A study on difficulties in learning reading skills of the second year english major students at hung yen university of technology and education

Trang 3 DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “A study on difficulties in learning reading skills of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen Univers

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING READING SKILS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Dang Thi Huong Thao, PhD Student: Pham Manh Tuan Student number: 11317732 Hung Yen – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING READING SKILS OF SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI CHUYÊN NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Pham Manh Tuan Student number: 11317132 Supervisor: Dang Thi Huong Thao, PhD Hung Yen – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitled “A study on difficulties in learning reading skills of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education.” This graduation paper is the result of my research and the substance of this graduation paper has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution and that if this declaration is found to be false, disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed following university policies and rules Hung Yen, May 2021 Pham Manh Tuan ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the process of completing this graduation, I have received much-needed help, valuable comments, and timely encouragement from teachers, family, and friends This article could not have been completed without the help, encouragement, and support from a number of people, who are most deserving of my gratitude and appreciation First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Mrs Dang Thi Huong Thao, the English teacher of the Faculty of Foreign Language, who has always been willing to give me valuable advice and suggestions so that I can complete successfully this study I also would like to take this opportunity to show my sincere thanks to all my teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Hung Yen University of Technology and Education, who have handed me basic knowledge to complete this study I am so thankful to students of K17 at the Faculty of Foreign Language for their participation in the study I would like to thank all the authors of the books, journals, and other documents listed in the references section for their ideas that were reflected and developed in the research I am equally grateful to my classmates for their suggestions and encouragement during the study Last but not least, my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played an important role in my graduation paper Hung Yen, May 2021 Pham Manh Tuan iii ABSTRACT Research aims to find out the problems that students face when learning reading comprehension skills Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze and find solutions to problems The study was conducted at UTEHY and the subjects of this study were second-year English majors from FFL This study has 60 students Data were collected using a questionnaire The results of the analysis of factors affecting students' ability to learn skills show that reading is a very difficult skill for students to learn a foreign language To solve these problems and wish to improve the current situation, the researcher proposes a number of solutions so that both teachers and students can teach and learn better for secondyear English majors are learning reading skills at UTEHY more effectively in the near future iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………… … i ACKNOWLEDMENTS……………………………………………………………… … ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………… ………………………….….iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………… ………………………vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS………………………………………………….…….vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….….1 1.1 Rationale of the study……………………………………………………… …… …1 1.2 Aims of the study………………………………………………………………… ….1 1.3 Research questions………………………………………………………… 1.4 The scope of the study……………………………………………………………… 1.5 Methods of the study……………………………………………………………… …2 1.6 Design of the study…………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: LITTERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………….4 2.1.2 Definition of Reading……………………………………………………………… 2.1.3 Reading comprehensive………………………………………………………….… 2.1.3 Reading comprehensive ……………………………………………………….…… 2.2 Factors affecting the English reading skills……………………………….………….…6 2.2.1.Vocabulary………………………………………………………………………… 2.2.2 Grammar…………………………………………………………………………… 2.2.3 Teaching and learning facilities………………………………………………………7 2.2.4 The class atmosphere…………………………………………………………………7 2.3 Solutions……………………………………………………………………………… 2.4 Summary…………………………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY……………………………………………………………… 3.1 Overview of the situation in the current situation of teaching and learning reading skill at UTEHY………………………………………………………………………………… 3.2 The research methodology…………………………………………………………….10 3.2.1 Survey questionnaires…………………………………………………………….…10 3.2.2 Data collection…………………………………….…………………………………10 v 3.3 Data analysis and discussion……………………………………………………… 10 3.3.1 Students' attitudes about learning reading skills……………………………………10 3.3.2 The difficulties in learning English reading skills………………………………….13 3.3.3 Some suggestions to improve English reading skills…… ……………………… 16 3.4 Findings of the study………………………………………………………………….18 3.4.1 Attitudes of students about learning English reading skills…………………………18 3.4.2 The difficulties perceived by students………………………………………………19 3.4.3 Some suggestions for improving learning English reading skill……………………19 3.5 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………… 21 3.5.1 Recommendations for students…………………………………………………… 21 3.5.1.1 Recommendations to expand vocabulary…………………………………………21 3.5.1.2 Recommendations to improve reading skills…………………………………… 24 3.5.2 Recommendations for teachers…………………………………………………… 24 3.6 Summary…………………………………………………………………………… 24 CHAPTER4: CONCLUSION………………………………………………………….…25 4.1 Summary of the study……………………………………………………………… 25 4.2 Limitation of the study……………………………………………………………… 25 4.3 Suggestion for further study………………………………………………………… 25 REFERRENCES……………………………………………………………………… …26 APPENDICES……………………………………….…………………………………… I APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………….………………………….I vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FFL: faculty of foreign language UTEHY: Hung Yen university of technology and education vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Chart 1: Students' attitudes on reading skills…………………………………………… 11 Chart 2: Interesting of Reading skills………………………………………………… .11 Chart 3: Importance of reading skills…………………………………………………… 12 Chart 4: Necessary of reading skills………………………………… ………………… 13 Chart 5: Difficulties in pre-reading stage………………………………………………….13 Chart 6: Difficulties while reading…………………………………………….………… 14 Chart Difficulties in post-reading………………………………………………….…….15 Chart Difficulties in using reading techniques………………………………………… 16 Chart Suggestions to improve students’ learning reading skills related to students…….16 Chart 10 Solutions to improve students’ learning reading skills related to teachers……….18 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Since English is the official language of more than 55 countries and is used most of the time in international trade and cooperation, it is considered the key to human access to scientific and technological advances like catching up with the world Because of the importance of learning English in Vietnam, English began to be widely used in education and daily life Learning English is very important There are four main skills: speaking, listening and reading skills However, reading skill plays an important role In the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general and at UTEHY in particular, the reading subject has always been very interested in teachers and students According to Carrel (1981:1) "for many students, reading is the most important of the four skills of a second language, especially English as a second language or a foreign language" True to students at UTEHY despite the students' teachers and efforts, students often find it difficult to read English and as a result, they sometimes read ineffectively For sophomore English faculty at UTEHY Even though they have studied English for at least a few years, it is often difficult for them to understand a passage or a passage in English because they lack vocabulary, grammar, reading skills, and foundational knowledge least Besides, teaching methods and teaching techniques generally not meet international education standards The above reasons have inspired me to conduct a study entitled "A study on difficulties in learning Reading skills of second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education" It is hoped that the research help to find out the factors affecting reading skills and the ways to improve them for students 1.2 Aims of the study The main purpose of the study is to investigate the difficulties in learning reading skills of students in the second course of the English program specialized in English at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, UTEHY, and offer some solutions to help improve the situation English reading comprehension skills at UTEHY To achieve these goals, research will focus on the following goals: - To investigate the attitudes of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education towards learning reading skills - To find out the difficulties in learning English reading skills of the second-year English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education towards learning reading skills 17 A: Improve vocabulary by pictures, mind maps, expand new words in many different fields B: Study on grammar websites such as Grammar Bytes, Daily Grammar, Oxford English Grammar Course C: Choose a variety of reading topics D: Focus on keywords, important phrases, main ideas The graph shows the way to ameliorate problems associated with reading texts in learning English reading skills Overall, the percentage of all elements was high, wherein the highest percentage is solutions to improve vocabulary by pictures, mind maps at 100% Students think that to solve problems of reading text that have too many unfamiliar words, they need to improve vocabulary by pictures, mind maps first The next was 75% study on grammar websites and 85% choose a variety of reading topics They all were chosen by students when being asked about the suggested solutions to solve problems of reading texts Students also caring about the focus on keywords, important phrases, main ideas Therefore, solutions to improve vocabulary by pictures, mind maps, keywords, and main ideas were reasonable for reading texts to students to improve their learning reading skills 18 60% 56% 54% 55% 50% 50% 40% 30% 26% 20% 20% 25% 22% 22% 25% 21% 9% 10% 0% A B Strongly agree C Agree D Disagree Chart 10 Solutions to improve students’ learning reading skills related to teachers A: Exchange and learn skills with other colleagues, increase classroom observation, take part in training courses, pedagogical training B: Create situations related to the topic of study, group activities, playing games to warm up, choose a variety of exercises C: Use the lab regularly to ensure each student will have a separate computer D: Ensure the health status as well as a spirit before starting the lesson, regularly connect with students, help to solve problems when they have difficulties friendly and enthusiastically The graph presents the solutions to improve students’ learning reading skills related to teachers The students agree that create situations, group activities, games were the solutions help them to raise their ability to listen These solutions have the highest percent and were chosen by 50% agree Following these solutions were exchange skills, join training courses, use the lab regularly, and ensure health, spirit, try to connect, and help students Therefore, students expect that teachers should create situations related to the topic of study, group activities, playing games to warm up, and choose a variety of exercises in reading class 3.4 Findings of the study 3.4.1 Attitudes of students about learning English reading skills Overall, from the collected data it is clear that the attitudes of students and teachers towards learning to listen are especially difficult for students Most students recognize the 19 importance of reading skills in learning a foreign language from their second years Even so, students still feel that reading is not an interesting skill 3.4.2 The difficulties perceived by students The study has shown students' attitudes about difficulties when they learn to read English Elements that greatly affect students are lacking of background knowledge to the topic of reading, vocabulary is still limited Many students depend on the dictionary In addition, reading without purpose, not enough some basic English reading skills such as prediction, skimming, scanning, guessing new words or headings from a text, inference are common problems Many students said that after reading a document, they had difficulty talking again or rewrite the contents of the text, which could see the ability to understand English text of many students was not really good Besides, the use of reading techniques of many students is missing and weak Most students acknowledge that they have problems using Skimming, Scanning, Intensive, and Extensive In conclusion, after finding the results of difficulties often affecting students, it is clear that both teachers and students have a lot of difficulties in learning because of different difficulties However, it is possible to conclude that lacking background knowledge of the topic, lacking new vocabulary, depends on the dictionary, and inadequately the basic reading skills are the main factors 3.4.3 Some suggestions for improving learning English reading skill From analyzing the difficulties of learning reading skills, I have gathered some suggestions from students to overcome the following possible difficulties as follow: To improve the lack of background knowledge of the topic, students should diversify books and topics It makes good sense that to comprehend a story or text, readers will need a threshold of knowledge about the topic Sometimes we call it domain-specific knowledge or topical knowledge Without such knowledge, it becomes difficult to construct a meaningful mental model of what the text is about Informational text tends to have a greater density of vocabulary and concepts that are directly related to students' background knowledge And these demands placed on background knowledge only accelerate as students progress through the grade levels Students will be required to apply previously learned concepts to increasingly complex text They must read, discuss, and write about topics that are 20 conceptually more difficult, and they will need to increasingly draw on intertextual linkages across subject areas They'll be required to provide evidence from the text, show a deep and thorough understanding of these concepts, and think creatively about applying these concepts in new ways Consequently, in much of the literature in reading, we have focused on skills associated with comprehension: decoding, vocabulary development, strategy instruction, and metacognition, among many others But what we can see from this brief summary is that we have given very little instructional time to a skill that can play an enormous role in comprehending text We would venture to guess that students' understanding of the text is unlikely to improve unless we begin to more deliberately teach background knowledge Moreover, the background knowledge of students can be expanded by reading newspapers, English books, watching movies To expand vocabulary, students need to actively form the habit of learning new words, not only from the classroom but also from pictures, mind maps, music, movies One of the easiest ways to bolster your existing reading skills is to add new words to your written vocabulary The English language is among the most voluminous of all languages, and this means that you’ll never run out of vocabulary words to learn and use All forms of the written word—from fiction to journalism to essay writing to poetry—benefit from a strong vocabulary To that end, the time you spend improving your vocabulary skills is actually time invested in your reading skills Specific strategies for learning new words are needed, gradually eliminating the dependence on dictionaries Besides, students need to understand the importance of basic English reading skills Acquiring information from long passages can take quite a long time This can be a major obstacle to completing the reading section of English language tests Therefore, to work on this section in an efficient way, you need to be good at speed reading And you can be better at it by mastering skimming and scanning skills Moreover, skimming and scanning can also help you to get better at learning reading skills Students need to practice these skills regularly They should use the skills of taking notes, short-term memory, filtering information, and reading relevant information Skipping the missing points and taking notes as much as possible benefits students in reading In conclusion, after analyzing the difficulties that often affect students, solutions were given to improve their reading skills To solve those difficulties, the research has come up with effective solutions for each factor through a survey based on student choice 21 3.5 Recommendations Based on the findings, survey questionnaires, the researcher proposes some suggestion for teachers, students for the difficulties in studying reading skill 3.5.1 Recommendations for students 3.5.1.1 Recommendations to expand vocabulary Learning vocabulary by topic is a method to help students be active, approach knowledge in a logical and methodical way, and improve the applicability of vocabulary Each student should have a separate vocabulary notebook Because students will have to divide the vocabulary into specific topics in the notebook For example, students can separate student's vocabulary into close, everyday topics such as fun activities, drinks, or more advanced topics like technology, software, etc … This not only helps students flexibly use phrases on the same topic, but also makes searching and synthesizing vocabulary easier and saves time Devoting more time to read By reading many kinds of books, documents which included various topics in order to enlarge background knowledge and bring a lot of benefits to students because the more students read, the better they get with their vocabulary Moreover, reading is also a good way to improve reading skills Besides, reading provides for students a huge of knowledge and vocabulary that students will not be confused when they are required to read difficult topics as well as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) These factors are important to approach material effectively: - Read classic novels: As entertaining as the latest celebrity gossip magazine may be, by itself, it will not teach students the wide variety of words students will be looking to learn Often the most useful reading material available for building a student's vocabulary is classic novels from literature greats Whilst they may take longer to digest and understand, this reading source will also show students just how certain words can be utilized in conversation and description - Use Audiobooks: The great thing about audiobooks is that students can find them just about anywhere, from online sources to students' local library Even if students not understand every word, it will teach the exact pronunciation and placement of every word 22 - Attach an image to certain words: This is a technique utilized throughout schools when attempting to educate students in a second language By getting pupils to associate an image with a certain word, each and every time they see that image they will immediately think of that word and thus start to use it in sentences and conversation.Students can exactly the same For long words, try splitting the word down into parts, each part having a cute cartoon attached to it There is only one rule here; the more unique, the weirder the image attached to that word, the better Make it truly memorable 3.5.1.2 Recommendations to improve reading skills Skimming is the skill you use to get the general idea as well as the main focus of the essay or the paragraph When you skim through a passage, you only read the essay’s title, the topic sentence, concluding sentences, and keywords You read quickly through the text instead of reading the entire essay word by word By doing this, you can identify keywords, determine the points of each paragraph In some cases, you can even find the conclusion the paragraph heads towards Sometimes, you can also indicate the attitude of the author towards the mentioned topic With this skill, we can locate what we are looking for It also helps us understand the quality of the piece of writing and still manage to use the time sensibly Skimming allows us to have a general idea of what we are reading Therefore, it helps us decide which parts we should read for more details It also helps us scan for the correct information and find the correct answer After all, it is hard to look at one sentence and know what the right answer is without the context of the essay While also a skill to serve speed reading, scanning is entirely different Usually, when you scan a paragraph, you read the texts quickly You so to look for particular information, details, or specific words Unlike skimming used to identify the main idea, scanning is only used to search for small details Also, when a task requires scanning, often you need to pay more attention to word use Reading all of the texts takes a long time, and scanning can help reduce such time When it comes to researching, scanning helps us find which section of the references should be used The skill also helps identify specific data and figures Another reason for you to practice your skimming and scanning skills is to increase your IELTS Reading score As you may know, one important part of the IELTS test is the reading section 23 In this part, you will find a lot of questions demanding your skimming and scanning in IELTS skills, such as: - Short answer questions: You have to understand the question being asked After that, you skim through the paragraphs to understand the overall meaning Then, you scan to find the specific answer Finally, you paraphrase them to answer in no more than words - Completion questions: It can be sentence completion, summary completion or fill in diagrams Regardless, this kind of question requires you to understand the general idea of the essay Once you do, you scan for the correct answers to fill in Sometimes you also need to paraphrase such answers - Yes/No/Not Given or True/False/Not Given: You scan through the paragraphs to find the specific information asked in the questions, etc The meaning of intensive reading is to read with full concentration and complete focus It’s not about reading book after book or 10 articles a day Even if you’re reading a single-line quote, you should try to understand what the words are trying to convey Intensive reading is one of the most critical skills you can develop to get a better understanding of information When you have to read a report for work, for instance, you can’t just skim it and call it a day You have to get a deeper understanding of what’s written, assess the purpose, and evaluate the results to make sense of it Reading intensively will help you tackle complex texts You’ll be able to strengthen your reading comprehension, vocabulary, and language skills Here are some ways to develop the habit of intensive reading: - Taking notes: try to jot down notes and ideas in the margins as you’re reading Maybe you have a question related to the text or a thought that you want to express Taking notes is convenient when you reread the text and can be particularly helpful when you’re reading a long report Add sticky notes with questions, ideas, and opinions so you can share them with the author Not only will you be able to keep track but it’ll also give you something to focus on while you’re reading - Break down the reading process: a handy trick to intensive reading is breaking it down into three steps—pre-reading, reading, and post-reading The first step is preparation: use your existing knowledge to understand the purpose of the text The second is the actual reading process that’s supplemented by note-taking The final step is what comes after you’re done reading This is where you summarize all the information, ask questions and get your thoughts in order 24 - Apply what you’ve learnt: it’s not enough to simply keep the information to yourself and forget about it the next day If you can find ways to use that information, you’ll be able to retain it for much longer For instance, if you’re reading a report on achieving sales targets, you can make notes that you can later share with your team These can include points to look out for, strategies for advertising, and other ideas that crop up as you read Extensive reading can lead to better reading comprehension, a larger vocabulary, and a higher level of motivation There are some extensive reading activities for students: - Prime your knowledge - Write book reports and book reviews - Do timed readings - Join book club discussions - Keep vocabulary journals 3.5.2 Recommendations for teachers Teachers are an indispensable part in the process of educating students of second-year English majors, teachers should note the following recommendations First, teachers need to raise students' awareness of the importance of reading Specifically, teachers are the ones who decide on topics and activities in class; therefore, they can provide students with additional exercises from other sources to practice In addition, they can recommend some useful websites to improve reading skills In addition, integrating reading in teaching speaking, listening or writing is considered an effective way to master this aspect of language Second, in order for the students' reading topic to be more attractive, teachers also need to have many different methods to help students approach the lesson as quickly as possible The biggest problem for teachers in teaching is how to attract the attention of learners Third, teaching vocabulary in advance, guiding students to underline key words and guessing the meaning of new words can help students familiarize themselves with the topic, arouse knowledge as well as develop students' skills 3.6 Summary In this chapter, research shows the elements affecting students’ learning reading skills who are the second-year English major Besides, the study also finds out the suggested solution to improve their reading skill To summary at the main contents analyzed above, the research introduces the last part as the conclusion of the study 25 CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study With the hope of finding out the factors that make it difficult to learn reading skills of the second-year English majors at UTEHY The study used qualitative and quantitative methods through questionnaires with second-year English majors of FFL Besides, all the theories of different authors have been collected showing the terminology of reading skills After analyzing the data, the results of the study showed that Reading is a difficult but essential skill Students then suggest solutions to help solve those problems 4.2 Limitation of the study In the process of concluding the study, despite many efforts, errors and omissions cannot be avoided First of all, because of the limited time and the duration of the Covid-19 virus, the questionnaire was only done with 60 students Second, due to limitations in the scope of the study and the sample population, the researchers only focused on second-year English majors, accounting for a small number of students at FFL, UTEHY Therefore, the results of the study cannot be generalized Despite the stated limitations, the researcher hopes that this study will contribute to improving the situation of teaching and learning reading skills at FFL, UTEHY 4.3 Suggestion for further study This study is only conducted with a small scope, so the next study can expand the audience to be students and teachers participating in the survey It also focuses on factors and solutions to improve students' reading skills Therefore, further studies may focus on other factors and solutions for listening, writing and speaking skills However, this research has been able to contribute to our knowledge in general and solutions to learning reading skills in particular in ways that benefit both students and teachers However, due to time and experience limitations, shortcomings cannot be avoided All comments are highly appreciated 26 REFERRENCES Cresswell J (1998) Qualititative Inquiry and research design SAGE Publications Doff, A, (1988) Teaching: A training course for teachers Cambridge: CUP Grelet, F.(1981) Developing reading skill Cambridge: CUP Greenwood, J (1985), The teaching of English as an International Language , Collins: Glassgow and London Jack C Richards (1985) Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics Longman Lewis, M & Hill, J (1985) Practical techniques for language teaching London: Commercial Color Press Nuttal, C, (1982) Teaching reading skill in a foreign language London: Heineman Patsy M Lightbown and Nina Spada (2006, p.8), How Languages are Learned, Oxford University Press, Oxford Penny Ur (1990, p.4), Grammar Practice Activities: A Practical Guide for Teacher, Cambridge University Press 10 Swan, M (1975) Inside meaning Cambridge: CUP 11 William S M (1938), The Summing Up, The literary of guild America, INC New York I APPENDICES APPENDIX SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Hello! My name is Pham Manh Tuan, I am from class TAK15.1, Faculty of Foreign Language at Hung Yen University Technology and Education This survey questionnaire is designed for my study entitled “A study on difficulties in learning reading skills of the secondyear English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” Your support in completing this survey will be appreciated Please select the answer by circling the first letter of each sentence and tick the checklist items or express your ideas in the blanks All the information provided by you is for learning purposes only and you can be confident that your identity will not be disclosed in any discussion of data Your answer will help me a lot in the research process Thanks for your help! I General information Fill in the information where appropriate What is your gender? A Male B Female What is your class? …………… What is your age? ………………… How long have you been studying English? …… years II Your attitudes to English reading skills What you think of the importance of English reading skills? A Extremely important B Very important C Important D Not quite important E Not important What you think of the necessary of reading skills of English reading skills? A Extremely necessary B Very necessary C Necessary D Not quite necessary E Not necessary Do you think learning Reading skills is interesting? II A Extremely interesting B Very interesting C Interesting D Not quite interesting E Not interesting Do you think learning Reading skills is difficult? A Extremely difficult B Very difficult C Difficult D Not quite difficult E Not difficult III The elements affecting your learning English reading skills What are the elements affecting in your Pre-reading stage? Elements A: Usually not understand new vocabulary B: Never make a list of new vocabulary C: Have problems with comprehension D: Have problems with grammar E: Students often use bilingual (EnglishVietnamese) dictionary Strongly agree Agree Disagree III What are the elements affecting while you reading? Elements Strongly agree A: Lack of background knowledge to the topic of reading A shortage guiding of of the teacher C: Reading a text without knowing the purpose D: There are no interesting activities before reading E: Not enough some basic English reading skills such as prediction, skimming, scanning, guessing new words or headings from a text, inference Agree Disagree IV What are the elements affecting in your Post-reading? Elements Strongly agree Agree Disagree Agree Disagree Hard to talk about the topic you have read Hard to write about the topic you have read IV Solutions to improve reading skills What skills you find difficult to use? Elements Strongly agree Skimming Scanning Intensive Extensive What solutions you suggest for students to improve reading skills? Elements Strongly agree Improve vocabulary by pictures, mind maps, expand new words in many different fields Study on grammar websites Grammar Daily such as Bytes, Grammar, Agree Disagree V Oxford English Grammar Course Choose a variety of reading topics Focus on keywords, important phrases, main ideas What solutions you suggest for teachers to improve reading skills? Elements Strongly agree Exchange and learn skills with other colleagues, increase classroom observation, take part in training courses, pedagogical training Create situations related to the topic of study, group activities, playing games to warm up, choose a variety of exercises Use the lab regularly to ensure each student will have a separate computer Ensure the health status as well as a spirit before starting the lesson, regularly Agree Disagree