Teachers' difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade 10th students at Nha Nam High school, Bacgiang province= Khó khăn của giáo viên trong việc dạy kỹ năn

ABSTRACT In an attempt to investigate teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade 10 students using the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” at Nha Nam High School, the research was ai

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to investigate teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade

10 students using the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” at Nha Nam High School, the research was aimed at finding out: (1) the students’ background of English and their attitudes toward learning speaking skills; (2) the problems the teachers might encounter in the teaching process of the skills; (3) factors causing their difficulties and their suggested solutions

Specially, the study has been conducted in the form of a survey research, with the informants of the study being five English teachers at Nha Nam High School The survey questionnaire completed by the teachers and students, classroom observation and interview were the main instruments employed for the data collection The research reveals that the students’ lack of knowledge, including linguistic and cultural background knowledge, the teachers’ teaching methods, some difficulties from the textbook all cause problems for the teachers in the teaching process Besides, the data from the study confirm the fact that the students’ poor attitudes towards the importance of reading skills in learning English contributes to the problems in teaching the skills In addition, the school’s lack of conductive facilities is also made the situation worse

Finally, the data are taken into account when the research discusses the results and suggests some solutions to overcome those difficulties

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: The results of classroom observations

Table 2: Teachers’ attitude towards reading skills

Table 3: Description of teachers’ opinions on the sections for reading in

textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

Table 4: Teachers’ focus when teaching a reading text

Table 5: Teachers’ perception of the students’ comprehension

Table 6: Description of teachers’ problems in teaching reading skills

Table 7: Description of the teachers’ solutions to deal with the difficulties

Table 8: Students’ attitudes towards reading skill

Table 9: Description of students’ opinions on the sections for reading in English 10

Table 10: Students’ focus when learning a reading text

Table 11: Description of students’ problems in learning reading skills

Table 12: Students’ views of sources of difficulties

Table 13: Students’ expectation of teachers’ solutions to their difficulties

Chart 1: The way teachers ask their students to read the text

Chart 2: Teachers’ expectation of the students in the post-reading

Chart 3: Students’ pre-reading activities

Chart 4: Students’ while-reading activities

Chart 5: Factors affecting students’ comprehension of the text

Chart 6: Students’ expectation in the post-reading stage

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 Scope and Significance of the Study 2

5 Method of the Study 2

6 Organization of the Study 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 The Nature of Reading 4

1.1.1 What is Reading and Reading Comprehension? 4

1.1.2 Effective Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension Skills 5

1.1.2.1 What is Effective Reading Comprehension? 5

1.1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Skills 6

1.2 Teaching Reading Comprehension 6

1.2.1 Relationship between Reading and Other Skills 6

1.2.2 The Roles of the Teacher and the Students in a Reading Lesson 7

1.2.2.1 The Roles of the Teacher 7

1.2.2.2 The Role of the Students 8

1.2.3 The Three Stages of a Reading Lesson 8

1.2.3.1 Pre-reading Stage 8

1.2.3.2 While-reading Stage 9

1.2.3.3 Post-reading Stage 9

1.3 Difficulties in Teaching Reading 9

1.3.1 Reading Skill Problems 10

1.3.2 Language Problems 10

1.3.3 Cultural Background Knowledge 11

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 12

2.1 The Current Situation of Teaching and Learning the Textbook at Nha Nam High School 12

2.1.1 Introduction to Nha Nam High School and its Students 12

2.1.2 An Overview of the Textbook “Tieng Anh 10” 12

2.1.2.1 Objectives 13

2.1.2.2 Contents of the Textbook 13

2.1.3 Teachers and Methods of teaching 14

2.2 The Participants 14

2.3 Research Instruments 15

2.3.1 Questionnaire 15

2.3.2 Class Observation 15

2.3.3 Interview 16

2.4 Data Collection Procedure 16

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 17

3.1 Presentation of Statistical Results 17

3.1.1 Classroom Observations and Interview 17

3.1.2 Questionnaire 19

3.1.2.1 Questionnaire for teachers 19

4.1.2.2 Questionnaire for students 24

3.2 Discussion of the Findings 32

3.2.1 Difficulties from Students 32

3.2.1.1 Students’ Attitudes towards Reading Skill 32

3.2.1.2 Students’ Lack of Knowledge 32

3.2.2 Difficulties from Teachers 33

3.2.3 Difficulties from the Textbook 34

CHAPTER 4: SOLUTIONS 35

4.1 Improving Students’ Reading Interest and Motivation 35

4.1.1 Making Reading Lessons Funny 35

4.1.2 Making Reading Skill Useful 35

4.2 Training Students to Become Efficient Readers 36

4.2.1 Making Students Aware of the nature of the reading process 36

4.2.2 Promoting Students with a Variety of Reading Strategies 36

4.3 Varying Reading Activities 37

4.4 Improving Teacher’s Classroom Techniques 37

4.5 Teachers’ Flexibility in Using the Textbook 38

4.6 Equipping Teaching Facilities 39

PART III: CONCLUSION 40

1 Summary of the Study 40

2 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Study 40

REFERENCES 42 APPENDIXES

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

English has experienced its popularity in Vietnam over the last few decades The demand for English even gets stronger when Vietnam fosters its international relations English, in parallel with the knowledge of some other fields, turns out to be a key to the door into the bustling world That is why English is now widely taught in almost all education institutions, at every level

At secondary schools, the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage In the English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, reading is the first skill presented in each unit This proves the important role of

reading According to Carrell (1984:1), “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 foreign language” Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills at high schools is

still far from satisfaction Despite the efforts of the teachers and students, the teachers often find their students’ reading skills disappointing, which do not meet the requirements of the textbook

At Nha Nam High School, where the author works, all of the English teachers have the same problems They have to confront some major obstacles in reading, such as: students’ habits of word-by-word reading, excessive focus on details rather than main ideas, poor vocabulary and limited background knowledge, etc If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions to overcome are given, it is certain that reading lessons can not

be successful and it even becomes worse

In this situation, the teachers need to take a serious look at the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching and learning of the reading skills in particular so as to suggest suitable techniques to enable the teaching and learning of the reading comprehension at high school to be more effective Being a teacher of English at Nha Nam High School, the researcher wishes to give a hand in promoting reading skills for her tenth-form students This matter of fact has offered her a chance to conduct a study on

“Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade 10 th students at Nha Nam High School” It is hoped that this study may offer the English teachers at schools in

general and the English techers at Nha Nam high school in particular the ways to teach reading skills more effectively

2 Aims of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to research on difficulties experienced by the teachers of English at Nha Nam High School in teaching reading skills to grade tenth students with the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” And then some possible solutions are offered

to help the teachers overcome these difficulties so as to make an improvement in our teaching and learning reading skills at high schools The specific objectives of the study are:

● To investigate the students’ attitude towards speaking skills in their English learning

● To examine the activities and techniques applied by the teachers at Nha Nam high school

● To identify the teachers’ major difficulties in teaching reading skills and examine the causes

● To offer possible solutions to the difficulties

3 Research Questions

The above aims of the study can be realized by the following research questions: (i) What are the current methods and techniques of teaching reading skills used by teachers at Nha Nam High School?

(ii) What are the difficulties experienced by teachers and students in teaching and learning reading skills at Nha Nam High School?

(iii) What are the activities and techniques to be used to teach reading effectively at Nha Nam High School?

4 Scope and Significance of the Study

This study is limited to:

- the 10th form students at Nha Nam High School;

- the teachers of English at Nha Nam High School; and

- reading comprehension in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of English as well as 10th grade students at Nha Nam High School That is, the teachers and the students will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching and learning reading skills

5 Method of the Study

The study was designed to use a number of methods to achieve its aims Firstly, classroom observation was carried out to investigate the reality of difficulties the teachers

confronted in their teaching reading skills Then, two types of survey questionnaire were conducted with informants of teachers of English and students randomly selected from 8 classes at Nha Nam High School In addition to questionnaire, informal interviews with the informants were also employed

6 Organization of the Study

The study is organized as follows:

Part I, Introduction, presents the rationale for the study, the aims, research questions,

scope and significance, methodology and organization of the study

Part II, Development, consists of the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Literature review, presents the theoretical background of reading skills

Chapter 2, Looks at the current situations of teaching reading skills at Nha Nam High School Chapter 3, Research Methodology, focuses on the participants, the instruments and data

collection procedure

Chapter 4, Discussion of the findings, discusses the data which was collected at the

second term of the 2010-2011 academic year at Nha Nam high School based on questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews

Chapter 5, Solutions, makes some pedagogical suggestions for teachers and students at

Nha Nam high School

Part III, Conclusion, summarizes all the issues in the research and suggests some ideas

for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is aimed at providing a theoretical background to this study The review of issues most relevant to the focus of the study will be included: concepts of reading and reading comprehension, reading process, reading difficulties for foreigner learners

1.1 The Nature of Reading

1.1.1 What is Reading and Reading Comprehension?

Reading has been investigated by linguists, psychologists, educators and second language researchers, but an exact definition of reading really causes much confusion because different authors define the terms in different ways Herein, I would like to mention some definitions of reading extracted from different sources on the theme

To give the definition, William (1984: 4), Nuttall (1996: 3), and Frank (1985:104) share the same view that reading accounts for understanding what has been written Also, Goodman (1971 cited in Ha, 2003:6), states that: “reading is psycholinguistic process by which the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by writer as a graphic display.”

Ur’s simple definition is “reading means reading and understanding” (Ur, 1996: 138) Harmer (1989: 190) seems to be interested in the notion of reading He says “reading

is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of the message.”

Moreover, Rubin, and Thomson, (1994: 91) offers another definition of reading:

“Reading is an active information-seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” From this point of view, the reader’s knowledge of the knowledge and knowledge of the world is of importance to their reading success

It is clear that no definition can possibly capture all the ideas and features of what reading is However, what they all share is that they try to find out the nature of reading, and reading act, in which the readers, reading process, and reading message are emphasized

Reading comprehension

In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of reading comprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence on what

he or she teaches in the class In fact, methodologists have been providing different definitions of reading comprehension

According to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way

Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978: 9) provide a clearer point of view:

“Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the printed page based on the individual reader’s unique background of experience.”

So far we have looked at some definitions concerning reading and reading comprehension which have been seen from different points of views It is more significant

to have a more in-depth look at the reading process to make the bridge to the focus of the study

1.1.2 Effective Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension Skills

1.1.2.1 What is Effective Reading Comprehension?

Ur (1996: 148) views reading comprehension as a process combining such elements as:

A clear purpose in mind; an enhanced motivation; appropriate reading comprehension strategies based on the purposes and motivation; good prediction; sufficient background information and vocabulary; close attention to the significant bits; and fairly high speed

Cook (1989: 14), on the other hand, contends that effective reading comprehension would be best reflected if we bring distinct cognitive behaviors of good versus poor readers before, during and after reading an assignment into a comparison

Before reading - Active prior knowledge

- Understand task and set purpose

- Choose appropriate strategies

- Start reading without preparation

- Read without knowing why

- Read without considering how

to approach the material

During reading - Focus attention

- Anticipate predict

- Use fix-up strategies when lack

- Are easily distracted

- Read to get done

- Do not know what to do when

of understanding occurs

- Use contextual analysis to assist comprehension

- Self-monitor comprehension by + knowing comprehension is occurring + knowing what is understood

lack of comprehension occurs

- Do not recognize important vocabulary

- Do not see any organization

- Add on rather than integrate new information

- Do not realize they do not understand

After reading - Reflect on what was read

- Feel success is a result of effort

- Summarize major ideas

- Seek additional information from outside sources

- Stop reading

- Feel success is a result of luck

1.1.2.2 Reading Comprehension Skills

Nutall (1982) provides a list of reading skills which consist of macro-skills with word-attack skills and text-attack skills

Word-attack skills are composed of processing morphological information, distinguishing structural clues, inferencing (or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words) from context, active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary, learning to ignore difficult words and using dictionary

Text-attack skills include two subgroups:

 Significance and cohesion: understanding sentence syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices and interpreting discourse markers

 Discourse: recognizing functional value, recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, recognizing implications and marking inferences, and prediction

1.2 Teaching Reading Comprehension

1.2.1 Relationship between Reading and Other Skills

In the process of teaching and learning English, it is very crucial for learners to realize the integration of language That is the possibilities of other aspects of foreign program Therefore, reading skill is closely related to writing, listening and speaking skills Understanding relations will help learners succeed

Firstly, reading is related to writing That is when the students are asked to summarize or continue the reading material such as resume, descriptions of the characters, etc

Secondly, reading is concerned with listening comprehension Students may listen

to a story, a play…then read it or read first and “listening to a worthwhile reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read.” (Rivers and Temperly, 1978: 259)

Thirdly, that is integration of reading and speaking Reading materials serve as fundamental source for oral presentations as they can base on these ideas they have read, discuss or debate for their own purposes This is the best way for them to share what they have been reading with others

To summarize, those combinations should be put into serious consideration when teaching and learning English as a foreign language

1.2.2 The Roles of the Teacher and the Students in a Reading Lesson

1.2.2.1 The Roles of the Teacher

So far there have been various approaches to teaching reading, such as the traditional approach, process-based approach and task-based approach (Pham, 2005 cited

in Hoang et al., 1005: 517) In all these approaches, apart from the evident roles of learners

in the process of reading comprehension, the roles of teachers in an EFL reading lesson are also significant and worth mentioning Discussing the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Richard and Amato (1988) emphasize:

“The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and text The second role is to act interdependent within the learning teaching group.”

Being concerned with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Harmer (2001: 213) gives an opinion that the teacher needs to create interest in the topic and task He also needs to work as an organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter

▪ An observer: While students are reading, the teacher can observe their progress since it will give him valuable information about how well his students are doing individually or collectively, and will tell him whether to give them extra time, or move to organize feedback more quickly than he has anticipated

▪ A feedback organizer: When the students have completed the given tasks The teacher can lead a feedback session to check if they have completed the tasks successfully or not

▪ A prompter: When students are reading the text, it is also necessary to draw their attention to the language features in that text He may direct his students to certain features

of the text construction clarify ambiguities and make them aware of issues of the text structure which they have not come across previously

In general, the teacher must be aware of what they need to do in a reading lesson Playing their roles well will certainly helps the teacher lead successful reading lessons

1.2.2.2 The Role of the Students

In communicative language teaching, the learners are regarded as the centre of the lesson It is true in every reading lesson During the reading process the students play the roles of an active and creative listener and as well as reader

In a reading lesson, students must take an active role as a listener They need listen

to the teacher’s instructions and explanation carefully to find out the way of recognizing information and the way of deducing new words or grammatical structures

The students must also be active and flexible readers, it is wise if they work on their own during the reading process, make full use of the class time to read and do the exercise to achieve a full understanding of the text It is necessary for them to find out suitable reading strategy and use their background knowledge to fulfill their tasks because the significance of the text as well as the information is not always directly stated in printed pages

In summary, teacher and students are interrelated to each other during the process

of teaching and learning reading skills

1.2.3 The Three Stages of a Reading Lesson

Although the role of reading activities in teaching reading is made apparent, how they are organized and sequenced in a lesson varies among different approaches to language teaching In the light of recent and widely accepted communicative approach, it

is a common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while- and reading (William, 1984; Dubin and Bycina, 1991 cited in To et al., 2006: 158) (Hoang et al., 2005) Each stage is characterized by its own aims and procedures as follows

post-1.2.3.1 Pre-reading Stage

In this early stage, teachers are expected to motivate students to read, specifically

by activating or building students’ background knowledge of the subject and familiarizing them with some of the language needed in coping with the text According to Williams (1984: 37) The purposes of the pre-reading stage are:

- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic

- To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading

- To provide some language preparation for the text

Normally, pre-reading phase often lasts from two to ten minutes depending on each lesson Several techniques, as suggested by To et al., (2006: 158) are: using pictures, predicting from the titles, guessing and brainstorming to see what students have already know

In general, in the pre-reading stage, it is necessary to get a good preparation for students, provide them the sense of what they are going to do in their reading lesson

1.2.3.2 While-reading Stage

While-reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson Without this stage, the students will lose the chance to deal with the text to understand the writer’s purpose and clarify the text’s content in detail William (1984: 38) points out the aims of the while-reading stage:

- To help understanding of the writer’s purpose

- To help understanding of the text structure

- To clarify text content

The techniques applied in this stage widely vary, ranging from guessing new words

in contexts, asking questions to note-taking Teachers, at the while-reading stage, need to help their students comprehend the text thoroughly while students have to apply to the best their reading skills like skimming, scanning, guessing, etc to understand the text as well as the writer’s purposes conveyed through the reading text Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two thirds of the whole lesson

1.2.3.3 Post-reading Stage

The post-reading stage is the final but not the less important stage of a reading lesson because it is time for students to apply what they have got from the text into real life communication In other words, it is the time for students’ production What they produce will reflect how well they comprehend the text In William’s view (1984: 39), “the post-reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been said and relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views” Normally, it takes ten or fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage

In conclusion, the above-mentioned stages are essential for a reading lesson However, it is not necessary to carry out all these stages mechanically on every occasion Depending on the purposes of each reading lesson, the teacher may apply these stages as well as allocate time for each stage appropriately

1.3 Difficulties in Teaching Reading

As being mentioned above, no one can deny the important role of reading skill However, it is uneasy for a language learner to be successful in learning reading because

there are many factors affecting the success such as reader’s reading habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to the target language, textual characteristics, the way reading skill is taught and the teacher’s classroom techniques or learning environment, etc Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) and others grouped those factors into three types: reading skill problem, language problem, and cultural background knowledge

1.3.1 Reading Skill Problems

According to Jolly (1987), Coady (1979) and others, one’s first language reading ability plays a more important role in reading success than his level of the target language does, because foreign language reading requires the transference of old skills, not the learning of new ones They believe that if the reader has a poor reading ability in his mother tongue, then, he can not read well in a foreign language

Students’ limited reading skills create many problems, such as reading slowly, failing to understand and summarize main ideas of the reading text, unable to guess or predict the meaning of the words or phrases used in that context, etc Therefore, such students find it hard to be successful in their reading They cannot understand the text thoroughly and those are the reasons why they do not want to keep on reading

In addition, learner’s motivation towards reading is also an important factor in reading process It may affect on reading result such as good speed, enjoyment and comprehension Lack of motivation, the reader does not want to read any more

1.3.2 Language Problems

Yorio (1971: 108) argues that reading problems of FL learners are due largely to the imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue inference in the reading process Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have considerable difficulties when reading in the target language

The first and foremost problem is that the readers may have to work with

unfamiliar and difficult topics These are called “text problem” The content of the text

might be rather strange to the students and the grammatical might be new Therefore, they can not understand it The readers will find the text very challenging and might not have any motivation left to keep on reading

The second but not less important kind of problem is the “vocabulary problem” As everyone knows, grammatical knowledge accounts for a great deal of competence in reading However, knowledge of vocabulary is a great deal more important as a factor of reading comprehension than awareness of grammatical structures (O’Donnel, 1961: 313-

316) Readers encounter a lot of difficulties in dealing with proverbs and idioms, synonyms and antonyms, poly-semantic and sub-technical vocabulary Metaphor, metonymy and other types of transference of meaning also cause great difficulties for readers

1.3.3 Cultural Background Knowledge

Apart from language problems and reading skill problems, cultural background knowledge can also affect students’ ability as culture plays a central role for many topics And that comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text is more difficult than comprehension of a culturally familiar text, because readers, facing up with unfamiliar context, may mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience

For the text structure, the impact of culture is less outwardly evident but apparently still present They will greatly affect the reader’s comprehension Sometimes, the implicit cultural knowledge presupposed by a text or from different assumption about meaning and comprehension held by the writer also causes difficulty to the reader

From what ahs been discussed, it can be concluded that there are three main factors that affect reading comprehension: reading skills, language knowledge, and cultural background knowledge Reading difficulties may be caused by a number of other factors Whatever kind of problems they are, great efforts must be made to overcome them

Summary

This chapter has been concerned with establishing the theoretical backgrounds and issues relating to the topic of the study First, it provides an overview of the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension are discussed Then, teaching comprehension is addressed Finally, it provides an insight into reading difficulties

The next chapter will present the current situation of teaching and learning the textbook at Nha Nam High School, where the data is collected

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 The Current Situation of Teaching and Learning the Textbook at Nha Nam High School

2.1.1 Introduction to Nha Nam High School and its Students

Nha Nam High School is located in Tan Yen district, Bac Giang province This is a small school It has 24 classes It has been in operation for only 10 years The school is surrounded by villages Like other high schools, its duty is to train students from the 10thform to the 12th form

The class size is generally large with 37-44 learners in one The classrooms are equipped only with a chalkboard and desks for two students sharing one The school has two projectors and computers which are occasionally used by teachers of all subjects in teaching festivals There is a library at school but there are not many books for reference Moreover, English newspapers and magazines, which are good sources of current target language, are not available

In our school, Math, Physics and Chemistry are chosen by most of the students who wish to take the exams to colleges or universities English is one of the compulsory subjects at high school and in the school-leaving exam However, few students choose the colleges or universities which require an English exam

The students at Nha Nam High School are approximately 16-18 years old Lots of them come from comparatively poor families so their learning condition is low Their parents can hardly afford to pay extra expenses for their children’s schooling such as a dictionary, a cassette player or even some English reference books Some of them do not take care of their children

Moreover, most of the students have low English level The majority of them have learned English four years, a few of them have learned it for seven years (three years at primary school) However, their English background knowledge has remained a little For some students, the things they have learned at secondary school seem to be completely new at the moment They can not express their ideas even a very simple sentences

In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interest in English As a result, most of them do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbooks and on the teacher for knowledge

2.1.2 An Overview of the Textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

2.1.2.1 Objectives

The syllabus of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is the continuation of that of the textbooks at secondary schools Therefore, the objectives for the 10th form students to achieve would be higher By the end of the 10th form, students should be able to:

- Listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with the length of 120-150 words of the topics they have learnt

- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situations relating to the topics they have learnt

- Comprehend passages of approximately 190-230 words about the topic s they have learnt; Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail; Develop vocabulary comprehension

-Write paragraphs of about 100-120 words relating to the topics they have learnt according

to a model or with prompts

2.1.2.2 Contents of the Textbook

The textbook “Tieng anh 10” is designed under a theme-based approach with 16 units Each unit is about a theme There are five parts in each unit arranged as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus

Reading is the beginning part of each unit The aim of this is that through reading and through developing reading skills such as skimming, scanning, etc the students are provided with language input This can help them to be acquainted with the theme From then, the students can speak, listen and write about the things relating to the theme in the new parts

2.1.2.3 Characteristics of Reading Passages and Reading Tasks in the Textbook Characteristics of Reading Passages

A reading passage in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has 190-230 words in length Each passage is closely related to the theme of the unit It is divided into small paragraphs Some passages are long and rather difficult for the students to understand, as there are a lot

of difficult new words and grammatical structures It takes time to elicit them

Characteristics of reading tasks

In each unit, three kinds of tasks are designed Each task has its own aim

- Task 1 helps the students to understand words or phrases in the passage

- Task 2 helps the students to comprehend the content of the passage

- Task 3 helps the students to have an overall understanding of the passage

Normally, task 1 and 2 are complicated and they require more time to do These tasks themselves cause a lot of difficulties for students

2.1.3 Teachers and Methods of teaching

Our school has got six English teachers, aged from 26 to 36 Three of them graduated from the College of Foreign Language, Ha Noi, and three of them graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Education The oldest teacher has 12 years of teaching experience and the youngest has got two years Each teacher has to teach 12 periods a week Each has the responsibility to teach three periods in each class

As far as the methodology is concerned, the teachers are aware of the new trend in teaching method nowadays: Learner-centered approach They try to give their students independence in studying by asking them to work through the text or discuss subject matters in groups or in pairs after giving them some instructions However, not all of the teachers can do that and the amount of time spent in such activities is not much Furthermore, most of the 10th form students can not do these themselves Therefore, the teachers often employ the traditional method of teaching in reading lessons Most of the time, the teachers play the key role in the classroom, being the main speakers working through the text The teachers explain new words, new structures, even give the answers to some difficult exercises Then the students are passive And the success depends on how flexible and adaptable the individual teacher is to respond to the requirement of the teaching situation

2.2 The Participants

The research was undertaken with the participation of 5 teachers (excluding the researcher) and 199 students The two types of questionnaire were prepared to get information for the research The first was administered to a sample of 5 teachers of English, of which 1 was male and 4 were female Of 5 teachers, three were teaching grade

10 at the time of delivering the questionnaire, one taught tenth graders the previous academic year, and one did it two years ago In general, all of them had experience in teaching reading skills to tenth form learners with the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

There were 8 classes of grade ten at the time of studying To have reliable variables, more than half of the classes should be included in the survey To be objective, judgmental sampling was not possible because these classes were not at the same level So, the classes must be picked by random sampling The 5 classes chosen were: 10A1, 10A2, 10A4, 10A6, 10A7 and the followings were the number of students of each class:

- Class 10A1: 43 students (24 males and 19 females)

- Class 10A2: 37 students (10 males and 27 females)

- Class 10A4: 40 students (21 males and 19 females)

- Class 10A6: 38 students (18 males and 20 females)

- Class 10A7: 41 students (17 males and 24 females)

2.3 Research Instruments

The procedure of data collection is the survey method employing self-administered questionnaire for both teachers and students Classroom observations were carried out to investigate how teachers conducted a reading period, how the students worked in the periods and difficulties encountered Personal discussions with individual teachers would have been more effective to find out the problems in teaching reading skills

In short, three measurement instruments were developed for data collection: (1) classroom observation, (2) questionnaire, (3) interview Those appear in the appendixes

2.3.1 Questionnaire

These two types of questionnaire included both closed and open-ended questions Questionnaire for teachers was written in English, while the one for students was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students properly understood the questions

Questionnaire designed for teachers aimed at seeking information of work experience, teachers’ attitudes towards the reading sections in the textbook English 10, and the problems they confronted with in the process of teaching reading skills

Questionnaire for students tended to survey on their perception about the importance of reading skills in learning English as a compulsory subject at school, their evaluation of their current speaking competence, and difficulties they encountered in learning reading skills

2.3.2 Class Observation

The researcher carried out classroom observations by visiting 3 classes in reading periods and recording all activities occurred in each class: the teacher’s presentation on the reading lessons, the teacher’s questions and explanations, the students’ performance in English The observation checklists for reading class were made The checklists included five criteria:

5 Teacher-student interaction

2.3.3 Interview

The interview, which were semi-structured, and 20-25 minutes in length each, focused on the critical issues arising from the observed lessons as well as issues related to teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills

All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in order for the participants to fully articulate their views without being constrained by the use of a second language They were then fully transcribed, translated and analyzed by the researcher to uncover the emerging themes

2.4 Data Collection Procedure

Data collecting methods used for the study comprised survey questionnaire, classroom observations, and interviews

Classroom observations were conducted for one lesson for each class in three weeks for three teachers Because the teachers were not comfortable with their lessons being video- or audio- recorded, the researcher took extensive field notes of all the observed events in the classroom Each teacher was interviewed once on the last day of classroom observation

Then, based on the classroom observations, the questionnaire was designed for the students and teachers

It is noted that in order to make it easy in analyzing data, 199 students of the tenth form were surveyed In stead of randomly selecting the individual, the researcher randomly selected the classes for investigation

Totally 204 copies of the questionnaire were delivered to students and 5 teachers and all of the copies were returned and respectively used for analysis

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Presentation of Statistical Results

3.1.1 Classroom Observations and Interview

The observation sheet was adapted from Brown, 1994 The results of classroom observations are summarized in the table below:

* Note: A: applicable NA: not applicable

I Preparation

1 Class organization (well-prepared and well-organized) 66.7 33.3

2 Apparently and appropriately prepared-objectives of the lesson 66.7 33.3

II Presentation

3 Language of instructions are clear and concise and students are able

to carry them on

Comments: Teachers used much Vietnamese

33.3 66.7

6 Material is presented at the students’ level of comprehension 33.3 66.7

III Execution/ Methods

7 The teacher moves round the class and make eyes contact with students 66.7 33.3

10 Time amount is distributed appropriately to the stages of the lesson 33.3 66.7

IV Personal characteristics

11 Patience in eliciting students’ responses 66.7 33.3

13 Pronunciation, intonation, fluency are in appropriate and acceptable

use of language

33.3 66.7

V Teacher-student interaction

17 Effective individual, pair, and group work 33.3 66.7

Table 1: The results of classroom observations

The classroom observation results reflected the reality of the difficulties that the teachers encountered in teaching English reading skills

Teachers’ Preparation

As shown in Table 1, in preparation, the majority of the teachers (66.7%) prepared the lessons carefully The same number of them had clear objectives of the lessons and tried to reach those objectives through out the lessons

Teachers’ Presentation

Most of the lessons (66.7%) went smoothly and logically and teachers had clear and concise instructions because of good preparation for the lessons However, the teachers used much Vietnamese in instructing students to do the tasks They usually translated the requirements of the tasks presented in the textbook into Vietnamese When being asked in

the interview, one of the teachers said: “I want to use English in all lessons and often try to speak as much English in class as possible But you know, the students in my school are at low level of English, so they can not listen to it well So I must use Vietnamese in class to make sure that my students understand what I am saying.”

Teachers’ Method

The majority of them (66.7%) moved around the class while the activities were taking place Only one of them stood in front of the class waiting for students’ answers The same number of them failed to use examples and illustrations effectively One-third of them spent appropriate amount of time on each stage of the lessons The others spent much

time on presentation but less on practice One teacher said when being interviewed: “In the

textbook Tieng Anh 10, some of the passages are long, and some of the tasks are too difficult for my students Sometimes, I need two periods to complete a reading lesson.”

Teachers’ Characteristics

In all class observed, teacher – student interaction was problematic The teachers’ taking time was too much whereas that of the students was limited Teachers tended to explain the tasks and did almost of everything for students In other words, teachers controlled and directed the class according to the lessons

When the teachers asked questions in English, many students sat quietly, pretending to concentrate on the book but they had no answer It seemed that they did not understand what teachers were saying However, when the teachers translated the questions into Vietnamese, more than half of the class were likely to understand and began

to discuss (mostly in Vietnamese) to find the responses This showed that the students were not able to understand the teachers much in English because it appeared that they had low English proficiency

Apart from this, most of the teachers (2 out of 3) failed to organize pair and group work effectively Students joined timidly and used their mother tongue most of the time during the tasks In addition, one or two students in each group were so dominated while the rest kept silent, listening to and following others’ instructions It was seen that the students were of different levels of English One teacher answered the question while being

interviewed: “Most of the students do not work effectively and often depend on others’ in pair wok or group work, so I do not let them work in groups very often.”

Furthermore, the majority of students in the classes observed were passive They hardly asked questions, disagreed, or expressed their own ideas The teachers found it difficult to encourage the students’ participation

In short, the findings collected from class observation were: Teachers’ overuse of Vietnamese; limited use of authentic materials; students’ low English proficiency; infective organization of group work; students’ passive learning; little encouragement to students’ participation The findings in the class observations were used to designed questionnaire

3.1.2 Questionnaire

3.1.2.1 Questionnaire for teachers

3.1.2.1.1 Methodology

To elicit a reply for the difficulties the teachers at Nha Nam High School encountered in teaching reading skills to 10th graders and solutions to overcome those difficulties, 13 closed and open-ended questions are formulated:

 Questions 1, 2, 3 (part I) request the matter concerning the teachers’ education and work experience

 Questions 1 and 2 (Part II) aim at finding out the teachers’ opinions on the importance of reading skill and the sections for reading skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

 Questions 3, 4, 5 relate to the way the teachers often do in a reading lesson

 Questions 6, 7, 8 aim at finding out the problems the teachers face in reading teaching process with the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

 Questions 9, 10 focus on teachers’ suggested solutions to difficult situations they meet

3.1.2.1.2 Results

Teachers’ Personal Information

Nha Nam high school has 5 teachers of English (excluding the author), aged from

26 to 36 Only one of them was male Most of them do not have many years of teaching experience, from 2 to 12 years However, all have taught the new textbook syllabus for Grade 10

Problems Teachers Often Faced in Teaching Reading Skills

Question 1:

Table 2: Teachers’ attitudes towards reading skill

Table 2 showed the teachers’ attitudes towards reading skill in comparison with the other skills The majority (80%) of the teachers agreed that reading skill was the most important for the students in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” Only one of them said that reading skill was as important as the others None of the teachers put other skills ahead of reading

Table 3: Description of teachers’ opinions on the sections for reading in English 10

Most of the teachers thought that the sections for reading in English 10 were interesting but difficult to teach (80%) and too long (60%) 20% of them found it boring and no one thought that they were too short

Question 3:

Table 4: Teachers’ focus when teaching a reading text

As can be seen from Table 4, when conveying the reading text to the students, all of the teachers focused on new words and most of them paid attention to new grammatical structures (80%) whereas cultural knowledge and ideas in the reading texts were paid very little attention to 20% of them focused on cultural knowledge and 40% focused on ideas in the reading texts

Question 4:

This question was to find out the normal activities of the teachers in a reading lesson As the result suggested, in the pre-reading stage, the teachers often encouraged their students to involve in some activities 4 out of 5 teachers introduced the topic of the reading text All of them introduced new words appearing in the reading text 2 out of 5

teachers elicited students’ background knowledge and only one of them asked their students to predict what they are going to read

Chart 1: The way teachers ask their students to read

Chart 1 reveals that, 40% of the teachers asked their students to read the text from the beginning to the end, and then did the reading tasks 20% of them asked the students to read each paragraph, then stop and see the meaning of new words, then continue 40% of them encouraged the students to read and based on the context to guess the meaning of new words, or to guess the true message of the author However, predicting from the context was sometimes very difficult for their students; therefore, they often helped them by using their mother tongue equivalents

Question 6:

When the students know the meanings of the

new words in the text

Table 5: Teachers’ perception of the students’ comprehension

Most of the teachers agreed that there existed different ways for their students to understand the text such as “when the students know the meanings of the new words in the text” or “with the help of their existing knowledge” and all of the teachers agreed that their

1 From the beginning to the end, then the reading tasks

2 Each paragraph, stop and see the meaning of the new word, then continue

3 Read and base on the context to guess the general ideas of the text

students would understand the text when the teachers translates the text into Vietnamese This might turn the reading lesson into a translation lesson because it took much time to translate a text into Vietnamese All the teachers knew that their students were dependent too much on the new words when reading and to save time, sometimes, they referred to

translation When being interviewed one teacher said: “I translate the text for my students with a single purpose to guarantee their comprehension.”

Chart 2: Teachers’ expectation of the students in the post-reading

Chart 2 presents that 4 out of 5 teachers expected their students understand the text

in the right way and then they could summarize the text in their own words after the reading lesson 2 of them wanted the students to have general mastery of the key words in the text Only one teacher hoped that their students could use the words in reading texts in their daily life or could read similar texts

Question 8:

The sections for reading in the textbook are not

suitable for the students

Table 6: Description of teachers’ problems in teaching reading skills

Read similar texts Master the key words in the text Understand and summarize the text in their own words Use the words in the text in their daily life

No of

teachers

As can be seen from Table 6, the majority of the teachers reported that some topics for the reading in the textbook were too difficult for their students (80%) Most of them agreed that the limited time and multi-level class caused their problems (60%) Besides, the teacher complained that students’ lack of motivation to develop reading skills also added more difficulties in their teaching process Only one of them said that the sections for reading in the textbook were not suitable for their students

Question 9:

I invest more time and effort in preparing lesson plan 3 60%

I provide students with a variety of reading strategies 3 60%

Table 7: Description of the teachers’ solutions to deal with the difficulties

Table 7 reveals that the teachers seemed to share the same opinions To overcome the difficulties, 80% of the teachers tried to learn in combination with teaching, provided their students various activities, and replaced some difficult tasks by easier ones Most of them (60%) provided their students with a variety of reading strategies and invested more time and effort in preparing lesson plan

Question 10:

At the end of the questionnaire, suggestions were given by all the teachers with enthusiasm Maybe, these teachers had born in mind some ideas of how to improve the current teaching or they might use them in the coming reading lessons Their suggestions were as below:

“We should use more group-work and pair-work to make students stay awake during the reading lessons and concentrate more on the text.”

“Keep varying reading tasks to change the students’ mood and get them involved.”

“Give students more practice.”

“Try to create a relaxed learning environment and make the lessons interesting.”

4.1.2.2 Questionnaire for students

4.1.2.2.1 Methodology

To make sure that the questionnaire had adequate reliability, the second questionnaire with 14 questions was distributed to 199 students

 Questions 1, 2, 3, 4 (Part I) relate to English background of the learners

 Questions 1 and 2 (Part II) aim at finding out the students’ opinions on the importance of reading skill and the sections for reading skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

 Questions 3, 4, 5 relate to the way the students often do in a reading lesson

 Questions 6, 7, 8 aim at finding out the problems the students face in reading teaching process with the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

 Questions 9, 10 focus on students’ expectation of teachers’ solutions to the difficulties

4.1.2.2.2 Results

Students’ Personal Information

The total number of the students in the survey was 199 of which 109 were females and 90 were males 86% of them were living in villages and only 14% were living in town

The next question was about participants’ experience in learning English About 83% had been learning English for over 4 years Only 17% had been learning English for over 7 years (3 years at primary school and 4 years at secondary school)

The students had finished the first semester of Grade 10 school year at high school Their average mark in English varied from 3.5 to 9.6 About 55% of them had marks from

5 to 6.4, 20% from 6.5 to 7.9, 4% had over 8, and 21% had marks under 5 It can be seen that the average marks of the subjects were not high, which might reflected that they had little concern to English learning

Problems students often faced in learning reading skills

Question 1:

Table 8: Students’ attitudes towards reading skill

Table 8 showed the students’ attitudes towards reading skill in comparison with the other skills Most of the students (50.7%) agreed that reading skill was as important as the

others 39.2% of them said that reading skill was not as important as other skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” Not many of them (20%) said that reading is the most important skill

Table 9: Description of students’ opinions on the sections for reading in English 10

Most of the students thought that the sections for reading in English 10 were difficult (79%) and too long (58.3%) 6% of them found it interesting and 9% had opposite ideas No one thought that these sections were too short or easy

Question 3:

Table 10: Students’ focus when learning a reading text

As can be seen from Table 10, when reading a text most of the students focused on ideas in the text (60.3%) 34.7% focused on cultural knowledge whereas 19% of the informants focused on grammatical structures and 20.6% on new words Only 11.5% chose all of the above