i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY MẠNH THỊ THUỲ DIỄM EFL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PRACTICE OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION IN RELATION TO COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH: A CASE STUDY IN PHU YEN PROVINCE MASTER THESIS IN THEORY AND METODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Binh Dinh, 2022 ii MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY MẠNH THỊ THUỲ DIỄM EFL HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ PRACTICE OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION IN RELATION TO COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH: A CASE STUDY IN PHU YEN PROVINCE Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code : 8140111 Supervisor: HA THANH HAI, Ph. iii BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN MẠNH THỊ THUỲ DIỄM THỰC TẾ DẠY ĐỌC HIỂU CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH PHỔ THÔNG TRONG MỐI TƯƠNG QUAN ĐƯỜNG HƯỚNG GIAO TIẾP: MỘT TRƯỜNG HỢP NGHIÊN CỨU Ở TỈNH PHÚ YÊN Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số : 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: TS. HÀ THANH HẢI i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the Master thesis entitled “EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching Reading Comprehension in Phu Yen province in relation to Communicative approaches” is entirely the result of my own research, except where otherwise referenced or acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma at any other institutions.
Binh Dinh, 2022 Mạnh Thị Thuỳ Diễm ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ph. Ha Thanh Hai for his patience, encouragement, valuable guidance and beneficial criticism throughout my research. Without his great support, this thesis would not have been accomplished in time. I am extremely grateful to all my lecturers who provided us with essential knowledge for this thesis.
Special thanks goes to my classmates who gave me their help during the time I conducted the study. I would like to thank my school-board, my colleagues who spent their golden time encouraging me to do this thesis. Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family, especially my parents who gave me unconditioned love and support, which is very significant for me to fulfill this work. iii ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching Reading Comprehension in Phu Yen province in relation to Communicative approach in order to help teachers have a better insight in teaching reading comprehension skill.
The qualitative and quantitative methods are applied to seek descriptive information of EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension and produce numerical data. Eighteen classroom observations of classes taught by nine teachers aim at identifying EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension. The results reveal that the traditional methods are used in teaching reading comprehension by most of the teachers. In terms of the Communicative approach, a small number of the teachers use this method.
Therefore, the traditional methods are used more frequently by most of the teachers in the classroom than the Communicative approach. Regarding the use of the strategies and disparities between the practice of teaching reading comprehension and the Communicative approach-based theory of teaching reading comprehension, the findings show that most of the teachers at Phu Yen seem to be strongly influenced by the grammar- translation methods which only concentrate on the ability of using grammar rules precisely. Moreover, the biggest difference between the grammar-translation methods and the Communicative approach is the strategies that are used by the teachers at three stages, namely pre- reading, while- reading and post- reading. It is hoped that the results of this study will provide useful knowledge and contribute to the teaching and learning in reading comprehension skill, especially for those who want to improve this skill.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vi LIST OF TABLES.
Aim and objectives. Aim of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Organization of the study. Definition of Reading .2 Definition of Reading Comprehension. The Communicative approach .4 Procedures of teaching a reading lesson .5 The common teaching techniques used at three stages. Previous studies related to the study.
RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Findings from classroom observations. Findings from interview.
Disparities between the practice of teaching reading and the Communicative approach. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.4 Suggestions for further research. 61 APPENDIXES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching EFL: English Foreign Language CA: Communicative approach T: Teacher vii LIST OF TABLES Number Tables Page 3.1 The information about the participants 35 3.1 Techniques of the traditional method used at pre- 39 reading stage 4.2 Techniques of the Communicative approach used at 40 pre- reading stage 4.3 Techniques of the traditional method used at while- 41 reading stage 4.4 Techniques of the Communicative approach used at 42 while- reading stage 4.5 Techniques of the traditional method used at post- 43 reading stage 4.6 Techniques of the Communicative approach used at 44 post- reading stage 4.7 Interview results from teachers 44 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Reading is one of the most important skills in determining a learner’s linguistic competence; it is a receptive language process that includes the process of recognition, interpretation and perception.
Students can get new information and the knowledge of language used in the texts through reading. Boer and Dallmann (1960: 2) say that reading is the process where the author is attempting to explain into printed symbols. We read printed materials because we want to understand what the author is trying to say. According to Ungwattanakul (1994), miscomprehension in reading is caused by a lack of knowledge of vocabulary and sentence structures.
Reading comprehension determines a student's success in learning many things, particularly in school, so reading plays an important role in the learning process. Reading comprehension skill is considered a key skill for the twelfth grade students not only in school but also for the National Examinations. In fact, the result for the students’ reading comprehension skill in Phu Yen province is still not high. One of the biggest problems is that students do not acquire enough vocabulary items to understand the texts they read.
It means that the ability of understanding also depends on students’ background. Another problem is that the students feel bored in reading lessons because they don’t have motivation. Students are expected to understand the reading material well so that they can gain information correctly and improve their knowledge. Therefore, according to Pardo (2004), teachers should assist students in activating their prior knowledge so that they can quickly comprehend the information in the text.
2 In the last few years, there has been an increasing interest in teaching reading comprehension using the traditional method and Communicative approach. It seems now that the attitude toward the traditional method has not changed completely. However, some English teachers have been considering the use of Communicative approaches for different learning purposes. It can be seen that Communicative approach have not been studied deeply in terms of teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in relation to them.
These above reasons inspire me to carry out a study on the aspect of teaching Reading Comprehension skill with the topic “EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in Phu Yen province in relation to Communicative approach”. This study aims to explore whether there are any disparities between the practice of teaching reading comprehension and the Communicative approach-based theory of teaching reading comprehension. Aim and objectives 1. Aim of the study The main target of this thesis is to investigate EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in Phu Yen province in relation to the Communicative approach.
Objectives To achieve the aim of the study, the research focuses on the following objectives: + To find out EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in Phu Yen province. + To compare the practice of teaching reading comprehension with the 3 Communicative approach. Research questions To achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, the thesis addresses itself to answering the following question: + What is EFL high school teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension? + Are there any disparities between teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension and the Communicative approach-based theory of teaching reading comprehension? 1. Scope of the study The study is conducted with the data collected from nine EFL high teachers at three high schools in Phu Yen province.
This study only focuses on the practice of teaching reading comprehension, to examine whether it is similar to Communicative approach or not. Besides, the data is collected from observation and interview conducted by the researcher. Significance of the study The study is expected to make both theoretical and practical contribution as follows: Theoretically, up to now, many studies have adopted reading comprehension skill as one of the four main skills in studying English to develop students’ ability to read and get new information. Nevertheless, Communicative approaches have not been studied deeply in terms of teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in relation to them.
Thus, this study provides a new insight into the relation between the practice and the approach. In addition, it provides a valuable reference for the readers who are interested in developing students’ reading comprehension skill. 4 Practically, the findings from the present study may assist EFL high school teachers in finding out appropriate methods for their students. Moreover, the result of this research not only gives positive implications to EFL teachers but also helps them have additional experience in teaching reading comprehension.
Organization of the study This study is divided into 5 chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction - presents the background information of the study; consisting the rationale of the study, the aim and objectives, research questions, scope of the study, the significance and organization of the study. Chapter 2: Literature review- presents the overview of teaching reading comprehension and presents theoretical background related to reading comprehension and communicative approaches that support the study. In addition, previous studies related to reading comprehension are also mentioned in this chapter. Chapter 3: Research methods and Procedures- presents the qualitative and quantitative methods employed in the study.
Secondly, it describes the participants of the study. Thirdly, it introduces the research instruments, observation and interview, used to collect data for the study. Lastly, this chapter will come to an end with the procedure to conduct the study and the methods of data analysis. Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion – analyzes, describes and illustrates the teachers’ practice of teaching reading comprehension in relation to the Communicative approach.
The information collected from the observations will be analyzed. Finally, the data of the semi-structured interviews will be analyzed in order to give more explanations for the findings of the study. 5 From these analyses, the results from the analysis will be discussed. Chapter 5: Conclusion and Implications - summarizes the main points of the study and suggests some implications for the learners and teachers in reading comprehension as well as for further studies.
Some limitations are also presented in this chapter. 6 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Definition of Reading Reading is a language process where people can get information through the printed pages. Reading is an important skill that students must master since it cannot be separated from the teaching and learning process.
Moreover, reading is a reciprocal relationship in terms of knowledge between the author and reader through interactive process to gain meaning from the text. Thus, reading necessitates the comprehension of printed symbols as well as an understanding of the structure of language. There are some definitions of reading given by some experts. Rayner (2001) says reading is defined as “the level of understanding of a text/message”.
This comprehension is based on the interaction between the written words and the information outside of the text. The ability to master reading texts is referred to as reading skills.