Điều tra về nhận thức của giáo viên và thực tế áp dụng phân tích diễn ngôn vào việc dạy đọc hiểu tại trường đại học ngoại ngữ đại học huế

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRUONG THANH BAO TRAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF APPLYING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TO TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRUONG THANH BAO TRAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF APPLYING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TO TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.14.01.11 SUPERVISOR: DO THI XUAN DUNG, Ph.D HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TRƯƠNG THANH BẢO TRÂN ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THỰCTẾ ÁP DỤNG PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGƠN VÀO VIỆC DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.14.01.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS ĐỖ THỊ XUÂN DUNG HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that the thesis entitled ―An investigation into teachers‘ perceptions and practice of applying Discourse Analysis to teaching Reading comprehension at University of Foreign languages, Hue University‖ has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university The thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference or citation is made Researcher Trương Thanh Bao Tran Hue, 2018 i ABSTRACT Discourse Analysis is not a new approach to teaching and learning English all over the world However, in the context of Vietnam, this approach is not widely popular and initially used in teaching and learning English in general, reading comprehension in particular Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to investigate teachers‘ perceptions and practice of applying this new approach to teaching reading comprehension at University of Foreign Languages – Hue University The participants of this research were 30 teachers from different departments, mainly English Department and Department of English for Specific Purposes, and 100 students randomly chosen from those who were taking reading classes A multi-method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches was employed to collect the data to answer the research questions Questionnaires, interviews and observation were used as research instruments The results reveal that most of the teachers have a quite good understanding of DA knowledge and reflect their positive perceptions towards the roles of DA in and applying it to teaching reading comprehension Besides, the findings also illustrate DA-related strategies used frequently by teachers in real reading comprehension classes Furthermore, it can be drawn from the research results that certain difficulties including time constraint, choosing proper reading materials, different English language proficiency levels among students and other factors which teachers and students as well often encounter in the employment of DA Last but not least, some suggestions for teaching reading skills were thus offered to help teachers exploit DA and apply it in their teaching more effectively Keywords: Reading, Discourse, Discourse Analysis ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been completed without the encouragement and support from several individuals and groups to whom I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude during the stressful time of writing this paper First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr Do Thi Xuan Dung for her valuable guidance and enthusiastic support I never forget With her profound knowledge, she was willing to give me support at any time She kindly read my paper as well as offered invaluable detailed advice More importantly, she has been a great source of inspiration for me to conduct the research in the discourse field Additionally, she helped me to obtain questionnaires from English Department teachers who were studying aboard Second, my warm thanks go to the teachers and students of departments at Hue University - University of Foreign Languages, English Department in particular They were ready to spend their time answering my questionnaires and interviews, and give me a chance to observe their classes Their help contributes greatly to the completion of this study Specifically, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mrs Thai Ton Phung Diem, Mrs Nguyen Xuan Quynh for their kindness, helpful support and considerable encouragement Besides, I wish to especially thank Mrs Hoang Thi Khanh Tam for helping me with the provision of teachers‘ teaching schedules and information, which is useful for my data collection Third, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my best friends for giving me helpful advice about life and encourage me to overcome all my personal problems to finish this research Last but not least, I wish to especially thank my devoted and supportive parents and as well as my caring brothers who always stay by my side Their endless love is my strong motivation to work hard and exert myself to conduct this study iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Research rationale 1.3 Research aims 1.4 Research questions 1.5 Research scope 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Research structure CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Discourse 2.1.1 Definition .6 2.1.2 Discourse Analysis 2.1.2.1 Cohesion and Coherence 2.1.2.2 Discourse Structure 11 2.1.2.3 Genres 12 2.2 Reading comprehension 13 2.2.1 Definition 13 2.2.2 The aims of teaching Reading .15 2.2.3 Reading Comprehension Modes 15 2.2.4 Types of Reading 16 2.2.4.1 Extensive Reading 16 2.2.4.2 Intensive Reading 17 2.2.5 Reading strategies 18 2.3 Language in use 18 2.4 Language awareness 19 iv 2.5 Review of previous studies 20 2.6 Summary 23 CHAPTER 24 METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Research Questions 24 3.2 Research Design and Approach 24 3.3 Participants 25 3.3.1 Teachers 25 3.3.2 Students 26 3.4 Instruments of Data Collection 27 3.4.1 Questionnaires .27 3.4.2 Interview .29 3.4.3 Class Observation 29 3.5 Data Collection Procedure 30 3.5.1 Administering the questionnaire 30 3.5.2 Administering interviews 30 3.5.3 Observing Classes 31 3.6 Data Analysis Methods 31 3.7 Summary 32 CHAPTER 33 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1 Teachers' perceptions about applying DA to teaching reading comprehension 33 4.1.1 The reality of teaching reading comprehension at HUFL 35 4.1.2 Teachers‘ perceptions of DA 36 4.1.3 The importance of DA in reading comprehension 41 4.2 Teachers‘ incorporation of DA into teaching Reading comprehension 43 4.2.1 Strategies and activities employed to teach DA in reading class 44 4.2.2 Teachers‘ classroom practices in relation to their perceptions 45 4.3 Potentials of applying discourse analysis knowledge to teaching reading skills 47 v 4.3.1 The benefits of using DA for teaching Reading comprehension 50 4.3.2 Difficulties in the employment DA to teaching reading comprehension .53 4.4 Suggestions for improving students‘ reading comprehension through an application of DA 56 4.5 Summary 59 CHAPTER 60 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 60 5.1 Summary of the key findings 60 5.2 Research Implications 62 5.2.1 Implications for teachers 62 5.2.2 Implications for students 63 5.2.3 Implications for administrators 64 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 65 REFERENCES 66 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Full expression DA Discourse Analysis EFL English as a foreign language HUFL Hue University of Foreign Languages vii  Ask students to think about the general character and features of the form or type of the text  Use different reading strategies for different genres of English passages  Others, please specify……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Question 16a: Do you think that compared to others conventional approaches to teach Reading comprehension, Discourse-based approach is more preeminent?  No  Yes If yes, please answer question 16b 16b What makes Discourse-based approach more preeminent than others? (One more answer is accepted)  Helping English learners to get into a good habit of reading  Enhancing the teaching efficiency of reading  Learners‘ gaining a profound comprehension of language  Enabling learners to understand the text at a glance of the text structures, text themes  Fostering learners‘ logical thinking ability of analyzing, summarizing and inducing  Helping students‘ improve their critical thinking skills  Others, please specify……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you so much! APPENDIX B STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE I am an MA student of English Department of Hue University of Foreign Languages (HUFL) I am carrying out a small-scale research on ―An investigation into teachers‘ perceptions and practice of applying Discourse Analysis to teaching Reading comprehension at Hue University of Foreign languages‖ To fulfill my research, I would like to conduct the following questionnaires to collect your opinions Your responses are very important to the success of the survey as well as to my research paper I will not use your real name in my thesis and any publication Thank you very much for your collaboration! - -Please read the following questions carefully and complete your answers with a () in the appropriate box or write in the space provided (More than one choice is acceptable in some questions) I PERSONAL IMFORMATION: Class: II QUESTIONS: *Discourse analysis treats the passage as a coherent whole and tries to discover the relationship between the sentences instead of that between the parts in a sentence (Dr Brown and Yule, 2003) Have you ever heard about Discourse Analysis?  No  Yes  If yes, how you know about it?  You learn yourself  Teachers introduce it to you  Others, How often your teachers introduce the Discourse Analysis in your Reading class?  Usually (in all Reading classes)  Sometimes (in some special Reading classes)  Rarely (once or twice a semester)  Never In your opinion, university students’ low performance in Reading comprehension today are due to: (More than one answer is acceptable)  Lack of students‘ awareness of Discourse Analysis  The weak curriculum or syllabus format  Lack of Discourse-based activities across the curriculum  Teachers‘ unconventional methods in teaching Reading comprehension in English  Students‘ limited exposure to authentic reading materials  Students‘ low ability in Reading skill  Others, What difficulties you often have to face when you lean to read in English? (More than one answer is acceptable)  lack of motivation in learning to read  not having sufficient reading techniques or strategies  restricted vocabulary  lack of knowledge on the reading topic  difficulty level of the text (readability)  insufficient grammatical knowledge  not knowing about the organization of the text  not grasping the writer‘s opinion  Others, please specify……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Indicate your teachers’ frequency of employing Discourse Analysis techniques in teaching Reading comprehension (More than one answer is acceptable) Frequently (1), Often (2), Sometimes (3), Scarcely (4), Never (5) Strategies of teaching Reading comprehension Frequency ( Teachers guide students…) 11 Identify the text type/ genres before reading 12 Identify the organizing pattern/ discourse structure of the text 13 Find out the topic sentence of each paragraph 14 Pay attention to the structure of sentences 15 Summarize the main idea of the whole paper 16 Make predictions 17 Locate the position of information 18 Identify the purpose of the reading tasks before reading 19 Use a balanced approach to teaching reading by incorporating both top-down and bottom-up processes 20 Identify cohesive devices/discourse markers (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) How is the role of Discourse Analysis in learning Reading comprehension?  Very important  Important  Moderately important  Unimportant In your opinion, is it possible to improve your Reading comprehension by teachers’ employing Discourse Analysis?  Absolutely possible  Possible  Impossible  Absolutely impossible What problems you often experience when your teachers apply Discourse Analysis to teaching Reading Comprehension?  Complicated new knowledge  Lack of theoretical knowledge  too much class work  Boredom  Lack of metacognitive strategies  Little interest  Laziness  Lack of practice  Others, please specify…………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… … Indicate the usefulness of Discourse Analysis activities implemented by teachers in order to enhance students’ reading comprehension? Completely useful (1), Quite useful (2), Neutral (3), Quite useless (4), Completely useless (5) Discourse Analysis activities Guess meaning from context Your opinion (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Survey text structure Get detailed information Skim and scan texts Discuss titles, subheadings, photographs Summarize the main idea of the whole paper Analyze sentences Extract specific information Answer pre-set questions 10 Examine the cohesive devices 10 How can teachers help students improve their Reading comprehension through obtaining Discourse analysis knowledge? Strongly disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neutral (3), Agree (4), Strongly agree (5) Teachers should… Increase students‘ interest in topics Relate the students‘ background knowledge with the topic Develop the student‘s linguistic knowledge Activate the students‘ prior knowledge Develop the student‘s comprehension of the writer‘ purpose Teach the student how to skim and scan Make the student recognize the meaning of Your opinions (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) unfamiliar words Introduce to students discourse makers 11 Ask them to predict text‘s content thanks to the title of a text 12 Expose learners to large quantities of meaningful and interesting L2 material 13 Encourage learners‘ to read independently by using the resources within their reach 14 Give students chances to select their own reading texts with respect to content, level of difficulty, and length 15 Ask students to think about the general character and features of the form or type of the text 16 Use different reading strategies for different genres of English passages Thank you so much! APPENDIX C BẢNG HỎI CHO SINH VIÊN (Vietnamese verson) Tôi sinh viên cao học khoa tiếng Anh - Đại học Ngoại ngữ Huế (ĐHNN) Tôi thực nghiên cứu quy mô nhỏ ―Nhận thức việc áp dụng Phân tích diễn ngơn vào việc dạy đọc hiểu giáo viên trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Huế" Để hoàn thành nghiên cứu tôi, muốn thực câu hỏi sau để thu thập ý kiến bạn Câu trả lời bạn có ý nghĩa quan trọng việc hoàn thành khảo sát nguồn liệu nghiên cứu Tôi không sử dụng tên thật bạn luận án ấn phẩm Cảm ơn bạn nhiều cộng tác bạn! - Vui lịng đọc kỹ câu hỏi sau hồn thành câu trả lời bạn cách chọn nhiều đáp án số câu hỏi) I THÔNG TIN CÁ NHÂN: Lớp: II CÂU HỎI: * Phân tích diễn ngôn xem đoạn văn thể thống cố gắng tìm hiểu mối quan hệ câu thay mối quan hệ phần câu ( Tiến sĩ Brown Yule, 2003) Bạn nghe nói Phân tích Discourse chưa? Có *Nếu có, cách bạn biết nó? Giáo viên bạn có thường xuyên giới thiệu Phân tích diễn ngơn lớp Đọc? Theo ý kiến bạn, sinh viên đại học chưa đạt kết tốt việc Đọc hiểu do: (Có thể trả lời nhiều câu trả lời) dạy iếng Anh chưa thích hợp Bạn gặp khó khăn học đọc tiếng Anh? (Có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời) thức chủ đề đọc thức ngữ pháp bắt ý kiến nhà văn ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………… Cho biết tần suất sử dụng kỹ Phân tích diễn ngơn giáo viên việc dạy Đọc hiểu? (Có thể chọn nhiều đáp án ) Thường xuyên (1), Thường xun (2), Đơi (3), Khó khăn (4), Không (5) Chiến lược giảng dạy Đọc hiểu (Giáo viên hướng dẫn sinh viên…) Xác định loại / thể loại văn trước đọc Xác định cấu trúc tổ chức văn Tìm câu chủ đề đoạn Chú ý đến cấu trúc câu Tóm tắt ý tưởng tồn báo Đưa dự đốn Xác định vị trí thơng tin Xác định mục đích việc đọc trước đọc Sử dụng kết hợp phương pháp đọc từ- -xuống từ -dưới -lên 10 Xác định phương tiện liên kết (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Vai trò Phân tích diễn ngơn việc học Đọc hiểu nào? Theo ý kiến bạn, bạn cải thiện khả Đọc hiểu cách sử dụng Phân tích diễn ngơn khơng? Bạn thường gặp phải vấn đề giáo viên bạn áp dụng Phân tích diễn ngơn dạy Đọc hiểu? thức lý thuyết ………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Cho biết tính hữu dụng hoạt động Phân tích diễn ngơn thực giáo viên để nâng cao khả đọc hiểu học sinh? Hồn tồn hữu ích (1), Khá hữu ích (2), Trung lập (3), Khá vơ dụng (4), Hồn tồn vơ dụng (5) Hoạt động phân tích diễn ngơn (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Đoán ý nghĩa từ ngữ cảnh Cấu trúc văn khảo sát Nhận thông tin chi tiết Đọc lướt văn Thảo luận tiêu đề, dựa vào tranh ảnh kèm theo Tóm tắt ý tưởng tồn báo Phân tích câu Trích xuất thơng tin cụ thể Trả lời câu hỏi đặt trước 10 Kiểm tra phương tiện liên kết 10 Các giáo viên giúp học sinh cải thiện khả đọc hiểu họ cách nào? Rất không đồng ý (1), Không đồng ý (2), Trung lập (3), Đồng ý (4), Rất đồng ý (5) Giáo viên nên… Tăng hứng thú học sinh chủ đề đọc Liên kết kiến thức tảng học sinh với chủ đề Phát triển kiến thức ngơn ngữ học sinh Kích hoạt kiến thức học sinh Phát triển hiểu biết học sinh mục đích nhà văn Dạy học sinh kĩ đọc lướt Làm cho học sinh đoán nghĩa từ Giới thiệu cho sinh viên (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Yêu cầu họ dự đoán nội dung văn dựa vào tiêu đề văn 10 Cung cấp nguồn tài liệu đọc phong phú thú vị 11 Khuyến khích người học đọc độc lập cách sử dụng tài nguyên phạm vi tiếp cận họ 12 Cho học sinh hội lựa chọn văn đọc riêng nội dung, mức độ khó độ dài 13 Yêu cầu học sinh suy luận đặc trưng chức chung loại văn 14 Sử dụng chiến lược đọc khác cho thể loại khác APPENDIX D INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS What you think about the role of Discourse Analysis (DA) in teaching Reading comprehension? Is DA in teaching Reading comprehension necessary or not? Why? What are the purposes of applying DA to teaching Reading comprehension? Do you often apply DA to teaching Reading comprehension? Which Discourse-based activities you often use in your reading class? Why? Is your lesson well participated when you apply DA to teach? What are your students‘ attitudes towards those activities? Are all Discourse-based activities you organize in your reading class useful? For you, what benefits does DA bring you and your students in teaching and learning reading comprehension? 10 What difficulties you often meet when applying DA? 11 What solutions can be offered to address those problems? THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION! APPENDIX E CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET Class:…………………………………………… School:………………………………………… Date:…………………………………………… Unit:………………………………………… Section:……………………………………… Teacher in charge:……………………………… DA activities/ techniques that a teacher uses in class: ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Students‘ attitude towards teachers‘ DA activities/ techniques: ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Note:………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………