The application of the communicative approach to the teaching of reading at tran phu high school tan binh districts ho chi minh city

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE NGƠ HỒNG MINH THẢO THE APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL- TAN BINH DISTRICT-HO CHI MINH CITY SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN TIẾN HÙNG, PH.D FEBRUARY 2007 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: THE APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING AT TRAN PHU HIGH SCHOOL- TAN BINH DISTRICT-HO CHI MINH CITY in terms of the statements of requirements for These in Master’s Programs issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, February 2007 Ngô Hoàng Minh Thảo ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Ngô Hoàng Minh Thảo, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the University Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the University Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, February 2007 Ngô Hoàng Minh Thảo iii AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Tiến Hùng , who has given me a lot of helpful advice and enthusiastic instructions on my thesis I am really grateful to all the lecturers of the 2003-2006 TESOL course at Ho Chi Minh University of Social Sciences and Humanities who have given me many useful, interesting lectures and professional, enthusiastic guidance Finally, I would like to thank the teachers and my students at Tran Phu high school for their assistance in completing the questionnaires and contributing valuable comments on teaching and learning in this school iv ABSTRACT In recent years, although the communicative approach has been applied in teaching English in Viet Nam, there are still some problems in applying this approach to the teaching of English in high school, especially to the teaching of reading The purposes of this study are to find out how the reading skill is being learned and taught at Tran Phu high school, to identify the difficulties in the application of the communicative approach to the teaching of reading at this school, to suggest some solutions to solve the problems The method employed in this study includes a survey with questionnaires delivered to both the students and the teachers at Tran Phu high school The results from the study reveal that reading is not being taught and learnt in a proper way Besides, there are a lot of difficulties in applying the communicative approach to the teaching of reading They fall into three main categories: those caused by the students, by the educational system, and by the teacher To sum up, in order to improve this way of learning and teaching, we have to apply the communicative approach to the teaching of reading First, The interactive reading model should be used Second, translation into Vietnamese should be considered where and when in teaching And last but not least, communicative reading activities should be organized during the reading class v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………………………….1 1.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………… …… 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY………………………………… ………… 1.2.1 THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND…………….……………… …… 1.2.2 THE CURRENT TEACHING BACKGROUND……….…………………….4 1.2.2.1 THE COURSE AND THE SYLLABUS………………………………… 1.2.2.2 THE TEACHERS……………………………………………………………4 1.2.2.3 THE STUDENTS…………… ………………………………………… 1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………………… 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS…………………………………………………… … 1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS…………………………………… ……………….6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW……… ………………………………………………………………….7 2.1 READING PROCESS…………………………………………………………… …7 2.1.1 DEFINITION OF READING………………………………… ……… 2.1.2 READING MODEL…….………………………………………… ……7 2.1.2.1 THE BOTTOM-UP MODEL…………………………………… 2.1.2.2 THE TOP-DOWN MODEL………………………………………9 2.1.2.3 THE INTERACTIVE MODELS……………………………… 10 vi 2.2 COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH……………………………………… 13 2.3 COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING……… 18 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY……………………………………………………………………………………………….23 3.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY…………………………………… …………………23 3.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS………………………………………………………….23 3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN……………………………………………………………….24 3.3.1 SUBJECTS……………………………………………… …………… 24 3.3.1.1 THE STUDENTS……………………………………………………… 24 3.3.1.2 THE TEACHERS……………………………………………………….24 3.3.2 QUESTIONNAIRE DESCRIPTION………………………………… 25 3.3.2.1 QUESTIONNAIRE A (FOR THE STUDENTS)………………………25 3.3.2.2 QUESTIONNAIRE B (FOR THE TEACHERS)………………………26 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……………………………………….28 4.1 RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONAIRE……………………… ………… …28 4.1.1 RESULT FROM QUESTIONAIRE A (FOR STUDENTS)…………….28 4.1.1.1 STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD LEARNING ENGLISH….…… 28 4.1.1.2 STUDENTS’ WAY OF STUDYING READING SKILL………………32 4.1.1.2.1 THE STUDENTS’ READING STRATEGIES………………….32 4.1.1.2.2 THE STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS WHEN READING………… 35 4.1.1.2.3 TRANSLATION INTO VIETNAMESE………… ……………36 4.1.1.3 STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN PAIR WORK, GROUP WORK………….39 vii 4.1.2 RESULT FROM QUESTIONAIRE B (FOR TEACHERS)…………….41 4.1.2.1 TEACHERS’ BACKGROUND…………………………………………41 4.1.2.2 TEACHERS’ WAY OF TEACHING READING SKILL……… …….42 4.1.2.3 THE C.A TO THE TEACHING OF READING…………… ……… 46 4.2 DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………… 51 4.2.1 TEACHING AND LEARNING READING…………………………….51 4.2.2 APPLYING THE C.A TO THE TEACHING OF READING………… 54 4.2.3 SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS…….………………………………………58 4.2.3.1 SOLUTIONS TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING READING 58 4.2.3.2 SOLUTIONS TO THE APPLICATION OF THE C.A TO THE TEACHING OF READING………………………………………… 62 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION…………………………… …………………………………………………….………… 65 5.1 SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS………………………………… ………… 65 5.1.1 TEACHING AND LEARNING READING………………… ……… 65 5.1.2 THE APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING………………… ………………….66 5.2 SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS……………………………………………………67 5.2.1 SOLUTIONS TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING READING… 67 5.2.2 SOLUTIONS TO THE APPLICATION TO THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING……………………67 5.3 CONCLUSION……………………………………….……………………………68 viii APPENDICES APPENDIX A……………………………………… ………………………………….69 APPENDIX A’………………………………………………………………………… 71 APPENDIX B………………………………………………… ……………………….73 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………….……… ……………………… ……….75 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CA = Communicative Approach CLT = Communicative Language Teaching EFL = English as a Foreign Language ESP = English as a Second Language LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1………………………………………………………………………… 31 Figure 2………………………………………………………………………… 33 Figure 3………………………………………………………………………… 34 Figure 4………………………………………………………………………… 35 Figure 5………………………………………………………………………… 37 Figure 6………………………………………………………………………… 38 ix Figure 7………………………………………………………………………… 39 Figure 8………………………………………………………………………… 40 Figure 9………………………………………………………………………… 44 Figure 10…………………………………………………………………………45 Figure 11…………………………………………………………………………47 Figure 12…………………………………………………………………………49 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.3.1.2…………………………………………… ………………………25 Table 4.1.1.1 a……………………………………………………….………….29 Table 4.1.1.1 b………………………………………………………………… 30 Table 4.1.1.1 c………………………………………………………………… 32 Table 4.1.1.2.1a ………………………………………………………… …….32 Table 4.1.1.2.1b ……………………………………………………………… 33 Table 4.1.1.2.1c ………………………………………………………….…… 34 Table 4.1.1.2.2 ………………………………………………………………….35 Table 4.1.1.2.3 a ……………………………………………………………… 36 Table 4.1.1.2.3 b ……………………………………………………………… 38 Table 4.1.1.3 a ………………………………………………………………… 39 Table 4.1.1.3 b ……………………………………………………………… 40 Table 4.1.2.2 a ………………………………………………………………… 43 Table 4.1.2.2 b ………………………………………………………………… 43 Table 4.1.2.2 c ………………………………………………………………… 45 Table 4.1.2.2 d ………………………………………………………………… 46 x Second, the teachers need to master CLT methodology In stead of finding the information themselves by reading books or searching in the internet, there should be frequent CLT training courses in which the teachers will learn about CLT as well as how to use it in their teaching This will encourage them to be confident in their teaching And they will try to improve themselves to feel adequate to employ CLT These training courses will raise the teachers' ability to their jobs well Third, a great number of changes must take place in the educational system The most important change is the learning purpose Learning English is learning how to communicate in English After we define the purpose of studying, we will change other things to match with that purpose The way of testing needs to be changed There should be more assessment tools to test for communicative competence It will be hard to that but we have to try our best The exam not only tests students’ grammar but also students’ English skills A new communicative material should replace the old one This year, the new textbook will be used in Vietnam I hope that book will improve the way of learning English Simple things such as the class size, the way of arranging desks, adaptation to the noisy learning environment must be adjusted There are only about 15 students with the same level in a class Desks are arranged in a circle for discussion Noisy learning environment is not discouraged by the school discipline These things are not easily changed because of our standard of living is not high The school fee will be a big problem for poor students This problem needs serious solution from the government 64 Although I have shown the solutions, these problems cannot be easily and quickly solved Solving them requires great effort from all of the teachers and related people in the educational system 65 CHAPTER CONCLUSION This chapter first will summarize the main findings of the research Second, the solutions to the difficulties of the application of the communicative approach to the teaching of reading will be presented The last section is the conclusion of the thesis 5.1 SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS 5.1.1 TEACHING AND LEARNING READING Most of the students cannot guess the unknown words in the reading text (86.5%), find the main ideas of a text by skimming (81.2%) or find the specific information or details of the text by scanning (79.2%) It’s due to the purpose of teaching and learning 51% of the students study English for examinations 84.6% of the teachers focus on the vocabulary, the structures in the text in the reading class because that serves for the requirements of the tests 57.3% of the students find translation very necessary The most popular reason for translation is “For understanding the content more carefully” (68%) That explains why 77.1% of the students find vocabulary difficult when reading a text They need to understand every word in a text for reasons First, they cannot skim the text to get the general idea Second, they have to learn by heart all the new words for the exams All the teachers (100%) have to translate the text into Vietnamese for the students need and the test need If translation always happens in the reading process, training of skills and strategies may be affected 66 We can see that the way of learning and teaching reading skill here is not a proper one We can improve teaching and learning reading at this school by applying the communicative approach 5.1.2 THE APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING teachers (69.2%) say that they sometimes apply the communicative approach teachers (23.1%) rarely apply this method And teacher (7.7%) never uses this approach It is clear that no teachers often apply the communicative approach to their teaching The difficulties of applying the communicative approach to the teaching fall into three main categories: those caused by the students, by the educational system, and by the teacher The frequent reasons for not applying the communicative approach caused by the students are:  Students’ low English proficiency (61.5%)  Lack of student motivation for attaining fluency (53.8%)  Students use Vietnamese during group work (84.6%) The second category that caused difficulties for the teachers is the educational system Specifically, this includes these following factors: - Too little time to develop CLT materials (93.2%) - Class sizes are too large to conduct CLT (100%) - The school’s grammar-based exams not justify using CLT (100%) - No assessment tools to test for communicative competence (fluency) ( 100%) - School administration discourages CLT (61.5%) 67 The third factor that causes difficulties for applying the communicative approach is the teacher himself The teachers have some problems such as: - Misconceptions about what CLT actually is (38.5%) - Few opportunities to learn how to use CLT (84.6%) - Feelings of inadequacy (46.2%) The suggested solutions are presented in the nest part 5.2 SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS 5.2.1 SOLUTIONS TO THE TEACHING AND LEARNING READING In order to improve this way of learning and teaching, we have to apply the communicative approach to the teaching of reading First, The interactive reading model should be used Second, translation into Vietnamese should be considered where and when in teaching And last but not least, communicative reading activities should be organized during the reading class 5.2.2 SOLUTIONS TO THE APPLICATION TO THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACHING OF READING Some changes must take place not only in student attitude but also in the teachers’ competence and the educational system First, students need to relearn their role as learners, the teacher’s role in the classroom, and the basic nature of language Learners are not passive receivers but active and creative contributors to the lesson The teacher is not the center of the class but the students themselves The teacher is the instructor, monitor of their students Learning a language means learning how to communicate by using that language not the language itself The teachers have to explain to their students the purpose of learning English Because CLT aims at communicative 68 competence, students might be more competent in the use of English for communication Second, the teachers need to master CLT methodology In stead of finding the information themselves by reading books or searching in the internet, there should be frequent CLT training courses in which the teachers will learn about CLT as well as how to use it in their teaching This will encourage them to be confident in their teaching And they will try to improve themselves to feel adequate to employ CLT These training courses will raise the teachers' ability to their jobs well Third, a great number of changes must take place in the educational system The most important change is the learning purpose Learning English is learning how to communicate in English Simple things such as the class size, the way of arranging desks, adaptation to the noisy learning environment must be adjusted There are only about 15 students with the same level in a class Desks are arranged in a circle for discussion Noisy learning environment is not discouraged by the school discipline 5.3 CONCLUSION The research reported in this thesis aimed at investigating the way of learning and teaching reading as well as identifying the difficulties in the application of the C.A to the teaching of reading at Tran Phu high school Some solutions to the problems are also suggested I hope that the research will help, to some extent, improve the way of learning and teaching reading in high schools in general, and in Tran Phu high school in particular 69 APPENDIX A BẢNG CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT Xin vui lòng cho biết ý kiến bạn cách bạn học kỹ đọc hiểu lớp Ý kiến bạn đóng góp nhiều cho nghiên cứu thực nhằm cải thiện cách dạy kỹ trường Nhũng câu trả lời bạn nhằm vào mục đích nghiên cứu không nhằm vào mục đích khác Xin vui lòng trả lời khoanh tròn mục thích hợp với ý kiến bạn Bạn thích học tiếng Anh lớp không? a thích b thích c chút d không thích Tại bạn học tiếng Anh? a để nói chuyện với người nước b để làm thi c để giải trí Lý hay mục đích khác (xin vui lòng ghi rõ)……………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Điểm thi bạn học kì vừa qua (xin vui lòng ghi rõ số điểm) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Bạn đoán nghóa từ đọc khóa không? a Có b Không Bạn tìm ý khóa cách đọc lướt qua không? a có b không Bạn tìm chi tiết mà không cần dịch sang tiếng Việt không? a có b không Khi đọc khóa, điều làm bạn thấy khó khăn? a Từ vựng b Ngữ pháp c Cả hai 70 Xin bạn cho biết ý kiến mức đôï cần thiết việc dịch sang tiếng Việt đọc a Không cần thiết b Hơi cần thiết c Khá cần thiết d Cần thiết e Rất cần thiết Lý việc dịch sang tiếng Việt bạn gì? a Để hiểu nội dung b Để hiểu kiến thức ngôn ngữ (từ vựng, ngữ pháp) c Để hiểu nhanh d Vì thói quen 10 Bạn có thường làm việc theo nhóm, theo cặp học kỹ đọc lớp không? a Có b Không 11 Bạn nói tiếng Việt hay tiếng Anh làm việc theo nhóm? a Tiếng Việt b Tiếng Anh 12 Bạn có thích làm việc theo nhóm, theo cặp không? a Có b Không XIN CHÂN THÀNH CẢM ƠN SỰ THAM GIA CỦA BẠN! 71 APPENDIX A’ SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE A ( FOR STUDENTS) This questionnaire is intended to investigate how you learn reading in class Your response will help my current study a lot Please write your answer or circle one option that is suitable for you in each question How are you interested in studying English in class? a Very interested b interested c little interested d not at all Why you learn English? a For speaking with foreigners b For examinations c For entertainment Other reasons or purposes (please specify) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… What is your score of the last English test? Can you guess the meaning of the unknown words in the reading text? a Yes b No Can you find the main ideas of a text by skimming without any help? a Yes b No Can you find the specific information or details of the text without translation? a Yes b No When reading a text, what you find difficult a Vocabulary b Grammar c Both 72 To what extent you find translation necessary in the reading class? a unnecessary b slightly necessary c fairly necessary d necessary e very necessary) What is your reason for translation in the reading class? a For understanding the content more carefully b For enhancing linguistic knowledge c For understanding more quickly d because of habit 10 Do you often pair work, group work when studying reading? a Yes b No 11 Do you speak Vietnamese or English during group work? a Vietnamese b English 12 Do you like pair work, group work? a Yes b No THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! ] 73 APPENDIX B SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE B ( FOR TEACHERS) This questionnaire is intended to investigate how you teach reading in class Your response will help my current study a lot Please write your answer or circle the options that are suitable for you in the question 13 hand in What’s your age? ……………………………………………………… How long have you been teaching English? In your opinion, to what extent you find the current textbook suitable for teaching reading? a very suitable b suitable c slightly suitable d not suitable Do you follow steps pre-reading, while-reading, post-reading in teaching? a Yes b No Do you translate the reading text into Vietnamese? a Yes b No In reading class, what you focus on? a improving students’ reading skills b the vocabulary, the structures in the reading text Do you use extra materials, extra means for teaching reading? a a lot b a few c not at all 10 How often you apply the communicative approach in teaching reading? 74 a b c d e Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never 11 Please circle the difficulties you have experienced in applying communicative approach in teaching reading a Too little time to develop CLT materials b Misconceptions about what CLT actually is c Few opportunities to learn how to use CLT d Feelings of inadequacy e Students’ low English proficiency f Lack of student motivation for attaining fluency g Student resistance to class participation h Students use Vietnamese during group work i Class sizes are too large to conduct CLT j The school’s grammar-based exams not justify using CLT k No assessment tools to test for communicative competence (fluency) l School administration discourages CLT m Lack of CLT materials Other difficulties (please specify) …………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… THANKS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION! 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