Improving 10th graders’ reading comprehension through cognitive reading strategy training an action research project at a high school in hanoi

For the reason, this action research aimed at improving reading comprehension among 10th graders at a high school in Hanoi through cognitive reading strategy training.. The data collecte

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BUI THI HONG

THROUGH COGNITIVE READING STRATEGY TRAINING:

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN hanoi

(Cải thiện việc đọc hiểu của học sinh lớp 10 thông qua việc luyện tập chiến lược

đọc hiểu tri nhận: Nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường cấp 3 tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Hanoi-2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BUI THI HONG

THROUGH COGNITIVE READING STRATEGY TRAINING:

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN HANOI

(Cải thiện việc đọc hiểu của học sinh lớp 10 thông qua việc luyện tập chiến lược

đọc hiểu tri nhận: Nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường cấp 3 tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor : Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa

Hanoi-2020

thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other

(signature and full name)

T.S Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

Date:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude and love to my supervisor, Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, for her guidance, comments and especially her sympathy throughout the whole research process

I am also grateful to all lecturers at the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, ULIS, VNU, whose lectures and guidance have contributed to my understanding of the problem and led to the completion of this thesis My words of thanks would also go to the examiners who will spend their time

reading and commenting on this thesis

Especially, I wish to show my appreciation to my students of class 10X1

at a high school in Hanoi, who were really helpful and cooperative in the implementation of the study

Last but not least, I would also like to take this opportunity to send my love to my family who aslo encourage and support me whole-heartly

ABSTRACT

Reading in foreign language is considered one of the most challenging and difficult tasks that most of EFL learners face Due to the complexity of this skill, many students suffered from reading for their failure in the achievement of reading comprehension For the reason, this action research aimed at improving reading comprehension among 10th graders at a high school in Hanoi through cognitive reading strategy training After a preliminary investigation had been carried out, the cognitive reading comprehension instruction course was designed, and then implemented in the first semester of the school year 2019-2020 with the participation of 43 students from a class of grade 10 at a high school in Hanoi The data collected through the pre-and post-questionnaires, pre-and post-tests and semi-stuctured interviews revealed that the cognitive reading comprehension strategy course resulted in a slight improvement in the students’ reading comprehension, but the students also encountered some obstacles in applying the strategies

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aim of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Research method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Teaching and learning reading skills in foreign language teaching and learning 5

2.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning reading skills 5

2.1.2 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension 7

2.1.3 Reading comprehension difficulties 9

2.2 Reading comprehension strategies 12

2.2.1 Definitions of reading comprehension strategies 12

2.2.2 Categories of reading strategies 13

2.2.3 The importance of reading strategies 13

2.3 Classification of cognitive reading strategies 15

2.3.1 Deduction 15

2.3.2 Imagery 16

2.3.3 Getting the Idea Quickly 16

2.3.4 Elaboration 16

2.3.5 Guessing the meaning of words 17

2.3.6 Resourcing 17

2.3.7 Repetition 18

2.3.8 Grouping 18

2.3.9 Summarizing 18

2.4 Previous Studies 19

2.4.1 Foreign research on reading strategies 19

2.4.2 Vietnamese research on reading strategies 22

2.5 Summary 24

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Research context 26

3.2 Research Questions 27

3.3 Research Approach 27

3.4 Participants 29

3.5 Data collection instruments 29

3.5.1 Questionnaires 29

3.5.2 Pre-test and post-test 30

3.5.3 Interview 30

3.6 Action Research Procedures 31

3.7 Data Analysis Procedures 35

3.7.1 Pre-questionnaires before the pre-test 35

3.7.2 Pre-test and Post-test 36

3.7.3 Post-questionnaires after the post-test 36

3.7.4 Interview 36

3.8 Summary 37

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 38

4.1 Preliminary investigation 38

4.1.1 Findings 38

4.1.2 Discussion 43

4.2 Evaluation 45

4.2.1 Research question 1 45

4.2.2 Research question 2 48

4.3 Summary 53

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 54

5.1 Summary of main findings 54

5.2 Pedagogical implications 55

5.3 Limitations of the research 56

5.4 Suggestions for further research 56

REFERENCES 58 APPENDICES I

ABBREVIATIONS

EFL : English as a Foreign Language CAR : Classroom Action Research

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The Eight – Week – Plan of Reading Strategy Instruction in Class

10X1 32

Table 4.1:Frequency of Use of Reading Comprehension Strategies before the Pretest 41

Table 4.2:Descriptive Statistics of Pretest and Posttest 45

Table 4.3: Paired Samples Statistics 46

Table 4.4: Paired Samples Correlation 46

Table 4.5: Paired Samples Test 46

Table 4.6: The Cognitive Reading Strategies Students Find Difficult to Apply 48

Table 4.7: Frequency of Use of Reading Comprehension Strategies after the Post-Test 50

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Action research model (Susman, 1983) 28

Figure 4.1 The importance of reading skills 38

Figure 4.2 Students’ interests in reading comprehension skills 39

Figure 4.3 Students’ difficulties in reading comprehension 39

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter is primarily concerned with rationale of the study, aim of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, research method of the

study and organisation of the study

1.1 Rationale of the study

English has been adopted in the school curriculum as a compulsory subject for the last few years In order to get a good command of English, students are required to master four macro language skills namely listening, speaking, writing and reading Among these skills, reading is regarded as the most essential because it not only provides students with fruitful knowlege but also supports learners to enhance other language skills In the other words, the requirement of being knowledgeable in this global era can be fulfilled by reading, so reading ability is a main vehicle for the development of learning experiences and leads to learning success Reading serves the wider role of extending our general knowlegde of the world (Wallace, 1992) and reading is viewed as the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning as strengthened reading skills facilities greater progress in other areas

of language learning (Anderson, 2003, Hazzard, 2016) Through the reading process, learners can gain information required to meet the needs of their study assignments Therefore, the process of learning to read effectively is the key factor in achieving success in both study and life

Many years of my teaching experience at a high school in Hanoi have pointed that students have been encountering several obstacles in reading lessons on grounds of their habits of word-by-word reading, excessive focus

on details rather than main ideas, poor vocabulary or limited background knowledge about given reading topics Besides, another main reason is that these students may have problems with reading strategies because these

learners may not be aware of the huge benefits of reading comprehension strategies yet In deed, learning strategies in reading comprehension have considerable potentiality for improving the reading competence Moreover, appropriate use of learning strategies in reading comprehension can facilitate reading Padron and Waxman (1988) show that the gap in reading comprehension levels between more proficient and less proficient students is

in close relationship with the differences in reading strategies used The authors believe that reading strategies are, actually, useful weapons to assist the students in coping with reading comprehension issues

In this situation, as a teacher of English at a high school in Hanoi, with a view to enhancing reading comprehension among 10th graders through teaching learners effective reading strategies, the researcher attempted to

conduct a study under the title “Improving 10 th graders’ reading comprehension through cognitive reading strategy training at a high school

in Hanoi” With the great belief that this minor study, to some certain extent,

can support 10th graders at a high school in Hanoi with effective reading strategies in order that they can read better and get their desirable results in reading skills

1.2 Aim of the study

The study aims at improving reading comprehension ability of 10th grade students at a high school in Hanoi through cognitive reading strategy training as well as finding out the difficulties perceived by the students in applying the strategies

In order to achieve the above aims, the following research questions would be enlightened:

- To what extent does explicit cognitive reading strategy training help improve reading comprehension of 10th grade students at a high school in Hanoi?

- What difficulties are perceived by the students in applying these cognitive reading strategies?

1.3 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the teaching of cognitive reading strategies to 43 students of 10th grade in the period of ten weeks at a high school in Hanoi, so the teaching of strategies of other subjects would be beyond the scope of the study Additionally, the study also concentrates on discovering what difficulties are faced by students during applying these reading strategies

1.4 Significance of the study

Once sucessfully completed, the study’s findings and discussions are expected to be beneficial to the 10th form students, English teachers, the researcher herself as well as other researchers Firstly, cognitive reading comprehension strategies can provide students with useful techniques for their self-study to improve their reading skills and to solve reading comprehension obstacles Secondly, teachers of English can recognise the significant benefits

of these strategies in teaching reading comprehension Based on the findings, teachers could adapt their current situation of teaching reading so that they would improve their students’ reading comprehension Also, there are some suggested solutions for teachers to prepare efficient techniques to motivate students’ participation in their studying and to teach them how to read effectively Besides, this study is expected to bring the researcher an invaluable experience as it supplies her with knowledge and techniques to teach reading comprehension strategies Finally, the study enriches the literature review for other reseachers who would like to conduct the study of the same field interest related to reading strategies

1.5 Research method of the study

In order to fulfill the above-mentioned aims, this study was carried out according to the following steps in an action research model, simply because

action research was first and foremost situational, being concerned with identification and solution of problems in a specific context to enhance the current state of cognitive reading comprehension among 10th graders at a high school in Hanoi In this case, the research was primarily based on the model of Susman’s model (1983), which consists of five phases to be conducted within each research cycle, namely diagnosing, action planning, taking action, evaluating and specifying learning Research data was collected with a number of instruments including one pre-questionnaire, one pre-test, one post-test, one post-questionnaire and semi-structured interviews After a preliminary investigation had been carried out, a cognitive reading strategy training course was designed, and then implemented with the participation of

43 10th grade students at a high school in Hanoi

1.6 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five main parts:

Chapter 1: Introduction: This chapter includes a rationale of the study,

aim of the study, significance of the study, research method and organization

of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review: This chapter is about review of the

literature related to the research topic, which serves as a theoretical foundation of the study

Chapter 3: Research Methodology: This chapter provides information

about the research context, participants, research approach, data collection instruments, data collection procedures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion: This chapter is the main part of the

body, which reports and discusses the main findings according to the research questions

Chapter 5: Conclusion: This chapter summarizes the findings,

pedagogical implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for the further study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter focuses on teaching and learning skills in foreign language teaching and learning, reading comprehension strategies, the importance of reading strategies, classification of cognitive reading strategies and previous studies

2.1 Teaching and learning reading skills in foreign language teaching and learning

2.1.1 The importance of teaching and learning reading skills

It is common knowledge that listening, speaking, reading and writing are four macro language skills Of these skills, listening and reading are the receptive skills whereas the remaining two are the productive skills These fundamental skills are developed through a sound programme of teaching a language and only a good reading skill enables the students to learn other school subjects effectively and accurately Thus, teaching reading to students can help them lay the foundation for the rest of their academic career, and depending on the effectiveness of reading, it can bring learners up to success

or not Anderson (2003) states that reading is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning and strengthened reading skills facilitates greater progress in other areas of language learning This shows that teaching reading to students is really significant in process of learning foreign languages among students Moreover, teaching reading across the curriculum is critical to equip students with the skills they need in all areas of their education Effective learning of other school subjects with comprehension depends on how far the students develop their reading ability This means more emphasis should be given to the acquisition and development of the above stated basic language skills

Students’ progress in educational career can be no higher or swifter than his progress in reading ability and skills It is through reading that a man remains abreast of continuous expansion of the horizon of knowledge and information in his field of work Besides, regular reading keeps an individual well-informed of the latest information in the areas of his interest Consequently, the role of learning reading as a tool to get information and knowledge cannot be underestimated We know that knowledge is expanding

by leaps and bounds and everyday new knowledge is added to our stock It either replaces or supplements the existing knowledge, so most of the things

we read today become obsolete tomorrow Consequently, if one wants to keep oneself in constant touch with the latest developments in knowledge, one should cultivate good reading comprehension ability According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most vital of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in many ways Firstly, reading material is a language input because students given a variety of materials to read will have many opportunities to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure and discourse structure Secondly, reading for content information in the language classroom provides students with both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading Thirdly, reading helps students broaden their knowledge of the lifestyle and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying Reading can, further, be considered as one of the tools of communication, essential for the existence of man in the complex pattern of the society Besides, it is the means by which every age is linked with one another It makes it possible for man to perceive himself in the context of history and the fluid universe

2.1.2 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

Reading is regarded as an indispensable part in the success of second language learning, so it is essential for everyone to get much deeper understanding of the definitions of reading from the different perspectives of the authors

Actually, there is a wide variety of definitions related to reading skills On the whole, reading is a complex cognitive ability that is considered one of the basic language skills which can support students in learning foreign language; however, it is used more by most of EFL learners who always need to read various printed materials such as: books, stories, articles, poems and so on

According to Smith (1985:120), “reading is understanding the author’s thought” It means that it is necessary for readers to apprehend the author’s mind, not the author’s words If the readers only grasp the words in isolation

in the text without understanding the author’s mind, their reading is useless According to Hamer (1989:190), reading is “an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” It reveals that he focuses on two actions that dominated by the eyes and the brain

Meanwhile Anderson (1991:1) defines reading as “an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning”

In addition, Rubin, and Thomson, (1994:91) offer another definition

of reading: “Reading is an active information-seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” From this point of view, the reader’s knowledge of the world is of importance to their reading success

Rumelhart (1997) indicates that reading involves the reader, the text, and

the interaction between reader and text It can be seen that the reader and the

text are two essential components of reading process; it is, however, the

interaction between them that composes actual reading Sharing the same

idea with Rumelhart, Silberstein (1994:12) states that “reading is a

complex cognitive process in which reader and text interact to (re)create

meaningful discourse”

In short, from these definitions, it is apparent that reading is a process

in which the reader interacts with the text to gain some kinds of meaning

In fact, each author gives his/her own concept of reading from various

angles However, most of the definitions have features in common, that is,

the close relationship between reading and understanding; and reading

process which involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the

reader and the text

Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is very central in all areas of academic learning

including in acquiring a language Students need to read books, articles, and

other materials in order to master any subject areas that they learn, and they

have a good reading comprehension to do so whether is is on the first or their

second language In the other words, reading comprehension can be

understood as the ability to obtain the information as required in the reading

text as efficiently as possible Different scholars demonstrated various points

of view on the definitions of reading comprehension

Richard and Good (1978:9) provide a clearer point of view: “Reading

comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and

the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the printed page

based on the individual reader’s unique background of experience”

Also concerning reading comprehension, Roe, Stoodt and Burns

(1987:2) propose that “reading comprehension is reconstruction,

interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gained from life experience”

Another point of view comes from Richard and Thomas (1987) In his opinion, reading comprehension is a mental process that only the reader finally understands the text based on the past experience That knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out of printed text Therefore, the process of comprehending involves decoding the writer’s words and using the background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer’s passage Sharing with this theory, Lenz (2000:3) also says that “reading comprehension

is the process of constructing meaning from the text.”

One more perspective of reading comprehension from Kendeou (2014) indicates that reading comprehension is considered as a process to understand, use, reflect on, and engage written texts so as to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s knowledge and potential, and to participate in society

In brief, from these opinions, what comes up a common point is that reading comprehension not only understands simply what is written, but also stimulates students to remember from their experiences That knowledge is then used to get meaning out of printed page, but in the mind of the readers which includes facts, emotion, belief and critical evaluation It can be concluded that reading comprehension is the process of understanding what is conveyed in the text On the other hand, it means the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behind these forms

2.1.3 Reading comprehension difficulties

English language skills are essential in gaining proficiency among learners and these skills are either receptive or productive skills Receptive skills involve reading and listening while productive skills consist of writing

and speaking Learners acquire receptive skills by receiving the language from oral or written material In this case, learners decode the meaning to comprehend the receptive material The importance of reading as a language skill can never be underestimated However, studies on reading comprehension show that EFL students have faced a range of challenges in comprehending texts in English

According to Forget and Bottoms (2000 as cited in Suspancic, 2006), most students have problems in comprehending and retaining information when simply reading a text For instance, students suffer mainly from understanding vocabulary On the other hand, lack of understanding might be

as a result of insufficient knowledge of vocabulary This indicates that there is

a strong correlation between reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge and inadequate vocabulary knowledge was recognised as one of the main issues (Gunning, 2002) Vocabulary plays a main part in understanding complex reading materials such as textbooks, particularly those containing technical expressions (Carlisle, 2000; Qian, 2002) This is because students with poor vocabulary knowledge are facing obstacles in comprehending technical words such as synonyms, antonyms, or words with multiple connotations As a result, they are at a loss how to guess the meaning

of unfamilar words even within the context Furthermore, a majority of these learners tend to translate word by word while interpreting the text, and although they may know the meaning of each word, they are still incapable of comprehending the ideas conveyed in the text They also lack a clear purpose

of why they read a text and thus, they tend to use ineffective reading strategies

Another problem facing EFL learners is that students have problems with grammatical sector In fact, grammatical knowledge makes a

contribution to reading comprehension In addition, the learner’s level of syntactic knowlege plays a role in their understanding of reading materials (Shiotsu, and Weir, 2007) In the other words, learners with insufficient knowledge of grammar might not be able to achieve a higher level of reading ability Therefore, readers need L2 syntactic knowledge to integrate their background knowledge and words’ meaning (Koda, 2005) Furthermore, this leads to the fact that these learners fail to understand complex sentences or text complexity in reading comprehension Complex sentences are sentences that consist of several clauses, and at times contain conjunctions such as although, because, furthermore, and however (Scott, 2009) Besides, other causes of difficulties in reading comprehension among EFL learners include coordinating conjunctions, prepositional phrases, participal phrases, and nominalizations They cause a lot of obstacles in reading comprehension because they make the writings more complex and difficult to comprehend (Nuttall, 2000)

Apart from the mentioned problems, one of the main hindrances of reading comprehension perhaps lies in lack of reading strategies or appropriate methods to finish readings In deed, learners have a tendency to choose the options randomly or read word by word without any necessary skills to do the text Although these learners are aware of a variety of available reading strategies, they completely ignore them A great deal of research in first language reading over the last 25 years has shown that unskilled readers do not use strategies often or effectively (Carell, 1988) Besides, as stated by Adler (2013) that students also got difficulties in applying reading strategies in their reading activities If the students are able

to apply these reading strategies, the comprehension about English text should not be difficult anymore

It is obvious that there are difficulties or factors such as language learners’ vocabulary, grammar that hinder their level of reading comprehension It is also believed that once the learners solve some of the problems, the reading skills will be enhanced considerably

2.2 Reading comprehension strategies

2.2.1 Definitions of reading comprehension strategies

Numerous studies on reading comprehension conducted over the decades have highlighted the importance of reading comprehension strategies The findings of the studies also seemed to indicate a close relationship between strategy use and reading comprehension performance

Brown (2007) demonstrates strategies as the specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information

A strategy is viewed as a flexible plan or technique used by readers in the attempt to get information or make meaning from a text (Pearson, Roehler, Dole & Duffy, 1992) Graves et al (2007) propose that efficient readers will use selective strategies intentionally to represent the reading process, develop comprehension and facilitate in achieving its objectives (Gunning, 2008; Fauziah, 2008) Generally, the reading comprehension strategies could be divided into three main categories; metacognitive, cognitive and affective This paper, however, only focuses on cognitive strategies

According to Cohen (1986), reading strategies refer to those mental processes that readers consciously choose to use in accomplishing reading tasks Supporting this idea, Brantmeier (2002) defines reading strategies as the comprehension processes that readers use in order to make sense of what they read

Brown (1990) considers reading strategies as the ways that help learners read more quickly and effectively

Another definition of reading strategies was given by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) is that the term “reading strategies” refers to those conscious and unconscious procedures, actions, techniques or behaviour that learners employ so as to enhance their comprehension and make up for interpretation problems

Overall, there are many various views about the definitions of reading strategies depending on different scholars

2.2.2 Categories of reading strategies

There are two kinds of learning which can also be applied in reading, i.e direct strategies and indirect strategies (Oxford, 1990) Direct strategies consist of memory strategies, cognitive strategies and comprehension strategies Meanwhile, indirect strategies are composed of metacognitve strategies, affective strategies and social strategies Among these strategies, cognitive strategies are regarded as the most popular strategies used in enhancing reading skills The use of cognitive reading strategies can help someone to be a more proficient reader This is supported by the theories of cognitive reading strategies and the result of the study conducted by Ozek and Civelek (2006), Ghonsooly and Eghtesadee (2006), and Hamdan et al (2010) The cognitive reading strategies are also in line with those identified by O’Malley and Chamot (1990) which include resourcing, repetition, grouping, deduction, imagery, keyword method, elaboration, inferencing, noting-taking and summarizing However, in this minor study, the author only focused on some of these typical strategies, which are viewed as a useful tool to support the students with reading strategy difficulties

2.2.3 The importance of reading strategies

In educational system, most of EFL students confront a great number of problems especially in comprehension of written materials when reading

With these learners, grasping the meaning of texts may be a great challenge For instance, they are able to understand every word and even each sentence, but unfortunately, they fail to achieve the meaning of text as a whole Perhaps, because most of these students lack proper reading strategies, it is laborious for them to overcome their reading comprehension barriers It came

to the conclusion that language learning strategies, especially reading ones are believed to play a basic part in learning a second languge, according to Bialystok (1979) On the other hand, reading strategies are considered as the key to the improvement of reading comprehension, especially for poor readers who always struggle in reading According to U.S Department of Education (2014), comprehension strategies are routines and procedures that readers use

to help them make sense of texts Struggling readers need direct, explicit instruction in comprehension strategies to improve their reading comprehension It means that practising these strategies will aid students not only in applying them flexiably but in solving the problems of reading comprehension as well

In fact, there is plentiful evidence that has been shown on the importance

of reading strategies and their effective role in enhancing and developing reading comprehension Mc Namara (2007:218) views that “reading strategies are more useful and beneficial for learners who show lack of knowledge in the domain of reading, as well as those with lower reading skills, these kinds

of learners are strongly needed to these strategies to achieve reading comprehension” Hence, the continuous use of reading strategies will lead the readers to become skilled and later they will be able to utilize the reading skills acquired without conscious efforts Moreover, thanks to appropriate language learning strategies, students are freer to act, to make their own decision and able to learn constinuously and permanently

In conclusion, reading strategies are considered as indispensable ingredients that significantly contribute to helping students master reading skills at school as well as in their daily lives

2.3 Classification of cognitive reading strategies

Williams and Burden (1997) describe cognitive strategies as mental processes concerned with processing information applied for obtainment, storage, retrieval or use of information while Chamot and O’Malley (1996) define such strategies as strategies that supported students in accomplishing the reading task Oxford (1999) further explains that the strategies are composed of note taking, summarizing, inferencing, using prior knowledge, predicting, analysing and using context clues Dymock and Nicholson (2010) indicate that efficient readers utilize between five and nine cognitive strategies

Research has revealed that the use of cognitive learning strategies in classroom instruction and learning is fundamental to successful learning (see Chamot & O'Malley, 1987; Harris & Pressley, 1991; Wood, Woloshyn, & Willoughby, 1995 in Pressley, 2000) This study is related to cognitive reading strategies identified by Oxford (1990), and those proposed by O'Malley and Chamot (1990) which were also used as the theoretical foundation in the previous study conducted by Ozek and Civelek (2006) The author selected some types of cognitive reading strategies used in this minor study consisted of deduction, imagery, getting the idea quickly, elaboration, guessing, resourcing, repetition, grouping and summarizing Each type was explicitly illustrated as follows:

2.3.1 Deduction

According to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), deduction strategy is used to

apply rules to understand or produce the second language or make up rules based on language analysis As Oxford (1990) states that this is considered as

a top-down strategy leading from general to specific This strategy is demonstrated by the strategy of reading the first line of every paragraph to understand the whole text

2.3.2 Imagery

O'Malley and Chamot (1990) refer imagery to using visual images (either mental or actual) to understand or remember new information Meanwhile, Oxford (1990) states this strategy as a good strategy to remember what has been read in the new language to create a mental image of it In addition, Frase (2008) states that the best part of reading is watching the movie in your head and good readers experience seeing strong visual images Imagery strategy is shown by two strategies: looking at illustration/ picture of the events in mind

2.3.3 Getting the Idea Quickly

As stated by Oxford (1990), the strategy of getting the idea quickly constitutes with skimming strategy and scanning strategy Skimming involves searching for the main ideas the speaker wants to get across, while scanning means searching for specific details of interest to the learner Skimming as Richards (1997) states, is usually defined as a quick, superficial reading of a text in order to get the gist of it (see also Brown, 2001) whereas scanning is looking for specific information

2.3.4 Elaboration

Elaboration, according to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), is linking new information to prior knowledge, relating different parts of new information to each other or making meaningful personal associations with the new information Meanwhile, Gunning (1996) refers to elaboration as an additional processing of the text, by the reader, which may increase

comprehension It involves forming connection between the text and the reader's background knowledge of the subject Keshavarz and Mobarra (2003) mention that elaboration appears to serve twin functions of most foreign/ second language reading lessons, i.e., improving reading comprehension, and providing learners with the rich linguistic form they need for further language learning as this strategy provides learners with the full form of the language and allows them to encounter, more or less, authentic and native-like material (see also Vandersen et al in McNamara, 2007)

Christie and Vukelich (2003) also state that simply identifying all the words in a text does not ensure that comprehension will occur Readers must build meaning by linking text information to what they already know In this paper, this strategy is represented as thinking about previous knowledge on the topic of the text or associating to background's knowledge

2.3.5 Guessing the meaning of words

This is undoubtedly the most important vocabulary learning strategy Its aim is for learners to be able to make a well-formed guess at the meaning of

an unknown word in context without interrupting the reading too much In the other words, lexical inferencing involves making informed guesses of word meanings in light of all available linguistic cues in combination with the learner’s general knowledge of the world (Haastrupt, 1987)

2.3.6 Resourcing

Resourcing strategy is referred to utilize target language reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, or textbooks (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990) Oxford (1990) states that to get better understanding what is heard or read, printed resources such as dictionaries, word lists, grammar books, and phrase books may be invaluable On the other hand, this strategy

is represented by the strategy of using dictionary for important words

2.3.7 Repetition

Repetition strategy is used to repeat a chunk of language (a word or phrase) in the course of performing a language task (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990) Oxford (1990) contends that in reading, the strategy of repeating can

be reading a passage more than once to understand it more completely This is

in line with what Pressley (2000) states that repetition strategy can be used by the students as they want to remember important points Repetition strategy is represented by two strategies: re-reading a sentence and re-reading the text to remedy failures

2.3.8 Grouping

According to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), grouping strategy aims at classifying words, terminology, or concepts according to their attributes or meaning Oxford (1990) adds that grouping strategy in reading involves classifying or reclassifying what is read into meaningful groups, thus reducing the number of unrelated elements This grouping strategy is represented by the strategy of classifying the words according to their grammatical categories

2.3.9 Summarizing

Summarizing is making a mental, oral, or written summary of new information gained through listening or reading (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990) Summarizing can be a useful technique As Gulcat (2007) states that the process of summarizing enables you to grasp the original text better, and the result shows the reader that you understand it as well In addition to this, the knowledge you gained by summarizing makes it possible for you to analyze and critique the original text Oxford (2006) shows that summarizing is regarded as a short description of the main ideas or points of something without any details

2.4 Previous Studies

2.4.1 Foreign research on reading strategies

Anderson (1991) examined variations in how adult second language learners use reading techniques The findings showed that both high and low scoring readers tended to use the same types of strategies when answering the questions of understanding; however, high scoring students seemed to use strategies more efficiently and appropriately

Some early publications on learning or reading strategies L2 readers sought to identify the strategies which language learners employ (Hosenfeld, 1979; Olshavsky, 1976; Rubin 1981) and provided the foundation for much of the subsequent research on L2 reading strategies Olshavsky (1976) found that both good and poor readers used the same strategies, but good readers used them more often The strategies used most by good readers were using context to guess meanings of unknown words, inserting additional information into a clause to better understand, rereading, and hypothesis-forming Poor readers used inferencing and identifying personally with the text more than good readers Hosenfeld (1979) found that successful readers keep context in mind when reading, tries to guess meanings of words using context, translates in chunks rather than by single words, avoids glossary unless other strategies fail Unsuccessful readers lose meaning while decoding, translate in shorter chunks or single words, and give equal weight

to each word

More recent studies focused on the impact of reading strategy instruction (Akkakoson & Setobol, 2009; Aghaie & Zhang, 2012; Dhieb-Henia, 2003), and identifying the frequency and types of reading strategy use employed by English language learners during the reading process (Nalliveettil, 2014; Park, 1997; Yang, 2016) In the study conducted by Akkakoson and Setabol (2009),

reading strategy instruction was carried out with 207 Thai EFL engineering and science undergraduates over 15 weeks in which forty-four reading strategies were taught It was found that there was a significant increase in post-test scores for each group The top five strategies used by the high-reading proficiency group after instruction were (1) adjusting reading rate according to text difficulty, (2) problem monitoring and evaluation, (3) comprehension monitoring, (4) going back to correct what was misunderstood, and (5) going back to read unknown words or incomprehensible parts The top five strategies used for the lower-reading proficiency group after instruction were (1) adjusting reading rate according

to the text’s difficulty, (2) resourcing (e.g using dictionaries), (3) comprehension monitoring, (4) paying close attention to difficult words or segments, and (5) problem monitoring and evaluation It was concluded that reading strategy instruction is an effective method of teaching EFL readers compared to the traditional Thai teaching model which was only based on the bottom-up model as it seemed to be commonsensible [to Thai teachers] that comprehension hierarchically processed from the alphabets to the words and

on to decoding sentences and paragraphs (Akkakoson & Setabol, 2009) Two interesting findings of the study were that there was not an increase in the participants reported reading strategies use after the reading strategies instruction, and the overall highest frequency of reading strategies reported after instruction were strategies used for bottom-up processing

Aghaie and Zhang (2012) studied the impact of reading strategy instruction on a treatment group using O’Malley and Chamot’s Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (1996), while it is assumed that the contrast did not receive any reading strategies instruction The 80 participants were EFL students in Iran The reading strategies instruction consisted of

cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies from the CALLA framework

It was found that there was a significant increase in post-test scores for the treatment group Results for the contrast group were not given Questionnaires showed that the treatment group used more reading strategies than the control group with the most significant differences in the following strategies: (1) I decide in advance to look at the text to see its layout, illustration; (2) I decide in advance what my reading purpose is; (3) I examine how well the text is understood; (4) While I read I check whether the material

is making sense to me; and (5) I pay attention to meaning rather than form The TAPs found that the treatment group transferred metacognitive reading strategies from L2 reading (English) to L1 reading (Persian) The contrast group, on the other hand, tended to transfer cognitive reading strategies to L1 reading from L2 reading It was concluded that there was a strong association between reading strategies instruction and reading comprehension improvement and that students should be explicitly taught reading strategies

to get the meaning of difficult sentences after rereading without having to know each word; (2) successful readers were able to use textual features to assist with meaning when comprehension broke down; (3) successful readers could identify new English words by associating its sounds with a cluster of letter which led to more rapid and efficient word identification (Nalliveettil, 2014); (4) successful readers used background information to help grasp

meaning of the text; and (5) partly successful and unsuccessful readers did not use cognitive skills frequently and they placed equal emphasis on each word

It was concluded that English teachers should incorporate more reading strategy training in class to help students develop their reading skills

In a study by Yang (2016), 40 non-English major first year postgraduates from an engineering college in China participated Descriptive statistics showed that (1) overall reading strategies use was medium and that cognitive strategies were used more than metacognitive strategies; (2) the most frequently used metacognitive strategy was self-consciousness which is described as knowing the importance of improving reading proficiency; (3) the most frequently used cognitive strategies are prediction of the content of the text and scanning the text; and (4) that successful learner use reading strategies more than unsuccessful learners It was concluded that reading strategies should become a part of teaching practice in order to support students to develop good habits of using these strategies consciously during reading (Yang, 2016)

These studies provide an indication of what one might expect when viewing other research on reading strategies Hypotheses from the given background research here are (1) reading strategies instruction seems to be effective in increasing reading comprehension; (2) there is a link between the frequency of reading strategies use and proficiency level; (3) high proficiency readers use different reading strategies than low proficiency readers

2.4.2 Vietnamese research on reading strategies

Currently, little empirical research on reading strategies has been carried out in Vietnam In contrast, only a few postgraduate theses are related to this subject However, the reliability and science of the study result of these theses remain an issue to be reaffirmed

Ha (2006) carried out a study named “A study on English reading strategies employed by the second year Bridge and Road students at University of Transport and Communications” The aim of the study was to examine the differences in the reading strategies employed by the good and poor readers among of a group of 13 second year non English majors at the Univerisity of Transport and Communications The analyses were employed through the process of data collected from a written questionnaire and think-aloud reports to examine the differences between the good and the bad in their reading strategies In addition, the qualitative approach is used to deal with the data collected from interviews with these two groups of readers Based on the analysis of data from questionnaires and think-aloud reports, the study showed that the good and effective and bad or ineffective readers significantly differed from each other in the frequency of strategy use The effective readers tended to use cognitive strategies much more frequently than the ineffective ones

Huong (2007) carried out a study called “How to Improve Reading Comprehension of the 10th-Form Students at Le Hong Phong High School” The objectives of the study were to investigate the real situation of teaching and learning reading at Le Hong Phong High School, the difficulties in reading that the 10th-form students often cope with so as to give some suggestions for improving their reading comprehension The study employed the qualitative approach involving their reading comprehension The study employed the qualitative approach involving two survey questionnaires with

97 tenth form students and 8 teachers of English at Le Hong Phong High School to collect the data for the study The findings revealed that the teachers were aware of many factors that affect students’ reading comprehension, and there were four main factors that should be taken into consideration for the 10th-form students, namely students’ lack of

background knowledge and world knowledge, students’ low motivation, students’ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures and their lack of appropriate reading strategies Additionally, the findings of the study also indicted that there was a big gap between what the teachers have done to motivate the students and what the students prefer The majority of students prefer having supplementary reading texts for extensive reading They want their teachers to provide them with reading strategies, how to read efficiency Besides, it reveals that the teachers do not make full use of games and visual aids of which catch the iterest of the students

Sao (2008) conducted a study to investigate students difficulties in reading texts in the new textbook for grade 10 at Nghi Loc IV high school according to their perceptions The study employed semi-structured interviews will be conducted on a group of 20 tenth form students to collect the date The findings of the study showed that when learning reading skills the students encounter difficulties in vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge and reading tasks The findings also showed that despite the awareness of the importance of reading, some students had negative attitudes toward learning English which made their reading more difficult Moreover, students were not equipped with necessary skills to become successful readers and some units, reading tasks were not appropriate for the students’ levels Finally, inefficient teaching methods and classroom techniques might be other causes of the students’ difficulties

2.5 Summary

This chapter highlighted the key issues related to the study such as teaching and learning reading skills in foreign language teaching and learning, importance of teaching and learning reading skills, concepts of reading and reading comprehension, reading comprehension difficulties, reading

strategies, cognitive reading strategies, etc And the most prominent point, cognitive techniques that teachers use in teaching reading are also presented with the hope to improve students’ reading skills

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presented a detailed description of how the research was carried out including the research context, research questions, research approach, participants, data collection instruments, action research procedures, and data analysis procedures

3.1 Research context

The study was conducted in a class 10X1 at a private high school in Hanoi and this class had 43 students with 25 females and 18 males These 10thstudents’ English proficiency was, on average, not very high even though they studied English for at least seven years Perhaps, the students only focused on two main subjects like Mathematics and Literature for the high school examination, so they neglected English Additionally, reading skill was regarded as a challenging part for a large number of students and it was becoming more and more strenuous for them because they had almost no time for this subject at school Hence, their most common problem with this skill was that they were not able to make sense of a reading text simply because of their lack of vocabularies, grammar structures or specific strategies for reading skills This led to the fact that these students tended to read at a very low rate or they frequently tried to translate every word in the text into Vietnamese As a result, they could not obtain their expected results of the reading skills

The new version of textbook used as the official English material for the 10th grade students is Tieng Anh 10 – standard syllabus with 10 units about various topics Each unit has seven parts including reading, speaking, listening, writing, language focus, culture and project According to the standard syllabus, they would have three official periods of English in the

morning and some extra periods in the afternoon and the research would be carried out in one period in the afternoon within ten weeks from early August

to mid-October, 2019

3.2 Research Questions

The study aims at improving reading comprehension ability of 10th grade students at a high school in Hanoi through cognitive reading comprehension strategy training as well as difficulties perceived by the students in applying the strategies

In order to achieve the aims of the study, the following research questions would be answered:

- To what extent does explicit cognitive reading strategy training help improve reading comprehension of 10 grade students at a high school in Hanoi?

- What difficulties are perceived by the students in applying these cognitive reading strategies?

3.3 Research Approach

The study was carried out under the approach of Action research Before dealing with the specific steps in the research procedure, it is essential to explain the selection of the methodology because good understanding of action research is indispensable for a deep insight and analysis of the research According to Cohen and Manion (1994), Action research is considered as a small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real situation and a close examination of the effects of such intervention Some characterisitics of action research are stated in Hult and Lennung (1980) and

Mc Kerman (1991) as follows: (1) action research aims at improving the quality of human actions; (2) action research is considered as being on an on-going cycle process, e.g., feedback from data collected can be used to

improve the next steps in the research; (3) it is formative, e.g., their research may witness the alternation, in definition, aims and methodology; (4) the role

of action research is to contribute to a science of education; (5) and action research is collaborative, e.g., the research involves all contribution to the understanding and action

These features were reflected in this study First, the aim of the study was to improve the current situation of English reading comprehension among 10th grade students at a high school in Hanoi Second, the study would make contributions to the science of language education Third, the study included the researcher’s intervention and that was to train reading strategies for 10th graders, thus, it required the alternation and improvement during the research process In this research, the model of Susman (1983) was followed

Figure 3.1 Action research model (Susman, 1983)

Model of action research by Susman (1983) consists of five phases: diagnosing, action planning, taking action, evaluating, and specifying learning Initially, a problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed diagnose This is followed by a collective postulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emerges and is

implemented Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analysed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how sucessful the action has been At the point, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another cycle This process continues until the problem is ressolved

3.4 Participants

The informants in the study were forty-three 10th grade students in class 10X1 with 25 females and 18 males at a high school in Hanoi and the research took place in a very first-term of the school year 2019-2020 All of them completed seven years of mandatory English education (from grade 3 to grade 9), and some started to learn English earlier, even from grade 1 or from the nursery school The rationale for the researcher to choose grade 10 students as the population of the research was based on the belief that they might have not been taught any reading strategy before In particular, these students almost focused on two main subjects including Maths and Literature

to pass the entrance examination to high schools, so they paid not much attention to English when they were at secondary schools Therefore, to some extent, these 10th students had huge benefits from being trained about these cognitive reading strategies

3.5 Data collection instruments

In order to collect sufficient data for the study, a number of instruments were employed: a pre-questionaire, a pre-test, a post-test and a post-questionnaire and interview

3.5.1 Questionnaires

This vital tool in the collection of date seems to be the easiest and most effective method for collecting data from students For this reason, the researcher chose it as a data collection instrument for preliminary investigation aimed at identifying the problem analysing the participants’