an investigation into the teaching and learning of reading skills for grade 10 students in binh duong province

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THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

<b>FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES</b>

<b>PHAN THI HOANG GIA</b>

<b>AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING AND LEARNINGOF READING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS</b>

<b>IN BINH DUONG PROVINCE</b>

<b>MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGEMAJOR CODE: 8220201</b>

<b>MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE</b>

BINH DUONG – 2022

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THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

<b>FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES</b>

<b>PHAN THI HOANG GIA</b>

<b>AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE TEACHING AND LEARNINGOF READING SKILLS FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS</b>

<b>IN BINH DUONG PROVINCE</b>

<b>MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGEMAJOR CODE: 8220201</b>

<b>MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE</b>

Supervised by

<b>HUYNH THI BICH PHUONG, Ph.D</b>

BINH DUONG - 2022

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To begin, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.Huynh Thi Bich Phuong, for her insightful comments and for devoting her valuabletime to read my thesis with great care. I am very appreciative of the unwaveringsympathy and persistent encouragement that she has given me thus far.

My special thanks for my lecturers at Thu Dau Mot University for their endlessenthusiasm and undeniable helpful lectures. I would be very grateful to the staff of thePost-graduate Department for their support during the time of studying.

I am truly grateful to the Board of school of three high schools, including BauBang high school, Ben Cat high school, and Tran Van On high school for theirapproval of performing the thesis within the schools’ premises. My thesis would nothave been completed without the supports of teachers of English and grade-10 studentsas the research participants; hence, I would like to thank all of them.

I owe a great deal to my family, who have always been unflinchinglysupportive and understanding, allowing me to devote all of my time to finishing mythesis.

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<b>STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY</b>

<i>I certify that the intellectual content of the thesis “An Investigation into the</i>

<i>Teaching and Learning of Reading Skills for Grade 10 Students in Binh DuongProvince” is the product of my own work, and it does not contain materials written or</i>

published by other people or other people’s ideas except the information from thereferences. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diplomain any other institution.

<i>Binh Duong, July 2022</i>

Phan Thi Hoang Gia

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<b>RETENTION OF USE</b>

I hereby state that I, Phan Thi Hoang Gia, being a candidate for the degree ofMaster of English Language accept the requirements of the University relating to theretention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library. In this regard, I agreethat the original of my Master’s thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible forpurposes of study and research.

<i>Binh Duong, July 2022</i>

Phan Thi Hoang Gia

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<b>LIST OF TABLES ... viii</b>

<b>LIST OF FIGURES ...ix</b>

<b>CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION... 1</b>

1.1. Background to the study...1

1.2. Statement of the problem...2

1.3. Aims and objectives of the study... 3

1.4. Research questions... 4

1.5. Scope of the study...4

1.6. Significance of the study... 4

1.7. Organization of the study... 5

<b>CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW...6</b>

2.1. Definition of key terms...6

2.2. Theoretical background...6

2. 2.1. Reading skills... 6

2.2.2. Models of Reading skills... 9

2.3. Relevant factors in students’ learning the reading skills ... 11

2.3.1. Poor language use... 12

2.3.2. Common knowledge... 14

2.3.3. Other factors...16

2.4. Teaching strategies for enhancing the reading skills...19

2.4.1. Classification of reading strategies...19

2.4.2. Strategies for enhancing the reading skills according to pedagogicalapproaches...21

2.4.3. The effective process of reading comprehension...23

2.5. Previous studies... 25

2.6. Conceptual framework... 26

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<b>4. CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS...38</b>

4.1. Difficulties in reading skills... 38

4.1.1. Responses by students from questionnaires... 38

4.1.2. Responses by students from interviews...42

4.1.3. Responses by teachers from questionnaires... 43

4.1.4. Responses by teachers from interviews...47

4.2. Suggestions for improving on reading skills... 49

4.2.1. Responses by students from questionnaires... 50

4.2.2. Responses by students from interviews...52

4.2.3. Responses by teachers from questionnaires... 54

4.2.4. Responses by teachers from interviews...56

4.3 Recommendations... 58

Summary...62

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<b>Appendix B. Questionnaire for teachersAppendix C. Interview for studentsAppendix D. Interview for teachers</b>

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<b>LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS</b>

ELT English Language TeachingEFL English as a Foreign LanguageL1 First language

L2 Second language

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<b>LIST OF TABLES</b>

<i><b>Table 3.1. Demographic characteristics of student respondents...31</b></i>

<i><b>Table 3.2. Design of the questionnaire...32</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.1. Students’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by vocabulary...37</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.2 Students’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by grammar... 38</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.3. Students’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by text structure ...39</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.4. Students’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by common knowledge</b></i>... 40

<i><b>Table 4.5. Students’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by other factors...41</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.6. Teachers’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by vocabulary... 43</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.7. Teachers’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by grammar...43</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.8. Teachers’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by text</b></i>structure...………. 44

<i><b>Table 4.9. Teachers’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by common knowledge</b></i>...45

<i><b>Table 4.10. Teachers’ perceptions of reading difficulties caused by other factors...46</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.11. Descriptive statistics of students’ reading strategies………..49</b></i>

<i><b>Table 4.12. Descriptive statistics of teachers’ reading strategies...53</b></i>

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Reading skills are of great significance to students’ English language learning.The study attempts to explore the teaching and learning the reading skills for grade-10students in Binh Duong Province with the focus on two aspects including thedifficulties in reading comprehension and strategies to overcome. In order to obtainresearch objectives, the method was employed by the researcher with the use of thequestionnaires and interviews to collect data from the respondents of 420 grade-10students and 18 teachers of English from three high schools in Binh Duong Provinceas research participants. Firstly, poor language use and common knowledge wereperceived as reading difficulties by grade-10 students. Among these difficulties,vocabulary and background knowledge were perceived as the most influential ones. Interms of teachers’ perspectives, only vocabulary and background knowledge causedthe challenges for their students in reading comprehension. Secondly, guessing wordmeaning, scanning and skimming, paraphrasing, and questioning were consideredfrequently used reading strategies applied by the teachers to improve students’ readingcomprehension skills. Based on research findings, the implications are generatedconcerning the recognition of reading strategies and implementation of effectivereading strategies to improve students’ reading comprehension skills.

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<b>CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION</b>

The current chapter presents the introduction, which introduces the backgroundto the study, the statement of the problem, the research questions, aims and objectivesof the study, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, and the organizationof the thesis.

<b>1.1. Background to the study</b>

It is clear that the growing demand for mastering a foreign language,particularly English, is a bi-product of the increasing number of foreign sectors andparticipants in society. Therefore, the important roles of English cannot be denied orignored since it is the right language spoken universally. Besides, it is the language ofchoice in the majority of inter-regional or inter-continental conversations andnegotiations in the United States (Rao, 2019). Despite the fact that English is one ofthe most difficult languages to teach and learn due to its use in cross-culturalexchanges, it reveals a profound significance in education and training (McKay, 2018).In Binh Duong province, there are actually many schools which have evenoffered English as an obligatory course to students since the first grade; as a result,most students have spent between 7 and 10 years in school learning English. Studentsare expected to master four basic language skills including reading, writing, speaking,and listening according to their appropriate levels from primary school to high school.Besides, the topics included in the program are also found both familiar andchallenging for students. Thus, their achievements in English fall short of theexpectations of the program despite the fact that they finish learning English for aminimum of three years in a row. Consequently, students are generally weak in a widerange of skills.

Regarding the reading skills, it is stated by Snow, Burns and Griffin (1998) thatreading is vital for human activities and crucial people’s success in the society. Interms of educational setting, according to Clarke et al. (2013), sufficient readingcomprehension skills are essential for the students to reach their educational goals andexpectations. For instance, if the students have good abilities in reading andunderstanding the texts, they can successfully locate and interpret the information and

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messages of the texts as well as identify which is the focus information or irrelevantone to the texts. Furthermore, in order to gain academic success, it is crucial thatstudents can read, understand and apply the information acquired from reading in theirenhancing other skills (Clarke et al., 2013), and their reading comprehension alsobecomes much improved in different levels when students have to deal with morecomplicated texts in higher levels (Clarke et al., 2013; Wong, 2011).

<b>1.2. Statement of the problem</b>

It is undoubted that English is an official language in over 53 countries, and it isalso spoken as the first language by nearly 400 million people worldwide. Accordingto the British Council, about two billion people in the world will be studying Englishby 2020. In addition, English is considered the international and most popularlanguage in the majority of inter-regional or inter-continental conversations andnegotiations. Obviously, together with their mother tongue, understanding andmastering a new language generally and English particularly definitely open a widerange of opportunities for people in terms of approaching novel ideas and inventions inthe world as well as job career development, which promises potential salary,promotion, networking, and an innovative working environment. Therefore, bearingthe perspective that English language education is a strategy to speed up nationaldevelopment, international communication, and a tool to successfully approach othercultures (Chang 2011), English has become a privileged international language taughtin Asia (Kirkpatrick 2012), including Vietnam.

In recent years, English has been considered a compulsory subject among someothers for the entry examination into high school and a conditional factor for earningadmission into top and middle-ranked universities. Admission also prioritizes studentswho have earned an English on the innovation scheme on foreign language learning ofthe Ministry of Education, and the shift in learning and mastering foreign languagesright after graduating from high school.

In terms of learning English skills, according to Clarke et al. (2013), readingskills are among the most important skills for learners of English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL). Clemens and Simmons (2018) defined reading skills as the ability toextract and construct meaning of texts through the learners’ involvement and

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interaction with written texts. Fletcher-Janzen et al. (2013) also elaborated that suchreading skills (the ability to interpret words’ meaning, the ability to understand theauthor’s points of view, the ability to make inference, etc.) are among the key skillsthat facilitate the language learners’ reading comprehension. Furthermore, it is alsorevealed by Hall and Barnes (2017) that reading skills are the key for languagelearners to achieve their academic goals and expectations within the classroom settings.Conversely, insufficient and poor reading skills which may result in students’ failureto learn and retain the information may negatively influence on their academicachievements and other aspects of life (Katz & Carlisle, 2009; Yukselir, 2014).

As a teacher of English working over 10 ten years in Binh Duong Province, theresearcher has realized that grade-10 students have overall low language proficiencyand even poor performance of reading skills. Some other teachers of English alsoexpress the same opinions on this problem when kindly requested for responses in aninterview. This is convincingly supported with the students’ results in English tests,which show low scores for reading sections. This proves the fact these students canhardly meet the objectives of the curriculum. Actually, this impulses the writer toconduct the study to find out the challenges and appropriate solutions for theirimprovement, which is titled “An investigation into the teaching and learning ofreading skills for Grade 10 students in Binh Duong Province”.

<b>1.3. Aims and objectives of the study1.3.1. Aims</b>

The overarching aims of the study are to investigate the difficulties of readingskills they have faced with. Then, the researcher gives some suggestions for thestudents to improve their reading comprehension skills, which is in need to meet thecurrent standards of the English curriculum at high school by the Ministry ofEducation.

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+ Suggest some solutions for those students to improve their readingcomprehension skills

<b>1.5. Scope of the study</b>

The study is conducted with grade-10 students at three high schools in BinhDuong Province including Ben Cat high school, Tran Van On high school, and BauBang high school. Students have encountered a number of difficulties in acquiringgood reading skills; However, in the current study, the researcher just focuses on somecategories of difficulties such as language use (vocabulary, grammar, text structure),common knowledge (background knowledge, text coverage) and others (motivation,timing, strategies, materials).

<b>1.6. Significance of the study</b>

It is expected that the current study can generate significant, valuablecontributions, both theoretically and practically. In terms of theoretical contributions,the current study is important to address the identified deficiencies in the readingcomprehension literature and fill a gap in the current knowledge. Particularly, thecurrent study’s findings will enrich the literature in terms of teaching and learningreading skills in the Vietnamese high school context. In term of practical contributions,the research findings can provide English teachers with a holistic understanding ofstudents’ reading difficulties and solutions as a guideline for teachers to selectappropriate reading strategies to improve their students’ reading skills.

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<b>1.7. Organization of the study</b>

The thesis concludes five separate chapters:

<i>Chapter 1, Introduction, provides a preliminary review of the information</i>

related to the topic. Besides, the purpose, research questions, significance, scope andoutline of the study have been stated.

<i>Chapter 2, Literature Review, provides the definition of key terms in this study.</i>

This chapter also reviews some previous studies to explore theoretical foundationinvolving reading skills, reading difficulties and reading strategies. Considering theliterature, it is identified that Vocabulary, Main ideas, Background knowledge, Textstructure, Grammar, and other factors (motivation, timing, strategies, and materials)are the major challenges to EFL students. Furthermore, such reading strategies asskim/scan techniques, information synthesis techniques, collocation/paraphrasingtechniques, and building reading habits, following the process of reading can be usedto tackle these difficulties.

<i>Chapter 3, Research Methodology, explains the methodology employed in the</i>

research. This chapter clarifies the research participants, subjects, instruments, anddescribes how data are collected and analyzed.

<i>Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, presents the description and interpretation</i>

of the collected data in light of research questions.

<i>Chapter 5, Conclusions present the summary of results and then offers some</i>

suggestions. Besides, the author also clarifies the limitations of this research and givesrecommendations for further studies in the future.

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<b>CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW</b>

In this chapter, the researcher provides a systematic literature review of areas offocus in the current study. Firstly, theoretical foundations concerning reading skillsand taxonomy of reading skills are explored. Secondly, a number of difficulties inreading which are addressed by different authors are critically reviewed. Furthermore,how reading strategies are used to handle reading difficulties by the scholars isidentified. Finally, significant previous studies are examined to reveal literature gapsand to generate the conceptual framework.

<b>2.1. Definition of key terms</b>

The following key terms are used through the current study:

<i><b>+ Reading: It is defined by Nuttal (2000) that reading means a result of</b></i>

interaction between the writer’s mind and the reader’s mind. It is the way how thereader tries to get the message or the intended meaning from the writer. In this process,the reader tries to create the meanings intended by the writer to get the point.

<i><b>+ Reading comprehension: Pang et al. (2003) define comprehension as a</b></i>

process of deriving meanings from connected texts. Readers should interpret writtensymbols that represent language, and they also employ their background knowledge toacquire the messages included.

<i><b>+ Reading strategy: Reading strategy is the broad term used to describe the</b></i>

planned and explicit actions that help readers translate print to meaning. Strategies thatimprove decoding and reading comprehension skills benefit every student, but areessential for beginning readers, struggling readers, and English Language Learners(Johns, 2007).

<b>2.2. Theoretical background2.2.1. Reading skills</b>

It is defined by Bernhardt (2011) that reading skills refer to receptive languageskills which involve the learners’ ability to involve and interact with written languageto understand and present the meaning of texts. Grabe (2009) also defines readingskills as the language learners’ competence to understand written texts by extractingthe required information from them efficiently.

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Reading skills expose EFL students to the target language as well as vitallinguistic information hence boosting their language proficiency (Erten & Razi 2003).The nature of reading is the process of extracting meaning from written material.During the process of reading, readers use information from the text in combinationwith their background knowledge to interpret further meaning (Shin, Dronjic, and Park2019). Therefore, the reader, the text, reading skills, and fluency are all importantcomponents in the process of generating sense from print.

Readability is defined as the ability of the reader to reconstruct a messageencoded by the writer. According to Goodman (1971), reconstruction behavior isdescribed as a cyclical process that includes sampling, predicting, testing, andconfirming the message. To do so, readers must learn not only how to read a text andcomprehend its grammatical structures, but they must also learn how to comprehendthe information contained within it. Reading, according to Souhila (2014), is the activeprocess of comprehending printed and graphic text. Specifically, it is concerned withhow readers can convey meaning through written symbols and incorporate them intotheir mental processes. According to Harmer (1989), reading is a mechanical processin which the eyes receive data and the brain deciphers the message sent by the eyes.Also necessary for a complete comprehension of the contents of reading material isthe ability to think critically while carrying out the skill of reading and comprehendingthe material (Soto et al., 2019). Understanding is a critical component of readingactivities because, in essence, understanding of reading material can aid in thedevelopment of reading skills and the achievement of specific objectives. Thus,reading ability could be defined as the ability to comprehend the content of a piece ofreading material. The goal of reading is to gain understanding rather than to readquickly (Amin, 2019). When reading, comprehension entails connecting what has beenread to previous knowledge and beliefs about all of this information until it is fullycomprehended by the reader (as cited in Mohammadi & Davarbina, 2015).

Furthermore, Redcay and Preston (2016) argued that if students can acquirestrong reading skills, they can not only successfully obtain high academicachievements but also read effectively for their further professional careers. It ischallenging for language learners who have poor reading skills to read and understand

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the meanings of the written text they read, address topics in the texts, link what theyread with their knowledge to capture the main points of the text (Nilsson, 2013;Oakhill et al., 2015). Klingner (2014) also affirmed that reading skills can be trained.Teaching reading skills involves the use of activities and methods which enable thelearners to actively and effectively read and use reading strategies for understandingthe texts.

It is impossible to say which of the aforementioned definitions of reading issuperior because each takes a different, more concentrated approach to the topic, butthere is a strong correlation between reading and comprehending what is being read.Following Van den Broek and Espin (2012), reading comprehension is a complexinteraction between instinctive and strategic cognitive processes that allows the readerto form an image of the text in his or her mind. According to the findings of the study,the ability to precisely and effectively extract information from text is essential. Anumber of factors influence the reading process including the text, the reader's priorknowledge, and the context in which the text is to be comprehended (or not). Readingis a difficult skill to master because it necessitates not only the ability to read but alsothe ability to comprehend and interpret the information that is being presented. Whenit comes to reading comprehension, the reader is expected not only to comprehend thecontents of the reading, but to be able to analyze or evaluate the reading and relate it tohis or her own experiences and prior knowledge (MS & Rachmadtullah, 2018). Inaddition, reading comprehension has its own set of goals that must be accomplished.Achieving complete understanding of logical arguments, textual patterns, symbolicpatterns, emotional extra tones, and language strategies employed to achieve goals isthe goal of reading comprehension. In another word, the purpose of readingcomprehension encompasses a wide range of activities, and it is clear that readingcomprehension is satisfactory if we are to learn about and comprehend the problem weare reading thoroughly.

As a result, as language teachers, it is highly essential to comprehend thenature of reading in order to assist students in reading effectively. It is believed thatone of the root factors for the students, particularly EFL students in achieving good

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results in reading skills relates to the classroom pedagogies, including reading strategictechniques (Ali & Razali, 2019).

<b>2.2.2. Models of reading skills</b>

According to Ahmadi et al (2013), there are different reading comprehensionmodels which can be used by teachers to support their learners to deal with readingcomprehension difficulties during the reading process to enhance students’ readingcomprehension ability. Among the reading comprehension models, the bottom-upmodel, the top-down model, and the interactive model are the most commonly usedmodels. Eskey (2005) also explained that each model has its own advantages anddisadvantages in relation to the concentration in each method which can be applied byreaders to acquire and interpret the meanings of texts. For instance, if readers employthe bottom-up model, they need to decode separate words in the text to capture thewhole text meaning. Contrastively, when employing the top-down model readers needto utilize their existing background knowledge and personal experiences about thegiven topic in the text to understand what messages the text intends to convey.Regarding the last model – interactive model, this model requires the integrations oftwo interactions into reading process, including texts - readers’ previous experiencesand texts – reading strategies (Ahmadi, Ismail, & Abdullah, 2013; Eskey, 2005; Grabe,2004). Particularly, the three models are presented in more details.

<b>a) Bottom-up model</b>

According to Pressley (2000), readers who use the bottom-up model are thosewho have ability to decode the text to support their reading comprehension during thelearning process. However, this model looks at the readers who are not able to quicklydecode words in the text as struggling readers whose comprehension process isinterrupted by their failure to decode. The researcher explained that if the readers havean ability to decode text, they are able to easily and rapidly understand letter chunks,prefixes, suffixes, and the original vocabulary. As a result, readers’ ability to rapidlydecode words can exploit more memory capacity in their brains for readingcomprehension. On the other hand, struggling readers spend more time and efforttrying to figure out the meaning of each word or phrase in the text, which results in

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losing a lot of the processing capacity in the brain that is needed for understanding thetext (Ahmadi & Gilakjani, 2012; Pressley, 2000).

<b>b) Top-down model</b>

In contrast to the bottom-up model, when employing the top-down model,readers’ background knowledge and prior experiences about a specific topic areutilized to extract the meaning of the texts. Therefore, Eskey (2005) considered thetop-down model as a process of “from the brain to text”. Within the top-down model,it is required that readers establish their own expectations about the text at thebeginning of the reading process. These expectations are created by sourcing readers’own prior knowledge and experiences of the given topic. After defining theexpectations, readers utilize their knowledge for word decoding within the texts toaffirm the expectations or modify them. Hence, within the top-down model readers’prior knowledge and experiences take an important role to the readers’ understandingand interpretation of text meaning rather than the text itself (Ahmadi et al., 2013;Wang, 2009).

<b>c) Interactive model</b>

Because both the bottom-up and top-down models have benefits anddrawbacks, the interactive model is used to identify and tackle these limitations byintegrating features of these two models. Therefore, the interactive model is preferredby language teachers and learners to explain the process of reading comprehension andconfirm the importance of the interaction between a reader and the text (Ahmadi &Gilakjani, 2012). The major concern of interactive model refers to the notion that thebottom-up and top-down models cannot be separately used to support the readingprocess; therefore, it is necessary to promote the interactions between the model toensure the efficiency of the bottom-up and top-down models (Ahmadi & Gilakjani,2012; Ahmadi, Ismail, & Abdullah, 2013).

Grabe (2001) also explained that the interactive model requires thecombination of both lower-level processing skills (word recognition and decoding) andhigher-level skills (inference and reasoning skills) to understand the text meaning.Accordingly, the interactive model considers reading comprehension process as aproduct that emerged as a result of gaining meaning through the interaction between

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both readers and written passages, instead of looking at reading comprehension as aneasy transmission of the textual passage and information to the reader’s brain (Eskey,2005). In sum, the researchers point out that expert readers are those who canreciprocally use bottom-up or top-down models in their reading process to synthesizesinformation and interpret the meaning of the texts (Ahmadi et al., 2013; Eskey, 2005;Wang, 2009).

<b>2.3. Relevant factors in students’ learning the reading skills</b>

Reading skills, particularly reading comprehension, are critical for all studentslearning a language and cannot be overlooked. This is founded on the notion thatstudents acquire the majority of their information through reading activities (Lindeblad,2016). Reading comprehension abilities are defined as the process of interactionbetween readers and texts throughout a reading session. The focus of the activity orreading is on skills and mastering the substance of the reading. Readers must be able tomaster and comprehend what they are reading. According to (Martin-Beltrán, 2019),

<i>understanding is the factor that must be present in every reading action. Therefore,</i>

unsatisfied reading skills can cause a variety of problems including slow speed ofreading, failure to understand and summarize the main ideas of a reading text, andbeing unable to guess or predict the meaning of words or phrases used in contexts. Asa result, such students have to spend hard time succeeding in their reading. They donot fully comprehend the content, which is one of the reasons they do not want tocontinue reading. Furthermore, various aspects such as motivation, time, and strategyhave a role in the reading process. It may have serious impacts on reading outcomessuch as speed, pleasure, and comprehension.

The investigation into reading comprehension literature reveals that EFLstudents have to deal with many difficulties during their reading process as well. Theresearchers pointed out some prevalent difficulties including poor language use(insufficient prior knowledge (Gersten et al., 2001; Graham & Bellert, 2005),insufficient vocabulary knowledge (Clemens & Simmons, 2014; Gersten et al., 2001;Graham & Bellert, 2005; Jitendra et al., 2004), text coverage (Graham & Bellert,2005), text structure (Gersten et al., 2001; Graham & Bellert, 2005)), grammatical

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patterns (Hall & Barnes, 2017; Jiménez-Fernández, 2015) and other factors such asmotivation, timing, etc. (Sencibaugh, 2007).

<b>2.3.1. Poor language use</b>

A lot of students have actually experienced a wide range of challenges due totheir poor abilities of language processing in general and poor language use inparticular.

<b>a) Vocabulary</b>

<i>One indicator related to poor language is vocabulary. If a student understands a</i>

word, it's likely that he or she also understands the concepts that go along with it.

<i>Vocabulary is found to be one of the biggest indicators of comprehension in a study of</i>

reading comprehension, and it indirectly influences whether a student would useproblem-solving skills when meaning is lost (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007). Actually,vocabulary is essential for fluent second language use. Learners need a large amountof vocabulary to communicate successfully in a second language, leading to asignificant impact on reading comprehension. In the field of foreign language reading,there has long been a fascination in the relationship between vocabulary and readingcomprehension (Schoonen, Hulstijn, and Bossers 1998; Qian 2002). Researchers haveemphasized the importance of vocabulary as a predictor of overall reading abilitywhen studying the performance of foreign language readers who are challenged withunfamiliar terminology (Grabe 1991). Incidental vocabulary learning is absolutely thekey to vocabulary acquisition for student reading success.

The lack of proper vocabulary is frequently considered as one of theimpediments to text comprehension by second language readers (Oakhill, Cain, andElbro 2019). In fact, the quantity of an English vocabulary has a significant impact onhow well pupils comprehend a reading lesson. They cannot understand a reading textwhen there are so many words in it; they do not have a good understanding of thereading themes; and they frequently read word by word, so they do not understandexactly what the writer intended to express in the text. In the course of reading,students frequently encounter difficulties in the form of vocabulary activities such aspreviewing vocabulary, grasping meaning, and comprehending parts of speech.

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Addressing to this problem, vocabulary might receive some attention in theEnglish curriculum in Vietnamese schools, but it is mostly to aid reading and grammarexercises. Given the significance of vocabulary in second/foreign language learningand instruction, vocabulary in Vietnam's English curriculum arguably requires its ownsection. Besides, vocabulary has just lately become a focus of ELT research inVietnam.

<b>b) Grammar</b>

<i>Grammar is an essential component of a language. Typically, grammar can be</i>

described as abstract in the thought and tangible in application. Without the presenceof grammar, students’ understanding a language can be problematic. There is a widerange of evidence that grammar plays a key role in success of reading comprehension,which reveals a link between syntactic or grammatical sophistication and readingcomprehension over time. To be more specific, children learn to use more complexsentences in their oral and written language, and their ability to comprehend the

<i>readings is also improved. In addition, grammar is defined as the sound, the structure,and the meaning system of a language. Grammar is found in all languages, and eachone has its own set of rules (Beverly, 2007). For students, grammar is a barrier to</i>

approach accurate information. Students may find it difficult to master the use ofgrammatical points such as verb tenses, forms and verb phrases, ... Several studentsadmit that it is obviously hard to identify the forms of verb phrases or noun phrases inEnglish. They struggle not only with pursuing concepts or employing academicvocabulary, but also with the way of sentence building. Some writers utilize long andcomplex sentences, which might make it difficult for readers to understand thematerial. "Grammatical structures have become one of the most important difficultiesin academic English reading," Rose said (2006). Because they lack expertise ofreading issues, they have found various reading challenges connected to the usage ofsophisticated grammatical structures in academic publications. For good readingmaterials in English, there are countless barriers for students when they do notunderstand the grammatical qualities of noun phrases or verb phrases. As a result, areader needs be knowledgeable with language use and structures to understand thetexts. For readers who are reading in a second or foreign language, this should be

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seriously considerable because not all readers are able to absorb enough vocabularyand grammar to read what they want to. Therefore, readers with limited knowledge ofvocabulary and grammatical points will be cautious to study the text.

<b>c) Text structure</b>

<i>Text structure is a crucial aspect of any written document (Meyer and Poon</i>

2001). Text structure has been found to be one of the major issues that EFL studentsmust deal with to improve their reading comprehension (Al-Jarrah and Ismail 2018).To take an example, when readers choose to read titles and paragraph headings toreceive a quick overview of a piece, they are intentionally paying attention to the textstructure. In this respect, text organization can be regarded as a cognitive strategy(Williams, J.P, 2018). The extent to which such knowledge can be explicitly taught tostudents for better comprehension is a fundamental topic concerning the influence of

<i>text structure. Summarizing, semantic mapping, forecasting, generating questions from</i>

headings and subheadings, and using adjunct questions are all strategies that support toimprove text structure awareness and comprehension (Ghorbani Shemshadsara, 2019).

Gersten et al. (2001) also revealed that owing to the understanding of textstructures readers are motivated to raise questions about the reading text, facilitatingtheir comprehension of textual information. Previous studies also empiricallyemphasized that students’ reading performance is greatly influenced by theirunderstanding of text structures (Englert & Hiebert, 2004). Meyer, Brandt, and Bluth(2010) also explained that with adequate knowledge of text structures students are ableto organize and connect information in the reading text, contributing to theirimprovement in retelling skills. Graham and Bellert (2005), in particular, explainedthat during the students’ learning from primary to higher education students areexpected to deal with a number of types of text structures; hence, the knowledge oftext structures is crucial to students’ comprehension. Accordingly, the limitedunderstanding of text structures may generate great difficulties for students in readingcomprehension.

<b>2.3.2. Common knowledgea) Background knowledge</b>

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<i>Background knowledge, which is also known as previous knowledge, is a</i>

collection of "abstracted residue" that was accumulated over time, stated by JonhGurthrie (2000). As far as prior information concerned, there is no doubt that it is animportant component of learning because it aids students in comprehending newconcepts and experiences. They use their prior knowledge to connect what theyalready know to the content they are reading in an attempt to comprehend it. Apartfrom vocabulary and grammar problems, the lack of prior knowledge is also strikingproblem, which can lead to poor connections to the text. Comprehension of aculturally familiar text, because readers, facing up with unfamiliar context, maymistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience.Background knowledge has a significant impact on student performance, accountingfor up to 81% of the variation in post-test results (Dochy et al 1999). Furthermore,there is a well-known link between background knowledge and readingcomprehension (O’Reilly, Wang, and Sabatini 2019). Hence, background knowledgeis connected to positive academic behaviors and improved academic achievement.

To solve this problem, the reader needs to be exposed to several perspectiveson the material. Besides, some other support materials such as magazines, newspapers,books, films, … can help enlarge experience and supply the necessary vocabulary indifferent topics to aid comprehension. Individual readers will obtain diverse views onthemes in the work by reading and debating it.

<b>b) Text coverage</b>

<i>Ehrman et al. (2013) also indicated text coverage as one of the predictors ofreading skills of the language learners, which relates to main ideas to some extent.According to Nation (2006), main ideas refer to the proportion of words the learners</i>

can understand within a whole written text. For example, if the language learnersobtain 80% main ideas, they can understand 80% of the running tokens of the text. Inother words, if the main ideas are out of control, they got troubles with theunderstanding of text meanings. In addition, Aebersold and Field (2007) also affirmedthat reading strategies with reference to text coverage involve the language learners’ability to generalize the meaning of a paragraph and the ability to explain the meaningof the passage/ the process because of the context.

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There are some scholars attempting to explore the main ideas in their studiesto investigate the influence of main ideas on readers’ comprehension. Laufer (2012)administered a study with 92 EFL leaders to measure the relationship between mainideas and reading comprehension ability measured by reading test scores. Differentgroups of students with different sizes of vocabulary knowledge (5000 words, 3000words and 2000 words) were selected as research participants. Data analysis revealedthat students with the vocabulary at the range of more than 3.000 words or 5.000words understand the meaning of texts better than those with about 2.000 words,resulting in different test scores among these students. Also in this study, 56%comprehension was established by the researcher as the standard of comprehensionlevel. The researcher affirmed that only students with vocabulary range of more than5000 words can achieve the comprehension level at 70%. However, the researcher didnot draw the conclusion that a 95% coverage or a vocabulary size of 3,000 words wasrequired for standard text comprehension. The reason was attributed to the fact thatSome learners below the mark had adequate comprehension of the texts, and manyabove this mark may have had only limited understanding of the passages. Moreover,some concerns with the Laufer (2009) study involve the fact that main ideas wereestimated based on learners underlining unknown words in the text, and the studyparticipants were instructed not to underline previously unknown vocabulary that theywere able to guess from context while reading. Thus, their pre-reading main idea wasnot actually measured.

Another research demonstrated that reading abilities are required to captureinformation or ideas communicated by the author through written text, as well as tocomprehend ideas presented in the text, both explicitly and implicitly (Woolley, 2016).Besides, reading comprehension is the process of extracting meaning from a piece oftext. The goal is to get a general idea of what is being explained in the text rather thanto get the meaning of the content in the discourse so that the discourse may be read.(Duff, Tomblin, & Catts, 2015). Therefore, it is undeniable that there is a strongcorrelation between reading comprehension, vocabulary size and lexical coverage.

<b>2.3.3. Others factorsa) Motivation</b>

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Being a crucial component, motivation determines “the direction andmagnitude of human behavior or, in other words, the choice of a particular action, thepersistence with it, and the effort expended on it” and it takes responsibility for “whypeople decide to do something, how long they are willing to sustain the activity, andhow hard they are going to pursue it” (Dornyei, 2001). Reading motivation may befound to have a part in the second language reading process. Students may learn themajority of academic knowledge via reading; thus, throughout their school years,students must read frequently. Reading motivation is the desire to read even if it is notneeded, and it comprises looking for opportunities to read for a number of reasons.According to Girard (1997), reading is frequently the most difficult and uninterestingof the four practical skills for most English learners. Furthermore, pupils' enthusiasmto learn to read is poor; some are hesitant to participate in reading activities, whileothers just read the material without interest. Based on these findings, reading teachersshould encourage or raise their students' enthusiasm in engaging with reading tasks,particularly at the start of the class.

In addition to a lack of motivation, Collins (1996) attributes incomprehensionto a lack of experience or inadequate background knowledge, as well as subjectiveinterpretation of what is read. When students are unable to use the language in relevantcontexts, they lose interest in reading. Only extensive participation in language canaddress the issue of low motivation. "It is an important component of a readingteacher's responsibility to excite pupils," Girard previously stated. Teachers can sparktheir students' motivation in a variety of ways. To serve as an example, for studentswho do not enjoy reading, for pupils who dislike reading, a token economyincorporating stickers or a class shop may encourage them to read more frequently.Depending on the settings and situations under which the activity is conducted,students might be driven by either internal or external stimuli.

<b>b) Strategies</b>

Considering that learning strategies are one of the most significantapplications of cognitive theory, it is necessary to give them special consideration.Learning strategies, according to Arif Saricoban (2002), are behaviors or actions thatlearners employ to make language learning more successful, self-directed, and

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enjoyable for themselves and others. When a learner employs learning strategies, he orshe is attempting to maximize the effectiveness of their language learning. As withother procedural skills learned at different levels of learning, the methods used may beconscious at first, but then practiced without the person's knowledge later on.Cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies should have a significant impact onreading comprehension because they are an essential application of cognitive theory inreading comprehension. Consequently, teachers can assist students in improving theircomprehension skills through the instruction of reading strategies. Predicting, makingconnections, picturing, inferring, questioning, and summarizing are all proven to beeffective strategies for improving reading comprehension, according to research(Block & Israel, 2005). Teach the strategies by naming them and demonstrating theiruse in a variety of contexts, including the think-aloud process, small-group work,partner work, and independent work (Duke & Pearson, 2005).

<b>c) Materials</b>

The material that is used in a reading lesson is one of the factors thatdetermines the effectiveness of the lesson. It is the instructors' responsibility to ensurethat students have access to appropriate reading materials. It is necessary for theteacher to select texts that meet the following criteria in order to complete this task anddeliver an effective lesson. These are: readability; content appropriateness; andexploitability

Furthermore, the reading materials used in a reading lesson are anotherimportant factor that influences students' motivation during a reading lesson. First andforemost, the reading material is engaging and relevant to the students, whichencourages them to read more. Reading material should be of sufficient substance,which means that the books should inform students about something they areunfamiliar with and introduce them to new and important concepts. Secondly, thelinguistic components of reading materials, such as vocabulary and grammaticalstructures, may have an impact on students' motivation to read the material. For oneresearcher, "understanding vocabulary and book structure is essential forunderstanding the meaning of a book" (Aebersold & Field, 1997). Students can gain an

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understanding of how others feel or think by reading the books, which also forcesthem to read for themselves.

<b>2.4. Teaching strategies for enhancing the reading skills2.4.1. Classification of reading strategies</b>

For years there are various researchers classifying reading strategies intodifferent categories in view of a wide range of criteria (Oxford, 1990; O'Malley &Chamot, 1990; Chamot & O’Malley, 1996; Chamot, 2005). For example, Chamot andO’ Malley (1990) divided strategies into three broad categories: metacognitive,cognitive, and social/affective strategies. Meta-cognitive strategies are about knowingabout learning and controlling learning through planning and evaluating the learningactivity. Cognitive strategies involve the manipulation or transformation of thematerial to be learned. Social/affective strategies mainly involve the learner incommunicative interaction with another person (Liu, 2010) . Oxford (1990) proposesthat the language learning strategies can be divided into direct (including memorystrategies, cognitive strategies, and compensation strategies) and indirect groups(metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, and social strategies). The readingstrategies which will be studied in this paper are based on O’Malley and Chamot’slearning strategies because their classification is clearer and easier to understandcompared with that of others. As such, the reading strategies are classified into fourmajor groups: cognitive, metacognitive, social, and affective strategies, which werealso adopted in many studies (Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001; Seyed & Nasab, 2015; Yu& Wang, 2009). Each group comprises specific strategies selectively presented in thestudy as below.

According to Ozek and Civelek (2006), and Zhang and Guo (2020) cognitivestrategies are defined as mental processes directly related to handling informationthrough using prior knowledge and various strategies in their efforts to make aprediction and construct meaning from the text. Therefore, the reader can use cognitivestrategies to solve difficulties in the reading process and complete reading tasks(Dinsmore & Fryer, 2019; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001). The specific strategies in thisgroup include: adjusting the speed of reading – read slowly to understand the contentof the text; relating the title to the text content; guessing the meaning of a word from

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the context; reasoning deductively – predicting or inferring based on prior knowledgeor what is implied; skipping some unknown words; reading without translating word-for-word; re-reading – reading more than once to understand the text better; analyzingthe organization of the text; summarizing – making a summary from a long passage tocomprehensive the content of the passage; taking notes – writing down main ideas,important points, keywords; translating – switch into the first language to understandmore clearly.

In the studies on metacognitive reading strategies, Ozek and Civelek (2006)consider these strategies as routines and procedures that help readers to monitor orregulate cognitive strategies. Metacognitive reading strategies consist of planning forreading, monitoring of reading tasks, and evaluating reading after the languageactivities (Kung, 2019). Planning is the process of setting goals for reading, skimminga text, and making questions. Some strategies for planning are activating priorknowledge – linking the present topic with previous relevant knowledge; analyzing atitle, pictures, illustrations, headings, or subheadings; reviewing the length of the textand text structure (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002). Monitoring relatesto regulating reading by paying attention to reading – deciding what to pay attention toand what to ignore; self-testing – self-questioning and checking understanding to makesure understanding (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard, 2002; Shang, 2017).Evaluating strategies is a self-evaluating strategy that includes reflecting on whatreaders have just read, and summarizing (Khoshsima, 2015; Mokhtari & Reichard,2002; Shang, 2017).

The third group of reading strategies is social reading. Hong-Nam and Leavell(2007)<b>, Lee (2012), and Yu and Wang (2009) mention social reading related to</b>

cooperation in learning and interaction in communication. Social strategies are definedas using assistance from other people. These strategies include interacting with otherswhile reading; cooperating with others – working with peers or groups and askingthem when not understanding something; asking for clarification or verification –asking a teacher, friends, or a native speaker to explain or give examples when notclearing about what to do with a reading task.

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The fourth strategy group is affective reading strategies. Lee (2012), as wellas Yu and Wang (2009) mention affective strategies as a strategy to control emotions,attitude, and motivation while Seyed and Nasab (2015) define affective strategies as away to interact and negotiate with other EFL speakers in a relaxed and less stressfulsituation. Therefore, the affective reading strategies can be seen as self-motivating inthe reading process through activating supportive emotions, beliefs, and attitudes;discussing feelings with others; reading materials for satisfying joy and pleasure; usingspecial techniques (e.g. deep breathing or meditation for relaxation) to reduce anxietyabout a reading task; interacting and negotiating with other EFL speakers in a relaxedand less stressful situation.

<b>2.4.2. Strategies for enhancing the reading skills according to pedagogicalapproaches</b>

Since 20th century, there have been four different teaching approaches used inreading instruction for L2 students, including grammar-translation, textbook passages,skills and strategies, and extensive reading (Bamford &Day, 1998). These fourapproaches are not always applied separately but instead they can be mixed for certainpurposes of the course. Traditionally and historically, grammar-translation has beenheavily favored around the world, even till this very day because it can easily fit to thecontext of local educational and cultural practices (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Richards &Rodgers, 2014). Together with this approach is using comprehensive question-basedapproach in textbook to prepare students for standardized exams. However, since the1980s, the skills and strategies approach made an impressive emergence to thepedagogical theories and practices, and by now it is considered as one of the mostimportant and popular methods to teach reading English for L2 students (Bamford &Day, 1998). The first reason behind this influence is that teachers can directly enhancethe way how their students read documents by teaching skills and strategies in reading,which is much more flexible and advanced compared with the traditional approachwhere the lessons only allow them to work on specific contexts and passages.Secondly, strategic reading practices provide an opportunity for L2 students toincrease the frequency of interaction with the text by utilizing background knowledge(Bamford & Day 1998; Lee 2017; Nasri & Biria 2016).

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In a review study on reading strategies in the context of teaching readingcomprehension to EFL students (Ali &Razali 2019), the authors identified two majorgenres of strategies: cognitive reading strategies and metacognitive reading strategies.Cognitive reading strategies are strategies that help students improve their readingcomprehension skills. A cognitive reading strategy refers to specific learning tasks thatare used during the learning process, whereas a metacognitive reading strategy refersto the planning, thinking, monitoring, and evaluating learning that occurs after tasksare completed. Reading the text again, scanning it, analyzing it, and summarizing it areall tactics of cognitive reading strategies. They also include the use of primarylanguage to develop ideas and guide students in understanding the reading content, aswell as rereading, scanning, analyzing, and summarizing. All cognitive strategies,including Comprehending Strategies (dictionary, translating), Memory Strategies(underlining and highlighting information, visualizing read material), and RetrievalStrategies, are closely related to one another (i.e., previewing text before reading,using prior knowledge, using context clue to ascertain the meaning). They are used toencourage students to read slowly in order for them to be able to evaluate and visualizethe information they are reading. The metacognitive strategies, on the other hand,assist language teachers in better understanding the various reading styles of theirstudents and in determining the most effective reading strategies to teach in thelanguage classrooms. In this review study, Ali and Razali (2019) came to theconclusion that, despite acknowledging the importance of teaching reading strategies,the reason for their choices of teaching strategies was not explained. It was alsodiscovered that teachers have a tendency to use common reading strategies, which maylimit students' opportunities to overcome the difficulties in reading comprehension thatthey are experiencing. Instead, it was critical for teachers to gain a thoroughunderstanding of their students' needs, difficulties, and preferred strategies in order tointroduce them to the most effective strategies that would work best for them.

There have been several concerns around the issue of teaching reading. Grabe(2004) found that there are certain similarities regarding the cognitive activitiesbetween L1 and L2 reading skills but the differences are not that insignificant to beignored (Bernhardt 2003; Koda 2005). The evidence and literature review for L2

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reading practices for teachers and students are sufficient, hence it remainscontroversial whether L1 settings is compatible for L2 classes (Akamatsu 2002;Chiappe, Siegel, and Wade-Woolley 2002; Koda 2005).

<b>2.4.3. The effective process of reading comprehension</b>

Each unit in textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, which is currently in use at highschools in Binh Duong province, refers to guidance and requirements of four basicskills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Among them, the readingpart suggests the instructions for successful reading comprehension with three stages:pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading (Wallace 2003; Toprak & Almacıoğlu2009).

<b>a) Pre-reading stage</b>

Different researchers like Lazar (1993), and Graves (1995) have provided

<i>many definitions of pre-reading. To serve an example, Lazar defined pre-reading</i>

activities as activities helping students with cultural background, stimulate studentinterest in the story, and pre-teach vocabulary. Besides, Graves defined pre-readingactivities as “devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’sschemata”. Depending on each lesson, pre-reading phase often lasts from 10-15minutes. This stage is all-important because teachers are supposed to instill in studentsa desire to read by activating or expanding their previous knowledge of the subject andfamiliarizing them with some of the language they will need to cope with the text.Tudor (1989) called pre-reading activities as enabling activities because they provide areader with the necessary background to organize activity and to comprehend thematerial. Therefore, instead of answering pre-determined questions that dictate how tounderstand the texts, teachers should encourage students to construct questions,statements, or hypotheses during this stage. In this so-called critical approach toreading, students are encouraged to ask more questions when reading. This is not aconventional reading assignment in which the primary purpose is for students to findsolutions.

<b>b) While-reading stage</b>

When all students actually set their eyes on the text and this stage is the mainpart of reading comprehension lesson, while-reading stage is carried out. The goals of

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this stage are to get students excited about the process of comprehending the entiretext and interpreting what the author wrote. Furthermore, it not only assists students inbreaking up the order of the text but also educates them to consider additional conceptsthat arise from the text, resulting to improve their reading speed and techniques.Teachers might provide pupils alternate interpretations of a work during this time.Students should be encouraged to think critically and examine the many discoursesthat they may encounter in the book. They should be educated that there is not just onetype of discourse in a text, but that there are others. Teachers must be innovative indevising reading exercises that allow students to "read" the material in a variety ofways. The use of literary texts in a reading lesson is one example of how literary textsmay help students in developing diverse discourses.

<b>c) Post-reading stage</b>

The final stage of the reading lesson, as the title suggests, is conducted at theconclusion of the reading lesson, but its significance cannot be overstated becausestudents will be required to apply what they have learned from the book to real-lifecommunication during this process. According to Arwijati Wahjudi (2010), post-reading activities are simple actions that are carried out after the completion of during-reading activities have been completed successfully. At this point, the students areexperiencing a transient change in status or condition, which means that they havelearned something that they did not previously know. They have gained knowledge ofnew vocabulary, sentence structures, idiomatic expressions, and information about aspecific topic or topical issue. Something must be done to assist students in puttingwhat they have learned into practice in order for these new skills to become more thanjust facts. Students in the post-reading stage are not studying the language of the book,and they are also not comprehending the information contained within it. Whenstudents reach the post-reading stage, they should be able to apply what they havelearned in previous stages to comparable reading, and they should be able to makeconnections between their reading abilities and other language skills such as listeningskills, speaking skills, and writing skills. One of the goals of the post-reading stage isto assist students in becoming more integrated into the foreign culture so that they cansummarize the reading material using important terms and structures (Arif Saricoban

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2002). Teachers should plan activities that encourage students to consider alternativeapproaches to the problem presented in the reading text.

Meaningful learning occurs when students make connections between newmaterial and their own lives and experiences after they have finished reading. Eachstudent is invited to provide feedback on specific sections of the material that she or hehas read and comprehended. Due to the fact that they are engaged in responding to thetexts that they have been assigned, students feel empowered and, to some extent, incontrol of their activities, while their teacher remains in the background. This maypave the way for greater student autonomy. Students' ability to communicate, whichincludes their willingness to take risks and be self-assured, is improved as a result ofthe expectation that they will be well-prepared to participate in the post-activities.When students are given a variety of responsibilities, they are given numerousopportunities to use the language, both verbally and in writing, to express themselves.

In another word, the reading process can be interpreted as illustrated in thefigure below:

<i><b>Figure 1. The reading process with three stages</b></i>

<b>2.5. Previous studies</b>

International studies have conducted on both academic environment (Brevik2019; Fathi & Afzali 2020; Sparks & Patton 2016; Abaeian & Samadi 2016) and non-academic context (Lee 2017). On one hand, Brevik (2019) and Fathi & Afzali (2020)explored the presence and the influence of strategy instruction on reading in dailyreading classes. Other studies on the other hand, such as that of Sparks & Patton (2016)and Abaeian & Samadi (2016), focused on the model and techniques applied inreading classes to boost up the efficiency of L2 students. Overall, it was suggested that

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the second language students in either academic environment or non-academicenvironment will benefit greatly from strategic and comprehensive readinginstructions, which improves critical literacy and metadiscursive awareness in them.

There have been several studies conducted under the context of Vietnamesehigh school students. Some studies have created a fundamental background for thistopic by studying the nature and habits of students in studying reading skills; however,these studies used their target subjects as university students only (Stoller & Nguyen2020; Thuy 2018). In the meantime, the perspective of teachers was also considered tofind the most popular approach used by teachers to attract and get their studentsengaged (Tran & Nguyen 2017; Thư, Anh & Nam 2019). Tran & Nguyen (2017)suggested that using context clue was the most frequently used option, while the fourmost favorite reading strategies to get students’ attention in reading classes includedgames, pair work, group work, and role play. In 2017, a studty of Lap and Trang (2017)conducted on sixty-nine tenth-grade students revealed that task-based learningtechniques are beneficial for students’ motivation in learning reading because they areencouraged to take risk, make efforts and take more responsibility to reach their goals.

Nevertheless, the literature background on the challenges that high schoolstudents are struggling with regarding reading comprehension as well as the in-classinstruction and practicing techniques that they prefer to solve these issues is still inadequate.

<b>2.6. Conceptual framework</b>

The interactions and engagements between EFL students and teachers havebeen found to be immensely diverse and complicated in multiple dimensions(Halverson and Graham 2019; Sari 2019; Weizheng 2019; Al-Zahrani and Al-Bargi2017). Halverson and Graham (2019) investigated the learners’ engagement (includingcognitive and emotional energy) and found that there were multiple factors that couldinfluence this engagement. By contrast, research conducted by Al-Zahrani and Al-Bargi (2017) suggested that questions given by teachers to students have a correlationwith engagement of students to the classroom and lessons. The pattern of interactionsin the classroom has never been one-sided: most students perform actively in anyclassroom activity (Sari 2019); hence teachers’ organization of classroom activities

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might produce more fruitful interactions and engagement. Nevertheless, it has beenpointed out that teachers are utilizing most of class time on presentation, leaving justan insignificant amount of time for interactions, which negatively impact the intensityof communication between students and teachers (Weizheng 2019).

For high school students, particularly students in Vietnam, the intensity ofEnglish classes and the interconnection between students and teachers is vital inaccumulating reading skills. Students, on one hand, have their conscious awareness inthe application and maximization of their personal strategies to solve reading issues inreading comprehension (Bagci and Unveren 2020; Al-Mekhlafi 2018; Jun Zhang 2001;Al-Mekhlafi 2018). In the meantime, teachers' choices of pedagogies root from boththeir values, knowledge, and institutional functions. However, the overall pedagogicsystem is not only a network of choices but is also a system containing the interactionsof both students and teachers (Rose 2018). And from the previous studies andaforementioned literature review, the successful choices of reading strategy andinstructions should adapt and vary according to students’ needs and performances.Conceptual framework is a concept used in many social science researches to avoidconceptual confusion by functioning as visual organizing tools and mental maps tolead the research (Van der Waldt 2020). Based on various references and researchers’perspectives, the writer outlines the conceptual framework of this study to present themost influential difficulties of students in reading comprehension as well as thecorresponding reading strategies that should work most effectively and accordingly.

<b>Teaching and learning</b>

<b>Reading difficulties^{Solutions to improve}reading skills</b>

<b>languageknowledge^Common^Others^Pedagogical_approaches^{Effective process}_{of reading skills}</b>

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<i><b>Figure 2. Conceptual framework of the teaching and learning of reading</b></i>

skills for grade-10 students in Binh Duong province(Source: Adapted from various researchers)

To sum up, this chapter goes through significant previous studies to exploretheoretical foundation involving reading skills, reading difficulties and readingstrategies. Considering the literature, it is identified that poor language use (vocabulary,grammar, text structure), common knowledge (background knowledge, text coverage),and other factors (motivation, timing, strategies, materials) are the major challenges toEFL students. Furthermore, such reading strategies as skimming/scanning techniques,reading the text carefully again, following the process of reading, informationsynthesis techniques, collocation/paraphrasing techniques, summarizing and buildingreading habits.

</div>