The impact of phrase reading on reading comprehension of non English major students' at Thu Duc College of technology

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH OPEN UNIVERSITY

------

HUYNH DOAN PHUONG DUNG

THE IMPACT OF PHRASE READING

ON READING COMPREHENSION

OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT THU DUC COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2019 i

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH OPEN UNIVERSITY

------

HUYNH DOAN PHUONG DUNG

THE IMPACT OF PHRASE READING

ON READING COMPREHENSION

OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS

AT THU DUC COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Major code: 158140111

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: BUI THI THUC QUYEN, Ph.D

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2019

i

1 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare this thesis entitled “THE IMPACT OF PHRASE READING ON

READING COMPREHENSION OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

THU DUC COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY” is the result of my own work except

as cited in the reference

The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and it is not currently submitted

in candidature of any other degree.

Ho Chi Minh, 2019

Huynh Doan Phuong Dung

ii

2 ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been possible without the kind support and help

of many individuals and organization. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of

them.

I am highly indebted to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Bui Thi Thuc Quyen for

her guidance and constant supervision as well as for her immense knowledge regarding

the study. Her guidance help me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I

could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my M.A. thesis.

I also fell thankful for my colleagues and students at Thu Duc College of

Technology who facilitated my data collection, so I could successfully collect the data.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family for giving me the

greatest care, support, and love throughout writing this thesis and my life in general.

iii

3 ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of using phrase reading on

student reading comprehension at Thu Duc College of Technology (TDC). This study

also explored how phrase reading influences the students’ attitudes. To achieve this, an

experimental research was employed. This project was done in four months with two￾group design of 60 students from TDC. A set of questionnaire, a pre-test and a post-test

were used as the main method for data collection. The result proved that applying phrase

reading improves students’ reading comprehension and the students of the experiment

group had positive attitudes towards phrase reading. This study also suggested that

phrase reading should be introduced to language classes in order to help students read

more effectively.

iv

4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TDC : Thu Duc College of Technology

PR : Phrase reading

CG : Control group

EG : Experimental group

SD : Standard Deviation

SPSS : Statistics Package for the Social Siences

Sig : significance

KET : Key English Test

v

5 LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Personal Information………………………………………………………18

Table 3.2. Summary of the questionnaire……………………………………………..23

Table 3.3. Summary of teaching procedure……………………………………………24

Table 3.4. Teaching procedures for the experimental group in the treatment stage……25

Table 4.2. Table of grouping scores of pretest…………………………………………30

Table 4.3. Group Statistics for pre-test results………………………………………...31

Table 4.4. Independent Samples Test for pre-test results……………………………..32

Table 4.5. Table of grouping scores of posttest……………………………………….33

Table 4.6. Comparison of the experimental group’s performance on the pretest and

posttest…………………………………………………………………………………34

Table 4.7. Group Statistics for post-test results………………………………………..35

Table 4.8. Independent Samples Test for post-test results…………………………….36

Table 4.9. Reliability statistics………………………………………………………...38

Table 4.10. Frequency and percentage of the participants’ problems in Phrase

reading…………………………………………………………………………………38

Table 4.11. Means and modes of students’ attitudes towards phrase reading…………39

Table 4.12. Frequency, percentage of the students’ attitude towards phrase reading….40

Table 4.13. Means and modes of students’ attitudes towards phrase reading………...40

Table 4.14. Frequency, percentage of conditions to make phrase reading successful…41

Table 4.15. Frequency, mean, mode and percentage of students’ attitude on the creation

of phrase reading’s motivation…………………………………………………………42

vi

6 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. Level of processing in reading comprehension (from Kirby, 2007)……….6

Figure 4.1. Plots of pre-test results………………………………………………….. ..29

7 LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1. Students’ possibility of phrase reading……………………………………..43

vii

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS................................................................................................... ii

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

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................ iv

LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. v

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi

LIST OF CHARTS ............................................................................................................ vi

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

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

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

1.3. Aim of the study ..............................................................................................................3

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

1.5. Significance of the study.................................................................................................3

1.6. Organization of the study...............................................................................................3

1.7. Summary..........................................................................................................................4

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

2.1. Theoretical framework...................................................................................................5

2.1.1. Definition of reading............................................................................................. 5

2.1.2. Reading process.................................................................................................... 6

2.1.3. Purpose of reading.............................................................................................. 10

2.1.4. Phrase reading.................................................................................................... 11

2.1.5. Reading comprehension...................................................................................... 13

2.1.6. Factors in reading comprehension ..................................................................... 14

2.2. Empirical studies...........................................................................................................16

2.3. Summary........................................................................................................................17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................ 18

viii

3.1. Research site..................................................................................................................18

3.2. Participants....................................................................................................................18

3.3. Research design.............................................................................................................20

3.4. Instruments....................................................................................................................21

3.4.1. Pretest and Posttest ............................................................................................ 21

3.4.2. Questionnaire...................................................................................................... 23

3.5. Teaching procedures.....................................................................................................24

3.6. Methods of data analysis..............................................................................................28

3.6.1. Analysis of the questionnaire.............................................................................. 29

3.6.2. Analysis of pre- and post-tests............................................................................ 29

3.7. Summary........................................................................................................................29

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 30

4.1. Test of normality of the data........................................................................................30

4.2. Results from pre-test and post-test..............................................................................33

4.2.1. Pre-test results.................................................................................................... 33

4.3. Post-test results .............................................................................................................36

4.4. Results of the questionnaire .........................................................................................40

4.4.1. Reliability of the questionnaire........................................................................... 40

4.4.2. Validity of the questionnaire............................................................................... 41

4.4.3. Analysis of the questionnaire.............................................................................. 41

4.5. Discussion of the findings.............................................................................................47

4.5.1. Students’ performance on reading comprehension ............................................ 48

4.5.2. Students’ attitude towards phrase reading ......................................................... 49

4.6. Summary........................................................................................................................49

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................... 50

5.1. Conclusion .....................................................................................................................50

5.2. Implications...................................................................................................................51

5.3. Limitations.....................................................................................................................52

5.4. Recommendations for further studies.........................................................................53