Khảo sát các chiến lược đọc tiếng anh chuyên ngành hiện nay của các học viên tại một trường cao đẳng nghề

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

NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN

A SURVEY ON CURRENT READING STRATEGIES
OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) STUDENTS
AT A VOCATIONAL COLLEGE
Khảo sát các chiến lược đọc tiếng Anh chuyên ngành hiện nay của các học
viên tại một trường Cao đẳng nghề

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major

: English teaching methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2018


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

NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN

A SURVEY ON CURRENT READING STRATEGIES
OF ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) STUDENTS
AT A VOCATIONAL COLLEGE
Khảo sát các chiến lược đọc tiếng Anh chuyên ngành hiện nay của các học
viên tại một trường Cao đẳng nghề

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Major

: English teaching methodology

Code

: 8140231.01

Supervisor

: Trần Thanh Nhàn, PhD.

HANOI –2018


DECLARATION

I declare that this thesis is a presentation of my original research work.
While any of the content presented is the result of input or data from a related
collaborative research program, the literature and acknowledgement of
collaborative research and discussions.
The work was done under the guidance of Doctor Tran Thanh Nhan, as

appointed by Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and
International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Researcher

In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate‟s thesis, I certify that the
above statements are true to the best of my knowledge.
Hanoi, April……, 2018
Supervisor

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A completed study would not be done without any assistance. Therefore,
I would gratefully express my acknowledgement to the following individuals
who have provided me with their support and motivation during the time of
conducting this research as a requirement of completing my Degree of
Master.
I would first like to thank my thesis supervisor, Doctor Tran Thanh
Nhan. Her kindly support and continuous advice went through the process of
the completion of my thesis. Her encouragement and comments had
significantly enriched and improved my work. Without her motivation and
instructions, the thesis would have been impossible to be done effectively.
During the actual implementation of the project, my research has
received immense contribution from all relevant students. So far, I would like
to thank to the groups who took charge in the process of data collection and
data entry for this research. I would also express my thankfulness to the
Rector of Viglacera Vocational College who actively supported me and my
colleagues who gave me very valuable comments on this thesis.

Finally, I would dedicate my very profound gratitude to my parents for
their providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement
throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and
writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible
without them.
Researcher

ii


TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... 1
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................... 3
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 5
1.1. Background ..................................................................................................................... 5
1.2. Problem statement and research contribution ................................................................. 7
1.3. Research questions .......................................................................................................... 8
1.4. Research objectives......................................................................................................... 8
1.5. Research scope ................................................................................................................ 9
1.6. Research methodology .................................................................................................... 9
1.7. Thesis structure ............................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 10
2.1. Definitions .................................................................................................................... 10
2.1.1. Definition of reading .................................................................................................. 10
2.2.2. Definition of reading comprehension ........................................................................ 10
2.2. Reading process ............................................................................................................ 11
2.3. Reading strategies ......................................................................................................... 12
2.4. English for specific purposes ........................................................................................ 14
2.5. Existing literature of reading strategies ........................................................................ 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 19
3.1. Research design ............................................................................................................ 19
3.1.1. Philosophy ................................................................................................................. 19
3.1.2. Approach .................................................................................................................... 19
3.1.3. Method ....................................................................................................................... 20
3.2. Data collection methods................................................................................................ 20
3.2.1. Sample selection ........................................................................................................ 20
3.2.2. Data collection process .............................................................................................. 20
3.2. Data analysis method .................................................................................................... 21
CHAPTER 4: ANALYSES AND FINDINGS ................................................................. 22
1


4.1. Descriptive statistics of the respondents ....................................................................... 22
4.2. Results and Analyses .................................................................................................... 24
4.2.1. Reading strategy use of vocational students .............................................................. 24
4.2.2. Differences in reading strategies use by gender ........................................................ 26
4.2.3. Differences in reading strategies use by reading proficiency level ........................... 32
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION ........................................... 38
5.1. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 38
5.2. Recommendation .......................................................................................................... 39
5.3. Limitations of the research ........................................................................................... 40
REFERENCES................................................................................................................... 41
APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 45

2


LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Descriptive statistics of the respondents ............................................... 22
Table 4.2: Frequency of using reading strategies ................................................... 24
Table 4.3: Reading strategies of female and male students ................................. 26
Table 4.4: Reading strategies of female and male students ranked by
frequency ........................................................................................................................... 30
Table 4.5: Reading strategies of students with different reading proficiency
levels................................................................................................................................... 32
Table 4.6: Reading strategies of students with different reading proficiency
levels ranked by frequency ........................................................................................... 36

3


A survey on current reading strategies of English for Specific Purpose
(ESP) students at a Vocational College
ABSTRACT
This study is a survey on English for Specific Purposes reading
comprehension perceived by 120 students at a Vocational College. It
dedicates to the existing literature by discovering reading strategies of
vocational students, identifying strategies needed to enhance students‟ reading
comprehension as well as appropriate approach for students to improve their
reading skills and achieve good knowledge. The aim of the study is to point
out which strategies the students majoring in building materials at the
vocational college need to improve to attain the maximum out of the text they
read and differences between “good” and “poor” readers, male and female
ones.
A twenty-item questionnaire with five-point Likert scales was used to
collect data. Descriptive statistics used to analyze the data were frequency,
percentage, mean and standard deviation. Based on the statistical data, the
overall results point out the differences between female and male students,

“good” and “poor” readers in terms of their reading strategies. Hence, the
study suggests several recommendations for the students as well as the
English teachers at the Vocational College.

4


CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
This chapter first and foremost provides background information about
the research topic and stylized facts about students reading both academically
and occupationally. Subsequently, it identifies practical and theoretical
problems as well as defines research questions and research objectives. The
research scope and methodologies to address the research questions are then
clarified. Lastly, the chapter wraps up with a demonstration of the thesis
structure.
1.1. Background
Vocational education has been growing in popularity not only in
numerous countries around the globe but also in Vietnam. It is considered as
an alternative door for students to pursue their dreams rather than higher
education. Vocational education is a practical approach that prepares people
to work in specific occupations, such as engineering, trading, or crafting.
Vocational colleges are designed to provide vocational education, which can
be distinguished other colleges in the sense that they provide students with
job-specific training instead of high concentration on academic training.
Consequently, students are well equipped with particular skills required for
their specifically selected jobs.
Among all vocational colleges in Vietnam, Viglacera Vocational
College (VVC) is considered as the most well-known vocational institution in
the industry of construction materials production. It is an education unity of
Viglacera Corporation. Established in 1998, Viglacera Vocational College has

been the first and only college in Vietnam providing intensive vocational
training in the industry of construction materials production. VVC and
Proskill UK have signed a cooperation agreement in vocational training with

5


the aim to propel VVC to become a leading Vietnamese vocational college in
the field of construction materials. It can be seen clearly that VVC has been
putting efforts in building vocational training programs in compliance with
international standards. VVC focuses on training the workers of forty
subsidiaries in the Viglacera Corporation. These students have to
simultaneously meet the requirements of studying at the college and working
at the sites. They have to work on shifts (three shifts per day) to maintain the
working lines and to ensure the effective production. Therefore, they face
ample difficulties in learning as well as doing exercises. In class, most of
them complain that they are too exhausted to absorb new knowledge, and they
want to have interesting easy lessons, which pose a real challenge for the
teachers to facilitate their learning.
At VVC, English is considered an international language as it has
become increasingly popular as a teaching language in Vietnam‟s education.
Especially, together with the rapid pace of globalization, it has grown to be an
official medium of instruction for many universities. More specifically,
English is a key to “gain access to the required knowledge that is available,
either exclusively or most readily, in English” (Mumby, 1981). In other
words, it serves other different specific purposes, which results in significant
changes in almost all walks of life and the continuing increase of international
communication in these various fields. That trend leads to the coming into
being of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Being aware of the importance
of ESP, teachers at Viglacera Vocational College (VVC) pay more attention

to teaching ESP than GE for their students. This ESP course aims at providing
students with background knowledge and a system of terms related to
building materials.
However, vocabulary and grammar cause various problems for the

6


students at VVC while they conduct reading activities. Many of them find it
challenging when they have to embrace a large amount of specialized
vocabulary and complicated grammar structures. Even when they get
accustomed to specialized vocabulary, they still encounter problems with
understanding general ideas and specific details. The root causes for these
obstacles can originate from their study methods, their learning attitudes, the
curriculum, and the teaching methods. It is assumed that the students can
overcome these problems related to vocabulary and grammar by changing
their study methods, particularly reading strategies.
Reading strategies play a crucial roles in the process of learning and
utilizing the language as Carrell (1984) states that “for many students, reading
is by far the most important out of the four macro-skills, particularly in
English as a second foreign language”. The students at VVC indeed need to
improve their reading skills which help them make extensive use of academic
materials written in English and increase their professional knowledge in their
specific or specialized fields.
1.2. Problem statement and research contribution
The ability to read English academic materials is deemed to be one of
the most essential skills which university students of both English as a Second
Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) need to develop
(Levine et al. 2000). Reading comprehension has become the heart of reading
and its significant not only to academic learning but also to professional

success (Durkin, 1993). Nevertheless, numerous students are not wellprepared for reading requirements that are stressed on them. When these
students are strongly pressed to read academic materials in English, they are
more likely to choose ineffective and inefficient reading strategies leading to
poor results (Wood et al. 1998).
Despite the importance of English reading, previous studies have
7


shown little interest in the topic of reading strategies among vocational
college students in Vietnam. Many students including those at Viglacera
Vocational College have been struggling with reading academic materials
entirely written in English. The program at this college was originally well
designed with attempts to reach the global standards, hence the students are
required to prepare themselves to acquire all the knowledge from this
program to be certified. This raises the demand for a study about their in-class
reading behaviors in order to find out how they are handling with ESP texts
and what strategies they are currently using to read English materials.
This study makes an important contribution to the existing literature by
discovering reading behaviors and reading strategies of vocational students,
identifying strategies needed to enhance their reading comprehension as well
as proposing an appropriate approach for them to improve their reading skills
and achieve successful academic results.
1.3. Research question
The study aims to find answers for the following questions:
●

Which strategies do students majoring in building materials at
Viglacera Vocational College use to read ESP texts?

●

Are there any differences between good and poor readers, male and
female readers in terms of their reading strategy use?

1.4. Research objectives
●

Objective 1: to investigate and analyse reading behaviors as well as
reading strategies of the students at Viglacera Vocational College.

●

Objective 2: to recommend appropriate strategies for students to
improve their reading skills.

●

Objective 3: to identify differences in the use of reading strategies
between good and poor readers, male and female ones.
8


1.5. Research scope
The study focuses on 120 students at three ESP classes majoring in
building materials at Viglacera Vocational College. The study then attempts
to investigate the current reading strategies of ESP students at Viglacera
Vocational College and to identify the effective reading strategies that they
should follow.
1.6. Research methodology
In this study, the author conducts a survey to collect information related

to reading strategies of students in the vocational college. Afterwards, she
uses SPSS software to analyse their reading behaviors.
1.7. Thesis structure
Chapter 1 introduces the research background, identifies the practical
and theoretical problems, clarifies the research questions, research objectives,
research scope and methodology, as well as describes the research structure.
Chapter 2 presents the literature review which is relevant to the research
topic in order to have the basic knowledge including theories and empirical
studies, then illustrates the theoretical framework to support the research.
Chapter 3 demonstrates the research design, the method of data
collection and data analysis, and research limitations.
Chapter 4 shows the result of measurement and regression models,
conducts comprehensive analyses and discusses important findings.
Chapter 5 draws some conclusions and suggests some recommendations
related to reading strategies for students at vocational colleges.

9


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter, firstly, presents important definitions related to the topic
reading and reading comprehension. Subsequently, it analyses the reading
process and several common reading strategies. Additionally, this chapter
highlights special features of English for specific purposes and ends with the
existing literature of reading strategies.
2.1. Definitions
2.1.1. Definition of reading
Reading is one of the four skills that students should learn and care of.
At college, students have always many different reading materials to read,

such as: textbooks, articles, stories and so on. Reading is more beneficial to
them during their study because it enables them to acquire many things about
the knowledge of language and understanding different subject areas.
Scientists have different opinions about the definition of reading. Goodman
(1971) defines reading as a process in which readers re-organise in the most
possible way the messages that the authors decode in visual performance. In
the meantime, Harmer (1989) describes that reading is a mechanical process
in which the eyes receive information and the brain works to find out the
meaning of the message. Similarly, Smith also states that reading is a process
to understand thoughts of the authors. Generally, from different perspectives,
researchers have strived to identify the basics of reading, among which,
readers, reading process or conveyed messages are strongly emphasized.
2.2.2. Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays an essential role in teaching and learning
languages. According to researchers‟ viewpoints, reading comprehension is
the ability to obtain information from the texts or documents accurately and
10


effectively.

There

are

three

dominant

factors

influencing

reading

comprehension, namely texts, foundation knowledge of readers, and related
context.
Swan (1975) affirms that those people who have good reading ability
can obtain the most information from the texts with their own limited
knowledge. On the other hand, Grellet (1981) points out that reading
comprehension or understanding a text means decompressing necessary
information in the most effective way. Although researchers have various
points of views, all of them propose that reading comprehension is the process
in which readers can realize visual images of the texts and understand
implications behind them.
2.2. Reading process
According to many other psychologists, there are two reading processes
for comprehension, known as bottom-up and top-down process. In the
bottom-up process, the students start to read documents from the smallest
units of language such as letters, words, phrases, sentences, and try to
understand the meaning of these units before combining them into paragraphs
or the whole texts. This is a method to contemplate details, which helps
readers clarify ideas, determine specific locations of the details and provide
answers to their questions. On the other hand, the top-down process
emphasizes interactions between readers and documents rather than
understanding basic units of the documents such as letters, words, phrases and
sentences. As a result, the readers need to prove their positive roles in the
reading process by utilizing their own knowledge about the reading topic,
estimation and expectation towards the documents. Also, it is critical that the
readers should show their motivation, care and attitude to the contents of

documents. This is one method to get the general ideas and important
11


information of the documents.
Some opinions appreciate the role of the top-down process in reading
comprehension more than the bottom-up one. Though the top-down has a
dominant impact on reading comprehension, it does not necessarily mean the
bottom-up is not valuable. As a matter of fact, readers have to combine these
two processes so as to ensure accuracy and timeliness of information.
2.3. Reading strategies
Learners need to achieve comprehension in reading through applying
appropriate and effective reading strategies. In other words, the appropriate
use of reading strategies will always facilitate the ability of getting
meaningful reading easily. Reading strategies include, for example,
prediction, skimming, scanning, inferring, guessing the meaning of new
words, and self monitoring which will enable the learners to achieve
comprehension in reading successfully without facing any problems. The
current explosion of research in second language reading has begun to focus
on readers' strategies. Reading strategies are of interest for what they reveal
about the way readers manage their interaction with written text and how
these strategies are related to text comprehension. Research in second
language reading suggests that learners use a variety of strategies to assist
them with the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information (Rigney,
1978). Strategies are defined as learning techniques, behaviors, problemsolving or study skills which make learning more effective and efficient
(Oxford and Crookall, 1989). Furthermore, reading strategies may involve
evaluating content, finding an association between the text and previous
knowledge or experience, asking and answering questions relevant to the text,
identifying key words, using grammatical analysis to determine the various
components of the sentences, skipping, rereading, paraphrasing and

12


summarizing (Almasi, 2012).
Reading strategies demonstrate how the readers perceive a task, what
textual signals they tend to realize, how well they understand what they read,
and what they do when they do not actually understand (Block, 1986).
Reading strategies can be simple, such as reviewing difficult sections and
inferring the meaning of unknown vocabulary. Rather, reading strategies can
also be comprehensive, such as summarizing and connecting what is written
in the documents to the knowledge of the readers (Janzen, 1996).

The

existing literature has evidenced that reading strategies can be instructed to
students, and when these reading strategies are provided, reading skills of
students are improved (Carrell, 1985; Pearson and Fielding, 1991; Brown and
Palincsar, 1989). According to Brown and Palincsar (1984), the reading
procedure encompasses four strategies, namely summarizing, questioning,
clarifying, and predicting.
Basically, reading strategies are divided into two major categories
which are cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies. The cognitive
strategies help the readers in constructing and understanding the meaning and
implication from the texts. The metacognitive strategies aid in monitoring and
regulating the cognitive strategies (Devine, 1993 and Flavell, 1981). To
illustrate, skimming a text to get fundamental information is a cognitive
strategy, while evaluating the effectiveness of collecting information from the
text is a metacognitive strategy (Devine, 1993). In the context of second
language learning, a distinction can be made between strategies that make
learning more effective, versus strategies that improve comprehension. The

former are generally referred to as learning strategies in the second language
literature. Oxford (1989) provides a useful classification scheme of the
various strategies used by the second language learners. This involves:
(1) Cognitive strategies: these are used by the learners to manipulate
13


language. This category covers note-taking, formal study of the specific
aspects of the target language, summarizing, paraphrasing, predicting,
analyzing and using context clues.
(2) Memory strategies: these help the reader remember information
through creating mental pictures, grouping and associating.
(3) Compensation strategies: involve activities such as guessing while
reading, or using dictionaries.
(4) Meta-cognitive strategies: these involve activities done by the
learner to plan, arrange, and assess their own learning.
(5) Affective strategies: these include self-encouraging behavior to
reduce anxiety.
(6) Social strategies: which cover cooperation with peers and asking for
correction and feedback.
2.4. English for specific purposes
English for Special Purposes (ESP) has been defined with the different
emphasis on the variety of elements that characterize ESP by a large number
of researchers and scholars. First, Pauline Robinson (1991) states that ESP is
for study in specific discipline or as a school subject. She also accepts that
ESP courses are generally constrained by a limited time period. That is, the
objectives must be achieved within a short period of time, the learners must
get the required level of linguistic competence. Another characteristic is that
ESP is taught to adults in homogenous classes in terms of their work or
specialist study. This is obvious when English for Occupational Purposes is

considered. This type of ESP is for people who are in occupation or about to
take up employment.

Hutchinson and Walters (1987) define ESP as a

language approach in which contents and method of teaching is decided
depending on particular demands of learners. Likewise, Strevens (1988)
14


shares the same view that ESP is to study English for a specific major and it is
used as a foreign language. From these definitions, it can be concluded that
the purpose of reading ESP is to develop reading skills for the learners in the
fields related to their interests.
Robinson (1991) also divides ESP into two main areas: English for
Academic Purposes (EPA) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) by a
tree diagram as follow:

Diagram 1: Classification of ESP
The diagram presents a useful division of courses when they take place.
These distinctions are very important as they will affect the degree of
specificity that is appropriate to the course. In short, studying various ways of
classifying ESP will provide the teachers with an overall picture of the group
of learners they are going to work with.
2.5. Existing literature of reading strategies
A number of empirical studies about reading strategies have been
conducted since the late seventies. Several of these studies have identified
concrete relationships between certain types of reading strategies and
successful and unsuccessful second language reading. Other studies have
15

investigated individual differences in strategy usage by second language
learners while they are engaged in different reading tasks. In recent years, a
great deal of research has been conducted on reading strategy training. Such
research is based on the assumption that success in reading depends mainly on
appropriate use of effective strategies.
Reading strategies show their importance when reading ability plays a
crucial role in language learning of students. Specifically, in the viewpoint of
Alderson (1984), proficiency in a foreign language can be correlated intensely
with reading ability in foreign language. Moreover, once the students achieve
a certain level of high competence, there would be a simultaneous
improvement in reading skills (Cziko, 1978 and Clarke, 1979). Nonetheless,
little is known about whether good level of competence in foreign languages
has influences on the use of reading strategies or whether the use of reading
strategies is similar to those reading strategies used by native speakers. Thus,
Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) investigate differences in the use of reading
strategies between native speakers and non-native English speakers when they
read academic materials. The findings illustrate that both native and nonnative students are aware of almost all reading strategies included in the
questionnaire. In the survey, both groups of students put the same level of
importance to each category of reading strategies: cognitive strategies (the
intentional actions the readers take when comprehension problems appear),
came

after

by

metacognitive

strategies

(advanced

planning

and

comprehension managing techniques) and support strategies (the tools readers
use to help the comprehension process). Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) further
evidence that native and non-native students with high reading ability
concentrate on cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies more than
students with low reading ability. Whereas native students with high reading
16


ability place more importance on support reading strategies than native
students with low reading ability, non-native students consider support
reading strategies comparatively valuable regardless of their reading level. In
addition, the study also shows that female students use reading strategies
more frequently than male students in the native group of students, while
gender has no effects on the use of reading strategies in the non-native group.
Song (1998) proposes a method for training students to use reading
strategies in English as Foreign Language (EFL) university reading program.
This training method is based on the procedure including four consecutive
reading strategies: summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting. The
study addresses the following research questions: “Do learning strategies
enhance reading ability of EFL college students? How is effectiveness reading
strategy training related to the reading proficiency of the students? Which
types of reading comprehension questions are affected by strategy reading?”

(p:41). Results show that “strategy training enhances EFL reading and that the
effectiveness of training varies with the second language reading
proficiency”. The results also indicate that students‟ performance on certain
types of reading comprehension questions is improved by the training
method. These findings suggest that foreign language reading methodology
should include explicit and direct strategy teaching.
In the study of Knight et al. (1985), reading strategies are defined as
processes

used

to

enhance

reading

comprehension

and

overcome

comprehension failures. The study adopts reading strategies from Chou Hare
and Smith (1982) to conduct the survey. Those reading strategies are rereading, selective reading, imaging, changing speeds, assimilating with
personal experiences, concentrating, assimilating with passage events, noting
or searching for salient details, summarizing, predicting outcomes, selfgenerated questions, students‟ perceptions of teachers‟ expectations, and
17

rehearsal. The findings indicate that English monolingual students mostly
focus on the concentrating reading strategy and their least focused strategy is
students‟ perceptions of teachers‟ expectations which is attempting to identify
what teachers would like to know. By contrast, ESL students most often use
students‟ perceptions of teachers‟ expectations. In the survey, the reading
strategies of imaging, noting details, and predicting outcomes are not used by
any bilingual students. Besides, the reading strategies of concentrating and
self-generated questions are used more frequently by monolingual students
than by ESL students. The study gives an overall conclusion that native
students use substantially more reading strategies than ESL students and
explains this difference by the fact that ESL students are exposed to English
reading so fast that they did not have chances to develop reading strategies
beforehand.
There has also been a wide argument that reading strategies are not
good or effective in nature, but instead reading strategies should be assessed
in terms of their effectiveness to the readers in the achievement of the reading
task (Williams and Burden, 1997). Choosing an appropriate reading strategy
relies upon several factors, such as the characteristics of the reading task and
differences of readers including personality, attitude, the prior experience and
reading proficiency.
In general, the above literature review reveals that scholars and
researchers in different parts of the world have shown great interest in the
study of reading strategies. It is hoped that this will help to identify the
strategies commonly used and those which are not used by this group of
learners. The findings of the study will promote understanding of the reading
process adopted by these learners and make clear about the solving ways for
many problems while they are reading.

18

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter commences with depicting the research design of how the
researcher would undertake to answer the research questions and achieve the
research objectives, including research philosophy, approach, and method.
Then, it demonstrates methods of data collection and data analysis. Finally,
research limitations are taken into account.
3.1. Research design
3.1.1. Philosophy
Research philosophy is conceptualized as the improvement of the
research background, research understanding and its essence (Saunders et al.
2012). Research philosophy is also specified by research model. It is required
to choose the appropriate philosophy for the research development. On the
nature and objectives of this study, the philosophy of positivism is employed
as the foundation of the research. The author observes practical reading
behaviors of students at a vocational college in Viet Nam. Then, the data is
used to analyse percentage and fequency in reading strategies of students so
as to give an overall picture of what is going on with the reading styles of
vocational students.
3.1.2. Approach
Research approach provides the direction which the researcher would go
through to undertake the study. Research approach can be classified into three
main categories, namely deduction, induction, and abduction. The choice of
approaches depends upon the questions and objectives of a specific study.
This study is fundamentally based on deductive approach. After reviewing
theoretical and empirical literature, the author realizes important reading
strategies, they are inputs for designing the survey and finding appropriate
19

strategies for vocational students.
3.1.3. Method
In this study, the author would employ a quantitative method in order to
give the right answer to the research questions which are analyzing reading
strategies of students at Viglacera Vocational College. Ultimately, an SPSS
software is used to analyzed the data of the questionnaire.
3.2. Data collection methods
3.2.1. Sample selection
The sample of the study involves 120 learners from several different
construction materials classes at VVC. The learners are registered in
compulsory ESP courses which aim to help them pursue their study to get
knowledge about their professional aspects. This group of students have
already learned English from four to seven years (four years at secondary
school and three years at high school) plus one term of General English at the
first year of college. Their ages range between eighteen and thirty years, and
they all speak Vietnamese as their first language.
3.2.2. Data collection process
The instrument which is employed to collect primary data is
questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part is
intended to provide background information about the subjects, such as
gender, age, years of studying English. The second part of the questionnaire
aims to identify the reading strategies claimed to be commonly used by the
participants while reading a ESP text. This part is classified under three
phases of reading: Pre-reading, While-reading, and Post-reading. This
questionnaire is administered at the beginning of the experiment. Each
question is asked for a range of answers, ordering as “always”, “usually”,
“sometimes”, “rarely” and “never”. In the phase of Pre-reading, four
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strategies are included to ask the respondents, which are relating the title and
illustration to the text, skimming the text, reading the topic sentence, and
thinking about previous knowledge. In the phase of While-reading, eleven
strategies are used to ask the respondents: looking up every unknown word in
the dictionary, checking the dictionary only for important words, contextual
guessing, using grammatical clues to guess the meaning, skipping unknown
words, rereading a sentence if not understood, translating the text word-forword, thinking aloud when reading, taking notes on important points, making
guesses about what will come next based on information already given, and
relating the text to the readers‟ background knowledge. In the phase of Postreading, five strategies are included to ask the respondents, namely classifying
words according to meaning, classifying words according to grammatical
categories, summarizing the main points in the text, rereading the text to make
up for comprehension failure, and rereading the text to remember the
important points.
3.2. Data analysis method
Data collected through the method is analyzed quantitatively using an
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) computer program.
Frequencies and percentages are calculated straight away for all
Questionnaire items. The results are then presented in the form of frequencies
and percentages. These statistics are then used to help in comparing the selfreported data generated through the Questionnaire with the actual reading
process in terms of reading strategy use..
The results of the analysis data is presented into three strategies: Three
strategies of the Questionnaire: (1) Pre-reading strategies, (2) While-reading
strategies, (3) Post-reading strategies. They are all presented into frequencies
and percentages.
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