Obstacles and favourable materials for extensive reading on 9th graders at Hoai Hai lower secondary school = Những khó khăn và tài liệu yêu thích cho việc đọc mở rộng của học sinh lớp 9 trường THCS Hoài Hải

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

QUY NHON UNIVERSITY

TRUONG THI BICH NGOAN

OBSTACLES AND FAVOURABLE MATERIALS

FOR EXTENSIVE READING ON 9TH GRADERS

AT HOAI HAI LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching

Code: 8140111

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

TRƢƠNG THỊ BÍCH NGOAN

NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN VÀ TÀI LIỆU YÊU THÍCH

CHO VIỆC ĐỌC MỞ RỘNG CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 9

TRƢỜNG THCS HOÀI HẢI

Ngành: Lý luận và phƣơng pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh

Mã số: 8140111

Ngƣời hƣớng dẫn: PGS.TS Nguyễn Quang Ngoạn

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I confirm that the work presented in this research report has been

conducted by myself. Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis,

no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the

thesis. I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfillment for the M.A.

thesis in English at Quy Nhon University and has not been submitted

elsewhere in any other form for the fulfillment of any other degree or

qualification.

Quy Nhon, May 2022

Trƣơng Thị Bích Ngoan

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Assoc.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoan who spent the valuable time on giving me

instructions, advice, constructive comments, and encouragement. This thesis

would not have been completed if it had not been for my supervisor‟s great

support.

Secondly, I would like to thank my colleagues who encouraged me and

shared with me much experience in thesis writing.

Thirdly, I am also grateful for all the students in my class who

participated in the study, giving me useful insight into the research problem.

Finally, thanks to all my family support, I was able to complete the

thesis on time.

iii

ABSTRACT

The benefits of extensive reading (ER) have been convinced by much

literature. The employment of ER helps improve EFL learners‟ reading abilities and

motivation. However, there remain many questions of obstacles and favorable

reading materials, confirmed by EFL learners. These findings seemed to receive less

scholarly attention, especially in Vietnamese context. As an attempt to understand

this research phenomenon, the current study employed a questionnaire and face-to￾face interview to gather the insights of 90 ninth graders at Hoai Hai Lower

Secondary School. They were invited to confirm obstacles and favorable materials

for extensive reading within the semester. Five voluntary interviewees expressed

their perspectives later on these findings. The results revealed major obstacles to the

students‟ extensive reading practice were the limited command of language, low

reading motivation, poor reading comprehension abilities, limited cultural or world

knowledge, lack of reading resources, and lack of technological support. The

favourable materials were ones related to school exams and students‟ needs. The

students were particularly interested in their own favorite topics, and this motivation

decreased when they had to read teachers‟ assigned reading materials. This study,

therefore, may give specific ideas for local EFL teachers to adapt language

materials suited to students‟ needs, in the hope that they could improve their reading

comprehension abilities and motivation in the future.

Key words: extensive reading, reading comprehension, reading motivation

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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

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

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS ..................................................vi

LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................vii

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

1.1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 1

1.2. Aims of the study and research questions............................................... 4

1.3. Scope of the study................................................................................... 4

1.4. Significance of the study......................................................................... 5

1.5. Organization of the study........................................................................ 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................... 7

2.1. Reading ................................................................................................... 7

2.1.1. Definitions of reading ....................................................................... 7

2.1.1. Extensive reading............................................................................ 10

2.2. Approaches to teaching reading in the second language classroom..... 12

2.3. Use of extensive reading in reading teaching ....................................... 15

2.4. Possible difficulties of students in extensive reading ........................... 16

2.5. Previous studies on extensive reading in reading teaching .................. 18

2.6. Summary ............................................................................................... 26

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................ 27

3.1. Research design..................................................................................... 27

3.1.1. Case study ....................................................................................... 27

3.1.2. The current research design ............................................................ 28

3.2. Data collection instruments................................................................... 28

3.2.1. Questionnaire .................................................................................. 28

v

3.2.2. Semi-structured interview............................................................... 30

3.3. Sampling and participants..................................................................... 30

3.4. Data collection ...................................................................................... 31

3.4. Data analysis......................................................................................... 31

3.5. Summary ............................................................................................... 32

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................ 33

4.1. Main findings........................................................................................ 33

4.1.1. The obstacles................................................................................... 33

4.1.2. Favorable materials......................................................................... 42

4.2. Discussion ............................................................................................. 50

4.2.1. Research question one .................................................................... 50

4.2.2. Research question two .................................................................... 52

4.3. Summary ............................................................................................... 54

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.................. 55

5.1. Conclusions........................................................................................... 55

5.2. Limitations............................................................................................ 58

5.3. Recommendations................................................................................. 59

5.3.1. For local students............................................................................ 59

5.3.2. For local teachers............................................................................ 59

5.3.3. For future research .......................................................................... 60

REFERENCES................................................................................................ 62

APPENDICES

vi

ABBREVIATIONS AND CONVENTIONS

ER Extensive reading

EFL English as a foreign language