Developing pre reading tasks with first year students of english major division, department of social science, vinh phuc college an action research

ABSTRACT This action research focused on finding out the primary problem related to using pre-reading tasks; hence, the major purpose of the study aimed to develop pre-reading tasks for

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã

HANOI – 2016

DECLARATION

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution

Hanoi, January 2016

Signature

Vũ Quỳnh Hoa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indeed thankful to my supervisor, Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, whose sympathetic guidance has been the source of inspiration and knowledge for my research I am also grateful to other teachers of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies for their encouragement and valuable advice

I have profound regards for all the teachers of English-major Division of Vinh Phuc College and for all of the English-major freshmen of the class 18 who spent their precious time on completing my survey questionnaire Without their enthusiastic cooperation, my thesis would not have been completed

My great thanks are also given to my family and my friends who have constantly supported, inspirited and encouraged me during the process of my study

ABSTRACT

This action research focused on finding out the primary problem related to using pre-reading tasks; hence, the major purpose of the study aimed to develop pre-reading tasks for improving students‟ reading performance The research was conducted with first-year students of English-major Division, Department of Social Science, Vinh Phuc College Data were collected through 4 observed lessons and two sets of survey questionnaire delivered to 32 freshmen of the class 18 English after the lessons The research findings revealed the problem of ineffective use of pre-reading tasks in reading lessons as well as its causes and effects on students‟ reading performance Finally, I also presented suggestions for developing pre-reading tasks that the teachers have used in their reading lessons for improving students‟ reading performance

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AR: Action Research No: Number of students Ss: Students

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Action research procedure

Figure 2: Simple action research model (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2008, p.278) Figure 3: Detailed Action Research Model (Susman, 1983)

Table 1: Students‟ assessment on the first lesson

Table 2: Students‟ assessment on pre-reading tasks used in the first lesson

Table 3: Reasons for effectiveness and ineffectiveness of pre-reading tasks

provided by the students

Table 4: Students‟ assessment on exercises and tasks at the while and post reading

stages in the first lesson

Table 5: Students‟ suggestions about efficient pre-reading tasks in the next reading

lesson

Table 6: Students‟ assessment on the first try-out lesson

Table 7: Students‟ assessment on pre-reading tasks used in the first try-out lesson Table 8: Reasons for effectiveness of pre-reading tasks provided by the students Table 9: Students‟ assessment on exercises and tasks at the while and post- reading

stages in the first try-out lesson

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the Study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Significance of the Study 2

1.5 Scope of the Study 2

1 6 Method of the research 3

1 7 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

2.1 Introduction 5

2.2 Theoretical background of reading 5

2.2.1 Definitions of reading 5

2.2.2 Types of reading 6

2.3 Teaching and learning reading skills 9

2.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language learning 9

2.3.2 Stages of a reading lesson 10

2.4 Theoretical background of pre-reading tasks 11

2.4.1 Overview of pre-reading tasks 11

2.4.2 Pre-reading Tasks 12

2 5 Summary 16

CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY 17

3.1 Introduction 17

3.2 Situation analysis 17

3.2.1 Setting of the study 17

3.2.2 Reading materials 17

3 3 Participants 20

3.3.1 The researcher 20

3.3.2 The observed students 21

3.3.3 The researcher’s assistants 21

3.4 Data Collection Instruments 21

3.4.1 Questionnaire 21

3.4.2 Classroom observations 22

3.5 Methods of Data Analysis 23

3.6 Research Method – Action research (AR) 23

3.6.1 Definitions of AR 23

3.6.2 Action research model 24

3 7 Summary 26

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 27

4.1 Introduction 27

4 2 Findings 27

4.2.1 Cycle 1 27

4.2.2 Cycle 2 36

4.2.3 Cycle 3 37

4 3 Summary 37

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 39

5 1 Introduction 39

5.2 Discussion 39

5.3 Implications 40

5.3.1 Employing pre-reading tasks suitable for students’ interests 40

5 3.2 Varying pre-reading tasks 40

5 3 3 Pedagogical use of pre-reading tasks 40

5 3 4 Improving the pre-reading tasks in the text book 41

5 4 Limitations and suggestions for further study 41

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIXES I

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

In colleges, English has been a compulsory subject in the curriculum Attention is given to all of the four English skills including reading, listening, speaking and writing However, reading plays an important role in enriching the student‟s general knowledge and in developing their further study later In highlighting the importance of reading, Langer (1981, p.153) stated that “reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one‟s knowledge of the language.” Moreover, reading helps students learn other skills better Reutzel (1985), for example, acknowledge that anyone who reads more has various vocabularies and receives marks better for grammar and writing tests Also, Carrell (1984, p.1) confirms that, by far, for numerous students,

in English as a second language, reading plays the most crucial role of the four skills Teaching reading, consequently, has attracted greater attention However, in reading classes, it is common that students do not absolutely know about topic of the text they are reading about Thus, pre-reading stage in each reading lesson becomes indispensable for introducing and for arousing interest in the topic; for motivating learners by giving a reason for reading and for providing some language preparation for the text (Williams, 1986, p.37)

At Vinh Phuc College, where I work, teaching reading is extremely essential

in developing all of the four basic English skills for students As a teacher of English here, I am teaching reading skill to first-year students of English-major division, Department of Social-Science I realize pre-reading stage in each lesson has significant effects on the students‟ reading performance However, using pre-reaching tasks in each pre-reading stage is far from satisfactory In other words, pre-reading tasks I used in each reading lesson had not led to effective performance These tasks were so not only simple but also ineffective that they could not motivate students for reading, provide prior knowledge or build necessary background for comprehending the text Therefore, I decided to carry out the action research to develop pre-reading tasks for first-year students of English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College Based on the findings

of this action research, some changes and improvements can be applied in my lessons, and some appropriate strategies need to be designed with the hope that students will work more effectively in a reading lesson I hope that the findings of this study will be shared with other teachers who have experienced similar problems

1.2 Aims of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to develop pre-reading tasks in reading lessons for English-major freshmen at Vinh Phuc college Specifically, it aims at:

 finding out the problems the first-year English-major students at Vinh Phuc College encountered in pre-reading tasks

 giving the teacher‟s solutions for these problems and emphasizing on the effects of the intervention on the students

 providing the implications for developing pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performances

1.4 Significance of the Study

Theoretical significance of the study:

The study synthesized the problems related to using pre-reading tasks in reading lessons and their effects on students‟ performance Furthermore, the research suggested how to effectively develop pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performance

Practical significance of the study:

The study is expected to improve using pre-reading tasks in reading lessons

at Vinh Phuc College Based on some findings of the study, some suggestions of developing effective pre-reading tasks are given for teachers and students to enhance students‟ reading performances

1.5 Scope of the Study

Although there are various factors that influence the students‟ reading performance in reading lessons, I only focus my study on one of these factors – i.e

developing pre-reading tasks effectively to improve students‟ reading performance

in reading lessons The study was conducted at course 18 English in 4 lessons Each lesson lasted 4 periods (45minutes/ period)

1 6 Method of the research

The research method I used is the action research The study was carried out with the process adapted by Tsui (1993) including five concrete steps: identifying problems, finding causes of the problem, designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a proposal for action research, trying out the strategies (action) and evaluating the try-out These steps were grouped into four phases in the following figure

Figure 1: Action research procedure These steps were described more concretely in the chapter 3 on methodology

1 7 Design of the study

The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the

scope, the method and the design of the study Herein, the research questions are also raised

Chapter 2: Theoretical background: provides the definition of related concepts

and reviews the related works that compose the theoretical background of the study

(1) DIAGNOSING Identifying the problem & its causes

(2) ACTION PLANNING designing strategies for improvement writing a proposal for action research

(3) TAKING ACTION trying out the strategies (4) EVALUATING

evaluating the try-out

Chapter 3: The Methodolody: presents situation analysis, identifies the research

method and gives detailed descriptions of the data collection tools (survey questionnaire and classroom observation), methods of analysis as well as the participants of the study

Chapter 4: Findings: presents, analyzes the findings of the research

Chapter 5: Conclusion: summarizes the discussion of research findings, gives

some teaching implications, and discusses the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Introduction

This chapter reviews the theoretical issues of pre-reading tasks divided into three sections: the theoretical background of reading, teaching and learning reading skills and the overview of pre-reading tasks The first one discusses the theoretical

background of reading including definitions of reading, types of reading The

second section focuses on teaching and learning reading skills consisting of importance of reading in foreign language learning and stages of reading lesson The third one emphasizes on the theoretical background of pre-reading tasks which

comprises an overview of pre-reading tasks and a classification of these tasks

2.2 Theoretical background of reading

Another interesting definition of reading by Harmer (1989) is that reading is considered as an exercise with the eyes and the brain The brain works to understand the message from the reading text after this message is received by the eyes

A definition of reading is offered by Rubin and Thomson (1994, p.91),

“reading is an active information-seeking process in which readers relate information in the text what they already know” From this point of view, both the reader‟s knowledge of the language and their background knowledge play the significant role for their reading success

Reading is also defined as the interaction between the reader and the author According to Smith (1978, p.102), “reading is understands the author‟s thought”

He also explained that “it means that we-the readers-read the author‟s mind not the author‟s words” In addition, reading is described in a more extensive way: “reading

is understanding written language”, “reading is a complex mental process”,

“reading is thinking” (Roe, Stood and Burns, 1987, p.2)

In short, from these theories above, it is obvious that no definition can likely consist of all aspects or features of the definition of reading Each linguist‟s

definition only reflects what reading means as seen from his own point of view However, they all focus on the nature of reading

Oral reading has both advantages and disadvantages According to Natal (1966), oral reading is regarded as an effective method for learners to improve their pronunciation It helps learners to make the connection between sounds and spelling

of letters and words and also assists the teacher to check learners‟ pronunciation Moreover, it is a technique for him to keep the class under control, since when one student reads aloud, the others are asked to listen in case they may be required to continue the reading

However, Greenwood (1985) provides some disadvantages of oral reading The biggest problem of oral reading is that students may unable to focus adequately

on the text‟s meaning when they highly concentrate on pronouncing the words In

other words, when reading aloud, students only focus on the pronunciation instead

of the meaning of the text The second disadvantage is that when students take turn

to read a text aloud, only one student is active; the others do not have to read It can

be inferred that there is little value in reading aloud for improving the readers‟ reading skills Therefore, the teachers as well as educators should identify the level

of their students and decide whether to apply reading aloud or not in teaching

reading to their students

2.2.2.2 Silent reading

According to Doff (1988, p.67), “silent reading involves looking at sentence and understanding the message it conveys, in other words making sense of a written text It does not normally involve saying the words we read nor even silently in our heads” When reading silently, students not only understand the message of the text but also get the main ideas of the text for answering the questions

In conclusion, silent reading is an effective skill for reading process in general and reading comprehension in particular, since the teacher can check his or her students‟ understanding easily and can adjust the reading materials and exercises to suit the students‟ ability Moreover, students also mainly focus on the meaning of the text instead of pronunciation Therefore, it should be applied in teaching and learning a foreign language

Within the category of silent reading, the two types of reading named are intensive and extensive reading Intensive reading is used to teach or practice

specific reading strategies or skills The text is treated as an end in itself Extensive

reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantities of material, directly

and fluently It is treated as a means to an end It may include reading simply for

pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material It can be concluded that they are two contrasting ways of reading; however, actually, they are complementary and both are necessary

2.2.2.2.1 Intensive reading

Nuttall (2000, p.38) points out that “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus

on the text” In other words, intensive reading is described as a classroom-oriented

activity in which the teacher guides his students mainly to focus on the text

Another definition of intensive reading provided by Grellet (1981, p.41) is that “intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information This

is an accuracy activity in involving reading for detailed” Another author, Brown (1990, p.297) has pointed out that reading “recalls students‟ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like” From these points of view, we can infer that the objective of intensive reading is to achieve a full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced Through intensive reading, the reader must arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of logical arguments, the rhetorical arrangement, the pattern of the text, the attitude and purposes of the writer In other

words, intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students‟ comprehension

2 2.2.2.2 Extensive reading

Grettle (1981, p.4) confirms: “extensive reading means reading longer text, usually or one‟s own pleasure This is a fluency activity mainly involving general understanding” Carrell and Carson (1997, p.49-50) share the same view point of extensive reading with Grettle; they state that “extensive reading generally involves rapid reading of large quantities of material or longer reading for general understanding, with the focus generally on the meaning of what is being read than

on the language” Thus, extensive reading is regarded as a useful activity for students‟ self-learning In Brown‟s view point (2001), extensive reading helps students enrich their language elements because it is one of the key to achieve reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing

To summarize, extensive reading is one of the best ways to improve students‟ reading performance The reason for this is that extensive reading is carried out “to achieve a general understanding of a text” (Brown, 1989, p.31) Basing on the purposes of reading, extensive reading may involve two specific types of reading, scanning for key details and skimming for the essential meaning

Firstly, scanning is one of the effective skills commonly used in reading

comprehension There have been numerous definitions of scanning According to Brown (2001, p.308), scanning is defined as “quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text” Also, Williams (1987, p.7) stated that

“scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information” From these view points, it is inferred that scanning

is very high speed reading for finding a particular piece of information Therefore, scanning is regarded as a useful skill to help the readers to skip over unimportant words and to focus on searching the details they want In addition to definitions of scanning, Grellet (1981, p.19) also provides a more detailed one that “when scanning, we only try to locate information and often we do not even follow the linearity of passage to do so, and scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose” In brief, these above authors all have the same point that scanning is a useful technique for quick and efficient reading Thus, it can be practiced with the great range of texts such as dictionaries, maps and labels

Secondly, based on the theory of skimming made by Brown (2001, p.304),

“skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text for its gist

Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or message, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas”, it can be understood that skimming is also one of the specific reading techniques necessary for fast and effective reading Greenwood (1981, p.92) also shares the same view point with Douglas (2001), he indicates that “the reader goes through particular passage such as newspaper article merely to get the gist” From these two opinions, it can be inferred that skimming is also a skill that enables readers to get the main idea of the text without any concern for details In general, skimming is a very useful reading skill for developing students‟ reading performance, also it is advisable to apply at the first stage of teaching reading with the hope that it can help them to have an overview of what they are reading Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with the other tasks that followed

2.3 Teaching and learning reading skills

2.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language learning

In the process of teaching and learning English as a second foreign language, the teaching and learning of reading are always received much attention, since reading is considered as one of the most basic and important skills as what Carrell (1984, p.332) indicates: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is also true for teaching and learning reading at English-major Division, Department

of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College In detail, at our college, teaching and learning reading is also very crucial because reading is not only one of the most important skills, but it is also remarkable for developing students‟ other skills According to Rivers and Temperly (1978), reading skill is an integrated-language skill Firstly, reading helps students enrich vocabulary and grammatical structures, and improve students‟ performance in summarizing the reading materials As Richard (1992, p.4) states that “reading may help to increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures” Secondly, reading is also concerned for improving listening skill Rivers and Temperly (1978, p.259) point out that “listen to worthwhile reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read The aural element adds vividness and life to the reading unit” They also further state that “practice in direct reading of a text which is readily accessible to the students at their present level of knowledge, while they are simultaneously listening to a taped model reading it in meaningful and expressive segments, can help students develop useful habits of anticipation and syntactic identification in both of these skills” Finally, that is integration of reading and speaking skills Reading materials are regarded as a useful source for oral

presentations when students can get information as well as ideas from these materials for discussion and presentation

Besides, reading also helps students to approach the target culture It is stated

by Richard (1992, p.4) as follows: “reading in the new language is also an important way to learn about the target culture” In details, reading is regarded as a significant way for students to get knowledge of the target culture as lifestyle, behaviors, thoughts, custom of the native people

In short, “reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one‟s knowledge of the language” (Rivers, 1981, p.147) In addition, reading also reinforces students‟ other language skills and becomes a source of interesting knowledge of different culture for students

2.3.2 Stages of a reading lesson

Many linguists all share the same view point that each reading lesson is divided into three stages which are pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and post-reading stage (William, 1984; Dubin & Bycina, 1991; Phillips, 1985) William (1984) also indicates that each of these stages carries its own features and requires different techniques and strategies

Firstly, pre-reading stage is the first core step of the process of each reading

lesson It not only creates motivation towards the reading text, but it also provides students language preparation for the text before they read In detail, William (1984) lists three principle purposes of the pre-reading stage The pre-reading phase aims to introduce the topic of the reading text and stimulate students‟ interest, to activate background knowledge and to provide preliminary vocabulary for the reading Sharing William‟s view point, Doff (1988) suggests several tasks in the pre-reading phase The first one is giving a brief introduction to the text This task provides students some ideas about the topic of the reading text before reading and creates motivation with the reading text The second activity is presenting new vocabulary and revising grammatical structures whose aims are to provide vocabulary related to the text and to review the old and new grammatical structures for better preparation for the while-reading stage The last task is giving students guiding questions referring to the general idea of the text to brainstorm about the topic before they read the text General speaking, the pre-reading phase is extremely necessary for an excellent preparation before reading It can arouse students to focus

on the topic or the reading text Furthermore, it also provides students vocabulary and grammatical structures to deal with the text

Secondly, the while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson with the following specific aims to help understanding of the writer‟s purpose, to help understanding of the text structure and to clarify text content (William, 1984, p.38) The techniques applied in this stage widely vary from guessing new words in contexts, asking questions to note-taking Teachers, at the phase, need to encourage students to understand the text as well as the author‟s purposes conveyed through the reading text In conclusion, the while-reading phase plays the important role in the process of a reading lesson Therefore, the teacher should create various activities in the stage for improvement of students‟ reading performance

Finally, the post-reading phase is regarded as the time for students‟ production What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the reading text William (1984, p.39) points out that “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners‟ own knowledge, interests or views” To summarize, this stage is also an essential for a reading lesson The teacher, at the phase, need to focus on create activities for these above purposes In addition, teacher should not ignore this stage

2.4 Theoretical background of pre-reading tasks

In this section, I review the theoretical background and various studies related to pre-reading tasks and present a list of different pre-reading tasks suggested to conduct at the pre-reading stage Hence, this section consists of two main parts, namely, the overview of pre-reading tasks and a classification of various lead-in tasks for the pre-reading stage

2.4.1 Overview of pre-reading tasks

According to Ringler and Weber (1984), pre-reading tasks are defined as enabling ones, since they help the readers get the necessary background for understanding the reading materials Another definition of pre-reading tasks provided by Lazar (1993) is that pre-reading tasks are regarded as ones that provide students with background knowledge, arouse their interest in the topic of the reading text and pre-teach vocabulary In addition, Chen and Graves (1995, p.664) aslo define pre-reading tasks “devices for bridging the gap between the text‟s content and the reader‟s schemata”

It can not be denied that pre-reading tasks play a crucial role in not only motivating students through the reading lesson, but also developing students‟ reading performance After their studies about effects of pre-reading tasks, different researchers all provide the same view point that pre-reading tasks provide and activate students background information prior to the reading text (Graves &

Chen, 1995; Graves & Cooke, 1980; Hudson, 1982; Johnson, 1981, 1982; Langer, 1984; Maghsoudi, 2012; Stevens, 1982; Taglieber & Johnson & Yarbrough, 1988) Furthermore, in Chastain„s view point (1988), pre-reading tasks also arouse students‟ interest in the topic and provide them with language preparation before reading In addition, Lewis and Hill (1992) emphasize that pre-reading tasks are used to make it easier for students to comprehend the text and help them only focus their attention on the text

In conclusion, pre-reading tasks are very necessary with three core purposes, namely, building students‟ background information before reading, arousing students‟ interest in the topic and providing students some language preparation for

the text before reading

2.4.2 Pre-reading Tasks

Various researchers have focused on the pre-reading stage such as Bowen (1982), Lewis and Hill (1985), William (1986), Doff (1988), Swaffar (1991), Moore (1992), Wallace (1992), Nuttal (2000) and Chia (2001) In their studies, they have also provided several pre-reading tasks of the first phase of each reading lesson

2.4.2.1 Giving a brief introduction of the text

It is very essential for teachers to provide an introduction to the topic of an informative text before students read A good introduction consists of two main purposes, namely, establishing a purpose for reading, activating and building background knowledge For the first aim, teachers should design appropriate tasks

to match students‟ interest to the content of the reading text, to motivate students to read the text Furthermore, the second purpose of an introduction to the text - building background knowledge It means that the introduction can recall any information students already know about the topic, from their personal experience Sharing the same view point, Nuttall (2000) also provides several purposes of a good introduction to the text, namely, motivating students to read the text, activating students‟ background knowledge about the topic of the text, involving students actively and being usually short Hence, several following pre-reading tasks are also suggested for a good introduction to the text before reading

First, pre-reading questions are designed to ask students either orally or written on the blackboard for introducing to the reading text Doff (1988, p.61) stated obviously that these questions are essential for students because “they give the students a reason to read and to lead them to the main points of the text” These questions focus on general ideas of the reading text instead of detailed ideas Normally, pre-reading questions should be designed so that students could easily

find out the answer Students can work in groups or in pairs to discuss these questions, this can make students feel excited to try their best for finding out the answers Also, this is an effective way to arouse students‟ interest into the topic of the text There are several types of pre-reading questions, namely, yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions as well as „wh‟ questions

Next, it is advised that visual aids should be used at the first stage of each reading lesson to introduce the text Visual aids consist of photographs, videos, pictures, real objects, flashcards or charts.Visual aids not only provide input for the lesson, but also keep students‟ attention as well as motivate students to read the text However, to make using visual aids more effective, visual aids should be related to the topic of the reading and of students‟ interests

In addition, telling a short story is another pre-reading task It is advised that the teacher may tell a short story with the topic related to the reading text The story

is regarded as a brief introduction to the text In addition, students also feel excited with the content of the text, which relates to the story the teacher has already told Thus, teacher‟s story becomes a good introduction to the text by motivate students

to read the text

Using games at pre-reading stage is also regarded as another effective way for introducing to the text Firstly, games encourage students to sustain their interests Also, through games, the teacher can create the new contexts where the language is useful and meaningful Several games are suggested to be useful for introducing to the text, namely, lucky number, crossword and hangman

Discussion about the topic of the text at the pre-reading is also an appropriate and necessary technique in order to lead to the reading text Discussion encourages students to think about the topic as well as to increase their interests in the text In addition, obviously, discussion is very essential not only for the students‟ interaction with each other but also for improving their speaking performance

Moreover, brainstorming is useful for a good introduction to the text Wallace (1992) also points out that brainstorming is considered as one of the most popular pre-reading tasks Firstly, this task is designed by giving students key words After that, they are asked to list all words related to key words either orally

or written down the paper Hence, brainstorming can encourage students to remind

of their prior background knowledge to the topic of the text Also, this task creates

an interesting atmosphere for all students as well as the lesson

2.4.2.2 Providing some language preparation for the text

This task is commonly called as pre-teaching vocabulary Before reading, teachers provide some new words and grammatical structures appearing in the text

so that students can deal with the text According to Nuttall (1982), at the reading phase, to have an efficient way to introducing to the reading text, one of the most important things teachers need to do is pre-teaching certain key language items in the reading text, this is better than presenting them as isolated items In brief, pre-teaching vocabulary is really needful for a better introduction It is not only a good way for students to study all new words and structures of the same context, but it also gives them language preparation for the text

pre-Before reading, some pre-reading tasks are suggested for both teachers and students to pre-teach vocabulary effectively

Using definitions or explanation is a common way to teach vocabulary Normally, the teacher provides definitions or explanation of the new words and structures, this not only helps students catch the meaning of vocabulary but also aids them to study all new words and structures of the same context as well as arouse their motivation in reading the text It is advised for the teacher is that he should provide short and direct definition and explanation of the new words and

structures for the best way of pre-teaching vocabulary before reading

Another way is using synonyms and antonyms.A new word and structure can also be defined with their synonyms and antonyms Therefore, synonyms and antonyms become useful clues for recalling students‟ background knowledge as

well as pre-teaching new and difficult vocabulary of the unfamiliar topic

Next,using visual aids is regarded as one of the most effective strategies for pre-teaching vocabulary.“Visual aids are of great help in stimulating the learning of

a foreign language”(Bowen, 1982, p.1) Students feel extremely excited with presenting the meaning of vocabulary visually through pictures, real objects,

gestures and facial expressions

Another effective way for pre-teaching vocabulary is using games Several games are also employed for pre-teaching vocabulary at the pre-reading stage They are language games such as puzzles, crossword and matching

2.4.2.3 Previewing tasks

These tasks are considered to be the most useful preparation activities which encourage students to build their own expectations about the content of the text and how information in the text will be organized Swaffar (1991) also indicated that previewing tasks enable students to predict the content of the text Sharing the same

view point with Swaffar (1991), Chia (2001) points out the benefits of previewing tasks that encourage students to predict or make some educated guesses about information in the text

Several tasks are suggested for anticipating the content of the text They may include using the title of the text, using questions, reading the introduction and conclusion paragraphs, using key words, phrases and statements from the text, reading the first sentence of each of body paragraphs, skimming the text

The first strategy for anticipating the content of the text is using the title of the text.Students are asked to work with the title of the text to establish expectations about the content of the text since the title of the text directly relates to the content

of the text

Moreover,the teacher uses a list of questions to predict the content of the text These questions should be brief and relevant with the topic to help students to formulate hypothesis about the text Sometimes, student can create their own

questions about information they would expect to read from the text

In addition,reading the introduction and conclusion paragraphsenables students to identify the main ideas to be discussed in the text Normally, the introduction paragraph introduces topics discussed in the text, while the conclusion one frequently repeats the main ideas of the text

Another strategy is using key words, phrases and statements from the text.By focusing on several key words, phrases and statements of the text, students can get vocabulary as well as anticipate information from the reading text The words, phrases and statements chosen should relate directly to the main ideas of the text Moreover, it is advised for the teacher that he should design relevant tasks with

these words, phrases and statements for students‟ efficient anticipation

Furthermore, reading the first sentence of each of body paragraphs is also an effective strategy to predict the content of the text The first sentence of each of body paragraphs is the topic sentence of each paragraph, which also sets up the main idea of the paragraphs Thence, students can synthesize all of these key ideas

from paragraphs in order to build their own prediction about the content of the text

The last strategy is skimming the text Students are asked to read the text

quickly so as to get the gist of the text

In brief, obviously, pre-reading tasks have had great impact to students‟ reading performance Consequently, developing pre-reading tasks is extremely essential for improving students‟ reading skills

2 5 Summary

The theoretical issues of pre-reading tasks have been presented in this chapter Initially, the chapter provides the theoretical background of reading and of teaching and learning reading skills The next and most important section is that the theoretical background of pre-reading tasks in which the overview of pre-reading tasks is presented and a classification of pre-reading tasks is also mentioned

CHAPTER 3: THE METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a detailed introduction about the methodology including situation analysis, participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis, research method

3.2 Situation analysis

3.2.1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted at English-major Division, Department of Science, Vinh Phuc College, which is one of the main colleges of the province that train teachers, secretaries and tour guides The students at the major-English group have to complete a three-year course in which English is a major subject Thus, English is taught in a formal setting with two stages During the first one, which lasts for the first two years, students study general English with the four language skills In the second one, with the last year, the students have a chance to deal with such subjects as grammar, phonetics, semantics, lexicology and methodology

Social-The first stage is considered to be important to the student‟s development of the four skills since they have more time and opportunities to practice their skills basically and systematically than in the second one, especially for the first year students whose English seems to be upgraded relatively after years at high school However, class time allocation for the four skills in general and for reading is not always sufficient Normally, for freshmen, there are only three periods of reading every week Yet, it is not enough for the students to develop their reading skills as well as to enrich their background knowledge and vocabulary and structure

 Pre-reading Preparation

This pre-reading activity is designed to stimulate student interest, activate background knowledge, and provide preliminary vocabulary for the reading passage itself The importance of pre-reading preparation should not be underestimated Studies have shown the positive effect of pre-reading preparation in motivating student interest and in enhancing reading comprehension In fact, pre-reading discussion has been shown to be more effective in improving reading comprehension than pre-vocabulary exercises Time should be spent describing and discussing the illustrations as well as discussing the pre-reading questions Furthermore, the students should try to relate the topic to their own experience and to predict what they are going to read about

 The Reading Passage

As the students read the passage for the first time, they should be encouraged

to read ideas In English, ideas are formulated and described in groups of

words, in sentences, and in paragraphs, not in individual works After the students read the passage to themselves, the teacher may want to read the passage aloud to the students At the beginning level, students are very keen

on pronunciation and feel that this practice is helpful to them Moreover, such practice provides the students with an appropriate model for pronunciation and intonation

 Fact-Finding Exercise

After the first reading, the students will read and respond to the true/ false statements If a statement is false, the students will go back to the passage ad find the lines that contain the correct answer They will then rewrite the statement so that it becomes true This activity can be done individually or in groups

 Information Recall

Students should be instructed to read each passage carefully a second time to pay attention to details After the second reading, they will answer the questions on specific information in the passage, and compare their answers with a classmate The pairs of students can then refer back to the passage and check their answers

 Reading Analysis

The students will read each question and answer it The first question in the section always refers to the main ideas There are three possible answers Two are incorrect because they are too general or too narrow When going over the exercise, the teacher should discuss with the students why the other

two answers are incorrect The rest of this exercise requires the students to think about the meanings of words and phrases, the structure of sentences and paragraphs, and the relationships among ideas This exercise is very effective when done in groups It may also be done individually, but group work gives the students an excellent opportunity to discuss possible answers

 Word Forms

As an introduction to the word form exercises in the book, it is recommended that the teacher first review parts of speech, especially verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs Teachers should point out each word forms position

in a sentence Students will develop a sense for which part of speech is missing in a given sentence Teachers should also point out clues to tense and number, and whether an idea is affirmative or negative The teacher can

do the example with the students before the exercise or as an assignment after the exercise is completed Each section has its own instructions, depending on the particular pattern which is being introduced For example,

in the section containing words which take –tion in the noun form, the

teacher can explain that in this exercise the students will look at the verb and

noun forms of two types of words that use the suffix –tion in their noun form (1) Some words simply add –tion to the verb: suggest, suggestion; if the word ends in –e, the –e is dropped first: produce, production (2) Other words drop the final –e and add –ation: examine, examination This exercise

is very effective when done in pairs After students have a working knowledge of this type of exercise, it can be assigned for homework

 Vocabulary in Context

This is a fill-in exercise designed to review items from the previous exercises The vocabulary has been covered either in the questions or in the Reading Analysis section This exercise can be done for homework as a review or in class as group work

 Follow-up Activities

This section contains various activities appropriate to the information in the passages Some activities are designed for pair and small-group work Students are encouraged to use the information and vocabulary from the passages both orally and in writing The teacher may also use these questions and activities as home or in class assignments The follow-up activities help the students interact with the real world because they require the students to

go outside the classroom to interview people or to get specific information They are not limited to speaking, reading, or learning in the classroom

 Topics for Discussion and Writing

This section provides ideas or questions for the students to discuss or to work

on alone, in pairs, or in small groups It provides the students with the opportunity to write

 Crossword Puzzle

Each chapter contains a crossword puzzle, which contains much of the vocabulary used in that chapter Students can go over the puzzle orally if pronunciation practice with letters is needed The teacher can have the students spell out their answers in addition to pronouncing the word itself Students invariably enjoy doing crossword puzzles They are an enjoyable way to reinforce the vocabulary presented in the various exercises in each chapter, and they require the students to pay attention to correct spelling

 CLOZE Quiz

The CLOZE exercises are guided and vary throughout the text In each CLOZE, certain types of words are missing These words may be articles, prepositions, verbs, pronouns, or quantifiers

 Index of Key Words and Phrases

This section contains words and phrases from all the chapters for easy reference

 Answer Key

The Answer Key provides the answers for the exercises

The course book reveals some drawbacks Firstly, some reading texts have many new words for students Therefore, if the teacher does not employ appropriate techniques to guide the students, surely they will find it hard and unwilling to deal with the text Secondly, some reading texts seem to be unfamiliar to the students‟ background knowledge or not of their interests As a result, it is best if the teacher apply the techniques that can activate their basic knowledge and increase their interests in the lesson as well, especially before the students read the text

3.2.3 Schedule of the course

In the course, the first-year students under investigation finished 45 periods for reading The textbook consisted of 10 units and each unit lasts 4 periods After these units, students have 4 periods for revisions 1 and 2 Finally, there was a test with 1 period at the end of the course Details of the schedule of the course are in Appendix A

3 3 Participants

3.3.1 The researcher

As a researcher, I am teaching reading skill to first-year students of English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College I carried out this study for my better changes of reading lessons Herein, I worked as the person who delivered the questionnaire, a classroom observer, a data collector and analyze to complete the study

3.3.2 The observed students

The main participants of the study were 32 first-year students of class 18 English of English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College All of them are young students entering college after they have finished high school

3.3.3 The researcher’s assistants

The third group of participants was two researcher‟s assistants They were two teachers of English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College They assisted me to conduct some parts of my research And, they were

also the observers of the four lessons I presented in my implementing stage One of

them video-taped the lessons and the other kept the notes Then, I updated these notes by watching the videos after the lessons I need their assistances because of visual data from class observation

3.4 Data Collection Instruments

Survey questionnaire and classroom observation were selected as the data collection tools in this study The two sets of survey questionnaire were written in Vietnamese to avoid the subjects‟ misunderstanding of the questions and to save time for the researcher in explaining the required information Following is the description of these instruments

3.4.1 Questionnaire

3.4.1.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaire

According to Richard & J Platt & H Platt (1992, p.23), survey questionnaire is useful in:

„…gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and

learning such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences, etc, and

enables a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively

quickly‟

Another rationale for choosing this data collection tool is that the collected data would be relatively easy to summarize and report All the participants answered the same question so that it would not take time to code the data

Survey questionnaire are also useful in providing the students with opportunities

to express their opinions without fear of being embarrassed or punished In this study, the students were not required to write down their names so that honest answers were achieved

3.4.1.2 Description of questionnaire

Questionnaire was the first procedure to collect primary data in the study It consisted of different types of questions (closed-ended, open-ended, multiple-choice) Questionnaire 1 was delivered to 32 English-major freshmen of class 18 English to identify the main problem related to the use of pre-reading tasks in reading lessons while students received questionnaire 2 after the lessons to find out the changes Both of them were written in Vietnamese in order to adapt to freshmen‟s language level

3.4.2 Classroom observations

Class observation was the second data collection tool The following sections describe reasons for choosing classroom observation and the detailed procedures to conduct class observation

3.4.2.1 Reasons for choosing classroom observation

Richard & J Platt & H Platt (1992) states that observational methods are procedures and techniques based on systematic observation of events and are often used in studying language use and classroom events This study, with certain observation tasks in the classroom environment, chooses observational methods as the inexpensive way to gather the data

Another reason for the researcher‟s selection of observational methods is that the collected data would reflect the real activities in observed classrooms

3.4.2.2 Observation procedure

The classroom observation data were both manually and electronically collected (Nunan & Bailey, 2009) One of my two assistants used the mobile phone to videotape the classroom interactions for transcribing and coding Another made notes to record non-verbal activities, class events or the writing on the board, general information about the date, time, number of

students, and class setup My comments or opinions were separated from the description

There were two observation sessions, one for identifying the problem and one for observing the three try-out lessons

3.5 Methods of Data Analysis

As the study involved questionnaire, observation, both quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures were employed Each analysis procedure involved similar steps including preparing the data, exploring the data, analyzing the data, representing the analysis, interpreting the analysis, and validating the data and interpretation (J W Creswell & Clark, 2011) This section will describe the essential quantitative procedure to analyze questionnaire data and the qualitative procedure to analyze class observations

3.6 Research Method – Action research (AR)

3.6.1 Definitions of AR

The concept of AR is based on theoretical perspectives of different researchers such as Dewey (1945), Collier (1945), Lewin (1946) and Habermas (1962) Kurt Lewin (1946) is considered as the "father" of AR He wrote: “The research needed for social practice can best be characterized as research for social management or social engineering It is a type of action-research, a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action Research that produces nothing but books will not suffice”(Lewin 1946, cited in Lewin, 1948, p.202-3) Thus, the main difference of action research is that it creates a certain social action and AR also assesses on the social impact of such action

Until now, AR is known by many other names, including participatory research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning, and contextual action research, but all are variations on a theme Burns has also defined this kind of research: “AR involves a self-reflective, systematic and critical approach to enquiry by participants who are at the same time members of the research community The aim is to identify problematic situations or issues considered by participants to be worthy of investigation in order to bring about critically informed changes in practice Action research is underpinned by democratic principles in that the ownership of change is invested in those who conduct the research” (Burns, cited in Cornwell, 1999, p.5)

AR is also regarded as one of the most typical researches conducted in current educational circles (Ferrance, 2000) As defined by Mills (2003, p.5), educational action research, is:

“…any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers,

principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the

teaching/learning environment to gather information about how their

particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their

students learn This information is gathered with the goals of gaining

insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in

the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and

improving student outcomes and the lives of those involved…”

Thus, an AR basically aims at teachers‟ professional development and students‟ learning progress „It involves people working to improve their skills, techniques, and strategies‟ (Ferrance, 2000, p.3) And it can be carried out by an educator (individual AR), a group of teachers (collaborative AR), a staff of teachers

at a certain school (school-wide AR), or a system of concerned people in a specific area (district-wide AR)

This study is an individual AR in the way that it is the work of the researcher

by herself with an expectation of developing pre-reading tasks to improving year students‟ reading performance in reading lessons at English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College

first-3.6.2 Action research model

As evidently introduced by Mills (2003), there have been a large number of action research models for researcher to follow such as models of Lewin (1952), Susman (1983), Kemmis & McTaggart (1988), Tsui (1993), Calhoun (1994), Wells (1994), Stringer (1996) , Creswell (2002) and Kemmis & McTaggart (2008) Among these different models, Kemmis & McTaggart (2008) have developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process (Figure 2) Each cycle has four steps: plan, act, observe, reflect

of the intervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been At this point, the problem is re-assessed and the process begins another cycle This process continues until the problem is resolved

Figure 3: Detailed Action Research Model (Susman, 1983)

In an attempt to find out an appropriate AR procedure to follow, I found that the AR model adapted by Tsui (1993) is very specific and feasible for me as well as other teachers to implement action research Therefore, I could carry out my research in the best way

Also basing on the above introduced basic process, Tsui (1993) adjusted an

AR model consisting of five concrete steps The first step is carried out to identify problems by reviewing an audio or a video-taped lesson and the transcription of a segment of the lesson that illustrates the problem before conducting a survey to hear from your students In the second step, the researcher tries to find causes of the problem by consulting with your colleagues, trainers and reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions After getting reasons for the problem, strategies are designed for improvement and a proposal for action research is also written out Next, the researcher conducts try-out lessons with designed strategies The last step aims to evaluate these try-out lessons by reviewing a lesson illustrating the changes, reflecting on the reasons for those changes and carrying out a survey to get information from students

To be more suitable with my research, I adapted this model concluding the following five steps Firstly, the problems were identified by reviewing video-taped lessons, using a field note of lessons to illustrate the problem and conducting a survey to get more information from students after the above lessons Secondly, I found out causes of the problems by basing on one of results from the above survey Thirdly, I designed strategies for improvement Fourthly, I tried out the strategies Finally, the try-out lessons were evaluated by reviewing lessons that illustrated the changes, reflecting on the reasons for those changes and carrying out a survey to get information from students In detail, the action research procedure was described concretely in the chapter 4

3 7 Summary

In short, the chapter has totally presented five core parts of the study, namely, situation analysis, participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis, research method Hence, in the following chapter, it‟s extremely facile for the researcher to provide major research findings and discussion

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS 4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents findings of the research based on steps of action research presented in the chapter 3

4 2 Findings

The research findings are provided according to the action research procedure I conducted three research cycles (5 steps for each, Tsui, 1993) However, I only describe the first cycle in detail and summarize the other two cycles to highlight the difference For all cycles, I focused on pre-reading tasks and tried out the same strategies of developing pre-reading tasks

4.2.1 Cycle 1

4.2.1.1 Step 1: Identifying the problem

a Observing lessons to illustrate the problem

Initially, the problem was examined from the classroom observation of the first reading lesson The lesson was video-taped and note-taken by two my colleagues After the lesson, I reviewed the video and updated the note of the lesson (Appendix B, Field Note 1) Then, I summarized the research findings from the data

of class observation

The major findings were that the pre-reading tasks were not effective in arousing students‟ interest into the topic, building background knowledge, providing vocabulary and structures and helping students complete other exercises and tasks Firstly, in the first task, students were asked to discuss the given questions related to the topic of the text with the main purposes of reminding them

of background knowledge of the topic of the text and of motivating them in reading Nevertheless, these questions are not interesting enough to arouse students‟ interest into the topic Specifically, when reviewing the video, I saw most students bored and sleepy; they did other things instead of focusing on the task Moreover, no one raised his or her hand to discuss the questions; they also felt difficult and unwilling

to answer in spite of the easy and general questions

Secondly, pre-teaching vocabulary task has yet been useful for giving students some new words and structures to deal with the text This could be seen clearly when doing the exercises at while-reading stage, many students asked me to explain the meaning of the new words they have already learnt in the pre-teaching vocabulary task

Therefore, prediction task has also yet achieved the best effect on helping students to predict the content of the text In details, students felt very difficult and unconfident to make their prediction because they lacked of background knowledge

of the topic of the text as well as their motivation for reading As a result, only two out of five statements were correctly guessed

Furthermore, ineffective lead-in tasks also negatively influenced students‟ reading performance Obviously, most students didn‟t pay much attention to the text; they also lacked background knowledge as well as vocabulary for studying the text Therefore, they are unable to understand the content of the text to do exercises

of the following stages For example, at the while-reading stage, students only provided two correct answers for exercise 1 and one for exercise 2

In short, the lesson was not successful mainly because of ineffective reading tasks Thus, the perceived problem was: inefficient lead-in tasks negatively influenced students‟ reading performance

pre-b Conducting a survey to get more information about the lesson from students

To understand the problem observed in the video and to get more information about the lesson from students, I conducted a survey by delivering students questionnaire 1 (Appendix F) after the first lesson As a result, I collected various research findings The first finding was that the above problem was redefined by the results of the questions 1, 2 and 3 Secondly, the causes of this problem were also identified from the results of the question 2 Finally, students‟ suggestions of techniques for improving pre-reading tasks were mentioned in the question 4 Specifically, these research findings were described as follows:

Question 1: What is your assessment on our reading lesson today?

Very effective Effective Less effective ineffective

Table 1: Students‟ assessment on the first reading lesson

It can be seen clearly in the table, whist there was a very small number of students (6,25%) who stated that these lesson was effective, a majority of them assessed that the lesson was less effective (50%) and ineffective (43,75%) On the other hand, no one admitted that the lesson achieved a great success Obviously, almost all students evaluated that the lesson was less effective and ineffective

Question 2: In your opinion, are pre-reading tasks useful or not? Why or why not?

They also provided the reasons for their choice:

Yes

able to predict the content of the text 15 46,875

able to provide Ss some vocabulary in the text 10 31,25

able to build Ss background knowledge before reading

not suitable for students‟ interest 26 81,25

Ineffective in enhancing students‟ motivation in reading

Ineffective in helping Ss predict the content of

the text

17 53,125

Table 3: Reasons for effectiveness and ineffectiveness of pre-reading tasks provided

by the students The table indicates that the majority of students (81,25%) gave reasons for ineffective pre-reading tasks that they were not only monotonous, but also not interesting enough for students; thus, they were also inefficient in getting students

to be involved into the topic of the text Also, three fourths of students (75%) explained that these tasks were not effective for activating background knowledge for reading as well as aiding students to finish all tasks well Nevertheless, nearly half of students (46,875%) answered “yes” that one of three lead-in tasks, prediction task, helped students guess the content of the text In addition, the smaller percentage of students (31,25%) also agreed that these lead-in tasks were helpful in preparing students some new words and structures for reading comprehension Finally, only few people (approximately 20% and 10%) provided different reasons that these lead-in tasks were sufficiently varied and suitable for students‟ interest as well as able to activate background knowledge before reading and to arouse students‟ interest into the topic of the text

In short, obviously, the majority of students asserted that pre-reading tasks have yet been useful for the lesson on that day Furthermore, various reasons were provided for ineffectiveness of lead-in tasks Also, pre-reading activities had significant impact on completing exercises and tasks at the while and post reading stages The following question would give us the answer for this

Question 3: How do you assess exercises and tasks in the while and post stages

of our reading lesson today?

Exercises and

Tasks

very easy