the effects of task based learning on non english major students’ reading comprehension at niie nguyen tat thanh university

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY THE EFFECTS OF TASK-BASED LEARNING ON NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION AT NIIE NGUYEN TAT THANH UNI

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

THE EFFECTS OF TASK-BASED LEARNING ON NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION AT NIIE NGUYEN

TAT THANH UNIVERSITY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by HUYNH HUU NGHIEM Supervisor: Assoc Prof PHAM VU PHI HO

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

HUYNH HUU NGHIEM

THE EFFECTS OF TASK-BASED LEARNING ON NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION AT NIIE NGUYEN

TAT THANH UNIVERSITY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60 14 01 11

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

Supervisor: Assoc Prof PHAM VU PHI HO

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “The Effects of Task-Based Learning on

Non-English Major Students’ Reading Comprehension at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh

University” represents my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extract in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the main text of the thesis

This thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of any degree or diploma

in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

Huynh Huu Nghiem

I am also thankful for my students at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh University for their contributions as willing participants

Lastly, my special thanks go to my family, friends, and colleagues who always love and support me unconditionally during the time I conducted the study

ABSTRACT

Teaching reading is an indispensable part of English teaching However, choosing

appropriate teaching method is not simple For this reason, this research “The Effects of

Task-Based Learning on Non-English Major Students’ Reading Comprehension at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh University” was carried out with the aims to investigate if Task

Based Learning (TBL) was better than Grammar Translation Method (GTM) which had been used widely in improving reading comprehension Moreover, the researcher wanted

to investigate if there was significant difference in task focus achievements between TBL and GTM Finally, this study was designed to research how the students felt when implementing TBL in reading classroom practice The study was conducted within 12 weeks over 29 students from experimental group taught by TBL and 30 students from control group taught by GTM The data collection instruments were pre-test, post-test and interview

The findings of this study indicated that generally TBL is more effective than GTM

in improving students’ reading comprehension Moreover, GTM is beneficial for teaching reading tasks related to identifying appropriate vocabulary and structural words while TBL

is suitable for teaching reading tasks related to authentic readings, reading for gist or real conversations Finally, this study also pointed that the students did express the positive attitudes towards TBL

Based on the findings, this study concluded with some recommendations for both teachers and students and limitations for future research in terms of TBL

Key words: GTM = Grammar Translation Method, TBL= Task Based Learning

2.1.4.5 Models of reading process 18

2.2.5 The roles of teachers and students in task-based learning 27

4.1 Reading comprehension ability of experimental and control 51 groups in the pre-test

comprehension at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh University GTM or TBL?”

4.2.1 A comparison of students’ reading performance in pre-test and 53

post-test

4.2.2 A comparison of students’ reading performance in post-test in both groups 54

4.3 Research question 2: “Is there any significant difference in task focus 56 achievements between TBL and GTM?”

4.4 Research question 3: “What attitudes do the students express 59

towards TBL?”

4.5.1 Research question 1: “Is there any significant difference in achievement 66 between non-English major students taught reading comprehension by

TBL and those taught reading comprehensions by GTM?”

4.5.2 Research question 2: “Is there any significant difference in task focus 68 achievements between TBL and GTM?”

4.5.3 Research question 3: “What attitudes do the students express 69

REFERENCES 75

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.2 Principles of Grammar Translation Method 30

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.4 The connections between research questions and instruments 42

Table 4.1 The comparison of experimental and control groups in the pre-test 51 Table 4.2 A comparison of students’ reading comprehension in 53

pre-test and post-test of the control group

Table 4.3 A comparison of students’ reading comprehension in 54

pre-test and post-test of the experimental group

Table 4.4 Students’ reading performance in post-test in both groups 55

Table 4.5 Differences in task focus achievements between TBL and GTM 56

Table 4.8 Students’ improvement in reading comprehension 62

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Overview

The purposes of this study are to investigate the effects of TBL on English major student’s reading comprehension at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh University This chapter firstly mentions the background of the study Then it describes the problems the researcher has faced during his teaching reading comprehension After that, the aims of te study, reseach questions and significance

non-of the study are also mentioned

1.1 Background of the study

Language is considered as a mean of communication Communication occurs between two or more speakers but also readers and texts It is said that reading in a second language is an easy process and it is taught once and that is enough for all years of schooling What is more, reading is commonly considered to be straightforward process: reading words, knowing how to pronounce words and then understand the meaning of them like the way people do in daily spoken conversations (Ruddell & Unrau, 1994) Reading skill, however, is not that simple process of comprehensing every single word in texts It is actually a difficult procedure where readers have to make sense out of not only words, phrases, sentences in the pare but also thoughts, awareness and background information In addtition, reading is a process of identifying, interpreting and then perceptualizing the reading materials Moreover, reading creates a connetion between authors and readers (Sheng, 2000) Regarding to educational domain, especially English language learning, reading is one of leading sources of education Without fundamental foundation in English reading, EFL students are not be able to access the diversity of curriculum Additionally, being able to reading in English can help EFL students develope in language learning owning to reading supports in obtaning knowledge, gives plenty

of input to EFL students It also helps students enhance wide source of vocabulary and productively has influences on other English skills such as writing skill (Tang, 2000) Agreeing with Tang, Hung and Ngan (2015) also stated that reading is main skill improving students’ other 3 skills as well as fluency Grabe and Stoller (2009) indicated that reading skill does not ensure that everyone can reach to success of reading comprehension, but with strengthening reading skill, readers are capable of creating better progress and accomplishing goals in most of academic fields

Generally speaking, reading comprehension is viewed as popular issue in English classroom nowadays Stauffer (1969) showed the essentiality to comprehend reading materials by claiming reading is equal with comprehending Against with this Stauffer’s opinion, being able to reach English reading comprehension is something that is required by EFL students In reality, however, they also have to find solutions to solve reading problems

According to Davoudi and Yousefi (2015) mentioned a list of reading problems like lacking of vocabulary and background information, grammatical knowledge, poor strategies Also, English reading materials are not similar to first language ones; hence, when reading English texts, EFL students may detect some unfamiliar points from their mother tongue The differences may be lexical items (Samad, Jannah, & Fitriani, 2017) Moreover, there are some factors that are not related to linguistic problems, which turns English reading comprehension into more difficult thing Differences between cultures are the main causes for that During the period of reading English texts, EFL students often face cultural troubles while they

do not in their mother tongue materials This problem occurs due to languages’ identities

Knowing the alarming situation above, English teachers are constantly trying

to figure out the solutions helping EFL students overcome English reading problems

so as so improve English proficiency Atma (2010) suggested that using suitable methods obviously enhance EFL students’ level of English Moreover, teaching

acquired effectively when students work in groups In doing so, Task-based Learning(TBL) has been considered to be an effective teaching method of English teachers (Hong-qin, 2007) TBL is supposed to be the suitable to improve students’ reading ability This method can help teachers to encourage their students to be more active in participating and creating; thus, they can have more motivations Studying with TBL, students will comprehend, manipulate, produce or even interact with English while they focus mostly on meaning rather than forms Moreover, TBL provides students with more opportunities that they can externalize thoughts and ideas Teachers using TBL are also more responsive Additionally, TBL is more student-centered The researcher of this study chose TBL to teach reading because it

is able to develop reading skill of his students TBL can be taught and applied to students The researcher supposed that all reading comprehension indicators can be improved by using TBL in reading class The assumption is as follow: TBL mentions

a method which is based on the usage of tasks like the main unit of instruction and planning in language teaching The tasks follow a sequence: pre-task, task cycle and language focus

1.2 Statements of problem

Teaching reading is an indispensable part of English teaching If it works, EFL student will achieve the benefits of communication through being able to access any reading materials, especially in English so that they can reach their goals such as studying or working as well as gaining knowledge However, it is not simple to obtain those without choosing an appropriate teaching method Reading teaching needs great knowledge and skill achieved over many years by studying and practicing Louisa (1999) claims that although English teachers can join many courses of teaching reading, it is just the beginning Without having a suitable method, the core of the lesson cannot be attained It is necessary to be competent at reading teaching methods and to practice them

In Vietnam, The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET, 2012) claims that the most vital target in teaching and learning English is improving the communicative competence When student finish High School English curriculum, they should have certain English knowledge about linguistic Regarding

to this, teaching reading is required to provide EFL students with necessary reading skills (MOET, 2012) Unfortunately, this purpose has not been reached in Vietnam

A majority of EFL students have lacked of motivations in learning reading (Thao & Tham, 2017) In addition, the use of Grammar Translation Method (GTM) focusing mainly on translations of lexical items and written materials results in lacking of motivations in reading The researcher has the same experience with that When researcher was in University, his reading teacher mostly applied GTM in classrooms She asked the researcher to answer the questions which were not in the textbooks and then translate the answers into Vietnamese What it more, GTM has been dominant in researcher’s workplace Most of the teachers have been using GTM in their reading classes Researcher interviewed some of his colleagues why they do that Quang (personal communication, August 13, 2017) stated that he used GTM because he did not have enough time for his teaching, particularly in reading text, so

he usually translates the meaning of the vocabulary first then his students started to read the text Additionally, Thi (personal communication, August 18, 2017) also shares her teaching experiences which is that she used GTM because she wants to save time by using mother tongue in classrooms because she has to save time for her students to practice some reading tests taken from KET which is the main source of final tests Furthermore, Hoa (personal communication, August 21, 2017) says that her students sometimes find difficult with the reading section, so she usually lists the new words and helps her students translate the reading texts so as so get them understandable Thus, seeking an alternative method is necessary for the researcher’s situation to improve his students’ reading comprehension

TBL potentially motivates EFL students because it brings a lot of chances to

framework, EFL students can reduce stress on working on English, so they have more motivations Furthermore, Trinh (2005) indicated that EFL students can improve communicative competence with TBL Not but at least, the TBL’s principles totally match communicative language teaching, enhance EFL students to use English communicatively and control their languages (Van den Branden, 2016)

As mentioned above, many researchers have explored the relationship between TBL and EFL students’ reading comprehension Those studies have proved that TBL is a suitable method to teach English reading comprehension However, the dominant method of teaching reading comprehension at NIIE was GTM For this reason, the researcher examined the influences that TBL and GTM has on Non English Major students’ reading ability and their influences on different task focuses and the students’ opinions towards TBL at Nguyen Tat Thanh Institute of International Education (NIIE)

1.3 Aims of the study

The most vital aim of this research was to find out if TBL was better than Grammar Translation Method (GTM) which had been used widely in improving reading comprehension Moreover, the researcher wanted to investigate the effectiveness of TBL and GTM on certain reading tasks Finally, this study was designed to research how the students felt when implementing TBL in reading classroom practice

1.4 Research questions

So as to obtain the aims above, there are 3 research questions as below: R-Q 1: Which method is more effective to teach reading comprehension at NIIE Nguyen Tat Thanh University, GTM or TBL?

R-Q 2: Is there any significant difference in task focus achievements between TBL and GTM?

R-Q 3: What attitudes do the students express towards TBL?

1.5 Significance of the study

After carrying on this study, there are lots of benefits First of all, EFL students are the ones obtaining advantages from this research They can improve their own reading skills and they also get familiar with the TBL which has been used to design most of the textbooks recently (Nga, personal communication, July, 2017) Furthermore, EFL students will gain plenty of new vocabulary and they are motivated with TBL Secondly, English teachers also benefit from this study They can apply TBL in their own classes as alternative method when teaching reading Beside that, this encourages teachers to seek new way for teaching reading Not but

at least, it brings teachers great teaching activities which they can use to motivate their students Finally, other researcher can refer to this research to improving EFL students’ reading skill

1.6 An overview of the study

This thesis includes 6 chapters:

Chapter 1 (Introduction) indicates the background of the study It comprises

of background of the study, state of problem, aims of the study, research questions, significance of the study and overview of the study

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) shows the background of the theory for this

study Specifically, the reading definition and reading comprehension and the reading teaching method are described in the first part Next, this study covers the TBL In this part, this study defines what TBL is, followed by its framework,

reading classes Following that, teaching procedures are described The next part goes through empirical studies giving reviews for this study Finally, the rationale and hypothesis are presented

Chapter 3 (Methodology) handles with the research methodology It

describes the research design and some related issues Particularly, the subjects and situation, instruments are illustrated and the way they are designed Furthermore, the reliability and validity are shown Finally, it mentions the data collection

Chapter 4 (Findings and discussions) gives a presentation of the results

from the pre-test and post-test and interviews and presents the discussions on the results achieved from this study

Chapter 5 (Conclusion and recommendations) summarizes the main

findings and points out some ideas for further research

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Overview

Improving English teaching has been the priority of educators and EFL teachers over the past few years They have been trying to create more interactions among students and teachers so that they can reach learner-centered classrooms where teachers and learners talk about ideas, shares experiences as well as knowledge In modern teaching field, EFL teachers are not the people in charge of everything in learning process and EFL students have to be more active in classrooms and their teachers should be considered to be facilitators

In this chapter, the research is proving that TBL is a vital method that is highly recommended in reading classrooms This part depicts clearly TBL in details The it shows and synthesizes related studies using TBL in teaching English reading

2.1 Reading

2.1.1 Definition of reading

Throughout the history of teaching languages, espcially in teaching reading, there are a lot of researchers have studied much about reading and they have pointed out their own reading definition

According to Urquhart & Weir (1998), reading is a suitable meaning responsed towards written texts This means reading is the connection between symbols and language During the time reading process occurs, readers have to try

to achieve the meaning that writers send to the texts Following this, Wallace (2005) also give his own definition about reading He states that reading is interpreting meanings from a written materials as a part of communication Hence, it can been seen that there is some communicative meaning that readers try to understand Additionally, Day & Bamfold (1998)claimes that reading is the capacity of a person who can recognize visual symbols, link them with experiences to reach

simple definition which is that people see the texts and figrure out the meaning of written symple Agreeing with that definition, a linguitics, Nunan (1998) defines reading is a procedure of interpreting written icons, dividing them into small parts (letters) moving to bigger ones (words, sentences, etc )

In conclusion, it can been infered that reading is a complicated procedures and its purpose is to reach comprehension, meaning through written language

2.1.2 Reading comprehension

Compared with other sorts of comprehension, reading comprehension is not something very dissimilar It is simply considered as the skill to apprehend what the authors give to the materials (Smith, 1988) Reading comprehension includes 4 components: (1) obtaning general meaning of things are communicated, (2) apprehending and memorizing details supporting ideas, (3) memorizing ideas, (4) following directions It can be seen that these 4 factors depict readers have to both comprehend and memorize all the ideas and try to figure out details supporting ideas

Moreover, some other points that need considering to reading comprehension They are illustrated as below:

2.1.2.1 Reading strategies:

In reading comprehension field, there a lot of strategies and they are mentioned in details below

1 Motivating and applying background knowledge

Using this strategy, students activate the background information and use it to support them to understand what they read This information includes personal experiences with the world for how the readings work and how they are formed (Mcneil, 1992)

Schemata is totally vital in reading comprehension process This theory orginates from they way people form and motivate background knowledge This theory states that when people get to know about the world, they set up their own

series of information structures These structures or schemas grows when people gain new knowledge through experiences or reading For example, a little boy’s schema for cow can involve his understanding of black and white farm animal When he gain more experiences with a lot kinds of cow in different places, the schema of cow will develop and be improved It can be related to cows with brown color (Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, & Goetz, 1977)

Cognitive scientists claim that students who succeed in reading permanetly link thier own knowledge to new one they find in the texts Effective students activate their schema when reading Schemas influence how students understand and react

to the texts (Pichert & Anderson, 1976) They are also considerably important to reading comprehension Thus, when students have knowledge about the organization

of the text, they are likely able to understand that text (Armbruster, Anderson, & Ostertag, 1987)

2 Making and answering questions

In this strategy, students have to ask themselves frank questions in the text This strategy helps students to link information, figure out main ideas and summarize information Using suitable questions allows students to focus on vital details from the text (Wood, Woloshyn, & Willoughby, 1995) Moreover, making relevant questions assists students to focus on challenges with reading comprehension and to take essential actions to handle those difficulties (Pressley, 1995)

3 Creating inferences

Students draw conclusion from what they read in the text In this strategy, authors do not always give all information about topics, places, characters They usually add information which students can use to creating inferences integrating information from the text with background information With this process, students can develop their skills to infer meaning When students are able to make inferences,

they will have more opportunities to be successful in reading comprehension (Hansen & Pearson, 1983)

4 Prediction

In this strategy, students are capable of gaining meaning from reading texts through creating guesses Successful students use predictions to link their background information to new ideas from reading materials to achieve meaning Before reading, students can use their knowledge to guess what the reading will be about The title of the reading materials can active memories with same contents, allowing them to predict the content of the new texts While reading, students can make guesses about what will happen next Students try to determine these guesses constantly and change any of them if they are not proved in the text(Mukhroji, 2011)

5 Summarizing

Students combine details in the reading to expand in their words what the reading means Being able to summarizing is a vital strategy allowing students to remember the reading quickly Using this strategy, students are aware of the structure

of the text, important details in the text, and how things are linked Successful summary of explanatory reading materials consist of steps in scientific process, developments of art movements, or events resulting in historically vital happenings Also, successful summary of narrations comprises of linking details in a story or recognizing the factors stimulating characters’ actions (Pearson & Johnson, 2000)

texts easily by imagining places, characters, etc Visualizing can also be used for expositive readings Students visualize procedures in a process helping them to memorize several abstract details (Gambrell & Bales, 1986)

2.1.2.2 Reading factors

It is true to claim that there are some problems that EFL students have to face when handling with reading comprehension These problems occur during the reading procedures There are 7 factors having impacts on reading comprehension (Abbas & Narjes, 2016) (1) The first factor is relevant to emotions EFL students usually get worried when they do not undersatnd reading materials They may feel disappointed Furthuremore, it is indicated that family environment not hamonizing thier mental might affect their ability of concentrating (2) The second factor is about the intelligence According to Wolf (1987), reading comprehension is regarded as process of information It is also considered ascognitive process Initially, the input

is recognized in visual form and it is then analyzed with cognition Thus, each comprehension level needs its intelligence level (3) The third factor is physical Some health problem can cause bad effects on reading comprehension as well as reading for gist (Thomas, 1962) (4) The fourth factor is about background experience Student who have limitations of vocabulary find it difficult to understand

in general According to Baker and Brown (1985), being able to have a logical thinking of the reading material is firmly orginated from backgorund information of the words If students do not have suitable prior knowldge, it might be hard for them

to follow the currences of the texts It is clear that background experience plays vital role in efficient comprehension

2.1.3 Levels of reading

It is thought that reading is only focused on pronouncing words and comprehension is not significantly vital But according to Davis & Lass (1996), it is

main core of reading texts, they also emphasizes that English teachers should pay more attention to the fundamental features of comprehension skills They states that reading comprehension consistes of 4 levels (1) The first level is literal reading At this level, EFL students are required to understand the meaning that is directly stated and this level is also a prerequisite for higher comprehension (2) The second level

is interpretive reading At this level, making inferences is concentrated and ideas are implied, which means that EFL students have to be capable of understanding the author’s implications (3) The third level is critical reading At this level, being able

to evaluate texts, comparing with the ideas in them They are considered as standards and to point out their accuracy and approriateness This level is based on 2 levels mentioned above (4) The fourth level is creative reading At this level, EFL students have to go beyond the reading texts shown They have to think when they read with their imagination

When a teacher teaches reading, he has to apply 4 levels into his teaching Initially, teachers use techniques like discussion or questions to figure out the literal meaning from the author; in other word, this is called pre-reading, teachers ask students to answer some questions relevant to the topic before conducting the mean reading It is more efficient to motivate students to read and help them to understand literal meaning by facilitating it After that, when students finish the reading sections, both students and teacher should discuss together (Richards, J C., and Schmidt, R., 2002)

From what is mentioned above, it is clear that reading is not a simple process

to achieve meaning or ideas from reading material Reading comprehension means that when an EFL student reads, she has to be able to understand what she reads In reading comprehension, interaction should occur between readers and the texts On the other hand, the author show her ideas in written form and readers what she wants

to intend

According to Nancy and Jhon (2009), in order to get the main reasons of reading comprehension, an EFL student should possess several fundamental reading

skills: literal skills and interpretive skills These skills are carried out into 2 understanding levels: (1) the first level is reading the lines At this level, EFL students are capable of comprehend the literal meaning, answering to the clear meaning of familiar vocabulary in reading situation and figuring out the meaning of strange words from the clues (2) the second level is reading between the lines At this level, EFL students are able to obtain the author’s intention, interpret and distinguish facts and fictions

Consulting to some theories mentioned above, it is said that reading comprehension is an absolutely complicated process where students have to have connection with the reading to build up the ideas involving the capacity of achieving general and main meaning, explicit and ambiguous facts, and finding or understanding words

2.1.4 Teaching reading

In English teaching field, reading skill is an completely important skill which should not be ignored The proficiency of reading skill is considered absolutely vital owning to the influences on other skills This means that if EFL studnets read out loud, they will learn reading and speaking, if they answer questions from the reading passages, they will learn writing, if they listen to what their friends read, they will learn listening (Cand, 2015)

Additionally, identifying weaknesses during reading time is also significant for teaching reading English teachers should identify ther students’ weaknesses so that they can implement suitable method in reading classrooms (Michael, 2010)

Moreover, Tay & Mary (1979) claims that there are 5 practical principles that should be remmembered to teach reading They are (1) ability to reallize or state content ideas, (2) ability to sum up or arrange ideas, (3) ability to scan ideas, (4) ability to follow the order of ideas, and (5) ability to predict the situation He also point out the conclusion that English teachers should get students involve into the

reading principle to teach reading comprehension There are also other principle in teaching reading mentioned below

2.1.4.1 Principles in teaching reading

Generally, reading teaching often possesses two aspects First of all, it involves teaching students learning to read for the first time The second one is teaching for students already having reading skills Whoever the students are, there are some principles for teaching reading

The first principle is exploiting students’ background information A student’s experience can impact her reading comprehension (Carrel & Connor, 1991) Background information comprises all the experiences which students put into the text, including daily life experiences, educational background, knowledge of organization of a text, of the way one’s mother tongue and second language work and culture In order to enhance reading comprehension, background knowledge has

to be activated by having clear goals, asking questions, guessing and so on The second one is building a great vocabulary base The importance of vocabulary has been emphasized to have successful reading Levine & Reves (1990) state that it is easy for students reading academic materials to handle with special lexical items rather than with basic vocabulary The third one is teaching for comprehension In many reading instruction courses, testing reading comprehension is mostly emphasized more than teaching students comprehend It is necessary to monitor comprehension to make reading successful The monitoring process consists of verifying if the predictions are right or not when meaning is not attained The fourth one is cognition Metacognition means thinking about thinking So as to teach for comprehension, students have to monitor their thinking process and follow what strategies they use By doing this, students use cognitive and metacognitive skills The fifth one is increasing reading speed The biggest difficulty is reading classroom

is that students’ reading is not fluent With the hope of helping students improve their rate, teachers usually pay more attention to accuracy impeding fluency Teachers

should balance between improving reading rate and reading skills It is significantly vital to know that the most important thing is fluent students, not speed ones The sixth one is teaching reading strategies Strategies are taken into considerations because they are necessary for improving communicative ability They are a creative order of events that students use In order to attain this, students have to learn how to use reading strategies which match the reading purposes (Nunan, D., 2003)

2.1.4.2 Principles in learning reading

Besides English teaching principles, there are some principles of learning reading which contribute significantly to the success of reading comprehension According to Simanjuntak 1988, there are 10 principles that students should focus on: (1) students should have goal and motivations, (2), learning must be meaningful, (3) learning requires a great base of knowledge and experience, (4) students have to

be active, (5) Habit forming is required in learning, (6) Students with associations will get much learning, (7) practice makes perfect, (8) Effective learning will be gained with positive attitudes, (9) different students should learn with different methods and rates, (10) Students who know what they are learning will learn more effectively

From 10 principles above, it can be inferred that (1) interests and need are required in reading, (2) reading should have clear meaning for students, the aim of reading is to help students to obtain meaning in written texts, (3) background information should be brought in reading task, (4) students should practice and be active when learning reading

2.1.4.3 Reading activities

The important target of teaching reading is helping students to improve their reading skills so as to read effectively According to Khamraeva (2016), there are some kinds of activities in reading classrooms

Students should start to read a reading texts with positive attitude towards what they are going to read Vindy and Carla (2015) states that the main purposes of this stage are to help students gain or activate knowledge of the topic, to give inputs and engage them to read There are some activities at this stage: (1) knowing what students already know about the topic, (2) asking them to read and speak out what they guess about the reading, (3) showing pictures to introduce the description of what they are going to read, (4) giving some content words in the reading (Mihara, 2011)

2 While-reading activity

In this activity, teachers should guide students to give some questions for the reading texts The kinds of this activity depend on the reading ability of students and their background information Teachers can also encourage students to participate in the lesson by getting them to read to their friends (Camie, 1990)

For the reasons above, Abbot (1981) claims that there are some activities at while phase, including: (1) figuring out the main idea, (2) scanning for specific information, (3) keeping up with the sequence, (3) inferring what is in the texts, (4) realizing the main attitude and aim of the author, (5) knowing the discourse features, and (6) the teachers’ help for individuals or groups with their own difficulties

3 Post-reading activity

The main goal of this activity is consolidating what has been read in the lesson According to Camie (1990), there are some activities, consisting of (1) completing the mind map, (2) discussing the content, (3) presenting the information Additionally, there are also two activities of this phase having significant importance The first one is answering the written questions and the second one is writing summary With these both activities, students are allowed to practice the vital information one more time and to form a written pattern that they can use after that

2.1.4.4 Problems in reading comprehension

According to Al Seyabi and Tuzulukova (2015), there are some factors causing problems for students when they are reading (1) The first problem is the code symbols Not being familiar with the text will cause difficulty in understanding the reading texts for students It requires that both students and writer should have the same code (2) The second one comes from lexical items and structures of sentence Undeniably, having a various source of vocabulary is vital to reading comprehension It is absolutely hard to obtain the message from the writer when understanding little of words in the text, but it is impossible to be completely sure about it Moreover, students sometimes cannot understand the sentences even though they know every word, this is because of the long and complex sentence structures (3) Cohesion and discourse are the third difficulty In order to achieve the message

in the text, being able to understand cohesive devices is required A particular device

is discourse maker, including “and”, “as well as”, “whereas”, “likewise”, etc These words are great signals for students They help them to set up the importance to get the function of the sentence and tell students what the author means (4) The fourth problem is from background knowledge Background knowledge about the world is also considered as a major factor for the success of reading Students understand the plain sense of the sentences, but it does not mean that they are able to understand the whole text This happens because they lack of background knowledge of the text

2.1.4.5 Models of reading process

Generally speaking, there are three approaches of reading process, including the bottom up, top down and interactive models

1 Bottom up model

Carrell (1989) states that the primary purpose of this model is the minor units

of the reading such as letters, words, etc Students read all the words before understanding it This approach begins with decoding the tiniest units, especially phonemes and words and the meaning is made from the smallest to the biggest

However, there are some drawbacks in this approach The first one is that students succeed in their reading when they are able to interpret the units and understand the relationship between words The second one is that students sometimes cannot keep the meaning of every word in their minds The last one is that it is impossible to link all words together

2 Top down model

Goodman (1967) claims that reading comprehension is considered as psycholinguistic predicting game where students put their background knowledge to link with the text and to relate to new information in the reading so as to comprehend

it Students do not need to read every word but they have to pay attention to identifying next words They try to predict the meaning Students start guessing from the title which allow them to limit the scope of the reading After that they suppose the meaning the author wants to convey and adjust their hypotheses based on what they read Understanding begins with higher level of analyzing and keep on the application of lower levels

3 Interactive model

According to Nunan (1990), both top down and bottom up models are required for effective reading Student can apply top down model to make up for the shortage of bottom up model In order to achieve the meaning, students have to use their schemata to support for the bottom model Agreeing with Nunan, Ahmadi (2012) states that interactive model is created basing on knowledge from many sources such as lexical, sematic and syntactic During the time students are reading, interpreting processes support one and another If students cannot comprehend the texts, they have to use their background knowledge to help them Students depending

on top down model usually use textual signs, however; they should make up for some weaknesses such as word recognition and lack of effectiveness of bottom up model Interactive model leads to the most successful process of reading texts English teachers should find teaching reading methods suitable for this model to improve students’ reading skills

2.2 The task-based learning

2.2.1 Definition of task-based learning

Task-based learning has been concerned by a lot of researchers and it is viewed as an interesting topic for them (Barnard & Nguyen, 2010) According to Nunan (1989), a task is something related to classroom work that gets students into understanding, applying, creating or interacting in target language, especially English here while the attentions are concentrated much on meaning, not forms Moreover, Willis (1996) considers task as an activity when students use English for communicative goals so as to obtain the outcomes During a communicative task, language is the main tool used to produce the outcomes by exchanging meanings

Prabhu (1987) says that in task based learning, tasks play an important role

It is said that students will learn more efficiently when they concentrate on the task rather than the language Nunan (1989) adds the phrase “task based learning” mostly starts from literature of language education In task-based learning, the activities emphasize the use of language in social context These activities are designed as tasks rather than language areas The assumption is that teachers encourage students

to do communicative task having clear purposes, and they will naturally learn the language structures

Breen (2003) also gives another definition of task He says task may be a practical exercise or even a complicated work requiring communicative meaning A task is also defined as an activity conducted as a result of analyzing or comprehending language, for example: giving conclusion or drawing map after reading a text Tasks can either involve or not involve expressing language (Richard, Platt, & Weber, 1985)

Teachers should specify what do to to complete the task successfully The variety of many different task in teaching English makes teaching become more communicative Long (1985) argues that tasks are pieces of work carried out for students with or without rewards He also gives some examples of tasks such as

Thus, tasks are things people do every day; in other words, tasks have to be authentic Furthermore, Brown (1994) claims that tasks and techniques are common in some ways In some cases, they are similar like problem solving task or technique In some other situations, however, some techniques include tasks like problem solving task requires explanations of grammar and teachers start questions and begin turn taking process

From what is mentioned above, researchers all highlight the fact that tasks are related to communicative English use where students are made to focus much one meaning instead of forms But it does not mean grammatical forms are not vital These definitions point out the development of grammatical comprehension to showing ideas, emphasizing the truth that forms and meaning closely interrelate and finally, grammar enables students to express their own meaning communicatively However, according to Willis (1996), tasks and exercises of grammar are not the same because students use language structures freely to obtain the outcomes

2.2.2 The Task-based Learning Framework

According to Willis (1996), tasks are activities that students complete to get

an outcome when using English for communicative aims A lot of teachers who read more about task based learning feel surprised to realize that they have been using this method in their teaching already The key point of task based learning is the tasks The principle here is that the purpose of the reading lesson is doing the tasks For instance, teacher ask students to write an online advertisement, so the students have

to read some sample advertisements and then write, so that is the task

Task based learning does not mean that students do a task and then do another one If that happened, students could become better at doing tasks and they would gain fluency as well The framework here includes three stages (1) The first one is

“pre-task phase” Teachers introduces clearly the topic and task to students, this also activates students’ topic-relevant vocabulary and structures (2) The second one is

“task cycle” This phase consists of three components which are task, planning and

report In task components, students do the task in pairs or groups by using language they already have and teachers do monitoring role and give encouragements The planning component provides students with time to prepare for their report about what they find from the task and teachers are language advisors The final component

is report At this phase, students present their findings in pairs or groups in front of the class and teachers introduce the presentation, then lead to goal for other skills at the end, they can also give some feedback on students’ presentations In conclusion, the main purpose of task cycle is the understanding of students and the way they express meaning so as to obtain task outcomes (3) The third one is “language focus” This phase includes two components which are analysis and practice In analysis component, the vocabulary and structures or grammar points in the lesson are examined and analyzed In practice component, students practice some activities or exercises using language they learn in order to be more confident to use them and they can write down some useful language

The theory of task-based learning framework is that this is the methodology fulfilling the conditions for language learning indicated by research findings The conditions are contact to authentic language, real use of language Motivation and focus on language are supplied for each period (Willis, 1996) The table below illustrates the task based framework by Willis

Figure 2.1 Task based learning framework by Willis (1996)

PRE-TASK Introduction

Teachers clarify the topics with students, emphasize useful words and phrases, have students understand the instruction Students look at the modeling from the teachers doing similar task

WHILE-TASK

Students work in pairs

Students perform their reports, compare to others and give comments

LANGUAGE FOCUS Analysis

Students examine and analyze the

language features

Practice

Students practice some activities given by the teachers using what they have learned

In reading class, pre-task period stimulates students’ interest and it activates their background knowledge (Willis J , 1996) The tasks can make student pay more attention to the topic and link the possibilities among titles, ideas and details from the reading texts Through task cycle, teachers show students how to use reading strategies They can get students to read the text quietly, concurrently use the strategies and then they ask their students to report what they have learnt While doing the activities, students are able to find the main ideas, details in the texts Through language focus, students will know the meaning of the vocabulary and word reference in the lesson (Willis & Willis, 2007) According to Shehadeh (2005), when using TBL, EFL students are given chances of joining into active activities while teachers are not dominant and active Additionally, reading tasks possess clear outcomes, gr]eat processes and easy steps for EFL students to follow The final purpose of TBL in reading classes is that EFL students are able to experience and enrich the language so as so improve reading skill Applying TBL in reading class, teachers have to vary and organize different tasks in order to get EFL students into lessons Agreeing with Hong-qin and Shehadeh, Parichot (2009) who applied TBL into her reading classes for her Master Thesis indicated that TBL gives EFL students more chances of interactions and they become able to reach the language

achievement Furthermore, in English learning domain, TBL is also related to the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which states that the purpose of teaching is not only focusing on grammar rules or translating every words but also use the language in real situations through expressing ideas and opinions The implementation of TBL in teaching reading has been the topic of plenty of research (Parichot, 2009; Gusti, 2004; Nazenin, 2007; David, 2002; Mozhgan, 2017; ZhuXiu, 2016; Naemeh, 2011, Nadia, 2014), which means that the use of TBLT has been a favorite option when teachers want to increase reading production Also, TBL that differs from traditional methods possesses advantages obtained from EFL students’ interactions It has been proved that EFL students can achieve better reading skills because in reading classes where TBL is applied, EFL students have

to work together not keeping silent or remaining passivity Pairs and groups have a lot of benefits to EFL students They can learn from one another while participating

in interactive tasks; moreover; they are able to revise and adjust thinking processes and working on their ideas during the time working with teammates

2.2.3 Task types

A lot of researchers have pointed out the definitions of task types Prabhu (1987) sorts activities into three kinds of task: information gap activity, reasoning gap activity, opinion gap activity In information gap activity, students have to exchange their information to do the task, for example a student say what he sees in

a photo and the second one draws it In the reasoning gap activity, students will gain new information from given information through the process of inference and practical reasoning, for example, teachers ask students to figure out their timetable basing on the given one In opinion gap activity, students are asked to express their personal feelings towards a problem to complete the task, for example, students will receive a list of questions then they ask their friends to complete them (Larsen-Freeman, 2010)

Willis (1996) sorts tasks into two types Open task is the first one and the second one is closed task Open tasks are lightly structured They are designed with less specific goal, for instance, comparing two past events Closed tasks are well structured and have totally specific purposes, like writing down differences between two pictures Tasks with clear goals encourage students to be more interactive by using target language Closed tasks are classified into six types

The first one is “listing task” Student have to brainstorm and find facts During brainstorming period, students work in pairs ore groups and use their knowledge to create a list of things In fact-finding, students ask their friends or look

up books to find something The outcome is possibly list completion or drawing mind map This kind of task encourage students to read more while they join into exchanging or explaining their experience

The second one is “ordering and sorting task” This type consists of four processes: (1) students put items or events logically, (2) students rank them basing

on specified criteria, (3) student categorize items or events in given headings, (4) student classify items or events in different ways

The third one is “comparing task” This kind of task means that students have

to point out differences and similarities from given information The procedures include: (1) matching to detect specific details, (2) linking them to each other and (3) finding differences and similarities of things

The fourth one is “problem-solving task” Real life troubles are given to students and they are asked to figure out solutions that are evaluated later The troubles may be related to expressing hypotheses, experience description, and alternative assessment and concurring a solution

The fifth one is “sharing personal experience task” The main aim of this task

is to encourage students to read and share their personal experience with other students The type of interaction is like a social conversation because there is no explicit goal as others tasks

The last one is “creative task” This kind of task is usually called a project since it requires students to work in pairs or groups with certain kinds of creative work It often lasts longer than others because it includes more stages The task may get students into combining the above tasks This kind of task focuses much on organizational skills and teamwork The outcome of this task type can be appreciated and assessed by more audiences

Both Prabhu and Willis indicate useful tasks for teaching reading However, the tasks by second author are selected to applied in this study because they are various and related to the main aim of this research In this study, five tasks set up

by Willis will be used, but the creative task because it requires students to combine other tasks to complete and takes more time Instead of completing this task in classroom, students will do it at home as homework Students will use what they learn in the lesson at school and complete the given creative tasks

2.2.4 Advantages of task based learning

The reason why task-based learning is chosen by the majority of English teachers is because of its benefits There are many advantages summarized as follows: (1) students can be more active while participating in task-based lessons thus, their motivation and creation are increased (Willis, 2006) (2) Task-based learning provides students with more opportunities express their thoughts through actions This helps students to show their own thinking Teacher are responsive to the students (Larsen-Freeman, 2010) (3) Task-based learning allows students to apply the knowledge they learn productively in the context of the task (4) The authentic experience helps students to understand why academic questions are vital and show an experimental base for further academic research (5) Task-based learning requires students to be more creative in some subjects for giving outcome This provides students with opportunities to work together During the task, there are participations, including peer students working in a team and tutoring, can show

2001) (6) Task-based learning produces objects that are amenable to cross group assessment All in all, the main benefit of task-based learning is true purpose, meaning that communication occurs and that during time time student prepare their report, they will consider general language form rather than focusing only on single form This aim is integrating four English skills and combining fluency and accuracy

2.2.5 The roles of teachers and students in task-based learning

In task-based learning, both teacher and students have their own roles identifying what they do to conduct the tasks as well as depict social and relational relationship between them The roles of both teachers and students are diverse depended on the main aim of certain task (Nunan, 1989)

2.2.5.1 The roles of teachers in task-based learning

In the pre-task, teacher acts like a facilitator He establishes the task and introduces the topic After setting up the topic and defining the topic area, he has to

be certain that all students understand the purposes of the task and join in the task keenly Moreover, the teacher helps them to revise the vocabulary or phrases relevant

to topic that they are focusing on After that, he gives an example about the task himself or with a good student He is also the controller and has the right to stop everything if essential (Willis, 1996)

In the while-task, the teacher’s role is less dominant and active He is the observer and controller He monitors when his students are working in groups or pairs When knowing any students distracted, he helps them to be back to the task again He also encourages them to do the task even they are not really good at English He lets his students join in the task freely and only interrupt them when there is a broken major communication One of the most significant things is that the teacher should be a time keeper Students should be given the time limitation in advanced so that they can be more positive with the task In the planning stage, the teacher will be an advisor He makes clear the forms, meanings and shows his

students how to express what they want to do That will be great if the teacher can give some short positive comments on students’ discussion, only short comments in general Then the teacher acts like a chairperson when his students perform their presentations He first introduces the presentation then decides the order of the presentations While the students are performing, the teacher who is an observer now will take note in order to give comments later

In the language focus stage, after the students finish all the presentations, the teacher will be the leader He asks them to give comments on the presentations Then

he gives his feedbacks to them as well as their comments, mostly in forms and meanings

2.2.5.2 The roles of students in task-based learning

In the pre-task, students adopt what teacher say and carry on the task with teacher’s guidance They try to activate their personal knowledge of the topic that they will discuss At this phase, students start to work in pairs or groups to exchange information to finish the task At the beginning there are some students having troubles with the task After that, when they get familiar with the task, they are able

to realize what they are required to do (Willis, 1996)

In the while-task, students are the participants of the task The students can do the task individually and then they exchange ideas in pairs or groups with or without their teacher After obtaining all essential information, they summarize, plan and report what they do At this phase, the students are presenters They will show what they discussed with their classmates in pairs or groups

In the language focus stage, the role of the students are assessors They will evaluate what their friends presented They compare language form and uses that are used in the presentation They consolidate them and remember them for future usage

2.3 Grammar translation method in teaching reading