Using reading aloud strategy to improve college student’s reading comprehension

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO KIM NHI USING READING ALOUD STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE COLLEGE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSIONMajor: Theory and Methodology of English L

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

HO KIM NHI

USING READING ALOUD STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE COLLEGE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSIONMajor: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

This study focuses on the effective of using reading aloud strategies for improving reading comprehension of second year English-major students in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College for the Academic Year 2016-2017 in the second semester

By doing so, this study can identify the effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies There were 45 respondents which were randomly selected from two classes These groups of students were chosen because the researcher is one of the teachers in English of the said school The respondents were given a questionnaire and specific lessons with language exercises in speaking as teaching strategies using language games as the main device for gathering the data

There is a significant difference on the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group The result implies that reading aloud strategies really help develop the reading comprehension of the students and enhance their pronunciation

It is not only functioning as time reading activities, but also they can bring some educational values that enable the students to learn the language especially in reading skill

This study has proven that there is a significant relationship between the using of reading aloud strategies and the reading comprehension of the students with a moderate positive correlation The use of reading aloud strategies has an impact to second year English-major students with regards to their reading comprehension The strategies have been instrumental in developing their reading performance and pronunciation through the aid of the assigned English teacher

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher wishes to thank the following who, in one way or another, extended their invaluable help, piece of advice, suggestions, and moral support for the completion of this study:

Vinh University for offering a graduate program in Master of Arts in Teaching English to graduate students who aspire to obtain quality education;

Long An University of Economics and Industry for the important endorsement to participate in the program;

Assoc Prof Dinh Xuan Khoa, Vinh University President, for his remarkable leadership which serves as inspiration to everyone, especially to graduate students;

Ph.D Tran Ba Tien, former Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages Education, for his informative comments and for the generosity, great help, advice and motivation to fulfill this undertaking and guidance from the earliest stage of the conduct of this research;

All lecturers in the Graduate Studies and Faculty of Foreign Languages Education of Vinh University, for their commendable contributions in obtaining the degree Master of Arts in Teaching English

To his colleagues, friends and relatives for their moral support despite the pressure of work, more so for their prayers and encouragement;

The researcher’s family, for their full moral and financial support and everlasting love

HO KIM NHI

TABLE OF CONTENTS Preliminaries Page

Title Page i

Abstract iii

Acknowledgements iv

Table of Contents v

List of Tables vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Rationale .3

1.3 Aims of the study 9

1.4 Research questions .9

1.5 Scope of the study 10

1.6 Thesis design 11

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The definition of reading 13

2.2 The importance of reading 13

2.3 Reading Strategies 14

2.3.1 Reading Aloud Strategies 14

2.3.2 Reading Aloud Strategies and Literacy Skill 16

2.3.3 Reading Aloud with All Students 19

2.4 Reading Aloud Components 20

2.5 Effectiveness of Reading Aloud Strategies 22

2.6 Encouraging Students to Read Aloud 23

2.7 Guidelines of Reading Aloud Strategies 24

2.8 Reading Comprehension 25

2.9 Factors impacting Reading 26

2.10 Reading preference and Quality of Reading 27

2.11 The impact of the media 28

2.12 Strategies of Reading comprehension 28

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design 30

3.2 Respondents of the Study 31

3.3 Sampling Technique 31

3.4 Research Instrument 31

3.5 Data Gathering Instrument 32

3.6 Research Procedure 33

3.7 Statistical Treatment 34

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Perceptions of social interaction 35

4.2 Reading Aloud Strategies used by English Teachers 38

4.3 Extent of Students’ Understanding by using Reading Aloud Strategies 41

4.4 Scores of the Pre-Test and Post -Test of the Control Group 44

4.5 Scores of the Pre-Test and Post -Test of the Experimental Group 45

4.6 Pre-test and Post-test Scores 45

4.7 Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the Experimental Group 46

4.8 Significant Relationship of Using Reading Aloud Strategies 47

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of Findings 49

5.2 Conclusion 51

5.3 Recommendations 51

REFERENCES 54

APPENDICES Appendix A 60

Appendix B 62

Appendix C 64

Appendix D 67

Appendix E 69

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Students’ Perception of social interaction on reading comprehension…3 5 Table 4.2: Respondents’ Preference of Reading……… .3 8 Table 4.3: Extent of Students’ Understanding by using Reading Aloud Strategy…41 Table 4.4: Scores of the Pre-Test and Post Test of the Control Group………44 Table 4.5: Scores of the Pre-Test and Post Test of the Experimental Group…… 45 Table 4.6: Pre-test and Post-test Scores………45 Table 4.7: Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the Experimental Group………46 Table 4.8: Significant Difference between Pre-test and Post-test Scores of the

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

With the rapid pace of globalization, English, as a universal language, has opened the door to various fields such as commerce, communication, science and technology throughout the world In fact, the global awareness theme talks of the need for students to be able to learn from and read collaboratively with individuals from diverse culture, religion, ideologies, and lifestyle in an environment of openness and mutual respect The context and Social culture status of the English Language in Vietnam, English is an important foreign language that has long been the most widely-taught at all educational institutions for all learners in Vietnam Moreover, English is also used as a medium of instruction at these ones such as bilingual schools, international schools, colleges and universities at both public and private

According to Vietnamese government, English in Vietnam is mainly provided and managed by the Ministry of Education and Training The government attitudes towards English will be used as a second language in Vietnam in the future Therefore, they have many support policies resulting from these have influenced the nature of the teaching and learning of English in Vietnam in particular ways

As you know, reading is the main skill for learning English as well There are many authors stating about the importance of reading in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Jubani, Lama, and Gjokutaj (2012) stated that learning and knowledge of English are fundamental to education for learners The history of reading is combined with the invention of writing It is particular knowledge that no one is born knowing how to read or to write because these two things must be taught first at the beginning level Reading is a factor of great significance in the human life Therefore, it is the main factor in the achieving language acquisition

In another hand, Snow (2002) defined that reading is a complicated procedure that is made up of various components, all of which must be executed and accomplished by the readers with the only purpose for getting or translating meaning from printed text Besides, the reader must quickly and accurately comprehend printed words in the book, attempt to understand the various meanings of words, and create a cohesive mental model of the meaning of the text Obviously, effective reading requires them to make accurate meaning

of the text by making inferences based on connections within and beyond the current texts

Moreover, reading is an important element to help students how to gain access to many different kinds of knowledge, information, and ideas Also, reading has many benefits for students because it can enhance students’ social skills and open up new worlds for them The students must see reading as an enjoyable activity in order to truly benefit from it not only related to school Heisey, N., & Kucan, L (2010) pointed out the result of his study that the students will use reading to learn about all subjects; therefore, if they do not have strong reading skills, they might struggle in their academic lives

Roberts (2011) declared that most foreign language learners can master reading at the age of an appropriate level and continue to increase their reading skills or abilities over their learning and beyond better However, (Roberts & Wanzek, 2012; Chapman & Tunmer, 2003) indicated that students who continue to display reading comprehension after experience difficulties Then, reading plays one of the most important and critical educational factors because it affects virtually all academic disciplines Additionally, Strong et al., (2002) ‘s reading research has reveal that reading skill is inseparably connected to many components such

as problem solving, critical thinking, writing, researching, supporting ideas, reasoning, and creativity

Reading fluency is a crucial skill for efficient and effective reading According to the work of LaBerge and Samuels (1974), which is based on the theory of automatic information processing, poor readers experience difficulty with fluency, because visual information is transformed and processed by the reader until the individual comprehends what is being read

1.2 Rationale

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) in Vietnam has set a target

of boosting foreign language teaching and learning in all levels from primary schools to universities At the start of the academic year 2011-2012, students at specific schools will have to some subjects in English As stated by Zhang (2012), reading is one of language skills that must be mastered by any foreign language learner because reading is an essential tool for getting main knowledge, thinking and learning Considering how important reading skill in learning English, teachers

of English are motivated in the saying that “Reading is one of the central elements

of getting knowledge.” In EFL (English Foreigner Language) teaching, it is an aspect that needs special attention and instruction In order to provide effective attention, it is necessary for a teacher of EFL to carefully examine the factors, condition and components that underlie reading comprehension by using reading aloud strategies for teaching

For most people, the ability to read a foreign language texts or books is synonymous with knowing that language because speech is for them the basic means of human knowledge English learners no longer expect the traditional approach of their teachers based on developing mainly the grammatical competence and using methodology popular in the past Today, teachers are expected to provide their students with useful active knowledge of the foreign language, not just theory about the language In Vietnam, this problem is even more serious Aside from the term of practicing, Vietnamese students always have to face with many other

Coper.P & Mclntyre (2000) showed that the effective teaching and learning between teacher and students are not easy Activities in the classroom affect the reading performance a lot Teacher knows how to teach proficiency and transfer the motivation to the student, and students feel like to study Teacher has good knowledge and good experience will apply many teaching techniques Teacher will

be success in applying a lot of activities which make students more willing to learn language and active to take part in the lessons It is obvious that students learn more effectively when they have teacher than they learn individually Teacher is the indefectible actor in the educational process, therefore, it is necessarily that teacher needs to explore many methods which they can implement their duty efficiently and effectively

A general principle in the past in Viet Nam when learning language it is done

by the Traditional Methods It had a lot of limitations This method mainly focuses on learning grammar rule and vocabulary Traditional methods did not pay much attention

to the reading skill For instance, when students learn writing, students are mainly focus

on grammar rule and translating them to the mother tongue And when students study reading, “grammar translation method produced habits indicative of deciphering and not of reading” (Tyler 2008) The student tries to know the meaning of every words and its grammatical structure because they want to understand the text

As you know, reading is a potential part of learning foreign language as stated in several studies For many years, language teaching in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College has experienced difficulties from grammatical form and vocabulary to reading skill To address this concern, short training courses (usually from 3 - 5 days in length) have been conducted for English teachers in the college However, these short courses did not satisfy teachers' needs in language teaching in the school because most participants still had difficulty meeting the standard conditions in teaching reading skills Aside from this, they did not have access to

up-to-date materials As a result, they encountered a lot of difficulties in English language teaching, especially techniques for teaching speaking skills

Located in the South Earth Area of the South of Vietnam, Binh Phuoc Province where the researcher lives and works has had many difficulties in access many modern foreign language teaching methodology It is an agricultural province of the South of Vietnam Therefore, English does not focus on developing Moreover, there is no university excepting for Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College and Binh Phuoc College of Medicine in Binh Phuoc Province Especially in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College, there is only one academic program for English major but it is not popular However, English has been teaching for all students as a compulsory subject for graduation in generally In particularly, there are about one hundred twenty students who are learning English

as a main major under the curriculum of faculty of foreign languages In the sum

of these students, there are about forty-five English major students who are chosen for doing the research Although the teaching facilities and method have been upgraded regularly, many students cannot read English fluently As being known, when teaching English in the college, teachers do not use English frequently and effectively

In class, students tend to talk in Vietnamese in group work activities In reading activities, students do not have equal opportunities to participate Students are not given as many as reading activities or exercises in class even in social activities They are lack of learning English environment; so they are not motivated enough to learn English language, especially in reading skill The development of the English reading language proficiency of students in our college has become a concern of the researcher after having observed the students’ inability to read in English accurately and fluently and after having listened to other English Foreign Language teachers complaints about their students’ poor English reading skills When teaching reading skill, teachers always let student

stand up and read aloud the text printed in the book After that, teachers require students do the exercise or tasks in the books only They do not have any innovation or motivation in teaching the skill

As in other parts of the world, Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College use standardized basic knowledge in order to teach English reading skill to all English major students at the level of beginners because the qualifications of students are not good enough to read proficiently As a second-year students, they learn how to read effectively and fluently and at upper level and comprehend the reading text As has been shown by Al-Jarf (2007), students just read for comprehension their knowledge

Following the academic curriculum for the program of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) for student diploma of the Faculty of Foreign Languages

in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College, the reading courses or subjects are designed to concentrate on word recognition, comprehension, and acquisition of vocabulary For the outcomes of reading skill, it is required to read the texts and comprehend them effectively The students are tested by the paper or multiple choice tests only Unfortunately, during teaching procedure in class, many of the students in the school are not good at reading They are always shy when the teacher lets them read aloud This has a negative impact on the students’ academic achievement The main goal is to have each student reading at his or her own level

or above it To have students at Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College reading at below grade level of reading is not good, and something must be done to change it

As a result, most of the teachers want to help these students, but they are not sure how to help and what the best strategies are that can help the students to become better readers The present study uses the reading aloud strategies in order to improve reading comprehension and literacy for second year English major students

of the college and motivate their desire to read effectively and fluently

During the reading class, the area of inquiry for this project is motivated the students to read aloud which allows for their adaptability McGee & Schickedanz (2007) stated that the problem being researched is that the learners are bored and being marketed while their reading comprehension by using reading aloud strategies Then they are very few “operating instructions” about how to motivate them by reading aloud are usually being given by their parents at home The research suggests that the development vocabulary through listening and reading comprehension by using reading aloud strategies is not sufficient for accelerating the learners in class Then, the teachers let their students read aloud and answer these questions for comprehension passively Perhaps, students are easy to be bored with this traditional method It is also in the research of McGee & Schickedanz (2007), there are strongly differences between reading aloud and the effectiveness

of reading aloud in their study For many English teachers, the problem is how can they adapt or motivate their students by using reading aloud strategies for teaching reading skill to meet the literacy needs necessarily to all students Another way to address this problem is to make some questions to ask the students whether teachers can capitalize on the effectiveness of the reading aloud strategies in order to comprehend the reading motivation for their students

Actually, Buzanni (2008) concluded that it is not easy to master reading skills Among the problems in learning reading skills are:

(1) The limited opportunities for the students to practice in class; (2) The lack of variety of teaching techniques used by the teacher in class;

(3) The teaching strategies application was monotonous that made the students bored and disinterested in studying English

This is also evident among most Vietnamese students who understand effectively but cannot read quite well, accurately and fluently in real read situation on

reading comprehension Because of this dilemma, the researcher aims to identify the particular problems which many teachers of English are interested in teaching English at Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College in generally In particularly, this research would focus on the reading aloud strategies used by the English teachers for teaching reading skill and its relation to the students’ reading comprehension, knowing that teachers in the school have encountered difficulties on this area Considering these problems, improving students’ reading performance is part of a teacher’s job and a motivation for students to develop their reading comprehension during studying English language major Besides, the teacher is expected to suggest the most effective teaching techniques to students in teaching reading skill through the use of reading aloud strategies effectively and to create a positive classroom environment for learners Therefore, the students will have an opportunity to improve English reading performance among their proficiently after the suggestion of the study

For me, I have conducted the study about the effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension for the student in my college because of basing on my own teaching experiences and perception I think that when teachers let the students read aloud interactively, they appear to benefit from the experience of learning and teaching language I get the concern about this issue because I have seen the positive outcomes of using interactive reading aloud strategies to teach reading skill in my school Throughout my educational knowledge and understanding, I have been in many classrooms that teachers have allowed me to see how they apply the strategies of reading aloud Fortunately, I have had many opportunities to observe teachers who strongly agree in

“interactive” reading aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension, ones that involve reading aloud, questioning, translating, predicting, and discussing during the reading class The teacher conducts of using an interactive read aloud during

“circle time” day by day Through the time, he is able to motivate students in the

reading by asking and answering questions, translating into Vietnamese, and making predictions

As has been shown (Morrison and Wlodarczyk, 2009) when teachers use reading aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension for students, they are supporting and motivating the students’ listening and speaking abilities in order to enhance their development of language proficiency However, McGee and Schickendanz (2007) admitted that “the most effective reading aloud strategy is those in which English learners are actively involved asking and answering questions and making predictions rather than passively listening” (p.742) As the point of view, I would like to explore the study about the effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies to improve reading comprehension for English educational teaching diploma students in my college, Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College

and motivate their desire to read effectively and fluently

1.3 Aims of the study

In the study, the research would like to conduct a study on “Using reading aloud strategies to improve college students’ reading comprehension” The

study is to investigate some effectiveness of reading aloud related to English reading comprehension of students in the college

1.4 Research questions

Nowadays, the researcher is an English lecturer at Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College that is a government institution to produce many teachers for Binh Phuoc Province and some local areas around From based observations and 20 – year- teaching experience, it has seemed that all reading lesson classroom interactions are boring and restricted During the lesson, students do not get involved in the activities conducted by their teacher They just keep silent while

others do for their own Hence, one of the concerns to English teachers is to find out the answer these two questions below:

1 Will college students improve their reading comprehension by using

reading aloud strategies?

2 What obstacles may students encounter when using reading aloud strategies?

1.5 Scope of the study

Although the research has shown the effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies to improve the reading comprehension of students, there are a few limitations during doing the research While many studies explore and determine the effectiveness and benefits of reading aloud strategies on various aspects of students reading comprehension and performance, few studies exist that explicitly explore specific strategies, exploring how teacher conduct the reading aloud strategies Many of the science studies discussed in this research focus on students’ questions during the reading aloud strategies, yet no clear information appears to be given regarding how the reading aloud strategies should be conducted from start to finish with limited timing, sequencing, pacing

The second limitation was the number of the respondents In this study, I only had 45 English major students who were from two classes in the courses 18 with the association diploma of teaching major in English Teacher in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College With a larger sample size, I think that the study results would be more meaningful Also, having more students would provide a better range of variety for my data collection

The third limitation was the attendance of the participants While I was doing this project, some students missed class because the period conducted the survey was the time for final second term examination This missing of classes had a

However, this study is one of parts of science research that has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using of the reading aloud strategies to increase reading comprehension for English major student in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College This study provides a lot of useful information that could help students to improve their reading comprehension in general Reading aloud has been identified as the basis background for students starting to study language; hence, it constitutes an essential part of any reading class I attempt to provide evidence to all teachers and educators of the importance of the reading aloud strategies and the relationship with the students’ reading comprehension Moreover,

I tried to indicate how much student understanding and achievement were positively affected by using the reading aloud strategies The research objective of this study was to undertake the implementation of the reading aloud strategies in order to determine its effectiveness in producing positive outcomes on reading comprehension

1.6 Design of the study

The thesis is structured as follows:

Chapter 1 problematizes the object of the study To do this, it deals with the six parts of introduction, rationale, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study focus and design of the study

Chapter 2 contains the literature review, with a discussion of the definition, the importance of reading and the benefits of the reading strategies used in this research This chapter also reviews some previous research studies on using reading strategies on reading comprehension

Chapter 3 deals with research design and methodology employed to carry out the research It describes four main issues regarding the research site, participants, data types and methods of data collection, and analytical framework

Chapter 4 analyses and discusses the findings grounded in the data analyzed in the previous chapter

Chapter 5 will be summarized the main points and contents of the study based on the results of the study The implication of the study and the recommendation for further research will be presented

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Many theories are presented in this chapter as an explanation for the effectiveness of using reading aloud strategies for improving reading comprehension The following literature review will provide a foundation for my

study

2.1 The definition of reading

Reading is a complex endeavor that is made up of multiple components, all

of which must be executed and orchestrated by the reader with the goal of making meaning from printed text The reader must quickly and accurately recognize printed words, understand the various meanings of words, and create a cohesive mental model of the meaning of the text Effective reading requires the reader to make accurate sense of the text by making inferences based on connections within and beyond the current text (Snow, 2002)

Reading is one of the most important and critical educational skills because it influences virtually all academic disciplines (Roberts & Wanzek, 2012; Chapman & Tunmer, 2003) Additionally, reading research has further established that reading skills are inseparably linked to problem solving, critical thinking, writing, researching, organizing ideas, reasoning, and creativity (Strong et al., 2002)

2.2 The importance of reading

Holte (1998) defined that reading is a significant tool for learning any languages, so it is essential for learners to develop reading skill first when learning foreign languages Moreover, reading allows access to culture and cultural heritage from its own country Therefore, believing in the importance of reading to students who are learning foreign language especially English, I shall address the importance

of reading comprehension by using the reading aloud strategies to encourage students’ reading skills and increase their desire to read

Up to now, numerous researchers have believed that reading speed is being simultaneously raised with accuracy and fluency, and as readers learn by practicing, their fluency and accuracy improves significantly by using many strategies for reading skill The higher number of sight words a student can perceive and the better the improvement of the reader, the easier the task of reading fluently became Therefore, reading is a highly complicated skill that everyone ought to learn if they want to master the language; in fact, it is classified

as an important language skill

Students who enjoy reading and spend a lot of time reading will be more proficient in reading, will achieve better in school, and will have good grades According to Benton and Fox (1995), “Stories provide the possibility of educating the feelings and can offer their readers potential growth points for the development

of a more subtle awareness of human behavior”(p 15) Reading can also help students improve in spelling because when students learn how to sound out letters and words, spelling comes easier In addition, reading helps students get exposure

to vocabulary and language patterns that are not common in everyday speech (Foster, 2008) As a result, students understand the structures of the book they are reading when they are reading independently

2.3 Reading strategies

2.3.1 Reading aloud strategies

Reading aloud strategies are the foundations for literacy development in learning foreign language They are the single most important activities for reading success (Jacobs, Morrison, & Swinyard, 2000) showed that reading aloud to foreign language learners not only in the classroom but also in the home is a practice that has been recommended for many years Most children are motivated

by books and reading as a tool when their parents read to them aloud Years after years, parents have been going on to reinforce this skill regularly As soon as the child enters school, the teacher will start to work along with the parents to recommend that reading aloud is consistent within the child’s education Then,

children are reinforced to many ways to deal with a book by reading aloud These ways include things such as responding to questions as you read, becoming familiar with many new words, and using other reading comprehension strategies that will help them to get a better understanding of the book that is being read They also defined that reading aloud is a strategy in which the teacher reads a selected texts or stories out loud to students, often as a whole group activity Reading aloud or oral reading should be a significant process that students carry throughout their learning that can begin as soon as the child The author concluded that there has been some controversy on whether reading aloud to beginner readers is appropriate or not, but her study found that reading aloud to them was very beneficial to the language development when mastering the reading skill They intend to develop a love habit for reading aloud which makes it easier and more effective to learn to fluently reading comprehension, along with making it easier for them to comprehend what they are reading

In the Comprehension Toolkit, Harvey and Goudvis (2005) write that it is very important for teachers to read aloud even though classroom time is limited Students come to us with a wide range of background knowledge To achieve one

of the goals, we have to try the best to support all learners with a foundation that will enable them to risk learning new concepts They also summarized that everything we read and learn is colored by our background knowledge Then, reading aloud strategies give teachers an essential opportunity to directly guideline learning for all students who lack knowledge background for deep understanding of contents before we lead them into more complex subject matter The reading aloud and follow-up conversation provide teachers chances to help students develop background knowledge and apply concepts so that all learners can begin to clarify their critical thinking during their discussions with their peers and teachers (Dorn & Soffos, 2005)

According to Allington (2001), he agreed that in order for learners to develop thoughtful literacy in studying foreign language, they must be given an

amount of opportunities throughout the day to explain their understanding and to practice using reading comprehension strategies under the guidance of the teacher Reading aloud strategies also stimulate abnormality in beginning level as it is used

to motivate learners into a safe environment to marvel at the concepts being cited (Harvey, 1998)

Known internationally for many decades of work in the area of literacy for teachers, Routman (2003) has pointed out that the reading aloud strategies are the powerful forces during the learning procedure and that they are still the single most important things a teacher does during the school day He also found that using reading aloud can motivate reading learners to hear the rich language of stories and texts they cannot yet read on their own By reading aloud to students, they learn as well as improve new word, practical grammar, and helpful information and how stories and written language works

2.3.2 Reading Aloud Strategies and Literacy Skill

In a study, Wasik and Bond (2001) evaluated the effectiveness of

“interactive book reading on the language and literacy development of foreign language learners They concluded that the English teachers in the intervention group were given professional development in interactive book by using many reading techniques including reading aloud strategies and extension activities The findings of this study indicated that the interactive reading aloud strategies can be applied by teachers and have a positive effect on the language proficiency and literacy development of learners when using for teaching English reading skills as the instructional strategies with those EFL learners

Another literacy skills impacted by the reading aloud strategies are the developments and expansions of vocabulary knowledge Following the study of Senechal, Thomas, and Monker (1995), it assessed how EFL learners with an amount of vocabulary knowledge during learning new vocabulary from listening to stories read aloud by the teachers With the two experiment groups of the research, the results proved that beginner learners who actively participated in the reading

aloud strategies, through asking questions or labeling and pointing to pictures, learned more words than others who passively listened to the reading of the text Thus, the conclusion of this study support the concept of active participation in a reading aloud sessions as a means to enhance vocabulary acquisition

The perception of the EFL learners towards reading comprehension is one of the literacy skills impacted by using reading aloud strategies during learning and teaching language Barnyak (2011) conducted a qualitative research on the verbal and physical interactions of learners and their parents during reading aloud and the literacy perceptions and beliefs of the parents The results revealed that reading within families’ everyday lives, reading supported through parents’ positive outlooks, and reading supported through fostering storybook extensions were three main themes identified throughout parent interviews Results indicated that parents who participated in this study had positive attitudes and beliefs in regards to reading

a story with their children During interviews, attitudes and beliefs towards reading and sharing books were two emerging themes Results indicate that children who participated in the study hold a positive attitude towards sharing storybooks with parents when parents have a positive attitude

In further examining instructional strategies, Coyne, McCoach, Loftus, Zipoli, and Kapp (2009) “compare the effects of two interventions that differed in their approach to direct vocabulary instruction for young students” by using reading aloud strategies The authors created three versions of the intervention condition: three words to be taught using extended instruction, three words taught using embedded instruction, and three words receiving incidental exposure Each group of words to be taught in the intervention included two nouns and one adjective Participants were randomly assigned to each version of intervention All participants listened to three readings of a text and were exposed to all target vocabulary words during each reading Intervention was delivered in small groups and data were collected through pretest, post-test, and a delayed posttest eight weeks after intervention Results indicate that there are significant differences

between pre-test and post-test scores that favor vocabulary words taught with extended and embedded instruction over words that receive incidental exposure The extended and embedded instruction closely resemble the interactive read aloud strategies

Leung (2008) explored the type of vocabulary learned during the read aloud strategies He found that the learners’ knowledge vocabulary acquisition of scientific terms from participation in repeated interactive reading aloud strategies Results indicated that EFL learners who participate in social interactive reading aloud attained a significant increase in expressive vocabulary Results also showed that they were also better able to demonstrate the meaning of target vocabulary words and use those words during a retelling after participating in one-on-one book retellings Although results reflect positively on the use of interactive reading aloud,

a major limitation of this study is the lack of a control group

Focusing on interactions between teachers and students during a procedure

of using a reading aloud strategies, Sipe (2000) reported on the constructing of literacy understanding by the oral response of EFL learners during reading aloud of academic books The author conducted an investigation with participants of this study included 18 first students and nine second year students enrolled in a public community college in a working class residential community in the United States of America The findings represented for five components of learners’ talk in relation

to literacy understanding such as analytical talk, inter-textual, personal talk, transparent talk, and formative talk Results also indicated that the students’ reading competence based on reading comprehension occurring during the reading of the story These results indicated that it is very important to encourage students to listen

to the story as a whole before beginning a discussion may result in less discussion and “lower level literary understanding” than when following an on-going interactive reading aloud strategies

2.3.3 Reading Aloud with All Students

Gort, Pontier, and Sembiante (2012) explore the study to investigate the effectiveness of using read-aloud activities With four teachers and the students from two classrooms in the community college as participants of this study, data was collected through digital video recordings of 13 daily 15 minute for reading aloud sessions each Five of the reading aloud sessions was in English and eight were in Spanish Data was analyzed by using qualitative method and coded by using the constant-comparative method Questions or non-questions were originally coded for transcripts Results indicated that the functions of the questions represented varied levels of cognitive challenge and that some questions functions were more prevalent in one language context Results also showed that the nature of interaction

by using reading aloud strategies allowed teachers to ask a variety of questions exhibiting a multitude of functions

Previous to the Gort, Pontier, and Sembiante (2012) study, Ulanoff and Pucci (1999) found the improvements in “second language vocabulary as a direct result of different literacy lessons implementing two bilingual methodologies: concurrent translation and preview-review” Participants of this study are 60 students identified

as English Language Learners in three classrooms from a community college in the USA All students in the three classroom participated in the study, however only those with Spanish as their primary language were included in the analyzed sample Participants were divided into three groups: a control group, a concurrent translation group, and a preview-review group Students in each group were given a pretest to evaluate their knowledge competence of 20 words from a specific text by reading aloud to them All groups were given a post-test, with the same vocabulary items as the pre-test, immediately following the read aloud and again one week later Results indicated that the control group showed larger gains than the concurrent group and that the concurrent group actually scored higher on the delayed post-test one week later”; however the preview-review group showed significant gains over the control and concurrent group These results suggest that students perform better when they

receive instruction that builds background knowledge and provides scaffolding activities during a read aloud

Specifically looking at reading comprehension development for diverse learners, Silverman (2007) investigates the effectiveness of vocabulary intervention through reading aloud storybook Participants of this study were 44 English-only and 28 English Language Learners in five schools in the northeastern Data were analyzed through the Test of Language Development and researcher-developed assessments Results indicate that English-only students and English Language Learners both made significant growth in knowledge of target words while English Language Learners’ knowledge of target words grew faster than English-only students These findings show that provided with appropriate instruction methods, English Language Learners can learn vocabulary from instruction fast or faster than English-only students

Also looking at the reading comprehension development, Echevarria (1995) examines the “effects of an interactive approach, instructional conversations, on the language and concept development of his panic students with disabilities” Results for proximal measures indicated higher levels of discourse and greater participation with IC than with a basal approach The findings also indicate that “students with learning disabilities used higher levels of discourse when given the opportunity to

do so, and were able to adjust the discourse to the context at hand” Therefore, results of this study show a positive relationship between the read aloud strategies and the comprehension of English Language Learners

2.4 Reading Aloud Components

This section focuses on the read aloud instructional strategies itself and the various components and techniques involved in its use Wiseman (2010) introduced teachers’ approaches to facilitate interaction between teacher and students in the classroom when students read and make sense of stories aloud Findings of this study describe how interactive reading aloud strategies were important learning opportunities for motivation readers because they provided opportunities for open-

ended response combined with specific reading instruction Participants of this study were 21 students in an urban classroom in a northeastern metropolitan city Results of this study illustrate “the importance of providing readers with active ways to contribute to the curriculum in ways that build on students’ own ways of conceptualizing reading and literacy”

Corcoran and Mamalakis (2009) investigate student attitudes towards reading and the various techniques, including reading aloud used to encourage reading Participants consisted of “26 fifth grade students from two single-gender classrooms” (p.137) that were selected due to their teacher’s outstanding reputation However, this was the teacher’s first year teaching a single gender classroom Data collection involved independently completed surveys that examined student perceptions The surveys included 12 “forced choice questions” (p.139) Findings of the survey indicate that 88% of the participants responded that their classroom teacher conducted reading aloud a few times a week, but their desire was for their teacher to conduct a read aloud daily These results indicate that even upper elementary fifth grade level students have preferences for frequent teacher reading aloud

Specifically looking at the component of text selection and types of texts used in a reading aloud session, Pentimonti, Zucker, Justice, and Kaderavek (2010) found the types of texts used in classroom by using reading aloud strategy in order

to generate an understanding of the informational expository texts used and how they relate to content area topics and state standards Participants were female teachers of classrooms Data were collected through written teacher logs where teachers recorded the types of texts used during whole-class reading aloud sessions Results indicate that the majority of texts coded were narrative (82%) followed by a mixed genre (13%) Only 4% of texts coded were determined to be informational texts These results indicate that “progress has not been made in increasing the amount of time devoted to informational texts” (p.661) since a previous study by the same researchers in 2000 Analysis of the informational texts reveals that “some

dominate categories align with prevailing topics emphasized in the teachers’ state standards, but other important content areas were infrequently targeted with reading aloud strategy”

Similarly, Pentimonti, Zucker, and Justice (2011) clarified reading aloud strategy in classroom in terms of the types of texts that learners are exposed to Participants of this study were 13 female teachers who worked to serve disadvantaged reared in poverty The study was conducted over a 30 week period in which teachers received a new trade book each week that represented a range of genres Teachers were to keep a written log of whole group read aloud sessions for the 30 week period This log included a “record of how many books teachers read to their pupils each day above and beyond assigned books and the titles of these additional books” Data for this study involved coding of text titles reported in teachers’ reading logs for genre and instructional focus Results indicate that narrative texts were read most frequently representing 85%, followed by mixed genre representing 8.5 %, and informational texts representing 5.4 % of read aloud sessions

2.5 Effectiveness of the reading aloud strategies

Franmcveigh, (2013)showed that comprehension is certainly the literacy skill that teachers can improve in their day-to-day teaching activities, and this can be discovered through the procedure of teaching and learning foreign language by using reading aloud In this aspect, reading aloud strategies provides many positive effects on the literacy development such as reading vocabulary and reading comprehension amongst students who are studying English Reading aloud strategies are applied for the plans of oral reading of a texts or books relating to an area or topic of study Reading aloud can be used to motivate students during their development of knowledge, increase comprehension skills, as well as foster their critical thinking Reading aloud is the important strategies for students because it aids the students in building foundational skills and understanding new vocabulary

Hence, there are some educational researches presented the importance of reading aloud to emphasize reading comprehension in general With over seventy-five years of research in teaching language area, Al-Mansour and Al-Shorman (2011) reported that findings have demonstrated the importance of reading aloud to students when teaching and learning procedure of foreign languages In another word, McCormick (1977) stated that students who have a habit for reading aloud regularly during the period of several months, achieved significant performance in reading comprehension, decoding skills, and vocabulary for literacy development Other researchers such as Bolos (2012) and Gold and Gibson (2001) clarified that reading aloud is the basis of literacy development They have also found that reading aloud indicates the relationship between the printed word and meaning, so reading aloud makes complicated thoughts more accessible to understand for the learners In the study of Trelease (1994), students’ reading comprehension improves

in meaningful ways when reading aloud is used regularly in the classroom Therefore, reading aloud has significant affects the students’ reading abilities by motivating them in discussions about the content of the book

2.6 Encouraging students to read aloud

McNamara (2007) showed his conclusion that the reading aloud strategies increase the students desire to read In order to improve the students’ reading abilities and enhance their skills, teachers need to use the reading aloud strategies Besides, Williamson (1988) emphasized that teachers ought to read aloud to their students because they desire to improve their reading comprehension During the time of teachers’ reading to their students, the learners are able to get a better feeling and understanding for the language and its structural grammar Teachers should motivate their students by reading aloud to them for improving their reading skills and increase their interests in reading performance

Actually, (Beck & McKeown, 2001; Bolos, 2012; Wiseman, 2011) had the same conclusion that reading aloud also play a role in building a background knowledge and reading comprehension skills It is very important to encourage

students to read aloud to person by person because they are then in a position to have time and opportunity for learning and improving new vocabularies, grasp the story structures, and develop their habit for reading This also helps the students deal with the story that their teachers have read aloud to their own personal experiences This helps students develop their interests in books and, thus, enhances their desire to be good readers Studies reveal that when teachers use the reading aloud strategies, they are able to motivate the desires of students to read independently and, consequently, enhance their comprehension and improve their literacy levels (Al-Mansour and Al-Shorman, 2011)

2.7 Guidelines of reading aloud strategies

In the study of Kailani (1998), there are some important steps that may help readers understand more about reading aloud, specifically:

1 The teacher should choose a story or a book that will be interesting to the students

2 The teacher should pre-read the story/book and highlight the words that are key to understanding the story/book

3 The teacher should relate the story/book to the students’ previous knowledge by asking them some questions pertaining to the story/book

4 The reader should read the story/book once without interruption

5 The teacher should read the text more than once because reading the same text several times will help the students comprehend

6 After the first uninterrupted reading, the reader can interrupt the rereading

to get an explanation of the words

7 The reader should ask some questions to assess the students’ comprehension, while the reader is rereading the story/book

8 At the end of the class, the reader will ask the students to do reflective discussions about the story/book

9 The reader will assess the students’ understanding of the new words by asking them some questions about the meaning of the new words

These guidelines are beneficial for students, especially with English major students in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College in developing an understanding

of the text and engaging them in meaningful discussion Moreover, there are correlations between reading aloud and student characteristics while reading the texts (Morrow, Rand, & Smith, 1995) The next section will explain the respondents’ engagement in using these strategies, characteristics, and understanding expectations in order to enhance their reading comprehension

2.8 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is defined as “the ability to read text for understanding purposes” (Spooner, Gathercole, & Baddeley, 2006) It involves using prior knowledge, making predictions, and drawing out valuable information, among other factors Also, comprehension is the ability to read and be in a position

to learn and remember the content read Comprehension can be achieved by coupling novels/readings with movies so as to enable students to learn difficult texts and obtain more profound comprehension Thus, comprehension monitoring, question generation and answering, and summarization can all help improve reading comprehension (Bolos, 2012) Because reading comprehension is a complex and difficult process, some readers cannot develop the ability to comprehend passages quickly and easily Reading comprehension is sometimes assessed by asking students to orally retell the meaning of the read texts (Dewitz, & Dewitz, 2003) Often the students need assistance and support with difficult texts in order to understand them Teachers might prepare readers for a challenging passage by connecting it with ideas presented earlier and they may also explain the new ideas that students will read about to enable them to reach the higher level of comprehension (Holte, 1998) Challenging readers through using complex texts makes them able to develop comprehension skills for future reading

Educational research shows the importance of reading to enrich the educational process in general Also, other research on elementary school students shows that children who had the opportunity to read on a daily basis were

performing at a higher level when compared to children who have never had that opportunity (McCormick, 1977) Jubani et al (2012) report that students who know how to read and understand what they read often perform better when compared to less reading proficient peers in the same school Also, they have stated that many studies have focused on the reading comprehension ability of students

Moreover, Buyuktasapu (2012) and Bolos (2012) stated that those who read stories about young people tend to perform at a higher level of comprehension than others, and are able to read and write much better Spooner et al (2006) said that the goal of reading comprehension is to understand the information contained in texts Regrettably, some students find reading comprehension extremely difficult In some cases, delayed comprehension of reading reflects weaknesses in decoding skills (Spooner et al., 2006)

2.9 Factors impacting reading

To really understand why students are not reading, one needs to first understand the factors that are impacting reading A child encounters a mix of the distracting factors in his/her life, and some factors are so attractive that they take precedence over reading The following are some factors that need to be taken into account by teachers, educators and parents of students

Although teachers have different teaching strategies, they ought to take into consideration individual characteristics in reading skills and the challenges each individual might face (Bolos, 2012) It is apparent that many students are challenged by the cognitive demands of reading comprehension, particularly, when the texts increase in length or complexity In addition, reading for understanding has proved difficult to many individuals, even to those who are fluent readers

Therefore, teachers should develop each student’s reading comprehension skills with differentiated instruction for each individual student Walczyk and Griffith-Ross (2007) said readers must focus on reading words and progressively diverting attention to understand what they read This recurring practice causes

automatic recognition and allows readers to focus attention on comprehension Many studies show that reading words aloud helps with comprehension

Bolos (2012) said that there are many benefits, as well as challenges, faced

by a group of students during reading Teachers must encourage students’ interest and draw attention to the benefits The benefits are that the students can save words and store them for future use, if so desired Moreover, the students can make relations or connections, between words and pictures to ease their ability to remember and understand (Bolos, 2012) Also, students who are facing challenges

in learning and reading can read but not fully understand the content of the texts This can be determined by the teacher with frequent checks for comprehension

2.10 Reading preference and quality of reading

Reading preferences often differ between girls and boys, so it is important for teachers and parents to be aware of that Researchers such as Sturm (2003) found girls and boys both share many interests’ in common in terms of reading topics While girls tend to enjoy cooking books and boys tend to like sports books; however, overall, their interests are more similar than different Therefore, Sturm (2003) stated that the children studied showed little gender differences in their preferences

Many readers remember their favorite books that were read in their childhood Subsequently, it is important to encourage students to find their favorite books in order to instill a love for reading Many students stated that the books they have been assigned to read in school reduced their interest in reading, therefore, teachers and librarians have to find out which texts the students enjoy reading (Holte, 1998)

On the other hand, research conducted in some English classes revealed that many children do not like reading assignments (McNamara, 2007) For this reason, teachers are encouraged to use the reading aloud strategies because it motivates the students to read and improves their reading comprehension (Bolos, 2012; Serafini & Giorgis, 2003; Wiseman, 2011) Researchers believe that the quality of reading text

is important, and teachers need to embrace quality literature, in order to help students to develop the skills of reading comprehension

2.11 The impact of the media

Many kids do not like to read because there are a lot of distractions that prevent them from reading, for instance, watching too much television at home or playing video games (Akanda, Hoq, & Hasan, 2013) It is clear that electronic media can have a negative impact on students, making it hard for students to find the time for reading If students do not have time to read, this lack of reading could directly impact their academic achievement Jordan, Hersey, McDivitt, and Heitzler (2006) noted that television reduced interest in reading Also, the student who reads very little typically has poor reading skills The American Academy of Pediatrics (2011) found that students who live in households with heavy media use spent little time reading These students will have poor reading skills compared to students who live

in households with low media use

2.12 Strategies of reading comprehension

There are many researchers who have studied the most effective strategies for supporting reading comprehension (Wiseman, 2011) Also, many educators assert that the traditional methods for teaching reading do not meet the current needs of diverse students It may seem that once students learn to read in the elementary grades they are able to read any future text This is not true Reading comprehension strategies must be practiced and reinforced throughout a student’s education

Bolos(2012) has reported on basic strategies that facilitate mastery of reading skills Reading comprehension strategies may include using connections, asking questions, and identifying the importance of comprehension Struggling readers can use comprehension strategies to understand the texts they are reading Walczyk and Griffith-Ross (2007) talked about building excellent readers through the use of comprehension improvement reading strategies All readers have cases which challenge their skills Oftentimes, these cases include confusion regarding the

words’ meanings, phrases, or other parts of the text Also, Walczyk and Ross (2007) recommended the following alternative strategies to avoid comprehension confusion:

Griffith-Read slowly: Griffith-Readers need to read slowly based on the difficulty of the text

Reading slowly can help prevent potential confusion and then improve their reading comprehension

Pause: Pauses should be short to increase reading comprehension

Look again: Looking back occurs when readers take a quick overview and read the

previous text again to reinforce reading comprehension

Repeat text: Repeat reading is due to poor reading skills, often used when confusion

and increased focus on comprehension is primary

Reading aloud:

This strategy often occurs automatically with difficult texts or in noisy environments Also, reading aloud may help students to focus their attention when challenged or bored (Walczyk, & Griffith-Ross, 2007)

These are some ways to improve reading comprehension for students Therefore, teachers can help students grow in their reading abilities by using certain strategies and approaches The reading aloud strategies are the most common reading strategies

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides a description of the design and procedures to be used in the study such as the research design, subject and sampling process, research instrument, research procedure and statistic treatment to be used in this study

3.1 Research Design

In this study, the qualitative method was used to determine teaching English

by using reading aloud strategies and its effect to improve reading comprehension for English students in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College, thereby identifying which strategies are suitable for the second year English students from the school Experimental group described as the type that can test the cause and effect relationship according to Fraenkel & Wallen (2000)

The study aimed to find out the effectiveness of reading aloud strategies in teaching English through the pre-test and post-test It was to implement the strategies to be effective in conducting positive outcomes with students in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College by developing their reading comprehension during teaching and learning English This design assessed whether the reading aloud strategies play an effective factor helping students improve their reading comprehension, and in turn, it motivated them to increase their interest of reading in learning English

The researcher made an effort to determine the level of reading performance

of students in using reading aloud strategies to teach reading skill in the experimental group and the level of reading performance of students in the traditional / control group; the significant difference on the performance of students in reading ability on the reading comprehension; and the significant relationship on the performance of students in reading skills between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group and control group

Descriptive method involved collection of data in order to test hypothesis or answer questions concerning the status of the subject of the study

3.2 Respondents of the Study

The respondents of the study were forty- five English major students from the Faculty of Foreign Languages in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College including 30 females and 15 males from two classes of course 2016-2017

The respondents were the major in English in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College where English is also a compulsory major for these students These students were studying the second semester of English with the class of Reading 3 from the Faculty of Foreign Languages These students consisted of thirty females and fifteen males who were 19 years of age and over 19 These students had learnt English for 7 to 9 years Hence, they were not of the same English proficiency Some of them were good at English but the others were not

3.3 Sampling Methods

According to Ariolaet.al (2006), when it is not possible to study the entire population, a smaller sample is taken using a random sampling technique; forty- five selected respondents were used in conducting this study

3.4 Research Instrument

The instrument which used in the study was a survey questionnaire-checklist Quantitative method was used to collect data for the study The quantitative data were collected from the list of questionnaire from forty- five English major students

in Binh Phuoc Teacher’s Training College, and were analyzed by SPSS

The researcher prepared a performance evaluation system The researcher utilized a questionnaire and specific lessons with language exercises in reading aloud strategies as the main device for gathering the data

The terms were in Vietnamese for better understanding on the part of the respondents The respondents rated the answers to the questions based on a five- point rating scale as follows: