Luận văn using supplementary reading materials with the course book business basics to improve the efficiency of reading teaching and learning for second year students at bac ha college of technology

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES #FÉA4ÐPl4eElEdoddEetbilok DAO THI HOA USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

#FÉA4ÐPl4eElEdoddEetbilok

DAO THI HOA

USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS WITH THE COURSE BOOK BUSINESS BASICS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY

OF READING TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR SECOND-YEAR

STUDENTS AT BAC HA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Str dung tai liéu doc bo tro cho giao trinh Business Basics nham nang

cao hiệu quả của việc dạy và học kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên năm thứ

hai trilờng Cao đẳng Công nghệ Bac Ha

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 60 1410

Supervisor: Phan Thi Van Quyen

Hanoi - 2010

Table of COMMS ee cc eee tae HH HH Hà nho TY

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1.2.1 Detinition of language teaching materials 7

1.2.3 Supplementary materials in teaching reading skills 10 1.1.3.1 Deđnition ofsuppÏcmertlary 1nalcTiaÏls cà ccssscscccscreeseeee TỔ 1.3.3.2 Criteria for selecting supplemientary mmateTiAls con 10 1.2.3.3 1Tow fo se stupplementtary rnaterials - Tu "

Summary

2.2 Instrument for dala collclien c nọ re "— "—.-

2.2.2 ‘The questionnaire for teachers we wee 16

2.3 Data collection procedure HH HH ng de sao

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.2 Designing tasks and activities for reading pasSA86S co cà ween 30

PART €: CONCLUSION:

1 Conclusion of the SÑHổy, 0 nọ Tnhh erresereece T7

2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study ee BF

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APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials

PART A: INFRODUCTION

1, Rationale

Nowadays, in the time of globalization, English plays an essential rele in the increasing development of sciznce, technology, politics, economics, tourism, culture and

so ơn English language is not only considered as a means of communication but also a key

to access the imporlant achievements of science and technology Therefore, tcamers of English should acquire this language and teaching and learning English become popular in

our country

Among four language skills, rcading is very important in leaming a forcign language as reading helps students to widen their knowledge and understand different

academic materials written in English Carrel (1981: 1) also emphasizes “for many

students, roading is by Car the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is necessary for the second year students at Bac lla College of Technology to develop reading ability effectively because reading provides & lot of useful information as well as crich their language vocabulary ang structures Reading will be an effective way to help students enhance their English proficiency especially their reading skills Nevertheless, despite the teachers” and students”

cfforis, the sindents al Bac Ha College of Technology have a poor teading rosull thal snakes them unintcrested in learning English in gencral and in toarning reading skill in particular,

The students’ Frylish proficiency al Bac Ta College of Technology is not the same, It is due to the tact that they come from different places Most of them come from the countryside so they can not have preferable English learning condition ‘The others come from towns and citiss where thoy have more eonvenicnt condition of learning English This results in low English proticiency of the students because of their limited vocatniary and grammar In addition, they do not have appropriate reading strategies and background knowledge ‘Therefore, students face a lot of difficulties in reading and understanding the long texls especially the texts relating to econemic fictds which they ars studying, As a resuit, they find it hard to be successful in their reading and they are not

interested in reading

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Am overview of reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and leaming a foreign

Janguags Tt has tha nature of commemicalion, in which roading aclivily aels as a moans of

communication between the writor and the reader

Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many demonstrations that readers who possesses rich knowledge about the topic of a reading usually understand the reading better than classmates with lower knowledge Roc, Stood and Bums (1987: 2) indicate “Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gained from life experience”,

Sharing the same point of view, Grellet (1981: 3) consider “reading comprehension

or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as

cflcctively as possihle” in his definition, roading comprchonsion simply means roading and understanding Reading comprehension is not merely decoding-translating written symbals into corresponding sounds

Though hese deCinitions are nol cxactly the same, whal comes up a commen point

is that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and what is implied behind these forms While reading, Jeamcss of language need 1 have critical thinking 4 undersland and analyze what is written, Then readers can Jean both grammar and vocabulary after reading From that, they will easily understand the content of the reading

1.1.2 Modets of reading

In texms of the reading process, many language researchers (Nuttall, 1996; Ur,

1991; Alderson, 2000, etc) share the same viewpoint that there are three different ways of

processing a tex namely the bottom-up, the top-down and interactive models

The bottom-up models, The basis of bottom up models is linguistics knowledge of the reader In these models, the reader starts with the written text (the bottom), and

constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then

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processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

naturally as the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or

suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or

1.2 Materials development in language teaching

1.2.1 Definition of language teaching materials and types of materials

According to Tomlinson (1998; 2), the term “language teaching materials” is

defined as anything which is used by teachers or learners to facilitate the learning of a language In this sense, language teaching materials consist of not only course books or grammar books but also videos, CD-ROMS, cassettes, dictionaries, pictures, photocopied

exercises

He categorizes language-teaching materials into two main types: published

materials and prepared materials Crawford (2002) shares the same point of view on

talking about classification of materials that there are two different types of materials: pre- prepared and self-prepared materials

1.2.2 Processes of materials development

Tomlinson (1998) also asserts that “materials development refers to anything which

is done by writers, teachers or leamers to provide sources of language input and to exploit

those sources in ways which maxinnze the likelihood of intake” ‘Therefore, language leachets become materials devctopers with the aim lo promote language learning There are two main steps of the process of materials development mentioned; materials evaluation and materials adaptation,

‘There is no absolute good or bad — only degree of fitness for the required purpose”

Brown (1995; 218) gives different viewpoint on defining evaluation, In his point of view, “Evaluation is the systematic collection and analysis of all relevant information necessary to promote the improvement of a curiciun, and access ils effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the paiticipants’ attitudes within the context of the particular institutions involved” ‘his definition requires that information be gathered and analyzed inta syslemalic manner and that only relevant information should be included

‘Numan (1998) states that evaluation be “a process nota final product” that means il takes place at any time of the material design The first emphasis of evaluation is to determine whether the goals and objectives of a language program are being gained

From the above definitions, it can be inferred that malcrials involves the determination of the objectives and requirements for the materials, and the judgments of the value of the materials being evaluated in relation to the objectives and requirements dctcrmined

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Types of materials evaluation

On talking about types of materials evaluation, Yomlinson (1998) categorized materials evaluation into thice typos namely pre-use evaluation, whilst-use evaluation and

post-use evaluation

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Pre-use evaluation relates to making predictions about the potential value of

waterials for their Making an cvaluntion critcrion-refersnced can reds subjectivity and can certainly help to make an evaluation more principled, rigorous, systematic and reliable

Whilst-use evaluation involves measuring the value of materials whilst using them

ot whilst observing them being used It can measure short-term memory through observing, jeamer performance on exercises but it cannot measure durable and sfifective leaning

‘bee: af the delayed effect of tastruction

Post-use evahiation is probably the most valuable type of evaluation as it can

measure the actual effects of the materials on the users It can measure the short-term effect

as rogards motivation, impact, achievabilily, instant loaning, ole., Posl-use evaluation can smeasure the long-term effect as repards durable leaning and application

1.2.2.3, Criteria for materials evaluation

Criteria for materials evaluation is one of the important issues evaluators must consider before any cvaluation can take place Criteria for materials cvaluation depend on what is being evaluated and why they need to be evaluated (Dudley — Evans and St, John,

1998),

Sheldon (1998) suggests a wide range of ctiteria that can be used to cvaluate almost all aspects of materials The criteria given by Sheldon consists of rationale, availability, user definition, layoul, accessibility, linkage, selection’ grading, physical characleristics, authenticity, sufficioney, cullural bias, cducational validity, stimulus’ practice! revision, flexibility, guidance, and overall value for money,

However, roading malcrials is the major concer of the siudy, therefore a chocklist for evaluation of reading texts suggested by Hutchinson and Waters (1993) will be specifically stated as follows:

* Offer exercises for understanding of plain sense and implied meaning

* Relate reading passages to the learners’ background

* Select passages within the vocabulary range of the pupils

* Select passages reflecting a variety of styles of cotemporary English

Criteria for reading texts evaluation Williams, D ELT Journal Volume 37/3 July 1983)

* the completeness and appropriateness of the items presented,

* the activities suggested (or practising Ihe items selecied,

* the sequencing of vocabulary, particularly the functional foad, rate and manner of entry and re-entry,

* the relevance of its contexts and situations

1.2.3, Supplementary materials in teaching reading sialls

4.2.3.1, Definition of supplementary materials

Tomlinson (1998) in Materials Development in Language Teaching proposed several basic terms in which materials is defined as “anything which is used to help to teach language learner Materials can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a cassette,

a CD, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a whiteboard, anything which presents or informs about the language being leamed”

The ler “supplementary materials” is also defined as follows

“materials designed to be used in addition to the core materials of a couse They are usually related to the development of skills of reading, writing, listening or speaking rather than Lo the learning of language iterns”

1.2.3.2 Criteria for selecting supplementary materials

It is obviously that materials play a crucial role in language teaching, So selecting criteria of extra materials should be considered carefully

According Io Nutlall (1996 — 170), there are three major criteria influzneing the selection of texts: suitability of the content, exploitability, and readability, In his point of view, suitability of the content means the text’s ability to address the students’ needs and the course’s objectives Reading texts should interest the readers by providing new, inferesting information that suit the course's objectives A text with interesting content makes the leamers’ task far more rewarding and the classroom more effective ‘This requitos the Loachers af English lo find aut whal their sludents like reading and sclecl texts for classroom study Some classroom texts should represent the kind of materials, students

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will need to handle after they leave the foreign language class It is better to begin on materials chosen chiefly for enjoyment

Exploitability means facilitation of leaming When you exploit a text, you can make

use of it to develop the students’ competence as readers A text cannot exploit is no use for

isaching even if the stuđenls enjoy reading i Therefore, different kinds of tasks should bs designed to best exploit the text so that the course’s objectives could be obtained Also, the focus in the reading lesson is neither language nor content, but the two together An ideal reader would be able to extract the content fram any text at all 10 the reader oxploils the text effectively, he/ she will develop his/ her strategies that can be applied to other texts

Readability refers to the combination of stractural and lexical difficulty That xremns the loxl must be suitable with studenis’ English proficioney levels in lorms of vocabulary, syntax, and style The teacher must know what their students” language Proficiencies are to find out what vocabulary and structures the students are familiar with

80 as to choose texts at the right level and balancing different level of proficiencies If the students have varied backgrounds, a period of trial and eror is unavoidable, However, a series of cloze tests can give you an ideal of their level Once you know the students’ vocabulary level, you can counl the new lexical ilems (words or phrases) ina lext, including new uses of familiar words and new idiomatic combinations Then you have to decide what proportion of new items is acceptable ‘This partly depends on the purpose: if you only want students to get the gist of @ texl, they can skip unfamiliar words, on the other hand, for intensive reading which is slow and caroful anyway Tt may be acceptable

to have quite a lot of new words The nature of new items, and whether they are well spread out, is also relevant

1.2.3.3 How Lo use supplementary materials

* Materials adaptation

Materials adaptation is considered as one of the two important issues in the process

of materials development As the matetials have been cvaluated, potential problem arcas can be identified: What the materials offer can not be exactly what our learners” need, the materials methodology may not match our own; the general aims may not be suitable with the aims of tho ralcrials; the aims of a specilic unit in the malcrials may not match our lesson, We have to select, make changes to materials so as to improve them or to make

them more suitable for a particular type of leamer So we need to supplement the materials

to learners

There are five major ways of adapting materials:

* Adding, including expanding and extending

When adding to published materials the leacher is supplementing the existing materials and providing more materials The teacher can do this by either extending or expanding

is important to note that additions to materials can come at the beginning, at the end or in the middle of the malerials being adapted

* Deleting, inchuding subtracting and abridging

As with the technique of adding, materials can be deleted both quantitatively (subtracting)

or qualitative (abridging), When subtracting, forinstmce, a leacher van decide ta do five of

* Simplifying

When simplifving, the teacher could be rewording instructions ar text in order to make thom more accessible to learners, or simplifying a completz activity to make it mors amanageable for leamers and teachers

‘Teachers may also dovide to replace a whole activity depending on the goats ofa particular class or lesson For instance, a reading activity might be replaced with a listening activity

‘These ways of modifying materials may overlap but the final aims of adapting is to take the materials more relevant lo the leamiars, the language (caching and toarninyg mors

effective, It can be said that a good teacher needs to adapt the materials when he/ she uses their textbook in order to maximize the value of the book tor the specific leamers Thus, it

is believed that adapting materials is a necessary task for the ETL teachers to make full use

of the appropriateness of the materials in thcir teaching process

Summary

In this chapter, the rescarcher has tticd to present all the relevant literature which

‘has helped to form the theoretical background and conceptual framework for the study

Firstly, definitions of reading comprehension, reading skills, types of reading skills and models of reading process are mentioned in this pat, It can be inferred that each model still remains its weaknesses but all these models play an important role in the reading process

Secondly, theory of matetials development has been given so as to provide the

+iseR way to adapt currently-nsed texthook Business Basics Moreover, criteria to choose

supplementary materials have also been viewsd so that teachers and learners of language can scleet the appropriate supplementary materials,

In the next chapter, the researcher deseribes background to the study, instrament and procedure of data collection The findings of the research will be presented clearly under the light of the above theories

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1.1 The setting

‘The study was conducted at Heonomies Department at Bac La College of

Tecnology, which was cslablished to bain studenls to work in many fields such as banking, accounting, information technology, biotechnology, electricity and electronics and so on Students at this department have to take a three-year course of economics in which Fnglish is not a major subject, Finglish is laughlin a formal selfing with two stages Students are organized to study general English in the textbook Lifelines w1itten by Tom Hutchinson curing the first stage (including the first year) They are required to study four language skills such as listening, speaking, seading, and writing as well as revise the grannnar and structure that they have Jeamed at secondary and high school The first stage

is considered to be important to the students’ development becanse they have more time

and chances fo practice their skills sysicmatically

in the second stage, students have to leam economic English with the textbook

“Business Basics”, which is a textbook for commerce, edited for those who are doing,

‘business and for those who are majored in economics They need to widen their knowledge and basic skills to work in intomational commerce environment

The training program of the second year is divided into two semesters, Each semester lasts fifteen wesks (twa periods a week) There ars total thirty periods per somestcr All students are lcant four integrated skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing One teacher is usually in charge of a class and use the same textbooks selected by the department bul supplementary materials chosen by the teachers themselves Tn this stage, the current Laxthook including Iwolve urils in accordance with specific lopies in order to develop language skills and working skills in business environment,

2.1.2 The textbook Business Basics

For the past four years, the (exthook Business Basics has becn used as an official economics English textbook for teaching reading to the second year students at Bac Ha College of Technology Students have only thirty periods (two periods per week) of learning reading cach semester, However, the teacher has to cover all the texts in reading

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part of the book ‘ithe book consists of twelve units with different reading texts Lach

reading text with various types af e: s designed 1o develop @ specific reading skill

namely checking comprehension, true? falye questions, extracting main ideas, and so on

Secondly, the current textbook Business Basics is not suitable for the students

Many of them complained that some texts in this book are uneasy for them lo Tead because

of too many new words related to economics The others said that some reading texts are

too long and some topics in the reading passage are unfamiliar to them Some types of excreises are quile challenging for the students to deal with For example, exercises int Reading of Unit 4, which describe company structure (p 51), are quite difficult for the students ‘The requirements of this reading are read the text about the Krench company

Portier Viltct and use the infortnation from the text to complete the missing information af

the available organization chart Then they are required to draw a similar chart for their company or a company they know and they have to describe it to a partner This kind of

exercise is too difficult for the students to do becanse of their poor vocabulary and limited

jexL The lextbook Business Basics alsa lacks the list of vocabulary The list of new words

and expressions designed hefore or after cach (ext carr supporl the atndants know whut they are going to read and remember as well as systematize what they have leat The list of words and expressions help them a lot in practicing speaking Lnglish requiring using words and simuclures in the rcading passage Mors importantly, tims allocation for reading,

is not sutficient (only two periods per week)

to adjust to new thinking to collect useful supplementary materials for their students to help them improve their knowledge in general and English in particular

2.1.3.2 The students

‘The total number of students who participated in the research was 120 They consist of both mala and female aged from 19 lo 22, but the female outnumber the mate They have learned English for at least five years, three years at high schools and neatly

two years at college Many students have learnt English since they studied at grade six

However, their English proficiency is not good TL is duc to the fact that they are laught almost grammar, reading, and a little bit writing whereas listening and speaking are not paid mich attention to within other skills In addition, the students’ awareness is too fimited becauss of their bad marks in the cntrance examination, They seared only from two

to six in English and a large number of them got under the average marks in this subject Consequently, when they enter the college, they do not have enough leaming strategies to

‘become effective leamers of English The students are not successful in equipping their reading comprchension strategics, They find it difficult to understand the content of the whole reading text so they can not answer the reading comprehension questions And they need lo practice reading more so as io improve their Fnglish proficiency as welll as reading comprehension,

2.2, Instrument for data collection

The major means of data collection is questionnaire that is considered as one of the

‘best and the most useful ways, Two sols of survey questionnaires wore arknimistored ta twelve teachers of English and 120 second year students to obtain data for the study Two questionnaires consist of Wh-questions so that the researcher can collect brief information

from respondenis Onc with seven questions was designed for the teachers and the other with five questions for the students There are three similar questions for both teachers and

students from question 1 to question 3 [lowever, the rest questionnaires for teachers are

different from the rest ones for students,

2.2.1 The questionnaire for teachers

Questionnaire designed for the teachers aims at finding ont

Question 1: Toachers’ evaluations on level of difficulty, content and length of

reading texts in the textbook Business Basics

Question 2: ‘Teachers’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook

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Question 3: Teachers” opinions on topics that need supplementary reading Question 4: Teachers’ purpose of using supplementary materials in Leaching reading lessons

Question 5: Teachers’ suggestions on the types of exercises to be used in the supplementary materials

Question 6: Teachers’ sources of supplementary reading materials Question 7: Teachers’ expectations of the supplementary reading materials

The questionnaire for students

Questionnaire designed for the students aims at tinding out

Question 1: Students’ evaluations on level of difficulty, content and length of roading texts in the Loxthook Business Basivs

Question 2; Students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Question 3; Students’ opinions on topics that need supplementary reading Question 4: Students’ evaluations on the benefits of supplementary materials

Question 5: Students’ cxpectations of the supplementary reading materials

2.5 Data collection procedure

‘Two sets of questionnaires, one for leachers and one for studenis al Bac [Ta College

of Technology were administered The questionnaire for teachers was delivered to 12 teachers and the researcher was always willing to answer any questions raised by the sachets, Afler the leachers of Engtish finished the questionaire, the researcher collected them immediately

The other questionnaire was given to 120 students in classes KT1 and NH2 at the end of the school year in order to get the data for the study ‘The students are allowed to complete the questionnaire in 30 minutes Befors giving the questiomaire ta the students, the researcher had clear and brief explanation in both English and Vietnamese the aim of the survey questionnaire to make sme that they fully understand all questions Then they conld he free to answer alt the given questions sirietly and independently

CHAPTER 3: DA'TA ANALYSIS, FINDENGS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1: The teachers’and students’ evaluations on level of difficulty, content and length of

reading texts in the texthook

‘As illustrated in the above table, the majority of the teachers and the students say Thai the current textbook is not easy 58,33% of the teachers think that the textbook is tna difficult, As much as 71,66% of the students share the same opinion on this point However, the percentage of the students is higher than the percentage of the teachers Only

16,67% of the teachers and 9,16% of the students claim that the textbook is too easy

While the porcantage of the teachers and students think that the textbook és relevant, to the students’ proficiency is a bit higher (25% and 19,16% respectively) The reason for various

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evaluations of teachers and students on the level of difficulty is that teachers at Bac Ila

College of Tevhnology usually expeel a lot from their students while students have poor English proficiencies and ditierent reading strategies Students who have good English proficiencies and good reading strategies will find the texts easy and relevant but those who have inappropriate reading strategies will find them foo difficult Lo exploit the reading

texts in the textbook

Also, when heing asked to give evaluation on the content of the textbook, 66,67%

of the tcachers and 55,83% of the students claim thal the textbook Business Basics is interesting 16,67% of the teachers who assume that the content of the textbook is familiar equal to 16,67% of the teachers who assume that the content of the textbook is unfamiliar Obviously, the pereentags of the students who find content of the textbook unfamiliar is a

bit higher than the percentage of the students who find the content of the textbook familiar (20% and 12,5% respectively) It is noticeable that none of the teachers and the students says that the content of the textbook is boring,

in terms of the longth of reading texts, 50% of the teachers and 65% of the students

state that the length of reading texts is relevant The percentage of the teachers who propose thal the reađing fexis are loo long is quile equal to the percentage of the students

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on reading exercises in the iexibuok Business Basics

Table 3: the students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

amo viewpoint Bes

reading exercises are too easy Similarly, only 9,164 of the students find reading exercises too easy The result indicates that the percentage of the students whe believe that reading exercises are too easy is lower than the percentage of the teachers Also, this percentage of

the sux is is the lowest percentage af all ps niayes of the students who give their

opinions on reading exercises in the textbook When being asked to give comments on the

types of exercises, 66,67% of the teachers and 42,5% of the students think that reading

exerciscs arc of various types Furthcrmore, 33.33% of the teachers and 22.5% of the

students support the idea that reading exercises are of a few types

The table also shows (hat the percentage of the teachers who answer that there are too many exercises for cach reading text is nearly equal to the percentage of the students who agree with this viewpoint (58,33% and 54,16% respectively), However, there is a big difference in the percentage of the teachers and the sludenis who give their opinions on xeading exercises, Obviously, the percentage of the teachers who believe that there are too few exercises in the book is higher than the percentage of the students 50% of the teachers

7% of the students say that there arc lo few reading oxcreises for cach reading

26

Question 3: Which topics in the current textbook need supplementary reading?

‘The purpose af this question is to find oul which lopies both Leachers and studants need

Table 4: Topics in she textbook need supplementary reading

‘The very noticcable thing that can be realized from the table is that both Izachors and

students put visiing a company as their top priority This topic is selected by the greatest

percentage from the respondents (58,33% of the teachers and 82,5% of the students) However, the teachers” and students’ opinions about other topies vary a lot Topics you and your company and people at work are ranked at the second scale by the teachers (50% and 41,67% respectively), Meanwhile, the topies away on business and describing and comparing are chossn with the second highest percentage from the students (75,83% and 73,33% respectively), Both topics preparing a wip and getting @ job arc sckeoted by 33,33% off the teachers and three topies away on business, new developments and life stories are chosen by equal percenlage (25% of the leachers} Topics preparing a trip, life stories, and you and your company are the students’ choice with the third high percentage

(65%, 61,67% and 60% respectively) Next, topics dealing with problems, the world of