1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG NHUNG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF EFFECTIVE READING COMPREHENSION TASKS WITH REFERENCE TO TIENG ANH TEXTBOOK 12: A SURVEY STUDY AT DAI MO HIGH SCHOOL Khảo sát quan điểm của giáo viên và học sinh về các nhiệm vụ đọc hiểu hiệu quả trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 12 ở Trường THPT Đại Mỗ M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG NHUNG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF EFFECTIVE READING COMPREHENSION TASKS WITH REFERENCE TO TIENG ANH TEXTBOOK 12: A SURVEY STUDY AT DAI MO HIGH SCHOOL Khảo sát quan điểm của giáo viên và học sinh về các nhiệm vụ đọc hiểu hiệu quả trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 12 ở Trường THPT Đại Mỗ M. MINOR THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN BÀNG, M. HANOI – 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 7 LISTS OF TABLES Table 1.
Students‟ perceptions of what teachers should do to make the reading lessons effective Table 2. Students‟ perceptions of the roles of various stages of an effective reading comprehension lesson Table 3. Students‟ perceptions of effective classroom reading activities Table 4. How teachers should exploit the textbook effectively Table 5.
Students‟ perceptions of effective assessment of Reading Comprehension Table 6. Teachers‟ perceptions of what teachers should do to make the reading lesson effective Table 7. Teachers‟‟ perceptions of the roles of various stages of an effective reading comprehension lesson Table 8. Teachers‟ perceptions of effective classroom reading activities Table 9.
How teachers should exploit the textbook effectively Table 10. Teachers‟ perceptions of effective assessment of Reading Comprehension LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………. iii Lists of tables…………………………………………………………………………. iv Table of contents …………………………………………………………………….
v PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 1.The scope of the study………………………………,,,,,………………. Aims of the study………………………………………………………. Methods of the study…………………………………………………. Significance of the study……………………………………………….
Design of the study……………………………………………………… 3 PART TWO 5 CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1.1 Definition of Reading……………………………………………………… 5 1.2 The role of reading in foreign language learning………………………….3 Good Readers vs.4 Approaches to teach reading comprehension……………………………… 8 1.5 Effective reading comprehension tasks……………………………………. Teaching Procedures……………………………………………………… 14 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 9 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 17 2. Setting and background…………………………………………………… 17 2. Data collection instrument………………………………………………… 18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 20 3.
Data analysis of the students‟ survey questionnaire…………………. Data analysis of the teachers‟ survey questionnaire…………………. Discussion and findings…………………………………………………. 31 PART THREE: CONCLUSION 35 1.
Summary of the major findings…………………………………………… 35 2. Recommendations for Classroom Practice………………………………. Limitations and recommendations for further study……………………… 37 4. 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 10 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 2.
Rationale Reading is an essential skill for English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). For many, reading is the most important skill to master. With strengthened reading skills, ESL/ EFL readers will make greater progress and attain greater development in all academic areas. In Vietnam, English is taught and learned in a non – native environment so reading is not only an important means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place.
According to Carrell (1984:1): - for many students, reading is by far the most importance of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language. Reading is one of the most important language skills in academic settings. It is also one of the most complex skills to develop strong second language (L2) fluency. Unlike speaking and writing, the reader is not able to control the message or the language used.
It is also a skill that, like listening, must be carried out under the real time pressure if it is done fluently. However, unlike listening, there are no opportunities to ask for clarification or additional information. Moreover, the range of vocabulary encountered in reading is much greater than is typically used in speaking and listening settings (Stanovich, 2000, p. Given this starting point, it is fairly clear that the development of L2 reading abilities represents a serious challenge for both the learners and the teachers.
Aware of the importance of teaching reading skill, all the teachers of Dai Mo upper-secondary school are trying their best to make the reading lessons effective. The teachers themselves always try to find out the best approach to apply in teaching. However, the quality of English learning and teaching still remains very low. Although a great number of attempts have been made by the teaching staff in order to improve the situation such as applying various teaching approaches and techniques, adapting textbooks to make the lessons suitable for the students to learn, their efforts seem not effective at all.
The students cannot improve their English competence. For all of these reasons, it would be LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 11 necessary to have an investigation into teachers„ and students‟ perceptions of effective reading comprehension tasks and the mismatch between teachers and students‟ perceptions of effective learning. It is hoped that this study will reveal issues concerning teaching and learning reading comprehension tasks to help teachers have a deep understanding about the reading strategies to make decisions on how and what they should do to keep their students much more involved in the reading process. The scope of the study Having effective reading comprehension lessons is one of the biggest concerns of both the teachers and the learners of English.
In this study, focus is mainly put on investigating the teachers and students‟ perceptions of effective reading comprehension tasks and the mismatch between teachers and students‟ perceptions of effective learning. The study is conducted in only one high school of Dai Mo upper-secondary school on 182 students in four classes in twelfth grade and 7 teachers in the school. Aims of the study The study aims to investigate three things: 1) Teachers‟ and students' perceptions of effective reading comprehension tasks. 2) Differences between teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of effective reading tasks.
3) To give some recommendations for the improvement of the reading lessons 4. Research questions: This study seeks to answer the following research questions: 1. What reading tasks are perceived as effective by the students? 2. What reading tasks are perceived as effective by the teachers? LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Are there any differences between teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of effective reading tasks? 5. Methods of the study In order to find out the answers to the above research questions, a survey research was adopted for this study. Significance of the study Results of the study will help the teachers and students have a more comprehensive look at the present situation of teaching and learning English reading comprehension tasks. And then, teachers will have appropriate and interesting ways to make the reading lessons more effective.
Design of the study The study is organized around three parts. Part one: - Introduction – provides rationale for the study, states what the study is aimed at and what specific tasks it resolves, specifies the scope of the study, and sketches the general structure of the study. Part two: - Development – consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: - Literature Review – mentions the theoretical background of the topic with a definition of reading, an overview of the roles of reading in foreign language learning, good readers vs. bad readers, approaches to teaching reading comprehension, effective reading comprehension tasks and teaching procedures LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 13 Chapter 2: - The study – provides information about the study.
This includes the setting of the study, the participants and the research instruments used for this study. Chapter 3: - Data analysis and findings – gives the discription of the students and teachers survey questionnaie. This chapter also gives the discussion of the results and suggestions for teachers and students at Dai Mo Upper- secondary school and provides some suggestions for further study. Part three: – Conclusion – gives a summary of the whole study, its implicaions for the improvement of the classroom practice, its limitations and suggestions for future research.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 14 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides an overview of the theoretical background of the research 1.1 Definition of Reading Reading is defined as being composed of four elements: the text, the reader, fluency and reading strategies. Reading can be seen as an “interactive” process between a reader and a text, which leads to automaticity or (reading fluency). In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as s/he tries to elicit the meaning and where various kinds of knowledge are being used: linguistic or systemic knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top-down processing). Since reading is a complex process, Grabe argues that “many researchers attempt to understand and explain the fluent reading process by analyzing the process into a set of component skills” (Grabe: 1991, p.
According to Anderson (1999: 1), “Reading is an active, fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building meaning. Meaning does not reside on the printed page, nor is it only in the head of the reader. A synergy occurs in reading which combines the words on the printed page with the reader‟s background knowledge and experiences.” I think this definition is comprehensive since it describes fully not only the nature of reading comprehension but also process of reading comprehension. Reading competence is composed of the following components or sub skills (Grabe, 1991): 1.
Automatic recognition skills 2. Vocabulary and structural knowledge 3. Formal discourse structure knowledge 4. Content/world background knowledge 5.
Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies 6. Metacognitive knowledge and skills monitoring LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 The role of reading in foreign language learning In a second language classroom, reading plays a significant role in building both linguistic and background knowledge for other language skills. Reading may contribute significantly to competence in a second language. There is a good reason; in fact, to hypothesize that reading makes a contribution to overall competence, to all four skills (Krashen & Terrel, 1983:131).
Hoang et al. (2006: 191) even consider reading as the most effective means of improving students‟ language competence. Especially, when there is a lack of L2 environment, reading is even more significant since it helps enlarge students‟ background knowledge and vocabulary as well as supports other skills (Pham, 2005 cited in Hoang et al. Since reading benefits grammatical knowledge and vocabulary development, overall competence in the second or foreign language increases through reading comprehension.
Hedge (2003) states that any reading component of an English language course may include a set of learning goals for the ability to read a wide range of texts in English. This is the long-range goal most teachers seek to develop through independent readers outside EFL/ESL classroom. building a knowledge of language which will facilitate reading ability building schematic knowledge. the ability to adapt the reading style according to reading purpose (i.
skimming, scanning) developing an awareness of the structures of written texts in English taking a critical stance to the contents of the texts The achievement of these learning goals is the measure of the effectiveness of a reading comprehension program. However, the extent to which these learning goals LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 16 depends on many variables such as reader variables and text variables. Learner variables include students‟ interest level in the text, purpose for reading the text, knowledge of the topic, foreign language abilities, awareness of the reading process, and level of willingness to take risks.