Some techniques in improving students’ IELTS general reading skill in doing matching headings into paragraphs task for 11 specilalized high school

TI G H H I : 15 CHUYÊN ĐỀ Some techniques in improving students’ IELTS General Reading skill in doing matching headings into paragraphs task for 11th English major students in Son La Gi

TI G H H I : 15

CHUYÊN ĐỀ

Some techniques in improving students’ IELTS General Reading skill in doing matching headings into paragraphs task for 11th English major students in Son La Gifted High School

1.1: Definitions of reading comprehension

2 Introduction into IELTS

3 IELTS reading skills

3.1: Scanning and Skimming

3.1.1: Skimming 3.1.2: Scanning 3.2: Identifying main ideas and details

3.3: Understanding opinion

4 Description of the matching headings into paragraphs task

4.1 How to prepare for this task 4.2 Some suggested techniques to do the IELTS reading matching headings into paragraphs task

I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a compulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage Moreover, under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate in English successfully In Son La Specialized High School, there are 210 periods in the cirriculum of English subject for English major students, especially there are 70 thematic periods It means that students have a lot of time to practise 4 language skills in class With the teacher’s guidance, student get used to doing IELTS test in thematic periods Futhermore, they have to face with many difficult exerices taken from IELTS, TOEFL in some examinations for gifted students Recognizing the importance of how to improve students’ reading ability when doing IELTS Reading Tests , I

decide on choosing “ Some techniques in improving students’ IELTS General Reading skill

in doing matching headings into paragraphs task for 11 th English major students in Son La Specialized High School.”

2 Aims of the study

The specific aim of the study is as follows:

- Suggesting useful techniques to improve students’ IELTS General Reading skill, in partically, matching headings into paragraphs task for 11th English major students in Son La Specialized High School.”

3 Scope of the study

Due to the limitation, all the techniques suggested are used in thematic periods for reading skill And the object of this study is the 11th English major students at Son La Specialized High school

4 Methods of the study

To implement this study, the following methods are used:

- Consulting related materials: For the sake of getting knowledge and useful

ideas, I read many IELTS books especially about IELTS reading

- Trial teaching reading lessons: Teacher teach some lessons based on the

suggested techniques

5 Significance of the study

The findings of the study are believed to be useful for students to improve their reading skills in doing IELTS reading test

6 Result of the reading pre-test (without teacher’s guiding)

II CONTENT

1 Literature review

1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension

In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of reading comprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence on what he

or she teaches in the class He would know what to teacher and how to make his reading lesson effectively In fact, methodologists have been providing different definitions of reading comprehension

ccording to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning

of word combination in the text in the most efficient way

Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978:9) provide a clearer point of view:

“Reading comprehension is est descri ed as an understanding etween the author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the printed page based on the individual reader’s unique ackground of experience Reading is much than just pronouncing words correctly or simply what the author intends It is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual”

According to the above authors, reading comprehension is not only simply understanding what is written, but also is what stimulates students to remember from their

experiences That knowledge is then used to get meaning out of printed page, but in the mind

of the readers which included not only facts or details but also emotion, belief and critical evaluation

From these opinions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a process

of understanding what is conveyed in the text It does not mean that the reader needs to understand every single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract the required information efficiently

2.INTRODUCTION TO IELTS

IELTS stands for international English Language Testing System It is a test of English language skills designed for students who want to study in the medium English either

at university, collegue or sesondary school

There are two versions of the test: the Academic Module and the General Module Students wishing to study at postgraduate or undergraduate level should take the Academic Module The General Module is designed for those candidates who plan to undertake training

or secondary school education

Overview of the test

The test is in four part reflecting four basic language skills:

+ Listening taken by all candidates

+ Reading: Academic or General training

+ Writing: Academic or General training

+ Speaking taken by all candidates

However, in this reaserch I only focus on teaching IELTS reading in General Training thus I only provide the overview of the IELTS READING TEST

General

Traing

Reading

No of items

Skills

60 mins 40 Total of 2,000 – 2,750

words

Up to 4 per cent

Up to 3 texts are possible

Course related texts drawn from an educational or traing context but focusing

on survival needs of students

Descriptive or narrative text of extended prose on a topic of geral interest

headings + Short answers + Multiple choice +Sentence

completion + Notes/ summary/

diagram/ flow chart/

table completion + Maching lists/

phrases + True/ False/ Not Given

+ Classification + Identification of writer’s views/

claims + Yes, No, Not given

+ scanning and skimming + reading for detail

+ understaning main ideas + understanding opinion and attitude

+ inferring meaning

3 IELTS READING SKILLS

Because I make a reseach a out how to improve students’ IELTS reading skill in doing maching headins into paragraphs type To do well this type students need to have a good reading skill

Good reading skills are vital for academic studies The IELTS exam test students ability to use a variety of reading skills It is very important to identify which skills arew being tested in each question and to apply them appropriately

The main reading skills tested in IELTS are:

+ Skimming and scanning

+ Understanding main ideas

+ Reading for detail

+ Understaning opinions

3.1: Scanning and skimming

2.1.1 Skimming

Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension It is one of specific reading techniques necessary for quick and efficient reading There have been many definitions of skimming

Grabe and Stoller (2002:266) state that skimming is a specialized type of reading in which thereader reads quickly for general understanding of the text and for the gist of the passage In line with this, Nutall (1982:34) states that skimming means glancingrapidly through a text to determine its gist Further, Brown (2004:213) also definesskimming as the process of rapid coverage of reading matter to determine its gist or main idea In other words, skimming is reading for gist

In this term, Douglas Brown has the same opinion but it is clearer than that of above author He wrote:

“Skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text for its gist Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or massage, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas.”

Considering the two opinions, it can be concluded that skimming is a skill that enables readers to get the main point of the text without being concerned with details They only go through the text very fast to get general sense or the gist of it

In brief, skimming is a very useful study technique to help the learner organize his thoughts and specify what information he can get from a book, so that his reading is more efficient Hence, skimming should be applied in teaching reading to help students have an overview of what they read

2.1.2 Scanning

Similar to skimming, scanning is a necessary technique in reading efficiently Douglas (2001:308) defines scanning as follows: “Scanning was quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text”

Sharing the same opinion with Douglas Brown, Williams (2001:100) emphasizes:

“Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information.” It reveals the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we are looking for and where to find it

In addition, Grellet (1981:19) gives a more detailed definition of scanning: “When scanning, we only try to locate information and often we do not even follow the linearity of

passage to do so, and scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose.”

These authors have the same point that while scanning reader does not need to read form cover to cover, they only look for the information they want by running their eyes rapidly along the lines It can be practised with the great range of texts such as dictionaries, map, advertisements, labels, etc This kind of reading is very useful in reading selectively

In general, both skimming and scanning are effective techniques for quick and efficient reading It is advisable to make use of them to improve reading comprehension skills for students in reading classes They are important skills to use on the IELTS exam However, they are used for different goals Skimming should be used during the IELTS when students need to quickly read for just main idea of a text, without thinking about specificdetails It involves selective reading of the most important parts of thetext to find out how the text is organized and get general idea of what the text is about Scannning should be used when you need to read to find specific pieces of information such as names, dates and facts Skimming and scanning are called “ ena ling skills” This means that they will help students tackle most questions in the IELTS reading test, including for example: multiple choice questions, completing a table, maching opinions and phrases, labelling a diagram

3.2: Identifying main ieads and details

Text are divided into paragraphs to make them easier to read A text is usually organized in the following way:

+ Introduction: theme, statement and objective

+ Paragraph 2: topic, supporting point or details

+ Paragraph 3: topic, supporting point or details

+ Conclusion: summary and restatement of main iead

In the introduction, the writer usually outlines what he or she is going to write about and the main issues to be raised Each paragraph usually deals with one key issue, which is stated in a topic sentence and possibly summarized in the last sentence of the paragraph Supporting details are used to develop and explain the main idea of the paragraph In the IELTS reading test, students’ understanding of main idea will e showed y matching headings into paragraphs in a text, in contrast students’ understanding of main idea may e

tested in sentence completion, short answer questions, multiple choice or summary completion exercises

3.3: Understanding Opinion

An opinion is a personal belief which may or may not true It is different from a fact, which is a statement known to be true or based on generally accepted evidence In texts, opinions are usually introduced by phrases such as:

+ Professor Jones argues that

+ Several experts claim that

+ It is a commonly held belief that

+ In Harriet’s view,

+ Many scientists suspect that

Facts, on the other hand, might be introduced by phrases such as:

+ According to the latest statistics,

+ Scientists have discovered that

+ Research findings confirm that

+ As has been frequently demonstrated,

When answering questions related to the writer’s opinion, candidates should e careful not to allow their own opinions to interfere with their choice of answer As IELTS passages are acadenic texts, they usually contain arguments and opinions Sometimes, a passage presents the writer’s opinion on a su ject; sometimes a passage presents the wrtiter’s view and other experts A number of different questions may test how well candidates can identify opinions including, for example, matching questions, multiple choice questions and Yes, No, Not given questions

4 Description of the matching headings into paragraphs task

In this task type, which often appears in the exam, candidates are given a text with 5 to

7 paragraph headings missing They must select the right paragraph headings from a list

Depending on the length and difficulty of the text and the number of paragraph headings, they will have between 5 and 8 minutes to do this task There are always more paragraph headings than paragraphs, so they won't need to use all of the paragraph headings that are given There will always also be some other different reading tasks for detailed understanding to do with the same text

4.1 How to prepare for this task

As this task tests candidates’ ability to read a text quickly and get a general

understanding of it, they will need to practice reading newspapers etc quickly and naturally without a dictionary Most native speakers do not read every newspaper article through to the end, as all the important and new information is usually given at the beginning of the article Reading a newspaper or magazine this natural way can help with this IELTS task and save their time and effort

Every time students do this task in their textbook or as part of a real IELTS exam reading, make sure that they know how to manage their time and keep to the time limit After they have finished all the tasks for the text they can then go back and read more slowly and use their dictionary if they like

Planning all their writing in English (and even in your their language) carefully before they start writing and deciding a clear topic for each paragraph or section can also help them understand how texts are organised in this way

4.2 Some suggested techniques to do the IELTS reading matching headings into

paragraphs task

+ Read through all the paragraph headings first to familiarise with them

+ Start reading the first paragraph quickly Underline the most important information in the paragraph as reading, especially things that seem to match one of the paragraph

headings

+ Re-read paragraph A and the example heading

+ Re-read paragraph B and select the heading that best fits this paragraph If you think there is more than one, mark them both and come back to this paragraph later

+ Repeat this procedure with the rest of the paragraphs

5 Lesson plan

5.1 TOPIC 1: Energy from Biological Sources

Class: 11 English

Time: 45 minutes

Main reading skill: Identifying main ideas

Reading level: IELTS READING TEST (GENERAL MODULE)

Specific objectives: At the end of the lesson Ss will be able to do the task with the highest

correct answers

Prior Knowledge: students know about sources of natural and alternative energy through unit

10 in English 11 advanced textbook

-Tell Ss to look at the pictures about wind,

coal, soalar energy, oil, bio gas and match

them with words or phrases for the sources of

energy

-Check with the whole class

-Ask Ss which source of energy they use for

home cooking and heating and the reason

why

II While-reading (35 mins)

- Deliver handouts for students (SEE

-Listen to the teacher’s guide carefully then answers

-Give answers

-Listen to the teacher’s guide carefully

APPENDIX)

- Guide students how to do the task

+ Read through all the paragraph

headings first to familiarise with them

+ Start reading the first paragraph

quickly Underline the most important

information in the paragraph as reading,

especially things that seem to match one

of the paragraph headings

+ Re-read paragraph A and the example

heading

+ Re-read paragraph B and select the

heading that best fits this paragraph If

you think there is more than one, mark

them both and come back to this

- Ask students to read out their answers

- Provide correct answers and give feedback

-Do the task individually

- Exchange answers with partners

-Read out their answers -Check correct answers