Integrating task based instruction as an alternative approach in teaching reading comprehension at an upper secondary school in hanoi

However, nowadays it is mostly undeniable to trust that reading comprehension is considered as an important language skill in learning new information because it can help foster the proc

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THỦY

INTEGRATING TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(Tích hợp phương pháp dạy học giao nhiệm vụ như là một đường hướng thay thế

trong giảng dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nội

Một nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm.)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ THỦY

INTEGRATING TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT AN UPPER

SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH

(Tích hợp phương pháp dạy học giao nhiệm vụ như là một đường hướng thay thế

trong giảng dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nội

Một nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm.)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Prof Hoàng Văn Vân

HANOI – 2019

i

DECLARATION

I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Integrating Task-based Instruction

as an Alternative Approach in Teaching Reading Comprehension at an Upper Secondary School in Hanoi: An Action Research.” It is not a plagiarism or made

by others Anything related to others‟ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I

am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree

Signature

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to express my deepest thanks of gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Prof Dr Hoang Van Van for his friendly and sympathetic assistance and dedicated involvement throughout the process of this thesis

I would also like to be grateful to all my dear colleagues of FPT high school, and

my classmates of the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their helpful as well as practical suggestions

My sincere thanks go to classes of FPT high school for their crucial participation in completing the survey questionnaires and their willingness to provide their ideas on this study as well

Last but not least, I also own a great debt of gratitude to my family and friends for their immeasurable support bot all my degree and in this arduous process of this study

iii

ABSTRACT

Developing reading comprehension ability is an important aspect in acquisition of a language The present study focused on improving reading comprehension ability through Task-based Instruction (TBI) TBI is a methodology that develops from a focus on classroom tasks The participants of the study were 100 students at from four classes of 11th grade at FPT high school through a quasi-experimental design The participants were divided into two groups, one control group (CG) and one experimental group (EG) An action research with a cycle of treatment was employed in this research The participants received a pre-test, the instruction, and a post-test The participants in EG were taught through TBI, whereas the others in CG were exposed to a traditional method The comparison between CG and EGs were made through paired sample t-tests The results revealed that the students in EGs outperformed CGs The results are also supported by the gathered data from the questionnaires, interviews, and class observations This study may have pedagogical implications for practitioners in the field and for syllabus designers to include appropriate tasks in English textbooks and English teachers/instructions to deliver the appropriate teaching methods to their students

Key words: reading, reading comprehension, task based instruction

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Rationale for the study 2

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study 4

1.4 Research questions 5

1.5 Significance of the study 5

1.6 A Summary of methodology 6

1.6.1 Participants 6

1.6.2 Research instruments 6

1.6.3 Research procedures 7

1.7 Structure of the study 7

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Reading 9

2.1.1 Definition 9

2.1.2 Purposes of reading 10

2.1.3 Reading process 10

2.2 Reading comprehension 11

2.3 Task based instructions 13

2.3.1 Definition of task 13

2.3.2 Task based instructions 14

2.4 Theoretical frameworks: Framework by Willis (1996) 16

2.5 Previous studies 17

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20

3.1 Research settings 20

3.1.1 FPT Upper Secondary School 20

3.1.2 Teachers and students 20

3.1.3 Reading materials 21

3.2 Research method 22

3.2.1 Classroom action research (CAR) 22

v

3.2.2 Treatment 28

3.3 Data collection instruments 29

3.3.1 Reading tests 29

3.3.2 Questionnaires 30

3.3.3 Class observation 31

3.3.4 Interview 32

3.3.5 Data collection procedure 33

3.4 Data analysis 33

3.5 Summary 34

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 35

4.1 Results from tests 35

4.1.1 The distribution of the test results 35

4.1.2 Descriptive statistics 37

4.2 Results from the questionnaires and interviews 38

4.2.1 Students‟ and teachers attitude toward the textbook 39

4.2.2 Students‟ assessments on teachers‟ teaching activities in reading lessons40 4.2.3 Accomplishment of students‟ performance in reading period 40

4.2.4 Learning reading skills of the 11th students 41

4.2.5 Students‟ attitudes towards the roles of teachers 43

4.2.6 Teachers‟ activities at reading stages 43

4.2.6.1 Teachers‟ activities at pre-reading stage 43

4.2.6.2 Teachers‟ activities at while-reading stage 44

4.2.6.3 Teachers‟ activities at post-reading stage 44

4.3 Results from observations 45

4.4 Discussions 45

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 47

5.1 Recapitulation 47

5.2 Concluding remarks 48

5.3 Implications 50

5.4 Recommendations 51

vi

5.4.1 Recommendations for teachers 51

5.4.2 Recommendations for students 52

5.5 Limitations 52

5.6 Suggestions for the further study 53

REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX I

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students I Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers IV Appendix 3: Interview transcript summary V Appendix 4: Sample of classroom observation (two samples in four) VII Appendix 5: Reading tests XV Reading pre-test XV Reading post-test XX Appendix 6: Test results XXV Appendix 7: A sample of lesson plan with task based approach XXX

ESL : English as Second Language

EFL : English as Second Language

viii

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 2.1: A Heuristic approach for reading comprehension 12

Figure 3.1: The scheme of Classroom Action Research (CAR) 23

Figure 4.1 Comparison between pre-test and post-test score 36

Figure 4.2: Students‟ difficulties in doing reading tasks 42

Table 3.1: Procedures for test development 30

Table 3.2: Score interval for tests 30

Table 4.1: Paired sample t-test between means of CG and EG on pre-test 37

Table 4.2: Paired sample t-test between means of CG and EG on post-test 38

Table 4.3: The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores 38

Table 4.4: Students‟ attitude toward the textbook 39

Table 4.5: Students‟ assessments on the teachers‟ teaching activities in reading periods 40

Table 4.6: Accomplishment of students‟ performance in reading lessons 40

Table 4.7: Kinds of tasks 41

Table 4.8: Students‟ strategies of doing reading tasks 42

1

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

These days, it is thought that language itself plays a significant role in our daily life and it is believed to be the most effective means of communication Around the world, the greater the demand of communication among people is, the more necessary everyone needs to learn at least one foreign language Therefore, English

is increasingly taught and learnt as a second/foreign language in all fields of life such as technology, education, tourism, etc in Vietnam It is special to suggest that English has become a compulsory subject in high schools That is a reason why it is very important to improve English teaching and learning for students effectively Throughout many years, traditional focus of many teaching approaches has been mainly on grammar, so it is accepted as the key of various classroom activities However, nowadays it is mostly undeniable to trust that reading comprehension is considered as an important language skill in learning new information because it can help foster the process of language acquisition and assist students to read various materials for a great number of purposes (Poorahmadi, 2012) According to that, learners can gain information and knowledge to meet their needs of learning, doing research, entertaining, etc by mastering reading comprehension via different materials for plentiful purposes

Besides, it is one of the most integral skills which are essential for students, especially the high-school ones In detail, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET, 2012) emphasizes that flourishing communicative competence for students is one of the most essential targets in building and implementing foreign language teaching Students are required to achieve certain linguistic knowledge and enhance communication strategies and skills after finish English curriculum in high schools Hence, teaching reading comprehension aims to help students develop essential reading skills (e.g., skimming and scanning) and strategies (e.g., meta-cognitive strategies, affective strategies) and achieve linguistic knowledge (e.g., lexical knowledge, grammatical knowledge) (MOET, 2012) Nevertheless, to a large extent, both teachers and learners cannot obtain the aims for teaching and

1.2 Rationale for the study

Many students have difficulty comprehending what they read All schools need to have some sort of remedial reading program provided to help struggling students Low reading skills affect both reading fluency and comprehension for elementary school students Reading skills are foundational building blocks at this age and the earlier students with low reading skills receive interventions, the greater the interventions will impact the students‟ reading ability (Hausheer, Hansen, & Doumas, 2011) Knowing how to read words has ultimately little value if the student is unable to construct meaning from the text (Klinger, Vaughn, & Boardman, 2007) If schools are able to provide what the students need, there will

be more success for everyone involved

Reading is one of the important skills in English and it gives many benefits for us Reading is the window of the world By reading, people can get more knowledge and information from books, magazines, newspapers, and others Reading is the most important component in learning process and social interaction for the

Reading is bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written material (Finochiaro and Bonomo, 1973) Through the reading activity, the students can enlarge their knowledge and it can also make them wise and respectful Students‟ reading ability must be developed Teachers have duties to develop their skill and ability Everything teachers do in reading class should be designed to build students‟ ability to understand increasingly complex content of the texts The methods, techniques, and teaching media that are chosen and used by the teacher will influence the success of teaching learning process and students‟ achievement

By developing good method, technique and media students are expected to be able

to have an active learning Active learning can make the students interested in the reading lesson that given to them, not only silent or passive in the teaching and learning process

There are four skills in learning process; listening, reading, speaking, and writing

In this research, the researcher will focus on reading skill, because through the teaching experiences and observations it is realized that many students at FPT high school have problems in understand aspect of English and they always confused to master the reading text Reading is the important section to be taught in the school

In reading learning process the student must understand what the content of text to get the information from it Reading is process to transfer the science from book to brain from writer to reader, and this information will be not received with the readers if they did not understand what the content of the text Other problem in reading is lack of vocabularies and also pronunciation From that many problems, they will have an opinion that English learning is a difficult in particular the reading skill The students know from their test result that they always failed in the reading text This matter will out from the goal of teaching learning The solution of thus

4

problems is that the teacher should know more about approach, method, and strategy in learning English, as the method will support the teacher way to make his teaching learning more effective Teaching through task, or task based instruction which is considered as an activity which involves the use of language but in which the focus is on the outcome of the activity rather than on the language used to achieve that outcome can create favorable learning conditions for the students to master their reading skills (Kavaliauskiené, 2005) Based on the background and stated problems of the study the researcher conducts a classroom action research on

“Integrating task-based instruction as an alternative approach in teaching reading comprehension at an upper secondary school in Hanoi: An action research” to improve the English teaching and learning process and enhance the

reading competence of English learners

1.3 Aims and objectives of the study

In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting, it is mostly believed that reading comprehension is the central means for learning new information and it is the most important skill needed for the student's success The importance and position of reading comprehension skill in Vietnamese academic setting like other EFL settings are undeniable; in a way, it is often introduced as the main goal of English language learning Therefore, it has attracted the attention of many English Language Teaching (ELT) researchers and applied linguists

The overarching aim of this research is to explore how the English teachers in Vietnam use the task-based teaching/approach to solve those exposed problems of reading comprehension of their students, contributing to the enhancement of students‟ reading comprehension ability

For the achievement of the overall aims, this research seeks out for the following specific objectives:

(1) Exploring the theoretical fundamentals of reading skills, reading comprehension, and task-based approach;

(2) Examining the problems with traditional approaches in English reading teaching and learning English at FPT upper secondary school in Hoa Lac, Hanoi;

1.4 Research questions

The following research questions are formulated in response to the aims and

objectives of the study:

Question 1: How are reading skills taught at FPT Upper Secondary School?

Question 2: How does task-based instruction have an effect on reading

comprehension ability of grade 11th students at FPT Upper Secondary School? Question 3: What can the teachers and students do to improve reading

comprehension teaching and learning with reference to the use of task-based

instruction?

1.5 Significance of the study

The available findings in this area reveal that emphasizing on reading based on traditional approaches and strategies has been the source of new problems In this case, Hokmi (2005) states that traditionally EFL students are required to read texts, translate them into the first languages, and answer the comprehension questions According to Shokouhi (2006), inadequate approaches including Grammar Translation Method have been dominant in the current EFL textbooks and classrooms; significant approaches which have shown to be effective in enhancing the learner's understanding have somewhat been neglected in this trend

In fact, the problem with traditional approaches is that they do not usually consider

as being purpose-driven and comprehension questions generally address all information in the text in an undifferentiated manner as if all ideas or aspects of the text are equally important In this regard, Farhady (2006) clearly asserts that the activities and exercises in the English textbooks do not give learners a sense of achievement in terms of the reading skill Tasks are not designed to involve students

in the process of learning, so a remodelling of the texts and activities is highly

6

recommended Among the recent effective approaches, Task-based Language Teaching, also referred to as Task-based Instruction has become an important approach; in a way, that it is currently known as the dominant teaching approach to language instruction Therefore, it is expected that the findings of the research will contribute to only the fulfilment of the literature gap concerning the employment of task based approach for the improvement of students‟ reading comprehension skills but the practical implications for the design of reading comprehension curriculum and lessons with the inclusion of proper and useful tasks

1.6 A Summary of methodology

1.6.1 Participants

Participants were 100 students from the four intact 11th grade classes at FPT high school in Hanoi with the age range of 16-18 years old All participants were supposed to be at the similar level of English proficiency since they have learned English as a second language for one year and a half at FPT high school The total number of students was selected to do carry out two reading comprehension tests, a pre-test and a post-test, to measure the reading comprehension ability of the students under the effects of task based approaches in the English reading classes Furthermore, then, a survey questionnaire was conducted to obtain more in-depth attitudes and perceptions towards the use of task based approach for reading comprehension teaching by their teachers Four English teachers of the school were also invited to administrate the reading tests and check the validity of the tests and the questionnaire

1.6.2 Research instruments

A quasi-experimental research was employed in this study to measure participants‟ reading comprehension achievement as well as the influence of focused tasks on their reading ability

To collect effective and relevant data for this study, four research techniques were carried out:

(i) Using a pre-test and a post-test to assess the teaching and learning

success through the intervention of task based approach in reading

7

comprehension;

(ii) Designing a questionnaire to measure intrinsic motivation of English

learning activities;

(iii) Conducting class observations to evaluate the attitudes of the students

towards the teachers‟ use of task based approach in reading comprehension lessons; and

(iv) Interviewing students and teachers to support the findings from other

instruments to evaluate the effects of task based approach on the students‟ improvements in reading comprehension ability

1.6.3 Research procedures

The researcher conducted the study with the following steps:

(1) Administering the pre-test and the questionnaire to check the current reading ability of the participants;

(2) Carrying out the task based instructions to the two experimental groups as the treatment of action research;

(3) Issuing a questionnaire to check students‟ attitudes, understanding of the experiment period;

(4) Conducting class observations to obtain the way the teachers employs the task based approach in their teaching of reading comprehension and the attitudes of the students towards this approach in the natural context;

(5) Administering a post-test to measure the success of treatment; and

(6) Analyzing the gathered data and discussing the findings for the conclusion and implications

1.7 Structure of the study

The study consists of three main parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion with reference to five chapters

Chapter 1: Introduction presents the background, rationale, aims and objectives,

scope, methods, significance and design of the study

Chapter 2: Literature Review is intended to give some theoretical background

related to reading and reading comprehension in English language, task based

8

instructions, theoretical frameworks of task based approach and the previous researches concerning task based approach

Chapter 3: Methodology deals with research governing orientation, research

methods and presents the situation analysis, participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis The detailed results of the survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collected are focused

Chapter 4: Findings and Discussions shows major findings and discussions and

offers some recommendations for teachers to use the task based approach to improve the students‟ reading comprehension skills

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications summarizes the issues addressed,

recapitulates the research procedure, and further makes recommendations for the implementation of task-based language teaching in the following research

9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter deals with three major aspects regarding the studied issues, including reading and reading comprehension in English; task based instructions; and theoretical framework by Willis (1996) concerning the use of task-based approach

in foreign language teaching and learning Furthermore, a critical analysis of previous studies is carried out in this chapter to explore how the task based instructions in English teaching are addressed by the scholars and education practitioners

2.1 Reading

2.1.1 Definition

Reading is one of the most important skills in learning language besides listening, speaking and writing It has the fundamental goal to know enough the concept and the language It operational means an activity that the students perform to gain information or massage from the written material the read Therefore, in reading activity students have intention to obtain knowledge from their listening

Hornby (1994) defines reading as an action of a person who reads Carillo (1976) concludes that educators and psychologists differ as to what should be included in the definition of reading in three categories, including:

(1) Reading is purely a mechanical process in reading skill by the following:

- A reader‟s accuracy in recognizing words and attacking words that are known;

- The amount of print recognized at each fixation of the eyes;

- The rate of recognizing of words and phrases; and

- Rhythmic progress along the line of print an easy return sweep to the next line

(2) Reading is mechanical process plus the acquisition of meaning advocates of this broader view hold that in addition to acquisition efficiency in the mechanical aspect given above; the reader must fuse the meaning represented by the printed words into a chain of related ideas

(3) Reading is combination of mechanics, understanding, retention, and use In this

10

broadest of the three views, the reader should be able not to perform the mechanics and comprehend and the meanings meaning of the words, but to critically evaluate the ideas expressed and apply then to his or her situation Nuttal (1982) states that reading is to recall, to understand, to interpret, and analyze the printed page while Smith and Robinson (1980) state that reading an active attempt, on the part of the reader, to understand a writer message The reader interacts with and try to reconstruct what the writer wishes to communicates Haris and Sipay (1980) state reading is the meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols Nuttal (1982) remarks that reading is process of getting a massage from a text or understanding a written text mean extracting the information from the text as efficiency as possible According to Clark and Silberstein in Anita (2006) define that reading is an active cognitive process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning From this point of view, it can be concluded that reading is an active thinking process where the reader try to gain information given by the author and understanding what actually the purpose of the author

2.1.2 Purposes of reading

The purposes of reading refer to readers‟ aims and objectives Therefore, different readers may have different purposes in their mind with the reading text in their hand According to Ruiqi (2007), basically there are two main reading purposes including reading for getting information and reading for pure fun or enjoyment Grabe and Stoller (2002), however, divided reading purposes into seven subtypes which are more specific: reading for search for simple information, reading to skim quickly, reading to learn from the text, reading to integrate information, reading to write, reading to critique the text and reading for general comprehension

2.1.3 Reading process

Reading process is claimed by Gascoigne (2005) to be a selective process which is characterized as an active process of comprehending So far, there have been three widely accepted reading models developed to depict the act of reading or the way and procedure that readers use to construct meaning from the reading texts The

11

three reading models are bottom-up, top-down and interactive (Barnett, 1989)

In bottom-up model, reading is compelled by the text, proceeds from part to whole, constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases, sentences Readers process the text

in linear direction (Nunan, 1991) Therefore, in this model, readers are believed to play a rather passive role The basis of bottom-up reading model lies in the linguistic knowledge of the reader (Samuel & Kamil, 1988)

In top-down model, the understanding of the text is constructed from whole to part The readers predict what come next, test their prediction and adjust or confirm In this model, readers actively use their background knowledge Goodman (1967) described reading using top-down model like a “psycholinguistic guessing game” in which the “reader reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display” (p.135)

Interactive model is a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches This model was discussed as the process of combining textual information with the information the reader brings to a text (Widdownson, 1979); therefore, the meaning

of the text is, in fact, “synthesized based on information provided simultaneously from several knowledge sources” (Stanovich, 1980, p.35)

2.2 Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is a crucial component of second language acquisition As

a core part of language learning it is, obviously, not an effortless process Learners often complain of not understanding a text, therefore they fail in answering to the comprehensive questions In addition to this, Gough and Tunmer (1986) supported that reading comprehension is actually a process of decoding Besides, it is believed

by Smith (1978) that “reading comprehension involves bringing a prior knowledge interacted with what she is reading, so that she can achieve comprehension” Moreover, Block et al (2002, p.5) claimed that “reading comprehension is an interactive process involving the reader, the text and the context.”

Sedita (2001) claimed that reading comprehension is the ability to determine meaning from text It is a complicated, interactive process where readers construct meaning based on information they get from the text combine with their own

12

knowledge Gough and Tunmer (1986) supported that reading comprehension is actually a process of decoding According to the RAND Reading Study Group (2012), reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language which entails 3 elements: the reader who doing the comprehending (bring his own capacities, abilities, knowledge and experiences), the text to be comprehended and the activity (the purposes, the processes, the consequences) The dynamic interaction between these elements of reading comprehension can be depicted in the following figure

Figure 2.1: A Heuristic approach for reading comprehension

Source: RAND Reading Study Group, 2002

In English learning process as input or as English materials is measured the students‟ reading comprehension The wrong strategy in teaching can make the students lazy and raise impression that subject is not important so they consider that learning is the fact of being forced Hence, this research looks into the task based approach as an effective method in teaching and learning of reading English comprehension

The definition of the concept of task can predetermine language use As Nunan (2004) claims, the concept of task has made its way in syllabus design, classroom teaching, and learner assessment It has also influenced pedagogical policies in ESL/EFL classrooms Task has been defined differently by different experts in the field (Lee, 2000; Long, 1985; Prabhu, 1987; Skehan, 1996)

Ellis (2003) claims that the definitions of task have addressed different dimensions such as (a) the scope of a task, (b) the perspective from which a task is viewed, (c) its authenticity, (d) linguistic skills required to perform a task, (e) psychological and cognitive processes involved in performance of a task, and (f) the outcome of a task Willis (1996, p 23) defines task as “an activity where the TL is used by the learner for a communicative purpose in order to achieve an outcome.” For Richards and Rodgers (2014), a task is an activity carried out as the outcome of processing or understanding language Tasks may end in production of language Using different tasks can make language teaching more communicative

There are different types of tasks which could be employed in ESL/EFL settings, such as, jigsaw tasks, information-gap tasks, problem-solving tasks, decision-making tasks, opinion exchange task, etc They are generally divided into pedagogical tasks and real-world tasks Nunan (1989) believes that task is an activity which necessarily includes language It involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing, or interacting in TL while they focus on meaning rather than form For Ellis (2003, p.16) a pedagogical task is “a work plan that requires learners to process language pragmatically in order to achieve an outcome that can

be evaluated in terms of whether the correct or appropriate propositional content has been conveyed.”

14

The focus is on meaning even if the design of the task affects learners‟ choice of a particular form A task can refer to receptive skills (listening and reading) or productive skills (speaking and writing) Knowing the definition and the dimensions can differentiate TBI from traditional teaching methods

2.3.2 Task based instructions

Task-based instruction has gained popularity in the field of language teaching since the last decade of 20th century (Sanchez, 2004) In this approach, learners concentrate on meaning rather than form; that is, students carry out a group of communicative tasks instead of doing form-based discrete exercises Students are expected to express their own ideas, either orally or in a written mode, about the topic of the lesson (Willis, 1996) Nunan (1991) outlines five characteristics of a task-based approach to language learning:

(1) An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

(2) The introduction of authentic texts (teaching materials) into the learning situation

(3) The provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language, but also on the learning process itself

(4) An enhancement of the learner‟s own personal experience as important contributing elements to classroom learning

(5) An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

Willis (1996) explains that “within the TBL framework, tasks and texts combine to give students a rich exposure to language and also opportunities to use it themselves” (p 101) Ellis (2006) cites several authors that propose various designs

of framework; however, they all coincide in three principal stages or phases According to him, the first phase in the framework shown in the above figure is the

“pretask” that includes the various activities that teachers and students can undertake before beginning the task Some of these activities may be asking and answering questions or reading a passage related to the topic The second phase, i.e

15

task cycle or “during-task”, takes place when the task is selected and learners engage in fulfilling the goals of the task According to Haseli (2004), in this stage the learners usually perform the task (typically a reading exercise) in pairs or small groups The final phase is “post-task” and involves procedures for following up on the task performance Only the “during-task” phase is obligatory in task-based teaching Options selected from the “pre-task” or post-task” phases are non-obligatory, but can serve a crucial role in ensuring that the task performance is maximally effective for language development

TBI emphasizes on conveying meaning with a proposed product where learners can learn and practice the forms of TL while paying attention to meaning Tasks are activities engaging the participants to be language users because tasks improve learners‟ ability to communicate in real-world As Schmitt (2008) stated, an important part of mastering a SL is learning understanding reading passages L2 learners need a lot of words to successfully read and understand

Vocabulary is a powerful carrier of comprehension However, there is no agreement over the best resources of vocabulary learning/teaching In line with new developments in language teaching methodology, some researchers (De La Fuente, 2006; Keating, 2008) have argued that integrating tasks in reading classes can increase engagement and facilitate learning and teaching As Nation (2001) claimed, L2 learners usually know that their limitations in their vocabulary knowledge affect their communication skills, especially reading comprehension because lexical items bear the basic information for comprehension

To increase reading comprehension ability, different teachers employ different methods, ranging from traditional ones to alternative, communicative one TBI as a substitute method to traditional language teaching method in teaching English is suggested because it supports a method in which functional communicative language use is expected Ellis (2009) believes that TBI can be both input-providing and output prompting It is a refinement of CLT and takes a fairly strong view of CLT (Skehan, 1996) It can be regarded as an opportunity to return to the conceptual foundations of CLT (Samuda & Bygate, 2008) In TBI learning

16

environment, learners are open to choose and use the TL to accomplish communicative goals As Carless (2002, p 389) claims, TBI has become “an orthodoxy in contemporary EFL teaching and in recent years has been exported to many countries around the globe.”

2.4 Theoretical frameworks: Framework by Willis (1996)

Willis (1996) has listed some types of TBL tasks which can be implemented in the study context They are:

(1) Listing: in this case, the instructor takes advantage of learner‟s prior knowledge on the topic to be developed The outcome of this activity may be

a list of concepts that the instructor collects from the students

(2) Ranking items: students rank their most important work duties where the target language is needed The outcome of this activity may be the information stored according to specific criteria

(3) Comparing or contrasting items: in the case of atmosphere, for instance, learners may make comparisons between different layers of the atmosphere

A whole-class discussion about it may be carried out as the outcome of this activity The outcome of this activity may be the identification of similarities and differences

(4) Problem-solving activities: in this task, students may give advice on how to solve common problems at the workplace The outcome of this activity may

be the finding of solutions to problems

(5) Sharing personal experiences: those open tasks consist of an exchange of opinions among students The outcome of this activity may be the exchange

of opinions and attitudes

(6) Creative tasks: these challenging activities require a higher level of preparation and integration of skills The outcome of this activity may be the end-product appropriated by the audience

Conceiving the probable efficiency and advantage of TBI as an innovative approach, the researcher tried to study the effect of using this approach on reading comprehension of 11th grade students through action research which was conducted

(1) Task based learning gives many improvements of students‟ reading comprehension which includes:

- The students get easy in comprehending English text;

- The students could identify main idea, detail information, reference, vocabularies, and the generic structure of the reading text easily The improvement of students‟ reading comprehension could be seen from the mean score of pre-test, post-test 1 and post-test 2 The mean score of pretest conducts before research was 5.6 The mean score of post-test 1 of the first cycle was 6.35 and the mean score of post-test 2 of second cycle was 7.58 (2) Task-based learning gives advantages in the teaching learning process which includes:

- The atmosphere of the classroom is alive and interesting

- The students‟ participation in class was high; they have a willing to participate in class activities

(3) The students are more active

Secondly, Iranmehr et al (2011) find that Task-based learning could have significant effect on improving the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) reading comprehension of Iranian university students which involve 75 and 65 students majoring chemistry at Damghan University and Sharood University of Technology According to this research, it shows that t (139) = -0.92, there are no statistically significant difference between experimental and control groups in pretest, but t (138) = -7.85 indicates that mean score of experimental group is more than the mean score of the control group in post-test which is statistically significant

18

Therefore, it could be concluded that there is no difference between two groups before treatment but after instructing via task based learning and teaching in experiment group and conventional method in control group, mean score of the experimental group promotes significantly more than control group

Based on this research, the following pedagogical implications might be presented: (1) Task-based language teaching, which focuses on the ability to perform a task or activity and not on the explicit teaching of grammatical rules or on vocabulary memorization and has attract the attention of many researchers, language instructors, and syllabus designers, can be an innovative alternative for university ESP classroom in Iranian context; (2) The instructors‟ observation reveals that procedures use in the experimental group trigger off students to participate more actively in discussions and devotes more attention and interested in the topic; and (3) There is no doubt that the current status of ESP in Iran as well as many other EFL contexts seriously suffers from the available textbooks; and (4) The researcher can use action research as a practical and user-friendly research which its main purpose is improving teaching and learning

Thirdly, Suprayoga et al (2013) investigated there are an improvement of the students‟ reading comprehension by using Task-based language teaching at the third year of SMAN 1 Srengat, Blitar The improvement of the students‟ reading comprehension is shown by the increasing number of students who achieves 10 point in cycle 2 In cycle 1, 14 out of 30 students (46.67%) achieve 10 point In Cycle 2, 27 out of 30 students (90.00%) achieve 10 point Meanwhile the criterion

of success stated that the research is categorized to be successful if at least 60% students achieved 10 point This meant the criterion of success is fulfilled The research is successfully conducted Finally, on the basis of the findings, some suggestions for the English teachers and the future researchers are made Firstly, English teachers are suggested to use task based language teaching in teaching reading Secondly, in using task-based language teaching, the teachers have to focus

on the followings aspects: how to arrange the lesson plans, how to choose the appropriate reading tasks, how to present the tasks, how to give feedback, and

20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is to present the research methodology that the researcher chooses to achieve the aims and objectives of the study It reveals the explanation of reasons for choosing the research instruments and offers specific ways to gain information through these instruments

3.1 Research settings

3.1.1 FPT Upper Secondary School

FPT Upper Secondary School, one of the best private schools in Hanoi, is famous for the good quality of teaching and learning, especially English Unlike the other schools, FPT Upper Secondary School holds an English diagnostic test to categorize the levels of students Every year, the rate of students who pass entrance examinations to universities is on average in the area and the number of students who can study abroad dominate the others Owing to the high quality English teaching, the English proficiency of students at FPT Upper Secondary School is much higher than that of the students of other high schools

However, during a reading lesson, the teacher asks students to read a text and then explains new words or structures to help them understand the text Sometimes, the reading lesson turns out to be an English-Vietnamese translation one Consequently, the teacher should ask students to do a variety of tasks in order to encourage them to anticipate the contents of reading texts, understand the texts, and develop reading comprehension skills

3.1.2 Teachers and students

The process of data collection involved the participation of both English teachers (4) and grade 11 students (100) who are teaching and learning at FPT high school in Hanoi

Students

Participants who were drawn from FPT high school in Hanoi, aged 16, both male and female have learnt English for 9 years, 4 years at primary school, 4 years at secondary school and one year at high school They all have similar background and levels of English proficiency Most of them come from comparatively rich families,

21

so their learning condition is quite high Their parents can afford to pay for their children‟s schooling, even some extra classes at home or at the English centers, some materials for learning such as a dictionary, a cassette player, English books, even laptops

or computers for learning In addition, their awareness on the importance of English is considered as motivation for them to learn English Nevertheless, they only focused on spoken English before, so their speaking and listening skills are much better than reading skills Moreover, half of them want to study abroad, as a result, it is necessary for them to learn IELTS including all of four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), obviously, their knowledge of English is better, so easily can they say understand a complete sentence in the target language

Teachers

There are 4 teachers of English, including the researcher, aged from 27 to 33, 3 of them have graduated from the English department, University of Languages and International Studies National university, Hanoi; one has graduated from one famous university of the USA All of them are enthusiastic with their career and had

at least 5 years experienced in teaching English However, 3 of them were trained under the strong influence of the Grammar translation methods since graduating from their respective universities Only one of them has taken courses to improve her English and her teaching methods from the native country

3.1.3 Reading materials

The piloted English 11 is commonly required to teach in most of high schools in

most cities and some rural areas, it was developed based on the new national curriculum This textbook is compiled following the program of the primary school and junior one The methodologies that this book obeys are “learner-centered approach and the communicative approach with theme-based curriculum”

Besides, the piloted English book was written by Hoang Van Van (G.Ed.), Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa (Ed.), Phan Ha, Hoang Thi Hong Hai, Kieu Thi Thu Huong, Vu Thi Lan, Dao Ngoc Loc, and Chung The Quang, published by Nha xuat ban giao duc in

collaboration with Pearson Education, is a continuance of the piloted English 10

In detail, this book consists of 10 teaching units and four review units which is

22

covered by a topic and sub-divided into five sections including reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus in eight 45-minute lessons in each unit The aim of these theme-based units is to offer students unforgettable lessons and pleasurable learning experience In each review lesson, students are provided with revision and further practice of the preceding units, and taught in two 45-minute lessons Moreover, phonetic transcription of the new words in the units and their Vietnamese equivalents are shown in the glossary part at the end of the book

In short, the pilot textbook meets a need of Vietnam‟s MOETs which is appropriate

to the students‟ educational psychologies together with the students‟ cultural background and the cultural features of Vietnam and all over the world, especially the speaking countries around the world

3.2 Research method

3.2.1 Classroom action research (CAR)

In this research, the research design that was used by the researcher is Classroom Action Research (CAR) According to Arikunto (2012), classroom action research

is a study of learning activities in the form of an action, which deliberately rose, and occurs in a class together Therefore, it means that classroom action research is a research conducted in the classroom

Meanwhile, according to Cresswell (2012), action research designs are systematic procedures done by teachers (or other individuals in educational setting) to gather information about, and subsequently improve, the ways their particular educational setting operates, their teaching, and their students learning

The definition of CAR was explained by (Shofiya et al, 2014) Classroom Action Research or CAR is a kind of research design conducted in cycles and it is carried out to increase the quality of teaching and learning activities in the classroom Furthermore, in the context of teaching English (Latief, 2011) CAR is aimed at developing an innovative instructional strategy that can help to enhance the success

in students‟ learning English

In this study, CAR is conducted to help the students improve their reading comprehension The strategy offered is by using task based instructions

The researcher did collaborative CAR, because the researcher directly works

Source: Arikunto, 2012

Figure 3.1: The Procedure of Classroom Action Research

3

24

Step 1: Preliminary Study (Reconnaissance)

Preliminary study is very important to be done to know the real condition of the students and also find out the students‟ problem in reading comprehension The process was conducted in November 2018 In the preliminary study, the researcher observed reading classes and met the English teachers to obtain the information about the ability of reading comprehension of students The initial findings revealed that they are not competent at reading comprehension due to the insufficient knowledge of vocabulary, lack of skills and lack of instructions from the teachers Besides, from the reading test, the researcher found that the students‟ score was low This is in line with the meeting with the English teacher, the most students of

11th class at FPT Upper Secondary got difficulties in reading comprehension The students were lack of vocabularies; the students got difficulties to understand the whole reading The students got difficulties to determine the correct answers The result of the difficulties was the students got poor achievement or they got the score which is under the teachers‟ expectation

Step 2: Planning

Planning is the first step in which the researcher planned the teaching technique that would be applied in the research Planning is a significant procedure to do Classroom Action Research (CAR) The researcher prepared everything needed in conducting the research This step covers socializing the research program, providing suitable strategy, designing lesson plan, preparing criteria of success and training the collaborator teacher

Socializing the research program

The researcher socialized the research program to the Board of FPT Upper Secondary School about what would be done in this research The researcher also met the English teachers of 11th grade students The researcher and the teachers discussed the technique that would be used in the research and the time allocation needed in this research The researcher also explained the role and the duty of the

in the preliminary study The researcher in this research was as a teacher who implemented the strategy of task based instructions

Designing a lesson plan

After providing the strategy, the English teacher asked the researcher to arrange the lesson plan about the teaching reading comprehension material A lesson plan was a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction for an individual lesson A lesson plan was created and developed by a teacher to guide the class instruction Normally, a lesson plan was designed by the teacher in the beginning of the semester or before the teaching process was conducted

The researcher made a lesson plan to make easy in teaching learning process, the researcher explains how to use task based instruction strategy in reading comprehension The lesson plan was developed by considering course identify the school, standard competence, basic competence, indicators, learning objectives, teaching material, teaching procedures, learning source and assessment

In designed the lesson plan, teacher must pay attention to the curriculum and then make the plan based on the appropriate competence standard and basic competence mentioned in it The lesson plan must be practical and operational so it can be effectively implemented in the classrooms It consists of:

1) School identification, it consists of name of the school, subject, level; time allocation, and state curriculum standards

26

2) Indicators, it describes the standards of each student that should be mastered in the last of the learning

3) Instructional objectives, it means the learning outcomes for the lesson

4) Instructional methods, it describes the materials that will be given for the students suitable with curriculum standards

5) Instructional technique, it describes the technique that will be used in teaching and learning process

6) Instructional procedure, in this part of lesson plan, there are kind of items to consider in the procedure action of the plan It consists of instruction, technique, activities, and share

7) Material sources, it explains the materials that will be delivered

8) Assessment, it describes kind of tests that will be used in assessing students skill The lesson plan consists of three meetings for each cycle in conducting this research In the first meeting, the researcher as instructor explains about reading comprehension gave the example and explained the reading comprehension skills The second meeting the researcher explained how to use task based instructions as the strategy to reading The last meeting, the researcher focused to get score by evaluation The researcher directly distributes a paper to the students to check their reading comprehension ability based on task based instructions

Preparing the criteria of success

A criterion of success was set to determine whether the learning activity in the research was successful or not The students can improve their ability in reading comprehension individually The target of success is 70% It means that 70% of the student‟s total of the research get reading score more than 70

Training the collaborator teacher

27

In this sub heading, firstly the researcher told the collaborator teacher the strategy that would be employed in reading comprehension The researcher showed the collaborator teacher the sample of the strategy, lesson plan, and the criteria of success Then the researcher implemented that strategy Moreover, the researcher explained clearly the steps of implementing task based instructions in teaching reading comprehension to the collaborator teacher

Step 3: Implementing

In this stage, the researcher played as the teacher and worked collaboratively with the collaborator (classroom English teacher) The collaborator played as the observer When the researcher was applying the technique, task based instructions for teaching reading comprehension, the collaborator observed the teaching and learning process using fieldnote which had been prepared The observer observed the teaching and learning process by focusing on the activities of the teacher in implementing the technique and the students as the subject In the end of the teaching learning process, the researcher and collaborator teacher discussed and analyzed the teaching and learning process which had been done

Step 4: Observing

Observation is a step for collecting data The data to be collected are determined by targeted criteria of success to be achieved In this study, the researcher is going to collect the data that is representing the achievement of the criteria of success The data to be collected are indicators of the result of the implementation of the technique used In process of getting the data, the researcher used some instruments

of collecting data, those are: field-note in observation, questionnaire, and test in collecting the score

Step 5: Reflecting

In this stage, the researchers reflected and analyzed whether the teaching learning process was done successfully or not to reach the objectives of the lesson plan in the

28

first cycle Furthermore, (Arikunto, 2010) stated that reflection is an activity of analyzing the collected data through doing observation Reflection is also an activity to put forward what had happened The researcher found out more problems and weakness of the first cycle, it would be reflected and revised The result of the reflection was taken into consideration as the feedback to enhance to implementation of the strategy in the next cycle Then, the researcher would use all information gathered to re- planning the next cycle After that, the researcher decided to take some new steps in the next cycle in order to overcome the problem The next step was data analysis The technique for analyzing data was as follows Firstly, the data were classified according to the kinds of data source The data taken from observation would be analyzed descriptively For the test, the data would be analyzed quantitatively

in ten weeks with the ten lessons in which such different tasks were employed by the teachers such as pair works, group works, presentation tasks, etc to enhance their students‟ motivation and engagement The sample of a lesson with the

3.3 Data collection instruments

According to Douglas (2015), data collection plays a very crucial role in the statistical analysis In this research, the researcher used four instruments for data collection including tests, questionnaires, class observations and interviews for collecting sufficient data for the analysis of studied issues

3.3.1 Reading tests

The first testing instrument was a standard proficiency test This test aimed at controlling the proficiency level of the subjects Both pre-test and post-test were ready comprehension tests which consisted of 25 multiple-choice questions They were all the same and were from the same source The time allotted was 100 minutes

The pre-and post-tests were carried out to evaluate the improvement in the reading comprehension competency of the students participating in the research The pre-test is for identifying the existing status of English reading comprehension skill of the students which was conducted with 100% of the sample pool (100 students) before the treatment for the experimental class while the post-test has been conducted for getting the implication of applying the group work in a real classroom

The reading passages related to the topics taken from the textbook Tieng Anh 10 Thi Diem and Tieng Anh 11 Thi Diem taught in the first semester (2018-2019) Each test

30

had 25 questions; each question was given 4 points, so the total score was 100 points To make sure that these tests can give a reliable answer to the study, the researcher based on qualities of a good test as validity, reliability, discrimination, practicality, and wash-back The researcher also followed the procedure for construction these tests as below:

Phases Procedures

1 Design the two tests based on the study purpose, the course syllabus

and the students‟ reading competence

2 Submit to the supervisor and some other seniors for first-stage pilot

3 Modify if necessary

4 Pilot on another sample of equal English proficiency

5 Revise carefully and complete the final version

Table 3.1: Procedures for test development

The classification of the students‟ score is as follows:

to present the findings to be described, analyzed and compared (Ngo, 2010) According to Bell (1999) the questionnaire‟s questions are always asked in the same circumstances to the selected population and aim to covers 100 % of the population