Bai tap de tai TA

Ministry of Education and training Hanoi University of Education Faculty of English A STUDY ON CLASSROOM ACTIVITY AND ITS APPLICATION INSTRUCTOR : Nguyen Mai Huong, M. A STUDENT : Ngo Thi Hue GROUP: : 2 Academic Year: 2007- 2008 Hanoi, August- 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the process of writing this assignment, I have been fourtunate to receive support and assistance from a variety of people. First and foremost, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my instructor, Nguyen Mai Huong, M.A for her expertise in scholarly instruction, valuable guidance and intellectual support to my study.Without her advice and instruction I can’t complete this assignment . My special thanks also come to the grade 7 student at Huong Mac secondary school, Tu Son – Bac Ninh who have actively participated in doing the serveys and respond to my interviews . Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude and appreciation to my family, my relatives especially my husband who encouraged and help me to carry out this assignment . TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I.1. Rationale. I.2.Characteristics of teaching and learning situation at Huong Mac I secondary school . CHAPTERII: IMPLEMENTATION. A. Theoretical background . I . Overview of reading: I.1. What is reading . I.2 . The importance of reading. I.3. Reading procedure . I.3.1. Pre-reading stage. I.3.2. While- reading stage . I.3.3 Post- reading stage . II. Overview of pre-reading stage . II.1. Pre-reading stage and its importance to reading comprehension . II.2. Funtions of pre-reading stage in reading comprehension . III. Types of interaction activities in a reading lesson at pre- reading stage . IV.Activities at the pre-reading stage . B. Procedures of the study. I . Methodology of the study . I.1. The subjects of the research . I.2. Methods of the research . C. Data analysis . D. Findings and recommendations . I. Findings I.1. Students . I.2. Teaching and learning conditions . II. Recommendations . II.1 .How to use the activity : T /F prediction II.2.Adjustment to suit the teaching and learning condition CHAPTER III: CONCLUSIONS . III.1. Summary III.2. Limittation of the st CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION. I.1 . Rational : The rapid development of the ralationship between Vietnam and countries all over the world has resulted in a great demand for English language learning throughout the country. The need is , nowadays, ever greater because there is a considerable number of peoplewho want to use English effectively for many surposes- academic students, professional success and international communication. Having recognized the importance of English, the ministry of Education and training ( MOET) has recently decided that English is a compulsory subject in secondary schools . One example is the coming into use of the new text book, which requires the teachers to alter their teaching methods . Thus, there is a tendency for them now to focus more on Communicative approach instead of the Grammar and Translation . However , at present, English language teaching in Vietnamese secondary schools especially in the rural area, is still far from satis-faction. Changes are said to be modest in the real teaching and learning English at schools . The fact that students are afraid of learning English and fail to actully use the language or find it difficult to understand its use in daily life communication is undeniable . As far as we know , reading plays an important role but pre-reading stage is not less important . The lack of pre-reading activities may lead to the ss’ low motivation and interest in reading classes . Among varieties of pre-reading activities it is the teacher’s role to choose the most appropriate one to use . Each activity has its characteristics . It may be suitable with these studnets but unsuitable with others ,in these schools but not in others . Hense the writer decide to choose one activity ( T/F prediction ) for her pre-reading stage and she wants to make it suitable with her Grade 7 students, at Huong Mac I secondary school in Bac Ninh . I.2. Characteristics of teaching and learning situation at Huong Mac I secondary school . The reasons for choosing Huong Mac I secondary school to be the research setting are: First, I have been teaching at Huong Mac I for many years. Thus , I had more chances to get to know about the teaching and learning condition here. Second, my school is about 20 kilometres from the centre of Bac Ninh city and is a typical rural school where there are difficulties both teachers and students have to face up with like lack of essential conditions supplyingfor learning and teaching New English 6 text book, especially its reading skill. This paper hopefully will make a small contribution to make Huong Mac I secondary school teachers’ and students aware of their own situation of teaching and learning reading in general and carry out the pre-reading stage in particular . The writer’s expectation is to discuss and find out the best way to conduct T/F prediction activity when teaching reading comprehension at grade 7 more effectively . CHAPTER II : IMPLEMENTATION . A . Theoretical background : I : Overview of reading: I.1.What is reading ? Reading is common habit in human life and one of four main skills of a foreign language learner . However , it is impossible to find a definition or explaination of reading which is acceptable to everyone . There have been numerous definition of reading and each of them reflects an individual opinion of reading . William, E ( 1984:2) states in a simple defition of reading : “It is a process whereby one looks at and understands what has been written”. Being the same as William’s view is Harmer’s ( 1989: 153) . He started that reading is ( An excercise dominated by eyes and the brain. The eyes receive message and the brain then has to work out the significance of these massage ”. Another definition is “ Reading is a receptive language precess in that it starts with a linguistic surface presentation encoded by a writer and ends with meaning which the reader contructs . there is thus an essential interaction between language to thought” ( Arrell ( 1988: 12) ) . From the above definition , it can come to nuderstand that reading is an interative constructive process in which readers comprehend , interpret , and respond to text according towhat they already know . I.2. The importance of reading: In daily life, research takes an undoubtedly important role . First and Foremost, the ability to read provides people with opportunities to get access to education . In out literate society, it is hard to imagine any skilled work that does not require the ability to read . More over, further education depends on quality and quality of reading as all important. Study skills require quick , efficient and imaginative reading . Reading also enhances general knowledge . The more we read the more background and crosscultural knowledge we acquire and the more books we find possible to understand . In mastering a foreign language , reading is one of the four basic language skills that any students has to acquire . Concerning the roles of reading in a language learning course , William , E ( 1996: 10) points out the following suggested answers to the question: “ why should teachers want learner to read a foreign language ?” • So that learners can have further practice of language that they have already met through listening and speaking . • So that learners can learn how to make sense of text, in order to extract the information they need from them . • So that learners can find enjoyment through reading . • So that learners can relax from time to time in the classroom . To sum up,reading ability will be developed best in association with writing ,listening and speaking activities . Even in those courses that may be labeled “reading” your goals will be best achieved by capitalizing on the interrelationship of skills , especially the reading- writing connection . Therefore , students who enjoy reading in the foreign language may become motivated to learn that language in general , which is a boost for any teacher. I.3. Reading procedure : According to CLT approach , a reading lesson has three stages including pre- reading , while-reading , and post-reading . This approach is considered to be both scientific and art . Being scientific shown is that reading procedure is divided into clear stages , so designing activities becomes more easily , and being art and creative are that teachers are able to apply suitale reading techniques depending on conditions of each class or types of learners to teach reading most effectively in each stage . Each stage obviously has its own aims and consist of specific activities . However , these stages are inter-related to each other and exploiting the lesson in their inter- relationship would help make the lesson as effective as it can be . I.3.1 : Pre-reading stage : Pre-reading stage is carried out before students begin reading the text. It involves preraring studnets for what they are about to read, also it plays a decisive role in the while process of teaching reading lesson . According to William ( 1984: 37 ) , The aims of this stage are : - to introduce and arouse interest in the topic . - to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading . - to provide some language preparation for the text . To achieve these above purposes , Doff (1988:59) gave some general following activities : - Giving a brief introduction to the text . - Presenting new vocabulary . - Revising grammatical structures . - Giving guiding questions . - Open prediction - Pre-question . - Net work. - Ordering. - Ordering picture . I.3.2 : While-reading stage : It is the main part of reading lesson its aims are : - to help understanding of the writer’s purpose . - to help understanding of the text structure . - to help clarify text content . ( Williams , 1986 :5 ) This stage is used mainly for silent reading . there are a munber of activities , depending on the requirements of reading of the reading lesson , used at this stage . Grelllet ( 1981: 5) mentioned some activities like : - Skimming for main ideas . - Scanning to locate specially required imformation . - Understanding relation between parts of the text thruogh lexical cohesion devices . - Multiple choice . - Gap fill . - Anwer given . - Grids . - Maching . - Comprehension question . - Recognizing indicators in discourse ,etc . I.3.3 : Post-reading stage : It is the stage after finishing all the required activities at the while reading stage . At this stage , activities can be carried out to gain some aims that Williams mentioned : - to consolidate or reflect upon has been read . - to relate the text to the learner’s own knowledge , interest or views . The activities at this stage can be : - Discussing question. - Pole-playing . - Gap-filling . - Brainstorming personal ideas on the theme of the text . - Summarizing the text . - Arranging the events in order . These activitiesare implemented after students have thoroughly understanding of the text . The more comprehensively they get , the better they perform . Overall , reading is an interactive-contructive process so the three-part frame work mentioned above will help teacher to conduct a reading lesson well , it means that, being aware these stages , teacher can not only deal with students’ motivation problems but also with language problems and the selection or construction of reading activities and related exercises . II .Overview of the pre-reading stage : Generally, no one reads because they have to but because they want to . We usually read with a purpose ,such as finding out something or checking or clarifying more information ,or even reading for pleasure . Further more , we do not normally read with completely empty mind . At least , we have some ideas of what we are going to read about , of things we want to know or we may predict or expect to find out some things . II.1 : Pre-reading stage and its importance to reading comprehension ? We have understood that reading is an interactive- contructive process in which readers comprehend, interpret, and respond to text according to what they already know ,so “ pre-reading, thinking in advance about a topic before read , helps you prepare for the words on the page” ( Wiener, 1991 :61 ) . Moreover , “ all language use in real life occurs in situation which allows the language user to reply heavily on anticipation and context . It is correspondingly artificially difficult to ask ss to read an unseentext with no preparation.” ( Lewi , 1985: 98 ) . For example , pre-reading activities such as title discussion and vocabulary training have been shown to effective in decreasing oral reading errors and ncreasing reading rate and comprehension across a range of reading levels . The benefical effects that pre- reading activities designed to enrich the relevant experiential context of the learner may have on both decoding and reading comprehension has been a focus on empirical endeavour for over 55 years ( Smith ,1963 ) . The general purpose of such activities is to either activate appropriate knowledge structures or to provide knowledge that the reader may lack . The writers have reported that lack of understanding of context , or culturally loaded background knowledge assumed by the author , often makes comprehension difficult for the ESL reader ( Jonhson, 1981 ) , Hudson ( 1982 ) , Taglieberetal ( 1988) and Tudor (1988) have all demonstrated benefits that the provision of context as a pre-reading instructional activity can have on comprehension- particularly with low and medium proficiency ESL students . This can be stated more simply through Winer’s saying ( 1991) : “If you consider the topic before hand , you will find the writer’s ideas a little more familiar than if you jumped into the reading without prior thought.” Is short, pre-reading activities are most important at lower levels of language proficiency and at earlier stages of reading instruction. As students become more proficient at using reading strategies , teachers will be able to reduce the amount of guided pre-reading and allow students to do these activities themselves . II.2 : Functions of pre-reading stage in reading comprehension . To understand the function of pre-reading stage , let’s take consideration into some following diagram stated by Sandra Siberstein . For students Reading/ thinking activities before reading . Reading begins Skim the text , using information from teacher about the task/ purpose . From ideas what the text is about how it is organized . Use these ideas to activate prior knowledge of content and organizational patterns . More than recall or rewiew. Scanning files and selecting relevant information and deciding if information is related . If . More inferences Then Using inferences fromactivating PRIOR Stop/ Start KNOWLEDGE to make prediction about Read/ Take notes meaning and organizational partner of text Outline and best strategy to use . Read first/ gp back to notes . Form the above diagram, it gives a conclusion that “Pre-reading ,as an aspect of comprehension instruction , involves preparingstudents for what they are about to read . When teacher and students engage in meaningful pre-reading instruction , students develop clear purpose for learningand theie comprehension is enhanced . Pre-reading includes : “ drawing out or providing prior knowledge about content and process ,motivating students and teaching important vocabulary” ( Conley , 195: 174) . “Pre-reading activities include presenting some of the new words which will appear in the text , giving a brief instruduction to the text , or giving or twoguiding question for studenrs to think about as thye read” .( Doff , 1990 : 59 ) . From these above opinions , the main funtions of pre-reading stage reading : - Sparking interest and motivating students to read . - Assessing ,building , or activating students’ prior topical and lingistic knowledge . - Setting purpose for reading . Thus, recorgnizing pre-reading functions, teacher can define the suitable activities to gain the objectives of the reading lesson . II.3 Types of interaction activities in a reading lesson at pre-reading stage . There have been many alternative pre-reading activities to encourage students to read effectively .According to Doff ( 1988:59) , there are some general communicative activitiesas follows : - Presenting some new vocabulary : It is not necessary to give all the new words in a text before the students read it . They can guess the meaning of many words from the text . Only words which would make it difficult to understand the text need to presented before-hand ; other words can be dealt with after the text was read . - Introducing the text : This has two purposes: *To help students in their reading , by giving them some ideas of what to expect . *To increase their interest and so to make them want to read the text . One way to introduce the text is to give a simple sentence “ We are going to read about ; The text tells us about ” [...]... easyto understand very easyto not very easy to difficult to understand understand understand 30% 70% 0% 0% The survey from the students indicates that 70% of those considered t’s introduction very easy to understand and the rest of 42 ss ( accounting for 30%) thought that T’s introduction was easy to understand No one replied that it was not very to understand or difficult to understand II.1.10 Students... Ss’comments towards 7 statements too difficult 0% difficult 10% nomal 70% easy 20% As can be seen, up to 70% of students reported that these statements in T/F prediction activity were suitable for their level , with 20% of good ss they replied that the statements were easy for them to understand the meaning and 10% of weaker ss showed that they hardly understand them II.1.4: Students’ necessary time... contribute to the certain limitations of the study.Further more, the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the survey questionnaires was not really appropriate.It leads to the fact the writer had to use other methods to reaffirm the results The limitations in exploring data lead to some limitations in giving recommendations Seconly, the survey was carried out with subjects as students at grade7 at Huong... activity Step 1 : T gives the task Step 2: T asks ss to work in pairs Step3: Checks ss’ understanding the task Step4 : Gives the time limitation Step 5: Ss do their work Step 6: Gets the guesses The illustration of the steps Work arrangement Steps Teacher Students Step 1 Step 2 Step3 Step4 Step5 Step 6 T gives the task : I have 7 tatements on the board , you’ll guess which statements are true( write... understand the lesson better Above is the board to illustrate the survey results II.1.5 Whether ss want to replate the T/F prediction activity by another one or not Respondents don’t want want have no idea Students No 30 % 72 No 10 % 23 No 2 % 5 This table shows most students ( account for 72% ) don’t want to replace T/F prediction activity by another one They said they liked it Only 105 of students... activity was boring with them II.1.2 Students’ results in doing T/F prediction Respondents 0-30% 30-50% 50-70% 70-80% 80-90% 100% Students 0 0 5 65 30 15 Table 2 : Ss’ results in doing T/ F prediction As can be seen , only 15 students ( 15%) completed T’s requires 30 students do about 80-90% of T’s require 65 students do about 70-80% of T’s require 5 students do about 50-70% of T’s require Noone... ss to understand Ss know exactly what and how they had to do I.2 : How interesting the T/F prediction activity is Most ss felt excited when taking part in this activity they don’t want to replace this activity by another one Because with this activity they can understand some words or structures before reading and it was suitable for their levels So it motivated ss and helped them understand the... activity is also used for while reading stage to check the ideas Ss have read about 5 Ordering : The T writes about 6-8 statements on the main points of a reading text but the statements are jumbled The ss are asked to work in pairs or group to predict the order of the statements This activity is also used for while reading stage to check the ideas Ss have about The T writes Ss’ guess on the board... teachers and students were aware of the importance of pre-reading stage but implementing it was not successfully.Therefore, the writer applied this activity twice The first time:the writer applied “T/F prediction’’ activity at the pre- reading stage in the way she thinks it should be.Then got feedback from students’ by questionnaires Then she made changes of the activity according to the students’ feedback... find ideas related to the topic of the network and then compare their answers in pair or group , then cllects the ideas from the ss 4 Ordering : The teacher prepares some simple pictures to describe a story or a text , and sticks them on the board randomly Ss work in groups to rearrange the pictures and think of the story based on the picture order This activity is also used for while reading stage . activity’ . easyto understand very easyto understand not very easy to understand difficult to understand 30% 70% 0% 0% The survey from the students indicates. Pre-reading stage. I.3.2. While- reading stage . I.3.3 Post- reading stage . II. Overview of pre-reading stage . II.1. Pre-reading stage and its importance to