VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Hanoi University of languages and international studies Department of posT - graduate studies ---------- NGUYEN THI NGOC HUAN using supplementary reading materials for the course book ‘powerbase - elementary’ to improve reading skills for first year non- english MAJOR students at national economics university (Sö DôNG TµI LIÖu §äc Bæ TRî cho gi¸o tr×nh ‘POWERBASE - ELEMENTARY’ §Ó N¢NG CAO Kü N¡NG §äc cho sinh viªn kh«ng chuyªn tiÕng anh n¨m thø nhÊT tr-êng ®¹i häc kinh tÕ quèc d©N) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 HANOI, 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Hanoi University of languages and international studies Department of posT - graduate studies ---------- NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HUẤN using supplementary reading materials for the course book ‘powerbase - elementary’ to improve reading skills for first year non- english major students at national economics university (Sö DôNG TµI LIÖU §äc Bæ TRî cho gi¸o tr×nh ‘POWERBASE - ELEMENTARY’ §Ó N¢NG CAO Kü N¡NG §äc cho sinh viªn kh«ng chuyªn tiÕng anh n¨m thø nhÊt tr-êng ®¹i häc kinh tÕ quèc d©N) M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: PHAN THỊ VÂN QUYÊN, M. HANOI, 2009 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………… ii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………….
iii List of Abbreviation………………………………………………………………… iv List of Tables………………………………………………………………………. v List of Charts………………………………………………………………………. vi Table of contents…………………………………………………………………… vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………….3 Significance of the study……………………………………………………… 2 1.
Aims of the study……………………………………………………………. Design of the study…………………………………………………………… 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Overview of reading…………………………………………………………. Definitions of reading…………………………………………………… 5 2.
Definition of reading skills…………………………………………. Types of reading skills……………………………………………. Overview of materials in language teaching………………………………… 8 2. Definition of materials and types of materials in language teaching….
Supplementary materials for language teaching………………………. Materials evaluation and the criteria for reading texts evaluation……… 10 2. Criteria for selecting appropriate supplementary materials……………. 11 Summary 12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com viii CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.
Background to the thesis and statement of the problem………………………. The description of the materials………………………………………………. The course book…………………………………………………………… 14 3.The structure of the course book ……………………………………. The supplementary material used for the course book …………………… 15 3.
Instruments for data collection………………………………………………… 17 3. Data collection procedures……………………………………………………. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………… 18 Summary 33 CHAPTER FOUR: MAJOR FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1: Major findings and discussion ………………………………………………….1: The evaluation of the current reading materials used at NEU…………….1: The evaluation of the reading sections in Powerbase……………….2: The evaluations of the current supplementary material ……………. The teachers’ and students’ expectation ………………………………….
Suggestions on how to use the course book Powerbase - Elementary……. Increasing more time for Reading………………………………………. Designing more reading activities and exercises/tasks…………………. Suggestions for selecting supplementary reading materials ……………….
Suggestions for selecting supplementary reading materials ……………. Suggested adaptation of the current SRM for Powerbase………………. 40 Summary 41 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ix CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION 5. Conclusion of the study………………………………………………………….
Limitations of the study…………………………………………………………. Suggestions for further study……………………………………………………. 43 REFERENCES I APPENDICES III Appendix 1: Questionnaires for teachers…………………………………………. III Appendix 2: Questionnaires for students………………………………………….
VI Appendix 3: Samples of supplementary readings for the themes in Powerbase…. XII Appendix 4: Samples of supplementary readings for further readings…………… XXI Appendix 5: The table of the Macro-skills proportion of the Powerbase…………. XXXIV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv ABBREVIATIONS NEU: National Economics University EFL: English as a foreign language FL: Foreign language M.A: Master of Arts SM: Supplementary material SRM: Supplementary reading material P: Powerbase - Elementary CD: Compact disc Ts: Teachers Ss: Students LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the topics of the reading texts in Powerbase 20 Table 2: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the exercises types of reading texts in Powerbase 21 Table 3: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the time allocation for reading in Powerbase 22 Table 4: The Ts Ss’ opinions on the length of the reading texts in Powerbase 22 Table 5: The Ts and Ss' opinions on the level of difficulty of the reading texts in Powerbase 23 Table 6: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the topics of the reading texts in the SM for P 25 Table 7: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the types of reading exercises in the SM 26 Table 8: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the time allocation for reading in the SM 27 Table 9: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the length of the reading texts in the SM 28 Table 10: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on the level of difficulty of the reading texts in the SM 29 Table 11: The Ts and Ss’ opinions on a better SRM for Powerbase 31 Table12: The Macro-skills proportion of the course book Powerbase - Elementary XXXIV LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1a: The perception of the Ts about the reading texts in Powerbase 19 Chart 1b: The perception of the Ss about the reading texts in Powerbase 19 Chart 2a: The perception of the Ts about the reading texts in the SM 24 Chart 2b: The perception of the Ss about the reading texts in the SM 24 Chart 3a: The Ts’ attitudes towards the necessary use of SM for. 30 Chart 3b: The Ss’ attitudes towards the necessary use of SM for.
30 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Among the four macro-skills, reading is “by far the most important…, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” (Carrel, 1981: 1). For many students, reading not only brings them a lot of interesting information but also provides a variety of linguistic expressions as well as grammatical structures, which are very useful for them to develop other skills. Thanks to reading, students can “gain access to the required knowledge that is available, either exclusively or most readily, in English” (Munby, 1978: 3).
At National Economics University, reading is also regarded as one of the most important skills that needs to be focused on from the first stage of learning English. Reading has constantly been tested in the mid-term tests together with either listening or speaking for many school years. For the first year non-English major students of the school year 2008- 2009, the course book Powerbase – Elementary by David Evans is still in use as it is believed to be suitable for students of elementary level. Its most updated contents is said to provide excellent preparation for other English business courses.
Powerbase is not a four-skill-focused material. It is a communicative course book that has been specially written for adults who need English for work, travel and everyday situations with the two main skills: Listening and Speaking. In order to help students learn English better and to fulfill the objectives of the course, before each school year begins, the Faculty of Economics Foreign Languages assign teachers of each group design the supplementary materials used along with the course books. The supplementary materials not only provide students with more exercises, but they also remedy the shortcomings of the course books.
The supplementary materials are designed annually, in which the good points are maintained in but the shortcomings are replaced by the better ones. The existing supplementary material for Powerbase mainly provides exercises on grammar, vocabulary and reading. However, through the supplementary book, many students find it hard to understand the strange, long reading texts with too many new words and new grammatical structures. Additionally, students are bored with doing only one type of reading LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Many student hope to have more readings, but they do not know where to get appropriate extra reading materials. Consequently, they do not get as high marks at reading tests as they expected and they lose their interest in reading. Teachers, from time to time, complain that they have to compile other reading materials to meet the students’ needs and to make the reading lessons more interesting. All these reasons have inspired and encouraged me to carry out the study on “Using supplementary reading materials for „Powerbase – Elementary‟ to improve reading skill for first year non-English major students at National Economics University” with the hope to make some contributions to improving the teaching and learning of reading for first year non- English major students at NEU.
Scope of the study Due to the limited time and the size of a minor thesis, the researcher has no ambitions to cover all aspects of reading, such as reading in integration with other skills: speaking, listening, and writing., but only focuses on the use of supplementary reading materials to develop reading skills for first year non-English major students at NEU. Significance of the study This study helps first year non-major students at NEU to improve their English proficiency by learning reading and also suggests some ways to improve the teaching of English in general and the teaching of the reading skill in particular at NEU as well as other universities that share the same mandate. Aims of the study The study is aimed at exploring the use of supplementary reading materials to improve reading skills for first year non-English major students at NEU, giving recommendations on how to efficiently use the supplementary reading materials designed by Group K50A teachers, LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 and suggesting some other reading supplementary materials as well. The followings will be done to achieve these aims: _ Find out the teachers’ and students’ evaluations of the current English reading materials being used in the university for first year non-English major students.
_ Examine the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards using supplementary reading to improve students’ reading skills as well as kinds of their preferences for reading materials. _ Give recommendations for designing a more effective supplementary materials for Powerbase - Elementary to motivate first year non-English major students at NEU to read. Research questions The study is carried out to answer the following research questions: 1. What are the teachers‟ and students‟ evaluations of the reading sections in the course book Powerbase – Elementary? 2.
What are the teachers‟ and students‟ evaluations of the current supplementary reading materials? 3. What do teachers and students expect of a supplementary reading material? 1. Methods of the study To collect the data, the methods used in this thesis are document analysis, survey questionnaires and informal interviews. Document analysis here refers to the analysis of the materials such as the course book Powerbase - Elementary and its supplementary reading material designed by the group of K50A teachers at NEU.
The survey questionnaires are of great importance in collecting feedback from teachers and students on the materials in use. Informal interviews are also used to seek for more detailed and objective opinions of teachers and students on the materials and their needs. LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Design of the study This study is divided into five chapters: Chapter I: Introduction presents an overview of the study including rationale, scope, significance, aims, research questions, research methodology and the design of the study.
Chapter II: Literature Review provides the literature review with fundamental aspects of materials evaluation, materials development, reading skills and supplementary materials. This chapter is considered as the basic foundations for the study. Chapter III: Methodology deals with the methodological framework for the study. It covers the setting, the subjects, the instruments and procedures for the data collection and most importantly the data analysis is fully given in this chapter.
Chapter IV: Major findings, discussion and recommendations shows the major findings, discussions of these findings, and offers recommendations on how to use supplementary materials to improve students’ reading skills. Chapter V: Conclusion presents the concluding summary of the study, limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research.