skkn SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT TEACHING SKILLS TO DO READING COMPREHENSION TESTS

TEACHING SKILLS TO DO READING COMPREHENSION TESTS: Each reading passage is often followed by 5 questions of reading comprehension and vocabulary.. The question – type tells you exactly w

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

Người thực hiện: Trần Thị Thủy Tiên Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu:

Quản lý giáo dục:  Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn:  Phương pháp giáo dục:  Lĩnh vực khác: 

SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC

I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN:

1 Họ và tên: TRẦN THỊ THỦY TIÊN

2 Ngày tháng năm sinh: 01 / 01 / 1968

3 Nam, Nữ: Nữ

4 Địa chỉ: Tổ 19, Khu Phước Hải, Thị trấn Long thành, huyện Long Thành, tỉnh Đồng Nai

5 Điện thoại: 0613844281 (CQ); 0613 546764 (NR)

6 Chức vụ: Giáo viên Trung học phổ thong

7 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Long Thành

II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO:

- Trình độ chuyên môn cao nhất: Cử nhân tiếng Anh

- Năm nhận bằng: 1990

- Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Tiếng Anh III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC:

- Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy

- Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 20 năm

- Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong những năm gần đây:

 Some thoughts about teaching vocabulary in grade 10 in High Schools

 Some thoughts about teaching reading skill in High Schools

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Name of Experience Initiative:

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT

TEACHING SKILLS TO DO

READING COMPREHENSION TESTS

PART 1

I BACKGROUND AND THE REASON FOR THE STUDY

The impetus for this study comes from my own year-to-year efforts to teach students to do the Reading comprehension tests in Grades 10, 11, 12 in Long Thanh High School

I feel that the majority of students always find it hard to do this type of tests At first sight, they do not figure out the content of the passage, but they are not patient enough to read the passage to the end under the pressure of time during the test Also, this part accounts for a small percentage in the whole test As a result, students usually put this part aside and return to it at the end of the test time At that time, students will make ticks on this part without intention

On the other hand, teachers rarely show or sometimes refuse to teach students how

to do the Reading Comprehension test due to the seemingly unsuccessful results despite their unfailing endeavor to improve students’ reading Although there have been plenty of descriptions of what teachers have done or what materials have been presented, there have still been few practical results of how or / and what our students learn

To help students of High School confidently come in the coming final test, Thanh

Nien Paper holds a live consultancy instructing students to revise for the final

exam with the topic “To get good mark in the GCSE examination” at 2p.m on April 3rd, 2012

In that talk, Ms Tran Thi Huyen Thanh – Head of English Section, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School, Ho Chi Minh City assumed that the part in which students usually make the most errors is Reading Comprehension because students have a small number of vocabulary She said that in a passage of English, students often do not master all the vocabulary, so they cannot understand the meaning of the passage She advises that students should carefully read each sentence and calmly read the whole passage in order to analyze the meaning of the sentences

Owing to the necessities, I have made up my mind to choose “Some thoughts about teaching skills to do Reading comprehension tests” as my topic of the study

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II AIM OF THE STUDY:

With the above mentioned reasons in mind, I have the specific aims as follows:

1 To help students improve the skills of doing reading comprehension tests

2 To encourage students to confidently cope with this type of tests so as to complete the tests at best they can

3 To encourage students to get full mark on this part of test

III SOURCE OF THE STUDY:

The materials that have been greatly valuable to my study are from the book of

Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, University of Science - Toefl,

Preparation Course, Reading Comprehension Besides, the examples to illustrate

my thesis are all in the textbooks - Tiếng Anh 10, 12 – Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục, and

also from the latest one-period tests as well as the first and second semester tests

PART 2

I SITUATION JUDGMENT:

As regards the teaching of reading, I do not totally deny the energies the teachers

in explaining the text However, in discussion with the teachers in our school, I feel that our investment of energies in teaching the reading part is meaningless It

is because most students learn in advance from the Instruction Books the content

of the text in Vietnamese, not in English, while teachers take no notice of that Little by little, students get a habit of being unable to read the English passages by themselves They always expect their teachers to translate the passages into Vietnamese, or choose the options with no intention

As for teachers, after asking students, especially good students, to translate the text, or doing it for the worse students, teachers let students do the tasks without giving any explanation Consequently, students get confused and do not know what they need to find from the text and how to choose the answers In the end, students refuse to read the passage or read them without intention, then choose the answers randomly and never know whether their answers are right or not As a result, students put no efforts into the part of Reading Comprehension

I always see that the greatest problem students face in any English paper is Reading Comprehension Students either spend much time on it without knowing for sure the answers or do it without intention As for me, I would like to present

in this paper some following skills to help my colleagues teach students how to get over this problem so that the latter can do this part more easily and exactly I hope that my topic “Some thoughts about teaching skills to do Reading comprehension tests” can result in effective ways in teaching students how to complete their tests perfectly

II TEACHING SKILLS TO DO READING COMPREHENSION TESTS:

Each reading passage is often followed by 5 questions of reading comprehension and vocabulary Topics of the reading passage are varied, but they are often informational subjects such as history, literature, art, architecture, geology, geography, and astronomy Time is definitely a factor in the Reading Comprehension

Some students, especially average students, note that they are unable to finish all the questions in this section Others cannot understand what the passage is about,

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so they do without intention and don’t know surely if their answer is true Therefore, they need to make the most efficient use of their time in this section to get the highest score The following method is the best way of attacking a reading passage to get the most questions correct in a limited amount of time

STRAGIES FOR THE READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1 Skim the reading passage to determine the main idea and the overall organizations of ideas in the passage You do not need to understand every detail in each passage to answer the questions correctly It is therefore a waste

of time to read the passage with the intent of understanding every single detail before you try to answer the questions

2 Look ahead at the questions to determine what types of questions you must answer Each type of question is answered in a different way

3 Find the section of the passage that deals with each question The question – type tells you exactly where to look in the passage to find correct answers

- For main ideas questions, look at the first line of each paragraph

- For directly and indirectly answered detail questions, choose a key word in the question, and skim for that key word (or a related idea) in order in the passage

- For vocabulary questions, the questions will tell you where the word is located in the passage

- For overall review questions, the answers are found anywhere in the passage

4 Read the part of the passage that contains the answers carefully The answer will probably be in the same sentence (or one sentence before or after) the key word or idea

5 Choose the best answer to each question from the four answer choices listed in the textbook The best answer can be chosen according to what is given in the appropriate section of the passage, eliminate definitely wrong answers, and mark the best guess on the answer sheet

The following skills will help students to implement these strategies in the Reading passage of the test

A QUESTIONS ABOUT THE IDEAS OF THE PASSAGE _

It is very common for reading passages of the test to have questions about the overall ideas in the passage The most common type of question asks about the main idea, topic, title, or subject

Skill 1 Answer main idea questions correctly

Students may be asked to identify the topic, subject, title, primary idea, or main idea These questions are all really asking what primary point that the author is trying to get across in the passage, and it is not difficult to find the main idea by studying the topic sentence, which is most probably found at the beginning of a paragraph

If the passage consists of only one paragraph, students should study the beginning

of that paragraph to determine the main idea If a passage consists of more than one paragraph, students study the beginning to determine the main idea

Example 1 In the Second Semester Test, Grade 12, year 2010-2011, Code AV

121, the Reading comprehension is that:

The Asian Beach Games is a multi – sport event held every two years among athletes representing countries from Asia The games are regulated by the Olympic Council of Asia The first Games were held in 2008 in Bali, Indonesia This Games will be composed of sports with strong television appeal such as windsurfing, kite boarding, swimming, beach volleyball, beach handball, beach soccer, and dragon boat racing

The Asian Indoor Games is a multi – sport event held every two years among athletes representing countries from Asia The Games are regulated by the Olympic Council of Asia The first Games were held in Bangkok, Thailand

This Games will be composed by sports with TV broadcasting potential and not included in the Asian Games and Winter Asia Games Programs and are not Olympic sports The sports program will comprise from six to eight exciting sports with strong television appeal, including electronic sports, extreme sports, aerobics, acrobatics, indoor athletics, dance sports, inline hockey, fin swimming, and 25 meters short course swimming

Question 27 The passage is about ………

A The Asian Beach Games and the Asian Indoor Games

B The Olympic Council of Asia

C The Asian Games and Winter Asian Games Programs

D The Asian Indoor Games and Winter Asian Games Programs

In the above given passage, there are four paragraphs Students should be sure to read the first sentence of each paragraph to determine the subject, title, or main idea In Example 1, the first sentence of the first paragraph of this passage

discusses the Asian Beach Games, and the second paragraph begins with “this

Games”, which means that it is about the Asian Beach Games The first sentence

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of the third paragraph tells of the Asian Indoor Games, about which the fourth paragraph tells, also beginning with “this Games” So the whole passage discusses the two kinds of games: the Asian Beach Games and the Asian Indoor Games

Therefore, the best choice is answer A

The following chart outlines the key information that students should remember about main idea questions:

MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS

IDENTIFY THE

QUESTIONS

What is the topic of the passage?

What is the subject of the passage?

What is the main idea of the passage?

What is the author’s main point in the passage?

With what is the author primarily concerned?

Which of the following would be the best title?

WHERE TO FIND

THE ANSWER

The answer to this type of question can generally be determined by looking at the first sentence of each paragraph HOW TO

ANSWER THE

QUESTION

1 Read the first line of each paragraph

2 Look for a common theme or idea in the first lines

3 Pass your eyes quickly over the rest of the passage to check that you really have found the topic sentence(s)

4 Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices

B DIRECTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS _ Skill 2 Answer stated detail questions correctly

A stated detail question asks about one piece of information in the passage rather than the passage as a whole The answers to these questions are generally given in order in the passage, and the correct answer is often a restatement of what is given

in the passage This means that the correct answer often expresses the same idea as what is written in the passage, but the words are not exactly the same

Example 2: In English 10, page 45 and 46, Unit 4 “Special Education”, Part Reading, the second paragraph:

At first, there was a lot of opposition from the parents of the disabled children They used to believe that their children could not learn anything at all In the first week, only five children attended the class Gradually more children arrived Their parents realized that the young teacher was making great efforts to help their poor kids

Task 2:

Question 2: At first the parents were the idea of sending their

children to the special class

A interested in B opposed to C satisfied with D worried about

Since in the first sentence of the paragraph, there is the noun “opposition”, we can see from the four answers the verb “opposed” in the answer B, they are in a

family So the answer B is the best one

The following chart outlines the key information that students should remember about stated detail questions:

STATED DETAIL QUESTIONS HOW TO

IDENTIFY THE

QUESTION

According to the passage, …

It is stated in the passage … The passage indicates that … The author mentions that … Which of the following is true …?

1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for the key word or idea

3 Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

4 Look for the answer that restates an idea in the passage

5 Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices

Skill 3 Find “unstated” details

Students will sometimes be asked to find an answer that is not stated or not

mentioned or not true in the passage This type of question really means that three

of the answers are stated, mentioned, or true in the passage, while one answer is

not The actual job is to find the three correct answers and then choose the letter of the one remaining answer The teacher asks students to notice that there are two kinds of answers to this type of question:

1) There are three true answers and one answer that is not discussed in the passage

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2) There are three true answers and one that is false according to the passage

Example 3: In English 12, page 163 and 164, Unit 15 “Woman in Society”, Part Reading, the last paragraph:

Today, although their status varies in different countries, women in most parts of the world have gained significant legal rights The most important of these are: the right to have equal work opportunities and pay to men, the right to vote, and the right to formal education

Task 2:

Question 5: Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the last paragraph as one

of women’s legal rights today?

A the right to hold property

B the right to equal pay

C equal employment opportunity rights

D the right to vote

The question asks for the one answer that is not mentioned, so three of the answers are listed in the passage and one is not Since the right to equal pay, equal

employment opportunity rights, the right to vote, are listed in the passage, answers

B, C, and D are incorrect However, the right to hold property is not listed in the

passage, so answer D is the best answer to this question

The following chart outlines the key information that students should remember about “unstated” detail questions:

“UNSTATED” DETAIL QUESTIONS

IDENTIFY THE

QUESTION

Which of the following is not stated …?

Which of the following is not mentioned …?

Which of the following is not discussed …?

All of the following are true except …?

1 Choose a key word in the question

2 Scan in the appropriate place in the passage for the key word (or related idea)

3 Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully

4 Look for answers that are definitely true according to the passage Eliminate those answers

5 Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage

Skill 4 Find pronoun referents

In the Reading comprehension of the test, you will sometimes be asked to determine which noun a pronoun refers to In this type of question it is important

to understand that a noun is generally used first in a passage, and the pronoun that refers to it comes after Whenever you are asked which noun a pronoun refers to, you should look before the pronoun to find the noun

Example 4: In the Second Semester Test, Grade 12, year 2011-2012, Code AV

101, the Reading comprehension is that:

Arctic Ice May Disappear in a Decade

A new report on global warming predicts the frozen Arctic Ocean will soon be like

a normal sea in the summers There are shocking changes happening in the polar environment and its fragile eco-systems For millions of years, the sea around the North Pole has been frozen all year round Recent research from the World

Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Catlin Atlantic Survey show things are changing fast They predict that within a decade, the Arctic will be largely ice-free in the summer They base their prediction on the rate at which the sea ice is currently thinning The lead researcher, professor Peter Wadhams said, “The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone.”

An ice-free Arctic will have consequences for the whole world’s weather patterns The Arctic sea ice is a key part of the Earth’s climate system Experts call it

Earth’s “refrigerator” They said that as it disappears, the world will become a lot warmer Scientists are still unclear exactly what changes there will be to our

weather Forecasters predict an increase in all kinds of disasters and extreme

weather events These include massive flooding, much more dangerous hurricanes and the spread of the world’s deserts These new findings provide an urgent call for world leaders to act The timing of the WWF report is a reminder to those attending the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December Rich countries will face pressure to agree to reduce their carbon emissions by40 per cent by 2020

Question: 33 What does the word “it” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A the Arctic sea ice

B climate system

C refrigerator

D the Earth

To answer this question, students should look before the pronoun it for singular

nouns that pronoun could refer to An ice sea Arctic, the Arctic sea ice, the Earth’s

climate system come before the pronoun, so they are possible answers Then

students should try the three possible answers in the sentence in place of the