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INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC According to foreign language competence framework for Vietnamese students, high school graduates are supposed to reach tertiary level (equivalent to Leve[.]
INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC According to foreign language competence framework for Vietnamese students, high school graduates are supposed to reach tertiary level (equivalent to Level B1) To fluently communicate as expected, students have to develop communicative skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing However, language competence in every skill is under expected level especially in reading skill There has been a worrying problem in students’exam scores Especially, more than 70% of students’ scores were below grade in National GCSE (General Certificate Of Secondary Education) examination 2018-2019 Students when asked about the format of the English test in the national GCSE examination tend to say that reading section seems to be the most challenging to them Those not intending to major in English are appalled by the long passage with series of vocabularies in complex contexts completely new to them They cannot find the correct answers to the questions designed in limited time in the examination room or the reading comprehension questions without bothering to know the content of the passage As a teacher of language for many years, I myself find that this is one of the main reasons that drive students’ scores in English to the bottom of the sore board in recent years.Traditionally, students spend far too much time learning grammar, which is designed to take up nearly the same portion as reading in the format of English test in the national GCSE examination yearly while reading is a section that most of our students ignore or it to the luck of the game, which means that they answer the reading questions without understanding or choose the answer without any evidence Most reading tasks in current English 12 are designed in the way that the answers are almost on display and that students can easily answer without and simple pieces of thought, not to mention any reference and inference Students therefore get bored in the lessons unless the teachers find new ways to adapt Students in grade 12 are going to sit for their national GCES examination in which most reading tests are designed in the ways that are different form those they have done in their classes Adapting is a stepenabling them get used to reading comprehension questions Reading lessons in the national curriculum for English 10, 11, 12 takes up one fifth of the total time for each Unit However, in many classes, there is still an unrealistic use of language where teachers often spend a large of proposition of class time asking “readily displayed” questions for which they and their students already know the answers without any simple kind of thought or inference Students therefore get bored and cannot get used to the new kinds of questions required in the format of reading comprehension section skkn For the above reasons, the writer decided to choose “Adapting reading comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 12 in the direction of approaching the GCSE exam questions.” as the topic of this study II AIMS, SCOPE, OBJECTIVE AND METHOD OF THE STUDY 1.Aims: - To help the teacher of English to adapt reading tasks in the textbook in the orientation of the format for GCSE examination - To help students get acquainted with types of reading comprehension questions in the national GCSE examination - To provide some reading strategies for reading comprehension questions Scope - Applying in the reading lessons in Tieng Anh 12 - Applying to prepare students for their GCSE examination and college, university entrance examination Object of study: - Students in grade 12 - Students under preparation for GCSE examination and college, university entrance examinations Method - Studying common types of reading comprehension questions in National GCSE examination in recent years - Applying reading strategies in Longman 2000- Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test- to adapt reading tasks in Tieng Anh 12 - Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching and getting experience from the teaching in the class skkn PART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.Types of reading comprehension questions Here are some common types of reading comprehension questions appearing consequently in the reading text in the national GCSE examination and in TOEFL (PPT) 1.3 Questions about the ideas of the passage This type of question ask you to answer questions about the information included in the reading passage Common questions of this kind are the ones asking for the main ideas of the passage, directly answered questions and indirectly answered questions 1.1.1 Questions for main ideas 1.1.2 Directly answered questions - Stated detail questions - Unstated detail questions - Pronounce referent questions 1.1.3 Indirectly answered questions - Implied detail questions - Transition questions 1.2 Vocabulary questions 1.2.1 Questions for word definition from structural clues 1.2.2 Questions for word meaning from word parts 1.2.3 Questions for word meaning from context 1.3 Overall review questions 1.3.1Questions for location of specific information 1.3.2 Questions for the tone, purpose or course 1.3.3 Questions for the organization of the ideas of the reading passage Strategies to help students deal with the reading questions easily This type of questions asks for the definition of words or phrases or for the meanings of vocabulary in the passage To answer this type of questions, you may have to get the meanings of the word by looking the surrounding words given, structural clues or part of speech of the words expected 2.1 General strategies - Help students master essential reading skills, what they are, how they are used - Help students get used to the common types of questions skkn - Guide students to manage time in a proper way - Guide students to deal with the reading passage whose topic is not familiar with them - Guessing is of some use in case you not really understand the passage properly 2.2 Reading skills 2.2 Skimming Skimming involves reading quickly to get the main idea of a text Reading topic sentences (usually the first sentence of a paragraph) can be an effective way of understanding the main idea of the text This skill of reading is used for main idea questions or overall review questions 2.2.2 Scanning Scanning means looking for supporting points and details, provided in body paragraphs In other words, finding elaborations or sentences including detailed and specific information that support an important point or a topic sentence in a body paragraph Scanning is often used for directly answered questions 2.2.3 Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is to include the ideas or information from an original sentence in the passage by rephrasing them in other words This can be done with synonyms, antonyms, word derivations, umbrella words or grammatical structures This is an essential skill used for vocabulary questions or sometimes for inference questions 2.2.4 Key word spotting Looking for key information involves looking in a given paragraph of passage of words for the key words that are relevant for your topic It is a process that can be used in conjunction with scanning This is used for questions for details 2.2.5 Intensive reading We use this skill when we need to understand every work in a part of a text This may be used when we answer detailed reading questions in exams Choose the best answer to each question from the four answer choices listed in your test book We can choose the best answer according to what is given in the appropriate section of the passage, eliminate definitely wrong answers, and mark our best guess on the answer sheet Strategies to deal with each type of reading question These are the primary rationales on which I have adapted reading comprehension tasks in current English 12 They are mostly taken from Longman 2000- Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test- by Deborah Phillips 3.1 Main ideas questions skkn Main ideas questions The passage is mainly aimed at… What does the author mainly discuss? What is the passage mainly about? What is the topic of the passage? How to identify the questions What is the subject of the passage? What is the main idea of the passage? What is the author’s main point in the passage? With what is the author primary concerned? Which of the following would be the best title? What is the author’s main purpose in the passage? Where to find the answers The answer to this type of question generally lies in the first sentence of each paragraph Read the first line of each paragraph Look for a common theme or idea in the first lines How to answer the questions Run though the rest of the passage to check if the information in the first line is the main idea or not Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices 3.2 Directly answered questions 3.2.1 Stated detailed question How to identify the questions According to the passage, … It is stated in the passage … The passage indicates that … The author mentions that … Which of the following is true … Where to find the answers The answers to these questions are found in order in the passage How to answer the questions Choose a key word in the question Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for skkn the key word or idea Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully Look for the answer that restates an idea in the passage Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices 3.2.3 - Unstated detail questions How to identify the questions Which of the following is not stated …? Which of the following is not mentioned …? Which of the following is not discussed …? All of the following are true except … Where to find the answers The answers to these questions are found in order in the passage How to answer the questions Choose a key word in the question Scan in the appropriate place in the passage for the key word (or related idea) Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully Look for the answers that are definitely true according to the passage Eliminate those answers Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage 3.2.4 Pronoun reference questions How to identify the questions What does the word “X ” in line … Refer to? The pronoun “ ” in line X refers to which of the following? Where to find the answers The answer is often located in the sentence preceding the line that the pronoun comes from How to answer the questions Locate the pronoun in the passage It is often in BOLD, ITALIC OR UNDERLINED so that we can find it easily skkn Identify the nouns that come before the pronoun that the pronoun could refer to Read the part of the passage before the pronoun carefully to see which option is the best answer Try the three other options in place of the pronouns to check if they can fit Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices 3.3.Indirectly answered questions 3.3.1.Implied detail questions How to identify the questions It is implied in the passage that … It can be inferred from the passage that … It is most likely that … What probably happened …? Where to find the answers The answers are not directly stated, so we have to locate the piece of information we can infer so that we can understand what point the author want to get across How to answer the questions Choose a key word in the question Scan in the passage for the key word (or a related idea) Carefully read the sentence that contains the key word Look for an answer that could be true, according to that sentence 3.3.2 Transition questions This type of question is not common in reading text in the national GCSE examination However, I find it rather interesting as the reading passage is often extracted from a long source of information, students may be asked to determine what probably precedes or follows the part extracted Actually, the main topic of the paragraph preceding or following is not stated in the present passage, we can also determine the right answer by draw a conclusion to what is supposed to be included in the preceding or following paragraph by looking at how the paragraph is linked at the beginning and at the end of the paragraph It is so- called transition questions How to identify the questions What is mainly discussed in the preceding or following paragraph? What does the preceding or following paragraph mainly skkn discuss? The paragraph preceding the passage probably What is most likely in the paragraph following the passage? The answer can generally be found in the first line of the passage for a preceding question The answer can Where to find the answers generally be found in the last line for a following question We can also base on the liking words How to answer the questions Read the first line for a preceding question and pay attention to some key words form which we can infer Read the last line for a following question Draw a conclusion about what comes before or after basing on some clues we have founds( key words or linking words) Choose the answer that is reflected in the first or last line of the passage 3.4 Vocabulary questions 3.4.1 Questions for word definition from structural clues Which of the followings is defined in the passage? How to identify the questions What is ? What is the meaning of ? What is true about ? The word “X” is concerned with … Where to find the answers Punctuation: comma, parentheses, dashes Restatement: or, that is, in other words, i.e Examples: such as, for example, e.g Paraphrase: How to answer the questions The answer lies somewhere generally found after the punctuation clue, the restatement clue, or the example clue or paraphrase clue Locate the word in the passage Determine any structural clues Read the part of the passage after the structural clue carefully skkn Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices 3.4.2 Questions for word meaning from word parts “What is the meaning ?” “Which of the following is closest in meaning to…?” How to identify the questions You are already shown in which line of the passage the word can be found Where to find the answers Find the word in the passage Read the sentence that contains the word carefully Look for clues such as part of speech, prefixes or suffixes to help you understand the meaning Pull out the meaning of the word then choose the best option How to answer the questions 3.4.3 Questions for word meaning from context How to identify the questions “What is the meaning ?” “Which of the following is closest in meaning to ?” Where to find the answers The position of the words have been shown in the question How to answer the questions Locate the word in the passage Read the sentence that contains the word carefully Try to get the meaning of the word from context the meaning Choose the answer that the context indicates Overall review questions 3.5.1 Questions for location of specific information How to identify the questions “Where in the passage ?” Where to find the answers The answer can be in any of the lines listed in the options to the question How to answer the questions -Choose a key word or idea in the question -Skim the lines in the passage that are listed in In which line…? skkn the answers to the question You should skim for the key word or idea -Choose the answer that contains the line numbers of a restatement of the question 3.5.2 Questions for the tone, purpose or course How to identify the questions Tone: What is the tone of the passage? Purpose: What is the author’s purpose in this passage? Course: In which course would this reading be assigned? Tone: There will be clues throughout the passage that the author is showing some emotion rather than just Where to find the answers presenting facts Purpose: Base on the main ideas of the passage Course: Base on the topic to find the answer How to answer the questions Tone:1 Skim the passage looking for clues that the author is showing some emotion Choose the answer that identifies the emotion Purpose: Study the main idea in the topic sentence and the details used to support the main idea Draw a conclusion about the purpose Course: Study the main idea in the topic sentence and the details used to support the main idea Draw a conclusion about the course 3.5.3 Questions for the organization of the ideas How to identify the questions How is the information in the passage organized? How is the information in the second paragraph related to the information in the first paragraph? Where to find the answers The answer to this type of question can generally be determined by looking at the first sentence of the appropriate paragraphs How to answer the questions Read the first line of each paragraph Look for words that show the relationship between the paragraphs Choose the answer that best expresses the relationship 10 skkn ...For the above reasons, the writer decided to choose ? ?Adapting reading comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 12 in the direction of approaching the GCSE exam questions.” as the topic of this study... of reading comprehension questions in the national GCSE examination - To provide some reading strategies for reading comprehension questions Scope - Applying in the reading lessons in Tieng Anh. .. for the TOEFL Test- to adapt reading tasks in Tieng Anh 12 - Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching and getting experience from the teaching in the class skkn