MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRUONG THANH BAO TRAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF APPLYING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TO TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ TRUONG THANH BAO TRAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF APPLYING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TO TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: DO THI XUAN DUNG, Ph.D HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- TRƯƠNG THANH BẢO TRÂN ĐIỀU TRA VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ THỰCTẾ ÁP DỤNG PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN NGÔN VÀO VIỆC DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU TẠI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. ĐỖ THỊ XUÂN DUNG HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby declare that the thesis entitled ―An investigation into teachers‘ perceptions and practice of applying Discourse Analysis to teaching Reading comprehension at University of Foreign languages, Hue University‖ has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. The thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference or citation is made. Researcher Trương Thanh Bao Tran Hue, 2018 i ABSTRACT Discourse Analysis is not a new approach to teaching and learning English all over the world.
However, in the context of Vietnam, this approach is not widely popular and initially used in teaching and learning English in general, reading comprehension in particular. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to investigate teachers‘ perceptions and practice of applying this new approach to teaching reading comprehension at University of Foreign Languages – Hue University. The participants of this research were 30 teachers from different departments, mainly English Department and Department of English for Specific Purposes, and 100 students randomly chosen from those who were taking reading classes. A multi-method approach combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches was employed to collect the data to answer the research questions.
Questionnaires, interviews and observation were used as research instruments. The results reveal that most of the teachers have a quite good understanding of DA knowledge and reflect their positive perceptions towards the roles of DA in and applying it to teaching reading comprehension. Besides, the findings also illustrate DA-related strategies used frequently by teachers in real reading comprehension classes. Furthermore, it can be drawn from the research results that certain difficulties including time constraint, choosing proper reading materials, different English language proficiency levels among students and other factors which teachers and students as well often encounter in the employment of DA.
Last but not least, some suggestions for teaching reading skills were thus offered to help teachers exploit DA and apply it in their teaching more effectively. Keywords: Reading, Discourse, Discourse Analysis ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This paper could not have been completed without the encouragement and support from several individuals and groups to whom I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude during the stressful time of writing this paper. First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Do Thi Xuan Dung for her valuable guidance and enthusiastic support I never forget.
With her profound knowledge, she was willing to give me support at any time. She kindly read my paper as well as offered invaluable detailed advice. More importantly, she has been a great source of inspiration for me to conduct the research in the discourse field. Additionally, she helped me to obtain questionnaires from English Department teachers who were studying aboard.
Second, my warm thanks go to the teachers and students of departments at Hue University - University of Foreign Languages, English Department in particular. They were ready to spend their time answering my questionnaires and interviews, and give me a chance to observe their classes. Their help contributes greatly to the completion of this study. Specifically, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Mrs.
Thai Ton Phung Diem, Mrs. Nguyen Xuan Quynh for their kindness, helpful support and considerable encouragement. Besides, I wish to especially thank Mrs. Hoang Thi Khanh Tam for helping me with the provision of teachers‘ teaching schedules and information, which is useful for my data collection.
Third, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my best friends for giving me helpful advice about life and encourage me to overcome all my personal problems to finish this research. Last but not least, I wish to especially thank my devoted and supportive parents and as well as my caring brothers who always stay by my side. Their endless love is my strong motivation to work hard and exert myself to conduct this study. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 .6 Significance of the study.
Cohesion and Coherence.2 The aims of teaching Reading .3 Reading Comprehension Modes .4 Types of Reading .3 Language in use. Review of previous studies .2 Research Design and Approach .4 Instruments of Data Collection .5 Data Collection Procedure .1 Administering the questionnaire .6 Data Analysis Methods. 33 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Teachers' perceptions about applying DA to teaching reading comprehension .1 The reality of teaching reading comprehension at HUFL .2 Teachers‘ perceptions of DA .3 The importance of DA in reading comprehension .2 Teachers‘ incorporation of DA into teaching Reading comprehension .1 Strategies and activities employed to teach DA in reading class. Teachers‘ classroom practices in relation to their perceptions .3 Potentials of applying discourse analysis knowledge to teaching reading skills 47 v 4.1 The benefits of using DA for teaching Reading comprehension .2 Difficulties in the employment DA to teaching reading comprehension .4 Suggestions for improving students‘ reading comprehension through an application of DA.
60 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS .1 Summary of the key findings. Implications for teachers. Implications for students. Implications for administrators.
Limitations and suggestions for further research. 66 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Full expression 1 DA Discourse Analysis 2 EFL English as a foreign language 3 HUFL Hue University of Foreign Languages vii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Teachers‘ and students‘ opinion on difficulties students often face when they learn reading comprehension .2: Teachers‘ and students‘ opinion on teachers‘ frequency of introducing tenets of DA in Reading class .3: Teachers‘ realization of some DA components .4: Teachers‘ opinion on principles of Grammar Cohesion .5: The role of DA in developing students‘ reading skills .6: Teachers‘ frequency of employing DA activities in teaching Reading comprehension .7: Students‘ opinion on their teachers‘ frequency of employing DA activities in teaching Reading comprehension .8: The possibility of improving students‘ Reading comprehension by employing DA .9: Teachers‘ agreement on the preeminence of DA over other others conventional approach .10: The reasons that distinguish DA approach with others .11: Benefits of employing Discourse Structure in teaching Reading comprehension .12: Benefits of employing Cohesion and Coherence in teaching Reading comprehension. 13: Benefits of employing genres in teaching Reading comprehension. 14: Teachers‘ difficulties in using DA activities in their reading classes .15: Students‘ problems when teachers apply DA to teaching Reading comprehension .16: DA activities which teachers should implement to enhance students‘ reading comprehension .17: Some suggestions for teachers to help students improve their reading comprehension viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Types of Cohesion .1: Demographic characteristics of the respondents to the questionnaire for teachers .2 Demographic characteristics of the respondents to the questionnaire for students .1: Groups of items in the questionnaires for teachers .2: Groups of items in the questionnaires for students .4: Summary of the samples of the classroom observation .1: Teachers‘ realization on areas of DA which are relevant to teaching Reading comprehension .2: Teachers' realization of GA-related knowledge .3: Teachers' identification of roles of DA .42 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1: The Concurrent Triangulation Strategy.
Adapted from Creswell (2003).32 x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter begins with the background that motivated the research. Besides, it describes the research rationale, research aims, research questions as well as the scope of the research. Finally, the organization of the study is also included in the chapter. Research background Reading can be considered one of the four fundamental language skills that an English as a foreign language (EFL) learner must perform.147) stated that ―reading is the most important activity in any language class, not only as a source of information and a pleasurable activity, but also as a means of consolidating and extending one‘s knowledge of the language‖.
In other words, learning this skill can enable students to improve their reading abilities, which is likely to have noticeable impacts on developing and enhancing their English abilities and knowledge in general. Reading comprehension is, therefore, an essential skill for learners of English to master in order to ensure success in learning a second language (Anderson, 2003).125) assumed that reading is a complex skill that contains a number of psychological, physical and social elements. In practice, it is not an easy skill since most of the learners have many reading issues. As a matter of fact, EFL learners are observed to face a significant number of difficulties which prevent them from performing their reading tasks successfully.
According to Gunning (2002), an inadequate knowledge of text type or text organization is one of the chief reasons for poor performance in reading. It is believed that if readers do not know what kind of the text is, such as letter, narrative, report or review, they will find it hard to follow and understand what the text is about. Some think that students cannot understand the rhetorical and functional meaning of sentences, or sentences with specific topics or involving cultural differences, which can cause the difficulties in students‘ learning to read (Wenquan, 2009). Another cause worth mentioning is that 1 EFL students are asked to read a text and merely answer the questions without being given any knowledge on the reading topic, the purpose, or the organization of the text (Truong, 2017).
In fact, a majority of students may have no idea about genres and linguistic features encoded in the reading texts, which can facilitate their reading comprehension. As a result, according to Booth & Swart (2004) students do not understand what they have been reading or always struggle with reading. Consequently, they lose their motivation for learning reading comprehension, which exerts devastating impacts on their progress in other skills of English. Discourse Analysis (DA) is defined as the study of the relationship between language and its inter-textual, social and intercultural contexts in which it is used.
The field of discourse analysis is very wide, but in regard to language teaching, according to Celce-Murcia & Olshtain (2000), it is possible to define five areas: cohesion, coherence, information structure, turn-taking, and critical discourse analysis. When it comes to teaching reading skills, DA knowledge is also very helpful in enabling students to understand how people organize language in texts, textual features, and language choices. As a result, students can both overcome certain difficulties in reading and experience different ways to read as well as new opportunities to develop high levels of reading comprehension. Research rationale DA is not a new approach possibly applied to teaching and learning English all over the world.
However, in the context of Vietnam, this approach has recently been used and integrated into reading textbooks. Therefore, exploring teachers‘ perception and practice of applying this approach to teaching reading comprehension is highly likely to be important simply because thanks to this exploitation, the effectiveness of using DA to teaching reading skills can be evaluated accurately.