000029171 AN EXPERIMENT TOWARDS IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION OF THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAΝΟΙ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MỘT THÍ NGHIỆM NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔN

000029171 AN EXPERIMENT TOWARDS IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION OF THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAΝΟΙ UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MỘT THÍ NGHIỆM NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHỆ HANI

M IN IST R Y (>1< KIUJCATION AND TRAINING HANOI U N IV E R S IT Y Ol I ORI JG N S U Dll S

FRAN HONG THUY

AN E X P E R IM E N T T O W A R D S IM PR O VING

R EA D IN G C O M P R E H E N S IO N OF T H E FIRST- YEAR E N G L IS H M A JO R STU D EN TS AT HANOI

I I Background and the reasons for the study

I 2 Scope of the study

I 1 The significance of the study

I 4 Aims of the study

1 5 An outline of the study

Chapter 2 Literature review

2 I Definitions

2 I I What is reading?

2 1.2 What is reading comprehension?

2 I 1 Reading skills/strategies

2 2 Nature of reading comprehension

2 2 I Bottom-up model of the reading process

2 2 2 lop-down model of the reading process

2 2 3 Interactive models of reading process

2 ^ Skills involved in reading and comprehension

2 4 Reading comprehension in the classroom

2 I I I he role o f the teacher in a reading lesson

2 12 I lie three phases of classroom procedures

2 ; Previous studies strengths and weaknesses

2 ii Summai v o f chapter 2

i

3 I Cicneral description of'the English Department at HI >1'

3 I I ! he Faculty and its English program

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

4 1 Descriptive statistics of the experiment

4 I I Descriptive statistics of the pre-test results

4 I 2 Descriptive statistics of the pre-experiment questionnaire for students in

Experimental class and C ontrol class

4 I 3 Descriptive statistics of the post-test results

4 I 4 Descriptive statistics of the post-experiment questionnaire for students in

Experimental class and Control class

4 2 Contrastive analysis results and discussion

4 2 I Comparison of pre-test and post-test results of the Experimental class

4 2 2 Comparison of the Pre-test and Post-test results of Control class

4 2 3 Comparison of Post-test results of the experimental class and control class

I ’ Discussion

1 4 Summary of chapter 4

Chapter 5: Recommendations and Conclusion

( liapler 3: The study

Appendix I) - Table I Test results of the experimental class BKD46-D01 72

Appendix F Reading lesson plans 7-1

Appendix F Designed supplement of reading tasks/activities

m

A ( K N O W L K I M J K M K N T S

I have received great assistance from many people in the preparation for this dissertation Without their assistance and support, this dissertation might not have been finished Firstl\ I greatly acknowledge my debt to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Kim l oan, M A, who, during the course of my writing, gave me invaluable advice, suggestions and supervision

Then I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr Pham Kim Ninh, Head of the

Department of Post-Graduate Studies, Mrs Nguyen Thai Ha, M A and the teaching staff members of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at Hanoi University o f Foreign Studies

for their useful lectures and comments

I also wish to thank my colleagues and my students at the Department of F.nglisli the

Faculty o f Foreign Languages-Hanoi University of Technology for their cooperation, suggestions and support in my conducting this dissertation

I ast, hut not at all least, my special thanks go to my family, my patents and husband, for their endless love, great encouragement and support to me

li recent years, English is commonly taught and studied in almost all schools and universities

ii Vietnam Hanoi University of Technology has conducted an English program Ini English najor students since I WO Along with the overall renovation in education, teaching nethodology has also got much attention

lie leaching of English to the students who sue English majois has been applied at III 1 I lot jist three years and thus it is comparatively new and problematic to both H U T teachers and stidents The teaching of the language skills, particularly reading skill has had a In! of dificulties and revealed to be not very effective In order to help students read better, it is neessary to adjust and adapt the teaching method and the materials being used

Aicording to the theory of teaching and learning reading, and with the hypothesis that il re;ding skills incorporated in the lesson, i e if more activities/ tasks are designed to develop

re ding skills, students' reading comprehension will be enhanced, this study aims at

- presenting the real situation of the teaching and learning reading skills of both teachers and

3lll<tctl(.S 0» I 1 U T

- conducting an experiment on two classes (control class and experimental class) for one semester (12 weeks) to examine whether the equipment of reading skills along with the supplement tasks/ activities helps improve the reading comprehension of the fitst-veni English major students at H U T

- Proposing some sample designed tasks/ activities for the reading lessons together with a

set of sample lesson plans

Inorder to achieve these aims, the study is divided into five chapters

Chipter one presents the background, the significance, the aims and scope of Ihe studv Chipter two looks at the nature of the reading comprehension, reading process, reading skills aii( the different reading procedures and activities conducted in a reading class C’haptei '

givs general description of the teachers, the learners, the English Department at III >T with its Enilish program This chapter also includes the methodology, data collection instruments and

prtvcdurcs the autlioi did to complete this experiment Chapter loin studies the leaching and

leaning reading at the Faculty of Foieign l anguages at HUT through the sm\e\

v

questionnaire This chapter also deals with a teaching experiment conducted on two classes (one is a control class and the other is an experimental class) with one pre-test and one post­test done by students before and afler the twelve-week experiment as a moans to 1110:1 sine and compare the students' progress in their reading comprehension Chapter five presents the major findings and recommendations drawn from the experiment for the teaching and learning reading skills for the first-year English major students at H U T limitations of the study and the appeal for further research are also included in this chapter

Appendixes from A to G show the pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and some tables of results from the study Especially, appendix F with the reading lesson plans and appendix I with the designed and collected reading tasks/activities are presented in details as a source of reference

as well as the author's suggestion

I lie writer of this thesis conducted a teaching experiment with the hope that the findings and

implications drawn from the study will be useful and give assistance to the learning and teaching r eading in English at the Faculty o f Foreign Languages at H U T

L I S T O K M i ï l J R I i S , T A K L K S A N D ( M A I M S

1 i’,tII C‘ 1 Boltom -up model piocess (Nunan, 1 9 9 1 :6 4 ) (»

T'aile 3 Pre-test results o f the Experim ental class (D O I - B K D 4 6 ) and the

Ta>le 7 Post-test results o f the Experim ental class (D O I - B K D 4 6 ) and the

Talle 1 1 Com parison o f Pre- and Post-test results o f the Experim ental class

Tabe 1 3 Com parison o f Post-test results o f the Experim ental ( D O I- B K D 4 6 )

and tlie Control class (DO? B K D 4(>)

4 1

Clint 5 Comparison o f Post-test results o f the Experim ental (D O I- B K D 4 6 )

and the C o n tio l class ( 1)03 B K I) 4 6 )

12

V I I

L IS T O F A B B R E V IA T IO N

F ' F English as a Foreign Language

II )'F Hanoi University of Technology

I FI /I S International English Language Testing System

O f AFTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 H;tcl<i»roim<l sind Kciisons for (lu* Stu d y

Tie ft end of teaching and learning English in Vietnam today is quite popular and its

popularity is increasing day by day due to the integration of Vietnam to many countries in the rejion and in the world in many aspects of life English, therefore, is not only a means but alo a key to gain access to the latest scientific and technological achievements I'm ;i de/eloping country like Vietnam, where modern science and technology are badly needed To

nuet the demands of the society, Hanoi University of Technology (H U T), in 1009 received tin permit from the Ministry of Education and Training (1832/QD/BGD&DT-DH May 22, 199) to open a new branch with the aim of training students of English for Science and Tchnology

In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general, and at the

Fanilty o f Foreign l anguages, HUT, in particular, reading has always received a great deal of attention T his is understandable as it enables students to understand the written materials, and tocommunicate in English while English is learnt and taught in a non-native environment

Tint is why reading is an important means not only to gain knowledge but also to further Study

I Is current reading textbook for the first year students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages

H IT used in this study is the collection of many reading texts from different reading books foi students at the intermediate level They were Developing Reading Skills by l.inda

M ikstein Louise Hirasawa (Heinle & Heinle - 1994); Practical Taster Reading by (Jerald

Misback and Vivienne Mosback (Cambfridge University Press, 1993); In Context b\ ZiKowski/ Faust - Johnston Atkinson - Templin ( C B S College, 1982), Weaving It Together ?

I by Milada Broukal and Reading for a Reason by Carrie Dobbs (Prentice Hall 1989)

Th* texts in this current reading book arc content-based

fh'ie is a fact that after being used for two years, this reading course book revealed to be

pon in variety of tasks/ activities to help students with the reading skills Most of the lexis in tin current reading book lack the tasks foi pre-reading activity Besides, the exciciscs

mended in each reading text are put below the text, and mainly appear in some certain types sirli as ( I ) multiple choice questions asking students to choose the meaning of word1; in the reding passages, or to find the main idea foi Ihc indicated paragraphs; (2 ) questions asking

stidentc; to find the specific information in (lie rending text; or O ) statements asking stndents

to lecide whether they nre True or false according to the passage content In addition, there

an no types of exercises loi table/ chmt completion with facts 01 based on text inloi million

no tasks for jigsaw reading or matching passage with title; no tasks for the follow-up acuities that require students to combine reading with other language skills (writing nnd sptaking) such as text summary writing and class discussion on the topic

It s crucial for students to acquire the ability to read English effectively and efficiently Geierally there have been a number of publications by native and non-native English sclolars as well as the M A degree studies relating to the method of teaching reading skills and suggestions to improve reading comprehension for learners However, the suggestions and coiclusions cannot be completely applied to the teaching and learning at III IT situation

This the researcher has selected and designed some more reading tasks or activities with tlie hoie to improve reading comprehension of the first-year English major students at H U T t he stuly was based on the experiment in which the teacher taught two classes (one control class,

am one experimental class) to measure the improvement in students’ reading comprehension

Alc’i 12 -week experiment, Ihe results of this study revealed n eeiliiin success as the nullioi hac expected

1.2 Scope of the Study

Dir to the limit of researcher's time, ability and conditions, this thesis does not cover all the prolems or the difficulties during the process of teaching and learning English reading skills

It mly focuses on finding out effective and practical ways to improve the reading

conprehension for the first-year English major students at the English Department Faculty of

Foeign Languages, Hanoi University of Technology (H U T ) This study is concerned with the ger;ral theory' of reading skills, the processes of reading, the procedures of teaching n readinu leson It also provides investigated and analyzed data from the experiment, and proposes

sore sample designed reading tasks/ activities together with a set of reading lesson plans to

be aught to the first-year students at f I I 11

1.5 The Significance of the Study

Tc tlie students at 111)1, reading is a very important skill for their future jobs as translators,

interpreters, or teachers The time allocation scheduled for reading skill in the English course

is greater than that for other language skills However, during the process of teaching reading niiiiv teachers have not paid much attention to equipping students with reading skills They ony consider reading skills a by-product, and let students acquire such reading skills

unxinsciously

Fu'thermore, the teaching of English to the students who are English majors has been applied

at II '7 for just two years, and thus, it is comparatively new and problematic to both teachers

anJ students It is necessary to adjust and adapt the teaching method and the materials being ustd This study will provide information about the students' reading habits, reading ability as

wdl as the actual fact of how teachers teach reading at HLJT At the same time, this study also

provides a set of reading tasks, designed and tried during the author’s teaching experiment lie Findings and implications drawn from the study are believed to be useful and give asfistance to the English learning and teaching reading at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at

H IT

I a A im s o f the S tu d y

I'll* writer of this thesis is aware of the important role reading skills play in daily life and at sclool as C'arrel (1988 I) says “ For many students, reading by far is the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language

Acually this is particularly true to the students at H U T According to the theory of teaching aii( learning reading, and with the hypothesis that if more reading activities/ tasks are

desgned to develop reading skill, students’ reading comprehension will be enhanced, this stuly aims at

- presenting the real situation of the teaching and learning reading skills of both teachers

and students at III IT

- conducting experiments on two classes (controlled class and experimental chiss) Ibi one

semester (12 weeks) to examine whether the equipment of reading skills along with the supplement of tasks/ activities helps improve the reading comprehension of the first-veai English major students at I It IT

Proposing some sample designed (asks/ activities lor the reading lessons togethei with a set of snmple lending lesson plans

1.? An Outline of the Study

W ill the aim to conduct a teaching experiment to help improve reading comprehension of the fir't year students at HUT, the study is divided into five chapters, a list of' references and

Chiptei 1 gives general description of the teachers, the learners, the English Department at

H IT with its English program I bis chapter also includes the methodology, data collection inst ilments and procedures the author did to complete this experiment

C'lupici (bui studies (lie teaching mul learning leading o f teachers and students at I he tacult\

of Foreign Languages at H U T through the survey questionnaire This chapter also deals with a teaching experiment conducted on two classes (one is a control class and the other is an

exp:rimental class) with one pre-test and one post-test done by students before and altei the tweve-week experiment as a means to measure and compare the students' achievements in tliei reading comprehension

Chapter live presents the major findings, some suggestions drawn from I he experiment Tor the

teaciing and learning reading skill for the first-year English major students at I IU I

I imtation of the study and the appeal for further research are also included in this chaptei

Besdes, appendixes from A to Ci show the pre-test, post-test, questionnaire and some tables

of nsults from the study Especially, appendix E with the reading lesson plans and appendix I

witl the designed and collected reading tasks/activities arc presented in details as a source of

rcfcence as well as the authors suggestion

( IIAFTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definitions

2.1 1 W hat is reading?

There me numerous attempts to define reading This is partly due to 1 lie complexity of the realing act F.ach view on reading reflects what reading is to the scholar who presents that viev As a result, different linguists define reading differently However, they all agree that reading is a receptive language process Harmer (1992) describes reading as an exercise dominated by the eyes and brain The eves receive messages and the brain has to work out the meaiings of these messages

According to Goodman (1971 135), reading is “ a psycholinguistic process by which the

reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded bv

a writer as a graphic display" For Goodman, this act of reconstruction is viewed as "a

cycical process of sampling, predicting, testing, and confirming”

Nut all (1982) says reading is the way the reader gels the meaning from the written text I his antlor has summed up the most common words of all the definitions into three groups as follows

a) understand, interpret, meaning sense;

b) decode, decipher, identify, etc ;

c) articulate, speak, pronounce, etc

f'ron all the points of view above, reading could be understood as a process through which

the eader draws out the full amount of information and understands what the writer wants to

say hrough the message

2.1.! W hat is rending comprehension?

I llegibility to read taking general comprehension foi example requires the reader to diaw linfomation from a text and combine it with information and expectations the rendet aliead\

llias I his interaction of infoimation is a common wav to define what reading comprehension

is, tlough it docs not icvcal much about the specifics of leading

“ Reading and comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required

information from it as efficiently as possible" (Orel let F , 1990; 3)

(inbe VV et al (1991 782) claim that a good way to understand reading is to consider what

is equired lor Hucnt leading Fluent icadets, especially good litst language (I I) leadeis, typically do all of the followings

1 Read rapidly for comprehension

2 Recognize words rapidly and automatically (without seeming to pay any attention to them)

1 Draw on a very large vocabulary store

■} Integrate text information with their own knowledge

5 Recognize the purpose(s) for reading

6 Comprehend the text as necessary

7 Shift purpose to read strategically

R Use strategies to monitor comprehension

9 Recognize and repair miscomprehension

10 Read critically and evaluate information

Using these characteristics of a fluent reader to create an expanded definition of reading conprehension reveals the multiple skills and strategies that second language (1.2) learners

i n o r H p r t o h p r n m c f l i i o n t rf>nrtpr<:

2.13 Reading skills/ strategies

In tie literature, reading skills are sometimes used interchangeably with strategies which have

beei referred to as ‘techniques' or ‘tactics' Despite the distinction between these two terms

offered by some researchers, they are used interchangeably in the present study, and are uncbrstood as the mental processes that readers use in accomplishing reading tasks

2.2 Nature of Reading Comprehension

The nature of reading comprehension is described briefly in t he next three subsections

2.2.1 HoMom-up models of I lie reading process.

Untl comparatively recently, the bottom-up approach dominated both the first and second laniuage research and theory According to Oambourne (1979) the bottom up approach was (lie oasis of the vast majority o f reading schemes

In hottom-up tending models, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom), and

constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases, and sentences, then processes the text in a lin.'ai fashion I he reader gets the incoming data from the text be lore trying to nuclei stand and recode the data Nnnan cited the following diagram of ( ambotirne (1991) to illustrate how the piccess is supposed to work

Prim ^ F.very I d l e r _ ^ Phonemes and ^ Pronunciation ^ Meaning

discriminated Grapheme«; matched

Fi'ttre I: Hot tom-tip models process (Nunan, 1901 64)

Tht bottom-up processing model is also illustrated by Nuttall (1996) in the picture below

lig t r e 2: Hottom-up processing (N uttall 1996:17)

According to (his model, the reader processes letters and phonemes of the language lie alreidy knows Then these minimal units of meaning in the sound system of the language aie blerded together to form words The derivation of meaning is thus the last process in which the angtiage is translated from one form of symbolic representation to anothei

“ Rotom-up" model analyzes reading as a process in which small chunks of text aie

abscrbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningful

7

Cleaily these are text-driven models of comprehension, and the rcadei plays a iclalivck

passive role in the process 1'he nature of reading, therefore, from the bottom-lip \ icvs has hci'ii si;itcd hy Carrel ( l ('RR 1-2) as follows

Reading is primarily ;i decoding process of reconstructing I lie authors intended nicaiiiiii’ \ i.i recognizing (lie printed tellers ;ind words and building up a meaning foi ;i lc\l from I lie smallest textual units al llie bottom (letters and words) to a larger units al the lop (phrases clauses) Problems of second language reading and reading comprehension were viewed as being essentially decoding problems deriving meaning from print

Hrwever, there has been now a great deal of evidence which points out the inadequacy of this bottom-up view Gibson and Levin (1978 449) argue that

The model leaves largclv unexplained the use of highcr-ordcr structures that is characteristic or the vcr\ economical behavior of the skilled reader A major problem with (lie model is that il can not handle the word superiority cfTccl which has by now been thoroughly documented II seems to us loo that it ignores completely the flexibility of processing that characterizes the skilled teadci

Amther opponent of bottom-up model view on reading is Samuels According to Samuels anc Kamil in Carrel (1988: 3 I )

An important shortcoming of these models is lack of feedback, in that no mechanism is prov ided to allow Tor processing stages which occurs earlier in the system Because of the lack of feedback loops

in the early boltom-up models, il was dilTicult to account for senlcncc-conlcxl effects and the role of

p r i o r k n o w l r r l f » r o f I r v l l o p i r : i c v * t r t : t M < ' c i n w o r d r r r o j ^ n i l i o n j i i m I r o i t i p t r h r i K i n n

Because o f these limitations, and together with the advent of top-down view of reading as a psycholinguistic process, the bottom-up view of reading fell into disfavor

2.22 Top-down models of Hie rending process

I In top-down process moves from the top, down to the text itself In fact, the reading process

is criven by the reader’s mind at work on the text (reader-drive models) and so the reader is

at he heart of the reading process Nunan uses the flow chart by Cambourne ( 1079) to

provide the schematization of the approach (See figure 3)

1 Pas experience language — Selective aspects Meaning ( Sounds, pronunciations

I'ig u c Top-down models process (N unan 19 9 1 (S5)

I lie top-down processing is once more illustrated by Nuttall (1996) as follows

to d eterm in e w h e th e r n r not the hypotheses are c o rrect” Thus, (lie render plnys an active role

O n e o f llie problem"; o i the top-down model is that for m ain tests, the render lias little know ledge ol die topic and can not generate predictions A more serious problem is that even il a skilled re;idci can generate predictions, die amount o f lim e ncccssan to generate a prediction m a\ he greater than the amount o f tim e the skilled reader needs simplv to rcco gn i/c the words

9

A nother short com ing o f the top-down models is that “ they sometimes (nil to distinguish adequately between beginning readers and fluent readers" (Nunan, 1991 6 6 )

lu the light of (he perceived deficiencies o f bottom -up and top-dow n models, some rescaichers propose a third one which they call an interactive models o f reading process

2.2.3 In teractive models of reading process

In tc ia c liv c tending m odels, as their label im p lies, theo rize an in teractio n b etw een the reailei and the w ritte n text

R um elhart (1 9 7 7 :5 7 3 ) suggests that “ reading is at once a ‘ perceptual' and a cognitive process H e believes that the reading process is neither bottom -lip nor top-down and that

emphasizes many different types and directions o f processing, depending on text context and available inform ation sources “ A ll o f the various sources o f knowledge, both sensory and nonsensory, come together at one place and the reading process is the product o f the simultaneous jo in t application o f all the knowledge sources" (R um elhart, 1977 588)

Stanovich has attempted to incorporate what is known about skilled and unskilled reading

in to the i n t e r a c t iv e c o m p e n s a t o r y m o d e l S t a n o v i c h ( 1 9 8 0 1 2 ) states that “ in t e r a c t iv e m o d e ls

o f reading appear to provide a more accurate conceptualization o f reading performance than

do strictly top-down o r bottom-up models” According to this author, the strength in one processing stage can compensate for weaknesses in another Nunan (1 9 8 8 6 7 ) cites Stanovich land indicates the nature o f this model as below

" A s llic name indicates this model suggests Ilial readers process texts bv u tili/in g inform ation provided simultancouslv from several difTcrcnl sources, and lltal Ihcv can compensate Pot deficiencies

at one level bv draw ing on knov\ledge at o ilier (cither higher or low er) levels These sources inclndc nil those looked at scparatclv in bottom -up and top-down processes, that is phonological lexical syntactic, semantic and discoursal know ledge

I lie model o f tlicse two processes cited from Cook, G ( I9R9 90) is presented below

T op-dow n

•t Shared knowledge -i Discourse types + Discourse structures + Discourse function + Conversational mechanism + Cohesion

y (G ram m ar and lexis)

(Sounds or letters)

B ottom -up

F ig u re 5: In te ra ctive m odel process

In short, interactive models take parallel processing o f inform ation from print and from background know ledge Recognition and comprehension o f printed words and ideas are the result o f using both types o f inform ation (G ove, 1983) In a discussion o f the effective

to n oliin g o f re n d in g , H a y e s ( l O O T 7 ) asserts:

Interactive models arc more Hum n compromise between botlom -np and top-down theories In interactive models dilTerent processes arc thought lo be responsible for providing inform ation that is shared w ith other processes The inform ation obtained from each l\p c o f processing is combined lo determ ine the most appropriate interpretation o f the printed page '

In this model, in te ra c tiv e refers to the interaction between inform ation obtained by means o f both bottom-up and top-dow n processing skills In this view , good reading that is, fluent and accurate reading - can result only from a constant interaction between these tw o processes Good readers are both good decoders and good interpreters o f the texts

22.3 Skills Involved in Rending and Comprehending

Reading is not simple nor is it a single skill It consists o f many components and is a complex process involving an interaction between the reader and the text Readers have to use different

•activities to net meaning from the text These activities ate genetallv referred to as lead in i’ Utrategies or reading skills which relate to both the bottom-up and the top-dow n processing

DilTeicnt researchers list reading skills difTcrcntly H ow ever, anv clrtssi(lent ion o l 'ren d in g skil's should he m erely regarded as a way o f identifying what good readers have to master

Nut all ( 1982 6 5 - 124) gives a list o f main reading skills as follows

M a rro skills M ic ro skills

W o rd -attack skills I M orphological inform ation

2 Structural clues

3 Inference (or guessing the meanings o f unfam iliar words) from the context

4 Active, receptive and throw -aw ay vocabulary

5 Ignorance o f d ifficu lt words

6 Use o f a dictionary

le x -a tta c k skills

( I ) Signification and cohesion

1 Understanding sentence syntax

2 Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices Subskill I interpreting reference and substitution Subskill 2: interpreting elliptical expressions

S titis kill 3' in t e r p r e t in g le x ic n l c o h e s io n

3 In terp re tin g discourse m arkers (2 ) Discourse

4 Recognizing functional value

5 Tracing and interpreting rhetorical organization

6 Recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text

7 Recognizing im plications and making inferences

8 Predicting

9 Integrating and applying

I ron her point o f view , the reader has no problems w ith letter shapes and linguistic elements All le/she needs is to tackle only un fam iliar words that block comprehension The skills that lie/sle needs to understand a text are known as text-attack skills

Brom hton et al (1 9 7 8 2 1 1 ) suggest another list o f reading skills which can be div ided into

tw o M'oups

( 1) Lower order mechanical skills

- Recognition of letter shapes

- Recognition of linguistic elements (phoneme/ grapheme, word, phrase.clause pattern, sentence, etc )

- Recognition of sound/ letter spelling pattern correspondence (ability to

‘bark at print’)

- Slow reading speed(2) Higher order comprehension skills

- Understanding plain sense (lexical, grammatical, rhetorical)

- Understanding significance (logical, author attitude/ purpose, culturalrelevance/ setting, reader reaction)

- Evaluating (content, form)

- Applying flexible reading speed

The following list of micro reading skills is taken from Munby, J (1078)

- Recognizing the script of a language

- Deducing the meaning and using of unfamiliar lexical terms

- 1 inderstanding explicitly stated information

- I Jnderstanding information when not explicitly stated

t Indorstnndiny conceptual meaning

- Understanding the communicative value (function) of sentences andutterances

- Understanding relations within the sentence

- Understanding relations between the parts of a text through lexicalcohesion devices

- Understanding cohesion between parts of a text through grammaticalcohesion devices

- Interpreting the text by going outside it

- Recognizing indicators in discourse

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

- Distinguishing the main idea from supporting details

- Extracting salient points to summarize (the text, an idea etc )

- Selecting extraction of relevance points from a text

- Using basic reference skills

- Skimming

I 1

- Scanning to locate specifically required information

- Transcoding information to diagrammatic display

In f;ul when rending a text, die tendei must use these skills altogethei And (lie rcndei is required to use his linguistic knowledge as well as background knowledge, and both bottom-

up and top-down processing I lie task ol the teachers is to select and teach those skills their students need so that they can acquire a better understanding and improve their rcaditm abilities Reading comprehension should not be separated from other skills In real life, we can't help talking or writing about what we have read, and of course, we often relate what we have read to something we might have heard It is, therefore, important to link dilfeient skills through the reading activities chosen reading and writing, reading and listening, reading and speaking

2.4 Residing Comprehension in the Classroom

2.4.1 The role of tlic teacher in a rending lesson

Some people would so far say that reading can not be taught but only learnt, that there is nothing for the teachers to do in the reading class However, almost every reading text in the book is not efficiently comprehended without the help of the teachers

Methodology aside, teacher is the most important element in a reading class for his/ her influence on the students and their performance He/ she provides students with the -anxietv- free atmosphere to help them in a new reading style The teacher also creates the favorable environment for the students to practise mastering new strategies At the same time, he usually gives students persuasion of timing

According to Nutall (1988: 22), the teacher's role in teaching is described as follows

tcaclicr should provide Hist, suitable texts, and second, activities that will focus students' attention on the texts They |studcnls| must develop their own skills but tcachcrs must make them aware of wlial llicv arc doing and intcreslcd in doing it belter"

Therefore, the task of the teacher is to develop the students’ reading skills by providingtechniques to tackle the texts of vaiious kinds with various purposes Moreover, the leachei

can show the students how the topics in the text books are carried over into the real uoildoutside the classroom and provide additional materials for reading like papers, books,popular magazines, and other print materials

However, there must be a two-way relationship between the teacher and students the tcachci

should constantly monitor the students’ reaction, and sometimes work as the motivator, the conductor, the corrector as well as the participant in the reading lesson This is a motivating technique because interaction means acting reciprocally as Richards (1087) states

Interactive decisions enable teachers to access students' response lo teaching and lo modify their instruction in order lo pro\ idc optimal support Tor learning A teacher whose leaching is guided sole In

n lesson plnti and "h o ignores the interactional dynamics of the teaching-learning proccss is hence less likch to be able lo respond lo students' need".

In short, it is very important to give the right help to students, and teachers should be aware

of their role in the reading classroom so as to know when, what and how to help students

2.4.2 The three phases of classroom procedures

Countless instructional tasks are used in reading classes to help students engage in to achieve

learning goal One major implication from theory is a general framework based on three

phases: pre-reading; while-reading; and post-reading

a IW -rearfiitg

According to Williams (1084 17), what the pre-reading phase tries to do is

1 to introduce and arouse interest in the topic

2 to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading

1 to provide some language preparation for the text

That means this phase helps students access background information that can facilitate

subsequent reading, provides specific information needed for successful comprehension,

stimulates students interest, sets up students’ expectations and models strategics that students

can later use on their ow n Therefore, students can bring the best of their knowledge and skills

to a text when they have been given a chance to “ ease into” the passage

Williams ( 1084:17) also states some commonly used pre-reading activities include

/ Piv-i cat/ing discussion Teacher gives some questions related to the subsequent

reading passage for the students to discuss

2 Brainstorm ing T his is a very popular and advantageous kind of activity that activates students' prior knowledge and opinions and at the same time, invokes the whole

class Teacher can preview the text (by examining distinguishing features of the text such as

the title, subheadings, illustrations and captions) to determine (or at least hypothesize) the

general topic of the reading, relevant vocabulary, and possible challenges Teacher may ask

students to call out associated words or concepts

1 Asking students to write questions to which they expcct the text to provide answers

4 Using visiiols such as illustrations, drawings, photographs, figures, tables, charts,

maps, diagrams and so on related to the text By using them, teacher can catch students'

attention, arouse their motivation, encourage their prediction, and elicit key vocabulary items

as these visuals indicate text direction and define a context in which students can search for

meaning

I) W hile-rending

This phase draws on the text, rather than the learner's ideas previous to reading (Williams,

1984 38) The aims o f this phase are

1 to help students' understanding of the writer’s purpose

2 to help students’ understanding of the text structure

3 to clarify text content

In other words, while- reading instructions guide students through the text, often focusing on

understanding difficult concepts, making sense of complex sentences, considering relationship

among ideas or characters in the text, and reading purposefully and strategically

VVliilc-icnding a c tivities, flcco id in g to W illia m s , can l>e

1 reading for general understanding (skimming)

2 reading for extracting specific information (scanning)

3 reading for detailed comprehension

4 predicting continuing events and then reading to confirm expectation

5 reading for communicative tasks such as separating and reassembling jumbled texts,

finding the sequence of events, close reading, jig-saw reading, presenting the text as a

diagrammatic display, etc

e Post-reading

Post-reading instructions typically extend ideas and information from the text while ensuring

that the major ideas and supporting information are well understood Williams (1984 39)

states the aims o f post-reading work as follows

1 to consolidate or reflect upon what has been read

2 to relate the text to the learners' own knowledge, interests, or view

Post -reading may also include any reactions to the text and to the while-reading work Post leading work should tlius contribute, in a coherent manner, to I he writing, speaking, and listening skills that the program aims to develop

W illiams (1984 19) also suggests the following common post-reading activities as follows

1 multiple choice questions

2 table, chart, or questionnaire completion with facts or based on text information

} follow-up writing or listening

5 role play

6 debate/ class discussion on the topic

7 problem solving with the aid of information from the text

Obviously, this three-phase approach is easily adopt in different classroom contexts, but should not be carried out mechanically on every occasion Sometimes the teacher may wish to

cut out the pre-reading stage and get learners to work on the text directly Sometimes post­reading work may not be suitable However, the advantage of the three phase approach is

twofold It helps both teachers and students in teaching and learning reading effectively Teachers know what to do in each phase, when to give knowledge to the students, and when

to give them practice whereas students can interact with texts by using their cognitive skills, their knowledge about the world, their first language, foreign language, and written text lialso leads to integration o f the skills so that the leading lesson is not sim ply isolated \1oie importantly, this approach includes activities that cover both top-down and bottom up

processing, and promote positive attitudes toward reading

2.5 Previous Study: Strengths and Weaknesses

So far, there have been a number of publications by native and non-native F.nglish scholars as

well as the M A degree studies in Hanoi University of Foreign Studies and Hanoi National University relating to the method of teaching F.nglish reading skills and the suggestions to improve the teaching of reading comprehension to pupils and students at some schools and

I Iniversities nationwide

Cai Ngoc l)uy Anh (1999) made an investigation into the reality of teaching and learning

reading comprehension in FT! intermediate classes at Hue College of Scicncc with implications fot improving students' reading comprehension skills

17

Hoang Tlii Minh Tan (1990) presented “ How to improve the reading skills for the third year

students at Hanoi University of Technology"

Mm I long Thuy (1909) made an investigation into teaching reading skills to the second yeat students nt H U T with some recommendation for the material development

Nguyen Duy Mong lla (2000) proposed the application of the communicative approach to the leaching of reading to Viclnamcsc-f nglislt majors

Pham Tlii Tlianli Thuy (2000) stated reading difficulties in E F L as perceived by teachers and

first-year students of English at College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University

However, in the study cases of Hoang Tlii Minh Tan (1999) and Bui Hong Thuy (1909), they

only investigated and gave suggestions for improving reading skills for the non-language

students at H U T According to Nguyen Duy Mong Ha (2000), the application of communicative approach has proved to be effective but has not been popular in Vietnam due

to the passive language learning style of the students The suggestions in Pham Thi Thanh Tluiy's thesis (2000) are somewhat said to be subjective and incomplete since the author’s practical cxpcrience in teaching reading is limited and the teaching needs to be observed in

the classroom

Moreover, in most of the studies mentioned above, those authors just used questionnaires and interview s with teachers and students ns n means of dntn collection foi tlieii investigation None of them conducted experiments which are said to be of more help to get more accurate

;and trustworthy information Last but not least, the applications given in their studies have mot been explored and discussed thoroughly enough because those above mentioned

iresearchers’ studies have only come to the conclusion that their suggestions just can be

?appled to the students studying English in their particular schools, colleges, or universities

Iflie esearcher of this study, thus, will conduct a teaching experiment, apply as well as adjust ssome of their suggestions to the teaching situation at H U T in order to improve her students' treading comprehension

21.6 Summary of Chapter 2

11ii tlis chapter, the relevant literature which has helped form the theoretical and conceptual frramcwork for the present study is presented

First, the chapter has given various definitions of reading and reading comprehension I hen come I lie currently dominant groups of models of the leading pioccss ll can he concluded that each of these models has its limitations and is insufficient in itsclF hut they ;ill importantly contribute to the knowledge of reading and the reading process It seems that 1 he interactive model better reflects the reading process than the bottom-up and the top-down models

Following are some sets of reading skills suggested by different theorists T hese lists are taken into consideration of which it is sensible to use Munby's list of reading skills in which some such as inference, predicting, distinguishing main ideas from supporting details, skimming and scanning are specially emphasized

Those above mentioned are put into use later in this study to help design tasks for students to

practise so as to enhance their reading comprehension Practising reading comprehension skills and applying classroom procedures, therefore, are presented to make it clearer for both teacher and students to perform an effective reading lesson The strengths and weaknesses of the previous studies in the related field have been stated in the last part of the chapter

10

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 (»eneral background of the English Department at HUT

3.1.1 I llc Faculty and its English program

Hanoi University o f Technology in the academic year 2000-2001 got the permit from the Ministry of Education and Training (M O E T ) to open a new training branch specializing for technology in foreign language Since its establishment, the teachers of English at the Faculty

of Foreign l anguages have taken the responsibility to conduct this training program for students of English for Science and Technology The time allocation scheduled for this course

is 9 semesters (equal to 4 5 years) and is divided into two stages The fust stage lasts 4 semesters in the first two years At this stage, students are equipped with the basic knowledge

of General English with (he practice of four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) The second stage lasts the rest 5 semesters, and students study English for Science-

Teclmology Besides, in this training course, students also have to study the compulsory subjects as other Social Science and Humanity students according to the requirements of the

M O E T On graduation, these students will get the B A degree of English for Science and

Technology

The first-year students o f English taking part in my case study have finished fhe first semester That means, they have finished 300 periods for English The time allocation for the four language skills is 20 periods/week in which reading accounts for 6 periods/week

After one semester, students get to know and accustomed to the new teaching-learning environment at the University, which is different from the way they learnt at Secondary schools However, there are not many activities for improving reading comprehension skills

Some of the teachers are too dependent on the main course book And in the reading lesson,

(hey only teach by reading aloud, translating, or explaining new words and (hen ask students

to do the exercises available without adding more tasks to facilitate learning and encouraging the participation of the students in different reading activities in class

Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a study in order to adjust and adapt the teaching method as well ns the appropriate additional materials, tasks or activities to impiove the

•caching-learning situation, especially to improve students’ reading comprehension at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at H U T

3.1.2 I lie learners

Most of the students who enter H U T are between eighteen and twenty years of age They do not come from the same place Many come from the rural areas, others from cities and towns All the students enrolling in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at H U T have learnt English since they were at Secondary schools However, the difference in their living and studying conditions in different areas results in their difference of social understanding and language competence which has caused certain problems to their present English learning In the same class, with the same teacher, many students find it easy to follow but many others find it hard

to catch up with the class As Tran Thi Pluiong, one teacher of the Faculty of Foreignlanguages, HUT, wrote in her M A thesis (1999: 52):

It is interesting to see that the majority is from families living in urban centers where the\ have better access to educational facilities as well as the media than those living in ruralareas As a result of this, the formers seem to make much more progress than the latter instudying English"

3.1.3 The teachers

The teachers who are in charge of dealing with teaching reading skill at the English Department, HUT, aged from 25 to 35, many of whom have been in their teaching career for only a few years Thus, there is a fact that many young teachers are given demanding teaching

schedules and do not have many opportunities to get involved in any activity for professional

development Many lack teaching techniques/ or practice This problem is understandable

because their undergraduate courses were often based on linguistics and literature and dealt very little with teaching practice In general, Vietnamese teachers of English have few opportunities to obtain further training in teaching methodology after graduation (Pham 2000) This is true to the situation of the teachers of English at H U T Traditionally, H U T is

not a university to teach English for the English major students as other Universities of Foreign Studies, and in fact, those teachers have few opportunities to attend courses in

me hodology after graduation The meetings to exchange teaching experience among teachers

in lie department are held but those meetings have not fully met the expectation of the

tea;hers, especially of those who have started teaching

21

Wliat is more, the heavy workload on many teachers of English is a challenge to the improvement of teaching quality While the full-time workload required by the Ministry of Education and Training is only from 10 to 12 hours a week, everyone does extra work to subsidize the modest state salary After the mandated teaching hours to maintain thcii positions at the university, many teachers spend the rest of their time on extra teaching at other institutions, where their work is paid bv the hour Consequently, the H U T teachers of English work like “ machines" It is now very common to find a IIU'T' teacher who teaches live hours in the morning, five hours in the afternoon, and two hours more in the evening Many teachers even give private classes on Sundays With an overload of teaching hours, many have little time to prepare their lessons before class They only try to follow the teacher's book and finish a unit in the textbook by the end of the lesson for many teachers, it

is even considered risky to make any alteration to these “ instant lessons”

3.2 Methodology

3.2.1 Subjects

Two classes with 40 first-year English students of English at the Faculty of Foreign

Languages at H U T participated in this study, in which one was treated as a control class, and the other was the experimental class Students in these two classes are considered to be equal

In the following points

Before they took part in this study, they had studied English formally in junior and senioi high schools for a total of six years and they have been studying at the university for a

semester That means they have finished 100 periods of English and the time division for the

four language skills is 20 periods/week in which reading accounts for 6 periods/week

3.2.2 Materials

Texts I he ament reading textbook for the first year students of the Faculty was used in the

study I bis reading textbook is a collection of many reading texts from different leading

t Age

-t English level

between 18 and 20

intermediate level of General English

20 students (4 males, 16 females)between 18 and 20

intermediate level of General English

- Experimental-class + Number

t Age

i English level

hooks for students at the intermediate level They were Developing Rending Sk ill by Linda

Markstein Louise Hirasawa (1994); Practical Taster Reading by Gerald Mosback and

Vivienne Mosback (1991); hi ('on/ext by Zukowski/ Faust - Johnston Atkinson Templin ( 1982), Weaving It Together ? i 4 by Milada Broukal and Reading for a Reason by Carrie

Dobbs ( 1989) The texts are arranged according to the topic of reading such as inventions and machines; languages; land and people; city and city life; medicine; art; educational systems; food, endangered species; mass media

Furthermore, knowing that there is a lack of exercises/ activities during the process of teaching and learning reading to help students read more efficiently, the writer of this thesis selected more texts and designed reading activities as the supplement for the experiment with the hypothesis that if more activities/tasks are designed to develop reading skills, students' reading comprehension will be enhanced

3.2.3 Data collection instruments and procedures

.12 I I Test

In this study, only reading section of the IE L T S test type was chosen In the 60 minuterending test, the students w e ic required to do tnsks w hich in v o lv e id e n tifyin g und erlyin gthemes, evaluating and refuting evidence, drawing logical conclusions and making inferences Question types include table completion, summary completion and gap filling This reading

test is objectively scored

Pre-test and post-test Reading Comprehension tests for the pre- and post-tests are based on

the IF.LTS-type of reading test in order to measure the students’ reading comprehension as well as reading speed to fulfill the tasks In this study, those tests were used for both controlled-class and experimental-class to identify the improvement in students' reading

comprehension The pre-test and post-test are taken from “ IE L T S Preparation and Practice Reading and Writing G E N E R A L T R A IN IN G M O D U L E ” (Vladimir Pejovic et al 1999 ) For

further information, see appendix A and B (p 55-69)

Each of the tests (the pre-test and the post-test) takes 60 minutes Each test is divided into 3 sections with 40 questions to answer Section I has short texts which come from advertisements, timetables, instruction manual and the like Section 2 lias two longer texts of

23

about 500 words each Section 3 has one longer text of about 700 words with more,complex language and structure The questions may come before or after the reading texts of each sections The question types in section 1 of the reading test are: ( I ) multiple choice, (2) True False or Not Given, and (3) short answers (of no more than 3 words) Questions in section 2 are about specific information and main ideas such as ( I ) completing sentences, (2) True, False, Not Given, (3) matching pieces of specific information, (4) matching heading with paragraphs Section 3 consists of only one reading text of about 700 words without subheading The question types in section 3 could be ( I ) any of those from section 1 or 2, (2) completing a summary, (3) completing a table (4) identifying qualities or characteristics

Thus, those pre-test and post-test will check students’ reading skills (skimming to identify

main ideas, scanning for specific information, guessing new words in context, drawing logical conclusions , and making inference, etc ) Unless they are very fast readers, they will not

have time to read the texts in section 2 and 3 and fulfill the tasks The readers must use their

time efficiently and know how to choose the suitable reading strategies to answer the questions without wasting time

2.3.2 Questionnaire.

The questionnaire for students In this study was designed with 12 questions I he first three questions ask about the length of time that students have been learning English and their thought about the role of reading skill in learning English as a foreign language From questions 4 to 8, the author focuses on finding how students often read the texts to identify

whether they possess any reading skills ; questions 9 & 10 ask students to find if they have

got background knowledge of different reading topics and if they have habit of reading outside class to obtain more information for the topics of reading; question II & 12 are

designed to find what types of reading tasks the students often deal with and their abilities to

do them (See appendix C for the students’ questionnaire)

.? 2 .? Procedures

The present study was conducted for one semester (twelve weeks) from the beginning of February to the end of April in 2003 with the two English classes D01-BKD46 was treated as the experimental-class and D03-BKD46 as the control-class

Pie-tost was given to two classes at the beginning of the course to identify the students' strengths and weaknesses through the results of their reading comprehension test After the pre-test, students of both classes were asked to fill in the questionnaire to find out whether they possess any reading skills and their reading comprehension abilities

Then, the experiment was conducted The time for this experimental course was one semester (12 weeks) and each class had six periods/week The researcher was in charge of those two classes During twelve weeks of teaching reading, exercises/tasks to develop reading skills such as inference, distinguishing the main ideas from supporting details, predicting, skimming for general information, and scanning for specific information were designed and carried out

at each reading lesson in the experimental-class Teaching procedures for each reading lesson are also presented in the reading lesson plans used during the experiment For more details, see appendix F and F The control class was taught with only the reading material provided

by the Department

At the end of the experiment, a post-test was given to students in these two classes After doing the post-test, students in both classes filled in the questionnaire as the one they had done after the pre-test The aim of conducting the survey questionnaire this time is to identify whether after the course students possess reading skills and how well they can use different

re n d in g stra te g ie s to h e lp th e m rend b e tte r T h e testa rcau lta w e r e c o m p n rc d ao ns to id e n tify

the improvement in students’ reading comprehension

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Descriptive Statistics of the Experiment

4 1.1 D escriptive statistics o f th e pre-test results

The pre-test results o f the 4 0 participants in the tw o classes are displayed in Appendix D table I and table 2

Rased on the pre-test results, the students in each class can be divided into four groups according to the marks they got

+ Group I weak students with marks I - 4

+ Group 2 average students with marks 5 - 6

+ G roup 3: good students with marks 7 - 8

+ Group 4 very good students w ith marks 9 - 1 0

Table ? Pre-test results o f the Experimental class (1)01 - HKD46) and the C ontrol class (DOJ

Percentage

( % )

N u m b e r o f students

students belonging to group 4 (very good students) We can easily notice that most of' the students (90%) in each class are categorized as weak and average Thus, there is no great difference between the two classes’ pre-test results

The figures in table 3 can be illustrated in the following chart (See chart I)

Chart 1 Pretest results of the Experimental class (D PI BKD46) anil the Control (lass (1)01

4.1.2 Descriptive statistics o f the pre-experiment questionnaire for students in

experim ental class and control class

The results of the questionnaire given to students of the two classes (DO I and D03- BKD46)

at the beginning of the course is briefly described For the first three questions in the questionnaire, most of the students in both classes report they have studied English for 6 years since they were at grade 6 at Junior High Schools (38 students, making 95%) Only two

students have learnt English for 3 years since they were at grade 10 at Senior High Schools,

accounting for 5 % The students' level of General English when they took part in this experiment was Intermediate They all considered reading skill as important as other language

skills 10 percent of them even chose reading the most important skill

27

I o focus on finding out students' reading strategies, questionnaire results from number 4 to number 10 (table 4 page 2f)) shows that students in both classes do not know how to read effectively

In responding to question 4, 80% of the students in class D01 and 85% of the students in class 1)01 selected the choice items a and c, in which they “ start reading from the beginning" and

“ looking up every new word in a dictionary before carrying out the reading tasks" Resides, to understand the text as asked in question 5, only one third of the students in each class selected the choice item d, which is the combination of some techniques to support the understanding Questions number 6, 7, and 8 are about the students’ while- and post- reading stages Half of the students in each class (45% and 50%) were still dependent on a dictionary or on teachers / friends' help (items 6a, 6c) Only one student (5 % ) chose to ignore the new words or phrases

(item 6d) At the same time, they often tried to translate the text when reading to understand the text (45% of the students in each class chose item 7a) About nearly half of the students in both classes DO I and D03 considered reading a process of understanding everything in the text by choosing item 8b

In addition, the purpose of question 9 & 10 is to find if they have got background knowledge

o f different reading topics and if they have habit of reading outside class to obtain more

in fo rm atio n for the topics o f reading T h e icsults show that none o f the students in both

classes found a ll the topics o f the reading fam iliar (item 9c), 35% and 40% of them knew

something about the topics of the texts When asked question 10, only one third of students in each class (DOI and D03) chose Y R S (30% and 35% respectively) The reason for their reading outside class was mainly for learning more new words and grammatical structures as shown in item 10b (20% and 25%)

Tahir 7 /*/<••- experiment questionnaire results o f questions 4 - It)

(Questions Choircs F xp rrim o n tn l class ('m il m l <'l:iss

N um ber of Percentage N u m b er of Percentage

Regarding the micro skills students have learnt and had chance to practice them in text books, table 5 below shows that only 10% of the students in each class said it was ‘ ddcipiatc " and

70% said it was "not m uch" for skimming practice (item I la) More than half of them chose

it was "not m uch' for scanning practice (item IIh ) As to other reading skills like inferring,

deducing the meaning, or identifying the topic of texts / paragraphs (item lie , lid lie), about 75% - 80% of the students claimed there were "not much " for them to practise None of

the students in these two classes had chance to practise transferring information into diagram s graphs or vise versa (shown in item I l f ) Thus, we can see during the reading

lessons, there were not enough reading tasks/ exercises for students to practise to improve their reading skills This resulted in students’ difficulty when they are doing the tasks

Table 5,- Pre-experiment questionnaire result of question I I

Choice

Too much

much

Not at all

Too much

To find out students’ abilities when they have to do different reading tasks, the results of

• question 12 in the questionnaire shows that more than half or two thirds of the students in

I both I)0| and 1)01 found it difficult to deal with scanning, skimming, inferring exercises

< (55%; 75%; 75% as shown in 12b 12c, I2d ) See table 6