Luận văn teaching and learning reading comprehension skills for grade 11 at hong quang high school

Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Definitions of reading and reading, comprehension 3 Teacling and learring reađing comprehension skills

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYÊN THỊ HƯƠNG

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR

GRADE 11 AT TIONG QUANG TTIGE SCTTIOOL: INFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

( DẠY VẢ HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU 6 LOP 11 TRUONG THPT HONG QUANG:

KHO KHAN VA GIAI PHAP)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

TIanoi, 2011

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN TH] HUONG

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR

GRADE 11 AT HONG QUANG HIGH SCHOOL: INFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

(DAY VA HOC KY NANG BOC HIEU 6 LGP 11 TRUGNG THPT HONG QUANG:

KHO KHAN VA GIAI PHAP)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Dé Ba Quy (MEd.)

Tlanoi, 2011

‡wv

‘Table of Contents Candidate's statement

Acknowledgements

Abstract

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Significance of the study

4, Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

6 Organization of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1 Definitions of reading and reading, comprehension

3 Teacling and learring reađing comprehension skills

1.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language leaming,

1.3.2 Factors in teaching and learning, reading

1.4 Organization of reading comprehension lext

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

14.2 While reading stage

1.4.3 Posl — reading slage

1.5 Summary

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Participants

2.1.4 Teachers of English

2.1.2 The 11th -foun students

2.2 Data eollection instenments

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the studenls

2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

2.3 Data collection procedures

Chapter 3: Datu, data analysis uu discussion

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the importance of leaming reading, comprehension skill

3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading

3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities

3.1.1.4 Smadents’ difficulties when learning reading

3.1.1.5 Students’ responses (o the Lechmques used by Lhe teacher

3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

3.1.1.7 Srudents’ effort for improving their reading comprehension kill

3.1.2 Questionnaire for the (eachers

3.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading, comprehension skills at

school

3.1.2.2 Teachers’ altitude loward the importance of developing rading comprehension

skills

3.1.2.3 Teachers’ using reading (ecluiques in aTeading lesson at Hong Quang High School

3.1.24 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading,

3.1.2 5 Teachers’ snggested activities

3.1.2.6 Veachers’ organizing, reading activities

vi seading

3.2.2 Difficnities the teachers and students meet when dealing with a reading lesson

3.3 The activities suggested to help dhe 11th-form sludenls al Hong Quang High School

dnprove their reading comprehension skill

3.3.1 Pre — reading stage

3.3.2 While —reading stage

3.3.3 Posl —reading

3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

3.3.4 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

English is considered as an international language over the world It plays an important role

in the strong and rapid development of science and teclmology, polities, culture, and international relations in Vietnam ‘he economic open-door policy pursued by the Government

of Vietnam has in

sod the demand for using English Tho new policy has mado Fnglish language Jearning and teaching more important than before In order to meet the social requirements, the Ministry of liducation and ‘Training has recently decided to introduce a new sarics of English textbook for gradc 11

Many survey findings show that if students leam to read faster and with more understanding, they can do mumy jobs thal require reading wilh efficiency Accarding lo Carrell (1981, p.1), “reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English

as a second foreign language” However, teaching and teaming reading skill at high schools is still far from satisfactory for various reasons Despite the teachers’ effori, the students” motivation for intensive reading is low and the reading Icsson is said to be a boring one

Hong Quang High school, which was founded in 1955, is one of the high schools chosen to pilot the set of textbook During the piloting period the leachars have confronted @ mutiber of difficulties, one of which was identified by Hong et al (2006:18) as “students” general lack of

motivation and opportunities to practice communicating in the target language” The students are

acenstomed to passive learning, ths (cachers’ capacilics arc uneven, the size of classes is large and classrooms arc equipped poorly, According to Hoang ct al, there arc five main obstacles in reading: the habit of word-by-word reading; overemphasis on forms rather than meaning: excessive focus on details rather than main ideas, poor vocabulary and timiled background knowledge

‘The researcher needs to take a serious Jook at activities of teaching and leaming of reading comprohonsion skilt in gencral and reading activitics in particular lo hulp tho Hong Quang High choot 11" fom students read more effectively

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

for grade 11 —TTong Quang High School: Difficulties and solutions”

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills

This study aims at improving the quality of teaching and leaming English reading comprehension skills for grade 11 in Hong Quang High School after finding difficulties To achieve this aim, the study has to find answers to the following questions:

1 What are Hong Quang High School's (cachers’ and students’ altitudes towards the teaching and learning of reading?

2 What difficulties do the teachers and students face when dealing with a reading lesson?

3 What are the reading activities suggested to help 11" - grade students at Hong Quang

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

This study has teen carried out to search for a better and more effective way to develop students’ reading comprehension skills Its findings hopefully would help the | 1th-form students find ont the suitable way for improving their reading comprehension skills Regarding teachers, the study would raise their awareness coneeming the topic and provide them with useful pedagogical suggestions in decidimg to use the new teaching method to better develop their learners’ reading comprehension skills Finally, with rsgurd to rescarchers, hose who happen to share the same interest in the topic could certainly rely on this research to find reliable and usefull information for their related stucties in the future

4 Scape of the study

To improve reading comprehension skills for Hong Quang High School 11? form

students, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done Howover, in this study, the author only infonds lo a nic? overview of current situation of teaching and learning reading comprehension skills in the 11° form students of Hong Quang Ligh School to suggest some reading activities that can be applied in teaching and leaming reading comprchension skill so as to help the students lo become effective readers

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, based on the results of two survey questionnaires,

one for the students and the other for the tcachers ro cinployed to eollect the data for the study These will be discussed in detail in chapter 2, methodology

6 Organization of the study

‘The stndy is divided into three parts: part A - Introduction, part B - development and part ©

Part A - introduction includes the rationale, aims and objectives, significance, scope, method and organization of the study

Part B - development includes three chapters Chapter 1 (eview of literature) provides

the theorctieal background of the study The focus of this chapter is definitions of reading, reading comprehension, classifications of reading, reading in second language teaching and learning, Chapler 2 (Methodology) describes the participants, data collection procerres and data collection instrument, Chapter 3 (Data, data analysis and discussion) offers some major findings, some suggestions for improving students’ reading comprehension skills and a sample work for a readings lesson of the 1 Ih-form students,

Part C - conchision includes conclusions, the limitations and suggestions for farther study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1; Literature review

‘This chapter discusses different issues in the theories of reading in a foreign language

cusion, kinds

Four major fcalures will be presented here: definitions of reading, reading compre]

of reading, reading in second language teaching and leaning

1.1 Defini ns of reading and reading comprehension

1.1.1 Reading

Reading is often referred to as the most important of the four language skills for EFL learners, as il onables studlenis to gain exposure to the Largel language and tsccive valuable linguistic mput to build up language proficiency (Erten & Raz1, 2003) Reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the readsr brings to the act of reading It is seen as an active cognitive process in which the reader’s background knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tiemey and Pearson 1994) Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the

text, resulting in comprehension The text presents Tellers, words, senlenccs, and paragraphs that

encode meaning The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is So far reading has been defined differently by lots of scholars, however no single definition is acceptable to everyone,

Goodman (1971, p.135) stated that reading is “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, language user, reconstmets, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” In his opinion, readors iol only learn how to read the text, lo master

grammatical structures but also understand the content expressed in the text

llaving the same point with Goodman, William, U (1990, p.2) said that “reading is a process

whereby onc luoks at and understands what bas ben wrillen”, According William, in reading process, there are also two parallel activities: looking and understanding Therefore, readers have

to “encode” meanings of a word depsnd on the context in which it appears

One more definition offered by Harmer (1989, p.153) showed us his opinion and two above authors have a lot of things in common “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain ‘The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these

According to Richard and Thomas (1987.15), reading is best desetibed as “ an understanding between the author and the reader Reading is nmch more than just pronouncing wards corroctly or simply knowing what the author intends; itis the process whereby the printed page stimulate ideas, experiences and responses thal arc unique to an individual

In short, each person can have a different definition of reading and we cannot tell which is better because each of ther focuses on one important matter of reading Tlowever, we find that there is

a close relationship between reading and understanding, Therefore, being a language teacher, we must understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension skill plays a very important role in-teaching and learning reading

a foreign language It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as a means

of communication between the writer and the reader

Reading comprehension results in the fact that when readers know which skills and strategies are appropriate for types of texts and understand how to apply them to accomplish reading purposo Swan (1975, p.1) stated that “A student is good at coruprchension we maan that

he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding” It is obvious that the student can show his understanding only by

doing some tasks such as summarizing the (cxt, answering questions, making tue or false ole

According to Grellet (1981: 3):* Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” ‘The author means thai roading comprchension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way

‘To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading comprehension ean appreciate how much readers understand the text, Therefore, how to hdp students have effective reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most important part in reading teaching

1.2.1 Accarding to manner

1.2.1.4 Reading aloud

“ Reading aloud involves looking a text, understanding it and also saving it its’ purpose

is not just to understand the text io convey the information to someone else” (Doll, 1988:70) In

fact, it mmst be recognized that reading aloud is primarily an oral matter so that for those who leach and learn foreign languages, i! is closer to “pronunciation” than if is to “cormprehension”

While it is perfectly proper to try to develop the skill of reading aloud, it clearly cannot be done

using an unfamiliar text the content and language of which stretches the linguistic capabilities of

the learners to the ulmast Therefore, it must be admitted that the usefahn s of reading aloud is limited First of all, “reading aloud ix not an activity we engage m very ofen outside the classroom” (Dotf, 1988:67) Actually, in the daily life, few people are required to read aloud as

a matter of daily rontine, radio newscasters, clergymen perhaps actors To the huge majority its importance is minimal Secondly, “the readers is often merely mouthing meaningless language

because of tack of rehearsal and time ta comprehend what he has to read aloud ” ( Abott and Wingard, 1981: 82) TL moans that when reading aloud, the readers’ allention is focused on the pronunciation, not on the understanding of the text, Moreover, in the classroom, only the reading student is active at a time, others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model In addition, some students" speed of reading is very slow so it lakes a Lot of time in class

In short, reading aloud ean be applied for those who begin leaming a foreign language to establish the connection between sound and spelling But for the second year students, their purpose of Ieaming roading is more than cormocting the pronunciation, They focus on understanding the text and doing comprehension exercises which cannot be completed by reading aloud because asking a student to read alond means that he may lack concentration on the mucaning He may read coneetly but aller that he will not be able tw tell us what lic has read Itis very difficudt to read aloud and understand the text at the same time of reading, So reading aloud might be a good way ta practice promunciation

1.2.1.2 Silent reading

Silent reading is the activity we usually engage in when we read books, newspapers,

advertisements Silent reading is more often used in both real life and classroom, and “it is the

method we tiommally use with our mative language, and on the whale the and inost efficient” (Lewis, 1985:110) Because reading is a very personal skill so silent reading is a more

quid

ciiectrve skill for reading comprehension because firstly leamers do not need to read all the words in the text, secondly they can read at their own speed and if they do not understand the sentence, they can go back thirdly students can not only attain the main ideas in a short time but also understand its details thoroughly lo answer the questions, and Ñnally (he teacher can check his+her leamers’ understanding easily and add reading materials and exercises suitable to their ability

In short, silent reading is the most usefiul and practical way to develop the students’ reading ability However, it is mors beneficial when the teacher sometimes comibines i with reading aloud to improve students’ pronunciation and intonation because reading aloud also has its own advantages

is sometimes called previewing Another example is when reader glances quickly through a newspaper to see the main items of the day are This will often mean just glancing at the headlines” ‘That means when we quickly to get general impression to see whether the text is useful fo us, il is nol necessarily scarching for a specific details and key words Skimming provides an overview of the text so it is beneficial to look at chapter section headings, summaries and opening paragraphs, therefore, the purpose of skimming are to check relevance of the text and to set the scene for more concentrated effort that is to follow if the text is useful

To sum up, skimming is a very uscful rcading comprchension skill for students, and it is advisable to apply at the first stage of teaching reading with the hope that it can help them to

7

have an overview of what they are reading Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with the other tasks that followed

1.2.2.2 Scanning

Scamming is also one of two most valuable reading stralegics However, scamming is far more limited than skimming since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order lo find a particular point of information It is a useful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, ifit has been cultivated systematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, eo- operative werk on the sludy of texts can be groatly cxpeetod and mare easy Francais (1981:19)

understands that “wher scanning, we only try to locate specific information and ofien we do not

even follow the linearity of the passage to do so We simply let our eyes wander over the text

until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of

information” With the same opinion, Mabel states that “scanning is the speed technique thal

helps vou locate a bit of specific information very rapidly It could involve finding a name, date,

place or statistic Or it might involve identifying a general setting in a short story Scanning ix

the techuique you use when you read maps, charts, tables, or graphy It is the main skill

researchers use when they examine various sources to locate information about a specific topic”

Scanning requires two skills of the reader One of them is tat they recognize the specific type of word that identifies the item The other is the use of a different eye movement pattern,

vertical vision Nearly all the background reading required for the presenting of a topic to the class by a group calls for proficiency in this lype of reading There is 3 great range of Lext suitable for scanning indexes, dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, reference material,

ete

In short, the kcy to scanning is to decide cxactly what kind of information we can look

for and where to find it The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading through the whote text

1.2.2.3 Intensive reading

Intensive rzading is also widely used in a reading class It is an effective way to explore

the text, to go deeply info the meaning and the organization of the text Intensive reading “ involves approaching the kext under the guidanec ofa teacher or a task which forces the studer

to focus on the text” (Nuttall, 2000:38) In the view of Brown (1990:297) intensive reading “is

usually a classroom-oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic details

of a passage” Grellet, F (1981:4) states that “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information ‘This is an accuraey activity involving reading for detailed” ‘The objective of intensive reading is to ucbieve @ full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced, Through intensive reading, the reader must arrive al a profound and detailed understanding of logical arguments, the thelorical arrangement, the pattern of the text, the attitude and purposes of the writer and his linguistic means to achieve his purposes In other wards, intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students’ comprohonsion

1.2.2.4 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice in inferring meaning ftom the context of the text Extensive reading is used to obtain a general undersianding of a subject and includes reading

longer foxis for pleasure, as well as busin

general nowledge of business procedures, Grellet, F, (1981:4) points out “Extensive reading means reading longer texts, usually for one’s pleasure This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global underslanding” What is morc, Nullall, C, 2000:127) argues that “gelting students to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading skills”

ss books, Usc oxtonsive reading skills lo improve our

Extensive reading is consivlered lo be uscful for slustents? self-learning, Their reading habit and passion for reading are also formed through extensive reading, Students can choose the topics they like and read for their own purpose for pleasure or entertainment, ilowever, it is more effective if students’ extensive reading is followed an instructional program wilh the help of the reading teacher,

In short, reading is necessary to every leamer and undeniably an important skill in

comparison with others In addition, il is notable thai inlensivo and cxtonsive reading should not

be seen as in being opposition but need to be paid equal attention for the sake of the students, For second or foreign language learnsrs, both intensive and extensive reading are of great importance

as they act as a means (o gain knowledge

1.3 Teaching and learning reading comprehension skills

1.3.1 The importance of reading in forcign language learning

In the process of teaching and leaming a second or foreign language, the teaching and leaning of reading ae always reecived inuch attention, since it is regarded as one of (he most important major skills as what Carrell (1971: 1) stated: “for many students, reading is by far the most importanl of the four macro skills, particularly in Tingtish s a second or foreign Fanguage” This is also true for the MSA, because at our academy, reading is an active skills namely speaking, listening and writing ‘lo master reachng skill is always challenging task that requires sludents a number of faclors: a good campelonce of English grammar, rich vowabulary, and reading techniques First of all, reading helps students learn to think in English, enlarge their English vocabulary, improve their writing Richard (1993:4) claimed that “reading may help 10 increase knowledge of the target language throngh exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures”, There is a close relationship between reading and vocabulary knowledge, because while reading, the readers know most of the words in the text already, and they can also dolermnine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the contexts Therefore, the bast way to acquize a large vocabulary is to read It is understandable that anyone who has a large vocabulary is usually a good reader,

Besides, Richard (1993: 4) also slatcd that “reading in the now fanguage is also an important way to Jeam about the target culture”, which means that reading provides the students with a wide range of interesting information, helps them understand the ways of life, behaviors, thoughts and other aspocts of the native poople and it is also a good way lo find onl about now ideas, facts and experienees Therefore, they can master vocabulary, grammar and the background knowledge or cross-cultural problems that they encounter In other wards, reading

is very important to (he foreign language leamers because it widens their knowledge of language and life It seems to be the most important skill to the students of English since their main

purpose is to understand the written texts

1.3.2 Factors in teaching ani fearning reading

1.3.2.1 Teacher’s role

Many linguistics state that the teacher is the most important factor in teaching reading in

areading class, (hc teacher plays so mumy roles, such as an organizer, a manager and » counsclor,

an instructional expert, so he or she should be a guide to assist, encourage them, employ various

types to support the students develop reading skills He or she also the person who provides the students with an anxiety-ftee atmosphere which helps them feel free to join new reading style,

practice to master new strategies, work under pressure of time

Besides, linguistics point out an essential clement of the teacher's rolc-a modd reader According to Nuttall (1982; 192) “showing that you are a reader means carrying books around willl you, referring lo books as you teach, reading out brief passages thal may interesl, students, talking about what you are seading at the moment, and handling books as if you loved them”, He also states that “teacher's job as providing, first, suitable texts and second, activities that will

+ Monitoring comprchonsion: Students noed to understand how texts work and what they

do when they read

- Learning text talk: it is clear that a good reader carries on a dialogue with the text Conscquenily, the students have to loam how lo do this Au way lo promote this skill is to talk

about texts in class

- ‘Taking risks: Students have to take the risk of making mistakes because a mistake is an

opporturity lo Tearn,

- Learning not to cheat oneself Leaming to read is leaning to give students enormous advantages in life It may lead to better jobs, to personal development, interest and enjoyment, Students who do not want to learn to read can casily elicat bul thzy are only cheating themselves 1.3.2.3 The reading texts

Tt cannot be denied that reading texts play a cruciat tole in teaching and learning reading bacause through them new granmar, phonctie and lexical ilums of the target language arc introduced, Furthermore, texts are also means to help students enrich their background knowledge and vocabulary as well In reading lesson, students are supposed to understand the

follow Therefore, in teaching reading, the teacher should pay much attention to the following aspects such as language content, vocabulary and grammatical structures, types of reading activities, though it is not simple thing to do as what Buck, G (2001) states: “Providing suitable

lexis is nol a simple matter It lakes timc, ¢ffort and some expertis

1.4 Organization of reading comprehension text

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

‘This stage plays a decisive role in the whole process of teaching reading comprehension,

so most expericnccd readers cinptoy pre- reading and other strategies lo make reading casior Pre- reading aims at introducing the text to the students and helps them make careful preparation before reading the text It is artvisable for the teacher to create a reading motivation and a positive attitude towards reading for students so that they can achieve a high level of success and become confident that they ean read effectively,

As for Doff (1988), th

before they start reading as following

- Introducing the text briefly

- Presenting new vocabulary

2 are many aclivilics a teacher ean carry out to help students

- Revising grammatical structures

- Giving guiding questions,

Morcaver, in my opinion, the teacher should activate the students’ background knowledge and provide some information about the text, This is aimed to help the students to

predict the content of the text they are going to read Prediction is an important ability that the

sludents should develop in order to commprelicnd various kinds of texts, especially the Izxts that the students are not familiar with, Gebhard (1987:21) explains that “providing background information on a reading lesson is another way teachers can facilitate successful reading comprehension, Providing information about a reading sclection before students road provides them with the opportunity to gain new language, as well as secall their already existing knowledge, which they can take with them into their reading experience, and this knowledge facilitates successful comprohension”

Of course, not alll these techniques will be relevant for all the texts, The teacher can

choose the suitable anes to motivate his learners.

1.4.2 While — reading stage

While- reading stage is carried out when all students actually set their eyes on the text

and this stage is the inain part of reading comprchension lesson, The aims of this stage focus on making the students anticipate in the process of understanding the whole text, and interpreting exactly whal the author wrole In addition, it helps the sludenis break up the organization of the

text, understand the text structures; classify the text content and recognize the wuiter’s purpose

and attitude ‘This stage also trains the students fo think about other ideas rising from the text and

ta form judgrnont and opisrions on the basis of the fict presented Moreover, il helps the students improve their reading speed and techniques Besides, this stage offers an opportunity to apply effechvely what they have leamt from the text to their purpose of study and communication Last but not teast, this stage helps the students develop their decision - making and problem solving skills Because this stage plays a very important role in a reading lesson, it nmust be designed carefully

1.4.3 Post — reading stage

Post- reading is the implementation of various activities carried out after the students have read the text Some post- reading activities are extension of the work done at the pre- reading and whilc- reading stages Some relaic only Loosely lo the reading text ilself

According to Durkin (1981-486), “one reason for post- reading discussion in class is to offer pupils the chance to see in what way their reading did or did not succeed, and why” In fact, there are mere than one purpose far posl- reading stage which are of wide relovance und appticd

to all students, and which teachers who teach groups with mixed level should consider

One of the purposes of post-reading work is to check whether the students have

s which are not given in the book or require them to discuss in group and in pair and so on, Another

understood the text or nol The leacher can ask the students some questions about the

purpose is to consolidate or reflect upon what the students have read To achieve this, the teacher should hop the students focus ơn the important points as writer’s opinion, the main ideas of the text, the specific paragraph or phrase in the reading text The third purpose of post- reading work

is to expand on the topic or language of the reading text, and pethaps transfer things leamed to anoller ooniext, Thersfors, the stndents can relate the Lzxl fo their background knowledg and interest and be able to express their personal opinion toward the text Moreover, post- reading

13

activities also offer the students a real practice of using language, Setting up and organizing post- reading work depend very much on all the objectives of the program as a whole Post- reading werk should, thus, contribute in a coherent manner, to the writing, speaking and listening skilis thal the program aizis to devclop

In conclusion, the three stages offer the teacher a ttame work to conduct a reading lesson

im general bul they de nol need io follow rigidly Obviously, this three phrase approach is nol to

be cartied out mechanically on every occasion Sometimes the teacher may wish to cut out the

pre-reading stage and get leamers to work on the text directly Sometimes port- reading work

may riot be suitable, However, the advantage of the thre phase approach is hvofold Firstly, it respects and makes use of the students’ own knowledge of language and of the world and uses this as a basis for involvement, motivation, and progress Secondly, the three phase approach leads ta integration of the skills in a cohersnt manner, so that the reading session is not simply isolated, Separating each fiom the others is like somebody warming up for a race and then ranning the race itself some days later

1.5 Summary

The chapter has so far presented the relevant litcrature, which has helped to form the

theoretical and conceptual framework for the study It has talked about different aspects related

la the reading skills and reading activities Whal is more, the importance of teaching reading tn the secoud language classroom and factors in teaching and leaming reading have been reviewed

‘The following chapter will display the methodology of the research uncer the light of the above -

mentioned theories

Tlowever,in terms of methodology, the teachers in our school usually employ the traditional incthods of teaching especially Grammartranslation method, They often apply this method in teaching English In other words, they focus on analyzing the grammar rules, not on the acquisition of language skills’‘They spend most of the classroom time explaining new words,

analyzing graromear strictures and Iranslaling tsxis inlo Viainarnese Susfenls offen ñslen and

take notes passively This leads to low motivation in students and creates very few chances for them to improve their communicative competence

2.1.2 The 11th -[erm students

‘The subjects of the study were 105 students coming from two different classes at Hong

Quang High School, all of tham were bom in 1994, and thoy are both male, and formule Most of them have already learned Friglish for al Teast four ycars al lower sccandary schoot bul many of them are at the low level of English proficiency Another fact is that most of the students are from ral areas in [lai Duong province, some from Iai Duong city Consequently, individual differences in loaming styles, identitics, attitudes, motivation, cte are mavoidable and may cause the teachers some problems during their teaching

Tn addition, their Jack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interest in learning English, Although most of them have already leamt English

for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge of English is still poor and limited Hardly can they say a complete sentence in the target language

2.2 Data collection instruments

Using questionnaire allows the researcher to colfcel the data necded in quantitative form

sides, the researcher finds it quite easy to summarize, analyze, and report the collected data

because all informants answer the me questions

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the students

‘The questionnaire consists of 10 questions, which are divided into eight parts Part one

(includes question 1) aims at exploring sludents? purposes of roading In part bwa, by an

question 2, the students had chance to express their attitude toward the role of reading The thud part of the questionnaire (includes question 3, 4, 5, 6) was made to find out Students’ attitude toward class reading activities, The fourth part inchdes question 7 was made to find out

wering

students’ difficulties when learning reading at school In the pait five, by answering question 8, students had chance to express their responses to the techniques used by the teacher Question 9

is wired at investigating the students’ ways of reading The puxposo of the fasl question (qu

10) is to tind out the students” etfort for improving their reading comprehension skill

2.2.4.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

There are 10 questions in the questiomuaize for the loachers and they were designed with seven purposes, Firstly, through the answer to the first question, the researcher will evaluate the teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills at school Scvondly, question 2 is aimed al finding oul the Icachers” altilude toward the importance of developing reading comprehension skills By answering questions 3, 4, 5, 6, the teachers had

chance to express the teachers’ using reading techniques in a reading lesson at [long Quang Iligh

School, Question 7 is aimed at investigating the tcachers’ difficulties when leaching reading Question 8 is to find out the teachers” suggested activities Question 9 is aimed af investigating the teachers” organizing reading activities The purpose of the fast question (que: ion 10) is to find out the (cachors’ aetivitics 1a improve students” reading comprchonsion skills

2.3 Data collection procedures

"The copies of the questionnaire were delivered to 105 students from 2 different classes which were randomly selected among 12 grade 11 classes and 12 leachers af Tinglish in Thong Quang High School during their last English classes of the second term And the researcher

herself delivered the copies to participants Before the participants answered the questions, all of them had been informed in Vietnamese about the purposes of the questionnaire and how to answer all the questions so that they were clear about what and how they would to do When the sludents were writing (heir answers, (he researcher was there with them to give any explanation

if necessary About 30 minutes later, the questionnaires were collected by the researcher herself,

Chapter 3: Data, data analysis and discussion

In this part, the collected data will be presented by means of tables and charts Each table

and chart is followed by an analysis of the data and their discussion

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the importance of learning reading comprehension skills

52

A Very important

skills (listening, speaking, writing)

15

12

skills (listening, speaking, writing)

11.4%

A B c D D Not important at all

Chart 1 = Students’ attitudes toward the importance of learning reading comprehension skills

As shown in the above chart, the students valued the importance of reading

comprehension skills in different ways Most of the students in the survey had positive attitude

toward reading, 24.8% of them thought that reading comprehension skill was very important,

whereas 49.5% considered reading equally important to listening, writing, and speaking skills

‘The reasons the students gave for their perception of the importance of reading were various, but

they seemed to see the association of reading to other language skills or to the acquisition of

other formal elements of the language However, a certain number of students did not highly

appreciate the important role of reading, 14.3% found it not as important as other skills and only

11.4 % thought that reading comprehension skill was not important The reasons for this can be

3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading

B To gain information and irnprove knowlcdec 10 95

C To enrich vocabulary and grammatical structures 15 143

Tabla 1: Students’ purposes of reading

Tho results of Question 2 show thal the stndouls* purposes of reading were not the same Different ideas were provided for reading purposes Most of the students of Hong Quang

Iligh School read in Lnglish with the combination of the mentioned purposes were the largest,

accounting for 57.1%, Next is the number af student who considered enriching vooabudary and

grammatical structures as his/her reading purposes (14,3%);, 11.4% of them read for improving

language skills; the nmmber of the student who read for gaining information and improving

knowledge is 9.5% Finally, 7.6% of the students said that they Hked roading texts lo cnfertsin

Itis clear that the students” purposes of reading in English were various, Many students thought that reading could help them much in reinforcing language skills and improving

background knowledge

3.4.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities

J.1.L3.1 Lrequency of using pre-reading activities by the teachers

Pro - reading

1, Using games to introduce the text 13 |124 46 |43§ 28 |267 18 121

2 Using pre reading questions 65 foro wm |239 13 |134 3 29

4 Explaining the instructions ofthetask [7 [676 7 [67 8 | 86 18 171

19

5 Making students predict the content of 65 | 61.9 16 152 15 | 143 9 8.6 the text

6 Giving reading tasks to students 24 | 22.9 48 457 17 |162 16 152

7 Using visual aids to introduce the text | 26 | 24.8 28 47 | 44.8 4 38

8 Giving a briefintroduction to the text, [60 [57.1 23 [219 la |95 127 114

Table 2 indicates that four activities such as: using pre-reading questions, explaining the

instructions of the text, making students predict the content of the text and giving a hrief

introduction to the text were most frequently used by the teachers Other activities like sứ

games and pre — reaching new vocabulary were also chosen at the pre-reading stage by many

students, Hower

introduce the texts

3.1.1.5.2 Students’ attitude toward while-rcading activities

Table 3: The frequency of using while- reading activities

44.8% of the students Toportod thal their Isachers rarcly used visual aids to

3 Questions and answers a [71 ja [229 [0 a

7 Finding synonyms and antonyims To [os [58 [352/37 [352

3 Reordering 38 267 [es [oo [ia [HA

7 Gap Gilling 6 joo [Am |25 |9 s6

8 Tinding the topic sentences 8 76 [33 [aia [ea | ot

From the data, the teachers apparently often used some common types of activity in

their reading lessons: Matching, Questions and answers, True/False and Multiple- choice, using

only such common kinds of activity frequently often makes students feel bored It is advisable to

use activities such as Finding topic sentences, Finding synonyms and antonyms or Finding

equivalents, which were rarely conducted in the reading class

Chart 2: Students’ activities when meeting new words

C Guess their meanings by the context

clues

D Ignore them and continue reading

When meeting unfamiliar words or structures in the text, a large number of students had a

habit of finding their meaning in the dictionary (49.5%) Up to 29.5% admitted that asking the

word meaning from the teachers and friends was the easiest and most effective way 14.3%

ignored them to concentrate on the text They added the whole content of the reading text does

not depend on just a few sentences that do not make sense to them Surprisingly, only 6.7% said

that they tried to guess words’ meanings by context clues

3.1.1.3.3 Students’ attitude toward post-reading activities

A Summarize the text

oe | sae zee 2m = D Translate into Vietnamese

E Do nothing

Chart 3: Students’ altitude toward post-reading aclivities

‘The data in the above chart shows clearly that summarizing the text after reading was very beneficial to students to gain better understanding and memorizing the text, but only 9.5% often applied this Students did nol scom to have the habit of discussing the text in groups (5.7%) 35.2% admitted that they were often allowed to do multiple-choice exercises Many

students (21%) used the activity of translating the tex! inlo Vietnamese Il is surprising lo see

that 30 out of 105 students involved this study proposed that they often did nothing in post- reading ‘The reason they mentioned was the time for a reading lesson ‘hey usually lacked time for roading

3.1.1.4 Students’ difficulties when learning reading

Arsas of difficnities Number of responses | Percent (%)

A Vocabulary and grammatical | 68 648

Table 4: Students’ difficulties when learning reading

Table 4 represents difficulties, which students faced when reading an English text, As shown in the table, the most difficult problem was the limited capacity of vocabulary and grammatical structures, 68 students in the survey (64,8%) assumed that if they cneountered many new or difficult vocabulary and grammatical structures in a text, their motivation for reading would surely be decreased ‘The next one (20%) was the lack of appropriate reading comprchonsion skills Ti is obvious thal students cannot do reading lexl casily if they do nat have appropriate reading comprehension skills Therefore, it is very important for teachers to suggest essential reading comprehension skills needed for cach kind of reading tasks, 16 out of 105 students (15.2%) blamed on the lack of background knowledge of the topic of the reading text

3.1.1.5 Students’ responses to the techniques used by the teacher

A Give various kinds of exercises to

help us exploit the reading text

B Give attractive introduction and clear aim of the reading text

C, Give more interesting activities

D Help students guess new words based on the context

35% Mã

Chart 4: Students’ responses to the techniques used by the teacher

When being asked which techniques their teachers used in teaching a reading lesson, the

students chose all suggested techniques Statistically, 26.7% of the students said that their

teachers gave various kinds of exercises to help them exploit the reading text 29.5% admitted

that their teachers gave attractive introductions and clear aim of the reading text, 34.3% of the

students said that their teachers gave more interesting activities, only 9.5% admitted that their

teachers helped them guess new words based on the context

3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

Chart 5: Students’ ways of reading

The chart above shows that 23.8% of the students worked in groups It can be understood

that group-work enables students to activate their existing knowledge to share experience Moreover, students can take an active part in discussion A greater proportion of students

(28.6%) worked in pairs The reason for this may be because of the class setting (the students often sit in the table of two or four) so that, when working in pairs, they do not have to change

the seats arrangement and can have more time as well as more opportunities to express their

ideas However, the largest proportion, 47.6% of the students worked individually

3.1.1.7 Students’ effort for improving their reading comprehension skills

A Read a lot

B Share experience with friends

C Doall kinds of exercise

D Others

Chart 6: Students’ effort for improving their reading comprehension skills

‘The students need efforts to improve their reading comprehension skills They often try

their best in leaming English The data indicates that the number of student read a lot is 47.6%

Some students (29.5%) said that they usually improved their reading skill by doing many kinds

of exercise, 9.5% thought they shared experience with their friends to find out the best way of

learning reading 13.3% did others to improve their reading comprehension Besides their effort,

they could not deny the role of the teachers who often helped them much in learning

3.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers

3.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills

at school

A Very important

; B As important as other language

6 skills (listening, speaking, writing)

5

As shown in Chart 7, most of the teachers in the survey had positive attitude toward

reading 25% of them found teaching reading very important 66.7% of them found teaching

reading as important as other language skills To them, reading was important and beneficial to

their students However, only one teacher (8.3 %) did not highly appreciate the important role of

reading The reasons for this can be that this teacher focuses most on teaching grammar and

vocabulary No teacher thought that teaching reading was not important at all

re a