Luận văn a survey on the teaching of english reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at vietnam forestry universtiy

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY UNIVERSITY KHAO SAT VE THUC TRANG DAY KY NANG DOC HIEU CHO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

HO TH] XUAN HONG

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING

SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED

ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY

UNIVERSITY

(KHAO SAT VE THUC TRANG DAY KY NANG DOC HIEU CHO

SINH VIEN NAM THU NHAT TRONG CAC LOP HOC CO TRINH

DO KHONG DONG DEU TAI TRUONG DAL HOC LAM NGHIEP

VIET NAM) M.A Minor programme thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 601410

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

(KHẢO SÁT VẺ THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẬT TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC CÓ TRÌNH

ĐỘ KHÔNG ĐÔNG ĐỀU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LÂM NGHIỆP

VIỆT NAM) M.A Minor programme thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 6014 10

Supervisor: Lam Thi Phitc Han, MA

2 Aims of the study

3 Scope of the study,

4 Method of the study

5 Significance of the study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning

1.1.1 Definition of reading comprchension

1.1.2 Models of reading process

L.LA Reading probloms and solutions

1.1.5 Stnges 0a reading lessơn se

1.2.1 Definition of muxed ability classes 10

1.2.2, Benefits of mixed ability classes

1.2.3 Challenges of mixed ability classes

1.2.4, Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODGLOGY

2.1 The teaching context

2.2.3, Data collection procedure

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward leaming and teaching English reading siails L8

3.1.4, Ways of classroom management

3.2 Summary of main findings

3.2.1 Advantages of tzaching Engtish reading skills 5 adonts in mixed

3.2.2, Disadvantages of teaching Lnglish reading skills to the first year students in mixed

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS

4.1, Improving students’ participation in classroom activities

4.1.1, Having a good understanding of individual students

4.1.2, Clarifying learning goals to the students .sssesensnsnieseanenenensensemnee SH

vi

4.1.3 Making use of pait/ group work 32

4.1.4, Changing the ro!

4.1.5, Making use of modern technology in teaching

4.2, Improving teaching techniques

1, Summary of the study

2, Limitations of the study

3, Suggestions for farther study

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires

Appendix 1.A: Survey questionnaires for students

Appendix 1.B: Survey questionnaires for teacliers eoceooooeoe.ĐC Appendix 2: Sample reading texts

vil

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VIU: Vietnam I:orestry Liniversity

ESP English for specific purposes

MAC: Mixed ability classes

ESL: English as second language

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

‘The importance of developing reading skills to the first year students in VEU

‘Tha main purpose of tsaching reading skills to the frst yoar studonls al VFU

Opinion about reading texts in the textbook

‘The frequency of other difficulties faced by the teachers when teaching reading in MAC Ways of roading lo find the nmin idea of th text

Ways of reading to find specific information of the text

Lrequency of pair/group working Students’ opinion about benefits of working in pairs’groups

Chart 10: Tcachers' reasons for making the students work in pairs/groups

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Like in any other countries, in the process of integrating into regional and international economic and diplomatic development, English is now a compulsory subject in every school in Victnam Both teachers and lcarners scem to pay greater attention to the teaching and learning of this language ‘he ultimate aim is the ability to use it for communicative purposes, To oblain this aim, however, is nol an easy task because students should be able

to acquire four skills of listening, speaking, wntting and reading in addition to English grammar, pronunciation, ete, Among these areas, reading skills play an indispensable and inseparable part in the process of teaching and learning Linglish as it helps students enrich their general knowledge, andl support their learning of other language skills and clerrcnls

‘Therefore, how to teach and learn reading is very important

In Vietnam Forestry University (VU), a non-language major university, the teaching and

leaning of English in gencral and English reading skills, in particular have reccived a greater deal of attention and achieved certain success because English and English reading skills are very important for the students to read their major’s documents in English and very useful for (heir jab later However, ihe effectiveness of leaching and learning reading skills is still limited, especially to the first year students, This problem may be resulted from some factors Hirstly some teachers have been accustomed to traditional teaching methods They oflen waste much of their time explaining new words and grammatical

structures for tinal exams instead of providing different reading strategies for different reading tasks to develop the students’ reading skills ‘The text, therefore, plays as a source

of materials for language lessons instead of skill lessons Sccondly, achicvinyg c[Tectivencss

in teaching reading skills become more challenging when all English classes in this university consist of a large mumber of students with different language learning ability The other reasons may come fiom the reading materials, syllabus and teaching and

Icarning conditions

As a teacher of English in VFU for nearly four years, this situation encourages the author

lo investigate the advaniages as well as the disadvanlages of this issue and give some suggestions for better learning and teaching English reading skills to the first year students

2, Aims of the study

The major purpos

(1) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU,

sof this study arc

@) lo give some suggestions to make use of the advantages and overcome the

disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability

classes at VEU?

These objectives will be achieved by finding (he answers lo the (hree following questions

(1) What are the advantages of leaching Enylish reading skills to the first year students in

mixed ability classes at VEU?

(2) What ave the disadvantages of teaching English reading skills ta the first year students

in mixed ability classes at VFU?

(3) What should be done ta make use of the advantages and overcome the disadvantages af

teaching English reading skills to the first vear students in mixed ability classes at VFU?

3 Scope of the study

‘The study investigates the current situation of the teaching of English reading skills to the

1* year students in MAC al Vietnam Forestry University

4 Method of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the quantitative approach which involves survey questionnaires is employed to collect data for the study The survey questionnaires are administered Lo both teachers and students ‘The results oblained from the teachers will be

compared with those fron the students for more reliable data

5, Significance of the study

This study can, hopefally, be useful for the teachers and students in VFU as well the researchers who have interest in this field Once successfully completed, the study will manage to provide a picture of teaching English reading skills to the first year VEU students, Through the findings of the sindy, sore suggestions will be given with a hope to take the advantages of the strengths and overcome the weaknesses to help the first year students in VEU improve their reading skills Furthermore, this study can offer various and

usefiul references for further studies It can also be an idea that attracts other researchers to

go father

6 Organization of the study

"The study consists of three main parts

Part A is the introduction which states the rationals, aims, scope, method, significances and orpanization of the study

Part 8 is the development which consists of 4 chapters:

Chapter 1, which serves as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the

study reviews the literature relevant to the topic

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology,

Chapter 3 refers to the results and discussion of the survcy in addition to the

summary of the main findings

Chapter 5 is the implications which include some suggestions for better teaching and learning reading to the first your students in MAC in VFU

Part C is the conclusion that summarizes what has been done through the study, presents the limitations and gives some suggestions for fiwther researches

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CTIAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

‘This chapter reviews theories and previous researches related to reading comprehension skill as well as mixed ability classes (MAC) It serves as a basis for an investigation into teaching roading in MAC which is prescnted in the next chapter

1.1 Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning,

1.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension

Reading comprehsnsion plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreign language Having a deep understanding about nature of reading is very essential because what teachers understand about it will have @ great influence on what they teach in the class In fact, methodolopists and researchers have been provided with different definitions

of reading comprehension

According 1o Grellet (1981, p.3): “Reading comprehension or understanding @ wrilton loxi

mncans exlravling the requircd infarmmation (torn it as efficiently as possible.” The aulhor means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way,

Having a slightly different idea fiom Grellet, Eddie William (1984, p.2) detined reading as

a process whereby one looks at and understand what has been written Carrell and Esday

(1988, p1

linguist scried [hal “reading is receptive language pro

surface representation oneoded by a wriler and ends with meaning that

constructs” ‘he two authors shared the same point In their opinion, reading does not mean that a foriegner need to understand everything in a text, he is not simply a passive object, fed with letters, words or sentences, but is actively working, on the text and get the conveyed messages without looking at every letter and words

Richard and Thomas (1987, p.9) added more detail in his definition:

Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader’s understanding of the printed page based on his individual unique background of experience Reading is much more than just pronouncing words corcetly or simply whal the author iatends Tt is the proc

whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are uniqne to

an individual

This opinion indicates that reading comprehension refers to the students’ understanding of the text using their own ideas, experiences and responses In other words, the readers use

their knowledge (their experiences) to get meaning out of printed pages which includes not only facts or details but also emotion, belief and critical evaluation

Though these opinions arc nal cxaclly the same, it can be conchufed that reading

comprchension is a pracess of ablaining the required information in ths lesson as efficonlly

as possible in reading process the reader plays an active role and both of his knowledge of the language and that of the world are extremly important to his reading success

1.1.2 Models of reading process

In the last 40 years, many researchers have developed models to describe what happen when people read, among which bottom-up, top-down and interactive models arc the three

most important ones

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up model

In Christine Nuttall (19820)’s opinion, “In bottom-up processing, the reading builds up a meaning from the back marks on the page: recognizing letters and words, working out

sentence structure” (p.I7)

David Nunan (1991, p.64) shared the same opinion that “the bottom-up approach is basically a matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural equivalent”

According to Christine Nuttall (1982, p.17), if only using bottom-up model, readers cannot believe that the apparent message was really what the writer intended, Moreover, the

teader in this case is put in @ passive state and the Iexi is Irealad as a granunatical unit

rather than a textual onc as a whole, In addition, it was difficult account for the rele of contexinal clues and that of the reader’s prior knowledge in understanding the text

1.1.2.2 ‘Top-down model

In contrast to the bottom-up model, the top-down one argues that readers bring a great deal

of knowledge, expectation, asswmptions, and questions to the text and they continue to read

as long as the text confirin thọt expectation (Goorman, 1967, p.126)

Camiboumne (1979, p.78-90) had a elzarer definition Ubat

‘Top-down reading is an active process of prediction, selection, and confirmation in which the reader brings to bear not only knowledge of the language, but also internal concepts of the processing of Ianguage information, encoded in graphic, symbols, past experimental background, general conceptual background knowledge,

These points of view indicate that lop-down process emphasizes th reeonstruction of mmcaning rather han ihe decoding form The inleraction of reader and {he lext is the ecntre

to this process Readers bring to this interaction their knowledge of the subject, expectation about how language works, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text

Just like bottom-up model, this model has some limitations It is sometimes implausible because of flexibility of information processing It also undorestimates the functions of lower order information, Furthermore, readers who have little knowledge of the topie cannot generate predictions And it is also time consuming and fails to describe skilled reatling behavior (Sarmel & Kamil 1988)

Theoretically, bottom-up and top-down approaches provide us with diffzrent pictures of reading process and both of them show strength as well as weakness, so elements of them are combined to a more insighiftl model under the name of interactive model

1.1.2.3, Interactive model

Eskey (1988, p.94) defined interactive reading model as a reading model that “posits a constant interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each source

of mformation contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text.”

He also belicved that lo achieve both fluency and accuracy in tearing, good readers must work at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-down interpretation strategies In other words, good reading can only result ftom a constant interaction between these live processes

This idea is proven later by Penny Ux’s opinion To her, “The construction of meaning that occurs in reading is a combination of bottom-up process (decoding and understanding words, phrases and sentences in the lext) and lop-down one (our expectation, previous knowledge, construct of the text oanlent and genre)” (1996, p.141)

The mentioned viewpoints convey the same thing that both bollomup and top-down process contribute to the understanding of the text in reading In reading process, sometimes it is the individual details that help readers understand the whole, sometimes it

is the overview that allows them to process the details

Interactive model is really the best reading process because it can make use of the advantages of botlort-up and lop-down models and climuinale the shortcomings within (acm 1.1.3 Features of an effective reading lesson

To have a successfitl reading lesson, it is advisable to know the characteristics of an

effoctive reading comprehension lesson According to Penny Lt (1996, p.148), an efictive

reading lesson should contain the following points:

a) The language of the text is comprehensible to the learners Itis not too difficult o7 too easy b) The content of the text is accessible to the Ieamezs, they know cnough about it in order

to apply their own background knowledge

~

©) The reading process is fairly fast: mainly because the reader has automatized recognition

of common combinations, and does not waste time working out each word or groups of words 4) The reader concentrates on the significance and skims the rest He does not have to pay

the same amount of attention to all parts of the text

2) The reatfer takes incomprehensible vocabulary in bis or her sirids: guess ils meaning from the swrounding text, or ignore il

The reader can think ahead, hypothesize, and prediet what will be next

8) The reader can use his background information for understanding the text

1) The reader is ruotivated to read by an interesting, context or a challenging task

1) The reader has a clear puxpose in reading

k) The reader uses differon slratogics for all lexts,

‘All the features listed by Penny Ur above indicate the important roles of the teacher in a successful reading lesson Concerning to this issue, Moore (1992) said that “I'he teacher is

an cnvironmenial cngincor who organizes the classroom space to fit their goal and to maximize learning The way the physical space of the classroom is organized can either help or hinder learning” (p.5)

Being concemed with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Marianne (2001, p57-62)

Tn general, all the features af av efficien! reading lesson arc equally important, In teaching reading comprehension, teachers should be aware of his/her teaching roles and take these characteristics into consideration and apply them flexibly

1.1.4, Reading probicms and solutions

According to Christine Nuttall (1982), when dealing with texts, students offen have difficulties in establishing the plain sense of the text, dealing with vocabulary and syntax, and have difficulties with the conceptual content of texts, particularly if the topic is unfamiliar or if writers and readers are fiom different cultures

More recenlly, Marianne (2001, p.203) has added more problems in reading He found that leaching and Iearning of receptive skills Greading and listening) prosenls a tmmber of particular problems which will need to be addressed There are to do with language, topic, the task students arc asked to perform and the cxpectations they have,

Both of the two authors suggested solutions for thes problems, The solutions below are suggested by Marianne (2001) ‘They are very brief but easy for teachers to follow

= Create interest: Unfamiliar topics can cause problems in reading but they can be improved if leachers succeed in creating inlerest in reading lessons They can gei sindents engaged by talking about the topic, showing a picture for prediction, having, them to look

at the headlines before reading, eto

+ Avlivale schemata: The roading procass

what they alrcady know in their real life

Comprehension task problems

- Differentiate testing and teaching: the best kind of tasks are those which raise students

expeclation, help them lease out, (he meaning of the text whereas tesls are used to explore

oopnos castar if sludents ean relate the topic to

students and their weaknesses, therefore, teachers should base on these purposes to choose suitable activities in reading lessons

+ Appropriate challer

cither far Loo easy or Gir too difficult, Getting the level night depends on the right match between text and tasks, Thus whether a text is difficult or easy, it may still be used only if the task is appropriate

Nagalive exp (ion

When students have low expectation of reading, it will be the teacher's job to persuade

them to change these negative expectations into realistic optimism

- Manufacturing success: by getting the level of challenge right (in terms of language, text

when asking sludents lo read, if is better if fexis and lasks are

and tasks), students are sure to succeed, And by giving them a clear and achicvatle purpose, teachers can help them achieve that purpose,

- Agreeing on a purpose: It is important for teachers and students to agree on both general and specific purposes for reatting, Ars the sludenis trying lo discover detailed information

or just get a general understanding of the text? If the students know what they are reading for, they can choose how to deal with the text, If they understand the purpose, they will have better chance of knowing how well they have achieved it,

1.1.5, Stages of a reading lesson

A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre-reading stage, while

reading stage and post- reading stage Each of these stages carries its own features and purposes and requires different techniques and strategies (William, 1984, p.37)

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading stage

Ina reading lesson, the pre-reading stage is an important one because it creates motivation and positive attitude towards the reading text for students It will focus their attention on what they are going to read, According to Williams this stage happens to introduce and arouse inlerest in the Lopic, motivate learners by giving a reason lor reading and provide

some language preparation for the text (1984, p37) Drucker suggested the following

procedure teacher can take before reading a text:

relate the passage stndents arc going lo read something thal is Gamniliar to thern, Next,

provide @ brief discussion quostion thal will cngage the students and, ailor that, provide and overview of the section they are bound to read Name the selection, introduce the characters, and describe the plot Last, dircet the students to read the slory or look for particular information (2003, p.23)

General speaking, this stage is really necessary to set a good preparation for students, provide them the sense of what they are going to do in their reading lesson

1.1.5.2 While-reading stage

While-reading stage is [he main part of a reading lesson Wilhoul this slage, ths studenls will lose the chance to deal with the text to understand the writer’s parpose and clarify the

text’s content in detail

Williarns (1984, 7.38) pointod oul thal the airs of the whril: reading is to help to undorstand,

the writer’s purpose; to help to understand the text strncture and to clarify the text

‘There are various activities that teachers can choose for his students in this stage, Such as skimming for the gist, scanning for spceific information, recognizing the organization of a text or understanding the relation between sentences and clauses, ete (Mathews, Spratt &

Dangerfield, 1999, p67)

Studying the reading lesson, Sheils (1993:92) suggested a wide range of activities in the while reading siagc such øs đođuơing mcmring, questioning, recognizing, matching, ordering, following instmetions, comparing, note-taking completing and decision-making/ problem-solving

10

Itis, however, essential to be flexible in this task ‘The selection of any of them depends on the nature of the reading text and the level of the students, Besides selecting suitable activities, during, the while-reading stage, the teacher should bear in mind his roles of an organizer, observer, assessor or prompler, ele

the text’s main points, retell or rewrite the stories

In summary, cach of the rcading stages carries ils own aims and aclivilics Tt is very etfective if these three stages are combined flexibly and appropriately for an efficient reading lesson

1.2 Theory of mixed-ability classes

1.2.1 Definition of mixed ability classes (MAC)

reson and Hallam (2001) suggested thal teacher need to recognize (hat a class is mủ ability because students have different strengths and weaknesses and develop at different rates They have different preferences for learning and displaying their works

Rrodromou (1995) indicates (hal mixed ability or heterogeneous classes are classes which arc made up individuals who differ in any number of ways The simplest way of locking al the class is in term of language ability and learning English ability

Penny Ur (2005, p.304) also defines MAC by listing a number of differences within them They are differences in langmge lesming abi language knowledge, cultural background, learning style, attitude towards language, mothar tongue, intelligence, world knowledge, learning experience, knowledge of other languages, age, gender, personality, confidence, motivation, interests, and/or educational level

These viewpoints provide a clear picture of MAC In this kind of learning environment, there may be differences in levels of learners’ abilities in the receptive and productive skills, fluency and accuracy work, grammatical knowledge, size of vocabulary and command af promciation Some studenls scem lo be good al languages, able a pick things up quickly and remember them, while others are slower, lacks of study skills and generally experience more difficulties in learning

1

1.2.2 Benefits of mixed alsility chisses

Apparently, to some extend, learning ina MAC still displays some strengths,

Corley (2005) found that those with limited proficiency have an opportunity to interact

with more proficiency ones, and ailvanced learners benefit by using their skills to help lower level ones nepotiate learning, Students in MAC can learn to work together across differences and develop leaming communities in which members leam from one another strengths

Ur (2005) showed a positive attitude toward MAC by listing a lot of its advantages as follows + Sludonls’ knowledge, variod opinion, intorests and ideas can be uscd in classroom interaction,

- Students incrense their knowledge and awareness of the others,

- ‘There is mmch more peer Jearning and collaboration among students since teachers are Jess able (a attend every individual student;

- Classes are more challenging, and interesting for teachers and students

These strengths of MAC should be taken into account to weaken a number of its shortcomings which will be discussed in the following part

1.2.3, Challenges pf mixed ability classes

The variations in MAC may occur in different degrees in different classes Thus, if teachers want to ensure that all students perform to their maximum potential, they must identify these problems and deal with them accordingly

According lo Penny Ur (2005), various differences in MAC pose a lot of teaching

problems Te considered some as [he tnosl significant ones in such MAC such as difficulty

in control discipline; difficulty to be certain that all students are leaming effectively; difficulty to find appropriate materials; difficulty to follow individual progress; and difficulty to activate all Iearncrs’ participation,

Salli-Coptr (2005) shared the same opinion with Penny Ur but he described the difficulties much more clearly

Effective learning

Becanse of the fict that every student has a different way of learning, and learns and progresses at different speeds, while some students may find the leaming task very easy to deal with, others may find it difficult to understand Besides, learning also depends on whal sinđenls have broughl with thom into class Since cach cores from a different family,

a different environment and/or a different nation, the multi-cultural population of the classroom may be an obstacle for the teachers in reaching the students, which eventually results in ineffective learning,

12

Interest

This problem may arise dus te the differences among studonls in terms of thoir altitude towards the subject matter and/or the teacher; their knowledge of language and their personality For instance, some students may find lessons boring, as the topic has no familiarity with them Some of the students may not be interested in the lesson, unless they get the chance to express their own ideas since the teacher talks too much during the lesson

or the other students take many turns,

Materials

Teachers, moreaver, have to deal with the problem that stndents react differsnily to the textbook due to their individual differences In fact, some students may find the textbook boring and very hard, whereas some find it interesting or very easy

Discipline

Obviously, quicker students finish the tasks given before the others As a result, they may misbchave while waiting for the others to finish The weaker stedents, on the other hand, carmot finish the (asks as quickly as dhe strong ones and tay loose their confidence anc show ill-disciplined behavior for a variely of reasons related lo thal, Consequently, mixed abilities may result in classroom management problems

In reabty, these multi-level ESL classes display more disadvantages than advantages in conclusion, it is really challenging to ESL teachers when studants of lower level may feel threatened, left out and frustrated whereas ones of higher level tee! bored and discouraged Teachers ccrlainly have to do mors work for class management and teaching matarial preparation Hence, lasson planing is often time-consuming and the classroom management is exhausting, It is also difficult to use one souree of teaching materials and there is less time for each proup of students

1.2.4, Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes

Solutions to problems in MAC are suggested by many methodologists and researchers,

According to Salti-Copur (2005), pair/group work aclivilics are uscfid in MAC They are

not only for the teacher to obscrve students but also for the students to cooperate and to

learn ftom each other When a strong student works with weaker students, the student can

be a source of language/knowledge in ths group ‘I'he teacher, on the other hand, may form

13

groups of weaker and stronger students separated from each other, and she can give different tasks to these groups So the stronger and quicker students work with more complicated tasks, whereas the weaker students deal with a simpler task or work with the teacher as a group member,

Tarmer (2008) suggested following key elements in successful large group teaching understand sludents, be organized, establish roulines, use a different pace for different activities, maximize individual work, use students, use pair and group work and take account of vision and acoustics,

Penny Ur (2005) also recommended a variety of procedures teachers could adopt to overcome the problems which emerge in MAC

- To deal with disciptins problems, toashors can vary lasks ond materials to mmike the fosson

more infcrasting since discipline problems can associated with barsdom and lack of challenges,

- For all students effective leaning, teachers can individualize activities thus students learn at their own pace, and occasionally they choose their own tasks; teachers can encourage compulsory plus optional instructions in which students have to do a minimal part of the task, and the rest they do if they want to; teachers can also open ended cues, in which students do not have prodclormincd righl answer, there ara many acceplable responses;

~ To find suitable materials, leachers have to adapt and/or supplement, course books fa add variation, to include elements of choice and individualization and to get more participation, which are important characteristics in heterogencous classes;

- To follow all students’ progress, teachers would work with individualization or monitoring, pairs and groups by listening to them and giving feedback later on;

- To activate participation, teachers should cngage students in tasks by increasing collaborative and individual work using open ended cucs

Recently, Ashok Raj Khati (2050), in his study of strategies in teaching English in large multi-level classroom, has emphasized some ways of classtoom management According

to him, it is important to establish rules from the beginning, and be fair and consistent all the time, In addition, teachers should learn students’ names to build respectfill relationship with thom by association (looking at students and sce if something strikes you), visual (soving students and noticing their fhecs or body posturc) and aural (listening to the

students’ voice)

In summary, the chapler so far has presented the relevant Tileratrme, which had helped to form the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study It has discussed about the different aspects related to reading skill as well as mixed ability classes What is more, the problems of teaching reading skills, the challenges in mixed ability olass as well as useful accordingly solutions have been reviewed

14

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To have a picture of teaching reading to the first year students in MAC in VEU, in this chapter, the researcher firstly introduces briefly the teaching context or the objective Icarning and leaching conditions in VFU Then, a survey on the Leaching of reading skills

is presented focusing on the participants, the data collection instruments and data collection procedure

2.1 The teaching context

The researcher has been an English teacher in VFU, a non-English major university for 4 years This university is situated in Xuan Mai town which is about 30 kilometers far away

from Llanoi center This following part deals with some features of the author’s teaching

context which reveals some benefits and challenges in developing students’ English skills

in her imiversity

2,1,1 The learners

VEU is a non-language major university and because of its distinct forestry majors (Sivilculture, Forest Management and Protection or Wood Processing ), many students of this university come ftom remote areas Recently, thanks to the university's policy of job extension, some other majors have been opened such as Accounting, Business Management, Informatics Technology or Construction, VFU attracts quite a lot of students fiom citics and

other nearby provinces Obviously, conditions of studying English in remote areas are very

poor, so apart fiom the difference in the students’ interest, their English proficiency is also at

different level Students from remote areas are often worse at English than those from the cities

In addition, although many students may come fiom the same area, city or province, before entering university, some of them had learned English for 6 years, some had learned for 3

‘years, some had leamed Russian or French and some even have never learned a foreign

language Thus, some of them are good at English, some of them are not Moreover, in this

university, since English is only ane of the general courses, the students offen have much more

concentration on their majors rather than practice English although it is very important for their

future jobs

2.1.2 The teachers

for 4 or 5 clas

This is equivalent to around 25 pariods cach week excluding the burden

of marking examinations and time for a lot of different school work, More than this, in each class, the teachers often have to cope with over SQ students whose English proficioney js different Apparoully, they ave to deal with a heavy workload in order to fuléill their task,

2.1.3, The syllabus

VFU has applied the same English syllabns and ths same material to students of all facultics, In their first two years, the students arc to study 150 poriods of general English which is divided into three phases and New Headway Elementary and Pre-Intermediate (written by Liz & Jokm Soars, Oxford University Press, 2000) are the main textbooks during the couse,

All the first year students have to complete the two first phases of the course In the first semester (the first phase), 14 units of New Meadway Elementary are taught in 12 weeks

which is equivalent to 60 periods, In the second semester (the second phase), the students have to leam the first 7 units of New Headway Pre-Intemediate, The last 7 units of this textbook are covered in the second year (the third phase) ‘he second and third phase only last in 45 periods Totally, the first year students have only 105 periods ta complete 21 units in New Headway Elementary and New Headway Pre-intermediate

Inthe middle or at the end of each phase, all the students are only assigned the same paper tests which focus on grammar and reading There is no assessment test on speaking and listening and writing,

2.1.4, The teaching and learning conditions

Althongh VEU is @ non-English major university, the condition of teaching and learning English is quite good, English classrooms are equipped with cassettes, computers and projectors which are usefial to enhance the effectiveness of English lessons, However, the

2.2 A survey on the teaching of English reading skills to the first year students in

of this university In addition, as described in the last part (c.f 3.11), they are not Tinglish: major students, they come ftom different provinces, and their ability to learn English is

drfferenf, too

+ The leachers are all the teachers in the foreign language department of this university, They has experienced from 3 to 17 years of teaching English Some of them used to be Russian or French teachers, and the test were filly trained to be teachers of English (c.f 3.1.2)

2.2.2 Data collection instruments

Survey questionnaire was chosen as the instrument to collect data for ihe study beemse of some reasons, Firstly, this kind of instrument does not take so much time to administer as the others Secondly, since the same questionnaire is given to all participants at the same thue, the data arc more standard and accurate Lastly, questionnaires can be casily quantified due to the use of multiple choice questions (Selinger and Shohany, 1989)

Althongte this s

tudy airns at investigating the leaching of reading skills of the VPU [sachers, survey questionaire was administered to both (he (cachers and students and they were all asked to answer questions related to the same category that can be found in class The results ftom the teachers will be compared with those from the students for more reliable

data These questions are designed to get information concerning:

+ Students’ and teachers’ sititudes toward learning and tcaching English reading skills (Question 1, 2, 3, 4- Appendix 1.A; and question 1, 2, 3, 4- Appendix 1.B)

- Teachers* difficulties in teaching reading (Question 5- Appendix L.A; and question 5, 6 —

2.2.3, Data collection procedure

Thore wore four phases in the procedure of collecting data

Firstly, all the questions tor the teachers and stndents were designed concerning, some of

the important issues in English reading classes (c.f 3.2.2)

Secondly, the author piloted the questionnaires by having some teachers and students answer them to cxamine whether they help to clicit the kind of intended data, Basing on the feedbacks fiom these students and teachers, the author revised the questions that were inappropriale or ambiguons {o the respondents and therefore improved the quality of the data obtained,

After that, the questionnaires were delivered to both students and teachers who were selected as the participants of the study at the end of the first year al, after the students had finished the two iixst phases of compulsory basic English course This is the time when the teachers understand much about their students’ proficiency, difficulties or learning styles, etc And this is the time when the students are also ñumiliar with their teacher’s teaching methods Therefore thoy can answer the questionmaires more 2

Finally, the collected data was analyzed quantitatively The results were presented in the form of charts and tables for clear analysis and comparison

củy,

In summary, this chapter presents some information about the survey on the teaching of English reading skills to the first year students in MAC in VEU It mentioned the teaching context, the participants, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedure

resulis and diset

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The survey

sion will be presented in the next chapter

18

‘This chapter will first present the results of the survey in addition to some discussion or comments, then summaries of main findings will be given,

3.1 Results and discussion

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward learning and teaching English reading skills Questions 1, 2, 3 (Appendix 1.A & 1.B) are delivered to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes to the importance of reading in English and teaching reading skills to the first year students in VFU,

Chart 1: The importance of reading in Chart 2: The importance of developing

comparison with other language reading skills to the 1st year students

B as important as other language skills B important

C not as important as other language stalls C.not very important

As shown in chart 1, about one-third of both teachers and students agreed that reading was

comprehension was as important as speaking, listening and writing, whereas only 46 % of

the students shared the same viewpoint One remarkable things shown in the chart is that

quite a large number of students (22%) considered that reading was less important than other

language skills This may be a disadvantage because these students might not pay enough

attention to learning this important skill

teachers stated that teaching reading skills to the first year students was very important and

19

important (44,4 % and 55,6%, respectively), only 68% of students had the same thought

(22% very important and 46 % important) There were still 32% of students who responded that learning reading skills in the freshman year was not vey important These

students may be the ones to whom reading is not as important as other language skills

However, it is really positive that none of the participants thought reading comprehension,

in general and learning reading in the first year at university was not important at all

Question 3 deals with the teachers’ purposes of teaching reading And this information is

confirmed by the response from the students (Chart 3)

other language skills,

C To improve background knowledge

D To take the school exam well

E To prepare for learning ESP in the next term

Different purposes were provided for learning and teaching reading skills and both students

and teachers were asked to tick their main purpose As can be seen from chart 3, the main

purpose of leaning and that of teaching reading skills for the first year students are quite identical However, the thing that should be noticed here is they both choose D (To take

the school exam well) as their main purpose of teaching and learning reading skills (44.4%

of the teachers and 47% of the students) Ranking at the second position is the purpose of reinforcing the students’ vocabulary and grammatical structures, accounting for 25% of the

students and 22.2% of the teachers A small number of the respondents chose the

objectives of improving other language skills and preparing for learning ESP in the next term And no percentage of them thought of the effect of leaning reading to improve the

background knowledge Apparently, the teachers’ reading lessons tend to focus on the

revision of language for exam rather than the development of reading skills Hence, it is

better if the teacher pay more attention to the purpose of developing their students’ reading skills

B boring and not suitable to your level =

66,7% of teachers agreed that texts in the textbook were interesting and suitable but only

51% of students reflected the same idea 37% of students in comparison with 33,3% of

teachers claimed that the current reading material was interesting but not suitable The rest

of the students said the reading texts were boring and not suitable while there were not any teachers sharing the same opinion Such big difference in the opinion about the current

reading texts may greatly affect the methods of teaching reading to the students

3.1.2 Difficulties in teaching reading texts

The next question, question 5 is to find out the frequency of difficulties faced by the

teachers when teaching reading texts The results are shown on table | below

Table 1: The frequency of difficulties in teaching reading texts

Sdews" | Teachers’ | Stident’s | Teachers’ | Students’ | Teachers’

AT ene, 64 66,7 26 222 10 11

new words in the text

B, Grammatical

As shown in table 1, the students’ difficulties of new words and grammatical structures

were quite well perceived by the teachers, for instance 64% of the students often had difficulties with a lot of new words in the text and 66,7% of the teachers were aware of that

fact, or 57% of students said they sometimes had difficulty with grammatical structures

and 55,6 % of the teachers thought the same However, for the last two mentioned

difficulties, the participants are at the two sides Remarkably, whereas only 23 % of the students said that they did not have difficulty with the topic of the text, 55,6 % of the

teachers thought they did In addition, 48% of the students in comparison with only 22,2%

of the teachers complained that the comprehension reading exercises are often difficult

This reality is unbeneficial to the students’ reading success because the teachers can not help them to overcome the difficulties about which they do not know,

Question 6 (Appendix 1.B) was designed only for the teachers to ask them about the

frequency of other difficulties they have when teaching reading in MAC

Chart 5:The frequency of other difficulties faced by the teachers when teaching reading in mixed ability classes

A Only some advanced students can

complete the required tasks

B Weak students often sit silently or do

other things instead of taking part in

Lis evident from chart 5 thal, excepl for the prabla

s of malerial, the majority of the participants complained that they otten encountered with the remained problems in MAC 77,8 % said that in thoir fessons, only some advanced studnls could complole the required tasks and they had to spend more time helping weaker students, so stronger ones seem to feel bored 66,6% complained that weaker students often sat silently or did other things instead of taking part in classroom activities And none of them said they never faced to these possible problems, The result of this question reveals big challenges for the teacher when Leaching reading Lo nixed abilily students Those existing problems corlainky have bad effects on the effectiveness of their reading lessons

3.1.3 Techniques in teaching reading texts

To investigate the cmrent lechtiques in leaching reading skills in MAC, some questions concerning the activities before, while and after reading are administered to both students and toachers

Firstly, question 6 (Appendix I.A) and question 7 (Appendix 1.8) are used for the sake of

finding oul the frequency of pre-reading avtivitics The resuli is presented in table 2 below:

Table 2; The frequency of pre-reading activities

Stadents’ | Teachers’ | Student's | Teachers’ | Students’ | Teachers’

Preveading activites choice (24) | choice (26) | choice (2; | choice (25) | choice (24) | chaice (%5)

guest the topic

F, Playing games (to know

G Brain storm words,

structures or ideas related 5 Id