Luận văn a study on the use of top down approach to improve reading skill for learners at equest english centre

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES, _—œHa— NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY A STUDY ON THE USE OF TOP-DOWN APPROACH

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND EVTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES,

M.A Minor ProgrammeThesis

Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES,

_—œHa—

NGUYỄN THỊ THỦY

A STUDY ON THE USE OF TOP-DOWN APPROACH TO IMPROVE

READING SKILL FOR LEARNERS AT EQUEST ENGLISII CENTRE

(NGHIÊN CỨU VẺ VIỆC SỬ DỰNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP TOP-DOWN ĐÈ NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG DỌC CHO HỌC VIÊN TRUNG TÂM ANH

NGỮ EQUEST)

MLA Minor ProgrammeThesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr PIIAM DANG BiNII

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

‘To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university The thesis is my own work and based on my own research It involves

no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the paper

Hanoi, 2014

Nguyễn Thị Thuỷ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Virst and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Pham Dang Binh, fram Vietnam National University, University of Languages and International Studies for his invaluable guidance, criticism and his continual encouragement to the process of completing this minor thesis

My gratefulness is to all the tcachors trom Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and Intemational Studies for their teaching and useful knowledge

My sincere thanks also go to all my colleagues who are the teachers at

Equest Centre for their help and suggestions for the topic of my study

I truly wish to thank all my students at quest Centre, especially those of

class FAR C1 and FAR C2 who have aclively participated in Ihe study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are extended to my family and my best

friends who have constantly supported and encouraged me 1a carry out.the thesis

ABSTRACT

Leaming Lnglish at a lot of Lnglish Centers is becoming more and more popular Therefore, understanding the importance of English, all teachers at Equest English Centre have an attempt to satisfy the leamers’ need However, to master English leamers need to grasp a lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is an important one because it does nol only help student develop other language skills, but also provides them knowledge on the target language

The above has inspired the writing of this study as an attempt to apply top- down approach in teaching reading to improve reading skills for learners at quest

Centre

This study consists of three parts Part one presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope and methods of the study Part two includes three chapters Chapter one sets up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose

of the study The following chapter shows the setting, the subjects, the methods, the way lo collect data and the effects of using top-down approach in teaching and learning reading skill at quest English Centre The last chapter in this part focuses

on the findings, discussion and suggestions for improving reading skill to leamers at Fques! Frylish, Part three summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study

ii

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1 Tables

Table 1.1 Descriptive statistics for the pr est of the experimental and control

proups

Table 1.2 Comparison of mode, mean, median and STD for pre-lest of the

experimental and control groups

‘Tablel.3 Descriptive statistics for the post-test of the experimental and control groups

‘Table 1.4 Comparison of mode, mean, median and SD for post-test of the

experimental and control groups

Table 1.5 Comparison of mean and standard deviation belween the experimental

and control group in pre-test and post-test

Table 2.1 Activities motivated students in the pre-reading stage

Table 2 2 Activilies attracted slidents in while-reading slage

‘Table 2.3 Useful activities to students in post-reading stage

Table 2.4 Students’ difficulties in reading

Table 5 Teachinys methods in helping students overcome difTicultic:

2 Charts

reading

Chart 1.1 Percentage of the raw mark in the pre-test

Chart 1.2 Percentage of the raw mark in the post-test

Chart 2.1, ‘The students’ opinion about the reading tasks

Chart 2.2 The students’ opinion about leaching methods

Chart 2.3 The students’ opinion about learning reading with top-down process Chart 2.4, ‘The students’ opinion about their reading skill after a course with top-

down process

iv

Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study .ccscssssessesessessineensenneeentnnaeintn

6 Design of the study

1.2 Teaching Reading skill c.csssssseerssesseessessieenestten 2

1.3, Tơp-down approach co cnnnereiririrrrrrrrarsaiaoo14

1.3.3 Top-down approach in reading seotines nineties semsiateisasoneeineennne] 5

CHAPTER 2:

METHODOLOGY

2.1 Setting of the study

2.1.1 Subjects” background information

2.1.2 The teachers and toaching methods

3.1.1 Analysis of the lest results

3.1.2 Analysis of the questionnaire results

3.2 Discussion

3.2.1 Discussion on the sludents? part

3.2.2 Diseussion on the teacher’s patt

3.3 Implicatiơns

3.3.1 Top-đươm lechniques should be applied widely al Fquest Centre

3.3.2 Arousing students’ motivation and interest

3.3.3 Enlarging students’ hackground knowledge

3.3.4 Suggested activities for improving reading skill (hrough top-down

approach

3.4, Summary

PART C: CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the std 0.cccccsssscsseesneeseneencien nents ST

REFERENCES

APPENDIX 1:

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX 2: THE PRE-TEST

APPENDIX 3: THE POST-TES'

APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE LESSON

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale

It is undeniable that English in the life of any society in the world today has been becoming more and more important ‘the widespread need for Uinglish as an international language puls a considerable pressure on the education resources of any countries In case of our country, since our government carried out the open door policy to attract foreign investment and co-operate with other countries, teaching and learning English has become necessary Moreover, English is a means

of international communication in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on That is the reason why at present, learning English is

nol only the interes! but alsa the great and practical demand for many peuple,

especially for people who always want to assess the modem world ‘therefore,

leaning English at a lot of English Centre is becoming popular

Understanding the importance of English, all teachers at Hquest English

Centre have an attempt lo satisfy the learners’ need, Al Equest English is the foreign

language dominating the teaching and learning programs for 10 years Despite a prejudice that learning Linglish at a center is less effective than that at some

universities, colleges, or iulermational schools, learners at Equest, regardless of their

ages, always strive for a good command of English as they are well aware of their learning purposes ‘'hrough 10 years of development, Liquest has provided a number

of learning English programs Therefore, there are 38 000 learners leaning English

at Kquest in 2013

However, to master English learners need to grasp a lol of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is an

important one because i does not only help student develop other language skills,

ut also provides thom knowledge on the targct language According to Byrne (1986), “reading is an important way of expanding the students’ receptive

knowledge of the language and in terms of classroom activities, it is an effective way of simulating students to talk and write”

In addition, after a master course with methodology subject, | realized that top-down approach with its techniques and characteristics can be applied in

icaching language skills c{Tectively, especially in reading skill

Allin all, the above has encowaged the writer of the thesis to carry out he

study entitled “A study on the use of top-down approach to improve reading skill for learners at Equest English Centre”

2 Hypothesis

This study is designed to test the following hypothesis:

“Top-down approach helps jo enhance reading comprehension Jor learners at

Equest English Centre”

3 ims of the study

‘Phis study is carried out to aim at:

- Investigating the effects of using top-down t approach in teaching reading to

learners at Equest English Center

- Tnvestigai the teachers’ and leamers’ perceptions regarding reading activities using top-down approach

- Formulating pedagogical implications and making suggestions for improving the teaching and learning of the reading skill at Fquest English Center

4, Scope of the study

In this study, the investigator intends to use top-down techniques to help

learners al Rquest English Corer lo imprave their reading skills These teckmiques were experimented over a period of one course and were applied in the three stages

of a reading lessore pre-reading, while-teading and post-readiry Due to the litnited

timo, the rescarcher could not implement the research for a longor period of time

and ona larger population The sample population is 50 freshmen from two classes

of the same Lnglish proficiency level

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aums mentioned above, quantitative method has been chosen for

the study Data for analysis in this study are gained through the following sources

- Pre-test and post-test

- Survey questionnaires

6 Design of the study

This ninor thesis consists of three parts

Part A: Introduction which presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope and methods of the study

Part B: Development which is divided into 3 chapters

- Chapter 1: “Literature review”, sets up theoretical background that is

relevant to the purpose of the study

- Chapter 2: “Methodology”, shows Lhe solting, dhe subjects, the methods, the way to collect data and the effects of using top-down approach in teaching

and learning reading skill al quest English Centre

- Chapter 3; “Findings, Discussion and Implication”, In this chapter, the

findings and some discussions are shown ‘Ihe implication of the study also includes some suggestions to improve readitys skills for learners al Fauest English Cente

Part C: Conclusion which summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the

limitations and provides same suggestions for further study.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

‘This chapter is primarily concemed with the theory on reading, including some definitions of reading as well as reading comprehension and types of reading This will be followed by a review of twavhing reading skill, consisling of principles

of teaching reading, common methods of teaching reading and stages of a reading lesson The next part presents a review of definition of top-down approach, the differences between top-down and bottom-up approach, and the top-down techniques in teaching reading

1.1 Theory un Reading

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading,

For many students, reading is a very imporlant skill Concerning the role of reading, Anderson (1999) confirms that “the more exposure the student has to

language through reading, the greater the possibiliges thal overall language

proficiency will increase”,

There are a numerous definitions of reading which range from simple to complex ones Hach researcher focuses on different aspects of the teaching and learning process Some of them concentrate on the decoding and comprehending of

the reading texts while others pay attention to the roles of the readers

Goodman (1971: 135) regards reading as “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstruct, as best he can, a message encoded

by awriter as a graphic display”

According to Carell Devine and Eskey (1988:13), “reading is a prucess in that it starts with linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends

with meaning, which reader constructs There is, thus, an essential interaction

betveen language and thought in reading The writer encodes thought in language and the reader decodes language to thought” In ths definition, it can be seen

clearly the interrclatiouship between the writer, the reader and the text Moreover, Larmer (1983:153) also thought that “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain, The eyes receive massages and the brain then has to work out the significance of those massages” However, Hafner and July (1982:4) thought differently According to their opinion, “reading involves the identification and recognition of printed and writfen symbols which serve ax stimuli for the recall of meanings built up through past experiences and further construction of new meanings through the readers’ manipulation of relevant concepts already in his

possession”

According to Anderson (2003: 68), reading can be defined as “a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background Imowledge to build meaning The goal of reading is comprehension The text, the reader, fluency and strategies combined tagether define the act of reading”

In brief, each researcher has a different definition of reading l'rom my point

of view, the idea of Anderson is quite clear and easy to follow Reading is a process that the readers understand meaning by combining information of the text and their own background knowledge,

1.1.2 Reading comprehension

In teaching and Jeaming, a foreign language in general and teaching reading,

in particular, reading comprehension plays an important part It can be understood

as the ability to draw attention to the required information from the text as efficiently as possible Therefore, it is necessary to understand the definition of

Just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends: it is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual”

Moreover, Abbott (1981:82) gives out a research on the nature of reading comprehension According to him “there are two broad aspects or levels Firstly, there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain

receiving signals from the eves, Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point”

Study the nature of reading comprehension, Grilled (1981: 3) indicated that

“Reading comprehension or understanding written text means extracting the

required information from it as effectively as possible” ‘This means that the student

can show bis understanding by re-expressing the coment of the text in many ways

such a3 summarizing the text or answering questions cte

Reading comprehension is a process of deriving meaning from the print and integrating the new information with the old one (Koda, 2005; 14, Sweet and Snow, 2003: 1) The old information is the reader prior background knowledge and experience Goodman (1975) added that reading should be “an active, purposeful

and creative mental process” of extracting meaning partly [ram lextual clues and

partly from their prior knowledge

From these theoties above, it can be understood that readers show their active parts in the process of comprehending a written text; they are not simply a decoding mavhine, bul they must think and consider what sort of old information should be activated and when it should be made use of to facilitate the comprehending process In other words, according to Durkin (1993), “reading is the

construction of meaning of a written text through the interactions between text and

reader”.

The definitions presented above give us an overview of reading and reading comprehension With the literature review of some types of reading, we can

determine what factors are involved in efficient reading,

1.1.3 Types of reading

According to Nutgall (2000; 38), dere are two main types of reading,

namely, intensive and extensive reading ‘These are not just two contrasting ways of

reading but an infinitive variety of interrelated strategies; both of them are

complementary and necessary

1.1.3.1, Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understandiry Tl provides valuable reinforcement of the language aheady presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students uscful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text

Lewis and Hill (1985:109) state that “extensive reading means students have

a general understanding of the text without necessarily understanding every word”

It is obvious that whon reading extensively, readers do not nocd to have intense concentration on the content of a long text and total comprehension because the objective of extensive reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in the

shorlest possible lime Tn other words, extensive reading can be compared (o the

activity of ploughing through the text in a uniform fashion Lixtensive reading is

therefore regarded as means of entertainment and pleasure

According to Carell et al (1997), extensive reading, often, such as in an HAP

(English for academic pupose) selling, involves rapid reading of large amounts of material or longer contents, such as a whole book, for getting a gist or a focus generally on the meaning of what is being read Lispecially, this pattern of reading geis the reader fo focus on reading ilsell rather than mastering the particular

structure of a skal.

Moreover, the aim of extensive reading is to cucourage readers to cover a large amount of material in a comparatively short time and to gain a general understanding of what is read instead of analyzing the detailed information

Basing on the importance of extensive reading, Nuttal (1982:168) shows that

“the best way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live

among its speakers: The next best way is to read extensively in it.”

Tr short, this kind of reading is necessary for sludenls because il actively promotes reading outside the class and gives them an opportunity to use their own imowledge of the language for their own purposes Moreover, this kind of reading is yogarded as pleasure and interest That is why cxlonsive reading is highly

snotivating

1.1.3.2 Intensive reading

The remaining two kinds of reading activity, content study reading and

linguistic study reading are also oflent grouped logelher and called intensive reading

Different from extensive reading — reading for Cluency, readers can read

without the aid of the teachers and without understanding the text in detail —

intensive reading is regarded as reading for accuracy It “involves approaching the text under the close guidance of the teacher or under the guidance of a task which

forces the students to pay great attention to the text in order to arrive at a profound

to detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced, The “how” ix as important as the “what”, for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies”

(Nutall, 1982:23)

According to Nuttal (1996), the students should try to understand a text as fully as necessary in an intensive reading setting Besides this, intensive readers are

often required to study @ small amount of material in an analytical manner under the

teachers’ guidance (Good, 1926)

In both reading patterns, the teacher's role may be also significant In the extensive reading situation, the teacher should always encourage students to choose for themselves what they read and to do so for pleasure and for general language improvement, But in intensive reading, the teacher often chooses, directs and designs what kind of book that students should read in order to develop specific receptive skills (Harner, 2001)

Many researchers suggest that getting students to read extensively would be

an clTeetive way 10 have them enjoy reading, and thus sladents may love reading Besides this, slower or unmotivated students may be motivated by other enthusiastic

classmates arul start Lo love reacing as well Good (1926) also argues thal in terms

of retention for the purpose of answering informational questions, extensive reading

seems relatively effective

1.2 Teaching Reading skill

1.2.1 Principles of teaching reading,

In order to teach reading effectively, it is important for teachers to apply

certain principles Anderson (2003) and Iledge (2000) have set out several principles of teaching reading

1.2.1.1, Lixploit the student's background knowledge

Background knowledge can affect reading comprehension Students’ backpround knowledge includes all of the experiences that a reader brings to a text life exporieneos, educational experiences, Knowledge of how lexls can be organized rhetorically, knowledge of how one’s first language works, knowledge

of how the second language works, and cultural background and knowledge

The teacher can significantly cuhance students’ comprehension if he or she activates their background knowledge by setting goals, asking questions, making predictions, teaching text structure, and so on

1.2.1.2 Build a strong vocabulary hase

Vocabulary can facilitate successful reading ‘The teacher should explicitly teach basic vocabulary and teach students how to use context to effectively guess

the meaning of less frequen vocabulary

1.2.1.3, Teach for comprehension

Besides testing comprehension, it is necessary to teach students how to

comprehend A technique the teacher can employ to help students in the process of constructing meaning from a text is questioning the author his activity should be done during the reading process It requires the teacher to model the reading behavior of asking questions to make sense of that is being read Students learn to engage wilh meaning and develop ideas rather than retrieve information from the text In the process of reading, students should ask themselves some questions such

as “What is the author trying Lo say here? What ts the author's message? What is the

author talking about? What does the author mean liere? Does the author explain this clearly?” (Beck et al, 1997: 34, 37)

1.2.1.4, Teach reading strategies

To achieve success in reading, students should know how to use a range of strategies that match their purposes for reading Teaching them how to do this should be a prime consideration in the reading classroom A technique the teacher

can use to help students idomtily reading strategies is lo gel thom talk about (heir

thought processes as they read ‘The students can listen to their own verbal report or

listen to other students’ verbal reports to became aware of their reading strategies

1.2.1.5 Encourage students to transform strategies into skills

10

An important distinction can be made between strategies and skills (Kawai, Oxford and Iran-Nejad, 2000) Strategies can be defined as conscious actions that learners lake lo achieve desired goals or cbjcclives, while a skill is a stralegy thai bas become automatic This characterization underscores the active role that readers play in strategic reading As leamers consciously leam and practice specific

reading slrategics, the sữralegics mmovc [rom consciaus lo unconscious; from

strategy to skill

For instanec, when sludeuls ave taught how to gusss meaning of unknowr

vocabulary for the first time, they are using a strategy As student’s ability to guess the meaning become automatic, they move from using a conscious strategy to using

an unconscious skill

1.2.1.6 Set criteria to select reading texts

‘Teachers should usually pay attention to two questions: “What kind of text

do we use in the classroom?” and “How do we create reading purposes for those

texts’

consider the second carefully because this may be the key to motivate students to

They may have little flexibility in addressing the first, but they will need to

read texts they do not find interesting Interest is the first criterion to select a veading text, Other factors are the variely of topic, length of texts, rhetorical

organization (for example, description, review, comparison), and the reading

‘purpose

1.2.2 Stages of a reading lesson

Ti is common practice thal a reading lesson includes three stages: pre- reading, while-reading, and post-reading (William, 1984, cited in Iledge, 2000) Fach slage has its own aims and procedures

Pre-reading stage

11

This stage plays a decisive role in the whole process of teaching reading comprehension, so most experienced readers employ pre- reading and other

stralegies Lo make reading casier Pre- reading aims al introducing the text to the

students and helps them make careful preparation before reading the text It is advisable for the teacher to create a reading motivation and a positive attitude lowards reading for students so that hey can achieve a high level of success and become confident that they can read effectively

As for Doff (1988), there are mamy activilics a Ipacher to carry oul so as T0

help students before they start reading such as introducing the text briefly, presenting new vocabulary, revising grammatical struchwes ar giving guiding questions

Moreover, in my opinion the leacher 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 students should develop in order to comprehend various kinds of texts, especially the texts that the students are not familiar with

1.2.2.2 Whilo-reading stage

While- reading slage is carried oul when all students actually set their cyes

on the text and this stage is the main part of a reading comprehension lesson The aims of this stage focus on making the students anticipate in the process of amderstanding the whole text, and interpreting exactly what the author wrote Tn addition, it helps the students break up the organization of the text; understand the

text structures; classify the text content and recognize the writer's purpose and altitude.

Moreover, it helps the students improve their reading speed and techniques Besides, this stage offers an opportunity to apply effectively what they have learnt from the text to their purpose of study and communication

Because this stage plays a very important role in a reading lesson, it must be carefully designed

1.2.2.3 Post-reading stage

Post: reading is the implementation of various activities carried out after the

snidents have read the text Some post- reading activities are extension of the work

done al the pro- reading and while- reading stages Somtc relate only loosely Lo he

reading text itself

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” tn fact, there is more than ane purpose for post- reading stage

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

have understood the lext or nol The teacher can ask the students some questions about the texts which are not given in the book or require them to discuss in group

and in pair and so on Another purpose is to consolidate or reflect upon what the

students have read Ta achieve this, the teacher should help the studers focus om

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

fo expand on the (opie or language of the reading text, and perhaps transfor things

learmed to another context

Sctling up and organizing post-reading work depends very much on all the objectives of the program as a whole Post- reading work should, thus, contribute in

a coherent manner, to the writing, speaking and listening skills that the program

aims lo develop

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In conclusion, the three stages offer the teacher a frame work to conduct a

reading Jesson in general Pre- reading instruction makes students interested in a

text, and predicts the content of il through accessing necessary imformation and/or

activating schema During-reading instruction helps students read strategically, mainly focusing on decoding skills Post-reading instruction extends or deepens

what students comprehend from the text

are to be activated: prior knowledge plays a major role in leamer’s comprehension

Carrell (1988) argued that a lack of content schemata activation would lead (o insurmountable processing difficulties with second language readers Hudson (1982) has cvon argued that a high degree of background knowledge can overcome linguistic deficiency

Jn addition to prior knowledge as a key point, top-down model is actually a whole-language teaching approach, in which readers focus on the context, and

‘manage to constrict meanings in the text (Treiman, 2601) In this sense, top-down

reading stralegics contain predicling, inferring, and [ocusing on meanings (Grabe, 1991) Reading is actually “a psychological guessing game”, in the words of

Goodman (1970)

1.3.2 Top-down versus Bottom-up processing

Botlom-up processes are those Wil like in stimuli (rom the oulside world - letters and words, for reading - and deal with that information with little recourse to higher - level knowledge With top-down processes, on the other hand, the uptake

of information is guided by an individual’s prior knowledge and expectations

14

Bottom-up approach focuses on the text as the convergenes of encoded messages to be deciphered, Instructors who uphold bottom-up processing focus

on how leamers extract information from the printed page, and on whether or nal leamers deal with letters and words in a systematic fashion ‘Lherefore, the goals of the bottom-up approach are automatic word recognition and rapid reading rate To reach the aims, expliciL instruction in phonies and spellings is crucial; sludents should not be “word-bound” in bottom-up processing (Grabe, 1991)

Ta tmosl silualions, bollem-up ard top-down processes work together 10

ensure the accurate and rapid processing of information Llowever, theories about the cognitive processes invalved in reading differ in the emphasis that they place on the two approaches Theories thal stress bottom-up processing focus on how readers extract information from the printed page, claiming that readers deal with letters and words in a relatively complete and systematic fashion (e.g, Gough 1972) Theories thal stress top-down provessing hold that readers form hypotheses about which words they will encounter and take in only just enough visual information to test

their hypotheses —_(e.¢., Goodman 1967, Smith 1971)

In short, the greatest difference between top-down processing and the

bottam-up processing is that, according to Goodman (1967), readers do not use

every piece of information in the text ‘hat is to say, the readers select some parts of text according to their cuzrent purpose and use them only so as to predict meaning and to confirm the predicted meanings by relating the readers’ own previously

acquired knowledge (Carrell, 1988a)

1.3.3 Top-down approach in reading

Goodman (1982) performed a research on reading comprehension and presented in “the Psycholinguistic Guessing Made!” He believed that the process of roading the (ext in a letter-by-letter and word-by-word manner and picking up Ihe information is not called reading comprehension Rather, a good reader reads

selectively and does nol look al every word on the page, bul he uses his prior

15

Imowledge and reads the text by predicting and confirming information (Grabe, 1991) It-was a kind of top-down processing

Many researchers have insisted that "the concepts which a reader brings toa text are actually more important than the text itself for comprehension" (Mikulecky,

1990: 4) Among those concepts that the readers use in the process of

comprehension, the knowledge about the content of the text, rather than the imowledge of the language of the text, is emphasized As for linguistic knowledge,

Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (as ciled in Anderson, 1999: 3) stated that focus is

mainly put on "higher-level" reading skills, such as "integrating prepositional units across sentences, generating and updating a schema or representation of the text as a whole, and integrating toxtual information with prior knowledge"

There is au agreement, among reading specialists that a reader should be an

“active participant" in the process of comprehending a text Simply oxplained, the meaning 1s constructed by the reader, who creates connections between what s/he

encounters in the text and what s‘he knows about the world as well as about the

language (Grabe, 1991; Hudson, 1998) ‘Ihe key element here is the emphasis on the reader's background knowledge The importance of the prior Inowledge has been investigated through psycholingnistics and schema theory On the other hand, top-down processing leads readers use their background knowledge to comprehend the text Thus, this processing should be more often introduced to English reading

instruction because it bas tended to be neglected Teaching top-down process will

cnable the students to read actively, or interact with text

As was merioned belorc, reading 1s an interaction belween lext and the readers, in which the readers use not only their decoding, skills but also other kinds

of knowledge Mikulecky (1990) explained it citing the passage used by Branford and Johnson:

16

“A nowspaper is better than a magazine A scashore is a better place than the

street At first it is better to run than to walk You may have to try several

limes Th takes some skill bul it's casy to learn Evert your, children can enjoy it ( ) If there are no complications, it can be very peaceful, A rock will serve as an anchor If things break down from it, however, you will not

get a second chance”

The words and sentence structures used in this passage seem not to be so

difficult Tt will nol take so long 1o urcderstand the mearing of wach sentence if the

reader has a basic knowledge of Unglish Llowever, do the readers think, after

reading, that they understand the whole meaning of the text? The answer is probably “no” They must be asking themselves, "Whal is the passage about? Tn trying to find the answer, they should be using knowledge besides linguistic imowledge because they have already understood the meanings of the sentences by

accumulating those of the words, phrases and clauses with them lexical and

grammatical knowledge ‘fo sum up, not only linguistic knowledge but also any other kinds of knowledge is crucial in trying to comprehend a text

In conclusion, what should be emphasized here is that more attention must be paid to the readers’ background knowledge in the reading class Especially, how their prior knowledge can function for successful comprehension should be discussed more because the influence ar importance of backround knowledge is nol emphasized in reading classees ina Jol of English Centers in Viena

1.3.4 Top-down techniques in teaching reading

Techniques are defined as the spocific aolivitics, excreises or deviecs used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives (Bang and Ngoc (2002)) They are characterized by the resources in terms of time, space, equipment used by the teacher, inleractional patterns observed in lessons: tactics and stralogies used by

teachers and leamers

Scveral techniques for top-down teaching, process in reading, comprehension

are suggested as follows

1.3.4.1, Previewing,

Treviewing is among the most important activities which should be dane in

the pre-reading stage because it helps students to activate their schema and to predict the meaning of the text and because previewing is always done unconsciously when we road This is the first step lo enhance sLadants' positive

attitude toward reading

One good point of previewing is thal it can always be conducted regardless

of the linguistic difficulties of the text because previewing does not require students

to carefully read the text itself, Skills should be taught as continuously as possible,

so it is very important Another good point is that it can be taught that any kind of information in the text is indispensable in reading In other words, emphasis should

be put on such visual information as photos, illustrations, graphs, and charts, because they are closely related to what is written in the text (Chia, 2001) and so they are very useful in trying to get the gist,

There are several stimuli in the text, such as the title, photographs, subtitles, charts, diagrams etc which are closely related to what the author is going to

gwesent Thus, the teacher can hoÌp the shudents make some guesses based on thase

stunuli The teacher can motivate them to read the title, first sentence of each

paragraph (which gives the main idea of the paragraph), and the first and the last paragraphs (which one inlroduces and the other reveals the conclusion of the text) Finally, the students read the whole text to get more information Since they have already overviewed the text, they have a better understanding of it

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1.3.4.2, Questioning

As Willams (1987, cited in Huitung, 2001) argues, questioning is another top-down processing, activity in which the teacher generates some questions about

the text and presents them in the class before teaching reading

‘these questions can be taken from post-reading questions Llowever, the selection of the questions is very important; they should be what the students are able to answer Thon lhe studenis are divided into groups lo provide answors (or Ihe questions based on what they know and write the answers down In reading phase,

the students read the text and see whether they had provided a correct answer or not

Finally, in the post-reading stage, the students should relate lheir prior knowledge

about the text to their acquired knowledge and write it down

1.3.4.3 Skimming

Skimming is the technique that is used widely in reading comprehension Grellct (1981:19) siates that: “when skimming, we go through the reading materiat quickly in arder to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of

the tone or inlention of the wriler” Tk means that the purpose of skimming is simply

to sce what a text is about, The reader skims in order to satisfy a very general curiosity about the text According ta Wood (198492), “skimming accurs when the

reader looks quickly at the content page of a book, or at the chapler headings,

subheading, ete.” Therefore, the key that actually encourages Jearners to skim is to sive them a series of texts and ask them to select appropriate titles from groups of

ones,

Moreover, in order to teach skimming effectively, the teacher should let the

students read the beginning or end of a text because i may provide sluderts a

statement relating to the topic Skimming gives students the advantage of being able

to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic or message, or possibly some

of the developing or supporting ideas

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Skimming cnables readers to get the main points of the text without being concemed with the details ‘Therefore, this technique should be applied at the first stage of (caching rcading to help studont have an overview of whal they are going to

read

1.3.4.4 Predicting

Goodman (1976) indicated that efficient reading often includes the use of prediction strategies Thus, predicting plays an important role in reading comprehension Interacting with the text, the readers use their prior knowledge in conoem with cues in the text to generate predictions

Making predictions is a strategy in which readers use information from a text (including titles, headings pictures, and diagrams) and their own personal

experiences Lo anticipate what they are aboul to read (or what comes next)

Anderson (1976) found that making predictions can help students become good readers and make reading more [un In addilion, prodicting also arouses readers’ interest and sets the purpose for their reading By using this strategy in

combination with such techmques as skimming and previewing a text, students are

aotivated to read and encouraged to study the text carcfully to confirm their prior

Secondly, the investigator has shown the principles of teaching reading and

three main stages of a reading lesson

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Finally, top-down approach is discussed which includes an overview about top-down approach, the differences between top-down and bottom-up approach and the theary of top-down process in teaching reading

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CHAPTER 2:

METIIODOLOGY

‘To carry out a research, subjects and method are very important Method

shows the tool and the way that the investigator conducted the study In this chapter,

the investigator will show some sellings of the study, the subjects and the way Lo

collect data as well as the way to analyze data,

2.1 Selling of the study

2.1.1 Subjects’ background information

Faquest Fnglish Language Tnstiule was cstablished in 2003 Aller more than

10 years of construction and development, Equest has a system consisting of 13 English language training schools in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City Fquesi is recognived as a tepulable and qualified address of teaching Fnglish language in Vietnam Each year, Equest provides a lot of different English courses

designed by leading experts Lo serve more than 38,000 students and children,

Lquest is also partner of nearly 100 primary schools, high school in Vietnam Champion Fuglish exata organized by Faquest for pupils of primary and secondary schools - has become a prestigious and qualified Hnglish competition that parents, students and school administrators appreciated

‘The leamers of Liquest are varied with different ages and levels ‘Chere are a lot of courses from basic to advanced level az well as the courses for those who

wan 1o get certificate such as TORIC, TRI.TS, TORFT., etc

Therefore, leaming time and materials for each course are also different It is based on the level of leamers, Onc important, thing is that al the begirming all leamers are tested to be classified and identified ‘Chen the course which is suitable with their level will be chosen.

2.1.3 The teachers and teaching methods

Lp to now, there are about 120 teachers at the whole Centre All of them

graduated from different universilics in major of teaching English 75% of teachers dave MA and international certificates

Most of teachers at the Contre are well qualified Therefore, they have done much to improve the method of teaching Linglish and help students to overcome difficulties in their learning process

The fact is that not all the teachers use the same techniques and strategies to teach reading comprehension skills Some of them choose to use “introducing new words and new grammar structures” as the most effective techniques, other may take some other techniques such a3 “giving background information” as the most eflcetive onc Almosl teachers said thal teaching students how lo read is also am important factor because they see that most of students lack needed strategies for

reading comprehension Therefore, they have tried to choose the activities that are suilable for the sLudonts

2.1.3 Materials

As mentioned above, the materials are different in cach course In this study,

the researcher only focus on the basic course named “Foundation Academic

Enghsh” (FAR) There are four levels in this course “FAR Intro” gets students

familiar with practice English skills, builds vocabulary and basic grammar “KAE

A” promotes 4 skills that are Listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing “FAB B”

improves pravtice language skills, expands vocabulary and grammar of the common themes and communicates in an academic environment “FAK C” improves more

and more 4 skills to help students confidently take part in the training courses of

intermalional certification exam

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Students will finish each course in 56 periods The main course books arc Joundation Academic Linglish from A to C levels which are edited by the experts of the Centre

In Foundation Academic English level C, there are 18 umits Each umit has

one reading session These reading sessions are under the tendency of theme-hased and task-based approaches ‘fhe book provides different wide range of different reading texts and tasks at each stage Generally the topic of the reading is of

students’ interest However, there arc some reading texts, according to sludents’

opinion, containing many new words and difficult topic It is possible to say that no

textbook is completely perfect and no text bock can suit every leamer’s need and

This study was carried out with the participation of 50 students They are all

in the “FAB C” course and form two differant classes namely FAR C1 and FAR C2 with 25 students in each class Because the all participants of this study come from TAL at level C, they have some basic skills in learning Dnglish Out of 50 students,

33 are female and 17 are male age ranged [rom 19-27 All of them are at the game level according to the results of the beginning test

Those two tests were conducted in the pre-, whilo- and pust-stages of the experimentation of top-down process, and for both control group and experimental group These reading lests were designed in the model of achievement tess which are used to assess students’ reading, skill

2.3.2 Questionnaire

In this study, the researcher applied questionnaire as a main means of data collection because of some advantages Firstly, this method can give the researcher the need data in quantitative form Secondly, all informants have chance of expressing their attitudes As a result, researcher can have more uniform and

accurate data

The questionnaire of this study was designed by the investigatar to collect

the dala Tt comlained 9 questions All these questions were designed based on the

theory of reading lesson with top-down process and the demand of a reading lesson with 3 stages It was designed for the purpose to check the accuracy of the improved reading skills of students and whether student interest or nol im the lesson where the

top-down process is used

The questionnaire was delivered 1o the experimental group only af the end of the couse to find out their attitudes towards top-down teaching process and their

expectations

2.4 Procedures

2.41 Dala collection

‘The data was collected through the following steps

Slop 1: The investigator laughl two classes for 2 weeks, gave thom a reading test as a pre-test, and then the investigator help the experimental group understand

the teachirys reading process they are going {o study, top-down process as well as ils

techniques

Stop 2: The investigator taught these two classes for the whole of the course which lasted from June to September of 2014 During that time, the control group

was (aughl reading skill under normal conditions based on the order of the book,

whereas top-down techniques were applied to the experimental one

Step 3: Ask the two groups to do the post-test which is used as a mean to

measure the effects of using top-down techniques in teaching listening skill for the

whole course

Step 4: The survey questionnaire was delivered to the experimental group

after they finished the post-test to get their opinion about the reading process they have learnt

2.4.3 Data analysis

‘As mentioned above, this rescarch was conducted as a quantitative study Thus, descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic features of the data in the study They provide simple summaries aboul the sample and the measures Together with simple graphics analysis, they form the basis of virtually every quantitative

analysis of data

‘There are four major types of estimates in this kind of statistics ‘I'hey are mean, median, mode and standard deviation (SD) In addition, tables and charts

were used to show the result from the data

2.5 ‘The application of top-down techniques in reading class

Pre-reading activities are worth contemplating because in top-down processing, the readers make guesses and confirm or change the guesses they read

Therefore, in order to let sindents have some expectations about the content of the

text, it is necessary to activate their background knowledge related to the text through pre-reading activities In this study, the investigator focused much more on the pre-reading stage

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Firstly, when teaching the experimental group, the teacher will not follow the exact orders suggested in the textbook, Instead of introducing all new words in the text, the leacher will provide students a lot of avlivities lo exploit their background kmowledge such as brainstorming, discussing the topic in pairs or in groups, giving

‘backpround information, asking students make prediction about the topie, or asking relevant questions, ele These activities will make students more active when they

read the text

Sceondly, in the second stage, instead of asking sludent trarstating the whole

text, the teacher will make it more interesting by different activities such as asking students predict content of the reading text, or glance at the title, subheading, the

first arid the Jasl sentence of the reading text, or asking sluderis predict the next part

of the text from various clues

In the last stage of a reading lesson, to check whether students understand the text or not in term of top-down process, the teacher will carry out some different activities Discussing in pairs or groups, comparing/contrasting what students thought about the text before reading with what they think after reading the text, or answering comprehension questions are some useful activities for the post-reading

stage

This process was designed based on top-down techniques so that it was used

to teach students in experimental group,

15 minutes During the test, the teacher worked as an examiner

‘The markang was done with the same way of assessment and then was analyzed

in tum The same test design was delivered ta students in two different periods of

time: at the begining and the end of the course

After the tests were collected and marked, the investigator then analyzed the test

scores in terms of frequency distribution to find out the range of marks and the

ameasures of carttral tendency to classify the progress tendency of cach class

In the same way, the results of the post-test were interpreted and compared with

those of the pre-test And then the standard deviation (SD) was taken into

consideration as a very powerful measure of dispersion This data helped the

investigator explore the degree to which the group of test scores deviated from the

ivan, then linding out whal effects the use of top-down techriques m teaching reading had on students

3.1.1.1 The Pre-test results

‘Yable 1.1 shows some significant descriptive statistics of the results gained

by two groups in the pre-test

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Experimental group Control group

Table 1.2 Comparison of mode, mean, median and SD for pre-test of the

experimental and control groups

Experimental group

= Control group

Chart 1.1 Percentage of the raw mark in the pre-test

As can be seen from table 1.1, the scores were ranged from 2 to 8, in which

mark 4, 5 were the most common Students in control group seemed to be of more

unified level whereas students from experimental one had more excellent

individuals, This was shown in the chart where the columns of mark 5, 6, and 7 in

control group were higher whereas the column of mark 8 was higher in experimental group However, the comparison of the mode revealed that the control

group seemed to be a little bit better than the experimental one as its mode of 5 was

higher than one of the experimental group which was 4

The mean of 5,2 revealed that control group was a little bit better than

experimental group whose mean was 4,88 The means also showed that in general

the students were only at average level The SD of 2,592 and 2,796 showed a very

spread of scores which implied a narrow range of ability in students of both groups

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3.1.1.2, The Post-test results

The resull of the post-test is shown as

Experimental group Score Number of Percentage

Table 1.4 Comparison of mode, mean, median and SD for post-test of the

experimental and control groups

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