INTRODUCTION
Rationale
In colleges, English has been a compulsory subject in the curriculum
Attention is given to all of the four English skills including reading, listening, speaking and writing However, reading plays an important role in enriching the student‟s general knowledge and in developing their further study later In highlighting the importance of reading, Langer (1981, p.153) stated that “reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one‟s knowledge of the language.” Moreover, reading helps students learn other skills better Reutzel (1985), for example, acknowledge that anyone who reads more has various vocabularies and receives marks better for grammar and writing tests Also, Carrell (1984, p.1) confirms that, by far, for numerous students, in English as a second language, reading plays the most crucial role of the four skills Teaching reading, consequently, has attracted greater attention However, in reading classes, it is common that students do not absolutely know about topic of the text they are reading about Thus, pre-reading stage in each reading lesson becomes indispensable for introducing and for arousing interest in the topic; for motivating learners by giving a reason for reading and for providing some language preparation for the text (Williams, 1986, p.37)
At Vinh Phuc College, where I work, teaching reading is extremely essential in developing all of the four basic English skills for students As a teacher of English here, I am teaching reading skill to first-year students of English-major division, Department of Social-Science I realize pre-reading stage in each lesson has significant effects on the students‟ reading performance However, using pre- reaching tasks in each pre-reading stage is far from satisfactory In other words, pre- reading tasks I used in each reading lesson had not led to effective performance
These tasks were so not only simple but also ineffective that they could not motivate students for reading, provide prior knowledge or build necessary background for comprehending the text Therefore, I decided to carry out the action research to develop pre-reading tasks for first-year students of English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College Based on the findings of this action research, some changes and improvements can be applied in my lessons, and some appropriate strategies need to be designed with the hope that students will work more effectively in a reading lesson I hope that the findings of this study will be shared with other teachers who have experienced similar problems.
Aims of the Study
The main purpose of the study is to develop pre-reading tasks in reading lessons for English-major freshmen at Vinh Phuc college Specifically, it aims at:
finding out the problems the first-year English-major students at Vinh Phuc College encountered in pre-reading tasks
giving the teacher‟s solutions for these problems and emphasizing on the effects of the intervention on the students
providing the implications for developing pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performances.
Research questions
The above aims of the study can be realized by the following research questions:
1 What problems did the first-year English-major students at Vinh Phuc College encounter in pre-reading tasks?
2 What could the teacher do to solve these problems? What were the effects of the intervention on the students?
3 What were the implications for developing pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performances?
Significance of the Study
Theoretical significance of the study :
The study synthesized the problems related to using pre-reading tasks in reading lessons and their effects on students‟ performance Furthermore, the research suggested how to effectively develop pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performance
Practical significance of the study :
The study is expected to improve using pre-reading tasks in reading lessons at Vinh Phuc College Based on some findings of the study, some suggestions of developing effective pre-reading tasks are given for teachers and students to enhance students‟ reading performances.
Scope of the Study
Although there are various factors that influence the students‟ reading performance in reading lessons, I only focus my study on one of these factors – i.e developing pre-reading tasks effectively to improve students‟ reading performance in reading lessons The study was conducted at course 18 English in 4 lessons Each lesson lasted 4 periods (45minutes/ period)
The research method I used is the action research The study was carried out with the process adapted by Tsui (1993) including five concrete steps: 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 evaluating the try-out These steps were grouped into four phases in the following figure
Figure 1: Action research procedure These steps were described more concretely in the chapter 3 on methodology
The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study Herein, the research questions are also raised
Chapter 2: Theoretical background: provides the definition of related concepts and reviews the related works that compose the theoretical background of the study
(1) DIAGNOSING Identifying the problem & its causes
(2) ACTION PLANNING designing strategies for improvement writing a proposal for action research
(3) TAKING ACTION trying out the strategies
(4) EVALUATING evaluating the try-out
Chapter 3: The Methodolody: presents situation analysis, identifies the research method and gives detailed descriptions of the data collection tools (survey questionnaire and classroom observation), methods of analysis as well as the participants of the study
Chapter 4: Findings: presents, analyzes the findings of the research
Chapter 5: Conclusion: summarizes the discussion of research findings, gives some teaching implications, and discusses the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Introduction
This chapter reviews the theoretical issues of pre-reading tasks divided into three sections: the theoretical background of reading, teaching and learning reading skills and the overview of pre-reading tasks The first one discusses the theoretical background of reading including definitions of reading, types of reading The second section focuses on teaching and learning reading skills consisting of importance of reading in foreign language learning and stages of reading lesson
The third one emphasizes on the theoretical background of pre-reading tasks which comprises an overview of pre-reading tasks and a classification of these tasks.
Theoretical background of reading
There are various definitions of reading Herein, I also would like to mention different points of view on the definition of reading
In the simple way, Ur (1996, p.138) defines that “reading means reading and understanding” In other words, specifically, reading is regarded as a process in which the readers look at the reading text and receive the significance of the message from the text (Williams, 1984 and Aebersold and Field, 1997)
Another interesting definition of reading by Harmer (1989) is that reading is considered as an exercise with the eyes and the brain The brain works to understand the message from the reading text after this message is received by the eyes
A definition of reading is offered by Rubin and Thomson (1994, p.91),
“reading is an active information-seeking process in which readers relate information in the text what they already know” From this point of view, both the reader‟s knowledge of the language and their background knowledge play the significant role for their reading success
Reading is also defined as the interaction between the reader and the author
According to Smith (1978, p.102), “reading is understands the author‟s thought”
He also explained that “it means that we-the readers-read the author‟s mind not the author‟s words” In addition, reading is described in a more extensive way: “reading is understanding written language”, “reading is a complex mental process”,
“reading is thinking” (Roe, Stood and Burns, 1987, p.2)
In short, from these theories above, it is obvious that no definition can likely consist of all aspects or features of the definition of reading Each linguist‟s definition only reflects what reading means as seen from his own point of view
However, they all focus on the nature of reading
According to Brown (1989), there have been several types of reading These types may be categorized as follows:
Doff (1988, p.70) states that oral reading involves “looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it Its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the implication to someone” From this point of view, oral reading is not only the simple way of reading the text aloud, but it also is an effective way to convey the significance of the text to someone
Oral reading has both advantages and disadvantages According to Natal
(1966), oral reading is regarded as an effective method for learners to improve their pronunciation It helps learners to make the connection between sounds and spelling of letters and words and also assists the teacher to check learners‟ pronunciation
Moreover, it is a technique for him to keep the class under control, since when one student reads aloud, the others are asked to listen in case they may be required to continue the reading
However, Greenwood (1985) provides some disadvantages of oral reading
The biggest problem of oral reading is that students may unable to focus adequately on the text‟s meaning when they highly concentrate on pronouncing the words In other words, when reading aloud, students only focus on the pronunciation instead of the meaning of the text The second disadvantage is that when students take turn to read a text aloud, only one student is active; the others do not have to read It can be inferred that there is little value in reading aloud for improving the readers‟ reading skills Therefore, the teachers as well as educators should identify the level of their students and decide whether to apply reading aloud or not in teaching reading to their students
According to Doff (1988, p.67), “silent reading involves looking at sentence and understanding the message it conveys, in other words making sense of a written text It does not normally involve saying the words we read nor even silently in our heads” When reading silently, students not only understand the message of the text but also get the main ideas of the text for answering the questions
In conclusion, silent reading is an effective skill for reading process in general and reading comprehension in particular, since the teacher can check his or her students‟ understanding easily and can adjust the reading materials and exercises to suit the students‟ ability Moreover, students also mainly focus on the meaning of the text instead of pronunciation Therefore, it should be applied in teaching and learning a foreign language
Within the category of silent reading, the two types of reading named are intensive and extensive reading Intensive reading is used to teach or practice specific reading strategies or skills The text is treated as an end in itself Extensive reading on the other hand, involves reading of large quantities of material, directly and fluently It is treated as a means to an end It may include reading simply for pleasure or reading technical, scientific or professional material It can be concluded that they are two contrasting ways of reading; however, actually, they are complementary and both are necessary
Nuttall (2000, p.38) points out that “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus on the text” In other words, intensive reading is described as a classroom-oriented activity in which the teacher guides his students mainly to focus on the text
Another definition of intensive reading provided by Grellet (1981, p.41) is that “intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity in involving reading for detailed” Another author, Brown
(1990, p.297) has pointed out that reading “recalls students‟ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers, and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implications, rhetorical relationships, and the like” From these points of view, we can infer that the objective of intensive reading is to achieve a full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced Through intensive reading, the reader must arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of logical arguments, the rhetorical arrangement, the pattern of the text, the attitude and purposes of the writer In other words, intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students‟ comprehension
Teaching and learning reading skills
In the process of teaching and learning English as a second foreign language, the teaching and learning of reading are always received much attention, since reading is considered as one of the most basic and important skills as what Carrell
(1984, p.332) indicates: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” It is also true for teaching and learning reading at English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College In detail, at our college, teaching and learning reading is also very crucial because reading is not only one of the most important skills, but it is also remarkable for developing students‟ other skills
According to Rivers and Temperly (1978), reading skill is an integrated-language skill Firstly, reading helps students enrich vocabulary and grammatical structures, and improve students‟ performance in summarizing the reading materials As Richard (1992, p.4) states that “reading may help to increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures”
Secondly, reading is also concerned for improving listening skill Rivers and Temperly (1978, p.259) point out that “listen to worthwhile reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read The aural element adds vividness and life to the reading unit” They also further state that “practice in direct reading of a text which is readily accessible to the students at their present level of knowledge, while they are simultaneously listening to a taped model reading it in meaningful and expressive segments, can help students develop useful habits of anticipation and syntactic identification in both of these skills” Finally, that is integration of reading and speaking skills Reading materials are regarded as a useful source for oral presentations when students can get information as well as ideas from these materials for discussion and presentation
Besides, reading also helps students to approach the target culture It is stated by Richard (1992, p.4) as follows: “reading in the new language is also an important way to learn about the target culture” In details, reading is regarded as a significant way for students to get knowledge of the target culture as lifestyle, behaviors, thoughts, custom of the native people
In short, “reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one‟s knowledge of the language” (Rivers, 1981, p.147) In addition, reading also reinforces students‟ other language skills and becomes a source of interesting knowledge of different culture for students
Many linguists all share the same view point that each reading lesson is divided into three stages which are pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and post- reading stage (William, 1984; Dubin & Bycina, 1991; Phillips, 1985) William
(1984) also indicates that each of these stages carries its own features and requires different techniques and strategies
Firstly, pre-reading stage is the first core step of the process of each reading lesson It not only creates motivation towards the reading text, but it also provides students language preparation for the text before they read In detail, William
(1984) lists three principle purposes of the pre-reading stage The pre-reading phase aims to introduce the topic of the reading text and stimulate students‟ interest, to activate background knowledge and to provide preliminary vocabulary for the reading Sharing William‟s view point, Doff (1988) suggests several tasks in the pre-reading phase The first one is giving a brief introduction to the text This task provides students some ideas about the topic of the reading text before reading and creates motivation with the reading text The second activity is presenting new vocabulary and revising grammatical structures whose aims are to provide vocabulary related to the text and to review the old and new grammatical structures for better preparation for the while-reading stage The last task is giving students guiding questions referring to the general idea of the text to brainstorm about the topic before they read the text General speaking, the pre-reading phase is extremely necessary for an excellent preparation before reading It can arouse students to focus on the topic or the reading text Furthermore, it also provides students vocabulary and grammatical structures to deal with the text
Secondly, the while-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson with the following specific aims to help understanding of the writer‟s purpose, to help understanding of the text structure and to clarify text content (William, 1984, p.38)
The techniques applied in this stage widely vary from guessing new words in contexts, asking questions to note-taking Teachers, at the phase, need to encourage students to understand the text as well as the author‟s purposes conveyed through the reading text In conclusion, the while-reading phase plays the important role in the process of a reading lesson Therefore, the teacher should create various activities in the stage for improvement of students‟ reading performance
Finally, the post-reading phase is regarded as the time for students‟ production What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the reading text William (1984, p.39) points out that “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and relating the text to the learners‟ own knowledge, interests or views” To summarize, this stage is also an essential for a reading lesson The teacher, at the phase, need to focus on create activities for these above purposes In addition, teacher should not ignore this stage.
Theoretical background of pre-reading tasks
In this section, I review the theoretical background and various studies related to pre-reading tasks and present a list of different pre-reading tasks suggested to conduct at the pre-reading stage Hence, this section consists of two main parts, namely, the overview of pre-reading tasks and a classification of various lead-in tasks for the pre-reading stage
2.4.1 Overview of pre-reading tasks
According to Ringler and Weber (1984), pre-reading tasks are defined as enabling ones, since they help the readers get the necessary background for understanding the reading materials Another definition of pre-reading tasks provided by Lazar (1993) is that pre-reading tasks are regarded as ones that provide students with background knowledge, arouse their interest in the topic of the reading text and pre-teach vocabulary In addition, Chen and Graves (1995, p.664) aslo define pre-reading tasks “devices for bridging the gap between the text‟s content and the reader‟s schemata”
It can not be denied that pre-reading tasks play a crucial role in not only motivating students through the reading lesson, but also developing students‟ reading performance After their studies about effects of pre-reading tasks, different researchers all provide the same view point that pre-reading tasks provide and activate students background information prior to the reading text (Graves &
Chen, 1995; Graves & Cooke, 1980; Hudson, 1982; Johnson, 1981, 1982;
Langer, 1984; Maghsoudi, 2012; Stevens, 1982; Taglieber & Johnson &
Yarbrough, 1988) Furthermore, in Chastain„s view point (1988), pre-reading tasks also arouse students‟ interest in the topic and provide them with language preparation before reading In addition, Lewis and Hill (1992) emphasize that pre- reading tasks are used to make it easier for students to comprehend the text and help them only focus their attention on the text
In conclusion, pre-reading tasks are very necessary with three core purposes, namely, building students‟ background information before reading, arousing students‟ interest in the topic and providing students some language preparation for the text before reading
Various researchers have focused on the pre-reading stage such as Bowen
(1982), Lewis and Hill (1985), William (1986), Doff (1988), Swaffar (1991), Moore
(1992), Wallace (1992), Nuttal (2000) and Chia (2001) In their studies, they have also provided several pre-reading tasks of the first phase of each reading lesson
2.4.2.1 Giving a brief introduction of the text
It is very essential for teachers to provide an introduction to the topic of an informative text before students read A good introduction consists of two main purposes, namely, establishing a purpose for reading, activating and building background knowledge For the first aim, teachers should design appropriate tasks to match students‟ interest to the content of the reading text, to motivate students to read the text Furthermore, the second purpose of an introduction to the text - building background knowledge It means that the introduction can recall any information students already know about the topic, from their personal experience
Sharing the same view point, Nuttall (2000) also provides several purposes of a good introduction to the text, namely, motivating students to read the text, activating students‟ background knowledge about the topic of the text, involving students actively and being usually short Hence, several following pre-reading tasks are also suggested for a good introduction to the text before reading
First, pre-reading questions are designed to ask students either orally or written on the blackboard for introducing to the reading text Doff (1988, p.61) stated obviously that these questions are essential for students because “they give the students a reason to read and to lead them to the main points of the text” These questions focus on general ideas of the reading text instead of detailed ideas
Normally, pre-reading questions should be designed so that students could easily find out the answer Students can work in groups or in pairs to discuss these questions, this can make students feel excited to try their best for finding out the answers Also, this is an effective way to arouse students‟ interest into the topic of the text There are several types of pre-reading questions, namely, yes/no questions, multiple-choice questions as well as „wh‟ questions
Next, it is advised that visual aids should be used at the first stage of each reading lesson to introduce the text Visual aids consist of photographs, videos, pictures, real objects, flashcards or charts.Visual aids not only provide input for the lesson, but also keep students‟ attention as well as motivate students to read the text
However, to make using visual aids more effective, visual aids should be related to the topic of the reading and of students‟ interests
In addition, telling a short story is another pre-reading task It is advised that the teacher may tell a short story with the topic related to the reading text The story is regarded as a brief introduction to the text In addition, students also feel excited with the content of the text, which relates to the story the teacher has already told
Thus, teacher‟s story becomes a good introduction to the text by motivate students to read the text
Using games at pre-reading stage is also regarded as another effective way for introducing to the text Firstly, games encourage students to sustain their interests Also, through games, the teacher can create the new contexts where the language is useful and meaningful Several games are suggested to be useful for introducing to the text, namely, lucky number, crossword and hangman
Discussion about the topic of the text at the pre-reading is also an appropriate and necessary technique in order to lead to the reading text Discussion encourages students to think about the topic as well as to increase their interests in the text In addition, obviously, discussion is very essential not only for the students‟ interaction with each other but also for improving their speaking performance
Moreover, brainstorming is useful for a good introduction to the text
Wallace (1992) also points out that brainstorming is considered as one of the most popular pre-reading tasks Firstly, this task is designed by giving students key words After that, they are asked to list all words related to key words either orally or written down the paper Hence, brainstorming can encourage students to remind of their prior background knowledge to the topic of the text Also, this task creates an interesting atmosphere for all students as well as the lesson
2.4.2.2 Providing some language preparation for the text
This task is commonly called as pre-teaching vocabulary Before reading, teachers provide some new words and grammatical structures appearing in the text so that students can deal with the text According to Nuttall (1982), at the pre- reading phase, to have an efficient way to introducing to the reading text, one of the most important things teachers need to do is pre-teaching certain key language items in the reading text, this is better than presenting them as isolated items In brief, pre-teaching vocabulary is really needful for a better introduction It is not only a good way for students to study all new words and structures of the same context, but it also gives them language preparation for the text
Before reading, some pre-reading tasks are suggested for both teachers and students to pre-teach vocabulary effectively
Using definitions or explanation is a common way to teach vocabulary
THE METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter provides a detailed introduction about the methodology including situation analysis, participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis, research method.
Situation analysis
The study was conducted at English-major Division, Department of Social- Science, Vinh Phuc College, which is one of the main colleges of the province that train teachers, secretaries and tour guides The students at the major-English group have to complete a three-year course in which English is a major subject Thus, English is taught in a formal setting with two stages During the first one, which lasts for the first two years, students study general English with the four language skills In the second one, with the last year, the students have a chance to deal with such subjects as grammar, phonetics, semantics, lexicology and methodology
The first stage is considered to be important to the student‟s development of the four skills since they have more time and opportunities to practice their skills basically and systematically than in the second one, especially for the first year students whose English seems to be upgraded relatively after years at high school
However, class time allocation for the four skills in general and for reading is not always sufficient Normally, for freshmen, there are only three periods of reading every week Yet, it is not enough for the students to develop their reading skills as well as to enrich their background knowledge and vocabulary and structure capacity
The main course book is used to teach reading skill to first-year English- major students is „Insights for Today‟ of Lorraine C Smith and Nancy Nici Mare
The course book is designed under a theme-based approach with 6 units
Each unit is about a big theme In addition, each theme has two chapters The format of each chapter is consistent Although each chapter can be done entirely in class, some exercises may be assigned for homework This, of course, depends on the individual teacher‟s preference as well as on the availability of the class time
Every chapter in the course book consists of many parts The sample of some chapters is put in Appendixes B, C, D, E Below is the introduction of each part of a chapter
Pre-reading Preparation This pre-reading activity is designed to stimulate student interest, activate background knowledge, and provide preliminary vocabulary for the reading passage itself The importance of pre-reading preparation should not be underestimated Studies have shown the positive effect of pre-reading preparation in motivating student interest and in enhancing reading comprehension In fact, pre-reading discussion has been shown to be more effective in improving reading comprehension than pre-vocabulary exercises
Time should be spent describing and discussing the illustrations as well as discussing the pre-reading questions Furthermore, the students should try to relate the topic to their own experience and to predict what they are going to read about
As the students read the passage for the first time, they should be encouraged to read ideas In English, ideas are formulated and described in groups of words, in sentences, and in paragraphs, not in individual works After the students read the passage to themselves, the teacher may want to read the passage aloud to the students At the beginning level, students are very keen on pronunciation and feel that this practice is helpful to them Moreover, such practice provides the students with an appropriate model for pronunciation and intonation
Fact-Finding Exercise After the first reading, the students will read and respond to the true/ false statements If a statement is false, the students will go back to the passage ad find the lines that contain the correct answer They will then rewrite the statement so that it becomes true This activity can be done individually or in groups
Information Recall Students should be instructed to read each passage carefully a second time to pay attention to details After the second reading, they will answer the questions on specific information in the passage, and compare their answers with a classmate The pairs of students can then refer back to the passage and check their answers
Reading Analysis The students will read each question and answer it The first question in the section always refers to the main ideas There are three possible answers
Two are incorrect because they are too general or too narrow When going over the exercise, the teacher should discuss with the students why the other two answers are incorrect The rest of this exercise requires the students to think about the meanings of words and phrases, the structure of sentences and paragraphs, and the relationships among ideas This exercise is very effective when done in groups It may also be done individually, but group work gives the students an excellent opportunity to discuss possible answers
As an introduction to the word form exercises in the book, it is recommended that the teacher first review parts of speech, especially verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs Teachers should point out each word forms position in a sentence Students will develop a sense for which part of speech is missing in a given sentence Teachers should also point out clues to tense and number, and whether an idea is affirmative or negative The teacher can do the example with the students before the exercise or as an assignment after the exercise is completed Each section has its own instructions, depending on the particular pattern which is being introduced For example, in the section containing words which take –tion in the noun form, the teacher can explain that in this exercise the students will look at the verb and noun forms of two types of words that use the suffix –tion in their noun form (1) Some words simply add –tion to the verb: suggest, suggestion; if the word ends in –e, the –e is dropped first: produce, production (2) Other words drop the final –e and add –ation: examine, examination This exercise is very effective when done in pairs After students have a working knowledge of this type of exercise, it can be assigned for homework
Vocabulary in Context This is a fill-in exercise designed to review items from the previous exercises The vocabulary has been covered either in the questions or in the Reading Analysis section This exercise can be done for homework as a review or in class as group work
Follow-up Activities This section contains various activities appropriate to the information in the passages Some activities are designed for pair and small-group work
Students are encouraged to use the information and vocabulary from the passages both orally and in writing The teacher may also use these questions and activities as home or in class assignments The follow-up activities help the students interact with the real world because they require the students to go outside the classroom to interview people or to get specific information
They are not limited to speaking, reading, or learning in the classroom
Topics for Discussion and Writing
This section provides ideas or questions for the students to discuss or to work on alone, in pairs, or in small groups It provides the students with the opportunity to write
Crossword Puzzle Each chapter contains a crossword puzzle, which contains much of the vocabulary used in that chapter Students can go over the puzzle orally if pronunciation practice with letters is needed The teacher can have the students spell out their answers in addition to pronouncing the word itself
Data Collection Instruments
Survey questionnaire and classroom observation were selected as the data collection tools in this study The two sets of survey questionnaire were written in Vietnamese to avoid the subjects‟ misunderstanding of the questions and to save time for the researcher in explaining the required information Following is the description of these instruments
3.4.1 Questionnaire 3.4.1.1 Reasons for choosing questionnaire
According to Richard & J Platt & H Platt (1992, p.23), survey questionnaire is useful in:
„…gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and learning such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, preferences, etc, and enables a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly‟
Another rationale for choosing this data collection tool is that the collected data would be relatively easy to summarize and report All the participants answered the same question so that it would not take time to code the data
Survey questionnaire are also useful in providing the students with opportunities to express their opinions without fear of being embarrassed or punished In this study, the students were not required to write down their names so that honest answers were achieved
Questionnaire was the first procedure to collect primary data in the study It consisted of different types of questions (closed-ended, open-ended, multiple- choice) Questionnaire 1 was delivered to 32 English-major freshmen of class 18 English to identify the main problem related to the use of pre-reading tasks in reading lessons while students received questionnaire 2 after the lessons to find out the changes Both of them were written in Vietnamese in order to adapt to freshmen‟s language level
Class observation was the second data collection tool The following sections describe reasons for choosing classroom observation and the detailed procedures to conduct class observation
3.4.2.1 Reasons for choosing classroom observation
Richard & J Platt & H Platt (1992) states that observational methods are procedures and techniques based on systematic observation of events and are often used in studying language use and classroom events This study, with certain observation tasks in the classroom environment, chooses observational methods as the inexpensive way to gather the data
Another reason for the researcher‟s selection of observational methods is that the collected data would reflect the real activities in observed classrooms
The classroom observation data were both manually and electronically collected (Nunan & Bailey, 2009) One of my two assistants used the mobile phone to videotape the classroom interactions for transcribing and coding
Another made notes to record non-verbal activities, class events or the writing on the board, general information about the date, time, number of students, and class setup My comments or opinions were separated from the description
There were two observation sessions, one for identifying the problem and one for observing the three try-out lessons.
Methods of Data Analysis
As the study involved questionnaire, observation, both quantitative and qualitative analysis procedures were employed Each analysis procedure involved similar steps including preparing the data, exploring the data, analyzing the data, representing the analysis, interpreting the analysis, and validating the data and interpretation (J W Creswell & Clark, 2011) This section will describe the essential quantitative procedure to analyze questionnaire data and the qualitative procedure to analyze class observations.
Research Method – Action research (AR)
The concept of AR is based on theoretical perspectives of different researchers such as Dewey (1945), Collier (1945), Lewin (1946) and Habermas
(1962) Kurt Lewin (1946) is considered as the "father" of AR He wrote: “The research needed for social practice can best be characterized as research for social management or social engineering It is a type of action-research, a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action Research that produces nothing but books will not suffice”(Lewin 1946, cited in Lewin, 1948, p.202-3) Thus, the main difference of action research is that it creates a certain social action and AR also assesses on the social impact of such action
Until now, AR is known by many other names, including participatory research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory research, action learning, and contextual action research, but all are variations on a theme Burns has also defined this kind of research: “AR involves a self-reflective, systematic and critical approach to enquiry by participants who are at the same time members of the research community The aim is to identify problematic situations or issues considered by participants to be worthy of investigation in order to bring about critically informed changes in practice Action research is underpinned by democratic principles in that the ownership of change is invested in those who conduct the research” (Burns, cited in Cornwell, 1999, p.5)
AR is also regarded as one of the most typical researches conducted in current educational circles (Ferrance, 2000) As defined by Mills (2003, p.5), educational action research, is:
“…any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers, principals, school counselors, or other stakeholders in the teaching/learning environment to gather information about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students learn This information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment (and on educational practices in general), and improving student outcomes and the lives of those involved…”
Thus, an AR basically aims at teachers‟ professional development and students‟ learning progress „It involves people working to improve their skills, techniques, and strategies‟ (Ferrance, 2000, p.3) And it can be carried out by an educator (individual AR), a group of teachers (collaborative AR), a staff of teachers at a certain school (school-wide AR), or a system of concerned people in a specific area (district-wide AR)
This study is an individual AR in the way that it is the work of the researcher by herself with an expectation of developing pre-reading tasks to improving first- year students‟ reading performance in reading lessons at English-major Division, Department of Social-Science, Vinh Phuc College
As evidently introduced by Mills (2003), there have been a large number of action research models for researcher to follow such as models of Lewin (1952), Susman (1983), Kemmis & McTaggart (1988), Tsui (1993), Calhoun (1994), Wells
(1994), Stringer (1996) , Creswell (2002) and Kemmis & McTaggart (2008) Among these different models, Kemmis & McTaggart (2008) have developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical action research process (Figure
2) Each cycle has four steps: plan, act, observe, reflect
Figure 2: Simple action research model (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2008, p.278)
Gerald Susman (1983) gives a somewhat more elaborate listing He distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each research cycle (Figure
3) Initially, a problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis This is followed by a collective postulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan of action emerges and is implemented Data on the results of the intervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successful the action has been At this point, the problem is re- assessed and the process begins another cycle This process continues until the problem is resolved
Figure 3: Detailed Action Research Model (Susman, 1983)
In an attempt to find out an appropriate AR procedure to follow, I found that the AR model adapted by Tsui (1993) is very specific and feasible for me as well as other teachers to implement action research Therefore, I could carry out my research in the best way
Also basing on the above introduced basic process, Tsui (1993) adjusted an
AR model consisting of five concrete steps The first step is carried out to identify problems by reviewing an audio or a video-taped lesson and the transcription of a segment of the lesson that illustrates the problem before conducting a survey to hear from your students In the second step, the researcher tries to find causes of the problem by consulting with your colleagues, trainers and reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions After getting reasons for the problem, strategies are designed for improvement and a proposal for action research is also written out Next, the researcher conducts try-out lessons with designed strategies
The last step aims to evaluate these try-out lessons by reviewing a lesson illustrating the changes, reflecting on the reasons for those changes and carrying out a survey to get information from students
To be more suitable with my research, I adapted this model concluding the following five steps Firstly, the problems were identified by reviewing video-taped lessons, using a field note of lessons to illustrate the problem and conducting a survey to get more information from students after the above lessons Secondly, I found out causes of the problems by basing on one of results from the above survey
Thirdly, I designed strategies for improvement Fourthly, I tried out the strategies
Finally, the try-out lessons were evaluated by reviewing lessons that illustrated the changes, reflecting on the reasons for those changes and carrying out a survey to get information from students In detail, the action research procedure was described concretely in the chapter 4
In short, the chapter has totally presented five core parts of the study, namely, situation analysis, participants, data collection instruments, methods of data analysis, research method Hence, in the following chapter, it‟s extremely facile for the researcher to provide major research findings and discussion.
FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter presents findings of the research based on steps of action research presented in the chapter 3
The research findings are provided according to the action research procedure I conducted three research cycles (5 steps for each, Tsui, 1993)
However, I only describe the first cycle in detail and summarize the other two cycles to highlight the difference For all cycles, I focused on pre-reading tasks and tried out the same strategies of developing pre-reading tasks
4.2.1 Cycle 1 4.2.1.1 Step 1: Identifying the problem a Observing lessons to illustrate the problem
Initially, the problem was examined from the classroom observation of the first reading lesson The lesson was video-taped and note-taken by two my colleagues After the lesson, I reviewed the video and updated the note of the lesson (Appendix B, Field Note 1) Then, I summarized the research findings from the data of class observation
The major findings were that the pre-reading tasks were not effective in arousing students‟ interest into the topic, building background knowledge, providing vocabulary and structures and helping students complete other exercises and tasks Firstly, in the first task, students were asked to discuss the given questions related to the topic of the text with the main purposes of reminding them of background knowledge of the topic of the text and of motivating them in reading
Nevertheless, these questions are not interesting enough to arouse students‟ interest into the topic Specifically, when reviewing the video, I saw most students bored and sleepy; they did other things instead of focusing on the task Moreover, no one raised his or her hand to discuss the questions; they also felt difficult and unwilling to answer in spite of the easy and general questions
Secondly, pre-teaching vocabulary task has yet been useful for giving students some new words and structures to deal with the text This could be seen clearly when doing the exercises at while-reading stage, many students asked me to explain the meaning of the new words they have already learnt in the pre-teaching vocabulary task
Therefore, prediction task has also yet achieved the best effect on helping students to predict the content of the text In details, students felt very difficult and unconfident to make their prediction because they lacked of background knowledge of the topic of the text as well as their motivation for reading As a result, only two out of five statements were correctly guessed
Furthermore, ineffective lead-in tasks also negatively influenced students‟ reading performance Obviously, most students didn‟t pay much attention to the text; they also lacked background knowledge as well as vocabulary for studying the text Therefore, they are unable to understand the content of the text to do exercises of the following stages For example, at the while-reading stage, students only provided two correct answers for exercise 1 and one for exercise 2
In short, the lesson was not successful mainly because of ineffective pre- reading tasks Thus, the perceived problem was: inefficient lead-in tasks negatively influenced students‟ reading performance b Conducting a survey to get more information about the lesson from students
To understand the problem observed in the video and to get more information about the lesson from students, I conducted a survey by delivering students questionnaire 1 (Appendix F) after the first lesson As a result, I collected various research findings The first finding was that the above problem was redefined by the results of the questions 1, 2 and 3 Secondly, the causes of this problem were also identified from the results of the question 2 Finally, students‟ suggestions of techniques for improving pre-reading tasks were mentioned in the question 4 Specifically, these research findings were described as follows:
Question 1: What is your assessment on our reading lesson today?
Very effective Effective Less effective ineffective
Table 1: Students‟ assessment on the first reading lesson
It can be seen clearly in the table, whist there was a very small number of students (6,25%) who stated that these lesson was effective, a majority of them assessed that the lesson was less effective (50%) and ineffective (43,75%) On the other hand, no one admitted that the lesson achieved a great success Obviously, almost all students evaluated that the lesson was less effective and ineffective
Question 2: In your opinion, are pre-reading tasks useful or not? Why or why not?
Pre-reading tasks Useful or not? No %
Table 2: Students‟ assessment on pre-reading tasks used in the first reading lesson
The table shows that discussion in pairs (81, 25%) and pre-teaching vocabulary (68,75%) were considered as the most ineffective tasks In contrast, a minority of students (18,75%) and (31,25%) agreed that these two tasks are useful
With prediction task, the percentages of students answering “yes” and students saying “no” were nearly equal (46,875% and 53,125% respectively) although more students answered “no” than ones said “yes” Generally, the majority of students evaluated lead-in tasks were used ineffectively
They also provided the reasons for their choice:
Useful or not? Reasons No %
Yes able to predict the content of the text 15 46,875 able to provide Ss some vocabulary in the text 10 31,25 able to build Ss background knowledge before reading
6 18,75 able to enhance students‟ motivation in reading 5 15,625 sufficiently varied 4 12,5 suitable for students‟ interest 2 6,25
No monotonous/ boring 26 81,25 not suitable for students‟ interest 26 81,25 Ineffective in enhancing students‟ motivation in reading
Ineffective in building Ss background knowledge before reading
Ineffective in helping students complete the tasks given well
Ineffective in providing Ss some vocabulary in the text
Ineffective in helping Ss predict the content of the text
Table 3: Reasons for effectiveness and ineffectiveness of pre-reading tasks provided by the students
The table indicates that the majority of students (81,25%) gave reasons for ineffective pre-reading tasks that they were not only monotonous, but also not interesting enough for students; thus, they were also inefficient in getting students to be involved into the topic of the text Also, three fourths of students (75%) explained that these tasks were not effective for activating background knowledge for reading as well as aiding students to finish all tasks well Nevertheless, nearly half of students (46,875%) answered “yes” that one of three lead-in tasks, prediction task, helped students guess the content of the text In addition, the smaller percentage of students (31,25%) also agreed that these lead-in tasks were helpful in preparing students some new words and structures for reading comprehension
Finally, only few people (approximately 20% and 10%) provided different reasons that these lead-in tasks were sufficiently varied and suitable for students‟ interest as well as able to activate background knowledge before reading and to arouse students‟ interest into the topic of the text
In short, obviously, the majority of students asserted that pre-reading tasks have yet been useful for the lesson on that day Furthermore, various reasons were provided for ineffectiveness of lead-in tasks Also, pre-reading activities had significant impact on completing exercises and tasks at the while and post reading stages The following question would give us the answer for this
Question 3: How do you assess exercises and tasks in the while and post stages of our reading lesson today?
Exercises and Tasks very easy easy fair difficult very difficult
No % No % No % No % No % a.While- reading exercises
Table 4: Students‟ assessment on exercises and tasks at the while and post reading stages in the first reading lesson
CONCLUSION
Discussion
My research aims to find out the problems which students encounter in pre- reading tasks, strategies designed to solve the problems and the effects of the intervention on the students Hence, there are some major findings that can be drawn from the research
Firstly, the first finding of the research revealed that the main problem was ineffective use of pre-reading tasks In other words, pre-reading tasks have yet been used efficiently for three primary purposes of the pre-reading stage, those are to arouse interest in the topic of the reading text, to motivate students into reading and to provide vocabulary and structures and background knowledge for the text (William, 1984) (see section 2.3.2.1) In detail, from the taped video, most students felt unexcited and sleepy during the lesson Also, no one raised his hand to take part in the activities Likewise, after the lesson, when asked whether pre-reading activities useful or not, the majority of students answered “no” In addition, the problem negatively influenced students‟ reading comprehension The problem created difficulty for students in reading comprehension to complete exercises and tasks at the while and after reading stages These tasks became from fair to very difficult for most students Also, most students have yet completed exercises and tasks well In short, the problem of ineffective use of pre-reading tasks negatively affected students‟ reading performance
Secondly, the next research finding pointed out two strategies designed in order to solve the problem, namely, designing pre-reading tasks favored by most students, varying pre-reading tasks Both strategies were conducted in three try-out lessons; the majority of students evaluated them as useful (see sections 4.2.1, step5;
Thirdly, the research finding showed positive changes after trying out strategies for improvement of pre-reading tasks Remarkably, pre-reading tasks were used effectively by most students‟ assessment Hence, these useful pre-reading tasks not only created successful lessons but also affected positively students‟ reading performance Many students assessed three try-out lessons as successful mainly due to effective pre-reading tasks Moreover, effective pre-reading tasks with useful strategies enhanced students‟ reading performance The majority of students was interested in doing pre-reading tasks and assessed them as useful
Also, pre-reading tasks seemed to be more effective in providing students background knowledge of the topic and vocabulary in the reading text Hence, it was no longer difficult for students to comprehend the text and to do exercises and tasks
These findings suggested some implications for us, teachers at English-major Division to develop pre-reading tasks The following section will focus on the implications.
Implications
Based on the findings discussed in this research, the implications for developing pre-reading tasks are given in order to improve students‟ reading performance
5.3.1 Employing pre-reading tasks suitable for students’ interests
Apparently, pre-reading tasks with the important purpose of motivating students to get actively involved in the reading lessons need to be favored by the majority of students Among all lead-in techniques suggested by students, using visual aids and games were preferred by all students Hence, to increase students‟ motivation in reading, I applied these techniques to adapt and design pre-reading tasks
It‟s one of the most efficient ways to develop pre-reading tasks Obviously, if there is only a task applied in the pre-reading stage, it‟s unable to make the stage become diverse and interesting In all of the try-out lessons, there was a diversity of different pre-reading tasks such as brainstorming, pre-reading questions, discussion mixed with watching a video; pre-teaching vocabulary combined with a game and visual aids It could be seen clearly from the videos that various pre-reading tasks made most students more excited with the lessons Consequently, a diversity of enjoyable pre-reading tasks is recommended
5 3 3 Pedagogical use of pre-reading tasks
From my experience, the pre-reading tasks did not itself make the lesson monotonous It was evidenced from question 4 of questionnaire 1 that more than a half of students still suggested using questions before reading for pre-reading tasks of the next reading lessons although it has been already used inefficiently in reading lessons on that day The main reason is that the teacher did not understand the students and the right tasks to support their learning
Thus it is essential for the teachers to use pre-reading tasks pedagogically to meet the needs of the students For instance, the topic of unit 5 Adoption is far from most students‟ knowledge Therefore, I adapted pre-reading techniques in an appropriate way so that students could get prior knowledge and motivation in reading I still used the questions given in the textbook, and I designed a video including the answers of these above questions It became an effective way for students to feel more familiar with the topic of the reading text
5 3 4 Improving the pre-reading tasks in the text book
As mentioned in 3 2 2, each unit of the course book consists of the pre- reading preparation part However, this part only includes the same kind of tasks, discussion with pre-reading questions This activity was not interesting enough to stimulate students‟ interest, to activate background knowledge and to provide preliminary vocabulary for the reading passage Therefore, the need for its improvement is inevitable
Firstly, the teachers can adapt pre-reading tasks in the textbook to be more various with appropriate techniques For example, some pictures were added to illustrate for the questions Secondly, it‟s advisable to design more lead-in tasks that are of the students‟ interests The tasks given for the pre-reading stage should include more illustrations such as pictures, videos, etc since students‟ motivation would be increased when the information was presented visually Additionally, the teacher should use games to create more interesting lead-in task because the competitive spirit made in the game could stimulate students to get actively involved into the activity
5 4 Limitations and suggestions for further study
The main limitation of the research was its very small scope The study only focused on the main problem students encountered in pre-reading tasks in reading lessons and developing pre-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading performance while other problems also affected students‟ reading performance and other tasks could also be improved for successful reading lessons Therefore, further studies with larger scope are recommended An action research of developing the while- reading tasks or the post-reading ones to improve students‟ reading performance can be taken into consideration in future studies The further study of developing a set of supplementary materials for the reading subject is also recommended
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APPENDIXES APPENDIX A THE SCHEDULE OF THE COURSE
Unit 1: Elephants: Gentle giants of the earth 4
Unit 2: The extinction of the dinosaurs: What happened? 4
Unit 3: The Birth of the United States of America 4
Unit 4: Twins: How alike are they? 4
Unit 5: Adoption: The search for happiness 4
Unit 7: A healthy diet for everyone 4
Unit 8: Oil: An important World Resource 4
Unit 9: Earthquake: What are they and how do they happen? 4
Unit 10: Alfred Nobel: A man of Peace 4
APPENDIX B SAMPLED COPY OF UNIT 4 Field Note 1: a Description of the classroom: It was a small classroom with a capacity of approximately 35 seats There were one entrance door and four small windows
There was a desk for the teacher in the top right corner On the wall, there was a blackboard The chairs and the desks were arranged into two sides with an aisle in the middle The room was equipped with two ceiling fans It didn‟t have an air conditioner, a computer, or Internet connection as well as a projector b Textbook: Smith, L C and Mare, N N (1993) Insights for today English Language Institute, Queens College, the city University of New York c Materials: Textbook d Class procedure
The teacher informed that it‟s time for the lesson She said: “Now we start the lesson with chapter 3 Twins: How alike are they?” Then, she wrote on the board:
Unit 4: Twins: How alike are they?
She began to give some questions for students “Do you know any twins?” “What are twins? Then she called two students to answer her questions Then, she said:
“The whole class looks at the page number 69 and works in pairs to discuss about the questions.” She both said and wrote on the board:
1 Discussion She read the questions aloud and highlighted the key words of these questions
After about 7 minutes of pair work, she called on some students to answer these questions However, most students didn‟t answer the questions or give short answers like “no” without explanation or specific examples Some people didn‟t catch the meaning of the questions
After discussion, the teacher moved on pre-teaching vocabulary before reading
She wrote on the board: 2 Pre-teaching vocabulary Then she said: “Now I want to introduce you some vocabulary in the text” After, she both read these words aloud and wrote them on the board
- concentrate (v) “means „pay much attention‟”
- Inherit (v) “means receive from predecessor”
She also noticed to give the stress of each word when introducing them She asked the whole class to read these words aloud after her
She continued to move on task 3 Prediction task She wrote five statements related to the content of the reading text And she asked students to guess whether these statements are T or F After that, She called on some students to make predictions
1 F 2 F 3 T 4 T 5 F The first lesson of unit 3 finished, the teacher stopped the lesson: “That‟s enough for the pre-reading stage We have a break.”
After break, the teacher asked students to open the book on the page 70 and read the text in 2 minutes for finding the answers of the prediction task After 2 minutes, the teacher asked students to give the answers and to correct them if they are false Answers:
As a result, students only had three correct answers
She moved on the second part and wrote on the board:
II While reading 1.1 Task 1: T or F?
She said: “Now the whole class can read the passage again and do the task
Understand? Work individually and 10 minutes for you” After 10 minutes, the teacher called on one student to write her answers on the board: 1 F 2 T 3 T
4 F 5 T 6 F Then, she checked the task Correct answers:
3 F (didn‟t grow up) 4 F (were not separated … Grew up)
5 T 6 T The result showed that students had four incorrect answers per the total of 6
Then, she continued with task 2 and wrote on the board:
- work in pairs in 10 minutes After 10 minutes, the teacher called on two students to give their answers by writing them on the board:
1 They study pairs of identical twins … Jim Lewis (p 28-30)
2 a Researchers at the University…together (p.32-33) b they have to study identical twins c (no answer )
3 John Fuller tells people he is Buell and Buell Fuller tells people he is John
4 Donald concentrated very hard and Louis telephoned him
The teacher gave the correct answers for the questions:
1 Both men were married twice Their first wives were both named Linda and their second wives were both named Betty Both twins named their first sons Jame Allen, drove blue Chevrolets and had dogs named Toy
2 a They studied 350 sets of identical twins who didn‟t grow up together b They wanted to understand the connection between environment and biology c They learned that personality characteristics are really inherited
3 John Fuller tells people he is Buell and Buell Fuller tells people he is John
4 Donald concentrated very hard and Louis telephoned him
We could see that in this task, some students didn‟t understand what the questions want to ask Therefore, they gave the incorrect answers, while some people also provided the answers which did not relate to the content of the questions In addition, some answers have not yet been lack of information
LESSON PLAN UNIT 4: TWINS: HOW ALIKE ARE THEY?
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
+ get more vocabulary and information about twins in the world
+ improve reading skills such as scanning, skimming
+ practise with various exercises and tasks after reading comprehension
1 Vocabulary: six new words: identical, coincidence, concentrate, personality, inherit, influence
2 Techniques: Pair work, group work, individually
- Board, chalk, laptop, lesson plan
- Students may not have enough vocabulary to complete the task
- Students may not pronounce some words or phrases correctly
- Teacher should be ready to assist them to use correct vocabulary
- Teacher should be ready to correct all mistakes if necessary
Stage/ Time Teacher’s activities Students’ activities
- asks Ss to work in pairs to discuss the pre- reading questions on the textbook on the page
- After 7 mins, calls on some Ss to give their
- work in pairs to discuss the questions
- leads to the topic of the lessons: “to get information about characteristics of twins, we‟re going to read the reading text today”
- Before reading, introduces Ss new words in the reading passage:
+ identical (synonym) + coincidence (synonym) + concentrate (explanation) + personality (synonym) + Inherit (explanation) + Influence (explanation)
- writes new words on the board with their pronunciation, meaning and usage
- reads all words at the same time (2-3 times)
- has Ss practise in chorus and then individually
- gives five statements related to the content of the reading text and asks Ss to study them and guess whether they are true or false
1 Out of every one thousand births, there are only ten pairs of identical twins
2 All identical twins make similar choices even when they don‟t live near each other
3 Scientists believe that personality characteristics such as friendliness, shyness, and fears are not a result of environment
4 All twins can feel when their twin is in pain
- listen to T and brainstorm about the topic of the lesson
- write new words in their notebooks
- read new words in chorus and then individually
- study the statements and predict the statements given by T or in trouble
5 Twins seem to be closer to each other‟s thoughts and feelings than other brothers and sisters
- asks some Ss to give their own predictions
- gives Ss two minutes to read the text quickly
- asks Ss to check prediction task with their partner
- Checks and gives comments if necessary
- gives Ss the instruction and strategies before doing the exercise
- asks Ss to work individually to do the task in
- calls on some students to write their answers on the board
- checks and asks Ss to give their explanation
4 F (were not separated … Grew up)
- read the text quickly to check prediction task with their partner
- listen to the instruction and read the text again and do the exercise
- give their answers and explanation
- gives Ss the instruction and strategies before doing the task and asks them to work individually to complete the exercise
- calls on some Ss to give their answers on the board and checks by asking them to give information from the reading text