Adapting reading tasks in the textbook English 12 to improve 12th form students’ reading achievement = Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ đọc hiểu trong sách giáo khoa tiế

Therefore, materials adaptation can be considered as a very important step in language teaching and learning in general and teaching English reading skill in particular so students will

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK

READING ACHIEVEMENT

ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC HIỂU TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 12 NHẰM NÂNG CAO KẾT QUẢ ĐỌC HIỂU

CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Hanoi, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

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

VŨ THỊ THANH HUYỀN

ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK

READING ACHIEVEMENT

ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC HIỂU TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA TIẾNG ANH 12 NHẰM NÂNG CAO KẾT QUẢ ĐỌC HIỂU

CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Dr Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa

Hanoi, 2013

DECLARATION

I declare that Adapting reading tasks in the textbook English 12 to improve 12th

form student reading achievement is my own work, that it has not been

submitted before for any degree or examination in any other university,

and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and

acknowledged by means of complete references

Hanoi, September, 2013

Signature

Vu Thi Thanh Huyen

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There have been many helping hands along the way and I wish to thank

all of them, who have always supported and encouraged me in different but

equally important ways in accomplishing this research

First of all, I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my

supervisor, Dr Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, for her precious lectures and invaluable

guidance which helps me to write this research with less difficulty Without

her helpful suggestions, I could never have finished my writing

My sincere thanks also 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

Besides, I am also grateful to Mrs Le Thu Ha- the librarian, and all the

library staff at the post graduate studies library of ULIS, VNU

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support that I received from

my colleagues and students, especially students of group 12A1 at Kim Bang

A high school, who have inspired and guided me in the accomplishment of

the study

Finally, special thanks are also due to my family and my friends for

their support in bringing this research to a success

ABSTRACT

In learning a language, students show their different needs as well as different language proficiency Therefore, materials adaptation can be considered as a very important step in language teaching and learning in general and teaching English reading skill in particular so students will understand the content of reading materials with less frustration

The study aims at investigating students’ opinions about reading tasks

in the textbook English 12 Based on students’ opinions about reading tasks, the teacher attempts to find how to adapt them Then the teacher applied those adapted tasks in teaching English in the classroom to help students of group 12A1 of Kim Bang A high school have more chances to practice reading and improve their reading achievement

The results indicated that most of the adapted tasks were suitable to students and helped them improve reading achievement slightly Briefly, 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 12 to teach the 12th form students at Kim Bang A high school

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students’ opinions about reading skill and reading lessons Table 2: The students’ factors affecting their reading comprehension Table 3: The students’ evaluation on reading tasks in the textbook Table 4: The students’ most frequent habit of doing reading tasks Table 5: Students’ preference on types of reading tasks

Table 6: Students’ improvement in their reading achievement

ABBREVIATIONS

T: The teacher

Ss: Students

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of tables and abbreviations

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Research Questions

4 Significance of the study

5 Research methodology

6 Scope of the study

7 Design of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Reading and teaching reading skill

1.1.1 Definitions of reading

1.1.2 The importance of teaching and learning reading skill

1.2 Reading tasks

1.2.1 Defining task and task-based language teaching and learning

1.2.2 Defining reading tasks and types of reading tasks

1.2.3 Characteristics of reading tasks

1.3 Task adaptation

1.3.1 Definitions of adaptation

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1.3.2 Reasons for adapting tasks

1.3.3 Techniques for task adaptation

1.4 Related studies

1.5 Summary

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research context

2.2 Reading tasks in the textbook English 12

2.3 Research Approach

2.4 Participants

2.5 Data Collection Instruments

2.5.1 Questionnaires

2.5.2 Pre-test and post-test

2.5.3 Diaries

2.6 Research procedure

2.7 Data collection procedure

2.8 Data analysis procedure

2.9 Summary

CHAPTER 3 : RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Preliminary investigation

3.1.1 Students’ opinions about reading skill

3.1.2 Students’ opinions about reading tasks

3.2 Evaluation

3.2.1 Students’ awareness of task adaptation

3.2.2 Students’ improvement in their reading achievement

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3.3 Summary

PART III : CONCLUSION

1 Summary of the main findings

2 Suggestions for adapting reading tasks

3 Limitations and recommendations for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES:

Appendix 1a: Questionnaire for students

Appendix 1b: Questionnaire (Vietnamese version)

Appendix 2: Pre-test

Appendix 3: Post-test

Appendix 4: Samples of students’ diaries

Appendix 5: Samples of adapted while reading tasks

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PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of commercially produced foreign language textbooks or coursebooks as core teaching materials in young learner classrooms In many cases, the approaches taken, the methods advocated and the tasks given in these materials are unsuitable to certain language learning and teaching context Therefore, there is a huge risk

of not doing what is best to promote learning In my own teaching context, the similar problem also occurs Thus, to promote language learning and teaching, adapting textbooks in general, adapting tasks given those ones is very important

Reading comprehension can be considered the first step in acquiring English in Vietnam Among the four skills, reading is often taught with less focus, less innovation That means teachers base on the text, ask students do some tasks provided and correct them This method of teaching derives from many reading problems including “insufficient sight vocabulary”, “inadequate visual analysis skills”, “inability to use context clues” and “inadequate comprehension skills” (Edwards, 1976) For all those obstacles, they pay less attention to reading skill and also get less motivation in learning this skill Therefore, the importance of having appropriate reading tasks to students’ level is becoming increasingly recognized

According to Harmer (1998:68), it is very important to teach reading

to students because “some of the language sticks in their mind as part of the process of language acquisition, and if the reading is especially interesting and

engaging, acquisition is likely to be even more successful” To students in the author’s context whose English proficiency is so low, the textbook English 12

is quite challenging to them In reading lessons, they always find it difficult to cope with tasks which help them comprehend the given texts It is both the roles of teaching reading and my students’ difficulties that inspire the researcher to do this study “adapting reading tasks in the textbook English 12 to improve 12th form student reading achievement”

2 Aims of the study

This minor action research was designed to help 12th form students work harder on reading texts, get more reading comprehension and improve their reading skill through the adaptation of reading tasks in the textbook English

12 From the study, recommendations on how to encourage students to read effectively can be drawn out

3 Research Questions

In order to get the aim of helping 12th form students improve their reading achievement, the study tried to answer the following questions

1 What are students’ opinions about reading tasks in the textbook English 12 based

on the reading lessons they have learnt in class?

2 To what extent do the adapted while reading tasks help the students improve their reading achievement?

4 Significance of the study

This study was believed to be useful for the researcher because she could find out an effective way to make her teaching process more easily Moreover, students of class 12A1 also got benefits from the research They were motivated in learning reading skill so that their reading achievement could be improved

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 measure the difference in the students’ reading achievement before and after the adaptation of the tasks in while-reading parts in the new textbook English 12 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, a pre-test, a post-test, teacher’s diaries and students’ journals The data was analysed and discussed so that reliable findings could be clarified

6 Scope of the study

This thesis was carried not to cover all kinds of materials adaptation because this is a board aspect investigated by many authors The author’s attempt was only to adapt some difficult while reading tasks in the textbook English 12 to

reduce student’s difficulties and make them more interested in English lessons, thus, improving their reading achievement The study focused on one class of grade 12 students so the results of the study could not be applied for all students at Kim Bang A high school The research was carried out during the second semester of the school year at class 12A1

7 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts:

Part I: Introduction: introduces the rationale, aims, research questions,

significance, scope and methodology of the study

Part II: Development: includes three chapters:

Chapter1: Literature review: provides a theoretical basis for issues relating to reading tasks and the adaptation of reading tasks in the textbook English 12

Chapter 2: Methodology: Includes an overview of the approach used on conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

Chapter 3: Results and Discussion: reports the findings of the real situation of learning English of students at Kim Bang A high school

Part III: Conclusion: summarizes the study, recommends for improvements

and acknowledges the limitations of the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Reading and teaching reading skill

1.1.1 Definitions of reading

Reading has been investigated by linguists, psychologists, educators and second language researchers, but an exact definition of reading really causes much confusion because different authors define the terms in different ways

In this thesis the author would like to mention some definitions of reading extracted from different sources on the theme

To give the definition, William (1984: 4), Nuttall (1996: 3), and Frank (1985:104) share the same view that reading accounts for understanding what has been written Also, Goodman (1971 cited in Ha, 2003:6), states that

“reading is psycholinguistic process by which the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by writer as a graphic display.”

Ur’s simple definition is “reading means reading and understanding” (Ur, 1996: 138) Harmer (1989: 190) seems to be interested in the notion of reading He argues “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message.”

It is clear that no definition can possibly capture all the ideas and features of what reading is However, what they all share is that they try to find out the nature of reading, and reading act, in which the readers, reading process, and reading message are emphasized

1.1.2 The importance of teaching and learning reading

Many researches in applied linguistics and reading research consistently show

a strong correlation between reading proficiency and academic success at all ages, from the primary school right through to university level: students who read a lot and who understand what they read usually attain good grades In other words, a student who is a good reader is more likely to do well in school and pass exams more than a weak reader-student In fact, the relationship between reading and learning begins even earlier in the pre-primary school years Children who are exposed to the storybook reading before they go to school tend to have larger vocabularies, greater general knowledge and better conceptual development than their peers Moreover, several teachers and researchers argue that reading is probably the most important skill for second language student in academic or learning context

In a second language classroom, reading plays a significant role in building both linguistic and background knowledge for other language skills Hoang et

al (2006:191) even consider reading as the most effective means of improving students’ language competence Particularly, when there is a lack

of language environment, reading is even more significant since it helps enlarge students’ background knowledge and vocabulary as well as supports other skills (Pham, 2005 cited in Hoang et al., 2005:515) In short, teaching and learning reading are very significant in the context of second language teaching and learning in Vietnam

1.2 Reading tasks

1.2.1 Defining task and task-based language teaching and learning

Applied since 1980s, task-based language teaching is a communicative approach to language instruction, using the successful completion of communicative tasks as its primary organizing principle 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

According to Candlin (1987:3), “task-based learning continues with and develops recent attention to learner-centered approaches, and in particular the ideas of differentiation and learner interdependence” While Bowen (2000) focuses on the genuine purpose of task-based learning It means that communication should take place and that when preparing the report for the class, students should consider language form in general rather than concentration on a single form as in “Presentation-Practice-Production” model

of language teaching The aim is to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency

It is obvious that task- based approach focuses on communication with real situation and employ tasks as the main means of teaching and learning Numerous competing definitions of tasks exist Many of these definitions focus on different aspects of what constitutes a task 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”

Another well-known definition is provided by Nunan (1989: 10) He considers a task as “any classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing, or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form”

More recently, Skehan (1998:147) summarizes the parameters for a task activity in the following way:“(a) meaning is primary, (b) learners are not given other people’s meanings to regurgitate, (c) there is some sort of relationship

to comparable real-world activities, (d) task completion has a priority, and (e), the assessment of tasks are done in terms of outcome”

From these definitions, 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 Long (1985) and Skehan’s (1998) definitions emphasize the use of real-world tasks or activities that are comparable to authentic task behavior Performing real-world tasks also necessitates the use

that task performance often involves achieving a goal or an objective, or arriving at an outcome or an end product Meanwhile, Nunan’s (1989) definition makes specific reference to the classroom environment and points out that task performance may entail employing a single skill or a combination of several skills His description recognizes the pedagogical needs for focusing on skills in isolation in language learning

1.2.2 Defining reading tasks and types of reading tasks

Reading comprehension takes an important role in teaching and learning reading It is the ability to get information from the text as efficiently

as possible There are three elements involving in the reading process, the text being read, the background knowledge of the readers and the contextual aspects relevant for interpreting the text

A reading task is a piece of meaning-focused work involving learner in comprehending, producing and interacting in the target language, and that tasks are categorized according to the goals, input reading materials, activities, arrangement and evaluation

A task is a practical implementation of teaching objectives to facilitate the process of language acquisition of learners To specify a language learning task, in the context of teaching reading comprehension Scrivener(2005:188) recommends a framework of specific reading task including: reordering, listing, responding, problems solving, predicting, etc These tasks all aim at developing students’ various micro-reading skill The concept of “reading comprehension tasks” in this study is used with reference to this framework

1.2.3 Characteristics of reading tasks

Characteristics of reading tasks are discussed differently by different linguists According to Skehan (1998:95), reading tasks aims at reading purpose that may happen both in their study and everyday life In addition, the input is mainly in the form of printed or written words while the quality of the outcome of a reading task is the key factor when we evaluate students’ performance during the process of the task completion Also, reading comprehension is the basis of a reading task so task completion has some priority However, Nunan (1999:262) restates Davies’ arguments for good reading tasks with the following features as follows First, reading tasks typically make use of authentic and challenging texts Second, they provide students with a rhetorical or topical framework for processing and analyzing the text Third, they frequently involve an oral reading of the text by the teacher or a student followed by silent reading and rereading of the text Next, tasks involve students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question answering Finally, reading tasks involve the transfer of information from the text to a visual or diagrammatic representation

In summary, both authors argue the role of tasks in reading teaching and learning The reading task completion can help explore text comprehension when reading Besides, reading tasks encourage students to perform better in real-life situation

1.3 Task adaptation

1.3.1 Definitions of adaptation

There are a set of definitions of adaptations given by different scholars

Tomlinson (1998:xi) refers to adaptation as “making changes to materials in order to improve them more suitable for a particular type of learner” In

regarding to adaptation techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978:ix-xi) indicate

that adaptation is the action of employing “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situational content”

In short, adaptation tends to be considered as a rather formal process

in which the teacher makes decisions about teaching material that needs changing, then wrote out a revised version for the class, counting for different factors to make the materials more accessible and practical to the teaching context

1.3.2 Reasons for adapting tasks

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 coursebook can never be totally an effective tool for teaches to follow without any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety Thus, the author favors Madsen and Bowen’s (1978) and Tice’s (1991) view that is

the aim of adaptation is to “compensate for those deficiencies”(cited in McGrath, 2002:64)

Another purpose of adaptation, as explained by McDonough and Shaw (1993:85) is “to maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a coursebook to better suit our particular circumstances.” Maximizing the appropriacy of teaching materials

by different techniques to make them more relevant, accessible and useful for learners is important because it can stimulate motivation, and improve students’ achievement during learning process

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

1.3.3 Techniques for task adaptation

When the gaps between published teaching materials and the needs and objectives of the classroom are recognized, the teacher has to address the practicalities of adapting the material to meet her class objectives more closely 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 Last but not least, it is advisable that teacher should create more enjoyable and much easier lessons to make language teaching process more effective

1.4 Related studies

In terms of materials adaptation, Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) give very clear views They share that there should be materials adaptation because of the mismatch of some elements such as teaching environments, the learners, the preferences or the materials In addition, they provide procedures of materials development in the detail sequence Particularly, 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

In terms of 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 coursebooks 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 survey researches In other words, the effectiveness of implementing the adapted reading tasks has not been mentioned clearly

1.5 Summary

This chapter has provided the key points related to the study; the role of reading and reading tasks in language teaching and learning, the reasons for reading task adaptation and techniques for adapting tasks All of the

mentioned issues set the theoretical background for the current study

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Research context

The study is conducted at Kim Bang A high school, which is located in Kim Bang district, in Ha Nam province Like other high schools, English is one of the compulsory subjects in Kim Bang A high school and is taught in three forty-five minute per week However, students’ low language knowledge prevents them from attaining English Moreover, in the school, most students prefer 3 three subjects including Math, Physics and Chemistry to take the exams to colleges or universities In addition, their lack of awareness of the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interested in English

The students at Kim Bang A High School are approximately 16-18 years old Most of them come from comparatively poor families so their learning condition is low Their parents can hardly afford to pay extra expenses for their children’s schooling such as a dictionary, a cassette player

or even some English reference books Moreover, most of the students have low English level The majority of them have learned English for seven years, a few of them have learned it for ten years (three years at primary school) However, their English background knowledge has remained little For some students, the things they have learned at the secondary school seem

to be completely new Their vocabulary is poor so to understand a short passage is also a challenge to them

In teaching English, as far as the 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 through the text or discuss subject matters in groups or in pairs after giving them 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

2.2 Reading tasks in the textbook English 12

In general, the textbook English 12 is designed based on task-based

approach with 16 units and 6 test yourself parts There are five parts in each

unit arranged as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus The reading passage in the textbook English 12 is about 300 words in length It is intended to provide students with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical items and language skill The topics of the reading passage is quite various such as family, social issue, education, sports, and economic All the reading lessons in the textbook follow three stages of pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading The reading tasks are designed

in plenty of form including question answering, multiple choice, word predicting, blank filling, Vietnamese equivalent finding, summarizing and discussing However, in comparison with the period of 45 minutes, the

reading texts and reading tasks are quite complicated, long and difficult to grade 12 students at Kim Bang A high school

2.3 Research approach

In general, 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 Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007:297) show the importance of action research that “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” 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

“small-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 & 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 conclude that all those definitions reveal the main characteristics of action research In more details, action research is conducted to solve own 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 self-evaluation, (4) critical and self-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 (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 short, 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

Action research is employed in this study to explore the extent to which the application of a task adaptation to teach reading comprehension helps to improve students’ reading achievement The author follows five first steps in the action research cycle by Nunan (1992) in conducting this study

2.4 Participants

The participants are 45 students in Class 12A1 of Kim Bang A high school,

Ha Nam province Among those, there are 20 males and 25 females at the age

of 18 Most of them come from rural areas of Kim Bang district Most of them have learnt English since they were at the primary schools, but many of them have almost nothing about English in their mind They do not pay much attention to studying English for they spend much time on Maths, Physics and Chemistry which help them to pass the entrance examination to their favourite universities However, they hope that they will be able to study English better

the time taken to develop, pilot and refine Moreover, this research methodology is carried out with low cost and less pressure The analysis of answers to closed questions is relatively straightforward (Wilson and McLean 1994:3) However, the honesty of answers to questionnaires is impossible to

be checked The participants can choose the answers they think are best not the thing they really do In this study, the questionnaire was used to collect information about students’ opinions about reading skill and reading tasks in learning English To avoid misunderstanding and ensure the accuracy of the data, the questionnaire was written in Vietnamese

2.5.2 Pre-test and post-test

According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007), tests are seen as “a powerful method of data collection” In order to evaluate the changes of the students’ reading achievement, the researcher developed two reading tests: the pre-test and the post-test These tests aimed to fin out how much improvement students gain in reading so that they helped to show how effectively the teacher has taught These tests were designed suitably with the subject programme The topics and contents of the tests were relevant to students’ reading lessons In preparing the tests, the researcher tried to guarantee the equal value in terms of vocabulary, content and difficult level Each test consisted of one reading passage, which was followed by five multiple choice reading questions The participants were required to read the passages to choose the best answer for each question The time allowance for each test was fifteen minutes To ensure that the tests could give a reliable answer to the research questions, the researcher bore in mind such qualities of

a good test as validity, reliability, practicality and washback The pre-test was delivered before the intervention and the post-test was conducted after the intervention

2.5.3 Diaries

Diaries as a kind of written data are worth referring to “units of information”

that can be used to “address a research question” (Lankshear and Knobel, 2004:253) According to Elliot (1991), diaries refer to a valuable research tool

as they can include “observations, feelings, reactions, interpretations, reflections, hunches, explanations” of the students and the teachers They are “the kind of subjective text” (McDonough, 2001:122) which are essentially private documents written immediately after a teaching event, when the details are fresh in the mind It is considered a reliable source of reflection as the writer can be totally honest in his/her comments

In this paper, the students attending lessons were invited to write their own diaries about their reflections after each lessons provided with task adaptation Their reflections were about their comments on the lesson, their preference of adapted reading tasks and their satisfaction of the reading lesson in comparison with the one they had learnt Diaries after the lessons were allowed to be written in Vietnamese or in English depending on students’ low English levels

2.6 Research procedure

The chronological steps of the study are summarized in five steps as follows:

Step 1: Initiation

During the first term of the school year, the researcher recognized that students felt bored and tense in the reading classes They did not want to participate in reading activities They did not seem interested and motivated This current situation led to students’ low achievement in doing reading test

in class

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 Moreover, the exchange with colleagues through informal talks was employed

Step 3: Hypothesis

The students were unmotivated because some reading tasks in the textbook English 12 were unsuitable to their level They could not complete the reading tasks so as to understand the information conveyed in reading texts Some students shared that reading skill was the most boring and stressful for them

To confirm the problems, the questionnaire was given to forty-five students in group 12A1 It aims at confirming the hypothesis that students’ troubles are related to reading tasks in the textbook

To access students’ achievement before adapting tasks, a pre-test was given to them This test helped to discover students’ reading comprehension level

Step 4: Intervention

Adapting reading tasks is believed to be an appropriate method which helps students of group 12A1 improve their reading achievement And the plan of

action was conducted to achieve the research aims The intervention should be designed to raise the participants’ awareness of task adaptation and, therefore, improve their reading achievement through the introduction of adapted reading tasks

During the period of implementing adapted reading tasks, the students received four lessons in which adapted tasks were taught in combination with reading strategies These lessons were developed 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 5

Step 5: Evaluation

Having collected all the data from the means of questionnaire, tests and diaries, the researcher analyzed the data for findings There was an increase in students’ motivation of learning reading skills for the tasks were more interesting There was greater involvement of the students because they feel less difficult to solve the reading tasks The results from pre-test and post-tests revealed some changes in students’ reading achievement

2.7 Data collection procedure

The data collection procedures involve the following steps

Step 1: The preliminary questionnaire was administered to the students form

group 12A1 of Kim Bang A high school Each respondent was handed a copy

of the questionnaire, and asked to answer all the question items in the

questionnaire However, in order to increase the quality and quantity of participant response, the researcher: (a) announced the questionnaire to all the respondents in advance, sent a printed leaflet of the study purpose and a few sample items, and (b) explained the purpose and the potential significance of the research once again and the rationale for the sample, assured the confidentiality of their answers, and monitored questionnaire completion process

Step 2: a fifteen-minute reading comprehension test was conducted in the

classroom of group 12A1 Before the test, the participants were told that they expected to do the test as best as they could although the result of this test score would not be recorded in their school report During the pre-test, no participant was allowed to consult his/her classmates’ work

Step 3: The lessons with adapted reading tasks were implemented and at the

end of each lesson the teacher deliver dairy forms to students They were asked to write their opinions about their real learning situation after the lesson

at home

Step 4: Another reading comprehension test was given as the post-test The

procedures of conducting the test were the same as that of the pre-test

Step 5: Based on the result of the first cycle of the study, the researcher

decided whether to carry out the next cycle

2.8 Data analysis procedure

Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively Most of the data obtained through questionnaires and test were analyzed quantitatively in terms of the percentage while the diaries were analyzed qualitatively

2.8.1 Questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed of multiple choice questions so after the questionnaire had been collected, the students’ choices were counted based each question The data were analyzed quantitatively in descriptive approach, and the descriptive analyses were then reported in percentages Hence, the results of the preliminary investigation were clearly demonstrated

2.8.2 Pre-test and post-test

The pre-test and post-test aimed at exploring students’ improvement in the reading achievement after they had been given lessons with adapted tasks The reading passages including about 250 words followed by five multiple-choice reading comprehension questions were administered to the participants After the tests had been checked, the correct answers were counted manually The data collected from these tests were quantitatively with the statistical tool- comparing the percentage of correct answers Based

on this significance, the researcher could explore any improvement in the participants’ reading achievement after the intervention

2.8.3 Dairies

The procedure for analyzing the students’ dairies consists of reading and re-reading the text The researcher took into account some features such as the frequency of mention, distribution of mention and the strength of the expression related to the topic

2.9 Summary

In finding out an effective way to help students increase their motivation in learning reading lesson and improve their reading achievement of 12th form students of Kim Bang A high school, action research was carried out in the researcher’s own class at this school The data was collected from a questionnaire, a pre-test, a post-test and students’ diaries and then analyzed by means of descriptive statistic devices and content analysis method It is hoped that the combination of these instruments would enable the research questions

to be answered

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the main stages of this action research will be presented under the following headings: Preliminary investigation (preliminary questionnaire) and Evaluation (pre-test, post-test and students’ dairies)

3.1 Preliminary investigation

1.1 Students’ opinions about reading skill and reading lessons

Before the use of task adaptation in reading lessons, the researcher carried out the survey questionnaire to find the students’ thinking and liking about reading skill and reading lessons

Do you like learning

reading skill?

Answers (percentage %)

Yes, a lot Yes, a little No others

How do you feel about

reading lessons in class?

Interesting Boring Difficult others

Table 1: Students’ opinions about reading skill and reading lessons

As can be seen from the survey, more than half of the students said that they did not like reading skill although this skill may be the most familiar to them

in the process of learning English 42% of the students revealed they liked this skill but a little It was really noticeable that only one student liked reading skill lesson a lot One said that “I don’t know” From this finding, most students showed negative attitudes towards reading lessons

When being asked how they felt about reading lessons in the new textbook English 12, the majority chose “boring” and “difficult”(94%) Only one student said that reading lessons were interesting Among two students gave

other ideas, one said that the reading lesson are so long and one share “I cannot understand the content of the text after the reading lesson” Briefly, most

of the students could not comprehend the reading lessons as expected

To identify students’ difficulties when learning reading skill, the research tried to find out some factors which affect students’ reading comprehension ability

Lack of background knowledge 11%

Too many new words, phrases and

Table 2: The students’ factors affecting their reading comprehension

The table indicated that the biggest obstacle for the students’ reading comprehension was the number of new vocabularies and structures The second factors affecting students’ reading ability was the lack of reading strategies Three students had no interest in topics Besides, one of them said that she could not understand the text because she lacked the preparation for reading lesson before class

1.2 Students’ opinions about reading tasks

To examine the students’ points of view on reading tasks in the textbook, the author asked students to study the following questions This work aimed at

finding out the cause of boredom and difficulty in reading lessons related to reading tasks

a The reading tasks are suitable to my English

level

2%

b The reading tasks are difficult and they

cannot help me understand the text

Table 3: The students’ evaluation on reading tasks in the textbook

All these statements were believed to be problems which students encountered when accomplishing tasks in the textbook From the table, it could be easily concluded that students in group 12A1 found it difficult in getting improvement in reading skill because of inappropriate tasks Most of them agreed that reading tasks could not motivate them in learning reading Only one student said that tasks in reading parts were suitable to her English level 91% of students revealed that they often did reading tasks individually

so the tasks became boring Particularly, one student said that although she could finish all the tasks, she could not totally understand the reading text

From the above result, the main reasons of the students’ difficulties in reading comprehension lessons were discovered

When the author study students’ most frequent habit of doing reading tasks,

it could be seen that students were passive to self-do the tasks They finished the tasks just because the teacher asked them to do Only 6.5% of the participants said that they did the tasks themselves Most of them copied friends’ work, however, 35% of students revealed honestly that they copied

from For better English 12 learning Among three students gave different

ideas, two said that they tried to do the tasks but they only finished little of them and one said he did nothing until the teacher checked the answer on the board, he copied in his notebook In short, students of group 12A1 showed little interest in doing reading tasks in class

Copy from For better English 12 learning 35%

Table 4: The students’ most frequent habit of doing reading tasks

There were different types of reading tasks used in the reading lessons The researcher would like to discover types of tasks which could encourage students’ reading comprehension based on their preference Thanks to their choice, she could recognize the useful and suitable tasks to students’ level