The effects of teaching reading through multimedia for gifted studentss in vinh long province

In response to an appeal from the Minister of Education and Training to high schools for the gifted to improve the quality of education students toward regional and international standar

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

NGUYỄN LÊ BÍCH HIỀN

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING READING

THROUGH MULTIMEDIA FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

IN VINH LONG PROVINCE

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HOÀNG TUẤN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2008

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

NGUYỄN LÊ BÍCH HIỀN

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING READING

THROUGH MULTIMEDIA FOR GIFTED STUDENTS

IN VINH LONG PROVINCE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HOÀNG TUẤN, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, 2008

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entilted “THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING READING THROUGH MULTIMEDIA FOR GIFTED STUDENTS IN VINH LONG PROVINCE” is my own work

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, 2008

Nguyen Le Bich Hien

I would first like to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable and generous assistance given to me by my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyen Hoang Tuan, over the lengthy period of the researching and writing of the thesis I could not have finished this thesis without his encouragement and constant guidance

I am greatly indedted to all my teachers in M.A course 2003 for their dedication and helpful instructions during the course

My special thanks to all those who helped me in the study, in particular, colleages in English Department for their help with the interview and all the students in class 10A at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted Many thanks also go to Mr Le Quang Sang, my closest friend, for his valuable help

I am deeply thankful to my husband, lovely son, and two sisters who encouraged and gave me great impetus to fulfill the thesis And I would like to send my best gratitude to my parents who devote all their lives to the children’s education

Despite all the help I had, many errors and deficiencies may remain in this thesis; for these I alone am responsible

In response to an appeal from the Minister of Education and Training

to high schools for the gifted to improve the quality of education students toward regional and international standards, teaching staff in English Department are making great efforts to further promote the foreign language teaching and learning process In the last few years, there have been dramatic changes in the ways that languages are taught with the replacement of grammar translation by communicative approaches and the introduction of technological tools Under such a circumstance, there has been a breakthrough in the application of multimedia in the teaching methods to meet the practical demands of a new era at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted

This thesis was conducted with the purpose of finding the positive impacts of multimedia on the process of teaching and learning L2 reading skills The objective of this study was to determine whether the application of multimedia helps the students improve their language knowledge, reading skills, change their reading styles, create an interesting atmosphere to study better, as well as to help the teachers fulfill their tasks in a complete and smooth way In addition, the thesis also presents the ways in which multimedia

is used to design three stages of teaching a reading lesson, and suggestions to make best use of multimedia are also given The students in grade 10 at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted in Vinh Long Province in mid-

2007, were selected as the research samples The research design used the questionnaires for students and interviews with the teachers to obtain the percentage of the data

Overall, research findings showed the respondents’ agreement on the high level of effectiveness of multimedia in the process of teaching and learning L2 reading skills and its implementation in 3 stages of teaching a reading lesson However, some obstacles in the process of teaching and learning through multimedia were also presented and discussed

TABLE OF CONTENTS

tatement of authorship

S

Acknowledgements

Table of contents

List of tables

List of figures

Abbreviations

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

I.1 Background to the study 1

I.2 Descriptions of the school and English syllabus 3

I.3 Problem identification 4

I.4 Research questions 5

I.5 Significance of the study 5

I.6 Limitations of the study 6

I.7 Organization of the study 7

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW II.1 Approaches to multimedia teaching 8

II.1.1 What is instructional multimedia? 9

II.1.2 Research on the impact of multimedia on education 10

II.1.3 Selecting online materials 12

II.1.4 Students’ attitudes and reaction towards multimedia 13

II.2 Approaches to teaching reading skills 13

II.2.1 Reading purposes and strategies 14

II.2.2 Characteristics of efficient reading 19

II.3 Multimedia and its impact on the improvement of reading skills 20

II.4 Motivating students 21

II.5 Summary 23

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

III.1 Research design 24

III.2 Subjects of the study 25

III.2.1 Students 25

III.2.2 Teachers 26

III.3 Instruments 26

III.4 Procedures and materials 28

III.5 Descriptions of teaching method 29

III.6 Summary 30

CHAPTER FOUR DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS IV.1 Data Analysis 31

IV.1.1 Results and analyses from the questionaires 31

IV.1.2 Results and analysis from the interview 41

IV.2 Discussion from the results of the questionnaire and the interview 44

IV.2.1 Advantages of applying multimedia in reading classes 44

IV.2.2 Obstacles of applying multimedia in teaching and learning reading 48

IV.3 Summary 49

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS V.1 Conclusion 50

V.2 Implications of multimedia on the three stages of a reading lesson 51

V.3 Recommendation 53

V.4 Summary 57

BIBLIOGRAPHY 58

APPENDIX .61

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1: Benefits students got when learning reading through multimedia 36

Table 4.2: Parts of a reading lesson that interest students 39

Table 4.3: Advantages that multimedia brings to the teachers 43

Table 4.4: Disadvantages challenged the teachers 43

Table 4.5: Parts of a reading lesson interest the teachers 44

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1: Students’ secondary school 31

Figure 4.2: Students’ marks obtained in the entrance examination to Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted 32

Figure 4.3: Students’ purposes in learning reading 33

Figure 4.4: Number of hours students spend on reading English materials 33

Figure 4.5: Students’ difficulties in learning reading 34

Figure 4.6: Students’ interest in learning reading through multimedia 35

Figure 4.7: Obstacles students encounter when learning through multimedia 40

Figure 4.8: Teacher’s frequency in teaching reading through multimedia 42

ABBREVIATIONS

CUP: Cambridge University Press

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as a Second Language

L2: Second / Foreign Language

OUP: Oxford University Press

USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities WWW: World Wide Web

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background to the study

I.1

The development of computer-based reading curricula had been taking place before the existence of microcomputers in the late 1970s Central mainframe computers dispatched instructional lessons to individual terminals in different locations The relative difficulty in using mainframe computers for educational applications led developers to consider the more practical and affordable microcomputers The availability of such computers encouraged stand-alone programs designed for a single reading skill (Reinking & Bowles, 1996)

The first major computer-based reading curriculum was the work of Richard Atkinson in 1964 at Stanford University which was supported by a grant from the U.S Office of Education The project was a first-grade reading curriculum aimed to lessen the need for classroom teachers (Atkinson, 1974)

These research attempts were exclusively for native language reading Only during the past ten years has the use of computers in the field of teaching second language reading been increasing A variety of studies have shown the importance

of using computers in ESL reading (Willet, 1992) Chun & Plass (1996) investigated how reading comprehension can be facilitated with a multimedia application for language learning They studied the effects of a dynamic visual advance organizer on the macro level and the effects of multimedia annotations for single vocabulary items on the micro level Furthermore, they examined the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension The results of their study indicated that the visual advance organizer does aid in overall comprehension and that annotations of vocabulary items consisting of both visual and verbal information help more than verbal information only Also, a moderate correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension was found Chun & Plass claimed that the results support the dual coding theory and its extension to multimedia learning and emphasize the significance of visual

Chun D & Plass J (1997) based on underlying theories of foreign language reading comprehension and text comprehension with multimedia, discussed "how foreign language reading research is focusing increasingly on the cognitive processes involved in reading, that is, the interaction of lower-level, bottom-up processes such as vocabulary acquisition with higher level, top-down processes such as activating prior knowledge" (p.60) They merged this understanding with existing research on learning with technology to find out how students with different learning abilities put together "verbal and visual information" Their goal,

in this study, was not to determine the effectiveness of multimedia on reading comprehension, but rather the learners who may benefit from multimedia instruction

Whereas Chun & Plass used the underlying theory of foreign language reading comprehension with multimedia, Preisinger, R et al., (1988) used the schema theory as a basis to evaluate reading software programs They developed criteria and questions to evaluate: 1) interactive capabilities of reading software (e.g its flexibility, response to student errors, and ability to make a distinction between major and unimportant errors), 2) information processing (e.g support of the use of prediction and problem solving strategies, use of text-based activities in the context of a reading passage, and encouragement of analyzing texts), 3) background knowledge (e.g building schemata through pre-reading activities), and 4) general software construction and implementation

In drawing conclusion about the use of computers for reading instruction, previous research clearly supported the idea that computer-based instruction facilitates students' reading comprehension and increases their reading speed This conclusion is supported by the results of the preceding studies and a series of other

I.2 Descriptions of the school and English syllabus

Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted students is the only one in Vinh Long province that is in charge of training good students both accademically and morally It consists of 30 classes for 3 grades: 10 , 11 , and 12th th th in whichthere is one English major class for each grade The level of English major students is higher thwn the non-major and different textbooks are used, particularly, the advanced English book is for the major and the basic is for the others In addition, they have to cover some extra materials distributed by the Ministry of Education and Training and compiled by the teacher in charge The total number of periods (forty five minutes per period) per week for the major is eight and three for the non-major

There are 16 units in the advanced English textbook Each unit must be fulfilled in 7 periods; among them, reading comprehension takes 2 periods It is obvious to realize the importance and priority of reading skills to students Students’ achievement is assessed through doing tasks in class, the fifteen-minute quiz is given as soon as one unit is finished, one-period test after two units are ended and the examination is given at the end of each semester (after 8 units are finished)

In addition, a classroom has between 20 and 45 students Each classroom is equipped with a blackboard, a teacher’s desk, tables and chairs for students Besides, there is a lab room which is well-equipped with facilities such as a TV, a computer for teacher, lab system boxes and head sets for both teacher and students;

and a multimedia room where internet is available to, which is very convenient for teaching and learning

I.3 Problem identification

Achievements in the Information Technology have been applied in teaching and learning since 1960s However, applying these achievements in teaching and learning a foreign language has brought about since 1900s And a lot of research on multimedia and its application in teaching and learning a foreign language have been done all over the world and a variety of national research have also been done on methods and techniques in teaching reading in Vietnamese context Most

of the thesis on improving teaching reading are based on coursebooks, and some focus on the effectiveness of multimedia in improving students’ reading competence However no thesis is about teaching reading through multimedia for high school students in Vietnamese context especially in Vinh Long province

In addition, the world is in a new era thanks to the rapid development of applying technology into all fields of our life In the field of education and training, information technology has made a contribution to modernizing teaching facilities

as well as teaching methodology renewal To a high school for gifted students, the need of applying technology into teaching and learning is highly increasing to meet the social needs and educational objectives

Last but not least, English is an international language that is compulsory in learning programs from elementary to high school, college, and even university The teaching and learning a foreign language of high school students in Vinh Long province focuses mostly on reading and communication skills In fact, reading comprehension takes a great deal of time in the English curriculum as well as a great part in almost examinations such as the high school graduation and the entrance university examinations As a result, reading skills are paid greatly

is often referring to the purposes to achieve knowledge or information and each individual has his or her own purposes

to read Moreover, it is undeniable that teaching methods play a very important part in making ease students’ reading skills beside their knowledge about the culture, the world, and the language On the other hand, most of high school students showed that with teaching methods applied nowadays, reading classes do not interest them and often make them feel bored and discouraged because they have to deal with reading texts with a long list of new words, exercises, some grammar points, and repeated activities

Research questions

I.4

Reading and understanding materials in a foreign language is one of the most objectives clarified at school, and how to help improve reading proficiency for high school students is a burning question A large number of technniques have been in use so far, so do the achievements in technology especially multimedia However, in the context of a high school for gifted students in Vinh Long province, whether the application of multimedia in teaching reading skill is effective or not That leads to questions for the thesis

?

9 What benefits do students receive in reading classes with multimedia

?

9 What obstacles do students encounter in reading classes with multimedia

What are students’ attitudes towards the reading lessons with multimedia?

9

9 How is an effective reading lesson using multimedia designed?

I.5 Significance of the study

To help improve students’ reading outcome, problems interfering should be taken account to find out the best ways to create an exciting atmosphere and an active knowledge environment for my students to approach reading skills perfectly and make them feel like reading lessons In addition to the renovation of teaching methods, the application of multimedia in teaching and learning becomes a crucial factor

There have been some studies about the educational application of multimedia in teaching different English skills for different types of students, but the most important thing is whether these studies really help high school students improve their reading skills effectively The aim of the thesis is to examine the benefits multimedia brings to both teachers and students as well as the obstacles they are encountered in reading classes; identify how teacher use multimedia in strategies to teaching a reading lesson; and suggests some measures to overcome the obstacles and best ways to teach reading through multimedia effectively for both English major and non English major students in Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted in Vinh Long province Moreover, the thesis is expected to make contribution to the improvement of reading skills of learners, create a great motivation, and make a great change in the way of teaching reading as well as learning habit in reading of the students Hopefully, this will receive the support of the teaching staff, the colleagues, and other educational institutions

I.6 Limitations of the study

One limitation of the study is that only the tenth grade English major students who were studying the advanced English book were concerned in the study, not including students who were studying the basic English in other classes

In addition, the sample group of the study is quite small with 29 students, so it can not clarify the whole view of multimedia in teaching different types of students

Another limitation is that the interpretation of the results depends on the questionaire conducted at the English class, and the interview with most of the teachers in Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted It does not mean that the results are the same if the study is conducted with other samples in other schools

I.7 Organization of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters

Chapter one refers to the background, problem identification, and significance of the study It also clarifies the limitations of the study

Chapter two introduces some terms relating to multimedia together with reading approach and the impacts of multimedia on teaching and learning L2 reading In addition, the reviews of the ideas of other researchers are also stated to see clearly the viewpoint of the thesis doer

Chapter three describes the methodology employed in the study A presentation of the research questions, the research design, the description of characteristics of the subjects, the study instruments and the procedures to collect data are displayed in this chapter

Chapter four refers to the analysis of the data collected in the previous chapter in order to discuss about the advantages, disadvantages and how much effectiveness of multimedia impacts on teaching and learning reading comprehension

Chapter five draws out the conclusion, the way in which multimedia helps improve teaching and learning reading, as well as presents some suggestions to make reading lessons more interesting and efficient to both teachers and students

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of multimedia combined with reading a foreign language and traces back relevant studies involving multimedia and reading skills in the recent decades to find out the positive impacts of multimedia on teaching reading skill

II.1 Approaches to multimedia teaching

Since the early 1960s, language teachers have witnessed dramatic changes in the ways that languages are taught The focus of instruction has broadened from the teaching of discrete grammatical structures to the fostering of communicative ability (Warschauer & Kern, 2000) Together with the appearance of communicative approaches, the emergence of multimedia tools in language teaching has attracted the attention of teachers, academicians, educationalists and experts From the opinions of those who have studied the role and function of the tools, it seems to be rather controversial and unlikely to produce a definite answer

to the apparently simple question, "Do multimedia tools actually enhance and promote foreign language learning?"

Brinton (2001) supposed that multimedia tools serve as an important motivator in the language teaching process because "media materials can lend authenticity to the classroom situation, reinforcing for students the direct relation between the language classroom and the outside world" (p 461) Hartnett (as cited

in Brinton, 2001) shared that perspective by saying that media tools appeal to students' senses and help them process information, thus empowering their understanding of the target culture and increasing their motivation toward language learning, reinforcing the teaching points, and saving the teacher unnecessary explanation Similar findings have been made public by Warschauer (1996), Lee (1997), Bush (1997), Beauvois (1998), and Meunier (1998) (as cited in Brauer, 2001)

The rationales of these researchers stem from the awareness that the emphasis in foreign language learning has moved from a traditional approach - one that focuses on the study of the language itself - to a communicative approach in which learners acquire both linguistic and cultural competence The application of multimedia tools can foster this goal by creating "a learning environment wherein students practice their language skills and acquire target culture" (Brauer, 2001, p.130) Mollica (as cited in Brinton, 2001) also suggested that media provide teachers with a means of presenting material in a time-efficient and compact manner, and of stimulating students' senses, thereby helping them to process information more readily In other words, such media as audio and video equipment, computers and related software and Internet sources have been seen as effective tools to develop students' language competence so that they can interact with native speakers comfortably and successfully in real-life situations Some other studies showed the use of media has helped involve students more integrally

in the learning process and to facilitate language learning by making it a more authentic, meaningful process (Nunan, 1999; Sperling, 1996; Warschauer, 1995 (as cited in Brinton, 2001))

II.1.1 What is instructional multimedia?

There are many ways in which multimedia can be defined This term is traced back from the early time According to Wang and Cheung (2003:216), multimedia traditionally refered to the use of several media devices in a coordinated fashion, such as, synchronized slides with audiotape, but nowadays, it refers particularly to a combination of various media presented on the computer

In another way, “ Instructional media are means by which information can

be delivered to a learner” (Heinnich at al., 1993:5) These means may be video, audio, text, graphics, a combination of various media called multimedia or the powerful and indispensable tool: computer software “The term multimedia conveys the notion of a system in which various media (e.g., text, graphic, video,

and audio) are integrated into a single delivery system under computer control ( Newby, Stepich, Lechman & Russel, 2000)

II.1.2 Research on the impact of multimedia on education

It is proved that multimedia has a great impact on education It eases and makes the process of teaching and learning more effective thanks to the benefits it brings to teachers and learners First, multimedia can bring the real world to students It means that students do not have to go to the foreign countries, they just sit in front of the computer, click the mouse to the web from that they want to search the information Then, motion media and sequential still visuals can demonstrate the process that is better for students to practise the skill (Newby, Stepich, Lechman & Russel, 2000:100)

They also proved that multimedia is powerful because multimedia entails hypermedia The multimedia resources are all linked together, so teachers and learners can navigate their own path by simply pointing and clicking the mouse It

is due to link-ability that makes information more accessible and order it in an instructional framework, which allows teachers to lead the students to the pedagogically meaning purpose and permit them to explore it easily according to their interests

Warschauer (1996), to some extent, agreed with the idea of link-ability that hypermedia supplies He also stated some advantages of hypermedia on educational purpose On the first place, he refered to the authentic learning environment since listening is connected with seeing, just like in the real world And learning by seeing is better because 83% we learn is through the sense of sight, only 10% through the sense of hearing Moreover, skills are not taught lonely but intergratedly, as multimedia can make it natural to combine reading, writing, speaking and listening in a single activity, which helps students equally develop

the content, but not language form or learning strategies However, learning strategies contribute to the process of motivating students to learn better, and the important thing is to see how much multimedia can interfere this process

In actual fact, the use of hypermedia tools in the learning process has important implications for schools Dede (1994) sees uses of hypermedia tools beyond simple presentations of information Firstly, he stated that these tools offer new methods of structured discovery In addition, they address varied learning styles; as a result, students may change their learning styles in accordance with the objectives of the lesson and the learners’ needs Thirdly, they motivate and empower students to study better The last impact is they accommodate nonlinear exploration, allowing teachers to present information as a web of interconnections rather than a stream of facts Bagui (1998: 4) shares the ideas with Dede by saying multimedia “may have unique capabilities to facilitate learning because of the parallels between multimedia and the natural way people learn”, that is , through visual information and imagery

Qiyun, W and Sum, C (2003: 217) also reported some benefits of hypermedia systems on learning process because (1) they improve effectiveness of learning since human organs may sense information simultaneously; (2) they provide a context-rich learning environment since multimedia lesson materials are presented with multiple media; (3) non-linear organisation of hypermedia systems improve learners’ higher-order thinking skills because users have to analyse what they have learnes and make decisions as to where to go; (4) a user-friendly interface may motivate learners’ interest since it is attractive and/ or interactive; and (5) they provide additional information which helps in the learner’s coding of information

II.1.3 Selecting online materials

Aside from the above benefits, multimedia offers learners access to abundant source of information which can make learners feel that they are intergrating with the world outside even in class That’s what is called authenticity

There is no doubt that one of the factors enhancing students’ motivation to learn a foreign language is the syllabus Together with the students’ book in the sylabus, materials make a significant contribution to the improvement of students’ knowledge Materials can be collected from various sources such as books, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet By using World Wide Web, students are able to approach a large amount of information According to Warchauer, 1996, the information in WWW is abundant and authentic Students are free to use these valuable and authentic knowlegde sources even in class with the help of media Actually, with the advent of the Internet that can be communicated over the WWW

we now have several new and exciting ways to present information The Web allows the incorporation of animation, moving pictures, and sound into lessons, which extends our abilities to present materials that encourage student interation with the subject matter According to Savage and Vogel, 1996, one of the advantages of using multimedia is to convey information quickly and effectively to all students – and keep them interested in learning

In addition, in 2001, Brinton confirmed how authenticity can be integrated into classroom with the help of media, the result of that is it reinforces for students the direct relation between the language classroom and the outside world Harnett (as cited in Briton, 2001) shared that perspective by saying that media tools appeal

to student’s senses and help them process information, thus empowering their understanding of the target language and increasing their motivation toward language learning, reinforcing the teaching points, and saving the teacher unnecessary explanation

It is clear that materials are abundant and free to be logged in the Internet However, the important matter is how students can select authentic materials suitable with their own learning purpose In this context, some criteria on selecting appropriate materials should be taken into careful consideration to help students avoid surfing bad or wrong websites The criteria to have a good reading text includes that reading topic is closely related to the topic in textbook, or it covers the culture and lifestyles of people living in English speaking countries Furthermore, the length of the text is between 250 and 300 words consisting of some exercises like multiple choice questions, true – false statements, questions, or cloze text, etc, for students to practise The duty of the teachers in this situation is to inform students such criteria before assigning homework

II.1.4 Students’ attitudes and reaction towards multimedia

There are many factors that affect students’ attitudes and reaction of students

in classroom One of them is technology – based instruction that enhances student attitudes towards several aspects of schooling The line of inquiry has brought most researchers to the conclusion that the use of computers leads to more positive student attitudes than the use of conventional instruction The following is a modified list of reasons why students like learning with hypermedia and multimedia collected by Cotton (1991) Students said that they like working with computers because computers are infinitively patient, allow students to work privately, are fun and entertaining, individualize learning, give immediately feedback, are great motivators, make it possible to experiment with different options, are self-paced, do not embarrass students who make mistakes, and never forget to correct or praise These students preferences show their high appreciation, and positive attitudes towards computers’ application in learning

II.2 Approaches to teaching reading skills

Research on ESL reading and efforts to improve ESL reading instruction have grown the last twenty years It has become difficult to synthesize the research

and introduction literature in ESL/EFL academic reading and foreign language reading

Reading can be defined in various ways according to different authors’ conception

of the reading process In the mid-to late 1960s, Silberstein noted that reading was seen as little more than reinforcement for oral language instruction The main purpose to teach reading was to examine grammar and vocabulary, or to practice pronunciation (Silberstein, 1987)

II.2.1 Reading purposes and strategies

To make the best use of applying multimedia in teaching reading, reading purposes and strategies should be taken account to see through the effectiveness of its application in the process of teaching and learning reading comprehension

II.2.1.1 Reading purposes

Learners have their own purposes to approach reading skill and it is certain that their purposes are quite different Some read for pleasure while others for update information or knowledge improvement and so on Rivers and Temperly (1978) stated that we read to obtain information or we are sometimes curious about the topic; Besides, reading helps us obtain instructions on how to perform some task for our work or daily life (e.g., knowing how an appliance works); or even we read to act in a play, to play a game, or to do a puzzle; to keep in touch with friends

by correspondence or to understand business letters; to know when or where something will take place or what is available; to know what is happening or has happened ( as reported in newspapers, magazines, reports); and to read for enjoyment or excitement

It is vital that the teachers clarify students’ purposes before asking them to read to give a great impetus or design some tasks and activities, give some topics that arouse their curiosity to approach the reading effectively

II.2.1.2 Reading strategies

Similar to other skills, reading consists of strategies that teachers and students have to consider to comprehend the reading purposes sufficiently Commonly, teachers follow a format of three strategies in a reading lesson They are pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading In each strategy, they design different activities and tasks to set off main points of the topic and involve students

to the reading To design an effective reading lesson through multimedia, it is advisable that the teachers clarify the objectives of each reading stage

The first stage is pre- reading; it aims at arousing students’ interest in the topic by drawing on the learners’ background knowledge of the world Some relevant vocabulary can be generated during this stage It is carried out before the students have seen the text Lee and Vanpatten (1995) stated that the initial phase

of the instructional framework must be to activate learners’ background knowledge and direct it toward the information in the passage In other words, schemata must

be activated and appropriate to the passage being read Thus, the purpose of pre- reading stage is to give students necessary preparation as well as motivation before they jump into reading a text Generally, it is one of the strategies to facilitate the reading process as well as build bridges between the reader and the information contained in the text According to Lee and Vanpatten (1995), this preparation is necessary because in real life, we do not normally read because we have to but because we want to We usually have a purpose in reading: there is something we want to find out, some information we want to check or clarify, some opinions we want to match against our own

In English classes, the situation is very often different Usually students read the text not because they are eager to find out its content, but because the teachers are forced them to do As a result, in order to help students read the text keenly, it is really important to give students the reasons to read and give them some tasks which can only fulfill after they read the text In other words, students

have to know what they read for The following techniques may be used for this stage such as brainstorming; titles, headings and illustrations; illustrations and photographs; and scanning for specific information

Brainstorming takes place before students are given the text They are asked what they know about the topic of the text This technique provides students broadly basic information to begin bridging the gap between the students and the text

Titles, Headings and Illustrations mean most texts carry a title that is sometimes indicative of the content Teachers may ask students to read the title of the reading passage and then based only on this information to write some ideas they would expect to find in the reading passage

For illustrations and photographs, students are asked to work with a partner and describe what they see in each of the photographs that accompany the reading passage Based on these photographs, students are asked to list some pieces of information they would expect to find in the text

Scanning for specific information might be appropriate simply to have readers scan the text for specific information that will activate an appropriate schema A certain text might contain a series of numbers that will clue the learners about the content Also, there might be two or three concepts that are crucial to understand in order to comprehend the text as a whole Teachers may ask students

to find these terms in the text and define them

To sum up, the aim of these techniques in pre-reading stage is to provide students a reason for reading, introduce the text, set a top-down text and deal with new language, which give students a good preparation to jump into reading the text

The second stage is while-reading According to Lee and Vanpatten (1995),

“While-reading” is also called “Guided Interaction” The main purpose of reading stage is to help students to interpret the structures, the content of the reading text and the writer’s point of view It may involve the language work

while-The guided interaction phase of the reading lesson consists of a combination of two types of tasks, namely, management strategies and comprehension checks Management strategies suggests to the readers ways in which to divide a passage, to break it into sensible parts Comprehension checks during the guided interaction phase of the lesson allow readers to monitor their comprehension in an on-going way rather than read from start to finish only to find that they did not understand Management strategies and comprehension checks can

be paired in the following ways:

Management strategies

1 Read one section at a time of a

passage with headings

2 Read one section at a time of a

passage with no headings

Comprehension checks -Write a one sentence summary of the section

- Select key words from the section

- List main ideas

- Answer questions

- All of the above

-Write a heading that specifies the content

(Adapted from Lee and Vanpatten – 1995: 205)

The last is post- reading Lee and Vanpatten (1995) stated that post-reading

is intended to help students consolidate and reflect upon what has been read reading focuses the language learners’ reading experience on information In this stage, readers are given a task or series of tasks in which they organize the information in the text The purpose of this stage is to encourage readers to learn from what they have read Some common techniques that can be uses are: to do

Post-gap-filling, to reproduce the text, to discuss questions, to write a summary, to give solutions for a problem in the text, to fill in a chart or a table, and etc

Through the above activities, students interact with the content of the text many times because they must read and reread it to accomplish the tasks But each time they do, they are engaged in another activity as they complete another task They are given something new to think about in each time they read Each act of reading has a purpose: the readers’ search for information

It seems that the teacher and the students tend to ignore the reading strategies in their reading teaching and learning process; however, to have a clear understanding of the text, the students have to state in their mind and clarify the following strategies which ,according David Nunan ,are indispensable Nunan D, (1999) stated that there are twenty one strategies to approach reading skills The first is that students must have a clear purpose and keep in mind what they want to gain from the text The second is students should preview the text to identify the topic, the main idea, and the organization of the text And then look through the text to a general idea of what is about, known as skimming The next strategy is to scan the text in order to locate specific information and to read clusters of words as

a unit The most important thing is that students should avoid bad habits such as reading word-by-word, check all new words up, and translate the whole text into Vietnamese, but inferring unknown vocabulary by using contexts as well as parts of words (e.g prefixes, suffixes, and stems) to work out the meaning of unknown words is recommended In addition, students should bear in mind strategies namely predicting that means anticipating what is to come, and reading actively which is asking questions and then reading for answers

Inferring, moreover, is also mentioned as a vital strategy in reading It consists of identifying ideas that are not explicitly stated, identifying paragraph structure that is identifying the organizational structure of a paragraph, for example,

identifying sentence structure, identifying figurative language, identifying style and its purpose, and noticing cohesive devices Besides, to read effectively, students should use background knowledge to understand new ideas, or integrate information by tracking ideas that are developed across the text through techniques such as highlighting the note taking, then read critically and assess the truth - value

of textual information After reading process is completed, students should look back a text and summarize it, then reading to present

II.2.2 Characteristics of efficient reading

To make an improvement in reading, the characteristics of efficient reading

is worth being investigated Penny Ur (1996:148) studied some characteristics that

make a reading efficient They are (1) the language of the text is comprehensible to the learners (2) The content of the text is accessible to the learners; they know enough about it to be able to apply their own background knowledge (3) The reading process is fairly fast: mainly because the reader has “automarized” recognition of common combinations and does not waste time working out each word or group of new words (4) The reader concentrates on the significant bits, and skims the rest; may even skip parts he or she knows to be insignificant (5) The reader takes incomprehensible vocabulary in his or her stride: guesses its meaning from the surrounding text, or ignores it and manages without; uses a dictionary only when these strategies are insufficient (6) The reader thinks ahead, hypothesizes, predicts (7) The reader has and uses background information to help understand the text (8) The reader is motivated to read by interesting content or a challenging task (9) The reader is aware of a clear purpose in reading And (10) the reader uses different strategies for different kinds of reading

Beside these characteristics, reading skills are also indispensable According to Penny Ur (1996:147), “reading skills need to be fostered so that learners can cope with more and more sophisticated texts and tasks, and deal with them efficiently: quickly, appropriately and skillfully.”

In general, efficient reading depends on a variety of characteristics, all of which are important and should be mastered in case students want to be successful

in reading

II.3 Multimedia and its impact on the improvement of reading skills

Recently, the popularity of the use of multimedia application in education has highly increased; and it is undeniable that multimedia and hypermedia have made a great impact on the education, especially on student’s reading learning In fact, multimedia provides students with highly motivating educational environments and enhanced learning contexts Such teaching method allows learners to interact with a variety of multimedia elements as well as to take an active participation in their own learning process, which leads to the changes in the teacher’ roles While students become responsible of their own learning process, educators play the role of a guide in the learning process by helping students potentiate the use of technology in the process of knowledge construction Thus, instead of assimilating specific concepts, students are prepared to utilize information, enlarge and process it in a variety of contexts that respond to their own interests and motivation

Moreover, in this process of active knowledge construction, students are supported by computer-based technologies in general, or multimedia in particular that provide them with opportunities for developing skills for formulating questions rather than for obtaining responses, thus arousing exploration and discovery Besides, when students use multimedia, they must take more decisions as regards how to guide their learning, and as a result, become organizers of their own process

The development of multimedia technologies in education provide potentialities and capacities on the basis of specific technological concepts In the development and use of multimedia applications, both educators and students are

to attain an appropriate selection, design and utilization of such technologies Traditional media such as textbooks, pictures, or analog video have been used by teachers alternatively with the objective of motivating students and enhancing learning contexts The combination of these technological media by means of computer programming results in the development of a multimedia application Currently, computer-based technology combines all those elements or part of them

in a single application allowing for direct student intervention This focus on students’ active participation enhances their opportunities not only for knowledge construction but also for reflection on their own learning process

In terms of teaching and learning reading, according to Chee, T & Wong, A, (2003), multimedia provides some benefits to students First, it allows students to control the reading speed and spoken text read aloud with appropriate and understandable pronunciation, intonation, and accent Moreover, it motivates students by good graphics and aminations, provides options for learning vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and comprehension It also helps organize texts meaningfully and display it in small chunks, provide video materials whenever it is appropriate and provides accurate and up-to-date content

In the proccess of teaching reading, guessing the meaning of new words is considered an important factor to benefit learners’ reading ability and help them succeed in reading any text Grellet (14-15) stated that the teacher encourages students to make a guess at the meaning of the words they do not know rather than look them up in a dictionary, which helps develop the skill of inference That is important because inability to infer the meaning of unknown elements often causes discouragement and apprehension in students when they are faced with a new reading passage

II.4 Motivating students

In the process of learning, motivation plays an important role in the success

of students According to Harmer, (1998:03) “Motivation is some kind of internal

drive that encourages some body to pursue a course of action The motivation students bring to class is the biggest factor affecting their success”

What happens in classroom that has strong effect to student’s attitudes to learning? Finding an effective way to motivate students is always the interest of teachers, researchers, and linguists Roblyer and Edwards (2000 :12) stated the benefit of technology in the case of motivation: “Technology-based methods have successfully promoted several kinds of motivational strategies that can be used individually or in combination”

In addition, instructional technology can also create the control of students

in their learning and according to Roblyer and Edwards, (2000:13), “When students perceive themselves as in control of their learning, the result has been called instrinsic motivation, or being motivated by the awareness that they are learning This finding reported from the earliest uses of computered-based materials, continues one of the most potencially powerful reasons for using technology-resources as motivational aids.”

Roblyer and Edwards, (2000: 166) also indicated some powerful capacities that technology offers, including motivation, flexibility, development of creative and critical thinking skills, and improved writing and process skills Dealing with motivation, McCarthy (1989) believes the most important characteristic of hypermedia is its ability to encourage students to be proactive learners

Moreover, the effect of motivation in learning has been obvivously examined and the question is how a teacher can help motivate students? It depends

on the activities and strategies that the teacher uses to grab the students’ interest and make them involved in the lesson Wong A, Lang Q, and Divaharan S (2003:50) stated some strategies that the teacher can use for this purpose These are arousing students’ curiosity by telling a story, reciting a poem, displaying

instruction relevant to students’ interest by relating it to what goes on in their daily lives or to events and people that they are interested in; adjust to students’ learning ability by asking questions and presenting problems that are set at the right level of difficulty for the students The teacher will have to constantly revise the instruction

to meet students’ learing needs; getting students actively involved in the lesson; engaging students in activities and keeping them entertained by using role-plays, game-like activities, computer simulations, on-line discussions and presentation, to name a few; arranging conditions for students’ success by asking questions and presenting problems that are set at the right level of difficulty for the students; and providing students with rewards that are tangible or intangible

“Why are some students successful at language learning whilst others are not? If we know the answer to that question the job of teaching and learning a language would be easy We don’t, of course, but we can point to a number of factors which seem to have a strong effect on a students’ success or failure”

(Harmer, 1998:3)

As a result, in order to give impetus to students, such above-mentioned techniques should be flexibly used by the teacher Beside that, when designing or faciliting lessons, the teacher should use a lot of questions, group discussion, problem solving, hand-on activities and cooperative learning strategies These can take place in face-to-face or an online learning environment

II.5 Summary

The chapter gives a clear definition of the terms as well as the theory and clarifies the perspective of some researchers on the application of multimedia into teaching reading to draw out the best solutions for the teaching process Beside that, our point of view is also stated

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

In chapter 2, the key theoretical and empirical perspectives on the positive impact of multimedia on the process of teaching and learning reading have been clearly discussed This chapter describes the methodology employed in the research

III.1 Research design

Instructional technology including computers and multimedia is rather a new approach and there are many questions about its impacts on current training As a result, it is essential to examine the applications of multimedia in a specific teaching context, namely the tenth grade major English class in a high school for gifted students As Swann (1994) mentioned, the qualitative and quantitative distinction is not always clear-cut in practice It is often useful to draw on a combination of methods that may complement one another and provide a more complete picture of language From the viewpoint of mixed methods, this study employed the questionnaires for the students as a major source to collect data, together with the interview with the teachers for the following reasons

First, the interview is used to yield valuable information from the teachers, those who evaluate exactly the knowledge as well as the improvement of the students they teach; and enables a teacher to answer some specific questions arising from his or her experience and all matters refering to teaching reading through multimedia

In addition, the questionnaires are one of the most commonly used descriptive methods in educational research and its purpose is to obtain a snapshot

of conditions and attitudes It can afford precision and clarity because the knowledge needed is controlled by the questions Besides, questionnaires can be

give their own opinions about what they achieved in reading classes with multimedia So these methods of collecting data will strongly support the aims of this research

III.2 Subjects of the study

This section of the study focuses on the number and characteristics of the students and the teachers considered as the subjects of the current research

III.2.1 Students

The subjects concerned in the study are 29 students in the 10th grade English major class at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted in Vinh Long province Respondents’ ages are the same – 16 years old Among them, 20% are males They are in the same class, but come from different parts of Vinh Long province All have been learning English for 5 years Their English proficiency level is slightly different, which is evaluated through their scores in the ninth grade and tests done in class in the first semester They all took and passed the entrance examination to Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted, and all studied new edition English program compiled by the Ministry of Education and Training from grade 6 to grade 9

At the time of this research they were studying in the first week of the second semester in the academic year 2006 - 2007 They were going to jump into the reading part of Unit 9 in advanced English book designed and published by the Ministry of Education, and the major syllabus for major students designed by their own teacher in charged following the basic of the knowledge or themes given in the advanced book As English major students, some of them have aptitude in language, and most of them love learning English, and long to master all English

skills, especially reading

III.2.2 Teachers

There is no doubt that two teachers using the same method can have vastly different results In an actual fact, teachers play a vital role in the teaching process especially the process of teaching through multimedia because the teachers are required not only good experience in teaching English, but the capacity in using computers to renovate their teaching method

The teaching staff who was chosen to have the interview with the researcher consists of 5 teachers aged from 24 to 29 All of the teachers are teaching at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for gifted students, Vinh Long province Of the 5 teachers, 60% are female, and 40% are male All of them have B.A degree, one has fulfilled the M.A course, one is attending M.A course In addition to the age difference, their teaching experience and teaching method are not the same, namely two have been teaching English for 7 years, one teaches for 5 years, one teaches for 3 years, and the other experiences for 1 year

All of the teacher interviewed are in charge of teaching English for the 10th grade students, and all took the training course in methodology to teach the new edition English book set up by Vinh Long Department of Education and Training

In addition, they all have obtained an A-level of information technology and often design lessons, exercises, and tests on the computer

some of terms so that data collected were exact and valid The questionaires are divided into six parts with eleven items

The first part deals with students’ background and proficiency in English language consisting of 4 items numbered from 1 to 4

• Items 1, 2, 3 relates to students’ background in learning English containing the place where they studied and the results they got

• Item 4 relates to their background in frequency of learning reading through multimedia

The second part focuses on students’ purposes and time spent on reading English lessons consisting of 2 items numbered from 5 to 6

• Item 5 relates to students’ purposes of reading English lessons

• Item 6 focuses on time that the students spend on reading English lessons every day

The third part identifies students’ problems in learning reading consisting of only one item numbered 7

• Item 7 refers to the problems students encountered in learning reading

The fourth part is concerned with the students’ interest and attitudes towards learning reading through multimedia containing 2 items numbered from 8 to 9

• Item 8 refers to students’ interest in learning reading through multimedia

• Item 9 relates to parts of a reading lesson interested students

The fifth part discovers the benefits students got when learning reading through multimedia consisting of only one item numbered 10

• Item 10 refers to the benefits students got when learning reading through multimedia

The last part concentrates on students’ problems when learning through multimedia consisting of only one item numbered 11

• Item 11 relates to students’ problems when learning through multimedia

In addition to the questionaires for the students, the interview with the teachers is also made The interview consisted of the questions focusing mostly on

the experience in teaching reading through multimedia And the questions are classified into 8 categories and arranged as followed:

• Item 1: Teacher’s experience in teaching at school

• Item 2: Teacher’s ideas of reading skill at school

• Item 3: Teacher’s experience in teaching reading through multimedia

• Item 4: Teacher’s attitudes towards reading classes taught with multimedia

• Item 5: Frequent activities the teacher performed in reading classes with multimedia

• Item 6: The advantages the teacher gets when they apply multimedia in their teaching

• Item 7: The obstacles the teacher encountered in reading classes with multimedia

• Item 9: Teacher’s suggestions for teaching reading through multimedia more effectively

• Item10: Teachers’ expectation to make their teaching more successful

III.4 Procedures and materials

The research was carried out at Nguyen Binh Khiem high school for the gifted All of the participants received a full explanation of the purposes of the research right after the course of teaching and learning reading through multimedia ended They all were willing to take part in the survey, and also keen on giving answers to the questionnaires and the interview because they were expecting a possible solution for the teaching method renewal that can meet their learning and teaching needs as well as the society requirement Furthermore, computers and multimedia are always means that interest people who are young, active, and are living in the age of expanding technology and communication like the students and the teachers

The questionnaires were distributed and carried on after the students had

the students who were chosen in the survey for the thesis were asked to be in a classroom but make sure to have one each chair, then they were given a sheet of questionnaires in which they had to answer in a truthful way In this procedure, no explanation from the researcher was given And to give students time to think carefully about the matter and to ascertain the numbers of returning questionnaires, the questionnaires were delivered and finished in fifteen– minute break, and collected immediately after the break with the observation of the researcher so that the students did not have chances to ask or discuss about the answers together Twenty – nine sheets were distributed and collected The percentage was 100%

About the interview, it was carried out at school in 3 days between the teachers in charged and the researcher The researcher had an interview with every teacher whenever the teacher had free time In addition, the content of the interview was fully recorded to see clearly the ideas and attitudes of the teacher towards what

he or she was asked in the study and to make sure that the information collected was reliable Then, the contents of the interview were carefully transcribed by the researcher

III.5 Descriptions of teaching method

It is proved that variety and flexibility are two factors that make a lesson plan good Particularly, good lesson planning is the art of mixing techniques, activities, and materials in such a way that an ideal balance is created for a class As

a result, all the experimental teaching lessons were designed by Microsoft PowerPoint software with a variety of images, sounds, or CD-ROM, etc, and presented in lab room with a projector, a computer for the teacher, and head sets for students In addition, the communicative approach and task – based learning were chosen to do the experiment The students sat into 2 rows with 4 students on the same table in order that it is convenient for the students to work in groups or in pairs The materials were the reading texts in student’ book, and some compiled by the teacher in charged such as reading texts downloaded from the internet or those

in some refernce books like Passage 2, New Interchange, Advanced English 10- Workbook, and so on

All of the lessons were designed on the computer with Microsoft PowerPoint software Microsoft PowerPoint was used in all of the stages of a reading lesson from warm-up to three main stages including pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading First, in warm- up stage, games designed on software were interestingly designed to create a feeling of security and encourage students to jump into the new lesson Games were also supported to review the vocabulary or to lead students to the content of the new lesson in an exciting way Then, in pre-reading stage, less than 8 new words were presented to help students read and understand the text; in addition, images together with leading or situation questions were raised to preprare students the ideas of the new lesson Students were asked to discuss the questions in pairs or

in groups Next, in while- reading stage, students were given time to read the text, then complete the tasks with the instruction and control of the teacher, that means the teacher goes around to help students when they meet difficulties Pair work and group work were the best to facilitate this stage Lastly, in post-reading stage, students were given some free-controlled tasks to check their understanding of the text and offer them chances to talk So, students were often asked to discuss, then report the ideas as well as express their own feelings and attitudes towards the reading text Besides, writing tasks were also given in this stage All of the contents

of the tasks and students’ answers were posted on the computer screen, and the students did not have to write the lessons on their notebooks After class, the photos

of the lesson were distributed to the students

III.6 Summary

Experimental teaching is one of the most suitable means to collect the information together with the questionnaires for the students asking about their needs, benefits and difficulties during the reading classes with the help of