a study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies a case of 10th form students = nghiên cứu cách học sinh sử dụng các chiến lược đọc hiểu trường hợp của học sinh lớp 10 trung học phổ thông

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES




TRẦN THỊ THANH LOAN


A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF READING COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES: A CASE OF 10
TH
FORM STUDENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC
ĐỌC HIỂU: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRUNG HỌC
PHỔ THÔNG)


M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES




TRẦN THỊ THANH LOAN


A STUDY ON STUDENTS’ USE OF READING COMPREHENSION
STRATEGIES: A CASE OF 10
TH
FORM STUDENTS

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁCH HỌC SINH SỬ DỤNG CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC
ĐỌC HIỂU: TRƯỜNG HỢP CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRUNG HỌC
PHỔ THÔNG)


M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS


Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuong Nga

Hanoi, 2014
i

DECLARATION

I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension
strategies: A case of 10
th
form students” is the result of my own research for the degree
of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other
universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can
be accessible for the purposes of study and research.
Hanoi, 2014


Trần Thị Thanh Loan

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I owe a great many thanks to so many people who have supported me all the way
throughout my study to this final achievement.
First and foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude towards Ms. Nguyen
Phuong Nga, Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy for her enlightening guidance,
invaluable advice and inspiration. Without her careful instructions and critical feedbacks,
my study would not have been fulfilled.
My sincere thanks also go to all the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate
Studies for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master course for
me with valuable knowledge and experience so that I was able to conduct this study.
I would like to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at
Pham Hong Thai high school for their cooperation and support so that I could complete
my necessary data collection

for the study.
Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family and friends,
who have always been by my side to encourage and support me during the process of this
research. Without their help and encouragement, I could not have completed this study.

iii

ABSTRACT

This is the study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies. The target
population is the 10
th
form students at Pham Hong Thai high school. The main aims of
this study are to discover the current situation of applying reading strategies of the 10
th

form students, and to figure out how to enhance their reading comprehension. To achieve
these objectives, the researcher uses (1) survey questionnaire for the students, and (2)
unstructured interview for English teachers. The results of the questionnaires show that
the students are aware of the importance of reading comprehension in general and
reading strategies in particular. Additionally, the reading strategies applied by the
students are restricted and not frequently. Besides, the interview’s result indicates that
teachers also apply only some of the reading strategies in their reading lessons including
scanning, skimming and guessing new words in context. The researcher also finds it
possible to enhance student’s reading comprehension with the use of reading strategies
according to the teaching methods of teachers in the interview. Acknowledging the
obstacles and the students’ positive attitudes towards the use of reading strategies, it is
recommended that more reading strategies be used and adapted in the class time to meet
the individuals’ needs and abilities.

iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES
ABBREVIATIONS:
EFL
English as a Foreign Language
ESL
English as a Second Language
L1
First language
L2
Second language
PHT
Pham Hong Thai
N
%
Number
Percentage
FIGURES AND TABLES:
Figure 1: The importance of reading comprehension
Figure 2: Students’ purposes of learning reading in English
Figure 3: The difficulties in reading a text
Figure 4: The importance of having good reading strategies

Table 1: Background Information of the Subjects
Table 2: Results of predicting strategy
Table 3: Results of skimming strategy
Table 4: Results of scanning strategy
Table 5: Results of inferring strategy
Table 6: Results of guessing meaning strategy
Table 7: Results of self – monitoring strategy





v

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study 1
2. Aims and objectives of the studies 2
3. Significance of the study 2
4. Research methodology of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Design of the Study 3
PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4
1.1. Reading comprehension 4

1.2. Reading strategies 6
1.3. Teaching and learning reading strategies 9
1.4. Researches on reading strategies 11
CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY 17
2.1. An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) 17
2.2. Objectives and method of the study 19
2.3. The participants of the study 19
2.4. Instruments of data collection 21
2.5. Data collection procedures 22
2.6. Data analysis procedures 23
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH’S RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 24
3.1. The survey questionnaire results 24
3.2. The interview results 32
vi

PART 3: CONCLUSION 36
1. Conclusions 36
2. Limitations of the study 38
3. Suggestions for further study 38
REFERENCES 40

1

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Teaching a foreign language in general and English in particular requires great
knowledge, experiences and efforts.
According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most
important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign
language”. Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it
supports learning in many ways. Firstly, reading material is a language input. Students
given a variety of materials to read have many opportunities to absorb vocabulary,
grammar, sentence structure and discourse structure. Secondly, reading for content
information in the language classroom provides students with both authentic reading
material and an authentic purpose for reading. Thirdly, reading helps students broaden
their knowledge of the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are
studying.
Researchers believe that teaching productive reading strategies motivate students
to read and facilitate reading comprehension (Anderson, 2003; Eskey, 2002; Grabe,
2004). It also appears that good students apply a variety of reading strategies to their
learning. Therefore, the importance of teaching reading strategies is to not also facilitate
students’ reading process but help student enrich their vocabulary and grammar as well.
What is more, in the context of the upper secondary school, reading is even more
important than other three skills of speaking, listening, and writing. The reason is that

students have to take the examinations, which are grammar- and reading- based.
However, the students’ reading proficiency is not satisfactory.
Thus, this study is conducted to investigate the use of reading strategies of the 10
th

grade students at Pham Hong Thai high school. Although almost all 10
th
form students
have learnt English since grade 6, many of them do not know or use appropriate reading
strategies yet. As a result, they can become easily frustrated when they do not understand
what they are reading, and they become demotivated.
2

For the above-mentioned factors, the researcher attempted to conduct a study
named “A study on students’ use of reading comprehension strategies: A case of 10
th

form students”.
2. Aims and objectives of the studies
Firstly, the research is carried out to investigate the current use of reading
comprehension strategies applied by the 10
th
form students in Pham Hong Thai high
school. Secondly, the study is to figure out how to enhance 10
th
form students’ reading
comprehension. Therefore, the research is to seek answers to the following research
questions:
1. What are reading strategies currently applied by 10
th

form students in Pham Hong
Thai high school?
2. How to improve 10
th
form students’ reading comprehension?
3. Significance of the study
Once successfully completed, the study’s findings and discussions are expected to
be beneficial to English teachers, the 10
th
forms students, the researcher herself as well as
other researchers. Firstly, teachers of English can recognize the significant benefits, if
any, of strategies in teaching reading comprehension. Based on the findings, teachers
could adapt their current situation of teaching reading so that they could improve their
students’ reading comprehension. Also, there are some suggested solutions for teachers to
prepare an efficient technique to motivate students’ participation in their studying and to
teach them how to read effectively. Secondly, reading comprehension strategies can
provide students with self-study to improve their reading skills and to face reading
comprehension difficulties. Additionally, this study is expected to bring the researcher an
invaluable experience as it provides her with knowledge and techniques to teach reading
comprehension strategies. Finally, the findings of this study are hoped to offer reliable
and updated information for interested and further studies.
4. Research methodology of the study
This study is conducted as a descriptive study that applied qualitative approach.
The qualitative analysis is employed mainly through the process of data collected from a
3

written survey questionnaire delivered to 10
th
form students to examine the use of reading
strategies, and through an unstructured group interview which is carried out to teachers to

find out how to improve 10
th
form students’ reading comprehension.
5. Scope of the study
According to the Ministry of Education and Training’s requirements, high school
students have to be taught all four skills including reading, speaking, listening, and
writing. However, it is because of the large size of the class and test – oriented that
English lesson focuses more on reading. Thus, this research only put the emphasis on the
use of reading strategies of the 10
th
form students, who are at the beginning of high
school but have just learnt English for more than 5 years.
6. Design of the Study
The thesis consists of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion.
The Introduction aims at the rationale, the aims, the scope, and also the design of
the study.
The Development consists of three chapters. Chapter 1is Literature Review. This
chapter reviews some theories of basic concept based on the publications in the field. The
results from the recent studies for the issues related to the aspects of the subject in the
same field are also presented. Chapter 2 is the Methodology. In this chapter, the author
presents the research methodology and the instruments used to collect data from the
questionnaire for the students and the unstructured group interview with teachers. The
procedure of collecting data and the analysis of the survey data is also described
carefully. Chapter 3 is the Research Findings and Discussion which presents the
research’s findings (i.e. analysis of data, results) and discussion.
In the Conclusion, the author presents the conclusions and limitations of the study
as well as some suggestions for the further related studies.
This chapter is followed by the References and Appendices.

4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this first chapter, t
he theoretical background, literature on
the concept of
reading comprehension, and reading strategies are going to be thoroughly presented. This
chapter also analyzes some studies on reading strategies that have been conducted so far
so that the researcher could discuss
on the results later.

1.1. Reading comprehension
1.1.1. Reading
Reading plays an important part in the success of second language learning. It is
essential to understand the nature of reading.
According to Hamer (1989:190), reading is “an exercise dominated by the eyes
and the brain. The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the
significance of the message.”
When it comes to reading in second language, Williams (1984:2) stated that
reading is “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written… The
reader does not necessarily need to look at everything in a given piece of writing. The
reader is not simply a passive object, fed with letters, words and sentences, but is actively
working on the text and is able to arrive at understanding without looking at every letter
and word.”
Anderson (2003:68) offered another definition of reading, which is “a fluent
process of readers combining information from a text and their own background
knowledge to build meaning. The goal of reading is comprehension.”
Although these definitions are expressed differently, they convey the same idea
that reading is a selective process and characterized as an active process of
comprehending. Thus, the reader’s knowledge of the language and knowledge of the

world is of great importance to their reading success.
1.1.2. Reading comprehension
In teaching reading, it is necessary for both teachers and students to have a deep
understanding about the definition of reading comprehension.
5

Reading comprehension can be understood as the ability to obtain the information
as required in the reading text as efficiently as possible. Different scholars offered various
points of view on the definition of reading comprehension.
According to Richard, Thomas and Jere (1987: 143), reading comprehension is
a mental process that in the final analysis, only the readers fully understand.
Comprehension is what stimulates readers to remember the past experience. That
knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out of print. Meaning does not
reside on the printed page but rather in the meaning of the reader.

Roe, Stoodt and Burns (1987:2) proposed that “reading comprehension is
reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by
using knowledge gained from life experience”.
According to interactive model of reading, comprehension is built up or constructed
from knowledge sources which interact with each other on the input from the written
page.
Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming
information to information already stored in memory. Readers make connections
between the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge.
They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge
store.
(Lee and Vanpatten, 1995:191)
Ur (1996:148), on the other hands, stated that effective reading comprehension is a
process with the elements as follow:
- a clear purpose in mind

- an enhanced motivation
- appropriate reading comprehension strategies based on the purposes and
motivation
- good prediction
- sufficient background information and vocabulary
- close attention to the significant bits
- fairly high speed
From these opinions, what comes up as a common point is that reading
comprehension is not only simply understanding what is written, but also is what
stimulates students to remember from their experiences. That knowledge is then used to
get meaning out of printed page, but in the mind of the readers, which included facts,
emotion, belief and critical evaluation. It can be concluded that reading comprehension is
6

the process of understanding what is conveyed in the text. That means, the readers (or the
learners), as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand
what is implied behind these forms.
1.2. Reading strategies
1.2.1. Definitions
Much attention has been paid to the study of reading strategies and there are a
number of definitions of reading strategies.
According to Cohen (1986), reading strategies refer to those mental processes that
readers consciously choose to use in accomplishing reading tasks. Supporting this idea,
Brantmeier (2002) defined reading strategies as the comprehension processes that readers
use in order to make sense of what they read.
Oxford, Levine & Crookall, (1989) indicated that reading strategy is reading
technique and study skill which makes reading more effective and facilitate learning.
They also elaborated that reading strategies is a process used by the learners to improve
reading comprehension and overcome comprehension failures.
Brown (1990) considered reading strategies as the ways that help learners read

more quickly and effectively.
Another definition of reading strategies was given by O’ Malley & Chamot (1990)
is that the term reading strategies refers to those conscious and unconscious procedures,
actions, techniques or behavior that learners employ so as to enhance their
comprehension and make up for interpretation problems.
In short, although many different definitions were given, what can be come up
with is that all the above mentioned definition supported each other. What is more,
reading strategies can be defined as the ways show readers how to manage their
interaction with the written text to comprehend and learn new information from the
reading texts effectively.
1.2.2. Classifications
Researchers in reading strategy studies have utilized different strategy types when
categorizing reading strategies.
7

Block (1986) and Carrell (1989) categorized reading strategies they found into
general or global strategies and local strategies. Whereas local strategies constitute a
category of decoding strategies, global strategies are related to top-down types of reading,
including getting the gist of a reading, utilizing background knowledge, and being aware
of text organization.
According to Barnett (1988), this process may involve skimming, scanning,
guessing, recognizing cognates and word families, reading for meaning, predicting,
activating general knowledge, making inferences, following references and separating
main ideas from supporting ones.
Oxford (1990) identified six components of reading strategies as follows:
- Prediction
- Skimming
- Scanning
- Inferring
- Guessing the meaning of new words

- Self – monitoring
There are other scholars who support Oxford’s classification of reading strategies
such as Grellet (1986), Kristin, Leah, & Soro (2009) and Smith (1994). Each of the
strategies is as below:
 Prediction
Prediction refers to the technique of using the readers’ prior knowledge to guess
the meaning or the message of the text from the topics, pictures, key words, or
constructions. It is one of the most effective factors that motivate students to read and
understand the meaning of the context (Oxford, 1990).
 Skimming
Skimming refers to the technique of reading passages quickly in order to get its
gist. In skimming, readers do not look for specific information but only for general
information (Grellet, 1986).
 Scanning
8

Scanning is quite similar to skimming in that both of them require a quick glance
of a text. The difference is that in skimming, readers try to get the general or main
information of the text but in scanning, the readers would like to obtain specific
information. In scanning technique, readers are looking to find particular information –
the answer to his/her questions.
 Inferring
Inferring refers to activities of reading between the lines which means that readers
need to know how to get the message from the words and sentences in a text. So,
inferring is defined as the interaction between words in a sentence/phrase or between
sentences or phrases (Kristin, Leah, & Soro, 2009).
 Guessing the meaning of new words
Guessing the meaning of new words helps readers to read and understand text
quickly because difficult words usually create problems for students and are obstacles in
reading comprehension (Smith, 1994).

 Self-monitoring
This strategy allows readers to regulate their reading. Awareness of using this
strategy helps learners to solve their problems in reading.
On the other hand , Anderson (1999) divided reading strategies into six sub types
including (1) A. activate prior knowledge, (2) C. cultivate vocabulary, (3) T. teach for
comprehension, (4) I. increase reading rate, (5) V. verify reading strategies, (6) E.
evaluate progress.
In conclusion, different scholars classified reading strategies using different terms,
and not in all contexts that learners can apply all the above mentioned reading strategies.
They rather base on the purpose of reading to utilize one/ some/ or all of them to read.
Hence, the importance of reading strategies should be aware of.
Reading strategies are important as they help readers to reach their reading goals
and achieve good results in reading (Block, 1986). As such, students or readers who do
not use any strategies in reading usually face difficulties in reading comprehension.
Regarding the importance of reading strategies, readers often encounter problems
in reading the text and have difficulties in understanding the meaning of the context but
9

reading strategies help them in learning foreign language and reading comprehension. In
fact, students will be able to relate newly acquired information to their prior knowledge
in context areas which is an essential part of reading comprehension skill.
According to Dehnad (2005), reading strategy provides learning opportunities,
facilitates learning and recalling of information as well as strengthening the reading
comprehension ability of language learners. Learners need to be explicitly taught how to
properly use reading strategies to monitor their reading comprehension. Through the
employment of reading strategy such as meta-cognitive instruction in English class, EFL
learners will be able to improve their reading comprehension and experience a higher
level of competency which will further motivate them to read on a regular basis (Block,
1992).
Chamot (2005) stated that students have their own preference of strategy, but in

order to become motivated and selective strategy users, EFL learners should self monitor
their reading strategy. In other words, EFL learners need to consciously know what and
when to apply appropriate reading strategy when comprehension fails.
All in all, it can be denied that reading strategies are of great importance towards
second language learners. Hence, students should be exposed to multiple reading
strategies as well as the appropriate use of those strategies for better results. In addition,
students should be taught to become more aware of their own reading behavior and the
processes involved in reading to employ the reading strategies effectively.
This study adopted Oxford’s classification of reading strategies.
1.3. Teaching and learning reading strategies
As acknowledged by many researchers, teaching second or foreign language
readers how to use strategies should be part of every reading lesson.
Learning reading strategies refers to any sets of activities, stages, programs, or
techniques that help students to keep, achieve, or evaluate information (Wenden &
Rubin, 1987). Teachers can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in
several ways.
Firstly, teachers can model the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of
predicting, skimming, scanning, inferring, guessing the meaning of new words and self-
10

monitoring. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know
about a text before they begin to read word by word.
 Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about
content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text
type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge
about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content
 Skimming: a process of speed reading for getting general meaning: quickly getting
the gist or overview of a passage or book.
 Scanning: looking through a text very rapidly for specific information.
 Inferring: finding clues and add those clues to what have been known or read

based on prior knowledge.
 Guessing the meaning of new words: using prior knowledge of the subject and the
ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to
look them up.
 Self – monitoring: checking comprehension during reading.
Secondly, teachers should allow time in class for group and individual to preview
and predict activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class
time to these activities indicates their importance and value.
Another way teachers can utilize is using cloze exercises to review vocabulary
items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context.
Last but not least, teachers are advised to encourage students to talk about what
strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after
reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in
their choice of strategies.
As regards students, they need to figure out the purpose for reading. Additionally,
they should activate their background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or
anticipate content and identify appropriate reading strategies. Next, they should select
strategies that are appropriate to the reading tasks and use them flexibly and interactively.
Finally, students have to check comprehension while reading and when the reading task
11

is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and
comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies.
It can be concluded that when students use reading strategies, they find that they
can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the
language.
1.4. Research on reading strategies
A considerable number of studies examined the comprehension strategies that
second language readers apply to process a text. Obviously, the participants were of
many different ages, levels and backgrounds. Furthermore, the investigators used a

variety of research method and tasks to examine strategy type and frequency of strategy
use including think-aloud reports, interviews, questionnaires, observations and written
recalls.
1.4.1. Foreign research on reading strategies
In a second-language study, Hosenfeld (1977) used a think-aloud procedure to
identify relations between certain types of reading strategies and successful or
unsuccessful second language reading. The successful reader, for example, kept the
meaning of the passage in mind while reading read in broad phrases, skipped
inconsequential or less important words, and had a positive self-concept as a reader. The
unsuccessful reader on the other hand, lost the meaning of the sentences when decoded,
read in short phrases, pondered over inconsequential words, seldom skipped words as
unimportant, and had a negative self-concept.
Carrell (1989) carried out the research with two groups of students: the Spanish-
speaking group and English- speaking group. The instrument was questionnaires to find
out the relationship between the reading strategies used by first and second language
learners and their reading ability. The results indicated that the perception of strategies
between good L1 readers and good L2 readers had some differences. The Spanish-
speaking learners of English perceived global or top down strategies more effectively,
whereas local or bottom-up strategies were associated with English- speaking learners’
reading ability in the L2.
12

Anderson (1991) investigated the differences in reading strategy use by adult
second language learners. The results revealed that both high and low scoring readers
appeared to be using the same kinds of strategies while answering the comprehension
questions; however, high scoring students seemed to be applying strategies more
effectively and appropriately.
Block (1992) investigated the comprehension monitoring process used by first and
second language readers of English. The subjects were 25 college freshmen and consisted
of proficient and non-proficient readers of English. While reading an expository text, the

participants were asked to think aloud or more specifically, to "say everything they
understood and everything they were thinking as they read each sentence" (Block, 1992:
323). The results indicated that when facing a vocabulary problem, proficient ESL
readers used background knowledge, decided on whether the word contributed to the
overall meaning of the passage, reread the sentence and used syntactic clues. The
meaning-based strategies are classified as global behaviors. On the other hand, non-
proficient ESL readers focused on identifying lexical problems and did little to figure out
the meaning of the words.
Sugirin (1999) used a multi-method study to explore the comprehension strategies
of EFL readers. The research methods used were think-aloud protocol analysis, retellings,
a reading comprehension test, in-depth interviews and casual observations. The results
indicated that there were noticeable gaps among the participants in the degree of
comprehension and the strategies used. Additionally, the subjects were found to share
characteristics of both poor and good readers. In the think-aloud activity, they skimmed
the whole text at the beginning although they were instructed to read it sentence by
sentence, which indicates that their strategies follow top-down processing, considered a
characteristic of good readers’ strategies.
Hung (2001) investigated the frequency and types of reading strategies used by
third-year male and female students in senior high school. The findings showed that there
was a significant difference by gender in the reading comprehension ability, in which
female students were better than male students. However, there was no significant
difference between male and female students in terms of overall strategy use. Besides, no
13

significant difference is found between male and female students when they read
narrative and expository materials separately.
Ahmad and Asraf (2004) did a research study on the underlying strategies used by
second language learners in responding to English texts. This case study investigated how
the learners made an effort to comprehend the texts by selecting, understanding and
integrating information in the context of eight reading comprehension sub-skills in the

form of comprehension questions, such as word meaning, words in context, literal
comprehension, drawing inferences from single strings, etc. The results suggested that the
same comprehension answering strategies were used by the good and average readers.
However, the good readers were more consistently focused on each question type than
the average ones; they articulated their comprehension answering strategies more often
on each question type than the average readers.
In conclusion, the findings of all the above – mentioned researches in reading
strategies revealed that reading strategies facilitated their comprehension proficiency.
Additionally, there are indeed differences between successful or good readers, and less
successful or poor readers in terms of strategy use. The results showed that successful
readers know how to use reading strategies efficiently.There is also a strong relationship
between reading strategies and proficiency level. Poor readers failed to ask questions,
take notes or use a dictionary as often as good readers. Overall, good readers appear to
use a wider range of strategies with higher frequency than poor readers do. Besides,
there is no significant difference between male and female students in terms of overall
strategy use.
1.4.2. Vietnamese research on reading strategies
Ha (2006) carried out a study named “A study on English reading strategies
employed by the second year Bridge and Road students at University of Transport and
Communications”. The aim of the study was to examine the differences in the reading
strategies employed by the good and poor readers among a group of 13 second year non
English majors at the University of Transport and Communications. In this study, both
quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed. The quantitative analyses was
employed through the process of data collected from a written questionnaire and think-
14

aloud reports to examine the differences between the good and bad readers in their
reading strategies. In addition, the qualitative approach is used to deal with the data
collected from interviews with these two groups of readers. Based on the analysis of data
from questionnaires and think-aloud reports, the study showed that the good or effective

and bad or ineffective readers significantly differed from each other in the frequency of
strategy use. The effective readers tended to use the metacognitive and cognitive
strategies much more frequently than the ineffective ones.
Huong (2007) carried out a study called “How to Improve Reading
Comprehension of the 10th-Form Students at Le Hong Phong High School”. The
objectives of the study were to investigate the real situation of teaching and learning
reading at Le Hong Phong High School, the difficulties in reading that the 10th-form
students often cope with so as to give some suggestions for improving their reading
comprehension. The study employed the qualitative approach involving two survey
questionnaires with 97 tenth form students and 8 teachers of English at Le Hong Phong
High School to collect the data for the study. The findings revealed that the teachers were
aware of many factors that affect students’ reading comprehension, and there were four
main factors that should be taken into consideration for the 10th-form students, namely
students’ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge, students’ low motivation,
students’ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures and their lack of appropriate
reading strategies. Additionally, the findings of the study also indicated that there was a
big gap between what the teachers have done to motivate the students and what the
students prefer. The majority of students prefer having supplementary reading texts for
extensive reading. They want their teachers to provide them with reading strategies, how
to read efficiently. Besides, it reveals that the teachers do not make full use of games and
visual aids of which catch the interest of most the students.
Sao (2008) conducted a study to investigate students’ difficulties in reading texts
in the new textbook for grade 10 at Nghi Loc IV high school according to their
perceptions. The study employed semi-structured interviews will be conducted on a
group of 20 tenth form students to collect the data. The findings of the study showed that
when learning reading skills the students encounter difficulties in vocabulary, grammar,
15

background knowledge and reading tasks. The findings also showed that despite the
awareness of the importance of reading, some students had negative attitude toward

learning English which made their reading more difficult. Moreover, students were not
equipped with necessary skills to become successful readers and some units, reading
tasks were not appropriate for the students’ levels. Finally, inefficient teaching methods
and classroom techniques might be other causes of the students’ difficulties.
Linh (2009) implemented a study among 100 eleventh form students and ten
teachers at Phan Dang Luu high school to investigate the current situation of teaching and
learning reading comprehension of the 11
th
form students to find out advantages as well
as problems facing both teachers and students in reading lessons, and to suggest useful
techniques to develop the reading comprehension skills in the while- reading stage for the
11
th
form in Phan Dang Luu high school. The research method included consulting
related materials, survey questionnaires and reading lessons observations. The thesis
presented some useful techniques accompanied by a number of activities to develop
certain reading skills for students in the while- reading stage, i.e. reading for general
understanding, reading for specific information and reading for further understanding.
Additionally, the statistics indicated that both students and teachers have positive
attitudes toward teaching and learning reading. However the while- reading activities the
teachers used were not sufficient enough to develop their students reading skills.
Huong (2010) conducted a study applying quantitative method including
comprehension tests and survey questionnaires to investigate the reading strategies
utilized by readers among 32 ethnic minority junior first-year English-majored students at
Tay Bac University. The findings confirmed that the readers rarely or sometimes
employed top-down or tended to combine top-down and bottom-up strategies. They
hardly ever or sometimes read questions to know what to focus on while reading,
determined suitable strategies according to their reading purposes, scanned for key
information, skipped unimportant words, guessed meanings of new words in context.
In short, the above researches mainly focus on the use of reading strategies of high

school and university students. The results indicated that there were significant
differences between good readers and bad readers in the frequency of strategy use.
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Moreover, both high school and university students had difficulties in choosing and
applying appropriate reading strategies while learning reading. As for high school
students, they also faced up with difficulties regarding vocabulary, grammatical
structures, background knowledge and reading tasks.
All in all, it can be concluded that learning reading strategy is one of the effective
factor in improving EFL reading comprehension proficiency. The more reading strategies
readers employed while reading, the better the comprehension. What is more, it is the
teacher’s responsibilities to motivate reading by selecting the appropriate materials and
especially for those at the early stages of learning.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, the researcher has elaborately discussed the theoretical basis of the
study by defining and clarifying the various aspects in the hope of providing an important
background for the discussion of the collected data later. The following chapter will
display the methodology and findings of the research under the light of the above-
mentioned theories.

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CHAPTER 2: THE METHODOLOGY
The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for the
present study. This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection and
analysis in the study. It starts with setting of the study and the description of the
participants. It then describes data collection instruments and analysis procedures of the
study.
2.1. An overview of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard
textbooks)
2.1.1. Objectives
The English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) was written
by a group of lecturers of ULIS (VNU, Hanoi) and published in 2006. The syllabus of the
textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is the continuation of that of the textbooks at secondary
schools.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, by the end of the 10
th
form
students are expected to achieve the following:
- Listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with
the length of 120 - 150 words of the topics they have learnt.
- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situations relating to the
topics they have learnt.
- Comprehend passages of appropriately 190 - 230 words about the topics they have
learnt.
- Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail. Develop
vocabulary comprehension: gap - filling, matching, etc.
- Write paragraphs (of about 100 - 120 words) relating to the topics they have learnt
according to a model or with prompts.

It can be seen that although students have learnt English for many years (may be
since secondary school); they come from different schools with different teaching
methods. Therefore, their levels and proficiency also vary. Additionally, in such context
of large class size and short period of time, it is likely that not all students can achieve the
goals, and there are differences between students.