1 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ MAI HẠNH USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ READING SKILL AT THANH DO COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY (Sử dụng tài tiệu thực nhằm nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho sinh viên chuyên ngữ trường Cao Đẳng Công Nghệ Thành Đô) Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Course: 16 MA MINOR THESIS Hanoi - 2010 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ MAI HẠNH USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS’ READING SKILL AT THANH DO COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY (Sử dụng tài tiệu thực nhằm nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho sinh viên chuyên ngữ trường Cao Đẳng Công Nghệ Thành Đô) MA MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code: 601410 Course: 16 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Tâm, M.Ed Hanoi - 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations viii List of tables ix Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Rationale for the study and research problem statement 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Research hypothesis and questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Design of the study Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Background of reading 2.2 Intensive reading and extensive reading 2.2.1 Intensive reading 2.2.2 Extensive reading 2.3 Authentic materials in EFL 2.3.1 Definitions of authentic materials 2.3.2 Types of authentic materials 2.3.3 Considerations for selecting authentic materials 2.3.4 Advantages of authentic materials 11 2.3.5 Disadvantages of authentic materials 12 2.4 The use of authentic materials in teaching reading 13 2.4.1 The stages of a reading lesson 14 2.4.2 Applying authentic materials in teaching reading 15 2.4.3 Authentic tasks 17 2.4.4 Task authenticity and input authenticity 18 2.5 Conclusive remarks 19 Chapter 3: Methodology 20 3.1 Research context 20 3.2 Research questions 20 3.3 Research approach 20 3.3.1 An overview of an action research 20 3.3.2 Rationales for the use of action research 21 3.3.3 Applying authentic materials in extensive reading program 22 3.4 Participants 23 3.4.1 The researcher- The teacher 23 3.4.2 The students 23 3.5 Research instruments 24 3.5.1 Pretest and Posttest 24 3.5.2 Questionnaires 24 3.6 Procedure of data collection 25 3.6.1 Planning 25 3.6.2 Pre- Questionnaire 26 3.6.3 Pretest 26 3.6.4 Posttest 26 3.6.5 Post-Questionnaire 26 3.7 Procedure of data analysis 26 3.7.1 Data from pretest and posttest 27 3.7.2 Data from the questionnaires 27 3.8 Conclusive remarks 27 Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion 28 4.1 Initial data 28 4.2 Research question 29 4.3 Research question 30 4.3.1 Participants‟ attitudes towards the program 30 4.3.2 Participants‟ suggestions for the future program 32 4.4 Conclusive remarks 33 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications 34 5.1 Conclusion 34 5.2 Implications 34 5.3 Limitations of the study 35 5.4 Suggestions for the future research 36 References 37 Appendices I Appendix Pretest and posttest I Appendix Pre-questionnaire IX Appendix Post-questionnaire X Appendix Lesson plan XII Appendix Authentic material XIV Appendix Non-authentic material XVI Appendix Result of pretest and posttest .XXII 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR : Action research ER : Extensive reading ERP : Extensive reading program IR : Intensive reading L1 : First language L2 : Second language ESL : English as second language EFL : English as foreign language 11 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Sumary of characteristics of intensive and extensive reading approaches……….7Table 2: An overview of an extensive reading…………………………………………….22 Table 3: The level of students‟ interest in reading lessons and the needs and expectations of the students in the classroom ………………………………….28 Table 4: Descriptive statistics for the pretest and posttest of the treatment group……… 29 Table 5: attitudes Participants‟ towards the program…………………………………… 30 Table 6: Participants‟ suggestions for program…………………………………… 32 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION future 12 1.1 Rationale for the study and research problem statement Reading is one of the language skills that should be acquired by any students who learn English It can provide the students with a richness of interesting information in a pleasant way Before we produce or make information, reading is needed to get and analyze information Reading is the most crucial in getting certain information or knowledge available in magazines, newspapers, story books, brochures, and other reading materials The purpose of teaching reading is to enable students to read English in the written form and comprehend the written materials Reading will be successful if students may comprehend the written materials or the text well An effective reading activity involves active students to take apart actively in reading class whether in pre, while, and then in post-reading activities However, in many English classes, students seem to be not motivated and active in reading activities In this case, it is a challenge for teachers to consider techniques, materials, and atmosphere in teaching reading in which the students feel comfortable, curious, and motivated to learn the language enthusiastically I was in charge of teaching English reading skill at class 5A, which has 30 major English second year students at Thanh Do College of Technology I saw that the students seemed to feel bored and uninterested to learn English especially when they faced a reading text from their textbook The teaching and learning activities did not run effectively; because most of the students usually tended to keep silent when the teacher asked them to read the text individually in the silent reading, without knowing why they read and without caring what they were reading Some students also tended to disturb and cheat other friends then made the class noisy when they did exercises Realizing the problem faced by the students, I thought that it was very important to make reading lessons more interesting and efective by employing creative and interesting materials A reading course can be made more interesting if a variety of texts is used The creative materials which still focus on the topics of subject that can be used here is authentic materials Berardo (2006) says that: The use of authentic materials in the classroom is discussed, with the student benefiting from the exposure to real language being used in a real context Other aspects which prove positive 13 when using authentic materials are that they are highly motivating, giving a sense of achievement when understood and encourage further reading (p.1) Authentic materials might be used more effectively to develop student‟s interest and motivation in learning reading comprehension They introduce life into the classroom so that they enable the students to comprehend the text easily because they are closed to their environment or their real world From the fact mentioned above, it is of great urgency, scientific and realistic usage to lead an in-depth investigation on the application of authentic materials in reading in Viet Nam in order to affirm the effectiveness of a way to improve students‟ reading skill, and to create a relaxing and enthusiastic learning environment for students in reading lessons This has inspired me to conduct this study to find solution to the situation 1.2 Aims of the study This research is designed to investigate the effectiveness of the use of authentic materials on second year students‟ readings skill at the Department of English, Thanh Do College of Technology The aims of the study are to: Evaluate the effectveness of the use of authentic on students‟ achievement in reading comprehension in English Investigate the students‟ attitudes towards using authentic materials in reading lessons Propose some recommendations and suggestions for using authentic materials to improve reading skill by Vietnamese students 1.3 Research hypothesis and questions In order to achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the study was designed to test the follow hypothesis: H1: Students who take part in the course with the text book and supplementary authentic materials will make more improvement in reading proficiency measured by a proficiency test than those who the course with the text book only The acceptance of this hypothesis would result in the injection to the following null hypothesis: ... READING SKILL AT THANH DO COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY (Sử dụng tài tiệu thực nhằm nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho sinh viên chuyên ngữ trường Cao Đẳng Công Nghệ Thành Đô) MA MINOR THESIS Field: Methodology Code:... beside of that, when the teacher chooses the material is not only interesting and informative for the students, but also worth spending time on When the teacher chooses the text it should be better... Considering that reading for different purposes, the teacher should choose texts that can be used for different purposes A text might be chosen because it offers new language structures, information