2475 WAYS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH MAJORED STUDENTS Ninh Ngoc Dan Thanh, Le Thi Diem Phuc, Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai Faculty of English, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTEC[.]
WAYS TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS FOR ENGLISH- MAJORED STUDENTS Ninh Ngoc Dan Thanh, Le Thi Diem Phuc, Nguyen Thi Xuan Mai Faculty of English, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH) Supeviver: Huynh Thi An (MA) ABSTRACT The receptive skill, reading, is an effective tool for achieving written communications (Cand, 2015) Learners are required to have opportunities to develop their reading skills Therefore, this paper discusses ways to improve reading skills for English- majored students through the analysis of reputable studies by well- known researchers The introduction displays how this macro-skill was learnt The second part points out typical methods and the pros and cons of each method The third one discusses the suitable methods for English majored students at HUTECH Keywords: Reading skills, English-majored students, typical methods INTRODUCTION Reading is one of basic skills in English It was classified as input skill It means when people read something they will get information from it In the 21st century, fast technological development has led to social changes Lian (2011, p 5) said that the world is changing ‚at an exceptional rate, known as better communication and understanding often made easy and negotiated by modern technology‛ Moreover, singular differences were taken into consideration because it was supposed to have their own features McWhorter (1998) pointed out that there were active and passive learners While active learners can decide what is important to write and expand their mind with their understanding and experience of the topics, passive learners tend to follow the teacher’s instruction with the purpose of obtaining a good mark Given the differences of features, responsibility for the learners to understand more how to aware of their expectations, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their problems Students who study, practice and improve their English reading skills through their computer software or Internet resources are good at understanding to make personal connections with others learning at their speed They could also improve their reading comprehension while they use the World Wide Web LITERATURE REVIEW Cotter (2007) pointed out when students study English in their classroom, they also get involved in learning about how language works They improve their English in many ways such as using a good dictionary to find new words, studying how to read with a native English teacher Backlund (1990) found out three areas of knowledge that affected communication including social knowledge, 2475 self-knowledge, and content knowledge Other problems that hinder oral communication are: dominating the conversations, using wrong volume and pitch, using small talk to ignore someone and interrupt people Bashiruddin (2003) showed that students study Oral Communication Skills (OCSs) in lower secondary public school in Karachi, Pakistan They have two schools systems: private English and government Urdu-medium school Students and teachers learn English as a second language There are five ways to improve students’ English reading skills: Predicting, visualizing, making connections, summarizing and questioning In order to be excellent in reading comprehension, students set a goal for their purposes One plan for improving comprehension is predicting Research showed that good English reading students use their experiences and knowledge to make guess and formulate ideas as they read (Block & Israel, 2005) It is necessary to compare the result in the actual text with the guess process as it leads the students to improve their aware Another plan that good English students pay attention to is visualization (Adler, 2001) Visualization demands the students to build an image of a text Making connections is another plan that used in the reading progression By making connections, the students motivate their previous understanding and connect the ideas in the text to their own experiences The progression of summarization demands the students to decide what is necessary when reading and condensing the information in the students by their own words (Adler, 2001) Students use the questioning before, during and after reading The questioning progression requires students to ask question to build meaning, improve understanding, find out the answers, solve problems, find out the information, and discover new knowledge (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000) IMPLICATION After collecting and analyzing, the paper suggests that there are three major ways in the research suitable for Hutech students, especially English - major students First, Hutech students should read more English materials such as books, newspaper and novels We not have enough vocabulary to understand all contents of the text although we read books every day However, you ought to try your best to read such as an article on a newspaper You will gradually improve your reading skills and your vocabulary If you meet a difficult word, try to understand the meaning of the word based on the context mentioned You will look up this word in the dictionary after the reading and take note to learn by heart it According to Day and Bamford (1998), Extensive Reading has several characteristics, these are: (a) Students read as much as possible, (b) A avariety of materials on a wide range of topics are available, (c) Students select what they want to read (d) The purposes of reading are usually for pleasure, information, and general understanding (e) Reading is its own reward (f) Reading materials are well within linguistic competence of the students (g) Reading is individual and silent (h) Reading speed is usually faster than slower, (i) Teachers orient students to the goal of the program, (j) The teacher is a role model of reading for the students Improve Reading skill by reading a lot of articles or books is suitable with Hutech students, because of more reading, more understanding It helps students more sensitive, develop mind Not only increase reading skill, but also students 2476 expand knowledge Books, magazines and even the Internet are great learning tools which require the ability to read and understand what is read Second, Extensive reading is useful for personal development Reading is not only skimming, but also deep understanding Brown (2001) claims that extensive reading is caried out to achieve a general understanding of texts The advantage of extensive reading that Hutech students who read more will not only become better and more confident readers but they will also raise their reading, writing and listening, and speaking abilities and their vocabulary will be more weathy The other situiation was a study conducted by Edy (2014) He studied the efficiency of extensive reading on students’ reading comprehension accomplishment and students’ motivation at STAIN Curup, Indonesia The study demonstrates that students taught through extensive reading activity showed higher marks than those taught by traditional way Why extensive reading is suitable for Hutech students Students can remember for a long time just because of extensive understanding It also promotes to increase the ability of vocabulary, understand a lot in all field as well as social knowledge Especially, it helps English- major students to get higher scores in reading exams Last but not least, Reading Strategy Questionnaire is the best choice for Hutech students Students in university, reading skill is always a difficult problem, especially English- majored students Therefore, reading strategy is essential This skill can make Hutech student a lot of thing, from reading the text, they can answer the question leading to understanding the passage This is also in line with Ehrman et al.’s opinion (2003) when they propose that highly advanced L2 learners who have reached distinguished levels of proficiency tend not to need affective strategies any longer That way will help Hutech students improve self-study spirit, self-study more research document, cultivate vocabulary to answer the questions correctly Those are the three most appropriate ways for Hutech students With modern facilities, the library is the best place for students to exchange knowledge With a lot of books, it can help English students to choose books that suit themselves to be able to improve their reading skills CONCLUSION The research aims to provide effective ways for English- majored students to perform better It is highly recommended that three effective ways including spending more time for English-material reading habit, extensive and Reading Strategy Questionnaire, really help students enhances their reading competence Block and Israel (2005) believed that proficient students’ reading is meaningfully linked to how much a student can attain his or her fulfilment and job success REFERENCES [1] Adler, C R (Ed) (2001) Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read Jessup, MD: ED Pubs [2] Backlund, C (1990) Strategy instruction to improve speaking ability in Egypt and Japan Retrieved on December 2nd, 2014 from: http://www.Google.jo/#q=baklund+1990 2477 [3] Bashiruddin, A (2003) Learning English and learning to teach English: The case of two teachers of English in Pakistan Unpublished Doctorate Dissertation, University of Toronto, Canada [4] Block, C., & Israel, S (2005) Reading first and beyond: The complete guide for teachers and literacy coaches Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press [5] Brown, D H (2001) Principles in Language Learning and Teaching New York: Pearson Education Inc [6] Cand, L M S (2015) The importance of four skills Reading, Speaking, Writing, Listening in a Lesson Hour European Journal of Language Literature Studies [7] Cotter, C (2007) Speaking well – four steps to improve your ESL EFL Students Speaking Ability Retrieved March 12th, 2008 from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Speaking-Well Four-Steps-ToImprove-Your-ESLEFL-Students-Speaking-Ability&id=631232 [8] Day, R R., & Bamford, J (1998) Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [9] Edy, S (2014) The Effectiveness of Extensive Reading on Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement as Observed from Students’ Motivation Journal Pendidikan Humaniora 2(1), 5458 [10] Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A (2000) Strategies that work teaching comprehension to enhance understanding York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers [11] Lian, A P (2011) Reflections on language learning in the 21st century: The rhizome at work Rangsit Journal of Arts and Sciences, 1(1), 3-15 [12] McWhorter, K T (1998) College reading and study skills NJ, USA: Pearson [13] Oxford, R L (2003) Language learning styles and strategies: An overview Oxford University Press 2478 ... choose books that suit themselves to be able to improve their reading skills CONCLUSION The research aims to provide effective ways for English- majored students to perform better It is highly recommended... systems: private English and government Urdu-medium school Students and teachers learn English as a second language There are five ways to improve students? ?? English reading skills: Predicting,... most appropriate ways for Hutech students With modern facilities, the library is the best place for students to exchange knowledge With a lot of books, it can help English students to choose books