AN APPLICATION OF AN DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THANH HOA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-TOURISM

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC AN APPLICATION OF AN DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THANH HOA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-TOURISM Ứng dụng phương pháp tiếp cận dựa ngôn để dạy kỹ đọc Tiếng Anh Trường Trung cấp nghề Thương mại-Du lịch Thanh Hoá M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60.14.10 Ha Noi - 2013 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC AN APPLICATION OF AN DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THANH HOA VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-TOURISM Ứng dụng phương pháp tiếp cận dựa ngôn để dạy kỹ đọc Tiếng Anh Trường Trung cấp nghề Thương mại-Du lịch Thanh Hoá M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English language teaching methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông Ha Noi - 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv Abbreviations vi List of graphs, charts and tables vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for choosing the topic Aims and objectives Scope of research Theoretical and practical significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORITICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Definition of reading 1.2 Reading comprehension 1.3 The concepts of discourse and discourse analysis 1.3.1 The concepts of discourse 1.3.2 The concepts of discourse analysis 1.4 Approaches to teaching reading comprehension 1.5 Discourse analysis and teaching of reading comprehension 1.6 Cohesion in reading comprehension 11 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research design 15 iv 2.1.1 Rationale for the use of an action research 15 2.1.2 Steps for action research 16 2.2 The context of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism 18 2.3 Research questions 19 2.4 Participants 19 2.5 Instrumentation 20 26 Action research procedure 20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The results of the pre-test 25 3.2 The results of the pre-questionnaire 25 3.2.1 The students‘ attitude toward reading skill 25 3.2.2 Difficulties faced by the students 26 3.2.3 Causes faced by the students 27 3.3 The result of the students‘ post-tests after the course 28 3.4 The result of the questionnaires for the students after the course 31 3.4.1 Change in percentage of the students‘ attitude to reading comprehension after the application of discourse-based approach…………………………….31 3.4.2 Extent to which the application of a discourse –based approach help the students to read better 32 3.4.3 The students‘ assessment on the activities applying discourse-based approach 33 3.5 The result of class observation 35 3.6 Implications for teaching English reading skill 36 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of the study 38 Limitations and suggestions for further study 39 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I v ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a foreign language ESL: English as a second language vi LIST OF GRAPHS, CHARTS AND TABLES Graph The students‘ score in the pre-test Graph The first post-test score of the students Graph The second post-test score of the students Chart The students‘ attitude toward reading part Chart The students‘ s attitude toward reading part after the course Table Difficulties faced by the students Table Causes of difficulties faced by students Table A comparison of parameters between the pre-test and the two post-tests Table Extent to which the application of a discourse-based approach help the students to read better Table The students‘ assessment on the activities applying discourse-based approach Table The students‘ assessment on the exercises applying discourse-based approach Table The students‘ assessment on the exercises applying discourse-based approach vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale for choosing the topic As we have known, in English, reading is one of the main means for learners to get information, which plays an important role in improving students‘ competence So the teaching of reading is considered to be one of the most effective ways in English language learning According to Farhady (2005), ―reading is one of the most useful and necessary skills for daily life People usually read because they want to obtain information about a specific subject‖ English reading class is aimed at making students master reading skills, widen their vocabulary, improve their grammar, and gain all types of knowledge and boost the students‘ reading ability because their ability of reading determines the amount of the information readers get As Wenquan (2009: 1) states, ―Reading means decoding the discourse in the given text and encoding it into valuable information accordingly, often reflecting different implications and meanings according to the context Early readers of English must proceed beyond the utterance level and more than follow the words to form-meaning‖ Reading is a complicated psycho-linguistic process and the interaction result between language and thought To comprehend a text requires the readers to engage their related organs, background knowledge, and reading skills Sellers (2000) asserts, ―the reading process is cognitively demanding because learners need to synchronize attention, perception, memory, and comprehension‖ However, because of the influence of traditional teaching methods, at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism, most of the teachers only focus on vocabulary and grammar in their teaching process; they ignore the application of discourse analysis while discourse analysis helps students to comprehend reading materials completely and deeply Meanwhile, as far as the students are concerned, most are poor in English, especially reading Their background knowledge about words, sentences and structures which they have learned is quite limited; they have difficulty in mastering structures and getting main ideas of reading materials Therefore, it is necessary to apply discourse analysis in teaching reading comprehension to improve reading skills for students Wenquan (2009: 2) suggests, ―Most EFL learners are able to understand the formal structures and logical meaning of the material they read with an average degree of difficulty and within general and familiar topics, but cannot understand the rhetorical and functional meaning of sentences, or sentences with specific topics or involving cultural differences The basic reason may be their lack of training in discourse analysis and ignorance of even simplest discourse analysis techniques‖ For the reasons above, I have decided to choose the topic ―An application of a discourse-based approach in teaching English reading skill at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism‖ Aims and objectives This study aims at exploring the effectiveness of the application of a discourse-based approach in teaching English reading skill at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism The specific objectives of the study are: - To find out changes in the attitude of students at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism after applying a discourse-based approach in teaching English reading skill - To investigate what extent the application of a discourse-based approach helps students at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism read better Scope of research The thesis focuses on studying the application of discourse analysis in various approaches (top-down, bottom-up and interactive processes) to reading in the literature review and the application of cohesion (reference, conjunction, repetition, synonym, antonym and collocation) analysis in reading comprehension in the action research procedure because these elements mainly count for in the text at the elementary level The participants are the first-year students who I am teaching at the moment, which facilitates my research Theoretical and practical significance of the study The thesis is believed to be a good reference for teachers and students at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism, especially to those who are teaching or learning reading skill Design of the study This study is divided into three main parts: Part A INTRODUCTION, presents the Rationale for choosing the topic, the aims and objectives, the scope, significance, methodology and the design of the study Part B DEVELOPMENT, has three following chapters: Chapter One presents the literature review which deals with the theoretical background that precedes and necessitates the formation of our research Chapter Two presents the methodology applied in the study including, action research, setting, participants, instrumentation and action research procedure Chapter Three presents results and discussions, and implications for teaching English reading skill Part C CONCLUSION, reviews the findings and proposes possible solutions to the problems identified Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are also put forward PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this chapter, the fundamental theoretical concepts will be introduced First of all, definitions pertaining to what is meant by reading and reading comprehension, discourse and discourse analysis, the backbone concepts of this research paper, are presented in 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 as prerequisites to the understanding of subsequent notions and models Second, approaches to reading comprehension are discussed in 1.4, which are bottom-up, top-down and interactive processes Third, the discussions of discourse analysis and the teaching of reading comprehension are presented in 1.5 And at last the discussions of role cohesion in reading comprehension 1.1 Definition of reading There are many definitions about reading Goodman (1971:135) believes that ―reading can be understood as an active, purposeful, and creative mental process where the reader engages in the construction of meaning from a text‖ Hedge (2000) defines that ―reading is the interaction of two types: the reader and the text, and the reader and the writer‖ Richards and Schmidt (2002) state ―reading skills (reading micro skills) as abilities required for skillful reading such as discerning main ideas, understanding sequence, noticing specific details, making inferences, making comparison, and making prediction‖ However, Nunan (2003) believes that reading is a fluent process in which readers combine the information from a text and their own background knowledge to build meaning From the researchers‘ points, it can be seen that there has been an interest on the ―readers‖ and on how they construct meanings from texts, which contributes to the proliferation of studies on reading Reading is not a ―passive skill‖; it is an active and creative cognitive process Although there are so many definitions of reading, there is no definition covering all the aspects of the process as it happens in reality because of its complexity B Yes, a little C No D Others (please specify): Do you comprehend the passage easier when the teacher explain collocation? A Yes, a lot B Yes, a little C No D Others (please specify): Do you comprehend the passage easier when the teacher explain synonym and antonym? A Yes, a lot B Yes, a little C No Which of the following activities you enjoy? A Finding out reference in the text B Relating conjunction with its function in the text C Realizing repetition in the text D Finding out collocation in the text E Realizing synonym and antonym in the text What types of while- reading exercises you like? A Finding out reference in the text B Matching conjunction with its function C Finding out repetition in the text D Relating given words in the same field E Finding out synonym and synonym What types of while- reading exercises you like? A Answering the questions B Finding out main idea in each paragraphs C Choose the best answer D Write summary of the text III Appendix 3: PRE-ENGLISH TEST Time: 45 minutes Read the passage and the following tasks: Louis Braille was the son of a French leather worker He went blind at the age of three when he fell in his father‘s workroom But Louis was very clever He wanted to be a musician, so he learned to play the cello, and at the age of ten he won a scholarship to the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris He could play cello, but he could not read or write In 1819 a French soldier, Charles Barbier, invented ―night writing‖ He used special dots on paper so that soldiers could read at night Louis Braille understood the importance of this invention for the blind people and when he was fifteen, he began to develop it In 1829 he started to use it at the Institute By 1932 ―Braille‖ was used all over the world, but Louis died in 1852 and he never knew of the importance of his invention Section One: Pronouns (indicating reference) and Conjunctions What the pronouns refer to in the text? Pronoun Line He 1,6 His This It Referent Line Find out conjunctions in the text ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… IV Section Two: Comprehension questions Answer the following questions What did Louis Braille‘s father do? …………………………………………………………………………… When did Louis Braille go blind? …………………………………………………………………………… Why did Louis Braille learn to play the cello? ……………………………………………………………………………… When did Louis Braille win a scholarship to the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris? …………………………………………………………………………… Who invented ―night writing‖? ……………………………………………………………………………… What was the purpose ―night writing‖? ……………………………………………………………………………… When did Louis Braille develop ―night writing‖ for the blind? ……………………………………………………………………………… Why did Louis Braille never know of the importance of his invention? ……………………………………………………………………………… V Appendix 4: POST-ENGLISH TEST Time: 45 minutes Read the passage and the following tasks: London has a population of about 7,000,000 It lies on the River Thames, Where the Romans landed nearly 2,000 years ago From about 1800 until World War Two, London was the biggest city in the world, but now there many cities London is famous for many things Tourists come from all over the world to visit its theatres, its historic buildings, such as Buckingham palace, where the queen lives, and the Houses of parliament, where you can see and hear the famous clock, Big Ben They also come to visit its theatres, its museums, and its many shops, such as Harrords, where can you buy anything And of course they want to ride on the big wheel next to the river! Like many big cities, London has problems with traffic and population Over 1,000,000 people a day use the London Underground, but there are still too many cars on the streets The air isn‘t clean, but it is cleaner than it was 100 years ago For me, the best thing about London is the parks, there are five in the city centre But my children‘s favorite place is Hamleys, which the biggest toy shop in the world! Section One: Pronouns (indicating reference), Conjunctions, repetition, collocation What the pronouns refer to in the text ? Pronoun Line It 1, 12 Its They Me 14 My 15 You Referent VI Line Match each conjunction with its function in the text? Conjunction Function a But Additive b And Contrastive c Also Referring a place e Where Referring to things f Which Temporal h Now Find out repetition in the text ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Find out words which belong to the tourism and traffic fields The tourism field: …………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… The traffic field: ……………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………… Section Two: Comprehension questions Answer the following questions How many people are there in London? What is London famous for? …………………………………………………………………………… Where did the Romans landed? Why is London polluted? ……………………………………………………………………………… What does the writer like the most? ……………………………………………………………………………… VII Appendix 5: POST-ENGLISH TEST Time: At home Read the passage and the following tasks: FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON On July 20, 1969, people‘s dream of going to the moon came true Two American men landed on the moon Their names were Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin The first thing the men found was that the moon is covered with dust The dust is so thick that the men left footprints where they walked Those were the first marks a living thing had ever made on the moon And they could stay there for years and years There is no win or rain to wipe them off The two men walked on the moon for hours They picked up rocks to bring back to earth for study They dug up dirt to bring back They set up machines to find things people wanted to know Then they climbed back into their moon landing craft Next day the landing craft roared as the two men took off the moon They jointed Michael Collin in the spaceship that waited for them above the moon Then they were off on the long trip back to earth Behind them they left the plains and tall mountains of the moon They left the machines they had set up And they left footprints that may last forever I What the pronouns refer to in the text ? Pronoun Line They Those Their 11 Them 13 Referent II Find conjunction and its function in the text VIII Line Conjunction Function III Find repetition in the text ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………… III Choose the best answer A, B, C or D for each question below The passage is about…………………………………………………… A the first men to walk on the moon B how men found footprints on the moon C what the men brought back from their trip to the moon D who had left footprints on the moon before the two men landed there The word ― wipe them off‖ in paragraph means……………………… A drop them B keep them C remove them D save them The men brought rocks and dirt from the moon because……………… A They want to something to show they were there B people wanted to use them to learn about the moon C they wanted to keep them as a souvenirs D they might sell them to scientists The word “roared” in paragraph means……………………… A moved very fast and make a lot of noise B move slowly C started moving IX D landed on The next people who go to the moon most likely could……………… A find that the machine have disappeared B leave the first set of footprints on the moon C find the places where Amstrong and Aldrin walked D find that dust had wiped off the two men‘s footprints IV Summarize the text ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… X Appendix 6: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SHEET Observer: ………………………………………………………………………… Date and time of observation: …………………………………………………… Lesson Topic: ………………………………………………………………… Material: …………………………………………………………………………… Instructions:  This sheet is for observing the whole class‘s participation  This sheet is used by the teacher/ researcher only  Start observation during the reading lessons applying discourse-based approach  Tick in the column Yes, a lot or yes, a little and no for each statement below  Add final comments in the next column if necessary Activities Yes, Yes, a a lot little Do the students participate in the lesson enthusiastically? Do the students understand the reference in the text? Do the students understand conjunction and its function in the text? Do the students understand collocation in the text? Do the students understand synonym and antonym in the text? XI No Comments Do the students interact with each other while doing exercise? What types of exercises the students well? - Finding out reference in the text - Matching conjunction with its function - Finding out repetition in the text - Relating given words in the same field - Finding antonym to synonym - Answering the questions - Finding out main idea in each paragraphs - Choosing the best answer - Writing summary of the text XII APPENDIX SAMPLE OF A READING LESSON PLAN APPLYING DISCOURSEBASED APPROACH Unit 9: Food you like! Class: CBMAK14I Allowed time: 45 minutes Topic: Food around the world I Aims : The purpose of this lesson is to: - Provide students with some vocabularies relating to food in the world - Enhance students‘ learning and motivation by using real world context - Improve students‘ reading comprehension II Teaching Contents: - Language items: Food - Teaching skills: Reading III Teaching methods: - Communicative Approach - Grammar Translation IV Teaching aids: - Textbook, lesson plan, chalks, board, Projector V Procedures: Time Content Teacher’s activities 5‘ Good morning! Greeting Warm up: Guessing game Eight pictures are inserted numbers They are about Vietnamese traditional food and drink, and foreign food and drink which is popular in Vietnam XIII - Dividing students into four groups - Asking students to choose which food and drink is traditional or comes from foreign Students’ activities Good morning! - Working in groups Choosing pictures country 7‘ 24‘ Pre-Reading Vocabulary -noodles - Asking students to -herrings guess the meanings -sardines of the new words -meat through example, -forks situation, pictures -chopsticks - Reading the new - strawberries words and asking - Portuguese students to repeat -Scandinavia - Poland - Indian -Spain - Put the words into the correct pictures (7 pictures) - Asking students to key: herrings, Scandinavia put the words into sardines, Portuguese the correct pictures noodles - Checking and meat, fork, Poland correcting chopsticks Indian strawberries, Spain - Guessing the meanings of the new words and write down on the notebooks - Listening and repeating - Answering the questions While-Reading Task : What the pronouns -Explaining the task -Paying attention refer to in the text? Pronoun Line Referent Line and asking students They to task - Doing the task They 11 They 18 -Asking students to -Reading key read their key Their 21 Key: Pronoun Line They They 11 They 18 Referent People The European The Chinese Line 10 17 XIV -Checking correcting and -Taking note Their 21 The Indian 20 Task 2: Matching conjunction and - Explaining the task its function Conjunction Line Function and asking students and 1,3, a adversative to task 15 -Asking students to but 7,9, b additive read their key 28,2 -Checking and then c temporal correcting Key: b a c Task 3: Find out words which - Explaining the task belongs to food and eating utensils and asking students to task Food:……………………………… …………………………………… -Asking students to Eating utensils:………………… read their key …………………………………… -Checking Keys: Food: rice, noodles, herrings, sardines, correcting fish, meat, sausages, bananas, strawberries Eating utensils: knives, forks, chopsticks Task 4: Answer the questions When did human history start? Was it about 10,000 years ago or was it about million years ago? Do they eat much rice in the south of China? Why the Scandinavians and the Portuguese eat a lot of fish? Why don‘t the Germans eat much fish? Which countries have many kinds of sausages? How many courses are there in XV - Paying attention - Doing the task -Reading key -Taking note -Paying attention - Doing the task -Reading key and -Taking note -Explaining the task and asking students to task -Asking students to write their key -Paying attention - Doing the task -Writing key on the blackboard China? How people eat in the Middle East? Why can we eat strawberries at anytime of the year? Keys: It was about 10, 000 years ago -Checking Yes, they correcting Because they are near the sea Because they are away from the sea They are Germany and Poland In China there are only one course In the Middle East people use their fingers and bread to pick up the food Because it is possible to transport food easily from one part of the world to the other 7‘ 2‘ Post-Reading Discuss food around the world and -Checking taking note - Dividing students -Discussing into seven groups - Asking students to discuss - Calling two leaders -Presenting of two group to present - Give feedback Homework Summarize of the text -Asking students to summarize the text XVI and 17