An application of a discourse-based approach in teaching English skill at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce – Tourism = Ứng dụng phương pháp tiếp cận dựa

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


NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC

AN APPLICATION OF AN DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN
TEACHING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THANH HOA
VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-TOURISM
Ứng dụng phương pháp tiếp cận dựa trên ngôn bản để dạy kỹ năng đọc Tiếng
Anh tại Trường Trung cấp nghề Thương mại-Du lịch Thanh Hoá

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English language teaching methodology
Code: 60.14.10



Ha Noi - 2013
VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC

AN APPLICATION OF AN DISCOURSE-BASED APPROACH IN
TEACHING ENGLISH READING SKILL AT THANH HOA
VOCATIONAL SCHOOL OF COMMERCE-TOURISM

Ứng dụng phương pháp tiếp cận dựa trên ngôn bản để dạy kỹ năng đọc
Tiếng Anh tại Trường Trung cấp nghề Thương mại-Du lịch Thanh Hoá

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English language teaching methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Dr. Lâm Quang Đông


Ha Noi - 2013
iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
Abbreviations vi
List of graphs, charts and tables vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for choosing the topic 1
2. Aims and objectives 2
3. Scope of research 2
4. Theoretical and practical significance of the study 3
5. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

1.1. Definition of reading 4
1.2. Reading comprehension 5
1.3. The concepts of discourse and discourse analysis 5
1.3.1. The concepts of discourse 5
1.3.2. The concepts of discourse analysis 6
1.4. Approaches to teaching reading comprehension 8
1.5. Discourse analysis and teaching of reading comprehension 9
1.6. Cohesion in reading comprehension 11

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research design 15
v

2.1.1. Rationale for the use of an action research 15
2.1.2. Steps for action research 16
2.2. The context of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thanh Hoa
Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism 18
2.3. Research questions 19
2.4. Participants 19
2.5. Instrumentation 20
26. Action research procedure 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. The results of the pre-test 25
3.2. The results of the pre-questionnaire 25
3.2.1. The students‘ attitude toward reading skill 25
3.2.2. Difficulties faced by the students 26
3.2.3. Causes faced by the students 27
3.3. The result of the students‘ post-tests after the course 28
3.4. The result of the questionnaires for the students after the course 31

3.4.1. Change in percentage of the students‘ attitude to reading comprehension
after the application of discourse-based approach…………………………….31
3.4.2. Extent to which the application of a discourse –based approach help the
students to read better 32
3.4.3. The students‘ assessment on the activities applying discourse-based
approach 33
3.5. The result of class observation 35
3.6. Implications for teaching English reading skill 36

PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Summary of the study 38
2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 39
REFERENCES 41
APPENDIX. I

vi


ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a foreign language
ESL: English as a second language

vii

LIST OF GRAPHS, CHARTS AND TABLES

Graph 1. The students‘ score in the pre-test
Graph 2. The first post-test score of the students
Graph 3. The second post-test score of the students
Chart 1. The students‘ attitude toward reading part
Chart 2. The students‘ s attitude toward reading part after the course
Table 1. Difficulties faced by the students
Table 2. Causes of difficulties faced by students
Table 3. A comparison of parameters between the pre-test and the two post-tests
Table 4. Extent to which the application of a discourse-based approach help the
students to read better

Table 5. The students‘ assessment on the activities applying discourse-based
approach
Table 6. The students‘ assessment on the exercises applying discourse-based
approach
Table 7. The students‘ assessment on the exercises applying discourse-based
approach.



1

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale for choosing the topic
As we have known, in English, reading is one of the main means for learners
to get information, which plays an important role in improving students‘
competence. So the teaching of reading is considered to be one of the most effective
ways in English language learning. According to Farhady (2005), ―reading is one of
the most useful and necessary skills for daily life. People usually read because they
want to obtain information about a specific subject‖.
English reading class is aimed at making students master reading skills,
widen their vocabulary, improve their grammar, and gain all types of knowledge
and boost the students‘ reading ability because their ability of reading determines
the amount of the information readers get.
As Wenquan (2009: 1) states, ―Reading means decoding the discourse in the
given text and encoding it into valuable information accordingly, often reflecting
different implications and meanings according to the context. Early readers of
English must proceed beyond the utterance level and do more than follow the words
to form-meaning‖. Reading is a complicated psycho-linguistic process and the
interaction result between language and thought. To comprehend a text requires the

readers to engage their related organs, background knowledge, and reading skills.
Sellers (2000) asserts, ―the reading process is cognitively demanding because
learners need to synchronize attention, perception, memory, and comprehension‖.
However, because of the influence of traditional teaching methods, at Thanh Hoa
Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism, most of the teachers only focus on
vocabulary and grammar in their teaching process; they ignore the application of
discourse analysis while discourse analysis helps students to comprehend reading
materials completely and deeply. Meanwhile, as far as the students are concerned,
most are poor in English, especially reading. Their background knowledge about
words, sentences and structures which they have learned is quite limited; they have
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difficulty in mastering structures and getting main ideas of reading materials.
Therefore, it is necessary to apply discourse analysis in teaching reading
comprehension to improve reading skills for students. Wenquan (2009: 2) suggests,
―Most EFL learners are able to understand the formal structures and logical
meaning of the material they read with an average degree of difficulty and within
general and familiar topics, but cannot understand the rhetorical and functional
meaning of sentences, or sentences with specific topics or involving cultural
differences. The basic reason may be their lack of training in discourse analysis and
ignorance of even simplest discourse analysis techniques‖.
For the reasons above, I have decided to choose the topic ―An application of
a discourse-based approach in teaching English reading skill at Thanh Hoa
Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism‖.
2. Aims and objectives
This study aims at exploring the effectiveness of the application of a
discourse-based approach in teaching English reading skill at Thanh Hoa
Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism.
The specific objectives of the study are:
- To find out changes in the attitude of students at Thanh Hoa Vocational

School of Commerce-Tourism after applying a discourse-based approach in
teaching English reading skill.
- To investigate what extent the application of a discourse-based approach
helps students at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism read
better.
3. Scope of research
The thesis focuses on studying the application of discourse analysis in
various approaches (top-down, bottom-up and interactive processes) to reading in
the literature review and the application of cohesion (reference, conjunction,
repetition, synonym, antonym and collocation) analysis in reading comprehension
3

in the action research procedure because these elements mainly count for in the text
at the elementary level.
The participants are the first-year students who I am teaching at the moment,
which facilitates my research.
4. Theoretical and practical significance of the study
The thesis is believed to be a good reference for teachers and students at
Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism, especially to those who are
teaching or learning reading skill.
5. Design of the study
This study is divided into three main parts:
Part A. INTRODUCTION, presents the Rationale for choosing the topic, the aims
and objectives, the scope, significance, methodology and the design of the study.
Part B. DEVELOPMENT, has three following chapters:
Chapter One presents the literature review which deals with the theoretical
background that precedes and necessitates the formation of our research.
Chapter Two presents the methodology applied in the study including, action
research, setting, participants, instrumentation and action research procedure.
Chapter Three presents results and discussions, and implications for teaching

English reading skill.
Part C. CONCLUSION, reviews the findings and proposes possible solutions to the
problems identified. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are
also put forward.







4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
In this chapter, the fundamental theoretical concepts will be introduced. First
of all, definitions pertaining to what is meant by reading and reading
comprehension, discourse and discourse analysis, the backbone concepts of this
research paper, are presented in 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 as prerequisites to the
understanding of subsequent notions and models. Second, approaches to reading
comprehension are discussed in 1.4, which are bottom-up, top-down and interactive
processes. Third, the discussions of discourse analysis and the teaching of reading
comprehension are presented in 1.5. And at last the discussions of role cohesion in
reading comprehension.
1.1. Definition of reading
There are many definitions about reading. Goodman (1971:135) believes that
―reading can be understood as an active, purposeful, and creative mental process
where the reader engages in the construction of meaning from a text‖.
Hedge (2000) defines that ―reading is the interaction of two types: the reader
and the text, and the reader and the writer‖.

Richards and Schmidt (2002) state ―reading skills (reading micro skills) as
abilities required for skillful reading such as discerning main ideas, understanding
sequence, noticing specific details, making inferences, making comparison, and
making prediction‖. However, Nunan (2003) believes that reading is a fluent
process in which readers combine the information from a text and their own
background knowledge to build meaning.
From the researchers‘ points, it can be seen that there has been an interest on
the ―readers‖ and on how they construct meanings from texts, which contributes to
the proliferation of studies on reading. Reading is not a ―passive skill‖; it is an
active and creative cognitive process. Although there are so many definitions of
reading, there is no definition covering all the aspects of the process as it happens in
reality because of its complexity.
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In my opinion as a teacher, reading is a ―developmental process‖. Students
learn to read and achieve the accomplishment by their knowledge of the language
and the knowledge of the world gained from continuous and frequent learning and
practice.
1.2. Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning
reading a foreign language. It can be understood as the process in which the readers
can recognize the graphic forms of the reading text and understand what is implied
behind the forms.
According to Grabe (2009: 46), there are two modes of reading
comprehension ―…the text model and the situation model‖. In the text model, the
reader is called for understanding what the text itself is trying to communicate and
in the situation model, the reader is required to integrate background knowledge
with text information to interpret the text. Besides, Alderson (2000) presents two
levels of reading understanding: ―literal understanding and text understanding‖. In
addition, Swan (1975: 1) states, ―a student is good at comprehension‖ if ―he can

read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text‖ and
Grellet (1981: 3) defines, ―reading comprehension or understanding a written text
means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible‖.
Although these views are different, what comes up a common point is that
reading comprehension is the process in which the readers can obtain the
information as required in the reading text as efficiently as possible.
1.3. The concepts of discourse and discourse analysis
1.3.1. The concepts of discourse
The term ‗discourse‘ is used in different senses depending on what school of
discourse analysis one adheres to. Therefore there are different ways of defining
discourse. Cook (1989) considers discourse as ―stretches of language perceived to
be meaningful, unified, and purposive‖. In other words, as Brown and Yule (1983)
state, "Discourse is language material, either spoken or written, in actual uses by
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speakers (and writers) of the language‖. Nunan (2003: 174) states that ―discourse is
considered with speakers and listeners and normally, with extended stretches of
language rather than single sentences‖. In general, discourse is what the speaker
says and the listener understands in a context. David Nunan (1993: 7) defines,
―context refers to the situation giving use to the discourse, and within which the
discourse is embedded.‖.
It is necessary to make a difference between a discourse and a text since a
confusion of these two terms may result in the failures of discourse analysis. To
some linguists, discourse is different from text but to others, they are the same
subject matter and can be used interchangeably.
Brown and Yule (1983) define text as ―the verbal record of communication
act‖ and discourse as ―the language in use‖. Nunan (1993: 6) considers "The term
text refers to any written record of a communication event. The event itself may
involve oral language or written language", "The term discourse refers to the
interpretation of the communication event in context". However Cook (1992: 1)

considers discourse as ―text and context together, interacting in a way which is
perceived as meaningful and unified by the participants‖. Farhady (2005) believes
that the meaning of the text depends both on the meanings of the words and
sentences, and on the logic behind the text and readers; in order to understand the
text, one must understand all these factors together. In short, discourse is an act of
communication, while text is its means.
1.3.2. The concept of discourse analysis
There have been many interpretations to what Discourse Analysis is. At a
time when linguists were concerned with the analysis of single sentences, a paper
under the title ―Discourse analysis‖ was published by Harris (1952). He was
interested in the distribution of linguistic elements in extended texts, and the links
between the text and its social situation.
British discourse analysis was mainly influenced by M.A.K. Halliday‘s
functional approach to language. Halliday‘s framework emphasized the social
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function of language and the thematic and informational structure of speech and
writing.
According to McCarthy (1991: 5) ―Discourse analysis is concerned with the
study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which it is used
Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts of all kinds, and spoken data,
from conversation to highly institutionalized forms of talk‖.
As can be seen, the term ―discourse analysis‖ is very ambiguous. However,
according to Nguyen Hoa (2000) "Discourse analysis as a study of how and for
what purposes language is used in a certain context of situation and the linguistic
means to carry out these purposes". In other words, discourse analysis is a study of
how and for what purposes language is used in a certain context. In that context, a
sentence is called a discourse sequence which can be changed because of the
relationship between the previous sequence and the following sequence.
According to McCarthy (1991: 37) ―One of the major concerns of written

discourse analysts is the relation of neighboring sentences and, in particular, factors
attesting to the fact that a given text is more than only the sum of its components. It
is only with written language analysis that certain features of communicative
products started to be satisfactorily described, despite the fact that they were present
also in speech, like for instance the use of 'that' to refer to a previous phrase, or
clause‖.
In this sense, discourse analysis is the analysis of language used in context.
Context plays a central role to the notion of discourse. Context is understood in the
broadest sense to include both the reader and the writer, the situation, the function,
the multimodality, and background knowledge. Thornbury (2005) defines
―discourse analysis as the study of language – either spoken or written – which is
used for communicative effect in a real-world situation and the analysis of the
features and uses of texts or text analysis‖.
1.4. Approaches to teaching reading comprehension
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The two approaches to discourse processing in teaching reading
comprehension are a bottom-up approach and a top-down one. In the bottom-up
approach, we proceed from the most detailed features toward the most general.
This approach has a focus on language elements such as grammar, vocabulary and
cohesion. It enables students to analyze the individual linguistic signals, such as
words, phrases, grammatical cues, discourse markers, and so on.
According to Nunan (1991:78) ―the bottom-up model assumes that the reader
first identifies each letter in a text as it is encountered. These letters are blended
together and mentally ‗sound out‘ to enable the reader to identify the words that
they make up; words are chained together to form sentences and sentences are
linked together into paragraphs; and finally paragraphs are tied together to form
complete texts. Comprehension is thus the final step in a lengthy process of
decoding ever larger units of language‖.
As Rayner and Pollatsek (1989 :25) posit, bottom-up model revolves around

the idea that visual information is transformed through a series of stages with little
influence from ―general world knowledge, contextual information, or higher-order
processing strategies‖. Meanwhile, the top-down approach focuses on background
knowledge about content and organization. Top-down approach helps students get
the main idea of each part of the text. In the top-down model, the reader has an
active contribution to the lower processes, comprehension resides in the reader, and
there is more dependence on meaning cues rather than the visual elements. In this
model, the reader uses background knowledge to make predictions that are later
confirmed or rejected based on searching the text (Nunan, 2003; Rayner &
Pollatsek, 1989).
From the bottom-up viewpoint, reading is a process of decoding written
symbols into their aural equivalents. It is a text-centered move in which texts
contains rules and codes to be deciphered. During the decoding process,
understanding the hierarchal, linguistic structures of the language promises reading
9

comprehension. The focus is never the meaning of the whole text, but detailed
linguistic forms — from phoneme to lexical, syntactic levels.
From the top-down teaching viewpoint, the learner‘s prior knowledge is
activated, which is capable of promoting learner‘s language learning, and making
possible reading comprehension. In this process, prior knowledge plays a major role
in learner‘s comprehension. Hudson (1982) considers that a high degree of
background knowledge can overcome linguistic deficiency. According to Treiman
(2001) ―top-down model is actually a whole-language teaching approach, in which
readers focus on the context, and manage to construct meanings in the text‖.
More recently, there has been some serious criticism about top-down
processing. Stanovich (1980), in an exhaustive review of language-processing
models, proposed the third model called interactive process. According to
Stanovich, most top-down models do not allow for the possibility that less
proficient readers may use higher-level processes to compensate for lower-level

ones. He suggests that, given deficient decoding skills, poor readers may actually be
more dependent on higher-level processes than proficient readers.
1.5. Discourse analysis and the teaching of reading comprehension
In the field of applied linguistic studies, discourse analysis has become a
leading discipline that exerts a significant influence on language teaching.
Knowledge of it is very useful for students, trainees and practicing teachers.
Discourse analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of
spoken interaction. Discourse analysts are also interested in the organization of
written interaction such as newspapers articles, letters, stories, notices, instructions
and so on. These interactions are always expected to be coherent, meaningful
communications in which the words and sentences are linked to one another in a
fashion that corresponds to conventional formulae.
Explaining discourse patterning at the macro-level is impossible if we do not
pay attention to the role of grammar and lexis; similarly, good reading cannot be
fostered if we do not consider global and local reading skills simultaneously.
10

In recent years, questions of reading pedagogy have centered on whether
bottom-up or top-down strategies are more important. After debates, there has been
a compromise between local and global decoding, and there is general agreement
that efficient readers use top-down and bottom-up processing simultaneously. As
McCarthy (1991: 168) puts it, ―This fits with our general review of discourse as
being manifested in macro-level patterns to which a constellation of local lexico-
grammatical choices contribute. The best reading materials will encourage an
engagement with larger textual forms (for example through problem-solving
exercises at the whole-text level) but not neglect the role of individual words,
phrases and grammatical devices in guiding the reader around the text‖.
At the macro-level, much has been made in recent years of schema theory,
that is, the role of background knowledge in the reader‘s ability to make sense of
the text. McCarthy (1991: 168) explains that the theory is that new knowledge can

only be processed coherently in relation to existing knowledge frameworks, and that
the efficient reader activates the necessary frameworks to assist in decoding the text
being read. The frameworks are not only knowledge about the world (e.g. about
natural phenomena, about typical sequences of real-life events and behaviour), but
also about texts, how texts are typically structured and organized, thus enabling us
to talk about two kinds of schemata: content and formal, respectively.
As for the role of discourse analysis in reading comprehension, Cook (1989:
81) asserts that ―doing discourse analysis helps students adopt top-down approach
in reading‖, which he assumes to be natural for L1 speakers. He further maintains
that an L2 student who is able to set a discourse in its textual and social text may
supposedly postpone or neglect dealing with an unknown word if she/ he gets the
general idea of text.
In contrast to Cook (1989), McCarthy (1991), and McCarthy and Carter
(1994) adopt an interactive approach (focusing on the interaction between the top-
down and bottom-up processes) in teaching EFL reading and underscore the
interdependence of higher order operations of language (i.e., cultural and
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ideological meanings) and lower-order forms of language that contribute to
patterning the meaning. In layman‘s terms reader cannot neglect the role of
individual words or grammatical makers in comprehending a text. According to
them, discourse analysts should concern about not only the macro-level but also the
micro-level discourse. In addition to the interactive approach in teaching reading,
they highlight two features of discourse analysis, namely intertextuality and
language awareness. According to Fairclough (1992: 270) intertextuality ―points to
how texts can transform prior texts and restructure existing conventions (genres,
discourse) to generate new ones‖. Language awareness defined by Carter ( 2003:
64 ) as ―the development in learners of an enhanced consciousness of and sensivity
to the forms and functions of language‖.
Up to now, many researchers have investigated the importance of using

discourse analysis in reading comprehension (e.g., Ivanov, 2009; Wenquan, 2009).
For example, Wenquan (2009) used discourse analysis for teaching reading
comprehension by familiarizing the students with common structural-textual ways
of organizing content of the paragraph or discourse level, training them to activate
their background knowledge, and teaching the cohesion and coherence inside
paragraphs and sentences as well as between paragraphs for overall comprehension.
The result of his study showed that students in experimental group gained more
effective reading ability.
In conclusion, discourse analysis plays an important role in teaching of
reading comprehension, the teachers can helps their students comprehend a text by
teaching them to analyze the structure of a text, cohesion and coherence in a text.
1.6. Cohesion in reading comprehension.
Cohesion is a part of text structure, cohesive devices are elementary items to
construct a text. It is impossible to grasp the existence of a text that is more than
two sentences without the presence of cohesive devices. Cohesion is formal links
which exist between sentences, the relationship that cause texts to cohere or stick
together. According to Halliday & Hasan (1976:8) cohesion is ―a semantic relation
12

between an element in a text and some other element that is crucial to the
interpretation of it‖. Thus cohesion plays a crucial role in making of sense of the
text. They also identified five types of cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis,
conjunction and lexical cohesion (reiteration and collocation).
- Referential cohesion: There are two different ways in which reference items can
function within a text: anaphoric and cataphoric. Anaphoric reference points the
reader or listener ―backwards‖ to a previously mentioned entity, process or state of
affairs, whereas cataphoric reference points them forward. It drives reader or
listener further into the text so as to identify the elements to which the reference
items refer. Personal pronouns, determiners, adverbs and adjectives perform these
types of reference, thus identified as personal, demonstrative, and comparative

reference.
- Substitution and ellipsis: Ellipsis is described as a form of substitution in which
the original item is replaced by zero, ellipsis occurs when some essential structural
is omitted from a sentence or clause and can only be recovered by referring an
element in the preceding text. There are three types of substitution: nominal, verbal
and clausal.
- Conjunction: Conjunction signals relationships that can only be fully understood
through reference to other parts of the text. Four different types of conjunction are
temporality, causality, addition and adversity. Adversatives show contrast in
information; additives signal the presentation of additional information; temporal
point out chronological order of events in a text, and causal show a relationship
which is one of cause and consequence.
- Lexical cohesion:
Reiteration: Reiteration includes repetition, synonym or near synonym, super-
ordinate, and general word. In repetition, the writer repeats words to make a text
cohesive. On the contrary, to avoid repetition, the writer uses synonyms or near
synonyms, super-ordinates and general words. Super-ordinate and general word
occur when writer uses words conveying a more general meaning than meaning of
13

the ones previously mentioned (eg. pneumonia and illness; steamed buns and
things)
Collocation:
Collocation includes all those items that are semantically related or belong to a
semantic field in a particular text. There is no limit to the items that can be used to
express collocation because it is expressed through open rather than closed class
items. Another important point is that some words and phrases that are related in
one text may not be related in another.
While substitution and ellipsis appear more frequently in the spoken
discourse, reference, conjunction, and lexical cohesion are found more frequently in

the written discourse. According to Malki (2009:33) ―The ability to identify these
devices and their referents is quite significant in promoting the reading
comprehension of the students‖. In the vein, Demel (1990: 268) states that ―the
readers‘ ability to link a pronoun with the concept referred to by the author is a
crucial component of the reading process‖.
Many studies on reading comprehension have shown how cohesion is an
important factor in the development of reading. Chapman and Irwin (1986)
indicates that the perception and understanding of cohesion functions can contribute
to improve and promote comprehension in the reading process. Chapman‘s findings
show the readers have actually shown growth in their abilities to perceive cohesive
in texts and even to use it as a strategy to support comprehension. According to
Irwin‘s ones if the level of cohesion in a text is increased, this will promote
wordiness and facilitate the comprehension of a text.
In conclusion, cohesion is a very necessary element to construct a text, thus
if readers realized cohesive devices in the text, they will understand it.
Summary
The chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study. Focus on the
application of discourse analysis in teaching reading, the research has discussed
concepts of reading, reading comprehension, discourse analysis, the approaches
14

(bottom-up, top-down and interactive) to teaching reading comprehension and the
discussions of discourse analysis and the teaching of reading comprehension are
presented. The application of discourse-based approach in teaching reading is the
application of the top-down, bottom-up and interactive process in reading.
However, this study is carried out for the students at the English level of
elementary, its focus is on cohesion in reading texts, so the role of cohesion in
reading comprehension and types of cohesive devices are discussed.

15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the research design including reasons for choosing action
research for the study is discussed. The context of the study, research questions,
participants and instrumentation are presented. The action research procedure are
also presented.
2.1. Research design
2.1.1. Rationale for the use of an action research
Action research had been defined in many different ways. In Tsui‘s

definition (1993) ―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‖.
In another way, Grebhard and Oprandy (1999) state that there are two levels
in an action research: ―At one level, action research is about teachers identifying
and posing problems, as well as addressing issues and concerns related to the
problem. It is about working toward understanding and possibly resolving these
problems by setting goals and creating and initiating a plan of action, as well as
reflecting on the degree to which the plan work. At another level, it can be about
addressing educational practices that go beyond each teacher‘s classroom‖.
According to O'Brien, R. (2001), action research is known by many other
names, including participatory research, collaborative inquiry, emancipatory
research, action learning, and contextual action research, but all are variations on a
theme. Put simply, action research is ―learning by doing‖ - a group of people
identify a problem, do something to resolve it, see how successful their efforts were,
and if not satisfied, try again.
Action research is a form of research which is becoming increasingly
significant in language education. If a teacher is trained to carry out an action
research, he can solve his problems on his own or in collaboration with other
teachers. Furthermore, action research is also for teachers‘ professional
16

developments. He would become a better teacher because he knows how to find
out and solve his problems in teaching scientifically on his own
Anders (1998), Curtus (1988) and Tsui ( 1993) give three reasons why a
teacher needs action research:
- to solve own problem in scientific process
- to adapt theory to practice
- to share the results of action research with other teachers.
In brief, action research is a kind of scientific research which is undertaken

in a school setting by a teacher or an educator to search for solutions to everyday,
practical problems experienced in schools, or looking for ways to improve
instruction and increase student achievement. The solutions which are found out are
often practical and useful for teachers and educators. From the definitions of action
research and the reasons for carrying out an action research, I find that action
research is the best for me to apply discourse based-approach to teaching reading
comprehension for the purpose of improving reading situation at Thanh Hoa
Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism.
2.1.2. Steps for action research
To carry out an action research in a language classroom. Researchers suggest
following steps.
Susman, Gerald (1983) gives a somewhat more elaborate listing. He
distinguishes five phases to be conducted within each research cycle. Initially, a
problem is identified and data is collected for a more detailed diagnosis. This is
followed by a collective postulation of several possible solutions, from which a
single plan of action emerges and is implemented. Data on the results of the
intervention are collected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of
how successful the action has been. At this point, the problem is re-assessed and the
process begins another cycle. This process continues until the problem is resolved.
Tsui (1993) suggests five steps in conducting action research:
Step 1: Identifying problems you wish to solve or an area you wish to improve by:
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- reviewing an audio- or a video- taped lesson and the transcription of a
segment of the lesson that illustrates the problem.
- Conducting a survey to hear from your students.
Step 2: Finding causes of the problem by:
- consulting with your colleagues, trainers.
- reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions.
Step 3: Designing strategies for improvement (plan for action) and writing a

proposal for action research.
Step 4: Trying out the strategies (action) and keeping a diary of what happened in
the class.
Step 5: Evaluating the try-out by:
- reviewing a lesson (taped at the end of the try-out period) that illustrated the
change that have been made.
- Reflecting on the reasons for those changes (which could include things that
have been improved or that have been gotten worse).
- Carrying out a survey to get information from students.
Nunan (1992) suggested seven steps of action research as follows:
- Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)
- Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)
- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)
- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)
- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the
findings)
- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshop or issuing a
paper)
- Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)
In short, the action research design is useful and practical for the researcher. The
researchers have discussed different steps in an action research. This study follows
seven steps of action research suggested by Nunan (1992).
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2.2. The context of teaching and learning reading comprehension at Thanh
Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism.
Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism is established on the
basis of upgrading Internal Trade Vocational School founded in 1975. The School is
responsible for training professionals in tourism and commerce with vocational
primary and intermediate level in Thanh Hoa province.

English has been made compulsory in the curriculum of our School,
according to the framework defined by Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social
Affairs. In the curriculum, 60 class hours are dedicated to basic (general) English,
and 270 class hours to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). There are three text
books, they are basic English in 2008, English for chef written in 2008 and English
for tourism staff in 2012 edited by the teachers in Thanh Hoa Vocational school of
Commerce-Tourism and ―New Headway (Elementary)‖ (Liz & John Soars, 2000) .
Basic English and English for chef aims at developing four skills: listening,
speaking, reading and writing, English for chef is only used for students of culinary
degree. English for tourism staff is used for all majors in School such as English for
restaurant staff, hotel staff and chef. This book is mainly focuses on speaking, so it
is difficult for teachers to develop all skills for students.
In Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism, there are totally 7
teachers of English aged from 27 to 38, who graduated from many different
universities such as VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Vinh
University and Hong Duc University; all of them are female. They are enthusiastic
with their career, some of them are so young and have at least 3 years experienced
in English teaching.
Students are from all districts in Thanh Hoa. They are students who did not
pass the entrance exams to university, so they applied for this school. Most of them
are studying cooking major; they think that English is not necessary for their job in
their future, so they do not care to learn English and their English level is low
although they have learnt English for seven years since they were in secondary
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school and high school. For these reasons, the teachers have many difficulties in
teaching English, especially reading skills.
While teaching reading part, the teachers always write new words or
structures on the blackboard and they give Vietnamese meaning of every word
without any requirement for the students‘ prediction or guessing from context.

Next, they read aloud and ask the students to listen and repeat. Then, they order the
students read the text for the first time, in order to find other words or structures still
unfamiliar to them. After that, the teachers ask the students to read again to do
exercises given at the end of the reading text. Finally, the teachers or they require
the students to translate the text from English into Vietnamese. For students‘
English level as mentioned above and the teachers have not applied reasonable
methods, teaching and learning reading comprehension have still been ineffective.
2.3. Research questions
This paper was aimed at studying the effectiveness of the application of
discourse-based approach in teaching reading skill to improve the effectiveness of
teaching and learning reading at Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-
Tourism. Thus it was designed to seek answers to the following questions:
Question 1: To what extent does the application of a discourse-based approach
change the attitude of students at Thanh Hoa Vocational school of Commerce-
Tourism toward leaning reading skill?
Question 2: To what extent does the application of a discourse-based approach help
students at Thanh Hoa Vocational school of Commerce-Tourism to read better?
2.4. Participants
To achieve the aims of the thesis and answers to the above research
questions, the participants of the study consists of 35 first-year students of cooking
technique major from the same class and two English teachers as observers and a
teacher of the course in Thanh Hoa Vocational School of Commerce-Tourism.
Thirty students were male and five students were female aged between 18
and 21. All of them have learnt English for seven years since secondary school.