes, combining these phonemic units to form individual words, and finally puttingthe words together to understand the author‘s written message, hereby the mechanism calledMerlin is utilized to apply syntactic and semantic rules in order to determine the meaning ofthe sentences The process ends with the oral realization of the sentence based on phonologicalrules (pp 34 – 5)

Nuttall (2005) indicates that reading is a process of identifying letters and words,figuring out sentence structures and then constructing a meaning from the printed words Healso compares ―bottom-up‖ processes with the image of a scientist with a magnifying glassinvestigating every minute part of the little area to grasp it thoroughly (p 17) However, inmany cases, readers can read aloud almost all the text, or they know almost all the words in thetext, but they can hardly recall any of its meaning

These models depend too much on the reader‘s linguistic knowledge and overlook theirprior background knowledge The bottom-up or decoding model of reading was also criticized

by Eskey (1973) for its failure to account for the contribution of the reader, whose expectationsabout the text, which are informed by his/her knowledge of language and his/her priorbackground knowledge, are employed as part of the reading process For these limitations,together with the advent of top-down models, bottom-up models fell into disfavors

1.1.2.2 Top-down Reading Model

This model, beginning in mind of the readers with meaning-driven processes, or anassumption about the meaning of a text, emphasizes what the reader brings to the text; reading

is driven by meaning, and proceeds from whole to part From this perspective, readers identifyletters and words only to confirm their assumptions about the meaning of the text Goodman(1967) views reading process as a ―psycholinguistic guessing game‖- a process of predicting,sampling, and confirming in which readers interact with texts by combining information theydiscover there with the knowledge they bring to it in constructing a comprehensive meaningfor the text as coherent discourse (pp 364 - 5) ―The knowledge, experience, and conceptsthat readers bring to the text, in other words, their schemata, are part of the process‖ (Dechant,

1991, p 25), and reading is more a matter of bringing meaning to than gaining meaning fromthe printed page (Dechant, 1991; Goodman, 1985; Smith, 1994)

Stanovich (1980) criticizes the top-down models by arguing that the generation ofhypotheses would be actually more time-consuming than decoding would be Another criticism

by Samuels and Kamil (1988, p 32) reveals that a reader will be unable to generate hypothesesabout a text if he/she has insufficient prior knowledge of the topic, so according to the top-down theory, reading process will not occur

In the light of the perceived shortcomings of both bottom-up and top-down models,another model of reading process called interactive model is put forward

1.1.2.3 Interactive Reading Model

An interactive reading model attempts to combine the valid insights of bottom-up andtop-down models It attempts to take into account the strong points of the bottom-up and top-down models, and tries to avoid the criticisms leveled against each, making it one of the mostpromising approaches to the theory of reading today As in top-down models, the reader useshis or her expectations and previous understanding to guess about text content and, as inbottom-up models, the reader decodes what is in the text Text sampling and higher- leveldecoding and recoding operate simultaneously

In Rumelhart‘s (1977) model, the ―visual information store‖ receives input from thetext to be processed These data then go through the ―feature extraction device‖ into the

―pattern synthesizer‖, which utilizes input from the ―syntactic, semantic, orthographic,lexical and pragmatic knowledge‖ to comprehend the text During the reading process, allsources of data are made full use of simultaneously, and provide the basis on which readers canaccept or reject their prior expectations and put forward the new ones as long as they maketheir final decisions on the meaning of the text (as cited in Hudson, 2007, pp.41- 2)

Stanovic (1980) refers to his model as an ―interactive compensory‖ one in whichweaknesses in any levels of processing the inputs can be compensated for by others Thosedeficient in a low-level skill such as word recognition can be made up for by higher-level skillssuch as use of knowledge about the topic of the text, whereas those with few clues of the topic

of the text can be helped by their good word recognition skill (as cited in Hudson, 2007, p 46)

Nuttall (1996, p 16) assumes that top-down and bottom-up processing are

―complementary ways of processing a text They are both used whenever we read; sometimesone predominates, sometimes the other, but both are needed.‖ This author adds that ―inpractice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top-downapproach to predict the probable meaning, then moving to a bottom-up approach to checkwhether that is really what the writer says‖

1.1.3 Schema Theory

Schema theory deals with the reading process, where readers are expected to combinetheir previous experiences with the text they are reading Carrell and Eisterhold (1983)formalise the role of background knowledge in language comprehension as schema theory, andclaim that any text either spoken or written does not itself carry meaning, and that ― a textonly provides directions for… readers as to how they should retrieve or construct meaningfrom their own, previously acquired knowledge.‖ Therefore, a reader‘s comprehension depends

on her ability to relate the information that she gets from the text with her pre-existingbackground knowledge According to Harmer (2001), only after the schema is activated is oneable to see or hear, because it fits into patterns that she already knows

Many reading researchers intend to subcategorise the term schema, with the mostpopular categorisation being the distinction between formal and content schema Formalschema is background knowledge relating to the formal and rhetorical organisational structures

of different types of texts (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Alderson, 2000) Carrell (1985) saysreading comprehension is affected by the reader‘s formal schemata interacting with therhetorical organisation of a text In the meanwhile, content schema is defined as backgroundknowledge of the content area of the text that a reader brings to a text (Carrell and Eisterhold,1983; Carrell, 1987) such as knowledge about people, the world, culture, and the universe(Brown, 2001) Carrell and Eisterhold propose that appropriate content schema is accessedthrough textual cues According to Alderson (2000), readers need knowledge about the content

of the passage to be able to understand it

From the schema theory, meaning is reconstructed or created during the reading processthrough the interaction of text and the reader‘s background knowledge So what the teachershould do is to teach the students to link their prior knowledge with the text so that the studentsbetter understand the global meaning of the text

1.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies

1.2.1 Foreign Language Learning Strategies

1.2.1.1 Definitions of Foreign Language Learning Strategies

Over the last two decades, the study of language learning strategies has seen an

―explosion of activity‖ (Ellis, 1994) with the contributions of such well-known researchers asO‘Malley and Chamot (1990) and Oxford (1990)

According to Oxford (1990), learning strategies are ―specific actions taken by thelearners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective andmore transferable to new situations‖ (p 5) This definition is not precise in the sense that itregards learning strategies as ―specific actions‖, which are mostly observable while it hasbeen shown in numerous studies in this field that learning strategies are sometimes difficult toobserve

The definition that has been widely accepted was proposed by O‘Malley and Chamot(1990) Learning strategies are ―the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to helpthem comprehend, learn or retain new information.‖ (p 1) Though short, this definition covers

the most important characteristics of learning strategies, both behavioral and mental (therefore,both observable and unobservable), and individually characterized (learners‘ strategies aredifferent) Because of its comprehensive features, the present study utilizes this definition asthe key direction

1.2.1.2 Classification of Language Learning Strategies

Language learning strategies have been classified in a number of ways

Oxford (1990, pp 16 - 22) classifies second language learning strategies into two majorclasses: Direct Strategies (strategies which directly involve the subject matter) and IndirectStrategies (strategies which do not directly involve the subject matter itself, but are essential tolanguage learning) Direct Strategies are classified into memory strategies; cognitive strategies;and compensation strategies Indirect strategies include metacognitive strategies; affectivestrategies; and social strategies

In O‘Malley and Chamot‘s framework, there are three major types of language learningstrategies named metacognitive, cognitive and social/ affective In comparison with Oxford‘sclassification, this framework is far less complicated but sufficient and applicable to learningstrategy studies on the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing Therefore,the current study will adopt O‘Malley and Chamot‘s classification of learning strategies as thetheoretical framework for investigation (see Appendix 1: Table 1.1)

1.2.1.3 The Importance of Language Learning Strategies for Students

Language learning strategies can enable students to become more independent,autonomous, lifelong learners (Allwright, 1990; Little, 1991 as cited in Oxford, 2003, p 9).Thanks to appropriate language learning strategies, students are freer to act, to make their owndecision and able to learn continuously and permanently In addition, language learningstrategies ―make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective,and more transferable to new situations‖ (Oxford, 1990, p 8) They ―are tools for active, self– directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence‖, andthose who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self – confidence andlearn more effectively

However, the effectiveness of language learning strategies ―may depend largely on thecharacteristics of the given learner, the given language structure(s), the given context, or theinteraction of these‖ (Cohen, 1998, p.12) Besides, effective second language/ foreign languagelearners are aware of the language learning strategies they use and why they use them(O'Malley and Chamot, 1990)

1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Strategies

1.2.2.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension Strategies

Researches reveal that effective readers spontaneously use reading strategies in thereading process (Pritchand, 1990, as cited in Zhang, 1993), and the use of appropriate readingstrategies may improve reading comprehension (Oxford, 1990; Olsen and Gee, 1991; as cited

in Zhang, 1993) Using reading strategies can be of great help to non-native readers because itmay serve as an effective way of overcoming language deficiency and obtaining better readingachievement both for regular school assignments and on language proficiency tests (Zhang,1992)

According to Garner (1987), reading strategies are ―actions or series of actions

employed in order to construct meaning (as cited in AD-Heisat, M.A, et al., 2009) Reading

strategies can also be understood as ―the special thoughts or behaviors that individual use‖ tohelp them to comprehend, learn and retain new information from the reading text (O‘Malleyand Chamot, 1990) More specifically, reading strategies are special actions students take onpaper, in their heads, or aloud that help them understand what they are reading Therefore, theyare both observable and unobservable

It is a common mistake that skills and strategies are interchangeable Strategies aredeliberate and goal-directed (Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris, 2008), whereas skills are

automatic, and they lead to increasingly fluent and efficient reading (Afflerbach, et al., 2008).

Readers who are aware that they must apply a cognitive strategy and do so may become lessreliant on the strategy over time As this happens, a cognitive strategy becomes a skill

1.2.2.2 Classification of Reading Comprehension Strategies

In the scheme of O‘Malley and Chamot (1990), there are three major categories ofreading strategies; cognitive, meta-cognitive and social/affective, but this study only focuses oncognitive and metacognitive ones Cognitive strategies help readers to construct meaning fromthe text, whereas metacognitive strategies are utilized to regulate or monitor cognitive

strategies (Devine, 1993; as cited in Sani, et al., 2011) According to Block (1986), Carrell (1989), Davis and Bistodeau (1993) (as cited in Sani, et al., 2011), in the actual reading,

cognitive strategies can be classified as bottom-up and top-down Following is the possibleclassification of reading strategies:

Table 1.2 Reading Strategies in O’Malley and Chamot’s Scheme

Previous research in reading strategies proved there were differences between goodreaders and poor readers in terms of strategy use Overall, more proficient readers combineboth top-down and bottom-up strategies in reading, but tend to use more top-down strategiesthan bottom-up ones Specifically, effective readers tend to use the following strategies:

Table 1.3 Reading Strategies Recommended by Teachers at Chinese University of

Hongkong (as reviewed by Nunan, 1999).

1.2.3 Predicting Strategy

It has been proved that predicting is of key importance in reading comprehension.Efficient reading often includes the use of prediction strategies (Goodman, 1976; Palincsar &Brown, 1984) Interacting with text, readers use their prior knowledge in concert with cues inthe text to generate predictions Predicting is also an integral part of competent readers'metacognitive strategies, which are used to monitor comprehension as the text is read (Collins

& Smith, 1982)

According to Duke and Pearson (2002), predicting is better conceived as a family ofstrategies than a single strategy It entails such pre-reading activities as activating priorknowledge, previewing and overviewing, which encourage readers to use their existingknowledge to facilitate their understanding of new ideas encountered in text, and while-reading

Predicting What to Come Next

structure of the text to predict what to come

next Table 1.4 Predicting Strategies and Activities to Develop Predicting Strategies

Making predictions can help students to become good readers and make reading more fun Anderson (1976) found that procedures which encourage predictions facilitate learning Predicting also arouses readers‘ interest (Mason & Au, 1986; Nichol, 1983), sets the purpose for their reading and focuses on important details According to James N Nichols (1983), by using this strategy in combination with such strategies as skimming and previewing a text, students are motivated to read and encouraged to study the text carefully to confirm their prior hypothesis (p 225).

The researcher considered the definition by Duke and Pearson (2002) the most comprehensive However, all of these are only pre-reading strategies, predicting should also involve reading to confirm or modify the prior predictions and anticipating the upcoming information and events Therefore, predicting strategy can be used both before reading and while reading The table below is a summary of predicting strategies and some activities that are usually used to develop these strategies:

BEFORE

READING

1.3 Reading Comprehension Strategy Instruction

1.3.1 Approaches to Reading Comprehension Instruction

Among numerous methods and approaches ever emerging and still existing nowadaysare the two approaches language teachers often use in their teaching of reading comprehension;Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching Approach

Theory of language

Theory of learning

Roles of materials

Table 1.5 Grammar-Translation Method and Communicative Language Teaching

14Like other modern approaches and methods, Communicative Language TeachingApproach bears the following features:

- Learner-centered teaching - Whole language education

- Cooperative and collaborative learning - Content-based instruction

- Interactive learning - Task-based instruction

(Brown, 2001, pp 46-51)The present study adopts Communicative Language Teaching approach as theframework for the teaching of predicting strategy in reading comprehension, and task-basedlanguage teaching is applied in the lesson of reading strategy instruction

The learning principle underlying the task-based approach is that learners will learnlanguage best if they engage in activities that have interactional authenticity (Bachman, 1990),e.g., require them to use language in ways that closely resemble how language is used naturallyoutside the classroom According to Willis (1996), the task-based framework consists of three

main phrases, provides 3 basic conditions for language learning; Pre-task, Task-cycle and Language focus.

(1) Pre-task: introduces the class to the topic and the task activating topic-related

words and phrases

(2) Task Cycle: offers learners the chance to use whatever language they

already know

in order to carry out the task and then to improve their language under the teacher‘s guidancewhile planning their reports on the task There are three components of a task cycle: Task,Planning, and Report

(3) Language Focus: allows a closer study of some of the specific features naturally

occurring in the language used during the task cycle Learners examine the language forms inthe text and look in detail at the use and the meaning of lexical items they have noticed.Language focus has two components: Analysis and Practice

A more detailed task-based framework is given in Table 1.6 in APPENDIX.

1.3.2 Model of Reading Comprehension Instruction

It is common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while-, and reading (William, 1984; Dubin and Bycina, 1991; as cited in the course book ―ESL/ CFLClassroom Techniques and Practices‖ used at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University ofLanguages and International Studies) According to these authors, each stage has its own aimsand procedures as followed:

1.3.3 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction

In the past decades, a great deal of research has been done in the field of

comprehension strategy instruction Several sophisticated instructional models composed of

specific reading strategies have been identified, and they provide solid frameworks of effective

comprehension strategy instruction Among these models are four prevalent models ; Reciporal

Teaching by Palincsar and Brown (1984), the Direct Explanation by Duffy et al (1987),

Transactional Strategy Instruction by Presley et al (1992), and the Collaborative Strategic

Reading by (Klingner et al., 1998).



strategies



Students take turns leading the group dialogue

and practicing the strategies, and the teacher

becomes a mediator guiding and giving feedback



scaffolded assistance as students begin to control

the four strategies

The students understand and share most of thethinking responsibilities

modeling of their use.

her reading processes

strategy just presented

Table 1.8 Models of Reading Strategy Instruction

Among the four models of reading comprehension strategy instruction reviewed above,

the present study adapts Direct Explanation model (DE) (Duffy et al , 1987) for three reasons.

Firstly, before the study the informants may have no idea of any reading comprehensionstrategies, and they, therefore, need explicit instruction of the strategy Secondly, the study wasconducted in a short period of time whereas the Reciporal Teaching and Transactional StrategyInstruction require a great deal of time as well as effort Finally, the Direct Explanation modeldoes not require the class to be divided into groups including a better reader and poorer readers.However, independent practice stage was added to this model

During the course of applying a reading strategy instruction, it is advisable to take intoconsideration some factors (Andreassen and Braten, 2010) Firstly, reading strategies should be

―explicitly labeled and taught not only by explanation but also repeated modeling andscaffolding support, with the goal being self-regulated strategy use on the part of the students‖(Hilden and Pressley, 2007) Secondly, activation and generation of background knowledge, as

proved in empirical studies to play an influential role in reading comprehension, are importantinstructional concerns Thirdly, cooperation in small reading groups where students sharethoughts about how texts can be comprehended by means of multiple reading strategies wasclaimed to facilitate self-regulated strategy use because in such groups students of variousabilities and skills are supposed to provide scaffolding support for each other‘s readingprocesses Fourthly, interesting texts and exciting reading activities should be used to createreading motivation, which facilitates the strategy use In addition, effective strategic readinginstruction should provide opportunities for all learners to reflect on their thinking duringreading, so corrective and performance feedback can be given to them (Aek Phakit; 2006)

1.4 Related Studies

In terms of predicting strategy in reading, Goodman and Burke (1980) describe thesuccessful reader as one who actively constructs meaning, using prediction and confirmationstrategies According to these researchers, competent readers are adept at using their languageexperience and world knowledge to choose appropriate cues in text to help generatepredictions In turn, these predicting strategies help the reader anticipate the meaning of thetext Once a prediction is made, the reader's task is to monitor and check the prediction againstsubsequent information from the text (Collins, Brown, & Larkin, 1980) Thus, the generation

of a prediction is a crucial step in the development of a metacognitive system, in whichinformation concerning the appropriateness of a prediction is obtained from the text throughself-monitoring

Accomplished readers actively control the generation of predictions (Bruce & Rubin,1984) For example, if several predictions have been made and are still pending verification,the reader might decide to forego the generation of further predictions until the pendingpredictions have been verified or modified Bruce and Rubin also propose that the reader withlittle applicable prior knowledge for the content or form of the text being read may "limit theproliferation of hypotheses" (p 112) That is, as predictions are educated guesses about whatwill happen in the text, competent readers monitor the appropriateness of making a prediction,

a strategy which includes an on-going assessment of applicable prior knowledge for the textand task at hand In contrast, readers' failure to monitor predictions may inhibit textcomprehension, as predictions made without an appropriate prior knowledge base, and withoutsubsequent monitoring of their accuracy, can be a liability to comprehension (Kimmel &MacGinitie, 1984)

It has been found out that the generation of predictions and the verification of thesepredictions through the text contribute a great deal to readers‘ comprehension, but mostresearches are biased to narrative texts (Pearson and Fielding, 1991) Through their works,Hansen (1981) and Hansen and Pearson (1983) proved that by generating expectations aboutwhat the characters might do based on their experience in similar situations, students couldimprove their comprehension of the stories Fielding, Anderson and Pearson (1990) noted thatprediction activities promoted overall story comprehension only if the predictions wereexplicitly compared to text ideas, suggesting that the verification process may be as important

as making predictions

Investigating readers‘ predicting strategies as they read two specific genres; expositoryand narrative, Olson, Mack and Duffy (1981; 1984) proposed that readers of the former did notengage in ―rich‖ prediction and hypothesis testing, whereas readers of the latter did Thus,these researchers concluded that text genre had a significant influence on whether or notreaders used predictions in constructing meaning for a text In contrast, Afflerbach (1990) andJohnston and Afflerbach (1984) noted that competent readers used predicting strategies whilereading expository texts Results from these studies suggested that prior knowledge for thecontent of the text, in addition to knowledge of text genre, influenced readers‘ predictingstrategies Familiar materials, which may engage readers‘ formal and content schema, ensuredmore appropriate predictions in the reading process (Anderson, Pichert, and Shirey (1983)

1.5 Summary

This chapter has highlighted the key issues related to the study; the nature of readingcomprehension, language learning strategies, reading strategies, predicting strategies,approaches to reading comprehension instruction, models of a reading comprehension lesson,models of reading strategies The literature review shows that reading is a process composed ofthe text, the reader, fluency and strategies Among these components, strategies play a veryimportant role in the reading comprehension As a fraction of reading strategies, predictingstrategies are beneficial to the reading comprehension in many ways A thorough review ofpredicting strategies together with the reading strategy instructions strongly supports thehypothesis that predicting strategies could improve the students‘ reading comprehension Withthis theoretical background, it is hoped that the study would yield satisfactory results

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a detailed description of how the research was carried outincluding the research context, research questions, research approach, participants, datacollection instruments, intervention, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

2.1 Research Context

The study was conducted at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School, a public school inthe suburb of Hanoi There are 40 classes with the total number of more than 1,000 studentsfrom some villages and towns nearby, and 10th grade students make up 13 classes Thesestudents‘ English proficiency is, on average, not very high even though they have learntEnglish for at least seven years Reading is a very difficult skill for them, and their mostcommon problem with this skill is that they cannot understand a reading text due to their lack

of vocabulary, as perceived by themselves and their teachers Besides, their teacherscomplained that they were word-by-word readers and, consequently, read at very low rates, andthey frequently tried to translate the text into Vietnamese

The teaching staff includes eight teachers of English, all of whom graduated from theUniversity of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.Among them, four teachers have more than 10 years of teaching experience, two others havemore than 5 years, and the rest has less than 3 years Their ages vary from 25 to 50; 4 of themare under 30 All of these teachers attended the training workshop on implementing the newmethodology, organized by the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, in the summer of

2006 The researcher is also a teacher of English at this school She is 35 years old and hasabout 10-year teaching experience She is pursuing the post-graduate study of English at theUniversity of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.Therefore, she has certain experience and knowledge in teaching English as a foreign language,which is valuable for the implementation of the strategy instruction course

The textbooks used as the official English materials for the students at this school are

Tieng Anh 10, Tieng Anh 11 and Tieng Anh 12 - standard syllabus According to their authors,

they are theme-based and skill-based, with the adoption of the ‗two currently popular teachingapproaches, i.e the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach Task-based

learning is regarded as ―the leading methodology‖ (Van et al., 2006, p 12) The themes or

topics covered in the textbooks series consist of education, community, nature, environmentand recreation It is expected that within this task-based framework, students actively engage inmeaningful interaction and negotiation of meaning through individual, pair, and group work

(Van et al., 2006, p 10) However, in the light of task-based teaching and from the researcher‘s

teaching experience, these series of textbooks seem to be far beyond their authors‘ expectation.The tasks included in these textbooks are not ―activities where the target language is used bythe learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome‖ (Willis, 1996, p 23),and the aim of tasks is not ―to create a real purpose for language use and to provide a naturalcontext for language study" In addition, the main stages of tasked-based learning are notexplicitly presented Consequently, to what extent this approach is realized in the actualteaching mainly rests on the teachers As regards Vietnamese teachers of English, in general,and Cao Ba Quat Upper School teachers of English in particular, task-based learning is quiteunfamiliar to them For all these reasons, Vietnamese students, including students may not beaccustomed to task-based approach

It was the students‘ reading problems that urged the researcher to conduct a research tofind a new way to improve her students‘ reading comprehension, and predicting strategyinstruction was chosen

2.2 Research Questions

To achieve the aims of the study, (1) to examine the impact of the predicting strategyinstruction on the students‘ reading comprehension and (2) to determine effective techniques toteach predicting strategies in reading comprehension, two research questions were addressed:

Ba Quat school’s grade 10 students’ reading comprehension?

as perceived by the students and the teacher?

2.3 Research Approach:

The study is carried out under the approach of Action Research Before dealing with the

specific steps in the research procedure, it is essential to explain the selection of themethodology because good understanding of action research is indispensable for a deepunderstanding and analysis of the research

Action research, as defined in Cohen and Manion (1994, p.186), is ―small-scale

intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of suchintervention‖

Some characteristics of action research are stated in Hult and Lennung (1980) and McKerman (1991) as follows:

- Aiming at improving the quality of human actions

-Contributing to a science of education.

-Being collaborative, e.g., the research involves all contribution to the understanding andaction

These features were reflected in this study First, the aim of the study was to improvethe current situation of English reading comprehension Second, the study would contribute tothe science of language education Third, the study included the researcher‘s intervention, that

is, predicting strategy instruction, on other participants‘ reading comprehension Finally, thestudy was formed with several uncertainties and suspicion, thus, it needed the alteration andimprovement during the research process

Following is Stephen Kemmis‘ simple action research model:

Figure 2.1 Action Research Model

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

initiation, preliminary investigation, development of research questions, intervention, evaluation, dissemination, and follow-up The study strictly follows the general steps of an

action research cycle suggested by Nunan (1992), and this will be demonstrated in Chapter 3:Results and Discussion

2.4 Participants

The sample group was composed of fifty 10th grade students in total with the proportion of48% (24) female and 52% (26) male, from Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School All of theparticipants completed 7 years of mandatory English education (from grade 3 to grade 9), but somestarted to learn English earlier, from grade 1 or even from the nursery school According

to the syllabus, they have three periods of English each week, and every five periods of Englishthey have one lesson of reading comprehension The table below summarizes the backgroundinformation on the participants including the gender, age, number of years learning English andtheir English reading proficiency assessed by the teacher

Total number of participants

50

The rationale for the researcher‘s choosing grade 10 students as the population of theresearch is based on her belief that they may have not been taught any reading strategy before.She selected 10A10 students the subjects of the study as this is the only 10th group that she is incharge of this year

2.5 Data Collection Instruments

In order to collect sufficient data for the study, a number of instruments were employed:

questionnaire, pre-test and post-tests, teacher’s diary and students’ journals:

2.5.1 Questionnaire: This ―vital tool in the collection of data‖ (Gajendra, 1999, p 117) seems

to be the easiest and most effective method for collecting data from students For this reason,the researcher chose it as a data collection instrument for preliminary investigation aimed atidentifying the problem analyzing the participants‘ needs

The construction of the questionnaire involved a number of phases:

Phases

1 Review relevant literature and previous related research

Develop the draft questionnaire; adapt the questionnaire from Mokhtari and

2

Reichard (2002) and Oxford (1990)

3 Submit to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage pilot

4 Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

5 Revise the questionnaire carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.2 Procedures for Questionnaire Development

The major topics addressed in the questionnaire included: (1) awareness of predictingstrategy and (2) use of predicting strategy Under each major topic were eleven Yes/ Noquestions translated into Vietnamese ―With certain specific areas such as study habits, it may

also be more appropriate to apply true-false items when the questions ask about occurrences of

various behaviours‖ (Dornyei, 2003)

2.5.2 Pre-test and post-tests:

To investigate the students‘ improvement in their English reading comprehension, the

researcher developed two reading tests, one of which was conducted at the beginning of the

research as the pre-test and after the intervention as a delayed post-test and the other after the

intervention as an immediate post-test These tests were adapted from the reading tests in the

course book Interaction Access Obviously, the researcher made the necessary changes to fit

the purpose of the study, and to guarantee their equal value in terms of vocabulary, content and

difficulty level These tests were designed as achievement tests, which normally ―aim to find

out how much each student, and the class as a whole, has learnt of what has been taught, to

provide feedback on students‘ progress to both teacher and students, to show how effectively

the teacher has taught‖

Each test consists of two reading passages, which are followed by five multiple-choice

reading questions The participants were required to read the passages to choose the best

answer for each question The time allowance for each test was fifteen minutes To ensure that

the tests can give a reliable answer to the first research question, the researcher bore in mind

such qualities of a good test as validity, reliability, discrimination, practicality, and washback

Here is the procedure for constructing these tests:

Phases

1. Design the two tests based on the study purpose, the course syllabus and the

students‘ reading competence

2. Submit to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage pilot

3. Modify if necessary

4. Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

5. Revise carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.3 Procedures for Test Development 2.5.3 Teacher’s diary and students’ reflective journal

Data were also collected by means of the researcher‘s diary and the students‘ journals

during the implementation of the project As can be inferred from Kemmis‘ cycle, reflection is

one of the major steps Teacher‘s diary and students‘ journals provide some reflection on the

part of the teacher as the researcher and the students as the participants respectively

Diaries as open-ended narrative texts are ―first-person account of a learning and

teaching experience” (Bailey, 1990, p 215, as cited in McDonough, 2001), and they are “the kind of subjective text” (McDonough, 2001, p 122) which are essentially private documents

written immediately after a teaching event, when the details are fresh in the mind It isconsidered a reliable source of reflection as the writer can be totally honest in his/ hercomments

Journals have many of the attributes of diaries, but they can be written to be read as

public documents They contain “both subjective and objective data” (McDonough, 2001, p.

122) Therefore, they can be edited in the process of composition, which makes them lacked intruthfulness in comparison with diaries However, they are an excellent tool for reflection

In this study, diaries and journals were utilized to provide ―reflection on action‖,which is defined as ―the retrospective contemplation of practice undertaken in order touncover the knowledge used in practical situations, by analyzing and interpreting theinformation recalled‖ (Fitzgerald, 1994, p 67) They were written retrospectively - just aftereach lesson

Guided diaries and journals were used with the expectation that writing about questionsenables the researcher to ―have the potential to produce greater critical reflection by turningreflection away from the natural tendency of emotional release‖ and ―might bring to lightassumptions and biases in teaching‖ (Gorman, 1998, as cited in Boyd J and Boyd S, 2005, p.111)

In short, with the combination of these methods, it was expected that the researcher

would have ―deeper understanding” and ―broader perspective‖ of the information (Mertens,

2005, p.21) so as to get more reliable results

2.6 Intervention: Predicting Strategy Instruction

The most emphasized feature of action research, as mentioned in ―Research Method‖,was the process of the researcher‘s intervention To achieve the research aims, the interventionshould be designed to raise the participants‘ awareness of predicting strategy and, therefore,improve their reading comprehension through the introduction of predicting strategies

During the predicting strategy instruction course, the students received two minute lessons and one ninety-minute lesson in which predicting strategies were taughtexplicitly in combination with such reading strategies as skimming and scanning Theselessons were developed by the researcher for the sake of the study The Direct Explanation

forty-five-model (Duffy et al , 1987) was embedded within the lessons Based on this framework, the

strategy instruction included an explicit description of the strategy and when and how it should

be used, teacher and/or student modeling, guided practice with gradual release of responsibility

and independent use During the process of designing the lesson plan, the researcher took into

consideration of not only the strategy instruction but also such components as background

knowledge, reading group organization, reading materials and activities, and feedbacks

Lessons

1 To develop the strategies of predicting the topic from the title and predicting the

content from the picture

2 To develop the strategies of predicting the main idea of a paragraph from the first

sentence

the knowledge of the textual structure to predict what to come next in the text

Table 2.4 Syllabus of Predicting Strategy Instruction Course

And here is the procedure for the construction of the lesson plans:

Phases

1. Identify the objectives of the course and of each lesson

2. Select the teaching approach: task – based learning

Select the material; expository texts from the book

3. students‘ content and formal schema, language proficiency, the time allowance

and the text content

4. Design the tasks, plan and sequence the activities

5. Design the diary and journal format

6. Submit the lesson plans to the supervisor and some other experts for first-stage

pilot

7. Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

8. Revise the lesson plans carefully and complete the final version

Table 2.5 Procedures for Predicting Strategy Instruction Development

2.7 Data Collection Procedures

The data collection procedures commenced in early April and ended in late July, 2011

All of the procedures involved in the following steps:

Step 1: In early April, the preliminary questionnaires were administered to the students

from group 10A10 of Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School.: Each respondent was handed acopy of the questionnaire, and asked to answer all the question items in the questionnaires

26However, in order to increase the quality and quantity of participant response, the researcher:(1)announced the questionnaires to all the respondents in advance, sent a printed leaflet of thestudy purpose and nature and a few sample items, and invited participation, and (2) explainedthe purpose and the potential significance of the research once again, and the rationale for thesample, assured the confidentiality of their answers, and monitored questionnaire completionprocess.

Step 2: In the middle of April, a fifteen-minute reading comprehension test was

conducted in the classroom of group 10A10 Before the test, the participants were told that theywere expected to do the test as best as they could although the result of this test score wouldnot be recorded in their school report During the pre-test, no participant was allowed to

consult his/ her classmates‘ work When the time was up, all the papers were handed inimmediately

Step 3: From the beginning of May to the beginning of July, the predicting strategy

course was implemented, and at the end of each lesson, the teacher made a diary on the realteaching and the students were asked to write journals about that lesson

Step 4: In the middle of July, another reading comprehension test was given as the

post-test, and one week later the first test was given again as the delayed post-test Theprocedures of conducting these tests were the same as that of the pre-test However, theparticipants were reminded that they should exploit what they had learned from the predictingstrategy instruction to complete the test

Step 5: Based on the result of the first cycle of the study, the researcher decided

whether to carry out the next cycle

2.8 Data Analysis Procedures

Three sets of data were obtained from the data collection The first one comprised 50questionnaires, the second one 50 pre-test papers and 50 post – test papers, and the last theteacher‘s diaries and the students‘ journals

2.8.1 Questionnaires

After the questionnaires had been collected, the researcher embarked on the coding ofthe items As the questionnaire is composed of closed-ended items, a straightforward codingframe was used: the answer ―Yes‖ was assigned number 1, and the answer ―No‖ number 2,this is done only for scoring purposes and the missing data were coded 999

Once having been coded, the data were analyzed quantitatively in descriptive approach,and the descriptive analyses were then reported in percentages After that these descriptive

statistics were graphed so that the results of the preliminary investigation were clearlydemonstrated

2.8.2 Pre-test and post-test

The pre-test and post-test, aimed at exploring any improvement in the participants‘reading comprehension after they had been given a predicting strategy instruction, include tworeading texts, each of which was followed by 3 multiple-choice reading comprehensionquestions were administered to these sample group After the tests had been checked, thecorrect answers were counted manually The data collected from these tests were then analyzedquantitatively with the statistical tool – comparing the percentage of correct answers Based onthis significance, the researcher could explore any improvement in the participants‘ readingcomprehension after the intervention

2.8.3 Diary and Journals

The procedure for analyzing the teacher‘s diaries and the students‘ journals consisted ofreading and re-reading the text to allow significant themes to become gradually foregrounded.After that the researcher took into account three key features: frequency of mention,distribution of mention and the strength of the expression with which a topic was recorded

2.9 Summary

In order to explore the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the reading

effective techniques to teach predicting strategies, an action research was carried out in the

researcher‘s own class at this school The data was collected from a questionnaire, a pre-test,

two post-tests, the teacher’ diaries and the students’ journals and then analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method It is hoped that the combination of

these instruments would enable the research questions to be answered

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the main stages of this action research will be presented under the

following headings: Preliminary investigation (preliminary questionnaire) and Evaluation

(teacher‘s diaries, students‘ reflective journals, pre-test and post-test)

3.1 Preliminary investigation

To investigate the students‘ awareness and use of predicting strategies before theinstruction, a questionnaire was administered to the participants The participants gave Yes or

No answer to each item, and then the answers were counted and analyzed

3.1.1 Students’ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies

Figure 3.1 Students’ Awareness and Use of Predicting Strategies

The figure shows the percentage of the participants who are aware of predictingstrategies and those who actually use them In term of awareness, the majority realize thatpredicting facilitates their reading comprehension Specifically, 90% and 78% of the sampleconsider it necessary to employ contextual clues like the title and the picture to think aboutwhat they are going to read respectively 80% of the students appreciate activating and usingprior background knowledge of the topic to make hypotheses on the upcoming information Inthe fourth and the fifth place is the percentage of the students conscious of using theknowledge of the textual structure to generate predictions about what to come next and that ofthe subjects putting an emphasis on the bottom-up skill – reading to confirm the priorprediction (71% and 63% respectively) Nevertheless, only one-third of the respondents thinkthat predicting the main idea of a paragraph from its first sentence is also useful