(LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ) Using supplementary reading materials with the course book business basics to improve the efficiency of reading teaching and learning for second - year students at Bac Ha College of Technology

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** Dao thi hoa Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of reading teaching and learning for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology Sö dụng tài liệu đọc bổ trợ cho giáo trình Business Basics nhằm nâng cao hiệu việc dạy học kỹ đọc cho sinh viên năm thứ hai tr-ờng Cao đẳng Công nghệ Bắc Hà m.a minor thesis Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Phan Thi Van Quyen Hanoi - 2010 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Table of contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………… i Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………… ii List of tables and charts………………………………………………………………… iii Table of contents………………………………………………………………………… iv Part a: Introduction Rationale………………………………………………………………………………… Aims of the study……………………………………………………………………… Significance of the study……………………………………………………………… Research questions……………………………………………………………………… Methodology…………………………………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………………………… Part B: development Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 An overview of reading……………………………………………………………… 1.1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension………………………………………… 1.1.2 Models of reading …………………………………………………………… 1.1.3 Reading skills and types of reading skills……………………………………… 1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills……………………………………………… 1.1.3.2 Types of reading skills………………………………………………… 1.2 Materials development in language teaching………………………………………… 1.2.1 Definition of language teaching materials……………………………………… 1.2.2 Processes in materials development…………………………………………… 1.2.2.1 Materials evaluation……………………………………………………… 1.2.2.2 Types of materials evaluation…………………………………………… 1.2.2.3 Criteria for materials evaluation………………………………………… 1.2.3 Supplementary materials in teaching reading skills………………………… 10 1.2.3.1 Definition of supplementary materials………………………………… 10 1.2.3.2 Criteria for selecting supplementary materials………………………… 10 1.2.3.3 How to use supplementary materials…………………………………… 11 Summary TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1 Background to the study…………………………………………………………… 14 2.1.1 The setting…………………………………………………………………… 14 2.1.2 The textbook Business Basics……………………………………………… 14 2.1.3 Participants…………………………………………………………………… 15 2.1.3.1 The teachers…………………………………………………………… 15 2.1.3.2 The students…………………………………………………………… 16 2.2 Instrument for data collection……………………………………………………… 16 2.2.1 The questionnaire for teachers……………………………………………… 16 2.2.2 The questionnaire for students……………………………………………… 17 2.3 Data collection procedure…………………………………………………………… 17 Chapter 3: Data analysis, findings and discussion 3.1 Data analysis………………………………………………………………………… 18 3.2 Findings and discussion……………………………………………………………… 27 3.2.1 The teachers’ and the students’ evaluations of the current textbook Business Basics……………………………………………………………………… 27 3.2.2 The teachers’ and the students’ expectations of supplementary reading materials…………………………………………………………………… 28 Chapter 4: Recommendations 4.1 Suggestions for selecting supplementary materials………………………………… 29 4.2 Designing tasks and activities for reading passages………………………………… 30 4.3 Sample supplementary readings……… …………………………………………… 30 Part C: conclusion Conclusion of the study……………………………………………………………… 37 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study…………………………… 37 References Appendices Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Lists of tables and charts Tables Table 1: The teachers’and students’ evaluations on level of difficulty, content and length of reading texts in the textbook Table 2: The teachers’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Business Basics Table 3: The students’ opinions on reading exercises in the textbook Business Basics Table 4: Topics in the textbook need supplementary reading Table 5: Teachers’ expectations of the supplementary reading materials Charts Chart 1: The teachers’ purpose of using supplementary materials in teaching reading lessons Chart 2: The teachers’ suggestions on the types of exercises to be used in the supplementary materials Chart 3: Teachers’ sources to get supplementary reading TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Part a: introduction Rationale Nowadays, in the time of globalization, English plays an essential role in the increasing development of science, technology, politics, economics, tourism, culture and so on English language is not only considered as a means of communication but also a key to access the important achievements of science and technology Therefore, learners of English should acquire this language and teaching and learning English become popular in our country Among four language skills, reading is very important in learning a foreign language as reading helps students to widen their knowledge and understand different academic materials written in English Carrel (1981: 1) also emphasizes “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is necessary for the second year students at Bac Ha College of Technology to develop reading ability effectively because reading provides a lot of useful information as well as enrich their language vocabulary and structures Reading will be an effective way to help students enhance their English proficiency especially their reading skills Nevertheless, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ efforts, the students at Bac Ha College of Technology have a poor reading result that makes them uninterested in learning English in general and in learning reading skill in particular The students‟ English proficiency at Bac Ha College of Technology is not the same It is due to the fact that they come from different places Most of them come from the countryside so they can not have preferable English learning condition The others come from towns and cities where they have more convenient condition of learning English This results in low English proficiency of the students because of their limited vocabulary and grammar In addition, they not have appropriate reading strategies and background knowledge Therefore, students face a lot of difficulties in reading and understanding the long texts especially the texts relating to economic fields which they are studying As a result, they find it hard to be successful in their reading and they are not interested in reading TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com With the purpose of improving their English knowledge, it is very important for the teachers to provide them as many opportunities to read as possible Nuttall in the book “Teaching reading skills in a foreign language” (1982) states that “reading as a purposeful activity, we can make teaching more purposeful and classes livelier, even in the difficult circumstances” All the above reasons have inspired me to carry out the study on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of Reading Teaching and Learning for Second-year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology”, with a hope to improve the teaching and learning English as well as the teaching and learning reading comprehension Aims of the study The purpose of the study is to find ways of developing the effective reading materials so as to improve the teaching reading skill of the teachers as well as to enhance the students‟ learning reading The specific aims of this research are as follows: - To find out some different evaluations made by teachers and students towards the textbook Business Basics, which is currently used by the second year students at Bac Ha College of Technology - To examine the teachers‟ and the students‟ expectations of supplementary reading materials - To give recommendations for selecting supplementary materials to improve teaching reading of the teachers as well as learning reading of the students Significance of the study This study is of great importance to the author herself as well as to all teachers of English It helps to reinforce students‟ English proficiency and suggests ways to improve the teaching of English in general and reading in particular at Bac Ha College of Technology and most schools and universities that share the same mandate Research questions On the basis of the problems, the following research questions were formulated to conduct this study What are the teachers‟ and the students‟ evaluations of the textbook Business Basics? TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com What are the teachers‟ and the students‟ expectations of supplementary reading materials? Methodology The methods used in the study is quantitative and qualitative A questionnaire is used as a main instrument for data collection Two sets of questionnaires were designed and delivered to the teachers and the second-year students at Bac Ha College of Technology in order to find out answers to the research questions The data were collected, synthesized and analyzed from the survey questionnaires for both teachers and students on their evaluations of the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading materials Design of the study This study is divided into three parts Part A is the introduction in which the rationale, aims of the study, significance, research questions, methodology and design of the study are stated Part B is the development, the main part of the study In this part, there are four chapters Chapter reviews the literature concerning an overview of reading, reading comprehension with models of reading process, the theory of materials development and supplementary materials in teaching reading skills Chapter presents methodology of the study consisting of the background to the study It covers the setting, the textbook Business Basics, the participants, the instrument as well as data collection procedure Chapter goes into details of the data analysis, findings and discussion Chapter briefly deals with recommendations of the study Part C comes up with the summary of the study in which limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Part B: Development Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 An overview of reading 1.1.1 Definitions of reading comprehension Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning a foreign language It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as a means of communication between the writer and the reader Reading comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, with many demonstrations that readers who possesses rich knowledge about the topic of a reading usually understand the reading better than classmates with lower knowledge Roe, Stood and Burns (1987: 2) indicate “Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gained from life experience” Sharing the same point of view, Grellet (1981: 3) consider “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible” In his definition, reading comprehension simply means reading and understanding Reading comprehension is not merely decoding-translating written symbols into corresponding sounds Though these definitions are not exactly the same, what comes up a common point is that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and what is implied behind these forms While reading, learners of language need to have critical thinking to understand and analyze what is written Then readers can learn both grammar and vocabulary after reading From that, they will easily understand the content of the reading 1.1.2 Models of reading In terms of the reading process, many language researchers (Nuttall, 1996; Ur, 1991; Alderson, 2000, etc) share the same viewpoint that there are three different ways of processing a text namely the bottom-up, the top-down and interactive models The bottom-up models: The basis of bottom up models is linguistics knowledge of the reader In these models, the reader starts with the written text (the bottom), and constructs meaning from the letters, words, phrases and sentences found within and then 10 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com processes the text in a linear fashion The bottom-up models analyze reading as a process in which small chunks of text are absorbed, analyzed, and gradually added to the next chunk until they become meaningful The top- down models: The top- down process moves from the top, the higher level mental stages, down to the text itself In these models, the reading process is driven by the reader‟s mind at work on the text (reader- driven models) The reader rather than the text is at the heart of the reading process Interactive models of the reading process are proposed in the light of the perceived deficiencies of both bottom- up and top- down models Like top- down models, they are reader- driven This means the reader uses his or her previous understanding to guess about text content and as in bottom- up models, the reader is dependent upon what is in the text Hayes (1991) supposes that “Interactive models are more than a compromise between bottom- up and top- down theories In interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes The information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most appropriate interpretation of the printed page” In brief, interactive models are more adequate than the bottom- up and top- down models because they maximize the strong points and minimize the weak points of the use of both bottom- up and top- down models Thus, the language users need combine and practice both bottom- up and top- down strategies to gain efficiency in the reading process 1.1.3 Reading skills and types of reading skills 1.1.3.1 Definition of reading skills Reading skill is one of the four important skills in learning language Paris, Wasik and Turner (1991: 611) also confirm “Reading skills refer to information – processing techniques that are automatic, whether at the level of recognizing grapheme – phoneme correspondence or summarizing a story Skills are applied to a text unconsciously for many reasons including expertise, repeated practice, and compliance with directions, luck, and native use” 1.1.3.2 Types of reading skills - Skimming Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information Grellet, F (1981: 19) says “When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist 11 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intention of the writer” Hedge, T (2000: 195) points out that “Skim reading is used to get a global impression of the content of a text An example would be previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs” - Scanning Scanning occurs when a reader looks quickly through the text searching for a specific piece of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose Hedge, T (2000: 195) suggests that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a specific point of information, for example, the relevant times on a timetable, items in a directory, or key points in academic text” Scanning is the reading skill we use when we want to find the answer to a specific question Scanning is an useful reading skill that may at first strange to a learner who is used to reading everything in a foreign language with the same degree of attention - Predicting This is an important skill of efficient readers Predicting uses knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension as well as knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure Next, it uses knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content - Inference Inference means making use of syntactic, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements If these are words, then word-formation and derivation will also play an important role When dealing with a new text, it is better not to explain the difficult words to the learners Students should be encouraged to make a guess at the meaning of the words they not know rather than look them up in a dictionary If they need to look at the dictionary to get the meaning, they should only so after having tried to work out a solution on their own Therefore, it is very essential to develop the inference skill 12 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Dirty business, bright ideas A headquarters with a difference That‟s why SOL employees also study time Walk into SOL City, headquarters of one of management, budgeting and people skills northern Europe‟s most admired companies, 4………………………… and it feels like you‟ve entered a business Lots of companies talk about decentralizing playground Located in a renovated film responsibility and authority At SOL it‟s a studio in the head of Helsinki, the office way of life The real power players of the explodes with color, creativity and chaos company are its 135 supervisors, each of The walls are bright red, white and yellow; whom leads a team of up to 50 cleaners the employees wander the halls talking on These supervisors work with their teams to yellow portable phones Liisa Joronen create their own budgets, their own developed SOL Cleaning Service 11 years hiring and negotiate their own deals with ago, out of a 150 year-od industrial emprire customers owned by her family SOL‟s competitive 5………………………… formula has five key ingredients Liisa Joronen believes in autonomy, but 2………………………… she‟s also keen on accountability SOL is Few people dream about becoming a financial about measuring performance It cleaner But that doesn‟t mean cleaners does so frequently and visibly, and focuses can‟t find satisfaction in their work The on customer satisfaction Every time SOL keys to satisfaction, Joronen believes, are lands a contract, for example, the fun and individual freedom Its cleaners salesperson works at the new cleaning in the wear red and yellow jumpsuits that future Together they establish performance reinforce the company‟s upbeat image benchmarks Then, every month, the SOL‟s logo, a yellow happy face, is on customer rates the team‟s performance everything from her blazer to the company‟s based on those benchmarks „The more we budget reports Freedom means abolishing free our people from rules,‟ Joronen says, all the rules and regulations of conventional „the more we need good measurements‟ corporate life There are no titles and 6………………………… secretaries at SOL, no individual offices or Laptops and cell-phones are standard set hours of work The company has equipment for all supervisors at SOL, eliminated all perks and status symbols freeing them to work where they want, how 39 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3.………………………… they want Inside the offices there‟s almost SOL‟s training programme consists of no room for paper So the company stores seven modules, each of which lasts four all critical budget documents and months and ends with a rigorous exam Of performance reports on its intranet, along course, there are a limited number of ways with training schedules, upcoming events to polish a table or shampoo a carpet and company news II Scanning Which of the statements are true? Correct the false ones Everyone has their own office Liisa Joronen believes cleaners can feel good about their job At the end of the training course there is an exam The training course takes 28 months to complete At SOL giving responsibility to employees is important SOL thinks measuring performance restricts freedom Every month Liisa Joronnen measures each team‟s performance All the information is stored in filling cabinets Match these phrases from paragraph of the article to their meanings keen on accountability financial about measuring performance establish performance benchmarks rates team‟s performance a) assesses how the group have done b) extremely interested in judging achievements c) interested in people being responsibility for what they d) set up standards of achievements III Discussion Would you like to work in a company like SOL? Explain why or why not Would Liisa Joronen‟s ideas work in your own company or organization? 40 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com B Sample supplementary reading for Unit 1: You and your company Company facts and figures I Pre-reading Answer these questions before you read the following text How many media groups and vehicle manufacturers in the world you know? Can you name famous media groups and vehicle manufacturers in the world? What are their main products? II While-reading Read the texts about a German media group and an Italian vehicle manufacturer Axel spring verlag (As) Axel Spring Verlag is one of Europe‟s largest media groups Its most famous product is Bild, the German tabloid newspaper, which has 4.5 million readers The company is based in Berlin, and employs 12,000 people It publishes 180 newspapers and magazines in different countries in Europe and has annual sales of €2.8 billion The founder‟s company owns just over 50% of the company, and KirchGruppe has about 40% The group owns a number of TV stations and production companies In the future it hopes to expand its Internet activities Fiat SpA  Based: Turin  Activities: Automobile production It also manufactures agricultural and commercial vehicles and equipment for the construction industry  Other activities: Publishing (La Stampa newspaper), motor racing through its subsidiary Ferrari  Owner: Gianni Agnelli is the great-grandson of the founder of Fiat His family now owns about 33% of the company  Turnover: €45 billion  Employees: 220,000  Subsidiaries: in 61 different countries  Notes: The company is just over one hundred years old In the future it plans to expand its telecommunications activities 41 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Find the numbers in the texts, and mark them Axel Springer (AS), or Fiat (F) Then put them in order of size from the smallest to biggest sixty-one………… twelve thousand………… forty………… forty-five million………… thirty-three………… two point eight billion………… 100………… four point five million………… fifty………… 10 two hundred and twenty thousand………… Are the following sentences true (T) or false (F)? Axel Spring Verlag employs 220,000 people ………… Ferrari is a subsidiary of Fiat SpA ………… The head office of ASV is in German ………… Fiat manufactures tractors ………… KirchGruppe owns ASV ………… Fiat and ASV both publish newspapers ………… Bild has 2.8 million readers ………… Gianni Agnelli is the founder of Fiat ………… Read the texts again and answer these questions How many people does Axel Spring Verlag employ? What is the turnover of Fiat SpA? How many newspapers and magazines does ASV publish? Where is ASV based? Which newspaper does Fiat SpA own? What does Fiat SpA manufacture? III Post-reading Discussion & Writing * Discuss these questions and then write a paragraph of 100 words to talk about a media company that you know well What is the company‟s name? How many staffs does it employ? Where is it based? What is its annual turnover? What does the company advertise? 42 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Part c: Conclusion Conclusion It is found from the previous chapters that the importance of reading to the learners‟ English reading can be denied Therefore, it is very essential to use supplementary materials to improve the teachers‟ teaching as well as develop reading skills for the second year students who have poor knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and reading strategies Besides, using supplementary reading materials will help students to have more opportunities to practice reading skills and improve their English proficiency By reviewing the relevant literature on theories of reading comprehension and materials development, it is very necessary for the teachers of English to have good understanding the nature of reading process and all theories related to reading Besides, teachers at Bac Ha College of Technology have to identify the problems in the present textbook and determine what is useful for their students With the hope of using supplementary reading materials to improve the reading teaching of teachers, questionnaires for both teachers and students has been administered to find out their evaluations on the current textbook and their expectations of supplementary reading materials It is not effective enough to improve teachers‟ teaching and develop students‟ reading skills To make the situation better, what we need is to develop supplementary reading materials for the available textbook Noticeably, most of the participants in the study support the use of supplementary reading materials From the results of the study, some suggestions for choosing supplementary reading materials as well as designing tasks and activities for reading passages have been presented briefly The thesis is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and students who want to carry out research in the area and those who are concerned with this matter Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Limitations are unavoidable in most research projects The study presented in this thesis is no exception Firstly, the author‟s practical experience in teaching English especially in teaching reading and knowledge of this aspect is limited, the recommendations in chapter are likely to be subjective and insufficient Therefore, future work should overcome this weakness 43 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Secondly, the study has no chance to deal with other language skills such as listening, speaking and writing but it only investigates reading skills Besides, the study has tried to find out some problems existing in teaching and learning reading, has not solved different strategies to improve the teaching reading skills of teachers Finally, within the scope of the study, it limits to a supplementary reading syllabus for the second year students at Bac Ha College of Technology 44 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com References Alderson, J.C (2000) Assessing Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, H.D (1990) Principles of teaching and Learning Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey Carrel, Et.al (1997) Ed Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Crawford, J (2002) The Role of Materials in the Language Classroom Richards J.C and Remandya W.A (eds.) Methodology in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cunningsworth, A (1984) Evaluating and Selecting EFL Teaching Materials London Heinemann Educational Books Ltd Dudley-Evans, T & St John, M.J (1998) Developments in ESP: A multidisciplinary Approach Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Dubin, F (1986) Course Design: Developing Programs and Materials for Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Fisher, Alec and Scriven, Michael (1997) Critical Thinking: Its Definition and Assessment, Center for Research in Critical Thinking (UK)/Edgepress (US) Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills: A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hayes, B.L (1991) The Effective Teaching of Reading In B.L Hayes (ed) Effective Strategies for Teaching Reading, 3-12 Boston: Allyn Bacon Hutchinson, T & Waters, A (1993) English for Special Purposes Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Karlin, R and R Karlin (1988) Teaching of Elementary Reading Harcourt Brace: Tovanovic publisher, 1992 McDonough, J (1998) „Survey review: recent materials for the teaching of ESP‟ ELT Journal, 52 (2) McDonough, J and Shaw, C (1993) Materials and Methods in ELT Oxford: Blackwell McGrath, I (2002) Materials evaluation and design for language teaching Edinburgh Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for Teachers PrenticeHall 45 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Nunan, D (1998) Second Language Teaching and Learning Boston: Heinle & Heinle Nuttall, C (1985) „Recent materials for the teaching of reading‟ English Language Teaching Journal, 39 (3) Nuttall, C (1996) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Oxford: MacMillan Heinemann Paris, S G., Wasik, B A., & Turner, J C (1991) The Development of Strategic Readers New York: Longman Popham, W.L (1975) Educational Evaluation NJ: Prentice-Hall Richards, J.C (2001) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Roe, B.D., Stoodt, B.D., & Burns, P.C (1987) Secondary School Reading Instruction: The Content Areas Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Sheldon, L.E (1988) “Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials”, ELT Journals, 42/4 October 1988, pp.237-246 Oxford University Press Tomlinson, B (1998) Materials Development in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ur, P (1991) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Wallace, M.J (1993) Reading Oxford: Oxford University Press William, E (1983) Developing criteria for textbook evaluation ELT Journal, 37 (3), pp 251 – 255 Oxford University Press William, E (1984) Reading in the Language Classroom London: Macmillan Publishers William, R (1986) „“Top ten” principles for teaching reading‟ ELT Journal, 40 (1) 46 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Appendix Questionnaire for teachers This questionnaire is designed for my M.A minor thesis on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of Teaching Reading to Second-year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology” Your effort in fulfilling this questionnaire would be highly appreciated and of great use to my study You should make sure that the information you provide will be treated in the strict confidence For all the questions, please answer by ticking the appropriate box to respond to each question or writing in the given spaces What is your evaluation of the reading texts in the textbook Business Basics? * Level of difficulty □ □ □ - too difficult - too easy - relevant * Content □ □ □ □ - interesting - boring - familiar - unfamiliar * Length of reading texts □ □ □ - too long - too short - relevant Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… What you think about the reading exercises in the textbook Business Basics? a Exercises are of various types b There are only a few types of exercises □ □ 47 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com □ □ □ □ c Exercises are too difficult d Exercises are too easy e There are too few exercises for each reading text f There are too many exercises for each reading text g others (please specify)………………………………………………… Which topics in the current textbook need supplementary materials? (You can tick more than one topic) List of topics Teachers’ answer You and your company □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ Preparing a trip Away on business Visiting a company New developments Arrangements Describing and comparing Life stories Dealing with problems People at work Getting a job The world of work 48 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Why you use supplementary materials in reading lessons? Supplementary materials make reading lessons more interesting Supplementary materials help to enhance reading skills Supplementary materials motivate students to read better Supplementary materials help to widen students‟ social knowledge Supplementary materials make students understand the topics in the book better □ □ □ □ □ Others (please specify)………………………………………………………………………… Which sources you often get supplementary reading texts? □ □ □ □ □ □ a newspapers b specialized reading materials c magazines d the internet e authentic materials f other reading materials g Others (please specify)…………………………………………………………… What types of exercises should be used in the supplementary materials to improve your students‟ reading? (You can tick more than one option) a matching b true/ false/ no information c gap filling d multiple choice questions e completion exercises f jumbled sentences/ jumbled paragraphs g summary writing □ □ □ □ □ □ □ h others…………………………………………………………………………… 49 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com What should be included in the supplementary reading materials? a reading passage of different topic b reading passage of related topic c reading passage of higher level of difficulty d reading passage with various types of exercises e vocabulary exercises f vocabulary games g vocabulary test h reading skills practice i critical thinking questions j grammar exercises k grammar test □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ l Others……………………………………………………………………………… 50 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Appendix Questionnaire for students This questionnaire is designed for my M.A minor thesis on “Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of Teaching Reading to Second-year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology” Your effort in fulfilling this questionnaire would be highly appreciated and of great use to my study You should make sure that the information you provide will be treated in the strict confidence For all the questions, please answer by ticking the appropriate box to respond to each question or writing in the given spaces What is your evaluation of the reading texts in the textbook Business Basics? * Level of difficulty □ □ □ - too difficult - too easy - relevant * Content □ □ □ □ - interesting - boring - familiar - unfamiliar * Length of reading texts □ □ □ - too long - too short - relevant Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… What you think about the reading exercises in the textbook Business Basics? a Exercises are of various types b There are only a few types of exercises □ □ 51 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com □ □ □ □ c Exercises are too difficult d Exercises are too easy e There are too few exercises for each reading text f There are too many exercises for each reading text g others (please specify)…………………………………………………………… Which topics in the current textbook need supplementary materials? (You can tick more than one topic) List of topics Students’ answer You and your company □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ Preparing a trip Away on business Visiting a company New developments Arrangements Describing and comparing Life stories Dealing with problems People at work Getting a job The world of work 52 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com In what way are the supplementary reading materials beneficial to you? Supplementary materials make reading lessons more interesting □ Supplementary materials help to enhance reading skills □ □ □ □ Supplementary materials motivate you to read better Supplementary materials help to widen your social knowledge Supplementary materials make you understand the topics in the book better Supplementary materials enrich your vocabulary □ Others (please specify)…………………………………………………………………… What are your expectations of the supplementary reading materials? a reading passage of different topic b reading passage of related topic c reading passage of higher level of difficulty d reading passage with various types of exercises e vocabulary exercises f vocabulary games g vocabulary test h reading skills practice i critical thinking questions j grammar exercises k grammar test □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ l Others…………………………………………………………………………… 53 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... M.A minor thesis on ? ?Using Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of Teaching Reading to Second- year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology? ??... Supplementary Reading Materials with the Course book Business Basics to Improve the Efficiency of Teaching Reading to Second- year Students at Bac Ha College of Technology? ?? Your effort in fulfilling... the second year students at Bac Ha College of Technology - To examine the teachers‟ and the students? ?? expectations of supplementary reading materials - To give recommendations for selecting supplementary