VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU NGA AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF L1-L2 GLOSSING IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS OF THE FIRST YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FOOD INDUSTRY COLLEGE Nghiên cứu tính hiệu lời giải ngôn ngữ thứ ngôn ngữ thứ hai đọc hiểu sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hà Nội- 2015 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU NGA AN INVESTIGATION ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF L1-L2 GLOSSING IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS OF THE FIRST YEAR NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT FOOD INDUSTRY COLLEGE Nghiên cứu tính hiệu lời giải ngôn ngữ thứ ngôn ngữ thứ hai đọc hiểu sinh viên năm thứ không chuyên trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà Hà Nội- 2015 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation on the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College.” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any other degrees Ha Noi, October 2015 Tran Thi Thu Nga ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like primarily to thank Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà for helping me complete this study This paper would not have been possible without her constant support and encouragement Her patience and helpful criticism helped me confidently express my ideas into this paper I regard myself extremely fortunate in having her as my dissertation supervisor I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their valuable lectures which have helped me a great deal in gaining a lot of theoretical as well as practical knowledge My special thanks go to my colleague at the English Group, Department of Basic Sciences and Technique Studies at Food Industrial College (FIC) who has helped me enthusiastically teach reading lessons by applying L1-L2 glossing technique and collect data through the interview I never forget to express my thanks to 40 first-year students in the class K8TP at Food Industrial College Finally, I would also like to express my deep gratitude and love to my devoted parents, my sister, my husband and my lovely daughter who gave me time and encouraged me to complete this study ABSTRACT Some researchers (e.g., Anderson, 2003 & Carrell, 1988) claim that reading is one of the most essential and important skills which language learners need to master However, the majority of students at FIC express that reading in English is a challenging problem for them because most of the reading texts in English contain a lot of unknown words; whereas their amount of vocabulary is limited This causes students’ reading comprehension to decrease sharply Accordingly, it is necessary to find out an effective way to increase the students’ reading comprehension This study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College and the students and the teacher’s attitudes toward using this technique The participants included one English teacher and 40 non-major English students from the class K8TP The participants took part in the intervention stage in an action research project which L1-L2 glossing technique was applied in the second semester of the first academic year The data were collected through classroom observation, survey questionnaire for students and interview for the teacher The results showed that L1-L2 glossing improved considerably students’ reading comprehension in three aspects: students’ reading comprehension ability, motivation and vocabulary extension In addition, the study also indicated that the teacher and most of the students had positive attitudes toward this technique Some pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies were included in this study PART I: INTRODUCTION In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives, the research questions, the scope, the methods, the significance, and the design of the study Rationale of the study In today’s world, the importance of English cannot be denied and ignored since English is used as an effective medium of international communication With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including education, trade, science, technology, tourism, sport, music and many other fields of life To master English, the students need to grasp all the four skills that are closely related to one another: listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly when it helps build a variety of language expressions and structures; widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills According to Anderson (2003:2), "reading is an essential skill for learners of English For most of learners it is the most important skill to master in order to ensure success in learning With strengthened reading skills, learners of English tend to make greater progress in other areas of language learning” Carrell (1988:1) also argues that “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” For many university and college students in Vietnam who study English as a part of their general education requirement, reading has long been considered an essential skill For them; however, reading in English can be an ordeal, often because of the great amount of unknown vocabulary that makes it difficult or even impossible to get the main ideas or specific details of a text One of the common techniques many researchers used to make L2 reading more effective is to gloss unfamiliar words or phrases Here, glossing refers to the addition of brief definitions or notes either in the first language (L1) or second language (L2) or both L1 & L2 Nation (2001: 174-175) defines gloss as “a brief definition or synonym of unknown words provided in the text in L1 or L2” Textual glosses are considered valuable tools which facilitate reading in a foreign language (Watanabe, 1997; Jacobs, 1994) as they minimize the interruptions to reading flow as when using a dictionary, which is time-consuming and interrupts the reading process (Ko, 2005; Nation, 2001) Ko (2005) also states that the two most important reasons to use glosses are to assist reading comprehension and aid vocabulary learning Food Industry College (FIC) is a college which was upgraded from Technical and Industrial Junior College in 2006 Its English language teaching and learning program is implemented in the first and second semester of the first academic year and in the third semester of the second academic year In the first academic year, the students are taught General English (GE) with the textbook “Lifelines - PreIntermediate” by Tom Hutchinson (Oxford University Press, 1997) 90 periods (corresponding to 45 periods each semester) GE program is for all students at FIC After finishing GE program, the students continue learning English for specific purposes (ESP) in the third semester of the second year Teaching ESP program depends on the training section that the students registered when entering the college Being a teacher of English at FIC for years, I have realized that the teaching and learning of English in general and of reading in particular are mostly based on textbooks Most of the students are struggling with reading comprehension They find reading difficult and boring and they find it difficult to catch the main ideas of the text or answer the questions following the text as well Therefore, they not often participate and raise their voices actively in reading lessons Some students even keep silent when the teacher asks questions I myself as well as my colleagues usually employ the traditional methods of teaching, which is Grammar-Translation method, especially in reading lessons Reading texts often contains a lot of new words, whereas the students’ amount of vocabulary is limited Therefore, whenever the students encounter unfamiliar words in the text, the teachers often provide the meaning of these words instead of using some useful techniques to aid vocabulary for the students while reading Therefore, it is essential to find an effective way to improve the students’ reading comprehension That is the reason why I decided to work on “An investigation on the effectiveness of L1 - L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons of the first year non-English major students at Food Industry College” for my thesis Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to examine whether the use of L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons is effective for the first year non-English major students at FIC in three aspects: students’ reading comprehension ability, motivation and vocabulary extension Additionally, it investigates the teacher and the students’ attitudes towards L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons Research questions of the study This study seeks to answer the following research questions: Q1/ To what extent does the use of L1-L2 vocabulary glossing in reading text improve the students’ reading comprehension ability, motivation and vocabulary extension from the teacher and the students’ perspectives? Q2/ What are the attitudes of the teacher and the students at FIC towards L1-L2 glossing in reading comprehension lessons? 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Merrill/Prentice Hall 26 Nation, I.S.P (20 01) Learning vocabulary in another language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 27 Nassaji, H (20 06) The relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and L2 learners, lexical inferencing strategy use and success The Modern Language Journal, 90, 388-401 28 Nunan, D (19 92) Research Methods in Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 29 Otto, W.,... (19 82) Glossing for improved comprehension: Progress and prospect Retrieved December, 1981, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/?id=ED210 626 30 Richgels, D J., & Hansen, R (1984) Gloss: Helping students apply both skills and strategies in reading content texts Journal of Reading, 3 12- 317 31 Roby, W B (1999) What’s in a gloss Language Learning and Technology, 2( 2), 94-101 32 Shalmani, H B., & Sabet, M K (20 10)... E-reading: A comparative study English Language Teaching, 3(4), 195 -20 3 33 Shen, Z (20 09) The roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in EFL reading performance Asian Social Science, 4( 12) , 135-137 9 34 Taylor, A M (20 10) Glossing Is Sometimes a Distraction: Comments on Cheng and Good (20 09) Reading in a Foreign Language, 22 (2) , 353-354 35 Tsui, A.B (1993) Helping Teachers to Conduct Action... Acquisition, 19, 28 7-307 39 Woolley, G (20 11) Reading Comprehension: Assisting Children with Learning Difficulties New York: Springer 40 Yoshii, M (20 13) Effects of gloss types on vocabulary learning through reading: Comparison of single and multiple gloss types CALICO Journal, 30, 20 3 -22 9 41 Zarei, A A., & Hasani, M (20 12) The effects of glossing conventions on L2 vocabulary recognition and production... multiple gloss types CALICO Journal, 30, 20 3 -22 9 41 Zarei, A A., & Hasani, M (20 12) The effects of glossing conventions on L2 vocabulary recognition and production Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 3 (2) , 20 9 -23 3 10 I ... Debat, E (20 06) Applying current approaches to the teaching of reading Forum English Teaching, 44(1), 8-15 37 Wallace, M.J (1998), Action Research for Language Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 38 Watanabe, Y (1997) Input, intake, and retention: Effects of increased processing on incidental learning of foreign language vocabulary Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 28 7-307 39