Luận văn using supplementary reading materials with the course book business basics to improve the efficiency of reading teaching and learning for second year students at bac ha college of technology

The specific aims of this research are as follows - To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by t

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

#FÉA4ÐPl4eElEdoddEetbilok

DAO THI HOA

USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS WITH THE COURSE BOOK BUSINESS BASICS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCY

OF READING TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR SECOND-YEAR

STUDENTS AT BAC HA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

Str dung tai liéu doc bo tro cho giao trinh Business Basics nham nang

cao hiệu quả của việc dạy và học kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên năm thứ

hai trilờng Cao đẳng Công nghệ Bac Ha

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 60 1410

Supervisor: Phan Thi Van Quyen

Hanoi - 2010

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1.2.1 Detinition of language teaching materials 7

1.2.3 Supplementary materials in teaching reading skills 10 1.1.3.1 Deđnition ofsuppÏcmertlary 1nalcTiaÏls cà ccssscscccscreeseeee TỔ

1.3.3.2 Criteria for selecting supplemientary mmateTiAls con 10

1.2.3.3 1Tow fo se stupplementtary rnaterials - Tu "

Summary

2.2 Instrument for dala collclien c nọ re "— "—.-

2.2.2 ‘The questionnaire for teachers we wee 16

2.3 Data collection procedure HH HH ng de sao

4.1 Suggestions for sclzcting supplementary materials 29

4.2 Designing tasks and activities for reading pasSA86S co cà ween 30

PART €: CONCLUSION:

1 Conclusion of the SÑHổy, 0 nọ Tnhh erresereece T7

2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study ee BF

g

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students

PART A: INFRODUCTION

1, Rationale

Nowadays, in the time of globalization, English plays an essential rele in the increasing development of sciznce, technology, politics, economics, tourism, culture and

so ơn English language is not only considered as a means of communication but also a key

to access the imporlant achievements of science and technology Therefore, tcamers of English should acquire this language and teaching and learning English become popular in

our country

Among four language skills, rcading is very important in leaming a forcign language as reading helps students to widen their knowledge and understand different

academic materials written in English Carrel (1981: 1) also emphasizes “for many

students, roading is by Car the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is necessary for the second year students at Bac lla College of Technology to develop reading ability effectively because reading provides & lot of useful information as well as crich their language vocabulary ang structures Reading will be an effective way to help students enhance their English proficiency especially their reading skills Nevertheless, despite the teachers” and students”

cfforis, the sindents al Bac Ha College of Technology have a poor teading rosull thal snakes them unintcrested in learning English in gencral and in toarning reading skill in particular,

The students’ Frylish proficiency al Bac Ta College of Technology is not the same, It is due to the tact that they come from different places Most of them come from the countryside so they can not have preferable English learning condition ‘The others come from towns and citiss where thoy have more eonvenicnt condition of learning English This results in low English proticiency of the students because of their limited vocatniary and grammar In addition, they do not have appropriate reading strategies and background knowledge ‘Therefore, students face a lot of difficulties in reading and understanding the long texls especially the texts relating to econemic fictds which they ars studying, As a resuit, they find it hard to be successful in their reading and they are not

interested in reading

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Am overview of reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and leaming a foreign

Janguags Tt has tha nature of commemicalion, in which roading aclivily aels as a moans of

communication between the writor and the reader

Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many demonstrations that readers who possesses rich knowledge about the topic of a reading usually understand the reading better than classmates with lower knowledge Roc, Stood and Bums (1987: 2) indicate “Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gained from life

experience”,

Sharing the same point of view, Grellet (1981: 3) consider “reading comprehension

or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as

cflcctively as possihle” in his definition, roading comprchonsion simply means roading and understanding Reading comprehension is not merely decoding-translating written symbals into corresponding sounds

Though hese deCinitions are nol cxactly the same, whal comes up a commen point

is that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and what is implied behind these forms While reading, Jeamcss of language need 1 have critical thinking 4 undersland and analyze what is written, Then readers can Jean both grammar and vocabulary after reading From that, they will easily understand the content of the reading

1.1.2 Modets of reading

In texms of the reading process, many language researchers (Nuttall, 1996; Ur,

1991; Alderson, 2000, etc) share the same viewpoint that there are three different ways of

processing a tex namely the bottom-up, the top-down and interactive models

The bottom-up models, The basis of bottom up models is linguistics knowledge of the reader In these models, the reader starts with the written text (the bottom), and

constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then

10

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

With the purpose of improving their Linglish knowledge, it is very important for the

leachets la provide thom as many opportmnitics to read as possible Nullall irr the book

“Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposefidl activity, we can make feaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult

circumslances”

All the above reasons have inspired me to camy out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Rfficiency of Reading Teaching and Tearing for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College

of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and leaming English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension

2 Aims of the study

‘The purpose of the study is to tind ways of developing the effective reading materials so as

to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students’ Jearning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows

- To find out some different cvaluations made by tcachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is curently used by the secand year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

- To examine the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials

- To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials 1o improve teaching reading of the Icachers as well as learning reading of ths students

3, Significance of the study

‘This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English

It helps to reinforce stuslents’ English proficicney and suggests ways lo improve the teaching of Englisli in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

2 What are the teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading walcrials?

5 Methodology

‘The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a

Tain instrument for dala collection Two sels of questiornmaires were designed and

delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions, ‘The data were collected, synthesized and analyved from the survey questionnaires for bolh teachers and students an thair evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading amaterials

6 Design of the study

This study is divided into three parts

Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions methodology and design of the study are stated

Part Bis the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters, Chapter 1 reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of malerials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills

Chapter 2 presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It

covers the setting, the lexibook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as,

data collection procadarc

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion,

Chapter 4 briefly deals with recommendations of the study,

Part © comes up with the summary of the study in which Finitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented

PART A: INFRODUCTION

1, Rationale

Nowadays, in the time of globalization, English plays an essential rele in the increasing development of sciznce, technology, politics, economics, tourism, culture and

so ơn English language is not only considered as a means of communication but also a key

to access the imporlant achievements of science and technology Therefore, tcamers of English should acquire this language and teaching and learning English become popular in

our country

Among four language skills, rcading is very important in leaming a forcign language as reading helps students to widen their knowledge and understand different

academic materials written in English Carrel (1981: 1) also emphasizes “for many

students, roading is by Car the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is necessary for the second year students at Bac lla College of Technology to develop reading ability effectively because reading provides & lot of useful information as well as crich their language vocabulary ang structures Reading will be an effective way to help students enhance their English proficiency especially their reading skills Nevertheless, despite the teachers” and students”

cfforis, the sindents al Bac Ha College of Technology have a poor teading rosull thal snakes them unintcrested in learning English in gencral and in toarning reading skill in particular,

The students’ Frylish proficiency al Bac Ta College of Technology is not the same, It is due to the tact that they come from different places Most of them come from the countryside so they can not have preferable English learning condition ‘The others come from towns and citiss where thoy have more eonvenicnt condition of learning English This results in low English proticiency of the students because of their limited vocatniary and grammar In addition, they do not have appropriate reading strategies and background knowledge ‘Therefore, students face a lot of difficulties in reading and understanding the long texls especially the texts relating to econemic fictds which they ars studying, As a resuit, they find it hard to be successful in their reading and they are not

interested in reading

processes the text in a linsar fashion ‘The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process

in which small chunks of toxt arc absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningtil

The top- down models; ‘The top- down process moves from the top, the higher - jevel mental stages, down to the (ext iiself In these models, the reading process is driven

‘by the reader's mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process

Interactive models of the roading process arc proposad in the tight of the perecived detiviencies of both bottom-up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven ‘This means the reader uses his ar her previous understanding to guess about iexl contont and as in bollom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the tox!

Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise

‘between bottom-up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from cach type of processing is combined to determine the most

appropriate interpretation of the printed pag=”

Tn brief, interactive models are more adequale than the bottom ng and top down anodels because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use

of both bottom- up and top- down models ‘hus, the language users need combine and practice both botlom up and top- down strategies lo gain efficie

cy in the reading process

1.1.3 Reading skills anil types of reading skills

1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills

Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Tumer (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information — processing

techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme phoneme

correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many

reasons including cxpertisc, repeated practice, and compliance with dircetions, luck, and

native use”,

1.1.3.2, Types of reading skills

- Skimming

Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19)

says “When skimming we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist

11

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Am overview of reading

1.1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and leaming a foreign

Janguags Tt has tha nature of commemicalion, in which roading aclivily aels as a moans of

communication between the writor and the reader

Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many demonstrations that readers who possesses rich knowledge about the topic of a reading usually understand the reading better than classmates with lower knowledge Roc, Stood and Bums (1987: 2) indicate “Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gained from life

experience”,

Sharing the same point of view, Grellet (1981: 3) consider “reading comprehension

or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as

cflcctively as possihle” in his definition, roading comprchonsion simply means roading and understanding Reading comprehension is not merely decoding-translating written symbals into corresponding sounds

Though hese deCinitions are nol cxactly the same, whal comes up a commen point

is that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and what is implied behind these forms While reading, Jeamcss of language need 1 have critical thinking 4 undersland and analyze what is written, Then readers can Jean both grammar and vocabulary after reading From that, they will easily understand the content of the reading

1.1.2 Modets of reading

In texms of the reading process, many language researchers (Nuttall, 1996; Ur,

1991; Alderson, 2000, etc) share the same viewpoint that there are three different ways of

processing a tex namely the bottom-up, the top-down and interactive models

The bottom-up models, The basis of bottom up models is linguistics knowledge of the reader In these models, the reader starts with the written text (the bottom), and

constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then

10

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the

wniler™

Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text, An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”

- Scanning

Scamming occurs when ø reađor looks quickly through the toxt scarching for a specific pices

of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T

(2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a

specific point of information, for example, the tlavenl times on a timetable, Hams in a directory, ot key points in academic text”, Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question, Scanning is an useful reading, skill that may

at first strange to a leamer who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention,

~ Inference

inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the ancaning of unknown clements Tf these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an unportant role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners, Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the amcaning of the words they do not know rather than look thom up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only do so after having tried

to work out a solution on their own ‘rherefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1; The teachcrs’and students’ cvaluations on level of difficulty, content and length

of reading texts in the textbook

Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on rzading exercises in the textbook Business Basics

‘Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Jnsmess Basics

Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading

Table 5: Teachers” expeclations of the supplementary reading materials