improving students’ reading skill by planning plentiful activities in reading lessons

INDEX Page PART 1: INTRODUCTION I Reasons for choosing the research……………………………………2 II Aims of the research…………………………………………………2 III Scope, objects and researching methods……………………….… PART 2: CONTENT……………………………………………… … 3 I The theoretical basis of the study …… ………………………….… The roles of teaching reading skill …………………………… …3 What affects students’ reading skill? II The states of teaching and learning English at secondary schools… III The solutions for effective lessons……… ………………….…… Tips to develop reading skill…………………………………………4 Teaching reading skill……………………………………………… Using some other methods to improve students’ reading skill…….…10 IV Example lessons……………………………………………………12 V The result of the study……………………………………………… 17 PART CONCLUSION……………………………………………… 18 References …………………… ………………………………………19 1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION I REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE RESEARCH English is known as the worldwide spoken language nowadays and almost all of the people need to know this language so as to communicate and integrate Therefore, English is a compulsory subject applied across the whole higher educational system in Vietnam While learning English students have lots of difficulties and have no patience in pronunciation, learning vocabulary, grammar and so on In four skills: listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill and writing skill, reading skill often makes students lose their patience most , especially for students in grade and grade As a teacher of English I recognize that teaching reading skill, a receptive skill is particularly important because a reading text can be a model for writing Therefore, we are need to be good at making questions with different levels of understanding and our responsibility is to teach students how to ask questions before , during and after they read the text Reading is a receptive skill When we read we are able to understand written language in books, letters, etc However, to teach a reading lesson effectively and successfully, it’s important for the teacher to give clear instructions As a result I decided to focus this thesis on teaching reading skill The topic is “improving students’ reading skill by planning plentiful activities in reading lessons” II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH With the reasons above in my mind, the specific aim of the research accordingly are: To help the students improve their reading skills To encourage the students to use the language they’ve learnt to solve the communicative tasks To encourage the students to be interested in learning English III SCOPE, OBJECT AND RESEARCHING METHOD Scop: Researching in the process of teaching English at my school Object: This subject is concerned with ways of using different questions in reading Researching method: Reading reference books , discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences - PART 2: CONTENTS I THEORITICAL BASIS OF THE STUDY: The roles of teaching reading skill Before I give some practical suggestions on how to develop the reading skills of our students, I would like to emphasize the importance of having well developed reading skills and why they should be constantly developed Reading skill is one of the most important and necessary skill in teaching and learning a language at secondary school In an English lesson, students read to get information and check the data to find out the correct answers, if they can’t find the answers that means they find it difficult to get knowledge and remember the information long Students also save lots of information by being taught writing or in books, newspapers and so on Therefore, reading can be improved anywhere and at any time Thus, teachers must create different questions to have effective lesson, as well as encourage students to study English better Teaching students to read an English test skillfully is difficult for many students, especially for students who are in different levels Being a teacher I think we should give lots of activities in reading lessons in order to consolidate the previous activities such as listening and writing In a communicative lesson, teaching reading is more necessary with plentiful types of contents connecting to students’ daily life so students will be interested in these activities and they will be encouraged to learn better What affects students’ reading skill? During the reading lessons as well as an English lesson, there are some factors affect students’ reading skill Students find it difficult in generalize the knowledge so they need to be taught carefully to improve their reading skill Students often react inactively to the text with lots of new words and new structures Students tend to try to understand a new language rather than read an old text Teachers can guess the difficulties students may have when they read an unfamiliar passage Students’ experience often changes when they are at different ages Students’ ability in reasoning, speaking, the knowledge of phrases, sentences, sound as well as other definitions affect actively students’ success II THE STATES OF TEACHING AND LEARING ENGLISH AT A SECONDARY SCHOOL For teachers: As we know, the amount of the knowledge in English books is too big, especially in the reading lesson The topics are diversified and plentiful that is the reason why many teachers have difficulties in planning and organizing the lessons effectively Because: - - - - - - the number of students in a class is too big - the different levels among students - The supplying and practicing new structures and vocabulary are not easy with students, especially bad students - there is not enough time to use warm- up questions That is the reason why teachers aren’t able to know students’ real ability For students: Changing the teaching methods means students are the central of the lessons and the effect of the lessons depends on students’ ability, their activeness and initiative During the reading lesson, students may have some limitations Such as: Students read the text and try to translate word by word into Vietnamese Students pay attention too much to minor points and lose important ones Students’ vocabulary is not enough so they can’t get the main ideas Most students don’t understand the importance of learning English these days Therefore, they are not willing in their studying Moreover, their awareness of self- education is low Students’ knowledge about the surroundings is limited Reading lessons are not usually as interesting as other ones These are the main reasons that I decide to find the solutions to improve students’ reading skill III THE SOLUTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE RERADING LESSONS Tips to develop the reading skill I will try to simplify and outline certain tips that students can be reminded of: Every reading activity must have a clearly stated aim You should know why you are reading, and what’s the purpose In order to understand the aim of the reading more easily, the purpose or the aim should be embodied in a follow up activity provided by the instructor Students must be aware of the reading techniques and know which one they should use in order to complete the task depending on the type of text and the aim/follow-up activity In order to help students to develop their reading skill effectively, we first distinguish simple reading skills used in teaching foreign language Teaching reading skills 2.1 Types of reading: - Skimming is a reading technique that provides understanding of the whole text without reading it from word to word It involves discovering the main ideas of a text by reading first and last paragraphs and topic sentences, and paying attention to other details on the page like titles, bold type or italics, photograph captions, etc - Scanning is a type of reading that students uses to find specific information without reading the whole text It involves looking down and • • • • • • • around a page quickly and efficiently searching for important words, facts or phrases to find specific information When scanning a text, students should use peripheral vision and shouldn’t focus only on the logical flow of the text - Reading to study Its aim is to understand the material in depth The method involves five simple steps; Survey, Question, Read, Recall and Review + Survey: skim through to gain an overview and not key points + Question: devise questions you hope the text will answer + Read: slowly and carefully + Recall: from memory, write down the main points made by the chapter + Review: revisit your questions - compare these to your recall and establish how well the text has answered them; fill in any gaps by further reading and note-taking 2.2 Activities in a reading lesson: Each reading activity should be preceded by a warm-up activity relevant to the type of text and the follow-up activity or the aim of the reading We can introduce the topic, ask opinion, check background knowledge on the topic; We can ask a question connected to the main idea, elicit possible answers from students; they can predict the content of the text (from the title, photo, key word(s) provided by the instructor); the reading can also be based on the previous lecture, and used as revision, so the students will be familiar with the content Provide clear instructions Assign time for completion of the task Monitor At the end of the task, leave enough time for checking the answers, feedback, comments, questions Putting paragraphs in order: Cut the text in meaningful paragraphs (one A4 page cut into no more than five paragraphs and not less than 3) Distribute the same paragraphs to all groups of students or if the text is bigger, We can give different parts of the text to each group, and then ask them to connect the whole text between groups 2.2.1 Pre- reading activities: In this activity teachers should introduce the general ideas of the text Using the knowledge in the real life to ask students to guess the content of the text by asking warming up questions If the reading is a dialogue , we can ask students some questions about the place, the number of people in the dialogue If it is a passage, we can give student some information to lead students to the main points of the text Furthermore, we can use the pictures in the textbook to help students know the main ideas Some activities include: - warm up - set the scene - explain the new words - suggest and lead students to the main ideas of the text - Ask students to predict the content of the text a b c d e f a b c d e f g a b c d e Teachers give some suggesting questions which usually show the new structures through the text Scanning skill is usually used in this activity Example : Unit 1-READ (page 9, 10) English The teacher asks students before they read the text: Is Malaysia in Asia? How many parts (regions) are there? The Vietnamese unit of currency is “dong” What is Malaysia unit of currency? What is the capital of Malaysia? How many religions are there? How many languages are spoken in Malaysia? With these questions students can know what they are going to learn about Moreover, we can match the knowledge of geography in teaching a reading lesson to make it more interesting and can develop free- talking of students who are not good at English As a result, we can help students understand the questions they are going to answer Example 2: Unit 2-READ (page 17) English In the English book in grade 9, we can use some pictures to warm up students before they read the text For example, In unit 2- part Read we can use the picture at page 17 and ask students some questions: What they do? What are they wearing? Are they nice? handsome? Are jeans fashionable? Do you like jeans? After students answer these questions we can ask some more openquestions to help students understand the text Do you know where and when jeans come from? What are they made of? We can create true-false exercises Example 3: Unit 3-READ (page 25) English T/F statements: Van is from the USA He is living with the Parkers Mr Parker is a farmer They have three children Van helps Mr Parker on the farm after school This is the most common method many teachers use in reading lessons However students may not develop other skills such as speaking skill and they not need the social knowledge 2.2.2 While-reading activities: In this part activities are organized to help student to practice reading skills Some skills are applied in each exercise Students usually read with the full knowledge about the text and can answer all the questions related to the text Moreover, students can get the important ideas of the text through reading They feel more confident to the exercises However, we shouldn’t require students in grade or read the text because the text may be long and have o lot of difficult words In this activity we should change the tasks more often We can divide the class into some groups and each group has one task that depends on students’ level While teaching teachers ask some questions to guide students to understand the text, and we can know how each student can make progress We should encourage students to answer the questions whether the answer is correct or not Furthermore, we should organize work group for students to discuss the questions together By this way, all the students in the class have to attend the activity and they can help each other The form of the answer can be spoken one or written one Due to the text, teachers should make short questions so that students can understand the text clearly Some activities include: - the exercise while reading - teachers change the way to analyze the contents of the text that depends on the level of the text - Students correct their exercises themselves - Questions: Answer the Q, T/F statements, Multiple choice, Complete…, Gap fill, Mach, Choosing, Tick… etc… Example : English – Unit 13: Festivals Lesson: Reading Christmas is an important festival in many countries around the world There are four things which are special in Christmas eve Use the information in the reading to complete the table Christmas Specials Place of origin Riga Date Mid – 19 th century Christmas carols USA We can ask students in groups more about Christmas after they the exercise about; Therefore, the lesson is more exciting and students have a change to discuss the text in English Moreover, teachers can ask students to work in groups to tell some festivals in Thanh Hoa such as Lam Kinh festival, Ba Trieu festival… Example 2: Unit 5-READ (page 43, 44) English We divide the class into groups, each group read each passage about the internet and answer the questions a b c a b c a b c - - Group 1: Response # Re Read and answer these questions What does Sandra use the Internet for? Is the Internet convenient for her to get information? Can she communicate with her relatives by the Internet? Group 2: Response # Re With these questions Does Hong Hoa live in the city? Is the Internet available in the countryside? Why is it difficult for Hong Hoa to get access to the Internet? Group 3: Response # Re With these questions What people use the Internet for? Are there bad programs and viruses on the Internet? Is it time-consuming and costly to use the Internet? After groups find the answer students can answer the questions in the text book After that we continue to ask student to work in groups to discuss the benefits and limitations of the internet through the lesson Furthermore, students can use their knowledge in their life to add more about the advantages and limitations of the internet If we use these method, we can help students improve their skills such as listening skill, reading skill and speaking skill, especially with reserved students 2.2.3 Post- reading activities: - to check students’ knowledge, we should plan the lesson in different suitable ways + consolidated exercises + exercises connecting to the real life + transform the knowledge, the information - Practicing: summarize, Interview, Discuss… These days , students will attend some activities which are broadened to learn about the text and improve some other skills These exercises are: Gap- filling Example 1: : English Unit 5: Study habits Lesson: Read After the lesson, teachers can ask some questions: Do you often learn words in one way? Do you have any other ways to learn words better? In your opinion, what is the way to learn word? MALAYSIA Example 2: Unit 1-READ (page 9, 10)- English Area: _ After students answer the questions we can hang on the board the summary Population: about what they have learnt for them to compare Climate: Unit of currency: _ Capital city: _ Official religion: _ National language: _ Compulsory second language: _ Cards: 329.758 sq km Over 22 million the ringgit Kuala Lumpur Bahasa Malaysia tropical climate Islam English Question table: What is Malaysia’s area? It’s 329.758 sq km What is its population? What is its climate? What is its unit of currency? What is its capital city? What is its official religion? What is its National language? What is its compulsory second language? Example 3: Unit 2-READ (page 19,20) SGK English 10 We can use multiple choice exercises to check what students have learnt Multiple choice: The word “Jeans” comes from A Asia B Europe C Africa D America The 1960s fashions were A shirts B shorts C jeans D skirts More and more people began wearing jeans in the 1970s because they became A cheaper B stronger C more fashionable D better Finally jeans became high fashion clothing in the _ A 1960s B 1970s C 1980s D 1990s The sale of jeans stops growing because of A wars B the worldwide economic situation C designers D styles of jeans Using some other reading methods to improve students’ reading skill Change the teaching aids, the instructions, the types of exercises and so on These changes must be suitable with students at different levels Moreover, we can divide students into different levels with different kinds of exercises And other elements for effective interventions include:         Word level interventions Explicit instruction, with scaffolding and feedback, of approaches that help students become more active, strategic readers Student collaboration in comprehension strategies (relies on teacher guidance) Reciprocal Teaching Graphic organizers to assist in understanding relationships among key concepts represented in texts Specific instruction on text structures, organizational patterns, and linguistic conventions commonly found in expository text Work in small groups or individually to increase intensity Increased amount of time and frequency working with students who are struggling Progress monitoring to determine if interventions are effective and to make instructional adjustments Most students demonstrate improved reading achievement when their teachers incorporate the following components of effective comprehension instruction before, during, and after reading 11 IV EXAMPLE LESSONS GRADE 8: PERIOD 21- UNIT 4: OUR PAST LESSON 3: READ A Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to understand and retell the story "The lost shoe" B Teaching aids: Teacher: textbook, poster, pictures… Students: textbook, notebook, pens, rulers… C Procedure: I Class organization: minute II Revision: (5 minutes) WARM-UP III New lesson: Setting the scene: Included in the WARM-UP Main activities: Teacher’s and students’ activities Content WARM UP Brainstorming: - Teacher divides class into teams, - One-hundred-section bamboo each team take turns to go to the - Tam Cam blackboard and write the names of - Seven - mile shoe some folk tales that they have read - Snow White and dwarfs - The Frog Prince - How the tiger got his stripes - The Lost Shoe PRE- READING * Pre- teach vocabulary: I New words: - The teacher presents some new - be cruel to (adj) :độc ác words [translation] (= unkind) - upset (adj) : buồn phiền [synonym]= worried, sad, unhappy - The teacher models times and - fairy (n) :bà tiên gets students to repeat [translation] - magical (adj)  magically (adv) - rag (n) quần áo rách, vải vụn [realia] - to fall in love with…:phải - Checking vocabulary: Slap the lòng,yêu board [translation] - immediately (adv): (= at once) - The teacher sets the scene: “You * True - False predictions are going to read a fairy tale about …1 Little Pea's father is a poor Little Pea- a poor girl living with farmer her step mother, now read the …2 Her father got married again statements and guess which is true, after his wife died which is false.’’ …3 Her new mother was beautiful 12 and nice to her …4 She worked hard all day …5 She didn’t have new clothes to take part in the festival WHILE - READING - The teacher asks students to read the story "The Lost Shoe" on p 41 and check their prediction - The teacher asks students to correct the false statements * Reading the text, then checking the prediction Answer T T F T F Correction Her new mother was cruel to he A fairy gave her beautiful clothe II Comprehension questions Who was Little Pea? - The teacher asks students to work What did Stout Nut's mother in pairs to find out the answers of make Little Pea all day? these questions How did Little Pea get her new clothes? Whom did the Prince decide to marry? why? Is it a true story? How you know? - Expected answers: She was a poor farmer's daughter - Students work in pairs and find the She made her the chores all answers day Before the festival started, a fairy - The teacher asks students to appeared and magically changed her practice asking and answering the rags into beautiful clothes questions: open pairs – closed pairs He decided to marry Little Pea because the shoe (which the Prince was keeping) fitted her (Ss answer themselves.) III Gap filling: (p.42) Complete the sentences with words - The teacher asks students to work from the story in pairs, filling the blanks with - Expected answers: suitable words from the story a farmer - b died - c had/used, again - d marry / choose - e new 13 f lost POST - READING Retell the story - T asks Ss to tell the story again in details IV Consolidation: (2 minutes) - T asks students to state the main points of the story V Homework - Rewrite the story - Do exercise + in workbook - Prepare the next lesson: unit 4- write GRADE UNIT 2: CLOTHING Period 10- LESSON 4- READ I.Objectives: By the end of the lesson, Students will be able to know more about the history of jeans 1.Knowledge : - Vocabulary : wear out, style , sale , embroider , out of fashion, cotton, generation, label - Language : passive voice: be made in/ from/ of… Skills : reading II Teacher and Students’ Preparation : Teacher’s preparation: : power point Students’ preparation: textbook III Method and Techniques - Communication approach - Questions And Answers IV Procedure Teacher’s activities Students’ activities A Warm - up *Hangman: - organize the class to play “hangman” game to - find the key word find the key word: Jeans B New lesson: I Pre- reading * Pre – teaching Vocabulary: Show the pictures on the screen to explain the - listen, find the meaning of meaning of new words words and take notes - cotton (n): bông, sợi - wear out(v) : rách, sờn - style (n) : kiểu dáng, phong cách - sale (n) : doanh thu - embroider (v) : thêu (hoa văn) 14 - label (n): nhãn, nhãn hiệu - be out of fashion (v): lỗi thời - generation (n): hệ (explaination) Read all the words and ask students to repeat Call some students to read again * Checking vocabulary : show the pictures and ask students to call out the words Grammar: - underline sentences showing the passive voice and ask students to pay attention to the structures: + be made in + be made from + be made of II While reading: - turn on the tape and ask students to listen to the tape - ask students to read the text and fill in the gap - listen and repeat - read aloud - the task - give some information about the passive voice - listen and take notes - listen - read the text again then fill in the gap with the information from the text Exercise Fill in the missing dates and words:_ : Workers liked to wear because the material made from - answer - check cotton was very strong and - callcould some students answer out hardlyto wear - show the keys - work in pair to ask and Key: answer the questions 2. : A lot of cloth university 18th century… jeans 1960s….students 1970s…cheaper and college _ 1980s…fashion 1990s…sale wore jeans - ask students to work in pair to answer the questions : Jeans became _ so many, many people began wearing jeans - work in group 15 : Jeans became high clothing Where does the word : The _ of jeans “jeans” come from? stopped going up What were the 1960s’ - check fashions? Why did more and III Post reading - ask students to work in group to answer the questions through “lucky number” game more people begin - show the answers - listen and remember wearing in come the Where does the wordjeans “jeans” from?1970s? The word jeans comes from a kind of When did jeans at last material that was made in Europe become high fashion What were the 1960s’ fashions? clothing? The 1960s’ fashions were embroidered jeans,Why painted so of on didjeans theand sale Why did more more people begin jeansand stop growing? IV.Consolidation: wearing jeans in 1970s? _T asks Ss to remember thethe content of the text - Summarize the text basing on Exercise a, b / P Because jeans became cheaper 17,18 When did jeans at last become high fashion clothing? Jeans at last became high fashion clothing in the 1980s Why did the sale of jeans stop growing? 16 The sale of jeans stopped growing because the worldwide economic situation worse in the 1990s V/ RESULT OFgot THE STUDY After applying these methods I have got some results: - students are confident in each reading lesson - they not only improve their vocabulary but also their reading skill - the reading lessons are becoming more interesting - students get good marks in each test The final result of the first term is summarized in the following tables Grade 8A Number percentage Good 16.7% Rather good 24.4% Average 17 42.2% Under average 16.7% Good 10 27.8% Rather good 16.7% Average 18 50% Under average 5.6% Good 21.6% Rather good 17 45.9 % Good 18.9% Rather good 13 35.1% Grade 8B Number percentage Grade 9A Number percentage Average 24.3% Under average 8.2% Grade 9B Number percentage Average 14 37.8% Under average 8.2% 17 PART CONCLUSION : Development of students’ reading skill should be one of the course objectives which will show the instructors’ commitment to creating competent professionals and future scholars/ researchers • The first step to improve the students reading skills is by introducing it in the classroom The introduction of the reading activities in the classroom helps the students develop their reading skills by training them to become more proficient, by making them aware of the need to work on their skill, and by making them more confident in dealing with such activities Finally, it helps them pass the exam more easily by learning in class • It prepares them for individual, in-home reading necessary for successful exam preparation Finally, it helps them become independent learners, develop the critical thinking, problem solving, analytical skill as well Last but not the least, it provides an excellent learning but relaxed, student centered atmosphere These are my experience I have applied in each of my lesson I hope these methods can help students improve their knowledge of English I’m sure this is my own experienced initiative Yen Dinh, April 15th 2019 Headmaster’s signature ……………………………… …………………………………… …………………………………… Written by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao 18 REFERENCES Toefl reading flash Rèn luyện kỹ làm đọc hiểu môn tiếng anh- cô Vũ mai Phương Thiết kế giảng tiếng anh lớp NXB Hà Nội Thiết kế giảng tiếng anh lớp NXB Hà Nội Methodology- Part II Nguyen Thu Hien, MA Câu hỏi trắc nghiệm chuyên đề kĩ đọc hiểu- Vĩnh Bá Toefl iBT M –reading – LinguaForum- chuyển ngữ Lê Huy Lâm 19 YEN DINH DIVISION EDUCATION LE DINH KIEN SECONDARY SCHOOL EXPERIENCED INITIATIVE THE TITLE “IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING SKILL BY PLANNING PLENTIFUL ACTIVITIES IN READING LESSONS Written by: Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo Job : Teacher Subject: English Le Dinh Kien secondary school 20 YEN DINH, APRIL 2019 21 ... thesis on teaching reading skill The topic is improving students’ reading skill by planning plentiful activities in reading lessons II AIMS OF THE RESEARCH With the reasons above in my mind, the... the students reading skills is by introducing it in the classroom The introduction of the reading activities in the classroom helps the students develop their reading skills by training them to... reading skills used in teaching foreign language Teaching reading skills 2.1 Types of reading: - Skimming is a reading technique that provides understanding of the whole text without reading