Đề tài: A study on possible effective pre-reading activities to improve reading skill for the second- year english majors at the Tay Nguyen university

The main purposes of the study are to investigate attitudes towards pre-reading activities employed by teachers for 2nd- year English majored students at TNU, and to give a suggestion of some possible pre- reading activities that can be applied to teach the text book more effectively to the second-year students of English at the TNU.

This graduation assignment would not have been successful without the kindsupport and help of many individuals and organizations to whom I would like toextend my sincere thanks

First and foremost, I would like to thank my research supervisors, Nguyen,

MA Without her assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout theprocess, this paper could have never been accomplished She raised many preciouspoints in our discussion and I hope that I have managed to address several of themhere She supported me with statistical analysis in this thesis and were very patientwith me

I would also like to show gratitude all the teachers in Tay Nguyen University(TNU), who taught me carefully and for their guidance and constant supervision aswell as for providing necessary information regarding the program and also for theirsupport in completing the graduation assignment

In addition, I would also like to thank the students of 2 English major classes(K22A & K22B) for participating in the questionnaire survey I am extremelygrateful to you for supporting and understanding me during the past time

Finally, I would like to thank everybody who supported and help me when Ineed and I hope that I can receive opinions from all the people to complete theassignment with the best standard

Thank you so much for all you have give me!

Student

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem

In many second language teaching situations, reading is usually the languageskill that we especially focus on to learn This is the most prominent language skill.There are a number of reasons for this First, Reading is fun-way to knowledge hunt

- reading brings wisdom Through reading, we learn a lot so many foreign languagestudents often have reading as one of their most important goals They want to beable to read for information and pleasure, for their career, and for study purposes Infact, in most English as a foreign language situations, the ability to read in a foreignlanguage is all that students ever want to acquire

Second, Reading is an essential skill in second-language acquisition Aslearners develop their reading skills, they not only build their vocabulary, but theyalso become familiar with common grammatical structures and phrasing in thetarget language Learners can transfer this knowledge to the other three basic skills-listening, speaking, and writing-and see their overall fluency improve Reading istherefore a highly valuable skill and activity by students and teachers alike, and it isrecommended that English learners try to read as much as possible in English

Like many other universities in Vietnam, English at the TNU is learnt andtaught in non-native environment, therefore, reading is not only considered as ameans to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place Soreading has always been offered a great deal of attention both from the teachers andthe students

1.2 Significance of the study

According to Carrel, “for many students, reading is by far the most important

of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreignlanguage” This is especially true to the students at the TNU, mainly students withthe desire to be able to handle topics related to documents written in English andwork with their English speakers However, despite the teachers’ and students’effort, students still often claim to have a lot of difficulties in reading English

textbooks or English materials, and therefore, they sometimes read theminefficiently.

For the second-year students of English, although they have been learningEnglish for at least several years, it is still often difficult for them to understand atext or a passage in English, since they still lack vocabulary, grammar, readingskills and poor background knowledge Besides, the teachers sometimes have toface with difficulties in dealing with the students’ learning demand and newlyintroduced sources of materials In addition, teaching methods and teachingtechniques in general, are still below the international standard of education To findout the areas of students’ difficulty at the TNU and the causes of their unsuccessfulreading comprehension is necessary Therefore, these reasons have inspired thewriting of A Study on possible effective pre-reading activities to improve readingskills for the 2nd -year English Majors at the Tay Nguyen University It is hopedthat the study will make some contributions to improve the learning of English ingeneral, and the learning of reading in particular among the 2nd-year Englishmajors at the TNU

1.3 Objectives of the study

The main purposes of the study are to investigate attitudes towards pre-readingactivities employed by teachers for 2nd- year English majored students at TNU, and

to give a suggestion of some possible pre- reading activities that can be applied toteach the text book more effectively to the second-year students of English at theTNU

1.4 Outline of the study

The study is composed of five chapter:

Chapter 1 - Introduction provides statement, significance, objectives, scope,and outline of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature review, conceptualizes the study’s theoreticalbackground, presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: reading andreading comprehension, role of reading in foreign language learning, motivationand factors in teaching and learning reading

Chapter 3 - The study, presents the methodology used in the study It alsoshows the detailed results of the survey and covers a comprehensive analysis on thedata collected form questionnaires

Chapter 4 - offers some major findings and discussion of some possible reading activities which are thought to be helpful for teaching reading to the 2nd-year students of English at the TNU

Pre-Chapter 5 - Conclusion is a review of the study, future directions for furtherresearch and limitations of the study as well

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

According to Tarigan (1998:7) reading is a process which is used by a reader

in order to get the purpose of the writer through the written word Thorndike inNurhadi (2000:13) argues that reading is process in thinking and reasoning Itmeans that when a reader reads a text, he uses his brain to think and reason out.Based on the definition above the writer gets conclusion that reading can be defined

as a complex process that is done by a reader to comprehend the writer’s purposes.Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other people can hear)

We cannot be sure when reading activity begins, but we have to admit thatreading is essential activity that provides a great contribution in obtainingknowledge It is obvious that in real life we usually spend much time reading allsorts of things like books, magazines, newspapers, novels, stories However,sometimes we read but we do not understand what they mean, or can not understandthe text we read In this case, reading is also a productive skill in that we are bothreceiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves)

Reading involves a reader, a text, and a writer Reading skills are developed in

an active process This process involves the surface representation encoded by awriter and ends with interpretation of the written text and interchanges between thewriter and the reader (Goodman 1969 in Carrell 1988) If the writer is careless, thereader may not get the message If the writer makes demands that the reader cannot

fulfill, the message will not be received, even though to another reader it might beclear If the reader is careless, reading will result in incomplete interpretation Thereader tries to interpret the text through his/her own experiences, but they maydiffer from the writer’s experiences This explanation proves that reading is not just

an active process, but also an interactive one Reading is closely linked withmeaning For this reason, lack of shared assumptions presents the most difficultproblem in reading

To sum up, from all these opinions above, it is obvious that no definition canpossibly capture all the ideas and features of what reading is Each linguist’sdefinition reflects what reading means as seen from his own point of view.However, they all have some features in common, they share the same ideas thatreading means we-the readers read the author’s mind not author’s word, and thatreading means comprehending written language and it employs a variety of skills

In addition, they all concentrate on the nature of reading

2.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension

One of the types of reading which is often used in language learning inuniversity level is reading comprehension Reading comprehension is aimed tounderstand the content of a text and the search of information in a text Besides,reading comprehension can also give information about ideas, facts, theories whichfunction as source of knowledge and reading experience, and literary work

According to Richard and Thomas (1987: 9), “Reading comprehension is bestdescribed as an understanding between the author and the reader” This point ofview concentrates on the reader’s understanding of the message based on theindividual’s background knowledge They stated that “reading is much more thanjust pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends: it isthe process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responsesthat are unique to an individual.”

In his book, Swan (1975: 1) pointed out that “A student is good atcomprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get themaximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding” For Roe,Stood and Burns (1987: 9) Reading comprehension is reconstruction, interpretation,

and evaluation of what author of written content means by using knowledge gainedfrom life experience.

Study the nature of reading comprehension, Grilled (1981: 3) indicated that

“Reading comprehension or understanding written text means extracting therequired information from it as effectively as possible” This means that the studentcan show his understanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many wayssuch as summarizing the text, answering questions etc

From these theories above, it can be understood that reading forcomprehension is the primary purpose for reading; raising students' awareness ofmain ideas in a text and exploring the organization of a text are essential for goodcomprehension It is the process in which the readers - as they read, can recognizethe graphic form and understand the relation between the writing and the meaning

It means that after reading, students can master grammar structures, words,pronunciation etc and can understand the content of the text and use it in their reallife as effective as possible Furthermore, “reading without comprehension is themeaningless” (Karolin and Karin, 1988: 2) Reading means comprehending writtenlanguage so when understanding break down, reading actually does not occur

2.2 Role of reading in foreign language learning

In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, theteaching and learning of reading are always received much attention, since it isregarded as one of the most important major skills as what Carrell (1971: 1) stated:

“for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills,particularly in English as a second or foreign language” This is also true for theTNU, because at our academy, reading is an active skill namely speaking, listeningand writing To master reading skill is always challenging task that requires students

a number of factors: a good competence of English grammar, rich vocabulary, andreading techniques First of all, reading helps students learn to think in English,enlarge their English vocabulary, improve their writing Richard (1993:4) claimedthat “reading may help to increase knowledge of the target language throughexposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures” There is a closerelationship between reading and vocabulary knowledge, because while reading, the

readers know most of the words in the text already, and they can also determine themeaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the contexts Therefore, the bestway to acquire a large vocabulary is to read It is understandable that anyone whohas a large vocabulary is usually a good reader

Besides, Richard (1993: 4) also stated that “reading in the new language isalso an important way to learn about the target culture”, which means that readingprovides the students with a wide range of interesting information, helps themunderstand the ways of life, behaviors, thoughts and other aspect of the nativepeople and it is also a good way to find out about new ideas, facts and experiences.Therefore, they can master vocabulary, grammar and the background knowledge orcross-cultural problems that they encounter In other words, reading is veryimportant to the foreign language learners because it widen their knowledge oflanguage and life In the context of TNU, it seems to be the most important skill tothe students of English since their main purpose is to understand the written texts

2.3 Teaching and learning reading skills

2.3.1 Teaching reading skill

Many linguistics state that the teacher is the most important factor in teachingreading In a reading class, the teacher plays so many roles, such as an organizer, amanager and a counselor, an instructional expert, so he or she should be a guide toassist, encourage them, employ various types to support the students developreading skills He or she also the person who provides the students with an anxiety-free atmosphere which helps them feel free to join new reading style, practice tomaster new strategies, work under pressure of time

Besides, in reading lesson, students are supposed to understand the textscorrectly as much as possible, learn some new language Therefore, in teachingreading, the teacher should pay much attention to the following aspects such aslanguage content, vocabulary and grammatical structures, types of readingactivities, though it is not simple thing to do because providing suitable texts takestime, effort and some expertise

2.3.2 Learning reading skill

There are 4 factors that affect students' learning to read That is the Studentsthemselves, motivation, perception and reading material

Obviously, students themselves play an important role in improving their

own reading skills First, they should “take an active part in reading” This is thefirst and foremost responsibility of the learners They have to be active and takecharge of what they do Second, students have to take the risk of making mistakesbecause a mistake is an opportunity to learn The next thing is “monitoringcomprehension”, which means students need to understand how texts work andwhat they do when they read They have to learn how to carry on a dialogue withthe text The last thing for them to do is learning not to cheat oneself, students who

do not want to learn to read can easily cheat, but in fact, they are cheatingthemselves, it is just a waste of time and their opportunities as well

Motivation is one of the main determining factors in success in foreign or

second language learning You can realize that you are more engaged when you arereading something that interests you There are many factors that can help youbecome interested in what you are reading, such as: your thoughts, feelings,interests, and your background knowledge Reading motivation refers to the desire

to read, even when not required to do so Reading motivation involves seeking outopportunities to read for curiosity, knowledge, and involvement Researchers, whostudy on reading, recognize that in order to create lifelong readers, endowing thelearners with proficient reading are not enough They also need to have internalizedmotivation

Perception is the process of receiving information about and making sense of

the world around us People will give their responses to stimuli from thesurroundings Therefore, people’s perception about something will influence theway they response about something, whether it is positive or negative The research

of the students’ perception on pre-reading activities is worth doing to know thestudents perception on the teaching instructions implemented by the teacher If thestudents perceived positively toward the teaching techniques used by the teacher,they will think that the teaching techniques are helpful and important for them to be

successful in the reading class The students will show their interest to the reading activities On the other hand, if the students respond to the instructionsnegatively, the students are not interested to the pre-reading activities The students’perception on pre-reading activities which are based on their experiences will affecttheir way of thinking or interpreting the pre-reading activities implemented by theteacher

pre-Besides, reading material is also another important factor of that greatly

influences the learning reading skill, because through them new grammar, phoneticand lexical items of the target language are introduced Furthermore, texts are alsomeans to help students enrich their background knowledge and vocabulary as well

In reading lesson, students are supposed to understand the texts correctly as much aspossible, learn some new language items e.g words, structures, and use what theyhave got from the text through reading tasks and communication activities thatfollow

2.4 The importance of the Pre-reading activities in a reading lesson

Pre-reading is the process of skimming a text to locate key ideas beforecarefully reading a text (or a chapter of a text) from start to finish Also called previewing or surveying

Pre-reading provides an overview that can increase reading speed andefficiency Pre-reading typically involves looking at (and thinking about) titles,chapter introductions, summaries, headings, subheadings, study questions,and conclusions

Alan Jacobs states that "to be successful today, it not only becomes necessary

to skim, but it becomes essential to skim well" Pre-reading activities as activitiesthat help students with cultural background, stimulate student interest in the story,and pre-teach vocabulary

It can not be denied that Pre-reading activities play a crucial important role inmotivating the students through the reading lesson The aim of using Pre-readingactivities is to develop a better self-awareness of the relationship between thereader’s meaning and the author’s meaning; to help readers understand the teacher’sexpectations and views; to activate the reader’s background knowledge, and to

prevent failure, and to support the reader’s interpretation of the text EmployingPre-reading activities in the first stage of the reading lesson can promote interactionbetween the reader and the text Pre-reading activities is to provide anticipation andactivate reader in the next stages of the reading process

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Subjects of the study

The 80 students under investigation are in the second term of the second year

at the Faculties of Foreign Languages, TNU.These students’ ages are between 20and 22 years old They are supposed to have quite an equal knowledge of Englishbefore entering the TNU since most of them have learnt English for at least 9 years(from grade 3 to grade 12 at school) Moreover, they all passed a very challengingentrance exam Some of them come from Dak Lak, the rest come from differentprovinces around the country These students were chosen from 120 second yearstudents during the school year of 2022-2023 They have completed their first threeterms of the four-year course Of course, it was very difficult to select a sample ofindividuals since the students had already assigned to two different classes

3.2 Scope of the study

To improve reading skill for students of English at the TNU, the teachers canmake use of various techniques and number of things should be done However, inthis study, the author only intends to overview a brief of current situation oflearning reading of the 2nd-year students of English at the TNU, and to suggestsome possible activities that can be applied in the Pre-reading stage in order tomotivate students in reading lesson as well as help them to become good andeffective readers

3.3 Research questions

There are two questions in this study:

1 What pre-activities in reading lessons do teachers often use?

2 What are the students’ preferences for these pre-reading activities?

3.4 Research methods

Questionnaire

The findings are collected through questionnaires Using questionnaire allowsthe researcher to collect the data needed in quantitative form Besides, theresearcher finds it quite easy to summarize, analyze, and report the collected databecause all informants answer the same questions Moreover, the informants are

provided with an opportunity to express their attitudes towards teaching andlearning reading skills openly.

This study was conducted at TNU, where the author is studying Theuniversity has been in operation for almost fifty years English is just one of manyother majors taught Students must go through a four-year course to learn bothfoundational and specialized knowledge

The author of the study randomly chose 2 classes majoring in English (K22A

& K22B) to participate in the survey using a questionnaire This study focuses onpre-reading activities that are employed by the teachers of English at the TNU toimprove reading skills for the second-year English majored students

Instrument

The questionnaire consists of 7 questions, divided into three parts

Part 1 (questions 1, 2, and 3) seeks to understand students' attitudes towardtechniques and pre-reading activities often used by teachers

In part 2, responses to questions 4, 5 and 6 were conducted to find out theirinvolvement in the activity and their interaction with each other while completingthe tasks

In the final part of the questionnaire (questions 7) seeks to the students’reactions to Pre-reading activities employed in the lesson as well as theirpreferences for these techniques Hopefully it can help the researcher to givesuggestions to provide some more Pre-reading activities for students

Data collection

The questionnaire is made online by google form so that it is distributed tothe student of two classes which are Bachelor of English and Pedagogy of Englishcourse 18 by a link Students were given clear instructions and explanation forfilling out the questionnaire The questionnaires were then collected automaticallyupon completion

Data analysis

The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed through Excel 2010Office Version The data concerning subjects’ general background as well as theircomments were calculated and presented in percentage

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Pre-reading activities that teachers often use in teaching reading

Chart 1 below gives the facts to the question 4 (Which of the following reading activities does your teacher use in reading lesson?)

Pre-Predict the content of the text Pre-teaching new vocabulary Pre-Questioning Introduce the reading text Visual Aids and KWL Strategy 0

Chart 1: Frequency of using Pre-reading activities by the teachers (%)

Look at the Chart 1, we can be seen that teachers used the varieties of reading activities as follows: predict the content of the text, pre-teaching newvocabulary, pre-Questioning, giving a brief introduction to the text, visual aids andKWL strategy The teachers are able to select the appropriate pre-reading activityrelated to the reading text to teach reading effectively Or, the teachers are also able

pre-to combine some of the pre-reading activities in the pre-reading stage From the