Luận văn a student based evaluation of the reading comprehension tasks in tieng anh 12 nang cao

‘The methodology course in postgraduate program has changed our mind aid provided us with the new perspective about our English language teaching career: It helps us shape our ctitical t

VU THI KIM THANH

A STUDENT- BASED EVALUATION OF THE READING COMPREHENSION

TASKS IN “TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO”

ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐỌC HIẾU

TRONG SÁCH “TIÊNG ANH 12 NÂNG CAO”

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

HANOI - 2010

VU THI KIM THANH

A STUDENT- BASED EVALUATION OF THE READING COMPREHENSION

TASKS IN “TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO”

ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA HOC SINH VE CAC HOAT DONG DOC HIEU

TRONG SACH “TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO”

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: LE VAN CANH (MA)

HANOI - 2010

4, Statemeats of the Problems and Ratiouale for the Study

2 Aimis of the Study

3 Sigaificance of the Study

4 Scope of the Study

5 Methods and Procedure

6 The Stricture of the Thesis

1.1 Reading comprehension oi

1.1.1 Definition of Reading aud Reading Comprebeusion 2

1.1.2 The Importance of Reading Comprebension in Foreign Lauguage Learning 1.1.3 Reading Sub-Skills

1.2 Reading comprehension Tasks

1.2.1 Tasks

1.2.2 Reading Tasts “

1.2.3 Types of Reading Tasks

1,3 Textbook Evaluation wo

1.3.1 Definition of Textbook Evaluation

1.3.2 The purpose of Textbook Evaluation

1.3.3 Types of Textbook Evaluation

1.3.4 Models of Micto-Bvalustion of Tasks

1.3.5 Studeat- Based Textbook Evaluation :

1.3.6 The Need to Have Students’ Evaluation of the Reading Tasks

1.3.7 Ciiteria for Evaluation

vi MA Thesis

1.4 Previous Studies on the New Set of English Textbooks ic

CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF THE READING TASK IN TIENG ANH 12 NANG

2.1 Overview of the National Curriculum and Syllabus for ELT

2.2 Overview of the Textbook

4.1.1 Usefulness of the Readiag Tast:

4.12 Usefulaess of the information

4.1.8 The need to modify aad supply more reading comprebeusion tasks 31

4.1.9 Matching persoual wading strategies a L2 Qualitative data 32

4.2.1 Usefuluess to studeuts’ English language leaming

4.2.2 Relevance to the students’ needs

4.2.3 Studeuts’ expectations

APPENDIX 2 CAU HOI PHONG VAN CHO HỌC SINH W

APPENDIX 3 OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE READING SECTION VI APPENDIX 4 THE SUGGESTED ADDITION OF THE READING TASKS VI

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1; Types of reading tasks developed within Davies’ and Green's model 9

Table 2.3 Types of Reading Tasks

Figure 4.3 Students’ opinion on genres of vending texts +

Table 4.1 Students” opinions towards how much vocabulary and grammar is consolidated and

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INTRODUCTION

1 Statements of the Problems and Rationale for the Study

In the age of globalization the statis of English has been enhanced, As Richard (1985:1) reminds us the current state of English has tumed a significant percentage of the

‘world population into part time users or leamers of English This is also true for Vietuam

in the new social context with the recent economic renovation, the participation in WTO as

well as regionalization and globalization There has been increasing demand for mastering English

The teaching and leaming English in high secondary school is most prioritized by the MOET The old set of textbooks which was used for a long time has been replaced by the new one in 2002 which is claimed to incorporate the latest methodology in second

language teaching The introduction of the new textbooks is considered the first step

towards the achievement of better quality of education The objectives of the books have been adjusted for a better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in

terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing” (Hoang et al., 2006a:33)

Being an effective and fluent reader in another language is Very important ‘ae reading helps students consolidate what they have leamed and support their further study

According to Carrel (1981:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most important of

the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” Unfortunately, teaching and leaming readings skills is still far from satisfactory for various reasons

The new textbooks for upper secondary school level comprised two sets: the basic book and advanced books Hoang Van Thu specializing secondary school chooses the basic books for non English specializing classes and the advanced for English specializing

‘ones English 10 and English 11 were approved and officially introduced into schools by MOET in the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively English 12 has been

implemented in the nationwide scale since the academic year 2008-2009 Up to now it has

been used for English specialized classes of grade 12 in Hoang Van Thu school for two

years

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As a teacher of English in a specializing high school, I have worked quite closely with the new textbooks I have noticed that although the books have shown a great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of grammar-based textbooks, they also bear

several limitations as it can not be of great help to improve students’ language knowledge snd more importantly it hardly caters for all the needs of students

1n a specializing school the students’ level of language proficiency is rather high

Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao does not come to students’ expectations in term of language,

grammar, the length and the quality of the tasks Students have to use supplementary reading material to improve their reading skill which is compulsory part in all exams So

how would the teachers solve this problem?

‘The methodology course in postgraduate program has changed our mind aid provided us with the new perspective about our English language teaching career: It helps

us shape our ctitical thinking towards using the textbooks, The research therefore is conducted to evaluate the reading comprehension task in Tieng Anh 2 Nang Cao using

student - based evaluation

Since the 1970's there has been a movement to make leamers the center of Janguage instruction and it is probably best to view textbooks as resources in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of leamer needs “The leamer is focused” is one of the issues mentioned by Canagarajah (2006) in which the role of Teamer has been highlighted, As English has become an intemational language, leamere with their

diverse leaning contexts and needs are focused in more specifie ways

Research on the limitations of the new textbooks has been a core part of my study Based on the findings, recommendations are made which are expected to help improve

students" reading skill to enable them firstly to successfitlly fulfill the reading section in the

university entrance examination paper, and secondly to further their study

2 Aims of the Study

‘The study aims to understand students" evaluative comments on the usefitiness and relevance of the reading tasks in terms of preparing better for the high school graduation and university entrance exams, firther study and future jobs Particularly, the study tries to answer the following two research questions:

3 Significance of the Study

‘The sindy helps the audience to be aware of the strong and week points of the text book This would also enable the teachers to effectively exploit the strength and revise, modify or supplement the materials if necessary

Moreover, it is usefil for the teachers to listen to their students about their interests, needs, and expectations Only by doing that, can we respond to their needs at the

utmost and maximize the leaming/teaching objectives by revising the textbook

The study has been also a benefit for the evaluator herself! As Richards, (1990) believes that a successful teacher is the one who can evaluate teaching materials and to teach students successfully, therefore it is a good chance to review major theoretical basis

relating to material evaluation Being equipped with the knowledge, teachers have a critical

thinking towards the material they are using, namely, they can evaluate it systematically and methodolozically This work is also of great use for the writer to gain good and useful

insights into the nature of the reading comprehension tasks in the textbook This micro-

evaluation will serve as basis for evaluating other tasks such as fistening, speaking, and

writing tasks

4, Scope of the Study

First, the study can not be generalized to other 12 specializing classes in HVT specializing school as their English textbook is the basic set and it can not also be applied

in other high schools even though they teach the same textbook because of different population

Second, the study was concemed with evaluating only the Reading Comprehension Tasks in Teng Anh 12 Nang Cao The limitation of time and the scope of a minor thesis do not allow the researcher of this project to cover many aspects as expected However, the

subject is hopefully deeply analyzed

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5 Methods and Procedures

In order to find the answer for the above research questions, the writer reviewed

different textbook evaluation methods of many researchers in this field and finally found

that the method proposed by Ellis (1997) is the most suitable as this study aims to evaluate

‘one task in a textbook

To collect the data, the methods used in the thesis are questionnaires and interview

‘Survey questionnaires here play a vital role in getting feedback from students about the

reading tasks in Tiexe An/t 12 Nang Cao Interview is served to probe more about students’ concrete opinions:

6 The Structure of the Thesis

‘This thesis ix divided as follows:

‘The Introduction presents the background to the study, states the aims, significance,

discusses the scope of the study, method and procedure and outlines the thesis,

Chapter One, Literature Review, discusses issues relating to reading, reading

‘evaluation, task evaluation and reading comprehension tasks, which serves as the scientific

base for the thesis

Chapter Two presents the overview of the reading task in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao

Chapter Three, Methodology, presents the deep analysis of the setting including the students” profile and institution Tt also describes data collection instrament, data collection procedure and data analysis

Chapter Four, Data Analysis and Discussion, presents the results from the

‘questionnaire, and interview The chapter ends with a discussion of the findings

Chapter Five, Recommendations and Conclusion, presents the recommendations:

‘drawn from the findings of the study and concludes the thesis

5 MA.Thesis CHAPTER I REVIEW OF LITERATURE

“a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.”

‘Nuttall (1996) defines reading as “essentially concemed with meaning” (pp18-19)

‘That means the reader’s responsibility is to get meaning out of text Reading viewed from this perspective can be interpreted as an active creative process in which the reader interprets a message in the light of his or her previous knowledge, predicts and anticipates subsequent thetorical strategy and information, selects information relevant to his or her reading purpose, matches information with his or her previous knowledge and experience, evaluates it in the light of that knowledge and then applies this information to new experiences As a result, the main aim of the reading syllabus, reading texts and reading, tasks is to develop students’ appropriate reading strategies, or enabling skills that will help them to comprehend texts and not just the text being studied In other words, students should be trained to become automatic or independent readers Those reading strategies should be embedded in the reading tasks

What is Reading Comprehension?

Ro, Stood and Bums (1987:2) consider “Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation snd evaluation of what author of written content meane by using knowledge gained from life experience.”

Anderson and Pearson (1984:225) argue that when students make a critical evaluation of the ideas conveyed in the text, “they are making connections between the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge”

According to interactive model of reading, comprehension is built up or constructed from knowledge sources which interact with each other on the input from the written page,

Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers make connection between the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge store

(Lee and Vanpatten1995:191)

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1.1.2 The Importance of Reading Comprehension in Foreign Language

‘Learning

Reading is an important, if not the most important, skill that students who study

foreign language need to acquire As Eskeys (2005) points out that many students: of English asa Foreign Language (EFL) rarely need to speak the lang

lives but may need to read it in order to “assess the wealth of information (P.$63) Of the

¢ in their day-to-day

four language skills, reading has conventionally been the most emphasized in FL and ESL,

or EFL situations over the years Bright and Gregor (1970:52-5

most pupils with the situation in which leaming takes place Where there is little reading,

) states that books provide

there will belittle language leaming He also states “further education depends on quantity and quality of reading All the important skills, in fact, require quick aud efficient imaginative reading.”

When English is taught in a foreign language environment like in Vietnamese high

schools, students have litle opportunity to practice it outside the classroom In this context, students are expected to leam how to read in a foreign language in order to leam the

Janguage and obtain the information that they find useful for them “Leaming to read and

reading to leam" is not an outwom slogan The need for developing the reading skill is more urgent becanse of the ever-increasing amount of reading our students are called upon

todo, From a second language acquisition (SLA) perspective, reading and the reading texts

are a source of input of the target language without which acquisition of the second languase can hardly happen This is because reading texts can be used for several different purposes, and this is reflected in the coursebook as follows,

- developing reading skills and strates;

+ presenting/ recycling grammar items, extending vocabulary

~ providing models for writing,

- giving information of interest to students,

~ stimulating oral work (Cunningsworth, 1998-73)

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(i) understanding sentence syntax, (ii) recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, (iii) interpreting discourse markers, (iv) recognizing finetional value, (v) tracing an interpreting thetorical organization, (vi) recognizing implications and making inferences, (viii) prediction, (és) integration and application (pp 69-97) Any evaluation of the reading text and/or reading syllabius should refer to these skills

Another researcher Grellet (1981) has proposed 19 sub- reading skills that he takes from Munby’s Communicative Syllabus Design:

~ Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items

- Understanding explicitly stated information,

~ Understanding information when not explicitly stated

= Understanding conceptual meaning

~ Understanding the communicative value (function) of sentences and utterances

- Understanding relations within sentences

- Understanding the parts of a text through lexical cohesion devices

= Understanding cohesion between the parts of a text through grammatical devices,

= Interpreting text by going outside it

= Recognizing indicators in discourse,

~ Identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse,

+ Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details

~ Extracting salient points to summarize the text or an idea

~ Selective extraction of relevant points from a text

~ Basic reference skills

- Transcoding information to diagrammatic display

+ Skimming

- Scanning,

To develop these sub reading skills, the reading comprehension tasks are designed

in the textbook

1.2.2 Reading Tasks

Nunan (2001) describes the reading task ae a classroom work which involves leamers in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language

‘while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form A reading task iu

fa classroom consists of a process of three tasks (pre-reading task, while-reading task and post-reading task), Pang, Muaka, Bentbardt and Kamil (2003:6) define reading task as a complex activity for understanding written texts that involves both perception and thought Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition (the process of perceiving written symbols from different kinds of texts) and comprehension (the process of making sense of words),

1.2.3 Types of Reading Tasks

According to Nunan (1999:262), good reading tasks are tasks that

‘Typically make use of authentic and challengiug texts

- provide studeats with a thetorical or topical framework for processing and analyzing the text

- Frequeatly inyolve aa oral reading of the text by the teacher or a studeat follovied by sileat 1eadiag and reseading of the text

- Tavolve studeuts in ditect analysis of the text instead of i divect question answering

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

“The table below exemplified the types of reading tasks that cau be developed within Davies’ aud Green's model - the Directed Activities Related to Text (DART) used as an altemative to the traditioual approach to wading comprebeasion There ate two different task types: recoustructioa activities and analysis activities Recoustruction activities mequize the reader to reconstruct a text Aualysis activities require the reader to trausfonm the

information in the text ia some way

~ Word completion (selected words deleted

from the text)

~ Phrases completion (selected phrases!

clinses deleted from the text)

= Sentence completion (selected sentences

deleted from the text)

Sequenemg

~ Selected segments of text arranged in

logical’ time sequence (text cut

segments representing steps, events, etc )

= Segments of text classified (text cut into

segments represeating certain categories of

information)

into

Prediction

~ Pupils predict next events! steps or stage

after reading segments of text (text

segments presented at section at a time)

‘able completion

~ Pupils fill in cells of table using row and

cohmn headings and text ax sources of

information (teacher provides row and

column headings)

~ Pupils devise row and column headings

using texts and cells of matrix as sources

of information (teacher fills in cells)

~ Locating and underlining pats of text representing certain meaning of information targets

‘Table construction

= Pupils construct and complete dingram appropriate for particular text,

‘Pupil generated questions

- Pupils read text and generate questions they still need answers to

Summary + Pupils produce headings and summarize information

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1.3 Textbook Evaluation

1.3.1 Definition of Textbook Evaluation

A textbook is a teaching material for the teacher and a leaming material for the Jeamer Within this master thesis, the terms ‘textbook’, ‘text’, and ‘materials’ are used interchangeably

In general there are many definitions of evaluation Hutchinson and Waters (1987:96) defines evaluation as “a matter of judging the fitness of something" and “it is concemed with relative merit”

1.3.2 The purpose of Textbook Evaluation

Evaluating materials enables teachers to see if teaching material matches the objectives of the Innguage learning program; whether it assists leamers to use language effectively for their own purposes; if it accords with leamers’ needs by facilitating their leaming processes; or whether it supports learning, (Cunningsworth, 1984:5)

1.3.3 Types of Textbook Evaluation

Ellis (1997:37) divides materials evaluation into two types: macro-evaluation and micro evaluation According to him, the former is the impressionistical assessment of effectiveness of the whole set of materials, In the latter, however, a particular teaching task chosen by the evaluator is given through evaluation, For this one, Ellis focuses on

‘evaluation at the task level with reference to its Imguage teaching methodology The task here is described in terms of its objectives, the imput (the information provided), the conditions (under which the task is conducted), the procedures, the outcomes (the achievement on completion of the task) The aim in this model is to identify the match between task planned and task in use According to him, micro-evaluation can serve as the basis for futher macro evaluation On the other hand, micro-evaluation can be an individual, practical and legitimate way of carrying out an empirical evaluation of teaching materials

“A micro-evaluation of teaching materials is perhaps best carried out in relation to

“task” (Ellis, 1997: 37), Tasks within the curriculum or of methodology is described as

“Tasks are justify on the grounds that they will help the learners to develop the skills they will need for carrying out real-world communicative tasks beyond the classroom” (Nunan, 2001:38), And as the important places of retrospective evaluation and tasks are as described, the researcher decides to conduct a retrospective evaluation on reading comprehension tasks as this is the initial and important part of the four language skills It

can give the input for the following lessons such as listening, speaking, writing, and

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language focus and it is one important section in university entrance examination Another reason why the author chooses this micro restrospective evaluation is the feasibility to conduct a research

1.3.4 Models of Micro-Evaluation of Tasks

Ellis (1997:38) recommends the following steps of task evaluation

Step 1- Choosing a task to evaluate; (In this thesis the reading comprehension tasks are examined)

Step 2 - Describing the task which requires the specification of the coutent of a task

in terms of input, procedures, language activities and outcome; (The researcher analyzes the reading tasks)

Step 3- Planning the evaluation;

Step 4 - Collecting the information for the evaluation (before, while and after the task is used) about how the task was performed; (This work uses while and after evaluation)

Step 5 ~ Analyzing the information;

Step 6 - Reaching conclusion relating to what has been discovered as result of the evaluation of the task and making recommendations,

Step 7- Writing the repost

This study follows these steps in getting the students to evaluate the reading tasks

in Tieng Anh Nang Cao for 12 Graders

1.3.5 Student- Based Textbook Evaluation

Definition

According to Ellis (1997:39) student-based evaluation is the evaluation in which the effectiveness of the task is examined through the students” attitudes and opinions by using questionnaires and interviews,

Why Student - Based Evaluation?

Student -based evaluation of textbooks is an evaluation int which the leamers assess the textbook whether it matches their language proficiency, needs, interests and expectations When leamers are involved in textbook evaluation, they may have a greater feeling of being active factor of the leaming process Such an evaluation may serve to increase leamer motivation, create a sense of learner-centredness, and stimulate leaming

‘Leamers only leam what they need or want to leam (Tomlinson, 2003147) Evaluation of the textbook basing on leamers" opinion is also helpfil to the teachers so that they know how to adapt and supplement the currently-used textbook to motivate their leamers That is

‘why the anthor chooses the student- based evaluation type

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1.3.6 The Need to Have Students' Evaluation of the Reading Tasks

Cheng (1985) criticizes the traditional practice of teaching reading in which the students are to read the text and then answer questions as for being of little help to the development of the reading skills which are necessary to cope with different reading materials for different reading needs The students” task is to do as directed and nobody

‘asks them whether they like the text and their reading skill is improved or not

Nuttall (1996:170), while also criticizing the conventional approaches to coursebook evaluation which ignore the leamers voiee, challenges that “Suggesting that you look for motivating materials implies that you know what interests the students Are

‘you sure you do? Tt is worth canying out an investigation” Unfortunately, the student- based evaluation of the leaming materials and learning tasks is rarely undertaken in the field of English language teaching This is the reason why I adopted this approach to the evaluation of the reading tacks in this study

1.3.7 Criteria for Evaluation

13.7.1 Criteria for Textbook Evaluation

Before choosing the criteria to evaluate the reading task, it is necessary to consider the criteria to evaluate a textbook in general

Criteria are what evaluators use to “reach a decision regarding what needs to be evaluated” (Tomlinson, 1998:220) which are the bases upon which evaluators depend ơn When making judgments Cunningsworth (1995), Grant (1987) possess the sane ideas

‘when proposing criteria for evaluating textbooks, According to them the perfect textbook does not exist but the best one available for the teacher and their students certainly does Such a book should satisfy these conditions:

1 It should correspond to leamers’ needs, interest and abili

aims and objectives of the language leaming progress,

es It should match the

2 It should reflect the uses (present or future) which leamers will make of the

language A textbook should be chosen so that they will help equip students to use

language effectively for their own purposes

3 It should take account of students’ needs as learners and should facilitate their leaming processes, without dogmatically imposing a rigid method,

4 The textbook must meet the needs of official public teaching syllabuses or examinations

My thesis research questions are based on these conditions and then are amplified

in the form of the questionnaire and interview

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1.3.7.2 Criteria for Task Evaluation

Littlejohn (1998) proposes three criteria for thee task evaluation: 1) “what is there”

in the book; 2) “what is required of the users”; 3) “what is implied” based on the distribution of teacher and students Matthews (1991) suggests “the balance of tasks” (enough attention to different types of task) Grant (1991) looks at “enough activities”

1.3.7.3 Criteria for Evaluation of Reading Comprehension tasks

It is important for EFL teachers at high school level to select appropriate reading

materials, considering students” needs, interests and abilities In other words, successftl selection of materials may be a key to enhancing students’ reading ability

‘Nuttall (1996:170-174) highlights three major criteria for evaluating texts for

reading, These include: suitability of content, exploitability, and readability By suitability she means the reading texts must be interesting to the students According to her, far and

away the most important criterion is that the text should interest the readers- preferably enthrall and delight them Of course it is possible to develop reading skills on a text that bores readers, but interesting content makes the leamer's task far more rewarding

Exploitability refers to the facilitation of learning- is arguably the most important criterion after interest When the text is exploited, it ig used to develop the students* competence as readers To achieve exploitability the reading text must fit the purpose of the reading lesson in tems of both the language and content The text must be exploitable

in terms of integration of various reading sub-skills as well as integration of other language skills

Regarding the third criterion ~ Readability, she suggests that reading teachers assess the students” level and consider lexical, strictural and passage difficulty of the text and then calculate the readability level of the material It seems that these suggestions are reasonable and teachers should bear these kinds of criteria in mind when they choose reading materials,

1.4 Previous Studies on the New Set of English Textbooks

In Vietnam a number of projects have been carried out to evaluate the new set of English textbooks including the basic and the advanced, among which Nguyen Thuy Minh (2007) is the most typical example, Her research “Textbook evaluation: The case of English textbooks currently in use in Vietnam's upper secondary schools” gives readers a rather comprehensive evaluation on the new set of textbooks The evaluation was carried under the ctiteria namely: the teaching of language skills (Reading, listening, speaking and writing), the teaching of language element (grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary) using the checklists provided by Cunningsworth (1995), ‘The researcher has come to some

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conclusion about the strengths and weakness of the new textbooks The strength is pointed out as the books have brought about the positive changes in the way English was taught at

secondary school, making it significantly more communicative and effective The

weakness is the challenge for both students in rural, remote areas and for teachers who do not continue to improve their Iauage knowledge, skills and teaching methods

Another evaluation of the whole textbook English 11 taught at Phan Dinh Phung

secondary school in Ha Noi - A Case Study by Le Thi Hue found out some useful results

‘She conchided that the textbook English 11 truly followed the objectives prescribed by

‘MOET for the course Regarding to the suitablenese of the textbook to the students, the

reading and speaking section are relatively acceptable but the listening part and language

focus need some modification to be more suitable, The muthor believed that interesting, challenging and motivating subjects and contents that were relevant to students needs interest the students

When it comes to reading part in the advanced textbook, Nguyen Thi Nauyet has

conducted a survey on “How to make classroom reading more communicative for grade 10

addition, those evaluations were made with the teachers” perspectives only This study,

therefore, focuses on the students” evaluation of the reading tasks in Tiong Anh Mang Ciao for 12 graders

Summary

‘This chapter has reviewed theories related to the reading comprehension and the

roles it plays in the process of English language teaching and leaming as well as important issues of reading task evaluation that need to be considered when conduetinig the research,

‘The highlighted aspects are the sub-reading skills presented in reading comprehension

tasks, the model to evaluate tasks proposed by Rod -Ellis with student-based evaluation and the criteria to evaluate reading tasks It has also reviewed some of the previous

research on textbook evaluation in different contexts in other settings in Vietnam All of these serve as a basic for carrying out an evaluation of the reading comprehension tasks: in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao at a specific secondary school The next chapter presents an overview of the reading task in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao

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CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF THE READING TASK IN

TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO

2.1 Overview of the National Curriculum and Syllabus for ELT

Before an evaluation of the reading tasks of Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao takes place,

an overview of the national curriculum for ELT in secondary school education and the

eyllabus for the 12 grade is provided

In 2006 MOET issued a new curriculum which defines English as a compulsory subject, which is “instrumental to the access of world science and technology as well as

‘world cultures” (MOET, 2006; 5), It describes the aims for ELT at secondary school level for the advanced program as enabling students to:

1 “Use English as a means for basic communication relatively proficiently both in spoken and written channels to meet the specific demand related to socio- science and

humane,

2 Master basic and relatively systematic knowledge of English suited to their

levels of proficiency and ages and the specific demand related to socio- science and

humane

3 Acquire some general understanding of the people and cultures of some English- speaking countries and develop a positive attitnde towards the people, cultures and Janguage of these countries; cultivate the pride in, love for and respect to the Vietnamese

culture and language”

2.2 Overview of the Textbook

“The book is claimed to adopt a theme-based syllabus The methodologies presented

in the book are the “leamer-centered approach and the communicative approach with task- based teaching being the central teaching method” The teaching contents for each unit are summarized in a book map which is provided on the first page of each book There are 16 teaching unite and six review units in each book Each teaching unit covers a topic and is stmetured into five sections: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language Focus,

Afier finishing grade 12, students are able to:

+ Use appropriate skills to read a passage of 300-350 words for general, detailed

or specific information the theme of which is included in the textbook

~ Distinguish the main ideas and supporting idens,

+ Use the main ideas to summarise the text

+ Comprehend and judge the author's opinions and attitudes

(Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao - Teacher's book, p9)

2.3 Overview of the Reading Section

‘The Reading section is structured according to the conventional stages of a reading

lesson It begine with one or two Before you read activities, the aim of which is to

introdhuce students to the topic, activate their background knowledge of the topic, motivate them to read and elicit new vocabulary, to present the notion, content, personal experience

related to the The aim of this part is to arouse the pupils’ interest in their leaming It may

be some suggested questions, matching the pictures with the title or information, group or pair work discussion It then presents @ short text followed by 2-3 While you read

activities, the aim of which is to develop reading skills and strategies such as scanning,

skimming and guessing meaning in context, While ~reading tasks help students understand

the writer's purpose and clarify the text content, The section ends with one or two After you read activities to offer students some further practice, eg oral or written language production Post- reading tasks aim to check students’ comprehension, consolidate what

students have read and provide a sense of completion to the whole process

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2.3.1 Reading Text Types

This part includes one or more passages with different genres extracted or developed from the authentic source but the language is adjtisted to suit the students’ level ofthe 12 graders,

Regarding text types, all the texts in the textbook are authentic and cover the following genres

Table 2.1 Reading Text Types

1.Pess extraet: 14 (70%) 100% Colored pictures (Tables)

2.Extracts from factual books 100%

and aovels: 4 (20%)

3.Adwetisements, - precautious

forsafety: 2 (10%)

(Souee: Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao - MOET)

In brief, the textbook uses different types including press extract, advertisemen

extracts from factual books and novels, announcements, precautions for safety There is a text with gaps, which requires not only to uiderstand, but also to be able to supply missing words (Unit $) However, the distribution is not even as the predominant is press extract, which accounts for 70% of the total This may bore students as they expect the altemative

‘The interesting about the text types used in the textbook is that they are extracted from authentic sources Plenty of authentic language arouses students” interests as they have a chance to get familiarized with the English of native speakers, Nunan (1998) has suggested characteristics of materials as follows: ‘Materials should be authentic as they reflect the outside world and the socio-cultural context within which they will be used”

Moreover, the reading parts are presented with wordings illustrated with colorful

pictures, tables, together The reading part is used to provide the input in the context and to

2.3.2 Reading Task Types

Table 2.2 Quantity of Reading Tasks

Before you read While you read After you read

Yeading just 17% Obviously, most of comprehension tasks are concentrated in the while-

reading stage Therefore, such a big propottion of tasks designed for while-reading is of teat use as students have more opportunity to comprehend the text, in other words, they will be more approachable to the content of the text and this result expresses the authors’ exploitation of the reading text to the full

Compared with the quantity of while-reading tasks, the task quantity in pre-reading

is quite adequate This part is important and dispensable as it prepares the readers for what

he or she is going to read

So “rich” in number of tasks as while-reading is, the number of tasks in post- reading is the “poorest” Clearly each reading passage is distributed evenly with one post-

reading task to consolidate what they have gained, to connect what they have known from

the text with their own ideas and experience

12 MA Thesis

Table 2.3 Types of Reading Tasks

In brief the typical types of the reading tasks in Tieng Anh /2 Nang Cao are as

Discussion 10

Question- answering

Matching

Tick the items

20 MA.Thesis

‘The Table above shows the task types categorized in three stages It can be seen that reading tasks om comprehension are the most various However the distribution is not even as the types such as matching words and meanings, question answering, matching, gap filling can be seen in most of the lesson

‘When it comes to the pre-reading stage, the task types aré not so diversified, However, the distribution is quite even,

Regarding post- reading tasks a number of discussions are required whereas other types of tasks take up a very small percent

Summary

‘This chapter presents the aimis of the national currienlum and syllabus for ELT, the overview of the textbook, the requirement of the MOET on reading skills The most significant part is devoted to the analysis of text and task types In general, the textbook uses Various authentic texts but the most dominant one is the press extract The tack types are distributed in 3-staze process While- reading tasks take up over half of the total and the rest belongs to the Pre and Post reading ones The distribution of tasks is not even Examining the nature of the reading tasks helps the researcher to have preliminary evaluation The next chapter presents the methodology in which the research is conducted,

defined by the province and MOET is “to look for and to develop talents for the province,

the country; and to make the school to become « high quality education center that gives

impact on the development of the province.” A specializing school is aimed to educate and

train pupils in order to provide them with sufficient knowledge to enable them to pass the challenging national examinations for the excellent pupils and university entrance

examination and colleges Therefore, the following objective have been set for the school

in every school year better results should be achieved in these examinations

Every year the school has three English specializing classes from grade 10 to 12

‘The students are selected on the basis of the results they achieve in their selection exams which are English, mathematics and literature for students who choose to follow the

subjects English, mathematics, literature for the university entrance exams However, they

come from different districts of Hoa Binh Therefore, to some extent the class is multilevel

‘Their English was approximately at intermediate level This means they are reasonably fluent on a restricted range of topics They, however, have difficulty expressing topics outside a limited range, They face a number of problems with words, grammar, idioms, and pronunciation,

“ g MA Thesix

When being asked about reading materials, most students say they have access to many types of materials such as magazines, newspaper, works of fiction etc In tem of reading capacity, they can understand the content of the text as a whole and they are capable of going through the text quickly in order to make a summary of the pastage Besides, they can scan the text to locate specific information These students still have difficulty in guessing unfamiliar words in a text, understanding technical terminologies,

reading in order to respond critically and understanding the writer’s attitudes and purposes

3.3 Data collection methods

Following Richards’ suggestions (1984), “since any source of information is likely

to be incomplete or partial, a triangular approach (ie collecting information from two or more sources) is advisable”, the researcher decided to employ a combination of different data collection instruments to gather the information for the study: survey questionnaire, informal interviews

3.3.1 Survey questionnaire

Survey questionnaires are often used to collect data in social sciences Many significant advantages of using questionnaires are indicated by Gillham (2000); less pressure on respondents, not under pressure of interview bias, analysis of answers is straightforward In this study a questionnaire, which consists of 17 closed items and three

‘open-ended items, was administered to 30 English language students of grade 12

3.3.2 Interview

‘The informal interviews with student informants were conducted to probe more their opinions on the usefulness and relevance of the reading comprehension section in the textbook with some clarification and explanation

‘The questionnaire and interview guidance was written in Vietnamese to make students with different English proficiency levels be able to adequately understand the questions,

3.4 Data Collection Procedures

‘The researcher went to the class to conduct the survey at a pre-arranged time She first briefly explained to the participants the nature and purpose of this study and provided

instructions about how to answer the questionnaire The time for answering the

„ MA Thesix

‘questionnaire took about 30 minutes The interviewing data were collected soon after the survey was completed The length of each interview lasted approximately 20 minutes Each interview conducted in Vietnamese and tape- recorded

3.5 Data Analysis

Data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics The interview data were analyzed qualitatively to shed more light on some issues related to the questionnaire data, particularly the participants’ opinions of the usefitness

‘and the relevance of the reading tasks to their leaming needs,

Summary

Kumaravadivelu (2006) states:

First and foremost, any postmethod pedagogy has to be a pedagogy of pasticularity That isto say, language pedagogy, to be relevant, nist be seusitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of leamers pursing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular sociocultural miien

‘Therefore, firstly, this chapter describes the context in which the studies takes

place The setting of specializing xchool with its aims and objectives and the participants

‘with their goals, expectations and their English proficiency have been clarified Secondly,

it deals with the methodology to conduct the research ‘The data collection, namely, the questionnaire and interview, the data collection procedure, and data analysis have been clearly presented The next chapter presents the most significant part; that is, the results

and discussions of the study,

m4 MA.Thesis

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Quantitative data

Overall Evaluation of the Reading Section

Before analyzing the results of the quantitative and qualitative data, the means score of the questionnaire is presented to find out students’ general opinion on the usefininess and relevance of the reading section in the textbook What do students think of the reading comprehension tasks overally?

Looking at the means from the appendix 3, we can assume that most of participants endorsed the evaluation that the reading section only partly helps their learning and not relevant to their needs Out of 17 items, only three items (1,2,8) had the means higher than 3.5 and thus were the most common positive comments whereas the rest had the means ower than 3.5 especially in which 8 items are lower than 2.87 thus were the most common negative comments held by the participants Two items (11 and 19) received the lowest

‘means when all students agreed that the reading task does not help them in passing the university entrance examination and the teacher should modify and supply more reading comprehension tasks, To get more details of the information about the usefisiness and relevance of the different aspects of the reading section each of the questionnaire items was analyzed and presented as follows The usefulness of the reading tasks will be presented before the relevance,

4.1.1 Usefulness of the Reading Tasks

Figure 4.1 Students’ general opinions on the usefulness of the reading tasks

41 The reading task in the textbook is useful for your learning English

Highiy disagree(!) Disagreei2)

MA.Thesis

Regarding the usefillness of the reading tasks, 67%6 of the respondents agreed that

the tasks were usefill to their leaming English while only 10% disagreed, However, the

number of students choosing “No idea” was 7 accounting for 23% The opinions are

various reflecting students’ different point of view Two thirds of them thought the reading

texts help them to expand their knowledge but for the rest the texts did not provide

anything new

4.1.2 Usefulness of the information

Figure 4.2 Students’ opinion on the usefulness of the information

Agree (4) sợ

Conceming the information contained in the text, over 80% respondents thought ít

‘was useful as the topics are various and attractive Students are updated with cultural

diversity, economic reforms, environment, international organizations, sports, educational

systems overseas as well as in Vietnam The knowledge on higher education has been

‘mentioned and itis useful as all students expect to firther their study after graduating from

school ‘The topics such as fisture jobs, fitture life, youth also attract students, Only 2

respondents said “No, Maybe these kinds of information are too familiar to them or they

are just not to their taste

1.3 Genres of reading texts

Figure 4.3 Students’ opinion on genres of reading texts

Various genres ot reading text

fe Highiy aeagree(h Hignly ageee (6 Hi đlsagrae(l

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