REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC According to foreign language competence framework for Vietnamese students, high school graduates are supposed to reach tertiary level (equivalent to Level B1). To fluently communicate as expected, students have to develop communicative skills including listening, speaking, reading, and writing. However, language competence in every skill is under expected level especially in reading skill. There has been a worrying problem in students’exam scores.
Especially, more than 70% of students’ scores were below grade 5 in National GCSE (General Certificate Of Secondary Education) examination 2018-2019. Students when asked about the format of the English test in the national GCSE examination tend to say that reading section seems to be the most challenging to them. Those not intending to major in English are appalled by the long passage with series of vocabularies in complex contexts completely new to them. They cannot find the correct answers to the questions designed in limited time in the examination room or do the reading comprehension questions without bothering to know the content of the passage.
As a teacher of language for many years, I myself find that this is one of the main reasons that drive students’ scores in English to the bottom of the sore board in recent years.Traditionally, students spend far too much time learning grammar, which is designed to take up nearly the same portion as reading in the format of English test in the national GCSE examination yearly while reading is a section that most of our students ignore or do it to the luck of the game, which means that they answer the reading questions without understanding or choose the answer without any evidence. Most reading tasks in current English 12 are designed in the way that the answers are almost on display and that students can easily answer without and simple pieces of thought, not to mention any reference and inference. Students therefore get bored in the lessons unless the teachers find new ways to adapt. Students in grade 12 are going to sit for their national GCES examination in which most reading tests are designed in the ways that are different form those they have done in their classes.
Adapting is a stepenabling them get used to reading comprehension questions. Reading lessons in the national curriculum for English 10, 11, 12 takes up one fifth of the total time for each Unit. However, in many classes, there is still an unrealistic use of language where teachers often spend a large of proposition of class time asking “readily displayed” questions for which they and their students already know the answers without any simple kind of thought or inference. Students therefore get bored and cannot get used to the new kinds of questions required in the format of reading comprehension section.
1 skkn For the above reasons, the writer decided to choose “Adapting reading comprehension tasks in Tieng Anh 12 in the direction of approaching the GCSE exam questions.” as the topic of this study. AIMS, SCOPE, OBJECTIVE AND METHOD OF THE STUDY 1.Aims: - To help the teacher of English to adapt reading tasks in the textbook in the orientation of the format for GCSE examination. - To help students get acquainted with types of reading comprehension questions in the national GCSE examination. - To provide some reading strategies for reading comprehension questions.
Scope - Applying in the reading lessons in Tieng Anh 12 - Applying to prepare students for their GCSE examination and college, university entrance examination. Object of study: - Students in grade 12 - Students under preparation for GCSE examination and college, university entrance examinations 4. Method - Studying common types of reading comprehension questions in National GCSE examination in recent years. - Applying reading strategies in Longman 2000- Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test- to adapt reading tasks in Tieng Anh 12 - Reading reference books, discussing with other teachers, applying in teaching and getting experience from the teaching in the class.
2 skkn PART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.Types of reading comprehension questions Here are some common types of reading comprehension questions appearing consequently in the reading text in the national GCSE examination and in TOEFL (PPT) 1. Questions about the ideas of the passage. This type of question ask you to answer questions about the information included in the reading passage. Common questions of this kind are the ones asking for the main ideas of the passage, directly answered questions and indirectly answered questions 1.
Questions for main ideas 1. Directly answered questions - Stated detail questions - Unstated detail questions - Pronounce referent questions 1. Indirectly answered questions - Implied detail questions - Transition questions 1. Questions for word definition from structural clues 1.
Questions for word meaning from word parts 1. Questions for word meaning from context. Overall review questions 1.1Questions for location of specific information 1. Questions for the tone, purpose or course 1.
Questions for the organization of the ideas of the reading passage. Strategies to help students deal with the reading questions easily. This type of questions asks for the definition of words or phrases or for the meanings of vocabulary in the passage. To answer this type of questions, you may have to get the meanings of the word by looking the surrounding words given, structural clues or part of speech of the words expected.
- Help students master essential reading skills, what they are, how they are used - Help students get used to the common types of questions 3 skkn - Guide students to manage time in a proper way - Guide students to deal with the reading passage whose topic is not familiar with them. - Guessing is of some use in case you do not really understand the passage properly. Skimming Skimming involves reading quickly to get the main idea of a text. Reading topic sentences (usually the first sentence of a paragraph) can be an effective way of understanding the main idea of the text.
This skill of reading is used for main idea questions or overall review questions 2. Scanning Scanning means looking for supporting points and details, provided in body paragraphs. In other words, finding elaborations or sentences including detailed and specific information that support an important point or a topic sentence in a body paragraph. Scanning is often used for directly answered questions.
Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is to include the ideas or information from an original sentence in the passage by rephrasing them in other words. This can be done with synonyms, antonyms, word derivations, umbrella words or grammatical structures. This is an essential skill used for vocabulary questions or sometimes for inference questions 2. Key word spotting Looking for key information involves looking in a given paragraph of passage of words for the key words that are relevant for your topic.
It is a process that can be used in conjunction with scanning. This is used for questions for details 2.5 Intensive reading We use this skill when we need to understand every work in a part of a text. This may be used when we answer detailed reading questions in exams. Choose the best answer to each question from the four answer choices listed in your test book.
We can choose the best answer according to what is given in the appropriate section of the passage, eliminate definitely wrong answers, and mark our best guess on the answer sheet. Strategies to deal with each type of reading question. These are the primary rationales on which I have adapted reading comprehension tasks in current English 12. They are mostly taken from Longman 2000- Preparation Course for the TOEFL Test- by Deborah Phillips.
Main ideas questions 4 skkn Main ideas questions The passage is mainly aimed at…. What does the author mainly discuss? What is the passage mainly about? What is the topic of the passage? How to identify the What is the subject of the passage? questions What is the main idea of the passage? What is the author’s main point in the passage? With what is the author primary concerned? Which of the following would be the best title? What is the author’s main purpose in the passage? The answer to this type of question generally lies in the Where to find the answers first sentence of each paragraph. Read the first line of each paragraph. Look for a common theme or idea in the first lines.
Run though the rest of the passage to check if the How to answer the information in the first line is the main idea or not. Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices 3. Directly answered questions 3. Stated detailed question.
According to the passage, … It is stated in the passage … How to identify the The passage indicates that … questions The author mentions that … Which of the following is true … The answers to these questions are found in order Where to find the answers in the passage. How to answer the 1. Choose a key word in the question. Skim in the appropriate part of the passage for 5 skkn the key word or idea.
Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea carefully. Look for the answer that restates an idea in the passage. Eliminate the definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices.3 - Unstated detail questions Which of the following is not stated …? Which of the following is not mentioned …? How to identify the questions Which of the following is not discussed …? All of the following are true except … The answers to these questions are found in order in Where to find the answers the passage. Choose a key word in the question.
Scan in the appropriate place in the passage for the key word (or related idea) 3. Read the sentence that contains the key word or idea How to answer the questions carefully. Look for the answers that are definitely true according to the passage. Eliminate those answers.
Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage. Pronoun reference questions What does the word “X ” in line …. Refer to? How to identify the questions The pronoun “ .” in line X refers to which of the following? Where to find the The answer is often located in the sentence preceding the answers line that the pronoun comes from How to answer the 1. Locate the pronoun in the passage.
It is often in BOLD, questions ITALIC OR UNDERLINED so that we can find it easily 6 skkn 2. Identify the nouns that come before the pronoun that the pronoun could refer to. Read the part of the passage before the pronoun carefully to see which option is the best answer 4. Try the three other options in place of the pronouns to check if they can fit.
Eliminate any definitely wrong answers and choose the best answer from the remaining choices.Indirectly answered questions 3.Implied detail questions It is implied in the passage that … How to identify the It can be inferred from the passage that … questions It is most likely that … What probably happened …? The answers are not directly stated, so we have to locate the Where to find the piece of information we can infer so that we can understand answers what point the author want to get across. Choose a key word in the question. Scan in the passage for the key word (or a related idea) How to answer the 3. Carefully read the sentence that contains the key questions word.
Look for an answer that could be true, according to that sentence. Transition questions This type of question is not common in reading text in the national GCSE examination.