VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH HÒA (TÓM TẮT LUẬN VĂN) IMPROVING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH (Nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Nam Định thông qua các bài tập trọng điểm) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Course: 20 (2011-2013) HANOI – 2013 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH HÒA (TÓM TẮT LUẬN VĂN) IMPROVING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH (Nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Nam Định thông qua các bài tập trọng điểm) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Course: 20 (2011-2013) Supervisor: Assoc.Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Văn Độ HANOI – 2013 PART I: INTRODUCTION I. Rationale Language itself plays an important part in our daily life and it is the most effective means of communication. Language distinguishes man from animals. That is because language is an effective means of information, transaction and interaction making experience so we can say that without language there would be no civilization, no culture, no intervention and no progress. Nowadays, the demand of communication among people in all countries is greater, therefore it is really necessary for everyone to learn at least one foreign language. In our country, English is widely taught and learnt because it is an international language used in all aspects of life such as tourism, technology, literature, commerce and so on. Especially, English has become a compulsory in high schools. That is why it is vital to find out to teach and learn English effectively. Teaching English involves four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Among them, teaching reading plays an important role for high school students in enriching their general knowledge, enlarging their vocabulary and in helping them with their further study later. Reading also contributes to the development of other language skills. When teaching reading, some issues may arise such as how to assess students’ reading ability, how to give tests to students, techniques to improve students’ reading skills and so on. Among these issues, I choose to do my research on the project entitled “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh” because I myself believe that reading can help learners to get 1 information to the fullest, and that providing learners with useful techniques and tasks will motivate them in reading. II. Aims of the study The study is aimed at: 1) better understanding the concepts of reading, content reading, reading comprehension. 2) identifying some problems in teaching and learning reading English at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh. 3) providing the 11 th grade students at Ngo Quyen High School with useful focused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills. The study is the hope of the author to make some contributions to the improvement of reading comprehension skills for the 11 th form students . III. Scope of the study The study on reading in general is immense and covering every aspect of language theory and practice in this study is impossible. Due to the time limitation, only one small aspect of reading comprehension is mentioned to, that is reading comprehension tasks. Some focused tasks to help teachers and students better in teaching and learning reading comprehension would be recommended. IV. Methodology In seeking answers to the research questions, survey questionnaires and class observations were chosen to obtain relevant information for the study. The strategic method of the study is quantitative one. That is all remarks, considerations, and conclusions are made largely based on the 2 analysis of the statistic data collected through the survey questionnaires. Class observations are carried out as a supplementary to the survey questionnaires. V. Design of the study The study consists of three main parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion. Part I introduces rationales, aims of the study, scope and methods of the study. Part II comprises four chapters. Chapter I deals with an overview of the theoretical background of the research. It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: reading and reading comprehension, classification of reading, the importance of improving reading skills, roles of reading teachers and those of reading students, focused tasks in reading . Chapter II describes the participants and instruments of the study. Chapter III is data collection and data analysis. Chapter IV offers some focused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills and a sample work. Part III summarizes the issues addressed and presents recommendations for further improvements and some suggestions for further research. 3 PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. Definitions of reading, reading comprehension and purposes of reading I.1.1. What is reading? Reading is a natural and common activity that people always do in their daily life. It is stated that reading is a kind of culture that people regardless of age, sex, or class should learn and have. Although no one can deny the high frequency of reading in everyday life, to understand thoroughly what reading or reading comprehension is may not be well aware by many. There have been so many definitions of reading that they cause much confusion. Hence, many linguists take reading into account to do research. They have studied and given various definitions of reading. According to Frank Smith (1978:2) “reading is to understand the author’s thought”. He also adds “Understanding print or even receiving communication can hardly be said to explain reading. The problem still remains of how readers understand the print or receives the communication”. This means that readers need to understand the author’s mind, not the author’s words. The meaning of a word on any particular occasion will depend largely on the context in which it occurs. So when readers understand the author’s thought, they are successful in reading because the nature of reading is the interaction between writers and readers. Reading is much more than just understanding individual words but it is the process that the writer and reader understand each other. I.1.2. What is reading comprehension? 4 Reading comprehension takes a very important part in teaching and learning reading a language and a foreign language as well. Reading comprehension is a process that requires how to decode through the development of an extensive repertoire of sight words, learning the meanings of vocabulary words encountered in the texts, and learning how to abstract meaning from text. It represents how well readers understand literal comprehension which concentrates on explicit meaning and inferential comprehension which concentrates on implicit meaning in the reading text. I.1.3. The purposes of reading The purposes of reading will determine how we read, what skills we need and what types of reading text we practise in order to fulfill the purposes. There are three main purposes of reading: reading for pleasure, reading for information and reading for language development. Reading for pleasure is considered as a purpose of reading because some people only read for entertainment, especially when getting stressed or after their hard working hours. They read funny stories, jokes, newspapers and articles to entertain themselves. In language classroom, reading for pleasure is used to lessen tension in class through funny stories, spicy stories, etc. Reading for information means that readers have to find out something or do something with information they get. Information may be presented in several ways in written or spoken language, in drawings, photographs, etc. Reading in a foreign language is an effective way to learn a language for students. Through reading they can get the content of the 5 subject which they are studying and get the way to develop their knowledge of language itself. In general, reading skills will make other skills such as speaking, writing and listening improve because by teaching reading, the teacher provides students knowledge that can be used in writing, speaking and listening. I.2. Classification of reading I.2.1. Classification of reading according to manner According to manner, reading aloud and silent reading are two types of reading in which “reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it” (Doff, 1988:70). Although reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessary information to the others, it is an unpopular activity outside classroom. I.2.2. Classification of reading according to purposes It is clear to assume that the reasons for reading are different from this person to that person because of their uncommon purposes. According to purposes, reading is categorized into skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading. I.3. Stages in a reading lesson Activities in a reading lesson can be divided into three stages: pre- reading stage, while-reading stage and post-reading stage. For each stage, different techniques should be used to help students read the text comprehensively. I.3.1. Pre-reading stage According to Williams (1984:37), the purposes of the pre-reading 6 stage are: - To introduce and arouse interest in the topic. - To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading. - To provide some language preparation for the text. Normally, pre-reading phase often last from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson. Several techniques are suggested such as using pictures, predicting from the titles, guessing and brainstorming to see what students have already known. These activities are aimed at drawing the students’ interest towards reading as well as preparing them for the reading text. I.3.2. While-reading stage Williams (1984:38) states that while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson with the following specific aims: - To help understanding of the writer’s purpose. - To help understanding of the text structure. - To clarify text content. At this stage, there is a great deal of activities can be performed in order to help students to understand the text. The teacher acts as an organisor, a helper only. He will be available to help individuals with their particular difficulties. He will be likely to be about the meaning of new vocabulary items, new grammar structures, etc. In this situation, he should encourage students to guess the meaning from the context. On the whole, the teacher must manage his class in such a way every student participates in the lesson and understands the text. I.3.3. Post-reading stage After reading, the teacher needs to consolidate or reflect upon what 7 has been read. Williams stated that “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views” Williams (1984:39). This stage is where integration of four skills will be appropriately conducted. Activities in this stage are aimed at helping students apply what they have learnt from the text to their further study or communication through the tasks provided by the teacher. Obviously, the three-phase approach is not to be carried out mechanically on every occasion. Sometimes, the teacher may wish to cut out the pre-reading stage and get learners to work on the text directly. At other times, post-reading stage may not be included. I.4. Factors in teaching and learning reading I.4.1. The role of the teacher In a reading lesson, the teacher acts as a helper and students work individually and actively but this does not mean that there is nothing for the teacher to do. The roles of teachers in an EFL reading lesson are also significant and worth mentioning. I.4.2. The role of students The students are the heart of the reading process in a reading class and they can make a reading lesson successful. Nuttall (2000:33) mentions several main roles for the students in a reading lesson. They are as follows: - Taking an active part in learnin - Monitoring comprehension - Learning text talk - Taking risks - Learning not to cheat oneself 8 [...]... theory of reading and teaching reading comprehension It is also based on the present situation of teaching and learning reading at Ngo Quyen High School The actual teaching and learning status was clarified through the two survey questionnaires and some classroom observations at Ngo Quyen High School The statistics indicates that both students and teachers have positive attitudes toward teaching and learning... recognising indicators in discourse, identifying the main point or important information in a piece of discourse, distinguishing the main idea and supporting details, extracting salient points 10 to summarise, basic reference skills, skimming, scanning and transcoding information to diagrammatical display I.6.2.2 Questions and tasks in a reading lesson In teaching reading, reading lessons have been traditionally... linguistic feature, for example, a grammatical structure He says that focused tasks have two aims: one is to stimulate communicative language use, the other is to target the use of a particular, predetermined target feature I.6.2 Using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills I.6.2.1 Skills involved in reading Readers need variety of skills when reading In fact, a change in purpose of reading usually... three main purposes of reading: reading for pleasure, reading for information and reading for language development Purposes of reading determine the types of reading and the relevant reading skills to be used Thus, in the teaching process, it is advisable for the teacher to pay much attention to the suitability of tasks for different purposes of reading However, in this study I mainly focus on reading. .. results in the change in the reading skills so the type of reading performed According to Tomlinson and Ellis (1980:150), reading skills include: mechanical skills, understanding the lexical items, understanding grammatical meaning, reasoning skills, selection skills and evaluation skills Another possible way of classification of reading skills is suggested by Grellet (1981:4) He considers that reading skills. .. and Language Focus The teacher only covers one of the above five parts in each period 12 II.2 Instrumentation The sample was drawn from two sources: from 155 students and from 8 teachers teaching at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS III.1 Data analysis and findings In this part, the collected data will be illustrated on charts, tables and graphs Each chart, table... reading for language development Through doing reading tasks, students can upgrade their mastery of the target language In doing reading tasks, students can have a useful practice in the development of reading skills such as skimming, scanning, etc In this study, some kinds of tasks are suggested so that the teachers can use them to develop those skills in students at high schools, especially the 11th form... consist of: recognising the scrift of a language, deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items, understanding explicitly stated information, understanding information what not explicitly stated, understanding conceptual meaning, understanding the relations within the sentence, understanding relations between parts of the text through grammatical cohesion devices, interpreting a text by going... teachers) and grade 11 students (155 students) who are teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh as follows: II.1.3 Reading Materials The materials used for teaching and learning English for the grade 11 students are English course books TIENG ANH 11 The textbook consists of 16 units organized broad topics Each unit is divided into 5 parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and... subjects at high schools Reading is a skill of major concern in teaching-learning English in 11 Vietnam During a reading lesson, the teacher asks students to read a text and then he or she explains new words or structures to help students understand the text The reading lesson sometimes turns out to be an English-Vietnamese translation lesson Translation can be used as an effective way of teaching reading . listening. I.2. Classification of reading I.2.1. Classification of reading according to manner According to manner, reading aloud and silent reading are two types of reading in which reading aloud involves. other. I.1.2. What is reading comprehension? 4 Reading comprehension takes a very important part in teaching and learning reading a language and a foreign language as well. Reading comprehension is a process. entitled Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh because I myself believe that reading can help learners to get 1 information