Using pre reading activities to enhance students’ reading interests an action research project at a high school in ba vi district, ha noi

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HẰNG USING PRE-READING ACTIVITIE

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

TRẦN THỊ THU HẰNG

USING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ READING INTERESTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL

IN BA VI DISTRICT, HA NOI

(Sử dụng các hoạt động trước khi đọc để nâng cao hứng thú đọc

của học sinh: Một nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường THPT

của huyện Ba Vì, Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THU HẰNG

USING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ READING INTERESTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BA VI DISTRICT, HA NOI

(Sử dụng các hoạt động trước khi đọc để nâng cao hứng thú đọc của học sinh: Một nghiên cứu hành động tại một trường THPT

của huyện Ba Vì, Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor : Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã

Hanoi – 2020

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my heart- felt thank and my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her enlightening guidance, precious suggestions and invaluable encouragement during my fulfillment

of this minor thesis

My sincere thanks go to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies for the valuable lectures on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation

I truly wish to thank all the students of class 10A4 at Bat Bat High School who have actively participated in the research

I am deeply grateful to my family for their great support and to many of my colleagues for their notable assistance

ABSTRACT

An important goal of language teaching is to awaken learners‟ interest in language and also to give them a lasting positive attitude towards reading The primary purpose of this study is to examine on types of teachers‟ pre-reading strategies to attract students‟ attention and interest towards learning reading lessons,

to investigate reasons why students tend to lose interest in reading lessons and to examine the impact of using three pre-reading activities (games, visual aids and group discussion) to enhance students‟ interests in learning This study was carried out among 41 grade ten students in a high school in Ba Vi district Data were collected through questionnaires, classroom observation and teaching diaries and then the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively The results of the data analysis indicate that students have relatively low interest in reading lessons due to the lack of interesting pre-reading activities from the teacher Some adjustments on pre-reading activities have been executed and these activities have brought about positive changes to language learning The results show that three pre-reading activities applied have considerable impacts on students‟ learning Classroom learning has been promoted and students‟ interactions have been strengthened The students made considerable progress in their reading lessons and they also actively engaged in the lesson with high motivation From these findings, it can be suggested that teachers should take actions in developing and enhancing students‟ reading interests

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 3.1: Cyclical action research model based on Kemmis and

Mctaggart 28

Figure 4.1: Students‟ opinion about the reading lesson 36

Figure 4.2: The reasons why the students thought the reading lessons were not interesting 37

Figure 4.3: The frequency of pre-reading activities used by teacher in reading lessons 38

Figure 4.4: Students‟ opinions on pre-reading activities 39

Table 4.1: Students‟ opinions about pre-reading activities 41

Figure 4.5: Purposes of pre-reading activities 43

Figure 4.6: Pre-reading activities offered by the students 44

Table 4.2: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson (Cycle 1) 48

Table 4.3: Students‟ opinion on using pictures and videos 52

Table 4.4: Students‟ opinion on group discussion 53

Table 4.5: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson (Cycle 2) 55

Table 4.6: The students‟ opinion on game and group discussion 56

Table 4.7: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson (Cycle 3) 57

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research 2

2.1.1 Definition of reading 5 2.1.2 Classification of reading 6

2.2 An overview of reading comprehension 7

2.2.1 Definition of reading comprehension 7 2.2.2 Stages in a reading comprehension lesson 8

2.3 Theoretical background of pre-reading activities 9

2.3.1 Definition of pre-reading activities 9 2.3.2 Pre-reading techniques 10

2.4.1 Definition of interest 12

2.4.2 Types of interest 13

2.4.3 The aspects of interest 14

2.4.4 Factors influencing interest 15

2.4.5 The importance of interest to learning 17

2.5 Literature review of interests in reading 18 2.6 Relationships between pre-reading activities and interest 19 2.7 Previous studies on pre-reading stage and interest 20 2.8 Summary 23 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Context of the study 24 3.1.1 The research site 24

3.1.2 Materials 24

3.2 Participants 25

3.3 Research method: Action research 25 3.3.1 Definition of action research 25

3.3.2 Action research model 26

3.4 Data collection instruments 28 3.4.1 Questionnaire 28

3.4.2 Teaching diary 29

3.5 Data analysis procedures 30 3.6 Research procedure 31 3.7 Summary 34 CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 35 4.1 Research cycle one 35 4.1.1 Analysis of classroom observation 35

4.1.3 Analysis of the teaching diaries 45

4.1.2 Analysis of the questionnaires to the students……… ……46

4.1.4 Data collected from post-questionnaires 48

4.2 Research cycle two 54 4.2.1 The students’ attitude towards the reading lesson 54

4.2.2 The students’ opinions about games and group discussion 55

4.4.1 What are students’ opinions about reading lessons? 58 4.4.2 How effective is the use of three pre-reading activities in enhancing students’ reading interest? 59 4.4.3 What are students’ attitudes towards these activities? 60

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

Interests in learning, especially in teaching and learning reading skills have addressed the attention of many researchers As we know that, interests have a powerful impact on students‟ reading abilities Kragler and Nolley (1996) claim that determining children‟s interests can motivate children to read more difficult reading materials Wolfson and Manning (1984) found that students comprehend more when they read materials of interest For this reason, making reading an enjoyable activity is very important, and to improve students‟ reading ability, the reading activities used in teaching reading must also be enjoyable It can be said that without interests, someone is impossible to do anything Therefore, it is important that teachers should pay attention to students‟ interests to help them read at a higher level and comprehend the text more successfully

It is undeniable that pre-reading activities play an important role in the success of teaching reading skill According to Celce-Murcia (1991), pre-reading activities not only activate the reader‟s prior relevant knowledge to the understanding of the new text but they also provide language preparation and motivate reading An effective pre-reading activity makes the reading lesson more enjoyable and less challenging It is assumed that if the students are interested in pre-reading state, their reading tasks will be more successfully completed and obstacles in while-reading stage will become less

As an English teacher for more than ten years, the researcher has realized the significant effects of pre-reading activities on students‟ reading performance However, in the context of teaching and learning in a high school in Ba Vi district, the author found that the use of pre-reading tasks has been far from satisfactory In most reading lessons, teachers seem to follow repeated tasks in textbooks without any adaptation Students, therefore, merely spend most of their time following what the teacher asks with low emotion and cooperation Sometimes, the teachers use a

lot of pre-reading activities in their reading lesson but not all of them take effect in raising students‟ learning performance and interests Some activities are thought to

be effective but in fact they do not always work well and sometimes demotivate students‟ learning Moreover, there are only a few studies that are deal with the effects

of pre-reading on raising students‟ interests in reading These gaps are the subject of research in this study This study was carried out with a view to finding out which pre-reading activities can help enhance students‟ interests in learning reading skill as well

as find out their attitudes towards these activities Based on the findings of this action research, some appropriate pre-reading strategies will be applied as a useful tool to enhance students‟ interests in learning and to facilitate their reading comprehension skill Hopefully, the study would offer some practical suggestions for teachers to design more effective pre-reading activities

1.2 Aims and objectives of the research

1.2.1 Aims of the research

The study was carried out with an aim to find out effective pre-reading activities to increase students‟ interests in reading to adjust teaching and learning activities

1.2.2 Objectives of the research

The objectives of the research were to find out whether the students in a high school in Ba Vi district were interested in reading lessons or not, and to check the effectiveness of three pre-reading activities (games, discussion and visual aids) in enhancing students‟ reading interest It also examined students‟ attitudes towards these pre-reading activities and proposed some suggestions for teachers to foster students‟ interests in learning

1.3 Research questions

With the given aims and objectives, the study aimed to answer three research questions:

1 What are students’ opinions about reading lessons?

2 How effective is the use of three pre-reading activities in enhancing students’ reading interests?

3 What are students’attitudes towards these activities?

1.4 Scope of the research

The study was conducted at a high school in Ba Vi District, Ha Noi Because

of the limited time, it only focuses on using pre-reading activities to raise the students‟ reading interests to grade 10 students, so the teaching of other skills or other grades would be beyond the scope

1.5 Methods of the research

The author used action research for the study and the data is collected by using quantitative and qualitative techniques In order to achieve reliable results for the study, the author chose classroom action research in which survey questionnaires for students, classroom observation and teaching diary were used to collect data The study was carried out during 12 weeks, and the research cycle consisted of four phases: planning; action; observation and reflection

1.6 Significance of the research

The research is designed with the hope to contribute effective ways to raise students‟ reading interests by using different pre-reading activities As a result, the students will be expected to gain a higher level of English and to perform better in their language learning in general, especially in reading comprehension in particular In terms of practice, the finding of this research can be used as a reference for teachers of English in their own teaching

1.7 Organisation of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction- This chapter presents the rationale for choosing

the field for studying, the aims and objectives, the scope of the study, the research questions and the significance and the design of the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review- This chapter deals with a review of

theoretical issues related to the definition of reading, reading comprehension, reading techniques, interest, the relation between pre-reading activities and interest

pre-as well pre-as previous studies related to the problem under investigation

Chapter 3: Methodology- This chapter mentions the methods and procedure

of the study and includes background information of the context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect the data and the procedure

of data collection

Chapter 4: Findings- This chapter aims at describing the analysis of data in

detail and giving the summary and discussion of the findings

Chapter 5: Conclusion- This part offers a summary of the findings,

recommendations, limitations as well as suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 presents the basic theories related to reading, pre-reading strategies and interests in reading, a brief review of the importance of interest in learning and the relation between pre-reading activities and interest

2.1 Theoretical background of reading

In summary, the definition of reading may vary among different researchers However, most of these show some common characteristics of reading, that is the close relation between the context of the reading text and the readers‟ background knowledge When individuals have chances to activate their background knowledge and the understanding of the context, they will obtain more information and their knowledge will be widened It can be concluded that reading is a very complex activity that demands of its readers much care and knowledge, skills and strategies

to do it successfully

2.1.2 Classification of reading

2.1.2.1 Classification of reading according to manner

Reading can be classified by two criteria (manner or purpose) By manner, there are two types of reading, reading aloud and silent reading According to Doff (1988, p.70) “Reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it.” Its purpose is not just to understand a text but also to convey the information to someone else When reading aloud, students focus on pronunciation, spelling sounds but not on meaning, so reading skill is not much improved Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is often used in real life and classroom Silent reading is a reading skill which allows one to read without voicing the words It is

an activity focusing on the meaning of the text This type of reading is useful for

development of reading skill in class

2.1.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes

By purposes, reading is categorized into skimming, scanning, intensive and extensive reading Skimming is reading rapidly in order to have a general overview

of the material Skimming allows readers to pick up some of the main ideas without paying attention to detail According to Grellet (1981, p.19), “when skimming, we

go through the reading materials quickly in order to get its main points or the intentions of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions”, whereas scanning is defined as reading rapidly to find specific information Nuttall (2000, p.49) indicated that “scanning means glancing rapidly through a text either to search

for a specific piece of information or to get an initial impression of whether the text

is suitable for a given purpose.”

Extensive reading involves rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer readings for general understanding According to Elley (1991), extensive reading aids learners to focus more on meaning rather than on form and extensive reading involves extensive input of meaningful prints In this type of reading, students are free to choose the content area of reading and reading purposes focus

on pleasure, information and general understanding The last classification is intensive reading Grellet (1981, p.41) defined “intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information.” According to Brown (2007), intensive reading is "a classroom-oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic detail, grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding” In intensive reading, students can improve their English vocabulary skills It can be concluded that reading in the classroom is mainly intensive reading

In short, reading can be categorized into different types depending on its manner and purposes Understanding clearly about different types of reading can help teachers offer flexible adjustments to make their teaching and learning more effective and meaningful The following section will analyse features related to reading comprehension

2.2 An overview of reading comprehension

2.2.1 Definition of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is a significant skill that furthers the development of learners‟ various academic tasks Pressley (2000) defined reading comprehension as the ability to get meaning from what is read Sharing his viewpoints, Hermosa (2002) stated that reading comprehension is a series of cognitive activities that include various dimensions like the understanding of words and their meanings, mindful reaction, and integration Pardo (2004, p.272) stages that comprehension is

a “process on which readers construct meaning by interacting with text through the combination of prior knowledge and previous experience, information in the text,

and the stance the reader takes in relationship to the text” Meniado (2016) considers that reading comprehension is a complex process that involves components, processes, and factors with the aim of finding better ways of improving it among learners He added that reading comprehension is an interactive process of finding meanings from a text Koda (2007) focused on various variables that impact learners‟ reading comprehension such as vocabulary knowledge, prior knowledge, metacognitive information, and reading strategies While Trehearne and Doctorow (2005) considered that learners‟ reading attitudes, useful teaching on comprehension methods, versatility, text form, and being aware of various reading comprehension strategies are factors that directly affect reading comprehension

From the above definitions, reading comprehension can be defined as a complicated process in which the learners use their background knowledge to extract, analyze and understand the information transmitted through written words There are various factors that impact learners‟ reading comprehension such as the complexity of the text, the environmental condition, the anxiety of learners during the reading comprehension process, the interest and motivation or the medical problems To assist learners in understanding the text easily and become successful readers, teachers should help learners develop their background knowledge, provide learners with appropriate and effective reading comprehension strategies And more importantly, teachers should encourage and strengthen learners‟ interests and motivation to read

2.2.2 Stages in a reading comprehension lesson

Teaching a reading lesson requires that you are familiar with the framework used to teach a reading lesson A reading lesson is made up of activities to activate student‟s background knowledge, present new vocabulary and tasks while students read the passage and after the reading is over According to William (1984), a reading lesson is often divided into three stages They are pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and post-reading stage He adds that each stage carries its own features and requires different techniques and strategies Pre-reading activities are those that help students think about what they know about a topic and predict what they will read or hear The purpose of pre-reading activities is to establish a purpose

for reading, to improve vocabulary and to create favorable learning environment so students can complete all the reading tasks successfully While-reading activities are defined as tasks that help students to focus on aspects of the text and to understand

it better, the goal of these activities is to help learners to deal with the text Some activities in this stage are identifying the topic sentences and the main idea of paragraphs, distinguishing between general and specific ideas Post-reading stage is the last stage in teaching reading Post-reading activities help students understand texts, through critically analyzing what they have read William (1984) pointed out that the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating and reflecting what has been read For this reason, its main purpose is to ensure learner‟s comprehension of the information of the text that they have already read It is also to help learners remember what they have created in their mind about the text

2.3 Theoretical background of pre-reading activities

2.3.1 Definition of pre-reading activities

Pre-reading activities mean tasks or activities that students do before they read the text in detail The purpose of this stage is to facilitate while-reading activities These activities have been considered as effective learning tools to help readers better comprehend reading texts and to avoid possible failure in understanding information during the reading process Pre-reading activities provide learners with “cultural background, stimulate students‟ interest in the text, and pre-teach vocabulary” (Laza, 1993, p 83) Meanwhile, Wasik and Bond (2001), Pemberton and Road (2009) described pre-reading activities as series of activities like games, play, jigsaw puzzles, role playing and imitation to which pupils are exposed Tudor (1989) called pre-reading activities “enabling” ones because they provide readers with the necessary background to organize activites and to comprehend the material Celce-Murcia (1991) said that the goals of pre-reading stage are to activate the students‟ knowledge of the subject, to provide any language preparation that might be needed for coping with the passage and, finally to motivate the learners to read the text According to Langer (1981) and Johnson (1982), pre-reading activities prepare readers for the upcoming concepts and make

the reading tasks easier Ringler and Weber (1984) shared the ideas and added that pre-reading activities elicit prior knowledge, build background, and focus attention

In sum, in pre-reading stage, the students and teacher prepare themselves for the tasks and familiarize themselves with the topic of the reading exercises The purposes of pre-reading activities are to activate students‟ prior knowledge, prepare students for linguistic difficulties in a text and to motivate them to learn Pre-reading activities are used as a good way to remind the readers of their previous knowledge and to build necessary knowledge needed for dealing with the content and the structure of the materials It is important for teachers to recognize that these activities should be more focused to help their students more engage in reading and create interests in learning

2.3.2 Pre-reading techniques

According to Vygotsky (1978), learning happens when students are interacting cooperatively with their peers in their own environment Therefore, teachers should take different communicative activities in class to help students engage in learning Various techniques of pre-reading stage have been suggested to engage students and enhance their interests in reading Carrell (1983) suggested some ways to build and activate learners‟ schema in pre-reading stage such as viewing movies, slides, pictures, debate or class discussions, demonstrations or role-play activities Zhao and Zho (2012) suggested some activities like questions, brainstorming, pre-teaching, pre-texting and pre-discussing All of them are considered warm-up activities that can help involve learners into the reading process, arouse their interest and curiosity and activate their schema Among these pre-reading activities, group discussion, visual aids and games were chosen as treatments in the research because they may be suitable with the teaching context and because of their promising roles in enhancing students‟ interests

in reading

Games in Language Learning Musa (2012) discussed that games are

activities that are in great harmony to the mind and provide learners the environment to compete while maintaining their enthusiasm Ghamrawi (2014) adds

that games stimulate children to be more active participants in classroom activities

Games have a great educational value and it can be used in the classroom to encourage learners to interact, to cooperate, to be creative and spontaneous in using the language in a meaningful way It can be said that using games at pre-reading stage is regarded as an effective way in raising students‟ interest in learning Chen (2005) stated in his journal that the benefits of using games in language learning are promoting communicative competence, creating a meaningful context for language use, increasing learning motivation, reducing learning anxiety, encouraging creative and spontaneous use of language and constructing a cooperative learning environment Several useful games are suggested for introducing the text, namely, lucky number, crossword, guessing games, and word games

Visual aids: There are a number of benefits in using visual aids in

pre-reading stage Firstly, according to Bowen (1982) and Bellver (1989), using visual aids in reading creates strong engagement between students and the texts The use

of visual aids like pictures, videos and projectors encourages students to read the texts with high level of interest, which makes it easier for students to understand different abstract ideas In a study conducted by Sivapalan, Ahmad and Ishak (2009), pictures could help students to understand different meanings and the messages of the text better In language learning, learners often encounter difficulties understanding the concepts of the texts To solve this learning problem, visual aids such as graphics, illustrations, pictures, audio, and video can be used as

a helpful tool in facilitating students‟ understanding of different concepts that occur

in the texts It can be concluded that the characteristics of the visual aids like sound, light and color can trigger and stimulate students‟ understanding of the texts

Group discussion: This activity has been considered as a useful way to

activate what students know, to exchange the information and to enhance the students‟ knowledge of the subject According to Goldenberg (1991), discussions help learners produce opinions and new questions Discussion can be done by posing questions about the contents of the texts Nuttal (1982) claimed that discussion promotes the active struggle with the text and students have more chances to promote their critical thinking Group work is ideal because in small

groups, a participant has chances to put across his/her viewpoint, the weaker students would share their opinions with stronger ones to be active and get involved Group discussion works on learner-centered so it gives opportunities to all members to express their ideas and opinion on a certain topic Moreover, it increases students‟ confidence in speaking and helps them enhance their ability to articulate and defend a position thoughtfully and respectfully

Overall, various studies of pre-reading activities concerning definition, types, techniques have been discussed However, the review of literature shows that little research focuses on the effects of each pre-reading activity in enhancing students‟ interest in reading The effects of pre-reading activities in enhancing students‟ interest, the students attitudes towards these activities are not explained thoroughly, so the teacher lacks practical support to make full use of these Sometimes, teachers use alot

of pre-reading activities in class but not all of them could enhance students‟ interest The gaps are the subject of this research The following section will analyse features related to interest

shared the same opinion that interest is regarded as a positive feeling of individual including engagement, attention, concentration, happiness and willingness to spend more time to do activity Hidi and Baird (1986); Schiefele (1999) Renninger (2000) believed that interest plays an essential role in learning and they stressed that students could find it difficult to follow the reading activities when they do not have interest

Based on the explanations above, interest can be concluded as a positive feeling of a person including engagement, attention, happiness and willingness to spend more time on something To learning, interest has a great impact on students‟ learning and performance It plays an important part in the learning process since it promotes active engagement and focuses one‟s attention Students have a tendency not to learn well when they are not interested in learning activities So when students are interested in learning, they will show appropriate behaviors such as attention, activeness and engagement in all activities that support learning

2.4.2 Types of interest

Interest is not innate or natural, it grows based on individual ages and experiences Krapp (2002) believed that interest grows and developes based on the relationship between individual purpose and environment factors According to him, interest is commonly categorized as situational interest and individual interest Situational interest is an emotional state aroused by features of environmental or textual stimuli It is fostered by the condition of environmental factors, and it is a response to certain conditions or stimuli in the learning environment so it may last for a long time Hidi (1990), Hidi and Renninger (1992), Schiefele (1999) shared the viewpoint that individual interest is considered to be a stable and enduring inclination to engage with activities or objects It refers to individual characteristics

It involves knowledge, positive affect and value Interest starts from stimulus in the environment (situational interest), and individual interest is formed from situational interest Kintsch (1980) clarified the relationship between interest and learning He distinguished between two types of situational interest he referred to as emotional and cognitive interest Both types of interest support and influence learning

activities and learning performance of the students because when students have interest to a specific topic, object or activity, they will create the strategies and engage themselves in those tasks Therefore, it is important to prepare students for a good learning environment so that they will have chances to get involved in the activities they are interested in

2.4.3 The aspects of interest

Interest grows and develops based on the relationship between individual purposes and environmental factors Therefore, it is important to create purpose for reading and prepare a good learning environment so that the students will be involved, enjoy and tend to possess a knowledge base on the topic, object or activity that they are interested in Furthermore, Krapp (2002) and Hidi (2006) stated that

there are two aspects that contribute to develop interest, they are cognitive and

affective aspects

2.4.3.1 Cognitive aspect

Cognitive aspect refers to personal values and goals It is related to anything that can be beneficial and lead to personal satisfaction It means interest in cognitive aspects is grown and affected by the values and goals of the topic, object or activity When students are satisfied with the topic, object or activity, their interest can grow stronger Conversely, if there is no satisfaction and profit in their topic, object or activity, interest could be weakened, or even disappeared (Hidi, 2006; Krapp, 2002)

2.4.3.2 Affective aspect

Affective aspect refers to feeling related to the experience (Hidi, 2006; Krapp, 2002) This aspect emphasizes on feelings, personal experiences and attitudes towards people who can influence others, such as parents, teachers, and friends This affective aspect has a greater role in developing interests For example, students who have good relationships with those who are in the habit of reading perhaps will follow and engage themselves to do reading activity Therefore, students who have a strong interest in reading can spend more time in reading activity Meanwhile, students who lack interest will try to avoid reading activity

The concept of reading interest emphasizes mental readiness, willingness and also refers to beliefs and perception of individuals to engage in reading activity It can be concluded that affective aspect can influence individuals to engage in specific activity Renninger (2000) gave three factors that contributed to the development of interest They are knowledge, positive emotion and personal values The next section will focus on the factors influencing interest

2.4.4 Factors influencing interest

Dewey (1913) made two basic assumptions about interest First, according to him, to satisfy students‟ intellectual and personal needs, interest must be present in the classroom Second, interest could be fostered by providing students with a variety of materials and educational opportunities that promoted challenge and autonomy It can be said that interest is related positively to attention and learning

It varies from person to person, and it is elicited by a variety of factors such as prior knowledge, unexpected text content, text structure, and reader goals Alexander and Jetton (1996) focused on prior knowledge Hidi (1990) mentioned unexpectedness

of information, Garner (1992) mentioned concreteness and vividness

When mentioning the effects of classroom factors to situational interest Deci (1992) has suggested that classrooms that promote student autonomy and choice increase intrinsic motivation and situational interest Another factor influencing interest is the aspect of the text or task with which students are engaged Schraw (1995) claimed that well-written texts and more interesting texts increase learning Students‟ prior knowledge also affects interest Kintsch (1980) proposed that moderate amounts of knowledge increase interest and learning, whereas high or low prior knowledge may decrease it

It can be concluded that interest plays an important role in learning and it is important to enhance interest to increase students‟ engagement and learning

2.4.4.1 Interest and students’ personality

In general, we can see an association between personality attributes and the successful acquisition of a second language During the learning process, students

may display different types of characteristics For example, students may be extroverted, self-confident, active, passive, independent or shy Whatever forms of their behaviours are, students who show more flexible characteristics towards the learning of a foreign language seem to have greater chances of success than those who are shy, nervous, afraid to express their opinions or lack self-confidence

2.4.4.2 Interest and students’ attitudes

Most people seem to agree that attitudes and interest are closely related to success in language learning In the viewpoint of Nuttall (2000, p.33), students take

an active part in learning This means they have to be active and take charge of what they do If students have favourable attitudes towards the foreign language, they will probably be more attentive in the class, and will achieve more According to Alexander and Wade (2000), McWhaw and Abrami (2001), when students are interested in learning activities, perhaps they will show more appropriate behaviors such as more attentive, more active, and more engaged in activities that support learning In sum, there is a close relation between students‟ attitudes and interest in reading lessons

2.4.4.3 Interest and learning styles

As can be seen from language teaching and learning, the learning styles are diverse among students When learners are given freedom to choose one way of learning or another, they might do better than those who find themselves forced to learn in environments where a learning style does not suit them For this reason, teachers should be allowed to adapt their learning materials to suit their students‟ needs and learning styles A concern for the students‟ learning styles and a full understanding of them might be of great help in motivating students to learn

2.4.4.4 The role of the reading texts

As we know, textbooks play a constructive role in the curriculum Learning materials are important because they can significantly increase students‟ achievement Learning materials can support students‟ learning and increase their success If readers find the reading material monotonous, they will face obstacles concentrating on comprehension Vice versa, if the reading material is interesting

for learners, it may stimulate students to read and help them easily understand the text According to Elliott and Corrie (2015), reading materials enrich teaching, engage students in multi-dimensional learning, build students‟ abilities to apply their knowledge For this reason, teachers should motivate their learners through providing interesting reading materials during their class time

2.4.4.5 The role of the teachers

Teachers play a major role in determining the effectiveness of a reading lesson It is clear that in a reading class, it is not easy for students to be effective readers without the teacher‟ facilitation and orientation In a reading class, a teacher can help the students comprehend printed materials and provide them with the knowledge and ability to enable them to read other materials out of class Teacher works as an organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter Nuttal (1982) suggested that “ there are two main things that the teacher should always remember

in helping students The first is to provide the students with suitable materials, and the second is to provide them with the suitable learning activities.” Providing students with opportunities to apply their reading skills appears to be extremely important Qualities of a good teacher like teacher‟s enthusiasm, acknowledgement and stimulation of students ideas can encourage pupils, help them to increase their expectations of themselves and move a further step in developing their attitude towards reading

In all, there are various factors that influence interest The next section will focus on the importance of interest to learning This framework is hoped to support the teachers in her own teaching process

2.4.5 The importance of interest to learning

Interest appears to play a vital role in learning and academic achievement Interest is thought of as a process that contributes to learning and achievement According to Hidi (1990), interest is believed to improve learning by intensifying engagement and automatic allocation of attention He added that interest influences the use of learning strategies and choices for the direction and duration of attention

Being interested in a topic is a mental resource that enhances learning, which may lead to better performance and achievement Interest increases learning and students‟ motivation to learn When students have higher interest, they will show higher reading motivation Promoting interest can contribute to a more engaged, motivated learning experience for students Brophy (1999), Stipek (2002) shared the idea that one way to enhance students‟ interests is by creating an engaging, meaningful environment where students are able to discover the value in what they are learning To this point of view, by providing different meaningful activities that meet students‟ interests, teachers can create an environment for students that promotes learning and enables them to reach their maximum potential

To sum up, interest appears to be the most influential factor in determining children‟s preferences This means that interest directly affects students‟ learning performance at school If students are interested in activities held by the teacher, they will show eagerness and strong emotion to learning, which can lead to great potential learning outcomes To have a general view of interest in reading, the next section will focus on an overview of interest in reading

2.5 Literature review of interests in reading

The students‟ attitude toward reading is a central factor affecting reading performance It can be assumed that the more positive the attitude to reading is, the more likely student will engage in reading activities It stated that students who enjoy reading and who perceive themselves to be good readers usually read more frequently and more widely Someone who has no interest in reading will not be able to understand the text well Because interest is like a factor that can push or support someone to do a thing In case of reading interest, someone who has interest

in reading will have a long-term memory about what is being read Therefore, interest plays an important role in reading activity It can be assumed that if someone has high interest in reading any kind of text, he will have good ability to understand it Hidi (2001) claimed that interest did not simply enhance the amount of recalled text information, but had a strong influence on the quality of learning That is, interest seemed to motivate readers to go beyond the surface structure of the texts and

focus on the main ideas and their underlying meaning (Hidi, 2001) In other words, someone who has high interest in something, for example, in reading, they will not only be able to understand the words on the text but they will be able to infer an implied information of the text Moreover, he is able to catch the purpose of the author

In all, having interests in reading is important because by having that, students will

do reading joyfully, thus they will get benefits from what they read

2.6 Relationships between pre-reading activities and interest

Raising interest in learning can be obtained by different ways Among them, focusing on pre-reading techniques has shown multiple positive effects in the reading process In language learning, students turn away from reading when they read books that are frustrating, boring, or seemingly unimportant (Carter, 1988) Pre-reading activities are among the important factors that can raise the student‟ reading interest Adinolfi (2012) suggests that teachers need to design and provide pupils with pre-reading activities that provoke their interests Ghamrawi (2014) agreed that pre-reading activities provide pupils the opportunity to make informed decisions about reading text and to find more interesting ideas from the text Knowing children‟s reading interests and assisting them with different suitable pre-reading activities are crucial to help students become life-long readers Teachers need to familiarize themselves with their students‟ interests and provide different activities that match their curiosity According to Colorado (2008), pre-reading activities can activate their background knowledge, and engage students‟ interest

He added that in the pre-reading stage, the teacher should create motivating activities that interest students in the text and motivate them to read If the students are interested in the task and show their engagement, it means that the teachers‟ strategies meet the students‟ needs And if the students show no interest or cooperation, there is something wrong with the teacher‟ lesson plan Thereforce, it means that the students who have motivation or interest in learning will perform well in the reading classroom

To sum up, maximizing the role of pre-reading activities seems to be one of the best teaching and learning practices to ensure positive and active engagements

in learning It is the teacher‟s duty to view interest as their responsibility and to actively select interesting materials, creating a classroom environment that increases students‟ interest Knowing the effects of pre-reading activities on students learning

is very important and it leads to the success of the learning and teaching process

2.7 Previous studies on pre-reading stage and interest

Research on interest has been done over the years, Dewey (1913) was the first to emphasize the crucial role of interest in learning Dewey believed that to satisfy students‟ intellectual and personal needs, interest must be presented in the classroom And interest could be fostered by providing students with a variety of materials and educational opportunities that promote challenge and autonomy

The study by Haque (2010) identified whether pre-reading activities help learners comprehend a text better The study was conducted in a private school in Dhaka in Bangladesh In this research, multiple choice tests in written form were used to check the participants‟ understanding with and without the pre-reading activities The result shows that the performance of the students with pre-reading activities was much better than that of the students without pre-reading activities The author also suggested that there is a necessity of pre-reading activities in language class The limited scope of the study was that the author only used one kind of data collection method that is multiple choice tests, so the information collected may not be accurate enough It would be better to include interviews and classroom observation to obtain more specific ideas on the subject matter

Another study to be reviewed here is “implementing pre-reading strategies to improve struggling ESL learners‟ interest and comprehension in English reading lessons” by the authors from Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2013) The study was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness

of teaching three pre-reading activities: activating prior knowledge, teaching explicit vocabulary, and conducting role-play to increase students‟ interest in English reading lessons and enhance reading comprehension among struggling pupils 6 English language teachers and 250 year-four pupils participated in the

study The instruments used in this study were tests, questionnaires, observation checklists and interviews to teachers The results of the study revealed that the chosen pre-reading activities had a significant effect in increasing pupils‟ interest and comprehension in reading The study provided a deep understanding of reading, reading activities, interest and highlighting the most effective pre-reading activities The author used four kinds of data collection methods, which provided more information for the study However, the study was only carried in two cycles, and each cycle was conducted with only one intervention strategy This design could not bring about reliable data and did not strictly follow steps

of an action research project

In Vietnam, a number of studies focus on pre-reading activities to motivate students and to develop comprehensive reading The first study will be reviewed here is the survey by Trang (2013) The study was an attempt to investigate the demotivating factors in reading lessons for gifted students at Hanoi National University of Education The research was carried out on the basis of survey questionnaires and interviews The results of the study revealed three factors that demotivated students‟ learning They were the boring and demotivating activities in the textbook, the teaching method of the teacher and the students‟ inadequate vocabulary knowledge She reaffirmed that the students‟ low learning level was the cause for their lack of enthusiasm in reading To conclude the thesis, she suggested that teachers should apply suitable teaching methods and create more interesting classroom activities to raise students‟ excitement in reading lessons Three suggestions given were illustrations, drawings and visual aids The study confirmed the important role of pre-reading tasks and the role of the teacher as well

Vân (2014) with “An exploratory study on the teaching of pre-reading activities to third-year non-English-major students using headway pre- intermediate textbook at a university in Ha Noi” The author‟s reasons for conducting this study were to explore what pre-reading activities were often applied by the teacher and to find out the role of pre-reading activities to arouse students‟ motivation in learning

reading She used survey questionnaires and classroom observation as tools for collecting information Both quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures were employed The results showed that both the teacher and learners were aware of the significance and benefits of pre-reading activities and pre-reading activities played a vital role in arousing students‟ motivation in learning reading Two pre-reading activities: pre-questioning and brainstorming were offered as effective interventions

Another study by Hoa (2016) focused on developing pre-reading tasks for first year students of English-major division, department of social sciences at Vinh Phuc college She used action research with survey questionnaires and classroom observation to collect data The results of the statistical analysis of the data revealed the students‟ opinions about the pre-reading tasks, the effectiveness of using pre-reading activities on the learners‟ reading performance The study also suggested three pre-reading activities to facilitate and improve the learner reading comprehension They were discussion, pre- teach vocabulary and prediction tasks

Other research focused on the use of different pre-reading activities to develop reading skill Anh (2018) focused on the benefits of prediction strategies and its effects in improving students‟ reading comprehension She used action research and each level consisted of two experimental groups The results of the statistical analysis of the data revealed that prediction activities had a positive effect

on the learners‟ reading comprehension The study suggested that appropriate and relevant pre-reading activities should be employed to facilitate and improve the learner reading comprehension and other language skills as well This study made a contribution to the investigation pre-reading tasks to improve learning However, that only one cycle was implemented in the study made the result of the research not reliable The action research should be an on-going cycle process, in which feedbacks from the data collected can be used to improve the next cycle

From the research above, all the researchers highlighted the role and effectiveness of different pre-reading activities in the classroom to increase students‟ motivation and reading performance However, there has been a lack of

research relating to using pre-tasks to enhance student‟s interest The teacher lacks framework in her real teaching context For this reason, the researcher decided to conduct a research to examine the effects of three pre-reading activities in enhancing students‟ interest in reading

2.8 Summary

Chapter 1 has presented the relevant literature review, which has formed the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study It is concerned with the definition of reading, interest in reading and pre-reading techniques It also reviews the definition of interest, the nature of interest and the relationship between pre-reading activities and interest in learning They were the basis for the researcher to design the questionnaire with which the investigation of different pre-reading activities in enhancing students‟ interest was carried out The next chapter focuses

on the methodology of the study

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the methodology of the present study will be introduced The research setting, the sample of the study, the data collection and analysis will also

be described in this chapter

3.1 Context of the study

3.1.1 The research site

The study was conducted at a public high school in Ba Vi district, about 70

km to the North of Ha Noi This school was established in 1965 and it has 30 classes with 65 teachers and 1500 students from 3 poor villages nearby Among them, there are 7 English teachers, who are well-trained and qualified teachers and have at least 5 years of teaching experiences The researcher also works as

an English teacher at this school while attending a MA course at Ha Noi National University of foreign studies In order to conduct the research, the researcher received the principle‟ permission and support from other English teachers Classes are very crowded with about 43 students in each class There is

no special room for learning English so noise in a big class is unavoidable and it sometimes has a negative effect on English learning and teaching In such a large class, not all student pay attention to reading lessons Sometimes the teachers find it difficult to maintain students‟ attentiveness and interest for the language learning

3.1.2 Materials

The main kind of materials used in class is “Tiếng Anh 10 tập một, sách thí điểm”- standard syllabus published by the Ministry of Education and Training This book consists of 10 units and at this term, the first five units (from unit 2 to unit 5) are used to teach “Tiếng Anh 10 tập một, sách thí điểm” is designed with 5 topic-based units Each unit comprises 5 sections taught in eight 45-minute lessons Reading section provides learners with language and ideas about the topic through the reading text The reading subsection follows a three-stage teaching procedure: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading The most useful reading skills of skimming, scanning,

understanding word meaning in context or referencing are practiced through various types of tasks All themes are familiar and accessible for students It seems to be easily realized that various topics given in the textbook are beneficial for reading comprehension and for enriching further knowledge for students

There are 10 units covering two semesters with a list of ten topics as follows

1 Family life 6 Gender equality

2 Your body and you 7 Cultural diversity

3 Music 8 New ways to learn

4 For a better community 9 Preserving the environment

The researcher carried out this study for her better change of reading lessons In this study, the researcher was in charge of conducting the reading lessons to grade 10 students, delivering the questionnaire, observing the class and collecting the data

3.3 Research method: Action research

3.3.1 Definition of action research

In this research, the author used action research as the action research can be

a very valuable way to extend our teaching skill and to gain more understanding of ourselves as teachers, our classroom and our students According to Burns (1999), action research involves taking a self-reflective critical and systematic approach to exploring your own teaching contexts The main aim of action research is to identify a problematic situation or issue occurring during the teaching and learning process Action research has a simultaneous focus on action and research and it is often problem-oriented and interventionist (Burns, 2005b; Van Lier, 2004) According to Mills‟ point of view (2000, p.6), action research is any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching and learning environment to gather information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn The purpose of action research, according to Mckernan (1987, p.7), is to help practitioners understand and hopefully solve curriculum problems The main concern of action research, according to Elliot (1991), is unifying teaching, curriculum development, evaluation, educational research, and professional development Action research helps change their values and beliefs, improve the congruence between theories and practices and broaden their views on teaching, schooling and society According to them, teachers by carrying out action research seemed to be more in control of and sure about every day and future pedagogical practices and choices In addition, the action research process makes teachers more aware of their teaching practices and their students‟ needs

3.3.2 Action research model

There have been a large number of action research models for researchers to follow such as models of Lewin (1952), Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), Tsui (1993), Kemmis and Mc Taggart (2008) Nunan (1992), Van Lier, McKernan (1987, 1988, 2008) Among these different models, the best-known version as cited

in Burns (1999) is given by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) this model of classroom action research has developed a simple model which consists of four fundamental steps in a spiraling process They are as followed:

Planning: In this phase, a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action

is developed to bring about improvements in a specific area of the research context Here the researcher prepares the lesson plans that will be used in conducting pre-reading activities

Action: Having planned the action, the researcher takes some deliberate

interventions In this study, the writer implemented the reading lessons using games, discussion and visual aids

Observation: The effects of the action are observed It is the data collection

phase where the researcher uses different tools to collect information about what is happening

Reflection: The effects of the action are reflected on, evaluated and

described to make sense of what has happened and to understand the issues The function of reflection is to know the weaknesses and the strengths of the action The researcher may decide to do further cycles of action research to improve the situation

Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model has been criticised by some authors for being to fixed and rigid They prefer a more flexible approach that allows action researcher to be creative and spontaneous Nevertheless, according to Burns (2010), Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model is probably the best known According to Kemmis and Mctaggart (1988), the first cycle may become a continuing, or iterative, spiral

of cycles which recur until the action researcher has achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop It is a useful model as it summaries the essential phases of the action research process Each aspect involved in the phases is part of the process It interacts in a flexible way and not according to a rigid sequence Therefore, the researcher selected it as a reference framework for the research Below is the action research model based on Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)

Figure 3.1: Cyclical action research model based on Kemmis and Mctaggart (1998)

3.4 Data collection instruments

In this action research, the data is collected by using quantitative and qualitative techniques The researcher uses survey questionnaires and teaching diary

as the main data collection tools in the study The combination of different data collection instruments would increase trustworthiness, worthwhileness and credibility of the research and provide a comprehensive overview of the real teaching and learning reading skill and offer effective ways to attract students in reading Besides, methods of collecting data were quite compatible with the research aims, the scope and aims of the research were practical within the constraints of the teaching context

3.4.1 Questionnaire

Questionnaire is considered valid and reliable as an instrument to collect data According to Anne Burns (2010), it is best to use a questionnaire when you want to receive responses from several people Dornyei (2003) notes that questionnaires can bring about three types of information: factual or demographic

(who the interviewees are and their background/ experiences); behavioral (what they do, or did in the past); attitudinal (attitudes, opinions, beliefs, interests and values) To measure students‟ reading interests before the treatment, the researcher designed 7 pre-questions with both close-ended items and open- ended items A five-item Likert-scale questionnaire was designed for close- ended items of the post questionnaire Likert-scale questions are considered one of the most widely used tools in researching popular opinions and attitudes to a topic or subject matter The questions concerned the students‟ opinions about the pre-reading activities their teacher often conducted in the reading lessons, students‟ attitudes toward pre-reading activities, the frequency of these activities and the students references for pre-reading activities Open-ended and guided-items were designed to offer the participants chances to freely provide their personal perspectives The questionnaires were written in Vietnamese to avoid the participants‟ misunderstanding of the questions and to save time for the researchers in explaining the requirement

Krapp and Prenzel (2011) argued that studies on interest should contain both the affective component, including feelings and values and cognitive components of

interest They consisted of positive emotions (e.g., fun, confidence) and negative emotions (e.g., tension, nervousness, worry) The questionnaire included ten

items related to the affective components of interest The items were forced response questions, which were answered on the five-point Likert-scale ranging from 1 (I strongly disagree) to 5 (I strongly agree) Four types of items were included: Direct interest items (item 1,2), Affective component items (item 3), Feelings-related items (item 4,5,6,7,8), Cognitive component items (item 9,10)

3.4.2 Teaching diary

Teaching diary is one of the effective ways to reflect what the teacher has done in their classroom Writing a teaching diary is conducted by observing and reflecting one‟s own teaching, and using observation and reflection as a way of bringing about changes This approach can be described as “Reflective Teaching”

Elliot (1991) considered the diaries as a valuable research tool because they can include “observation, feelings, reactions, interpretations, reflections, hunches, explanations” of the teacher and the students According to Burns (2010), keeping diary is often combined with other methods such as classroom observations or interviews and they are useful thought as a way of capturing significant reflections and events Teaching diaries can provide opportunities for teachers to view each other‟s teaching to expose them to different teaching styles and to provide opportunities for critical reflection on their own teaching The researcher used a teaching diary together with classroom observation with a view to exploring the current situation of teacher‟s conducting pre-reading activities, to answering the questions what pre-reading activities can help enhance students‟ reading interest and to supplement the results from survey questionnaires and interviews The researcher also made a quick note from classroom observation during the lesson This may be with a simple observation task contained information about students‟ activities in class, their attitude, interaction and behavior

Adapting the model of writing a teaching diary designed by Burns (2010), the author focused on 5 criteria: the objectives of the lesson, the students‟ behaviors, the materials and activities, and the classroom management The diary was first kept

in a notebook by hand When time permitted, some notes were taken during class or just after class, but the majority was written later, before leaving school for the evening This information could provide a different and valuable perspective in developing more suitable strategies to integrate the students better in learning

3.5 Data analysis procedures

All the questionnaires delivered to the students were written in Vietnamese

to avoid misunderstanding and the students were also informed in Vietnamese about the purposes of the questionnaires and how to answer all the questions to ensure that all the participants understood what to do The post-questionnaires were delivered

to students right after each lesson finished The students were asked to complete the questions within 10 minutes and the questionnaires were collected by the researcher herself For pre-questionnaires, the author calculated the data by means of

percentage For post-questionnaires, the author utilized SPSS v.20 software to release the descriptive statistics output The results of the post survey were computed in terms of mean, and standard deviation (SD) The data collected from classroom observation and teaching diary were analyzed qualitatively

3.6 Research procedure

The research was carried out during 12 weeks of the first semester The subjects of the study was 41 students of class 10A4 at a high school in BaVi district The action research was conducted using the cycle by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) The study was carried out by four steps as follows:

3.6.1 Step 1- Planning

In the process of teaching reading lessons to grade 10 students, the author found that many students seemed to be uninterested in all activities organized by the teacher To identify the problem before taking intervention, the author made a classroom observation to identify the problem of the class During the observation, the author tried to focus on the students‟ behaviors and attitudes towards learning and what kinds of factors lead to students‟ low level of interest in the reading lessons

To identify the students‟ attitude towards pre-reading activities as well as their preferences for pre-reading techniques, the researcher conducted a survey by delivering questionnaires to 41 students of class 10A4 They were asked to answer 7 questions in the questionnaire 4 out of 7 questions designed with close-ended items asked them to give opinions on the pre-tasks teacher often used in class There were three open- ended questions for them to freely express their opinions and favorable pre-reading activities The students‟ comments on pre-reading activities in the textbook and their favorable pre-reading activities were also revealed, which could provide the researcher useful suggestions for the next steps

The results revealed that students were not interested in reading could be hypothesized as the lack of appropriate pre-reading strategies from the teacher and the absence of interesting pre-reading activities from the textbook After finding out