Some measures to improve reading comprehension skills for students in teaching english 11 in the direction of the national high school exam

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS Numerical order A B C Contents INTRODUCTION Reasons to the teaching experience The purpose of the teaching experience The research subjects The research methods CONTENTS The reality Objections of knowledge and skills Basic knowledge - Definition of reading comprehension - Basic reading skills - Basic types of questions in reading comprehension exercises - Specific steps in reading comprehension Experimental communication Experiments and lessons learned CONLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions Recommendations and proposals Pages 2 3 3 4 5 15 17 17 17 18 A INTRODUCTION I Reasons to teaching experience In the trend of international integration of the country today, language is an important issue, hotly being every profession and every industry all areas of interest Being an international language is widespread in most countries in the world, English plays indispensable roles in communication or research in all fields Therefore, the teaching and learning of foreign languages, especially English, today becomes imperative and is a compulsory subject in the curriculum at all educational levels as well as in the national high school exams of our country The Ministry of Education and Training has developed a plan to improve the quality of foreign language teaching and learning across the country Innovating and improving the quality of foreign language learning need many synchronous solutions First of all, We need to innovate teaching and learning methods This spirit of innovation has been reflected in the Central Resolution of Session VIII, which is institutionalized in the Education Law (December 1998) Article 24.2 of the Education Law states says that “The method of general education must promote students' activeness, self-awareness, initiative and creativity Consistent with the characteristics of each class and subject Fostering self-study methods, training the skills to apply knowledge into practice, affecting emotions, bringing joy and excitement to students' learning ” English is very necessary for the daily life and work, but many people don’t know how to learn and approach it effectively Each person is also learning English for different purposes For example, English learners with the purpose of communicating for work, we need to focus on developing practical skills such as listening and speaking, and English learners for the purpose of testing, Teaching again must focus more on teaching skills with combining more academic skills such as reading, writing and grammar supplementation As a teacher in an educational environment with high school students and more specifically, college preparatory students in order to prepare for the tough and fierce competition in Vietnam, it can be said that responsibility and the teacher's role is even more important Teachers must find an effective method to guide their students to the best results In the process of teaching and learning foreign languages, reading is one of the basic skills that are very focused Reading is an effective and necessary tool for students to master, consolidate language knowledge, expand vocabulary as well as deepen the style and language they are learning Reading plays a very important role in developing students' reading comprehension skills In fact, in reading skills and doing exercises after reading, students often make some common mistakes such as: incorrect pronunciation, often wind indiscriminately, their vocabulary is too little or no knowledge, not knowing how to read a reading comprehension, not remembering the information in the text, not understanding the basic grammatical structure, most students not know how to ask a paragraph and answer a question To overcome this situation, teachers must first make sure that students have a proper awareness of the importance of learning a foreign language in general and specifically learning English in particular, especially making learning Favorite students, interested in learning a reading more effectively The lectures of teachers in the classroom must be suitable for all students, must have appropriate methods, which stimulate learning for students From that fact, I chose the topic " Some measures to improve reading comprehension skills for students in teaching English 11 in the direction of the national high school exam " as a research issue in my experience initiative II The purpose of the teaching experience Help the students of two grades 11A2, 11A7 at Hau Loc 4th High School overcome the psychological barriers when reading a document, paragraph or text in English effectively III The research subjects The students of two grades 11A2, 11A7 at Hau Loc 4th High School IV The research methods Read analysis teaching materials I have read the analysis and understanding of teaching materials Intuitive method: + Experimental Teaching: Teaching method, tips inspire, combining observations, test, learn excitement, mood ENGLISH + The hours of lessons learned: B CONTENTS I The reality Although English has become a formal subject in school, its promotion of interests has not been paid much attention and has not attracted students' passion for learning, which is shown more clearly during English reading classes Students are always looking for ways to avoid having to read long essays with thick new words On the other hand, students only care about the meaning of words without going into depth about the content of the reading, especially the stressing of the text, which results in them being unable to fully answer questions about readings The quality of teaching therefore decreases, does not meet the requirements that we have set In this case, the teacher needs to teach students analytical reading skills to get information, from which they can apply as quick exercises In addition, the role of the teacher cannot help but mention the improved teaching quality, innovative teaching methods suitable to each lesson and each student In the old textbook curriculum, reading skills are practiced simultaneously with Listening- Speaking and Writing skills New words in each reading are often few or familiar topics that students know, teachers just need to ask questions and ask students to answer coercively, awkwardly and thus the quality of their learning will never be tall After the English program is re-compiled, the reading skills are trained individually, the higher the teaching method innovation, the more must follow Many new topics are mentioned, the number of vocabulary is also increasing Students feel overwhelmed, the old method is no longer suitable Therefore, teachers play a leading role in this Teach how to both meet practical requirements, while improving the quality of their learning The cause of the reality - Students: Subjective reasons: Lazy students, afraid to learn, cognitive, shyness, lack of confidence, inferiority, monks have good learning methods Objective reasons: due to the teacher's teaching methods, teachers were reprimanded by teachers are not interested in all the subjects the student, family, psychological ages - Teachers: Subjective reasons: + Aversion innovation, especially with some of the older teachers + Misconceptions about the new approach, including the application of language games + Talents limited + Apply new methods stereotyping and machinery + Bumper creativity, lack of flexibility II Objections of knowledge and skills Objectives of knowledge After the lesson, students need: - Improve vocabulary - Basic understanding of techniques for finding answers to the types of questions given in reading comprehension exercises - Basically know how to reading comprehension exercises Skill goals - Practice reading skills such as "scanning" and "skimming" - Practice the techniques of finding answers to the types of reading comprehension questions from easy to difficult and suitable for each student (students graduating and university students) III Basic knowledge Definition of reading comprehension According to wikipedia, reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text or an information Understanding comes from a combination of the language written in the text and how they activate knowledge outside the text According to the authors Mc Donough and Shaw (8: 102) extract Williams' concept that reading comprehension is the process of searching general information from a text, searching for specific information from a text, or reading to Seek fun Nunan (10:68) argues that reading comprehension is the process by which readers combine information from a text with their background knowledge to understand a problem There are many different definitions of "reading comprehension" but it can be generalized that reading comprehension is the process of finding information given in the text and applying its background knowledge to understand a problem threads Basic reading skills One of the factors that make the success of the University English Exam is a reasonable division of time Within 60 minutes of 50 multiple choice questions, especially more difficult for reading comprehension papers with each length of 200- 350 words, if the students not have any effective method of doing it, they must confirm that the I will be short of time It is possible that time out of work for which many students have not finished reading To solve this problem students first need to grasp some basic skills when doing comprehension exercises Here are two skills that are essential for students to this exercise Skimming: use your eyes to skim through the entire lesson to get the main idea and the overall content of the lesson We use this skill when we want to identify important information, the main keyword After skimming you will determine if you need to read this paragraph later Skimming steps: - Read the topic of the lesson - this is the most concise summary - Read the introduction or overview - Read the first paragraph of the lesson - Read the subtitles if available and find the relationship between them - Read the first sentence of the remaining paragraphs because the main idea of each paragraph is usually in the first sentence Scanning: using a quick scan to find an exact word or idea in a lesson This skill is used when they know for sure what information they are looking for For students, this skill should be used when reading the question requirements Scanning steps: - Read the title of the post - Look from the top of the page to the bottom of the page to find out the specific words or phrases you need - Pay special attention to definitions, formulas, diagrams, charts, etc Basic types of questions in reading comprehension exercises Question 1: Find the main idea of the reading (main idea) Question 2: Determining the purpose of the lesson (Purpose) Question 3: Identify how to organize an idea or overall layout or attitude (general organization or attitude) Question 4: Inference, find implications (Inference) Question 5: Determining the information mentioned in the lesson (Stated detail) Question 6: Determining information not mentioned in the lesson (Unstated details) Question 7: Finding synonyms (Vocabulary) Question 8: Search for words or phrases that are mentioned or referenced (Reference) Specific steps in reading comprehension Of these questions, questions 1, and are general questions that should be done later, the remaining questions are specific information questions, so they can be considered in advance depending on the difficulty level of every sentence These questions are broken down into the following types FORM 1: MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS (questions 1, and 3) Questions and 2: Find the main idea of the reading (main idea) and determine the purpose of the lesson (purpose) Most readings contain at least one question of this type, which can be asked in various forms but will generally require students to identify "topic" "tiltle" "subject" "primary idea" "Or" main idea " With basic exercises, the main content of a paragraph is usually in the topic sentence or the first sentence in each paragraph (sometimes the last sentence), so students just need to skim the first sentence or the last sentence to find out the main content For advanced exercises, the main content of the lesson will not be in any specific sentence but the general idea of the whole lesson, so students need to leave these types of questions to last, after spend time reading to find out the details of other questions students will understand the main content of the whole lesson QUESTIONS KEYS Main ideas questions What is the topic of the passage? What is the subject of the passage? What is the main idea of the passage? What is the author’s main point in the passage? With what is the author primary concerned? Which of the following would be the best title? What is the author’s main purpose in the passage? Usually at the beginning or the end of each paragraph If the main idea is not specific at the beginning or the end of the paragraph, we will leave it as the final time after the time to answer detailed questions - Read the first line of each paragraph - Find the most general ideas in the first line and find the relationship between them - During the reading process pay attention to the HOW TO ANSWER keywords that are repeated - Often this last question after answering detailed questions in advance to save time - Browse through the entire article quickly to check that you have found the correct content - Types of options that are definitely wrong, usually main idea (too general), (too specific) or (not mentioned) - Choose the best option from the remaining options Question 3: Identify how to organize an idea or overall layout or attitude (general organization or attitude) This type of question often forces students to determine the layout of the passage or the author's attitude in the passage As for the question layout, students should pay attention to the words that connect between paragraphs For questions about the author's attitude, students should pay attention to the adjectives or judgments based on the main content after skimming through the whole article Students need to use the exclusion method for completely false alternatives Organization question Time order Cause and effect Definition – example Comparison and contrast Problem – solution signals Firstly, secondly, finally, next, then… Because, since, as, lead to, due to, as a result, consequently Define, mean, indicate, show On the one hand, on the other hand More, less, least, most Cause, result in, deal with, solution, Example: Since the world became industrialized, the number of animal species that have either become extinct or have neared extinction has increased Bengal tigers, for instance, which once roamed the jungles in vast numbers, now number only about 2,300 By the year 2025, it is estimated that they will become extinct What is alarming about the case of the Bengal tiger is that this extinction will have been caused almost entirely by poachers who, according to some sources, are not always interested in material gain but in personal gratification This is an example of the callousness that is contributing to the problem of extinction Animals such as the Bengal tiger, as well as other endangered species, are valuable parts of the world’s ecosystem International laws protecting these animals must be enacted to ensure their survival – and the survival of our planet Countries around the world have begun to deal with the problem in various ways Some countries, in an effort to circumvent the problem, have allocated large amounts of land to animals reserves.They then charge admission prices to help defray the costs of maintaining the parks, and they often must also depend on world organizations for support This money enables them to invest in equipment and patrols to protect the animals Another response to the increase in animal extinction is an international boycott of products made from endangered species This has had some effect, but by itself it will not prevent animals from being hunted and killed The teacher explain students how to answer Question 1: What is the main topic of the passage? A The Bengal tiger B International boycotts C Endangered species D Problems with industrialization For this question, the answer is usually in the first or last paragraph In this reading the answer is at the beginning and Key words “ the number of animal species” and “extinct or have neared extinction” So the answer would be C Question 2: The previous passage is divided into two paragraphs in order to contrast: A a comparison and a contrast B a problem and a solution C Specific and general information D A statement and an illustration As we can see, two paragraphs develop in two different directions Para 1: “alarming about the case of the Bengal tiger is that this extinction will have been caused almost entirely by poachers” warns of Belgan tiger being extinct due to hunting Para 2: “Countries around the world have begun to deal with the problem in various ways” Countries are fixing the problem in different ways The hallmark here is "deal with the problem" So the answer would be B because these two paragraphs talk about the extinction problem of rare species that are caused by hunting and countries that are giving solutions to it Question 3: Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude? A indifferent B surprised C concerned D forgive - With this type of question we should after skimming the whole article to understand the main content of the article how we will find out the attitude of the author shown in the lesson - In this exercise, the author raised the problem and solution of the countries for the rare animals so we will certainly eliminate the plan A (indifferent: indifferent) It seems that options B and D are not mentioned So the correct answer will be C: concerned because the author has raised a warning about the extinction of rare animals and what is the way to fix this problem - Usually for this type of exercise they often have difficulty because they encounter many new words in this question And words that show attitudes are often adjectives, so after each reading comprehension, the teacher should pick up some common words in this form to help them notice and add new words FORM 2: IMPLIED DETAIL QUESTIONS (question 4) Question 4: Inference, find implications (Inference) This type of question often requires students to draw conclusions or make inferences about the details outlined in the paragraph This type of question usually includes the words “implied, implied, inferred, or probably (maybe) are the signs for you to recognize these types of questions With this question, the answer is not directly given in the lesson but students need to rely on the information available in the lesson to infer and draw conclusions Implied detail questions QUESTIONS It is implied in the passage that … It can be inferred from the passage that It is most likely that… What probably happened….? KEYS The answer to this question is usually based on your understanding of the text, but students can search in the order of the text HOW TO ANSWER - Find key words, key words of each question - Skimming (skimming) skimming to see key words, where the key points are in the paragraph (usually in the order in the lesson) - Read carefully the sentences containing key words and ideas - Find the appropriate answer according to the paragraph - Use the method of eliminating the wrong type of plan, then select the best option from the other options Example The passage The number of rings in a tree can be used to determine how old a tree really is Each year a tree produces a ring that is composed of one lightcolored wide band and one dark-colored narrow band The wider band is produced during the spring and early summer when tree stem cells grow rapidly and become larger The narrower band is produced in fall and early winter when cell growth is much slower and cells not get very large No cells are produced during the harsh winter and summer months Students work in groups and answer the questions The question It is implied in the passage that if a tree has 100 wide bands and 100 narrow bands, then it is A a century old B two centuries old C fifty years old D two hundred years old The correct answer to the above question is A 10 To this, students need to underline the key words in the question The answer is all about age so this question will ask about the age of "tree has 100 wide bands and 100 narrow bands" Although the article does not mention the age of the tree, there are indications that the song "each year" produces "one wide band" "one narrow band" From this, students can infer what a tree is So "a century old" is the correct answer FORM 3: STATED DETAIL QUESTIONS Question 5: Determining the information mentioned in the lesson (stated detail) The question identifying information presented in the lesson usually asks for a small detail in the reading The answer to this question is the information provided in the article Usually the correct answer is just a "restatement" that reiterates the information in the article in a different way Stated detail questions QUESTIONS According to the passage,… It is stated in the passage… The passage indicates that… Which of the following is true… KEYS In the passage HOW TO ANSWER - Underline key words, important ideas in the question - Use scanning to find the right paragraph to read carefully for information - Read carefully the sentences containing keywords and ideas in the question carefully - Type the answers that are definitely wrong and choose the best answer from the rest of the options Example: The passage ASIAN GAMES The Asian Games, also called the Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia The games are regulated by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medals are awarded in each event, with gold for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition which started in 1951 The Asian Games are dominated by the People's Republic of China 11 Competitors are entered by a National Olympic Committee (NOC) to represent their country of citizenship National anthems and flags accompany the medal ceremonies, and tables showing the number of medals won by each country are widely used In general only recognized nations are represented, but a few nonsovereign countries are allowed to take part The special case of Taiwan was handled by having it compete as Chinese Taipei, due to the political status of Taiwan The 15th Asian Games were held in Doha, Qatar from December to December 15, 2006 The 16th Asian Games will be held in Guangzhou, China in 2010 Students work in groups, discuss and answer the questions The question Which of the following is true? A The Asian Games are held every year B The International Olympic Committee is the founder of the Asiad C The first gold medals were given to, the winning athletes in 1951 D The Olympic Council of Asia organizes the Games FORM 4: UNSTATED DETAIL QUESTION (question 6) Question 6: Determining information not mentioned in the lesson (unstated details) One of the most frequently asked questions in the text is to find answers that are not mentioned in the paragraph This type of question often appears with the words "not mentioned" "not stated" "all following options are true Except" or "not true" This type of question will have options containing the information mentioned in the article and option not mentioned in the article Unstated detail questions QUESTIONS Which of the following is not stated ? Which of the following is not mentioned ? Which of the following is not discussed…? All of the following are true except Which of the following are false…? KEYS The answer will be information that does not appear in the article or the wrong answer compared to the article 12 HOW TO ANSWER - Read questions and options carefully, underline key words - Quick scan to highlight information suitable for key words - Read carefully the sentences containing the ideas in the selection - Eliminate the mentioned or correct choices compared to the text - Choose the option that is not mentioned or incorrect with the text Example The passage In the first games just two teams of injured soldiers took part The next year, 1949, five teams took part From those beginnings, things have developed fast Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year In 1960 the first Olympics for the disabled were held in Rome, in the same place as the normal Olympic Games Now every four I years the Olympic Games for the disabled are held, if possible, in the same place as the normal Olympic Games, although they are organized separately In other years Games for the Disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville In 1984 wheelchair Olympic Games, 1064 wheelchair athletes from about 40 countries took part Unfortunately, they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles, along with the other Olympics The question Which of the following is not mentioned as the place where the Olympic Games for the disabled were held? A England B Rome C Stoke Mandeville D Los Angeles The answer is C Students should underline key words in the given options and then skim through the passage The information is” they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles” FORM 5: VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT QUESTION (question 7) Question 7: Finding synonyms, antonyms (vocabulary) This is a form of difficult questions that require students to guess the meaning of a difficult word that appears in a paragraph based on context However, there are still some signs in the lesson for students to speculate Vocabulary in context question QUESTION What is the meaning of “X” in line “Y”? The word “ X” in line “Y” could be replaced by … 13 KEYS Which of the following word has the closest meaning with the word “ X” in line “Y”? Which of the following has the opposite meaning with the word “X” in line “Y”? Based on the information surrounding the given word to guess the meaning of the word HOW TO ANSWER - Find the word in the text - Read the sentence containing that word carefully - Find clues in the context to help understand the meaning of words - Choose the answer that the context represents Example1: The passage ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………They make many sacrifices so that their children will have more opportunities They think their children will remain close to them because of this Some children understand and appreciate these sacrifices and remain close to their parents However, other children feel ashamed that their parents are so different from other Americans The question: The word close in line is closest in meaning to A dear B friendly C helpful D kind In this question, students will have to look for what phrase is equal to "close" Students can read the sentence carefully and the surrounding sentence to guess the meaning of the word in the context The answer is A FORM 6: REFERENCE QUESTIONS (verse 8) Question 8: Find the word or phrase mentioned or referred to in the paragraph This is an easy question to help students get points Frequently asked questions use the pronouns "he, she, they " or "them, it, him " , the possessive adjective "their, its " pronoun pronouns "this, that, these, those, " to use as a referenced word For this type of question, students should it first In this question, the word "refer" often appears and students just need to carefully read the question that 14 contains the referenced word and the sentences before it Usually the answer is usually in the previous sentence or the sentence containing the referenced word QUESTIONS KEYS HOW TO ANSWER Reference questions The word “ X” in the passage refers to… Often phrases in sentences before or in the sentence itself referenced - Read the questions and options given - Browse through the text quickly to find the word referenced in the question - Read the sentence containing the referenced word and the previous sentence carefully and look for the phrases listed in the answer selection section - Eliminate the certainly wrong options, choose the best option from the rest Example: The passage Portobello Market is divided into different sections selling second-hand items, clothing, jewellery, souvenirs and vegetables The most sought-after area is devoted to antiques Visitors may feel overwhelmed as there are over 1,000 booths manned by antique dealers from throughout England It's a great fun to browse through antique cameras, watches, pottery and paintings that date back 300 years They are sold at different prices, so it's possible to find a few good bargains It seems that both buyers and sellers look forward to the weekends when they can meet and escape the city's fast pace at Portobello Market Question The word ''they'' in paragraph refers to A.prices B.bargains C buyers and sellers D weekends Key is C Reference to the paragraph : They are sold at different prices, so it's possible to find a few good bargains It seems that both buyers and sellers look forward to the weekends when they can meet and escape the city's fast pace at Portobello Market IV EXPERIMENTAL COMMUNICATION Experimental purposes and tasks 1.1 Purpose Test of the use of measures to improve reading skills for students in teaching English 11 in class hours Assessing students' ability to understand and remember knowledge after lessons, thereby proving the hypothesis that applying measures to train reading skills is one of the optimal ways to renovate teaching and learning 15 styles , promote the ability of each student to communicate so that they feel confident, love English more 1.2 Mission: To achieve this goal, the empirical process must address the following tasks: - Conduct experimental teaching using methods of training reading skills for students in the classroom with some basic forms to determine the results of the classroom method - Assessing practical results, making scientific conclusions confirming the use of measures to train reading skills for students in class is one of the effective methods to train students' reading ability Experimental use method The experiment was conducted with two classes: control class and experimental class In empirical teaching classes, the teaching is conducted according to the lesson plans in accordance with the hypothesis, while in the control classes the teaching is conducted as usual, nothing is changed Students in experimental classes must be selected so that they have the same level and cognitive ability as students in control classes In addition, the uniformity of discipline, learning in experimental and control classes is a noticeable condition, but this is not a basic condition Experimental organization Based on the above requirements and principles, I have conducted experiments with the following steps: 4.1 Experimental time The lessons are conducted experimentally during my time at Hau Loc 4th High School from September 2019 to June 2020 4.2 Experimental object: The classes selected for experiment are 11A7, 11A2 About the number of students, class 11A7: 41 students; grade 11A2: 42 students These are all classes of block D, students' grades are similar Their learning conditions as well as their family situation are not much different 4.3 Conducting experiments - The purpose of this stage is to collect the necessary information related to practical teaching hours to conduct analysis, processing and evaluation of the results of experimental teaching Steps to take: Teaching experiment. Exchanging and talking with students about their attitudes (reactions) when teachers use measures to practice speaking skills during teaching time. Check the quality of the teaching hours by having students practice speaking after every two experiments. Evaluate and contrast the results between the experimental and control classes Use a 10-point scale to evaluate the knowledge test results by level: (as a percentage) 16 Specifically: o Score - 10: good o Score - 8: fair o Score - 6: medium grade o Score