VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSTTY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING READING SKILLS TO SECOND- YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu các thủ thuật phat triển kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên tiếng Anh - Trường Đại học Hải Phòng) M. MINOR THESIS ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY 601410 Hanoi - 2010 NGUYEN THI THUY GIANG A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING READING SKILLS TO SECOND- YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu các thủ- thuật phát triển kỹ năng đọc hiéu cho sinh viên năm thứ hai chuyên tiếng Anh - Trường Đại học Hải Phòng) M.MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI THOM THOM, M.A Hanoi - 2010 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT.scsssssscssssssssscssscessssscsssssssesscssscsssesscssessssesscsssssssessessesossesseseees ii ABSTTRRACCT. << << < HH HH HH 0. 0040080000500 50 1H LIST OF ABBREVIATION .cccsssssssssscsscssssesscssscssscsscssssssessssesscssssssssssesssssssossessesssssssess iv LIST OF 'TABLLEES.- << << «I0006090090V TABLE OF CONTTEN TS.
5-0 0001000080480000Vi PART A: INTRODUCTION.---c cọ nh nh nhìn nà nhhnnnnBnnee 1 1. Aims tài ra ai. Scope of the StUY. nh nh Km Ki min tin hi ty 2 4.
Method of the Study.- SH tere ene eeeaaaes 2 5. Design of the StUdy. KH Km tk nà kg 3 PARTB: DEVELOPMENT. - cm nu mà mi mà men4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW.
on mm in HH4 1. Ăn SE BE KH KH Hi vự 4 1. Reading and other skills in English teaching and learning. Overview of feadIng.
SH ni kh nh nh4 1.- cán SE nh nh nee nana eens4 1. The importance of reading in foreign language learning. Factors in teaching and learning reading.- eee eee SH nh 6 1. Stages of a reading ÏeSSOn.
SH nh nh ng ch 7 1. Pre-reading sfaỹ@.- eee SH nh ưên7 1. While-reading SfaỹØ©. nh nh kh ket 7 1.
Post-reading sfaøe. Classification of readIng.- ch nh nh nh nh hy nh nã 8 1. According to mann€r. According to DUTDOS€S.
SH nh nh ng 8 1.--- cọ nh nh nh nh nhe 9 vẽ. nh ae heh. Effective Reading ComprehensIon.---- cành eee nas 10 1. Definition of Reading Comprehension.
Definition of Effective Reading Comprehension. HH eee nh nà nà nà nh 11 1. Techniques for Reading Comprehension. Preview the concerned theOTI€S.----- ch r*g 14 IS ca ae —a.
ee ed 15 CHAPTER II: THE STUDYY.- cu HH mm mm mm mm me 16 2. cọ ST ĐK ni nh nà kà 16 2. An overview on Haiphong nIV€rSIYY. Learners and Learning requiremeniS.
Teachers and Teaching methods. Materials and ÀsS€SSIM€TIS.- ch nh nh nền 18 2. Data collection, Findings and DIscussion. Data COlÏ©CfION.- Ăn SH SH KH Ki kh kh 19 2.-- SH nh nh rà 19 2.-------------s-ccc<<sssccsss s2 20 VII 2.
Data collecting procedures. ch nh nh nh nà 20 2. Findings and Discussion. From students’ perSDeCfIV€S.
Students’ attitude towards the materials used for reading lessons. Students’ attitude towards the way their teachers create reading interest and motivate them. Students’ attitude towards the techniques used by their teachers in the Teading Ï€SSOn. nh Kì nh ene n kh 23 2.
Students’ activities before reading the text. Students’ activities while reading the fext. Students’ activities after reading the fexXt. From teachers’ DerSD€CfIV€S.
Sàn teen tere nen 28 2. Teachers’ attitude towards the materials used at class for reading `. Teachers’ techniques in a reading lesson. Teachers’ activities during three stages of a reading lesson.
29 “ao can he ea. neeeee eed 30 CHAPTER III: SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE READING SKILLS TO SECOND -YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG UNIVERSITY.- cọ mm nh mm mì in mi Em 31 3. Techniques for Creating Motivation and Interesf. Using visual aids in teaching reading.
Combining teaching reading with other skIlls. Techniques for improving Teachers’ activities in reading lesson. Regulate Teaching Time and EÍẨOTfS. Help the students with three stages of a reading lesson.
Techniques for the development of Reading Materlals. Make full Use of the Reading Texts and design reading Text-Based Xu Ta. a etna et ne tea eneeaenenaes 33 3. Selecting appropriate supplementary Reading Materials.
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Limitation and Suggestions for Further Stud y.cccsssssssssssssssssssscssssssscssccessssssscssssessesscsssssssesscssssessassessssessesscsssssseseasees 3 8APPENDICES IV LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS HPU Haiphong University FLD Foreign Language Department No. Number LISTS OE TABLES Table 1: Students’ attitude towards the materials used for reading lessons Table 2: Students’ attitude towards the way their teachers create reading interest and motivate them. Table 3: Students’ attitude towards the techniques used by their teachers in the reading lesson. Table 4: Students’ activities before reading the text.
Table 5: Students’ activities while reading the text. Table 6: Students’ activities after reading the text : PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale: It goes without saying that English is by far the most popular language of all. Nowadays, English language plays an important role in the increasing development of science, technology, politics, culture and international relations in Vietnam.
As a result, there is a great demand for teaching and learning English throughout the country for different purposes. Learners of English all keep in touch with the four skills in order to master the English proficiency. In Vietnam, reading is perhaps the most important skill that Vietnamese learners of English will be working with the most because one of the major focuses of teaching English as a second language is providing the students with the abilities to understand written materials. Moreover, becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of important benefits for the learner.
First, reading in the target language helps students consolidate the learning that has taken place. Second, it may help students to increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures. According to Carrell (1984:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language”. Therefore, teaching reading is gaining more attention by English teachers and learners.
Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills is still far from satisfactory for various reasons. Learners often complain that they find it difficult to concentrate on reading process or deal with uncountable new vocabulary, etc. In terms of teachers’ role, they find it hard when their students seem to lack motivation and interests in reading lesson. As a result, many reading lessons make English learners bored when taking part in the reading process.
Haiphong University is a place where English teaching and learning are considered one of the strengths, and reading subject is highly appreciated by all the teaching staff. However, the teachers have confronted a number of difficulties such as the habits of word-by-word reading; overemphasis on forms rather than meaning; excessive focus on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limited background knowledge. As an English teacher at Haiphong University, I have received many questions relating to reading learning from my students as well as my colleagues such as: “How 2 to study reading effectively?” or “What are techniques for reading skill?”, etc. From this fact, I do think we, English teachers, must do something new to promote reading skill especially among the students of the FLD at Haiphong University.
It is time we gave them more chances and more encouragements to read. This fact has also encouraged the author to investigate the second year majored students in learning reading and after that, suggest some techniques in order to improve reading skill in here. It is a hope that the study will be helpful for the author and other reading teachers in their teaching. Aims of the study: The aim of this study is to find out the difficulties encountered by the second year English major students at Haiphong University, and the suggestions given upon their difficulties to improve their reading skill.
The specific aims are: - to exploit the use of reading techniques employed by the second year English major students and teachers - to recommend techniques to improve their reading skill. Scope of the study: The study limited itself to the investigation of common reading learning techniques are employed by second year major students at Haiphong University. The author tried her best to conduct a survey and an interview in order to analyze the reading techniques from the students and teachers. The information obtained from this study was to help to improve teaching and learning English in general and teaching and learning English reading in particular at Haiphong University.
Method of the study: In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the study was designed to use quantitative method first modeled by Gustav Fechner- a German psychologist as one way of data collection. The author prefers to use this method because it is easy to carry out and suitable to the context of this study. In addition, it helps gain the data accurately and trustfully. After the data is analyzed and discussed, some conclusions will be drawn, and some suggestions will be raised in the thesis.
Beside quantitative method, the author picks the interview from the teachers as the second choice because of its convenience. Moreover, the benefit of interviewing is that the interviewer can evaluate the attitudes of the interviewee. As a result, the conclusion after the interview can be trusted. Design of the study: The thesis is divided into three parts.
Part I includes the Rationale, the aims, the scope, the method and the design of the study. Part II consists of three chapters. Chapter I presents some detailed information about history of research on four skills in general and reading and reading comprehension in particular. Besides, reading comprehension techniques are reviewed to set up the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter.
After all, the researcher previews the concerned theories related to the thesis. In Chapter II the study is presented. It includes the overview on Haiphong University. The information on the learners, teachers, teaching methods and materials and Assessments are available.
Especially, this chapter deals with the data collection — findings and discussion about different aspects of reading. After the findings, the author suggests some techniques for improving reading skills to second —year English major students at Haiphong University in Chapter III. In the last Part— Part III, some conclusions are withdrawn and limitation of the study as well as suggestions for further research is also presented. 4 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.
Introduction: In this chapter, some information about history of research on reading and other skills in teaching and learning English are given. Also, some basic concepts related to reading and reading comprehension are presented. Besides, the classification of reading and reading comprehension techniques are mentioned to set up the theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter. In the last part of this chapter, the researcher desires to preview the concerned theories related to the thesis’s topic.
Reading and other skills in English teaching and learning As we know, in order to master the English language, we have to get good competence of all four skills in English: listening, speaking, reading and writing. There have been debates on the topic “Which skill in English teaching and learning is the most important one?” There are some who propose what they need is speaking a fluent English. Also, some consider listening a tool for the realization of their goal. In contrast, there are some who say writing is necessary because documenting reports, letters, memos, etc.are what they daily deal with in their office.
However, learning to read effectively remains the top in the targets of most learners here. It is because reading has great importance which other skills do not have in foreign language learning.