VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ~=-=kÐÍLE]@---- HOÀNG THỊ TÂM THÀNH AN EVALUATION OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENGANH 11 IN MOTIVATING AND IMPROVING STUDENT’S READING PERFORMANCE M.MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Hanoi, 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ~=-=kÐÍLE]@---- HOÀNG THỊ TÂM THÀNH AN EVALUATION OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN THE NEW TEXTBOOK TIENGANH 11 IN MOTIVATING AND IMPROVING STUDENT’S READING PERFORMANCE M.MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.10 Supervisor: Pham Thi Thanh Thùy, PhD. Hanoi, 2013 DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education. I confirm that this is my own research and that it has not been published or submitted for any other degrees. Student’s signature Hoang Thi Tam Thanh ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The graduation thesis could not have been fulfilled without help, encouragement, support of a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation.
First and foremost, it is with affection and appreciation that acknowledge my indebtedness and deepest thanks to Mrs. Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, PhD., my supervisor, who gave me a clear sighted guidance as well as invaluable suggestions, my thesis could not have come into being. I would be also grateful to two teachers of English, especially Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang and Ms.
Phan Thi Tuong Van as well as 11" form students in class of 11A3 and 11A5 at Dao Duy Tu high school in Thanh Hoa for answering my survey question, interviews and participating in the experiment teaching of applying adaptation of pre-reading activities in reading classes. Their enthusiastic participation has helped me a lot of finding out the effects of adapting activities for pre-reading stage in reading class on student’s motivation and reading performance in order to suggest some ideas to use them effectively. I would also like to thank Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, my colleague, for her precious advice from the beginning of this paper.
Last but not least, I should acknowledge my great gratitude to all my friends in Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, and my family for their understanding, encouragement, assistance as well as financial supports during the process of preparing this graduation paper. ii ABSTRACT This research investigated whether adaptation of pre-reading activities increased the classroom motivation, involvement as well as reading performance of learners at an upper-secondary school. The main methods were employed in this study namely document analysis, students survey questionnaire, teachers interview, classroom observation and pre-test post-test experimental design. Eighty four students selected from two classes (11A3 was employed as the control group and 11A5 as the experimental group) at Dao Duy Tu high school were used for the study.
The students selected were made up of both male and female. The findings revealed that pre-reading activities in the textbook were too monotonous to get students involved in the reading lesson. Students and teachers were not in favor of these activities available in the current textbook. Also, adaptation of textbook activities would be helpful in increasing the students’ motivation in pre-reading stage and better comprehension can be gained through exposure to pre-reading activities.
The study recommended that teachers could use pre-reading activities as a useful tool to facilitate students’ motivation and reading comprehension performance. It also could be suggested that teachers should change some inappropriate pre-reading activities of students’ interests in the reading class to get them join in those activities with great eagerness. 11 LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS TTT: Teacher talking time STT: Students talking time T: Teacher Ss: Students EFL: English foreign language Df: Degree of freedom T: Test M: Mean Std Dev.: Standard Deviation Sig.: Number P: Probability value iv LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 3.1: Students’ beliefs towards the reading texts in the new English 11 Figure 3.2: Students’ attitudes to their teacher’ pre-reading activities Figure 3.3: Frequency of undertaking extra pre-reading activities in reading class Figure 3.4: Students’ involvement in pre-reading activities in reading lessons Figure 3.5: Students’ preference for participation in pre-reading activities Figure 3.6: Teachers’ evaluation of reading texts in the textbook Figure 3.7: Teachers’ evaluation on pre-reading activities in English 11 Figure 3.8: Frequency of adaptation for pre-reading activities Figure 3.9: Teachers’ methods for adaptation Table 3.1: Description of topics in English 11 Table 3.2: Activities of reading stage in 6 units are analyzed Table 3.3: Pre-reading activities of 6 units are analyzed Table 3.4: Difficulties students encounter in reading lessons Table 3.5: The most frequently used activities to start a reading lesson Table 3.6: Students’ beliefs about good effects of pre-reading activities Table 3.7: Students’ beliefs about bad effects of pre-reading activities Table 3.8: Frequency of using pre-reading activities by the teachers Table 3.9: Students’ preferences for pre-reading activities Table 3.10: Students’ evaluations on pre-reading activities in the textbook Table 3.11: Students’ recommendation on pre-reading activities to make a reading lesson more interesting Table 3.12: Teachers’ beliefs about the purposes of carrying out pre-reading activities Table 3.13: Teachers’ beliefs about students’ participation in pre-reading activities Table 3.14: Teachers’ recommendation to increase students’ participation Table 3.15: Teachers’ difficulties when undertaking pre-reading activities Table 3.16: Number of students involve in teacher’s activities of pre-reading stage in the control and experimental group Table 3.17: Teacher talking time (TTT) and students talking time (STT) of the control group and the experimental group at pre-reading stage Table 3.18: The summary of independent-and paired-samples t-tests Table 3.19: The t-test for the experimental and control groups TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION 005. ill LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS .cccccccecesceseeseeeceseeeeeeeeseeseeseeaeeaeeaesareneeeeeeees iv LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES.
Rationale to the Study. 1121111 111111119111 11 119 1118111 HH kg ru 1 2. Aims and objectives of the researCh. Aims of the research.
Objectives of the r€S€aTCÌ. Scope of the research nh. Significance of the res€arCh. Limitations of the researC.
21919 1T ng Tnhh trệt 5 9. Outline of the research 0n. 6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Theoretical background about pre-reading acfIVIfIes.- ----sccc+xc<++ 6 vi I.
Definition and the importance of pre-reading activities in teaching TCACING 00277077 a. Types of pre-reading aCfIVIẨIS. Theoretical background about mofIVatIOT. Definitions and types of mOfIVAfIOT.
The importance of motivation in learning reading. Common factors affecting students’ motivation in learning the reading SKU ee ee ceeecceeccesecesceeseeececseeesececeeeeeseensecececeecseceaeceseceeecaeeeseceeeseesesseseseeeeeeatenes 9 1.- LH TH ng ng HH 9 I. The reading materials factors. The teacher’s factors.
Theoretical background about textbook evaluation. Criteria for textbook evaÏuatiOT. Theoretical background about textbook adaptation. The necessity of textbook adaptation when teaching foreign languages 12 I.
Techniques for textbook adaptation. Setting of the research. Subjects of the research. cece ccccessceeseceeeesseeecseceseeesseceeeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeseeenes 15 Vil II.
-- --- CC 2211111111631 11 119535511 K KHE 11kg 1k rrre 15 I0. Data collection InsfTUIm€TIES.-- -- s1 S11 21 E*2 SE HH gi giệt 17 II. Document anaÌÏyS1S. Survey questionnaire for sfU€TIfS.
Interview for f€aCH€TS.-- -c-- nnt St SH SH TT T HT HT HH giết 17 II. Classroom ObS€TVAfIOH. 0 3 32 22v St 9 111 11111 ng ng nay 1§ II. Pre-test post-test experimental design.
¿+ Sc + xssseereseres 18 II. Data collection procedure. Exee 18 CHAPTER II: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Data collected from survey questionnaire for students.
Students’ experience of English learning. - --‹-- 5s +++ss++ss+sesss 24 IIIL2. Students’ beliefs towards the reading texts in the new English I1. Difficulties students encounter in reading lessOnS.
The most frequently used activities to start a reading lesson. Students’ attitudes to their teacher’ pre-reading actIVIties. Students’ beliefs about good effects of pre-reading activities. Students’ beliefs about bad effects of pre-reading activities.
Frequency of undertaking extra pre-reading activities in reading class. Students’ participation in pre-reading activities in reading lessons. Students’ preference for participation in pre-reading activities. Frequency of using pre-reading activities by the teachers.
Students’ preferences for pre-reading acfIVIfI€S. Students’ evaluations on pre-reading activities in the textbook. Students’ recommendation on pre-reading activities to make a reading lesSOn MOTE INCETESTING 0. eee eeecccescceseceeseceeeeeceeeseeeeseeceeceseeeeseeeeseeesseeseeeeseees 34 II.
Data collected from teacher ITIf€TVICW. Teachers’ evaluation of reading texts in the textbook. Teachers’ evaluation on pre-reading activities in English I1. Teachers’ beliefs about the purposes of carrying out pre-reading FXO] AYA Lb <x 2 36 III.
Teachers’ belief about students’ participation and their suggestions to increase students’ participation in pre-reading acfIVIfI€S. Frequency of adapting pre-reading activities and methods of adaptation iỔỖỔỖỔỖỖŨỖỔỖỔỶỔỒỶỒỔỒỒẮỒẮÚỒÚ. Teachers’ difficulties when undertaking pre-reading activities. Data collected from classroom obserVafIOT.
Data collected from pre-test post-test experimental desIgn. LH HH HH TT ng Hàng Hiện 50 1. Recommendations for using and adapting pre-reading activities in reading class at grade 11 effectively oo. When and how to use pre-reading activities.
When using pre-reading activities. How to use pre-reading activities oo. When and how to adapt pre-reading activities in reading class. When conducting pre-reading activity adaptation in reading class.
The way of conducting pre-reading activity adaptation. Limitations of the 7 a°. Suggestions for further SfUdy. XX APPENDIX Sa.
XXV PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale to the study Recently, the renovation in education especially in the textbook of 11” form has brought many achievements but requires innovating in teaching methods of four language skills, among which reading comprehension is regarded as a very important skill, the starting point of each unit. Therefore, it is necessary to apply different techniques to help students learn reading comprehension more effectively, in which pre-reading activities hold an important role in motivating students to read and understand the lesson more easily. It is a matter of fact that English 11 apart from suitable points still has some unsuitable points.
Clearly, the textbook is just a tool that helps teachers succeed in language teaching. While teaching language, teachers are expected to organize the tasks and activities in order to respond the objectives of the teaching and learning process. Nonetheless, the students’ levels of English are different in various areas in Vietnam. Not all students have the same English proficiency in a class while the current English textbooks are compulsory for teaching at all high schools.
Furthermore, it is a common knowledge that motivation is related to success in second language learning in general and learning reading in particular. It is assumed that if the students are motivated, especially from the pre-reading stage, their reading tasks will be completed more successfully and obstacles while reading will not affect to their understanding any longer. Therefore, the research entitled “4n evaluation of pre-reading activities in the new textbook Tieng Anh l1 in motivating and improving students’ reading performance” is conducted to explore not only the current situation of adapting pre- reading stage at Dao Duy Tu high school in Thanh Hoa province but also the positive results and its effects on student’s motivation as well as reading performance. Hopefully, the paper is also to offer some practical suggestions for not only teachers but also textbook writers or designers to adapt pre-reading activities in reading classes more effectively.
Aims and objectives of the research 2. Aims of the research The study is carried out with the aim to analyze pre-reading activities in the new textbook English 11. Moreover, it explores the situation of teaching pre- reading activities in reading comprehension lessons at Dao Duy Tu high school. Eventually, it provides some effective adaptations enabling students of learning English to be motivated and improved in reading performance.
Objectives of the research The paper is intended to achieve the following objectives: 1. Exploring suitable and unsuitable points of pre-reading activities in the new textbook English 11 published in 2007 by Education Publishing House. Investigating into the current situation of pre-reading stage in teaching reading lessons to 11" form at Dao Duy Tu high school-Thanh Hoa. Suggesting some practical adaptation for pre-reading stage in order to increase students’ motivation and performance in reading comprehension lessons.
Research questions In order to achieve the above aims and objectives, the investigation is supposed to answer the following research questions: 1.