Using Barrett’s Taxonomy to Enhance High School Students’Reading Comprehension

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI Đơn vị : THPT Ngô Quyền _ Mã số: ………………… SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Người thực hiện: Trần Văn Nghĩa Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác: Có đính kèm: Mô hình Phần mềm Phim ảnh Năm học:2011-2012 Hiệnvật khác SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN Họ tên: Trần Văn Nghĩa Ngày tháng năm sinh : 20/11/1963 Nam/Nữ: Nam Địa chỉ: B 28, Khu phố 6, Phường -Tam hiệp- Biên Hoà -Đồng Nai Điện thoại: Cơ quan: 0613829029 Nhà riêng: 0913130131 Fax: E-mail: Chức vụ: Tổ trưởng tổ tiếng Anh Đơn vị công tác: THPT Ngô Quyền –Biên Hoà-Đồng Nai II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ - Năm nhận bằng: 2001 - Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Thạc sĩ chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng Anh III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC: - Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh - Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 20 năm - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm có năm gần đây: Making speaking tasks and activities more effective and easier for high school students Improving High School Students’ Written Competence Through Teaching Grammar in Context SỞ Giáo Dục & Đào Tạo Đồng Nai Đơn vị: THPT Ngô Quyền CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự - Hạnh phúc Biên Hoà ngày … tháng … năm… PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Năm học: 2011-2012 Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Using Barrett’s Taxonomy to Enhance High School Students’Reading Comprehension Họ tên tác giả: Trần Văn Nghĩa Đơn vị (Tổ): Tiếng Anh Lĩnh vực: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học môn Phương pháp giáo dục Lĩnh vực khác Tính mới: - Có giải pháp hoàn toàn - Có giải pháp cải tiến, đổi từ giải pháp có Hiệu quả: - Hoàn toàn triển khai áp dụng toàn ngành có hiệu cao - Có tính cải tiến đổi từ giải pháp có triển khai áp dụng toàn ngành có hiệu cao - Hoàn toàn triển khai áp dụng đơn vị có hiệu cao - Có tính cải tiến đổi từ giải pháp có triển khai áp dụng đơn vị có hiệu Khả áp dụng: - Cung cấp luận khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, sách: Tốt Khá Đạt - Đưa giải pháp khuyến nghị có khả ứng dụng thực tiễn, dễ thực dễ vào sống: Tốt Khá Đạt - Đã áp dụng thực tế đạt hiệu có khả áp dụng đạt hiệu phạm vi rộng Tốt Khá Đạt XÁC NHẬN CỦA TỔ CHUYÊN MÔN (Ký tên ghi rõ họ tên) THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ (Ký tên, ghi rõ họ tên đóng dấu) Research Title: Using Barrett’s Taxonomy to Enhance High School Students’ Reading Comprehension CONTENTS Introduction Problems Purpose of the study Barrett’s Taxonomy Literature Review Application 7.Anticipated Outcomes Implications for teaching and learning Conclusion Introduction The purpose of teaching English is to help the students use it as a means of communication in real-life contexts It is necessary for the students to make use of English to exchange information, to state their opinions, and to express their feelings Nowadays, English is used as the most popular and international language, and many people in Vietnam, especially people in Dong Nai , an industrial province need to use it as a communicative tool at work, on business or in commercial environments It is recognized that the main focus of learning English as a foreign language is heavily on communicative competence The more opportunities students are given to practice using English in the classroom, the more effectively and fluently they can use in real-life situations Therefore, as teachers of English, in order to increase communication in the classroom, there are a number of things we need to do, for example : effective teaching activities or methods, task adaptation , and students’ involvement, for the communicative level of Vietnamese students, I think , is still underdeveloped On the other hand, the communicative needs are much more challenging than students’ communicative competence As an attempt to improve the students’ reading skill, my first concern would be on questioning techniques Problems In all of the high schools in Viet Nam , we have already used English 10, English 11 and English 12 as compulsory course books in the curriculum, and we also know that the three books above have many good points and certain limitations The course aims, according to the curriculum, are to help the students develop the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In daily discussion with the students, I know that they want to learn English for communication However, in my own experience of teaching, I have known that they have very few learning strategies for using the language, especially for reading comprehension.What they in a reading lessoon is to copy what the teacher already writes on the board They then translate words ,sentences into Vietnamese before completing exercises, or answering the teacher’s questions In reality, reading comprehension is one of the most complex but crucial skill of the four language skills for students learning English as a second or foreign language It is not only an important means of gaining knowledge but also a means by which further studies take place, so teaching reading comprehension is very important to teachers of English in general, and to high school teachers in particular This is also true for the teachers of English at Ngo Quyen High School, but the way in which they conduct the teaching of reading comprehension to students should be taken into consideration Although they know the significance of reading comprehension, they think that vocabulary and grammar are much more important Therefore in real-life teaching situations, most teachers focus on presenting vocabulary and practicing tasks on vocabulary In observing three reading classes, I know that what the teachers in a language class is to test reading rather than to teach reading , to foster passive learners rather than active and dynamic ones In addition, one of the most common ways for teachers to check reading comprehension is using sets of questions given in their text books These questions are usually at literal comprehension or reorganization levels, which not activate students’ higher levels of thinking These types of questions can be answered without considering context clues or even without understanding the meaning of the passage or the writer’s intention These literal comprehension questions just help students to scratch the surface of a text, while it is the responsibility of reading that helps the reader get deeper understanding of a passage As a researcher, I want to improve students’ reading skills and their levels of thinking The research on teaching reading would be of great benefit to the students, teachers of English and administrators in my school It is expected that the research findings will help teachers in other schools who are in the same teaching situation make an innovation in English teaching for the sake of students Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of Barrett’s taxonomy on the development of reading skills of the ten graders in Ngo Quyen High School The study also aims at introducing the Barrett’s taxonomy to the teachers in my school so that they can use this theoretical framework as a tool to maximize students’ thinking in reading comprehension In addition, this framework can also be used for analyzing instructional materials and designing relevant types of questions for students of different levels The following questions are considered the focus of my research proposal: - To what extent does the application of Barrett’s Taxonomy improve students’ reading comprehension skill in Baoloc high school? - How teachers in Ngo Quyen High school feel about question levels in reading comprehension ? Barrett's Taxonomy Of the many taxonomies which have tried to categorize reading comprehension, Barrett' s taxonomy of reading comprehension (Clymer,1968), designed originally to assist classroom teachers in developing comprehension questions and test questions for reading, is widely accepted as a useful tool for classroom questioning This taxonomy consists of five categories presented as follows, appreciation Evaluation Inferential comprehension Reorganization comprehension Literal comprehension With this taxonomy, teachers can frame questions at different levels of understanding so that these questions meet different levels of proficiency of English in a mixed ability class Barrett’s Taxonomy can serve as a useful guide to the student to identify the purposes of his or her reading of a given text In order to find out about how our students are processing information in their reading activities, there is a scale of comprehension By using of Barrett's scale of comprehension below,we can ensure a balance between all levels Literal comprehension (Lowest) Students identify information directly stated Reorganization Students organize or order the information in a different way than it was presented Inference -inferential comprehension Students respond to information implied but not directly stated Evaluation Students make judgments in light of the material Appreciation (Highest) Students give an emotional or image-based response Literature Review In EFL there are many approaches to reflect top down and bottom up processes through interactive exercises and tasks The use of questions is an integral aspect of such activities, and well-designed comprehension questions help students interact with the text to create or construct meaning We believe that it is critical that teachers help their students create meaning and it is obvious that comprehension questions at higher levels of thinking help our students begin to think critically and intelligently We know that reading is an interactive process in which the reader constructs meaning with the text We need to help our students learn to this This means going beyond a literal understanding of a text, and allowing our students to use their own knowledge while reading According to Crisp (1978) when questions is beyond a literal understanding, students' answers have to be motivated by information in the text Inferential questions can have clearly correct responses In contrast, prediction and evaluative answers may be correct or incorrect as long as they depend primarily on students' reactions to what they read Evaluative answers not only depend primarily on students' reactions to what they have read, but they need to reflect a broad understanding of the text Another reason for using a variety of questions is that they involve different types of comprehension Guszak (1967, cited in Pearson and Johnson, 1972, p.154) stated that students could perform best when answering questions of factual recall, which is the type of question that their teachers ask most often This means that students can best at what they have been taught and practiced Thus, if we want our students to be able to reach deeper understanding of a text, then it is necessary to teach them how to this and to give them opportunities to work with different types of comprehension Barrett’s Taxonomy of comprehension types is an overview of types of understanding that foreign language learners need to have if they are to read a text with more than a literal understanding The taxonomy of the types of comprehension questions may also be used as a checklist for language teachers to make their own comprehension questions for texts that their students read to help them understand better what they read in reading comprehension lessons in school In addition, they can be used to develop materials to ensure that the various levels of questions are used to help students improve their reading skills as well as respond to a variety of types of comprehension Barrett’s Taxonomy has also been very useful to teachers by helping them to focus on specific learner outcomes which they can emphasize in class It also serves as a guide in the preparation of tests which can be incorporated into future exams Hence, it should be mentioned that the taxonomy presented here can also be used as a means for teaching especially for reading classes By considering the nature of reading comprehension and the advantages of Barrett’s taxonomy in teaching reading comprehension, the researcher strongly believe that the application of Barrett’s taxonomy can help improve reading comprehension skills among grade ten students in Ngo Quyen High School We should consider the following example ENGLISH 10-PAGE 13 Unit : A DAY IN THE LIFE OF… Mr.Vy: The alarm goes off at 4:30 I get up and go down to the kitchen to boil some water for my morning tea I drink several cups of tea, have a quick breakfast and then lead the buffolo to the field It takes me 45 minutes to get ready I leave the house at a quarter past five and arrive in the field at exactly 5:30 I plough and harrow my plot of land and at a quarter to eight I take a short rest During my break I often drink tea with my fellow peasants and smoke tobacco I continue to work from a quarter past eight till 10:30.Then I go home take a short rest and have lunch with my family at 11:30 After lunch I take an hour’s rest Mrs.Tuyet: At 2:30 in the afternoon we go to the field again.We repair the banks of our plot of land.Then my husband pumps water into it while I the transplanting We work for about two hours before we take a rest.We finish our work at p.m We have dinner at about p.m, then we watch TV and go to bed at about 10 p.m Sometimes we go and see our neighbours for a cup of tea.We chat about our work, our children and our plans for the next crop Although it’s a long day for us, we are contented with what we do.We love working and we love our children ( Original Questions in the text book) N0 Questions What is Mr.Vy’s occupation? What time does he get up and what does he after that? What does he in the morning? What Mr.Vy and his wife in theafternoon ? Are they happy with their lives or not? Why? APPLICATION ( Questions designed for enhancing students’ critical thinking) N0 Questions What is Mr.Vy’s occupation? What time does he get up and what does he after that? What does he in the morning? What Mr.Vy and his wife in theafternoon ? Are they happy with their lives or not?Why? Why does MrVy smoke local tobacco ? What is the purpose of smoking local tobacco ? Levels Literal Comprehension (Recall of Cause and Effect Relationship) What you think will happen if the alarm doesn’t go off ? Evaluation (Judgments based on the reader’s moral code or his or her value system) Inferential What is meant by the phrase “are contented with” ? Comprehension (InterpretingFigurative Language) What words will describe the feelings of happiness? Appreciation (eliciting responses from the reader who demonstrates his or her sensitivity to, sympathy for, and empathy with characters or happenings) 10 Tell Mr.Vy’s day of working in your own words Reorganization ( using direct or paraphrased statements from the selection) Anticipated Outcomes The research is in the hope that he will find out the positive effects of applying Barrett’s Taxonomy into teaching reading comprehension First, it may reveal that the question levels in reading lessons are commonly at literal and reorganization comprehension, which may discourage some good students from learning reading Second, the data collected from the classroom observation may show that when applying Barrett’s Taxonomy into reading comprehension, teacher can activate students schemata and help them move beyond the literal comprehension to understand the writer’s intentions or pragmatics It may also reveal that with Barrett’ Taxonomy teachers can rank their questions to the levels of students, which match the reality of language classrooms in Vietnam because we often have mixed-ability students in the same class Moreover, the applying of Barrett’s Taxonomy may change the attitudes of teachers about level of thinking about comprehension questions and that they may see the practical benefits of using Barrett’s Taxonomy as a framework in teaching and testing reading skills Implications for teaching and learning The benefits of exploiting Barrett’s Taxonomy are not only intended for students but also teachers and schools The lessons will help students improve their reading skills and written commmunication After the research, thanks to the improvements and alternations to the conducted lessons, other teachers can use them to apply in their classes To generalize these benefits, teaching reading in context can be applied in my classes in particular, and in other classes, other schools and institutions As for students and teacher’s perspectives to teaching and learning grammar, this approach to teaching reading will change their existed assumption that reading is only forms and words and that the teaching of reading is separated from appropriate meaning and use Furthermore, the survey enables us to look into how reading lessons are considered to be effective in their views The implications are that we can change some aspects of teaching and learning to satisfy the students’ learning needs Conclusion In conclusion, with all things mentioned above , I hope that the research will bring a new look and change to the teaching and learning English in my school I strongly believe that the application of Barrett’s taxonomy will improve students’ levels of reading comprehension The results from this mini- research are expected to help find out that teaching reading by focusing on meaning is more effective than teaching teaching reading with regard of vocabulary and translation techniques In final analysis, we emphasize that communication in the classroom requires the three main components of effective methods, relevant tasks, questioning techniques, and suitable activities The above analysis indicates that only in teaching situations that follow this way of such a combined technique, can we promote and achieve the communicative goal in the classroom REFERENCES Crisp, F.M (1978) Questioning children’s reading – an application of Barrett’s Taxonomy Journal for the study and improvement of reading and related skills, Volume 12, Issue 1,(pp 36 – 43) Everson, M.E., & Ke, C (1997) An Inquiry into the Reading Strategies of Intermediate and Advanced Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language Journal of the Chinese Language Teacher association, 32, 290 – 299 Goodman, K.S (1976) Reading: A Psycholinguistic Guessing Game In H Singer & R.B Ruddell (Eds.), Theoretical Models and Process of Reading, Newark, DE: International Reading Association, (pp 450-497) Grellet, F (1981) Developing reading skills: A practical guide to reading comprehension exercises Cambridge University Press Kamil, M.L (1986) Reading in the Native Language In B.H Wing (Ed.), Listening, Reading, and writing: Analysis and Application, Middlebury, VT: Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (pp 71-91) Robert, J.M., & John, S.K (2008) Designing and Accessing Educational Objectives, Corwin Press Rumelhart, D.E (1977) Toward an Interactive Model of Reading In S Dornic (Ed.),Attention and Performance VI, (pp 573-603) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbau