Luận văn a study on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at hanoi college of industrial economics

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES DANG THUY HANG ASTUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

DANG THUY HANG

ASTUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING

THE READING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN AT HANOT COLLEGE OF

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(Nghiên cứu các thủ thuật đạy học cũa gián viên nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đục cho sinh viên

năm thứ nhất tại trưởng Cao dẵng Kinh tế Cảng nghiệp Hả Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOT, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

DANG THUY HANG

ASTUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING

‘THE READING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN AT LLANOL COLLEGE OF

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(Nghiên cứu các fhủ thuật dạy học của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên

năm thứ nhất tại trưởng Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà Nội)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Cade: 601401 11

Supervisor: Dr Tran Thị Thu Hiền

HANOI, 2014

DECLARATION

I, Dang Thuy Hang, hereby certify that this minor thesis emitled “4 study on

the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics” is the result of my own research in the

fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts al Faculty of Post

Graduate Studies - University of Languages and International Studies — Victnam

National University, Hanoi

Hanoi, April 2014

Signature

Đặng Thủy Hằng,

T would also like lo express my thanks to the lecturers and the staff of the Departure of

Postgraduate Study at College of Foreign language for their useful lectures and careful guidance

My special thanks also go to Linglish teachers in Foundation faculty, at Llanoi College of Industrial Economics for their enthusiastic participation and constructive suggestions for the development of the study And I also wish to express my thanks for the great cooperation from the freshmen in the classes: CKXI23, CKX128, CK112.6, and CKT12.10 in the data collection of my study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family who give me much molivation, energy and suppor! in accomplishing this challenging work

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills

at HCIE for freshmen and providing some suggested reading teaching techniques for

the teachers to help teachers and students teach and leam reading skills more

effectively To attain these objectives, three kinds of instruments are applied such as

survey queslionnaire, observation and semi- interview Ten English leachers and one

hundred students are selected to be participants of the survey Necessary data are

gathered using questionnaires for both studems and teachers Contributing to these

data, observation is used to get useful information al CKX12.8 where is expenmenied

some effective teacher’s teaching techniques In addition, five teachers are randomly

chosen to give their opinions about their real teaching experience, difficulty and

solutions From the findings, the study depicts that while students are passive and demotivated in learning, the teachers’ techniques are dominated by traditional approach which are not effective enough to improve students’ reading skills Basing

on the rescarch’s results, some recommendations for the students, the teachers and the

authorities are stated In conclusion, this study's findings contributes a better understanding of teaching and learning reading techniques in general and teachers” reading, techniques in particular; however, some debatable points are avoidable in

this thesis

iti

FABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

2, Aims of the study

3, Research questions

4, Scope of the study

5, Methodology

6 Significance of the study

7, Structure of the study

11.3 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning 6

L2 Teaching reading skÏlls ‹s cv nen ghe C,

1.2 1 The objectives and goals of teaching readin 7

LBL, The reading tent cccec cece cites icine cence ct neses ssn Ld

Chapter 2: THE STUDY

2,1 The context

2.1.2 Teachers and teaching methods

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS,

CLT: Communicative language teaching

EEL: English as foreign language

ESP: English for specific purposes

HCIE: Hanoi College of Industrial Economics

NCLRC: National Capital Language Resource Center

ULIs, VNUH: University of Languages and International Studies,

Vietnam National University, Hanoi

LIST OF TABLES AND FINGURES

Table 1: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the course book (p 23)

Table 2: Students’ altitude toward the reading activities (p 24)

Table3: Students’ attitude toward the teacher's techniques and preferring techniques (p 25)

Table 1: Teachers’ technique of combination and its efficiency (p 26)

‘Table 5: Teachers’ responses concerning Pre-reading, activities (p 26)

Table 6 Teachers’ responses conceming While-reading activitics (p 27)

Table 7: Teachers’ responses conceming Post-reading activities (p 28)

Table 8: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward supplementary texts (p 29)

vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION

L Rationale

On the road of integrating and developing in Vietnam, English is quite important to Jeamers, The teaching and leammg, of English is paying much more attention by

both teachers and learners

Nowadays, a lot of universities require their students to leam Inglish as one of their general sulyects In order to master English, students have to try their best to develop

the English skills such as listening, speaking, writing and reacling There have been

debates on the topic: which skill in English teaching and leerning is the most

important? There are some who stale whal they need is only speaking English ÍTuerly

Some disagrce with that idea They consider writing is vital because documenting reports, letters, ete are what they daily deal with in their work and life In contrast, there

are slill some who propose listening is more important for the realization of their goal

However, among these skills, acvording to the writer, reading is the most important one because it helps not only develop other skills but also provides leamers knowledge of

the target language Reading is also benefit for the students in a lot of aspects in

acquaintance of a new language ‘this topic interests a lot of researchers to put their passion on One of the famous scholars whose reputation is not able to feaget Grellet

(1981) with his famous book on reading such as “Developing reading skills” Tn

addition, many Vietnamese authors and researchers pay much attention to this issue For example “4 study an how to improve the teaching of reading English in Economics

to the 2 year students al Hanoi national Fconomies University” by Trang (2005) refers to reading skill in Economies only, and “A study on how to improve ESP

reading skills for the studenis of Information Technology” mainly focuses on reading

skills for Information Technology students by Huong (2003) Hop (2008) also concerns

this topic in her MA thesis “hmproving reading skills of Post Graduate Students at

College of Natural Sciences, VNU by developing the reading materials” Although this

subject gains a lot of interest from researchers and linguistics, there have not been any researchers who does research on the teacher’s reading techniques ‘I'his is one of the

main reasons which raises the interest for the author to do this research

-1-As an English teacher of a college in Hanoi which testing is mainly based on grammar structures and reading texts, the researcher realizes that both teachers and students have difficulty in finding the effective way to teach and learn reading skills Moreover, in order to improve leaming environment and teaching quality, there is a need of investigation tu expose Ihe new road for all subjects in general and reading skills in particular at the college With the effort of my own, a study is carried out to find which reading techniques are more effective for improving the quality of teaching and leaning reading skills at IICIZ

‘That is the reason why my graduate paper is “A study on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of

Industrial Beonomics”

2 Aims of the study

‘This paper aims at

- Investigating the Teal siluation of loaching and learning reading skills for freshmen

at HH

- Providing some suggested reading teaclung teclmiques for the teachers to help teachers and students teach and learn reading skills more effectively

3 Research questions

To teach the above aims, the thesis works to answer twa [ollowing rescarch questions

- How reading skills are being taught and leat at HCTR?

- What reading techniques should be applied to improve the reading skills of

freshmen at HCTE?

4 Scope of the stndy

‘his study focuses on improving the reading skills of freshmen at IICIL Lifforts to study the improvement of other skills, for students of other years at other

TrgtiluHons are above the scope of the study

5 Methodology

With the purpose of investigating the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at IICIU, this stdy employs a survey research To achieve this aim, the survey questionnaire is used as the main instrument to collect

-2-the needed data from -2-the students and -2-the teachers Besides, o-2-ther instruments are also made used of such as the researcher's observation in reading lessons, and the

semi-interview for English teachers

6 Significance of the study

In the light of CL', to find suitable techniques for teaching and learning reading

requests a lot of enforce from both teachers and students

In relation to this, an investigation on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of fresher af, Hanoi College of Tadustrial Eeonornies

is mplemented ‘lo this end, the result of this study is believed to have potential

contribution to the following two aspects:

Firstly, in theory, this thesis once more time approves the reading background It adds into reading skills a strong point to consolidate the teaching reading methodology

Secondly, in practice, the paper is beneficial for teacher trainers and educators who have a role in teaching and training to improve reading practice In addition, it is able to contribule to English jeachers who can use the resulls to rellect om their practice to improve their reading lessons Moreover, researchers who are interested in classroom practice may use the findings as a stepping-stone for further investigalion that could lead to the improvement of teaching reading for socond year

students in or out of HCLE

7, Structure of the study

‘The study includes three main parts:

‘the first part is the Introduction ‘the writer states the rationale for choosing the topic of the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the scope of the

study, mclhodology, the significance of the sLudy and ihe structure of the study

The second part is Ihe Development which ix divided info three chaplers Chapter one presents the back ground knowledge of reading skills The next chapter works

on the teachers’ teaching techniques on reading skills for freshmen at Ifanoi College

of Industrial Economic The last chapter is about some techniques to improve reading skills to freshmen at Llanoi College of Industrial lteonomics

‘The last part is the Conclusion In this part, the writer gives out the summary, the

Timitation of the study and (he suggustions for the further study.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1, An overview of the nature af reading skills

1.1.1 Definition of reading

Reading skill is one of [our macro-skills in teaching and learning a language in general and a foreign language or second language — [nglish in particular This term has been

attracting a lot of scholars, linguistics, educators and teachers to give the attention to

So many definitions of Reading are given out TL is the faet that each person has his own way to define it Obviously, giving an exact definition for the word “reading” is not an

easy work As Aebersold ard Field (1997-5) notes thal “the act of reading is nol

completely understood nor easily described.” In this papsr, some of typical

definitions are listed to give an overview of the term “reading”

Firstly, Goodman (1981: 135) proposes that reading is “a psycholinguistic process

by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” Clearly, reading is an act

that involves the reader works to find out the meaning encoded by written letters

This definition points out three elements in reading process: the writer, the reader

and the text Another definition of reading is suggested in the interactive view of

reading, In fact, contemporary interactive approaches to reading extend and

elaborate psycholinguistic theory by focusing precisely on the important role of

cognition in au interaction between the reader and the text Thus, McKenna and

Robinson (1993:21) defines that “reading 1s an interactive process in which a

reader's prior knowledge of the subject and purpose for reading operate to

influence what is learned from text.” This opinion is as the same as Silberstein’s

(1994:7) when she emphasizes that meaning does not fully lie in the text to be

decoded Rather meaning is created through the nogoliation helween a teader and a

text, This means a reader is an active participant in the reading process in which the reader makes predictions and form expectations from the prior knowledge, which

the reader confirms or rejeuis while readinys

In short, cach scholar has a different đofinition of rcadig and it is a hard job to decide which is better because each of them focuses on one important matter of reading However, there still hes # common thing ia that reading is a complex process that requires a great deal of active participation of readers in order to find the message hidden in the printed words

11.2 Reading comprehension

Comprehension is one of key important components of essential reading instruction

Tt is a vital tool for reading in the modem age Thus, it can be said that it plays an

imporlanl parl im leaching and kaming a foreign language It is the ability lo understand information in a text and interpret the text appropriately

Reading comprehension is defined as obtaining the information from the text

Acvording to Abbolt (1981: 82), “There are iwo broad aspects or levels Firstly,

there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point.” With the same idea,

Grellet (1981:3) states “reading comprehension or understanding a written text

means extracting the required information from it as effectwely as possible.”

Another point of view comes from Rirchard and Thomas (1987: 143) In his opinion

treating comprehension is a metal process thal only the reader finally understands the

text based on the past experience ‘That knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out of printed text So, the process of comprehending involves decoding the writer's

words and using the background knowledge to construc! an approximate understanding

of the writer’s passage Agreeing with this theary, Lenz (2000: 3) also says that “reading

comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from the text.”

A conclusion can be drawn here is that reading comprehension is the process that

helps the readers oblain informalion in a text and understand il appropriately

1.12 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning

It is generally accepted nowadays that reading is a key skill for most students

leaming a [oreign language and thal i, should therefore, take place alongside the

development of oral ability in the school program Having the same idea Carrell (1997:1) agrees: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly im English as a second or a foreign language”

First of all, reading is a means by which further learning takes place It is an effective way of stimulating students to talk, write and listen By reading, leamners

are able to enmch their knowledge of grammar structures aud vocabulary ileus These faclors contribute an important parl Lo help students easier Lo hsten to the

lessons In addition, knowledge of structures and new words ungraded by reading also provides learners a chance to speak more confidently and naturally Next,

‘writing skill is improved based on the model reading texts

Secondly, reading weighs as a heavy tool belt of a working, technological society It helps us to solve both personal and social problems in daily life Print is

everywhere: memos and menus, candy wrappers and constitutions, bills and serial

numbers, signs and rest room doors Withont reading anything, it is impossible for

human beings to behave appropriately

Finally, roading in a new language is also lo be beneficial 1o learn about the targel culture, It helps Iearners understand the ways of life, behavior, thought, belicL, ele that pays an important role in widening the knowledge of cross-culture

To sum up, reading is a vital skill im learning and teaching a second language

1.2, Teaching reading skills

12.1 the objectives and goals of teaching reading

1.2.1.1 The objectives of teaching reading stills

Clearly, everythmg is done including at least an objective It is the same with reading or teaching reading skills

According to Christina and Mary (1976: 169): “The objectives of teaching reading are self-evident; we read for information and for pleasure." Totally agreeing with this idea, Grellet (1981.1) claims that reading consists of two main reasons They are reading for pleasure and reading for information Having the same opinion, Heidi (1998) says that:

“Reading is an activity with a purpose A person may read in order to gain information

or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of texts.”

According to a study canied out by Groany and Nounuan (1990), to ñnd out the children’s reasons for reading through questionnaires administered in 15 countries to thousands of 10- and 13-year-old students The results got divided info three main factors that they termed “utility”, “enjoyment” and “escape” Whereas, utility was

However, cach level of reading has different particular objectives For example, Christina and Mary(1976: 169) also points thal the purpose of reading on the very elementary level includes two main ones Kirstly, reading is to introduce basic grammar pattems and vocabulary items in context Reading, secondly, is to reinforce this basic knowledge

In short, clarifying the particular objectives of teaching reading is an important job that helps to guide both teachers and students to go for the right way

1.2.1.2, The goals of teaching reading skills

According to Sadoski, M ( 2004: 44) every subject is taught and leamt is classified in one of three domains They include the psychomotor domain, the affective domain and the cognitive domain These stretch in teaching and leaming reading as well

‘The psychomotor domain is the domain of the mind and the body working together

to produce physical performances Some examples of psychomotor activities

melude learmmy to walk, te shoelaces, s

vim, lype, drive a car, and perform crealive

dance routines The second domain is the affective domain which is the domain of

attitudes, interests, values, appreciation, and life adjustment ‘he common examples

of affective activities are responding positively to success and constructively to

failure, adopting healthy habits over unhealthy ones, developing a democratic tolerance for opposing points of view, or invoking ethical principles for behavior in

morally ambiguous situations The third domain is the cognitive one which consists

of intellectual skill meluding the recall or recognition of information, the

comprehension of information, and the development of logical and rational thought skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation The popular examples of cognitive

activities are remembering facts, summarizing thoughts, applying principles to solve problems, deducing a coherent explanation fiom disparate pieces of evidence, or

objectively critiquing arguments in terms of their logical consistency

-8-In applying these domains in teaching reading skills, they were divided into small goals which were equal between the affective domain and the cognitive domain, and the psychomotor domain was climinaled Fach domain conlains lwo goals Two goals in the affective domain are developing positive attitudes toward reading and developing personal interest and tastes in reading Two goals in the cognitive domain are developing the use of reading as a lool to solve problems and developing the fundamental competencies of reading at succeedingly higher levels

of independence The first goal deals with developing positive attitudes toward

reading I means thal readers try to improve or make progress in their confidence in

their own ability In other words, students should experience success regularly and approach reading confidently without being fear of failure The readers may experience difficully in reading and sometimes they may get tho negative altitude 1lowever, bearing in their mind of the positive thinking that helps them overcome

the difficulty easier and develop their positive attitude The next goal is developing

persona} interest and tastes in reading Having ant interest in reading incans having the motivation to read and to respond affectively, to seek to enlarge self-

understanding and sense of self-wortl: through reading At the higher level of the

development of interest is the development of discriminating value judgment, or taste It means that readers can have tendency to make value choices and judgments

aboul whal they chose to read arxd to develop their own critical standards The third

goal is developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems Clearly, everything bears printing words on it, for examples, candy wrappers, constitutions,

bills and rest room doors, etc Reading them helps readers know what is what and

what for Reading is a way to deal with everyday problems from reading to learn at school to reading to do at work So, using reading as a tool in our daily lives is

pervasive The last goal is developing the fundamental competencies of reading at

succeedingly higher levels of independence ‘fhis is the most basic goal and provides the means to the other ends According to Chall (1996: 18), reading is

classified into six stages with particular goals

© Stage 0, Pre-reading (O-grade I):developing concepts about print;

recognizing print in the environment; learning some letters and words

-8~

© Stage 1L, Initial Reading or Decoding (grades 1-2): leaming letters and letter combinations and their correspondence with parts of spoken words, learning to crack the code

© Stage 2, Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing fram Print (grades 2-3): learning more about decoding; using context to increase fluency and rate, reading simple slories and bogitmers’ books

Stage 3, Reading for Learning the New: A First Step (grades 4-8): learning lo read begins to shill, to reading lo learn; developing vocabulary and knowledge; begiming to use subject area textbooks

© Stage 4, Multiple Viewpoints (high school): dealing with more mature texts that introduce varying viewpoints and more challenging concepts; more independent reading,

® Stage 5, Construction and Reconstruction- A World view (college and adult): more advanced und discriminating teading: constructing knowledge on a high

level of abstraction and generality, varying purposes and rate; critical reading,

In short, setting clear goals that makes readers at any ages become wiser and more

effective ones Tn teaching reading, taken Logether these goals helps us Lo unagine

an idcal state of affairs in a reading class and provide a conceptual basis for the

why of teaching reading

1.22 The reading teaching? learning approaches

Sadoski, M ( 2004: 81-88) states the three fundamental teaching/learning approaches

on the second continuum (instruction and education) which were program-controlled

tcavting/ earning, tcacher-controlled tcaching/leaming, and reader-comrolled

teaching/leaming These are the ways in which we teach readers to do it

«In program-controlled teaching/learning: the program is dominant and the

teacher and the reader are subordinate

» In teacher-conirolled (eachinp/learninp: the leacher is dominant and the

program and the readers are subordinate, In this approach, the teachers determine the learning conditions according to their professional training,

-10-experience, and judgment, Programs and toxt materials are used according to those determinations, and readers are subject to those determinations

© In reader-controtled teaching/Iearning: the reader is dominant and the teacher and the program are subordinate

However, Elba(2006:8) gives out another teaching reading approaches applied a lot cwrenlly According to him, (here are (hree popular models such as: bottom-up

approach, top-down approach and interactive approach

* Bottom-up approach focuses on developing the basic skill of matching

sounds with the letters, syllables, and words written on a page It is associated with a teaching methodology called phonics which requires the

learner ta match letters with sounds in a defined sequence

© Top-down approach focuses on the background knowledge a reader uses to comprehend a wrillen lexl [Lis associated with schema theory which describes in detail how the background knowledge of the leamer interacts with the reading task and illustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is crucial to deciphering a text As a result, the reader and linguistic Jmowledge plays a key role in the construction based on the text’s meamng

© The interactive approach refors to the intoraction between bottom-up and top-

down processing skills It involves the simultaneous occurrence of two processes

belonging to the above approaches Understandings depends on both processes of graphics information and reading memory of the reader Understanding, may be hampered by lack of critical judgments or ways of interpretation

Lively debale still occurs aboul which approach is more valid, bul for many years now the top-down approach has had a greater influence on HSL/EEL pedagogy As Carrell (1988: 259) states “field today is strongly influenced hy top-down processing perspectives” The following three stages of activitics arc typically used to activate and build students’ schemata suggested by Llba (2006:11):

© Pre-reading: At this important stage the teacher should make sure that

students have the relevant schema for understanding the text ‘his is

achieved by having students think, write, and discuss everything they know

-11-about the topic, cmploymg techniques such as prediction, scmantic mapping, and reconciled reading

During-reading: ‘Chis stage requires the teacher to guide and monitor the

interaction between the reader and the text One important skill teachers can

impart al this slage is nolo-taking, which allows sludenls to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize

information and record their reactions and opinions

Post-reading: The post-reading stage offers the chance to evaluate students’ adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that ecuracy is relalive and that

“readership” must be respected as long as the writer’ intentions are addressed

‘Yo sum up, what this paper suggests to the reading teacher is that some combination

of instruction and education may be best for reaching all the goals Teachers might

be best advised to find a balanced approach most, suitable for each situation to

realize all the goals

1.23 Techniques for teaching reading

Reading itself involves two parties, the printed text and the reader Teaching reading is added the third party, that is the teacher ‘Ihe techniques that teachers apply in a reading

Tesson imfucnee a lol the reading babit of the studenls and thei lessons

Richard (1970: 130) suggests techniques of SQ3R which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review

Survey: the purpose of this step is survey to get a general idea of the text Then skim quickly over the topic headmgs, look al pictures, graphs, charts,

or diagrams, see if there are questions or a summary at the end

Questian: this step helps the readers to read with a purpose, look for specific answer and anticipate essential points of information

Read: It means the reader reads the text as quickly as possible to find out what is being looked and where to get the necessary information

Recite: This helps the readers consolidate the information which have been

read, relate il lo previous mformation, and prepare for what is to follow:

© Review: its purpose is to get the general points of the reading text to refresh the memory

Regarding with this topic, Christina and Mary(1976: 163) states some useful reading techniques which follow the basic lesson organization:

® Checking through comprehension questions handed out previously on

reading assigned (or the day’s lesson

« Introducing the next reading assignment:

- Giving meaning and prommneiation of new wards in the next reading

assignmertl

- Giving comprehension questions on the next assignment

© Beginning level: Intensive study of granimar pallorns for recognition only

® Activity: from day to day a different activity such as word study, dictionary,

exercises, read and look up, expectations, guessing meaning from contexts, ete

According to Grellet (1981:14-19), there are three main types of techniques which are useful for teaching reading comprehension:

© Sensitizing

- Inference: through the context

- Inference: through the word-formation

- Understanding relations within the sentence

- Linking the sentences and idess: reference

- Linking the sentences and ideas: link-words

e Improving reading speed

© From skimming te scanning,

Another point of view related to teaching reading techniques comes from a web site

hitp ‘www nelre org/essentials/reading/stralread him) which imcludes:

-13-+ Previewing: revicwing tiiles, soction headings, and photo captions to gct a

sense of the structure and content of a reading selection

» Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the

text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using,

knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style,

vocabulary, and content

« Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main

idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

+ Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and ideas in the text as clues to the guess the meanings of unknown words, instead of

stopping Lo lovk them up

© Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a seciion to check comprehension by

restating the information and ideas in the text

In short, each scholar or linguistic has their own way to divide reading techniques 1lowever, which techniques are most effective in teaching reading are determined

by teachers who directly carry out the reading lessons Applying these techniques

requires teachers to consider carefully so that thei lessons are Lively and they can

motivate students to leam better

1.3 Factors affecting teaching and learning reading

As stated above, teaching reading involves three parties which are the printed text,

the reader! sLudent and the teacher These parties significantly affect leaching and

Iaming reading process

1

The reading text

‘Texts play an important role in teaching and leaming reading It is said that new lexical, phonetic and grammatical items are presented They also help students to enrich their background knowledge

-14-Therefore, Billow (1982:55) claims that: “the role of the textbook is to stand for the distant and hardly accessible delights that lie behind the forbidding barriers of sbrungeness of language, the imaginative life of the child as well as its craving for knowledge”

One of the most important aspects of teaching reading is the selection of the reading

text There are some fairly obvious considerations The reading selections should

not contain marked dialect or slang features or old-fashioned language use The

selections should have high interest value to the students and the simplest way of establishing this is by asking the students their opinions of the readings and then

eliminating low interest selections from future curncula The content: should not

contrast with the students' own cultural values it seems that it is easier to read what

is interesting and ideologically compatible, at least at the earlier stages

But by far the most important consideration in selecting texts is the level of reading difficulty, which rust be raatehed to the overall proficiency of the sludenls Tr the past, there was great emphasis on using texts which had been simplified in vocabulary and syntax, and at the very beginning levels this practice still remains a necessity Today there is a strong trend away fiom simplified or edited material toward texls which exhibit the complexity typical of difficult written Hnglish Hven so, there is a great range in reading difficulty levels, and these must be ascertained A number of reading formulas cxist, none of which has proved to be very accurate, The most successful procedure for determining the level of reading difficulty is the cloze test

Reading texts in addition to help teachers make direction to teach their students because there are a lot of thing that students have ta leam However, textbooks will help teachers know what they should focus on icaching Without texts not only

teachers but also students do not know what and how to teach and learn

13.2 The students

‘the students are one of the three main factors of teaching and learning process They are not only the subject but also the object of teaching and learning process Nutall (2000: 33) gives several main roles for the students ina reading lesson such as

-1§-* Taking an active part in learning: Sradents have to be active and take

charge of what they do

* Monitoring comprehension: Students need la undersland how texls work

and what they do when they read

© Learning text talk: Students have lo lear how lo carries on a dialogue wilh

the text,

© Taking risk: Student have to take the risk of making mistakes because a

mistake is an opportunity to lean

« Learning not to cheat oneself: Students who do not want to learn to read

can easily cheat but they are cheating themselves In fact they are wasting

their opportimilies,

Tu a reading lesson, the students play the role of the readers TLis the [acl thal students

are the heart of the reading lesson and the element which determines the success of a

reading lesson That is to say they must be very active in the lesson from the beginning

to get the night meaning of the (exis Besides, students have te do ofher exercises (rat help them accumulate a large amount of knowledge from the text and then understand

at thoroughly Tn sume cases, students sometimes have to cape with some problems

which are beyond their abilities such as idioms, proverbs or background understanding

so on As a result, making mistakes is obviously unavoidable [lowever, thank to these

mistakes students have a great oppartmities to leam better through their own mistakes

In addition, making mistakes help leamers who are not interested in reading leam more

confidently and motivate them to read more to eraser their errors

13.3 The teacher

Many linguistios agree that the teacher is the most important factor in a reading

lesson The Lleacher, as a matter of fact, is nol only an instruchoral expert, an

organizer, a manager, a counsclor but also a mods! reader Nuttall (1982:192) states:

“there are two main things that a teacher should always remember in helping

students The first is to provide the students with suitable materials and the second

is to provide them with suitable teaching activities.”

-16-Sclocting @ proper text is a hard job for cach teacher and it is the first key point that the teacher could help students A text which is either long or difficult will make

students get bored and demotivaled to read Tn another side of the com, an

interesting text matching students’ need beth encourages them to read and stimulate them to get information more efficiently

Along with a good text, providing suitable activities is another vital thing that the

teacher always keeps in the mind In fact, there are three main activities in a reading

comprehension text including pre-reading phrase, while-reading phrase and post- reading phrase Ilowever, the role of the teacher in each phrase is very different At

the pre-reading phrase, the teacher has to make students be aware of what they are

going to read and do during the lesson, so the main role of the teacher is an instructional expert At the while-reading phrase, as an organizer a manager and a counselor, the leacher is willirg to help students if necessary In the last phrase post-reading, the teacher as a model reader encourages students to express their own

ideas through their understanding of the text

To sum up, the role of the teacher in a reading lesson is undeniable Without help

from the teagher, il is diffieull, for the students to be efficien readers

1.4, Summary

Tn this chapter, the writer focuses on different useful aspects relaled to reading

skills such as the concepts of reading, reading comprehension, factors affected teaching reading skills, the objectives and goals of teaching reading, etc And the

most useful pom, Lechniques that teachers use in leaching reading are alsa

presented with the hope to improve students’ reading skills

Chapter 2: THE STUDY

In ofder to explore the objectives of this study, first of all, an overview of Hanoi College of Industrial Liconomics is performed Next, some information about teachers and teaching methods, students and their background Faglish knowledge is listed Tn addition, the materials are enclosed in this part, Besides, the methodology which consists of the participants, instruments and the procedures will be mentioned, Finally, the findings and discussion are written to give an end of this part

2.1 The context

2.1.1 An overview of Hanoi College of Industrial Economics

Hanoi College of Industrial Reonomics, which previously is a small vocaltional training school, has become a college since 2006 The college is located in two places

‘The first one is in Cau Giay district and the second one is in ‘Thanh ‘In district

Currently, the college consists of six faculties: iconomies, Information l'echnology, Law, Physical Education, Accounting and Foundation Every year, there are about

3000 new students Up to now, HCLE has had nearly 6.000 students with 85 classes

and about 250 teachers and staffs English is one of main subjects of Foundation faculty It is compulsory for all students of all faculties at the callege

However, because of newly founded college, both teachers and students have to

cope with a loi of dificullics Firstly, cach class normally has over 70 students

which are too crowded for learning and teaching English Moreover, the faculties at the college are still very poor For example the library cannot provide enough English books as a reference There is not lab-room for students to practices listening and speaking l'inally, the students do not have a chance to practice Linglish with

nalive spoakera lo improve heir English skills

21.2 Teachers and teaching methods

Obviously, the role of teachers and the way of their teaching have great influences on students and play a key role in a successful implementation of curricuhun objectives,

AL ACY, there are nineteen teachers of Enghsh aged from mid-Lwenties 10 late-

forties ‘wo third of the teachers either have MA degree or are studying post

-18-graduate course Most of thom are cnorgetic and willing to devote their time and enforce to the teaching job Lowever, many of the teachers, especially the young ones do not have much experience in teaching ard may cneounter some problems in choosing and applying suitable teaching methods

‘The Hnglish teaching method that is preferable at HCI is Grammar- translation This method focuses on accuracy, the detailed analysis of grammar rules The

teachers speak most of the time They often ask students to read and scan the text

then find cut new words and structures, next they write down new words and

structures on the hoard and explain new words after that they translate the text into

Vielnamese or sometimes ask sludents to translate They rarely require students Lo

predict or guess meaning from the context Students often listen, take note passively

then complete some exercises provided in the text book Therefore, this method

leads lo the lack of molivalion and omits chances for sluderils to be center of the

lessons ‘This situation requires to apply a more appropriate method that not ouly

matches students’ needs and interest but also improves students’ reading skills

2.1.3, Students and their background English knowledge

The leamers of English at IICIE are ranked from 18 to 22 in their age with the priority of female students Most of thom have studied English for ihre years al their high schools but their English competence is at different levels:

‘Most students come from rural areas in Vietnam where Lnglish is not considered as necessary as in the city As a result, a lot of problems appear during the course because

of their individual differance im abilily, learning styles, alliluds, motivation, etc

Moreover, the ailitude loward learning English al HCTR is also another point lo be taken in consideration Hnglish is thought to be a general subject which is not as

important as other subjects, so students do not devote themselves to master it They

are also a bil lazy and hardly ever try their best to Iearning TL is the fact thal thoy seldom prepare lessons at home or review the lessons regularly In short, learners and their attitude toward learning Lnglish need to be changed to implement the

objectives of the curriculum To apply the learner- centered method in teaching

English at LICLU, an urgent action should be done to improve the learning quality

-1D-2.14, Teaching materials

It is agreed thet materials include anything which van be used to facilitate the leaming

of a language Commonly, “they can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a

cassette, a CTD) Rom, a video, a photocopied handoui, a newspaper, a paragraph

written on a white board, ete’CLomlinson 1998: 15) Consequently, it is undeniable that materials play an important part in teaching and leaming a language

The students at IICIE generally leam English for two years For the first year, they will be provided with general English by using the text book “New Headway — Pre intonmediale” by John and Liz Soars (2000) In Uicir second year, they study ESP with a course book edlited by Bnglish teachers of the college

In the first year, English is taught in the two semesters with totally 150 periods

Touring the course, the students have to complete twelve unils in the course book

NHWP which provides the students with general knowledge of English with the integration of four skills equivalent to above elementary level In the second year,

the sLuderils have sx Iessons with 30 periods in ESP course which mainly focuses

on reading skills

‘As mentioned above, the freshmen’s Knglish proficiency is various No entrance English test is carried out to classify their English levels This, to some extent, causes some problems in teaching and learning English at HCTF Afler learning reading for a year, the freshmen are required to gain basic skills to support them in the next year with ESP course That is the reason why reading weighs a strong scale

for ther to master

Concerning to the reading texts in the course hook, there are some particular points need to be considered Hach of the reading text has average 400 words in Jength that

is supposed to be suitable to the pre-intermediate level Besides, the use of language

and grammar structures are simple and clear that matches lhe grammatical syllabus for lower level students before moving to intermediate or upper- intermediate level The next point is that the book provides reading texts of various topios based on the

theme of each unil These lopics are quite familiar to the sludents, for example, Unit

1- communication, Unit 4- going shopping, Unit 7- famous couples, etc However,