Những giải pháp cơ bản để thực hiện kế hoạch phát triển kinh tế xã hội 5 năm (2001-2005) tỉnh Yên Bái

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES
nguyen thi huyen
AN INVESTIGATION
INTO the reality of teaching reading to
the second -year students at national
Economics university
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree
of Master of Arts in Tesol.
SUPERVISOR : Nguyen thai ha, MA
Hanoi
October, 2006

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into reading strategies of
learners in reading classes at The Military Political Academy” and submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)
is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this
minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to
any other university or institution.
The Hanoi University of Foreign Studies approved the research procedures
reported in this thesis.
Signed :
Dated :

i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................................................. I
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................ II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................................... IV

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. V
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... VI
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................... VII
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE THESIS ................................................................................................................... 1
1.2. THE AIMS OF THE STUDY .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................. 3
1.4. OUTLINE OF THE THESIS ........................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 5
2.1. DEFINITION OF READING ........................................................................................................................... 5
2.2. LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES ............................................................................................................ 7
2.2.1. Reading strategies ....................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Definition of language learning strategies .................................................................................. 8
2.2.3. Characteristics of language learning strategies .......................................................................... 9
2.2.4. Classification of language learning strategies .......................................................................... 10
2.3. FACTORS INFLUENCING READING STRATEGIES CHOICE OF LANGUAGE LEARNERS ............................................... 11
2.3.1. Proficiency ............................................................................................................................... 12
2.3.2. Motivation ................................................................................................................................ 13
2.4. READING IN SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE .......................................................................................... 15
2.5. PREVIOUS STUDIES ON READING STRATEGIES ............................................................................................ 16
2.6. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................ 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 20
3.1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................................... 20
3.2. DESCRIPTION OF VARIABLES ................................................................................................................... 20
3.3. THE SETTING OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................................... 20
3.4. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS ............................................................................................................ 21
3.4.1. Test .......................................................................................................................................... 22
3.4.2. Questionnaire .......................................................................................................................... 24
3.4.3. Interview .................................................................................................................................. 25
3.5. ANALYZING DATA ............................................................................................................................... 26

3.5.1. Coding scheme for the use of reading strategies in students’ reading comprehension ............. 26
3.5.2. Coding scheme for the use of reading strategies while doing reading tasks ........................... 27
3.5.3. Coding Scheme for factors influencing MPA learners’ reading strategy choice ...................... 27
3.6. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................................................... 29
4.1. WHAT READING STRATEGIES ARE USED BY DIFFERENT LEARNER GROUPS AT THE MPA IN THEIR READING
COMPREHENSION? ......................................................................................................................................... 29
4.2.WHAT READING STRATEGIES DO THE EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE LEARNERS USE WHILE THEY ARE DOING READING
TASKS? ....................................................................................................................................................... 31
4.3. WHAT FACTORS INFLUENCE LEARNERS’ LEARNING STRATEGY CHOICE? ......................................................... 44
C ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
EINTEL ....................................................................................................................................................... 45
S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
EINTEC ....................................................................................................................................................... 45
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S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
S ................................................................................................................................................................... 45
4.4. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................................ 47
4.5. SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER V: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION ............................................................ 49
5.1. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................ 50
5.2. IMPLICATION OF THE STUDY TO STRATEGY TRAINING. ............................................................................... 51
5.2.1. Enhancing learners’ awareness of the use of reading strategies. .............................................. 51
5.2.2. Teacher and students’ role in activities of strategy training. .................................................... 52
5.3. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................................... 54
5.4. SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES ........................................................................................................ 55
5.5. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 55

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................................................. 65
APPENDIX 2.1 ........................................................................................................................................... 67
APPENDIX 2.2 ........................................................................................................................................... 74
APPENDIX 3 .............................................................................................................................................. 81
APPENDIX 4 .............................................................................................................................................. 82
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my thanks to many people who have assisted my research
work.
To my supervisor Mr Le Quoc Hanh, M.A. (TESOLT), a senior lecture at Hanoi
University of Foreign Studies. I am grateful to him for his valuable guidance and
great insight into my thesis writing. His guidance was indispensable to the design
and completion of the study. I am also grateful to him for his comments,
correction and for his kindly encouragement and enthusiasm during the
development of this study.
My special words of thanks also go to the Management Board of the Post-
Graduate Department of the Hanoi University of Foreign studies for their
consideration and enthusiasm in helping me to pursue the course.
My particular thanks go to Ms. Nguyen Thai Ha, M.A. (TESOLT), a senior
lecture at Hanoi University of Foreign Studies, the Deputy Dean of post graduate
Department for her useful advice, criticism and support while the research was
being done.
I would also like to thank my collueges at Military Political Academy and my
students in the two classes of BT4A, BT4B for their participation and support.
Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my husband and my
children for their love, great encouragement and support to me to fulfill this
thesis.
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ABSTRACT

This study is an investigation into reading strategies of different groups of
learners in reading classes at the Military Political Academy. It purposes to find
out the reading strategies used by different groups of MPA learners in their
reading comprehension, especially while they do reading tasks, and look at the
factors influencing their reading strategy choice. The participants of this study
were forty-eight students at varied levels of English proficiency. An experimental
method was chosen as the methodological approach underpinning this study..
Test, questionnaire and interview were used to gather data, which then analysed.
The findings indicate first, learners at the Military Political Academy used six
groups of reading strategies that offered by Oxfords (1990) at different degrees in
their reading comprehension. Among them, metacognitive strategies rank first,
next come social strategies. Second, the effective and ineffective learners’ uses of
reading strategies vary across the six reading strategy groups. The former tended
to use metacognitive, social and cognitive strategies at higher degree than did
ineffective ones while they do reading tasks. Final, MPA learners are most
strongly motivated by instrumental motivation although they were also
influenced by integrative and intrinsic motivation and they are not fully aware of
the use of reading strategies despite the fact that they used some kinds of reading
strategies in their reading. As for the implications of the study, some suggestions
are recommended for strategy training to MPA learners such enhance the
learners’ conception of the use of reading strategies in their learning reading
comprehension and implication for classroom learning and teaching.
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
EFL : English as a foreign language
ESL : English as a second language
SIIL : Strategy inventory for language learning
LSs : Learning strategies
LS : Learning strategy
RSs : Reading strategies

RS : Reading strategy
MPA : Military Political Academy
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 : Summary of the analysis of the SILL.
Table 4.1 : A Comparison of the use of RSs between effective and ineffective
learners across six groups of RSs.
Table 4.2.1 : The reading strategies used by two groups of sample at the pre-
reading stage.
Table 4.2.2 :The reading strategies used by two groups of sample at the while-
reading
Table 4.2.3 : The reading strategies used by two groups of sample at the post-
reading stage.
Table 4.3 : Summary of the analysis of informants’ reasons for learning
English
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CHAPTER i: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the thesis
English is one of the most important of Vietnam’s foreign languages. It is used
not only by Vietnamese to communicate with native speakers of English but also
as an important international language in communicating with people from non-
native English countries. Although English functions as a foreign language,
Vietnamese who are likely to be in contact with foreigners in various areas, for
example, education, politics, tourism, industry, business and in general social
contexts, need considerable proficiency in English. In fact, many people
nowadays realize that a command of English has become essential for their future
occupations, since it is a pre-requisite for success in both the public and private
sectors.
Of the four macro skills in language (listening, speaking, reading and writing),

there has been growing and justified concern about reading in Vietnam. This
concern is due to the increasing amount of printed English material in the society.
Various sources of modern knowledge and technology needed in developing the
country at large are usually reported in English. Proficient readers in English are
high demand.
In connection with the matters, in recent years, together with the increasing needs
for English learning at colleges or universities in the Army in general and at the
MPA in particular, great efforts have been made to improve the quality of the
teaching reading. To meet the demand of the state military, every year, the MPA
trains about one thousand political officers at different levels, who are not only
expected to be competent at their specialties but also have good knowledge of
foreign language. Every year, about a thousand officers at different levels,
hundreds of potential teachers and many post-graduate students of different social
sciences and humanities are trained here. Foreign language is a compulsory
subject at the MPA, because it is very important and necessary for the learners’
future work. After the course, they will have to read different materials written in
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English such as academic texts from their specialist subjects, newspapers, reports,
the world’s military information, politics and economics, etc, from a number of
different sources.
In teaching and learning English as a foreign language at the MPA, reading has
always received a great deal of attention. Teaching English at the MPA provides
the students with the abilities to understand the written materials and to
communicate in English. Furthermore, English is taught and learnt in a non -
native environment. That is why reading is not only an important means to gain
knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place.
According to Carrell (1988:1), “if we consider the study of English as a foreign
language around the world - the situation in which most English learners finds
themselves - reading is the main reason why students learn the language”. This is
particularly true to the students of the English Department at the MPA. It is

crucial for them to acquire the ability to read English efficiently and effectively.
However, students at the MPA do not seem to be good at reading. In the past, at
the MPA, English teachers focused only on the teaching of grammatical rules,
ignoring how sentences were used in the performance of communicative acts. In
teaching reading, teachers paid too much attention to the explanation of language
points, but failed to help students analyze the connection between sentences, or to
find out the main ideas of a text. Consequently, what the students gained was just
a little knowledge about language. As the result, the students had no ability to
understand the text as a whole.
Most learners complain that there are too many new words and complicated
sentences throughout the whole English reading texts. However, reading does not
only involve the understanding of what words or sentences mean on the surface,
but it also involve the logic and value relations between sentences.
Some other learners think that it is difficult to understand the English text
because of lacking background knowledge. And some students say their reading
2
skills are very poor only because they do not know how to get the meaning of
some new words which appear in the texts. In this sense, they even cannot
understand “skills” very well. The notion of “skills” in learners’ minds is limited.
All the above show that learners focus too much on the texts, while they ignore
their own abilities to infer the meaning. Actually, reading is a cognitive process
“whereby the meaning of a text is recreated or reconstructed by the reader” (Shi,
2000: 28). Therefore, it is necessary to arouse learners’ awareness of their own
ways to read and help learners get some ideas of how to read. From the
experiences in learning and teaching English as a foreign language, the
researcher finds it necessary to study learning strategies, which can help MPA
learners, especially in learning reading comprehension.
1.2. The aims of the study
The aim of the study is to examine what reading strategies are used by the third
year students at MPA in their learning reading comprehension and look at the

factors affecting their reading strategies choice. And the research aims to arouse
the awareness of the learners’ own way to read and to get some new ideas to
improve their reading skills.
1.3. Research questions
The research was carried out to answer the following questions:
1. What reading strategies are used by different learner groups at the MPA in
their reading comprehension?
2. What reading strategies do the effective and ineffective learners use while
they are doing reading tasks?
3. What factors influence the learners’ reading strategy choice?
1.4. Outline of the thesis
This thesis is divided into five chapters below.
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Chapter I, the Introduction, states the research problem, the aims and the outline
of the thesis.
Chapter II, Literature Review, presents briefly some general theories related to
reading and reading strategies, terminological definitions, classification systems
and major characteristics of learning strategies. This is followed by a discussion
of factors affecting the reading strategy choice of the learners at the MPA.
Chapter III discusses the methodology and the procedures by which the study had
been carried out such as selections of samples, instruments for data gathering,
and methods of data analysis.
In Chapter IV analyses the results obtained from the investigation. The data
collected are quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. The differences in the use
of reading strategies in students’ learning reading comprehension between the
two learner groups and the factors influencing their reading strategy choice are
compared and analyzed.
In Chapter V, the conclusion mentions some applications of the study for strategy
training to students at the MPA, the limitation of the work, and makes
suggestions for further studies, and conclusion.

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CHAPTER ii: LITERATURE REVIEW
In the field of second language acquisition, language learning strategies are
attracting a great number of language teachers and researchers’ consideration.
Language learning strategies investigations attempt to identify, describe and
classify specific language learning strategies used by second or foreign language
learners to facilitate their own learning (Oxford, 1985b). This chapter will begin
by reviewing important background theory on reading model and reading
strategies as a basis for the present research and relevant literature related to
learning strategies, which contain terminological definitions, classification
systems and major characteristics of language learning. This is followed by a
discussion of factors affecting the language learning strategy choice of language
learners such as motivation and personality traits. Finally, it provides an overview
of previous studies that involved language learning strategies used for improving
reading competence. This review is done with the purpose of providing a
theoretical foundation for an investigation into reading strategies used by students
at the Military Political Academy, especially the strategies that help them to
improve their reading competence.
2.1. Definition of reading
Reading has been defined in various ways. Smith (1982) stated that “reading is an
imprecise, hypothesis-driven process, and the reader contributed more than did
the visual symbols on page”. Goodman (1985: 815) mentioned that “there is an
essential interaction between language and thought in reading. The writer
encodes thought as language and the reader decodes language to thought”. The
reader’s thought and behavior play an important role in reading.
Later Grabe (1991: 37) argued that “reading is flexible, the reader employs a
range of strategies to read efficiently”. Recently, there has been a shift in
attention from a focus on the product of reading to emphasis on determining the
strategies that readers use in reading context. In the present study, the argument

is that reading strategies play an important role in the whole reading process.
5
With regard to reading processes, three general descriptions of reading: bottom-
up, top-down, or interactive, have been developed over years.
Bottom-up models have not been favored by second language researchers, but
they provide some insights into the second language reading research. In bottom-
up reading models, the reader begins with the written text, and constructs
meaning from the letters, words and phrases. “Following an information-
processing approach to comprehension, bottom-up models analyze reading as a
process in which small chunks of text are absorbed, analyzed, and gradually
added to the next chunks until they become meaningful” (Barnett, 1989: 13).
Goodman (1982) and Smith (1982) challenged this view, and argued that reading
was a top-down models, the reader uses his or her expectations and previous
understanding to guess about text content. Although top-down models have given
way to interactive models, they have made a great contribution to second
language reading theory.
Interactive models of reading were developed over time. According to Anderson
& Pearson’s (1984), the interactive model was namely a schema- theoretic
model:
Readers may compensate for insufficient knowledge in a particular area,
such as word recognition of syntactic knowledge (bottom-up skills), by
relying heavily on other knowledge sources, such as topic recognition or use
of genre or content schemata ( top- down skills) in order to comprehend
texts. (Stanovich, 1980: 35)
The schema-theoretic model focuses on “how the reader’ schemata, or knowledge
already stored in memory, function in the process of interpreting new information
and allowing it to enter and become a part of the knowledge store” (Carrell, 1988:
10). Background knowledge really plays an integral role in reading
comprehension.
6

2.2. Language learning strategies
2.2.1. Reading strategies
Strategy derives from the ancient Greek word “strategia ” and means generalship
or art of war. In general, strategy means a plan, step, or conscious action toward
the achievement of an object (Oxford, 1990: 8). Nowadays, the term strategy is
used widely in language learning teaching and learning methodology to refer to
procedures used in learning, thinking, etc. which serve as a way of reaching a
goal. In language learning, strategies are those conscious or unconscious
processes which language learners make use of in learning and using a language
(Richards, 2000: 445).
Second language reading is a process of how the mind functions during reading
rather than the product of reading. The focus on individual readers’ abilities to
cope with specific texts and textual elements makes readers’ strategies integral to
a study of the second language reading process. Readers use strategies in varying
ways to activate appropriate schemata, to guess meaning of unknown words, to
follow unfamiliar syntax, to decide what to glean from the text. An explicit
definition of the term “reading strategy” is provided by Olshavsky as “a
purposeful means of comprehending the author’s message” (1977: 656). Block
stated that “reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, what textual
cues they attend to, how they make sense of what they read, and what they do
when they do not understand”.
In fact, the interest in reading strategies is part of a wider interest in language
learning strategies, especially in L2 contexts. So as to understand more about
reading strategies and language learning strategies, relevant literature of language
learning strategies will be presented in the next section.
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2.2.2. Definition of language learning strategies
In her study, Tarone (1981) described language learning strategies as a part of
learner strategies that refer to what the learner does to learn and to adjust his / her
own learning of second or foreign language such as steps, plans, any sets of

preparations, even employing their customs to facilitate the selecting, storage,
retrieval and use of information.
In another her research, Tarone (1981) proposed that it is possible to divide
learner strategies into three types: learning strategies, communicative and
production strategies. Although all these strategies can contribute directly or
indirectly to the language learning process, the former relates to second language
learning, the later two involve using second language learning. In other word,
while learning strategies are the means by which the learner deals with the
second language input in order to develop linguistic knowledge, communication
and production strategies pertain to output, because these strategies allow the
learner to employ second language knowledge they have already acquired
efficiently, clearly with minimum effort, and communicate meaning for which
they lack the essential linguistic knowledge (Ellis, 1986; Brown, 1994).
O’Malley and Chamot (1993:1) depicted learning strategies as “the special
thought or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or
retain new information.” In this way, learning strategies are also conceivable as
techniques, approaches or deliberate actions that students take in order to
facilitate the learning and recall of both linguistic and content area information.
These authors have also extended the sphere of description of learning strategies,
which may include:
... focusing on selected aspects of new information, analyzing and
monitoring information during acquisition, organizing or elaborating on new
information during the encoding process, evaluating the learning when it is
completed, or assuring oneself that the learning will be successful in order to
allay anxiety (O’Malley and Chamot, 1993: 43).
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Similarly, this view is also advocated by Oxford (1990). She has expanded this
definition by saying that learning strategies are specific actions taken by the
learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more
effective and transferable to new situations. Perhaps, the best way to understand

what is meant by learning strategies is to look at major characteristics of
language learning strategies.
2.2.3. Characteristics of language learning strategies
Researchers of learner strategies have confirmed that language learning strategies
may play a significant role in their language learning process (e.g. Oxford, 1990;
Wenden and Rubin, 1987). Studies show that strategies contribute to stimulating
learners’ development of communicative competence in general and those
strategies themselves may work in specific ways to foster aspect of that
competence. For instance, social strategies help learners increase interaction and
develop a more empathetic understanding to attain communicative competence.
Such strategies consist of cooperative learning with others, asking questions and
becoming culturally aware and may powerfully enhance learners’ discourse and
sociolinguistic competence and encourage greater amounts of authentic
communication (Oxford, 1990).
Wenden and Rubin (1987) found that adult learners who use effective strategies
are better able to make their own opportunities for practice in using the language
inside and outside the classroom. In addition, learning strategies also allow
learners to become more self - directed and to have a better understanding of and
control of their own learning process so that they can learn inside and outside the
classroom and accomplish their goals in language learning process.
O’Malley and Chamot (1993) suggested that less successful learners can use
successful strategies consciously to accelerate their own learning and can
promote the use of learning strategies in practice. The role of language teachers
in classroom are also expanded ranging from identifying students’ learning
9
strategies, conducting on learning strategies to helping learners become more
independent in their learning process.
2.2.4. Classification of language learning strategies
In studies of language learning, overall strategies that appear to contribute to
learning have been identified largely from teachers and students’ reports,

interviews and classroom observations in language learning contexts. Then these
strategies are classified according to different functions of specific strategy
groups.
The classification scheme proposed by Oxford (1990), for example is both
comprehensive and practical. Language learning strategies are distinguished into
two major classes, direct and indirect strategies. These two classes are subdivided
into six strategy groups such as memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive,
affective and social.
Oxford (1970: 37) also pointed out in her study that the first major strategy class
is learning strategies that directly refer to the purpose of learning language and
are called direct strategies. They all require mental processing of the language,
but in different ways and different purposes. This type is subdivided into three
groups: memory strategies, cognitive strategies and compensation strategies. The
first group contains memory strategies that enable language learners to store and
retrieve new information needed for communication. The second group of
cognitive strategies facilitates learners “understanding and production of new
language by many different means.” The third group of compensation strategies
helps learners to overcome their knowledge limitations in language use.
The second major strategy class is all learning strategies that “support and
manage language learning without directly involving the target language”,
Oxford (1990:135) called indirect learning strategies. They are separated into
three groups: metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies,
which are discussed below. Firstly, metacognitive strategies are actions, which
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provide a way for learners to co-ordinate their own learning process. In other
word, these strategies helps learners overcome puzzlement in their language
learning due to “unfamiliar vocabulary, confusing rules, different writing system,
inexplicable social customs and other newness” Oxford (1990: 136). Secondly,
affective strategies are actions that assist learners regulate their motivation,
attitude, as well as significantly influence their learning success or failure. Lastly,

social strategies are actions helping to create and maintain language
communication between and among people. Moreover, Oxford (1990) maintains
that the six strategy groups above fall into smaller LS sets, which cover some
specific strategies that can be applied to develop language skills.
Oxford (1990:14) also claims that there is an interrelationship between direct and
indirect strategies and among the six strategy groups. They not only support one
another but also each strategy group is able to connect with and aid any other
strategy group to help learners achieve more success in their own language
learning.
2.3. Factors influencing reading strategies choice of language learners
Based on the observation and analysis of her different data types, oxford (1990)
as well as other scholars (Wenden and Rubin, 1987) contended that the use of
different strategies in language learning is influenced by a variety of factors.
Those given by them were items such as degree of awareness, proficiency,
attitudes, stage of learning, task requirement, teacher expectation, age, sex,
nationality, general learning style, personality traits, motivation level, and
purpose for learning the language.
At this point, I will discuss only some of those factors that have been
demonstrated to most affect language adult learners’ learning strategies choice:
proficiency and motivation.
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2.3.1. Proficiency
The study of proficiency has attracted the attention of researchers and teachers.
According to Honsenfeld, C. (1977), the term “proficiency” can be understood as
“knowledge, competence or ability in the use of a language, irrespective of how,
where, or under what condition it has been acquired”. Some studies have
investigated the reading strategies used by proficient and less proficient readers
and revealed that more proficient readers tend to use a wider range of learning
strategies in a greater number of situations than do less proficient learners
although some studies reported more learning strategies used by unsuccessful

learners than their successful ones. For example, Hosenfeld (1977) used think-
aloud procedure to identify relations between certain types of reading strategies
and successful or unsuccessful readers. The proficient reader, for example, kept
the meaning of the passage in mind while reading, read in broad phrases, skipped
inconsequential or less important words, and had a positive - concept as a reader.
The non-proficient reader on the other hand, lost meaning of the sentences when
decoded, read in short phrases, seldom skipped word as unimportant, and had a
negative self-concept. It is generally agreed that “strategic reading is not only a
matter of knowing which strategies to use, but in addition, the reader must know
how to apply strategies successfully. This may be one factor contributing to the
relationship between proficient level and reading strategies uses by readers”
(Anderson, 1991, p.25).
Olshavsky’s (1977) study was designed to identify reader strategies and to relate
their usage to three factors: interest, proficiency and writing styles. A 2x2x2
design was used with two types of reader interest, high and low; two types of
reader proficiency, good and poor; and two types of writing styles, abstract and
concreate. The subjects included fifteen boys and nine girls enrolled in a tenth
grade English class. Each subject was asked to read a short story and to stop at
various points in order to answer questions. At predetermined stopping points in
the story, they were asked to talk about what happened in the story and about
what they were doing and think as they read. Olshavsky’s (1977) study showed
12
that readers do use strategies. This study seemed to indicate that a reader
identifies problem and applies strategies to sole those problems. Although the
types of strategies do not change with the situation, the frequency of use of
strategies does change. In conclusion, most strategies were applied when readers
were interested in material, with readers that were proficient, and when they were
faced with abstract material.
2.3.2. Motivation
Language learning motivation is considered as to be the function that most affects

not only language learners’ success or failure, but also the frequency of learners’
language strategies use (Oxford,1990). Harmer (1991:3) calls language learning
motivation “some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a
course of action.” He observed that when the student perceives a goal that is
something s/he desires to accomplish and if that goal is sufficiently attractive,
s/he will be strongly motivated to do whatever is necessary to reach that goal and
will succeed in whatever the circumstances even in unfavourable conditions.
It is obvious that students study a language because they have an idea of
something that they have wish to achieve. However, a question that has aroused
considerable interest is whether they have the same kind of motivation.
To answer this, Harmer (1991) divided language learning motivation into two
types: the extrinsic concerning with factors outside the classroom, and the
intrinsic, relating to activities in the classroom. In their study of extrinsic
motivation, Wenden and Rubin (1987) distinguished between integrative and
instrumental orientations of the learners. The students who have instrumental
motivation need the second language as means to attain a particular goal such as
better jobs, position or status, etc. Motivation in this case is the reflection of an
external need, not of what the learners want. The students who have integrative
motivation wish to integrate themselves into the culture of the target language
group or desire to know as much as possible about the target culture.
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A number of studies, nevertheless (e.g. Spolsky,1969) indicate that integrative
motivation is a more significant influence on language proficiency than
instrumental motivation, but other studies (Lukami,1972) show that instrumental
motivation sometimes results in better language learning than does integrative
motivation. It is suggested that the two types of motivation are not necessarily
mutually exclusive and most situations involve a mixture of both types of
motivation. O’Malley and Chamot’s (1993:19) empirical research findings
enlarge this definition of second language learning motivation in which, a
taxonomy based on an interaction between two motivational characteristics,

internal and external.
Their model of motivation is subdivided into seven aspects such as 1) interests in
second language rely on existing attitudes, experience, and background
knowledge on the learner’s part; 2) awareness of relevance; 3) expectancy of
success or failure; 4) perception of rewards; 5) decision to choose; 6) pay
attention to and engage in second language learning, persistent learning behavior;
7) maintain of a high activity level.
Research reported by Oxford and Shearin (1994) has also offered another angle
on a broad class theory of language learning motivation. According to them
motivation involves learner’s needs that are influenced by the elements of
psychological security. Learners’ needs may regress if their requirements for
psychological security are unsatisfied. These authors pointed out that some
second language students feel the need to achieve, but others feel the need to
avoid failure and they argued that “students must believe that doing the specified
task will produce a positive result and that these results are personally valuable”
(p.18).
Stear and Porter (1975) have also revealed that satisfaction of students with a high
need for achievement is positively correlated with their language proficiency
whereas, satisfaction of students with low achievement desires is negatively
correlated with their language proficiency. Oxford and Shearin (1994: 22) found
that language learning motivation is affected by social cognition factors such as
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students’ self-efficacy and attribution for success or failure as well. A plausible
suggestion, these researchers propose is that motivation goal must be clear,
challenging, and reachable, and that there must be feedback on goal achievement,
supported by a master learning mode in which all students are encouraged to
reach intrinsically goals which might be more motivating for many students than
a norm-referenced mode or a setting in which all rewards are external.
2.4. Reading in second and foreign language
Reading is one of the most important skills in language learning. Especially,

second or foreign language learning has aroused much attention among many
researchers for many years. All the researchers have been working on how to read
and how to help readers make reading easier to achieve. According to Grabe’s
(1991) view, reading involves fours factors: knowledge of the language, ability to
remember the previous cues, and ability to make the necessary associations
between the different cues that have been selected. Far from being a “passive”
skill, reading is, in fact, an active process in which readers relate information in
the text to what they already know. Knowledge of the language allows readers to
identify the printed words and sentences. Knowledge of the world allows them to
comprehend these words and sentences. Good readers read for meaning. They do
not decode each letter or each word. Instead, they take in chunks of the text and
relate it to what they know. In fact, reading involves a variety of skills, and
mastering reading skills can lead to the least time-consuming and the most cost-
effective reading. According to schema theory (Goodman, 1985), the main
reading skills are listed bellow:
a. Word-attack skills consist of:
- Morphological information: attention should be paid to free and bound
morphemes (prefixes, suffixes, derivational and inflectional morphemes, roots,
and word formation, clipping, abbreviation)
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