Sử dụng tài liệu chân thực ngoài giáo trình nhằm thiết kế nhiệm vụ đọc thêm dùng để dạy kỹ năng đọc trong chương trình dạy học tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho sinh v

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG DESIGNING READING TASKS USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS AS SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING SKILLS ON ESP PROG

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATES STUDIES

LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG GIANG

DESIGNING READING TASKS USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

AS SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING SKILLS ON ESP PROGRAM TO THE SECOND YEAR NURSE STUDENTS AT NAMDINH UNIVERSITY

OF NURSING

(SỬ DỤNG TÀI LIỆU CHÂN THỰC NGOÀI GIÁO TRÌNH NHẰM THIẾT KẾ NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC THÊM DÙNG ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC TRONG CHƯƠNG TRÌNH DẠY HỌC TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN ĐIỀU DƯỠNG NĂM THỨ HAI TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI

HỌC ĐIỀU DƯỠNG NAM ĐỊNH)

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page List of tables:

List of figures

Chart 2: The frequency of using supplementary reading materials 25

Chart 3: Types of supplementary reading materials normally used 25

Chart 4: Ways of using supplementary reading materials 26

Chart 5: Students' self-evaluation of progress

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purposes EFL: English as a Foreign Language GE: General English

ESL: English as a Second Language NDUN: Namdinh University of Nursing L2: Second language

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declarations i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and figures iv

List of abbreviations v

A INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationales 1

2 Objectives of the study 3 3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 3 5 Design of the study 3 B DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1.1 Features of ESP in general and English for nurses in particular 5 1.1.1 ESP in general 5

1.1.2 Characteristics of English for medical purposes in general and nursing in particular 6 1.1.2.1 Characteristics of English of medical terminology 6 1.1.2.2 Grammatical features of English for medical purposes 7 1.2 Overview on teaching reading 10

1.2.1 Definition of reading 10 1.2.2 The place of reading skills in teaching ESP 11 1.2.3 Reading tasks 12

1.2.4 Stages in teaching reading 17

1.3 Authentic materials 18 1.3.1 Definition of authentic materials 18

1.3.2 How authentic materials have been used in language teaching 19

1.3.3 Reasons for using authentic materials in teaching reading skills 19

1.3.4 Limitations of authentic materials and some solutions 20

2.3.1 Findings from the questionnaire 23

2.3.2 Findings from the interviews with teachers 28

2.3.2.1 The aims of the teachers when using authentic materials as supplementary

2.3.2.2 The advantages and drawbacks of using authentic materials 29

2.3.2.3 Ways of making use of authentic materials 30

2.3.3 Interpretations of the findings 31

2.3.3.2 Benefits of using authentic reading materials 31

2.3.3.3 Ways of using supplementary reading materials 32

CHAPTER 3: DESIGNING READING TASKS USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

AS SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF READING SKILLS FOR 2 ND -YEAR NURSE

3.1 Suggested activities to exploit supplementary for teaching reading skills

35

3.1.1 Organizing a lot of pair/group work 35

3.1.2 Getting supports from students 36

3.1.3 Using a lot of role-plays, and simulations 36

3.2 Samples of reading tasks using online materials 37

A INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALES

The emergence of ESP, which began in the late 1960s, and its sequent development explained by three phenomena (Hutchinson and Alan Waters, 1987) namely:

 The enormous expansion in scientific, technical and economic activity on

an international scale since the Second World War;

 The shift of attention in linguistics away from the formal features of language structure to the ways in which language is actually used for communication in real situation;

 The new development in educational psychology, which emphasizes the central importance of learners and their attitudes to learning (Rodgers, 1979; Oller and Richards, 1973)

As a result, the effect of all this development has become a strong demand for the English Language Teaching profession to meet the needs of a new generation of learners who want to learn English to “gain access to the required knowledge that is available, either exclusively or most readily, in English” (Munby, 1978:3) or to serve other different specific purposes

In Vietnam, since the implementation of the “open door policy”, which started in

1986, its economy has gradually transferred from a command economy to a state regulated market one To meet the requirements of the economic renovation, the national system, particularly health care education, including Namdinh University of Nursing which is one of the leading centers in training nurses in Vietnam must reform its training objectives, curriculum design as well as its pedagogical and training methodologies Only

by doing so, can the university provide society with high quality „products‟, that is, nurses who are not only well qualified but also active, creative, flexible and adaptable to the rapidly changing health care system

Since the academic year 2004, English for Nurses has been included as a compulsory subject in the curriculum of training students for a bachelor of nurse at Namdinh University of Nursing (NDUN) It is aimed at providing the nurse students with background knowledge and a system of terms related to the topic resource, which help

them develop their communicative competence in English about health care areas in general and about nursing in particular

As English for Nurses is newly taught at our department, we share an agreement that it is vital to design interesting classroom activities which can motivate the students‟ enthusiasm and involvement in an EFL classroom, and particularly for the nurse students and such activities should be useful and related to their future jobs Being aware of English serving as a bridge to connect Vietnam‟s nursing to the world‟ advanced nursing; much attempt has been made to improve the teaching and learning of English for Nurses The main purpose is to help students cope with materials on Nursing in English, thus they can read medical books, journals and other related reference materials for further study for their work after graduation

However, after some years, the materials, which has been used revealed failure to meet students‟ needs and not very motivating them The materials so do not appear helpful enough to assist students to improve their English for Nurses They have difficulties in memorizing and using the language due to the short diversity of grammar structures and system of contents Thus, students are not usually engaged in the reading activities, or they do not concentrate on or involve in the reading tasks because the materials are out of date This existing fact caused a headache to all teachers and some solutions have been applied such as giving them some extra reading materials from some other sources, but the situation has not been significantly improved

In an effort to find out a solution to this situation, the writer has found out that many authors have asserted that authentic materials have positive effect on learners‟ motivation and their language acquisition in foreign language classroom For the time being, several teachers at the department are employing available materials to teach reading skills on ESP to the students However, the use of authentic materials in designing reading tasks is done spontaneously without any formal guidance, thus, a study

on designing reading tasks with authentic materials would be valuable It is hoped that the thesis would bring about some benefits to teachers who teach reading skills on English for Nurses

2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Significantly, the main objectives in carrying out this study are as follows:

 Theoretically, it aims at providing a literature review that should be taken into consideration when reading skills on English for Nurses is taught

 It places focus on investigating how reading skills on English for Nurses

is taught to the 2nd year nurse students at Namdinh University of Nursing with the supplementary materials

 Practically, it outlines possible prospects to use authentic materials from different sources as supplementary materials to teach reading skills on English for Nurses to the 2nd year nurse students at Namdinh University of Nursing It also suggests some techniques for designing reading tasks using authentic materials to teach reading skills, including how to choose authentic materials, what reading activities to design and how to design them

3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

As this is a small-sized scale study, a number of issues would be beyond the scope of the study and would be best dealt with in a further study, for example a research

of the whole process of teaching reading skills or conducting reading skills in class It would be focused on the ways to develop the use of supplementary reading materials on nursing for the second year nurse students

4 METHODS OF THE STUDY

First of all, intensive and extensive reading would help equip the author with sufficient knowledge and gain data for the literature review Secondly, survey, questionnaires, class observation as well as interview would be made among the second year nurse students and their teachers at Namdinh University of Nursing

5 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

This part has introduced rationales, objectives, scope and methods of the study

Chapter one deals with theoretical back ground concerning the features of ESP in

general and English for Nurses in particular, authentic materials, reading and reading task design

Chapter two studies in the use of authentic materials in teaching reading skills on

English for Nurses to the second year nurse students

Chapter three introduces some ways to exploit supplementary materials for

teaching reading Also from the information in chapter 3, implications for reading task design will be presented

The conclusion presents the review of the study, recommendations for further study

B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 FEATURES OF ESP IN GENERAL AND ENGLISH FOR NURSES IN PARTICULAR

Absolute characteristics

 ESP is defined to meet specific needs of the learners;

 ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the discipline

it serves;

 ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis and register), skills, discourse and genres appropriate to the activities

Variable characteristics

 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

 ESP may use in specific teaching situation, a different methodology from that

of General English;

 ESP is likely designed for adult learners, either at the tertiary level institution

or in a professional work situation It could, however, be for learners at the secondary school level;

 ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students;

 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language system, but

it can be used with beginners.”

The absolute characteristics refer to the teaching methodology as well as the language elements ESP makes use of an underlying methodology and activities of the

discipline it serves Both the methodology and activities used in the ESP classroom, therefore, are different from those of GE However, an important feature, which characterizes ESP as being different from other general language courses, is that the domains not only relate to distinctive content, but also to discipline-specific lexis, genres, and registers (Munby, 1978; Gibbs, 1991)

1.1.2 Characteristics of English for medical purposes in general and nursing in

particular

1.1.2.1 Characteristics of English of medical terminology

(i) English medical terms derived from Greece and Latin, especially derivatives and compound words Quite a few elements forming word originated from Greece such as:

Prefixes: pre (in front); later (after); homo (same); multi (many), etc Suffixes: algia (pain), -pathy (disease), -oid (resemble), etc

(ii) Medical terms are compound nouns of Latin origins:

Noun + noun: ilio-costal, laterro – abdominal Adj + noun: mal; mal-practice

(iii) Medical terms are French origins

E.g: poison, physician, malady, plaque (iv) Besides, some other English medical terms that originate from Italian, Spanish, German, etc can be found

E.g.: influenza, epidemic, malaria, mosquito, Fahrenheit, etc

(v) Medical terms are derivatives that consist of one, two, three, four or even five affixes

E.g.: endocardium; three affixes included: endo, cardi, um

Pneumohemopericardium; 5 affixes included: pneumo, hemo, peri, cardi, um

(vi) Medical terms are compound nouns

E.g.: sore-throat, cross-yes, out-patient

(vii) Medical terms are syntactic groups of noun without prepositions

E.g Noun + noun: lungs congestion, health condition, blood transfusion Adj + noun: spinal cord, hepatic abscess

Ordinal number + noun: first aid, first labor

P1 + noun: whooping cough, dry heating sterilization

Adv + P2 + noun: badly fed children, sexually transmitted diseases (viii) Medical terms are syntactic groups of noun with preposition

E.g.: resistance against medicine, confinement to bed, vaccination against the smallpox

(ix) Medical terms in abbreviation

E.g SARS, AIDS, DOA (dead on arrival), FUO (fever of unknown origin)

1.1.2.2 Grammatical features of English for medical purposes

Grammatical items which are dominantly employed in medical English

(i) Tenses

According to the time axis, tenses in English include past tense, present tense and future tense Tenses show the time of the actions In the other words, tenses indicate that the actions happen with time

ESP in medicine in general and in nursing in particular, present simple, present perfect and progressive are commonly used to describe diseases, medical history and medical/nursing procedures To describe diseases such as present simple is used like this

“cholera is a serious bacterial disease spread through food and water which has been infected by Vibrio cholerae” (Collin, 2004:71) To ask for medical history of a woman

who is in the family planning clinic, a sentence “How long has the coil been fitted?” is

used And to describe nursing procedures, nurses often say to the doctors these sentences

“He has had his medication and is feeling sleepy or I have taken Mr Pool’s temperature,

but I haven’t checked his blood pressure yet.”

Indicative mood is the form of the verb used in declarative sentences or questions

In English for Nurses, declarative sentences or questions are commonly used in conversations between nurses and patients for example:

Nurse (N): How are you feeling?

Patient (P): I feel hot What does the thermometer say?

N: Yes, you do have fever Your temperature is a little over 38 Have you got sore throat?

P: Yes, it hurts when I talk

N: I can see spots Any redness?

P: Yes, my chest and my back are all red

N: And do you feel tired?

P: Yes, constant tiredness And my legs feel achy, too

Imperative mood is the form of the verb in imperative sentences which are mainly

used in giving medical orders or instructions such as doctor asks a nurse to take her patient to lab to do some tests or she/he instructs her/his patient when performing a

physical examination, for instance, doctor often says “Put your tongue out and say Ah

ah!” to a patient or “Take her/his temperature, please!” to a nurse

Subjunctive mood is the form of the verb often used to express uncertainty,

wishes, describes, etc In contrast to the indicative mood, the subjunctive usually refers to non-factual or hypothetical situation In English, little use of the subjunctive forms remains Therefore, in medical English subjunctive sentences are hardly used due to its mature

(iii) Voice

According to Richards and Platts (1992:402), voice is the way in which a language expresses the relationship between a verb and the noun phrases which are associated with it Two sentences can differ in voice and yet have the same basic meaning; active voice and passive voice However, there may be a change in emphasis and one of sentence may be more appropriate Passive voice appears the most predominant grammatical item found in medical English It can be seen in treatment; patient-care procedures, prevention, disease description or diagnosis

(iv) Syntax

Syntactically, English includes basic noun phrases and complex noun phrases, simple sentences and complex sentences, super - ordinate clause and sub – ordinate clause and main clause which consists of clause of time, of cause and effect and so on Basic noun phrase and complex noun phrase are discussed in the following part

Simple sentence which covers all seven structures is employed in English for medical purpose: (i) SVO; (ii) SVC; (iii) SVA; (iv) SVOO; (v) SVOC; (vi) SVOA; (vii)

SV

Examples: (i) SVO

- Today’s strict rules for drug-testing owe a great deal to Thalidomide

Kinds of complex sentences are commonly used in English for medical purposes

According to Cob Build (1990) conditional clause is used to talk about possible situation and its consequences Sentences containing conditional clauses are called

conditional sentences and usually begin with if or unless These clauses are often used to give instructions or warning in medical English “If you have fever, unexplained weight

loss, nigh sweats and a persistent cough, see the doctor immediately or If you have a parent or sibling with type one diabetes, your chance of developing the disease increases.”

Reason clause are as, because, in case, just in case or since, etc are often used to give explanations on causes of diseases such as “lack of insulin results in diabetes

because insulin plays important role in making glucose-the body’s fuel available to cells.” Time clauses are used to say when something happens by referring to a period of

time or to another event Such adverbs of time as when, while, after, before, until, etc are

often used to describe symptoms or nursing, treating procedures or development of diseases For example, one or two days after the fever begins, painful sores develop in the mouth (Pagina 2000), when they qualify, they start working on a middle grade (Tony Grice)

1.2 OVERVIEW ON TEACHING READING

1.2.1 Definition of reading

In order to give the answer to the question “What is reading”, many people say that they know what reading is but they cannot find the right words to define it Meanwhile, there are a lot of authors giving the definitions of reading on their own viewpoints as follows:

- reading means “reading and understanding” (Ur, 1996:138)

- reading means (1) perceiving a written text in order to understand its content and (2) saying a written text aloud (Richard; Platt, J and Platt, H 1992: 306)

- reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages (Harmer, 1989: 153)

- reading is the process of acquiring information from a written or printed text (Eskey: 5)

In short, different authors define the term reading in different ways Reading can

be understood as the interactive process between the reader and the writer, the reader not only reads the writer‟s words but the writer‟s thought as well

1.2.2 The place of reading skills in teaching ESP

Reading comprehension means interpreting the author‟s intended meaning through efficiently processing the required information from the text by applying different strategies suitable to dissimilar text-types Therefore, developing skills and strategies to deal with different text-types is a pressing necessity to readers in general

since in real life, they usually apply various ways of reading in stead of one individual

way and learners of a reading course in particular

Apparently, reading is a language skill essential to any language learners not only for their academic study but also for their future profession Reading is even more crucial and significant to ESP learners if it is agreed that the most fundamental purpose of learning ESP is to process a tool that enables learners to deal with the enormous bulk of literature in their career life

From Strevens‟(1980) perspective, “ ESP may be restricted as to the language skills to be learnt (e.g reading only) This pinpoints the significance of reading skills in facilitating the learning of general English and especially ESP Hutchinson and Waters (1987) favored a learning-centered approach in teaching ESP materials with its underlying processes of reasoning and interpreting are decisive and helpful in the extraction of meaning from discourse despite the surface form such as word arrangements, visual layout of a text or equivalent between the mother tongue and the target language, etc In other words, due to the underlying interpretive strategies, the learner can cope with the surface firm, for example guessing the meaning of words from context, using visual layout to determine the type of text, exploiting cognates (i.e words which are similar in the mother tongue and the target language) It is parent that the reasoning and deducing processes involved in the learning process of ESP are associated with the reading process They are common and essential to any learner of any language

to be successful in their learning “It is argued that learning skills are not specific but universal and that there is a core of language (for example, certain structures

language-of arguments and forms language-of presentation) which can be identified as “academic” and which is not subject-specific.” (Chivavelu, 1980, quoted in Hutchinson and Waters, 1987: 13)

Thus, reading strategies are what language learners in general and ESP learners in particular should develop because they are fundamental part of any learning progression, these strategies are not simply decoding the written symbol into corresponding speech forms, but they are exploration, inference and extension of the concepts represented by the written symbols In other words, reasoning process should be developed properly and systematically to grasp nursing materials Where the reading goals are realistic and the ESP students are competent in reading English for Nurses, they can expand certain nursing concepts as a basis for them to move on along the nursing knowledge highway

For each purpose of reading, it is necessary to employ a suitable type of reading

In other words, learners should be given opportunities to improve and practice various sub-skills in reading in order that they can deal with different topics and text-types in their academic study, their future career and their social life

1.2.3 Reading tasks

(i) Definition of task

The idea of “task” is not as simple as it might seem Many definitions and perspectives on the concept of task exist, as shown by the list below

Task as - An imposed tax, duty, or piece of work

- An everyday piece of work

- A job responsibility

- A general activity or exercise for second language (L2)

- An outcome-oriented L2 instructional segment

- A behavioral framework for research

- A behavioral framework for classroom learning

(quoted from Task-based language teaching and learning: An overview Asian EFL Journal, 8(3), 2006)

There are many viewpoints about definitions of task In this part, I adopt Willis‟(1996, p.23) position, according to which “tasks are activities where the target

language is used by the learner for communicative purpose (goal) in order to achieve

an outcome” Thus, activities that focus learners‟ attention on linguistics aspects

(grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, functions, and discourse) are not considered as tasks in our view Rather they are called exercises In similar way, activities that requires some attention to meaning but do not involve communicating new messages to others (e.g “question and answer” practice) are also not considered as tasks

A task usually involves real-world processes of language use In other words, it

engages learners in a language activity that is normally found in the real world, for example, completing a form, or that at least resembles those activities occurring in real-world communication, for example in drawing pictures learners engage in asking and answering questions to clarify and negotiate meaning In this way, learners function

primarily as language users rather than language learners and thus their communication is more purposeful and authentic.

As for me, the author of this thesis, gives a more simple definition of task; task is

a meaning-focused activity that a teacher asks his/her students to do to achieve a particular learning goal during a limited time

Finally, it should be noted that learning cannot occur without tasks By completing meaningful and authentic tasks learners can improve their language proficiency

(ii) Types of task

There are different types of task, which can be information gap activities, jigsaws, ordering and sorting activities, problem solving activities, conversation grid activities, and discussions can foster interaction in the classroom Willis (1996) classifies them into different groups:

- Listing tasks include brainstorming and fact-finding The outcome is a completed list of fact or ideas

- Ordering and sorting tasks include sequencing, ranking, categorizing, and classifying The outcome is a set of information ordered and sorted according to specified criteria

- Comparing tasks include matching, finding similarities and differences The outcome could be items that are appropriately matched and the identification of similarities and/or differences

- Problem solving tasks include analyzing real situations, analyzing hypothetical situations, reasoning, and decision making The outcome is solution to the problem, which can then be evaluated

- Sharing personal experience tasks include narrating, describing, exploring and explaining attitudes, opinions, and reactions The outcome is largely social

- Creative tasks include brainstorming, fact-finding, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem-solving and others The outcome is an end product which can be appreciated by a wider audience

(iii) Types of reading tasks

The table 1 below exemplifies the types of reading tasks that can be developed within Davies‟ and Green‟s model Within this model, there are two different task types: reconstruction activities and analysis activities Reconstruction activities require a reader

to reconstruct a text Analysis activities require a reader to transform the information in the text in some way

Reconstruction activities

(Using text modified by teachers)

Analysis activities (Using straight/authentic text) Pupils task: Pupils complete text or

diagram, reconstruct meaning

Pupils task: Pupils locate and

categorize text information by marking and labeling Use marked text

as basis for summary (diagrammatic

or note form)

Text completion

- Word completion (selected words

deleted from the text)

- Phrases completion (selected

phrases/clauses deleted from the

text)

- Sentence completion (selected

sentences deleted from the text)

Sequencing

- Selected segments of text arranged

in logical/time sequence (text cut

into segments representing steps,

event, etc.)

- Segments of text classified (text cut

into segments representing certain

categories of information)

Prediction

- Pupils predict next events/steps or

stage after reading segments of text

(text segments presented a section

at a time)

Table completion

- Pupils fill in cells of table using row

and column headings and text as

sources of information (teacher

provides row and column headings)

- Pupils devise row and column

headings using texts and cells of

matrix as sources of information

(teacher fills in cells)

Text marking

- Locating and understanding parts of text representing certain meaning of information targets

Labeling

- Pupils label parts of text using labels provided by the teacher

Segmenting

- Pupils break text into meaning

or information units and label/annotate segments of text

Table construction

- Pupils construct and complete diagram appropriate for particular text

Pupil-generated questions

- Pupils read text and generate questions they still need answers to

Summary

- Pupils produce headings and summarize information

Table 1- Types of reading tasks

Practically, the reading tasks above are really useful in teaching reading skills as

it can cultivate teachers as well as student‟s knowledge and skills

(iv) Criteria of a good reading task

In “Second Language Teaching and Learning” (1999:262) Nunan extracts Davis‟ arguments for good reading tasks that are characterized by the following features:

- typically make use of authentic and challenging texts

- provide students with a rhetorical or topical framework for processing and analyzing the text

- frequently involve an oral reading of the text by the teacher or a student followed

by silent reading and rereading of the text

- involve students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question answering

- frequently involve the transfer of information from the text to a visual or diagrammatic representation

In order to make a good reading task for English for Nurses, the teacher should take these criteria into consideration

(v) Guidelines for designing reading tasks

Notably, different language learners have different language proficiency Apart from all which are already mentioned, task designers should pay attention to some characteristics of a task that may affect the appropriate difficulty level

- Tasks that require processing less information tend to be easier than tasks which require processing more information

- Tasks that require processing information from just one location in the text tend

to be easier than tasks which require integrating information scattered throughout the text

- Tasks that require recalling exact content tend to be easier than tasks which require extracting the gist or making a summary

- Tasks that require simply selecting information tend to be easier than tasks which require separating fact from opinion

- Tasks that require information relevant to the main theme tend to be easier than tasks which ask for irrelevant details

- Tasks that require immediate responses tend to be easier than tasks which require

a delayed response

Those are the guidelines for the tasks designed by the teachers They can take these guidelines as the basic for different levels of learners

1.2.4 Stages in teaching reading

It is common that a reading lesson concludes three main stages; pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading

 Pre-reading stage

Before reading a text, this stage is carried out It plays a vital role in the whole process of reading a lesson as it is hard for students to read unseen text without preparation such as pre-reading questions, pre-reading vocabulary According to William (1984: 37), the purposes of the pre-reading stage are: to arouse students‟ interests in the topic, to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading, to provide some language preparation for the text, etc

Pre-reading stage often lasts for about one-sixth of the time allocation for the whole lesson However, depending on different lesson, it can be longer or shorter

 While-reading stage

William (1984: 38) states that while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson as it helps to understand the writer‟s purpose, the text structure and clarify text content

During this stage, the teacher needs to help their students comprehend the text thoroughly while the students have to apply their best reading skills like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc to understand the text as well as the author‟s purposes As a result, time allocation for this is nearly two-third of the whole lesson

 Post-reading stage

This is the last phrase of a reading lesson so it is the time of students‟ production What they produce will reflect how well they understand the text “The post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text

to the learners‟ own knowledge, interests or views” (William (1984: 39)) Normally, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage

All above stages are important; however, it is not necessary to go through all of them on every occasion Depending on the aims of the lesson, the teacher may apply these stages as time allocation for each section appropriately

1.3 AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

1.3.1 Definition of authentic materials

The term “authentic materials” has been defined in a number of ways Authentic

materials are the kind of materials designed for native speakers of English used in the classroom in a way in similar to the one they are designed for For example, a radio news report brought into the class so that students discuss the report on pollution in the city where they live

Nunan (1989:54) describes authentic materials as any materials which are not

specifically produced for the purposes of language teaching Also, authentic materials

can be understood as anything a native speaker of English would hear or read or use

Authentic materials can be theater programs, newspapers, magazines, poems, songs, brochures, information leaflets, menus, new broadcasts, films, or videos and so on (Bang, Nguyen & Ngoc, Nguyen, 2002)

Generally speaking, authentic language is used by native speakers communicating

in spoken form or in written form

1.3.2 How authentic materials have been used in language teaching

The use of authentic materials in EFL classroom is what teachers are involved in

foreign language teaching, which has discussed in recent years

Authentic materials are “created to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced” (Little et all, 1988, p.27) Authentic materials are introduced into language classrooms generally to help bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and a “student‟s capacities to participate in real world events” (Wilkins 1976, p.79) However, while using authentic materials is one of the mainstays of an imaginative and motivating higher level language course, it rarely features at levels lower than intermediate There are several reasons for this, primarily a kind of fear that students will

panic when faced with language that is largely unfamiliar, and a feeling that to prevent this the language should be edited to the students‟ level This is an unnecessary fear, as using authentic materials can be rewarding and stimulating for both teacher and students

Studies show that learners working with authentic materials will gain valuable practice in the specific skill of making sense of natural speech without necessarily understanding every word in the text; then, an increase in reading comprehension is a natural consequence of this practice The challenge for teachers, therefore, is to identify authentic materials of potential interest to learners and to prepare learners for dealing with these texts in a meaningful way

In general, there has been a trend towards bringing classroom reading practice as close to real world reading as possible However, the question of when and how authentic materials should be introduced to an EFL classroom is still in conflict and will be discussed later in this study

1.3.3 Reasons for using authentic materials in teaching reading skills

There have been a number of books and journals containing the explanation of why authentic materials should be included in the lessons, and how they should be selected and used or best exploited Authentic materials should be included as Martinez (2002) suggests a list of advantages of authentic materials used in language teaching in general and reading skills in particular

- Students are exposed to real discourse, because authentic materials provide close contact with the language (Kaprova, 1999) In addition, language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teachers can keep abreast of such changes

- Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value As teachers, we are educators working within the school system, so education and general development are part of our responsibilities

- Authentic materials provide Ls with a wide selection of everyday vocabulary which textbooks do not often include

- The same piece of material can be used under different circumstances if the task is different

- Language change is reflected in the materials so that students and teachers can keep abreast of such changes

- Reading texts are ideal to teach/practice mini-skills such as scanning, e.g students are given a new article and asked to look for specific information (amounts, percentages, etc) Students read to news reports and they are asked to identify the names of countries, famous people, etc (ability to detect key words)

- Books, articles, newspapers, and so on contain a wide variety of text types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials

- They can encourage reading or listening for pleasure because they are likely to contain topics of interest to Ls, especially if students are given the chance to have a talk about the topics or kinds of authentic materials to

be used in class

In general, there has been a trend towards bringing classroom reading practice as close to the real world reading as possible, especially for the teaching of English for Nurses The need for and the usefulness of authentic materials has been increasingly acknowledged

1.3.4 Limitations of authentic materials and some solutions

Although authentic materials have numerous advantages, they still disclose some disadvantages One common complaint is that authentic materials ate more difficult than non-authentic materials Here are some possible shortcomings In the first place, they may be too culturally biased and required good knowledge of cultural background Secondly, too many structures are mixed so lower level learners have a hard time to decode the texts Thirdly, aural texts may have too many different accents Finally, the materials can become outdated easily, eg news The vocabulary might be irrelevant to Ls‟ immediate needs

However, the writer would suggest some solutions to the above disadvantages For the first limitation, teacher should choose suitable topics which are not very demanding and also provide learners with more background knowledge With the second shortcoming, teacher could pre-teach the structures or choose less challenging texts The solution to the third limitation is selecting suitable aural texts from easy level to difficult

level And for the last one, teacher pay attention to some burning issues as well as learners‟ current needs and likes

Thus, this chapter has reviewed theoretical issues relevant to the thesis It starts with the characteristics of ESP in general and English for Nurses in particular, and then reading and reading task design, authentic materials In order to obtain empirical knowledge of the use of authentic materials in teaching reading skills to second-year nurse students at the NamDinh University of Nursing so that practical suggestions can be made, a study is conducted Results of the study are presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter focuses on the research methods with three sections The first section shows the selection of participants, followed by methods of data collection The third section to come is data analysis

2.1 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS

In order to investigate into the situation to see how reading skills on English for Nurses are taught to the second year nurse students and what materials the lecturers are using as supplementary reading materials for their students, a survey with two groups of subjects has been conducted The first one is for the teachers who are teaching ESP at the university and the second is for 100 second year nurse students (Course K4 at university grade)

The researcher chose to carry out the survey among both teachers of ESP and their students in order to have a thorough and an objective overview of the teaching of reading situation and to see whether what teachers think coincides with what their students think On the part of the teachers, the researcher would like to see how they have utilized the available supplementary reading materials to teach English for Nurses The questionnaires were also distributed randomly among 100 second - year nurse students (K4) to see what they think of the practicality and usability of the supplementary reading materials

Additionally, interviews were conducted among the teachers who are teaching ESP at Namdinh University of Nursing to see if they had been using supplementary reading materials and how they had been developing these materials

2.2 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Questionnaires and interviews have been used as the main sources for data collection Firstly, by using questionnaires the researcher can obtain data quantitatively, which later on will assist the study with persuasive figures concerning the investigated issues

It should be noted that the researcher did not do the survey questionnaires with the teachers who are teaching ESP but merely had informal meetings with them because there are only 5 teachers who take charge of teaching ESP at Namdinh University of

Nursing (only one of them is responsible for teaching ESP to the 2nd – year students) By using interviews, the research could have more in-depth information Before the interview, the researcher had prepared a set of questions Additionally, some possible follow-up questions were also prepared (for the interview questions, refer to appendices) All the interviews were recorded so that the researcher could concentrate on observing interviewees‟ behavior without wasting time taking notes Their facial expressions sometimes unveiled more information than words could These interviews were carried out individually in an informal setting Each interview took about 10 - 15 minutes and was arranged at the interviewees‟ convenience Time was spared for the interviewees to think of proper answers

The steps of the study were as follows:

1 Piloting the questionnaires for students

2 Delivering and gathering back the questionnaires

3 Conducting interviews with the selected teachers

4 Analyzing the collected data and discussing the findings

5 Giving suggestions

2.3 DATA ANALYSIS

2.3.1 Findings from the questionnaire

The questionnaire for students is designed to investigate students‟ opinions and attitudes towards the use of supplementary reading materials on English for Nurses It is divided into 3 main parts The 1st part helps the surveyor decide whether they should continue with the 2nd part or the 3rd one

Part 2 and part 3 are designed in two different ways Part 2 is for those who choose “Yes” in question 2 in part 1, and with those who choose “No” in this question, they would move to part 3 (For specific questions, see appendix 3)

(i) Supplementary materials in use

Question 1 in part 1 aims at finding out the types of reading materials, which have been used by the teachers to teach English for Nurses The results are shown in chart 1 below:

A The internet

B Books, newspapers, magazines, and journal articles

C Academic texts (course books, journals)

D Others

As can be seen from the chart, the most common supplementary reading material

is books, magazines, newspapers and journal articles with the percentage of 73 Ranking the second with 53% is internet Academics remains the least widely used with 13% response 5% of the respondents say that their teachers use other course books and teacher-developed materials

(ii) The use of supplementary materials

According to the students who took part in the survey, all the teachers who have taught them reading skills on English for Nurses have used supplementary reading materials several times Therefore, there were no students who dealt with part III All of them went to part II The results from this part are presented below:

 The frequency of the use of supplementary reading materials

Question 3 examines the frequency of using supplementary reading materials to teach English for Nurses The results are clearly presented in the chart below:

0 20 40 60 80

%

Chart 1: Supplementary materials in use percent

Chart 2: The frequency of using supplementary

reading materials

Always Often Sometimes Rarely

14%

50%

It can be clearly seen from chart 2 that 50% of the informant nurse students say their teachers do take advantage of any possible time in the class to supplement them with supplementary reading materials 14% admit that they are often provided with supplementary materials by their teachers of reading skills on English for Nurses There

is a number of students who say that their teachers sometimes equip them with authentic materials when teaching English for Nurses (30%) The numbers of students who claim that their teachers rarely use supplementary reading materials for English for Nurses rank the last with the percentage of 6%

 Types of supplementary reading materials

Question 4 aims at finding the types of reading materials that the teachers often use when they give lectures on English for Nurses The results can be seen in chart 3 below:

A About issues related to my specification

B About general knowledge of the world

C About socio-economic issues

D All above

It can be inferred from the chart that if ranked according to the frequency of the uses, the types of materials that the teachers often use when they give lectures on English for Nurses can be as follows: issues related to specification (57%), issues about general knowledge of the world (21%), socio-economic issues (7%), and all above is 23%

 Ways of using supplementary reading materials

With question number 5, the researcher tries to examine the ways that teachers have employed to make use of supplementary reading materials English for Nurses

A Using reading supplementary materials that are accompanied by ready-made tasks

B Using the reading supplementary materials only and designing the tasks themselves

C Assigning the reading supplementary materials to you and asking you to design the task yourself to share in class

According to the chart, though time is a big problem for teachers, 86% of the students when asked about the reading tasks for nurse students answered that their teachers make use of ready-made ones There are about 22% of the students who say that their teachers design the tasks themselves by using the readings from the Internet or many other sources to supplement their reading practice A small number of students say their teacher assign materials and ask them to design the tasks to share in class

(iii) Students’ self-evaluation of the progress after being provided with supplementary reading materials

With question 6, the researcher wishes the students to self-evaluate their own progress after being supplemented with supplementary reading materials by their

teachers of English for Nurses Their self-evaluation is shown in the chart below:

86

22

4 0

20 40 60 80 100

When asked to self-evaluate, 52% students admit that their reading skills on English for Nurses do not improve much after studying supplementary reading materials The rest believes that they can now be more confident, more active in handling reading tasks with their self-comments like “quite good” (35%), “good” (10%), and “very good” (3%)

(iv) Students’ expectation to the ways that supplementary reading materials should be used

Question 7 tries to get to know about students‟ expectation of the ways that supplementary reading materials on English for Nurses should be used The data are analyzed in the chart below:

53

20 0

20

40

60

Chart 6: Students' expectation to the ways of using

supplementary reading materials

Percent

A The teachers use ready-made supplementary materials

B The teachers only use the readings and design reading tasks on English for Nurses themselves

C The teachers let you involve in the designing of reading tasks

D The teachers suggest the sources for you to choose suitable materials and design the tasks for yourselves

Students show great enthusiasm and activeness in a way that more than half of them (53%) express the wish to take part in the process of building up the supplementary reading materials They would rather their teachers give them opportunities to design the tasks themselves Whereas, 33% of them want their teachers to use ready-made tasks A portion of 41% admit that their teachers made reading tasks with supplementary readings

Only 20% want to access the sources and get the readings by themselves and self-design the tasks

2.3.2 Findings from the interviews with teachers

The in-depth interviews were conducted with the four teachers who are teaching English for Nurse at Namdinh University of Nursing (For specific questions, refer to appendix 2)

All the interviewees have 3 to 6 years experience in teaching reading as well as teaching English for Nurses, and all of them have used authentic materials for one to four years The results of the interviews are presented below

2.3.2.1 The aims of the teachers when using authentic materials as supplementary reading materials

Question number 4 is intended to find out the purposes of the teachers when using authentic materials as supplementary reading materials to teach reading skills to nurse students

The most common reason for using authentic materials as supplementary materials is to keep students informed about the information and the events on nursing happening in our country and around the world They do not believe that “course book is enough” for the study of reading on English for Nurses as this field is new to many people Therefore, using supplementary materials from internet, journals or magazines means a range of more reading tasks and more exposure to the real-life situations They are aware that letting the students access this kind of materials can help them gain a lot.The most common reading text, or text from books, magazines, or newspapers, which means the content is always up-to-date What is more, it covers many common topics relating to nursing As a result, the students can update themselves and improve their background knowledge on their major

Furthermore, the variety of the topics also enhances students‟ motivation for learning English for Nurses in the way that it can really create a learning environment especially when they have chance to learn their topics with interest, which means that the goals of teaching reading skills can be achieved