1 Introduction 1 1 The reason for choosing the subject Nowadays, English is the most popular language in the world As an effective means of international communication, it is used as the official lang[.]
1 Introduction 1.1 The reason for choosing the subject Nowadays, English is the most popular language in the world As an effective means of international communication, it is used as the official language in many fields of life such as economics, politics, science, technology, sports and many others This leads to an increasing demand of learning English There are more and more people who learn English and consider it as an inevitable factor in their work and life In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a compulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to master language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate in English successfully Among these four skills, reading plays an important role in enriching the students’ general knowledge and in helping them with their further study later Owing to the importance of reading itself, the growing interest in learning English in Vietnam creates a wide learning environment It can be seen that the teaching of reading of reading comprehension has been paid in increasing attention to its different aspects As time goes by, many experts and methodologists have come to understand that reading comprehension is important not only at schools but also afterwards That is reading helps students as readers develop their language ability in general and comprehension skills in particular at schools as well as gives them other benefits to avoid cultural and language bias, etc in daily communication Recognizing the importance of reading, I decide on choosing “Using WhileReading Activities to Improve Reading Comprehension for the 10th-Form Students at Tinh Gia High School” 1.2 Objective of research 1.2.1 For the students - Provide learners with an overview of how to use While- Reading Activities in an English reading class - Help students improve reading comprehension in reading class 1.2.2 For the teachers - Find out the most effective ways to improve students’ reading comprehension in general and the method of using While-Reading Activities - Know how to stimulate students to improve their reading skill 1.3 Research methodology I write this topic based on: - The method of studying theory - The method of investigating - The method of questionnaire interview skkn - The method of class observation - Applying the topic to real teaching English at Tinh Gia high school - Comparison, collation and summary of the result, effect of the topic 1.4 Scope of research - The research is focus on using While-Reading Activities to help 10 th form graders at Tinh Gia high school to improve reading comprehension in reading lessons 1.4.1 The students This action research project was conducted with 80 grade 10th students in class 10A5 and 10A6 at Tinh Gia High School, There were twenty males and sixty females Their average age ranges from 16 to 17, nearly three-forth of whom came from the countryside Their English proficiency levels were reported to be at the elementary level 1.4.2 The teachers The English Group of Tinh Gia high school includes teachers The five English teachers are teaching English for grade 10 are invited to participate in the survey All of them have been teaching English for more than years, the oldest one has been an English Teacher for 25 years The teachers have also worked with English 10 text book several times All English teachers in Tinh Gia high school are introduced and get to know how to use While-Reading Activities Content 2.1 Theoretical background 2.1.1 Definitions of reading The term “Reading” is widely used in practice However, reading is differently defined due to the areas of defining in term of activities or goals at any one level on grade That is why, no definition of reading can possibly include all points of views and features Moreover, each one’s definition only reflects what reading means to that person However, a careful considered definition of reading is very necessary for the reading teacher Because reading is the most critical aspect of any teaching programme and for the teachers to decide what they will teach in the classroom Herein, I would like to mention some definitions of reading extracted from different sources on the theme Elias and Ingram (1977:55) states:“Reading was defined as the abstraction of meaning from a visual configuration, and was shown to involve desirably not a painstaking grapheme- by- grapheme decoding but the postulation of alternatives of meaning which one reduced by the parsimonious interaction of the component process with the visual configuration.” Moreover, Urquhart & Weir [29, p.22] define reading as follows: “Reading is the process of receiving and interpreting information encoded in language form via the medium of print” Reading plays such an important part in the skkn success of second language learning and it is necessary to understand what reading is, however, it’s difficult to explain it briefly and correctly In a general term, reading is defined as “ Reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and reading materials in building meaning, meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the reader” Anderson [8, p.1] this definition of reading has been generally shared by other researches Deriving from those opinions, reading is considered a process in which a reader looks at and understands what has been written out 2.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of reading comprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence on what he or she teaches in the class He would know what to teacher and how to make his reading lesson effectively In fact, methodologists have been providing different definitions of reading comprehension According to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978:9) provide a clearer point of view: “Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the printed page based on the individual reader’s unique background of experience Reading is much than just pronouncing words correctly or simply what the author intends It is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual” According to the above authors, reading comprehension is not only simply understanding what is written, but also is what stimulates students to remember from their experiences That knowledge is then used to get meaning out of printed page, but in the mind of the readers which included not only facts or details but also emotion, belief and critical evaluation From these opinions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a process of understanding what is conveyed in the text It does not mean that the reader needs to understand every single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract the required information efficiently 2.1.3 Types of reading We read different texts in different ways According to the way of reading, we have aloud reading and silent reading Depending on the purpose of reading, we can classify reading into skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading 2.1.3.1 According to the ways of reading skkn 2.1.3.1.1Aloud reading Aloud reading is an unnatural activity because most people not read aloud in real life, and it is difficult for the speaker to pay attention to the meaning of the text when reading aloud According to Doff (1988:67), “aloud reading involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it Its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the implication to someone else.” This kind of activity seems to be more popular in the language classroom It focuses on the pronunciation of words in the text rather than understanding In reading a text, students come across many new words and phrases that they not know how to pronounce The teacher, in this case may help his students pronounce words by reading the text orally and loudly Aloud reading is often applied for beginners and limited in upper classes because of some reasons Firstly, it takes up a long time as students often read slowly when they focus on pronunciation They consequently have not enough time to deduce the meaning of the text or complete comprehension exercises Secondly, because students are concerned with pronunciation, it is hardly for them to understand the meaning of the text as Lewis and Hill (1995:110) mention: “Asking a student to read aloud also means that he may concentrate inadequately on their meaning He may read correctly but afterward will not be able to tell what he has read” That is the reason why, only for the early stages of foreign language learning, aloud reading should become an established part of a lesson to help the beginners read words, phrases with correct stress and intonation in a sentence 2.1.3.1.2 Silent reading Silent reading is the nearest approach to the essence of reading Because only by reading silently, can the readers best comprehend the written materials in the shortest possible time According to Broughton, Brumfit and other linguistics (1980:92), the nature of silent reading skills is far from uniform It is changeable according to the use to which it is being put Some of them are mentioned as follows: To survey material which is to be studies, to look through indexes, chapter heading and outlines To skim- particularly when one item of information is being sought in a mass of other printed information To gain superficial comprehension, as when reading for pleasure or preparing to read aloud To study the content of what is read in some detail To study the language in which the material is written Through these ways of using reading, the readers’ depth and detail of understanding, of comprehension will be improved effectively 2.1.3.2 According to the purposes of reading skkn 2.1.3.2.1 Skimming Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension It is one of specific reading techniques necessary for quick and efficient reading There have been many definitions of skimming Greenwood (1981:92) writes: “the reader goes through particular passage such as newspaper article merely to get the gist” In this term, Douglas Brown has the same opinion but it is clearer than that of above author He wrote: “Skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text for its gist Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic, or massage, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas.” Considering the two opinions, it can be concluded that skimming is a skill that enables readers to get the main point of the text without being concerned with details They only go through the text very fast to get general sense or the gist of it In brief, skimming is a very useful study technique to help the learner organize his thoughts and specify what information he can get from a book, so that his reading is more efficient Hence, skimming should be applied in teaching reading to help students have an overview of what they read 2.1.3.2.2 Scanning Similar to skimming, scanning is a necessary technique in reading efficiently Douglas (2001:308) defines scanning as follows: “Scanning was quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text” Sharing the same opinion with Douglas Brown, Williams (2001:100) emphasizes: “Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of information.” It reveals the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we are looking for and where to find it In addition, Grellet (1981:19) gives a more detailed definition of scanning: “When scanning, we only try to locate information and often we not even follow the linearity of passage to so, and scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose.” These authors have the same point that while scanning reader does not need to read form cover to cover, they only look for the information they want by running their eyes rapidly along the lines It can be practised with the great range of texts such as dictionaries, map, advertisements, labels, etc This kind of reading is very useful in reading selectively In general, both skimming and scanning are effective techniques for quick and efficient reading It is advisable to make use of them to improve reading comprehension skills for students in reading classes skkn 2.1.3.2.3 Intensive reading Intensive reading is also widely used in a reading class Its is an effective way to explore the text, to go deeply into the meaning and the organization of the text According to Grellet (1981:4) “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details.” In addition, Nuttal (1989:23) writes: “Intensive reading involves approaching the texts under the close guidance of the teacher…, or under the guidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the ext the aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detail understanding of the text: not only of what is means but also of how the meaning is produced ” From the mentioned opinions intensive reading’s aim is to achieve full understanding of the logical arguments, attitude, and purposes of the writer as well as his linguistic means to achieve these purposes Sharing the same opinion with Nuttal, Douglas (2001:312) defines: “Intensive reading is usually a classroom oriented activity in which students focuses on linguistic or semantic details of a passage Reading calls students’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers and other surface structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implication, rhetorical relationships and the like”” In short, intensive reading is a basic classroom activity It is really effective if the teacher and his students know how to fully exploit this activity in class with the help of reading exercises 2.1.3.2.4.Extensive reading Extensive reading is also called “reading for fluency” The students read long texts to have general understanding, to develop fluency in reading or to relax This is an activity involving global understanding just as Grellet (1981:4) confirms: “Extensive reading means reading longer text, usually or one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity mainly involving general understanding.” In Brown’s opinion, besides practising fluency, extensive reading helps students enrich their language elements because it is one of the keys to achieve reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing (2001:301) And to Nuttal (1989:168), this kind of reading is also a very useful skill for students to widen their knowledge as he wrote: “The best way to improve one’s knowledge of foreign language is to go and live among its speakers The next best way is to read extensively in it.” To summarize, extensive reading is one of good ways to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language because its aim is to cover the content of text in the shortest possible period of time In the language classroom, the skkn teacher must introduce some suitable reading materials to students, as it is useful for them to form a good habit of reading 2.2 Practical background Most of the teachers at my school hardly use While-reading activities in teaching reading skill They believe that it is time- consuming Until now hardly have English teachers at high schools in my province used whilereading activities in teaching reading skill Therefore, I met with a lot of disapproval when I told my colleagues about my intention of using whilereading activities in reading lesson They suppose there is not enough time to use while-reading activities To illustrate the problem, three volunteer teachers from other classes were asked to come to classes 10A5 and 10A6 in two different periods to observe the reading lesson without notifying to the teacher and all the students in that class The observers just focused on what the teacher did in while – reading stage and the reaction of students in the class at this stage What is more, the teachers collected the students’ responses in order to compare the differences in students’ reading performance between the pre – and post improvement stage of this research A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE EVALUATION Total number of students evaluated: 80 (2 classes) Unit 11: National parks This lesson was carried out in the 24 th week of the second term of the academic year 2020-2021 Time allowance: 20 minutes (8 minutes for task and 12 minutes for task 2.) * THE RESULTS OF PRE – IMPROVEMENT CLASS OBSERVATION Clas Students’ Teachers’ activities Comments s activities 10 Task 1: This is a typical A5 Teacher pointed at the Some of them lesson of a textbook and asked her said “It is careless teacher students “What is the kind vocabulary She did not of task?” – “OK Now we matching” prepare anything learn how to match the Some said for the lesson words in A with their nothing, some and students felt definitions in B” kept on bored with her personal talks lesson so their reading Task 2: Most of the comprehension Teacher asked her students students skill would be to Task 2, and then she answered the affected skkn Clas s Students’ activities called some students to questions by answer the questions in the seeing the keys textbook in the reference book and only some of them listened to what the teacher said and worked individually Teachers’ activities Comments 10A6 Task 1: Teacher showed task “Yes” copied in A4 paper and asked the students “Can you read the passage quickly and finishing this task?” This is a teacher – centered teaching approach The teacher did not notice the feelings of the students Teacher even gave a wrong Task 2: Students sentence “Can The teacher asked students seemed tired you read the to task in the textbook and nervous and passage quickly with no emphasis on what tried to finish and finishing this they had to their task task?” in task This shows that teacher didn’t prepare the lesson plan before teaching that reading lesson In the above classes the author observed and graded with a rubric, these criteria not meet high expectations The following table below will show the results of pre-improvement class observation Criteria Meets expectatio n high skkn Meets expectation low Vocabulary Knowledge grammar Prior knowledge of 30 50 20 60 25 55 Interaction 18 62 Fluency 14 66 Accuracy 21 59 Table 1: Evaluating the students’ English reading competence In order to get the data for the study I give pre-task questionnaires to teachers and students to collect their attitudes toward while-reading activities and their difficulties in teaching and learning this skill These questionnaires were given at the beginning of the school year Question 1: What difficulties you face when learning reading? Difficulties Students Lack of motivation 10% Lack of background knowledge 18,75% Limitation of vocabulary grammatical structures & 43,75% Lack of appropriate reading skills 25% Time limitation 2,5% Question 2: What you expect from your teachers to help you overcome difficulties in learning reading? OPTIONS RESULTS N % A Encouraging you to activate your previous knowledge into reading texts 15 18.75 B Creating comfortable environment for you to exchange 12 skkn 15 information before reading C Offering you as many chances to read the passage as you expect 2.5 D Providing you with certain key words 10 E Explaining clearly about the reading contexts 3.75 F Suggesting you essential reading strategies needed for each kind of reading tasks 35 43.75 G Exploiting different kinds of reading materials suitable to your reading ability and your interest 6.25 Question 3: What difficulties you face when teaching reading? RESULTS OPTIONS N % Students’ lack of motivation 25 31.25 Students’ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge 35 43.75 Time limitation 2.5 Students’ limitation of vocabulary & grammatical structures 10 10 12.5 Students’ lack of appropriate reading skills Question 4: Do you often use while– reading activities in teaching reading? Why or Why not? All of the teachers (100%) not usually use while-reading activities in teaching reading The reasons they give are shown in the following table Each teacher can have more than one answer Numbers It takes up too much time Percentages( %) 47 skkn 31.33 Solemn (adj): let students listen to “Tiến Quân Ca” and then asks them: “ How you feel when you hear the song?” Communicate (v): drawing, poster Mournful Lull (adj): picture (v): miming …… Students guessed the meaning of the words and checked the words by scanning the text At the end of the stage, teacher divided the class into big teams and let students play a game in which these words were used such as “She lulls her babies to sleep at night”, “People can use English to communicate in many parts of the world.”…If any team has more correct sentences, they will be the winners - It might be a successful activity Task 2: * AIMS: The students will be able to understand the text and the task to enhance their reading skill - After finishing task 1, the teacher asked students to scan the passage again and then divided the class into two big teams and let students play a game called “ Noughts and crosses” ( ca rô), the students chose word by word in the cells and made the questions with each word, a correct answer got one ( O) or ( X), The group with O or X vertically, horizontally or diagonally first would be the winner, the sentences( questions and answers) had to be grammatically correct and made sense The students might be successful this kind of exercise because they felt it interesting EVALUATION: These activities were quite noisy but the students enjoyed them very much, especially when they tried to win in the games The weak students had difficulties in understanding the whole text although they were helped 4.3.2.2 The second try – out lesson – at class 10A6: Unit 12: Music - While – reading activities lasted in 20 minutes in a comfortable classroom skkn Task 1: * AIMS: The students will be able to obtain the new words and use them proficiently to improve their vocabulary - After the exciting pre-reading activities, Teacher prepared handouts of task which consisted of two columns (one column: the words/phrases, one column: the meaning of the words/phrases) and then asked students to match, and then the teacher asked students to make the sentences with these words The students might be successful in this kind of task Task 2: * AIMS: The students will be able to understand the text and the task to enhance their reading skill The teacher let students a game called “role-play game”, some students imagined that they were journalists, they used the questions below to interview classmates about music and then changed the role when they have finished - It might be a successful activity EVALUATION: The students were attracted by these activities Their reading skills were still low; however, they were more patient to all the reading tasks than before They met a lot difficulties in doing the second task because of long sentences, therefore in another class the author have to spend more time to let students complete their answers 4.3.3 Observing stage - Three volunteer teachers were asked to observe a lesson after the trying – out stage that illustrated the changes that had been made - The results of class observation were used to reflect on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that were improved or that got worse) - A survey was carried out to get information from students - Comments and conclusions were made * CLASS OBSERVATION AFTER ACTING skkn BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE LESSON USING WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES UNIT 13: FILMS AND CINEMA This lesson was carried out in the 28th week of the second term of the academic year 2020-2021 * AIMS: By the end of the lesson, Students will be able to: Develop the reading skill (scan for specific information) Broaden some vocabulary items related to the topic Use the vocabulary to talk about Film and cinema Improve the background knowledge about film industry * MATERIALS: Textbook, handouts, picture, cards * ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS: The students could feel less comfortable in reading comprehension, so teacher has to encourage them by preparing them well before reading lesson * ORGANIZATION: In groups, in the whole class Time/ Activity Warm – up (2’) Students’ activities Teachers’ activities Comment s - T shows Ss some pictures of films and asks them what topic they are going to - Answer learn to day ANSWER CINEMA KEYS: FILMS AND This period is - T asks Ss to tell some names of the considere films which they have seen( both d to be English and Vietnamese names are - Give some successful acceptable) names of the After films Activity 1: being consulted - T divides the class into teams: A and by B skkn Time/ Activity Teachers’ activities Students’ activities Comment s - Ss play the game English teachers at Nguyễn Trãi High School as well as conductin g the two try – out lessons, teacher has withdraw n some reasons for the success of the period Pre – - T sticks chart of the crossword puzzle reading and the questions on the board and gives activity instruction to play game (8’) *Instruction: each member of two team listens to the questions and raises his hands to answer The member who raise his hands first will be allowed to answer the question +One correct answer: mark +One wrong answer: lose mark +Answer keywords: marks +The team get higher mark will be the - Listening winner and raising hands to be Crossword puzzle: allowed to c h a r a c t e r s answer the t i c k e t questions c a r t o o n e n t e - Answer r c o m e d r a t a i n d y m a Questions: What are actors and actresses called in a film? - Listen to When going to the cinema, you need the teacher it? and write Watt Disney is famous for producing down all the skkn Pre – activity is interestin g Visual aids are effective enough Students cooperate better Time/ Activity Teachers’ activities Students’ activities Comment s this kind of film? new words because their they are One of the purposes of watching in notebooks acquainta film? nces This kind of film makes you laugh New very much? words and Shakespeare is famous for writing it? structures Activity 2: are taught - T asks Ss to answer the three questions - Do the logically in before you read task There is - Teacher asked students to work with a individually no problem partner and answered the three Check with questions in before you read their students’ Task 1: Find the word in the box that answer misunders While – can match with the definition on the - Give more tanding reading right column examples toward activity - Teacher introduces the words/ phrases teachers’ in the box all appear in the reading (20’) instructio passage ns Sequence( n): - Draw a sequence of gain on the board - Ask students guess what it is - It is a term in film, it also means “a part of a film that shows a particular event or a related series of events” in Vietnamese it is “ chuỗi, phân cảnh” Decade( n): skkn Time/ Activity Teachers’ activities Students’ activities - Write “2000-2010” on the board - Ask students how many years it shows Decade means “thap ki” Character( n): - Give students an example: Ex: Nobita is a character of Doremon series So what does character mean? Rapidly( adv): - opposite of “ slowly” Scene( n): - Teacher gives students picture of “Chay An” film and asks what it is - Students will answer that it is a scene of “Chay An” film - Ask students repeat all the new words three times - Ask students to match words and definition and give more examples which use the above words - Correct their mistakes and give - Play game feedback and give the Task 2: answers Grid find the lucky letter Giving instructions: skkn Comment s Time/ Activity Teachers’ activities Keep the groups as the last game On the board, I have a grid containing 12 squares Your duty is choosing one of them to see a letter or a pair of letter To get letters for your group, you must answer the questions which the square has If you have a wrong answer, you won’t get the letters Other groups having the answer will get those letters If you get a zero, you don’t have to answer, and then you still get the letter Each group takes turn to choose and get the letters The group getting the word “cinema” more than others will be winner Check students’ understanding How many groups we have? (3) How many squares we choose each turn?(1) What word we need to get to become the winner?(cinema) When did the history of cinema begin? What did scientists discover at that time? Did films in the early days have sound? When were audiences able to see long skkn Students’ activities Comment s Time/ Activity Students’ activities Teachers’ activities films? When was sound introduced? What form of films appeared as the old silent films were being replaced by spoken ones? E IN CI EM E N A C MA C I NE Task 3: Decide which of the options below is the best titles for the passage: - Teacher asks Ss to scan the passage again and choose the best answer Post - Summary the text – - Ask students to summarize the passage reading based on the cues activity 19th century 1910 (12’) 1920s 1905 1915 - Ask students to work in pair - T encourages the shy students to summarize the passage in front of the skkn - Using the cues to summarize the passage Comment s ... research - The research is focus on using While- Reading Activities to help 10 th form graders at Tinh Gia high school to improve reading comprehension in reading lessons 1.4.1 The students This... of English at Tinh Gia High school, and then a hypothesis was formed as follows: Training students while- reading activities would help improve the students? ?? reading comprehension 2 .3. 2.1.2 Drawing... strategies that I find useful in my application of using while- reading activities 2 .3. 2 Using while- reading activities to teaching and learning 2 .3. 2.1 Design strategies for improvement 2 .3. 2.1.1