SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE READING SKILL HELPING STUDENTS AT NONG CONG 4 HIGH SCHOOL DO THE NATIONAL GENERAL SECONDARY TESTS OF ENGLISH BETTER

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NONG CONG 4 HIGH SCHOOL

THE STUDY OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
SUBJECT:

SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE READING
SKILL HELPING STUDENTS AT NONG CONG 4
HIGH SCHOOL DO THE NATIONAL GENERAL
SECONDARY TESTS OF ENGLISH BETTER

By: Nguyễn Văn Luân
Position: Head of English group
Aspect: English
Address:

Nong Cong, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1


CONTENTS
PART I. INTRODUCTIONS
I. Reasons for choosing the topic
II. Scopes and objectives of the study
III. Methodology of the study
IV Aims of the study
IV. Significance of the study
PART II. CONTENTS
I. The theoretical bases of the study.

1. Reading skill.
2. Overview of reading exercises in the course books and
those in national general test of English.
2.1.Reading pasages in the national general secondary
education tests of English and those in the sample tests.

PAGE
1
1
2
2
3
3
5
5
5
5
5

2.2. The reading units in the course books having the same
questions as those in the national general secondary education
tests of English.
II. The practical bases of the study.
1. Reality of solutions to reading skill
1.1. Quality about students’ reading skill
1.2. Habits of practising reading skill
2. Solutions to improve the problems.

7

2.1. Questions for detail information.
2.1.1. Questions for detail information from the second
sample test of 2017, reading passage 1
2.1.2. Teaching students strategies to do reading lessons

9
10

2.2. Questions to determine the main idea or the title of the
passage.

12

2.2.1. Question for main idea of the passage in the second
national general secondary sample test, 2017, reading
passage 1:
2.2.2. Provide students procedures to do reading lessons
2.3. Questions for vocabulary

8
8
8
9
9

11

13

14

2


2.4. Questions for reference objects
2.4.1. Questions for reference objects found from the
national general secondary tests.
2.4.2. Guide student stategies to do this type of questions
2.5. Question for inferring
2.5.1. The referring question in the reading lesson of the
second national general secondary test, 2017
2.5.2. Guiding students how to do the reading lesson
3 . The positive impacts brought abot from my study
4. The scope of applying of the study.
PART III. CONCLUSION
I. Conclusions.
II. Proposals to the leaders.
REFERENCE BOOKS

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15
15
16
18
18
19
25
25
25
26

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PART I. INTRODUCTION
I.

Reasons for the study.
Considering about the recent English result of General certificate of Secondary

Examinations (GCSE), according to statistics from Thanh Hoa department of Education
and training, Thanh Hoa was ranked in the worst group through out all the country, This
fact makes the officials and English teachers concerned about, we should give out an
approriate answer to the problem above so that we can find out solutions to improve the
effect of teaching and learning English properly, especially, for the reslt of the next GCSE
examination .
Understading the issue mentioned, after spending a long time studying and analysing
the GCSE tests of English, sample tests of 2016, 2017, 2018, this shows that the tests
demand for knowledge and linguistic skill, a lot of people have considered the content of
the tests, however, up yo now, thaere has not been an official study specifying and
finding out the basic causes and drawbacks from the students so as to offer a prosper
solution to the problem. If we do not know students’ shortcomings in some skills, we can
not help them during learning at school an revising effectively.
Therefore, during the process of teaching, testing, evaluating and talking to my students
ang collgues, I understand that my students’ bad point is reading skill, on the other hands
it is seen from GCSE examinations, the rate of reading skill accounts for 30 pecent the
tltal marks of the test so I decided to choose the topic “ Solutions to improve reading
skill helping students at Nong Cong 4 high school do the national general secondary
tests of English better” for studying.

II.

Scope and objectives of the study.

To make progress in reading skill, help my students do types reading tests in the
GCSE examinations, in this study I mainly focus on the problems below.
First one: The state of comprehensive reading and my students’result of doing
comprehesion reading.
Second one: The solutions to improve the effect of doing reading tests in the GCSE
examinations.
4


III. Methodology of the study.
Methodology, describes the research methods and data collection of the study.
To reach the final goal of studying, in this topic, I apply some methods for my
study
Observing method.
Investigating and information collecting method.
Testing method.
Comparing and contrasting method.
Analyzing and evaluating method.

IV.

Aims of the study.

Seeing my students’difficulties in doing reading exercises in the national tests, their
discouragement when having reading exercises as well. To help my students do the
reading exercises better in the tests, my study chiefly mentions the following purposes:
-

Understanding the students’ ability in doing the reading exercises in the tests.

-

Assisting the students realise the questions often appearing in the examinations.

-

Providing the students with stategies to do the tests of reading in the national
examinations.

From the goals mentioned above, my study gives a contribution to improving the effect
of doing reading exercises in the national examinations.This also offers the researcher
methods in teaching reading skill on competence developing orientation of learners. The
study is carried out with a view to answering the questions below.
Question 1: How is the students’ result of doing reading exercises?
Question 2: What problems do the students deal with when doing reading exercises of
the national tests?
Question 3: What solutions do we need to help the students to do the reading tests
better?

5


V.

The significance of the study.

After studying the types of reading exercises in the national English tests, seeing that

there are some types questions appearing in the tests, for example; questions for specific
information, questions for main ideas, questions for inferring, questions for the refference
objectives, questions for vocabulary. Comparing with the questions appearing in the
course books, I have found the following differences.
First, practising reading skills in the text books is different from doing reading
exercises in the national tests.
Second, Some skills of reading, such as: skimming for the main idea, guessing,
infference are only mentioned in few reading lessons.
Third, the skill for refference objectives is not mentioned in reading lessons in the
course books, whereas this is required in the national English examinations.
A number of reading skills has not been properly mentioned in the course books,
such as skimming for the main idea, guessing, infference …. The study focuses on those
more, in addition, the study has provided students with the reading skill for refference
objectives, an necessary skill which has not mentioned in the current course books.

PART II. CONTENTS
I.

The theoretical bases of the study.

1. Reading skill
Reading skill is one of four skills of learning English. To evaluate learners’ reading
competence, there are fifteen reading questions of fifty ones in the national general
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secondary education test of English, equivalent to 3/10 points. Nguyễn Thị Hồng Nhung
& Nguyễn Bảo Trang (2010) show that the test for reading consists of six types of the
questions, they are questions for specific information, questions for main ideas, questions
for linking, questions for the refference objectives, questions for vocabulary, questions

for inferring, Nguyễn Thị Chi and her partner (2016) say that learners want to do the
reading tests better, they need understand the skills below:
- Scanning is ability of reading passages fast with a view to finding spcific
information to anser the questions.
- Skimming is ability of reading passages quickly to find the main ideas of the
passage;
- Guessing is predicting meaning of the words basing on the specific situation

-

Inference is inferring ability to draw out the conclusion from information of the passage.
- Refering is contrastive skill to understand the the words referring to thing or person
mentioned before in the passage.
In short, both the authors show the important skills to do the reading tests better,
however, Nguyễn Thị Chi and her partner (2016) provides the questions in the scope of
the national general certificate secondary education test of English, I agree with this idea,
therefore, I only focus on five reading skills in this study.

2. Overview of reading exercises in the course books and those in
national general test of English.
2.1. Reading pasages in the national general secondary

education tests of English and those in the sample tests.
To have an overview of the national general secondary education test of English, I have
studied the reading parts in recent exams as well as the sample tests, the result of the
study is shown in the table below;
Table 1: Statistics, skill questions, number of words
Exam

reading

passages

Questions of skill

quantity of
words

Unit 1: 6 questions for the detail of Unit 1: 355
7


the national
general
secondary
education
test of
English

Sample test
2017
number 1

2

information; 2 questions for vocabulary; 1 words
(10
question for objective of referrence; 1 quetions)
question for main idea
Unit 2: 5 questions for the detail of Unit
2:

information;; 2 questions for vocabulary; 1 481words
questions for objective of referrence; 2 (10 quetions)
questions for inferring.

2

Unit 1: 4 questions for the detail of Unit 1: 308
information; 1 question for vocabulary; 1 words
(7
question for objective of referrence; 1 questions)
question for main idea
Unit 2: 6 questions for the detail of Unit 2: 396
information; 1 question for vocabulary; 1 words
(8
question for objective of referrence
questions)

Sample test
2017
number 2

2

Unit 1: 4 questions for the detail of Unit 1: 302
information; 1 question for vocabulary; 1 words
(7
question for objective of referrence; 1 questions)
question for main idea
Unit 2: 5 questions for the detail of Unit 2: 409
information; 1 question for vocabulary; 1 words

(8
question for objective of referrence; 1 quetions)
question for inferring.

Table 1 shows that the national tests of English consists of two reading parts about
from 300 to more than 400 words, reading passages are from foreign sources of
documents with diversal topics, such as; culture, society, education, health, sports… the
reading passages cover the skills through types of questions, for example; questions for
main ideas, questions for detail information, questions for guessing meaing of th words,
questions for referrence, inferring ….. The questions are designed with suitable levels
from kowing, understanding to low and high application. of these questions of reading
passages, the questions for detail information are majorities over 70.

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2.2. The reading units in the course books having the same questions
as those in the national general secondary education tests of
English.
Through the reality of teaching English, I realise that when having the reading
questions like the questions in the national exam, my students are often confused, they do
not know how to do the reading parts in the test. To get proofs for comparing, I have
studied the reading comprehension questions in the course books English 10,11,12, and
the result of the study has been shown below.
Table 2 shows the number of the reading passages in the course books which have
the same questions as in the national tests.

English 10
Unit 4: Special
Education

English11
Unit 4: Volunteer Work

English12
Unit 10: Engdangered
Species

Test Yourself B

Unit 15: Women in Society

Table 2 shows the frequency of appearing types of questions which are the same
as those in the national general tests of English in some units in the course books, such
as, 1 unit in English 10, 2 units in English 11, this figure in English 12. This result shows
that the types of these questions in the national general secondary education tests rarely
appear in the reading passages of the course books English 10,11,12. Although reading
skill are focused, designing the questions for reading passages in the course books are not
corresponding with the questions of reading passage in the national general secondary
tests of English. Intensively studying about reading skill, particularly, the skill for
“finding the reference object” has not been mentioned ,whereas the English tests of the
national general examinations require this skill. It is ths difference from the form and
content that the students’ poor result of the national generral tests is completely
resonable.

II.

The practical bases of the study.

1. Practical situation of solutions to reading skill.

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1.1.

Quality about students’ reading skill.

To know the quality of doing the reading exercises of the twelfth form students, I have
surveyed the comprehenion reading competence of 90 students from two classes at
medium level with two reading passages including 15 questions with the different levels
of difficulty to choose the gifted students for universities and colleges. the time for two
tests lasts 20 minutes. the result of doing the tests of the students has shown below.

Chart 1: Result surveying the competence of doing reading exercise of the students.
Chart 1 shows that the students getting from 2 to 4 true answers accout for 78.8%,
equipvelent to 2,4/10 points of reading part in the test which the students gain. a sad
situationthat after surveying, there are 78,8 % students under average marks of reading
skill, the result also shows that noone got from 10 to 15 true answers, there are only
21,2% of the students gaining the average marks without quite good and good. So I can
say that most students are very bad at reading skill of the nationaf general secondary
exams, on the other hand, if we analyse more about the result of each subskill, most of
the students can not choose the right answer for the questions of reference object,
questions for vocabulay. This fact reflects the most apparent disadvantage that few
former studies have been mentioned.

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1.2. Habits of practising reading skill.
By the bad quality of reading skill, the researcher asked for ninety students’ ideas through

the survey votes in Vietnamese including open and close questions, my purpose is to
investigate my students’opinions as well as their awareness about the reading lessons.
The result shown below:
Ordinal
numbers

Frequency

Quantity

percentage

1

Usualy

7

8%

2

Sometimes

8

9%

3

Rarely

26

29%

4

Never

49

54%

Most students (83%)

answer

“Rarely” or “Never” do the reading exercises

voluntarily, while I asked teachers whether they give students reading exercises after
school, most of them answer “Rarely” or “Never” . So the students have not learn
English voluntarily, the teachers have not focused on reading skill, especially, reading
lessons in the national general secondary exams,

this, obviously, has led to the bad

result.

2. Solutions to improve the problems.

2.1. Questions for detail information.
This is the most common question in the reading lessons, according to my statistics
about the recent national general secondary tests(2016, 2017) and some sample tests, the
number of questions for detail information makes up to 70% in two reading passaes in
the tests. This is, therefore, the first type of questions to be paid attention to and teachers
should guide students to do the reading. From the study, I see that the questions for detail
information often appear by the following types:
Question: According to the passage/paragraph _____, who/ when/ where/ what/ how/
why______?
Question: In the passage/pagraph______, what does the author say about ____?
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Question: According to the passage, which of the following is true about____
Question: In the passage/paragraph _____, the author states that …
Question: According to the passage/paragraph ______, which of the following is
(NOT) true? All of the following are true EXCEPT
Question: All of the following are mentioned in the passage EXCEPT

2.1.1. Questions for detail information from the second sample test of
2017, reading passage 1:
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet
to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Whales are the largest animals in the world, and the gentlest creatures we know.
Although the whale is very huge, it is not hindered at all by its size when it is in the
water. Whales have tails that end like flippers. With just a gentle flick, it can propel
itself forward. The skin of a whale is so smooth that it does not create any friction that
can slow the whale down. A whale’s breathing hole is located on the top of its head, so
it can breathe without having to completely push its head out of the water. Whales are
protected from the cold seawater by body fat that is called blubber.

Whales live in the ocean but, in terms of behaviours, they are more similar to
humans than fish. They live in family groups and they even travel in groups when they
have to migrate from cooler to warmer waters. The young stay with their parents for as
long as fifteen years. Whales are known not to desert the ill or injured members;
instead, they cradle them.
When whales are in danger, there are people who go to great lengths to help them.
One such case occurred in 1988, when three young whales were trapped in the sea. It
was close to winter and the sea had begun to freeze over. Whales are mammals that
require oxygen from the air, so the frozen ice was a great danger to them. All they had
then was a tiny hole in the ice for them to breathe through. Volunteers from all over
soon turned up to help these creatures. They cut holes in the ice to provide more
breathing holes for the whales. These holes would also serve as guides for the whales
so that they could swim to warmer waters.
(Adapted from ?reading_comprehension)

Question : Where is the whale’s breathing hole located?
A. On its head

B. On its back

C. On its face

D. On its tail

Question : According to paragraph 2, the author mentions all of the following to show
that whales “are more similar to humans” EXCEPT .
A. they do not desert the ill or injured members
B. they do not migrate from cooler to warmer waters
C. they live in family groups and travel in groups
D. the young stay with their parents for almost fifteen years

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Question : According to the passage, why was the frozen ice on the sea surface a
danger to whales?
A. Because they couldn’t swim in icy cold water.
B. Because they couldn’t eat when the weather was too cold.
C. Because whales couldn’t breathe without sufficient oxygen.
D. Because the water was too cold for them as they were warm-blooded.

2.1.2. Teaching students strategies to do this type of questions.
This types of question are often not difficult because the information often appear in
the passage. For these basic questions, if students know strategies to do the reading
lessons, they will not take much time to do these quesions. To do these types of advanced
questions for the aims of the entrance requirement to universities, students both have
procedures and understand the reading lesson intensively. To get hifh marks they need to
follow the procedures below:
+ Determiming the meanings of the sentences through key words, question words,
such as what, why, where, when, how… verbs, adjectives. Asking students to pay
attention to proper nouns.
+ Locating the information basing on the key words through scanning. Noticing
students expressions of synanym or the closest meaning expressions to key words. After
locating the information, we read the sentence before and the one after the key word with
a view to finding the answer.
+ Using our first answer to contrast with the available options and choose the
approriate option with the first answer.
For example; for the question “Where is the whale’s breathing hole located?” in
reading lesson of the second national general secondary sample test, 2017, the key words
are Where and breathing hole. Scanning the reading lesson, we realise that

the

information appears in the first paragraph. The word Where helped us determine the word
of place along with the word breathing whole helped us locate the information in the
clause “A whale’s breathing hole is located on the top of its head”, contrasting with our
answer, we know the true answer is A.
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2.2
. Questions to determine the main idea or the title of the
passage.
Through studying the national tests, Each reading lesson has a question of this
type. This is a quite difficult question for all the students at any levels. These questions
often appear with the following types:
Question: What is the paragraph mainly about?
Question: What is the passage mainly about?
Question: Which of the following statements best summerize the main idea of the
passage?
Question: Which of the following would serve as the best title of the passage?
Question: What does the passage mainly discuss?
Question: Which of the following could be the best title for the passage?
Question: What is the main idea of the passage?

II.2.1. Questions for main idea of the passage in the second national
general secondary sample test, 2017, reading passage 1:
Question: Which of the following best describes the main idea of this passage?
A. Successful attempts to rescue whales all over the world
B. Some remarkable similarities of whales to humans
C. Whales as the largest, gentlest but vulnerable creatures

D. Whales as the only animals to live in warm water

II.2.2.

Provide students procedures to do this type of questions.

Study some foreign reading lessons, which are coherent and cohesive, the first
sentence is often the title of the passage, when students have the question for main idea
of the passage, we should guide students to pay attention to the first sentence of the
passage. However, For recent national general secondary examinations, especially, the
sample tests of 2017, 2018, the types of these questions require for determining the main
idea or the title of the whole reading lesson. So in this study, we mainly give students the
strategies to determine the idea or the title of the whole reading lesson.
+ Skim the paragraphs of all the reading lesson then determine the main idea or the
title of each paragraph through the first sentence in each paragraph
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+ Connect the information of the paragraphs to guess gthe general idea of the whole
reading lesson.
+ Use both contrasting methods and exclusive method. Some multiple choice is only
the detailed information or the main idea of one paragraph. This detailed information
sometimes has other expressions to classify the levels of difficulty.
For instance, the quetion “Which of the following best describes the main idea of this
passage?” in the national general secondary sample test, 2017. Reading lesson consists
of three paragraphs, the first one mainly decibes whales, the second one talks abot their
behaviors, the third talks about the dangers whales are facing with. Comparing with the
options we see that the answer “Successful attempts to rescue whales all over the world”,
is the information mentioned in the third paragraph,

th answer “Some remarkable

similarities of whales to humans” is also the information mentioned in the secon
paragraph, and the answer “Whales as the largest, gentlest but vulnerable creatures” is a
true option because it covers the general idea of three paragraphs, the option C is the true
answer for the question.

II.3. Questions for vocabulary.
Determing meaning of the words through situation is a very important skill when
reading, because it helps students overcome the discouragement due to the long reading
lesson with a lot of new words. The course book English 12, practising reading skill is
chiefly through translation into Vietnamese. (Give the Vietnamese equivalents to the
following words). If students do like this, they will have to both determine meaning and
find Vietnamese equipvelents. This is unnecessary and it is a waste of time. For the
national general secondary test this requirement is completely different Đối với câu hỏi
rèn luyện kỹ năng này trong đề thi THPT Quốc gia được thực hiện một cách hoàn toàn
khác, the total questions of this type are 2 or 3 ones in two reading lessons. These types
og wuetions often appear in the tests as the following:
Question: The word/phrase _____ in the passage/paragraph _____ is closest in meaning
to
Question: The word/phrase ______ in the passage/paragraph _____ could best be
replaced by which of the following?
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Question: The word/phrase _______ in the passage probably means ______

II.4. Questions for reference objects.
After analysing the recent national general secondary tests as well as the sample tests
2017, 2018 I see that each reading lesson has one question for referrence object. Through

the reality of teaching and analysing students’ result of doing reading exercises, I do not
think this is a kind of difficult question if the students know procedures to do reading
lesson.Some types of these questions often appear in the te\he tests such as the following.
Question: The word/phrase _______ in the passage refers to
Question: What does the word/phrase ______ in the paragraph _____refer to?

2.4.1. Questions for reference objects found from the national general
secondary tests.
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to
indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
The concept of urban …….
“We’ve created a curriculum that is fundamental in nature, addressing the principles of
sustainable agriculture and what a food system is – how it functions both locally and
globally,” Niebler says. “These courses are challenging, robust and inspirational. One of
the really wonderful things about them is that we offer service learning opportunities,
where students volunteer a portion of their time to working with local partner
organizations. They can do a research project, or a service learning option. The ideal
would be to prompt students into careers that involve sustainable practices in an urban
agriculture setting.”
Adapted from “Promoting Sustainable Agriculture” by Marlene Cimons

Question: The word “them” in paragraph 6 refers to ______.
A. courses

B. opportunities

C. principles D. students

2.4.2. Guide student stategies to do this type of questions.
The words, phrases for referrence objects often appearing in the reading parts of

test are personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and adjectives, demonstrative adjectives,
adverbs of time and places …. the referring words or phrases often appear after the
referred words or phrases. To do well this type of questions, I give students the following
strategies.
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+ Locating the referring words or phrases (bold words or phrases in the reading lesson).
+ Read the previous sentences or the rearword sentences. Normally the referring objects
are after the referring word or phrase.
+ Determine the referring object, contrast with the options to find the corrects one, notice
the singular and plural form of the referring words to choose the true answer.
For instance: The question “The word “them” in paragraph 6 refers to ______.” in the
national general secondary test, 2016. we have to determine the position of “them” in the
sentence “These courses are challenging, robust and inspirational. One of the really
wonderful things about them is that we offer service learning opportunities, where
students volunteer a portion of their time to working with local partner organizations.”
The word opportunities and students can not be the referring object because it appears
after “them”
. The word “principles” also can not be be the referring object because it is too far from
the referring word. So the correct answer in this case is A.

2.5. Question for inferring.
These of questions do not often appear in the tests but they are difficult questions,
because the information does not express directly in the reading passages. To do these
types of questions, the students need a basic amount of vocabulay to understand the
content of the passage, they have good strategies as well. These questions are often
Question: It can be inferred from the passage that …
Question: Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph _____ /the passage?
Question: Based on the information in paragph ______ /the passage, which of the

following can be inferred?
Question: It is implied in the passage/paragraph _______ that
Question: According to the passage/paragraph ______, with which satements do you
think the author would most probably agree?

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2.5.1. The referring question in the reading lesson of the second
national general secondary test, 2017
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet
to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
It's called 42 - the name taken from the answer to the meaning of life, from the science
fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 42 was founded by French
technology billionaire Xavier Niel, whose backing means there are no tuition fees and
accommodation is free. Mr Niel and his co-founders come from the world of technology
and start-ups, and they are trying to do to education what Facebook did to communication
and Airbnb to accommodation.
Students at 42 are given a choice of projects that they might be set in a job as a software
engineer - perhaps to design a website or a computer game. They complete a project
using resources freely available on the Internet and by seeking help from their fellow
students, who work alongside them in a large open-plan room full of computers. Another
student will then be randomly assignedto mark their work.
The founders claim this method of learning makes up for shortcomings in the traditional
education system, which they say encourages students to be passive recipients of
knowledge. "Peer-to-peer learning develops students with the confidence to search for
solutions by themselves, often in quite creative and ingenious ways."
Like in computer games , the students are asked to design and they go up a level by
completing a project. They graduate when they reach level 21, which usually takes three
to five years . And at the end, there is a certificate but no formal degree. Recent graduates

are now working at companies including IBM, Amazon, and Tesla, as well as starting
their own firms.
"The feedback we have had from employers is that our graduates are more apt to go off
and find out information for themselves, rather than asking their supervisors what to do
next," says Brittany Bir, chief operating officer of 42 in California and a graduate of its
sister school in Paris. Ms Bir says 42's graduates will be better able to work with others
and discuss and defend their ideas - an important skill in the “real world” of work. "This
is particularly important in computer programming, where individuals are notorious for
18


lacking certain human skills," she says.
But could 42's model of teacherless learning work in mainstream universities? Brittany
Bir admits 42's methods do not suit all students . "It suits individuals who are very
disciplined and self-motivated, and who are not scared by having the freedom to work at
their own pace," she says.
(Adapted from />
Question: It can be inferred from the passage that .
A. 42 is a good choice for people of all ages and nationalities
B. all 42’s graduates are employed by world leading technology companies
C. 42’s students have to handle the task assigned without any assistance
D. 42 adopts project-based and problem-solving learning methods

2.5.2. Guiding students how to do this type of questions.
Through observing the teacing periods, evaluating students’ reading tests, most of the
students can not do this type of question correctly. So I can say this is a difficult type of
the quetion to classify the levels of the students. To do it we should to give students the
following ponts:
+ Updating a number of the words relating to the topics they have learnt so that they are
not so discouraged when seeing the reading units, thanks to this, they can understand the

reading lessons.This quetion should be done eventually, after finishing all other questions
in the reading passage.
+ Look through the answering options.
+ Eliminating the false options basing on the information in the lesson., the incorrect
options are possible, because the information in the passage is not clear or not main
informain, or excessive expression by using the words such as: always, never, none,
impossible, without, most, all, every, the only, the best, the worst…
For instance: the quetion : "It can be inferred from the passage that” in the secon
national sample test. We need to read the passage carefully one more after finishing other
questions. Reading the answering options we see that the answer ‘42 is a good choice for
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people of all ages and nationalities’ is incorrect because it contains an excessive
expression,” people of all ages”; the answer; “all 42’s graduates are employed by world
leading technology companies” is wrong because of unclear information; the answer 42’s
students have to handle the task assigned without any assistance this if an excessive
expressio using the word “without”. So the correct answer is D.

3.

The positive impacts brought abot from my study.
The quality of doing reading lesson on objects has been experienced.
After having been presented in fron of my group of English on April fifth, 2019. With

acquring my collegues’ ideas, I have applied the study to my designing the reading lesson
plans to the Englisg classes I am teaching.
Through my evaluation, observation, I realise that there is a positive progress in
practising my students’ reading skill. The student are aware of the importance of
improving vocabulary, concentrating on the strategies of doing reading lessons.

To prove the effectiveness of my study, I do a survey again on 90 students from the
classes which I had taught the strategies to do the reading lessons, especially for the types
of reading questions in the national general secondary tests in the next May
This survey, I also choose 90 students accidentally

to do a test of reading

comprehension consisting of 15 questions, both common and advanced questions in 20
minutes. The result shown in te chart below.

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Chart 3: The result of doing reading lessons after applying the study.
The chart 3 demonstrates: Most students gaining from 2 to 7 true sentences make up
to about 82%, the number of the students getting from 8 to 12 corrects sentences acounts
for 19% per the total 15 sententeces. This corresponds with over 19 percent getting over
arverage marks of reading parts. This result shows that the students’ reading competence
is low, however, this rate compared with that in the table 1 is much better, because the
number of the students getting from 2 to 5 true answers reduced, whereas the students
gaining from 6 to 8 true answer increase dramatically, even some of those students reach
8 to 12 correct answers, there is, however, noone getting the maximum score. This result
shows that the considerable impact of the study is proved to be effective.

4.

The scope of applying of the study.

With the aim of improving the practice of reading skill, helping students at Nong
Cong 4 high school access to the types of reading questions in the national general

secondary tests. In my study “ Solutions to improve reading skill helping students at
Nong Cong 4 high school do the national general secondary tests of English better”
can completely be applied at all periods of practising reading skills of the coursebooks
English 10, 11, 12. This is listed below:
On the field of method and ideas of teaching. This study is approriately applied for the
students at different levels of the cirriculum of upper secondary education. I have
presented some types of questions designed to improve reading skill and help students
access to the reading questions in the national general secondary tests of English below.
These types of questions are also applied in the official periods of teaching of the
coursebook English 12 at upper secondary schools. they are also evidences for
effectiveness, perspetive and application of the study at high schools:
Unit 1: Home Life
Part A: Reading
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct
answer to each of the questions.
Question 1: According to passage, how many people are there in the author’s family?
A.2

B. 3

C. 4

D. 5

Question 2: The word “they” in paragraph 1 refers to
A.The author’s parents

B. projects

C. women

D. children

Question 3: The phrase “join hands” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to which of
the following?
A.shake hands

B. work together

C. take hands D.combine with

Question 4: Which of the following is NOT true about the author’s mother?
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A. She is responsible for doing the housework.
B. She always gets up early in the morning.
C. She prepares breakfast for her children.
D. She often hurries home right now after hospital.
Question 5: According to paragraph 3, what does the author is attempting to do after
secondary school?
A. She is attempting to be allowed to study at a university.
B. She is attempting to overcome her study pressure.
C. She is attempting to help her parents with household chores.
D. She is attempting to look for a job.
Question 6: Based on the information in paragraph 4, which of the following can be
inferred?
A. Members of the family need each other.
B. Members of the family are not confident enough.
C. Members of the family have very close relationships.

D. Members of the family are never close to each other.
- Suggested answers:

1. D

2. A

3. B

4.D

5.A

6. C

Unit 6: Future Jobs
Part A: Reading
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the
correct answer to each of the questions.
Question 1: According to the passage, what should we do before a job interview?
A. send a letter of application and our resumes to the company
B. send our school certificates
C. reduce the feeling of pressure
D. create a good impression on the interviewer
Question 2: Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A. a letter of application

B. a letter of recommendation

C. an identity card

D. school certificates

Question 3: Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Try to reduce the feeling of pressure and make a good impression on the
interviewer.
B. Find out as much information as you can about the job and the vacancy.
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C. Your voice should be clear, polite and honest.
D. Don’t say goodbye to the interviewer before leaving the office.
Question 4: The word “keenness” in the passage is closest in meaning to
A. interest

B. responsibility

C. understanding

D. knowledge

Question 5: The phrase “jot down” in the passage probably means
A.note down B. mention

C. type

D. write

Question 6: Which of the following is true during the interview?
A. Concentrate on what the interviewer is saying.

B. Don’t need answer all questions.
C. Always show your weakness.
D. Interrupt when the job is explained to you.
Question 7: The word “they” in the last paragragh refers to
A. interview

B. congratulations

C. comments

D. you

Question 8: What does the passage mianly discuss?
A. Advice on how to answer the interviewer’s questions
B. Advice on how to find a job
C. Advice on how to repare for a new job
D. Advice on how to overcome difficulties
- Suggested answers: 1. A

2.C

3. D

4. A 5. B

6. A

7.C

8.C

Unit 10: Endangered Species
Part A: Reading
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the
correct answer to each of the questions.
Question 1: According to the passage, how many species of plants and animals are
threatened with extinction?
A. over 8,300B. exactly 15,500

C. over 15,500

D. 1,500

Question 2: The word ‘them’ in paragraph 1 refers to ______.
A. many thousands of species

B. biologists C. causes

D. forests

Question 3: According to paragraph 2, which of the following is NOT mentioned as a
primary cause of species extinction?
A. pollution

B. habitat destruction

C. overpopulation

D. natural selection

Question 4: Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
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A. Overexploitation of animals for food and other products has reduced the number of
rare species.
B. Plant and animal extinction leads to a loss of biodiversity.
C. People have made different efforts to save endangered species.
D. The Red List is a book which provides names of extinct species.
Question 5: The development of wildlife habitat reserves helps ________.
A. save a large number of endangered species
B. make a list of endangered species
C. enact laws to protect wildlife
D. develop commercial trade and overhunting
Question 6: The phrase “a wide range of ” is closest in meaning to ________.
A. a large number ofB. a big difference

C. a few of D. a little of

Question 7: The best title for the passage is _________.
A. Endangered Species and Conservation Measures
B. Endangered Species and their Benefits
C. The Global Extinction Crisis
D. Endangered Species Extinction: Causes and Conservation Measures
- Suggested answers: 1. C

2. A

3. D

4. D

5. A

6. A

7. D

Unit 16: The Association of southeast Asian nations
Part A: Reading
Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D to indicate the correct
answer to each of the questions.
Question 1: According to the passage, when was ASEAN founded?
A.in 1967

B. in 1984

C. in 1995

D. in 1997

Question 2: When did Vietnam join this association?
A.in 1984

B. in 1995

C. in 1997

D. in 1997

Question 3: According to paragraph 1, one of the main goals of the Association is to
accelerate __________.
A.economic growth and social progress
B. economic growth and cultural development
C. economic growth, social progress, and cultural development
D. social progress and cultural development
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Question 4: The word “its” at the beginning of paragraph 2 refers to
A.ASEAN

B.population C.region

D. area

Question 5: What was the combined gross domestic product of ASEAN in 2007?
A. It was US$1282 billion.

B. It was US$ 1405 billion.

C. It was US$ 5755 million.

D. It was US $ 4464 million.

- Suggested answers: 1. A

2. B

3. C

4. A

5. A

PART III. CONCLUSION
I. Conclusion.
After finishing the study, I realize that this study makes a great contribution to the
process of improving reading skill, it is an integral part in help my students access to the
types of reading questions in the national general secondary tests of English as well.

II. Experience lessons.
First, There are differences between the reading questions in the cousebooks and those in
the national general secondary tests so students often feel discouraged whe seeing them.
Second, Reading lessons in the national tests cover larger content, focus on some types of
questions such as; questions for detail of information, question for main ideas, question
for referring object, questions for vocabulary, questions for infering… whereas the
reading questions in the coursebooks chiefly focus on choosing True/False statements,
answering the comprehension questions .. so teachers need to contrast and compare the
differences between two types of questions in coursebook and those in the national tests
to students then give them the strategies for each type of questions.

III. Proposals to the leaders.
After studying the problem, I see that the successful lessons depend on a lot of reference
documents as well as visual aids, so the schools need to buy and add more equipment for
teaching such as projectors, videos and reference books. That will make the process of
teaching and learning reading skill better.
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