Microsoft Word 120 Ta Minh Phuong doc Tuyển tập Hội nghị Khoa học thường niên năm 2019 ISBN 978 604 82 2981 8 649 EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ACTIVATION THROUGH BRAINSTORMING ON READING COMPREHENSION O[.]
Trang 1EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ACTIVATION THROUGH BRAINSTORMING ON READING COMPREHENSION OF FIRST-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS
IN THUYLOI UNIVERSITY
Ta Minh Phuong
Thuyloi University, email: phuongtm@tlu.edu.vn
1 INTRODUCTION
In any settings of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching and learning,
reading is considered with a strong emphasis
as a crucial skill for most learners A large
number of educators refer to reading with its
significant role for success in educational and
professional circumstances Due to such
essential positions, reading comprehension is
highlighted as one of the primary objectives
of English teaching and learning at Thuyloi
University (TLU) Working as a General
English (GE) teacher, I am constantly in a
search for what may facilitate my students’
reading comprehension enhancement
The significance of already-stored data activation through pre-reading techniques has
been emphasized in a vast amount of research
to increase SL/FL reading comprehension
(Ajideh, 2003; Gilakjani & Ahmadi, 2011;
Nergis, 2013) On the pedagogical perspective,
brainstorming has been recommended to be a
useful and effective strategy in pre-reading
phase for activating students’ schema The
process of brainstorming is described by Ur
(1996) as a “simple pooling of ideas” In the
common view of the utility of brainstorming, it
proves to be helpful in eliciting readers’
pre-existing knowledge and experience to the
given reading passage (Alemi & Ebadi, 2010)
Feathers (2004) supports the view by claiming
that “during a brainstorming session,
information that is already known is brought
forward and becomes more accessible” and
that “brainstorming provides plenty of materials for making prediction” Additionally, brainstorming assists to activate students’ schema in the sense that they will in advance
be provided and aware of the ideas, vocabulary, culture, and genre structures to be most probably encountered in the passage to
be read
For what have been mentioned above, the brainstorming activity was implemented in the present work of research as a technique to activate learners’ prior knowledge for reading comprehension Although there has been a considerable amount of research conducted into the effect of pre-reading activities on reading comprehension, there are still few qualitative studies of how learners respond to such teaching practices Due to the crucial role of background knowledge activation in reading comprehension, the present study seems to be necessary and beneficial
Table1 Class Descriptions
Elementary to Pre-intermediate Amount of
students
30 Aged 18-20
7 weeks and a half in total Focused
skill
Reading - 1period/ week Extra reading materials given by the teacher
Time Second semester of academic year 2018-2019
Trang 22 METHOD
The present researcher carried out this study with the aim of investigating whether
the employed brainstorming would help to
increase students’ engagement and enjoyment
to the pre-reading stage which plays a crucial
role in preparing readers with relevant schema
for better reading comprehension So as to
inform this inquiry, the author figured out the
qualitative approach to be the methodology of
choice, which facilitates an understanding of
how and why the practice worked or did not
work in the specified context from the
generated data about the students’ interest and
involvement and from the perspectives of the
students on the usefulness of the strategy to
their comprehension in reading 6 focus
groups, 9 semi-structured interviews, diaries
kept by 7 students and teacher’s observation
field notes were the utilized instruments for
obtaining data
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Student engagement
The most noticeable aspect from the overall dataset is the fact that the students believed
that they engaged more in the
brainstorming-integrated lessons A number of students
found that the brainstorming activities gave
them freedom and courage to express
themselves openly with no fear to be blocked
One student’s description is representative:
“…now, I find reading is not boring any
more I can activate my mind actively I can
participate in class discussions I can express
my ideas freely and I enjoy reading class.”
(Interview 2) Brainstorming was viewed by
most of the respondents as a much easier and
more comfortable start for a reading lesson,
thus enabling to increase learners’
engagement One student states: “Instead of
requiring us to complete boring exercises in
the textbook, recently the teacher just invited
us to think of several words or any ideas
relating to the topic that she gave It was
much easier and more relaxed, of course I
could” (Interview 1) Another student speaks
of brainstorming activity: “At the beginning of
reading lessons… towards to last-term class…I started to sleep… (the sound of laughing can be heard in the focus group) … honestly speaking… however in brainstorming
I get to stay awake since the provided topic triggers plenty of thinking in my mind So I listen to my friends and also share my ideas”
(Focus group 3)
3.2 Classroom atmosphere
The data included a variety of comments on the atmosphere of the brainstorming-integrated class, showing the benefit of the applied strategy on creating a joyful and ebullient learning atmosphere One student
states: “My classmates kept pouring their ideas The flow of opinions seemed to be non-stop, the atmosphere became a bit competitive but exciting I like that” (Interview 5) Another student adds: “There was no restriction imposed, and the class seemed to
be more talkative” (Interview 6) Another focus group participant concurs: “Sharing ideas with other friends or the whole class enabled us (learners) to get closer and closer
to each other We were eager to listen to others’ ideas.” (Focus group 1) “It was so fun when someone said something funny, and the whole class laughed”, wrote a student, “study pressure, stress or boredom no longer existed
It put us in a good mood for stepping into the reading stage.” (Diary code 1b) (D.c.1b)
Nevertheless, a couple of participants provided the following significant comments:
“The class was a little bit chaotic in the session Sometimes students interrupted or spoke over each other” (Interview 3) “I was
a bit embarrassed when other friends laughed
at my ideas I didn’t want my opinions to be judged like that” (D.c.5c)
3.3 Students’ readiness to get into the reading act
A number of students found that the applied brainstorming technique provided them with a good start for being ready to step into the reading comprehension stage In particular, they found the employed brainstorming activity useful because of several stated
Trang 3reasons (1) it helped to keep their spirits up,
(2) oriented their purposes of reading and (3)
equipped readers with necessary preparation,
thus making them more confident to get into
the reading process Following are some of
the comments made on this issue:
A lot of fun was created in the brainstorming sessions, making us less tense
but more relaxed before coming into the long
reading text (D.c.4a)
The activity made my brain more active; I got ready to read not only with my eyes but
also, more importantly with my brain (D.c.2e)
3.4 Facilitation of prior knowledge activation through brainstorming for
reading comprehension
Students in this study gave much credit to the utility of brainstorming in activating their
prior knowledge which was potentially
important in increasing their reading
comprehension Below are a few remarkable
statements related to this theme:
At first I was quite worried because I had
no idea of London as the most cosmopolitan
city ever However, the pool of information
and vocabulary items acquired through
brainstorming enabled me to read faster and
felt at ease with the content of the text
(Interview 4)
Now I understand that it can take more time if I go straight into reading the text
without thinking a little bout its topic in
advance Once we prepare in mind what
we’ve known about it, we can make sense of
the lines better (D.c.3d)
In summary, the findings from this study indicate the usefulness of background
knowledge activation through brainstorming
in increasing students’ engagement, creating
an enthusiastic learning environment,
preparing for their reading act and enhancing
their reading comprehension However, some
of the drawbacks identified in carrying out
brainstorming sessions should be taken into
consideration The conducted brainstorming
sessions were occasionally seen to be a bit
chaotic by some students It was reported that
several participants spoke over and sometimes
interrupt each other This situation then
caused intimidation to the quiet or shy students Even though there existed a common practice of raising hands for taking a turn speaking, there were no clear rules for participants to listen to another who was currently expressing an idea There were some loud and dominant individuals who were overactive in the sessions and thus unintentionally influenced weaker participants Consequently, learners’ benefits from the applied technique were not the same
4 CONCLUSION
Similar to previous studies that seek to investigate the effect of schema activation on learners’ attitudes towards reading and their performance on reading comprehension, the findings of the present research indicate that the schema activation technique called brainstorming contributes to the increase on learners’ engagement, a fresh and joyful learning atmosphere, learners’ readiness for the reading act and facilitation for their reading comprehension Nevertheless, this research also reveals that not all students can benefit fully from this teaching practice Thus, a set of ground rules for a better
brainstorming conduct are necessary
5 REFERENCES
[1] Ajideh, P 2003 Schema Theory-Based Pre-Reading Tasks: A Neglected Essential in the ESL Reading Class The Reading Matrix, 3(1), 1-14
[2] Alemi, M., & Ebadi, S 2010 The Effects of Pre-reading Activities on ESP Reading Comprehension Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 1(5), 569-577
[3] Feathers, K M 2004 Info Text: Reading and Learning Ontario: Pippin Publishing Corporation
[4] Gilakjani, A.P., & Ahmadi, S M 2011 The Relationship between L2 Reading Comprehension and Schema Theory International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 1(2), 142-149
[5] Ur, R 1996 A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory Cambridge University Press