VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THỦY INTEGRATING TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH (Tích hợp phương pháp dạy học giao nhiệm vụ như là một đường hướng thay thế trong giảng dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nội. Một nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm. Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ THỦY INTEGRATING TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION AS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION AT AN UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HANOI: AN ACTION RESEARCH (Tích hợp phương pháp dạy học giao nhiệm vụ như là một đường hướng thay thế trong giảng dạy kỹ năng đọc hiểu tại một trường trung học phổ thông ở Hà Nội. Một nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm.
Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Prof. Hoàng Văn Vân HANOI – 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Integrating Task-based Instruction as an Alternative Approach in Teaching Reading Comprehension at an Upper Secondary School in Hanoi: An Action Research.” It is not a plagiarism or made by others. Anything related to others‟ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references. If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree.
Signature i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my deepest thanks of gratitude to my respectable supervisor, Prof. Hoang Van Van for his friendly and sympathetic assistance and dedicated involvement throughout the process of this thesis. I would also like to be grateful to all my dear colleagues of FPT high school, and my classmates of the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their helpful as well as practical suggestions. My sincere thanks go to classes of FPT high school for their crucial participation in completing the survey questionnaires and their willingness to provide their ideas on this study as well.
Last but not least, I also own a great debt of gratitude to my family and friends for their immeasurable support bot all my degree and in this arduous process of this study. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT Developing reading comprehension ability is an important aspect in acquisition of a language. The present study focused on improving reading comprehension ability through Task-based Instruction (TBI). TBI is a methodology that develops from a focus on classroom tasks.
The participants of the study were 100 students at from four classes of 11th grade at FPT high school through a quasi-experimental design. The participants were divided into two groups, one control group (CG) and one experimental group (EG). An action research with a cycle of treatment was employed in this research. The participants received a pre-test, the instruction, and a post-test.
The participants in EG were taught through TBI, whereas the others in CG were exposed to a traditional method. The comparison between CG and EGs were made through paired sample t-tests. The results revealed that the students in EGs outperformed CGs. The results are also supported by the gathered data from the questionnaires, interviews, and class observations.
This study may have pedagogical implications for practitioners in the field and for syllabus designers to include appropriate tasks in English textbooks and English teachers/instructions to deliver the appropriate teaching methods to their students. Key words: reading, reading comprehension, task based instruction iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 Background of the study .2 Rationale for the study .3 Aims and objectives of the study .5 Significance of the study .6 A Summary of methodology .7 Structure of the study. 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Purposes of reading .3 Task based instructions .1 Definition of task .2 Task based instructions .4 Theoretical frameworks: Framework by Willis (1996) .1 FPT Upper Secondary School .2 Teachers and students .1 Classroom action research (CAR). 22 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.3 Data collection instruments.5 Data collection procedure.
34 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .1 Results from tests .1 The distribution of the test results .2 Results from the questionnaires and interviews .1 Students‟ and teachers attitude toward the textbook .2 Students‟ assessments on teachers‟ teaching activities in reading lessons40 4.3 Accomplishment of students‟ performance in reading period .4 Learning reading skills of the 11th students .5 Students‟ attitudes towards the roles of teachers .6 Teachers‟ activities at reading stages .1 Teachers‟ activities at pre-reading stage .2 Teachers‟ activities at while-reading stage .3 Teachers‟ activities at post-reading stage.3 Results from observations. 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Recommendations for teachers .2 Recommendations for students .6 Suggestions for the further study. I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for students. I Appendix 2: Interview questions for teachers.
IV Appendix 3: Interview transcript summary. V Appendix 4: Sample of classroom observation (two samples in four). VII Appendix 5: Reading tests. XV Reading pre-test.
XV Reading post-test. XX Appendix 6: Test results. XXV Appendix 7: A sample of lesson plan with task based approach. XXX vi (LUAN.research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.research LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS GTM : Grammar translation method CG : Control Group EG : Experimental Group ESL : English as Second Language EFL : English as Second Language Ss : Students T : Teacher TBLM : Task-based language method TBM : Task-based method TBI : Task-based instruction TL : Target Language MOET : The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training vii (LUAN.research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.research LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 2.1: A Heuristic approach for reading comprehension .1: The scheme of Classroom Action Research (CAR) .1 Comparison between pre-test and post-test score .2: Students‟ difficulties in doing reading tasks .1: Procedures for test development .2: Score interval for tests.1: Paired sample t-test between means of CG and EG on pre-test .2: Paired sample t-test between means of CG and EG on post-test .3: The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores .4: Students‟ attitude toward the textbook .5: Students‟ assessments on the teachers‟ teaching activities in reading periods .6: Accomplishment of students‟ performance in reading lessons .7: Kinds of tasks .8: Students‟ strategies of doing reading tasks .research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.research CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study These days, it is thought that language itself plays a significant role in our daily life and it is believed to be the most effective means of communication.
Around the world, the greater the demand of communication among people is, the more necessary everyone needs to learn at least one foreign language. Therefore, English is increasingly taught and learnt as a second/foreign language in all fields of life such as technology, education, tourism, etc. It is special to suggest that English has become a compulsory subject in high schools. That is a reason why it is very important to improve English teaching and learning for students effectively.
Throughout many years, traditional focus of many teaching approaches has been mainly on grammar, so it is accepted as the key of various classroom activities. However, nowadays it is mostly undeniable to trust that reading comprehension is considered as an important language skill in learning new information because it can help foster the process of language acquisition and assist students to read various materials for a great number of purposes (Poorahmadi, 2012). According to that, learners can gain information and knowledge to meet their needs of learning, doing research, entertaining, etc. by mastering reading comprehension via different materials for plentiful purposes.
Besides, it is one of the most integral skills which are essential for students, especially the high-school ones. In detail, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET, 2012) emphasizes that flourishing communicative competence for students is one of the most essential targets in building and implementing foreign language teaching. Students are required to achieve certain linguistic knowledge and enhance communication strategies and skills after finish English curriculum in high schools. Hence, teaching reading comprehension aims to help students develop essential reading skills (e., skimming and scanning) and strategies (e., meta- cognitive strategies, affective strategies) and achieve linguistic knowledge (e., lexical knowledge, grammatical knowledge) (MOET, 2012).
Nevertheless, to a large extent, both teachers and learners cannot obtain the aims for teaching and 1 (LUAN.research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.research learning reading comprehension in this study‟s context. Probably, most students lack motivation in learning reading and their performance in reading comprehension is still far from satisfactory. It could be argued that the use of Grammar Translation (GMT), which mainly focused on eliciting vocabularies and translating written texts, might have resulted in students‟ poor motivation and achievement in reading comprehension. As a result, the researcher found it necessary to find out an alternative that could work in terms of motivating students to learn reading and improving their reading comprehension.
In fact, different approaches such as Natural approach, Communicative Language Teaching, Content-based or Task- Based approach launched and emerged in second language learning. When teaching reading, some issues may arise, for example, how to apply students‟ reading ability, how to improve their reading comprehension, how to assess their reading ability, and so on. There is some increasing evidence to suggest that task-based approach is one of the approaches that put students into meaningful contexts and make them produce as much English as possible.2 Rationale for the study Many students have difficulty comprehending what they read. All schools need to have some sort of remedial reading program provided to help struggling students.
Low reading skills affect both reading fluency and comprehension for elementary school students. Reading skills are foundational building blocks at this age and the earlier students with low reading skills receive interventions, the greater the interventions will impact the students‟ reading ability (Hausheer, Hansen, & Doumas, 2011). Knowing how to read words has ultimately little value if the student is unable to construct meaning from the text (Klinger, Vaughn, & Boardman, 2007). If schools are able to provide what the students need, there will be more success for everyone involved.
Reading is one of the important skills in English and it gives many benefits for us. Reading is the window of the world. By reading, people can get more knowledge and information from books, magazines, newspapers, and others. Reading is the most important component in learning process and social interaction for the 2 (LUAN.research TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.research following reasons: (i) firstly, reading is an indispensable communication tool in a civilized society; (ii) secondly, the reading materials produced in any period of time in history are most influenced by social background; and (iii) thirdly, developments, that over the period of the recorded history of reading has led to two very different poles (Klinger, Vaughn, & Boardman, 2007).
Reading is bringing meaning to and getting meaning from printed or written material (Finochiaro and Bonomo, 1973). Through the reading activity, the students can enlarge their knowledge and it can also make them wise and respectful. Students‟ reading ability must be developed. Teachers have duties to develop their skill and ability.
Everything teachers do in reading class should be designed to build students‟ ability to understand increasingly complex content of the texts. The methods, techniques, and teaching media that are chosen and used by the teacher will influence the success of teaching learning process and students‟ achievement. By developing good method, technique and media students are expected to be able to have an active learning.