Reading skills for the first-year students at Vietnam Maritime University by implementing task-based language teaching Nguyễn Phương Hạnh Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English teaching methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Trần Hiền Lan Năm bảo vệ: 2012 Abstract. Reading is one of the most important skills in learning English. However, the teaching and learning reading skills in Vietnam in general and in Vietnam Maritime University in particular is still limited for some reasons. The purpose of this study was to examine the needs and assessments of the first-year students in Vietnam Maritime University when learning English, and suggest effective ways to design tasks based on available texts in the course-book by implementing task-based language learning and teaching. The subjects involved in the study are over 100 students of Vietnam Maritime University chosen at random from 2 classes. They were in their first year and were studying General English with the course-book New Headway – Elementary – Third Edition. The data was collected from two questionnaires, two tests and notes from class observation. The results of the first questionnaire survey and the first test revealed a low reading ability, a high level of dissatisfaction within the students towards the current English course in terms of need fulfillments, language skill development and classroom activities. The second survey and test, which was conducted after the experimental reading lessons, however saw a positive change in the students’ reading ability, motivations and attitudes on the reading lessons. They felt that they were learning for pleasure and they liked the ways they learned English and reading skills from the tasks designed on the given texts. Hopefully, the research can play a part in improving the students’ reading skills. Keywords. Phương pháp giảng dạy; Kỹ năng đọc; Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giao nhiệm vụ Content 1. Rationale of the study It goes without saying that English is by far the most popular language of all. Nowadays, English language plays an important role in the increasing development of science, technology, politics, culture and international relations in Vietnam. As a result, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English throughout the country for different purposes. Learners of English all keep in touch with the four skills in order to acquire the English proficiency. In Vietnam, reading is perhaps the most important skills that Vietnamese learners of English will be working with as one of the major focuses of teaching English as a second language is providing the students with the abilities to understand written materials. With strengthened reading skills, EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development not only in English but also in all academic areas. Therefore, “reading is the most heavily researched single area of the whole curriculum, and yet, paradoxically, it remains a field in which a good deal of fundamental work has yet to be approached, and one in which a great many teachers would claim to be almost wholly ignorant” and secondary teachers “who have generally had no training at all related to reading but nevertheless feel conscious that the ability to read fluently is the basis for most school learning, and one of the surest predictors of academic attainment” (Harrison and Gardner, 1977). Traditionally, attempts to improve the comprehension of texts for EFL students have focused on familiarizing the students with vocabulary needed to comprehend the passage. However, within the last 15 years, much of the research has been conducted in the field of reading comprehension with focus on the use of tasks, especially tasks which involve interaction between learners in developing the learners’ knowledge and reading skills. Several studies have revealed that the use of appropriate tasks in reading lessons is an effective way to improve students’ reading comprehension, motivating them and help them obtain better reading achievement. Vietnam Maritime University is a place where English teaching and learning are considered one of the major focuses. Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills is still far from satisfactory for various reasons. The students, especially the first –year ones, seem to have limited background knowledge, poor vocabulary and often find it difficult to concentrate on the reading process or deal with uncountable new vocabulary, etc. After several years of learning English, they are still word-by-word readers; they tend to read very slowly to understand the meaning of every single word. When they encounter unfamiliar words or unfamiliar concepts, they feel discouraged and resort to wild guessing to construct the text meaning. Some students do not understand the main idea of a text even when they have translated every word into their mother tongue. Very few students deliberately look at the title of a text to think about its topic before reading. Fewer students use their background knowledge to facilitate their comprehension. They are completely dependent on the decoded messages from the text, so once their decoding mechanisms fail due to their deficient language proficiency, comprehension breaks down. One more problem is that the tasks provided in the course book are rather challenging and repetitive, mostly are question- and - answers tasks. As a result, many reading lessons makes the learners bored while taking part in the reading process and their reading skills still keep stable. For all the above reasons, the researcher wishes to implement task – based language teaching, a new and effective approach, in improving the students’ reading skills through the research work entitled: “Improving reading skills for the first – year students at Vietnam Maritime University by implementing task – based language teaching”. 2. Aims of the study The research is conducted to: • examine the impact of task-based language teaching and learning on reading comprehension of the first-year students at Vietnam Maritime University. • suggest effective ways to design different tasks based on the available texts in the course book to meet students’ demand, help them improve their reading skills and helping teachers select, adapt or create their own design of effective communicative tasks. 3. Scope of the study As the title of the study implies, this research focuses on reading skills and the participants of the study are the first - year students at Vietnam Maritime University. The author tried to conduct two surveys and two tests in order to analyze the expectation and achievement of the experimental lessons. The information obtained from this study is to help to improve teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning English reading comprehension in particular at Vietnam Maritime University. 4. Methods of the study Action research, which “allows us to build records of our improvements” (Kemmis and Me Taggart, 1982, p34), is chosen as the research method for the current study. The author specially prefers action research to other more conventional or traditional types of research by the fact that "it is very focused on individual or small group professional practice and it is not so concerned with making general statement The main function of action research is to facilitate the reflective cycle and in this way provide an effective method for improving professional action” (Wallace, 1997, p. 16). Firstly, the researcher used two survey questionnaires which have always been considered as a representative of quantitative method to collect primary data. When designing the questionnaires, the researcher used the questions of both types: open type and closed ended questions. Closed form or restricted types of questions offer the respondent a choice of alternatives. The open form (unrestricted) type of questions, calling for a free response, provides greater depth of response. Secondly, the researcher tried to evaluate student’s progress through two tests, one before and one after the intervention. The results from these two tests are reliable data to measure the effectiveness of the experimental lessons. Besides, during the experimental lessons, the researcher also observed and took note on the progress of the lessons, the students’ response on the task, some changes should be made on the lessons, etc. 5. Overview of the study This research is composed of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. In the first part - Introduction, the author presents the rationale and the aims of the study followed by the scope and the methods of study. The second part - Development is the backbone of the thesis which starts by recalling a brief account of reading comprehension, task-based language learning and teaching such as the task definitions, task types, task-based framework and pointing out the key issues in designing communicative tasks. Then the author provides the methodology of the study which consists of the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the research questions, the participants and the implementation of action research. These are followed by the instruments of data collection, data collection and analysis procedure. This part is ended with the result and discussions of the research. 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They felt that they were learning for pleasure and they liked the ways they learned English and reading skills from the tasks designed on the given texts. Hopefully, the research