Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp dạy kĩ năng đọc theo đường hướng giao nhiệm vụ cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất không chuyên ngữ tại trường cao đẳng kinh tế công nghiệp hà nội

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* LÊ THỊ THÚY AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

LÊ THỊ THÚY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TASK-BASED METHOD IN TEACHING READING FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY KĨ NĂNG ĐỌC THEO ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO NHIỆM VỤ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

LÊ THỊ THÚY

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TASK-BASED METHOD IN TEACHING READING FOR THE FIRST YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HANOI COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS

(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY KĨ NĂNG ĐỌC THEO ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO NHIỆM VỤ CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KINH TẾ CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thùy, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I, Le Thi Thuy, hereby state that this thesis entitled “An Investigation into

the Use of Task – Based Method in Teaching Reading for the First year non-English Major Students at HaNoi College of Industrial Economics” is the result of my own

research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Post Graduate studies – University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University

Hanoi, September, 2014

Signature

Lê Thị Thúy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like first and foremost to thank Dr Pham Thi Thanh Thuy - my

thesis supervisor - for her critical comments and valuable guides without which this thesis could not have been completed I would also like to express my thanks to the

lecturers and the staff of the Postgraduate Department at University of Languages

and International Studies for their useful lectures and careful guidance

My sincere thanks go to all my colleagues and my students at Hanoi college

of Industrial Economics And I also wish to express my thanks for the great cooperation from the first year students in the classes: CKT13.1, CKX13.4, CKX13.2 and CQS13.1 in the data collection of my study

Last of all, I would like to express my thanks to my family, especially my husband for their sacrifice and encouragement

ABSTRACT

At HCIE, reading is one of the most important skills in learning English

Therefore, how to teach reading well and effectively has been concern of the teachers In the past, the common teaching method applied in this college is Grammar- Translation Method However, this method is not effective in teaching reading Among the modern teaching methods, Task-Based Method (TBM) is considered a new and effective one Task-Based Method has been tried by many English teachers at HCIE The main purpose of this research paper is investigating the real situation of teaching reading skills at HCIE for the first year students and providing some suggestions for using TBM to improve teaching reading skills at HCIE To gain these objectives, three kinds of instruments are applied such as survey questionnaire, class observation and informal interview

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

TBM Task Based Method

GTM Grammar Translation Method

OU Open University

ULIS, VNUH University of Languages and International

Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the reading materials

Table 2: Students’ assessments on teachers’ activities in reading lessons

Table 3: Students’ performance in reading lessons

Table 4: Teachers’ frequencies of using activity management in reading lessons Table 5: Teachers’ activities at pre-reading stage

Table 6: Teachers’ activities at while-reading stage

Table 7: Teachers’ activities at post-reading stage

FIGURES

Figure 1 Willis’ (1996) TBM framework

Figure 2: Ellis (2006) Classroom processes Traditional form-focused teaching method and Task-Based Method

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of abbreviations iv

List of tables and figures v

Table Of Contents vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aim of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Design of the study 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Reading skills 4

1.1.1 Definition of reading 4

1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension 4

1.1.3 The Goals of teaching Reading skills 5

1.2 Task - based Method 7

1.2.1 What is task 7

1.2.2 Type of tasks 8

1.2.3 A framework for TBM Implementation 10

1.2.4 Task - Based Method (TBM) and Traditional Teaching Method 12

1 2.5 Task - Based Method in teaching reading skills 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16

2.1 Background to the study 16

2.1.1 Teachers and students 16

2.1.2 The textbooks 16

2.1.3 The teaching and learning facilities 17

2.2 Design and methodology 17

2.2.1 Participants 17

2.2.2 Instruments 18

2.2.3 Data collection procedures 19

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION 21

3.1 Current situation of English reading lessons in classroom at HCIE 21

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the reading materials 21

3.1.2 Students’ assessments on teachers’ activities in reading lessons 22

3.1.3 Students’ performance in reading lessons 23

3.1.4 Teachers’ frequencies of using activity management in reading

lessons 24

3.1.5 Teachers’ activities at pre- reading stage 25

3.1.6 Teachers’ activities at while-reading stage 26

3.1.7 Teachers’ activities at post-reading stage 27

3.2 Some suggestions for using TBM to improve teaching reading skills 29

3.2.1 Suggestions for students 29

3.2.2 Suggestions for teachers 30

3.2.3 Suggestions for administrator 32

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1 Summary of major findings 34

2 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 34

REFERENCES 35 APPENDIXES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Up to date, English becomes a dominant international language in all aspects such as communication, science, aviation, entertainment, education In Vietnam, it

is undeniable that it has become the most popular foreign language to be used as a means of communication Therefore, teaching and learning English is now considered as a necessity in the society with the aim of mastering an international language Together with the development of language, language teaching

methodology has also developed to find the effectiveness of teaching and learning

At HCIE, the system of the grammar and reading texts based exams is dominated So the students are eager to learn grammar points and do reading exercises in workbooks as much as possible in order to pass the exam only Therefore, developing reading comprehension ability is a basic content in this college And how to teach reading effectively has been the concern of the teachers Some years ago, the situation of teaching reading at HaNoi college of Industrial Economics was not satisfactory, because many teachers still used Grammar – Translation Method, which did not attach enough importance to the improvement of learners' communicative competence As a teacher for four years in this college, the researcher realizes that the grammar translation method is not really effective for our students

Meanwhile Task-Based Method which has been strongly advocated and promoted by many world-leading linguists (Prabhu 1987, Nunan 1989, Willis 1996, Skehan 1998, Bygate & Ellis 2001) since early 1980s TBM has been tried by many English teachers at HCIE When the teachers use the TBM in reading class, the situation of teaching and learning reading is totally different

For these main reasons above, the researcher determined to conduct this research work entitled:

“An Investigation into the Use of Task-Based Method in Teaching Reading for the First year non-English Major Students at HaNoi College of Industrial

Economics”

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to:

- Investigate the real situation of teaching reading skills for the first year non -English major students at HCIE

- Provide some suggestions for using TBM to improve teaching reading skills at HCIE

3 Research questions

There are two research questions for the study as follows:

Question 1: How are reading skills taught at HCIE?

Question 2: What might be some suggestions for using TBM to improve teaching reading skills at HCIE?

4 Scope of the study

The focus of the study was on investigation of using Task-based Method in teaching reading skills and the participants of the study are the first-year students at the Hanoi college of Industrial.The information obtained from this study is to help

to improve teaching and learning English reading comprehension

5 Design of the study

The study includes three main parts:

The first part is the Introduction The researcher states the rationale for

choosing the topic of the study, the aim, the scope and the design of the study

The second part is the Development which is divided into three chapters Chapter one provides the background knowledge of reading skills and Task-Based Method The next chapter refers to the background to the study Then the author provides the methodology of the study which describes the participants and instruments, as well as the procedures employed to carry out the research Findings and discussion are followed in the next chapter by presenting and analyzing the findings that the researcher discovered from the data collected and raises some discussion related to the current situation of teaching reading at HICE with Task-

Based Method, then give some suggestions for using TBM to improve teaching reading skills

The last part is the Conclusion This part presents the summary of major findings, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1.Reading skills

1.1.1 Definition of reading

Beck and Margaret (2005) described “Reading as a complex process

composed of a number of interacting sub-processes and abilities” However, Pang

et all (2003, p 6) have defined reading as a “complex activity that involves both

perception and thought” Meanwhile Flesch (1955: 110), defines "reading as getting

the meaning of words formed by letters on a printed page and nothing else" This

opinion is as the same as Harris (1970: 3), he defines "reading as the meaningful

interpretation of written or printed verbal symbols” Goodman (1995) explains that

“reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among the reader's existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language, and the context of the reading situation” Clearly, reading is an act that

involves the reader works to find out the meaning written by the writer

Obviously, different scholars give different reading definitions and it is a hard job to decide which is better because each of definition focuses on one important matter of reading However, the authors share the same ideas that reading

is the reader's perception and apprehension of the words written by the writer, and

thus upon understanding of the meaning he intends to convey

1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension

In order to instruct students in reading comprehension strategies, teachers must first understand the meaning of reading comprehension

Pang et al (2003) described “reading comprehension as an active process a

reader made to construct meaning from a text This process which consists of using

an interaction between a prior knowledge, and drawing inferences from the different words and expressions the writer uses, in order to comprehend information, ideas and viewpoints” Smith (1985) also believes that “reading comprehension involves bringing a prior knowledge interacted with what she is

reading, so that she can achieve comprehension” According to Block et al (2002,

p 5), “reading comprehension is an interactive process involving the reader, the

text, and the context”

In brief, reading comprehension is the process of obtaining the information and understanding meaning from a piece of text

1.1.3 The Goals of teaching reading skills

According to Sadoski, M (2004: 44) the goals of teaching any subject is classified in one or more of three great domains which include the psychomotor domain, the affective domain and the cognitive domain

The psychomotor domain is the domain of the mind and the body working together to produce physical performances Learning to walk, tie shoelaces, swim, type, drive a car, and perform creative dance routines are example of psychomotor domain

The affective domain is the domain of attitudes, interests, values, appreciation, and life adjustment The common examples of affective activities are responding positively to success and constructively to failure, adopting healthy habits over unhealthy ones, developing a democratic tolerance for opposing points

of view, or invoking ethical principles for behavior in morally ambiguous situations The cognitive domain is the domain of intellectual skill including the recall

or recognition of information, the comprehension of information, and the development of logical and rational thought skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation The common examples of cognitive activities are remembering facts, summarizing thoughts, applying principles to solve problems, deducing a coherent explanation from disparate pieces of evidence, or objectively critiquing arguments

in terms of their logical consistency

In applying these domains in teaching reading skills, the goals of teaching reading were divided into small goals which were balanced between the affective domain and the cognitive domain, and the psychomotor domain was eliminated

Two goals in the affective domain are developing positive attitudes toward reading and developing personal interest and tastes in reading

Goal 1: Developing positive attitudes toward reading

It is important to observe and recognize the attitudes of students toward reading skills The term “attitude” applies to their perceptions of their competence and their dis-position toward their future performance Students try to develop the positive attitude toward reading means progressing in their confidence in their own ability Added to that, they should experience success regularly and approach reading confidently and avoid the negative attitude

Goal 2: Developing personal interest and tastes in reading

Having a positive attitude toward readinng is not enough Students who have

an interest in reading have the motivation to read and to respond affectively, to seek

to enlarge self-understanding and sense of self-worth through reading The development of interest is the development of discriminating value judgment, or taste which means that students can have tendency to make value choices and judgments about what they chose to read and to develop their own critical standards

Two goals in the cognitive domain are developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems and developing the fundamental competences of reading at successfully higher levels of independence

Goal 3: Developing the use of reading as a tool to solve problems

Reading is a way to deal with everyday problems because printed language which need reading is everywhere, such as memos and menus, candy wrappers, constitutions, bills and rest room doors, resumes and rest room doors, etc Reading helps readers know their meanings and for which they are used Clearly, using reading as a tool in our daily lives is pervasive

Goal 4: Developing the fundamental competencies of reading at succeedingly higher levels of independence

This is the most basic goal and provides the means to the other ends According to Chall (1996: 18), reading is classified into six stages with specific goals:

 Stage 0, Pre-reading (prekindergarten–grade 1):developing concepts about print;

recognizing print in the environment; learning some letters and words

 Stage 1, Initial Reading or Decoding (grades 1–2): learning letters and letter

combinations and their correspondence with parts of spoken words; learning to crack the code

 Stage 2, Confirmation, Fluency, Ungluing from Print (grades 2–3): learning more

about decoding; using context to increase fluency and rate; reading simple stories and beginners’ books

 Stage 3, Reading for Learning the New: A First Step (grades 4–8): learning to read

begins to shift to reading to learn; developing vocabulary and knowledge; beginning to use subject area textbooks

 Stage 4, Multiple Viewpoints (high school): dealing with more mature texts that

introduce varying viewpoints and more challenging concepts; more independent reading

 Stage 5, Construction and Reconstruction - A World view (college and adult): more

advanced and discriminating reading; constructing knowledge on a high level of abstraction and generality; varying purposes and rate; critical reading

(Chall 1996: 18)

To sum up, in teaching reading skills, considering these goals helps us to imagine an ideal state of affairs in a reading class and provide a conceptual basis for the why of teaching reading Also, a complete reading curriculum needs to address the affective as well as the cognitive, attitude as well as ability, interest as well as skill

1.2 The Task – Based Method

1.2.1 Definition of “task”

A number of definitions of task have been suggested:

According to Nunan (2004) “a task is a piece of classroom work involving

learners in an understanding, directing, producing or interacting way in the target language while the students' attention is focused on activating their grammatical

knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the aim is to express meaning rather than to manipulate form”

Bachman & Parmer (1996) define a task as “an activity that involves

individuals in using language for the purpose of achieving a particular goal or objective in a particular situation” In this definition, the authors stress the presence

of a specific objective in an activity

Richards, Platt & Weber (1986) offered a pedagogical definition: "task is an

activity or action which is carried out as the result of processing or understanding the language" (p.289) This definition implies that tasks involve communicative

language use in which the user’s attention is focused on meaning rather than

linguistics structure Another point of view comes from Caroll (1993) He considers a task as: “any activity in which a person engages, given an appropriate setting, in

order to achieve a specifiable class of objectives” This definition mentions the

importance of engaging within an activity This means that our students are confident with the language they use because the previous tasks will help them to

perform sucessfully what has been asked to do

To sum up, there are a lot of different definition of task in English teaching, but the main focus of task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific goal It is on the authentic use of language for meaningful communicative purposes beyond the language classroom, which has some connections with a real world of learners' lives and learning experience, and which can arouse learners' interest and participation

1.2.2 Types of Task:

Different writers have different ways to classify tasks:

Pica et al (1993), for instance, classify tasks as per interaction sorts in the product like (a) jigsaw, (b) information-gap, (c) problem-solving, (d) decision-making, and (e) opinion exchange

Willis (1996) classifies six types of task as per knowledge hierarchies as (a) listing, (b) ordering and sorting, (c) comparing, (d) problem solving, (e) sharing

personal experience, and (f) creative

a Listing:

Listing tasks tend to get a lot to talk as learners explain their ideas This type

of task involved brainstorming and fact-finding The outcome of this task may be

completed list and draft mind map

b Ordering and sorting:

Ordering and sorting tasks involve four main types: Categorizing items in given groups or grouping them under given headings; classifying items in different ways; sequencing items, actions or events in a logical or chronological order and ranking items The outcome of this task may be set of information ordered sorted according to specific criteria

c Comparing:

Comparing tasks involves comparing information to identify similarities and things in common and differences The outcome of this task could be items appropriately matched or assembled or the identifications of similarities and/or differences

d Problem solving:

Problem-solving tasks make demands upon people’s intellectual and reasoning powers, and though challenging, they are engaging and often satisfying to solve The processes and time scale will vary enormously depending in the type and complexity of the problem Real-life problems may involve expressing hypotheses, describing experiences, comparing alternatives and evaluating and agreeing a solution The outcome of this task may be solutions to the problem, which can then

be evaluated

e Sharing personal experiences:

Tasks of sharing personal experiences encourage learners to talk more freely about themselves and share their experiences with others Learners have an

opportunity narrating, describing, exploring and explaining their attitudes, opinions

or reactions The outcome of this task may be largely social

f Creative tasks

This task involve pairs or groups of learners in some kind of freer creative

work They also tend to have more stages than other tasks and can involve combinations of task types above The outcome can be appreciated by a wider audience

Prabhu identifies three kinds of cognitive task types:a) information-gap, b) opinion-gap and c) reasoning-gap tasks:

a An information-gap activity involves the exchange of information among

participants in order to complete a task

b An opinion-gap activity requires that students give their personal preferences,

feelings, or attitudes in order to complete a task

c A reasoning-gap activity requires students to derive some new information by

inferring it from information they have been given

From the authors’ classifications, the researcher sees that although the tasks seem to be different, they all stress the importance of activity to create an effective learning environment in the classroom for learners to use the target language for real communication and engage in the learning process

1.2.3 A framework for TBM Implementation

Willis’ Task-Based Learning Framework (Willis, 1996) offers teachers a practical guide for conducting tasks in the classroom, the framework consists of three phases: Pre-task, task cycle and language focus

(i) The pre-task, Willis (1996) identifies three steps for pre-task stage:

In this stage, teacher explores the topic with class, activating topic related words and phrases Students note down useful words and phrases, spend time preparing for the individual task The pre-task phase will usually be the shortest stage in the framework It could last between two and twenty minutes, depending on learners’ degree of familiarity with the topic and the type of task

(ii) The task cycle: This is the main task stage including three components: (a) task: students work in pairs or small groups and the teacher monitors from a distance; b) planning: students prepare to report to the whole class orally or in writing how they did the task and what they decided or discovered; and (c) report: some groups present their reports to the class or exchange written reports, and then they compare results

The task cycle offers students the chance to use the language they already know and to improve the language under teacher guidance Students gain fluency and confidence during the task stage They then improve the language during the planning stage with access to the teacher's help when they need it The report stage gives students motivation to improve upon the language they use At the end of the task cycle, students are provided with recordings or texts which provide familiar contexts for the teaching of grammar

(iii) The language focus phase: Finally, the language focus phase can be further divided into two components: (a) analysis: students examine and discuss specific features of the text or transcript of the recording; and (b) practice: teacher conducts practice of new words, phrases, and patterns occurring in the data either during or after the analysis In this stage, students have opportunities to see grammar rules in use, learn the rules explicitly, and practice the target forms

All these phases can be summarized into the following table:

PRE-TASK

Teacher

explores the topic Students note down useful words and phrases, spend time preparing for the individual task

TASK CYCLE

TASK Students

do the tasks in pairs or small

groups Teacher

monitors and encourages

communication

PLANNING Students prepare to report to the class

Teacher provides language advice

REPORT Students present reports Teacher acts as chair person

and providefeedback

LANGUAGE FOCUS

ANALYSIS Students examine and discuss features of the text enter

new words or phrases

Teacher reviews and analyses the activity

PRACTICE Teacher conducts practice of new words,

phrases Students practice the task

Figure 1 Willis’ (1996) TBM framework

1.2.4 Task-Based Method (TBM) and Traditional focus-formed Teaching

Method

For many years, language teaching was dominated in my college is the traditional focus-formed Teaching Method, more specific so called Grammar Translation Method This method focuses on form and is featured as teacher-centered The major characteristics of the method include explicit teaching of grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary lists, and translation of passages from native language to the second language Obviously, this method has advantages Firstly, translation is the easiest way of explaining meanings or words and phrases from native language into the second one There will be time-

consuming if the meanings of lexical items are explained through definitions and illustrations in the second language Secondly, teacher and students are easy to communicate Students will be easier to respond teacher’s questions and understand grammatical competence on the mother tongue However, it seems that its disadvantages are much greater Firstly, the students are eager to learn grammar points and do exercises in their workbooks as much as possible in order to pass the exam only For a long time, they cannot speak English fluently, even a basic conversation in English because classes with this method are usually taught in a lecture style, with the teacher mostly speaking the students’ native language rather than English

Realizing Grammar Translation Method was not really effective in helping students learn reading skills as well as other skills, the Faculty of Foreign Languages decided to change the teaching method from GTM into Task-Based Method in teaching reading skill and other skills This is an effective method to enhance our reading ability to read the various kinds of information in our daily life Therefore, TBM can develop students’ reading skills more effectively Obviously, these two main kinds of method are totally different Ellis (2006) contrasts two sets

of classroom processes in traditional form -focused teaching method and Based Method as follows:

Task-Traditional form-focused teaching

method

Task - Based Method

Rigid discourse structure consisting of

IRF (initiate-respond-feedback)

exchanges

Loose discourse structure consisting

Teacher controls topic development Students able to control topic development Turn-taking is regulated by the teacher Turn-taking is regulated by the same rules

that govern everyday conversation Display questions (i.e questions that the Use of referential questions (i.e questions

questioner already knows the answer) that the questioner does not know the

answer to) Students are placed in a responding role

and consequently perform a limited

range of language functions

Students function in both initiating an responding roles and thus perform a wide range of language functions (e.g asking and giving information, agreeing and disagreeing, instructing)

Little need or opportunity to negotiate

meaning

Opportunities to negotiate meaning when communication problems arise

Scaffolding directed primarily at

enabling students to produce correct

sentences

Scaffolding directed primarily at enabling

Ss to say what they want to say

Form-focused feedback (i.e the teacher

responds implicitly or explicitly to the

correctness of students’ utterances)

Content-focused feedback (i.e the teacher responds to the message content of the students’ utterances)

Echoing (i.e the teacher repeats what a

student has said for the benefit of the

whole class

Repetition (i.e a student elects torepeat something another student or the teacher has said as private speech or to establish intersubjectivity)

Figure 2: Classroom processes Traditional form-focused teaching method and Task – Based Method (Rod Ellis, 2006)

Unlike Grammar-Translation Method which focuses on form to develop grammar competence, Task-based method focuses on form to develop the meaningful communication and the cooperation between learners and the teacher Grammar – Translation Method gives students few opportunities to really use the language for communication TBM, on the other hand, allows students to find new language when they want to, and use language experimentally and creatively in real communication

As a teacher for four years in this college, the researcher sees that Grammar Translation Method is not really effective for her students, which leads the researcher does the research on using Task-Based Method in teaching reading for the first year non – English major students at HCIE and then give some suggestions for improving teaching reading skills

1.2.5 Task-Based Method in teaching reading skills

Task-based Method aims to promote the students’ ability of reading comprehension without ignoring the language structure and grammar points When applying TBM in the lessons, students' communicative ability is also developed

In Task-Based reading classes, every student has certain responsibility and plays a certain role in Task-Based activities They use language they have achieved

to exchange information, ideas and even thei emotion relating to the reading texts

As the result, in the process of task-accomplishing, students have to use more than one strategy to complete their reading tasks They should use two or more skills and more linguistic knowledge in order to finish the tasks In this way, their ability to use language is improved Besides, the activities which teachers apply in the classroom should relate to students’ life experience or social problems they are facing to or going to experience in their daily life Otherwise, they will feel bored when taking part in the activities

Finally, teachers should act as a coordinator and an instructor in reading activities They should transform their teaching thought fundamentally and aims to develop students’ reading ability and language use ability Besides, they should instruct students to use proper reading skills and encourage them to read independently

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Background to the study

2.1.1 .Teachers and students

The Faculty of Foreign Language at HCIE consists of twenty teachers whose ages ranged from 24 to 48 13 of them have got an M.A degree 7 are studying post graduate course In general, most of them are energetic, enthusiastic, responsible and willing to adjust new method to improve their teaching quality

The first year non - English major students at HCIE are at the age from 18 to

20 with the majority of female students Despite having 7 years of studying English, their level is not high Most of them come from rural areas in Vietnam and they do not have good condition to learn English Moreover, their attitude toward learning English is not good At HCIE, English is thought to be as a general subject which is not as important as other subjects, so students do not spend much time to master it They come to class to pass English exams only Actually, they hardly prepare lessons at home or review the lessons regularly Besides, the majority seem to have limited background knowledge, and poor vocabulary When dealing with new words, unfamiliar concepts or complicated sentence structures, they often ask their teachers or look up the dictionary without deducing the meaning from the text by themselves In addition, they are not enthusiastic and confident enough to participate into the activities which their teachers provide To conclude, most students at HCIE land themselves in a passive position in reading class They are accustomed to the traditional lecture – oriented methods and teacher- centered classrooms at secondary as high schools Therefore, it is teacher’s responsibility to encourage learners, inspire their confidence and help them learn collaborative skills necessary for successful completion of task – based activities because learners’ active participation in task – based performance in the essence of successful language learning process

2.1.2 Textbooks

The textbook used for the first year non-major students in English for

General course is New Headway – Pre Intermediate (Second Edition) by John and Liz Soars (2000) The total time of 150 periods is divided into two terms with 75 periods for each term In each unit of the textbook, there are five sections: reading, writing, listening, speaking and everyday English Each unit has 7 periods including execise and consolidation Because the system of the grammar and reading texts based exams is dominated at HCIE, Reading is the most important and challenging for most of the students

2.1.3 Teaching and learning facilities

Since it officially became a college in 2006, HCIE has performed seven

faculties: Economics, Information Technology, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Law, Physical Education, Accounting and Foundation Being a newly established college, both teachers and students have to deal with a lot of difficulties The teaching and learning faculties at the college are still very poorly - equipped For example, there

is no language lab for students to practice listening and speaking The library is too small and English books or magazines are rare Moreover, there is a shortage of modern facilities such as overhead projectors There are some buildings are equipped with projectors Lastly, the number of students in each class is quite crowded with over 70 students which are not ideal for learning and teaching English Therefore, it is very difficult for teachers to have successful and effective

lessons in such classes

2.2 The study

2.2.1 Participants

Population for this study included 10 English teachers Six of them hold M.A degrees; four are pursuing the master course in ULIS, VNUH and OU Their ages are from 27 to 42, and all of them have experienced teaching English for at least 5 years

From 4 different classes, a total of 80 the first year students, selected randomly, participated in this survey Most of them have studied English as a foreign language for at least three years, so their English is good enough to create

reliability for the study This random manner of selection would minimize the possibility of over-generalization The students were from 4 classes: CKT13.1, CKX13.4, CKX 13.2 and CQS13.1 They were required to answer the questions basing on their own experience

2.2.2 The instruments

The researcher in this study has chosen questionnaires as the primary data

collection instrument because “it is quite labor-intensive in construction and

analysis The knowledge needed is controlled by the questions; therefore it affords a good deal of precision and clarity” (McDonough, 1997, p.171) Moreover, Gass &

Mackey (2007) emphasize that: “questionnaires allow researchers to gather

information that learners are able to report about themselves, such as their beliefs and motivations about learning, or their reactions to classroom instruction and activities – information that is typically not available from production data alone.(p.148)”

Apart from questionnaires, “observation can be a rich source of information

for the researcher It enables you to capture what people actually do rather than what they say they do” (Wisker, 2001:178)

Finally, interview is also used in this study to get reliability and validity

The survey questionnaire

There were two survey questionnaires conducted for both students and teachers The questionnaire for students was designed as follows: The first part asked for the students’ attitude toward the reading materials The second part looked

at the students’ attitude toward teachers’ activities in the reading lessons The third part explored their performance in reading lesson Similarly, the questions for teachers were designed to obtain the following information: teachers’ attitude toward the materials and the frequencies of using activity management in reading lessons and the frequencies of using activities in stages

Classroom observation

In order to get more information, the researcher carried out classroom

observations by coming to four different classes of four different teachers The class observation was mainly focused on the atmosphere in the class, the activities’ teachers applied in the three reading phases and the students’ attitude during the reading lessons

Informal interview

Interview with five English teachers were arranged to get some information about the effectiveness of using Task – Based Method, their difficulties in using them and their solutions Twenty students also participated in the interview to answer some questions related to the activities they like in the lesson

2.2.3 Data collection procedure

The procedure of data collection consists of three main phases:

Firstly, the questionnaires for both the teachers and the students are prepared carefully The researcher visited the class and the questionnaires were distributed among 80 participants of the study from 4 different classes at the last 30 minutes of their class time The researcher gave the learners a clear explanation about her work

as well as the way they were supposed to fill out the questionnaire and assured that the information provided by them would be kept confidential While the learners were filling out the questionnaire, the researcher stayed with them in case they were any ambiguities The teachers were through phone – call and email contacted to cooperate and fill in the questionnaires and returned the questionnaires within two days to make sure that they were well-prepared to provide the detailed and accurate information Next, classroom observation was carried out during my collegues’ reading lessons The data were mainly gathered by taking notes Then the researcher recorded all in the checklists

To collect more information, interview questions are also designed for the five teachers All the answers were recorded to investigate their experience of teaching readings with TBM and their difficulties and solutions Also, twenty students participated in the interview to answer some questions related to the activities they like in the lesson

In conclusion, the data collected from the survey questionnaire, the observation and the semi-interview were studied and analyzed to find out the real situation of teaching reading skills with TBM and the researcher gave some suggestions to improve teaching reading skills

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into two sections, each of which presents the results

relating to one of the research questions The results collected from questionnaires

for 80 students and 10 teachers, the observation and the interview with five teachers and 20 students Data from the questionnaires are classified into categories including: students’ and teachers’ opinion toward the reading material, students’ assessments on teachers’ activities in reading lessons, the students’ performance in reading lessons, teachers’ frequencies of using activity management in reading lessons, teacher’s activities at pre-reading stage, teacher’s activities at while-reading stage and teacher’s activities at after-reading stage The result will be represented in forms of tables and figures After that some suggestions are presented for the students, teachers and administrators

3.1 Current situation of English reading classroom at HCIE

The results are analyzed in more detailed as follows:

3.1.1 Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward reading materials

Variable Scale

a (%)

b (%)

c (%)

d (%)

Table 1: Students’ and teachers’ attitude toward the reading materials

From the figure shown in table 1, we can find that the first question focuses

on the students’ and teachers’ opinion about the topic of reading texts In response

to this question, only 12,5% of students found reading topics in the textbook interesting Whereas a large amount of students (43,7%) found them boring The percentage of the students who found reading topics unfamiliar is only 6,3% while