VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT  LÊ THỊ THÙY DUNG USING TIMED-READING ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE TENTH GRADERS’ READING RATE AND FLUENCY AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, VINH PHUC PROVINCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH (NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC TÍNH GIỜ NHẰM NÂNG CAO TỐC ĐỘ ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘ TRÔI CHẢY CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10, TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN PHÚ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 HANOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT  LÊ THỊ THÙY DUNG USING TIMED-READING ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE TENTH GRADERS’ READING RATE AND FLUENCY AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL, VINH PHUC PROVINCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH (NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC TÍNH GIỜ NHẰM NÂNG CAO TỐC ĐỘ ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘ TRÔI CHẢY CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10, TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN PHÚ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Trần Xuân Điệp HANOI – 2013 DECLARATION Lê Thị Thùy Dung, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own research It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary action could be taken and penalties imposed in accordance with University policy and rules Signature Lê Thị Thùy Dung i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been completed without the help, assistance and support of many people to whom I am indebted First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mr Tran Xuan Diep, Assoc Prof Dr for the wholehearted guidance he gave me while I was doing this research I am truly grateful to him for his ideas, comments and instructions, as well as his constant support throughout my research I would like to thank all the lecturers who taught me during the post graduate course They provided me with valuable knowledge in various aspects that I used to carry out my study I also would like to thank all the staff members of the Department of Post graduate study, Vietnam National University for providing me best help and assistance to fulfill my thesis I wish to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the administrators of Tran Phu High School, my colleagues at English Group for their constant support, cooperation, and encouragement while the study was in progress My sincere thanks go to the students of class 10B who participated in my study and helped me with data collection for this study Finally, I owe my deep thanks to my dear family, specially my parents and my younger brother who were standing for me with love, help, consideration and encouragement ii ABSTRACT It has been acknowledged that reading rate and comprehension are closely linked Slow readers read at low rate with poor comprehension The rate of 200 - 300 wpm is considered the target rate for L2 students to reach to gain full comprehension (Alderson, 1984; Anderson, 1999; Carver, 1990; Dubin and Bycina, 1991) However, the 10th graders‘ reading rate at Tran Phu High School was far below the target It is necessary to increase the students‘ reading rate and timed reading activity was applied as a technique to help students reach the target This action research has attempted to examine the effectiveness of timed reading activity in increasing 10th graders‘ reading speed and their fluency This study also has investigated into the students‘ attitudes towards timed reading activity To reach these objectives, an action research was carried out The participants of the study were 40 non - English - major 10th graders from one class at Tran Phu High School, which was divided into groups, fast readers and slow readers Timed reading activity was implemented during weeks The data collection instruments were questionnaires (pre-questionnaire, post questionnaire), reading rare chart, and tests (pretest, posttest) The results obtained from the analyzed data show that the use of timed reading helped raise students‘ reading rate and comprehension, especially in fast reader group Furthermore, most of the students expressed positive attitudes towards timed reading activity iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Participants’ background information 17 Table 2: Mean reading rate measured by wpm at the Pretest and Posttest 26 Table 3: The students’ reading comprehension at the Pretest and the Posttest 28 iv LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Changes in reading rate at the Pretest and Posttest 27 Chart 2: Changes in reading rate of slow readers and fast readers 28 Chart 3: Changes in reading comprehension of slow readers and fast readers 29 Chart 4: The pre-questionnaire’s result 30 Chart 5: The post-questionnaire’s result (part I) 30 Chart 6: General feelings about timed reading activity 32 Chart 7: Feelings about the operation in timed reading activity 32 Chart 8: Belief on the effects of timed reading activity 33 Chart 9: Opinions about the use of timed reading activity 34 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS wpm: words per minutes vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION………………………………………………………………….i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….iii LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………… iv LIST OF CHARTS……………………………………………………………… v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………… vi PART A: Introduction…………………………………………………………….Error! 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Bookmark not defined 1.4.1 Rate-buildup reading ……………………………………………………… Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.2 Repeated Reading………………………………………………… .Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.3 Class-paced reading…………………………………………………………Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.4 Self-paced reading………………………………………………………… Error! Bookmark not defined 1.5 Timed reading activity……………………………………………… .Error! Bookmark not defined 1.6 Previous related studies……………………………………………………….Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………Error! Bookmark not defined viii ... PROVINCE: AN ACTION RESEARCH (NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC ÁP DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC TÍNH GIỜ NHẰM NÂNG CAO TỐC ĐỘ ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘ TRÔI CHẢY CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10, TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN PHÚ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS... APPENDIX 4B: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN HỌC SINH (Vietnamese) XI APPENDIX 5A: POST QUESTIONNAIRE (English) XII APPENDIX 5B: PHIẾU KHẢO SÁT Ý KIẾN HỌC SINH (Vietnamese) .XV APPENDIX 6:... PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 6014.0111 Supervisor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Trần Xuân Điệp HANOI – 2013 DECLARATION Lê Thị Thùy Dung, hereby declare that the work contained