VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING OF PRE- READING SKILLS TO THIRD-YEAR NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS USING NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE TEXTBOOK AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI ( Nghiên cứu thăm dò về việc dạy kĩ năng tiền đọc hiểu theo giáo trình New Headway Pre-intermediate cho sinh viên năm thứ ba không chuyên tiếng Anh tại một trường đại học ở Hà Nội) MA. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ HỒNG VÂN AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE TEACHING OF PRE- READING SKILLS TO THIRD-YEAR NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS USING NEW HEADWAY PRE-INTERMEDIATE TEXTBOOK AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI ( Nghiên cứu thăm dò về việc dạy kĩ năng tiền đọc hiểu theo giáo trình New Headway Pre-intermediate cho sinh viên năm thứ ba không chuyên tiếng Anh tại một trường đại học ở Hà Nội) MA. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: “An exploratory study on the teaching of pre-reading skills to third-year non- English-major students using New Headway Pre-Intermediate textbook at a university in Hanoi” is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Art at University of Languages and International Studies, Ha Noi National University, and the thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Ha Noi, January 2014 Student Lê Thị Hồng Vân i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper would not have been completed without the support of many people, to all of whom I am profoundly indebted. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn, my supervisor, for his great encouragement, constant guidance and enthusiastic support during all the stages of this study. Without his advice and tireless persistence, I would not have been able to finish this paper.
My sincere thanks are also sent to my colleagues as well as students at the HAUI who are willing to help me complete the survey questionnaires and classroom observations. Last but not least, I am really grateful to my family and friends for their continual encouragement during the time I conducted the research. Especially, I would like to give my thanks to my boyfriend who is always beside me, takes care of me and willing to help me solve IT problems. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT In most cases a common problem students experience in reading classes is the feeling that they have inadequate knowledge about the subject they are reading about.
However, this feeling may be more complex than generally thought. The problem may not be the lack of background knowledge, but rather the failure to activate that knowledge. Some researchers state that pre-reading activities provide a reader with necessary background to organize activities and to comprehend the material. Owing to the obvious awareness of the great importance of pre-reading activities to the teaching and learning of reading, the researcher decided to have a study on this issue.
Firstly, she will take effort to explore what pre- reading activities are often applied by the teachers to teach third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI using the textbook New Headway Pre-Intermediate. Moreover, she would like to present her suggestions of some appropriate pre-reading activities with the hope of helping students have motivation in learning reading and improve their reading skills. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABBREVIATIONS A Accounting BA Business Administration EFL English as a foreign language ESL English as a second language ESP English for specific purposes HAUI Hanoi University of Industry iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION. Objectives of the study.
Scope of the study:. Significance of the study:. Design of the study. 6 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND.
Theoretical background of reading. Definitions of reading and reading comprehension. Classification of reading. Teaching and learning reading skills.
The importance of reading in foreign language learning. Factors in teaching and learning reading. The setting of the study. Teachers of English.
Data collection instrumentation. Data analysis methods. 24 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS. Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaire.
Students’ general assessments about reading texts in their course book (question 1). 25 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Students’ attitudes towards pre-reading activities (questions 2, 3, 4). Students’ awareness of teachers’ frequency of using pre-reading activities and supplementary materials in teaching pre-reading (questions 5, 6, 7, 8).
Students’ preferences for pre-reading techniques (questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15). Students’ comments on the pre-reading activities in the text book New Headway Pre-intermediate (question 16). Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaire. Teachers’ attitudes towards the reading texts and pre-reading activities in a reading lesson (questions 1, 2).
Teachers’ attitudes towards the role of pre-reading activities in a reading lesson (question 3). Teacher’s focus on their teaching reading texts (question 4). Teachers’ frequency of using activities to start a reading lesson (questions 5, 6). Teachers’ frequency of using other materials in teaching pre-reading (question 7).
Teachers’ applying visual aids in teaching pre-reading (questions 8, 9). Teachers’ expectation when providing students with pre-reading activities (question 10). Teachers’ difficulties in carrying out pre-reading activities in a reading lesson (question 11). Teachers’ comments on Pre-reading activities available in the book New Headway Pre-intermediate (question 12).
Teachers’ suggestions and recommendations on the Pre-reading activities (question 13). Data analysis of classroom observations. Discussion of data analysis. 51 CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION OF MAJOR FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS OF SOME POSSIBLE PRE-READING ACTIVITIES EMPLOYED TO TEACH READING TEXTS USING THE TEXTBOOK NEW HEADWAY PRE- vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com INTERMEDIATE TO THE THIRD-YEAR NON-ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT THE HAUI.
Discussion of major findings. Teachers’ and students’ awareness of the role of using pre-reading activities to the third-year non-English majors at the HAUI. Frequency of using pre-reading activities in reading lessons. Students’ preferences for pre-reading activities.
Teachers’ difficulties in designing and carrying out the pre-reading activities. Teachers’ and students’ comments on Pre-reading activities available in the book New Headway Pre-intermediate. Suggestions of some possible pre-reading activities employed to teach reading texts using the textbook new headway pre-intermediate to the third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI. Using visual aids.
Summary of the study. Summary of main findings:. Limitations of the study. Recommendations for further study .I vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale A special focus is received by reading in many second or foreign language teaching situations. There contain a number of reasons for this. Firstly, when learning a foreign language students often have reading as one of their most important goals. They would like to able to read for information and pleasure, for their career, and for study purposes.
In fact, in most EFL situations, the ability to read in a foreign language is all what students ever want to acquire. Secondly, written texts serve various pedagogical purposes. The process of language acquisition can be enhanced by extensive exposure to linguistically comprehensible written texts. Reading texts with good quality also provide good models for writing and provide opportunities to introduce new topics, to stimulate discussion.
Therefore, students and teachers alike highly value this skill. Reading has always been received a great amount of attention from both teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam in general and at the Hanoi University of Industry (HAUI) in particular. In most universities in Vietnam, students are taught in non-native English environment. That is why they meet many difficulties in learning the four English skills effectively in general and the reading skill in particular.
“For many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language” as Carrel (1981:1) stated. This is true to the students at the HAUI, where learners usually have to do exercises and tests including many reading texts. Futuremore, after graduating they would probably have to work with many English written materials related to their majors, so reading skill plays an important role in helping them work with those materials. It is essential for them to acquire the ability to read English effectively and efficiently.
Nevertheless, although teachers and students have taken strenuous efforts, students still often claim to have a lot of difficulties in reading English textbooks or English materials, and therefore, they sometimes find it inefficient when reading them. For third-year university students learning English as a non-major, although they have been learning English for at least several years, it is still often so difficult for them to understand a text or a passage in English, since they usually lack vocabulary, grammar, 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com reading skills and possess poor background knowledge. Besides, the teachers from time to time have to confront with difficulties in dealing with the students’ learning demand and newly introduced sources of materials. Additionally, it seems to be clear that teaching methods and teaching techniques in general still have not met the international standard of education.
It is necessary to explore the areas of students’ difficulty at the HAUI, the causes of their unsuccessful reading comprehension, and the teaching of pre-reading skills. Thus, these reasons have inspired the study of “An exploratory study on the teaching of pre-reading skills to third-year non-English-major students using New Headway Pre- Intermediate textbook at a university in Hanoi.” It is hoped that the study will make some contributions to improving the learning of English in general, and the learning of reading in particular among the third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI. The author also hopes that it will be possible to make suggestions for the teachers to have good teaching pre-reading skill method in order to improve the situation of teaching and learning reading at the HAUI. Objectives of the study The study is carried out with two major objectives.
The first objective is to investigate pre- reading techniques employed by the teachers of English at the HAUI. The second objective is to give suggestions of some possible pre- reading activities that can be applied to teach the text book New Headway Pre-Intermediate to the third-year non-English major students at the HAUI. In brief, these objectives could be summarized into two research questions as follows: Question 1: What pre-reading activities are often applied to teaching reading for third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI using the textbook New Headway Pre- Intermediate? Question 2: What possible pre-reading activities are suggested to help improve reading skills for third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI using the textbook New Headway Pre-Intermediate? 3. Scope of the study: With the desire of improving reading skill for third-year non-English-major students at the HAUI, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done.
However, in this study, the author only intends to overview a brief of current situation of teaching and learning reading of third-year non-English-major students at the 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com HAUI, and to suggest some possible activities that can be applied in the Pre-reading stage so as to help students have motivation in reading lessons as well as help them become good and successful readers.