Teachers and student attitudes towards the reading texts in new headway a survey at kon tum teachers training college m a 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES LE THI HOANG LAN TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE READING TEXTS IN NEW HEADWAY: A SURVEY AT KON TUM TEACHERS’ TRAINING COLLEGE Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) Supervisor NGUYEN HOANG TUAN, PhD Ho Chi Minh City, August 2011 i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitle “Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the reading texts in New Headway: A survey at Kon Tum Teachers’ Training College” is my own work In terms of the statement of requirements for Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution Ho Chi Minh City, August 28, 2011 LÊ THỊ HOÀNG LAN ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Hoang Tuan for his guidance, suggestions, and insight throughout this study I am greatly indebted to the lecturers at Department of Postgraduate Studies, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their valuable teaching that has enlightened my research path My special thanks are still extensive to my TESOL 2007 classmates, who shared the happiness and difficulties with me during the course I would like to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the English teaching staff, the K14 non-major students in the academic year of 2010-2011 at Kon Tum Teachers’ Training College in Kon Tum province Last but not least, to my family, I would like to extend my special thanks for their love, great support and encouragement, especially to my parents, my husband and my sixteen month old daughter iii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards the texts used in New Headway Elementary It also plans to examine students’ reactions towards the teaching methods in order to improve the quality of English learning and teaching at Kon Tum Teachers’ Training College Three types of instruments such as questionnaire, the follow-up informal interviews and classroom observations were used The data were collected through the Vietnamese version of a questionnaire distributed to 261 students, and through the English one delivered to teachers of English of Informatics and Foreign Languages Department The follow-up informal interviews were carried out with 30 students and teachers Eleven classroom observations were also conducted during the academic year of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to analyze the findings The results obtained are as follows: a Readability received both negative and positive comments from the students and teachers Both showed negative attitudes towards lexical difficulty and rather positive ones towards structural difficulty b In terms of suitability of content, both teachers and students felt like the topics of the reading texts However, they did not think authentic texts were suitable for the students’ low-level In term of cultural dimension, in spite of realizing the seamless relationship between culture and language teaching and learning, the teachers and the students confirmed that they did not teach and learn culture effectively in the reading classes c According to the teachers and the students, pre-reading and while-reading strategies enjoyed more favourable opinions than post-reading ones Although they showed negative attitudes towards post-reading strategies, they both thought that preand while-reading strategies were better and more important iv From the findings, some recommendations for teachers of English were made to better the teaching and the learning quality at Kon Tum Teachers’ Training College v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Statement of authorship i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents v List of figures ix List of tables x Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1.2 A DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH SITE 1.3 A DESCRIPTION OF NEW HEADWAY ELEMENTARY 1.4 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 1.7 ASSUMPTIONS 1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE REMAINDER OF THE STUDY Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1 READABILITY 11 2.1.1 Lexical difficulty 12 2.1.2 Structural difficulty 13 2.2 SUITABILITY OF CONTENT 14 2.2.1 Topic 15 vi 2.2.2 Authenticity 17 2.2.3 Cultural dimension 19 2.3 EXPLOITABILITY 20 2.3.1 Pre-reading strategies 21 2.3.2 While-reading strategies 22 2.3.3 Post-reading strategies 23 2.4 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 23 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 25 3.1 INTRODUCTION 25 3.2 PARTICIPANTS 25 3.2.1 Students 25 3.2.2 Teachers 29 3.3 INSTRUMENTS 30 3.3.1 Questionnaire 30 3.3.2 Interviews 31 3.3.3 Classroom observations 32 3.4 RESEARCH PROCEDURE 39 3.5 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 39 Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS 40 4.1 STUDENT DATA ANALYSIS 40 4.1.1 READABILITY 40 4.1.1.1 Lexical difficulty 40 4.1.1.2 Structural difficulty 41 vii 4.1.2 SUITABILITY OF CONTENT 43 4.1.2.1 Topic 43 4.1.2.2 Authenticity 46 4.1.2.3 Cultural dimension 48 4.1.3 EXPLOITABILITY 49 4.1.3.1 Pre-reading strategies 49 4.1.3.2 While-reading strategies 51 4.1.3.3 Post-reading strategies 53 4.2 TEACHER DATA ANALYSIS 55 4.2.1 READABILITY 55 4.2.1.1 Lexical difficulty 55 4.2.1.2 Structural difficulty 57 4.2.2 SUITABILITY OF CONTENT 59 4.2.2.1 Topic 59 4.2.2.2 Authenticity 60 4.2.2.3 Cultural dimension 62 4.2.3 EXPLOITABILITY 65 4.2.3.1 Pre-reading strategies 65 4.2.3.2 While-reading strategies 66 4.2.3.3 Post-reading strategies 69 4.3 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 71 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 72 5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEACHERS 72 viii 5.1.1 Readability and Suitability of Content 72 5.1.2 Exploitability: Teaching reading as a process 76 5.1.3 Raising students’ positive attitudes towards learning reading 77 5.2 STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 77 5.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 78 5.4 SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 78 REFERENCES 80 APPENDICES 84 Appendix A 84 Appendix B 92 Appendix C 100 Appendix D 108 Appendix E 116 Appendix F 117 Appendix G 118 Appendix H 122 ix LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3.1: Age of the respondents 27 Figure 3.2: The average marks of three final exams during three semesters of General English 1, 2, 28 Figure 3.3: How long have the students learned English 28 Figure 3.4: Information about gender of the teacher respondents 29 Figure 4.1: Item 11 44 Figure 4.2: Item 12 44 Figure 4.3: Item 13 45 113 EXPLOITABILITY Strongly disagree Strongly agree 3.1 Pre-reading strategies 21 Pre-reading activities help your students get SA A U D SD SA A U D SD SA A U D SD acquainted with the content of a text 22 Your students can activate their background knowledge when doing the pre-reading activities 23 There are such activities as brainstorming, semantic mapping, and free writing Other comments on pre-reading strategies: ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… 3.2 While-reading strategies 24 While-reading activities help your students SA A U D SD SA A U D SD substantially understand the text 25 Your students can use the technique of scanning to deal with factual questions 114 26 There are questions about a general idea of the SA A U D SD 27 Your students can use the technique of skimming SA A U D SD U D SD U D SD SA A U D SD SA A U D SD text to deal with questions about general information 28 There are questions asking your students to make SA A a logical conclusion from what is given 29 Your students can guess word meanings by using SA A context clues, word formation clues or cognates 30 Your students can distinguish between general and specific ideas 31 The main idea or themes of a text can be identified thanks to using visual and sensory images such as graphic organizers Other comments on while-reading strategies: ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… 3.3 Post-reading strategies 32 Post-reading activities help your students SA A U D SD SA A U D SD comprehend the text 33 Your students focus on meaning, not on grammatical and lexical aspect, of the text 115 34 Your students have opportunities to evaluate SA A U D SD SA A U D SD SA A U D SD SA A U D SD language knowledge 35 Your students are encouraged to make a critical analysis of the textual content 36 There are activities which help your students summarize the content of the text in one sentence or two 37 Post-reading tasks help your students clarify, summarize, evaluate, and analyze the text Other comments on post-reading strategies: ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… 116 Appendix E Interview questions for students Interviewer's Questions What techniques did your teacher use to introduce new words? What you think about teaching new words through translation? What texts in the material you think are too long and difficult? Do you think that the topics of the reading texts are stimulating? What topics you prefer? Do the topics of the reading texts help you exchange your ideas easily? What difficulties did you have in exchanging your ideas? Are you motivated to learn authentic texts? Why or why not? Do you think that learning culture in ESL reading class is important? Why or why not? What reading skills did your teacher focus on teaching in your reading classes? 117 Appendix F Interview questions for teachers of English Interviewer's Questions What techniques did you use to introduce new words? What you think about teaching new words through translation? What texts in the material you think are too long and difficult? Do you think that the topics of the reading texts are stimulating? What topics your students prefer? Do the topics of the reading texts help your students exchange their ideas easily? What difficulties did your students have in exchanging their ideas? Do you think that using authentic texts to teach K14 non-major students is efficient? Why or why not? Do you think that teaching culture in ESL reading class is important? Why or why not? What reading skills did you focus on teaching in your reading classes? 118 Appendix G Unit 2: MEETING PEOPLE (Reading) I OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson learners will be able to:  Understand the form and the style of an informal email  Know about vocabulary used in email  Revise WH- questions and Yes/No questions  Practice writing an informal email at home II VISUAL AIDS: Board, chalk, computer, projector, textbook, powerpoint, cassette III PROCEDURE: Stage Teacher’ s activity I Warm- - Instruct students play the up game “Chase pictures and Students’ activity - Play the game and Objectives - Raise guess the letter: email students’ catch letters” interest in the topic and - Lead- in introduce the new lesson II Prereading - Listen to the teacher - Provide and copy down - Pre- teaching vocabulary: elicit the meanings of the following words: vocabulary Grouping whole class 119 An email in English Switzerland Funny (a) Software- hardware (n) Design (v), designer - Practice pronouncing these words (n) friendly (a) Structure: It + is/ isn’t + to V Email (n,v) - Help students to pronounce these words correctly III Whilereading Task 1: - Ask students to read and - look at the textbook listen to Danka’s email to to read the email and her brother to understand the listen to the tape content of the email Task 2: - Number the - Ask students to number the paragraphs from 1-4 paragraphs from 1-4 - Call on some students to read aloud each paragraphs - Practice reading aloud and translating Developing group reading skills work and whole class 120 and translate into Vietnamese Task 3: - Ask students to match the - Match the photographs with a part of the email photographs with a part of the email Answers: - Do the task individually Photograph 1- Paragraph Photograph 2- Paragraph Photograph 3- Paragraph - Ask students to make the - Make the title for title for each paragraph each paragraph Task 4: - Ask students to change - Work individually sentences into Yes/No to make Yes/No questions individually questions -Then ask them to work in pairs to ask and answer these questions - Work in pairs to ask and answer - Call on some pairs to practice - Give the answers Task 5: - Work in groups of 121 - Ask students write WH questions about Danka’s or - Give answers email - Check -Call on some representatives - Give answers IV Post- - Instruct students and ask - Listen to the teacher Understand the work in reading students to work in pairs to and take notes discuss + Form: the email has two components- the email header and the email content + Style: using simple sentences form and the style of an informal email pairs 122 Appendix H Slide Unit 3: THE WORLD OF WORK THE MAN WITH THIRTE EN JOBS A OBJE CTIVES: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to: - List some jobs (teacher, student, policeman, fireman,… ) - Read comprehension the text fluently - Answer questions about the text B SKILL FOCUS - Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing C TE ACHING AIDS: - Text book, lesson plan Projector Laptop Handout Slide Unit 3: THE MAN WITH THIRTEEN JOBS (Reading) Pre-reading: Task 1: 123 Slide Unit 3: THE MAN WITH THIRTEEN JOBS (Reading) * Vocabulary  a postman  a policeman  a fireman  a taxi driver  a school- bus driver  a boatman  an ambulance man  an accountant  a petrol attendant  a barman  an undertaker Slide Unit – The man with thirteen jobs While-reading: TASK 2; Read about Seumas Answer the questions Where does Seumas live? How old is he? How many jobs does he have? What’s his wife’s name? What does she do? How many people live on Gigha? How many tourists visit Gigha in summer? What does Seumas in the evening? What he and Margaret in the evening? He lives on the island of Gigha in the north of Scotland He’s 60 He has thirteen jobs His wife’s name is Margaret 4 Look at the photos Ask and answer questions with a partner about times in Seuma’s day She works in the shop 120 people live on Gigha What Whatdoes doeshe hedo doat at66o’clock? o’clock? He 150 tourists visit Gigha in summer Hegets getsup upand andmakes makesbreakfast breakfast He makes breakfast, drives the children to school, collects the post from the boat, and delivers the post to the houses Margaret makes supper, and Seumas does the accounts They have a glass of wine and then go to bed 124 Slide Unit - The man with thirteen jobs TASK 3: Listen to four conversations from Seumas’s day After each one answer these questions Is it morning, afternoon, or evening? Who are the people? Where are they? Conversation 3 What is Seumas’s job? Evening Answers: Seumas and Margaret Conversation 1 Afternoon No job – Seumas isn’t working Seumas and a customer in Seumas’s shop Conversation Shopkeeper Morning Conversation Morning Seumas and a woman who lives on the island Seumas and schoolchildren Postman School-bus driver Slide Unit - The World of Work Task 4: Complete the conversations afternoon have A Good Can I two ice-creams, please? B Chocolate or vanilla? A One chocolate, one vanilla please £1.80 Anything else ? B That’s A No, thank you A Only two letters for this morning , Mrs Craig B Thank you very much, Mr McSporran And how ’s Mrs McSporran thismorning ? A Oh, she’s very well, thank you She’s busyin the shop A A glass of wine before bed, my dear? B Oh, yes please A Here you are B Thank you, my dear I’m very tired this evening A Hello, Mr McSporran ! B Good morning, boys and girls Hurry up, we’re late A Can I sit here, Mr McSporran? C No, no, I want to sit there B Be quiet all of you, and SIT DOWN ! Practise the conversations with your partner 125 Slide Unit - The man with thirteen jobs Post-reading: - Talk about your daily life Slide Unit - The man with thirteen jobs A Consolidation:Game 60 50 40 30 20 10 60 50 40 30 20 10 B 126 Slide - Translate the text into Vietnamese 127 ... the texts selected, teaching methods and students’ reading ability On that basis, recommendations would be made to better the teaching and the learning quality at Kon Tum Teachers? ?? Training College. .. Teachers? ?? Training College to the reading texts in New Headway 1.2 A description of the research site Kontum Teachers? ?? Training College in Kon Tum city – Kon Tum Province is the place where teachers. .. 13 can also fascinate them Authenticity If we take a look at the types of the reading texts mentioned above, we can easily realize that the reading texts contain much information about real persons