An investigation into the reality of teaching reading comprehension to 11th form students at yen the high school, bacgiang province

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: Teachers‟ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook Table 2: Methods used at pre- reading stage Table 3: Methods used at while- reading st

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

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*** -***

ĐANG THI UT

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING READING

HIGH SCHOOL, BAC GIANG PROVINCE

(TÌM HIỂU VỀ THỰC TẾ DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11

TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN THẾ, TỈNH BẮC GIANG)

Minor Programme Thesis Field : English Methodology Code : 60 14 10

HANOI, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… ……….iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……….………

LIST OF TABLES………

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………

1.1.Statement of the problems…

1.2.Aims of the study and research questions………

1.3.Scope of the study

1.4.Outline of the thesis…

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW………

2.1.Reading and reading comprehension………

2.1.1 Definitions

2.1.2 Kinds of reading

2.1.2.1 Reading aloud

2.1.2.2 Silent reading

2.1.2.3 Skimming

2.1.2.4 Scanning

2.1.2.5 Intensive reading

2.1.2.6 Extensive reading

2.2.The teaching of reading

2.2.1 Factors in teaching and learning reading

2.2.1.1 Teacher’s roles in teaching reading……… 7

2.2.1.2 Students’ roles in a reading lesson……… 8

2.2.1.3 The roles of reading texts……… … 8

2.2.2 Stages of teaching a reading lesson 2.2.2.1 Pre- reading stage

2.2.2.2 2.2.2.3 2.2 3 Some common teaching methods utilized at three stages of a reading lesson10 2.2.3 1 Pre-reading

2.2.3.2 While-reading

2.2.3.3 Post- reading

2.3.Attitudes and their impacts in teaching and learning

2.4.Previous Studies

2.5 Sub-conclusion

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Subjects of the study

3.2.Reading sections in TIENG ANH 11 textbook

3.3.Data collection instrument

3.4.Procedures

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1.Data analysis

4.1.1 Findings from Questionnaire for teachers

4.1.2 Findings from Questionnaire for students

4.1.3 Findings from classroom observation and post-observation interviews

4.2.Major findings

CHAPTER V: LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSION

5.1.Suggestions

5.1.1 Reading section adaptation

5.1.2 Training different reading skills for students

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study

REFERENCES

APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS AT YTHS

APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT YTHS

APPENDIX 3: VIETNAMESE VERSION OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS VIII APPENDIX 4: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET

APPENDIX 5: POST-OBSERVATION INTERVIEWS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

YTHS: Yen The High School

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

VNU- CFL: Vietnam National University, College of Foreign LanguagesM.A: Master of Arts

TALO: Text as a Linguistic Object

TAVI: Text as a Vehicle for Information

TASP: Text as a Springboard for Production

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers‟ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook Table 2: Methods used at pre- reading stage

Table 3: Methods used at while- reading stage

Table 4: Methods used at post- reading stage

Table 5: Teachers‟ opinions on the importance of reading text components

Table 6: Problems teachers face with in teaching reading

Table 7: Students‟ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook Table 8: Students‟ preference of teaching methods used by the teachers at pre-reading

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problems

Being aware of the importance of teaching and learning English in high schools, theMinistry of Education and Training (MOET) has recently introduced a new series ofEnglish textbooks for grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12 These new textbooks have beenused in most high schools nationwide This marks a milestone in improving the quality ofEnglish teaching and learning The new curriculum defines “English as a compulsorysubject” to provide students with an “instrument to access world science and technology aswell as world culture” (MOET, 2006) However, a lot of complaints have been made by theteachers from most of high schools in Bac Giang province They said that these newEnglish textbooks were too difficult for their students To deal with this problem, BacGiang Education and Training Department decided to organize training courses at thebeginning of the academic years of 2006, 2007 and 2008 to help and give teachersguidance on methods of teaching the new English textbooks based on the communicativeapproach Yet, the results were often not satisfactory because it is very difficult for teachers

to employ properly the general knowledge of teaching English in communicative approachprovided in these training courses in real contexts of teaching at some high schools

Founded in 1966, Yen The High School is one of three high schools in Yen The district,Bac Giang province that have been selected to apply the new textbooks in teaching andlearning English It has about 33 classes every year, among which, there are about 10 grade

11 classes As the school is located in the center of a mountainous district, foreign languagelearning conditions are very limited Most YTHS students come from comparatively poorfamilies and they do not have much time for self- study After school, they have to work onfarms and rice paddies to help their parents Few students are able to attend extra- Englishclasses because their parents cannot afford to pay even a small amount required for theirchildren‟s schooling like the fee, a dictionary, a cassette player or English books To makematter worse, nearly half of YTHS students are from ethnic groups such as Tay, Nung Dao,Cao lan and San diu, so their ability to learn English is further limited Considering theteaching conditions, the researcher finds that there is a serious shortage of teachingappliances There is no cassette player for teachers to use

Teachers must read aloud typescript in almost every listening lesson The results ofspeaking and writing teaching are far worse Rarely can students say or write a completeand grammatically correct sentence in English Instead of developing students‟communicative ability, teachers sometimes have to change speaking and writing lessonsinto grammar and vocabulary ones Besides, reading lessons seem to be a burden forteachers and boring to students Within 45 minutes, teachers often cannot help studentscompete the post-reading sections as most of the time is spent on pre- and while- reading.Students complain that there are too many new words and grammatical structures in a longtext, which prevents them from understanding the reading passage thoroughly.

In such conditions, teaching and learning English in general and teaching reading inparticular according to the new curriculum has actually become a great obstacle for bothteachers and students at YTHS However, reading has still been the focus of teachingbecause it is not only an important means to gain knowledge but also the means by whichstudents can obtain more new words and structures used in certain contexts

After looking critically into the reality of teaching and learning reading at YTHS, discussing thetopic with colleagues and reflecting on her own teaching experience, the researcher realizes thatteaching methods greatly influence the effectiveness of teaching reading skill Limited success

of reading lessons may be due to teachers‟ inflexibility, their lack of teaching experience,intensive employment of the grammar- translation method and the lack of training in thecommunicative approach Also, teachers‟ domination in the language classroom should beblamed for YTHS students are often passive during English lessons and do not have effectiveskills in learning reading As a result, they fail to get the main ideas as well as the details of eachreading passage So as to have a better understanding of the situation and find solutions to theproblems her colleagues and herself face with, the researcher decided to investigate the reality ofteaching reading to grade 11 students at YTHS

1.2 Aims of the study and research questions

This study aims:

1 To find out teachers‟ and students‟ comments on the reading section in TIENG ANH 11textbook

2.To investigate the reality of teaching reading to grade 11 students and their attitudes towards the teaching of reading utilized by teachers

3.To identify the difficulties that teachers and students have to cope with when dealing with a reading lesson.

It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of some benefits to teachers and students atYTHS and some other schools as the reality of teaching reading at YTHS is similar to that

of some high schools in mountainous districts in Bac Giang province like Son Dong, LucNgan, Luc Nam, and Tan Yen

In order to achieve the research study‟s aims, the study attempts to answer the following researchquestions:

1 How do teachers and students respond to the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook?

2 What methods are used by teachers in teaching reading and what are the students‟ attitudes

towards these methods?

3 What difficulties do teachers and students meet when dealing with a reading lesson?

1.3 Scope of the study

This is a survey of the problems in teaching the reading section in TIENG ANH 11textbook at YTHS The study includes an investigation into teaching methods used byteachers and their students‟ attitudes towards these methods Finding out the teachers‟ andstudents‟ assessment of the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook and identifyingtheir difficulties in reading lessons are another purpose

1.4 Outline of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters, organized as follows:

Chapter One is written to introduce the background to the study and statement of the problems.

It also presents the aims, the research questions, the scope and the design of the thesis.

Chapter Two presents a review of related literature which provides the theoretical background for the study It presents the definitions of reading, reading comprehension, factors and stages in

teaching a reading lesson Some common methods utilized by teachers in three stages ofteaching a reading lesson and the impacts of attitudes in teaching and learning are alsomentioned The final and important part of this chapter is some previous studies

Chapter Three states the methodology used in the study Therefore, the information about

subjects, data collection instruments and procedures are presented Chapter Four discusses

the outcome of the data analysis

Chapter Five is the conclusion to the thesis.

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Reading and reading comprehension

2.1.1 Definitions

What is reading?

Reading is a popular activity of human beings It takes place in every aspect of daily life aswell as in scientific areas Therefore, there exist many different points of view on thedefinition of reading

Goodman (1971:135) defines 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”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process

of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming ” Another view on reading is shared by Nuttal (1982:4) “Reading is getting a message from a text” She states “the meaning is not lying in the text waiting to be passively absorbed; on the contrary, the reading is actively involved and often has to work out to get the meaning out” It is clear that she rejects the

views in which reading is regarded as a rather passive and receptive skill

Grellet (1981:3) also says reading is understood as extracting required information from awritten text as efficiently as possible Besides, according to Harmer J (1989:190) reading

is “an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” Sharing the same view, Smith (1985:102) points out “reading is understanding the author’s thought” According to the

ideas presented above, reading can be considered as a communicative process in which the readers - read the author‟s mind, not the author‟s words Reading, viewed from a

we-different perspective, is “an active information- seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” (Rubin, J and Thompson, I 1994:91).

With this point of view, the readers‟ knowledge of the language and the knowledge of theworld are of great importance to their reading success

What is reading comprehension?

In teaching and learning reading, reading comprehension plays an important role because it

is described as a means of communication between the writer and the reader

“Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers make connection between the new

information on the printed page and their existing knowledge They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge store.”

(Lee and Vanpatten, 1995:191)Anderson and Pearson (1984:255) also shared the same point of view They argue thatwhen students make a critical evaluation of the ideas conveyed in the text, they are makingconnection between new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge.These two ideas show that reading comprehension is a process in which the reader canrecognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behindthese forms Moreover, this process is greatly affected by the reader‟s backgroundknowledge and his language competence

From the above points of view on reading and reading comprehension, we can draw aconclusion that reading is a complex process which involves not only the reader and the

writer but also the text itself Reading comprehension, according to Nuttal (2000:4), is “the process of encoding and decoding between the encoder who has messages in his mind encodes them into words and the decoder who needs to receive these messages decodes those words into his mind”.

In short, reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text,resulting in comprehension The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs thatencode meaning The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what thatmeaning is Therefore, to become a good reader, it is necessary for him to possess richknowledge of the world and knowledge of language, especially the topic mentioned in thereading text

focused on pronunciation, not understanding the text Next, it is an unnatural activity; mostpeople do not read aloud in real life Finally, students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot

of class time

2.1.2.2 Silent reading

Silent reading is the activity we often use in real life, for example reading books,

newspapers, texts, road signs etc Silent reading, as mentioned by Doff (1988:67) “involves looking at sentences and understanding the message it conveys” It has become more and

more preferable because it is comprehension and its focus is on the meaning of the text.Learners do not need to read all the words in the text and they can read at their own speed

If they do not understand a sentence, they can go back and read it again Reading aloudtends to reduce the speed of reading and formation of correct reading habits Silent readinghelps one to develop speed and comprehension Good silent reading skills prepare studentsfor library reading on their own It is also an effective skill for teaching and learningreading comprehension

According to purposes, reading is categorized into skimming, scanning, extensive readingand intensive reading

2.1.2.3 Skimming

Skimming is frequently used in teaching reading comprehension “When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to a specific question” (Grellet, F.(1981:19)) Hedge, T (2000:195) explains “skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of the text An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”.

2.1.2.4 Scanning

Scanning is a useful reading skill we apply when we want to find the answer to a specific

question Hedge, T (2000:195) argues that “scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a specific point of information, for example, the relevant times on a timetable, items in a directory or key points in an academic text” Scanning occurs when a reader

looks quickly through the text searching for a specific piece of information or to see if thetext is suitable for a specific reading purpose

2.1.2.5 Intensive reading

According to Grellet (1981:4), intensive reading means “reading shorter text to extract specific information” This is more an accuracy activity involving reading for details Intensive reading “is usually a classroom- oriented activity in which students focus on linguistic or semantic details of a passage” (Brown 1990:297) To make intensive reading

profitable, careful treatment of vocabulary and grammar may be made Hedge (1985:68)

also emphasizes that “intensive reading lessons provide students with training in the strategies and skills they need to become successful readers”.

importance to students‟ self-study Through extensive reading, their reading habit andpassion can be formed And it is more effective if students‟ extensive reading is followed

by an instructional program with the help of a reading teacher For example, the teachershould give her students lists of graded books for purpose Articles, reports, books bearing

on the subjects of the curriculum may also be suggested for reference

To summarize, in teaching and learning a foreign language, reading plays an important rolecompared to other skills: listening, speaking and writing It is a useful skill to help studentsobtain their knowledge Readers, according to their manner or purpose, can choosedifferent kinds of reading including reading aloud, silent reading, skimming, scanning,intensive reading or extensive reading

2.2 The teaching of reading

2.2.1 Factors in teaching and learning reading

2.2.1.1 Teacher’s roles in teaching reading

The teacher is a person who applies methods in teaching reading Therefore, no one candeny the vital role of the teacher in a reading lesson Mahon (1986:98_99) says that theteacher is the most important element in a reading class, for her attitude influences studentsand their performance Nuttal (2000:32_33) specifies some roles of the teacher as choosing

reading texts, designing tasks, facilitating reading process and monitoring process What ismore, the teacher is responsible for exploiting students‟ knowledge; building a strongvocabulary base; teaching for comprehension; teaching strategies; encouraging students totransform strategies into skills and finally setting criteria to select reading texts (Anderson.

2003 and Hedge 2003 cited in To et al., 2006:153-154) To sum up, the teacher, by usingappropriate techniques, can make students get involved in learning It becomes theresponsibility of the teacher to train students to determine their own goals and strategies for

a particular reading

2.2.1.2 Students’ roles in a reading lesson

Nuttal (2000:33) points out several main roles for the students in a reading lesson First,students must take an active part in learning: this is the first and foremost responsibility ofthe learner They have to be active and take charge of what they do Second, studentsmonitor comprehension: they need to understand how texts work and what they do whenthey read And they must be able to monitor their own comprehension by recognizing thatthey do not understand a text and finding out why and adopting a strategy that will improvethe problem Next, students learn text talk: good readers have to know how to carry on adialogue with the text They can promote this skill by learning to talk about the texts inclass; they have to make the most of the opportunity by joining in the activities the teachersplan for this purpose Then, students have to take the risk of making mistakes because amistake is an opportunity to learn Finally, they learn not to cheat themselves: learning toread is learning to give students enormous advantages in life It may lead to a better job,personal development, interest and enjoyment Students who do not want to learn to readcan easily cheat but they are only cheating themselves Nobody else will suffer but they arewasting their opportunities

2.2.1.3 The roles of reading texts

Teaching and learning reading will not be carried out without reading texts They are ameans to introduce new lexical and grammatical items as well as phonetic of the targetlanguage Through reading texts, students can enrich their background knowledge Readingtexts are often accompanied with reading tasks which act as guide for teachers and students

to deal with the reading process TALO, TAVI, TASP, in literature language teaching arethree acronyms that have been used to describe texts A TALO (text as a linguistic object) isused for language work especially grammar or vocabulary A TAVI

(text as a vehicle for information) has a different focus Information within the text is seenmore important than the language Students should understand the overall meaning of a textinstead of the finer points of detail And a TASP (text as a springboard for production)means using a text as a springboard for another task- usually a reading or writing task.Different text types require different teaching methods For example, grammar- translationand Audiolingualism methods are often used with TALO and communicative approach fitswell with TAVI and TASP Besides, when teaching reading and designing reading tasks, theteacher should take the points that Grellet (1981:20) suggests into consideration: language

of the text; the content of the text and its vocabulary and grammatical structures

2.2.2 Stages of teaching a reading lesson

In the light of the recent and widely accepted communicative approach, it is commonpractice that a reading lesson consists of three stages: pre- reading, while- reading and post-reading Each stage, of course, has its own characteristics and time allocation that will bediscussed in details as follows:

2.2.2.1 Pre- reading stage

Various things should be done before reading a text, which makes it easier for students tounderstand the text and help them focus attention on it as they read Williams (1984:37)suggests three purposes of the pre- reading stage Firstly, it aims at introducing andarousing interest in the topic Secondly, it supports to promote the learners by giving areason for reading The last aim is to provide some language preparation for the text.Normally, pre- reading phase lasts from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson Pre-reading activities may include presenting some of new words in the text, giving a briefintroduction to the text and giving guiding questions Such techniques as using pictures,predicting from the titles, guessing and brainstorming can also be applied to see whatstudents have already know

2.2.2.2 While- reading stage

According to Williams (1984:38), while- reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson Thefirst aim of this stage is to help understanding the writer‟s purpose The second is to helpunderstanding the text structure and the last aim is to clarify the text content Teachers, at thewhile- reading stage, need to help their students comprehend the text thoroughly while studentshave to apply to the best their reading skills like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc tounderstand the text as well as the writer‟s purposes conveyed through the reading text And timeallocation for this stage is nearly two thirds of the whole lesson

2.2.2.3 Post- reading stage

This is the final phase in a reading lesson and it is the time for students‟ production “The post- reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views” (Williams 1984:39).

Teachers can apply such activities as discussion of questions, reproducing the text, playing, gap- filling and giving personal ideas on the theme of the text in this stage Itnormally takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage

role-In conclusion, the three stages mentioned above are essential for teaching a reading lesson.However, it is not necessary to follow all these steps mechanically on every occasion Insome cases, teachers are able to adapt these stages and time allocation in order to suit theirstudents‟ level, interest, the situation and the reading text

2.2.3 Some common teaching methods utilized at three stages of a reading lesson 2.2.3.1 Pre-reading

Various teaching methods can be employed at pre-reading stage in order to introduce andarouse students‟ interest in the topic as well as provide them with some languagepreparation for the text Followings are the ones frequently used by high school teachers:

Giving a brief introduction to the text

This means that the teacher gives a brief (two or three sentences) introduction to thecontent of the text Needless to say, introducing the text briefly is beneficial to the readersbecause it can recall any information that they may already know about the topic, increasetheir interest in the topic and thereby motivate them to read the text In addition, if the text

is introduced, it will also review or introduce the relevant vocabulary for that topic Nuttall(2000: 157) points out that a good introduction should have the following qualities First, itmakes students want to read the text Second, it helps the students relate the text to theirown experience, aims and interest Next, it involves the students actively but does not tellthem anything they can find out by reading the text Finally, it is usually short

Pre- teaching new vocabulary and grammatical structures

The teacher sometimes needs to pre-teach certain new or difficult words and grammaticalstructures appearing in the reading text as these words and structures may make it difficultfor the students to understand the text However, it is unnecessary to present all the newwords in a text since the students can guess the meaning from the context- an importantskill when dealing with reading According to Nutall (1998), when introducing the text, the

teacher needs to present key language items in the context of the introduction as it is moreeffective than presenting them as isolated items To present the new items in the text, the teachercan use visual aids, language games, synonyms, antonyms and definition or explanation.

Using a brainstorming web

It is a kind of group work activity Each group must take a brainstorming web and write thetitle of the article in the center Then a group leader must be appointed so as to complete thefollowing duties: make sure everyone speaks English only; make sure everyone contributes(speaks); be the writer for the group in filling the brainstorming web

Asking pre-reading questions

Pre-reading questions or guiding questions are comprehension questions raised orally orgiven on the board before students read the text It is evident that these questions arenecessary to the students because “they give students a reason to read and lead them to themain points of the text” (Doff, 1998:61) Guiding questions should be concerned withgeneral meaning or with the most important points of a text and not focus on minor details.More importantly, pre-reading questions should be fairly easy to answer and not too long.When these questions are given, students need to make use of their guessing ability toanswer It is one way of motivating them to read the text and making the reading morepurposeful Pre-reading questions can be multiple-choice, yes/no or “wh” questions

Predicting the content of the text

It is good for students to make a prediction about the content of the text before being asked

to read the passage It stands to reason that prediction assists the students to activate theirbackground knowledge relevant to the topic and give them reason for reading.Consequently, the students‟ motivation is created The teacher can make the studentsanticipate the content by posing questions, setting the tasks, using the title or picturesavailable in the text and using key words and phrases from the text

Pair or group discussion

Discussion in pairs and in groups before reading a passage is useful for the students as itencourages them to think about the topic and to increase their interest in the text To dothis, the class should be divided into pairs or groups of three or four based on the difficultylevel of the text The group can be of mixed ability with both the active and the shy.Obviously, having a short discussion is of great use not only for the students‟ interactionwith each other but also for their improvement in speaking skill Moreover, discussion may

be taken when the students are equipped with guiding questions or discussing points

2.2.3.2 While-reading

Reading aloud

Reading aloud at while reading stage is traditional method The teacher can read aloud thetext herself as a model for the students or ask them to read aloud the text A person whoreads aloud and comprehends the meaning of the text is coordinating word recognition withcomprehension and speaking and pronunciation ability in highly complex ways Studentswhose language skills are limited are not able to process at this level, and end up having todrop one or more of the elements Usually the dropped element is comprehension, andreading aloud becomes word calling: simply pronouncing a series of words without regardfor the meaning they carry individually and together Word calling is not productive for thestudent who is doing it, and it is boring for other students to listen to There are two ways touse reading aloud productively in the language classroom First, the teacher reads aloud tothe students as they follow along silently S/he has the ability to use inflection and tone tohelp them hear what the text is saying Following along as the teacher reads will helpstudents move from word-by-word reading to reading in phrases and thought units, as they

do in their first language Second, use the "read and look up" technique With thistechnique, a student reads a phrase or sentence silently as many times as necessary, thenlooks up (away from the text) and tells the teacher what the phrase or sentence says Thisencourages students to read for ideas, rather than for word recognition

Translation

Teachers can ask their students to translate the text into Vietnamese at while-reading stage.This method can help students understand the text thoroughly It makes extensive use of thestudents‟ knowledge of the mother tongue English is taught with the help of the mothertongue Words, phrases and sentences are freely translated into Vietnamese This can helpmake both teachers and students feel at home and comfortable However, it takes too muchtime, especially with a very long and difficult text and it cannot develop students‟ readingskills like guessing, skimming and scanning

Using comprehension questions

These are the questions related to the main ideas or the details of the reading passage tocheck students‟ comprehension Students work individually or in pairs, in groups to answerthe questions from the teacher or from the textbook Students are encouraged to check andcompare the answers with each other before the teacher gives feedback Comprehension

questions can show the teacher how well students have understood the text and what needs to bemore fully explained These questions focus the students‟ attention on the main points and leadthem to think about the meaning of the text There are two ways of using comprehensionquestions The teacher can ask the students to read the text intensively first and then answer thequestions or the teacher asks students to read the questions first and scan the reading text to findthe answer In everyday reading situations, readers have a purpose for reading before they start.That is, they know what comprehension questions they are going to need to answer before theybegin reading To make reading assessment in the language classroom more like reading outside

of the classroom, therefore, the teacher should allow students to review the comprehensionquestions before they begin to read the passage

2.2.3.3 Post- reading

After the students have understood the text completely, the teacher can use the followingmethods at post- reading stage to help students consolidate their reading and furtherpractice

Summarizing the reading text

It is common practice for the teacher to ask students to summarize the text This method isgood for students as it helps them to remember better the main content of the readingpassage and generalize the whole reading process

Using discussion

The teacher can give students some questions related to the reading text and students work

in pairs or in groups to have discussion Through this activity, students can understandmore about the topic and the content of the text

Giving personal ideas on the theme of the text

The teacher is able to ask the students to find more about the topic on their own Thisassists students to relate all their existing knowledge about the topic to the content of thetext and share it with the whole class This method is especially useful in the cases thatstudents are really interested in expressing their own background knowledge

Using word games

This method can be used at the post-reading stage for students‟ vocabulary consolidation.The teacher should design the word games based on the new vocabulary and grammaticalstructures in the reading text Students are encouraged to take part in the word gamesvoluntarily; therefore they will become more confident and active Though it often takes

much time to design and to perform this kind of task, it is an effective way to revise vocabulary.Moreover, through using word games, the interaction among students in the classroom can bepromoted; they are brought closer to each other And a better studying environment can becreated This is a very important factor to help bring good learning results

Apart from the above methods, the teacher can use other tasks like gap-filling, choice questions, role-playing and translating

multiple-2.3 Attitudes and their impacts in teaching and learning

 Definitions of attitudes

Numerous definitions of attitudes have been made by researchers Allport (1954) defines that anattitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting adirective or dynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all objects and situations withwhich it is related Gardner (1985:10) considers attitudes as components of motivation whichrefers to the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of learning and language plusfavorable attitudes toward learning the language According to him, the motivation to learn aforeign language is determined by basic predisposition and personality characteristics such asthe learners‟ attitudes towards foreign people in general, and the target group and language inparticular, motives for learning and generalized attitudes

 The impacts of attitudes in learning and teaching

Gardner and Lamber (1972) point out “success in mastering a foreign language woulddepend not only on intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudestowards representatives of that language as well” Attitudes influence learning: positiveattitudes are likely to result in students‟ motivation, which leads to better learning; and thestudents‟ learning will suffer from negative attitudes (Edwards, 1982 cited in Gibb, 1998).Slopsky (1989:211) claims that attitudes “influence the development of motivation andhave more specific effects, so attitudes appear to carry into particular motivation”.Obviously, the more motivation a learner has, the more time s/he will spend learning anaspect of the language

Similarly, the approach that teachers use in the classroom depends on their attitudestowards it Doukas (1996) assumes that teachers‟ educational attitudes and theories,although unconsciously held, have an effect on their classroom behavior, influence whatstudents actually learn and are a potent determinant of teachers‟ teaching style He also

emphasizes that teacher‟ attitudes are seen to play crucial role in determining theimplementation of an approach If teachers hold positive attitudes to a theory of teaching,they are considered being good for both language learning and teaching They will be betterand help students‟ learning very much.

2.4 Previous Studies

There have been many studies on teaching English in general and teaching reading inparticular Follows are some of the studies focusing on reading activities and the teaching

of reading that the researcher has found and used as the models for her study

Dao Thu Huong (2007) carried out a study on “How to improve reading comprehension ofthe 10th –form students at Le Hong Phong High School” The findings from herquestionnaires for the teachers and students show that most of the teachers and students areaware of the important role of reading Their results of teaching and learning reading,however, still far from the goal of learning English set by the MOET for some reasonswhich are the lack of students‟ motivation, the students‟ poor background knowledge, theirinadequate reading strategies and teachers‟ old- fashioned method From these findings,the author suggested some techniques to improve the teaching and learning of reading at LeHong Phong High School

Tran Thi Ha (2003) conducted an investigation into the methods for developing readingskills to final year army officer trainees of English at the Military Academy of Science Shefound out some problems in teaching and learning texts in Effective Reading at the MilitaryAcademy of Science, and then she suggested methods, which are thought to be appropriatefor reading teaching skills to final year students at the Military Academy of Science.Inorder to investigate the reality of teaching and learning reading at National EconomicsUniversity, Nguyen Thi Huyen (2006) carried out a survey research among 10 teachers and

120 second- year students at this university The results from the questionnaires and theclassroom observation revealed that the teaching and learning reading English at NationalEconomic University are not effective The students are not equipped with necessary skills

to become successful readers Inefficient teaching methods utilized by teachers areconsidered to be the main cause This thesis also comes up with several suggestions to trainstudents to become efficient readers

2.5 Sub-conclusion

It is clearly acknowledged that reading teaching methods have great influence on students‟learning Suitable methods can help readers to achieve success in learning reading In thischapter, different aspects related to reading and teaching reading were presented, includingthe definitions of reading, kinds of reading, factors in teaching and learning reading andstages of a reading lesson What is more important is that some common teaching methodsutilized at three stages of a reading lesson, attitudes as well as their impacts in teaching andlearning were mentioned Finally, some previous studies used as the models for this studywere presented This literature review will serve as theoretical basic for the study whichwill be presented in the next chapters

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the research methodology including the description of the subjects, data collection instruments and procedures

3.1 Subjects of the study: There are two groups of subjects in this study:

 English teachers

YTHS has totally 8 English teachers (2 males and 6 females) including the researcher, agedfrom 25 to 52 Only two of them graduated from VNU,CFL, two others were trained in ThaiNguyen College of Education The eldest one used to be a teacher of Russian and the restattended in- service ELT training courses None of them has master degree All of them haveever taught TIENG ANH 11 textbook and four are teaching grade 11 (2009-2010)

 The grade 11 students

The second group of subject is 124 grade 11 students chosen randomly from classes: 11A1,11A2, 11A4 and 11A8 (2009-2010) at YTHS They are all at the age of 16 or 17 They havelearned English for four years at different secondary schools in Yen The and Tan Yen districts.Only a few of these students intend to take entrance exam to university with English

3.2 Reading sections in TIENG ANH 11 textbook

Like TIENG ANH 10, every unit in TIENG ANH 11 begins with a reading section, which

is aimed at developing students‟ reading skills, getting them accustomed to the topic andproviding language input so that they can speak, listen and write better in the followinglessons The length of each reading passage is 240 - 270 words The reading parts arepresented with various colored pictures to raise students‟ interests in the reading topic Areading lesson is taught in three stages: Before you read, while you read and after you read

“Before you read” helps students get involved in the topic and content of the readingpassage, presents some new vocabulary required for their comprehension “While youread” consists of two or three tasks that require students to read for main ideas or details,finally grasp the content of the text “After you read” focuses on consolidating students‟comprehension by such activities as summarizing, retelling the reading passage

3.3 Data collection instruments

In order to collect reliable and valid data, three different instruments: teacher questionnaireand student questionnaire, classroom observation and teacher post- observation interviewswere used in this study The questionnaires were designed with references to Wajryb(1992), Dao Thu Huong (2007), Nguyen Thi Huyen (2006) and Tran Thi Ha (2003)

3.3.1 Questionnaire for Teachers

Questionnaire for teachers (see appendix 1) composed of 5 closed questions was delivered

to 8 teachers of English at YTHS Question 1 was used to find out teachers‟ assessment ofthe reading section relating reading topics, length of the texts, difficulty level of languageknowledge and reading tasks, and visual aids Question 2 was designed to investigate whatreading teaching methods utilized by teachers in reading lessons It was divided into 3stages of teaching reading including 10 items teaching methods in pre- reading, 5 items inwhile- reading and 4 items in post- reading Question 3 was to get information on teachers‟opinions towards the importance of reading components Question 4 aimed to find

teachers‟ difficulties in teaching reading.

3.3.2 Questionnaire for students

In order to investigate the students‟ assessment of the reading section, their attitudestowards the teaching methods utilized by teachers and their difficulties in reading lessons,the questionnaire for students was designed (see appendix 2) It has three questions.Question 1 is to investigate the students‟ assessment of the reading section Question 2asks students to rate their preference towards teaching methods used by teachers using ascale of 1 to 3 (1 being most favorite, 2 being next favorite and 3 being least favorite) Andquestion 3 aims to identify the students‟ difficulties in reading lessons This questionnairewas administered to 124 grade 11 students at YTHS

3.3.3 Classroom observation

According to Wajryb (1992), classroom observation is a means of collecting data aboutwhat is going on in the classroom, a complex arena with many processes co-occurring andoverlapping The researcher has chosen classroom observation to collect on what readingteaching methods used by teachers and how often these teaching methods were used Theinformation from teacher questionnaire was used as the framework for classroomobservation (See appendix 4) Classroom observation would provide the researcherinformation on the students‟ attitudes towards teaching methods and if there wascongruence between what teachers‟ self- reported information and what they actually did

in the classroom Observations of reading lessons delivered by 4 different teachers weredone in classes 11A1, 11A2, 11A4 and 11 A8, two 45-minute periods for each class in 5weeks from February 22 to March 27, 2009, which makes a total of 8 reading periods Due

to the lack of audio recording and camera, the researcher had to take notes during theobservations The classroom observation sheet (see appendix 4) helps the researcher tofollow the procedures of the reading lessons.

3.3.4 Post- observation interviews

The post-observation interviews were conducted to further investigate the rationale behindthe teachers‟ delivery of reading tasks in the classroom Four interviews with the 4teachers, whose lessons had been observed, were conducted informally at different time inthe staff meeting room Each interview lasted about 25 to 30 minutes and was conducted inVietnamese so that the teachers could express their ideas more freely

3.4 Procedures

As mentioned in 3.3., three different data collection instruments used in this study werequestionnaires for teachers and students, classroom observation and teacher post-observation interviews First, two survey questionnaires were administered to 8 teachers ofEnglish and 124 grade 11 students on the first week of the second term (details of thesequestionnaires were given in 3.3.1 and 3.3.2) All the subject students were asked to gettogether in the school‟s meeting room to complete the questionnaires The researcher askedthe teachers who taught each class to collect the questionnaires the following day Thequestionnaire for students was translated into Vietnamese to ensure the students‟ thoroughunderstanding of the questions and to save time After the data from teacher questionnairehad been collected and analyzed, the researcher started conducting classroom observations

on the second week of the second term I first informed the 4 teachers of my researchpurpose and obtained their permission to observe their lessons Then I worked out anobservational schedule with each teacher; then finally- arrangements were confirmed Afterthe 8 reading periods had been observed, the 4 teachers were invited to interviews

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter consists of two main parts: the first part is data analysis; the second one

discusses the outcomes of the data analysis

4.1 Data analysis

4.1.1 Findings from Questionnaire for teachers

 Teachers’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook

Data from the teachers‟ questionnaire shows that teachers highly appreciate the readingtopics and visual aids provided in the new textbook in term of diversity and closeness toreal situation (see table 1)

options

Reading topics are various

Reading topics are closed to real situation

The length of reading texts is too long

The language knowledge (vocabulary and structures) in the reading

texts is too difficult for the majority of students in mountainous areas

The reading tasks designed are too difficult for grade 11 students and

take too much time

Various visual aids (pictures, charts…) are provided in reading sections

to raise students‟ interests in the topic

Table 1: Teachers’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11

textbook (N=8)

However, all the English teachers at YTHS have negative attitudes towards reading tasksand the difficulty level of language knowledge in the reading texts They agreed that thereading tasks are too difficult for their students and takes too much time to complete.Reading passages, in their opinion, are too long with a lot of new words and grammaticalstructures This is understandable because half of them used to teach the old Englishtextbook with very short and simple reading passages

28

No Teaching methods used at pre-reading stage

Table 2: Methods used at pre- reading stage (N= 8)

Table 2 summarizes the information about methods used by teachers in the pre- reading

stage These methods are divided into two groups namely the traditional method and the

„new‟ one Traditional methods are giving a brief introduction, presenting and

explaining new words and new grammatical structures in the reading texts The other

category- „new‟ method is composed of predicting about the texts such as making

students predict the content of the text, asking them to survey the reading text‟s title and

heading for the topics, asking lead-in questions, making students brainstorm related

words, structures and ideas and using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text As can

be seen in the table, seven out of eight teachers answered that they most frequently used

the traditional methods at the first stage, only four out of eight teachers used the „new‟

ones Using visual aids were employed by three teachers because of the fact that this

method takes time to prepare Obviously, the teachers at YTHS seem to focus more on

providing their students with as many new words and structures as possible so that their

students can understand the reading text better while spend less time preparing students

to activate their background knowledge about the topic during the first stage of a reading

lesson

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29

 While- reading stage

234

5

Table 3: Methods used at while- reading stage (N= 8)

Table 3 presents the information about methods reported by teachers at while- reading stage These

methods are divided into two groups like at pre- reading stage namely the grammar-translation methods

and „new‟ one Teacher reading aloud, asking students to read aloud the reading text, asking students to

read the reading text intensively and answer the questions belong to the grammar- translation method.

Asking students to read the questions first and scan the reading text to find the answer is the „new‟ one.

As shown in table 3, the teachers seem to prefer the grammar-translation methods in their teaching For

example, seven out of eight teachers had the habit of asking students to read the reading text intensively

and answer the questions Half of them still asked their students to read aloud the reading text and

translate it into Vietnamese This indicates that the teachers made their students concentrate on

pronunciation and meaning of individual words, but not encourage them much to speed up their reading

comprehension by scanning Only three out of eight teachers asked students to read the questions first

and scan the reading text to find the answer.



Post- reading stage

Table 4: Methods used at post- reading stage (N= 8)

Table 4 presents the information about methods that teachers used in the post- reading

stage The traditional methods are asking students to summarize the text and asking

students to translate it into Vietnamese The „new‟ methods are asking students to have

discussion and asking students to find out more about the topic on their own As can be

seen in table 4, six out of eight teachers reported that they did nothing at the post- reading

stage because of time constraints Obviously, 45 minutes were spent on pre- and

while-reading activities As shown in table 1, the while-reading tasks are too difficult for students and

take too much time to complete The result from table 4 shows that if the teachers had

enough time to deal with the post-reading activities, six out of eight teachers asked students

summarize the text As for them, it was a good way to help the student‟s gain better

understanding and memorizing the text And 4 out of them asked students to translate it into

Vietnamese It is not a good way to teach reading Only two out of eight teachers controlled

the class by asking students to find out more about the topic on their own and three out of

them asked students to discuss It cannot be denied that the teachers used traditional methods

much more often than the „new‟ ones.

 Teachers’ perceptions towards the importance of reading components

Items

New structuresDetailed content of the textVocabulary

Main ideas and topics

As can be seen in table 5, the majority of the teachers (6 out of 8 teachers) realized

that main ideas and topics of the reading passage are very important in reading

lessons, but they paid less attention to the detailed content of the text while

teaching reading (Only 2 out of eight teachers admitted that detailed content of the

text was very important) Five out of eight teachers reported that new structures

and vocabulary are important to students‟ understanding of the text Clearly,

teachers‟ perception of the importance of reading text components partly affects

their teaching methods They focused much on presenting and explaining new

words and grammatical structures at pre-reading stage

 Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading

1 Students‟ lack of motivation

2 Students‟ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge

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teachers at YTHS agreed that the students‟ limited vocabulary and grammatical

structures and lack of appropriate reading strategies caused difficulty Apart from

vocabulary and grammatical structures, appropriate reading strategies play a very

important role in reading since they help students finish their reading tasks in time

without reading all the words written in the text Seven out of eight teachers responded

that their students‟ background knowledge and world knowledge were poor It cannot be

denied that students‟ background knowledge and world knowledge greatly affect their

reading comprehension Readers who possesses rich prior knowledge about the topic of a

reading often understand the reading better than their classmates with low prior

knowledge Ethnic group students in remote and mountainous areas like those in Yen The

district have little chance to have access to mass media, therefore their background

knowledge of many fields is quite limited Only three out of eight teachers agreed that

students‟ lack of motivation cause difficulties for their reading teaching Half of the

subject teachers stated that they could not teach reading effectively because time is

limited They often had no time for post- reading activities Clearly, the biggest problems

in teaching reading lessons mainly come from the students‟ poor English proficiency.

These students might not pay enough attention to learning English at secondary schools.

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4.1.2 Findings from Questionnaire for students

 Students’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook.

a Suitable to grade

11th students‟ level

3The language knowledge (vocabulary and structures) in the

4The reading tasks designed are …

a Too difficult for grade 11th students

b Various and suitable to most of the grade 11

c Take too much time

5Various visual aids (pictures, charts, and tables) are provided in

reading sections to raise students’ interests in the topic Do you agree?

Table 7: Students’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook

1 Reading topics are ….

(N=124)

a.Various

b.Close to real situation

c.Boring

d.Unfamiliar with students

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Numbering

2The length of reading texts is…

a.Suitable to grade 11th students‟ level

b.Too long

c.Too short

3 The language knowledge (vocabulary and

structures) in the reading texts is…

a.Suitable to grade 11th students‟ level

b.Too difficult for majority of students in mountainous areas

c.Easy

4The reading tasks designed are …

a.Too difficult for grade 11th students

b.Various and suitable to most of the grade 11th students

c.Take too much time

5Various visual aids (pictures, charts, and tables) are provided in

reading sections to raise students’ interests in the topic Do you

When asked to give comments on the reading section in the new textbook, 85% of the

respondents answered that various visual aids (pictures, charts, and tables)

provided in reading sections raised their‟ interests in the reading topic They also had

positive attitudes towards the reading topics (34% of respondents considered reading

topics various and 27% said they were close to real situations) However, the reading

texts were seen too long by

70% of the respondents; 74% reported that the language knowledge (vocabulary

and structures) in the reading texts was too difficult for the majority of students

in mountainous areas It is clear that due to the lack of vocabulary and new

structures, the students find it

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reading text full of

reason why many teachers cannot complete the post-reading activities as being

planned The above results indicate that the teachers of English at YTHS need to

be very flexible when employing the new textbook They can remove some too

difficult tasks and focus on the suitable ones

Students’ attitudes towards the teaching methods utilized by teachers

The data collected from the student questionnaire shows students‟ attitudes

towards teaching used by teachers in the three teaching stages of the reading

words in the reading text

con tent of the text

grammatical structures in thereading text

reading text‟s title and headingfor the topic

elicit discussion about thereading topic of the text

topic of the text

the topic of the text

words, structures or ideas

10

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Table 8: Students’ preference of methods used by teachers at pre-reading stage

(N=124)

As shown in table 8, students have positive attitudes towards „new‟ methods e.g

68% of them chose „using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text‟ as the

most favorite; 54 % like method „asking students to survey the reading text‟s

title and heading for the topic‟ and 51 % agreed that asking lead-in questions to

elicit discussion about the reading topic of the text is their favorite These

methods help them raise interest in the reading topic and activate their

background knowledge about it during the pre-reading stage Besides that, about

40 % of the students thought the traditional methods such as presenting and

explaining new words and new grammatical structures in the reading text was the

most favorite This was clearly because of their limited vocabulary and

structures A large majority (73 %) did not like the teachers to make them ask

questions about the text This may be too difficult for them

 Students’ attitudes towards while - reading methods utilized by teachers

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3 Asking students to translate the

reading text into Vietnamese

Table 9 shows that 40% of the students agreed that item 1 (teachers reading aloud) at

while reading stage is the most favorite, for students this method helps them

benefit from hearing good reading modeled by teachers Only 12 students (9%) liked

their teachers to ask them

to read aloud the reading text as most of them are not often confident enough to

do this They are afraid of wrong pronunciation A few students (13%) chose item

3 (asking students to translate the reading text into Vietnamese) as the most

favorite Surprisingly, 66% of the students thought that item 4 (asking students to

read the reading text intensively

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6 pt

36

and answer the questions) were the most favorite On the contrary, only 19% of

the students considered the „new‟ method the most favorite To sum up, the

students at YTHS seem accustomed to the traditional methods used by teachers at

while- reading stage, few students like activities that help them to be more active

in the reading lesson

 Students’ attitudes towards post- reading methods utilized by teachers

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Table 10: Students’ preference of methods used by the teachers at post -reading stage

As indicated in table 10 above, most students do not like the traditional methods that

make them passive in the learning process Only a small percentage of the

students chose the traditional methods such as asking students to summarize the text

and to translate it into Vietnamese as the most favorite methods (11% and 10%

respectively), while asking students to have discussion was considered the most favorite

method by 62% And 35% of

the students liked to find out more about the topic on their own after finishing all

the tasks at while reading stage

 Students’ difficulties in learning reading (N= 124)

Options

Students‟ lack of motivation

Students‟ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge

Time limit

Students‟ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures

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Students‟ lack of appropriate reading strategies

Table 11: Problems students face with in learning readingThe table presents problems

students face with when dealing with reading lessons Actually, all the elements listed inthe table are big problems to students Especially- 116 students in the survey (94%) thoughtthat their vocabulary and grammatical structures are much limited Obviously, whenstudents have to deal with a lot of new or difficult vocabulary and structures in the readingtexts, their motivation for reading will be decreased 80% of the students admitted that theylacked background knowledge and world knowledge This greatly affects theirunderstanding of the reading text The next problem reported by 96 students (77%) is thelack of appropriate reading strategies Students cannot do reading tasks easily if they do nothave appropriate reading strategies Therefore, it is very important for teachers to equiptheir students with essential reading strategies needed for each kind of reading tasks Onlyabout 50% of the students blamed the lack of motivation and time limit

4.1.3 Findings from classroom observation and post-observation interviews

As mentioned in 3.3.3 and 3.3.4 above, classroom observation was used by the researcher

as a measure to investigate what reading teaching methods used by teachers, how oftenthese reading methods were used and students‟ attitudes towards these teaching methods.The information from teacher questionnaire was used as the framework for classroomobservation Therefore, classroom observation also focused on the methods that teachersutilized at pre-reading, while-reading and post- reading stages as compared with those inthe questionnaire The post-observation interviews were carried out to understand therationale behind the teachers‟ delivery of reading tasks in the classroom Although therewere only 8 reading lessons observed with 4 different teachers, the author believes that it is

text They spent most of the time at pre-reading stage explaining the new words anddifficult grammatical structures which students had already learnt at lower secondaryschool They also left too much time for students to take note These three teachers saidthat they did so at pre- reading stage because their students had too poor vocabulary Toomany words and structures in the reading text were new to them Consequently, if they didnot explain them carefully, their students could not understand anything when they readthe text However, what T4 did with her students in the class was quite different fromwhat the other three teachers did Before introducing some important new words andstructures in the text, she used the visual aids (pictures) available in the reading section toget students to predict the topic and the content of the reading passage or made them havediscussion about the topic The students seemed to enjoy and actively take part in theseactivities T4 explained that she never tried to pre-teach all the new words andgrammatical structures in the text as this took too much time Instead, she helped students

to activate their background knowledge so that they could understand the reading better

While- reading stage

The observation reveals that the three teachers: T1, T2 and T3 employed the traditionalmethods (grammar translation) to teach the while- reading stage They asked their students

to read the reading text intensively and answer the questions While checking the answers,T1 and T2 sometimes read aloud the paragraphs The classes seemed to be well- controlledsince the teachers acted most of the time as instructors not facilitators These teachers saidthat their students were used to the methods so it was difficult for them to change.Meanwhile, like at the pre-reading stage, what T4 did was different She asked students toread the questions first and scan the reading text to find the answers She made sure that allher students understand the questions by translating the difficult questions into Vietnamese

It is obvious that this teacher used „new‟ methods to deal with reading tasks This methodhelps students save time for reading and focus on the main ideas and details of the readingtext

 Post- reading stage

It is surprising that the results collected from classroom observation were the same as thosefrom the teacher questionnaire, only two out of four teachers observed had enough time forpost-reading activities At this stage, T4 reviewed the whole content of the reading text andthen asked students to have discussion She revealed that she often asked her students to

translate the text at home and checking it again in the next lesson But T3 used the traditionalmethods, which were asking students to summarize the text and translate it into Vietnamese atthis stage No one asked students to find out more about the topic on their own.

In short, data collected by means of the classroom observations and post-observationinterviews further clarify the results obtained from the two questionnaires Apparently,there is a very small gap between teacher‟s self-reported practices and their real practices.Most of the teachers used the traditional methods in teaching reading They paid too muchattention to vocabulary and grammatical structures, but not the main ideas or the details ofthe reading passage Students were not trained about some reading skills like scanning,guessing and skimming so they do not know how to deal well with the reading tasks

Result analysis given in 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 indicates that both teachers of English and students

at YTHS have the same opinions about the reading section in the new textbook Most ofthem find that the reading passages in the book are too long and the difficulty level of thelanguage knowledge in the text is not suitable for the majority of students in mountainousareas As a result, they have to spend too much time on completing the reading taskswhereas there are only 45 minutes in a period It is clear that reading lessons seem to beoverloading for both teachers and students However, all of them have very positiveattitudes towards the reading topics and visual aids available in the reading section in terms

of their variety and closeness to real situations These two outstanding features of the newtextbook help raise students‟ interest in learning reading and aid teachers to employ the

„new‟ methods in teaching reading lessons

 Research question 2: What reading teaching methods are often used by teachers and students’ attitudes towards these methods?

To investigate what methods utilized by teachers and students‟ attitudes towards thesemethods is the most important aim of this study Generally, every reading lesson is carriedout in three stages: pre- reading, while- reading and post- reading And the teachingmethods are divided into two groups namely the traditional methods and the „new‟ ones

be concluded that methods utilized by teachers at the pre-reading stage do not matchstudents‟ preference.

While-reading stage

William (1984:88) assumes that while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson.The teacher, at this stage, needs to help students comprehend the text thoroughly whilestudents have to apply the best reading skills like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc tounderstand the text as well as the writer‟s messages conveyed in the reading text In fact,the results obtained from teacher questionnaire and classroom observation show that most

of the teachers in the study employed grammar- translation method in teaching reading stage For instance, four out of eight teachers asked students to read aloud thereading text and asked them to translate the text into Vietnamese; asking students to readthe reading text intensively and answer the questions was used by seven out of eightteachers This traditional method makes extensive use of the students‟ knowledge of themother tongue It is also the easiest and quickest way to explain words, phrases andsentences in English (Mowla 2004:45) However, students can only learn the theory oflanguage but they cannot use it as a tool of communication to satisfy their every day need

while-In spite of this disadvantage, grammar- translation method is still very preferred by manyteachers and students As revealed by the results collected from student questionnaire,students seem accustomed to the traditional way of teaching that teachers use, thereforeonly 20 % students prefer „new‟ method- asking students to read the questions first andscan the reading text to find the answer This method helps students speed up their readingprocess but only three teachers applied it in their teaching The information gathered in thisstudy is of great help to teachers in changing the ways they teach at while-reading stage tocome up to their students‟ expectations.

Post- reading stage

The post-reading stage is the time for students‟ production This stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners‟ own knowledge, interests or views (William, 1984) Regretfully, the study results show that teachers of English at YTHS do not often have enough time for this stage (six out of eight teachers reported that they often did not have time for the post-reading stage) At this stage, the traditional methods are employed by the majority of the teachers e.g asking students to summarize the text and asking students to translate the text into Vietnamese This does not meet students‟ expectations as 58% of the students found it the least favorite method One of the new methods- asking students to have discussion and asking students to find out more about the topic on their own was utilized by only two teachers whereas this is considered the most favorite by 62% and 35 % of the students respectively The students said that they can develop their communicative abilities by discussing in pairs or small groups and that they can have thorough comprehension of the text by finding out more about the topic on their own.

 Research question 3: What difficulties do teachers and students meet when dealing with

a reading lesson?

The teachers of English at YTHS have encountered a number of difficulties in teaching reading Data analysis shows that these problems mainly rooted in the students‟ low English proficiency Besides, students' familiarity with passive learning style, the large size of the classes and the poorly equipped classrooms also cause difficulties to teachers Most of the students confront five major obstacles in learning reading lessons of which their lack of vocabulary and grammatical structures is the biggest; next is their lack of background knowledge and world knowledge; then lack of appropriate reading strategies; their lack of motivation and time limitation are two other problems that affect their reading ability Moreover, students still apply word-by-word reading It is the difficulties encountered by students that cause problems for teachers They can hardly complete