Adapting while reading tasks in english 10 to improve reading ability of grade 10 students at yen dinh 1 high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - HA THI HOAI LAM Adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School (Thiế t chỉnh nhiệm vụ học tập đọc để nâng cao khả đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Yên Định 1) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Hanoi – 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES - - HA THI HOAI LAM Adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School (Thiế t chỉnh nhiệm vụ học tập đọc để nâng cao khả đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Yên Định 1) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Supervisor: Nguyen Huyen Minh, M.A Hanoi – 2011 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Research questions Methods of the study Scope of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and teaching reading skills 1.1.1 Definition of reading 1.1.2 Types of reading 1.1.2.1 Intensive reading 1.1.2.2 Extensive reading 1.1.3 Characteristics of an effective reader 1.1.4 Teaching reading skills 1.1.4.1 Approaches to teaching reading 1.1.4.2 Common factors in teaching and learning reading 1.1.4.3 Stages of a reading lesson 1.2 Reading tasks 12 1.2.1 What is a task? 12 1.2.2 Definition of reading tasks 12 1.2.3 Features of reading tasks 13 v 1.2.4 Components of reading tasks 13 1.2.4.1 Goal 13 1.2.4.2 Reading materials 14 1.2.4.3 Arrangement 15 1.2.4.4 Evaluation 15 1.2.5 Types of Reading Tasks 15 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Situation analysis 16 2.1.1 The setting of the study 16 2.1.2 Subjects 17 2.1.3 Reading materials 17 2.2 Participants 19 2.3 Data collection instruments 19 2.3.1 Survey questionnaires 19 2.3.1.1 Questionnaire for students 19 2.3.1.2 Questionnaire for teachers 20 2.3.2 Class observation 20 CHAPTER DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 21 3.1 Data analysis and discussion of the students’ survey questionnaire 21 3.1.1 Students’ attitude towards reading skill 21 3.1.2 Students’ attitude towards while-reading tasks 22 3.1.3 The frequency of using while-reading techniques designed by teachers 24 3.1.4 Students’ difficulties when learning reading 27 3.1.5 Students’ effort for improving reading ability 28 3.1.6 Students’ preferences for participation in while-reading tasks 29 3.1.7 Students’ expectation towards teachers’ reading techniques 29 3.2 Data analysis and discussion of the teachers’ survey questionnaire 30 3.2.1 Teachers’ attitude towards reading skill 30 3.2.2 Teachers’ attitude towards while-reading tasks 30 3.2.3 The frequency of using while-reading techniques 31 3.2.4 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading 33 vi 3.2.5 Teachers’ effort for improving reading ability 34 3.3 Data analysis and discussion of the observation 35 CHAPTER APPROACHES MAJOR FOR FINDINGS ADAPTING AND SOME WHILE-READING SUGGESTED TASKS TO IMPROVE READING ABILITY FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS 37 4.1 Major findings 37 4.1.1 Research question 1: What are the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards while-reading tasks? 37 4.1.2 Research question 2: What have teachers and students done to improve reading ability? 37 4.2 Some suggested approaches for adapting while-reading tasks to improve reading ability for Grade-10 students 38 4.2.1 Raising the students’ awareness of the importance of reading in learning grammar and vocabulary 38 4.2.2 Training students into strategic readers 39 4.2.3 Adapting the textbook 39 PART III CONCLUSION 40 Conclusions 40 Limitations and suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX VI vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS List of tables Table Students’ attitude towards while-reading exercises Table Problems students face when learning reading Table Students’ expectation towards teachers’ reading techniques Table Teachers’ attitude towards while-reading tasks Table The frequency of using while-reading exercises or activities Table Problems teachers face when teaching reading Table Teachers’ activities to help students overcome difficulties List of charts Chart Students’ attitude towards the importance of reading skill Chart Students’ attitude towards the benefit of reading Chart Students’ attitude towards the importance of while-reading tasks Chart Students’ opinions on while-reading tasks Chart Students’ reluctance of doing while-reading tasks Chart The frequency of using while-reading exercises or activities designed by teachers Chart The frequency of limiting the time of doing exercises Chart Students’ ways of overcoming difficulties Chart Students’ preferences for participation in while-reading tasks Chart 10 The frequency of designing while-reading exercises or activities Chart 11 Time allowance in doing reading exercises PART I INTRODUCTION Rationale Nowadays, the acquisition of English language is a priority for millions of people in Vietnam At high schools, English has become a compulsory subject in the state examination and it is one of three subjects for some universities‟ entrance exam Besides the aim of passing their exams and getting some further studies for their future life, all students have a desire to integrate into the culture, the civilization, the country, and the people of Great Britain and of other English speaking countries Having taught English to high school students for over 10 years, the writer of this study realizes that reading is not only an important means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place because the reading skill offers learners a wide range of interesting information as well as a variety of language expressions and structures, which are of great usefulness for developing other skills However, students often have some difficulties, especially in the while-reading stage of the three-staged reading lesson: pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading Actually, whilereading tasks occupy most of the time in a reading lesson Completing while-reading tasks means students can understand the writer‟s purpose and clarify the text‟s content in detail Students may lack of vocabulary, grammar, background knowledge or strategies of doing exercises To help students overcome these difficulties, teachers have applied many teaching approaches Unfortunately, the results are not very satisfactory for various reasons This fact has encouraged the author to investigate into teachers‟ and students‟ opinions on while-reading tasks, what they have done with while-reading tasks to improve reading ability and to give some suggested approaches for adapting while-reading tasks The researcher hopes that the study “Adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School” will be helpful for the author and other reading teachers in some way to find appropriate approaches to help their students improve reading ability Aims of the study The purposes of the study are to investigate while-reading tasks employed by the teachers at Yen Dinh High School and to give some suggestions for adapting while-reading tasks to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School The specific aims of the research are as follows:  To investigate teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards the while-reading tasks in English 10 textbook  To find out how teachers help students with the while-reading tasks  To explore the need to adapt the while-reading tasks to reduce the students‟ difficulties Research questions What are the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards while-reading tasks? To what extent teachers adapt the while-reading tasks to help the students comprehend the text better? Methods of the study The study was carried out on the basis of material collection, survey questionnaire and class observation In the first place, for the theoretical basis, a lot of reference materials on the reading skill, reading tasks have been gathered, analyzed and synthesized thoroughly with the due consideration for the teachers‟ and students‟ teaching and learning situations Secondly, for the practical basis, questionnaires and on-the-spot observations are carried out with the teachers and students to gather the most reliable data for the thesis Scope of the study Studying tasks and their effects on the second language have been paid attention by many researchers recently This study only investigates adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School Because of the limited time and within an M.A minor thesis, the researcher tends to identify teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards while-reading tasks, examine approaches and activities used by teachers and students‟ preferences and demands; then suggests some approaches for teachers to adapt while-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading ability Significance of the study The study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective ways of adapting while-reading tasks Its findings hopefully would help Grade-10 students find out suitable ways to improve their reading ability Regarding teachers, the study would arouse their flexibility in using methods to develop their students‟ reading ability Design of the study The thesis is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion The introduction deals with the rationale, aims, scope, methods, significance and design of the study The development consists of four chapters Chapter 1, Literature Review, is intended to give some theoretical background related to reading, teaching reading skills and reading tasks Chapter presents the methodology used in the study including situation analysis, participants and data collection instruments Chapter shows an analysis and discussion on the data collected from the questionnaires and on-the-spot observations The last chapter offers some major findings, suggested approaches for adapting while-reading tasks The conclusion is a review of the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Reading and teaching reading skills 1.1.1 Definitions of reading Reading is a huge topic, potentially beset with myriad difficulties not easily addressed in a book of this length (Dean, 2000:2) Goodman (1971:135) defines reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.” Ur‟s preliminary definition is “reading means reading and understanding” (1996:138) Harmer (1989:153) defined “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.” Moreover, Rubin and Thompson (1994:91) also defined reading as: “an active informationseeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they already know” From this point of view, the readers‟ knowledge of the language and knowledge of the world is of importance to their reading success To sum up, what all the linguists had in common is that reading involves a variety of skills and reading usually means comprehending written language so when understanding breaks down, reading actually has not occurred 1.1.2 Types of reading Reading is very important to our life However, the reasons for reading differ from one person to another As a result, the ways we read are also different In other words, the purposes of reading determine the ways or the styles of reading Nuttall (2000:38) indicates two main types of reading, namely, intensive and extensive reading For him, these are not just two contrasting ways of reading but an infinitive variety of interrelated and overlapping strategies Actually, intensive and extensive readings are complementary and both are necessary 1.1.2.1 Intensive reading Intensive reading “involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the students to focus on the text" (Nuttall, 2000:38) In the view of Brown 33 As can be seen from chart 11, all the teachers required their students to complete reading exercises in a limited period of time Most of them (67%) always required, 22% usually and only 11% sometimes limited It is a good method because it may make students try more and accordingly help to build up their reading skills In short, to make lessons more effective different while-reading techniques were exploited by most teachers However, the frequency of using these techniques depended much on each teacher One important thing is the teacher should employ appropriate techniques in flexible ways 3.2.4 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading Results Options Teachers Percentage Students‟ limitation of vocabulary & grammatical structures 89% Students‟ lack of background knowledge 78% Time limitation 22% Students‟ lack of appropriate reading techniques 89% Large classes 89% Table Problems teachers face when teaching reading When asking the teachers about the problems they were facing with in teaching reading, the majority (89%) responded their students‟ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures, students‟ lack of appropriate reading techniques and large classes were all big problems to the teachers It is not also very surprising to find that 78% responded their students‟ background knowledge were poor It cannot be denied that students‟ background knowledge is one of the important factors which affect students‟ reading comprehension much Clearly, readers who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading better than classmates with low prior knowledge Only 22% stated that they could not teach reading effectively because time is limited They often had no time for the post-reading activities To sum up, comparing with the data collected from students‟ survey questionnaire, both teachers and students shared nearly the same opinions about students‟ difficulties in 34 reading That is a great advantage for teachers to apply their approaches to improve students‟ reading ability 3.2.5 Teachers’ effort for improving reading ability Options Results Teachers Percentage 67 0 Providing your students with certain key words 100 Suggesting your students essential reading techniques 22 45 Encouraging your students to activate their previous knowledge into reading texts Offering your students as many chances to read the passage as they expect needed for each kind of reading tasks Exploiting different kinds of reading materials suitable to your students‟ reading abilities and their interest Table Teachers’ activities to help students overcome difficulties In order to help students overcome difficulties in reading, providing students with certain key words was most carried out by 100% of the teachers The explanation for this can be that this technique is easy to apply and teachers not spend much time preparing it Encouraging students to activate their previous knowledge into reading texts was employed by 67% of the teachers It indicated that the teachers were aware of the importance of activating students‟ existent knowledge and arousing their interests before reading However, only 22% of the teachers used suggesting students essential reading techniques needed for each kind of reading tasks 45% exploited different kinds of reading materials suitable to their students‟ reading abilities and their interest In general, teachers always try their best to improve their teaching reading methods to help their students overcome difficulties and improve their reading ability However, teachers should understand what their students need to have appropriate approaches In short, the data analysis of the questionnaires at Yen Dinh High school has provided primary important information concerning the students‟ difficulties, what they in the 35 reading lessons and what they really think of their reading lessons in the text book as well as what they would like their teachers to to help them read more effectively Having studied the above points, we realized that there were some major problems faced the students These problems will be discussed in the next section – the findings of the study 3.3 Data analysis and discussion of the observation As mentioned before, the observation was carried out in several English lessons during the study However, the researcher only mentions here three different class observations from three classes: 10A1, 10A3, and 10A6 The most noticeable thing is that all the teachers provided their students with key words when dealing with while-reading tasks It appears that the teachers have high awareness of this technique The first observation was taken from class 10A1 with Unit 10 The reading text is about conservation It is a text with lots of new words Frankly speaking, these words may affect the students‟ understanding if they are not taught in advance Although the teacher had pretaught a list of new words in pre-reading stage, the students had some challenges with Task (a matching exercise) because of students‟ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures However, the task was finally completed by some students with higher proficiency levels Students worked in groups of three doing Task and representatives answered orally Generally, the responses from the students showed that they had a little difficulty in doing True/False exercises From the researcher‟s observation, most of the students showed their confusion in dealing with finding main ideas The reason for this is that the teacher rarely conducted this kind of activity in reading class In addition, students had no appropriate techniques The teacher‟s approach to this task was unsuitable For Unit 11 (National Parks), the investigator observed class 10A3 The reading text is about some national parks in the world There are two while-reading tasks in this lesson Before doing Task 1, the teacher asked the students to skim the passages, notice some words needed to explain and divided class into groups of five The activity lasted seven minutes Sometimes the teacher supported if any groups needed help The task was done without difficulties In Task 2, the teacher guided her students to find out key words for each question in groups, introduced some techniques and then let them answer in pairs One more activity was employed Students played a game in groups of five The activity seemed to be suitable for students‟ level and the text content A good atmosphere was 36 created Consequently, after the while-reading stage, most of the students understood the text thoroughly The last observation was done in class 10A6 with Unit 12 (Music) This is a familiar, interesting topic, so the students were willing to participate in activities The students were asked to Task after skimming the text The teacher also encouraged her students to activate their knowledge relating to the text About two thirds of the participants got actively involved in completing the activity, giving and exchanging the information and trying to make few guesses for the text The rest of the students were found unwilling to participate in the activity When conducting Task 2, the teacher provided her students with certain key words The students worked in groups of five and answered in pairs As a result, after while-reading stage, which lasted 25 minutes, some students showed their interest and understanding the text while a certain number of students did not An explanation for this is that these students felt bored with the activities conducted by the teacher They wanted to have more challenging tasks In short, the observation helps the researcher have better understanding about the teaching and learning reading parts, especially teachers‟ adaptation of while-reading tasks to improve students‟ reading ability The chapter has presented the methodology; the data obtained from the two survey questionnaires and class observation, and the data analysis The next chapter will focus on major findings and suggest some approaches used in adapting while-reading tasks to improve reading ability for Grade-10 students 37 CHAPTER MAJOR FINDINGS AND SOME SUGGESTED APPROACHES FOR ADAPTING WHILE-READING TASKS TO IMPROVE READING ABILITY FOR GRADE-10 STUDENTS 4.1 Major findings The major issues addressed in the paper are summarized by briefly answering the two research questions as follows 4.1.1 Research question 1: What are the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards whilereading tasks in English 10 textbook? Although most of the teachers and students at Yen Dinh High School are aware of the importance of reading, it is still ranked the second behind grammar and vocabulary This is because of the main purpose of teaching and learning English at Yen Dinh High School As mentioned above, passing the final exam is considered the most important purpose of teaching and learning at school so both teachers and students there focused mostly on grammar rather than on other aspects of language The survey results in the questionnaire for students indicate that most of the students had positive attitudes to while-reading tasks However, not all of them satisfied with their teachers‟ approaches The limitation of grammar and vocabulary made them difficult to complete tasks Moreover, monotonous tasks in reading texts affected students‟ interest in learning reading For the teachers, being aware of the important role of while-reading tasks, they all have tried their best to improve their teaching method in order to meet their students‟ need However, some of them still reveal some shortcomings in the way they deliver their lessons due to the lack of experience, their persistence in using traditional teaching method or their limitation of language knowledge From the data analysis, it is clear that dealing with while-reading tasks is a challenging activity that both teachers and students meet 4.1.2 Research question 2: What have teachers and students done to improve reading ability? The study reveals that the students are passive learners with too much dependence on teachers, peer, and dictionaries They not take much reading outside classroom to extend vocabulary, consolidate grammar and develop a general command of their English study 38 The study also shows that some teachers sometimes designed extra while-reading exercises or activities in order to make their students more interested in reading However, the exercises are not diverse, appropriate and effective enough The teachers, in fact, still applied traditional strategies in teaching reading Most of them focused on presenting new words and grammatical structures rather than instructed their students to use some useful techniques such as skimming, scanning, guessing new words, etc They have not made use of pair work and group work in the process of teaching reading It can be concluded that their approaches of adapting while-reading tasks are not suitable That is why their reading lessons could not be effective 4.2 Some suggested approaches for adapting while-reading tasks to improve reading ability for Grade-10 students What have been analyzed and discussed in chapter shows that teaching and learning reading, especially while-reading tasks at Yen Dinh High School are not very effective and satisfactory The Grade-10 students more or less know something about reading skills and they apply them in dealing with the reading tasks However, the number of the students being effective readers is modest, while the rest of the students seem to be ineffective ones Thus, it is time the teachers did something to help their students as well as themselves overcome the difficulties and get more effective reading lessons The approaches suggested here hopefully can serve as a tool to enable teachers of reading at Yen Dinh to become more successful 4.2.1 Raising the students’ awareness of the importance of reading in learning grammar and vocabulary According to the survey, most of the students preferred learning grammar and vocabulary to learning to read There is nothing wrong with such an expectation However, their expectation seemed to be resulted from the traditional ways of teaching grammar and vocabulary separately from texts in which grammar and vocabulary are used This traditional approach was evidently ineffective Therefore, teachers need to raise the students‟ awareness of the importance of learning grammar and vocabulary through reading texts This can be achieved by teachers‟ shift away from the teaching of grammar and vocabulary separately to a text-based or discoursebased approach to grammar and vocabulary This approach is believed to help the students 39 not only improve their reading proficiency but also their grammar and vocabulary, and their knowledge of the language in general 4.2.2 Training students into strategic readers Findings of this study reveal that teachers focused just on getting the students to complete the reading tasks They seemed to be concerned only with the students‟ performance without caring for how the students actually read This product-based approach to reading did not bring about the desired outcome This was justified by the students‟ low reading proficiency Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to move away from the product-oriented approach to teaching reading to a process-oriented approach In the process-oriented approach, the teachers can either integrate strategy training into reading activities or teach the students appropriate reading strategies Such training should follow the following procedures First, the teacher tells the students the strategy Then she needs to demonstrate how the strategy can be applied In the next step, the students are asked to try out the strategy Finally, they evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy and make suggestions for modifications if necessary 4.2.3 Adapting the textbook Difficult tasks may demotivate the students to read Therefore, the teachers need to understand the students‟ needs in order to adapt the textbook appropriately Adaptation involves reordering the tasks, breaking tasks into small activities, removing irrelevant tasks, adding new tasks that are relevant to the students‟ needs If the teacher just base their teaching completely on the textbook without attempting to adapt the textbook, their teaching is undoubtedly less effective Grade-10 students often find reading tasks are difficult and boring because of their limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures This raises the need to enrich vocabulary and grammatical structures by first of all applying a text-based approach to grammar and vocabulary Then, depending on the specific needs of the students, materials for extensive reading should be provided to the students These materials for extensive reading should meet the following requirements: - The reading materials are easy enough - There is variety of reading materials on wide range of topics - Students can choose what they want to read 40 PART III CONCLUSION Conclusion Teaching and learning reading comprehension has become more and more important in secondary schools Teachers of English are, therefore, trying their best to find more useful approaches to help the students develop their reading ability This study is conducted to investigate the teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards while-reading tasks in English 10 textbook It also focuses on how teachers help students with the while-reading tasks The researcher, then, suggests some effective approaches for adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School The findings show that teachers as well as students are fully aware of the important role of while-reading tasks in a reading lesson The study has also looked into what efforts have students made and what difficulties they cope with when dealing with while-reading tasks On the other hand, the findings of the study indicate that there is a big gap between what the teachers have done to apply while-reading tasks and what students prefer The majority of students prefer having supplementary reading texts or for extensive reading They want their teachers to provide them with reading strategies, how to tasks efficiently Besides, it reveals that the teachers not make full use of games and visual aids in order to catch students‟ interest Coming from the real situation of teaching and learning reading, especially while-reading tasks at Yen Dinh High School, in this study, the researcher has offered some suggested approaches for adapting while-reading tasks to improve reading ability for Grade 10 students The researcher believes that these suggestions will be of help for high school English teachers in general and for English teachers at Yen Dinh in particular Limitations and suggestions for further study Due to the shortage of time and the lack of practical experience, all the issues of the teaching process cannot be covered as a whole It is expected that the further studies might include all the students in the school The quality of teaching and learning reading in English as a result can be step by step improved Furthermore, mistakes are also inevitable in the thesis because of the limitation of time, references and ability Comments and recommendations would be highly appreciated to better the thesis both in content and in the form 41 REFERENCES Brown, H D (1990) Principles of Teaching and Learning Prentice Hall Regents, New Jersey Crookes, G&Gass, S M (eds) (1993a) Tasks and Language Learning: Integrating Theory and Practice [M] Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Goeff Dean (2000) Teaching Reading in Secondary Schools David Fulton Publishers Gillham, B (2000) Developing Questionnaire Continuum, London and New York Goodman, K S (1971) Reading a Psycholinguistic Guessing Game In Harry Singer and Robert B Ruddell (Eds) Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills Cambridge: CUP Hamer J (1989) The practice of English Language Teaching 1st ed Longman Hamer J (2001) The practice of English Language Teaching 3rd ed Longman Long, Michael, and Patricia, Porter (1985) “Group work, interlanguage talk and second language acquisition.” TESOL Quarterly 19 10 Moore, K D (1992) Classroom Teaching Skills McGraw-Hill, Inc 11 Nunan, D (1989) Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom Cambridge University Press 12 Nunan, David Task-based Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 13 Nuttall, C (1982) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language 1st ed Oxford: Heinemann 14 Nuttall, C (2000) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language 2nd ed Oxford: Heinemann 15 Rubin, J & Thomson, I (1994) How to be a more Successful Language Learner Boston: Heinle & Heinly Publishers 16 Skehan, P., 1998/1999 A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press 17 Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching Cambridge: CUP 18 Van H V (2006) Tieng Anh 10 Nxb Giaoduc 19 Wassman, R & Rinsky, A.L (1993) Effective Reading in a Challenging World Prentice Hall 20 Williams, E (1984) Reading in the Language Classroom New York: Macmillan I APPENDICES APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionnaire is intended for the study “Adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School” We are grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire, which hopefully takes you just little time Please be assured that the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence Thank you very much! Please tick or write answer where necessary How is reading skill important to you? A Very B Rather C Normal D Little E Not at all Do you think reading can help you ……? A improve other language skills B broaden your knowledge of the world C enrich your vocabulary D improve your grammar E others (please specify)… How you find the role of while-reading tasks? A Very important B Important as other parts C Less important than other parts D Not important at all What you think about while-reading tasks? A Too difficult B Difficult C OK D Easy E Too easy Do you feel reluctant to while-reading tasks? A Yes, always B Yes, often D No, I like doing them very much C Yes, sometimes E No, I them willingly Besides while-reading tasks in the textbook, does your teacher design other while-reading exercises or activities to make you more interested in reading? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Never II If yes, what kind of exercises does your teacher often use and which you feel enjoyable? While-reading exercises Your teacher often use You enjoy Questions and answers T/F exercises Multiple choice exercises Finding the topic sentences Finding synonyms and antonyms Blank filling Reordering exercises Completing exercises Matching exercises Finding equivalents How often does your teacher limit the time of doing exercises? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely E Never What problems are you facing in learning reading? A Your limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures B Lack of background knowledge C The limited time D Lack of appropriate reading techniques 10 What you often to overcome difficulties? A Wait for the ring answer when the teacher correct B Ask the teacher for help C Discuss with friends to find out the right answer D Search for reading materials on the Internet 11 How would you like to participate in while-reading tasks? A Work individually B Work in pairs C Work in groups (of to students) 12 What you expect from your teachers to help you overcome difficulties? A Encourage you to activate your previous knowledge into reading text B Offer you as many chances to read the passage as you expect III C Provide you with certain key words D Suggest you essential reading techniques needed for each kind of reading tasks E Exploit different kinds of reading materials suitable to your reading ability and your interest F Others (please specify): …… Thank you very much for your cooperation! IV APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is intended for the study “Adapting while-reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade-10 students at Yen Dinh High School” We are grateful for your goodwill and cooperation in truthfully completing the questionnaire, which hopefully takes you just little time Please be assured that the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence Thank you very much! Please tick or write answer where necessary How is reading skill important to your students? A Very B Rather C Normal D Little E Not at all What you think about while-reading tasks in English 10 textbook? A Very bad B Bad C OK D Good E Very good Besides while-reading tasks in the textbook, you design other while-reading exercises or activities to make your students more interested in reading? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Never How often you use the following while-reading exercises in a reading lesson? While-reading exercises Questions and answers T/F exercises Multiple choice exercises Finding the topic sentences Finding synonyms and antonyms Blank filling Reordering exercises Completing exercises Matching exercises Finding equivalents Often Sometimes Rarely Never V How often you limit the time of doing exercises? A Always B Usually C Sometimes D Rarely E Never What problems are you facing in teaching reading? A Students’ limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures B The lack of students’ background knowledge C The limited time D Students’ lack of appropriate reading techniques E Large classes F Others (please specify) What you often to help your students overcome difficulties in reading? A Encourage your students to activate their previous knowledge into reading text B Offer your students as many chances to read the passage as they expect C Provide your students with certain key words D Suggest your students essential reading techniques needed for each kind of reading tasks E Exploit different kinds of reading materials suitable to your students’ reading ability and their interest F Others (please specify): …… Thank you very much for your cooperation! VI APPENDIX CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLISTS A Lesson profile Aims: Setting: - Time allowance: - Class: - Unit: Teacher: Learners: B Observation Aspects observed Comments Students’ interest in reading lessons Students’ attitude towards while-reading tasks Students’ involvement in the while-reading tasks Students’ reaction to teacher’s techniques Students’ preferences for teacher’s techniques Students’ interaction with each other while completing while-reading tasks Overall comments: ... 1. 1 Reading and teaching reading skills 1. 1 .1 Definition of reading 1. 1.2 Types of reading 1. 1.2 .1 Intensive reading 1. 1.2.2 Extensive reading 1. 1.3 Characteristics of an effective reader 1. 1.4... approaches for adapting while- reading tasks The researcher hopes that the study ? ?Adapting while- reading tasks in English 10 to improve reading ability of Grade -10 students at Yen Dinh High School? ?? will... task? 12 1. 2.2 Definition of reading tasks 12 1. 2.3 Features of reading tasks 13 v 1. 2.4 Components of reading tasks 13 1. 2.4 .1 Goal 13 1. 2.4.2 Reading materials 14 1. 2.4.3 Arrangement 15 1. 2.4.4