VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu yếu tố gây lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường THPT Tam Đảo) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRIỆU THỊ HOÀI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO FACTORS CAUSING THE 10TH STUDENTS’ ANXIETY IN ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION CLASSES AT TAM ĐẢO HIGH SCHOOL (Tìm hiểu yếu tố gây lo lắng học sinh lớp 10 học đọc hiểu tiếng Anh trường THPT Tam Đảo) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng HANOI - 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT Error! Bookmark not defined ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Error! Bookmark not defined ABSTRACT Error! Bookmark not defined LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Error! Bookmark not defined LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Error! Bookmark not defined PART A: INTRODUCTION I Rationale of the study I Aims of the study I Research questions II Scope of the study II Methodology II Significance of the study II Organization of the study II PART B: DEVELOPMENT Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1 Reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.1 Definition of reading? Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension Error! Bookmark not defined 1.1.3 The importance of reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2 Types of reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.1 Skimming Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.2 Scanning Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.3 Extensive reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.2.4 Intensive reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3 Stages of a reading lesson Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.1 Pre-reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.3.2 While-reading Error! Bookmark not defined i 1.3.3 Post- reading Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4 Anxiety Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.1 Definition of anxiety Error! Bookmark not defined 1.4.2 Foreign language reading anxiety Error! Bookmark not defined 1.5 Previous studies on the effect of anxiety on students’ reading comprehension Error! Bookmark not defined 1.6 Summary Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1 Research method Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1.1 The nature of qualitative research Error! Bookmark not defined 2.1.2 Selection of survey research as research strategy Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2 The context of the study Error! Bookmark not defined 2.2.1 An introduction of Tam Dao high schoolError! Bookmark not defined 2.2.2 The teaching material and reading tasks in teaching reading Error! Bookmark not defined 2.3 Participants Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4 Instruments Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4.1 Questionnaire Error! Bookmark not defined 2.4.2 Semi-structured interview Error! Bookmark not defined 2.5 Data collection procedure Error! Bookmark not defined 2.6 Data analysis procedure Error! Bookmark not defined 2.7 Summary Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Error! Bookmark not defined 3.1 Students' attitude towards the importance of reading Error! Bookmark not defined 3.2 Students’ interest in English reading lessons Error! Bookmark not defined ii 3.3 Reading anxiety caused by each reading factors Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.1 Anxiety caused by reading text factors Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.2 Anxiety caused by personal factors Error! Bookmark not defined 3.3.3 Anxiety caused by time constraint Error! Bookmark not defined 3.4 Students’ opinions on teachers’ teaching method Error! Bookmark not defined 3.5 Teaching methods in helping students overcome anxiety in reading Error! Bookmark not defined 3.6 Discussion Error! Bookmark not defined 3.7 Summary Error! Bookmark not defined CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS Error! Bookmark not defined 4.1 Raise students’ self - awareness of anxiety Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2 Increase student’s self-confidence Error! Bookmark not defined 4.3 Improve students’ background knowledge Error! Bookmark not defined 4.4 Apply appropriate reading strategies Error! Bookmark not defined 4.5 Develop supplementary reading materials Error! Bookmark not defined 4.6 Create a pleasant and comfortable classroom atmosphere Error! Bookmark not defined 4.7 Summary Error! Bookmark not defined PART C: CONCLUSION Error! Bookmark not defined Summary of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Limitations of the study Error! Bookmark not defined Recommendations for the further study Error! Bookmark not defined REFERENCES IV APPENDICES Error! Bookmark not defined iii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study It is indisputable that English plays an important role in teaching and learning as a foreign language However, to master English, learners need to grasp a lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is the most crucial skill that not only develops other skills such as speaking, listening and writing but also expands the students’ knowledge of the language However, according to (Saito, Horwitz, & Garza, 1999), “reading is an important source of input; however, it is also an anxiety provoking activity” Therefore, it can be undeniable that it is a difficult or a challenge to improve and develop reading skills for both teachers and students In fact, in reading lessons in Tam Dao high school, teachers always try to effectively transmit how to understand and exploit the reading text for students However, most of students share that they find that learning foreign language reading as English is affected by the personal factors, especially anxiety Therefore, the effectiveness of students’ reading comprehension is not as expected and they have little attention or motivation in reading lessons While a certain amount of research has been conducted to investigate foreign language anxiety and its effect on learn a foreign language, little has been done on anxiety in learning four skills, especially reading alone in Vietnam As a teacher of English in this school, I recognize the importance of reading, it is strongly desirable for me to propose “An investigation into factors causing the 10th students’ anxiety in English reading comprehension classes at Tam Đảo high school” to be the subject of this thesis Aims of the study The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of students’ anxiety on reading comprehension and then suggests some solutions to reduce their reading anxiety I Research questions To achieve the aims mentioned above, the following research questions are proposed: 1) What are the causes that affect students’ anxiety at Tam Dao high school in reading lessons? 2) What are some suggested solutions to reduce students’ anxiety on reading comprehension? Scope of the study This study focuses on students’ anxiety on reading comprehension Due to the limitation of page numbers of the minor thesis, the research only involves the 10th form students at Tam Dao high school Methodology To achieve the aims of the study, qualitative method is employed The data was collected by means of survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews After the data is collected, analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be made in the thesis Significance of the study This study investigates the causes of anxiety on students’ reading comprehension It could be of some help to teachers and students at Tam Dao high school to improve both teachers and students’ awareness of causes of reading comprehension anxiety By doing this research, the researcher wishes to help the 10th form students to reduce their reading anxiety through the suggested solutions Organization of the study The research consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, methods, scope, significance and organization of the study Part B: Development consists of four chapters: II Chapter Literature review gives the concepts of reading, reading comprehension, its importance, types of reading and stages of a reading lesson Next, the concepts of anxiety, foreign language reading anxiety and the previous studies on anxiety in reading comprehension are presented Chapter Methodology includes the research method, the context, participants, instruments and research procedure with the following main steps: conducting survey questionnaires and interview collecting data and analyzing data, and giving out conclusions from findings Chapter Analyses were given on students’ attitude and interests on reading, their sources of anxiety, their opinions of teachers’ teaching methods and how to cope with their anxiety chapter also focuses on data collections - findings and discussion Chapter Some suggested solutions of the study for improving reading skills to the students at Tam Dao high school are proposed Part C: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary, some limitations and suggestions for further studies III REFERENCES Aebersold, J A., & Field, M L (Ed.) 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Reading (2nd ed.), 497-508 10 Grabe, W (1991) Current developments in second language reading research TESOL Quaterly, 25(3), 375-406 doi :10. 2307/3586977 Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills