Integrating ict resources in teaching english reading comprehension at long khanh high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

NGUYỄN THỊ CẨM LỆ

INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES
IN TEACHING ENGLISH
READING COMPREHENSION
AT LONG KHANH HIGH SCHOOL
Major: English Language
Course code: 8220201

HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES
IN TEACHING ENGLISH
READING COMPREHENSION
AT LONG KHANH HIGH SCHOOL
Submitted to the Faculty of English Language in partial fulfillment of the
Master’s degree in English Language

Course code: 8220201
By
NGUYEN THI CAM LE
Supervised by

NGUYEN THI THUY TRANG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, SEPTEMBER 2020


CERTIFICATION OF THESIS DEFENSE

The thesis entitled: INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES IN TEACHING ENGLISH
READING COMPREHENSION AT LONG KHANH HIGH SCHOOL was
successfully defended and approved on September 30th, 2020 at Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology (HUTECH).
Academic supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, Ph. D
The Board of Examiners for the Master’s Thesis Defense
No.

EXAMINATION COMMITTEE

FUNCTION

1

Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph. D

Chair

2

Truong Cong Bang, Ph. D

Reader 1

3

Cao Thi Phuong Dung, Ph. D

Reader 2

4

Duong My Tham, Ph. D

Member

5

Tran Quoc Thao, Ph. D

Secretary Member

On behalf of the Examination Committee
Chair

Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph. D


HCMC UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
POSTGRADUATE INSTITUTE
HCMC, September 2020

MASTER’S THESIS REPORT

Student name: NGUYEN THI CAM LE

Sex: Female

Date of birth: March 4th, 1995

Place of birth: Dong Nai

Major: English Language

Student code: 1841900030

I- Thesis title:
INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING
COMPREHENSION AT LONG KHANH HIGH SCHOOL
II-

Objectives and contents:

This study aims at investigating the integration of ICT resources in teaching reading
comprehension skill for high school students. Through the teaching and learning
process, this study also considers problems and outlooks of integrating ICT resources in
the teaching reading in English so that teachers can adjust their teaching properly and
students can achieve better results. It is intended that the research findings will
contribute to the field of teaching and learning reading in Long Khanh High School in
particular, and in other high schools in Dong Nai province in general.
The objective of this study is to evaluate student learning outcomes in learning reading
with the integration of ICT resources and find out teachers’ and students’ perspectives
in integrating ICT resources in teaching reading.

III-

Starting date: March 30th, 2020

IV-

Completing date: September 30th, 2020

V-

Academic supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, Ph. D

ACADEMIC SUPERVISOR

Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, Ph. D

FACULTY DEAN

Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph. D


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I certify my authorship of the Master’s Thesis submitted today entitled:
INTEGRATING ICT RESOURCES IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING
COMPREHENSION AT LONG KHANH HIGH SCHOOL
In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s programs issued by
the Higher Degree Committee of Faculty of English Language, Ho Chi Minh City
University of Technology.

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2020

NGUYEN THI CAM LE

i


RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, NGUYEN THI CAM LE, being a candidate for the degree of
Master of Arts (English Language) accepts the requirements of the University relating
to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my Master’s Thesis deposited
in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan, and
reproduction for theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2020
Signature:

NGUYEN THI CAM LE

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my lecturers in the Institute
of Post Graduate Education at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
(HUTECH), especially to Dr. Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Dean of the Faculty of English,

who gave me her invaluable advice when I first began to choose a topic for my thesis.
I am grateful to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Trang, my respectable advisor, for her wholehearted guidance. Without her reference materials, comments, and especially her
enthusiasm, my work would not be completed satisfactorily. Also, her advice and
encouragement help me much in completing this thesis.
Additionally, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to all the students of
classes 11B5, 11B6, 11B8, and 11B9 at Long Khanh High School, who participated
in the survey that I carried out and helped me to have precious findings for my study.
Last but not least, I am particularly indebted to my parents, who have always
encouraged me to fulfill my work as well as given me their financial support during
the time I carry on this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
Information and communication technologies (ICT) have changed into platitude
entities in all features of life. With the world-changing quickly into digital media and
information, the function of ICT resources in school is becoming more significant
and will continue to increase and develop in the 21st century.
This experimental research study on integrating ICT resources in education was
carried out among students in Long Khanh High School, Dong Nai Province,
Vietnam. Participants were 160 students in grade 11 divided into two groups, a control
group, and an experimental group. Besides conventional learning, the experimental
group received eight weeks of integrated ICT resources in learning English reading
comprehension. Pre-test, post-test and questionnaires were used to measure and find
out students’ and teachers’ attitudes about integrating ICT resources in teaching
English reading comprehension.
This study’s findings reflect the improvement of students towards integrating ICT
resources in teaching English reading comprehension. Using the SPSS 19 to analyze
data and T-test to examine the difference between two groups of students, the findings

show that the experimental group students showed a significant improvement in their
reading comprehension knowledge after the experiment. From the questionnaires and
interview questions, students and teachers had positive attitudes about integrating
ICT resources in teaching English reading comprehension.
The study results show that with the effects of integrating ICT resources in teaching
English reading comprehension, both teachers and students were more eager to teach
and learn English. Despite some problems concerning the number of participants,
subjects, students’ attitudes, other language skills, the advantages of integrating ICT
resources far outweigh the previous reading comprehension teaching and learning
method. (266 words)
Keywords: integration; information and communication technology (ICT); effective
use of ICT resources; reading comprehension; attitudes.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ......................................................................... i
RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ............................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... ix
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................. 1
1.1.

Background to the study............................................................................... 1

1.2.

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

1.3.

Objectives of the study ................................................................................. 4

1.4.

Research questions ....................................................................................... 4

1.5.

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

1.6.

Significance of the study .............................................................................. 5

1.7.

Definitions of key terms ............................................................................... 5

1.8.

Organization of the thesis ............................................................................ 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................... 8
2.1.

Introduction .................................................................................................. 8

2.2.

Theoretical background of reading comprehension in ELT ........................ 8

2.2.1. The importance of reading comprehension .............................................. 8
2.2.2. Strategies to teach reading comprehension .............................................. 9

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2.3.

Theoretical background of integrating ICT resources in EFL teaching and

learning reading comprehension ........................................................................... 10
2.3.1. ICT defined in language teaching and learning reading comprehension10
2.3.2. ICT resources use in integrating ICT resources in EFL teaching and
learning reading comprehension........................................................................ 11
2.4.

ICT resources in teaching English ............................................................. 13

2.4.1. Advantages of ICT resources in teaching English ................................. 13
2.4.2. Factors influencing the integration of ICT resources ............................. 14
2.5.

Previous studies.......................................................................................... 16

2.6.

Conceptual framework ............................................................................... 18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 20
3.1.

Introduction ................................................................................................ 20

3.2.

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

3.3.

Research site .............................................................................................. 23

3.4.

Sample and sampling procedures ............................................................... 23

3.5.

Research instruments ................................................................................. 25

3.6.

Data collection procedures ......................................................................... 31

3.7.

Data analysis procedures ............................................................................ 33

3.8.

Validity and reliability ............................................................................... 35

3.9.

Ethical issues .............................................................................................. 37

3.10. Summary .................................................................................................... 37
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................... 38
4.1.

Introduction ................................................................................................ 38

4.2.

Results ........................................................................................................ 38

4.2.1. Students’ score of pre-test and post-test. ................................................ 38

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4.2.2. The pre-test and post-test results with regard to reading comprehension
gain. ................................................................................................................ 41
4.2.3. Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards integrating ICT resources in

teaching reading comprehension ....................................................................... 42
4.3.

Discussion .................................................................................................. 55

4.3.1. Reading comprehension achievement after the ICT resources integration
experiment ......................................................................................................... 55
4.3.2. Positive attitudes of ICT resources integration on students’ reading
comprehension knowledge ................................................................................ 57
4.4.

Summary .................................................................................................... 58

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 59
5.1.

Summary of the main findings of the study ............................................... 59

5.2.

Pedagogical implications ........................................................................... 60

5.2.1. For teachers and students ....................................................................... 60
5.2.2. For researchers ....................................................................................... 61
5.3.

Limitations ................................................................................................. 62

5.4.

Recommendations for further research ...................................................... 62

5.5.

Summary .................................................................................................... 63

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 64
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 73
APPENDIX A: The Pre-test and Post-test ............................................................ 73
APPENDIX B: Phiếu điều tra khảo sát về thái độ của học sinh thơng qua việc tích
hợp các nguồn Cơng nghệ thơng tin và truyền thông ........................................... 79
APPENDIX C: A questionnaire about students’ attitude and learning strategies
through ICT resources integration. ....................................................................... 82

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APPENDIX D: Interview questions for teachers .................................................. 85
APPENDIX E: Sample lesson plans ..................................................................... 86
1.

Lesson plan (using normal method) ........................................................... 86

2.

Lesson plan (integrating ICT resources) .................................................... 92

APPENDIX F: Results of the scores of the control group after the ICT resources
integration course .................................................................................................. 98
APPENDIX G: Results of the scores of the experiment group after the ICT

resources integration course ................................................................................ 102
APPENDIX H: Critical Values of the t-Distribution .......................................... 106
APPENDIX I: Data collection endorsement form at Long Khanh High School.
............................................................................................................................. 107
APPENDIX J: Representative pre-tests and post-tests of control group. ........... 108
APPENDIX K: Representative pre-tests and post-tests of experimental group. 110
APPENDIX L: VIPER plagiarism checking report ............................................ 112

viii


LIST OF TABLES
Table 3. 1 A comparison between the experimental group and the control group
(Fraenke, Wallen & Hyun, 2011) ............................................................................. 22
Table 3. 2 Background information of the research participants .............................. 24
Table 3. 3 The time for conducting research ............................................................ 29
Table 4. 1 Results of the scores of the experimental group and the control group
before and after the experiment ................................................................................ 39
Table 4. 2 Students’ reading comprehension gain after the experiement ................. 41
Table 4. 3 The attitudes of foreign language learning without ICT ......................... 42
Table 4. 4 The attitudes of foreign language learning with ICT ............................... 46

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1 SARM Model ......................................................................................... 19
Figure 2. 2 Conceptual framework of integrating ICT resources in teaching English
reading comprehension ............................................................................................. 19

Figure 4. 1 Reading comprehension scores between the control group and the
experimental group before and after the experiment ................................................ 40
Figure 4. 2 The attitudes of foreign language learning without ICT ........................ 45
Figure 4. 3 The attitudes of foreign language learning with ICT ............................. 49
Figure 4. 4 Students’ favorite activities when integrating ICT resources into
classroom .................................................................................................................. 50
Figure 4. 5 The usefulness of following ICT applications of technology as part of
your learning English ................................................................................................ 51

x


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
EFL

English as a foreign language

ELT

English Language Teaching

ICT

Information and Communication Technologies

SPSS

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

xi

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides the background information of the study, statement of
the problem, the rationale, and its principal aims. The chapter also highlights the
hypotheses and research questions that this study aims to discover. At the end of this
chapter, some terms were also highlighted before describing the context in the next
chapter.
1.1.

Background to the study

In the history of society development, English language has been considered
as a key factor in human lives. A recent study by Ngo and Hendricks (2018) involved
that English is looked at as an international language because English derives from
important presentations in the fields of integration, internationalization, and
globalization in the globalization area. Furthermore, people all over the world use
English to communicate with others. Particularly, in English language teaching, when
English is got in touch with classroom teaching, it plays an incredibly significant role
in absorbing the students’ attention.
Besides, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources also
play as a strong element shaping the education scenery today. Especially, in the 21st
century, the phrase “ICT resources” is a momentous point in many fields comprising
education because of becoming the knowledge transfer highway in most countries. In
a study conducted by Grabe and Christopherson (2008), ICT resources and education
consolidation have carried out innovations and transformed our society and they have
changed the way people think, work, and live.
Jorge at all. (2003) found that ICT resources provide the help and
complementary guides for both teachers and students where it demands effective

learning with the help of the computers to serve the goal of learning aids. According
1


to Young (2003), computers and ICT resources are not only a replacing tool for
quality teachers, but also an add-on supplement needed for better teaching and
learning. Moreover, ICT resources play an essential role in supporting students to find
authentic reading materials from different sources. Teaching and learning process are
facilitated by providing access to wider sources of information and knowledge.
It is commonly believed that English is significant in teaching and learning
from the preschool education to the university education. The efforts of both
government and educators are to improve English education level in Vietnam. Due to
the fact that teaching and learning in our countries achieve many significances, such
as the teaching and learning English in Vietnam help students to improve their
knowledge and give them a chance to integrate into education in the world, however
the process of teaching and learning depends on traditional methods, and the
equipment for teaching English at high school level are outdated and the curriculum
is too. Teaching is based virtually on doing grammar exercise, and the four skills are
less paid attention. Reading, from the other point of view, is the basis for learning
subjects. Despite the fact that reading is combined with exercise, students hardly do
the task well at the hand of the lack of reading strategies. The development of ICT
resources in education improves teachers’ instructions and facilitates students’
learning process.
1.2.

Statement of the problem

For many years, teaching reading skill in English language has been based on
a concept of reading as an application of a set of isolated skills such as identifying
words, finding main ideas, deciding true or false information, answering questions,

matching items and many more. Teaching reading was viewed as a mastery of these
skills (Moats, 2009). Besides many techniques used by teachers to teach reading,
complementing ICT resources in teaching reading has been contributing considerably
to the aim of helping students understand the lessons better and better.
Even if many ICT resources are available for teachers to use in their
classrooms, guidance must be given and continuously comforted to be successful.
2


According to Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2010), the teacher should realize
whether they concentrate on the initial time learning to use ICT resources, including
an interactive whiteboard, email, or the Internet. With preparation and a little extra
devising time, teachers should organize and use ICT resources in their classrooms
and soon witness the benefits, such as improved students’ test scores and motivation
in learning.
Although teachers usually apply many methods of learning reading
comprehension in the teaching context, learners do not have a strategy to acquire
reading comprehension skills suitably (Shoari & Farrokhi, 2014). This case happened
in Long Khanh High school, most students learn reading comprehension passively
because of some factors. First, they depended on their teacher so much that additional
reading comprehension at home is not paid attention, a new vocabulary was acquired
through the context in their textbooks or given by teachers during classroom lessons.
The reasons were that they considered English as an obligatory subject, many students
were not willing to learn by themselves; furthermore, a usual process that happens in
the classroom when teaching reading comprehension is that the teacher reads the
passage aloud and the whole class listens, or students are asked to read the excerpt in
turns. Another factor is that most of the students seemed to learn English to gain their
scores but not to acquire knowledge. Furthermore, Long Khanh students do not
have opportunities to use the reading comprehension skill outside the classroom, they
tend to learn new words, grammars, contents and quickly forget them. Despite the fact

that some classroom activities are recently designed to teach reading comprehension
based on traditional methods, Long Khanh students still find it hard to remember the
words, grammars, and contents they have learned even the frequent appeared words.
In conclusion, the challenges that students in Long Khanh High school are
facing need to be addressed. This study was carried out to improve students’ reading
comprehension learning by integrating ICT resources to teach English reading
comprehension.

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1.3.

Objectives of the study

This study aims at investigating the integration of ICT resources in teaching
reading comprehension skill for high school students. Through the teaching and
learning process, this study also considers problems and outlooks of integrating ICT
resources in the teaching reading in English so that teachers can adjust their teaching
properly and students can achieve better results. It is intended that the research
findings will contribute to the field of teaching and learning reading in Long Khanh
High School in particular, and in other high schools in Dong Nai province in general.
These above aims raise the following core study objectives:
§

To evaluate student learning outcomes in learning reading with the
integration of ICT resources;

§

To find out teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards integrating ICT
resources in teaching reading.

1.4.

Research questions

In the understanding of this thesis, a need to focus on some critical questions is
essential. Research questions lead the process of finding specific answers to the
problems mentioned above. The purpose of the study involves the following research
questions:
§

To what extent did students’ reading achievement improve through
integrating ICT resources in their learning English?

§

What are teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards integrating ICT
resources in teaching reading?

1.5.

Scope of the study

The study was conducted at Long Khanh High School, Dong Nai Province.
The population of this study was approximately 200 students in Grade 11 because of
the fact that students of Grade 10 have just enrolled in the school, they need time to
get familiar with the new learning environment, and the students of Grade 12 need to
prepare for their university entrance examination. Furthermore, there were two

4


English teachers (one male, one female) who were willing to support this study and
integrate ICT resources in their reading classes.
1.6.

Significance of the study

Theoretical significance
The use of ICT resources has contributed to change daily human lives in over
the world. To cope these changes, educators are obligated to learn and update
available ICT resources and tools to facilitate students’ learning in different ways at
various levels of education. According to Ayub, Bakar and Ismail (2015),
technology-based instruction supplies a chance to learn and practice in a visual and
virtual environment. This study is an attempt to integrate ICT resources in teaching
English reading comprehension in Vietnamese high schools. Besides, it emphasizes
the importance of integrating ICT resources with activities and opportunities to raise
their awareness of reading comprehension. This study also suggests some strategies
to help teachers and students know more about the difficulties so that they can develop
practical techniques and proper steps that assist in enhancing their techniques in
reading comprehension.
Practical significance
This study is designed with the following aims:
- To provide insights into the process of teaching and learning the
reading for high school students.
- To investigate the difficulties and effects of ICT resources in
teaching and learning reading comprehension in English language.
- To contributing to a rethinking and modification of teaching

methods currently adopted to develop reading comprehension skills
in high schools.
1.7.

Definitions of key terms

Reading: Reading is not only an especially important skill that must be
consumed by learners but also improving in understanding the meaning of text learnt
5


in the school. According to Tarigan (2008), reading is a procedure to get the message
of the writer through words and written languages.
Reading comprehension: Reading comprehension is the process of putting
together meaning by coordinating several complicated processes which consisted of
word reading, word and world knowledge and fluency. Moreover, reading
comprehension is guided by the teacher, like as following a three-step procedure:
mentioning, practicing, and assessing. If students want to use any skills, the teacher
will mention ones. And then, they give students opportunities to practice those skills
through workbooks or worksheets, and certainly, assess whether or not they use the
skill successfully. In this study, coordinating several complicated processes, steps
procedures, and practice skills is also cited in “Tieng Anh 11” book and “Reading
Challenge 2” book. In those books, reading comprehension practice test is designed
with three mains skills, such as skim, scan, and paraphrasing, which is suitable for
students’ level (pre-intermediate).
Technology: Isman (2012) asserts that technology is the practical use of
particular knowledge in a specific area and is a way of doing a task by using technical
processes, methods, or knowledge. The usage of technology consists of not only
machines (computer hardware) and devices, but also includes structured relations
with other humans, machines, and the environment.

ICT: ICT stands for Information and Communications Technology, which
mentions

about

technologies

that

give

access

to

information

through

telecommunications. It has a similar meaning to Information Technology (IT);
however, it primarily concentrates on communication technologies, such as the
Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.
According to Zhang, Aikman and Sun (2008), ICT embraces all communications,
information and related technology. IT has a narrow meaning includes
telecommunications (voice) technology, while ICT includes data networks as a
reference to the systems that support information processing.

6

ICT resources: There are three types of ICT resources, such as ICT
Information Resources, ICT Collaboration Resources and ICT Learning Resources.
Firstly, ICT Information Resources supply extra information to direct to a topic from
basic to advanced level. Secondly, ICT Collaboration Resources provide users the
chance to take part in professional networks and co-create resources. Lastly, during
the teaching process, ICT Learning Resources presents the possible acquiring
knowledge, attitudes and methods. ICT Learning Resources provide different forms
of work with content and activities, and two main ICT tools in these resources are
Google Classroom and Kahoot!. They are the primary types used mainly in
integrating ICT resources in teaching reading comprehension.
1.8.

Organization of the thesis

There are five chapters presented in the study, which includes:
Chapter one gave an overview of the study. In this chapter, the rationale, the
background of the study, the statements of the problems, aims, research questions,
scopes, and significance of the study were introduced.
Next, in the second chapter, the literature review presented some useful
information that is considered essential for the study, especially integrating ICT
resources in teaching reading comprehension.
Then, chapter three dealt with the methodology for the study depending on the
information, the context of the study, the sample and sample size, the experimental
method the instruments, and the procedure of analyzing data.
In chapter four, a detailed description was presented with the data of the
finding, the results of the pre-test and post-test, and the teacher’ and students’ attitude
towards integrating ICT resources in teaching and learning reading at Long Khanh
High School, and some discussion were also pointed out.
Finally, chapter five gave a conclusion focused on the main findings of the
study, the limitation and the pedagogical implication were also introduced.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.

Introduction

This chapter will investigate the theoretical background of reading
comprehension in English language teaching from different points of view
concerning the specialists that looked at the reading comprehension process in the
light of the discoveries made in their respective fields, and which have influenced
both the theory and the integration of ICT resources. Besides that, the researcher also
presents the view of advantages and factors influencing the integration of ICT
resources. From that, the researcher finds out the relationship between English
reading comprehension and ICT resources.
2.2.

Theoretical background of reading comprehension in ELT
2.2.1.

The importance of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension gets a special focus for several reasons in many
second or foreign language-teaching cases. It is an important language ability because
of the enhancement of the acquisitive language and the improvement of reading
students’ varied purposes as well as the various pedagogical purposes of written texts.
Thus, appropriate reading texts provide opportunities for suggesting new topics,

stimulating discussions, and studying the characteristic of language. It is also one of
the most important goals have been read by foreign language students. All at once,
reading comprehension is highly valued by students the same as teachers.
Reading in general or reading comprehension in particular, which is an
important skill to help people learn from human scholarship and experience. By
reading comprehension, knowledge greatly plays a part in the growth of mankind.
Hung & Tzeng (2001) states that reading is the simplest and fastest way to improve
people’s educational level. Reading is like colorful opening window for human in the
past, where it can be a member of a looking glass for our present. Reading encourages

8


brain cells development, supports language skills, builds up organizational abilities,
enhances one’s disposition and poise, and supplies strength to undergo frustration. In
brief, reading or reading comprehension is the best and only way of allowing humans
to take up new experiences and substitute for old views.
2.2.2.

Strategies to teach reading comprehension

Both top-down and bottom-up processing are an interactive process of reading
(Barnett, 1989); due to that, using appropriate reading strategies is very important for
students to increase their comprehension. As Barnett argues: “strategy means the
mental operations involved when readers purposefully approach a text to make sense
of what they read” (Barnett, 1989). This meant that the integration and application of
multiple strategies or skills are required in reading comprehension. Those strategies
include memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, social, and testtaking strategies. This has been emphasized by many reading experts (e.g.,
Caverly, 1997; O’Malley, Chamot, Stewner- Manzanares, Kupper, & Russo, 1985;
Oxford, 1990; Zhang, 1993). For the research aims, cognitive, metacognitive, and

compensation strategies were selected and described as below.
Cognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies consist of the skills of predicting
focused on prior knowledge, analyzing text organization by finding specific patterns,
self- questioning, making a summary, taking notes by writing down the main idea or
specific points, translating, inferencing, and transferring (see Chamot & Kupper,
1989; Numrich, 1989; Oxford, 1990). Besides, Chamot and Kupper (1989, p. 14)
stated that, cognitive strategies are approaches where learners work with and
manipulate the task materials themselves, moving towards task completion.
Metacognitive strategies. It is an important influence that their achievement is
used for students’ metacognitive knowledge and use of metacognitive strategies.
Chamot and Kupper (1989) points out that, they include thinking about the learning
process, planning for learning, monitoring the learning task, and assessing how well
one has learned. As Pintrich and De Groot (1990, p. 461) states: “planning activities
seem to help the learner plan their use of cognitive strategies and also seem to activate

9