AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING SHORT STORIES AS SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR READING CLASSES AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGESMAI THI PHUONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING SHORT STORIES AS SUPPLEMENTARY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

MAI THI PHUONG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING SHORT STORIES AS SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS FOR READING CLASSES

AT HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN

LANGUAGES

MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

CODE: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: ……….

HUE, 2015

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ

MAI THỊ PHƯƠNG

MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHỮNGTHÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN

VÀ SINH VIÊN ĐỐI VỚI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRUYỆN NGẮN NHƯ NHỮNG TÀI LIỆU BỔ SUNG CHO CÁC LỚP HỌC ĐỌC TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11

NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC:

HUE, 2015

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine The data andfindings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been publishedelsewhere

Author

Mai Thị Phương

This research paper examined students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary materials for reading at Hue University College of Foreign Languages (HUCFL) It also addressed the advantages and disadvantages

of using short stories as supplementary materials Besides, the study investigated teachers’ suggestions to teach to make students use short stories for reading classes better The data collection tools consisted of questionnaire and interview Quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to the data analysis.

The results from quantitative and qualitative data indicated that most students acknowledged the importance of using short stories to improve reading sub skills, create a relaxing learning atmosphere, and enriching students’ knowledge More importantly, the study showed the suggestions teachers make to improve reading skill through short stories.

The interviews with some English teachers also reveal the advantages and disadvantages of using short stories to develop reading skill Based on their ideas, the research also comes up with solutions to problems that teachers may encounter when using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes.

I would like to express my gratitude to people who supported me during the process of doing this research Without their guidance and helps, I would have not completed this study.

First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my great supervisor who has supported me throughout my thesis with his patience and acknowledge Actually, her guidance and feedback helped me during the time of the study and writing of this thesis She gives me useful advices and guidance so that I can get good result in my thesis.

Besides my great supervisor, my sincere thanks also to the teachers, especially

Ms Nguyen Thi Lai who is very helpful and the third year English students at HUCFL who took part in this research They are enthusiastic to help me collect the data.

My thesis would not have come to a completion without the help from my close friends for their generosity in time, advice, support and encouragement.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my husband as well as my sons who always stand by me, help me overcome difficulties in the process of doing the research They bring me strength, self- confidence, and braveness to pursue my study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP iii

ABSTRACT iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

LIST OF CHARTS ix

CONTENTS OF THESIS 1

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Rationale 3

1.3 Research aims 5

1.4 Research scope 5

1.5 Structure of the research 5

1.6 Research questions 6

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Reading and its importance 7

2.1.1 What is reading? 7

2.1.2 Why is reading important? 8

2.2 The Use of Literature in Teaching Reading 10

2.2.1 Reasons for Using Literary Texts in Foreign Language Classes 10

2.2.2 Benefits of Using Short Stories 12

2.2.3 Criteria for choosing short stories 13

2.2.4 Some common-used activities to teach reading through short stories 14

2.3 Attitudes 16

2.4 Supplementary materials 17

2.5 Previous studies related to using short stories as supplementary materials for

reading classes 17

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3 1 Introduction 20

3.2 Research method 20

3.3 Participants 21

3.4 Data collection 21

3.4.1 Questionnaire 21

3.4.2 Interview 22

3.5 Data analysis 22

Chapter 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Students’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes 23

4.1.1 Students’ favorite types of literature 23

4.1.2 Students favorite topics of short stories 24

4.1.3 Students’ frequency of reading short stories 25

4.1.4 Advantages of using short stories as supplementary materials 26

4.1.4.1 Advantages of using short stories in enriching students’ knowledge 26

4.1.4.2 Advantages of using short stories in creating an interesting learning atmosphere 28

4.1.4.3 Benefits of using short stories to develop reading sub- skills 28

4.1.5 Difficulties students faced when short stories are used for reading classes 31

4.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary for reading classes 32

4.2.1 Teachers’ attitudes of importance of reading in teaching English 32

4.2.2 Teachers’ attitudes towards advantages of using short stories as supplementary materials 33 4.2.2.1 Benefits of using short stories for creating a comfortable atmosphere

and various activities 34

4.2.2.2 Advantages of short stories to develop reading sub- skills 34

4.2.3 Disadvantages of using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes 35

4.2.4 Suggestions for solving problems of using short stories 36

Chapter 5: IMPLICATION AND CONCLUSION 38

5.1 Summary of the study 38

5.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes 38

5.1.2 Difficulties teachers and students face when using short stories in teaching reading 38

5.2 Implications 39

5.2.1 For teachers 39

5.2.2 For students 40

5.2.3 For college administrators 40

5.3 Limitations of study 40

5.4 Further research 40

REFERENCES 41

APPENDIX 1 45

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS 45

APPENDIX 2 48

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS 48

APPENDIX 3 51

Questions for interview 51

LIST OF CHARTS

Figure 4.1: Students’ favorite genres of literature 23

Figure 4.2: Favorite topics of short stories 24

Figure 4.3: Frequency of reading short stories 25

Figure 4.4: Students’ attitude towards learning reading through short stories 26

Figure 4.5: Students’ attitudes towards enriching cultural and social knowledge of short stories 27

Figure 4.6: Students’ attitudes towards using short stories to make reading tasks easier 28

Figure 4.7: Students’ attitudes towards using short stories to develop reading sub-skills 29

Figure 4.8: Aspects cause problems when students read short stories 32

Figure 4.9: Teachers’ attitudes of importance of reading skill 33

Figure 4.10: Teachers’ attitudes towards using short stories to create a comfortable atmosphere and various activities 34

Figure 4.11: Teachers’ perception towards using short stories to develop reading sub skills 35

Figure 4.12: Teachers’ difficulties of using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes 36

CONTENTS OF THESIS Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

a huge amount of vocabulary, so they can enrich their resource of vocabulary Theyalso realize how to use structures or grammar points through reading texts

Many linguistics and researchers believed that reading is an essential skill thatneeds to be developed among learners and it is often considered as ‘the foundational

capability in the acquisition of literacy’ (Andrews, 2001) It is obvious that readingaccompanies a myriad of educational benefits It is not at all surprising to realizethat good readers have an increased stock of vocabulary and several researchershighlight that reading books can advance a person’s comprehension by learning newlexis (Stansberry, 2009; Isaac, 2007; Sofsian, 2006).They further note that alongwith vocabulary enrichment, reading also helps to improve the accuracy ofspellings This is because readers often look up new words which they encounterwhile reading.

Similarly, researchers contend that reading boosts concentration since it requiresremembering details of what is being read: it refines the reader’s memory(Stansberry, 2009; Isaac, 2007; Sofsian, 2006) When learners are able to retain andrecall what they read, they will be able to use the information more creatively in thefuture

In addition, there is another very important reason why learners need todevelop their reading skills: there is a strong correlation between reading andacademic success According to Pretorius (2000),

Research findings 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 andwho understand what they read usually attain good grades.(Pretorius, 2000, p.1)She also further emphasized that students who read extensively andcomprehend what they read usually attain better grades In other words, a studentwho is a good reader is more likely to do well in school and pass exams than astudent who is a weak reader

One of the main goals of reading for language learners is to acquireknowledge of different fields through translating its literature into their mothertongue As Richard and Rodgers stated, “[t]he goal of foreign language study was tolearn a language to read its literature or to benefit from the mental discipline andintellectual development that result from foreign language study.” Students would

translate literary texts from the second/foreign language to their native language andthey face lots of problem in this process Therefore, improving reading is veryessential for learners In order to improve reading as an important skill, manyresearchers and educators have also made efforts to find more efficient ways ofenabling the learners to become more proficient readers and one of the ways is touse literature Povey (1979) is among those who believe in the effectiveness of theimplementation of literature in the language class Literature has been discovered

as a valuable and interesting material for improving students’ language ability(Premawardhena, 2005) It has been found that if appropriate literary texts arechosen it would be an effective tool for stimulating and achieving language learningand equipping learners with relevant linguistic and socio-cultural competences(Sell, 2005) Acording to McKay (2001), in reading comprehension tasks literarytexts can stimulate interest and closer reading of the texts, as well as integrating thefour skills during reading practice

Short stories, like other literary texts, can stimulate language and linguisticcompetence Short stories also arouse motivation Short stories are believed to helplearners improve all four skills According to Erkaya (2005), reading literary textcan lead students to be critical thinkers He pointed out that when students read,they interact with the text and interpret what they read and this analysis makes themmore creative and critical

Nowadays, teachers have made efforts to find out different ways to enhancestudents' reading ability Using short stories as supplementary materials is one oftheir choices Teachers’ and learners’ attitudes towards this method are one of themain factors that determine their success in their language learning as well aslanguage teaching as Candlin and Mercer (2001) stated that attitudes towards thetarget language, its speakers and the learning context may all play some part inexplaining their success or failure

1.2 Rationale

I choose this topic for my research: “An investigation into teachers’ and

students’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes at Hue University College of Foreign Languages” for the

following reasons:

First of all, reading skill plays an important role in learning English However,students in general and Hue College of Foreign Language students in particularhave many problems in mastering the skill

Secondly, there are many methods to teach reading effectively Therefore,teachers try their best to find out suitable ways which help students promote readingskill Using short stories as supplementary materials is chosen by many teachers.There have been a lot of researches on the problems emerging from teaching

reading In his article “About the common problems and effective solutions in

reading”, which is based on authors like Davies and Beare, Minmin (2010) reported

that most students with problems in reading usually read word for word andsentence for sentence, which is considered as a slow and non-effective process ofreading because learners cannot acquire the main idea of the whole text As astudent at Hue University College of Foreign Languages, I myself recognized thatthe majority of students have same troubles when they read I noticed that manystudents read without any particular strategies for making use of the clues in thetexts or recognize the topics sentences Although they are taught some importantskills to read effectively, such as scanning, skimming, they have difficulties inapplying what they have learnt to read successfully Therefore, they do notcomprehend the gist of what they are reading As a result, they get little informationand they are bored with the reading texts I also noticed that reading textbooks aredull and boring They are cover with emotionless languages Students do not findtextbooks interesting and humorous There are too many heavy tasks in text booksstudents must do Doing reading tasks is actually stressful and monotonous

Using short stories is considered carefully by many teachers in their process ofteaching Teachers always expect that their students can improve language ability,

so choosing suitable methods to teach a foreign language effectively has attracted

teachers’ concern Each teacher has his or her own attitudes towards using shortstories as supplementary materials for reading classes Different attitudes of themhave different reasons The reasons explain why using short stories assupplementary materials is suitable or not Similarly, in the process of learning,students are learnt with different methods of teaching They may be like or dislikeusing short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes.

I would like to investigate teachers’ attitudes as well as students’ attitudes sothat I can know that they have positive or negative attitudes towards using shortstories as supplementary materials for reading classes I would like to specifyreasons which lead to the attitudes in order to understand more about advantagesand disadvantages of using short stories as supplementary materials for readingclasses Moreover, I also would like to specify sub-skills of reading which arepromoted when teacher use short stories as supplementary for reading classes

1.3 Research aims

The purpose of this study is to focus on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards

using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes at Hue University

College of Foreign Languages Simultaneously, this study also aims at finding out thereasons why they have those attitudes in order to have suitable solutions

1.4 Research scope

The research focuses on investigating the teachers’ and students’ attitudestowards using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes at HueUniversity College of Foreign Language

1.5 Structure of the research

The research includes fiver chapters

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

Chapter 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

Chapter 5: IMPLICATION AND CONCLUSION

1.6 Research questions

This research aims to answer the following questions:

1 What are Hue University English Language teachers’ attitudes towardsusing short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes?

2 What are students’ attitudes towards using short stories as supplementary

materials for reading classes?

3 What are teachers’ and students’ difficulties in using short stories assupplementary materials for reading classes?

4 What can be done to solve problems?

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Reading and its importance

2.1.1 What is reading?

Reading is an essential skill in learning a foreign language It can beconsidered as one of the key factors which help learners get good results in theprocess of learning There are as multiple ways of defining reading as there arescholars who research on it Holden (2004) stated “Reading is an important gateway

to personal developments, to social, economic and civic life.” Similarly, Anderson(1994) believed that reading is the most important instrument for academic settings.Meanwhile, Pang et al (2003) provided a more elaborated definition:

Reading is about understanding written texts It is a complex activity thatinvolves both perception and thought Reading consists of two related processes:word recognition and comprehension Word recognition refers to the process ofperceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language.Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connectedtext (Pang et al, 2003, p.6)

In other words, reading is viewed as a sophisticated process It requireslearners to have word –recognition and comprehension ability These two abilitieswill support learners to think and perceive in their process of reading

Holden (2004) also defined reading as follow:

To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view overwide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits ofmany inquiries The path of a reader is not a runway but more a hack through aforest, with individual twists and turns, entanglements and moments of surprise(Holden, 2004, p.1)

All the while, Chastain (1988) considered reading as a receptive skill in thatreader is receiving a message from a writer The reading goal is to read for meaning

or to recreate the writer’s meaning According to this view, reading to improve

pronunciation, practice grammatical forms, and study vocabulary does notconstitute reading at all because reading involves comprehension When readers donot comprehend, they are not reading (217) Alptekin (2006) concurred with thiswhen he defined reading “as an interaction of the reader’s text-based andknowledge-based processes.” He elaborated,

In processing texts, readers combine literal comprehension, based on level cognitive processes of reading such as lexical access and syntactic parsing,with inferential comprehension, based on higher-level cognitive processes such asthe text base of comprehension (to understand what the text says) and the situationmodel of interpretation (to understand what it is about) (Alptekin, 2006, p 494).For the purpose of this study, I find the definition of Chastain (1988) the mostapplicable As he mentioned, the goal of reading is about understanding the writtentexts This is very important because it helps learners to grasp the meanings of textswhich authors would like to convey Thanks to reading, readers can promote theirvocabulary, structures or grammar points, pronunciation as well as enhancecomprehension abilities As far as I am concerned, reading is an essential skill thatlearners need to master in the process of learning a foreign language

lower-2.1.2 Why is reading important?

Reading is very important in life in general Feldman (2002) drew aconclusion about the importance of reading when he argued that, “In the process oflearning as well as in daily life, in order to succeed, people must be able to read”(5) It means that reading a key helping people get success in their life Moreover,reading is very necessary for societies Bhardwa j (1997) claims that,

Reading is important not only to the individual; it possesses also great socialsignificance Man’s cultural and social heritage is transmitted from generation togeneration and is communicated readily by means of permanent printed records(Bhardwaj,1997, p 2)

In other words, by reading people can get access to the knowledge of differentgenerations It is very useful for developing societies

Reading plays an important role in the language acquisition process inparticular If students are good at reading, they will be able to improve otherlanguage skills such as writing, listening and speaking In fact, by reading, learnerscan acquire vocabulary, knowledge, sentence structures, and organization of aparagraph or an essay Therefore, learners can promote other skills Reading is afundamental practice Anderson (1994) highlights the importance of reading when

he writes, “effective reading is essential factor of success in learning anotherlanguage Reading is the most important instrument for academic settings” (177) Inthe same line of thought, Celce-Murcia et al (1995) added that the ability to read isthe prerequisite for autonomous learning

Krashen (2004) concurred with the idea that reading is important in learningEnglish He pointed out reading is the only way to “become a good readers, develop agood writing style, an adequate vocabulary, and advance grammar.” Reyes Gomez,meanwhile, provides a more detailed account of the benefits of the skill (2010):

Reading helps the proficiency and development of language, improves writtenand oral expression and enhances the fluency of the language [It] improves writingand increases the vocabulary level (Reyes Gomez, 2010, p.1)

As discussed above, reading is essential in developing learners’ languagecompetence Its important significance is undeniable

More importantly, Pang et al (2003) added that:

Reading is a skill that will empower everyone who learns it They will be able

to benefit from the store of knowledge in printed materials and, ultimately, tocontribute to that knowledge.Good teaching enables students to learn to read andread to learn (Pang et al, 2003, p.1)

The above discussion on the importance of reading also mentions “goodteaching” as a useful way which allows students to learn how to read Althoughteachers have troubles in teaching reading, they always make efforts to teach iteffectively Teachers are asked to select the correct approach or approaches to teachstudents how to read successfully A research showed that the teaching of reading

is multifaceted and a combined approach, including all reading components, is mostsuccessful (Moats, 1999).

Mohammad (2012) recommended that:

The view towards teaching reading has dramatically changed in the pastdecades In 1960’s where environmentalist ideas was dominated decoding skillswere emphasized, and learners’ reading skills were only limited to making sense ofprinted words With the emergence of Chomskyan theories which explain languagelearning on a cognitive basis, reading skills were not limited to the decoding skills.Readers are not treated as passive one, but they are cognitively engaged inprocessing the author’s intended meaning

Therefore, teachers must consider lots of factors in teaching reading.Teachersmust be aware of the progress that students are making and adjust instruction to thechanging abilities of students It is also important to remember that the goal ofreading is to understand the texts and to be able to learn from them (Pang et al, 2003)

2.2 The Use of Literature in Teaching Reading

2.2.1 Reasons for Using Literary Texts in Foreign Language Classes

In recent years, the role of literature as a basic component and source ofauthentic texts of the language curriculum rather than an ultimate aim of Englishinstruction has been gaining momentum Among language educators, there has been

a hot debate as to how, when,where, and why literature should be incorporated incurriculum Many teachers consider the use of literature in language teaching as aninteresting and worthy concern (Sage, 1987,p.1)

In Mac Fadden’s (1978) words:

I should say, then, that literature is a canon which consists of those works inlanguage by which a community defines itself through the course of itshistory It includes works primarily artistic and also those whose aesthetic qualitiesare only secondary The self-defining activity of the community is conducted in thelight of the works, as its members have come to read them (or concretize them)(Mac Fadden, 1978, p.49)

Many teachers use literature widely in language classes because of its benefitswhich have been studied and proved by various scholars Parkinson and ReidThomas (2000, cited in Sell, 2005) came up with ten reasons for using literature inthe language classroom:

2.2.2 Benefits of Using Short Stories

According to Singer (2000), a short story is, in some ways, like a

photograph-a cphotograph-aptured moment of time thphotograph-at is crystphotograph-alline, though sometimes mysterious,arresting, though perhaps delicate But while a photo may or may not suggestconsequences, a short story always does In the story's moment of time somethingimportant, something irrevocable has occurred The change may be subtle orobvious, but it is definite and definitive

Short story is a genre of literature Obviously, it has the benefits like othergenres of literature Moreover, short stories also have specific benefits which allowteachers to teach the four skills to all levels of language proficiency Short stories canraise cultural awareness, linguistic awareness, and motivation Murdoch (2002)indicates that “short stories can, if selected and exploited appropriately, providequality text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners atintermediate levels of proficiency” (9) According to him, short stories could be verybeneficial materials in ELT reinforcement by using them in learning activities such asdiscussion, writing and acting out dialogues When a short story is chosen based onthe students' level of English proficiency, it can offer them adequate linguistic,intellectual, and emotional involvement and enrich their learning experience

Sage (1987) stated that short fiction is a supreme resource for observing notonly language but life itself In short fiction, characters act out all the real andsymbolic acts people carry out in daily lives,and do so in a variety of registers andtones The world of short fiction both mirrors and illuminates human lives Sage(1987) also concluded that the use of a short story seems to be a very helpfultechnique in today’s foreign language classes As it is short, it makes the students’reading task and the teacher’s coverage easier Also, she maintained that:

An important feature of short fiction is its being universal To put it differently,students all over the world have experienced stories and can relate to them Moreover,short fiction, like all other types of literature, makes contribution to the development

of cognitive analytical abilities by bringing the whole self to bear on a compressedaccount of a situation in a single place and moment (Sage, 1987, p.1)

Wright (2003), another supporter of the use of short-stories, argues that “inusing stories in language teaching, we are using something much bigger and moreimportant than language teaching it” (7) In support of this position, Bretz (1990)added that stories help improve communicative competence Meanwhile, according

to Lazar (1993), the use of short-stories in ELT classroom offers teaching andlearning with motivating, authentic and great educational value material Storieshelp students understand another culture and work as a stimulus for languageacquisition They also develop students’ interpretative abilities and help expandtheir language awareness Stories also encourage students to express their opinionsand feelings and make language learning fun by bringing excitement to a classroomwhich can work as a change of routine and a new recipe

In short, using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes is agood way to promote students’ motivation in the process of studying Stories canalso create a joyful and relaxing atmosphere It is very useful for learning Studentssometimes feel bored and stressful under the pressure of reading tasks Short storiescan reduce the pressure and help students take their reading tasks easily

2.2.3 Criteria for choosing short stories

It is very important to select suitable short stories and various activities to use

in classes Choosing suitable short stories decides the success of lessons Hill (1994)pointed out three basic criteria of choosing the text: the needs and abilities of thestudents; the linguistic and stylistic level of the text; the amount of backgroundinformation required for a true appreciation of the material

According to Ur (1996), “…in using stories in language teaching, we are usingsomething much bigger and more important than language teaching itself.” (7)Therefore, the use of simplified text with less proficient readers is highly suggestedfor the sake of suiting the texts with the level of students Spack (1985) suggestedthe aspect of interest to be considered According to him, it is important for theteacher to choose stories that would interest students that he/she most likes to readand teach, and that have been made into film to provide visual interpretation

McKay (2001) and Rivers (1968) pointed out that students read and enjoy a text ifthe subject-matter of the text is relevant to their life experience and interests.

In summary, it is crucial to choose a suitable story in teaching Short storiesmust be authentic and interesting They must not be too long, and/or difficult tounderstand Furthermore, short stories should be connected to interesting activities

in order to bring all their benefits into play

2.2.4 Some common-used activities to teach reading through short stories

According to Pardede (2011),when teacher create a story-based lesson plan,they need to know what aim we want to achieve and think about activities that will

be used not only during the students work with the story but also about activitiesthat begin and activities that end the work with the story These activities are known

as pre-reading or before reading activities, while- or during reading and post- orafter reading activities Activities must be varied so that the learning environment isstimulating, exciting and unpredictable; and to stay motivated, they need goals andrewards A teacher must plan each activity beforehand It is also important to giveclear instructions and to communicate to the children what is expected of them.Pardede (2011) listed some useful activities as follow:

A Pre - reading activities.

Concrete pre - storytelling activities

Hangman - students may guess the topic by saying alphabet; every wrongletter is making a part of a hangman - Warming up - discussion - brief discussionabout students’ own personal experiences

Answer and pass on - each student has a piece of paper and must answer aquestion and pass it on, another student will answer second question and pass it on,etc Example of questions are - who, where, when, what is he/she doing

Brainstorming - we can ask students to think about a topic and write downall their ideas

Asking questions - is a good activity and we can use it a lot, but “a goodquestion must be probing and motivate thought so that it encourages children to

justify their responses, it must focus their attention and encourage observation,invite enquiry and stimulate because it is open-ended, it should be productive andseek a response and generate more questions” (Ellis and Brewster, 2002).

B While - reading activities

Storytelling activities “Stories may bridge the gap between language studyand language use and also to link classroom learning with the world outside Some

of the activities do not always have a very large language element but arenevertheless important in creating a feeling among the pupils that learning Englishmeans fun, activity, creativity and enjoyment” (Ellis and Brewster, 2002) Studentswill be much more involved and motivated to the teaching process when they seethat their hard work in lessons has been leading somewhere That is why follow-upactivities are so important for students

Follow-up activities include rounding up, reviewing and summarizing thelesson Students can make a poster, a book, a collage, a greetings card or otherthings based on story, they can organize an event or play a part of the story Follow-

up activities develop students‟ skills especially their productive ones such aswriting (writing letters and postcards, note-taking) and speaking (interviewing, role-play, questionnaires)

C Post - reading Activities

Summarization - students can summarize the story in their own words

Written questionnaires - we can ask students questions belong to or comeout from stories Students‟ answers may lead to discussion

Re - writing the story - we can encourage students to re-write the story fromdifferent position

Writing a letter - students can write exchanging letters betweenprotagonists

Role-play or simulation - can be used to encourage general oral fluency, ortrain students for specific situations based on the story

Make a video

Creating students own stories - when we create an atmosphere in whichstories are valued in human terms much more than in 'learning English' terms, wewill encourage students to create their own stories.

All in all, there are various activities teachers can use to promote good points

of short stories Importantly, teacher must understand clearly the ability of theirstudents to choose suitable activities

2.3 Attitudes

According to McGroarty (1996), attitudes have cognitive, affective and conative components; they involve beliefs, emotional reactions and behaviouraltendencies related to the object of the attitudes (3) They refer to an individual’sinclinations, prejudices, ideas, fears and convictions concerning any topic Theyhave an evaluative aspect, a disposition and tendency to react positively ornegatively to something

Attitudes are often shaped by the social context, “develop early in childhoodand are the result of parents and peers’ attitudes” (Brown, 2000, 1) as well ascontact with others from different cultures Attitudes related to the motives ofstudying a language can be divided into two main categories; integrative andinstrumental motives

Gardner (as cited in Baker, 1993) suggests that integrative motives refer tosituations where a person learns a second language in order to participate in thetarget language group’s cultural activities Instrumental motives refer to practicalpurposes of learning a language such as in order to get a better job or to passexaminations

Students with positive attitudes will spend more effort to learn the language byusing strategies such as asking questions, volunteering information and answeringquestions (Baker, 1993, 1) Attitudes therefore affect the rate of development andthe final proficiency achieved in the target language Fortunately, attitudes do notremain static; they can be changed through the learning process with differentmethods such as using appropriate materials and teaching techniques According to

Choy (2002), attitudes also improve as a result of language learning as learners wholearn well will acquire positive attitudes.

Similarly, teachers with positive attitudes towards a teaching method havemore motivation to apply it in more real classes because they hope to see the goodresult which their students can get thanks to the method

In sum, attitudes is what teachers and learners behave, think about situations,teaching method in teaching and learning process Attitudes of both teachers andstudents can decide the success of the teaching and learning

2.4 Supplementary materials

Teachers often follow certain methods to teach languages effectively.Textbooks are usually considered as core materials of teaching Textbooks oftenmeet teaching needs However, they are not always adequate or sufficiently related

to students’ needs Teachers must look for other materials supporting theirteaching Therefore, supplementary materials are and should be used in classes.Supplementary materials can be defined as “books and other materials used inaddition to the course book” (Spratt, et al, 2005) What it means is supplementarymaterials are any resource (no matter what the format is) that complements theteachers’ work Supplementary materials are often used to cover the gaps whichtext books leave behind

2.5 Previous studies related to using short stories as supplementary materials for reading classes

There have been quite a few studies on the integration of short stories intoteaching reading skill Omid Pourkalhor1 and Nasibeh Kohan (2012) conducted aresearch to examine the effects of short story instruction on 20 advanced-leveltenth-grade students to show if the method had an impact on student readingcomprehension They concluded that the ability to understand a text is based notonly on the reader’s linguistic knowledge, but also on general knowledge of theworld and the extent to which that knowledge is activated during processing Thisstudy found that all respondents in a group that the researchers thought reading

comprehension through short story showed improvement after the reading courseand the result of the present study shows that the control group and experimentalgroup show a significant difference in their posttest.

Another research is about enhancing reading comprehension through shortstories in Iranian learners of Mohammad Khatib This study found that allrespondents showed improvement after the reading course However the result ofthe present study shows that the control group and experimental group did not show

a significant difference in their posttest, that is, the experimental and control groupsenjoy homogenous variances

In Viet Nam, Vo Thi Thanh Tam (2013) did a research on “Integrating shortstories into teaching reading comprehension to the third year English majors at HueUniversity College of Foreign Languages She presented the effectiveness ofintegrating short stories into teaching reading Her study also showed theadvantages and disadvantages in integrating short stories into teaching readingcomprehension She stated that short stories technique has provided itself to be aneffective technique for teaching and learning reading comprehension If thistechnique is applied appropriately, the learning and teaching reading comprehensionwill be effective, fun and meaningful

While these researches provide great insights into the benefits of using shortstories in teaching reading skill, they did not yield much understanding aboutteachers’ and students attitudes towards using short stories as supplementarymaterials Teachers’ and students’ attitudes are very important in the success of thismethod For teachers, if they have positive attitudes, they will make efforts to lookfor suitable short stories and design interesting activities In contrast, they will notuse short stories because of its inconveniences For students, if they have positiveattitudes, they will take part in both inside and outside classroom activities actively.Otherwise, they will not be eager to be proactive in the learning process I believethat attitudes are real evidences that can provide explanations as to why the results

of using short stories as supplementary are positive or not Therefore, in myresearch, I would like to concentrate on factors which create the problems teachers

and students might encounter in the process of using short stories as supplementarymaterials From the problems, as a researcher, I can come up with solutions so as toenhance the effectiveness of using short stories I also hope that my thesis will be agood resource that can provide useful information about using short stories assupplementary materials for reading classes.

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the methodology of the study, which includes quantitativeand qualitative methods The data collection method includes questionnaires forstudents as well as teachers, and interview for teachers Finally, it will show how thecollected data will be analyzed

3 1 Introduction

To investigate the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of stories as supplementary materials for reading classes ,various methods wereadopted to suit the purpose of this study Eighty second and third year students[both male and female] were selected for the study The reason, behind selecting thesecond and third year students, is to avoid selecting only the beginner because they

short-do not have many chances to study reading by using short stories Choosing a largenumber of student participants is to make sure variety of answers, especiallynecessary and helpful in collecting students’ attitudes towards using short stories assupplementary for reading classes These students are given questionnaires for theresearchers to find out their initial opinions about learning reading and their

perceptions towards using short stories to develop sub- skills of reading.

This study also aims at interviewing five English lecturers in the Faculty ofForeign Languages who are teaching reading courses and/or used to teach thesecourses to get their attitudes towards using short stories to develop students’ sub-skills of reading They are also given questionnaire about their attitudes towards theuse of short-stories as supplementary materials for reading classes The datacollected from both the questionnaires, will be classified in the line with the aims ofthe study and analyzed to find out the results of the study in order for theresearchers to draw the appropriate conclusions

3.2 Research method

Based on the inquiring nature of the research, this study is carried out withboth quantitative and qualitative methods because they provide reliable and valid

results Schumacher and McMillan (1993) stated that quantitative research provides

a general picture of a situation Consequently, in order to determine the attitudes ofvarious research groups, quantitative study is the most useful method

Rose (1992, cited in Brown & Rodgers, 2002, p.249) stated that ‘bothquantitative and qualitative types of evaluation can be used with a view to defining

a program’ and that “using quantitative and qualitative approaches may providealternative views of the same classroom phenomena.”

According to Perone and Tucker (2003), though quantitative method is betterthan qualitative method for this research, both quantitative and qualitative methodscan bring us quality information Combining these two methods makes a strongerresearch and undoubtedly results in more valid and reliable findings That is thereason why I decide to use quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data for

Schumacher and McMillan (1993) also explained that ‘the questionnaire isthe most widely used technique for obtaining information from subjects’ and theythink that if the researcher uses questionnaire, he/she will save time and moneyand may find an instrument with established reliability and validity The types ofquestions in the questionnaire for both students and teachers are close questions,partially open-ended questions The purposes of using close questions andpartially open-ended questions in questionnaire are to help the participants save