Luận văn thạc sĩ advances in english linguistics employable for the teaching of reading comprehension techniques to first year students at viettronics technology college

Output file VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES *** NGUYỄN CHÍ DŨNG ADVANCES IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS EMPLOYABLE FOR THE[.]

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *** NGUYỄN CHÍ DŨNG ADVANCES IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS EMPLOYABLE FOR THE TEACHING OF READING COMPREHENSION TECHNIQUES TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE (Những thành tựu Anh ngữ học ứng dụng vào việc giảng dạy kĩ Đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ Trường Cao đẳng Công nghệ Viettronics) M.A Minor Thesis Filed Code : English Teaching Methodology : 60 14 10 HANOI - 2010 z iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration i Acknowledgement ii Table of contents iii List of abbreviations, tables, figures and charts vi PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale Aims and objectives of the study 2.1 Aims of the study 2.2 Objectives of the study Methods of the study Scope of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Review of literature 1.1 Introduction 1.2 An Overview on the Nature of Reading 1.2.1 Definition of reading 1.2.2 Definition of reading comprehension 1.2.3 Reading process 1.3 Types of reading 1.3.1 Manner of reading 1.3.2 Purposes of reading 1.4 Some advances in English linguistics employable for the teaching of reading comprehension techniques 1.4.1 Extensive reading .9 1.4.1.1 Extensive reading definitions 1.4.1.2 Extensive reading vs Intensive reading 11 z iv 1.4.1.3 Using extensive reading in the language class .12 1.5 Previous research studies 14 1.6 Summary 15 CHAPTER 2: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING AT VIETTRONICS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE (VTC) 17 2.1 Introduction .17 2.2 An Overview on Viettronics Technology College 17 2.3 Teachers and Teaching Methods .18 2.4 Materials and Assessments .18 2.5 Data Collection, Findings and Discussion .19 2.5.1 Data Collection .19 2.5.1.1 The Subject 19 2.5.1.2 Data collection instruments 19 2.5.2 Data analysis and discussion 20 2.5.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards the role of reading English to their learning and their future career .20 2.5.2.2 Students’ attitude towards the reading text in Lifeline- Elementary book 21 2.5.2.3 Students’ activities in reading .22 2.5.2.3.1 Students’ activities in pre-reading 22 2.5.2.3.2 Students’ activities in while-reading 23 2.5.2.3.3 Students’ activities in post-reading 24 2.5.2.3.4 Teachers’ activities towards their students in the reading lesson .25 2.6 Summary 27 CHAPTER 3: THE EMPLOYMENT OF EXTENSIVE READING AS A POSSIBLE WAY OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TECHNIQUES TO THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT VTC 28 3.1 Introduction .28 3.2 The employment of extensive reading as a possible way of teaching reading comprehension techniques to the first year students at VTC 28 3.2.1 The reading material is easy .28 z v 3.2.2 A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available .29 3.2.3 Choosing what they want to read .30 3.2.4 Students read as much as possible 30 3.2.5 The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure information and general understanding .31 3.2.6 Reading is its own reward 31 3.2.7 Reading is individual and silent .32 3.2.8 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower 32 3.2.9 Teachers orient and guide their students 32 3.2.10 The teacher is a role model of a reader 33 3.3 Summary 34 PART III: CONCLUSION 35 Recapitulation 35 Limitations and suggestions for further research 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDIX I SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I z v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS ABBREVIATIONS VTC: Viettronics Technology College ER: Extensive reading FIGURES Figure 1: The traditional types of reading Figure 2: The general picture of advances in reading TABLES Table 1: Ten principles of extensive reading CHARTS Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards the role of reading English to their learning and their future career Chart 2: Students’ attitude towards the reading text in Lifeline- Elemetary book Chart 3: Students’ activities in pre-reading Chart 4: Students’ activities in while-reading Chart 5: Students’ activities in post-reading Chart 6: Teachers’ activities towards their students in the reading lesson z -1- PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale In the modern time, when the world entered a new millennium, the tendency towards globalization is an indispensable development Therefore, the desire for having a mutual understanding among the world economies, among the world citizens is becoming more and more urgent Thanks to the globalization and the entry to the WTO, Viet Nam is striving to the growth rate of world economy Using English as a useful means of communication is really in need Furthermore, to have good chances to find out stable jobs as well as to get high social positions, one of the key factors to the success is good at English For the reasons, teaching and learning English is getting highly development in the world Learners of English must concern in four practical skills in English as reading, speaking, writing and listening Obviously and surely, most of learners want to be the masters of all Some of them pay attention to speaking and listening, they consider speaking and listening as a tool for the communication and realization of their goal Also, writing is important and necessary for others because of their office documents, reports and business letters etc requirement However, most of them confirm reading is one of the most complex skills It is difficult for them to focus on reading, especially for reading texts with lengthy and unknown words They also complain that the reading classes are boring and they feel bored because they are able to understand a little about the subject they are reading Therefore teachers need to have some new advances to improve reading skill for learners Learners must be taught how to read and teachers should give best methods and new advances in reading to motivate and develop learners’ reading skill Viettrronics Technology College, a seven – year – old College is located in Hai Phong city has four faculties, Basic department, Electrical and Electronics department, Information Technology department and Economic Administration department We, English group belong to Basic department so we teach for non- English major students who are offered reading course in Lifelines book (Elementary by Tom Hutchinson) for the first term and second term For the first year students have to face up with quite a lot of problems in z -2- learning reading because most of them have just graduated from high school They seem to lack of basic background knowledge of reading Moreover, they are not acquainted with lengthy and unknown words reading texts in limitation time They only have two periods to read and carry out a reading text in each lesson that cause them many difficulties in reading and understanding the text That is also the reason why the first year students often have to look up new words and write down everything the teachers explain As a certain result, they are tired of reading and their reading skills still keep stable For all above reasons, the researcher wishes to try some new advances to improve reading skill for students, especially the first year students And the writer’s thesis is: “Advances in English Linguistics Employable for the Teaching of Reading Comprehension Techniques to First Year Students at Viettronics Technology College” Aims and objectives of the study 2.1 Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to investigate and survey the difficulties in reading encountered by non – English students at Viettronics Technology College from that Advances in English Linguistics Employable for the Teaching of Reading Comprehension Techniques can be given to motivate and help them to improve reading skill The specific aims are: + To investigate into current situation of teaching and learning reading at VTC + To find out the difficulties encountered by non – English students at VTC + To give the employment of extensive reading as a possible way of teaching reading comprehension techniques to the first year students at VTC 2.2 Objectives of the study + Data collection for the analysis from the first year students of classes in Economic administration department at VTC: + Find out the dominant difficulties + Evaluate what advances in English linguistics employable for the teaching of reading Comprehension Techniques are best suitable z -3- Methods of the study To get the aims of this study, the quantitative and qualitative research methods are used to observe and obtain information on students’ attitude in reading lesson Besides that Writer intends to use categorized and systematized research methods to find out students’ difficulties in reading and choose the best suitable advances using for teaching of reading comprehension techniques to first year students at Viettronics Technology College Scope of the study The main focus of the study is the employment of extensive reading as a possible way of teaching reading comprehension techniques to help non- English major students to solve reading texts, especially, lengthy and unknown words texts Due to the limitation of time, the author will pay more attention to survey on the first year students of Economic Administration department at VTC to investigate reading difficulties that students are often coped with then give some principles of extensive reading employable for the teaching of reading comprehension techniques to motivate them better in their reading skill Design of the study This minor thesis is divided into three parts Part A “Introduction” firstly, introduce how important English language is in modern society The students’ demands for studying English including four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing as well as students’ attitude to these Secondly, talk a little about the difficulties in studying reading comprehension at VTC Thirdly, presents the background aims, objectives, research methods, scope and design of the study Part B: Consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: Reviews literature and the literature of previous works and some linguistic concepts concerning to research topic such as definitions of reading, definitions of reading comprehension, types of reading, reading comprehension, definition of extensive reading, extensive reading versus intensive reading etc Chapter 2: Analyzes the general learning situation at VTC, teachers and their teaching methods, materials and assessment, especially, data collection, finding and discussion also will be focused in this chapter z -4- Chapter 3: Gives the employment of extensive reading as a possible way of teaching reading comprehension techniques to the first year students at VTC Part C: “Conclusion” summarizes what is obtained in this study and shows the limitations and gives some suggestions for further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW Review of literature 1.1 Introduction In this chapter, there are four sub-sections The first section deals with the theoretical background of reading skill including the definition of reading, reading comprehension, reading process, types of reading and the purpose of reading Especially, in the second section some advances in English linguistics employable for teaching of reading comprehension techniques will be given and because of limited time, the researcher only pay attention to one of these advances, extensive reading such as extensive reading definition, extensive reading versus intensive reading, using extensive reading in the language class and The third section focuses on the previous research of extensive reading on students’ reading The fourth section summarizes this chapter 1.2 An Overview on the Nature of Reading 1.2.1 Definition of reading There are numerous of reading definitions as: According to Goodman (1971: 135), reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language users, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming” z -5- Rumelhart (1977) defines “reading involves the reader, the text and the interaction between the reader and the text” William also shares the same idea on reading when he points out “written, then, often contain more than we need to understand them The efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning” Harmer (1989:153) states that “eyes receive the message and the brain has to work out the significance of the message” He views reading from a different perspective and he consider reading as a mechanical process Obviously, Experts give different reading definitions but they all share the same idea that reading includes reader, text, reading process and reading message 1.2.2 Definition of reading comprehension Reading comprehension plays a very important part in teaching and learning reading a foreign language It is the ability to understand information in a text and interpret it appropriately So that: Swam (1975:1) states “a student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding” Grellet (1981:3) proposes “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible” Lenz (2000:3) also says “reading comprehension is the process of constructing meaning from the text” It means that reading comprehension consists of at least two people, the reader and the write Thus, the process of comprehending involves decoding the writer’s words and using background knowledge to construct an approximate understanding of the writer’s passage On the whole, reading comprehension is the process that helps readers obtain information in a text and understand it appropriately z ... types of reading z -7- Silent reading Reading aloud Manner READING Purposes Extensive Intensive General information Reading for pleasure Skimming Scanning Brief information Reading for information... choose the best suitable advances using for teaching of reading comprehension techniques to first year students at Viettronics Technology College Scope of the study The main focus of the study is the. .. The first section deals with the theoretical background of reading skill including the definition of reading, reading comprehension, reading process, types of reading and the purpose of reading