Đa dạng hóa các hoạt động đọc trong sách giáo khoa lớp 8

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOANG LAN CHI DIVERSIFYING READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOK: ACTION RESEARCH STUDY IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HA NOI (Đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc sách giáo khoa lớp 8: Một nghiên cứu hành động trường cấp Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi, 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES HOANG LAN CHI Diversifying reading activities in english textbook: action research study in a secondary school In noi Đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc sách giáo khoa lớp 8: Một nghiên cứu hành động trường cấp Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha Hanoi, 2020 DECLARATION I hereby declare that I am the author of the report entitled “Diversifying reading activities in English textbook: Action research study in a secondary school in Ha Noi”, submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies - Vietnam National University I declare that the material is original, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright, and has not previously been submitted to this university or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her precious and continuous guidance throughout the year while I was doing this research Her invaluable support and encouragement, unconditional dedication and enthusiasm kept me inspired during the accomplishment of the research Without these, the thesis could not have been completed I am grateful to all the professors for their valuable lectures, which contributed to lay the foundation for this thesis I would like to thank my colleagues, who gave me important advice on implementing the plan, thank my students who were willing to participate in the research and fulfilling the questionnaire responsibly Their participation was so significant to the completion of my research Finally, I would like to thank my family for their encouragement and continuous support while I made every effort to complete this paper Hanoi, May 30th 2020 Hoang Lan Chi ii ABSTRACT The research was conducted in a secondary school with grade 8th English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students with a view to investigating the impacts of diversifying reading activities on the teaching and learning of reading skill, and students‟ attitudes toward its application The thesis followed the action research framework Participants of the research were 50 EFL students in grade 8, studying in the same English class at a secondary school in Hanoi Data were collected by questionnaires, filled by the students, and the teacher‟s observation Analysis of the data showed that the diversification of reading activities was useful in that it made the learning of reading skill more effective, motivating and accessible to students Also, there was a positive change of students‟ attitudes towards learning reading skill Therefore, it is concluded that diversification of reading activities was beneficial and should be employed EFL classes iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES vi LISTS OF TABLES vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale .1 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions .3 1.3 Scope of the study Methods of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Design of the study .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background of reading .6 2.1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension 2.1.2 Classification of reading 2.1.3 Stages of a reading lesson .12 2.2 Teaching and learning reading 16 2.2.1 The importance of reading in foreign language learning 16 2.2.2 Factors in teaching and learning reading 16 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Action research framework 22 3.1.1 What is action research? 22 3.1.2 Action research cycle .23 3.1.3 Reasons to choose action research 24 3.2 Context of the study and the material used 25 3.3 Participants of the research 26 iv 3.4 Procedures 27 3.5 Data collection instruments and analysis 31 3.5.1 Questionnaires 32 3.5.2 Classroom observation .32 3.5.3 Data analysis 33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 34 4.1 Data collected from the pre-questionnaires 34 4.1.1 Students‟ attitudes toward the importance of reading skill and its benefits 34 4.1.2 Students‟ interest in reading and reading lessons 35 4.1.3 Students‟ opinions on the difficulty level of the reading skill, reading essons and individual reading activities in the textbook 37 4.1.4 Students‟ problems in learning reading skill 41 4.2 Data collected from observation 42 4.3 Data collected from the post-questionnaires 44 4.3.1 Students‟ attitudes towards diversifying reading activities 44 4.3.2 Students‟ interest in reading and reading lessons after the diversification of reading activities .45 4.3.3 Students‟ opinions on the benefits of diversifying reading activities .46 4.3.4 Students‟ opinions on the usefulness of diversified reading activities 48 4.4 Summary 50 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .51 5.1 Recapitulation 51 5.2 Implications 54 5.3 Limitations 56 5.4 Recommendations for further research .57 REFERENCES 58 APPENDIX I v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1– A model for thinking about reading comprehension (Snow, 2002, p.12) Figure The action research spiral (Kemmis, McTaggart & Nixon, 2014, p.19) 23 Figure Students‟ attitudes toward the importance of reading skill 34 Figure Students‟ attitudes toward the benefits of learning reading skill 35 Figure Students‟ interest in reading 36 Figure 4 Students‟ interest in reading lessons .36 Figure Students‟ opinions on the difficulty level of reading skill 37 Figure Students‟ opinions on the difficulty level of reading lessons 38 Figure Evaluation of students‟ behaviour and class atmosphere .42 Figure Students‟ opinions on the usefulness of diversifying reading activities 44 Figure Students‟ interest in reading and reading lessons after the diversification 45 LISTS OF TABLES Table The topics and focused reading skills in grade English textbook 25 Table The diversified reading activities .28 Table Students‟ opinions on the difficulty level of the reading activities in the textbook .39 Table Students‟ demand for help in reading lessons 40 Table Students‟ difficulties in learning reading 41 Table 4 Students‟ attitudes about the benefits of diversifying reading activities 46 Table Students‟ opinions on the usefulness of diversified reading activities 48 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter mentions the background and rationale to conduct the study, states the aims, scope, and organization of the graduation thesis 1.1 Rationale English is widely considered the international language in many countries in the world and is popularly used by people from different countries to communicate with each other when they meet Due to the popularity of English in both social and work-related situations, the ability to use this language has become a criterion to evaluate job applicants in a number of companies and organization around the world Aware of the important role of English, in Vietnam, a national project on enhancing the teaching and learning of English was issued over ten years ago English has become a compulsory subject in school curriculum the teaching and learning of that international language has received increasing attention English teachers, therefore, are expected to their jobs well to improve their students‟ English ability To be able to use English, language learners are supposed to have sufficient exposure and practice different skills, among those, reading is one of the most important ones Reading is not just a means of maintaining social interaction or gaining word knowledge but also important to the process of learning (Watkins, 2017) Reading plays a very crucial role in learning and mastering of foreign language like English (Pathan & Al-Delsi, 2013) In learning a foreign language, reading is an essential skill to acquire knowledge and exchange information (Dlugosz, 2000), as Watkins (2017) stated, reading is “a crucial source” of comprehensible input, and the sufficient exposure to a huge amount of such input is essential to be successful (Watkins, 2017, p.14) Obviously, the excellence of reading skill eases students reading process, thus helps them acquire more knowledge from a variety of reading materials in English Being good at reading also has the potential to help improve students‟ overall language skills due to the fact that their vocabulary knowledge and exposure to the target language use are increased, which is supposed to enhance students‟ vocabulary retention and increase the possibility for the words learnt to be used in students‟ speaking and writing This is because good reading texts provide models for writing and even speaking, also introduce new topics, thus stimulate discussion and the opportunities to study the language knowledge Thanks to this, it is true to say that learners “read to learn” (Burns, 1988, p.1) Though important, reading is a complex and multifaceted activity (Demiröz, 2010) and it is a complicated skill since it requires the combination of “attention, memory, perceptual processes, and comprehension processes” (Kern, 1989, p.31), therefore, in order to help students‟ improve this skill, it is essential for English teachers to provide enough opportunities for their students to practice reading (Pathan & Al-Delsi, 2013) In Vietnam, especially at secondary school level, reading has always received a great deal of attention from both the teachers and the students However, despite the teachers‟ and students‟ effort, students “do not have very strong feelings that reading in English is enjoyable” (Sùentürk, 2015) So far, a number of methods have been employed by teachers to deal with the obstacles in teaching and learning reading Diversifying reading activities is among the techniques applied by a number of teachers of English in their teaching process However, researches focusing on such specific technique as diversifying reading activities to investigate its impacts on the teaching of reading and students‟ attitudes towards its application remain insufficient Nor there is any similar study looking at this issue at secondary schools Similar problems occur in my school My students often complain that reading is rather difficult, boring, thus demotivating Therefore, as a teacher, I tried diversifying reading activities in the textbook in the hope to make students more interested in reading Besides, there have not been any statistical reports on the application of this technique; therefore, in order to investigate the impacts of the diversification technique on my secondary students‟ learning as well as their Benefits of diversifying reading activities Response I know more vocabulary I know more grammar knowledge I have more background knowledge I know how to guess word meanings basing on the given contexts I understand some equivalent expressions I know more types of reading questions I can apply suitable strategies in doing a particular type of question I can read faster It takes me less time to complete a reading activity I can understand the texts more easily I find it easier to complete reading exercises I find reading lessons more interesting I am more confident when learning reading I feel less stressful with reading lessons and exercises Others: ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… How useful you think the following diversified reading activities are? Please put a tick to the boxes with which you agree A Very useful No B Moderately useful C Slightly useful Reading activities A Pre-teaching vocabulary Explaining difficult grammar structures Providing some background knowledge about the reading topics Reviewing reading strategies V D Not useful B C D Changing open-ended questions into multiplechoice questions Changing open-ended questions into gap-filling exercises Changing open-ended questions into True/ False questions Changing the type of question which requires students to write a full question for a given answer into choosing/ filling the correct question word to complete a question Finding the words/ expressions that have similar meaning to the given words/ phrases 10 Translating the texts/ difficult sentences in the texts into Vietnamese 11 Completing a sample presentation by filling the right information from the text into the gaps 12 Completing a mind-map based on information Thank you! VI given VIETNAMESE QUESTIONAIRE (Bảng khảo sát 1) Khảo sát nhằm tìm hiểu u thích, thói quen vấn đề học kĩ đọc em Hãy chọn câu trả lời em cách khoanh vào câu trả lời tích vào tương ứng Cô cảm ơn em Em thấy kĩ đọc quan trọng việc học tiếng Anh? A Rất quan trọng quan trọng B Khá quan trọng C Không quan trọng D Khơng Theo em, lợi ích việc học kĩ đọc gì, tích câu trả lời em vào tương ứng Lợi ích việc học kĩ đọc Phản hồi nâng cao kĩ khác hiểu biết thêm giới làm giàu vốn kiến thức từ vựng biết thêm kiến thức ngữ pháp đóng vai trị hình thức giải trí Ý kiến khác: ………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………… Mức độ yêu thích em hoạt động đọc nào? A Rất thích thích B Khá thích C Khơng thích D Khơng Em có cảm thấy hứng thú tham gia học kĩ đọc không? A Rất hứng thú hứng thú B Khá hứng thú C Không hứng thú D Không Em đánh giá độ khó kĩ đọc? A Rất khó B Khá khó C Khơng khó VII D Khơng khó Em đánh giá độ khó tập đọc hiểu sách so với khả đọc hiểu thân? A Rất khó B Khá khó C Khơng khó D Khơng khó E Ý kiến khác: …………………………………………… Em có thường xuyên cần trợ giúp thầy cô bạn bè học kĩ đọc không? A Rất thường xuyên B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Khơng Những khó khăn em học kĩ đọc gì? Hãy tích vào tương ứng với câu trả lời em A: Hoàn toàn đồng ý B: Đồng ý C: Phân vân D: Không đồng ý Khó khăn học kĩ đọc Kiến thức từ vựng cịn hạn chế Khó hiểu câu có ngữ pháp phức tạp Hiểu nhầm ý câu từ vựng đa nghĩa Chủ đề học không quen thuộc Câu hỏi diễn đạt khác so với cách diễn đạt đọc Khơng có đủ thời gian để hoàn thành Em chưa quen cách làm số dạng tập Khó phân biệt ý ý bổ trợ Kĩ đọc em chưa tốt Tốc độ đọc chậm Vấn đề khác: ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… VIII A B C D Em đánh giá độ khó dạng đọc sau đây? Hãy tích vào tương ứng với câu trả lời em A Rất khó stt 10 11 12 B Khá khó C Khơng khó Hoạt động đọc hiểu Trả lời câu hỏi trắc nghiệm Xác định đúng/ sai Trả lời câu hỏi có từ để hỏi Xác định tiêu đề đoạn văn Tìm từ đọc để hồn thành câu/ đoạn văn Viết câu hỏi cho câu trả lời Đoán nghĩa từ dựa vào ngữ cảnh Tìm đoạn văn có chứa thơng tin chi tiết đưa câu hỏi Chọn từ/ cụm từ có ý nghĩa tương đương với từ/ cụm từ đọc Chắp nối vế câu để tạo thơng tin hồn chỉnh Hồn thiện sơ đồ thông tin Cảm ơn em! IX D Khơng khó A B C D VIETNAMESE QUESTIONAIRE (Bảng khảo sát 2) Khảo sát nhằm tìm hiểu quan điểm em việc đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc hiểu Hãy chọn câu trả lời em cách khoanh vào câu trả lời tích vào tương ứng Cơ cảm ơn em Em thấy việc đa đạng hóa hoạt động đọc hữu ích nào? A Rất hữu ích B Hữu ích C Khơng hữu ích D Không hữu ích Em cho biết mức độ hứng thú em tiết học kĩ đọc hoạt động đọc đa dạng hóa? A Rất hứng thú B Khá hứng thú C Không hứng thú D.Không hứng thú Em có cảm thấy đọc dễ tiếp cận hoạt động trước/trong/sau đọc đa dạng hóa khơng? A Có B Phân vân C Khơng Mức độ yêu thích em hoạt động đọc nào? A Rất thích B Khá thích C Khơng thích D Khơng thích Em đánh giá mức độ phù hợp tập đọc hiểu sau điều chỉnh so với khả đọc hiểu thân? A Rất phù hợp B Phù hợp C Không phù hợp D Không phù hợp E Ý kiến khác: …………………………………………… Em có thường xuyên cần trợ giúp thầy cô bạn bè làm tập đọc điều chỉnh không? A Rất thường xuyên B Thường xuyên C Thỉnh thoảng D Không Việc đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc mang lại lợi ích cho em? Hãy tích vào ô tương ứng với câu trả lời em A: Hoàn toàn đồng ý B: Đồng ý C: Phân vân X D: Khơng đồng ý Lợi ích việc đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc A B C D Em bổ sung kiến thức từ vựng Em hiểu thêm số kiến thức ngữ pháp Em có thêm kiến thức chủ đề đọc Em đốn nghĩa từ dựa vào ngữ cảnh Em hiểu số cách diễn đạt tương đương Em làm quen với nhiều dạng câu hỏi khác Em biết cách áp dụng kĩ đọc phù hợp với dạng Tốc độ đọc hiểu em nhanh Em thời gian làm Em hiểu nội dung đọc cách dễ dàng Em hoàn thành tập đọc hiểu cách dễ dàng Em thấy học đọc trở nên thú vị Em tự tin làm tập đọc hiểu Em thấy bớt căng thẳng học kĩ đọc Lợi ích khác: ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………… Em đánh giá mức độ hữu ích hoạt động đọc đa dạng hóa sau đây? Hãy tích vào ô tương ứng với câu trả lời em A Rất hữu ích Khơng hữu ích Stt B Hữu ích C Khơng hữu ích Hoạt động đọc Giải thích từ Giải thích cấu trúc khó Bổ sung kiến thức chủ đề đọc Nhắc lại kĩ trả lời phù hợp dạng câu hỏi đưa Chuyển câu hỏi dạng mở thành câu hỏi lựa chọn Chuyển câu hỏi dạng mở thành câu hỏi dạng điền từ vào chỗ trống Chuyển câu hỏi dạng mở thành câu hỏi dạng chọn Đúng/ XI A D B C D 10 11 12 Sai Chuyển dạng viết câu hỏi cho câu trả lời cho sẵn thành dạng chọn/ điền từ để hỏi phù hợp Tìm từ/cụm từ có ý nghĩa tương đương với từ/ cụm từ cho sẵn Dịch khóa/ số câu khó khóa sang tiếng Việt Điền thơng tin phù hợp để hồn thành thuyết trình mẫu Hồn thành sơ đồ thơng tin dựa thông tin cho sẵn Cảm ơn em! XII OBSERVATION SHEET FOR TEACHER Lesson: Date: _Time _ stars = very good; stars = good; 2stars = slightly good; star = not any good Students’ behaviour during the lesson stars = moderately good; Evaluation - following teacher‟s instructions - actively working in pairs/ groups - participating in all class activities - being willing to share the answers with the whole class - class atmosphere - students‟ attention important notes: …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… XIII SAMPLE LESSON PLAN Unit7: Pollution Period 62: Lesson 5: Skills I Objectives: By the end of this unit, students can: - Read for general and specific information about water pollution - Talk about the causes and effects of water pollution as well as ways to reduce it II Teaching aids: - Flashcards/ Pictures - Powerpoint lesson, projector - Worksheets - Student‟s book III Procedures: Activities Teacher’s activities Students’ activities 1.Warm up (5’) To review the *Choose the correct words to fill in the following sentences - Do the task previous lesson and lead in the new lesson 1.Scientists say that exhaust fumes are our city A poison B poisoning 2.Many seabirds were because of the oil spill A die B dead Waste from households will gradually the lake A contamination B contaminate Tree can’t grow here because the soil is too A pollute B polluted *Answers: poisoning XIV dead contaminate polluted *Have Ss this activity in pairs Ask each other Yes/ No reading(5’) Activity 1: To lead SS to the One student looks at the picture A questions to find out the main content of the text work in pairs to find the differences between the two pictures 2.Pre on page 12 while the other looks differences between the at picture B on page 15 Ss have to two pictures - T distributes the set of questions she prepared at home One set for student A and one set for student B to ask and answer - T may model asking and answering questions with a good student For example: T: (picture A): Are there five S1 reports on differences and other can add some more ducks in your picture? S1: (picture B): Yes, there are Are the ducks black in your picture? -Remember and copy T: No, they aren't They're white - Call on one student to report on the differences Other Ss can add some more - Ask Ss what the pictures tell them (water pollution) Lead to the second activity *Represent some important words quickly (ground water, beneath, pollutant, untreated water, herbicides, XV source…) 3.While- Reading (15’) To focus on * Ask Ss to read the passage quickly and answer the questions Read the passage quickly and answer the questions - Tell Ss that the first two reading for questions ask for general general and specific information while the rest focus on details information about + T guides Ss to read the first water pollution sentence of a paragraph to identify the main idea Activity 2: + T guides Ss to focus on the key words in the questions, look for the key words in the text and read that part of the text to find the answers of a specific question - Let Ss underline parts of the text that help them with the answers - Have Ss compare their answers before giving the answers to T - For questions that most of the class can‟t at the first attempt, T changes into multiple choice questions with options for students to choose (T shows the questions and the answers choices on her slides) - Check the answers with the whole class and give the comments XVI - Ss can underline parts of the text that help them with the answers -Ss give the answers before class Key 2: 1.The second paragraph tells about the causes of water pollution 2.The third paragraph tells about the effects of water pollution 3.It's the water beneath the Earth's surface 4.They are industrial waste, sewage, pesticides, and herbicides 5.They are pollutants from storm water and the atmosphere 6.They use herbicides to kill weeds Activity 3: * Remind Ss quickly of the way to this type of exercise -Ss read the sentences - For example, in sentence 1, the key words are drinking water, untreated and outbreak -Let Ss locate the key words in the passage and pick the suitable quickly to underline the key words -Ss locate the key words in the passage and pick the suitable words to fill words to fill each blank For each blank instance, for the blank in sentence 1, a noun should be filled in - Have some Ss read aloud their answers Confirm the correct ones - Tell students that some key words may be paraphrased Give them examples of paraphrased expressions XVII - Give time for Ss to the exercises - Check the answers with the class Key 3: cholera polluted water die dead aquatic plants - Give students some key expressions and the paraphrased ones picked up from the reading text and activities and ask them to match the key expressions with the paraphrased ones Post -Reading – Speaking(15’) To focus on talking about the causes and effects of water pollution as well as ways to reduce it Activity 5: * T ask students to work in groups and scan the text again to pick up the ideas and put the ideas into the correct parts (effects, causes, solutions) of the diagram Tell students that they can paraphrase the ideas with their own words XVIII - Ss work in groups - Ss shares their answers Activity 6: * Get Ss to share their answers and check with the whole class - Ss work in groups * Give students a sample presentation with some gaps and a number of given words/phrases/ expressions from the text Ask -Ss give a presentation students to choose suitable about water pollution words/phrases to fill in each blank -Others listen and give Do a modelling and ask students to use the ideas in the diagram to make a presentation about water comments pollution - Get Ss to practice in groups *Ask one group to give a presentation about water pollution Each member of the group has to present some parts of the diagram -Have other groups listen and give comments - If the class size is small and time allows, all the groups can present Homework (2’) - Give Ss some exercises in the workbook Write down - D1,D2,D3(page 7,8,9) - Prepare a summary of the reading with some gaps, ask students to choose a word from the text to fill in each blank to complete the summary XIX ... secondary school In noi Đa dạng hóa hoạt động đọc sách giáo khoa lớp 8: Một nghiên cứu hành động trường cấp Hà Nội M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 81 40231.01 Supervisor:... Not difficult difficult difficult difficult (4) (3) (2) (1) 28 50 16 16 58 20 2 .84 28 50 12 10 2.96 54 38 3.44 48 40 3.3 58 32 3.44 58 30 3.42 60 34 3.52 56 36 4 3.44 choice questions Answering... The benefits of learning reading skill 100 % 90 80 68 64 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Improve other Broaden language skills knowledge of the world 88 82 54 Enrich vocabulary knowledge Improve grammar