Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions

Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
Ministry of education and training
Vinh University
Course assignment
Some difficulties in reading lessons of
students at Sao Viet centre and some
suggested solutions.
Learner: Lê Thị Hương (1987)
Supervisor: M.A, Nguyễn Thị Vân Lam
Vinh, december 2010
Le Thi Huong – M.A. Course 17 – English Teaching Methodology
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
Acknowledgement
I could not complete my assignment without the great help and useful advice from
my teacher, my family as well as my friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my great thanks to y supervisor, M.A. Nguyen Thi
Van Lam for her enthusiastic help.
Secondly, I would like to express my deep thanks to all the teachers in Foreign
Language Department of Vinh University for giving me helpful lectures.
My thanks also go to my director, Ms Nguyen Thi Yen and all the colleagues at Sao
Viet English Centre, Nghean Branch for their helpful and enthusiastic helps during the time
I did the survey.
Furthermore, my thanks are also sent to all of my friends from class 17 Master
Degree of Arts Course for their encouragements and helps.
To everyone, thank you very much.
Vinh, December 2010
Le Thi Huong
Le Thi Huong – M.A. Course 17 – English Teaching Methodology
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.

List of tables
Table 1: Students complete the text or not
Table 2: The reasons that students can not complete the table
Table 3: Factors that affect students’ understanding
Table 4: How students deal with unknown words
Table 5: How students read the text
Table 6: The way students get main idea
Table 7: How students get specific information
Table 8: how teachers teach vocabulary
Le Thi Huong – M.A. Course 17 – English Teaching Methodology
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
Table of contents
Acknowledgement
List of tables
Table of content
Part I: introduction
1. Rationale of the study......................................................................................................3
2. Aims of the study.............................................................................................................3
3. Scope of the study............................................................................................................4
4. Method of the study.........................................................................................................5
5. Design of the study..........................................................................................................6
Part II: Content
Chapter 1: Theoretical background
1.1. Definition of reading.....................................................................................................6
1.2. Factors that affect learners’ reading result....................................................................7
1.2.1. Subjective factors.......................................................................................................8
1.2.1.1. Students’ motivation...............................................................................................8
1.2.1.2. Purpose of reading..................................................................................................9
1.2.1.3. Strategies of reading.............................................................................................10

1.2.1.4. Skills of reading....................................................................................................11
1.2.2. Objective factors......................................................................................................12
1.2.2.1. Reading materials..................................................................................................12
1.2.2.2. Teaching methods.................................................................................................13
Chapter 2: The study
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
2.1. Research questions:.....................................................................................................14
2.2. Research setting..........................................................................................................15
2.3. Research procedure.....................................................................................................16
2.3.1. Difficulties in reading materials...............................................................................17
2.3.2. Difficulties in students’ reading strategies...............................................................17
2.3.2.1. How students deal with new words .....................................................................18
2.3.2.2. Difficulties in students’ ways of reading the text.................................................18
2.3.3.3. Difficulties in getting main ideas of the text ........................................................19
2.3.3.4. The way students get specific idea........................................................................19
2.3.3.5. Difficulties in teachers’ teaching methods............................................................20
Chapter 3: Teaching Implications
3.1. Suggestions for students.............................................................................................21
3.1.1. Previewing...............................................................................................................21
3.1.2. Predicting ................................................................................................................21
3.1.3. Guessing from the context.......................................................................................22
3.1.4. Skimming.................................................................................................................22
3.1.5. Scanning...................................................................................................................23
3.2. Suggestion for teachers...............................................................................................23
Part III: conclusion
Appendix
References
Le Thi Huong – M.A. Course 17 – English Teaching Methodology

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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
Part I: introduction
Nowadays, with the tendency of globalization and integration, English plays the
role of an effective international communicative language. Therefore, learning English has
been considered a very important duty of many students. One of the most important skills
in learning English as well as other languages is reading skill. Reading not only helps
students widen their knowledge but also enables them to develop language skills such as
listening, writing, and speaking.
Besides, realizing the importance of learning English, many students go to the
English centers which are opened every where. However, both teacher and students at Sao
Viet English centre do not feel satisfied with the results of the students in reading skill
during the process of learning English. The teachers often find their students reading
performance disappointing. And in fact, most of the students read with less understanding
than one might expect them to. Many of them can not complete the reading text in the
course book. Also, lots of them complain that they can not understand the meaning of the
reading text. Why do the students fail to learn reading in English? What are the factors that
affect them in reading? What are their difficulties in reading? How to improve their
reading? These questions are in concern with many teachers in general and they especially
interest me.
For these reasons, I decide to choose the subject: Some difficulties in reading
lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
2. Aims of the study
- To investigate some difficulties that the students at Sao Viet Centre face when learning
reading
Le Thi Huong – M.A. Course 17 – English Teaching Methodology
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
- To give some suggested solutions to help the students overcome the difficulties in order
to improve their reading effectiveness.

3. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of time and knowledge, this thesis mainly focuses on the
difficulties faced by students at Sao Viet English centre in reading lessons and some
solutions suggested to improve students’ reading skill.
4. Method of the study
This study uses the following methods:
- Statistic and classifying
- Annalistic and synthetic method
- Qualitative and quantitative
5. Design of the study
The thesis consists of three main parts:
Part I: Introduction
This part contains five smaller ones:
- Rationale of the study
- Scope of the study
- Aims of the study
- Methods of the study
- Design of the study
Part II: Content
This part consists of 3 chapters:
- Chapter 1: Theoretical background
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
- Chapter 2: The study
- Chapter 3: Teaching Implications
In chapter 1, there are the following parts:
- Definition of reading
- Factors that affect learners’ reading result.
In chapter 2, the author deals with 3 main parts:

- Research questions:
- Research setting
- Research procedure
In chapter 3, 2 main parts are solved:
- Suggestions for students
- Suggestion for teachers
Part III: Conclusion
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
Part II: content
Chapter 1: Theoretical background
1.1. Definition of reading
As in learning a foreign language in general and learning English in particular,
reading is considered the most skill of the four ones to ensure students in mastering second
language. Actually, there are different ways to understand the definition of reading.
Silberstein (1993) suggested “reading is a complex information processing skill in
which the readers interact with the text to create the meaningful discourse.
Besides, there are some ideas about reading that is cited from the Internet, these
scholars assume that “reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic
interaction with the given text; the readers will be able to interpret and then create a
meaningful one which helps them understand the text better”.
Inferring from the above definitions, it is possible to come a conclusion that reading
is an active and receptive skill in which readers play a very active roe in analyzing the text
for realizing the communicative functions.
1.2. Factors that affect learners’ reading result.
1.2.1. Subjective factors
1.2.1.1. Students’ motivation
Students’ motivation is a very important part to ensure the success of
students‘learning in general and reading in particular. When students are motivated, their

mind is opened, learning is visiting, knowledge is welcome and it is easy for students to
achieve. The more students achieve, the more they are motivated. This is such a good mood
that many students can considerably improve in leaning.
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
1.2.1.2. Purpose of reading
Besides, the reading purpose is also a very important factor that affects students’
reading. Grabe and Stove (2002) classified Reading purpose into seven types as followed:
- reading to search for simple information
- reading to skim quickly
- reading to learn from texts
- reading to integrate information
- reading to cite
- reading to criticize
- Reading for general comprehension
1.2.1.3. Strategies of reading
Usually, it is not easy for students to know all the words, phrases and the structures
used in the texts. Thus, they may apply their reading strategies to fulfill their tasks. Reading
strategies mean the way readers use their reading skills to read the texts and to deal with
the words or phrases that are unfamiliar t get information. These are some reading
strategies:
- Previewing
- Predicting
- Skimming and scanning
- Guessing the context
- Paraphrasing
1.2.1.4. Skills of reading
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Some difficulties in reading lessons of students at Sao Viet centre and some suggested solutions.
To fulfill the task while reading, students need to have certain skills. Skill means
the ability to perceive and perform something. Mumphy (1987) distinguished reading skills
a following:
- Recognizing the script of language
- Deducing the meaning and use of unfamiliar lexical items
- Understanding the meaning of explicitly stated information
- Recognizing indicators in discourse
- Interpreting texts by going outside it
- Identifying the main point or important information in a piece pf discourse
- Distinguishing the main ideas from supporting details
- Extracting salient points to summarize the text or an idea
- Skimming
- Scanning to locate specifically required information
- Transcoding information to diagrammatic display
- Basic reference skills
1.2.2. Objective factors
1.2.2.1. Reading materials
Reading materials can be considered a factor that makes students face difficulty in
reading. Many aspects of the text can make the reading process difficult.
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Text topic and content
- Text type
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