MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

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THESIS PROPOSAL
Master of Arts in English Language

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED AND STRATEGIES

EMPLOYED BY NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL

Student’s name:
Student’s code: 1741900067
Supervisor’s name: LE VAN TUYEN, Ph. D

HO CHI MINH CITY, March / 2019

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HCMC, 29/03/2019
Supervisor’s Signature

(i)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background to the study.................................................................................... 1
1.2 Statement of problem ........................................................................................ 2
1.3 Aims and objectives of the study ...................................................................... 3
1.4. Research questions ........................................................................................... 4
1.5 Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 4
1.6 Significance of the study ................................................................................... 5
1.7 Definition of terms ............................................................................................ 5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 6
2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 6
2.2 The role of reading skills in FL/SL acquisition ................................................ 6
2.3 Reading and reading comprehension ................................................................ 7
2.3.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension ................................... 7
2.3.1.1 Definitions of reading ......................................................................... 7
2.3.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension ................................................. 8
2.3.2. Teaching reading skill ............................................................................... 8
2.3.2.1 Principles of teaching reading skills ................................................... 8
2.3.2.2 Stages of teaching reading skills ......................................................... 9
2.3.3 Models of reading .................................................................................... 10
2.3.3.1 The bottom- up model ....................................................................... 10
2.3.3.2 The top - down model ....................................................................... 11
2.3.3.3 The interactive model ........................................................................ 12
2.3.4 Types of reading ....................................................................................... 13
2.3.4.1 Intensive reading ............................................................................... 13
2.3.4.2 Extensive reading .............................................................................. 14
2.3.5 Stages of teaching reading comprehension .............................................. 15
2.4 Reading strategies ........................................................................................... 16
(ii)
 2.4.1 Definition of reading strategies ................................................................ 16
2.4.2 The Importance of reading strategies ....................................................... 17
2.4.3. Classification of reading strategies ......................................................... 18
2.6. Previous studies .............................................................................................. 21
2.7 Conceptual framework of the study ................................................................ 26
3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 27
3.1. Research design .............................................................................................. 27
3.2. Research site ................................................................................................... 28
3.3. Sample and sampling procedures ................................................................... 28
3.4. Research instruments ..................................................................................... 30
3.5. Data collection procedures ............................................................................. 31
3.6. Data analysis procedures ................................................................................ 32
4. WORKPLAN (including timeline) ....................................................................... 33
5. LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 34

(iii)
LIST OF ABREVIATIONS
EFL : English as a Foreign Language
ESL : English as a Second Language
L2 : Second Language
FL : Foreign Language
SL : Second Language
Q : Questions
S : Students

(iv)
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Stages of teaching reading comprehension .............................................. 15
Table 2.2: Classification of reading strategies .......................................................... 19
Table 3.1 Suggested number of participants ............................................................. 29

(v)
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Models of the reading process (Perfetti, Landi & Oakhill, 2005) .......... 13
Figure 2.2. Conceptual Framework of the study ....................................................... 26

(vi)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
English has become an international language for a long time. It is widely used to
communicate in the Expanding Circle countries. Vietnam is well on its way to integrate
with the world and for that reason emphasis on English language skills has become
very essential. English is now used as a medium of instruction to teach many subjects
at many universities in Viet Nam, such as RMIT University, International University,
etc., which affirms that English plays one of the most important roles in the
Vietnamese educational system, especially at tertiary level.
To acquire a foreign language, students have to develop the four skills in learning
that language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these skills, reading
skill is considered as one of the most important skills. As a successful reader, using
reading strategies is very important to achieve effectively in adapting English,
especially for non-English major students. Students should apply effective reading
strategies to enhance their English reading skills. Barnett (1988) reveals that
improvement in reading comprehension is based on the improvement of strategies and
skills, training of strategies has led to successful for students in reading
comprehension. Carrell (1989) points out that effective reading is as probably one of
the most important skills in academic contexts because most students in academic
settings learn a second language – especially English – to acquire information through
reading. Reading is the primary means for independent learning whether the goal is
performing better on academic tasks, learning more about subject matter, or improving
language abilities (Grabe & Stoller, 2001). Moreover, Abbott (2006) states that reading
strategies are the mental operations or comprehension processes that readers select and
apply in order to make sense of what they read. The term of reading strategy is specific
tactics carried out by the reader in order to comprehend the intended meaning. That is
why for non-English major students, it is very necessary to employ reading strategies

1
to develop their reading skills so that they will be able to deal with documents written
in English for their future jobs.
Finding out effective reading strategies will help students become good and
successful readers. According to Macaro (2006), there has been a huge body of
research on language learning strategies since the 1980s. This great amount of research
has aimed to investigate the reading strategies that students of a second or foreign
language (L2) carry out when learning or using a foreign language. Students should be
supported and trained to apply effective reading strategies to read both inside and
outside the classroom.
With all the above-mentioned reasons, this study will focus on the case of students
at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). Its aim is to explore non-
English major student’s reading strategies as well as finding out most and least
employed strategies by students, and thus this study also support EFL teachers in
teaching English reading skill for students to help the students become good readers.
1.2 Statement of problem
Learning any language skill, students need to employ strategies to improve
language proficiency, especially in a foreign language context like Vietnam. If students
failed to comprehend a reading, their learning strategies would need to be checked to
see whether they are appropriate and effective or not, or whether the students are taught
how to apply strategies in learning. Undoubtedly, reading strategies are so important
that they can facilitate not only the reading process for students but also give them a
clear view about what they are reading. At university, EFL students have always many
different materials or texts to read for their study, such as: textbooks, articles, stories
and soon. 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. For these reasons, it is more important for EFL students to have
not only the ability to read written materials but also the ability to understand what they

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have read. Unfortunately, it is not the case of non-English major students who always
fail in the achievement of comprehension in reading (Souhila, 2014). That is because
they are unable to use certain effective reading strategies or lack of understanding of
these strategies that may help them to access comprehension in reading.
In recent years, many researchers in different contexts have conducted studies to
investigate reading strategies and how they are used and taught in foreign language
contexts. However, most of the researchers, for example Demiröz (2010), Khaokaew
(2012), Lee (2012) and Yukselir (2014) only focused on English major students and
their reading strategies. Very few studies have been conducted to investigate how non-
English major students use reading strategies in the EFL reading process; or how
teachers train their students to read; especially no literature relating to HUTECH
students’ reading strategies has been found so far. To help students overcome their
weaknesses in learning reading comprehension, this thesis aims to explore and
investigate the reading strategies employed by non-English major students that can
help students become good readers.
1.3 Aims and objectives of the study
This thesis will focus on non-English major students’ employment of reading
strategies in the EFL reading process. More specifically, it aims:
+ To explore what types of reading strategies are employed by non-English
major students in learning English reading skill.
+ To investigate to which extend reading strategies are employed by non-
English major students in learning English reading skill.
+ To explore the difficulties non-English majored students at HUTECH may
encounter in their learning of English reading skills.

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1.4. Research questions
This thesis attempts to address the following three research questions.
1. What types of English reading strategies are employed by non-English major
students in learning English reading skill?
2. To what extend are English reading strategies employed by non-English
major students?
3. What difficulties do non-English majored students encounter in the
application of English reading strategies?
1.5 Scope of the study
The study field of this thesis is English reading skill. Reading comprehension is
a complex task, which requires the orchestration of many different cognitive skills
and abilities (Oakhill, Cain, & Elbro, 2015). Researching reading comprehension
requires researchers to focus on different aspects such as skills, strategies, process,
discourse, and so on. This study only investigates a small aspect. Therefore, the scope
of the study is noted. It focuses on what strategies are employed in the EFL reading
process, how teachers train their students to read,. There is a need for this limit because
the investigation of reading strategies is such a complex area.
So far a lot of research articles and theses relating to reading comprehension have
been conducted by Vietnamese and foreigner researchers. Most researchers only
concentrate on English major students. However, this study is not. One different point
is that this study aims to investigate reading strategies employed by non-English major
students who have been blamed not to have good reading skills. Instead of conducting
the study in different universities, the current study will also focus on HUTECH, one
of the most famous private universities in Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam. Nonetheless, it
is hoped that the findings of the study will reflect the current situation of teaching and
learning English reading comprehension at the university.

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1.6 Significance of the study
Reading strategies are very important in the promotion of reading comprehension,
especially for less able students or non-English major students who always struggle in
learning reading comprehension. They play a core role in contributing to students’
English reading proficiency and acquisition.
The main purpose of the current study is to investigate reading strategies employed
by non-English major students and how teachers train their students to read in the EFL
reading comprehension classes. This study is significant at both theoretical and
practical levels. At the theoretical level, it will shed more light on the existing
knowledge of teaching and learning reading skill, of how reading strategies contribute
to foreign language acquisition. The findings of this thesis can be considered as a
reference for researchers in Vietnam, especially when this thesis deals with issues
relating to reading strategies employed by non-English major students at a private
university. At the practical level, the findings of the study will help both EFL teachers
and students at HUTECH have an objective view of what is taking place in the process
of teaching and learning English. By doing so, they will be able to improve their
teaching and learning. In addition, this study may also make a contribution to the
methodology through the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data with the
participation of non-English major students.
1.7 Definition of terms
Non-English major students: Those are students whose majors are information
technology, business administration, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering,
hotel management, marketing, accounting, food technology, commercial law, finance
and banking, information technology, etc.; and who learn English as a compulsory
subject of the 4-years training program at HUTECH.
Reading strategies: are steps, ways that readers use in their reading to acquire,
store, gain new information and solve the problems. There are reading strategies such

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as scanning, skimming, summarizing, guessing, taking notes, highlighting, paying
attention, self-evaluating, etc.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
For EFL students, reading process is one of the most important skills. It is a basic
skill which can help students to acquire new knowledge, experience about life of all
countries in the world through news and articles on newspapers, magazines, books and
social network, etc. Simply, reading is defined as the ability to draw meaning from the
printed page and interpret this information appropriately. In this section, theoretical
foundation of reading comprehension including concepts, types, strategies and models
of reading and reading comprehension, and previous studies are presented, and finally,
the framework of the study is provided.
2.2 The role of reading skills in FL/SL acquisition
According to Anderson (1999), reading is an essential skill for English as well as
second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) students. Moreover, reading is the most important
skill to master. With strengthened reading skills, ESL/EFL readers will make greater
progress and gain greater development in all academic fields.
One more evidence is from Ahmed (2015), the sooner the students learn to read
and write in English, they are better in improve their proficiency in English and
perform satisfactorily on the major English courses. And students (good readers) who
perform well on the reading sub-skills as well as the reading comprehension tasks tend
to attain higher levels of proficiency in their target language.
Sternberg (1987) also reveals that reading comprehension is not only a main goal
of schooling from early but also a necessary prerequisite later, when the target shifts
from learning to read to learning new information as a result of reading.

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2.3 Reading and reading comprehension
2.3.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension
2.3.1.1 Definitions of reading
Reading is a complex skill which is combination of a memory, attention,
perceptual processes and comprehension processes (Kern, 1989). Rules in reading
include the awareness of and ability to explore contradictions in a text, knowledge of
different strategies to apply with different texts, and the ability to separate important
information from unimportant information which stated by Carrell (1998). Likewise,
Grabe & Stoller (2001) also points out that reading is also one of the most inevitable
mediums for independent learning “whether the goal is performing better on academic
tasks, learning more about subject matters, or improving language abilities”. Grabe
(2002) indicates that, in a second language, reading ability is one of the most important
skills in academic settings because we learn new information, we have chance to obtain
alternative explanations and interpretations about this information through reading. In
another view, Nassaji (2003) identifies that reading as a multi-factor process by
focusing on the main parts placed in it.
Moreover, Anderson (2003) defines that reading is the most important skill to
master in order to ensure success in learning and strengthened reading skills facilitates
making greater progress in other sectors of language learning. According to (Hesham,
2006), reading can also be seen as an “interactive” process between a reader and a text
which leads to automatically or reading fluency. He also points out that in this process,
the reader interacts dynamically with the text as he or she tries to elicit the meaning
and where various kinds of knowledge are being used: linguistic or systemic
knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through
top-down processing). In addition, According to William and Fred (2013), reading is
the ability to draw meaning from the printed page and interpret this information
appropriately.

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 In conclusion, there are a variety of definitions of reading. All of the definitions
focus on skill of reading which is combined from attention, perceptual processes and
comprehension processes to ensure success in learning and strengthened reading skills
facilitates making greater progress in other sectors of language learning.
2.3.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is the ability of the readers to understand written
materials. According to RAND Reading Study Group (2002), reading comprehension
is defined as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning
through interaction and involvement with written language. It includes three elements:
the reader, the text and the activity or purpose for reading. Snow (2002) reveals that
reading comprehension refers to the simultaneous ability employed by readers to
construct and extract meaning through interaction and involvement with written
materials. In addition, Keenan, Betjemann and Olson (2008) claim that reading
comprehension needs the successful expansion and arrangement of a lot of lower-and
higher-level processes and skills. According to Seyed (2010), the comprehension is the
ability to go beyond the words, to understand the ideas transferred in the whole text.
Danielle (2012) also states that a general component in many definitions of
comprehension is the interpretation of the information in the text, the use of prior
knowledge to interpret this information and finally, the construction of a coherent
representation or picture in the reader’s mind of what the text is about.
2.3.2. Teaching reading skill
2.3.2.1 Principles of teaching reading skills
According to Geoffrey, Christopher, Roger, Peter & Anita (1980), teaching
reading through: Firstly, using questions to help the students to understand what they
read. There is a great difference between questions intended for teaching and questions
aimed at testing. Useful techniques for encouraging develop the skill of skimming of
the students is that which is initiated by the instruction. The second point is the choice

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of an appropriate text that is very important in building reading competence of the
students. Texts should include description, exposition, and argument as well as
narrative. The third point is important that all the aspects of reading, all the various
kinds of relationship, between words in the text, between grammatical constructions,
between logical and rhetorical elements, between the author and the reader and the text
should be covered by the questioning. And finally, the fourth point is the form in which
the question is put may have a bearing on how easy or difficult it is for the students.
Visual and audio aids to reading which involve the use of pictures, diagrams, charts
and models are also necessary. One the other hand, according to Parel & Praveen
(2008), teachers should tell the topic first to the students. They should not allow the
student to murmuring while reading. The subject should be interested and selected
from the reading material developed for it. Eclectic approach can be used by teachers
for better understanding. To increase enthusiastic in class English, teacher’s role is
necessary when teaching reading for the students. Hammer (2007) states that the roles
of the teachers including organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter. For the
role of an organizer-the teachers tells what reading purpose is, gives clear instruction
about how to achieve purpose. For the role of an observer, the teacher gives the
students the space to reading and observer student’s progress. For the role of a
feedback organizer –when completion, the teacher gives feedback to the students, the
teachers can compare the answers in pairs and ask the answers from class. For the role
of a prompter-the teachers can prompt them to notice language features when reading
2.3.2.2 Stages of teaching reading skills
Ozek & Livelek (2006) states that three phase approach to reading respectively
as pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading. Pre-reading that relating the title to
the text content, students think the topic. While -reading, the students commonly
employed strategies such as using the dictionary, guessing the meaning of a word,
skipping some unknown words, assimilating the text with the background knowledge.

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And post –reading, students usually focus on summarizing and outlining. According to
Varaprasad (1997), pre-reading makes use of students’ background knowledge about
the topic, preparing the students for the context of the reading passage so that
predicting and guessing are used. While- reading develops and helping comprehension
for the reading text content, learning to generalize on the issue under discussion so that
skimming and scanning are used. Post-reading makes use of key words and structures
to summarize the reading passage, extracting the main idea of a paragraph or a reading
text so that summarizing and outlining are used.
2.3.3 Models of reading
Reading models are what happened in the process of reading, they describe how
reader processes printed texts to construct and develop meaning. Referring to Marto
(1997), he makes a light on three main theoretical models of reading process that has
been studied by many cognitive and behavioral scientists, including: bottom-up, top-
down and interactive.
2.3.3.1 The bottom- up model
The Bottom up, or text-based model approach is known as phonics, which
requires the learner to link letters with sounds in a determined sequence that mean
reading in linear process by which readers decode word by word a text, matching the
words into phrases and then into sentences by Kucer (1987). This model focuses
mainly on the recognition of individual letters, phonemes and words. That means the
meaning of the entire text begins from the word level, then the sentential level and
finally the text level (Rumptz, 2003). The same ideas, the reader focuses mainly on the
text, analyzing it starting from smaller textual units and building up a meaning for a
text from these small units at the bottom (letters to sounds and to words) to larger units
at the top (phrases- clauses, inter-sentential linkages) (Brown, Urquhart & Weir, 1998;
Carrell &Thompson, 1988)

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 Besides, it highlights a single direction, part- to- the whole processing of text. In
other words, it includes a sequences of steps that the reader has to go through; that
means moving from the smallest linguistic units such as: word, sentences, phrase, and
so on, until reaching the meaning of the text (James & Gentry, 2008). Therefore,
bottom up model allows students to start with the perceptual processing of text and
move upward through word recognition to comprehension. More clearly, it is the
process that the reader begins with the smallest units of the text (letters) and moves to
the higher units of the text (clusters) and finally get to words. So, readers get meanings
that build letters into words, words into sentences, phrases and then reach to the
overall meaning (Samuel, 1984).
2.3.3.2 The top - down model
Richards (1990) notes that the top-down model is related to the use of
background knowledge in understanding the meaning of a text; that means readers
make connection between their previous knowledge about a subject, situational or
contextual knowledge, or knowledge stored in long term in the form of “schemata” and
“scripts”. Grabe (1988) also states that this model is not just extracting meaning from
a text but a way of connecting information in the text with the background knowledge
that is used in reading. In addition, (Carrell, 1988) notes that top-down models do not
suggest information processing with beginning the largest units and then to smaller
units of the text. Moreover, in top-down model, the reader’s background knowledge of
the content and rhetorical structure of the text plays an important role in the processing
of the text. Thus, the reader is looked as an active participant in the reading process,
eliciting meaning from the text, making predictions and confirming or disconfirming
those predictions (Carrell, 1988; Carter & Nunan, 2001). An example of a top-down
access to reading comprehension is the psycholinguistic model of reading which
proposed by Grabe & Stoller (2002). They describe reading as a psycholinguistic

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guessing game; that means the readers reconstruct meaning by using the graph-phonic,
syntactic, and semantic systems of the language.
2.3.3.3 The interactive model
The interactive model, or balanced model proposed by Brown (1998), mentions
of two levels of interaction. First level refers to an interaction between the reader and
the text. This interaction includes a negotiation with meaning by the reader who
comprehends meaning of text by utilizing the information in the text and what is
brought to the text. Second level, it refers to an interaction of bottom-up and to-down
processes. Readers process reading by interpreting the linguistic items in the text
(bottom-up processing) and relating this information to what is already known about
the world (top-down processing) (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983). Eskey (1988) sees that
“the interactive model takes into account the continuous interaction between bottom-up
and top-down processing in the construction of the meaning of a text”. Rumelhart
(1981) also views that it is “one in which data driven, bottom- up processing combines
with top- down, conceptually driven processing to cooperatively determine the most
likely the interpretation of input”. The interactive model offer that the reader processes
reading by beginning with a linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and
ends with meaning which the reader construct (Carrell, 1998).

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Figure 2.1: Models of the reading process (Perfetti, Landi & Oakhill, 2005)
2.3.4 Types of reading
2.3.4.1 Intensive reading
Intensive reading texts can help learners in increasing knowledge of language
and their control of reading strategies. It can also improve their comprehension skill.
Brown (1988) explains that intensive reading “calls attention to grammatical forms,
discourse markers, and the surface structure details for the purpose of understanding
literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like”.
According to Nation (2009), the classic procedure of this type is approach of
grammar-translation where the teacher works with the learners, using the first language

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to explain the meaning of a text, sentence by sentence. Intensive reading focuses on
comprehension of a specific text with no thought being given to whether the
characteristics studied in this text will be useful when reading other texts. Intensive
reading involves translation and comprehension of the text. Therefore, goal of intensive
reading may be comprehension of the text. The use of translation helps learners
understand about the text. Intensive reading also has another goal; that is to determine
what language features will achieve attention in the course. There are two several
positive aspects. First, the language features are arranged in the communicative context
of a text. The text is used to show how the language features contribute to the
communicative purpose of the text. Second, choosing features in this aspect is likely to
avoid the interference between vocabulary items and grammatical features that can
happen when topic-centered syllabus design is used.
Besides positive aspects, there are also negative aspects to allow texts determine
the language features of a course. First, the attention features may be an uncontrolled
mixture of useful and not very useful items. That is high and low frequency
vocabulary, frequent grammatical items and very infrequent or irregular grammatical
items may make equal attention. Second, the topic or issue of the text determines the
outstanding of the items and the teaching gets towards this text rather than what are
useful in a chain of texts. If intensive reading is done well, the major principle in
determining the center of the teaching should be the focus is on items that will occur in
a range of texts. Intensive reading can focus on the following aspects such as:
comprehension, Regular and irregular sound-spelling relations, vocabulary, grammar,
cohesion, information structure, genre features, and strategies.
2.3.4.2 Extensive reading
Reading is as a source of learning to understand the materials and texts, and a
source of enjoyment. Extensive reading is a form of reading from focusing on
meaning- input. Extensive reading learners should focus on what they are reading and

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pay with their attention on the meaning of the text rather than focus on learning the
language features of the text. In benefit of extensive reading, Day and Bamford (1998)
characterize extensive reading involves to a large quantity of text, self-selected,
enjoyable reading at a quite fluent speed.
According to Bamford and Day (2004), extensive reading is a procedures of
teaching language, in which learners should read large quantities of materials or long
texts for overall understanding, the principal goal being obtaining pleasure from the
materials and texts. In another view, according to Liana (2011), extensive is reading as
much as possible, for students’ own pleasure if it is at a difficulty level that they can
read smoothly and quickly the materials or texts without looking up words from
dictionary or Google. So, we can say that extensive reading is connection to student
election and comfort in reading in order to reach enjoyment.
2.3.5 Stages of teaching reading comprehension
Research into reading strategies reveals that there are three stages of reading strategies:
pre-reading strategies, during-reading strategies and post-reading strategies.
Table 2.1: Stages of teaching reading comprehension

Stages Aims Categories Authors

Making use of students’ background

Pre-reading knowledge about the topic. Predicting
Preparing the students for the context Guessing
of the reading passage.
Varaprasad
Developing and helping
While- (1997)
comprehension for the reading text
reading/ Skimming
content.
During Scanning
Learning to generalize on the issue
reading
under discussion.

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 Making use of key words and
structures to summarize the reading
Outlining
Post-reading passage.
Summarizing
Extracting the main idea of a
paragraph or a reading text.

2.4 Reading strategies

2.4.1 Definition of reading strategies
According to Paris, Lipson and Wixson (1983), reading strategies are
considered as carefully cognitive steps that the readers can take to acquire, store, and
regain new information. Danielle (2006) states a “reading comprehension strategy is a
cognitive or behavioral action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions,
with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension”. According to Paris et al.
(1983) state that strategic reading process obliges three elements: a capable agent
(reader), an attainable goal, and an allowable action through which the reader can reach
the desired end state. The strategic reading should have three types of knowledge. The
first type is “declarative knowledge” that means knowing what the strategies are. The
second type is “procedural knowledge” that stands for knowing how to use them. And
the third type is “Conditional knowledge” that includes knowing when and why to
apply various actions. This type helps the reader combine the preceding two types by
coordinating what strategies to use and how to use the reading strategies when face
with a task of reading. In addition, Anderson (1991) also explains that “the strategic
reading is not only a matter to know what strategies to use, but also helps the reader
know how to use a strategy successfully and orchestrate its use with other strategies. It
is not enough to know about strategies; a reader must also be able to apply them
strategically”. Shih (1991), Baker and Blau (1995) suggested that three stages of
reading strategy used: pre reading, during reading, and post reading.

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 Reading strategies are treated as cognitive skills that used to solve the problems
occurring in the reading process (Aarnoutse & Schellings, 2003). Afflerbach, Pearson
& Paris (2008) state that the issues related to reading strategies and skills and explains
the reading strategies as “deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify
reader’s efforts to decipher the text, understand words, and construct meanings of
texts”. Furthermore, Al-masi (2012) also states that reading strategies involve
evaluating content, finding an association between the text and previous knowledge,
asking and answering the questions relate to the text, identifying key words,
grammatical analysis to determine the components of the sentences, skipping, re-
reading, paraphrasing and summarizing. Meiraf (2013) states that strategies may
involve to scanning, skimming recognizing word families, synonyms, predicting,
activating general knowledge, making inferences, and identifying main ideas from
supporting ones
2.4.2 The Importance of reading strategies
In the educational environment, most of ESL/EFL learners have to face many
problems, especially in comprehension of written materials and texts when reading.
Understanding meaning of materials and texts is a great challenge for readers; that
means they can understand each word, and then each sentence, but not easy to achieve
this level as well as the learners fail to achieve the meaning of entire texts. For that
reason, there are a lot of researchers assume that those people always struggle and
explore reading comprehension strategies as a problematic issue. Most of these learners
lack the suitable reading strategies that may help them to overcome their reading
problems. If they find and apply effective reading strategies, their reading
comprehension problem will become easier.
For reading problems, there are a lot of evidences that have been displayed on the
importance of reading strategies and its role in developing and enhancing reading
comprehension for ESL/EFL learners. The importance of reading strategies has been

17
found to be obligatory for English learners as well as ESL/EFL learners to achieve a
high level of learning language and success in their study (Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001).
McNamara, Boonthum, Levinstein and Millis (2009) highlight that reading strategies
are useful and beneficial for learners, especially the learners who lack knowledge in
their reading skill as well as the learners with lower reading skill, so that these kinds of
learners need these reading strategies to achieve their reading comprehension.
Therefore, finding and using effective reading strategies is very important and
necessary to help the learners in their reading.
2.4.3. Classification of reading strategies
In researches on reading strategies, there are many researchers have promoted
and utilized different types of strategies. Brown and Palinesar (1982) categorize
reading strategies into metacognitive and cognitive. After that, O’Malley (1985) add
more two strategies; they are social mediation strategy and affective strategy. Carrell
(1989) divides reading strategies into two types, including local and global strategies.

18
Table 2.2: Classification of reading strategies
Author Strategies Categories
Skimming
Summarizing
Scanning
Guessing the meaning of a new word
Cognitive from context
Highlighting
Rereading
Taking notes
Translating
Thinking about what has been known

Oxford (1990) about the topic

Meta-cognitive
Identifying a purpose for reading
Self-evaluating
Cooperating with others
Social
Asking for clarification or verification

Using progressive relaxation, deep

Affective breathing
Discussing feelings with someone else
Scanning
Local strategies
Search reading
Summarizing
Carrell (1989) Skimming
Global strategies Previewing
Predicting
Search reading

19
 Brown, Bransford, Ferrara and Campione, (1983) describes the metacognitive
strategy that talk to a higher order of executive skills involving monitoring, planning
and evaluating the success of a learning activities. The cognitive strategy is as one
that involving mental manipulation or transformation of the materials and it is used to
enhance comprehension, acquisition. Social/ Affective strategy represents a broad
grouping that involve to interaction and ideational control over effect.
Carrell (1998) describes that local strategies are which those to do with sound
letter, word meaning, sentence syntax, text details. Global strategies are those having to
do with background knowledge, textual organization.
More specifically, Magiliano, Baggett, Johnson and Graesser (1993) stated that
prediction involves thinking about what might occur in the text. It is administered by
effective readers that mean because they used headings, pictures, signals, personal
experience to make predictions before they begin to read. Skimming is reading
technique by readers to get general idea about the content of written materials through
reading quickly (Grellet, 1999). According to Grellet (1981), scanning requires reader
to get for specific information without reading the entire text, through looking at its
title firstly, after that the table of content. Oxford (2006) defines that summarizing as a
brief description of the main ideas of the texts without any details. According to
Oxford (1990), using other clues - using introductions, conclusions, transitions to get
concerned information; reasoning deductively – predicting/inferring based on what is
implied; analyzing expressions – making sense of new expressions by segmental
analysis; elaborating - associating new information with familiar concepts already in
memory; using imagery - helping remember what has been read by relating new
information to visual concepts in memory; guessing the meaning of a new word from
context - making guesses about the meaning of new words; highlighting – underlining,
highlighting, mark, ect. to focus on important information; rereading – reading more
than one time to comprehend better; taking notes - writing down

20
main/important/special/ ideas; translating –switching into first/native language for
support; resourcing - using target language reference materials such as dictionaries,
grammar books, glossaries. thinking about what has been known about the topic -
linking the present topic with previous relevant ones; identifying a purpose for reading
- determining task purposes; paying attention – making a decision promptly what to
pay attention to, and what to ignore; self-evaluating – reflecting on what has been done
and how it has been done; cooperating with others - working with one/more peers for
better outcomes; asking for clarification or verification - asking a teacher or others to
repeat, to paraphrase, explain or give examples; using progressive relaxation, deep
breathing for comport/relaxation; discussing feelings with someone else -to discover
and express feelings about language reading/reading tasks.
2.6. Previous studies
So far many studies have been conducted to investigate reading strategies used
EFL classrooms in both international and Vietnamese contexts. In the international
context, there are a lot of studies aim to find out and investigate students’ reading
strategies used by non-English majors and English majors. For example, Mei-Ling
(2012) investigated the selection of reading strategies among genders by EFL College
students. The purpose of this study is to probe foreign language reading strategies use
among EFL College according to different genders and the differences of frequency
using types of reading strategies. Participants are 156 including 84 males and 72
females. This study used one instrument as questionnaire to analyze collected data. The
results showed that the significant differences between male and female students on the
use of reading strategies. Male students reported using strategy better than female
regarding memory, cognitive, compensation strategies, while males used strategies
fewer that female of meta-cognitive and social-affective while reading.
Next, Rouai (2014) conducted a study to help EFL learners aware some
effective strategies that would help them to overcome their difficulties in reading

21
comprehension of first year English students. This study employed two instruments
including questionnaire and practical exercises to collect data about their strategies and
their ability to achieve comprehension in reading. The data suggested that students still
have faced some problems in reading for their lack and misuse of reading strategies.
Moreover, Ceyhun (2014) conducted an investigation into the reading strategy
use of EFL prep-class students. The aim is to reveal what kind of reading strategies are
generally used by pre-intermediate level of students. The population consisted of 65
prep-class students. This study employed only instrument to find out whether there are
gender and department differences among the participants. The data was collected from
the questionnaire to analyze. The results revealed that students tend to use of reading
strategies with great frequency. However, these reading strategies do not differ in
gender but their departments have an effect on reading strategy use.
One more study was conducted by Shao (2014). The study was about English
reading strategies used by Chinese non-English major students. This study explored the
reasons why they do not like to use other strategies. The findings of this study can help
students in improving their English reading skills. The instrument used for the study
was questionnaires; all participants are students majoring in Math, Material Science
and Engineering in the University of Jinan in China. The total number was 210
students including 108 boys and 102 girls, they range in age from 18 to 22, with an
average age of 20. The results showed that most Chinese non-English major students
use general of reading strategies and they do not know how to use English reading
strategies in their study, typical metacognitive strategies and social strategies. That is
why the students need to improve themselves in applying reading strategies in learning
English.
In addition, Yang (2016) conducted a quantitative study to investigate the
strategy used by non-English major postgraduates and indicate the difference between
the successful and unsuccessful learners. The results showed that postgraduates of non-

22
English major in Chang University do not frequently use reading strategies to improve
their English reading skill. Another result was that a big difference between the
successful and unsuccessful learners in the use of their English reading strategies;
unsuccessful learners seldom use the reading strategies. In this study, 40 non-English
major postgraduates from College of Mechanical Engineering in Chang University
participated. All of them were selected randomly in two classes with the same major
and in the first year of their postgraduate study. The used instrument to conduct was
questionnaires. This study can help the students to improve their English reading speed
and proficiency.
Finally, Mehdi and Hanieh (2017) conducted a study on reading strategies used
by EFL students with aim is to identify reading strategy choice of Iranian advanced
English language learners. The main instrument is questionnaire and participation of
110 Iranian advanced English language learners, male and female, at 19 English
language institutes in northern part of Iran. And the findings indicated that student at
this level of English proficiency have a tendency toward using support strategies than
other types.
In the Vietnamese context, one study was conducted by Ho Van Chung (2013)
on reading comprehension problems in English encountered by first year students of
faculty of Vietnamese studies at HUE. The participants were first year students at Hue.
This study aimed to gain more understanding of the nature of problems encountered in
comprehending English texts, and find out strategies used by Hue students in solving
their comprehension problem. A questionnaire was also designed for this study. The
findings showed that students are dealing with two most serious problems preventing
their comprehension from English reading: (1) lack of vocabulary and (2) the need to
reread.
Another study was conducted by Do Minh Hung and Vo Phan Thu Ngan (2014)
to investigate reading strategies used by EFL students at Dong Thap University of first-

23
year and third-year English majors. The instrument was a questionnaire of 22
statements that related to 22 reading strategies was delivered to both groups of
students. The results showed that the first-year students frequently used strategies of
translating, highlighting, relevant-thinking, skimming, scanning especially cooperating
and assistance-seeking. Meanwhile, the third-year students no longer frequently used
translating, resourcing and highlighting; instead they increased the frequencies of
analyzing, elaborating, purpose-identifying and other strategies.
One more study was conducted by Nguyen Ngoc An, Pham Cam Tu and
Nguyen Thi Van Anh (2016) on reading comprehension and communicative approach
through ESP materials for students of law enforcement. The purposes of this study are
to demonstrate how specialized ESP reading materials helps students gain a deeper
knowledge, to promote using English for debating law topics, to increase the students'
acquisition of vocabulary. Instruments for analyzing data were semi-structured
interviews, students' oral and written samples. The findings showed that reading ESP
materials motivate students to increase vocabulary and knowledge about their own
field and encourages them to use English in everyday situations.
Finally, a study conducted by Tran Quoc Thao and Duong My Tham (2018) to
explore difficulties of ESP reading comprehension faced by English-majored students
at one university in Vietnam. 80 of English-majored students involved in answering a
close-ended questionnaire. Besides, 3 ESP teachers were invited to participate in a
semi-structured interview. The study indicated that students did not have much trouble
in dealing with reading ESP texts; however, it was seen that two common areas of
difficulties in ESP reading comprehension students are unknown words and
background knowledge of subject matters. It also revealed that students did not face
much with difficulties of coverage of text, organization structure, and grammar used in
ESP reading texts

24
 In conclusion, almost the articles focus on reading strategies of EFL students
and English-major students, those articles have not distinct differences between
students of different majors in using their reading strategies. To fill the gap, this study
concern on reading strategies of non-English major students at HUTECH University to
explore the extent to which reading strategies are taught in the EFL reading process,
which strategies are most and least employed and to discover whether there are
significant differences between students of different majors in the use of reading
strategies.

25
2.7 Conceptual framework of the study
Using other clues
Skimming

Reading Summarizing
Comprehension
Scanning

Guessing the new

meaning
Cognitive Highlighting

Rereading
Students’ Teaching
Perception reading skill Taking note

Translating

Thinking the topic

Meta- Identifying purpose of

Cognitive reading

Reading Self-evaluating
Strategies
Cooperating with others
Social
Asking for clarification

Figure 2.2. Conceptual Framework of the study

26
3. METHODOLOGY
The present chapter describes the methodology employed in the study. It consists of 6
subsections mentioning methodology of the study, including research design, research
site, sample and sampling procedures, instruments, data collection and data analysis
procedures.
3.1. Research design
To ensure reliability and validity of the study, a mixed-methods design will be
employed for this study. Mixed methods research is about heightened knowledge and
validity. A mixed methods design as a product has various primary characteristics that
should be considered during the design process. A mixed methods design is the type of
research which combines qualitative and quantitative data (Johnson, Onwuegbuzie &
Turner, 2007). Greene, Caracelli & Graham (1989) gave reasons why researchers
should choose mixed methods is triangulation. Triangulation is aspects of a
phenomenon more accurately by approaching it from different vantage points using
different methods and techniques. Therefore, this study will collect both qualitative
and quantitative data to investigate the use of reading strategies of non-English
majored students. Qualitative research method in this study will focus on the interview;
it helps discover the hidden areas and value of the subjects in the evaluation process
(Glaser & Straus, 1967). According to Aliaga & Gunderson (2002), quantitative
research is explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data and it is analyzed by
using mathematically based methods in particular statistics. In this study, quantitative
research method will focus on collecting data from the questionnaire, being employed
to measure students’ perceptions of the use of reading strategies including Cognitive,
Metacognitive, and Social strategies.

27
3.2. Research site
This study will be conducted at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology
(HUTECH) in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. HUTECH is located at 475A Dien Bien
Phu Street, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. It was established in
1995 with their mission is to become a leading educational in providing a high quality
human education during the process of integrating with international community. In
addition, it also provides for students a modern educational environment with
equipment such as the projectors, microphones and air conditioners in each class,
laboratories for many faculties. Besides, HUTECH has educational programs for PhD,
Master, and Bachelor degrees. It has about 20,000 students from different majors such
as information technology, business administration, mechanical engineering, English
language, electronic engineering, hotel management, marketing, accounting, food
technology, commercial law, finance and banking, Japanese language with each faculty
office. HUTECH has 1000 regular lecturers including 11 professors, 35 associate
professors, 156 doctors of science and doctorate holders (HUTECH’S Website).
3.3. Sample and sampling procedures
The participants employed in this study will be approximately 200 non – English
major students who study different disciplines such as information technology,
business administration, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, hotel
management, marketing, accounting, food technology, commercial law, finance and
banking, etc. They are students in the 2018-2019 academic year. The participants will
be chosen by stratified random sampling. According to Kothari (2004), population of
stratified random sampling is divided into several sub-populations that are individually
more homogeneous than the total population, after that select items from each stratum
to constitute a sample. Stratified sampling results is more reliable. And each element in
the population an equal probability of getting into the sample and all choices are
independent of one another. It also gives each possible sample combination an equal

28
probability of being chosen. Other author, Cohen (1994) states that stratified random
sampling that means that population is divided into homogenous groups, each group
containing subjects with similar characteristics, each member of the population under
study has an equal chance of being selected. In this study, 200 non – English major
students from various majors are surveyed in questionnaire and 16 of those still
continue with interview to increase reliability of variables. Random sampling is a key
component of scientific sampling procedures. It involves to selecting members of the
population to be included in sample on random basis. Combining random sampling
with form of rational grouping is an effective method for survey (Aliken, 1997). This
might be the best sampling procedure because every student is given equal
opportunities of being selected.

Table 3.1 Suggested number of participants

No of No for No for Academic
Majors
Participants Questionnaire Interviews year
Business
25 2 3rd year
Administration
Information
25 2 3rd year
technology
Electronic
25 2 3nd year
200 engineering
Hotel management 25 2 3nd year
Accounting 25 2 3rd year
Finance and banking 25 2 3rd year
Food Technology 25 2 3rd year
Commercial law 25 2 3rd year

29
3.4. Research instruments
Based on the aims of the study and the research design, two research
instruments will be employed to collect data. Questionnaires will be used to investigate
the subjects’ use of English reading strategies. The items in questionnaire are compiled
by the researcher based on the classification of reading strategies given by O’Malley &
Chamot (1990). The questionnaire serves as a crucial tool in all scientific researches, it
also helps to collect basic data about the students’ attitudes towards learning foreign
languages and all processes of their foreign language learning (Parrot, 1993). Three
main aspects of a questionnaire are general form, question sequence, question
formulation and wording. A good questionnaire should be short and simple, the size of
the questionnaire should be kept to the minimum. Questions should proceed in logical
sequence moving from easy to more difficult questions. Personal and intimate
questions should be left to the end (Kothari, 2008).
According to Zoltan (2003), a scientific research need to find answers to questions
in a systematic manner, so questionnaire has become one of the most popular research
instruments applied in social sciences. Besides that, if the questionnaire construction
goes well, the process of collecting data will be very easy, fast and relatively
straightforward by using modern computer software such as SPSS. Therefore, a Likert-
scale ranging from “1” for Strongly Disagree (SD), “2” for Disagree (DA), “3” for
Neutral (N), “4” for Agree (A) and “5” for Strongly Agree (SA) will be used for the
questionnaire items. Questionnaire items is measure of variables.
In addition, this study will also employ structured interviews to collect qualitative data.
Chamot and El-Dinary (1999) point out that the interview is one of the most common
methods of collection data in research language learning strategies. Kothari (2008)
points that the method of collecting information through personal interviews is usually
carried out in a structured way- call structured interviews. This interviews involve the

30
use of a set of predetermined questions and highly standardized techniques of
recording. The interview is a research technique that serves different aims in the wide
context as assessing and evaluating people in some respect (Cohen & Manion, 1994).
The purpose of the interview is to get information of certain kinds. This information is
from factual replies, responses to attitude scale items, feeling or ideas and so forth
(Openheim, 1992). Interviews are used as research tools into four types: the structured
interview, the unstructured interview, the non-directive interview and focus interview
(Cohen & Manion, 1994). In this study, the research should use the unstructured
interview because unstructured interview is an open situation that allows interviewer
with flexibility and freedom to make changing the order of questions and extensive
follow-up of responses (Cohen & Manion, 1994; McDonough, 1997).
Interviews are designed with the purpose to gather supporting additional data. Those
questions will focus on which strategies are employed and their influence on reading
comprehension.
The both the questionnaire and interview items will be translated into Vietnamese
because all of the students are non – English majors and the researcher wants the
participants to understand the purpose of questions in the questionnaire clearly. It also
helps the participants feel more comfortable when they do this survey.
3.5. Data collection procedures
Collecting data for the study will be conducted in two stages. Firstly, for
quantitative data with the use of the questionnaire, the researcher will randomly choose
the students for the survey. And then the researcher will give the students time limit of
20-25 minutes for doing the questionnaire paper. During the process of completing this
survey, the students will be carefully instructed so that mistakes may be reduced.
After completing the questionnaire, an unstructured interview will be conducted
based on the aims of the study. Similarly, for the interview, the students will be
randomly chosen from the ones who have completed the questionnaire. The researcher

31
can also use open situations that allow interviewers with flexibility and freedom to
make changes of the order of the questions and extensive follow-up of responses. By
using this unstructured interview, the researcher will have more in-depth information
about reading strategies employed by non-English major students at HUTECH. During
the process of carrying out the interviews, the interview information must be recorded
carefully for data analysis later.
3.6. Data analysis procedures
This study concerns two types of data: quantitative and qualitative data. With the
questionnaire, the researcher will use descriptive statistics to analyze the data through
modern computer software as SPSS. Through this analysis, mean, standard deviation,
percentages will be calculated. As a result, non-English majored students’ perceptions
about reading strategies will be explored, which strategies are most and least employed
by non-English major students in the EFL reading process and what they expect their
teachers to do to help them in learning reading skill will be discovered. Regarding data
collected from interviews, “content analysis” will be used to analyze the data. All data
collected will be categorized or divided into different themes that relate to the variables
of the study. All students who participate in the interviews will be coded as from S1 to
S20.

32
4. WORKPLAN (including timeline)
Month 4 5 6 7 8 9
Tasks
- Preparing the thesis proposal
- Presenting and defending the thesis proposal
- Revising the thesis proposal
- Collecting data
- Analyzing data
- Writing
- Final completion for the thesis
- Thesis defense

33
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