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VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH HÒA IMPROVING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH (Nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 trường trung học phổ thông Nam Định thông qua tập trọng điểm) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Course: 20 (2011-2013) HANOI - 2013 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THANH HÒA IMPROVING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH (Nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 trường trung học phổ thông Nam Định thông qua tập trọng điểm) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10 Course: 20 (2011-2013) Supervisor: Assoc.Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ HANOI - 2013 CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT ***** I hereby certify that the thesis entitled IMPROVING GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS THROUGH FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution Signature: Date: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people Therefore, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them Firstly, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.Prof Dr Nguyen Van Do, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time I tried to complete this thesis I am grateful to all lecturers of the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their lectures, especially Mr Le Van Canh, Ph.D for his helpful and practical suggestions I am also grateful to Ms Le Thu Ha, the librarian at the Resource Centre, who is willing to lend me a lot of interesting books and valuable materials for my thesis I also thank my colleagues and students at Ngo Quyen High School for their cooperation in completing the survey questionnaires as well as their willingness to share their ideas on this study Last but not least, I also own a great debt of gratitude to my family, my friends for their support in bringing this study to a success Ha Noi, 2013 Tran Thi Thanh Hoa ii ABSTRACT In many second or foreign language teaching situations, reading receives a special focus In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language, reading has always been offered a great deal of attention both from the teachers and the students Reading is not only considered as a means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place This study is concerned with improving students’ reading comprehension skills through focused tasks The benefits of using focused tasks in reading lessons are affirmed again in this thesis through the studies and the researcher carried out at Ngo Quyen High School, Nam Dinh province These benefits bring considerable effectiveness to teachers and students in teaching and learning reading This is also the main aim of the study and the researcher’s wish In order to achieve this aim and wish, the researcher enters into consideration of the relevant literature and then carries out observing classes, giving questionnaires to them, etc to have necessary findings and analysis At the same time, the researcher also suggests the suitable reading tasks to apply in teaching and learning reading lessons in Tieng Anh 11 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vii List of tables and charts viii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Methodology of the study Design of the study PART II DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: Theoretical Background I.1 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension and purposes of reading I.1.1 What is reading? I.1.2 What is reading comprehension? I.1.3 The purposes of reading I.2 Classification of reading I.2.1 Classification of reading according to manner I.2.2 Classification of reading according to purposes I.3 Stages in a reading lesson I.3.1 Pre-reading stage I.3.2 While-reading stage 10 iv I.3.3 Post-reading stage 10 I.4 Factors in teaching and learning reading 11 I.4.1 The role of the teacher 11 I.4.2 The role of the student 11 I.4.3 The role of reading texts 12 I.5 Factors determining successful reading comprehension 12 I.5.1 Considerations for students 12 I.5.1.1 Reading strategies 12 I.5.1.2 Background knowledge 13 I.5.2 Considerations for teachers 13 I.5.2.1 Steps in teaching reading 13 I.5.2.2.Ways to select materials 14 I.6 Focused tasks and using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14 I.6.1 Focused tasks 14 I.6.2 Using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14 I.6.2.1 Skills involved in reading 14 I.6.2.2 Questions and tasks in a reading lesson 15 Chapter II: Methodology 16 II.1 Situation analysis 16 II.1.1 Setting of the study 16 II.1.2 Participants 16 II.1.3 Reading materials 17 II.2 Instrumentation 18 II.2.1 Instrument 18 II.2.1.1 The questionnaire for the students 18 II.2.1.2 The questionnaire for the teachers 19 II.2.2 Instrument 2-class observation 19 v Chapter III: Data analysis and findings 20 III.1 Data analysis and findings 20 III.2.1 Survey for students 20 III.2.2 Survey for teachers 26 III.2 Classroom observation 28 Chapter IV: Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills and sample work 30 IV.1 Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills 30 IV.1.1 Bases for reading tasks 30 IV.1.2 Suggested some focused tasks 33 IV.1.2.1 Suitability for students’ level 33 IV.1.2.2 Suitability for reading purposes 33 IV.2.Sample work 38 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 Summary of the study 40 Limitation and Suggestion for further study 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX VI vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N: Number CUP: Cambridge University Press OUP: Oxford University Press vii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables: Students’ Attitudes towards reading in English Students’ Attitudes towards purpose of reading English Kinds of tasks students are often asked to Students’ strategies of doing reading tasks Students’ strategies when coming across a new word Students’ interest in doing supplementary tasks Teachers’ attitudes towards students’ problems in reading Charts: Students’ Attitudes towards reading materials Students’ difficulties in doing reading tasks Teachers’ attitudes towards reading texts and tasks in textbook viii The virus secretly attaches itself to the alter files The damage is generally activated by (3) computer's clock Then, any program executed may (4) exposed to the virus including program (5) Through telephone connections Because (6) the increasing incidents of virus infiltration, businesses and agencies (7) becoming wary of sharing software Security policies need to be increased as immunity (8) are being developed  Summary tasks In the summary item, students are usually asked to summarize the text by answering questions or completing the other paragraph based on the first one This item is used in a reading lesson to improve students’ skimming skill Example: Complete the summary of the reading passage (TIENG ANH 11, 2007:127) We need energy to live and work Our major source of (1) is oil Oil is (2) kind of fossil fuel The amount of fossil (3) in the world is (4)… Therefore, we must save it, and at the same time, we must find new sources of energy Geothermal heat and nuclear power are (5) sources of energy They can give us electricity Other alternative (6) are the sun, waves and water These sources are not only (7) and available but also clean and safe for the (8)… People should develop and use them more and more in the future  Finding antonyms or synonyms Many texts make use of synonyms and antonyms to convey their message more clearly It is important for students to be aware of these lexical relations as they often help to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words This item is used to develop sensitizing skill Example: Circle the letter (A, B, C or D) before the word that has the opposite meaning to the italicised word (TIENG ANH 11, 2007:101) Thanh Ba Post office has a spacious and pleasant from office A large B beautiful C cramped 36 D open Our well-trained staff are always courteous to customers A helpful B rude C friendly D open This speedy and secure service of transferring money can be useful A rapid B hurried C careful D slow If you want to send a document and not want to lose its original shape, send it by a fax machine A unique B outdated C change D imaginative  Finding answers for questions These are questions which require students to write down specific answer on paper Therefore, if a student gets the answer right, one is more certain that this has not occurred for reasons other than comprehension of the text When doing this kind of task, students should read the questions before reading the text, which direct them to read the text for specific information Example: Read the text (TIENG ANH 11, 2007:101) and then answer the questions: What is Thanh Ba Post office equipped with? What services are offered at Thanh Ba Post Office? According to the text, what are three different ways of sending a letter? What is the Messenger Call Service used for? What will you have to if you want to get your newspapers and magazines delivered to your house?  Choosing a title or main idea One of the most frequently asked questions in the reading comprehension section is about the main idea or title of the passage The main idea is the most important idea in the reading passage or what is the passage about The main idea relates to the entire passage and not just one part of it Example: Read the passage (TIENG ANH 11, 2007:57) and choose the main idea of the passage 37 A The programme of “Universalisation of Primary Education” in Vietnam B Illiteracy rates in Vietnam C Ethnic minority students’ education programme D The fight against illiteracy In brief, some reading tasks have been advocated on texts of the textbook TIENG ANH 11 It is hope that this may serve as a reference material for teachers of English at high shools IV.2 Sample work Unit 16 - The Wonders of the World (TIENG ANH 11, 2007:179) (Appendix 3) In the pre-reading stage, I designed the matching task I divided the class into small groups of 3-4 students Then I distributed the following handouts for students to the matching task in their own groups Which group finishes it first and has all the correct answers will be the winner After having finished the activity, I wanted to elicit what my students knew about these wonders of the world Then I gave some details about these landmarks and wonders of the world After that I elicited and explained new words by using pictures I gave the pictures with some new words and asked students to guess these words with Vietnamese equivalents In the while-reading stage, I gave students the instruction to the completion task : fill each blank with one of the words in the box I asked students to read through the words in the box and then I reminded students strategies to this task Therefore, students had no difficulty in doing this task and they did the task well within the shortest time Next, I organized a game for students to the next task - finding answers for questions I let students work in pairs and gave detailed and careful instructions as follow: skim the questions to understand them, go back to the first question and locate the information for the question by finding the key words in the passage and mark the place, read the part carefully to find the answer and continue with the rest of the questions Most of the students showed their willingness to join the 38 game and could give the correct answers I also provided the students with True or False task The students were given a list of statements about the text and they had to decide whether they were true or false according to what they had read This task was used to draw the students’ attention to the main ideas of the text In the post-reading stage, the summary task was used I asked students to summarize the text by using some suggested words This activity directed the students to the main points of the text for a full understanding In short, from the findings and from the experiences, the author found out that appropriate and flexible focused tasks in reading lessons would encourage students to involve in these activities eagerly and actively Therefore, teachers should adapt and design suitable tasks in order to suit the students’ needs and interests to improve their students’ reading comprehension skills 39 PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of the study The thesis has presented some useful techniques accompanied by a number of focused tasks to develop certain reading comprehension skills for students Students can skim for the gist, and then scan to locate for specific information or read more for further understanding All these tasks are suggested basing on the theory of reading and teaching reading comprehension It is also based on the present situation of teaching and learning reading at Ngo Quyen High School The actual teaching and learning status was clarified through the two survey questionnaires and some classroom observations at Ngo Quyen High School The statistics indicates that both students and teachers have positive attitudes toward teaching and learning reading, but reading tasks which the teachers used were not sufficient enough to develop their students’ reading comprehension skills It is advisable for them to give more tasks in their reading lessons I also carried out a sample work Previously, I only used reading tasks in the textbook when teaching These tasks are sometimes inconsistent with the level of students and some tasks are not suitable with the development of students’ reading comprehension skills But when using the focused tasks in reading lessons, reading comprehension skills of students have improved Students are interested in participating in reading activities Therefore the effectiveness of learning to read is seen more clearly I think that the teachers should vary reading activities flexibly and appropriately to improve students’ reading comprehension skills Limitations and Suggestions for further study The study was carried out with the author of the study’s great attempts to provide the students at Ngo Quyen High School with useful techniques and tasks for 40 improving reading comprehension skills so that they can reading tasks effectively not only in-class but also out-of-class without help, and suggesting some tasks for the teachers’ teaching reading successfully However, the study still has a number of unavoidable limitations due to limited time, lack of resources and also the author of the study’s doing research ability I hope to receive constructive comments on my thesis For the participants of the study, both of the respondents (teachers and students) involved in the survey are of small size, therefore the findings are not quite of popularity Which leads to the recommended techniques are helpful and effective for the 11th form students at Ngo Quyen High School only The study merely focuses on working out the focused tasks for improving the students’ reading comprehension skills based on the teachers’ and students’ attitudes and their problems in teaching and learning reading Further study on designing supplementary reading texts and tasks in various types for practising vocabulary and language skills is quite a lot of attention 41 REFERENCES Aebersold, J.A & Field, L M (1997) From Reader to Reading Teacher CUP Brown, J.D (1988) Understanding Research in Second Language Learning CUP Carrel, P, J.Devine and D Eskey (1984) Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading CUP Doff, A (1988) Teach English CUP Dublin, F and Olshatain, F (1981) Reading by All Means Wesley Pulishing Company Ellis, R (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition OUP Ellis, R (2003) Task-based Language Learning and Teaching OUP Goodman, K.S (1988) Psycholinguistic Universals in the Reading Process CUP Greenwood, J (1988) Class Reader OUP Grellet, F (1981) Developing Reading Skills CUP Heaton, J.B (1975) Writing English Language Test Longman Hoang Van Van (2007) Tieng Anh 11 Education Publishing House Knott, D (2006) Critical Reading toward Critical Writing New College Writing Centre Lewis, M and Hill, J (1985) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching CUP Nunan, D (1989) Designing tasks for the communicative classroom CUP Nuttall, C (2000) Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language Oxford, UK: Macmillan Education Robert, E.S (1981) Applied Linguistics and Reading International Reading Association Samuel, S and Kamil, M (1988) Models of the Reading Process in Interactive Approaches to Second Language Reading CUP Smith, F (1978 ) Reading CUP Tomlinson, B And Ellis, R (1980) Teaching Secondary English Longman Williams, E (1984) Reading in a Language Classroom Macmillan Publishers 42 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS The following questionnaire is designed for my study on “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh" Your answer to these questions will be highly appreciated and will be valuable help in the development of better ways of teaching reading skills You can be positive that you are not to be identified in any discussions or debates Please put a tick where appropriate Thank you very much for your help! Do you like reading English? Why? Why not? A Like B Dislike What is your purpose of reading in English? A Entertainment B Improving knowledge C Improving English D Information E Interest F Being required by your teacher What kinds of reading materials you like to read? A Text in the textbook B Stories C Articles in newspapers D Other kinds I Which kinds of tasks are you often asked to do? A True or False statements B Gap-filling C Guessing unknown words D Arranging sentence in correct orders E Questions and answers F Multiple-choice items What are your difficulties in doing reading tasks? A The length of the text B The new vocabulary and grammatical items C The topic of the text D The contents of the text How you reading tasks? A Read the text, not pay attention to new words, read again and answer the questions B Read the text, look up new words in a dictionary and then answer the questions C Read the questions, find out the answer in the text What you usually when you come across a new word while you are reading? A Look for its meaning in a dictionary at once B Ask teachers or friends for help C Read the text once, pay no attention to the new words, the read the second time, underline new words and then find out the meaning D Try to guess its meaning Besides tasks in the textbook, you like to supplementary tasks to improve your reading comprehension skills? II A Very much B Not much C Not at all You think that the role of the teacher as a guide in doing reading tasks is A Necessary B Not very necessary C Depending on the texts and tasks 10 How you self-evaluate your reading proficiency? A Very good B Good C Poor Thank you very much for your help and cooperation! III APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS This survey questionnaire is intended for my study on “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh" Your assistance in completing this survey is highly appreciated and will be valuable help in the development of better ways of teaching reading skills Please put a tick where appropriate Thank you very much for your cooperation and assistance! What you think about the reading texts and tasks in the textbook? A They are interesting B They are suitable to students’ level C They are too difficult for the students to read D They are boring Which kinds of tasks you give to your students? A Multiple-choice B Questions and answers C True or False item D Other kinds Do you think reading tasks in the textbook are enough for the students? Do you think it is necessary to give your students training in doing reading tasks? IV A Necessary B Not very necessary C Not necessary at all Do you explain new words and structures before or after your students read the texts? Which problems your students often meet in reading and doing reading tasks? A Limited knowledge B New words and structures C Length of the texts D Others How you teach your students to reading tasks? A Ask them to find out new words and guess their meaning B Ask them to read questions and find answers in the text C Give them meanings of new words and ask them to tasks D Other ways Thank you very much for your cooperation! V APPENDIX TASKS IN SAMPLE WORK I Pre-reading stage  Match the landmarks and wonders of the world with the correct images below Pyramids of Egypt Eiffel Tower TajMahal Statue of Liberty Great Wall Colosseum a b d c e f  Guessing these words with Vietnamese equivalents tomb locks wonder construction ? VI spiral ramp II While-reading stage  Completion task Complete the following sentences with suitable words mysterious ramp tomb chamber spiral wonder Last week we paid a visit to the … of an unknown mandarin The movie was about a … of the world A … is needed at the exit and the entrance for wheelchairs users The Queen’s private … is not opened to public It’s not know why Beson disappeared in … circumstances A snail’s shell is … in form  Finding answers for questions Answer the following questions Where is the Great Pyramid of Giza situated and when was it built? How high and large was the great Pyramid of Giza? What was the purpose of this huge stone pyramid? How did the people of ancient Egypt build The Great Pyramid? According to the passage, what is the boat believed to have been used for?  True or False task The Great Pyramid of Giza was built 256 years ago The Great Pyramid was 147 metres high The Great Pyramid’s structure consisted of approximately billion blocks of stone The Great Pyramid of Giza was built by the Russian pharaoh Khufu III Post-reading stage  The summary task Summarize the text by using some suggested words VII Egyptian pharaoh Khufu 2560 BC to serve a tomb 147 metres high 230 metres square million blocks of stone VIII ... FOCUSED TASKS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH (Nâng cao kỹ đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 11 trường trung học phổ thông Nam Định thông qua tập trọng điểm) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching... and so on Among these issues, I choose to my research on the project entitled “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh” because... and grade 11 students (155 students) who are teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh as follows: 16 * The Students Participants who were drawn from a high school in Nam Dinh,