USING WHILE READING TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION FOR THE 11TH FORM STUDENTS AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays English has become an international language because it is
widely used in many parts of the world. In the tendency of integration of the
global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for
everybody. The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of
economics, politics, science, culture and education. Especially, Vietnam’s official
membership of WTO on 7th November 2006 opened a new door for integrating
into the world economy, and more and more people want to learn English for
communicating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc.
In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a
compulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language
has been recently paid great attention to. When teaching English, the teacher
teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage. And under
the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to
master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to
communicate in English successfully. Among these four skills, reading plays an
important role in enriching the students’ general knowledge and in helping them
with their further study later.
Owing to the importance of reading itself, the growing interest in learning
English in Vietnam creates a wide learning environment. It can be seen that the
teaching of reading of reading comprehension has been paid in increasing
attention to its different aspects. As time goes by, many experts and
methodologists have come to an understanding that reading comprehension is
important not only at schools but also afterwards. That is reading helps students
as readers develop their language ability in general and comprehension skills in
particular at schools as well as gives them other benefits to avoid cultural and
language bias, etc. in daily communication. Recognizing the importance of
reading, I decide on choosing the theme “Using While- Reading Techniques to
Improve Reading Comprehension for the 11th Form Students at Ham Rong
School ”

1.2. Aims of the study
The specific aims of the study are as follows:
- Clarifying the nature of reading comprehension in accordance
with some important points in teaching this skill.
- Investigating the present situation of teaching and learning reading
comprehension of the 11th form students to find out advantages as well as
problems facing both teachers and students in reading lessons.

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- Suggesting useful techniques to develop the reading
comprehension skills in the while- reading stage for the 11 th form in Phan Dang
Luu high school.
1.3. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation, all the techniques suggested are used in the whilereading stage. And the object of this study is the 11 th form students at Phan Dang
Luu high school.
1.4. Methods of the study
To implement this study, the following methods are used:
- Consulting related materials: For the sake of getting knowledge and
useful ideas, I read many books and other materials in addition to earlier
researches about reading and teaching reading comprehension.
- Delivering survey questionnaire and observing reading lessons: To
fulfill this study, two survey questionnaires, one for students and another for
teachers and some reading class observations were carried out to find out the
teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward teaching and learning reading as well as
their working methods.

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2. DEVELOPMENT
I. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Approaches of language teaching
1.1. Definitions of reading comprehension
In teaching reading, it is necessary to understand the nature of reading
comprehension. What the teacher understands about it will have a great influence
on what he or she teaches in the class. He would know what to teach and how to
make his reading lesson effectively. In fact, methodologists have been providing
different definitions of reading comprehension.
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.
Also concerning the reading comprehension, Richard and Good (1978:9)
provide a clearer point of view:
“Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between
the author and the reader. The emphasis is on the reader understanding of the
printed page based on the individual reader’s unique background of experience.
Reading is much than just pronouncing words correctly or simply what the author
intends. It is the process whereby the printed pages stimulate ideas, experiences
and responses that are unique to an individual”.
According to the above authors, reading comprehension is not only simply
understanding what is written, but also is what stimulates students to remember
from their experiences. That knowledge is then used to get meaning out of
printed page, but in the mind of the readers which included not only facts or
details but also emotion, belief and critical evaluation.
From these opinions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a
process of understanding what is conveyed in the text. It does not mean that the

reader needs to understand every single word in the text but actively work on the
text and extract the required information efficiently.
1.2. The roles of the teacher in a reading lesson
It is natural that in a reading lesson, the students must work actively and
individually. It does not mean that the teacher has nothing to do. Discussing the
roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Richard and Amato (1988) emphasize:
“The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all
participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various
activities and text. The second role is to act interdependent within the learning
teaching group”.

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From Richard and Amato’s point of view, the teacher is an organizer of
resources. He also plays the role as a guide within the classroom procedures and
students’ activities during the lesson.
Referring to this issue, Moore (1992:5) adds: “The teacher is an
environmental engineer who organizes the classroom space to fit their goal and to
maximize learning. The way the physical space of the classroom is organized can
either help or hinder learning ”.
In general, the teacher must be aware of what they need to do in a reading
lesson. Playing their roles well will certainly help the teacher lead successful
reading lessons. It will help students understand the text efficiently, and at the
same time improve considerably their reading skills.
1.3. The roles of the students in a reading lesson
In communicative language teaching, the learners are regarded as the centre
of the lesson. It is true in every reading lesson. During the reading process, the
students play the role of an active and creative listener as well as readers.
In a reading lesson students must take an active role as listeners. They need

to listen to the teacher’s instructions and explanations carefully to find out the
way of recognizing information and way of deducing new words or grammatical
structures.
The students must also be active and flexible readers, it is wise if they
work on their own during the reading process, make full use of the class time to
read and do the exercises to achieve a full understanding of the text. It is
necessary for them to find a suitable reading strategy and use their background
knowledge to fulfill their tasks because the significance of the text as well as the
information is not always directly stated in printed pages.
In summary, students are the key factor to decide the success of a reading
lesson. Teacher and students ate interrelated to each other during the process of
teaching and learning reading skills.
2.1. Reading activities
We read different texts in different ways. According to the way 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.
2.1.1. Skimming
Skimming is commonly used in reading comprehension. It is one of
specific reading techniques necessary for quick and efficient reading. There have
been many definitions of skimming.
Greenwood (1981:92) writes: “the reader goes through particular passage
such as newspaper article merely to get the gist”

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In this term, Douglas Brown has the same opinion but it is clearer than that
of above author. He wrote:
“Skimming consists of quickly running eyes across the whole text for its

gist. Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose
of the passage, the main topic, or massage, or possibly some of the developing or
supporting ideas.”
Considering the two opinions, it can be concluded that skimming is a skill
that enables readers to get the main point of the text without being concerned
with details. They only go through the text very fast to get general sense or the
gist of it.
In brief, skimming is a very useful study technique to help the learner
organize his thoughts and specify what information he can get from a book, so
that his reading is more efficient. Hence, skimming should be applied in teaching
reading to help students have an overview of what they read.
2.1.2. Scanning
Similar to skimming, scanning is a necessary technique in reading
efficiently. Douglas (2001:308) defines scanning as follows: “Scanning was
quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text”
Sharing the same opinion with Douglas Brown, Williams (2001:100)
emphasizes: “Scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in
order to find a particular point of information.” It is used to decide exactly what
kind of information we are looking for and where to find it.
In addition, Grellet (1981:19) gives a more detailed definition of scanning:
“When scanning, we only try to locate information and often we do not even
follow the linearity of passage to do so, and scanning is far more limited since it
only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose.”
These authors have the same point that while scanning reader does not
need to read form cover to cover, they only look for the information they want by
running their eyes rapidly along the lines. It can be practised with the great range
of texts such as dictionaries, map, advertisements, labels, etc. This kind of
reading is very useful in reading selectively.
In general, both skimming and scanning are effective techniques for quick
and efficient reading. It is advisable to make use of them to improve reading

comprehension skills for students in reading classes.
2.1.3. Intensive reading
Intensive reading is also widely used in a reading class. Its is an effective
way to explore the text, to go deeply into the meaning and the organization of the
text.
According to Grellet (1981:4) “Intensive reading means reading short text to

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extract specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving reading for
details.”
In addition, Nuttal (1989:23) writes: “Intensive reading involves
approaching the texts under the close guidance of the teacher…, or under the
guidance of a task which forces the students to pay great attention to the ext. the
aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detail understanding of the
text: not only of what is means but also of how the meaning is produced. ”
From the mentioned opinions, intensive reading’s aim is to achieve full
understanding of the logical arguments, attitude, and purposes of the writer as
well as his linguistic means to achieve these purposes.
Sharing the same opinion with Nuttal, Douglas (2001:312) defines:
“Intensive reading is usually a classroom oriented activity in which
students focus on linguistic or semantic details of a passage. Reading calls
students’ attention to grammatical forms, discourse markers and other surface
structure details for the purpose of understanding literal meaning, implication,
rhetorical relationships and the like”.
In short, intensive reading is a basic classroom activity. It is really effective
if the teacher and his students know how to fully exploit this activity in class with
the help of reading exercises.
2.1.4. Extensive reading

Extensive reading is also called “reading for fluency”. The students read
long texts to have general understanding, to develop fluency in reading or to
relax. This is an activity involving global understanding just as Grellet (1981:4)
confirms: “Extensive reading means reading longer text, usually or one’s own
pleasure. This is a fluency activity mainly involving general understanding.”
In Brown’s opinion, besides practising fluency, extensive reading helps
students enrich their language elements because it is one of the keys to achieve
reading ability, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing
(2001:301)
And to Nuttal (1989:168), this kind of reading is also a very useful skill for
students to widen their knowledge as he wrote: “The best way to improve one’s
knowledge of foreign language is to go and live among its speakers. The next
best way is to read extensively in it.”
To summarize, extensive reading is one of good ways to improve one’s
knowledge of a foreign language because its aim is to cover the content of text in
the shortest possible period of time. In the language classroom, the teacher must
introduce some suitable reading materials to students, as it is useful for them to
form a good habit of reading.
3.1. Stages of a teaching reading lesson

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A reading lesson can be divided into three stages which are pre- reading
stage, while- reading stage and post- reading stage. Each of these stages carries
its own features and purposes and requires different techniques and strategies
(William, 1984:37)
3.1.1. The Pre-reading stage
In a reading lesson, the pre- reading stage is an important one because it
creates motivation and positive attitude towards the reading text for studnets. It

will focus their attention on what they are going to read. Concerning the purposes
of the pre- stage, Williams (1984:37) writes:
“What the pre- reading phrase tries to do is:
1. To introduce and arouse interest in the topic.
2. To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading.
3. To provide some language preparation for the text”
In general, in the pre- reading stage, it is necessary to set a good
preparation for students, provide them the sense of what they are going to do in
their reading lesson.
3.1.2. The while-speaking stage
While- reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson. Without this
stage, the students will lose the chance to deal with the text to understand the
writer’s purpose and clarify the text’s content in detail. Williams (1984:38) points
out the aims of the while- reading stage:
1. To help to understand of the writer’s purpose.
2. To help to understand of the text structure.
3. To clarify the text.
He also gives the teacher some questions to ask himself on order to deal
with the above- mentioned aims:
1. What is the function of this text?
2. How is the text organized or developed? (e.g.: a narrative, an
explanation with various examples, an argument and counter argument)
3. What content or information is extracted from the text?
4. What may the reader anger or deduce from the text?
5. What language may be learned from the text?
6. What reading styles may be practiced?
It is clear that, question 1 deals with the aims of understanding, the writer’s
purpose, question 2 helps to recognize the text structure and the rest help to
clarify the text content.
The answers to these questions will be a guide for the teacher in this stage.

Depending on their answers, the teacher will choose suitable activities for
students which focus them on exploiting the meaning of the text, and develop

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their reading skills.
3.1.3. The post-reading stage
The post- reading stage is the final but not the least important stage of a
reading lesson because it is time for students to apply what they have got from
the text into real life communication. In Williams’s opinions ( 1984: 39), the postreading stage aims at:
1. To consolidate or reflect upon what has been read.
2. To relate the text to the learners’ own knowledge interest or
views.
In summary, each of the reading stage carries its own aims and activities. It
is very effective if these three stages are combined flexibly and appropriately for
an efficient reading lesson. In the while- reading stage, it is necessary to help the
students improve and develop sub- reading skills such as skimming, scanning, or
reading for details. If the students can acquire these skills, it is easier for them to
understand efficiently the significance of the text. To acquire these skills, students
may be instructed to take part in various activities according to each skill. There
are numerous activities in this stage. The teacher should be flexible in choosing
them for their reading lessons. In the process of reading, asking students to work
in pairs or groups is also advisable. This may enable students to feel more
pleasant in reading, encourage them to work harder to improve and develop
effective reading skills.
3.1.4. Summary
In this chapter, all the concerning theoretical background of reading
comprehension has been presented. First, some definitions of reading and reading
comprehension basing on some linguistics scholars have been presented. Second,

teaching reading comprehension consisting of relationship between reading and
other skills, the role of the teacher as well as the students in the three stages of a
reading lesson have been reviewed.
II. The English teaching and learning situations at Ham
Rong high school
1. Description of the students at Ham Rong high school
The students at Ham Rong school had learnt English for seven years
before they entered Ham Rong High school. The level of English for grade 11
students is targeted at pre-intermediate level though a few actually reach the
standard. As their lower-secondary years were spent with the old text books and
the grammar translation method, most students are, to some extent, good at
grammar, but bad at listening, writing and speaking the target language.
Nowadays, together with improvements of other skills of English
learning, reading comprehension has been put into consideration at secondary

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schools in Vietnam. As time goes by, a lot of achievements in teaching reading
comprehension can be clearly seen. It is true that quality of teaching and learning
reading comprehension in most secondary schools has been improved remarkably
in terms of the teachers’ methods and the learners’ attitudes. However, there are
still some problems facing the reading teachers a well as the pupils.
In order to fulfill this study, two survey questionnaires were conducted to
th
the 11 form pupils and eight teachers of English, especially those who are
teaching English to the 11th form students at Ham Rong high school to get more
details of the reality of teaching and learning reading comprehension at whilereading stage. This section deals with main points: Objects of the study,
objectives of the study, methods of study.
2. Settings of the study

The main objects of this study are:
- One hundred 11th form secondary students at Ham Rong high
school, most of them have been learning English for nearly six years.
- Eight teachers of English at Ham Rong high school, especially
those who are teaching English to the 11th form students.
III. Research methodology
1. Subjects
The questionnaire was designed for 100 students of grade 11 from 4 classes
(11B3, 11B6, 11B8, 11B9) at Ham Rong High School to get information to fulfill
the aims of the study. These students were randomly selected to answer the
questionnaire. The questionnaire for 100 grade 11 students tends to survey on the
students’ experience and their interest in using the activities in a Reading lesson
by answering “Yes” or “No”. More importantly, the questionnaire will discover
the problems the students have coped with when they learn reading skill and their
own suggestions for better reading learning and teaching.
2. Survey Instruments
2.1. Questionnaire for the students
The questionnaire for students includes 14 questions. It took one month to
deliver and collect 100 copies of the questionnaire.
The questionnaire is about whether they like using Role play, Repetition,
Structure – based Activities, Question and Answer Exchanges, Discussing in
pairs or groups, Picture description, Problem solving, Topic – based Discussion,
Free-talks, Completing the Dialogues, Ordering – Rearrangement, Interview,
Games/Songs or Information gap.
Table 1: Questions
Number
Questions
Responds
What do you think about the importance of reading

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7
8
9
10

comprehension?
A. Very important B. Important as other language skills
C. Less important than other language skill
D. Not important at all
What do you think about the importance of
developing reading comprehension skills?
A. Very important
B. Important
C. Not very important D. No important at all
What do you think about reading texts in English 11

textbook?
A. Interesting
C. Suitable to student’ level
B. Boring
D. Not suitable to students’ level
What are the students’ purposes in reading?
A.To entertain themselves
B.To reinforce vocabulary and grammatical structures
C.To improve language skills
D.To improve background knowledge
E. All of the above
What are the students’ difficulties in reading?
A.Lack of vocabulary
B.Lack of grammatical
C.Lack of background knowledge
D.Lack of reading skills
What do the students do to overcome difficulties?
A.Wait for the ring answer when the teachers correct
B.Ask the teachers for help
C. Discuss with friends to find out the right answer
What are the students’ ways of reading texts
A.Focus on every word for detailed understanding
B.Read quickly for general understanding first and then
focus on other specific information and new words
Do you use the extra reading exercises in reading
classes? A. Yes
B. No
Do you give students timeg reading exercises
A. Yes
B. No

Do you think classroom organization in the whilereading stage important?
A. Yes
B. No

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2.2. Presentation of statistical results
The 100 copies of the questionnaire delivered to the students and teachers
have been responded. The data are analyzed in this part of the study in the
following table which shows sequences of the responses for the questions
available in the questionnaire.
In general, the survey of both teachers and students gives findings about their
attitudes to teaching and learning reading texts and their working methods. From
the above data analysis, it can be stated that both teachers and students have
positive attitudes to teaching and developing reading skill. Teachers have been
using different activities and exercises in the while- reading stage, but they are
not appropriate and effective enough. The teachers, in fact still apply traditional
strategies in teaching reading. Most of them focus on presenting new words and
grammatical structures rather than instruct their students to use some useful
techniques such as skimming and scanning, etc. They have not made use of pair
work and group work in the process of teaching reading. That is why their
reading lessons could not be effective. Students consequently cannot develop
their reading skills. It is the reason why the teacher of English should think of
more useful techniques that can work to get the best result of a reading lesson
Table 2:

Responds

Number

Responds (%)
1
A. Students : 35% ;Teachers :25% B. Students: 62% ;Teachers: 75%
C. Students : 7 % ;Teachers: 3% D. Students: 5% ;Teachers: 1%
2
A. Students : 32%;Teachers :27% B. Students: 62% ;Teachers: 75%
C. Students : 7 % ;Teachers: 1% D. Students: 3% ;Teachers: 1%
3
A. Students : 55% ;Teachers :60% B. Students: 10% ; Teachers: 5%
C. Students : 20 %;Teachers: 25% D. Students: 15% ;Teachers:10%
4
A. Students : 5%
B. Students: 30%
C. Students : 20 % D. Students: 10% E .Students: 70%
5
A. Students : 72%;Teachers :70% B. Students: 25% ;Teachers: 20%
C. Students : 15 % ;Teachers:10% D. Students: 30%;Teachers: 10%
6
A. Students : 55%
B. Students: 25% C. Students : 25 %
7
A. Students : 65%;Teachers :30% B. Students: 40% ;Teachers :70%
8
A. Students : 80%;Teachers :90% B. Students: 20%;Teachers :15%
9
A. Students : 80%;Teachers :92% B. Students: 20%;Teachers :10%
10
A. Students : 70%;Teachers :85% B. Students: 30%;Teachers :20%
Table 2: The frequency of using while- reading activities and exercises
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While- reading
exercises
Questions and
answers
T/F exercises
Multiple choice
exercises
Finding the topic
sentences
Finding
equivalents
Blank filling
Reordering
exercises
Completing
exercises
Matching
exercises
Finding
paragraph topics

Often
Sometimes
Never
Students Teacher
Teacher
Students
Students’ Teachers

’
s’
s’
’ choice
choice
’ choice
choice
choice
choice
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
(%)
82

85

18

15

0

0

72

80

25

20

3

0

85

85

11

15

4

0

7

15

30

20

61

65

9

10

45

45

36

45

60

65

33

35

7

0

24

25

61

65

13

10

35

35

56

60

9

5

27

25

61

70

10

5

5

5

26

25

69

70

The frequency of using activities and exercises in the while- reading
stage is also investigated. There are three levels (often, sometimes and never) for
ten kinds of exercises. From the data, teachers and students roughly have the
same opinion about the frequency of using these exercises. Teachers apparently
often used some common type of exercises in their reading lessons: Questions
and answers, True/False questions and Multiple- choice questions. Using only
such common kinds of exercises frequently may make students feel bored. It is
advisable to use some other ones for a change such as Finding topic sentences,
Finding synonyms and antonyms or Finding equivalents, which are rarely
conducted in the reading class.
IV. SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES USED IN THE WHILE READING STAGE TO DEVELOP THE READING SKILL FOR THE 11 TH
FORM STUDENTS
As mentioned above, the while- reading stage is regarded as the main part
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of a reading lesson. This stage often occupies most of the time in class, and
accounts largely for the improvement of students’ reading comprehension skill.
The students must be active and do practice as much as possible. To help students
understand reading texts and at the same time develop their reading skill, the
teacher must play a role as a guiding person. He should give his students clear
purposes while reading (for example, reading for general ideas, reading for
specific information, and reading for further understanding) with clear
instructions for various kinds of activities according to each purpose.
Based on the nature of reading and teaching reading in addition to what is
found from the survey, some useful techniques are suggested to help students to
read better at the while- reading stage. All the example suggested question types
are based on reading texts in “English” textbook.
1. Questions and answers
After teaching new vocabulary or introducing the text, etc. the teacher asks
his students to read the text silently for the first time. This activity enables them
to gain the global understanding of the text, identify main ideas before going into
the details of the text.
For example, in Unit 4: “Volunteer work ” (English 11: page 46), the
students may be asked to answer the questions after skimming the text:
1. What is the main idea of this passage?
2. What do young volunteers work in the homes of sick or old people?
3. Is there a voluntary organization called Big Brothers?
For instance, in the text “Friendship” (English 11: page 13, the students
may be asked to answer the question:
Which of the choices A, B, C or D most adequately sums up the ideas of
the whole passage?
A. A friend in need is a friend indeed B. Conditions of true friendship.
C. Features of a good friend.
D. Friends and acquaintances.

When doing the multiple choices exercises, the students need to understand
the stem of the item as well as the options. It is necessary to help the students
immediately when they have problems with the question stems.
2. True/ False questions
True/ False questions may be used to draw the students’ attention to the
main ideas of the text. The students are given a list of statements about the text
and they must decide whether they are true or false according to what they read.
There are several possibilities of this kind of questions.
For example, in the text “Celebrations” (English 11: 90), the students have
to decide if the following statements are T, F or NG according to the text.
Decide whether the statements are true (T), (F) or (NG)

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1. Tet is always on 20th February on the Western calendar.
2. According to the text, for people anywhere in the world the beginning of spring
is the start of a new year.
3. Tet used to be longer than it is nowadays.
4. According to the text, “lucky money” is given to everyone at Tet.
5. Kimquat trees are popular both in the North and in the South of Vietnam.
6. People try to be nice and polite to each other because they want to have good
luck on New Year’s Day.
When asking the students to answer the multiple choice questions and the
True/ False questions, the teacher needs to be aware that the students can guess
the answer rather than base on the text. To exploit the text efficiently, it is
plausible to ask the students to discuss their answers in pairs or in groups, and
give reasons for their choice.
3. Multiple choice questions
This is one of the most common types of exercises used in reading

comprehension. It can be used to focus on the whole text and enables students to
understand the text by giving them clues. His kind of questions certainly contains
a statement and a set of possible answers. Students’ task is to select the best one
form the answers depending on the text.
For instance, in the text “Friendship” (English 11: 13, the students may be
asked to answer the question:
Which of the choices A, B, C or D most adequately sums up the ideas of
the whole passage?
A. A friend in need is a friend indeed
B. Conditions of true friendship.
C. Features of a good friend.
D. Friends and acquaintances.
When doing the multiple choices exercises, the students need to understand
the stem of the item as well as the options. It is necessary to help the students
immediately when they have problems with the question stems.
4. Finding topic sentences
One of the useful activities which helps students understand the main
points of the text is finding the topic sentence for each paragraph in the text. That
key sentence is often at the beginning of each paragraph. The students can look
for it to get the idea of what follows.
For example, for the text “Hobbies” (English 11: 146), the teacher may ask
his students to skim the text and underline the topic sentence in each paragraph.
Paragraph 2: The hobby I like most is playing my guitar. My uncle, who is
an accomplished guitarist, taught me how to play. Now I can play a few simple
tunes. I have even begun to sing while playing the guitar, but I have not been very
successful at this. My uncle tells me that all I need is to practise regularly and I

14

should be able to do it. He is very good at accompanying people singing with his
guitar and I admire him very much.
Paragraph 3: Another hobby of mine is keeping fish. I have a modest little
glass fish tank where I keep a variety of little fish. Some of them were bought from
the shop while some others were collected from the rice field near my house. They
look so beautiful swimming about in the tank. I love watching them and my
mother loves watching them, too.
5. Finding equivalents
In these types of exercise, the teacher may ask his students to find the
equivalents for the reference used in the whole text or a short paragraph of the text.
For instance, in order to get a detailed understanding of the 1 st and the 2nd
paragraph in the text “The wonders of the world” (English 11: 178), the students
may be asked to find the equivalent for reference.
“The Great Pyramid of Giza was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu
around the year 1560 B.C. The purpose of this huge stone pyramid was to serve
as a tomb when he died and to protect the burial chamber from the weather and
from thieves who might try to steal the treasures and belongings here. The Great
Pyramid is believed to have been built over a 20- year period. First, the site was
prepared and then the huge blocks of stone were transported and put in their
places.
When it was built, the Great Pyramid was 147 meters high on a base of
230 meters square. It ranked as the tallest structure on earth for more than 43
centuries, only to be surpassed in height in the nineteenth century A.D. The
structure consisted of approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing
about 2.5 tons.”
1. he............. 2. who ............. 3. it............. 4. it ............. 5. each.............
6. Blank- filling
The teacher uses this kind of activity to focus his students on specific
information in the text. The students have to use information in the text to fill in
the provided blanks by inserting a single word or a group of words.

Filling in the blank is generally used in the section of scanning for detail in
the textbook English 11. For example, in “Sources of energy” (English 11: 124)
one
environment
alternative
limited
unlimited
sources
energy
fuels
We need energy to live and work. Our major source of (1)........ is oil. Oil is
(2)........ kind of fossil fuel. The amount of fossil (3)........ in the world is (4)........
Therefore, we must save it, and at the same time, we must find new sources of
energy. Geothermal heat and nuclear power are (5)........ sources of energy. They
can give us electricity. Other alternative (6)........ are the sun, waves and water.

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These sources are not only (7)........ and available but also clean and safe for the
(8)........ People should develop and use them more and more in the future.
7. Reordering information or events
This type of activity can be most commonly used with the text organized in
chronological sequence.
For example, with the text “Celebrations” (English 11: 90), it is useful to
ask the students to put the following things in the right order.
1. Homes are often decorated with plants and flowers.
2. Many people go to the pagoda to pray for a happy year for themselves and
their family.
3. Tet marks the beginning of spring and, for a agrarian people, the start of a new

year.
4. Streets are decorated with colored lights and red banners.
8. Completing tables and diagrams
Completing tables and diagrams is often used for texts with the ideas
organized in numeration or in comparison and contrast.
For instance, the students have to complete the diagram after reading the
text “Nature in danger” (English 11: 114)
Human beings have a great influence on the world

changing
..............

affecting
..............

destroying
..............

As a result..........
9. Matching heading
In this activity, the students are provided with a list of headings which is
the summary of each paragraph in the text. Their task is to glance quickly at the
entire paragraph and match the suitable heading for each. If they can find out the
right title for each paragraph, they may understand efficiently all the main points
conveyed in the text.
For example, for the text “Space conquest” (English 11: 166), ask the
students to read the text and match the headings for paragraphs.
Paragraph 1
A. The tragic accident
Paragraph 2

B. The lift- off

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Paragraph 3
C. Congratulations
Paragraph 4
D. A view on Earth
Paragraph 5
E. Uncertainties
In itself, this is not entirely an exercise in skimming because the students
sometimes need to read some paragraphs carefully to choose an appropriate
heading. However, the students should be encouraged to do it as quickly as
possible to see how quickly they understand the gist of the text. To avoid the
obviousness of the final item, it would be better if the teacher give more headings
than needed. The students, as a result, will read more carefully to find out the
correct title for the last paragraph.
10. Finding paragraph topics
Finding paragraph topics is more difficult than the previous activities.
Instead of finding the topic sentences and underlining them or looking at a list of
headings and matching to suitable paragraphs, the students have to read the whole
paragraph and figure out the topic revealed in each.
For instance, in the text “Nature in danger” (English 11: 115), the teacher
may ask students to skim over the text and write down a phrase that expresses the
topic of each paragraph. Paragraph 1 was done as an example.
Paragraph 1:.......................................
Paragraph 2:.......................................
Paragraph 3:.......................................
Paragraph 4:.......................................

To sum up, there have been a number of activities in the while- reading
stage presented in this chapter. In an attempt to develop different sub- reading
skills such as skimming or scanning, the teacher should direct his students to
some certain techniques. In the process of teaching reading, it is necessary to take
notice of some points. There are no fixed reading techniques. A technique can be
used separately or integrated with others. More importantly, because teaching is a
creative and artistic process, the teacher must be flexible when using different
activities in the while- reading stage for a particular text. Depending on teaching
and learning conditions, the reading text and the students’ level is effective to
choose the most suitable and effective techniques to help students develop their
reading skills. The teacher may ask his students to complete every reading task in
a limited period of time since it will force them to try more, accordingly help
them build up and develop their reading skills. What is more, a reading lesson
would be better if the teacher asks his students to discuss their answers and
opinions in pairs or groups eliciting their responses. Reading in this way actually
makes them feel more relaxed in while they read and helps them read more
effectively.

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3. CONCLUSION
I. Results obtained
The study has presented some useful techniques accompanied by a number
of activities to develop certain reading skills for students in the while- reading
stage, i.e. reading for general understanding, for specific information and for
further understanding. Students can skim for the gist, and then scan to locate for
specific information or read more for further understanding. For each technique,
the teachers may ask students to find topic sentences when skimming, complete
tables while scanning or guess meaning of unfamiliar words in context for further

understanding. All these techniques and activities are suggested basing on the
theory of reading and teaching reading comprehension. It is also based on the
present situation of teaching and learning reading in the secondary schools at
Ham Rong high school, especially in the while- reading stage. The actual
teaching and learning status was clarified through the two survey questionnaires
and some class observations at Ham Rong high school. The statistics indicate that
both students and teachers have positive attitudes toward teaching and learning
reading, but in the while- reading activities the teachers should apply more
techniques in their reading lessons to develop the reading skills.
There are actually a lot of activities in the while- reading stage but teachers
must be flexible in using them. They should depend on the reading texts, their
students’ level or the learning condition to provide their students with suitable
and useful activities to exploit the text efficiently and develop their effective
reading skills.
In conclusion, from what have been presented, the study is hoped to be
useful and referred to by secondary school teachers for the while- reading
activities in their reading lessons.
II. Suggestion for further study
Due to the shortage of time and the lack of practical experience, all the
issues of the teaching process cannot be covered as a whole. It is expected that
the further studies will be the continuance for this one, which suggest techniques
to the remained stages, the pre- reading and the post- reading stage. The quality
of teaching and learning reading in English as a result can be step by step

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improved. Furthermore, mistakes are also inevitable in the study because of the
limitation of time, references and ability. Comments and recommendations would
be highly appreciated to better the study both in content and in the form.

XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG

Thanh Hóa, ngày 19 tháng 3 năm 2016

ĐƠN VỊ

Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình
viết, khơng sao chép nội dung của người
khác.
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)

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REFERENCES
1. Tiếng Anh 11, Hoàng Văn Vân – Bộ Giáo Dục và Đào Tạo (2006)
2. Tony Buzan (2014). The speed reading book
Nhà xuất bản tổng hợp TP. Hồ Chí Minh.
3. Nunan, D., Language teaching methodology, Prentice Hall International
(UK) Ltd, 1991.
4. Steil, L.et all, Effective Reading, Mc Graw Hill, Inc, 1983.
5. Wardhaugh, R., An Introduction to Sociolinguitics, Basic Blackwee Ltd,
1986.
6. Lê Huy Lâm. Lingua forum.TOEFLiBT m-Reading. NXB Tổng Hợp
TPHCM. 2007.
7. Hòang Văn Vân, Nguyễn Thị Chi - Hòang Thị Xuân Hoa , Đổi mới
phương pháp dạy Tiếng Anh ở Trung học phổ thông Việt Nam. NXBGD.
2006.

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