1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES *** -*** ĐANG THI UT AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE REALITY OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TO THE 11TH – FORM STUDENTS AT YEN THE HIGH SCHOOL, BAC GIANG PROVINCE (TÌM HIỂU VỀ THỰC TẾ DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN THẾ, TỈNH BẮC GIANG) Minor Programme Thesis Field : English Methodology Code : 60 14 10 HANOI, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS… .i ABSTRACT .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS……………… ……………………………………………….iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS………………………………………….……… vi LIST OF TABLES………………………………………… vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION…………………………… .1 1.1 Statement of the problems… 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions……… …2 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Outline of the thesis… …………3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW………………… 2.1 Reading and reading comprehension………………… …4 2.1.1 Definitions 2.1.2 Kinds of reading 2.1.2.1 Reading aloud 2.1.2.2 Silent reading .6 2.1.2.3 Skimming 2.1.2.4 Scanning .6 2.1.2.5 Intensive reading 2.1.2.6 Extensive reading 2.2 The teaching of reading 2.2.1 Factors in teaching and learning reading 2.2.1.1 Teacher’s roles in teaching reading…………………………………… 2.2.1.2 Students’ roles in a reading lesson…………………………………… 2.2.1.3 The roles of reading texts…………………………………… … 2.2.2 Stages of teaching a reading lesson 2.2.2.1 Pre- reading stage .9 2.2.2.2 While- reading stage 2.2.2.3 Post- reading stage 10 2.2 Some common teaching methods utilized at three stages of a reading lesson10 2.2.3 Pre-reading 10 2.2.3.2 While-reading .12 2.2.3.3 Post- reading .13 2.3 Attitudes and their impacts in teaching and learning 14 2.4 Previous Studies 15 2.5 Sub-conclusion 16 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 17 3.1 Subjects of the study 17 3.2 Reading sections in TIENG ANH 11 textbook 17 3.3 Data collection instrument 18 3.3.1 Questionnaire for teachers 18 3.3.2 Questionnaire for students 18 3.3.3 Classroom observation 18 3.3.4 Post- observation interviews 19 3.4 Procedures 19 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 Data analysis 20 4.1.1 Findings from Questionnaire for teachers 20 4.1.2 Findings from Questionnaire for students 25 4.1.3 Findings from classroom observation and post-observation interviews 30 4.2 Major findings 32 CHAPTER V: LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSION 36 5.1 Suggestions 36 5.1.1 Reading section adaptation 36 5.1.2 Training different reading skills for students 38 5.2 Conclusion 39 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 40 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS AT YTHS .I APPENDIX 2: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT YTHS V APPENDIX 3: VIETNAMESE VERSION OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS VIII APPENDIX 4: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET XI APPENDIX 5: POST-OBSERVATION INTERVIEWS XIII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS YTHS: Yen The High School MOET: Ministry of Education and Training VNU- CFL: Vietnam National University, College of Foreign Languages M.A: Master of Arts TALO: Text as a Linguistic Object TAVI: Text as a Vehicle for Information TASP: Text as a Springboard for Production LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Teachers‟ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook Table 2: Methods used at pre- reading stage Table 3: Methods used at while- reading stage Table 4: Methods used at post- reading stage Table 5: Teachers‟ opinions on the importance of reading text components Table 6: Problems teachers face with in teaching reading Table 7: Students‟ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook Table 8: Students‟ preference of teaching methods used by the teachers at pre-reading stage Table 9: Students‟ preference of teaching methods used by the teachers at while -reading stage Table 10: Students‟ preference of teaching methods used by the teachers at post -reading stage Table 11: Problems students face with in learning reading CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problems Being aware of the importance of teaching and learning English in high schools, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has recently introduced a new series of English textbooks for grade 10, grade 11 and grade 12 These new textbooks have been used in most high schools nationwide This marks a milestone in improving the quality of English teaching and learning The new curriculum defines “English as a compulsory subject” to provide students with an “instrument to access world science and technology as well as world culture” (MOET, 2006) However, a lot of complaints have been made by the teachers from most of high schools in Bac Giang province They said that these new English textbooks were too difficult for their students To deal with this problem, Bac Giang Education and Training Department decided to organize training courses at the beginning of the academic years of 2006, 2007 and 2008 to help and give teachers guidance on methods of teaching the new English textbooks based on the communicative approach Yet, the results were often not satisfactory because it is very difficult for teachers to employ properly the general knowledge of teaching English in communicative approach provided in these training courses in real contexts of teaching at some high schools Founded in 1966, Yen The High School is one of three high schools in Yen The district, Bac Giang province that have been selected to apply the new textbooks in teaching and learning English It has about 33 classes every year, among which, there are about 10 grade 11 classes As the school is located in the center of a mountainous district, foreign language learning conditions are very limited Most YTHS students come from comparatively poor families and they not have much time for self- study After school, they have to work on farms and rice paddies to help their parents Few students are able to attend extra- English classes because their parents cannot afford to pay even a small amount required for their children‟s schooling like the fee, a dictionary, a cassette player or English books To make matter worse, nearly half of YTHS students are from ethnic groups such as Tay, Nung Dao, Cao lan and San diu, so their ability to learn English is further limited Considering the teaching conditions, the researcher finds that there is a serious shortage of teaching appliances There is no cassette player for teachers to use Teachers must read aloud typescript in almost every listening lesson The results of speaking and writing teaching are far worse Rarely can students say or write a complete and grammatically correct sentence in English Instead of developing students‟ communicative ability, teachers sometimes have to change speaking and writing lessons into grammar and vocabulary ones Besides, reading lessons seem to be a burden for teachers and boring to students Within 45 minutes, teachers often cannot help students compete the post-reading sections as most of the time is spent on pre- and while- reading Students complain that there are too many new words and grammatical structures in a long text, which prevents them from understanding the reading passage thoroughly In such conditions, teaching and learning English in general and teaching reading in particular according to the new curriculum has actually become a great obstacle for both teachers and students at YTHS However, reading has still been the focus of teaching because it is not only an important means to gain knowledge but also the means by which students can obtain more new words and structures used in certain contexts After looking critically into the reality of teaching and learning reading at YTHS, discussing the topic with colleagues and reflecting on her own teaching experience, the researcher realizes that teaching methods greatly influence the effectiveness of teaching reading skill Limited success of reading lessons may be due to teachers‟ inflexibility, their lack of teaching experience, intensive employment of the grammar- translation method and the lack of training in the communicative approach Also, teachers‟ domination in the language classroom should be blamed for YTHS students are often passive during English lessons and not have effective skills in learning reading As a result, they fail to get the main ideas as well as the details of each reading passage So as to have a better understanding of the situation and find solutions to the problems her colleagues and herself face with, the researcher decided to investigate the reality of teaching reading to grade 11 students at YTHS 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions This study aims: To find out teachers‟ and students‟ comments on the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook To investigate the reality of teaching reading to grade 11 students and their attitudes towards the teaching of reading utilized by teachers 10 To identify the difficulties that teachers and students have to cope with when dealing with a reading lesson It is hoped that the findings of this study will be of some benefits to teachers and students at YTHS and some other schools as the reality of teaching reading at YTHS is similar to that of some high schools in mountainous districts in Bac Giang province like Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Luc Nam, and Tan Yen In order to achieve the research study‟s aims, the study attempts to answer the following research questions: How teachers and students respond to the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook? What methods are used by teachers in teaching reading and what are the students‟ attitudes towards these methods? What difficulties teachers and students meet when dealing with a reading lesson? 1.3 Scope of the study This is a survey of the problems in teaching the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook at YTHS The study includes an investigation into teaching methods used by teachers and their students‟ attitudes towards these methods Finding out the teachers‟ and students‟ assessment of the reading section in TIENG ANH 11 textbook and identifying their difficulties in reading lessons are another purpose 1.4 Outline of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters, organized as follows: Chapter One is written to introduce the background to the study and statement of the problems It also presents the aims, the research questions, the scope and the design of the thesis Chapter Two presents a review of related literature which provides the theoretical background for the study It presents the definitions of reading, reading comprehension, factors and stages in teaching a reading lesson Some common methods utilized by teachers in three stages of teaching a reading lesson and the impacts of attitudes in teaching and learning are also mentioned The final and important part of this chapter is some previous studies Chapter Three states the methodology used in the study Therefore, the information about subjects, data collection instruments and procedures are presented Chapter Four discusses the outcome of the data analysis Chapter Five is the conclusion to the thesis 11 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reading and reading comprehension 2.1.1 Definitions What is reading? Reading is a popular activity of human beings It takes place in every aspect of daily life as well as in scientific areas Therefore, there exist many different points of view on the definition of reading Goodman (1971:135) defines reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming ” Another view on reading is shared by Nuttal (1982:4) “Reading is getting a message from a text” She states “the meaning is not lying in the text waiting to be passively absorbed; on the contrary, the reading is actively involved and often has to work out to get the meaning out” It is clear that she rejects the views in which reading is regarded as a rather passive and receptive skill Grellet (1981:3) also says reading is understood as extracting required information from a written text as efficiently as possible Besides, according to Harmer J (1989:190) reading is “an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message” Sharing the same view, Smith (1985:102) points out “reading is understanding the author’s thought” According to the ideas presented above, reading can be considered as a communicative process in which wethe readers - read the author‟s mind, not the author‟s words Reading, viewed from a different perspective, is “an active information- seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” (Rubin, J and Thompson, I 1994:91) With this point of view, the readers‟ knowledge of the language and the knowledge of the world are of great importance to their reading success What is reading comprehension? In teaching and learning reading, reading comprehension plays an important role because it is described as a means of communication between the writer and the reader “Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incoming information to information already stored in memory Readers make connection between the new 12 information on the printed page and their existing knowledge They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledge store.” (Lee and Vanpatten, 1995:191) Anderson and Pearson (1984:255) also shared the same point of view They argue that when students make a critical evaluation of the ideas conveyed in the text, they are making connection between new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge These two ideas show that reading comprehension is a process in which the reader can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behind these forms Moreover, this process is greatly affected by the reader‟s background knowledge and his language competence From the above points of view on reading and reading comprehension, we can draw a conclusion that reading is a complex process which involves not only the reader and the writer but also the text itself Reading comprehension, according to Nuttal (2000:4), is “the process of encoding and decoding between the encoder who has messages in his mind encodes them into words and the decoder who needs to receive these messages decodes those words into his mind” In short, reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is Therefore, to become a good reader, it is necessary for him to possess rich knowledge of the world and knowledge of language, especially the topic mentioned in the reading text 2.1.2 Kinds of reading We read different texts in different ways, depending on our manner and our purpose Reading, according to manner, is classified into reading aloud and silent reading 2.1.2.1 Reading aloud Doff (1988:70) assumes “reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it” Reading aloud can be used inside classroom as a technique to check students‟ pronunciation As it helps them to associate the spelling of the words and the pronunciation and improve their fluency However, as for Doff (1988:58), reading aloud is not a very useful technique for some reasons First, only one student is active at a time, the others either not listening at all or listening to a bad model Second, students‟ attention is ... students to activate their background knowledge relevant to the topic and give them reason for reading Consequently, the students? ?? motivation is created The teacher can make the students anticipate the. .. encourages students to read for ideas, rather than for word recognition Translation Teachers can ask their students to translate the text into Vietnamese at while -reading stage This method can help students. .. all the words in the text and they can read at their own speed If they not understand a sentence, they can go back and read it again Reading aloud tends to reduce the speed of reading and formation