Rationale of the study
Reading is an activity that can be considered as a crucial aspect of one's language ability because this skill helps to develop other language skills and provides knowledge on the target language However, many students experience difficulties in comprehending the reading texts These difficulties appear because the students have low motivation and possess limited vocabulary Students today have become more passive and reluctant in regard to reading, doing no more than what is required Educators are concerned about students' disinterest and therefore, are endeavoring to find ways and sources to encourage students to read Textbooks are widely adopted in classroom teaching but perhaps because textbook materials often break down language to discrete linguistic points, it may be too formulaic for students Additionally, textbooks are never enough, especially for those who are going to take the 2 in 1 GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) exams in which English is a compulsory subject Moreover, time for reading lesson at high school is limited There are three English lessons every week and in five or six lessons, there is only one for reading which means there is not enough time for reading - the most important language skill That is the reason why teachers have to find ways to enhance students to read more That means students have to read extensively
Additionally, most of the coursebooks used in language classrooms are perceived as traditional materials because they serve a pre-planned goal, so texts are simplified and exercises are adapted, which sometimes seems impractical to learners Therefore, a new concept, "authentic materials" has been established Most linguists agree that in language teaching, the use of authentic materials is quite useful to the learning process because as Baddock (1981) stated, learners find genuine materials or realia more motivating and interesting since one day they will use their surviving English in the foreign culture Morton (1999) also claimed that authentic materials make students familiar with "real" English and they are also supposed to motivate students Nunan (1998) argued that the outside world should be reflected through the materials and this authenticity ought to be related to the source of the materials, student activities and tasks In other words, these materials should include the language and its sociocultural context in which the language is used together
From this suggestion and above initial problems, the author decided to do an action research project on the effectiveness of using authentic materials on the Internet to improve 12 th form students' extensive reading at B Phu Ly High School.
Aims of the study and research questions
In conducting this study, the researcher expects to discover the effects of using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading to 12 th graders at B Phu Ly High School It is hoped to improve students' extensive reading as well as their language proficiency In addition, this paper will be carried out to find out students' attitudes towards the use of authentic materials in extensive reading activity
Specifically, two main research questions will be addressed:
- To what extent do authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability?
- What are the students' attitudes towards authentic reading materials?
Hypothesis
A hypothesis in this study is that using authentic materials will help EFL high school students improve their extensive reading ability and these students will take positive attitudes towards these materials.
Scope of the study
The study was conducted on 90 volunteer students from classes 12A2 and 12A3 at B Phu Ly High School during the first semester and restricted to the first semester of 2015-2016 The study concentrates on whether authentic materials fits the needs of enhancing 12 th form students’ extensive reading skill As a result, the teachers at
B Phu Ly High School are persuaded to adopt this kind of materials in their teaching not only reading but other language skills
Once completed, the study will provide an insight into the effects of using authentic materials on EFL high school students' extensive reading achievement as well as their attitudes towards using these materials What will be achieved in this research may help teachers consider utilizing authentic materials to improve students' reading comprehension Moreover, this study will be much beneficial to students who wonder how to develop their reading skills as well as their language proficiency.
Method of the study
This study is conducted as an action research because action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving the current state of affairs within educational context in which the research is carried out In order to get data, a combination of different instruments, namely pretest and posttest, and questionnaire, is used The data collected through the questionnaire and the two tests will be analyzed by quantitative method, using an ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) through SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Science).
Organization of the study
The study consists of three parts:
Part A – Introduction: presents the rationale, aim, scope, significance and method of the study
Part B – Development: comprises three chapters:
- Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature Review covers the overview of the literature which includes relevant theoretical background and reviews of related studies concerning extensive reading skill and the use of authentic materials in language teaching
- Chapter 2: Research Method continues with the research method including the participants of the study, the instrumentation, the methods and procedures of data collection and data analysis
- Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion demonstrates the findings accompanied by data analysis and discussion
Part C: Conclusion: recapitulates the major findings of the study and represents further recommendations for the implementation of authentic materials.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE
Extensive reading
According to Alderson et al (1987), "The majority of scholars in the field now agree on the nature of reading: Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts It is a complex skill requiring coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information"
Alderson (2000) defines reading as " an enjoyable, intense, private activity, from which much pleasure can be derived, and in which one can become totally absorbed" Reading means different things to different people, for some it is recognizing written words, while for others it is an opportunity to teach pronunciation and practice speaking However, reading always has a purpose It is something that we do everyday, it is an integral part of our daily lives, taken very much for granted and generally assumed to be something that everyone can do The reason for reading depends very much on the purpose for reading Reading can have three main purposes: for survival, for learning or for pleasure Reading for survival is considered to be in response to our environment, to find out information and can include street signs, advertising and timetables It depends much on the day-to-day needs of the readers and often involves an immediate response to a situation In contrast, reading for learning is considered to be the type of reading done in the classroom and is goal oriented While reading for pleasure is something that does not have to be done
Therefore, different scholars of different approaches provide different definitions of reading However, "In spite of the constant shift in focus throughout the history of reading research, it has been generally recognized that reading is a very complicated process involving a variety of factors that interact with one another" (Kim, 2002) Due to this complex nature of reading and the fact that it is one of the most important language skills, most scholars in language methodology agree that there is a need for incorporating multimedia into reading instruction
Learners should be provided with sufficient scaffolding to be able to achieve more effective reading comprehension
The term "extensive reading" was originally coined by Palmer (1917) to distinguish it from "intensive reading" The characteristics of extensive reading include the relatively fast reading of a large amount of longer, easy-to-understand material, with the reading done mostly outside the classroom and at each student's own pace and level There are few, if any, follow-up exercises, because the aim is for overall understanding rather than word-by-word decoding or grammar analysis
And instead of an inflexible curriculum, with extensive reading, the material is generally chose by the students themselves, who can thereby enjoy some small measure of responsibility for decisions affecting their learning a basic tenet of communicative teaching (Thompson, 1996)
Therefore, what does extensive reading entail? Successful extensive reading requires the following (adapted from Maley's list, 2009):
1 Reading often and in a large quantity
2 Reading in a wide variety of topics and genres
3 Reading content that is interesting and compelling
4 Reading books students themselves select
5 Reading for pleasure and information
6 Reading is its own reward
7 Reading at levels appropriate for the readers
8 Reading speed is fast, not slow
(Berardo, 2006) From all the above characteristics of extensive reading, a conclusion can be drawn that: "Extensive reading is reading of a large quantity of material or long texts, for global or general understanding; with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text Further, because reading is individualized, with students choosing the books they want to read, the books are not discussed in class" (Bramfort et al,
1.1.3 The roles of extensive reading in language education
Various studies already exist in support of extensive reading Bell (1998) stated that extensive reading provides substantial linguistic input which is needed for language acquisition and thus helps develop learners' linguistic competence Many researchers point out the importance of extensive reading, the positive effects of extensive reading in students' reading comprehension They suggest that one of the best ways to help students increase their language proficiency is to encourage them to read extensively Through experiencing language in context, extensive reading is a very effective way of reinforcing, confirming and deepening knowledge of vocabulary, structures, and of developing an implicit understanding of when and how words are used (Nation, 1997 and Cady, 1997 cited in Mutoh, Bamford and Helgesen, 1998) And motivation is stimulated by combining the pleasure of "a good read" with the satisfaction of accomplishing a meaningful task in the target language It is also a widely held belief among supporters of extensive reading that, by eliminating follow-up testing and exhorting students to aim for general understanding rather than detailed comprehension, they gradually learn to read without word-by-word decoding at the sentence level Carrell (1998) stated that the goal is to turn "learning to read into reading to learn"
Strong (1996) also stated that "extensive reading of literature can encourage students to develop positive attitudes toward reading"
Bell (2011) has clearly identified the role of extensive reading in language education as follows:
It can provide "comprehensible input"
It can enhance learners' general language competence
It increases the students' exposure to the language
It can increase knowledge of vocabulary
It can lead to improvement in writing
It can motivate learners to read
It can consolidate previously learned language
It helps to build confidence with extended text
It encourages the exploitation of textual redundancy
It facilitates the promotion of prediction skills
The benefits of extensive reading, therefore, extend beyond the acquisition of reading fluency Krashen (2004) claimed that "Reading is good for you Reading is the only way, the only way we become good readers, develop a good writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar, and the only way we become good spellers."
According to Krashen, "What makes it [extensive reading] far more compelling is that extensive reading not only develops reading skill but also benefits a whole range of other language skills, boosts confidence and motivation and improve overall attitude Reading in this sense has to be seen holistically as a crucial part of students' total development, not as some separate skill."
Davis (1994) also suggested that any classroom would be the poorer for the lack of an extensive reading programme and would be "unable to promote its students' language development in all aspects as effectively as if such a programme were present"
To sum up, many studies have shown that extensive reading has positive effects not only on students' reading comprehension skill but also on a variety of language skills and language development It has been claimed that free voluntary reading or sustained independent reading results in better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development.
Authentic materials
Authentic materials have been defined as " real-life texts, not written for pedagogic purposes" (Wallace, 1992) Gilmore (2007) and Morrow (1977) both claimed that authentic materials contain "real language, produced by a real speaker for a real audience and designed to convey a real message of some sort" They are
" materials that have been produced to fulfill some social purpose in the language community." (Peacock, 1997), in contrast to non-authentic texts that are especially designed for language learning purposes
Therefore, authentic materials are any texts written by native speakers for native speakers of certain language and will be used by the speakers of the language in communication circumstances outside language classroom Thus, most everyday objects in target language whether spoken or written such as magazines, newspapers, tourism brochures, advertisements, menus, recipes can be included as authentic materials, but for developing reading, one of the most useful sources is the Internet with large amounts of varied materials being easily accessible
1.2.2 The use of online authentic materials in improving extensive reading comprehension
After a careful review of literature, the researcher finds that the use of authentic material has been strongly debated because of its complexity in vocabulary and structures especially for lower-level learners However, Gilmore (2007) pointed out that authentic materials have been used for language learning for several decades and have regained their popularity due to the rise of the communicative approach
The goal of the communicative approach is to develop language competence for communication in real life Textbooks are often written with classroom dialogue practices that are artificial, thus presenting a gap from real life language In contrast, authentic materials are believed to generate greater interest among teachers, students and even publishers than do traditionally structured materials
Floris (2008) claimed the necessity for incorporating authentic materials in the course design because they are more motivating and engaging, and relevant to students' lives Other researchers stated that authentic materials provide opportunities for language use in a more relevant and communicative way (Sánchez, Pérez, and Gómes, 2010) Huang (2005) pointed out the importance of authentic materials because when at an adequate level, they elevate learners' sensitivity to and competence in the language Littlewood (1992) brought attention to several considerations in the adoption of authentic materials: learners' needs, their interest in topics, language situations and functions students would find useful Nunan
(1992) also suggested giving students their own choice of materials and the incorporation of student-produced materials as another component of authentic texts
The wide variety of authentic materials ranges from literature, CDs, DVDs, news, movies, songs, TV programs, even to brochures and menus but the utilization of authentic materials from online resources is particularly valuable and easily accessible Internet technology is a "medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials" (Warschauer, 1996) Whereas newspapers and any other printed materials date very quickly, the Internet is continuously updated, more visually stimulating as well as being interactive, therefore promoting a more active approach to reading rather than a passive one From a more practical point of view, the Internet is a modern day reality, most students use it and for teachers there is easier access to endless amount of many different types of materials From an even more economical viewpoint, looking for materials costs almost nothing, only time, by having unlimited access in the work place Additionally, online authentic materials enable students to interact with the real language and content rather than the form Learners feel that they are learning a target language as it is used outside the classroom
1.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of using authentic materials
While since the late 1970's authentic materials have been regarded as being superior to simplified textbook materials, there have still been some arguments about their use and effectiveness
On one hand, there are some advantages of utilizing authentic materials They are: original, interesting, motivating and useful (Peacock, 1997) The term original relates to authenticity Authenticity means that nothing of the original text is changed and also that its presentation and layout are retained (Grellet, 1996)
Authentic materials are often regarded as more interesting than the textbook materials because they can be up to date and related to everyday issues and activities The use of authentic materials can motivate the students because there are three layers of learning which are: language learning (the structure and vocabulary), cultural insight, and practical application (Speller, 2002) Authentic materials are useful because they help students to break the gap between the language classroom and the real life situation They introduce students to the culture that surrounds them and provide them the opportunities to see where different grammatical structures and types of discourse are used Horwitz (2008), stated that when there is an aim of intensive reading both authentic and constructed materials are advised to be used while for extensive reading, authentic materials are preferred
Along with the advantages, the use of authentic materials also brings some disadvantages The grammar and vocabulary in authentic materials may be too difficult for foreign language learners because authentic materials are used for communicating and informing in the society, thus they might use some abbreviations, slangs or informal words Besides, the content of the text is sometimes not appropriate for the students Berardo (2006) gave a table of advantages and disadvantages of authentic materials as follows:
Table 1: Advantages & Disadvantages of Authentic Materials
- "Real" language exposure with language change/variation being reflected
- Students are informed about what is happening in the world
- Textbooks tend not to include incidental/improper English and become outdated very quickly
- The same piece of material can be used for different tasks
- Ideal for teaching/practicing mini-skills- skimming/scanning
- Contain a wide variety of text types, language styles not easily found in conventional teaching materials
- Encourage reading for pleasure, likely to contain topics of interest
- Often too cultural biased, difficult to understand outside the language community
- Vocabulary might not be relevant to the student's immediate needs
- Too many structures are mixed so lower levels have problems decoding the texts
- Special preparation is necessary, can be time consuming
- Can become outdated easily, e.g news stories, articles
In order to avoid these disadvantages, the teacher should be selective in choosing the materials before delivering them to the students Teacher should consider the suitability and the readability of the text In addition, in teaching and learning process, the teacher should guide the students in understanding the text and also in finding the difficult words Berardo (2006) suggests teachers consider 4 important factors in choosing authentic reading materials:
Does the text interest the student?
Is it relevant to the student's needs?
Does it represent the type of material that the student will use outside the classroom?
Can the text be exploited for teaching purpose?
For what purpose should the text be exploited?
What skills/strategies can be developed by exploiting the text?
Is the text too easy/difficult for the student?
Is it structurally too demanding/complex?
How much vocabulary does it contain?
Does it grab the student's attention?
Does it make him want to read more?
All these studies and research on the use of authentic materials indicate that the use of authentic materials in language teaching has generally been effective
Nevertheless, there are some limitations and drawbacks in employing them with EFL learners.
Attitude
According to Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English, attitude is "a way of feeling or thinking about someone or something, especially, as this influences one’s behavior"
Language attitudes, however, are different from other general attitudes in the sense that they are specifically about language We normally believe that language attitudes are concerned with attitudes with regard to the language itself – its variety, its sound system, its semantic quality and so on and so forth In fact the term language attitude as it is applied by sociolinguists today, includes the outlook and stance towards speakers of a particular language as also a variety of behavior concerning language
Ellis (2000) mentioned that positive attitudes towards the L2 and its speakers can be expected to enhance learning while negative attitudes impede it Therefore, learner attitudes have an impact on the level of L2 proficiency achieved by individual learners who are themselves influenced by this success Thus, learners with positive attitudes, who experience success, will have these attitudes reinforced
Similarly, learners’ negative attitudes may be strengthened by lack of success (Ellis
Baker (1988) suggested that attitudes are complex constructs; there may be both positive and negative feelings attached to a language situation According to Lambert (1967), attitudes consist of three components - the cognitive, affective and conative (related to action) components The cognitive component refers to an individual’s belief structure, the affective to emotional reactions and the conative component includes the tendency to behave in a certain way towards the attitude
According to Allport (1995), "an attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting as directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related."
Ajzan (1998) stated that attitude is "a disposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, person, institution, or event."
Wenden (1991) as cited in Atez & Munir (2009) gave a broader definition of the concept "attitude" He claimed that the term "attitudes" includes three components namely, cognitive, affective, and behavioural A cognitive component is comprised of the beliefs and ideas or opinions about the object of the attitude
The affective one is made up of the feeling and emotions that one has towards an object, "likes" or "dislikes", "with" or "against" Finally, the behavioural component refers to one's consisting actions or behavioural intentions towards the object
To sum up, attitude is a mental and neural state, expressing the individual's responses to an object, a person, a thing or an event
1.3.2 The effects of attitude in second language learning
The concept of learners' attitude has been the focus of attention in explanation and investigation of human behavior offered by social psychologists Attitude is usually defined as a disposition or tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain thing such as an idea, object, person, or situation A large number of studies have investigated the relationship between attitude and proficiency in the language (Bachman, 1990; Coleman, Strafield, and Hagan, 2003) Gardner (1985) believed that attitude and other affective variables are as important as aptitude for language achievement
According to Ismet (2005), attitude is one of "the determinants of success in EFL learning" Depending on the learners' attitudes, learning language can be a source of enrichment or a source of resentment Positive attitudes towards L2 is beneficial to L2 learners because positive attitudes help to create motivation to achieve success in acquiring that language (Holmes, 1992); whereas, negative attitudes towards the foreign language and group which often comes from stereotypes, can impede the learning of that language (Brown, 2000)
Gardner's socio-educational model strengthens the interrelationship between success and attitude His theory is based on the idea that L2 learning is "acquiring symbolic elements of a different ethnolinguistic community" (Gardner, 1979) The proponents of the model believe that the relationship between learners' attitudes and their proficiency is an indirect one, unlike that between integrative motivation and proficiency which is described as more direct and, therefore, stronger
Discussing the students' attitudes to the L2 learning, Stern (1992) gives the below figure:
Table 2: Range of students' attitudes to target language
Positive Neutral Negative Very negative
- Enthusiastic - Enters into - Recognizes, - Finds it hard - Finds L2 about L2
- Enjoys listening to, speaking, reading, and writing L2
- Feels good and confident about L2 tolerates, and accepts L2
- Has no marked sense of discomfort or disorientation to accept L2
- Feels uncomfortable and disoriented about most aspects of L2 odd, annoying, confusing, and ugly
In sum, from these studies into the learners' attitudes towards L2 learning, it can be concluded that learners' attitudes play a significant role in enabling learners effectively Having positive or negative attitudes towards a certain language can exert considerable influence upon their performance on the language itself
Consequently, L2 teachers need to take learners' attitudes into consideration
Teachers should be aware of a positive correlation between language learners' attitude and language proficiency This awareness can help language teachers make decision about their teaching, and this decision making can call for some teaching implications which refer to teaching practice orientation to learners' attitudes.
Some related studies
Recently, authentic materials have been paid more and more attention by several researchers
Berardo (2006) in “The use of authentic materials in the teaching of reading”, investigated if authentic materials were effective He found out that students benefited from the exposure to real context and students were highly motivated giving a sense of achievement when understood and encouraged further reading
In another study “A review on the effectiveness of using authentic materials in ESP courses”, Baghban and Pandian (2011) stated that authentic materials, being part of the real world, can serve as excellent resources for introducing language in its real form to ESP learners whose final goal in taking ESP course is to communicate properly in real-world contexts
In his research “Difficulties faced by Iraqi teachers of English in using authentic materials in the foreign language classrooms”, Huessien (2012) also concluded that authentic materials work as a motivating feature and as a link between students’ general knowledge of language and their professional language needs
Guo (2012)’s study “Using authentic materials for extensive reading to promote English proficiency” demonstrated a measurable positive effect of authentic texts on students’ language acquisition He supported the use of authentic materials because they expose students to English usage as it is used in real life, thus many students may find them more interesting and relevant if they are at the right comprehension level
At high school level, Hatimah et al (2013) confirmed in their study “The effects of using authentic materials on the 10 th grade students’ reading comprehension achievement” that authentic material was an appropriate material for teaching reading comprehension They claimed that the use of authentic materials had a significant effect on the 10 th grade students’ reading comprehension achievement
All these studies and research on the use of authentic materials indicate that authentic material can be an appropriate material for teaching a language, especially in the teaching of reading comprehension
In summary, this review of literature provides a theoretical background for the study, which will be the ground for the rationale of the study and the research questions It is expected that the results will contribute to the theory and practice as regards with the authentic material use in language teaching, especially in the teaching of reading, and its impact on students' achievement.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research context
It is clear that English language education in Vietnamese high schools has recently changed and got much better results thanks to the adjustment of textbooks and teaching methods Particularly, the textbook series - Tiếng Anh 10, Tiếng Anh
11, Tiếng Anh 12 (English 10, English 11, and English 12) - introduced intoschools since 2005 has attracted both teachers and students by introducing a theme-based and task-based approaches However, while teaching, the author found that many students at B Phu Ly high school got rather low scores in reading questions When interviewed, the students claimed that reading seemed to be a difficult skill for them
The main reason, as investigated, is that students depend totally on reading texts in textbooks which are their major source of reading They do not often do extensive reading to improve their reading skills In addition, teachers, in almost cases, never used any reading materials rather than those in the textbooks due to time limitation as they stated These reasons constitute the motivation for this study
The study was conducted at B Phu Ly High School in Ha Nam, where all the students have learned English for about 9 years and have three English classes per week and half of them have one optional lesson every week The textbook series
English 10 to English 12 is taught and the students have to take the entrance exam including English as a compulsory subject The physical condition of the school can provide a supportive environment for language teaching and learning with favorable facilities such as rooms equipped with overhead projector, screen, loud speakers,
As previously mentioned in the Introduction part, this study aims to deal with these two research questions:
- To what extent do authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability?
- What are the students' attitudes towards authentic reading materials?
Research approach
The term “action research” refers to two dimensions of activity: the word
“research” in “action research” refers to a systematic approach to carrying out investigations and collecting information that is designed to illuminate an issue or problem and to improve classroom practice, meanwhile the word “action” refers to taking practical action to resolve classroom problems (Richards, 2005) Therefore, action research achieves both action (change or improve) and research (understanding)
According to Cohen and Manion (2007), action research is “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention.”
Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) identify three characteristics of an action research, which are: “carried out by practitioners”, “collaborative” and “aimed at changing things”
Tsui (1993) suggested 5 steps in conducting action research: Identifying problems; Finding causes of the problem; Designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a proposal for action research; Trying out the strategies (action) and keeping a diary of what happened in the class; and Evaluating the try- out Whereas Nunan (1992) defines the framework of a research as consisting of seven steps as follows:
- Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)
- Step 2: Preliminary investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)
- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research questions)
- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)
- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)
- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshops or issuing a paper)
- Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem) Different from Tsui, Nunan (1992) suggested that teachers should observe and make notes on what their learners said and did in class, and then, based on these observations, identified positive ways to bring about this change
A necessary component of action research is collaboration among different people They are teachers, their colleagues and students, who should be willing to talk with each other about the problems and find out the solutions together, as well as help each other in implementing classroom–centered action research projects It also needs the collaborative efforts of students who participate in the action research project Students’ collaboration plays an important role in the success of the action research project
In this study, the researcher followed Nunan's action research model and students' pretest and posttest scores from the two groups of students were calculated by using ANCOVA through SPSS
2.3.2 Rationale for the use of an action research
Cohen and Manion (2007) state that the aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within educational context in which the research is carried out
Koshy (2005) also maintains that action research is a powerful and useful model for practitioner research because research can be set within a specific context or situation and researchers can be participants - they do not have to be distant and detached from the situation
Teachers in general and teachers of English in particular actually carry out action research for most of their time Whenever s/he identifies a problem which is happening in the class, it is his/her task to find ways to solve that problem
Therefore, action research is inevitably a very common practice
This research was carried out by me, a practitioner, a teacher of English
The inspiration for the research was the recognition and observation of a real problem in the classes that my colleagues and I taught in the past few school years
Most of the students appeared to poorly participate in reading lessons Many of them are passive and unenthusiastic because they may lack background knowledge about and vocabulary related to the topic of the reading texts This research was conducted with a desire to improve students' reading comprehension skills through using authentic materials for extensive reading This possible improvement would help them have inspiration of engaging more into the lessons in class With this view, this research meets the definition of action research as aiming at changing things for the better This is also an action study because it was conducted in the real context of my classroom, aimed at professional development through changing my methods of teaching to raise students’ extensive reading ability.
Description of the research
The researcher, who is also a teacher, recruited around 90 students from class 12A2 and 12A3 at B Phu Ly high school during the first semester of the school year 2015-2016 The participants of the research were selected on the basis of simple random sampling Using simple random sampling method, the researcher ensured that the students of the sample have characteristics similar to the population as a whole
The students participating in the study are non-English major students at the age of 17 and all of them had studied English formally for 9 years (from grade 3 to grade 11) These students were evenly assigned to these 2 classes based on their entrance exam scores when they entered the school; therefore, they should have been at a similar level as they started high school However, the entrance exam took place more than 2 years ago; thus, a pretest was designed to determine if the students from the 2 classes are still at a similar level The 2 classes were randomly assigned to be an experimental group and a control group All students received the same classroom instruction, with the only difference being that the experimental group was given supplementary materials related to the course topics for extensive reading outside of class whereas the control group was asked to follow the reading exercises given in students’ workbook That means they were taught with traditional method
The treatment for the intervention was a set of 10 online reading texts (250-300 words in length) related to the course topics given to students in the experimental group over a period of 10 weeks As Tran (2007) suggests, teachers can select materials that are at a suitable level and can be read at a manageable time to help students with their reading skills Of course students can choose the reading materials that they feel comfortable with, but for the study purpose and convenience, the instructor selected readings for the students in the experimental group
In order to ensure the validity of this study, a number of different instruments were implemented, which are both qualitative and quantitative All of these instruments were finished in class
The main instrument for this study was 2 reading tests The pretest was delivered in week 4 of the first semester and the post-test was conducted in week 15 of the same semester These 2 multiple-choice tests were similar to the reading section in a GCSE exam test, that is, students were required to read the passages and circle the correct answers to the questions or choose the words to fill in the blanks of the passages The tests in this study were taken from test samples for the entrance exams into Vietnam National University The time allowance for each test was 40 minutes, and the test consisted of 30 items and was designed to test such specific reading skills as: skimming for general information; scanning for specific information; understanding the main ideas
In second language research, questionnaires are used mostly to collect data on phenomena which are not easily observed, such as attitudes, motivation, and self- concepts They are also used to collect data on the process involved in using language and to obtain background knowledge about the research subjects, such as age, previous background in language learning…
In this study, the questionnaires were to get the information on their attitudes toward using authentic materials for extensive reading, and their suggestions for future programs after this research
Questionnaires in this study include a Pre-questionnaire that was distributed to all participants at the start of the investigation and a Post-questionnaire that was delivered upon finishing the intervention These questionnaires were designed in hope that the researcher would receive practical and situational information that she was looking for
The Pre-questionnaire (see Appendix I) consists of 4 items which was designed to elicit information concerning the participants’ background information and knowledge of English, the level of students’ interest, their needs and expectations in reading lessons
The post-questionnaire (See Appendix II) on extensive reading with online authentic materials was conducted and administered to experimental group students when they were close to the end of the first semester It contained 15 questions, among which 10 aimed at investigating students’ attitudes toward authentic materials, and 5 at finding out students’ suggestions for future programs All of the questions were written in Vietnamese to make sure that they could fully understand the questions The results from the questionnaire could help the researcher better understand students' thoughts and attitudes towards the outside extensive reading using authentic materials
The action was conducted during 10 weeks of the first semester of school year 2015-
2016 from October 12 th to December 19 th , 2015 Adapting steps in Nunan (1992)’s action research cycle, the action was developed in four main steps as follows:
During the teaching process in the school-years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 for the 12 th form students, the researcher discovered that her students seemed to be weak at reading comprehension skills They were not keen on doing reading activities in class and the students' scores in GCSE exams were quite low, especially for reading questions The researcher discussed her concern with her colleagues and they admitted that their students have the same problems Moreover, the time for reading lessons is not enough, which means students have to read extensively to improve their reading skills as well as their language competences This urged the teacher to find a better way to work with her new classes in the school-year 2015-
After observing and analyzing the results from many tests, especially the fact that only 12.1% of the students got mark 5+ in the GCSE exam at the end of the 2014-2015 schoolyear, the researcher found that, in general, the students’ English competence is rather low Meanwhile, interviews with students showed that almost all of them found reading questions most difficult and challenging
Therefore, the researcher raised two questions for exploration: “Can authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability?”,
“What are the students' attitudes towards authentic reading materials?”
To answer these questions, a pre-questionnaire was conducted The collected data were analyzed to point out some possible reasons for the students’ poor reading skills, their interest and expectation of the reading lessons; from which the teacher had belief that authentic material approach would be used to raise students’ interest so that the problem would be solved That was the reason why the researcher decided to introduce authentic reading materials to her students
To solve the problem, the teacher decided to use authentic materials for students’ extensive reading This step of intervention was carried out as follows:
The researcher, who is also a teacher, asked the headmistress of B Phu Ly High School for permission to recruit around 90 students from class 12A2 and 12A3 at B Phu Ly high school during the first semester of the school year 2015-2016
Firstly, the students of both groups had a pretest on reading including 30 multiple-choice questions in comprehension reading exercises and close tests The pretests were marked according to the answer key and saved
Then a detailed course for the experimental group (See Appendix III) was prepared based on online authentic materials A variety of activities and exercises were prepared based on the selected authentic texts While the experimental group was learning to read extensively with authentic materials, the control group was following traditional materials which were included in the reading exercises in the Students’ Workbook “English 12”
The teacher and the students in experimental group had one meeting every week at the period for optional lessons, which was on Fridays During these meetings, the teacher gave the students hand-outs of printed online reading texts from www.newsinlevels.com/#, and asked them to read these texts extensively and answer the questions below these texts Students in the experimental group were also encouraged to watch the videos on www.newsinlevels.com/# by themselves and do more activities given following each video By doing so, they can improve all the four language skills, not only reading
Finally, after a period of 10 weeks, the students of both groups took the posttest so that the researcher could see if there were any differences in the two groups’ results
Table 3: An overview of an extensive reading program:
Week Title of the text Topic Activities
1 Girl is saved Everyday life Write a summary of the text
Sports Talk about your favourite footballer
3 Boy hits a painting Everyday life Write a summary of the text
List some causes of air pollution in big cities
5 End of one-child policy
Population Discuss the equality between men and women in modern society
6 Attacks in Paris World Peace Write a paragraph of about 150 words about your ideal world
7 The rich are helping people
Charity Discuss the question: Why do people do charity?
Talk about some measures to protect wildlife
9 Old wreck is found Discovery Write a summary of the text
10 Joke about a clever blonde woman
Funny story Retell the story
Summary
This chapter has presented in some detail the methodological framework of the study including the justification for the use of action research design in this study, the research questions, the pre-test and post-test and questionnaires used as tools of collecting data, the participants of the study, the process of data collection and data analysis applied to seek the answers for the two research questions
In the next chapter, there will be a presentation of the findings of the study and a discussion of the two research questions raised in this study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Initial data
The initial results helped to confirm the problem, to find out the causes of the problem so that an action plan could be prepared
The initial data consist of the results from the pre-questionnaire as shown in the following table
Table 4: The levels of students’ interest in reading lessons, their needs and their attitudes toward reading skills
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
1 I like reading lessons because they’re very interesting
2 I’m interested in the topics of the reading texts in the textbook
3 It will be helpful if the teacher introduces me more interesting and updated materials for reading
4 I would like the teacher to give me real-life reading texts such as news reports and
9 10% articles from newspapers on the Internet
As can be seen from the table, the pre-questionnaire was applied to collect data on the levels of students’ interest in reading lessons and the needs and expectations of the students in reading lessons It can be seen from the table that the students’ attitudes towards reading lessons were not very positive
As many as 58% of the sample disagreed with the statement that they liked reading lessons Furthermore, 17% of them did not know whether they like reading or not There were only 24% saying that they were interested in reading lessons
The cause of the problem might be a lack of interest in the topics of the reading texts
A great number of participants (67%) said they did not like these topics Only 22% of them agreed that the topics of the reading texts were interesting and 11% had neutral opinion
Obviously, a greater number of students (74%) wanted the reading materials to be updated However, some of them were still reluctant to deal with real-life texts from the Internet (23%) This suggested that, when designing the course, it was necessary to balance between the levels of difficulty in reading materials
In short, the step of analyzing the students’ interest in reading lessons and their needs and expectations is crucial when designing the course.
Research question 1
The statistical analysis of the pretest and posttest scores (see Appendix 3) was aimed to answer the first research question:
- To what extent do authentic materials help to improve EFL high school students' extensive reading ability?
Table 5 Significant difference between the pretest mean scores of the students taught using traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading
Table 2 presents significant difference between the pre-test mean scores of the students taught with traditional method and that of those using Authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading The findings reveals that significant difference between the pre-test mean scores of the experimental group and control group, the obtained P-value 0.657 was greater than the threshold P-value of 0.05 (level of significance) It means that there is no significant difference between the pre-test of the students taught in traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading This justifies the fact that students’ abilities are fair level
Table 6 Significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the students taught using traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading
Table 3 shows significant difference between the post-test mean scores of the students taught with traditional method and that of those using Authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading The findings reveal that significant difference in the post-test of two methods, the obtained P-value of 0.000 was less than the threshold P-value of 0.05 In other words, there is a significant difference between the mean scores of the students in the post-test scores using traditional method and that of those using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading
This implies that the experimental group performs better than the control group
Table 7 Significant effect of authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading
As shown in the results and comparison of the mean scores of students in the pre-test and post-test of the group taught using authentic materials, the mean scores of students in the post-test mean of 6.9 with a standard deviation of 0.98 was higher than mean scores of students in the pre-test with mean of 5.5 with a standard deviation of 1.10
The findings reveal that the significant difference in the pre-test and post-test of experimental method, the obtained P-value of 0.000 was less than the threshold P-value of 0.05 It shows that there is a significant effect of the authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading in the pre-test and post-test This proves that using authentic materials in the teaching of extensive reading is “ effective ” This result confirms the hypothesis of the study that authentic materials help EFL high school students improve their extensive reading ability.
Research question 2
- What are the students' attitudes towards authentic reading materials?
To answer the second research question, the results from the post-questionnaire administered to students in the experimental group were analyzed
3.3.1 Students’ attitudes towards authentic materials
Mean Sd Df t-value P-value
Table 8: Students’ attitudes towards authentic material program
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
1 Authentic materials gave me more pleasure in learning reading
2 The use of authentic materials in learning didn’t make reading more pleasant
3 While reading authentic materials, I can have a chance to learn new vocabulary and structures
4 The use of authentic materials didn’t help to expand my grammar and vocabulary
5 While learning with authentic materials, I can understand the way native speakers use the language and learn many different uses of languages, which helps me acquire the language more accurately and fluently
6 While reading authentic texts, I have no difficulty getting the main ideas
7 While reading the authentic texts, I sometimes feel discouraged by the difficult language items
8 Authentic materials helped to improve my reading skills
9 Authentic reading texts helped me improve other language skills like speaking, writing and listening
10 My background knowledge has been broadened thanks to authentic texts
As we can see from the table, 10 items were used to investigate the participants’ evaluative attitudes towards the program To achieve the validity and reliability of the participants’ responses, both positive (items 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) and negative (2,
4, 7) items were used Some items were to examine the effects of the course on the students’ motivation and interest in reading; and the rest on their language competence
The results showed that the majority (84%) of the experimental group students thought that the authentic reading texts were more interesting than the texts in traditional course books Only 9% disagreed with this and 7% of them did not give a clear opinion about it
Besides the pleasure that authentic texts brought in, many students (75%) thought they could have a chance to learn new vocabulary and structures However, 14% of them did not agree and 11% were undecided
For the fifth item, most students in the experimental group (91%) agreed or strongly agreed that, while dealing with authentic texts, they felt that they could understand the way native speakers use the language and they could have the opportunity to learn many different uses of language, which helped them acquire the language more accurately and fluently
Next, over two- third of the students (69%) said that they had no difficulty getting the main ideas while reading authentic texts Still, there were 24% of the students disagreeing about having no difficulty and 7% were unsure about it
However, more than half of the experimental group students stated that difficult language might sometimes discourage them while dealing with authentic texts; whereas, about one quarter (24%) disagreed and one fifth (20%) did not reach a clear judgement about it
As for the participants’ evaluation of the program in relation with their language competence, four-fifth of them (80%) asserted that authentic materials helped to improve their reading skills Apart from reading, their speaking, writing and listening skills were reported to be positively affected by the authentic material program
It was interesting to find that up to 93% of the students confirmed that their background knowledge was widened thanks to this course
To sum up, the result of the first part in the post-questionnaire has revealed that most of the students in the experimental group found authentic materials more interesting and useful than the traditional reading texts The majority of them agreed that, thanks to real-life reading texts, their reading skills were much improved, not to mention their background knowledge and other language skills Nevertheless, some of them believed that they had difficulty in dealing with these texts
The next section will investigate the students’ suggestions for the future program
3.3.2 Students’ suggestions for future program Table 9: Students’ suggestions for future program
Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
1 The program should be applied in other language skills
2 Students should be exposed to authentic materials earlier
3 If this program does not continue in the next semester, I’ll keep exploiting authentic materials for extensive reading
4 The teacher should choose the reading materials more carefully
5 The instructions for activities of reading these texts should be explained more clearly
As shown in Table 6, the suggestions focus on making the program better in the future
88% of the students recommended that the program should be applied in other language skills and a similar number suggested that they should have been exposed to authentic materials earlier Most of them (also 88%) confirmed that they would keep exploiting authentic texts for extensive reading if this program did not
However, one-third of the students said that the authentic reading materials should be chosen more carefully That may be due to the fact that some of the students found the authentic texts challenging because of new and difficult language items
Finally, 46% of the students from the experimental group recommended that the teacher should help students to read these texts with more guidance
What can be drawn from this finding is that changes should be made only to some components of such a future program
To conclude, learners’ exposure to authentic materials for extensive reading was found to be relatively effective in the reading subject as well as in increasing interest Overall, the learners had positive opinions about authentic use; however, they sometimes had difficulty in understanding the texts because of some new and difficult language items
The results of the tests showed that the students who had authentic materials were significantly better at achieving reading skills compared to the other group of students who were taught with the guidance of textbook only
A detailed summary of the study is given in Table 10 In the table, the research questions, data sources, data collection methods and findings can be observed
Table 10: Summary of the Research Findings
Data sources Data collection method
1 Achievement Experimental and Control groups
- No difference in the Pretest scores
- A significant difference between the experimental and control groups’ gain scores in the Posttests
Questionnaire - Motivating and enjoyable; however, sometimes difficult and discouraging
This final part presents some conclusions drawn from the study, comments on the limitations of this action research, and makes some suggestions for further studies as well as the author’s professional development after the research.
Conclusion
Students’ low scores in reading is a big problem in B Phu Ly high school Thus, this action research is conducted with the aim of using authentic materials as a way to improve students’ extensive reading skills and of investigating students’ attitudes toward this kind of materials
A ten-week course with 10 authentic extensive reading texts was not much time, but it was a successful term because the researcher’s aim has been achieved: improving students’ reading skills and investigating students’ attitudes toward authentic materials The students’ positive scores and comments on authentic texts have encouraged the researcher-teacher a lot
Firstly, the results of the study revealed that the authentic reading materials were found effective in improving students’ achievement and stimulating students’ interest in reading
The findings showed that there was a significant difference in the mean scores of the pretest and posttest for the experimental group This means that the students dealing with authentic reading materials made certain improvement in their language competence
Secondly, the data obtained from the questionnaire indicated that students were eager to read texts in natural contexts such as news reports, articles … They believed that with such an instruction, they will naturally develop their reading as well as other language skills and background knowledge, which will lead them to the fluent acquisition of the language closer to the native speaker fluency Their attitudes toward the use of authentic materials were mostly positive; however, it was seen that some students found this type of materials difficult and challenging because they might have problems in dealing with the difficult language presented in these texts
Another significant point about the findings based on this questionnaire was that some students seemed willing to be exposed to authentic materials thanks to the attractiveness and usefulness of these materials
In conclusion, data from the pretest and posttest scores, and from the questionnaire showed a positive effect of authentic reading materials on students’ language competence Additionally, the program received favorable opinions and positive attitudes from most of the students
Based on these findings, the implications, limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research will be presented in the next section.
Implications
The study showed that using authentic materials for extensive reading may be an effective method to enhance the students’ success Yet, the proper choice of materials is necessary because authentic materials increase the students’ interest, but they might also reduce it Students’ needs and interest should primarily be considered If the students do not like the subjects of the texts, for example, it will be impossible to make them engaged in the study And the texts should not be too easy or too difficult or too long They should be appropriate to the students’ achievement levels
It is also suggested that learner autonomy should overweigh the teacher autonomy in an authentic material-based class When students are allowed to deal with the texts by themselves or by interacting with the other students very often, they will become more efficient speakers of the language because the language is an instrument to express yourself to the others Therefore, students should be encouraged to become better users of the target language
Another suggestion is about the time spent for extensive reading class To be able to help students make every point very clear while analyzing the text, sufficient time should be used to give students a chance to comment and ask There might be some exceptional and complicated structures in the text which need to be explained
Finally, authentic reading materials should also be combined with other skills and vocabulary instruction Authentic texts are good sources for the integrated skills activities Based on a text, a variety of activities and tasks can be designed in integration with each other, which aims to develop students’ language skills – listening, speaking and writing – and some other additional areas such as pronunciation and vocabulary.
Limitations of the study
The study makes some beneficial contributions to the reading skill teaching and learning Still, it has some limitations as follows
Firstly, as an action research with its typical characteristics defined as
“situational”, this study is prone to lack generalization The research had been done with a rather small number of participants (The number of students receiving the treatment was only 45) Although the scores used for analysis proved to be approximately normally distributed, this narrow range of students prevented the researcher, to some extent, from getting a full idea of the effect of authentic materials on students’ reading skill at varying levels of proficiency Thus, the intervention has worked quite successfully in the researcher’s class, but we do not know whether it may be applied to other classes at other levels, and in other contexts This research, therefore, has unavoidable limited application
Secondly, since the researcher could not control all the variables and constructs (such as the students’ interest and their amount of time on each text…) during the research project, the question whether authentic materials can improve students’ reading skills is still not fully answered Students’ improvement may result from other factors such as their positive attitudes, time devotion, or learning from other
Finally, there are still some questions that the researcher has not been able to answer For instance, whether the teacher should always use authentic materials for extensive reading, or that will make the students bored with the same activities
The study has opened some directions for future research:
- This study may be applied with similar or different population content in broader sample sizes
- Similar studies can also be conducted with varying language proficiency levels and wider ranges of ages
- There can be a study on the effects of authentic materials on the teaching and learning of other language skills
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APPENDIX I: PRE-QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS
I have been learning English for … years
Please choose one degree from 5 to 1 and tick the appropriate column for the following statements
1 I like reading lessons because they’re very interesting
2 I’m interested in the topics of the reading texts in the textbook
3 It will be helpful if the teacher introduces me more interesting and updated materials for reading
4 I would like the teacher to give me real-life reading texts such as news reports and articles from newspapers on the Internet
CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH
Giới tính: Nam/ Nữ Tuổi: ……
Số năm học tiếng Anh: …
Em hãy đánh dấu vào cột thể hiện ý kiến của mình về các nhận xét sau đối với các giờ học đọc môn tiếng Anh trong trường THPT:
1 Em thích các giờ học đọc vì chúng rất thú vị
2 Em thích các chủ đề của các bài đọc trong sách giáo khoa
3 Em muốn thầy cô giới thiệu thêm những tài liệu thú vị hơn và cập hơn
4 Em muốn thầy cô cung cấp thêm những bài đọc thực tế như bản tin, bài báo từ mạng Internet
APPENDIX II: POST-QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS
The aim of the present questionnaire is to collect data on your perceptions and expectations as regards the authentic materials for extensive reading It is absulutely essential that you reflect your real opinions Thank you for your participating in the study
Please choose one degree from 5 to 1 and tick the appropriate box for the following statements
1 Authentic materials gave me more pleasure in learning reading
2 The use of authentic materials in learning didn’t make reading more pleasant
3 While reading authentic materials, I can have a chance to learn new vocabulary and structures
4 The use of authentic materials didn’t help to expand my grammar and vocabulary
5 While learning with authentic materials, I can understand the way native speakers use the language and learn many different uses of languages, which helps me acquire the language more accurately and fluently
I have no difficulty getting the main ideas
7 While reading the authentic texts, I sometimes feel discouraged by the difficult language items
8 Authentic materials helped to improve my reading skills
9 Authentic reading texts helped me improve other language skills like speaking, writing and listening
10 My background knowledge has been broadened thanks to authentic texts
11 The program should be applied in other language skills
12 Students should be exposed to authentic materials earlier
13 If this program does not continue in the next semester, I’ll keep exploiting authentic materials for extensive reading
14 The teacher should choose the reading materials more carefully
15 The instructions for activities of reading these texts should be explained more clearly
Câu hỏi khảo sát học sinh
Phiếu điều tra này nhằm khảo sát tác động của việc sử dụng các tài liệu nguyên gốc trên Internet đối với việc nâng cao kĩ năng đọc mở rộng của học sinh và ý kiến của các em đối với loại tài liệu này Sự tham gia của các em và kết quả của khảo sát này sẽ đóng góp quan trọng vào nghiên cứu này và góp phần nâng cao chương trình giảng dạy tiếng Anh trong Nhà trường Mọi thông tin cung cấp trong khảo sát này sẽ được đảm bảo bí mật và không ảnh hưởng đến kết quả đánh giá học tập của các em Chúng tôi rất mong các em trả lời trung thực các câu hỏi trong phiếu khảo sát này
Xin trân thành cảm ơn sự cộng tác của các em!
Em hãy đánh dấu vào cột thể hiện ý kiến của mình về các nhận xét sau đối với môn tiếng Anh trong học kì I vừa qua:
1 Các tài liệu nguyên gốc mang lại cho em niềm vui thích trong việc học kĩ năng đọc
2 Việc sử dụng các tài liệu nguyên gốc không giúp cho việc đọc thú vị hơn
3 Em có cơ hội học thêm từ vựng và cấu trúc mới khi đọc những bài tiếng Anh nguyên gốc
4 Việc sử dụng tài liệu nguyên gốc không giúp em mở rộng vốn từ vựng và ngữ pháp
5 Những bài tiếng Anh nguyên gốc giúp em học được nhiều các sử dụng ngôn ngữ khác nhau Điều đó giúp em lĩnh hội được ngôn ngữ này một cách chính xác và trôi chảy
6 Em không gặp khó khăn gì khi đọc hiểu ý chính các bài đọc nguyên gốc
7 Đôi khi em cảm thấy nản lòng khi đọc những bài tiếng Anh nguyên gốc vì ngôn ngữ khó hiểu
8 Các tài liệu nguyên gốc giúp em cải thiện kĩ năng đọc
9 Các bài đọc nguyên gốc giúp em nâng cao cả các kĩ năng ngôn ngữ khác như nghe, nói, viết
10 Các bài đọc nguyên gốc còn giúp em mở rộng kiến thức nền
11 Chương trình này cũng nên được áp dụng vào các kĩ năng ngôn ngữ khác
12 Học sinh nên được tiếp xúc sớm hơn với các tài liệu nguyên gốc
13 Nếu khóa học này kết thúc, em sẽ vẫn tiếp tục đọc thêm các bài nguyên gốc trên Internet
14 Thầy cô nên chọn tài liệu đọc nguyên gốc một cách kĩ càng hơn
15 Thầy cô nên giải thích rõ hơn các hoạt động đọc dành cho các bài đọc này
APPENDIX III: AN INTERVENTION COURSE
10 authentic texts and designed activities
A seven-year-old Colombian girl who went missing in the jungle nearly three weeks ago and was thought to be dead has been found alive The young girl went missing in northen Colombia’s natural reserve Tayrona Park where she was collecting cocnuts with her parents After an 18-day air and land search from hundreds of officers, the seven-year-old was located after an anonymous tip-off was made to the family She was discovered in an abandoned hut in the jungle
Authorities do not know how the little girl arrived at the abandoned hut or how she survived her jungle ordeal but said she was found in a bad state Injuries on the girl’s feet indicate she may have travelled long distances The girl was reunited with her worried parents on her way to hospital where she is receiving medical treatment
Authorities are investigating the girl’s disappearance amid questions over the anonymous call made to the police and how the seven-year-old survives in the jungle
* Difficult words: tip-off (a piece of information), abandoned (without any people), hut (a small, simple building), ordeal (a terrible experience), amid
(among; in the middle of)
* Activity: Write a summary of the text
Text 2: Ronaldo wins another Golden Shoe
Cristiano Ronaldo has won the European Golden Shoe award for the fourth time
The Real Madrid striker is the first player to bag four Golden Shoes, but the competitive sportsman says it’s not enough
“I am not satisfied I always want more I know I am the only one who has four boots, but I want more I want a fifth and sixth one, if possible Obviously, that means winning things collectively with the team, trophied, but for me Real Madrid is the greatest club in the world and is must win titles every year This year will obviously be no different.”
The award recognises Cristiano as the top scoreer in Europe’s domestic leagues He scored 48 goals in 35 appearances for Real last season, edging out Barcelona’s
Lionel Messi who netted 43 goals in 38 outings
The sports star picked up the trophy along with his son Cristiano Junior at a ceremony in Madrid
Ronaldo became Real Madrid’s top scorer in history in September, surpassing Raul Gonzalez with 324 goals
* Difficult words: bag (to manage to get something), domestic (happening inside a country; not international), net (to score), edge out (to defeat by a small margin), surpass (to better than something or someone else)
* Activity: Talk about your favourite footballer
A trip to the art museum could have turned into a very costly trip indeed for one child in Taiwan when he lost his balance and put his hand through a painting worth around $1.5 million
“Flowers” by Italian master Paolo Porpora is part of a Taipei exhibition of artwork by or influenced by Leonardo da Vinci Organisers don’t believe the boy intentionally vandalised the oil painting saying, “it’s obviously he didn’t mean to push it I merely think the kid might have been focusing on what the teacher was saying and his eyes were elsewhere, so he accidentally steped on the platform and had a bit of a fall.”
The incident may prompt a change in the way valuable paintings are displayed here in the future
“I think that the painting should have been displayed behind glass becuase displaying it in the open is very dangerous There’s just nothing to protect the painting as people go up tp it and carelessly touch it because a lot of people will be looking at it.”
Luckily, the exhibition organisers have decided not to charge the boy for the damage and say the painting can by easily restored
* Difficult words: intentionally (on purpose), vandalise (to damage), merely (just)
* Activity: Summarize the text in your own words
Poor air quality is making breathing hard for residents in Beijing
China’s capital has been placed on special alert after dangerous smod reached its highest level for more than a year Pollution has soared to 17 times higher than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation As a result, highways have been closed, construction work has stopped and residents have been advised to stay indoors