Some strategies used to teach reading skill to 10th grade students at ham romg high school

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale It is undeniable that English is an international language, which plays an important part in social life It links people all over the world in many fields: science, technology, business, communication, education, and so on It also helps people to approach the endless knowledge of human beings Therefore, teaching and learning English have become the necessity in every country In Vietnam, English is one of the foreign languages, which is compulsory from primary to university In secondary school, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing are four main skills which students have to learn when they learn English Reading seems one of the most difficult skills Many students make mistakes and find it difficult with reading texts, reading tasks and reading exercises, so how to read effectively is a big question Being a teacher of English, I find it necessary, meaningful, and practical to a research named “Some strategies used to teach Reading Skill to grade 10 students at Ham Rong High school” I hope that this research can give benefits to teachers, students and people concerned about this field 1.2 Hypothesis The grade 10 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school may use a variety of strategies to reading comprehension and reading tasks more actively and exactly 1.3 Research questions In the study, some following questions will be answered: What is the present English teaching and learning situation of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school? What are strategies that students often use when they learn reading? 1.4 Objectives of the study This study is aimed to identify present English teaching and learning situation of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school And then, some of their reading strategies and vocabulary strategies are given In addition, some suggestions which could be useful for students’ and teachers’ reading comprehension at this school will also be given 1.5 Methods of the study The major method is used in this study is quantitative one That is all considerations, comments, remarks, assumptions, suggestions and conclusions given in the study are largely based on the data analysis Data collections for analysis in the study come from the following methods: Theoretical study; Questionnaire for students; Teacher interview; Class observation 1.6 Scope of the study There are many kinds of reading; hence, there are many different kinds of strategies but for the limitation of time, conditions, and materials, this study only focuses on reading comprehension strategies of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school, not every kind of reading strategies and on a large population In addition, this research is also carried out on some teachers of English in that school which can help to find out English reading strategies used by the grade 10 students in that school more easily and exactly 1.7 Overview of the study The study includes three main following parts Part (Introduction) includes Rationale, Hypothesis, Research questions, Objectives of the study, Methods of the study, Scope of the study and Overview of the study Part (Development) is composed of three main sections Section is Literature review which will discuss theoretical background related to the purposes of the study Section will present Data collection and analysis Section is Major findings and suggestions of the study Part is the Conclusion and the weakness of the study as well as some suggestions for further study 2: DEVELOPMENT 2.1: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1.1 Introduction In this chapter, some general theories related to reading strategies and vocabulary strategies such as theoretical background of learning strategies, reading, reading strategies and vocabulary strategies will be given 2.2.2 Theoretical background of learning strategies Successful second language learners are usually people who know how to manipulate strategy levels in their day to day encounters with the language Although research on learning strategies is increasingly popular, there is no agreement regarding the definition of learning strategies Up to now, there have been many different definitions of learning strategies First, Weinstein and Mayer (1986) (in O’Malley and Chamot, 1990) defined learning strategies facilitation “as a goal and are intentional on the part of the learner The goal of strategy use is to “affect the learners’ motivational or affective state, on the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new knowledge” According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990), “learning strategies are special ways of passing information that enhance comprehension, learning or retention of the information” or in their other words, learning strategies are “the special thoughts of behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information” Wenden, A and Rubin, J (1987) claimed that learning strategies were composed of the following components: - They are specific actions or technique - They can be observable/behavioral or non- observable/mental - They are problem-oriented - They can contribute directly or indirectly to learning - They may be consciously employed and became automatized - They are changeable Obviously, there is not yet a comprehensive definition of learning strategies Each researcher defines learning strategies from a different perspective: cognitive, meta cognitive, communication, social-affective This shows the complexity of defining learning strategies Probably, because of its complexity, researchers worked out taxonomy of learning strategies instead of defining them 2.2.3 Theoretical background of reading 2.2.3.1 Definition of reading and reading comprehension Language is a process of communication between someone who has something to express and someone who receives the message Speakers and writers attempt to communicate idea while listeners and readers try to get the appropriate meanings, while receptive cannot be called passive because the listener or the reader must create his own meaning by using his past experience and ideas he has gained before to understand a message What happens in the communication process is the writer or the speaker (the encoder has message in his mind, which he wants somebody else to share It may be an idea, a fact, a feeling, an agreement…To make this possible, he must put it into words: he must encodes it Then, it is available outside his mind as a text The text is accessible to the mind of another person who hears it or reads it: who decodes the message it contains When it is decoded, the message enters the mind of the decoder and communication is achieved Therefore, reading plays the role as a half of the communication process It is said that reading is a process through which the reader draws out the full amount of information and understands what the writer wants to say through the message William, E (1990) (qtd in Grellet, F, 1990).stated that reading “is a process whereby one looks at and understand what has been written” “Reading and reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible While reading, readers not only bring their knowledge about the language but also the knowledge about the text, which is considered to be specifically important Readers build up expectations, make predictions about what is to come and the extent to which their predictions are accurate is one of the factors that influence their reading This process, therefore, has three elements involved: the text that is read, the background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspect relevant to interpret the text 2.2.3.2 Classification of reading 3.2.1 Reading aloud The word “reading aloud” has a number of common interpretations It may mean reading aloud a very complex skill, which involves understanding the black marks first and then the production of the right noise Very few people are required to read aloud as a material of daily routine except for radio newscasters, clergymen, perhaps actors and that is all To the huge majority, the importance of reading aloud is minimal 3.2.2 Silent reading Reading may also mean silent reading and this is the interpretation, which is most likely for the term This is, perhaps, the nearest approach to the essence of reading It is obviously that by far the greatest amount of reading that is done in the world is silent unless there are special circumstances (such as reading to someone who has lost the spectacles) and a reading room is always a silent room However, the nature of silent reading skill is far from uniform It varies according to the use to which it is being put They might be the survey materials, to gain superficial comprehension, to study the content of what is read in some detail or to study the language in which the material is written 3.2.3 Classification according to the purpose of reading People, generally, not read unless they have a reason (or a purpose) for reading They read an article, a passage, an advertisement and a story because they think they are interested in the issues mentioned in these things or at least these texts interest them That is, people always have a need of some kind that can be satisfied through reading Furthermore, in the case of the effective reader, his reason for reading also determines his type of reading and the relevant reading skills to be used because the purpose could be a very general one like reading a novel for pleasure or escape Therefore, it could be specific like looking up a telephone directory for somebody’s number or address and he or she can not be in the same way It is now recognized that one text may be read on a variety of styles and that reader will have different purposes at each stage of the reading process and will apply the appropriate strategies (Hedge T, 2000) 3.2.4 Extensive reading Extensive reading means the readers have a general understanding of the text without necessarily understanding every word The object of this kind of reading is to cover the greatest possible amount of text in the shortest possible time With this, the readers can choose the reading materials Only after a glance at the reading passage, they know whether they should go onto it or not Depending on the purpose of reading, people may be skimming or scanning as they are reading extensively 3.2.5 Skimming Sometimes, the readers need to get the general idea or gist of a text The way to this is not by reading every word Skimming is the sort of reading which would be appropriate if the readers’ tutor asked them to read several books or articles When the readers are skimming, they go through the passage quickly, jumping over parts of it in order to get the general idea of what is about People skim to get the gist of the text but not to find the answer to particular questions According to Wood, J (1990) in “Teaching English as an International language”, skimming occurs in the following: - When the readers look at the content of the book, or at the chapter headings, sub headlines This is sometimes called previewing Another example is when the reader glances quickly through a newspaper to see what are main items of the day This will often mean just glancing at the headlines - When the reader goes through a particular passage such as newspaper article merely to get the “gist” 3.2.6 Scanning It is said that the readers skim material to get the general picture To find out precise information they will need the practice the technique of scanning The term “scanning” is often used for reading to find specific answers They use the result of the skimming to find relevant sections, and then look quickly through those sections looking for key words that are relevant to the question It will help the readers read and find information and quotes faster Techniques when scanning that you should know what you are looking for and looking for it as rapidly as you can Do not worry about all the “good information” you are passing over and discarding on the way One practical technique to follow in scanning is to fix your question in mind and then run your eyes as fast as possible down the pages or columns of the print until you find the answer The key to this technique is keeping the question fixed in your mind Make use of heading, indentations and italicized words These will often give you clues about where the information you are seeking is located 3.2.7 Intensive reading “Intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information, this is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” (Grellet, F, 1990) In contrast to extensive reading, intensive reading is to understand a text in detail To this kind of reading, readers are required a very deep understanding of the black marks on the paper with short texts As reading intensively, people have in their mind the purpose of achieving full understanding of the logical argument, the rhetorical arrangement or patterns of the text, its symbolic, emotional and social over stones, of the attitudes and purposes of the author and the linguistic means that they employ to achieve their ends Through intensive reading, the readers must arrive at a profound and really detailed understanding, not only what it means but also of how the meaning is produced The question “how” here is as important as the question “what” The main conclusion to be drawn from all of these is that there are different styles of reading and that they are determined, not by the text but by the readers’ reasons for reading However, to understand a text, these types of reading are not used isolated The effective reader is the one who is able to adapt his style to his purposes and does not read everything slowly and intensively, which is also the necessarily achieved goal of any teaching reading program 2.2.4 Theoretical background of reading strategies 4.1 Definition of reading strategies There are many different definitions of reading strategies it is stated reading strategy as methods used in reading to determine the meaning of a text On this website also gave other definition of reading strategy as the varied processes a reader uses to make meaning from written language It can be seen that, reading strategy is the ways that help readers read better 4.2 Types of reading strategies For most second language, learners who are already literate in a previous language, reading comprehension is primary a matter of developing appropriate, efficient comprehension According to Brown, H D (1994), there are ten strategies for reading comprehension Identify the purpose in reading Use grapheme rules and patterns to aids in bottom-up decoding (especially for beginning level learners) Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension (for intermediate to advanced levels) Skim the text for main ideas Scan the text for specific information Use semantic mapping or clustering Guess when you are not certain Analyze vocabulary Distinguish between literal and implied meanings 10 Capitalize on discourse markers to process relationships As above, Brown, H D (1994) stated that there are ten useful strategies for readers, but he also gave other strategies which many bring benefit for them Therefore, he showed the SQ3R strategies as following: SURVEY: skim the text for an overview of main ideas QUESTION: the readers ask questions about what he or she wishes to get out of the text READ: read the text while looking for answers to the previously formulated questions RECITE: reprocess the salient points of the text through oral or written language REVIEW: assess the importance of what one has just read and incorporate it into long-term association First, it is SURVEYING It means readers have to look at pictures, photos, maps, bold prints, captions, and headings to help them for an idea of the topic and purpose of the written texts QUESTIONING is the second technique The readers pretend they are interviewing the author of the written text Based up on what they surveyed, what questions they want to ask the author, they write their questions neat to the pictures, photos, maps, bold prints, captions, and headings The third technique is READING They have to read the text, use a pencil or pen to mark the text, and underline words or ideas that they think are important One more strategy is RESPONDING As the readers reads, they try to find the answers to the questions they asked Remembering that as they read, they can ask more questions, be sure to write the answers in the margin REVIEWING is the fourth strategy When the readers finish reading, review the written text and answer some following questions: Can you answer the questions that you asked? Do you understand everything about the written text? The last technique is REFLECTING The readers close the text, think about what they have read, discuss the main points with someone and answer these questions: Do you agree or disagree with the author(s)? What surprised you about the written text? What you find to be confusing? What did you learn? 2.2.4.2 Types of vocabulary strategies Pyles, T and Alges, J (1970) stated “when most of us think about language we think first about words It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language It is words that sounds and meanings interlink to allow us to communicate with one another, and it is word that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” It indicates that vocabulary is essential for learning a language According to Schimitt, N (1997), there are five following vocabulary strategies: 4.3.1 Determination strategies: are used when reader are faced with discovering a new word’s meaning without resource to other person’s expertise They can have the meaning of new words from many techniques: guessing from their structural knowledge of the language, guessing from cognate, guessing from context, using reference material, and word lists and flash cards 4.3.2 Social strategies : are used for both discover the words meaning and consolidate a word once it has been encountered They can be defined as those are used to understand to word by asking some one who knows it 4.3.3.Memory strategies: are approaches which related new material to existing knowledge using some form of imagery or grouping The strategies can be listed as followed: picture/ imagery, related words, unrelated words, grouping, word’s orthographical, words’ affixes, roots and word class 4.3.4.Cognitive strategies: this group includes repetition and mechanical means of learning vocabulary such as: verbal and written repetition, word lists and flash cards, study aid using and vocabulary notebook 4.3.5 Meta - cognitive strategies: the readers use them to control and evaluate their own learning by having a conscious overview of the leafing process The readers can employ such strategy as: using Englishlanguage media, skipping or passing new words, continuing to study over time and testing themselves with word test and using spaced word practice can be considered as organized activities by the readers themselves 2.2.5 Summary Section has presented the relevant literature, which has helped to for the theoretical framework for the study Different aspects related to learning strategies, reading and reading strategies as well as vocabulary and vocabulary strategies have been discussed Through what has been mention in this chapter, it is important to reconfirm that when reading comprehension, reading strategies and vocabulary strategies are necessary for any reader to acquire the language The next section will be a closer look into the present context of teaching and learning English reading for the grade 10 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school, with a view to working out strategies students use when reading comprehension 2.2: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 2.2.1 Introduction This chapter includes three parts The first one concentrates on the setting of the study, in which participants and learning program will be given The second part will present the data collection and the last part is analysis on the data collected from questionnaire, interview and class observation 2.2.2 The setting of the study 2.1 Participants A survey about reading strategies was conducted at Ham Rong upper secondary school As a result, the participants of the study are the teachers and students who are teaching and learning English at this school The teachers have spent from 10 to 15 years teaching English Besides, 10 form students in this school are also very important participants They have learnt English for years 2.2.2.2 Textbook “Tieng Anh 10” which was the new textbook published in 2006 by the Ministry of Education and Training Publisher Press consists of 16 units for two terms The topics are very various Each unit has a reading lesson It may contain one, two or three tasks which students have to finish within a reading lesson 2.2.2.3.Data collection 2.3.1 Questionnaire for students To some extent, using survey questionnaire brings many benefits It helps the researcher collect and analysis data quite easily Therefore, a questionnaire was delivered students to find out what strategies students use when they reading and how effective those strategies are The questionnaire used for students consists of 14 questions belonging to three parts and was delivered randomly for 100 students at Ham Rong upper secondary school at the end of an extracurricular activity At first, the students’ general idea about reading texts and reading tasks will be found out in part Part will reveal their reading strategies and the students’ vocabulary strategies will be discovered in the last part 2.3.2 Class observation The author of the study randomly selected three classes (10A8, 10A9, 10A10) of Ham Rong upper secondary to observe All activities, which the students and teachers were performing in real reading lesson, were watched and recorded These enable the researcher to get reliable data The classroom observations were carried out in three stages: pre-reading, while reading and post reading, and three times for three different units in these classes For each class, the researcher observed in a 45 minute lesson The reading lessons chosen to be observed were in Unit 11 - National Parks, Unit 12 - Music and Unit 13 - Film and Cinema All of them were considered as long texts and consisted of more new words than the previous lessons The author would like to observe how students faced to the exercises after reading texts 2.3.3 Teachers interview As mentioned above, there were two teachers of English who have taught 10 form were invited for a fifteen minutes interview Each of them was asked many questions related to the topics, the content of reading texts, the exercises, the English learning results of students, the ways their students using in reading comprehension, etc The purpose of the interview was to get information by talking directly to the subjects 2.2.3 Data analysis 2.2.3.1 Data analysis from questionnaire for students Students’ attitude toward reading texts and reading tasks Question 1: How you find the topics of the reading texts? 10% 0% 15% Very intersting Normal Very boring No comment 75% Chart 1: Students’ attitude towards the topics of the reading texts According to chart 1, it can be clearly seen that most of students thought that the topics of the reading texts were very interesting Many of them said that those topics helped them understand more about society and widened their knowledge (75 %) No one thought that they are boring Only 15 % of students considered them normal while other 10 out of the students had no comment on the reading texts Question 2: How you find reading tasks? 14% 0% 6% Very difficult No comment Easy 80% Chart 2: Students’ attitude towards the level of difficulty of reading tasks As can be seen from chart that, more than 80 % of students found the reading tasks were very difficult, especially, they could not well most of the Tasks after every reading text No one thought the tasks to be easy, there were 10% of the students considering they were normal while % of them had no comment Question 3: How you think about the number of new words in reading texts? 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 92 There are too many new words The number of new words is suitable There is only a few of new words There are no new words I not care about the number of new words in reading texts ABCDE Chart 3: Students’ attitude towards the number of new words in reading texts Among 100 students participated in this study, more than 90 % of them thought that there were too many new words in reading texts Whereas, students did not care much about the number of new words in reading texts, there were six students in number asked saying that they were suitable (6 %) No one found there were a few or no new words in the reading texts 3.2 Students’ reading strategies Question 4: What you before Reading? Choices Frequency A Observe pictures or headings to predict the content of the reading texts B Make questions yourself which you think they are related to the reading text C Find the purposes of readings texts 82 % 0% 0% D Discuss with friends E Read the requirements of the reading tasks 55 % 12 % Table 1: Students’ strategies before reading It can be clearly stated from Table that almost students (82 %) were interested in observing pictures or headings (if there are) to predict the content of the reading texts It was an easy way to guess the content of the texts The second rank was for discussing with friends (55 %) It helped them share ideas, thoughts, feeling and whatever they thought about the topic There were only 12 students (12 %) read the requirements of the reading tasks Surprisingly, no one made questions themselves or investigated the purposes of reading texts before reading Question 5: What kind of Reading you use in Reading the texts? 42% Reading aloud 58% Silent reading Chart 5: Students’ types of reading The data depicted in the Pie Chart above reveal students’ types of reading There are 58 % of students using reading aloud while 42 % of them use silent one It can be explained that they preferred practicing reading texts rather than focusing on the content of the texts Question 6: Do you often underline new words in the Reading texts? Choices Frequency A Underline words you think they are important in reading texts 32 % B Underline all new words in reading texts 53 % C Underline the signal words: however, but, therefore, ect 0% 10 D Write nothing on the texts 65 % Table 2: Students’ first discovering the reading texts There were 53 % of them underlined all new words in reading texts as they did not care about whether they has already learned those words or not, they marked every word not familiar to them Besides, the number of students who underlined words which they think important in the reading texts took into account for 32 % while many of them marked nothing on reading texts (65 %) Question 7: What you when answering questions? Choices Frequency A Find the sentences containing the words appearing in the question to answer B Find the paragraphs which have similar idea with the question to answer C Find sentences contain the words appeared in the question to answer D Answer question from what you understand about the text 19 % 33 % 60 % 4% Table 3: Students strategies when answering questions From table 3, it can be seen that the percentage of students who answered questions by finding the sentences containing the words appearing in the questions to answer was very high, it accounted for 60 % Four in one hundred students answered questions from what they understood about the text Other 19 % of the students found the sentences, which contained the words appearing in the questions and the last 33 % of them found the paragraphs, which had the similar idea with the question to give answers Question 8: What you when Reading the texts? Choices Frequency A Discuss with friends 22 % B Find interesting structures to take notes 0% C Write summary about the text 0% D Find other reading passages which have the same topic 0% E Do nothing 88 % According to table 4, one can see that 82 % of students asked teachers or friends whenever they met new words, while 38 % of them had other strategies when facing to new words They read from the beginning to the ending of the text without paying any attention to the new words Only 25% of them tried to guess the meaning of words, which they thought that those words were important in reading texts No one looked up dictionary because they had no dictionary Question 9: How you guess the new words? Choices Frequency A Base on their part of speed: noun, verb, adjective, ect 0% B Base on the affixes, such as prefixes and suffixes 0% C Base on the words or phrases next to them 91 % D Base on your own ideas 53 % Table 5: Students’ strategies when guessing the meaning of new words The information obtained from the Table indicates that 91 % of 11 participants guessed the meaning of new words in reading texts by basing on words or phrases next to them, and 53 students (53 %) based on their own opinions to guess that meaning No one based on the part of speed or affixes such as suffixes or prefixes to discover the meaning of new words Question 10: What you to learn new words in the reading texts at home? Choices A Read aloud words or phrases and compare them with the Vietnamese meaning B Engage them with the words have the same category C Engage them with synonyms and antonyms D Use pictures E Read and write new words many times F Do not learn new words of the text at home Frequency 34 % 0% 0% 5% 20 % 64 % Table 6: Students’ strategies to learn new words in the reading texts at home The aim of question 10 is to find out what strategies students use to learn new words in the reading texts at home It is surprised that more than 60 % of students did not learn new words at home while no one learnt new words by engaging them with the words have the same category or engaging them with synonyms and antonyms There were 34 % of them reading aloud words or phrases and comparing them with the Vietnamese meaning 20 % of them read and wrote new words many times Besides, there were only participants using pictures to learn new words Students’ vocabulary strategies There are three classes (10A8, 10A9, 10A10) at Ham Rong upper secondary school with two different teachers were observed Question 11: What you when you face new words? Choices Frequency A Stop and ask teacher or friends for helps 82 % B Try to guess the meaning of every word in the text 25 % C Read from beginning to the ending of the texts without paying 38 % any attention to the new words D Look up dictionary 0% Table 7: Students’ strategies when facing to new words The first observation was taken placed in class 10A8 with unit 11National Parks At pre-stage, teacher asked students to list as many as possible national parks they have known Students worked in groups to find out the answers There were some of them not really focusing on finding answers as they did not know the names of national parks After that, teacher introduced new words, students took note When teacher asked students to read the text, the class became noisier Teacher guided them to exercises and called on some students to go to the board to write their answers, unfortunately most of them gave incorrect ones There was no post reading The second observation was put in class 10A9 with unit 12- Music It seemed that this was a difficult lesson because there were many new words which readers cannot guess the meaning At pre-stage, it was not easy for students to match suitable kinds of music with their definitions because they 12 did not know what kind of music they listen to Teacher wrote new words on the board and students took note It seemed that students did what teacher asked them to without any interest Although teacher supplied all new words and translated all statements in task 1, students still could not finish them In task 2, they worked in groups to answer the questions but they misunderstood questions Teacher called on a student to present the roles of Music basing on their own opinion at post reading stage The last observation took place in class 10A10 with lesson 13-Film and Cinema At beginning of that period, teacher asked students some questions related to the topic of reading to guess the content of the text After introducing new words, teacher asked them to read the text to finish task It seemed that it was quite difficult for them They did exercises from first to last one At post stage, teacher listed some years and asked students to talk about the development of film basing on those years There were some similarities among three classes that when teacher asked them to work in groups, they did the tasks mechanically They worked in groups but they used their mother tongue The atmosphere in class was very noisy but they did not focus on lesson, they were interested in chatting together Data analysis from interview There were two teachers to be interviewed Both of them were asked the same questions but their answer had some similarities and differences When being asked about the results of English in 10 form at am Rong upper secondary school, both of them sang the same song that they were very low and bad Most of them got marks from 3.0 to 6.5 at the end of the first term Therefore, the teachers faced to many difficulties when working with them They said that their students’ knowledge of English was limited while the reading texts were too long with them, there were also too many new words hence they could not cover the idea of reading texts About reading tasks, they complained that there were many too difficult exercises for students to Especially, it was task of unit 2, 9, 11, 12 and 13 with the following requests: - The words/ phrases in the box below all appear in reading passage Use them to complete the sentences As a result, they always have had to adapt them correspond with their students Both of them considered that the topics of reading texts are very interesting and realistic with students Students can learn much from them When being asked about what they have done before reading, the first teacher said they she went directly into lesson by introducing new words Other said that, she always asked them to observe pictures or asked them some questions to lead to new lesson In addition, about students, they did what their teachers asked While reading, if students met new words, they always stopped to ask teacher immediately It seemed to be affected the readers’ speed when reading After reading, they sometimes asked them to summary the reading texts but they did nothing 13 SECTION 3: MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS Introduction This chapter consists of two parts The first part focuses on the major findings inferred from the data analysis in chapter From these findings, some suggestions will be given which can be useful for readers when reading anything Those suggestions are the second part of this chapter Major findings After analyzing the data collected from questionnaire and interview were done by teachers of English and students in the grade 10 at Ham Rong upper secondary school, some points can be realized that all of them were interested in the topics of every reading text There were many attractive topics such as A day in the life of…, School talk, Undersea world, Film and cinema, Music and etc The reading texts seem too long with those students There were many new words in reading texts, which prevented them understanding the reading texts and finishing reading tasks There were also some unsuitable exercises with students because their limited ability, hence they could not finish the reading exercises well 2.1 Students’ reading strategies Many students had their own strategies for reading comprehension but they were not effective The first thing could be pointed out that they did not use variety of strategies when reading Their strategies were limited in number Before reading, many of them were interested in looking at pictures and headings (if there are) or discussing with friends rather than making questions themselves, or finding the purposes of readings texts as well as seeing the requests of the reading tasks Also there were many people doing nothing at this stage As a result, they did not understand clearly about the text When reading texts, many of them read aloud, so it affected their reading speed At that time, the atmosphere in class became noisy, so the students could not concentrate on their reading and finishing reading tasks When first discovering the text, many of them underlined all new words However, for them, most of words in the texts were new words Because there were too many marks in reading texts, the readers will lose the attention on the texts There also had many people marked nothing on the texts, therefore, they did not know what information is more important and what is less important one to pay attention When answering questions, they did not know what they have to fill with those questions As a result, they usually found the sentences containing the words appearing in the questions to answer; hence, many of their answers were incorrect at all However, when did reading exercises if they find what is easier they will first, and what is more difficult they will later, it will help them save time when reading Most of students did nothing after reading Therefore, they were easy to forget what they have learnt There were only some of them discussing with friends, but they used their own language In short, most of students’ reading strategies were teachers’; thus students were always passive when they read the texts and finished the reading 14 exercises 2.2 Students’ vocabulary strategies Vocabulary is an important part when reading When facing new words, they stopped immediately and asked teacher or friends for help It affected their reading speed Looking up dictionary was a good way to discover the meaning of new words, but no one used this way because they had no dictionary When guessing the meaning of new words, the students based on words or phrases in the text to them It will help them have a general idea about those words Consolidating new words at class and learning new words at home were also good ways to get more words about the topic However, many of students did nothing at these stages Therefore, their vocabulary was so limited All in all, it can be seen that students used discussing strategies at any stages in a reading lesson Suggestions Through data analysis and major findings, some suggestions will be given to improve situation 3.1 Suggestions for reading strategies An English reading lesson includes three stages; hence, the suggestions will be given, basing on these stages: 3.1.1.Pre-reading During pre-reading, the readers can be encouraged to a number of things: Talking about the pictures accompanying the text and trying to figure out the title and subtitle to predicting the content of the reading text is the first suggestion given for pre-reading For example, in unit 5, the readers can see many things in the picture: CPU, CD ROMs, key board, VDU, mouse, printer, ect and the title “TECHNOLOGY AND YOU” They will remind the readers think something related to computer, technology in social life and help them easy to connect with the content of the text Establishing a reason for reading should be encouraged It means that the readers set the purpose for their reading It will determines reading speed and help them know what is important When they have a purpose, they tend to remember more of the text One strategy that can be carried out at pre-reading stage is expressing attitude about the topic, reviewing experiences in relation with the topic The purpose of this strategy is that the readers can compare their attitude with the author’s about the topic and find out what is similarity and what is difference between them For example, when seeing the topic “SPECIAL EDUCATION” and the Braille Alphabets which use for blind and deaf people, the readers might think poor them, they have strong feeling, etc After reading, they can know their thought is similar with author’s or not Discussing with friends about the topic will be also used It will help the readers have more information about the topic because they can share opinions, thoughts, ideas, feeing about the topic In short, strategies in pre- reading will give the readers a general idea about the topic and help them easy to catch information when reading the text 15 3.1.2.While-reading While-reading seems to be the most important stage in reading lesson because at this stage, the students read the text for understanding to finish the reading tasks Controlling reading speed will be encouraged Controlling reading rate means adjusting the readers' space according to what they are reading and why they are reading When they are reading material that does not demand complete careful attention, they push themselves to move through it quickly But when they are reading critically, they read much more slowly and deliberately It will save the readers’ time while reading Underlining or using a highlighter to indicate key words or phrases in the text is also highly appreciated strategy In running text, the readers focus on key terms; they may be in boldface or in italicized Text to mark includes definitions, items in lists and main idea within a text Remembering that the readers mark only important words or phrases, not really all the material Often, they will want to mark the topic sentence in each paragraph The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of the paragraph It tells what the paragraph about and is followed by sentences that amplify and further explain it Occasionally, the topic sentence is the last in a paragraph, serving as a summary of material that precedes it Some paragraphs have both a topic sentence at the beginning and a summary at the end, which in effect restated the topic sentence Remembering that the opening and closing paragraph in a text are particularly important To focus on reading text, the readers are encouraged to use silent reading because reading aloud will affect their attention and their partners’ The readers’ results of reading are expressed from how many correct answers they can give Therefore, reading through all questions of the tasks before starting reading the text should be used because they can know what is important and unimportant information when reading It will help them set a limit to the information to answer the questions easily 3.1.3 Post reading Post reading is a stage, which helps the readers check and discuss what they have read, done and thought about the text It will help them understand deeply about the topic and the reading text There are many strategies can be used at this stage: A common strategy is writing summary about the text Summarizing the text briefly in five or six sentences can be carried out It will help the readers remember what they have learnt easily and clearly Comprehension questions are just one of strategy appropriate for post reading However, these questions are different from questions in pre-stage They are question inferred from the text to remember information not predicting information Taking note will bring the readers long-term memory about the text They can take note what they think that is interesting Nowadays, there are many material about one topic; therefore, finding and reading more other materials about the topic will give the readers a deeply point of view about 16 one topic 3.2 Suggestions for vocabulary strategies A major strategy in helping readers to build vocabulary for reading is guessing word meanings from contextual clues and background knowledge The readers try to figure out words from their contexts One way for readers to guess the word meanings is analyzing it in terms of what they know about it - Looking for prefixes: -un, -in, -inter, -super, -so, -il, etc will give the readers clues about its meanings For example, considering the word international in unit THE WORLD CUP “National” belongs to one country The prefix “inter” means lots of, so the meaning word international can be figure out as “belonging many countries” - Looking for suffixes:-tion, -cian, -ly, -ful, -tive, etc may indicate the part of speed it is For example, in unit - UNDERSEA WORLD, the readers can meet many new words: the word biodiversity they can see that this is a noun, or word independently, it is an adverb, etc It is suggested that teachers should spend more time in introducing a topic, encouraging skimming, scanning, and activating schemata before reading Students can bring their knowledge and skills to a text when they have been given a chance to “ease to” the text Students have no dictionary to look up new words; hence, teachers should supply them new words before new reading lessons It will give them time to prepare new lesson at home, and easy to finish all the tasks carried in new lessons at class While reading, it is suggested that teachers should guide students how to read, where to focus on, how to face to new words and how to answers questions PART 3: CONCLUSION Summary of the main findings From the practical reason that reading is one of the most difficult skills when learning English Students in upper secondary school find many difficulties with this skill The researcher would like to find out what strategies they use when reading comprehension A study has been conducted by theoretical study, doing a survey questionnaire, observing classes and interviewing namely “Some strategies used to teach Reading Skill to 10 grade students at Ham Rong High School” The study has been divided into three parts The first part is the introduction of the study Development is part This part contains three sections Section is Literature Review, in which some general theories related to reading strategies and vocabulary strategies such as theoretical background of learning strategies, reading, reading strategies as well as vocabulary strategies have been presented The second Section (Data collection and Analysis) consists of three smaller parts The first part focused on the setting of the study, in which the description of participants and textbook has been given The second part is the data collection from questionnaire, class observation and interview Data analysis is the last one This part analyzes the data collected from previous part 17 From this analysis, some major findings and suggestions have been given in th Section 3; the researcher has found out that most of the grade 10 students at Ham Rong Upper Secondary School are passive with reading texts and reading tasks They find many difficulties when facing to new words, answering reading exercises and not know how to familiar with them Some suggestions have also presented which can help them learn reading better Implications for more effective Reading Skill From the results above, the findings not correspond with the hypothesis of the study At first, it is said that the students will use different variety strategies in reading comprehension and they are effective for them In reality, these strategies are very poor in number and ineffective for them This study is finished in a short time, with the limitation in the knowledge There are, therefore, mistakes are probably inevitable Thereby, all the considerations, suggestions, comments, remarks and contributions from teachers, students and anyone who is interested in this field will be highly appreciated This graduation paper emphasizes on finding what strategies students use when reading comprehension and giving some suggestions, which can help students choose suitable strategies for them and teachers will have more information when guiding students reading Therefore, the study, to some extent, has contributed a small part in teaching and learning English reading at Ham Rong Upper Secondary School The author of the research is fully aware of how students use strategies in reading comprehension and how effective those strategies are, just only focuses on learning reading not every skill It is the author’s hope that she would go further with the investigation of the following issues: studying on writing strategies, studying on listening strategies, studying on speaking strategies XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày 24 tháng năm 2018 Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác (Ký ghi rõ họ tên) Nguyễn Văn Toàn 18 ... background of reading strategies 4.1 Definition of reading strategies There are many different definitions of reading strategies it is stated reading strategy as methods used in reading to determine... is Literature Review, in which some general theories related to reading strategies and vocabulary strategies such as theoretical background of learning strategies, reading, reading strategies. .. 6: Students? ?? strategies to learn new words in the reading texts at home The aim of question 10 is to find out what strategies students use to learn new words in the reading texts at home It is