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

Data eollection instenments 2.2.1 The questionnaire for the studenls 2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers 2.3 Data collection procedures Chapter 3: Datu, data analysis uu discuss

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYÊN THỊ HƯƠNG

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR

GRADE 11 AT TIONG QUANG TTIGE SCTTIOOL: INFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

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

KHO KHAN VA GIAI PHAP)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

TIanoi, 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOL

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN TH] HUONG

TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR

GRADE 11 AT HONG QUANG HIGH SCHOOL: INFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS

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

KHO KHAN VA GIAI PHAP)

MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Dé Ba Quy (MEd.)

Tlanoi, 2011

2 Aims of the study

3 Significance of the study

4, Scope of the study

5 Methods of the study

6 Organization of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Literature review

1.1 Definitions of reading and reading, comprehension

3 Teacling and learring reađing comprehension skills

1.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language leaming,

1.3.2 Factors in teaching and learning, reading

1.4 Organization of reading comprehension lext

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

14.2 While reading stage

1.4.3 Posl — reading slage

1.5 Summary

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Participants

2.1.4 Teachers of English

2.1.2 The 11th -foun students

2.2 Data eollection instenments

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the studenls

2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

2.3 Data collection procedures

Chapter 3: Datu, data analysis uu discussion

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

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

3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading

3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities

3.1.1.4 Smadents’ difficulties when learning reading

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

3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

3.1.1.7 Srudents’ effort for improving their reading comprehension kill

3.1.2 Questionnaire for the (eachers

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

school

3.1.2.2 Teachers’ altitude loward the importance of developing rading comprehension

skills

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

3.1.24 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading,

3.1.2 5 Teachers’ snggested activities

3.1.2.6 Veachers’ organizing, reading activities

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

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

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

of Vietnam has in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

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

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1; Literature review

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

cusion, kinds

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

of reading, reading in second language teaching and leaning

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

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

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

grammatical structures but also understand the content expressed in the text

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

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

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

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

vi seading

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

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

dnprove their reading comprehension skill

3.3.1 Pre — reading stage

3.3.2 While —reading stage

3.3.3 Posl —reading

3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

3.3.4 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

1.4 Organization of reading comprehension lext

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

14.2 While reading stage

1.4.3 Posl — reading slage

1.5 Summary

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Participants

2.1.4 Teachers of English

2.1.2 The 11th -foun students

2.2 Data eollection instenments

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the studenls

2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

2.3 Data collection procedures

Chapter 3: Datu, data analysis uu discussion

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

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

3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading

3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities

3.1.1.4 Smadents’ difficulties when learning reading

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

3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

3.1.1.7 Srudents’ effort for improving their reading comprehension kill

3.1.2 Questionnaire for the (eachers

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

school

3.1.2.2 Teachers’ altitude loward the importance of developing rading comprehension

skills

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

3.1.24 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading,

3.1.2 5 Teachers’ snggested activities

3.1.2.6 Veachers’ organizing, reading activities

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

1.4 Organization of reading comprehension lext

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

14.2 While reading stage

1.4.3 Posl — reading slage

1.5 Summary

Chapter 2: Methodology

2.1 Participants

2.1.4 Teachers of English

2.1.2 The 11th -foun students

2.2 Data eollection instenments

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the studenls

2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

2.3 Data collection procedures

Chapter 3: Datu, data analysis uu discussion

3.1 Data analysis

3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

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

3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading

3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities

3.1.1.4 Smadents’ difficulties when learning reading

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

3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

3.1.1.7 Srudents’ effort for improving their reading comprehension kill

3.1.2 Questionnaire for the (eachers

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

school

3.1.2.2 Teachers’ altitude loward the importance of developing rading comprehension

skills

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

3.1.24 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading,

3.1.2 5 Teachers’ snggested activities

3.1.2.6 Veachers’ organizing, reading activities

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

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

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

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

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

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

4 Scape of the study

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

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

5 Methods of the study

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

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

6 Organization of the study

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

conclusion.

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

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

4 Scape of the study

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

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

5 Methods of the study

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

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

6 Organization of the study

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

conclusion.

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

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

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

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

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

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

4 Scape of the study

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

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

5 Methods of the study

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

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

6 Organization of the study

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

conclusion.

vi seading

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

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

dnprove their reading comprehension skill

3.3.1 Pre — reading stage

3.3.2 While —reading stage

3.3.3 Posl —reading

3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

3.3.4 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

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

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

of Vietnam has in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

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

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills

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

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

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

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

vi seading

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

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

dnprove their reading comprehension skill

3.3.1 Pre — reading stage

3.3.2 While —reading stage

3.3.3 Posl —reading

3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

3.3.4 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

vi seading

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

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

dnprove their reading comprehension skill

3.3.1 Pre — reading stage

3.3.2 While —reading stage

3.3.3 Posl —reading

3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

3.3.4 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1; Literature review

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

cusion, kinds

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

of reading, reading in second language teaching and leaning

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

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

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

grammatical structures but also understand the content expressed in the text

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

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

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

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

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

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

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

of Vietnam has in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

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

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

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

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

of Vietnam has in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

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

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills

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

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

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

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

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

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

4 Scape of the study

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

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

5 Methods of the study

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

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

6 Organization of the study

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

conclusion.

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1; Literature review

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

cusion, kinds

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

of reading, reading in second language teaching and leaning

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

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

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

grammatical structures but also understand the content expressed in the text

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

High School improve their reading comprehension skills?

3 Significance of the study

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

4 Scape of the study

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

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

5 Methods of the study

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

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

6 Organization of the study

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

conclusion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.4.2 Reading comprehension

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

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

of communication between the writer and the reader

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

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

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

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

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

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1; Literature review

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

cusion, kinds

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

of reading, reading in second language teaching and leaning

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

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

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

grammatical structures but also understand the content expressed in the text

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

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

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

of Vietnam has in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘This is the reason why | chose the topic:

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

2 Aims the study

aching and learning reading comprehension skills