THE EFFECTS OF READING ENGLISH NOVELS ON THE READING SKILL OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SOPHISTERS, THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY

Therefore this study was to identify the effects of English novelreading on the reading skill of Thuongmai University English Departmentsophisters.. They are eager with reading long text

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

International integration has become more and more intensive than everthrough time, which requires a surge in development and advancement in science,language, and culture With English as the Language of InternationalCommunication, people have been given various opportunities to succeed andprogress in work In four basic skills, reading skill is very important to develop theknowledge and other elements for English skill, especially speaking and writingskill Through the open and diverse sources of books and novels, the chances toimprove a reading skill is becoming more convenient than ever Apprehending thebenefits through novel reading could result in the right solution to enhance andsolve the difficulties in the reading skill as well as creating motivation for students

to passively study Therefore this study was to identify the effects of English novelreading on the reading skill of Thuongmai University English Departmentsophisters The study was conducted by tools of survey questionnaires Theparticipant was asked to completed the survey related to reading comprehensionskills, which revealed the second-year English major attitudes towards readingEnglish novels, some obstacles they’re facing, and solutions for their reading skill.Through the research, it is hoped that the learners will find the excitement as well asthe cons in reading English novels, so that they could have the right application inimproving reading as well as the motivation to keep reading as a conventional habit

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

The success and outcome of this graduation paper required a lot of guidanceand assistance from many people and I am extremely privileged to have got this allalong with the completion of my project All that I have done is only due to suchsupervision and assistance and I would not forget to thank them

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Ms.HanThi Bich Ngoc, M.A, the English teacher of the English Department, who hasalways been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions so that I cancomplete successfully this study

I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all myteachers in the English Department at Thuongmai University, who have handed mebasic knowledge to complete this study

I am so thankful to students of K53N at the English Department for theirwhole – heart participation in the study

I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books,magazines, and the other materials listed in the reference part for their ideas thathave been reflected and developed in the study

I am equally indebted to my classmates for their suggestions andencouragement in the process of my study

Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for theirencouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation paper

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Previous study 2

1.3 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Research subject 4

1.5 Scope of the study 4

1.6 Research methodology 4

1.7 Organization of the study 5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Overview of Reading skill 6

2.1.1 Definition of Reading 6

2.1.2 Definition of the Reading skill 7

2.1.3 The process of Reading skill 8

2.1.4 Reading comprehension 9

2.1.5 Kinds of Reading 10

2.2 Overview of English novel 12

2.2.1 Definition 12

2.2.2 Effects of reading English novel on reading skill 12

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH FINDINGS 16

3.1 Participant of the research 16

3.2 Data collection instruments 16

3.2.1 The survey questionnaire 16

3.3.2 The interview 16

3.3 Procedures of data collection 17

3.4 Procedures of data analysis 18

3.4.1 Students’ current English learning situation 18

3.4.2 Students’ perspective in reading skill and evaluation of their reading level 19

3.4.3 Students’ habit of reading English novel and reading frequency 23

3.4.4 Students’ opinion and attitude towards English novel 24

3.4.5 The obstacles in reading English novel 26

3.4.6 Students’ frequency in self-reading activities 27

3.4.7 Activities for improving reading English novel 28

3.4.8 Results from the interview 30

CHAPTER FOUR: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32

4.1 Summary of the effects of reading English novel 32

4.1.1 English novel on the interest and concentration of the students 32

4.1.2 English novel on the vocabulary of the students 32

4.1.3 English novel on the knowledge of the student 32

4.2 Suggestion to improve English novel reading experience effectively 33

4.2.1 Highlight – look up and note down 33

4.2.2 Re-read and search for the information in the novel 33

4.2.3 Listen to music while reading 33

4.2.4 Read as much as possible 34

4.3 Limitations of the study 34

4.4 Recommendation for further studies 35

CONCLUSION 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

 ED: English Department

 ESL: English as a Second Language

 PISA: The Program for International Student Assessment

 OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

 ERS: English Reading Skill

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1 Definition of reading (David Nunan Practical English Language

Teaching 2003 p 72) 6

Chart 1 Length of time in studying English 19

Chart 2 Opinions in obtain and achieve ERS 20

Chart 3 Students comprehension ability through different types of reading materials 21

Table 1 Students comprehension ability through different types of reading materials (%) 22

Chart 4 Student’s reading habit 23

Chart 5 Frequency of students’ English novel reading 24

Chart 6 Students’ opinion towards English novel 25

Table 2 Students’ frequency in encountering novel reading problems 26

Chart 7 Student’s frequency of the activities in reading 27

Table 3.Students’ opinion in the activities while reading 29

CHAPTER ONE: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale

In daily life, people have many ways to study and improve our English skills,through music, movies, and the Internet or with the people they have interacted withand so on However, it is believed that people tend to be attracted and rememberthings longer through stories It has been told since the beginning of time and hasbeen the main form of education since then Therefore, making reading a habit isvery important to develop reading skills and one of the great sources that cannot beforgotten is the English novel

The author would like to present the thesis title “The effects of English novelreading on the reading skill of the Thuongmai University English Departmentsophomores” for several reasons:

Primarily, reading skill has been considered as the most significant skill based

on the confirmation of employers in 12 industries Due to international integration,most of the large company has multilateral, and bilateral cooperation withforeigners The frequency and the amount of English used in internationalpublications, contracts and instruction have become immense Because of thatcharacteristic, reading skill is vital The author wanted to put research to helpstudents acknowledge the importance of reading skills in practical

Secondly, reading books and novels is a great way to study Besides textbooksand theories, students could have more options and variety of sources of the Englishnovel It is a very sophisticated subject which teaches among other things, not onlyhelps students to have an external perspective but also teaches them valuablelessons through allegories and metaphors Students could familiarize themselveswith the jargon and new words through reading the English novel also

Finally yet importantly, after 4 years studying in ED at TMU, the authorrealized many second-year students in English major have difficulties in readingEnglish They can read with some degree of proficiency but are still unable tounderstand what they are reading Many of them haven’t fully exploited thematerials in reading books and its advantages to improve their skill as well as their

knowledge They are eager with reading long texts and books, which could be theproblem with ineffective and wrong ways of reading and choosing novel which isnot suitable for their level.

With the main motive to help the second year student realize the benefits, havemore motivation to explore the world of English novel and methods to improvetheir reading habit actively, the author would like to conduct this study to identifythe factors and effects of reading English novel on the reading skill

1.2 Previous study

On account of English as a Second Language (ESL), there have been somestudies about the importance of reading skills as well as the significance of Englishnovel, or English books in general

According to Cencage (2019), through a survey poll, there are 69% of

employers are looking to hire people with “soft” skills, like the ability to

communicate effectively Reading books is the best way to increase peoples’exposure to new words, learned in context

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found that studentswho read books regularly, beginning at a young age, gradually develop largevocabularies And vocabulary size can influence many areas of your life, fromscores on standardized tests to college admissions and job opportunities

A study on reading literary fiction in both print and electronic media involvingyoung Swedish adults (Nilsson, 2016) found that reading fiction is beneficial toreaders In particular, the participants in the Nilsson study believed that readingfiction was important for self-awareness and personal development, includinglanguage skills in general

“There has been rather less research on how reading different text types—for instance, the frequency with which young people read fiction books compared to non‐fiction books—is associated with young people's reading skills”

(McGeown et al., 2015; Sullivan, 2015)

The recent work of Wolf (2018) raises the issue that ‘deep reading’ (such as

being very engaged with a fiction book) has started to decline in the digital era Yet

concentrate for prolonged periods of time and their ability to maintain focus Hence,

a ‘fiction effect’ might well emerge because it requires young people to concentrate

and read deeply, encouraging meaningful thought and reflection upon what they arereading, rather than just superficially gathering information by skimming throughshorter texts

There is some evidence that stories have a particular role in enhancing socialcognition (Mar, 2018) and from this point of view fiction texts may be particularly

effective in engaging young readers in developing ‘a clear, complete, and integrated representation of the meaning of a text’ (Oakhill et al., 2015).

Novels can also play a part in developing young people's social networks as

‘good reads’ are shared amongst friendship groups (Moss, 2007) The discussion

above clearly illustrates that there are strong theoretical reasons why one wouldsuspect that reading certain types of text may be more important for thedevelopment of young people's reading skills than others

Besides other reading materials (magazines, newspapers, ), the novel is asplendid source for students who study English as a second language in a non-nativesetting and wanted to improve their reading skills In general, it is vital to conduct a

research on “The effects of reading English novel on the reading skill of English Department sophisters, Thuongmai University”.

1.3 Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is to identify:

 The current reading English novel frequency of second-year English majorstudents

 The reading comprehension level of students in reading the novel

 The benefits that student gained through novel reading and the difficultiesfaced with reading English novel

To achieve this purpose, the author tends to seek answers to these questions:

 What is the real situation of reading English novel for the second yearEnglish major students at TMU?

 What problems do students face in reading and understanding the noveland content to improve?

 What methods to improve effective reading and reading comprehension?

1.4 Research subject

The research subject are the second-year English major students of ED inTMU The study is mainly focused on the effects of reading English novels on thereading skill with the participation of 54 sophomores who are learning businessEnglish

1.5 Scope of the study

The study is about the influences of English novel on the reading skill ofsophomores at ED, TMU Due to the lack of time, limited knowledge and theshortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issues of readingskills and the significance of the English novel

Therefore, it’ll only focused on finding the common obstacles in reading thatstudents encountered and the prominent effects they have in the process of readingEnglish novels Furthermore, the study only covers a limited amount of subjectswhich are 54 students of K53 at ED, TMU

1.6 Research methodology

This study applied both qualitative and quantitative methods

Initially, the quantitative method was conducted by a design of a questionnairewith the participation of 50 sophomores in ED, TMU to understand the reality andimpact of English novel of the K53N students in their reading skill along with thesolutions for better approaching to the English novel

Survey questionnaire for 50 English major undergraduate students contains 9questions to seek information for the three research question which involved in foursections: (1) general information background, (2) English novel reading frequencyand reading skill evaluation, (3) challenges in reading English novel, (4) suggestion

to improve reading skill and further exploitation on foreign literature After theresult is gained, tables and charts were used to conduct the data collection from thesurvey questionnaire This will allow the researcher to have better insights from thedata and analyze it easily

Other than that, the qualitative method was performed through an online

K53 in ED at TMU With their acceptance and collaboration, the ideas and otherperspectives about the effects of reading English novels will be clearer as well asthe difficulties and suggestion gave out.

1.7 Organization of the study

This study consists of four main chapters, organized as below:

Chapter One is the Overview of the study This chapter includes the rationale,previous studies, the purpose of the study, research subjects, scope of the study,research methodology, and organization of the study It summarizes the reason forchoosing this study and the methods for the completion of the study

Chapter Two includes the introduction to Literature Review, with the intention

to give out some theoretical knowledge related to English novel, reading skill, andthe problems that students have encountered, along with the review of relevantresearches

Chapter Three offers Research Findings This chapter contains the selection ofparticipants, data collection instruments, and procedures of data collection, dataanalysis from survey questionnaire and interview, as well as the result of thefindings

Chapter Four shows the Recommendations and Suggestions It discussed thesummary of findings and the suggestions to help students have a better method toeffectively read an English novel In addition to that, this chapter also includes thelimitations and recommendations for further study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview of Reading skill

2.1.1 Definition of Reading

“Reading is one of the most effective ways of foreign language learning.

Reading simply is the interpretation of a written message” Walter R Hill (1979,

p.4) briefly defines reading as what the reader does to get the meaning he needsfrom contextual resources

“Reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning and the goal of reading is comprehension” (Nunan, 2003, p.68).

“The ability to read requires that the reader draw information from a text and combine it with information and expectations that the reader already has” (Grabe,

Stoller, 2001, p.187)

Alderson J.C (2000) stated that reading is built from two components: wordrecognition and comprehension These two components gained through reading willfoster learners’ language competence

Krashen and Terrell (1989, p.131) point out that reading enables learners tocomprehend better which is an important factor that can develop languagecompetence

Figure 1 Definition of reading (David Nunan Practical English Language

Teaching 2003 p 72)

Hedge (2003) writes the goals of learners’ in a reading process as:

 The ability to read a wide range of texts in English

 Building a knowledge of language which will facilitate reading ability

 Building schematic knowledge

 The ability to adapt the reading style according to reading purpose(skimming, scanning)

 Developing an awareness of the structure of written texts in English

 Taking a critical stance to the contexts of the texts Reading will add tolearners’ conversational performance

Reading will help learners to decipher new words that they need forconversations Through reading, language learners will have vocabulary knowledgewhich will facilitate their speaking performance and their usage of structure in thetarget language will develop These components which are required through readingare all necessary for developing speaking skills

Similarly, Williams (1984, p.13) suggests some reasons why language learnersshould read in a foreign language:

 Learners can have further practice in the language that they have learnt,

 Learners can practice language in order to reuse it in other skills such asspeaking

 Learners can learn how to get benefit from the texts to extract theinformation they need

 Learners can find enjoyment or interest through reading

2.1.2 Definition of the Reading skill

Reading skill refers to the ability to understand written text It is advisable todevelop this skill at the early age of schooling When students comprehend orunderstand written text, and combine their understanding with prior knowledge,they can to perform the following three reading-comprehension skills

 Identify simple facts presented in written text (literal comprehension)

 Make judgments about the written text’s content (evaluativecomprehension)

 Connect the text to other written passages and situations (inferentialcomprehension)

According to F B Davies (July 1968), reading skills involve: identifyingword meaning, drawing inferences, identifying writer’s technique, recognizingmood of passage, finding answers to questions

J Munby (1978) claimed that reading skill can also include: recognizing thescript of language; deducing the meaning, use of unfamiliar lexical items;understanding explicitly and non-explicitly stated information, meaning,communicative value of sentences, relations within the sentences and between parts

of text through lexical cohesion devices; recognizing indicators and main point

of information in discourse; distinguishing main idea from supporting detail;selective extraction of relevant points from the text; basic reference skills;skimming, scanning, transcoding information from diagrams/charts

E Lunzer, M Waite, and T Dolan (1979) assumed that reading skills are

as follows: word meaning in context, literal comprehension, drawing inferences,interpretation of metaphor, finding main ideas, forming judgments

“Reading skills also involve: automatic recognition skills, vocabulary and structural knowledge, knowledge, formal discourse structure content/world background knowledge, synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies, metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring.” (W Grabe- pp 375-406, Autumn 1991)

“Grabe’s taxonomy uses very general categories, equivalent to knowledge areas If reading itself is a skill, it must be possible to break this down into different levels of component skills categories.” (W.Grabe- pp 375-406, Autumn

1991)

2.1.3 The process of Reading skill

The following types of reading are important to discuss : search reading locating information on predetermined topics; skimming - reading for gist;scanning - reading selectively to achieve very specific reading goals; carefulreading - reader attempts to handle majority of information in the text and tobuild up a macrostructure

-A H Urquhart (1998) stated, the reader may choose kind of readingaccording to the perceived demands of the learning task Adopting a range ofreading styles during pre-reading (predicting, word association, discussions, textsurveys), while-reading (a list of questions, scanning and skimming activities,working out the meaning of unfamiliar words, pattern study guides,summarizing, clarifying, questioning, predicting, etc.) and post-reading activities(review of the content, work on grammar, vocabulary in context or word roots,discourse features, consolidation of what has been read by relating the newinformation to the students’ knowledge, interests, and opinions through a writingassignment, discussions, debates, role-plays, project work) in second languageclassroom is necessary for successful interaction with the authentic texts.

2.1.4 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously constructing andextracting meaning through interaction and engagement with print According toRAND Reading Study Group (2002), comprehension is the process of eliciting andmaking meaning through interaction and involvement with written language

McNamara and Magliano (2009) emphasized that this process is a task of bothreader and text factors that happen within a larger social context Duke (2003)

stated that “comprehension is a process in which readers make meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the views of readers related to the text.”

Kintsch (1998) and van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) defined reading

comprehension as the process of creating meaning from text “The purpose is to get

an understanding of the text rather than to acquire meaning from individual words

or sentences” The outcome of reading comprehension is the mental representation

of a text meaning that is combined with the readers’ previous knowledge This iscalled a mental model (Johnson-Laird, 1983) or a situation model (Kintsch, 1998).This model defines what has been learned (RAND Reading and Study Group,2002)

Keenan, Betjemann, and Olson (2008) expressed that “reading comprehension needs the successful expansion and arrangement of a lot of lower-and higher-level

processes and skills.” Accordingly, there are many sources for possible

comprehension break and these sources are different based on the skill levels andage of readers

Based on the book by Timothy C Papadopoulos (2015) “reading comprehension is essential for successful functioning in our society In virtually all instances, the goal of reading is to identify the meaning or message of the text at hand”.

“Reading is not merely a process of exact identification of letters, words, and ultimately sentences leading to comprehension built from letter to word to phrase to sentence” (K S Goodman, pp 126-135, May 1967) But in other

perspective, it can be understood in different way, not just to comprehend it withfull meaning or ideas

According to D E Rumelhart (1980, pp 33-58) and D E Rumelhart (1997,

pp 99-135) “readers make use of their existing background knowledge (schemata) to make predictions about what is coming next in the text and about how some new, unfamiliar piece of information relates to what is already known.”

“It is clear that basic decoding processes are important for comprehension and are used by readers in interaction with the more complex processes of meaning generation” (D Eskey, 1987).

Through the definitions above we can see that reading comprehension is to getthe full sense of the content and it’s idea when we read

2.1.5 Kinds of Reading

There are different definitions for extensive reading Hedge (2003) described it

as skimming and scanning activities while Hafiz and Tudor (1989 as cited in

Alyousef 2005) expressed that “exposing learners to large quantities of meaningful and fascinating materials and activities will have a significant impact on the learners”.

Hedge (2003) declared that extensive reading differs based on learnermotivation and school resources A highly motivated and well-trained teacher cancertainly select appropriate materials and activities for their own learners.

Hedge (2003) stressed that because extensive reading assists in expandinglearners’ reading skill, it should be incorporated into the EFL/ESL programprovided that the chosen texts are valid and classified In addition, extensive readinghelps learners to gain their independency through reading either in class or at home.According to Carrell and Eisterhold (1983 as cited in Alyousef 2005),extensive reading activities can be beneficial in aiding learners to become self-directed individuals who are searching for meaning provided that they are based onstudent-selected texts that learners will be interested in what they are reading Theprocess of choosing reading texts will be done according to content, level ofdifficulty, and length

Hedge (2003) mentioned the benefits of extensive reading as follows: Studentscan make their language proficiency, advance in their reading skill, become moreindependent in their learning, learn cultural knowledge, and expand confidence andincentive to continue their own learning

 Intensive Reading

In this type of reading, learners read a page to find the meaning and to befamiliar with the strategies of writing Through this reading, students can getfundamental practice in performing these strategies based on a series of materials.These strategies can be either text-related or learner-related The first involvesrecognition of text organization and the second involves strategies such aslinguistic, schematic, and metacognitive strategies (Hedge, 2003)

Yang, Dai, and Gao (2012) expressed that intensive reading is useful todevelop reading comprehension According to Waring (1997), intensive reading isvery important for learning vocabulary and understanding how text is formed Stahl(2003) found that there is relationship between intensive reading activities andlanguage proficiency

According to Paran (2003), teachers need intensive reading to increase thethree phases of learning called pre, during, and post-reading for better languagereadiness, retention, and activation strategies.

Pollar, Durodo, Gonzalez, Simmons, Kwok, Taylor, Davis, and Simmons(2011) said that intensive reading is considered as a significant instrument forimproving reading comprehension

2.2 Overview of English novel

2.2.1 Definition

Sommerville, C.J (1996) stated that a novel is a long fictional prose narrative

In English, the term emerged from the Romance languages in the late 15th century,

with the meaning of "news"; it came to indicate something new, without a

distinction between fact or fiction The romance is a closely related long prosenarrative

Walter Scott (1992) defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvelous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the

novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and themodern state of society."

As stated through Doody (1996) other European languages do not distinguish

between romance and novel: "a novel is le roman, der Roman, il romanzo",

indicates the proximity of the forms In general, novels are type of fiction bookwhich consist of elements such as plot, themes, setting and characters They vary inmany different genres typically such as mystery, horror to romance Each of themhas its own significant, with a good plot and story flow, people’s attention usuallybeing caught up

2.2.2 Effects of reading English novel on reading skill

2.2.2.1 English novel on the interest and concentration of the students

There was a quote once said by Garrison Keillor: “A book is a gift you can open again and again”, it is really true From author’s personal perspective and

opinion, nothing is better to improve our reading skill but not feeling toooverwhelmed with the language itself is by novels

“The pleasure experienced from reading literary fiction is generally very positive” (Oriogu, 2015; Pino and Mazza, 2016; Yildirim and Soylemez, 2018).

Each novel is a different stories, it could be about a person, a portrait of scenery orcharacters throughout the whole book in the eyes of the writer Novels not onlyincreases our ability to be empathetic towards others but also enhance ourattentiveness and the reading skill

The novel attracts our interest and concentration to follow the plot and let ourmind catch the gist of that content And so, we tend to focus more on the words, thestructure of the sentences and the usage of the words as well Previous work hashighlighted the importance of young people being engaged in the texts that they arereading (Arizpe & Cliff‐Hodges, 2018), which is likely to be particularly importantfor the development of reading skills Certain types of text (e.g fiction, novel) may

be more engaging to readers than others (e.g magazines) and hence potentially havemore influence upon young people's academic outcomes

Additionally, when the curiosity to find out more, expectation for what comesnext when reading a novel accumulates, students reading habit will graduallyincreases, this is one of the effects that the novel gives us

2.2.2.2 English novel on the vocabulary of the students

By further reading and exposing to the new words, idioms, the student wouldmost likely be able to understand the whole context of the paragraphs andsentences Because print material generally contains many more low frequency

words than does spoken language (Cunningham, 2005), “reading text can provide key opportunities for advancement in vocabulary development”

Martinich (2001) stated that the language used in narrative fiction is no lessinferior or less linguistic than the language used in narrative nonfiction Theprinciples of conversation still apply to both nonfictional and fictional contexts

“Conversation is meant to express ideas in order to satisfy goals, which is no less evident in fiction”, according to Martinich’s theory Even though novel includes

unrealistic factors but some of them

Nagy, Herman & Anderson (1985) and Sternberg (1987) stated “There is empirical evidence that, for older children and adults, much learning of new words occurs through exposure to written texts”

Sanacore (1994, p.604) has given opinion that “encouraging learners to read will lead them guessing the meanings of words, phrases from the context, and the more they read the more they will understand the meanings of sentences and concepts” And an ongoing reading habit will enable learners understand a text

easily, even they do not know meanings of some words in the text Readingextensively will enhance their comprehension skill

“To complete a fiction book simply takes more time To get from beginning to end requires more sustained commitment than dipping in and out of a newspaper or magazine” (Moss & McDonald, 2004) Reading novel makes us

As stated by Bright and McGregor, their opinion that reading is ‘the most pleasant route to command of the language’, because it is via reading ‘the student is most likely to find words used memorably with force and point.’(1970, p.53).

Reading text can provide key opportunities for advancement in vocabularydevelopment We predict that word learning through reading will affect vocabulary

as measured on both oral and written tasks because words learned through readingtext will be at least partially available to the individual for both written and orallanguage use (Nelson, Michal, & Perfetti, 2005)

A broad and deep vocabulary knowledge makes learners precise and articulate

Through reading learners see how the new words connect to other words “The more reading you will do, the more you will increase your exposure to vocabulary that doesn’t usually make its way into the spoken language” (Cunningham, 1998)

2.2.2.3 English novel on the knowledge of the students

“The cognitive demands that extended narrative texts make on their readers, through exposure to new vocabulary, different syntactic structures and deeper lexico-semantic networks, may in themselves encourage the development of new competencies and increase reader capacity to handle greater textual complexity”

(Krashen, 2004; Oakhill et al., 2015; Suk, 2016; Westbrook et al., 2018)

John Jerrim, Gemma Moss (2018) using data from the 2009 round of theProgram for International Student Assessment (PISA) study to investigate how thefrequency with which 15‐year‐olds read five different text types (non‐fictionbooks, fiction books, newspapers, magazines and comics) is linked to their readingachievement This study found out strong evidence that frequently reading fictionbooks is associated with higher PISA reading scores and that this relationship isfound within almost every Organization for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) country Young people who read this type of text frequentlyhave significantly stronger reading skills than their peers who do not In contrast,the same does not hold true for the four other text type, it comes to the conclusionthat encouraging young people to read fiction may be particularly beneficial fortheir reading skill.

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH FINDINGS

3.1 Participant of the research

The study was carried out by 54 sophomores from K54N of TMU when theywere in the second semester of their academic year of 2019-2020 A majority ofthem have learned English for 10 years (from primary school to high schoolthroughout the years) while others have less amount of time to interact withEnglish

Despite the time length that they have studied, due to the low practical usage

of English and influences from the curriculum for high school students, many ofthem are not very experienced in English

In consequence of that, by the time they have enrolled in TMU, their Englishproficiency was limited and they have to face up with many obstacles in studyingEnglish and catch up with the lesson at classes

3.2 Data collection instruments

The study has been conducted in both qualitative and quantitative methods toavoid the possible limitations of using only a single approach The data have beencollected by an online Google form questionnaires and online interviews throughvideo group calls

3.2.1 The survey questionnaire

The online survey questionnaire consists of 9 questions, from basicinformation about English proficiency of the participants and their opinions,evaluation to suggestions about English novel and activities in reading it.Consequently, if the strategy is effective or unproductive, it will be used to give theconclusion for suggesting solutions to enhance their reading skill

3.3.2 The interview

The interview includes three questions to get further aspects in readingEnglish novels in order to support the study The first question is to find out thereason why students choose to read English novels Based on the situation, thesecond question is given to get information about the challenges and difficulties that

students experienced The final question is for students to give out solutions thatthey have applied and identified whether it is effective or not.

The interview has the amount of time from ten to fifteen minutes

In this survey, the researcher have used 3 questions for the interview:

1 Why do you choose to read an English novel?

2 Do you encounter any difficulties while reading and trying to understandthe content of the novel?

3 How do you solve that problem? Do you feel that it has any effects onyour reading skills?

3.3 Procedures of data collection

The survey was carried out from 1st to 12th April 2020

In the beginning, the link of the survey questionnaire was sent to 50 studentsthrough a designed Google form The data collection of the study is based on thepoint of view from students in the business English major at TMU about the effects

of English novel reading

Furthermore, 4 other students were also invited to participate in the interviewthrough a video call The interview finished when the participant has given enoughopinion and answers or doesn’t have any further recommendations During theinterview, the content of the whole process has been re-noted to the collectedinformation for the authenticity of the data

This section explains the whole process of gathering information for thestatement problems The steps are as follows:

 The researcher first send the Google form links for students to fill in

 For the interview, the researcher makes a video group call and interviewedeach of the participants about their perspective in reading English novels andsuggestions for better reading comprehension skills

 Finally, the data was collected both from the Google Excel and the noteobtained from the interview

The survey questionnaire has been designed as detail as possible in order togive the participants a clearer vision and purpose of each question For the interview

process, the participants are encouraged to give further ideas and a self-point ofview.

At last, the researcher collects the questionnaire and interview results for theanalysis process

3.4 Procedures of data analysis

The data was collected through 2 different instruments including interviewsand questionnaires

The quantitative data obtained from the survey questionnaires were convertedinto percentage and showed in the form of charts and tables Related questions ofthe questionnaire, the interview, and responses were analyzed qualitatively

Data analysis was performed through Excel which was known as one of themost popular spreadsheet software that enables the calculation and synthesizes.Therefore, the researcher chooses to use Excel to accomplish the data, formulas, andfunctions into the worksheet

After calculating automatically, it is necessary to format the worksheet andembed pie charts and bar graphs to display the results Subsequently, the charts andthe supporting data appeared to present clear percentages

Additionally, Word was also employed as a common method to create asimple table, the charts showed perfectly the uncomplicated data includinginformation in order to give the reader a better reading and understanding

3.4.1 Students’ current English learning situation

From the first question which mentioned about personal information, amajority of students have been learning English for more than 10 years, only aminority of them have been learning English for 0-3 years The answer for theamount of time from 4-6 years and 7-10 years is in the average number

More than 10 years ; 52.00%

Chart 1 Length of time in studying English

Chart 1 shows the analysis for the duration of the English study It can be seenthat in a total of 50 students, the number of answers that have been studying Englishfor more than 10 years took the highest percentage, about 52% with 26 students

As the amount of studying time decreases, the percentage of studentsgradually shrivel The number of answers shows that the studying period from 7-10years took 24% and from 4-6 years there is 18% There is only a small number ofstudents answered that they have the studying duration from 0-3 years, which onlytook 6% of the pie chart

3.4.2 Students’ perspective in reading skill and evaluation of their reading level

The next 2 questions (questions 2 and 3) revealed the students’ opinionstowards the level of difficulty in obtaining, improving proficient English readingskills, and over against the different types of English reading materials

First is the point of view in attaining a good comprehension skill, pie chart 2illustrates the percentage of the difficulty level which the students choose

From the pie chart, at 66%, it is estimated that almost half of the studentsreplies it is quite difficult to advance their reading skills Additionally, thepercentage of students who think that it is hard to boost the skill is at the averagenumber, with 26%