The correlation between the factors affects to the students’ performance in reading english for information technology of the selected sophomore students at college of information and communication technology - Thai Nguyen university

Nguyễn Thùy Linh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> 91(03): 47 - 51<br /> <br /> THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE FACTORS AFFECTS<br /> TO THE STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN READING ENGLISH<br /> FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF THE SELECTED SOPHOMORE<br /> STUDENTS AT COLLEGE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION<br /> TECHNOLOGY - THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY<br /> Nguyen Thuy Linh*<br /> College of Information and Communication Technology – TNU<br /> <br /> SUMMARY<br /> Reading is a great way for people to gain knowledge at any ages. In order to improve the<br /> communicative skills indirectly through reading comprehension, readers must have reading<br /> comprehension skills to read academic materials. From the analysis of the English for<br /> Information Technology (IT) teaching and learning reality and challenges at Thai Nguyen<br /> University of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the article analyzes or<br /> discusses the factors affecting to selected sophomore students’ performance in reading English for<br /> IT and the relationship between the factors at Thai Nguyen University of ICT, academic year 2010<br /> – 2011 and proposes a number of suggestions to teach and learn ESP effectively.<br /> Key words: English reading skill, English for Information Technology, factors, significant<br /> correlation, College of Information and Communication Technology - Thai Nguyen University.<br /> <br /> INTRODUCTION*<br /> Sheila [6] stated that reading is the key that<br /> unlocks the door in the world of<br /> enlightenment and enjoyment. Learning to<br /> read is one of the most important<br /> accomplishments that can be achieved during<br /> ones formal schooling. Reading therefore<br /> should become indispensable to people<br /> because if they do not learn reading especially<br /> in their younger years, they will surely find<br /> difficulty in facing today’s challenging and<br /> complex society.<br /> The reading education of English Language<br /> Learners (ELL) has become one of the most<br /> important issues in all of educational policy<br /> and practice. In the English classroom, special<br /> emphasis has been given to the teaching of<br /> reading, since the purpose of most<br /> Vietnamese learners learning English is to<br /> read texts in their special fields. Thus, to<br /> achieve the goal of mastering the content of<br /> the text and complete the enclosed tasks in the<br /> reading requirement, the learners should<br /> enhance their reading abilities. It is often very<br /> difficult for the teachers of the foreign<br /> *<br /> <br /> Tel: 0988 939755<br /> <br /> language to successfully help their learners<br /> during the course of reading. It is obvious that<br /> reading is given the most important skill for<br /> the students of the Thai Nguyen University of<br /> ICT. Although English is not their major,<br /> most of them realized the importance of<br /> English, especially reading skill in future<br /> work when they will have to explore and<br /> exploit various materials.<br /> In English for Specific Purposes (ESP), it is<br /> assumed [3] that the students are learning to<br /> use English as a study tool or research<br /> language. At the University level, reading<br /> comprehension, therefore, plays a central role.<br /> This is particularly true in countries, where<br /> the medium of instruction is the mother<br /> tongue, but many essential textbooks and<br /> journal articles are available in English. And<br /> reading, thus, has been generally recognized<br /> as an essential skill to be taught with the<br /> purpose of improving the students’ reading<br /> skills but also of familiarizing them with<br /> specializing English language use in the fields<br /> (in business, in Information technology or in<br /> medicine, etc.) in terms of vocabulary,<br /> terminologies, etc. That means, after reading<br /> classes in universities, students are supposed<br /> to be able to interpret texts of their<br /> 47<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Nguyễn Thùy Linh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> specializing subjects in order to get<br /> information for their further studies in the<br /> most appropriate and effective way.<br /> Being a teacher of ESP, the researcher has<br /> always been aware of the importance of<br /> developing reading comprehension skill for<br /> students. She always thinks about the<br /> students’ real needs and difficulties, and how<br /> to overcome them. In this study, the<br /> researcher will focus on the reading<br /> comprehension skills of the second year<br /> students at Thai Nguyen University of ICT to<br /> find out the learners’ problems and<br /> resolutions to improve the students’ reading<br /> abilities. It is hoped that this study may offer<br /> to the learners of Thai Nguyen University of<br /> ICT the ways to improve their English<br /> comprehension skills in general, and for ESP<br /> in particular<br /> SUBJECTS AND METHODOLOGY<br /> This study is a descriptive survey that deals<br /> with the predictors of students’ performance<br /> in reading ESP. The respondents of the study<br /> were limited to 60 sophomore students at<br /> Thai Nguyen University of ICT during the<br /> fourth Semester, Academic Year 2010– 2011.<br /> Descriptive statistics such as frequency,<br /> percentage and ranking were used to describe<br /> the profile of the respondents such as: gender,<br /> type and location of high school graduated<br /> from. The perception of the respondents on<br /> the mentioned factors (vocabulary skill,<br /> comprehension skill, reading strategies,<br /> background knowledge of the subject matter<br /> and motivation) uses weighted mean and<br /> ranking. The correlation between variables<br /> was measured using the Pearson r and ChiSquare test.<br /> FINDINGS<br /> The following are the outstanding findings of<br /> the study:<br /> 1. The profile of the respondents showed that<br /> among the 60 respondents, there were 38 or<br /> 63.3% males whereas females were 22 or<br /> 36.7%. In general, the majority of them were<br /> males. Similarly, the students graduated from<br /> public high school were also higher than the<br /> students graduated from private high school.<br /> There were 57 or 95% of the students that<br /> <br /> 91(03): 47 - 51<br /> <br /> graduated from public high school, but the<br /> students that graduated from private high<br /> school were only 3 or 5%. Besides, Thai<br /> Nguyen University of ICT is in the midland<br /> and mountainous region in the North of<br /> Vietnam. The majority of the respondents<br /> come from rural areas 29 or 48.34%. Next,<br /> the students from urban areas were 18 or<br /> 30%, whereas students from mountainous<br /> areas were the lowest, 13 or 21.66%.<br /> 2. The respondents’ perception on Vocabulary<br /> skill, most of respondents always look<br /> forward to understanding more English<br /> words. This is the highest mean perception of<br /> 4.58. However, they often find new ESP<br /> words hard to read and understand with mean<br /> perception of 3.6 and they are discouraged to<br /> read when they cannot understand words<br /> (Weighted Mean (WM) = 3.8). Besides, It<br /> may be implied that all of the respondents<br /> sometimes can understand and remember<br /> word in English (WM = 3.23) or in context<br /> (WM = 2.5) and sometimes they use the<br /> dictionary to find the meaning of new words<br /> while reading (WM = 2.91). They found that<br /> new ESP words are difficult to pronounce and<br /> use in a sentence. Moreover, they can seldom<br /> guess the meaning of the words immediately<br /> with mean perception of 2.35. This means<br /> that their objective and reading purpose are in<br /> harmony so that activities can easily be done<br /> in a lesson.<br /> 3. On reading comprehension skill, most<br /> students always understand the text when they<br /> are translated into Vietnamese language with<br /> the mean perception of 4.78. They often<br /> understand the text when they find it helpful<br /> to their studies (WM = 3.8) or they know the<br /> meaning of words (WM = 4.13). Besides,<br /> guide questions to answer at the end of the<br /> text also help them understand the text with<br /> the mean perception of 3.53. The largest<br /> problem preventing them from understanding<br /> the text is that teachers seldom unlock word<br /> difficulties or explain them, so the mean<br /> perception only takes 2.03.<br /> 4. On reading strategies, there are many ways<br /> to read. But most of students focus on three<br /> reading strategies. In-pre reading stage, they<br /> often guess the meaning of the text by its title<br /> <br /> 48<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Nguyễn Thùy Linh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> and illustrations (WM = 3.56), and sometimes<br /> they read the requirements of the text (WM =<br /> 2.88). While reading stage, they sometimes<br /> skip new words and continue to read until the<br /> end of the text (WM = 3.43) or read the text<br /> without knowing the meaning of new words<br /> (WM = 3.42), and sometimes they stop<br /> reading whenever they find new words and<br /> look for their meaning in the dictionary (WM<br /> = 2.66). In post reading stage, they always list<br /> all new words and look for their meaning of<br /> the new words /phrases after the text is read<br /> (WM = 3.58) or look for their meaning by<br /> asking the teachers (WM = 2.86), or peer for<br /> their classmates or consulting a dictionary.<br /> Sometimes they can discuss the content or the<br /> idea of the text in class (WM = 2.63).<br /> However, they confess that they skip timeconsuming strategies, especially “guessing<br /> the meaning of the words” because they are<br /> not patient enough to read and try to look<br /> cautiously for the meaning. Therefore, they<br /> often ask their teachers and peers for help<br /> immediately and teachers sometimes are often<br /> willing to help them. Thus, it is possible to<br /> conclude their teachers’ guided reading<br /> strategies sometimes are neglected by their<br /> students or teachers haven’t succeeded in<br /> forming the students’ independent reading<br /> habits. It is with fear whether the students can<br /> comprehend the reading texts without the help<br /> of teachers in their future career.<br /> 5. On the background knowledge of the<br /> subject matter, the results show that<br /> respondents always want to understand the<br /> extra reading materials with the highest mean<br /> perception of 4.56 in order to improve their<br /> background knowledge of the subject matter<br /> (WM = 4.15). Sometimes they find the topic<br /> being read strange (WM = 3.00), so they want<br /> reading materials to be suitable with the level<br /> of the readers (WM = 4.31), and there are<br /> much more materials to read (WM = 3.00).<br /> On the other hand, the data revealed that most<br /> of words/ texts in specialized subject mater<br /> are very boring and difficult to understand<br /> although the respondents have knowledge of<br /> the ESP.<br /> <br /> 91(03): 47 - 51<br /> <br /> 6. The study reveals that a great number of<br /> students view reading as the most important<br /> because that reading skill is very important<br /> for respondents’ research and their job in the<br /> future with the mean perception of 4.63 and<br /> even they identified that good reading skill<br /> helps them get a good job (WM = 4.65). It<br /> may be implied that the respondents are very<br /> much interested in learning reading skill.<br /> Reading skill is the most important of four<br /> skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing<br /> (WM = 4.08). Simultaneously, reading skill<br /> helps them understand British and American<br /> arts and literature (WM = 3.85). Moreover,<br /> reading skill helps them have more<br /> knowledge (WM = 4.16) and it is easier to<br /> learn than other skills (WM = 3.43). For these<br /> reasons, the respondents spend more time<br /> practicing reading skill than other skills with<br /> the weighted mean of 3.26 and they also<br /> identified that success and failure in reading<br /> skill depend on the student’s ability and<br /> perseverance.<br /> CONCLUSIONS<br /> From the findings, the study shows that<br /> gender has no relationship with the students’<br /> performance in reading English text because<br /> statistical value (1.892) is less than critical<br /> value (7.815). Similarly, there is no<br /> significance between students’ reading<br /> performance with type of high school<br /> graduated from and location of high school<br /> graduated from. Table 1 shows that the<br /> performance of students is not affected by the<br /> profile of students in terms of gender, type of<br /> high school and location of high school.<br /> The study revealed that significant correlation<br /> existed among the students’ performance with<br /> the factors; vocabulary skill, reading<br /> comprehension skill, and reading strategies,<br /> the obtained P-value of 0.003, 0.013 and<br /> critical value of 21.026, respectively, being<br /> less than the threshold P-value of 0.05 and<br /> 31.849. This means that there is strong<br /> evidence against the hypothesis which states<br /> that there is no significant relationship among<br /> the students’ performance in the areas of;<br /> vocabulary skill, reading comprehension skill,<br /> and reading strategies. Thus, the foregoing<br /> hypothesis was rejected.<br /> 49<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Nguyễn Thùy Linh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> 91(03): 47 - 51<br /> <br /> Table 1<br /> Variables tested for<br /> Relationship<br /> a. Gender<br /> b. Type of High School<br /> c. Location of High School<br /> <br /> Statistical<br /> Tool<br /> X2<br /> <br /> Statistical<br /> value<br /> 1.892<br /> 2.423<br /> 13.438<br /> <br /> Critical<br /> value<br /> 7.815<br /> 9.488<br /> 15.507<br /> <br /> Decision<br /> <br /> VI<br /> <br /> Accept Ho<br /> Accept Ho<br /> Accept Ho<br /> <br /> NS<br /> NS<br /> NS<br /> <br /> Legend: If X2 > critical value, reject Ho at level of significance 5%. Otherwise, fail to reject Ho.<br /> Table 2<br /> Variables tested for<br /> Relationship<br /> Vocabulary skill<br /> Reading Comprehension skill<br /> Background knowledge<br /> Reading Strategies<br /> Attitudes/ Motivation<br /> <br /> Statistical<br /> tool<br /> r<br /> X2<br /> <br /> Statistical<br /> value<br /> 0.372<br /> 0.318<br /> 0.173<br /> 31.849<br /> 16.497<br /> <br /> P-value/<br /> Critical value<br /> 0.003<br /> 0.013<br /> 0.187<br /> 21.026<br /> 21.026<br /> <br /> Decision<br /> Reject Ho<br /> Reject Ho<br /> Accept Ho<br /> Reject Ho<br /> Accept Ho<br /> <br /> VI<br /> Sig.<br /> Sig.<br /> NS<br /> Sig.<br /> NS<br /> <br /> Legend: If P-value < 0.05, and statistical value > critical value, reject Ho (Significant) at level of<br /> significance 5%. Otherwise, fail to reject Ho (No significant).<br /> <br /> The study failed to show any significant<br /> correlation among the students’ performance<br /> with these factors; background knowledge of<br /> the subject matter, the obtained P-value of<br /> 0.187, is higher than the threshold P-value of<br /> 0.05 and critical value of attitudes/ motivation<br /> (21.026) is also higher than statistical value<br /> (16.497) which indicates that there was very<br /> little evidence against the hypothesis. The<br /> hypothesis which states that there is no<br /> significant relationship among the students’<br /> performance with these factors; background<br /> knowledge of the subject matter, and<br /> attitudes/ motivation was, therefore, accepted.<br /> Table 2 above shows clearly the correlation of<br /> these factors.<br /> RECOMMENDATIONS<br /> In the light of the findings and conclusions of<br /> the study, the following recommendations are<br /> advanced:<br /> 1. Students may be cooperative with their<br /> teacher by actively taking part in reading<br /> activities and given tasks. They may have a<br /> positive attitude towards reading and will<br /> define success not only in improved<br /> vocabulary skills but comprehension skills as<br /> well. Besides, extensive reading habits may<br /> be possessed. It means consider reading as<br /> part and parcel of one’s life.<br /> <br /> 2. A variety of activities in combination with<br /> games and reading tasks outside the lesson, as<br /> well as the constant improvement of reading<br /> materials are suggested to make contribution<br /> to interesting reading lessons<br /> 3. Language teachers may make students<br /> more aware of the importance of reading<br /> thereby exposing them to various reading<br /> materials. They may give students homework<br /> and closely monitor their reading activities<br /> and may employ different strategies in<br /> teaching to maintain students’ interest and<br /> positive attitudes towards reading.<br /> 4. This research may be replicated to refute or<br /> affirm the findings of the present study.<br /> 5. University administrators may make<br /> provisions regarding updating of English and<br /> reading materials in the library to provide<br /> much quality education to the students. They<br /> also may sponsor seminars that may accustom<br /> teachers on other methods/ strategies in<br /> teaching reading to their respective students.<br /> REFERENCES<br /> [1]. Carrell,P.L.(1993).Can reading strategies be<br /> successfully taught?<br /> [2]. Grellet, F. Cambridge University Press,1991.:<br /> A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension<br /> Exercises.<br /> [3]. Hutchinson, T. $ Water, (1997), Cambridge<br /> University Press. English for Specific Purposes.<br /> <br /> 50<br /> <br /> Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> http://www.lrc-tnu.edu.vn<br /> <br /> Nguyễn Thùy Linh<br /> <br /> Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ<br /> <br /> [4]. Nuttal, C,(1996). Teaching Reading Skills in a<br /> Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann,.<br /> [5]. Ortega y Gasset, J. (1995). The difficulty of<br /> reading.<br /> <br /> 91(03): 47 - 51<br /> <br /> [6]. Sheila B. Porto (2006)“Determinants of<br /> reading difficulties among first year high school<br /> students of Santa Maria academy Santa Maria,<br /> Laguna,<br /> <br /> TÓM TẮT<br /> MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA CÁC NHÂN TỐ ẢNH HƯỞNG ĐẾN QUÁ TRÌNH HỌC<br /> ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN CỦA SINH<br /> VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI, TRUỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN VÀ<br /> TRUYỀN THÔNG - ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN<br /> Nguyễn Thuỳ Linh*<br /> Trường Đại học Công nghệ thông tin và Truyền thông – ĐH Thái Nguyên<br /> <br /> Đọc là nhu cầu không thể thiếu để có tri thức, hoàn thiện con người trong bất kỳ thời đại nào.<br /> Muốn nâng cao các kỹ năng giao tiếp một cách gián tiếp thông qua đọc hiểu, người đọc phải có<br /> khả năng đọc hiểu một tài liệu có nội dung học vấn. 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