Acivating prior knowledge in pre reading stsge to promote high school studebts participation and enhance their reading comprehension

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ CẨM NHUNG ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN PRE- READING STAGE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCE THEIR READING COMPREHENSION M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2017 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ CẨM NHUNG ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN PRE- READING STAGE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCE THEIR READING COMPREHENSION Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 60.14.01.11 M.A THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Dr Huynh Anh Tuan Nghệ An, 2017 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission from associates, and have not been published elsewhere Author Trần Thị Cẩm Nhung ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Huynh Anh Tuan, who I believe is the most wonderful supervisor, for his valuable direction and generous assistance while I was doing this project His enthusiasm and positive attitudes were sparkling in such a way that it helped to make my research a serious task to fulfil I would also like to send my sincere thanks to the teachers and students at Hermann Gmeiner high school, Nghe An, who participated in the experiment and assisted me doing the process I am grateful to the administrators and teachers at Vinh University for their cooperation and help during the study I am also in debt of my lecturers, my friends, my classmates as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism Finally, I would like to delicate this work to my parents and family, who have been always supporting me with love and sympathy ABSTRACT This experimental study aims at finding out whether activating prior knowledge promotes high school students’ participation and enhances their reading comprehension Eighty 10th graders participated in the study They were divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group During the experiment, the prior knowledge of the experimental group was activated in the pre-reading stage while that of the control group was not Both groups did a reading comprehension test before and after the treatment This was done to see whether there was any difference in the level of reading comprehension between the experiemntal group and control group before and after the treatment Five observations sessions were carried out in both groups to see whether there was any difference in the level of participation in the two groups It was found that the level of participation and reading comprehension in the experimental group was higher than that of the control group Based on the findings, it is recommended that high school teachers need to explore various methods to activate prior knowledge Implications for enhancing the effectiveness of English teaching and learning reading have been put forward It is hoped that the results of the study can be beneficial for both EFL high school students and teachers TABLE OF CONTENTS Page STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Method of the study 1.5 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Prior knowledge 10 2.1.1 Definition of prior knowledge .10 2.1.2 The role of prior knowledge in language learning 11 2.2 Activating prior knowledge 13 2.2.1 Activating prior knowledge in teaching English 16 2.2.2 Activating prior knowledge in teaching reading 16 2.2.3 Activating prior knowledge in pre-reading stage 17 2.2.3.1 The three stages of a reading lesson .17 -Pre- reading 17 -While- reading .21 - Post- reading 21 2.2.3.2 Activities to activate prior knowledge in pre-reading stage 21 2.4 Previous related studies .22 2.5 Summary 22 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions 24 3.2 Research approach .24 3.3 Research design 25 3.3.1 Research setting 25 3.3.2 Participants 26 3.3.3 Material 26 3.3.4 Date collection methods 28 3.3.3.1 Reading comprehension tests .28 3.3.3.2 Classroom observations 29 3.3.3.3 Interviews 30 3.3.3.4 Document analysis 30 3.3.4 Data collection procedure 32 3.3.5 Data analytical framework 34 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Data analysis 35 4.2 Discussion 40 4.3 Conclusion .41 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Summary of findings .43 5.2 Limitations .44 5.3 Suggestions .45 REFERENCES .46 APPENDICES .48 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Comprehension is of great importance when reading is on the way It requires the readers to have a good understanding of the message underling the text This drives people to be good readers, when they compare what they read or the knowledge they gain to their experience or their memory they gained before to see how they fit with each other This method can be applied into curriculum activities and science, social studies and other research as well However, in fact, teachers sometimes push their student towards the habit of reading the text without concerning about its overall content This may lead to sufficient knowledge being ignored and studying process may not bring highly expected results Activation of pre-existing knowledge may be the root of enhancing their reading comprehension Digging deeper into understanding the whole context is in parallel with reminding existing knowledge can take effect on absorbing information Although understanding at sight may be a task of challenge for somebody, it can be figured out if we set up some conversations with someone else to discuss more about its ambiguous meaning This kind of brainstorming actions can bring doubtful meanings come to the light, which are known with the schema of activating our prior knowledge in pre-reading stage It is of paramount importance when it comes to students who accumulate scientific and academic knowledge on a daily basis It even puts much pressure on second language learners We try to find the answers to the question of whether activating learners' prior knowledge can enhance their reading comprehension, and how it stimulates students’ participation in academic activities Therefore, the author has decided to conduct the study entitled “ Activating prior knowledge in pre- reading stage to promote high school students’participation and enhance their reading comprehension” in the hope that the study could make some contributions to the teaching and learning English for EFL teachers and learners 1.2 Aims of the study This study is to show the play of existing knowledge activation in promoting high school students’ participation and enhancing reading comprehension Foreign language teachers should be aware of the importance of activating learners' background knowledge through the stages of reading activities to better their understanding of the contexts and of the texts themselves The focus of the study is on improving students’ reading comprehension and promoting their participation through activating their prior knowledge in pre-reading stage in an EFL setting This is for those who try to match what they read with what they already know 1.3 Scope of the study Activating prior knowledge can be beneficial in various aspects such as increasing learners’ achievement, motivation and the growth of new learning, etc and in all the three stages of a reading lesson (Marzano, 2000; Wilson et al., 2006; Dochy et al., 1999; Le et al., 2009; Myhill & Brackley, 2004; Mitchell, 2006) However, the study within its scope the two aspects of promoting learners’ participation and enhancing their comprehension through activating prior knowledge in the pre-reading stage The targeted students are grade 10 students at Hermann Gmeiner High School 1.4 Method of the study The approach adopted for the study is experimental research to find out whether activating prior knowledge promotes high school students’ participation and enhances their reading comprehension Four data collection instruments were used: reading comprehension tests, class observations, interviews, and document analysis The pre-test and the post-test were created with the similar number of words, topics as well as difficulties The tests were used to evaluate students’ reading comprehension They were taken to make sure that the participants had reached the desired level of their reading The purpose of class observations is to know the participation of high school students in the lesson In addition to classroom observations, in-depth interviews with teachers were used to collect more data on their experience and their viewpoints on the classroom techniques Finally, in order to achieve the mentioned goal, the teachers carried out classroom activities and techniques to activating prior knowledge in the pre- reading stage 1.5 Organization of the study The study is demonstrated through five chapters In the first chapter, an overview of the existing problem of reading and its consequences is presented After that, the aim, the scope and the method of the study are clarified before the structure of the study is shown In the second chapter, this chapter presents the previous studies related to the thesis and some concepts as theoretical basis for the study The third chapter discusses the research methodology of the study First, the research questions are addressed followed by the research approach The research design is mentioned to depict how the data are collected and analyzed In the fourth chapter, the Findings- will present the data and discussed the results of the study Chapter – will summarize the findings, the limitations of the study and some suggestions for further research are also presented APPENDIX PRE-TEST TO BE OR NOT TO BE VEGETERIAN A strict vegetarian is a person who never in his life eats anything derived from animals The main objection to vegetarianism on a long-term basis is the difficulty of getting enough protein – the body-building element in food If you have ever been without meat or other animal foods for some days or weeks (say, for religious reasons) you will have noticed that you tend to get physically rather weak You are glad when the fast is over and you get your reward of a succulent (tasty) meat meal Proteins are built up from approximately twenty food elements called 'aminoacids', which are found more abundantly in animal protein than in vegetable protein This means you have to eat a great deal more vegetable than animal food in order to get enough of these amino-acids A great deal of the vegetable food goes to waste in this process and from the physiological point of view there is not much to be said in favour of life-long vegetarianism The economic side of the question, though, must be considered Vegetable food is much cheaper than animal food However, since only a small proportion of the vegetable protein is useful for body-building purposes, a consistent vegetarian, if he is to gain the necessary 70 grams of protein a day, has to consume a greater bulk of food than his digestive organs can comfortably deal with In fairness, though, it must be pointed out that vegetarians claim they need farless than 70 grams of protein a day Whether or not vegetarianism should be advocated for adults, it is definitely unsatisfactory for growing children, who need more protein than they can get from vegetable sources A lacto-vegetarian diet, which includes milk and milk products such as cheese, can, however, be satisfactory as long as enough milk and milk products are consumed Meat and cheese are the best sources of usable animal protein and next come milk, fish and eggs 54 Slow and careful cooking of meat makes it more digestible and assists in the breaking down of the protein content by the body When cooking vegetables, however, the vitamins, and in particular the water-soluble vitamin C, should not be lost through over-cooking With fruit, vitamin loss is negligible, because the cooking water is normally eaten along with the fruit, and acids in the fruit help to hold in the vitamin C Most nutrition experts today would recommend a balanced diet containing elements of all foods, largely because of our need for sufficient vitamins Vitamins were first called 'accessory food factors' since it was discovered, in 1906, that most foods contain, besides carbohydrates, fats, minerals and water, these other substances necessary for health The most common deficiencies in Western diets today are those ofvitamins The answer is variety in food A well-balanced diet having sufficient amounts of milk, fruit, vegetables, eggs, and meat, fish or fowl (i.e any good protein source) usually provides adequate minimum daily requirements of all thevitamins New words: succulent (adj): ngon, bổ; physiological (adj):thuộc sinh lí học; consistent (adj): phù hợp; bulk (n): chất xơ; digestive (adj): tiêu hóa; advocate (v): ủng hộ lacto-vegetarianism (n): chế độ ăn chay cho phép ăn số sản phẩm động vật Select the answer which is most accurate according to the information given in the passage A strict vegetarian A rarely eats animal products C never eats any animal products B sometimes eats eggs D never eats protein We feel weak when we go without meat and other animal products A.because we are reducing our food intake B.because we not get enough protein 55 C.because vegetables not contain protein D.unless we take plenty ofexercise Proteins are built up from A approximately twenty different foods B about twenty different vegetables C various fats and sugars D about twenty different amino-acids Physiologically, life-long vegetarianism may not be good because A it makes people very thin B the body must process too much waste C the farmers lose money D vitamin-deficiency diseases may result One thing in favour of vegetarianism is that A vegetable food is easier to digest C vegetable food is cheaper B animal food is less expensive D it is good for the digestion The body's daily need for proteinis A 90 grams B 50 grams C 70 grams D at least 100 grams The digestive organs can comfortably deal with A any quantity of food per day B A limited quantity of food per day C less than 70 grams of food per day D any amount of vegetable foods Vegetarianism is not suitable for growing children because they A need more protein than vegetables can supply B cannot digest vegetables C use more energy than adults D cannot easily digest milk and milk products Slow and careful cooking of mest A preserves the vitamins C makes it easier to digest 56 B breaks down thevitamins D reduces the protein content 10 Most nutrition experts today believe the food weeat should contain A more meat than vegetables B more vegetables than meat C fruit, cereals and fish as well as meat andvegetables D as many different kinds of vegetables aspossible 57 APPENDIX POST-TEST Dried Food Centuries ago, man discovered that removing drops of water from food helps to preserve it, and that the easiest way to this is to expose the food to sun and wind In this way the North American Indians produce pemmican (dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the Scandinavians make stockfish and the Arabs dried dates and 'apricot leather' All foods contain water – cabbage and other leaf vegetables contain as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish anything from 80% to 60% depending on how fatty it is If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food to go bad is checked Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia The methods used vary, but in general, the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun In order to prevent darkening, pears, peaches and apricots are exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur before drying Plums, for making prunes, and certain varieties of grapes for making raisins and currants, are dipped in an alkaline solution in order to crack the skins of the fruit slightly and remove their wax coating, soin creasing therate of drying Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically The conventional method of such dehydration is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110° C at exit This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated horizontal steel cylinder or by spraying them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes In the first case, the dried material is removed from the roller as a thin film which is then broken up into small, though still relatively coarse flakes (thick pieces) In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as a fine powder Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as in soup, the ingredients are dried separately 58 and then mixed Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, and they not need to be stored in special conditions For these reasons they are invaluable to climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them Usually it is just a case of replacing the dried-out moisture with boiling water New words: pemmincan (n): ruốc, scandinavian (n): người X căng-đi-na-vi, stockfish (n): cá khô không muối, Mediterranean (adj): (thuộc) Địa Trung Hải, tray (n): khay, raisin (n): nho khô, minced meat (n): thịt băm Task 2: Select the answer which is most accurate according to the information given in the passage The open-air method of drying food A is the one most commonly used today B was invented by the American Indians C has been known for hundreds of years D tends to beun hygiennic The water content A does not vary from food to food B is greater in green vegetables than in lean meat C is greater in fish than in vegetables D has never been accurately calculated Bacteria which cause food to go bad A cannot live in sunlight B are killed by drying C are in no way dependent on the water content 59 D have their activity greatly reduced by drying Fruit is sun dried A always by the same method B generally on trays C in every country in the world D by spreading it out under glass panels Sulphur fumes are used before drying some fruits A to dry them more quickly B to preserve their colour C to prevent the skin from craking D to kill off bacteria Nowadays vegetables are most commonly dried A on horizontal cylinders B in hot-air chambers C in the sun and wind D using the open tray method Powdered coffee is made A by spraying the liquid over acylinder B in one of two different ways C in the same way as minced meat D by passing through a machine which crushes it into very smallpieces If soup requires recognizable pieces of meat, they are A treated separately B allowed to fall to the bottom of the drying chamber C mixed in later as a fine powder D sold separately in sealed plastic bags Dried foods A are often packed in cans or frozen B are used by soldiers and climbers 60 C need more storage space than soldiers usually have available D are much cheaper than canned or frozen products 10 Housewives like dried foods because they A are quick to prepare B taste better C can be preserved by boiling in water D look fresh and appetizing when cooked 61 APPENDIX Reading comprehension scores and means of the Pre-test Participants Treatment group scores Participants Control group scores A1 18 B1 14 A2 14 B2 14 A3 15 B3 11 A4 16 B4 15 A5 14 B5 14 A6 15 B6 10 A7 14 B7 13 A8 12 B8 15 A9 18 B9 15 A10 17 B10 16 A11 16 B11 14 A12 15 B12 12 A13 14 B13 13 A14 15 B14 13 A15 13 B15 15 A16 15 B16 13 A17 17 B17 16 A18 16 B18 12 A19 16 B19 14 A20 14 B20 13 A21 17 B21 14 A22 16 B22 15 A23 13 B23 12 A24 16 B24 15 62 A25 16 B25 15 A26 17 B26 14 A27 17 B27 12 A28 14 B28 15 A29 17 B29 12 A30 16 B30 16 A31 17 B31 15 A32 14 B32 12 A33 13 B33 12 A34 16 B34 14 A35 18 B35 17 A36 14 B36 12 A37 17 B37 15 A38 12 B38 11 A39 16 B39 15 A40 18 B40 15 N=40 618 N=40 560 Mean 15,45 Mean 14,00 63 APPENDIX Reading comprehension scores and means of the Post-test Participants Treatment group scores Participants Control group scores A1 20 B1 15 A2 15 B2 15 A3 17 B3 12 A4 18 B4 16 A5 17 B5 15 A6 19 B6 10 A7 15 B7 14 A8 17 B8 16 A9 20 B9 16 A10 19 B10 17 A11 18 B11 15 A12 16 B12 16 A13 16 B13 17 A14 15 B14 14 A15 16 B15 15 A16 16 B16 14 A17 18 B17 16 A18 17 B18 13 A19 17 B19 15 A20 16 B20 16 A21 19 B21 14 A22 17 B22 18 A23 14 B23 15 A24 17 B24 17 64 A25 18 B25 16 A26 19 B26 15 A27 20 B27 15 A28 16 B28 16 A29 18 B29 14 A30 18 B30 16 A31 17 B31 15 A32 15 B32 13 A33 14 B33 14 A34 17 B34 15 A35 19 B35 18 A36 15 B36 13 A37 18 B37 16 A38 15 B38 15 A39 17 B39 16 A40 19 B40 17 N=40 684 N=40 605 Mean 17,10 Mean 15,13 65 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ( For teacher) Could you please share some experience you have in teaching pre- reading stage? What teaching methods and techniques did you use to improve your students’ knowledge and skills? What are some activities you often organize for your students? To what extent you think your teaching methods and techniques helped your students? Could you please share your knowledge about role of prior knowlede in the pre- reading? Thank you very much! 66 APPENDIX CLASS OBSERVATIONS Teacher’s name Class observed Obsever Date Time How you feel when it’s time for English lesson ? How you feel when the teacher asks you questions about what you know the topic of lesson ? How you feel when the teacher ask you to read the text ? Scoring sheet Student name : Teacher : Grade 10 : Date : Scoring guide points : Happiest Garfield points : Slightly smiling points : Little upset point : Very upset 67 68 ... in the pre- reading phase to promote their participation and enhance reading comprehension?  Does activating prior knowlеdgе in pre- reading stage promote high school students’ participation and. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY TRẦN THỊ CẨM NHUNG ACTIVATING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IN PRE- READING STAGE TO PROMOTE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION AND ENHANCE THEIR READING. .. additional factor that can affect reading comprehension, I will focus on activating prior knowledge in the pre- reading phase to promote students’ participation and enhance reading comprehension