Focus on investigating the reading strategies employed by third-Year English majors at TBU


DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. I confirm that this is my own research, and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees. Student’s signature


ACKNOWLEGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people, without those help and guidance, this thesis would not have been completed. First and foremost, I counted myself very fortunate to have had Nguyen Thai Ha, MEd as my supervisor, and I would like to thank for her patience, corrections, advice and encouragement. Secondly, a special acknowledgement must go to Le Van Canh, MA who suggested the appreciated ideas for this study. Thirdly, I must also express my most sincere appreciation to my colleagues who have helped to gather data, who have had assisted with data analysis, and who have helped by reading and giving useful advice. Especially, I would like to acknowledge the assistance given by Mrs Do Thi Thanh Tra, who has always been a well- wishing friend. Fourthly, I am grateful to the students who participated in this study by answering the questionnaires and doing think-aloud reports and contributed considerably to its success. Lastly, my heartfelt gratitude goes to my loving parents, my siblings, and my husband who have supported me with their patience, encouragement.



ABSTRACT This thesis begins with the premise that learning strategies have been widely accepted as the keys that lead to success in learning a language. A lot of research has been carried out in various contexts to investigate the use of language learning strategies by different learners and the effects of such factors as gender, motivation, age, and so forth on the use of language learning strategies. Reading comprehension strategies have been identified by various researchers in both second and foreign language contexts. However, little empirical research has been conducted to uncover the reading comprehension strategies used by Vietnamese students, especially by students at Tay bac Unuversity (TBU). To address this gap, the present study investigates reading comprehension strategies used by third-year English majors of Thai and Muong ethnic minorities at TBU. The present study investigated the use of reading learning strategies of 12 third year English major students of Thai and Muong minorities at TBU and the possible influence on their choice of strategies by their ethnicity. The use of strategies by Muong and Thai ethnic students at TTBU were assessed and measured by think-aloud reports. The gathered data was analyzed with the help of t-test. The most frequently used strategies were reported were metacognitive, followed by cognitive and social/affective. Besides, Thai and Muong ethnic showed that they were significantly different in the choice and frequency of strategy use. Muong students had more preference for the use of metacognitive and cognitive strategies, whereas Thai used social/ affective strategies more frequently than their Muong ethnic counterparts. These results of the study indicated that ethnicity is a factor that had influence on the use of strategies as the findings of the previous research. Based on the findings some discussion and implications were made along with suggestions for further research.

LIST OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................................... III LIST OF CONTENTS......................................................................................................................................IV LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Rationale..................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3 Aims of the study ....................................................................................................................................... 2 1.4 Scope of the study ...................................................................................................................................... 3 1.5 Significance of the study............................................................................................................................ 3 1.6 Design of the thesis .................................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 5 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 5 2.2 Language learning strategies ..................................................................................................................... 5 2.2.1 Definition............................................................................................................................................ 5 2.2.2 Classification of learning strategies.................................................................................................. 6 2.2.3 Factors affecting the learners’ learning strategy choice ................................................................ 12 2.3 The theory of reading............................................................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Definition of reading........................................................................................................................ 12 2.3.2 Reading processes............................................................................................................................ 14 2.3.3 Reading strategies............................................................................................................................ 16 2.4 Previous studies on language learning strategies .................................................................................... 17 2.4.1 Language learning strategies studies .............................................................................................. 17 2.4.2 Reading strategies studies................................................................................................................ 21 2.5 Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 28 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 28 3.2 Research questions ................................................................................................................................... 28 3.3 Participants and settings of the study ...................................................................................................... 28 3.3.1 Participants ...................................................................................................................................... 28 3.3.2 Settings of the study.......................................................................................................................... 29 3.4 Instruments ............................................................................................................................................... 29 3.4.1 Questionnaires ................................................................................................................................. 30 3.4.2 Think-aloud reports.......................................................................................................................... 30 3.5 Pilot – study.............................................................................................................................................. 30 3.5.1 Stage 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 31 3.5.2 Stage 2 .............................................................................................................................................. 31 3.5.3 Results of the pilot-study .................................................................................................................. 31 3.6 Data collection procedures....................................................................................................................... 31 3.6.1 Administering the questionnaires .................................................................................................... 31 3.6.2 Administering the think-aloud reports............................................................................................. 32 Coding of data ................................................................................................................................................ 32 3.7.1 Coding of questionnaire data .......................................................................................................... 32 3.7.2 Think-aloud report data ................................................................................................................... 32 
3.8 Data analysis procedures.......................................................................................................................... 34 3.8.1 Questionnaire data........................................................................................................................... 35 3.8.2 Think-aloud report data ................................................................................................................... 35 3.9 Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ................................................................................................................................. 36 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 36 4.2. Results of Questionnaires ....................................................................................................................... 36 4.2.1 Readers’ attitude to reading comprehension .................................................................................. 36 4.3 Results of think- aloud reports................................................................................................................. 39 4.3.1 Students’ use of reading comprehension strategies ........................................................................ 39 4.3.2 Difference in strategy use between Muong and Thai ethnic minorities ......................................... 43 4.4 Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS ................................................................................. 49 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 49 5.2 Discussion ................................................................................................................................................ 49 5.2.1 Muong and Thai ethnic minorities’ attitude to reading comprehension. ....................................... 49 5.2.2 Strategy frequency............................................................................................................................ 50 5.2.3 Difference in strategy use between Muong and Thai ethnic minorities ......................................... 51 5.3. Reading strategies that Muong and Thai ethnic students need to develop ............................................ 54 5.3.1 Reading strategies that Muong ethnic students need to develop .................................................... 54 5.3.2 Reading strategies that Thai ethnic students need to develop ........................................................ 55 5.4 Implications.............................................................................................................................................. 56 5.5 Limitations and further research .............................................................................................................. 59 5.6 Conclusion................................................................................................................................................ 60 REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................................. 62 APPENDIX 1: OXFORD’S STRATEGY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM ...................................................I APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRES............................................................................................................... V APPENDIX 3: READING TASK FOR THINK- ALOUD REPORT ...................................................... VII APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE PROTOCOLS ..................................................................................................... XII APPENDIX 5: A SAMPLE OF THE CODED PROTOCOLS ................................................................XIII APPENDIX 6: RESULTS OF SAMPLE PROTOCOLS ........................................................................... XV APPENDIX 7:RAW DATA ........................................................................................................................ XVII 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: The first language L2: The second language LLS: Language learning strategy Sm: Muong ethnic student RS: Reading strategy St: Thai ethnic student TBU: Tay Bac University TOEFL: Teach of English as a foreign language 


LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The background information about the participants..............................................29 Table 2: Coding scheme for the use of reading comprehension strategies..........................33 Table 3: Thai and Muong ethnic students’ preference to reading comprehension..............36 Table 4: The role of reading comprehension to Muong and Thai ethnic students’ learning English .................................................................................................................................37 Table 5: Factor affecting reading comprehension ...............................................................38 Table 6: Strategy categories used by Muong and Thai Ethnic readers................................43 Table 7: Difference in the use of individual strategies between Muong and Thai Ethnic readers..................................................................................................................................43 Table 8: Reading strategies that Muong ethnic students need to develop ...........................54 Table 9: Reading strategies that Thai ethnic students need to develop ...............................55 



LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Reading comprehension strategy category frequency for Thai and.....................40 Figure 2: Individual strategy frequency within Metacognitive category for Thai and Muong ethnic students......................................................................................................................41 Figure 3: Individual strategy frequency within Cognitive category for Thai and Muong Ethnic Students ....................................................................................................................41 Figure 4: Individual strategy frequency within Social/Affective category for Thai and Muong Ethnic Students........................................................................................................42 Figure 5: CALLA Instructional Framework........................................................................58 












































CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction This chapter introduces the rationale and the aims of the study. The scope of the study and the significance as well as the design of the thesis will also be presented in this chapter. 1.2 Rationale Reading is considered one of the most important skills which language learners should master, particularly as it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, widen general knowledge and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills. “Reading is an essential skill for English as a second/foreign language (SL/EFL) student; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999). Carrell states (1989) “For many students, reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language, particularly in a language as a second or foreign language”. This is true for Vietnamese learners who have studied English through reading since English is taught and learned as a foreign language and in non- native environment. But acquiring and mastering this skill is likely to become a big hindrance to many learners while they often find it difficult to exploit this skill in their learning experience. On the other hand, the findings of many ESL/EFL research projects have shown the positive effects of learning strategies to enhance the comprehensibility of learners or to overcome comprehension failures. “The employment of appropriate language learning strategies can result in improved proficiency and greater self-confident.” (Oxford, 1990). The current explosion of research in second language reading has begun to focus on readers’ strategies. These strategies consist of whole range of strategies including skimming, scanning, reading for meaning, guessing meaning of unknown words, recognizing text structures and so forth. Most of the reading strategies research focus on the investigation into reading strategies employed by successful and unsuccessful learners. Less attention was given to the relationship between strategy use and such factors as 












































gender, age, motivation, and ethnicity. There is a need, therefore, to exam how these factors affect on the use and the choice of reading strategies. Since the early seventies, most research on reading strategies concerned about teaching second language students to use a variety of language strategies to assist them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieve of information in order to read better. This seems to suggest that training students to use reading strategies means training them to become autonomous readers. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to raise learners’ awareness of strategy use. In reality, in re