A survey on teaching and learning reading comprehension in binh duong high schools

The problems As a teacher of English with the experience of 15 years teaching in high school and with the observation on my colleagues’ classes in the town, I see that when teachers com

A SURVEY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION IN BINH DUONG

HIGH SCHOOLS

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by: UNG THI UT Supervisor: NGUYEN BICH HANH, MA in TESOL

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2007

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

A SURVEY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING READING

COMPREHENSION IN BINH DUONG HIGH SCHOOLS

in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes

issued by the Higher Degree Committee

Ho Chi Minh City, June , 2007

UNG THÒ UÙT

I hereby state that I, UNG THÒ UÙT, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited

in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, June 1st , 2007

UNG THÒ UÙT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Ms

Nguyễn Bich Hạnh, MA in TESOL, who did provide me with insightful discussions, constructive criticisms, valuable comments, and continuing support in the preparation and completion of this thesis

I am greatly indebted to all the lecturers of the TESOL graduate program at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their helpful instruction during the course from the year 2002 to 2005

My special thanks are also sent to the management and teachers and students of three schools: Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Trinh Hoai Duc, and An My for their cooperation and valuable opinions on the questionnaires which help my thesis to be completed

I don’t forget to send my deepest gratitude to my family and friends who cared, encouraged and supported me during the time of completing the thesis

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 some Binh Duong high schools to find out what teachers and students believe about reading and how their beliefs influence the way they teach and learn reading The thesis also looks at what teachers and students do in class that reflects their beliefs of reading

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 subskills 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 skills or too pessimistic about changes They doubtfully 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 so that they can cope with the tasks of teaching the reading skills rather than teaching texts more importantly There is an urgent need to persuade teachers that changes are absolutely necessary for the situation of teaching English in high school to improve

Acknowledgements iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of tables viii

INTRODUCTION 1

1 The problems 1

2 The organization of the thesis 2

CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 3

I.1 An overview of the English courses at senior high school 3

I.1.1 Aims and objectives of the English textbooks 3

I.1.2 The construction of the textbooks 3

I.1.3 Characteristics of comprehension questions in English 12 4

I.1.4 The position of reading in the textbooks 5

I.1.5 Time allocation 5

I.2 An overview of teaching and learning reading comprehension in high school 5

I.3 Summary 7

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 8

II 1 Theories about reading and reading comprehension 8

II 1.1 What is reading? 8

II.1.2 What is “reading comprehension”? 10

II.1.3 What is involved in the reading process? 11

II.1.4 The contrast of efficient reading and inefficient reading 12

II.1.5 The role of context in reading comprehension 14

II 1.6 Reading purposes and strategies 15

II 1.6.1 Reading purposes 15

II 2.2 Communicative approach 19

II.2.3 The communicative approach to teaching reading comprehension 20

II.3 Summary 23

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 24

III.1 Research questions 24

III.2 Research design 24

III.2.1 Subjects 25

III.2.2 Instruments 26

III.2.2.1 Survey questionnaires 26

III.2.2.1.1 Survey questionnaires for students 26

III.2.2.1.2 Survey questionnaires for teachers 27

III.2.2.2 Proficiency reading test 28

III 2.3.1 Data collection procedure 29

III 2.3.1 Data collection procedure of the questionnaires 29

III.2.3.2 Data collection procedure of the reading test 29

III.3 Summary 30

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 31

IV.1 RESPONSES TO SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 31

IV.2 ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ RESPONSES 31

IV.3 ANALYSIS OF TEACHERS’ RESPONSES 50

IV 4 ANALYSIS OF THE READING TEST RESULTS 72

IV.5 Summary 74

CHAPTER V RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION 75

REFERENCES 83

APPENDICES 86

Appendix 1 Questionnaire for students (English version) 86

Appendix 1 Questionnaire for students (translated version) 92

Appendix 2 Questionnaire for teachers (English version) 97

Appendix 2 Questionnaire for teachers (translated version) 105

Appendix 3 Proficiency reading test 112

Appendix 4 Answer key 117

LIST OF TABLES Chapter I

Table 1.1.3 Characteristics of comprehension questions in English 12 4

Chapter II Table 2.1.4 Efficient reading and inefficient reading 13

Chapter III Table 3.2.1.1 Subject specification 25

Table 3.2.1.2 The number of students 25

Table 3.2.1.3 The number of teachers 25

Table 3.2.2.1.1 The objectives of the questionnaire for students 26

Table 3.2.2.1.2 The objectives of the questionnaire for teachers 28

Table 3.2.2.2 Summary of strategies in the test items 29

Chapter IV Table 4.2.1 Students’ purpose and motivation in studying English in high school 32

Table 4.2.2a: Students’ opinions on the choice of English learning skills to master 33

Table 4.2.2b: Students’ opinions on the most important skills 33

Table 4.2.2c: Students’ opinions on the most difficult skills 34

Table 4.2.3a: The amount of English used by teachers in an English class 34

Table 4.2.3b: Students’ perception of the use of English by teachers in a reading class 35

Table 4.2.4: Students’ concept of reading 35

Table 4.2.5: Students’ opinions on the texts in student’s books at high school 36

Table 4.2.6: Students’ opinions on the improvement of the texts in student English books 37

Table 4.2.7: Students’ opinions on difficulties in reading a reading comprehension text 37

Table 4.2.8: Factors which facilitate students to understand the text best 39

Table 4.2.9a: Students’ opinions on the necessity of vocabulary in helping

students comprehend the text 39

Table 4.2.9b: Students’ method of dealing with new words while reading a text 40

Table 4.2.10: Students’ method of learning new words 41

Table 4.2.11: Students’ skills and habits in reading a text in classroom 41

Table 4.2.12: Strategies students use while reading 42

Table 4.2.13a: Students’ habit of reading books outside the textbooks 43

Table 4.2.13b: Students’ skills and habits in reading more texts outside the classroom 43

Table 4.2.14a: The frequency of reading aloud in classroom 44

Table 4.2.14b: The frequency of reading silently in classroom 44

Table 4.2.15: Students’ opinions on what teachers do to help understand the text 45

Table 4.2.16: Students’ opinions on the importance of translating texts into mother tongue 45

Table 4.2.17: Students’ opinions on the teaching procedure used by the teacher in a reading class 46

Table 4.2.18a: Students’ opinions on the reading comprehension questions in the textbook 47

Table 4.2.18b: Knowledge which students use to answer reading comprehension questions 48

Table 4.2.19a: Students’ opinions on methods to cope with comprehension questions 49

Table 4.2.19b: Activities students use to do comprehension exercises 49

Table 4.2.20a: Students’ opinions on the degree of understanding the text 50

Table 4.2.20b: Students’ ability to use the knowledge learned 50

Table 4.3.1a: Teachers’ opinions on the importance of reading skill to high school students 51

Table 4.3.1b: Teachers’ opinions on the position of reading skill

in students’ English books 52

Table 4.3.2a: Teachers’ opinions on the difficulty in teaching reading caused by the arrangement of time 53

Table 4.3.2b: Teachers’ perception of the most difficult factors 53

Table 4.3.2c: Teachers’ ways of teaching reading in the condition of time arranged 54

Table 4.3.3: Methods used by teachers in teaching reading 55

Table 4.3.4: Teachers’ opinions on the teaching procedure they used in a reading class 55

Table 4.3.5: Activities used by teachers in teaching reading 56

Table 4.3.6: Teachers’ strategies in teaching a reading text 57

Table 4.3.7: Teachers’ opinion on the importance of reading strategies in the process of teaching a reading text 58

Table 4.3.8: The frequency of reading aloud of teachers in teaching reading 58

Table 4.3.9a: The frequency of students’ reading aloud in an English class 59

Table 4.3.9b: The frequency of students’ silent reading in an English class 59

Table 4.3.10: The frequency of using reading techniques in teaching a reading comprehension text by teachers 60

Table 4.3.11: Activities used by teachers in the three reading stages 61

Table 4.3.12: Teachers’ opinions on the most important things they should do in teaching a reading text to help students comprehend the text easily 62

Table 4.3.13: The frequency of using different techniques in presenting new words 64

Table 4.3.14: Teachers’ opinions on effective ways of teaching vocabulary 64

Table 4.3.15a: Teachers’ ways of helping students to deal with new words while reading 65

Table 4.3.15b: The frequency of translating the text into Vietnamese in teaching a

reading comprehension text of teachers 66

Table 4.3.16a: Teachers’ opinions on the reading comprehension questions in students’ textbooks 67

Table 4.3.16b: Teachers’ opinions on the knowledge students use to answer the reading comprehension questions 67

Table 4.3.17a: Teachers’ opinions on the students’ comprehension of the text 68

Table 4.3.17b: The teachers’ opinion on students’ ability to apply the knowledge learned 68

Table 4.3.18: Teachers’ opinions on the percentage of knowledge students can understand and apply from a reading comprehension text 69

Table 4.3.19: Teachers’ opinions on the way of teaching reading comprehension used at high schools 70

Table 4.3.20: Teachers’ opinions on techniques used in teaching reading comprehension 71

Table 4.4.1: Results of the reading test 72

Table 4.4.2: Results of correct answers of the reading test 72

Table 4.4.3: Frequency of students’ reading test scores 73

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 In high school, English is taught as a compulsory subject with the orientation to train the four skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading to students Reading comprehension is one of the four language skills which require the teacher and learners to invest more time and energy to develop In reality, however, most effort and time are spent on teaching grammar, vocabulary and translation and less attention is paid to teaching the reading skill This thesis is intended to make

an investigation of teaching the reading skill in Binh Duong high schools

This introductory chapter provides a description of problems that initiate the study and presents the organization of the thesis

1 The problems

As a teacher of English with the experience of 15 years teaching in high school and with the observation on my colleagues’ classes in the town, I see that when teachers come to teaching a reading text, they invariably follow a procedure that has been widely accepted as norms: 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 Such procedure of teaching reading comprehension, in my opinion, does not help to train the reading skills which students need when they cope with longer texts in real life because comprehension is reduced to getting information through questioning and answering activities while effective reading involves a wide spectrum of skills

These problems urge us to look into the teaching and learning of the reading skills in high school with the hope to find ways for improvement solutions This thesis is set to find out 1/ what teachers and students believe about reading; 2/ how this concept influences their reading habits; and 3/ what they actually do in class that reflects their concept of reading

2 The organization of the thesis

The thesis is organized in five main chapters:

Chapter I gives a description of the high school English textbooks to review the place of the reading skill in the syllabus and provides a brief look into

the approaches to teaching the reading skills in high school

Chapter II 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 skills

Chapter III presents the methodology employed in the study

Chapter IV includes an analysis and discussions of the findings provided

by the questionnaires from teachers and students

Chapter V based on the findings in the previous chapter, suggestions

about changes in teaching reading in high school are made, a conclusion and

some recommendation for further research are also added in this chapter

CHAPTER I BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY I.1 An overview of the English courses at senior high school I.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 with increasing focus on the reading skills 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 According to the group of authors who designed the series of English textbooks,” in the English 12, more emphasis is placed on the development of the student’s reading skill with the purpose to introduce the student to the world of facts and ideas”

I.1.2 The construction of the textbooks

The English textbooks at senior high school consist of three student’s books from English 10 to English 12 which are organized in the same format Each unit is composed of:

1 A presentation of the theme with key language items followed by notes

on new vocabulary

2 Comprehension practice which helps students develop the reading skills

3 Intensive controlled practice which supplies knowledge of English and its uses through communicative and writing activities

4 Extended practice which provides students with activities to reinforce the new items they have learned

5 A fun corner which provides amusing activities to cheer up the students

6 A summary which lists the new vocabulary items and the main language points covered in the unit

In English 11 and English 12, there are also consolidation units which give sample tests to assess students’ achievement

I 1.3 Characteristics of comprehension questions in English 12

There are ten units in English 12, each of which has a reading comprehension text following by comprehension questions The questions belong

to different types

Table I.1.3 Characteristics of comprehension questions in English 12

Types of questions Units Questions for

detail information

Yes – No questions Inferring questions Questions for main

ideas

Questions for information outside the text

There are 42 questions, among them are:

* 29 (69%) questions for detail information belonging to units 1, 2, 4, 5, 7,

8, 9 and 10;

* 9 (21.4%) Yes-No questions belonging to units 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 10;

* 2 inferring questions in units 1 and 9;

* 1 question for main idea in unit 4 and 1 question for information outside the text in unit 10 All the types of questions are shown in table I.1.3 above

I.1.4 The position of reading in the textbooks

Most of the readings in the senior high school English textbooks are placed

at the beginning of each unit including the reading itself and the comprehension check that follows In English 12 the reading text is found between the preliminary activities which contain words, phrases or questions related to the reading and the comprehension check which focuses on true-false statements, yes-no questions, gap-filling, synonyms or opened-ended questions

I.1.5 Time allocation

For English 10, each unit is taught in seven periods, each of which lasts 45 minutes, including 2 periods for teaching reading comprehension, 2 for intensive controlled practice and 3 for extended practice

For English 11 and English 12, each unit is taught in 9 periods including 4 periods for teaching reading comprehension, 2 for intensive controlled practice and 3 for extended practice

I.2 An overview of teaching and learning reading comprehension in high school

In view of 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 Taking into consideration of the big disadvantage that Vietnamese students have to face, that of learning English in an environment where the language is not spoken in everyday communication, teachers have made a lot of effort to improve students speaking and listening skills, reading and writing are often left to learner individual effort or self-study in the belief that writing or reading practice must be made by the learners themselves rather than

under the control of the teacher High school teachers believe that all they can do

to help the students improve their reading skill is providing with the new vocabulary and grammar structures and finally asking them questions to check their comprehension Nothing has been done to help students develop strategies for effective reading and reading, therefore, in the teacher’s belief, can be reduced to the decoding of word meaning

From my observation and discussion with other teachers, I see that in a reading class, both the teacher and students do not deal with reading as a global skill that requires a combination of skills, knowledge and strategies, but they pay more attention to teaching and learning some aspects of the text like grammar and vocabulary They may think that knowing the meaning of words is essential to understand the text i.e they tend to focus on the surface meaning and ignore factors like text organization, implied meaning, contexts etc This results in the fact that the practice of reading skills is neglected Then comprehension check is done through the question and answer exercises and the reading session is thought

to be completed 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

There must have been reasons for this situation of teaching and learning a reading text Firstly, to high school teachers, reading texts are means to provide them with material to teach vocabulary and give practice of structures Secondly, teachers pay no notice to the aims of the course as expressed in the forewords stating that more emphasis is put on reading comprehension This tendency is reflected in the high school English tests which are designed basing on grammar, vocabulary, writing and only the semester’s tests include reading comprehension

component Regarding the high school graduation exam papers, reading comprehension was not tested much Reading comprehension did not satisfy the requirement of developing students’ power of thinking in reading as no strategies are developed clearly in the tests The summary of the contents of reading components extracted from three highschool graduation exam papers of three succeeding schoolyears: 2002-2003, 2003-2004, and 2004-2005 in Binh Duong in table 1.2.1 is a vivid evidence (cited from Le Vuong Ly 2006:82) That is a reason

to clarify why teachers ignore reading strategies when they teach reading

Thirdly, reading is understood as a process of decoding word meaning rather than the interaction between the readers and the writer Finally, the heating problem is still the question of methodology that needs some considerable changes for better solutions

Table 1 2: Summary of the contents of reading components from exam papers

School years R.C/ total for RC Scores Parts Items Content Strategy 2002-

no

no

2003-2004 2/7 2.0

- cloze test (52 words)

- true-false quiz 4 8 Adverd, verb scanning no 2004-

(Le Vuong Ly 2006:82)

I.3 Summary

The chapter has provided necessary information regarding to English courses being used in high school, and presented some thoughts about the current ways of teaching and learning reading comprehension, which are much or less helpful in identifying the problems existing in the process of teaching and learning reading This 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 in high school

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

II 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 will hardly get success in training and developing the reading skills If the teacher is to train the reading skills, it is important to know what reading is and what is involved in the reading process

II 1 1 What is reading?

In Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (1985)

by Jack C Richards, John Platt, Heidi Platt, reading is defined as perceiving a written text in order to understand its contents or saying a written text aloud David Nunan (1999) pointed out that 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), 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 David Nunan suggested that 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 1994:44) 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, 1988:56) 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 21st 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 skills to his/her students

II.1.2 What is “reading comprehension”?

“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.”

(Michael II Long 1987: 239)

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” (p 6)

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

II.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 good 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 understading 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

II.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 skills 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

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 group of words anew

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

of automatically recognized items

The reader pays the same amount

of attention to all parts of the text

5

Incomprehensible vocabulary

The reader takes incomprehensible vocabulary in his or her stride:

guesses its meaning from the surrounding text, or ignores it and manages without; uses a dictionary only when these strategies are insufficient

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

7 Background information

The reader has and uses background information to help understand the text

The reader does not have or use background information

Table II.1.4: Efficient reading and inefficient reading

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 The reader has no clear purpose

purpose in reading: for example, to find out something, to get pleasure other than to obey the teacher’s instruction

10 Strategies The reader uses different strategies for different kinds of reading The reader uses the same strategy for all texts

(Penny Ur 1996: 148)

II.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 (1985) by Richards, J et al, context is

defined as “that 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.” Jeremy Harmer (1983) defined context 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 practised 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

II 1 6 Reading purposes and strategies

II 1 6 1 Reading purposes

Rivers and Temperly (1978) suggest that there are seven main purposes for reading:

1 To obtain information for some purpose or because students are curious about some topic;

2 To obtain instructions on how to perform some task 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 and Temperly, 1978:187)

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

II 1 6 2 Reading strategies

Rebecca Oxfords, one of the leading teachers and researchers in the language learning strategies field, argues that strategies are important for two reasons First, strategies “are tools for active, self directed involvement, which is essential for developing communicative competence” Second, learners who have developed appropriate learning strategies have greater self-confidence and learn more effectively (cited in David Nunan 1999:172) In teaching reading comprehension, one of the necessary requirements for the teacher is to help learners acquire and develop strategies that will enhance their reading in and outside the classroom To do so, both the teacher and students need to have good

knowledge of what reading strategies are and which strategies are needed for effective reading

According to Duffy (1993), reading strategies can be defined as “plans for solving problems encountered in constructing meaning” They range from bottom-

up vocabulary strategies such as looking up an unknown word in the dictionary to more comprehensive actions such as connecting what is being read to the reader’s background knowledge (Duffy, 1993: 232) Strategy use is different in more proficient and less proficient readers More proficient readers use different types

of strategies, and they use them in different ways They may skip inessential words, guess from context, read in broad phrase, look back or ahead to link one part of the text to another, and when they are unsuccessful in decoding the meaning of a paragraph, they do not give up but search for clues in the context or change the way to reread the text In other words, during the process of reading, good readers combine and alternate various kinds of strategies For instance, they use pre-reading information and top-down strategy to make some prediction about the text and they use bottom-up strategy to start processing text at sentence level

As they already process the information that each new sentence or paragraph gives them, they check to see if that information fits with what they already know about the topic Again they use bottom-up and top-down strategies Such kinds of mental processes are regarded as reading strategies

Grellet (1981) identifies three main types of strategy which are 1/ Sensitizing which is subcategorized into making inferences, understanding relations within the sentence and linking sentences and ideas, 2/ Improving reading speed and 3/ Going from skimming to scanning including predicting , previewing, anticipation , skimming and scanning (Grellet, 1981:12-13)

In order to get success and to help second language learners to significantly increase both their reading speed and their comprehension, the teacher should choose the best strategies for different texts and purposes It is

important for learners to have a clear purpose and to keep in mind what they want

to gain from the text They have to conduct a quick survey of the text to identify the topic, the main idea, and the organization of the text They can look quickly through the text to get a general idea of what it is about (skimming) or look quickly through the text to locate specific information (scanning) Students should avoid bad habits such as reading word-by-word or stopping and looking up for new words all the time, but use context as well as parts of words (prefixes, suffixes, and stem) to work out the meaning of unknown words Karl Krahnke (1994) structured reading activities which are helpful for the teacher in organizing reading tasks as follows:

1 Make it clear what the students are going to do with the text before they read

it

2 Activate schema: students should discuss the topic before reading the text If students have a serious lack of knowledge about the topic, either abandon the text or provide background through lecture or illustration

3 Do not pre-teach vocabulary; at least do not try to predict all the difficulties the students will have with vocabulary and to try to make sure they will not have problems

4 Review any comprehension questions before reading the text

5 Tell the students how to read; carefully, quickly, slowly, skimming, scanning, critically, etc

6 Have the students read silently Reading aloud is almost exclusively a pronunciation exercise

7 Ask about vocabulary problems after reading

8 Always try to relate questions, problems, and activities back to the text

(Karl Krahnke, 1994: 58)

II 2 Approaches related to teaching reading comprehension:

II 2 1 The Grammar Translation Method:

In this method, students learn to translate from the second language to the native language by over learning grammatical rules and vocabulary The teacher directs and controls the language behavior and corrects errors of the students The primary focus is on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary, translation of text from the target language to the native one and doing exercises A reading

proficiency in a foreign language is gained but little thought is given to learning aural communication (H Douglas Brown, 1994: 53)

The principal characteristics of the Grammar-Translation Method for teaching reading comprehension were these:

1/ The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read its literature It is obtained by the application of this knowledge to the tasks

of translating words, sentences, and texts into or out of the target language

2/ Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no systematic attention

is paid to speaking or listening

3/ Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization and a list of vocabulary items are presented with their translation equivalents

4/ The sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice so a reading text is often dealt with translating from each sentence to the end of the text

5/ Grammar is taught deductively by practising through translation exercises

6/ The students’ native language is the medium of instruction It is used to explain new items and to enable comparisons to be made between the foreign language and the students’ native language

(Jack C Richards and Theodore S Rodgers – 1986: 3-4)

In the Grammar-Translation-Method, the teacher’s goal is to enable students to read literature written in the target language To do this, the student’s need is to learn about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target language The teachers’ and students’ roles are traditional The teacher is the authority in the classroom The students do what the teacher says so they can only learn what the teacher knows Most of the interaction in the classroom is from the teacher to the students There is little student initiation and little student-student interaction

II 2 2 Communicative approach:

In this method, students learn to use the language appropriately, gain grammatical, strategic, sociolinguistic and discourse competence The teacher is a facilitator of students’ learning Students use the language through communicative activities like games, role-plays and problem-solving tasks (H Douglas Brown, 1994: 53)

* Function of language:

Halliday (1975) described several basic functions of language These are the personal function: using language to express personal feelings and meanings; the heuristic function: using language to learn and to discover; the imaginative function: using language to create a world of the imagination; and the representational function: using language to communicate information

* Teacher goals:

The goal of the teacher in communicative approach is to have one’s students become communicatively competent Communicative competence involves being able to use the language appropriate to a given social context To

do this, students need knowledge of the linguistic forms, meanings and functions

* Teaching and learning types of activities:

Littlewood (1981) distinguishes between “functional communication activities” and “social interaction activities” as major activity types in communicative language teaching Functional communicative activities include such tasks as learners comparing sets of pictures and noting similarities and differences; working out a likely sequence of events in a set of pictures; following direction; solving problems from shared clues Social interaction activities include conversation and discussion sessions, dialogues and role plays, simulations, skits, improvisations and debates

* Teacher and learner roles:

The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts The second role is to act as

an independent participant in the learning-teaching group The role of learners as negotiator-between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator with the group and within the classroom procedures and activities which the group undertakes The implication for the learners is that they should contribute as much as they gain, and thereby learn in an interdependent way (Breen and Candlin 1980: 99-110)

* Characteristics of teaching and learning process:

The most obvious characteristic of the communicative approach is that most of everything that is done is done with a communicative intent In communication, the speaker has a choice of what he will say and how he will say

it Another characteristic of the communicative approach is to give students opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language as it is actually used

by native speakers

One of the basic assumptions of the communicative approach is that students will be more motivated to study a foreign language since they will feel they are learning to do something useful with the language they study

II.2 3 The communicative approach to teaching reading comprehension:

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 organized 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 tittles, 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 according to Lee Van Patten (1995)

• While-reading:

This stage consists of a combination of two types of tasks: management strategies and comprehension checks Christine Nuttall (1982:159) suggested three kinds of class organization that can be used at this stage: individual mode, teacher-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 group 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

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 learn 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, etc

II.3 Summary

Chapter II 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 III METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology used in the current research project The first section of the chapter presents the research questions which help

to get information about the reality of teaching and learning English in high school The second section mentions the research design with a description of the subjects, instruments, and data collection procedures

III.1 Research questions

This thesis is set to find out 1/ what teachers and students believe about reading; 2/ how this concept influences their reading habits; and 3/ what they actually do in class that reflects their concept of reading

To obtain the aim of the thesis, a survey will be carried out with three guide-questions like:

1/ how are reading skills taught and what approaches have been adopted? 2/ what are the effects of these approaches on the students’ acquisition of the reading skills?

3/ what are the problems faced by teachers and students in teaching and acquiring these skills?

III.2 Research design

In order to find out the answers for the questions mentioned above, a survey design using questionnaires for both students and teachers and an independently-constructed proficiency EFL reading test were employed This study chose survey design because, according to Brown (1998), a survey can be used to answer any research questions that require exploration, description, or explanation of people’s characteristics, attitudes, views, and opinions The method of data collection was chosen for this study because the subjects involved

in were large (275 students and 19 teachers) and the time allowed to carry out the research was limited

The survey serves two purposes First, it obtained background information about the subjects (age, gender, years of teaching and learning English) Second, the main purpose of the survey was to obtain information about the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension in high school This section consists

of three parts: the subjects, the instruments and the data collection procedures

III.2.1 Subjects

Table 2.1.1: Subject specification

Gender Subjects Age Years of teaching and learning experience Number

Male Female

Students 16 to 18 6 to 7 275 129 146

Table 2.1.2: The number of students

School Grade Number

Table 2.1.3: The number of teachers

at different high schools in Binh Duong province Their age ranges from 16 to 18 and the students’ levels range from weak to good Among these, 129 students are male and 146 students are female, 93 students come from Nguyen Dinh Chieu

semi-public high school, 97 students come from An My high school and 85 students come from Trinh Hoai Duc high school 143 students have learned English for nearly 6 years and the rest have learned English for nearly 7 years

They were asked to participate in the survey as well as in the reading test when they were in class This is considered to be the most suitable subjects for the study because the level of chosen respondents ranges from weak to excellent ones and they have already learned reading comprehension for at least one year or more in the tenth form

The second group was chosen from all the teachers who are teaching English to the above students, consisting of 19 teachers (3 male and 16 female)

Among these, 5 teachers come from Nguyen Dinh Chieu semi-public high school,

7 teachers from An My high school and 7 teachers from Trinh Hoai Duc high school Their age ranges from 29 to 48 and from 5 to 24 years of teaching experience

1 Students’ motivation in studying English

2, 3 The importance of the reading skill

6, 7, 8 Students’ attitudes towards the texts in the textbook

8, 9 The difficulty students encounter when they read

10, 11 Techniques to deal with new words

From 12 to 17 Reading habits and reading strategies

18, 19 Students’ opinion on the reading comprehension questions in the textbook

20 Students’ opinion on the degree of understanding and applying the knowledge learned

The questionnaire for students are divided into two parts: the first part deals with personal information such as students’ age, gender, and how long they have been learning English The second part consists of 20 questions that focus

mainly on the students’ motivation in studying English (question 1); their opinion

on the importance of the reading skill (question 2, 3); their attitudes towards the texts in the textbook (question 6, 7, 8); the difficulty they encounter when they read (question 8, 9); their techniques to deal with new words (question 10, 11); their reading habits and reading strategies (from question 12 to question 17); their opinion on the reading comprehension questions in the textbook (question 18, 19), and their degree of understanding and applying the knowledge learned (question 20)

III.2.2.1.2 Survey questionnaires for teachers

The questionnaire for teachers is the same as for students which is made up

of two parts The first part focuses on the background information and the second part consists of 20 questions concerning the following points:

™ The importance of the language skills (question 1)

™ The difficulty caused by the time arrangement (question 2)

™ The methods used (question 3)

™ The techniques of teaching the reading skill (from question 4 to question 12)

™ The techniques of presenting new words (question 13, 14, 15)

™ Teachers’ opinion on the reading comprehension questions in the textbook (question 16)

™ Teachers’ opinion on the estimation of students’ comprehension and application of the information to the situation outside the reading (question 18, 19)

™ Teachers’ suggestions for reading techniques and strategies for

better performance (question 20)

Table2.2.1 2: The objectives of the questionnaire for teachers

Questions Objectives

1 The importance of the language skills

2 The difficulty caused by the time arrangement

3 The methods used

From 4 to 12 The techniques of teaching the reading skill

13, 14, 15 The techniques of presenting new words

16 Teachers’ opinion on the reading comprehension questions in the textbook

18, 19 Teachers’ opinion on the estimation of students’ comprehension and application of the information to the situation outside the reading

20 Teachers’ suggestions for reading techniques and strategies for better

performance

III.2.2.2 Proficiency reading test

To make the basis for evaluating the research question 2, a reading comprehension test is used It will be carried out by students in grade 12 in the mid-term of the second semester when students have nearly finished their reading lessons in the textbook

The aim of the reading test is to check students’ ability to use reading skills

to cope with a new reading text in order to measure how much approaches being used effect on students’ acquisition of these skills The test focuses on students’ ability to use the language, and their ability to apply reading techniques and reading strategies to deal with new texts in order to get its comprehension

The test consists of three parts with four texts that were selected from three valuable sources of tests with great reputation and prevalence in the world The first part of the test, extracted from the Quick Placement Test (published by Oxford University Press, 2001), includes text 1 (100 words) and text 2 (110 words) having 10 items from question 1 to question 10 Students are required to identify appropriate lexical words and guess within the paragraphs The second part includes text 3 (230 words) that is selected from Test 3 in Book 3 of the Key Test (published by Cambridge University Press in 2003) having 10 items from question

11 to question 20, which is read for specific details Also students’ abilities to use predictions by scanning and inferring are tested in this part The last part consisting of text 4 is selected from the Test 2, Book 2 of Pet Test (published by Cambridge University Press in 2003) Students are required to read the text