Using while reading activities to improve reading comprehension for the 10th form students at tinh gia 3 high school

When teaching English, theteacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage.And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have totry t

1 Introduction

1.1 The reason for choosing the subject.

Nowadays, English is the most popular language in the world As aneffective means of international communication, it is used as the officiallanguage in many fields of life such as economics, politics, science,technology, sports and many others This leads to an increasing demand oflearning English There are more and more people who learn English andconsider it as an inevitable factor in their work and life

In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as acompulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that internationallanguage has been recently paid great attention to When teaching English, theteacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage.And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have totry their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening andspeaking in order to communicate in English successfully Among these fourskills, reading plays an important role in enriching the students’ generalknowledge and in helping them with their further study later

Owing to the importance of reading itself, the growing interest in learning English in Vietnam creates a wide learning environment It can be seen that the teaching of reading of reading comprehension has been paid in increasing attention to its different aspects As time goes by, many experts and

methodologists have come to understand that reading comprehension is

important not only at schools but also afterwards That is reading helps

students as readers develop their language ability in general and

comprehension skills in particular at schools as well as gives them other benefits to avoid cultural and language bias, etc in daily communication

Recognizing the importance of reading, I decide on choosing “Using While- Reading Activities to Improve Reading Comprehension for the 10th-Form Students at Tinh Gia 3 High School”

1.2 Objective of research

1.2.1 For the students

- Provide learners with an overview of how to use While- Reading Activities

in an English reading class

- Help students improve reading comprehension in reading class

1.2.2 For the teachers

- Find out the most effective ways to improve students’ readingcomprehension in general and the method of using While-Reading Activities

- Know how to stimulate students to improve their reading skill

1.3 Research methodology

I write this topic based on:

- The method of studying theory

- The method of investigating

- The method of questionnaire interview

- The method of class observation

- Applying the topic to real teaching English at Tinh Gia 3 high school

- Comparison, collation and summary of the result, effect of the topic

1.4 Scope of research

- The research is focus on using While-Reading Activities to help 10thform graders at Tinh Gia 3 high school to improve reading comprehension inreading lessons

1.4.1 The students

This action research project was conducted with 80 grade 10th students in class 10A5 and 10A6 at Tinh Gia 3 High School, There were twenty males and sixty females Their average age ranges from 16 to 17, nearly three-forth

of whom came from the countryside Their English proficiency levels were reported to be at the elementary level

1.4.2 The teachers

The English Group of Tinh Gia 3 high school includes 9 teachers Thefive English teachers are teaching English for grade 10 are invited toparticipate in the survey All of them have been teaching English for morethan 5 years, the oldest one has been an English Teacher for 25 years The 5teachers have also worked with English 10 text book several times AllEnglish teachers in Tinh Gia 3 high school are introduced and get to knowhow to use While-Reading Activities

However, a careful considered definition of reading is very necessaryfor the reading teacher Because reading is the most critical aspect of anyteaching programme and for the teachers to decide what they will teach in theclassroom Herein, I would like to mention some definitions of readingextracted from different sources on the theme

Elias and Ingram (1977:55) states:“Reading was defined as theabstraction of meaning from a visual configuration, and was shown to involvedesirably not a painstaking grapheme- by- grapheme decoding but thepostulation of alternatives of meaning which one reduced by the parsimoniousinteraction of the component process with the visual configuration.”

Moreover, Urquhart & Weir [29, p.22] define reading as follows: “Reading isthe process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in languageform via the medium of print” Reading plays such an important part in the

success of second language learning and it is necessary to understand whatreading is, however, it’s difficult to explain it briefly and correctly

In a general term, reading is defined as “ Reading is an active, fluentprocess which involves the reader and reading materials in building meaning,meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the reader”Anderson [8, p.1] this definition of reading has been generally shared by otherresearches

Deriving from those opinions, reading is considered a process in which

a reader looks at and understands what has been written out

2.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension

In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of readingcomprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a greatinfluence on what he or she teaches in the class He would know what toteacher and how to make his reading lesson effectively In fact, methodologistshave been providing different definitions of reading comprehension

According to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension orunderstanding a written text means extracting the required information from it

as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is anactivity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text

in the most efficient way

Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978:9)provide a clearer point of view:

“Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding betweenthe author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of theprinted page based on the individual reader’s unique background ofexperience Reading is much than just pronouncing words correctly or simplywhat the author intends It is the process whereby the printed pages stimulateideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual”

According to the above authors, reading comprehension is not onlysimply understanding what is written, but also is what stimulates students toremember from their experiences That knowledge is then used to getmeaning out of printed page, but in the mind of the readers which includednot only facts or details but also emotion, belief and critical evaluation

From these opinions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is

a process of understanding what is conveyed in the text It does not mean thatthe reader needs to understand every single word in the text but actively work

on the text and extract the required information efficiently

2.1.3.1.1Aloud reading

Aloud reading is an unnatural activity because most people do not readaloud in real life, and it is difficult for the speaker to pay attention to themeaning of the text when reading aloud According to Doff (1988:67), “aloudreading involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it Itspurpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the implication tosomeone else.”

This kind of activity seems to be more popular in the languageclassroom It focuses on the pronunciation of words in the text rather thanunderstanding In reading a text, students come across many new words andphrases that they do not know how to pronounce The teacher, in this casemay help his students pronounce words by reading the text orally and loudly

Aloud reading is often applied for beginners and limited in upperclasses because of some reasons Firstly, it takes up a long time as studentsoften read slowly when they focus on pronunciation They consequently havenot enough time to deduce the meaning of the text or completecomprehension exercises Secondly, because students are concerned withpronunciation, it is hardly for them to understand the meaning of the text asLewis and Hill (1995:110) mention: “Asking a student to read aloud alsomeans that he may concentrate inadequately on their meaning He may readcorrectly but afterward will not be able to tell what he has read”

That is the reason why, only for the early stages of foreign languagelearning, aloud reading should become an established part of a lesson to helpthe beginners read words, phrases with correct stress and intonation in asentence

2.1.3.1.2 Silent reading

Silent reading is the nearest approach to the essence of reading.Because only by reading silently, can the readers best comprehend the writtenmaterials in the shortest possible time

According to Broughton, Brumfit and other linguistics (1980:92), thenature of silent reading skills is far from uniform It is changeable according

to the use to which it is being put Some of them are mentioned as follows:

• To survey material which is to be studies, to look throughindexes, chapter heading and outlines

• To skim- particularly when one item of information is beingsought in a mass of other printed information

• To gain superficial comprehension, as when reading forpleasure or preparing to read aloud

• To study the content of what is read in some detail

• To study the language in which the material is written

Through these ways of using reading, the readers’ depth and detail ofunderstanding, of comprehension will be improved effectively

2.1.3.2 According to the purposes of reading.

2.1.3.2.1 Skimming

Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension It is one ofspecific reading techniques necessary for quick and efficient reading Therehave been many definitions of skimming

Greenwood (1981:92) writes: “the reader goes through particularpassage such as newspaper article merely to get the gist”

In this term, Douglas Brown has the same opinion but it is clearer thanthat of above author He wrote:

“Skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text forits gist Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict thepurpose of the passage, the main topic, or massage, or possibly some of thedeveloping or supporting ideas.”

Considering the two opinions, it can be concluded that skimming is askill that enables readers to get the main point of the text without beingconcerned with details They only go through the text very fast to get generalsense or the gist of it

In brief, skimming is a very useful study technique to help the learnerorganize his thoughts and specify what information he can get from a book, sothat his reading is more efficient Hence, skimming should be applied inteaching reading to help students have an overview of what they read

2.1.3.2.2 Scanning

Similar to skimming, scanning is a necessary technique in readingefficiently Douglas (2001:308) defines scanning as follows: “Scanning wasquickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text”

Sharing the same opinion with Douglas Brown, Williams (2001:100)emphasizes: “Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly

in order to find a particular point of information.” It reveals the key to scanning

is to decide exactly what kind of information we are looking for and where tofind it

In addition, Grellet (1981:19) gives a more detailed definition ofscanning: “When scanning, we only try to locate information and often we donot even follow the linearity of passage to do so, and scanning is far morelimited since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to ourpurpose.”

These authors have the same point that while scanning reader does notneed to read form cover to cover, they only look for the information they want

by running their eyes rapidly along the lines It can be practised with the greatrange of texts such as dictionaries, map, advertisements, labels, etc This kind

of reading is very useful in reading selectively

In general, both skimming and scanning are effective techniques forquick and efficient reading It is advisable to make use of them to improvereading comprehension skills for students in reading classes

2.1.3.2.3 Intensive reading

Intensive reading is also widely used in a reading class Its is aneffective way to explore the text, to go deeply into the meaning and theorganization of the text

According to Grellet (1981:4) “Intensive reading means reading short text

to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading fordetails.”

In addition, Nuttal (1989:23) writes: “Intensive reading involvesapproaching the texts under the close guidance of the teacher…, or under theguidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the ext.the aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detail understanding

of the text: not only of what is means but also of how the meaning isproduced ”

From the mentioned opinions intensive reading’s aim is to achieve fullunderstanding of the logical arguments, attitude, and purposes of the writer aswell as his linguistic means to achieve these purposes

Sharing the same opinion with Nuttal, Douglas (2001:312) defines:

“Intensive reading is usually a classroom oriented activity in whichstudents focuses on linguistic or semantic details of a passage Reading callsstudents’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers and other surfacestructure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implication,rhetorical relationships and the like””

In short, intensive reading is a basic classroom activity It is reallyeffective if the teacher and his students know how to fully exploit this activity

in class with the help of reading exercises

In Brown’s opinion, besides practising fluency, extensive reading helpsstudents enrich their language elements because it is one of the keys toachieve reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling andwriting (2001:301)

And to Nuttal (1989:168), this kind of reading is also a very useful skillfor students to widen their knowledge as he wrote: “The best way to improveone’s knowledge of foreign language is to go and live among its speakers Thenext best way is to read extensively in it.”

To summarize, extensive reading is one of good ways to improve one’sknowledge of a foreign language because its aim is to cover the content oftext in the shortest possible period of time In the language classroom, the

teacher must introduce some suitable reading materials to students, as it isuseful for them to form a good habit of reading.

2.2 Practical background

Most of the teachers at my school hardly use While-reading activities inteaching reading skill They believe that it is time- consuming Until nowhardly have English teachers at high schools in my province used while-reading activities in teaching reading skill Therefore, I met with a lot ofdisapproval when I told my colleagues about my intention of using while-reading activities in reading lesson They suppose there is not enough time touse while-reading activities

To illustrate the problem, three volunteer teachers from other classeswere asked to come to classes 10A5 and 10A6 in two different periods toobserve the reading lesson without notifying to the teacher and all the students

in that class The observers just focused on what the teacher did in while –reading stage and the reaction of students in the class at this stage What ismore, the teachers collected the students’ responses in order to compare thedifferences in students’ reading performance between the pre – and postimprovement stage of this research

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE EVALUATION

1 Total number of students evaluated: 80 (2 classes)

2 Unit 11: National parks

3 This lesson was carried out in the 24 th week of the second term of the academic year 2020-2021.

4 Time allowance: 20 minutes (8 minutes for task 1 and 12 minutes for task

2.)

* THE RESULTS OF PRE – IMPROVEMENT CLASS OBSERVATION Class Teachers’ activities Students’ activities Comments 10

A5

Task 1:

Teacher pointed at the

textbook and asked her

students “What is the kind of

task?” – “OK Now we

learn how to match the

words in A with their

definitions in B”

Task 2:

Teacher asked her students

to do Task 2, and then she

called some students to

Some of themsaid “It isvocabularymatching”

nothing, somekept on personaltalks

Most of thestudents

answered thequestions by

This is a typical lesson of a careless teacher She did not prepare anything for the lesson and students felt bored with her lesson so their reading

comprehension skill would be affected

Class Teachers’ activities Students’ activities Comments

answer the questions in the

textbook

seeing the keys

in the referencebook and onlysome of themlistened to whatthe teacher saidand workedindividually

10A6 Task 1:

Teacher showed task 1

copied in A4 paper and

asked the students “Can you

read the passage quickly and

finishing this task?”

Task 2:

The teacher asked students

to do task 2 in the textbook

with no emphasis on what

they had to do

“Yes”

Students seemed

nervous andtried to finishtheir task

This is a teacher – centered

teaching approach The teacher did not notice the feelings

of the students Teacher even gave a wrong

sentence “Can

you read the passage quickly and finishing this task?” in task 1

This shows that teacher didn’t prepare the lesson plan before teaching that reading lesson.

In the above classes the author observed and graded with a rubric, thesecriteria do not meet high expectations The following table below will showthe results of pre-improvement class observation

Criteria

Meets expectatio

n high

Meets expectation low

Prior knowledge 25 55

Table 1: Evaluating the students’ English reading competence

In order to get the data for the study I give pre-task questionnaires to teachers and students to collect their attitudes toward while-reading activities and their difficulties in teaching and learning this skill These questionnaires were given at the beginning of the school year

Question 1: What difficulties do you face when learning reading?

Lack of background knowledge 18,75%

Limitation of vocabulary &

A Encouraging you to activate your previous knowledge

B Creating comfortable environment for you to exchange

C Offering you as many chances to read the passage as

D Providing you with certain key words 8 10

E Explaining clearly about the reading contexts 3 3.75

F Suggesting you essential reading strategies needed for

G Exploiting different kinds of reading materials suitable

to your reading ability and your interest 5 6.25

Question 3: What difficulties do you face when teaching reading?

Students’ lack of background knowledge and world

Students’ limitation of vocabulary & grammatical

Students’ lack of appropriate reading skills 10 12.5

Question 4: Do you often use while– reading activities in teaching reading? Why or Why not?

All of the teachers (100%) do not usually use while-reading activities

in teaching reading The reasons they give are shown in the following table.Each teacher can have more than one answer

Numbers Percentages(

%)

They do not know how to use

while-reading activities in teaching while-reading

2.3.1 Difficulty

Most of the students are shy and afraid to present in front of class Somestudents are lack of confidence when being asked to make a speech or apresentation Because they have difficulty finding words or vocabulary related

to the topic Besides, they are lack of some background knowledge about thetopic In addition, they don’t know how to find suitable structures to expresstheir ideas, how to organize their ideas…To respond to the challengesdescribed above, I read a lot of books, articles on the internet and come upsome strategies that I find useful in my application of using while-readingactivities

2.3.2 Using while-reading activities to teaching and learning

2.3.2.1 Design strategies for improvement

Training students while-reading activities would help improve the students’ reading comprehension

2.3.2.1.2 Drawing a plan of action to solve the problem

As the students’ reading comprehension skill with a (low) medium level, aplan of action was developed to train the students some while-readingactivities so as to help them improve the problem:

3. Making sure that students are motivated to work and be more interested

in the reading lessons

4. Trying to avoid the classroom restraints

5. Paying more attention to less – confident, shy or quiet students andencouraging them to work

6. Managing time well in each part of the reading lesson

2.4 Application of while-reading activities to improve reading comprehension in reading class for 10 th graders at Tinh Gia 3 high school

The new strategies and changes were tried out in the next practice readinglesson All the changes and improvements or even new or bad problems aftereach lesson were made notes by the teacher in brief

4.3.2.1 The first try – out lesson – at class 10 A5:

Unit 12: “Music”

- While – reading activities lasted for 20 minutes

Task 1:

* AIMS: The students will be able to obtain the new words and use them

proficiently to improve their vocabulary

- Teacher prepared Task 1 drawn in A0 paper; the classroom was comfortableand well – prepared

- After the pre – reading activities, the teacher introduces the words/ phrases

in the box all appear in the reading passage:

Solemn (adj): let students listen to “Tiến Quân Ca” and then asks them: “How do you feel when you hear the song?”

Communicate (v): drawing, poster

Mournful (adj): picture

Lull (v): miming ……

Students guessed the meaning of the words and checked the words byscanning the text At the end of the stage, teacher divided the class into 3 bigteams and let students play a game in which these words were used such as

“She lulls her babies to sleep at night”, “People can use English to communicate in many parts of the world.”…If any team has more correct

sentences, they will be the winners

- It might be a successful activity

Task 2:

* AIMS: The students will be able to understand the text and do the task to

enhance their reading skill

- After finishing task 1, the teacher asked students to scan the passage againand then divided the class into two big teams and let students play a gamecalled “ Noughts and crosses” ( ca rô), the students chose word by word in thecells and made the questions with each word, a correct answer got one ( O) or( X), The group with 3 O or X vertically, horizontally or diagonally firstwould be the winner, the sentences( questions and answers) had to begrammatically correct and made sense The students might be successful thiskind of exercise because they felt it interesting

EVALUATION: These activities were quite noisy but the students enjoyed them very much, especially when they tried to win in the games The weak students had difficulties in understanding the whole text although they were helped

4.3.2.2 The second try – out lesson – at class 10A6:

Unit 12: Music

- While – reading activities lasted in 20 minutes in a comfortable classroom

Task 1:

* AIMS: The students will be able to obtain the new words and use them

proficiently to improve their vocabulary

- After the exciting pre-reading activities, Teacher prepared handouts of task 1which consisted of two columns (one column: the words/phrases, one column: