The effects of phrase reading on EFL students' reading comprehension at Hoa Binh junior high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL

--------------------------------------

LE THI THANH HOA

THE EFFECTS OF PHRASE READING

ON EFL STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

AT HOA BINH JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Major: TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES

Major code: 60140111

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: LE HOANG DUNG (PhD.)

Ho Chi Minh City, 2020

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “The Effects of Phrase Reading on EFL Students’

Reading Comprehension at Hoa Binh Junior High School” is my own work.

Except where references is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain

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, 2020

Le Thi Thanh Hoa

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the people who have helped me

for the completion of this thesis.

First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le

Hoang Dung for his expert guidance, full support, understanding and

encouragement throughout my research. Without his patience and timely advice, my

thesis work could not have been done.

Secondly, huge thanks go to the teachers and students at Hoa Binh junior high

school who have been so helpful and patient to me. They are always willing to

support me and give me great opportunity to conduct this research.

Finally, my special thanks go to my family members who have supported me with

everything so that I could concentrate on this thesis. I would not have been able to

complete this thesis without their continuous encouragement and unconditional

support.

Le Thi Thanh Hoa

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CG: Control Group

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

EG: Experimental Group

ESL: English as a Second Language

HBJHS: Hoa Binh Junior High School

L1: First Language

L2: Second Language

M: Mean

N: Number

SD: Standard Deviation

PR: Phrase Reading

SLA: Second Language Acquisition

SPSS: Statistical Package for Social Sciences

RCT: Reading Comprehension Test

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ABSTRACT

Concerning the importance of reading comprehension and the potential use

of phrase reading in language learning, the current study aimed at investigating (1)

the effects of phrase reading on EFL students’ reading comprehension, (2) students’

attitude towards the use of phrase reading, and (3) the difficulties of using phrase

reading in the EFL classrooms. There were 169 eighth-graders of Hoa Binh junior

high school involved in this study. The overall findings indicated that phrase

reading strategy had positive effects on students’ reading comprehension. Besides,

students had positive attitude towards the employment of phrase reading and

expressed their willingness to use phrase reading strategy for further learning. Also,

the study discovered some critical challenges that students encountered when using

phrase reading strategy. The findings have offered intriguing implications for the

employment of phrase reading strategy in secondary school in Vietnam and other

language learning contexts.

Keywords: phrase reading, reading comprehension, attitude, challenges

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TABLE OF CONTENT

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

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

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................... iii

ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. iv

TABLE OF CONTENT..............................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES....................................................................... viii

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION .............................................................................1

1.1 Background of the study....................................................................................1

1.2 Statement of the problem ..................................................................................2

1.3 Aims of the study ..............................................................................................3

1.4 Research questions............................................................................................3

1.5 Significance of the study...................................................................................4

1.6 Scope of the study .............................................................................................4

1.7 Definitions of the key terms..............................................................................4

1.8 Organization of the thesis .................................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................6

2.1 Overview of reading comprehension ................................................................6

2.1.1 Definitions of reading ................................................................................6

2.1.2 Concept of reading comprehension............................................................8

2.1.3 Taxonomy of reading comprehension........................................................9

2.2 Overview of phrase reading ............................................................................11

2.2.1 Definitions of phrase reading...................................................................11

2.2.2 The benefits of phrase reading .................................................................11

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2.2.3 Phrase reading instruction........................................................................13

2.3 Previous studies on the effects of phrase reading on reading comprehension15

2.4 Research gap ...................................................................................................23

2.5 Conceptual framework....................................................................................25

2.6 Chapter summary ............................................................................................27

CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................28

3.1 Research design...............................................................................................28

3.1.1 Mixed-methods research design...............................................................28

3.1.2 Research hypotheses ................................................................................29

3.2 Research site and participants.........................................................................30

3.3 Research instruments ......................................................................................32

3.3.1 Reading comprehension tests...................................................................32

3.3.2 Questionnaire ...........................................................................................35

3.3.3 Focus group interview..............................................................................36

3.4 Research procedure .........................................................................................37

3.5 Pilot study........................................................................................................39

3.6 The experiment................................................................................................42

3.7 Data analysis ...................................................................................................46

3.8 Reliability and validity of the study................................................................47

3.8.1 Reliability.................................................................................................47

3.8.2 Validity.....................................................................................................48

3.9 Research ethics................................................................................................49

3.10 Chapter summary ..........................................................................................50

CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................51

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4.1 Results and findings........................................................................................51

4.1.1 Statistical analysis of the reading comprehension test results.................51

4.1.2 Analysis of data from questionnaire ........................................................61

4.1.3 Analysis of data from interview...............................................................71

4.2 Discussion .......................................................................................................77

4.2.1 Effects of phrase reading on students’ reading comprehension...............77

4.2.2 Students’ attitude towards the implementation of phrase reading...........81

4.2.3 Challenges of using phrase reading strategy encountered by the students

...........................................................................................................................82

4.3 Chapter summary ............................................................................................85

CHAPTER 5 –SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................86

5.1 Summary of findings.......................................................................................86

5.2 Suggestions for teachers and students.............................................................87

5.2.1 Suggestions for teachers...........................................................................87

5.2.2 Suggestions for students...........................................................................88

5.3 Limitations of the study and recommendations for further studies ................88

5.4 Chapter summary ............................................................................................90

REFERENCES..........................................................................................................91

APPENDICES...........................................................................................................98

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2. 1 - Summary of previous studies on the effects of phrase reading on

reading comprehension.............................................................................................22

Table 3. 1 - Description of the participants..............................................................31

Table 3. 2 – Summary of RCTs’ descriptions............................................................34

Table 3. 3 - Description of participants in the pilot study ........................................40

Table 3. 4 - Description of reliability statistics of RCTs in the pilot study...............41

Table 3. 5 – A lesson plan model for the EG and CG...............................................44

Table 3. 6 - Description of reliability statistics of RCTs in the main study..............48

Table 3. 7 - Reliability statistics of the questionnaire...............................................48

Table 4. 1 – Summary of t-test result for the pre-test ...............................................51

Table 4. 2 - Summary of t-test result of CG after the treatment ...............................52

Table 4. 3 - Summary of t-test result of EG after the treatment................................53

Table 4. 4 - Summary of t-test result of post-test ......................................................53

Table 4. 5 - Summary of t-test result for delayed post-test of CG ............................54

Table 4. 6 - Summary of t-test result for delayed post-test of EG.............................54

Table 4. 7 - Summary of t-test result for two levels of comprehension scores before

the treatment..............................................................................................................55

Table 4. 8 - Summary of t-test result for literal comprehension and inferential

comprehension score of CG......................................................................................56

Table 4. 9 - Summary of t-test result for literal comprehension and inferential

comprehension score of EG ......................................................................................57

Table 4. 10 - Summary of t-test result for the pre-test and post-test of poor readers

...................................................................................................................................58

Table 4. 11 - Summary of t-test result for the pre-test and post-test of good readers

...................................................................................................................................58

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Table 4. 12 - Summary of t-test result for literal comprehension and inferential

comprehension scores of good readers.....................................................................59

Table 4. 13 - Summary of t-test result for literal and inferential comprehension

scores of poor readers...............................................................................................60

Table 4. 14 - Students’ attitude towards PR strategy ...............................................62

Table 4. 15 - Students’ attitude towards the benefits of PR......................................63

Table 4. 16 - Participants’ attitude towards the instruction.....................................65

Table 4. 17 - Participants’ attitude towards the activities........................................67

Table 4. 18 - Likelihood of further learning with PR strategy..................................69

Figure 1 – Elements of reading (adapted from Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015, p. 3)..7

Figure 2 - Components of reading comprehension (adapted from RAND Reading

Study Group, 2002, p. 11)...........................................................................................8

Figure 3 - Conceptual framework of the study..........................................................26

Figure 4 - Procedure of the study..............................................................................38

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CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 describes the statement of the problem as well as the purposes of

the present research. The significance of the study and research questions will be

also clarified in this chapter.

1.1Background of the study

Reading, together with writing, is one of the hallmark activities that

differentiate humans from other kinds of animals (Wallot, Hollis, & Rooij, 2013).

Indeed, reading is a fundamental element in today's society and in language

learning. In language learning, the significance of reading skills cannot be denied. It

is widely acknowledge that the ability to read in L2 can be considered as one of the

most important skills for students, especially in an international setting. Among

various aspects of language reading skills, reading comprehension has been one of

the most important. To emphasize the importance of comprehension, Katims (1997)

and Duke and Pearson (2002) added that reading without comprehension is

pointless or simply word barking. Accordingly, there has been an increasing interest

in reading comprehension in recent years (Kaplan, 2002).

On the other hand, English is a foreign language for Vietnamese students. It

is certainly not easy for students to comprehend English texts. Moreover, it is

reported that the average reading level of the eight graders at Hoa Binh junior high

school is rather low (see Appendix 14 for detailed students’ reading scores). In

particular, students’ ability of reading comprehension is limited. Additionally, by

observing the EFL classrooms at this school, it is recognized that most of the

language teachers spend most of the time asking learners to look for words’

meanings and translating the reading texts word-by-word into Vietnamese. Hence,

there is a need to foster students’ reading comprehension at this site with the

employment of alternative reading methods or strategies. PR has not been employed

at this campus before and the students are at low-English-proficiency level; thus,

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these reasons paved the way to conduct the current research using PR to enhance

students’ reading comprehension at this school.

1.2 Statement of the problem

A great amount of effort has been made with the purpose of fostering reading

comprehension of language learners in their learning process. It is acknowledged

that phrase reading can facilitate reading comprehension. Phrase reading (PR) is the

“process of organizing or clustering information into compact thought units, such as

phrases or clause (Valentine & Franks, 1970, p. 48). A good number of researchers

have pointed out that PR has beneficial impact on learners’ reading comprehension

(Anggraeni, 2015; Klella, 2017; Sekitani, 2017). Nonetheless, many studies have

shown that no remarkable relationship between PR and reading comprehension

development has been found (Komaba, 1992; Yamashita & Ichikawa, 2010;

Yokono, 2016). It can be seen that there are inconsistent results across previous

research investigating the influence of PR on language learners’ reading

comprehension. Moreover, there is a controversy over the effects of PR on good

readers and poor readers’ comprehension. Besides, it is shown that most of the

previous studies in L2 context are conducted on adult and high English-proficiency￾level students. Additionally, the previous studies have not legibly determined which

levels of comprehension are involved in the research. As a result, there is a need to

investigate the effects of PR on low-language-proficiency level students’ reading

comprehension at primary or secondary schools.

Overall, there is still a controversy over the influence of PR on learners’

reading comprehension development. The impact of PR on low-language￾proficiency-level learners at primary or secondary schools have not been

sufficiently investigated, especially in L2 context. Although students’ perception is

one of the most essential factors that significantly influence the success of a strategy

or approach in language learning, most of the previous studies have not investigated

learners’ perceptions of the implementation of PR in the EFL classrooms. As a

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result, there should be more studies that examine participants’ attitudes towards PR.

Furthermore, many studies have suggested that there should be new study

examining the difficulties that the students may have when using PR in their EFL

classrooms (Nishida, 2013; Yamashita & Ichikawa, 2010). However, few studies

have fulfilled this purpose. On the other hand, PR is not popular in Vietnam and

few studies have been done with the aim of investigating the influence of PR in

Vietnamese context (Le, 2014). Therefore, it is necessary to verify the influence of

PR on reading comprehension of low-language-level learners in Vietnam.

1.3 Aims of the study

Based on the research gap that paved the way to for carrying out the current

research, the current study was an attempt to investigate the effects of phrase

reading on EFL students’ reading comprehension in terms of the reading

comprehension test scores. Furthermore, the research examined students’ attitude

towards the use of phrase reading. Also, the difficulties of using phrase reading in

the EFL classrooms were identified. The study was conducted in order to gain a

deeper insight of the effect of phrase reading on reading comprehension

improvement.

1.4 Research questions

In order to obtain these purposes, the research was conducted to answer the

following questions:

1. Does phrase reading have positive effects on EFL students’ reading

comprehension?

2. What are students’ attitudes towards the use of phrase reading?

3. What are the difficulties of using phrase reading encountered by students in

the EFL classrooms?

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1.5 Significance of the study

The research was carried out in purpose of finding a way to develop

students’ reading comprehension at HBJHS. If the use of PR is proved to be

effective, the teachers can use it as regular classroom instruction to support their

teaching. Also, this study was expected to raise the awareness of the role of reading

comprehension and PR in language teaching and learning in this context. It would

also provide some useful implications for teaching and learning L2 reading.

Besides, the findings of the current research might be generalized to other

secondary schools in Vietnam.

1.6 Scope of the study

This study focused on the employment of phrase reading on young learners

in EFL reading classrooms at Hoa Binh junior high school. Also, the study

investigated the effects of phrase reading on students’ reading comprehension.

Besides, the study identified the students’ attitude towards the implementation of

phrase reading and the difficulties of using this strategy encountered by students.

1.7 Definitions of the key terms

Attitude - a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain

phenomenon

Difficulty - problem or challenge that needs attention and needs to be dealt

with

Reading - the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting

meaning from them

Reading comprehension – the process of simultaneously extracting and

constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language

Phrase reading – a strategy of reading by chunking and organizing individual

words into meaningful word groups in order to foster fluency and comprehension