Factors affecting second-year students’ reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School = Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu t

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Factors affecting second-year students’ reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School = Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu t

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* HÀ THỊ TÂN FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH FOR TOURISM AT STATE COMMERCIAL No5 SCHOOL Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành du lịch học sinh năm thứ hai Trường trung cấp Thương Mại TW5 M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* HÀ THỊ TÂN FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION IN ENGLISH FOR TOURISM AT STATE COMMERCIAL No5 SCHOOL Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành du lịch học sinh năm thứ hai Trường trung cấp Thương Mại TW5 M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ MINH TÂM, PhD Hanoi, 2014 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that the thesis entitled Factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School is the result of my own research for the degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies- VNU, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Hanoi, 2014 Student‟s signature Hà Thị Tân i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm for her wholehearted guidance, invaluable advice, constructive criticism and encouragement in the completion of my research work I am grateful to all lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies-VNU for their useful lectures and guidance during my study My sincere thanks also go to my colleagues and students at State Commercial No5 School, who provided me with inspiration for the research topic and helped me with the research data Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and dear friends for their support and encouragement ii ABSTRACT In learning English for General Purposes (EGP) in general and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in particular, reading plays an important role In comparison with writing, speaking and listening, reading will be used most often in the students‟ future work, especially reading ESP However, learning reading is really the greatest challenge in learning a foreign language because learning reading involves a number of cognitive processes and it is affected by a number of factors The aims of this study are to identify the factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School (SCS) and suggest possible solutions to help students study ESP reading more effectively The study was undertaken with 50 second-year students of Tourism and three ESP teachers at SCS The data show that the major factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism are reading skills, language, cultural background knowledge and reading habits and motivation Some solutions are suggested to deal with these factors including increasing students‟ interest and motivation in reading, training students to become readers with efficient reading skill, encouraging students to develop extensive reading habit and motivation, giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently, improving teachers‟ professional knowledge, helping students to improve their cultural knowledge and developing the reading materials It is hoped that the result of this study will help students and teachers at SCS learn and teach ESP reading in general, reading English for Tourism in particular more effectively iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purposes EGP: English for General Purposes EFL: English as a Foreign Language ELT: English Language Teaching L1: First Language L2: Second Language SCS: State Commercial No5 School iv LIST OF CHARTS &TABLES Chart 1: Students‟ attitude towards ESP reading Chart 2: Students‟ attitude towards the importance of the reading skill Chart 3: Students‟ attitude towards the necessity of reading English for tourism for their future job Table 1: Framework of factors that affect students‟ ESP reading Table 2: Students‟ frequency of reading supplementary materials Table 3&4: Students‟ evaluation of the texts in the current ESP reading material Table 5: Students‟ views of sources of difficulties in reading English for Tourism Table 6: Activities the teachers ask the students to at pre-reading stages Table 7: Activities the teachers ask the students to at post-reading stages v TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate‟s statement i Acknowledgements .ii Abstract .iii List of abbreviations .iv Lists of Charts and Tables v Table of contents vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aim of the study .Research questions Scope of the Study Methods of the study Organization of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and reading comprehension 1.1.1 Definition of reading 1.1.2 Reading comprehension 1.2 ESP reading 1.2.1 Definition of ESP 1.2.2 Reading skills in ESP 1.3 Factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension in ESP 1.3.1 Reading skill factor 1.3.2 Language factor 1.3.3 Cultural background knowledge factor 10 1.3.4 Reading habit and motivation factor 11 1.4 Review of previous studies 13 vi 1.5 Summary 14 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 15 2.1 The context of the study 15 2.1.1 The teachers of English and their methods of teaching 15 2.1.2 The students and their background 15 2.1.3 The teaching materials 16 2.2 The study 16 2.2.1 Research questions 16 2.2.2 Data collection instruments and procedure 17 2.2.2.1 Questionnaires for students (a,b,c,d) 17 2.2.2.2 Interview questions for teachers (a,b,c,d) 18 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20 3.1 Answers to research question 20 3.2 Answers to research question 24 3.2.1 To what extent does reading skill factor affect students‟ learning reading? 26 3.2.2 To what extent does language factor affect students‟ learning reading? 27 3.2.3 To what extent does cultural background knowledge factor affect students‟ learning reading? 28 3.2.4 To what extent does reading habit and motivation factor affect students‟ learning reading? 29 3.3 Suggestions for improving students‟ reading ability 29 3.3.1 Increasing students‟ interest and motivation in reading 31 3.3.2 Training students to become readers with efficient reading skill 31 3.3.3 Encouraging students to develop extensive reading habit 33 3.3.4 Giving homework and checking the previous lessons frequently 34 3.3.5 Improving teachers‟ professional knowledge 34 3.3.6 Helping students to improve their cultural knowledge 35 3.3.7 Developing the reading materials 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 36 vii Recapitulation 36 Pedagogical implication 37 Limitations of the study 37 Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES 39 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students (in English) I Questionnaire for students (in Vietnames) V Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers VIII Appendix 3: Interview notes IX viii Within the scope of the study, the researcher has not fully addressed other factors affecting process such as readers‟ aptitude, attitude, intelligence, personality, and language exposure, etc In addition, the researcher has also had no chance to deal with other three skills in language teaching such as listening, speaking, and writing Further explanation can be found if interviews can be made to the students as well Suggestions for further study The study was limited to only ESP reading skill I suggest conducting a study on the integration of reading skill and other language skills such as listening, speaking and writing in ESP context At SCS, different careers are trained I suggest conducting a research on the factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension in English for Accountant 38 REFERENCES Alderson, J.C & Urquhart, A.H (1984) Reading in a foreign Language Essex: Longman Group Limited Bernhard, E.B & Kamil, M.L (1995) Interpreting relationship between L1 and L2 reading Consolidating the linguistic threshold and linguistic interdependence hypotheses Applied linguistics, Vol 16 , No1, 15-34 Carrell, P.L (1981) Culture-specific Schemata in L2 Reading comprehension In R.Orem &J.Haskell (Ed), Selected Papers from the Ninth Illinois TESOL/BE annual convention and the first Midwest TESOL conference Chicago, 123-132 II: TESOL/BE Clarke M.A (1980) The short circuit hypothesis of ESL reading-or when language competence interferes with reading performance Modern Language Journal 64, pp.203-209 Coady, J.A (1979) Psycholinguistic Models of the ESL Reader in Reading in a Second Language: Hypotheses, organization and Practice, Rowley, Mass, Newbury House Dudley-Evans, T & St John, M (1998) Developments in ESP A multidisciplinary approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Girard, D (1997) Motivation The responsibility of the Teacher ELT Journal Vol 23, pp 43-45 Goodman, K (1971) Psychololinguistic universals in the reading process in P.Pimsleur and T.Quinn(Ed.) Psychology of Second Language Learning Cambridge: CUP Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills: A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises Cambridge: CUP Harmer, J (1989) The Practice of English language teaching Harlow: Longman 39 Hudson, T.(1982) The effects of induced schemata on the „short circuit‟ in L2 reading: Non-decoding factors in L2 reading performance Language Learning Vol 32, pp1-31 Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1987) English for Specific Purposes A learners center approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Express Jolly, D (1978) The Establishment of a Self-access Scheme for Intensive Reading Paper presented at the Goethe Institute British Council Colloquium on Reading Paris Oct 1978 O‟Dennell, R.C (1961) A study of the Core Relation between Awareness of Structural Rrelationships in English and Ability in Reading Comprehension Journal of experimental Education, XXX 1961, pp 313-316 Richard, J.C& Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press Steffensen, M.F, Joag- Dev, C& Anderson, R.C (1979) A cross-cultural Perceptive on reading comprehension Reading research Quarterly, pp 10-29 Smith, F (1985) Reading Cambridge: CUP Strang, R (1972) The Nature of Reading, in Melnik, A & Merrit, J (Ed), Reading Today and Tomorrow Open Milton Keynes, 67-117 Strevens, P (1988) ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal in M Tickoo (Ed), ESP: State of the art (1-13): SEAMEO Regional Language Centre Swan, M (1975) Inside meaning Cambridge: CUP Wallace, M.J (1993) Reading Oxford: Oxford University Press Widdowson H.G (1983) Learning Purpose and Language Use Oxford: Oxford University Press Yorio, C.A (1971) Some Sources of Reading Problems for Foreign Language Learners Language Learning, Vol 21, pp 107-115 40 M.A THESIS Nguyễn Thị Nga (2011) An Investigation on the difficulties of learning reading English for ESP of students of Finance and Banking at HUI in Nghe An branch Unpublished M.A Minor Thesis, ULIS-VNU Đinh Thị Tuyết Thoa (2011) Difficulties in reading “English for Finance” of the second- year students of Accounting Department at Ha Noi Vocational Training College for Electro-Mechanics Unpublished M.A Minor Thesis, ULIS-VNU Đinh Thị Thu.(2010) Factors affecting reading comprehension of English for Computer Science of the second year students at Vinh Technical Teachers’ Training University Unpublished M.A Minor Thesis, ULIS-VNU 41 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS (In English) This survey questionnaire is designed for my study on “Factors affecting second-year students' reading comprehension in English for Tourism at State Commercial No5 School” The findings will make great contribution to my study Your assistance in completing following items is highly appreciated This is for study purpose only You can be confident that you will not be identified in any data analysis For all the questions below, please tick the appropriate answer Do you like learning English for Tourism? a very much b much c not much d not at all Do you think reading skill is very important? a very important b important c not very important d unimportant Reading English for Tourism is necessary for your future job a very necessary b necessary c not very necessary d unnecessary How often you read supplementary materials? a usually b sometimes c rarely d never How you think about the texts in the current ESP reading material? 5.1 a difficult 5.2 c interesting b suitable d boring To what extend the following cause difficulties in reading English for Tourism? very Statements much much not not much at all a The texts are too long and full of new words b The texts are full of new and complex grammar structure I c The teacher doesn‟t give you sufficient practice of grammar and vocabulary d You lack vocabulary especially ESP vocabulary e You find it difficult to understand the technical terminology in the reading texts f The teacher doesn‟t teach you sufficient reading skills g The teacher is too demanding h You lack reading habit and motivation i You lack knowledge about the topic you are reading j Others (Please specify) How often does the teacher ask you to before reading the text? very usually sometimes never often Statements a To guess the main idea of the texts b To find out the new words and terminologies in the text c To have discussions about the topic of the text d To look at the topic of the text, then relate to students‟ background knowledge e Other activities (Please specify) How often does the teacher ask you to after finishing reading the text? very often a To summarize the context of the text b To translate the texts into Vietnames II usually sometimes never c To have discussions about the text d To learn by heart new vocabularies and structures e Other activities: To make your reading English for Tourism easier and more interesting, what you think must be adjusted in this material? (You can choose as many as possible) a Reading texts should be more related to my future job b Reading text should be shorter and more motivating c Reading texts should have a limited number of new words d New words should be taught repeatedly from this unit to another e Grammatical exercises should be more various in forms f Others (Please specify) 10 To help you learn reading English for Tourism better, what in your opinion you expect from the teachers? (You can choose as many as possible) a I expect the teacher to explain more carefully unfamiliar grammatical structure found in the texts b I expect the teacher to give and explain Vietnamese equivalents for the specific words not found in dictionary c I expect the teacher to provide us more background knowledge related to the topics we are working on d I want the teacher to help us to choose suitable reading strategies for each reading text e I want the teacher to help us to work in pairs or in small groups f I want the teacher to give us more communicative exercises to remember vocabulary more easily III g I want the teacher to check us more often about translation h Others (Please specify) Thank you very much for your cooperation! IV CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA HỌC SINH (Tiếng Việt) Bảng câu hỏi nhằm phục vụ việc nghiên cứu “Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành du lịch học sinh năm thứ hai Trường trung cấp Thương Mại TW5” Các câu trả lời chân thật bạn quan trọng việc nghiên cứu Vui lịng đánh dấu tích vào đáp án bạn chọn Bạn có thích học tiếng Anh chun ngành du lịch không? a nhiều b nhiều c không nhiều d khơng chút Bạn có nghĩ kỹ đọc hiểu quan trọng không? a quan trọng b quan trọng c không quan trọng d không quan trọng Đọc hiểu tiếng anh chuyên ngành cấn thiết cho công việc tương lai bạn a cần thiết b cần thiết c không cần thiết d khơng cần thiết Bạn có thường đọc thêm tài liệu bổ trợ? a thường xuyên b c d không Bạn nghĩ đọc giáo trình tiếng Anh chuyên ngành bạn học? 5.1 a khó b phù hợp 5.2 c hay d buồn tẻ Mức độ yếu tố ảnh hưởng tới việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên nghành du lịch? nhiều nhiều a Bài đọc dài nhiều từ b Các đọc có nhiều cấu trúc ngữ pháp phức tạp c Giáo viên không cho luyện tập đầy đủ từ vựng ngữ pháp d Bạn thiếu vốn từ vựng từ vựng chuyên V không nhiều không chút ngành e Bạn thấy khó khăn việc hiểu thuật ngữ chuyên ngành đọc f Giáo viên không dạy kỹ đọc g Giáo viên đòi hỏi cao h Bạn khơng có thói quen đọc động học tập i Bạn thiếu kiến thức chủ đề bạn đọc j Các ý kiến khác Giáo viên có thường yêu cầu bạn làm việc trước đọc bài? thường thỉnh ko thường xuyên thoảng bao xun a Dự đồn ý b Tìm từ vựng thuật ngữ c Thảo luận chủ đề đọc d Nhìn vào chủ đề đọc liên hệ với kiến thức sẵn có e Các ý kiến khác Giáo viên có thường yêu cầu bạn làm việc sau đọc xong bài? thường thỉnh ko thường xuyên thoảng bao xuyên a Tóm tắt lại nội dung đọc b Dịch đọc sang tiếng việt VI c Thảo luận nội dung đọc d học thuộc từ vựng cấu trúc e Các ý kiến khác Để giúp việc đọc hiểu tiếng Anh chuyên ngành dễ dàng thú vị hơn, theo bạn giáo trình tiếng anh chuyên ngành nên điều chỉnh bổ sung nào? (Bạn đánh dấu vào câu sau tùy ý) a Các đọc nên gắn sát với nghề nghiệp b Các đọc nên ngắn gọn tạo hứng thú c Các đọc nên có lượng từ vừa phải d Các từ nên day theo tính kế thừa từ sang khác e Các tập nên phong phú đa dạng f Các ý kiến khác: 10 Để giúp bạn đọc tiếng Anh chuyên nghành tốt hơn, bạn mong điều giáo viên việc dạy đọc? (Bạn đánh dấu vào câu sau tùy ý) a Bạn muốn giáo viên giải thích kỹ tượng ngữ pháp đọc b Bạn muốn giáo viên giải thích cung cấp cho bạn nghĩa tiếng Việt từ chuyên nghành c Bạn muốn giáo viên cung cấp thêm kiến thức theo chủ đề bạn học d Bạn muốn giáo viên hướng dẫn cho bạn thủ thuật đọc phù hợp với e Bạn muốn giáo viên hướng dẫn cho bạn học theo cặp, theo nhóm f Bạn muốn giáo viên cho nhiều dạng tập giao tiếp để bạn dễ nhớ từ vựng g Bạn muốn giáo viên kiểm tra bạn nhiều dịch thuật h Các ý kiến khác: Cảm ơn bạn hợp tác! VII APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS Do you think the course book you are teaching is suitable for your students? Which method of teaching you usually use to teach your students reading ESP? Do you think it is necessary to translate the text into Vietnamese? Why? / Why not? Do you think reading skill is important? Why? /Why not? What you usually at pre-reading stage? What you usually at post-reading stage? What difficulties you find in teaching reading for Tourism? What you think must be adjusted in this material? Why students believe that reading is important and necessary in learning English for Tourism but they are not eager to read? VIII APPENDIX INTERVIEW NOTES Do you think the course book you are teaching is suitable for your students? T1: - suitable but difficult for students - a lot of new words and terminologies T2: - interesting - a lot of new words and terminologies T3: - long texts - unfamiliar or irrelevant with students‟ background knowledge - a lot of new words and terminologies Which method of teaching you usually use to teach your students reading ESP? T1: - teaching new words and terminologies - explaining or analyzing sentences, usually in Vietnamese - asking students to read the texts and the reading tasks - translating the text T2: - teaching new words and terminologies - giving students a text in the course-book, reading aloud the instructions in this reading task and translate it into Viet namese and then give students time to - explaining clearly the way how to each reading task and even giving students specific example if necessary T3: - teaching new words and terminologies - asking students to read the texts and the reading tasks - explaining clearly the way how to each reading task and even giving students specific example if necessary - translating the text Do you think it is necessary to translate the text into Vietnamese? Why? /Why not? T1&2: - Yes IX Reason: - to make sure how students‟ understanding about the text T2- No Reason: - teaching the reading skill but not teaching translating or something like that Do you think reading skill is important? Why? /Why not? T1,2 & 3: - Very important Reason: T1: - relating to students‟ future job - to enrich their background knowledge, increase their vocabulary and grammatical structure T2: - to enrich their background knowledge, increase their vocabulary and reading skills - to improve students‟ reading skill and gain cofidence when dealing with tourism material in English T3: - to enrich students‟ own knowledge and understanding, they have to master in English reading skills What you usually at pre-reading stage? T1: - giving new words and structures T2: - giving new words and structures - introducing the text T3: - giving new words and structures - explaining clearly the way how to each reading task What you usually at post-reading stage? T1&2:- translating the text into Vietnamese - explaining the requirement of exercise T3:- summarize the text X What difficulties you find in teaching reading for Tourism? T1:- lacking knowledge about Tourism - difficult to find Vietnamese equivalent - difficult to explain terminologies in specific situation - students lack of information about tourist destinations, etc T2:- little time for reading activities - lacking knowledge about Tourism - difficult to find Vietnamese equivalent - students lack of objectives in learning reading comprehension T3: - having no chance to visit any tourist destinations - difficult to explain terminologies in specific situation What you think must be adjusted in this material? T1:- reading texts should be shorter - reading texts should have limited number of new words - combining the course-book with other relevant materials T2:- some unsuitable topics should be adapted - reading texts should have limited number of new words Why students believe that reading is important and necessary in learning English for Tourism but they are not eager to read? T1:- a lot of new words - lazy students - not having reading habits and motivation T2:- not being given suitable reading skills by the teachers - not being known suitable materials to read - not like reading T3: - not having reading habits and motivation XI ... information that they need Grellet (1981: 19) states that “when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but not to... terminology in the reading text (statement e) 23 Reading skill is one more factor affecting students in learning reading The data in table show that 78% of students complained sufficient reading. .. difficulties in reading English for Tourism Table 6: Activities the teachers ask the students to at pre -reading stages Table 7: Activities the teachers ask the students to at post -reading stages v TABLE

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