(Skkn 2023) the impact of repeated reading on 10th students’ reading speed and reading comprehension – english 10 global success

TEACHING EXPERIENCE TOPIC: THE IMPACT OF REPEATED READING ON 10TH STUDENTS’ READING SPEED AND READING COMPREHENSION – ENGLISH 10- GLOBAL SUCCESS Môn: Anh văn SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO NGHỆ AN TRƯỜNG THPT HERMANN GMEINER VINH  TEACHING EXPERIENCE TOPIC: THE IMPACT OF REPEATED READING ON 10TH STUDENTS’ READING SPEED AND READING COMPREHENSION – ENGLISH 10- GLOBAL SUCCESS Môn: Anh văn Tác giả: Trần Thị Cẩm Nhung Tổ: Tiếng Anh- Nhạc _ Hoạ _ Thể dục Số Điện Thoại: 0949941951 Vinh, tháng 04 năm 2023 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION I Reasons for the study II Aims of the study III Methods of the study IV Scope of the study V New features in the study’s result Part II CONTENT I THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND The importance of reading skill The reading process 3 Classification of reading 3.1 According to manners of reading 3.1.1.Reading aloud 3.1.2 Silent reading 3.2 According to purposes of reading 3.2.1 Skimming 3.2.2 Scanning 3.2.3 Intensive reading 3.2.4 Extensive reading 3.2.5.Repeated reading Reading comprehension 10 4.1 Comprehension and reading comprehension 10 4.2 Factors involved in reading comprehension 12 4.3 Factors affecting reading comprehension 13 Repeated reading 14 5.1 What is repeated reading? 14 5.2 Background of repeated reading 15 5.3 Strategies of repeated reading 16 Research context 18 6.1 Methodology 18 6.1.1 Research questions 18 6.1.2 Participants 18 6.1.3 Materials 18 6.1.4 Procedures 19 Data analysis and discussion 20 7.1 Pre-test results 20 7.2.1 Reading speed 20 7.2.2 Repeated reading results 22 6.2.3 Post-test results 37 6.2.4 Comparison of results and means 37 Discussion of the main findings 39 PART 3: CONCLUSION 41 3.1 Pedagogical implications 41 3.2 Limitations of the study 42 3.3 Recommendation for further research 42 3.4 Conclusion 43 REFERENCES 44 PRE-TEST TABLE OF TABLE Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute (wpm) for two groups 20 Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension measured by percentage (%) for two groups 21 Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 22 Table Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the first week 23 Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 23 Table Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the first week 24 Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 24 Table Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the second week 25 Table Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 25 Table 10 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the second week 26 Table 11 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 26 Table 12 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the third week 27 Table 13 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 27 Table 14 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the third week 28 Table 15 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 28 Table 16 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the fourth week 29 Table 17 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 29 Table 18 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the third week 30 Table 19 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 30 Table 20 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the fourth week 31 Table 21 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 31 Table 22 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the fifth week 31 Table 23 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 32 Table 24 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the sixth week 32 Table 25 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 33 Table 26 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the sixth week 33 Table 27 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 34 Table 28 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the seventh week 34 Table 29 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 34 Table 30 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the seventh week 35 Table 31 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading speed measured by words per minute for two groups 35 Table 32 Reading speed of Treatment group for four reading times at the seventh week 36 Table 33 Means and standard deviations of participants’ reading comprehension for two groups at the first reading 36 Table 34 Reading comprehension of Treatment group for four reading times at the eighth week 36 Table 35 Posttest Means of Reading Speed and Reading Comprehension of Control and Treatment Group 37 TABLE OF CHART Chart 3.1 Pre-test and Post-test reading speed (wpm) of control and 38 treatment group 38 Chart 3.2 Pre-test and Post-test reading comprehension (%) of control and treatment group 39 PART I: INTRODUCTION I Reasons for the study English learning has been popular in Viet Nam for many years Especially, learning English has become a growing requirement when Viet Nam fosters its international relation Nowadays, people learn and use English for many different purposes and there is no doubt of the necessary role that English plays an important part in our society, especially in the process of regional and global integration People with good knowledge of English are needed in many fields This results in the great demand of learning English It is also an international means of interaction and communication in almost all the countries Moreover, the career opportunities will come to the graduate who can use English properly Hence, students have already realized the importance of English to their jobs in the future and they have paid more attention to the study of English Reading is considered as one of the most essential skills which language learners should master, particularly it helps to build a variety of language expression and structures, broadens general knowledge, increases levels of understanding and concentration and leads to lifelong learning and improvement in the first and second language skills “Reading is an essential skill for ESL or EFL students; and for many, reading is the most important skill to master” (Anderson, 1999) Krashen and Terrell (1989) state that “reading is an important source of comprehensible input and can make a significant contribution to competence in a foreign language.” According to West (1941), reading ability is powerful because it transfers from one language to another language Therefore, if a person’s reading speed in his mother language improves, it is likely that his foreign language reading rate will increase as a transfer effect Techniques and methods related to the teaching and learning skill process have also been taken into consideration There is a large number of reading methods to examine as well as improve reading speed and reading comprehension All these important impacts of reading make me always think about the way how to apply repeated reading to language teaching and learning All the afore mentioned reasons urge the author to carry out the study entitled “The impact of repeated reading on 10th students’ reading speed and reading comprehension- English 10.” Hopefully, the result could serve as a useful source of reference for those who concern about the subject matter II Aims of the study This study aimed to demonstrate that reading speed and reading comprehension of the 10th students at Hermann Gmeiner High School will improve with consistent use of repeated reading method To be more specific, the aims of the study are to examine the students’ abilities in reading skill; To explore the reality of applying repeated reading in teaching reading at high school; To find out the students’ attitudes towards practicing repeated reading in teaching of the teacher; To evaluate the effectiveness of the application repeated reading in reading lessons III Methods of the study The study has been carried out on the basic of material collection ,three compulsory tests : general test , pre-test and post- test and classical observation aimed to search for the impact of repeated reading on students’ reading comprehension and reading speed The pre-test and the post-test were created with the similar number of words, topics as well as difficulties The tests were used to evaluate students’ reading comprehension and reading speed They were taken to make sure that the participants had reached the desired level of their reading IV Scope of the study English 10 has been piloted for only year Therefore, both teachers and students have a lot of difficulties in teaching and learning a new curriculum With the aim of discovering the effect of repeated reading on teaching and learning reading for 10th learners, survey is used as the main method to collect the needed data from the learners 70 students of Hermann Gmeiner High School were involved in this study V New features in the study’s result This research is about the impact of the repeated reading on EFL learners’ reading speed and reading comprehension The analysis of the obtained results has let us conclude that this method helps students to improve their reading speed by increasing their total number of words per minute and improve their reading comprehension by getting more correct answers It has been proved statically that the participants who have received the RR instructions have strongly impacted on their reading speed and reading comprehension performance Part II CONTENT I THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND The importance of reading skill Reading plays an inevitably important role in comprehending a text and using the foreign language appropriately and fluently “A person’s future opportunities for success and prosperity will be even more entwined with skill reading abilities It is therefore an important social responsibility to offer every person the opportunity to become a skilled reader, and in many cases, this means becoming a skilled L2 reader” (Grabe, 2009: 6) It is possible for us to claim that reading has a very important role to play in language learning as it can bring benefits to learners William (1984: 13) suggests some advantages of reading to learners including: First, learners can have further practice in the language that they have learnt This means that learners will have many opportunities to gain further knowledge of the target language Second, learners can practice language in order to reuse it in other skills such as speaking and writing Learners can not understand anything if they can not read Third, learners can learn how to get benefit from the texts to extract the information they need The more comprehension learners conceive, the more major intelligence they receive Reading has a large number of major benefits that help learners study language faster and more successfully Reading is one of the most essential skills for language learners When learners’ reading skill improve, their listening, speaking, and writing also advance There are some specific reasons why learners are encouraged to practice reading For instance: The constant repetition of words and patterns in reading helps you learn and remember vocabulary and grammar structures Reading plays an important part in providing vocabulary and structure types Learners can understand the usage of structures better when they catch the meaning of sentences Reading is something you can your own Learners can spend much time on reading by themselves Language learners are able to practice reading skill whenever they want The skill does not extremely depend on others The reading process Reading is a completely individual activity which takes place in all different ways from newspapers, magazines, written texts, etc Understanding the process of reading is probably important to understanding of its nature Therefore, “Reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message ” (Harmer J, 1989:190) Thus the speed of reading depends much on mechanical process of 6.2.3 Post-test results For the Post-test, each student was given a text named “Dried food” which was about 500 words The test was selected from Mosback (1976) The main aim of the Post-test was to clarify the impact of repeated reading on the students’ reading speed and reading comprehension In the post-test, the researcher has calculated the means of reading speed of the control and treatment groups after the treatment period The results were as follows Table 35 Posttest Means of Reading Speed and Reading Comprehension of Control and Treatment Group Control Group The Mean in Reading Speed (wpm) The Mean in Reading Comprehension (%) Treatment Group 119 171 42.3% 65.7% From Table 35 we have noticed that the control group scored a mean of 119 wpm in reading speed, whereas the treatment group scored 171 wpm Considering reading speed, the treatment participants increased their reading rate much higher than control participants The treatment group showed a significant improvement in reading rates after the intervention In the scores distribution of reading comprehension, as shown in the table above, the treatment group gained 65,7% and the average mean of control group was 42,3 % We can notice that the control group gained much lower comprehension level than the treatment 6.2.4 Comparison of results and means At the end of the experiment, both control and treatment groups tested again After the examination of the post-test results, we notice a significant difference between the control and treatment in term of their reading speed as well as reading comprehension After collecting the data of the pre and post test, the scores will help us to provide a statistical analysis Chart 3.1 and 3.2 below will present performance of the control and treatment groups in reading speed and reading comprehension 37 180 160 140 120 Pre-test 100 Post-test 80 60 40 20 Control Group Treatment Group Chart 3.1 Pre-test and Post-test reading speed (wpm) of control and treatment group After the examination of the post-test results, we notice a significant difference between control and treatment group At the pre-test, their reading speeds remained approximately the same, only wpm difference (109 wpm vs 112 wpm) However, a difference of 52 wpm was reached in the post-test The TG increased an average of 59wpm after weeks of the treatment The reading speed moved from 112 to 171 wpm Whereas the CG improved only 10 wpm after weeks without intervention The initial reading rates between the two groups were low, but after the intervention of RR, the TG read 52 wpm faster than the CG The RR procedure did have facilitative effect on enhancing EFL learners’ reading rate Overall, through RR, students not only read faster but also comprehend better, with comprehension levels moving from 42,6 to 65,6% for the treatment group Further more, the reading comprehension levels did differ significantly between groups after their different reading intervention When the comprehension scores were compared within groups, it was found that the TG improve 23,1% at the posttest However, the CG did not significantly change at the post-test, only 1,6% 38 70 60 50 Pre-test 40 Post-test 30 20 10 Control Group Treatment Group Chart 3.2 Pre-test and Post-test reading comprehension (%) of control and treatment group Discussion of the main findings The study examined the impact of students’ reading speed and reading comprehension through repeated reading activities To determine the students’ reading speed and reading comprehension, they had to pre-test and post-test From the analysis of the data, students who have followed the RR method have marked higher gain scores than the students who have not followed the RR method After analyzing the data, both reading speed and reading comprehension of the treatment group have increased not only over the treatment period, but also from the pre-test to the post-test These results indicate that the participants in the treatment group have desmonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the number of words as well as the level of comprehension from the pre to post-test However, the control group has demonstrated minimal improvement in both speed and comprehension This increase was confirmed via an experimental period not to be a chance finding, but rather a real finding which was due to the new method that the TG followed These findings support the important evidence that the researcher advanced the method of RR as an effective technique for improving aspects of reading which included speed and comprehension According to the researcher’s calculation, we notice that the more texts students read, the more improvement they made The findings suggest that the RR method is an effective method in increasing reading speed and reading comprehension of EFL learners in the TG of this study The researcher confirms what has already been proved on this method as being the promising method for EFL learners The comparison of reading speed growth in the CG and TG at the beginning and at the end of the study shows these following conclusion While in the pre-test, 39 both groups read the text with the approximate degree of speed, in the post-test, however, the TG participants read faster the participants of the CG This suggests the positive effect of the RR instructions that the TG received during the treatment phase (See chart 3.1) These findings confirm that the improvement in reading speed is mainly related to the RR instructions to which the experimental group has been exposed Even though, both groups were at the same level of reading speed prior to the beginning of the study and were put in the same conditions, with the only exception that they were not given the same reading method, and the results show that TG outperforms the CG in its ability to read more words per minute at the end of the experiment The conclusion we can draw is that although there was a minimal improvement wpm of the CG in the post-test, the improvement in the TG was much greater The comparison of reading comprehension growth in the CG and TG at the beginning and at the end of the study shows the different results (See chart 3.2) the observation can confirm the RR method helps students develop their reading comprehension In summary, the results obtained in the field work reveal two major findings Firstly, reading speed has been enhanced and secondly, reading comprehension has been improved through practicing the repeated reading 40 PART 3: CONCLUSION Part present a summary of all the findings in this study Some pedagogicals are draw from these findings for teachers who want to improve students’ reading speed and reading comprehension through the use of the repeated reading method in EFL setting; limitations of the study and recommendation for further research are described at the end of the chapter 3.1 Pedagogical implications The results of the present study shed additional light on the effect of repeated reading on improving reading speed and comprehension levels Based on findings from the study, these following recommendation can be made for instructional practice These pedagogical implications need to be taken with a great awareness by instructors As the reading method “Repeated Reading” followed in this study has proved its effectiveness in making significant improvement on students’ reading speed as well as reading comprehension One possible implication points out to the need to improve ESL/EFL students' reading speed In fact, adopting rapid reading programs may yield in interesting results in developing students reading speed beyond a minimal threshold because it assists them to read beyond the word level and allows them to read in meaningful chunks of thought The current study seeks to locate the two issues of reading speed and reading comprehension It should be noted that although the development of adequate reading speed should receive a high priority in our learning programs, we should recall, as Nuttall (1982:37) states that reading speed without comprehension is worthless Hence, if we want to serve ESL/EFL learners' interests in reading improvement, priority should not be given to the former objective at the expense of the latter; that is to say, students should be continuously encouraged to read at a high speed and maintaining a suitable level of comprehension simultaneously Furthermore, the RR method is an efficient method increasing reading speed Thus, the teacher should support the RR by the independent silent reading in order to provide a strong platform for promoting reading development for all students and at all level by enhancing their general language competence (Grap, 1991) According to Mc Ewan (2002:58), students need other kinds of reading experiences, in addition to their twice daily dosage of repeated reading; they also need ten to fifteen minutes of daily practice reading text silently Teachers should encourage their students to practice more and more reading in class under their guidance via the repeated reading and outside classroom independently via the independent silent reading A combination of these methods which insures the better growth of EFL learners’ reading abilities 41 3.2 Limitations of the study Like any other researches, the current study contains some potential limitations Some are due to the methods undertaken to conduct it; others are due to the measures adopted for evaluation A number of important limitations to our findings need to be highlighted The first limitation is related to the number of subjects on which these results are obtained A total of 70 participants across the two groups is small if it is compared to the total number of the EFL learners Indeed, the nature of the current study requires considerable efforts from the researcher to manage the members of the treatment groups, especially that the participants need individualized attention (in the pre and post tests and during the administration of timed and paced readings) In other words, the researcher needs time and efforts to calculate reading speed and correct comprehension tests for each participant With a larger group, it would be possible to generalize the findings to the whole readers of the study A second major limitation is related to the duration of the treatment Time factor is very important in the present study Speed is a skill that needs extensive practice over a fairly long period of time It was possible for us to control this study within the scope of time allocated to reading (eight weeks and 15 minutes for each reading period) This short period of time prevented us from extending the treatment period to train students in paced reading With more time, students could have achieved better results Another problem faced in this study is adapting or matching the passages' level of difficulty to the students' level All texts in the study were collected from their English course book and it is difficult to ensure that the texts were the same difficulties, number of words and kinds of comprehension questions 3.3 Recommendation for further research My research confirmed that repeated reading is a valuable tool to improve reading speed and reading comprehension Based on the findings and the limitations of the study, the following recommendation is made for further research The research can be extended in a large scope with other learners out of the University This should be carried out with large numbers of participants if there is more time As a result, the research would be more effective, reliable and convincing Also, the researcher should collect more longer texts out of the course book with various topics in order to ask students to practice repeated reading at home by themselves In short, despite the above shortcomings, it is hoped that it will contribute to the success of the reading teaching and learning process of the teachers and the 42 students Thus, it can help students and give them encouragement as well as knowledge they need for their learning 3.4 Conclusion This research is about the impact of the repeated reading on EFL learners’ reading speed and reading comprehension The analysis of the obtained results has let us conclude that this method helps students to improve their reading speed by increasing their total number of words per minute and improve their reading comprehension by getting more correct answers It has been proved statiscally that the participants who have received the RR instructions have strongly impacted on their reading speed and reading comprehension performance 43 REFERENCES A Vietnamese Authors: Tran Thi Lan Anh (2011) Developing reading proficiency for the 1st-year English non-majors at Nghe An JTTC through cognitive strategy training Unpublished MA thesis Vinh University Vo Thi Kim Cuc (2013) A study on EFL university students’ reading speed and reading comprehension Unpublished MA thesis Vinh University Hoàng Văn Vân Tiếng Anh 10- Global success, Nhà Xuất Giáo dục, Hà Nội B English Authors: Aebersold, J A & Field, L M (1997) From Reader to Reading Teacher CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge Aitken, K (1977) Using cloze procedure as an overall language proficiency test TESOL Quarterly, 11, 59-67 Alderson J C (2000) Assessing Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Anderson, N J (1999) Improving Reading Speed Activities for the Classroom English Teaching Forum 37/2: 2-5 5.Anderson, R.C., Hiebert, E H., Scott, J.A., and Wilkerson, I.A (1985) Becoming a nation of readers Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Education 6.Anderson, R and Pearson P (1984) A Schemata Theoretic View of Basic Processes on Reading Comprehension.In P.D Pearson, ed Handbook of Reading Research London: Longman, pp 255-317 Armbruster, B , Osborn, J & Lehr, F (2003) Put Reading First: The Research Building for teaching Children to Read,(2nd Edition) Adler, C.Ralph (Ed), RMC Research Corporation Badrawi, N (1992) The Reading Dilemma: Meeting Individual Needs English Teaching Forum: A Journal for the Teacher of English Outside the United States, Vol 30, Number 3, July 1992 pp 16-19 Brown, H D (2001) Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy New York: Longman 44 PRE-TEST TO BE OR NOT TO BE VEGETERIAN A strict vegetarian is a person who never in his life eats anything derived from animals The main objection to vegetarianism on a long-term basis is the difficulty of getting enough protein – the body-building element in food If you have ever been without meat or other animal foods for some days or weeks (say, for religious reasons) you will have noticed that you tend to get physically rather weak You are glad when the fast is over and you get your reward of a succulent (tasty) meat meal Proteins are built up from approximately twenty food elements called 'amino-acids', which are found more abundantly in animal protein than in vegetable protein This means you have to eat a great deal more vegetable than animal food in order to get enough of these amino-acids A great deal of the vegetable food goes to waste in this process and from the physiological point of view there is not much to be said in favour of life-long vegetarianism The economic side of the question, though, must be considered Vegetable food is much cheaper than animal food However, since only a small proportion of the vegetable protein is useful for body-building purposes, a consistent vegetarian, if he is to gain the necessary 70 grams of protein a day, has to consume a greater bulk of food than his digestive organs can comfortably deal with In fairness, though, it must be pointed out that vegetarians claim they need farless than 70 grams of protein a day Whether or not vegetarianism should be advocated for adults, it is definitely unsatisfactory for growing children, who need more protein than they can get from vegetable sources A lacto-vegetarian diet, which includes milk and milk products such as cheese, can, however, be satisfactory as long as enough milk and milk products are consumed Meat and cheese are the best sources of usable animal protein and next come milk, fish and eggs Slow and careful cooking of meat makes it more digestible and assists in the breaking down of the protein content by the body When cooking vegetables, however, the vitamins, and in particular the water-soluble vitamin C, should not be lost through over-cooking With fruit, vitamin loss is negligible, because the cooking water is normally eaten along with the fruit, and acids in the fruit help to hold in the vitamin C Most nutrition experts today would recommend a balanced diet containing elements of all foods, largely because of our need for sufficient vitamins Vitamins were first called 'accessory food factors' since it was discovered, in 1906, that most foods contain, besides carbohydrates, fats, minerals and water, these other substances necessary for health The most common deficiencies in Western diets today are those of vitamins The answer is variety in food A well-balanced diet having sufficient amounts of milk, fruit, vegetables, eggs, and meat, fish or fowl (i.e any good protein source) usually provides adequate minimum daily requirements of all thevitamins New words: succulent (adj): ngon, bổ; physiological (adj):thuộc sinh lí học; consistent (adj): phù hợp; bulk (n): chất xơ; digestive (adj): tiêu hóa; advocate (v): ủng hộ lacto-vegetarianism (n): chế độ ăn chay cho phép ăn số sản phẩm động vật Task 1:Read the total passage once and record your reading time Task 2: Select the answer which is most accurate according to the information given in the passage A strict vegetarian A rarely eats animal products C never eats any animal products B sometimes eats eggs D never eats protein We feel weak when we go without meat and other animal products A because we are reducing our food intake B because we not get enough protein C because vegetables not contain protein D unless we take plenty ofexercise Proteins are built up from A approximately twenty different foods B about twenty different vegetables C various fats and sugars D about twenty different amino-acids Physiologically, life-long vegetarianism may not be good because A it makes people very thin B the body must process too much waste C the farmers lose money D vitamin-deficiency diseases may result One thing in favour of vegetarianism is that A vegetable food is easier to digest C vegetable food is cheaper B animal food is less expensive D it is good for the digestion The body's daily need for proteinis A 90 grams B 50 grams C 70 grams D at least 100 grams The digestive organs can comfortably deal with A any quantity of food per day B A limited quantity of food per day C less than 70 grams of food per day D any amount of vegetable foods Vegetarianism is not suitable for growing children because they A need more protein than vegetables can supply B cannot digest vegetables C use more energy than adults D cannot easily digest milk and milk products Slow and careful cooking of mest A preserves the vitamins C makes it easier to digest B breaks down the vitamins D reduces the protein content 10 Most nutrition experts today believe the food weeat should contain A more meat than vegetables B more vegetables than meat C fruit, cereals and fish as well as meat and vegetables D as many different kinds of vegetables as possible POST-TEST DriedFood Centuries ago, man discovered that removing drops of water from food helps to preserve it, and that the easiest way to this is to expose the food to sun and wind In this way the North American Indians produce pemmican (dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the Scandinavians make stockfish and the Arabs dried dates and 'apricot leather' All foods contain water – cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish anything from 80% to 60% depending on how fatty it is If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food to go bad is checked Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia The methods used vary, but in general, the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying Plums, for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, soin creasing therate of drying Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically The conventional method of such dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110° C at exit This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes In the first case, the dried material is removed from the roller as a thin film which is then broken up into small, though still relatively coarse flakes (thick pieces) In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as a fine powder Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately and then mixed Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, and they not need to be stored in special conditions For these reasons they are invaluable to climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them Usually it is just a case of replacing the dried-out moisture with boiling water New words: pemmincan (n): ruốc, scandinavian (n): người X căng-đi-na-vi, stockfish (n): cá khô không muối, Mediterranean (adj): (thuộc) Địa Trung Hải, tray (n): khay, raisin (n): nho khô, minced meat (n): thịt băm Task 1:Read the total passage once and record your reading time Task 2: Select the answer which is most accurate according to the information given in the passage The open-air method of drying food A is the one most commonly used today B was invented by the American Indians C has been known for hundreds of years D tends to be unhygiennic The water content A does not vary from food to food B is greater in green vegetables than in lean meat C is greater in fish than in vegetables D has never been accurately calculated Bacteria which cause food to go bad A cannot live in sunlight B are killed by drying C are in no way dependent on the water content D have their activity greatly reduced by drying Fruit is sun dried A always by the same method B generally on trays C in every country in the world D by spreading it out under glass panels Sulphur fumes are used before drying some fruits A to dry them more quickly B to preserve their colour C to prevent the skin from craking D to kill off bacteria Nowadays vegetables are most commonly dried A on horizontal cylinders B in hot-air chambers C in the sun and wind D using the open tray method Powdered coffee is made A by spraying the liquid over acylinder B in one of two different ways C in the same way as minced meat D by passing through a machine which crushes it into very small pieces If soup requires recognizable pieces of meat, they are A treated separately B allowed to fall to the bottom of the drying chamber C mixed in later as a fine powder D sold separately in sealed plastic bags Dried foods A are often packed in cans or frozen B are used by soldiers and climbers C need more storage space than soldiers usually have available D are much cheaper than canned or frozen products 10.Housewives like dried foods because they A are quick to prepare B taste better C can be preserved by boiling in water D look fresh and appetizing when cooked by different kinds of vegetables as possible