difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the new english textbook “tieng anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) to the 10th form students at ke sat high school





1. Rationale
Nowadays, English is an international language and has been widely used in many
countries in the world. In Vietnam, English is also considered the most important foreign
language and taught as a compulsory subject in most schools throughout the country. It has
also become an important need of the Vietnamese as a means of communication. As a result,
there have been a lot of changes in English teaching in order to meet the need. One of the
changes relates to new English language teaching syllabus and new textbooks, which have
arrived at high schools since 2006. The new textbooks change from a grammar and vocabulary
focus into a skill focus: listening, writing, speaking and reading. This, therefore, has
advantages as well as disadvantanges in teaching and learning English.
In the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” ,which refers to "English 10", reading is the
first skill presented in each unit. This proves the important role of reading. This is
understandable as generally speaking, reading provides students with the abilities to
understand the written materials. Reading has become not only an important means to gain
knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place.
This is the second year I have taught the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to the 10
th
form
students. I have met a lot of difficulties. The biggest challenges emerge from teaching reading
comprehension. My colleagues in my school have the same problems. We usually find it
difficult and hard to teach in reading lessons. Despite the teachers’ efforts, the students’
reading skills are disappointing. Most of the students do not understand the texts and do not
complete the reading tasks well. If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions to
overcome are given, it is certain that reading lessons cannot be successful and it even becomes
worse. This has a great effect on students’ learning result. On the other hands, students will be
fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study this subject.
For all these reasons, it is necessary to find out difficulties in teaching reading

comprehension to the 10
th
form students at my school and the solutions. The author has been
encouraged to carry out the study on “difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the
new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) to the 10
th
form students



at Ke Sat High School”. Once the difficulties are identified, some solutions to overcome them
will be suggested.
2. Aims of the study
The specific aims of the study are:
- to investigate the areas of difficulty that the teachers at Ke Sat High School are coping with
in their daily teaching reading comprehension to the 10
th
form students with the textbook
“Tieng Anh 10”.
- to suggest some solutions to overcome these difficulties .
The study is carried out with a hope that the findings from the study will be of some benefits
to the teachers at Ke Sat High School.
3. Scope of the study
This study is limited to:
- the 10
th
form students at Ke Sat High School
- the teachers of English at Ke Sat High School
- reading comprehension in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh10”.
4. Methods of the study

With the aim of finding out the difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the new
English textbook "Tieng Anh 10" to 10 - form students at Ke Sat High School, this study
adopts quantitative and qualitative methods. To achieve the above aims, the study has been
carried out with the data collected from different instruments:
- interview questions for teachers of English at Ke Sat High School to investigate their
perceptions of reading difficulties.
- questionnaire for the 10
th
form students at Ke Sat High School to collect information about
their views of reading difficulties and causes of them.
Beside these instruments, classroom observation is used to record information from teachers.
5. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts:
- The first part is the Introduction, which presents the retionale for the study, the aims,
methods, scope of the study as well as the design of the thesis.



- The second part is the Development of the study, divided into five chapters:
+ Chapter 1 is for Literature review, which provides the theoretical background.
+ Chapter 2 gives an overview of the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” and current
situation of teaching the textbook at Ke Sat High School.
+ Chapter 3 deals with the study: context of the study, research questions, the participants, the
data collection methods and data analysis.
+ Chapter 4 is for findings and discussion of findings.
+ Chapter 5 suggests some solutions to overcome difficulties.
- The last part is the Conclusion of the study, which summarises the study, states the
limitations of the study and recommendation for further research.



















1.1. The nature of reading
1.1.1. Definition of reading and reading comprehension
Definition of reading
Goodman (1971: 135) considers reading as “a psycholinguistic process by which the
reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by
a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of
sampling, predicting, testing and confirming”.
According to Rumelhart (1977) “reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction
between reader and text”. It means the roles of learners and reading text are placed an
important position in reading act.

Harmer (1989: 153) views reading from a different perspective. In his definition, “reading
is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive the message and the brain
has to work out the significance of the message”. Smith (1985: 102) shares the same view on
reading when he defines “reading is understanding the author’s thought”. It means that the
readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s words”.
Attempts to define reading have been numerous. However, the act of reading is not
completely understood nor easily described. The definitions have been drawn from different
reading theories and models by various scholars. However, they all try to find out the nature of
reading and reading act, in which the readers, reading process and reading message are
emphasized.
Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign
language. It can be understood as the ability to obtain the information as required in the
reading text as efficiently as possible.
According to Swam (1975: 1). “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read
accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text”.



Acording to Grellet (1981: 3) “reading comprehension or understanding a written text
means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”
Though these opinions are different, they all have a common point, that is, reading
comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic
forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behind these forms.
1.1.2. Effective reading comprehension
Cook (1989: 14) shows that effective reading comprehension would be best reflected if we
bring distinct cognitive behaviors of good versus poor readers before, during and after reading
an assignment into a comparison.

Stage Good or mature readers Poor or immature readers

Before
reading
- Active prior knowledge
- Understand task and set purpose
- Choose appropriate strategies
- Start reading without preparation
- Read without knowing why
- Read without considering how to
approach the material
During
reading
- Focus attention
- Anticipate predict
- Use fix-up strategies when lack of
understanding occurs
- Use contextual analysis to assist
comprehension
- Self-
monitor comprehension by :
+ knowing comprehension is
occurring + knowing what is
understood

- Are easily distracted
- Read to get done
- Do not know what to do when lack
of comprehension occurs
- Do not recognize important
vocabulary
- Do not see any organization

- Add on rather than integrate new
information
- Do not realize they do not
understand
After
reading
- Reflect on what was read
- Feel success is a result of effort
- Summarise major ideas
- Stop reading
- Feel success is s result of luck



- Seek additional information from
outside sources

On the other hands, Ur (1996: 148) considers effective reading comprehension as a process
combining such elements as:
- a clear purpose in mind
- an enhanced motivation
- appropriate reading comprehension strategies based on the purposes and motivation
- good prediction
- sufficient background information and vocabulary
- close attention to the significant bits
- fairly high speed
1.2. Stages of teaching reading
It is common knowledge that a reading lesson consists of three important stages: Pre -
reading (Before you read), While - reading (While you read) and Post - reading (After you
read). Obviously, each stage has its own chatacteristics and time allocation.

1.2.1. Pre - reading (Before you read)
This stage is carried out before the students begin reading the text. It plays an essential part
in the whole process of a reading lesson, because it is difficult to ask students to read the text
without the preperation that involves such activities as pre - reading questions, pre - teaching
vocabulary. According to William (1984: 37), the purposes of the pre - reading stage are:
- to introduce and arouse interest in the topic
- to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading
- to provide some language preparation for the text
Normally, pre - reading stage often makes up about one-tenth of the time allocation for the
whole lesson. However, depending on each lesson, it may last shorter or longer. Before
delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to pay careful attention to the objectives
of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, the students’ needs into account.
1.2.2. While - reading (While you read)



William (1984: 38) states that while - reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson
with the following specific aims:
- to help understanding of the writer’s purpose
- to help understanding of the text structure
- to clarify text content.
The teacher, at the while - reading stage, needs to help their students comprehend the text
thoroughly while the students have to apply to the best their reading skills like skimming,
scanning, guessing, etc. to understand the text as well as the writer’s purpose conveyed
through the reading text. Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two-thirds of the whole
lesson.
1.2.3. Post - reading (After you read)
It is the last step of a reading lesson. It is the time for students’ reproduction. What they
reproduce will reflect how well they comprehend the text. In William’s view (1984: 39), the
post - reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and

relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views. Normally, it takes ten or
fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage.
To conclude, the above-mentioned stages are essential for a reading lesson. However, it is
not necessary to carry out all these stages mechanically on every occasion. Depending on the
purposes of a reading lesson, the teacher may apply these stages as well as allocate time for
each stage appropriately.
1.3. Difficulties in teaching reading
In reading, it is not easy for a student to be successful in learning reading, because there
are many factors affect the success such as students’ habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to
the target language , textual characteristics, the way reading is taught, and the teacher’s
classroom techniques or learning environment, etc. Yorio (1971), Jolly (1978), Coady (1979)
and others have grouped those factors into three types: Reading skill problems, Language
problems, and Cultural background knowledge.
1.3.1. Reading skill problems



According to Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) and others, one’s first language reading ability
plays a more important role in reading success than his level of the target language does,
because foreign language reading requires the transference of old skills, not the learning of
new ones. They believe that if the reader has a poor reading ability in his mother tounge, then,
he cannot read well in a foreign language.
Students’ limited reading skills cteate many problems, such as reading slowly, failing to
understand and summarise main ideas of the reading text, unabling to guess or predict
meaning of the words or phrases used in that context, etc. Therefore, such students find it hard
to be successful in their reading. They cannot understand the text thoroughly and those are the
reasons why they do not want to keep on reading.
In addition, learner’s motivation towards reading is also an important factor in reading
process. It may effect on reading result such as good speed, enjoyment and comprehension.
Lack of motivation, the reader does not want to read any more.

1.3.2. Language problems
According to Yorio (1971: 108), reading problems of foreign language learners are due
largely to imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue interference in the
reading process. In his view, reading involves four factors: knowledge of the language, ability
to predict or guess in order to make the correct choice, ability to remember the previous cues,
and ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues that have been
selected. Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have
considerable difficulty when reading in the target language. Clarke (1980) and Alderson
(1984) share this view. They acknowledge that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge
constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2.
Dealing with the text, readers have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics. These are
called “text problems”. The context of the text might be rather strange to the students, that
makes them unable to understand. Besides, another kind of problem is “vocabulary problems”.
Readers encounter a lot of difficulties in dealing with proverbs and idioms, synonyms and
antonyms, polysemantic and subtechnical vocabulary.
1.3.3. Cultural background knowledge



Apart from language problems and reading skill problems, cultural background knowledge
also affects students’ reading ability as culture plays a central role for many topics. And that
comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text is more difficult than comprehension of a
culturally familiar text, because readers, facing up with unfamiliar cultural context, may
mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience.
For the text structure, the impact of culture is less outwardly evident but apperently still
present. They will greatly affect the reader’s comprehension. Sometimes, the implicit cultural
knowledge presupposed by a text or from different assumption about meaning and
comprehension held by the writer also causes difficulty to the reader.
From what has been discussed, it can be concluded that there are three main factors that
affect reading comprehension: reading skills, language knowledge, and cultural background

knowledge. Reading difficulties may be caused by a number of other factors. Whatever kind
of problems are, they are various in the reading process in a foreign language and great efforts
must be made to overcome them.

Summary
This chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study. First, it provides an overview
of the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension are
discussed. Then, effective reading comprehension is addressed. What is more, this chapter also
discusses stages of teaching reading. Finally, it provides an insight into reading difficulties.
Having looked at the literature review of reading, the textbook related to this thesis will be
presented hereby.







 !"#
$%&# !'
 !()*)

2.1. An overview of the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks)
2.1.1. Objectives
The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) was written by a
group of lecturers of College of Foreign Languages (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and
published in 2006. The syllabus of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is the continuation of that of
the textbooks at secondary schools. Therefore, the objectives for the 10
th
form students to

achieve would be higher. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, by the end of
the 10
th
form students should be able to:
- Listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with the
length of 120 - 150 words of the topics they have learnt.
- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situations relating to the topics
they have learnt.
- Comprehend passages of appropriately 190 - 230 words about the topics they have learnt.
Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail. Develop vocabulary
comprehension: gap - filling, matching, ect.
- Write paragraphs (of about 100 - 120 words) relating to the topics they have learnt
according to a model or with prompts.
2.1.2. Content of the textbook
The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is designed under theme- based approach with
16 units. Each unit is about a theme. The units are set up in the following order:
- Unit 1: A day in the life of - Unit 9: Undersea world
- Unit 2: School talks - Unit 10: Conservation
- Unit 3: People’s background - Unit 11: National parks
- Unit 4: Special education - Unit 12: Music
- Unit 5: Technology and you - Unit 13: Films and cinema


- Unit 6: An excursion - Unit 14: The world cup
- Unit 7: The mass media - Unit 15: Cities
- Unit 8: The story of my village - Unit 16: Historical places
These units cover six topics required:
- You and Me (Units 1, 2, 3)
- Education (Units 4, 5, 6)
- Community (Units 7, 8)

- Nature and Environment (Units 9, 10, 11)
- Recreation (Units 12, 13, 14)
- People and Places (Units 15, 16)
There are five parts in each unit arranging as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening,
Writing, and Language focus. Each part is carried out in a period (45 minutes). The aim of the
arrangement is to help students to practise four macro-skills as much as possible.
In addition, there exists a “Test yourself” after every three or two units. The objectives of
the “Test yourself” is to examine how well students have achieved in the previous units. The
“Test yourself” is constructed as follows: Listening, Reading, Grammar and Writing.
Reading is the beginning part of each unit. The aims of this is that through reading and
through developing reading skills such as scanning, skimming, etc. the students are provided
with language input. This can help them to be acquainted with the theme and the language
relating to the theme. From then, the students can speak, listen and write about the things
relating to the theme in the next parts.
2.2. Characteristics of reading passages and reading tasks in the textbook
2.2.1. Characteristics of reading passages
A reading passage in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has 190 - 230 words in
length. Each passage closely relates to the theme of the unit. It is divided into small
paragraphs. According to "Tai lieu boi duong giao vien " (2006: 60) ("Teacher Training
Manual"), the passage is written with simple and easily understandable style. However, some
passages are long and rather difficult for the students to understand, as there are a lot of
difficult new words. It takes time to elicit them. Moreover, in each passage, some sentences


with the new grammatical structures of the unit are also introduced. This requires the teacher
to explain them to the students (quick explanation).
2.2.2. Characteristics of reading tasks
In “While you read” (While - reading) there is always a requirement: “Read the passage
and do the tasks that follow”. In each unit, three kinds of tasks are designed. Each task has its
own aim.

- Task 1 helps the students to understand words or phrases in the passage (Vocabulary
comprehension)
- Task 2 helps the students to comprehend the content of the passage (Passage comprehension)
- Task 3 helps the students to have an overall understanding of the passage.
In task 1, the following exercises are included: Matching, Gap-filling. Students are asked to
guess meaning in context or finding words from context to match or to fill in the blank.
Matching is the most popular exercise in Task 1.
In task 2, to help students to comprehend the passage, the following exercises are dealt
with: - Deciding on True or False statement
- Scanning for specific information to fill in the sentenses or the table
- Answering the questions
- Multiple-choice questions
- Gap-filling (in “After you read”)
Among the exercises, answering the questions appears most.
To meet the requirement of Task 3, one type of exercise is designed: Multiple-choice. This
type is used to identify the main idea of the passage.
Normally, Task 1 and 2 are complicated and they require more time to do. These tasks
themselves cause a lot of difficulties for students.
2.3. The current situation of teaching the textbook at Ke Sat High School
2.3.1. Introduction to Ke Sat High School and students
Ke Sat High School is located in Binh Giang district, Hai Duong province. This is a small
school. It has 21 classes. It has been in operation for over 20 years. The school is surrounded
by villages. Like other high schools, its duty is to train students from the 10
th
form to the 12
th



form. Every year the school admits about 300 students for the 10

th
form. After leaving the
school, our students are provided with knowledge of English which is good enough for them
to take the entrance exams to colleges or universities, or to begin working for their own living.
In our school, Maths, Physics and Chemistry are chosen by most of the students who wish to
take the exams to colleges or universities. English is one of the compulsory subjects at high
school and in the school-leaving exam. However, few students choose the colleges or
universities which require an English exam.
The students at Ke Sat High School are approximately 16 - 18 years of age. They come
from the villages surrounding the school. Most of their parents are farmers. Their main work is
doing farming. Besides, they do extra work in cities. Some of them do not take good care of
their children.
What is more, the students are of different learning abilities and have different attitudes
towards learning English: some are learning for the entrance exams to colleges or universities,
some are learning only for graduating exam, and others are learning for nothing, i.e. they
cannot identify what they learn English for. They consider it as a subject they have to learn at
school.Thus, the teachers in our school cope with the difficulties which come from our
students’ different motivations.
Moreover, most of our students have low English level. They have learnt English for four
years at secondary schools. However, their English background knowledge has been remained
a little. When they come to the 10
th
form, it is surprising that they have limited vocabulary and
grammatical structures. For some students, the things they have learnt at secondary school
seem to be completely new at the moment. Some students want to go to English in order to
improve their English. However, it is impossible for them to go to the English centres, because
they are too far from the school. So they attend the extra English classes which are held by the
English teachers of our school.
Another problem of the students is that most of them do not have the habit of learning
independently and tend to depend on the textbook or the textbooks with the available answers

(namely “De hoc tot Tieng Anh” i.e." To learn English well"), and on the teachers for


knowledge. This fact calls for suitable teaching methods to help the students become more
active in learning English.
2.3.2. Teachers and teaching methods
Our school has got five English teachers, aged from 30 to 45. Three of them took full- time
ELT training courses at the College of Foreign Languages (VNUH), and two of them took in-
service ELT course at the same college. The oldest teacher has more than 20 years of teaching
experience and the yougest teacher has got 7 years. All of us have never participated in any
training course abroad. However, we have been to some domestic workshops in language
teaching and some summer workshops on changes in English textbooks.
Each teacher has to teach approximately 12 periods a week. Each has the responsibility to
teach 3 periods in each class. Three of the teachers also have to teach in two forms , and two
of the teachers are in charge of two classes.
As far as the methodology is concerned, the teachers are aware of the new trend in teaching
method nowadays: Learner - centered approach. They try to give their students independence
in studying by asking them to work through the text or discuss subject matters in groups or in
pairs, after giving the some instructions. However, not all of the teachers can do that and the
amount of time spent on such activities is not much. Furthermore, most of the 10
th
form
students cannot do these themselves. Therefore, the teachers often employ the traditional
method of teaching in reading lessons. The teachers play the key role in the classroom, being
the main speakers working through the text. The teachers explain new words, new structures,
even give the answers to some difficult exercises. The students are passive. And the success
depends on how flexible and adaptable the individual teacher is to respond to the requirement
of the teaching situation.
2.3.3. Teaching facilities
Teaching facilities are considered significant and may affect the teaching process

positively or negatively. According to the Ministry of Training and Education, the changing
teaching methods are closely related to the changing teaching facilities. In teching
competitions between high schools, lessons with modern teaching facilities are highly
appreciated, because they bring great results. In general, the teaching facilities at Ke Sat High


School are poorly equipped. There is no English laboratory, there is only one library which
provides books on different subjects, mainly on Maths, Physics and Chemistry. There are not
any projectors. The equipment in classrooms is very simple and traditional. A board, chalk, a
cassette player (which is in bad condition) and a textbook are main teaching equipments in
every class.
2.3.4. Syllabus of teaching English and time allocation for a reading period
At the moment, the 10
th
form and the 11 form students are using the new textbooks,
published in 2006. The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has totally 16 units and 6 Tests
yourself. The units and tests are divided into 105 periods. Each week has 3 periods and each
one lasts 45 minutes. Each unit is taught within 5 periods. This is shown very clearly in the
textbook, under the macro-skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing. Language focus is
the last part of the unit in order to introduce the new grammatical structures.
In each reading lesson, three stages have been applied, but more time is spent on While -
reading than two other stages, as students have to read the passage and do the tasks that
follow. It does take time to read and correct the tasks. Normally, While - reading stage
accounts for half of the time allocated (or even two-thirds of the time if the text is long and
difficult for the students).



+#),

This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed for the
achievement of the aims of the study. Data were obtained by means of a survey questionnaire
for the students and interview with the English teachers at Ke Sat High School. Besides,
additional data were gathered by classroom observation to provide more in-depth information.
3.1. Context of the study
The study is carried out at Ke Sat High School, Hai Duong and limited to the 10
th
form
students.
3.2. Research questions
As it has been stated, this study was carried out to provide insights into the areas of
difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”
(the set of standard textbooks) to the 10
th
form students at Ke Sat High School. Thus, it was
designed in an attempt to seek answers to the following questions:
- What are the difficulties experienced by teachers who are teaching reading comprehension
with the new English textbbok “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) to the 10
th

form
students?
- What are feasible solutions to overcome those difficulties?
In order to find out the answers to the research questions, a lot of sub-questions will be
dealt with:
+ What are teachers’ and students’ opinions on the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”?
+ What are difficulties in learning reading comprehension in this textbook revealed by the
students and is there any relation between students’ difficulties and their teachers’ teaching
methods?
+ What are difficulties in teaching reading comprehension in this textbook revealed by
teachers?
Once the difficulties are found, appropriate solutions to overcome those difficultis will be
suggested.
3.3. The participants


In order to achieve the aims of the thesis and answers to the above research questions, the
participants of the study include: a group of 3 teachers of English at Ke Sat High School. All
of them are female. Two of them are teaching the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, one
of them taught it in the last school year.
Besides, in order to get more information supporting the answers to the research questions,
100 students of the 10
th
form were surveyed. 67% of them are female. They were selected
from seven classes of the 10
th
form at Ke Sat High School.
3.4. The data collection instruments
In order to get the most exact information for the study, the following instruments were
employed :

- survey qestionnaire to students.
- informal interview with teachers of English.
- classroom observation.
Each instrument has its purposes:
- Classroom observation was employed to know the purpose of reading class (What the
teachers focus most on in teaching reading comprehension?), teaching methods (How and
When the teachers often explain new words and grammar structures in a reading lesson?
Why?) and difficulties frequently met in reading class (What problems arise during reading
class? and How to solve them?).
- 4 interview questions were carried out with the teachers of English (see Appendix 1).
+ Question 1"Do you think the new English textbook "Tieng Anh 10" is suitable to your
students? Give your opinion on reading passages and reading tasks." is aimed at investigating
the teachers’ comment on the textbook they are teaching.
+ Question 2 "What problems are you coping with in teaching reading with the textbook in
preparation of the lesson, "Before you read" stage, "While you read" stage, and "After you
read" stage?", and Question 3 "What do you think is the most difficulty when teaching reading
comprehension with the textbook?" are aimed at investigating difficulties the teachers are
coping with in teaching reading comprehension.


+ Question 4 "What have you been doing to overcome these difficulties" are aimed at
investigating solutions the teachers are using to overcome the difficulties.
- Questionnaire for students was designed in order to get more information supporting other
instruments to find out teachers’ difficulties (see Appendix 2)
+ Question 1: students’ comment on the textbook.
+ Question 2, 3: students’ areas of difficulty.
+ Question 4 - 14: causes of difficulty and students' expectation from the teachers.
3.5. Data collection procedure
As being described in the previous part, various instruments were designed. Classroom
observation was the first instrument for this study. It was carried out during my colleagues’

reading lessons. In addition, after class hour we normally sat together aduring the short break
to discuss the lessons. At that time difficulties arised were recorded during the lessons as well
as the solutions the teacher made to overcome the difficulties.
To collect more information, 4 interview questions for the teachers were designed. All the
answers to the questions were recorded to analyze.
It is noted that in order to make it easy in analyzing data, 100 students of the 10
th
form were
surveyed. Instead of randomly selecting the individual, the researcher randomly selected the
groups or classes for investigation. The questionnaires were delivered to the students at class
meeting hour on Saturday under the permission and help of the head teachers of the classes.












-.

4.1. Discussion of the data collected by means of questionnaires
In this part, the data collected from survey questionnaires will be presented in the tables
according to the purposes of the study.
4.1.1. Students’ opinion on the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (Table 1)
No

Statement Yes No answer

No
1 The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (in terms of
the topic, the reading passage and the reading task) is
suitable to me.
19 10 71
The table shows that 71% of the students find the new textbook unsuitable to them. Why
not? Most of the students said that although they found the topics in the textbook were very
interesting and attractive, they were long and had a lot of new words. This caused the students
diffuculty in understanding the content of the reading passages. As a result, they could not
complete the reading tasks easily.
4.1.2. Difficulties faced by the students (Table 2)
No

Statement Yes No answer

No
2 I have most difficulties in:
- Pre - reading stage
- While - reading stage
- Post - reading stage

9
81
53

8
5

11

83
14
36
Obviously, “While - reading” is the main stage in a reading lesson. It takes most of the
time of a reading period. It is understandable that 86% of the students have most difficulties in
this stage, because they have to read the reading passage and do the reading tasks to
comprehend the text. How about Pre - reading and Post - reading stages? Most of the students
(83%) said that they did not have any difficulties in this Pre - reading as in this stage they
often have to answer some easy questions, which aim to introduce them to the topic of the
text. However, 53 of the students find Post - reading difficult because they are asked to retell


or summarise the content of the text in their own words or to connect the things in the text
with their real life.
(Table 3)
No

Statement Yes No answer

No
3 I have difficulty in:
a. understanding the main idea of the whole reading
passage.
b. understanding the details of reading passages.
c. doing reading tasks, especially the task of guessing

vocabulary through context or definition.
d. understanding the teacher's explanation in English.

38

64
86

72

9

10
4

7

53

26
10

21
According Table 3, the areas of difficulty the students have to face with are: (c) doing
reading tasls, especially the task of guessing vocabulary through context and definition (86%),
(d) understanding the teacher's explanation in English (72%), (b) understanding the details of
reading passages (64%). The students said that they had most difficulty in doing the tasks,
especially the task relating to vocabulary comprehension. It means that most of difficulties are
related to vocabulary. Many of the students cannot guess the meaning of words through
context or definition. The fact is that the teacher wants to improve students’ predicting ability,
they give concrete examples or context which describes the words and ask students to work
out the meaning of them, but the students fail to do so. Only a number of students who are

good at English can do that. Most of them hardly did them well.
In addition, understanding the teacher's explanation in English is the threat to the students.
They cannot understand all the things the teacher explains in English. That is the reason why
the teacher has to use both English and Vietnamese in lecturing. After explaining in English,
she has to translate into Vietnamese in order to help the students understand thoroughly.
The result also shows that there are more students who have difficulty in understanding the
details of reading passages (64%). It may due to the long texts with a lot of words which the
students do not know or they cannot memorise although they have already learnt. That makes
the students unable to interpret.


It is noted from the result of the survey that in each area of difficulty, there are number of
students who do not give their answers. They cannot decide whether that issue is their
difficulty or not, because it depends on many factors such as the topic, the requirements of
each reading lesson (whether the topic is easy to understand or not, and/ or the requirements of
the reading lesson are simple or not).
4.1.3. Causes of difficulties and the students' expectation from the teacher (Table 4)
No

Statements Yes No answer

No
4
5

6

7
8
9

10
11

12
13

14
The reading passages are too long and full of new words.
The reading passages are full of new and complex
grammartical structures.
I lack English knowledge to understand the teacher's
explanation in English.
I have limited vocabulary and grammartical structures.
I lack interest and motivation in reading .
The teacher's explanation on reading tasks is not

sufficient and clear enough.
The teacher does not correct reading tasks carefully.
The teacher does not always give Vietnamese equivalent
for long and difficult words.
The teacher’s lecture is not interesting and efficient.
The teacher uses the same teaching method in every
reading lesson.
The teacher is too strict and demanding.
78
47

61

82
72
15

7
19

5
70

12
2
7

4

5
10
7

6
3

9
8

5
20
46

35

13
18
78

87
78

86
22

83
The information in the statements above has two sides: In one hand, it shows the causes of
difficulty and on the other hand, it also indicates that those difficulties must be solved with
the teacher's help.
It can be recognized that the difficulties are from three causes: (1) from the students
themselves (6 - 8), (2) the textbook (statements 4 - 5); and (3) from the teacher’s lectures
(statements 9 -14).


First, looking at the first and second group of factors, most of the difficulties come from the
students themselves: 82% of the students’ dificulties are due to the lack of vocabulary and
grammatical structures and 61% are due to the lack of English knowledge to understand the
teacher's explanation in English. In addition, a factor that causes difficulty for students is that
the reading passages are too long and full of new words (78%). It means it also relates to
vocabulary. Regarding attitude to learning, 72 % perceived that they lack interest and
motivation in reading.
How about the second group of factors? Surprisingly, most of the students do not complain
their teacher’s lectures. Vice-versa, they highly assess their teacher’s lectures. In teaching, the

teacher always gives Vietnamese equivalent for long and and difficult words (78%). Dealing
with the reading tasks, the teacher's explanation on reeading tasks is sufficient and clear
enough (78%), and they correct them carefully (87%). The students also find their teacher’s
lecture interesting and efficient (86%). About the teacher’s attitude, 83% of the students did
not think that their teacher was too strict and demanding. When being asked why they thought
that, they said that their teachers understood their difficulties. As a result, the teachers simplify
complicated requirements to make them understandable to students. Some of the students
revealed that their teachers were sympathetic with them.
Regarding the teaching method, it is not simple and easy at all. Although the teacher’s
lectures make the students satisfied, the teaching method is not diversified. 70% of the
students claim that the same teaching method is used in every reading lesson, and 35%
revealed that they do not lack English knowledge to understand the the teacher's explanation in
English. In order to help the students understand the lecture in English easily and maintain
their interest in reading class, improvement should be made regarding the teaching method.
In conclusion, through the survey questionnaire to the students, various difficulties in
learning reading, the causes of those difficulties as well as their expectation from the teachers
have been revealed. Those comments from the students on their teacher’s lectures reflect the
existing problems of the English teachers in teaching reading comprehension. It is eligible for
the students to claim the need for efficient learning, without which the students’ and teachers’
difficulties in teaching and learning may remain unsolved. And as a result, the students find no


interest in what they need to achieve, and the teachers fail to become successful and efficient
teachers.
4.2. Discussion of the data collected by means of the interview and classroom observation
The result presented below will be grouped in terms of different purposes of the study.
4.2.1. Teacher’s opinion on the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks)
The first question of the interview is about teacher’s opinion on the textbook they are
teaching. The result shows that all the teachers (3/3) like the textbook because its topics and its
content are various. Each unit is concentrated on a topic. This partly attracts the students'

attention and interest. It also interests the teacher. In addition, a new thing of the textbook the
teachers like is that in each unit the students practise macro-skills: Reading, Speaking,
Listening, Writing regarding a topic. It is easy for the teachers to teach. They cannot confuse
this skill with other skills. Thanks to the skill devision, the teacher can focus on each skill and
help the students improve it.
In terms of reading passages, they contain various contents. As presented in the previous
part, each passage is concentrated on a topic. This interests both teachers and students. To
make reading lessons more interesting, teachers sometimes have to read more about the topics.
However, some topics are difficult for the students, such as “Special education”, “Technology
and you”, “Conservation”. The students’ vocabulary is limited, and they do not have much
knowledge about these topics. The teachers have to spend a lot of time to explain them.
How about the reading tasks? The reading tasks are designed to help students comprehend
the passages. There are differents types of exercise in the reading tasks. It has advantages as
well as disadvantages for the teachers and the students. The teachers do not need to design
tasks. However, available tasks cause difficulty. The teachers said that some of the tasks are
unsuitable for their students. They are rather difficult. Their students cannot do them by
themselves. So teachers have to simplify or adapt the tasks to make them suitable for the
students.
4.2.2. Teacher’s difficulties in teaching reading comprehension to the 10
th
form students
The result from survey questionnaire indicates that the causes of the students’ difficulties
are related partly to the students and partly to the teachers. The teachers’ performance sounds


good in the eyes of the students. So what are their real difficulties in teaching reading
comprehension?
From the answers to the questions 2, 3 of the interview and classroom observation, typical
difficulties the teachers at Ke Sat High School are coping with were found out.
The first difficulty belongs to the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” itself. Because this is a newly

designed textbook, it has caused difficulty for the teachers and the students. As mentioned in
the previous part, the English level of the students at Ke Sat High School is low. As a result, it
takes the teachers a lot of time to explain new words and to instruct how to do the tasks. In
addition, the teachers have to observe the procedure of a reading lesson: Pre, While and Post-
reading. In fact, they rarely carry out all the three stages. They often focus on While-reading
stage. One teacher said that she tried to teach in three stages, but at the end of the lesson, her
students did not comprehend the reading passage well, and they did the reading tasks
embarrassingly. All the teachers said that they often miss Post-reading stage. The exercises in
this stage are done at home by the students. It means that they become their homework. In the
next lesson (Speaking lesson), the teachers do not have time to check the homework. They do
not know how well/ badly their students do it. All the teachers wish a reading lesson were
taught in two periods in order that they could have more time to help their students
comprehend the reading passage better.
The second difficulty, the most typical difficulty, the teachers at Ke Sat High School are
coping with is the English level of the students. It is asserted that the English level of the 10
th

form students at my school is rather low. In the previous part, 82 out of 100 students said they
have limited vocabulary and grammartical structures. When going around to observe the class,
the teachers realize that some students have already looked up most of the words of the
reading passage. Or after explaining new words, some students ask the teachers for the
meaning of the words they have learnt. Moreover, when doing Task 1, which is vocabulary
comprehension task, they often seem to be embarrassed. The students are asked to guess the
meaning of the given words through the context in the reading passage or through the given
definitions. Due to the vocabulary limitation, in some cases, most of the students cannot
understand even the context or definition, so they are unable to guess the new words.


Besides, all the teachers have difficulty when correcting the answering questions task. Due
to the low English level, many students do not understand the questions, so the teacher often

helps them to understand the questions. With the questions whose answers are selected from
the sentences in the reading passage, the students can answer without much difficulty.
However, the answer which requires the choice from many ideas in the reading passage, most
of the students cannot do. They choose the way of taking all the sentences to make their
answer. Some of the students try to express the answer with their own words, but their
expressions contain the wrong grammartical structures or vocabulary. Many of the students
are dependent on the books with available answers. They answer the question by reading the
answer in those books without understanding anything. For all these reasons, many students
are passive in reading lessons. They often sit quietly. The teacher does most of the speaking
during the lesson and the students do most of the listening. Therefore, although teachers
recognize the importance and benifits of the learner-centered approach in foreign language
teaching and learning, they can not make use of that approach in their daily work. They still
play the central role in delivering reading lessons. They have to explain new words, give the
anwsers to the questions to their students, or the students will fail to understand the reading
passages.
The reason why the students are in bad condition is that they lack the basic knowledge of
English at the secondary school. They did not pay attention to learning English. They did not
try to enrich their vocabulary and master grammartical structures . At present, the knowledge
they should have learnt seems to be new. The teachers said that they sometimes felt surprised
when they found that some of their students forgot the simplest grammartical structure. As a
result, it is not easy for them to gain the knowledge in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh
10”, because the higher class, the more difficult knowledge. Therefore, the students often find
English difficult, and they mind learning it. They are not interested in it. Those cause the
difficulty for the teachers. After the lesson, the teachers are not satisfied with students'
learning result.
The reading passages and reading tasks are long and difficult. The students have the low
English level. However, many students’ attitude towards learning English is negative. They do