000070765 THE EFFECTS OF ACTIVATING AND PROVIDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE, AND PROVIDING VOCABULARY ON ELEMENTARY STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION AND MOTIVATION: AN EXPERIMENT OF TEACHING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES AT QNTTC TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC KÍCH HOẠT VÀ CUNG CẤ

000070765 THE EFFECTS OF ACTIVATING AND PROVIDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE, AND PROVIDING VOCABULARY ON ELEMENTARY STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION AND MOTIVATION: AN EXPERIMENT OF TEACHING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES AT QNTTC TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA VIỆC KÍCH HOẠT VÀ CUNG CẤP KIẾN THỨC BỐI CẢNH VÀ CUNG CẤP TỪ VỰNG ĐỐI VỚI KHẢ NĂNG HIỂU ĐỌC VÀ ĐỘNG LỰC CỦA HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC: THÍ NGHIỆM DẠY CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TIỀN ĐỌC TẠI QNTTC

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HA NOI UNIVERSITY

NGUYỄN THỊ HẢO

THE EFFECTS OF ACTIVATING AND PROVIDING

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE, AND PROVIDING VOCABULARY ON ELEMENTARY STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION AND MOTIVATION: AN EXPERIMENT OF TEACHING PRE-READING

ACTIVITIES AT QNTTC

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE

OF MASTER IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR'S NAME: HOÀNG VĂN HOẠT, M.A

HANOI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

*Ú a J l Ị* j Ị j

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H anoi, O cto b er, 2007

STATEM ENT OF AUTHO RSH IP

I certify that the minor thesis entitled "The effects of activating and providing background knowledge, and providing vocabulary on elementary students' reading comprehension and motivation: An experiment o f pre-reading activities at QNTTC." and submitted in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the degree o f Master o f Arts

in TESOL is the result o f my work, except where otherwise acknowledged, and that this minor thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi University approved the research reported in this thesis

Signed:

Dated:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S T A T E M E N T O F A U T H O R S H I P I

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S II

A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S IV

A B S T R A C T V LIST OF A B B R E V I A T I O N S VI

C H A P T E R 1: I N T R O D U C T I O N 1

1.1 B ac k g r o u n d to the s t u d y 1

1.1.1 T heoretical ra tio n a le I 1.1.2 P ra ctica l r a tio n a le 2

1 2 A i m s o f t h e s t u d y 3

1.3 R esearch q u e s t i o n s 3

1 4 H y p o t h e s i s 3

1 5 S c o p e a n d s i g n i f i c a n c e o f t h e s t u d y 4

1 6 O r g a n i z a t i o n o f t h e t h e s i s 4

C H A P T E R 2: L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W 5

2 1 R e a d i n g c o m p r e h e n s i o n 5

2.1.1 R eadin g co m p reh en sio n 5

2.1.2 F actors affecting the readin g co m preh en sion 6

2.1.2.1 Vocabulary 6

2 1.2.2 Motivation 7

2.1.2.3 Background know ledge 8

2.1.3 Schem a th eory a n d readin g p ro c e ss 9

2.1.3.1 S ch em aT h eory 9

2.1.3.2 Types o f schemata 10

2.2 P re - reading ac t iv it ie s 12

2.2.1 P re-readin g a c tiv itie s 12

2.2.2 Types o f p re -re a d in g a c tiv itie s 13

2.2.2.1 Presenting N e w Vocabulary and Structures 13

2 2 2 2 Introducing the t e x t 14

2.2.2.3 Giving guiding q u e stio n s 15

2.2.2.4 Predicting 16

2 2 2 5 Giving guided d iscu ssion 16

2 3 P i c t u r e s i n t e a c h i n g a n d l e a r n i n g l a n g u a g e 18

2 3 1 The p la c e o f pictu res in teach ing an d learning lan gu ages 18

2.3.2 The p la c e o f pictu res in readin g com prehension 19

2 4 O t h e r r e l a t e d l i t e r a t u r e 2 0

2 5 S u m m a r y 2 2

C H A P T E R 3: M E T H O D O L O G Y 23

3 1 T h e r k s e a r c h q u i t t i o n s 2 3 3 2 S u b j e c t s 23

3 3 V a r i a i m e s 2 4 3.3.1 Independent v a r ia b le s 24

3 3 1 1 Activating and providing background knowledge using topic- related pictures 24

3.3.1.2 Pre-teaching new w o r d s 25

3.3.2 D ependent va ria b le s 25

3.3.2.1 Students' reading com prehension 25

3.3.2.2 Students' motivation in the reading c l a s s 25

3.4 D ata collection in s tr um e nt s 26

3 4 1 P re-test a n d p o st-te st 26

3.4.2 C lassroom m otivation observation sh eet 28

3.4.3 Students questionnaires 28

3.5 D at a a n a l y s i s 29

3.6 D escription of materials u s e d for the s t u d y 30

3.7 P ro c e d u r e 30

3.8 S u m m a r y 32

C H A P T E R IV: R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 33

4.1 R e s u l t s 33

4.1.1 Results o f the te s ts 33

4.1.1.1 Result o f the p re-lest 33

4.1.1.2 The results o f the pre-test and post test co m p a r e d 35

4.1.1.2.1 Reading comprehension competence o f the control c l a s s 35

4.1.1.2.2 Reading comprehension competence o f the experimental class 37

4.1.1.3 Degree o f the reading comprehension improvement o f the two classes 40

4.1.2 Results fro m the classroom observation sh eets a n d students' a ttitu de questionn aires 42

4.1.2.1 Results from classroom observation sheets: overall classroom motivation 42

4.1.2.2 Results from student questionnaire 44

4.2 D is c u s s io n 46

4.3 S u m m a r y 49

C H A P T E R V: R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S A N D C O N C L U S I O N S 50

5 1 M a j o r f i n d i n g s 5 0 5 2 R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s 51

5 3 L i m i t a t i o n s o f t h e s t u d y 5 2 5 4 S u g g e s t i o n s f o r f u r t h e r r e s e a r c h s t u d i e s 5 2 5 5 C o n c l u s i o n 5 2 R E F E R E N C E S 54

A P P E N D I X E S 58

A C K NO W LED G EM EN TS

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my academic supervisor, Mr Hoang Van lloat, M.A (TESOL), a senior lecturer at Hanoi University, from whom I received constant encouragements, guidance, and valuable critical feedback in completing the study

I also wish to acknowledge all the teachers and the whole staff o f the Post-Graduate Department at Hanoi University for their professional teaching and kind help throughout the course

I wish to express my deep gratitude to Ms Nguyen Thai Ha, M.A (TESOL), the Vice

Dean o f the Post-Graduate Department for her valuable guidance and patient help during the process o f writing up the thesis proposal as well as the thesis itself

My special thanks go to my colleagues and all my students in the experimental groups who have offered me strong supports and encouragement during my study

Last, but not least, I wish to say thank you to my family, especially my mother for their love, care, and tolerance that encourage me a lot in completing this study

This study investigated whether the pre-reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic-related pictures could be better in improving students' reading comprehension and motivation in learning reading in the classroom than that o f providing new words in list fo r elementary non- English major students at QNTTC.

The experiment lasted a 14-week term The assigned subjects (N) were 56 elementary students in two classes: experimental class (Informatics K4A) and the control class (Informatics K4B).

In the control class, the teacher used the pre-reading activity in a usual way, that was giving students new words in list, practiced saying them, then fille d in the extracted sentences fro m the text, and then read the text once to confirm.

In the experimental class, in the pre-reading stage, the teacher used topic-related pictures as a basic context fo r students to activate their knowledge and guess about the text, then to discuss with the whole class and the teacher Based on the results o f the discussion, the students guessed more about the text and read the text once to confirm

th eir p r e d ic tio n s

Data o f reading comprehension competence was collected by comparing the students' pre-test and post-test results within class and between the two classes The data o f the students' motivation in learning reading in the classroom was gained by comparing the results fro m classroom observation sheets and the student questionnaires within class and between the two classes week by week.

After 14 weeks o f the experiment, there was a significant improvement in both classes However, the treatment o f the experimental class could better motivate students in the reading lessons, thus it also could improve students' reading comprehension than that

o f the control class It is concluded that pre-reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic-related pictures should be used in teaching reading lessons.

c c : Control class

TEFL : Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TESL : Teaching English as a Second Language

ppp : Presentation, Practice, and Production

Appendix 1 : Pre-test and Post-test

Appendix 2: Observation sheet

Appendix 3: Questionnaire to the students

Appendix 4: Questionnaire to the students (Vietnamese version)

Appendix 5: A sample o f the lesson Thai Boxing, lesson plans for both groups, the

topic related pictures

Appendix 6: Result o f the pre-test and post-test o f the experimental and the

control class

Appendix 7: T/Test-Comprehension reading

Appendix 8: Results o f the overall classroom motivation scores for all students

Appendix 9: Results o f means scores o f the students' questionnaires

Table 1: The steps o f a reading lesson o f the experimental and the control class

class

Table 3: Pair sample t-test o f the pre-test o f the experimental and the control class Table 4: The results o f the pre-test o f the sub-groups o f the experimental class and the

control class

Table 5: Descriptive statistics o f the pre-test and post-test o f the control class

Table 6: Paired sample t-test o f the pre-test and post-test o f the control class

Table 7: The results o f the pre-test and post-test o f the sub-groups o f the control class Table 8: Descriptive statistics o f the pre-test and post-test o f the experimental class Table 9: Paired sample t-test o f the pre-test and post-test o f the experimental class Table 10: The results of the pre-test and post-test o f the sub-groups o f the experimental

Table 11: Descriptive statistics of the post-test o f the experimental class and the control

Figure 1: The pre-test results o f the number o f students in sub-groups o f the

experimental class and the control class

Figure 2: The results o f the number o f students o f sub-groups on the pre-test and post­

test o f the control class

Figure 3: The results o f the number o f students o f sub-groups on the pre-test o f the

experimental class

Figure 4: The results o f the number o f students o f sub-groups on the pre-test and post­

test o f the experimental class and the control class

Figure 5: Results o f the overall classroom motivation scores for all students

Figure 6: The results o f the weekly mean scores from the student questionnaires o f the

experimental class and the control class

1.1 B a c k g r o u n d to th e s tu d y

1.1.1 Theoretical rationale

English language plays a very important role in developing science and information technology, and it has been taught in many countries in the world including Vietnam Of the four practical skills; speaking, writing, reading, and listening, reading is one o f the more important skills to a great number o f students because after finishing their studies they will use this skill the most in working as well as in studying Reading is a complex information processing skill in which the reader interacts with the text in order to understand the text If the reader does not comprehend, it means that she or he is not

reading (Nieh, 2004)

In the literature, the research shows that reading in a foreign/second language is more complex than reading in native language To date, researchers have pointed out factors that influence the comprehension process Nuttal (1982) indicates that the reader’s poor background knowledge and vocabulary, number o f new concepts in the text block the comprehension process Thompson (1987) points out three factors involved in the comprehending and recalling information in a text They are background knowledge,

comprehension of the reader is affected by his or her degree o f background knowledge, vocabulary, and motivation

More over, "every act of comprehension involves one's knowledge o f the world as well" (Anderson, Reynolds, Scharllert, and Goetz, 1977, p.369) Based on this the Schema Theory believed that readers develop a coherent interpretation o f the text through the interactive process o f combining their own background knowledge with the information in the text to comprehend the text Carrel (1988) divided 'schemata', into two types; ‘content schemata’ (background knowledge of the content area of a text) and ‘formal schemata’ (background knowledge of the formal, rhetorical organization structures o f different types

of texts)

Based on the research, readers' background knowledge is a very important factor in reading comprehension As Carrell (1988) noted, background knowledge plays an active role in ESL/EFL reading comprehension process Goodman (1967) pointed out

that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game in which the reader's background knowledge allows the reader to make more correct prediction.

To help students to overcome the deficiency o f background knowledge, Carrel (1988) points out that teacher should help students to build background knowledge on the topic

o f the text before reading through appropriate pre-reading activities, and these pre- reading activities aimed at not only building new background knowledge but also activating existing background knowledge for students That enables students to understand reading texts actively

1.1.2 P ractical rationale

At Quang Ninh Teachers Training College (QNTTC), English is a compulsory subject for non-English major students who become teachers o f Literature, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, etc The students at QNTTC are almost from mountainous, island or remote areas o f Quang Ninh province So their knowledge about English and other fields is not as much as the other students' who live and study in towns and cities The English course-books in use at the college include Life-line Elementary by Hutchinson(1999) and an extra reading texts designed by the teachers at QNTTC

Students at QNTTC are aware o f the importance o f learning English They need English for their job, study and entertainment In learning English, reading is more important skill than the other three skills: speaking, listening, and writing because o f the fact that they have a written test including a third o f comprehension reading at the end

o f the course Furthermore, they need English, especially reading comprehension, for further studies, entertainment, and many other purposes Especially, with some students such as Informatics students, they need practice reading skills for their ESP program in which reading is a major section in the materials

Up to the present, all the teachers o f the English Department at QNTTC have applied the same three stage lesson plan for teaching reading: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading In the pre-reading stage, teachers give students new words in list, and then help them practice pronunciation Then, in the while-reading stage, students do all the comprehension questions All the teachers and students work hard but the results o f the reading comprehension tests are not as good as expected Another problem is that the learning atmosphere in the reading lessons is very boring and tiring Sometimes, students tell the researcher that the vocabulary in the reading texts was not very difficult

hut they could not understand the sport or animal in the reading texts because they did not know anything about them.

The problems show that "content background" is very important and necessary for the students at QNTTC in reading comprehension process, and the atmosphere in the classroom needed to be improved The type o f pre-reading activity applied at QNTTC seems ineffective because it provides students only new words, meanwhile students not only need new words they also need familiarity to the topic o f the text Moreover, the students are strongly dependent on the teachers That is why most o f students feel bored and unmotivated in the reading lesson

The situation raised some questions to the researcher: Whether using topic-related pictures to activate students' existing background knowledge and provide new background knowledge as a pre-reading activity helps improve the students' reading comprehension; whether the new type o f pre-reading activity helps change the learning environment in the reading class This study attempts to answer these questions

1.2 Aims o f the study

The study aims at doing an experiment to find out whether activating students' existing background knowledge and providing them new background knowledge using topic- related pictures as a pre-reading activity can better improve the reading comprehension and motivate students to learn reading in the classroom than providing new words, their meaning in list, and practicing pronunciation as a usual pre-reading activity

1.3 Research questions

The two following questions will be the guidance for the research: Whether the pre- reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic-related pictures as pre-reading activity can improve (1) the students' reading comprehension (2) and students' motivation in the classroom better than that o f providing new words in

1.4 Hypothesis

Carrying this study, the researcher believed that the pre-reading activity o f activating and providing students with background knowledge using topic-related pictures can improve the reading comprehension and motivation better than that o f providing new words in list for non English major students in the reading class at QNTTC

1.5 Scope and significance of the study

This study is a quasi-experiment focusing on two types o f pre-reading activities: One type is using topic-related picture as basic context for discussing between teacher and students based on the three step process lesson plan o f Langer (1981), which aims at activating background knowledge and providing new background knowledge for non major English students This type was applied to the experiment group The other type

is providing new words in list and practicing pronunciation o f the new words as usual This type was used with the control group The researcher applied these types o f pre- reading activities for 12 reading texts including three topics: Animals, Sports, and

Famous people

The subjects o f this study were limited to two classes o f non English major students, and three topics o f reading texts, so this is a limitation o f the research However, the

researcher hopes that this will help improve her teaching jo b as well as her colleagues’

1.6 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters, and a list o f references and appendices

Chapter I introduces the background to the study, the objectives o f the study, the research questions, the hypothesis, the scope o f the study, and the organization o f the study

Chapter II presents some literature related to the reading comprehension, some factors affecting the reading comprehension It also describes the place o f and some o f the popular types o f pre-reading activities Furthermore, it also deals with the place of pictures in teaching and learning language as well as in reading comprehension Finally, the chapter presents some previous studies in Vietnam and in the world relating to the topic o f the study

Chapter III describes the research method of the study including the research question, the subjects, the variables, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure, and the data analysis

Chapter IV presents the results of 14 weeks of the experiment The comparison o f the students' progress between the two classes is presented and discussed

Chapter V gives the major findings, the conclusion based on the major findings of the two research questions, some recommendations arising from the experiment, the limitations of the study, and the suggestions for further studies Following the chapter V are the references, and the appendixes

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists o f four sections Section 2.1 deals with the reading comprehension

in second/foreign language, and presents some factors affecting the reading

comprehension, focusing on the factors o f background knowledge, vocabulary, and motivation Section 2.2 gives the place for pre-reading stage in reading process and some common pre-reading activities Section 2.3 summaries some advantages o f using pictures in teaching and learning language as well as in reading comprehension The last section, 2.4, reviews some current studies on the field o f improving the reading comprehension through pre-reading activities

2.1 Reading comprehension

2.1.1 R eading com prehension

Reading and comprehension in one's native language (L I) is a very complex process However, reading and comprehending in a second or foreign language (L2) is further complex issue (Chun & Plass, 1997) In reading, especially in EFL reading, meaning is central (Nuttal, 1982), and how to reach the meaning has been studied for a long time A great number o f researchers claim that reading comprehension is a process and they have studied various models o f reading comprehension Bottom-up and top-down models have been known as two common models when reading a text, bottom -up and top-down should be complementary and both used; sometimes, this one is prominent, sometimes the other, but these are both needed Thus, it is suggested that the readers use both two models whenever reading This combination has been known as interactive models (Grabe & Stoler, 2002; Nuttal, 1982)

Up to now, many definitions o f reading comprehension have been proposed by different researchers Grellet (1981, p.3) defines that comprehending a written text is the ability

o f "exacting the required information from it as efficiently as possible" Nieh (2004,

p l) presents Wixon and Peter's point o f view (1984) that reading comprehension is a process in which the readers construct the meaning through "the dynamic interaction among the reader's existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language and the context o f the reading situation" In line with these researchers, Grabe and Stoler (2002, p 17) define reading comprehension as the "ability to understand information in a text and interpret it appropriately"

Besides, Goodman (1967) states that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game which means that the readers comprehend the text not only by reading individual letter but they also interact their knowledge and cues from the text that help them to predict and confirm the guesses Goodman states the role o f the reader's background knowledge

in the success of predicting game The role o f background information in comprehension process has been formalized clearly in Schema Theory Reading comprehension is the process o f interpreting the text and constructing meaning basing

on the background knowledge (W ixon & Peter, 1984) It is asserted that the background information should be activated and used in reading process (Taylor, Harris, Pearson, & Garcia, 1995) The reader comprehends the reading text by integrating the new information in the text with his/her background knowledge (Anderson & Pearson, 1984) Thus, reading is not a passive process or receptive one, it is an active process (Kitao & Kitao, 1995)

In this study, reading comprehension was studied and investigated based on the light o f Schema Theory In order to measure the degree o f reading comprehension, reading comprehension tests were used as the main tool, the student's reading comprehension was measured by the number o f correct answers in the reading tests

In ligh t o f the theory, the stu d en ts at Q N T T C did not h ave and activ ate en o u g h

background knowledge with the reading texts They mostly applied a process which was much similar to the bottom-up process As a result, they had difficulties in understanding and recalling the needed information

2.1.2 Factors affecting the reading com prehension

As mentioned in chapter 1, there are many factors which have been studied theoretically and practically affect the reading comprehension The researchers point out the major factors which have much influence on the reading comprehension process They are readers' vocabulary, strategies, background knowledge, and motivation In the following

sections, these factors will be discussed

2.1.2.1 Vocabulary

In the reading research, vocabulary has traditionally been a major factor of reading instruction for ESL students and determined as an important factor in reading comprehension (Tang & Moore, 1992) Nuttal (1982) presents some short texts and indicates that if the readers' vocabulary is limited, this is a problem like the limitation o f

back ground knowledge LaBerge and Samuel (1974) consider reading as a two stages process, consisting decoding and comprehension in which word knowledge is concerned as the factor facilitating the process Furthermore, Pressley (2000) points out that good comprehension readers tend to have good vocabulary Therefore, teaching vocabulary is necessary and important in teaching reading If vocabulary is taught in an effective way, the reading comprehension can be improved However, it does not mean that teaching vocabulary only is the best way to enhance the students' reading comprehension, and it is a causal conclusion.

Vocabulary affects reading comprehension but in order to have an effect on the comprehension, the vocabulary should be presented in different contexts The meaning

o f the same word discussed following different contexts helps students formulate a nuance o f understanding o f the word's meaning (Pressley, 2000) Langer (1981) suggests that presenting new words in terms o f associations is better than providing them simply in list and their definitions

Taking this result o f the research in consideration, the teaching vocabulary before reading at QNTTC seemed ineffective for the students in reading comprehension as well

as in acquisition o f vocabulary

2.1.2.2 Motivation

In learning process as a whole and as in the second or foreign language acquisition in particular, motivation has been considered as an important contributing variable in the learner's success (Norris, 2001) There has been a great deal o f research on learners' motivation In line with Crookes and Smith (1991) cited by Peacork (1998), Norris (2001,

p 1) defines motivation as "the learner's orientation with regard to the goal o f the learning a second language"

Motivation is classified into two basic types: (1) Instrumental motivation and (2) Integrative motivation Norris (2001) presents the definitions o f Hudson (2000) and Falk (1978) as following: Hudson (2000) defines instrumental motivation as the desire to obtain

a practical or concrete goal from the learning o f a language With this type o f motivation, the purpose o f the acquisition is more utilitarian, such as passing an examination, having a good job, reading an English book etc Falk (1978) defines integrative motivation as the desire to learn a language to be familiar with and integrate into society in which the target language is used because they like people who speak that language and admire the culture

Taking this classification into account, all the 56 participants o f this research had an instrumental motivation because all of them needed to pass the examination.

It has been assumed that motivation in learning reading is similar to general motivation in learning Mori (2002) hypothesized that motivation to read in a foreign/second language might be different from general motivation constructs However, the results o f the investigation indicated that in foreign language reading, motivation was quite similar to the general form of general motivation Therefore, in this study, motivation in learning reading was investigated by the students' attitudes to the reading lessons and the learning environment in the classroom

In reading lesson at QNTTC, the atmosphere o f learning was usually boring and tiring, students were not involved in the lesson As mentioned in Chapter 1, the reason was that the used pre-reading activity was ineffective in motivating them to read the text Therefore,

in this study the researcher hypothesized that using topic-related pictures in pre-reading stage would help enhance student motivation

It has been widely recognized that keeping a combination o f student activity and the persistence is necessary and desirable within classroom and it is a measurement o f motivation (Peacork, 1998) This has been supported by some researchers Crookes and Smith (1991) state that motivation can be displayed in the student persistence with the learning task, activity and the crucial element in second language success is the learner concentration This is why the teacher not only takes the goal to study in consideration but also ensures that students are involved in the study without continual encouragement In this study, motivation was investigated basing on the definition o f Crookes and Smith (1991) Motivation in the classroom is the interest in and enthusiasm for the methods the teacher used in the classroom and the persistence with the learning tasks which are indicated by the level o f attention or action for an extended duration and the level o f concentration and enjoyment The results were compared with student's evaluations on the usefulness and enjoyableness o f the pre-reading activities

2.1.2.3 Background knowledge

Background knowledge is the knowledge already possessed by the students In this study, background knowledge mainly refers to the knowledge about the topic o f the reading text, and this is called content schema according to Schema Theory

In recent decades, the role o f background knowledge in reading comprehension has been demonstrated and the reading comprehension can be improved by developing the students' background knowledge It has been supported that when students have appropriate background knowledge they can integrate to the text, they can comprehend the text better (Anderson & Pearson, 1984; Soalt, 2005) Furthermore, Branfort and Johnson (1972) claim that possessing background knowledge only is not sufficient, students must also enable to apply the relevant background knowledge to the reading text to successfully comprehend it In addition, readers who have sufficient and proper background knowledge were able to infer the meaning o f unfamiliar words in the text that they read than the others (Anderson & Pearson, 1984) Therefore, the teachers

should think about how to activate students' background knowledge before reading a new text as well as provide such knowledge for students who may be unfamiliar with the topic mentioned in the reading text (Soalt, 2005)

The crucial role o f background knowledge in reading comprehension process has been established in Schema Theory below

2.1.3 S chem a theory and reading process

2.1.3.1 Schema Theory

Schema (plural schemata) is identified as the knowledge structure, or frame work,

which interrelates all o f one's knowledge about a given topic; background knowledge constructed schemata in turn affects the form and content o f new knowledge (Richgels, 1981)

Recently, the important role o f the reader's background knowledge in the reading comprehensive process has been studied and determined by a great number o f

researchers This has been formalized clearly in Schema Theory.

The Schema Theory was constructed basing on the belief that "every act o f the

comprehension involves one's knowledge o f the world as well"(Anderson et al, 1977, p.369) According to this theory, the texts provide directions for the readers when the readers construct meaning from their own background knowledge Reading comprehension is the process by which the readers integrate their own background knowledge with the information in the text To be efficient comprehension readers, the readers have to practice the ability o f relating the textual materials to their own

knowledge Thus, comprehending words, sentences, and the whole texts involves much more than the readers' linguistic knowledge (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983).

Carrell et al (1983, p.76) also point out the principle which guides the process of interpretation; "every input is mapped again some existing schema and that all aspects

o f that schema must be compatible with the input information" This principle is divided into two basic levels o f processing information, namely bottom-up and top-down processing Schemata appear hierarchically from the most general at the top to the most

specific at the bottom Bottom level schemata are performed by the incoming data; the features o f the data get into the system through the best fitting When these bottom level schemata gather into higher level, more general schemata-top-down processing, these

two are activated Therefore, bottom-up processing is called data-driven, on the other

hand top-down processing is considered as the system creates general predictions based

on general schemata These higher level, general schemata seek the input for

information to fit the system So the top-down processing is called conceptually driven

As Vandijk (1977) describes that in the top-down processing, general predictions are created about the situation and confirmed against the incoming data, and the bottom-up takes place when the incoming data is entered and used to create inferences about the general situation

Carrell et al (1983) claims that top-down and bottom-up processing should be happening at all levels simultaneously Through bottom-up processing, the schema is needed to fill out, that is schemata are available Meanwhile, "top-down processing facilitates their assimilation if they are anticipated by, or consistent with the readers' conceptual expectation" (Carrell et al, 1983, p.77) The readers will make sense to the information that is unfamiliar or not suitable with their predictions about the text by the bottom-up processing, top-down processing helps the readers to choose between different possible interpretations

Above is the process that the reader interacts their schemata with the text to comprehend the text The schemata have been studied and classified into two types as follows

2.1.3.2 Types of schemata

Carrell (1983) cited by Stott (2001) classified schemata into two main types: formal schemata and content schemata

Formal schemata are the background knowledge o f the formal, rhetorical organizational structures o f various types o f texts In other words, this is the readers' background knowledge o f differences among rhetorical structures, for example; differences in genre,

in fables, simple stories, scientific texts, and so on In the situation o f teaching and learning reading at QNTTC, most of the reading texts are at lower level and o f the description type The students were aware o f this type o f rhetorical structure

Content schema is the background knowledge o f the world o f the text In contrast with the formal schema, this type is the background knowledge about the content area o f the text, such as a text about celebrating New Year in China, nuclear, superman, and so on

Carrel et al (1988) find out that the content schema has a great effect on the reading comprehension On one hand, this helps the readers comprehend efficiently if the readers activate appropriate background knowledge that the writers process or the writers intend On the other hand, the readers miscomprehend or fail to comprehend the text if the readers activate inappropriate or have not possessed the background knowledge in the text According to the schema theory, "one o f the most obvious reasons why a particular content schema m ay fail to exist for a reader is that the schema

is culturally specific and is not part o f a particular reader's cultural background" (p.80)

According to the above result, the non English major students at QNTTC had deficiency

o f the content schema In teaching reading, the teacher did not use a method aiming at providing what students did not possess and activating what they had known about the topic o f the text during the process o f reading In fact, the students were presented new words, it was proved a good activity but in this situation it was not enough for text processing

As mentioned above, when applying the Schema Theory in reading, students have to face with the problem o f activating inappropriate schema and lack o f schema Therefore, the role o f the teachers is very important and necessary As Carrell and Eisterhold (1983, p.85) claim that the role o f the EFL/ESL reading teachers is to

"minimize the reading difficulties and maximize comprehension by providing culturally relevant information"

To overcome the problem, Carrell (1988 p.245) suggests that teachers should prepare students by "helping them to build background knowledge on the topic prior to reading,

through appropriate pre-reading activities" She also presents several types o f pre­

reading activities in which relevant schemata can he constructed, consisting lectures, visual aids, demonstrations, real life experiences, discussion, role-play, text pre­viewing, introduction and discussion the key vocabulary, and key words/key concept association activities.

The reading problem is not only the deficiencies o f schemata but also the readers' existing schemata not being activated while reading Thus, the pre-reading activities both supply new background knowledge and activate existing background knowledge as well (Carrell, 1988) The next section will be on pre-reading activities

2.2 Pre-reading activities

2.2.1 P re-reading activities

In real life, before people read, listen, watch, speak or write something they already know what they are going to do Therefore, all the expectations, intentions, and predictions are in mind As in learning language or skills, the students will learn better if they are prepared before learning This preparation is call "warming up activities" or

"pre- activities" (Tanner & Green, 1998) These pre-activities are very important

because they help students learn better, and each type o f them has its own advantages

p.92) states that pre-reading stage helps "prepare the learners for what they are going to read, just as we are usually prepare in real life", that is to help students be familiar with the vocabulary, structure, topic o f the text As can be seen in the literature review, appropriate activities bring about many advantages Homan (2000) points out that building pre-reading skills helps ESL students become successful, hence, the students construct motivation and self esteem in the second language The researchers o f Special Populations o f School Improvement in M aryland Project (2000) share their finding that pre-reading strategies motivate learning because using pre-reading strategies help students build a mind set for reading and improve comprehension Furthermore, pre- reading activities help students activate their possessed knowledge about the topic and anticipate what they will read According to Carrell (1988), pre-reading activities not only activate but also provide students with background knowledge that helps improve students' reading comprehension

Comparing the result o f the research with the fact o f using pre-reading activities at QNTTC, the type o f pre-reading activity applied only provided students with

vocabulary That did not activate or provide students with background knowledge about the reading texts, and therefore they usually failed to understand the texts As a result, pre-reading activity did not motivate students to learn reading lessons in the classroom.

2.2.2 Types o f pre-reading activities

Everyone who does the teaching job agrees that one important factor affecting the success o f teaching is the appropriate method applied for the lesson In teaching reading, there has been a great number o f types o f pre-reading activities which the teacher can choose the suitable one for the aim o f each reading text

According D off (1998), types o f pre-reading activities may be classified into four main types o f tasks; (1) Students are given statements (some o f which refer to the text, the others are not), and they guess whether they are true or false (2) Students read a summary o f the text with gaps, and try to predict the words to fill in the gaps (3) Students list things they already know and things they do not know about the topic o f the reading text (4) The students discuss the topic and give their own point o f view when the text puts forward an opinion

Wallace (1992) presents some groups o f pre-reading activities One traditional group is making questions which the answers can be found in the reading texts According to the traditional point o f view, these questions should be placed below the texts as a type o f exercises to examine the reading comprehension However, in some recent materials, this type o f task is preceded the text as a type o f pre-reading activity for students to scan the text Besides, there are three groups o f pre-reading activities which tend to (1) prepare students for the difficulties o f the linguistics such as vocabulary, grammar structures, etc., (2) prepare students for the deficiencies o f concept or culture, (3)draw

on the students' existing knowledge and views

Basing on the research and other researchers' suggestions, the following section will focus on some types o f pre-reading activities which have been applied and improved effectively in reading lessons

2.2.2.1 Presenting New Vocabulary and Structures

Teaching new vocabulary and new structures is important and necessary before reading

a text, because the students not only need to learn reading but also need to learn new language items, especially those at low level o f language proficiency These students

need vocabulary and grammar structures to possess language in the bottom-up processing stage according to the Schema Theory.

Vocabulary plays an important role in reading comprehension as mentioned (in 2.1.2.1) above Therefore, teaching vocabulary before reading the text is necessary and useful However, teachers should not teach all the new words, teach keywords only Langer (1981) claims that presenting new words in list and their meaning or definitions is not

an effective way in helping students gain the language as well as not motivating students in learning Teachers should apply different techniques in introducing new

words Langer (1981) also recommends that words should be introduced in terms o f associations (antonyms, synonyms, personal experiences, etc) Wallace (1992) presents two types o f introducing new words; (1) putting new words in the sentences which set a context for students guess their meaning, (2) Setting a situation, which is the overall description of the theme o f text and relates to a range o f words, for students to predict and encourage students use dictionary

Giving the structures and explaining directly by LI often makes students bored and passive Structures should be discovered in different contexts such as using charts, dialogues, "mini-situation", text for contrast, text for grammar explaining, and using

visu al for situ ations T h ese in v o lv e the students in learning tasks and h elp them w ith

more motivation in learning (Harmer, 1987)

In contrast with this point o f view, Nuttall (1982, p 159) states "new language would often be more easily and effectively learnt during the process o f reading", the teachers may not teach new language as an isolation part if the aim o f the textbook is not to present new language

In the researcher’s point o f view, with students at lower level, presenting new language

is important and necessary but the teacher should combine this activity with activating and supporting background knowledge Looking at the factual situation o f reading subject at QNTTC, the teachers should not only teach vocabulary but also help them with background knowledge

2.2.2.2 Introducing the text

Before reading a text, the teacher gives students a short introduction, providing general information o f the theme o f the text This is called introducing the text pre-reading activities Nuttall (1982) points out that this is a helpful way if the introduction avoids

the following points; too long, giving away too much o f the content o f the text, irrelevant, monologue by the teacher with no student involvement.

Nuttall (1982) also states that introducing the text before reading helps students with

an appropriate direction by activating necessary schemata in their mind with the reading text, and somewhat make them feel interested in reading it It is advisable that

teachers include signpost questions in the introductions because it enables to guide the

students in the right direction and focuses their attention to the required information in the text Furthermore, new language should be naturally included in the introductions (Nuttall, 1982)

In short, introducing the text is a helpful and effective way to help students more success in reading by the way it makes students want to read and provide students some knowledge about the reading text

Questions are not only used as a means o f checking students' reading comprehension but also used to motivate and guide students before reading a text as a pre-reading activity Before reading a text, the teacher can give one or two guiding questions for students to think These questions bring the student a reason to read and focus their attention to the main information in the text, discarding the other redundant and over­detailed information to have a general view about the text after the first time reading (Harmer, 1983; Cross, 1995; Ur, 1996) This type o f pre-reading activity helps students

to have expectations and predictions before reading As a result, it promotes them to read to confirm their predictions and expectations (Harmer, 1983; Ur, 1996)

It is obvious that giving good guiding questions as a pre-reading activity is very important and necessary According to Wallace (1992), the questions should be simple and direct to the main points o f the text Nuttall (1982) suggests that after giving the questions orally or on the board, let students read silently once to confirm their predictions and expectations If the students cannot improve their expectations, the teacher should not answer the questions at once, move to other questions and turn back

to deal with it when the students understand more about the text

In the researcher's own opinion, it is an effective type o f pre-reading activity for the students who already possess some background knowledge about the text It should be included in the introduction as signpost question as mentioned above (in 2.2.2.2.)

2.2.2.4 Predicting

Predicting is the ability o f guessing what will come next basing on the grammatical,

logical, and cultural clues (Grellet, 1981) In line with this, Nuttall (1982) states that setting a top-down task before reading for students to predict about the text, by looking

at non-linear text such as titles, blurb, diagrams, tables, maps, graphs, illustrations, layout, etc This non-linear text "provides a contextual framework that facilitates the more detailed work that follows" (p 158) Predicting is necessary and important to the students

Dealing with the difficulty o f new words, students can overcome the problem by looking at the context o f each word, the sentence the word is in, the sentences around it,

or the repetition o f the words in order to have the meaning o f the new words This prediction can be applied with grammar rules according to learning grammar deductively, the teacher needs not to teach students grammatical rules, students should discover from the context- the reading text

Previewing the non-linear elements to have an overview to predict is a common and effective pre-reading way to understand a text, o f which previewing the titles and illustrations such as pictures, maps, etc might be the most popular This helps students guess what they are going to read, and also activate their background knowledge (Nuttall, 1982; Aebersold & Field, 1997) The other type o f previewing is looking at the structures o f the text to guess the content o f the text Therefore, the knowledge o f the structure o f the text enables the students to increase the comprehension o f the text (Nuttall, 1982)

Predicting, obviously, is an effective type o f pre-reading activities in enhancing the students' reading comprehension In the situation o f QNTTC, the teachers can set a guessing task based on the title and new vocabulary However, with the shortcoming o f content schemata, only the activity based on the title and vocabulary seem not enough Therefore, the researcher decided to use topic-related pictures as a basic concept for the students to predict

2.2.2.5 Giving guided discussion

In teaching language, in the light o f communicative approach, discussion is demonstrated a useful and necessary way in developing students' motivation and language skills, specially speaking skill Besides, discussion can be organized as a pre­

reading activity The teacher may propose a guided discussion by setting some questions or tasks prior reading for students to discuss about the text Students' engagement in the discussion might be in pairs, groups, or with the teacher.

Discussing about the advantages o f this technique, Dillon (1984) agrees that when

students are engaged in a true discussion, their thinking seems to be developed; their motivation in learning task seems somewhat higher, the result o f work as the solution of

a problem or gaining something satisfies every participant According to Gall (1984), discussion has four main advantages First o f all, students have opportunities to practice skills, thinking about knowledge, evaluating about the quality and correctness o f their knowledge Second, because o f the effect o f the situation, it enables students to focus their thinking on the important knowledge when learning new information Third, the students' performance in the discussion will be transferred directly to the required performance latter in the evaluation o f their progress Finally, the rate o f working in the discussion helps students reinforce their rate o f working in general, because the rate o f working in the discussion is higher than in other seatwork activities

In teaching reading in the classroom, as far as the researcher knows, teachers usually pose a discussion about the topic, title, key words, guided questions, or key concept

a sso c ia tin g to the reading text (Carrel, 1988; A e b e rso ld & F ield , 1 9 97) T h ese

assumptions have been supported by researchers such as Hudson (1982), Langer (1981)

In the experiment, Hudson (1982) finds out that students, who look at the pictures related to the reading text, discuss and guess about the content o f the reading text, are more successful in understanding the text than other students Langer (1981) proposes a three-step process as a pre-reading activity; 1- initial association with the concept, 2- reflection on the concept, 3-reformulation on the knowledge This process o f discussion helps students activate their knowledge, and the teachers aware o f the students' deficiencies about the content o f the text

From the results o f the research studies that the researcher has read, it is likely that discussing before reading is effective in improving students' comprehension and motivating them more in learning in the reading class

In summary, in this part, some popular types o f pre-reading activities have been presented: presenting new vocabulary and new structures, introducing the text, giving guided questions, predicting, giving guided discussion These types o f pre-reading

activities have been demonstrated effective types of pre-reading activities in increasing comprehension and motivation in learning In the situation o f QNTTC, students have deficiencies of content schemata-background knowledge about the content area o f the text, it is believed that a guided discussion based on the concept related to the topic of the text which activate and provide students with background knowledge is helpful in order to improve their reading comprehension Predictions and expectations before

reading might provide more motivation As a result, the situation o f boredom and tiredness in the class may be solved, the students will engage in the learning tasks actively

2.3 Pictures in teaching and learning language

2.3.1 The place o f pictures in teaching an d learning languages

It is clear that pictures are considered a type o f effective and efficient visual aid in teaching and learning languages In almost all materials for teaching and learning language, illustration pictures are included in every lesson, from linguistic items to language skills Pictures are used to arrange individual work to group work In research, the effectiveness o f pictures has been demonstrated by Schwartz (2000, p l) "pictures are great incentive for language production and can be used in many ways" Moreover, Wright (1990) shows that pictures contribute to interest, motivation, sense o f the context o f the language, and a specific reference point or stimuli

Schwartz (2000) uses pictures collected from Junk mail catalogs as visual aids to teach English The findings o f her study show that using pictures can stimulate and increase students' language learning Moreover, these pictures can help students with knowledge

o f culture, understanding the society and diversity o f population o f the country shown in the pictures Furthermore, each picture indicates one item, so the students can understand and determine the subject matter easily

In the literature, there have been many activities o f using pictures presented Dimpere(2000) describes twenty different activities, which need only one or two set o f pictures that are used for teaching skills; mainly speaking and writing These activities have been applied in her teaching in Baltic republics

Using pictures is also an effective way with the students who are suffered from physical

or psychological impairment After investigating whether there is a correlation between the image o f the language to be learned and the degree to which the students associate

themselves to the image Vanderluis (2004) suggests that these students are much like other normal foreign language students who can react and associate with the language to

be learned in both positive and negative ways The author concludes that the images including pictures have more meaning than the language itself and considered a tool which is more useful than language

2.3.2 The place o f pictures in reading com prehension

Pictures play an important role in language acquisition as a whole and in improving reading comprehension in particular It has been assured that using sound, pictures, and animated pictures or video as aids to the text plays an important role in facilitating L2 reading comprehension as well as vocabulary acquisition (Plass & Chun, 1996) And Wallace (1992, p 104) states that "pictures are often used in the second or foreign language classroom as cues for language and literacy work, to draw out conceptual

or affective responses for general discussion purposes, or as pre-reading activity" Furthermore, pictures are also used to denote a dilemma, a paradox, etc

Plass and Chun (1997) investigate how the process o f comprehension o f text differs from comprehension o f pictures, and how the combination o f pictures and text affects comprehension The findings show that text comprehension is "an indirect

transform ation b etw e en a text as a sy m b o lic represen tation and the m ental m o d el as an

analog representation" (p.65), on the other hand, "pictures comprehension is a direct mapping o f the picture as an analog representation onto the mental model as an analog representation by establishing an analogy between the visual information and the corresponding mental model" (p.65) These differences between the two models encourage the teachers to use pictures as an aid to the text to support the process o f selecting information, arrange the given information in a coherent structure, and integrate the new information into the existing mental model Therefore, pictures and text might be used in complementary for each other

Hudson (1982) proves that among three types o f pre-reading activities, using pictures related to the text for students to observe, discuss, and predict privately is the most effective way to increase the students reading comprehension

In summary, pictures can be used as an effective visual aid in improving students' reading comprehension and involving students in reading

2 4 O th e r r e la te d lite r a tu r e

There are a number o f researchers paying attention to how and what should be done to increase students' comprehension and motivate them in reading class In this study, the researcher reports studies demonstrated the effect o f pre-reading activities, specially the pre-reading activity which aims at activating and providing background knowledge on the students' comprehension and motivation

In a journal "A look at pre-reading activities that improve reading comprehension in ESL classroom" by Brigaman (2002), some studies are briefly presented Christen and Munphy (1991) reported that a three-step pre-reading activity including introducing vocabulary, providing experiences and example related to the reading text, and

introducing a theme or concept from the passage had better effectiveness on increasing the comprehension for students Among three steps, introducing vocabulary was argued

as an important part o f that pre-reading process The reason was that the process o f teaching vocabulary stimulates ideas and examples and creates a connection with the students' previous knowledge and experiences The authors implied that teachers should continue using pre-reading instruction to enrich students' background knowledge in terms o f improving not only reading comprehension but also all educational subjects

Chen and Grave (1995) conducted an experiment on two pre-reading activities: Previewing a text and providing appropriate background knowledge before reading 243 students at a Taiwanese University read two passages: a fictional narrative and an autobiographical text by Mark Twain The students were divided into four groups Before reading, the 1st group previewed the passages in English, the 2nd group received general background information in English, 3rd one received both treatments, and the 4th one- the control group did nothing The students’ comprehension was measured by 15 short answer questions and 15 multi-choice items Each week, students did one o f the two readings in 2 hour session and answered a two-part attitude questionnaire on the treatments The result indicated that Previewing o f text information is the most effective pre-reading activity because it was as effective as a combined previewing and background information presentation Furthermore, the students also reported that pre­viewing could help them go over difficult words in the text The control group had the worst result, the general background was not as better as the other treatments

Nieh (2004) conducted an experiment by giving a test for two groups o f students at Southern Taiwan University o f Technology to investigate whether the students in engineering-major fields had better comprehension in reading engineering-related

articles than those students in business-major fields and vice verse The results showed that students had better comprehension when they read the passages which were related

to their majors The more background knowledge the students had about the content of the reading text, the greater their comprehension o f the reading text is

There has been a number o f foreign researchers and studies on the field o f pre-reading activities which aims at improving students reading comprehension Recently, in Vietnam, this issue has been taken into consideration by many researchers as well as teachers All the teachers have been encouraged to verify and improve their teaching as

a whole and in teaching reading comprehension in particular Therefore, a number of experiments has been carried out Following is some o f them

Nguyen Thi Thiet (2003) carried out an experiment on using pre-reading activities to improve the effectiveness o f reading lesson for ESP students in Posts and Telecommunications Institute o f Technology In the study, the researcher used pre/post­test and observation checklist to collect data 50 students were divided into two groups

after d o in g a pre-test T he ex p erim en t group learned readin g le sso n s w ith pre reading

activities The control group learned reading without pre-reading activities The researcher was the observer to investigate the students’ motivation in the class o f two groups, the other two teachers taught these two groups The findings showed that pre- reading activities really improved the students’ reading comprehension and motivation

in the class-room Bui Thi Ngan (2003) reported her research into pre-reading activities

to provide 11th form high school students with background knowledge to improve the effectiveness o f the reading texts In her experiment, she also applied pre-reading activities to provide background knowledge for the experiment group, and she did nothing before reading for the control group To collect data, the researcher used on­going test after each lesson and a quantitative observation sheets After doing the study, the researcher found two main points: first, when doing the pre-reading activities, students were in position to exploit the information from the text and did the reading tasks more effectively than those who did not do any pre-reading activities Second, the pre-reading activities which could be used in reading lesson to improve the reading comprehension were introducing the text using different techniques, revising pre-taught

grammar knowledge and introducing new grammatical structures, exploiting the topic, and presenting new words and structures.

2.5 Summ ary

This chapter has presented some o f the most important studies on reading

comprehension in EFL/ESL It has also highlighted some factors affecting the reading comprehension, in which the students’ background knowledge, vocabulary, and motivation have been concerned much in this study In order to improve the students' reading comprehension and motivation, the pre-reading activities have been suggested

by a great number o f researchers Therefore, this chapter has introduced some types o f pre-reading activities which have been proved effective in enhancing students' reading comprehension and motivation Furthermore, topic-related pictures have been presented

as an effective visual aid in improving reading com prehension and motivation In addition, this chapter also has an overview o f previous research studies on improving reading comprehension using pre-reading activities

CHAPTER 3: M ETH O D O LO G Y

This chapter presents the methods, the procedures utilized: the description o f the subjects, the variables, the data collection instruments, the data analysis, the description

o f materials used for the study, and the procedure o f the study

3.1 The research questions

The following two research questions are addressed to carry out the research:

(1) Can the pre-reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic-related pictures improve students' reading comprehension better than that o f providing new words in list?

(2) Can the pre-reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic-related pictures help enhance students' motivation in a reading class more than that o f providing new words in lists?

3.2 Subjects

The subjects in this study included the researcher, an observer from English Department

o f QNTTC, and 56 students from class Informatics K4A and Informatics K4B o f

Inform atics D epartm ent at QNTTC

The researcher was the teacher who taught all the lessons Mrs Dang Thi Kiem, a teacher o f English was invited to observe all the reading lessons o f the two groups to collect data o f the classroom motivation She was 41 years old, she got B.A o f English

in 1996, and she took part in several courses o f methodology such as ELTTP methodology course

56 students from class Informatics K4A and Informatics K4B o f Informatics Department at QNTTC participated in the experimental teaching process They were all the second year non-English major students They were from mountainous, island, and remote areas o f Quang Ninh province, so their knowledge about English and other fields was not as good as students in towns Their age was ranged from 19 to 21

The reasons to choose these two classes were that they had the same curriculum and schedule, which were very convenient for the researcher to conduct the experiment These 56 students participating in the experiment were assigned in two groups; the

experimental group included 28 students (20 males and 8 females) from class K.4A, and the control group included 28 students (18 males and 10 females) from class K.4B.

Before this study, the students had learned 120 periods o f English o f Life-Line Elementary by Hutchinson (1999) After they completed 30 periods o f reading

comprehension, they had 60 periods o f Infotech-English for IT & Computer Learners by

Santiago and Remacha Esteras (2001) This was considered as an ESP program for Informatics students at QNTTC

The random assignment was impossible, because all the students at the college were put

in classes by the college administration in accordance with their study based on their entrance examination results All these students needed English for their further studies, future jobs and many other reasons Thus, for them reading comprehension was more important than other skills

3.3 Variables

The variables o f the study were the independent variables and dependent variables which are causally related

3.3.1 Independent variables

two ways: topic-related picture was applied for the experimental group; giving new words in list as usual was applied for the control group These variables were called the treatments, and they were assumed the cause o f changes in the values o f the dependent variables These treatments were applied for weekly 90 minute reading English lesson, and lasted 12 weeks

3.3.1.1 Activating and providing background knowledge using topic- related pictures

For experimental group, pre-reading activity o f activating and providing background knowledge using topic- related pictures was applied In fact, without illustrated images, people have difficulties in imagining an unfamiliar thing or event In the researcher's factual teaching, with some types o f sports or animals and so on, even the teacher translated the whole text the students still said they did not comprehend Based on the research by Hudson (1982) and Langer (1981) (as mentioned in 2.2.2.5), the researcher decided to use topic related pictures as the basic context for students o f the experimental group to predict and discuss during the pre-reading stage The process o f this pre­

reading activity followed three steps: (1) Showing the topic-related pictures, giving students the handouts, and asking students to answer in column 1; (2) Discussing between students and the teacher, asking students to correct their initial guessing in column 2; (3) Asking students write more predictions in column 3 (see the handout in appendix 5).

3.3.1.2 Pre-teaching new words

For control group, pre-reading activity o f teaching new words was used as the pre- reading activity English teachers at Quang Ninh Teacher Training College usually gave

students the new words, their part o f speech and meaning, then the students practiced saying the words in chorus and individually Sometimes the teachers explained the new grammatical structure In this study, the researcher decided to use this usual pre-reading activity for the control class This process included three steps: (1) Presenting new words, their part o f speech, and meaning, (2) Practicing saying the new words in chorus and individually, (3) filling these words in the missing sentences extracted from the reading texts

3.3.2 D ependent variables

Dependent variable is a variable which is affected or changed according to the independent variables In this study, the dependent variables were the students' reading comprehension and the reading classroom motivation which were affected according to the changes o f the independent variables (see independent variables in 3.3.1)

3.3.2.1 Students' reading comprehension

Grellet (1981, p.3) stated that "understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible" Furthermore, the competence in general as well as the reading competence in particular could not be observed directly like motivation (Lightbown & Spada, 2002) Therefore, reading comprehension competence was measured by tests In this study, the improvement o f reading comprehension competence was comparable between the correct answers in the pre-test and post-test

3.3.2.2 Students' motivation in the reading class

As mentioned in the previous part (2.1.2.3), in this study, classroom motivation was indicated by the level o f students' interest, enthusiasm, and persistence with learning task, the concentration and enjoyment during the pre-reading stage The motivation was measured by observing the whole class during the reading lessons and then it was

confirmed by the students' attitude questionnaire, in which the students reported their assessment on the usefulness and enjoyableness o f the pre-reading activities toward their reading comprehension and m otivation in learning reading According to Peacock

(1998), usefulness was relevant to the goal o f the learners in the target classes,

effectiveness for language learning In this study, the usefulness identified in terms o f the pre-reading activities that helped students have knowledge to comprehend the text more easily Particularly, students could understand the new vocabulary, and content

background knowledge Enjoyableness was the student interest, enjoyment, and

enthusiasm that were generated by the pre-reading activities

It was hypothesized that students might have positive attitude towards the pre-reading activity that included topic-related pictures because when participating in this process, the students might be more active, they had opportunities to activate and share what they had already known, then evaluate and confirm their knowledge as well as their guessing On the other hand, they m ight have negative attitude to the pre-reading activity which did not use topic-related pictures In fact, they had to do nothing except copying the words, repeating This made the atmosphere in the class boring and tiring,

so students had less m otivation to read as well as to learn in the reading lessons

In short, the stu d y w a s carried o u t to co m p a re the rea d in g c o m p r e h e n sio n and the

classroom motivation between two groups; experimental group and the control group The instruments used to collect data o f the dependent variables were; pre-test and post­test, observation sheets, and student questionnaire These instruments will be discussed

in the following part

3.4 Data collection instruments.

Before doing the experim ents, the decision was made on types o f data to answer the research questions and the way o f collecting these types o f data A pre-test, a post-test,

an overall classroom motivation sheet and students' attitude questionnaire were chosen the data collection instruments for this research study

3 4 1 P re-test and post-test.

The aim o f the study was to investigate students’ reading comprehension produced from pre-reading activity using pictures (experim ental group) compared with the result produced from pre-reading activity w ithout pictures (control group) Therefore, comprehension tests were chosen as the m ost critical instrument

In this study, pre-test and post-test were used to measure students’ reading comprehension According to Mi (1998), pre-test and post-test were used the same reading comprehension test The reasons for using exactly the same test were, first o f all, to ensure an exactly comparable test, thus avoiding the problem o f equating different form o f pre-test and post-test The second reason was that the twelve week interval between the two tests with a great deal o f work to do and not provided the answer key o f the pre-test was long enough to control any short-term memory effects, even they had remembered the answer at the first time, they had no opportunity o f

checking whether that answer was correct Furthermore, any effects in terms o f the experiences on the test were equally comparable between two groups In addition, test- retest was one o f the most common types o f test reliability in psychometrics

The tests included two reading passages for 45 minutes (one period in the classroom), each passage was about 250-300 words The total mark was 25 for 25 multiple choice questions In which, the types o f given questions to measure the reading comprehension competence were adapted from TOEFL Success by Rogers (2002) However, the percentages divided among types o f questions were different from the TOFEL because

o f the low level o f English o f the participants in this study In details, the tests included main idea questions (questions: 13; 25 counted 8%), factual questions (questions: 1; 2; 7; 8; 10; 14; 23; 24 counted 32%), negative questions (questions: 12; 22 counted 8%), scanning questions (questions: 11; 28 counted 8%), inference questions (questions: 6; 15; 17 counted 12%), vocabulary in context questions (questions: 3; 5; 9; 16; 18; 19

counted 24%), reference questions (questions: 4; 20 counted 8%) (See the appendix 1)

The researcher decided to design multiple-choice tests, because, as far as the researcher had known, this type o f test did not require the students to write their answer Thus, it avoided the problem o f writing errors which affected the result o f comprehension because some students could understand but they could not write the answer correctly Furthermore, the result o f test was not affected by the test-examiner' emotion, health,

The reasons to use this test for the students at QNTTC were that, first, these types o f questions were nearly the same as the ones in the reading material they learnt, except inference and reference questions but these shared the same challenge for all participants between two groups Second, two (350-400 word long) passages were enough for the elementary students to read and check their answers using both top-down

or bottom-up process in 45 minutes based on their on-going test before Third, with these questions, it helped the researcher evaluate the students' reading competence completely including the ability of dealing with the new words in the reading passage.

3.4.2 Classroom m otivation observation s h e e t

The classroom motivation was collected by using observation sheets In order to collect the data for the study, classroom observation was carried out every reading lesson, particularly the pre-reading stage The main focus o f the observation was on the overall classroom motivation produced by the two types o f pre-reading activities; using pictures and not using pictures, and generated by the level of students' interest, enthusiasm, and persistence with the learning task, concentration and enjoyment during the class

The observation sheet was adopted from Doan Thi Xuan Hien (2004) whose observation

sheet had been adapted from Nunan (1989, p 110) This observation sheet included seven items measuring level of the students' interest, enthusiasm, and persistence with the learning task, concentration and enjoyment during the pre-reading stage Each item scored on a scale

o f one (low) to seven (high) Therefore, daily total scores for each group between of 7 to 49 were produced The result of observation sheets helped to answer the second question o f the

study (see appendix 2)

3.4.3 Students questionnaires

Another data collection instrument used to evaluate the students motivation was student questionnaires where students were asked to give their comments on the pre-reading activities with or without treatment after each reading lesson The questionnaire was designed based on two categories usefulness and enjoyableness These two issues were used to measure the usefulness and enjoyableness o f the material by Peacock (1998) in his study The aims o f the written questionnaires were to let students to express their own attitudes on the usefulness and enjoyableness generated by the pre-reading activities that they work with every week The data o f these two factors helped to collect more reliable information for the observation instrument because when observing, the observer might be affected by other factors such as observer's health or emotion problem, or observing condition, etc Furthermore, it helped to ensure the students' attitude about how effective they found the pre-reading activities as the treatment to be, because the students were able to report their feeling directly about the method, materials used in pre-reading stage

The questionnaire consisted of 12 items, chosen for their lexical similarity These items were useful/not useful, boring/interesting, not enjoyable/enjoyable, not relevant/relevant, helping overcome the deficiencies of vocabulary, background knowledge/or not, activating and providing appropriate background knowledge/or not, the level of motivation in involving and interesting the students to be, interesting material/not interesting material, appropriate method/not appropriate method.

In the questionnaire, items: 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 together made up the usefulness component, the others; 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 12 together made up the enjoyable component Each item scored on a scale o f one (not at all) to 7 (very much so), thus the total scores for each student were from

12 to 84 Therefore, the mean score for each group for each reading lesson was computed between o f 12 to 84 (See appendix 3)

The questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese (L I) to avoid student confusion (See appendix 4)

3.5 Data analysis

The researcher carried out the data analysis process as follows:

It was assumed that the students' reading comprehension was better improved by the

treatm ent o f activatin g and p rov id in g b ack grou n d k n o w le d g e u sin g top ic-rclatcd

pictures than that o f providing new words in list Therefore, the most useful way used was comparing the collected results between the two classes before and after the experimental teaching step

The t-test was used to compare the means o f the pre-test and post-test o f the experimental class and the control class The reason was to see whether the results o f the tests were significant or not According to the program o f statistical analysis SPSS (version 12.0), in this situation, /-test used was single sample t-test The assumption would be true when the value o f t was greater than +2 or less than -2 In line with the t- value, the significance level (p-value) had to be less than 05 These values ensured that the results o f the tests were statistically significant It meant that the average performance o f the students o f the experimental class was better than that o f the control

class When the t-value was smaller than +2 or bigger than -2, the significance level (p- value) was larger than 05, the alternative hypothesis was rejected These indicated that

the result o f the experimental class was similar with the result o f the control class, even

though the scores were not the same In other words, the performances o f the students between the two classes were at the same level.

Moreover, the result o f the test o f sub-groups in each class was analyzed to see more clearly whether the two types o f pre-reading activities had any effects on the students' reading comprehension and how they might have affected it

Besides, the students' motivation in the reading class was investigated by the observation sheets and questionnaires which were coded In order to identify the effects

o f each type o f the pre-reading activity on the students' motivation in learning reading in the classroom, the scores o f each instrument were compared weekly and displayed in the bar charts

3.6 Description of materials used for the study

The teaching material used for both groups was a collection o f 24 reading texts at elementary level from different sources This material was designed for the 2rd year non- English major students by the teachers o f English at QNTTC It included 24 reading texts divided into 6 topics, namely Animals, Entertainments, Sports, Humorous Stories, Famous People, Food and Drinks In each topic, there were four reading texts adapted from different sources, mostly from Facts & Figures by Ackert (1986), and each reading lesson was about 250-300 word long In the area o f the study, the treatment applied for both control class and experimental class was with only three topics o f Animals, Sports, and Famous people Some o f the topic-related pictures were chosen from the Internet, and the others were painted

3.7 Procedure

In this study, the experiment was carried out as follows

In step one, the pre-test was administered for both groups at the first week The result of the pre-test was used to compare with the result o f the post-test to determine the improvement o f the subjects' reading competence Before doing the test, the students were told that the test scores were not recorded in their academic records The scores were used to help the teacher investigate the students' ability to help them get good marks at the end o f the term

In step two it was the experimental teaching step The experimental teaching lasted twelve weeks with twelve reading texts (one in a week) All the subjects had the same