Adapting reading tasks in the textbook basic english for computing to teach reading skills to students at centre of information technology development

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT BÙI THANH NGA ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “BASIC ENGLISH FOR CO

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

BÙI THANH NGA

ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “BASIC ENGLISH FOR COMPUTING” TO TEACH READING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT CENTRE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC TRONG GIÁO TRÌNH “BASIC ENGLISH FOR COMPUTING” ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CHO SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM PHÁT TRIỂN CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

60 14 10

HANOI, 2009

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

BÙI THANH NGA

ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “BASIC ENGLISH FOR COMPUTING” TO TEACH READING SKILLS TO STUDENTS AT

CENTRE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC TRONG GIÁO TRÌNH “BASIC ENGLISH FOR COMPUTING” ĐỂ DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CHO SINH VIÊN TẠI TRUNG TÂM PHÁT TRIỂN CÔNG NGHỆ THÔNG TIN

MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY

60 14 10

SUPERVISOR: DR DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration ……….……… i

Acknowledgement ……… ii

Abstract ……… … iii

List of abbreviations ……… iv

List of figures, charts, and tables ……… iv

Table of contents ……… .v

INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……… 1

3 Significance of the study ……… 2

4 Research questions ………2

5 Methods of the study ……….2

6 Scope of the study ……… 3

7 Design of the study ……… 3

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and teaching reading skills……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of reading ……… 4

1.1.2 Classifications of reading ……… 5

1.1.2.1 Classification of reading according to manners ……… 5

1.1.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes ……… 6

1.1.3 The reading process ……… ……… .7

1.1.3.1 The schema theory ……… 7

1.1.3.2 Models of the reading process ……… 7

1.1.4 Reading skills and strategies ……… 8

1.1.5 Stages in teaching reading skills ……… 9

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading stage ……… 9

1.1.5.2 While-reading stage ……… 9

1.1.5.3 Post-reading stage ……… 9

1.1.6 Reading in ESP teaching and learning ……… 10

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching ……… 11

1.2.2 Tasks ……… 12

1.2.2.1 Communicative tasks ……… 12

1.2.2.2 Reading tasks ……… 14

1.3 Material evaluation and adaptation ……… 14

1.3.1 Materials and textbook ……… 14

1.3.2 Materials evaluation ……… 15

1.3.3 Materials adaptation ……… 15

Chapter summary ……… …17

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 An overview on situation of teaching and learning reading skills at ……… 18

2.1.1 Objectives of the English course at CITD ……… 18

2.1.2 Learners ……… 18

2.1.3 Teachers ……… 19

2.2 An overview on reading tasks in the textbook BEC ……… 19

2.3 Research questions ……… 23

2.4 Research methodology ……… 23

2.4.1 The subjects of the study ……… 24

2.4.1.1 The teacher subjects … ……… 24

2.4.1.2 The learner subjects ……… 24

2.4.2 Methods and procedures ……… 24

2.5 Data analysis process ……… 24

Chapter summary ……… 25

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEACHING READING SKILLS 3.1 Data analysis and discussions ……… 26

3.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the unsuitable characteristics of the reading tasks in the textbook BEC ……… 26

3.1.1.1 Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the tasks in general ……… 26

3.1.1.2 Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the pre-reading tasks ……… 29

3.1.1.3 Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the while-reading tasks ……… 30

3.1.1.4 Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the post-reading tasks ……… 32

to improve reading skills to the students ……… 33

3.1.2.1 Reading tasks in general ……… 33

3.1.2.2 Post-reading tasks ……… 34

3.2 Implications for teaching and learning reading skills at CITD ……….38

3.2.1 Suggestions for the reading tasks in the textbook BEC……… 38

3.2.2 Some suggested types of post-reading tasks for improving reading skills for students at CITD ……… … 39

Chapter summary ……… 41

CONCLUSION ……… ……… 43

1 Results obtained ……… 43

2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research ……… 44

References ……… 46 Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers ……… I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students ……… VI Appendix 3: Sample post-reading tasks ……… X

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BEC: Basic English for Computing

CITD: Centre of Information Technology Development

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

IT: Information Technology

PPP: Presentation – Practice – Production

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Table 1 An Overview of Communicative Approach

Table 2: List of reading tasks in the textbook BEC

Table 3: The distribution of reading tasks in each unit

Table 4: The setting formats of reading tasks

Chart 1 : Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the level of the tasks

Chart 2 : Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the number of tasks associated with each text

Chart 3: Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the types of tasks

Chart 4 : Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the communicativeness of the tasks

Chart 5 : Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the skills achieved via the tasks

Chart 6 : Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the interest of the pre-reading tasks

Chart 7:The pre-reading tasks teachers often use and the pre-reading tasks students like Chart 8:Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the usefulness of the while-reading tasks Chart 9 : The while-reading tasks teachers often use and the while-reading tasks students like

Chart 10:Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the usefulness of the post-reading tasks Chart 11: Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the interest of the post-reading tasks

Chart 12 : What teachers often do to the tasks and What students want teachers to do to the tasks

Chart 13 : Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the tasks to be adapted the most

Figure 1 The communication process

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

ELT materials in general and textbooks in particular play the roles of tool, tutor, guidebook and gauge These roles are especially significant in EFL contexts including Vietnam, where textbooks are regarded as a staple in almost all EFL classes Textbooks are useful source of language input and guidance for both teachers and learners Despite the development of technology and the growth of computer-assisted language learning, it is unlikely that textbooks will disappear In teaching and learning reading skills in particular, the role of textbooks is even more important than in teaching any other language skills or grammar and vocabulary because when reading, students have to pay much attention to the printed texts in order to understand them However, available textbooks are not completely good for all teaching contexts Accordingly, it is necessary for teachers to be well-equipped with assessment tools to evaluate materials and more importantly, recommendations to adapt the materials to ensure that students are using the highest quality texts, and their language knowledge and skills are improved Nevertheless, there has been little investigation into how

to adapt the material This research gap has encouraged me to choose textbook adaptation as the theme for this study

The second reason for my choice is that there have been diverse opinions of both

teachers and learners on the actual effectiveness of the reading tasks in the textbook Basic

English for Computing (BEC) by Eric H Glendinning and John McEwan, which has been

used to teach ESP for third-year students at Centre of Information technology development (CITD) There have been arguments on both the potentials and limitations of the reading tasks

in the textbook and the needs and preferences of the teachers and learners who are using it Therefore, the reading tasks need to be taken into consideration and further, adapted to teach reading skills to the students at the centre It is hoped that the study will be beneficial to the author and other English teachers in some way to assign the tasks to stimulate the students in reading lessons and improve their reading skills

2 Aims of the study

The purposes of this study are:

(1) To find out the unsuitable characteristics of the reading tasks in the textbook BEC

in teaching reading skills to students at CITD

(2) To give some implications for teaching and learning reading skills at CITD

3 Significance of the study

The study provides the theoretical view of teaching reading skills to students as well as criteria of reading tasks, both of which are helpful for evaluating and adapting reading tasks in the textbook Pedagogically, the findings of the study will serve as the foundation for the changes to the reading tasks and the design of new post-reading tasks, which are believed to be useful for developing the students’ reading skills Furthermore, the implications for teaching and learning, which are based on the theoretical background and the current situation of teaching reading skills at CITD, hopefully can help the teachers upgrade the reading tasks to make reading lessons more interesting and motivate the students to learn English effectively

2 How can the tasks be adapted to improve reading skills for the students?

5 Methods of the study

With reference to its characteristics, this thesis can be categorized as a survey research Quantitative method will be employed to carry out the study The following methods will be applied to collect data for this study:

The reading tasks in the textbook BEC will be reviewed to find out their unsuitable characteristics of the reading tasks in terms of methodology

Survey questionnaires will be specifically designed for both teachers of English and the third-year students who have experienced using this textbook to find out their opinions on the reading tasks in the textbook

The combination of the review of reading tasks and two questionnaires for teachers and students will provide reliable data, based on which the conclusions and suggestions will be made in the next parts

6 Scope of the study

The main purpose of the study is to find out the appropriateness and inappropriateness

of the reading tasks in the textbook BEC to the current teaching and learning situation at CITD

The study only focuses on the third-year students at CITD, so the results of the study are not applied for all students at the centre

The study also suggests some types of tasks for the post-reading stage only

7 Design of the study

Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of 3 chapters

The introduction provides an overview of the study with specific reference to the rationale, the aim, the research questions, the methods, the significance and the scope of the study

Chapter one, literature review, aims at presenting the theoretical background for the thesis The most important notions related to teaching and learning reading skills and

In chapter two, the study and the methodology underlying the research is presented This chapter provides the background information of the subjects of the study, the instruments used to collect the data, and the procedure of data collection

Chapter three, data analysis, discussions and implications, analyses research methodology, presents findings and discussions on the study and some suggestions for teaching and learning reading skills at CITD

The conclusion restates the main points discussed in the study, some conclusions drawn from the findings, limitations of the study and suggestions for further study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and teaching reading skills

1.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

New developments in printing technology as well as information and communications technology have provided the humankind with great worldwide sources of printed materials Accordingly, the audience of such sources will have to possess the skills of interpreting them, which means reading skills will continue to be important in the new era However, the term

“reading” has been used in different ways

Dean (2000:2) considers Brindley’s definition of reading a significant starting point:

“Reading is a complex area We can use the term to mean the process itself, or a response to literary text It can mean the retrieval of information in a non-literate text, or take on wider meanings like “reading the situation” Reading is not confined to print in a book It is central

to the debate about meaning and the construction of the reader It is linked to issues of standards in education, and to one of the functions of education itself- the production of a literate society”

Dean (2000:2) also mentions Anderson’s view of reading as “the process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information.”

Anderson (1999:1) states that “reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning”

Goodman (1988:135) shares this view as he defines reading as “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”

It can be seen from all the opinions above that no definition completely covers all the features of reading; however, they all focus on the nature of reading As for me, Anderson’s point of view is the most persuasive as it reflects the nature of reading in a concise way In the similar way, Richards and Thomas (1987) define “reading comprehension is best described as

an understanding between the author and the reader” “Reading without comprehension is meaningless.” (Karlin and Kartin, 1998:2)

In short, reading is an active process in which the reader utilizes his background knowledge and experience to understand the author’s thought Reading is not separated from comprehension Reading comprehension involves communication as it is the process of

encoding and decoding between the sender, who has messages in mind, encodes them into a written or spoken text and the receiver, who decodes the text into his mind

Figure 1 The communication process (Nuttal, 2000:4)

- Intensive reading

- Extensive reading

- Skimming

- Scanning

1.1.2.1 Classification of reading according to manners

When one reads a text, he has a look at it, whispers it or says it out loud, and then understands it Reading aloud can help students practise pronunciation and improve their fluency as well However, Nguyen Bang, Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2002: 77) state that “it is quite difficult for the speaker to pay attention to the meaning of a text when reading aloud, particularly in public.” Doff Adrian (1988: 58) states a number of disadvantages of reading aloud as follow:

- Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model

- Students’ attention is focused on pronunciation, not on understanding the text

- It is an unnatural activity, most people do not read aloud in real life

- Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class

In real life, we usually read books, periodicals, and the like in a silent way When we read a text silently, we do not read every word aloud, and we can regulate the reading speed Also we focus on meaning rather than sounds Accordingly, we can understand the reading passages thoroughly, which is hard to be achieved with aloud reading Silent reading is useful for developing learners’ reading ability on one hand and helpful for teachers to control the class on the other hand

Although aloud reading proves to be disadvantageous, this kind has its own good points and can be combined with silent reading to develop students’ reading skills in a complete way Silent reading is used to explore the text while aloud reading helps other skills and abilities, which can supplement reading skills

1.1.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes

Anderson (1999:42) states that “intensive reading can be defined as using a text for

maximal development of comprehension skills.” According to Nuttal (2000:42), “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher (the right kind of guidance, as defined earlier) or a task which forces the student to focus on the text” When people read intensively, they try to work out not only the meaning of the text but also the way the meaning is produced Nuttal also divides intensive reading into skills-based and text-based teaching In a skills-based lesson, a number of texts can be used to develop only particular reading skills A text-based lesson; however, focuses on the thorough comprehension of a text The interrelationship between skills-based and text-based teaching is similar to that between intensive and extensive reading

Extensive reading is defined as “reading longer texts, usually for one’s own pleasure

This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding” (Grellet 1981:2) When readers read extensively, they work with large amounts of longer texts to understand the whole rather than the parts of the texts Extensive reading provides them with fluency in reading and learning the target language Extensive reading materials, therefore, should be at a lower level

of difficulty than intensive reading ones It will be more effective if the texts are congruous with the students’ tastes and interests

Skimming is a useful reading skill used when there is not enough time to read the text

carefully or when readers want to know the way the text is organized, the tone or intention of the writers Michael et al (1987: 238) cites that “skimming is quick reading for the general drift of a message” When skimming, we go through the text quickly, so the key to skimming

is to know where to find the main ideas of different paragraphs and generalize them

Scanning means looking quickly through a reading passage and looking for specific

details Scanning is also a useful skill complementary to skimming so that learners can achieve reading ability to the greatest extent

In general, there are various kinds of reading, all of which have certain roles in developing reading skills for the learners As a result, they should be used in combination with one another to help learners achieve complete reading ability The ratio of one kind of reading

to others may differ in different teaching and learning situations

1.1.3 The reading process

1.1.3.1 The schema theory

Schema is a mental structure supporting reading comprehension in a variety of cases

“The mental structures which store our knowledge are called schemata, and the theory of comprehension based on schemata is called schema theory” (Nunan David, 1991:33) Nuttal (2000: 8) adds that “schemata are built up from experiences; new experiences, including those derived from reading, change existing schemata So a schema grows and changes throughout our lives, for as long as we retain the capacity to learn.”

1.1.3.2 Models of the reading process

Bottom-up processing occurs when readers deal with the text from bottom-level, which

is letters and words, then sentence level in order to interpret paragraphs and the whole text

“Bottom-up processing ensures that the listeners/readers will be sensitive to information that is novel or that does not fit their on-going hypotheses about the content or structure of the text” (Michael et al., 1987:221) Bottom-up processing is therefore termed data-driven or text-based

Top-down processing occurs when readers makes general predictions about the information which will be found in the text basing on their background knowledge Michael

et al also point out that “top-down processing helps the listeners/readers to resolve

ambiguities or to select between alternative possible interpretations of the incoming data.” This kind of processing is called conceptually driven or knowledge-based

Anderson (1999:3) mentions the most comprehensive description of the reading process termed interactive models This type of model “combines elements of both bottom-up and top-down models” Grabe’s (1991: pp 375-406) emphasizes that interactive approaches includes the interaction between the reader and the text, and the interaction between bottom-up and top-down processes

1.1.4 Reading skills and strategies

Nuttal (2000: pp 62-124) divides reading skills into word-attack skills, which are helpful when readers have problems with vocabulary and text-attack skills, which can be used when readers cope with problems in terms of syntax and discourse

Word-attack skills consist of:

- structural clues

- inference from context

- using a dictionary Text-attack skills are sub-divided into:

1. understanding syntax

2. recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices

Sub-skills: * interpreting pro-forms

* interpreting elliptical expressions

* interpreting lexical cohesion

3. interpreting discourse markers

4. recognizing functional value

5. recognizing text organization

6. recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text

7 recognizing implications and making inferences

8 prediction Anderson (1999:1) writes “understanding main ideas, making inferences, predicting outcomes, and guessing vocabulary from context are all reading skills that readers of English typically need to develop.”

1.1.5 Stages in teaching reading skills

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading stage

To help students get ready to read and make it easier for them to draw attention to and understand the text, a variety of things should be done before the students actually tackle the text The pre-reading stage aims at arousing students’ interest in the topic, motivating learners

by giving a reason for reading, and providing some language preparation for the text (William, 1984:37) This stage often does not take much time in a reading lesson although its duration may vary among different lessons In short, the pre-reading stage plays an important lead-in role in the success of a reading lesson

1.1.5.2 While-reading stage

While-reading is the central stage of a reading lesson in which learners have to base on the text strictly to understand its structure, its content, and the writer’s purpose In this stage, the teacher has to make sure that all the learners are involved in the tasks, which lead them towards the comprehension of the text Learners have to apply suitable skills such as skimming, scanning, guessing words from context, and so on In general, in the while-reading stage, learners refer to the text and make use of their knowledge as well as appropriate reading skills to comprehend the text

1.1.5.3 Post-reading stage

Post-reading stage goes after learners have understood the text In William’s view, “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learner’s own knowledge, interests or views” (William, 1984:39) The primary goal of the post reading phase is to further develop and clarify interpretations of the text, and

to help students remember what they have individually created in their minds from the text

In conclusion, all the above-mentioned stages have their own aims and characteristics, but all of them are important for learners to achieve the comprehension of the texts and the production of the target language as well Reading tasks at different stages should be arranged flexibly so that the tasks assigned later is a follow-up to the previous one

1.1.6 Reading in ESP teaching and learning

ESP is increasingly important in most fields, including information technology According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987:16), there is no difference between ESP and other

forms of language teaching as they defined that “ESP-an approach not a product- does not involve a particular kind of language, teaching material or methodology” Stevens’ (1988) states four absolute characteristics of ESP ESP is designed to meet specified needs of the learners and related in content to particular disciplines, occupations and activities ESP is centred on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse, semantics, and

so on; as well as analysis of the discourse It is also in contrast with general English He also figured out two variable characteristics of ESP that it may be restricted to skills to be learned, but may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology

ESP teachers, ESP learners, ESP materials have certain language similarities and differences in comparison with General English’s ESP teachers should have knowledge of the specialism Teachers may face difficulties when they first teach ESP as they often do not have sufficient specialized knowledge, which their students do have An essential skill that ESP teachers have to acquire is the ability to make reading content level balanced with language level In addition to the functions of a normal language teacher, an ESP teacher sometimes have to play the roles of an instructor, a manager, a facilitator, an organizer, an evaluator, a curriculum developer, and a material writer In some cases, ESP teachers should design the syllabus, design teaching materials, evaluate or even adapt the materials Above all, to gain success in teaching, especially teaching reading skills, ESP teachers should be as flexible and adaptable as possible ESP students, on the other hand, should be able to combine the English language knowledge with their specialized knowledge when they tackle texts which are full of terminologies It is hard for ESP teachers and learners to achieve teaching and learning goals without ESP materials, which provide ESP language input in a paper-based form and/or additional audio and video forms In most university courses in Vietnam, ESP materials are designed to develop chiefly reading skills although other language skills are included in General English as a basis IT materials are not an exception Even when an available textbook which covers all language skills is chosen, ESP courses still focus on reading skills only This

is the case at Centre of information technology development

1.2 Communicative Approach

1.2.1 Communicative language teaching

The origin of CLT dated in the late 1960s CLT is an approach “that aims to (a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication” (Richards et al., 2001:155) Howatt, A.P.R (1984:279) defines two versions

The distinction between a weak and strong version of CLT is similar to that between task-supported language teaching and task-based language teaching Task-based language teaching constitutes a strong version of CLT; nevertheless, it is not the only way of achieving such version Also, “task-based teaching prescribes teaching methodology in broad terms, i.e

as “fluency” rather than “accuracy” …” (Ellis, 2003:31) There are three approaches to using tasks in language pedagogy, humanistic language teaching, procedural syllabus, and process syllabus On the other hands, task-supported language teaching is characterized in terms of presentation-practice-production (PPP) and some other forms Although PPP is said to be traditional with certain criticisms and problems, it proves to be highly durable in delivering the structures taught in real communication In addition, PPP provides learners with opportunities

to practise the target language, which Dean claims to be very important in developing reading skills as he states that “success in reading comes from practice over long periods of time, like skill in playing musical instruments Indeed, it is a lifelong endeavor.” (Dean,2000:2)

Nunan (1991) presented an overview of communicative approach (together with other approaches and methods) in the table below

Theory of language Language is a system for the expression of meaning;

primary function- interaction and communication

Theory of learning Activities involving real communication; carrying out

meaningful tasks; and using language which is meaningful

to the learner promote learning

Objectives Objectives will reflect the needs of the learner; they will

include functional skills as well as linguistic objectives

Syllabus Will include some/all of the following: structures, notions,

functions, themes, tasks Ordering will be guided by learner needs

Activity types Engage learners in communication, involve processes such

as information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction

Learner roles Learner as negotiator, giving as well as taking

Teacher roles Facilitator of the communication process, participants tasks

and texts, needs analyst, counselor, process manager

Roles of materials Primary role of promoting communicative language use;

task-based materials; authentic

Table 1 An Overview of Communicative Approach (Nunan, 1991:194-5)

1.2.2 Tasks

1.2.2.1 Communicative tasks

There have been a variety of definitions of “task” Ellis (1003:2) states that “it should

be acknowledged from the start that in neither reading nor language pedagogy is there complete agreement as to what constitutes a task, making definition problematic…” Richards

et al (1992:513) defines task in teaching as “an activity which is designed to help to achieve a

particular learning goal.” Nunan (1991:10) considers the communicative task as “a piece of

classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their intention is principally focused on meaning rather than form The task should also have a sense of completeness being able to stand alone

as a communicative act in its own right.” Ellis (2003:2) defines “A task is a workplan that

requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been

conveyed.” He claims that “tasks can function as a useful device for planning a communicative curriculum” (Ellis, 2003:30) He also distinguishes between “tasks” and

“exercises”: “tasks primarily focus on meaningful language use, whereas “exercises” are activities that call for primarily form-focused language use” (Ellis, 2003: 3) Those participate

in tasks act primarily as language users while those participate in exercises function as language learners However, tasks and exercises have the same overall purpose- learning the language The difference between them is the means to achieve this purpose In the textbook

“Basic English for Computing”, the units are divided into “tasks” of different types The term

“task” in this textbook also includes “exercises” while it “takes a broadly communicative approach” as stated in the teacher’s book In this thesis; however, the term “task” will refer to communicative task as defined by Nunan (1991) Nunan (1991:10) also points out that tasks contain verbal or non-verbal input data and “an activity which is in some ways derived from the input and which sets out what the learners are to do in relation to the input” The task also includes an implicit or explicit goal as well as roles for teachers and students

Input TASKS Learner role

- Typically make use of authentic and challenging texts

- Provide students with a rhetorical or topical framework for processing and analysing the text

- Frequently involve an oral reading of the text by the teacher or a student followed

by silent reading and rereading of the text

- Involve students in direct analysis of the text instead of indirect question answering

- Frequently involve the transfer of information from the text to a visual or diagrammatic representation

There are a number of criteria of reading tasks which are suitable for developing reading skills for students at Centre of Information technology development under communicative approach as follow

* Make use of authentic texts of information technology

* Develop different reading skills including skimming, scanning, and other language skills such as note-taking, reporting, table completing, exchanging information, and so on

* Follow 3 stages, pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading

* Provide students with opportunities to practise three other language skills (speaking, listening and writing skills)

* Frequently involve students in pair/ group work

* Make clear instruction and be suitable to the students’ English level (beginner plus to lower-intermediate)

* Be varied in type

1.3 Material evaluation and adaptation

1.3.1 Materials and textbook

Tomlinson (1998) defines “material” as “anything which is used to help to teach language learners Materials can include textbook, student’s books, cassettes, CD-ROMs, photocopied hand-outs, pictures, and so on Materials are all the things that are exploited for language learning Textbook is one type of material It can be referred to as a book that treats a subject comprehensively and is a basis for study In ESP courses, a textbook has the functions

of a source of language, a learning support, a source for stimulation and motivation, and also source for reference Textbooks play an important role in the success of a language course However, “there is no such a thing as a perfect textbook” (Brown, 1995: 166) Sometimes textbooks should be evaluated to judge the appropriateness to the target students

evaluation, pre-use evaluation, in-use evaluation, and post-use evaluation Pre-use or predictive evaluation has the purpose of examining the future performance of a textbook This type of evaluation takes place before decisions to select appropriate textbook need to be made In-use or formative evaluation is designed to appraise the material that is being used This complicated process, which can be carried out through analysis of the teacher’s diaries or journals, classroom observation data, and records of the textbook adaptation or supplementary materials Post-use or retrospective evaluation is reliable to access the effect of using materials

as it draws on the experiences of teachers and learners who have used the materials The feedback from this stage is useful for future reference and materials adaptation

1.3.3 Materials adaptation

Adaptation is related to adoption as McDonough and Shaw (1993:82) state that “A decision in favour of adoption is an initial step, and it is unlikely to mean that no further action needs to be taken beyond that of presenting the material directly to the learners It is more realistic to assume that; however careful the design of the materials and the evaluation process, some changes will have to be made at some level in most teaching contexts Adaptation, then, is the process subsequent to, and dependent on adoption.” Adaptation is a process of making teaching materials appropriate for a particular teaching context by altering some of the internal characteristics of a textbook or set of materials

There are five main types of materials adapting techniques The first technique is

adding, which means supplementing the materials We can make changes in this way by using

extending or expanding techniques Extending is carried out in a quantitative way and “this means that the techniques are being applied within the methodological framework of the original materials: in other words, the model is not itself changed.” (McDonough and Shaw, 1993:89) Expanding involves both quantitative and qualitative change This can be considered

a change in the overall system In contrast to addition is deletion Some parts of materials may

be omitted and then replaced with some new ones Accordingly, addition and deletion often work together in the process of adaptation The third adapting technique is modifying, which can be subdivided into rewriting and restructuring Rewriting means relating tasks to students’ background and interest, introducing authentic language model or setting problem-solving tasks Teachers can also restructure the class or task requirements Simplifying is the fourth

adapting technique The instructions and explanations that accompany tasks or activities can

be simplified by changing linguistic items, content or the way in which content is presented Last, the parts of a textbook can be re-ordered Re-ordering means altering the sequence of presentation within a unit or the order of the tasks

A number of researches have been carried out to improve the teaching and learning English for computing at the CITD A research on applying IT to teach English for computing was done by the staff of English teachers in 2006 There was also a research on evaluating the validity and reliability of the achievement test for the students at the centre Both of the researches contributed to the process of teaching ESP to the students at CITD However, the textbook, especially reading tasks have not been taken into consideration so as to develop reading skills to the students at the centre This research can help improve the effect of teaching reading skills, and then ESP to the students

Chapter summary:

In this chapter of literature review, the writer has presented different basic issues relating to reading, teaching reading skills, as well as reading tasks, all of which set the theoretical background for the current study Communicative approach has been reviewed To serve the study, the writer has also paid attention to materials adaptation In the next chapter, the writer reports the study for the answers to the proposed research questions

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 2.1 An overview on situation of teaching and learning reading skills at CITD

2.1.1 Objectives of the English course at CITD

The aim of the whole course is to provide the students with basic knowledge of English grammar of pre-intermediate level, vocabulary of common topics, especially information technology; and reading skills so that they can use computers more easily and read informatic documents in English, which is very helpful to them after graduation At the end of the course, students will be able to read and understand IT materials in English; master common English terms and concepts; consolidate vocabulary and basic grammar structures used in reading texts; and translate some IT materials from English into Vietnamese and vice versa Speaking, listening and writing skills are less significant English is one subject in the part-time undergraduate program that the students at CITD have to complete in order to get degree of bachelor in information technology The students learn English in 6 terms (192 periods of 45 minutes) In the first three terms, students learn basic English with the textbook

“Lifelines” at elementary and pre-intermediate levels In the second half of the course, they study English for specific purposes and “Basic English for Computing” is chosen as the main textbook We have from twenty seven to thirty nine periods to finish one term, which covers from five to ten units in that textbook

2.1.2 Learners

There are about 500 students at CITD The number of student in each class ranges from twenty to fifty They are of different levels, which range from beginner to pre-intermediate, and have different purposes as well as attitudes towards learning English Their average age is from 18 to 24, but they are often reluctant to participate in class activities Many of them learn English just to complete it as one part of the whole training course to become bachelors in information technology Only a small number of them are interested in the subject, studious and several learn it quite well Furthermore, the majority of the students does not have appropriate learning strategies and have passive learning styles They have been familiar with grammar-translation from years at school so they need to know every unfamiliar word and translate everything into Vietnamese in order to understand an English text In addition, the course duration is limited, hence the students do not have much time to practise

the language in class Generally speaking, it is very difficult for teachers to monitor these

mixed classes and help students improve their English language knowledge and skills

2.2 A review of reading tasks in the textbook BEC

The textbook BEC consists of 28 units Six units are “interviews”, which do not include reading tasks, and they are not included in the syllabus There are reading tasks in only

22 units Following is the list of reading tasks in those units

Pre-reading tasks

While-reading tasks Post-reading tasks

1 Everyday uses of

computers

Finding specific information/ details

2 Types of computer Answering the

Gap-filling Checking the answers

to the previous task

6 Input devices Gap-filling and table

completing

7 Output devices Deciding if each

statement is true or false

Completing the table in pairs

8 Storage devices Listing specific

information

Completing the table in groups

Exchanging information in groups to complete the table

9 Graphical User

Interface

Locating specific information

Finding definitions in the text of these items

11 Networks Answering the

questions

Checking the answers

to the previous task

Answering the questions

14 The Internet 2:

the World Wide Web

Classifying text topics

Doing the matching Doing the matching

16 Word processing Identifying details Identifying word

processing features

17 Database and

spreadsheets

Answering the questions

Answering the questions

Creating selection rules

18 Graphics and

multimedia

Identifying software used

1 Completing table and specifying the reason for each choice

2 Answering the questions

19 Programming Completing the table in

groups

21 Languages 1 Completing the table

in groups

2 Answering the

questions

22 Low-level

systems

Answering the questions

1 Check your answers

to the previous task

2 Answering the questions

23 Future trends 1 Making notes in the

table

Explaining your notes in groups

24 Future trends 2 Predicting future

trends

In groups, making notes in the table

26 Issues in

computing

Answering the questions in groups

Answering the questions

Table 2: List of reading tasks in the textbook BEC

As stated in the teacher’s book, BEC takes a broadly communicative approach; however, as shown in table 2, less than one third of the tasks are communicative Two among

11 pre-reading tasks are communicative Six while-reading tasks are communicative while 19

of them are non-communicative 44% of the post-reading tasks are communicative so over half of them are non-communicative What is more, the post-reading tasks in units 16 and 17 are not useful as they only check students’ knowledge of the specialism They do not help further develop and clarify interpretations of the texts, which are chief goals of post-reading stage

It is obvious that there are various types of reading task, including answering the questions, making notes in the table, finding specific details, and so on The most frequently used type of task is answering the questions, which is followed by table completing The number of different tasks is rather unequal as the first two types make up half of the total

tasks The reading tasks in the textbook BEC provide the students with opportunities to practise a number of reading skills The skill of scanning is practised the most frequently Note-taking and reporting skills are developed in quite a frequent way Reading for main points is also developed although it is not focused Besides, students can exchange information with one another in groups and complete the given tables

The reading tasks in the textbook have the tendency to follow three stages, pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading ones The following table displays the distribution of reading tasks in each unit of the textbook BEC

As can be seen from the table, only 3 units (unit 8, 11, and 17) have tasks of all three stages Five units have only while-reading tasks Half of the units have pre-reading tasks and only 9 of them have post-reading tasks, which makes up 41% of the total

There is not quite a balance in terms of setting format Most tasks require students to work individually 24.5% of the tasks are to be done in groups In contrast, there is only one pair-work task

Table 4: The setting formats of reading tasks

In general, the reading tasks in the textbook BEC can help students practise different reading skills, but they have certain drawbacks Basic reading skills are developed through the tasks They are divided into three stages On the other hand, the reading tasks are not very varied in terms of type and setting format Also, a small number of the tasks follow communicative approach The distribution of tasks is not balanced Moreover, post-reading tasks are not very useful for improving students’ reading ability

2.4.1 The subjects of the study

2.4.1.1 The teacher subjects

The subjects of the study are five teachers of English at the centre They have been teaching ESP to third–year students All of them are experienced in teaching English for computing They are aged from 26 to 29, two of them got M.A degrees, one is attending the post-graduate course at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

2.4.1.2 The learner subjects

Seventy-seven third-year students were chosen randomly among 120 third-year students at the centre for the study They are aged from 18 to 26 Their English level is not equal although all of them have learnt English for at least 3 years In fact, they learnt Basic English for the first three semesters and English for computing for three other semesters

2.4.2 Methods and procedures

The researcher used quantitative method and triangulation technique, which involves

an overview of reading tasks in the textbook, survey questionnaires for teachers and students All the subjects were informed of the purpose of the study and willing to cooperate with the researcher to fulfill the questionnaires

The study was conducted in two steps Firstly, the reading tasks in the textbook were taken into consideration They were analysed in terms of number, type, setting format, reading skills and stages Secondly, the questionnaires were administered to seventy-seven third-year students and five teachers at CITD In order to collect reliable data and information from the subjects, questionnaires for students were designed in Vietnamese and the students were given plentiful of time to finish their answers Both teachers and students were given any explanation if necessary The completed questionnaires were also collected by the researcher herself

2.5 Data analysis process

Data collected from three different sources will be categoried into (a) teachers’ and students’ opinions on the unsuitable characteristics of the reading tasks in the textbook BEC (when they are used to teach reading skills to the students as CITD), (b) how to adapt the reading tasks in the textbook, especially post-reading tasks to improve reading skills to the

students The data categorized this way makes it easy for the author to find the answers to the research questions The quantitative data will be presented in the form of charts The data will

be analyzed both descriptively and interpretively

Chapter summary

This chapter presented an overview on the situation of teaching and learning reading skills at CITD, the overview of reading tasks in the textbook BEC; the research questions; the research methodology and instruments of data collection The author used three different instruments, except for the review of the reading tasks in the textbook, there are two survey questionnaires with the purpose of using triangulation technique to achieve more reliable and valid data In the next chapter, chapter 3, the author will present the data analysis, discussion and the suggestions for adapting reading tasks in the textbook to improve reading skills to students at CITD

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR

ADAPTING READING TASKS 3.1 Data analysis and discussions

3.1.1 Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the unsuitable characteristics of the reading tasks in the textbook BEC

3.1.1.1 Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the tasks in general

It can be seen from chart 1 that there is a high level of agreement about the level of the reading tasks The greatest number of teachers and students agree that the tasks in the textbook are generally neither very easy nor very difficult The teachers think that the tasks are of two levels, either neutral or difficult In fact, over forty percent of the students find the tasks difficult or very difficult, and forty percent of the teachers consider them difficult tasks Only

a very small number of students think that the tasks are easy This proves that the students at the centre are in mixed classes; nevertheless, the level of the tasks is not very easy

10.4%

1.3%

difficult very difficult

Chart 2 : Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the number of tasks

associated with each text

Teachers

60%

40%

smallaverage

The chart shows that approximately three fifth of the teachers and students find the number of tasks small In 39 percent of the students’ opinions, the number of tasks is average, and the percentage is 40 for the teachers About five percent of the students think that the number of tasks is large According to the review of the reading tasks in chapter 2, most units have one or two tasks, so the number of tasks is not large at all Generally speaking, the number of tasks is quite small In other words, more tasks should be supplemented

Chart 3: Teachers’ and Students’ opinions on the types of tasks

It is obvious that almost all of the teachers (80%) and most students (68%) find the types of tasks neutral Nearly one third of the students claim that the tasks are monotonous and only five percent of them find those tasks quite varied As the tasks were reviewed, their types are not very varied Accordingly, reading lessons will be more interesting, and even more effective if some other types of task are added

Teachers

100%

Yes, but not many

Chart 4 : Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the communicativeness of the tasks