Điều chỉnh các nhiệm vụ đọc trong sách giáo khoa “Tiếng Anh 12” cho phù hợp với học sinh có trình độ khác nhau tại trường THPT Vân Nội, Đông Anh, Hà Nội

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CUP: Cambridge University Press  OUP: Oxford University Press LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES  Table 3.1.: The students‟ awareness of the important role of reading c

*****

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

Adapting reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 for

mixed-level students at Van Noi High School in Dong Anh,

Hanoi

(ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA

TIẾNG ANH 12 CHO PHÙ HỢP VỚI HỌC SINH CÓ TRÌNH ĐỘ

KHÁC NHAU TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VÂN NỘI, ĐÔNG ANH, HÀ

NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HA NOI, 2012

*****

NGUYỄN THỊ TRANG

Adapting reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 for

mixed-level students at Van Noi High School in Dong Anh,

Hanoi

(ĐIỀU CHỈNH CÁC NHIỆM VỤ ĐỌC TRONG SÁCH GIÁO KHOA

TIẾNG ANH 12 CHO PHÙ HỢP VỚI HỌC SINH CÓ TRÌNH ĐỘ

KHÁC NHAU TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT VÂN NỘI, ĐÔNG ANH, HÀ

NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Phan Thị Hoàng Yến, M.A

HA NOI, 2012

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

 CUP: Cambridge University Press

 OUP: Oxford University Press

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

 Table 3.1.: The students‟ awareness of the important role of reading

comprehension

 Table 3.2.: The students‟ evaluation of reading lessons

 Table 3.3.: Elements affecting the students‟ reading comprehension

 Table 3.4.: The students‟ evaluation of the significant role of reading

materials

 Table 3.5.: The students‟ perception of the important role of preparation before class

 Table 3.6.: The students‟ habit of doing reading tasks

 Table 3.7.: The students‟ opinions about working in groups

 Table 3.8.: The students‟ preference for the way of working in groups

 Table 3.9.: The students‟ opinions about the language in the reading texts

 Table 3.10.: The students‟ opinions about the content of the reading texts

 Table 3.11.: The students‟ opinions about the reading tasks

 Table 3.12.: The students‟ preferences for reading tasks

 Table 3.13.: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks and group work for Unit 12

 Table 3.14.: The students‟ response to the adapted tasks and group work for Unit 14

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declarations i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of Abbreviations iv

List of Tables and Figures iv

Table of Contents v

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Scope of the study 2

6 Methods of the study 2

7 Design of the study 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

Chapter One: Literature review 5

1 Overview on reading theories, task, task adaptation, and group practice 5

1.1 Definition of reading comprehension 5

1.2 Role of reading in foreign language learning 5

1.3 Challenges of comprehending reading texts 6

1.3.1 Reading ability 6

1.3.2 Language proficiency 6

1.3.3 Cultural and background knowledge 7

1.4 Reading skills 7

1.5 Task adaptation as a type of support for the reading comprehension process 8

1.5.1 Task definition 8

1.5.2 Adaptation definition 9

1.5.3 Purposes of adaptation 9

1.5.4 Categories of adaptation 9

1.6 Grouping practice 10

1.6.1 Benefits of grouping 10

1.6.2 Grouping techniques 11

1.6.3 Management of group work 11

1.6.3.1 Numbers of students in one group 11

1.6.3.2 Leadership in one group 12

1.6.3.3 Time setting 12

1.6.3.4 Monitoring of group work 12

1.6.3.5 Evaluation and assessment of group work 12

Chapter Two: The study 13

2.1 Situation analysis 13

2.1.1 Setting of the study 13

2.1.2 The learners 13

2.1.3 Reading materials 13

2.2 Instrumentation and Procedures 14

2.2.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary survey 15

2.2.2 Instrument 2: Survey questionnaire 15

2.2.3 Instrument 3: Class observation sheets 15

2.2.4 Instrument 4: Survey for response to adaptation and working in groups 15

2.3 The grouping of the students 16

2.4 The adaptation of reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 16

Chapter 3: Data analysis 21

3.1 Data analysis of preliminary survey 21

3.1.1 Personal information of the students taking part in the survey 21

3.1.2 The students‟ awareness of reading comprehension in general 21

3.1.2.1 The students‟ awareness of the important role of reading comprehension in learning English 21

3.1.2.2 The students‟ evaluation of reading lessons in terms of their interests 21

3.1.2.3 The students‟ perception of elements affecting their reading comprehension 22

3.1.2.4 The students‟ evaluation of the important role of reading materials to their interests 22

3.1.3 The students‟ ways of learning reading lesson 23

3.1.3.1 The students‟ perception of the important role of preparing vocabulary and reading texts before class 23

3.1.3.2 The students‟ habit of doing reading tasks 23

3.1.4 The students‟ opinions about working in groups 24

3.2 Data analysis of survey questionnaire 24

3.2.1 In terms of language 25

3.2.2 In terms of content 25

3.2.3 In terms of reading tasks 26

3.2.4 The students‟ suggestions for the teacher‟s adaptation of reading tasks 28

3.3 Data analysis of survey questionnaire for response to adaptation and working in groups 31

3.3.1 Data analysis of response to task adaptation and group work of Unit 12 32

3.3.2 Data analysis of response to task adaptation and group work of Unit 14 33

3.4 Reflection 34

Chapter 4: Major findings and suggestions 4.1 Major findings and discussion 37

4.2 Suggestions 40

PART III: CONCLUSION 44

1 Conclusion 44

2 Limitations and recommendations for follow-up action 45

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: Preliminary Survey I Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire III Appendix 3: Worksheets (delivered in class) V Appendix 4: Samples of Adapted Reading Tasks VIII Appendix 5: Survey for Response to Adaptation and Working in Groups XI Appendix 6: Reading passages and original reading tasks (Unit 12 & Unit

14) XII

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

In Exploring second language reading: issues and strategies by Anderson

(1999: 1), he affirms that reading is indispensable to learning a second or a foreign language Once a learner has acquired the skill, he/ she can achieve academic improvement Despite that importance, the students at Van Noi High School, where the researcher has been teaching English for more than seven years, pay little attention to the skill as well as the reading texts and reading tasks in their textbooks From the result of a survey conducted by the researcher, the reasons for that problem include the students‟ depreciation of English, their poor knowledge of English, and their avoidance of learning English What should be done to solve that problem has tormented the researcher and she has thought a lot to find out an answer On the way of doing that, she has also taken into consideration one more fact that the students are not at the same level With the same reading tasks, some feel bored as they are easy; some feel depressed because they are too difficult Therefore, she wonders whether she should make groups of similar-level students, and adapt the designed reading tasks in the textbook to make them more suitable for each group It also means that each group requires a different reading technique to fully exploit one reading text to the most of their ability That can be considered the best the author can do for her students as a teacher and within this minor thesis Other solutions related to students‟ proficiency and personality, learning and teaching equipments are almost time-consuming and beyond the teacher‟s power of control

All the things above have driven the researcher to doing this study with the hope that she can help the mixed-level students get more knowledge and improve their reading skill through the adaptation of reading tasks in their textbooks

2 Aims of the study

The study was designed to help mixed-level grade-12 students work harder

on reading texts, get more reading comprehension and improve their reading skill

through the adaptation of reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 for different

groups of similar level

The study is aimed to achieve three objects:

1 To investigate how the students learn the reading text and do the reading tasks

2 To make some suggestions of adapting reading tasks in the textbooks for groups of students

3 To investigate how the adaptation works for the students and whether group work is effective in learning reading

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions guided the study:

1 How do the students often do the reading tasks in their textbooks? Why?

2 In what way can the tasks be adapted to help them get more knowledge and improve their reading skill?

3 Does working in groups help them learn more effectively?

4 Significance of the study

The study was carried out to encourage the students‟ assessment of reading tasks in the textbook The unsuitable tasks were adapted to be more accessible for the mixed-ability students Pedagogically, the findings of the study are believed to bring about necessary changes in reading materials and teaching methodology to improve the students‟ reading comprehension at Van Noi High School

Furthermore, the suggestions for teaching reading based on the findings can

be useful for concerned teachers to make reading lessons more interesting and effective

5 Scope of the study

Materials adaptation is such a broad topic that it cannot be wholly discussed within the framework of this paper; therefore, only one specific aspect will be central to the reading tasks‟ adaptation

With the focus on reading tasks only in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 (the basic

textbook), the study was carried out to adapt those for groups of students of similar ability

The study focuses on one class of grade-12 students, so the results of the study are not applied for all students at Van Noi High School

6 Methods of the study

The study in fact is a mini action research According to Nunan (1992: 19),

an action research includes seven steps They are: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up The applied steps in details are as follows:

Step 1- Initiation: In the process of teaching the textbook Tieng Anh 12, the author

observed that the students did not take reading lessons seriously, they often participated in those lessons inactively and inefficiently meanwhile reading comprehension was considered important to academic studies What should be done?

Step 2- Preliminary investigation: The author carried out the preliminary survey to

find out how they often prepare and learn reading lessons

Step 3- Hypothesis: By collecting and reviewing the baseline data, the author came

to the hypothesis that the students were reluctant to learn reading lessons because they often encountered problems with language, reading strategies, background knowledge and motive to learn

Step 4- Intervention: Before each new unit, the students were surveyed to find out

their opinions about the topic and reading tasks in the coming lesson After collecting the results, the author grouped the students of similar ability and adapted suitable tasks for each group The adapted tasks were delivered in the next lesson The author observed the class and recorded the results When the students finished the tasks, the author provided them with survey questionnaires for response to adaptation and group work

Step 5- Evaluation: The students found the adapted tasks less challenging and

achievable They were more comfortable when doing those tasks in groups of

similar-ability groups and took part in reading lessons more actively However, there were some goof-offs in groups after three periods of working in groups

Step 6- Dissemination: The author discussed the effectiveness of adapted tasks and

group work to the students

Step 7- Follow-up: The author suggested more adapted activities and grouping to teach other reading lessons basing on the textbook Tieng Anh 12 to the students

7 Design of the study

The study titled Adapting reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12 for

mixed-level students at Van Noi High School in Dong Anh, Hanoi consists of three

main parts namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion

In the first part, Introduction, the reason for the research, aims, significance, scope and methodology of the study are mentioned

The second part, Development, contains four chapters

- Chapter One focuses on theoretical background of the study which is about reading tasks, task adaption, and grouping students

- Chapter Two not only describes the context of teaching and learning English at Van Noi High School but also presents the instrumentation of the study, the adaptation of reading tasks and the grouping of students

- Chapter Three deals with a comprehensive data analysis

- Chapter Four reports major findings, discussion, and suggestions The last part, Conclusion, provides a summary of the study, limitations and recommendations for follow-up action

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter aims at providing a theoretical background knowledge relating

to reading comprehension, task adaptation and grouping students for the study

1 Overview on reading theories, task, task adaptation, and grouping practice 1.1 Definition of reading comprehension

Reading, according to Williams (1984), is simply “a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written” (p 2) His idea is shared in Ur (1996: 38) that “reading means reading and understanding.” Karlin and Kartin (1988:2) also express that “reading without reading comprehension is meaningless.”

In light of these above definitions, only reading is not considered „reading‟ without understanding

Reading comprehension and understanding are used interchangeably (Grellet, 1981: 3; Richard and Thomas, 1987: 8) They identify the two terms when they define reading comprehension as “an understanding between the author and the reader.” Clearly, according to these authors, reading comprehension is not simply a process where a reader knows what an author intends but a process whereby readers‟ ideas, experiences and responses are stimulated

In summary, reading comprehension is a sophisticated process in which the reader uses his knowledge, experiences and strategies to get meaning of the text Also, in this process, we should mention the activity of reading which includes purposes, processes and consequences associated with reading

1.2 Role of reading in foreign language learning

Reading is said to be “by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” Carrel (1981:1) Anderson (1999:1) stresses a connection between reading and academic success:

“with strengthened reading skills, ESL/EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development in all academic areas.” Besides, reading is the only way

to help a learner “acquire a large vocabulary, develop the ability to understand and

use complex grammatical constructions, develop a good writing style, and become good (but not necessarily perfect) spellers” Krashen (1993:84) In other words, reading helps learners have good command of English Thus, it is essential for English teachers to develop learners‟ reading comprehension in general and enhance vital reading skills in particular

1.3 Challenges of comprehending reading texts

Much research has documented three main factors language learners encounter in reading They are: (1) reading ability, (2) language proficiency and (3) cultural and background knowledge

1.3.1 Reading ability

Many scholars have found a correlation between reading in the learner‟s mother tongue and in a foreign language Bernhardt and Kalmil (1995:7) affirm that

“reading performance in a second language is largely shared with reading ability in

a first language” Alderson (1984) also blames learners‟ failure in reading English

on their poor native language reading In fact, a number of learners do not know how to read, even in their first language They often choose to read slowly from the beginning to the end This habit makes them fail to concentrate on the text and grasp the general meaning if they encounter new words, new structures or new topic when they read in a foreign language As a result, they lose their interest in reading To solve this problem, only suitable strategies and skills for making use of lexical, grammatical, logical and cultural clues can help

1.3.2 Language proficiency

Language proficiency in the field of reading can be understood as knowledge

of vocabulary and grammatical structures If a learner‟s language competence is low, it is “one of the obstacles to text comprehension” (Levine and Reves, 1990: 37; cited in Anderson, 1999: 25) Yorio (1971: 108) also regards the imperfect knowledge of the target language and the mother tongue interference as the major cause of failure in reading a foreign language It has been observed that learners are unmotivated when they read a text about a difficult topic and it contains too many

unfamiliar words They find it hard to interpret the meaning of the text, even when they look up a dictionary to find meanings of words Obviously, low competence of the language prevents learners from exploring reading texts

1.3.3 Cultural and background knowledge

It is clear that reading comprehension is not simply an activity of understanding words, sentences or texts Rather, it is much more complex, and it is

“an interactive process that requires consistent inferring and guessing” (Qian Huang, 2009) Why is reading comprehension an interactive process? The relationship between the text and the reader explains Texts affect readers through words, content and structures while readers use their background knowledge to understand texts

Background knowledge, or prior knowledge of readers helps them make predictions about the meaning of the text This occurs when readers activate their life experience, educational experience, etc to connect things they already know with what they are reading in the text Accordingly, if readers have relevant knowledge about one topic, they can understand that reading text more easily and more profoundly

There have been several researches on the positive effects of cultural similarity on reading comprehension (Alptekin: 2006; Steffensen, Joag-Dev, & Anderson: 1979) and vocabulary learning (Pulido: 2003 & 2004) (cited in Ismail Hakki Erten and Salim Razi:2009) Firstly, it facilitates comprehension Because cultural similarity “nativizes” the text, making it easier for students to “construct mental representations of the familiar context.” Secondly, cultural similarity also helps raise motivation in readers When they find their local environment in reading texts, they are more engaged in reading, thus they understand the text more deeply Therefore, without the relevant cultural knowledge, readers cannot fulfill their reading activities to the full

1.4 Reading skills

According to Mikulecky (1990), the reading process involves twenty-four

skills such as automatic decoding, previewing and predicting, scanning, skimming, paraphrasing, summarizing, etc These skills are too many to teach at one time Thus, the author also contends that focusing on one reading skill at a time is more effective and teachers should give some examples of using that skill She believes that students will gradually deploy the skill unconsciously and strategically

However, in the Teacher‟s Manual by MoET (2006), only four reading skills should be stressed at high school level: extensive reading, intensive reading, scanning and skimming In the teaching context of Van Noi High School, when the grade-12 students are under a lot of learning pressure for their entrance examination, the two skills of extensive and intensive reading are not paid much attention, but for the last two: scanning and skimming

1.5 Task adaptation as a type of support for the reading comprehension process

1.5.1 Task definition

As cited in Richards and Rogers (2001: 223), Breen (1987: 26) writes: “a language learning task can be regarded as a springboard for learning work In a broad sense, it is structured plan for the provision of opportunities for the refinement of knowledge and capabilities entailed in a new language and its use during communication.” More explicitly, Prabhu (1987: 17) defines a task as “an activity which requires learners to arrive at an outcome from given information through some process of thought, and which allows teachers to control and regulate that process.” From the two definitions, it is clear that a task attaches special importance to completeness or outcome of learning process

In the context of teaching reading comprehension, Scrivener (2005: 188) concretizes a task by recommending a framework of 15 specific reading tasks such

as reordering, listing, responding, problem solving, predicting, etc This framework

of tasks is really helpful in developing students‟ micro-reading skills, so this study

uses the “reading comprehension tasks” concept with reference to this framework

1.5.2 Adaptation definition

According to Tomlinson (1998: xi), adaptation is “making changes to materials in order to improve them more suitable for a particular type of learner.” In the aspect of adaptation techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix-xi) mentions adaptation as the action of employing “one or more of a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content.” Differently, Stevick (1972), cited in Mc Donough and Shaw (1993: 83) emphasizes teachers‟ role of bridging a gap between materials and learners: “the teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in ways that will be satisfying to those who learn from it.”

In brief, adaptation requires teachers to change and revise materials to make them more accessible to the teaching context

1.5.3 Purposes of adaptation

The first purpose of adaption emerges from the fact that learning materials are not always in congruence with the learners‟ needs and societal requirements; they usually contain outdated information, linguistic inaccuracies, lack of authenticity or lack of variety, so syllabus and curriculum needs to be revised (Madsen and Bowen‟s, 1978)

The second purpose of adaptation is to “maximize the appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances” (Mc Donough and Shaw, 1993: 85) A teacher may resort to any method to adapt the teaching materials to make them more relevant, accessible and useful for learners, which can stimulate and increase motivation in learners and create a more conductive learning atmosphere in the classroom

1.5.4 Categories of adaptation

There are a variety of adaptation techniques a teacher can apply when teaching reading with a hope to help learners to make maximum use of their textbooks and learn as much of the target language as possible

Within the scope of this study, the author would like to discuss some frequently-used techniques with regard to the discussions of McGrath (2002) and McDonough and Shaw (1993) These scholars all refer “adaptation” to some techniques of change and addition

McGrath (2002) divides adaptation techniques into two categories: adaptation as addition and adaptation as change The forms of extemporization, extension, and exploitation are included in the former The latter is concerned with a principled approach to adaptation, and foci and change forms (pp 64- 67)

Similarly, McDonough and Shaw (1993: 36) consider “external and internal criteria” for adaptation They claim that tasks can be localized, personalized and individualized Accordingly, teachers can decide to add, to delete, to modify, to simplify or to reorder the tasks, depending on teachers‟ purpose of language practice

or text skills, etc However, this framework consists of just five different techniques, which does not fully reflect the complexity of the classroom and the diversity of textbook in use

1.6 Grouping practice

1.6.1 Benefits of grouping

Grouping is common practice in a language teaching class The two most

common forms of grouping are within-class grouping and between-class grouping

In the scope of this study, the author is only concerned with the former: within-class

grouping

Research has documented that grouping benefits students‟ outcome Cited by Vaughn, Hughes, Moody, and Elbaum (2001), Maheady (1997) considers grouping

as one of the alterable instructional factors that "can powerfully influence positively

or negatively the levels of individual student engagement and hence academic progress." Sharing the same view, Sue Stepp (2012) notes that “When students work in groups on projects, the students learn cooperatively.” Furthermore, Dr Kizlik adds one advantage of grouping students: “placing students into groups to maximize the effectiveness of an instructional technique can be a powerful tool for

both teaching and classroom management.” However, he stresses that the practice should be done with careful planning and thought; otherwise, it can “lead to inefficient use of teacher and student time.” That is what teachers should keep in mind when grouping students and what goes on in the next part

1.6.2 Grouping techniques

Teachers may have several ways of grouping students, including interest grouping, ability grouping, random student grouping and student choice grouping (Wagaman, 2008) Shalaway (2005) agrees with Wagaman on the four techniques, and adds four more: social (cooperative) grouping, task grouping, knowledge of

subject grouping, and skill/strategy grouping Four ways of grouping like

Wagaman‟s are also recommended by Michaelsen (1999) but he lists heterogeneous grouping instead of student choice grouping Each technique has both advantages and disadvantages, so teachers should use different grouping formats flexibly basing

on such criteria as students' skills, prior knowledge, or interest (Valentino, 2000)

Of all the mentioned techniques, the author prefers ability grouping The advantage of this technique has been discussed in some researches „The Balanced view‟, a research by Westchester Institute For Human Services Research takes a close look at the issue of ability grouping and concludes that “Within-class ability grouping plans benefit students of all ability levels” Jenn (2012) explains more explicitly that when we group higher-achieving students in one group, they can do one task at a faster speed Meanwhile, lower-achieving students have more chances

to move more slowly and the teacher can help them to solve their problems Moreover, she also adds “homogeneous groups also help you to lessen frustration levels for lower achievers who struggle to keep up with higher achievers.”

Therefore, the technique of like ability grouping will be applied most of the time in this study However, whole-class group or individual work will be also managed during different stages of a reading lesson

1.6.3 Management of the group work

1.6.3.1 Numbers of students in one group

Many scholars recommend a range of three to five people in one group to ensure the workload is evenly distributed among group members (Breslow: 1998, Jens: 2012, Stepp: 2012, at al.) However, it is fine to make groups larger if there is a pedagogical reason

1.6.3.2 Leadership in one group

Stepp (2012), and Filipowich (2012) both advise appointing a team leader to assign tasks to each member and share the management of the group work with the teacher

1.6.3.3 Time setting

An unknown contributor at classroom-group-work.html suggests that time limits be given to encourage all the groups to work quickly to meet the deadline

http://www.ehow.com/how_2054152_manage-1.6.3.4 Monitoring of group work

From an unknown contributor at

http://www.ehow.com/how_2054152_manage-classroom-group-work.html, an idea

is developed that the teacher should go as quickly as possibly between groups to make sure that all the students are working, and he should try to engage those who are falling out of the group‟s discussion

1.6.3.5 Evaluation and assessment of group work

Jenn (2012) suggests periodic evaluations throughout the assignment If groups of students work on a long-term basis, the teacher should frequently check whether those students stay on tasks and make adequate progress She also gives suggestions on how to assess groups She writes that we can assess groups both as a whole and individually When teachers give grades to group work, they should bear

in mind not only individual performance and collaborative products By evaluating and assessing group work by both individual and group levels, teachers can ensure that “individual accountability remains high, while group cohesion to reach the final goal remains strong.”

CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY

This chapter will analyze the situation of the study with the description of the subjects, the materials used by the students, the grouping of the students and the instruments applied to collect data

2.1 Situation analysis

2.1.1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted at Van Noi High School in Dong Anh, the suburb

of Hanoi City At Van Noi high school as well as other high schools all over the country, English is one of the three compulsory core subjects in the national examination for GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education)

The students have three 45-minute periods of English a week, that is, 51 periods in term 1 and 54 periods in term 2 However, there are only seven reading lessons in each term

2.1.2 The learners

The study was carried out with the participation of 41 students of class 12G, specialized in natural science subjects (Maths, Physics and Chemistry) In general, the students are at the age of 18 There are 26 girls and 15 boys They all live in Dong Anh District All of them have learnt English since they were at grade 3, but most of them have almost nothing about English in their mind They do not pay much attention to studying English but they hope to be able to learn it after they have passed their entrance examination for their favorite university

At the time of the study, the students were in their second term of the school year The second term began with Unit 10

2.1.3 Reading materials

The textbook Tieng Anh 12, edited by Hoang Van Van and written by Hoang

Thi Xuan Hoa, Dao Ngoc Loc, Vu Thi Loi, Do Tuan Minh and Nguyen Quoc Tuan, published by Nha xuat ban giao duc, is a theme-based textbook, and a continuance

of the textbooks Tieng Anh 10 and Tieng Anh 11 It is intended to provide students

with thorough coverage of basic grammatical and lexical items and language skills

The textbook is used for grade-12 students It consists of 16 units However,

in this school year, the Ministry of Education and Training has omitted two of them (Unit 7 and Unit 9) Each unit has one reading lesson All the reading lessons in the textbook follow three stages of pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading The reading texts are not too difficult They are intended to be suitable for all levels of students However, they are not challenging enough for good students and beyond slow students‟ level

2.2 Instrumentation and Procedures

The data collected from „student-based evaluation’ and „response-based

evaluation’ (Ellis, 1997: 39-40) helps conduct this mini action research The former

was to check whether the reading tasks are useful, based on the students‟ attitudes to the reading tasks Thus, the data was practical and reliable Doing the later, the teacher had to see whether the actual outcomes matched with the students‟ motivation and teaching objectives by examining not only the products but also the processes of the tasks

Questionnaires were utilized as the main data collection instruments and class observation was functioned as a supplementary source of information Because all the informants answered the same questions, the data collected were easy to summarize, analyze and report Furthermore, the subjects were free to give their ideas without having to provide personal information For that reason, the researcher has more uniform and accurate data

To avoid misunderstanding and ensure the accuracy of the data, both types of questionnaires were written in Vietnamese and distributed with the author‟s clear explanation

The researcher let the participants read the texts before hand and let them respond to a survey questionnaire one period before each reading lesson, and set aside 15 minutes after each reading lesson so that they were not under pressure of time

The instrument and procedures used to gather the information for the study

will be described as follows:

2.2.1 Instrument 1: Preliminary Survey

The Preliminary Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was delivered to the students at the beginning of the second term, after they have finished first term It was designed with four parts Part 1 seeks information about students‟ sex, time of learning English and English result of the previous semester Part two consists of four questions finding the students‟ general attitudes towards: the role of reading comprehension (Question 1), reading lessons (Question 2), elements affecting reading comprehension (Question 3), and the role of reading materials to their interests (Question 4) Part three includes two questions learning about the way the students often do their reading lessons Part four investigates whether the students like working in groups or not and how they would like to work in groups

2.2.2 Instrument 2: Survey Questionnaire

This questionnaire (see Appendix 2) was designed with four parts of open and closed questions It was delivered one day before each new reading lesson and after the teacher had asked the students to read the reading passage and its tasks beforehand It is aimed at finding out the students‟ opinions about the reading texts

in the aspects of content, language, and reading tasks in each unit

2.2.3 Instrument 3: Class Observation Sheets

The class observation sheets were used to note down the students‟ performance in classroom This was a useful tool to measure the students‟ attitudes, behavior and interaction when working in groups, dealing with adapted tasks

2.2.4 Instrument 4: Survey for Response to Adaptation and Working in groups

One survey for response to adaptation and working in groups (Appendix 5) was given to the students after each reading lesson to see how effective the adapted tasks were and their group work was The follow-up questionnaire has six questions The students were asked to self-rate their seriousness in preparing the lesson and doing the tasks as well as the effectiveness of their group work and the adapted tasks

2.3 The grouping of the students

After teaching the students for one semester and collecting data from the preliminary survey, the author could easily identify the students of similar ability and their preference for their group members Therefore, eight groups of 5- 6 students were formed, based on ability level as well as the students‟ wish The students were allowed to name themselves, and eight interesting names were given: Angles, Happy Dream, Devils, N7, Number 1, Super Star, Naive fox, and DLT In each group, one leader and one secretary were appointed They took the responsibility for promoting the group work and taking notes of the group‟s answers

respectively Of the eight groups, Naive Fox (6 members) and Super Star (5

members) included the best students in the class, and the last six groups (5 members each) consisted of all low-achieving students in the class

The forming of similar ability groups could help the author design suitable tasks for each group in the hope of giving the students more success in reading English However, to ensure the success of the reading lesson, a lot of preparation was compulsory before each reading lesson The students were asked to prepare vocabulary and all the reading tasks in the textbooks and the tasks given to them in classroom were to check whether they had done their work seriously and enlarge new aspects of the reading texts

2.4 The adaptation of reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 12

Basing on the findings from the students‟ statement of the way they often do their reading and their evaluation of reading tasks, some adaptation techniques were employed to force the students to work more seriously and make the tasks more accessible to them The tasks of Unit 12 and Unit 14 were adapted, using common

adapting techniques such as „modifying, reordering, replacing and simplifying’

Rationale for adaptation

The reading section of Unit 12 (see Appendix 6) was regarded a difficult one because the text describes an unfamiliar sport to the students Thus, the adapted version of tasks 2 and 3 in the textbook was modified to the two groups of high-achieving groups

Adapted version:

- Type of activity: individual and group work

- Aims: to give the students a general idea of how a game of water polo is played

- Task: while-reading task

- Preparation: the students have to prepare color pens and the teacher prepares one worksheet for each student

- Time: 15 minutes

- Procedure:

+ After finishing pre-reading tasks with the whole class, the two groups received worksheets from the teacher to draw a pool where people could play water polo and tell what the players can do

+ The students had to do individual work first, then share in each group The secretary in each group had the responsibility to choose the best picture of the group and the best description to hand in

+ The teacher observed the group work, and gave help if necessary + The teacher took suggestions from each group for one student who would get mark 10 for his/ her excellent contribution to group work

+ The teacher took the worksheets home and returned them next time

* Sample 1.2.: Modifying

For the six low-achieving groups (see Appendix 4, sample 1.2)

Rationale for adaptation

The students in these six groups are not very good at English and they are not motivated to learn the subject According to information collected in the

Preliminary survey, they often do the reading tasks reluctantly by copying others‟

work or copying answers from „De hoc tot Tieng Anh 12‟ and rarely bother to read a

sentence in the reading passage If they do, they say that they read every word in the reading passage and hardly understand anything because there are too many new words for them Thus, the author had to change the questions so that they had to read the text very fast to find specific pieces of information to answer the questions

Adapted version:

- Type of activity: individual and group work

- Aims: to help the students practice scanning skill

- Task: while-reading task, answering comprehension questions

- Preparation: one copy of the worksheet for each student

+ The teacher went round to observe and give help if necessary + After 15 minutes, the teacher took the suggestions from the groups for the student who would get mark 10

+ Then the teacher checked the answers with the six groups

2 Unit 14 (page 152, the textbook Tieng Anh 12)

Rationale for adaptation:

From the result of the survey before the lesson, the topic of the text is uninteresting to the students and it contains many difficult words Because the following tasks are not only difficult but also boring to the students, task 2 and task

3 were simplified to make the reading less challenging for the low-achieving groups The after-you-read task was considered difficult, so it was made one while-reading task for the high-achieving groups Moreover, because this text is rather long and difficult, one more question for main idea was added

Adapted version:

Sample 2.1.: Simplifying (see Appendix 4, sample 2.1)

For the six low-achieving groups

- Type of activity: individual and group work

- Aims: to help the students practice scanning skill, finding details to answer questions and decide the true or false statements

- Task: while-reading tasks

- Preparation: one copy of the worksheet for each student

- Time: 15 minutes

- Procedure:

+ After finishing pre-reading activities, the students were given the worksheets and asked to do the tasks individually first The leader and the secretary took their responsibility as usual

+ The teacher observed the class, gave help if necessary and gave mark 10 to the most hard-working student in each group

+ The teacher collected one worksheet from each group and corrected them in class

Sample 2.2.: Replacing and reordering (see Appendix 4, sample 2.2)

For the two high-achieving groups

- Type of activity: individual and group work

- Aims: to help the students practice scanning and skimming skills, reading for specific information and gist

- Task: while-reading tasks

- Preparation: one copy of the worksheet for each student

- Procedure:

+ After finishing pre-reading activities, the students were given one worksheet to do the tasks individually, then share in their groups

+ The teacher went round the class, observed the groups‟ performance, offered help and gave mark 10 to suggested students

+ The teacher collected one worksheet from each group and corrected them in class

Sample 2.3.: Adding (see Appendix 4, sample 2.3)

Rationale for adaptation:

Because the post-reading exercise had been served as a while-reading exercise for the two high-achieving groups, the author added one more exercise for the students to get a general idea of the passage It was for the whole class

Adapted Version:

- Type of activity: individual work and pair work

- Aims: to help the students understand more about the reading passage

- Task: post-reading task

- Preparation: one copy of the worksheet for each student

- Time: 5 minutes

- Procedure:

+ After finishing the while-reading tasks and checking the answers, the students were given the summary about the Red Cross and asked to fill in missing words

+ The teacher reminded the students to write whatever they remembered about the reading passage with their books closed

+ The teacher went round, observed the students‟ performance and made sure that every student worked hard to recall

+ The teacher asked the students to share with their partners, then to open their books and check again

+ The teacher elicited answers from the students and checked the answers with the whole class

CHAPTER THREE: DATA ANALYSIS

This chapter presents the data analysis from Preliminary Survey, Survey Questionnaire, Survey for Response to Adaptation and Working in groups, and Reflection To make it easier to understand the data, the percentage for each choice was calculated per the number of participants choosing that choice The number of participants was 41

3.1 Data analysis of Preliminary Survey (See Appendix 1)

3.1.1 Personal information of the students taking part in the survey

According to the statistics, more than half of the students taking part in the survey (63%) are female They all have been learning English for 10 years However, only 25 students got above average results in the first term, and only 8 students got good grades (over 6,5)

3.1.2 The students’ awareness of reading comprehension in general

3.1.2.1 The students’ awareness of the important role of reading comprehension in learning English (Question 1)

As can be seen from the table, most of the participants were not fully aware

of the important role of reading comprehension in learning English To make the matter worse, nearly one third of the students thought that it was useless to learn reading, and some of them even added that the teacher should omit the skill from the curriculum and let them play games Only one sixth of the students (17%) highly appreciated the reading comprehension

3.1.2.2 The students’ evaluation of reading lessons in terms of their interests (Question 2)

Items Percentage (%)

Table 3.2.: The students’ evaluation of reading lessons

From the table, it can be seen that only more than one third (36.6%) of the students were interested in reading lessons The majority of the students (63.4%) were bored or had no idea of reading lessons

3.1.2.3 The students’ perception of elements affecting their reading comprehension (Question 3)

Table 3.3.: Elements affecting the students’ reading comprehension

The table indicates that the biggest obstacle for the students‟ reading comprehension was the volume of vocabulary and structures No interest in reading topics ranked second in causing difficulties for 17.1% of the students while reading The third biggest problem in reading comprehension was lack of reading strategies with 12.2% of the participants choosing it It seemed that lack of background knowledge was not a serious problem because it mattered to only 4.9% of the participants Other factors such as the teacher‟s behavior or lack of preparation for reading texts affected 7.3% of the students

3.1.2.4 The students’ evaluation of the important role of reading materials to their interests (Question 4)

Disagree 48.8

Table 3.4.: The students’ evaluation of the significant role of reading materials

According to the statistics, nearly half of the students (48.8%) did not think that reading materials were important in reading comprehension Only 21.9 % appreciated the important role of reading materials, and the rest (29.3%) had no idea about it

3.1.3 The students’ ways of learning reading lessons

3.1.3.1 The students’ perception of the important role of preparing vocabulary and reading texts before class (Question 1)

3.1.3.2 The students’ habit of doing reading tasks (Question 2)

Table 3.6.: The students’ habit of doing reading tasks

The results from the table demonstrates that the majority of the students never read reading texts to do the following tasks (24.4% copied from the reference book, and 53.7 % copied their friends‟ work) Sadly, only 9.8 % of the students bothered to do reading tasks themselves Besides, 12.1% had other choices such as having old books with answers or doing reading tasks if they were easy and copying

if they were difficult

3.1.4 The students’ opinions about working in groups

Table 3.7.: The students’ opinions about working in groups

It is really interesting that most of the students liked the idea of working in groups Only 4.9% of the students did not like that idea because they were afraid that some other students would be lazy in one group

Of the 95.1% of the students (39 students), the ways of working in groups were questioned and here is the result:

Table 3.8.: The students’ preference for the way of working in groups

The result shows that most of them liked to work with friends of like ability More than one tenth wished to work with better students, and only 2.5% of the participants hoped to work with their close friends

3.2 Data analysis of Survey Questionnaire (see Appendix 2)

This survey questionnaire was delivered to the students one day before each new reading unit, after they had been supposed to read the reading texts and do all the reading tasks in the textbook The questionnaire is aimed at finding out the students‟ opinions of the reading tasks in terms of content, language, and task types

Though the statistics showed some divergence in the students‟ opinions, most of them, in the end, agreed with some adaptation in Unit 12 and Unit 14 The data were shown as follows:

3.2.1 In terms of language

(%)

Unit 14 (%) There are many

unfamiliar words in the

Table 3.9.: The students’ opinions about the language in the reading texts

As can be seen in the table, Unit 12 seemed to have fewer unfamiliar words for students than Unit 14 The same number of students (24.4%) could not decide whether the words in the two reading texts were new to them or not With regard to grammatical structures, it is clear that Unit 14 caused more difficulties for students than Unit 12 (80.5% compared with 41.5%) No student found grammatical structures in Unit 14 easy to deal with while 36.6% of the students felt at ease with grammatical structures in Unit 12 However, there were still 22% and 19.5% of the students who were unsure about new structures in Unit 12 and Unit 14 respectively

3.2.2 In terms of content

(%)

Unit 14 (%) The content of the lesson

is interesting Don‟t know 12.2 4.9

Table 3.10.: The students’ opinions about the content of the reading texts

The statistics shows that the majority of the students (53.7% and 73.2%) had difficulties in understanding the content of Unit 12 and Unit 14 respectively However, more than half of the students (56.1%) thought the content of Unit 12 was interesting, while only 19.5% of the students thought Unit 14 was The same number of students said they could understand the content of Unit 14, and Unit 12 was understandable for more students than that (34.1%) 12.2% of the students had

no idea whether Unit 12 was understandable and the content was interesting Meanwhile, 19.5% and 4.9% of the respondents did not know whether they could understand Unit 14 and thought it was interesting or not

3.2.3 In terms of reading tasks

(%)

Unit 14 (%) The reading tasks are not

too difficult to do

Table 3.11.: The students’ opinions about the reading tasks

According to the statistics, the number of the students agreeing that the reading tasks of Unit 12 and Unit 14 were suitable for their level accounted for about one third (34.1% and 29.3%) More students found the reading tasks of Unit

14 more difficult than those of Unit 12 (46.3% compared with 34.1%) Approximately another one third (31.8% and 24.4%) had no idea of whether the reading tasks of the two units were suitable or not