MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ VO NGUYEN DOAN UYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ USE OF GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY 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 ------------ VO NGUYEN DOAN UYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ USE OF GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: CAO LE THANH HAI, Ph.D HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- VÕ NGUYỄN ĐOAN UYÊN NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG TRƯỚC KHI ĐỌC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRONG CÁC LỚP TIẾNG ANH Ở CÁC TRƯỜNG THPT TẠI THÀNH PHỐ 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.CAO LÊ THANH HẢI HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Date: 22/ 10/ 2018 Signature Vo Nguyen Doan Uyen i ABSTRACT Reading is considered as the most important skill in second or foreign language learning. However, a large number of students demonstrate low competence in reading comprehension due to their lack of background knowledge towards the reading texts.
Therefore, there should be effective activities in pre-stage in reading lessons so that they can equip students with necessary knowledge before their actual reading. Games, one of the teaching methods, can be used in pre - reading stage as one of the pre-reading activities. This present study aims at investigating teachers’ use of games in pre - reading activities with the participation of 30 teachers and 100 students at six high schools in Hue city. Three instruments namely questionnaire, interview and observation were used in order to discover the perceptions of teachers and students towards the use of games in pre-reading activities, the frequencies and the commonly-used games, the benefits, problems as well as suggestions of using games in pre-reading activities.
The results from the data analysis revealed that the majority of teachers had full awareness towards the use of pre-reading activities. The surveyed students, on the other hand, were fairly unsure about some theoretical background of games in pre-reading activities. This study has also investigated the reality of using games as one of pre-reading activities in some high schools in Hue city and pointed out the most common types of games used in pre stage were sorting, ordering or arranging games, guessing games together with matching games. Furthermore, benefits and problems were analyzed in order to give some suggestions to use games in pre stage in reading lessons effectively.
ii ACKNOWLEGEMENT This paper could not have been possible and completed without the help and valuable support of a number of wonderful people who all deserve my deepest gratitude and immense appreciation. First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and best regard to my supervisor Cao Le Thanh Hai, Ph.D for her precious guidance, extremely valuable feedback and continuous encouragement during the time I conducted this research. Her careful reading and patient guidance made my work much better. I would like to express my special thanks to all the teachers and students in six high schools in Hue city for their enthusiasm and contribution in the process of data collection of the study.
Without their willing participation, I would not have been able to finish this research paper. Last but not the least, my deepest gratitude goes to my parents, my spouse for their endless love, constant encouragement which gave me a great deal of strength and unending inspiration during my stressful time of conducting this paper. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE.i STATEMENT OF ORIG INALITY. III TABLE OF CONTENTS .IV LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.
VII LIST OF TABLES .VIII LIST OF FIGURES. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:. AIMS OF THE STUDY:. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY:.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY. P RE-READING ACTIVITIES AND SOME TYPES OF PRE-READING ACTIVITIES. Pre-reading activities. Types of pre-reading activities.
DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF GAMES. Definition of games. Classification of games. THE ADVANT AGES OF USING GAMES IN EFL CLASSROOM.
Games motivate students’ learning. Games promote interaction among students. Games improve students’ language acquisition. Games increase learners’ achievement.
P ROBLEMS OF USING GAMES IN EFL CLASSROOMS. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS IN LEARNING ENGLISH. P REVIOUS STUDIES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH. Previous research in the world.
Previous research in Vietnam. DAT A COLLECTION PROCEDURE. TEACHERS ’ AND STUDENTS’PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PRE-READING ACTIVITIES AND USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES IN ENGLISH CLASSES. Perception towards pre-reading activities.
Perception towards games in pre-reading activities. REALIT Y OF USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES. The reality of using pre-reading activities. The reality of using games in pre-reading activities.
The frequency of using games in pre-reading activities. The commonly-used types of games in pre-reading activities. EFFECTS OF USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES. DIFFICULTIES OF USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES.
SUGGESTIONS FOR USING GAMES IN PRE-READING ACTIVITIES 61 CHAPTER 5. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE STUDY. LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:. 70 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1: first language EFL: English as a foreign language vii LIST OF TABLES Table 3.
The number of participants in each school…………………………. Characteristics of student participants…………………. Characteristics of teacher participants …………………,…. Effects of using games in pre-reading activities…………….
Difficulties of using games in pre-reading activities………. Suggestions for using games in pre-reading activities…….61 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4. Teachers’ perception toward pre-reading activities……………………34 Figure 4. Students’ perception toward pre-reading activities……………………38 Figure 4.
Teachers’ perception toward games in pre-reading activities…………42 Figure 4. Students’ perception toward games in pre-reading activities…………. Whether teachers use pre-reading activities…………………………. Whether games are one of the activities used in pre-reading stage by teachers…………………………………………………………………………….
The frequency of using games in pre-reading activities……………. Types of games that are most frequently used in pre-reading activities.51 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Background of the study: Nowadays, with the significant socio-economic development of the society, mastering English as a foreign language has become one of the most fundamental elements in global integration for all individuals. This explains why there has been a prevalent tendency of studying English with great enthusiasm from different ages.
In order to prepare students for real life application in the information age, the teaching should accommodate the learners’ development of the four language skills. Reading skill, in particular, is the most important skill in second or foreign language learning (Carrell, 1988). According to Osei, Liang, Natalia & Stephen (2016), reading is believed to be significantly valuable in linking knowledge with literacy and is the most powerful tool for people dreaming of a full knowledgeable life. In other words, reading becomes an indispensable gateway to the acquisition of knowledge.
It makes the reader more knowledgeable, have wider perspectives, vision and new ideas (Sookchotirat, 2005 as cited in Hashemi, Mobini & Karimkhanlooie (2015). Moreover, reading is a useful source for language acquisition since the more people read, the more positive effect they get on vocabulary knowledge, on their spelling as well as their writing (Harmer, 2007). In Vietnam, the fact that English has been taught as a compulsory subject at schools can be seen as a convincing evidence proving that the importance of English has been recognized. More importantly, English has been examined annually in the national high school graduation test as a basic criterion for university entrance admission.
Particularly, in the national high school graduation test, reading section accounts for up to 40 percent of the total mark of English subject. This is an illustration of how educational program pays more attention to the development of reading skill in English among students. However, no matter how important reading is, a large number of students in EFL classrooms in general 1 and in Vietnamese in particular demonstrate low competence in reading comprehension. Students having no enthusiasm about reading texts choose neither to read nor to engage in other tasks involving reading (Stanovich, 1986, as cited in Ahmad, 2006).
Others often feel scared when doing a long and difficult reading task (Hoang, 2015). As a result, their performance in reading comprehension is still far from satisfactory. Personally, from my experience as a teacher of English at a high school in Hue city, teaching reading is a really challenging experience in my classes. Students have to struggle with unfamiliar topics which they do not have any knowledge about, different grammar structures as well as a massive number of vocabulary that they need to master in order to comprehend the texts well.
Consequently, students become passive and have little motivation in developing their reading skills. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare students with background knowledge before they read the whole material so that they can gain sufficient knowledge to understand the text. In order to achieve such goal, teachers need to conduct pre- reading activities to equip students with basic information. Additionally, it seems to me that students’ lack of interest is regarded as one main reason for reading’s failure.
In other words, reading’s achievement is dependent on students’ motivation (Greenwood, 1998; Dechant, 1982). Accordingly, it is extremely important to create an environment to get students enthusiastic about reading texts, so that they can learn for their own needs, not for the external forces from teachers or family. Using games is one of the teaching methods that first came to my mind when thinking of the ways to stimulate students’ interest. These activities can be applied in any stage of a lesson (Hadfield, 1999).
However, I myself wonder whether games can be used in pre-reading activities and whether those games can really effective to high school students or not. Topic These above reasons have aroused my interest and encouraged me to conduct this study "An investigation into teachers’ use of games in pre-reading activities in English classes at some high schools in Hue city. Aims of the study: The specific objectives of the research are as follows: - To find out teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of games in pre- reading activities in English classes. - To examine the frequency of games using in pre-reading stage and how useful they are.
- To identify problems teachers may encounter when using games in pre-reading activities. - To give some suggestions for using games in pre-reading activities effectively. Research questions: In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, the research seeked the answers to the following questions: 1. What are the perceptions and attitudes of teachers and students towards the use of games in pre-reading activities in English classes? 2.
How frequently are games used in pre-reading activities? 3. How useful are the games in helping teachers with their pre-reading activities? 4. What problems do teachers encounter when using games in pre-reading activities? 1. Significance of the study: The findings of the research are expected to help teachers realize the importance of using games in pre-reading activities as well as some difficulties teachers may face so as to avoid these problems and engage students in reading 3 exercises and increase students’ interest in reading English.
As a result, it may help improve the quality of teaching English in general and reading in particular. Scope of the study This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions and use of games in pre-reading activities.