The impact of the sq3r technique on the secondary school students’ reading abilities

The mail goal of the study is to find out the impact of SQ3R technique on reading speed and reading comprehension at lower secondary school .To achieve its aim, a general test, a pre tes

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI THUY VAN

THE IMPACT OF THE SQ3R TECHNIQUE ON THE SECONDARY

SCHOOL STUDENTS’ READING ABILITIES

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghe An, 2018

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI THUY VAN

THE IMPACT OF THE SQ3R TECHNIQUE ON THE SECONDARY

SCHOOL STUDENTS’ READING ABILITIES

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other

Languages (TESOL)

Code: 8140111

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Anh

Nghe An, 2018

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data and findings

discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere

Author

Nguyen Thi Thuy Van

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On the completion of this thesis, I would like to give my special thanks to many people for their encouragement and assistance during the preparation of my thesis

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, who is ready to support and guide during the experiment process

I would also like to express my thanks to students of two classes I worked with in order to collect the data for my study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my friends, my family who give much encouragement and support in fulfilling this thesis

ABSTRACT

It is the fact that reading is given the most important account of four skills

in learning a language In comparison with writing, speaking and listening, reading will be used most often in the students’ study However, in reality, the teaching and learning to read English at lower secondary school is still far from satisfactory The study focuses on the impact of SQ3R technique on reading speed and reading comprehension at lower secondary school The mail goal of the study

is to find out the impact of SQ3R technique on reading speed and reading comprehension at lower secondary school To achieve its aim, a general test, a pre test and two post tests are applied Sixty students are divided into 2 groups, one group served as the experiment group and another as the control group The data showed that the participants in the experimental group who applied SQ3R technique made better improvement on reading speed and reading comprehension than those in the control group who did not Based on the findings, some implications for teaching vocabulary were given Limitations of the study and further reasearch were also stated

TABLE OF CONTENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS viii

CHAPTER 1.INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 The aim of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Design of the thesis 2

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 3 2.1 Reading skills 3

2.1.1 Definitions of reading 3

2.1.2 What is reading comprehension? 4

2.1.3 Kinds of reading 5

2.1.4 Reading Models 10

2.1.5 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning 11

2.1.6 Reading purposes of second language learners 12

2.1.7 Strategies for reading comprehension 13

2.1.8 Principles of reading 18

2.1.9 The Reading Process 19

2.1.10 Factors affecting EFL learners’ reading ability 21

2.1.11 Difficulties EFL learners encounter when learning reading 22

2.1.12 Some activities in reading 23

2.1.13 Reading speed 24

2.2 SQ3R technique 26

2.2.2 Importance of SQ3R for Students and Teachers 29

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 31

3.1 Research context 31

3.2 Research questions 31

3.3 Participants 32

3.4 Materials 32

3.5 Procedures 33

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 35

4.1 Results 35

4.1.1 General English test results 35

4.1.2 Pre-test results 38

4.1.3 Post-test results 42

4.2 Discussion 55

4.2.1 The effects of SQ3R technique on EFL learners’reading speed 56

4.2.2 The effects of SQ3R technique on EFL learners’reading comprehension 56

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 58

5.1 Summary of findings 58

5.2 Implications 59

5.3 Limitations 59

5.4 Recommendation for further research 60

REFERENCES 61 APPENDICE

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Scores on the general English test for all participants in group A and group B 35 Table 4.2 Means and standard deviations scores on the general of both groups 37 Table 4.3 The mean score and standard deviations of pre test on reading speed in the experimental group and the control group 39 Table 4.4 The mean score and standard deviations of the reading conprehension pre- test in the experimental group and the control group 41 Table 4.4 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured

by words per minute (wpm) for all participants in two groups 43 Table 4.5 Means and standard deviations of the first post test of the reading comprehension in two groups 45 Table 4.6 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed for two groups 47 Table 4.7 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comphension for all participants in two groups 49 Table 4.8 The average reading speed of two post tests for all participants in the experimental group and the control group 49 Table 4.9 Means and standard deviations of the mean of two post tests on reading speed for all participants in two groups 51 Table 4.10 The average result of two post tests on reading comprehension for all participants in the experimental group and the control group 52 Table 4.11 Means and standard deviations of the first post test and the second post test on reading comprehension for the experimental and control groups 55

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1The comparison of the general English test for all participants In group

A and group B 36 Figure 4.2The percentage of general test score for both groups 37 Figure 4.3The reading speed of the pretest of both groups 38 Figure 4.4 The pre- test result of reading comprehension of the control group and the experimental group 39 Figure 4.5The percentage of the pre- test result of reading comprehension of the experimental group 40 Figure 4.6The percentage of the pre- test result of reading comprehension of the control group 41 Figure 4.7The first post test result of the number of words in per minute of reading speed for both groups 42 Figure 4.8The first post test result of reading comprehension for all the participants in both groups 43 Figure 4.9The percentage of the first post- test result of reading comprehension of the control group 44 Figure 4.10The percentage of the first post- test result of reading comprehension

of the experimental group 45 Figure 4.11The second post test result of the number of words in per minute of reading speed for both groups 46 Figure 4.12The second post test result on reading comprihension for all the participants in both groups 48 Figure 4.13The percentage of the second post- test result of reading comprehension of the control group 48 Figure 4.14The comparison of the average reading speed of two post tests for all participants in the experimental group and the control group 51 Figure 4.15The percentage of the average result of two post tests on reading comprehension for two groups 53

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 SQ3R : Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review

2 EFL : English as a Foreign Language

3 IR : Intensive Reading

4 WPM : Words Per Minute

5 S.D : Standard Devitations

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

English nowadays is considered to be the most important language among other foreign languages and it is also a tool to communicate both spoken and written As a result, the government regard English as a compulsory subject in curriculum Reading is useful for language acquisition In order to enhance the English proficiency, the students should read a lot The more they read, the better they get There have been debates on the topic: which techniques can help students to enhance reading skill? Some teachers applied SQ3R as a tool to help students to facilitate reading skills Although SQ3R is popular and has with stood the test of time, its effectiveness is questioned (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001) It is difficult to learn and to use (Bailey, 1988; Flippo & Caverly, 2000), and arguments for its effectiveness lie mainly in opinion rather than empirical research (Johns & McNamara, 1980) This is one of the main reasons which raises the interest for the researcher to do this study

Another reason is that although this subject gained a lot of interest from researchers and linguists, there have not been any researchers who does research on the SQ3R technique with the schools in rural area

Being an EFL teacher at secondary school, the researcher has always been aware of the importance of developing the reading skills for students If the students read well, they are able to handle subjects related written materials in English But in fact, despite the effort of the teachers and students, the researcher found her students’ reading skills disappointing, which did not meet the requirements of the secondary school and they encountered a number of difficulties in reading English

From this suggestion and above initial problems, the author decided to do

the research on the impact of the SQ3R technique on EFL secondary school

students' reading abilties

1.2 The aim of the study

In conducting this study, the researcher expected to discover the effects of using the SQ3R technique to enhance the reading speed and reading comprehension of the EFL students

1.3 Research questions

This study aimed to seek the answers to the following questions:

- Does the SQ3R technique enhance EFL secondary school students’reading speed?

- Does the SQ3R technique enhance EFL secondary school students’ reading comprehension?

1.4 Scope of the study

The research mainly focused on the investigation of the effects of SQ3R technique on EFL learners’ reading speed and reading comprehension

1.5 Design of the thesis

This research comprises five chapters as follows

Chapter 1: Introduction - This chapter provides the rationale, the aim of the

study, the research questions and the scope of the study, and design of the study

Chapter 2: Theoretical background and Literature review – This chapter

presents the previous studies related to the topic of the thesis

Chapter 3: Methodology – This chapter describes the research methodology

In this chapter, the focus will be on background information of the subject of the study, the instruments used to collect data and the procedure of data collection

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion –This chapter presents the research

results and discussions

Chapter 5: Conclusion – This chapter summarises the main findings and

conclusions, the limitations of the research and some further studies

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter shows a brief review of the literature on the topics that are related to the research in this thesis First, the definition and role of reading are introduced Second, the definition and effect of SQ3R technique on reading are discussed Following this, the studies related to the subject conducted are reviewed

2.1 Reading skills

2.1.1 Definitions of reading

“Reading is an essential skill for EFL students; and for many skills, reading

is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999)

Reading is a process to establish a preparation which involved more than merely identifying the word on the page, but what must be achieved is an understanding of the whole sequences of sentences

According to Goodman (1971), reading is a “psycholinguistic guessing

game.” He thinks that in the reading process, the “reader reconstructs, as best as

he can, a message which has been encoded by writer as a graphic display"

Rivers (1981:147) stated that “ reading is the most important activity in any

language class, not only as a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one which are knowledge of the language”

Goodman (1970:260 ), also defines reading as follows : “Reading is a

selective process It involves partial use of available minimal language cues selected from perceptual input on the basis of the reader’s expectation As this partial information is processed, tentative decisions are made to be confirmed, rejected or refined as reading progresses He said that reading is a

psycholinguistic guessing game and a repeated process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming

Rumelhart (1977) thinks that reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the two Reader’s participation in the reading process is based

on their past experiences, both in learning how to read and how to fits reading into

theirs lives The readers are affected by their families, education and society background, the school environment and other social and cultural influences

Reading is a completely individual activity which involves in all different ways from newspapers, magazines, written texts, etc Understanding the process of reading is probably important to understanding of its nature

In a general term, reading is defined as “An active, fluent process which

involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning” (Anderson,

2.1.2 What is reading comprehension?

Reading comprehension is considered as an important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign language Reading comprehension is about understanding what you read Of course, there is more to it than that When you comprehend what you are reading, you are not only understanding the words and their meanings, but you are also understanding them enough to form opinions, thoughts and reflections about what the words mean together

Reading comprehension is like having a conversation with someone If you

do not understand what the other person is saying, you will have no idea what they are talking about and have nothing to say in return No one wants to have that conversation! So, in order to understand what you are reading, you have to follow certain steps

There are three elements involving in the reading process: the text being read, the background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

According to Abbott (1981: 82) “There are two broad aspects or levels

Firstly, there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point.”

Reading is one skill that needs mastering By making use of this skill, students are able to get information from a reading text easily Besides gaining information, reading also increases knowledge, because by reading a lot of information will be received and reading also adds our vocabulary Grellet (1992:8) writes that the reading comprehension should not be separated from other skills There are few cases in real life when we do not talk or write about what we have read or when we do not relate what we have read to something we might have heard

Although those opinions are different, they all share a common point, that

is, reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behind these forms

Reading aloud is one of the most important things for learners Reading

aloud involves “looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it” Doff

(1988 :70) and he considers reading aloud as a way to convey necessary information to someone else It builds many important foundational skills, introduces vocabulary, provides a model of fluent, expressive reading, and helps them recognize what reading for pleasure is all about

Reading aloud does not happen outside the classroom as Doff (1988: 67) said, “reading aloud is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom”

Reading aloud has both benefits and drawbacks Aloud reading prevents students from self- pacing reading, which means freely regulating the speed of reading and navigating freely across the text to reread a passage Instead, students under the aloud reading condition have to follow a given pace Moreover, it assists students to make the connection between sounds and spelling of letters and words and also helps teacher to check students’ pronunciation

When students read aloud, teachers can monitor students reading performance to determine if they have actually read the entire passage However, when students read silently, teachers cannot be assured that they actually read the entire passage

As for Doff (1988:58), reading aloud is not a very useful technique for some reasons:

- Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model

- Students’ attention is focused on pronunciation, not on understanding the text

- It is an unnatural activity, most people do not read aloud in real life

- Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class

By whispering the words while reading, reading aloud slows the reader down and forces him to read every word so it can distract him from understanding the text

reading, rather than the pronunciation of individual words Teachers encourage students to read silently to develop the strategies they need for reading fast, and with better comprehension Silent reading also assists develop the skills of reading for a purpose, as the focus is on understanding the content without having the additional burden to pay attention to pronunciation

When reading out loud, we form auditory links in our memory pathways While we do silent reading we establish visual links along with auditory links

In short, reading comprehension skill is silent reading that consists of two steps “extensive and intensive reading From that reason, that students must have comprehension ability in understanding text quickly Not only word, language structure, and vocabulary but also silent reading comprehension ability will assist students’ reading in understanding text

2.1.3.2 According to purposes of reading

According to purpose of reading, Williams (1986) categorized reading into

intensive, extensive, skimming, and scanning

Intensive reading

The term intensive reading refers to the detailed focus on the construction

of reading texts usually taking place in the classrooms Intensive reading sometimes called "Narrow Reading" is usually accompanied by study activities Its aim is to build more language knowledge rather than simply practice the skill of reading Intensive reading involves learners reading in detail with specific learning aims and tasks We may require students to work out what kind of text they are reading, tease out the details of meaning, look at particular uses of grammar and vocabulary, and then use the information in the text to move to other learning activities We will also encourage them to reflect on different reading skills Reading of textbooks is the example of intensive reading

Intensive Reading (IR) involves when the learner is focused on the language rather than the text For example, the learner may be answering comprehension questions, learning new vocabulary, studying the grammar and expressions in the text, translating the passage (sometimes called 'careful reading'),

or other tasks that involve the student in looking intensively (inside) the text Most often all the students read the same short text that the teacher decided

In the classroom, intensive reading activities include skimming a text for specific information to answer true or false statements or filling gaps in a summary, scanning a text to match headings to paragraphs, and scanning jumbled paragraphs and then reading them carefully to put them into the correct order

Intensive reading has two key advantages For low level readers, intensive reading is possibly the fastest way to build vocabulary Some foreign language students are able to increase more than 10 words per day Additionally, reading difficult material forces a learner to develop strategies for for dealing with texts that are too hard to read comfortably

Extensive reading

The term extensive reading refers to reading which students do often away from the classroom It involves reading for pleasure They may read novels, web pages, newspapers, magazines or any other reference material Where possible, extensive reading involves reading for joyful reading This is enhanced if students have an opportunity to choose what they want to read, if they are encouraged to read by the teacher, and if some chances are given for them to share their reading experiences Although not all students are equally interested in this kind of reading, we can say with certainty that the ones who read most progress fastest There are four factors which contribute to the success of this kind of extensive reading:

Library: Students need to get access to a collection of readers, both at their own level and above and below it The library can be in a fixed place in a school, but we can also bring collections of books around to different classes The library should have a variety of different genres

Choice: A main aspect of joyful reading is that students will be able to choose what they read - both in terms of genre but also, crucially, level They are much more likely to read with enthusiasm if they have chosen about what they read Feedback: Students should have a chance to give feedback on what they have

however, since that might take the pleasure away from reading Instead, there might be a quick comment form on the inside cover of a book, or a folder with different forms for different titles Students can record their reactions to a book they have read Other students looking for a new book to read can use those comments to help them choose the books suitably

Time: We should give students time for reading in addition to those occasions when they read alone It is a good idea to leave a ten-minute reading period at various times during a course just to get students comfortable with the activity It

is vitally important that when we do this, we should be reading ourselves in order

to underline the attractiveness of the activity Not all students become active readers While some are highly motivated and consume books avidly, others do not have the same appetite We cannot require students to read, of course, but we can encourage them to read

Skimming

Skimming refers to a quick reading to get the general meaning of a passage, know how the structure of the text or to get the main idea of the intention of the writer Skimming is sometimes referred to as gist reading Skimming requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it

Skimming is used to get some general questions in mind or to build students confidence and an understanding that it is possible to gain meaning without reading every word in a text Skimming is also considered as part of the SQ3R technique of reading, often for speed reading

Before the students start reading, the teacher should make clear to students such as the purpose of the exercise, how deeply the text is to be read before assigning a skimming exercise

Scanning

Scanning is a quick reading which is used to focus on locating specific information It involves getting your eyes to quickly scuttle across sentence and is used to get just a simple piece of information, not necessarily linear in fashion, in which the eyes wander until the reader gets the piece of information needed It is

also used when requiring a specific piece of information, such as a name, date, symbol, formula, or phrase is required The reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has located what he was searching for It is assumed then, that very little information is processed into long-term memory for even for immediate understanding because the objective is simply matching

Scanning is a vital skill for second language learners to master because often they do not require a detailed read of a text There are many everyday uses for scanning, relevant to a purpose, such as reading a schedule As a result, the teacher should choose authentic materials that are commonly scanned in real life, such as the telephone directory, menus, bus schedules The teacher selects passages including specific information The teacher should remind students that

as they read carefully to find the required information, they had better pay attention to titles and keywords

Careful reading

This reading strategy is used when the reader wants to get detailed

information from the entire text Furthermore, in order to connect and compare

information with the prior knowledge, readers read in a slow speeds sentence by

sentence With this reason, Urquihart and Weir (1998) state that this type of

reading takes the meaning of reading to learn i.e., the learner reads for the sake of learning also its reading speed is rather slower than skimming and scanning since the reader attempts to obtain detailed information

In conclusion, there are various ways of reading and readers have to choose suitable way of reading basing on the texts and reasons for reading In order to understand a text effectively, it is vital for them to combine or choose suitable

ways to attain their reading purpose

2.1.4 Reading Models

Reading comprehension is a decisive factor in every level and in every subject It is classified into three models: the bottom- up reading model, the top-down reading model and the interactive model The interactive model is considered as the complete one in reading comprehension because it includes the

2.1.4.1 The Bottom-up Reading Model

The bottom-up model is suitable for the written or printed text, which is

also called data driven This model focuses on the ability to decode or put into

sound what appears in the text in which the readers elicit meaning in a linear

manner Furthermore, the bottom-up model relates to learning to read processes

from learners learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding the whole text (meaning) This model of reading focuses on guessing the language

2.1.4.2 The Top-Down Reading Model

This reading model relates to the readers’ background knowledge in the

reading process in which meaning takes precedence over structure Thus, it tends

to ignore that grammar is essential for the use of higher levels In this context, Clarke et al (1977) state that the reader brings information, ideas and attitudes from the text, in which this knowledge is accompanied with the capability to make linguistic predictions

Because both processes are important, top-down and bottom-up should be combined in order to understand the text effectively

2.1.4.3 The Interactive Reading Model

The interactive reading model focuses on the interaction of bottom-up and

topdown processes together throughout the reading process Hence, it depends on

both graphic and textual information, which means that there is a combination of both surface structure systems ( bottom-up model of reading ) with deep structure systems ( top-down aspects of reading ) to build meaning

2.1.5 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning

Effective reading is necessary for success in acquiring a second language After all, reading is the basic part of instruction in all aspects of language learning

The main difference between reading in a foreign language and reading in native language is that you started reading your native language once you already spoke it fluently, while as a beginner in a foreign language you do not quite have that luxury Therefore, the challenge is finding foreign-language reading materials that are suitable with your level of vocabulary and grammar If the reading is too

difficult, it can cause an excessive cognitive load, inhibit any real learning, and discourage you from reading further

2.1.6 Reading purposes of second language learners

People read for a variety of purposes, and many of these purposes require distinct combinations of skills in order to attain the reader's purpose

Purposes for reading can involve finding information (scanning, searching), learning as well as for basic comprehension In the case of reading to find information, the crucial skill constitutes scanning for a specific word, phrase, form, or number Meaning in the text is not critical initially, though a reader may slow down to skim (a different purpose) to see if he or she is perhaps in the right neighborhood This skill is typically carried out at a very rapid rate of words per minute (WPM) processing of the text Reading to learn, in contrast, requires reading for the main ideas, but it also requires awareness of many of the details of the text and a strong organizing frame by which to connect information from various parts of the text Such textual coherence making on the part of the reader increases the text's memorability and aids recall when the relevant information is needed The cognitive processing is carried out at a relatively slow rate of WPM processing (perhaps around 175–200 WPM for fluent L1 readers, much slower for most L2 readers) Reading to critique and evaluate will require, in addition, reflection on and evaluations of the text information and a strong integration with prior knowledge, including the reader's attitudes, emotions, motivations for reading, and level of topic-specific background knowledge Reading rate will likely be even slower for this purpose The most common, and most basic, reading purpose is reading for general understanding It is saved for last in this discussion because it is the primary goal of most L2 reading instruction, even though it may not be the easiest type of reading to teach Reading for general understanding typically occurs at a rate of about 250–300 WPM by fluent readers (but this rate applies to relatively few L2 readers) This purpose satisfies most reading expectations for understanding main ideas and a subset of supporting ideas and information Although it is often noted as “basic,” and “general,” it is by no means

processing rates, requires a very large recognition vocabulary, automaticity of word recognition for most of the words in the text, a reasonably rapid overall reading speed for text-information integration, and the ability to build overall text comprehension under some time pressure

2.1.7 Strategies for reading comprehension

There are some strategies, which can be- practically applied to the classroom techniques

1 Identify the purpose in reading

When the teacher required students to read something, they do not know why they are being asked to read it? Students did only a mediocre job of retaining what they “read” and perhaps were rather slow in the process Efficient reading consists of clearly identifying the purpose in reading something By doing so, they know what they are looking for and can weed out potential distracting information Whenever a teacher teaches a reading technique, he should make sure students know their purpose in reading something

2 Use graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding (especially for beginning level learners)

At the beginning levels of learning English, one of the difficulties students encounter in learning to read is making the correspondences between spoken and written English In many cases, learners have become acquainted with oral lan-guage and have some difficulty learning English spelling conventions They may need hints and explanations about certain English orthographic rules and peculiarities While teachers can often assume that one-to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondences will be acquired with ease, other relationships might prove difficult Consider how teachers might provide hints and pointers on such patterns

as these:

"short” vowel sound in VC patterns (bat, him, leg, wish, etc.)

“long” vowel sound in Vce (final silent e) patterns(late, time,bite,etc.)

1 Discriminate among the distinctive graphemes and orthographic patterns of English

2 Retain chunks of language of different lengths in short-term memory

3 Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose

4 Recognize a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and their significance

5 Recognize grammatical word classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization), patterns, rules, and elliptical forms

6 Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical

10 Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge

11 Infer links and connections between events, ideas, etc., deduce causes and effects, and detect such relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information, generalization, and exemplification

12 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings

13 Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context of the appropriate cultural schemata

14 Develop and use a battery of reading strategies such as scanning and skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning of words from context, and activating schemata for the interpretation of texts

“long” vowel sound in W patterns (seat, coat, etc.) distinguishing“hard" c and g from “soft” c and g (cat vs city,game vs gem, etc.)

These and a multitude of other phonics approaches to reading can prove

useful for learners at the beginning level and especially useful tor teaching children and illiterate adults

3 Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension (for intermediate to advanced levels)

For the beginning level students, this particular strategy will not apply because they are still struggling with the control of a limited vocabulary and grammatical patterns The intermediate-to-advanced level students need not be speed readers, hut teachers can help them increase efficiency by teaching a few silent reading rules:

Students do not need to “pronounce’ each word to themselves

Try to visually perceive more than one word at a time, preferably phrases Unless a word is absolutely crucial to global understanding, skip over it and try to infer its meaning from its context

Aside from these fundamental guidelines, which if followed can help learners to be efficient readers, reading speed is usually not much of an issue for all but the most advanced learners Academic reading, for example, is something most learners manage to accomplish by allocating whatever time they personally need in order to complete the material If their students can read 250 to 300 words per minute, further concern over speed may not be necessary

4 Skim the text for main ideas

Perhaps the two most valuable reading strategies for learners (as well as native speakers) are skimming and scanning Skimming consists of quickly running one’s eyes across a whole text (such as an essay, article, or chapter) for its gist Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or message, and possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas This gives them a head start as they embark on more focused reading Teachers can train students to skim passages by giving them, say, thirty seconds to look through a few pages of material, close their books, and then tell you what they learned

5 Scan the text for specific information

The second in the most valuable category is scanning, or quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a definition of a key concept, or to list a certain number of supporting details The purpose of scanning is to extract specific information without reading through the whole text For academic

English, scanning is absolutely essential in vocational or general English, scanning

is important in dealing with genres like schedules, manuals, forms, etc

6 Use semantic mapping or clustering

Readers can easily be overwhelmed by a long string of ideas or events The strategy of semantic mapping, or grouping ideas into meaningful clusters, helps the reader to provide some order to the chaos Making such semantic maps can be done individually, but they make for a productive group work technique as students collectively induce order and hierarchy to a passage Early drafts of these maps can be quite messy-which is perfectly acceptable

7 Guess in uncertain cases

This is an extremely broad category Learners can use guessing to their advantage to:

guess the meaning of a word

guess a grammatical relationship (e.g., a pronoun reference)

guess a discourse relationship

infer implied meaning (“between the lines”)

guess about a cultural reference

guess content messages

Now, teachers of course do not want to encourage their students to become haphazard readers They should utilize all their skills and put forth as much effort

as possible to be on target with their hypotheses But the point here is that reading

is, after all, a guessing game of sorts, and the sooner learners understand this game, the better off they are The key to successful guessing is to make it

reasonably accurate

Teachers can help learners to become accurate guessers by encouraging them to use effective compensation strategies in which they fill gaps in their competence by intelligent attempts to use whatever clues are available to them Language-based clues include word analysis, word associations, and textual structure Nonlinguistic clues come from context, situation, and other schemata

8 Analyze vocabulary

One way for learners to make guessing pay off when they do not immediately recognize a word is to analyze it in terms of what they know about it Several techniques are useful here:

a Look for prefixes (co, inter-, unetc.) that may give clues

b Look for suffixes (-tion, -five, -ally, etc.) that may indicate what part of speech

it is

c Look for roots that are familiar (e.g., intervening may be a word a student does not know, but recognizing that the root ven comes from Latin “to come” would

yield the meaning “to come in between*)*

d Look for grammatical contexts that may signal information

e Look at the semantic context (topic) for clues

9 Distinguish between literal and implied meanings

This requires the application of sophisticated top-down processing skills The fact that not all language can be interpreted appropriately by attending to its literal, syntactic surface structure makes special demands on readers Implied

meaning usually has to be derived from processing pragmatic information, as in

the following examples:

a Bill walked into the frigid classroom and immediately noticed Bob, sitting by the open window

“Brrr!” he exclaimed, simultaneously eyeing Bob and the open windows, “It is sure cold in here, Bob.”

Bob glanced up from his book and growled, “Oh, all right, I'll close the window."

b The policeman held up his hand and stopped the car

c Mary heard the ice cream man coming down the street She remembered her birthday money and rushed into the house (Rummelhart 1977:265)

Each of these excerpts has implied information The request in (a) is obvious only if the reader recognizes the nature of many indirect requests in which

we ask people to do things without ever forming a question We cannot be sure in (b) if the policeman literally (physically) stopped the car with his hand, but the assumption is that this is a traffic policeman whose hand signal was obeyed by a driver Rummelhart’s classic example in (c) leads the reader, without any other

context, to believe Mary is going into the house to get money to buy ice cream until the last few words are supplied:- and locked the door!"

10 Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationship

Many discourse markers in English signal relationships among ideas as expressed through phrases, clauses, and sentences A clear comprehension of such markers can greatly enhance learners’ reading efficiency

2.1.8 Principles of reading

Principle 1: Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible The more students read, the better they get We should encourage them to read extensively as well as - if not more than - intensively

Principle 2: Students need to be engaged with what they are reading

Outside the classroom, when students are reading extensively, they should

be involved in joyful reading Therefore, we should do our best to help them get as much pleasure from it as possible But during lessons, too, we should ensure that they are engaged with the topic of reading text and the activities they are asked to

do while dealing with it

Principle 3: Encourage students to respond to the content of text not just pay attention to its construction It is important for students to study reading texts in class in order to look for such things as the way they use language, the number of paragraphs they contain and how many times they use relative clauses But the meaning, the message of the text, is just as important as this As a result, we must create students an opportunity to respond to that message in some way It is especially important that they should be allowed to show their feelings about the topic - thus provoking personal engagement with it and the language With extensive reading this is even more important

Principle 4: Prediction is a major factor in reading

When reading texts in our own language, we frequently have a good idea of the content before we begin reading Book covers give us a clue about what is the book about ; photographs and headlines hint at what articles are about; we can

class, teachers should show students ‘hints’ so that they also have a chance to guess what is coming

Principle 5: Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts When a decision has been made about what reading text the students are going to read (based on their level, the topic of the text and its linguistic and activation potential), we should choose good reading tasks - the right kind of questions, suitable activities in the periods of reading, and useful study exploitation, etc The most useful and interesting text can be undermined by boring and inappropriate tasks; the most common place passage can be made really exciting with imaginative and challenging activities, especially if the level

of challenge (i.e how easy it is for students to complete a task) is exactly right for the class

Principle 6: Good teachers exploit reading texts to the full

Ideal teachers integrate the reading text into interesting lesson sequences, using the topic for discussion and further tasks, using the language for study and then activation and using a range of activities to bring the text to life Where students use extensive reading, we should give whatever opportunities to present themselves to provoke useful feedback

2.1.9 The Reading Process

Reading is a process that involves recognizing words, leading to the development of comprehension According to the research, reading is a process that negotiates the meaning between the text and its reader It is common knowledge that a reading lesson consists of three important stages: Pre - reading, While - reading and Post-reading Obviously, each stage has its own chatacteristics and time allocation

2.1.9.1 Pre - reading (Before you read)

This stage is carried out before the students begin reading the text It is an important part in the whole process of a reading lesson, which allows the readers

to activate background knowledge, preview the text, and give readers a purpose

for reading A strategy for students to utilize during this stage is to look at the title

of the selection and think of all the information that comes to mind about the title

In this step, some different techniques should be given in order to make the reading activity more effective :

a) It is necessary to use pictures or any visual aid that can help the learner

to make predictions

b) Teacher should ask questions related to the topic

c) Set the context

d) Brainstorm some of the vocabulary items that may appear in the text These steps may stimulate the student‘s interest and help to pre-teach some vocabulary as well as they set the mood for reading Also, the teacher should move gradually from easy to difficult in order to reach a better understanding The pre reading stage seeks to:

a) Inspire the interest of the students in the topic

b) Guide students to guess some main information for the passage

c) Brainstorm the students’ background knowledge with the topic

d) Prepare them for the content

2.1.9.2 While- reading (While you read)

While reading stage’s aim is to help understanding of the writer’s purpose, text structure and to get access the content of the text

The teacher, at the while - reading stage, should help their students understand the text carefully while the students have to use the suitable skills like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc to understand the text thoroughly as well as the writer’s purpose revealed through the reading text Time limitation for this stage is nearly 30 minutes of the whole lesson

The while- reading stage aims to :

a) Help students recognize the writer’s purpose

b) Develop the student’s linguistic knowledge

c) Make the student guess the meaning of unfamiliar words

d) Develop conscious reading

2.1.9.3 Post - reading (After you read)

Post reading is the last step of a reading lesson This is the time for students’ reproduction What they reproduce will reflect how well they comprehend the text The post - reading stage relates to consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views Normally, all activities last ten minutes at this stage

In this stage, the teacher’s role is as the evaluator, he has to control to achieve, taking into account the understanding of the text and recognizing the new vocabulary and the grammar and then evaluating the text Students might ask comprehension questions After the reading comprehension task, it is better to follow it by giving the learners other activities that have relation with the text like asking questions about reading comprehension true, false statements, matching activity…etc Hence, readers can improve their reading having comprehension achievement by expanding their vocabulary knowledge having the ability to

understand sentence structures

In short, the above-mentioned stages are necessary for a reading lesson However, teachers donot need to carry out all these stages mechanically on every occasion Depending on the purposes of a reading lesson, the teacher should apply these stages as well as allocate time for each stage appropriately

2.1.10 Factors affecting EFL learners’ reading ability

Reading comprehension is a cognitive process that requires myriad skills and strategies Reading comprehension involves various factors such as background knowledge, vocabulary and fluency, active reading skills and critical thinking that must work together

Background knowledge plays a vital role in reading comprehension While working with a text, students rely on their background knowledge to link what they already know to the text they are reading Background knowledge involves both a reader’s real-world experiences and literary knowledge

Vocabulary – In order to understand the text, they have to comprehend a familiar word and its relationship with other words within a text Mastering vocabulary includes recognizing a word’s part of speech, definition, useful context

clues, and how it functions in a sentence These vocabulary strategies can help facilitate comprehension

Fluency- It allows students to get information with accuracy, expression and increased speed The ability to read fluently increases while reading As students become fluent readers, they will spend less time trying to get the meaning of words and more time considering the overall meaning of the sentences

Active Reading- Beginning readers often rely on skilled readers to guide them through a text However, as readers develop, they will be able to monitor their own reading comprehension Students can actively guide their own reading

by targeting comprehension problems as they occur Students can troubleshoot comprehension problems by recalling what they read, asking themselves questions

or evaluating the text

Critical Thinking- Students can actively get a text more efficiently when they have critical thinking skills As students read, they can determine the main idea and supporting details, the sequence of events and the overall structure of the text Students will also be able to identify literary devices and their effect on the text Having critical thinking skills helps to deepen a student’s comprehension of a text, resulting in a positive reading experience

2.1.11 Difficulties EFL learners encounter when learning reading

EFL learners also have some difficulties when they read such as

understanding vocabulary to elicit the writer’s purpose This problem may fall into

multiple categories among them, learners may get difficulties with words having similar lexical forms; Some words have phonetically the same (in terms of sounds), other words have similar at the level of morphology like the words

receptive and deceptive The reader can come across one of this kind of words and

even if he has learnt both of them, he might mix between the meanings of pairs of words because they seem to be the same

Another type of difficulties that can be found among EFL readers is the

existence of various meanings within the same word, i.e words that have more than one meaning.The problem with such category is that the leaner knows only

important category is represented; the idioms and proverbs which seem to be distinct from the learner’s culture so that, he is going to translate a given proverb word by word, thus, he cannot obtain the real meaning but just the literary one For

example the proverb: it's raining cats and dogs which means it is raining heavily Therefore, students cannot guess the meaning of this proverb Furthermore, lack of

the number of vocabulary which also leads to many obstacles in reading comprehension since lexis has a very vital role for a effective reading When the learner has sufficient vocabulary, he will not have to deal with problems comprehension in understanding the whole text, and this comes from habitual reading, i.e whenever the learner reads a lot he will increase the number of new vocabulary, and then enhance his vocabulary knowledge which makes the reading task much easier for him

2.1.12 Some activities in reading

According to Jeremy Harmer (2007), there are many other kinds of reading activities can be used by teacher namely:

Jigsaw reading

Students read a short text which sets up a problem and then, in three groups, they read three different texts, all of which are about the same thing (different aspects of behavior such as anger, or different reports on a problem, or different parts of a story or strange event When they read this text, and they try to work out the whole story, or describe the whole situation

Reading puzzles

Apart from jigsaw reading, there are many other kinds of puzzle which involve students in motivating reading tasks For example, we can give them texts which have been chopped up so that each paragraph is on different piece of paper Students have to reassemble the text

Using newspaper

There is no limit to the kinds of activity which can be done with newspaper (or their online equivalents) We can do all kinds of matching exercises, such as ones where students have to match articles with their headlines or with relevant pictures

Following instructions

Students read instructions for a simple operation (using a public phone box, etc.) and have to put instructions in the correct order They might also match instructions about, for example, unpacking a printer or inserting a new ink cartridge with the little pictures that normally accompany such instructions in manuals We can also get students to read instructions in order to follow them Poetry

In groups, students are each given a line from a poem They can’t show the line to the other members of the group, though they can read it out loud They have to reassemble the poem by putting the lines in order

Play extracts

Students read an extract from a play or film and, after ensuring that they understand it and analyzing its construction, they have to work on acting it out This means thinking about how lines are said, concentrating on stress, intonation, speed, etc

Predicting from words and pictures

Students are given a number of words from a text Working in groups, they have to predict what kind of a text they are going to read or what story the text tells

Different responses

There are many things students can do with a reading text apart from answering comprehension questions with sentences, saying whether something is true or false or finding particular words in the text

2.1.13 Reading speed

2.1.13.1 The nature of reading speed

"Some books are fast and some are slow, but no book can be understood if

it is taken at the wrong speed."

(Mark Van Doren, quoted by Bill Bradfield in Books and Reading Dover, 2002) Reading speed is the rate at which a person reads written text (printed or

electronic) in a specific unit of time Reading speed is generally calculated by the

Reading speed is determined by a number of factors including

a reader's purpose and level of expertise as well as the relative difficulties of the text

2.1.13.2 The importance of reading speed in EFL

The earliest studies conducted with native English speakers indicated that rapid reading was only a skimming strategy used to cover the reading material (Brown, Inouye, Barrus, and Hansen 1981) Yet, later studies show that readers achieved not only rapid-reading skills but also better comprehension when specifically taught rapid-reading techniques (Cranney, Brown, Hansen, and Inouye

1982) The more exposure a student has to language through reading, the greater

the possibilities that overall language proficiency will increase By increasing reading rates, second language readers are exposed to much more language than if they read at a slower, more laborious rate

Often, in efforts to help students to increase their reading rates, teachers

overemphasize accuracy When this happens, reading fluency is impeded Hence, the teacher should work toward a balance in reading-rate improvement and reading comprehension This balance may fluctuate depending on the topic of the reading passage, level of reading difficulty, and the purpose of the reading

2.1.13.3 Factors affecting reading speed

Reading is a complex mental process that involves many different skills Reading speed is considerd as one of the most important skill in reading Fraser (2007) said that reading different materials for different purposes for different purposes requires different reading speed Reading speed is as a rate at which readers cover a piece of printed matter (Nuttall, 1982)

Besides some personal factors, there are some factors that affect reading

speed such as : motivation, reading habit, regression and vocalizing

Factors affecting reading can be divided into 2 factors : physical and mental Physical factors involve environment such as light, quality of eyesight in regard to eye health, and source of the page one is reading, such as phone, book or computer

Mental factors include comprehension, learning disabilities, speed of interpretation, thought processes, and abilities to focus away from distractions There are numerous education techniques to improve the quality of reading factors that relate to the mental aspects, yet each individual has their own capabilities regarding IQ as well as previous learning experiences

2.1.13.4 Measuring reading speed

Some authorities suggest that 180 words per minute “may be a threshold between immature and mature reading and that a speed below this is too slow for efficient comprehension or for the enjoyment of text” (Higgins and Wallace 1989: 392) Dubin and Bycina (1991:198) state that “a rate of 200 words per minute would appear to be the absolute minimum in order to read with full comprehension.” Jensen (1986:106) recommends that second language readers seek to “approximate native speaker reading rates and comprehension levels in order to keep up with classmates” and suggests that 300 words per minute is the optimal rate This rate is supported by Nuttall (1996:56), who states that “for an L1 speaker of English of about average education and intelligence… the reading

rate is about 300 words per minute.”

of successful learners SQ3R is a well-liked reading strategy It replicates the reading patterns of competent readers, offers effective examples for weak readers

to improve, and provides understanding and goal to reading SQ3R strategy not only enables students enhance their reading skills but also makes the reading

for working through texts that helps the reader to understand and get information

at the same time The name, SQ3R, is an acronym for the five steps: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review

1 Survey

The purpose of surveying the text is to get a general idea of what it is going to happen, what kind of information the writer conveys, how many sub-topics the information is divided into, and how much time you have to spend on reading it The first step, survey or skim, requires that one should resist the temptation

to read the book and instead first note about the chapter tittle, introduction, headings and other outstanding features, such as figures, tables, and summary paragraphs for an overview of main ideas You should spend no more than 10-25 minutes, even on the longest text but this step supplies an outline or framework for what will be presented The reader should identify ideas and formulate questions about the content of the chapter or the text

What is this chapter about?

What question is this chapter trying to answer?

How does this information help me?

The Question step again only takes 3-5 minutes but it will encourage the reader to seek answers to the questions

3 Read (R1)

Actively read the text while looking for the answers to the question you asked yourself in step 2 This means reading in order to answer the questions raised under "Q" The answer will usually be supply the main idea(s) of the

paragraph(s) and the supporting details Passive reading, in contrast, results in merely reading without engaging with the study material

4 Recite (R2)

This step is to recite the answer to each question to yourself Answer the questions into your own words, or rephrase the writer's words In other words, you should reprocess the salient points of the text through oral or written language The reader should try to memorize what was learned in the same manner as telling someone else about the information The reader should formulate and conceptualize the material in his way, not just recognize the information as correct Try recalling major points and answering the questions from the "Q" step The Recite step may be done either in an oral or written language and is related to the benefits of retrieval in boosting long-term memory for the material The purpose for this step is to help you think about and understand what you have read When you rewrite or rephrase what you read in your way, your comprehension and retention will enhance

5 Review (R3)

When you are sure that you know and comprehend the questions and answers, check it off If you are not able to answer the question, look at your notes and test yourself again The purpose for reviewing is to help you prepare for the eventual test Remember that very few people read textbooks for pleasure and entertainment; they are mainly read to get information and to remember and apply

it in a testing situation Reviewing helps you memorize the information

Assess the importance of what one has just read and incorporate it into long term associations In fact, before getting acquainted with this method a student probably just applies the R & R Read and Review method Provided the student has followed all recommendations, the student should use a study sheet and should test himself or herself by attempting to recall the key phrases This method gives the diligent student to immediately review all sections pertaining to any key words forgotten

2.2.2 Importance of SQ3R for Students and Teachers

Importance of SQ3R as a reading comprehension strategy is evident from many experiments These experiments show that SQ3R developes students’ reading comprehension and proficiency Students using this strategy get information and they need not to read the whole chapter and remember every bit

of it The Survey of SQ3R makes students ready for effective reading Questioning unlocks new horizon by connecting them to the subject Recitation gives students

an opportunity to look back and check up on learning The review process helps students to tie up all chapters and increase their understanding Another significance of the SQ3R strategy is that it assists students to remember several reading pages, which otherwise are very stressful for them They can write down notes in their own words, recite them and review them as they finish chapter or at any other suitable time Research shows that students using SQ3R reading comprehension strategy completed reading activities better than those who did not This strategy gives students more systematic and structured reading techniques, so they understand the text in a better way It makes students active and co-operative Reading activity remains no more a dull practice for them

Artis (2008) shows the usefulness of SQ3R as: “Because students can independently learn the basics of the course via reading, it reduces the need for instructor monologues (passive learning) to cover that information” (p 133).He also argues that this helps students to be more active and involved in their learning He maintains that SQ3R helps students change their negative impression about reading textbooks Teachers can use this strategy to make the reading process less difficult and more interesting They can incorporate several strategies into the EFL classrooms to help students in their development of reading skills One way to develop students ‟ reading abilities is by using direct instruction of study strategies SQ3R is a direct instruction strategy used to enhance students’ comprehension of descriptive texts

Following are some recommendations for teachers who want to use SQ3R strategy in teaching reading comprehension

(a)Teacher should not be pre-occupied with the idea that his students are expert in the study skills because many students rely on reading and rote memorization

(b)Teacher should inculcate students how to use SQ3R effectively and efficiently Give students time to practice it

(c)Teacher should help his students in framing questions for text comprehension Teacher should identify effective question and also extend feedback for enhancing the quality of questions

(d) Teacher should monitor the whole activities for successful implementation of the SQ3R