Using extensive reading to enhance grade 10 english gifted students’ reading comprehension and reading motivation at nguyen xuan on high school

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGNGUYEN XUAN ON HIGH SCHOOL ------TEACHING EXPERIENCE USING EXTENSIVE READING TO ENHANCE GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS’ READING COMPRE

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NGUYEN XUAN ON HIGH SCHOOL

- -TEACHING EXPERIENCE

USING EXTENSIVE READING TO ENHANCE

GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS’ READING

COMPREHENSION AND READING MOTIVATION AT NGUYEN

Subject: Foreign Language Teaching Field: Education

Author: Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga Year: 2021

Nguyen Xuan On High School

Dien Chau, March 2021

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ESL English as Second Language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Oxford Bookworm Library’s levels 15

Table 3.2 Penguin Readers’ levels 16

Table 3.3 Macmillan Readers’ levels 17

Table 3.4 Cambridge English Readers’ levels 17

Table 3.5 The ER program’s schedule 19

Table 4.1 Pre-questionnaire’s Descriptive Statistics 26

Table 4.2 Post-questionnaire’s Descriptive Statistics 28

Table 4.3 Paired Samples Test – Pairs of Items 3, 5 & 7 31

Table 4.4 Paired Samples Test – Pairs of Items 1, 6 & 9 34

Table 4.5 Paired Samples Test – Pairs of Items 2, 4, 8, & 10 38

Table 4.6 Reading comprehension tests’ statistics 41

Table 4.7 Pre-test’s frequency 41

Table 4.8 Post-test’s frequency 42

Table 4.9 Results of Pair Sample Test – Pre-test & Post-test 43

Table 4.10 Results of pre-test and post-test – participant 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 44

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1: Simple Action Research Model 15 Figure 4.1 Participants’ reading motivation from reading reports… ………… 29

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABBREVIATION i

LIST OF TABLES ii

LIST OF FIGURES iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Reason for choosing the topic 1

1.2 History of the problem ……… ………….2

1.3 Aims of the study and research questions ….3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Method of study ……… ………… …4

1.7 The organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Theoretical background of reading 5

2 1.1 Definitions of reading … 5

2.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension: 5

2.1.3 Types of reading …6

2.2 Extensive reading 7

2.2.1 The definition of extensive reading 7

2.2.2 Graded readers 9

2.3 Reading motivation 10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 13

3.1 Restatement of research questions: 13

3.2 Participants 13

3.3 Research method: 13

3.3.1 Rationale: 13

3.3.2 Action research process: 14

3.4 The extensive reading program 15

3.4.1 Materials 15

3.4.2 Level tests 18

3.4.3 The extensive reading procedure 19

3.5 Data collection instruments 21

3.5.1. Questionnaires: 21

3.5.2. Tests…… 22

3.5.3. Reading reports 22

3.5.4. Interviews 23

3.6 Data analysis 24

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 25

4.1 Effects of the ER program on participants’ intrinsic reading motivation 25

4.1.1 The importance of reading in English 25

4.1.2 Reading involvement 33

4.1.3 Reading curiosity 36

4.1.4 Reading for scores – an extrinsic reading motivation factor 39

4.2 Effects of the ER program on participant’s reading comprehension skill 40

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION 46

5.1 Conclusions 46

5.2 Implications 47

5.3 Limitations and recommendations 48

REFERENCES 49-52 APPENDIX 1A 53

APPENDIX 1B 55

APPENDIX 2 57

APPENDIX 3A 61

APPENDIX 3B 65

APPENDIX 4 69

APPENDIX 5 70

APPENDIX 6 72

APPENDIX 7A 73

APPENDIX 7B 75

APPENDIX 8A 77

APPENDIX 8B 78

APPENDIX 9 79

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason for choosing the topic:

Nowadays, with the rapid pace of integration and globalization, English becomes agolden key to open the door of many fields such as commerce, communication,science and technology throughout the world Therefore, to meet the demand of thesociety, it is very necessary to teach English in schools of all levels In recent yearsteaching and learning English in secondary schools have been major changes in thecontents and teaching methods to fit the goals and requirements set for this subject inthe reform program The most basic point of the new method is to promote students’positive, proactive and create optimal conditions for students to train, develop andenhance abilities, how to use language in communication purposes rather thanproviding purely linguistic knowledge With this view, the techniques and activities

in the classroom has been changed and diversified development Therefore, teachersneed to grasp the main principles of the new method and learn the techniques andteaching activities from the viewpoint of communication that can be applied in aflexible, consistent and effective way

The problem becomes more complicated when placed in Vietnam Students are oftenlazy to read, especially there are some new topics in the textbooks and the

vocabulary is quite difficult A difficulty is that students have low languagecompetence Therefore, it requires the efforts of both teachers and students from thefirst days at school Teachers should always explore and innovate teaching methodsthat meet students’ needs Also, students need to try their best to study and practice.Nevertheless, grade 10 students have not shown that learning spirit They often show

no interest in subjects and no focus on practicing basic skills, especially reading skill– the crucial skill It can help improve other skills: enhancing vocabulary in listeningand speaking and improving writing skill Consequently, their readingcomprehension is not sufficient to help them

understand reading texts and motivate them to use reading skills to enhance languageinput

For the above reasons, I decide to conduct a study titled : “Using extensive reading

to enhance grade 10 English gifted students’ reading comprehension and reading motivation at Nguyen Xuan On High school”

1.2 History of the problem:

Many people are trying to find out the answer for the question of how to learnEnglish effectively Nuttall (1982, p 168 as cited in Renandya, 2007) wrote: “Thebest way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live amongits speakers.” It means that language learners need to move to and live in theenvironment where the language is used every time and everywhere However,almost all learners in Vietnam cannot afford to learn English in this way Nuttallalso mentioned another way: “The next best way is to read extensively in it.” Thesecond way, extensive reading (ER), appears to be more suitable and economical.There have been several studies on ER with positive results for recent years It hasboth, cognitive and affective positive effects on the readers (improving readers’communicating skills, helping readers acquire and retain vocabulary, motivatingreaders in reading in particular and in their language study in general (Nation,1997)) ER can help learners with larger quantities of second language input (Hafiz

& Tudor, 1989, as cited in Hedge, 2001), improve reading comprehension andreading speed (Bell, 2001), develop learner autonomy (Wu & Wu, 2009), increasereading motivation (Ro, 2013), help enhance reading rate (Huffman, 2014),encourage a positive attitude towards reading fluency (Wardani, 2015), improveEFL learners’ writing (Mermelstein, 2015), enrich lexical chunks acquisition(Pereyra, 2015) and so on As can be seen in those above studies, ER is currentlybeing considered as one effective learning and teaching method However, the ERprogram has not been applied at schools where the researcher is working Hence, itseffects at this schools is still unknown and the researcher would like to find outwhether it helps improve students’ reading comprehension and motivate students to

read in English.

So, I tried to explore this research by applying theory to practical teaching, with adesire to contribute my experience in arousing students’ interest in learningEnglish This helps students love and have a passion for English in order to

contribute improving the quality of teaching and learning English.

1.3 Aims of the study and research questions

As mentioned above, the purpose of the study is to find out whether implementing

an extensive reading program with graded readers as the materials can help improvestudents’ reading comprehension and intrinsic reading motivation In order toachieve the purpose, the study is guided by the two main following questions:

1 To what extent does reading graded readers affect students’ intrinsic reading motivation?

2 To what extent does reading graded readers affect students’ reading comprehension?

1.4 Scope of the study

The study focuses on using ER in teaching reading comprehension to grade 10students at Nguyen Xuan On High school Hence, the study limits itself to teachingand learning reading only, and the participants of the study are 14 gifted students atgrade 10

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of the study are expected to be useful for all the people concernedincluding the researcher, teachers, and students

Hopefully, the study supplies English language teachers with the understanding of

ER in terms of effects when applying it in teaching reading skill In addition, this isthe first time an ER program applied for grade 10 students at Nguyen Xuan On Highschool; consequently, the final results of the study is a strong recommendation for

ER programs to be integrated in the existing curriculum for the development ofreading comprehension and reading motivation at schools

1.6 Method of study

- Methods of theoretical studies: literature review of teaching activities.

- Method of practical research: It includes many methods such as: Observation;investigation; exchanges; statistics; aggregate; compare; summarize experience

- Method of experts: Learn through and swap experience of some dedicated andexperienced teachers on the use of the techniques in teaching English.

1.7 The organization of the study

This paper is divided into 5 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 – Introduction – Reason for choosing the topic, history of the problem,

the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance of the study andmethod

of study

Chapter 2 – Literature review – provides an overview of theoretical issues related

to reading skill, extensive reading and reading motivation and examines the needsfor conducting the current study

Chapter 3 – Methodology – Methodology considers the different research methods

to choose a suitable research method in seek of the answer to the research questionsraised in chapter 1 Detailed information about the participants of the study andresearch procedures is also provided

Chapter 4 – Results and discussion – presents and discusses the main findings of

the study

Chapter 5 – Recommendations and Conclusion – summarizes the main findings

and gives implications from the study It also states the limitations of the study andmakes suggestions for future research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter involves different aspects of theoretical background of reading, readingcomprehension, ER, reading motivation, and studies on ER in recent years

2.1 Theoretical background of reading

2.1.1 Definitions of reading

Reading is an individual activity which takes place in different ways from readingbooks, newspapers, magazines, written tests, telephone directory, labels on medicinebottles, or notices While Ur defines reading simply means “reading andunderstanding” , many other authors have more detailed definitions of term

“reading” According to Bond and Miles reading is an active process, whichinvolves the recognition of printer or written symbols which triggers meaningthrough readers’ past experiences Rubin and Thompson (1994, p 91) also defines

“reading is active information–seeking process in which readers relate information

in the text to what they already know” Similarly, in Anderson’s study (2003),reading is also claimed to be an active fluent process for readers to understand thewritten information in the relationship with their background knowledge andexperiences Reading involves not only the reader and the reading materials but alsothe writer in Tickoo’s definition (2006): reading involves “a triangular interaction” –the reader, the writer and the texts

Briefly, reading is a complex but active process that is affected by three subjects (thereader, the writer and materials) and involves understanding what is written in thereading materials

2.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension:

Reading comprehension is an important part in teaching and learning a foreignlanguage It has been defined in different ways by different researchers According

to Kirby (2007), reading comprehension is the process by which we understand thetexts we read It is the purpose of reading, why we teach it, and why we care about

it It is also the prerequisite for meaningful learning from text

In addition, Pakhare (2007, p 1) defines reading comprehension as “the level ofunderstanding of passage or text According to him, reading comprehension offers atool at judging the level of passage or text understanding while reading Readingcomprehension improves through the use of various methods which include trainingthe ability to self-assess comprehension, using some questions to put comprehension

to the test, and improving metacognition

Reading comprehension can be defined in different ways; however, it is clear thatreading comprehension is the ultimate goal of teaching and learning reading ingeneral and teaching and learning reading in foreign language in particular.Pakhare’s definition is made as a choice for the basic definition of this study

2.1.3 Types of reading

There are a great deal of ways to classify reading such as the classification according

to manners of reading and the classification according to the purposes of reading In

this study the two kinds of reading mentioned are intensive reading and extensive reading.

Intensive reading “involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or atask which forces the students to focus on the text” Brown considers intensivereading as “a classroom-oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic orsemantic details of a passage” The objective of intensive reading is to achieve a fullunderstanding of the text, not only of what it means but also of how the meaning isproduced Intensive reading has the following characteristics:

1 The reading materials are usually more difficult texts which are not relevant tolearners’ ability Readers face difficulties with the appearance of a largenumber of unknown vocabulary and grammatical items

2 In doing intensive reading, readers spend time practicing reading skills likeskimming, scanning, guessing meaning from the context, taking notes andusing a dictionary

3 Reading in intensive reading approach includes activities completedcommunally, not individually

What is meant by all the characteristics of intensive reading approach mentionedabove is not that intensive reading is bad, only that it is limited in the aims and thematerials Intensive reading mainly focuses on developing learners’ reading skillslike getting the main idea of the text, skimming or scanning, not getting the overallunderstanding of the materials The materials sometimes may not interest the readersand may not be suitable for every learner’s own level.

Another type of reading is extensive reading In comparison with intensive reading,extensive reading approach is argued to be more beneficial to learners in foreignlanguage acquisition in general and reading ability in particular Due to theimportance of extensive reading in foreign language learning, the next section will

be devoted to the discussion on this kind of reading

2.2 Extensive reading

2.2.1 The definition of extensive reading

A lot of trials have been made on working out a thorough definition of ER by thosewho are interested in the approach One of these is the definition by : “Students read

a lot of easy, enjoyable books” This definition fails to help readers imagine thewhole picture of ER since it only mentions generally the amount of books and whatkinds of books to read without the purpose to read or where to read

In “Handout from the extensive reading forum”, Mutoh, Bamford, and Helgesen(1998) introduces a definition as follow: “Extensive reading usually means reading

a lot of self-selected easy, interesting texts, and doing few or no exercisesafterwards” and it is “a way to teach a foreign language (in general) and a way toteach reading (in particular).” (p 1)

Although this definition can show the role of ER in language acquisition, it does notmention the purpose to read

In Susser and Robb (1990)’s point of view, ER is reading (a) of large quantities ofmaterial or long texts; (b) for global or general understanding; (c) with the intention

of obtaining pleasure from the text Furthermore, because (d) reading isindividualized, with students choosing the books they want to read, (e) the books are

not discussed in class What makes this definition more satisfying than thosementioned above is the summary of the general characteristics of extensive reading.

It includes the issues related to the amount of and primary purpose of reading andthe role of learners in doing such activity However, because of the last characteristic– the books are not discussed in class – this definition is still not suitable to thisstudy

The definition which is the most suitable one to this study is given out by Nation(2008): ER involves in reading (a) a large quantity of input (b) with the attention onthe meaning of the text (c) with what students want to read (d) at students’ own level

of proficiency (e) within class time or outside class time

From Day and Bamford (2002, p 138) point of view, “there is no upper limit to theamount of reading that can be done, but a book a week is probably the minimumamount of reading necessary to achieve the benefits of ER and to establish a readinghabit” Therefore, in this study, the students are advised to read at least a book perweek because the more they read, the greater they benefit from it

During reading extensively, students focus on the meaning of the text, not thelanguage features (Nation, 2008, p 50) In order to focus on the meaning of thematerials, students need to read at an “i minus 1” level

One special character of ER is that students can choose what to read This can beinferred that learners can choose texts they expect to understand, to enjoy or to learnfrom Nevertheless, according to Nuttall “ some classes have such specific needsthat most of the materials must be collected by the teachers” In this study, theparticipants are freshmen, who have little experience in looking for and choosing thematerials from sources, especially from the internets Therefore, it is difficult andtakes time for them to choose appropriate reading materials by themselves For thisreason, the researcher decided to choose graded readers – simplified materials asreading materials in the current study

One more character of ER which should be clarified is reading activity within classtime (for example in Elley and Mangubbai’s classical study ) or outside class time

In this study, extensive reading is done out of class because the syllabus with variousin-class activities is expected to be followed carefully by teachers and students.

2.2.2 Graded readers

To get desired results in ER, students are advised to read books and other materialsthat are in “their reading comfort zone” Having students read and understandauthentic materials – written for native readers is the main goal in teaching reading;however, reading difficult texts with a lot of unknown words might make motivationdecrease According to Day (2003), students should start with books or texts that areappropriate and written for their levels of reading ability Understanding the content

of the materials encourages them to read more Moreover, in the study, readingprogram is done out of the class; students read at home or anywhere withoutteachers’ help Therefore, it is a big challenge for them to read difficult materials.For those reasons, graded readers – simplified materials – are suitable readingmaterials for the students in the study

Graded readers are the books which are adapted or written with the limitedvocabulary, the controlled grammatical structures and the appropriate length of textfor second and foreign language teaching and learning and they are considered as “abridge to reading authentic material for native speakers” by Waring There are avariety of types such as romance, drama, science fiction, adventure or literature sothat readers – students can choose what they are interested in Moreover, gradedreaders are divided into several levels and each level has a certain amount ofheadwords – high frequency words Students choose the books based on their level

In the market of books, there are a variety of series of graded readers such as OxfordBookworm Library, and Dolphins Readers of Oxford University Press; MacmillanReaders and Macmillan Children’s Readers of Macmillan; Penguin Readers andPenguin Kids of Pearson Longman; Cambridge English Readers, and CambridgeYoung Readers of Cambridge University Press; Black Cat Early Reads and BlackCat Reading and Training of Black Cat – Cideb; Classic Readers and SunshineReaders of Compass Media, and so on Each series of graded readers is classified by

with seven levels, from starters to level 6 Books at each level have a certain amount

of headwords and correspond with a certain level (see part 3.4.1 page 24 fordetails)

In the study, series of publishers which are famous and familiar to Vietnamesereaders as Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Pearson, and Cambridge UniversityPress are used as reading materials, namely Oxford Bookworm Library, PenguinReaders, Macmillan Readers, and Cambridge English Readers Among them,Oxford Bookworm Library is considered as the major source of materials for tworeasons Firstly, the course book used in the curriculum is also published by OxfordUniversity Press Secondly, that is for the reason of economy; using OxfordBookworm Library is more economical than using others

2.3 Reading motivation

Reading motivation has been discussed in language teaching and learning for manyyears It is defined as “the individual’s personal goals, values, and beliefs withregard to the topics, processes, and outcomes of reading” Of well-knownmotivational theories, Wigfield and Guthrie’s theory is mentioned the most.According to these two authors, L1 reading motivation is divided into 11 sub-components: (1) reading efficacy, (2) reading challenge, (3) reading work avoidance,(4) reading curiosity, (5) reading involvement, (6) importance of reading, (7)competition in reading, (8) reading recognition, (9) reading for grades, (10) socialreasons for reading, and (11) reading compliance They developed the Motivationfor Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) which is used adapted widely in the field

Based on that 30-item questionnaire, in ‘redefining motivation” , Mori gave foursub-components of L2 reading motivation, including attainment value, intrinsicvalue, extrinsic value, and expectancy for success Attainment value refers to thestudents’ perceived importance of success in a task Extrinsic value is regarded asexternal reason (for example, students read for better grades, students read forteacher approval, and students want to outdo others in reading) while intrinsic value

is regarded as internal reasons: reading curiosity, reading involvement, and

importance of reading The last component of value in the theory is expectancy forsuccess which is defined as reading efficacy.

Besides, in their research, De Naeghel et al (2012) divided reading motivation intotwo types: autonomous reading motivation and controlled reading motivation Thesetwo types are defined like intrinsic value and extrinsic value in De Naeghel, VanKeer, and Vanderlinde (2014): Autonomous reading motivation involves “readingactivities for their own enjoyment (e.g.: pleasure, interest) or because of theirperceived personal significance and meaning (e.g.: personal value, importance)”; onthe other hand, controlled reading motivation refers to “reading to meet internalfeelings of pressure (e.g.: guilt, fear, pride) or to comply with external demands(e.g.: expectations, reward, punishment).”

This study especially focuses on autonomous reasons for reading or intrinsic value

of reading motivation for several reasons Firstly, reading is done out of class;students decide when and where to read Secondly, although the teacher chooses thesources and the list of reading materials, choosing which book, which topic in thatlist is done by students Another reason is that the permanent value is intrinsic value,not extrinsic one, which may change in semesters For example, the teacher mightencourage students to read in this semester but in the next another teacher might not

do that Consequently, students’ reading motivation might change However, ifmotivation is from themselves; they themselves love reading, find it interesting,reading would become their habit Last but not least, participants in the study arevolunteers and their participation have no influence on their marks and studying athigh school; hence, extrinsic factors like punishment or marks do not change

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a thorough description of how the research was carried out,including research questions revisited, participants, the action research modelfollowed, the ER program applied, the instruments used to collect data and dataanalysis

3.1 Restatement of research questions:

As stated previously, this study aims to examine whether ER can enhance students’intrinsic reading motivation and reading comprehension The researcher attempts tofind out the answers to the following questions:

1 To what extent does reading graded readers affect students’ intrinsic reading motivation?

2 To what extent does reading graded readers affect students’ reading comprehension?

3.2 Participants

The research was carried out at Nguyen Xuan On High school Fourteen studentswho take part in the research came from grade 10A5 All of the surveyed studentshave learned English for 10 years and their favourite subject is English , 85 per cent

of them answered that they had no much time in reading in class as well as at homewhen being asked in an informal interview They were voluntary to participate in the

ER program in order to improve their intrinsic reading motivation and readingcomprehension skill

According to the results of level tests at the beginning of the program, they wereclassified at elementary level; thus they read graded readers at that level for eightweeks

3.3 Research method:

3.3.1 Rationale:

Action research with many other names like participatory research, collaborativeinquiry, and action learning has been conducted by teachers in order to reflect upon

and evolve their teaching Based on many definitions of Bassey (1998), Hopkins(2002), Cohen and Manion (1994), Bell (1999) and Reason and Bradbury (2001),Koshy describes “action research as a constructive enquiry, during which theresearcher constructs his or her knowledge of specific issues through planning,acting, evaluating, refining and learning from the experience” He also summarizesten characteristics of action research:

- Involves researching your own practice – it is not about people out there;

- Is emergent;

- Is participatory;

- Constructs theory from practice

- Is situation-based;

- Can be useful in real problem-solving;

- Deals with individuals or groups with a common purpose of improving practice;

- Is about improvement;

- Involves analysis, reflection and evaluation;

- Facilities changes through enquiry

In this study, the author also would like to improve her present teaching situation –students have no or little reading motivation and reading skill at low level; hence,action research was chosen

3.3.2 Action research process:

There have been several models of action research process, such as Susman (1983)with five steps, MacIssac (1995) with four steps, and Nunan (2001) with sevendetailed steps However, in the situation of the study, the problem of the currentstudy appears to be clear that students are not good at and no interested in reading.Therefore, the author decides to follow MacIssac’s model with four steps withinone cycle: plan, act, observe, reflect:

Figure 3.1: Simple Action Research Model

(from Dan MacIsaac, 1995 as cited in Yasmeen, 2008)

3.4 The extensive reading program

3.4.1 Materials

As stated above (part 2.2.2), the materials used in the study were four series ofgraded readers for teens and adults: Oxford Bookworm Library, Penguin Readers,Macmillan Readers and Cambridge English Readers According to ExtensiveReading Foundation , the following tables show the detailed information of the fourseries:

Table 3.1 Oxford Bookworm Library’s levels

(E) Early; (M) Mid; (H) High

4 1400 Intermediate (H)

Table 3.2 Penguin Readers’ levels

(E) Early; (M) Mid; (H) High

Table 3.3 Macmillan Readers’ levels

(E) Early; (M) Mid; (H) High

6 2200 Upper-Intermediate (H)

Table 3.4 Cambridge English Readers’ levels

(E) Early; (M) Mid; (H) High

- Oxford Bookworm Library: level 1, level 2, and level 3;

- Penguin Readers: level 2;

- Macmillan Readers: level 2; and

- Cambridge English Readers: level 1 and level 2

The 80 used graded readers were divided into two levels based on ExtensiveReading Foundation level :

- 50 graded readers at elementary level (early and mid): Level 1 OxfordBookworm Library, level 2 Penguin Readers, and level 2 Macmillan Readers;and

- 30 graded readers at pre-intermediate level (high elementary and earlyintermediate): level 2 and 3 Oxford Bookworm Library, and level 2 CambridgeReaders

(See Appendix 9 for the detailed list of books)Besides, graded readers with several topics like non-fiction, romance, mystery,history and so on were coded so as for participants to find it easy to choose.Participants could also choose kinds of books (e-books for printed books) whichmade them comfortable in reading This might help motivate them in readingprocess

3.4.2 Level tests

Level tests were the ones done by participants at the beginning of the ER program toidentify their levels before they chose books to read Normally, each publisher oreach series has a level test Nevertheless, the main material in the program wasOxford Bookworm Library so tests of Oxford Bookworm Library with 30 items(Appendix 5) were used If participants’ scores are 29 or 30, they read at a higherlevel If they score from 24 to 28, they start reading at the current level And if theirscores are under 24, they are recommended to try a lower level

In the program, participants did a test at level 2 because of their initial default level –pre-intermediate/ elementary (high) However, the result of the test was not positive.All of them got scores under 24 (Appendix 6) For an exact result, participants wereasked to do another test but at level 1 – elementary This time, all of them got ‘pass’score, from 24 to 28 (Appendix 6) As a result, all the participants started readinggraded readers at elementary level After half the time of the program, participantsdid a different test at their levels If they get higher scores they continue with ahigher level and they continue at the same level if their scores have no change Infact, only one participant at level of elementary got score of 29 (Appendix 6).However, after she read one book at higher level, she did want to continue with herprevious level Therefore, during four weeks later, all of the fourteen participantsstill read books at level of elementary

3.4.3 The extensive reading procedure

The ER program lasted for 12 weeks

Table 3.5 The ER program’s schedule

Time Week Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Introduced lists of graded readers and reading report model

- Showed how to borrow books to students

- Delivered pre-questionnaireand level tests

- Did the pre-questionnaire and level tests

- Read the book and wrote reading reports after finishing reading

- Chose the name of the book they want to borrow

During the week, Ss could borrow more than one book.

Time Week Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Delivered the registered books

reports

- Received the book they chose in the previous week

- Read the book and wrote reading reports after finishing reading

- Chose the name of the book they want to borrow

During the week, Ss could borrow more than one book.

- In this week, students’ activities were the same as those in week 4

- Did level tests (the second time)

- Handed in reading reports

- Did post-questionnaire andpost-test

Time Week Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- Delivered questionnaire and post-test

3.5 Data collection instruments

The instruments for data collection for this study were questionnaires,comprehension tests, reading reports, and semi-structure interviews

3.5.1 Questionnaires:

As mentioned above (part 2.3), in the field of L2 reading motivation, Mori (2002)developed a questionnaire (Appendix 2) based on Wigfield and Guthrie’s MRQ.However, unlike this present study: using extensive reading to enhance students’reading comprehension and motivation, reading activities in Mori’s research wereintensive What’s more, the current study focuses on students’ intrinsic readingmotivation, not general reading motivation Hence, the author adapted Mori’squestionnaire Items in the questionnaire only focused on intrinsic readingmotivation, namely the importance of reading in English, reading involvement andreading curiosity Therefore, in the current study, the questionnaire had 10 items:item 3, 5, 7 for the importance of reading in English; item 1, 6, 9 for readinginvolvement; item 2, 4, 8, 10 for reading curiosity (Appendix 1A) However, items

in the questionnaire were mixed, not in single parts so that the obtained results werethe most objective as possible Additionally, in order for all the participantsunderstand the statements correctly, the questionnaire was translated intoVietnamese (Appendix 1B)

The questionnaire were done twice by participants: the first time before readinggraded readers and the second one after finishing the program The results werecompared in order to seek whether there are any changes of reading motivation afterextensive reading program Before being delivered to participants, the questionnaire

was piloted with a small group of three students who did not volunteer to take part inthe ER program in that class to check the validity and reliability of questionnairestatements.

3.5.2 Tests

So as to evaluate participants’ reading comprehension, a pre-test and a post- test(Appendix 3A + 3B) were used: students did the pre-test at the beginning of theprogram, and the post-test at the end of the program

The tests were extracted from several books of Key English Test (KET) which were

at the same level as participants’ – elementary Each test consisted of three readingcomprehension passages and had 24 items They were different kinds of tasks:multiple choice and True/ False/ Not Given

3.5.3 Reading reports

Participants wrote a reading report (adapted from Helgesen’s (2005)) every week(after they finished one material) These reports helped the author with the furtherinformation about what they have read (item 2, 3, 4, 5), their reading frequency(item 5, 6), their understanding of the books (7), and their evaluation to the books(item 8) Lastly, it was participants’ benefits or difficulties during the ER program,and their opinions of reading activity and the ER program (item 9) (Appendix 7A)

3.5.4 Interviews

In order to get clearer and valid data on participants’ reading motivation and readingcomprehension skill, a list of interview questions designed by the author was applied

at the end of the program

It was not obligatory; hence, the researcher interviewed the participants whovolunteered As a result, five of the fourteen students took part in the interviewwhich was carried out in the last week of the program They answered six semi-structured interview questions The four first questions were used to triangulate theanswer to the first research question: questions number 1 and 2 for students’experiences in reading extensively, question number 3 for their opinions to graded

program and the time they needed for each book The two other questions were forthe answer to the second research question: question number 5 for participants’ability to understand the content of graded readers and question number 6 for theirproblems if there are in reading process (Appendix 8A)

Because students are grade 10 students, the interview questions were translated intotheir mother tongue, Vietnamese, so as for them to express their ideas and opinionsmore easily (Appendix 8B)

3.6 Data analysis

This is the study using both results from quantitative and qualitative data, in whichquantitative data are considered as the main ones and qualitative data are used tosupport them

With regard to quantitative data, questionnaires and reading comprehension testswere analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 22) First,the descriptive statistics were computed Then, statistical comparison between thepre-ones and post-ones was used to show whether there are changes in students’reading motivation and reading comprehension skill after the ER program

In order to support the results from quantitative data analysis, qualitative data fromreading reports and interviews were analyzed and given as examples and evidencesafter quantitative data

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter reports the results of the study and presents discussion of the majorfindings It is presented in two main sections The first section is the effects ofreading graded readers in the ER program on participants’ intrinsic readingmotivation based on their feedback to the program given in form of a questionnaireand complemented by participants’ reading reports and interviews The findings inthis section are presented in forms of themes: the importance of reading in English,reading involvement, reading curiosity and reading for scores – an extrinsic readingmotivation factor The effects on participants’ reading comprehension skill is in thenext part It consists of the scores of the pre-test and post-test done by theparticipants The non-numerical data of interviews which supports the results ofcomprehension tests are presented in this part

4.1 Effects of the ER program on participants’ intrinsic reading motivation

This section includes four subsections; three of them are the three basic factors ofintrinsic reading motivation: the importance of reading in English, readinginvolvement and reading curiosity, and the last is the evidence of reading for scores– an extrinsic factor – discovered in the study

4.1.1 The importance of reading in English

In order to understand the situation exactly the researcher had participants done aquestionnaire at the beginning of the ER program The following table shows theresults of the pre-questionnaire:

Table 4.1 Pre-questionnaire’s Descriptive Statistics

The importance of reading in English

Pre3 Learning to reading in English is

important because it will broaden my view 14 2 4 3.14 770 .593Pre5 Learning to read in English is important

because it will be conducive to my general

education

Pre7 Learning to read in English is important

because it will make me a more

Pre9 I get immersed in interesting stories

even if they are written in English 14 1 3 1.86 663 .440

Reading curiosity

Pre2 I like reading English stories 14 1 3 2.00 877 769Pre4 I read English stories because I want to

Pre8 By learning to read in English, I hope

I'll be able to read English stories 14 1 3 1.86 770 .593Pre10 Even if reading were not a required

subject, I would take a reading class anyway 14 1 3 1.93 917 .841

In terms of the importance of reading in English, the Mean values are quite high –3.1/ 4, the Minimum values are 2, not the lowest ones in the scales (table 4.1) Thisinitially shows the positive results on participants’ opinion on the importance ofreading in English before taking part in the program This is also clearly presented inreading reports in the first week All of the participants affirmed the importance ofreading in general and reading in English in particular: helping them improve thevocabulary, enhancing the knowledge, practicing the perseverance, and learningvaluable lessons (Figure 4.1) For example,

“I think reading is very necessary for students because it helps us enhance our English level When we read these stories, they will help us improve our vocabulary and know how to guess the meaning of words ” (Participant 4,

week 1)

“I think reading books, especially reading English books, is essential because

it partly helps us improve knowledge and accumulate experiences in the world around for ourselves Besides, books can give us valuable lessons and teach us how to communicate in life Books also help us practice the perseverance [….] I think reading books is wonderful It helps us relax and reduce stress from work.” (Participant 8, week 1).

The Mean values of over 3.2/4 in the post-questionnaire affirms this opinion again.Especially, item number 5 has the Mean value of 3.5 and the Minimum value of 3(Table 4.2):

Table 4.2 Post-questionnaire’s Descriptive Statistics

The importance of reading in English

3 Learning to reading in English is important

because it will broaden my view 14 2 4 3.29 726 .527

5 Learning to read in English is important

because it will be conducive to my general

education

7 Learning to read in English is important

because it will make me a more knowledgeable

person

Reading involvement

1 It is fun to read in English 14 2 4 3.50 650 423

6 I tend to get deeply engaged when I read in

9 I get immersed in interesting stories even if

Reading curiosity

2 I like reading English stories 14 2 4 3.21 802 643

4 I read English stories because I want to know

8 By learning to read in English, I hope I'll be

10 Even if reading were not a required subject,

I would take a reading class anyway 14 2 4 3.43 646 .418

Figure 4.1 Participants’ reading motivation from reading reports.

Clearly, all of the participants mentioned the importance of reading in English inmost of the weeks, week 1, 3, 4, 7 and 8 (figure 4.1)

After finish the book, I found it very interesting and useful It helped me draw alesson for myself: in love, we should be tolerant, should not harm the person we loveonly because of animosity […] (Participant 6, week 3)

I found the story very interesting and meaningful The author seemed to portrayhorses, saying their aspiration […] The story brought readers a valuable lesson: loveanimals because they are loyal animals and have emotional feelings (Participant 3,week 4)

I think this story is interesting After reading it, I found that I could broaden myknowledge of history, the origin as well as the appearance of the culture and customs

of Halloween (Participant 8, week 5)

Although it is a little long and there are too many new words, the book is quiteinteresting It helps me improve my translating skill and my memory (Participant

12, week 7)

In the next weeks, participants mentioned benefits thanks to reading graded readers

(animals, culture, history, and so on) Whatever they are, participants have beenaware of the importance of reading in English, and they all have gained certainbenefits thanks to the ER program

However, there is a slide decrease from 14 to 11 in week 5 (Figure 4.1) becauseparticipants had difficulty in reading the first book at higher level and they were allhaving mid-term tests at that time Consequently, a few participants did not mentionthe importance of reading in English in their reading reports that week

Although there is a little decrease in week 5, participants always understand theimportance of reading in English even when they did not take part in this ERprogram This program only affirms the importance and usefulness of reading inEnglish when participants admitted that they could gain some things through eachweek of reading graded readers This is much clearer when the data of theimportance of reading in English from the two same questionnaires were compared,using one sample T – test of SPSS version 22.0 At the first view of the negativeMean values at table 4.3 below, reading in English appears to be more important toparticipants after they took part in the ER program In fact, however, these numbers

do not guarantee that because the values of Sig (2-tailed) in the last column are all

>0.1 (which should be <= 0.05 or at least <=0.1) This shows that the ER programhas no impact on the participants’ opinions on the importance of reading in English

Table 4.3 Paired Samples Test – Pairs of Items 3, 5 & 7

95%Confidenc

e Interval ofthe DifferenceLower Upper

Pair 3

Pre3 Learning to reading

in English is important

because it will broaden my

view - Post3 Learning to

person - Post7 Learning to

read in English is important

because it will make me a

English, I often read reading passages in the textbooks or I read bilingual stories a few times But I did not really read, just looked at them” (Participant 3) and

“Reading books? I usually read reading passages in reading activities, not long

stories or any other materials in English Reading them a lot helps me familiar withreading in English.” (Participant 4) Only one of them admitted having a look atstories in English, but not read them Also, only one participant said that he / sheself-learned documents and materials on the internet: “Before taking part in the ERprogram, I often read online materials when I need information for my assignments”(Participants 8) However, the purpose was not derived from themselves, but fromthe assigned tasks or exercises in class Participants had no experience orinformation about ER programs as well as reading materials – graded readers Also,participants’ responses indicated that they nearly had no intrinsic reading motivationbefore this ER program They read in English only because of the requirements ofassignments and homework, which are extrinsic factors

Participants had almost no interest as well as habit of reading English books orstories However, after the eight weeks of participation, all of them responded thatthey enjoyed the program and graded readers Given reasons belong to the factor ofthe importance of reading in English: “A few stories I read have the normal plots but

several other stories gave me meaningful and useful morals (Participant 3); “I like them because they are meaningful and they help me improve my vocabulary.” (Participant 6); “I like those stories Although they have simple plots, I always get morals or knowledge of cultures in different countries” (Participant 8) Obviously,

they know this factor very well and gain some things from this factor: meaningfuland useful morals, vocabulary improvement and knowledge of cultures in differentcountries

In short, thanks to used data collection instruments, the researcher discovers thattaking part in the ER program does not significantly affect participants’authentication about the importance of reading in English because all of them haveknown this before However, this first factor appears not to be convincing enough to

motivate participants read books in English because they did not have this habitbefore this program.

4.1.2 Reading involvement

The Minimum values are all 1 – the lowest ones and the Maximum values are all 3 –not the highest in the scales (table 4.1) Moreover, the Mean values are only from1.6/4 to 1.9/4 Consequently, this initially shows the results of participants’ readinginvolvement before taking part in the ER program were not very good This isshown more clearly in reading reports In the first week, all of the 14 participantswrote about the involvement in reading in English, however, 10/ 14 participantsmentioned their difficulties, but not their interest or something similar (Figure 4.1):

“It took me more than three days to read this book It is my first book; and I

found it difficult for me to read I had to look up a lot of new words in the

dictionary.” (Participant 1, week 1)

“[ ] I participated in this program because the teacher said it was important

[…] It was difficult to understand the story It is very long and has many new words, so it took me two days to read.” (Participant 7, week 1)

The main given reasons were a lot of new words and the length of the stories Infact, participants were not used to reading long books or documents in Englishbefore the program Therefore, having difficulties with vocabulary and the length ofthe documents and being discouraged are understandable The situation was similar

in the second week (Figure 4.1) Nevertheless, from week 3, the situation wasimproved gradually – the number of mentions per week increases from 4 (week 3) to

10 (week 8) (Figure 4.1) although there are fluctuations in weeks Participant 7 is anexample Although the time he/ she spent reading one book in week 6 was similar,even longer than that in week 1, there was something changed positively: “I spent

three days to read this book At first it was a little difficult and boring, but it regularly got easier to read And I found the book more attractive.” (Participant 7,

week 6) Participant 7 appeared to be accustomed to reading in English; looking upthe dictionary seemed not to be a problem to him/ her

The table of results of post-questionnaire also brings the similar meaning (Table4.2) The Maximum values of the three items are the highest ones – 4 and theMinimum values of 2/3 items are 2, not the lowest And the Mean values increases,item number 9 is 2.3 and item number 1 is 3.3 Exactly, the Mean value increases by1.57 (Pair 1), 1.79 (Pair 6), 0.57 (Pair 9) (Table 4.4.) The Sig (2-tailed) is in therange from 0 to 0.1 which means that the confidence interval percentage is at least95% (Table 4.4).

Table 4.4 Paired Samples Test – Pairs of Items 1, 6 & 9

95%ConfidenceInterval of theDifferenceLower Upper

Pre6 I tend to get

deeply engaged when

I read in English -

Post6 I tend to get

deeply engaged when

Also, thanks to the five participants’ enjoying-graded-readers responses and theirreasons, the researcher realizes that the five participants have four different types ofinterest: participant 3 and 6 like graded readers with meaningful morals; participant

8 likes those about cultures of different countries; participant 2 likes “the storieswhich have moderate length and illustrations”; and participant 4 usually reads

“about love and romantic stories” The number might not stop at four different types

if all of the 14 participants agreed to be interviewed With the number of about 80,graded readers in the ER program meet participants’ need and interest so reading inEnglish becomes more enjoyable and attracts their engagement

Moreover, as mentioned above, the participants nearly had no habit of reading books

in English before However, in the last weeks of the program, although they werenot asked, a few participants read more than one graded readers per week:participant 2, 6 and 8 This indicates that their frequency of reading in English hasincreased after two-month participation Although time spent on each book depends

on its length, those who read more than one graded reader tended to read faster, fromone to three hours, not a few days Besides, participant 2 and 6 read the books againwhen finishing them

Additionally, the ER program appears to have positive effects on learners’ readinginvolvement with two more clear evidences First, the number of participantsincreased since week 5 and week 6 Four more students took part in the ER programand the reasons were “my classmates compliment on books” and “I find my friendsare interested in reading stories so I’m curious and also want to read them.” Thisindicates that although it lasts only eight weeks, the ER program was pervasive inthe class and aroused the curiosity of those who were involved as well as notinvolved yet Next, when asked whether they wanted to continue to read Englishstories in the seventh weeks after the program ended, more than half of theparticipants answered “yes” In fact, there are two of them still reading gradedreaders