The reality of teaching and learning reading for non-English majors at Banking Academy- Son Tay Training Center = Nghiên cứu thực trạng của việc dạy và học đọc

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
****************

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING
ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER
( Nghiên cứu thực trạng của việc dạy và học đọc đối với hệ học tiếng
Anh không chuyên tại Học viện Ngân hàng- Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây )
M.A Minor Thesis



Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10



Hanoi - 2011

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
****************

NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MINH

THE REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

READING FOR NON-ENGLISH MAJORS AT BANKING
ACADEMY-SON TAY TRAINING CENTER
( Nghiên cứu thực trạng của việc dạy và học đọc đối với hệ học tiếng
Anh không chuyên tại Học viện Ngân hàng - Cơ sở đào tạo Sơn Tây )
M.A Minor Thesis



Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Vũ Thị Thu Thuỷ,M.A

Hanoi - 2011

iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BA-STC: Banking Academy- Son Tay training center
FL: Foreign language
EFL: English as a foreign language
L1: the first language
L2: The second language


v
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1.1: The three Definitions of Reading by Weaver (1994)
6
Table 2.1: The result of how teachers delivered the reading lessons
18
Table 2.2: Teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage

18
Table 2.3: Teachers’ activities at While- reading stage
19
Table 2.4: Teachers’ activities at Post- reading stage
20
Table 2.5: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Pre- reading stage
23
Table 2.6: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at While- reading
stage
24
Table 2.7: Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities at Post- reading
stage
25
Table 2.8: Students’ difficulties in learning reading
26




vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS


Page
Certificate of originality
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ii
Abstract
iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
iv
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
v
Table of Contents
vi
Part A: Introduction
1
1. Background to the study
1
2. Aims of the study
2
3. Research question
3
4. Significance of the study
3
5. Research methodology
3
6. Organization of the study
4
Part B: Development
5
Chapter 1: Literature review
5
1.1. Reading
5
1.1.1. Definitions of reading:
5
1.1.2. The traditional and innovative views of teaching reading
6

1.2. Approaches to teaching reading
8
1.3. Stages of a reading lessons
9
1.3.1. The pre-reading stage
10
1.3.2. The While-reading stage
10
1.3.3. The Post-reading stage
12

vii
1.4. Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning reading
13
1.5. Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension
14
1.5.1. Learning strategies
14
1.5.2. Vocabulary
15
1.5.3. Background knowledge
16
1.5.4. Motivation
16
1.6. Previous studies
17
1.7. Summary
17
Chapter 2: RESULT
18

2.1. Result of the observation of teachers’ activities.
18
2.1.1. At Pre- reading stage
18
2.1.2. At While- reading stage
19
2.1.3. At Post- reading stage
20
2.2. Result of the se-mi structured interviews
21
2.2.1 .Reasons for choosing the teachers’ reading teaching strategies
21
2.2.2. Teachers’ difficulties in reading teaching
21
2.3. Result of students’ questionnaires
23
2.3.1. Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lesson
23
2.3.2. Students’ difficulties in learning reading
26
Chapter 3: FINDING AND DISCUSSIONS
28

viii
3.1. Research question 1 and 2
28
3.1.1. At Pre-reading stage
28
3.1.2. While-reading stage
30

3.1.3. Post-reading stage
32
3.2. Research question 3
32
3.2.1. Students’ attitudes towards the teachers’ activities in reading lessons
32
3.2.2. Students’ difficulties in learning reading
35
Part C : CONCLUSION
37
1. Summary
37
2. The suggested procedure for teaching reading at BA-STC
37
3. Limitations and suggestions for further study
40
References
41
Appendices
I
Appendix 1
I
Appendix 2A
III
Appendix 2B
V
Appendix 3A
VII
Appendix 3B
IX

1


PART A: INTRODUCTION
Part A - Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the
problem, the aims, the research question, the significance of the study as well as the
research methodology. It also outlines the organization of the thesis.
1. Background to the study
Reading comprehension is the heart and goal of reading, since the purpose of all
reading is to gather meaning from the printed page. If a student says a word in a passage
without gathering their meaning, one would hesitate to call that reading.
Language plays a vital role in reading. One cannot read a book in a language unless
one knows that particular language. If a learner‟s knowledge of English is poor, then
his/her reading will also be poor, and naturally also his reading comprehension.
Reading is one of the „most complex forms of information processing‟ (Kolers,
1973, p.29) and is probably the „most extensively researched‟ language skill (Bachman,
2000, p.x). In the recent decades, theories and models of reading have changed, from
primarily receptive processes from text to reader to interactive processes between the
reader and the text (cf., Adams, 1990; Eskey and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; and Swaffar,
1988). Approaches to teaching reading materials in a foreign language have attempted to
reflect this development through recommendations of interactive exercises and tasks.
Based on what successful reading is, many reading specialists have come to
agreement that reading lessons should follow such a framework as: pre-, during-, and post-
reading instruction (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe and Stoller, 2001;
Wallace, 1992). Barnett (1989) and Grabe and Stoller (2001) made a brief explanation
about each type of instruction. Pre-reading instruction makes students interested in a text
and predicts the content of it through accessing necessary information or activating

schema. While-reading instruction helps students read strategically, mainly focusing on
decoding skills. Post-reading instruction deepens students‟ comprehension into the text. It
is also emphasized that the activities in this framework are not limited to reading. “Reading
is no longer isolated” (Eskey & Grabe, 1988, p.231). As in real life, reading activities

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should be integrated with other skills - speaking, listening, and especially writing (Eskey &
Grabe, 1988; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001). Accordingly, some of the activities
should help students to develop other skills besides the reading. Such kind of integration of
the four skills will enable students to use more varieties of strategies more often,
generating more interaction between the reader and the text.
Teaching and learning reading comprehension have been identified by various
researchers in both second and foreign language contexts (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001;
Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992). However little empirical research
have been conducted to uncover the methods of teaching reading comprehension used by
Vietnamese teachers, especially by teachers at BA-STC. To address this gap, my study will
investigate the reality of teaching and learning reading for non-English major first year
students at this training center.
At BA-STC, students are required to take an English course in two terms in the first
year. The aim of this course is to equip students the general English program, consisting of
four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In the first term of the first year, the
students learned English in 45 periods of the New Headway Elementary. After 12 weeks,
the students had a final test that consisted of four parts: Vocabulary, Grammar and Reading
comprehension and Writing. The result of the final test in the first term showed us a
surprising number: 72 percent of all the students (115) got bad marks in the reading
comprehension section of the English test, although they had good marks in the other parts
of the test. I would like to look into different aspects and try to find out the reasons leading
to this bad situation. One of the main reasons lies in the fact that the teachers often simply
give students a text and require them to answer a series of comprehension questions when
they have finished reading the text. The teachers do almost nothing to provide them with

the skills or strategies needed to become efficient and independent readers. For the lack of
necessary strategies for teaching reading comprehension, it is more likely to have poor
reading comprehension results.
Therefore, in this study I intend to carry out some research in the reality of teaching
and learning reading comprehension for non-English major first year students at BA-STC
and basing on the findings and discussions to help to increase the effectiveness of teaching
and learning reading comprehension at this training center.

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2. Aim of the study
The purpose of this study is:
- To address teachers‟ and students‟ difficulties in teaching and learning reading
comprehension
- To investigate students‟ attitude towards reading skill and understand their
learning needs and learning style
- To make some suggestions to improve the current situation
3. Research question
This study aimed at the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at
BA-STC and more specifically to answer the following questions:
1. How do teachers actually deliver the reading lesson at BA-STC?
2. What difficulties do teachers and students encounter while teaching and learning
reading comprehension?
3. What are students‟ attitudes towards teachers‟ activities in a reading lesson?
4. Significance of the study
My present study is significant for some reasons. Firstly, investigating the reality of
teaching and learning reading comprehension helps the researcher to understand clearly
how teachers taught reading and how students learned reading at BA-STC, the difficulties
the teachers and students experienced while teaching and learning reading and students‟
preference towards the teacher‟s methods of teaching. From this result, the study will make
some important discussions to improve the quality of teaching and learning reading in the

target college. Moreover, these instructions may help teachers of English at BA-STC in
their teaching careers.
5. Research methodology
5.1. Data collection instruments
A description of the methodology was employed in this study. First, the classroom
observation was chosen to find out actually how a reading lesson was taught. From the
result of the observation, the researcher carried out three semi-structured interviews to

4
have reasons why teachers chose this approach and methods for teaching reading and what
difficulties teachers had in teaching reading. Finally, these questionnaires were designed to
find out the students‟ preferences towards teachers‟ methods in reading lessons and
students‟ difficulties in learning reading.
5.2 The procedure of the study
At first, I investigated the reality and difficulties of English teaching reality in
general and teaching reading in particular at BA-STC with the use of classroom
observation and semi-structured interview tools, then I designed questionnaires to study
learners‟ preference of teachers‟ activities in reading lessons and their difficulties. The
classroom observation was undertaken at this college in 6 weeks and I attended some
reading classes instructed by three teachers. To get reliable real data of how and what to be
taught in reading lessons, I asked the teachers for their permission to attend their classes,
but they were not informed the lessons to be observed. When observing the lessons, I
mainly based on the checklist observation sheets which include anticipated activities that
teachers may use and those which are expected to be used in a good reading lessons. I also
took notes of evidences found in the classes and her comments on the activities, techniques
and procedure. At the end of the lessons, I conducted semi-structured interviews with the
teachers for their explanation of the activities and steps of procedure they applied in the
lessons. I took notes during the interview. Then, the data gathered from the observation
and interview were synthesized and used as basis to design two questionnaires with
Vietnamese versions for students. The first questionnaire distributed after the observed

lessons. The second one was delivered in the sixth week of the study to students to
investigate the problems and difficulties in learning reading they had in lessons with the
quite complicated texts in the second part of the elementary book.
6. Organization of the study
This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow:
Part A - Introduction: presenting back ground to the study, aims, research
question, significance and design of the study.
Part B - Development: consisting of three chapters. Chapter 1 is for literature
which provides the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 2- Result which reports

5
the results of classroom observations, questionnaires and the semi-structured interview.
Chapter 3- Finding and discussions, focuses on analyzing the research results to find
answers for the research questions.
Part C - Conclusion: provides suggestions for teaching and learning reading at
BA-STC and give limitations and directions for further research and makes a final
conclusion.

6
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE review
This chapter discusses the theory and research into the areas that are basic for this
study. The first section provides the definitions of reading. The second section discusses
approaches to teaching reading. The third section gives the impact of attitudes on learning
and teaching reading. The fourth section concerns factors affecting students‟ reading
comprehension. The chapter concludes with a review of previous studies on the reality of
teaching and learning reading.
1.1. Reading
1.1.1. Definitions of reading:
According to Weaver (1994), the first definition of reading is being able to

pronounce the words. Phonemic awareness is the ability to segment, delete, and combine
speech sounds into abstract units. While students will be able to hear phonemes, they may
not be able to conceptualize them as units. Phonemic awareness must be based upon a
growing understanding of the alphabetic principle of English; there is sufficient evidence
that many children basically understand this before they have mastered the set of letter to
sound correspondences (Adam, 1990). This definition supports the bottom-up theory of
reading where the reader decodes the text by referring the smallest unit (letters to words to
phrases and to sentences).
The second definition on reading by Weaver (1994) pertains to the ability to
identify words and extract meanings from words. Knowledge of phonics or basic letter-
sound relationship is necessary but not sufficient when reading to extract meaning from a
text. Just teaching the letter and the associated sound does not develop good readers. The
teaching of phonics should be contextualized and the students‟ learning ability needs to be
taken into consideration.
The third definition on reading as posited by Weaver (1994), supports the
interactive model of reading. In the interactive model, the reader interacts with the text.
The level of depth of text processing depends on the reader‟s background knowledge,
language proficiency level, motivation, strategy used and culturally shaped beliefs about
reading. The ultimate goal of reading will be to enable the readers to understand what they

7
have read. Good comprehension readers have good vocabularies. They are able to
understand and describe words. They use the word in the text to unravel its meaning. They
ask questions, predict and extract main ideas. They are also facile in employing sentence
structures within the text to enhance their comprehension. Therefore, one can conclude that
the three definitions of reading by Weaver (1994) encompass three elements: the ability to
recognize and pronounce words, the ability to extract meaning and to interact with the text.
The three definitions of reading by Weaver (1994) are illustrates in the following diagram:

Figure 1.1: The three Definitions of Reading by Weaver (1994)
For the purpose of this study, reading can be defined as “reading means
understanding”. (Ur, 1996, p.138). A foreign language learner who says, „I can read every
word but I don‟t know what they mean‟ is not, therefore, reading, in this sense. He or she
is merely decoding-translating written symbols into corresponding sounds‟.
1.1.2. The traditional and innovative views of teaching reading
Reading has been “viewed as a two fold phenomenon involving process
(comprehending) and product (comprehension)” (Silberstein, 1987, p.30). In brief, there
are two main outlooks on reading. The first, a product oriented approach to reading,
assumes meaning exists in the text itself, and it is text-based factors that determine
meaning. In this view, pre-reading activities rely mostly on clarifying the meaning of
difficult words or complex structures. Whereas, for the second, process-oriented approach
to reading, meaning is obtained through a successful interaction between the reader and the
text, and it is inside-the-head factors that play an important role in comprehension.
In the traditional methodology, the teacher explains a text sentence by sentence, analyzing
the structure of the sentence, elaborating on the language points (i.e., difficult words and

Learning to pronounce the words

Learning to identify words and
get their meaning
Learning to bring meaning to a text
in order to get meaning from it

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idiomatic expressions). Then translation of the sentence is followed, which is mainly done
by the teacher.
Following is a typical procedure for a product oriented approach to reading
(Silberstein, 1987, p.30): 1/ the teacher presents new vocabulary, often at length; 2/ the
teacher reads the text aloud to the class (who has not yet seen it). S/he asks them what it is
about; 3/ the teacher reads it aloud again while the students follow it in their book. Then
s/he may ask them one or two more questions; 4/ Individual students read the text aloud
“ reading aloud the class” and the teacher interrupts to correct pronunciation; 5/ the
students read the text silently and try to remember as much as they can for the questions
the teacher may ask afterwards; 6/ the teacher asks oral questions on the text and students
answer orally.
It can be seen that none of the above activities involved are what the learner needs.
Clearly, there is little here to help students become efficient readers. Therefore, the
question is that how to teach learners to read effectively.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the emergence of classroom procedures that give practice in
useful sub skills of the reading and comprehending process. Jeremy Harmer sets out
guidelines for this in the form of a five-stage model (Harmer, 1983, p.151): 1/ the teacher
introduces the topic and explores the students‟ previous knowledge of it; 2/ the teacher sets
the tasks that the students will have to perform during or after reading; 3/ the students read
silently and perform the task; 4/ the teacher gives feedback on the students‟ performance of
the task. (Stages 2 to 4 can be repeated); 5/ the teacher gives follow-up tasks.
Stage 2 ensures that the learners have a reason for reading-which they know, before
they even begin to read, what they will have to get out of the text. This mean that they read
in a certain way, i.e., practice a particular sub skill of reading. The teacher ( or material

writer ) chooses tasks for the students to perform while they read, in light of the type of
text, its organization, its content, the new language it contains and-most importantly- the
reading styles that are appropriate for the act of comprehending ( Williams, 1984, p.38 ).
Classroom reading activities are designed to teach students the reading comprehension
process, not just to test their ability to come up with the right product.
1.2. Approaches to teaching reading

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“How do we read?” To this question, which seems simple but is really profound,
many researchers have tried to find an answer. At present, there are three main models of
how reading occurs based on various reading theories.
The first and oldest approach to the reading process is the bottom-up processing
which can be said to be a traditional view of the reading process. According to Eskey and
Saville-Troike (as cited in Carrell, 1988a), it has existed since before reading research
began to be recognized as an independent scholastic field. This processing goes from the
smaller units of text to the larger units of it (Carrell, 1988b; Frehan, 1999). After the
readers recognize the letters and know what word the combinations of these letters are,
they extract its meaning from their lexicon. Next, they construct the meaning of a phrase or
a clause by gathering the meaning of each word. Finally, they build up the meaning for a
sentence by assembling of each phrase or clause. In short, the meaning of a sentence
consists of the combinations of the smaller units of the sentence. In other words, meaning
was considered to be buried in the text (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983). What is emphasized
in this processing, Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (as citied in Anderson, 1999)
described, is linguistic knowledge such as:
Word recognition and include visual recognition of letter features, letter
identification, the generation of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, unitization of
orthographic redundancies such as regularities in letter sequences, the association
of words to words to their semantic representations, possibly the identification of
basic syntactic structures within the portion of the text currently being in read, and
with the generation of prepositional units. (p. 3).

The second type of reading processing is top-down, which arose from
psycholinguistics (Frehan, 1999). The greatest difference between this processing and the
bottom-up processing is that, according to Goodman (as citied in Carrell and Eisterhold,
1983), readers do not use every piece of on formation in the text. That is to say, the readers
select some parts of text according to their current purpose and use them only so as to
predict meaning and to confirm the predicted meanings by relating the readers‟ own
previously acquired knowledge (Carrell, 1988a). Many researchers have insisted that “the
concepts which a reader brings to a text are actually more important than text itself for
comprehension” (Mikulecky, 1990, p.4). Among those concepts that the readers use in the
process of comprehension, the knowledge about the content of the text, rather than the

10
knowledge of the text, is emphasized. As for linguistic knowledge, Segalowitz, Poulsen
and Komoda ( as cited in Anderson, 1999) stated that focus is mainly put on “higher-
level” reading skills, such as “ integrating prepositional units across sentences, generating
and updating a schema or representation of the text as a whole, and integrating textual
information with prior knowledge” (p.3).
The third and newest reading process is currently most accepted (Anderson, 1999).
The process which comes from schema theory is called “interactive processing” (Carrell,
1988b; Chia, 2001). Rumelhart (as cited in Carrell, 1988b) defined is as “a combination of
top-down and bottom-up processing” (p.101). Rumelhart (as cited in Mikulecky, 1990)
explained how these two types of processing works as follows: In trying to comprehend a
text, the reader is in the bottom-up mode when she “replies primarily on textual
information”, and she is in the top-down mode when she “focuses primarily on what is
already known” (p.2). Mikulecky (1990) and Chia (2001) insisted that both kinds of
processing are employed simultaneously complement one another, which means that what
is important in the interactive processing is both “second language proficiency and
background knowledge about the topic for deficiencies with each other (as cited in
Anderson, 1999). So good readers are those who have “both decoding and interpretation
skills” (Anderson, 1999, p.3) and in Spiro‟s (as cited in Carrell, 1988b) words, “ constantly

shift their mode of processing , accommodating to the demands of a particular text and a
particular reading situation” (p.101).
The notion that reading is the interactive process, which means a kind of “whole”
process because of any other kind of knowledge other than linguistic knowledge, will
change the way for teachers to teach and the way for students to read English. Reading
English becomes a little more similar to reading native language.
1.3. Stages of a reading lessons
The process of a reading lesson usually consists of three stages: pre-reading (lead-
in), while- reading (skimming and scanning) and post-reading (Brown, 1994). It is
affirmed that the pre-reading, while- reading, and post-reading are very important when
teaching any reading text. Each of these stages has its own characteristics, although they
are related to one another.
1.3.1. The pre- reading stage

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According to Williams (1984, p.37), the purposes of pre-reading are to introduce
and arouse interest in the topic; to motivate learners by giving a reason for reading; to
provide some language preparation for the text.
Schema theory research provides strong evidence for the effectiveness of pre-
reading activities that include both providing the outline for reading the text and teaching
cultural key concepts. According to Chastain (1988), pre-reading activities motivate
readers to read the text and when they are motivated-prepared for the reading activity -they
complete the activity better and with less effort and are eager to participate in the activity
since they have gained confidence. Lewin (1984) recommends that language teacher- like
other course teachers -should encourage learners to evaluate what they read. Pre-reading
activities may help the teacher to facilitate this. If the readers do not have sufficient
background knowledge then the teacher should provide them with at least some
background knowledge. Activating readers‟ prior knowledge of a topic before they begin
to read may help students‟ comprehension (Carrell and Eisterhold, 1983; Grabe, 1991; Ur,
1996). Ur also argues that tasks make the activity more interesting since the readers have a

purpose in reading and also the reading teacher may see how well the text is understood
with the help of tasks given before and/ or after reading.
Davies ( 2000, p.93) states some activities commonly used in C: guessing the topic
of the text from the heading, illustration etc…; brainstorming around a topic word on the
board; predicting what the text will say; writing questions that may be answered by the
text.
In conclusion, the pre-reading stage helps to make the next stages of reading more
easily adaptable for the reader. As the reader processes along the necessary reading stages,
more skills begin to develop. Therefore, this stage is very important to orient students to
any new material they do not know, to activate schema for previous knowledge of a topic,
and to help motivate students. Also, without the pre-reading stage, the task (while-reading)
might be more difficult and progressively less enjoyable. As a result, the reader may
struggle and may withdraw from reading.
1.3.2. The While-reading stage

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Williams (1984, p.38) states the purposes of while-reading as follows: to help
students‟ understanding of the writer‟s purpose; to help students‟ understanding of the text
structure; to clarify text content.
The reading or the while-reading stage could be approached in different ways. For
example, Richards sees reading “ as an integration of top-down processes that utilize
background knowledge and schema, as well as bottom-up processes that are primarily text
or data driven” (1990, p.87). It is the best way that teachers should be encourage and
stimulate for students in regards to the use of the two processes, top-down and bottom-up,
when they actually tackle any text. The students, on the one hand, might be asked to treat
the text as a whole to get the general picture without being too concerned with the details,
i.e., skimming the text to pick out main points rapidly. On the other hand, they might be
asked to look at a text and extract specific information, i.e., scanning the text to find out a
fact that they are interested in or asked for. Thus, whether the readers skim or scan the text
depends on their purpose and the goal.

The activities in while-reading (William, 1984, p.38) can be: reading for general
understanding (skimming); reading for extracting specific information (scanning); reading
for detailed information; predicting continuing events, then reading to confirm expectation;
reading on communicative tasks.
Hyland (1990), Nunan (1999) and Brown (2001) discuss scanning and skimming
activities. According to Brown, skimming and scanning are thought to be the most
valuable reading strategies. Through skimming, a reader is able to predict the purpose of
the passage, and gets the writer‟s message (Flowerdew and Peacock (2001). In this way
readers are asked to predict the whole text, though they do not read all of it. Similarly,
Anderson (2000) proposes that skimming is a metacognitive skill that is used by good
readers. Bachman and Cohen (1998) and Flowerdew and Peacock (2001) also state that
skimming allows readers to read for general understanding. Scanning and skimming work
better if they are supported with evaluation activities ( Karakas, 2002). Hyland (1990)
states that, through surveying, the reader previews the text content and organization where
she uses referencing and non-text material. Basically, it aims to make quick check of the
relevant extra-text categories such as: referencing data, graphical data, and typographical
data. Karakas (2002) proposes that readers better comprehend if they are asked to state
their ideas about the topic of the text and then evaluate it with their friends in the class and

13
the activities reciprocal teaching, evaluating, inferring and re-reading provide a dialogue
between the reader and the writer while the activities scanning and clarifying draw a clear
mental picture for the reader.
In conclusion, the reading activities which teachers might use range from reading
for the pure sake of reading, silent reading, to more focus reading where the students learn
to skim for the main idea, scan for the secondary categories, or read intensively for the
supporting ideas. Obviously, this helps to encourage critical thinking and increases
comprehension and easy retention.
1.3.3. The Post-reading stage
According to Chastain (1988), post- reading activities help readers to clarify any

unclear meaning where the focus is on the meaning not on the grammatical or lexical
aspects of the text. Ur (1996) discusses summarize as a kind of post-reading activities
where the readers are asked to summarize the content in a sentence or two. It is also
possible to give this post-reading activity in the mother tongue. Karakas (2002) proposes
that readers interpret the text and illustrate the relationship between the questions and their
answers by using activities such as summarizing, questions and answer and drawing
conclusions and it is possible to catch the missing parts of the mental picture through
thinking aloud, discussion and summarizing.
Karakas (2002) proposes that readers interpret the text and illustrate the
relationship between the questions and their answers by using activities such as
summarizing, questions and answer and drawing conclusions and it is possible to catch the
missing parts of the mental picture through thinking aloud, discussion and summarizing.
William (1984, p.39) gives the following activities: multiple choice questions; table, chart,
questionnaire completion with facts or based on text information; follow-up writing or
listening; role-play; debate/class discussion on the topic; and problem-solving with the aid
of information from the text.
In conclusion, following and implementing the aforementioned stages and insights
would help the students to depend on themselves and on other resources, rather than on us
as the primary source of information. This is where students‟ initiative/interaction comes
into play. They start developing skills by themselves, which later become their own skills
through interaction with the reading text. That is, the goal of teaching reading should

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ultimately be to help encourage critical thinking and increase comprehension and easy
retention.
1.4. Impacts of attitudes on teaching and learning reading
There are many ways of definitions of attitudes on teaching and learning reading.
Allport (1954) defines an attitude “mental and neural state of readiness, organized through
experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual‟s response to all
objects and situations with which it is related”. Gardner (1985, p.10) sees attitudes as

components of motivation. He also made the connection “motivation refers to the
combination of effort plus favorable attitudes toward learning the language”. Attitudes
have many impacts towards learning and teaching.
Social psychologists would expect “success in mastering a foreign language would
depend not only on intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudes
towards representatives of that language as well” (Gardner & Lamber, 1972). In fact,
learner possess a set of attitudes which relate to the language learning situation, e.g.
attitudes to the course book, to the variety of language, to the target language community,
and so on. Ewards (1982) (cited in Gibb, 1998) assumed that attitudes influence learning:
positive attitudes are likely to result in students‟ motivation, which leads to better learning;
and the students‟ learning will suffer from negative attitudes.
Concerning attitudes in the language learning, it is claimed that attitudes control an
individual motivation and are especially relevant for language learning because language
learning includes many different aspects besides learning skills (Gardner & Lamber, 1972).
It is claimed that attitudes have influence on the development of motivation… and have
more specific effects, so that attitudes appear to carry into particular motivation.
A learners‟ motivation for language study would be determined by his attitudes and
readiness to identify and by his orientation to the whole process of learning a foreign
language ( Gardner & Lamber, 1972). The more motivation a learner has, the more time
s/he will spend learning an aspect of the language (Slopsky, 1992, p.148). Similarly,
Lundberg (1974), in his research, found both motivation for learning a language and
attitudes towards the target culture to be important in factors in effecting learning.
According to these claims attitudes may play a very important role in language learning, as
they would appear to influence students‟ success or failure in their learning.

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In the process of teaching, the approach that teachers use in the classroom depends
on their attitudes towards it. Doukas (1996) mentioned the importance of teachers‟
attitudes in the classroom that „teacher‟ educational attitudes and theories, although in
many cases unconsciously held, have an effect on their classroom behavior, influence what

student actually learn, and are a potent determinant of teachers‟ teaching style. In the
curriculum innovation literature, teachers‟ attitudes are seen to play a crucial role in
determining the implementation of an approach (Doukas, 1996). If teachers hold positive
attitudes to a theory of teaching, they are considered being good for both language learning
and teaching. They will be better and help students‟ learning very much, nevertheless, if
they hold negative attitudes to it, they will refuse to apply it in their teaching, and their
students will suffer from it.
1.5. Factors affecting students’ reading comprehension
Reading, whether in a first or second language context, involves the reader, the text
and the interaction between the reader and text (Rumelhart, 1977). The identification of the
factors affecting reading comprehension will undoubtedly help us a lot in the effective
teaching of English reading. “The research in 1970s and 1980s laid out many of the
variables associated with the second language reading process” (Elizabeth, 2005). Among
these variables, strategies, background knowledge and vocabulary, motivation are major
factors affecting reading comprehension.
1.5.1 .Learning strategies
Learning strategies are important and should be paid attention to because they are
one of the major applications of cognitive theory. Oxford (1990) claims that “learning
strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more
successful, self-directed and enjoyable”. Learning strategies are procedures undertaken by
the learner, in order to make their own language learning as effective as possible.
Learning strategies can be classified into three categories, cognitive strategies,
metacognitive strategies, and social strategies. In O‟Malley and Chamot‟s (1990, p.52)
view, learning strategies are complex procedures that individuals apply to tasks;
consequently, they may be represented as procedural knowledge which may be acquired
through cognitive, associated, and autonomous stages of learning. As with other procedural

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skills at the different stages of learning, the strategies may be conscious in early stages of
learning and later performed without the person‟s awareness. As an important application

of cognitive theory, cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies, both of which belong
to learning strategies, should influence reading comprehension greatly.
Hosenfield (1977) identifies a good reader as one who tries to keep the meaning pf
the passage in mind, read in chunks, ignores less important words, tries to guess the
meanings of unknown words using contextual clues, and has a good concept of himself/
herself as a reader. Following these studies, three have been attempts to instruct learners in
using these strategies to make them better readers (Block, 1992; Victori & Lockhart,
1995). These studies show a positive correlation between reading strategy instruction and
reading proficiency.
1.5.2. Vocabulary
Another factor that can have a significant impact on reading comprehension is
vocabulary. Interest in the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension has
a long history in the research of foreign language reading. Observing the performance of
foreign language readers, confronted with unknown vocabulary, researchers have noted the
important role of vocabulary as a predictor of overall reading ability (Nation, 1990; Grabe,
1991). In fact, second language readers often cite “lack of adequate vocabulary as one of
the obstacles to text comprehension” (Levine & Reves, 1990). In certain contexts, a
sentence or even an entire paragraph might become incomprehensible because of the
occurrence of even a small number of unknown vocabulary items. (Barnett, 1988)
Since the development of psycholinguistic models of reading, researchers and
teachers alike argue that the best way to handle the unfamiliar words in the text is by
drawing inferences from the rest of the text. According to Hosenfield (1984) readiness to
guess from context is what distinguishes a good reader from a bad one.
However, while most researchers find that successful L2 and FL readers can
correctly guess the meaning of unknown words while reading (Carrol & Drum, 1982),
others question the effectiveness of contextual guessing. Thus, Kelly (1990) claims that in
anything other than a highly constrained context, guessing on its own help comprehension.
Likewise, according to Bensoussan & Laufer‟s (1984) observation, many FL readers do
not effectively use context to guess word meanings.

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1.5.3. Background knowledge
Another reading problem is the lack of prior knowledge to help students to make
connections to the text. As a result, under confident students revert to lower level reading
processes such as word level literal comprehension. Support materials such as television
and films can help enlarge experience and supply the necessary vocabulary to aid
comprehension. Many struggling readers lack confidence in their own ability to learn
unfamiliar words or phrases found in a text. This can sometimes impede the reading
process when students assume that the text is far more difficult than actually it is.
Moreover, if the reader chooses to disregard portions of a text deemed unimportant or
make irrelevant associations, then the actual meaning of the text can be misconstrued. To
solve this problem, the reader needs to be exposed to other viewpoints of the text. Reading
and discussing about the text will help individual readers gain different perspectives on
issues in the text. Hence, this will enable the reader to realize that his interpretation of the
text is limited by his subjective view.
Prior knowledge has a large influence on student performance, explaining up to
81% of the variance in posttest scores (Dochy, Segers & Buehl, 1999). And there is a well
established correlation between prior knowledge and reading comprehension (Langer,
1984). Irrespective of students‟ reading ability, high prior knowledge of a subject area or
key vocabulary for a text often means higher scores on reading comprehension measures
(Langer, 1984; Long et al., 1989). In addition, high correlations have been found between
prior knowledge and speed and accuracy of study behavior (reviewed in (Dochy et al,
1999) as well as students interest in a topic (Tobias, 1994). Thus, prior knowledge is
associated with beneficial academic behaviors and higher academic performance.
1.5.4. Motivation
A review of literature on second language learning emphasizes motivation as an
important affective variable. Collins (1996) identifies other causes for incomprehension
besides poor motivation to a lack of experience or inadequate prior knowledge and a
limited or subjective view of what is read. Students experience low motivation in reading
when they are unable to use the language in meaningful situations. Only widespread

involvement in language can solve the problem of poor motivation. Communicative- based
activities such as oral and recorded reading, asking questions, dictating stories and working

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in small groups will also facilitate learning as well as increase students‟ motivation for
reading (Carr, 1995). Commitment to read and invest interest in reading is crucial in order
for instruction in learning strategies to be effective.
In summary, learning strategies, vocabulary, motivation and background
knowledge have been confirmed to have influence on learners‟ reading comprehension in
many prior researches. It is likely that these factors would affect the students‟ difficulties
in learning reading comprehension in this study.
1.6. Previous studies
Zenhui (2004) presented his application of a new method in teaching EFL reading,
namely combination of top-down methods and bottom-up methods. His classroom
observations showed that in reading classes in Asia, many teachers focused on grammar
and vocabulary. Their reading teaching methodology often started with reading the text
word- by- word, explaining the meanings or words and grammar structures in the text. He
pointed out some limitations of bottom-up strategies and features of bottom-down
methods. Bottom-down methods often resulted in a meticulous emphasis on linguistic
details and a corresponding lack of attention to communicative skills. He described the
new method of reconciling top-down and bottom-up methods employed in his reading
classes. He concluded that this reconciliation of top-down and bottom-up methods for
teaching English reading worked quite satisfactorily for his students, helping them to
integrate content and language points, speed and comprehension, fluency and accuracy.
His students overall reading ability has improved as a result of this teaching procedure.
1.7. Summary
This chapter has addressed some major issues in terms of reading definitions,
approaches to reading, the impacts of attitudes towards teaching and learning reading,
factors affecting students‟ reading comprehension, previous study and summary.