An investigation into teachers use of games in pre reading activities in english classes at home high schools in hue city

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --- VO NGUYEN DOAN UYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ USE OF GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSE

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

VO NGUYEN DOAN UYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ USE OF GAMES

IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES

AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts,

Hue University of Foreign Languages

HUE, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

-

VO NGUYEN DOAN UYEN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ USE OF GAMES

IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES

AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: CAO LE THANH HAI, Ph.D

HUE, 2018

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

-

VÕ NGUYỄN ĐOAN UYÊN

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRƯỚC KHI ĐỌC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG CÁC LỚP TIẾNG ANH

Ở CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI THÀNH PHỐ HUẾ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS.CAO LÊ THANH HẢI

HUẾ, 2018

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any

university To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself

Date: 22/ 10/ 2018

Signature

Vo Nguyen Doan Uyen

ABSTRACT

Reading is considered as the most important skill in second or foreign language learning However, a large number of students demonstrate low competence in reading comprehension due to their lack of background knowledge towards the reading texts Therefore, there should be effective activities in pre-stage

in reading lessons so that they can equip students with necessary knowledge before their actual reading Games, one of the teaching methods, can be used in pre-reading stage as one of the pre-reading activities

This present study aims at investigating teachers’ use of games in reading activities with the participation of 30 teachers and 100 students at six high schools in Hue city Three instruments namely questionnaire, interview and observation were used in order to discover the perceptions of teachers and students towards the use of games in pre-reading activities, the frequencies and the commonly-used games, the benefits, problems as well as suggestions of using games in pre-reading activities

pre-The results from the data analysis revealed that the majority of teachers had full awareness towards the use of pre-reading activities The surveyed students, on the other hand, were fairly unsure about some theoretical background of games in pre-reading activities This study has also investigated the reality of using games as one of pre-reading activities in some high schools in Hue city and pointed out the most common types of games used in pre stage were sorting, ordering or arranging games, guessing games together with matching games Furthermore, benefits and problems were analyzed in order to give some suggestions to use games in pre stage

in reading lessons effectively

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

This paper could not have been possible and completed without the help and valuable support of a number of wonderful people who all deserve my deepest gratitude and immense appreciation

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and best regard to my supervisor Cao Le Thanh Hai, Ph.D for her precious guidance, extremely valuable feedback and continuous encouragement during the time I conducted this research Her careful reading and patient guidance made my work much better

I would like to express my special thanks to all the teachers and students in six high schools in Hue city for their enthusiasm and contribution in the process of data collection of the study Without their willing participation, I would not have been able to finish this research paper

Last but not the least, my deepest gratitude goes to my parents, my spouse for their endless love, constant encouragement which gave me a great deal of strength and unending inspiration during my stressful time of conducting this paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SUB COVER PAGE i

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I ABSTRACT II ACKNOWLEGEMENT III TABLE OF CONTENTS IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF FIGURES IX CHAPTER 1 1

1.1.BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: 1

1.2.TOPIC 3

1.3.AIMS OF THE STUDY: 3

1.4.RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 3

1.5.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: 3

1.6.SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

CHAPTER 2 5

2.1.PRE-READING ACTIVITIES AND SOME TYPES OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES 5

2.1.1 Pre-reading activities 5

2.1.2 Types of pre-reading activities .6

2.2.DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF GAMES 9

2.2.1 Definition of games .9

2.2.2 Classification of games 10

2.3.THE ADVANTAGES OF USING GAMES IN EFL CLASSROOM 13

2.3.1 Games motivate students’ learning 13

2.3.2 Games promote interaction among students 13

2.3.3 Games improve students’ language acquisition 14

2.3.4 Games increase learners’ achievement 14

2.4.PROBLEMS OF USING GAMES IN EFL CLASSROOMS 15

2.5.HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS IN LEARNING ENGLISH 16

2.6.PREVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH 18

2.6.1 Previous research in the world 18

2.6.2 Previous research in Vietnam 21

CHAPTER 3 23

3.1.RESEARCH PROBLEMS 23

3.2.RESEARCH QUESTIONS 23

3.3.PARTICIPANTS 24

3.3.1 Students 25

3.3.2 Teachers 26

3.4.INSTRUMENTS 27

3.4.1 Questionnaire 27

3.4.2 Interview 29

3.4.3 Observation 29

3.5.DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE 30

3.6.DATA ANALYSIS 31

3.7.CHAPTER SUMMARY 32

CHAPTER 4 33

4.1.TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

AND USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES 34

4.1.1 Perception towards pre-reading activities 34

4.1.2 Perception towards games in pre-reading activities 42

4.2.REALITY OF USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES 47

4.2.1 The reality of using pre-reading activities 47

4.2.2 The reality of using games in pre-reading activities 48

4.2.3 The frequency of using games in pre-reading activities 49

4.2.4 The commonly-used types of games in pre-reading activities 50

4.3.EFFECTSOFUSINGGAMESINPRE-READINGACTIVITIES 53

4.4.DIFFICULTIESOFUSINGGAMESINPRE-READING ACTIVITIES 57

4.5.SUGGESTIONSFORUSINGGAMESINPRE-READING ACTIVITIES 61 CHAPTER 5 65

5.1.CONCLUSION 65

5.2.CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY 66

5.3.IMPLICATIONS 67

5.4.LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: 69

REFERENCE 70

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L1: first language

EFL: English as a foreign language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 The number of participants in each school……… …24

Table 3.2 Characteristics of student participants……….…….……… 25

Table 3.3 Characteristics of teacher participants ………,….……… 26

Table 4.1 Effects of using games in pre-reading activities……….………….53

Table 4.2 Difficulties of using games in pre-reading activities……….………… 57

Table 4.3 Suggestions for using games in pre-reading activities…… ………… 61

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 Teachers’ perception toward pre-reading activities………34 Figure 4.2 Students’ perception toward pre-reading activities………38 Figure 4.3 Teachers’ perception toward games in pre-reading activities…………42 Figure 4.4 Students’ perception toward games in pre-reading activities………….45 Figure 4.5 Whether teachers use pre-reading activities……… 47 Figure 4.6 Whether games are one of the activities used in pre-reading stage by teachers……… 48 Figure 4.7 The frequency of using games in pre-reading activities……… 49 Figure 4.8 Types of games that are most frequently used in pre-reading activities.51

CHAPTER 1

1.1 Background of the study:

Nowadays, with the significant socio-economic development of the society, mastering English as a foreign language has become one of the most fundamental elements in global integration for all individuals This explains why there has been a prevalent tendency of studying English with great enthusiasm from different ages

In order to prepare students for real life application in the information age, the teaching should accommodate the learners’ development of the four language skills Reading skill, in particular, is the most important skill in second or foreign language learning (Carrell, 1988)

According to Osei, Liang, Natalia & Stephen (2016), reading is believed to

be significantly valuable in linking knowledge with literacy and is the most powerful tool for people dreaming of a full knowledgeable life In other words, reading becomes an indispensable gateway to the acquisition of knowledge It makes the reader more knowledgeable, have wider perspectives, vision and new ideas (Sookchotirat, 2005 as cited in Hashemi, Mobini & Karimkhanlooie (2015) Moreover, reading is a useful source for language acquisition since the more people read, the more positive effect they get on vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling as well as their writing (Harmer, 2007)

In Vietnam, the fact that English has been taught as a compulsory subject at schools can be seen as a convincing evidence proving that the importance of English has been recognized More importantly, English has been examined annually in the national high school graduation test as a basic criterion for university entrance admission Particularly, in the national high school graduation test, reading section accounts for up to 40 percent of the total mark of English subject This is an illustration of how educational program pays more attention to the development of reading skill in English among students However, no matter how important reading is, a large number of students in EFL classrooms in general

and in Vietnamese in particular demonstrate low competence in reading comprehension Students having no enthusiasm about reading texts choose neither

to read nor to engage in other tasks involving reading (Stanovich, 1986, as cited in Ahmad, 2006) Others often feel scared when doing a long and difficult reading task (Hoang, 2015) As a result, their performance in reading comprehension is still far from satisfactory

Personally, from my experience as a teacher of English at a high school in Hue city, teaching reading is a really challenging experience in my classes Students have to struggle with unfamiliar topics which they do not have any knowledge about, different grammar structures as well as a massive number of vocabulary that they need to master in order to comprehend the texts well Consequently, students become passive and have little motivation in developing their reading skills Therefore, it is necessary to prepare students with background knowledge before they read the whole material so that they can gain sufficient knowledge to understand the text In order to achieve such goal, teachers need to conduct pre- reading activities to equip students with basic information

Additionally, it seems to me that students’ lack of interest is regarded as one main reason for reading’s failure In other words, reading’s achievement is dependent on students’ motivation (Greenwood, 1998; Dechant, 1982) Accordingly, it is extremely important to create an environment to get students enthusiastic about reading texts, so that they can learn for their own needs, not for the external forces from teachers or family

Using games is one of the teaching methods that first came to my mind when thinking of the ways to stimulate students’ interest These activities can be applied

in any stage of a lesson (Hadfield, 1999) However, I myself wonder whether games can be used in pre-reading activities and whether those games can really effective to high school students or not

1.2 Topic

These above reasons have aroused my interest and encouraged me to conduct

this study "An investigation into teachers’ use of games in pre-reading activities

in English classes at some high schools in Hue city."

1.3 Aims of the study:

The specific objectives of the research are as follows:

- To find out teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of games in reading activities in English classes

pre To examine the frequency of games using in prepre reading stage and how useful they are

- To identify problems teachers may encounter when using games in pre-reading activities

- To give some suggestions for using games in pre-reading activities effectively

1 4 Research questions:

In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the research seeked the answers to the following questions:

1 What are the perceptions and attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of

games in pre-reading activities in English classes?

2 How frequently are games used in pre-reading activities?

3 How useful are the games in helping teachers with their pre-reading activities?

4 What problems do teachers encounter when using games in pre-reading activities?

1.5 Significance of the study:

The findings of the research are expected to help teachers realize the importance of using games in pre-reading activities as well as some difficulties teachers may face so as to avoid these problems and engage students in reading

exercises and increase students’ interest in reading English As a result, it may help

improve the quality of teaching English in general and reading in particular

1.6 Scope of the study

This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions and use of games in pre-reading activities In order to conduct this study, 30 English teachers and 100 students were randomly recruited from six high schools in Hue city as the participants

1.7 Structure of the study

This study has been structured in five chapters to reflect the different research

goals

Chapter 1 Introduction: presents the background, the topic, objectives, research

questions and scope of the study

Chapter 2 Literature review: discusses the literature on pre-reading activities and

games, characteristics of high school students in learning English and the previous studies related to this research

Chapter 3 Methodology: presents the research methodology which covers the

information on the participants, instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures,

Chapter 4 Finding and Discussion: gives in-depth analysis and discussion of the

collected data

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Implication: summarizes the study and recommend

some suggestions for teachers of English to use games in pre-reading activities effectively This chapter also gives suggestions for further researches

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this chapter is to review previous studies which looked into the issues concerning the use of games in pre-reading activities As such, the review

is organized in five sections: 1) Pre-reading activities and some types of pre-reading activities 2) Definition and classification of games 3) The advantages of using games in language teaching and learning 4) Some problems when using games in EFL classroom 5) High school students and their characteristics in learning English 6) Some previous research related to this study

2.1 Pre-reading activities and some types of pre-reading activities

2.1.1 Pre-reading activities

Pre-reading is one of three vital stages of any reading lesson construct which includes pre-reading, while- reading and post reading In the pre-reading stage, the aim of the teachers is to prepare students for the text that they are going to read

Pre-reading activities, as the name suggests, are activities that are done before the actual reading, which help lessen the students’ ambiguity towards the reading texts (Vacca and Vacca, 1989, as cited in Ekaningrum & Prabandari, 2015) These activities are believed to have the following goals:

Pre-reading activities aim to activate students’ background knowledge towards the topics (Moorman and Blanton, 1990; Celce-Murcia, 2014) It is extremely important since readers’ background knowledge is one of the fundamental factors in the reading process (Anderson, 1999; Grabe, 1991; Grellet, 2006; Koda, 2005; Urquhart & Weir, 1998, as cited in Gumus, 2009) Through those activities in pre-stage, this significant factor is recalled and facilitates students

to “understand and associate with what is being presented to them” (Ajideh, 2006) Also, those activities prepare students for the following concepts that will be needed

to have a better comprehension when they interact with the text (Cele-Murcia, 1991) Accordingly, through the use of pre-reading activities, students get familiar

with the topic, vocabulary, or complex structures in the passage Additionally, activities in pre-reading are considered as “enabling activities” to link the new knowledge with the previous necessary background, they facilitate readers to connect the new concept more meaningfully to the prior knowledge (Ringler and Weber, 1984, as cited in Ajideh, 2003) Specifically, while students engage in such activities, they “[l]ook forward to reading and anticipate what a text holds in store for them,” which makes it easier for them to comprehend main points and reading process becomes smoothly (Day, 1993)

The effectiveness of pre-reading activities can especially be seen on providing the motivation for reading (Chastain, 1988) In this sense, they are considered as “warm-up” activities which arouse learners’ curiosity and encourage them to explore deeper into the world of the text In addition, they create a positive atmosphere in class (Readence, 2000), then learners can redirect their thinking towards reading in more positive ways, and when they have motivation, and then they are prepared for the reading activity

2.1.2 Types of pre-reading activities

Depending on the objectives of the lessons as well as the characteristics and levels of students, teachers will design activities which differ in length or the amount of information given to them The following part presents some kinds of pre-reading activities which are commonly used in language classrooms

According to Bilokcuoğlu (2011), the common activities used in pre-reading activities are classified as: previewing, pre-questioning, semantic mapping, brainstorming, providing background knowledge

Previewing: This type of pre-reading activity is, particularly, suitable for passages that are culturally not familiar Students are encouraged

to draw inferences before reading by decoding contextual clues like pictures, titles, and headings

Pre-questioning: According to Royer (1983), pre-questioning should consist of a set of written questions Taglieber (1983) states that students can generate their own questions about the topic of the passage

Semantic mapping: In semantic mapping, students use brainstorming strategies Nevertheless, this strategy is organized and controlled by the teacher As students suggest their personal ideas about a topic, the teacher writes these ideas on the board Brainstorming: one of the most popular kinds of pre-reading task

is ‘brainstorming’ in which teachers ask the students to examine together the title of the selected material they are about to read The teacher makes a list of all the information that comes to his/her mind as students read the title on the board These pieces

of information are then used to further recall, and in the process considerable knowledge will be activated

Providing background knowledge: This activity is especially suitable for culturally unfamiliar passages As one culture may

be different from the other one, it becomes very difficult for the teacher to activate the students’ existing schema towards the target culture, which results in having a lack of comprehension

to have a sufficient comprehension; students should be supported to have enough background knowledge (Bilokcuoğlu,

2011, pp 83-84)

Gümüş (2009) adds some kinds of pre-reading activities to the above classification as follows:

Overview: [a] teacher can present an overview of the topic of

the text that is going to be read to her/his student in order to activate their background knowledge or provide background information (p.29)

Prediction: [t]his activity helps students activate their background knowledge and serves as a guide for processing information while reading (p.29)

K-W-L chart: A teacher can give a K-W-L chart to students in

which the students first write what they 31 “Know” about the topic that they are going to read Then they list the information that they “Want” to know about the topic in the chart In the final step, after students read the text, they add information about what they “Learned” on the topic (p.30)

If those examples above are divided based on the type of cognitive, linguistic aspects, some other examples of pre-reading activities introduced by Sousa (2012,

pp 33-40) are classified into types of material used, including: visuals, titles and phrases, songs and dialogues, stories, text-based tasks and games

Visuals: Some common types of visuals used in pre-reading activities are

pictures, videos, objects, brainstorming, which help students make predictions and guesses about the subject of a reading text

Titles and phrases: Based on the given titles or phrases, students are asked to

comment on the title of a text and predict its content

Songs and dialogues: Before starting the lesson, it is motivated to use a song

to introduce a topic Teachers can play a song with or without lyrics for learners to listen to Dialogues, on the other hand, are a simple way of introducing a text when

we have no time for preparing materials A dialogue can be a story with guessing cues or simply a “teacher directed” discussion about the topic learners are about to deal with

Stories: Teachers can use a story to stimulate learners’ predictions A story

can also be the actual text partly read by the teacher The teacher can read the beginning of the text and learners imagine the rest of the story Afterwards, learners compare their predictions to what actually happened

Text-based tasks: In this activity, specific information regarding the text is

revealed and learners must predict accordingly Matching, true/false or a multiple choice exercise are some typical ones in this type of activity

Games: Games are a very “playful” way of approaching a text Teachers will

design suitable games for students to participate in Through their process of playing games, students can get some information towards the topic of the reading lesson

As can be seen, pre-reading activities can be classified into different categories according to different criteria and each type obviously has distinctive effects for reading comprehension While “cognitive, linguistic and affective” pre-reading activities make learners share ideas and experiences, think critically about a topic to be read and come across new vocabulary and structures to be found in the text, activities divided into types of materials used allows for easier access In this

present study, the researcher will focus more on the latter, specifically on the use of

games in pre-reading activities

2.2 Definition and classification of games

This part provides some information related to games in order to clarify the definition as well as some typical games that can be used in language classroom

2.2.1 Definition of games

“Game” is such a familiar term to everyone, when it is referred to, some people just simply think it is an activity loaded with relaxation However, the definition of games in language teaching is much more complex than that According to Greenall (1990), games have an element of competition among students or teams in a language activity Lee (1991) contends that games have a definite beginning and end and governed by rules Hadfield (1999) adds that a game

is an activity with “rules”, “a goal” and “an element of fun”

These above definitions are considerably related to each other and the latter add to the previous one Most scholars agree that games comprise many factors such as rules, competition, relaxation, and learning The main focus of using games

in class is not only to help students have fun but also to learn more effectively Games also motivate students to learn better by encouraging students to compete with others, which requires them to try their best to do the tasks In order to achieve these goals, games are not chaotic but having rules, and participants need to surely know these rules before the start so that they can play the games smoothly

Using games is one of teaching methods that researchers suggest in English classrooms Uberman (1998) claims that it is right to use games at any stage of the lesson Similarly, Hadfield (1999) contends that games can be used at all stages of the progression from controlled to free practice Also Betteridge, Buckby and Wright (1984) indicate that the stage of the teaching sequence is not the decisive factor for the choice of the game Stemming from those opinions, it can be concluded that games can be used at any stage of the lesson However, in this study,

the researcher will particularly investigate games in the pre-stage in a reading lesson

2.2.2 Classification of games

This part presents some types of games that are classified by different researchers There is a number of ways in which games can be put into particular types or categories which depends on the criterion followed

Focusing on language games’ main function, Lee (1991) lists a wider range

of games including structure games (focused on syntax and technical aspects of language), vocabulary games (focused on developing learners’ L2 lexicon), spelling games, pronunciation or number games, listen-and-go games, games and writing, miming and role-play, as well as discussion games

Depending on the tools and various physical materials used in order to play

games, Lewis and Bedson (1999) give following classification: board games, card games, drawing games, guessing games, role-play games, and movement games

In terms of their characteristic, games can be divided into competitive games and co-operative ones (Jacobs, 1999) A competitive game is one in which there are

winners and losers (Kohn, 1992, as cited in Bay, Peterson, & Quilitch, 1994) Such games create strong individual motivation to succeed as well as an interest in seeing one’s opponent fail Cooperative games are structured differently; they require coordinated efforts of two or more individuals such that all the participants are involved in a successful outcome Cooperative games create interest in encouraging and assisting others

Considering the function of games reflected in the purpose for which a game

is used, language games can be divided into linguistic games and communicative games (Hadfield, 1999) Linguistic games focus on accuracy, which refers to the

ability of the learner to produce grammatically correct sentences The learner should not only know correct grammatical rules of the language but also able to speak and write accurately Whereas, the communicative games focus on fluency, which mentions a level of proficiency in communication, the effective exchange of

information and ideas In such cases, the communicative goal is more focus than the correct language usage This classification is relevant to the teaching’s purpose, since accuracy and fluency are the two important factors which determine the language learners’ proficiency Therefore, when designing an activity, a language teacher needs to make a decision whether to focus on accuracy, fluency or both

Besides, Hadfield (1999) explains another way of classifying language games, which composes of more categories than the first way In addition to linguistic games or communicative games, there are some following types of games:

Sorting, ordering, or arranging games These are usually played in pairs, where students sort cards into different vocabulary, e.g public transport and private transport

Information gap games Player 1 has access to some information not held by Player 2 Player 2 must acquire this information to complete a task successfully This type of games may be one-sided or reciprocal, where both players have information which they must pool to solve a common problem The games may be played in pairs or small groups Guessing games are a familiar variant of this principle The player with the information deliberately withholds it, while others guess what it might be

Search games are another variant, involving the whole class In these games everyone in the class has one piece of information Players must obtain all or a large amount of the information available to fill in

a chart or picture or to solve a problem Each student is thus simultaneously a giver and a collector of information

Matching games are based on a different principle, but also involve a transfer of information These involve matching corresponding pairs

of cards or pictures, and may be played as a whole class activity, where everyone must circulate until they find a partner with a corresponding card or picture, or a pair work or small group activity, played as a card game or either the “snap” or the “pelmanism” principle

Labeling games involve matching labels to items in a picture

Exchanging games are based on the “barter” principle Players have certain articles or cards which they are willing to exchange for others

in order to complete a set This may be played as a whole class

activity, where players circulate freely, exchanging articles or cards at random; or as a card games on the ‘rummy’ principle

Board games and card games are familiar game types, where the aim

is to be the first round a board, or to collect the most cards, or to get rid of the cards first, or to build up a story The cards and squares on the board are used as stimuli to provoke a communication exchange Role play games Players are given the name and some characteristics

of a fictional character These are not role-plays in the true sense, as the role-play element is always subordinate to the use of the language The outcome of a game is “closed”; once cards are distributed it develops in a certain predetermined way, while role-play proper is open-ended and may develop in any number of ways (p.5)

Obviously, there are numerous ways of classifying games based on specific criterion However, in this study, the researcher would like to focus on the divisions from Hadfield Since the focus of this study is to investigate what types of games can be used in pre-stage of a reading lesson, the classifications that games can be distinguished into cooperative and competitive (Jacob, 1999) is too general to examine Additionally, the classification from Lewis and Bedson (1999) which suggests some materials used in language games sounds partly relevant, but in fact teachers may have inadequate materials for their teaching, so they need to be flexible to use some available ones to adapt the activities Therefore, this classification does not help this research much in pointing out commonly used games The taxonomy from Lee (1991), nonetheless, concentrates on different language areas, for instance: syntax, technical area, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, listening, writing, etc., which is somehow not specific enough nor precisely aims at reading lessons Apart from those above classifications, the combination between two ways of Hadfield seems to be the most appropriate way, which introduces various types of games used in language classroom Furthermore, they reflected the characteristic and function of games used in pre-reading activities, which were served for communicative or linguistic purposes

In short, it can be easily seen that those above researchers do not mention any specific games but classify them based on some basic rules One type of games

can consists of innumerable distinct games The language teachers should be creative and flexible in designing their own activities as much as possible

2.3 The advantages of using games in EFL classroom

The following part intends to give number of reasons why games deserve a place in the language classroom

2.3.1 Games motivate students’ learning

A game is a student- centered activity which can motivate students to get engaged in the classroom Using games in classroom may help students relaxed and enjoy using the language (Nguyen, 2016) Wright, Betteridge & Buckby (2006) argue that games may be the teaching aid which can encourage students to support their interest and work Hubbard (1987), as cited in Zhu (2012) challenges the view that games can motivate students, including weak ones to learn and “feel a real sense of achievement when they manipulate a game” (p.802) Similarly, Hansen (1994) states that “games are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy learners more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings” (p.118)

Games are highly motivating since they are amusing, interesting and at the same time challenging The activities in a game capture students attention and participation get all the students to move around, activate their mental capacities and stimulate neural networks, thus motivating students to play games with fun without realizing they are learning simultaneously At that time, students who are shy also take part in the activities with interest, forgetting their shyness and feeling

of fear Thanks to that, useful and suitable games can transform a boring class into a challenging one; students who learn passively have interesting chances to be more energetic and competitive to their peers

2.3.2 Games promote interaction among students

As Jacobs & Kline Liu (1996) express, many games can be played in pairs or

in small groups, so students can have a chance to increase their team work spirit, they can practice some skills working with teammate, such as the skill of agreeing

or disagreeing with others, the skill of giving and asking for opinions, etc

In most games, learners have to play in groups in which everyone has a turn, then they are encouraged to take turn to give opinions rather than just one good student do and others keep silent Therefore, in groups or in pairs, they are more willing to ask questions, communicate and discuss with their partners and think creatively about how to use English to achieve the goal The competition in the games gives students a natural opportunity to work together and communicate in English with each other a lot

2.3.3 Games improve students’ language acquisition

Thanks to the motivation and interaction created by games, students can acquire their lessons better and more interestingly

Games can stimulate and encourage students to participate in the activity since naturally they want to beat the other teams Games provide students with chances and authentic contexts where they feel the need to use real-life language to communicate with others meaningfully and purposefully (Littlewood & William, 1981) Through this process, they acquire new language Furthermore, Richard-Amato (1988) emphasized, “Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition

of input more likely.” It is clear that in the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better Duong (2008) proves a similar fact that 90% of his students could master new words faster and better thanks to the relaxing atmosphere created by playing games

In fact, when students take part in games, they can have a chance to use the language in a purposeful and vivid context, from which they can experience and remember the language they learnt better and longer

2.3.4 Games increase learners’ achievement

As mentioned above, games can motivate learners, promote learners’ interaction, and improve learners’ acquisition As a result, games can increase learners’ achievement, which means that learners’ test scores, ability of communication, some skills, knowledge of vocabulary, or other language skills can

be improved

In brief, games prove to be an effective teaching aid in language teaching Games not only offer learners a highly motivating, relaxing class, but most importantly meaningful practice to all language skills

2.4 Problems of using games in EFL classrooms

Despite numerous opinions about the advantages of games in classroom, there are also some negative ideas toward this issue This part aims at stating some problems that teachers may encounter when using games in teaching English

According to Stojkovic& Jerotijevic (2011), there are some problems which make teachers avoid games in classroom, which are:

1) discipline issues, learners may get excessively noisy 2) straying away from the basic purpose of the game-play activity, perhaps, due to inadequate rules instruction, resulting in playing too much and the lack of learning

3) if games are already familiar or boring, students might not get equally involved

4) some learners, especially teenagers, may find games

unnecessary and childish (p.4)

Rixon (1988) states that one of the difficulties that teachers may encounter in implementing games is the large number of students in one class, which leads to insufficient chances for all students to participate in the games Particularly, this difficulty can result in some external and internal disturbances (Scott and Ytreberg, 2001) While external disturbances cause noises which may be highly distracting for students, internal disturbances refer to distraction from students who are not interested in playing games or who generally shows discipline problems

Additionally, classroom organization and layout is another factor that may create difficulties for teachers in using games Students may find it hard to shift when taking part in some movement games As a result, it may lead to time-consuming as well as students’ unwillingness to play games Also, in their participation, some students might use their L1 during a game activity to convey the message or information to others owing to the fact that they all share the same mother tongue, they feel unnatural to speak in the foreign language (Brumfit, Moon

& Tongue, 1997) A further problem is that some teachers view games as activities practiced by young people outside the classroom in their leisure time, so they do not pay much attention to use this activity in their classroom Moreover, choosing and preparing a language game which is appropriate for groups, considering the logistics and allocating the right amount of time, are some challenges, especially for inexperienced teachers (Langran, Purcell & Bond, 1994) They need to be flexible, creative and are able to anticipate problems which may happen so as to prepare for effective activities The last problem is that the students are bored with games if they are used too often by the teacher Since the same goals can be achieved in various ways, the teacher who wants to use games during the lessons has to know variety of games

In short, these above problems when using games in language classroom may negatively affect to students learning effects

2 5 High school students and their characteristics in learning English

The purpose of this part is to look into the nature of teenagers of EFL high school students, especially Vietnamese students in their process of learning English and whether they are suitable for using games or not

English language teachers and methodology experts agree that teaching high school students is a daunting challenge (Loukotková, 2011) since the period of adolescence is considered as a transition between childhood and adulthood, which leads to some changes in their physical as well as their psychological characteristics However, they “may well be the most exciting students of all” (Harmer, 2007) owing to the fact that the teenage years may be the time when students learn languages fastest and most efficiently (Lewis, 2007) Yu (2006) shares this opinion and says that apart from pronunciation, teenagers “seem to be far better learners than younger ones in most aspects of acquisition.” Ur (1996) concludes that teenagers have greater learning potential than young learners, but they are considerably more difficult to manage and motivate

For EFL students in general and high school students in particular, there are some obstacles they may encounter when learning English Akbari (2015) states that one of the main problems for students in learning English as a foreign language

is that they have no environment to become familiar with the target language It means that there is no necessary role for English outside the classroom Consequently, students feel no need to learn English immediately Furthermore, there is too much classroom emphasis on grammar with very little time on actual conversational practice The emphasis is mainly on accuracy and avoiding grammatical mistakes Students keep copying out what was written on the blackboard and memorizing it in preparation for tests It is the reason why English lessons are often described as boring to learn and students feel little motivation to learn it better

Additionally, strictly speaking, Asian students in general, and South East Asian students in particular are still passive and rote learners (Nguyen, 2011) Park (2000) shares the same view that reticence is one of the most important values in Asian cultures; so Southeast Asian students tend to be passive and quiet in class Those students can be afraid of losing face in front of other classmates if they answer incorrectly, thus they do not want to show their ideas and they are not confident in participating in group discussions in classrooms (Lewis, 1996) Particularly, Vietnamese students were generally viewed as typically obedient, shy and unwilling to question their teachers in class (Tran, 2013) Stephen et al (2006) described the process of Vietnamese students’ learning as passive and only involving listening to lectures, taking notes, and reproducing memorized information in exams Nguyen (2002) also points out that, Vietnamese students usually keep quiet in class and wait until called on by the teacher, instead of volunteering to answer questions He contends that keeping quiet in class is to show respect to the teacher as well as to create a productive learning environment Being talkative, interrupting, bragging, or challenging the teacher, on the other hand, are not typical of Vietnamese culture Obviously, the traditional teaching method does affect Vietnamese students’ learning style Students are quite reserved to give ideas

as well as to take part in group discussions or activities in the class, which results in the passive learning

With the above high school students’ characteristics, it is necessary for Vietnamese teachers to change the teaching method for teaching this group of students effectively Firstly, due to the fact that they are living in a non-English speaking country, they have no chance to use and practice this target language outside classroom, thus teachers need to design activities with authentic materials for students to have a meaningful and purposeful context for using language so that they feel the important need to learn English Secondly, students need to feel relaxed and enjoyable learning English In other words, they learn for their intrinsic motivation, not for forces from teachers and family In order to achieve such goal, the activities in language classroom need to be interesting, entertaining and amusing

so that they can provoke all students, especially shy ones to attend the activities without the feeling of fear Next, this group of students is rather competitive, they like to win and show off (Loukotková, 2011), and so activities with competitive elements are extremely sufficient for them They can try harder to win or beat other

to “feel a real sense of achievement” (Hubbard, 1987) Last, but certain not least, activities with pair work or group work should be integrated into language lessons, since they provide students with needed guidance and help to foster the community relationships Obviously, using games is one of the activities that fit all above characteristic of teaching method for high school students

2.6 Previous studies related to the research

Taking into account the use of pre-reading activities and games as one of such activities has aroused a number of research findings abroad and in Vietnam

2.6.1 Previous research in the world

So far, there have been some studies on the use of games and other activities

in pre- reading stage in teaching English with different levels of students

Aiming to examine the effect of games on the acquisition of pre-reading skills among preschoolers, the study by Osei Liang, Natalia,, & Stephan (2016)

compared two preschool classes labeled as the control group and the treatment group where the control group experienced a language lesson without teacher using variety of games whereas the latter learnt language contents through the use of games and various pre-reading activities To conduct the research, 47 pupils were randomly assigned to groups with one being labeled KG2A group (treatment group) and the other being labeled KG2B group (control group) Pupils’ achievement was then assessed to examine the variability in the mean score between the two groups

at the pre-test stage and the post-test stage At first, there was no difference between the performances of the two classes in language achievement in the pre-test scores However, after being experienced with different teaching methods involving games and pre-reading activities and a regular approach without the use of games in KG2A and KG2B respectively, the results significantly changed While the test scores obtained by the pupils in the control groups were not different from pre -test, members from the other class performed extremely well This result obviously indicates that the use of games and pre-reading activities in teaching language contents exert a significant influence on the level of preschoolers reading skills achievements

Furthermore, pre-reading activities have a positive effect not only on preschoolers but also on students of other levels Azizifar, Roshani, Gowhary & Jamalinesari (2015) figured out the powerful impact of pre-reading activities on Ilami High School Students To conduct the study, the researchers assigned 60 grade-10-students into two groups which were given different pre-reading activities, guessing reading content from asking pre-reading questions and vocabulary definition, respectively After 5 weeks with 2 sessions a week, when comparing the results between pre- tests and post- tests, it was found that all subjects performed better in the post-test The findings from Taglieber, Johnson & Yarbrough (1988), Alemi & Ebadi (2010), Haque (2010), Yusuf (2011), Mihara (2011), Bilokcuoglu (2011), Lee (2012), Madaoui (2013), Rahimpour, Hodaei & Amini (2013), Rasheed (2014), Hashemi, Mobini & Karimkhanlooie (2015), Anjomshoa & Sadighi (2015), Moghaddam & Mahmoudi (2016), Akremi (2016), Reza Salehi & Abbaszadeh

(2017), Mousavian & Siahpoosh (2018) with different pre-reading strategies, namely: vocabulary pre-teaching/ vocabulary definitions, pre- questioning, visual material, comprehension question presentation, class discussion, movie- watching, vocabulary presentation, brainstorming and pre-reading summarization were all consistent with the results stated in the previous research that students who had received treatments were better in performance than those who had not received any treatment

As can be seen, those studies were conducted with the same purpose of exploring the effect of various pre-reading activities on students’ reading performance With the same methodology that the researchers all divided the subjects into groups with different teaching activities in pre-stage in reading lesson Usually, the participants were required to do pre and post- test to examine the differences in their progress Also, they could figure out what activities in pre-reading stage might outperform than others However, there has been little research

on the use of games as one activity in pre-reading activities, which made me curious about whether games in pre-reading activities can be beneficial to teachers and students

While there have been limited amount of research about games in pre-reading activities, there are still some studies concerned with the use of games in learning vocabulary The studies from DeHaan, Reed and Kuwada (2010), Alemi (2010), Aghlara and Hadidi- Tamjid (2011), Dolati and Mikaili (2011), Kalaycioglu (2011), Segers and Verhoeven (as cited in Aghlara & Hadidi-Tamjid, 2011), Aslanabadi and Rasouli (2013), Vahdat and Rasti- Behbahani (2013), Efendi (2013) were conducted with the aim to investigate whether games can be advantageous to vocabulary acquisition or not As the similar mentioned method, all participants were divided into groups of experimental and control While in the experimental groups, students were learnt vocabulary with different types of games, for instance: digital games, online language teaching game, music video games, video games, instructional games, educational games, word games; in the control groups, English

vocabulary was taught through traditional method At the end of the teaching period, they compared the participants’ performances The result of their research indicated that the mean score of the learners in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group This indicated the positive effect of using games in teaching English vocabulary to learners

In short, the significant role of games on vocabulary in particular and reading lesson in general cannot be denied owning to the fact that vocabulary plays a vital role in reading, since the larger number of new words students acquire, the better they can comprehend the passage However, the question whether games are beneficial to pre-reading stage or not is the issue which needs examining more

2.6.2 Previous research in Vietnam

It is relatively surprising that so few studies have evaluated the effect of reading activities in general and games in such activities in Vietnam

pre-The study from Tran & Phuong (2018) investigated the impact of two types

of pre-activities, which were questioning and Semantic map on EFL gifted high school students’ reading comprehension The participants were 52 gifted students from two science classes for twelfth graders (they were non gifted English students).The data was collected through two reading proficiency tests (pre-test and post-test) and individual interviews The findings revealed that both questioning and Semantic map had positive impacts on gifted students’ reading comprehension Especially, the students who received Semantic treatment had significantly better improvement in their reading skill

Besides, there were some studies by Nguyen & Cheat (2003) about the effect

of games used in teaching vocabulary as well as teaching grammar lessons by Nguyen (2008) It could be concluded that games played a significant role in creating a relaxing and motivating atmosphere for most learners However, so far, little attention has been paid to the use of games as one activity in pre-stage in reading lessons In addition, the researchers did not emphasize the necessity in

carefully choosing games which were suitable for the stage, the content of the lesson and students’ level and ages as well

With the above reasons, this present study is conducted with the aim to investigate the teachers ‘use of games in pre-reading activities in some high schools

in Hue city

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter introduces the research problems which served as the motivation for both the research questions and the methodological approach underlying this study In addition, details on participants and the utilized research instruments as well as an illustration of the details of data collection are provided This is followed by description and discussion of the processes as well as the methods used in the data analysis This chapter then concludes with a brief

summary of the preceding sections

3.1 Research Problems

The present study was conducted to investigate teachers’ use of games in pre-reading activities in English classes at some high schools in Hue city Particularly, the researcher would like to examine the perceptions and attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of games in pre-reading activities in English classes; how games can be used in pre-reading stage in teaching English and whether those games were really effective to be conducted in 45-minute lesson at school Also, the issue whether teachers have any difficulties in their teaching process was the matter needed to be resolved From that, some suggestions were concluded for better teaching effects To this end, the study employed mixed- method approach: qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis

3.2 Research Questions

To address the problems stated above, four questions were proposed to guide the research process:

1 What are teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of games in

pre-reading activities in English classes?

2 How frequently are games used in pre-reading activities?

3 How useful are the games in helping teachers with their pre-reading

Table 3.1 The number of participants in each school

Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12

3.3.1 Students

Due to the fact that most of high school students in Hue city were classified into different schools based on their scores taken in the High School Entrance Examination, 100 students in this study were at different level of proficiency as determined by their English placement scores and grade level The purpose of this choice was to evaluate students’ different attitude to games in their learning regardless of their level The same characteristics among them were that they were all high school students, and were uniformly from Vietnamese ethnic background, with Vietnamese as their native language On average, they had studied English as a foreign language in Vietnam for at least 5 years

Below is the demographic information of student participants in this study

Table 3.2: Characteristics of Student Participants

Participants’ Characteristics Count Percentage

Currently, there have been two distinguishing textbooks in teaching English

in Vietnam, the traditional and the updated versions Since this research just focused

on pre-stage of reading lessons, students in both curricula were accepted to participate in the study They all studied English at the basic level in the general English program at school, three periods per week (45 minutes per period)

3.3.2 Teachers

Apart from students, the other participants of this research were 30 teachers chosen randomly from high schools in Hue city All the informants shared the same native language However, they were of different age with different educational backgrounds, sexes and experiences of teaching English, which could help the researcher to obtain a general view of the use of games in pre-reading activities since the data collected from those subjects were various

The demographic information of teacher participants in this phase of the study is presented in Table 3.3 below

Table 3.3: Characteristics of Teacher Participants

Participants’ Characteristics Count Percentage

from them would only be used for serving the research purposes; and their identities

would be kept confidential

3.4 Instruments

The research deployed a combined approach, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to ensure the validity and reliability of the data (Bryman, 2004) This approach can also provide more detailed data and a better understanding

of the research problem (Creswell, 2003) In other words, both quantitative and qualitative data can be used to supplement and support each other

More specifically, the study employed quantitative method by using 2 questionnaires (one for 30 teachers, and other for 100 students) and qualitative method with interviews (for 5 teachers of English), and class observation to collect information on teachers’ use of games in pre-reading activities at some high schools

in Hue city

3.4.1 Questionnaire

It has been widely believed that questionnaire plays an important role in doing research because it helps the researcher solicit appropriate information for data analysis Zorhabi (2013) stated that "[q]uestionnaires are doubtless to be one of the primary sources of obtaining data in any research endeavor." (p.254) In other words, it is regarded as an affordable way to gather, obtain information for data analysis and their interpretation as well (Dörnyei, 2003)

In terms of advantages, Mcleod (2018) described that it is beneficial to collect large amount of information from a large sample of people in a short period

of time because questionnaires are cheap, quick and efficient Additionally, "if the questionnaire is well-constructed, processing the data can also be fast and straightforward, especially by using some modern computer software" (Dörnyei,

2003, p.9) Furthermore, apart from these strong points, questionnaires are also flexible and practical to gather standard and accurate data from all subjects at the same time (Debois, 2016) Specifically, in this research, two questionnaires for teachers and students were designed similarly so that the researcher could easily

compare answers in order to have a full knowledge towards the use of games in pre reading activities in classroom On the basis of a review of the literature dealing with the use of games in pre-reading activities, they include six different parts in order to address the research questions The questionnaires were designed carefully through means of a questionnaire developed by Wang (2010) and depend on the Likert Scale (‘Strongly Agree (SA)’, ‘Agree (A)’, ‘ Undecided (U)’, ‘Disagree (D)’, and ‘Strongly Disagree (SD)’ Likert Scale is chosen because it is seen as the most popular way to measure the participants' attitudes and behaviors (Boone & Boone, 2012) Moreover, it also gives the participants opportunity to be neutral on his or her answer in a question This step is a strategic way for participants to systematize the knowledge of games and pre-reading activities in their lessons

-The questionnaires were designed with 6 following parts:

Part 1: In the first part of the questionnaires, the participants are informed

about the purpose of taking part in the questionnaires, and are required to give some

demographic information

Part 2: Part 2 includes fourteen questions aiming at exploring perceptions of

teachers and students towards pre-reading activities and games used in pre-reading activities All the questions are followed by five-point in Likert scale (‘Strongly Agree (SA)’, ‘Agree (A)’, ‘Undecided (U)’, ‘Disagree (D)’, and ‘Strongly Disagree (SD)’)

Part 3: This part intends to investigate the reality of using games in

pre-reading activities Different types of games used in language classroom (classified

by Hadfield, 1999) are given and participants are asked to choose which ones are commonly used in pre-reading activities

Part 4, 5, 6: Effects, problems and suggestions of using games in

pre-reading activities are listed respectively and participants are asked to choose the items which best fit the instructions