A SURVEY ON COMMON CAUSES IMPEDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY STUDENTS OF CAN THO UNIVERSITY IN UNDERSTANDING SHORT FICTION

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

A SURVEY ON COMMON CAUSES
IMPEDING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDY
STUDENTS OF CAN THO UNIVERSITY IN
UNDERSTANDING SHORT FICTION
B.A THESIS

Field of study: English Language Learning

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Viet Anh, M. Ed

Researcher: Ho Hoai Bao
Student ID: 7044853
Letters of English Class 03 C.30

Can Tho, May 2008

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CONTENTS
Contents……...................................……………………………………… Page i
Acknowledgements..………....…………………………………………………. ii
Abstract……………………..………………………………………………….. iii
List of tables and figures …………...……..…………………………………… iv
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION………....………………………………… 1

1.1 Rationale……………………………………………………………….. 1
1.1.1 Why learning fiction.….......................................……..................1
1.1.2 Context of learning fiction at Can Tho University.…...……….... 1
1.2 Research aims………………………………………………………….. 3
1.3 Research question……………………………………………………… 3
1.4 Hypotheses……………………………………………………………... 3
1.5 Organization of the thesis..........……………………………………….. 3
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW………….......……………………. 5
2.1 Definition of fiction……….…………………………………………… 5
2.2 Fiction classification…………………………………………………… 6
2.3 Definition of short fictional works/short stories..……….……………... 7
2.4 Factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works………8
CHAPTER 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY….……………………....... 10
Design……………..…………………………………………
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3.2 Participants………………………….…………………………………. 10
3.3 Materials………………………………..……………………………… 11
3.4 Instrument…………………..………………………………………….. 11
3.5 Procedure…………………………..…………………………………... 16
3.5.1 Data administration..…………………………..……………….. 16
3.5.2 Data analysis..……………..………………………..………….. 16
CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS and DISCUSSION …………...……………

18

CHAPTER 5 – EXPECTED OUTCOMES, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION
and DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH.............…......…………..26
5.1 Expected outcomes……....………………………………………

26
5.2 Limitations…....….…..………..……………………………………
26
5.3 Conclusion and directions for further research…..……………....
27
References…………….......…………………………………………………….. 29
Appendix...…………….......…………………………………………………… 34

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This survey would never been completed without supports of many dear lecturers and
students of English Department, Can Tho University.
I would like to send my greatest gratefulness to Ms. Nguyen Thi Viet Anh-lecturer of
English Department, Can Tho University - my dear supervisor, who inspired me from the
beginning I prepared for this thesis, supported me whenever I needed help, and warned me
every time I neglected in conducting my thesis.
Special thanks must be offered to Ms. Ho Phuong Thuy and Ms. Nguyen Nguyen Tuyet lecturers of English Department, Can Tho University – who heartedly allowed me to proceed
my delivering and collecting data in their classes. Their permission was a passport to a new step
of my thesis.
I cannot forget enthusiastic faces of English Language Study sophomores course 32, Can
Tho University when cooperating with me in doing the questionnaire. How could I manage with
my thesis without your participation?
I also owe Mr. Chau Thien Hiep - lecturer of English Department, Can Tho University - a
thanks for your advice to improve my doing research. I wish You good health and perfect
working result in the United States.
It is so kind of You - lecturers of English Department, Can Tho University- who
sacrificed your valuable time to offer me books, advice and information. I am so lucky having
chance to meet You.

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Last but not least, I am so happy to have my family beside me in every stage of my life
including the period I was doing this research. Especially, Mom! It’s You that is my greatest
motivation in everything.

Can Tho, May 2008

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ABSTRACT
This is a qualitative survey research on common causes of three levels:
linguistics, culture, and motivation which are hypothesised to prevent English
Language Study students of Can Tho University from understanding short
fictional works. The idea for conducting this research originated from the
reserarcher, myself, after learning short fiction at Can Tho University, and facing
certain obstacles in learning fictional works. The aims of this small research are
to investigate which are some most common causes among three abovementioned levels that negatively influence English Language Study sophomores
in learning short fictional works, to find out the most challenging cause and the
reasons why students consider it as the most considerable cause. Suggestions for
overcoming these causes also need to be detected. Following these lodestars, the
research was designed with one instrument: A questionnaire with close and open
questions on 86 English Language Study sophomores’ opinions about the
common causes affecting themselves. From collected and analyzed data, the
cause of coping with a lot of new vocabulary turned to be the most common
(84%) and the most challenging one (42%) that impeded students in
understanding short fictional works. The solution that was applied by majority of
students was Reading as many books in English as possible, especially
fictional books (56%). Discussions were made after receiving the results.

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LIST OF T ABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1.1: Questionnaire components...…...…………………...……… page 12
Table 1.2: Questionnaires administration……………………..……………… 17
Table 1.3: Reasons why students chose cause 1 as the most serious one….… 23
Table 1.4: Solutions students chose to overcome the most serious cause….… 24
Figure 1.1: Rates of each cause selected by students..……..……………….... 20
Figure 1.2: Percentage of each cause selected by students……...………….....20
Figure 1.3: Rates of the most serious cause opted by students………...……... 21
Figure 1.4: Percentage of the most serious cause opted by students..………... 22

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
1.1.1 Why learning fiction?
According to Negrete (2007), experiencing other people's adventures is one
of the useful ways allowing us to obtain knowledge of worlds and subjects which
we may never have time or opportunity to experience for ourselves. And learning
literature, especially fiction, is the best way to acquire the process above. When

enjoying fiction, we do not need to cost any energy or cost to witness people,
things, events, internal world, etc. that we want to acknowledge. Instead, we sit at
one place to conceive almost all of the things above by exploring fiction.
He emphasized that reading fiction enables us to learn to express ourselves
with far greater depth of experience than we would if we depend only on our own
lives for material.
Is there anything more to fiction than entertainment? Can we learn anything
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Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
from it? Landy (2004) thought that it actually helps us find out our ego by
recognizing ourselves from the characters’ internal world. He argued that it
doesn't make readers become morally better right after they read it, but it does
improve the readers’ lives. He put it metaphorically, “if you go to the gym and
don't lift the weights, it isn't the fault of the weights that you don't get stronger”.
From many above-mentioned benefits that reading fiction provides us, I
suppose this is the first reason why I conduct this research. In learning any
subjects, students are always obstructed by certain causes. To acquire ideas and
knowledge from the fictional works, students (with the help of lecturers) need to
perceive what causes are preventing themselves from understanding the works.
Since then, they will have appropriate strategies to overcome the situation. I
believe my research, focuses on this topic, will be a useful source for lecturers
and students to regard the issue.
1.1.2 Context of learning fiction at Can Tho University
As a student majoring in Letters of English at Can Tho University, I
used to work with three courses related to literature in English: An Introduction

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to Literature, American Literature, and British Literature respectively. The

position of the An Introduction to Literature course, consistent with Truong
(2006), is “the first step for students to explore the fantastic world of literature”.
In the An Introduction to Literature course, fiction section comprises
six short-short stories (A Case of Suspicion by Ed Wallace, Marionettes, Inc. by
Ray Bradbury, The Lady, or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton, Bill by Zona Gale,
Old Man at the Bridge by Earnest Hemingway, and The Necklace by Guy De
Maupassant). In the American Literature and British Literature courses, there are
mainly extracts from short novels (novelettes or novellas) and novels.
Basing on this context, I infer the second reason why this research is of
value. That is from the results of my research, lecturers and English Language
Study sophomores at Can Tho University will recognize common causes
affecting students’ learning fiction, and find out solutions for these.
Consequently, they will prepare better for the two next coming courses:
American Literature and British Literature.

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1.2 Research Aims and Research Question
1.2.1 Research aims
The research aims to find out which level of causes most impedes English
Language Study sophomores at Can Tho University in understanding short
fictional works among the three levels: linguistics, culture, and motivation. Also,
the cause that most English Language Study sophomores suppose to impede
themselves in understanding short fictional works. Solutions for this issue are the
final aim of the research.
1.2.2 Research question
From the research aims, the research is directed by this research question:

What are common causes impeding English Language Study
students of Can Tho University in understanding short fictional works in
English?

1.3 Hypotheses
From my classmates’ and my experience when learning the An Introduction

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tâm Học
liệuI hypothesized
ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài
họcaretập
và new
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to Literature
course,
that the causeliệu
“There
many
wordscứu
in the short fictional works that I do not know.” would be encountered by
most of participants. I also predicted that most of participants would choose the
cause “I hardly understand the meanings of the characters’ behaviors,
gestures, and sayings. People in my country do not think and act like that.”
as the most serious one to them.

1.4 Organization of the thesis
The thesis was set up with five chapters including:
Chapter one - Introduction - gives out typical reasons for learning fiction
according to foreign professors and writers. An overview of fiction-learning

context at Can Tho University is also briefly mentioned. The next part of this
chapter addresses the aims for conducting this research and indicates the research
question.
Chapter two – literature review – discusses different definitions of fiction,
short fictional works, fiction classification and previous published writings on

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factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works. From these,
directions for the research were inferred.
Chapter three – Research Methodology – provides detailed information
about methodology that I applied to conduct this research comprising research
design, participants, material, instrument, and procedure.
Chapter four presents the results and discussions about the research.
Chapter five includes expected outcomes, limitations, and conclusion
respectively.

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CHAPTER 2

L ITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definition of fiction
Literature is divided into different categories, or genres such as poetry,
drama and fiction. In this research, the word FICTION is implied as the prose
fiction that is studied in pedagogical environment.

According to Watkins (1995), fiction presents a story that is invented and
not literally “true.” Its prose language is not divided up according to principles of
rhymes, rhythm, meter or word patterning. And fiction is written to be read rather
than acted or performed, and the events described are told to us by a narrator, not
enacted or dramatized. The most commonly encountered fiction is novels and
short stories. In this definition, the author concentrated on describing literary
features of fiction. Yet, I do not agree with his idea that fiction is written to be
read rather than acted or performed. In fact, there are countless fictional works

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liệu ĐH
liệu
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which
were
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or films. From
Gone
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Wind
to Harrycứu
Potter. From Odyssey to Romeo and Juliette. These fictional works became
immortal in everybody’s mind when being transformed into plays or movies.
With a more simple definition, Bhargava (2008) considered fiction as the

work of imagination in the form of a novel or a short story. Fiction can be
broadly classified into art and entertainment. Fiction in layman terms can be
defined as something that is purely imaginary and not real. However, he said that
it is a common observation that anything fictional is derived from real life
incidences etc. Fiction, to him, arouses the sleeping dreams and hidden desires of
people. When I just read his ideas about fiction for the first time, I wondered why
he had contrast thoughts when saying fiction is purely imaginary and unreal, but
confirming that fiction is gained from reality incidences. After considering his
idea carefully, I thought that his saying is accurate. Although everything in
fiction such as characters, conflicts, plot, etc. is visional, fiction really reflects
some aspects from real life. Types of characters represent different types of
people in real world. Relationships, conflicts, and settings are reproduced from

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what people experience everyday. In short, I enjoy fiction as entertainment with
meaningful creation.

2.2 Fiction classification
With the idea of Kurtus (2007), it was said that fiction can be classified
as many types due to length or number of words.
o Short-short stories (short-shorts)
Kurtus supposed that a short-short story is usually between 500 and 1500
words in length. It tells a complete story, including characters, setting, conflict,
and resolution. Often short-short stories have surprising endings.
A subset of the short-short story is micro-fiction, which only consists of
around 300 words. This type of writing requires that every word be essential to
the story. There is no detailed description.
o Short stories

Longer than a short-short story, a short story was assumed to range from
2000 to 7500 words in length by Kurtus. He said that short stories are less

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number of characters. Similar to short-shorts, short stories may have a surprising
ending.
o Novelette: A work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words. (25-60
pages)
o Novella: A work of at least 17,500 words but under 50,000 words. (60170 pages)
o The next category that Kurtus described is novel. It typically runs from
60,000 to 125,000 words (about 170+ pages). The plot and characters are
complex and often need many pages to be developed.
o The last one is an epic that is over 250,000 words.
Despite of different types recognized, fiction is usually distinguished into
short fictional works/short story and novel according to Watkins (1995) and

Bhargava (2008).

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2.3 Definition of short fictional works/short stories
The term “short story” was first defined by Edgar Allan Poe, in a review of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales (1842), as a story that can be read at
one sitting, and in which the incidents and details establish a single, preconceived
effect. Short stories actually vary in length from very short to long. However, the
limitation of length usually restricts the author's focus to one incident in the life
of one character.
It was Edgar Allen Poe who established a critical theory for the short story
form that defined it as a separate genre, distinct from the novel in more than
length. It was Poe who emphasized the idea that a short story should give a single
impression and should be of a length that allowed the reader to read it within an
hour. From Poe's early definition, Gifford and Katya (2002) developed a
definition of the short story as we know it today – a brief narrative that focuses
on a single incident or character and treats it so concisely that the reader is left
with a dominant impression.
With Jeff Herman’s (1999) definition, a short story is a brief piece of fiction

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liệuand
ĐH
Cần
Thơ@Tài
liệu học
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và nghiên
that tâm
is more
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more
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plot than acứu
novel. Published collections of short stories - whether by one or several authors often revolve a single theme, express related outlooks, or comprise variations
within a genre.
Marilyn Singer (2000) defined a short story as a photograph - a captured
moment of time that is crystalline, though sometimes mysterious, arresting,
though perhaps delicate. But, she added, while a photo may or may not suggest
consequences, a short story always does. While the photograph is still, in the
short story's moment of time, something important or something irrevocable has
occurred. The change may be subtle or obvious, but it is definite and definitive.
And Lazar (1993:73), he defined short fictional works in more details than
the others. To him, a short fictional work/short story is a work of fiction
involving the imagination, tells one event in a very concentrated way, about
people who do not really exist, describes something at a moment of crisis, has a
plot, characters who are somehow connected with each other.

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2.4 Factors impacting students’ understanding short fictional works
This is the draft made by Lazar (1993:76) describing groups of causes that
have influence on students’ reading short fictional works.

Motivation

Reading Strategies
Causes

Style

Interpretations
Culture
Comprehension

Nguyen (2008) categorized causes into many levels among which he
emphasized five levels that English Language Study students may usually
encounter:
o Linguistics level
o Culture level

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Học liệu
Motivation
levelĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
o Reading strategy level
o Style level
Basing on Lazar’s and Nguyen’s directions, I conducted my research in the
three levels: linguistics, culture and motivation. The others were ignored since
there have been researchers involved in these fields and the time length was
limited.
For example, the research of Smith and Edward (1997) studied on
incorporating pre-reading and post-reading activities into the English literature in
order to contribute to a more successful reading experience for students of all

ages and backgrounds. The primary advantage of using either (or both) strategies
for reading literature is that they actively involve students in what they are
reading and studying, enhancing both comprehension and appreciation of what is
being read.
In Blachowicz and Ogle’s Reading Comprehension: Strategies for
Independent Learners (2001), the practical guidelines for reading comprehension

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are given out. The book integrates current research findings with real-life
observations about reading strategies that successful readers use to comprehend
many different types of materials. It offers recommendations for organizing the
classroom effectively and planning instruction to broaden each student's
comprehension strategies. In the book, concrete approaches are described to help
students engage with fiction and nonfiction texts, develop their vocabulary, build
study and test-taking skills, and help students become motivated readers.
Robert Locke’s (2002) did a research on writers’ style in which informed
that artists serve the community by producing by stylizing and aestheticizing our
world. By giving the world style, they make it a more pleasant place to live in.
Unities of style help constitute cultures and make them distinctive. The effort
required to master a particular style initiates a person into a community of style.
By giving the world a sense of style, artists sharpen people’s critical faculties and
teach them discrimination of the beautiful from the ugly. And according to
Nguyen (1997), each writer adopts his own mode of literary language and in
cultivating his language develops a distinctive style.

Trung tâm
liệu the
ĐHtwo

Cần
Thơ@Tài
liệu Chi
họcMinh
tập Huyen
và nghiên
I alsoHọc
consulted
lecturers
- Ms. Huynh
and Mr.cứu
Huynh Minh Hien - who taught the four groups of English Language Study
students course 32 the subject READING 3. Both lecturers commented that most
of these students’ reading skills can be ranged at pre-intermediate level.
In conclusion, directions were found basing on Watkins’s (1995) and
Bhargava’s (2008) definition of fiction, Kurtus’ (2007) classification of fiction,
Edgar Allan Poe, Gifford and Katya (2002), Jeff Herman’s (1999), Marilyn
Singer (2000) definition of short fiction, Lazar’s (1993) and Nguyen’s (2008).

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
As mentioned above, the research is an attempt to answer the following
question:
What are common causes impeding English Language Study
students of Can Tho University in understanding short fictional works in
English?

3.1 Research Design
In this research, descriptive approach was called to answer the research
question.
Relying on the idea of Seliger and Shohamy (1989), the descriptive
approach is aimed at describing phenomena that occur naturally and no treatment
is involved in descriptive research. When applying this approach, I made an
effort
to describe
whatĐH
English
Language
Study liệu
students
of tập
Can Tho
Universitycứu
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Thơ@Tài
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và nghiên
supposed to be the common causes impeding their learning fiction as well as
their own strategies to overcome the situation.

3.2 Participants
The initial participants comprised 153 English Language Study sophomores
course 32. They were studying in the second semester of academic year 20072008. They studied the An Introduction to Literature course in three separate

groups: group 1 with 49 students, group 2 with 55 students, and group 3 with 49
students.
On the days I delivered and collected questionnaires, there were 45 students
of group 1 being present in class, 51 of group 2, and 47 of group 3.
The numbers of target participants (the students who ticked the answer NO
for question (I) in the questionnaire) were 27 in group 1, 22 in group 2, and 37 in
group 3. Therefore, the research was finally done on 86 English Language Study
sophomores course 32 of Can Tho University.

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The reason that sophomores of English Language Study course 32 was
selected to be participants in this research were that:
o They were the groups of students who started to learn literature in the
curriculum of English Language Study at Can Tho University, and also started to
learn fiction in English. Hence, there might be more causes that impeded them in
understanding short fictional works than the ones impeding the English
Language Study juniors and seniors. I did not choose the freshmen since they
haven’t been involved in literature in English in their curriculum.
o Furthermore, after finishing the An Introduction to Literature course,
they will study the American Literature and British Literature in which the
extracts from many short novels and novels will be discovered. That means
students will face to more complicated points from the novels than points of the
short stories. According to Connor (1999), novels are much more complex than
short stories to be understood in two main fields: novels contain more numerous
words than short stories, and novels express larger weight of meanings than short
stories.

Trung tâm

liệu ĐHI Cần
liệu họccauses
tập and
và nghiên
FromHọc
this research,
expectThơ@Tài
to find out common
search forcứu
solutions for these. Then, I could give suggestions for the students and lecturers
to improve their learning and teaching.

3.3 Materials
The material that I base on in this research is the fiction section of the An
Introduction to Literature coursebook. The section comprises one lesson on the
elements of short fictional works and six short fictional works. They are A Case
of Suspicion by Ed Wallace, Marionettes, Inc. by Ray Bradbury, The Lady, or the
Tiger by Frank R. Stockton, Bill by Zona Gale, Old Man at the Bridge by Earnest
Hemingway, and The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant.

3.4 Instrument
To answer the research question, I designed one questionnaire relying on
Gillian Lazar’s (1993) and Nguyen’s (2008) ideas about levels of causes
troubling students in understanding a short fictional work. They are:

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o Inconceivableness of the culture in the work
o Absence of motivation

o Problematic linguistic features
I only did research on these three levels of causes skipping the other levels
since there were researchers who had already studied these fields (as mentioned
in the literature review) and the inconvenience of time (addressed in Chapter 5:
discussions and limitations).
Though there are other types of instruments such as interviews or
observations, I chose survey research to conduct my research since the following
reasons:
First, interviews seemed to be also relevant to this research, yet I supposed
that interviews would trouble participants because they might not think out the
the causes and the reasons within short time of interviews. So, I did not choose
interview as my research instruments.
Second, observations were also considered. However, the two lecturers of
An Introduction to Literature course always allowed students to pre-read the

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tâm
Học liệu
ĐH Cần
Thơ@Tài
liệu học
và nghiên
works
at home.
Therefore,
they might
find different
waystập
to overcome
theircứu

problems at home. This would lead to unreliable answers to the causes.
Finally, I decided to select survey research since I thought that it could
investigate participants ideas on what they thought to impede themselves among
the three levels: linguistics, culture, and motivation.
The questionnaire includes six components (students’ personal information,
four questions and one request) with a variety of aims as described in the
following table.

Components

Items

Aims

included
Personal

2

information
I
(question )

To select the students of course 32 only in order to
have a homogeneous group of participants.

1

To eliminate the questionnaires made by students
who used to read any Vietnamese versions of the

six fictional works from the material in order to

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have the target participants.
II (question)

1

To check how many of the target students who
have a care for literature.

III

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(request)
IV (question)

To statisticize how many of the target students
have had difficulties with each cause.

1

To investigate which is the most influencing cause
to most of students and the reason why.

V (question)

1

To find out solutions from students themselves for
resolving the problem discussed in question (IV).
Table 1.1: Questionnaire components

The first component (student’s personal information) involves student name
and the course number they are studying at Can Tho University.
The second component (I) was gained to filter the target participants
(students who answered NO to this question). I opted for the students who had
never
readHọc
any Vietnamese
versions
of the six fictional
works
in order
to have acứu
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tâm
liệu ĐH Cần
Thơ@Tài
liệu học
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homogenous group of students for the research. According to Ronald and
Michael N. Long (1991:5), readers who used to be involved in English fictional
works in their first language tend to pay less attention to the works than those
who only read English versions (this is also recognized between any other
original language and target language). Since they read the works in their first

language, they easily obtain the plot, the theme, the setting, the climax, etc which
were translated rather adequately. This strongly influences their reading process
of English versions, and certainly influences their thought about causes which
may affect themselves.
The third component (II) was given out to check how many of the target
students who have had experience in reading short fictional works, and to have
some inferences on their care for literature.
The fourth component (III) includes 15 items of 15 causes which are
classified into 3 levels:
o Linguistics level contains 5 causes. (from items 1 to 5)

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o Culture level contains 5 causes. (from items 6 to 10)
o Motivation level contains 5 causes. (from items 11 to 15)

Linguistics level: From items 1 to 5
According to Nguyen’s (1997:57) idea, role of language to literature is like
role of sound to music and role of color to painting. In other words, language
holds such a vital role in the composition of a literary piece which Gorky (1912)
regarded as the primary element of literature.
In Nguyen’s (1997:61) An Introduction to Literature Study, he assumed that
literature commands five components of the language. They are vocabularies,
word choice, idioms-expressions, grammar, and literary structures (phrases and
sentences which appear only in literature). Therefore, I designed items 1 to 5
basing on these five linguistic components.

Culture level: From items 6 to 10
First, five items of this level were designed basing on Lazar’s (1993) ideas.

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tâm Học
liệu ĐH
Cần Thơ@Tài
liệu
học may
tậpencounter
và nghiên
He pointed
out aspects
of cultural
difficulties that
students
whencứu
learning literature:
o Objects/products (material or non-material like beliefs, customs) that exist
in one society, but not in another
o Proverbs, idioms, and expressions which embody cultural features of the
original language.
o Social relationships.
o Representative ideas and thoughts of a society or a group of people.
o Political, historic, and economic background when the works were
created.
Beside Lazar’ opinions, there are researchers who contributed their
definitions for “culture”:
Nguyen’s (1997:44) idea which said that the characters in a certain fictional
work reveal the people of the society that the fictional work is trying to describe
by the characters’ appearance, dialogues, and actions.
Avruch (1999) gave his own definition of culture:

19


o Material culture is objects — anything and everything that men and
women make and use. It is the “stuff” of our everyday lives.
o Culture is custom, culture and conflict resolution.
Vincent’s (2007) definition shared the same ideas: Culture is belief system,
lifestyle, values, thoughts and identity.
Gold’s (2002) definition of culture: Culture is social relationship.
Alderson

and

Urquhart

(1984:53)

who

concluded

that

reading

comprehension to literature is a function of cultural background knowledge. If
readers possess the schemata assumed by the writer, they easily understand what
is said in the text and also make the necessary inferences about what is implicit,
rather than stated. Also, Nguyen’s (1997:33) affirmed that each writer, according

to his background, his life experience, his aesthetic tastes, or his world outlook
may fix upon his approaches in his writing career.

Motivation level: From items 11 to 15
These causes were designed relying on the judges of Ronald and Michael

Trung
tâm(1991:4)
Học liệu
ĐH
Cần work
Thơ@Tài
liệuclassrooms.
học tập They
và nghiên
N. Long
about
teachers’
in literature
supposedcứu
that teaching methods which rely substantially on lectures may help students to
pass required examinations but they do little to develop students’ knowledge of
literature and their personal growth.
Also, Ronald and Michael N. Long (1991:6) believed that second or foreign
language learners’ interest in learning literature can be fostered by a teacher who
selects material to read which is motivating and which produces in readers a
desire to read more into a particular work, and have efficient teaching methods to
different types of literature classes.

20

3.5 Procedure
3.5.1 Data administration
In the last period of each group of An Introduction to Literature course, I
asked for the allowance of the lecturers for coming to the classes. The
administration took place after the 10-minute break between the period seven and
eight. All of the three groups of An Introduction to Literature studied in the
afternoon (group 1 on Thursday, group 2 Friday, and group 3 Saturday). I
generally explained to the students' purposes and meanings of my research as
well as the students’ importance in contributing to the research. They asked me
many questions related to the research (group 1 and group 3 asked more
questions than group 2 did). Then, the questionnaires were delivered to the
participants by myself.
In order to have the result as reliable as possible, I stayed in the classrooms
to help the participants whenever they needed. For example, I explained some
new words to them. Yet, the questions offered from them were not many. In
group 1, there was no question. In group 2, there was no question. In group 3,

Trung
ĐH(one
Cầnstudent
Thơ@Tài
liệuthehọc
tập vàof nghiên
theretâm
wasHọc
one liệu
question
asked me

meaning
the wordcứu
PROMINENT).
I asked for the two lecturers’ permission of letting the students complete the
questionnaires in 15 minutes. The whole process comprising questionnaire
delivering, questionnaire completion, and questionnaire collection took around
20 minutes in each group.

3.5.2 Data analysis
The volumes of questionnaires completed by the target participants were
collected as exactly as they were delivered.
As mentioned above, on the days I delivered and collected questionnaires,
there were 45 students of group 1 being present in class, 51 of group 2, and 47 of
group 3. Therefore, the volumes of questionnaires delivered AND collected were
45 in group 1, 51 in group 2, and 47 in group 3.

21


The numbers of target participants (the students who ticked the answer NO
for question I in the questionnaire) were 27 in group 1, 22 in group 2, and 37 in
group 3. Therefore, there were 86 collected questionnaires that were analyzed.
After collecting the questionnaires, I proceeded to analyze these data.
o The first step, I statisticized how many students were impeded by each
cause.
o The second step, I compared which field among the three ones mentioned
in the instrument section surpassed the two left.
o The third step, I calculated the percentages of each cause to find out the
highest-rated ones, and compared them together.
o The fourth step, I statisticized which cause was the most serious one to

most of students. With the answers of students for component (IV), I analyzed
the reason why the students supposed it to be the most serious one.
o The last step, I investigated the solutions given by the students with their
answers for component (V).
Here is the table of questionnaires administration:

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
No. of on-list

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Total

49

55

49

153

45

51

47

143

45

51

47

143

18

29

10

57

27

22

37

86

Attendant
No. of
delivered

questionnaires
No. of collected
questionnaires
No. of
eliminated
questionnaires
No. of selected
questionnaires

Table 1.2: Questionnaires administration

22


CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
On 86 questionnaires collected from the three groups, the results turned to
be reality as these facts:
First of all, I realized that the causes of linguistic level (cause 1 to cause 5)
were selected much more than the causes of the two levels left (culture surpassed
motivation).
Linguistics level
o Cause 1 was chosen by 72/86 students (84%).
o Cause 2 was chosen by 69/86 students (80%).
o Cause 3 was chosen by 69/86 students (80%).
o Cause 4 was chosen by 45/86 students (52%).
o Cause 5 was chosen by 39/86 students (45%).
Culture level
o Cause 6 was chosen by 14/86 students (16%).

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
o Cause 7 was chosen by 15/86 students (17%).
o Cause 8 was chosen by 10/86 students (12%).
o Cause 9 was chosen by 25/86 students (29%).
o Cause 10 was chosen by 51/86 students (59%).
Motivation level
o Cause 1 was chosen by 8/86 students (9%).
o Cause 2 was chosen by 15/86 students (17%).
o Cause 3 was chosen by 19/86 students (22%).
o Cause 4 was chosen by 7/86 students (8%).
o Cause 5 was chosen by 5/86 students (6%).
The initial conclusion can be inferred that linguistic causes are deserved to
be paid attention to more than the two levels left since the rate of students
encountered these are very high (highest 84%, lowest 45%).
The cultural causes are at medium rate (highest 59%, lowest 12%). Yet,
cause 10 needs to be considered since its rate is rather high (59%).

23


There are 56/86 participants (65%) answered for component (II) that they
used to read short fictional works in English before studying the An Introduction
to Literature course. It is an enjoyable detail because students are not forced to
study literature in English in the Vietnamese high school curricula. I have a
prediction that these students have a love for literature in English beside love for
English as their major.
The motivation causes can be ignored since the rate is low (highest 22%,
lowest 6%). However, solutions for this level should be regarded to help all of
students improve their study.

The most common cause opted by most of students elicited from the
questionnaires is cause 1 “There are many new words in the short fictional
works that I do not know.” (84%)
The following charts will help us to have a whole overview on the general
result.

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

24


Quantity

80

72 69 69

60

51

45 39

40

14 15 10

20

25

8

15 19

7

5

0
1

2

3 4

5

6

7

8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Cause Number

Rates of each cause selected by students
90

84

80 80
Trung tâm Học
liệu
ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
80
70

%

60

59

52
45

50
40

29

30
16

20

17

17

12

22

9

10

8

6

14

15

0
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Cause Number

Percentage of each cause selected by students

25