A survey on the teaching of english reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at vietnam forestry universtiy

HỒ THỊ XUÂN HỒNGA SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY UNIVERSITY KHẢO SÁT VỀ THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG Đ

HỒ THỊ XUÂN HỒNG

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY UNIVERSITY

(KHẢO SÁT VỀ THỰC TRẠNG DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC CÓ TRÌNH

ĐỘ KHÔNG ĐỒNG ĐỀU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LÂM NGHIỆP

VIỆT NAM)

M.A Minor programme thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOI, 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

HỒ THỊ XUÂN HỒNG

A SURVEY ON THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH READING SKILLS TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN MIXED ABILITY CLASSES AT VIETNAM FORESTRY

UNIVERSITY

SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC CÓ TRÌNH

ĐỘ KHÔNG ĐỒNG ĐỀU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC LÂM NGHIỆP

VIỆT NAM )

M.A Minor programme thesis

Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Lâm Thị Phúc Hân, MA

HANOI, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Retention and use of the thesis i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations vii

List of tables and charts viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Method of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 2

6 Organization of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning 4

1.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension 4

1.1.2 Models of reading process 5

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up model 5

1.1.2.2 Top-down model 5

1.1.2.3 Interactive model 6

1.1.3 Features of an effective reading lesson 6

1.1.4 Reading problems and solutions 7

1.1.5 Stages of a reading lesson 8

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading stage 9

1.1.5.2 While-reading stage 9

1.1.5.3 Post-reading stage 10

1.2 Theory of mixed-ability classes 10

1.2.1 Definition of mixed ability classes 10

1.2.2 Benefits of mixed ability classes 10

1.2.3 Challenges of mixed ability classes 11

1.2.4 Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes 12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 The teaching context 14

2.1.1 The learners 14

2.1.2 The teachers 15

2.1.3 The syllabus 15

2.1.4 The teaching and learning conditions 15

2.2 A survey on the teaching of English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU 16

2.2.1 Participants 16

2.2.2 Data collection instruments 16

2.2.3 Data collection procedure 17

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18

3.1 Results and discussion 18

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward learning and teaching English reading skills 18

3.1.2 Difficulties in teaching reading texts 20

3.1.3 Techniques in teaching reading texts 22

3.1.4 Ways of classroom management 26

3.2 Summary of main findings 28

3.2.1 Advantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU 28

3.2.2 Disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU 29

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS 31

4.1 Improving students’ participation in classroom activities 31

4.1.1 Having a good understanding of individual students 31

4.1.2 Clarifying learning goals to the students 31

4.1.3 Making use of pair/ group work 32

4.1.4 Changing the roles while teaching 33

4.1.5 Making use of modern technology in teaching 34

4.2 Improving teaching techniques 34

4.2.1 Adjusting teaching time and efforts 35

4.2.2 Varying strategies in three stages of reading lessons 35

4.2.2.1 Before reading 35

4.2.2.2 While reading 36

4.2.2.3 After reading 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 40

1 Summary of the study 40

2 Limitations of the study 41

3 Suggestions for further study 41

REFERENCES 42

APPENDIX i

Appendix 1: Survey questionnaires i

Appendix 1.A: Survey questionnaires for students i

Appendix 1.B: Survey questionnaires for teachers ix

Appendix 2: Sample reading texts xvii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VFU: Vietnam Forestry University

ESP: English for specific purposes

MAC: Mixed ability classes

ESL: English as second language

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: The frequency of difficulties in teaching reading texts

Table 2: The frequency of pre-reading activities

Table 3: The frequency of while-reading exercises

Table 4: The frequency of post-reading activities

Table 5: The frequency of grouping students with same or mixed ability

Chart 1: The importance of reading in comparison with other language skills

Chart 2: The importance of developing reading skills to the first year students in VFUChart 3: The main purpose of teaching reading skills to the first year students at VFUChart 4: Opinion about reading texts in the textbook

Chart 5: The frequency of other difficulties faced by the teachers when teaching reading in MAC

Chart 6: Ways of reading to find the main idea of the text

Chart 7: Ways of reading to find specific information of the text

Chart 8: Frequency of pair/group working

Chart 9: Students' opinion about benefits of working in pairs/groups

Chart 10: Teachers' reasons for making the students work in pairs/groups

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Like in any other countries, in the process of integrating into regional and internationaleconomic and diplomatic development, English is now a compulsory subject in everyschool in Vietnam Both teachers and learners seem to pay greater attention to the teachingand learning of this language The ultimate aim is the ability to use it for communicativepurposes To obtain this aim, however, is not an easy task because students should be able

to acquire four skills of listening, speaking, writing and reading in addition to Englishgrammar, pronunciation, etc Among these areas, reading skills play an indispensable andinseparable part in the process of teaching and learning English as it helps students enrichtheir general knowledge, and support their learning of other language skills and elements.Therefore, how to teach and learn reading is very important

In Vietnam Forestry University (VFU), a non-language major university, the teaching andlearning of English in general and English reading skills, in particular have received agreater deal of attention and achieved certain success because English and English readingskills are very important for the students to read their major’s documents in English andvery useful for their job later However, the effectiveness of teaching and learning readingskills is still limited, especially to the first year students This problem may be resultedfrom some factors Firstly some teachers have been accustomed to traditional teachingmethods They often waste much of their time explaining new words and grammaticalstructures for final exams instead of providing different reading strategies for differentreading tasks to develop the students’ reading skills The text, therefore, plays as a source

of materials for language lessons instead of skill lessons Secondly, achieving effectiveness

in teaching reading skills become more challenging when all English classes in thisuniversity consist of a large number of students with different language learning ability.The other reasons may come from the reading materials, syllabus and teaching and learningconditions

As a teacher of English in VFU for nearly four years, this situation encourages the author

to investigate the advantages as well as the disadvantages of this issue and give somesuggestions for better learning and teaching English reading skills to the first year students

2 Aims of the study

The major purposes of this study are:

(1) to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU

(2) to give some suggestions to make use of the advantages and overcome thedisadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes

at VFU?

These objectives will be achieved by finding the answers to the three following questions:

(1) What are the advantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU?

(2) What are the disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students

in mixed ability classes at VFU?

(3) What should be done to make use of the advantages and overcome the disadvantages of teaching English reading skills to the first year students in mixed ability classes at VFU?

3 Scope of the study

The study investigates the current situation of the teaching of English reading skills to the

1st year students in MAC at Vietnam Forestry University.

4 Method of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the quantitative approach which involves surveyquestionnaires is employed to collect data for the study The survey questionnaires areadministered to both teachers and students The results obtained from the teachers will becompared with those from the students for more reliable data

5 Significance of the study

This study can, hopefully, be useful for the teachers and students in VFU as well theresearchers who have interest in this field Once successfully completed, the study willmanage to provide a picture of teaching English reading skills to the first year VFUstudents Through the findings of the study, some suggestions will be given with a hope totake the advantages of the strengths and overcome the weaknesses to help the first yearstudents in VFU improve their reading skills Furthermore, this study can offer various and

useful references for further studies It can also be an idea that attracts other researchers to

go further

6 Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts:

Part A is the introduction which states the rationale, aims, scope, method, significance and

organization of the study

Part B is the development which consists of 4 chapters:

Chapter 1, which serves as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the study reviews the literature relevant to the topic Chapter 2 presents the

research methodology

Chapter 3 refers to the results and discussion of the survey in addition to

the summary of the main findings.

Chapter 5 is the implications which include some suggestions for better teaching

and learning reading to the first year students in MAC in VFU

Part C is the conclusion that summarizes what has been done through the study, presents

the limitations and gives some suggestions for further researches

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews theories and previous researches related to reading comprehensionskill as well as mixed ability classes (MAC) It serves as a basis for an investigation intoteaching reading in MAC which is presented in the next chapter

1.1 Theory of reading in second language teaching and learning

1.1.1 Definition of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreignlanguage Having a deep understanding about nature of reading is very essential becausewhat teachers understand about it will have a great influence on what they teach in theclass In fact, methodologists and researchers have been provided with different definitions

of reading comprehension

According to Grellet (1981, p.3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written textmeans extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The authormeans that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning ofword combination in the text in the most efficient way

Having a slightly different idea from Grellet, Eddie William (1984, p.2) defined reading as

a process whereby one looks at and understand what has been written Carrell and Esday(1988, p.12) also asserted that “reading is receptive language process in that it starts withlinguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning that the readerconstructs” The two authors shared the same point In their opinion, reading does notmean that a foriegner need to understand everything in a text, he is not simply a passiveobject, fed with letters, words or sentences, but is actively working on the text and get theconveyed messages without looking at every letter and words

Richard and Thomas (1987, p.9) added more detail in his definition:

Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author andthe reader The emphasis is on the reader’s understanding of the printed page based onhis individual unique background of experience Reading is much more than justpronouncing words correctly or simply what the author intends It is the processwhereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to

an individual

This opinion indicates that reading comprehension refers to the students’ understanding of the text using their own ideas, experiences and responses In other words, the readers use

their knowledge (their experiences) to get meaning out of printed pages which includes notonly facts or details but also emotion, beliefs and critical evaluation.

Though these opinions are not exactly the same, it can be concluded that readingcomprehension is a process of obtaining the required information in the lesson as efficently

as possible In reading process, the reader plays an active role and both of his knowledge ofthe language and that of the world are extremly important to his reading success

1.1.2 Models of reading process

In the last 40 years, many researchers have developed models to describe what happenwhen people read, among which bottom-up, top-down and interactive models are the threemost important ones

1.1.2.1 Bottom-up model

In Christine Nuttall (19820)’s opinion, “In bottom-up processing, the reading builds up ameaning from the back marks on the page: recognizing letters and words, working outsentence structure” (p.17)

David Nunan (1991, p.64) shared the same opinion that “the bottom-up approach isbasically a matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural equivalent”

It is certain that in bottom-up process, readers focus on individual words and phrases andachieve understanding by combining the detailed elements together This model helpsreaders much understand the elements in the text such as vocabulary and grammarstructure However, this kind of reading process reveals some shortcomings

According to Christine Nuttall (1982, p.17), if only using bottom-up model, readers cannotbelieve that the apparent message was really what the writer intended Moreover, thereader in this case is put in a passive state and the text is treated as a grammatical unitrather than a textual one as a whole In addition, it was difficult to account for the role ofcontextual clues and that of the reader’s prior knowledge in understanding the text

1.1.2.2 Top-down model

In contrast to the bottom-up model, the top-down one argues that readers bring a great deal

of knowledge, expectation, assumptions, and questions to the text and they continue to read

as long as the text confirm their expectation (Goodman, 1967, p.126) Cambourne (1979, p.78-90) had a clearer definition that

Top-down reading is an active process of prediction, selection, and confirmation inwhich the reader brings to bear not only knowledge of the language, but also internalconcepts of the processing of language information, encoded in graphic, symbols, pastexperimental background, general conceptual background knowledge

These points of view indicate that top-down process emphasizes the reconstruction of meaning rather than the decoding form The interaction of reader and the text is the centre

to this process Readers bring to this interaction their knowledge of the subject, expectationabout how language works, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text.

Just like bottom-up model, this model has some limitations It is sometimes implausiblebecause of flexibility of information processing It also underestimates the functions oflower order information Furthermore, readers who have little knowledge of the topiccannot generate predictions And it is also time consuming and fails to describe skilledreading behavior (Samuel & Kamil ,1988)

Theoretically, bottom-up and top-down approaches provide us with different pictures ofreading process and both of them show strength as well as weakness, so elements of them

are combined to a more insightful model under the name of interactive model.

1.1.2.3 Interactive model

Eskey (1988, p.94) defined interactive reading model as a reading model that “posits aconstant interaction between bottom-up and top-down processing in reading, each source

of information contributing to a comprehensive reconstruction of the meaning of the text.”

He also believed that to achieve both fluency and accuracy in reading, good readers mustwork at perfecting both their bottom-up recognition skills and their top-down interpretationstrategies In other words, good reading can only result from a constant interaction betweenthese two processes

This idea is proven later by Penny Ur’s opinion To her, “The construction of meaning thatoccurs in reading is a combination of bottom-up process (decoding and understandingwords, phrases and sentences in the text) and top-down one (our expectation, previousknowledge, construct of the text content and genre)” (1996, p.141)

The mentioned viewpoints convey the same thing that both bottom-up and top-downprocess contribute to the understanding of the text in reading In reading process,sometimes it is the individual details that help readers understand the whole; sometimes it

is the overview that allows them to process the details

Interactive model is really the best reading process because it can make use of the advantages

of bottom-up and top-down models and eliminate the shortcomings within them

1.1.3 Features of an effective reading lesson

To have a successful reading lesson, it is advisable to know the characteristics of aneffective reading comprehension lesson According to Penny Ur (1996, p.148), an effectivereading lesson should contain the following points:

a) The language of the text is comprehensible to the learners It is not too difficult or too easy

b) The content of the text is accessible to the learners; they know enough about it in order

to apply their own background knowledge

c) The reading process is fairly fast: mainly because the reader has automatized recognition ofcommon combinations, and does not waste time working out each word or groups of words.

d) The reader concentrates on the significance and skims the rest He does not have to pay the same amount of attention to all parts of the text

e) The reader takes incomprehensible vocabulary in his or her stride: guess its meaning from the surrounding text, or ignore it

f) The reader can think ahead, hypothesize, and predict what will be next

g) The reader can use his background information for understanding the text

h) The reader is motivated to read by an interesting context or a challenging task

i) The reader has a clear purpose in reading

k) The reader uses different strategies for all texts

All the features listed by Penny Ur above indicate the important roles of the teacher in asuccessful reading lesson Concerning to this issue, Moore (1992) said that “The teacher is

an environmental engineer who organizes the classroom space to fit their goal and tomaximize learning The way the physical space of the classroom is organized can eitherhelp or hinder learning” (p.5)

Being concerned with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Marianne (2001, p57-62) listed a lot of the teacher’s in teaching reading such as controller, organizer, assessor, prompter, participant, resource, tutor and observer In his opinion, all these roles aim at facilitate the students’ process of reading

In general, all the features of an efficient reading lesson are equally important In teachingreading comprehension, teachers should be aware of his/her teaching roles and take thesecharacteristics into consideration and apply them flexibly

1.1.4 Reading problems and solutions

According to Christine Nuttall (1982), when dealing with texts, students often havedifficulties in establishing the plain sense of the text, dealing with vocabulary and syntax,and have difficulties with the conceptual content of texts, particularly if the topic isunfamiliar or if writers and readers are from different cultures

More recently, Marianne (2001, p.203) has added more problems in reading He found thatteaching and learning of receptive skills (reading and listening) presents a number ofparticular problems which will need to be addressed There are to do with language, topic,the task students are asked to perform and the expectations they have

Both of the two authors suggested solutions for these problems The solutions below aresuggested by Marianne (2001) They are very brief but easy for teachers to follow

- Create interest: Unfamiliar topics can cause problems in reading but they can beimproved if teachers succeed in creating interest in reading lessons They can get studentsengaged by talking about the topic, showing a picture for prediction, having them to look at theheadlines before reading, etc.

- Activate schemata: The reading process becomes easier if students can relate the topic to what they already know in their real life

Comprehension task problems

- Differentiate testing and teaching: the best kind of tasks are those which raise studentsexpectation, help them tease out the meaning of the text whereas tests are used to explorestudents and their weaknesses, therefore, teachers should base on these purposes to choosesuitable activities in reading lessons

- Appropriate challenge: when asking students to read, it is better if texts and tasks areeither far too easy or far too difficult Getting the level right depends on the right match betweentext and tasks Thus whether a text is difficult or easy, it may still be used only if the task isappropriate

- Agreeing on a purpose: It is important for teachers and students to agree on both generaland specific purposes for reading Are the students trying to discover detailed information or justget a general understanding of the text? If the students know what they are reading for, they canchoose how to deal with the text If they understand the purpose, they will have better chance ofknowing how well they have achieved it

1.1.5 Stages of a reading lesson

A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre-reading stage, whilereading stage and post- reading stage Each of these stages carries its own features andpurposes and requires different techniques and strategies (William, 1984, p.37)

1.1.5.1 Pre-reading stage

In a reading lesson, the pre-reading stage is an important one because it creates motivationand positive attitude towards the reading text for students It will focus their attention onwhat they are going to read According to Williams this stage happens to introduce andarouse interest in the topic; motivate learners by giving a reason for reading and providesome language preparation for the text (1984, p.37) Drucker suggested the followingprocedure teacher can take before reading a text:

…relate the passage students are going to read something that is familiar to them.Next, provide a brief discussion question that will engage the students and, after that,provide and overview of the section they are bound to read Name the selection,introduce the characters, and describe the plot Last, direct the students to read thestory or look for particular information (2003, p.23)

General speaking, this stage is really necessary to set a good preparation for students,provide them the sense of what they are going to do in their reading lesson

1.1.5.2 While-reading stage

While-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson Without this stage, the studentswill lose the chance to deal with the text to understand the writer’s purpose and clarify thetext’s content in detail

Williams (1984, p.38) pointed out that the aims of the while reading is to help to understandthe writer’s purpose; to help to understand the text structure and to clarify the text

There are various activities that teachers can choose for his students in this stage Such asskimming for the gist, scanning for specific information, recognizing the organization of atext or understanding the relation between sentences and clauses, etc (Mathews, Spratt &Dangerfield, 1999, p.67)

Studying the reading lesson, Sheils (1993:92) suggested a wide range of activities in thewhile reading stage such as deducing meaning, questioning, recognizing, matching,ordering, following instructions, comparing, note-taking, completing and decision-making/problem-solving

It is, however, essential to be flexible in this task The selection of any of them depends onthe nature of the reading text and the level of the students Besides selecting suitableactivities, during the while-reading stage, the teacher should bear in mind his roles of anorganizer, observer, assessor or prompter, etc.

1.1.5.3 Post-reading stage

This is the final but not the less important stage of a reading lesson because it is time forstudents to apply what they have got from the text into real life communication InWilliam’s opinions (1984, p.39), the post-reading stage aims at consolidating or reflectingupon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge interest orviews After completing the tasks in the previous stage, students may be asked to discussthe text’s main points, retell or rewrite the stories

In summary, each of the reading stages carries its own aims and activities It is veryeffective if these three stages are combined flexibly and appropriately for an efficientreading lesson

1.2 Theory of mixed-ability classes

1.2.1 Definition of mixed ability classes (MAC)

Ireson and Hallam (2001) suggested that teacher need to recognize that a class is mixedability because students have different strengths and weaknesses and develop at differentrates They have different preferences for learning and displaying their works

Rrodromou (1995) indicates that mixed ability or heterogeneous classes are classes whichare made up individuals who differ in any number of ways The simplest way of looking atthe class is in term of language ability and learning English ability

Penny Ur (2005, p.304) also defines MAC by listing a number of differences within them.They are differences in language learning ability, language knowledge, culturalbackground, learning style, attitude towards language, mother tongue, intelligence, worldknowledge, learning experience, knowledge of other languages, age, gender, personality,confidence, motivation, interests, and/or educational level

These viewpoints provide a clear picture of MAC In this kind of learning environment,there may be differences in levels of learners’ abilities in the receptive and productiveskills, fluency and accuracy work, grammatical knowledge, size of vocabulary andcommand of pronunciation Some students seem to be good at languages, able to pickthings up quickly and remember them, while others are slower, lacks of study skills andgenerally experience more difficulties in learning

1.2.2 Benefits of mixed ability classes

Apparently, to some extend, learning in a MAC still displays some strengths

Corley (2005) found that those with limited proficiency have an opportunity to interact withmore proficiency ones, and advanced learners benefit by using their skills to help lower levelones negotiate learning Students in MAC can learn to work together across differences anddevelop learning communities in which members learn from one another strengths Ur (2005)showed a positive attitude toward MAC by listing a lot of its advantages as follows:

- Students’ knowledge, varied opinion, interests and ideas can be used in classroom interaction;

- Students increase their knowledge and awareness of the others;

- There is much more peer learning and collaboration among students since teachers are less able to attend every individual student;

- Classes are more challenging and interesting for teachers and students

These strengths of MAC should be taken into account to weaken a number of itsshortcomings which will be discussed in the following part

1.2.3 Challenges of mixed ability classes

The variations in MAC may occur in different degrees in different classes Thus, if teacherswant to ensure that all students perform to their maximum potential, they must identifythese problems and deal with them accordingly

According to Penny Ur (2005), various differences in MAC pose a lot of teachingproblems He considered some as the most significant ones in such MAC such as difficulty

in control discipline; difficulty to be certain that all students are learning effectively;difficulty to find appropriate materials; difficulty to follow individual progress; anddifficulty to activate all learners’ participation

Şalli-Çopur (2005) shared the same opinion with Penny Ur but he described the difficultiesmuch more clearly:

Effective learning

Because of the fact that every student has a different way of learning, and learns andprogresses at different speeds, while some students may find the learning task very easy todeal with, others may find it difficult to understand Besides, learning also depends on whatstudents have brought with them into class Since each comes from a different family, adifferent environment and/or a different nation, the multi-cultural population of theclassroom may be an obstacle for the teachers in reaching the students, which eventuallyresults in ineffective learning

This problem may arise due to the differences among students in terms of their attitudetowards the subject matter and/or the teacher; their knowledge of language and theirpersonality For instance, some students may find lessons boring, as the topic has nofamiliarity with them Some of the students may not be interested in the lesson, unless theyget the chance to express their own ideas since the teacher talks too much during the lesson

or the other students take many turns

Participation

In MAC, some students may find it difficult to speak the language because of manyreasons ranging from interest to confidence, from age to knowledge Other students,however, would like to express everything they think or feel by using a new language As aresult, some students may take many turns, while others do not speak even a word just sitquietly or do their own homework of other subjects

Materials

Teachers, moreover, have to deal with the problem that students react differently to thetextbook due to their individual differences In fact, some students may find the textbookboring and very hard, whereas some find it interesting or very easy

Discipline

Obviously, quicker students finish the tasks given before the others As a result, they maymisbehave while waiting for the others to finish The weaker students, on the other hand,cannot finish the tasks as quickly as the strong ones and may loose their confidence andshow ill-disciplined behavior for a variety of reasons related to that Consequently, mixedabilities may result in classroom management problems

In reality, these multi-level ESL classes display more disadvantages than advantages Inconclusion, it is really challenging to ESL teachers when students of lower level may feelthreatened, left out and frustrated whereas ones of higher level feel bored and discouraged.Teachers certainly have to do more work for class management and teaching materialpreparation Hence, lesson planning is often time-consuming and the classroommanagement is exhausting It is also difficult to use one source of teaching materials andthere is less time for each group of students

1.2.4 Strategies for teaching mixed ability classes

Solutions to problems in MAC are suggested by many methodologists and researchers According to Şalli-Çopur (2005), pair/group work activities are useful in MAC They are not only for the teacher to observe students but also for the students to cooperate and to learn from each other When a strong student works with weaker students, the student can

be a source of language/knowledge in the group The teacher, on the other hand, may form

groups of weaker and stronger students separated from each other, and she can givedifferent tasks to these groups So the stronger and quicker students work with morecomplicated tasks, whereas the weaker students deal with a simpler task or work with theteacher as a group member.

Harmer (2008) suggested following key elements in successful large group teaching:understand students, be organized, establish routines, use a different pace for differentactivities, maximize individual work, use students, use pair and group work and takeaccount of vision and acoustics

Penny Ur (2005) also recommended a variety of procedures teachers could adopt toovercome the problems which emerge in MAC

- To deal with discipline problems, teachers can vary tasks and materials to make the lessonmore interesting since discipline problems can associated with boredom and lack of challenges;

- For all students effective learning, teachers can individualize activities, thus students learn at their own pace, and occasionally they choose their own tasks; teachers can encourage compulsory plus optional instructions in which students have to do a minimal part of the task, and the rest they do

if they want to; teachers can also open ended cues, in which students do not have predetermined right answer, there are many acceptable responses;

- To find suitable materials, teachers have to adapt and/or supplement course books to addvariation, to include elements of choice and individualization and to get more participation,which are important characteristics in heterogeneous classes;

- To follow all students’ progress, teachers would work with individualization or

monitoring pairs and groups by listening to them and giving feedback later on;

- To activate participation, teachers should engage students in tasks by increasing

collaborative and individual work using open ended cues

Recently, Ashok Raj Khati (2010), in his study of strategies in teaching English in largemulti-level classroom, has emphasized some ways of classroom management According tohim, it is important to establish rules from the beginning, and be fair and consistent all the

time In addition, teachers should learn students’ names to build respectful relationship

with them by association (looking at students and see if something strikes you), visual(seeing students and noticing their faces or body posture) and aural (listening to thestudents' voice)

In summary, the chapter so far has presented the relevant literature, which had helped toform the theoretical and conceptual framework for the study It has discussed about thedifferent aspects related to reading skill as well as mixed ability classes What is more, theproblems of teaching reading skills, the challenges in mixed ability class as well as usefulaccordingly solutions have been reviewed

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To have a picture of teaching reading to the first year students in MAC in VFU, in thischapter, the researcher firstly introduces briefly the teaching context or the objectivelearning and teaching conditions in VFU Then, a survey on the teaching of reading skills

is presented focusing on the participants, the data collection instruments and data collectionprocedure

2.1 The teaching context

The researcher has been an English teacher in VFU, a non-English major university for 4years This university is situated in Xuan Mai town which is about 30 kilometers far awayfrom Hanoi center This following part deals with some features of the author’s teachingcontext which reveals some benefits and challenges in developing students’ English skills

in her university

2.1.1 The learners

VFU is a non-language major university and because of its distinct forestry majors(Sivilculture, Forest Management and Protection or Wood Processing…), many students ofthis university come from remote areas Recently, thanks to the university’s policy of jobextension, some other majors have been opened such as Accounting, BusinessManagement, Informatics Technology or Construction, VFU attracts quite a lot of studentsfrom cities and other nearby provinces Obviously, conditions of studying English inremote areas are very poor, so apart from the difference in the students’ interest, theirEnglish proficiency is also at different level Students from remote areas are often worse atEnglish than those from the cities In addition, although many students may come from thesame area, city or province, before entering university, some of them had learned Englishfor 6 years, some had learned for 3 years, some had learned Russian or French and someeven have never learned a foreign language Thus, some of them are good at English, some

of them are not Moreover, in this university, since English is only one of the generalcourses, the students often have much more concentration on their majors rather thanpractice English although it is very important for their future jobs

2.1.2 The teachers

There are totally 9 teachers (including the researcher) of English in this university They allgraduated from Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages.

Of the 9 teachers, 3 of them, who used to be teachers of Russian or French have beenteaching English for 15 to 17 years and the rest, who graduated from English Department

of College of Foreign Languages have experienced from 3 to 7 years of teaching English.Generally, all teachers here are severe, enthusiastic in working In each semester, with atotal of about 25 general English classes and 10 ESP classes, each teacher is responsiblefor 4 or 5 classes This is equivalent to around 25 periods each week excluding the burden

of marking examinations and time for a lot of different school work More than this, ineach class, the teachers often have to cope with over 50 students whose Englishproficiency is different Apparently, they have to deal with a heavy workload in order tofulfill their task

2.1.3 The syllabus

VFU has applied the same English syllabus and the same material to students of allfaculties In their first two years, the students are to study 150 periods of general Englishwhich is divided into three phases and New Headway Elementary and Pre-Intermediate(written by Liz & John Soars, Oxford University Press, 2000) are the main textbooksduring the course

All the first year students have to complete the two first phases of the course In the firstsemester (the first phase), 14 units of New Headway Elementary are taught in 12 weekswhich is equivalent to 60 periods In the second semester (the second phase), the studentshave to learn the first 7 units of New Headway Pre-Intermediate The last 7 units of thistextbook are covered in the second year (the third phase) The second and third phase onlylast in 45 periods Totally, the first year students have only 105 periods to complete 21units in New Headway Elementary and New Headway Pre-intermediate

In the middle or at the end of each phase, all the students are only assigned the same papertests which focus on grammar and reading There is no assessment test on speaking andlistening and writing

2.1.4 The teaching and learning conditions

Although VFU is a non-English major university, the condition of teaching and learningEnglish is quite good English classrooms are equipped with cassettes, computers andprojectors which are useful to enhance the effectiveness of English lessons However, the

computers and projectors have not been frequently used because of some reasons Some ofthe teachers are unable to use them well In addition, these devices have not been fixed inthe classrooms, so before each lesson, if the teachers want to use them, they have to make aregistration and call another one to bring them to the class This situation seems to be notvey convenient, thus the teachers are sometimes hesitant to use them Furthermore, in thelibrary, except for the English text books, there are no extra references for students.

2.2 A survey on the teaching of English reading skills to the first year students in MAC at VFU

Basing on the teaching condition, a survey was conducted to find out the strengths and thedrawbacks that the teacher in VFU encounter when teaching English reading skills here

- The teachers are all the teachers in the foreign language department of this university Theyhas experienced from 3 to 17 years of teaching English Some of them used to be Russian or Frenchteachers, and the rest were fully trained to be teachers of English (c.f 3.1.2)

2.2.2 Data collection instruments

Survey questionnaire was chosen as the instrument to collect data for the study because ofsome reasons Firstly, this kind of instrument does not take so much time to administer asthe others Secondly, since the same questionnaire is given to all participants at the sametime, the data are more standard and accurate Lastly, questionnaires can be easilyquantified due to the use of multiple choice questions (Selinger and Shohany, 1989)

Although this study aims at investigating the teaching of reading skills of the VFU teachers,survey questionnaire was administered to both the teachers and students and they were allasked to answer questions related to the same category that can be found in class Theresults from the teachers will be compared with those from the students for more reliable

data These questions are designed to get information concerning:

- Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward learning and teaching English reading skills (Question 1, 2, 3, 4- Appendix 1.A; and question 1, 2, 3, 4 - Appendix 1.B)

- Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading (Question 5- Appendix 1.A; and question 5, 6 –

- Techniques in teaching reading (Question 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 – Appendix 1.A; and question 7, 8,

9, 10, 11 – Appendix 1.B)

- Ways of classroom management (Question 11, 12, 13 – Appendix 1.A; and question 12,

13, 14 – Appendix 1.B)

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

There were four phases in the procedure of collecting data:

Firstly, all the questions for the teachers and students were designed concerning some ofthe important issues in English reading classes (c.f 3.2.2)

Secondly, the author piloted the questionnaires by having some teachers and studentsanswer them to examine whether they help to elicit the kind of intended data Basing on thefeedbacks from these students and teachers, the author revised the questions that wereinappropriate or ambiguous to the respondents and therefore improved the quality of thedata obtained

After that, the questionnaires were delivered to both students and teachers who wereselected as the participants of the study at the end of the first year at, after the students hadfinished the two first phases of compulsory basic English course This is the time when theteachers understand much about their students’ proficiency, difficulties or learning styles,etc And this is the time when the students are also familiar with their teacher’s teachingmethods Therefore they can answer the questionnaires more exactly

Finally, the collected data was analyzed quantitatively The results were presented in the

form of charts and tables for clear analysis and comparison.

In summary, this chapter presents some information about the survey on the teaching ofEnglish reading skills to the first year students in MAC in VFU It mentioned the teachingcontext, the participants, the data collection instruments and the data collection procedure.The survey’s results and discussion will be presented in the next chapter

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter will first present the results of the survey in addition to some discussion orcomments, then summaries of main findings will be given.

3.1 Results and discussion

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward learning and teaching English reading skills

Questions 1, 2, 3 (Appendix 1.A & 1.B) are delivered to investigate students’ and teachers’attitudes to the importance of reading in English and teaching reading skills to the first yearstudents in VFU

Chart 1: The importance of reading in

comparison with other language skills

Teachers 20

10 0

A more important than any language skills

B as important as other language skills

C not as important as other language skills

D not important at all

A very important

B important

C not very important

D not important at all

As shown in chart 1, about one-third of both teachers and students agreed that reading wasthe most important skill A majority of the teachers (66,7%) thought that readingcomprehension was as important as speaking, listening and writing, whereas only 46 % ofthe students shared the same viewpoint One remarkable things shown in the chart is thatquite a large number of students (22%) considered that reading was less important thanother language skills This may be a disadvantage because these students might not payenough attention to learning this important skill

The results from chart 2 seem to be similar to those from chart 1 Whereas all of theteachers stated that teaching reading skills to the first year students was very important and

important (44,4 % and 55,6%, respectively), only 68% of students had the same thought(22% very important and 46 % important) There were still 32% of students who respondedthat learning reading skills in the freshman year was not vey important These students may

be the ones to whom reading is not as important as other language skills

However, it is really positive that none of the participants thought reading comprehension,

in general and learning reading in the first year at university was not important at all Question 3 deals with the teachers’ purposes of teaching reading And this information is confirmed by the response from the students (Chart 3)

Chart 3: The main purpose of teaching reading skills the first year students at

A To reinforce vocabulary and

grammatical structures

B To develop reading skills and improve

other language skills,

C To improve background knowledge

D To take the school exam well

E To prepare for learning ESP in the next term

50 45 40 35 30

Students 25

15 10 5 0

A B C D E

Different purposes were provided for learning and teaching reading skills and both studentsand teachers were asked to tick their main purpose As can be seen from chart 3, the mainpurpose of leaning and that of teaching reading skills for the first year students are quiteidentical However, the thing that should be noticed here is they both choose D (To take theschool exam well) as their main purpose of teaching and learning reading skills (44,4% of theteachers and 47% of the students) Ranking at the second position is the purpose of reinforcingthe students’ vocabulary and grammatical structures, accounting for 25% of the students and22,2% of the teachers A small number of the respondents chose the objectives of improvingother language skills and preparing for learning ESP in the next term And no percentage ofthem thought of the effect of leaning reading to improve the background knowledge.Apparently, the teachers’ reading lessons tend to focus on the revision of language for examrather than the development of reading skills Hence, it is better if the teacher pay moreattention to the purpose of developing their students’ reading skills

A interesting and suitable to your level

B boring and not suitable to your level

C interesting but not suitable to your

level

D boring but suitable to your level.

Chart 4: Opinion about reading texts in the

text book

% 70 60 50 40

Students 30

Teachers 20

10 0

The next question focuses on the students’ and teachers’ opinion about reading texts in thetext book (Chart 4) In response to this question, teachers and students had different ideas.66,7% of teachers agreed that texts in the textbook were interesting and suitable but only51% of students reflected the same idea 37% of students in comparison with 33,3% ofteachers claimed that the current reading material was interesting but not suitable The rest

of the students said the reading texts were boring and not suitable while there were not anyteachers sharing the same opinion Such big difference in the opinion about the currentreading texts may greatly affect the methods of teaching reading to the students

3.1.2 Difficulties in teaching reading texts

The next question, question 5 is to find out the frequency of difficulties faced by theteachers when teaching reading texts The results are shown on table 1 below

Table 1: The frequency of difficulties in teaching reading texts

Frequency Often Sometimes Never

Students’ Teachers’ Student’s Teachers’ Students’ Teachers’ Difficulties choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%)

A There are many

new words in the text

have strange topics.

of the teachers complained that the comprehension reading exercises are often difficult.This reality is unbeneficial to the students’ reading success because the teachers can nothelp them to overcome the difficulties about which they do not know

Question 6 (Appendix 1.B) was designed only for the teachers to ask them about thefrequency of other difficulties they have when teaching reading in MAC

A Only some advanced students can %

Chart 5:The frequency of other difficulties faced by the teachers when teaching reading in mixed ability classes

complete the required tasks

B Weak students often sit silently or

do other things instead of taking part

in classroom activities

C Materials is quite difficult to

some weaker students

D Teachers have to waste more time to

help weaker students so stronger ones

seem to be bored.

80 70 60 50

Often 40

Sometimes 30

Never 20

10 0

It is evident from chart 5 that, except for the problems of material, the majority of theparticipants complained that they often encountered with the remained problems in MAC.77,8 % said that in their lessons, only some advanced students could complete the requiredtasks and they had to spend more time helping weaker students, so stronger ones seem tofeel bored 66,6% complained that weaker students often sat silently or did other thingsinstead of taking part in classroom activities And none of them said they never faced tothese possible problems The result of this question reveals big challenges for the teacherwhen teaching reading to mixed ability students These existing problems certainly havebad effects on the effectiveness of their reading lessons.

3.1.3 Techniques in teaching reading texts

To investigate the current techniques in teaching reading skills in MAC, some questionsconcerning the activities before, while and after reading are administered to both studentsand teachers

Firstly, question 6 (Appendix 1.A) and question 7 (Appendix 1.B) are used for the sake of

finding out the frequency of pre-reading activities The result is presented in table 2 below:

Table 2: The frequency of pre-reading activities

Frequency Often Sometimes Never

Students’ Teachers’ Student’s Teachers’ Students’ Teachers’ Pre-reading activities choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%) choice (%)

C Answer some

guest the topic

F Playing games (to know

to the topic

From the table, it can be seen that some possible pre-reading activities used mostfrequently by the teachers are pre-teaching new vocabulary (66,7%) and setting up a cleargoal to read (55,6%) Sometimes the students are asked to answer pre-reading questionsand using the title, subtitles to predict content before reading or look at pictures to guessthe topic Both the students and teachers said that there were hardly activities of playinggames or brainstorming words, structures or ideas related to the topic It is positive whenstudents are often provided with new vocabulary and grammatical structure before readingand it is more positive when the reading purposes are emphasized in this stage However,because quite a large number of students complained about the strange topics (36%- table1), other solutions such as answering pre-reading questions, brainstorming things related tothe topic, using pictures to guess the topic, playing games or using the title, subtitles topredict the text content, etc should be used more often.

Secondly, to explore what happen in the while-reading stage in terms of teaching

techniques, question 7, 8, 9 (Appendix 1.A) and question 8, 9, 10 (Appendix 1.B) aredelivered and the results are again compared between the teacher’s and the students’

Chart 6: Ways of reading to find the main Chart 7: Way of reading to find

idea of the text specific information of the text

A Read slowly from the beginning to the

end, try to understand the meaning of every

word B Read quickly through the text, pay

attention to the title, subtitles or topic sentences ignore the new words

words and look for the information they want