VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER ( Nghiên cứu thực trạng của việc dạy và học đọc đối với hệ học tiếng Anh không chuyên tại Học viện Ngân hàng- Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây ) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES **************** NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER ( Nghiên cứu thực trạng của việc dạy và học đọc đối với hệ học tiếng Anh không chuyên tại Học viện Ngân hàng - Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây ) M.A Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thu Thuỷ,M.A Hanoi - 2011 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA-STC: Banking Academy- Son Tay training center FL: Foreign language EFL: English as a foreign language L1: the first language L2: The second language LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1.1: The three Definitions of Reading by Weaver (1994) 6 Table 2.1: The result of how teachers delivered the reading lessons 18 Table 2.2: Teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage 18 Table 2.3: Teachers’ activities at While- reading stage 19 Table 2.4: Teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage 20 Table 2.5: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage 23 Table 2.6: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at While- reading 24 stage Table 2.7: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Post- reading 25 stage Table 2.8: Students’ difficulties in learning reading 26 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of originality i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii Abstract iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v Table of Contents vi Part A: Introduction 1 1. Background to the study 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Significance of the study 3 5.
Organization of the study 4 Part B: Development 5 Chapter 1: Literature review 5 1. Definitions of reading: 5 1. The traditional and innovative views of teaching reading 6 1. Approaches to teaching reading 8 1.
Stages of a reading lessons 9 1. The pre-reading stage 10 1. The While-reading stage 10 1. The Post-reading stage 12 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning reading 13 1. Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension 14 1. Summary 17 Chapter 2: RESULT 18 2. Result of the observation of teachers’ activities.
At Pre- reading stage 18 2. At While- reading stage 19 2. At Post- reading stage 20 2. Result of the se-mi structured interviews 21 2.Reasons for choosing the teachers’ reading teaching strategies 21 2.
Teachers’ difficulties in reading teaching 21 2. Result of students’ questionnaires 23 2. Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lesson 23 2. Students’ difficulties in learning reading 26 Chapter 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS 28 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
Research question 1 and 2 28 3. At Pre-reading stage 28 3. While-reading stage 30 3. Post-reading stage 32 3.
Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lessons 32 3. Students’ difficulties in learning reading 35 Part C : CONCLUSION 37 1. The suggested procedure for teaching reading at BA-STC 37 3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 40 References 41 Appendices I Appendix 1 I Appendix 2A III Appendix 2B V Appendix 3A VII Appendix 3B IX LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART A: INTRODUCTION Part A - Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the aims, the research question, the significance of the study as well as the research methodology.
It also outlines the organization of the thesis. Background to the study Reading comprehension is the heart and goal of reading, since the purpose of all reading is to gather meaning from the printed page. If a student says a word in a passage without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that reading. Language plays a vital role in reading.
One cannot read a book in a language unless one knows that particular language. If a learner‟s knowledge of English is poor, then his/her reading will also be poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension. Reading is one of the „most complex forms of information processing‟ (Kolers, 1973, p.29) and is probably the „most extensively researched‟ language skill (Bachman, 2000, p. In the recent decades, theories and models of reading have changed, from primarily receptive processes from text to reader to interactive processes between the reader and the text (cf., Adams, 1990; Eskey and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; and Swaffar, 1988).
Approaches to teaching reading materials in a foreign language have attempted to reflect this development through recommendations of interactive exercises and tasks. Based on what successful reading is, many reading specialists have come to agreement that reading lessons should follow such a framework as: pre-, during-, and post- reading instruction (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe and Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992). Barnett (1989) and Grabe and Stoller (2001) made a brief explanation about each type of instruction. Pre-reading instruction makes students interested in a text and predicts the content of it through accessing necessary information or activating schema.
While-reading instruction helps students read strategically, mainly focusing on decoding skills. Post-reading instruction deepens students‟ comprehension into the text. It is also emphasized that the activities in this framework are not limited to reading. “Reading is no longer isolated” (Eskey & Grabe, 1988, p.
As in real life, reading activities LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 should be integrated with other skills - speaking, listening, and especially writing (Eskey & Grabe, 1988; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001). Accordingly, some of the activities should help students to develop other skills besides the reading. Such kind of integration of the four skills will enable students to use more varieties of strategies more often, generating more interaction between the reader and the text. Teaching and learning reading comprehension have been identified by various researchers in both second and foreign language contexts (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992).
However little empirical research have been conducted to uncover the methods of teaching reading comprehension used by Vietnamese teachers, especially by teachers at BA-STC. To address this gap, my study will investigate the reality of teaching and learning reading for non-English major first year students at this training center. At BA-STC, students are required to take an English course in two terms in the first year. The aim of this course is to equip students the general English program, consisting of four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
In the first term of the first year, the students learned English in 45 periods of the New Headway Elementary. After 12 weeks, the students had a final test that consisted of four parts: Vocabulary, Grammar and Reading comprehension and Writing. The result of the final test in the first term showed us a surprising number: 72 percent of all the students (115) got bad marks in the reading comprehension section of the English test, although they had good marks in the other parts of the test. I would like to look into different aspects and try to find out the reasons leading to this bad situation.
One of the main reasons lies in the fact that the teachers often simply give students a text and require them to answer a series of comprehension questions when they have finished reading the text. The teachers do almost nothing to provide them with the skills or strategies needed to become efficient and independent readers. For the lack of necessary strategies for teaching reading comprehension, it is more likely to have poor reading comprehension results. Therefore, in this study I intend to carry out some research in the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension for non-English major first year students at BA-STC and basing on the findings and discussions to help to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning reading comprehension at this training center.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aim of the study The purpose of this study is: - To address teachers‟ and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning reading comprehension - To investigate students‟ attitude towards reading skill and understand their learning needs and learning style - To make some suggestions to improve the current situation 3. Research question This study aimed at the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at BA-STC and more specifically to answer the following questions: 1. How do teachers actually deliver the reading lesson at BA-STC? 2.
What difficulties do teachers and students encounter while teaching and learning reading comprehension? 3. What are students‟ attitudes towards teachers‟ activities in a reading lesson? 4. Significance of the study My present study is significant for some reasons. Firstly, investigating the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension helps the researcher to understand clearly how teachers taught reading and how students learned reading at BA-STC, the difficulties the teachers and students experienced while teaching and learning reading and students‟ preference towards the teacher‟s methods of teaching.
From this result, the study will make some important discussions to improve the quality of teaching and learning reading in the target college. Moreover, these instructions may help teachers of English at BA-STC in their teaching careers. Data collection instruments A description of the methodology was employed in this study. First, the classroom observation was chosen to find out actually how a reading lesson was taught.
From the result of the observation, the researcher carried out three semi-structured interviews to LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 have reasons why teachers chose this approach and methods for teaching reading and what difficulties teachers had in teaching reading. Finally, these questionnaires were designed to find out the students‟ preferences towards teachers‟ methods in reading lessons and students‟ difficulties in learning reading.2 The procedure of the study At first, I investigated the reality and difficulties of English teaching reality in general and teaching reading in particular at BA-STC with the use of classroom observation and semi-structured interview tools, then I designed questionnaires to study learners‟ preference of teachers‟ activities in reading lessons and their difficulties. The classroom observation was undertaken at this college in 6 weeks and I attended some reading classes instructed by three teachers. To get reliable real data of how and what to be taught in reading lessons, I asked the teachers for their permission to attend their classes, but they were not informed the lessons to be observed.
When observing the lessons, I mainly based on the checklist observation sheets which include anticipated activities that teachers may use and those which are expected to be used in a good reading lessons. I also took notes of evidences found in the classes and her comments on the activities, techniques and procedure. At the end of the lessons, I conducted semi-structured interviews with the teachers for their explanation of the activities and steps of procedure they applied in the lessons. I took notes during the interview.
Then, the data gathered from the observation and interview were synthesized and used as basis to design two questionnaires with Vietnamese versions for students. The first questionnaire distributed after the observed lessons. The second one was delivered in the sixth week of the study to students to investigate the problems and difficulties in learning reading they had in lessons with the quite complicated texts in the second part of the elementary book.