How to teach reading comprehension communicately m a thesis

This thesis sets out to investigate the reality of teaching and learning the reading skill at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school.. LIST OF TABLES Chapter 4 Table 4.2.1a Teachers’ opinions on the

HOW TO TEACH READING COMPREHENSION

COMMUNICATION

Liễu Thị Tuyết Mai

Ho Chi Minh City, September 3, 2009

Lieu Thi Anh Mai

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, MA Phan Thi Kim Loan for her insightful discussions, constructive criticisms, valuable comments and continuing support in the preparation and completion of this thesis

I am greatly indebted to all my teachers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the course

I would also like to thank the teachers and my students at Thoai Ngoc Hau highschool for their assistance in completing the questionnaires and contributing valuable comments on teaching and learning in this school

I would appreciate the whole staff of the Post-Graduate Department and Department of English Linguistics and Literature at the University of Social Sciencies and Humanities for the useful lectures and professional guidance

Finally, I would like to thank my teachers and classmates of the Post-Graduate Program in TESOL for their teaching, encouragement and suggestions about reference materials

ABSTRACT

Teaching English in high school tends to focus on the reading skill, which is an important skill that is of great use to students later in their lives However, in spite of the great effort and considerable amount of time spent on teaching and learning reading, high school students are not good at reading

This thesis sets out to investigate the reality of teaching and learning the reading skill at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school Findings reveal that teachers focus mainly on teaching vocabulary and pay more attention to the decoding of the meaning of the words and neglect other important factors such as context, text coherence, text organization; and reading strategies such as skimming, inferring, predicting are unfamiliar to the students’ experience

This situation has lasted for years and years It seems that teachers are either not well trained in teaching reading skill or too pessimistic about changes They follow the established procedure of teaching texts in high school i.e reading aloud, teaching vocabulary, translating and doing exercises

The situation suggested is to retrain teachers and suggest some solutions to improve the impediments at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school so that they can cope with the tasks

of teaching the reading skill rather than teaching texts There is an urgent need to persuade teachers that changes are absolutely necessary for the situation of teaching English in Thoai Ngoc Hau high school to improve

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality ……… i

Acknowledgements ……… ii

Abstract ……… iii

Table of contents ……… iv

List of tables ……… vii

INTRODUCTION ……… 1

1 The problems ……… 1

2 Aims of the study and overview of the research ……… 2

3 Significance of the study ……… 3

CHAPTER 1 : BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ……… 4

1.1 Description of the English courses and syllabus ……… 4

1.1.1 Aims and objectives of the English textbooks ……… 4

1.1.2 Time distribution for the implementation of the syllabus ……… 4

1.2 Characteristics of the teaching staff and the students ……… 4

1.2.1 Characteristics of the teaching staff ……… 4

1.2.2 Characteristics of the students ………5

1.3 An overview of teaching and learning reading comprehension in highschool … 5

1.4 Summary ……… 6

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW ………7

2.1 Theories about reading and reading comprehension ……… 7

2.1.1 What is reading? ……….7

2.1.2 What is “reading comprehension”? ………8

2.1.3 What is involved in the reading process? ……… 9

2.1.4 The contrast of efficient reading and inefficient reading ……… 10

2.1.5 The role of context in reading comprehension ……… 12

2.1.6 Reading purposes and strategies ………13

2.1.6.1 Reading purposes ……… 13

2.1.6.2 Reading strategies ……… 14

2.2 Approaches related to teaching reading comprehension ……… 21

2.2.1 The Grammar Translation Method ……… 21

2.2.2 Communicative Approach ………22

2.3 Summary ……… 24

CHAPTER 3 : METHODOLOGY ………26

3.1 Research questions ……… 26

3.2 Research design ……… 26

3.2.1 Overview of the research ……… 26

3.2.2 Research setting ……… 26

3.2.3 Population ……… 26

3.3 Data collection method ……… 27

3.3.1 Questionnaires ……… 27

3.3.2 The reading comprehension test ……… 27

3.3.3 Interviews ……… 29

3.4 Implementation ……… 30

3.4.1 Data collection procedure of the questionnaires ……… 30

3.4.2 Data collection procedure of the reading test ……… 30

3.4.3 Data collection procedure of the interviews ……… 30

3.5 Summary ……… 30

CHAPTER 4 : RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ……… 32

4.1 Responses to survey questionnaires ……… 32

4.2 Analysis of teachers’ responses ……… 32

4.3 Analysis of students’ responses ………46

4.4 Analysis of the reading test results ……… 55

4.5 Analysis of interviews ……… 57

4.6 Summary ……… 58

CHAPTER 5 : RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION ………59

5.1 Recommendations ……… 59

5.2 Conclusion ……….……… 60

APPENDICES ……… 62

Appendix 1 Questionnaire for teachers ( English version ) ……… 62

Appendix 1 Questionnaire for teachers ( translated version ) ……….66

Appendix 2 Questionnaire for students ( English version ) ……… 70

Appendix 2 Questionnaire for students ( translated version ) ……… 74

Appendix 3 Proficiency reading test ……… 77

Appendix 4 Focus group discussion ……… 83

REFERENCES ……… 86

LIST OF TABLES Chapter 4

Table 4.2.1a Teachers’ opinions on the importance of reading skill to highschool students

Table 4.2.1b Teachers’ opinions on the position of reading skill in students’ English books

Table 4.2.2 Frequency of students’ reading aloud in an English class

Table 4.2.3 Teachers’ opinions on the teaching procedure they used in a reading class Table 4.2.4 Teachers’ strategies in teaching a reading text

Table 4.2.5 Frequency of teachers’ teaching reading in class

Table 4.2.6 The frequency of using different techniques in presenting new words Table 4.2.7a Frequency of teachers’ ways of teaching reading in class

Table 4.2.7b Comparison between students’ and teachers’ reports in the questionnaires Table 4.2.8 Frequency of teachers’ using kinds of test

Table 4.2.9 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading

Table 4.2.10 Activities used by teachers in teaching reading

Table 4.3.1 Students’ concept of reading

Table 4.3.2 Means of students’ use of reading strategies

Table 4.3.3 Frequency of students’ setting purposes

Table 4.3.4 Frequency of students’ kinds of books to read

Table 4.3.5a Statistics of time for study and entertainment

Table 4.3.5b Figures of time for study and entertainment

Table 4.3.6 Frequency and mean of students’ self-remark and assessment of reading in English

Table 4.3.7 Students’ opinions on difficulties in reading a reading comprehension text Table 4.3.8 Factors which facilitate students to understand the text best

Table 4.3.9a Students’ opinions on the necessity of vocabulary in helping students comprehend the text

Table 4.3.9b Students’ method of dealing with new words while reading a text

Table 4.3.10 Students’ method of learning new words

Table 4.4.1 Results of correct answers of the reading test

Table 4.4.2 Frequency of students’ reading test results

INTRODUCTION

To keep pace with the development of our nation’s economy and the cultural interaction between Vietnam and other countries, learning languages, especially learning English, has become a constant need all over the country Reading proficiently in a foreign language is beneficial to every learner Reading in the target language helps enhance knowledge of everything in modern life, from reading traffic signs and advertisements, to traveling, understanding culture and accessing the Internet, which helps high school students a lot after they enter the universities because they can read the articles or the documents related to their specific fields which are so abundant in English In high school, English is taught as a compulsory subject with the orientation to train the four skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading to the students and reading skill is considered important to the students at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school

The study reported in this thesis examines the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school to find out whether the method teachers used to teach reading comprehension can really develop students’ reading skill and suggest some solutions to improve teaching reading comprehension

at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school

This introduction presents the problem of the study, aims of the study and the overview of the research, and the significance of the study

1.The problem of the study

“ Reading skill plays an important role in learning English because reading well helps

us to find out the information or chat on the Internet, read the English newspapers and travel to the other countries in the world” said many students at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school However, it’s difficult for them to read proficiently because they aren’t taught reading strategies As a result, students can’t develop their reading skill, especially they find it difficult to become independent readers

As a teacher of English with the experience of 5 years teaching at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school, I see that when teachers come to teaching a reading text, they usually follow a procedure : the teacher explains and writes new words on the board, students read the words after the teacher first and then they read the text aloud in turns before

answering questions or doing comprehension exercises provided below the text If there is time left, the teacher asks students to summarize the text or translate it into the mother tongue As a result, students can’t develop their reading skill because they can’t read the reading text by themselves and they can only understand the reading text with much help from their teacher The reasons why they apply this method to teach their students are said to be due to limited time and the construction of the reading text However, there are also some teachers who apply Communicative Approach to teach students, which have some positive feedback from some students For example, the students can guess the meaning of the words based on the context in the reading text In addition, they can get the main idea of the reading text without teachers’ translating into Vietnamese Moreover, students become more active and know what to do when learning in groups or pairs Therefore, the author feels that teaching reading comprehension by Communicative Approach should be applied more here in order to improve students’ reading skill and help students become independent readers without much help from the teachers Unfortunately, at TNH school, it’s hard

to apply this method because of such constraints as time or the construction of the reading text

This thesis attempts to suggest some ways to teach reading comprehension more efficiently at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school so that students can be more involved in classroom activities and have the habit of reading which will be useful for them in their study at universities The students can read English materials which support knowledge for their major Thanks to the habit of reading by themselves at high school, students become independent learners when entering the university That helps them a lot in their study because learning at the university requires a lot of self-study, creation and discovery Besides, this thesis also suggests some solutions to overcome the difficulties that the teachers encounter when applying Communicative Approach

to teach reading comprehension, which helps teachers teach reading comprehension more effectively

2 Aims of the study and overview of the research:

The aims of the study are: (1) to find out how reading comprehension is taught and learnt at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school, (2) some suggestions to improve the impediments In addition to the present chapter – the introduction – identifying the

problem and providing an overview of the thesis, and the conclusion closing the thesis, the thesis consists of five main chapters:

Chapter 1 provides the background to the study In particular, it describes English courses at high schools, provides a brief look into the approaches to teaching the reading skills in high school, characteristics of the students and the teaching staff Chapter 2 consists of two parts which review the theories of teaching and learning reading comprehension as well as the methods or approaches related to teaching and learning the reading skill

Chapter 3 presents the methodology employed in the study

Chapter 4 includes an analysis and discussions of the findings provided by the questionnaires from teachers and students and students’ reading test scores

Chapter 5 draws conclusions about the implications of the findings and suggests an approach to teaching reading to develop students’ reading skill at Thoai Ngoc Hau school

3 Significance of the study

This study is carried out with the aim of investigating what reading strategies are used by students and instructed by teachers in reading classes and more importantly, suggest some solutions to improve the impediments at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school

CHAPTER 1 : BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This chapter presents the background essential for an understanding of the issues discussed in this thesis The chapter consists of three sections The first section is a description of the English textbooks and syllabus being used at high schools The second section presents characteristics of the teaching staff as well as those of students, and some thoughts about the methods of teaching reading comprehension at high schools

1.1 Description of the English courses and syllabus:

1.1.1 Aims and objectives of the English textbooks:

The aim of English 10 and English 11 is to give further training in the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing The aim of English 12 is to help students review and systematize the new language items they have learnt, and at the same time continue to train their four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing

1.1.2 Time distribution for the implementation of the syllabus:

English 10, 11 and 12 each consists of 16 units In the first semester, the first 8 units will be taught The rest will be taught in the second semester Each unit is taught in 5 periods Every period contains one skill-reading, speaking, listening, writing and grammar The reading period is at the beginning of each unit

All units are designed to develop four basic skills of language learning

1.2 Characteristics of the teaching staff and characteristics of the students:

1.2.1 Characteristics of the teaching staff:

Teachers have different roles and responsibilities in their professional practice Besides transmitting knowledge, they have to provide an environment for students to explore a variety of experiences and make sure that students are prepared for the next stage It is undeniable that the teaching staff plays an important role in the teaching and learning process

In the English Department of Thoai Ngoc Hau high school there are eleven English teachers, all being from 25 to 53 One of them has got an M.A majoring in Methodology of teaching English

1.2.2 Characteristics of the students:

Students at Thoai Ngoc Hau range from the age of 16 to 17 They are very active, eager to know everything and studious All of these students have started learning English since primary school or secondary school Their English was good in secondary school Like students in other schools, they all learn English in the same alloted time and with the same syllabus and curriculum assigned at high school Yet, many students do not pay much attention to or invest much in learning English at high school They only think of taking up studying English when they go to university for a better opportunity to get a good job in the future Currently, most of them go to extra classes of maths, physics, and chemistry after school Truly, these are three subjects that attract the biggest number of students in Thoai Ngoc Hau high school as their purpose now is to pass the university entrance examination though many of them know that English is necessary for their college education

1.3 An overview of teaching and learning reading comprehension in high school: Due to the increasing needs for communication in the modern world, English is made a compulsory subject in the high school curriculum In order for the learners to use the language in the future according to their various needs, the high school syllabus is designed to enhance all the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing The big disadvantage that Vietnamese students have to face is learning English in an environment where the language is not spoken in everyday communication Therefore, teachers are required to improve students’ speaking and listening skills A few teachers are also aware of the importance and the necessity of Communicative Approach However, due to some constraints such as limited time, the level of students or the construction of the reading text, they find it difficult to apply it into teaching reading to students Besides, some of teachers also believe that all they can do to help the students improve their reading skill is providing them with the new vocabulary and grammar structures and finally asking them questions to check their comprehension Reading, therefore, in the teacher’s belief, can be reduced to the decoding of word meaning Nothing has been done to help students develop strategies for effective reading The reality of teaching and learning a reading text shows that the teacher skips the first two stages (pre and while reading) and focuses on the post-reading stage only That is the reason why students often get used to some kinds of exercises, for example: gap-filling, answering questions or finding synonyms or

antonyms but seem to be unfamiliar with other skills like scanning, skimming or inferring

1.4 Summary

The chapter has provided necessary information regarding to English courses being used in high school, the reality of teaching and learning reading at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school The thesis hopes to find out the answers through a survey so as to bring the improvement in the ways of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Theories about reading and reading comprehension

Theories about reading and reading comprehension have been studied and presented in a wide range of aspects by experienced researchers and linguists, which provides both the teacher and learners of English with valuable knowledge to improve their reading skill Lack of the knowledge about reading and RC will hardly lead to success in training and developing the reading skills If the teacher is to train the reading skill, it is important to know what reading is and what is involved in the reading process

2.1.1 What is reading?

According to Nunan, David (1999), reading is a process of decoding written symbols into their aural equivalents in a linear fashion Thus, it would seem reasonable to use the phonemics approach in teaching beginning reading to learners However, phonics has come in for a great deal of criticism for the fact that it deemphasizes meaning in the reading process Frank Smith (1978) developed an alternative approach about reading which stated that reading is a process of reconstructing meaning rather than decoding form, and the reader only resorts to decoding if other means fail According to this view, one begins with a set of hypotheses or predictions about the meaning of the text one is about to read, and then selectively samples the text to determine whether or not one’s predictions are correct

Also in Understanding reading (1978), Frank Smith added that when actually

reading, context plays a crucial role in helping the reader to predict the meaning of an upcoming word

From these conflicting perspectives and approaches, it could well be that a phonics approach in the early stages of reading is the most effective and efficient way to teach reading Or it could also be the case that different individuals learn to read in different ways, and that reading teachers need to adopt different strategies to meet these different needs According to Nunan, David (1999), reading should be an interactive process in which the reader constantly shuttles between bottom-up and top-down processes Reading tends to be more bottom-up than top-down when the need for thorough comprehension increases or when the material being read is more difficult (Karl Krahnke 1994) While reading, a reader does not just obtain information from a

text but uses some of the information that is understood to be in the text, combines it with information that she or he already has, and creates new information or understanding Grabe refers to this as a kind of dialogue between reader and text (Grabe, W.(1991)) Reading is the process of combining textual information with the information a reader brings to a text In this view reading is not simply a matter of extracting information from the text, it is the process which activates a range of knowledge in the reader’s mind that he or she uses, and that, in turn, may be refined and extended by the new information supplied by the text

Through discussions, it is generally agreed that reading is one of the main skills that the student must acquire in the process of mastering English as a foreign language in high school in order to make a firm foundation for improving and developing reading skills at university later When reading a text, the student reviews sounds and letters, vocabulary and grammar, memorizes the spelling of words, the meaning of words and word combinations, in this way he or she can perfect his or her command of the target language That is why reading is not only an aim, but also a means of learning a language In addition, reading is of great educational importance Through reading, the learner can enrich his knowledge of the world around him and get acquainted with the cultures where the target language is spoken Reading also helps students have a good habit of communicating They get accustomed to working with books which, in turn, facilitate their practice in further reading and, therefore, develop their memory, will and imagination

In the 2l century, the need to read more and understand faster has been greater than ever because of the explosion of communication networks and computerized data banks That is the reason why reading is considered as one of the leading language activities to be developed And it is the need to read more to get information that requires those who teach and learn reading to pay much attention to reading comprehension, so it is essential for the teacher to study theories about reading comprehension if he/she wants to get success in training the reading skill to his/her students

2.1.2 What is “reading comprehension”?

According to Michael.H Long (1987:239), reading for through comprehension is reading in order to master the total message of the writer, both main

points and supporting details It is that stage of understanding at which the reader is able to paraphrase the author’s ideas but has not yet made a critical evaluation of those ideas This type of reading is the primary concern of most reading classes

Reading for comprehension does not involve in reading a written text aloud but reading in order to extract the required information from it as quickly as possible That means the first task of the reader is to realize what the writer intends to say in the text and then paraphrases these ideas to him/herself or to others At this stage, the reader does not need to give his/her own ideas about the text, but in the next stage, there should be an interaction between the reader and the writer According to Anderson and Pearson (1984), when the reader makes a critical evaluation of the ideas conveyed

in the text, he/she is making connections between the new information on the printed page and his/her existing knowledge Reading comprehension is thus an interactive process between the reader and the text, in that the reader is required to fit the clues provided in the text to his or her own background knowledge

Michael Swan (1990) stated that if we say that a student is good at comprehension, we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information from a text with the minimum of misunderstanding We may also mean that he is able to show his understanding by re-expressing the content of the text

In order to get maximum information from a text with the minimum of misunderstanding, different reading strategies should be applied as effectively as possible or students do not know how to extract the main ideas from the text but read

it word by word or pay more attention to individual points This reading habit, of course, does not help the reader to get a clear idea of the overall meaning of the text This reality requires the teacher and learners who want to get success in understanding

to consider what is involved in the reading process

2.1.3 What is involved in the reading process?

In considering the reading process, it is important to distinguish between two quite separate activities- reading for meaning and reading aloud Reading for meaning involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey Reading aloud is a completely different activity Its purpose is not just to understand a text but

to convey the information to someone else If the teacher has a clear idea of how well

readers read, this will enable him to decide whether particular reading techniques are likely to help learners or not

Penny Ur (1996) suggested that meaningful context takes a considerable role in helping to understand a written text Due to the context, the reader does not need to decode letters but bring his/her own interpretation to the word according to the sense

of the text to understand it So when teaching reading comprehension, the teacher should establish reading activities which probably stress reading for understanding rather than exact decoding of letters

Words and expressions have important influence in understanding a text but sometimes it is necessary to skip or misread words to make sense of the whole more quickly and conveniently It is suggested that learners should not understand every word but go for the overall meaning of a text

It takes less time to read a coherent text than an incoherent one so learners will probably read more successfully if given whole meaningful units of text to read rather than disconnected bits

When reading a text, the reader gathers meaning from what he/she reads to make it comprehensible However, understanding is based on far more than simple reception of the words themselves Thus, when reading learners should be encouraged

to combine top-down and bottom-up strategies in practice doing such things as discussing the topic of a text before reading it, arousing expectations, eliciting connections between references in the text and situations known to the learners

2.1.4 The contrast of efficient reading and inefficient reading

Teachers of English should identify the characteristics of efficient reading in order to provide and use suitable techniques in teaching reading comprehension to learners The following table shows the opinions of Penny Ur about the characteristics

of efficient reading in contrast with inefficient reading (Table 1)

According to him, reading skill need to be fostered so that learners can cope with more and more sophisticated texts and tasks, and deal with them efficiently, quickly, appropriately and skillfully Basing on these characteristics of efficient reading, he suggested some recommendations which should be focused in teaching reading comprehension to learners:

1 Make sure students get a lot of successful reading experience through encouraging them to choose their own simplified readers, for example, and giving them time to read them

2 Make sure that most of the vocabulary in reading texts is familiar to students, and that words that are unknown can be either easily guessed or safely ignored

3 Give interesting tasks before asking learners to read, so that they have a clear purpose and motivating challenge Or use texts that are interesting enough to provide their own motivation

4 Make sure that the tasks encourage selective, intelligent reading for the main meaning, and do not just test understanding of trivial details

5 Allow and even encourage students to manage without understanding every word by the use of scanning task, for example, that require them to focus on limited items of information

6 Provide as wide a variety of texts and tasks as possible to give learners practice in different kinds of reading

(Penny Ur, 1996: 149)

Efficient reading and inefficient reading

Efficient Inefficient

1 language The language of the text is

comprehensible to the learners

The language of the text is too difficult

2 Content The content of the text is accessible

to the learners; they know enough about it to be able to apply their own background knowledge

The text is too difficult in the sense that the content is too far removed from the knowledge and experience of the learners

3 Speed The reading progresses fairly fast:

mainly because the reader has

“automatized” recognition of common combinations, and does not waste time working out each word or

a group of new words

The reading is slow: the reader does not have a large

“vocabulary” of automatically recognized items

4 Attention The reader concentrates on the

significant bits, and skims the rest;

may even skip parts he or she knows

The reader can not tolerate incomprehensible vocabulary items: stops to look everyone

up in a dictionary, and/or feels discouraged from trying to comprehend the text as a whole

6 Prediction The reader thinks ahead,

hypothesizes, predicts

The reader does not think ahead, deals with the text as it comes

The reader does not have or use background information

8

Motivation

The reader is motivated to read: by interesting content or a challenging task

The reader has no particular interest in reading

9 Purpose The reader is aware of a clear

purpose in reading: for example, to find out something, to get pleasure

The reader has no clear purpose other than to obey the teacher’s instruction

2.1.5 The role of context in reading comprehension

According to Frank Smith (1978), when actually reading, context plays a crucial role in helping the reader to predict the meaning of an upcoming word In Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics ( Richards, J et al, 1985), context is defined as which occurs before and /or after a word, a phrase or even a longer utterance or a text The context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase,

etc According to Harmer, Jeremy (1991), context is defined as the situation or the body of information that results in language being used In classroom terms, according

to him, context is divided into three main areas: the classroom, situation, and formulated information Context is mentioned to as a means which helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase or the broader social situation in which a linguistic item is used Therefore, context has great importance in teaching and learning reading comprehension as follows:

- Encourage students to explore the meaning of new words without using a dictionary constantly: If students are trained to infer meaning from context, it means that they are given a powerful aid to comprehension and they will greatly speed up their reading

- Fill the culture gap: Cultural situation can help students understand the meaning of new words easily Therefore, learning much more about the various contexts of new words also helps to broaden the knowledge of students about other cultures

- Avoid meaningless and mechanical practice: The language is presented and practiced within a situation It is presented in the form of model patterns or dialogues in order to ensure a meaningful context for language practice

- Encourage students to adopt a positive attitude to new lexical items, instead of the negative one Moreover, that may challenge students to make use of their intelligence to an extent that is not always common in language classes

2.1.6 Reading purposes and strategies:

2 To obtain instructions on how to perform some tasks for work or daily life

3 To act in a play, play a game, do a puzzle

4 To keep in touch with friends by correspondence or to understand business letters

5 To know when or where something will take place or what is available

6 To know what is happening or has happened

7 For enjoyment or excitement

(Rivers,W., & Temperley, 1978)

It is obvious that reading is carried out for a purpose rather than reading the language itself And the student who is learning English as a foreign language and who is reading in the language should be less concerned with the language than with the messages The teacher, therefore, should give students a reason to read so that they can know how and what to do to get more success in reading

2.1.6.2 Reading strategies

2.1.6.2.1 Definitions of reading strategies

Language learning strategies have been defined in various ways In the field

of foreign language teaching and learning, strategies are generally defined as actions, behaviors, steps or techniques… used by learners to facilitate the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information (Oxford, R.,& Crookall, D 1989) Here, the term

“strategies” is used deliberately rather than the term “skills” because a skill is an ability which has been automatized and operates largely subconsciously, whereas a strategy is a conscious procedure carried out in order to solve a problem (Williams,E.,

& Moran, C ( 1989))

In L1 and L2 reading research, there have been many definitions of reading strategies proposed to date, however, no consensus among researchers has been made yet

According to Munby, J (1979), strategies represent conscious decisions taken by the reader

Olshavsky, J E (1977) claims that a reading strategy is a purposeful means of comprehending the author’s message

Stern, H.H (1997) defines a reading strategy as the conscious effects learners make and as purposeful activities ( Wenden, A., & Rubin, J ( 1987)

According to Barnett, M (1989), reading strategies refer to the mental operationalization readers purposefully approach a text to make sense of what they read

Pritchard, R (1990), defines a reading strategy as a deliberate action that readers take voluntarily to develop an understanding of what they read

Put simply, Duffy, G.G (1993) defined reading strategies as plans for solving problems encountered in construction meaning

2.1.6.2.2 The importance of strategies to the reading process:

Knowledge of strategies is important because the greater awareness a reader has of what (s)he is doing, the more effective reading is Research has shown that learners who are taught strategies are more highly motivated than those who are not Research has also stated that not all learners automatically know which strategies are best for them For this reason, explicit strategy training, coupled with thinking about how one goes about learning, and experimenting with different strategies can lead to more effective learning

According to Oxford, R L (1990), one of the leading teachers and researchers in the language learning strategies field, concludes that strategies are important for two reasons In the first place, strategies are tools for active, self-directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence Secondly, learners who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self-confidence and learn more effectively

2.1.6.2.3 Instruction of reading strategies:

2.1.6.2.3.1 Main goal of teaching L2 reading:

The main goal of teaching reading comprehension in another language is to train students to become an effective and fluent reader in that language, or exactly, that is to develop students’reading competence and to enable students to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts, at appropriate speed, silently and with adequate understanding ( Nuttal, C ,1982)

2.1.6.2.3.2 Goal of strategy training:

For the main goal of teaching reading, students should be taught how to set

a particular purpose and use suitable reading strategies when approaching a text Typically, Cohen, A.D (1998) highlighted the strategy training aimed to provide learners with the tools to do the following:

- Self-diagnose their strengths and weaknesses in language learning

- Become aware of what helps them to learn the target language most efficiently

- Develop a broad range of problem-solving skills

- Experiment with familiar and unfamiliar learning strategies

- Make decisions about how to approach a language task

- Monitor and self-evaluate their performance

- Transfer successful strategies to new learning contexts

To put it short again, “the reason or purpose for reading the text will guide readers in the intensity with which they want to read the text and in the selection of appropriate reading strategies” (Celce-Murcia, M., & Olshtain, E (2000)

2.1.6.2.3.3 Strategy instruction and its conditions needed in a reading class: 2.1.6.2.3.3.1 Strategy instruction:

According to Brown, H D (1994), the language teaching profession largely concerned itself with the “delivery” of language to the student Teaching methods, textbooks, or even grammatical paradigms were cited as the primary factors

in unsuccessful learning In more recent years, in the light of many studies of successful and unsuccessful learners, language teachers are focusing more intently on the role of the learner in the process The “methods” that the learner employs to internalize and to perform in the language are as important as the teacher’s methods or more so

Successful mastery of the second language will be due to a large extent to a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort, and attention to the second language in the form of an individualized battery of strategies for comprehending and producing the language

Language instructors want to produce students, who even if they don’t have a complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations In the case of reading, this means producing students who can use reading strategies to maximize their comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word by word comprehension One of the most important functions of language teachers is to help students read in the same way as students do in their native language by means of strategies Teachers help students develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate strategies to each reading instruction Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include the followings

Previewing can be seen as reviewing titles, section headings and photo captions to get

a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection Then, predicting means using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose

to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary and content After that, skimming and scanning-using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or questions predictions are also recommended Guessing from context or using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up is quite significant Another is paraphrasing Stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text plays an important role

Teachers also help students learn how to use reading strategies in several ways One

of these ways is that teachers can model the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming, scanning, and paraphrasing This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word The other way is that teachers can allow time

in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out of class reading

Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value Teachers can also use cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items, which helps students learn to guess meaning from context One more way to say is that teachers can encourage students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies 2.1.6.2.3.3.2 Conditions strategy instruction being based on

To implement the strategy training successfully, teachers should be prepared for everything Firstly, teachers should make a good plan of teaching strategies in contexts Secondly, teachers should explain and let students discuss why learning and practising strategies are important Teachers should try to elicit from students strategies help to improve reading comprehension as well as efficiency in reading; by using strategies, students will be reading in the way that expert readers do;

well-strategies help readers to process the text actively, to monitor their comprehension, and to connect what they are reading to their own knowledge and to other parts of the text Thirdly, teachers should arrange activities for students to practise, applying strategies appropriate to the purposes Fourthly, teachers should seek and supply students with books, articles, and advertisements for students’ reading Fifthly, reinforcing good strategies over new texts and tasks should be done constantly

2.1.6.2.3.4 The effects of reading strategies on reading comprehension

A great deal of research in first language reading over the last 25 years has, Block,

E (1986), shown that young and unskilled readers do not use strategies often or effectively without help Failure to use reading strategies effectively has been observed in the first language of young and unskilled readers when they fail to monitor their comprehension, when they believe that the strategies will not make a difference in their reading, when they lack knowledge about text features, when they are disinterested in text and unwilling to use strategies, and when they prefer familiar yet primitive strategies over less-familiar but more effective tactics Nonstrategic reading in these situations reflects a mixture of developmental naive, limited practice, lack of instruction, and motivational reluctance to use unfamiliar or effortful strategies

In 1986, Block studied generally nonproficient readers, native and nonnative English speakers enrolled in freshman remedial reading courses in the U.S She found four characteristics which seemed to differentiate the more successful from the less successful of these nonproficient readers These four characteristics were: integration, recognition of aspects of text structure, use of general knowledge, personal experiences, and associations, and response in an extensive as opposed to a reflexive mode In the reflexive mode, readers relate affectively and personally, directing their attention away from the text and toward themselves, and focusing on their own thoughts and feelings rather than on the information in the text In the extensive mode, readers attempt to deal with the message conveyed by the author, focus on understanding the author’s ideas, and do not relate the text to themselves affectively or personally Among the non-proficient readers investigated by Block, one subgroup which she labeled “integrators” integrated information, were generally aware of text structure, responded in an extensive mode, and monitored their understanding

consistently and effectively They also made greater progress in developing their reading skills and demonstrated greater success after one semester in college The other subgroup, which Block labeled “non-integrators” failed to integrate, tended not

to recognise text structure, and seemed to rely much more on personal experiences, responding in a reflexive mode They also made less progress in developing their reading skills and demonstrated less success after one semester in college

More recently, a rich body of empirical studies has investigated the relationship between learners’ L2 proficiency and strategy use with the majority indicating that conscious, tailored use of strategies is related to language achievement and proficiency, and successful learners employ a wider variety of strategies to improve their language skills and performance (Oxford, R (1993))

In Bialystok’s (1981) study on a group of grade 10 and 12 students learning French

in Toronto, she found that monitoring strategies and strategies for functional practice affected learning outcome in a positive way as measured by achievement test in reading, writing, listening and grammar

Dreyer, C., & Oxford, R’s (1996) study of Afrikaans university ESL majors reported significant positive correlations between strategy use and proficiency Wharton’s (1997) study of 678 bilingual university students studying Japanese and French course

in Singapore showed significant correlation between strategy use and French/Japanese proficiency, with more successful learners employing more frequently the learning strategies than do poor proficiency learners

A study carried out by Hulstijn, J H., & Bossers, B (1992) shows that metacognitive knowledge plays an important role for advanced readers in both the first language (Dutch) and the foreign language (English) According to this study, weaker students in grade six and eight have not yet acquired metacognitive knowledge and could benefit from special instruction in this area, while older good readers exhibit metacognitive knowledge The most significant finding in terms of foreign language teaching in this study is that strong metacognitive knowledge, reading goals, and text characteristics cannot compensate for language-specific knowledge if the latter remains below a certain threshold level It emphasizes, therefore, the need for the effective reader to have both language knowledge for bottom-up processing and

prior knowledge for top-down processing with the metacognitive knowledge acting as mediator ( Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000)

There is evidence to support such metacognitive training Alvermann and Moore (1991) cite research studies which demonstrate the value of learning strategies initiated and directed by students They detail how, through metacognitive training and self-questioning, students can be taught to monitor comprehension (see also Cohen, 1998; Williams, M., & Burden, R L.,1997) Oxford and Crookall (1989) report on a number of studies where the experimental group received training

in metacognitive strategies and subsequently outperformed a control group who did not

The effect of learners’ strategies on their task performance A group of 60 students were randomly assigned to four different classes Two classes were designated as experimental classes, and two were designated as control classes All students were given pre-course questionnaires to measure their motivation, their knowledge of 15 key strategies, their use of these strategies, and their perception of the value of these strategies All four classes then took part in a regular first semester (English for Art students) course, the only difference being that the experimental group was systematically introduced to some of the key learning and study skills strategies underpinning the course The strategy training was incorporated into the regular language teaching program, rather than being taught as a separate component At the end of the semester, the questionnaires were readministered, and the results statistically analyzed These results showed that the experimental groups significantly outperformed the control groups on measures of motivation, knowledge of strategies, and appreciation of the value of strategies There was no significant difference on their use of strategies (All groups increased their use of strategies during the course of the semester) (Nunan, D 1999)

In an overview of research into strategy training, O’Malley, J M., & Chamot, A U (1990) found indications that more effective learners differed from less effective ones

in their use of strategies In particular, they found that students who were designated

by their teachers as more effective learners use strategies more frequently, and use a greater variety of strategies, than students who were designated as less effective.(cited

in Nunan 1999)

Devine, J (1988) carried out a study with 20 low-intermediate ESL readers from a variety of backgrounds The subjects were interviewed to determine their attitudes towards reading, and their ideas on what constitutes “good reading” Based on their answers, Devine classified the subjects according to whether they were sound-centered, word-centered, or meaning-centered in their approach to reading, and then analyzed all In a follow-up study, Devine (1988) reported that:

Those readers who in their interviews indicated that they considered understanding what the author wanted to say as the measure of successful reading (that is, meaning-centered readers) not surprisingly demonstrated good to excellent recall and comprehension of the text On the other hand, and, again not surprisingly, readers who equated good reading with sound identification or good pronunciation usually failed to understand or recall what they had read

Good readers are not only effective strategy users, they are also effective decoders (Van Dijk, T.A., & Kintsch, W , 1983, extracted from Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) who successfully employ accurate and automatic bottom-up techniques They are capable of recognizing words, expressions, and phrases quickly and effectively, even without reliance on context and therefore consciously use bottom-up strategies mostly for compensation when top-down strategies indicate a mismatch

2.2 Approaches related to teaching reading comprehension

2.2.1 The Grammar-Translation Method:

In order to understand what is happening in the field of English language teaching today, it is necessary to take a look at the method which is used for teaching English at high schools: the Grammar-Translation method The focus was on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary, translation of texts and doing exercises These languages were taught for gaining a reading proficiency in a foreign language and little thought was given to learning oral communication Language learning was for scholarly use This method of teaching is known as the Grammar-Translation method The primary focus for this method was on grammatical rules for translating from the second language to the native language Some characteristics of Grammar-Translation method:

 Classes are taught in the mother tongue with little active use of the target language

 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words

 Reading of difficult classical texts begins early

 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which is treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

2.2.1.1 Advantages of Grammar-Translation method:

 It requires few specialized skills on the part of the teacher

 Tests of grammar rules and of translations are easy to construct and can

 The method put a tremendous strain on students’ memories

 Word-to-word translations were often unsatisfactory

 Students don’t have a lot of chances to practice the language

2.2.2 Communicative approach

It is obvious that reading is carried out for a purpose rather than reading the language itself That is, the student’s interest will be in use rather than in usage, with function rather than form The communicative approach sets reading firmly in the context of the communicative use of language In the communicative approach to reading, the student is first of all given a reason for reading He is given some tasks before reading like discussing the topic, guessing what the text is about or guessing what the answers

of the given questions are In this way, the student is able to predict what will come next and there will be more chances for him to use different reading strategies and the reading techniques are also applied Doff, A.(1988) proposed these techniques as pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading

* Pre-reading stage:

In our real life, we read for many purposes such as for pleasure, but in English classes, the situation is very often different Usually students read the text not because they want to but because their teacher tells them to, so it is very important

to help students have really specific needs before reading Providing a reason for reading and breaking up the text are two considerable points which are suitable to high school students Providing a reason for reading helps the learner decide how detailed his understanding must be so that he can judge what he can skim over, what he must attend to in detail A long text may appear discouraging students whose reading is not skilled or speedy, so breaking up the text makes easier to work on a thorough and organgized way on a short section than a complete long text

The following techniques can be used at this stage:

 Brainstorming : Students are asked what they know about the topic of the text In this way, students have a broad information base to begin bridging the gap between the reader and the text

 Discussing titles, headings, and illustrations: students are asked to read the title of the reading passage and then base only on this information to write some ideas they would expect to find in the reading passage

 Using illustrations and photographs: students work in pairs and in small groups to describe what they see in these photographs and then list some pieces of information they would expect to find in the reading passage

 Scanning for specific information: scanning the text for specific information will activate an appropriate schema

At this stage, the teacher is firmly in control Its purpose is to give students necessary preparation as well as motivation before they read a text It is one of the strategies to facilitate the reading process as well as to build bridges between the reader and the information contained in the text ( Lee, J.F and Vanpattern, B,1995)

* While – reading :

This stage consists of a combination of two types of tasks: management strategies and comprehension checks Christine Nuttal (1982:159) suggested three

kinds of class organization that can be used at this stage: individual mode, centred class and group work It seems that group work is more suitable to high students because group work gives them more confidence to promote discussion and make more effort to participate in task Working in groups makes it possible for students to help one another; the weaker students may benefit from the help of the others and produce excellent motivation Group work also helps to develop communicative skills

teacher-An effective way to get information from the text quickly and exactly is to read one section at a time of a passage silently and then checking comprehension by writing a one-sentence summary of the section or answering the questions

At this stage, many reading activities must be used to achieve success The learner has

to guess meaning from the context by recognizing synonyms and antonyms, using morphological information or syntactic information The learner has to recognize structure and organization by identifying main ideas, separating main ideas and detail, outlining the text, categorizing ideas from general to specific or ordering events according to time and importance To do this, the strategies can be combined and changed from skimming or scanning to attending to detail

* Post-reading:

Post-reading focuses on the language learner’s reading experience on information The purpose of this stage is to encourage readers to learner from what they have read Some common techniques that can be used are:

- To do gap-filling

- To reproduce the text

- To discuss questions

- To write a summary

- To give solutions for a problem in the text

- To fill in a chart or a table

2.3 Summary

Chapter 2 has reviewed all the relevant literatures necessary for the theoretical basis

of the research, highlighting the importance of the use of reading techniques and reading strategies in all reading classrooms The review of these relevant literatures

will be of great use for the understanding of the study design and the analysis of data collected in the next chapters

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology used in conducting this study The first section of the chapter presents the research questions which help to get information about the reality of teaching and learning English in Thoai Ngoc Hau high school The second section mentions the research design with a description of the subjects, the survey instruments, and data collection procedures

3.1 Research questions

This study focuses on finding the answers to the following questions:

1 How is reading comprehension taught and learnt at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school?

2 How can we improve reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school? 3.2 Research design

3.2.1 Overview of the research

In order to find out the answers for the questions mentioned above, a survey using questionnaires for both students and teachers, a reading test for students and an interview for teachers are designed

3.2.2 Research setting

The research was conducted at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school which is located at 5B Ton Duc Thang street, My Binh district, Long Xuyen City, An Giang province I have been teaching English at this high school for five years I am an English teacher

I sincerely would like to do something to contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning English at my high school

3.2.3 Population

- The first group consists of 11 high school teachers who are teaching English at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school Their average age is from 25 to 53 and their years of teaching experience are from 1 to 25

- The student-subjects chosen in this study are 310 eleventh form students who are studying at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school Their age ranges from 16-17 They came from 7 classes: 11A1,11A2,11A3, 11A4, 11A5, 11A6 and 11A7 They have studied English 10 They are asked to participate in the questionnaire as well as in the test This is considered to be the most suitable group for the study because they have learnt

English at high school for over one year; moreover, it is possible to find out the reality

of teaching and learning reading here because they don’t have to take very important exams as the 12th form students do

The participation of the subjects in the study was voluntary Most of the teachers and students were willing to cooperate with the author with the hope to contribute their ideas to the improvements of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school

3.3 Data collection method

3.3.1 Questionnaires

3.3.1.1 Purpose

In order to gain the real feedback from the teachers and learners about the problems of the teaching and learning English at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school, the number of the subjects involved is of great importance Two questionnaires were designed to find out the answers to the research questions

3.3.1.2 Subjects

The subjects involved in responding to the questionnaires are the students who are studying at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school Students were aged from 16 to 17 They came from 7 classes They are asked to participate in the questionnaire as well as in the test

3.3.1.3 Questionnaire description

In order to answer the research questions, two questionnaires were adopted: one for the student subjects and the other for the teacher subjects Both questionnaires were written both in English and in Vietnamese for better understanding

The main purpose of the questionnaire for students was to obtain the students’ opinions about the reality of learning reading comprehension and the difficulties they often face in learning reading skill

The main purpose of the questionnaire for teachers was to obtain their opinions about the reality of teaching reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school and the difficulties that they face in teaching

3.3.2 The reading comprehension test

In order to measure the ability of students in comprehending a new reading text, a test was given to two groups of students The test focuses on :

- Can students use the new vocabulary they have learnt in a new context?

- Can high school students comprehend a new reading text without the help of their teacher or dictionary?

- Which reading strategies should be taught to develop the reading skill for high school students?

100 words), and Text 4 (with 110 words) The second part included Text 5 that was selected from Test 3 in Book 3 of the Key Test, published by Cambridge University Press, 2003 The last part consisting of Text 6 was selected from the Test 2, Book 2 of Pet Test, published by Cambridge University Press in 2003 All the question items in the test were in the multiple-choice format The reading

test was done by all the students of 7 classes at the same time ( in the morning)

Questions of all the texts were arranged in the increasing order of comprehending The whole reading test was designed concretely as below:

Text 1 including 5 items from Question 1 to Question 5 asked for main messages Students were required to recognise where these five notices could be seen, using the identification of lexical items, exactly about collocations

Text 2 consisted of 5 items from Question 6 to Question 10, Text 3 including 5 items from Question 11 to Question 15, and Text 4 including 5 items from Question 16 to Question 20 Students were required to identify appropriate lexical words and guess within the paragraph and the text

Text 5 with about 230 words included 10 items from Question 21 to Question 30, which was read for specific details Students’ ability to use predictions by looking

at the titles & pictures, scanning and inferring were tested

Text 6 included 5 items from Question 31 to Question 35 Students were required

to read the text very carefully in order to understand the writer’s purpose and attitude expressed in the text as well as the meaning of the text as a whole So, their abilities to use background knowledge and skimming were tested

The total score of the whole reading test was 35 points for 35 items with each item scoring 1 point All the scores obtained were classified into five degrees from low

to high, namely Under Average ranging from 0 to 17 (equivalent to the level of under 5 if considered in the 10-point scale, point 10 being used prevalently in highschools for the total correct answers), Average ranging from 18 to 22 over 35 (equivalent to the range from 5 to 6 over 10), Fair ranging from 23 to 27 (equivalent to the level of 6.5 to 7.5), Good ranging from 28 to 31 (equivalent to the range from 8 to 8.5), and Excellent ranging from 32 to 35/35 (equivalent to 9 points and 10/10) The test required students strategic reading with some good strategies such as skimming, scanning, predicting, interpreting and making inferences when approaching all texts in the test in order to get a perfect understanding

The test was very suitable to the students’ level because there were no new words

or structures in the test Therefore, the students felt very comfortable to complete the test and they finished the test rather quickly

3.3.3.2 Subjects:

The interviews were designed for experienced teachers who are teaching at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school They only took teachers about 30 minutes to answer the questions because the questions were very familiar with the teachers

3.3.3.3 Description :

The interviews were carried out to get the ideas from 6 teachers at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school The questions and the answers in the interviews supported the ideas discussed in the questionnaire for the teachers and students.The questions were familiar to the teachers, so the teachers were very eager to answer them

3.4 Implementation

3.4.1 Data collection procedure of the questionnaires

The questionnaires for teacher-subjects were delivered at the same time with the questionnaires for students-subjects Since the teachers were at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school, it only took 2 weeks to collect all of the questionnaires

The data collection procedure of the reading comprehension test and the survey questionnaire for the students was carried out for seven classes: 11A1, 11A2, 11A3, 11A4, 11A5, 11A6 and 11A7 in their regular classrooms and class time Students of both classes were asked to complete a questionnaire about their perceptions of English learning They were encouraged to do it without necessarily giving their names That could make them feel easy to choose the options which they really prefer It took students approximately fifteen minutes to complete questionnaires

3.4.2 Data collection procedure of the reading test

The reading test was designed for the twelfth form students only The test was administered by the teachers in charge of each class and finished in 45 minutes

3.4.3 Data collection procedure of the interviews:

The interviews are designed for 6 teachers at Thoai Ngoc hau high school to find out the reality of teaching and learning comprehension and the reasons why the teachers don’t teach students to use good reading strategies in reading classrooms 3.5 Summary

Chapter 3 has presented the methodology used in the study so as to investigate the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thoai Ngoc Hau high school Based on questionnaires for both teachers and students and the interviews for