The effect of the KWL strategy on Vietnamese fifth-grade students’ reading comprehension at Vstar school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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LE THI THAO VY

THE EFFECT OF THE KWL STRATEGY

ON VIETNAMESE FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS’

READING COMPREHENSION

AT VSTAR SCHOOL

MASTER THESIS

TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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LE THI THAO VY

THE EFFECT OF THE KWL STRATEGY

ON VIETNAMESE FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS’

READING COMPREHENSION

AT VSTAR SCHOOL

Major: Teaching English to speakers of other languages

Major code: 60140111

MASTER THESIS

TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha (PhD.)

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2020

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It would have been impossible for me to complete my thesis paper without the

contributions of the following people. First and foremost, I wish to express my

deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha for the continuous

support of my MA study and research, for her immense knowledge and persistent

help. Without her guidance, my thesis paper would not have been realized.

Besides my supervisor, I would like to pay my special regards to all the lecturers

and friends on the MA course at Ho Chi Minh City Open University for their

thoughtful advice and support. In addition, I wish to show my gratitude to all my

colleagues at VStar School for their support and encouragement.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge the great support and love of my

beloved family and best friends. This paper would not have been possible without

their warm encouragement.

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION iii

ABSTRACT

The aim of the paper was to examine how the use of the Know - Want to Know -

Learned (KWL) strategy affected fifth-graders’ reading comprehension at VStar

School in Ho Chi Minh City. In order to achieve the aim of the study, the researcher

employed a quantitative approach with a two-group quasi-experimental pretest￾posttest design. The sample of the study included 50 students of two fifth-grade

classes (N=25 for each class) which were conveniently chosen from 270 fifth￾graders at VStar School. One class was randomly chosen to be the experimental

class and the other class was the control class. While the experimental class was

taught with the KWL strategy, the control class was taught with a regular teaching

method. The instruments were composed of a questionnaire, a pretest and a posttest.

The questionnaire was used to record the participants’ English background with the

aim to control some extraneous variables that could impact the research outcomes.

The pretest and posttest were employed to figure out the influence of the KWL

strategy on the participants’ reading comprehension. The research results indicated

statistically significant differences in reading comprehension of the experimental

class between the pretest and the posttest with better results found in the posttest.

Additionally, there were also statistically significant differences between the control

class and the experimental class after the application of the KWL strategy. Based on

the findings, some recommendations were suggested to teachers of English,

students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and researchers having

interest in the topic.

Keywords: reading comprehension, the KWL strategy

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.....................................................................................ii

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

LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................vii

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

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...............................................................................x

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................1

1.1 Background of the Study................................................................................1

1.2 The Statement of the Problem ........................................................................4

1.3 Research Questions........................................................................................5

1.4 Significance of the Study ...............................................................................5

1.5 Definitions of Terms......................................................................................6

1.6 Scope of the Study .........................................................................................6

1.7 Summary of the Chapter.................................................................................6

1.8 Organization of the Study...............................................................................7

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................8

2.1 Reading and Reading Comprehension............................................................8

2.2 Schemata Theory and Reading Comprehension............................................10

2.3 Metacognition and Metacognitive Strategies................................................13

2.4 Metacognition and Reading Comprehension ................................................13

2.5 The KWL Strategy.......................................................................................15

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION v

2.6 The KWL Strategy and Reading Comprehension .........................................17

2.7 Research on Impact of the KWL Strategy on Learners’ Reading

Comprehension ..................................................................................................18

2.8 Impact of other Factors on Reading Comprehension ....................................22

2.9 Conceptual framework .................................................................................23

2.10 Summary of the Chapter.............................................................................24

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................26

3.1 Study Design................................................................................................26

3.2 Research Site................................................................................................27

3.3 Population and Sample.................................................................................27

3.4 Instruments ..................................................................................................28

3.4.1 Questionnaire.........................................................................................28

3.4.2 Pretest and posttest. ...............................................................................31

3.5 Validity and Reliability ................................................................................33

3.5.1 Internal validity. ....................................................................................33

3.5.2 External validity. ...................................................................................34

3.5.3 Content validity. ....................................................................................34

3.5.4 Construct validity. .................................................................................35

3.5.5 Reliability..............................................................................................35

3.6 Procedures ...................................................................................................36

3.7 Data Analysis...............................................................................................40

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................................43

4.1 Findings.......................................................................................................43

4.1.1 Questionnaire analysis. ..........................................................................43

4.1.2 Pretest and posttest analysis...................................................................45

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION vi

4.2 Discussion....................................................................................................55

4.2.1 Students’ activation of schemata............................................................56

4.2.2 Students’ purpose-setting for reading.....................................................58

4.2.3 Students’ reflection................................................................................60

4.2.4 Summary of the discussion. ...................................................................60

Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...........................62

5.1 Summary of the Study..................................................................................62

5.2 Conclusions..................................................................................................62

5.3 Limitations...................................................................................................63

5.4 Recommendations........................................................................................63

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................66

APPENDICES .....................................................................................................75

Appendix A .......................................................................................................75

Appendix B........................................................................................................78

Appendix C........................................................................................................83

Appendix D .......................................................................................................88

Appendix E........................................................................................................92

Appendix F ......................................................................................................108

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. Conceptual Framework……………………………………………..23

EFFECT OF KWL STRATEGY ON READING COMPREHENSION viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Sample’s Demographic Information……………………………………28

Table 3.2 Questionnaire’s Structure………………………………………...……..30

Table 3.3 Pretest and Posttest’s Structure…………………………………...……32

Table 3.4 Lesson Plan for Regular Teaching Method……………………………38

Table 3.5 Lesson Plan for KWL Strategy………………………………..….……..39

Table 4.1 Reliability of Pretest…………………………………………...…………46

Table 4.2 Reliability of Posttest………………………………………...…………..46

Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics of the Pretest Scores of

the Experimental Class ………………………….…..…………………..46

Table 4.4 Descriptive Statistics of the Pretest Scores of

the Control Class …………………………………….………….…........46

Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics of the Posttest Scores of

the Experimental Class ………………..…………………………….…..47

Table 4.6 Descriptive Statistics of the Posttest Scores of

the Control Class ……………………………………………………......47

Table 4.7 The Results of Normality Tests of the Pretest Scores…..…..……….48

Table 4.8 The Results of Normality Tests of the Posttest Scores……………....49

Table 4.9 The Result of Test of Homogeneity of the Pretest Scores…………..49

Table 4.10 The Result of Test of Homogeneity of the Posttest Scores………….50

Table 4.11 Group Statistics of the Pretest Scores of the Control Class and

Experimental Class …………..…………………………………….......51

Table 4.12 Independent Samples T-Test of the Pretest Scores of

the Control Class and Experimental Class ……………..…….……..51

Table 4.13 Paired Samples Statistics of the Pretest and Posttest Scores of

the Control Class ………………………………..………………..…….52

Table 4.14 Paired Samples T-Test of the Pretest and Posttest Scores of the

Control Class …………………………………………..……………….52