VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** TRẦN THỊ THU HẰNG USING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ READING INTERESTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BA VI DISTRICT, HA NOI.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi – 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THU HẰNG USING PRE-READING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ READING INTERESTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BA VI DISTRICT, HA NOI.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã Hanoi – 2020 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, Tran Thi Thu Hang, hereby certify that the thesis entitled “Using pre- reading activities to enhance students‟ interests in reading for the 10th form students at a high school in Ba Vi district” is submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. I also declare that this thesis is the result of my own research and efforts and it has not been submitted for any other purposes. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my heart- felt thank and my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr.
Vu Thi Thanh Nha for her enlightening guidance, precious suggestions and invaluable encouragement during my fulfillment of this minor thesis. My sincere thanks go to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies for the valuable lectures on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation. I truly wish to thank all the students of class 10A4 at Bat Bat High School who have actively participated in the research. I am deeply grateful to my family for their great support and to many of my colleagues for their notable assistance.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT An important goal of language teaching is to awaken learners‟ interest in language and also to give them a lasting positive attitude towards reading. The primary purpose of this study is to examine on types of teachers‟ pre-reading strategies to attract students‟ attention and interest towards learning reading lessons, to investigate reasons why students tend to lose interest in reading lessons and to examine the impact of using three pre-reading activities (games, visual aids and group discussion) to enhance students‟ interests in learning. This study was carried out among 41 grade ten students in a high school in Ba Vi district. Data were collected through questionnaires, classroom observation and teaching diaries and then the data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
The results of the data analysis indicate that students have relatively low interest in reading lessons due to the lack of interesting pre-reading activities from the teacher. Some adjustments on pre-reading activities have been executed and these activities have brought about positive changes to language learning. The results show that three pre-reading activities applied have considerable impacts on students‟ learning. Classroom learning has been promoted and students‟ interactions have been strengthened.
The students made considerable progress in their reading lessons and they also actively engaged in the lesson with high motivation. From these findings, it can be suggested that teachers should take actions in developing and enhancing students‟ reading interests. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 3.1: Cyclical action research model based on Kemmis and Mctaggart.1: Students‟ opinion about the reading lesson .2: The reasons why the students thought the reading lessons were not interesting .3: The frequency of pre-reading activities used by teacher in reading lessons .4: Students‟ opinions on pre-reading activities.1: Students‟ opinions about pre-reading activities.5: Purposes of pre-reading activities .6: Pre-reading activities offered by the students.2: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson.3: Students‟ opinion on using pictures and videos .4: Students‟ opinion on group discussion .5: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson.6: The students‟ opinion on game and group discussion .7: Descriptive statistics of the students‟ attitude towards reading lesson. 57 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v CHAPTER 1.
Rationale for the research 1 1. Aims and objectives of the research 2 1. Aims of the research 2 1. Objectives of the research 2 1.
Scope of the research 3 1. Methods of the research 3 1. Significance of the research 3 1. Organisation of the thesis 3 CHAPTER 2.
Theoretical background of reading 5 2. Definition of reading. Classification of reading. An overview of reading comprehension 7 2.
Definition of reading comprehension. Stages in a reading comprehension lesson. Theoretical background of pre-reading activities 9 2. Definition of pre-reading activities.
Pre-reading techniques. An overview of interest 12 2. Definition of interest .12 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Types of interest.
The aspects of interest. Factors influencing interest. The importance of interest to learning. Literature review of interests in reading 18 2.
Relationships between pre-reading activities and interest 19 2. Previous studies on pre-reading stage and interest 20 2. Context of the study 24 3. The research site.
Research method: Action research 25 3. Definition of action research. Action research model. Data collection instruments 28 3.
Data analysis procedures 30 3. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 35 4. Research cycle one 35 4. Analysis of classroom observation.
Analysis of the teaching diaries. Analysis of the questionnaires to the students………………………. Data collected from post-questionnaires. Research cycle two 54 4.
The students’ attitude towards the reading lesson .54 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The students’ opinions about games and group discussion. Research cycle three 56 4. What are students’ opinions about reading lessons?.
How effective is the use of three pre-reading activities in enhancing students’ reading interest?. What are students’ attitudes towards these activities?. Suggestions for further research 67 REFERENCES 68 APPENDIXES I vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale for the research Interests in learning, especially in teaching and learning reading skills have addressed the attention of many researchers.
As we know that, interests have a powerful impact on students‟ reading abilities. Kragler and Nolley (1996) claim that determining children‟s interests can motivate children to read more difficult reading materials. Wolfson and Manning (1984) found that students comprehend more when they read materials of interest. For this reason, making reading an enjoyable activity is very important, and to improve students‟ reading ability, the reading activities used in teaching reading must also be enjoyable.
It can be said that without interests, someone is impossible to do anything. Therefore, it is important that teachers should pay attention to students‟ interests to help them read at a higher level and comprehend the text more successfully. It is undeniable that pre-reading activities play an important role in the success of teaching reading skill. According to Celce-Murcia (1991), pre-reading activities not only activate the reader‟s prior relevant knowledge to the understanding of the new text but they also provide language preparation and motivate reading.
An effective pre-reading activity makes the reading lesson more enjoyable and less challenging. It is assumed that if the students are interested in pre-reading state, their reading tasks will be more successfully completed and obstacles in while-reading stage will become less. As an English teacher for more than ten years, the researcher has realized the significant effects of pre-reading activities on students‟ reading performance. However, in the context of teaching and learning in a high school in Ba Vi district, the author found that the use of pre-reading tasks has been far from satisfactory.
In most reading lessons, teachers seem to follow repeated tasks in textbooks without any adaptation. Students, therefore, merely spend most of their time following what the teacher asks with low emotion and cooperation. Sometimes, the teachers use a 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com lot of pre-reading activities in their reading lesson but not all of them take effect in raising students‟ learning performance and interests. Some activities are thought to be effective but in fact they do not always work well and sometimes demotivate students‟ learning.
Moreover, there are only a few studies that are deal with the effects of pre-reading on raising students‟ interests in reading. These gaps are the subject of research in this study. This study was carried out with a view to finding out which pre- reading activities can help enhance students‟ interests in learning reading skill as well as find out their attitudes towards these activities. Based on the findings of this action research, some appropriate pre-reading strategies will be applied as a useful tool to enhance students‟ interests in learning and to facilitate their reading comprehension skill.
Hopefully, the study would offer some practical suggestions for teachers to design more effective pre-reading activities. Aims and objectives of the research 1. Aims of the research The study was carried out with an aim to find out effective pre-reading activities to increase students‟ interests in reading to adjust teaching and learning activities. Objectives of the research The objectives of the research were to find out whether the students in a high school in Ba Vi district were interested in reading lessons or not, and to check the effectiveness of three pre-reading activities (games, discussion and visual aids) in enhancing students‟ reading interest.
It also examined students‟ attitudes towards these pre-reading activities and proposed some suggestions for teachers to foster students‟ interests in learning. Research questions With the given aims and objectives, the study aimed to answer three research questions: 1. What are students’ opinions about reading lessons? 2. How effective is the use of three pre-reading activities in enhancing students’ reading interests? 3.
What are students’attitudes towards these activities? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Scope of the research The study was conducted at a high school in Ba Vi District, Ha Noi. Because of the limited time, it only focuses on using pre-reading activities to raise the students‟ reading interests to grade 10 students, so the teaching of other skills or other grades would be beyond the scope. Methods of the research The author used action research for the study and the data is collected by using quantitative and qualitative techniques.
In order to achieve reliable results for the study, the author chose classroom action research in which survey questionnaires for students, classroom observation and teaching diary were used to collect data. The study was carried out during 12 weeks, and the research cycle consisted of four phases: planning; action; observation and reflection. Significance of the research The research is designed with the hope to contribute effective ways to raise students‟ reading interests by using different pre-reading activities. As a result, the students will be expected to gain a higher level of English and to perform better in their language learning in general, especially in reading comprehension in particular.
In terms of practice, the finding of this research can be used as a reference for teachers of English in their own teaching. Organisation of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction- This chapter presents the rationale for choosing the field for studying, the aims and objectives, the scope of the study, the research questions and the significance and the design of the research.