TABLE OF CONTENT Content Pages SUBCOVER PAGE STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 4 LIST OF TABLES. 5 LIST OF CHARTS .2 Aims of the research .3 Objectives of the research .5 Scope of the research .6 Significance of the research.
The structure of the research. 12 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Nature of reading and reading comprehension .1What is reading? .2 What is reading comprehension? .3 The importance of reading .4 Intensive reading and extensive reading .5 Different approaches in interpreting a text .1 Bottom-up approach .2 Top-down approach .6 Factors influencing reading comprehension .1 Background/ Schematic knowledge .2 The learning of reading .1 Basic skills in reading .3 Word attack skill .2 Some strategies in reading .1 Knowing what to know in reading .2 Knowing how deeply to study the material .3 The teaching of reading .1 Techniques used in teaching reading .1 Techniques used in „Pre‟ reading .2 Techniques used in “While” stage .3 Techniques used in “Post” stage .2 Dealing with new words in teaching reading .3 The language of teachers‟ questions .4 The reading curriculum for grade 11 at high school .1 Content map for reading section .2 Requirements for 11th grade students at reading set by the MOET .3 Data collection instruments .2 Oral semi-instructed interviews .4 Data collection procedure. 45 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DICUSSION 4.1 Perceptions of students of reading comprehension .1 The purposes of reading comprehension .2 The role of reading skill to students‟ English learning .3 Level of students‟ interest in English reading .4 Frequency that students read in English .5 Students‟ favorite genres for reading .2 The reality of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension at NTL EMBHS .1 Mental factors hindering students from reading comprehension .2 Psychological factors hindering students from reading comprehension.3 Activities carried out by the teacher in reading sections .4 Activities used to monitor the class in reading sections by the teachers .5 Activities done by the students in learning reading .6 Skills applied by the students in reading a text .7 Factors relating to learning material which usually hindered students from reading comprehension.8 Students‟ result of doing a reading test .9 Skills that students are able to apply in English reading after six years of leaning English reading .3 Solutions to help students improve their reading competence .1 Things that the teacher should apply in teaching reading comprehension .2 Activities that teacher should do in teaching reading comprehension .3 Things that students should do to be good at English reading .4 Characteristics of a reading text to help students read effectively.5 Overall elements beneficial for students‟ English reading comprehension. 77 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 5.1For the leaders at NTL EMBHS .2 For the textbook designers .3 Limitation of the research .4 Recommendation for further research.
83 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Findings from questionnaire Appendix 2: Findings from the reading test Appendix 3: Questionnaire for students Appendix 4: Bảng câu hỏi điều tra cho học sinh Appendix 5: Questions to interview teachers Appendix 6: Questions to interview students Appendix 7: Reading Test REFERENCES 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATION NTL EMBHS : No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School EFL : English as a Foreign Language TEFL : Teaching of English as a Foreign Language MOET : Ministry of Education and Training GCSE : General Certificate of Secondary Education CLT : Communicative Language Teaching 4 LIST OF TABLES Pages 2.1: Content map for reading sections .4: Data Collection Procedure .6: Research questions, data collections instruments and data analysis .1 1: The purposes of reading comprehension .5: Students‟ favorite genres for reading .1: Mental factors that usually hindered students from reading comprehension .2: Psychological factors that usually hindered students from reading comprehension .3: Activities carried out by the teacher in teaching reading .4: Activities used to monitor the class in reading sections by the teacher.5: Activities usually done by the students in learning reading .6: Skills applied by the students in interpreting a text .7:Factors relating to Learning material hindering students from reading comprehension .9: Skills that students are able to apply in English reading after 6 years of learning English reading .1 :Things that the teacher should apply in teaching reading comprehension .2 : Activities that teacher should do in teaching reading comprehension .3: Things that students should do to be good at reading .4: Characteristics of a reading text to help students read effectively .5:Overall beneficial elements for students‟ English reading competence. 76 5 LIST OF CHARTS Pages 4.2: The role of reading skill to students‟ English learning .3: Level of students‟ interest in English reading.4: Frequency that students read in English.8: Students‟ result of doing a reading test. 66 6 ABSTRACT This research is carried out to investigate difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension faced by 11th grade students at No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School (NTL EMBHS) in Daklak province and therefore to offer appropriate suggestions to help the students at the school improve the learning of EFL English reading comprehension. To gain this target, data collection instruments, namely a questionnaire for students, semi-instructed interviews with students and teachers of English and a reading test for students, were applied in this research.
All of data gained from investigation process was analyzed with both qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of data analysis showed that 11th grade students at the school did not face any difficulties relating to the issue of perceptions of reading comprehension. However, a number of difficulties hindering the students from reading comprehension were found to be caused by teaching method of the teachers, by learning method of the students and by learning material. In other words, shortcomings relating to students‟ learning motivation, knowledge of linguistic elements along with shared knowledge and reading habit and teachers‟ guiding questions are those necessary to concern to improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of EFL English reading comprehension for 11th grade students at the school.
Long texts, complicated language and the lack of illustrations in reading texts, additionally, were found to exert negative influences on students‟ reading comprehension. Similarly, the lack of supplementary reading material and lack of dictionaries also hindered the students from improving their reading competence. Consequently, solutions relating to these shortcoming were pointed out with the desire to make the learning of EFL English reading comprehension of 11th grade students at the school become more effective.1 Rationale In the context that Vietnam is undergoing a vigorous change to integrate into the world, foreign languages, especially English, do clearly define their vital roles as a linguistic bridge between the country and other countries. It cannot be denied that English as a Foreign Language is considered as one of the beneficial means of international communication and partly contributes to the development of Vietnam.
Therefore, English holds essential positions in all fields in the society and especially in education and training whose main aim is to enrich intellectual human resources for all of working branches at all levels. Accordingly, the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language in Vietnam always receive a great deal of concern from governmental and local authorities, from managers and trainers of education and definitely from teachers and learners of English. Nevertheless, we have to admit that there are still many problems existing in the teaching and learning English for EFL learners at every region all over the country, at both Plains and High Lands. As a matter of fact, even though many efforts have been done in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), Vietnamese learners‟ English competence still hardly meets the proposed educational requirements.
Recent rate of the students passing in English, which has been taught nationally from lower to higher secondary schools, in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) has showed an alarming situation. According to the document No 370/BC-BGDDT by the Ministry of Education & Training of Vietnam, the average mean of students passing in English in the GCSE in 2010 accounted for only 57,30 %, being lowest in comparison with other compulsory subjects of the exam. This number indicates that the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of EFL in Vietnam is still rather limited. Particularly, EFL teaching and learning in the Central Highland of Vietnam, especially in Daklak province still leave problems which are worth being concerned.
Regional characteristics of a mountainous area partly lead to the fact that educational conditions in Daklak province are comparatively poorer than other 8 areas. In detail, mountainous position of the province seems to make it lack essential elements for effective EFL English teaching and learning such as English material, teaching aids, EFL effective learning environment. Especially, from the experience gained from my own teaching context, I find that EFL learners face many problems in their learning. They cannot learn English as being expected and therefore English subject tends to be a burden to the learners.
Some of my students reveal that they feel frightened to EFL learning. Moreover, they admit to “know nothing” after a long period spent on EFL learning, which partly leads to the fact that learners‟ motivation in learning foreign language simultaneously becomes affected. In reality, there have been many times when I stepped out of EFL classes, with the role of a teacher of English, my mind was full of worries about the students‟ motivation and attitudes in English learning. In classes, most of the students seem to be rather passive, unwilling and even lazy in English learning.
Gradually, these worries have partly made me have unsatisfying feelings in carrying out my teaching job, which generally makes my own teaching ineffective and certainly lead to negative affects on the learning of students. To improve this situation, Nuttal (2000, p.10) pointed “recognizing that you have problems is the first step to solving them”. In other words, with the desire to improve EFL learning and teaching, I find it necessary to find out difficulties and the reasons of this matter. Additionally, the reality of English-skill learning is worth being taken into account in the current context.
It cannot be denied that in current educational conditions, there are many advantages in EFL learning especially of English. They are, for instance, the advantages of foreign language textbooks compiled from communicative approach‟s viewpoints which could help EFL learners practice all of the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In addition, facilities equipment for foreign language teaching and learning like CD-players, language laboratory rooms, visual aids and such of things have gradually been improved. Besides, EFL learners have also an environment to practice their target language in the real life when there are more and more foreigners coming to many regions in our country.
Especially, the staff of qualified foreign language teachers 9 could improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning of language skills. Nevertheless, the learning of skills of English language still faces a great deal of difficulties, especially the ones in learning EFL English reading comprehension. These difficulties possibly caused by teaching methods, learners‟ motivation, from learners‟ learning styles and partly from remaining shortcomings of learning materials. They might also caused by the shortage of supplementary reading material for EFL learners to practice reading skills outside of classroom.
Besides, the difficulties in learning EFL English reading comprehension might simultaneously be afffected by the lack of space for extensive reading in English textbooks. Such difficulties in the learning of EFL English reading seems to be familiar to many high schools in Daklak province, where the material and intellectual sources mentioned previously tend not to be equipped fully. As a matter of fact, No Trang Long Ethnic Minority Boarding High School in Daklak province is no exception. Many educational researches on different issues relating to EFL reading comprehension have been done by different researchers, including both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese ones.