An investigation into students' EFL reading strategy use at Nguyen Van Linh high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO STUDENTS’ EFL READING STRATEGY USE

AT NGUYEN VAN LINH HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by NGUYEN DU KIM PHUNG

Supervisor: Dr. TRAN THI MINH PHUONG

HO CHI MINH City

November 2015

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STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis, entitled “An Investigation into Students’ EFL Reading Strategy

Use at Nguyen Van Linh High School”, is my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material

published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have

qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of

the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other

tertiary institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, November, 2015

NGUYEN DU KIM PHUNG

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

When doing this research, I am deeply indebted to many wonderful people for all

their help. Without their support, it would be very difficult for me to complete this study.

Accordingly, I would like to acknowledge with profound gratitude for the significant

contribution they made.

Importantly, I am really grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Tran Thi Minh Phuong, for

putting a great deal of effort into instructing me how to produce a thorough research. She

has provided me with detailed comments, useful advice and precious research experience.

Her supervision kept me on the right track which allowed me to be able to complete my

study successfully.

I would also like to express my gratitude to a teacher of English and students at

Nguyen Van Linh High School for willingly cooperating with me during my data

collection. The teacher created favorable conditions for me to collect data from her

students, and the students were very pleased to answer my questionnaires and interviews.

My thanks go to M. S. Vu Huu Thanh for helping me analyze the data of my

study. Without his valuable assistance, my research would have been far from being

finished.

Last but not least, I wish to thank my family for the love and encouragement they

gave me while I was doing my thesis.

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate students’ EFL reading strategy use at Nguyen Van Linh

High School. 133 students in 12th grade reported their use of reading strategies through a

28-item questionnaire adapted from Mokhtari and Sheorey’s (2002) Survey of Reading

Strategies (SORS) in three sub-categories: global strategies (GLOB), problem-solving

strategies (PROB), and support strategies (SUP). A reading comprehension test was used

to divide the participants into high, medium and low proficiency groups. Eight of them in

the high and low proficiency groups further took part in the semi-structured interviews.

Results showed that the students generally used reading strategies at a moderate￾frequency level. Among the three sub-categories of reading strategies, they employed

PROB strategies the most often, followed by GLOB strategies and SUP strategies. The

five most used reading strategies were using typographical features to identify key

information, guessing the content of the text, reviewing the text to know about its length,

organization and main idea, getting back on track when losing concentration, and

underlining or circling information in the text. The five least used reading strategies were

reading aloud, asking questions to have answered in the text, paraphrasing, analyzing and

evaluating the information presented in the text, and thinking about the content of the text

and reading purposes. Moreover, the high proficiency students employed the three sub￾categories more frequently than the low proficiency ones. However, these differences

were only highly significant in the use of problem-solving strategies and support

strategies. Practical recommendations are given to teachers of English and authorities at

Nguyen Van Linh High School.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORSHIP ...................................................................... i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. iv

LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1

1. 1 Rationale of the study ................................................................................................ 1

1. 2 Purposes of the study ................................................................................................. 3

1. 3 Research questions .................................................................................................... 3

1. 4 Significance of the study ........................................................................................... 3

1. 5 Structure of the study ................................................................................................. 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 5

2. 1 Learning strategies ..................................................................................................... 5

2. 1. 1 Definitions of learning strategies ..................................................................... 5

2. 1. 2 Classifications of learning strategies ............................................................... 7

2. 2 Reading .................................................................................................................... 12

2. 3 Reading strategies .................................................................................................... 13

2. 3. 1 Definitions of reading strategies .................................................................... 13

2. 3. 2 Classifications of reading strategies ............................................................... 14

2. 4 Skilled and unskilled readers ................................................................................... 17

2. 5 Learning strategy use and proficiency ..................................................................... 18

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2. 6 Previous studies ....................................................................................................... 19

2. 6. 1 Previous studies in different countries ........................................................... 19

2. 6. 2 Previous studies in Vietnam ........................................................................... 26

2. 7 Summary of chapter 2.............................................................................................. 28

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 29

3. 1 Context of the study ................................................................................................. 29

3. 2 Participants of the study .......................................................................................... 30

3. 3 Research design ....................................................................................................... 31

3. 4 Instruments to collect data ...................................................................................... 31

3. 4. 1 Reading comprehension test .......................................................................... 31

3. 4. 2 Questionnaires ................................................................................................ 32

3. 4. 2. 1 Rationale of questionnaire .................................................................... 32

3. 4. 2. 2 Descriptions of questionnaire ............................................................... 33

3. 4. 3 Interviews ....................................................................................................... 34

3. 4. 3. 1 Rationale of interview .......................................................................... 34

3. 4. 3. 2 Descriptions of interview ..................................................................... 34

3. 5 Pilot of the study ..................................................................................................... 35

3. 5. 1 Pilot of questionnaire .................................................................................... 35

3. 5. 2 Pilot of interview ........................................................................................... 36

3. 6 Data collection procedure ........................................................................................ 37

3. 7 Data analysis procedure ........................................................................................... 38

3. 7. 1 Questionnaire Data ......................................................................................... 38

3. 7. 2 Interview Data ................................................................................................ 38

3. 8 Summary of chapter 3.............................................................................................. 38

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................... 39

4. 1 Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 39

4. 1. 1 The students’ EFL reading strategy use ......................................................... 39

4. 1. 1. 1 Frequency of reading strategy group use ............................................. 39

4. 1. 1. 2 Frequency of individual reading strategy use ...................................... 42

4. 1. 1. 2. 1 Global strategies ......................................................................... 43

4. 1. 1. 2. 2 Problem-solving strategies .......................................................... 44

4. 1. 1. 2. 3 Support strategies ........................................................................ 45

4. 1. 2 The differences in the use of reading strategies between the high and low

proficiency students .................................................................................................. 47

4. 1. 2. 1 Findings from the questionnaires ......................................................... 47

4. 1. 2. 1. 1 Differences between high and low proficiency students in using

three reading strategy groups ......................................................................... 48

4. 1. 2. 1. 2 Differences between high and low proficiency students in using the

individual reading strategies .......................................................................... 49

4. 1. 2. 2 Findings from the interviews ................................................................. 54

4 . 2 Discussions of the study ......................................................................................... 57

4. 2. 1 The students’ EFL reading strategy use ........................................................ 57

4. 2. 2 The differences in the use of reading strategies between the high and low

proficiency students .................................................................................................. 60

4. 3 Summary of chapter 4 ........................................................................................ 62

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................. 63

5.1 Research questions explicitly answered ................................................................... 63

5. 2 Limitations of the study ........................................................................................... 65

5. 3 Recommendations ................................................................................................... 66

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5. 4 Suggestions for further research .............................................................................. 68

5 . 5 Summary of chapter 5............................................................................................. 69

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 70

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 79

APPENDIX 1: READING COMPREHENSION TEST ................................................ 79

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) ........................................ 84

APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE (TRANSLATEDVERSION) ................................ 87

APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (ENGLISH VERSION) .......................... 90

APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (TRANSLATED VERSION) ................. 91

APPENDIX 6: A SAMPLE INTERVIEW SCRIPT (ENGLISH VERSION) .............. 92

APPENDIX 7: A SAMPLE INTERVIEW SCRIPT (TRANSLATED VERSION) ..... 94

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Stern’s list of 10 strategies of a good language learner ........................................ 8

Table 2: Naiman’s list of L2 learning strategies ................................................................. 9

Table 3: O’Malley and Chamot L2 learning strategy framework ..................................... 10

Table 4: Oxford’s learning strategy framework ................................................................ 12

Table 5: Overall frequency of the students’ reading strategy use ..................................... 45

Table 6: Reading strategies used by the students listed from least to most frequently ..... 46

Table 7: The students’ perceived use of global strategies ................................................. 48

Table 8: The students’ perceived use of problem-solving strategies ................................ 50

Table 9: The students’ perceived use of support strategies ............................................... 51

Table 10: Independent-Samples T Test results on three reading strategy groups for high

and low proficiency students ............................................................................................. 53

Table 11: Independent-Samples T Test results on individual global strategies for high and

low proficiency students .................................................................................................... 54

Table 12: Independent-Samples T Test results on individual problem-solving strategies

for high and low proficiency students ............................................................................... 56

Table 13: Independent-Samples T Test results on individual support strategies for high

and low proficiency students ............................................................................................. 58

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

FL: Foreign Language

L1: The first language

L2: The second language

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESO: English for Speakers of Other Languages

SEM: Structural Equation Modeling

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language

TOEIC: Test Of English For International Communication

CET-4: College English Test Band-4

GCSE: General Certificate of Secondary Education

SORS: Survey of Reading Strategies

MARSI: Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory

FLRAS: Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale

SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences

GLOB: Global strategies

PROB: Problem-solving strategies

SUP: Support strategies

S: Strategy