Improve students’ reading skills

Improve students’ reading skills

TABLES OF CONTENTS

Statement of authorship i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract -iii

Table of contents -1

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION -3

1.1 Background of the study -3

1.2 Aims of the study -3

1.3 The significance of the study -4

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW -5

2.1 Definition of reading -5

2.2 The importance of reading -5

2.3 Some reading skills -5

2.3.1 Skimming -5

2.3.2 Scanning -6

2.3.3 Inferring -6

2.3.4 Guessing the meaning from context -6

2.3.5 Answering comprehension question -6

2.4 Factors influence the progress of reading in language learning -7

2.4.1 Reader variables -7

2.4.2 Text topic and content -8

CHAPTER THREE THE METHODOLOGY -9

3.1 Researcher -9

3.2 Research questions -9

3.3 Subject -9

3.4 Setting -9

3.5 Data collection instruments -9

3.5.1 Textbook analysis -10

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3.5.2 Questionnaire -10

3.5.3 Observation -12

3.6 Data collection procedure -13

3.6.1 Textbook analysis procedure -13

3.6.2 Questionnaires procedure -13

3.6.3 Observation procedure -13

CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS -14

4.1 Results -14

4.1.1 Results of textbook analysis -14

4.1.2 Results of questionnaires -19

4.1.3 Results of observation -35

4.2 Discussions -40

4.2.1 Research question (1) -40

4.2.2 Research question (2) -41

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS -42

5.1 Conclusions -42

5.2 Recommendations -42

5.2.1 For the textbook -42

5.2.2 For teachers -43

5.2.3 For students -44Error: Reference source not found 5.3 Limitations of the study -49

REFERENCES -51

APPENDIXES -52

Appendix 1a -52

Appendix 1b -55

Appendix 2 -58

Appendix 3 -62

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

English is one of the important subjects at High School It has been used for FinalExaminations to evaluate students’ level of knowledge Therefore, whether students areproficient at English or not is very important to them

Being proficient at English means student is good at both received skills - reading andlistening, and productive skills - speaking and writing These four skills are integrated in alesson to improve all these skills for the students, because one certain skill can be used toimprove the others

Reading is an important and useful skill, because reading is the first step for students toget main and general information about a topic and it is a tool for students to get moreinformation In addition to, through reading, students can improve their vocabulary in variousfields such as real life, science, and culture Reading can not only train students’ thinkingabilities but it also gives students a lot of updated information In real life, students are able toread different kinds of materials such as documents, newspapers, and magazines Therefore,reading is one of the good ways to get information, and to obtain knowledge

Reading is an important skill and subject, while “Most of grade 10 students in ThanhBinh-1 High School are not very good at Reading.” said, Mr NguyenVan Be No, the Head ofForeign Language Teaching Staff in Thanh Binh-1 High School

As a student of pedagogical field, and a teacher of English in the near future, I amconcerned in this problem Moreover, no one has studied the causes of the problem so far Forsome reasons above, the study was carried out to seek the real reasons, as well as, the solutions

to the problems

1.2 Aims of the study

- To find out grade 10 students’ common problems in learning reading

- To suggest solutions for these problems

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1.3 The significance of the study

Via solutions suggested in the study that based on the real problems also found in thestudy, both teachers of English and students to solve the problems in reading classes Theteachers can get certain suggestions to teach English reading more successfully or improvestudents’ reading skills because being good at reading partly helps students good at learningEFL It means the study can partly help teachers and students better their teaching andlearning

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of reading

Reading comprehension does not mean being able to answer all questions in the tasks

in the textbook

Reading comprehension is understanding a text that is read, or the process of

"constructing meaning" from a text Comprehension is a "construction process" because it

involves all of the elements of the reading process working together as a text is read to create a

representation of the text in the reader's mind (As defined by Partnership for Reading (2005))

Mr Françoise Grellet (1992) defines that understanding a written text means extractingthe required information from it as efficiently as possible

2.2 The importance of reading

In the first place, many of people want to be able to read texts in English for their eitherstudy purposes or simple for pleasure All we can do to make reading easier are significant

Reading texts also provide good models for English writing When we teach the skill ofwriting, we will need to show students models of what we are encourage them to do

Reading texts also provide opportunities to study language such as vocabulary,grammar, pronunciation and the way we construct sentences, paragraphs and texts

Lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate discussion, exciteimaginative responses, and be fascinating lessons

2.3 Some reading skills

2.3.1 Skimming

According to Wegmann, B and Knezevic, M (2007), skimming is a useful way to get

an overview of a reading section To skim, move your eyes quickly through the whole reading;make sure that you look at the titles, headings, and illustrations Do not stop for details orworry about words you do not understand Keep going like a fast-moving train from beginning

to end Afterward, you will have a general idea of the content Then you can read the textagain with better comprehension

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2.3.2 Scanning

According to Wegmann, B and Knezevic, M (2007), we skim for general ideas, forfacts or details To scan, move the eyes quickly over the reading until we come to the specificpiece of information that we want If you know that it is in the middle or toward the end of thereading, start there Do not be distracted by other items Concentrate When we find what wewant, use it Then go to the next point

2.3.3 Inferring

According to Wegmann, B and Knezevic, M (2007), inferences are ideas or opinionsare not stated but that can be inferred from the information given For example, if your friendsays, “Shoot! I have to wear my heavy coat today,” you can infer that he thinks it is coldoutside and that he is not happy about this Learning how to make inferences makes you abetter reader and a clearer thinker

2.3.4 Guessing the meaning from context

As mentioned by Forseth, R et all (1998), this skill should be develop as a normalresponse to unknown words in a passage to avoid an excessive use of the dictionary

2.3.5 Answering comprehension question

While reading, the students are asked to answer some questions about the passage Inother words, they perform how well they obtain knowledge through answering thesequestions, using their skills in reading

2.4 Factors influence the progress of reading in language

2.4.1.2 Knowledge of language

According to Alderson, J.C (2003), if readers do not know the language of the text,then they will have great difficulties in processing the text Nevertheless, structure knowledgehas been shown to have a facilitative effect on reading

Having to struggle with reading because of unknown words will obviously affectcomprehension and will take the pleasure out of reading Alderson, J.C (2003) cited fromResearch by Laufer (1989), Liu, and Nation (1985) that readers need to know 95% of thewords in the text to gain adequate comprehension and to be able to guess unknown wordsfrom the text

On the other hand, not very surprisingly, in second- and foreign-language readingstudies, there was an early emphasis on the importance of syntactic as well as lexicalknowledge

In second-and foreign-language reading, it has always been assumed that learners mustfirst acquire language knowledge before they can read

Alderson, J.C (2003) showed that students had difficulty identifying the constituentstructures in sentences with complex or unusual syntax For example, where material preposedbefore the main verb or adverbial phrases come before the main clause The ability to parsesentences into their correct syntactic structure appears to be an important element inunderstanding text Moreover, students found it harder to process syntactic structures inEnglish that differed from structures in the mother tongue

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2.4.1.3 Knowledge of topic

Knowing how texts are organized – what sort of information to expect in what place –

as well as knowing how information is signaled, and how changes of content might be marked– has long been thought to be of importance in facilitating reading For example, knowingwhere to look for the main ideas in the paragraph, and being able to identify how subsidiaryideas are marked, ought in principle to help a reader to process information

2.4.2 Text topic and content

The other side of the coin in the reader-text interaction is the text itself Many aspects

of text that might facilitate or make difficult the reading process have been studied, from avariety of different disciplines Although linguistic is the obvious major source of insight intothe language of text, texts have often been studied from a linguistic perspective withoutconcern for the reader It has too often been assumed that the analyst represents a typicalreader, and that what results from the analysis can therefore be assumed to be true of anylanguage processor

However, some linguists and particularly applied linguists have indeed been concernedwith the impact of linguistic variables on the process of understanding texts

CHAPTER THREE THE METHODOLOGY

3.1 Researcher

The researcher of the study is a fourth year student of Foreign Language Department,Dong Thap University

3.2 Research questions

The thesis attempts to answer the following questions:

(1) What are grade 10 students’ problems in learning reading?

(2) What are the solutions for these problems?

3.5 Data collection instruments

A number of procedures have been used for collecting information such as interviews,observations, record reviews, diaries, material analysis, etc In this research, three instruments:textbook analysis, questionnaires and observation were chosen and employed The usage ofthese instruments will be discussed below:

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3.5.1 Textbook analysis

The textbook are a material of reading; therefore, some of reading lessons in thetextbook English 10, which would be taught or observed during the researcher’s teachingperformance and contained problems, was analyzed to find out some common problems fromthem

3.5.2 Questionnaire

A questionnaire is “an instrument for the collecting data, usually in written form,consisting of open and /or closed questions and other probes requiring a response fromsubjects.” (Ms Le Hong Phuong Thao M.A cited from Nunan (1992, p.231))

Questionnaires are printed form for data collection, which includes questions orstatements to which the subjects are expected to respond, often anomalously (Ms Ms LeHong Phuong Thao, M.A cited from LevSalinger & Shohamy (1989, p 172))

Many researchers state that questionnaires are commonly used to collect data onphenomena, which are not easily observed, such as attitudes, motivation and self-conceptions,

in other words, those in social science

The present researcher’s choice of using questionnaires comes from the followingreasons Firstly, questionnaires save the researcher’s time They are self-administered and can

be given to large groups at the same time (Salinger & Shohamy, 1989) It is easy to get theinformation from many people quickly and without the need of the researcher’s presence.Secondly, questionnaires help avoid pressure of interview bias when completing thequestionnaires Furthermore, when anonymity is assured, respondents tend to feel free to whatthey answer so that the result will be objective It is because there is no face-to-face interactionbetween subjects and the interviewer Questionnaires in the form of closed questions orstatements, in which the respondent is asked to select an answer from a list provided by theresearcher, provide a great uniformity and standard of responses are easy for statisticalanalysis afterwards

In order to answer the research questions, the two questionnaires were used:

- Questionnaire 1a- for students (See Appendix 1a-in English, Appendix 1b-in

Vietnamese) was given to the students The questionnaire was firstly designed in English

Then - during the study in Thanh Binh-1 High School, the Questionnaire 1b was designed to

find out the problems, it was translated into Vietnamese for the students to answer more easilyand correctly It is designed for the two main purposes as following:

* To seek information about the students’ opinion about a Reading lesson inclass

* To find out the students’ common problems in readingThe questionnaire designed includes 20 questions 204 copies of the questionnaire inVietnamese were given to the students in class, and collected all of them after 15 minutes

Question (1) was used to find out whether the students have habits in reading

From question (2) to the question (4) were employed to know about the students’interest in reading

Question (5) and question (6) were implemented to get information about the students’preparation vocabulary for reading

Question (7) and question (8) were designed to get information about the students’memory in learning vocabulary

Question (9) was used to know whether the teachers employed techniques to elicitvocabulary

From question (10) to the question (14) were applied to know how well students’reading skill was

Question (15) and question (16) were implemented to look for the reasons why studentsare not very good at reading

From question (17) to question (18) were used to seek information about the students’dealing with the tasks

It is very common that students have often used reference books to do the tasksmentioned in the textbooks Therefore, question from (19) to (20) were designed to find outthe truth of this problems

- Questionnaire 2-for teachers: (See Appendix 2)

* To seek information about their common techniques in a Reading lesson

* To find out their difficulties in a Reading lesson Ten copies of the questionnaire were given to ten teachers at the beginning of mypractice teaching course in Thanh Binh-1 High School and collected after a week

Question (1) and question (2) were designed to know about teaching vocabulary inreading classes

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Question (3) was applied to find out whether the amount of vocabulary taught isenough or not for the students.

Question (4) was employed to know how often the teachers elicit the words in teaching vocabulary

pre-Question (5) was used to know whether the teachers could make the stages of readingclass relate to the others

Question (6) question (7) question (8) were implemented to know the teachers’ ability

in making reading more interesting

Question (9) to question (12) were designed to know if the teachers redesigned thetasks in the textbook

Question (13) was used to know if the teachers integrate the skills in reading lessons

Question (14) was applied to find out the reasons why the students were notvery good at reading

Question (15) was employed to know the difficulties of the teachers in teachingreading

Question (16) was used to seek the teachers’ solutions to the problems in readinglessons

Question (17) was designed to seek the teachers’ solutions to improve the students’reading skill

3.5.3 Observation (See Appendix 3)

Based on problems found out from the textbook, observation was applied to know howboth the teachers dealt with them

To do this job, some criteria was employed such as eliciting vocabulary, designing thetasks, changing the tasks’ orders, using reading activities, making the tasks proper with thestudents’ level, etc

3.6 Data collection procedure

3.6.1 Textbook analysis procedure

Before the researchers’ teaching performance in Thanh Binh-1 High School, she hadchosen some reading lessons in textbook English 10 that were taught or observed during the

study Moreover, only reading lessons containing problems, according to the researcher, wereanalyzed, because it would be more accurate to use both analysis and observation

To seek the textbook’s problems easily and quickly, some aspects of the readinglessons were selected and analyzed such as shape of the lesson, the tasks’ requirements, andthe tasks’ orders The details are mentioned in chapter four

The researcher chose some certain criteria to help her find out how the teachers dealtwith the problems that the researcher found in the textbook such as redesigning the textbook

Via observation and teaching, the common problems in reading classes were taken noteand then analyzed to find out students’ common problems in reading and the real causes ofthese problems Thanks to the causes, some solutions to the problems were suggested

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CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Chapter three has mentioned the three data collection instruments – questionnaires,observation and material analyzing Therefore, this chapter will go on with the informationcollected from the three above instruments and discus the results of the study in detail

4.1 Results

This section will report the results of data analysis; it includes three main parts such asresults of textbook analysis, questionnaires analysis and observation analysis

4.1.1 Results of textbook analysis

Before the researcher’s teaching performance in Thanh Binh-1 High School, sheanalyzed some reading lessons in the textbook English 10, which were observed or taughtduring the study The results via analyzing them are showed below

Unit 10: CONSERVATION Lesson A: Reading (English 10, p.104-p.106)

Shape of the lesson Activities/Tasks Comments

“Before you read”

Look at the pictures and then answer the questions

- The task is for introducing the topic, the new lesson, not for pre-reading

- Use task 2 as pre-reading activity

“While you read”

- Task 1: Match the word in

A with a suitable definition

in B

- Task 2: Decide whether the

following statements are true (T) or false (F)

- Task 3: Choose the most

suitable main idea for each paragraph

- The orders of the tasks are not suitable

- Change the orders: task 1, task

3 and task 4

“After you read”

- Task 4: Answer the

following questions

- Change the task: Talk about therole of the environment, using the given cues

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Unit 12: MUSIC Lesson A: Reading (English 10, p 124-p.126)

Shape of the lesson Activities/Tasks Comments

“Before you read”

Work in pair Discuss and match each of the

descriptions to a type of music

- The task is for introducing the topic, the new lesson, not for pre-reading

- Add reading activity: reading activity

pre-“While you read”

- Task 1: The words /

phrases in the box below all appear in the reading

passage Use them to complete the sentences

- Task 2: Answer the

questions

-The tasks are in correct orders

- Add the questions of task 3 to task 2

“After you read”

- Task 3: Work in pairs Ask

and answer the questions below

- The task is the same as task 2

It is quite simple and boring -Change the task: Talk about the role of music in your lives

Unit 13: FILMS AND CINEMA Lesson A: Reading (English 10, p 132-p.134)

Shape of the lesson Activities/Tasks Comments

“Before you read”

Work with a partner Answerthe questions

- The task is for introducing the topic, the new lesson, not for pre-reading

- Add pre-reading activity such

as true/false statements prediction, or predict what the text will say

“While you read”

- Task 1: Find the word in

the passage that can match with the definition on the right column

Task 2: Work in pairs

Answer these questions

- Task 3: Decide which of

the options below is the best title for the passage

- The orders of the tasks are not proper

- Change the orders of the tasks: task 1, task 3, and task 2

“After you read”

- Task 4: Work in groups

Talk about the passage, usingthe cues bellow

- The task is suitable

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UNIT 14: THE WORLD CUP Lesson A: Reading (English 10, p 142-p.144)

Shape of the lesson Activities/Tasks Comments

“Before you read”

Work with a partner Answerthe following questions

- The task can be used for reading However, it is better to add more questions

pre-“While you read”

- Task 1: The words in A

appear in the reading passage Match them with their definitions in B

- Task 2: Scan the text and

complete each of the following sentences with a word or a number

- Task 3: Read the text again

and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) Correct the false ones

- The orders of the tasks are not proper

- Use task 3 as pre-reading activity

- Maybe, add some questions as

Task 4: Answer questions.

“After you read”

- Task 4: Work in groups

Talk about the events mentioned in the passage, using the following figures ascues

- The task is proper

Unit 15: CITIES Lesson A: Reading (English 10, p 156 – p 158)

Shape of the lesson Activities/Tasks Comments

“Before you read”

- Work in pairs Below are some well-known places in New York Match the names

to the pictures

- Answer the questions

- The task is for introducing the topic, the new lesson, not for pre-reading

- Use task 2 for pre-reading activity

“While you read”

- Task 1: The words in A

appear in the reading text

Match them with their definition in B

- Task 2: Decide the

whether the statements are true (T) or false (F)

- Task 3: Answer the

questions

- The orders are not proper.-Change the orders: Task 2, task

1, and task 3

“After you read”

- Task 4: Work in groups If

you could visit New York, which place(s) of interest there would you like to see?

Why?

- The task is not easy for the student do well because New York is not familiar to the students

- Change the task: Talk about a city in Vietnam that you want to visit

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Via analyzing some Reading lessons of the textbook English 10, something wrong wasfound as following:

- The shape of the reading lessons often has no pre-reading activity

- The suggested activities are not very plentiful

- The orders of the tasks are not very proper

- Some tasks are over students’ ability

4.1.2 Results of questionnaires

4.1.2.1 Questionnaire for students

Table 4.1.1 The students’ habit of reading

Question 1 Every day Once to twice Never

The answers to the questions reveal that the number of students who like reading ismore than those who do not like reading three times It means the students may still likereading

1Notes:

count / number of responses

Table 4.1.2.b The students’ interest in reading

Question 3

The content is poor

The topic is useful

The topic is not interesting

Other ideas

- The text isgood

- The topics arenew

Table 4.1.2.c The students’ interest in reading

Question 4 Difficult Easy Very difficult Very easy

Table 4.1.3.a The students’ preparation vocabulary for reading

Question 5 Every reading lesson Sometimes Never Other ideas

How often do

you prepare new

words for reading

lessons?

The table shows that 26.4% of the students “sometimes” prepare vocabulary forreading, and 48.7% of them “never” do It means 75.1% of them do not prepare well and24.9% of them do well After all, there is no doubt that the students do not prepare for theirreading lessons may be one of the problems in reading

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Table 4.1.3.b The students’ preparation vocabulary for reading

Table 4.1.4.a The students’ memory in learning vocabulary

Question 7 More than 70% 50% - 70% Less than 50% Nothing

According to the result, there are only 10.7% of the students learn the vocabulary well

in class as soon as the reading class finishes It is possible to say that most of them are not able

to remember the words quickly

Table 4.1.4.b The students’ memory in learning vocabulary

Question 8 More than 80% 60% - 80% About 50% Less than 50% Other ideas

As we have known, the number of the words can be taught is more than 5 and less than

8 words It is not too much However, there are only 6.1% of the students are able toremember the words they learn quite well It means many students are not able to rememberwell

Via the results of question (7) and question (8), it is possible that the students have nogood memory in learning vocabulary

Table 4.1.5 The teachers’ using techniques in teaching vocabulary

Question 9 Always Often Sometimes Rarely Other ideas

However, it is the fact that the teachers do not often use techniques for elicitingvocabulary 54.4% of the students admit their teachers “sometimes” or “rarely” teach newwords with techniques

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Therefore, it is not doubtful; the teachers do not often use techniques to elicit the wordsfor their students to guess This can make the students remember the words difficultly.

Table 4.1.6.a The students’ skills in reading

Question 10

What you have already known about the topic

Vocabulary related to the topic

Predict what the text will give you Nothing

However, frankly speaking, more than half of the students have no skills for preparingreading This is also obstacle of reading

Table 4.1.6.b The students’ skills in reading

Question 11

Read the text carefully and try to know the meaning of all the words to understand the text.

Move your eyes quickly through the whole reading.

See the titles, the headings, the illustrations and the photos.

Other ideas

If you want to

get the main

idea, you will

Question 12

Move your eyes quickly over the reading until you find the specific piece

of information that you want.

Read the text carefully and try to know the meaning of all the words to understand the text.

See the titles, the headlines, the illustration and the photos, and so on.

A large percentage of students do not know how to get the specific information fromthe reading text There are fewer than 19% of the students being able to get the scanning skill

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