Using portfolio in teaching reading skill to second year non english major student at university of economics and business vietnam national university

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH HOA USING PORTFOLIO IN TEACHING READING SKILL TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS – VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (Vận dụng hồ sơ tập vào việc giảng dạy kỹ đọc cho sinh viên năm thứ hai không chuyên Tiếng Anh trường Đại học Kinh tế - Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Cohort: MA 16 HANOI, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH HOA USING PORTFOLIO IN TEACHING READING SKILL TO SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS – VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI (Vận dụng hồ sơ tập vào việc giảng dạy kỹ đọc cho sinh viên năm thứ hai không chuyên Tiếng Anh trường Đại học Kinh tế - Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Cohort: MA 16 Supervisor: Đinh Hải Yến, M.Ed HANOI, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ………………………………… ACKNOWLEDMENTS ……………………………………………………… ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………… LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ………………………………………… PART I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………… I.1 Rationale of the thesis …………………………………………………… I.2 Objectives of the thesis …………………………………………………… I.3 Scope of the thesis ………………………………………………………… I.4 Method of the thesis ……………………………………………………… I.5 Design of the thesis ……………………………………………………… PART II: DEVELOPMENT ………………………………………………… Chapter 1: Literature Review ………………………………………………… 1.1 Reading skill ……………………………………………………………… 1.1.1 Definition of reading skill ……………………………………………………… 1.1.2 Reading subskills ………………………………………………………………… 1.1.3 Role of reading skill to non-English major students ……………………… 1.1.4 Requirements for the teaching and learning of reading skill for nonEnglish major students ………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Portfolio …………………………………………………………………… 1.2.1 Definition of portfolio ………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Types of portfolio ……………………………………………………………… 1.2.3 Characteristics of portfolio …………………………………………………… 1.3 Using portfolio in teaching reading skills ……………………………… 1.3.1 Portfolio in practice …………………………………………………………… 1.3.2 Typical gains of using portfolio in teaching reading skill ………………… 1.3.3 Typical pitfalls of using portfolio in teaching reading skill ……………… Chapter 2: Methodology ……………………………………………………… 2.1 The course ………………………………………………………………… 2.2 Participants ……………………………………………………………… 2.3 Research questions and data collection instruments …………………… 2.3.1 Survey questionnaires ………………………………………………………… 2.3.1.1 Pre-portfolio questionnaire ………………………………………………… 2.3.1.2 Post-portfolio questionnaire ………………………………………………… 2.3.2 Portfolio experiment …………………………………………………………… 2.4 Data analysis instruments ……………………………………………… Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion of major findings ………………… 3.1 The participants ………………………………………………………… 3.2 The effectiveness of the reading portfolio ……………………………… 3.2.1 The learning of the introduced reading subskills …………………………… 3.2.2 The teacher’s and learners’ gains through the reading portfolio ………… 3.2.2.1 Gains for the learners ………………………………………………………… 3.3.2.2 Gains for the teacher ………………………………………………………… 3.3 Difficulties in applying reading portfolio to non-English majors ……… 3.4 A feasible portfolio model for non-English majors …………………… PART III: CONCLUSION …………………………………………………… III.1 Summary of previous parts …………………………………………… III.2 Conclusions ……………………………………………………………… III.3 Implications for English teachers ………………… III.4 Recommendations for further study …………………………………… REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX 1: PRE-PORTFOLIO QUESTIONNAIRE ……… APPENDIX 2: PORTFOLIO INSTRUCTION ………………… APPENDIX 3: TEACHER’S HANDOUTS …………………… APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ READING ENTRIES …………………… APPENDIX 5: PORTFOLIO COVER PAGE ………………… III VII XXXI XXXVII LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Table 2.1 Criteria to assess students’ reading portfolio ……………………… 20 Table 2.2 Introduced reading subskills and corresponding reading tasks …… 22 Figure Figure 3.1 The participants’ frequency of reading in English ………………… Figure 3.2 Reasons for difficulty in reading English texts ……………………… PART I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Rationale of the thesis Not only recently, teachers and learners in higher education have complained about serious shortcomings of traditional learning and testing, in which learning is only conceived as the accumulation of stimulus-response association Moreover, most testing systems used in Vietnamese universities consist of only written tests, and mainly focus on checking students‟ memorization of rules or concrete items of knowledge rather than assessing their effort, real understanding or ability to apply knowledge in real situations Meanwhile, the modern society and the labour market are requiring graduates to have higher-order cognitive skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, analyzing data, and being able to present facts and opinions orally or in written form (Dochy, 2001; as cited in Birgin & Baki, 2007) Those are practical skills that help employees fulfill their increasingly demanding jobs in a competitive environment In short, there seems to be a gap between what the society requires and what the educational system offers To bridge the gap mentioned above, it is necessary for university education to provide learners with realistic knowledge and practical skills Moreover, assessment is required to measure both on-going efforts and learning outcomes More importantly, training students to be active and independent learners should be the ultimate educational aim In order to so, the only way is letting students take responsibility for their own learning, design their own learning plan, seek out additional learning materials, assess their own progress, and cooperate with others in learning In this regard, portfolio is claimed to be a teaching and learning tool that creates such activeness and autonomy in learners In the world, various kinds of portfolio have been used since the early of 1990s in teaching foreign languages and have shown promising results In Vietnam, portfolio has gradually become a favourable teaching tool at many universities as it combines both instruction and assessment Moreover, portfolio focuses on various language and learning skills not just concrete language items However, this tool has been mainly applied to English major students as it requires much time, effort and higher-order cognitive skills As for non-English majors, portfolio is assumed to be not feasible To check validity of such assumption, the writer has selected the topic “Using portfolio to teach reading skill to second-year non-English major students at University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi” to conduct a study 10 I.2 Objectives of the thesis This study aims at investigating the implementation of portfolio and examining its effects on teaching reading skill to second-year non-English major students at University of Economics and Business – Vietnam National University Hanoi (UEB) It is hoped to build up a feasible portfolio model and offer suggestions for the teaching and learning of this basic receptive skill Specifically, answers to the following research questions are sought: What are portfolio‟s effects on improving learners‟ reading skill? What are the problems emerging in the implementation process? What are possible adjustments to tailor the common portfolio design and make it more suitable to non-English majors? I.3 Scope of the thesis Portfolio can be used for various reasons – assessing learners‟ performance, teaching concrete language items, or assisting learners in improving their language skills Within the scope of this study, portfolio is manipulated mainly as a teaching tool to help students build up and enhance their awareness of the importance of reading skill, as well as train them how to apply basic reading subskills effectively in comprehending English texts Specifically, portfolio is intended for strengthening only the reading skill as such concentration would ensure better results than conducting an unfocused research spreading over all four skills As mentioned above, it has become common to apply portfolios to students of English major However, to their non-English major counterparts, this teaching tool is quite new Consequently, the study selects second-year non-English majors at UEB as the tentative subjects For these learners, English is not the top priority but still a necessity as their future jobs majoring in Finance and Banking, International Economy, or Business Administration all require good English proficiency Furthermore, reading skill would be a useful tool for these learners to develop other English skills as well as knowledge to widen other subject areas Additionally, adjustments suggested in this thesis target at non-English major students only They can be altered to match specific teaching and learning conditions Selection of those adjustments is decided according to pedagogical theories of specialists and teaching experience of the writer of this thesis 11 I.4 Method of the thesis The study is carried out in form of an action research, conducted by the writer herself as a practitioner in EFL teaching and concurrent with the teaching and learning process Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected in order to get a full view of the effects that the designed portfolio brings to classroom practice To collect desired data, two research instruments are made use of, namely survey questionnaire and portfolio analysis As for the first instrument, there are two questionnaires – the pre-portfolio questionnaire and its post-portfolio version They were manipulated to gather information to answer three research questions In addition, teacher‟s notes and informal talks between learners and the teacher – mostly occurring during break time – are used to obtain detailed information about students‟ feedback and suggestions However, these data are merely students‟ opinions; thus, quite subjective Accordingly, to improve validity of the research results, submitted portfolios are analyzed from the pedagogical standpoint to reveal effectiveness and feasibility of reading portfolio I.4 Design of the study The study consists of three parts: Part I: Introduction This part introduces the objectives, scope, and organization of the study Part II: Development This is the main part of the study It is divided into three chapters Chapter I: Literature Review Theoretical background relevant to the topic and critical survey of related articles, books and other resources are presented Chapter 2: Methodology This chapter presents the detailed procedure of the study: the ESP course, population selection, and methodology for data collection and data analysis Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion of major findings This chapter deals with the findings drawn out from the analysis of data The findings and discussion are based on information gained through the two questionnaires, informal conversations between participants and the researcher, as well as the students‟ portfolios Part III: Conclusion Major findings of the study are summarized in this part Besides, implications for English teachers and recommendations for further research are presented 12 PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature Review As the study is centered on the use of reading portfolio to non-English majors, two key terms are clearly defined, namely reading skill and portfolio This chapter is wholly distributed to review relating theories and practical studies so that these two terms are understood precisely and applied successfully to non-English major learners 1.1 Reading skill 1.1.1 Definition of reading skill Reading is a common term but defining it is not easy Most authors tend to define the term by pointing out its characteristics rather than giving a concrete definition According to Nunan, reading is “essentially concerned with meaning, specifically with the transfer of meaning from mind to mind: the transfer of a message from writer to reader” (2000, p.3) As for Nuttall (1996), he views reading in relation with communication and as a process with the ultimate aim of approaching the writer‟s underlying idea in the text As such, these authors consider reading as an interactive process in which reader and writer are key participants However, unlike face-to-face communication, the writer is not present; which brings much challenge and even the risk of misunderstanding to the interaction Perhaps because of the writer‟s absence, Anderson focuses mainly on the interaction between the reader and the text in building meaning He further describes that: A synergy occurs in reading which combines the words on the printed page with the reader‟s background knowledge and experiences Readers move through the printed text with specific purposes in mind to accomplish specific goals Anderson (1999, p.1) Similarly, in Silberstein‟s words (2002, p.12), reading is “a complex information processing skill in which the reader interacts with text so as to (re)create meaningful discourse.” The mentioned viewpoints persuasively reject the old conception that reading is merely a receptive process in which the reader passively absorbs the written text In short, reading is the integration of the direct interaction between the reader and the text, the indirect interaction between the reader with his/her prior knowledge and experience and the writer Another way to understand a notion is looking into its components As for reading, they are its subskills The part below will discuss major reading subskills 13 1.1.2 Reading subskills Basing on application level, Nuttall (1996) suggests two groups of important reading subskills that a learner should develop They are word attack skills and text attack skills The first group, word attack skills, helps students deal with difficult vocabulary items such as idioms, multi-meaning words, sub-technical vocabulary, text-structuring words and pin-down words, i.e words with abstract meaning that can only be inferred from textual cohesion This group of skills includes a number of subskills as following:  Identifying key words and ignoring inessential words  Assigning meaning to a word using structural clues like grammatical function, morphology  Guessing word meaning from the context  Using a dictionary The second group, text attack skills, deals with above-word level with the aim of getting as closely as possible to the writer‟s message Subskills belonging to this group include:  Understanding syntax  Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices – i.e pro-forms like it, our, this, then, one, so and comparatives; elliptical expressions as in “They came although they were asked not to (come)”; lexical cohesion including synonyms, hyponyms, and metaphor  Interpreting discourse markers that signal the sequence of event, discourse organization, or the writer‟s point of view     Recognizing functional value: naming, explaining, evaluating Recognizing text organization Recognizing presuppositions underlying the text Recognizing implications and making inferences The above list is quite thorough but sounds rather complicated to readers Anderson (1999) offers a simpler enumeration by just mentioning understanding main ideas, making inferences, predicting outcomes, and guessing vocabulary from context; or skimming, scanning, previewing and reviewing text as listed later in his book In Harmer‟s opinion (2003), important reading subskills consist of only skimming for the gist of a text and scanning for particular bits of information Sometimes, these two subskills are integrated into two types of reading: extensive - reading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning and intensive reading - reading a short text for details 77 DISTINGUISHING FACTS FROM ASSUMPTIONS/OPINIONS A fact is information that has been proven to be accurate, whereas an assumption is an idea that might or might not be true but has not been proven As for an opinion, like an assumption, it is an idea that people might disagree about An opinion expresses a belief, idea, or feeling One way to distinguish facts from assumptions/opinions is to be aware of certain signal words - Some words and expressions that indicate a fact are these: … found proof …, … a known fact …, … evidence … - Some words that indicate assumption are these: believe, suggest, apparently, seem, may/might - Words indicating opinions include modals (should, shouldn‟t, ought to), but most are adjectives or adverbs such as: bad(ly), brilliant, exquisite, favourite, horrible, interesting, surprising, too, etc Another way is asking yourself “Would some people disagree with this?” If your answer is yes, then it might be just an opinion/assumption  E.g.: Most people believe that women talk more than men Women talk more than men: F/A/0 A recent study at Emory University helps to shed light on the roots of the difference The researchers studied conversation between children age 3-6 and their parents They found evidence that parents talk very differently to their sons than they to their  daughters Parents talk very differently to their sons and daughters: F / A/0 Traditional Japanese weddings are more beautiful than the new Western-style ones: F / A/0 Practising exercise: Read the article “No hidding place for the irresponsible business” – page 94 and decide each of the following statements is a fact (F), or an assumption (A)/an opinion (O) What clues you base on to make such decision? The food industry is responsible for obesity Sharing music files on the Internet is illegal BSR is facing great demand for assistance from its membership Campaigners now care about working conditions in factories in the developing world Oil and mining groups often involve in corruption in developing countries There are too much fat and sugar in Kraft‟s food Social and environmental reporting has risen sharply over the past two years More than half the FTSE250 companies now produce annual reports Some sectors like hotels and leisure, software and computer services are not transparent enough 10 Consumers can have it all, demanding such high standards of companies while refusing to change their lifestyle 78 BUSINESS BRIEF – UNIT 11: ETHICS BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION Whether persuading key officials to give authorisation to set up in business, grant government contracts, or just let your goods through customs, the alternatives for the word bribe are many and varied: kickback, sweetener (AmE), backhander (BrE) and the greasing of palms (international) The law courts, if it gets that far, will refer to illicit payments and defendants in such cases may just talk about commissions If payments go to slush fund to finance a political party, this form of corruption may be referred to as sleaze, especially by journalists THE CORPORATION AS GOOD CITIZEN All businesses increasingly want to be perceived as good citizens Different types of business face different ethical issues Following the scandals at Enron and WorldCom, which gave a false view of their profits, despite the work of their auditors, the outside accountants who are meant to prevent this, there has been pressure on legislators to improve accounting standards When the strain of competing gets too much, competitors may go for the easier option of price fixing, so that each can maintain a reasonable profit margin Competitors who this form a cartel This is an area where outsiders may only find out what is going on if one of the managers involved contacts the authorities Someone doing this is a whistleblower Financial institutions try to prevent insider trading by erecting notional barriers between different departments to prevent someone in share trading from discovering from the mergers department that a particular company is involved in merger talks and that its share price may soon rise Financial institutions also have to guard against money-laundering, where money passes through the banking system in a way that disguises its criminal origins Company selling personal finance promise to ensure that clients are sold appropriate products for their needs, and thus avoid misselling Manufacturers increasingly claim that their products are green or environmentallyfriendly in all stages of their production, use and disposal Clothing companies claim to trade fairly and that their products were not made in sweatshops paying subsistence wages and using child labour Companies in general will talk about equal opportunities, or in the US, their affirmative action programme, to ensure that people are recruited and promoted on the basis of merit and not discriminated against on the grounds of race or gender CODE OF ETHICS AND MISSION STATEMENTS A company‟s internal code of ethics contains its ethical credo and may cover any of the issues above Some of these issues may also be referred to in its mission statement All the issues mentioned here are part of the wider picture of corporate social responsibility Task: Divide the terms in bold into three groups: the terms you already know the meaning; the terms you can guess meaning from context or the word form, and terms you have to look up in references, then - Explain the terms you already know the meaning in your own words - Guess meaning of the terms in the second group and clarify your clues - Check meaning of the other terms 79 READING STRATEGIES UK government backtracks over bribery By Jean Eaglesham Bribery by UK companies operating abroad is being reduced by “education rather than prosecution” after the government said it would not strictly enforce laws introduced just two years ago The World Bank has estimated the annual global cost of corruption at more than $1500bn (£789bn), although experts say it is hard to quantify But Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, told diplomats last year, in internal advice which has only now come to light, that business should be “sensitised” to its responsibilities He said the government would “prefer to change behaviour by education rather than prosecution” Laws making it easier for British companies to be prosecuted in the UK for overseas corruption came into force two years ago, after the government came under pressure from the US, which has long had a ban on corporate corruption in the developing world Only a month before the new UK laws came into effect, Foreign Office staff were instructed to tell executives that “bribery is bad for business The payment of bribes is unacceptable.” But there has yet to be a single prosecution under UK laws Only four allegations have been referred to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and only one is under active investigation The government‟s position appears in tune with companies‟ claims that they need flexibility to operate in countries where small bribes are commonplace The CBI, the employers‟ body, said last night it was “important to have a sensitive approach, because business has to deal with the world as it is, not as it would like to be.” Some executives complain that First World standards not suit the realities of doing business in developing countries They argue that strict enforcement will deter investment Susan Hawley, a consultant to The Corner House, a think-tank, said: “It‟s shocking that the government does not favour prosecutions – the laws are not really going to be taken seriously by the business community until there are some high-profile case.” The Foreign Office has encouraged staff to report serious allegations, but in effect advised them to turn a blind eye to payments of small backhanders to speed up services such as customs clearance “Whilst small payments … are strictly illegal, we not envisage circumstances in which there would be a prosecution,” the memo sent by Mr Straw last year states The Foreign Office said its policy of educating British companies about corruption reflected the fact that it took the issue seriously “It is absurd to suggest that we not treat our work on enforcement … with the utmost importance,” an official said From the Financial Times 80 Read through the whole article In which order does the information appear? Mark key clues in the text which help you order a The UK introduced laws against corruption under the influence of the US b The UK Foreign Office will not prosecute in cases of corruption involving small payments c The cost of corruption to business worldwide is nearly £800 billion per year d Some one say that you can‟t apply the laws of advanced industrial countries to developing countries e No one has been prosecuted under UK anti-corruption laws yet f Jack Straw is British Foreign Secretary (Foreign Minister) The following statements are fact (F), or assumption (A) / opinion (O) Point out your clues a Education is a better method to reduce bribery than prosecution b The annual global cost of corruption is huge c Corporate corruption is against law in the US d Bribery is bad for business e In certain countries, small bribes are quite common f Standards of developed countries are not appropriate to be applied in developing countries What is the key message of the article? Explain your choice a Without doubt, the UK Foreign Office wants anyone breaking corruption laws to be prosecuted, however small the offence b There are signs that the UK Foreign Office will not want people to be prosecuted for minor offences against the corruption laws c The UK Foreign Office has said clearly that the only way of reducing corruption is by educating business people, and that it will not prosecute anyone 81 APPENDIX 4: STUDENTS’ READING ENTRIES 82 83 84 85 86 87 APPENDIX 5: PORTFOLIO COVER PAGE 88 89 90 91 ... implementation of portfolio and examining its effects on teaching reading skill to second- year non- English major students at University of Economics and Business – Vietnam National University Hanoi...2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN QUỲNH HOA USING PORTFOLIO IN TEACHING READING SKILL TO SECOND- YEAR. .. not easy to achieve, objective for English teachers in teaching reading 1.1.3 Role of reading skill to non- English major students It is commonly agreed that for non- English majors, reading is an