Teaching and learning reading comprehension skills for grade 11 at Hong Quang High School Difficulties and solutions = Dạy và học kỹ năng đọc hiểu ở lớp 11 trư

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HƯƠNG
TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR
GRADE 11 AT HONG QUANG HIGH SCHOOL: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS
( DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU Ở LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT HỒNG QUANG:
KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

MA. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code:

601410

Hanoi, 2011
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI


UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HƯƠNG
TEACHING AND LEARNING READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS FOR
GRADE 11 AT HONG QUANG HIGH SCHOOL: DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS
( DẠY VÀ HỌC KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU Ở LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT HỒNG QUANG:
KHÓ KHĂN VÀ GIẢI PHÁP)

MA. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code:

601410

Supervisor: Đỗ Bá Quý (MEd.)

Hanoi, 2011


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Table of Contents
Candidate's statement

i
ii

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

1

2. Aims of the study

1

3. Significance of the study

2

4. Scope of the study

2

5. Methods of the study

2

6. Organization of the study

2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review

4

1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension

4

1.1.1 Reading

4

1.1.2 Reading comprehension

5

1.2 Types of reading

5

1.2.1 According to manner

5

1.2.1.1 Reading aloud

6

1.2.1.2 Silent reading

6

1.2.2 According to purpose

7

1.2.2.1 Skimming

7

1.2.2.2 Scanning

8

1.2.2.3 Intensive reading

8

1.2.2.4 Extensive reading

9

1.3 Teaching and learning reading comprehension skills

9

1.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language learning

10

1.3.2 Factors in teaching and learning reading

10

1.3.2.1 Teacher’s role

10

1.3.2.2 Students’ role

11

1.3.2.3 The reading texts

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1.4 Organization of reading comprehension text

12

1.4.1 Pre-reading stage

12

1.4.2 While – reading stage

12

1.4.3 Post – reading stage

13

1.5 Summary

14

Chapter 2: Methodology

15

2.1 Participants

15

2.1.1 Teachers of English

15

2.1.2 The 11th -form students

15

2.2 Data collection instruments

15

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the students

15

2.2.2 The questionnaire for the teachers

15

2.3 Data collection procedures

16

Chapter 3: Data, data analysis and discussion

17

3.1 Data analysis
3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

17
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3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the importance of learning reading comprehension skill
3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading
3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities
3.1.1.4 Students’ difficulties when learning reading
3.1.1.5 Students’ responses to the techniques used by the teacher
3.1.1.6 Students’ ways of reading

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3.1.1.7 Students’ effort for improving their reading comprehension skill
3.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers
3.1.2.1 Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills at
school

3.1.2.2 Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of developing reading comprehension
skills

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3.1.2.3 Teachers’ using reading techniques in a reading lesson at Hong Quang High School
3.1.2.4 Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading

25

3.1.2. 5 Teachers’ suggested activities
3.1.2.6 Teachers’ organizing reading activities

29

3.1.2.7 Teachers’ activities to improve students’ reading comprehension skill

30

3.2 Discussion

30

3.2.1 The teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the role of the teaching and learning of

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reading

32

3.2.2 Difficulties the teachers and students meet when dealing with a reading lesson

32

3.3 The activities suggested to help the 11th-form students at Hong Quang High School
improve their reading comprehension skill

32

3.3.1 Pre – reading stage
3.3.2 While – reading stage

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3.3.3 Post – reading

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3.3.4 Adjusting teaching time and efforts

35

3.3.5 Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation

39

3.3.6 Techniques for enriching vocabulary

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3.3.7 Techniques for improving students’ background knowledge

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3.3.8 Recommending a Sample Lesson Plan

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PART C : CONLUSION

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1. Conclusions

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2.Limitations and suggestions for further study

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References
Appendix
A Sample Lesson Plan

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PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
English is considered as an international language over the world. It plays an important role
in the strong and rapid development of science and technology, politics, culture, and
international relations in Vietnam. The economic open-door policy pursued by the Government
of Vietnam has increased the demand for using English. The new policy has made English
language learning and teaching more important than before. In order to meet the social
requirements, the Ministry of Education and Training has recently decided to introduce a new
series of English textbook for grade 11.
Many survey findings show that if students learn to read faster and with more
understanding, they can do many jobs that require reading with efficiency. According to Carrell
(1981, p.1), “reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English
as a second foreign language”. However, teaching and learning reading skill at high schools is
still far from satisfactory for various reasons. Despite the teachers’ effort, the students’
motivation for intensive reading is low and the reading lesson is said to be a boring one.
Hong Quang High school, which was founded in 1955, is one of the high schools chosen to pilot
the set of textbook. During the piloting period the teachers have confronted a number of
difficulties, one of which was identified by Hong et al. (2006:18) as “students’ general lack of
motivation and opportunities to practice communicating in the target language”. The students are
accustomed to passive learning, the teachers’ capacities are uneven, the size of classes is large
and classrooms are equipped poorly. According to Hoang et al, there are five main obstacles in
reading: the habit of word-by-word reading; overemphasis on forms rather than meaning;
excessive focus on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limited background
knowledge.
The researcher needs to take a serious look at activities of teaching and learning of

reading comprehension skill in general and reading activities in particular to help the Hong
Quang High School 11th – form students read more effectively.
This is the reason why I chose the topic: “Teaching and learning reading comprehension skills
for grade 11 – Hong Quang High School: Difficulties and solutions”.
2. Aims the study
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This study aims at improving the quality of teaching and learning English reading
comprehension skills for grade 11 in Hong Quang High School

after finding difficulties. To

achieve this aim, the study has to find answers to the following questions:
1. What are Hong Quang High School’s teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the
teaching and learning of reading?
2. What difficulties do the teachers and students face when dealing with a reading lesson?
3. What are the reading activities suggested to help 11th - grade students at Hong Quang
High School improve their reading comprehension skills?
3. Significance of the study
This study has been carried out to search for a better and more effective way to develop
students’ reading comprehension skills. Its findings hopefully would help the 11th-form students
find out the suitable way for improving their reading comprehension skills. Regarding teachers,
the study would raise their awareness concerning the topic and provide them with useful
pedagogical suggestions in deciding to use the new teaching method to better develop their
learners’ reading comprehension skills. Finally, with regard to researchers, those who happen to
share the same interest in the topic could certainly rely on this research to find reliable and useful
information for their related studies in the future.
4. Scope of the study
To improve reading comprehension skills for Hong Quang High School 11th – form

students, the teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be
done. However, in this study, the author only intends to a brief overview of current situation of
teaching and learning reading comprehension skills in the 11th – form students of Hong Quang
High School to suggest some reading activities that can be applied in teaching and learning
reading comprehension skill so as to help the students to become effective readers.
5. Methods of the study
To achieve the aims mentioned above, based on the results of two survey questionnaires,
one for the students and the other for the teachers were employed to collect the data for the
study. These will be discussed in detail in chapter 2, methodology.
6. Organization of the study
The study is divided into three parts: part A - Introduction, part B - development and part C
conclusion.
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Part A - introduction includes the rationale, aims and objectives, significance, scope,
method and organization of the study
Part B - development includes three chapters. Chapter 1 (Review of literature) provides
the theoretical background of the study. The focus of this chapter is definitions of reading,
reading comprehension, classifications of reading, reading in second language teaching and
learning. Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the participants, data collection procedures and data
collection instrument. Chapter 3 (Data, data analysis and discussion) offers some major findings,
some suggestions for improving students’ reading comprehension skills and a sample work for a
reading lesson of the 11th-form students.
Part C - conclusion includes conclusions, the limitations and suggestions for further
study.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: Literature review
This chapter discusses different issues in the theories of reading in a foreign language.
Four major features will be presented here: definitions of reading, reading comprehension, kinds
of reading, reading in second language teaching and learning.
1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension
1.1.1 Reading
Reading is often referred to as the most important of the four language skills for EFL
learners, as it enables students to gain exposure to the target language and receive valuable
linguistic input to build up language proficiency (Erten & Razı, 2003). Reading is not just
extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the
knowledge the reader brings to the act of reading. It is seen as an active cognitive process in
which the reader’s background knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney
and Pearson 1994). Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the
text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that
encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that
meaning is. So far reading has been defined differently by lots of scholars, however no single
definition is acceptable to everyone.
Goodman (1971, p.135) stated 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”. In his opinion, readers not only learn how to read the text, to master
grammatical structures…but also understand the content expressed in the text.
Having the same point with Goodman, William, E. (1990, p.2) said that “reading is a process
whereby one looks at and understands what has been written”. According William, in reading
process, there are also two parallel activities: looking and understanding. Therefore, readers have
to “encode” meanings of a word depend on the context in which it appears.
One more definition offered by Harmer (1989, p.153) showed us his opinion and two
above authors have a lot of things in common “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”.

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According to Richard and Thomas (1987:15), reading is best described as “ an
understanding between the author and the reader. Reading is much more than just pronouncing
words correctly or simply knowing what the author intends; it is the process whereby the printed
page stimulate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an individual.
In short, each person can have a different definition of reading and we cannot tell which is better
because each of them focuses on one important matter of reading. However, we find that there is
a close relationship between reading and understanding. Therefore, being a language teacher, we
must understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively.
1.1.2 Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension skill plays a very important role in teaching and learning reading
a foreign language. It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as a means
of communication between the writer and the reader.
Reading comprehension results in the fact that when readers know which skills and
strategies are appropriate for types of texts and understand how to apply them to accomplish
reading purpose. Swan (1975, p.1) stated that “A student is good at comprehension we mean that
he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the
minimum of understanding”. It is obvious that the student can show his understanding only by
doing some tasks such as summarizing the text, answering questions, making true or false etc.
According to Grellet (1981: 3):“ Reading comprehension or understanding a written text
means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means
that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word
combination in the text in the most efficient way.
To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading
comprehension can appreciate how much readers understand the text. Therefore, how to help
students have effective reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most important
part in reading teaching

1.2 Types of reading
We read different texts in different ways. According to the manner of reading, we have
aloud reading and silent reading. Depending on the purpose of reading, we can classify reading
into skimming, scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading.

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1.2.1 According to manner
1.2.1.1 Reading aloud
“ Reading aloud involves looking a text, understanding it and also saying it. Its’ purpose
is not just to understand the text to convey the information to someone else” (Doff, 1988:70). In
fact, it must be recognized that reading aloud is primarily an oral matter so that for those who
teach and learn foreign languages, it is closer to “pronunciation” than it is to “comprehension”.
While it is perfectly proper to try to develop the skill of reading aloud, it clearly cannot be done
using an unfamiliar text the content and language of which stretches the linguistic capabilities of
the learners to the utmost. Therefore, it must be admitted that the usefulness of reading aloud is
limited. First of all, “reading aloud is not an activity we engage in very often outside the
classroom”. (Doff, 1988:67). Actually, in the daily life, few people are required to read aloud as
a matter of daily routine, radio newscasters, clergymen, perhaps actors. To the huge majority, its
importance is minimal. Secondly, “the readers is often merely mouthing meaningless language
because of lack of rehearsal and time to comprehend what he has to read aloud ” ( Abott and
Wingard, 1981: 82). It means that when reading aloud, the readers’ attention is focused on the
pronunciation, not on the understanding of the text. Moreover, in the classroom, only the reading
student is active at a time, others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model. In
addition, some students’ speed of reading is very slow so it takes a lot of time in class.
In short, reading aloud can be applied for those who begin learning a foreign language to
establish the connection between sound and spelling. But for the second year students, their
purpose of learning reading is more than connecting the pronunciation. They focus on
understanding the text and doing comprehension exercises which cannot be completed by

reading aloud because asking a student to read aloud means that he may lack concentration on
the meaning. He may read correctly but after that he will not be able to tell us what he has read.
It is very difficult to read aloud and understand the text at the same time of reading. So reading
aloud might be a good way to practice pronunciation.
1.2.1.2 Silent reading
Silent reading is the activity we usually engage in when we read books, newspapers,
advertisements. Silent reading is more often used in both real life and classroom, and “it is the
method we normally use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most
efficient” (Lewis, 1985:110). Because reading is a very personal skill so silent reading is a more
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effective skill for reading comprehension because firstly learners do not need to read all the
words in the text, secondly they can read at their own speed and if they do not understand the
sentence, they can go back, thirdly students can not only attain the main ideas in a short time but
also understand its details thoroughly to answer the questions, and finally the teacher can check
his/her learners’ understanding easily and add reading materials and exercises suitable to their
ability.
In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop the students’ reading
ability. However, it is more beneficial when the teacher sometimes combines it with reading
aloud to improve students’ pronunciation and intonation because reading aloud also has its own
advantages.
1.2.2 According to purpose
According to purposes, reading is categorized into four types: skimming, scanning,
extensive and intensive reading.
1.2.2.1 Skimming
According to Grellet (1981: 19) skimming appears when “we go through the reading
material quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the
answer to specific questions”. And Nuttall (1982: 36) also stated that “By skimming, we mean
glancing rapidly through a text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own

work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great
importance to us”. In addition to the definitions of skimming, Wood (1990: 92) said that “When
the reader looks at the content page of the book, or the chapter headings, sub headlines, etc. This
is sometimes called previewing. Another example is when reader glances quickly through a
newspaper to see the main items of the day are. This will often mean just glancing at the
headlines”. That means when we quickly to get general impression to see whether the text is
useful to us, it is not necessarily searching for a specific details and key words. Skimming
provides an overview of the text so it is beneficial to look at chapter section headings, summaries
and opening paragraphs, therefore, the purpose of skimming are to check relevance of the text
and to set the scene for more concentrated effort that is to follow if the text is useful.
To sum up, skimming is a very useful reading comprehension skill for students, and it is
advisable to apply at the first stage of teaching reading with the hope that it can help them to
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have an overview of what they are reading. Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with the
other tasks that followed.
1.2.2.2 Scanning
Scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies. However, scanning is far
more limited than skimming since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our
purpose. Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a
particular point of information. It is a useful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, if it has been
cultivated systematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, cooperative work on the study of texts can be greatly expected and made easy. Francois (1981:19)
understands that “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not
even follow the linearity of the passage to do so. We simply let our eyes wander over the text
until we find what we are looking for, whether it is a name, a date, or a less specific piece of
information”. With the same opinion, Mabel states that “scanning is the speed technique that
helps you locate a bit of specific information very rapidly. It could involve finding a name, date,
place or statistic. Or it might involve identifying a general setting in a short story. Scanning is
the technique you use when you read maps, charts, tables, or graphs. It is the main skill

researchers use when they examine various sources to locate information about a specific topic”.
Scanning requires two skills of the reader. One of them is that they recognize the specific
type of word that identifies the item. The other is the use of a different eye movement pattern,
vertical vision. Nearly all the background reading required for the presenting of a topic to the
class by a group calls for proficiency in this type of reading. There is a great range of text
suitable for scanning – indexes, dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, reference material,
etc.
In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we can look
for and where to find it. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information
without reading through the whole text.
1.2.2.3 Intensive reading
Intensive reading is also widely used in a reading class. It is an effective way to explore
the text, to go deeply into the meaning and the organization of the text. Intensive reading “
involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the students
to focus on the text” (Nuttall, 2000:38). In the view of Brown (1990:297) intensive reading “is
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usually a classroom-oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic details
of a passage”. Grellet, F. (1981:4) states that “Intensive reading means reading short text to
extract specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving reading for detailed”. The
objective of intensive reading is to achieve a full understanding of the text not only of what it
means but also of how the meaning is produced. Through intensive reading, the reader must
arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of logical arguments, the rhetorical arrangement,
the pattern of the text, the attitude and purposes of the writer and his linguistic means to achieve
his purposes. In other words, intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the
students’ comprehension.
1.2.2.4 Extensive reading
Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding. It
provides valuable reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as

well as giving students useful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text.
Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and includes reading
longer texts for pleasure, as well as business books. Use extensive reading skills to improve our
general knowledge of business procedures. Grellet, F. (1981:4) points out “Extensive reading
means reading longer texts, usually for one’s pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly
involving global understanding”. What is more, Nuttall, C. (2000:127) argues that “getting
students to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of improving their reading
skills”.
Extensive reading is considered to be useful for students’ self-learning. Their reading
habit and passion for reading are also formed through extensive reading. Students can choose the
topics they like and read for their own purpose for pleasure or entertainment. However, it is more
effective if students’ extensive reading is followed an instructional program with the help of the
reading teacher.
In short, reading is necessary to every learner and undeniably an important skill in
comparison with others. In addition, it is notable that intensive and extensive reading should not
be seen as in being opposition but need to be paid equal attention for the sake of the students. For
second or foreign language learners, both intensive and extensive reading are of great importance
as they act as a means to gain knowledge.

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1.3 Teaching and learning reading comprehension skills
1.3.1 The importance of reading in foreign language learning
In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, the teaching and
learning of reading are always received much attention, since it is regarded as one of the most
important major skills as what Carrell (1971: 1) stated: “for many students, reading is by far the
most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or foreign language”.
This is also true for the MSA, because at our academy, reading is an active skills namely
speaking, listening and writing. To master reading skill is always challenging task that requires

students a number of factors: a good competence of English grammar, rich vocabulary, and
reading techniques. First of all, reading helps students learn to think in English, enlarge their
English vocabulary, improve their writing. Richard (1993:4) claimed that “reading may help to
increase knowledge of the target language through exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical
structures”. There is a close relationship between reading and vocabulary knowledge, because
while reading, the readers know most of the words in the text already, and they can also
determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the contexts. Therefore, the best
way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. It is understandable that anyone who has a large
vocabulary is usually a good reader.
Besides, Richard (1993: 4) also stated that “reading in the new language is also an
important way to learn about the target culture”, which means that reading provides the students
with a wide range of interesting information, helps them understand the ways of life, behaviors,
thoughts and other aspects of the native people and it is also a good way to find out about new
ideas, facts and experiences. Therefore, they can master vocabulary, grammar and the
background knowledge or cross-cultural problems that they encounter. In other words, reading
is very important to the foreign language learners because it widens their knowledge of language
and life. It seems to be the most important skill to the students of English since their main
purpose is to understand the written texts.
1.3.2 Factors in teaching and learning reading
1.3.2.1 Teacher’s role
Many linguistics state that the teacher is the most important factor in teaching reading. In
a reading class, the teacher plays so many roles, such as an organizer, a manager and a counselor,
an instructional expert, so he or she should be a guide to assist, encourage them, employ various
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types to support the students develop reading skills. He or she also the person who provides the
students with an anxiety-free atmosphere which helps them feel free to join new reading style,
practice to master new strategies, work under pressure of time.
Besides, linguistics point out an essential element of the teacher’s role-a model reader.

According to Nuttall (1982: 192) “showing that you are a reader means carrying books around
with you, referring to books as you teach, reading out brief passages that may interest students,
talking about what you are reading at the moment, and handling books as if you loved them”. He
also states that “teacher’s job as providing, first, suitable texts and second, activities that will
focus the students’ attention on the texts”
1.3.2.2 Students’ role
Nuttall (2000:33) mentions several main roles for the students in a reading lesson. They
are as follows:
- Taking an active part in learning: This is the first and foremost responsibility of the
learner. They have to be active and take charge of what they do
- Monitoring comprehension: Students need to understand how texts work and what they
do when they read
- Learning text talk: It is clear that a good reader carries on a dialogue with the text.
Consequently, the students have to learn how to do this. An way to promote this skill is to talk
about texts in class.
- Taking risks: Students have to take the risk of making mistakes because a mistake is an
opportunity to learn.
- Learning not to cheat oneself: Learning to read is learning to give students enormous
advantages in life. It may lead to better jobs, to personal development, interest and enjoyment.
Students who do not want to learn to read can easily cheat but they are only cheating themselves
1.3.2.3 The reading texts
It cannot be denied that reading texts play a crucial role in teaching and learning reading
because through them new grammar, phonetic and lexical items of the target language are
introduced. Furthermore, texts are also means to help students enrich their background
knowledge and vocabulary as well. In reading lesson, students are supposed to understand the
texts correctly as much as possible, learn some new language items e.g. words, structures, and
use what they have got from the text through reading tasks and communication activities that
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follow. Therefore, in teaching reading, the teacher should pay much attention to the following
aspects such as language content, vocabulary and grammatical structures, types of reading
activities, though it is not simple thing to do as what Buck, G (2001) states: “Providing suitable
texts is not a simple matter. It takes time, effort and some expertise”.
1.4 Organization of reading comprehension text
1.4.1 Pre-reading stage
This stage plays a decisive role in the whole process of teaching reading comprehension,
so most experienced readers employ pre- reading and other strategies to make reading easier.
Pre- reading aims at introducing the text to the students and helps them make careful preparation
before reading the text. It is advisable for the teacher to create a reading motivation and a
positive attitude towards reading for students so that they can achieve a high level of success and
become confident that they can read effectively.
As for Doff (1988), there are many activities a teacher can carry out to help students
before they start reading as following:
- Introducing the text briefly
- Presenting new vocabulary
- Revising grammatical structures
- Giving guiding questions,
Moreover, in my opinion, the teacher should activate the students’ background
knowledge and provide some information about the text. This is aimed to help the students to
predict the content of the text they are going to read. Prediction is an important ability that the
students should develop in order to comprehend various kinds of texts, especially the texts that
the students are not familiar with. Gebhard (1987:21) explains that “providing background
information on a reading lesson is another way teachers can facilitate successful reading
comprehension. Providing information about a reading selection before students read provides
them with the opportunity to gain new language, as well as recall their already existing
knowledge, which they can take with them into their reading experience, and this knowledge
facilitates successful comprehension”.
Of course, not all these techniques will be relevant for all the texts. The teacher can
choose the suitable ones to motivate his learners.

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1.4.2 While – reading stage
While- reading stage is carried out when all students actually set their eyes on the text
and this stage is the main part of a reading comprehension lesson. The aims of this stage focus on
making the students anticipate in the process of understanding the whole text, and interpreting
exactly what the author wrote. In addition, it helps the students break up the organization of the
text; understand the text structures; classify the text content and recognize the writer’s purpose
and attitude. This stage also trains the students to think about other ideas rising from the text and
to form judgment and opinions on the basis of the fact presented. Moreover, it helps the students
improve their reading speed and techniques. Besides, this stage offers an opportunity to apply
effectively what they have learnt from the text to their purpose of study and communication. Last
but not least, this stage helps the students develop their decision - making and problem solving
skills. Because this stage plays a very important role in a reading lesson, it must be designed
carefully.
1.4.3 Post – reading stage
Post- reading is the implementation of various activities carried out after the students
have read the text. Some post- reading activities are extension of the work done at the prereading and while- reading stages. Some relate only loosely to the reading text itself.
According to Durkin (1981:486), “one reason for post- reading discussion in class is to
offer pupils the chance to see in what way their reading did or did not succeed, and why”. In fact,
there are more than one purpose for post- reading stage which are of wide relevance and applied
to all students, and which teachers who teach groups with mixed level should consider.
One of the purposes of post-reading work is to check whether the students have
understood the text or not. The teacher can ask the students some questions about the texts which
are not given in the book or require them to discuss in group and in pair and so on. Another
purpose is to consolidate or reflect upon what the students have read. To achieve this, the teacher
should help the students focus on the important points as writer’s opinion, the main ideas of the
text, the specific paragraph or phrase in the reading text. The third purpose of post- reading work

is to expand on the topic or language of the reading text, and perhaps transfer things learned to
another context. Therefore, the students can relate the text to their background knowledge and
interest and be able to express their personal opinion toward the text. Moreover, post- reading
13


activities also offer the students a real practice of using language. Setting up and organizing postreading work depend very much on all the objectives of the program as a whole. Post- reading
work should, thus, contribute in a coherent manner, to the writing, speaking and listening skills
that the program aims to develop.
In conclusion, the three stages offer the teacher a frame work to conduct a reading lesson
in general but they do not need to follow rigidly. Obviously, this three phrase approach is not to
be carried out mechanically on every occasion. Sometimes the teacher may wish to cut out the
pre-reading stage and get learners to work on the text directly. Sometimes port- reading work
may not be suitable. However, the advantage of the three phase approach is twofold. Firstly, it
respects and makes use of the students’ own knowledge of language and of the world and uses
this as a basis for involvement, motivation, and progress. Secondly, the three phase approach
leads to integration of the skills in a coherent manner, so that the reading session is not simply
isolated. Separating each from the others is like somebody warming up for a race and then
running the race itself some days later.
1.5 Summary
The chapter has so far presented the relevant literature, which has helped to form the
theoretical and conceptual framework for the study. It has talked about different aspects related
to the reading skills and reading activities. What is more, the importance of teaching reading in
the second language classroom and factors in teaching and learning reading have been reviewed.
The following chapter will display the methodology of the research under the light of the above mentioned theories.

14


Chapter 2: Methodology

In this chapter, participants, data collection procedures, data collection instruments will
be presented.
2.1 Participants
The process of data collection involved the participation of both teachers of English and
grade 11 students as follows:
2.1.1 Teachers of English
At Hong Quang High School, there are totally 12 teachers of English, including me, aged
from 28 to 52. Half of them graduated from University of Languages and International Study Hanoi, National University, Vietnam. The others had in-service ELT training courses. The
number of female teachers formed the majority (10 female teachers and only two male teachers).
All of them are enthusiastic with their career and had at least six years experienced in teaching
English.
However,in terms of methodology, the teachers in our school usually employ the traditional
methods of teaching especially Grammar-translation method. They often apply this method in
teaching English. In other words, they focus on analyzing the grammar rules, not on the
acquisition of language skills.They spend most of the classroom time explaining new words,
analyzing grammar structures and translating texts into Vietnamese. Students often listen and
take notes passively. This leads to low motivation in students and creates very few chances for
them to improve their communicative competence.
2.1.2 The 11th -form students
The subjects of the study were 105 students coming from two different classes at Hong
Quang High School, all of them were born in 1994, and they are both male, and female. Most of
them have already learned English for at least four years at lower secondary school but many of
them are at the low level of English proficiency. Another fact is that most of the students are
from rural areas in Hai Duong province, some from Hai Duong city. Consequently, individual
differences in learning styles, identities, attitudes, motivation, etc are unavoidable and may cause
the teachers some problems during their teaching.
In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation
makes them not interest in learning English. Although most of them have already learnt English

15

for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge of English is still poor and
limited. Hardly can they say a complete sentence in the target language.
2.2 Data collection instruments
Using questionnaire allows the researcher to collect the data needed in quantitative form.
Besides, the researcher finds it quite easy to summarize, analyze, and report the collected data
because all informants answer the same questions.
2.2.1 The questionnaire for the students
The questionnaire consists of 10 questions, which are divided into eight parts. Part one
(includes question 1) aims at exploring students’ purposes of reading. In part two, by answering
question 2, the students had chance to express their attitude toward the role of reading. The third
part of the questionnaire (includes question 3, 4, 5, 6) was made to find out Students’ attitude
toward class reading activities. The fourth part includes question 7 was made to find out
students’ difficulties when learning reading at school. In the part five, by answering question 8,
students had chance to express their responses to the techniques used by the teacher. Question 9
is aimed at investigating the students’ ways of reading. The purpose of the last question (question
10) is to find out the students’ effort for improving their reading comprehension skill.
2.2.1.2 The questionnaire for the teachers
There are 10 questions in the questionnaire for the teachers and they were designed with
seven purposes. Firstly, through the answer to the first question, the researcher will evaluate the
teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills at school.
Secondly, question 2 is aimed at finding out the teachers’ attitude toward the importance of
developing reading comprehension skills. By answering questions 3, 4, 5, 6, the teachers had
chance to express the teachers’ using reading techniques in a reading lesson at Hong Quang High
School. Question 7 is aimed at investigating the teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading.
Question 8 is to find out the teachers’ suggested activities. Question 9 is aimed at investigating
the teachers’ organizing reading activities. The purpose of the last question (question 10) is to
find out the teachers’ activities to improve students’ reading comprehension skills.
2.3 Data collection procedures

The copies of the questionnaire were delivered to 105 students from 2 different classes
which were randomly selected among 12 grade 11 classes and 12 teachers of English in Hong
Quang High School during their last English classes of the second term. And the researcher
16


herself delivered the copies to participants. Before the participants answered the questions, all of
them had been informed in Vietnamese about the purposes of the questionnaire and how to
answer all the questions so that they were clear about what and how they would to do. When the
students were writing their answers, the researcher was there with them to give any explanation
if necessary. About 30 minutes later, the questionnaires were collected by the researcher herself.

17


Chapter 3: Data, data analysis and discussion
In this part, the collected data will be presented by means of tables and charts. Each table
and chart is followed by an analysis of the data and their discussion.
3.1 Data analysis
3.1.1 Questionnaire for the students
3.1.1.1 Students’ attitudes toward the importance of learning reading comprehension skills

A. Very important
B. As important as other language
skills (listening, speaking, writing)
C. Not important as other language
skills (listening, speaking, writing)
D. Not important at all

Chart 1 - Students’ attitudes toward the importance of learning reading comprehension skills

As shown in the above chart, the students valued the importance of reading
comprehension skills in different ways. Most of the students in the survey had positive attitude
toward reading, 24.8% of them thought that reading comprehension skill was very important,
whereas 49.5% considered reading equally important to listening, writing, and speaking skills.
The reasons the students gave for their perception of the importance of reading were various, but
they seemed to see the association of reading to other language skills or to the acquisition of
other formal elements of the language. However, a certain number of students did not highly
appreciate the important role of reading, 14.3% found it not as important as other skills and only
11.4 % thought that reading comprehension skill was not important. The reasons for this can be
that reading is not very beneficial to them.
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3.1.1.2 Students’ purposes of reading
OPTIONS

Number

percent (%)

A. To entertain

8

7.6

B. To gain information and improve knowledge

10

9.5

C. To enrich vocabulary and grammatical structures

15

14.3

D. To improve language skills

12

11.4

E. To do all ( A, B, C, D)

60

57.1

Table 1: Students’ purposes of reading
The results of Question 2 show that the students’ purposes of reading were not the
same. Different ideas were provided for reading purposes. Most of the students of Hong Quang
High School read in English with the combination of the mentioned purposes were the largest,
accounting for 57.1%. Next is the number of student who considered enriching vocabulary and
grammatical structures as his/her reading purposes (14.3%); 11.4% of them read for improving
language skills; the number of the student who read for gaining information and improving
knowledge is 9.5%. Finally, 7.6% of the students said that they liked reading texts to entertain.
It is clear that the students’ purposes of reading in English were various. Many students
thought that reading could help them much in reinforcing language skills and improving

background knowledge.
3.1.1.3 Students’ attitude toward class reading activities
3.1.1.3.1 Frequency of using pre-reading activities by the teachers
Pre – reading

Always

Sometimes

Rarely

Never

N

%

N

%

N

%

N

1. Using games to introduce the text

13

12.4 46

43.8

28

26.7 18

17.1

2. Using pre – reading questions

65

61.9 24

22.9

13

12.4 3

2.9

3. Pre – teaching vocabulary

45

42.9 37

35.2

7

6.7

16

15.2

4. Explaining the instructions of the task

71

67.6 7

6.7

8

8.6

18

17.1

19

%

5. Making students predict the content of 65

61.9 16

15.2

15

14.3 9

8.6

the text
6. Giving reading tasks to students

24

22.9 48

45.7

17

16.2 16

15.2

7. Using visual aids to introduce the text

26

24.8 28

26.7

47

44.8 4

3.8

8. Giving a brief introduction to the text.

60

57.1 23

21.9

10

9.5

11.4

12

Table 2 indicates that four activities such as: using pre-reading questions, explaining the

instructions of the text, making students predict the content of the text and giving a brief
introduction to the text were most frequently used by the teachers. Other activities like using
games and pre – teaching new vocabulary were also chosen at the pre-reading stage by many
students. However, 44.8% of the students reported that their teachers rarely used visual aids to
introduce the texts.
3.1.1.3.2 Students’ attitude toward while-reading activities
Table 3: The frequency of using while- reading activities
While – reading activities

Often

Sometimes

Never

N

%

N

%

N

%

1. Matching

84

80

21

20

0

0

2. T/F

73

69.5

26

24.8

6

5.7

3. Questions and answers

81

77.1

24

22.9

0

0

4. Finding synonyms and antonyms

10

9.5

58

55.2

37

35.2

5. Reordering

28

26.7

63

60

14

13.3

6. Sentence – completing

38

36.2

57

54.3

10

9.5

7. Gap – filling

65

61.9

31

29.5

9

8.6

8. Finding the topic sentences

8

7.6

33

31.4

64

61

9. Finding equivalents

6

5.7

24

22.9

75

71.4

10. Multiple – choice

88

83.8

12

11.4

5

4.8

From the data, the teachers apparently often used some common types of activity in
their reading lessons: Matching, Questions and answers, True/False and Multiple- choice, using
20