A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to second year english major students at hai phong

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A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to second year english major students at hai phong

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THUỲ GIANG A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to second- year English major students at Haiphong University (Nghiên cứu thủ thuật phát triển kỹ đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên tiếng Anh - Trường Đại học Hải Phòng) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 Hanoi - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THUỲ GIANG A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to second- year English major students at Haiphong University (Nghiên cứu thủ- thuật phát triển kỹ đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên tiếng Anh - Trường Đại học Hải Phòng) M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ THƠM THƠM, M.A Hanoi - 2010 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i Acknowledgements ii Abstract .iii List of abbreviation .iv List of tables v Table of contents vi PART A: INTRODUCTION……… ………………… ………………………… 1 Rationale……………………………………………………………………………1 Aims of the study………………………………………………………………… Scope of the study………………………………………………………………… Method of the study…………………………………………………………… .2 Design of the study……………………………………………………………… PART B: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………………… Chapter I: Literature Review…………………….………………………….….4 1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…4 1.2 Reading and other skills in English teaching and learning ……………………………4 1.3 Overview of reading …………………………………………………………….……4 1.3.1 Definition ……………………………………………………………………4 1.3.2 The importance of reading in foreign language learning…………………….5 1.3.3 Factors in teaching and learning reading…………………………………….6 vii 1.3.3.1 Reading texts……………………………………………………….6 1.3.3.2 Teacher’s roles…………………………………………………… 1.3.3.3 Students’ roles…………………………………………………… 1.3.4 Stages of a reading lesson……………………………………………………7 1.3.4.1 Pre-reading stage………………………………………………… 1.3.4.2 While-reading stage……………………………………………… 1.3.4.3 Post-reading stage………………………………………………….7 1.4 Classification of reading…………………………………………………………….…8 1.4.1 According to manner……………………………………………………… 1.4.2 According to purposes……………………………………………….………8 1.4.2.1 Intensive reading…………………………………………….…… 1.4.2.2 Extensive reading……………………………………………….….9 1.4.2.3 Skimming………………………………………………………… 1.4.2.4 Scanning………………………………………………………… 10 1.5 Effective Reading Comprehension……………………………………………………10 1.5.1 Definition of Reading Comprehension……………………………… ……10 1.5.2 Definition of Effective Reading Comprehension……… …………………11 1.5.3 Effective reader……………………………………… ……………………11 1.5.4 Techniques for Reading Comprehension……………………………… …13 1.6 Preview the concerned theories…………………………………………………….…14 1.7 Summary…………………………………………………… ………………………15 Chapter II: The study…………………………… …… ……………………… 16 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………… ………………………….…16 2.2 An overview on Haiphong University………………… …………………………….16 2.3 Learners and Learning requirements……………………………………………….…16 2.4 Teachers and Teaching methods…………………… ……………………………….17 2.5 Materials and Assessments…………………………… …………………………….18 2.6 Data collection, Findings and Discussion…………………………………………….19 2.6.1 Data collection……………………………… ……………………………19 2.6.1.1 Participants………………………… ……………………….…19 2.6.1.2 Instruments……………………………………….……….…….20 viii 2.6.1.3 Data collecting procedures…………………… 20 2.6.1.4 Data analysis……………………………………………………20 2.6.2 Findings and Discussion……………………………………………………21 2.6.2.1 From students’ perspectives………………………………………21 2.6.2.1.1 Students’ attitude towards the materials used for reading lessons…… 21 2.6.2.1.2 Students’ attitude towards the way their teachers create reading interest and motivate them………………………………………………….……22 2.6.2.1.3 Students’ attitude towards the techniques used by their teachers in the reading lesson……………………………………………………………23 2.6.2.1.4 Students’ activities before reading the text……………………….…….24 2.6.2.1.5 Students’ activities while reading the text……………………….…… 25 2.6.2.1.6 Students’ activities after reading the text……………………………….27 2.6.2.2 From teachers’ perspectives…………………………… ……….28 2.6.2.2.1 Teachers’ attitude towards the materials used at class for reading lesson 28 2.6.2.2.2 Teachers’ techniques in a reading lesson……………………….………29 2.6.2.2.3 Teachers’ activities during three stages of a reading lesson……………29 2.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………… ………30 Chapter III: Suggested Techniques to improve reading skills to second –year English major students at Haiphong University……………………………………………………… ……… ………….31 3.1 Techniques for Creating Motivation and Interest……………………….……………31 3.1.1 Using visual aids in teaching reading………………………………………31 3.1.2 Combining teaching reading with other skills…………………… ………31 3.2 Techniques for improving Teachers’ activities in reading lesson……………… … 31 3.2.1 Regulate Teaching Time and Efforts……………………………… …… 31 3.2.2 Help the students with three stages of a reading lesson……….……………32 3.3 Techniques for the development of Reading Materials……………………………….33 3.3.1 Make full Use of the Reading Texts and design reading Text-Based Activities……………………………………………………….………….33 3.3.2 Selecting appropriate supplementary Reading Materials………………… 34 3.4 Summary………….………………………………………………………………… 35 ix PART C: conclusion 36 Recapitulation……………………………………………………………………… 36 Limitation and Suggestions for Further Study 36 References 8Appendices iv LISTS OF abbreviations HPU Haiphong University FLD Foreign Language Department No Number v LISTS OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ attitude towards the materials used for reading lessons Table 2: Students’ attitude towards the way their teachers create reading interest and motivate them Table 3: Students’ attitude towards the techniques used by their teachers in the reading lesson Table 4: Students’ activities before reading the text Table 5: Students’ activities while reading the text Table 6: Students’ activities after reading the text PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale: 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 master the English proficiency In Vietnam, reading is perhaps the most important skill that Vietnamese learners of English will be working with the most because one of the major focuses of teaching English as a second language is providing the students with the abilities to understand written materials Moreover, becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of important benefits for the learner First, reading in the target language helps students consolidate the learning that has taken place Second, it may help students to increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” Therefore, teaching reading is gaining more attention by English teachers and learners Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills is still far from satisfactory for various reasons Learners often complain that they find it difficult to concentrate on reading process or deal with uncountable new vocabulary, etc In terms of teachers’ role, they find it hard when their students seem to lack motivation and interests in reading lesson As a result, many reading lessons make English learners bored when taking part in the reading process Haiphong University is a place where English teaching and learning are considered one of the strengths, and reading subject is highly appreciated by all the teaching staff However, the teachers have confronted a number of difficulties such as the habits of word-by-word reading; overemphasis on forms rather than meaning; excessive focus on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limited background knowledge As an English teacher at Haiphong University, I have received many questions relating to reading learning from my students as well as my colleagues such as: “How to study reading effectively?” or “What are techniques for reading skill?”, etc From this fact, I think we, English teachers, must something new to promote reading skill especially among the students of the FLD at Haiphong University It is time we gave them more chances and more encouragements to read This fact has also encouraged the author to investigate the second year majored students in learning reading and after that, suggest some techniques in order to improve reading skill in here It is a hope that the study will be helpful for the author and other reading teachers in their teaching Aims of the study: The aim of this study is to find out the difficulties encountered by the second year English major students at Haiphong University, and the suggestions given upon their difficulties to improve their reading skill The specific aims are: - to exploit the use of reading techniques employed by the second year English major students and teachers - to recommend techniques to improve their reading skill Scope of the study: The study limited itself to the investigation of common reading learning techniques are employed by second year major students at Haiphong University The author tried her best to conduct a survey and an interview in order to analyze the reading techniques from the students and teachers The information obtained from this study was to help to improve teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning English reading in particular at Haiphong University Method of the study: In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study was designed to use quantitative method first modeled by Gustav Fechner- a German psychologist as one way of data collection The author prefers to use this method because it is easy to carry out and suitable to the context of this study In addition, it helps gain the data accurately and trustfully After the data is analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be raised in the thesis Beside quantitative method, the author picks the interview from the teachers as the second choice because of its convenience Moreover, the benefit of interviewing is that the interviewer can evaluate the attitudes of the interviewee As a result, the conclusion after the interview can be trusted Question 13 26 When you fail to understand the text, what 21% 19% 22% 38% 20.4% 58% 3.6% you often do? A Give up reading B Ignore that part of the text and read on C Ask the teachers D Do not know what to Question 14 What you often to find the main ideas 18% of the text? A Skimming B Scanning C Read the text attentively from the beginning to the end D Other activities Table Findings from Table show what students while reading the text 49% of students choose the way of reading attentively from the beginning to the end Not a small number (33.6%) of students read the paragraphs in the reading text one by one And a small number (11.4%) still ask their teachers for the meaning of unknown words and structures When unfamiliar words or structures appear, 43% know to figure out the meanings of the words from the context while 34% depend on the dictionary for the meanings or words explanation Moreover, 21% ignore all when they encounter the unfamiliar words or structures When being asked what they will in case the students fail to understand the text, most of students (38%) not know what to Also, the figures show that 21% give up reading and 22% ask the teachers for instruction Only 19% of them ignore that part of the text and read on Also mentioned in the question about the students’ activities while reading the text, 58% read the text attentively from the beginning to the end in order to find the main ideas of the text 18% choose skimming and 20.4% choose scanning as their reading techniques to find the main ideas of the text 27 It can be concluded in this part that students are not aware of the reading techniques, and it seems that teachers have not helped them deal with the while reading activities Both teachers and students here have kept up with the traditional way of teaching reading English, i.e teacher- centered approach 2.6.2.1.6 Students’ activities after reading the text (Question 17- 20) Options A B C D 30.4% 57% 6.6% 72% 5% 2% 24.5% 2.1% 5.4% 20.4% 58% 3.6% Questions Question 15 What activities interest you most in the 6% post- reading stage? A Summarize the text in writing B Answer your teacher’s question C Work in pairs to ask and answer questions in the text D Summarize the text orally Question 16 What you often in reading- based 21% follow- up activities A Summarize the text B Do exercises C Do nothing D Other activities Question 17 Do you attempt to increase your speed of 68% reading comprehension? A Yes, usually B Yes, but sometimes C No, rarely E No, never Question 18 Do you often summarize the text after 18% reading for details? A Usually 28 B Sometimes C Seldom E Never Table Table tells us the students’ activities after they have finished the reading text The activity that the students like most is working in pairs to ask and answer questions in the text (57%), and then answering teachers’ questions Only a small number (6%) like summarizing the text in writing, and 6.6% prefer summarizing the text orally From this table, we know that follow- up activities have also been developed in reading lessons However, it seems ineffective since most students (72%) often is completing the exercises given by their teachers It is clear that these exercises are only used for grammar improvement 21% summarize the text, and 5% nothing with follow- up activities Fortunately, the second year majored students here are aware of the importance of increasing their speed of reading comprehension when 68% try their best to faster their reading regularly 24.5% say sometimes and a small portion answer that they rarely or never speed up their reading Relating to the post- reading activities, most of the students (58%) seldom give the summary of the text 20.4% propose that they sometimes this activity and 3.6% say they never Luckily, 18% often apply this technique after each reading lesson So, we can conclude that most students not have the habit of summarizing the text It can be inferred from the results of this table that students of HPU are not aware of the importance of post reading activities They still like the activity of working in pairs to ask and answer questions in the text To serve the reading based follow up activities, the students are prepared to deal with doing exercise Moreover, their teachers not help their students with the useful post reading techniques such as summarizing the text in writing, orally or combining reading with writing or speaking skills However, it is luck that students have the attitude of increasing the reading comprehension speed And this is a well-worth attitude 2.6.2.2 From teachers’ perspective: 2.6.2.2.1 Teachers’ attitude towards the materials used at class for reading lesson According to the interview, all the teachers felt confident of the contents of the reading materials According to them, the materials are carefully collected and approved 29 by all the teachers of language skill group Moreover, the teachers think all the reading topics are familiar with the daily lives that make students easy to follow However, the attitude of students must be taken into consideration while the teachers felt that their students were bored with the topic and the length of the reading texts Relating to the materials, the results of the interview show that the teachers think the supplementary reading materials are necessary for the students Apart from the materials used at class, the teachers think their students need more extensive reading Also, they indicate that the students’ interest must be paid attention to 2.6.2.2.2 Teachers’ techniques in a reading lesson When the question “What technique(s) you often use in a reading lesson” is given, the techniques of translation and explanation are picked as their choices It is easy to find that these two techniques are chosen by many teachers because it makes use of time and efforts However, the students’ need is the things that we have to mention here According to the students’ survey about their attitude towards the techniques used by their teachers, they hopes their teachers use the technique of using visual aids (picture) in a reading lesson, for example in order to give the meaning of new vocabulary So, as for a teacher, we must consider the students’ need in order to adjust the use of techniques The technique of combining teaching reading with other skills is also mentioned in this part The researcher receives good attitudes of the teachers towards the effects of this combination In their opinions, the students are able to develop English proficiency comprehensively thanks to this combination However, the problem is that the teachers are aware of the advantages of this technique, but they not often apply it in their teaching According to the interview, we know that time allowance is one of the problem that constraints the teachers from developing the reading techniques 2.6.2.2.3 Teachers’ activities during three stages of a reading lesson When being asked about the experiences of teaching reading and the activities during the reading lesson, it comes the fact that some teachers highly appreciate the way of teaching during three stages of a reading lesson: pre- reading, while- reading and post- reading while some ignore them and lead the lesson to “Learners- Centered” approach That means they merely give the reading text and design the tasks for their students to tackle Of course, this makes the lesson monotonous and the motivation of students will be reduced It is very dangerous and the teachers must pay attention to this point 30 To investigate on the reason, the researcher finds that time is one of the important issue affecting the teachers’ activities during three stages of a reading lesson The teachers express their complaints when being asked whether time at class is enough for students and teachers or not They claim that the reading tasks are excessive when time is too short, so they cannot fulfill the reading tasks and the reading tasks are remained homework regularly 2.7 Summary: In this chapter, the author has a look on the overview of HPU where all the needs and equipment served for English learning and teaching are fulfilled The important things also presented in this chapter are the findings from the survey about the learning and teaching reading First and foremost, students here are not quite satisfied with the reading materials they are learning Also, the findings show that students desire the appearance of pictures in each reading lesson As a reading teacher of second year majored students, we should pay attention to the way of motivating them to read instead of merely providing new words or new structures Again, pictures play an important role in teaching reading in general and vocabulary in particular Seemingly, students like the participation of pictures in reading lesson Next, the basic reading techniques such as skimming and scanning are neglected and extensive reading outside classroom is not encouraged by the teachers Investigating the three phases of reading lesson, the author finds that the teachers have not realized the importance of pre-reading activities, and they have not helped their students realize what they should before starting to read Besides, it is unfortunately that students are not aware of the reading techniques while reading and after reading After this investigation, we know that follow up activities such as summarizing the text in writing are very important and useful techniques The results from the interview between the researcher and the teachers show the teachers’ attitude towards the materials used at class, the teachers’ technique and the activities during three stages of the lesson 31 Chapter 3: Suggested Techniques to improve reading skills to second –year English major students at Haiphong University 3.1 Techniques for Creating Motivation and Interest 3.1.1 Using visual aids in teaching reading Visuals aids which can be used in the classroom are various such as the blackboard, real objects, cards, pictures, charts, etc… According to Sandra Silberstein (1990: 34) “Using visual aids in teaching reading bring the authentic view for the lesson…” Truthfully, visual aids are very helpful in motivating students to read and interesting them Visual aids are better than any explanations and translation when introducing new words and new structures because they can give what exactly students need to know without translating into Vietnamese Also, the results from the survey show that students desire their teachers to use visual aids (pictures) in the reading lesson So, the teachers must take this into consideration 3.1.2 Combining teaching reading with other skills It is excellent when students are good at all four skills when learning English Sandra Silberstein (1990: 34) stated that “When you combine skills in English teaching means you make contribution to the whole language development” As a teacher, we should pay attention to this point in order to combine reading tasks with others in a reading lesson According to the interview, teachers are also aware of the benefits of combining teaching reading with other skills Thanks to this, the language proficiency of students will be developed comprehensively So, the teachers must be flexible in choosing the suitable skills to be combined depending on the contents of language acquisition of each lesson 32 In the findings, we know that summarizing reading text in writing is a good example of post reading techniques So, it is good when teachers are flexible in combining the tasks 3.2 Techniques for improving Teachers’ activities in reading lesson 3.2.1 Regulate Teaching Time and Efforts Findings from the interview reveal that teachers at FLD have a variety of ways to create reading interest among the students, motivate and provide them different techniques to enable their reading process effective However, through the survey we know that time is one of the problems that the teachers encountered The survey indicates that the teachers also want to make the lesson more interesting, but time does not allow So, more time and efforts should be spent on the strategies to increase the number of students who feel much interested in what their teachers have performed The study suggests that teachers should help their students realize three reading stages so that their students can read more effectively and spend time and energy for each stage of reading reasonably However, the teachers also need to notice that not enough time and efforts have been spent to help their students deal with problems with new words or phrases Moreover, teachers need to save more time and efforts identifying what difficulties their students are coping with in each stage of reading For example, if their students find it hard to start discussion of the topic to read, it is essential that the teachers guide them with questions, or theme-based topics If that is the problem of working out the gists, asking them to have skim read Time and efforts are also necessary for the teachers to tabulate their students’ level of proficiency so that appropriate reading exercises can be handed in good time In a few words, using time and efforts wisely is one technique to help teachers improve their students’ reading skill 3.2.2 Help the students with three stages of a reading lesson The findings from the survey and the interview indicate that there are lots of things should be dealt with to help students in three stages of a reading lesson Teachers should be flexible in combining different activities and techniques to help students gain better reading acquisition Followings are some suggestions in three stages First, in pre- reading stage, teachers may ask their students to talk about pictures accompanying with the text, predict from the title, agree or disagree with a set of proposals about the topic, answering a set of questions or a quiz, listing items of 33 information they already know about the topic, or discuss the topics In addition, they can make up discussion questions to raise students’ interest in the topic, to create attitude towards it, and to give readers and students to rehearse some key language Some photographs also can help the students to anticipate content in drawing up their own lists This activates their prior knowledge of the topic and any relevant language they might already know Second, during while- reading stage, teachers should encourage students to be active as they read by asking them to: - follow the order of ideas in a text - understand the information the text contains - ask themselves questions related - make notes - predict content of the reading text, or glance at the title, subheading, the first and the last sentence of the text - predict the next part of the text To enhance these activities, teachers can use a range of exercises such as asking students to tick a list of expectations or find answers for their questions, provide a chart for them to fill in with points of information, etc… Teachers also encourage their students to have silent reading Time is always a matter of reading lesson, so silent reading is a good technique which plays an important role in improving their reading speed and saving much time Extensive reading outside classroom should be paid attention as another technique in use, for it helps students experience the joys of reading in English Finally, post reading activities such as role play, summarize the text, discuss, ask and answer questions about the reading text or reproduce the text To conclude, the teachers should combine the different useful techniques in three stages of a reading lesson 3.3 Techniques for the development of Reading Materials 3.3.1 Make full Use of the Reading Texts and design Reading Text-Based Activities We must be aware of the fact that reading materials play vital role in the success of a reading lesson The interview indicates that the teachers are confident of the materials collected and designed by all the teachers of language skill group On the contrary, the results of the survey infer that the students are not quite satisfied with the 34 reading materials they are learning As a teacher, we should pay attention to this point in order to have good preparation for the lesson Hence, to raise students’ interest and improve their reading skill, the teachers need to make full use of the texts by setting up various tasks for their students Three stages of teaching reading lessons with different activities must be taken into consideration Moreover, reading text- based activities should also be set for the readers and here below are some that may be put in use - Encouraging brief discussion about the topics relevant to the reading text for warming up - Providing reading text- based guided questions - Employing different reading text- based activities, such as T/F, questionsanswers, multiple choice, gap filling, charts, role- play, etc… - Designing various types of task- based exercises 3.3.2 Selecting appropriate supplementary Reading Materials As shown in Table 1, a small number of students find the reading materials very interesting while 49% affirm that they feel bored with the contents of reading materials From these results, the suggestion should be made is that there should be supplementary reading materials to draw students’ interest Three main criteria suggested by Nuttall (1996) should be taken into consideration when choosing reading materials for the students: suitability of content, readability and exploitability Suitability of content is related to the text’s ability to address the students’ needs Reading texts should interest the readers by providing new and interesting information through natural and learnable language Readability concerns with structural and lexical difficulty The course designers must determine the right level balancing among the students, and the text chosen must be at the right level of difficulty basing on the assessment of the students’ level of proficiency Exploitability means the facilitation of learning When selecting a text, the course designers need to be sure how they can exploit the text to help the students develop interpretive strategies Combining with the fact of teaching and learning reading skill at Haiphong University, the author of the study makes the following suggestions for choosing appropriate reading materials 35 Firstly, reading materials should be added more types of activities, texts and exercises It is said that the exercises in the current reading are too poor, thus the teachers should create some more reading exercises to suit their teaching purposes when using these texts to teach reading skill Secondly, lexical and grammatical items in reading texts must be more appropriate to the students’ level In fact, the language of many reading texts may be difficult for some students to understand In addition, some reading texts are not written specifically for language learning purposes, they are sometimes too difficult or culturally unfamiliar for the students In this case, the teachers should be flexible by simplifying these texts into authentic ones They can replace difficult words or structures by those that the learners know, omit part of the text that demands a special knowledge of the world or is not important to the task, or recognize the text so as to make its structure clearer Last but not least, the teachers should select the supplementary texts that have related topics or themes to the current syllabus, so as to either extend these topics in some way, or offer students different text types of these same topics As a result, the students will have more chances to read the topics they are interested as well as widen their knowledge of the topics they meet difficulties when reading 3.4 Summary This chapter has made suggestions to improve techniques for reading skills to second - year English major students at Haiphong University The author is aware of three aspects relating to this issue Firstly, techniques for creating Motivation and Interest play an important role in teaching and learning English The research finds that using visual aids in teaching reading and combining teaching reading with other skills make the reading lesson effective Secondly, it is essential for them to improve teachers’ activities in reading lesson The teachers have to regulate the time and efforts to manage the class and make their students involved in the reading lesson They need, moreover, vary techniques to aid their students in three stages of a reading lesson Lastly, the reading materials must be developed, for materials are very important for any reading lesson The teachers should make full use of the reading texts and design reading text-based activities Also, supplementary reading materials should be adapted in order to suit the students’ needs and proficiency levels 36 These are only the suggestions from the author based on the initial studies above, and it is unlucky that they have not been evaluated in practice The author hopes that this will be investigated in near future PART C: conclusion Recapitulation To serve the purpose of exploring the current situation of teaching and learning reading in English, then suggest the techniques useful for better teaching and learning, the research has been done with three chapters In general, this study has achieved its aims mentioned in the first part First, the author has reviewed relevant literature on reading and reading comprehension theories This literature review provides theoretical foundation for the interpretation of data and suggestions in the next two chapters The current situation of teaching and learning reading skill at FLD- HPU, methodology, data from the survey questionnaire, the interview as well as the data analysis have been presented in this study The findings show that students here are not quite satisfied with the reading materials they are learning Also, some basic reading techniques such as skimming and scanning are neglected and extensive reading outside classroom is not encouraged by the teachers From teachers’ perspective, we know that they feel confident of the materials used at class differently from the students’ attitude Moreover, they highly appreciate the way of teaching during three stages of a reading lesson, but time is the problem they have encountered Another conclusion is drawn from the findings is that there are many things have to be dealt with three stages of a reading lesson Later on, the author suggests the techniques to help enhancing reading skill These techniques are categorized into three sections: Techniques Creating Motivation and Interest, Techniques for improving Teachers’ activities in reading lesson and Techniques for the development of Reading Materials However, the author himself realizes that the second aim has not been fully accomplished because these suggestions have not been evaluated in practice Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study 37 Personally, I believe that the findings in my study are overall successful to some extent However, limitations are unavoidable in any research papers and this minor thesis is of no exception Firstly, the author only uses survey questionnaire and interview to collect data on views of the students at the second year majors about reading The number of the students taking part in the questionnaires is only from classes (88 students) and only reading teachers, which may not be sufficient for the author to have precise judgments Secondly, because of the limitations of time, the main participants of the survey are only the second year students Last but not least, not all the suggested techniques for teaching and learning reading are experimented properly, so the author can not draw a conclusion of the effectiveness Therefore, the suggestions to improve reading for second year major students at HPU may be subjective and uncompleted, for the author does not have time to evaluate all the suggested techniques Despite such limitations, the author believes that his research will provide some helpful suggestions for the teaching and learning reading to the second year students and teachers Also, the author hopes that in the coming time he can carry out a thorough study on teachers and students at all levels in learning English reading 38 References Cook, L & Mayer, R (1988), Teaching Readers about the Structure of Scientific Text Journal of Education Psychology Devine, T (1986) Teaching Reading Comprehension – From theory to Practice Allyn and Bacon, Inc Doff, A (1988) Teach English Cambridge University Press Dung, D.T.M How to Motivate the Third Year English Majors in Learning Reading Skills at Haiphong University Grellet F (1981) Developing Reading Skills CUP Grellet, F (1990) Developing Reading Skills – A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises Cambridge University Press Lenz,K Ph.D., University of Kansas (1980) Reading in the Language Classroom Oxford: Mac Millian Publisher Lewis, M & Hill, J (1985) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching London: Commercial Color Press Huong, D.T How to Improve Reading Comprehension of the 10th form Students at Le Hong Phong High School Huong, L.T.T A Study on How to Improve ESP Reading Skills for the Students of Information Technology Huong, N.T.T Using Supplementary Reading Materials for First Year English Major Students at HPU in order to Motivate Students to Read Hop,N.T Improving Reading Skills of Post Graduate Students at College of Natural Sciences, VNU by Developing the Reading Materials Luoc, N.V (2005) A Study on the Techniques for Improving Reading Skills to NonMajor Students of English at HPFLC, Haiphong University Moore, K.D (1992) Classroom Teaching Reading Skills Mcgraw – Hill, Inc Mosback, G (1993) Practical Faster Reading CUP Nga, N.T.H How to Improve English Reading Skill for Students at Yen Hoa Upper Secondary School Nuttall, C (1992) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language, 1ed Oxford: Heinemann 39 Nuttall, C (1996) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language London: Heineman Educational Books Silberstein, S (1990) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading Smith, F (1997) Models for the Reading Process CUP Tierney, J (2005) Reading Strategies and Practices University of British Columbia Thanh, P.T Reading Difficulties in EFL as Perceived by Teachers and 1st Year Students of the English Department, College of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University Trang, N.T A Study on how to Improve the Teaching of Reading English in Economics to the Second Year Students at Hanoi National Economics University Tu, P.T (2007) Improving Reading Skills to the Students of Marine Engine Department, Vietnam Maritime University Ur P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching CUP Williams, E (1984) Teaching in the Language Classroom USA Mac Millian Williams, E (1986) Teaching in a Language Classroom, USA Mac Millian Wallace, C (1992) Reading Oxford University Press 40 ... techniques for improving reading skills to second ? ?year English major students at Haiphong University in Chapter III In the last Part– Part III, some conclusions are withdrawn and limitation of the study. .. contrast, the Grammar- Translation Method is out of date but familiar to a great number of reading teachers at FLD 19 2.5 Materials and Assessments Materials are anything used to teach language learners... stages of a reading An interview was conducted to obtain the following information: - Teachers’ attitude towards the materials used at class for reading lesson - Teachers’ techniques in a reading

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  • TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • LISTS OF abbreviations

  • LISTS OF TABLES

  • PART A: INTRODUCTION

  • 1. Rationale:

  • 2. Aims of the study:

  • 3. Scope of the study:

  • 4. Method of the study:

  • 5. Design of the study:

  • PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review

  • 1.1. Introduction:

  • 1.2. Reading and other skills in English teaching and learning

  • 1.3. Overview of reading

  • 1.3.1. Definition of reading

  • 1.3.2. The importance of reading in foreign language learning

  • 1.3.3. Factors in teaching and learning reading

  • 1.3.4. Stages of a reading lesson

  • 1.4. Classification of reading:

  • 1.4.1. According to manners

  • 1.4.2. According to purposes

  • 1.5. Effective Reading Comprehension

  • 1.5.1. Definition of Reading Comprehension

  • 1.5.2. Definition of Effective Reading Comprehension

  • 1.5.3. Effective reader

  • 1.5.4. Techniques for Reading Comprehension

  • 1.6. Preview the concerned theories and studies:

  • 1.7. Summary:

  • Chapter 2. The study

  • 2.1. Introduction:

  • 2.2. An overview on Haiphong University

  • 2.3. Learners and learning requirements

  • 2.4. Teachers and teaching methods

  • 2.5. Materials and Assessments

  • 2.6. Data collection, Findings and Discussion

  • 2.6.1. Data collection

  • 2.6.2. Findings and Discussion

  • 2.7. Summary:

  • Chapter 3: Suggested Techniques to improve reading skills to second –year English major students at Haiphong University

  • 3.1. Techniques for Creating Motivation and Interest

  • 3.1.1. Using visual aids in teaching reading

  • 3.1.2. Combining teaching reading with other skills

  • 3.2. Techniques for improving Teachers’ activities in reading lesson

  • 3.2.1. Regulate Teaching Time and Efforts

  • 3.2.2. Help the students with three stages of a reading lesson

  • 3.3. Techniques for the development of Reading Materials

  • 3.3.1. Make full Use of the Reading Texts and design Reading Text-Based Activities

  • 3.3.2. Selecting appropriate supplementary Reading Materials

  • 3.4. Summary

  • PART C: conclusion

  • References

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