Một số thủ pháp trong việc giảng dạy bộ môn đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ hai trường đại học quản lý và kinh doanh hà nội

1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION I.1 Reasons for the choice of the study There is no doubt that the role of English in the life of any society in the world today has been becoming more and more important The widespread need for English as an international language puts a considerable pressure on the education resources of any countries In case of our country, since our government carried out the open door policy to attract foreign investment and co-operate with other countries, teaching and learning English has become necessary Moreover, it is the English that is used as an effective medium of international communication It is the language of trade, science, technology, tourism, sport, music and many other fields of life That is the reason why at present, learning English is not only the interest but also the great and practical demand for many people, especially for student who always want to assess the modern world Therefore, English is now taught as a compulsory subject to all students at university in our country Understanding the importance of English, all students at HUBM have tried their best to gain the first objective to become the economists with good knowledge of English Therefore, English has become one of the main subjects at this university To master English, the students need to grasp all four skills that are closely related to one another: Listening, speaking, reading and writing Among these skills, reading is an important one because it does not only help student develop other language skills, but also provides them knowledge on the target language According to Byrne, “reading is an important way of expanding the students’ receptive knowledge of the language and in terms of classroom activities, it is an effective way of simulating students to talk and write” As we read, we go back to the time, pass across the oceans and barriers of language, religions and cultures Through reading, we can escape into the mind of a philosopher, observe with a scientist, stay with scholar, analyze with a critic and live through a novel or a play However, through the time of using the “English-File 3” to teach reading comprehension for the second year students of HUBM, I realize that both the teachers and the students still have difficulties in finding the effective way of teaching and learning the reading texts in this book That is the reason why I choose the title “Some techniques in teaching reading comprehension to the second year students at HUBM” for my thesis I.2 Aims of the study For the above mentioned reasons the main objectives of my thesis are: - To understand more fully the nature of reading and reaffirm the importance teaching and learning reading comprehension for the second year students at HUBM - To investigate the real situation of the practical teaching and learning reading comprehension texts of the teachers and the students at this university and find out the positive factors and problems that affect the quality of teaching and learning reading comprehension texts for the second year students of the university - To provide some suggested techniques to help the teachers and students of the university teach and learn reading comprehension in the “English file Intermediate” course book more effectively I.3 Methods of the study To bring in full presentation of the thesis, firstly, I spend time reading books and materials available on teaching reading to get knowledge of the subject The main method used in this thesis is the quantitative one which consists of the following tasks: - Collecting data and information from the students and the teachers at HUBM to exchange the experience - Assessing the real situation of learning and teaching reading comprehension of the second year students and teachers at HUBM - Evaluating the techniques that best fit the teachers and the second year students at HUBM Besides, this thesis is also carried out through a variety of methods such as class observation, informal interview and discussion with the teachers and students at HUBM I.4 Scope of the study Teaching and learning reading comprehension is an immense study Because of limitation of time, the study mainly focuses on some useful techniques that are used in teaching reading comprehension to the second year students at HUBM Research on teaching at other levels would be beyond the scope of this thesis I.5 Design of the study The thesis is divided into three parts: Part 1: Introduces the reason for the choice of the study, aims of the study as well as the scope and methodology of the study Part 2: Comprises four chapters Chapter I presents an overview of the theoretical background of the research It is concerned with various linguistic concepts most relevant to the research topic such as the nature of reading, classification of reading, the importance of reading, etc Chapter II is a close look at present teaching and learning reading comprehension at HUBM Chapter III shows the context, description of instruments, data collection and analyzes the results to draw the findings and recommendations Chapter IV offers some suggested techniques to improve reading comprehension to the second year students at HUBM Part 3: Summaries what is addressed in the study, presents recommendation for improvements and some suggestions for further research part 2: development Chapter I Literature review I.1 An overview on the Nature of reading I.1.1.Definition of reading People, besides the activities of eating to live and to exist, also have a demand for reading to widen their minds Only by reading a lot, can people grasp what is happening all over the world and get in touch with the civilization of mankind, because book is the quintessence of the historical development of mankind Nowadays, with the explosion of information, reading has become more important However, most people usually read naturally so that they can not give exact definition of reading Each definition only can reflect some aspect of reading Some people think that reading consists of two elements: the reader and the text Nor they are all In any mature act of reading there is also an interaction between the reader and, the writer True reading, thus, involves a triangular interaction between the reader, the writer and the text According to Carell Devine and Eskey (1988:13), “reading is a process in that it starts with linguistic surface representation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning, which reader constructs There is, thus, an essential interaction between language and thought in reading The writer encodes thought in language and the reader decodes language to thought” In this definition, we can see clearly the interrelationship between the writer, the reader and the text Moreover, Harmer (1983:153) also thought that “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive massages and the brain then has to work out the significance of those massages” Sharing this opinion, William (1984:2) pointed out that “reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” It means that “merely reading aloud without understanding doesn’t count as reading” However, Hafner and July (1982:4) did not think that understanding is known what the writer implied although they also mentioned the understanding between the author and the readers According to their opinion, “reading involves the identification and recognition of printed and written symbols which serve as stimuli for the recall of meanings built up through past experiences and further construction of new meanings through the readers’ manipulation of relevant concepts already in his possession” In brief, each person can have a different definition of reading and we can not tell which is better because each of them focuses on one important matter of reading However, we find that there is a close relationship between reading and understanding Therefore, being a language teacher, we must understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively I.1.2 Reading comprehension If reading is simple mechanical movements of the eyes, reading comprehension includes mechanical and mental activities In teaching reading, it is necessary for both teachers and students to have a deep understanding about the definition of reading comprehension The students who study reading should evaluate continually what they are learning about the reading process in the light of their current definition of reading comprehension Many people have done some research to define reading comprehension Richard and Thomas (1987:143) state that “reading comprehension is a mental process that in the final analysis, only the reader fully understands Comprehension is what simulates readers to remember their past experience That knowledge is, then, used in trying to get meaning out of print Meaning does not reside in the printed page but rather in the mind of the reader.” On the other hand, reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader’s the printed page based on the individual’s unique background experience Reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends It is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and response that are unique to an individual Moreover, Abbott (1981:82) gives out a research on the nature of reading comprehension According to him “there are two broad aspects or levels Firstly, there is basically visual task that of deciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals from the eyes Secondly, there is cognitive task that of interpreting the visual information, so one is not simply barking at point” From these above ideas, we can understand that reading comprehension consists of two processes: perceiving and understanding Perceiving process is one by which we can master all grammatical matters, pronunciation, and vocabulary in the text Understanding a text means working in the text actively and extracting the required information efficiently In conclusion, in reading comprehension, the reader not only reads written graphic forms in the text but also recognizes the intention of the writer They are opinions and point of views which the writer had in mind when they wrote Therefore, readers can master the structures, vocabulary presented in the real situations I.2 Classification of Reading I.2.1 According to manner 1.2.1.1 Reading aloud Doff (1988:67) states that “reading aloud involves looking a text, understanding it and also saying it Its’ purpose is not just to understand the text to convey the information to some one else” In fact, it must be recognized that reading aloud is primarily an oral matter so that for those who teach and learn foreign languages, it is closer to “pronunciation” than it is to “comprehension” While it is perfectly proper to try to develop the skill of reading aloud, it clearly can not be done using an unfamiliar text the content and language of which stretches the linguistic capabilities of the learners to the utmost Therefore, it must be admitted that the usefulness of reading aloud is limited First of all, “reading aloud is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom” (Doff, 1988:67) Actually, in the daily life, few people are required to read aloud as a matter of daily routine, radio newscaters, clergymen, perhaps actors To the huge majority, its importance is minimal Secondly, “the readers is often merely mouthing meaningless language because of lack of rehearsal and time to comprehend what he has to read aloud” ( Abott and Wingard, 1981: 82) It means that when reading aloud, the readers’ attention is focused on the pronunciation, not on the understanding of the text Moreover, in the classroom, only the reading student is active at a time, others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model In addition, some students’ speed of reading is very slow so it takes a lot of time in class In short, reading aloud can be applied for those who begin learning a foreign language to establish the connection between sound and spelling But for the second year students, their purpose of learning reading is more than connecting the pronunciation They focus on understanding the text and doing comprehension exercises which can not be completed by reading aloud because asking a student to read aloud means that he may lack concentration on the meaning He may read correctly but after that he will not be able to tell us what he has read It is very difficult to read aloud and understand the text at the same time of reading So reading aloud might be a good way to practise pronunciation I.2.1.2 Silent reading It is obvious that by far the greatest amount of reading that is done in the world is silent A reading room is silent room Silent reading is the interpretation which is most likely for the term “reading” It is perhaps the nearest approach to the essence of reading Silent reading can be applied effectively to teaching and learning a reading comprehension text because reading a text silently helps students concentrate on understanding its meaning In Doff’s opinion (1988:67), silent reading or reading for meaning “is the activity we normally engage in where we read books, newspapers, road signs, etc It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words, ‘making sense’ of a written text ” According to Doff, we know that silent reading is of great help in developing reading skills Students not have to pay attention to the exact pronunciation of words, they will try their best to focus on the ideas of the texts Therefore, they can cover the greatest possible amount of the text in a shortest possible time Furthermore, through silent reading, students can all read at their own speed If they not understand the sentence or an idea, they can go back and read it again So silent reading is a very effective in the reading comprehension process Lewis and Hill (1985:110) find out that: “the simplest method of reading, frequently forgotten by language teachers is silent reading It is the method we normally uses with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most efficient” However, the nature of silent reading skill is far from uniform It varies according to the use to which it is being put In sequence, the depth and detail of understanding, of comprehension increase as we go though the ways of doing silent reading In all, silent reading is a useful technique in a reading comprehension process applied to students to exploit reading lessons and it is also a good way to help teachers control the class I.2.2 According to purpose Efficient reading consists of clearly identifying the purposes in reading something By doing so you know what you are looking for and can weed out potential distracting information Certainly, different purposes require different kinds of reading skills Therefore, according to the purposes, there are four main kinds of reading skills: skimming, scanning, extensive and intensive reading I.2.2.1 Skimming Skimming differs from general rapid reading in that the readers go through the text extremely quickly, merely dipping into it or sampling it at various points Skimming is the technique that is used widely in reading comprehension Skimming may sometimes be the prerequisite of reading for full understanding There are many definitions of skimming Grellet (1981:19) states that “when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or intention of the writer” It means that the purpose of skimming is simply to see what a text is about The reader skims in order to satisfy a very general curiosity about the text According to Wood (1984:92), “skimming occurs when the reader looks quickly at the content page of a book, or at the chapter headings, subheading, etc This is sometimes called previewing” Therefore, the key that actually encourages learners to skim is to give them a series of texts and ask them to select appropriate titles from groups of ones Moreover, in order to teach skimming effectively, the teacher should have the students read the beginning or end of a text or a paragraph because it may provide students with a statement relating to the topic Skimming gives students the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic or message, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas This gives them a “head start” as they embark on more focused reading Skimming also helps student organize their thoughts and specify what information they can get from a book so that the subsequent reading will become more efficient In conclusion, skimming is understood as a necessary technique for reading comprehension which enables readers to get the main points of the text without being concerned with the details Therefore, skimming should be applied at the first stage of teaching reading to help student have an overview of what they are going to read And it is sure that they will understand the whole text later However, Skimming sometimes proves too difficult for younger learners, or beginners because they generally lack confidence and the knowledge of the language they are learning I.2.2.2 Scanning Like skimming, scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies However, scanning is far more limited than skimming since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information It is a useful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, if it has been cultivated systematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, co- operative work on the study of texts can be greatly expected and made easy Francois (1981:19) understands that “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we not even follow the linearity of the passage to so We simply let our eyes wander over the text until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of information” With the same opinion, Mabel states that “scanning is the speed technique that helps you locate a bit of specific information very rapidly It could involve finding a name, date, place or statistic Or it might involve identifying a general setting in a short story Scanning is the technique you use when you read maps, charts, tables, or graphs It is the main skill researchers use when they examine various sources to locate information about a specific topic” Scanning requires two skills of the reader One of them is that they recognize the specific type of word that identifies the item The other is the use of a different eye movement pattern, vertical vision Nearly all the background reading required for the presenting of a topic to the class by a group calls for proficiency in this type of reading There is a great range of text suitable for scanning – indexes, dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, reference material, etc In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we can look for and where to find it The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading through the whole text I.2.2.3 Extensive reading Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding It provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the 10 class as well as giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text Lewis and Hill (1985:109) state that “extensive reading means students have a general understanding of the text without necessarily understanding every word” It is obvious that when reading extensively, readers not need to have intense concentration on the content of a long text and total comprehension because the objective of extensive reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in the shortest possible time In other words, extensive reading can be compared to the activity of ploughing through the text in a uniform fashion Extensive reading is therefore regarded as means of entertainment and pleasure And the reason why this kind of reading is essentially needed is that it can promote reading out of class Students can read directly and fluently in the foreign language for their own enjoyment without the aid of teacher Furthermore, it is by pursuing the activity of extensive reading that the volume of practice necessary to achieve rapid and efficient reading can be achieved It is also one of the means by which a foreigner may be exposed to a substantial sample of the language he may wish to learn without actually going to live in the country to which that language is native Basing on the importance of extensive reading, Nuttal (1982:168) shows that “the best way to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers: The next best way is to read extensively in it.” The practice of extensive reading needs little justification It is clearly the earliest way of bringing the foreign learner into sustained contact with a substantial body of English Broughton (1980:111) suggests that “there appear to be basically three ways the extensive reading may be encouraged, first by having class sets of title, second by operating a class library system, and the third by using the school library” In short, this kind of reading is necessary for students at University because it actively promotes reading out the class and gives them opportunity to use their own knowledge of the language for their own purposes Moreover, this kind of reading is regarded as pleasure and interest That is why intensive reading is highly motivated I.2.2.4 Intensive reading The remaining two kinds of reading activity, content study reading and linguistic study reading are also often grouped together and called intensive reading 29 comprehension questions and to more exercises (90%) The minority use deducing (15%) and inferring skills (10%) and 40% of the teachers are interested in predicting skill Question deals with activities used in post- reading stage The majority of the teachers usually ask their students to translate the text into Vietnamese (85%) and summarize the text (60%) Only some teachers ask their students to discuss the text (20%) and to write a short paragraph related to the topic of the text (25%) No one gives other activities The data also indicate that all the teachers ask the students to read the text in the limited time 90% of them always or usually ask them to this and only 10% sometimes ask their students to read the text in the limited time The above questions help us know some techniques which are now being applied in teaching reading comprehension to the second year students at HUBM and also help us to find out some activities to teach reading comprehension more effectively Table 8: The teachers’ using supplementary materials Variables Frequency of using supplementary materials (10) Reasons for using supplementary materials (11) Source of supplementary materials (12) a N % 15 B N 10 c % 50 15 33 N 10 d % 40 10 50 N 14 % 70 All the teachers of English at HUBM see the importance of supplementary materials in teaching reading However, only 5% always use them; 50% often give their students extra reading and 5% rarely use supplementary materials and the rest (40%) sometimes does it It is necessary to have a close look at the reasons for their giving the students extra reading As can be seen the table, 70% of the teachers recognize the lack of exercises for the students to practise 20% give their students extra reading first to motivate them The number of the teachers who use other materials for the purpose of familiarizing the students with other type of text is 12% And only 10% explain that they want to widen the students’ knowledge related to the topic of the text In order to know the source of supplementary materials, the last question is designed The data indicate that most of the teachers (50%) often find extra reading texts in newspapers and magazines 35% get them from the books Only 15% recognized that 30 Internet can be used as a fantastic tool for their own development and as a resource for classroom teaching The internet contains a lot of resource that the teachers can access and use to prepare teaching materials Therefore, it is necessary for the teachers to explore and utilize the vast amount of information on the Internet to help the students improve their English, especially reading skill III.5 Findings and Recommendations According to statistics, all of the students also have clear purpose when reading Many of them read for different purpose such as pleasure, gaining information and background knowledge, improving language skills supplementing grammar, enriching vocabulary and improving pronunciation There are many ways for students to practise reading skills but the class is maybe considered to be the most convenient environments because in class, students are usually required to read the text in the limited time Therefore, together with the clear purposes, reading in the limited time will give students motivation to read more effectively Moreover, most teachers agree that reading texts in the course book English File – Intermediate are interesting because the topics are closed what students are been on – for example: “let it be”, “ The true story about Titanic”, “Firing line” etc Therefore, they help students finds the interest in each reading lesson Furthermore, classrooms are well – equipped with technical aids (cassette, video, computer, etc) so that teachers can apply technology in teaching The teachers’ amount of work complete will be increased and students will have more chances of practicing English in classroom What’s more, the number of students in each class is only from 25 to 30 The smaller it is, the more opportunities of improving students’ competence of using English they have because the teachers have more time to take care of their students to help them with the difficulties in their learning Apart from the above achievements, there are many problems facing the teacher as well as the students in teaching and learning comprehension process We all know that in order to succeed in anything, we must be able to anticipate its problems To have a good result in teaching and learning reading comprehension, it is necessary for us to have a full awareness of all difficulties to find out the solution and overcome First of all, reading is a reception skill that requires the students’ concentration and ability to work independently But according to most of the teachers at HUBM, a large 31 number of the students at this University have low background knowledge so they are usually passive in each lesson In addition, the students in each class also differ from one another in interest, background knowledge and level so it is difficult for the teachers to find and apply the suitable methods Secondly, I would like to say that supplementary reading materials and facilities are still poor and insufficient These factors partly have influence on teaching reading comprehension Besides the textbook officially used in class, a university library with variety of books and magazines is very necessary In fact, a large number of students say that reading materials are not available in their University and the rest complain that although there are some kids of reading materials in their university library, there is not enough room for them to sit and read them The lack of these things, therefore, demotivates both the teacher and students and makes the reading lesson less effective Thirdly, the methods being used in teaching reading comprehension of the teachers at HUBM are, to some extent, inappropriate, ineffective and out of date In the practical teaching reading comprehension, many teachers not often act out their roles in the right way As mentioned in the previous chapter, the teacher should play a role as a guide to show the students appropriate ways to exploit the text effectively However, most of the teachers are under the great influence of the “Grammar – Translation” method According to them, teaching a reading comprehension lesson means focusing on presenting new words, grammatical structures and translating the text into Vietnamese Next, there are a number of the teachers who are unable to attract students in reading activities The reason can be explained as often drops some activities which stimulate students’ interest It is obvious that many teachers usually not carry prereading and post- reading stage Moreover, on the part of students, the results of free discussions and the data collection indicate that although many students say that reading skill is very important, many of them not pay much attention to this skill They say that they only concentrate on what they have to be tested in the exams So the skills they have to learn much is writing Maybe because of this reason, many students not form the habit of reading As a result, their reading competence is not very good In short, I would like to point out that all the evidences stated strongly justify that although the students’ attitudes towards reading are positive, their competence is still 32 weak What is more, the techniques used by the teacher are not very effective Thus, it is my wish to make the following recommendations for better teaching: - Reading comprehension skills should be enhanced for the students The teacher must have the right awareness of each stage in teaching reading process Pre- reading and post- reading stage should be paid more attention - At pre – reading, besides presenting new vocabulary, the teacher should give students some more information about the text and some guiding questions to understanding the text easily The teacher should encourage students to guess the meanings of new words basing on the context and give them interesting introductions before reading the text - At while – reading, to check students’ comprehension, besides comprehension exercises in the book, the teacher should ask students more questions about text and give them more interesting tasks to exploit the text In addition, the teacher should apply different activities regularly to make students not feel bored - At post – reading stage, the teacher may use some of the following activities: eliciting personal response, summarizing the text, recognizing the writer’s attitude and purpose, recognizing the text, using games, organizing discussion, role – play and written work Through these activities, students can use the text as the ground for further study purpose and practicing other language skills - The teacher should provide students with some suitable materials to improve reading skills - Self – direction and self- monitoring of the students should also be encouraged - The role of the teacher should be clearly stated in terms of expectations, class management, supplementary reading materials and so on - Feedback should be given during class discussions for independent work In conclusion, from the data analysis and some problems which have just been mentioned, I realize that teaching reading comprehension to the second year students at HUBM does not meet the students’ requirements The traditional methods being applied in the teaching process neither improve students’ reading skills nor provide them with the necessary background knowledge of the target language Therefore, it is essential that the teachers should find out apply more suitable methods for their students to learn more effectively 33 Chapter IV Suggested techniques to improve reading comprehension to the second year students at HaNoi University of Business and Management IV.1 Training students to become efficient readers IV.1.1 Making students Aware of the Nature of Reading Process As Duffy and Rocher (1986) say “a student who has an incomplete or erroneous concept of reading or who perceives reading negatively is unlikely to gain control of the reading process and use it purposefully” So it is the teachers who should help their students realize that reading is an active process which involves using a number of skills and strategies at the same time, drawing on social and cultural knowledge, knowledge of the language of the text and strategies for accessing the meaning such as predicting information, sampling, deducting, meaning or other reading techniques like skimming, scanning, inferring, etc 34 When the students well understand what they should follow in the reading process, they will soon get progress, and make reading their pastime interest IV.1.2 Promoting students to be fully aware of their purpose of reading “Some books are to be tasted, other to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested” Here the author put his finger on an important truth: not all books are read in the same way Therefore, it is necessary to promote students to be fully aware of their purpose of reading When students have their purpose in mind, they know how to channel their energy in the right direction So helping the students to identify the purpose of the reading text right before they start to the task is an useful aid in their reading process Glancing at titles, subtitles, headings, subheadings can give students the clues for the reading purpose Moreover, teach the students to look for purpose in the light of the situation and the type of materials Students’ reading can be more effective if they know that they read to: - get information; - respond to curiosity, or - follow instructions, or - keep in touch, or - serve as pleasure and enjoyment, or - know what is happening in the world, or - find out when and where, etc To improve the students’ reading skill, teachers must be sure that their students are provided with a range of reading purpose and can practise different ways of approaching a text Various format suggest different purposes of reading looking quickly through the piece to get the main idea or gist (skimming), searching rapidly for a particular piece of information (scanning), reading a longer text for pleasure ( extensive reading), and reading a short text carefully and in details (intensive reading) By and large, effective reading consists of clearly identifying the purpose of reading, with which the students know what they are looking for and can weed out potential distracting information IV.1.3 Assigning and checking students’ fulfillment of homework 35 It is clear that when students are consistently given a reason to learn within the time available, they will begin to form a habit of study The teacher may prepare a variety of reading exercises with different forms and levels of reading such as a reading passage for gap- filling, gist, comprehension questions or paragraph- reordering, etc These exercises should be given to students after each lesson This, to some extent, will make the students themselves decide what skills to employ to fulfill the task In other words, it will bring a chance of practising reading skill to the students The given exercises may be checked as a warm- up activity in about 10 minutes The students should be encouraged to exchange with their peers for self – checking the exercises, express their opinions about the question involved or talk about difficulties they encounter in doing the tasks This is of great importance for the teacher to know students’ problems to help In short, the diversification of task types plays a key role in arousing students’ interest in reading Also, assigning and checking the fulfillment of homework can help to enhance students’ reading skill development Another way to encourage students to read widely with purposes is to give project work which brings about to students the feeling of achieving something on his own The teacher may give students a long- term task (of or weeks) in which students have to read extensively to fulfill the task related to some specific areas Students doing a project may be required to make a final oral report or a written report Actually, they involve integrated language skills in accomplishing the task, not just only skill IV.2 Improving teachers’ activities in reading lessons IV.2.1 Employing three phases in reading lessons From the findings of the survey, there are series of thing that should be done to aid students in three phases of a reading lesson Teachers should select or combine different activities to assist their students as using one preferred technique all the time cannot be advantageous because it is impossible to have ” one dish that suits all taste” * Pre- reading stage This activity gets students to think about the content of the text which is going to be read The aims of this activity are to introduce and arouse the learners’ interest to the topic 36 to motivate them by giving the reason for reading and providing some language preparation for the text Steven (1988:328) states that: “pre- reading activities must accomplish both goals: building new background knowledge as well as activating existing background knowledge A teacher of reading may thus be viewed as a teacher of relevant information as well as a teacher of reading skills.” The following activities can be considered to be effective techniques in the prereading stage of a reading lesson: - Brainstorming and graphically organizing information; - Instructing students to ask and answer questions before reading; - Giving the title and asking students to think of factors related to the topic; - Using visual aids such as map, diagrams, figure, photographs etc related to the topic In order to help to prepare pre- reading work, useful questions that the teacher can ask himself are: - What knowledge, idea or opinions might the learners already have on the topic and how can this knowledge help them with the reading? - Why should anyone want to read this text, and can learners be motivated by the same or similar reasons - How many grammatical items and vocabularies should be explained? - How much time is possible for the pre- reading activities? The answers to these questions will help the teacher decide the ways of introducing the text, motivating the learners, and at the same time will incorporate language preparation Moreover, they also help the teacher carry out pre- reading activities successfully * While – reading stage This stage aims at making students anticipate in the process of understanding the text as the whole different techniques will be applied through a set of classroom activities Through these techniques, students not only understand the writer’s purpose and the structures of the text but also the content of the text Course books and “text collection” books generally provide plenty of while- reading exercises What the teacher needs to is 37 to consider the appropriateness of these exercises and whether they contribute to the comprehension of students Besides, while - reading stage enables students to apply effectively what they have learnt from the text to their purposes of study and communication Teachers should encourage students to be active as they read by asking them possibly: - Follow the order of ideas in a text, - React to the opinions expressed, - 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 reading text, - Predict the next part of the text from various clues so that teaching reading can become an interactive process To foster these activities, teachers can use a range of exercises such as ask 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 Encourage silent reading should also be placed in the list of teaching techniques With silent reading the students can certainly improve their reading speed and save much time This technique is also help to prevent the class from becoming a bustling market with all the students together reading aloud Enhancing extensive reading outside classroom should also be added to the list of the techniques in use, for it helps the students experience the joys of reading in English Try to help the students realise that even a small piece of ads can become a “delicious dish” in their reading “menu.” The sort of questions that the teacher can ask himself as a guide to while – reading work are the followings: - What is the function of the text? - How is the text organized or developed? (e.g a narrative, an explanation with various examples, an argument and counter argument) - What content or information is to be extracted from the text? 38 - What may the reader infer or deduce from the text? - What language items may be learnt from the text? - What reading styles may be practiced? Depending on the answers to these questions, the teacher can select or devise appropriate exercises * Post – reading This stage is carried out after the students have completely read the text In order to have a successful reading lesson, it can not end in while – reading stage Techniques applied in this stage are very helpful because they not only consolidate what students have learnt, provide them with further information relating to the text but also improve their language skills Dealing with the role of post reading stage, Durkin (1986:486) stages that: “ one reason for post – reading discussion in classroom is to give students the chance to see in what way their reading did or did not succeed and why.” Post – reading is the way to check the students’ reading comprehension, the teacher can involve the students in many different kinds of activities During this stage, the teacher plays an important role, as he is the person who motivates and attracts the students to the activities Each kind of text also requires the teacher to have different approach The teacher may get ideas for post – reading work by asking himself the following questions: - Do the learners know of a similar situation to that presented in the text? - Does the text present a situation that calls for recommendations? - Does the text present a situation that invites completions? - Does the text present views that might need to be counter – balanced? If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then there is an opportunity for post – reading work The work that the questions lead to may be writing, interaction drawing a diagram, or any combination of these IV.2.2 Adjusting Teaching Time and Efforts Findings from the survey reveal that teachers at HUBM have already had various ways to create reading interest among the students, motivate and provide them different techniques to enable their reading process effectively However, more time and efforts 39 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 at HUBM have helped their students realise 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 new words or phrases, or come – up problems of cultural knowledge Teachers, moreover, 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 about the topic to read, it is essential that the teachers guide them with interesting questions, or theme- based topics If that is the problem of working out the gists, asking them to have skim read is the task of the teachers and this is certain to facilitate the students What’s more, time and efforts are also necessary for the teachers to tabulate their students’ level of proficiency so that appropriate reading exercises can be ended punctually In short, using the time and efforts wisely is one technique to help teachers improve their students’ reading skills IV.3 Teacher’s training IV.3.1 Improving teachers’ professional knowledge According to Ellis, M & Johnson, C (1994:31), “it is a really misconception that teacher needs to be an expert in the subject matter He or she is not teaching business strategies nor good management practice, nor economic theory” And his/ her job is to train their students to communicate in English about the subject they are specialized in However without a basic knowledge of the fundamental principles of the target discipline, it is difficult for the teacher to avoid ineffective class performance in asking right questions, making good use of the answers, explaining new terminologies and choosing supplementary materials to the students, etc Therefore, an effort should be made to conduct some further in – service training for teachers of English at HUBM in form of individual self – study or attendance at workshops or lectures given by the specialists In addition, it is advisable to have regulations on reducing teaching hours for those who are 40 taking courses on further study and awarding them a grant for the expense of the course If urgent, short training course on professional knowledge should be held to equip teachers with basic fundamental knowledge of the subject These can help the teacher to become familiar with the course books, understand the subject matter and build up confidence IV.3.2 Improving teaching methodology Teachers of English at HUBM should also be trained in methodologies The role of a teacher in the teaching and learning process has already altered The teacher is no longer expected to dominate all work in the classroom explaining new technologies by translating them into Vietnamese, etc, which can create a passive habit of learning reading for the students The teacher’s task is to create conditions in the classroom in which the students can learn by engaging in activities or working on tasks A good way of providing methodological training for teachers is to involve them in material development This is advocated by Long et al (1989:147), who suggest that “the writing of materials is a very important aspect of teacher training It ensures that teachers will become more involved in the work of the course and will as a result teach the course materials with more understanding and confidence” Also, it is necessary for teachers to work in groups and exchange their experience in teaching They can share their lesson plans to find the best activities and choose appropriate supplementary materials that are suitable for their students’ level of English Besides, they can work together to design supplementary exercises and prepare necessary visual aids which have a certain place in a successful English lesson Successful in the sense that it motivate students interest, simulates their thinking and consolidates what they have learn Thanks to the development of technology, teachers can use the Internet as a tool for their own development and as a resource for classroom teaching The internet has a lot to offer the teachers There are authentic resources and materials, places where they can find prepared lesson plans, ideas and worksheets and places where you can share ideas and thoughts with other teachers around the world Added to these, it is a good idea for teachers to attend and observe their colleagues’ lesson By this way, teachers can help and learn a lot from each other IV.4 Developing reading materials 41 Findings from the survey suggest that not a large number of the students involved in the survey are much interested in reading texts from the book English File – Intermediate though they agree that the texts’ length is reasonable This attitude is foreseeable as this book is not designed specially for reading skill Hence, to rise students’ interest and improve their reading skill, the teacher need to make full use of the texts by setting up various tasks for his 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 warmup - Providing reading text- based guided questions - Employing different reading text- based activities, such as T/F, answers given, ‘Wh’ questions, multiple choice, gap fill, role – play, etc - Designing various types of task- based exercises - Assigning different follow- up activities The book, of course, is acceptable but in addition to techniques for reading skill improvement in three reading phrases, there should be supplementary reading materials to draw the students’ interest It is like changing the dish to suit the taste Supplementary reading materials should be given in order to help the students have more chances to practice reading extensively 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 The variety of the reading materials as mentioned above helps the students develop confidence to approach a text, increase their level of proficiency, challenge them to get progress, and more importantly change their reading taste Different types of activities and exercises, additionally, enable the students to further practice with reading skills 42 Part 3: Conclusion It is obvious that in the process of learning a foreign language in general and English in particular, reading comprehension in a crucial skill of acquisition That is why the teaching of reading comprehension is a demanding job which concretely requires the teacher to work creatively and efficiently in the teaching process and the students to think critically in the learning process Owning to the importance of reading comprehension itself, growing interest in learning English in Vietnam creates a wide learning environment Nowadays, it can be seen that the teaching of reading comprehension has been paid increasing attention to its different aspects As time goes by, many experts and methodologists have come to understand that reading comprehension is one of the four basic skills of English that learner must grasp in their language acquisition Reading helps students as readers develop their language ability in general and comprehension skills in particular at as well as gives them other benefit to avoid cultural and language bias, etc in daily communication That is the reason why this topic has been chosen for my study 43 So far, the paper has already tried to review the related literature The overview of teaching and learning English and reading skills at HUBM has been carried out Realizing the important role of the teachers in a reading class, I often wondered what kinds of activities the teachers should carry out to help students at the HUBM get the best result of a reading lesson By studying materials concerning to this field, doing the survey questionnaire and observing the practical teaching and learning of reading comprehension at the HUBM, I have found out the answers for my question A number of techniques presented in chapter are all possible to apply for teaching reading comprehension However, in my opinion, there are no methods or techniques that show absolute usefulness for the teaching of reading comprehension unless the teachers can simulate their students and arouse their interest in reading The teaching of reading comprehension texts is an immense area What I hope to in this graduation paper is to touch upon and present a number of techniques for teaching reading comprehension for the second year students at HUBM However, in any research papers, limitations are inevitable The study presented in this thesis is of no exception Firstly, the author’ practical experience and professional knowledge are limited, therefore, the suggestions in the last chapter are likely to be subjective Secondly, due to the shortage of time and knowledge, the study cannot deal with other factors affecting the reading process such as readers’ general intelligence, personal feeling, language aptitude, etc It also limits itself to a suggested practical work and reading syllabus for the second year students at HUBM These call for further study Finally, the study merely focuses on problems in teaching and learning reading comprehension of the teachers and students at HUBM Further research on other skills seems to be of great usefulness And exercises for practicing other skills and vocabulary activities should be designed to supplement the reading materials at HUBM Despite all the aforementioned limitations, the author hopes that the study will make a contribution to the better situation of teaching and learning reading skill at HUBM Therefore, I will highly appreciate further remarks on my graduation paper from teachers and friends to improve it both in the content and in the form ... Design of the study The thesis is divided into three parts: Part 1: Introduces the reason for the choice of the study, aims of the study as well as the scope and methodology of the study Part 2:... having class sets of title, second by operating a class library system, and the third by using the school library” In short, this kind of reading is necessary for students at University because it... ways of reading to obtain information Teachers should be active and flexible in each situation to choose the type of reading to help students become independent and efficient readers I.3 The importance