Using while- reading techniques to improve reading comprehension for the 11th form students at phan dang luu high school

Using while- reading techniques to improve reading comprehension for the 11th form students at phan dang luu high school

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1.Rationale of the study.

Nowadays, English is the most popular language in the world As an effectivemeans of international communication, it is used as the official language in many fields oflife such as economics, politics, science, technology, sports and many others This leads toan increasing demand of learning English There are more and more people who learnEnglish and consider it as an inevitable factor in their work and life.

In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a compulsorysubject, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paidgreat attention to When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only theEnglish language but also its usage And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher,the students have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listeningand speaking in order to communicate in English successfully Among these four skills,reading plays an important role in enriching the students’ general knowledge and inhelping them with their further study later.

Owing to the importance of reading itself, the growing interest in learning Englishin Vietnam creates a wide learning environment It can be seen that the teaching of readingof reading comprehension has been paid in increasing attention to its different aspects Astime goes by, many experts and methodologists have come to understand that readingcomprehension is important not only at schools but also afterwards That is reading helpsstudents as readers develop their language ability in general and comprehension skills inparticular at schools as well as gives them other benefits to avoid cultural and languagebias, etc in daily communication Recognizing the importance of reading, I decide on

choosing “Using While- Reading Techniques to Improve Reading Comprehension forthe 11th Form Students at Phan Dang Luu High School ”

2 Aims of the study

The specific aims of the study are as follows:

- Clarifying the nature of reading comprehension in accordance with someimportant points in teaching this skill.

- Investigating the present situation of teaching and learning readingcomprehension of the 11th form students to find out advantages as well as problems facingboth teachers and students in reading lessons.

- Suggesting useful techniques to develop the reading comprehension skillsin the while- reading stage for the 11th form in Phan Dang Luu high school.

3.Scope of the study

Due to the limitation, all the techniques suggested are used in the while- readingstage And the object of this study is the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school.

4.Methods of the study

To implement this study, the following methods are used:

- Consulting related materials: For the sake of getting knowledge and

useful ideas, I read many books and other materials in addition to earlier researches aboutreading and teaching reading comprehension.

- Delivering survey questionnaire and observing reading lessons: To

fulfill this thesis, two survey questionnaires, one for students and another for teachers andsome reading class observations were carried out to find out the teachers’ and students’attitudes toward teaching and learning reading as well as their working methods.

5.Significance of the study.

The findings of the study are believed to be useful for reading teachers to be awareof the essential role of while- reading stage in a reading lesson Furthermore, thesuggestions for while- reading techniques hopefully can help the students to improve theirreading skills as well as the teachers.

6.Design of the study.

The thesis is divided into three parts The first part is the Introduction whichincludes rationale aims, scope, methods, significance and design of the study The second-Development is the main part which consists of three chapters Chapter I is about review ofliterature relating to reading comprehension Chapter II investigates the present situation oflearning and teaching reading to the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school.Chapter III gives some suggested techniques used in the while- reading stage to developthe reading skill for the 11th form students Part III is the Conclusion of the study.

PART 2: DEVELOPMENTCHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, I attempt to deal with definitions of reading in general and readingcomprehension in particular, types of reading and teaching reading comprehension.

1.1.Theoretical background of reading comprehension

1.1.1 Definitions of reading.

The term “Reading” is widely used in practice However, reading is differentlydefined due to the areas of defining in term of activities or goals at any one level on grade.That is why, no definition of reading can possibly include all points of views and features.Moreover, each one’s definition only reflects what reading means to that person.

However, a careful considered definition of reading is very necessary for thereading teacher Because reading is the most critical aspect of any teaching programme andfor the teachers to decide what they will teach in the classroom Herein, I would like tomention some definitions of reading extracted from different sources on the theme.

Elias and Ingram (1977:55) states:

“Reading was defined as the abstraction of meaning from a visual configuration,and was shown to involve desirably not a painstaking grapheme- by- grapheme decodingbut the postulation of alternatives of meaning which one reduced by the parsimoniousinteraction of the component process with the visual configuration.”

Besides, Goodman (1982) points out reading as psycholinguistic guessing game.Because it deals with how language and thought are interactive, but it operates within asociolinguistic context According to the Gould, Diyanni, Smith and Standford (1990),reading is related to interpretation, making sense of all events taking place around us for aprocess of making potential meanings for readers Especially, Buzan (1997) finds that allcommon reading definitions only relate to a part of the process and an accurate definitionof reading must contain the full range of reading skills, or reading as a multi- level processwhich comprise the following steps:

 Recognition: You are concerned with understanding of alphabeticalsymbols This step occurs instantly before physical reading begins.

 Assimilation: This step starts with word then to the eye and via the opticnerve to the brain.

 Intra- Integration: This step refers to the link of all parts of theinformation being read with all other appropriate parts.

 Extra- Integration: This step requires learners to bring all of theirprevious knowledge to what they read, making appropriate connections, analyzing,criticizing, appreciating, selecting and rejecting.

 Retention: This step requires the basic storage of information of thereaders.

 Recall: This process shows the ability of the readers to get back thestorage when it is needed.

 Communication: This process includes written and spoken in whichinformation is used immediately or eventually It also contains very crucial andoften neglected human function: Thinking- “thinking is your ongoing extraintegration” (Buzan, 1997:34)

Although those reading definitions are of different attitudes to reading, they seemto have some features in common It is because they all concentrate on the nature ofreading To make this point clear, Abbot, Wingard, Greenwood and McKeating (1981: 81)shows that

“Here are two broad aspects or levels First there is basically visual task, that ofdeciphering the marks on the page, the brain receiving signals, from the eyes Secondly,there is cognitive task, that of interpreting the visual information, so the one is not simply“barking at print””

Deriving from those opinions, reading is considered a process in which a readerlooks at and understand what has been written out.

1.1.2 Definitions of reading comprehension

In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of readingcomprehension What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence on what heor she teaches in the class He would know what to teacher and how to make his readinglesson effectively In fact, methodologists have been providing different definitions ofreading comprehension.

According to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension or understanding awritten text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.”

The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding themeaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way.

Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978:9) provide aclearer point of view:

“Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the authorand the reader The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the printed page based onthe individual reader’s unique background of experience Reading is much than justpronouncing words correctly or simply what the author intends It is the process wherebythe printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to anindividual”

According to the above authors, reading comprehension is not only simplyunderstanding what is written, but also is what stimulates students to remember from theirexperiences That knowledge is then used to get meaning out of printed page, but in themind of the readers which included not only facts or details but also emotion, belief andcritical evaluation.

From these opinions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a processof understanding what is conveyed in the text It does not mean that the reader needs tounderstand every single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract therequired information efficiently.

1.1.3 The importance of reading

Deriving from some of reading definitions above, we find that reading is a veryimportant factor in language acquisition It is important because it is considered anessential skill both at school and afterwards Reading takes its place alongside thedevelopment of oral ability in the school programme Reading also gives us as readers a lotof opportunities to contact with different contexts in our daily life Byrne (1988:46)provides three reasons for the importance of reading as follows:

“* It offers language learners another areas of success We should accept that notall students will be good speakers and at least give them credit if they become good readers*It gives the students a skill which they can use on their own (i.e it is a key to self-access work)

* It is likely to be one of the skills that most students will need in the long term.Certainly, it is one that they will always be able to put to use That is, they can read even ifthey do not get any opportunities to speak ”

Generally, no one can deny that reading brings readers an ocean of knowledge ofdifferent areas They can learn more experience of life Then they have necessary benefitsto avoid difficulties in mutual understanding in communication such as: culture shock,language shock due to different cultures, habits, and languages Moreover, reading is alsoan important way of expanding students’ receptive knowledge of language and stimulatingstudents to talk and write.

However, all reasons mentioned earlier show that in terms of classroom activities itis good for students to read but we can not assume that all students are efficient readers.Much depends on how well they have been taught to read in their mother tongue.

1.1.4 Types of reading.

We read different texts in different ways According to the way of reading, we havealoud reading and silent reading Depending on the purpose of reading, we can classifyreading into skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading.

1.1.4.1.1 Aloud reading

Aloud reading is an unnatural activity because most people do not read aloud inreal life, and it is difficult for the speaker to pay attention to the meaning of the text whenreading aloud According to Doff (1988:67), “aloud reading involves looking at a text,understanding it and also saying it Its purpose is not just to understand a text but to conveythe implication to someone else.”

This kind of activity seems to be more popular in the language classroom Itfocuses on the pronunciation of words in the text rather than understanding In reading atext, students come across many new words and phrases that they do not know how topronounce The teacher, in this case may help his students pronounce words by reading thetext orally and loudly.

Aloud reading is often applied for beginners and limited in upper classes because ofsome reasons Firstly, it takes up a long time as students often read slowly when they focuson pronunciation They consequently have not enough time to deduce the meaning of thetext or complete comprehension exercises Secondly, because students are concerned with

pronunciation, it is hardly for them to understand the meaning of the text as Lewis and Hill(1995:110) mention: “Asking a student to read aloud also means that he may concentrateinadequately on their meaning He may read correctly but afterward will not be able to tellwhat he has read”

That is the reason why, only for the early stages of foreign language learning, aloudreading should become an established part of a lesson to help the beginners read words,phrases with correct stress and intonation in a sentence.

1.1.4.1.2 Silent reading

Silent reading is the nearest approach to the essence of reading Because only byreading silently, can the readers best comprehend the written materials in the shortestpossible time.

According to Broughton, Brumfit and other linguistics (1980:92), the nature ofsilent reading skills is far from uniform It is changeable according to the use to which it isbeing put Some of them are mentioned as follows:

 To survey material which is to be studies, to look through indexes,chapter heading and outlines.

 To skim- particularly when one item of information is being sought in amass of other printed information.

 To gain superficial comprehension, as when reading for pleasure orpreparing to read aloud.

 To study the content of what is read in some detail. To study the language in which the material is written.

Through these ways of using reading, the readers’ depth and detail ofunderstanding, of comprehension will be improved effectively.

1.1.4.2 According to the purposes of reading.1.1.4.2.1 Skimming

Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension It is one of specificreading techniques necessary for quick and efficient reading There have been manydefinitions of skimming.

Greenwood (1981:92) writes: “the reader goes through particular passage such asnewspaper article merely to get the gist”

In this term, Douglas Brown has the same opinion but it is clearer than that ofabove author He wrote:

“Skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text for its gist.Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage,the main topic, or massage, or possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas.”

Considering the two opinions, it can be concluded that skimming is a skill thatenables readers to get the main point of the text without being concerned with details Theyonly go through the text very fast to get general sense or the gist of it

In brief, skimming is a very useful study technique to help the learner organize histhoughts and specify what information he can get from a book, so that his reading is moreefficient Hence, skimming should be applied in teaching reading to help students have anoverview of what they read

1.1.4.2.2 Scanning

Similar to skimming, scanning is a necessary technique in reading efficiently.Douglas (2001:308) defines scanning as follows: “Scanning was quickly searching forsome particular piece or pieces of information in a text”

Sharing the same opinion with Douglas Brown, Williams (2001:100) emphasizes:“Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particularpoint of information.” It reveals the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind ofinformation we are looking for and where to find it.

In addition, Grellet (1981:19) gives a more detailed definition of scanning: “Whenscanning, we only try to locate information and often we do not even follow the linearity ofpassage to do so, and scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving whatinformation is relevant to our purpose.”

These authors have the same point that while scanning reader does not need to readform cover to cover, they only look for the information they want by running their eyesrapidly along the lines It can be practised with the great range of texts such as dictionaries,map, advertisements, labels, etc This kind of reading is very useful in reading selectively.

In general, both skimming and scanning are effective techniques for quick andefficient reading It is advisable to make use of them to improve reading comprehensionskills for students in reading classes.

From the mentioned opinions intensive reading’s aim is to achieve fullunderstanding of the logical arguments, attitude, and purposes of the writer as well as hislinguistic means to achieve these purposes.

Sharing the same opinion with Nuttal, Douglas (2001:312) defines:

“Intensive reading is usually a classroom oriented activity in which studentsfocuses on linguistic or semantic details of a passage Reading calls students’ attention togrammatical forms, discourse markers and other surface structure details for the purpose ofunderstanding literal meaning, implication, rhetorical relationships and the like””

In short, intensive reading is a basic classroom activity It is really effective if theteacher and his students know how to fully exploit this activity in class with the help ofreading exercises.

1.1.4.2.4 Extensive reading

Extensive reading is also called “reading for fluency” The students read long textsto have general understanding, to develop fluency in reading or to relax This is an activityinvolving global understanding just as Grellet (1981:4) confirms: “Extensive readingmeans reading longer text, usually or one’s own pleasure This is a fluency activity mainlyinvolving general understanding.”

In Brown’s opinion, besides practising fluency, extensive reading helps studentsenrich their language elements because it is one of the keys to achieve reading ability,linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing (2001:301)

And to Nuttal (1989:168), this kind of reading is also a very useful skill for studentsto widen their knowledge as he wrote: “The best way to improve one’s knowledge offoreign language is to go and live among its speakers The next best way is to readextensively in it.”

To summarize, extensive reading is one of good ways to improve one’s knowledgeof a foreign language because its aim is to cover the content of text in the shortest possibleperiod of time In the language classroom, the teacher must introduce some suitablereading materials to students, as it is useful for them to form a good habit of reading.

1.2 Teaching reading comprehension

1.2.1 Relationship between reading and other skills.

In the process of teaching and learning English, it is very crucial for learners to realizethe integration of language That is the possibilities of other aspects of foreign programme.Therefore, reading skill is closely related to writing, listening and speaking skills Understandingrelations will help learners succeed.

According to Rivers and Temperly (1978), reading skill is not a single skill but anintegrated- language skill Firstly, reading is related to writing That is when students areasked to summarize or continue the reading material such as resume, end of a story, shortdescriptions of the characters, etc secondly, reading is concerned with listeningcomprehension Students may listen to a story, a play… than read it or read first and “listento a worthwhile reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read The aural elementadds vividness and life to the reading unit” (Rivers and Temperly, 1978:259) They furthernote that

“Practice in direct reading of a text which is readily accessible to the students at theirpresent level of knowledge, while they are simultaneously listening to a taped model readingit in meaningful and expressive segments, can help students develop useful habits ofanticipation and syntactic identification in both of these skills.”

Thirdly, that is integration of reading and speaking Reading materials serve as afundamental source for oral presentations as they can base on these ideas they have read todiscuss or debate for their own purposes This is the best way for them to share what theyhave been reading with others.

To summarize, those combinations between reading and, writing, listening,speaking comprehension should be put into serious consideration when teaching andlearning English as a foreign language.

1.2.2 The roles of the teacher and the students in a reading lesson

1.2.2.1The roles of the teacher.

It is natural that in a reading lesson, the students must work actively and individually.It does not mean that the teacher has nothing to do Discussing the roles of the teacher inteaching reading, Richard and Amato (1988) emphasize:

“The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all participants in theclassroom, and between these participants and the various activities and text The secondrole is to act interdependent within the learning teaching group”.

In Richard and Amato’s point of view, the teacher is an organizer of resources Healso plays the role as a guide within the classroom procedures and student’s activitiesduring the lesson.

Being concerned with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Harmer(2001:213) gives an opinion that the teacher needs to create interest in the topic and task.He also needs to work as an organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter.

 An observer: While students are reading, the teacher can observe their progresssince it will give him valuable information about how ell his students are doingindividually or collectively, and will tell him whether to give them extra time, or move toorganize feedback more quickly than he has anticipated.

 A feedback organizer: When the students have completed the given tasks, theteacher can lead a feedback session to check if they have completed the task successfullyor not He may start by having his students compare their answer in pairs or in groups andthen ask for their answers When asking students to give answers, it is effective to ask themwhere in the text they found the information This will help him recognize his students’problems if their answers are inappropriate.

 A prompter: When students are reading the text, its is also necessary to drawtheir attention to the language features in that text He may direct his students to certainfeatures of the text construction, clarify ambiguities and make them aware of issues of thetext structure which they have not come across previously.

Referring to this issue, Moore (1992:5) adds: “The teacher is an environmentalengineer who organizes the classroom space to fit their goal and to maximize learning Theway the physical space of the classroom is organized can either help or hinder learning ”

In this case, it is plausible to create an environment of a communicative classroomwhere meaningful and useful reading activities are carried out, so that the students can bestacquire reading skills and practice other language skills.

In general, the teacher must be aware of what they need to do in a reading lesson.Playing their roles well will certainly help the teacher lead successful reading lessons Itwill help students understand the text efficiently, and at the same time improveconsiderably their reading skills.

1.2.2.2The roles of the students

In communicative language teaching, the learners are regarded as the centre of thelesson It is true in every reading lesson During the reading process, the students play the roleof an active and creative listener as well as readers.

In a reading lesson Students must take an active role as listener They need tolisten to the teacher’s instructions and explanations carefully to find out the way ofrecognizing information and way of deducing new words or grammatical structures.

The students must also be active and flexible readers, it is wise if they work ontheir own during the reading process, make full use of the class time to read and do theexercises to achieve a full understanding of the text Its is necessary for them to find asuitable reading strategy and use their background knowledge to fulfill their tasks becausethe significance of the text as well as the information is not always directly stated inprinted pages

In summary, students are the key factor to decide the success of a reading lesson.Teacher and students ate interrelated to each other during the process of teaching andlearning reading skills.

The roles of the reading texts must be paid attention to in teaching and learningreading skills because an appropriate text is very important in building up pupils’ readingcompetence (Boughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill and Pincas, 1990:102)

In William’s opinion, reading material is any piece of written language It maycome from the integrated course book which includes reading texts, from the

supplementary reading comprehension and reading skills books containing texts andexercises, from the real life (authentic texts) or be simulated texts (1984:23) He furtherdiscusses some criteria which are very useful for the teacher in choosing text for readinglessons Reading materials should not contain a large a mount of language that it is toodifficult for most of the class In addition, a purposeful reading can occur with speciallyprepared texts that imitate real life counter parts but simple language Furthermore, thetopic of the text plays an important role because how difficult or easy a text is depends notonly on the language of the text but on what sort of knowledge the learners bring to the textand how much they like to read it.

Discussing about choosing texts, Nuttal (1982) gives three following criteria:

 Suitability of contents: materials those students will find interesting enjoyable,challenging, and appropriate for their goals in learning English.

 Exploitability of contents: a text that facilities the achievement of certainlanguage and content goals, that is integratable with other skills (listening, speaking, andwriting)

 Readability: a text with lexical and structural difficulty that will challengestudents without overwhelming them.

To the teacher at the secondary school, the text book will be the main source ofreading materials for his students in the reading class He sometimes can use texts outside thetextbook which are both suitable for the students’ level and interesting enough to attract theirattention and encourage them to read.

1.2.3 The three stages of a reading lesson.

A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre- reading stage,while- reading stage and post- reading stage Each of these stages carries its own featuresand purposes and requires different techniques and strategies (William, 1984:37)

In a reading lesson, the pre- reading stage is an important one because it createsmotivation and positive attitude towards the reading text for studnets It will focus theirattention on what they are going to read Concerning the purposes of the pre- stage,Williams (1984:37) writes:

“What the pre- reading phrase tries to do is:

1 To introduce and arouse interest in the topic.

2 To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading.3 To provide some language preparation for the text”

In general in the pre- reading stage, it is necessary to set a good preparation forstudents, provide them the sense of what they are going to do in their reading lesson.

1.2.3.2.1 Aims

While- reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson Without this stage, thestudents will lose the chance to deal with the text to understand the writer’s purpose andclarify the text’s content in detail Williams (1984:38) points out the aims of the while-reading stage:

1 To help to understand of the writer’s purpose.2 To help to understand of the text structure.3 To clarify the text.

He also gives the teacher some questions to ask himself on order to deal with theabove- mentioned aims:

1 What is the function of this text?

2 How is the text organized or developed? (e.g.: a narrative, anexplanation with various examples, an argument and counter argument)

3 What content or information is extracted from the text?4 What may the reader anger or deduce from the text?5 What language may be learned from the text?6 What reading styles may be practiced?

It is clear that, question (1) deals with the aims of understanding, the writer’spurpose, question (2) helps to recognize the text structure and the rest help to clarify thetext content.

The answers to these questions will be a guide for the teacher in this stage.Depending on their answers, the teacher will choose suitable activities for students whichfocus them on exploiting the meaning of the text, and develop their reading skills.

2 Questioning3 Recognizing4 Matching5 Ordering

7 Comparing8 Note- taking9 Completing

10 Decision- making/ Problem- solvingConcerning the while- reading stage’s activities, in his research, William (1984:39)has a more generating idea: “While- reading work should begin with a general or globalunderstanding of the text, and then move to smaller unit such as paragraphs, sentences andwords”

It is clear that all the activities suggested by Sheils can be included in the twocategories mentioned by Williams, i.e reading for general understanding first, and thereading for specific information In the while- reading stage, to direct students to thegeneral understanding of the text, the teacher may ask them to guess the title, to match theheading etc He also may ask students to find out the specific information in the text byanswering the questions, to use the information in the text for completing tables ordiagrams Furthermore, the students can focus only on individual language item bydeducing the meaning of the new lexical items, etc.

In this aspect, Mathews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1999:67) suggest a number ofreading skills in accordance with activities.

Understanding the relationbetween sentences and

1 Jumbled sentences or paragraphs.

2 T circles the references devices in a text and SS workout what they refer to

3 T gives students a passage in which the logicalconnectors are blanked out Students have to read thepassage and work out what the connector must be.

4 Prediction exercises: Students only read the first lineand then predict the next.

Recognizing the effect ofstyle

1 Multiple choice or True/ False questions2 Discussion on the style of the text.3 Parallel passage in different style.Recognizing the 1 Jumbled paragraphs

organization of a text 2 Discussing the function of particular paragraphs.Making inferences True/ false or discussion questions on possible

interpretation of the text

Extensive reading Students red on a self- access basis from a class readingbank.

Skimming for the gist

1 The text is used simply as spring board for discussionon a particular topic.

2 Students read through a passage and then suggest atitle for this.

3 Students match different titles to series of short textswithin a given time limit.

Scanning for specificinformation

1 Underlining or circling the required information in agiven time limit.

2 Pre- questions focusing on specific information

Reading for detail

1 Information transfer activities.

2 Note- taking on the order of events or emotion in atext.

3 True/ false questions.4 Jigsaw reading

Indeed, there are various activities the teacher can choose for his students in thisstage Its is, however, essential to be flexible in this task The selection of any of themdepends on the nature of the reading text and the level of the students Besides selectingsuitable activities, during the while- reading stage, the teacher should bear in mind his rolesof an organizer, observer, assessor and prompter as mentioned in the last part, the roles ofteacher.

1.2.3.3 The post- reading stage

The post- reading stage is the final but not the les important stage of a readinglesson because it is time for students to apply what they have got from the text into real lifecommunication In Williams’s opinions ( 1984: 39), the post- reading stage aims at:

1 To consolidate or reflect upon what has been read.

2 To relate the text to the learners’ own knowledge interest or views.In summary, each of the reading stage carries its own aims and activities It is veryeffective if these three stages are combined flexibly and appropriately for an efficientreading lesson In the while- reading stage, it is necessary to help the students improve anddevelop sub- reading skills such as skimming, scanning, or reading for details If thestudents can acquire these skills, it is easier for them to understand efficiently thesignificance of the text To acquire these skills, students may be instructed to take part invarious activities according to each skill There are numerous activities in this stage Theteacher should be flexible in choosing them for their reading lessons In the process ofreading, asking students to work in pairs or groups is also advisable This may enablestudents to feel more pleasant in reading, encourage the to work harder to improve anddevelop effective reading skills.

3.4 Summary

In this chapter, all the concerning theoretical background of reading comprehensionhas been presented First, some definitions of reading and reading comprehension basingon some linguistics scholars have been presented Second, teaching reading comprehensionconsisting of relationship between reading and other skills, the role of the teacher as wellas the students in the three stages of a reading lesson have been reviewed.

CHAPTER 2:

THE PRESENT SITUATION OF

LEARNING TEACHING READING TO THE 11TH FORM STUDENTS AT PHAN DANG LUU HIGH SCHOOL

2.1 Introduction

Nowadays, together with improvements of other skills of English learning,reading comprehension has been put into consideration at secondary schools in Vietnam.As time goes by, a lot of achievements in teaching reading comprehension can be clearlyseen It is true that quality of teaching and learning reading comprehension in mostsecondary schools has been improved remarkably in terms of the teachers’ methods andthe learners’ attitudes However, there are still some problems facing the reading teachers awell as the pupils.

In order to fulfill this thesis, two survey questionnaires were conducted to the 11th

form pupils and eight teachers of English, especially those who are teaching English to the11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school to get more details of the reality ofteaching and learning reading comprehension at while- reading stage This section dealswith main points: Objects of the study, objectives of the study, methods of study.

2.1.1 Objects of the study

The main objects of this study are:

- One hundred 11th form secondary students at Phan §¨ng Lu high school,most of them have been learning English for nearly six years.

- Ten teachers of English at Phan §¨ng Lu high school, especially thosewho are teaching English to the 11th form students.

2.1.2 Objectives of the study

There are three main objectives of this study The first is to make clear teachersand students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning reading texts The second is to findout students difficulties in learning reading texts, the third is to investigate the methods ofteaching and learning reading texts.

2.1.3 Methods of the study.

To carry out this study, the following methods are used:

- Using survey questionnaire: To find out the present situation of learningand teaching reading to the 11th form students at Phan Dang Luu high school, two surveyquestionnaires, one for teachers and another for students are conducted among students and10 teachers at Phan Dang Luu high school.

- Observing classes: Class observation is also a useful method It gives achance to observe the teaching and learning of reading texts.

2.2 Data analysis and findings.

2.2.1 Survey questionnaires for teachers and students

2.2.1.1Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning reading.

Question 1, 2, 3 in the survey questionnaire 1 and questions 1, 2 in the surveyquestionnaire 2 are conducted to investigate teachers’ and students’ attitudes towardsreading in English, the importance of reading in English and the importance of developingthis skill The results are as follows:

Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards reading in English.

Chart 2

Chart 3: Students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards importance of developingreading comprehension skills

A Very important B Important

C Not very important D No important at all

Chart 3

Chart 4: Students’ and teachers’ opinions about reading texts in English 11textbook

A Interesting C Suitable to student’ level

B Boring D Not suitable to students’ level

Chart 4

Basing on the collected data from Chart 1, 2 and 3, it is obvious that a majority ofstudents and teachers had positive attitudes towards learning and teaching readingcomprehension Most of students were interested in reading in English (chart 1) They gave

various reasons for their choice Firstly, reading is very interesting, it can help studentsrelax after long studying hours Secondly, by reading they can broaden their mind andimprove their background knowledge In addition reading enables them to reinforcevocabulary and grammatical structures and develop other language skills Through thestatistics collected, a fact was improved that to both students and teachers, readingcomprehension stands equal to speaking, listening and writing (Chart 2) And because bothstudents and teachers were aware of the importance of reading comprehension, most ofthem accordingly think that developing reading comprehension is necessary (Chart 3) Thisis a great advantage in teaching and learning this skill.

The next question focuses on the students’ and teachers’ opinion about readingtext in the text book (Chart 4) In response to this question, teachers and students showeddifferent ideas 30% of teachers thought that texts in the textbook were interesting but only15% of students shared the same view point Most students (43%) found that reading textswere boring, 32% of them thought they were not suitable for their level To teachers, alarge number of them (40%) believe that reading texts are suitable to the students’ level,15% of them thought they are boring, and the rest (15%) stated they are difficult to thestudents.

This figure shows a big difference in the opinion about reading texts in thecurrent textbook It may greatly affect the methods on teaching and learning reading textsof students.

Chart 5: Students’ purposes in reading

As can be seen, the purposes of reading in English are various Many studentsthink that reading can help them much in reinforcing language skills and elements andimproving background knowledge

2.2.1.2Students’ difficulties in reading.

Chart 6: Students’ difficulties in reading

A Lack of vocabulary

B Lack of grammatical

C Lack of background knowledgeD Lack of reading skills

Chart 6

The next question (Chart 6) find out students’ difficulties in reading texts.According to the data, many students had more than one and different difficulties Bothteachers and students shared nearly the same opinion about students’ difficulties inreading There is only a great imbalance in the last mentioned difficulty While 30% ofstudents thought it was difficult for them to complete comprehension exercises (lack ofreading skills), only 12% of teachers recognized this This fact may have great effect to theefficiency of reading lessons When teachers do not recognize their students’shortcomings, they cannot help them to overcome these problems In this case, the teachermay not concentrate on developing their students reading skills but providing them withnew vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Students’ difficulties in reading are also various How do the students overcomethese difficulties?

2.2.1.3Students’ and teachers’ methods of learning and teaching reading texts.

Chart 7: Students’ ways of overcoming difficulties

A Wait for the ring answer when the teachers correctB Ask the teachers for help

C Discuss with friends to find out the right answer

25% 24%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%

Chart 8: Students’ ways of reading texts

A Focus on every word for detailed understanding

B Read quickly for general understanding first and then focus on otherspecific information and new words

Chart 8

The next question (Chart 8) is to investigate how often students read a text Ascan be seen, a majority of students focused on new words in reading a text, accounting for61% Only 39% of them skimmed for general ideas, and then focused on other specificinformation and new words This fact is understandable because it is the teacher who askedthe to read according to such way (55%), and only 45% directed them to read quickly forgeneral understanding first and then focused on other specific information and new words.It proves that reading strategies applied in reading classes now are not totally appropriate.Few teachers, in fact, made use of effective techniques (skimming and scanning), but mostof them still used the translation method to exploit the text It was common practice ofstudents to look up new vocabulary items immediately without skimming for the messageconveyed in the text.

Chart 9: Using extra reading exercises in reading classes