Nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 tai một trường trung học phổ thông ở nam định qua các bài tập trọng điểm

Trong việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ thứ hai hay tiếng nước ngoài, đọc nhận được chú trọng đặc biệt. Trong quá trình dạy và học tiếng Anh như một ngoại ngữ, đọc đã luôn luôn được cung cấp rất nhiều sự chú trọng từ cả giáo viên và học sinh. Đọc không chỉ được coi như một phương tiện để đạt được kiến thức mà còn là một phương tiện để tiếp tục nghiên cứu sâu hơn. Luận văn này là có liên quan với việc nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu của học sinh thông qua các bài tập trọng điểm. Những lợi ích của việc sử dụng các bài tập trọng điểm trong các tiết học đọc được khẳng định một lần nữa trong luận văn này thông qua các nghiên cứu và tác giả đã tiến hành tại trường THPT Ngô Quyền, tỉnh Nam Định . Những lợi ích mang lại hiệu quả đáng kể cho giáo viên và học sinh trong việc dạy và học đọc . Đây cũng là mục đích chính của luận văn và mong muốn của tác giả. Để đạt được mục tiêu và mong muốn này, tác giả đi vào xem xét các tài liệu liên quan và sau đó tiến hành quan sát các lớp học , đưa ra câu hỏi cho họ , vv để có những phát hiện và phân tích cần thiết . Đồng thời, tác giả cũng đưa ra một số bài tập trọng điểm phù hợp để áp dụng trong dạy và học những tiết học đọc trong sách Tiếng Anh 11.

This study has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help andencouragement of many people Therefore, I hereby would like to express myappreciation to all of them

Firstly, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.Prof Dr.Nguyen Van Do, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time

I tried to complete this thesis

I am grateful to all lecturers of the Department of Post-graduate Studies,University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,Hanoi for their lectures, especially Mr Le Van Canh, Ph.D for his helpful andpractical suggestions

I am also grateful to Ms Le Thu Ha, the librarian at the Resource Centre, who iswilling to lend me a lot of interesting books and valuable materials for my thesis

I also thank my colleagues and students at Ngo Quyen High School for theircooperation in completing the survey questionnaires as well as their willingness toshare their ideas on this study

Last but not least, I also own a great debt of gratitude to my family, my friendsfor their support in bringing this study to a success

In many second or foreign language teaching situations, reading receives aspecial focus In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language,reading has always been offered a great deal of attention both from the teachers and thestudents Reading is not only considered as a means to gain knowledge but also ameans by which further study takes place This study is concerned with improvingstudents’ reading comprehension skills through focused tasks

The benefits of using focused tasks in reading lessons are affirmed again in thisthesis through the studies and the researcher carried out at Ngo Quyen High School,Nam Dinh province These benefits bring considerable effectiveness to teachers andstudents in teaching and learning reading This is also the main aim of the study and theresearcher’s wish

In order to achieve this aim and wish, the researcher enters into consideration ofthe relevant literature and then carries out observing classes, giving questionnaires tothem, etc to have necessary findings and analysis At the same time, the researcheralso suggests the suitable reading tasks to apply in teaching and learning readinglessons in Tieng Anh 11

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s statement i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables and charts viii

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methodology of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

PART II DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter I: Theoretical Background 4

I.1 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension and purposes of reading 4

I.1.1 What is reading? 4

I.1.2 What is reading comprehension? 5

I.1.3 The purposes of reading 6

I.2 Classification of reading 7

I.2.1 Classification of reading according to manner 7

I.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes 8

I.3 Stages in a reading lesson 9

I.3.1 Pre-reading stage 9

I.3.2 While-reading stage 10

I.3.3 Post-reading stage 10

I.4 Factors in teaching and learning reading 11

I.4.1 The role of the teacher 11

I.4.2 The role of the student 11

I.4.3 The role of reading texts 12

I.5 Factors determining successful reading comprehension 12

I.5.1 Considerations for students 12

I.5.1.1 Reading strategies 12

I.5.1.2 Background knowledge 13

I.5.2 Considerations for teachers 13

I.5.2.1 Steps in teaching reading 13

I.5.2.2.Ways to select materials 14

I.6 Focused tasks and using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14

I.6.1 Focused tasks 14

I.6.2 Using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14

I.6.2.1 Skills involved in reading 14

I.6.2.2 Questions and tasks in a reading lesson 15

Chapter II: Methodology 16

II.1 Situation analysis 16

II.1.1 Setting of the study 16

II.1.2 Participants 16

II.1.3 Reading materials 17

II.2 Instrumentation 18

II.2.1 Instrument 1 18

II.2.1.1 The questionnaire for the students 18

II.2.1.2 The questionnaire for the teachers 19

II.2.2 Instrument 2-class observation 19

Chapter III: Data analysis and findings 20

III.1 Data analysis and findings 20

III.2.1 Survey for students 20

III.2.2 Survey for teachers 26

III.2 Classroom observation 28

Chapter IV: Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills and sample work 30

IV.1 Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills 30

IV.1.1 Bases for reading tasks 30

IV.1.2 Suggested some focused tasks 33

IV.1.2.1 Suitability for students’ level 33

IV.1.2.2 Suitability for reading purposes 33

IV.2.Sample work 38

PART III: CONCLUSION 40

1 Summary of the study 40

2 Limitation and Suggestion for further study 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

N: Number

CUP: Cambridge University Press

OUP: Oxford University Press

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Tables:

1 Students’ Attitudes towards reading in English

2 Students’ Attitudes towards purpose of reading English

3 Kinds of tasks students are often asked to do

4 Students’ strategies of doing reading tasks

5 Students’ strategies when coming across a new word

6 Students’ interest in doing supplementary tasks

7 Teachers’ attitudes towards students’ problems in reading

Charts:

1 Students’ Attitudes towards reading materials

2 Students’ difficulties in doing reading tasks

3 Teachers’ attitudes towards reading texts and tasks in textbook

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale

Language itself plays an important part in our daily life and it is the mosteffective means of communication Language distinguishes man from animals That isbecause language is an effective means of information, transaction and interactionmaking experience so we can say that without language there would be no civilization,

no culture, no intervention and no progress Nowadays, the demand of communicationamong people in all countries is greater, therefore it is really necessary for everyone tolearn at least one foreign language

In our country, English is widely taught and learnt because it is an internationallanguage used in all aspects of life such as tourism, technology, literature, commerceand so on Especially, English has become a compulsory in high schools That is why it

is vital to find out to teach and learn English effectively

Teaching English involves four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing.Among them, teaching reading plays an important role for high school students inenriching their general knowledge, enlarging their vocabulary and in helping them withtheir further study later Reading also contributes to the development of other languageskills When teaching reading, some issues may arise such as how to assess students’reading ability, how to give tests to students, techniques to improve students’ readingskills and so on Among these issues, I choose to do my research on the project entitled

“Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks

at A High School in Nam Dinh” because I myself believe that reading can help learners

to get information to the fullest, and that providing learners with useful techniques andtasks will motivate them in reading

II Aims of the study

The study is aimed at:

1) better understanding the concepts of reading, content reading, readingcomprehension.

2) identifying some problems in teaching and learning reading English at NgoQuyen High School in Nam Dinh

3) providing the 11th grade students at Ngo Quyen High School with usefulfocused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills

The study is the hope of the author to make some contributions to the improvement

of reading comprehension skills for the 11th form students

III Scope of the study

The study on reading in general is immense and covering every aspect oflanguage theory and practice in this study is impossible Due to the time limitation,only one small aspect of reading comprehension is mentioned to, that is readingcomprehension tasks Some focused tasks to help teachers and students better inteaching and learning reading comprehension would be recommended

IV Methodology

In seeking answers to the research questions, survey questionnaires and classobservations were chosen to obtain relevant information for the study The strategicmethod of the study is quantitative one That is all remarks, considerations, andconclusions are made largely based on the analysis of the statistic data collectedthrough the survey questionnaires Class observations are carried out as asupplementary to the survey questionnaires

V Design of the study

The study consists of three main parts: the Introduction, the Development andthe Conclusion

Part I introduces rationales, aims of the study, scope and methods of the study.

Part II comprises four chapters

Chapter I deals with an overview of the theoretical background of the research It is

concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: reading and readingcomprehension, classification of reading, the importance of improving reading skills,roles of reading teachers and those of reading students, focused tasks in reading

Chapter II describes the participants and instruments of the study.

Chapter III is data collection and data analysis

Chapter IV offers some focused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills and a

sample work

Part III summarizes the issues addressed and presents recommendations for further

improvements and some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, the review of the issues most relevant considered as a theoreticalbackground to the study will be provided It consists of definitions of reading andreading comprehension, the purposes of reading, classification of reading, stages in areading lesson, factors affecting reading skills, and focused tasks and using tasks todevelop reading comprehension skills

I.1 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension and purposes of reading

I.1.1 What is reading?

Reading is a natural and common activity that people always do in their dailylife It is stated that reading is a kind of culture that people regardless of age, sex, orclass should learn and have Although no one can deny the high frequency of reading

in every day life, to understand thoroughly what reading or reading comprehension ismay not be well aware by many There have been so many definitions of reading thatthey cause much confusion Hence, many linguists take reading into account to doresearch They have studied and given various definitions of reading

According to Frank Smith (1978:2) “reading is to understand the author’s thought” He also adds “Understanding print or even receiving communication can hardly be said to explain reading The problem still remains of how readers understand the print or receives the communication” This means that readers need to

understand the author’s mind, not the author’s words The meaning of a word on anyparticular occasion will depend largely on the context in which it occurs So whenreaders understand the author’s thought, they are successful in reading because thenature of reading is the interaction between writers and readers Reading is much more

than just understanding individual words but it is the process that the writer and readerunderstand each other.

To advocates of cognitive reading model, reading is defined as the

interaction between the reader and the text It is also a process of negotiating

understanding between the reader and the writer Aebersold and Field (1997:15) propose, “Reading is what happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbol in that text.”

Goodman pointed out that, reading is “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader – a language user reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” (Goodman, 1988:135) This act of

reconstruction is considered as a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing, and

confirming

To conclude, definitions of reading are many but no definition can possiblyinclude all viewpoints and features Each definition reflects what reading means to thatperson but they seem to have some features in common Reading is a process in whichthe reader looks and understands what has been written Understanding a text meansbeing able to extract the required information from it as efficiently as possible Thus, it

is essential for us to understand thoroughly the definition of reading comprehensionbefore teaching a reading text

I.1.2 What is reading comprehension?

Reading comprehension takes a very important part in teaching and learning reading a language and a foreign language as well Reading comprehension is a processthat requires how to decode through the development of an extensive repertoire of sightwords, learning the meanings of vocabulary words encountered in the texts, and

learning how to abstract meaning from text It represents how well readers understand literal comprehension which concentrates on explicit meaning and inferential

comprehension which concentrates on implicit meaning in the reading text

Grellet gives an idea that “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”

(Grellet, 1981:34) From this point of view, Grellet focuses on readers’ ability of understanding the meaning of a written text based on the individual’s background knowledge

Richard and Thomas (1987: 143) state that “Reading comprehension is a mental process that in the final analysis, only the readers fully understand Comprehension is what stimulates readers to remember the past experience That knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out of print Meaning does not reside on the printed page but rather in the meaning of the reader.”

From the above mentioned definitions, it is possible to draw a conclusion that it

is meaningless if readers spend time reading but have no comprehension or attainnothing or even little from a written text In other words, it is no use of reading withoutcomprehension Therefore, reading comprehension is an important part in teaching andlearning a foreign language in general and teaching reading in particular However, thereasons for reading differ from one person to another As a result, the ways we read arealso different In other words, the purposes of reading determine the ways or the styles

of reading Now it is necessary to have a close look at the classification of readingaccording to manner and the purposes of reading to identify different types of reading

I.1.3 The purposes of reading

The purposes of reading will determine how we read, what skills we need andwhat types of reading text we practise in order to fulfill the purposes There are threemain purposes of reading: reading for pleasure, reading for information and reading forlanguage development

Reading for pleasure is considered as a purpose of reading because some peopleonly read for entertainment, especially when getting stressed or after their hardworking hours They read funny stories, jokes, newspapers and articles to entertain

themselves In language classroom, reading for pleasure is used to lessen tension inclass through funny stories, spicy stories, etc.

Reading for information means that readers have to find out something or dosomething with information they get Information may be presented in several ways inwritten or spoken language, in drawings, photographs, etc

Reading in a foreign language is an effective way to learn a language forstudents Through reading they can get the content of the subject which they arestudying and get the way to develop their knowledge of language itself

In general, reading skills will make other skills such as speaking, writing andlistening improve because by teaching reading, the teacher provides studentsknowledge that can be used in writing, speaking and listening

I.2 Classification of reading

I.2.1 Classification of reading according to manner

According to manner, reading aloud and silent reading are two types of reading

in which “reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also sayingit” (Doff, 1988:70) Although reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessaryinformation to the others, it is an unpopular activity outside classroom

Reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it Itspurpose is not just to understand a text but also covey the information to someone else.When reading aloud, students focus on pronunciation, spelling sounds but not onmeaning So there is little value in developing reading skills However, reading aloud isuseful for speaking skill, it can help students practise speaking accurately and fluently

Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is more often used in both real life andclassroom, and “it is the method we normally use with our native language, and on thewhole the quickest and most efficient” (Lewis, 1985:110) It is an activity that wefocus on meaning of the text so silent reading is called “reading on meaning” It

involves looking at a text and saying the words to yourself so it is useful fordevelopment of reading skills.

I.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes

It is clear to assume that the reasons for reading are different from this person tothat person because of their uncommon purposes According to purposes, reading is

categorized into skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading

Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension Grellet assumed that

“when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions”

(Grellet, 1981:19) In skimming, the reader goes through the text extremely quickly,merely dipping into it or sampling it at various points By skimming, students quicklyrun their eyes over the text to get the gist of it It is a kind of reading we do when wewant to read in details or to find out the subject of the text

In terms of scanning, Nuttall indicated that “Scanning means glancing rapidly

through a text either to search for a specific piece of information or to get an initial impression of whether the text is suitable for a given purpose” (Nuttall, 2000:49).

From this notion, scanning is a type of reading frequently used by all When scanning,students quickly go through a text to find a particular piece of information This skillinvolves the ability to reject or pass over irrelevant information Scanning can bepractised with variety of texts such as maps, dictionaries, reference materials, etc

In terms of intensive reading, Grellet defined that “Intensive reading means

reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” (Grellet,1981:41) The aim of intensive reading is to

arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means,but also of how the meaning is produced Under the guidance of the teacher or a task,students have to read the text carefully and try to understand every single word andidea or hidden information of a text

In terms of extensive reading, students read long texts usually for their own

pleasure When reading, students have a general understanding of the text withoutnecessarily understand every word Most of extensive reading is done silently and out

of the class time Therefore, the aim of extensive reading is to cover the greatestpossible amount text in the shortest possible time Extensive reading is a good way forstudents to enrich their knowledge of language and of the world The teachers shouldencourage students to perform extensive reading because it will activate readingoutside the class

From Nuttall’s point of view, “intensive and extensive reading are not just two contrasting ways of reading but an infinitive variety of interrelated and overlapping strategies” (Nuttall, 2000:38) These two types of reading, of course, are

complementary and reciprocal with each other, and necessary

In short, when teaching and learning reading comprehension teachers and

students should remember that there are several reading types and an effective reader isthe one who can adapt his style flexibly according to his purpose Generally, readers donot choose to read a text either intensively or extensively, for gist or specificinformation because a text can be best tackled by a combination of strategies

I.3 Stages in a reading lesson

Activities in a reading lesson can be divided into three stages: pre-reading stage,while-reading stage and post-reading stage For each stage, different techniques should

be used to help students read the text comprehensively

I.3.1 Pre-reading stage

According to Williams (1984:37), the purposes of the pre-reading stage are:

- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic

- To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading

- To provide some language preparation for the text

Normally, pre-reading phase often last from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson Several techniques are suggested such as using pictures, predicting from the titles, guessing and brainstorming to see what students have already known These activities are aimed at drawing the students’ interest towards reading as well as

preparing them for the reading text

I.3.2 While-reading stage

Williams (1984:38) states that while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson with the following specific aims:

- To help understanding of the writer’s purpose

- To help understanding of the text structure

- To clarify text content

At this stage, there is a great deal of activities can be performed in order to help

students to understand the text The teacher acts as an organisor, a helper only He will

be available to help individuals with their particular difficulties He will be likely to be about the meaning of new vocabulary items, new grammar structures, etc In this situation, he should encourage students to guess the meaning from the context

On the whole, the teacher must manage his class in such a way every student

participates in the lesson and understands the text

I.3.3 Post-reading stage

After reading, the teacher needs to consolidate or reflect upon what has been read Williams stated that “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflectingupon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests

or views” Williams (1984:39) This stage is where integration of four skills will be appropriately conducted Activities in this stage are aimed at helping students apply what they have learnt from the text to their further study or communication through thetasks provided by the teacher

Obviously, the three-phase approach is not to 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 At other times, post-reading stage may not be included

I.4 Factors in teaching and learning reading

I.4.1 The role of the teacher

In a reading lesson, the teacher acts as a helper and students work individually and actively but this does not mean that there is nothing for the teacher to do The roles

of teachers in an EFL reading lesson are also significant and worth mentioning On the one hand, Nuttall (2000:32-33) specifies some of these roles as choosing reading texts, designing tasks, facilitating reading process and monitoring progress He thuscomes to a conclusion that there is always a great deal the teacher to do in a reading lesson On the other hand, he also reminds teacher of several pitfalls in teaching reading, in which “testing instead of teaching” and teacher’s overly dominance in processing the reading texts are among the most common mistakes That is why the teacher needs to organize activities in teaching reading and then carry out a number of appropriate techniques to teach a particular text While providing appropriate activities,the teacher should be active and creative to help students read effectively in a reading lesson

I.4.2 The role of students

The students are the heart of the reading process in a reading class and they can make areading lesson successful Nuttall (2000:33) mentions several main roles for the

students in a reading lesson They are as follows:

- Taking an active part in learning: This is the first and foremost responsibility of the learner They have to be active and take charge of what they do

- Monitoring comprehension: Students need to understand how texts work and what they do when they read

- Learning text talk: It is clear that a good reader carries on a dialogue with the

text Consequently, the students have to learn how to do this An effective way to promote this skill is to talk about texts in class

- Taking risks: Students have to take the risk of making mistakes because a

mistake is an opportunity to learn

- Learning not to cheat oneself: Learning to read is learning to give students

enormous advantages in life It may lead to better jobs, to personal development, interest and enjoyment Students who do not want to learn to read can easily cheat but they are only cheating themselves

In short, students are the key figures to decide the success of teaching reading

I.4.3 The role of reading texts

Texts plays an important role in a reading lesson That is because text is used

“as a way of learning new language by looking at the text and focusing on particularwords and expression” Doff (1988:62) This means that through reading text, studentscan understand phonetic, lexical and grammatical items Besides, students can enrichtheir knowledge in different fields such as science, technology, culture, art etc in thetarget language

I.5 Factors determining successful reading comprehension

I.5.1 Considerations for students

Language learners can learn to use different kinds of reading strategies Someread and understand a text very quickly while others read slowly and fail to understandwhat they read and it is essential to take the following elements into consideration onthe part of students

I.5.1.1 Reading strategies

Reading is considered as an active skill It involves guessing, predicting,checking and asking questions Therefore, students should apply reading strategies to

each kind of reading effectively Students do not read every word in a text Theyshould focus on the important words so they can understand most of the text and canread faster They should try to predict what comes next in the text and read the textagain if they do not understand what they have read They should read silently, notwhispering the words while they read because reading aloud may slow the studentsdown and force them to read every word Besides, they should learn to guess themeaning of new words They look at the context of words and other clues such as theaffixes of words Thus, it is important to encourage them to combine top-down andbottom-up strategies in reading Moreover, for different texts, students have to usedifferent skills

In summary, there are different kinds of texts and different purposes for reading

so it is necessary to find out a suitable way of reading for each

I.5.1.2 Background knowledge

A successful reader requires good general background knowledge Backgroundknowledge does not cover knowledge of a particular topic Readers will use their ownknowledge to understand what they are reading In order to understand a text, readersskillfully recall what they have already known about the topic and need to readfrequently and read many kinds of books

I.5.2 Considerations for teachers

Teachers take an important role in improving the students’ reading They mustknow how to convey or present a reading lesson to students It is really necessary totake the following elements into considerations for teachers

I.5.2.1 Steps in teaching reading

As I have mentioned above, there are three steps in teaching reading These arepre-reading, while-reading and post-reading In order to have successful reading, theteacher should follow three stages There are two advantages of the three-stage

approach Firstly, it respects and makes use of the students’ own knowledge and of theworld and uses this as a basis for involvement, motivation and progress Secondly, itleads to integration of the skills so that the reading lesson is not simply isolated That iswhy a good reading lesson requires the above three-stage approach.

I.5.2.2 Ways to select materials

The selection of materials is one of the factors determining the success of areading lesson One of the teachers’ roles is to provide the students with suitablereading texts To fulfill this role and have a successful lesson, the teacher should bear

in mind the following criteria for the selection of a text: readability, suitability ofcontent and exploitability

I.6 Focused tasks and using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills

I.6.1 Focused tasks

According to Breen (1989), a task is “a structured plan for the provision ofopportunities for the refinement of knowledge and capabilities entailed in a newlanguage and its use during communication He specifically states that a task can be abrief practice exercise or a more complex work plan that requires spontaneouscommunication of meaning

Focused asks, according to Ellis (2003), aim to introduce learners to process,receptively or productively, some particular linguistic feature, for example, agrammatical structure He says that focused tasks have two aims: one is to stimulatecommunicative language use, the other is to target the use of a particular,predetermined target feature

I.6.2 Using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills

I.6.2.1 Skills involved in reading

Readers need variety of skills when reading In fact, a change in purpose ofreading usually results in the change in the reading skills so the type of readingperformed According to Tomlinson and Ellis (1980:150), reading skills include:

mechanical skills, understanding the lexical items, understanding grammaticalmeaning, reasoning skills, selection skills and evaluation skills.

Another possible way of classification of reading skills is suggested by Grellet(1981:4) He considers that reading skills consist of: recognising the scrift of alanguage, deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items, understandingexplicitly stated information, understanding information what not explicitly stated,understanding conceptual meaning, understanding the relations within the sentence,understanding relations between parts of the text through grammatical cohesiondevices, interpreting a text by going outside it, recognising indicators in discourse,identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse,distinguishing the main idea and supporting details, extracting salient points tosummarise, basic reference skills, skimming, scanning and transcoding information todiagrammatical display

I.6.2.2 Questions and tasks in a reading lesson

In teaching reading, reading lessons have been traditionally based on passagefollowed by questions and tasks The aim of which is to check understanding ratherthan to produce understanding Introducing questions and tasks will encourage students

to anticipate the content of a text from its title and illustrations Questioning and tasks,therefore, are very important to improve the students’ reading comprehension

There must be variety in the range of tasks and it is necessary if differentreading skills are to be covered A task should not always imposed on a text and it isbetter to allow the text to suggest what tasks are most appropriate There are variousways of classifying types of questions and tasks According to Nuttual (1989:434),there are five types of questions and tasks such as: questions of literal comprehension,questions involving recognition or interpretation, questions of inference, questions ofvaluation and questions of personal response Questions and tasks are one of the bestways of building up the students’ comprehension reading skills and their confidence

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

This chapter will analyze the situation of the study with the description of the subjects,the materials used by informants and the instruments applied to collect data

II.1 Situation analysis

II.1.1 Setting of the Study

The study was conducted at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh English is acompulsory subject and one of the core subjects at high schools Reading is a skill ofmajor concern in teaching-learning English in Vietnam During a reading lesson, theteacher asks students to read a text and then he or she explains new words or structures

to help students understand the text The reading lesson sometimes turns out to be anEnglish-Vietnamese translation lesson Translation can be used as an effective way ofteaching reading for some texts only However, in reading lesson if the teacher usestranslation, it will lead to inefficient reading and it also makes the students inactive anddependent Consequently, the teaching reading process cannot be considered asefficient The problem which is raised here is how to make the reading lessons efficientand how to develop reading comprehension skills for students This should, therefore,

be taken into consideration in teaching reading lessons It is possible to introducequestions and tasks which encourage students to anticipate the contents of readingtexts For that reason, the teacher should ask students to do a variety of tasks tounderstand the texts and to develop reading comprehension skills

* The Students

Participants who were drawn from a high school in Nam Dinh, aged 17, both male and female have learnt English for 5 years, 4 years at lower secondary school and one year at high school They all have similar background Lots of them come from comparatively poor families so their learning condition is low Their parents can hardlyafford to pay even small expenses required for their children’s schooling; a dictionary,

a cassette player or even some English books are beyond their reach In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interest in learning English Although most of them have already learnt English for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge of English is still poor and limited Hardly can they say a complete sentence in the target language

* The Teachers

There are 8 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 30 to 47, 4 have graduated from the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, National University, Hanoi; 4 have graduated from Hanoi University of Foreign Languages All

of them are enthusiastic with their career and had at least 7 years experienced in

teaching English However, since graduating from their respective universities, few of them have taken refresher courses to improve their English and their teaching methods.These teachers were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar-Translation method, the emphasis of which is on the learning of the rules of the language, not on the acquisition of language skills This is obviously manifested in their teaching

methods

II.1.3 Reading Materials

The materials used for teaching and learning English for the grade 11 students are English course books TIENG ANH 11 The textbook consists of 16 units

organized broad topics Each unit is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening,Writing and Language Focus The teacher only covers one of the above five parts in

each period After every three units, there is a TEST YOURSELF, which provides some exercises for the students to do in order to test how good they are at English The reading texts in TIENG ANH 11 are various Many of them are not very difficult at all and very interesting However, some reading texts are rather long, requiring good reading techniques Some reading texts have many difficult and unfamiliar words to students, which can sometimes not be covered within a period of only 45 minutes

II.2.1 Instrument 1- Survey Questionnaire

Two set of survey questionnaire were completed with the assistance of 155 students

in grade 11 and 8 teachers at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh This methodallowed the researcher to collect the data needed in “quantitative form” A good point

of this method is that it is quite easy to summarize, analyze and report the collecteddata as all informants submit the answer to the same questions In addition, theinformants can express their opinions on teaching and learning the reading skills in afree way as their personal information is not included in the questionnaire

II.2.1.1 The Questionnaire for the Students

The questionnaire for the students (Appendix 1) was designed with two parts Partsone consists of three questions to find out about the students’ attitude towards learningreading skills Part two includes seven questions with which the researcher desires toexplore learning reading skills of the 11th form students, the attitude of studentstowards the role of the teacher and the self-assessment of the students about theirreading

II.2.1.2 The Questionnaire for the Teachers

The questionnaire for the teachers (Appendix 2) consists of seven questions It isabout their comments on the reading texts and tasks in the textbook

II.2.2 Instrument 2-Classroom Observation

As for the other tool of the study, classroom observation is not less important.Wallace (2001) asserts that it is an important technique for the researcher to recordwhat is happening at the time that the teaching and learning of the foreign languagestake place In fact, with classroom observation, the researcher can watch, follow andrecord all activities that the teacher and the students are performing in a particularplace Therefore, it is a very useful tool for the researcher to check the reliability of thedata collected from the survey questionnaires

The author of the study observed four classes Each class was picked uprandomly from its group The observation was carried out in two different lessons inthese classes For each lesson, the researcher observed for 45 minutes

Four teachers under the author’s observation have been teaching English at thisschool for at least nine years There are some differences between the teachers’ age.Consequently, their teaching experience must be different

Four units were chosen to be observed are unit 4, unit 9, unit 11 and unit 12.The purpose for choosing these units was that they contained rather long readingpassages with many unfamiliar words, which may make the readers bored Therefore,the researcher intends to observe how the teachers dealt with the long texts, how theyexplained the new words and what techniques and tasks they used to motivate students

Conclusion

This chapter has presented the methodology employed in the research The nextchapter will offer a descriptive data analysis of the collected data

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

In order to obtain useful information for the thesis, it is very necessary to knowthe situation of teaching and learning English in general and reading in particular.Therefore, I have conducted survey questionnaires to know how teachers teach reading,what techniques and reading tasks they have used and how students learn reading and

do tasks as well These questions need answering

III.1 Data analysis and findings

In this part, the collected data will be illustrated on charts, tables and graphs.Each chart, table or graph is followed by an analysis of the data

III.1.1 Survey for students

III.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards learning reading skills

Question 1: Do you like reading English?

Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards reading in English

The results indicate that among 155 students, 102 students like reading English Itaccounts 66% and the reasons are various The rest do not like reading English andthey think that it is difficult to read English because they do not know the meaning ofnew words or what the texts are all about The number of students who like readingEnglish is much bigger than that of students who do not like This helps the teachersmuch in reading lessons, because if the students have interest in reading English, theywill work more effectively to improve their background knowledge and languageskills

Question 2: What is your purpose of reading English?

Table 2: Students’

purpose of improving English ranks the first, then comes improving background

knowledge As we can see, many students have the right purposes of reading English Most of them are aware of the fact that reading helps them much in improving English and this is advantageous for teachers to teach reading Besides, there is a decent

number of students who are not interested in reading English or do not have right purposes of reading The reasons are that the texts are so difficult or there are so many new words or structures Therefore, the teacher should give suitable reading texts and tasks which are used to encourage students’ interest or to meet their purposes of

reading English

Question 3: What kinds of reading materials do you like to read?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Percentage (%)

Chart 1: Students’ Attitudes towards reading materials

The chart shows that the biggest numbers of informants choose B The reason may be that the stories are easy to understand so students like reading stories in

English A small number of students like reading texts, articles and other kinds This