Vinh university Foreign languages department ************ Vũ thị hiền SOME DIFFICULTIES IN READING LESSONS FACING 10 TH STUDENTS IN YEN MO A HIGH SCHOOL, NINH BINH PROVINCE AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (The New Textbook) (Một số khó khăn trong bài học đọc của học sinh lớp 10 trờng THPT Yên Mô A, Ninh Bình và giải pháp đề xuất) Graduation thesis Field: Methodology Vinh - 2009 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The study would not have been completed without the invaluable assistance and encouragement of many people for whom I am grateful. I especially would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Vũ Thị Việt Hương, M.A who gave me valuable advice and guidance, and help in carrying out this graduation thesis. I also would like to thank to all my teachers at the foreign language department of Vinh University for their lectures and advice which are very useful for me to finish the study. I wish to acknowledge my great appreciation to the teachers and students in Yen Mo A high school, who took part in my survey actively. Finally, I wish to express my deep thanks to my parents and friends who have encouraged and supported me during the time of doing this thesis. Though the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitations of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the thesis. Therefore, all comments and remarks on the thesis would be highly appreciated. Vinh, summer, 2009 Vu Thi Hien 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS (Adj): Adjective Etc: Et cetare E.g: Example (N): Noun 3 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Students' Mark at the First Examination in High school Table 2.2: Students complete the reading tasks in reading lesson or not. Table 2.3: The reason students can not complete the reading tasks of the text in reading lesson Table 2.4: Reasons make it difficult for students to understand the reading text Table 2.5: The ways students read the text. Table 2.6: The way students deal with the unfamiliar words. Table 2.7: The ways students get the main idea of the text while reading Table 2.8: The ways students get the specific information Table 2.9: The pre-reading activities teachers provide Table 2.10: How teachers teach vocabulary Table 2.11: The effect of guiding questions on students Table 2.12: The while-reading activities teachers provide Table 2.13: How the teachers organize the first reading Table 2.14: How the teachers correct students' works Table 2.15: The teachers continue the lesson with post-reading activities Table 3.1: The suggested answer for Task 3 of Reading lesson in Unit 1 the new textbook "Tieng Anh 10" 4 TABLE OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .ii LIST OF TABLES .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the Study 1 2. Aims of the Study 1 3. Scope of the Study .2 4. Method of the Study .2 5. Design of the Study 2 PART II: CONTENT 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICLE BACKGROUND 4 1.1. Definition of Reading 4 1.2. Reading Comprehension 5 1.3. Factors that Affect the Learners’ Reading Success/ Failure 6 1.3.1. Subjective Factors 6 1.3.1.1. Motivation 6 1.3.1.2. Reading Purposes .7 1.3.1.3. Reading Skills .8 1.3.1.4. Reading Strategies 10 1.3.2. Objective Factors .11 1.3.2.1. Reading Material 11 1.3.2.2. Teacher’s Teaching Method .14 1.4. Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: THE INVESTIGATION .18 2.1. Research Questions 18 5 2.2. Research Setting 18 2.3. The Subject and the Characteristics of the New Textbook "Tieng Anh 10" 18 2.4. Description of Questionnaires for Teachers and Students .19 2.5. Procedure .20 2.6. Results and Discussion 20 2.6.1. The Primary Qualification of Students 20 2.6.2. Difficulties in Reading Material 21 2.6.2.1. The Reading Text .23 2.6.2.2. The Reading Tasks .25 2.6.3. Difficulties in Students’ Reading Strategies 25 2.6.3.1. The Ways Students Read the Text 25 2.6.3.2. The Ways Students Deal with the Unfamiliar Words 27 2.6.3.3. The Ways Students get the Main Idea 28 2.6.3.4. The Ways Students get the Specific Information .29 2.6.4. Problems in Teaching Methods of the Teachers .31 2.6.4.1. The Pre-Reading Phase .31 2.6.4.2. The While-Reading Phase 35 2.6.4.3. The Post-Reading Phase .39 2.7. Summary 39 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTED SOLLUTIONS .41 3.1. Using Reading Strategies to Develop Students' Reading Skills 41 3.1.1. Suggestions for Students 41 3.1.2. Suggestions for Teachers .45 3.2. Using and Developing Reading Activities 47 3.2.1. Fully Exploiting the Pre-Reading Activities .47 3.2.1.1. Introducing the Text .48 3.2.1.2. Presenting New Vocabulary .48 3.2.1.3. Giving Guiding Questions 51 6 3.2.2. Having a Appropriate Way of Correcting Students' Works 52 3.2.3. Well Preparing for Post-Reading Activities 52 3.3. Summary 53 PART III: CONCLUSION .55 REFERENCES APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 7 PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the Study Nowadays, with the tendency of globalization and integration, English plays the role of an effective international communicative language. Thus, learning English becomes very popular. One of the important skills in learning English as well as other foreign languages is reading skill. Reading not only helps students widen their knowledge, but also enables them to develop other language skills: speaking, writing and listening as well. Moreover, today there are so many technical and scientific materials published in English. The reading knowledge, therefore, is more and more important for the English learners. The role of reading is undeniable. However, both the teachers and students in Yen Mo A high school, Ninh Binh province are not really satisfied with their results of teaching and learning, especially learning reading. The teachers often find their students' reading performance disappointing. And in fact, most of the students read with less understanding than one might expect them to. Many of them can not complete the reading tasks in the textbook. Also, lots of them complain that they can not understand the reading text. Why do the students fail to learn reading in English? What are their difficulties in learning reading? And what can the teachers and the students can do to help the students overcome this problem? These questions are in concern of so many teachers. For the above reasons, we decide to choose the topic "Some difficulties in reading lessons facing 10th form students in Yen Mo A high school, Ninh Binh province and suggested solutions (The new textbook)" as the study of our graduation thesis. 2. Aims of the Study • To investigate some difficulties that the 10th form students face when learning reading. 8 • To give some suggested solutions to help the students overcome the difficulties in order to improve their reading effectiveness. 3. Scope of the Study Due to the limitation of time and other objective factors, this thesis just focuses on the difficulties facing 10th from students, which are investigated in Yen Mo A high school, and the solution suggested to help students overcome these difficulties. 4. Methods of the Study The study uses the methods as following: • Statistic and classifying • Analytic and synthetic method • Quantitative qualitative method 5. Design of the Study The thesis consists of three main parts as following: • Part I: Introduction This part deals with the author's reason for choosing the study, the aim, scope, method and design of the study • Part II: Content This part consists of three chapters: - Chapter 1 with the title "Theoretical background" gives an overview on reading and reading comprehension, and the subjective and objective factors that affect students' reading success or failure. - Chapter 2 entitled "The investigation" which describes the analyzes the results of the questionnaire and gives the assessment on the effects of the reading 9 materials, the students' reading strategies, and the teachers' teaching methods on the students' reading productivity. - Chapter 3 has the title "Suggested solutions", providing some suggested solutions to overcome the students' difficulties in reading lesson. • Part III: Conclusion This part is about the summary of the main points presented in the study The study ends with the "References" which lists all the materials and sources of information used in the study, and the "Appendix" in which the questionnaires for teachers and students are mentioned. 10