MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY DANG THANH HANG TENTH GRADERS’ PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES IN DOING INFERENTIAL READING TASKS IN ENGLISH Field: Theory and Methodology in English Language Education Code: Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN ĐẶNG THANH HẰNG NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ CHIẾN LƢỢC LÀM BÀI ĐỌC HIỂU MÔN TIẾNG ANH DẠNG SUY LUẬN CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 Ngành: Lý luận phƣơng pháp dạy học môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn i 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 Signature: Name: Dang Thanh Hang Date: ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the encouragement and whole- hearted assistance of many people Firstly, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Quang Ngoan, whose encouragement, guidance and support from initial to the final level has enabled me to overcome many difficulties and develop my research skills I would like to extend my special thanks to all the staff, especially the teaching staff at An Nhon No.3 High School where I have studied for providing me with knowledge, research skills and facilities My special thanks also go to the students who have participated in this project Without their assistance, I would not have been able to collect valuable data for the project Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my family, whose continuous encouragement, support, and love helped me pass through insurmountable difficulties during my research iii ABSTRACT This study aimed to find out tenth graders‟ difficulties in making inference in reading and examine tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential reading tasks The population of this study included 120 tenth graders In collecting the research data, I used questionnaires and interviews The questionnaires consisted of problems and questionnaire which consisted of 11 strategies Research data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively The result showed that the students‟ overall difficulty in making inference in reading inferiential reading belonged to “moderate” category It could be seen that students‟ biggest difficulty was on inferences about the author‟s attitude Last but not least, if students use suitably stragies, theit results will be improved iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance 1.6 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Inferential reading 2.1.1 Reading skills and inferential reading as a reading skill 2.1.2 Types of inferences 10 2.1.3 Skills and factors involved inferences 14 2.2 The comprehension process 16 2.3 Strategies to enhance reading comprehension 17 2.4 Factors affecting reading comprehension 18 2.5 Previous relevant studies 20 2.6 Summary 22 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 24 v 3.1 Participants 24 3.2 Data collection instruments 25 3.2.1 Questionnaire 25 3.2.2 Interview 26 3.3 Data collection procedure 26 3.4 Data analysis 28 3.4.1 Quantitative analysis 28 3.4.2 Qualitative analysis 29 3.5.Summary 30 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 31 4.1 Results 31 4.1.1 Results for research question 31 4.1.2.Results for research question 33 4.1.3.Interview data 41 4.2 Discussion 43 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 47 5.1 Conclusions on what difficultities students face when doing inferential reading 47 5.2 Conculsions on what strategies should be used 48 5.3 Implication 49 5.4 Limitations of the study 51 5.5 Suggestions for further studies 52 REFERENCE 53 APPENDIX 57 Example: 59 v LIST OF CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS DRTA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity EFL: English as a Foreign Language SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Interview 29 Table 4.1 Tenth graders‟ problems in doing inferential reading tasks 32 Table 4.2 Tenth graders‟ strategies in doing inferential reading tasks 34 Table 4.3 The detail description of item S1 35 Table 4.4 The detail description of item S2 35 Table 4.5 The detail description of item S3 36 Table 4.6 The detail description of item S4 36 Table 4.7 The detail description of item S5 37 Table 4.8 The detail description of item S6 37 Table 4.9 The detail description of item S7 38 Table 4.10 The detail description of item S8 39 Table 4.11 The detail description of item S9 39 Table 4.12 The detail description of item S10 40 Table 4.13 The detail description of item S11 40 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Types of inferences 13 Figure 2.2: A tetrahedral model of studies on inference generation in reading ( based on Jenkin, 1979) 14 49 affected the results of the test We hope that future research articles will have many reasonable suggestions to help students increase their vocabulary The rest strategies have not very high average value, so the researcher does not overestimate these strategies After week of learning about strategies with a duration of 30 minutes per week, the researcher thinks that students understand how to the test and how to apply the strategies above to the reading exercises 5.3 Implication The question of “How teachers help students read well?” needs to be addressed First of all, it may be that doing much reading helps students in building knowledge of vocabulary by exposing the students more efficiently, and directly to read vocabulary However, beware not encouraging students use of a dictionary while reading but encouraging them to guess Teachers should tell students that it is an unsuccessful reader who stops at each unfamiliar word, looking it up in the dictionary right away in order to understand the context They should be told to try to finish an article by continuously reading with as little hesitation as possible in order to try to build up their conscious confidence without a dictionary Furthermore, the teachers should encourage students to use “schemata”, guessing at unfamiliar vocabulary by using clues from the context According to the results of the survey, students should be aware that this method “guess from the context through background knowledge” could efficiently improve their reading comprehension skills because this reading strategy facilitate reading for meaning The careful reader will soon learn to understand the content, to decipher vocabulary meanings, and avoid rereading This method will produce skilled readers, who comprehend more quickly, and avoid hours of rereading The importance of materials should be taken into account in order to design a syllabus People who read, read for intellectual profit, or for pleasure 50 believe that the content of whatever they have read will be useful to them, or will give them the special pleasure that comes from the experience of reading literature, or will help them understand the world Judging from the surveys, out of 13 people liked them because they felt the materials used could enrich their knowledge For this research, the supplementary materials teachers hand out and use had better relate to other academic, and non- academic fields Also these materials must take into account the real needs and desires of learners people did not like the teacher‟s handout, and of them felt that all of the materials they had been assigned to use were not interesting at all What will interest students enough to keep them reading is not always easy to know, but if interesting materials can be found, students will continue to read on their own Thus, the vital concern of English teachers should be to find a body of materials that students might find interesting to read, and then to everything possible to relate those materials to the students‟ real concerns and needs How about trying some authentic materials in class! If students encounter unfamiliar context, teachers could give learners some background knowledge to facilitate their recognition Also, through using authentic materials, teachers can introduce some culture issues into learners‟ lives Reading is not only for the language but for the real world For English teachers, reading between the lines is not an easy thing to by the students It is better for the teacher to find out interesting teaching and or learning technique to figure out the students‟ problems in reading comprehension can become enjoyable and fun for the students so that their difficulties in understanding reading text can be reduced And more exercises regarding inference making should be given to the students as we know that practice makes perfect Moreover, it is better for the teacher to teach reading tricks or tactics so that the students become familiar with even longer texts 51 Furthermore, inference questions should be included in the course books (English 10, 11, 12 as well as tests and national examinations like the General Certificate of Highschool Education examination) By doing this, inferring ability will become a must to develop and, therefore, teachers and students will pay much more attention to it Also, when designing inference questions teachers should cover common types of inference and vary them in different units Since there are so many types of inference and each of them is used differently, teachers need to help students practice inferring by using different kinds of clues, ranging from linguistic to contextual and background knowledge And lastly, it is expected for other researchers in the future that this research is able to give any important information in improving students‟ comprehension of reading texts And hopefully the next researcher can have other deep related investigations concerning students‟ inferential skill, for example by doing an experiment regarding improving the students‟ reading ability by using inferential skill or other reading strategies or the combination of the reading strategies so that the students can be active readers, by investigating why the students are difficult in making inference in reading exercises, or by using a technique of teaching that can be applied in any reading classes to improve students ability in making inference in reading comprehension Finally, since this research was conducted in a school in Binh Dinh, it is better for the next researcher to conduct different investigation in different due to the fact that there must be different score when the research was applied on different locations 5.4 Limitations of the study Firstly, due to the time and limited permission for this study the number and the representativeness of students directly participating in the study remained relatively low in comparison with the enormous number of students in the province The sources of data were limited and some problems of other 52 students in other grades of this school or in high schools in general could not be raised and find the solutions for Therefore, this implies that future studies need to be conducted with a larger sample Second, inferential reading abilities might be difficult not only for students but also for teachers To acquire a greater understanding of the phenomenon, future study could include new sources of data Interviews with teachers, examination of teaching materials, and teaching curricula are examples of such sources Despite the aforementioned shortcomings, the researcher‟s flexibility, serious work and justified data collection and research methodology have well retained the validity and reliability of the results Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that these above shortcomings should always be taken into consideration when further related studies are conducted in the future 5.5 Suggestions for further studies Based on the conclusion above, the researcher suggests the current or the future researcher to conduct an inquiry on: 1) Factors that can influence the students‟ difficulties in making inference in reading passages; 2) Ways of combining of the reading strategies to help students become active readers; 3) Using a technique of teaching that can be applied in any reading classes to improve students ability in making inference in reading comprehension; 53 REFERENCE Allport, G W (1967) Attitudes Fishbein, M (Ed.), Reading in attitude theory and measurement New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc Anderson, N J (1991) Individual differences in strategy use in second language reading and testing The Modern Language Journal, 75(4), 460-472 Attaprechakul, D (2013) Inference strategies to improve reading comprehension of challenging texts English Language Teaching, 6(3),82-91 Azizmohammadi, F (2013) Investigating the effect of drawing inferences in EFL learners reading comprehension ability by using recall of short stories International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 1(4), 155159 Baretta, L., Tomitch, L.L.B., MacNair, N., Lim, V.K., & Waldie, E (2009) Inference making while reading narrative and expository texts Psychology & Neuroscience, 2(2), 137-145 Cain, K (2015) The relations between lower- and higher-level comprehension skills and their role in prediction of early reading comprehension Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(2), 321- 331 Cain, K., Oakhill, J.V., Barnes, M.A., & Bryant, P.E (2001) Comprehension skill, inference making ability, and their relation to knowledge Memory and Cognition, 29(6), 850-895 Hikalanga, I.w (1993) Exploring inferencening ability Of ESL Readers Reading in a forein language 10(3), 931-943 Hồ Văn Chung (2021) A study of reading comprehension problems in English encountered by first year students of faculty of Vietnamese studies at HNUE 54 Creswell, JW (2007) Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design (Choosing Among Five Approaches) California: Sage Publications, Inc Davoudi, M (2005) Inference Generation Skill and Text Comprehension The Reading Matrix, 5(1), 106,108 Do Thi Thuy (2019) Developing high school students‟ inferential reading skills Færch, C and Kasper, G., 1983 Strategies in interlanguage communication Longman Gabrielatos, C (2002) Inference: Procedures and implications for ELT The University of Lancaster, Lancaster, The United Kingdom Retrieved from: http://www.gabrielatos.com/Inference.pdf Gibson, K D (2009) Teachers’ perceptions of strategy based reading instruction for reading comprehension San Rafael, CA: School of Education Dominican University of California Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED505543.pdf Graesser, A C., Singer, M., & Trabasso, T (1994) Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension Psychological Review, 101(3), 371-395 doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.3.371 Grenfell, M., & Erler, L (2007) Language learner strategies Language Learning Journal, 35(1), 5-7 Kendeou, P., Bohn-Gettler, C., White, M J., & van den Broek, P (2008) Children‟s inference generation across different media Journal of Research in Reading, 31, 259-272 Killen, R., 2013 Effective teaching strategies: Lessons from research and practice, Six Edition Cengage Learning Australia Kopitski, M (2007) Exploring the teaching of inference skills Minnesota: Hamline University Retrieved from http://www.google.com 55 Lê Đỗ Thanh Hiền (2021) Reference and inference in English reading and implications in Vietnamese language classrooms Nguyễn Thị Hạnh Phúc (2020) A Study On Reading Strategies Used By Vietnamese High School English Language Learners Nguyễn Thị Nhung (2021) Enhancing inferential reading skills for the firstyear students at school of foreign languages, Thai Nguyen University Oberholzer, B (2005) The Relationship between Reading Difficulties and Academic Performance Vol 12,119 University of Zululand's Library Catalogue Oxford, R L (1990) Language Learning Strategies: What every teacher should know Newbury House Publishers Oxford, R., & Crookall, D (1989) Research on language learning strategies; methods, findings, and instructional issues The modern language Journal, 73(4), 103-114 Preszler, J (2006) On target: Strategies to make readers make meaning through inferences (grade – 12) E S A Regions & Retrieved from http://www.rainbowschools.ca/virtual_library/teacher_resources/supp ort/Making-Inferences-booklet-On-Target.pdf Reis, R (2016) Difficult Students Read Difficult Text Retrieved from http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=1145 Semtin, S.A and Maniam, M., 2015 Reading Strategies among ESL Malaysian Secondary School Students International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE) 4(2): 54-61 Song, M.J., 1998 Teaching reading strategies in an on-going EFL university reading classroom Asian Journal of English Language Teaching 8(1): 41-54 Tran Thi Be Ba & Nguyen Buu Huan (2017) Reading strategy instruction to 56 Vietnamese young language learners: Teachers‟ practices and perceptions Westwood, P (2001) Reading and Learning Difficulties a Process to Teaching and Assessment Australia: Acer Press Virtue, S., Haberman, J., Clancy, Z., Parrish, T., & Beeman, M.J (2006) Neural activity of inferencesduringstorycomprehension(Research Report) Elsevier Brain Research, 104-114 57 APPENDIX This questionnaire was designed to identify which types of references students find difficult Read each statement below: Please write the respond 1,2,3,4,5 that tells HOW DIFFICULT THE REFERENCE IS Very easy Easy Standard Difficult Very difficult No Type of references Referential Filling in deleted information, Inferring meanings of words Inferring connotations of words or sentences Relating text to prior knowledge Inferences about the author Characters or state of world as depicted in text Confirming or disconfirming previous inferences Drawing conclusion Bảng câu hỏi thiết kế để xác định dạng đọc suy luận bạn cho khó Đọc câu đây: Vui lịng sử dụng phần trả lời 1,2,3,4,5 thể 58 thông tin bạn mức độ Rất dễ Dễ Bình thường Khó Rất khó Thứ tự Dạng suy luận Câu hỏi liên hệ Điền vào ô trống Suy luận nghĩa từ Suy ý nghĩa từ câu Liên hệ với kiến thức trước Nhận định tác giả Các nhân vật trạng thái giới mô tả văn Xác nhận bác bỏ suy luận trước Rút kết luận This questionnaire will be designed to identify which strategies students use in inferential reading Read each statement below: Please write the respond 1,2,3,4,5 that tells HOW TRUE OF YOU THE STATEMENT IS Never true of me Untrue of me Somewhat true of me True of me Very true of me Mark an X in the appropriate column Please respond to each statement quickly, without too much thought Try not to change your responses after you choose them Please use a pen to mark 59 your choices Example: No Statements I focus on the text when reading 5 x Questionnaire statements No Statements I use the senses to understand and remember what I read I activate my knowledge to understand the reading text I reason (analyze and guess grammatical points, vocabulary, etc.) What I read to understand the text (reasoning) I guess new words or phrases while reading through the analysis of known elements (Conceptualizing with Details) I guess the text based on link between words, phrases, concepts etc in the reading I deduce the content of the readings from the available information (title, known vocabulary, topic sentences ) I guess the main idea of the reading text by analyzing the macro structure of the text I guess the semantic relation between various elements of the text by analyzing the cohesive devices used to connect the elements I look for the topic of the reading passage and follow its logic development 10 I interpret selective information based on self- judgment 11 I identify the given and new information in a sentence 60 Các chiến lược nhận thức sử dụng đọc suy luận Phần khảo sát thiết kế để giúp bạn phân biệt chiến lược bạn sử dụng việc đọc suy luận Đọc câu đây: Vui lòng sử dụng phần trả lời 1,2,3,4,5 thể thông tin bạn mức độ Không với Không với Có chút với tơi Đúng với tơi Rất với Đánh dấu X vào cột phù hợp Vui lịng trả lời câu hỏi mà khơng cần suy nghĩ nhiều Cố gắng không thay đổi phương án sau bạn chọn Vui lòng sử dụng bút bi để đánh dấu đáp án Ví dụ: Thứ tự Lời phát biểu Tôi tập trung vào đoạn văn đọc x Các câu phát biểu: Thứ Lời phát biểu tự Tôi sử dụng giác quan để hiểu nhớ tơi đọc Tơi sử dụng kiến thức để hiểu đoạn văn I suy luận (phân tích đốn tượng ngữ pháp, từ vựng Những tơi đọc để hiểu đoạn văn ( suy luận) Tơi đốn từ cụm từ đọc qua việc phân tích chi tiết biết Tơi đốn đoạn văn dựa vào mối liên hệ từ, cụm từ, khái niệm đọc ( khái niệm hóa rộng) 61 Tôi suy diễn nội dung đọc từ thơng tin có sẵn (tiêu đề, từ vựng biết, câu chủ đề ) Tơi đốn ý đoạn văn cách phân tích cấu trúc vĩ mơ văn Tơi đốn mối quan hệ ngữ nghĩa yếu tố khác văn cách phân tích cấu trúc gắn kết sử dụng để kết nối yếu tố văn Tơi tìm chủ đề đoạn văn đọc theo mạch phát triển logic 10 Tơi diễn giải thơng tin chọn lọc dựa tự phán đoán 11 Tôi xác định thông tin cho thông tin câu Interview The interviews are used to clarify more about the information the participants provide through their answers in the questionnaire and make the study more reliable Date of interview: Time of interview: 62 Question 1: What problems you face while doing inferential Englishreading tasks? Question 2: What is the most difficult problem to solve when doinginferential reading tasks? Question 3: Have you been trained how to inferential readingtasks? Question 4: Do you think applying appropriate strategies helps you gain betterresult on inferential reading? Question 5: What strategies you apply while doing inferentiral reading Englishtasks? Participant code: 63 Interview Ngày vấn: Thời gian thực hiện: Question 1: Các vấn đề bạn gặp phải làm đọc dạng suy luậnQuestion 2: Theo bạn vấn đề khó khăn nhất? Question 3: Bạn học cách làm dạng trước đâychưa? Question 4: Bạn có nghĩ việc áp dụng chiến lược làm giúp cho kếtquả tốt hơn? Question 5: Bạn áp dụng chiến lược trình làm đọc dạngsuy luận? Tên người vấn: