ADAPTING READING TASKS IN THE TEXTBOOK “TIẾNG ANH 10” TO FACILITATE 10TH GRADERS’ READING COMPREHENSION AT NHU THANH SECO

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study In teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL), reading has always received a great deal of attention According to Carrell [3; p.1] “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second or foreign language”; sharing the same point of view, Richard [11; p.15] shows that “Becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of important benefits for learner.” Undoubtedly, reading has become not only an important means to gain and enrich the students’ general knowledge but also an essential means to help them with their further study in future Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skill at high schools are still far from satisfactory for various reasons Despite the teacher’s effort, students’ motivation is still low and reading lessons are said to be the boring one English language teaching materials in general and textbooks in particular play the role of tool, tutor, guide book These roles are especially significant in EFL contexts including Vietnam, where textbooks are regarded as a staple in almost all EFL classes Textbooks are useful source of language input and guidance for both teachers and learners Despite the development of technology and the growth of computer-assisted language learning, it is unlikely that textbooks will disappear In teaching and learning reading skill in particular, the role of textbooks is even more important than in teaching any other language skills or grammar and vocabulary because when reading, students have to pay much attention to the printed texts in order to understand them However, available textbooks are not completely good for all teaching contexts Accordingly, it is necessary for teachers to be well-equipped with assessment tools evaluate materials and more importantly, recommendation to adapt the materials to ensure that students are using the highest quality texts, and their language knowledge and skills are improved Nevertheless, there has been little investigation into how to adapt material The second reason for my choice is that there have been diverse opinions of both teachers and learners on the actual effectiveness of the reading tasks in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ by Hoang Van Van, which has been used to teach the 10th grade students at high schools There have been arguments on both the potentials and limitations of the reading tasks in this textbook and the needs and references of teachers and learners who are using it This school year, when working with the students in the mountainous areas, I have met a lot of difficulties in which the biggest challenges emerge from teaching reading comprehension My colleagues in the school have also confronted a number of troubles, one of which was students’ lack of motivation to learn foreign language in general and reading skill in particular Despite the teacher’s efforts, the problems are not better For example, some students stated that they found reading lessons boring and did not feel they had learnt much in class Therefore, the reading tasks need taking into more consideration by adapting to teach reading skill to the students This is the reason why I myself focus on “Adapting reading tasks in the textbook ‘Tiếng Anh 10’ to facilitate 10 th graders’ reading comprehension” with some common adapting techniques in the hope of increasing students’ motivation, arousing their interest, and thus enhancing their positive attitudes towards learning reading lessons 1.2 Purpose of the study This study aims at helping to improve reading comprehension for the 10 th graders at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school in Thanh Hoa province by using some techniques of adapting the materials to facilitate and encourage them in learning reading lesson in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” In order to achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following research questions were proposed: (1) What are students’ attitudes towards the reading tasks in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’? (2) To what extent can the adaptation of the tasks help to facilitate the students’ reading comprehension? 1.3 Scope of the study The study was carried out to two groups of the students of the class 10B at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school in Thanh Hoa Province, and it was conducted in weeks of the second semester of the academic year 1.4 Method of the study This study using qualitative and quantitative research method aimed to determine whether reading task adaptation can enhance students’ reading comprehension skills or have a positive affect on the ability of students to make sense of what they read The author used data collection instrument to gather information about the students involved, monitor the progress of the students when they are exposed to some task adapting during the lectures to determine the effectiveness of the material adaptation based on the students’ pre-test, posttest result The pre-tests were indispensible to assess the reading comprehension level before the intervention of the strategy and used as a baseline score The post-tests were used to determine the effectiveness of the strategy used by the students during the experiment process by comparing the pre-test scores to the posttest scores taken at the end of the study The students’ attitudes (shown in answered questionnaires) were also a reliable data for the teacher to conclude the hypothesis PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Literature Review 2.1.1 Reading skill Reading is known as a receptive process that connected the reader with the text, making comprehension The text displays letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that express meaning The reader manipulates knowledge, skills, and strategies to decide what that meaning is Up to now reading has been described differently by lots of academics Harmer [6; p.153] shares his ideas “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages” Clearly, ideas of reading have been diverse in exploiting words and expressions but they all focus on two actions: studying with eyes and comprehending with brains of which the latter is more significant The most obvious thing in the latter is that the readers not only look at and understand the meaning of what is written but also read authors’ thinking 2.1.2 Reading comprehension Many studies confirm that the final goal of reading instruction is comprehension and one of the most important goals of skilled reading is decoding and understanding written text However, the decoding and the ability to recognize words in texts are only the beginning stages of reading and reading comprehension Grellet [5; p.3] states that “understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” He also shows the examples in which a good reader will omit unnecessary information and find out what he or she is searching for In another word, reading comprehension can be defined as “a fluent process of readers combining information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning Reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading comprehension can appreciate how much readers get the text Therefore, how to aid students in having efficient reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most powerful task in teaching reading For the student with limited English language proficiency, limited English vocabulary, and lack of strategy awareness, the printed page may pose overwhelming obstacles When teachers understand the process nature of reading and have strategies available for use at each stage, the assignment of reading can be a more rewarding activity When students are able to engage with text in an active and focused way, their time spent will reap benefits of greater content learning and enhanced literacy 2.1.3 Defining task and task-based language teaching and learning Applied since 1980s, task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a communicative approach to language instruction, using the successful completion of communicative tasks as its primary organizing principle In taskbased teaching, learners will upgrade their language competence by focusing on getting something done during using of the language Moreover, learners are encouraged to use whatever language they already have in the process of completing a task The use of tasks will also give a clear and purposeful context for the teaching and learning a language Obviously, task-based approach focuses on communication with real situation and employs tasks as the main means of teaching and learning Many of definitions concentrate on different aspects of what constitutes a task One of the most widely quoted definitions for task is offered by Long [7; p.89] He refers to a task as “a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for others, freely or for some rewards Thus examples of tasks include […] filling out a form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, […], making a hotel reservation, writing a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across the road In other words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people in everyday life, at work, at play, and in between” Similarly, Nunan [10; p.10] describes “task” as a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form In spite of a variety of interpretations, several common design features can be identified These features include that all three definitions emphasize the importance of focus on meaning This criterion supports the notion that conveying an intended meaning is the essence of language use 2.1.4 Definition of adaptation Tomlinson [12: p.xiv] stated that adaptation is “making changes to materials in order to improve them or to make them more suitable for a particular type of learner” Relating to adaptation techniques, Madsen and Bowen [2; p xi-ix] indicate that adaptation is the action of employing “one or more number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding, personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/ situational content” However, McDonough and Shaw [8; p.9] emphasize the teacher’s role in bridging a gap between materials and learners “the teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in ways that will be fulfilling to those who learn from it” In summary, adaptation technique requires teachers to revise and adjust materials in order that they could be more practical and accessible to the teaching context 2.1.5 Questionnaires The survey questionnaire is a useful instrument and widely applied to data collection for the research The attractions for using questionnaires have to be counted by the time taken to develop, pilot and refine Moreover, this research methodology is carried out with low cost and less pressure The analysis of answers to closed questions is relatively straightforward However, the honesty of answers to questionnaires is impossible to be checked The participants can choose the answers they think are the best not the thing they really In this study, the survey questionnaire was used to collect information about students’ attitudes towards reading skill, reading tasks in learning English In order to avoid misunderstanding and ensure the accuracy of the data, the questionnaires should be written in Vietnamese 2.1.6 Pre-test and Post-test According to Cohen [4; p.5], tests are seen as “a powerful method of data collection” So as to evaluate the changes of the students’ reading comprehension, the researcher need to build two reading tests: Pre-test and Posttest These tests aim to discover how much improvement the students gain in reading whereby the effectiveness of the teaching is demonstrated The topics and contents of the tests have to be relevant to students’ reading lessons In preparing the tests, the researcher tried to guarantee the equal value in terms of vocabulary, content and difficult level Each test consisted of one reading passage, which was followed by five multiple choice questions The participants were required to read the passages to choose the best answer for each question The time allowance for each test was fifteen minutes To ensure that the tests could give a reliable result for the research questions, the researcher bore in mind such qualities of a good test as validity, reliability and practicality The pre-test was delivered before the intervention and the post-test was conducted after the intervention 2.2 Reasons for adapting tasks Though textbook writers make great effort to meet the needs of the intended users, teachers still have to adapt the materials they are using if they want their teaching to be more interesting and effective In fact, a course book can never be totally an effective tool for all teachers to follow without any adaptation since there might be intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, and lack of authenticity or lack of variety Another reason for adaptation, as clarified by McDough and Shaw [8; p.85] is “to maximize the appropriateness of teaching materials in context, by changing some of internal characteristics of a course book to better suit our particular circumstances” Teachers may choose any method to adapt the teaching materials in order to make them more relevant, accessible and useful to learners, which can stimulate learners’ motivation and improve learners’ achievement during learning process Relating to the role of motivation in language learning, McGrath [9; p.65] acknowledges that one of the practical reasons for adaptation is “to maintain learners’ interests by varying what might be a rather repetitive diet” It is motivation that affects the extent of students’ involvement and performance in language learning 2.3 Types of the adaptation exploited in the study There is a wide range of adaptation techniques that teachers can apply when teaching reading with hope of helping students make maximum use of the textbook and learn as much the target language as possible In the small context of the study, two types of adaptation have been exploited as follows: * Simplifying: When simplifying, the teacher could be rewording instructions or text in order to make them more accessible to learners, or simplifying a complete activity to make it more manageable for learners and teachers * Reordering: When reordering, the teacher has decided that it makes more pedagogic sense to sequence activities differently An example is beginning with a general discussion before looking at a reading passage rather than using the reading as a basis for discussion On the whole, adaptation is a very practical activity realized mainly by the teachers in order to make their work more relevant to the learners with whom they are daily contact Moreover, it is a fact that no published textbook can possibly cater for every teacher, learner or teaching situation Thus, each teacher has to take responsibility for textbook adaptation so as to ensure an optical match between textbooks and the particular teaching context Finally, it is advisable that teacher should create more enjoyable and easier lessons to make language teaching process more effective 2.4 Research context 2.4.1 Setting and Participants: This study was conducted in weeks from January 2019 to April 2019 in class 10B5 at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school in mountainous area of Thanh Hoa province Forty 10th graders involved in the study They mainly come from the mountainous villages in the region In general, they had learnt English for over years However, their proficiency is not satisfactory enough, and their learning style is quite passive In addition, they hardly acquired any effective skills in reading a short reading text In their opinion, learning English means getting grammar and structures with common lexical resources As a result, they were almost beginners in reading comprehension as a high school student 2.4.2 The textbook: The design of the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ is based on task-based approach with 16 units and Test Yourself parts There are five parts in each unit arranged as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus The reading passages in this book are about 200 words in length It is intended to provide students with through coverage of basic grammatical and lexical items and language skill There are six topics throughout the curriculum such as: Personal Information, Education, Community, Nature, Recreation, and People and Places All the reading lessons in the textbook follow up three stages: before you read, while you read, and after you read The reading tasks are designed based on three reading activities: pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading tasks These tasks are in plenty of forms including: question6 answer, multiple-choice, blank filling, word predicting, etc However, with the period of 45 minutes, the reading texts and reading tasks are quite long, complicated and difficult to students at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school 2.4.3 The reality of teaching and learning reading skill at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school As mentioned above, the research is conducted at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school, which is located in Thanh Hoa Province Like other high schools, English is one of the compulsory subjects in curriculum, and it is taught three times a week with 45 minutes for each lesson However, there is no language laboratory at school, teachers who teach English are only equipped cassette players for listening lesson After one term studying at my school, tremendous difficulties arose with both teachers and students in teaching and learning lessons In term of reading skills, the students had been accustomed to basic reading skills like reading a short sentence, short passage with a small range of common vocabulary To them, therefore, reading comprehension is nearly hopeless 2.5 Stages of the study Step 1: Initiation During the first term of the school year, I recognized that students felt tired of reading lessons; some did not want to participate in reading activities; some did not feel satisfied with the reading tasks; and a few of them did not understand the lessons at all These problems resulted in students’ low achievement and demotivation in doing reading tests in class What should be done to solve these problems? Step 2: Investigation To understand more about the situation, I had informal chats with the students in breaks to discover their problems Moreover, the exchange with colleagues through informal talks was employed The students were demotivated because some reading tasks in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’ were unsuitable to their level They could not complete the reading tasks in order to understand the information conveyed in reading texts Some students shared that reading skill was the most boring and stressful for them The survey questionnaire (appendix 1A, 1B) was given to one hundred th 10 grade students, which aims at confirming the hypothesis that students’ troubles are related to reading tasks in the textbook To access students’ achievement before treatment, a pre-test (appendix 2) was given to two groups of students The purpose of the test was to help the author discover students’ reading comprehension level at that moment Step 3: Intervention Adapting reading tasks is believed to be an appropriate method which helps the students in class 10B5 improve their performance in reading And the plan of action was conducted to achieve the research aims The intervention should be designed to raise the participants’ awareness of task adaptation and, therefore, improve their reading achievement through the introduction of adapted reading tasks The reading tasks of Unit 9, Unit 11, and Unit 13 were adapted (appendix 4), using some common adaptation techniques such as simplifying, adding in combination with reading strategies This was for the purpose of engaging students in groups or pair work and keeping them motivated in the lessons One of the two groups that participated in the study would be chosen randomly to be experiment group They would learn the reading lessons with adapted tasks The remainder would be considered as control group This group was still taught with original tasks in the textbook These lessons were developed for the sake of the study Some samples of adapted tasks, the reasons for adaptation based on the inappropriateness of the original tasks were presented in the Appendix Picture 1: Students of experiment group in a Reading lesson (Unit 11- National Parks) Picture 2: Students of experiment group in a reading lesson (Unit 9- Undersea World) Picture 3: Students of experiment group in a reading lesson (Unit 13- Films and Cinema) Step 4: Evaluation Having collected all the data from the means of survey questionnaire and tests, the researcher analyzed the data for findings There was an increase in students’ motivation of learning reading skill since the tasks were more interesting There was greater involvement of the students because they feel less difficult to solve the reading tasks The results from the pre-test and post-test revealed some changes in students’ reading comprehension 2.6 Data collection procedure The data collection procedures include the following steps: Step 1: The preliminary questionnaire was administered randomly to 100 10 th grade students from the classes being taught by the researcher at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school Each respondent was handed a copy of the questionnaire, and asked to answer all the question items in it However, so as to increase the quality and quantity of participant response, the researcher announced the questionnaire to all the students in advance, sent a printed leaflet of a study purpose and a few sample items, explained the purpose and the potential significance of the research once again and the rationale for the sample, assured the confidentiality of their answers, and monitored questionnaire completion process Step 2: A 15-minute reading comprehension test was conducted among forty students from class 10B5 as the pre-test Before the test, the author told students that they are expected to the test as best as they could since the score of the test would not be recorded in their school report During the pre-test, the participants were not permitted to consult one another, instead, they had to individually Step 3: After applying three reading lessons with adapted tasks, the author gave another reading comprehension test as the post-test to the participants The procedures of conducting the test were the same as that of the pre-test Step 4: Based on the result of the first cycle of the study, the researcher decided whether to carry out the next cycle 2.7 Data analysis procedure The survey questionnaire was designed of multiple choice questions, thus after it had been collected, the students’ answers were counted based each question The data were analyzed quantitatively in descriptive approach, and the descriptive analyses were then reported in percentages Hence, the results of the preliminary investigation were clearly presented The pre-test and post-test aimed at exploring the students’ improvement in learning reading after they had been given three lessons with adapted tasks The test was a reading passage about 180 words and five multiple-choice comprehension questions When having the tests results, the researcher counted the scores, classified them on a scale of poor, below average, average, fair, and good; and then expressed as a percentage After that, the differences in test results were used to discover the improvement made by the treatment and to assess the extent the task adaptation impacted on the students’ reading achievement 10 PART 3: CONCLUSION 3.1 Discussion of the main findings The study was carried out with a view to exploring the effectiveness of lesson adaptation to improve the students’ reading comprehension ability The result was collected from the questionnaires and the differences of pretest and posttest results 3.1.1 Preliminary inquiry (questionnaires) Before applying task adaptation in reading lessons, the researcher conducted a survey (questionnaires in Vietnamese because of the students’ incompetent level of English) to determine the students’ opinions about reading skill and reading lessons The questions cover the exploration of the students’ attitudes to reading skill, reading lesson, reading task type they find less challenging as well as the students’ wish for the reading tasks When asked, the almost nearly students disclosed the fact that they did not like reading skill at all even though it is the most familiar skill to them in the process of learning English About one-third of the students said they enjoyed reading skill a little Noticeably, only a small percentage of the students were much fond of learning reading And two students said: “I don’t know” Moreover, only percent of the students seemed to be interested in reading lessons because of their limited vocabulary items 57 percent of students admitted that they could not understand the text because they did not have enough general knowledge, and 55 percent believed it was due to their lack of reading strategies 21 percent of students said they were not interested in the topics and a minority of them shows that they did not understand the lessons at all due to the fact that they had no basic knowledge of English In order to survey students’ views on reading tasks in the textbook ‘Tieng Anh 10’, I raised some questions to them from which I could discover the causes of difficulty and boredom in reading tasks Their answers showed that more than one-third of the students joining the survey said they could hardly complete all in one period of the lesson About twenty-nine percent of students claimed that this was an average number of tasks for students In short, the data from the survey questionnaire revealed the fact that most of the students felt bored with the reading tasks in the current textbook (because of their incompetence in English) They were not motivated in doing the tasks because some of the tasks were difficult and some were too long and complicated and every so often they did not understand at all And these things caused the students fear of the reading lessons Thus, they hoped that there were tasks easier and appropriate to their level 3.1.2 The result of Pre-test The forty students were given the pre-test (appendix 2) to examine their English ability before the experiment The results of the pre-test from the table below showed that the scores of two chosen students’ groups were a bit different However, the fact revealed from these figures was that most of the 11 students’ performance in both two groups was below average even poor The students were all tested on the same day, one day before the interventions began The results of the initial assessment are shown in Table Level (insufficient) No % 26 65 Level Level Level (sufficient) (proficient) (excellent) No % No % No % 10 22.5 10 0 Table 1: Initial Student scores The data showed that most students’ reading comprehension levels were rather low It proved that many of them encountered the problem with understanding the word meaning in the text 3.1.3 The result of post- test After the four practice reading lessons, the students were again given another assessment to determine if there was any growth in their comprehension For the assessment, the students were first tested at their initial level and were moved up or down in level based on their scores of the test given at their prior level Due to the growth in their comprehension skills, all students’ levels had to be adjusted accordingly Their post- test scores and the changes in level for each student are presented in Table Level (insufficient) No % 10 25 Level (sufficient) No % 20 50 Level (proficient) No % 22.5 12 Level (excellent) No % 2.5 Table 2: Final Student scores It is undoubtedly that the data illustrated above have shown that the reading lesson adaptation can lead to a growth in comprehension skills of students The data collection instruments used to gather information about the students involved, monitor the progress of the students, and assess the students, both prior to the intervention as well as after its conclusion, have been extremely useful in this research It can be said that lesson adaptation is a realistic practice to facilitate students with low level of English to fulfill the task requirement as well as enhance students reading comprehension Based on the data discussed above, it is a satisfactory conclusion that practice with adaptation over the three reading lessons assisted students with increasing their reading comprehension skills The students exposed to the adapted tasks were able to understand the lesson more clearly By using adapted tasks, the students were able to finish the tasks in each reading lesson more easily and importantly, this motivates them to engage in the learning process in class Through observation, the author could see the difference in her students’ attitudes towards the lessons with adapted tasks During the lessons, few students dozed off, most of them were active in taking notes, discussing with partners, and finding out the answers; especially no one referred to ‘Để học tốt Tiếng Anh 10’ or something like that Students liked to solve the tasks adapted Through the small talks to the students after every reading lesson with adapted tasks, the author leant that the majority of students were satisfied with them Some of them said they could finish the tasks more easily than the previous time; some revealed that the adapted tasks were challenging enough for them to and they were expecting the coming ones Admittedly, these things kept the students motivated in learning reading and their reading skill were improved gradually This was showed through not only their competence in solving the tasks but also their higher scores 3.2 Summary of the study The 10th graders at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school were not motivated in learning reading and found it hard to improve their reading comprehension There were many factors related to this, and one of the most important reasons resulted from the challenging reading tasks in the textbook By reviewing the relevant literature on reading theories and task adaptation, the researcher understood and knew how to apply task adaptation as an effective method in teaching reading Besides that, the review also helped her know more about different adapting techniques and strategies So as to find out the effectiveness of the adapted tasks application, the study was conducted with the participation of forty students from classes 10B at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school in Thanh Hoa Province Through classroom observation, small talks, survey questionnaire, pre-test and post-test, 13 some important findings have been discovered and enabled the author to draw some conclusions Adapting reading tasks is really necessary because reading tasks cannot be suitable for all teaching contexts, so teachers should be aware of adapting tasks from the textbook It was proved from the study that students felt more interested in the reading lessons relying on the tasks adapted to be less challenging and more stimulating and thus she recognized that a small change of a task could make it more suitable and easier for students This study also offered some suggestions for teachers when adapting reading tasks in teaching Adapting tasks is a time-consuming work and takes much knowledge, in other words, the teacher who desires to make tasks more suitable through the adapting process must have cared about adaptation techniques, students’ need and interest as well as their English level Moreover, the study helped to solve the problem of uplifting the quality of learning English of the 10th grade students at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school It would enable the teaching and learning English to be more effective and efficient 3.3 Limitations and suggestions for further adapting tasks 3.3.1 Limitation The study has achieved its aims; however, there are still a few drawbacks that should be considered for future study Firstly, because of time and some other factors, the data collected could only be carried out among small groups of students not all the 10th grade students of one school, so the findings could not be generalized to the students of the whole school Secondly, the time for applying task adaptation was only two months, which might be not enough to investigate all students’ reflections And the tests might not fully reflect the students’ performances in quite short procedures Therefore, the author hoped that more studies would be conducted to measure the effectiveness of this method as well as help improve students’ reading comprehension in particular and English level in general 3.3.2 Suggestions for further adapting tasks Firstly, adapting tasks is absolutely essential for teaching English at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school, especially for reading skill Helping students practice some effective strategies while reading is really necessary Therefore, it is beneficial that teacher should guide students how to use these techniques in each lesson Practical educators and language teaching have proved that not only teachers but also the others such as writers, publishers, and learners can take part in adapting materials Therefore, students should be involved in the task adaptation, which may help them solve problems they probably encounter in learning reading lessons Secondly, it is an undeniable fact that guiding students the way to study themselves is the goal of educating process The most challenging task that the teachers have to solve is to keep students motivated in learning They should be 14 encouraged to learn outside the classroom since the class time is limited We all have appreciated the importance of reading outside the classroom and suggested some useful ways to classify the readers for easier deliveries of available reading reference books Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should give students advice on what to read and how to read effectively In other words, assigning homework to students plays an important part in teaching and teachers should it with much care Finally, adapting reading tasks is necessary as reading tasks cannot be suitable for all objects and teaching context, so teachers should be fully aware of adapting tasks available in materials Teachers ought to this work frequently difficult tasks may discourage the students from reading There are many types of task adaptation such as reordering, simplifying, adding, modifying, etc that teachers can apply to the lessons If the teacher just as what available in the materials without any adaptation, the teaching is undoubtedly less effective Adapting tasks take a lot of time and experience The matter here is that the teacher or trainer who wishes to make the tasks suitable to the students must have much consideration for techniques, students’ needs and levels Nevertheless, the teacher does not need to worry about the time and effort, because the adaptation is not only individual work, it could be shared with the ones who have the same interest Working together will help the process of adaptation more effective Signature of Principle Thanh Hoa, May 2th, 2019 Hereby, I certify that this study is the result of my own experience and has not been submitted by any others Writer Trần Thị Hồng 15 REFERENCES Hoang et al (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Hà nội: NXB Giáo dục Bowen, J D (2000) Advancing a qualitative-based research constructs: Methods and application Purdue University Carrel et al (1981) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K (2007) Research Methods in Education London: Routledge Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer, J (1998) How to Teach English Longman Group Ltd Long, M H (1985) A role for instruction in second language acquisition: Taskbased Language Teaching In K Hyltenstam & M Pienemann (Eds.), Modelling and assessing second language acquisition (pp 77-99) Clevedon England: Multilingual Matters McDonough, J., & Shaw, C (1993) Materials and Methods in ELT Oxford: Basil Blackwell 10 Nunan, D (1989) Designing tasks for the communicative classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 11 Richards, J C., & Rodgers, T S (2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 12 Tomlinson, B (Ed.) (1998) Materials Development in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 16 .. .the reading tasks need taking into more consideration by adapting to teach reading skill to the students This is the reason why I myself focus on ? ?Adapting reading tasks in the textbook. .. school in Thanh Hoa province by using some techniques of adapting the materials to facilitate and encourage them in learning reading lesson in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” In order to achieve the aims... of the study The 10th graders at Nhu Thanh secondary & high school were not motivated in learning reading and found it hard to improve their reading comprehension There were many factors related