A study on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at hanoi college of industrial economics

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THÚY HẰNG A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THÚY HẰNG

A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING

THE READING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN AT HANOI COLLEGE OF

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(Nghiên cứu các thủ thuật dạy học của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên

năm thứ nhất tại trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01 11

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐẶNG THÚY HẰNG

A STUDY ON THE TEACHERS’ TEACHING TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING

THE READING SKILLS OF FRESHMEN AT HANOI COLLEGE OF

INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS ( Nghiên cứu các thủ thuật dạy học của giáo viên nhằm nâng cao kỹ năng đọc cho sinh viên

năm thứ nhất tại trường Cao đẳng Kinh tế Công nghiệp Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01 11

Supervisor: Dr Trần Thị Thu Hiền

HANOI, 2014

I, Dang Thuy Hang, hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled “A study on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics” is the result of my own research in the

fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of PostGraduate Studies - University of Languages and International Studies – VietnamNational University, Hanoi

Hanoi, April 2014

Signature

Đặng Thúy Hằng

On the completion of this thesis, I would like to give my sincere thanks to manypeople for their encouragement and assistance during the preparation of my thesis First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Tran Thi Thu Hien, who has been most willing and ready to give me valuable and helpful guidance, advice and support during the most difficult time of thesis

construction Without her help, this thesis would not have been made possible

I would also like to express my thanks to the lecturers and the staff of the Departure ofPostgraduate Study at College of Foreign language for their useful lectures and carefulguidance

My special thanks also go to English teachers in Foundation faculty, at HanoiCollege of Industrial Economics for their enthusiastic participation and constructivesuggestions for the development of the study And I also wish to express my thanks forthe great cooperation from the freshmen in the classes: CKX12.3, CKX12.8, CKT12.6,and CKT12.10 in the data collection of my study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my family who give me muchmotivation, energy and support in accomplishing this challenging work

This study investigates the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills

at HCIE for freshmen and providing some suggested reading teaching techniques forthe teachers to help teachers and students teach and learn reading skills moreeffectively To attain these objectives, three kinds of instruments are applied such assurvey questionnaire, observation and semi- interview Ten English teachers and onehundred students are selected to be participants of the survey Necessary data aregathered using questionnaires for both students and teachers Contributing to thesedata, observation is used to get useful information at CKX12.8 where is experimentedsome effective teacher’s teaching techniques In addition, five teachers are randomlychosen to give their opinions about their real teaching experience, difficulty andsolutions From the findings, the study depicts that while students are passive anddemotivated in learning, the teachers’ techniques are dominated by traditionalapproach which are not effective enough to improve students’ reading skills Basing onthe research’s results, some recommendations for the students, the teachers and theauthorities are stated In conclusion, this study’s findings contributes a betterunderstanding of teaching and learning reading techniques in general and teachers’reading techniques in particular; however, some debatable points are unavoidable inthis thesis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration……… i

Acknowledgements……….ii

Abstract……… iii

List of abbreviations……… …viii

List of tables and figures ……….………….……….ix

PART A: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale of the study………1

2 Aims of the study……….… 2

3 Research questions……….… 2

4 Scope of the study……….…….2

5 Methodology……….………….……….… 2

6 Significance of the study……….… 3

7 Structure of the study……….… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT……….… 5

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW……….……5

1 1 An overview of the nature of reading skills……….… 5

1.1.1 Definition of reading……….……… 5

1.1.2 Reading comprehension……… 6

1.1.3 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning… 6

1.2 Teaching reading skills……… 7

1.2 1 The objectives and goals of teaching reading……… ….7

1.2.2 The reading teaching/ learning approaches……… …… … 10

1.2.3 Techniques for teaching reading……… …………12

1.3 Factors affecting teaching and learning reading……… ……… 14

1.3.1 The reading text……….………14

1.3.2 The student……….………15

1.3.3 The teacher……… ……… ………16

1.5 Summary……… ……….17

Chapter 2: THE STUDY………18

2 1 The context……….……….18

2.1.1 An overview of Hanoi College of Industrial Economics……… ……18

2.1.2 Teachers and teaching methods……….……… ….19

2.1.3 Students and their background English knowledge……… ….20

2.1.4 Teaching materials ……….…… …… ……… ….20

2.2 The study……….………… ………… 21

2.2.1 Participants……… ……….….21

2.2.2 The instrument……….………….….22

2.2.3 Data collection procedure……… ………23

2.3 Data analysis……….………….… …….23

2.3.1 The survey questionnaires……….

……….23

2.3.2 The class observation ……….……… ….…29

2.3.3 The semi-interview……….………… ….….32

2.4 Summary……….……… ……32

Chapter 3: RECOMMENDATIONS……… ……… 34

3.1 To the students ……… …… … 34

3.2 To the teachers……… … … 35

3.3 To the authorities……….……… ……36

3.4 Summary……… … ……37

PART C: CONCLUSION……… ……… ………38

1 Conclusions………….……… … ……38

2 Limitations and Suggestions for further studies……… ………39

References:……… ………40

Appendices……… …… I

Open UniversityStudents

TeachersUniversity of Languages and International Studies,Vietnam National University, Hanoi

LIST OF TABLES AND FINGURES

Table 1: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the course book (p 23)Table 2: Students’ attitude toward the reading activities (p 24)

Table3: Students’ attitude toward the teacher’s techniques and preferring techniques (p 25)

Table 4: Teachers’ technique of combination and its efficiency (p 26)Table 5: Teachers’ responses concerning Pre-reading activities (p 26)Table 6: Teachers’ responses concerning While-reading activities (p 27)Table 7: Teachers’ responses concerning Post-reading activities (p 28)Table 8: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward supplementary texts (p 29)

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

On the road of integrating and developing in Vietnam, English is quite important tolearners The teaching and learning of English is paying much more attention byboth teachers and learners

Nowadays, a lot of universities require their students to learn English as one of theirgeneral subjects In order to master English, students have to try their best to developthe English skills such as listening, speaking, writing and reading There have beendebates on the topic: which skill in English teaching and learning is the mostimportant? There are some who state what they need is only speaking English fluently.Some disagree with that idea They consider writing is vital because documentingreports, letters, etc are what they daily deal with in their work and life In contrast, thereare still some who propose listening is more important for the realization of their goal.However, among these skills, according to the writer, reading is the most important onebecause it helps not only develop other skills but also provides learners knowledge ofthe target language Reading is also benefit for the students in a lot of aspects inacquaintance of a new language This topic interests a lot of researchers to put theirpassion on One of the famous scholars whose reputation is not able to forget Grellet

(1981) with his famous book on reading such as “Developing reading skills” In

addition, many Vietnamese authors and researchers pay much attention to this issue

For example “A study on how to improve the teaching of reading English in Economics

to the 2 nd year students at Hanoi national Economics University” by Trang (2005)

refers to reading skill in Economics only, and “ A study on how to improve ESP

reading skills for the students of Information Technology” mainly focuses on reading

skills for Information Technology students by Huong (2003) Hop (2008) also concerns

this topic in her MA thesis “Improving reading skills of Post Graduate Students at

College of Natural Sciences, VNU by developing the reading materials” Although this

subject gains a lot of interest from researchers and linguistics, there have not been anyresearchers who does research on the teacher’s reading techniques This is one of themain reasons which raises the interest for the author to do this research

As an English teacher of a college in Hanoi which testing is mainly based ongrammar structures and reading texts, the researcher realizes that both teachers andstudents have difficulty in finding the effective way to teach and learn readingskills Moreover, in order to improve learning environment and teaching quality,there is a need of investigation to expose the new road for all subjects in general andreading skills in particular at the college With the effort of my own, a study iscarried out to find which reading techniques are more effective for improving thequality of teaching and learning reading skills at HCIE.

That is the reason why my graduate paper is “A study on the teachers’ teaching techniques for improving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics”.

2 Aims of the study

This paper aims at:

- Investigating the real situation of teaching and learning reading skills for freshmen

at HCIE

- Providing some suggested reading teaching techniques for the teachers to help teachers and students teach and learn reading skills more effectively

3 Research questions

To reach the above aims, the thesis works to answer two following research questions:

- How reading skills are being taught and learnt at HCIE?

- What reading techniques should be applied to improve the reading skills of

freshmen at HCIE?

4 Scope of the study

This study focuses on improving the reading skills of freshmen at HCIE Efforts tostudy the improvement of other skills, for students of other years at otherinstitutions are above the scope of the study

5 Methodology

With the purpose of investigating the teachers’ teaching techniques for improvingthe reading skills of freshmen at HCIE, this study employs a survey research Toachieve this aim, the survey questionnaire is used as the main instrument to collect

the needed data from the students and the teachers Besides, other instruments arealso made used of such as the researcher’s observation in reading lessons, and thesemi-interview for English teachers.

6 Significance of the study

In the light of CLT, to find suitable techniques for teaching and learning readingrequests a lot of enforce from both teachers and students

In relation to this, an investigation on the teachers’ teaching techniques forimproving the reading skills of freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics

is implemented To this end, the result of this study is believed to have potentialcontribution to the following two aspects:

Firstly, in theory, this thesis once more time approves the reading background Itadds into reading skills a strong point to consolidate the teaching readingmethodology

Secondly, in practice, the paper is beneficial for teacher trainers and educators whohave a role in teaching and training to improve reading practice In addition, it isable to contribute to English teachers who can use the results to reflect on theirpractice to improve their reading lessons Moreover, researchers who are interested

in classroom practice may use the findings as a stepping-stone for furtherinvestigation that could lead to the improvement of teaching reading for second yearstudents in or out of HCIE

7 Structure of the study

The study includes three main parts:

The first part is the Introduction The writer states the rationale for choosing thetopic of the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the scope of thestudy, methodology, the significance of the study and the structure of the study.The second part is the Development which is divided into three chapters Chapter onepresents the back ground knowledge of reading skills The next chapter works on theteachers’ teaching techniques on reading skills for freshmen at Hanoi College

of Industrial Economic The last chapter is about some techniques to improve reading skills to freshmen at Hanoi College of Industrial Economics.

The last part is the Conclusion In this part, the writer gives out the summary, the limitation of the study and the suggestions for the further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1 An overview of the nature of reading skills

1.1.1 Definition of reading

Reading skill is one of four macro-skills in teaching and learning a language in generaland a foreign language or second language – English in particular This term has beenattracting a lot of scholars, linguistics, educators and teachers to give the attention to

So many definitions of Reading are given out It is the fact that each person has his own

way to define it Obviously, giving an exact definition for the word “reading” is not an easy work As Aebersold and Field (1997:5) notes that “the act of reading is not

completely understood nor easily described.” In this paper, some of typical definitions

are listed to give an overview of the term “reading”.

Firstly, Goodman (1981: 135) proposes that reading is “a psycholinguistic 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” Clearly, reading is an act that involves the reader works to find out the meaning encoded by written

letters This definition points out three elements in reading process: the writer, thereader and the text Another definition of reading is suggested in the interactiveview of reading In fact, contemporary interactive approaches to reading extend andelaborate psycholinguistic theory by focusing precisely on the important role ofcognition in an interaction between the reader and the text Thus, McKenna and

Robinson (1993:21) defines that “reading is an interactive process in which a reader’s prior knowledge of the subject and purpose for reading operate to influence what is learned from text.” This opinion is as the same as Silberstein’s

(1994:7) when she emphasizes that meaning does not fully lie in the text to bedecoded Rather meaning is created through the negotiation between a reader and atext This means a reader is an active participant in the reading process in which thereader makes predictions and form expectations from the prior knowledge, whichthe reader confirms or rejects while reading

In short, each scholar has a different definition of reading and it is a hard job todecide which is better because each of them focuses on one important matter ofreading However, there still has a common thing is that reading is a complexprocess that requires a great deal of active participation of readers in order to findthe message hidden in the printed words.

1.1.2 Reading comprehension

Comprehension is one of key important components of essential reading instruction

It is a vital tool for reading in the modern age Thus, it can be said that it plays animportant part in teaching and learning a foreign language It is the ability tounderstand information in a text and interpret the text appropriately

Reading comprehension is defined as obtaining the information from the text

According to Abbott (1981: 82),“There are two broad aspects or levels Firstly, there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point.” With the same idea, Grellet (1981:3) states “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible.”

Another point of view comes from Rirchard and Thomas (1987: 143) In his opinionreading comprehension is a mental process that only the reader finally understands the textbased on the past experience That knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out ofprinted text So, the process of comprehending involves decoding the writer’s words andusing the background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer’s

passage Agreeing with this theory, Lenz (2000: 3) also says that “reading comprehension

is the process of constructing meaning from the text.”

A conclusion can be drawn here is that reading comprehension is the process thathelps the readers obtain information in a text and understand it appropriately

1.1.3 The importance of reading in foreign language teaching and learning

It is generally accepted nowadays that reading is a key skill for most studentslearning a foreign language and that it should therefore, take place alongside the

development of oral ability in the school program Having the same idea Carrell

(1997:1) agrees: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language”

First of all, reading is a means by which further learning takes place It is aneffective way of stimulating students to talk, write and listen By reading, learnersare able to enrich their knowledge of grammar structures and vocabulary items.These factors contribute an important part to help students easier to listen to thelessons In addition, knowledge of structures and new words ungraded by readingalso provides learners a chance to speak more confidently and naturally Next,writing skill is improved based on the model reading texts

Secondly, reading weighs as a heavy tool belt of a working, technological society Ithelps us to solve both personal and social problems in daily life Print iseverywhere: memos and menus, candy wrappers and constitutions, bills and serialnumbers, signs and rest room doors Without reading anything, it is impossible forhuman beings to behave appropriately

Finally, reading in a new language is also to be beneficial to learn about the targetculture It helps learners understand the ways of life, behavior, thought, belief, etc.that pays an important role in widening the knowledge of cross-culture

To sum up, reading is a vital skill in learning and teaching a second language

1.2 Teaching reading skills

1.2 1 The objectives and goals of teaching reading

1.2.1.1 The objectives of teaching reading skills

Clearly, everything is done including at least an objective It is the same withreading or teaching reading skills

According to Christina and Mary (1976: 169): “The objectives of teaching reading are

self-evident; we read for information and for pleasure.” Totally agreeing with this idea,

Grellet (1981:4) claims that reading consists of two main reasons They are reading forpleasure and reading for information Having the same opinion, Heidi (1998) says that:

“Reading is an activity with a purpose A person may read in order to gain information

or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of texts.”

According to a study carried out by Greany and Neuman (1990), to find out thechildren’s reasons for reading through questionnaires administered in 15 countries

to thousands of 10- and 13-year-old students The results got divided into three mainfactors that they termed “utility”, “enjoyment” and “escape” Whereas, utility wasreading to learn to become successful in school or life, enjoyment meant reading forpleasure and interest, and escape indicated reading to kill time or avoid boredom.However, each level of reading has different particular objectives For example,Christina and Mary(1976: 169) also points that the purpose of reading on the veryelementary level includes two main ones Firstly, reading is to introduce basicgrammar patterns and vocabulary items in context Reading, secondly, is toreinforce this basic knowledge

In short, clarifying the particular objectives of teaching reading is an important jobthat helps to guide both teachers and students to go for the right way

1.2.1.2 The goals of teaching reading skills

According to Sadoski, M ( 2004: 44) every subject is taught and learnt is classified inone of three domains They include the psychomotor domain, the affective domain andthe cognitive domain These stretch in teaching and learning reading as well

The psychomotor domain is the domain of the mind and the body working together

to produce physical performances Some examples of psychomotor activitiesinclude learning to walk, tie shoelaces, swim, type, drive a car, and perform creativedance routines The second domain is the affective domain which is the domain ofattitudes, interests, values, appreciation, and life adjustment The common examples

of affective activities are responding positively to success and constructively tofailure, adopting healthy habits over unhealthy ones, developing a democratictolerance for opposing points of view, or invoking ethical principles for behavior inmorally ambiguous situations The third domain is the cognitive one which consists

of intellectual skill including the recall or recognition of information, thecomprehension of information, and the development of logical and rational thoughtskills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation The popular examples of cognitiveactivities are remembering facts, summarizing thoughts, applying principles tosolve problems, deducing a coherent explanation from disparate pieces of evidence,

or objectively critiquing arguments in terms of their logical consistency

In applying these domains in teaching reading skills, they were divided into smallgoals which were equal between the affective domain and the cognitive domain, andthe psychomotor domain was eliminated Each domain contains two goals Twogoals in the affective domain are developing positive attitudes toward reading anddeveloping personal interest and tastes in reading Two goals in the cognitivedomain are developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems anddeveloping the fundamental competencies of reading at succeedingly higher levels

of independence The first goal deals with developing positive attitudes towardreading It means that readers try to improve or make progress in their confidence intheir own ability In other words, students should experience success regularly andapproach reading confidently without being fear of failure The readers mayexperience difficulty in reading and sometimes they may get the negative attitude.However, bearing in their mind of the positive thinking that helps them overcomethe difficulty easier and develop their positive attitude The next goal is developingpersonal interest and tastes in reading Having an interest in reading means havingthe motivation to read and to respond affectively, to seek to enlarge self-understanding and sense of self-worth through reading At the higher level of thedevelopment of interest is the development of discriminating value judgment, ortaste It means that readers can have tendency to make value choices and judgmentsabout what they chose to read and to develop their own critical standards The thirdgoal is developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems Clearly,everything bears printing words on it, for examples, candy wrappers, constitutions,bills and rest room doors, etc Reading them helps readers know what is what andwhat for Reading is a way to deal with everyday problems from reading to learn atschool to reading to do at work So, using reading as a tool in our daily lives ispervasive The last goal is developing the fundamental competencies of reading atsucceedingly higher levels of independence This is the most basic goal andprovides the means to the other ends According to Chall (1996: 18), reading isclassified into six stages with particular goals:

 Stage 0, Pre-reading (0–grade 1):developing concepts about print;

recognizing print in the environment; learning some letters and words

 Stage 1, Initial Reading or Decoding (grades 1–2): learning letters and

letter combinations and their correspondence with parts of spoken words; learning tocrack the code

 Stage 2, Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print (grades 2–3):

learning more about decoding; using context to increase fluency and rate; readingsimple stories and beginners’ books

 Stage 3, Reading for Learning the New: A First Step (grades 4–8):

learning to read begins to shift to reading to learn; developing vocabulary andknowledge; beginning to use subject area textbooks

 Stage 4, Multiple Viewpoints (high school): dealing with more mature texts

that introduce varying viewpoints and more challenging concepts; more independentreading

 Stage 5, Construction and Reconstruction- A World view (college and adult):

more advanced and discriminating reading; constructing knowledge on a high level ofabstraction and generality; varying purposes and rate; critical reading

In short, setting clear goals that makes readers at any ages become wiser and moreeffective ones In teaching reading, taken together these goals helps us to imagine

an ideal state of affairs in a reading class and provide a conceptual basis for the why

of teaching reading

1.2.2 The reading teaching/ learning approaches

Sadoski, M ( 2004: 81-88) states the three fundamental teaching/learning approaches

on the second continuum (instruction and education) which were program-controlledteaching/ learning, teacher-controlled teaching/learning, and reader-controlled teaching/learning These are the ways in which we teach readers to do it

 In program-controlled teaching/learning: the program is dominant and the

teacher and the reader are subordinate

 In teacher-controlled teaching/learning: the teacher is dominant and the

program and the readers are subordinate In this approach, the teachers determine thelearning conditions according to their professional training,

experience, and judgment Programs and text materials are used according tothose determinations, and readers are subject to those determinations.

 In reader-controlled teaching/learning: the reader is dominant and the

teacher and the program are subordinate

However, Elba(2006:8) gives out another teaching reading approaches applied a lotcurrently According to him, there are three popular models such as: bottom-upapproach, top-down approach and interactive approach

 Bottom-up approach focuses on developing the basic skill of matching

sounds with the letters, syllables, and words written on a page It is associated with ateaching methodology called phonics which requires the learner to match letters withsounds in a defined sequence

 Top-down approach focuses on the background knowledge a reader uses to

comprehend a written text It is associated with schema theory which describes in detailhow the background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task andillustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is crucial todeciphering a text As a result, the reader and linguistic knowledge plays a key role in theconstruction based on the text’s meaning

 The interactive approach refers to the interaction between bottom-up and

top-down processing skills It involves the simultaneous occurrence of two processes belonging tothe above approaches Understanding depends on both processes of graphics information andreading memory of the reader Understanding may be hampered by lack of critical judgments

to activate and build students’ schemata suggested by Elba (2006:11):

 Pre-reading: At this important stage the teacher should make sure that

students have the relevant schema for understanding the text This is achieved byhaving students think, write, and discuss everything they know

about the topic, employing techniques such as prediction, semantic mapping,and reconciled reading.

 During-reading: This stage requires the teacher to guide and monitor the

interaction between the reader and the text One important skill teachers can impart atthis stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new vocabulary andimportant information and details, and to summarize information and record theirreactions and opinions

 Post-reading: The post-reading stage offers the chance to evaluate students’

adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that

“readership” must be respected as long as the writer’s intentions are addressed

To sum up, what this paper suggests to the reading teacher is that some combination

of instruction and education may be best for reaching all the goals Teachers might

be best advised to find a balanced approach most suitable for each situation torealize all the goals

1.2.3 Techniques for teaching reading

Reading itself involves two parties: the printed text and the reader Teaching reading isadded the third party, that is the teacher The techniques that teachers apply in a readinglesson influence a lot the reading habit of the students and their lessons

Richard (1970: 130) suggests techniques of SQ3R which stands for Survey,Question, Read, Recite and Review:

 Survey: the purpose of this step is survey to get a general idea of the text.

Then skim quickly over the topic headings, look at pictures, graphs, charts, ordiagrams; see if there are questions or a summary at the end

 Question: this step helps the readers to read with a purpose, look for specific

answer and anticipate essential points of information

 Read: It means the reader reads the text as quickly as possible to find out

what is being looked and where to get the necessary information

 Recite: This helps the readers consolidate the information which have been

read, relate it to previous information, and prepare for what is to follow

 Review: its purpose is to get the general points of the reading text to refresh

the memory

Regarding with this topic, Christina and Mary(1976: 163) states some useful

reading techniques which follow the basic lesson organization:

 Checking through comprehension questions handed out previously on

reading assigned for the day’s lesson

 Introducing the next reading assignment:

- Giving meaning and pronunciation of new words in the next reading assignment

- Giving comprehension questions on the next assignment

 Beginning level: Intensive study of grammar patterns for recognition only.

 Activity: from day to day a different activity such as word study, dictionary,

exercises, read and look up, expectations, guessing meaning from contexts, etc

According to Grellet (1981:14-19), there are three main types of techniques which are useful for teaching reading comprehension:

- Inference: through the context

- Inference: through the word-formation

- Understanding relations within the sentence

- Linking the sentences and ideas: reference

- Linking the sentences and ideas: link-words

 Improving reading speed

 From skimming to scanning

 Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a

sense of the structure and content of a reading selection

 Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about

content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text typeand purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about theauthor to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content

 Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main

idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

 Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and ideas in

the text as clues to the guess the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping tolook them up

 Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by

restating the information and ideas in the text

In short, each scholar or linguistic has their own way to divide reading techniques.However, which techniques are most effective in teaching reading are determined

by teachers who directly carry out the reading lessons Applying these techniquesrequires teachers to consider carefully so that their lessons are lively and they canmotivate students to learn better

1.3 Factors affecting teaching and learning reading

As stated above, teaching reading involves three parties which are the printed text,the reader/ student and the teacher These parties significantly affect teaching andlearning reading process

1.3.1 The reading text

Texts play an important role in teaching and learning reading It is said that newlexical, phonetic and grammatical items are presented They also help students toenrich their background knowledge

-14-Therefore, Billow (1982:55) claims that: “the role of the textbook is to stand for the distant and hardly accessible delights that lie behind the forbidding barriers of strangeness of language, the imaginative life of the child as well as its craving for knowledge”.

One of the most important aspects of teaching reading is the selection of the readingtext There are some fairly obvious considerations The reading selections shouldnot contain marked dialect or slang features or old-fashioned language use Theselections should have high interest value to the students and the simplest way ofestablishing this is by asking the students their opinions of the readings and theneliminating low interest selections from future curricula The content should notcontrast with the students' own cultural values It seems that it is easier to read what

is interesting and ideologically compatible, at least at the earlier stages

But by far the most important consideration in selecting texts is the level of readingdifficulty, which must be matched to the overall proficiency of the students In the past,there was great emphasis on using texts which had been simplified in vocabulary andsyntax, and at the very beginning levels this practice still remains a necessity Todaythere is a strong trend away from simplified or edited material toward texts whichexhibit the complexity typical of difficult written English Even so, there is a greatrange in reading difficulty levels, and these must be ascertained A number of readingformulas exist, none of which has proved to be very accurate The most successfulprocedure for determining the level of reading difficulty is the cloze test

Reading texts in addition to help teachers make direction to teach their studentsbecause there are a lot of thing that students have to learn However, textbooks willhelp teachers know what they should focus on teaching Without texts not onlyteachers but also students do not know what and how to teach and learn

1.3.2 The students

The students are one of the three main factors of teaching and learning process.They are not only the subject but also the object of teaching and learning process.Nutall (2000: 33) gives several main roles for the students in a reading lesson such as:

 Taking an active part in learning: Students have to be active and take

charge of what they do

 Monitoring comprehension: Students need to understand how texts work

and what they do when they read

 Learning text talk: Students have to learn how to carries on a dialogue with

the text

 Taking risk: Student have to take the risk of making mistakes because a

mistake is an opportunity to learn

 Learning not to cheat oneself: Students who do not want to learn to read

can easily cheat but they are cheating themselves In fact they are wasting theiropportunities

In a reading lesson, the students play the role of the readers It is the fact that studentsare the heart of the reading lesson and the element which determines the success of areading lesson That is to say they must be very active in the lesson from the beginning

to get the right meaning of the texts Besides, students have to do other exercises thathelp them accumulate a large amount of knowledge from the text and then understand

it thoroughly In some cases, students sometimes have to cope with some problemswhich are beyond their abilities such as idioms, proverbs or background understanding

so on As a result, making mistakes is obviously unavoidable However, thank to thesemistakes students have a great opportunities to learn better through their own mistakes

In addition, making mistakes help learners who are not interested in reading learn moreconfidently and motivate them to read more to eraser their errors

1.3.3 The teacher

Many linguistics agree that the teacher is the most important factor in a readinglesson The teacher, as a matter of fact, is not only an instructional expert, anorganizer, a manager, a counselor but also a model reader Nuttall (1982:192) states:

“there are two main things that a teacher should always remember in helping students The first is to provide the students with suitable materials and the second

is to provide them with suitable teaching activities.”

Selecting a proper text is a hard job for each teacher and it is the first key point thatthe teacher could help students A text which is either long or difficult will makestudents get bored and demotivated to read In another side of the coin, aninteresting text matching students’ need both encourages them to read and stimulatethem to get information more efficiently.

Along with a good text, providing suitable activities is another vital thing that theteacher always keeps in the mind In fact, there are three main activities in a readingcomprehension text including pre-reading phrase, while-reading phrase and post-reading phrase However, the role of the teacher in each phrase is very different Atthe pre-reading phrase, the teacher has to make students be aware of what they aregoing to read and do during the lesson, so the main role of the teacher is aninstructional expert At the while-reading phrase, as an organizer, a manager and acounselor, the teacher is willing to help students if necessary In the last phrase post-reading, the teacher as a model reader encourages students to express their ownideas through their understanding of the text

To sum up, the role of the teacher in a reading lesson is undeniable Without helpfrom the teacher, it is difficult for the students to be efficient readers

1.4 Summary

In this chapter, the writer focuses on different useful aspects related to reading skillssuch as the concepts of reading, reading comprehension, factors affected teachingreading skills, the objectives and goals of teaching reading, etc And the most usefulpoint, techniques that teachers use in teaching reading are also presented with thehope to improve students’ reading skills

Chapter 2: THE STUDY

In order to explore the objectives of this study, first of all, an overview of HanoiCollege of Industrial Economics is performed Next, some information about teachersand teaching methods, students and their background English knowledge is listed Inaddition, the materials are enclosed in this part Besides, the methodology whichconsists of the participants, instruments and the procedures will be mentioned Finally,the findings and discussion are written to give an end of this part

2.1 The context

2.1.1 An overview of Hanoi College of Industrial Economics

Hanoi College of Industrial Economics, which previously is a small vocaltional trainingschool, has become a college since 2006 The college is located in two places The firstone is in Cau Giay district and the second one is in Thanh Tri district

Currently, the college consists of six faculties: Economics, Information Technology,Law, Physical Education, Accounting and Foundation Every year, there are about

3000 new students Up to now, HCIE has had nearly 6.000 students with 85 classesand about 250 teachers and staffs English is one of main subjects of Foundationfaculty It is compulsory for all students of all faculties at the college

However, because of newly founded college, both teachers and students have tocope with a lot of difficulties Firstly, each class normally has over 70 studentswhich are too crowded for learning and teaching English Moreover, the faculties atthe college are still very poor For example, the library cannot provide enoughEnglish books as a reference There is not lab-room for students to practice listeningand speaking Finally, the students do not have a chance to practice English withnative speakers to improve their English skills

2.1.2 Teachers and teaching methods

Obviously, the role of teachers and the way of their teaching have great influences onstudents and play a key role in a successful implementation of curriculum objectives

At HCIE, there are nineteen teachers of English aged from mid-twenties to forties Two third of the teachers either have MA degree or are studying post

late-graduate course Most of them are energetic and willing to devote their time andenforce to the teaching job However, many of the teachers, especially the youngones do not have much experience in teaching and may encounter some problems inchoosing and applying suitable teaching methods.

The English teaching method that is preferable at HCIE is Grammar- translation.This method focuses on accuracy, the detailed analysis of grammar rules Theteachers speak most of the time They often ask students to read and scan the textthen find out new words and structures, next they write down new words andstructures on the board and explain new words after that they translate the text intoVietnamese or sometimes ask students to translate They rarely require students topredict or guess meaning from the context Students often listen, take note passivelythen complete some exercises provided in the text book Therefore, this methodleads to the lack of motivation and omits chances for students to be center of thelessons This situation requires to apply a more appropriate method that not onlymatches students’ needs and interest but also improves students’ reading skills

2.1.3 Students and their background English knowledge

The learners of English at HCIE are ranked from 18 to 22 in their age with thepriority of female students Most of them have studied English for three years attheir high schools but their English competence is at different levels

Most students come from rural areas in Vietnam where English is not considered asnecessary as in the city As a result, a lot of problems appear during the course because

of their individual difference in ability, learning styles, attitude, motivation, etc

Moreover, the attitude toward learning English at HCIE is also another point to betaken in consideration English is thought to be a general subject which is not asimportant as other subjects, so students do not devote themselves to master it Theyare also a bit lazy and hardly ever try their best to learning It is the fact that theyseldom prepare lessons at home or review the lessons regularly In short, learnersand their attitude toward learning English need to be changed to implement theobjectives of the curriculum To apply the learner- centered method in teachingEnglish at HCIE, an urgent action should be done to improve the learning quality

2.1.4 Teaching materials

It is agreed that materials include anything which can be used to facilitate the learning

of a language Commonly, “they can be in the form of a textbook, a workbook, a

cassette, a CD –Rom, a video, a photocopied handout, a newspaper, a paragraph written on a white board, etc”(Tomlinson 1998: 15) Consequently, it is undeniable

that materials play an important part in teaching and learning a language

The students at HCIE generally learn English for two years For the first year, theywill be provided with general English by using the text book “New Headway – Preintermediate” by John and Liz Soars (2000) In their second year, they study ESPwith a course book edited by English teachers of the college

In the first year, English is taught in the two semesters with totally 150 periods.During the course, the students have to complete twelve units in the course bookNHWP which provides the students with general knowledge of English with theintegration of four skills equivalent to above elementary level In the second year,the students have six lessons with 30 periods in ESP course which mainly focuses

on reading skills

As mentioned above, the freshmen’s English proficiency is various No entranceEnglish test is carried out to classify their English levels This, to some extent,causes some problems in teaching and learning English at HCIE After learningreading for a year, the freshmen are required to gain basic skills to support them inthe next year with ESP course That is the reason why reading weighs a strong scalefor them to master

Concerning to the reading texts in the course book, there are some particular pointsneed to be considered Each of the reading text has average 400 words in length that

is supposed to be suitable to the pre-intermediate level Besides, the use of languageand grammar structures are simple and clear that matches the grammatical syllabusfor lower level students before moving to intermediate or upper- intermediate level.The next point is that the book provides reading texts of various topics based on the

theme of each unit These topics are quite familiar to the students, for example, Unit 1- communication, Unit 4- going shopping, Unit 7- famous couples, etc However,

the contents of the text are out of date, because this course book is the secondedition which was published 14 years ago Moreover, some of the texts contain a lot

of new words that cause difficulty for the students to understand the text fully

2.2.1.2 The students

100 freshmen of the college took part in the study Most of them have been learningEnglish for at least 3 years at high schools They were from 4 classes: CKX12.3,CKX12.8, CKT12.6, and CKT12.10 They were required to answer the questionsbasing on their own experience