A study on communicative activities in english reading classes for the 10th from students=nghiên cứu về các hoạt động giao tiếp trong bài học tiếng anh cho học sinh lớp 10

VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ==== ==== A STUDY ON COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH READING CLASSES FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG GIAO TIẾP TRONG BÀI ĐỌC TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Student: VŨ HẢI YẾN, 47A1_ENGLISH Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN LAM, M.A VINH, 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has been finished with the support and encouragement of many people to whom I am grateful First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Van Lam, M.A With her profound knowledge and experience in teaching English as well as great enthusiasm, she has given me a lot of valuable advice, suggestion and encouragement during my researching process I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all my teachers from the Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University for their lectures and advice which are very useful for me to finish this study I am fully grateful to the help of all the teachers and students at Thach Thanh II High School so that I could finish the survey for my study Finally, I wish to thank my family and my friends who have encouraged and supported me during the time of doing this study Though the study has been done with all my attempts, my limitations of ability and knowledge may cause mistakes in the study Therefore, I would like to receive any regard and comment from you on my study Vinh, May 2010 Vu Hai Yen TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKOWLEDGEMENTS i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii ABBREVIATION v PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Reasons for Choosing the Study Aims and Objectives of the Study Scope of the Study Method of the Study Design of the Study PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1.1.1 Aims of CLT 1.1.2 Teacher Roles and Learner Roles in CLT 1.1.2.1 Teacher Roles 1.1.2.2 Learner Roles 1.2 The Communication Continuum 1.2.1 Characteristics of Communicative Activities 1.2.2 Purposes of Communicative Activities 1.2.3 Types of Communicative Activities in Language Teaching 1.3 Reading Skill 1.3.1 Definition of Reading 1.3.2 The Importance of Reading 10 1.3.3 Principles for Teaching Reading in a CLT Classroom 11 1.3.4 Types of Reading Activities in Language Classes 13 1.4 Summary 15 CHAPTER 2: REAL SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THACH THANH II HIGH SCHOOL 16 2.1 Characteristics of the 10th Form Students 16 2.2 Characteristics of the New Textbook “Tieng Anh 10” 17 2.3 Design of a Reading Lesson for the 10th Form Students 19 2.4 Situation of Teaching and Learning English Reading Skill at Thach Thanh II High School 21 2.5 The Survey on the 10th Form Students and Teachers of English at Thach Thanh II High School 22 2.5.1 Aims of the Survey 22 2.5.2 Description of the Survey 22 2.5.3 Result of the Survey 23 2.6 Summary 31 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTED COMMUNICATIVE ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE ENGLISH READING SKILLS FOR THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS 32 3.1 Introduction 32 3.2 Suggested Communicative Activities to Improve English Reading Skills for the 10th Form Students 34 3.2.1 Out of Ten 34 3.2.2 Finding Synonyms 34 3.2.3 Get it wrong 35 3.2.4 Role Play 36 3.2.5 Students Interview 36 3.2.6 Completing Network 37 3.2.7 Crossword Puzzle 38 3.2.8 Lucky Number 38 3.3 Sample Reading Communicative Activities 39 3.4 Summary 48 PART III CONCLUSION 49 3.1 Recapitulation 49 3.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 50 REFERENCES Appendix Appendix ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching A: Answer Q: Question PART I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for Choosing the Study Language is the most important means for people to communicate to each other Nowadays, with the non-stop development of society and the tendency of integration among the countries over the world, English becomes an official and effective international communicative language English is widely used in many fields of life such as science, technology, education, etc As a result, more and more people are studying English with the hope that they can meet the requirements of society in general and of their jobs in particular In education, especially, for High school grade, English now is a compulsory subject not only in teaching and learning but also in many important examinations It is, therefore, comprehensible why nowadays students learning English with a great concern They not only study English because it is compulsory but also because they are interested in English and they are aware well of the importance of English for their job in the future As a matter of fact, it is not easy to master a foreign language at all Learning English is not an exception It requires many sub-skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Being a receptive skill, reading also has some certain requirements to the students, not just a process of understanding grammar structures mechanically In fact, many students are very good at grammar and vocabulary but they cannot finish the reading tasks successfully Of course, there are many ways to teach reading skill, however, the given question is that which way is the most effective for the students Nowadays, we are trying to teach English in a communicative way Communicative activities, therefore, are becoming an essential part in language learning In real teaching in high school, not many teachers use communicative activities in English classes, especially in reading lessons They only teach students reading skills through mechanical drills in the textbook Thus, the author carries out a study on the communicative activities in English reading classes to somewhat help students to improve their reading skill in particular and their language competence in general For the reasons above, the author decides to choose the topic “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10th Form Students” as the study of her graduation thesis Aims and Objectives of the Study The aims and objectives of the study are as follows: - To provide some basic knowledge ranging from CLT, Communicative Continuum to Reading Skill - To make an investigation into the real situation of using communicative activities in teaching and learning English reading skill at Thach Thanh II High school - To provide some suggested communicative activities to partly improve reading skills for the 10th form students To fully achieve these aims, the study has to answer the following questions: * What are Communicative Activities? What is “reading”? * What is the real situation of using communicative activities in English reading lessons for the 10th form students at Thach Thanh II High school? * What kinds of Communicative Activities can be applied in English reading classes to improve reading skill for the 10th students? Scope of the Study The study concerns about communicative activities and reading skill However, “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10th Form Students” is a broad topic and it cannot be exploited in the study due to the limitation of a graduation thesis Therefore, within this study, the author just mentions about some background knowledge about CLT and reading skill as well as some communicative activities in language classes Furthermore, in this study, the author also attempts to carry out the research on the situation of teaching and learning English reading skill at Thach Thanh II High School From these, the author‟s purpose is to give some suggested communicative activities as a technique to partly improve reading skills for the 10 th form students Method of the Study To finish this study, the author has used quantitative and qualitative methods First, the author collects and analyzes the materials which refer to CLT, Reading Skill and Communicative Activities in English reading classes Then, she conducts a survey to get information about the real situation about teaching and learning English reading at Thach Thanh II High School After that, the author analyzes and synthesizes the collected data Finally, the author discusses about some suggested communicative activities in English reading classes for the 10th form students Design of the Study The study has three main parts Part I is “INTRODUCTION” which consists of the author‟s reasons for choosing the study, aims, scope, methods, and design of the study Part II entitled “DEVELOPMENT” includes three chapters Chapter 1, “Theoretical Background”, provides some background knowledge about CLT, the aims of CLT, learner roles and teacher roles in CLT This chapter also gives an overview on the Communicative Continuum, characteristics, purposes and some types of communicative activities in language teaching In addition, the author briefly introduces reading skill with definition of reading, the importance, the principles for teaching reading and types of reading activities in CLT classroom Chapter is titled “Real Situation of Teaching and Learning Reading Skill at Thach Thanh II High School” In this chapter, the author mentions about some characteristics of the 10th form students and the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, the design of a reading lesson for the 10th form students as well This chapter mainly focuses on the situation of using communicative activities in English reading classes for 10th form students at Thach Thanh II High School Chapter entitled “Suggested Communicative Activities” presents some criteria for selecting communicative activities in English reading classes for the 10th form students In addition, the author also provides some suggested communicative activities to improve reading skills for the 10th students and some sample communicative activities that she has applied in her real teaching at Thach Thanh II High School Part III is “CONCLUSION” in which the author summarizes the main points in the study and suggests some topics for further studies The study ends with the “REFERENCES” which lists all the materials and sources of information used in this study, and the “APPENDIX” in which the samples of questionnaires for teachers and students are mentioned 10 -cinema: line -sequence: line -decade: line -rapidly: line -scene: line -character: line Task *Requirement: Answer these questions When did the history of the cinema begin? What did scientists discover at that time? Did films in the early days have sounds? When were audiences able to see long films? When was sound introduced? What forms of films appeared as the old silent films were being replaced by spoken ones? The teacher has used “Lucky number” activity for this type of exercise *Instruction: - The teacher prepared cards and numbered from to Each number for one question, one of them is unlucky card and one is lucky - Dividing the class into groups and asking the students to choose the number in turns For the card with question, the groups have to answer the question If right, they get one mark, if wrong, they lose one mark and also lose their chance for the other group For the lucky card, they get one mark without answering any question For the unlucky card, they lose one mark - The group with the higher mark will be the winner With this activity, the author could make sure that students have understood the content of the text better and they are also motivated in reading lesson more *Suggested answers: The history of cinema began in the early 19th century (Line 1) The scientists discovered that when a sequence of still pictures was set in motion, they could give the feeling of movement (Line 2-3) 48 No, they did not (Line 5, line 13-15) Audiences were able to see long film in the early 1910s (Line 9) Sound was introduced at the end of the 1920s (Line 14) It was the musical cinema (Line 17) Task *Requirement: Decide which of the options below is the best title for the passage: A The Story of a Film B A Brief History of Cinema C The History of the Film Industry *Instruction: For this type of exercise, the teacher can ask the students to discuss in pairs and find out the main idea of the text From that, they could find out the differences between three options A, B, C and choose the best title for the passage *Suggested answers: C The History of the Film Industry Part III: AFTER YOU READ *Requirement: Talk about the passage, using the cues below 19th century 1910s 1905 1915 1920s *Instruction: The teachers asked the students to work in group of four to ask each other about what happened in these points of time *Suggested answers: 19th century: History of the cinema began 1905: Films were about 5-10 minutes long 1910s: The first long film was made 1915: Cinemas were first built 1920s: Sound was introduced and old silent films were replaced by spoken films Unit 14: The World Cup (taught at class 10C7- Thach Thanh II High school) 49 I Warm-up Activity Teacher gave some pictures of some famous football teams in the world and asked students to guess the names of those teams (for example, Brazil, Germany, France, Italy and Argentina) II New Lesson Part I: BEFORE YOU READ *Requirement: Answer the questions Where was the 2002 World Cup held? Which team became the champion then? Which team was the runner-up? This part was used for the teacher - whole class activity *Suggested answers: South Korea & Japan Brazil Germany Part II: WHILE YOU READ There are tasks in this part: Task 1: Matching Task 2: Filling Gaps Task 3: True/False Task 1: *Requirement: The words in A appear in the reading passage Match them with their definition in B A jointly B a a competition in which players compete against each other in a series of games until there is a winner 50 the globe b involving two or more people or groups 3.tournament c the world host nation d a prize for winning a competition trophy e a country that provides the necessary space, facilities, etc for a special event *Instruction: In order to this task, the teacher asked the students to read the definition in B first and then come back to the passage to find out in which line all the words in A appear After the students understood the meaning of these words in their context, they could easily give the answer for the task *Suggested answers: b (line 13) c (line 3) a (line 9) e (line 9) d (line 16) Task 2: *Requirement: Scan the text and complete each of the following sentences with a word or number: Only……teams competed in the first World Cup Today the final tournament of the World Cup has… teams The team which was defeated in the first World Cup final was… The final match of the 2002 World Cup attracted e television audience of over……billion viewers After FIFA‟s first meeting, …years has passed before the first World Cup was held in Uruguay *Instruction: 51 The teacher asked the students to read through five sentences in the task to get the main idea of each sentence and then come back to the text to find out the necessary information The teacher could give some eliciting question as suggestions for students as follows: How many teams were there in the first World Cup tournament? How many teams take part in the final tournament of World Cup nowadays? Which teams played in the first World Cup final? Were there many people observing the 2002 World Cup final match? What time did FIFA first meet? When was the first World Cup held? After answering these questions, students could find out the information that they need to fill in the blanks *Suggested answers: 13 one 32 26 Argentina Task 3: *Requirement: Read the text again and decide whether the following statements are True (T) or False (F) Correct the false ones The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1904 The World Cup is held every two years The World Cup is regarded as the world championship of the sport Germany and Brazil played in the final match of the 2002 World Cup Brazil is the country that has played five times in the World Cup Because the limitation of time in one period and in order to create an interesting learning atmosphere for the students, the author has asked the students to this task at home and she has replaced this task by “Get it Wrong” activity From the given information in the task 3, the teacher could conduct a passage with some deliberate mistakes as follow: 52 (1)World Cup, the international football tournament, is held every two years (2) It is regarded as the championship of the sport (3) The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1904 (4) Only 13 teams took part in the first tournament (5)By 2002, the world has witnessed 32 World Cup tournaments (6) Germany and Brazil played in the final match of the 2002 World Cup (7) Brazil is the country that has played five times in the Word Cup *Requirement: Find out the mistakes in the passage and correct them *Instruction: The author has asked the students to read through the passage above and pay attention to the key words that convey the main content of the passage After that, the author asked students to look back to the reading text to recognize the false information in the passage above *Suggested answers: Sentence Mistakes Correct answers (1) Two years Four years (3) 1904 1930 (5) 32 (7) Played 17 Won The author herself could make sure that after students complete this activity, they could easily to the task at home Part III: AFTER YOU READ *Requirement: Talk about the events mentioned in the passage, using the following figures as cues: 1904 13 1930 17 32 2002 The author has applied “Students Interview” activity for this part *Instruction: The teacher asked the students to go around class and ask their friends about the figures above Models: What happened in 1904 (or 1930, 2002)? What the figure 13 (or 17, 32) make you think about? 53 *Suggested answers: 1904: FIFA was set up, first meeting 1930: The first World Cup was held 2002: The first time World Cup was played in Asia and hosted by two nations 13: Number of teams playing in the first World Cup 17: Number of World Cup tournaments by 2002 32: Number of teams taking part in the final tournament of World Cup in the modern time The author personally saw that applying communicative activities in English reading class was very effective and her students felt more interested in the lessons Therefore, the author thinks that teachers of English should apply this technique into practice in order that the students could improve their English reading skill in particular and their English learning in general 3.4 Summary To conclude, this chapter has presented briefly the criteria for selecting Communicative Activities in English reading lessons for the 10th form students and then suggested several typical communicative activities to improve their English reading skills This part has also presented some sample examples of reading communicative activities that the author has applied in her real teaching at Thach Thanh II High School 54 PART III: CONCLUSION 3.1 Recapitulation It cannot deny that reading is an important skill for students to master a language The goal of reading following CLT is not only to practice pronunciation or to learn grammatical structures only but also develop students‟ communicative competence Therefore, in the first chapter of this study, the author has briefly presented some general knowledge about CLT, Communication Continuum such as characteristics of communicative activities and types of communicative activities in Language Teaching In addition, the author also has attempted to make an overview on reading skill as well as the importance of reading, the principles for teaching reading in a CLT classroom, and types of reading activities in language classes Chapter has been intended for the analysis of the common characteristics of the 10th form students and of the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” and the design of a reading lesson for the 10th for the students as well The main part of this chapter is the survey of the English teaching and learning situation at Thach Thanh II High School It is obvious that applying communicative activities in teaching reading is very effective, however, in fact it is not widely applied by many English teachers The result gained from the survey helps to see more clearly about the situation of applying communicative activities in reading lessons at high school Chapter has been concerned with some suggested communicative activities in reading lessons for the 10th form students Based on the design of a reading lesson in the new textbook, the author has synthesized the main types of reading exercises in the textbook and then provided some suggested communicative activities in English reading classes This chapter has also presented some sample communicative activities that the author has applied in her real teaching at Thach Thanh II High School In conclusion, we have conducted the study on using communicative activities in English reading classes for the 10th form students Hopefully, after applying these activities in real teaching and learning English, students can master English more successfully and can use it in real communication with each other 55 3.2 Suggestion for Further Studies As the limitation of an assignment and the author‟s knowledge as well, the study only mentions about some typical communicative activities to improve English reading skills for the 10th form students For the further studies on this matter, the author attempts to give some suggestions as follows: * A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 11th Form Students * A Study on Task-based Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10th Form Students * A Study on Communicative Activities in Teaching Speaking for the 10th Form Students 56 REFERENCES ENGLISH Forseth, R & C., Tạ Tiến Hùng, Nguyễn Văn Đỗ (1996) Methodology Handbook for English Teachers in Vietnam America: English Language Institute America Krashen, S & Terrell, T (1983) The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom Oxford: Pergamon Jack C Richards Communicative Language Teaching Today (2006) Cambridge University Press Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong (2006) Language Teaching Theory Vinh University Nguyen Thi Van Lam and Ngo Dinh Phuong (2007) English Teaching Methodology Vinh University Richards, J C and Rodgers, T S (2001) Approaches and Method in Language Teaching Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Silberstain, S (1993) Techniques and Resources in Teaching Reading Oxford: Oxford University Press VIETNAMESE Hoàng Văn Vân (Ed.) (2006) Tiếng Anh 10 Hà Nội: Nhà Xuất Bản Giáo Dục WEBSITES: http://www.michiganreading.org http://iteslj.org/Articles/Belchamber-CLT.html 57 Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire (For Students) This survey is carried out for the study “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10th Form Students” Your cooperation in answering the following questions is highly appreciated This is for the study purpose only and you can be sure that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you for your assistance Please circle the answers that you think the most appropriate or give your opinion if necessary How long have you been in learning English? a less than year b 1-3 years c 3-5 years d more than years How necessary is English in your opinion? a very necessary c quite necessary b necessary d not necessary at all What you think about learning English? a very interesting b interesting c quite interesting d not interesting at all How much time you spend on learning English per day? ……………………………………………………………… When learning English, which language skill you focus on most? a Speaking b Listening c Reading d Writing Which language skill you like most? a Writing b Reading c Listening d Speaking How important is English reading skill in your opinion? a very important c quite important b important d not important at all What you think about Reading tasks in the textbook? a too difficult b difficult c rather difficult d not difficult at all 58 When learning Reading, you often complete successfully the reading tasks in the textbook? a always b often c sometimes d never 10 After finishing the Reading tasks, how much you understand about the text? a 90-100% b 70-89% c 50-69% d below 50% 11 Which of the following can motivate you into the reading lessons most? Circle the number you choose (Arranged from 1-5 the least motivating one to the most motivating one) a interesting reading topic b interesting reading activities c good method of teaching 12 Does your teacher often provide communicative activities in reading lesson? a always b often c sometimes d never 13 What kind of activities does your teacher provide in reading lessons? Please tick () on the cell that you find the most appropriate frequency always often activities Matching True/ False Completing Network Answering questions Finding synonyms Filling gaps Role play Student interview 59 sometimes rarely never 14 What you think about extra reading communicative activities given by your teachers? a interesting b boring c difficult d easy 15 Do you find communicative activities effective for you in reading lessons? a very effective c quite effective b effective d not effective at all 60 Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire (For Teachers) This survey is carried out for the study “A Study on Communicative Activities in English Reading Classes for the 10th Form Students” Your cooperation in answering the following questions is highly appreciated This is for the study purpose only and you can be sure that you will not be identified in any discussion of the data Thank you for your assistance Please circle the answers that you think the most appropriate or give your opinion if necessary How long have you been teaching in English? ……………………………………………………………………… How you think about the primary qualification of the 10th students in your school? a very good b good c quite good d bad e your own ideas ……………………………………………………………………… Which language skill you find the most difficult to teach? a Speaking b Reading c Listening d Writing What you think about English reading skill in the relationship with other English skills? a very important c quite important b important d not important at all How you think about reading tasks in the textbook? a very interesting b interesting c quite interesting d not interesting at all Do your students usually finish successfully the reading tasks in the textbook? a always b often c sometimes 61 d never Which way you usually to improve your students‟ reading skills? a asking students to more reading exercises at home b asking students to read aloud the text many times in the class c providing reading communicative activities What kind of reading activities you usually provide in reading lessons? Please tick () on the cell that you find the most appropriate frequency always often sometimes rarely never activities Matching True/ False Completing Network Answering questions Finding synonyms Filling gaps Role play Student interview Are your students interested in reading communicative activities? a very interested b interested c quite interested d not interested at all 10 How effective you find communicative activities in teaching reading skill? a very effective b effective c quite effective d not effective 62 ... CLT, Reading Skill and Communicative Activities in English reading classes Then, she conducts a survey to get information about the real situation about teaching and learning English reading at... information about the real situation of teaching and learning English at Thach Thanh II High School in general and of applying communicative activities in English reading classes in particular The. .. Depending on the features of each class and each reading lesson as well as the level of students that the teacher can choose an appropriate one for their reading classes 1.3.4 Types of Reading Activities