thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

Besides, the study suggests some adapted reading activities and tasks for teachers to utilize to increase the effectiveness of English reading lessons when applied to the textbook Englis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ LÝ

COMPREHENSION THROUGH TASK ADAPTATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10:

A CASE OF THẠCH THÀNH 3

Thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của

sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ LÝ

COMPREHENSION THROUGH TASK ADAPTATION WITH REFERENCE TO THE TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10:

A CASE OF THẠCH THÀNH 3

Thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của

sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ THU HÀ, Dr

DECLARATION

I, Ha Thi Ly, certify that this thesis is result of my own research and the substance

of this thesis has not, wholly or part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, August 2014 Signature

Ha Thi Ly

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà for her invaluable comments and suggestions, generous assistance and continual encouragement in completion of this research

My sincere thanks go to all lectures and staff of Postgraduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps,

I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing this research

My special thanks also go to all students in the two classes 10C5 and 10 C7

at Thạch thanh 3 high school, who have inspired and guided me in the accomplishment of the study

My gratefulness is to my husband, who has given me so much love, patience and encouragement , who spent hours working with the computer to help me with computer entry and processing

Finally, I owe a great debt to my family, especially my mother and mother- in- law, who has constantly supported and encouraged me to carry out this thesis Once again, my sincere thanks to all

ABSTRACT

Reading lessons for the 10th form students at Thach Thanh 3 high school have been observed to be not interesting and rewarding due to the challenging reading tasks in the textbook The aim of this study, hence, is to explore whether using task adaptation can be effective in assisting students in their reading lessons,

so they can understand the content of reading materials with less frustration Survey questionnaire, classroom observation and interviews were the main instrument of data collection which were delivered to 76 grade 10 students to collect their responses to the adapted lesson The result indicated that students are more interested in the reading as the original tasks were adapted in combination with using communicative games And when the tasks become less difficult and more interesting to most students, they developed a fairly high degree of motivation towards practicing reading Besides, the study suggests some adapted reading activities and tasks for teachers to utilize to increase the effectiveness of English reading lessons when applied to the textbook English 10 to teach the 10th form students at Thach Thanh 3 high school

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1: The effectiveness of using task adaptation in the reading lesson to help

students improve their reading skills 23Chart 2: The changes of students‘ interest and confidence in English reading

when the teachers used the adapted tasks 24Chart 3: The students‘ view about the use of communicative games in the reading

lesson 25Chart 4: The students‘ ability of understanding the contents of the reading

materials when the teachers use the adapted reading tasks 26Chart 5: Students‘ performance in the reading lessons using the adapted tasks 27Chart 6: The students‘ ability of completing all the reading tasks in the textbook

with pleasure 28Chart 7: The recommendations of students about reading tasks 28Chart 8: The students‘ perception about the improvement of their reading skills

through the using of games in adapting reading textbook tasks 29Chart 9: The perception of students about the importance of teachers‘ roles and the

way they organize activities to help students improve their reading skills 30

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

ABBREVIATION iv

LIST OF CHARTS v

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 2

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Research Methodology 3

1.6 Design of the study 4

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1 Reading comprehension, reading skills, reading tasks 5

2.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension 5

2.1.2 Reading comprehension skills 6

2.2 Reading tasks 6

2.2.1 Defining task and task- based language teaching and learning 6

2.2.2 Reading tasks and types of reading tasks 7

2.3 Task adaptation as a type of promoting for the reading comprehension process 8

2.3.1 Adaption definition 8

2.3.2 Purposes of adaptation 9

2.3.3 Categories of adaptation 10

2.4 Motivation and strategies for motivating students in classroom 11

2.5 Using Communicative Language Games in Teaching and Learning English 12

2.6 Review of existing study 13

3.1 The setting of the study 15

3.1.1 The school 15

3.1.2 The teacher and the students 15

3.1.3 Reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 16

3.2 Participants 17

3.3 Research approach 18

3.4 Research procedure 20

CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 The response of students about the effectiveness of using task adaptation in the reading lessons 23

4.2 Student’s suggestions for adapting reading tasks in the textbook to promote their learning reading comprehension 27

4.4 Summary 31

CHAPTER V FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR ADAPTING READING TASKS 32

5.1 The findings 32

5.1.1 The effectiveness of adapting reading tasks in reading lessons 32

5.2 In what way can the reading tasks in the textbook be adapted to increase the students’ motivation in learning 33

CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION 36

6.1 Summary of the study 36

6.2 Limitations and suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX 1: SAMPLES OF SOME ADAPTED READING TASKS I APPENDIX 2A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE XIII APPENDIX 2B: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU XV APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL XVIII APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SCHEME XIX

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, reading has always received a great deal of attention According to Carrell (1981:1) ―for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language‖ Sharing the same point of view, Richard (1995:9) shows that ―Becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of important benefits for learner‖ Reading has become not only an important means to gain and enrich the students‘ general knowledge but also a means to help them with their further study in the future

Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills at high schools is still far from satisfactory for various reasons Despite the teacher‘s effort, sometimes the students‘ motivation is still low and the reading lesson is said to be a boring one

This is the seventh year the researcher has taught the new textbook ―Tieng Anh 10‖ to the 10th

form students She has met a lot of difficulties in which the biggest challenges emerge from teaching reading comprehension Her colleagues in her school have confronted a number of difficulties, one of which was students‘ lack of motivation and opportunities to practice communicating in the target language Despite the teachers‘ efforts, the students‘ reading skills are unimproved For example, some students expressed that they found the reading lessons boring and did not feel they had learnt much in class Since most students had access to the teacher‘s book from which they could get the answers and background information for all reading activities in the textbook they used in class, they did not find it necessary or important to be attentive in class If those difficulties are not found out and no solution is given, reading lessons will become worst and students will be bored with learning English In this situation, the teacher needs to take a serious look at the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching and learning

of reading skill in particular By carrying out this study, the researcher wishes to

focuses on: Promoting the 10 th -form students’ reading comprehension through task adaptation with reference to the textbook Tiếng Anh 10: A case of Thạch Thành 3 high school In particular, the researcher used some common adapting

techniques in combination with changing the textbook activities into communicative games or game- like activities in the hope of increasing students‘ motivation, arousing their interest, and therefore developing their positive attitudes towards learning reading

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This study aims to investigate the areas of difficulty that the teachers at Thach Thanh 3 high school in Thanh Hoa province are coping with in their daily teaching of reading comprehension to the 10th form students with the new textbook

―Tieng Anh 10‖ and to suggest some possible solutions to reduce and overcome these difficulties

To be more specific, the objectives of this study are:

- to investigate the current situation of using reading tasks in the Tieng Anh

10 textbook as well as the using of reading activities at Thach Thanh 3 high school

- to identify the students‘ satisfaction with the teachers‘ reading activities

- to give some recommendation for teachers to adapt reading tasks to satisfy the students

Central to the mentioned aims, the following research questions are raised and answered in the study:

- How does task adaptation help increase students‘ motivation in reading lesson?

- What type of adaptation should be employed in increasing student‘s motivation?

1.3 Scope of the study

Material adaptation is such a broad topic that it cannot be wholly discussed within this small scaled study; therefore, only one specific aspect will be central to the reading tasks‘ adaptation With the focus on the while-reading tasks only in the textbook Tieng Anh 10 (the main textbook), the study was carried out to adapt those

to increase students‘ motivation in reading lessons only in the light of adapting textbook activities for communicative teaching and cooperative learning It was suggested that cooperative elements be incorporated into reading tasks, thereby changing the textbook activities into communicative games

The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of English as well as 10th grade students at Thach Thanh 3 High School That is, the teachers will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching and assist their students in learning reading skills

1.4 Significance of the study

This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective way

to develop students‘ reading comprehension skills by encouraging the teachers‘ assessment of reading tasks in the textbook The unsuitable tasks were adapted to be more accessible for the students Pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to bring about necessary changes in reading materials and teaching methodology to improve the students‘ reading comprehension at Thach Thanh 3 high school It is hoped that the result of this study may offer the English teachers

at schools in general and the teachers of English at Thach Thanh 3 high school in particular the ways to teach reading comprehension skills more effectively

1.5 Research Methodology

This minor thesis employed action research in order to gain its aims because

according to Tsui (1993:33) “action research is a very effective way of helping

teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice” The author‘s desire is to assess the difference in the

students‘ reading motivation before and after the adaptation of the reading tasks in the new textbook English 10 so after identifying the difficulties raised in the process

of teaching reading lessons, the researcher took intervention by delivering reading lessons with adapted tasks The data was collected via a number of instruments including a questionnaire and interview The data was analyzed and discussed so

1.6 Design of the study

The study consist of five chapters

Chapter I, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope,

methods, significance and the design of the study

Chapter II, Literature review, presents reading comprehension, task and task

adaptation

Chapter III, Methodology, provides the setting of the study, subjects, instrument

and data analysis process

Chapter IV, Data analysis and discussion, analyses and discuses the data

collected from the survey questionnaire and classroom observations

Chapter V, Major findings and suggestions, offers major findings and some

recommendations for adapting reading activities

Chapter VI, Conclusion, summarizes the study, presents some limitations during

the process of doing the research and gives some suggestions for further study

CHAPTER II:THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Reading comprehension, reading skills, reading tasks

2.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign language It can be understood as the ability to obtain the information as required in the reading text as efficiently as possible There are three elements appearing in the reading process They are the text being read, the background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of reading comprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence on what he or she teaches in the class In fact, methodologists have been providing different definitions of reading comprehension

Swan (1975: 1) states that when we say ―a student is good at comprehension

we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information a text with the minimum of understanding‖ Having the same point of view, Richard and Thomas (1987: 9) claim that ―Reading comprehension is the best described as an understanding between the author and the reader The emphasis is

on the reader understanding of the printed page based on the individual reader‘s unique background of experience.‖

Having the same point of view with the authors above, Grellet (1981: 3) takes the point that ―Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.‖ The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way

It can be concluded that reading comprehension is a process of understanding what is conveyed in the text It does not mean that the readers need to understand every single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract the required information efficiently It is important for us to understand what reading comprehension is For the teachers teaching reading, a profound understanding

about the nature of reading comprehension may help them find out the students‘ difficulties in learning reading and help them to overcome it

So far we have looked at some definitions concerning reading and reading comprehension which have been seen from different points of views It is more significant to have a more in-depth look at the reading process to make the bridge to the focus of the study

2.1.2 Reading comprehension skills

Nutall (1982) provides a list of reading skills which consist of macro-skills with word-attack skills and text-attack skills

Word-attack skills are composed of processing morphological information, distinguishing structural clues, inferencing (or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words) from context, active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary, learning to ignore difficult words and using dictionary

Text-attack skills include two subgroups:

 Significance and cohesion: understanding sentence syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices and interpreting discourse markers

 Discourse: recognizing functional value, recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, recognizing implications and marking inferences, and prediction

2.2 Reading tasks

2.2.1 Defining task and task- based language teaching and learning

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a communicative approach to language instruction, using the successful completion of communicative tasks as its primary organizing principle Applied since 1980s, in English language learning and teaching, the idea of task-based learning and teaching has become a keen contemporary interest, and different task-based approaches exist today In task-based teaching, learners will upgrade their language competence by focusing on getting something done during using of the language Moreover, learners are encouraged to use whatever language they already have in the process of completing a task The use of tasks will also give a clear and purposeful context for the teaching and learning a language The emphasis on the task-based learning and

teaching is reflected in much current research that studies the characteristics of different kinds of activities and tasks

One of the most widely quoted definitions for task is offered by Long

(1985:89) He refers to a task as “a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for

others, freely or for some reward Thus examples of tasks include [ .] filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, [ .], making a hotel reservation, writing

a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across the road In other words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between” Nunan (1989: 10) defines ―task‖ as: a piece of

classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, producing or interacting

in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form Skehan (1998: 95) lists characteristics of ―task‖ as: (1) meaning is primary; (2) there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities; (3) task completion has some priority; (4) the assessment of tasks is in terms of outcome Willis, J (1996: 53) gives the meaning of ―task‖ as: a goal-oriented activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome

Despite the various interpretations, several common design features can be identified These features include that all three definitions emphasize the importance

of focus on meaning This criterion supports the notion that conveying an intended meaning is the essence of language use

2.2.2 Reading tasks and types of reading tasks

There are some reasons for reading We read for information or for pleasure Therefore, the goals of a reading class are to cultivate students‘ interest in reading and help students become skilled readers in gaining information In a task-based teaching class, students play the central role Reading tasks have specific goals, detailed procedures and methods for students to follow TBLT is both student-centered and task-based In the class where students are provided with plenty of chance to be engaged in activities, the teacher is more like a patient listener rather than a talkative speaker The goals of such reading activities are for students to

In TBLT reading class, Willis puts forward three steps for task-based teaching: (1) Pre-task: the teacher introduces the task (2) Task cycle: task—students carry out the task; planning—each group prepares how to report their completion of the task

to the class; reporting—students report their completion of the task (3) Language focus: analysis—students analyze and assess the completions of tasks by other groups; practice—students practice the language difficulties under the direction of the teacher

Willis (1996) introduces six types of tasks They can be used in almost any topic They are listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing personal experiences Based on Huang Jianru‘ s opinion (2001), the writer reckons that in reading teaching, tasks may fall into three categories, skill-oriented tasks, comprehension-oriented task and application-oriented task The tasks of the reading

part in the course book ―Tiếng Anh 10‖, the subject of this research, are studying are

also similar to these Thus, the researcher follows this opinion about reading tasks

Skill-oriented tasks include predicting, skimming and scanning, making

inferences, comparing Comprehension-oriented tasks are tasks of setting the scene, tasks of summarizing reading materials, tasks for role-play These tasks have a way

of reinforcing each other so that comprehension can be achieved oriented tasks are, for example, interviews, discussions, debates, surveys, compositions, speeches, and projects etc, which can help the newly-acquired language knowledge stay productive

Application-In task-based reading class, quite a variety of reading tasks are designed for students to complete and all the activities are based on student-centered leaning Thus students‘ reading interest will be cultivated In the process of completing reading tasks they will develop their reading competence

2.3 Task adaptation as a type of promoting for the reading comprehension process

2.3.1 Adaption definition

According to Tomlinson (1998:xi) adaption is ― making changes to materials

in order to improve them more suitable for a particular learners.‖ In the aspect of adaption techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix- xi) mentions adaption as the action of employing ―one or more number of techniques: supplementing, editing,

personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situation content.‖ Differently, Stevic (1972) cited in Mc Donough anh Shaw (1993: 83) emphasizes teachers‘ role of bridging a gap between materials and learners: ―the teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in ways that will be satisfying

to those who learn from it.‖

In brief, adaption techniques require teachers to change and revise materials

to make them more accessible to the teaching context

of the material?

The first answer is that despite the great effort that textbook writers make to meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they are actually used in the classroom Teachers have to adapt the materials they are using if they want their teaching to be more effective and more interesting In fact, a course book can never be totally an effective tool for teaches to follow without any adaptation because there may be intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety

The second purpose of adaptation is to ―maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in some context, by changing some of internal characteristics of a course book

to better suit our particular circumstances.‖ (Mc Donough and Shaw, 1993) A teacher may choose any method to adapt the teaching materials to make them more relevant, accessible and useful for learners, which can stimulate and increase motivation in learners and create a more conductive learning atmosphere in the classroom

Concerning the role of motivation in language learning, McGrath (2002:67)

acknowledges that one of the practical reasons for adaptation is “to maintain

learners’ interests by varying what might be a rather repetitive diet” It is

motivation that affects the extent of students‘ involvement and performance in language learning

By carrying out this study, the researcher want to make the teaching material more relevant, accessible and useful for learner as she understands that no textbook can meet all the needs and interests of all her students And she hopes that this can stimulate and increase motivation in learners Teaching here means building students‘ confidence that the teachers are concerned about their needs and not just following a program

2.3.3 Categories of adaptation

There are a variety of adaptation techniques a teacher can apply when teaching reading with hope to help learners to make maximum use of their textbook and learn as much of the target language as possible Mc Donough & Shaw (1993) offered lists of techniques that may be used when adapting materials better to fit a specific class, as follows:

* Adding: When adding to published material the teacher is supplementing the

existing materials and providing more materials The teacher can do this by either extending or expanding

- Extending: means the teacher supplies more of the same type of materials, thus making a quantitative change in the material

- Expanding: is to add something different to the materials The change is qualitative

*Deleting: subtracting and abridging: Material can be deleted both quantitatively

(subtracting) or qualitatively (abridging) In subtracting, for instance, a teacher can combine two reading tasks into one with fewer questions When abridging, however, the teacher may decide that comprehension of a short paragraph is useful for the learners, so the whole reading passage can be paid less attention

* Simplifying: When simplifying, the teacher could be rewording instructions or text

in order to make them more accessible to learners, or simplifying a complete activity to make it more manageable for learners and teachers

* Reordering: When reordering, the teacher has decided that it makes more

pedagogic sense to sequence activities differently An example is beginning with a

general discussion before looking at a reading passage rather than using the reading

as a basis for discussion

*Replacing materials: When replacing material a teacher may determine that a more

appropriate visual or text might serve an activity better than the ones presented in the published material This is often the case with culturally specific or time-specific activities For instance, teachers maybe replace one difficult task by easier one which can help save time or oral activities

On the whole, adaptation is a very practical activity carried out mainly by the teachers in order to make their work more relevant to the learners with whom they are day to day contact Moreover, it is a fact that no published textbook can possibly cater for every teacher, learner or teaching situation Thus, each teacher has to take responsibility of textbook adaptation in order to ensure an optical match between textbooks and the particular teaching context

Carrying out this study with the hope to create more enjoyable and much easier lessons to make language teaching process more effective, the researcher has made some reading task adaptation using common adapting techniques mentioned above in combination with changing the textbook activities into communicative language games to engage students in group or pair work and create communicative activities (See appendix 1)

2.4 Motivation and strategies for motivating students in classroom

As being indicated in many research, motivation is concerned with both a person‘s behavior in carrying out task and the reasons for carrying out that task (Maehr & Meyer,1997) In terms of behavior, it is a kind of ―personal investment‖ which is reflected in the ‗direction, intensity, persistence and quality of what is done and expressed‖ (Maehr & Meyer,1997, p.373) In terms of underlying reasons, motivation is concerned with ―why anyone does or does not invest in any particular activity‖ (Maehr & Meyer,1997, p.380) Many motivational constructs have been identified that are believed essential in influencing people‘s personal investment, such as task- oriented/ ego- oriented goals, attributions about past success of failure, perceived self- efficacy, etc (Cf Dornyei,2001) These constructs have

supplemented the traditional social approach of intrinsic/ extrinsic motivation in language learning (Gardner & Lambert, 1972)

Researchers have found that both individual factors, such as interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self- confident and self – esteem, as well as patience and persistence (e.g., Sass, 1989), and situational factors, such as those aspects of teaching situation that enhance students‘ motivation, may affect a given student‘s motivation to learn (Dornyei & Csizer, 1998: Lucas, 1990: McMillan & Forsyth, 1991; Sass, 1989) The two sets of factors actually interact with each other and work together to influence student motivation

in classroom, as the interaction paradigm suggests (Maehr & Meyer, 1997) Being very much concerned with what a teacher can do in classroom to enhance student motivation, this study focuses mainly on situational factors, which primarily fall into the following aspect

It has been found that if teacher can make students active participants in learning, students will be motivated to learn (Lucas, 1990) It is concerned with the quality of classroom activities and the way the activities are presented and administered It is suggested that the teaching material should have relevant to the learning goals and be of appropriate difficulty level to the students concerned a variety of learning tasks should be presented properly with realistic goals and effective strategies in reaching those goals When students find a learning task interesting, engaging, meaningful, and useful they tend to be highly motivated to carry it out

2.5 Using Communicative Language Games in Teaching and Learning English

According to Wang (2010) conducting games in teaching differs from the traditional teaching methods such as repetition, memorization and imitation which demotivate students‘ incentive to learn Teaching English through game- like activities can cheer up the class and make language learning more pleasurable and easier to learn Most of all, games motivate students to become effective communicators in the target language, and help them use the language in a more spontaneous and natural manner (Gordon, 1972) In addition, as Wright et al state,

games can offer practice in all stages of teaching and learning sequence including presentation, practice and production That is, many games can supply the same dense use of language as more conventional drills which mainly give repeated practice on a language form during a limited period of time It is also found by Savignon‘ s research that learners who were encouraged to use linguistic knowledge

at their disposal to exchange information, to clarify messages, and to negotiate meaning while carrying out communicative tasks, markedly outperformed learners who had no such practice Therefore, it is clear that using communicative language games in teaching is a feasible way to present new items as well as to practice and reinforce specific skills that have already been taught In particular, according to Gordon, in game situations, immediate feedback can be obtained from other participants Such feedback helps students realize how their performance is and assists the teacher to understand students‘ learning in detail From the above stated,

it seems reasonable to conclude that communicative games, an essential component

in communicative approach lesson and useful to language acquisition, should be seen as central to a teacher‘ s classroom practice rather than for use as time fillers

2.6 Review of existing study

When discussing materials adaptation, Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) clarify that there should be materials adaptation because of the mismatch of some elements such as teaching environments, the learners, the preferences or the materials Besides, they provide procedures of materials development in the detail sequence

In particular, they suggest valuable ideas for conducting materials adaptations It can be concluded that materials adaptation skills may be needed most by teachers who feel they are unable to produce their own materials because of lack of time, of expertise, or of encouragement Dayna House (2012) echoes concerns when giving the answer to the question why should adapt English textbook to your students‘ need and provide useful instructions on how teachers can adapt the textbooks Her idea is that textbooks are designed so that the format of all lessons is the same This

a boredom as the same sequence of activities is followed day after day And another reason is that the materials are designed to appeal to the same ―generic‖ student interest This means that the design of the textbook is ―one size fits all‖ Teachers should know that a single set of materials cannot meet all the needs and interests of all their students

About adapting reading tasks, the researcher takes some minor theses in the library as tools of references Vu Thi Luong (2009) and Bui Thanh Nga (2009) argue about this topic carefully in their minor theses They also collect the information related to reading and task adaptation such as reading comprehension, reading techniques, the role of task in language teaching and task designing Moreover, they give some samples of adapted reading tasks in the specific English course books for Electricity and for Computing However, the two researchers only aim at investigating the unsuitable reading tasks and at giving some samples of adapted tasks in their research In other words, the effectiveness of implementing the adapted reading tasks has not been mentioned clearly Besides, Nguyen Thi Trang (2008) investigated about adapting reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh

12 for mixed- level students at Van Noi high school in Dong Anh, Hanoi She pointed out that one of the important reason why her students pay little attention to the skill as well as the reading texts and reading tasks in their textbook is that they are not at the same level Then, she decided to make groups of similar- level students and adapt the designed reading tasks in the textbook to make them more suitable for each group In the three studies mentioned above, the researchers have not pointed out clearly how to help promote students reading comprehension by increasing their motivation in learning reading through task adaptation Therefore, based on the experience from my own teaching context and what I think is necessary and important to my students‘ learning reading process, I chose to do this research on how and in what way my students would benefit much in reading lessons from task adaptation

26 classes has been in operation for only 10 years Like other high schools, its duty

is to train students from the 10th form to the 12th form The class size is generally large with 40-45 learners in one The classrooms are equipped only with a chalkboard and desks for four students sharing one The school has only one projector which is occasionally used by teachers of all subjects in teaching festivals There is a library at school but there are not many books for reference Moreover, English newspapers and magazines, which are good sources of current target language, are not available

In this school, Math, Physics and Chemistry are chosen by most of the students who wish to take the exams to colleges or universities English is one of the compulsory subjects at the school and in the school-leaving exam However, few students choose the colleges or universities which require an English exam

3.1.2 The teacher and the students

The school now has seven teachers of English aged from 27 to 35 Two of them have had MA degrees All of the teachers are willing and enthusiastic toward their teaching However, because of the living and learning condition here, the teachers do not have enough materials such as reference books or English magazine, which are very necessary for both the teachers and students at school and they also

do not have many chances to improve their language skills as well as their teaching methods Therefore, the teachers may become less active and to some extent, the students are bored with their way of teaching

In teaching English, as far as methodology is concerned, the teachers are aware of the new trend in teaching method nowadays: Learner-centered approach They try to give their students independence in studying by asking them to work

some instructions However, not all of the teachers can do that and the amount of time spent in such activities is not much Therefore, the teachers often employ the traditional method of teaching in reading lessons Most of the time, the teachers play the key role in the classroom, being the main speakers working through the text The teachers explain new words, new structures, even give the answers to some difficult exercises Then the students are passive And the success depends on how flexible the individual teacher is to respond to the requirements of the teaching situations

3.1.3 Reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10

The textbook Tieng anh 10, by Hoang et al (2006) is a theme- based and skill- based textbook, with the adoption of the two currently popular reading approaches They employ the learner-centered approach and the communicative approach According to its authors, the leading methodology focused to use to handle this textbook is Task- based language teaching (Van et al 2006: 12) It consists of 16 units on broad topics: a day in the life of, school talks, people‘s background, special education, technology and you, an excursion, the mass media, the story of my village, undersea world, conservation, national park, music, films and cinema, the world cup, cities, historical places Each unit is divided into five 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 section, which provides some exercises for the students to do in order to test how much they achieved from the previous lesson

Although there are two programs (one for general students and the other for those specializing in English), the shared objectives have recently been adjusted for

a better use of English ―as a tool of communication at basic level in term of listening, speaking, reading and writing‖ (Hoang et al.,2006a,p33) In terms of reading skills, this goal has been specified into developing students‘ abilities to read 190- 230 word texts for main ideas and details on broad topics and to develop their vocabulary via reading

The reading texts in Tieng Anh 10 are various Many of them are familiar to students (Unit 1: A Day In The Life Of; Unit 2: School Talks, Unit 8: The Story Of

My Village; Unit 12 : Music; Unit 14: The World Cup) However some reading topics are unfamiliar to the students, or can sometimes not be covered within a period of only 45 minutes They are unit 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 focus on such topics as special education, undersea world, conservation, films and cinema, historical places

In order to realize the goals of the book, reading lessons have been chosen at the starting point of every unit Each reading lesson is uniformly implemented in three stages ―Before you read‖ with pre- reading activities, ―While you read‖ with while- reading activities, and ―After you read‖ with post reading activities to consolidate students‘ reading comprehension The reading tasks are designed in plenty of form including question answering, multiple choice, word predicting, blank filling, Vietnamese equivalent finding, summarizing and discussing Most pre- reading activities are ―using pictures to introduce the topic‖, Post- reading activities are mainly discussion or summary However, in comparison with the period of 45 minutes, the reading tasks are quite challenging to grade 10 students at Thach Thanh 3 high school Some teachers stated that there were too many tasks to

be completed in a 45- minute lesson so they cannot use more communicative activities, along with the students‘ poor level of English proficiency Therefore, to avoid boredom in the classroom and promote students in learning reading, it‘s very necessary for all the teachers to take into consideration on finding ways to organize, arrange and apply some new activities in their lessons

3.2 Participants

The study was carried out with the participation of 76 10th form students from four classes 10C5, 10C7 The students under investigation are in the second term of grade 10 They age between 15 and 16 They come from many communes

of Thach Thanh district and were selected after an entrance exam in Mathematics, Literature and Physics

When teaching those students, the author could find a general trend that most

of them have learnt English since they were at the primary schools, but many of

students focus on studying Maths, Chemistry and Physics because these are the key subjects they will have to deal with in the entrance examinations to universities chosen by their families, the orientation from their teacher or by themselves However, when being asked many of the students expressed that they like learning English and want to improve their English in the school years but they found difficult to follow their teachers in class and the many tasks appearing in the textbooks are really challenging to them As a result, most of them do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the teacher for knowledge, and therefore, their love for English has gone by with each passing day

3.3 Research approach

Action research is a kind of scientific study which is often carried out by a teacher or an educator in order to solve a practical problem in a classroom According to Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2004:297) action research is a powerful tool for change and improvement at the local level It can be used in almost any setting where a problem involving people, tasks and procedure cries out for solution This show the importance of action research and it is obvious that its

combination of ―action” and ―research‖ has contributed to its attraction to its

attraction to researchers and teachers

Tsui (1993:33) states that “action research is a very effective way of helping teachers

to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to improve their practice” With the similar objective, Zuber Skerritt (1996b:83) suggests that

“the aim of any action research project or programme are to bring about practical improvement, innovation, change or development of social practice”

In addition, Cohen and Manion (1994:186) considered action research as a scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention.‖ Focusing on the aims of the research, Kemmis &

―small-McTaggart (1992:10) argue that ―to do action research is to plan, act, observe and

reflect more carefully, more systematically and more rigorously than one usually does in everyday life”

It can be concluded that all those definitions reveal the main characteristics

of action research In more details, action research is conducted to solve problems in

a scientific process and improve own practice Furthermore, it enhances the

―competencies of participants‖ It is ―collaborative‖ and ―participatory‖

(McKernan 1991:32-3)

In terms of procedure, the linguists concerning action research show different models or procedures For example, Zuber Skerritt (1996b:84) sets action research

into a cyclical process of “(1) strategic planning, (2) implementing the plan

(action), (3) observation, evaluation and evaluation, (4) critical and critical reflection on the results of (1)-(3) and making decisions for the next cycle of research‖ Nearly similarly, in the model of action research, Altricher and Gstettner

self-(1993: 343, cited in Cohen et al., 2004) indicate four steps-―(1)finding a starting

point, (2) clarifying the situation, (3) developing action strategies and putting them into practice, (4) making teachers’ knowledge public”

The author of this minor thesis is in favour of seven steps in the action research cycle by Nunan (1992:19) as follows:

Step 1: Initiation (The teacher raises a problem in his classroom)

Step 2: Preliminary investigation (The teacher collects baseline data)

Step 3: Hypothesis (The teacher gives first explanation for the problem)

Step 4: Intervention (The teacher devises a number of strategies in solving the problem) Step 5: Evaluation (The results after several weeks of intervention)

Step 6: Dissemination (The teacher presents a paper at a language conference) Step 7: Follow-up (The teacher investigates alternative methods of motivating students)

In summary, action research is a useful means for the teacher to develop their profession He would become a better teacher because he knew how to find out and solve his problems in teaching scientifically on his own This also showed his dynamic, activeness and imagination in his teaching

3.4 Research procedure

Action research is employed in this study to explore the extent to which the application of task adaptation to teach reading comprehension helps to promote students‘ reading motivation The author follows seven steps in the action research cycle by Nunan (1992) in conducting this study

Step 1: Initiation: In the process of teaching the textbook Tieng Anh 10, the author

observed that the students did not take reading lessons seriously She found many of her students were not motivated in class, and even some of them were often absent- minded, and some would even doze off in class They often participated in those lessons inactively and inefficiently meanwhile reading comprehension was considered important to academic studies What should be done?

Step 2: Preliminary investigation: To understand more about this current situation,

the author had informal chats with the students in the free breaks to discover their problems After talking with many students, the researcher realized that the students found the reading class boring and they did not feel they had learnt much When being asked about the reasons for their lack of motivation in learning reading, the students often blamed many factors, for example, their poor level of English proficiency, lack of knowledge and vocabulary, lack of time investing in learning English etc Many of the factors were something that the researcher and her colleagues have been aware of during the teaching process, however, those made her considered the most were the ones coming from the textbook such as the reading texts contains too many new vocabulary and structure, they found it too challenging to complete the all reading tasks in a 45- minute lesson without understanding anything about the contents of the text Sometimes, the tasks are long and difficult to their level, and sometimes they did not need to work hard to the tasks because every answer could be easily found out in the De hoc tot Tieng Anh 10 As she cannot change her students‘ English learning ability in one day, and she also cannot change the students‘ learning habit immediately, the researcher took deep consideration into how to make reading material and reading tasks become more accessible to her students to promote their motivation in the reading lesson Bearing such feedback

from her students in mind, the researcher decided to introduce some changes into her teaching lesson by carrying out the adaptation of the reading tasks

Step 3: Hypothesis: The students were unmotivated because some reading tasks in

the textbook English 10 were unsuitable to their level They could not complete the reading tasks so as to understand the information conveyed in reading texts, and reading skill was the most boring and stressful for them So if the reading tasks in tasks in the textbooks are adapted to be more suitable and more attractive to the students, they will predictably more motivated and the reading lessons will become more effective

Step 4: Intervention: Basing on the theory of material adaptation as well as the findings

from the students‘ statement of the way they often do their reading and their evaluation

of reading tasks in the textbook, some adaptation techniques were made to help students to work more seriously and make the tasks more accessible to them The tasks

of Unit 11 , Unit 13 and Unit 14 were adapted (see appendix 1), using common adapting techniques such as adding, simplifying and reordering in combination with changing the textbook activities into communication games to engage students in group

or pair work and create communicative activities The same three adapted lessons then were applied to teach at the two class 10C5 and 10 C7 The students in the two classes were told beforehand that they would take part in the reading lesson with the adapted tasks These lessons were carried out by the researcher for the sake of the study Some samples of adapted tasks, the reasons for adaptation based on the inappropriateness of the original tasks were clarified in the appendix 1

Step 5: Evaluation: During the period of implementing adapted reading tasks, the

researcher used the following three ways to help her to see the effect of her intervention:

Classroom observation

The researcher‘ observation falls on three aspects: students‘ attendance, classroom behavior, and performances on the adapted reading tasks If the students are motivated to learn and valued what the teacher are doing to help them to

actively and seriously, and be honest to themselves, to others and to the teacher The observation was noted down in the teacher journals after each lesson (See appendix

4 for observation scheme)

Informal interviews with students

Also during the period of implementing adapted reading tasks, the researcher conducted informal interviews with some of her students Her major concerns were their opinions of the new way of teaching and how useful they thought it was reflect

on their learning All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that the participants could fully articulate their views Information obtained from her students was also included into her teaching journal and then was transcribed and analyzed by the author (See appendix 3 for interview question)

Survey questionnaire for students’ response to adaptation

At the end of the period of implementing adapted tasks, the researcher launch

a survey questionnaire to find out what is their attitude towards the reading lesson with the adapted tasks and their suggestions

The questionnaire (with 9 questions) was given to 76 students and to avoid misunderstanding and ensure the accuracy of the data, all the questionnaire was written in Vietnamese and designed with a clear goal and purpose Wordings were clearly requesting students to circle the suitable answers As the questionnaire survey was done in the class, no covering letter or posting was required To record the data of questionnaire, after the survey was finished, all the data was collected, analyzed and classified to synthesize in the table statistics The results were shown

in the charts For more details, the questionnaires can be found in Appendix 2

Step 6: Dissemination: The author discussed the effectiveness of the adapted

tasks in this thesis

Step 7: Follow up: The author suggested more adapted activities to teach

other reading lessons basing on the textbook Tieng Anh 10 to the students at Thach Thanh 3 high school

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the results of the research will be presented, explained and discussed in order to deal with three research questions raised in 1.2 Based on the results and discussions, these two questions will be addressed in turn in this chapter

4.1 The response of students about the effectiveness of using task adaptation in the reading lessons

The response of the students about the effectiveness of using Task adaptation

in the reading lesson to help them improve their reading skills included in the first

five questions in the questionnaire for students The results were shown in pie charts

The first question is about the attitude of students about the effectiveness of using the adapted tasks in reading class to improve their reading skills

not e ffe ctive 0%

Le ss e ffe ctive than the original tasks 5%

effective 75%

greatly effective 20%

Chart 1: The effectiveness of using task adaptation in the reading lesson

to help students improve their reading skills

In question 1, as can be seen from the chart, most of the students (75%) assumed that it was effective A lot of students (20%) thought that using adapted tasks in reading class to improve their reading skills was greatly effective Only 5 % of students found that it was less effective for their improvement in reading skills No one denied the effectiveness of task adaptation in reading class

In the observation, the researcher could see clearly the effectiveness of the adapted tasks in reading class Students were enthusiastic to join in almost reading

activities They did and presented the tasks actively After each lesson, most of the students were satisfied with their lessons and the skills they had practiced

In informal interviews with students, all of the students agreed that using the adapted task in reading class was really effective for their learning They can practice their reading skills through the tasks, which makes their learning more efficient

8%

0%

92%

my interest and confidence goes up

my interest and confidence goes down there is no change in my interest and confidence

Chart 2: The changes of students’ interest and confidence in English reading

when the teachers used the adapted tasks

The answer to question 2 shows that 92% of the students found that their interest and confidence in English reading increased when the teachers use the adapted tasks in reading class Only 8% of the students thought that their interest and confidence were constant No student lost their interest and confidence in reading class using the adapted tasks

The chart points out that the tasks adapted motivated students a lot in learning reading through arousing students‘ interest and confidence in English reading In in-class observation, almost all students were motivated a lot in the lesson They discussed the tasks with partner, with the teachers with great enthusiasm

In one of the interviews, the students said that the adapted tasks were very helpful in motivating him to read, talk to friends and ask questions Also, a lot of students shared the same attitude with him Presenting their work in the class stimulated the students to work hard and made their works better

As demonstrated and proved by many other research that motivation is one of the greatest advantages of task adaptation To improve students‘ reading skills, motivation is an integral part of students‘ learning progress Arousing students reading interest in the process of reading seems more important than how the

contents are presented to the students Good reading tasks enable students, at least,

to engage themselves in the process of learning, and only then learning is possible This also creates motivated students Motivated students are usually those who participate actively in class, express interests in the subject-matter, and study a great deal They also have more opportunity to influence these characteristics than students‘ reasons for studying the second language or their attitudes toward the language and its speakers If we can make our classrooms places where students enjoy coming, because the content is interesting and relevant to their age and level

of ability, where the learning goals are challenging yet manageable and clear, and where the atmosphere is supportive and non-threatening, we can make a positive contribution to students‘ motivation to learn

The above chart shows the students‘ views about the use of communicative games in the reading lesson in question 3

Disagree Strongly disagree

Chart 3: The students’ view about the use of communicative games

in the reading lesson

As can be seen from the chart, all students (94 %) revealed that taking part in communicative language games helped them to complete the reading tasks easier Only 6% disagreed

When being asked about the specific activities that are useful to them in reading class, many of the interviewed students revealed that they really like games that the teacher designed and they hope that their teacher would use them more in English language lessons