Improving Students’ reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers at Military Medical University An Action Research = Nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu củ

Vietnam national university, Hanoi
University of Languages and international studies
faculty of Post-graduate Studies




KIỀU THỊ VÂN



IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH
THE USE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AT MILITARY MEDICAL
UNIVERSITY: AN ACTION RESEARCH
(Nâng cao k năng đọ c hiể u của sinh viên bằ ng phương php sử dụ ng công cụ
bng biể u tại Hc Viện Quân Y – Nghiên cứu hành động)
MA. MINOR THESIS



Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10




Hanoi, 2011
Vietnam national university, Hanoi
University of Languages and international studies
faculty of Post-graduate Studies

KIỀU THỊ VÂN


IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH
THE USE OF GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS AT MILITARY MEDICAL
UNIVERSITY: AN ACTION RESEARCH
(Nâng cao k năng đọ c hiể u của sinh viên bằ ng phương php sử dụ ng công cụ
bng biể u tại Hc Viện Quân Y – Nghiên cứu hành động)
MA. MINOR THESIS



Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Cohort: MA 18
Supervisor: Lương Quỳnh Trang, M.A



Hanoi, 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i
Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii
Table of content iv
List of Abbreviations vii
List of figures viii
List of tables ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Research questions 2
3. Methods of the study 2
4. Research procedure 2
5. Scope of the Study 3
6. Significance of the study 3
7. Design of the study 4
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1. 1. Action research 5
1. 1. 1. What is action research? 5
1. 1. 2. Why does a teacher need action research? 5
1. 1. 3. How does a teacher perform action research in a language classroom? 6
1. 1. 4. Summary 6
1. 2. Reading 7
1. 2. 1.What is Reading? 7
1. 2 .2. What is Reading Comprehension? 7
1. 2. 3. Reading Comprehension Process 8
1. 2. 3. 1. The Schema Theory 8
1. 2. 3. 2. Bottom – up and Top-down processing 8
1. 2. 3. 3. Interactive Processing 9
1. 2. 4. An Overview of ESP 9
1. 2. 4. 1. What is ESP? 9
1. 2. 4. 2. English in Medicine 10

1. 2. 5. Approaches to Teach Reading 10
1. 2. 5. 1. Grammar – Translation Approach 10
1.2.5. 2. Communicative Language Teaching Approach 11
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1. 2. 5. 2. 1. Content-Based approach 11
1. 2. 5. 2. 2. Task-Based approach 12
1. 2. 6. Techniques to teach EE reading 12
1. 2. 6. 1. In Pre-reading 12
1. 2. 6. 2. In While-reading 13
1. 2. 6. 3. In Post-reading 13
1. 2. 7. Reading Comprehension Levels 13
1. 3. Graphic organizers 14
1. 3. 1. Definition of Graphic Organizers 14
1. 3. 2. Roles of Graphic Organizers 14
1. 3. 3. Types of graphic organizers employed in the research 15
1. 3. 3. 1. Mind maps 15
1. 3. 3. 2. The KWL 15
1. 3. 3. 3. Venn Diagram 15
1. 3. 3. 4. The “5 W’s” 15
1. 4. Previous studies 15
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 17
2. 1. Setting and participants 17
2. 2. Stages of the action research 18
2.2.1. PRE – IMPROVEMENT STAGE 18
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM 18
2. 2. 1. 1. Conducting a survey to get information from students 18
2. 2. 1. 2. Employing reading pre-test to evaluate students’ reading levels 18
STEP 2: FINDING CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM 19

2. 2.1 3. Reading professional books and journals for ideas or suggestions 19
2. 2. 1. 3. 1. English language learners (ELL) 19
2. 2. 1.3. 2. Factors Influencing Comprehension 20
2. 2. 2. TRY – OUT STAGE 20
STEP 3: DESIGNING STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVEMENT 20
2. 2. 2. 1. Using a mind map 20
2.2. 2. 2. Using the KWL 20
2. 2. 2. 3. Using the 5 W’s 21
2. 2. 2. 4. Using Venn diagram 21
STEP 4: TRYING – OUT STRATEGIES 21
2. 2. 3. POST – IMPROVEMENT STAGE 23
STEP 5: EVALUATING THE TRY – OUT 23
2. 2. 3. 1. Using Final Questionnaire to collect data 23
2. 2. 3. 2. Employing reading post – test to evaluate students’ reading levels 23
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CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 24
3. 1. Results of Student Questionnaire 24
3. 1. 1. The results of the Initial Student Questionnaire 24
3. 1. 2. The results of the Final Student Questionnaire 28
3. 2. Results of the DRA 32
3. 2. 1. Result of Initial DRA 32
3. 2. 2. Result of Final DRA 32
CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS FOR READING TEACHING 34
4. 1. Summary and discussion of the main findings 34
4. 2. Implications for more effective reading lessons 36
PART C: CONCLUSION 38
1. Conclusion 38
2. Limitations of the Study 38

3. Suggestions for further Research 38
References 39
Appendices X
The Sample Lesson Plans XXI


vii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

DRA Developmental Reading Assessment
EM: English in Medicine
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
MMU: Military Medical University
L: Level
SLP: Sample Lesson Plan

viii


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Initial Questionnaire: Question 1 results
Figure 2:Initial questionnaire: Question 2 results
Figure 3:Initial questionnaire: Question 3 results
Figure 4:Initial questionnaire: Question 4 results
Figure 5:Initial questionnaire: Question 5 results
Figure 6:Initial questionnaire: Question 6 results
Figure 7:Initial questionnaire: Question 7 results
Figure 8:Final questionnaire: Question 1 results
Figure 9:Final questionnaire: Question 2 results
Figure 10:Final questionnaire: Question 3 results
Figure 11:Final questionnaire: Question 4 results
Figure 12:Final questionnaire: Question 5 results
Figure 13:Final questionnaire: Question 6 results
Figure 14:Final questionnaire: Question 7 results
Figure 15: Reading Comprehension Levels

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Initial Student DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) scores
Table 2: Final Student DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) scores












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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale.
In teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Viet Nam, reading seems
to be the most important and useful activity in any language class, especially for the
students of English as a foreign language. Of the four language skills, reading has always
received a great deal of attention, which is emphasized by Carrell (1981: p1) that “For

many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills in a second
language, particularly in English as a second teaching of foreign language”. In fact,
reading is considered an indispensable tool for academic study and career advancement.
And it is quite true to the case of Military Medical University, where the author is
teaching.
Reading comprehension is crucial to a student’s success at school and further to
becoming to a lifelong learner. However, many students at Military Medical Academy
are struggling with reading comprehension. They find it difficult to catch the main ideas
of the text, to distinguish facts and details, and to retain information longer. Basically,
they are at literal reading comprehension level. Therefore, they often fail to catch the
author’s thought.
From this fact, as a teacher of English, the author herself thinks that it is essential to
find something new to improve her students’ reading comprehension level so that they
can improve their reading comprehension. As a result, the author decided to carry out the
entitled study: “Improving students’ reading comprehension through the use of
graphic organizers”. The purpose of the study is to find out if graphic organizers can
help students read more effectively.
The author of this research chose to carry out the action research to find out how
much graphic organizers affected the students’ reading comprehension. Based on the
results of this action research, some changes and improvement were applied in the
author’s lessons, and some appropriate strategies needed to be designed with the hope
that the students would work more effectively in a reading lesson.

2. Research questions
1. How much does the use of graphic organizers provide in developing the reading
comprehension skill for students?
2. How does the use of graphic organizers affect the students’ reading
comprehension levels?

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3. Methods of the study
This action research study used qualitative and quantitative research methods. The
goal of this study is to determine whether the examined techniques and strategies used to
enhance students’ comprehension skills would have a positive affect on the ability of
students to make sense of what they read.
Students would be able to build their comprehension skills of written material
because of the exposure to and practice of the graphic organizers strategy. Using these
strategies would be increasingly beneficial to students as time goes on and they become
comfortable and accustomed to applying them to their reading activities. Allowing the
students to apply these strategies to ESP texts would assist them in recognizing how the
strategies could be flexible in helping them to gather an understanding of any genre of
text for any comprehension skill.
For this action research project the author used two kinds of data collection
instruments to gather information about the students involved, monitor the progress of the
students when they applied the strategies throughout the research, and determine the
effectiveness of the strategies based on the pre-tests and post-tests.
DRA is an assessment in which the students are given a passage to read and answer
comprehension questions based on the reading. Comprehension is the most important
thing tested during this assessment. This test was used to get a baseline comprehension
score for the students.
The pre-tests were necessary to assess the reading comprehension level and skills
the students possessed before the intervention of the strategy and used as a baseline score.
The post-tests were used to determine the effectiveness of the strategy used by the
students during the research process by comparing the pre-test scores to the ones taken at
the end of the six practice reading lessons.
The questionnaire was a useful way of gaining insight on the feelings the students
have toward reading before exposure to the reading strategies and how those feelings
were altered if any after exposure to the strategies.
Each of these tools was extremely useful in determining the effectiveness of the

strategies being examined in this research project.
4. Research procedure
This action research consists of three main stages: Pre – improvement stage, Try –
out stage and Post – improvement stage
Stage 1: Pre - improvement

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Step 1: Identify the problem which was desired to solve or an area which was wished to
improve by:
- Conducting a survey to get information from students
+ Initial Questionnaire
+ Pre – test DRA assessment
Step 2: Finding causes of the problem by:
- Reading professional books/ journals for ideas and suggestions
+ English language learners (ELL)
+ Factors Influencing Comprehension
Stage 2: Trying – out stage
Step 3: Designing strategies for improvements (plan for action)
Step 4: Trying – out the strategies (action) and making records of what happened in class.
Stage 3: Post – improvement
Step 5: Evaluating the try – out by
- Carrying out a survey to get information from the students
+ Final Questionnaire Results
+ Final Student DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) levels

5. Scope of the study
This study was carried out with sixteen 43th grade students at Military Medical
University in Hanoi. The research focuses on how graphic organizers affect these students’
reading comprehension in ESP reading lessons.

6. Significance of the study
Many factors influence students’ abilities to answer comprehension questions
including poor decoding skills, an undeveloped vocabulary, and the inability to make a
connection with prior knowledge. When teachers only focus on building students’ decoding
and fluency skills, they are contributing to students’ comprehension problems. In order to
support students to gain the necessary skills to make them successful readers, they must
develop good vocabulary skills and use their prior background knowledge (Albers & Foil,
2003, p. 22). The unfortunate reality is that those students who have difficulty
comprehending text are often lacking the knowledge of reading comprehension strategies
that could aid them in doing so. Using reading strategies as a central part of the author’s
instruction can make a profound difference in the comprehension skills that students gain
from their time in the classroom. Knowing what strategies are most beneficial to the students

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can help teachers immensely. As a teacher, the author certainly wants to make the most of
the time she has with students in the classroom. Being able to pinpoint the most effective
ways to reach students and to assist them in comprehending and retaining the information
will allow researcher more time to concentrate on making those strategies work and thus,
improve teacher’s instructional practices.
The results of this study would possibly assist other teachers and educators in knowing
how the strategies used in this research project may affect their students’ reading
comprehension skills. Based on findings of the study, these strategies could be extremely
beneficial to classroom instruction.
7. Design of the study
The research consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the research questions, the method of
study, the research procedure, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the
design of the study.
Part B: Development. In this part, four chapters are presented.

Chapter 1 deals with an exploration of the theoretical background of the research. It is
concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: reading and reading
comprehension, an overview of English for Specific Purpose and English in Electronics,
approaches and techniques to teach reading EE.
Chapter 2 is the methodology. This chapter presents the background information of the
subjects of the study, the instrument used to collect the data, the procedure of data collection
and the procedure of data analysis.
Chapter 3 is aimed at describing data analysis in detail and a thorough discussion of
the findings of the study. Some explanations and interpretations of the findings are also
presented in this chapter.
Chapter 4 gives the summary of the findings and some implications which are
proposed for teachers teaching EM reading in particular and ESP reading in general.
Part C: Conclusion presents briefly the answers to the research questions, the
limitations and some recommendations for further research are also explored.
The appendices lie at the end of the study, following the References.





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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW

1. 1. ACTION RESEARCH
1. 1. 1. What is action research?
As stated by Grebhard (1999), the concept of action research emerged from the work
of Lewin (1948, 1952). He was a social psychologist who brought together experimental

approaches to social – science research and the idea of “social action” to address social
issues. Corey (1952, 1953), a Columbia University Professor, was among the first to employ
action research in the field of education. He argued that formal research following a
scientific method had little impact on educational practice. Through action research, he
claimed, changes in educational practice were possible.
In term of what action research was, having considered what it was not, action research
had been defined in many different ways. According to Wallace (1998), action research is
“the systematic collection and analysis of data relating to the improvement of some aspect of
professional practice” (p. 227). Tsui’s definition, however, was more detailed and simpler:
“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” (Tsui, 1993). In another way,
action research was mentioned at two levels by Grebhard and Oprandy (1999):
“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, initiating a plan of actions, 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”.
Also, Wisker stated that “action research is research that we carry out with our students
in order to try out an idea or an innovation, test a hypothesis about their learning and to see
what would happen if …”(p. 156).
In short, action research is a sort of scientific study which is often conducted by a
teacher or an educator in order to work out the difficulties which are associated to all actions
and activities in a classroom. The problems which are resolved by action research are often
empirical and helpful.
1. 1. 2. Why does a teacher need action research?
As stated by Mettetal, “classroom action research is research designed to help a teacher
find out what is happening in and his or her classroom, and to use that information to make

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wise decisions for the future” (2001, p. 7). Action research at schools colleges or universities
work out every day realistic problems experienced by teachers, rather than the “theoretical
problems” defined by non – teaching researchers.
Action research in education focuses on the three related stages of action:
1. Initiating action, such as, adopting a text, choosing an alternative assessment
strategy.
2. Monitoring and adjusting, such as, seeing how a pilot project is proceeding,
assessing the early progress of new programme, improving a current practice.
3. Evaluating action, such as, preparing a final report on a completed project”
(Sagor, 1992)
Three causes are given for the teacher’s need of action research by Anders (1988),
Curtis (1988) and Tsui (1993); (1) to resolve own problems in scientific process and better
own practice; (2) to adapt theory (finding of conventional research) to rehearse (own
problems); and (3) to share the results of action research with other teachers.
1. 1. 3. How does a teacher perform action research in a language classroom?
Tsui (1993) has proposed 5 steps in carrying out action research:
Step1: Identifying problems you desire to solve or an area you wish to enhance by:
- Running a survey to hear from your students
- Reviewing an audio – or a video – taped lesson and the transcription of a segment of
the lesson that illustrates the problem.
Step 2: Finding causes of the problems 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 that illustrated the changes that have been made
- reflecting on the reasons for those changes
- carrying out a survey to get information from students

1. 1. 3. Summary
Action research is a sort of scientific study conducted by teachers which solve the
realistic difficulties in a classroom. The teachers need action research to adapt theory to
practice. Action research can be carried out in collaboration with other teachers or educators

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and it needs the supports from both students and education administrators. Its results should
be popularized and shared with anybody who is interested in.
1. 2. READING
1. 2. 1. What is Reading?
Reading is known as an interactive process that connected the reader with the text,
making comprehension. The text displays letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that
express meaning. The reader manipulates knowledge, skills, and strategies to decide what
that meaning is. Up to now reading has been described differently by lots of academics.
Goodman (1971, p.135) declared that “reading is a psycholinguistics process by which
the reader, language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded
by a writer as a graphic display”. From his point of view, readers not only gain knowledge or
skills of how to read the text, to better grammatical structures…but also realize the content
expressed in the text.
According to William, (1990, p.2) “reading is a process whereby one looks at and
understands what has been written”. In his opinion, in the reading process, there are two
activities taking place at the same time: looking and understanding. Therefore, readers have
to “encode” meanings of a word decided by the context in which it is shown.
Also, Harmer (1989, p.153) shares his ideas “reading is an exercise dominated by the
eyes and the brain. The eyes receive messages and the brain then has to work out the
significance of these messages”.
Hence, clearly, ideas of reading have been diverse in exploiting words and expressions
but they all focus on two actions: studying with eyes and comprehending with brains of
which the latter is more significant. The most obvious thing in the latter is that the readers

not only look at and understand the meaning of what is written but also read authors’
thinking.
1. 2. 2. What is Reading Comprehension?
Grellet (1981: p 3) has considered reading comprehension or “understanding a written
text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible”. Swan
(1975:1) also shared “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read accurately and
efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the maximum of
understanding”. In the same view, Richard and Thomas (1987: p 9) have pointed out
“reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the
reader”. Though these opinions are not exactly the same, they all show that reading

8

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.
In brief, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading
comprehension can appreciate how much readers get the text. Therefore, how to aid students
in having efficient reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most powerful
task in teaching reading.
1. 2. 3. Reading Comprehension Process
The nature of reading comprehension process – how people learn to process textual
information – has been researched by cognitive and behavioral scientists for many decades.
So far reading has sometimes been characterized as “passive” or “receptive”.
1. 2. 3. 1. The Schema Theory
According to Nunan (1999, p.201), “schema theory is based on the notion that
experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help us make sense of new
experiences.”
The schemata are recognized as a useful concept in understanding how we are able to
interpret texts. When a reader reads a text, he must use his own background knowledge, the
situational context and the cues provided by the author to interpret the text. How much he

can understand a text depends on whether his schemata are sufficiently similar to the
writer’s. That is why many arguments suggest that the concepts which a reader brings to the
text are actually more important than the text itself for comprehension. Therefore, the more
experiences of the world we have, the better we can interpret texts. A reader who is rich in
background knowledge will comprehend the text more than another whose schemata are
poorer. In addition, the schemata enable the reader to predict about what she might get from
a certain context.
To sum up, it is essential for teachers to recognize that the schemata are the basis for
comprehending. Therefore, in order to comprehend texts in Standard English foreign
language students need to develop new schemata of language, text and interpretation, as well
as schemata of alternative cultural practices and values.
1. 2. 3. 2. Bottom – up and Top-down processing
According to Silberstein (1994), “text comprehension requires the simultaneous
interaction of two models of information processing”.
The bottom – up processing occurs when readers get the meaning of a text through
recognizing letters and words, working out sentence structures and then interpreting
paragraphs and the whole text. According to this view, reading is a linear process by which

9

readers decode the text word by word, linking the words into phrases and then sentences.
When first reading makes readers confused or they are not really sure of what writers
intended, understanding the meaning a sentence can have on its own will help readers fully
grasp what writers conveyed.
In the top – down processing, reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a
process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge readers bring to the act of
reading. Reading, in this sense, is a dialogue between the reader and the text. It is seen as an
active cognitive process in which readers’ background knowledge plays a key role in the
creation of meaning (Tierney & Pearson, 1994). This is called knowledge-based or
conceptually driven information processing.

In short, there are two ways that readers can use to deal with a text: using the bottom –
up processing to get detailed understanding of the text and using the top-down to understand
main ideas about the text. Readers may use one of the two ways to comprehend texts,
however, readers usually need both of them to deal with difficult texts. As a result, this leads
to interactive processing.
1. 2. 3. 3. Interactive Processing
It is known that no single method is the best. A successful reader should combine top –
down and bottom – up processing, which is called interactive reading:
“In practice, a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, now adopting a top
– down approach to predict probable meaning, then moving to the bottom – up approach to
check whether that is really what the writer says” (Nuttal, 1996, p. 17).
According to Hayes (1996, p.7), “in interactive models, different processes are thought
to be responsible for providing information that is share with other processes. The
information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most
appropriate interpretation of the printed pages”.
In short, the popularity of interactive processes shows that interactive processing can
maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the bottom – up and top – down
processing.
1. 2. 4. An Overview of ESP
1. 2. 4. 1. What is ESP?
ESP originates from a famous saying “Tell me what you need English for and I will
tell you the English that you need”. So far, ESP has been defined differently by different
authors. According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p.19), ESP is “an approach to language

10

teaching in which all decisions as to content and approach are based on the learner’s reason
for learning”.
Sharing with Hutchinson and Waters, Strevens (1988, p.1) said “ESP is a particular
case of the general category of special – purpose language teaching”.

However, all the above authors have the same opinions about the ESP’s features:
1) It is purposeful and aimed at the successful performance of occupational or
educational roles by an individual or a group.
2) It is based on an analysis of the students’ needs and is tailor-made to meet these
needs.
3) It may differ from another general language course in its selection of skills, themes,
topics, situations, functions, language and approachology.
Most of all, according to Munby (1978), one important feature which characterizes
ESP as being different from other general language courses is that “the domains not only
relate to distinctive content, but also to discipline-specific lexis, genres and registers.”
1. 2. 4. 2. English in Medicine
Traditionally, ESP can be classified into two major groups: English for Academic
Purposes (EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). English for Academic
Science belongs to EAP and English in Medicine is one of the branches of English for
Academic Science. Therefore, EM has the following characteristics:
1) designed to meet specified needs of the learner in the field of Medicine;
2) related in content (that is in its themes and topics) to medicine disciplines,
occupations and activities;
3) centered on language appropriate to Medicine activities in syntax, lexis discourse,
semantics and so on, and analysis of the discourse;
1. 2. 5. Approaches to teach Reading
In fact, there are quite a lot of approaches of teaching general English reading in
general and ESP reading in particular. However, in this study, I would like to mention about
two approaches which are most commonly used in teaching ESP reading: Grammar –
Translation approach and Communicative Language Teaching approach.
1. 2. 5. 1. Grammar – Translation Approach
The Grammar Translation Approach is the oldest approach of teaching in the world. A
number of approaches and techniques have been evolved for the teaching of English and also
other foreign languages in the recent past years, yet this approach is still in use in teaching.

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The main principles on which the Grammar Translation Approach are based are the
following:
1. Translation interprets the words and phrases of the foreign languages in the best
possible manner.
2. The phraseology and the idiom of the target language can best be assimilated in the
process of interpretation.
3. The structures of the foreign languages are best learned when compared and
contrast with those of mother tongue.
Advantages:
1. The phraseology of the target language is quickly explained. Translation is the
easiest way of explaining meanings or words and phrases from one language into another.
2. Teachers’ labor is saved when they use their mother tongue in teaching and learners
will not have much difficulty in responding to questions in the mother tongue.
Disadvantages:
1. Exact translation is not possible. Translation a language with various customs,
traditions and modes of behavior is, indeed, a difficult task and exact translation from one
language to another is not always possible.
2. Translation does not give pattern practice. It rather attempts to teach language
through rules and not by use. Researchers in linguistics have proved that to speak any
language, whether native or foreign, entirely by rule is quite impossible.
1. 2. 5. 2. Communicative Language Teaching Approach
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) dated from the late 1960s is perhaps the
latest in a long succession of revolutions in language teaching since it presents a fundamental
“paradigm shift” – a radically new approach to teaching-learning process (Christina, 1984).
In terms of ESP reading teaching, CLT is most used with two approaches: Content – based
teaching and Task-based teaching
1. 2. 5. 2. 1. Content-Based
Brown (2001, p.234) has stated that “content-based language teaching integrates the

learning of some specific subject-matter content with the learning of a second language”.
He has also claimed that the overall structure of a content-based curriculum “is
dictated by nature of the subject matter than by language forms and sequences. Hereafter are
some advantages and disadvantage of this approach:
Advantages:
1. Language learning is contextualized and purposeful.

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2. The content-based approach motivates learners’ activeness. Learners are forced to
think and activate their knowledge to guess the terms as well as the whole content of one
text.
Disadvantages:
The content-based approach is difficult to apply especially for learners who are low
in English competence. Furthermore, learners who use this approach to read ESP materials
have certain knowledge about that specific field.
1. 2. 5. 2. 2. Task-based approach
According to Brown (2001, p.50), task-based learning “puts task at the center of one’s
methodological focus”. It views the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are
directly linked to the curricular goals they serve…”
In reading comprehension, tasks are especially important since they will guide the
readers in a correct reading procedure and help them have thorough understanding of reading
texts.
Advantages:
1. Task-based learning is more student-centered, allows for more meaningful
communication, and often provides for practical extra-linguistic skill building.
2. Tasks are likely to be familiar to students who are more likely to be engaged, which
may further motivate them in their language learning.
Disadvantages:
There have been criticisms that task-based learning is not appropriate as the foundation

of a class for beginning students. Others claim that students are only exposed to certain
forms of language and are being neglected of others such as discussion or debate.
1. 2. 6. Techniques to teach EM reading
1. 2. 6. 1. In Pre-reading
At this important stage, teachers should make sure that students have the relevant
schema for understanding the text. This is achieved by having students think, write, and
discuss everything they know about the topic, employing the most common techniques such
as prediction, semantic mapping and reconciled reading.
Prediction is defined as “the prior elimination of unlikely alternatives” (Smith, 1994,
p. 19). According to him, predictions are questions readers ask the world and comprehension
is receiving the answers.
Previewing occurs when students look at titles, headings, and pictures, and read the
first few paragraphs and the last paragraph; these activities can then help students understand

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what texts are about by activating their formal and content schemata and making them be
familiar with the topic before they begin reading.
Semantic mapping is another pre-reading technique that Carell, Pharis and Liberto
(1989, p.651) describe as a useful way to pre-teach vocabulary and to “provide the teacher
with an assessment of the students’ prior knowledge or schema availability on the topic”.
This activity asks students to brainstorm about the reading topic as the information is
displayed on a graphic “map”.
Reconciled reading lesson reverses the sequence presented by many textbooks where
the text is followed by questions. Instead, the teacher develops pre-reading questions from
the questions that appear at the end of the reading.
1. 2. 6. 2. In While-reading
This stage requires teachers to guide and monitor the interaction between readers and
texts. One important skill teachers can impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows
students to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to

summarize information and record their reactions and opinion.
Furthermore, during reading, readers’ minds repeatedly engage in a variety of
processes, seemingly all at one. Using top-down and bottom-up approaches, readers use pre-
reading information to make some predictions about the text. Using bottom-up approach,
readers start by processing information at the sentence level.
1. 2. 6. 3. In Post-reading
This stage offers the chance to evaluate students’ adequacy of interpretation, while
bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that “readership” must be respected as long as
the writer’s intentions are addressed (Tierney & Pearson, 1994).
Post-reading aims at extending the understanding obtained from the pre-reading and
while-reading stages into writing tasks, such as summarizing, evaluating, synthesizing,
commenting and reflecting.
By engaging students in pre-, while-, post-reading activities, teachers not only support
students’ understanding of content but also provide them with opportunities to hone their
comprehension, vocabulary, and study skills without interrupting content learning.
1. 2. 7. Reading Comprehension Levels
According to the Barrett Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Dimensions of
Reading Comprehension, there are five reading comprehension levels as illustrated below:


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Figure 15: Reading Comprehension Levels

1. 3. GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
1. 3. 1. Definition of graphic organizers
Bromley, Vitis, and Modlo (1995, p.6) defined “A graphic organizer is a visual
representation of knowledge. It is a way of structuring information, of arranging important
aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using labels”.
Sharing the same ideas, Amin (2004, p.3) claimed that “A graphic organizer is a visual
and graphic display that depicts the relationships between facts, items, and ideas within a
learning task”.
Graphic organizers are a great way to improve reading comprehension. Basically, these
tools are visual versions of outlines. They help readers organize information so that it
becomes more understandable and more memorable.
1. 3. 2. Roles of graphic organizers
Bromley, Vitis, and Modlo (1995, p.66) has outlined four benefits from using graphic
organizers. They are:
- Improving comprehension skills and strategies.
- Facilitating the recalling or retelling of literature.
- Connecting prior knowledge and new knowledge for students.
- Easing the organization and direction of students writing.
Ruffini (2008, p.57) also shared some advantages of using graphic organizers to
reading comprehension as:
- Aiding learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge
- Generating ideas through brainstorming
Literal
Comprehension (L1)
Reorganization (L2)

Inferential
Comprehension (L3)

Evaluation (L4)

Appreciation (L5)
Critique, appraise, comment, and
appreciate
analyze, appraise, evaluate, justify, reason, criticize, judge
predict, infer, guess
classify, regroup, rearrange, assemble, collect,
categorize
label, list, name, recall, repeat, state

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- Assessing understanding or diagnosing misunderstanding
- Increasing recall
- Designing a complex structure
- Communicating and understanding complex relationships.
1. 3. 3. Types of graphic organizers employed in the research
1. 3. 3. 1. Mind maps
A mind map is a kind of graphic organizers, it is a diagram used to represent words,
ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind
maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying
and organizing information (see appendix C).
1. 3. 3. 2. The KWL
KWL charts assist teachers in activating students' prior knowledge of a subject or topic
and encourage inquisition, active reading, and research. KWL charts are especially helpful as
a pre-reading strategy when reading expository text and may also serve as an assessment of

what students have learned during a unit of study. The K stands for what students know, the
W stands for what students want to learn, and the L stands for what the students learn as they
read or research (see appendix D).
1. 3. 3. 3. Venn diagram
A Venn diagram is an illustration of the relationships between and among sets, groups
of objects that share something in common. Usually, Venn diagrams are used to depict set
intersections (see appendix E). This activity will sharpen students’ skills for comparison and
contrast between or among things
1. 3. 3. 4. The “5 W’s”
Five W's diagrams are a type of graphic organizer that let the student think about and
list the "Who, When, Where, What, and Why" of a story or event in a simple visual way (see
appendix F). This activity will help students understand of what they have read, and they can
see the relationship between all the information.
1. 4. Previous studies
There are some previous studies related to this study such as the study of Kim,
Vaughn, Wanzek, & Wei, (2004) and the study of Natalie (2001). Both of them dealt with
the use of graphic organizers in reading lessons. Kim, Vaughn, Wanzek, & Wei, (2004)
aimed at finding out if whether or not graphic organizers would have positive effects on
reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities. His findings showed that
semantic organizers, cognitive maps with a mnemonic and framed outlines were all found to

16

be highly effective in improving reading comprehension. Cognitive maps without a
mnemonic were found to be moderately effective. Besides, graphic organizers were effective
regardless of whether they were implemented by teachers or researchers. Also, students
ranging in age from elementary to high school all benefited significantly from using graphic
organizers.
Natalie (2001) studied of “The effects of Graphic Organizers on the Post-Reading
Comprehension of Students in a Collaborative Team Teaching Setting”. The purpose of the

study is to find out if the use of a graphic organizer would have an effect on reading
comprehension. The finding was shown that “5 W’s” had a positive effect on reading
comprehension.
Summary chapter
This chapter has presented the issues relating to teaching reading in terms of the role of
reading in foreign language learning with both positive and negative points. Some
approaches to teach reading have been presented. In addition, the chapter reviews some
theoretical issues of graphic organizers that were employed to improve students’ reading
comprehension ability. The next chapter presents the research methodology employed in the
study.









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CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the setting and participants of the study. Besides, methods of the
study would be described clearly following three stages of the action research: Pre –
improvement stage, Trying – out stage and Post – improvement stage.
2. 1. Setting and Participants
The study was conducted at the Department of foreign languages at MMU. MMU,
formerly the Graduate School of Military Medicine in Vietnam, was established on October
the 3

rd
,1949 under the Ministry of Defense.
English is a non-major subject so it is considered as a basic subject and taught for two
years of the six – year training course for students at MMU. Students learn English in four
terms. For three first ones, each includes 60 periods for basic communicative English with
the Lifelines Elementary and Lifelines Pre - intermediate textbooks and the fourth with 60
periods for ESP using the textbook “New English in Medicine”.
Most students in the MMU are generally and at elementary level. They learned English
for at least three years at high school but this subject was not carefully taken into their
consideration. In their opinion, learning English means learning grammar and structures. All
these explain why learners get shocked when facing English oral exams at university.
Students are surprised when they have to read long reading texts in class and then in the
exams. Some students can easily adapt to the new ways of learning, but most of them face
challenges.
Another reason for students’ difficulty in succeeding in English reading classes is their
low awareness of the importance of this subject. Numerous learners do not think English is
necessary for their future job, and others learn the language only to pass the examinations.
They have not realized that English, an international language, can be the golden key to their
career.
The subjects chosen for the research were 16 grade 43
th
non – major English students
in the Military training course of Military Medical University. All of them were male
students that came from different parts of the country. They ranged in the age from 20 to 22.
All participants in this study volunteered to participate in the study. The research was carried
out at the end of second term of the academic year 2010 – 2011 at Military Medical
University.