The respondents of the study were 66 English major students of the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University in the first semester of the academic year 2010-2011. The findings revealed that there is significant relationship between reading comprehension ability and vocabualry ability, types of reading materials used during lesson, location of high school which graduated from. | Phan Thị Hòa Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 111 - 115 FACTORS RELATED TO THE READING COMPETENCE OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT COLLEGE OF SCIENCES – THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY Phan Thi Hoa* College of Sciences – TNU SUMMARY Reading is a great way leading people to the world of knowledge. One’s reading competence, however, may be affected by many factors such as his reading habit, reading interest or types of reading materials used and so on. This descriptive correlational study attempts to analyse some key factors and establish relationship between the profile of students to their reading competence. The study sought to answer the question of whether there are any significant ralationships between the profile of students and their competence in reading English texts. The respondents of the study were 66 English major students of the College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University in the first semester of the academic year 2010-2011. The findings revealed that there is significant relationship between reading comprehension ability and vocabualry ability, types of reading materials used during lesson, location of high school which graduated from. Key words: Factors, reading competence, vocabulary ability, significantly related, English major students, College of Sciences, Thai Nguyen University. INTRODUCTION * In Vietnam, since 1975, the teaching and learning of foreign languages have experienced many great changes. Year 1986 was seen as an important turning point for Vietnam, because in that year the Communist Party of Vietnam approved the policy of renovation. Vietnam decided to expand its relations with all foreign countries irrespective of different political systems and to adopt a market-oriented economy. As a result, foreign language subjects were taken into consideration. The role of foreign languages in national development was recognized. Nguyen, (2007) stated that the current foreign language education policy encourages the teaching and learning of a .
