A study on student interaction in learning English reading comprehension at Vinh University

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG THAM A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUC

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN

LEARNING ENGLISH READING

COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN

LEARNING ENGLISH READING

COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Ngo Dinh PhuongAssoc Prof., Ph.D.

Nghệ An, 2014

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify my authorship of the M.A thesis submitted today entitled:

A study on student interaction in learning English reading comprehension

at Vinh University

I hereby acknowledge that this study in mine The data and findings discussed

in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere

Author

NGUYEN THI HONG THAM

Many people have helped me make this thesis possible First, I would like toexpress my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Doctor Ngo DinhPhuong, who generously supports my work by giving directions, priceless adviceand enthusiastic encouragement during the completion of the study

I would like to express my special thanks Dr Tran Ba Tien, the FDL’s Dean,who gave me the chance and the time to come to the end of this study

I would also like to express my thanks to the teachers and students at VinhUniversity who helped me in providing the materials, answering the surveyquestionnaire, taking part in the interviews actively and making constructivecomments in the process of writing this thesis, without their help the thesis wouldnot have been successful

Finally, my special appreciation goes out to all the teachers who taught meduring the two year course, my colleagues who are very hearty to give opinions andsuggestions for my research, and to all my friends, my students, and my family whohelp me in different ways

This research aims to find out how classroom interaction effects on improvingstudents’ English reading skill Firstly, it defines the importance of interaction inreading classes Secondly, it seeks to answers what types of interaction patternshave been used in language classroom at Vinh University Thirdly, it investigateshow these interaction patterns affect the students’ participation and learningoutcome The thesis involves 20 teachers and 100 students from two non-Englishmajor classes at Vinh University The data are collected by questionnaires,classroom observation, and interview and then statistically analyzed by tables andcharts

The findings of study show that both teachers and students at Vinh Universitythink that interaction in class are important and useful The findings also show thatthere are three types of interaction patterns in reading classroom: teacher-student,student-student and student-content The data from questionnaire, observation andinterview shows that the teacher-student mode is frequently used in pre-readingstage and student-student and student-content modes are used more frequently inwhile-reading and post reading stage The teachers applied many appreciate types ofactivities and interaction patterns increase students’ interest in reading andinteraction in classes depending on different reading tasks, students’ English levels.Students can improve their reading skill and language knowledge through theseactivities The effectiveness of classroom interaction described in the test result oftwo classes Finally, the researcher gives some suggestions with the hope that thestudents’ English will be improved through promoting classroom interactions byteachers

LIST OF TABLES

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

THE LIST OF TABLES

THE LIST OF CHARTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 0

1.1 Rationales 0

1.2 Purpose of the study 0

1.3 Scope of the study 0

1.4 Research questions 0

1.5 Research materials 0

1.6 The Organization of the study 0

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 0

2.1 Previous studies related to the topic 0

2.2 Classroom interaction 0

2.2.1 Classroom interaction as a general term 0

2.2.2 Interaction in EFL Classes 0

2.3 Types of classroom interaction 0

2.3.1 Teacher – student interaction 0

2.3.1.1 Teacher – student / a group of students’ interaction 0

2.3.1.2 Teacher - student interaction 0

2.3.2 Students’ interaction 0

2.3.2.1 Student – student interaction 0

2.3.2.2 Student – students interaction 0

2.4 Teaching and learning activities promoting interaction 0

2.5 The role of the teacher in classroom interaction 0

2.6 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension, and reading strategy 0

2.6.1 What is reading? 0

2.6.2 What is reading comprehension? 0

2.6.3 What is reading strategies? 0

2.6.4 Teaching reading comprehension 0

2.6.4.1 Principles of teaching reading comprehension 0

2.6.4.2 Stages of teaching reading comprehension 0

2.6 Summary 0

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 0

3.1 Research method 0

3.2 Research instruments 0

3.3 Context of the study 0

3.4 Participants 0

3.4.1 Teachers 0

3.4.2 Students 0

3.5 Instruments for data collection 0

3.5.1 Questionnaire 0

3.5.2 Classroom observation 0

3.5.3 Interview 0

3.5.4 Test 0

3.6 Data collection 0

3.7 Data analysis 0

3.8 Summary 0

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 0

4.1 The reality of teaching and learning reading skills in EFL classes at Vinh University 0

4.1.1 The teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the importance of teaching and learning reading skills 0

4.1.2 Reading strategies used in EFL classes at VU 0

4.2 Interaction pattern in the reading classes at VU 0

4.2.1 Teachers and students’ perception of classroom interaction in English reading class 0

4.2.2 Interaction pattern in the reading classes at VU 0

4.3 Interaction’s effect on English reading classes 0

4.3.2 Analysis of test results 0

4.3.2.1 Results of the test scores of the two groups 0

4.3.2.2 Frequency of Distribution 0

4.3.3 The test means’ comparison 0

4.4 Suggestions for promoting interaction and communication in teaching and studying the reading skill 0

4.4.1 Improving students’ reading interest 0

4.4.2 Diversifying appropriate interaction patterns in each type of reading tasks 0

4.4.3 Diversifying appropriate interaction patterns to student’s English proficiency 0

4.5 Conclusion 0

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 0

5.1 Conclusions 0

5.2 Implications and sugestions 0

5.3 Limitations and suggestions for further research 0

REFERENCES 0

APPENDIXES 0

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT: Communicative Language TeachingELT: English Language Teaching

EFL: English Foreign Language

ESL: English as Second Language

THE LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1 Distribution of time and units in 2 semesters 0

Table 2.1 Reading skills in accordance with activities 0

Table 2.2 Definitions of some common post-reading strategies 0

Table 3.1.Teachers’ background information 0

Table 3.2 Students’ background information 0

Table 4.1: Reading strategies applied in reading classes at VU 0

Table 4.2 Sample strategies used at while-reading stage 0

Table 4.3 Teachers and students’ perception of interaction patterns 0

Table 4.4 The activities teachers usually use in Pre-reading stage 0

Table 4.5 An observed reading class process at VU 0

Table 4.6 Frequency of distribution 0

Table 4.7 The statistic parameters of the two classes 0

Table 4.8 Sample activities in warm-up step used in ‘Blind date’ 0

Table 4.9 Sample activities at while-reading stage 0

Table 4.10 Sample activities at post-reading stage depending on students’ levels 0

THE LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1 Teachers’ and students’s attitude toward the importance of reading skills 0

Chart 4.2: The reasons of students’ evaluation about the reading lessons 0

Chart 4.3 Teachers and students’ perception of interaction 0

Chart 4.4 The classroom interaction teachers and students prefer 0

Chart: 4.5 Common interaction patterns in reading classes 0

Chart 4.6 Frequency of mark distribution 0

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationales

Nowadays, English is spoken all over the world People use it as an effectivemeans of international communication in many fields of life, for exampleeconomics, politics, science, sports, etc Because of this reason, more and morepeople are aware of the importance of English so that they have paid more attention

on learning this international language

In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as acompulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language hasbeen recently paid great attention to When teaching English, the teacher teaches hisstudents not only the English language but also its usage And under the rightguidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to master 4language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate inEnglish successfully Among these four skills, reading plays an important role inenriching the students’ general knowledge and in helping them with their furtherstudy later

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a written passage of text.This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are writtenand how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message (wikipedia.org) Readingcomprehension is important because without it reading doesn’t provide the readerwith any information It allows the readers to interact with the text in a meaningfulway It helps learners to gain new knowledge and improve many other languageskills such as writing, speaking and listening For this reason, learners and teachers

of English language should pay more attention on this skill

However, some interviewed students at Vinh University say that they are notable to understand what they read and teachers complain that most students do notlike to read, they only read the required text book in order to set for the achievementroutine exams Students lack of motivation to read, even if they read, they shownegative attitudes These difficulties in reading may come from many causes Forexample, students lack or poor use of reading strategies, lack of relevant priorknowledge, lack of reading engagement, etc Another reason is reading lessons

usually take place in quiet classroom, so that I have recognized that interaction inreading class is really important Interaction means any communication taken place

in class Interaction can motivate learning and created the relationship in class.Classroom interaction is one of the most effective ways to improve students’reading comprehension It is where students and teacher exchange their knowledgeand lessons related problems Through interaction students have more chance topractice the reading skill Today, with the popularity of CLT in Viet Nam, Englishlearners had access to more interactive learning environment The literature ofEnglish language teaching (ELT) has emphasized the importance of classroominteractions as the tool for learning motivation

On the other hand, not many students understand the important of interaction intheir learning and of implementing those strategies efficiently Therefor I am

motivated to choose the topic “A study on student interaction in learning English

reading comprehension at Vinh University” for my thesis We hope that the study

will be a contribution to the increase of students’ classroom interaction awarenessand improvement of reading comprehension skills for learners

1.2 Purpose of the study

The aims of the study are as follows:

- Deeply understanding the perception of interaction in reading class ofstudents

- Deeply understand how the student interaction is applied in non-Englishmajor reading classes

- Applying more activities and reading strategies in interactive reading classes

- The study is the hope of the author to make some contributions to theimprovement of teaching reading comprehension for non-English majors at VinhUniversity

1.3 Scope of the study

The study focuses on investigating student interaction in non-English major

reading classes Due to the limitation of time, our study carries out only on student

interaction in classroom and the number of participants in only limited to 20

teachers of non-English major and about 100 students from two classes at intermediate level at Vinh University

The teaching material currently used for the non- English major students is

the “New Headway Pre-Intermediate the third edition” by Liz and John Soars This

textbook treats the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing thoroughlyand combines traditional methods of language teaching and more recentcommunicative ones

The 12-unit textbook is programmed to be taught in 2 semesters as presented below in Table 3.1:

Semester

The

number

of credits

Time (50- minute lesson

Pre-intermediate the third edition

Table 1.1 Distribution of time and units in 2 semesters

1.6 The Organization of the study

Chapter 1: Introduction

This part will introduce the issues leading to the study, purpose, scope, andorganization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical background

Theoretical background relating to the topic and surveys of articles, booksand other resources will be presented This part will also provide description,summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted

Chapter 3: Methodology

This part presents the detailed procedure of the study: the methodology,population selection, data collection and analysis

Chapter 4: Finding and discussion

The part deals with the findings drawn out from the analysis of data Thefindings and discussion are based on reading experience and strategies of learners

Chapter 5: Conclusion

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

.1 Previous studies related to the topic.

Classroom interaction is teacher’s as well as students’ involvement “Classroom

interaction is a co-operative effort among participants in which each participant

contributes in determining the direction and outcome of the interaction”, Tsui

(1995, p.6) Interaction in a classroom is not something teacher does to students but

something students do together collectively

Classroom interaction and communication strategies in learning English as a

foreign language (MathejaDagrin, 2004) The article focuses on the development of

interaction in a foreign language classroom Teachers can help students to develop

their interaction skills and students themselves can apply various strategies to

become effective communicators in a foreign language

In Viet Nam, there are some researches about classroom interaction LuuTrong

Tuan and Nguyen Thi Kim Nhu (2010) conducted an article entitled “Theoretical

Review on Oral Interaction in EFL Classrooms” In this study, they focused on oral

interaction in EFL classroom The paper reviews the linkage between classroom

interaction and second language acquisition predicated on the three hypotheses,

namely input hypothesis, interaction hypothesis, and output hypothesis

To sum up, the above-mentioned researchers have considerably contributed to

the improvement of teaching and learning language To some extent, they

mentioned to teaching and learning English skills However, the reading skill has

not paid much attention to Therefore, I find it necessary to conduct this thesis

.2 Classroom interaction

.2.1 Classroom interaction as a general term

Commonly, interaction is considered as a kind of action that occurs as two or

more objects which have an effect upon one another The idea of a two-way effect

is essential in the concept of interaction In this sense “interaction” requires at leasttwo patter sides in order to take place Interaction has different tailored meanings invarious sciences In chemistry, chemical interaction is where two or more elementshave affected one another In physics, a fundamental interaction or fundamentalforce is a process by which elementary particles interact with each other.

Interaction in a classroom can help students to improve their two importantlanguage skills: speaking and listening Through interaction, students will sharetheir opinions with their classmate more easily as well as participate in classactivities more actively Sims (1999), considered that interaction is to facilitateprograms base on the leaners’ input, allowing various form of participant ofcommunication Interaction serves a wide variety of functions in classroom Thistype of interaction helps the learners to identify their own learning methods as well

as help the teacher to have a detailed study of the nature and the frequency ofstudent interaction inside the classroom

Teacher applies classroom interaction to facilitate the exchange of informationbetween participants and prevent communication breakdowns (Ellis, 1990) Thereare two types of classroom interaction: non-verbal interaction and verbalinteraction When students use non-verbal interaction, they can use head nodding,eye contact, hand raising, etc By contrast, verbal interaction includes writteninteraction and oral interaction Written interaction is the way students interact withother by writing out their opinions or thoughts On the other hand, oral interactionimplies that students interact with others by speaking in class, answering and askingquestions, making comments, and taking part in discussions Robinson (1997)summarized that: “Interaction is the process referring to “face-to-face” action It can

be either verbal channeled through written or spoken words, or non-verbal,channeled through tough, proximity, eye-contact, facial expressions, gesturing, etc.”

In short, though there are some differences among these opinions, we canconclude that classroom interaction is types of many activities, as students take part

in these activities and can recognize the graphic forms of interaction and understandwhat implied behind these forms The thesis will be based on above mentioneddefinitions

2.2.2 Interaction in EFL Classes

People learn a new language in order to communicate with each other in spoken

or written forms so that classroom interaction is a good way for them to reach thepurpose Interaction is an effective way to exchange thoughts, feelings, or point ofview among people, leading to effect on them “Through interaction, students canincrease their language store as they listen to or read authentic linguistic material, oreven output of their fellow students in discussions, skits, joint problem-solvingtasks, or dialogue journals In interaction, students can use all they possess of thelanguage – all they have learned or casually absorbed – in real life exchanges…”,(Rivers, 1987, p 4,5) According to Wagner (1994), an interaction is an activitywhich takes place in a student and students’ environment It aims to respond to thestudent in a way intended to change his or her behavior toward educational goals.Thus interaction can create a good environment for both teaching and learning According to Joan Kelly (2000), in the field of second language acquisition(SLA), interaction has long been considered important in language learning Otherresearchers have also realized that learning a language is not just to learn theknowledge of the language but more importantly to learn to communicateeffectively in that language In English teaching, creating an interactive learningenvironment for student is very crucial It is generally accepted that classroominteraction can facilitate students’ language development and communicativecompetence The most common position of the role of classroom interaction is itscontribution to language development simply by providing target language practiceopportunities

Communication in the EFL classroom is a complicated phenomenon which iscentral to classroom activities Therefore interaction in EFL classroom is considered

to be the key to learning a foreign language and according to Van Lier (1996, cited

in Walsh, 2006) if a foreign language teacher wants to become effective teacher,interaction should be considered as the most important thing in the SLA curriculum

To improve learning motivation, every EFL teacher should not only understandshow classroom interaction works but also applies it effectively in class According

to Long (1983, 1996, as cited in Walsh, 2011), learning can be promoted through

communication, when learners engage in the negotiation of meaning The quality

of interaction is determined by teachers in their face to face communication withlearners An awareness of the interactional processes can help teachers andlearners have a comprehensive understanding of how language is acquires in aformal context (Walsh, 2006) Teachers should master skill in organizingactivities base on the levels of students An activity can suit the levels ofstudents of this class, but it may fail to suit the levels of students of other onesbecause students’ levels and students’ knowledge of English are different.Interaction in EFL classroom is characterized by activities between teacher andstudents In classroom environments, teachers and students may be seen asmembers of sociolinguistic contexts in which spoken language has social andpedagogical functions The functions of classroom language are produced undertypical discourse patterns of classroom communication systems (Cazden, 1988),

in which the role of language extends beyond the communicating ofpropositional information, to the establishment and maintenance of relationships

in the classroom In addition, the generation of language input by means ofclassrooms interaction is believed to favor language acquisition (Ellis, 1984,1990; Krashen, 1982)

Because so much of language learning occurs in the classroom, SLA researchershave also focus on the role of interaction the classroom event One primary concern hasbeen with the role that teacher talk plays in SLA According to Krashen (1980, 1989),meaningful teacher talk is central to the process of language learning For example,there has been quite a bit of work attempting to define the features of teacher talkconsidered crucial to its role in making the massage comprehensible Theseinvestigations have included the examination of such features as the degree of syntacticcomplexity, the rate of speech, and the length of utterance

To sum up, classroom interaction is very important in language teaching andlearning Interaction builds up communicative environment in class This is a goodway for students to enhance the learning through collaborative learning Classroominteraction provides the vehicle for communication and creates a good and activemotivation

.3 Types of classroom interaction

Classroom interaction is a crucial feature of communicative language teaching

It can take place between the teacher and students, or between student and students

According to Angelo (1993), classroom interaction comprises teacher-student and

student-student interaction, which is one of ten principles of effective teaching:

“create an active learning environment; focus attention; connect knowledge; help

students organize their knowledge; provide timely feedback; demand quality;

balance high expectations with student support; enhance motivation to learn;

encourage faculty- student and student-student interaction and communication; and

help students to productively manage their time Learners will get more knowledge

from the lessons when they actively participate in their learning.”

These are the most frequent ways of organizing classroom interaction,

depending on who communicates with whom:

a) Teacher – student interaction

b) Student – student interaction

c) Student-content interaction

2.3.1 Teacher – student interaction

2.3.1.1 Teacher – student / a group of students’ interaction

This type of interaction is organized when the teacher talks to the whole class,

but requires a student or a group of students to answer This interaction pattern is

often applied to evaluate individual students This pattern can also be used for an

informal conversation at the beginning of the lesson or for leading students into a

less guided activity

2.3.1.2 Teacher - student interaction

This form of interaction (teacher – students) is established when a teacher talks

to the whole class at the same time Teacher is a leader or controller who decides

about the type and process of the activities in classroom The initial function of this

interaction is controlled practicing of certain language structures or vocabularies

This type of practice is also referred to as ‘a drill’

2.3.2 Students’ interaction

Students’ interaction occurs among learners In this form of interaction, theteacher plays a role as a monitor and students are the main partakers Student-student interaction occurs in groups called group interaction, in pairs called pairinteraction.

2.3.2.1 Student – student interaction

This type of interaction is called ‘pair work’ Students get an assignment, whichthey have to finish in pairs The teacher holds the role of a consultant or adviser,helping when necessary After the activity, he puts the pairs into a whole group andeach pair reports on their work

This theme addresses how well students communicate with one another in class.Classes where students have opportunities to communicate with each other helpstudents effectively construct their knowledge By emphasizing the collaborativeand cooperative nature of scientific work, students share responsibility for learningwith each other, discuss divergent understandings, and shape the direction of theclass The pedagogy in action module on cooperative learning is a great place tolearn more about structuring student-student interactions both in and out of theclassroom

Classes that have low interaction among students are more lecture-focused, oftenwell-organized, and tend to present material clearly, with minimal text and well-chosen images The instructor is usually well-versed in the content, but teaches in away that does not provide an opportunity for interactions among students

I

n contrast, a more student-focused class provides multiple opportunities for students

to discuss ideas in small groups and may support a whole class discussion Onesimple measure of this is the proportion of the class dedicated to students talking toone another The quality of the discussion is also important: tasks that have thepotential for more than one answer can generate deeper thinking processes and mayalso shift the direction of the lesson Successful discussions are characterized bysmall group conversations that seek to give voice to all students and to providesufficient time and opportunity to listen and consider the ideas of others

According to Johnson (1995), if student-student interaction is well structuredand managed, it can become an important factor of cognitive development,educational achievement of students and emerging social competencies It can alsodevelop the students’ capacities through collaborative works So that, students willestablish social relationship through this kind of interaction, where the sense oflearning community is promoted and isolation is reduced in the classroom.

2.3.2.2 Student – students interaction

Student– students interaction is also called ‘group work’ As with pair work, theteacher’s function here is that of a consultant and individual groups report on theirwork as a follow-up activity

In this pattern of interaction, students interact in groups of more than twostudents and extreme case is when ones interaction with the whole class as inpresentation However, even in group presentation where more than one studentpresents a topic to the whole class, the main mode of interaction is still student-students as primarily there is only one presenter at one time

For the need of interaction, Sutton (1999) said that, classroom interaction results

in positive attitudes and higher achievement Increasing interaction creates higherlearning motivation and attention for students Interaction among members or group

in class is highly valuable recourse and essential of learning (Moore, 1989) Thegroup work activity was in different tasks and it related to the topic studentsperform the tasks individually Then they work with the group to put theinformation and to share their opinions When students work with member of group,the teacher monitor and give some help if they need Members of each group taketurn to present the issues related to topic while others listen, give comment, or makethe questions

Two ways of students’ interaction are particularly useful for encouraginginteraction among students In large classes, they present the only possibility for asmany students as possible to use the foreign language The research has shown(Long et al 1976 in Nunan 1991, p.51) that students use more language functions inpair- and group-work than in other forms of interaction It has also been proven thatstudents perceive them as the most pleasant ways of learning, because they feel

relaxed and subsequently communicate better (Phillips 1983 in Hatch 1992, p.93).Such work encourages independent learning and gives some responsibility forlearning to students It approaches real-life communication where students talk totheir peers in small groups or pairs Nevertheless, whole-class organization shouldnot be completely neglected since it is still more appropriate for guided andcontrolled activities

2.4 Teaching and learning activities promoting interaction

Interactive activities include any activities that promote and require a student totalk with and listen to others, as well as with people in the community Interactiveactivities have real purposes for example, finding information, breaking downbarriers, learning about the cultural knowledge and so on Even when a lesson isfocused on developing reading or writing skills, interactive activities should beintegrated into the lesson Moreover, study on second language acquisition (SLA)suggests that more learning takes place when students are involved in related tasks

in a active learning environment rather than in traditional teacher-led classes (Moss

& Ross-Feldman, 2003)

To promoting interaction, first of all, teachers should understand the value ofinteractive work in classrooms Teachers should plan for their students to work inpairs and groups effectively Besides, students should know that activities can alsosupport their language learning To make these interactive activities as useful aspossible there are a few things to remember:

- Keep teacher talk to a minimum However, if students do not understand everypart of an activity, teachers can explain as much as possible by demonstratingexplaining or repeating Teachers should encourage students take part in activitiesindependently because the more learners work independently, in pairs, or in smallgroups, the more successful the class

- In an EFL classroom, to help students to be more comfortable to learn moreteacher should design lively, interactive, and fun activities A great deal of learning

—social, cultural, and linguistic—is evident in a dynamic, interactional class.Interactional activities give a lot of opportunities for students to communicate withother students in the class

In short, interaction mostly makes contribution to the effective learning if

“Teacher whose approaches to make use of the existing knowledge and experience

that learners bring with them into the classroom” (Head & Taylor, 1997, 9.53) It is

better for learners to discover and evaluate new ideas for themselves, rather than tell

what they need to learn (Head & Taylor, 1997)

2.5 The role of the teacher in classroom interaction

In a traditional classroom the teacher is the person who plays central role in

making students’ head full of new knowledge However, this role has changed in

communicative classroom The teacher is this class has got many different roles

depending on different classroom situations Teacher’s roles include the following

(Littlewood, 1981, p.92):

-A general overseer of learning, who coordinates the activities so that they form

a coherent progression from lesser to greater communicative ability

- A classroom manager, who is responsible for grouping activities into lessons

and for their overall organization

- A language instructor, who presents new language, controls, evaluates and

corrects learners’ performance

- In free communicative activities he will act as a consultant or adviser, helping

where necessary He may move around the classroom and monitor student’s

progress, strengths and weaknesses

- Sometimes he will participate in an activity as a ‘co-communicator’ with the

learners He may encourage learners without taking their main role

These roles are frequently interrelated and some others (e.g assessor, observer

as explained in Harmer 2001) could be added The roles of a consultant or

co-communicator encourage classroom interaction most, but they need the support of

other roles (e.g for organizing and controlling activities)

2.6 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension, and reading strategy

.6.1 What is reading?

It is stated that reading is a kind of culture that people regardless of age, sex, or

class should learn and have Although no one can deny the high frequency of

reading in everyday life, to understand thoroughly what reading or readingcomprehension is may not be well aware by many There have been so manydefinitions of reading that they cause much confusion However, no singledefinition or explanation can be everyone’s satisfaction.

According to Harmer, it is the eyes and the brain to dominantly participate inthe reading process The eyes are on messages and the brain then has to identify themeanings of those messages (Harmer, 1989, p.153) So the speed of readingdepends much on the mechanical process of looking and perceiving and it is thereader who decides how fast he wants to read the text

Sharing the same viewpoint on reading, Smith defined that “reading is tounderstand author’s thought” (Smith, 1985, p.102) But the problem posed of this isthat how the reader understands the written texts because the meanings of a worddepend on the context in which it appears The closer the reader shares the contextwith the author, the more he/she can understand what the author wants to saythrough the message This mostly depends on the reader’s reading proficiency

Anderson (1999) states: “Reading is an active, fluent process which involvesthe reader and the reading materials in building meaning Meaning does not reside

on the printed page, nor is it only in the reader” Moreover, Nunan (2003, p 68)claims that “reading is a fluent process of readers combining information from atext and their own background knowledge to build meaning The goal of reading iscomprehension”

Goodman pointed out that, reading is “a psycholinguistics process by whichthe reader – a language user reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which hasbeen encoded by a writer as a graphic display” (Goodman, 1988, p.135) This act ofreconstruction is considered as a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing,and confirming To make the matter simple and easy, Nuttal relates reading tocommunication process and concludes that “reading means getting out of the text asnearly as possible the message the writer puts into it” (Nuttal, 1996, p.4) He alsopresses the interaction of texts and readers in the reading process In his opinion,

“text is full of meaning like a jug of water; the reader’s mind soaks it up likesponge”

Reading is not a passive skill It requires frequent practice and exercise To

be an effective reader, one should make a logical link between the language of thetext and his mental perception Therefore, the language should suit the level andperception of the reader Students should enable themselves to enter the world ofthe text without seeking the help from the traditional teaching method ofcomprehension checks “Instead they could be more actively engaged in negotiationfor potential meaning, both individually and with other students Interest in theactivity can sustain interest in the text or be fuelled by interest in the text.”(Greenwood, 1998, p.89)

To sum up, thought these opinions are not exactly the same However, from theopinions above, the authors all concentrate on the nature of reading that is thenecessity for the reader while dealing with reading is to understand the author’smind not the author’s words Reading is a number of interactive processes betweenthe reader and the text, in which readers use their knowledge to build, to create, and

to construct meaning

2.6.2 What is reading comprehension?

Comprehension is recognized as an acquired skill that is focused on theunderstanding of input Oxford English Dictionary (2010) defines comprehension as

“the action or fact of comprehending with the mind; understanding; … graspingwith the mind, power of receiving and containing ideas.” Brown (2007) identifiescomprehension as “the process of receiving language; listening or reading; input”Comprehension is the ability to take in information, analyze it in its respectivesegments, and come up with an understanding of the input in a cohesive andaccurate manner Well-developed comprehension abilities involve interactivestrategy use to come up with a meaningful understanding of the input (Lin, 2010) Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it and understand itsmeaning An individual's ability to comprehend text is influenced by their traits andskills, one of which is the ability to make inferences If word recognition is difficult,students use too much of their processing capacity to read individual works whichinterferes with their ability to comprehend what is read There are a number of

approaches to improve reading comprehension, including improving one'svocabulary and reading strategies.

According to Tompkins (2011), reading comprehension is defined as the level

of understanding of a text/message This understanding comes from the interactionbetween the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message Comprehension is a "creative, multifaceted process" dependent uponfour language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing Proficient readingdepends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly (Adams, 1994) It

is also determined by an individual's cognitive development, which is "theconstruction of thought processes" Some people learn through education orinstruction and others through direct experiences There are specific traits thatdetermine how successful an individual will comprehend text, including priorknowledge about the subject, well developed language, and the ability to makeinferences (Tompkins, 2011, p 35)

Anderson and Pearson (1984) argue that when students make a criticalevaluation of the ideas conveyed in the text, “they are making connections betweenthe new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge” According

to interactive model of reading, comprehension is built up or constructed fromknowledge sources which interact with each other on the input from the writtenpage Comprehension, by definition, is the process of relating new or incominginformation to information already stored in memory Readers make connectionsbetween the new information on the printed page and their existing knowledge.They must allow the new information to enter and become a part of their knowledgestore (Lee and Vanpatten, 1995, p.191)

Grellet defined that “reading comprehension or understanding a written textmeans extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”(Grellet, 1981, p.34) From this point of view, Grellet focuses on readers’ ability ofunderstanding the meaning of a written text based on the individual’s backgroundknowledge Having the same point of view with Grellet, Swan stated that “Astudent is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately andefficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of

understanding” (Swan, 1975, p.1) This means that the student can show hisunderstanding by re-expressing the content of the text in many ways such assummarizing the text, answering questions, etc.

Though these opinions are not exactly the same, what comes up as a commonpoint is that reading comprehension is the process in which the readers, as theyread, can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what isimplied behind these forms In reading comprehension, the reader not only readswritten graphic forms in the text but also recognizes the intention of the writer.They are opinions and point of views which the writer had in mind when theywrote Therefore, readers can master the structures, vocabulary presented in the realsituations

2.6.3 What is reading strategies?

There are a lot of different definitions of reading strategies According toSchumm (2006), reading strategies are processes that “are controlled by the reader,are metacognitive, are intentional, are flexible, and emphasize reasoning”(p.229).Besides, Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008) argue that “reading strategies aredeliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader’s attempts todecode text, understand words and construct meanings of text”

Reading is an interactive process combining top-down and bottom-upprocessing; as a result, it is very important for students to use appropriate readingstrategies to increase their comprehension The term strategy means “the mentaloperations involved when readers purposefully approach a text to make sense ofwhat they read" (Barnett, 1989, p.56) In other words, reading comprehensionrequires the integration and application of multiple strategies or skills

According to Oxford (1990), there are six components of reading strategiesthat are important and easy for learning By learning these strategies, learners will

be more motivated in their reading comprehension The reading strategies arenamely predicting, skimming, scanning, inferring, guessing the meaning ofunfamiliar words, and self-monitoring

Prediction

Prediction refers to the technique of using the readers’ prior knowledge toguess the meaning or the message of the text from the topics, pictures, key words,

or constructions It motivates students to read and understand the meaning of thecontext (Oxford, 1990)

Skimming

Skimming refers to the technique of reading passages quickly in order

to get its gist In skimming, readers do not look for specific information but onlyfor general information (Grellet, 1986)

Scanning

Scanning is quite similar to skimming in that both of them require a quickglance of a text The difference is that in skimming, readers try to get the general ormain information of the text but in scanning, the readers would like to obtainspecific information In scanning technique, readers are looking to find particularinformation – the answer to his/her questions So, readers need to move their eyesquickly across the passages for particular words or phrases (Grellet, 1986)

Inferring

Inferring refers to activities of reading between the lines which means thatreaders need to know how to get the message from the words and sentences in atext So, inferring is defined as the interaction between words in a sentence/phrases

or between sentences or phrases (Kristin, Leah &Soro, 2009) There are seventypes of inferring activities:

- Knowing what a pronoun in a sentence refers back to

- Making assumption about the next sentence and guessing the content of thenext passage

- Predicting the definition of new words in the text

- Making hypothesis across the text about the behaviors of a character indifferent locations

- To be familiar with the connections of words and how they will be used in

a specific text

- Knowing the relationships as written at various times in contexts

- While reading a text fill gaps related to background knowledge (if any)

Guessing the meaning of new words

Guessing the meaning of new words helps readers to read and understandtext quickly because difficult words usually create problems for students and areobstacles in reading comprehension (Smith, 1994) Furthermore, the best way tofind the meaning of new words is to draw inferences from the context rather thanusing a dictionary (Smith, 1994)

to use clues in the text to anticipate and integrate new information

Obviously, readers often encounter problems in reading the text and havedifficulties in understanding the meaning of the context but reading strategies helpthem in learning foreign language and reading comprehension Therefore, readersneed to be explicitly taught how to properly use reading strategies to monitor theirreading comprehension Teachers need to design various types of reading strategiesactivities to improve their students’ understanding of these materials and motivatethem in their activities

When the reader wants to make sense of their reading, one has to use readingcomprehension strategies purposefully A good reader will know how to adaptedreading strategies to meet the demand of the reading tasks Tovani (2000), said thatgood readers use lots of strategies to help themselves make sense of text Theprecise number of comprehension strategies in reading research is unknowable(Cramer, 2004) Ya-Li Lai said in their article “Theory of Reading Strategies and itsApplication by EFL Learners” that “comprehension strategy instruction is a method

of direct and explicit teaching of comprehension strategies in order to help studentsbecome more proficient readers with the ability to apply a set of effective andresearch-proven reading strategies to increase their understanding and thinking and

to monitor and repair their own comprehension” In comprehension strategyinstruction, teachers clearly teach comprehension strategies and reading skillsthrough mental modeling, scaffolding, thinking aloud, and application By learningcomprehension strategies, most readers know how to use certain skills andapproaches to make a text more comprehensible, meaningful, and memorable Inthe historical context, comprehension strategy instruction is referred to as “readingcomprehension strategies instruction” or a shorter term is “comprehensioninstruction” or “strategy instruction.”

Strategic reading is very important for English learners Reading strategiesimprove reading comprehension When learners receive strategy instruction, theybuild “on their already-established cognitive abilities and background knowledge”(Mikulecky and Jeffries, 2004, p 183).Students may also view reading strategy as aproblem solving activities which take the place of translating Through thisapproach, students increase their confidence and motivation As a result, they mayhave faster access to the reading material they have to use in their academiccontexts

2.6.4 Teaching reading comprehension

2.6.4.1 Principles of teaching reading comprehension

According to McLaughlin (2012), reading comprehension is a complex processthat is still imperfectly understood But it is still possible to lay out generalprinciples of good teaching practice based on what we know, In this article out thegoal of reading instruction – “teaching students to become active, strategic readerswho successfully comprehend text” (p.433) – and presents ten principles of readingcomprehension she believes every teacher should know:

• Principle 1: Comprehension is the active construction of meaning as the readermakes connections between prior knowledge and the text

• Principle 2: Readers make sense of what they are reading, have clear goals, andask themselves questions as they read, monitor their progress, have a repertoire ofstrategies, and discover new information on their own.

• Principle 3: Effective teachers believe all children can learn; understand thatstudents learn best in authentic situations; provide lots of opportunities for students

to read, write, and discuss; and constantly use assessment evidence to fine-tuneinstruction

• Principle 4: Motivation is a key factor Effective teachers make students want toread by creating the right environment, making compelling texts available, andinstilling intrinsic motivation

• Principle 5: Explicitly teaching a variety of reading comprehension strategiesincluding previewing, self-questioning, making connections, visualizing, knowinghow words work, monitoring, summarizing, and evaluating

• Principle 6: Vocabulary development is essential It is fostered by buildingstudents’ interest in learning and using new words, developing precision in worduse, studying how words work, and extending vocabulary development to othersubject areas

• Principle 7: Students should read a variety of types and levels of text Theseshould include instructional-level books for teacher-guided lessons and easier textsfor independent reading Motivation and achievement increase when students readtexts that interest them

• Principle 8: Students should use multiple modes to represent their thinking Oraland written responses are fine, but students should also be able to sketch, dramatize,sing, and create projects about their reading

• Principle9: Constantly check for understanding Teachers should observe students

as they read and discuss, look at their informal written responses, and use otherassessments – and use insights gained to follow up and fine-tune instruction

• Principle 10: Push students to comprehend at deeper levels Students need to gobeyond passively accepting a text’s message and read between and beyond the lines,thinking about the author’s purpose and the underlying message of the text

2.6.4.2 Stages of teaching reading comprehension

It’s common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while-,and post-reading (William, 1984 as cited in Hedge, 2000; Dubin and Bycina, 1991).Each stage has its own aims and procedures.

Pre –reading: The teacher spend some time introducing a topic to encourage

student to skim, scan, and predict, so that students can use the best of theirbackground knowledge and skills to a text when they have been given anopportunity to comprehend the passage easily

Three common strategies can be used in this stage:

1) Establishing a purpose for reading

In this stage, the teacher establishes a purpose for students’ reading That is, theteacher takes into account the students’ language and proficiency levels and thenchose the appropriate tasks for their students to finish Generally, matching thecontent of the text and the students’ familiarity with that content; having studentsread a text; and getting the reader to establish reasons for reading are threeconsiderations influencing the process of establishing purposes for reading

2) Activating and building background knowledge

From reading comprehension research we can see that the students are able tocomprehend read the materials more quickly and effortlessly when they haveintroduction to the topic of an informational text before reading Firstly, anintroduction can reminds information that students may already know about thetopic, which may be comes from personal experience or other reading materials Ifthe students keep this knowledge in mind when they are reading, they will increasetheir opportunities to understand information they find in the texts Moreover, anintroduction may also give students some cultural knowledge that help themunderstand the new material easily, In addition, an introduction will get the students

to think about the topic so that it can increase students’ interest in the reading topicand in that way the teacher are able to motivate students to read the text Finally, ifthe introduction activity is conducted in English, it will also review or introduce therelevant vocabularies for that topic

3) Previewing the text to build expectations.

According to Dole (1991), it is important to preview before they read becausethis will enable to establish students’ expectations about the information they willfind in the reading materials and the way information organized in the text

Reading the title to, selected parts of the text to establish expectations about thecontent of the text or order to sample the ideas presented and to establish a mentalframework for reading is common reviewing activities in a reading class Inaddition, previewing activities also includes reading the introduction and identifyingthe key issues to be discussed; reading the conclusion paragraph; skimming the text;reading the first sentence of each of the body paragraphs; and scanning parts of thetext for specific information

While reading: Reading texts are not always can read extensively or globally

so that taking note of while the read may be a good way for students Teachershould not just ask students to read but help them to recognize the purpose forreading The teacher helps students to comprehend the specific content and toperceive the structure of the text during the while-reading stage

At this stage, teacher is required to guide students to assume an active,questioning approach to the text by supplying a number of while-reading tasks Thesimplest technique for this purpose is to the major ideas of the text The givenquestion should be suitable for three levels of comprehension such as the explicit,the implicit, and the applied The explicit requests literally stated information thatcan be inferred, and the last one requires relating new ideas to previous knowledge

or experiences

Teacher gives a number of statements, instructions, or questions to leadstudents through the assigned reading and indicate what information is important,how a paragraph or section is organized, and what is to be learned are used in thisstage Besides, teacher gives some tips to help students to understand typicalstructures to represent relationships between the main idea and subordinate detail,cause and effect, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, etc… Teacheralso can acquire students to complete an outline or fill in a graphic, or can helpstudents to perceive the relative importance of text concepts and how these ideas are

related to one another These make student understand the text more easily,however considerably more work for the teacher.

In this feature, Mathews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1999:67) suggested following reaading skills in accordance with activities.

Understanding the

relation between

sentences and clauses

1 Jumbled sentences or paragraphs

2 T circles the references devices in a text and SSwork out what they refer to

3 T gives students a passage in which the logicalconnectors are blanked out Students have to readthe passage and work out what the connector mustbe

4 Prediction exercises: Students only read the firstline and then predict the next

Recognizing the effect

of style

1 Multiple choice or True/ False questions

2 Discussion on the style of the text

3 Parallel passage in different style

Skimming for the gist

1 The text is used simply as spring board fordiscussion on a particular topic

2 Students read through a passage and then suggest

a title for this

3 Students match different titles to series of shorttexts within a given time limit

Scanning for specific

information

1 Underlining or circling the required information in

a given time limit

2 Pre- questions focusing on specific informationReading for detail 1 Information transfer activities

2 Note- taking on the order of events or emotion in

a text

3 True/ false questions

4 Jigsaw reading

Table 2.1 Reading skills in accordance with activities

In fact, the teacher can choose many other suitable activities for his students inthis stage The choice of any of them depends on the kind of the reading text as well

as the level of the students In addition, when the teacher selects suitable activities,during this stage, he should remember his roles of an organizer, observer, assessorand prompter

Post-reading: Teacher should give questions which are appropriate for post

reading The teacher should also pay more attention on vocabulary study and askstudents to recognize the purpose of the author, discuss the author’s line ofreasoning Grammatical structures should be examined and then steer the studentstoward writing exercise

Post-reading is the last stage of the reading lesson which is intended to reviewthe content, work on bottom - up points such as grammatical structure, vocabulary,and other features, relate the new information to the students’ knowledge, interests,and points of view to firm up what has been read

Many of the appliances introduced at the while-reading stage can be used in thisstage for the purpose of review At this point, teachers can put the students in pairs

or small groups to compare and verify their responses to the questions or graphics inappropriate activities and then check the results with the whole class

After reviewing the main ideas of the text, teacher can ask students to do all ofreading exercises such as multiple choice, true-false statements, wh-question and so

on Given exercises should be depended on the character of the text, the needs of thestudents as well as students’ levels

Finally, students integrate the new information from the text what they alreadyrecognize, common tasks in this stage are writing assignment, discussion, and role-play, etc… The choice in this case also depends on the size of the class, the levels

of students and so on

Common post-reading strategies:

Peer practice

In peer practice, students help each other to review, drill, andrehearse in pairs or in small groups of three or four, in order toconsolidate their understanding or enhance skill development

Think-pair-share

Think-pair-share is a strategy whereby students think alone for aspecified amount of time in response to a question posed by theteacher Students then form pairs to discuss their ideas, and afterthis, share responses with the class Think-pair-share is used tohelp students check their understanding and provideopportunities for practice or rehearsal

Discussions

Discussion is purposeful talk through which students exploretheir thinking, respond to ideas, process information, andarticulate their thoughts in verbal exchanges with classmates andteachers

Interviews

An interview is a conversation or dialogue in which theinterviewer seeks to gain information and insights from theperson being interviewed It is used to explore ideas and to gainpersonal and practical information from an expert or a person inthe role of an expert

Table 2.2 Definitions of some common post-reading strategies

(Definitions adapted from The Ontario Curriculum Unit Planner; AssessmentStrategies Companion, Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2002)

2.6 Summary

In conclusion, this chapter has provided the significance of classroominteraction in general The research shows the roles of students and teacher learningand teaching in the reading skill

Also, in this chapter the research seeks the interaction types in languageclassroom The correlation between classroom interaction and reading skill leads tothe learning results

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research method

On the basis of the theory presented in the theoretical background, interactiveteaching and learning is different from the traditional methods The application ofthis approach in teaching English reading was carried out for EFL learners at VU.The survey was conducted on the second year students and teachers of English tofind out the reality of teaching and learning in reading classes, the reality ofapplying interactive reading lessons as well as the teachers and students’ perception

of classroom interaction It also aimed to provide suggestions to promote teachingEnglish reading with interaction Therefore, it was undertaken the quantitativeapproach and the qualitative approach

To find the answers to the research questions, the research understands bothqualitative and quantitative analysis Qualitative research is used to investigate theteachers’ and students’ attitudes Also quantitative is used to analysis the test score

of two groups

3.2 Research instruments

The research consists of questionnaires, interviews, and tests Thequestionnaires investigate the current situation of teaching and learning reading forEFL students at VU

The interviews helped the researcher to find out more information about thereality of complementing classroom interaction in teaching reading In addition,they also give further suggestions to promote teaching English reading withinteraction

The test was designed to find an answer to the question: “How does student interaction affect reading comprehension in EFL class at VU?

3.3 Context of the study

The study carried out at VU For non-English major students, English is acompulsory subject in their curriculum But to enroll in the class, they have to pass

the placement test If they get at least 5 points (50%), they can register their name toany English class they want After that they have to complete 7 credits of thissubject (equivalent to 105 periods of 50 minutes each)

At the end of each semester, students are to participate in a written test thatconcentrates on grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing During one semester,students are required to do at least a midterm test (the number of test depends onteachers) in order to be given marks to be qualified to participate in the end- of-semester exam

3.4 Participants

The study was carried out to investigate the classroom interaction, especiallystudents’ interaction in class Therefore, the participants of the study involved bothEFL teachers and students at VU In this study, no administrators, teachers orstudents were identified by their names

3.4.1 Teachers

In terms of teachers, the numbers of teachers who have to be in charge ofteaching non-major English students are 20 Most of them have been doing an M.A.course in applied linguistics and English teaching methodology

Twenty teachers were selected to answer the questionnaire to help theresearcher find out what should be done to promote classroom interaction Thetwenty teachers were all trained in Universities in Vietnam (College of ForeignLanguages, Vietnam National University- Hanoi and Vinh University) They areteaching to non- English major students at VU They are from 31 to 60 years of agewith at least 5 years of English teaching experience (20%) Ten teachers (50%) havebeen teaching for more than 10 years, and other six teachers (30%) are the mostexperienced with more than 15 years teaching

In terms of teacher’s qualification, two of them have acquired Ph.D degree;fourteen have M.A degree (60%), while the rest (30%) have B.A degree and arepursuing M.A courses Each teacher is to teach 3 or 4 classes, each of class has

from 40 to 50 students They are required to follow the textbook “New Headway