1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP BY 4TH-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN KHẢ THANH TÙNG THE USE OF READING STRATEGIES WHEN READING ESP BY 4TH-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE PEOPLE’S SECURITY ACADEMY (VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH NĂM THỨ TẠI HỌC VIỆN AN NINH NHÂN DÂN) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60.14.10 Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa Hanoi, 2013 DECLARATION ***** - I hereby declare that the thesis entitled: “The use of reading strategies when reading ESP by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy” is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts and that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree Hanoi, December 2013 Author’s signature Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, my supervisor, for thorough reading, critical comments, invaluable suggestions, various sources of reference and precious corrections on my writing Furthermore, I am grateful to her close guidance and generous help, which have been great encouragement to me during the process of writing up the thesis I, hereby, would like to express my sincere thanks to lecturers of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies of Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lessons and suggestions, which aroused the thesis for this study to be realized I also owe my sincere thanks to English teaching staff and fourth-year English majors at the People’s Security Academy who have enthusiastically participated in my study Finally, my heart-felt thanks go to my beloved parents, my wife and my son who have encouraged and supported me in every stage of this study Hanoi, December 2013 Nguyễn Khả Thanh Tùng ABSTRACT Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master During the process of acquiring English language in the light of communicative approach, reading English for public security seems to be the most challenging and difficult for teachers and learners The present study primarily investigated the use of reading strategies of English for public security by 4th-year English majors at the People’s Security Academy Data was collected via survey questionnaire for 35 4th-year English majors and interviews for teachers of English The findings revealed that both teachers and students at the People’s Security Academy strongly advocated the importance and necessity of using reading strategies and students used metacognitive and cognitive reading strategies more frequently than social/affective reading strategies From the findings, some suggestions were given with the hope that they might be a reliable source of reference for teachers of English at the People’s Security Academy to improve their students’ reading proficiency TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iv LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES, ABBREVIATIONS vi PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Significance of the study Method of the study Scope of the study Organization of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Language learning strategies 1.1.1 Definitions 1.1.2 The importance of learning strategies 1.1.3 Classification of learning strategies 1.2 Reading11 1.2.1 Definitions of reading 11 1.2.2 Models of reading 11 1.2.2.1 Bottom-up model 12 1.2.2.2 Top-down model 12 1.2.2.3 Interactive model 13 1.3 Reading strategies 14 1.2.2 Definitions of reading strategies 14 1.2.3 Review of reading strategies research 15 1.4 Summary 18 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 19 2.1 The context of teaching and learning listening skill to English majors at the PSA 19 2.2 Participants 20 2.2.1 Students 20 2.2.2 Teachers 21 2.3 Instruments of data collection 22 2.3.1 Questionnaires 22 2.3.2 Interviews 22 2.4 Data collection procedures 23 2.5 Data analysis 24 2.5.1 Coding of questionnaire data 24 2.5.2 Analysis procedures 26 2.6 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28 3.1 Questionnaire 28 3.1.1 PSA 4th-year English-major students' attitudes to reading comprehension 28 3.1.2 Reading strategies 31 3.1.2.1 Metacognitive reading strategies 31 3.1.2.2 Cognitive reading strategies 33 3.1.2.3 Social/affective reading strategies 35 3.2 Interviews 37 3.3 Summary 39 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 Summary of major findings 40 Implications of the study 41 Limitations and suggestions for further research 42 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX IX APPENDIX XIV APPENDIX XV LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: PSA students’ attitude toward the importance of reading strategies 28 Chart 2: PSA students’ perception of their reading speeds 29 Chart 3: PSA students’ attitude toward the importance of factors to their reading comprehension 30 Chart 4: Questionnaire results: Metacognitive reading strategies 32 Chart 5: Questionnaire results: Cognitive reading strategies 34 Chart 6: Questionnaire results: Social/affective reading strategies 36 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Learning strategy definition and classification (O'Malley and Chamot, 1990: 119) Table 2: Background information about the participants: Students 21 Table 3: Questionnaire: Reading strategy coding categories adapted from O'Malley and Chamot (1990: 119) 24 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESL/EFL: English as a second/foreign language The PSA: The People’s Security Academy L1: first language L2: second language ESP: English for special purpose PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale English has been widely used in many areas such as politics, economics, tourism, telecommunication, culture, science and technology In the current context of global integration, English which has become more and more important is not only a means of but also a key to accessing the latest scientific and technological achievements Therefore, it is necessary for many Vietnamese students to have a good command of English to satisfy the growing demands in a developing country like Vietnam Internationally, teaching English has changed tremendously over the last few decades More significantly, the traditional teacher-centered approach has been replaced with the learner-center one, which reflects a desire to explore ways of making responsive to learner’s need and interest and allowing learners to play a more active and participatory role in the day-to-day teaching and learning processes Therefore, no longer does the teacher act as the centre of all instructions, controlling every aspect of the learning process Learners themselves now, more than ever, are sharing the responsibility for successful language acquisition and in doing so, are becoming less dependent on the language teacher for meeting their own individual language needs Students are advised to become more and more autonomous to diagnose their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to self-direct the process of language development Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills “Reading is an essential skill for English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) student; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999) Carrell (1984:1) states “For many students, reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in a language as a second or foreign language” This is true for Vietnamese learners who have studied 10 English through reading since English is taught and learned as a foreign language and in a non-native environment But acquiring and mastering this skill is likely to be a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience On the other hand, the findings of many ESL/EFL research projects have shown the positive effects of learning strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of learners or to overcome comprehension failures The use of suitable language learning strategies can improve proficiency and greater self-confidence In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and at the People’s Security Academy (PSA) in particular, reading has always been attracted a great deal of attention both from the teachers and the students Reading is regarded as an important skill to the students because these students need to read a lot of English books and documents to support their professional studies Having taught English majored students at PSA for several years, I am aware of their problems and very much want to help them to improve their reading ability Therefore, I conducted a survey research on their use of reading strategies Based on the findings, I worked out some solutions to improve PSA students' reading proficiency Aim of the study The major purpose of this study is to identify the reading strategies utilized by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA In order to achieve the above the aim of the study, the following major research question was addressed: What are the reading strategies employed by fourth-year English-majored students at the People’s Security Academy? Significance of the study The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of reading strategies research at the PSA It helps give a detailed description of reading strategies used by fourth-year English-majored students at the PSA More importantly, the findings of their reading strategies can help teachers to understand more about their students and they can serve as the foundation for some recommendations on how to improve the 56 Theo em để đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành công an tốt, vấn đề sau quan trọng em? (Khoanh tròn vào đáp án cho với thân em) A Có vốn từ vựng tiếng Anh rộng B Nắm vững ngữ pháp tiếng Anh C Có kiến thức tốt nội dung đọc D Có phương pháp đọc hiệu Rất quan trọng Quan trọng Hơi quan trọng Không quan trọng Hoàn toàn không quan trọng Phần 3: Em đánh dấu (V) vào phương án mà em cho với cách đọc em Cách đọc hiểu Em bỏ qua từ mà em thấy không cần thiết cho việc hiểu Khi bắt đầu đọc, em đọc lướt toàn để hiểu thông tin khái quát trước tập trung vào thông tin chi tiết Khi trả lời câu hỏi kèm theo đọc, em xem lướt lại đọc ý tìm thông tin có liên quan đến câu hỏi để trả lời Em dùng hình ảnh liên hệ liên tưởng để hiểu Không Hiếm Thỉnh Thường Luôn thoảng xuyên (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 57 ghi nhớ từ, thông tin đọc Sau đọc, em đánh giá xem dự đoán nội hay sai Khi bắt đầu đọc đọc tiếng Anh, em nhìn vào tiêu đề xem tranh ảnh minh họa kèm theo đọc (nếu có) để đoán trước nội dung mà đọc Khi gặp từ nghĩa, em cố gắng đoán nghĩa từ dựa vào thông tin Khi đọc câu tiếng Anh, em xác định chức ngữ pháp từ (danh từ, động từ, tính từ, chủ ngữ, vị ngữ, …) câu Trong đọc, em thường kiểm tra xác thông tin mà đọc 10 Trước đọc bài, em đọc câu hỏi kèm theo đọc trước đọc để xác định thông tin quan trọng cần ý đọc 11 Trong đọc, em ghi chép từ ý quan trọng 12 Sau đọc, em tóm tắt ý 13 Trong đọc, em dịch sang tiếng Việt trước trả lời câu hỏi 58 14 Khi gặp từ đọc mà em nghĩa, em dừng lại để tra từ điển từ 15 Khi gặp đọc khó, em thường đọc to để giúp em hiểu vấn đề em đọc 16 Khi gặp đoạn mà em thấy khó hiểu bài, em sử dụng hiểu biết (về ngữ pháp, từ vựng, …) để hiểu nội dung chỗ khó 17 Em lựa chọn cách đọc tùy theo mục đích đọc 18 Trong đọc, em hợp tác với bạn để trả lời câu hỏi vấn đề đọc 19 Trong đọc mà gặp chỗ khó bài, em yêu cầu bạn bè thầy cô giải thích cho em hiểu chỗ khó 20 Em liên hệ kiến thức có với chủ đề mà em đọc Rất cảm ơn công tác, giúp đỡ em! 59 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (FOR STUDENTS) This survey questionnaire is designed to find out fourth-year English majors’ reading strategies at the People’s Security Academy I hope that all of you spend time answering all the following questions faithfully All information given will be kept absolutely confidential Your assistance plays an important role in helping me improve the quality of teaching reading for 4th-year English majors Thank you very much! PART 1: PERSONAL INFORMATION Full names: Age: Gender: Nations: Years of learning English (up to now): years PART 2: Reading strategy is a way of processing a text with the goal of obtaining meaning from connected text Reading strategies include predicting, monitoring, reflecting, and evaluating Reading strategies help readers to lessen demands on working memory by facilitating comprehension processing According to you, how important are reading strategies to your purpose for English learning? (Circle the most suitable option) Not important at all Not important A little important Important Very important How you evaluate your reading speeds? (Mark “V” on the most suitable option) Very fast Fast Medium Slow Very slow 60 According to you, in order to learn reading comprehension of English for public security well, how important are the following factors? (Circle the most suitable option for you) A have a large English vocabulary B have a good knowledge of English grammar C have a good knowledge of the reading topic D have effective reading strategies very important important a little important not important Not important at all PART 3: Mark (V) on the suitable option of how you read Reading strategies Item 1: I skip the words that are not essential for comprehending the texts while reading Item 2: I skim through the text to understand main ideas of the texts before focusing on details Item 3: I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions in order to answer them Item 4: I use own visual images Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 61 to understand or remember a new word, or new information while reading Item 5: I check if my answers to the questions are correct or wrong after reading Item 6: I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading Item 7: I guess meanings of new words using the available information Item 8: I determine the function of words (noun, verb, adjectives, subject, predicate, etc) in a sentence while reading Item 9: I often check my comprehension during reading or checking the accuracy of the written production while reading Item 10: Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted Item 11: I write down key words while reading Item 12: I mentally summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading Item 13: I translate the reading 62 text into Vietnamese to understand it more clearly Item 14: I use a dictionary to look up words when encountering a new word while reading Item 15: Read aloud when text becomes difficult Item 16: I use my knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to help understand difficult parts in reading texts Item 17: I choose reading strategies according to my reading purposes Item 18: I work together with my classmate or friend to solve a problem in the reading text Item 19: I ask my teacher or my friends to explain difficult parts in the reading text Item 20: I relate my prior knowledge to the information of the texts I am reading Thank you very much for your help and cooperation! 63 APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS Part 1: Readers’ attitudes to reading comprehension Options Numbers of participants Percent A Not important at all 0% B Not important 0% C A little important 0% D Important 14.286% E Very important 30 85.714% Table 2.1.1 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ attitudes toward the importance of reading strategies Options Numbers of participants Percent A Very slow 0% B Slow 10 28.571% C Medium 20 57.143% D Fast 14.286% E Very fast 0% Frequency Table 2.1.2 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ perception of their reading speeds Frequency Participants N P N P A 27 77.14% 22.86% B 25.72% 26 74.28% C 22.87% 25 71.43% D 24 68.57% 11 31.43% N P N P N 2.85% 2.85% Table 2.1.3 Results of questionnaires: PSA students’ attitudes toward the importance of factors to reading comprehension Part 2: Reading strategies Metacognitive strategies Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often P 64 Participants N P N P N P N P N P Planning 1.1 Advance organizers Item 2: I skim through the text to understand main ideas of 2.85% 5.7% 8.57% 13 37.15% 16 45.73% 8.57% 8.57% 12 34.29% 17 48.57% 5.7% 11.43% 17 48.57% 12 34.3% 17 48.57% 25.71% 8.57% 2.85% 5.7% 10 28.57% 17 48.57% 17.16% 2.85% 25.73% 25 71.42% 15 42.84% 2.85% the texts before focusing on details Item 6: I preview the headings and illustrations to get the main idea of the text before reading 1.2 Directed attention organizers Item 10: Before reading, I read the comprehension questions to decide important information that should be noted Item 17: I choose reading 14.3% strategies according to my reading purposes 1.3 Selective attention Item 1: I skip the words that are not essential for comprehending the texts while reading Item 3: I scan for key words or concepts that are closely related to the questions in order to answer them Monitoring Self-monitoring Item 9: I often check my comprehension during reading or checking the accuracy of the written production while reading 17.16% 13 37.15% 65 Evaluation Self-evaluation Item 5: I check if my answers 11.42% 17.16% 14 40.00% 10 28.57% 2.85% to the questions are correct or wrong after reading * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.4 Results of questionnaires: Metacognitive reading strategies Cognitive strategies Subjects Never Rarely N P N 5.7% 12 2.85% P Sometimes Often N P Very often N P N P 34.3% 14 40.00% 17.15% 2.85% 10 28.57% 25.73% 13 37.15% 5.7% 11.43% 14.29% 15 42.85% 20.00% 11.43% 2.85% 11.43% 22.86% 18 51.43% 11.43% 11.43% 8.57% 17 45.73% 20.00% 11.43% Resourcing Item 14: I use a dictionary to look up words when encountering a new word while reading Grouping Item 8: I determine the function of words in a sentence while reading Imagery Item 4: I use own visual images to understand or remember a new word, or new information while reading Transfer Item 16: I use my knowledge of grammar or vocabulary to help understand difficult parts in reading texts Elaboration Item 20: I relate my prior knowledge to the information of the texts I am reading 66 Inferencing Item 7: I guess meanings of new words using the 17.14% 18 51.43% 14.29% 8.57% 8.57% 8.57% 25.73% 12 34.3% 22.83% 8.57% 17.14% 17 48.57% 17.14% 14.29% 2.85% 20% 15 42.85% 14.29% 11.43% 11.43% available information Note-taking Item 11: I write down key words while reading Translation Item 13: I translate the reading text into Vietnamese to understand it more clearly Summarizing Item 12: I mentally summarize the main ideas of the texts after reading * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.5 Results of questionnaires: Cognitive reading strategies Social/affective strategy Participants Never N Question P Rarely N P Sometimes N Often P N P Very often N P for clarification Item 19: I ask my teacher or my friends to explain 12 34.29% 18 51.42% 14.29% 16 45.72% 13 37.15% 2.85% difficult parts in the reading text Cooperation Item 18: I work together with my classmate or friend to solve a problem in the reading text 11.43% 2.85% 67 Self-talk Item 15: Read aloud when 20 57.14% 10 28.57% 14.29% text becomes difficult * N = number of subjects, P = percent Table 2.1.6 Results of questionnaires: Social/affective reading strategies 68 APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Xin cô cho biết khó khăn mà học sinh gặp phải học đọc Theo cô đâu giải pháp cho vấn đề đó? Cô có dạy chiến thuật đọc thường xuyên hay không? Cô dạy học sinh chiến thuật đọc gì? What are the difficulties that your students face in the reading lessons? What kind of solutions you suggest to the problem? Do you often teach reading strategies in your reading lessons? What reading strategies you teach your students in your reading lessons? 69 APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT Interview transcript with Ms Tu Question Content Tung: Mọi người nói dạy đọc quan trọng Xin cô chia sẻ khó khăn mà học sinh gặp phải học đọc Tu: Từ vựng vấn đề lớn sinh viên việc hiểu đọc Có nhiều từ đọc mà em sinh viên điều ảnh hưởng lớn đến khả đọc hiểu em Tung: Theo cô đâu giải pháp cho vấn đề đó? Tu: Tôi thường làm đơn giản hóa đọc cách đưa ví dụ để sinh viên dễ hiểu Thỉnh thoảng, giải thích tiếng Anh tiếng Việt cho sinh viên dễ hiểu Tung: Cô có dạy chiến thuật đọc thường xuyên hay không? Tu: Có Trong nhiều trường hợp, nhờ có chiến lược đọc hiệu mà sinh viên hoàn thành tốt tập đọc hiểu mà biết từ Tung: Thế cô thường dạy chiến thuật đọc gì? Tu: Ở phần pre-reading, thường yêu cầu em nhìn vào tiêu đề, hình ảnh, biểu đồ, đoạn đầu đoạn cuối đọc dòng đoạn văn Trong trình đọc, thường yêu cầu sinh viên sử dụng chiến lược đọc lướt để tìm chủ đề ý đoạn văn toàn bài, sử dụng chiến thuật đọc quét để tìm thông tin cụ thể, đoán nghĩa từ dựa văn cảnh Ngoài ra, yêu cầu sinh viên tóm tắt lại đọc miệng viết giấy Đây chiên thuật đọc mà kiểm tra em sinh viên có nắm nội dung hay không Tôi thường xuyên yêu cầu sinh viên làm việc theo cặp theo nhóm để trao đổi thông tin 70 [...]... After the data was analyzed and discussed, some conclusions were drawn, and some suggestions were raised in the thesis 5 Scope of the study The present study investigated the use of reading strategies when reading ESP by 4th- year English- majored students at the People s Security Academy The study of learning strategies in other English skills was beyond the scope 6 Organization of the study The study... processes and he can not be successful in reading comprehension without either of these two processes As this study focuses on reading strategies, the next part is going to summarize some outstanding studies on reading strategies that have been carried out 1.3 Reading strategies 1.3.1 Definition of reading strategies Reading strategies have been studied by many researchers Reading strategies are of interest... collection instruments and data collection and analysis procedures The chapter addresses the research question “What are the reading strategies employed by 4th- year English- majored students at the People s Security Academy? ” by using such instruments as the questionnaire and interviews, the researcher collected two sets of data on the participants’ reading strategies In this chapter, results of the questionnaire... bottom-up strategies (or global or local strategies) That is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge by using O'Malley and Chamot 's scheme to classify the reading strategies used by the 4th- year English majors at the PSA As mentioned earlier, this scheme was developed by O'Malley and Chamot 's (1990) based on their several descriptive studies on learning strategies in four English skills It... and used a different combination of strategies These results do not duplicate Block 's (1986) where global strategies led to successful (not unsuccessful) reading comprehension 24 Barnett (1988) investigated the relationships among reading strategies and perceived strategies use on reading comprehension in a two-part study, the first looking at strategy use, and the second looking at the effect of a... affective and social strategies However, Oxford 's classification of learning strategies is somewhat complicated and confusing as she treats compensation strategies as a direct type of learning strategies and memory strategies as separate ones from cognitive strategies Perhaps, the framework that has been most useful and generally accepted is O'Malley and Chamot (1990) 's In O'Malley and Chamot 's framework,... contained twenty items investigating their reading strategies 3.1.1 PSA 4th- year English- major students' attitudes to reading comprehension Chart 1: PSA students attitudes toward the importance of reading strategies Regarding the importance of reading strategies, the results in Chart 1 show that most of the students thought that reading comprehension was important to their purpose ... majors at the PSA This study was conducted at the PSA, where the author is teaching The Academy has been in operation for sixty-seven years Unlike other universities under Ministry of Public Security, the PSA has two kinds of students: non -English- majors and English- majors Therefore, the aims of the two curriculums are different Non-Englishmajored students are expected to be fluent in English communication... contributions to enhancing the overall training of these students 2.3 Instruments The present study utilized survey research with two instruments: a questionnaire for 35 English- majors and interviews for four teachers of English at the PSA to collect data on the use of students reading strategies and attitudes towards the importance of reading strategies 30 2.3.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire including... unsuccessful readers translated sentences and lost the general meaning of the passage, rarely skipped words or looked up unknown words in a glossary and had a poor concept as a reader While these results clearly described the strategies the students used to process the text, they did not link the strategy use to comprehension of specific paragraphs or to text as whole The data only focused on sentence ... study The present study investigated the use of reading strategies when reading ESP by 4th- year English- majored students at the People s Security Academy The study of learning strategies in other... strategies) That is the gap that the current thesis study tries to bridge by using O'Malley and Chamot 's scheme to classify the reading strategies used by the 4th- year English majors at the PSA As mentioned... analysis procedures The chapter addresses the research question “What are the reading strategies employed by 4th- year English- majored students at the People s Security Academy? ” by using such instruments