thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ LÝ

PROMOTING THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ READING
COMPREHENSION THROUGH TASK ADAPTATION WITH
REFERENCE TO THE TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10:
A CASE OF THẠCH THÀNH 3
Thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch
Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của
sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

HÀ THỊ LÝ

PROMOTING THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ READING
COMPREHENSION THROUGH TASK ADAPTATION WITH
REFERENCE TO THE TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10:
A CASE OF THẠCH THÀNH 3
Thúc đẩy kỹ năng đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Thạch
Thành 3 thông qua việc điều chỉnh các hoạt động đọc của
sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ THU HÀ, Dr.

Hanoi, 2014


DECLARATION
I, Ha Thi Ly, certify that this thesis is result of my own research and the substance
of this thesis has not, wholly or part, been submitted for a degree to any other
university or institution.
Hanoi, August 2014
Signature

Ha Thi Ly

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my
supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà for her invaluable comments and suggestions,
generous assistance and continual encouragement in completion of this research.
My sincere thanks go to all lectures and staff of Postgraduate studies for their
valuable lessons and precious helps. Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps,
I could overcome enormous obstacles when doing this research.
My special thanks also go to all students in the two classes 10C5 and 10 C7
at Thạch thanh 3 high school, who have inspired and guided me in the
accomplishment of the study.
My gratefulness is to my husband, who has given me so much love, patience
and encouragement , who spent hours working with the computer to help me with
computer entry and processing.
Finally, I owe a great debt to my family, especially my mother and motherin- law, who has constantly supported and encouraged me to carry out this thesis.
Once again, my sincere thanks to all.

ii


ABSTRACT
Reading lessons for the 10th form students at Thach Thanh 3 high school
have been observed to be not interesting and rewarding due to the challenging
reading tasks in the textbook. The aim of this study, hence, is to explore whether
using task adaptation can be effective in assisting students in their reading lessons,
so they can understand the content of reading materials with less frustration. Survey
questionnaire, classroom observation and interviews were the main instrument of
data collection which were delivered to 76 grade 10 students to collect their
responses to the adapted lesson. The result indicated that students are more
interested in the reading as the original tasks were adapted in combination with
using communicative games. And when the tasks become less difficult and more

interesting to most students, they developed a fairly high degree of motivation
towards practicing reading. Besides, the study suggests some adapted reading
activities and tasks for teachers to utilize to increase the effectiveness of English
reading lessons when applied to the textbook English 10 to teach the 10th form
students at Thach Thanh 3 high school.

iii


ABBREVIATION
T: The teacher
Ss: Student
TBLT: Task based language teaching

iv


LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1:

The effectiveness of using task adaptation in the reading lesson to help
students improve their reading skills ......................................................23

Chart 2:

The changes of students‘ interest and confidence in English reading
when the teachers used the adapted tasks. ...............................................24

Chart 3:

The students‘ view about the use of communicative games in the reading
lesson. ......................................................................................................25

Chart 4:

The

students‘ ability of understanding the contents of the reading

materials when the teachers use the adapted reading tasks. ....................26
Chart 5:

Students‘ performance in the reading lessons using the adapted tasks ...27

Chart 6:

The students‘ ability of completing all the reading tasks in the textbook
with pleasure ............................................................................................28

Chart 7:

The recommendations of students about reading tasks ...........................28

Chart 8:

The students‘ perception about the improvement of their reading skills
through the using of games in adapting reading textbook tasks ..............29

Chart 9:

The perception of students about the importance of teachers‘ roles and the
way they organize activities to help students improve their reading skills ....30

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ vi
ABBREVIATION ................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF CHARTS ..................................................................................................v
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION .............................................................................1
1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study. ................................... 1
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study ..................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study ............................................................................................ 2
1.4. Significance of the study ................................................................................. 3
1.5. Research Methodology .................................................................................... 3
1.6. Design of the study........................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW .5
2.1. Reading comprehension, reading skills, reading tasks. ............................... 5
2.1.1. Definition of reading comprehension. ..........................................................5
2.1.2. Reading comprehension skills .....................................................................6
2.2. Reading tasks ................................................................................................... 6
2.2.1. Defining task and task- based language teaching and learning ....................6
2.2.2. Reading tasks and types of reading tasks. ....................................................7
2.3. Task adaptation as a type of promoting for the reading comprehension process.... 8
2.3.1. Adaption definition .......................................................................................8
2.3.2. Purposes of adaptation ..................................................................................9

2.3.3. Categories of adaptation .............................................................................10
2.4. Motivation and strategies for motivating students in classroom .............. 11
2.5. Using Communicative Language Games in Teaching and Learning English .... 12
2.6. Review of existing study ................................................................................ 13
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY .......................................................................15

vi


3.1. The setting of the study ................................................................................. 15
3.1.1. The school ...................................................................................................15
3.1.2. The teacher and the students .......................................................................15
3.1.3. Reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10. .............................................16
3.2. Participants .................................................................................................... 17
3.3. Research approach. ....................................................................................... 18
3.4. Research procedure ....................................................................................... 20
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .....................................23
4.1. The response of students about the effectiveness of using task adaptation
in the reading lessons. ........................................................................................... 23
4.2. Student’s suggestions for adapting reading tasks in the textbook to
promote their learning reading comprehension. ............................................... 27
4.4. Summary ........................................................................................................ 31
CHAPTER V

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR ADAPTING

READING TASKS ..................................................................................................32
5.1. The findings .................................................................................................... 32
5.1.1. The effectiveness of adapting reading tasks in reading lessons. ................32
5.2. In what way can the reading tasks in the textbook be adapted to increase

the students’ motivation in learning. .................................................................. 33
CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION ..............................................................................36
6.1. Summary of the study ................................................................................... 36
6.2. Limitations and suggestions for further study............................................ 37
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................38
APPENDIX 1: SAMPLES OF SOME ADAPTED READING TASKS ........... I
APPENDIX 2A: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................ XIII
APPENDIX 2B: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA NGHIÊN CỨU ..................................... XV
APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL ............................................... XVIII
APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SCHEME .................................................. XIX

vii


CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale of the study.
In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, reading
has always received a great deal of attention. According to Carrell (1981:1) ―for
many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills,
particularly in English as a second or a foreign language‖. Sharing the same point of
view, Richard (1995:9) shows that ―Becoming an effective and fluent reader in
another language has a number of important benefits for learner‖. Reading has
become not only an important means to gain and enrich the students‘ general
knowledge but also a means to help them with their further study in the future.
Unfortunately, teaching and learning reading skills at high schools is still far
from satisfactory for various reasons. Despite the teacher‘s effort, sometimes the
students‘ motivation is still low and the reading lesson is said to be a boring one.
This is the seventh year the researcher has taught the new textbook ―Tieng
Anh 10‖ to the 10th form students. She has met a lot of difficulties in which the
biggest challenges emerge from teaching reading comprehension. Her colleagues in

her school have confronted a number of difficulties, one of which was students‘
lack of motivation and opportunities to practice communicating in the target
language. Despite the teachers‘ efforts, the students‘ reading skills are unimproved.
For example, some students expressed that they found the reading lessons boring
and did not feel they had learnt much in class. Since most students had access to the
teacher‘s book from which they could get the answers and background information
for all reading activities in the textbook they used in class, they did not find it
necessary or important to be attentive in class. If those difficulties are not found out
and no solution is given, reading lessons will become worst and students will be
bored with learning English. In this situation, the teacher needs to take a serious
look at the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching and learning
of reading skill in particular. By carrying out this study, the researcher wishes to
give a hand in promoting reading skills for her 10th –form students. The study

1


focuses on: Promoting the 10th-form students’ reading comprehension through
task adaptation with reference to the textbook Tiếng Anh 10: A case of Thạch
Thành 3 high school. In particular, the researcher used some common adapting
techniques in combination with changing the textbook activities into communicative
games or game- like activities in the hope of increasing students‘ motivation,
arousing their interest, and therefore developing their positive attitudes towards
learning reading.
1.2 Aims and objectives of the study
This study aims to investigate the areas of difficulty that the teachers at
Thach Thanh 3 high school in Thanh Hoa province are coping with in their daily
teaching of reading comprehension to the 10th form students with the new textbook
―Tieng Anh 10‖ and to suggest some possible solutions to reduce and overcome
these difficulties.

To be more specific, the objectives of this study are:
- to investigate the current situation of using reading tasks in the Tieng Anh
10 textbook as well as the using of reading activities at Thach Thanh 3 high school.
- to identify the students‘ satisfaction with the teachers‘ reading activities.
- to give some recommendation for teachers to adapt reading tasks to satisfy
the students.
Central to the mentioned aims, the following research questions are raised
and answered in the study:
- How does task adaptation help increase students‘ motivation in reading lesson?
- What type of adaptation should be employed in increasing student‘s
motivation?
1.3. Scope of the study
Material adaptation is such a broad topic that it cannot be wholly discussed
within this small scaled study; therefore, only one specific aspect will be central to
the reading tasks‘ adaptation. With the focus on the while-reading tasks only in the
textbook Tieng Anh 10 (the main textbook), the study was carried out to adapt those

2


to increase students‘ motivation in reading lessons only in the light of adapting
textbook activities for communicative teaching and cooperative learning. It was
suggested that cooperative elements be incorporated into reading tasks, thereby
changing the textbook activities into communicative games.
The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the
teachers of English as well as 10th grade students at Thach Thanh 3 High School.
That is, the teachers will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching
and assist their students in learning reading skills.
1.4. Significance of the study
This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective way

to develop students‘ reading comprehension skills by encouraging the teachers‘
assessment of reading tasks in the textbook. The unsuitable tasks were adapted to be
more accessible for the students. Pedagogically, the findings of the study are
believed to bring about necessary changes in reading materials and teaching
methodology to improve the students‘ reading comprehension at Thach Thanh 3
high school. It is hoped that the result of this study may offer the English teachers
at schools in general and the teachers of English at Thach Thanh 3 high school in
particular the ways to teach reading comprehension skills more effectively.
1.5. Research Methodology
This minor thesis employed action research in order to gain its aims because
according to Tsui (1993:33) “action research is a very effective way of helping
teachers to reflect on their teaching and to come up with their own alternatives to
improve their practice”. The author‘s desire is to assess the difference in the
students‘ reading motivation before and after the adaptation of the reading tasks in
the new textbook English 10 so after identifying the difficulties raised in the process
of teaching reading lessons, the researcher took intervention by delivering reading
lessons with adapted tasks. The data was collected via a number of instruments
including a questionnaire and interview. The data was analyzed and discussed so
that reliable findings could be clarified.

3


1.6. Design of the study
The study consist of five chapters
Chapter I, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims, research questions, scope,
methods, significance and the design of the study.
Chapter II, Literature review, presents reading comprehension, task and task
adaptation.
Chapter III, Methodology, provides the setting of the study, subjects, instrument

and data analysis process.
Chapter IV, Data analysis and discussion, analyses and discuses the data
collected from the survey questionnaire and classroom observations.
Chapter V, Major findings and suggestions, offers major findings and some
recommendations for adapting reading activities.
Chapter VI, Conclusion, summarizes the study, presents some limitations during
the process of doing the research and gives some suggestions for further study.

4


CHAPTER II:THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Reading comprehension, reading skills, reading tasks.
2.1.1. Definition of 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. There are three
elements appearing in the reading process. They are the text being read, the
background knowledge of the reader and the contextual aspects relevant for
interpreting the text. In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of
reading comprehension. What the teacher understands about it will have a great
influence on what he or she teaches in the class. In fact, methodologists have been
providing different definitions of reading comprehension.
Swan (1975: 1) states that when we say ―a student is good at comprehension
we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum
information a text with the minimum of understanding‖. Having the same point of
view, Richard and Thomas (1987: 9) claim that ―Reading comprehension is the best
described as an understanding between the author and the reader. The emphasis is
on the reader understanding of the printed page based on the individual reader‘s

unique background of experience.‖
Having the same point of view with the authors above, Grellet (1981: 3)
takes the point that ―Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means
extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.‖ The author
means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the
meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way.
It can be concluded that reading comprehension is a process of understanding
what is conveyed in the text. It does not mean that the readers need to understand
every single word in the text but actively work on the text and extract the required
information efficiently. It is important for us to understand what reading
comprehension is. For the teachers teaching reading, a profound understanding

5


about the nature of reading comprehension may help them find out the students‘
difficulties in learning reading and help them to overcome it.
So far we have looked at some definitions concerning reading and reading
comprehension which have been seen from different points of views. It is more
significant to have a more in-depth look at the reading process to make the bridge to
the focus of the study.
2.1.2. Reading comprehension skills
Nutall (1982) provides a list of reading skills which consist of macro-skills
with word-attack skills and text-attack skills.
Word-attack skills are composed of processing morphological information,
distinguishing structural clues, inferencing (or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar
words) from context, active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary, learning to
ignore difficult words and using dictionary.
Text-attack skills include two subgroups:
 Significance and cohesion: understanding sentence syntax, recognizing and

interpreting cohesive devices and interpreting discourse markers.
 Discourse: recognizing functional value, recognizing the presuppositions
underlying the text, recognizing implications and marking inferences, and
prediction.
2.2. Reading tasks
2.2.1. Defining task and task- based language teaching and learning
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is a communicative approach to
language instruction, using the successful completion of communicative tasks as its
primary organizing principle. Applied since 1980s, in English language learning
and teaching, the idea of task-based learning and teaching has become a keen
contemporary interest, and different task-based approaches exist today. In taskbased teaching, learners will upgrade their language competence by focusing on
getting something done during using of the language. Moreover, learners are
encouraged to use whatever language they already have in the process of
completing a task. The use of tasks will also give a clear and purposeful context for
the teaching and learning a language. The emphasis on the task-based learning and

6


teaching is reflected in much current research that studies the characteristics of
different kinds of activities and tasks.
One of the most widely quoted definitions for task is offered by Long
(1985:89). He refers to a task as “a piece of work undertaken for oneself or for
others, freely or for some reward. Thus examples of tasks include [. . .] filling out a
form, buying a pair of shoes, making an airline reservation, borrowing a library
book, taking a driving test, typing a letter, [. . .], making a hotel reservation, writing
a check, finding a street destination and helping someone across the road. In other
words, by “task” is meant the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at
work, at play, and in between”. Nunan (1989: 10) defines ―task‖ as: a piece of
classroom work which involves learners in comprehending, producing or interacting

in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather
than form. Skehan (1998: 95) lists characteristics of ―task‖ as: (1) meaning is
primary; (2) there is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities;
(3) task completion has some priority; (4) the assessment of tasks is in terms of
outcome. Willis, J. (1996: 53) gives the meaning of ―task‖ as: a goal-oriented
activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome.
Despite the various interpretations, several common design features can be
identified. These features include that all three definitions emphasize the importance
of focus on meaning. This criterion supports the notion that conveying an intended
meaning is the essence of language use.
2.2.2. Reading tasks and types of reading tasks.
There are some reasons for reading. We read for information or for pleasure.
Therefore, the goals of a reading class are to cultivate students‘ interest in reading
and help students become skilled readers in gaining information. In a task-based
teaching class, students play the central role. Reading tasks have specific goals,
detailed procedures and methods for students to follow. TBLT is both studentcentered and task-based. In the class where students are provided with plenty of
chance to be engaged in activities, the teacher is more like a patient listener rather
than a talkative speaker. The goals of such reading activities are for students to
explore and experience language and develop reading skills.

7


In TBLT reading class, Willis puts forward three steps for task-based teaching:
(1) Pre-task: the teacher introduces the task. (2) Task cycle: task—students carry out
the task; planning—each group prepares how to report their completion of the task
to the class; reporting—students report their completion of the task. (3) Language
focus: analysis—students analyze and assess the completions of tasks by other
groups; practice—students practice the language difficulties under the direction of
the teacher.

Willis (1996) introduces six types of tasks. They can be used in almost any
topic. They are listing, ordering and sorting, comparing, problem solving, sharing
personal experiences. Based on Huang Jianru‘ s opinion (2001), the writer reckons
that in reading teaching, tasks may fall into three categories, skill-oriented tasks,
comprehension-oriented task and application-oriented task. The tasks of the reading
part in the course book ―Tiếng Anh 10‖, the subject of this research, are studying are
also similar to these. Thus, the researcher follows this opinion about reading tasks.
Skill-oriented tasks include predicting, skimming and scanning, making
inferences, comparing. Comprehension-oriented tasks are tasks of setting the scene,
tasks of summarizing reading materials, tasks for role-play. These tasks have a way
of reinforcing each other so that comprehension can be achieved. Applicationoriented tasks are, for example, interviews, discussions, debates, surveys,
compositions, speeches, and projects etc, which can help the newly-acquired
language knowledge stay productive.
In task-based reading class, quite a variety of reading tasks are designed for
students to complete and all the activities are based on student-centered leaning.
Thus students‘ reading interest will be cultivated. In the process of completing
reading tasks they will develop their reading competence.
2.3. Task adaptation as a type of promoting for the reading comprehension process.
2.3.1. Adaption definition
According to Tomlinson (1998:xi) adaption is ― making changes to materials
in order to improve them more suitable for a particular learners.‖ In the aspect of
adaption techniques, Madsen and Bowen (1978: ix- xi) mentions adaption as the
action of employing ―one or more number of techniques: supplementing, editing,

8


personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying cultural/situation
content.‖ Differently, Stevic (1972) cited in Mc Donough anh Shaw (1993: 83)
emphasizes teachers‘ role of bridging a gap between materials and learners: ―the

teacher must satisfy the demand of the textbook, but in ways that will be satisfying
to those who learn from it.‖
In brief, adaption techniques require teachers to change and revise materials
to make them more accessible to the teaching context.
2.3.2. Purposes of adaptation
There is a famous saying by Albert Einstein: ―I never teach my pupils. I only
attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.‖
When discussing this topic, there is a question that needs to be considered:
Why should teachers reinvent activities when publishers have already developed
appropriate instructional sequences, lesson designs, and activities for each subject
of the material?
The first answer is that despite the great effort that textbook writers make to
meet the needs of the intended users, textbooks are subject to adaptation when they
are actually used in the classroom. Teachers have to adapt the materials they are
using if they want their teaching to be more effective and more interesting. In fact, a
course book can never be totally an effective tool for teaches to follow without any
adaptation because there may be intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic
inaccuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety.
The second purpose of adaptation is to ―maximize the appropriacy of teaching
materials in some context, by changing some of internal characteristics of a course book
to better suit our particular circumstances.‖ (Mc Donough and Shaw, 1993). A teacher
may choose any method to adapt the teaching materials to make them more relevant,
accessible and useful for learners, which can stimulate and increase motivation in
learners and create a more conductive learning atmosphere in the classroom.
Concerning the role of motivation in language learning, McGrath (2002:67)
acknowledges that one of the practical reasons for adaptation is “to maintain
learners’ interests by varying what might be a rather repetitive diet”. It is

9

motivation that affects the extent of students‘ involvement and performance in
language learning.
By carrying out this study, the researcher want to make the teaching material
more relevant, accessible and useful for learner as she understands that no textbook
can meet all the needs and interests of all her students. And she hopes that this can
stimulate and increase motivation in learners . Teaching here means building
students‘ confidence that the teachers are concerned about their needs and not just
following a program.
2.3.3. Categories of adaptation
There are a variety of adaptation techniques a teacher can apply when
teaching reading with hope to help learners to make maximum use of their textbook
and learn as much of the target language as possible. Mc Donough & Shaw (1993)
offered lists of techniques that may be used when adapting materials better to fit a
specific class, as follows:
* Adding: When adding to published material the teacher is supplementing the
existing materials and providing more materials. The teacher can do this by either
extending or expanding.
- Extending: means the teacher supplies more of the same type of materials,
thus making a quantitative change in the material.
- Expanding: is to add something different to the materials. The change is
qualitative.
*Deleting: subtracting and abridging: Material can be deleted both quantitatively
(subtracting) or qualitatively (abridging). In subtracting, for instance, a teacher can
combine two reading tasks into one with fewer questions. When abridging,
however, the teacher may decide that comprehension of a short paragraph is useful
for the learners, so the whole reading passage can be paid less attention.
* Simplifying: When simplifying, the teacher could be rewording instructions or text
in order to make them more accessible to learners, or simplifying a complete
activity to make it more manageable for learners and teachers.

* Reordering: When reordering, the teacher has decided that it makes more
pedagogic sense to sequence activities differently. An example is beginning with a

10


general discussion before looking at a reading passage rather than using the reading
as a basis for discussion.
*Replacing materials: When replacing material a teacher may determine that a more
appropriate visual or text might serve an activity better than the ones presented in
the published material. This is often the case with culturally specific or timespecific activities. For instance, teachers maybe replace one difficult task by easier
one which can help save time or oral activities.
On the whole, adaptation is a very practical activity carried out mainly by the
teachers in order to make their work more relevant to the learners with whom they
are day to day contact. Moreover, it is a fact that no published textbook can possibly
cater for every teacher, learner or teaching situation. Thus, each teacher has to take
responsibility of textbook adaptation in order to ensure an optical match between
textbooks and the particular teaching context.
Carrying out this study with the hope to create more enjoyable and much
easier lessons to make language teaching process more effective, the researcher has
made some reading task adaptation using common adapting techniques mentioned
above in combination with changing the textbook activities into communicative
language games to engage students in group or pair work and create communicative
activities. (See appendix 1)
2.4. Motivation and strategies for motivating students in classroom
As being indicated in many research, motivation is concerned with both a
person‘s behavior in carrying out task and the reasons for carrying out that task
(Maehr & Meyer,1997). In terms of behavior, it is a kind of ―personal investment‖
which is reflected in the ‗direction, intensity, persistence and quality of what is done
and expressed‖ (Maehr & Meyer,1997, p.373). In terms of underlying reasons,

motivation is concerned with ―why anyone does or does not invest in any particular
activity‖ (Maehr & Meyer,1997, p.380). Many motivational constructs have been
identified that are believed essential in influencing people‘s personal investment,
such as task- oriented/ ego- oriented goals, attributions about past success of failure,
perceived self- efficacy, etc. (Cf. Dornyei,2001). These constructs have

11


supplemented the traditional social approach of intrinsic/ extrinsic motivation in
language learning (Gardner & Lambert, 1972).
Researchers have found that both individual factors, such as interest in the
subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self- confident
and self – esteem, as well as patience and persistence (e.g., Sass, 1989), and
situational factors, such as those aspects of teaching situation that enhance students‘
motivation, may affect a given student‘s motivation to learn (Dornyei & Csizer,
1998: Lucas, 1990: McMillan & Forsyth, 1991; Sass, 1989). The two sets of factors
actually interact with each other and work together to influence student motivation
in classroom, as the interaction paradigm suggests (Maehr & Meyer, 1997). Being
very much concerned with what a teacher can do in classroom to enhance student
motivation, this study focuses mainly on situational factors, which primarily fall
into the following aspect.
It has been found that if teacher can make students active participants in
learning, students will be motivated to learn (Lucas, 1990). It is concerned with the
quality of classroom activities and the way the activities are presented and
administered. It is suggested that the teaching material should have relevant to the
learning goals and be of appropriate difficulty level to the students concerned. a
variety of learning tasks should be presented properly with realistic goals and
effective strategies in reaching those goals. When students find a learning task
interesting, engaging, meaningful, and useful they tend to be highly motivated to

carry it out.
2.5. Using Communicative Language Games in Teaching and Learning English
According to Wang (2010) conducting games in teaching differs from the
traditional teaching methods such as repetition, memorization and imitation which
demotivate students‘ incentive to learn. Teaching English through game- like
activities can cheer up the class and make language learning more pleasurable and
easier to learn. Most of all, games motivate students to become effective
communicators in the target language, and help them use the language in a more
spontaneous and natural manner (Gordon, 1972). In addition, as Wright et al. state,

12


games can offer practice in all stages of teaching and learning sequence including
presentation, practice and production. That is, many games can supply the same
dense use of language as more conventional drills which mainly give repeated
practice on a language form during a limited period of time. It is also found by
Savignon‘ s research that learners who were encouraged to use linguistic knowledge
at their disposal to exchange information, to clarify messages, and to negotiate
meaning while carrying out communicative tasks, markedly outperformed learners
who had no such practice. Therefore, it is clear that using communicative language
games in teaching is a feasible way to present new items as well as to practice and
reinforce specific skills that have already been taught. In particular, according to
Gordon, in game situations, immediate feedback can be obtained from other
participants. Such feedback helps students realize how their performance is and
assists the teacher to understand students‘ learning in detail. From the above stated,
it seems reasonable to conclude that communicative games, an essential component
in communicative approach lesson and useful to language acquisition, should be
seen as central to a teacher‘ s classroom practice rather than for use as time fillers.
2.6. Review of existing study

When discussing materials adaptation, Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004) clarify
that there should be materials adaptation because of the mismatch of some elements
such as teaching environments, the learners, the preferences or the materials.
Besides, they provide procedures of materials development in the detail sequence.
In particular, they suggest valuable ideas for conducting materials adaptations. It
can be concluded that materials adaptation skills may be needed most by teachers
who feel they are unable to produce their own materials because of lack of time, of
expertise, or of encouragement. Dayna House (2012) echoes concerns when giving
the answer to the question why should adapt English textbook to your students‘
need and provide useful instructions on how teachers can adapt the textbooks. Her
idea is that textbooks are designed so that the format of all lessons is the same. This
uniformity might make textbooks easier to write and teach from but can also lead to

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a boredom as the same sequence of activities is followed day after day. And another
reason is that the materials are designed to appeal to the same ―generic‖ student
interest. This means that the design of the textbook is ―one size fits all‖. Teachers
should know that a single set of materials cannot meet all the needs and interests of
all their students.
About adapting reading tasks, the researcher takes some minor theses in the
library as tools of references. Vu Thi Luong (2009) and Bui Thanh Nga (2009)
argue about this topic carefully in their minor theses. They also collect the
information related to reading and task adaptation such as reading comprehension,
reading techniques, the role of task in language teaching and task designing.
Moreover, they give some samples of adapted reading tasks in the specific English
course books for Electricity and for Computing. However, the two researchers only
aim at investigating the unsuitable reading tasks and at giving some samples of
adapted tasks in their research. In other words, the effectiveness of implementing

the adapted reading tasks has not been mentioned clearly. Besides, Nguyen Thi
Trang (2008) investigated about adapting reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh
12 for mixed- level students at Van Noi high school in Dong Anh, Hanoi. She
pointed out that one of the important reason why her students pay little attention to
the skill as well as the reading texts and reading tasks in their textbook is that they
are not at the same level. Then, she decided to make groups of similar- level
students and adapt the designed reading tasks in the textbook to make them more
suitable for each group. In the three studies mentioned above, the researchers have
not pointed out clearly how to help promote students reading comprehension by
increasing their motivation in learning reading through task adaptation. Therefore,
based on the experience from my own teaching context and what I think is
necessary and important to my students‘ learning reading process, I chose to do this
research on how and in what way my students would benefit much in reading
lessons from task adaptation.

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CHAPTER III:METHODOLOGY
3.1. The setting of the study
3.1.1. The school
The study is conducted at Thach Thanh 3 High School, which is located in
Thach Thanh district, a mountainous area of Thanh Hoa province. This school with
26 classes has been in operation for only 10 years. Like other high schools, its duty
is to train students from the 10th form to the 12th form. The class size is generally
large with 40-45 learners in one. The classrooms are equipped only with a
chalkboard and desks for four students sharing one. The school has only one
projector which is occasionally used by teachers of all subjects in teaching festivals.
There is a library at school but there are not many books for reference. Moreover,
English newspapers and magazines, which are good sources of current target

language, are not available.
In this school, Math, 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 the school and in the school-leaving exam. However,
few students choose the colleges or universities which require an English exam.
3.1.2. The teacher and the students
The school now has seven teachers of English aged from 27 to 35. Two of
them have had MA degrees. All of the teachers are willing and enthusiastic toward
their teaching. However, because of the living and learning condition here, the
teachers do not have enough materials such as reference books or English magazine,
which are very necessary for both the teachers and students at school and they also
do not have many chances to improve their language skills as well as their teaching
methods. Therefore, the teachers may become less active and to some extent, the
students are bored with their way of teaching.
In teaching English, as far as 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 them

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some instructions. However, not all of the teachers can do that and the amount of
time spent in such activities is not much. Therefore, the teachers often employ the
traditional method of teaching in reading lessons. Most of the time, 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. Then the students are passive. And the success depends on how flexible the
individual teacher is to respond to the requirements of the teaching situations.
3.1.3. Reading tasks in the textbook Tieng Anh 10.

The textbook Tieng anh 10, by Hoang et al (2006) is a theme- based and
skill- based textbook, with the adoption of the two currently popular reading
approaches. They employ the learner-centered approach and the communicative
approach. According to its authors, the leading methodology focused to use to
handle this textbook is Task- based language teaching (Van et al 2006: 12). It
consists of 16 units on broad topics: a day in the life of, school talks, people‘s
background, special education, technology and you, an excursion, the mass media,
the story of my village, undersea world, conservation, national park, music, films
and cinema, the world cup, cities, historical places. Each unit is divided into five
parts: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language focus. The teacher only
covers one of the above five parts in each period. After every three units, there is a
TEST YOURSELF section, which provides some exercises for the students to do in
order to test how much they achieved from the previous lesson.
Although there are two programs (one for general students and the other for
those specializing in English), the shared objectives have recently been adjusted for
a better use of English ―as a tool of communication at basic level in term of
listening, speaking, reading and writing‖ (Hoang et al.,2006a,p33). In terms of
reading skills, this goal has been specified into developing students‘ abilities to read
190- 230 word texts for main ideas and details on broad topics and to develop their
vocabulary via reading.
The reading texts in Tieng Anh 10 are various. Many of them are familiar to
students. (Unit 1: A Day In The Life Of; Unit 2: School Talks, Unit 8: The Story Of

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