The warm up activities in motivating the 11th grade students at uong bi high school to develop their reading skills

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG THE WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN MOTIVATING HIGH SCHOOL TO DEVELOP THEIR READING SKILLS 2018... The study addresses issues ofteachers’ and s

ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN KHOA NGOẠI NGỮ

NGUYỄN THU PHƯƠNG

THE WARM-UP ACTIVITIES IN MOTIVATING

HIGH SCHOOL TO DEVELOP THEIR

READING SKILLS

2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The study would not have been completed without enthusiastic supportand encouragements of many people

First of all, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor,

Dr Nguyen Thanh Long who has contributed to my study with a widemultitude of useful suggestions, critical comments, valuable advice andencouragements

I also would like to thank the teachers from School of Foreign Thai Nguyen University, who have given me useful advices and conditions forthe completion

languages-My sincere acknowledgement of all English teachers and students at Uong

Bi high school who have helped me to carry out the surveys for my research

The study has been progressed with all my attempts but there have beenstill limitations and mistakes Therefore, I look forward to receiving sincerecomments from all of you!

ABSTRACT

This study aimed at investigating how to develop situation of teachingand learning by using motivational activities The study addresses issues ofteachers’ and students’ attitudes towards warm-up activities in readinglessons, students’ favorite activities, problems the teachers encounter whenconducting warm-up activities in teaching writing lessons, students'assessments on the benefits of warm-up activities and finding out somesuggested warm-up activities applied to teach reading lessons with the aim tomake teaching and learning reading more effective

The participants of the study included 6 English teachers and 122students of the 11th grade at a High School The data were collected by means ofquestionnaires and class observations, but the main one is the questionnaires.Both the quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed in thisstudy Data analysis was mainly based on the quantitative method Thecollected information was analyzed, compared, commented, and presentedunder the forms of tables

The result of the study provided encouraging evidence to indicate thatmost of the teachers and students at Uong Bi High School appreciate the role ofwarm-up activities in teaching and learning reading lessons However, thesurvey revealed that there were a number of difficulties that existed in readinglessons used warm-up activities

Some detailed suggestions are recommended within the wish tocontribute to the improvement of teaching and learning reading skills throughwarm-up activities

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 The scope of the study 2

5 Significance of the study 3

6 Method of the study: 3

7 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Theoretical background of reading 5

1.1.1 What is “reading”? 5

1.1.2 What is “teaching reading”? 6

1.1.3 The importance of reading 6

1.2 Warm-up activities in teaching and learning 7

1.2.1 What is “warm-up”? 7

1.2.2 The importance of warm-up activities 9

1.3 Motivation 9

1.3.1 Definition 9

1.3.2 Using games to motivate students in warm-up activities 10

1.3.2.1 Definition of game 10

1.3.2.2 Games motivate learner 11

1.4 Reading motivation 12

1.4.1 Organismic Theories of Motivation 13

1.4.2 Relating motivation to read and emergent reading skills: A 13

measurement validation study 13

1.4.2.2 Motivation for reading 14

1.4.2.3 Motivation and engagement 15

1.4.3 Motivating students to actively engage in reading 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Setting of the study 18

2.2 Participants of the study 18

2.3 Research methodology 18

2.3.1 Methods of data collection 19

2.3.1.1 Questionnaire 19

2.3.1.2 Questionnaire for students 20

2.3.1.3 Questionnaire for teachers 20

2.3.2 Class Observations 20

2.3.3 Methods of data analysis 21

2.4 Data collection and analysis of observations 21

2.5 Description of situation 23

2.6 Material 24

2.7 Data collection and Procedures 24

2.7.1 Collection of the Questionnaire Data 24

2.7.2 Collection of the Class Observation Data 25

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 27

3.1 Research results 27

3.1.1 Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaires 27

3.1.1.1.The situation of learning reading skills at the 11thgrade inUong Bi high school 27

3.1.1.2 How warm-up activities motivate students in reading lessons 29

3.1.2 Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaires 31

3.2 Data analysis of the class observation 32

3.3 Discussions 33

3.3.1 Situation of learning reading in Uong Bi high school 34

3.3.2 How warm-up activities motivate students in reading lessons 34

3.3.3 The situation of teaching to develop students' reading skills 35

3.4 Summary 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 35

1 Conclusions of the study 36

2 Suggested games and other activities for warm-up in reading lessons at Uong Bi high school 38

2.1 Games for warm-up activities collection 38

2.1.1 Board Race 38

2.1.2 Hangman 38

2.1.3 Pictionary 39

2.1.4 Hot seat 39

2.1.5 Chain game 40

2.1.6 Noughts and Crosses 41

2.1.7 Lucky numbers 42

2.1.8 Slap the board 43

2.1.9 Network 43

2.1.10 Pass the ball 44

2.2 Other activities for warm-up 44

2.2.1 Songs 44

2.2.2 Discussion 45

REFERENCES 46

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Situati o n of learning rea d ing i n Uo n gBihighs c hool 27Table 1.2: How wa r m - up activiti e s m oti v ate s tudents in r eading l ess o n s .29 Table 1.3: The situa tio n of teaching to dev elo p students’ reading skil lsin a

high

scho o l .31

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

English has been considered to be an integral subject for students fromPrimary school system to University system In fact, there are a lot of parentswho orient their children need to learn English at age of three Furthermore,English clubs and English centers are developed over provinces in Vietnam.This means that English is being more and more appreciated However, how

do learners find out the most effective method to teach and learn English? It isconcerned by a great deal of teacher, parents and students How to teach fourbasic language skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing isthoughtful consideration Of these four skills, reading skills are paid attention

by numerous students; however, to start a lesson that makes students feelcontented is not straightforward Besides, how to motivate students in thewarm-up activities is the anxiety of many teachers

Warm-up activities in language classes have been a prominent topic inmethodology In fact, this is the beginning of a lesson and has a great impact onthe classroom, excitement and efficiency of the class Recognizing this fact andthe importance of this aspect, the thesis title “The of warm-up activities inmotivating the 11th grade students at Uong Bi high school to develop theirreading skills” was conducted with the hope of contributing to some extent tothe teaching method and providing some informative knowledge

Reading skills are a weighty skill at high schools because readingcomprehension is always appeared in midterm exams, semester exams, andentrance exams However, it is also a complicated skill Many students feel thatlearning reading skills is intricate and tiresome Motivating students has apositive impact on learning because they take an advantage of a givenopportunity and show intense effort and concentration in the implementation

of learning process So how to motivate students to learn reading skills better is

an aspect that teachers need to concern about To make an English teachingperiod effectively, the teacher has to create the learning environment tomotivate students from the beginning

There are numerous ways to motivate of students in reading lesson andwarm-up activities as one of the most effective ways An effective warm-up canalso be a high-quality way which helps students to feel more excited with areading lesson

Based on the consideration above, the present study tries to investigatethe warm-up activities in motivating the 11th grade students to develop theirreading skills

2 Aims of the study

The study was conducted with the aims to:

- Improve reading skills of high school students

- Motivate students to participate in warm-up reading activities

3 Research questions

The following research questions were investigated in the study:

1 How does the use of warm up activities increase the level of high schoolstudents’ motivation for reading in English?

2 How does the use of warm up activities improve high school students’reading

comprehension in English?

4 The scope of the study

There are various warm-up activities to apply for reading lessons That iswhy the researcher cannot cover all the knowledge related to the topic.However, the most important items about reading skills and warm-up activities

to motivate students are mentioned in this study

Due to limit of the thesis, only one high school was chosen as theresearch setting This study included warm-up activities used in teaching andlearning reading skills in 11thgrade

5 Significance of the study

The findings of the study contributed a number of strong points tostudents, teachers, and researchers of the related fields

First of all, teachers received benefits from the information the researchprovides Teachers would have an overview look at the benefits of warm-upactivities

Secondly, the study was also significant for the students It was expectedthat the students could learn reading skills more effectively

Finally, the study could give contribution to other researchers asreferences in conducting further researches

6 Method of the study:

The researcher decided to use quantitative method because the maincontent of this study would be based on the data collected from questionnaires

to collect, analyze and tabulate the data However, quantitative method alone isnot reliable and valid enough to have strong evidence for the study Theadoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods would help theresearcher collect the most precise and pertinent information for the study

This study followed method steps below: (1) Prepare questionnaires forteachers and students; (2) Collect data from questionnaires to analyze tabulatethe data; (3) Attend teachers who teach reading skills with different warm-upactivities; (4) Observe students' attitudes, classroom atmosphere, the thingsthat students can improve after lessons with warm-up activities

7 Design of the study

This minor thesis is divided into three parts:

Part A with the title “INTRODUCTION” This part provides information

about the reason for choosing the study, the aims, the scopes, method and thedesign of the study

Part B with the title “DEVELOPMENT” includes three parts:

Chapter 1 is “LITERATURE REVIEW”, which provides all information

related to the study

Chapter 2 discusses “METHODOLOGY”, which studies subjects and

methods of study as well as the analysis of data collected

Chapter 3 is about “RESULTS AND DISCUSSION”, which results from the

investigation of the factual situation in teaching and learning reading and theuse of warm-up activities to motivate the 11th grade students at Uong Bi highschool

PART C is “CONCLUSION” which gives an overview on the achievement

of the thesis and suggests warm-up activities for reading class in high school

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Theoretical background of reading

to navigate in these sources and search out what is needed This requiresmultiple skills, as the ability to navigate in the text overflow, to read multi-medially, digitally, and inter textually, in addition to the mere comprehension

of the written text and its words, phrases, structure, and genres In aknowledge society it is necessary to acquire the ability to understand,integrate, and combine information from multiple sources”

Meanwhile, Schoenbach (1999, p.147) stated that “Reading isn’t just abasic skill Numerous people think of reading as a skill that is taught once andfor all in the first few years of school In this view of reading the credit forstudents’ reading ability goes to primary grade teachers, and upper elementaryand secondary teachers at each grade level need teach only new vocabulariesand concepts relevant to new content Seen this way, reading is a simpleprocess: readers decode each word in a text and then automaticallycomprehend the meaning of the words, as they do with their everyday spokenlanguage This is not our understanding of reading.”

Consequently, on website htt p s: / / s tu d y c o m/ ac a d e m y / le s s o n/ wh a t -i s -

r e a d in g -d e fini t i on -p r o c es s h t m l , Rav inder defined that “Reading is a cognitiveprocess that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning Reading is an

active process of constructing meanings of words Reading with a purposehelps the reader to direct information towards a goal and focuses theirattention Notwithstanding the reasons for reading may vary, the primarypurpose of reading is to understand the text Reading is a thinking process Itallows the reader to use what he or she may already know, also called priorknowledge During this processing of information, the reader uses strategies tounderstand what they are reading, uses themes to organize ideas, and usestextual clues to find the meanings of new words Each of the three components

of reading is equally important.”

Besides, according to Halim (2006), “Reading is a receptive languageprocess It is the process of recognition, interpretation, and perception ofwritten or printed materials Reading proficiency plays a great role inunderstanding a written statement accurately and efficiently Reading serves as

an important tool in every field of professional service.” In conclusion, reading

is believed to be one of the most challenging skills and should be paid moreattention in both learning and teaching This research seems to be coincidedwith viewpoint of Abdul Halim on reading

1.1.2 What is “teaching reading”?

Indeed, the teaching of reading has been an essential part of learning alanguage ever since foreign language began to be taught (Kelly, 1969) Jiao(2007) discusses that reading teaching becomes teaching of language pointsknown as grammar and vocabulary This kind of English reading teaching to agreat extent hinders EFL students’ language proficiency According to Grelllet(2001), reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate themuscles of the eyes Reading is an activity that involves greater levels ofconcentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader

1.1.3 The importance of reading

Cotter (2009) states that “Because it's the first activity of the lesson,

the warm-up activities set the tone for the next ninety minutes An activity thatstudents find too difficult, or even confusing, results in a class of disinterestedzombies Similarly, a writing-based activity won't get the studentscommunicating This then translates into a quiet class session in which youhave to prod and push the students to volunteer examples or simple answers.Fun warm up, on the other hand, raises energy levels Fun activities alsoproduce relaxed, less inhibited students With the right warm up, you'll havecreated a positive atmosphere to practice and experiment with the language.”

On website htt p s: //bu s y t e ach e r o rg/ 7 6 1 0 - wh y - yo u - s h o u ld - alway s -

s t a r t - w i t h - a - w a r m e r ht m l , a ccording to Andrei Zakhareusk, a lesson which isstarted with a warm-up activity is important for a number of reasons Thestudents “need a chance to settle down into the class and get their mindsfocused on the lesson ahead Delving straight into difficult subject matter isn’tgoing to help them in the least bit.” He also defines that a warm up lesson setsthe tone for what is to take place during the class This is a great idea for manyreasons Students have some idea of what to expect, and the topic can easily beintroduced to them For example, if one is teaching a business class aboutimports and exports, one will have a warm-up exercise where the students cantest their own knowledge of related vocabulary They are allowed to “start off

in a single train of thought in order to keep them on track for the remainder ofthe class.”

1.2 Warm-up activities in teaching and learning

1.2.1 What is “warm-up”?

In the classroom, warmers are not isolated activities but can serve tointroduce a topic or to recycle some previously learnt language in an enjoyableway That means that students are not only reminded of what they havelearned but also have a general view of what they will learn

In the classroom, warmers are not core activities but can apply tointroduce a topic or to reuse some reuse vocabularies which are learned inprevious lessons in an enjoyable way That means that students are not onlyreminded of what they have learned but also have a general view of what theywill learn.

According to Robertson & Acklam (2000), “warm up is a short activityfor the beginning of lesson” (p.30) Warm-up activities are actually used in thefirst part of a lesson These activities make the classes’ atmosphere morevividly and help students act or express their knowledge, their feeling in acomfortable state without evaluating their abilities So, students do not have toworry about their marks, their understandings of various fields

Lassche (2005) defines that for language learning lesson a warm-upstage is the “initial orientation” (p 83) An initial orientation is reallyimportant to a new lesson The first orientation helps students remembervaguely about topics

According to Lam (2005) in her mater thesis “Warm up activities forspeaking class in high school”, she states that warm-up activity is a kind ofshort activities which is used to break the “ice” in classroom and make it “hot”from the beginning of each period of language class They are short, simple andinteresting enough to motivate students to learn a foreign language better In

addition, a warmer is an activity at the start of the class to warm up thelearners They tend to be short, dynamic activities Warmers can be compared

to coolers, which are short activities to finish the class

1.2.2 The importance of warm-up activities

Allwright (1984) states that warm up activities are designed to attractstudents’ attention, to help them put aside distracting thoughts, and to get themready to focus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow.Additionally, on Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English (2009), warm-up

is defined as “a period or act of preparation for a game performance or exercisesession, involving gentle exercise or practice.” In The Oxford AdvancedLearners’ Dictionary 8th Edition, warm-up is “a short practice or a series ofgentle exercises that you do to prepare yourself for doing a particular sport oractivity.” In fact, students always feel distracted, unoccupied or lack ofdiscussion in new lesson after a short break So, warm-up activities not onlyhelp students balance their emotion, but also help them lead to the lesson in aninteresting way Besides, warm-up activities contain the meaning of the topicsthat they are learning in order that they have a general view in reading lessons’content

According to García and Martín (2004), one of the objectives of usingwarm up activity is to activate students’ background knowledge Teachers need

to understand what students already know about the topic they are going toteach and they need to connect the topic with the students’ presentunderstanding García and Martín (2004) also mention from themethodological point of view that we can assume warm-up as a ship that takesthe learners for a journey from known to unknown as an attempt to activatetheir potential and passive vocabulary (p 17) It means that the warm-upactivities can help teachers to check their students’ understanding aboutreading topics This is also a good way for teachers to orient new things in areading lesson

1.3 Motivation

1.3.1 Definition

“Motivation is typically defined as the forces that account forthearousal, selection, direction and continuation of behavior.” (Biehler&Snowman, 1997) Mitsalina (2015, p.33) claimed motivation as interest in andenthusiasm for the material used in class; persistence with the learning task, asindicated by the levels of attention or action for an extended duration; andlevels of concentration and enjoyment.”

“Motivation is one of the important factors that influence Englishlearning achievement Motivation is one of the keys to successfullanguage learning Maintaining a high level of motivation during a period oflanguage learning is one of the best ways to make the whole process moresuccessful” (Cáceres, p.7) Therefore, in order to help the students to maintain

a proper strength in English learning motivation is very necessary for theteachers in the daily teaching procedure

1.3.2 Using games to motivate students in warm-up activities

Language learning is hard work “ Effort is required at every moment andmust be maintained over a long period of time Games help and encourageseveral learners to sustain their interest and work Games also support theteacher to create contexts which the language is serviceable and meaningful.The learners would like to take part and in order to do so must understandwhat others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order

to express their own point of view or give information.” (Cáceres, 2010)

fun: the activity is chosen for its light-hearted character

separate: it is circumscribed in time and place

uncertain: the outcome of the activity is unforeseeable

life

non-productive: participation is not productive

governed by rules: the activity has rules that are different from

everyday

fictitious: it is accompanied by the awareness of a different reality”

In summary, games can be seen as a popular activity which is used towarm-up a reading lesson Almost all teachers apply games to start a study.This proves that games have a tremendous impact on teaching However, theresearcher also found that other forms of warm-up were limited

1.3.2.2 Games motivate learner

The main reason why games are considered as “effective learning aids isthat they spur motivation and students get very absorbed in the competitiveaspects of the games; moreover, they try harder at games than in othercourses.” (Avedon & Sutton-Smith, 1971)

As Jacobs & Liu (1996) declares that many games can be played in pairs

or in small groups, thereby providing a venue for students to develop theirskills in working with others such as the skill of disagreeing politely and theskill of asking for help.” In most games, students must play in groups, whereeveryone has an opportunity, encouraging everyone to play turn-based gamesrather than letting someone else do all or join the game from the beginninguntil the end

According to Duong (2008), 90% of his students confided that they couldremember new words faster and better due to the relaxed atmosphere created

by playing games This is doubly reinforced by the same sentiment that

“students tend to learn better, when it is applied in a relaxed environment likeplaying games In fact it has been proved that an interested and involved class,learning through several fun-filled English language games takes in 100% ofthe lesson and retains 80% of it.” The meaning of the language students listen

to, read, speak and write will experience more vivid in a game; therefore, theywill better remember the language they learnt (Huyen and Nga, 2003)

Further support comes from Zdybiewska(1994: 6): “ games are a goodway of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learners will usethe language for in real life in the future exercises that practice and utilize thenew language have been completed, games can then be introduced as yetanother means for enabling greater comprehension.” As strongly emphasizedabove, games can motivate learners, promote learners’ interaction, andimprove learners’ acquisition As a result, games can increase students’achievement, learners’ test scores, ability to communicate, some skills,vocabulary knowledge or other language skills can improve

The advantage of games in improving learners’ achievement wasemphasized by Riedel (2008), we are teaching a new generation of students,which requires unconventional teaching strategies were put into practice in theclassroom And when schools use the games, the student benefits speak forthemselves - a greater desire to learn and higher test scores

In short, games prove to be a useful tool used frequently in languageteaching The game not only provides the learner with a highly motivated,relaxed, practically meaningful classroom with all the language skills.Therefore, games can motivate learners, promote learner interaction, improvelearning, and increase their performance

1.4 Reading motivation

1.4.1 Organismic Theories of Motivation

Organismic theory has many forms, but some basic assumptions allow us

to describe them in a positive way Biological approaches tend to be primarilymechanistic by focusing on the role of cognitive and effective processes asdeterminants of behavior For example, according to Deci (1975), humans’thoughts and feelings determine the lawful and ordered way they act on theirenvironment In addition, the emphasis here is on the factors that are illegallydefined and ordered to occur within the body as opposed to mechanics’ focus

on external factors Thus, the advice concerning classroom motivation derivedfrom organismic theories exhorts teachers to focus on the inherentmotivations of children For instance, White (1959) has proposed thatmotivation is an expression of an inborn need to be effective or competent.Students have been oriented how to find new information as well as makesense of what they know in order to seek more According to Maslow (1943),

he claimed that a motivation theorist and psychologist, proposed a theory ofmotivation founded on human needs Maslow developed a hierarchy of needsconsisting of the following five levels: physiological, safety, love and belonging,self-esteem, and self- actualization

He viewed these needs in a prepotency fashion where one needessentially occupies an individual’s attention until satisfied After a need isadequately satisfied, the next prepotents need arises While the concern of thisarticle is on increasing cognitive abilities, which are in the self-actualizationstage, the interdependency of all human needs will not and should not beignored Reading is not just a mechanical tool to be learned, it is an intricatepart of the entire person; affected by his or her needs, attitudes, self-concept,and emotions

1.4.2 Relating motivation to read and emergent reading skills: A

measurement validation study

1.4.2.1 Relating motivation to read

Gambrell, Morrow, & Pressley (2007) claim that they implementbalanced instruction, teachers provide a context ripe for successful readingdevelopment though inclusion of explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding,facilitating, and participating According to Pearson, Raphael, Benson,

&Madda (2007, p.39), among their repertoire of skills, independent readersautomatically recognize words, use skills and strategies to access text, and arefluent text processors Hoffman & McCarthey(2000) believes that learnersdevelop essential skills as well as appreciate and desire to support successfulreading comprehension The engaged reading model considers motivation,strategies, social interactions, and conceptual understanding to be theingredients for successful reading Therefore, Guthrie & Anderson (1999, p.20),Guthrie & Wigfield (2000) were thought that model provided an explanation

as to how balanced instruction supports the development of independentreaders Of particular interest in the current research was the motivationalaspect of engaged reading The motivations of an engaged reader included,among other constructs, involvement, curiosity, challenge, importance, andefficacy Hence, students were promoted through reading skills is actuallyimportant for learners Students have more opportunities to innovate anddiscover inspiration in their classes

1.4.2.2 Motivation for reading

Guthrie & Wigfield (1997) pointed out that motivation to read was acentral feature of reading engagement and overlaps with other features ofreading engagement such as reading competency, utilitarian aspects of reading,and social aspects of reading Reading engagement theory and researching onchildren’s reading motivation have focused on intrinsic and extrinsicmotivation to read Moreover, he claimed that intrinsic and extrinsicmotivation might lie on a continuum of self-determination According to Ryan &Deci (2000), the non self-determined end of the continuum was externalregulation, which involves complying with the requests of others in order toreceive anticipated rewards

or avoid punishment At the self-determined end of the continuum was intrinsicregulation, which involved showing behaviors out of interest, enjoyment, andthe inherent satisfaction they bring Research has shown that both extrinsicallyand intrinsically regulated motivation predict how children read; however, ofthe two, intrinsic motivation was the better predictor.

1.4.2.3 Motivation and engagement

There are a few studies which discussed about teacher’s knowledge andtheir trust in motivating to read In one of the few studies, Sweet, Guthrie, &Ng,(1998) investigated teacher perceptions of students’ intrinsic motivation forreading from the perspective of self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan,1985) and reading achievement Although his study didn’t relate directly towhat teachers believed in motivating students, the engagement of those beliefscan be made based on his research To evaluate our students in motivationfeatures, these included individual, topical, activity-based, autonomy-supported, socially supported, and writing-related features

1.4.3 Motivating students to actively engage in reading

According to Rupley, Ash & Blair (2006), Assessing the impact ofmotivational strategies on students’ reading seems “to be the key to promotingsuccessful learning.” Regardless of whether one is inclined towards “anintrinsic or exogenous approach in motivating” reading in the classroom,

“attention to how the approach” impacts on learning should be assessed

“Some basic evaluation concerns related to motivation and reading instructionare presented below.”

Firstly, students who actively participate in a reading activity becausethey find it interesting and meaningful and they will probably not showincreased engagement if an extrinsic reward is employed In addition, theintroduction of an extrinsic reward will decrease students' motivation in a taskthey find interesting in many cases

Secondly, the use of external rewards can be delayed when students arestill interested in activities However, if participation in the task begins to

decline, the teacher may wish to introduce some external reward to re-engagethe student's interest Engaging in reading tasks with negative emotions can be

“enhanced by external motivational strategies.” The effects of extrinsic rewardswill probably decrease in sustaining students’ engagement over varying timeperiods That is, “students may begin to associate less value with a reward as it

is used over any length of time.” Being closely involved with the way externalmotivators are maintaining desired reading behaviors will allow the teacher tomake the necessary adjustments to the active participation of the students

Thirdly, “It appears that the lack of appropriate reinforcers is moredamaging to intrinsic motivation than is their use (Bates, 1979) In terms ofclassroom reading instruction this suggests that for tasks where studentsalready have developed some association with extrinsic rewards Therefore,the lack of these rewards could lead to negative effect

McGeown, Norgate & Warhurst (2012) claim that previous studies oftentest the reading dynamics of groups of children with a wide range of readingability, focus on the relationship between motivation and reading skills.However, there is very little research that has identified whether children withexcellent reading skills or children with very poor reading skills show differentrelationships between their motivation and reading skill These groups ofreaders will have had very different experiences when reading therefore canprove the different relationships between skill and motivation

He also pointed out that determining the difference at the group level isvery important, as it demonstrates the presence of the variation in establishedrelationships and can highlight important aspects It should be considered inspecific groups He also put forward the views of Logan and Johnston (2009)and Logan and Medford (2011) also argue that boys, in particular, identifyways to increase their attitudes toward reading and reading motivation It isparticularly important because their attitudes and motivation are more closelymatched to their reading skills and performance in reading tests In addition,Oakhill and Petrides (2007) show that “when choosing a reading test topic, thetopic of concern for boys should be considered in detail, the importance of thedegree of

attention to reading comprehension However, the current study does not focus

on gender differences.”

On the other hand, in 2011, Logan, Medford, Hughes have compared goodand bad things Readers are poor in their internal reading dynamics and findthat while readers' internal reading impotence predicts differences in theirreading skills, good motivations of the reader are not These studies have beenwell and poorly controlled Therefore, the average reader will be included inthese samples good and poor readers The purpose of this study was to test thechildren for their reading skills, as there were far fewer studies comparingthese groups

There are various studies about motivate students in reading activities.Each study also demonstrated that they studied different levels of learners andwere mostly intermediate level

Concerning the warm-up activities in motivating students to developtheir reading skills, in 2015, Nhung wrote “The use of warm-up activities inmotivating 10th form students to learn reading skill” in her MA thesis Thisstudy explored the use of warm-up activities and their effects on the 10th formstudents at Kien An High School and make some suggestions to improve thequality of learning reading lesson This study was conducted to find outdefinition of warm-up activities and warm-up activities are effective techniquesfor motivating 10th form students to learn reading skills or not

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the setting of the study, subjects and methods ofstudy as well as the analysis of data collected

2.1 Setting of the study

In this study, I focused on 11th grade students in a high school in QuangNinh province Therefore, I have got more opportunities to interact, to applyactivities, to monitor the change in their English learning The students chosenfor this study are not gifted students in English subject Most of the studentshere are in intermediate level They are afraid of long readings and new words.Some other students have better ability to learn English, they do not feel thatreading skills are too difficult

2.2 Participants of the study

The participants of the research consist of two groups of respondents:teachers of English and the 11th grade students at Uong Bi high school In thisstudy, no teachers were identified by their names

The first group includes 122 students of 11th form chosen from fourclasses at a High school All of the learners have the same time of learningEnglish of at least six years; and they have studied the 7-year English textbookprogram

The second group comprises 6 English teachers All of these teachers areteaching English to the 11th grade students Their teaching experience rangesfrom 5 years to 10 years

2.3 Research methodology

This research used both qualitative and quantitative methods, but dataanalysis was based mainly on quantitative method The quantitative methodrelated the implementation of the questionnaire while the qualitative methodbased on the conduct of the observation

I decided to use quantitative method because the main content of thisstudy would be based on the data collected from questionnaires to collect,analyze and tabulate the data However, quantitative method alone is notreliable and valid enough to have strong evidence for the study If the

researcher only applies this method, this study will not be objective andconvincible enough

because participants may give answers different from their thinking andactions The adoption of both quantitative and qualitative methods wouldhelp the researcher collect the most precise and pertinent information for thestudy.

This study followed method steps below: (1) Prepare questionnaires forteachers and students; (2) Collect data from questionnaires to analyze tabulatethe data; (3) Attend teachers who teach reading skills with different warm-upactivities; (4) Observe students' attitudes, classroom atmosphere, the thingsthat students can improve after lessons with warm-up activities

2.3.1 Methods of data collection

be easily used by researchers or teachers in a classroom to measure thedevelopment of teaching or learning activity In addition, using questionnaire inany field setting usually allows the researcher to collect a large amount of datathat cannot be obtained by using other tools of measurement Questionnaire is

an easy research process It gives quick and fairly accurate results of theinvestigation It is a kind of facility for the respondents and the researcher.”Many teachers are becoming interested in classroom research (Griffee &Nunan,

1997), and one popular way of doing research is to use data generated fromquestionnaires

Questionnaires were created based on the purpose of this study such asdoing something to improve reading skills and motivating for students

increasing of warm-up activities.

Questionnaires were collected with a number of questions based on asimilar study conducted by Ms Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nhung However, the authorhas added and edited questionnaires to suitable for research subjects andresearch locations After gathering a research questionnaire for teachers andstudents, these questionnaires were distributed to 122 students in fourdifferent classes and 6 English teachers Finally, the papers that contained thecircled answer were collected The author calculated the percentage for eachquestion

2.3.1.2 Questionnaire for students

In order to get information to fulfill the aims of the study, 2 surveyquestionnaires were designed to the students and the teacher respondents

Questionnaires for students consisted of 9 questions and were delivered

to 122 students in four classes The survey questionnaire for students wasconducted in order to understand about students’ attitudes towards warm-upactivities as well as students’ perception of the benefits of warm-up activities inreading lessons Moreover, the Vietnamese version of questionnaires forstudents helped them to understand the questions easily

2.3.1.3 Questionnaire for teachers

The questionnaire for teachers consisted of 6 questions and wasprovided to 6 English teachers at a high school The survey questionnaire forteachers was designed with an attempt to find out teachers’ evaluation on theimportance of warm-up activities in reading lessons, common types of warm-

up activities

2.3.2 Class Observations

According to Mohammad Zohrabi (2013, p.257), observation is apreplanned research tool which is carried out purposefully to serve researchquestions and objectives When using this method, the researcher observes the

“classroom interactions and events, as they actually occur” (Burns, 1999, p 80)

Flick (2006, p 219) also contends that observation “is an attempt to observeevents as they naturally occur.” More importantly, observation enables the

researcher to combine it with questionnaires and interviews to collect

“relatively objective firsthand information” (Johnson & Turner, 2003, p 314)

To this end, Merriam (1998, p 96) believes that observation is a kind of datatriangulation in order to “substantiate the findings.” In this regard, Fraenkeland Wallen (2003, p 453) state that the observers “study the subjectivefactors objectively.” However, Nation (1997, p 276) asserts that theresearchers try to study the “representations of behavior rather than thebehavior itself.”

In this study, the observations were taken place in reading lessons in thesecond semester of this year It concluded 4 periods I observed not only theattitudes of the students in the lesson but also the activities of teachersapplying warm-up activities in reading lesson

2.3.3 Methods of data analysis

Qualitative data analysis is a process that reduces and makes sense of alarge amount of information from various sources so that impressions thatmake research question can emerge in an obvious way It is a process whereyou take descriptive information and approach an explanation After collectingthe data, I classified the different questions that contain answers Based onthat, I calculated the percentage for each question in the handouts Finally, Idrew conclusions from those numbers

Quantitative data analysis is “a large set of data sitting in a spreadsheetdoes not help us to understand the characteristics of the population we areworking with or describe the changes brought about by our projects.” In thiscase study, I observed students and teachers in reading lesson and collected allthe data together in a spreadsheet; however, the researcher also analyzed thedata to answer the research questions

2.4 Data collection and analysis of observations

Observation was used as a method for assessing the teacher'sperceptions of student attitudes, classroom climate, and attitudes toward theteacher during

a class that is used by teachers for warm-up activities In the 6 lessons Iattended my colleagues, I was able to observe how warm-up activities motivatestudents to learn.

In unit 8: Celebrations, 4 teachers used different warm-up activities

This lesson was about Lunar New Year, which was taught by the firstteacher The teacher used the song "I love Tet holiday" to create warm-upactivities for students She asked students to watch video and listen to the songfor 1 minute

30 seconds Later, she divided into two teams, each member of each team went

to the board write the things related to the Tet holiday topic in that song

Another warm-up activity was conducted by the second teacher “Who isfaster?” was utilized as a warm-up activity for her lesson She divided the classinto 3 teams and gave each team 6 drawings on this topic (peach blossom,Chung cake, boiled chicken, Kumquat tree, candies, sticky rice, lucky money).These six words had not taught before, but they were simply guessed by thepictures The teacher read the name of each picture aloud and asked the finalstudents to pass to the first student, who quickly put the picture on the board.Which team was the fastest, found the most pictures was the winning team

The third teacher who taught this lesson utilized discussion as a

warm-up activity She presented some questions for students to discuss as follows Sheasked her students to look at the picture in the textbook, discuss the following inpairs:

1 What time of the year is?

2 What are the people in the picture doing?

3 What else do you see in the picture?

Then, she called the students to practice in pairs, answered eachquestion and led to the new lesson