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NON-ENG LISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN READING TASKS: A SURVEY RESEARCH AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY PYCI THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIEN KHONG CHUYEN DOI VOI C

NON-ENG LISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS

BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN READING TASKS: A SURVEY

RESEARCH AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY (PYCI)

THÁI ĐỘ CỦA SINH VIEN KHONG CHUYEN DOI VOI CAC BAI TAP BOC HIEU TIENG

ANH CỎ SỬ DỤNG HAI MÔ HÌNH “TỬ DƯỚI LÊN? VÀ “TỬ TRÊN XƯÔNG”:

MỘT KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐĂNG CÔNG NGIHỆP PHÚC YÊN

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodulogy Cade: 60140111

HANOI - 2014

NGUYÊN THỊ THU THÚY

NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS' ATTITUDKS TOW ARDS

BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN READING TASKS: A SURVEY

RESEARCH AT PHUC YEN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRY (PYC1)

THALDO CUA SINH VIEN KHONG CHUYEN ĐỐI VỚI CÁC BÀI TẬP ĐỌC HIỂU TIENG

ANH CỎ SỬ DUNG HAIMOHINH “TU DUGI LEN" VA“TU TREN XUONG”

MỘT KHẢO SÁT TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐĂNG CÔNG NGIIIỆP PHÚC YỀN

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Eicld: English Tcaching Mcthodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Prof Dr Nzuyén Quang

HANOI - 2014

DECLARATION

i hereby certify that the thesis entitled “ow-Linglish Major Students’ Attindes Towards Bottom-up and Top-down Reading Tasks: A Survey Research at Phue Yen College of Industry (PYCD” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Foreign Languages and Intemational Studies, [lanoi National

y, and thal this thesis has not been subrnitled for any degree at any other

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and forcmnost, I would like lo express my deepest gratituds to my supervisor, Prof Nguyen Quang, Ph.D for his cxperionced guidance, valuable suggcstions, invaluable ctitical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study Without his support, this thesis wonld not have been completed

My groat gratitude goes Io all the lecturers and the staff of the Posl-Grartuals Departmen! for giving me valuable knowledge and helpful assistance

My thanks are cxtended to my students, especially the students in two classes

TA2.LT1 and TA2.L]

using bollorn-up and top-dewn models Therefore,

the findings of this study can serve as the answer to a main research question: Whar are

PFCI students’ attitides towards bottom-up and top-down reading tasks? The data of this study are collecled through questionnaires and interviews The data from the questionnaire

are calculated in percentage for interpretation and analysis based on the theory of attitude

‘Che participants are 78 second-year students who come from different majors in Phuc Yen

College of Industry taking English? course

activities as well as prepare more interesting reading materials and activities that meet their

stidents’ nesds and interests

ii

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the sindy

3 Resoarchh qu6sfÏƠDB coi

4 Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

1.1.3 Reading Ảilgl6§ ococserosooee

1.2 Reading and sohema Ïh€GFÿ cecceeieree

1.4 Mođcls 0Ý rcnđing pioGc5 series

1.4.1 Boffom-tp mođel con site

1

Chapter Two: ‘The Study

2.1.1 The teachers and the studsnfs

3.2.5 Students’ preference of the teachers’ ways of teaching reading 32

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

‘Table 1: ‘'ypes of reading tasks (unit 9 to unit 14) in the Lifelines Pre-intermediate book

Table 2: Characteristics of th:

Figure 1.1: Frequency of the bottom-up strategies used by PYCI students (N78)

Ligure 1.2: Frequency of the top-down strategies used by PYC1 students (N=78)

Figure 2.1: Students’ genoval as:

Figure 2,2: Students’ general assessments of the types of reading tasks (N-50)

Figure 2.3: Students” perceptions of difficulties of the reading tasks (N=50)

merits of the reading tasks (W=50)

Figure 2.4: Students” perceptions of the most useful slage in reading (N=5O)

Figure 2.5: Students’ attitudes towards bottom-up and top-down reading tasks in the Pre- reading stage (N=50)

Figure 2.6: Students’ altitudes towards bottom-up and top-dewn reading tasks im the

PYCI: Phuc Yen College of Industry

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

N: Number

Q Question

BU: Bottom-up

‘CD: Lop-down

a lot of rescarchors have carticd their studios on students’ reading strategies or ways of improving reading abilities, not many studies on EL students’ attitudes towards reading in higher education, especially reading with paricntar models tike bottom-up and top-dawn

have been conducted In thet, students’ attitudes are very important in learning pracess as il

is one important factor affecting motivation in language learning (Oxford and Shearin,

1994) Llaving positive attitude towards learning, students will carry out their learning to

the best of their ability and vice v

Therefore, with a view to gaining some insights into students’ attitudes towards reading to ascertain what reading task (top-down or bottom-up) EPL students prefer to use and find out the students’ attitudes towards the twe model reading tasks, the writer decides

to do research on “Non-English Major Students’ Attitudes Towards Bottom-up and

Top-down Reading Tasks”, It is hoped that the findings from this study will be of some benefit

to teachers and students at PYCT in toaching and leaning Teading,

2 Aims of the study:

‘The primary aim of the study is finding out attitudes of the non-English major students lowards bollomeup and top-down reading tasks at Phuc Yen College of Industry The author believes that positive attitude is very important in learning because if the students do not have positive attitudes towards a subject, technique and innovation used by

lonchers in Leaching Ihat subject seer to be kely worthless Tl is hoped thal the results af

the study will provide PYCI teachers with better understanding of their students’ attitudes,

and then they can adjust their teaching to teach more effectively Moreover, the findings of the study will also be some help to PYCT stndents by providing, them with neccssary

information about their own attitudes towards reading Then, they can now more about their ways of learning reading and adjust their learning to get better zesults

To achieve this aim, the study has the following objectives:

© ‘fo examine what strategies (Bottom-up or Top-down) are used by students

al PYCI

«© To investigate PYCI students’ attitudes towards Bottom-up and Top-down

reading tasks

3 Research Questions:

‘The research questions addressed in this study are:

1 What strategics (Bottom-up or Top-down) arc frequently used by PYCI students in their reading?

2 Whal are PYCI students’ allitudes lowards hollom-up and lop-down reading tasks?

4 Scope of the study

‘This study is limited to the area of investigating attitudes of non-Linglish major students in doing Rnglish reading tasks using hollomup and lop-down madels al PYCI II

is not intended to find out the effect of the two models on students’ achievements in

xeading The study takes place within one vocational school; therefore, there will be no

generalization of the findings for other places.

5 Methods of the study

This study adlopts a descriptive method, especially, the survey method with twa questionnaies taken as the main instrument in collecting data Besides, follow-up interviews are also carried out to get better understanding of the students” attitudes towards reading and give more accurate data to [he study

6 Organization of the study

‘The thesis consists of three main parts: INTRODUCTION which provides an

overview of the study, DEVELOPMENT which is tho main parl and consists of 3

chapters, and CONCLUSION which inckades the summary, pedagogical implications, Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

‘Thice chapters in the tain part arc as follows:

Chapter T; Literature Review is the review of the literature related to the

research topic, which serves as a theoretical foundation of the study

Chapter If; The Stady provides information about the rescarch context,

participants, research approaches, data collection instruments, data coltection procadures, and data analysis procedures

Chapter TH: Data Analysis and Discussion is the main pat of the study,

which reports and discusses the main findings according to the research questions,

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter One: LITERATURE REVIEW:

This chapter aims at providing, a theoretical background to the study The review of the issues most relevant to be the focus of the study will be included: theory of attitudes, reading, reading Iasks, lop-down and botton-up stratogics in roading,

1.1 Attitudes

1.1.1, Definitions of Attitudes

Generally, atlitudles can be understood as people's response to a curtain thing sueh

as an object, an idea, a person or a situation Hogg & Vaughan (2005) detine that an attitude is “a relatively enduring organization of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant objects, groups, events or symbols” (p 150) Fishbein & Ajzen (1975, p 6) state that attitude is “a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to @ given object” They also

indicate thal a person's altitude towards an object affects the person's intentions to perform

behaviors relating to that object (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975)

Kerlinger (1984) has a similar view to the above researchers He states that

aifiluds affect people ta have œ corbin tendoney toward things around thom such as environment, issues, and different kinds of ideas Attitude afifcts people’s emotion, motivation, and cognitive response toward certain problems and matters In other words, attitude is a special thought or opinion that people have when they face some problems or view certain mallers, Since we ate different fom cach other, we ecrlainly have different responses or attitudes towards something

The structure of attitude is constructed by three components mentioned by Mathewson (1994), They arc affective, cognitive, and behavior components, The first component is affective which refers to a person’s feeling/emotion about an attitude object

A person can express his opinion of “goocebad” aboul a particular thing Tt can be like or dislike The second component is cognitive which involves a person’s beliet/knowledge about a thing such as particular person, idea, argument, and situation, In other words, it is a set of thoughts or beliefs towards an object ‘The last component is behavioral response,

which refers to the way fhe allitude we lave influen how we act or bebave When

someone has a certain thought or belief about something, he/she will behave or shows

his/her response in a certain way towards that thing In other words, people’s behaviour will normally be decided by whal they thought and betieve and this behavior can be acted positively or negatively depending on what is in people’s mind Therefore, it can be said that an altitude is a tendency to respond emotionally, cognitively, or behaviorally to a particular entity in @ particular way towards anything

In this study, the writer would like to focus “attitude” as “learning attitude”, particularly, student's attitde in learning reading ‘To measure attitude in reading, Mathowson’s definition of attiinds is considered an offeetive and reliable way This study, therefore, adopts the definition by Mathewson (1994) as its framework, which mentions three components: affective, cognitive, and behavior The reason is that it can cover the Treaning o[ how the students think, foot and reael Lo bollort-up and lop-down reading tasks

1.4.2 Attitudes in language learning

Attitudes and leaming have a close relationship A lot of researches have been proved that students with positive attitudes towards learning can go further in their study, while those with negative attitudes offen fail in achicving their goals, As Gardner and Lamper (1972, p 132) conclude “success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on intelleclual capabstity and language aptitude” but also on “one’s altitudes towards representatives on that language” as well

According to Gardner (1979), there is obviously a mmtual relationship between

aililudss and mofivation in language learning, Te also adds in his later research (1985) that

posilive alfilude and rootivation arc related 10 su oss in second Tanguage Tearing, Tf Jeamers have positive attitudes, they will have motivation in their study and then can get better results Also, Champer (1999) asserts that whan the leamer has a positive attitude towards the language learning, their learning will ovcur mors casily Positive altitude ean enhance an integrative motivation, so enhance the proficiency as well

In conclusion, all researchers have claimed that students’ attitude is an integral part

of lcaming, and thereforc, should be an csscntial component of second language pedagogy 1.1.3, Reading Attitudes

For a particular skill like reading, some researchers give their conclusions about the

“a state of mind, accompanied by feelings and emotions that make reading more or less

ve allective predisposition towards

researchers state the vital rote of attitudes in leamiing ronding, TẾ we can find ont students? attitudes, we will have a clearer sight about our students and can make some adjustments in teaching to suit with their needs and interests

As ientioned above, Mathowson’s three-component view of attitndes including affective, cognitive, and behavior show one’s attitude towards reading The study, however, focuses on the first two of the three components: affective and cognitive The behavioral component is not included because it will need much more time and effort to measure soparatcly the bchavioral response with the two models; bottom-up and top-down In this case, the behavior is understood as “the action readiness for reading” (Yamashita, 2004, p 84), For example, a person will regularly spend time lo read books or newspapers when

‘he/she believes that reading is important or necessary thing to do That is a kind of positive response In contrast, if one has negative thought or feeling about reading, he/she may

show negative response lo reading Therefore, il can be understand that students will act

positively and nogalively basing on what they bali

1.2 Reading and Schema Thoory

1.2.1 Reading:

¢ or thrink about reading

There have been many definitions of reading defined by many finguists, psvchologists, educators and second language researchers, but an exact definition of reading still causes some confusion

Goodman (1971, p 135) defincs that roading is “psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” When reconstructing the message, the reader noods lo usc his/her hackground knowledge to commuicals with the written loxi, sơ

‘that the text could be comprehended, Koda (2005, p 14) and Sweet and Snow (2003, p 1)

‘have the same opinion ‘They think that reading is a process of deriving meaning fom the

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print and integrating the new information with the old one The old information is the reader's prior background knowledge and experience

Smith (1985, p 102) defines that “reading is understanding the author’s thought” and the readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s words.” ‘hat is because the meanings of the texl need lo be understood in contexl, nol thie words in isolation, Therefore, when reading, if readers only focus on the words, they are not be able to catch exactly what the anthor implied William (1986, p 3) reconfirms what Smith said before about reading

He says, “written texts, thon, oflen contain more (han we need to understand than Ths

efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning”

In different view, Harmer (1989, p 153) only focuses on two actions dominated by the

‘background knowledge combined with social cxpericnees

involves the reader, the lexi, and the iuleraclion belwsen the reatler and the lext

1.2.2 Schema Theory

According to DiMaggio (1997), a schema “describes an organized pattern of

thought or behavier that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them” (ciled in Wikipedia) Anderson (1977) poinls out thal schema provide a form af representation for complex knowledge and provide a principled account of how old knowledge might influence the acquisition of new knowledge Schema theory is applied to understanding the reading process According lo the schema theory, the reader brings

previously acquired background knowledge organized into interrelated patterns, or schemata, to the reading process Then the reader creates meaning by relating the text to this background knowledge, including knowledge of customs and belicfs from his or her own experiences

Schema theary states that readers will base ơn their knowledge of the world in order to help them understand what they rad (Anderson, 2004) Alptckin (2003) identifies thice types of schemata, which have an impact on reading comprehension The first one is background knowledge of the subject of the text called “content schemata” If the reader

7

‘has it, it is likely that the comprehension of the text will be caster, or vice versa The

ond one is prior knowledge of rhetorical structures and com

schemata” such as cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, and chronological order, etc) ‘he last one is “abstract schemata”, which refers to the social relationships and activities that happens in specific situations or cultures, Students who are equipped with abstract schema can make use of the memory about the events and thus contribute to their comprehension

as Ít onhaneos students’ ability to “hear” what they arc rcading It is a good way for beginners leaming a foreign language to establish the connection between sound and spelling Towever, because of totally focusing on the pronunciation when reading, students tend to misunderstand the meaning of the text Moreover, it takes more time for readers to

read out loud As Abott and Wingard (1981, p 82) mention “the reader is often merely

mouthing meaningless language because of tack of rehearsal and time to comprehend what

‘he has to toad aloud” Therofare, the uscfulness of reading alond is limited and reading alond might be a good way for students to practice and enihance promanciation,

4.3.2 Silent reading

As suggcsted by Brawn (1989), one will encomntzr intensive and exlensive reading when he/she reads a text silently, Intensive reading is used to teach or practice specific reading strategies or skills, Extensive reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantitics of matcrial, dircctly and fluently It may include reading simply for pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material This later type of text, more academic, may involve two specific types of reading, scanning for key details or skimming for the cascntial ancaninys

13.2.1 Intensive reading

According to Brown (1990, p 297), intensive reading “is usually a classroom- oriented uetivily in which students focus on the lings

Long and Richards (1987) say intensive reading is a "detailed in-class” analysis, led by the teacher, of vocabulary and grammar points, in a short passage" Agreeing with this view,

stic or semantic dolails of a passage”

Brown (1989) explains thal infensive reading “calls alfention to grammalical forms, discourse markers, and othar surface structure details for the purpose of understanding, literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like." According to Nutall (2000, p 38), intensive reading involves approaching the text under ths guidance of a teacher or a task, which forees the student to focus on the text For example, students have

to lear the new vocabulary and phrases, study the grammar rales and the structures of the context Then, afler the taachor gives instructions, # test of the vooubulary, grerunumar Knowledge and the text’s content is followed, The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning is produced Intensive reading has some characteristics They ars:

a) Usually classroom based

b) Reader is intensely involved in looking inside the text

¢) Students focus om linguistic or sernantic details of reading,

4) Students focus on surface structure details such as grammar and discourse markers

2) Students identify key vocabulary

f) Students may draw pictures lo aid thern (such as in problem solving)

g) Toxts arc yaad carcfully and thoroughly, repeatedly

bh) Aim is to build more language knowledge rather than simply practice the skill of reading

Advantages and disadvantages af Intensive reading

Some advantages and disadvantages can be pointed out For advantageous points, intensive reading provides a base to study structure, vocabulary and idioms Besides, it provides a base for students to develop a ercatcr control of language Morcovcr, it also provides for a check on the degree of comprehension for individual For the opposite point, there have been some disadvantages, Hisstly, there is little actual practice of reading

because of the small amount of text In a class with mulli-reading abilities, studcwts may

not be able to read at their own level because everyone in the class is reading the same material Secondly, the fext may not be interesting to the students because it is chosen by

9

the teacher ot already fixed ‘Thirdly, there is little chance to learn language pattems due to

'4USG CXI s and a:

the small amount of text Finally, b sms usually fallow

intensive reading, students may come to associate reading with testing and not pleasure

Wuitall (2000, p 127) argues, “gelling stadouls Lo rcad oxlonsively is the casiest and most

effective way of improving their reading skills” This type of reading is suitable for students! selfJearning, They read directly and fluently in the foreign language for their owm enjoyment without the aid of the feacher [owever, extensive reading can be best achieved only through an instructional program,

Extensive reading involves skimming and scanning as strategies to gain general

sense of a texl, skinmring for the giai and scamming for some key details

Scanning

Scanning is a quick reading, focusing on locating specific information According

lo Francois (1981), “when scamming, we only try lo locals specific information and often

we donot even follow the linearity of the passage to do sa We simply lel our cyos wander over the text until we find what we are locking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of information” (p 19) Therefore, scanning involves quick eye movements until the reader Finds the picee of information necded Before finding the information, the reader knows what the item looks like and so, knows when he has located what he was searching for, There is a great range of text suitable for scanning - indexes, dictionaries, amaps, advertiscments, labels, referenec material, ete

Skimming

Skimming is also a quick reading to get to know the general meaning of a passage, the structure of the lext, and Lo gel an idea of the inkantion of the writer, Nultall (1982, p36) states, “by skimming, we mean plancing rapidly through a text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially

10

informed about matters that are not of great importance to us”, Skimming is considered a more complex task than scanning boca:

¢ i requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it

Advantages and disadvantages af lixtensive reading

There are also some advantages and disadvantages of exlensive reading The advantages can be developing students’ reading habit, gaining more confidence in reading, and improving their attitude towards reading From that, they become motivated to read

However, an extensive reading program may be costly and time-consuming lo sct up if materials are not already available, Besides, students need to have easy access to texts within their language proficiency level An extensive reading program is easiest to calablish whon the students have @ high level of sccond language proficiency, For intermediate levels, students requize a specialized library within their language proficiency range They need texts they can read without great use of a dictionary Finally, it may be difficult to keep students challenged to read more difficult texts as the program continues

To sum up, for second or forcign language lcarnes, both intensive and oxtensive reading are of great importance as they act as a means not only to gain knowledge but also

to develop learners language skills

1.4, Models of reading process

“The reading process involves the text, the reader and the interaction between the lwo Theorists have proposed three basic models of haw reading occurs Cbotlarenp, lop down and inloravlive) Tn the bollom up pro

, Isarners use their linguistics ability lo work with a text, wliereas in top-down process, leamers activate their background knowledge and reflect it on the text they read t'he third models claims that a learner needs

to combine the two processes mentioned abave In this study, the author only analyses twa models of reading process: bottom-up model and top-dowm model to focus only on the reading tasks using the two models

1.4) Bottom-up model

“The first and oldest approach to the reading process is the bottom-up processing, which can be said to be a traditional view of the reading process In bottom-up model, comprohonsion hogins by processing the smallest linguistic mil (phoneme) and working towards larger units (syllables, words, phrases, sentences ), and proceeds fiom part to whole In other wards, bottom-up process refers to deriving the meaning of the text based

1E

on the incoming language data, from sounds, words, grammatical relationships, to meaning,

wed as a passive pro

In this way, reatling is, dependent on the written or printed tex!

Nuttall (2005, p 17) also points out that reading is a process of identifying leters and

words, figuring out sentence structures and then constructing a meaning from the printed words That means they use linguistic knowledge Lo understand the meaning of a Iext

According to Nunan (1991), reading in bottom-up view is basically a matter of decoding a

series of written symbols into their aural equivalents in the quest for making sense of the lexl The reader reaches al understanding, in hollom-up reading, firsl, by pulling different

text elements together; that is, letters and words witil a chunk of data is created (decoding stage) Paran (1996) and Alderson (2000) have the same view when they agree that the

‘bollom-up process of reading can bo as a serial model where the reador bogins with the

printed word, recognizes graphics stinmuli, decodes them to sounds, recognizes words, and decodes meaning

Students may use some hottom-up strategies in their reading performance like

identifying the meaning of unknown words (by dividing them into their component

Taorphemes and analyzing each morpheme szparately), analyzing sentences grammatically

for their syntax, fense, reference, pumeluation (lo determine whal is happening and how

sentences are related to each other), paying attention to the body of text Qooking for visual

aids or examming general context to determine the meaning of unknown words and phrases), identifying a paraphrase thal sums up a difficull werd or phrase

As Anderson (2008) conctudes in his study Cheginning-levet readers should be

exposed to a strong bottom-up component” and “with a strong foundation in bottom-up

skills, beginning-level readers will become more-proficient readers more quickly.” (p 28), bollom-up reading modct is considered an effective way for beginning Engtish proficiency

learners It is, however, criticized for its failure to account for the contribution ot the reader,

whose expectations about the text, which are informed by his/her knowledge of language

aud his/her prier background knowledge, arc cmployed as part of the reading proccss

Eskey (1973) also agrees that the decoding model is inadequate because it underestimates the contribution of the reader who makes predictions and processes information It fails to yecognizs thal sludents utilize their expectations about the text, based on their knowledge of

Janguage and how it works (p 3)

1.4.2 Tep-down maidel

A top-down reading model, which is called a cognitive view, can be described as a complete contrattiction ofa bollom-up model Goodman (1970) calls it "a psychotinguistic guessing game", which is quite exact that the reader does not immediately concentrate on the elements of text, but makes predictions about the meaning based on his/her knowledge

of syntax and semantics Therefore, this model mainly focuses om the learnsrs/readers,

In top-down proves, “The knowledge, experience, and concepts that readers bring

to the text, in other words, their schemata, are part of the process” (Dechant, 1991, p 25)

Loarnors uss their prior knewledge to take prodictions about the lexi they ars roading Tis possible to say that it is easier for students to comprehend the passage if they have background knowledge about it, When students are familiar with the topic they are able to proves i much beticr Whorcas, if students have difficultics with it, they may nol truly understand the text and finish the reading task well

The top-down model could involve skimming over an entire text (to locate important points and gain a general understanding of the text), identifying the discourse structure of the text đo locate important information), predicting desived information, relating pieces of information, making inference, analyzing of the author’s motives, combining the information presented in the text, with their background knowledge

Although considered a good way of comprehending a text, the top-down model of reading also has shortcomings Samuels and Kamil (1988, p 32) reveals that a reader will

1.5, Reailing tasks

In teaching receptive skills like reading comprehension, there are usually three main stages which consist of several tasks ‘The fasks are based on the purpose we want to achieve in cach stage Before analyving cach in details, we first sco what good reading tasks are, Nunan (1999, p, 262) points out some characteristics of good reading, tasks as follows:

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- ‘Typically make use of authentic and challenging text

- Involve students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question answering

- Frequently involve the transfer of information from the text to a visual or diagrammatic

representation

1.5.1 Pre-reading tasks

‘The pre-reading tasks in a reading are often aimed at providing anticipation and activating the roader’s schema (Ur, 1996), They generally help sindsnis ta

- Activate or develop prior knowledge

- Activate or provide knowledge of the text structure

+ Introduce key vocabulary

- _ Establish a reason for reading

‘The pre-teading activities are considered as vital because they provide students with required background knowledge that will be needad lo have a beller comprehension when the students interact with a passage, They are also useful for students to set up a purpose for reading With the pre-reading activities, students get familiar with the topic, vocabulary, or complex struclures im the passage Moreover, pre-rsading acHiviliss ars

imporlant factors im motivating the readers to read the text, and wher they are motivaled,

then they are prepared for the reading activity Thus, they can finish the activity better without spending too much effort and are more willing to take a part in the activity as they have gained confidence

Ur (1996) believes that pre-tasks make the activities more interesting because they let the students have a purpose in reading, and give the teacher a chance to see how well the text can be understood with the help of the tasks given beforc/after reading, In pro- reading activities, the teacher should prepare different tasks by getting students think, write, and discuss everything they possibly know about the topic, applying techniques like somnlic mapping, prediction, proviewing, brain showoring, ote Here is summary of some tasks used to predict the content in pre-reading stage:

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- Activating backgroumd knowledge: open prediction, Irue/ Lalse prediction, pre- question

- Previewing: look at the title and the headings for each section to predict what the reading text is about, look at the pictures to predict what the reading text is about,

+ Overviewing: read the first and the Tasl_ paragraphs of the text to predict what il is aboul

In short, the pre-reading tasks prepare the learners for a reading sélection, or give them the first steps in order to develop skills in anticipation and prediction for the reading, activating background knowledge so thoy could lator interact botter with the text, With these tasks, teachars give students meaningfil pieces of information that they would encounter in the reading

1.5.2 While-reading tasks

‘The aims of this stape are to help students to understand the specific content and to perceive the rhetorical structure of the text (Celce-Murcia, 1991) This stage is quite important because the tasks aid students developing reading strategies, as well as improving their controt of the sccond language by decoding problematic text passages Given tasks may consist of guessing word meaning by using contextual clues, word formation clues, or cognals practice like considering syntax and sentence shucture (by noting the grammatical functions of unknown words, analyzing reference words, predicting text content, reading for specific pieces of information, and sven fearing to use the dictionary effectively) With these tasks, teachers take the learners through the reading and

they interact in the text

‘A few examples of while-reading tasks could be any one of the following:

- Identify topie sentences and the main idea of paragraphs

+ Distinguish hetween general and specific ideas,

- Identify the connectors (however, moreover, thus, ete) to see how they link ideas

within the text

- Cheek whether or not predictions and guesses arc confirmed

- Skim/soan a text for specific information

- Answer literal and inferential questions

1.8.3 Post-reading tasks

Post-reading stage consists of tasks in which leamers, after interacting with the reading, reflect, argue and give their points of view Pos

Thinking aloud, discussion, and summarizing are considered useful post-reading tasks As Karakas (2002) declares that using activities like summarizing, question and answer typo of aetivitios,

and drawing conclusions, readers ean comyrchend the lext boller Thus, the teacher can create activities like asking the students to retell story with new endings, re-enact text; dramatize interviews based upon the text, and create role-play situations, etc

1.6, Review of previous studies

‘There have been studies highlighting students’ attitudes towards some aspects of learning reading Black (2006) investigates students’ reading aldiludes across the primary

‘years and finds out that “with a positive attitude towards reading engagement, students are more likely to engage fully in reading activities in a recreational or an academic context” (p 150), Measuring third through fifth grade students? altitudes towards digilal and print-

‘based roading, Allen's (2013) rescarch indic

that the [omele sidonts have morc positive attitudes toward reading than males; “younger students do not have more positive attitudes toward reading than older students” (p 160); and students” attitudes towards reading arc not depended on their access to modern technolagios ¢p 161) In comparison with the research related to early readers, research related to adolescent readers seems to fall short Sarawit (2009) do research on freshman students’ attitude towards reading in an intcrnational bachelor degree program in Thailand, the results show that, in gcneral, there are slightly negative attitudes towards reading among all of the students but they have

positive attitudes toward the SAP program (a reading program with short stories and

articles sclovied for cuftural divorsily) Tt can be scon that most of (he tescarch wninly focus on students’ attitudes towards reading in general, little attention has been given to students’ attitudes towards particular reading tasks It can be formd only two of recent

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studies concerning with reading tasks ‘They are Al-Ghonaim’s (2003) study about students’ alfitudes towards rexding-lo-writs tasks and Zhon and Sisiyothin’s (2009) sludy about writing-to-read tasks, No study has been found about the students’ attitudes towards bottom-up or/and top-down reading tasks Lhat is also the reason why the waiter decides to conduct this research

1.7, Summary

In this chapter, the author has been presented and discussed the theoretical

‘backgronnd for the sludy Totaling to attitudes, reading and roading tasks as woll As mentioned the important role of attitudes in language leaming, investigating students’ attitudes will bring advantages to the teaching and learning process ‘This is the motive of the aludy In the next chapler, the main sindy will bs reported lo answer the proposed

research questions.

Chapter Two: THE STUDY This chapter introduces the context of PhucY a

College of Industry where the study is conducted, The participants, methodology, instruments and procedures of the study will be presented in details

2.1 Context of the study

‘The natural setting for the study is PhucYen College of Industry (PYCI), whichis a small college in Vinh Phuc province Its principle objective is to train students with

varieties of faculties such as Ticonomics, Information and Teckmology, Electrical

Engineering, Mechanic Engineering, Constraction Engineering

At PYCL, English is not regarded as the main subject However, it is considered as

4 means lo communicate and complete the sludenls’ cerlain activities al work it their future career, Through three years studying, students have to take part in two courses of General English called English 1 and English 2 ‘rhe students can enrol English) only when they pass an Entrance Txam for English English} usually starts in the sovond tor

of their first academic year and English 2 is in the next ten After finishing the two courses, students will enter the English for Specitic Purpose course, It is applied in all fields except for English in Geology and English in Construction Engineering

2.1.4 The teachers and the students

AtPYCI, there are ten teachers of English currently working at the age ftom thirdly

to forty Their experience in teaching Fnglish varies from five years to over ten years Thuce of them had M.A degree, and five of them are taking M.A courscs All the teachers

‘here are enthusiastic with their career and willing to devote their time to language teaching Most of the teachers Iry io find oul an appropriate way to teach Tinglish effectively They adap materials and usc some anthnlic materials to make the lessons mora interesting However, some other teachers usually employ the traditional methods of teaching espacially Granmar-translation method ‘They spend most of the classroom time explaining now words, analyzing grammar structures and transtating lexts into Vietnamese, They onty focus on analyzing the grammar miles, not on the acquisition of language skills This creates very few chances for students to practice and improve their communicative

competence

PYCT’s students come trom different provinces and different parts of Vinh Phuc

province where the school is situated All of them are from the countryside, where there

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are not many good opportumaties for studying Linglish Although the students, theoretically,

have all finished threc years to seven years of learning English at sceondary and high

schools before, most of them commonly did not spend much time learning English at

school Some students have rather good English, but generally, the students” English

proficiency is nol high

2.1.2 The course book used

At PYCI, the book officially chosen in teaching and leaming English is Lifeline Pro-intormediate by Torn Hutchinson including fourteen units in total In cach uni, thers

are parts for grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking, and pronunciation

After every unit, there is one Extension session, which provides students with some more

reading, listening and speaking (asks In English 1, thơ shudonIs have lo finish the first eight

units in sixty periods (fifty minutes per period), The rest will be covered in English 2 in

forty-five periods, The time used for each unit is very short, so the teachers usually have to

decide which part should be given more focus on than others Reading is a separated part

in cach at Thị part is often given more attention with the purpose of helping students

get familiar with reading texts and learn how to read effectively That will be helpful for

students in studying English for Spscific Purpose course in the next year Uers is the

information about the reading session in English 2 (from unit nine to unit fourteen), which

is the part of this study,

Pro-reading lasks

9 Would you get - Guess what the text

involved? is about from the title

- Read the first paragraph and guess the following events

'While-rcnding tasks

- Hind specific information fo answer the given questions

~ Discuss the qnestions

in groups, then compare

+ Give solutions im

specific situations

Posi-rcsding lasks

- Deseribe what happened using the given information

= Write the ending of

the story

10 The £349 - Gness what the

hhousewile is aboul from the

picluro and the headline of the article

- Decide if each slalernent is Truc/False/Don’l know

~ Discuss the given question

11 Fiona’s new - Look at the

look photograph and = Skim for gist

- Do the matching -Write a short

summary of the articles

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discuss the questions | - Scan the text for using the given format

- Read the first explicit information to paragraph and answer | answer the questions

the questions - Discuss the questions

- Read the text more carefully and answer the

questions

12 Comet ~ Guess the mainidea | - Sean the text and ~ Role-play the task,

of the text by zeading | answer the questions ask and answer about

the first and the last | - Do the matching an imaginary disaster paragraph - Read and discuss the _| - Write anewspaper

questions report about another

- Imagine a situation and | imaginary disaster

solve the problems in | using given format

pairs

13 Bodyclooek - Answer the ~ Scan the text and - Discuss the given

questions by looking | identify the detail questions in groups

at the pictures and the | information

title of the article - Check the detailed

information

- Answer the questions

14, Heroic, brave _- Discuss the ~ Do the matching ~ Work in groups and

or just crazy? questions basing on _| - Find the words inthe | write an article about

the titi and the text associated with the | another job using given

- Answer the questions

- Discuss the situation in

groups

Table I Types of reading tasks (unit 9 to unit 14; in the Lifelines Pre-intermediate book

Il can bo soon in Table 1 thal the reading tasks in all thước siagros tond Lo be assigned

with more top-down than bottom-up strategies, For example, these tasks require the

students to use top-down skills like predicting the content based on the students’ own

knowledge, skimming the text connecting parts of the text to comprehend the whole text

2.2 Participants

The target population of the study is all second-year students at PYCI Seventy-

eight of them taking the course English 2 in two classes TA2 LT1 (thirty-six students) and

TA2.LT3 (forty-two students) wore the accessible population All of the students were

non-English major students and their age ranged from nineteen to twenty-three with twenty

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