A student - based evaluation of the reading comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao = Đánh giá của học sinh về các hoạt động đọc hiểu trong sách

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  VŨ THỊ KIM THANH A STUDENT- BASED EVALUATION OF THE READING COMPREHENSION TASKS IN “TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO” ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐäC HIỂU TRONG SÁCH “TIẾNG ANH 12 NÂNG CAO” MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  VŨ THỊ KIM THANH A STUDENT- BASED EVALUATION OF THE READING COMPREHENSION TASKS IN “TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO” ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA HỌC SINH VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐäC HIỂU TRONG SÁCH “TIẾNG ANH 12 NÂNG CAO” MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH (MA) HANOI - 2010 v M.A.Thesis Table of contents STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS IV LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES VIII INTRODUCTION 1 Statements of the Problems and Rationale for the Study Aims of the Study Significance of the Study Scope of the Study Methods and Procedures The Structure of the Thesis Chapter I Review of Literature 1.1 Reading comprehension 1.1.1 Definition of Reading and Reading Comprehension 1.1.2 The Importance of Reading Comprehension in Foreign Language Learning 1.1.3 Reading Sub-Skills 1.2 Reading comprehension Tasks 1.2.1 Tasks 1.2.2 Reading Tasks 1.2.3 Types of Reading Tasks 1.3 Textbook Evaluation 10 1.3.1 Definition of Textbook Evaluation 10 1.3.2 The purpose of Textbook Evaluation 10 1.3.3 Types of Textbook Evaluation 10 1.3.4 Models of Micro-Evaluation of Tasks 11 1.3.5 Student- Based Textbook Evaluation 11 1.3.6 The Need to Have Students’ Evaluation of the Reading Tasks 12 1.3.7 Criteria for Evaluation 12 vi M.A.Thesis 1.4 Previous Studies on the New Set of English Textbooks 13 CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF THE READING TASK IN TIENG ANH 12 NANG CAO 15 2.1 Overview of the National Curriculum and Syllabus for ELT 15 2.2 Overview of the Textbook 15 2.3 Overview of the Reading Section 16 2.3.1 Reading Text Types 17 2.3.2 Reading Task Types 18 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 21 3.1 The Setting 21 3.2 Participants 21 3.3 Data collection methods 22 3.3.1 Survey questionnaire 22 3.3.2 Interview 22 3.4 Data Collection Procedures 22 3.5 Data Analysis 23 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 24 4.1 Quantitative data 24 4.1.1 Usefulness of the Reading Tasks 24 4.1.2 Usefulness of the information 25 4.1.3 Genres of reading texts 25 4.1.4 Helping to develop and consolidate vocabulary and grammar competence 26 4.1.5 Relevance to students’ level of English 27 4.1.6 Preparing students for exams 28 4.1.7 Developing sub- reading skills 29 4.1.8 The need to modify and supply more reading comprehension tasks 31 4.1.9 Matching personal reading strategies 31 4.2 Qualitative data 32 4.2.1 Usefulness to students’ English language learning 32 4.2.2 Relevance to the students’ needs 34 4.2.3 Students’ expectations 34 vii M.A.Thesis CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36 5.1 Summary of the study 36 5.2 Recommendations 38 5.2.1 Addition 38 5.2.2 Providing Supplementary Reading Texts 39 5.3 Conclusion 40 5.4 Limitations of the study 41 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1: PHIÕU §IỊU TRA HỌC SINH I APPENDIX CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN CHO HỌC SINH V APPENDIX OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE READING SECTION VI APPENDIX THE SUGGESTED ADDITION OF THE READING TASKS VII APPENDIX SUPPLEMENTARY READING TEXTS IX viii M.A.Thesis LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1: Types of reading tasks developed within Davies‟ and Green‟s model Table 2.1 Reading Text Types 17 Table 2.2 Quantity of Reading Tasks 18 Table 2.3 Types of Reading Tasks 19 Figure 4.1 Students‟ general opinions on the usefulness of the reading tasks 24 Figure 4.2 Students‟ opinion on the usefulness of the information 25 Figure 4.3 Students‟ opinion on genres of reading texts 25 Table 4.1 Students‟ opinions towards how much vocabulary and grammar is consolidated and developed 26 Table 4.2 Students‟ assessment of the relevance of the reading tasks to their level of English 27 Table 4.3 Relevance to the requirement of the exams 28 Table 4.4 The sub-skills of reading tasks students gained 29 Figure 4.4 Student‟s opinions on the needs of modification 31 Table 4.5 Relevance to students‟ personal learning method in general and method to learn reading comprehension in particular 31 Table : Added tasks suggested in the three reading stages in each unit 39 M.A.Thesis Introduction Statements of the Problems and Rationale for the Study In the age of globalization the status of English has been enhanced As Richard (1985:1) reminds us the current state of English has turned a significant percentage of the world population into part time users or learners of English This is also true for Vietnam in the new social context with the recent economic renovation, the participation in WTO as well as regionalization and globalization There has been increasing demand for mastering English The teaching and learning English in high secondary school is most prioritized by the MOET The old set of textbooks which was used for a long time has been replaced by the new one in 2002 which is claimed to incorporate the latest methodology in second language teaching The introduction of the new textbooks is considered the first step towards the achievement of better quality of education The objectives of the books have been adjusted for a better use of English “as a tool of communication at basic level in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing” (Hoang et al., 2006a:33) Being an effective and fluent reader in another language is very important as reading helps students consolidate what they have learned and support their further study According to Carrel (1981:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” Unfortunately, teaching and learning readings skills is still far from satisfactory for various reasons The new textbooks for upper secondary school level comprised two sets: the basic book and advanced books Hoang Van Thu specializing secondary school chooses the basic books for non English specializing classes and the advanced for English specializing ones English 10 and English 11 were approved and officially introduced into schools by MOET in the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively English 12 has been implemented in the nationwide scale since the academic year 2008-2009 Up to now it has been used for English specialized classes of grade 12 in Hoang Van Thu school for two years M.A.Thesis As a teacher of English in a specializing high school, I have worked quite closely with the new textbooks I have noticed that although the books have shown a great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of grammar-based textbooks, they also bear several limitations as it can not be of great help to improve students‟ language knowledge and more importantly it hardly caters for all the needs of students In a specializing school the students‟ level of language proficiency is rather high Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao does not come to students‟ expectations in term of language, grammar, the length and the quality of the tasks Students have to use supplementary reading material to improve their reading skill which is compulsory part in all exams So how would the teachers solve this problem? The methodology course in postgraduate program has changed our mind and provided us with the new perspective about our English language teaching career It helps us shape our critical thinking towards using the textbooks The research therefore is conducted to evaluate the reading comprehension task in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao using student - based evaluation Since the 1970‟s there has been a movement to make learners the center of language instruction and it is probably best to view textbooks as resources in achieving aims and objectives that have already been set in terms of learner needs “The learner is focused” is one of the issues mentioned by Canagarajah (2006) in which the role of learner has been highlighted As English has become an international language, learners with their diverse learning contexts and needs are focused in more specific ways Research on the limitations of the new textbooks has been a core part of my study Based on the findings, recommendations are made which are expected to help improve students‟ reading skill to enable them firstly to successfully fulfill the reading section in the university entrance examination paper, and secondly to further their study Aims of the Study The study aims to understand students‟ evaluative comments on the usefulness and relevance of the reading tasks in terms of preparing better for the high school graduation and university entrance exams, further study and future jobs Particularly, the study tries to answer the following two research questions: M.A.Thesis To what extent students find the reading comprehension tasks useful to their English language learning? To what extent students find the reading comprehension tasks relevant to their learning needs? Significance of the Study The study helps the audience to be aware of the strong and week points of the text book This would also enable the teachers to effectively exploit the strength and revise, modify or supplement the materials if necessary Moreover, it is useful for the teachers to listen to their students about their interests, needs, and expectations Only by doing that, can we respond to their needs at the utmost and maximize the learning/teaching objectives by revising the textbook The study has been also a benefit for the evaluator herself As Richards, (1990) believes that a successful teacher is the one who can evaluate teaching materials and to teach students successfully, therefore it is a good chance to review major theoretical basis relating to material evaluation Being equipped with the knowledge, teachers have a critical thinking towards the material they are using, namely, they can evaluate it systematically and methodologically This work is also of great use for the writer to gain good and useful insights into the nature of the reading comprehension tasks in the textbook This microevaluation will serve as basis for evaluating other tasks such as listening, speaking, and writing tasks Scope of the Study First, the study can not be generalized to other 12 specializing classes in HVT specializing school as their English textbook is the basic set and it can not also be applied in other high schools even though they teach the same textbook because of different population Second, the study was concerned with evaluating only the Reading Comprehension Tasks in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao The limitation of time and the scope of a minor thesis not allow the researcher of this project to cover many aspects as expected However, the subject is hopefully deeply analyzed M.A.Thesis Methods and Procedures In order to find the answer for the above research questions, the writer reviewed different textbook evaluation methods of many researchers in this field and finally found that the method proposed by Ellis (1997) is the most suitable as this study aims to evaluate one task in a textbook To collect the data, the methods used in the thesis are questionnaires and interview Survey questionnaires here play a vital role in getting feedback from students about the reading tasks in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao Interview is served to probe more about students‟ concrete opinions The Structure of the Thesis This thesis is divided as follows: The Introduction presents the background to the study, states the aims, significance, discusses the scope of the study, method and procedure and outlines the thesis Chapter One, Literature Review, discusses issues relating to reading, reading evaluation, task evaluation and reading comprehension tasks, which serves as the scientific base for the thesis Chapter Two presents the overview of the reading task in Tieng Anh 12 Nang Cao Chapter Three, Methodology, presents the deep analysis of the setting including the students‟ profile and institution It also describes data collection instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis Chapter Four, Data Analysis and Discussion, presents the results from the questionnaire, and interview The chapter ends with a discussion of the findings Chapter Five, Recommendations and Conclusion, presents the recommendations drawn from the findings of the study and concludes the thesis ... A reading task in a classroom consists of a process of three tasks (pre -reading task, while -reading task and post -reading task) Pang, Muaka, Bernbardt and Kamil (2003:6) define reading task as... further macro evaluation On the other hand, micro -evaluation can be an individual, practical and legitimate way of carrying out an empirical evaluation of teaching materials ? ?A micro -evaluation. .. evaluate the reading tasks in Tieng Anh Nang Cao for 12 Graders 1.3.5 Student- Based Textbook Evaluation Definition According to Ellis (1997:39) student- based evaluation is the evaluation in which