“A study on English reading strategies of the grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school in SonLa”.

1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It is undeniable that English is an international language, which plays an important part in social life. It links people all over the world in many fields: science, technology, business, communication, education, ect. It also helps people to approach the endless knowledge of the human being. Therefore, teaching and learning English have become the necessity in every country. In Vietnam, English is one of the foreign languages, which is compulsory from primary to university. In secondary school, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing are four main skills which students have to learn when they learn English. Reading seems that is one of the most difficult skills. Many students make mistakes and find difficult with reading texts, reading tasks and reading exercises, so how to read effectively is a big question. I am myself going to be a teacher of English in the nearby future; I find that it is very necessary, meaningful, and practical to do a research about it. Hence, I would like to do a research named “A study on English reading strategies of the grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school in SonLa”. I hope that this research can give benefits to teachers, students and people concern about this field have more references. 2. Hypothesis The grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school may use different variety strategies to do reading comprehension and do reading tasks more actively and exactly. 3. Research questions In the study, some following questions will be answered: 2 1. What is the present English teaching and learning situation of the grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school in Son La? 2. What are strategies that students often use when they learn reading? 4. Objectives of the study This study is aimed to identify present English teaching and learning situation of the grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school. And then, some of their reading strategies and vocabulary strategies are given. In addition, some suggestions will also be given which could be useful for students’ reading comprehension and teachers at this school. 5. Methods of the study The major method is used in this study is quantitative one. That is all considerations, comments, remarks, assumptions, suggestions and conclusions given in the study are largely based on the data analysis. Data collections for analysis in the study come from many methods: • Theoretical study • Questionnaire for students • Teacher interview • Class observation 6. Scope of the study There are many kinds of reading; hence, there are many different kinds of strategies but for the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on reading comprehension strategies of the grade 10th students at GiaPhu upper secondary school, not every kind of reading strategies and on a large population. In addition, this research also is carried out on some teachers of English in that school which can help to find out English reading strategies used 3 by the grade 10th students in that school more easily and exactly. 7. Overview of the study The study includes three main following parts: Part 1 (Introduction) includes Rationale, Hypothesis, Research questions, Objectives of the study, Methods of the study, Scope of the study and Overview of the study. Part 2 (Development) is composed of three main chapters. Chapter 1, Literature review, will discuss theoretical background related to the purposes of the study. Chapter 2 will present Data collection and analysis. Chapter 3 is Major findings and suggestions of the study. Part 3 is the conclusion and the weakness of the study as well as some suggestions for further study. 4 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1. Introduction In this chapter, some general theories related to reading strategies and vocabulary strategies such as theoretical background of learning strategies, reading, reading strategies and vocabulary strategies will be given. 1.2. Theoretical background of learning strategies Successful second language learners are usually people who know how to manipulate strategy levels in their day to day encounters with the language. Although research on learning strategies is increasingly popular, there is no agreement regarding the definition of learning strategies. Up to now, there have been many different definitions of learning strategies. First, Weinstein and Mayer (1986) (qtd. in O’Malley and Chamot, 1990) defined learning strategies facilitation “as a goal and are intentional on the part of the learner. The goal of strategy use is to “affect the learners’ motivational or affective state, on the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge”. Learning strategies, according to Spolsky, B(1998) are terms to describe identifiable individual approach to learning situation. Oxford, R (1990) defined learning strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situation”. According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990), “learning strategies are special ways of passing information that enhance comprehension, learning or retaintion 5 of the information” or in their other words, learning strategies are “the special thoughts of behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information”. Specially, Kneefe (qtd. in Spolsky, B, 1998), defines learning strategies as “cognitive and physiological traits that are relatively stable indications of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment”. Rubin(1987)(qtd. in Schmitt, N, 1997) seemed to share the same idea when defining learning strategies as “the process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved and used” and “therefore vocabulary learning strategies could be any which affect this broadly defined process”. William, M & Burden, R. L (1997) added that “A learning strategy is like to tactic used by a player. It is a series of skills used with a particular learning purpose in mind. Thus, learning strategies involve an ability to monitor the learning situation and respond accordingly. This means being able to assess the situation, to plan, to select appropriate skills, to sequence them, to co-ordinate them, to monitor orassess theireffectiveness andtorevise theplanwhennecessary. Wenden, A and Rubin, J (1987) claimed that learning strategies were composed of the following components: • They are specific actions or technique • They can be observable/behavioral or non- observable/mental • They are problem-oriented • They can contribute directly or indirectly to learning • They may be consciously employed and became automatized • They are changeable. ... - tailieumienphi.vn