CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.1.1. Findings from Questionnaire for teachers
Teachers’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook
Data from the teachers‟ questionnaire shows that teachers highly appreciate the reading topics and visual aids provided in the new textbook in term of diversity and closeness to real situation (see table 1)
options N of teachers
Reading topics are various 5
Reading topics are closed to real situation 3
The length of reading texts is too long 8
The language knowledge (vocabulary and structures) in the reading
texts is too difficult for the majority of students in mountainous areas. 8 The reading tasks designed are too difficult for grade 11 students and
take too much time. 8
Various visual aids (pictures, charts…) are provided in reading sections
to raise students‟ interests in the topic. 8
Table 1: Teachers’ assessment of the reading section in the new TIENG ANH 11 textbook (N=8)
However, all the English teachers at YTHS have negative attitudes towards reading tasks and the difficulty level of language knowledge in the reading texts. They agreed that the reading tasks are too difficult for their students and takes too much time to complete.
Reading passages, in their opinion, are too long with a lot of new words and grammatical structures. This is understandable because half of them used to teach the old English textbook with very short and simple reading passages.
Methods utilized by teachers in three stages of the reading lesson
Pre-reading stage
No. Teaching methods used at pre-reading stage No of
teachers
1 Giving a brief introduction 7
2 Presenting and explaining new words in the reading text 8
3 Making students predict the con tent of the text 4
4 Presenting and explaining new grammatical structures in the reading text 7 5 Asking students to survey the reading text‟s title and heading for the topic 3 6 Asking lead-in questions to elicit discussion about the reading topic of the text 6
7 Using group discussion about topic of the text 2
8 Using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text 3
9 Making students brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text 2
10 Making students ask questions about the text 2
Table 2: Methods used at pre- reading stage (N= 8)
Table 2 summarizes the information about methods used by teachers in the pre- reading stage. These methods are divided into two groups namely the traditional method and the
„new‟ one. Traditional methods are giving a brief introduction, presenting and explaining new words and new grammatical structures in the reading texts. The other category- „new‟
method is composed of predicting about the texts such as making students predict the content of the text, asking them to survey the reading text‟s title and heading for the topics, asking lead-in questions, making students brainstorm related words, structures and ideas and using visual aids to introduce the topic of the text. As can be seen in the table, seven out of eight teachers answered that they most frequently used the traditional methods at the first stage, only four out of eight teachers used the „new‟ ones. Using visual aids were employed by three teachers because of the fact that this method takes time to prepare.
Obviously, the teachers at YTHS seem to focus more on providing their students with as many new words and structures as possible so that their students can understand the reading text better while spend less time preparing students to activate their background knowledge about the topic during the first stage of a reading lesson.
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While- reading stage
No Teaching methods used at while- reading stage No of teachers
1 Teachers reading aloud 2
2 Asking students to read aloud the reading text 4
3 Asking students to translate the reading text into Vietnamese 4 4 Asking students to read the reading text intensively and answer the questions 7 5 Asking students to read the questions first and scan the reading text to find
the answer
3
Table 3: Methods used at while- reading stage (N= 8)
Table 3 presents the information about methods reported by teachers at while- reading stage. These methods are divided into two groups like at pre- reading stage namely the grammar-translation methods and „new‟ one. Teacher reading aloud, asking students to read aloud the reading text, asking students to read the reading text intensively and answer the questions belong to the grammar- translation method. Asking students to read the questions first and scan the reading text to find the answer is the „new‟ one. As shown in table 3, the teachers seem to prefer the grammar- translation methods in their teaching. For example, seven out of eight teachers had the habit of asking students to read the reading text intensively and answer the questions. Half of them still asked their students to read aloud the reading text and translate it into Vietnamese. This indicates that the teachers made their students concentrate on pronunciation and meaning of individual words, but not encourage them much to speed up their reading comprehension by scanning. Only three out of eight teachers asked students to read the questions first and scan the reading text to find the answer.
Post- reading stage
N Teaching methods used at post- reading strategies N of teachers
1 Asking students to summarize the text 6
2 Asking students to have discussion 3
3 Asking students to find out more about the topic on their own 2
4 Asking students to translate it into Vietnamese 4
5 Doing nothing because of the limited time 6
Table 4: Methods used at post- reading stage (N= 8)
Table 4 presents the information about methods that teachers used in the post- reading stage. The traditional methods are asking students to summarize the text and asking students to translate it into Vietnamese. The „new‟ methods are asking students to have discussion and asking students to find out more about the topic on their own. As can be seen in table 4, six out of eight teachers reported that they did nothing at the post- reading stage because of time constraints. Obviously, 45 minutes were spent on pre- and while- reading activities. As shown in table 1, the reading tasks are too difficult for students and take too much time to complete. The result from table 4 shows that if the teachers had enough time to deal with the post-reading activities, six out of eight teachers asked students to
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summarize the text. As for them, it was a good way to help the student‟s gain better understanding and memorizing the text. And 4 out of them asked students to translate it into Vietnamese. It is not a good way to teach reading. Only two out of eight teachers controlled the class by asking students to find out more about the topic on their own and three out of them asked students to discuss. It cannot be denied that the teachers used traditional methods much more often than the „new‟ ones.
Teachers’ perceptions towards the importance of reading components
Items Levels of importance
1 2 3 4 5
New structures 5 3
Detailed content of the text 4 2 2
Vocabulary 1 5 2
Main ideas and topics 2 6
(1- not important at all, 2- not really, 3- so so, 4- important, 5- very important) Table 5: Teachers’ opinions on the importance of reading text components (N= 8) As can be seen in table 5, the majority of the teachers (6 out of 8 teachers) realized that main ideas and topics of the reading passage are very important in reading lessons, but they paid less attention to the detailed content of the text while teaching reading (Only 2 out of eight teachers admitted that detailed content of the text was very important). Five out of eight teachers reported that new structures and vocabulary are important to students‟
understanding of the text. Clearly, teachers‟ perception of the importance of reading text components partly affects their teaching methods. They focused much on presenting and explaining new words and grammatical structures at pre-reading stage.
Teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading
N0 Options N of
teachers
1 Students‟ lack of motivation 3
2 Students‟ lack of background knowledge and world knowledge 7
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3 Time limitation 4 4 Students‟ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures 8
5 Students‟ lack of appropriate reading strategies 8
Table 6: Problems teachers face with when teaching reading (N= 8)
Table 6 indicates the problems the teachers have to face with when teaching a reading lesson. All the teachers at YTHS agreed that the students‟ limited vocabulary and grammatical structures and lack of appropriate reading strategies caused difficulty. Apart from vocabulary and grammatical structures, appropriate reading strategies play a very important role in reading since they help students finish their reading tasks in time without reading all the words written in the text. Seven out of eight teachers responded that their students‟ background knowledge and world knowledge were poor. It cannot be denied that students‟ background knowledge and world knowledge greatly affect their reading comprehension. Readers who possesses rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading better than their classmates with low prior knowledge. Ethnic group students in remote and mountainous areas like those in Yen The district have little chance to have access to mass media, therefore their background knowledge of many fields is quite limited. Only three out of eight teachers agreed that students‟ lack of motivation cause difficulties for their reading teaching.
Half of the subject teachers stated that they could not teach reading effectively because time is limited. They often had no time for post- reading activities. Clearly, the biggest problems in teaching reading lessons mainly come from the students‟ poor English proficiency. These students might not pay enough attention to learning English at secondary schools.