MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY University of Social Sciences and Humanities MASTERS’ PROGRAM A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M. degree in TESOL TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TO STUDENTS OF JOURNALISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, HCMC by Nguyen Dang Nguyen Supervisor Senior Lecturer Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, M. HO CHI MINH CITY, 2005 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY OF MASTERS’ THESIS I certify my authorship of the Masters’ Thesis submitted today entitled TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION TO STUDENTS OF JOURNALISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, HCMC In terms of the Statement of requirements for Theses in Masters’ Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee of Department of English Linguistics and Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City. Nguyen Dang Nguyen September, 2005 RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS -4- I hereby state that I, NGUYEN DANG NGUYEN, being a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL) accepted the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Masters’ Thesis deposited in the Library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my Masters’ Thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Librarian for the care, loan and reproduction for theses. Date: July 30th, 2005 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT -5- First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Senior Lecturer Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, M., who spent a lot of precious time reading my manuscript and giving valuable comments. Without her good care and constructive critical guidance, I would not have gained achievements and thus the fulfillment of my thesis would not have been possible. I am deeply grateful to Mr.
Nguyen Huynh Dat, M., Dean of Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Dr. Dang Thi Huong, former Dean, and Ms. Nguyen Viet Thu, M., former Vice Dean, and Dr. Nguyen Tien Hung, Head of Linguistics Section for their constantly giving beloved reminders and thoughtfully creating favorable conditions for the completion of my thesis.
I highly appreciate the support from all the staff members of Department of Post-Graduate Studies during my post- graduate course. I would also like to say my special thanks to Ms. Bui Thi Thuy Quyen and Ms. Tran Thi Van Hoai for their co-working with me in the Journalism classes and providing me with brilliant ideas.
I would like to thank Ms. Cao Thi Quynh Loan, Mr. Truong Hon Huy, Ms. Vo Thi Hoang Mai and Mr.
Le Hoang Dung for their help with the initial work and the valued materials for the study. I would like to express my appreciation to Mr. Nguyen Van Ha, Head of Journalism Section, Department of Vietnamese Linguistics, Literature and Journalism, Nguyen Thi Anh Thu, Monitor of Class BC2001, and all the students of Class BC2001, BC2002 and BC2003 for their valuable contributions and enthusiastic cooperativeness in giving precious information for the success of the research. ABSTRACT -6- The thesis is an investigation into how reading is currently being practised in an ESP classroom for Journalism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-HCMC and subsequently a recommendation of an ‘eclectic’ approach in which reading comprehension is taught with reference to journalism students’ news reporting skill.
The thesis study is inspired by the reality that journalism students, while studying reading, are more interested in ‘translating news items’. What they actually do is to read an English news article and report its main points in Vietnamese. Obviously, they want to make use of their time in the English classroom to practise news reporting, which is supposed to be one of their professional skills after graduation. Thus, the teaching of reading comprehension to journalism students should be conducted as an activity in which students are given opportunities to read English newspapers or magazines and then use some methods of translation to turn them into Vietnamese news stories.
The process proves how reading may be used to assist the translation activity and how the final translation product may in return serve as a means of consolidating the reading activity. This approach is hoped to make reading comprehension become a more effective and practical subject to learn, therefore raising journalism students’ awareness of the importance of reading in their academic study as well as their future career. The thesis investigation lasts two academic years, 2002-2003 and 2003-2004, including two phases: (1) The pilot project, which is carried out to understand the -7- problem and (2) the major project, which is to experiment with the suggested solution to the problem identified. This study focuses on the second phase, spending most of the time investigating the classroom situations, collecting and analyzing the data.
150 questionnaires are distributed to students of the current journalism classes at Department of Linguistics, Literature and Journalism, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, HCMC. 148 questionnaires are filled in and returned. To have a deeper understanding of the problem, there are interviews with a number of students and their teachers. Classroom task papers are also used to have a better look into the situation.
-8- ABBREVIATIONS BC4 Class BC2001 BC3 Class BC2002 BC2 Class BC2003 CUP Cambridge University Press DAA Department of Academic Affairs DELL Department of English Linguistics and Literature DVLLJ Department of Vietnamese Linguistics, Literature and Journalism EFL English as a Foreign Language ESC English Speaking Club ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes (In this study only EFL is mentioned) GPE General Purpose English HCMC Ho Chi Minh City L1 First Language (understood as Vietnamese in this study) L2 Second Language (understood as English in this study) OUP Oxford University Press -9- TESOL Teaching English to Students of Other Languages USSH University of Social Sciences and Humanities VNU Vietnam National University - 10 - LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES TABLES TABLE 1: The ESP schedule at DVLLJ TABLE 2: The Hutchinson & Waters Checklist TABLE 3: Comprehension management TABLE 4: The result of the survey in the first phase TABLE 5: Comparing the notes taken with the final ‘news report’ version TABLE 6: Students’ essential skills after graduation TABLE 7: Class BC2’s habits of learning English TABLE 8: Class BC3’s habits of learning English TABLE 9: Class BC4’s habits of learning English TABLE 10: The habits of learning English of Classes BC2+BC3+BC4 (Degree 1+2) TABLE 11: Students’ purposes of learning English TABLE 12: Students’ interests in the learning of English TABLE 13: Students’ out-of-class activities TABLE 14: Students’ awareness of the integration of reading and translation TABLE 15: Students’ evaluation of the integration of reading and translation - 11 - TABLE 16: Students’ reading strategies TABLE 17: Difficulties in reading texts TABLE 18: Selection of materials TABLE 19: Sources of material FIGURES FIGURE 1: CLT classroom – Students’ group work FIGURE 2: The language learner is in the centre stage FIGURE 3: The reading process FIGURE 4: The stages of a reading lesson FIGURE 5: The result of the survey in the first phase FIGURE 6: Students’ essential skills after graduation FIGURE 7: Students’ work environments after graduation FIGURE 8: Students’ habits of learning English FIGURE 9: Students’ habits of learning English FIGURE 10: Students’ habits of reading and translation FIGURE 11: Students’ purposes of learning English FIGURE 12: Students’ best interests in the learning of English - 12 - FIGURE 13: Students’ out-of-class activities FIGURE 14: Students’ awareness of the integration of reading and translation FIGURE 15: Students’ evaluation of the integration of reading and translation FIGURE 16: Students’ reading strategies FIGURE 17: Difficulties in reading texts FIGURE 18: Selection of materials FIGURE 19: Sources of materials - 13 - TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 THE RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY .2 THE BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY .1 Brief description of the teaching of English for Journalism at DVLLJ, USSH .2 The importance of reading comprehension in the teaching and learning of English for Journalism at DVLLJ .4 Some related studies at USSH .3 THE STATEMENT OF PURPOSES AND THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS .7 THE OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. 10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. B RIEF OVERVIEW OF LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS AND DISCUSSION OF THEIR INFLUENCES ON THE TEACHING OF ESP. I nitiating CLT in the teaching of ESP.
A n ‘eclectic’ approach to the teaching of ESP. T HE TEACHING OF READING COMPREHENSION IN AN ESP CLASSROOM .2 Definition of reading.3 Purposes for reading vs. purposes of teaching reading comprehension .4 Communicative reading activities and skills. T he top-down reading process.
E xtracting the main ideas .3 THE ROLE OF TRANSLATION .1 The concept of translation .2 Translation as a tool for language teaching. R easons for using translation in the language classroom. S ome principles of translation for language classroom evaluation. I ntegrating translation into the L2 reading comprehension process within a communicative approach.
39 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN. A collection of students’ task papers. D escription of questionnaires to students and interview sheets to teachers. Q uestionnaires to students.
I nterview sheets to teachers. 43 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .1 THE PILOT PROJECT .2 THE MAJOR PROJECT .1 Analysis of the classroom tasks. S election of materials (PART 3). S ummary of findings.
85 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION .2 An ‘eclectic’ approach to teaching and learning reading comprehension .1 Introduction of authentic materials .3 Integrating reading and translation. 97 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION - 18 - The thesis discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the current practice of reading in an ESP classroom for Journalism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-HCMC and suggests an approach to teaching reading comprehension as an activity of special relevance to journalism students’ news reporting skill. The introduction presents the rationale for the study, the background to the study, the statement of purposes and the research questions, the methodology, assumptions, delimitations, and the overview of the study.1 THE RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY The learning of English is inevitable for researchers and scientists to access to the world of information. The availability of publications in English facilitates the retrieval of information from various written sources so as to update academic knowledge in their specific field.
Accordingly, at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), HCMC, the training of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has become one of the most important activities. Students are taught to read and understand English written documents in relation to their field of study, and then make use of those documents by making translations from English (L2) into the mother tongue (L1), thus reading comprehension and translation are the two most necessary skills they are expected to master. Students are more and more aware of the importance of this subject for their study at present and also their job in the future, which requires English proficiency6, and therefore pay more attention to their study. To some extent, they feel satisfied with the benefit from their ESP study.
6 See Appendix A: A job advertisement - 19 - USSH has also proven its proper care for the ESP section by encouraging English teachers at Department of English Linguistics and Literature (DELL), USSH, HCMC to improve their methods of teaching and participate in the movement of designing ESP materials. Many course books have been released and warmly welcome. At the Department of Vietnamese Linguistics, Literature and Journalism (DVLLJ), USSH, HCMC, a series of two English course books “Coursebook of English for Journalism - Book One” and “Coursebook of English for Journalism - Book Two” (by Nguyen Van Han, 2002, VNU Publisher, HCMC)7 have been introduced to students.