A Construction of Vietnamese Graded Reading texts for Thai Learners of Vietnamese as a Foreign Language
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Abstract
The aim of this research paper is to provide a comprehensive set of graded Vietnamese reading texts divided from easy to difficult levels for Thai learners learning Vietnamese as a foreign language. Starting from dividing the language proficiency into 3 groups of 6 levels based on CEFR and Vietnamese language proficiency framework for foreigners learning Vietnamese as a foreign language (VFL) according to the Ministry of Education of Vietnam. They are basic levels A1, A2, intermediate levels B1, B2 and advanced levels C1, C2. To create a series of graded Vietnaese reading texts, criteria for evaluating each difficulty level were determined based on the determination of 4 specific factors in each text, as follows: 1) the average difference in the number of words in the text, 2) the percentage of one syllable, two syllable and three syllable words, 3) average number of sentences in the text, 4) length of sentences in a text based on the average number of words in each sentence. It is a qualitative and quantitative research that uses language data that measures the level of difficulty for native speakers and then creates a new criterion by reducing this difficulty to a lower level to adapt it to Thai learners of VFL. Using the linguistic statistics tool to quantify specific numbers, namely AntConc software and readability statistics in Microsoft Word, the results showed that 137 out of 180 reading texts fit the new criteria for Thai learners of VFL. The 6 levels (A1-C2) saw an increase in the average number of different words in a text from 32 distinct words to 1,046 words. The percentage of one syllable words decreased from 0.9% to 2.2%. The percentage of two syllable words increased from 0.7% to 1.4%. The percentage of three syllable words increased from 0% to 3%. The average number of sentences in a text increased from 6 to 174 words as well as the length of its sentences also increased from 4.8 words to 25.3 words.
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1. เนื้อหาและข้อมูลในบทความที่ลงพิมพ์กับวารสารวิจยวิชาการ ถือเป็นข้อคิดเห็น และความรับผิดชอบของผู้เขียนบทความโดยตรงซึ่งกองบรรณาธิการวารสารไม่จำเป็นต้องเห็นด้วย หรือร่วมรับผิดชอบใด ๆ
2. บทความ ข้อมูล เนื้อหา รูปภาพ ฯลฯ ที่ได้รับการตีพิมพ์ในวารสารวิจยวิชาการ ถือเป็นลิขสิทธิ์ของวารสารวิจยวิชาการ หากบุคคลหรือหน่วยงานใดต้องการนำทั้งหมดหรือส่วนหนึ่ง ส่วนใดไปเผยแพร่ต่อหรือเพื่อการกระทำการใด ๆ จะต้องได้รับอนุญาตเป็นลายลักษณ์อักษรจากวารสารวิจยวิชาการก่อนเท่านั้น
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