Improving students' reading comprehension through predicting strategy instruction: an action research at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary school = Nâng cao khả năng đọc hiểu của học sinh thông qua việc giảng dạy chiến lược dự đoán: Nghiên cứu hành động tại trường THPT Cao Bá Quát. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the impact of the predicting strategy instruction on the reading comprehension of 10th grade students at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School and determining the effective techniques to teach predicting strategies to the students from the teacher’s and students’ perspectives. In order to achieve these aims, an Action Research was employed to measure the influence of the intervention-predicting strategy instruction-on the students' reading comprehension. The data was collected via a number of instruments including a questionnaire, a pre-test, two post-tests, teacher’s diaries and students’ journals. After a preliminary investigation had been carried out, a predicting strategy instruction course was designed, and then implemented in the second semester of the school year 2010 - 2011 with the participation of 50 students from Group 10A10 at Cao Ba Quat Upper Secondary School. The findings from the tests, the teacher’ diaries and the students’ journals revealed that the predicting strategy instruction had made a slight improvement in the students’ reading comprehension, and that in order to teach the students predicting strategies effectively, the instruction should include such techniques, from the most to the least effective as perceived by the teacher and students, as explicit strategy instruction, exciting and real-life tasks, clear task instructions, interesting and comprehensible reading texts, collaborative learning through pair work and group work, and effective feedbacks from the teacher.