A study on the use of top down approach to improve reading skill for learners at equest english centre

The above has inspired the writing of this study as an attempt to apply down approach in teaching reading to improve reading skills for learners at Equest Centre.. The following chapter

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A Minor ProgrammeThesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

M.A Minor ProgrammeThesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr PHẠM ĐĂNG BÌNH

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

To the best of my knowledge and belief, this minor thesis contains no material which has previously been submitted and accepted for any other degree in any university The thesis is my own work and based on my own research It involves

no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the paper

Hanoi, 2014

Nguyễn Thi ̣ Thuý

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Pham Dang Binh, from Vietnam National University, University of Languages and International Studies for his invaluable guidance, criticism and his continual encouragement to the process of completing this minor thesis

My gratefulness is to all the teachers from Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies for their teaching and useful knowledge

My sincere thanks also go to all my colleagues who are the teachers at Equest Centre for their help and suggestions for the topic of my study

I truly wish to thank all my students at Equest Centre, especially those of class FAE C1 and FAE C2 who have actively participated in the study

Last but not least, my sincere thanks are extended to my family and my best friends who have constantly supported and encouraged me to carry out the thesis

ABSTRACT

Learning English at a lot of English Centers is becoming more and more popular Therefore, understanding the importance of English, all teachers at Equest English Centre have an attempt to satisfy the learners‟ need However, to master English learners need to grasp a lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is an important one because it does not only help student develop other language skills, but also provides them knowledge on the target language

The above has inspired the writing of this study as an attempt to apply down approach in teaching reading to improve reading skills for learners at Equest Centre

top-This study consists of three parts Part one presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope and methods of the study Part two includes three chapters Chapter one sets up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose

of the study The following chapter shows the setting, the subjects, the methods, the way to collect data and the effects of using top-down approach in teaching and learning reading skill at Equest English Centre The last chapter in this part focuses

on the findings, discussion and suggestions for improving reading skill to learners at Equest English Part three summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study

LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS

1 Tables

Table 1.1 Descriptive statistics for the pre-test of the experimental and control groups

Table 1.2 Comparison of mode, mean, median and SD for pre-test of the

experimental and control groups

Table1.3 Descriptive statistics for the post-test of the experimental and control groups

Table 1.4 Comparison of mode, mean, median and SD for post-test of the

experimental and control groups

Table 1.5 Comparison of mean and standard deviation between the experimental and control group in pre-test and post-test

Table 2.1 Activities motivated students in the pre-reading stage

Table 2.2 Activities attracted students in while-reading stage

Table 2.3 Useful activities to students in post-reading stage

Table 2.4 Students‟ difficulties in reading

Table 2.5 Teaching methods in helping students overcome difficulties in reading

2 Charts

Chart 1.1 Percentage of the raw mark in the pre-test

Chart 1.2 Percentage of the raw mark in the post-test

Chart 2.1 The students‟ opinion about the reading tasks

Chart 2.2 The students‟ opinion about teaching methods

Chart 2.3 The students‟ opinion about learning reading with top-down process Chart 2.4 The students‟ opinion about their reading skill after a course with top-down process

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LISTS OF TABLES AND CHARTS IV

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Hypothesis 2

3 Aims of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theory on Reading 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading 4

1.1.2 Reading comprehension 5

1.1.3 Types of reading 7

1.2 Teaching Reading skill 9

1.2.1 Principles of teaching reading 9

1.2.2 Stages of a reading lesson 11

1.3 Top-down approach 14

1.3.1 Definition 14

1.3.2 Top-down versus Bottom-up processing 14

1.3.3 Top-down approach in reading 15

1.3.4 Top-down techniques in teaching reading 17

1.4 Summary 20

CHAPTER 2: 22

METHODOLOGY 22

2.1 Setting of the study 22

2.1.1 Subjects‟ background information 22

2.1.2 The teachers and teaching methods 23

2.1.3 Materials 23

2.2 Subjects 24

2.3 Methods 24

2.3.1 Test 24

2.3.2 Questionnaire 25

2.4 Procedures 25

2.4.1 Data collection 25

2.4.2 Data analysis 26

2.5 The application of top-down techniques in reading class 26

CHAPTER 3: 28

FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS 28

3.1 Findings 28

3.1.1 Analysis of the test results 28

3.1.2 Analysis of the questionnaire results 33

3.2 Discussion 43

3.2.1 Discussion on the students‟ part 43

3.2.2 Discussion on the teacher‟s part 45

3.3 Implications 46

3.3.1 Top-down techniques should be applied widely at Equest Centre 46

3.3.2 Arousing students‟ motivation and interest 47

3.3.3 Enlarging students‟ background knowledge 47

3.3.4 Suggested activities for improving reading skill through top-down approach 48

3.4 Summary 50

51

1 Summary of the study 51 REFERENCES 53 APPENDIX 1: I SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2: THE PRE-TEST V APPENDIX 3: THE POST-TEST IX APPENDIX 4: SAMPLE LESSON XIII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It is undeniable that English in the life of any society in the world today has been becoming more and more important The widespread need for English as an international language puts a considerable pressure on the education resources of any countries In case of our country, since our government carried out the open door policy to attract foreign investment and co-operate with other countries, teaching and learning English has become necessary Moreover, English is a means

of international communication in the fields of science, technology, culture, education, economy and so on That is the reason why at present, learning English is not only the interest but also the great and practical demand for many people, especially for people who always want to assess the modern world Therefore, learning English at a lot of English Centre is becoming popular

Understanding the importance of English, all teachers at Equest English Centre have an attempt to satisfy the learners‟ need At Equest English is the foreign language dominating the teaching and learning programs for 10 years Despite a prejudice that learning English at a center is less effective than that at some universities, colleges, or international schools, learners at Equest, regardless of their ages, always strive for a good command of English as they are well aware of their learning purposes Through 10 years of development, Equest has provided a number

of learning English programs Therefore, there are 38 000 learners learning English

at Equest in 2013

However, to master English learners need to grasp a lot of different skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is an important one because it does not only help student develop other language skills, but also provides them knowledge on the target language According to Byrne

(1986), “reading is an important way of expanding the students’ receptive

knowledge of the language and in terms of classroom activities, it is an effective way of simulating students to talk and write”

In addition, after a master course with methodology subject, I realized that top-down approach with its techniques and characteristics can be applied in teaching language skills effectively, especially in reading skill

All in all, the above has encouraged the writer of the thesis to carry out the

study entitled “A study on the use of top-down approach to improve reading skill

for learners at Equest English Centre”

2 Hypothesis

This study is designed to test the following hypothesis:

“Top-down approach helps to enhance reading comprehension for learners at Equest English Centre”

3 Aims of the study

This study is carried out to aim at:

- Investigating the effects of using top-down t approach in teaching reading to learners at Equest English Center

- Investigating the teachers‟ and learners‟ perceptions regarding reading activities using top-down approach

- Formulating pedagogical implications and making suggestions for improving the teaching and learning of the reading skill at Equest English Center

4 Scope of the study

In this study, the investigator intends to use top-down techniques to help learners at Equest English Center to improve their reading skills These techniques were experimented over a period of one course and were applied in the three stages

of a reading lesson: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading Due to the limited time, the researcher could not implement the research for a longer period of time

and on a larger population The sample population is 50 freshmen from two classes

of the same English proficiency level

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the aims mentioned above, quantitative method has been chosen for the study Data for analysis in this study are gained through the following sources:

- Pre-test and post-test

- Survey questionnaires

6 Design of the study

This minor thesis consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction which presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope and methods of the study

Part B: Development which is divided into 3 chapters:

- Chapter 1: “Literature review”, sets up theoretical background that is relevant to the purpose of the study

- Chapter 2: “Methodology”, shows the setting, the subjects, the methods, the way to collect data and the effects of using top-down approach in teaching and learning reading skill at Equest English Centre

- Chapter 3: “Findings, Discussion and Implication” In this chapter, the findings and some discussions are shown The implication of the study also includes some suggestions to improve reading skills for learners at Equest English Centre

Part C: Conclusion which summarizes the key issues in the study, points out the limitations and provides some suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is primarily concerned with the theory on reading, including some definitions of reading as well as reading comprehension and types of reading This will be followed by a review of teaching reading skill, consisting of principles

of teaching reading, common methods of teaching reading and stages of a reading lesson The next part presents a review of definition of top-down approach, the differences between top-down and bottom-up approach, and the top-down techniques in teaching reading

1.1 Theory on Reading

1.1.1 Definitions of Reading

For many students, reading is a very important skill Concerning the role of reading, Anderson (1999) confirms that “the more exposure the student has to language through reading, the greater the possibilities that overall language proficiency will increase”

There are a numerous definitions of reading which range from simple to complex ones Each researcher focuses on different aspects of the teaching and learning process Some of them concentrate on the decoding and comprehending of the reading texts while others pay attention to the roles of the readers

Goodman (1971: 135) regards reading as “a psycholinguistic process by

which the reader, a language user, reconstruct, as best he can, a message encoded

by a writer as a graphic display”

According to Carell Devine and Eskey (1988:13), “reading is a process in

that it starts with linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning, which reader constructs There is, thus, an essential interaction between language and thought in reading The writer encodes thought in language and the reader decodes language to thought” In this definition, it can be seen

clearly the interrelationship between the writer, the reader and the text Moreover,

Harmer (1983:153) also thought that “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes

and the brain The eyes receive massages and the brain then has to work out the significance of those massages” However, Hafner and July (1982:4) thought

differently According to their opinion, “reading involves the identification and

recognition of printed and written symbols which serve as stimuli for the recall of meanings built up through past experiences and further construction of new meanings through the readers’ manipulation of relevant concepts already in his possession”

According to Anderson (2003: 68), reading can be defined as “a fluent

process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning The goal of reading is comprehension…The text, the reader, fluency and strategies combined together define the act of reading”

In brief, each researcher has a different definition of reading From my point

of view, the idea of Anderson is quite clear and easy to follow Reading is a process that the readers understand meaning by combining information of the text and their own background knowledge

1.1.2 Reading comprehension

In teaching and learning a foreign language in general and teaching reading

in particular, reading comprehension plays an important part It can be understood

as the ability to draw attention to the required information from the text as efficiently as possible Therefore, it is necessary to understand the definition of reading comprehension

According to Richard and Thomas (1987: 9), “Reading comprehension is

best described as an understanding between the author and the reader” This point

of view concentrates on the reader‟s understanding of the message based on the

individual‟s background knowledge They stated that “reading is much more than

just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends: it is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual”

Moreover, Abbott (1981:82) gives out a research on the nature of reading

comprehension According to him “there are two broad aspects or levels Firstly,

there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point”

Study the nature of reading comprehension, Grilled (1981: 3) indicated that

“Reading comprehension or understanding written text means extracting the

required information from it as effectively as possible” This means that the student

can show his understanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many ways such as summarizing the text or answering questions etc

Reading comprehension is a process of deriving meaning from the print and integrating the new information with the old one (Koda, 2005: 14; Sweet and Snow, 2003: 1) The old information is the reader prior background knowledge and

experience Goodman (1975) added that reading should be “an active, purposeful

and creative mental process” of extracting meaning partly from textual clues and

partly from their prior knowledge

From these theories above, it can be understood that readers show their active parts in the process of comprehending a written text; they are not simply a decoding machine, but they must think and consider what sort of old information should be activated and when it should be made use of to facilitate the

comprehending process In other words, according to Durkin (1993), “reading is the

construction of meaning of a written text through the interactions between text and reader”

The definitions presented above give us an overview of reading and reading comprehension With the literature review of some types of reading, we can determine what factors are involved in efficient reading

1.1.3 Types of reading

According to Nutgall (2000: 38), there are two main types of reading, namely, intensive and extensive reading These are not just two contrasting ways of reading but an infinitive variety of interrelated strategies; both of them are complementary and necessary

1.1.3.1 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text

Lewis and Hill (1985:109) state that “extensive reading means students have

a general understanding of the text without necessarily understanding every word”

It is obvious that when reading extensively, readers do not need to have intense concentration on the content of a long text and total comprehension because the objective of extensive reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in the shortest possible time In other words, extensive reading can be compared to the activity of ploughing through the text in a uniform fashion Extensive reading is therefore regarded as means of entertainment and pleasure

According to Carrell et al (1997), extensive reading often, such as in an EAP (English for academic purpose) setting, involves rapid reading of large amounts of material or longer contents, such as a whole book, for getting a gist or a focus generally on the meaning of what is being read Especially, this pattern of reading gets the reader to focus on reading itself rather than mastering the particular structure of a skill

Moreover, the aim of extensive reading is to encourage readers to cover a large amount of material in a comparatively short time and to gain a general understanding of what is read instead of analyzing the detailed information

Basing on the importance of extensive reading, Nuttal (1982:168) shows that

“the best way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live

among its speakers: The next best way is to read extensively in it.”

In short, this kind of reading is necessary for students because it actively promotes reading outside the class and gives them an opportunity to use their own knowledge of the language for their own purposes Moreover, this kind of reading is regarded as pleasure and interest That is why extensive reading is highly motivating

intensive reading is regarded as reading for accuracy It “involves approaching the

text under the close guidance of the teacher or under the guidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the text in order to arrive at a profound

to detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced The “how” is as important as the “what”, for the intensive reading lesson is intended primarily to train students in reading strategies”

(Nutall, 1982:23)

According to Nuttal (1996), the students should try to understand a text as fully as necessary in an intensive reading setting Besides this, intensive readers are

often required to study a small amount of material in an analytical manner under the teachers‟ guidance (Good, 1926)

In both reading patterns, the teacher‟s role may be also significant In the extensive reading situation, the teacher should always encourage students to choose for themselves what they read and to do so for pleasure and for general language improvement But in intensive reading, the teacher often chooses, directs and designs what kind of book that students should read in order to develop specific receptive skills (Harmer, 2001)

Many researchers suggest that getting students to read extensively would be

an effective way to have them enjoy reading, and thus students may love reading Besides this, slower or unmotivated students may be motivated by other enthusiastic classmates and start to love reading as well Good (1926) also argues that in terms

of retention for the purpose of answering informational questions, extensive reading seems relatively effective

1.2 Teaching Reading skill

1.2.1 Principles of teaching reading

In order to teach reading effectively, it is important for teachers to apply certain principles Anderson (2003) and Hedge (2000) have set out several principles of teaching reading

1.2.1.1 Exploit the student‟s background knowledge

Background knowledge can affect reading comprehension Students‟ background knowledge includes all of the experiences that a reader brings to a text: life experiences, educational experiences, knowledge of how texts can be organized rhetorically, knowledge of how one‟s first language works, knowledge

of how the second language works, and cultural background and knowledge

The teacher can significantly enhance students‟ comprehension if he or she activates their background knowledge by setting goals, asking questions, making predictions, teaching text structure, and so on

1.2.1.2 Build a strong vocabulary base

Vocabulary can facilitate successful reading The teacher should explicitly teach basic vocabulary and teach students how to use context to effectively guess the meaning of less frequent vocabulary

1.2.1.3 Teach for comprehension

Besides testing comprehension, it is necessary to teach students how to comprehend A technique the teacher can employ to help students in the process of constructing meaning from a text is questioning the author This activity should be done during the reading process It requires the teacher to model the reading behavior of asking questions to make sense of that is being read Students learn to engage with meaning and develop ideas rather than retrieve information from the text In the process of reading, students should ask themselves some questions such

as “What is the author trying to say here? What is the author‟s message? What is the author talking about? What does the author mean here? Does the author explain this clearly?” (Beck et al., 1997: 34, 37)

1.2.1.4 Teach reading strategies

To achieve success in reading, students should know how to use a range of strategies that match their purposes for reading Teaching them how to do this should be a prime consideration in the reading classroom A technique the teacher can use to help students identify reading strategies is to get them talk about their thought processes as they read The students can listen to their own verbal report or listen to other students‟ verbal reports to become aware of their reading strategies

1.2.1.5 Encourage students to transform strategies into skills

An important distinction can be made between strategies and skills (Kawai, Oxford, and Iran-Nejad, 2000) Strategies can be defined as conscious actions that learners take to achieve desired goals or objectives, while a skill is a strategy that has become automatic This characterization underscores the active role that readers play in strategic reading As learners consciously learn and practice specific reading strategies, the strategies move from conscious to unconscious; from strategy to skill

For instance, when students are taught how to guess meaning of unknown vocabulary for the first time, they are using a strategy As student‟s ability to guess the meaning become automatic, they move from using a conscious strategy to using

an unconscious skill

1.2.1.6 Set criteria to select reading texts

Teachers should usually pay attention to two questions: “What kind of text

do we use in the classroom?” and “How do we create reading purposes for those texts?” They may have little flexibility in addressing the first, but they will need to consider the second carefully because this may be the key to motivate students to read texts they do not find interesting Interest is the first criterion to select a reading text Other factors are the variety of topic, length of texts, rhetorical organization (for example, description, review, comparison), and the reading purpose

1.2.2 Stages of a reading lesson

It is common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: reading, while-reading, and post-reading (William, 1984, cited in Hedge, 2000) Each stage has its own aims and procedures

pre-1.2.2.1 Pre-reading stage

This stage plays a decisive role in the whole process of teaching reading comprehension, so most experienced readers employ pre- reading and other strategies to make reading easier Pre- reading aims at introducing the text to the students and helps them make careful preparation before reading the text It is advisable for the teacher to create a reading motivation and a positive attitude towards reading for students so that they can achieve a high level of success and become confident that they can read effectively

As for Doff (1988), there are many activities a teacher to carry out so as to help students before they start reading such as introducing the text briefly, presenting new vocabulary, revising grammatical structures or giving guiding questions

Moreover, in my opinion, the teacher should activate the students‟ background knowledge and provide some information about the text This is aimed

to help the students to predict the content of the text they are going to read Prediction is an important ability that the students should develop in order to comprehend various kinds of texts, especially the texts that the students are not familiar with

1.2.2.2 While-reading stage

While- reading stage is carried out when all students actually set their eyes

on the text and this stage is the main part of a reading comprehension lesson The aims of this stage focus on making the students anticipate in the process of understanding the whole text, and interpreting exactly what the author wrote In addition, it helps the students break up the organization of the text; understand the text structures; classify the text content and recognize the writer‟s purpose and attitude

Moreover, it helps the students improve their reading speed and techniques Besides, this stage offers an opportunity to apply effectively what they have learnt from the text to their purpose of study and communication

Because this stage plays a very important role in a reading lesson, it must be carefully designed

1.2.2.3 Post-reading stage

Post- reading is the implementation of various activities carried out after the students have read the text Some post- reading activities are extension of the work done at the pre- reading and while- reading stages Some relate only loosely to the reading text itself

According to Durkin (1981:486), “one reason for post- reading discussion in

class is to offer pupils the chance to see in what way their reading did or did not succeed, and why” In fact, there is more than one purpose for post- reading stage

One of the purposes of post-reading work is to check whether the students have understood the text or not The teacher can ask the students some questions about the texts which are not given in the book or require them to discuss in group and in pair and so on Another purpose is to consolidate or reflect upon what the students have read To achieve this, the teacher should help the students focus on the important points as writer‟s opinion, the main ideas of the text, the specific paragraph or phrase in the reading text The third purpose of post- reading work is

to expand on the topic or language of the reading text, and perhaps transfer things learned to another context

Setting up and organizing post-reading work depends very much on all the objectives of the program as a whole Post- reading work should, thus, contribute in

a coherent manner, to the writing, speaking and listening skills that the program aims to develop

In conclusion, the three stages offer the teacher a frame work to conduct a reading lesson in general Pre- reading instruction makes students interested in a text and predicts the content of it through accessing necessary information and/or activating schema During-reading instruction helps students read strategically, mainly focusing on decoding skills Post-reading instruction extends or deepens what students comprehend from the text

1.3 Top-down approach

1.3.1 Definition

As to top-down teaching strategy, the learner‟s prior knowledge is activated, which is capable of enhancing learner‟s language learning, and making possible reading comprehension In other words, in top-down strategy, “content schemata” are to be activated; prior knowledge plays a major role in learner‟s comprehension

Carrell (1988) argued that a lack of content schemata activation would lead

to insurmountable processing difficulties with second language readers Hudson (1982) has even argued that a high degree of background knowledge can overcome linguistic deficiency

In addition to prior knowledge as a key point, top-down model is actually a whole-language teaching approach, in which readers focus on the context, and manage to construct meanings in the text (Treiman, 2001) In this sense, top-down reading strategies contain predicting, inferring, and focusing on meanings (Grabe, 1991) Reading is actually “a psychological guessing game”, in the words of Goodman (1970)

1.3.2 Top-down versus Bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processes are those that take in stimuli from the outside world - letters and words, for reading - and deal with that information with little recourse to higher - level knowledge With top-down processes, on the other hand, the uptake

of information is guided by an individual‟s prior knowledge and expectations

Bottom-up approach focuses on the text as the convergence of encoded messages to be deciphered Instructors who uphold bottom-up processing focus

on how learners extract information from the printed page, and on whether or not learners deal with letters and words in a systematic fashion Therefore, the goals of the bottom-up approach are automatic word recognition and rapid reading rate To reach the aims, explicit instruction in phonics and spellings is crucial; students should not be “word-bound” in bottom-up processing (Grabe, 1991)

In most situations, bottom-up and top-down processes work together to ensure the accurate and rapid processing of information However, theories about the cognitive processes involved in reading differ in the emphasis that they place on the two approaches Theories that stress bottom-up processing focus on how readers extract information from the printed page, claiming that readers deal with letters and words in a relatively complete and systematic fashion (e.g., Gough 1972) Theories that stress top-down processing hold that readers form hypotheses about which words they will encounter and take in only just enough visual information to test their hypotheses (e.g., Goodman 1967, Smith 1971)

In short, the greatest difference between top-down processing and the bottom-up processing is that, according to Goodman (1967), readers do not use every piece of information in the text That is to say, the readers select some parts of text according to their current purpose and use them only so as to predict meaning and to confirm the predicted meanings by relating the readers' own previously acquired knowledge (Carrell, 1988a)

1.3.3 Top-down approach in reading

Goodman (1982) performed a research on reading comprehension and presented in “the Psycholinguistic Guessing Model” He believed that the process of reading the text in a letter-by-letter and word-by-word manner and picking up the information is not called reading comprehension Rather, a good reader reads

knowledge and reads the text by predicting and confirming information (Grabe, 1991) It was a kind of top-down processing

Many researchers have insisted that "the concepts which a reader brings to a text are actually more important than the text itself for comprehension" (Mikulecky, 1990: 4) Among those concepts that the readers use in the process of comprehension, the knowledge about the content of the text, rather than the knowledge of the language of the text, is emphasized As for linguistic knowledge, Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (as cited in Anderson, 1999: 3) stated that focus is mainly put on "higher-level" reading skills, such as "integrating prepositional units across sentences, generating and updating a schema or representation of the text as a whole, and integrating textual information with prior knowledge"

There is an agreement among reading specialists that a reader should be an

"active participant" in the process of comprehending a text Simply explained, the meaning is constructed by the reader, who creates connections between what s/he encounters in the text and what s/he knows about the world as well as about the language (Grabe, 1991; Hudson, 1998) The key element here is the emphasis on the reader's background knowledge The importance of the prior knowledge has been investigated through psycholinguistics and schema theory On the other hand, top-down processing leads readers use their background knowledge to comprehend the text Thus, this processing should be more often introduced to English reading instruction because it has tended to be neglected Teaching top-down process will enable the students to read actively, or interact with text

As was mentioned before, reading is an interaction between text and the readers, in which the readers use not only their decoding skills but also other kinds

of knowledge Mikulecky (1990) explained it citing the passage used by Branford and Johnson:

“A newspaper is better than a magazine A seashore is a better place than the street At first it is better to run than to walk You may have to try several times It takes some skill but it's easy to learn Even young children can enjoy it (…) If there are no complications, it can be very peaceful A rock will serve as an anchor If things break down from it, however, you will not get a second chance”

The words and sentence structures used in this passage seem not to be so difficult It will not take so long to understand the meaning of each sentence if the reader has a basic knowledge of English However, do the readers think, after reading, that they understand the whole meaning of the text? The answer is probably “no” They must be asking themselves, "What is the passage about?" In trying to find the answer, they should be using knowledge besides linguistic knowledge because they have already understood the meanings of the sentences by accumulating those of the words, phrases and clauses with their lexical and grammatical knowledge To sum up, not only linguistic knowledge but also any other kinds of knowledge is crucial in trying to comprehend a text

In conclusion, what should be emphasized here is that more attention must be paid to the readers' background knowledge in the reading class Especially, how their prior knowledge can function for successful comprehension should be discussed more because the influence or importance of background knowledge is not emphasized in reading classees in a lot of English Centers in Vietnam

1.3.4 Top-down techniques in teaching reading

Techniques are defined as the specific activities, exercises or devices used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives (Bang and Ngoc (2002)) They are characterized by the resources in terms of time, space, equipment used by the teacher; interactional patterns observed in lessons; tactics and strategies used by teachers and learners

Several techniques for top-down teaching process in reading comprehension are suggested as follows

1.3.4.1 Previewing

Previewing is among the most important activities which should be done in the pre-reading stage because it helps students to activate their schema and to predict the meaning of the text and because previewing is always done unconsciously when we read This is the first step to enhance students' positive attitude toward reading

One good point of previewing is that it can always be conducted regardless

of the linguistic difficulties of the text because previewing does not require students

to carefully read the text itself Skills should be taught as continuously as possible,

so it is very important Another good point is that it can be taught that any kind of information in the text is indispensable in reading In other words, emphasis should

be put on such visual information as photos, illustrations, graphs, and charts, because they are closely related to what is written in the text (Chia, 2001) and so they are very useful in trying to get the gist

There are several stimuli in the text, such as the title, photographs, subtitles, charts, diagrams, etc which are closely related to what the author is going to present Thus, the teacher can help the students make some guesses based on those stimuli The teacher can motivate them to read the title, first sentence of each paragraph (which gives the main idea of the paragraph), and the first and the last paragraphs (which one introduces and the other reveals the conclusion of the text) Finally, the students read the whole text to get more information Since they have already overviewed the text, they have a better understanding of it

1.3.4.2 Questioning

As Williams (1987, cited in Hui-lung, 2001) argues, questioning is another top-down processing activity in which the teacher generates some questions about the text and presents them in the class before teaching reading

These questions can be taken from post-reading questions However, the selection of the questions is very important; they should be what the students are able to answer Then the students are divided into groups to provide answers for the questions based on what they know and write the answers down In reading phase, the students read the text and see whether they had provided a correct answer or not Finally, in the post-reading stage, the students should relate their prior knowledge about the text to their acquired knowledge and write it down

1.3.4.3 Skimming

Skimming is the technique that is used widely in reading comprehension Grellet (1981:19) states that: “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 intention of the writer” It means that the purpose of skimming is simply

to see what a text is about The reader skims in order to satisfy a very general curiosity about the text According to Wood (1984:92), “skimming occurs when the reader looks quickly at the content page of a book, or at the chapter headings, subheading, etc.” Therefore, the key that actually encourages learners to skim is to give them a series of texts and ask them to select appropriate titles from groups of ones

Moreover, in order to teach skimming effectively, the teacher should let the students read the beginning or end of a text because it may provide students a statement relating to the topic Skimming gives students the advantage of being able

to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic or message, or possibly some

of the developing or supporting ideas

Skimming enables readers to get the main points of the text without being concerned with the details Therefore, this technique should be applied at the first stage of teaching reading to help student have an overview of what they are going to read

1.3.4.4 Predicting

Goodman (1976) indicated that efficient reading often includes the use of prediction strategies Thus, predicting plays an important role in reading comprehension Interacting with the text, the readers use their prior knowledge in concern with cues in the text to generate predictions

Making predictions is a strategy in which readers use information from a text (including titles, headings, pictures, and diagrams) and their own personal experiences to anticipate what they are about to read (or what comes next)

Anderson (1976) found that making predictions can help students become good readers and make reading more fun In addition, predicting also arouses readers‟ interest and sets the purpose for their reading By using this strategy in combination with such techniques as skimming and previewing a text, students are motivated to read and encouraged to study the text carefully to confirm their prior predictions

Finally, top-down approach is discussed which includes an overview about top-down approach, the differences between top-down and bottom-up approach and the theory of top-down process in teaching reading

CHAPTER 2:

METHODOLOGY

To carry out a research, subjects and method are very important Method shows the tool and the way that the investigator conducted the study In this chapter, the investigator will show some settings of the study, the subjects and the way to collect data as well as the way to analyze data

2.1 Setting of the study

2.1.1 Subjects‟ background information

Equest English Language Institute was established in 2003 After more than

10 years of construction and development, Equest has a system consisting of 13 English language training schools in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City Equest is recognized as a reputable and qualified address of teaching English language in Vietnam Each year, Equest provides a lot of different English courses designed by leading experts to serve more than 38,000 students and children

Equest is also partner of nearly 100 primary schools, high school in Vietnam Champion English exam organized by Equest for pupils of primary and secondary schools - has become a prestigious and qualified English competition that parents, students and school administrators appreciated

The learners of Equest are varied with different ages and levels There are a lot of courses from basic to advanced level as well as the courses for those who want to get certificate such as TOEIC, IELTS, TOEFL, etc

Therefore, learning time and materials for each course are also different It is based on the level of learners One important thing is that at the beginning all learners are tested to be classified and identified Then the course which is suitable with their level will be chosen

2.1.2 The teachers and teaching methods

Up to now, there are about 120 teachers at the whole Centre All of them graduated from different universities in major of teaching English 75% of teachers have MA and international certificates

Most of teachers at the Centre are well qualified Therefore, they have done much to improve the method of teaching English and help students to overcome difficulties in their learning process

The fact is that not all the teachers use the same techniques and strategies to teach reading comprehension skills Some of them choose to use “introducing new words and new grammar structures” as the most effective techniques, other may take some other techniques such as “giving background information” as the most effective one Almost teachers said that teaching students how to read is also an important factor because they see that most of students lack needed strategies for reading comprehension Therefore, they have tried to choose the activities that are suitable for their students

2.1.3 Materials

As mentioned above, the materials are different in each course In this study, the researcher only focus on the basic course named “Foundation Academic English” (FAE) There are four levels in this course “FAE Intro” gets students familiar with practice English skills, builds vocabulary and basic grammar “FAE A” promotes 4 skills that are Listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing “FAE B” improves practice language skills, expands vocabulary and grammar of the common themes and communicates in an academic environment “FAE C” improves more and more 4 skills to help students confidently take part in the training courses of international certification exam

Students will finish each course in 56 periods The main course books are Foundation Academic English from A to C levels which are edited by the experts of the Centre

In Foundation Academic English level C, there are 18 units Each unit has one reading session These reading sessions are under the tendency of theme-based and task-based approaches The book provides different wide range of different reading texts and tasks at each stage Generally, the topic of the reading is of students‟ interest However, there are some reading texts, according to students‟ opinion, containing many new words and difficult topic It is possible to say that no textbook is completely perfect and no text book can suit every learner‟s need and interest Therefore, teachers should be flexible when dealing with each reading session

2.2 Subjects

This study was carried out with the participation of 50 students They are all

in the “FAE C” course and form two different classes namely FAE C1 and FAE C2 with 25 students in each class Because the all participants of this study come from FAE at level C, they have some basic skills in learning English Out of 50 students,

33 are female and 17 are male age ranged from 19-27 All of them are at the same level according to the results of the beginning test

These two tests were conducted in the pre-, while- and post-stages of the experimentation of top-down process, and for both control group and experimental group These reading tests were designed in the model of achievement tests which are used to assess students‟ reading skill

2.3.2 Questionnaire

In this study, the researcher applied questionnaire as a main means of data collection because of some advantages Firstly, this method can give the researcher the need data in quantitative form Secondly, all informants have chance of expressing their attitudes As a result, researcher can have more uniform and accurate data

The questionnaire of this study was designed by the investigator to collect the data It contained 9 questions All these questions were designed based on the theory of reading lesson with top-down process and the demand of a reading lesson with 3 stages It was designed for the purpose to check the accuracy of the improved reading skills of students and whether student interest or not in the lesson where the top-down process is used

The questionnaire was delivered to the experimental group only at the end of the course to find out their attitudes towards top-down teaching process and their expectations

2.4 Procedures

2.4.1 Data collection

The data was collected through the following steps:

Step 1: The investigator taught two classes for 2 weeks, gave them a reading test as a pre-test, and then the investigator help the experimental group understand the teaching reading process they are going to study, top-down process as well as its techniques

Step 2: The investigator taught these two classes for the whole of the course which lasted from June to September of 2014 During that time, the control group was taught reading skill under normal conditions based on the order of the book, whereas top-down techniques were applied to the experimental one

Step 3: Ask the two groups to do the post-test which is used as a mean to measure the effects of using top-down techniques in teaching listening skill for the whole course

Step 4: The survey questionnaire was delivered to the experimental group after they finished the post-test to get their opinion about the reading process they have learnt

2.4.2 Data analysis

As mentioned above, this research was conducted as a quantitative study Thus, descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic features of the data in the study They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures Together with simple graphics analysis, they form the basis of virtually every quantitative analysis of data

There are four major types of estimates in this kind of statistics They are mean, median, mode and standard deviation (SD) In addition, tables and charts were used to show the result from the data

2.5 The application of top-down techniques in reading class

Pre-reading activities are worth contemplating because in top-down processing, the readers make guesses and confirm or change the guesses they read Therefore, in order to let students have some expectations about the content of the text, it is necessary to activate their background knowledge related to the text through pre-reading activities In this study, the investigator focused much more on the pre-reading stage

Firstly, when teaching the experimental group, the teacher will not follow the exact orders suggested in the textbook Instead of introducing all new words in the text, the teacher will provide students a lot of activities to exploit their background knowledge such as brainstorming, discussing the topic in pairs or in groups, giving background information, asking students make prediction about the topic, or asking relevant questions, etc These activities will make students more active when they read the text

Secondly, in the second stage, instead of asking student translating the whole text, the teacher will make it more interesting by different activities such as asking students predict content of the reading text, or glance at the title, subheading, the first and the last sentence of the reading text or asking students predict the next part

of the text from various clues

In the last stage of a reading lesson, to check whether students understand the text or not in term of top-down process, the teacher will carry out some different activities Discussing in pairs or groups, comparing/contrasting what students thought about the text before reading with what they think after reading the text, or answering comprehension questions are some useful activities for the post-reading stage

This process was designed based on top-down techniques so that it was used

to teach students in experimental group

CHAPTER 3:

FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS 3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Analysis of the test results

The aim of the reading test was to answer the question to what extend that down techniques help students to enhance reading The time for the test was within

top-15 minutes During the test, the teacher worked as an examiner

The marking was done with the same way of assessment and then was analyzed

in turn The same test design was delivered to students in two different periods of time: at the beginning and the end of the course

After the tests were collected and marked, the investigator then analyzed the test scores in terms of frequency distribution to find out the range of marks and the measures of central tendency to classify the progress tendency of each class

In the same way, the results of the post-test were interpreted and compared with those of the pre-test And then the standard deviation (SD) was taken into consideration as a very powerful measure of dispersion This data helped the investigator explore the degree to which the group of test scores deviated from the mean, then finding out what effects the use of top-down techniques in teaching reading had on students

3.1.1.1 The Pre-test results

Table 1.1 shows some significant descriptive statistics of the results gained

by two groups in the pre-test

Experimental group

testees

Percentage (%)

Chart 1.1 Percentage of the raw mark in the pre-test

As can be seen from table 1.1, the scores were ranged from 2 to 8, in which mark 4, 5 were the most common Students in control group seemed to be of more unified level whereas students from experimental one had more excellent individuals This was shown in the chart where the columns of mark 5, 6, and 7 in control group were higher whereas the column of mark 8 was higher in experimental group However, the comparison of the mode revealed that the control group seemed to be a little bit better than the experimental one as its mode of 5 was higher than one of the experimental group which was 4

3.1.1.2 The Post-test results

The result of the post-test is shown as