The Reality Of Teaching And Learning Reading For Non-English Majors At Banking Academy- Son Tay Training Center.pdf

Output file VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES **************** NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARN[.]

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER ( Nghiên cứu thực trạng việc dạy học đọc hệ học tiếng Anh không chuyên Học viện Ngân hàng- Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây ) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2011 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER ( Nghiên cứu thực trạng việc dạy học đọc hệ học tiếng Anh không chuyên Học viện Ngân hàng - Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây ) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thu Thuỷ,M.A Hanoi - 2011 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA-STC: Banking Academy- Son Tay training center FL: Foreign language EFL: English as a foreign language L1: the first language L2: The second language v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1.1: The three Definitions of Reading by Weaver (1994) Table 2.1: The result of how teachers delivered the reading lessons 18 Table 2.2: Teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage 18 Table 2.3: Teachers’ activities at While- reading stage 19 Table 2.4: Teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage 20 Table 2.5: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage 23 Table 2.6: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at While- reading stage Table 2.7: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage Table 2.8: Students’ difficulties in learning reading 24 25 26 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii Abstract iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v Table of Contents vi Part A: Introduction 1 Background to the study Aims of the study Research question Significance of the study Research methodology Organization of the study Part B: Development Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Reading 1.1.1 Definitions of reading: 1.1.2 The traditional and innovative views of teaching reading 1.2 Approaches to teaching reading 1.3 Stages of a reading lessons 1.3.1 The pre-reading stage 10 1.3.2 The While-reading stage 10 1.3.3 The Post-reading stage 12 vii 1.4 Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning reading 13 1.5 Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension 14 1.5.1 Learning strategies 14 1.5.2 Vocabulary 15 1.5.3 Background knowledge 16 1.5.4 Motivation 16 1.6 Previous studies 17 1.7 Summary 17 Chapter 2: RESULT 18 2.1 Result of the observation of teachers’ activities 18 2.1.1 At Pre- reading stage 18 2.1.2 At While- reading stage 19 2.1.3 At Post- reading stage 20 2.2 Result of the se-mi structured interviews 21 2.2.1 Reasons for choosing the teachers’ reading teaching strategies 21 2.2.2 Teachers’ difficulties in reading teaching 21 2.3 Result of students’ questionnaires 23 2.3.1 Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lesson 23 2.3.2 Students’ difficulties in learning reading 26 Chapter 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS 28 viii 3.1 Research question and 28 3.1.1 At Pre-reading stage 28 3.1.2 While-reading stage 30 3.1.3 Post-reading stage 32 3.2 Research question 32 3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lessons 32 3.2.2 Students’ difficulties in learning reading 35 Part C : CONCLUSION 37 Summary 37 The suggested procedure for teaching reading at BA-STC 37 Limitations and suggestions for further study 40 References 41 Appendices I Appendix I Appendix 2A III Appendix 2B V Appendix 3A VII Appendix 3B IX PART A: INTRODUCTION Part A - Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the aims, the research question, the significance of the study as well as the research methodology It also outlines the organization of the thesis Background to the study Reading comprehension is the heart and goal of reading, since the purpose of all reading is to gather meaning from the printed page If a student says a word in a passage without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that reading Language plays a vital role in reading One cannot read a book in a language unless one knows that particular language If a learner‟s knowledge of English is poor, then his/her reading will also be poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension Reading is one of the „most complex forms of information processing‟ (Kolers, 1973, p.29) and is probably the „most extensively researched‟ language skill (Bachman, 2000, p.x) In the recent decades, theories and models of reading have changed, from primarily receptive processes from text to reader to interactive processes between the reader and the text (cf., Adams, 1990; Eskey and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; and Swaffar, 1988) Approaches to teaching reading materials in a foreign language have attempted to reflect this development through recommendations of interactive exercises and tasks Based on what successful reading is, many reading specialists have come to agreement that reading lessons should follow such a framework as: pre-, during-, and postreading instruction (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe and Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992) Barnett (1989) and Grabe and Stoller (2001) made a brief explanation about each type of instruction Pre-reading instruction makes students interested in a text and predicts the content of it through accessing necessary information or activating schema While-reading instruction helps students read strategically, mainly focusing on decoding skills Post-reading instruction deepens students‟ comprehension into the text It is also emphasized that the activities in this framework are not limited to reading “Reading is no longer isolated” (Eskey & Grabe, 1988, p.231) As in real life, reading activities should be integrated with other skills - speaking, listening, and especially writing (Eskey & Grabe, 1988; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001) Accordingly, some of the activities should help students to develop other skills besides the reading Such kind of integration of the four skills will enable students to use more varieties of strategies more often, generating more interaction between the reader and the text Teaching and learning reading comprehension have been identified by various researchers in both second and foreign language contexts (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992) However little empirical research have been conducted to uncover the methods of teaching reading comprehension used by Vietnamese teachers, especially by teachers at BA-STC To address this gap, my study will investigate the reality of teaching and learning reading for non-English major first year students at this training center At BA-STC, students are required to take an English course in two terms in the first year The aim of this course is to equip students the general English program, consisting of four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In the first term of the first year, the students learned English in 45 periods of the New Headway Elementary After 12 weeks, the students had a final test that consisted of four parts: Vocabulary, Grammar and Reading comprehension and Writing The result of the final test in the first term showed us a surprising number: 72 percent of all the students (115) got bad marks in the reading comprehension section of the English test, although they had good marks in the other parts of the test I would like to look into different aspects and try to find out the reasons leading to this bad situation One of the main reasons lies in the fact that the teachers often simply give students a text and require them to answer a series of comprehension questions when they have finished reading the text The teachers almost nothing to provide them with the skills or strategies needed to become efficient and independent readers For the lack of necessary strategies for teaching reading comprehension, it is more likely to have poor reading comprehension results Therefore, in this study I intend to carry out some research in the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension for non-English major first year students at BA-STC and basing on the findings and discussions to help to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning reading comprehension at this training center Aim of the study The purpose of this study is: - To address teachers‟ and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning reading comprehension - To investigate students‟ attitude towards reading skill and understand their learning needs and learning style - To make some suggestions to improve the current situation Research question This study aimed at the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at BA-STC and more specifically to answer the following questions: How teachers actually deliver the reading lesson at BA-STC? What difficulties teachers and students encounter while teaching and learning reading comprehension? What are students‟ attitudes towards teachers‟ activities in a reading lesson? Significance of the study My present study is significant for some reasons Firstly, investigating the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension helps the researcher to understand clearly how teachers taught reading and how students learned reading at BA-STC, the difficulties the teachers and students experienced while teaching and learning reading and students‟ preference towards the teacher‟s methods of teaching From this result, the study will make some important discussions to improve the quality of teaching and learning reading in the target college Moreover, these instructions may help teachers of English at BA-STC in their teaching careers Research methodology 5.1 Data collection instruments A description of the methodology was employed in this study First, the classroom observation was chosen to find out actually how a reading lesson was taught From the result of the observation, the researcher carried out three semi-structured interviews to 13 the activities reciprocal teaching, evaluating, inferring and re-reading provide a dialogue between the reader and the writer while the activities scanning and clarifying draw a clear mental picture for the reader In conclusion, the reading activities which teachers might use range from reading for the pure sake of reading, silent reading, to more focus reading where the students learn to skim for the main idea, scan for the secondary categories, or read intensively for the supporting ideas Obviously, this helps to encourage critical thinking and increases comprehension and easy retention 1.3.3 The Post-reading stage According to Chastain (1988), post- reading activities help readers to clarify any unclear meaning where the focus is on the meaning not on the grammatical or lexical aspects of the text Ur (1996) discusses summarize as a kind of post-reading activities where the readers are asked to summarize the content in a sentence or two It is also possible to give this post-reading activity in the mother tongue Karakas (2002) proposes that readers interpret the text and illustrate the relationship between the questions and their answers by using activities such as summarizing, questions and answer and drawing conclusions and it is possible to catch the missing parts of the mental picture through thinking aloud, discussion and summarizing Karakas (2002) proposes that readers interpret the text and illustrate the relationship between the questions and their answers by using activities such as summarizing, questions and answer and drawing conclusions and it is possible to catch the missing parts of the mental picture through thinking aloud, discussion and summarizing William (1984, p.39) gives the following activities: multiple choice questions; table, chart, questionnaire completion with facts or based on text information; follow-up writing or listening; role-play; debate/class discussion on the topic; and problem-solving with the aid of information from the text In conclusion, following and implementing the aforementioned stages and insights would help the students to depend on themselves and on other resources, rather than on us as the primary source of information This is where students‟ initiative/interaction comes into play They start developing skills by themselves, which later become their own skills through interaction with the reading text That is, the goal of teaching reading should 14 ultimately be to help encourage critical thinking and increase comprehension and easy retention 1.4 Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning reading There are many ways of definitions of attitudes on teaching and learning reading Allport (1954) defines an attitude “mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all objects and situations with which it is related” Gardner (1985, p.10) sees attitudes as components of motivation He also made the connection “motivation refers to the combination of effort plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language” Attitudes have many impacts towards learning and teaching Social psychologists would expect “success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudes towards representatives of that language as well” (Gardner & Lamber, 1972) In fact, learner possess a set of attitudes which relate to the language learning situation, e.g attitudes to the course book, to the variety of language, to the target language community, and so on Ewards (1982) (cited in Gibb, 1998) assumed that attitudes influence learning: positive attitudes are likely to result in students‟ motivation, which leads to better learning; and the students‟ learning will suffer from negative attitudes Concerning attitudes in the language learning, it is claimed that attitudes control an individual motivation and are especially relevant for language learning because language learning includes many different aspects besides learning skills (Gardner & Lamber, 1972) It is claimed that attitudes have influence on the development of motivation… and have more specific effects, so that attitudes appear to carry into particular motivation A learners‟ motivation for language study would be determined by his attitudes and readiness to identify and by his orientation to the whole process of learning a foreign language ( Gardner & Lamber, 1972) The more motivation a learner has, the more time s/he will spend learning an aspect of the language (Slopsky, 1992, p.148) Similarly, Lundberg (1974), in his research, found both motivation for learning a language and attitudes towards the target culture to be important in factors in effecting learning According to these claims attitudes may play a very important role in language learning, as they would appear to influence students‟ success or failure in their learning 15 In the process of teaching, the approach that teachers use in the classroom depends on their attitudes towards it Doukas (1996) mentioned the importance of teachers‟ attitudes in the classroom that „teacher‟ educational attitudes and theories, although in many cases unconsciously held, have an effect on their classroom behavior, influence what student actually learn, and are a potent determinant of teachers‟ teaching style In the curriculum innovation literature, teachers‟ attitudes are seen to play a crucial role in determining the implementation of an approach (Doukas, 1996) If teachers hold positive attitudes to a theory of teaching, they are considered being good for both language learning and teaching They will be better and help students‟ learning very much, nevertheless, if they hold negative attitudes to it, they will refuse to apply it in their teaching, and their students will suffer from it 1.5 Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension Reading, whether in a first or second language context, involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the reader and text (Rumelhart, 1977) The identification of the factors affecting reading comprehension will undoubtedly help us a lot in the effective teaching of English reading “The research in 1970s and 1980s laid out many of the variables associated with the second language reading process” (Elizabeth, 2005) Among these variables, strategies, background knowledge and vocabulary, motivation are major factors affecting reading comprehension 1.5.1 Learning strategies Learning strategies are important and should be paid attention to because they are one of the major applications of cognitive theory Oxford (1990) claims that “learning strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable” Learning strategies are procedures undertaken by the learner, in order to make their own language learning as effective as possible Learning strategies can be classified into three categories, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and social strategies In O‟Malley and Chamot‟s (1990, p.52) view, learning strategies are complex procedures that individuals apply to tasks; consequently, they may be represented as procedural knowledge which may be acquired through cognitive, associated, and autonomous stages of learning As with other procedural 16 skills at the different stages of learning, the strategies may be conscious in early stages of learning and later performed without the person‟s awareness As an important application of cognitive theory, cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies, both of which belong to learning strategies, should influence reading comprehension greatly Hosenfield (1977) identifies a good reader as one who tries to keep the meaning pf the passage in mind, read in chunks, ignores less important words, tries to guess the meanings of unknown words using contextual clues, and has a good concept of himself/ herself as a reader Following these studies, three have been attempts to instruct learners in using these strategies to make them better readers (Block, 1992; Victori & Lockhart, 1995) These studies show a positive correlation between reading strategy instruction and reading proficiency 1.5.2 Vocabulary Another factor that can have a significant impact on reading comprehension is vocabulary Interest in the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension has a long history in the research of foreign language reading Observing the performance of foreign language readers, confronted with unknown vocabulary, researchers have noted the important role of vocabulary as a predictor of overall reading ability (Nation, 1990; Grabe, 1991) In fact, second language readers often cite “lack of adequate vocabulary as one of the obstacles to text comprehension” (Levine & Reves, 1990) In certain contexts, a sentence or even an entire paragraph might become incomprehensible because of the occurrence of even a small number of unknown vocabulary items (Barnett, 1988) Since the development of psycholinguistic models of reading, researchers and teachers alike argue that the best way to handle the unfamiliar words in the text is by drawing inferences from the rest of the text According to Hosenfield (1984) readiness to guess from context is what distinguishes a good reader from a bad one However, while most researchers find that successful L2 and FL readers can correctly guess the meaning of unknown words while reading (Carrol & Drum, 1982), others question the effectiveness of contextual guessing Thus, Kelly (1990) claims that in anything other than a highly constrained context, guessing on its own help comprehension Likewise, according to Bensoussan & Laufer‟s (1984) observation, many FL readers not effectively use context to guess word meanings 17 1.5.3 Background knowledge Another reading problem is the lack of prior knowledge to help students to make connections to the text As a result, under confident students revert to lower level reading processes such as word level literal comprehension Support materials such as television and films can help enlarge experience and supply the necessary vocabulary to aid comprehension Many struggling readers lack confidence in their own ability to learn unfamiliar words or phrases found in a text This can sometimes impede the reading process when students assume that the text is far more difficult than actually it is Moreover, if the reader chooses to disregard portions of a text deemed unimportant or make irrelevant associations, then the actual meaning of the text can be misconstrued To solve this problem, the reader needs to be exposed to other viewpoints of the text Reading and discussing about the text will help individual readers gain different perspectives on issues in the text Hence, this will enable the reader to realize that his interpretation of the text is limited by his subjective view Prior knowledge has a large influence on student performance, explaining up to 81% of the variance in posttest scores (Dochy, Segers & Buehl, 1999) And there is a well established correlation between prior knowledge and reading comprehension (Langer, 1984) Irrespective of students‟ reading ability, high prior knowledge of a subject area or key vocabulary for a text often means higher scores on reading comprehension measures (Langer, 1984; Long et al., 1989) In addition, high correlations have been found between prior knowledge and speed and accuracy of study behavior (reviewed in (Dochy et al, 1999) as well as students interest in a topic (Tobias, 1994) Thus, prior knowledge is associated with beneficial academic behaviors and higher academic performance 1.5.4 Motivation A review of literature on second language learning emphasizes motivation as an important affective variable Collins (1996) identifies other causes for incomprehension besides poor motivation to a lack of experience or inadequate prior knowledge and a limited or subjective view of what is read Students experience low motivation in reading when they are unable to use the language in meaningful situations Only widespread involvement in language can solve the problem of poor motivation Communicative- based activities such as oral and recorded reading, asking questions, dictating stories and working 18 in small groups will also facilitate learning as well as increase students‟ motivation for reading (Carr, 1995) Commitment to read and invest interest in reading is crucial in order for instruction in learning strategies to be effective In summary, learning strategies, vocabulary, motivation and background knowledge have been confirmed to have influence on learners‟ reading comprehension in many prior researches It is likely that these factors would affect the students‟ difficulties in learning reading comprehension in this study 1.6 Previous studies Zenhui (2004) presented his application of a new method in teaching EFL reading, namely combination of top-down methods and bottom-up methods His classroom observations showed that in reading classes in Asia, many teachers focused on grammar and vocabulary Their reading teaching methodology often started with reading the text word- by- word, explaining the meanings or words and grammar structures in the text He pointed out some limitations of bottom-up strategies and features of bottom-down methods Bottom-down methods often resulted in a meticulous emphasis on linguistic details and a corresponding lack of attention to communicative skills He described the new method of reconciling top-down and bottom-up methods employed in his reading classes He concluded that this reconciliation of top-down and bottom-up methods for teaching English reading worked quite satisfactorily for his students, helping them to integrate content and language points, speed and comprehension, fluency and accuracy His students overall reading ability has improved as a result of this teaching procedure 1.7 Summary This chapter has addressed some major issues in terms of reading definitions, approaches to reading, the impacts of attitudes towards teaching and learning reading, factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension, previous study and summary 19 Chapter 2: RESULT In this section, answers to the three research questions will be given In the 1st research question, the result of descriptive analysis on the teachers‟ activities in reading periods will be presented To find out the answer for the 2nd research question, the result of descriptive analysis on the teachers‟ and students‟ difficulties will be carried out and the 3rd research question will be reported finally 2.1 Result of the observation of teachers’ activities Table 2.1: The result of how teachers delivered the reading lessons Lessons Stages Pre- reading While- reading √ Post-reading √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Table 2.1 summarized the stages observed in reading lessons As shown in the table, while- reading stage was completely found in all lessons of reading meanwhile Prereading and Post- reading were skipped in some lessons A detailed analysis of the frequency of each activity teachers used in three stages of a reading lesson will be reported below: 2.1.1 At Pre- reading stage Table 2.2: Teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage Teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage Lessons 1 Introducing the topic of the text √ √ Making students guess the topic of the text from the √ √ heading, illustration… Pre- teaching vocabulary √ √ √ √ new grammatical √ √ √ √ Having students brainstorm words, structures, ideas related √ Introducing and explaining structures in the text to the topic of the text to discuss about the content of the text 20 Asking students to predict what the text will say √ Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text √ Asking students to survey the text‟s title and heading √ for the topic Making students write questions about the text √ As seen on the table, there were two lessons with no Pre- reading stage Among the six lessons observed, pre-teaching vocabulary and new grammatical structures in the text had the highest average frequency (4/6 times), followed by introducing the topic of the text (3/6 times) The activities 2, 5, 6, 7, and seldom used in teaching reading at BA-STC (1/6 times) From these results, we could clearly see that teachers emphasized the importance of vocabulary and new grammatical structures when teaching reading Teachers helped students to recognize letters at first, then recognize the words, and in the end the reader got the meaning intended by the writer by combining the words that the reader recognize earlier In general, teachers tended to use bottom- up process of reading to help students to understand the content of the text and the reading tasks 2.1.2 At While- reading stage Table 2.3: Teachers’ activities at While- reading stage Teachers’ activities at While- reading stage Lessons Reading aloud the text Asking students to read aloud the text Asking students to skim for general information √ Making students read the reading tasks first then read √ √ √ √ the text to find the answer Getting students to work in pairs/ groups Making students scan for specific ideas Asking students to read the text and then the √ √ √ √ √ √ reading tasks Asking students to find the main ideas for each paragraph Asking students to read for detailed information √ √ √ 21 10 Having students guess meaning in context Table 2.3 sums up activities used by teachers at While- reading stage As displayed on the table, asking students to read the text and then the reading tasks was the most frequent activity used by teachers (4/6 times); asking students to read for detailed information was widely used by teachers (3/6 times) The activities utilized least were asking students to skim for general information, making students scan for specific ideas and asking students to find the main ideas for each paragraph (1/6 times) meanwhile having students guess meaning in context was never used in these periods The classroom observation indicated a surprised result that no teacher read aloud the text or asking students to read aloud the reading text Analysis of table 3.3 showed that the traditional methods were still popular in teaching reading at BA-STC 2.1.3 At Post- reading stage Table 2.4: Teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage Teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage Lessons 1 Getting students to work in pairs/ groups to discuss √ about the text Asking students to translate the text into Vietnamese √ Making students have role-plays, follow-up writing or listening Getting students to have table, chart, questionnaire completion with facts or based on text information Asking students to summarize the text As can be seen in table 2.4, there was a half of reading lessons observed with no Post- reading stage Among three lessons left, asking students to translate the text into Vietnamese was the most frequently used by the teachers meanwhile getting students to work in pairs/ groups to discuss about the text was only utilized once The results also indicated that no teacher asked students have role-plays, follow-up writing or listening, summarize the text or got students to have table, chart, questionnaire completion with facts or based on text information These results proved that teachers did not consider Postreading stage a necessary and important stage √ 22 2.2 Result of the se-mi structured interviews 2.2.1 Reasons for choosing the teachers’ reading teaching strategies Two in three teachers interviewed affirmed that they often taught reading according to the following steps: (1) teaching new words, (2) explaining sentences, (3) asking students to read the text and the reading task, (4) translating the text Sometimes, they organized some communicative activities such as brainstorming words, structures, ideas related to the topic of the text, predicting what the text will say, surveying the text‟s title and heading for the topic, guessing the topic of the text from the heading, illustration, writing question about the text However, these activities were seldom used in teaching reading at BA-STC For these teachers, teaching vocabulary was one of the most important techniques to help students to read the text and answer the questions about the text They explained the reason why they chose these reading teaching strategies because they were under such great pressure to prepare their students to pass their examinations that they hardly had the time or the energy to teach other aspects of the language other than the potential test items and formats Students needed an amount of vocabulary and structures to pass the exam Therefore, reading has been taught in a way which treated it as a subject, instead of a tool of communication One teacher said that she skipped Pre-reading stage and Post-reading stage in her reading period In her opinion, her students had to prepare the lesson at home and look the new words up in the dictionary They had to be ready before the reading periods The teachers‟ duties were to help their students to solve the reading tasks 2.2.2 Teachers’ difficulties in reading teaching When asked about the difficulties the teachers had to deal with in teaching reading comprehension, most of them indicated the following difficulties: students‟ limited linguistics knowledge and limited background knowledge, large classroom, students‟ bad reading habit and low motivation First, the teachers affirmed that most of the students had a very small amount of vocabulary and limited knowledge of the world, the topics as well as experience meanwhile these were necessary factors for the comprehension process Understanding clearly these students‟ deficiencies, most of the teachers taught vocabulary before 23 beginning the text According to these teachers, their students could not understand the text and the reading tasks if the teachers did not give them the meaning of the new words and explain the sentences If, the teachers did not give them the meaning of the new words, their students often looked them up in the dictionary or asked teachers or friends what the words mean In their opinion, the best way to help students to comprehend the text and easily the reading tasks was giving students the meaning of the new words and explaining some difficult sentences Therefore, teachers often had a strong emphasis on the bottom-up reading process model and neglect of the top-down reading process Furthermore, teachers also insisted that in top-down processing model, decoding skills were greatly neglected through emphasizing the importance of the prediction of meaning by means of context clues or certain kind of background knowledge Teachers of English, who thought that language decoding skills always had a crucial role in reading foreign languages, had difficulty in accepting the view that decoding skills were neglected Moreover, they said that top-down approaches did not give “true picture of reading” That was the reason why they seldom used top-down processing model in reading periods Secondly, English language classes were bound to be large; most English language teachers were confronting the challenge of teaching large classes than before What happened too often in large classes, when the answers to comprehension tasks were given orally and activities were dominated by a minority of good students? Most of the other students could not even have time to finish doing the reading meanwhile the few quick and bright students volunteered and forced the pace of the lesson, impelled the teacher called them to answer The good students answered the questions quickly meanwhile the weaker students were still reading the text and they did not have the answers for reading tasks And so the gap between the few good students and the silent majority widened steadily, even though the teacher was setting the right sort of tasks to train all the students in the reading process The teacher should be aware that many students were not participating, and felt that it was their fault, on the ground that “you can lead a horse to water but you can not make him drink” The result of the interviews indicated that the students‟ low motivation in learning reading was a difficulty which most of the teachers have in teaching reading Surely, one teacher could not teach well if their learners did not want to learn at all Conley (1995) emphasized that when readers were unmotivated, every door would close and thus the 24 level of understanding would be lower It seemed as if students had high extrinsic motivation to pass the exam Therefore, they were never effective reader Students who lacked interest in the reading lesson were also unwilling or uncooperative learners These were mainly weak students who often did not voluntarily get involved or participate in classroom activities Some were weak in reading What prevented them from attempting to read in class was their lack of confidence and fear of being embarrassed by other students Most of the teachers stated that most of the students often read words by words, looked up the unfamiliar words in the dictionary and translated sentences by sentences into Vietnamese when reading This habit started from secondary school; therefore it was difficult for teachers to ask students to change it 2.3 Result of students’ questionnaires 2.3.1 Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lesson Students‟ attitudes have great impact on teaching and learning reading If students prefer teachers‟ reading strategies, they will be active in taking part in reading and they will have good result in comprehending the content of the text and vice verse 2.3.1.1 At Pre-reading stage Table 2.5: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage Students‟ attitudes towards the teachers‟ Like Ok Dislike activities at Pre- reading stage No of students % (115) 36 31.3 No of students % (115) 49 42.6 47.8 38 33.1 22 19.1 30.4 36 31.3 44 38.3 211.7 34 29.6 56 48.7 54.8 34 29.6 18 15.6 46.9 34 29.6 27 23.5 No of students % (115) 30 26.1 Introducing the topic of the text Making students guess the topic of 55 the text from the heating, illustration… Pre- teaching vocabulary Introducing and explaining 35 new 25 grammatical structures in the text Having students brainstorm words, 63 structures, ideas related to the topic Using visual aids to introduce the 54 25 topic of the text Asking students to survey the text‟s 40 34.8 45 39.1 30 26.1 39.1 50 43.5 20 17.4 title and heading for the topic Making students write questions 45 about the text As shown in table 2.5, at Pre-reading stage, students had positive attitudes on communicative actives Brainstorming words, structures, ideas related to the topic of the text was the most favorite (54%), follow by making students guess the topic of the text from the headings, illustration…(47%) and using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text (46%) The least fell in introducing and explaining new grammatical structures in the text (21%) The result of the study also indicated that students had the most negative attitudes on activities such as introducing and explaining new grammatical structures in the text (48%); introducing the topic of the text (42%); pre- teaching vocabulary (38%) Obviously, students tended to prefer the activities of interactive approach to the ones of bottom-up approach 2.3.1.2 At While-reading stage Tải FULL (63 trang): https://bit.ly/3JnUWAE Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net Table 2.6: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at While- reading stage Students‟ attitudes towards the teachers‟ activities at While- reading stage Like Ok Dislike Reading aloud the text No of students % (115) 23 20 No of students % (115) 65 56.5 No of students % (115) 27 23.5 Asking students to read aloud the text 16 13.9 21 18.3 78 67.8 Asking students to skim for general 67 58.2 30 26.1 18 15.7 56.5 29 25.2 21 18.3 information Making students read the reading tasks first 65 then read the text to find the answer Getting students to work in pairs/ groups 70 60.9 29 25.2 16 13.9 Making students scan for specific ideas 68 59.1 30 26.1 17 14.8 Asking students to read the text and 52 45.2 15 13.1 48 41.7 26 then the reading tasks Asking students to find the main ideas 64 55.7 38 33.0 13 11.3 47.0 19 16.5 42 36.5 43.5 47 40.9 18 15.6 for each paragraph Asking students to read for detailed 54 information 10 Having students guess meaning in context 50 After analyzing the results from the questionnaire of the students preference towards the teachers‟ activities at While- reading stage, some generations can be made as follows: Firstly, the students reported having favorable attitudes towards activities with their involvement As displayed on table 2.6, working in pairs/ groups was the most favorite activity (60%), followed by making students scan for specific ideas (59%), and asking students to skim for general information (58%) Asking students to read aloud the text was the least activity favored by the students (13%) Secondly, the students also express their dislike about some other activities such as asking students to read aloud the text (67%), asking students to read the text and then the reading tasks (41.7%), asking students to read for detailed information (36%) Perhaps, these activities seemed to be repeated in the reading period Therefore, they felt that reading classes were more boring and they were completely passive in reading lessons 2.3.1.3 At While-reading stage Tải FULL (63 trang): https://bit.ly/3JnUWAE Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net Table 2.7: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage Students‟ attitudes towards the Like Ok Dislike No of students % (115) 31 26.9 No of students % (115) 17 14.8 19.1 45 39.1 48 41.8 48.7 35 30.4 24 20.9 teachers‟ activities at Post- reading No of students % stage (115) Asking students to have 67 58.3 discussion about the text Asking students to translate the 22 text into Vietnamese Making students have role-plays, 56 follow-up writing or listening 27 On the table 2.7, having discussion about the text was the most favorite activity (58%), followed by having role-plays, follow-up writing or listening (48%) and translating the text into Vietnamese was the least prefer by the students (19%) These result showed that the students preferred activities with their involvement in what they were reading, they like interaction activities Pair and group work ensure increased learner-learner interaction and reduced the amount of teacher-whole class talk Learning through interaction puts the learners at the center and reserves the classical pattern of classroom interaction: teacher initiates; learners respond; teacher evaluates Through working in pairs or groups to discuss the reading text, the students might gain insight from each other that may or may not change their perspective on a given talk Moreover, a follow-up writing assignment may be helpful for the students to reflect further on the reading and will also help the teachers to assess the comprehension and retention of the students The teachers should therefore include reading tasks that develop a personal response to the text on the part of the students or in other words, allow different students to respond differently-at least some of the time 2.3.2 Students’ difficulties in learning reading Table 2.8: Students’ difficulties in learning reading Lack of vocabulary No of Yes students (%) (115) 87 75 Long and difficult sentences 55 47 Lack of background knowledge 75 65 Understand all the word and know all the structures of the whole 35 30 List Content passage but can not answer the comprehension questions Can not summarize the main ideas or can not work out an outline of 65 56 the reading passage Check dictionary whenever having the new word 62 53 Be used to rereading, reading with one‟s finger point to each word, 64 55 translating word by word, sentence by sentence Pay enough attention to topic sentence, can identify support ideas 6813012 30 26 ... difficulties in learning reading 5.2 The procedure of the study At first, I investigated the reality and difficulties of English teaching reality in general and teaching reading in particular at BA-STC... teaching reading 1.3 Stages of a reading lessons 1.3.1 The pre -reading stage 10 1.3.2 The While -reading stage 10 1.3.3 The Post -reading stage 12 vii 1.4 Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning. .. on the activities, techniques and procedure At the end of the lessons, I conducted semi-structured interviews with the teachers for their explanation of the activities and steps of procedure they