SKKN NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC dạy kỹ NĂNG đọc HIỂU CHO học SINH lớp 12 của GIÁO VIÊN TRƯỜNG THPT yên lạc và một vài BIỆN PHÁP

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE REPORT OF INNOVATION
1. Introduction
2. The title of the research: DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING READING COMPRIHENSION
SKILLS FOR GRADE 12 STUDENTS AT YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL AND SOME
SOLUTIONS
3. The name of the writer
4. The investor of the research
5. The field in which the research will be applied
6. The date when the research was first applied
7. The description of the research:
7.1. The content of the research
7.1.1. Part 1: The theory of reading
- Definitions of reading and reading comprehension
- Types of reading
- Teaching reading comprehension skills
- Organization of reading comprehension text
7.1.2. Part 2: Difficulties in teaching reading comprehension skill for grade 12 students at Yen Lac
high school and some solutions
- The context
- Method
- Procedure
- Data analysis and study finding
- Suggested solutions to overcome the challenges
7.1.3. Part 3: Conclusion
7.2. Possibility of the application of the research
8. Information that needs keeping secret
9. Necessary conditions needed to apply the research
10. Assessments of the result when applying the research –according to the writer, organizations and
individuals that first applied it
11. List of organizations and individuals first using the research

1


THE REPORT OF INNOVATION
DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING READING COMPRIHENSION SKILLS FOR GRADE 12
STUDENTS AT YEN LAC HIGH SCHOOL AND SOME SOLUTIONS
(NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC DẠY KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC HIỂU CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 12
CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN LẠC VÀ MỘT VÀI BIỆN PHÁP
GIẢI QUYẾT)
1. Introduction
Nowadays it cannot be denied that English has become the international medium of communication
in commerce, science, transportation, medicine, culture, education, banking, tourism, aviation and so
on. Therefore, English ha been adopted as a compulsory subject at all state schools from the third
onwards. In order to keep up with the development of society, the need for good communication is
placed in one of the top demands for English language which includes reading skill. It is obvious that
reading skill plays an important part in daily communication as well as in educational process. In
other words, reading is considered as a ticket for human beings both to enter everyday
communication and to better college grades together with greater academic achievement. Ironically,
reading is the skill which a large majority of the students are least proficient in. They find it difficult
to complete any reading task, especially from the very first steps of reading. Although students are
given a sizable portion of time to develop reading skills but they are unable to finish reading tasks
effectively.
There are a lot of survey findings showing that students can do many jobs that require reading with
efficiency if they learn to read faster and with more understanding. Carrell (1981, p.1) contends that
reading is by far the most important of the four macro-skills, particularly in English as a second
foreign language. Nevertheless, teaching reading skills for grade 12 th students at Yen Lac high schools
is still far from satisfactory for various reasons. Although most of the teachers have made great
efforts, the students’ motivation for intensive reading is low and the reading lesson is said to be a
boring one.

Yen Lac High school, which was founded in 1965, is one of the high schools chosen to pilot the set of
new textbooks. During the piloting period the teachers have confronted a number of difficulties such
as students’ general lack of motivation and opportunities to practice communicating in the target
language. The students get used to passive learning, the teachers’ capacities are uneven, the size of
classes is large and classrooms are equipped poorly. Hong et al (2006:18) states that there are five
main obstacles in reading: the habit of word-by-word reading; overemphasis on forms rather than
meaning; excessive focus on details rather than main ideas; poor vocabulary and limited background
knowledge.
Among four language skills, taught in English, reading can be seen as the most boring and hardest
one. Thus, teaching reading skill at Yen Lac high school isn’t paid much attention, even that some
teachers feel confused in teaching this skill. Facing up this problem, so many questions about
2


teaching reading skill always concern me a lot: “What problems might the teachers face when
teaching reading skill? What should be done to help them overcome those problems? How should we
teach each type of reading text so that the students can learn it effectively? etc….” I, therefore
decided to do the research on “Difficulties in teaching reading comprehension skill for grade 12
students at Yen Lac high school and some solutions” in hope that the findings and solutions
mentioned in this study will make a significant contribution to improve the teaching of the reading
skill at Yen Lac high school as well as those at other high schools.
The main purpose of this study is to explore the teaching of the reading skill for 12 th graders by
teachers at Yen Lac high school. It concentrates on finding out the difficulties in teaching the reading
skill for 12th - grade students at this school.
The second purpose is to propose some suggestions to deal with teachers’ challenges and assist them
to teach reading more effectively.
This study attempts to seek the answers to the following questions:
1. What are the difficulties of teachers at Yen Lac high school in teaching the reading skill for grade
12 students?”
2. What should be done to help teachers at Yen Lac high school overcome their difficulties?

This study is conducted at Yen Lac high school in order to recognize difficulties in teaching reading
skills of the teachers. Factors causing such challenges are then found out. To go ahead, the study also
offers some suggestions to better the current context.
In order to improve reading comprehension skills for Yen Lac High School 12 th – form students, the
teachers can make use of various techniques and a number of things should be done. However, in this
study, the author only intends to a brief overview of current situation of teaching reading
comprehension skills in the 12th – form students of Yen Lac High School to suggest some reading
activities that can be applied in teaching comprehension skill so as to help the students to become
effective readers.
To achieve the aims mentioned above, based on the results of two survey questionnaires, one for the
students and the other for the teachers were employed to collect the data for the study. These will be
discussed in detail in next parts of this study
2. The title of the research: “Difficulties in teaching reading comprehension skill for grade 12
students at Yen Lac high school and some solutions”
3. The name of the writer:
– Full name: Nguyễn Thị Nhung
- Address: Yen Lac High School
– Phone number: 0982730578

Email:

4. The investor of the research: the writer of the research
5. The field in which the research will be applied:
- Teaching reading skill in English lessons
3


6. The date when the research was first applied: 10/9/2019
7. The description of the research:
7.1. The content of the research:

The research is divided into three main parts:
- Part 1: The theory of reading
- Part 2: Difficulties in teaching reading comprehension skill for grade 12 students at Yen Lac
high school and some solutions
- Part 3: Conclusion
7.1.1. Part 1: Theory of reading
1.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension
1.1.1 Reading
Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in
comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The
reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is. So far reading has
been defined differently by lots of scholars, however no single definition is acceptable to everyone.
According to Erten & Razı, 2003, reading is often referred to as the most crucial of the four language
skills for EFL learners since it enables students to gain exposure to the target language and receive
valuable linguistic input to build up language proficiency. Reading is not just extracting meaning
from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the reader brings
to the act of reading. It is seen as an active cognitive process in which the reader’s background
knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney and Pearson 1994).
Goodman (1971, p.135) stated that reading is “a psycholinguistics process by which the reader,
language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a
graphic display”. In his opinion, readers not only learn how to read the text, to master grammatical
structures…but also understand the content expressed in the text.
One more definition offered by Harmer (1989, p.153) showed us his opinion and two above authors
have a lot of things in common “reading is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes
receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of these messages”.
Having the same point with Goodman, William, E. (1990, p.2) said that “reading is a process whereby
one looks at and understands what has been written”. According William, in reading process, there
are also two parallel activities: looking and understanding. Therefore, readers have to “encode”
meanings of a word depend on the context in which it appears.
According to Richard and Thomas (1987:15), reading is best described as “ an understanding between

the author and the reader. Reading is much more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply
knowing what the author intends; it is the process whereby the printed page stimulate ideas,
experiences and responses that are unique to an individual.

4


In short, each person can have a different definition of reading and we cannot tell which is better
because each of them focuses on one important matter of reading. However, we find that there is a
close relationship between reading and understanding. Therefore, being a language teacher, we must
understand the nature of reading thoroughly to help our students read effectively.
1.1.2 Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is the act of understanding what you are reading. While the definition can be
simply stated the act is not simple to teach, learn or practice. Reading comprehension is an
intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular
piece of writing.
Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading. When a person reads a text he
engages in a complex array of cognitive processes. He is simultaneously using his awareness and
understanding of phonemes (individual sound “pieces” in language), phonics (connection between
letters and sounds and the relationship between sounds, letters and words) and ability to comprehend
or construct meaning from the text. This last component of the act of reading is reading
comprehension. It cannot occur independent of the other two elements of the process. At the same
time, it is the most difficult and most important of the three.
Reading comprehension skill plays a very vital role in teaching and learning reading a foreign
language. It has the nature of communication, in which reading activity acts as a means of
communication between the writer and the reader.
Reading comprehension results in the fact that when readers know which skills and strategies are
appropriate for types of texts and understand how to apply them to accomplish reading purpose. Swan
(1975, p.1) stated that “A student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and
efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding”. It is

obvious that the student can show his understanding only by doing some tasks such as summarizing
the text, answering questions, making true or false etc.
Grellet (1981: 3) states that reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting
the required information from it as efficiently as possible. The author means that reading
comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in
the most efficient way.
To sum up, reading becomes meaningless without comprehension since only reading comprehension
can appreciate how much readers understand the text. Therefore, how to help students have effective
reading comprehension methods is considered to be the most important part in reading teaching
1.2 Types of reading
We read different texts in different ways. According to the manner of reading, we have aloud reading
and silent reading. Depending on the purpose of reading, we can classify reading into skimming,
scanning, intensive reading and extensive reading.
1.2.1 According to manner
5


 Reading aloud
“ Reading aloud involves looking a text, understanding it and also saying it. Its’ purpose is not just to
understand the text to convey the information to someone else” (Doff, 1988:70). In fact, it must be
recognized that reading aloud is primarily an oral matter so that for those who teach and learn foreign
languages, it is closer to “pronunciation” than it is to “comprehension”. While it is perfectly proper
to try to develop the skill of reading aloud, it clearly cannot be done using an unfamiliar text the
content and language of which stretches the linguistic capabilities of the learners to the utmost.
Therefore, it must be admitted that the usefulness of reading aloud is limited. First of all, “reading
aloud is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom”. (Doff, 1988:67). Actually, in
the daily life, few people are required to read aloud as a matter of daily routine, radio newscasters,
clergymen, perhaps actors. To the huge majority, its importance is minimal. Secondly, “the readers is
often merely mouthing meaningless language because of lack of rehearsal and time to comprehend
what he has to read aloud ” ( Abott and Wingard, 1981: 82). It means that when reading aloud, the

readers’ attention is focused on the pronunciation, not on the understanding of the text. Moreover, in
the classroom, only the reading student is active at a time, others are either not listening at all or
listening to a bad model. In addition, some students’ speed of reading is very slow so it takes a lot of
time in class.
In short, reading aloud can be applied for those who begin learning a foreign language to establish the
connection between sound and spelling. But for the second year students, their purpose of learning
reading is more than connecting the pronunciation. They focus on understanding the text and doing
comprehension exercises which cannot be completed by reading aloud because asking a student to
read aloud means that he may lack concentration on the meaning. He may read correctly but after that
he will not be able to tell us what he has read. It is very difficult to read aloud and understand the text
at the same time of reading. So reading aloud might be a good way to practice pronunciation.
 Silent reading
Silent reading is the activity we usually engage in when we read books, newspapers, advertisements.
Silent reading is more often used in both real life and classroom, and “it is the method we normally
use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most efficient” (Lewis, 1985:110).
Because reading is a very personal skill so silent reading is a more effective skill for reading
comprehension because firstly learners do not need to read all the words in the text, secondly they can
read at their own speed and if they do not understand the sentence, they can go back, thirdly students
can not only attain the main ideas in a short time but also understand its details thoroughly to answer
the questions, and finally the teacher can check his/her learners’ understanding easily and add reading
materials and exercises suitable to their ability.
In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop the students’ reading ability.
However, it is more beneficial when the teacher sometimes combines it with reading aloud to
improve students’ pronunciation and intonation because reading aloud also has its own advantages.
6


1.2.2 According to purpose
According to purposes, reading is categorized into four types: skimming, scanning, extensive and
intensive reading.

 Skimming
Grellet (1981: 19) states skimming appears when “we go through the reading material quickly in
order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific
questions”. And Nuttall (1982: 36) also stated that “By skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through
a text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves
superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us”. In addition to the
definitions of skimming, Wood (1990: 92) said that “When the reader looks at the content page of the
book, or the chapter headings, sub headlines, etc. This is sometimes called previewing. Another
example is when reader glances quickly through a newspaper to see the main items of the day are.
This will often mean just glancing at the headlines”. That means when we quickly to get general
impression to see whether the text is useful to us, it is not necessarily searching for a specific details
and key words. Skimming provides an overview of the text so it is beneficial to look at chapter
section headings, summaries and opening paragraphs, therefore, the purpose of skimming are to
check relevance of the text and to set the scene for more concentrated effort that is to follow if the
text is useful.
To sum up, skimming is a very useful reading comprehension skill for students, and it is advisable to
apply at the first stage of teaching reading with the hope that it can help them to have an overview of
what they are reading. Moreover, it will be easier for them to deal with the other tasks that followed.
 Scanning
Scanning is also one of two most valuable reading strategies. However, scanning is far more limited
than skimming since it only means retrieving what information is relevant to our purpose. Scanning
occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly in order to find a particular point of
information. It is a useful skill worth cultivating for its own sake, if it has been cultivated
systematically from the earliest point in the course at which it can be attempted, co- operative work
on the study of texts can be greatly expected and made easy.
Scanning requires two skills of the reader. One of them is that they recognize the specific type of
word that identifies the item. The other is the use of a different eye movement pattern, vertical vision.
Nearly all the background reading required for the presenting of a topic to the class by a group calls
for proficiency in this type of reading. There is a great range of text suitable for scanning – indexes,
dictionaries, maps, advertisements, labels, reference material, etc.

In short, the key to scanning is to decide exactly what kind of information we can look for and where
to find it. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information without reading through
the whole text.
7


 Intensive reading
Intensive reading is also widely used in a reading class. It is an effective way to explore the text, to go
deeply into the meaning and the organization of the text. Intensive reading “ involves approaching
the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the students to focus on the text”
(Nuttall, 2000:38). In the view of Brown (1990:297) intensive reading “is usually a classroomoriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic details of a passage”. Grellet, F.
(1981:4) states that “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information. This is
an accuracy activity involving reading for detailed”. The objective of intensive reading is to achieve a
full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced.
Through intensive reading, the reader must arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of logical
arguments, the rhetorical arrangement, the pattern of the text, the attitude and purposes of the writer
and his linguistic means to achieve his purposes. In other words, intensive reading is reading for
accuracy which is essential to the students’ comprehension.
 Extensive reading
Extensive reading is a fluency activity, mainly involving general understanding. It provides valuable
reinforcement of the language already presented and practiced in the class as well as giving students
useful practice in inferring meaning from the context of the text. Extensive reading is used to obtain a
general understanding of a subject and includes reading longer texts for pleasure, as well as business
books. Use extensive reading skills to improve our general knowledge of business procedures.
Grellet, F. (1981:4) points out “Extensive reading means reading longer texts, usually for one’s
pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding”. What is more, Nuttall, C.
(2000:127) argues that “getting students to read extensively is the easiest and most effective way of
improving their reading skills”.
Extensive reading is considered to be useful for students’ self-learning. Their reading habit and
passion for reading are also formed through extensive reading. Students can choose the topics they

like and read for their own purpose for pleasure or entertainment. However, it is more effective if
students’ extensive reading is followed an instructional program with the help of the reading teacher.
In short, reading is necessary to every learner and undeniably an important skill in comparison with
others. In addition, it is notable that intensive and extensive reading should not be seen as in being
opposition but need to be paid equal attention for the sake of the students. For second or foreign
language learners, both intensive and extensive reading are of great importance as they act as a means
to gain knowledge.
1.3 Teaching reading comprehension skills
 The importance of reading in foreign language learning
Richard (1993: 4) stated that “reading in the new language is also an important way to learn about the
target culture”, which means that reading provides the students with a wide range of interesting
information, helps them understand the ways of life, behaviors, thoughts and other aspects of the
8


native people and it is also a good way to find out about new ideas, facts and experiences. Therefore,
they can master vocabulary, grammar and the background knowledge or cross-cultural problems that
they encounter. In other words, reading is very important to the foreign language learners because it
widens their knowledge of language and life. It seems to be the most important skill to the students of
English since their main purpose is to understand the written texts.
In the process of teaching and learning a second or foreign language, the teaching and learning of
reading are always received much attention, since it is regarded as one of the most important major
skills as what Carrell (1971: 1) stated: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the
four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or foreign language”. This is also true for the
MSA, because at our academy, reading is an active skills namely speaking, listening and writing. To
master reading skill is always challenging task that requires students a number of factors: a good
competence of English grammar, rich vocabulary, and reading techniques. First of all, reading helps
students learn to think in English, enlarge their English vocabulary, improve their writing. Richard
(1993:4) claimed that “reading may help to increase knowledge of the target language through
exposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures”. There is a close relationship between

reading and vocabulary knowledge, because while reading, the readers know most of the words in the
text already, and they can also determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the
contexts. Therefore, the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. It is understandable that
anyone who has a large vocabulary is usually a good reader.
 Factors in teaching reading
+ The reading texts
It cannot be denied that reading texts play a crucial role in teaching and learning reading
because through them new grammar, phonetic and lexical items of the target language are introduced.
Furthermore, texts are also means to help students enrich their background knowledge and
vocabulary as well. In reading lesson, students are supposed to understand the texts correctly as much
as possible, learn some new language items e.g. words, structures, and use what they have got from
the text through reading tasks and communication activities that follow. Therefore, in teaching
reading, the teacher should pay much attention to the following aspects such as language content,
vocabulary and grammatical structures, types of reading activities, though it is not simple thing to do
as what Buck, G (2001) states: “Providing suitable texts is not a simple matter. It takes time, effort
and some expertise”.
+ Teacher’s role
Many linguistics state that the teacher is the most important factor in teaching reading. In a
reading class, the teacher plays so many roles, such as an organizer, a manager and a counselor, an
instructional expert, so he or she should be a guide to assist, encourage them, employ various types to
support the students develop reading skills. He or she also the person who provides the students with

9


an anxiety-free atmosphere which helps them feel free to join new reading style, practice to master
new strategies, work under pressure of time.
Besides, linguistics point out an essential element of the teacher’s role-a model reader. According to
Nuttall (1982: 192) “showing that you are a reader means carrying books around with you, referring
to books as you teach, reading out brief passages that may interest students, talking about what you

are reading at the moment, and handling books as if you loved them”. He also states that “teacher’s
job as providing, first, suitable texts and second, activities that will focus the students’ attention on
the texts”
+ Students’ role
Nuttall (2000:33) mentions several main roles for the students in a reading lesson. They are as
follows:
- Taking an active part in learning: This is the first and foremost responsibility of the learner.
They have to be active and take charge of what they do
- Monitoring comprehension: Students need to understand how texts work and what they do
when they read
- Learning text talk: It is clear that a good reader carries on a dialogue with the text.
Consequently, the students have to learn how to do this. An way to promote this skill is to talk about
texts in class.
- Taking risks: Students have to take the risk of making mistakes because a mistake is an
opportunity to learn.
- Learning not to cheat oneself: Learning to read is learning to give students enormous
advantages in life. It may lead to better jobs, to personal development, interest and enjoyment.
Students who do not want to learn to read can easily cheat but they are only cheating themselves
1.4 Organization of reading comprehension text
 Pre-reading stage
This stage plays a decisive role in the whole process of teaching reading comprehension, so
most experienced readers employ pre- reading and other strategies to make reading easier. Prereading aims at introducing the text to the students and helps them make careful preparation before
reading the text. It is advisable for the teacher to create a reading motivation and a positive attitude
towards reading for students so that they can achieve a high level of success and become confident
that they can read effectively.
As for Doff (1988), there are many activities a teacher can carry out to help students before
they start reading as following:
- Introducing the text briefly
- Presenting new vocabulary
- Revising grammatical structures

- Giving guiding questions,
10


Moreover, in my opinion, the teacher should activate the students’ background knowledge and
provide some information about the text. This is aimed to help the students to predict the content of
the text they are going to read. Prediction is an important ability that the students should develop in
order to comprehend various kinds of texts, especially the texts that the students are not familiar with.
Gebhard (1987:21) explains that “providing background information on a reading lesson is another
way teachers can facilitate successful reading comprehension. Providing information about a reading
selection before students read provides them with the opportunity to gain new language, as well as
recall their already existing knowledge, which they can take with them into their reading experience,
and this knowledge facilitates successful comprehension”.
Of course, not all these techniques will be relevant for all the texts. The teacher can choose the
suitable ones to motivate his learners.
 While – reading stage
While- reading stage is carried out when all students actually set their eyes on the text and this
stage is the main part of a reading comprehension lesson. The aims of this stage focus on making the
students anticipate in the process of understanding the whole text, and interpreting exactly what the
author wrote. In addition, it helps the students break up the organization of the text; understand the
text structures; classify the text content and recognize the writer’s purpose and attitude. This stage
also trains the students to think about other ideas rising from the text and to form judgment and
opinions on the basis of the fact presented. Moreover, it helps the students improve their reading
speed and techniques. Besides, this stage offers an opportunity to apply effectively what they have
learnt from the text to their purpose of study and communication. Last but not least, this stage helps
the students develop their decision - making and problem solving skills. Because this stage plays a
very important role in a reading lesson, it must be designed carefully.
 Post – reading stage
Post- reading is the implementation of various activities carried out after the students have
read the text. Some post- reading activities are extension of the work done at the pre- reading and

while- reading stages. Some relate only loosely to the reading text itself.
According to Durkin (1981:486), “one reason for post- reading discussion in class is to offer
pupils the chance to see in what way their reading did or did not succeed, and why”. In fact, there are
more than one purpose for post- reading stage which are of wide relevance and applied to all students,
and which teachers who teach groups with mixed level should consider.
One of the purposes of post-reading work is to check whether the students have understood
the text or not. The teacher can ask the students some questions about the texts which are not given in
the book or require them to discuss in group and in pair and so on. Another purpose is to consolidate
or reflect upon what the students have read. To achieve this, the teacher should help the students
focus on the important points as writer’s opinion, the main ideas of the text, the specific paragraph or
phrase in the reading text. The third purpose of post- reading work is to expand on the topic or
11


language of the reading text, and perhaps transfer things learned to another context. Therefore, the
students can relate the text to their background knowledge and interest and be able to express their
personal opinion toward the text. Moreover, post- reading activities also offer the students a real
practice of using language. Setting up and organizing post- reading work depend very much on all the
objectives of the program as a whole. Post- reading work should, thus, contribute in a coherent
manner, to the writing, speaking and listening skills that the program aims to develop.
In conclusion, the three stages offer the teacher a frame work to conduct a reading lesson in
general but they do not need to follow rigidly. Obviously, this three phrase approach is not to be
carried out mechanically on every occasion. Sometimes the teacher may wish to cut out the prereading stage and get learners to work on the text directly. Sometimes port- reading work may not be
suitable. However, the advantage of the three phase approach is twofold. Firstly, it respects and makes
use of the students’ own knowledge of language and of the world and uses this as a basis for
involvement, motivation, and progress. Secondly, the three phase approach leads to integration of the
skills in a coherent manner, so that the reading session is not simply isolated. Separating each from
the others is like somebody warming up for a race and then running the race itself some days later.
7.1.2. Part 2: Difficulties in teaching reading comprehension skill for grade 12 students at Yen Lac
high school and some solutions

7.1.2.1. The context:
Yen Lac high school
+ Teachers
There are totally nine teachers of English, two males and seven females. Two of them have graduated
for six years from The Hanoi University so they don’t have much experience in teaching. The rests
graduated from English Department in National University of Viet Nam. All of them are enthusiastic
with their career and had at least six years experienced in teaching English.
However, in terms of methodology, the teachers in our school usually employ the traditional methods
of teaching especially Grammar-translation method. They often apply this method

in teaching

English. In other words, they focus on analyzing the grammar rules, not on the acquisition of
language skills. They spend most of the classroom time explaining new words, analyzing grammar
structures and translating texts into Vietnamese. Students often listen and take notes passively. This
leads to low motivation in students and creates very few chances for them to improve their
communicative competence.
+ Students
There are ten classes of grade- 12. Each class includes 45 students. Generally speaking, the average
class size of 45 students is rather big and inconvenient. The desks are arranged traditionally with four
rows of six desks. There are narrow isles in the middle and two narrower ones on the sides, no other
empty space left where the teachers and the students can move to and from if they implement
different interactive activities.
12


7.1.2.2. Method
 Participants
All the teachers of English at Yen Lac high school are chosen for the research.
 Instruments

In this study, the instrument employed for collecting data was questionnaires.
 Questionnaires
There are 10 questions in the questionnaire for the teachers and they were designed with seven
purposes. Firstly, through the answer to the first question, the researcher will evaluate the teachers’
attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills at school. Secondly, question
2 is aimed at finding out the teachers’ attitude toward the importance of developing reading
comprehension skills. By answering questions 3, 4, 5, 6, the teachers had chance to express the
teachers’ using reading techniques in a reading lesson at Yen Lac High School. Question 7 is aimed at
investigating the teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading. Question 8 is to find out the teachers’
suggested activities. Question 9 is aimed at investigating the teachers’ organizing reading activities.
The purpose of the last question (question 10) is to find out the teachers’ activities to improve
students’ reading comprehension skills.
7.1.2.3. Procedure
On the first day of the survey, ten questionnaires were delivered to the teachers. While the teachers
were completing the questions, the researcher was beside them to give them clarification if any
confusion arose.
7.1.2.4. Data analysis and study finding
In this part, the research data will be analyzed in detail. It also addresses the justification of the choice
of data collection instruments: questionnaire survey and the participants of the study. The findings of
the research are showed and based on the result of the survey, some suggestions are given with the
hope that can be applicable for the teachers of the research contexts and the readers of the study.
 Teachers’ survey questionnaires
+ Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of teaching reading comprehension skills at school

Chart 1: The importance of reading skill
As shown in Chart 1, most of the teachers (67%) thought that reading skill was as important as other
skills, three of them (33%) viewed it less important.
13

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

Chart 2: Teachers’ attitude toward the importance of developing reading comprehension skills
As can be seen, most of the teachers were aware of the importance of reading comprehension so most
of them accordingly thought that developing reading comprehension was necessary 11.1% of them
found developing reading comprehension skills very important. 66.7% of them found developing
reading comprehension skills as important as other language skills. To them, reading was important
and beneficial to their students. This is a huge advantage in teaching this skill. However, two teachers
(22.2 %) did not highly appreciate the important role of developing reading comprehension skills. No
teacher thought that developing reading comprehension skills reading was not important at all.
+ Teachers’ using reading techniques in a reading lesson at Yen Lac High School
Teachers’ frequency of using Pre-reading activities
Pre – reading

Always
N %

Sometimes
N
%

Rarely
N %

5

55.6

3

33.3

1

11.1

2. Using pre – reading questions

6

66.7

3

33.3

0

0

3. Pre – teaching vocabulary

8

88.9

1

11.1

0

4. Explaining the instructions of the task

7

77.8

2

22.2

5. Making students predict the content of the 4

44.4

2

1. Using games to introduce the text

Never
N %

0

0
0

0

0
0

0

0

0

0

22.2

2

22.2

1

11.1

text
6. Giving reading tasks to students

4

44.4

3

33.3

1

11.1

1

11.1

7. Using visual aids to introduce the text

1

11.1

5

55.6

4

44.4

8. Giving a brief introduction to the text.

2

22.2

4

44.4

3

33.3

1
0

11.1
0

Table 1: Teachers’ frequency of using Pre-reading activities
The table 1 indicates that in a reading lesson, pre-teaching new vocabulary (88.9%) was the
most frequently used technique. The explanation for this could be that it was the most traditional
14


technique for pre-reading stage or students’ vocabulary was poor and their abilities of guessing the
meaning of the new words from the context were low. The teachers wanted to provide their students
some key words to help them overcome their difficulties when dealing with reading texts. The next
category consists of giving some pre-reading questions to think before reading and making students
brainstorm words, structures or ideas related to the topic of the text, which were reported to be used
sometimes. Clearly, the rest of the techniques were considered to be the least-frequently used because
it took time to prepare such techniques as games or visual aids, and some were not motivational
enough.
Teachers’ frequency of using while- reading activities
While – reading activities

Often
N

Sometimes
N
%

%
1. Matching
5
55.6
4
44.4
2. T/F
7
77.8
2
22.2
3. Questions and answers
8
88.9
1
11.1
4. Finding synonyms and antonyms
0
0
6
66.7
5. Reordering

0
0
5
55.6
6. Sentence – completing
2
22.2
7
77.8
7. Gap – filling
5
55.6
4
44.4
8. Finding the topic sentences
3
33.3
6
66.7
9. Finding equivalents
1
11.1
3
33.3
10. Multiple – choice
8
88.9
1
11.1
Table 2: Teachers’ frequency of using while- reading activities

Never
N
%
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
33.3
4
44.4
0
0
0
0
0
0
5
55.6
0
0

The frequency of using activities in the while- reading stage was also investigated. There are three
levels (often, sometimes, and never) for 10 kinds of exercise. From the data, the teachers apparently
often used some common types of activity in their reading lessons: Questions and answers, True/False
and Multiple- choice. Using only such common kinds of activity frequently often makes students feel
bored. It is advisable to use activities such as Finding topic sentences, Finding synonyms and

antonyms or Finding equivalents, which were rarely conducted in the reading class.
+ Teachers’ activities when their students meet unfamiliar words or structures in the text

Chart 3: Teachers’ activities when their students meet unfamiliar words or structures in the text

15


When students met unfamiliar words or structures in the text, a large number of teachers
advised students to find their meaning in the dictionary (44.4%). Up to 22.2% admitted that they
often required their students to ask the word meaning from the teachers and friends. This was the
easiest and most effective way. 22.2% told their students to guess their meanings by context clues.
11.2% of the teachers advised students to ignore to concentrate on the text. The teachers explained
that the whole content of the reading text does not depend on just a few sentences that do not make
sense to them.
+ Teachers’ using post-reading activities
OPTIONS

Number

percent (%)

A. Summarize the text

2

22.2

B. Discuss the texts

1

11.1

C. Do multiple – choice exercises, check students’ 5

55.6

understanding
D. Translate into Vietnamese

3

33.3

E. Do nothing

2

22.2

Table 3: Teachers’ using post-reading activities
The table 3 shows that 22.2% of the teachers usually asked their students to summarize the
text. Only one teacher asked their students to discuss the text (11.1%). Doing multiple-choice
exercises after reading was also an easy and effective way to check students’ understanding about the
texts. 55.6% admitted that they often asked their students to do multiple-choice exercises. 33.3 % of
the teachers asked their students to translate the text into Vietnamese. 2 out of 9 teachers involved this
study proposed that they did not ask their students to do anything post-reading. The reason they
mentioned was the time for a reading lesson. They usually lacked time in reading.
+ Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading

16


Chart 4: Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading
When asking the teachers about the problems they were facing with in teaching reading, the
majority (44.4%) admitted that the most difficult issue was the students’ limitation of vocabulary and
grammatical structures. 33.3% of the teachers said that their students’ background knowledge and
world knowledge were poor. It cannot be denied that students’ background knowledge and world
knowledge are the important factors, which affect students’ reading comprehension much. Clearly, the
students who possess rich prior knowledge about the topic of a reading often understand the reading
better than classmates with low prior knowledge. It is not very surprising to find that students’ lack of
motivation was also the big problem, which was caused difficulties for the teachers (11.1%).
Although the students had a profound awareness of the importance of reading, it did not lead to high
interest and motivation in learning this subject because of what they were being taught in the
classroom. 11.1% said that they could not teach reading effectively because time was limited. They
often had no time for the post-reading activities.
+ Teachers’ suggested activities

Chart 5: Teachers’ suggested activities

17


When being asked which techniques the teachers used in teaching a reading lesson, all of
teachers chose all suggested techniques. Statistically, 55.6 % gave various kinds of exercises to help
students exploit the reading text, 11.1% gave attractive introductions and clear aim of the reading
text, 22.2% gave more interesting activities, 11.1 % helped the students guess new words based on
the context, 11.1% gave other methods.
Teachers’ organizing reading activities

With this question, the author intended to examine the way that the teachers asked their
students to do reading comprehension exercises. The feedback of this question will be presented in
the chart below.

Chart 6: Teachers’ organizing reading activities
The chart 6 shows that 11.1% of the teachers asked their students to work in groups. As for the
teachers, group-work enabled students to activate their existing knowledge to share experience.
Moreover, students could take an active part in discussion. A greater proportion of teachers (22.2%)
required their students to work in pairs. The reason for this may be due to the class setting (the
students often sit in the table of two or four) so that, when working in pairs, their students do not have
to change the seats arrangement and can have more time as well as more opportunities to express
ideas. However, the largest proportion, 66.7% of the teachers asked their students to work
individually. In short, the students’ ways of reading suggested the teachers finding some appropriate
methods to help students read more effectively.
+ Teachers’ activities to improve students’ reading comprehension skills

18


Chart 7: Teachers’ activities to improve students’ reading comprehension skills
The teachers knew clearly the difficulties when dealing with a reading lesson so they applied
lots of activities to make their lessons more interesting and less difficult to their students. Among four
different activities employed by the teachers to help their students to improve reading comprehension
skill, provide students with certain key words was most carried out by 44.4% of the teachers. The
explanation for this could be that this activity was easy to apply and teachers did not spend much time
preparing it. Create comfortable environment for students to exchange information before reading
was carried out by 11.1% of the teachers. 33.3% of the teachers used suggest students essential
reading strategies needed for each kind of reading tasks. 11.1% of the teachers explained clearly
about the reading context.
 Study findings

+ The teachers’ attitudes toward the role of the teaching of reading
From the above data analysis, most of the teachers at Yen Lac High School were aware of the
importance of reading, they expressed their positive attitudes to teaching reading comprehension
skills as well as developing reading comprehension skills. The survey results in the questionnaire for
the teachers indicate that teachers used different activities and exercises in the reading lesson, but
they were not appropriate and effective enough. The teachers, in fact still applied traditional strategies
in teaching reading. Most of them focused on presenting new words and grammatical structures rather
than instructed their students to use some useful techniques such as skimming and scanning, etc. They
did not made use of pairs work and groups work in the process of teaching reading. That is why their
reading lessons were not be effective. Students consequently could not develop their reading
comprehension skills. This is the reason why the teachers of English should think of more useful
techniques that do work in the current situation of teaching to get the best result of a reading lesson.
+ Difficulties the teachers meet when dealing with a reading lesson
One of the major obstacles to the success of reading lessons and its communicative language methods
is the classroom facilities and the class size. It is undeniable that modern technology encourages
much any aspects of language teaching and learning. Without authentic materials, teachers cannot
19


help students to interact with real situations where English is used. More seriously, teachers often
have to simplify their performance and other interesting activities due to limited facility. Another
concerning matter is that many of such limited devices are misspent because no one takes advantage
of them. Some teachers find inconvenient to apply new technology into their teaching, or they may be
lazy because it takes time and energy to redesign the lesson plans.
In addition, big class size cannot meet the demand of the communicative language approach. This
discourages students’ interaction or activeness in the classroom as well as teachers’ observations and
assistance to individual.
The information from the data analysis clearly shows that the teachers faced many problems when
dealing with reading lessons. Limitation of vocabulary and grammatical structures is the biggest
problem for reading. Some possible explanation considered by the researcher is that the 12 th students

had very limited vocabulary, and were too dependent on teachers, peers dictionaries. New words have
affected the students’ process of reading. Background knowledge is found to be a less challenge than
vocabulary. Students found that they did not know anything in some aspects. Therefore, they had
many difficulties when reading a strange topic.
7.1.2.5. Suggested solutions to overcome the challenges
According to the statistics, teaching reading comprehension skills at Yen Lac High School are not
very effective and satisfactory. The 12th-form students know something about reading skills, and they
apply them in dealing with the reading tasks. However, the number of the students being effective
readers is modest while the rest of the students seem to be ineffective ones. Thus it is time the
teachers did something to reach their ultimate target: students’ reading improvement. A successful
reading teacher is the person who can help his students build up passion for reading, comprehend the
reading text well, develop effectively reading habit outside classroom and better other language skills
in combination with reading. It is very important to give out some suggested activities to improve
reading comprehension skills to students. The activities suggested hereafter hopefully can serve as a
tool to enable teachers of reading at Yen Lac High School to become more successful.
+ Pre – reading stage
This activity gets students to think about the content of the text which is going to be read. The aims of
this activity are to introduce and arouse the learners’ interest to the topic to motivate them by giving
the reason for reading and providing some language preparation for the text. Steven (1988:328) states
that: “pre- reading activities must accomplish both goals: building new background knowledge as
well as activating existing background knowledge. A teacher of reading may thus be viewed as a
teacher of relevant information as well as a teacher of reading skills.”
The following activities can be considered to be effective techniques in the pre-reading stage
of a reading lesson:

20


-

Brainstorming and graphically organizing information

a brainstorming web can activate the students’ schemata as well as stimulate their interests and
curiosity. The teacher divides class into small groups of 4-5 students. Each group must take a
brainstorming web and write the title of the article in the center. groups write everything they already
know about wild animals. They can add as many circles as needed. Actually, a brainstorming web
reminds the students of what they have already known and gets their minds ready to take new
information as well.


Example: English 12, Unit 3: The Green Movement, pp. 34

The teacher writes “pollutants” on the board then asks her students to work in groups in order to find
words related to “pollutants”

pestisid
e

smok
e
pollutants

plastic

-

soot

Giving pre-reading questions

The teacher gives some questions which should be concerned with the general meaning or with the
most important point of a text and not focus on minor details, asks students to work in pairs in order
to answer all questions. It is evident that these questions are necessary to students because “they give
the students a reason to read and to lead them to the main points of the text” (Doff, 1988:61).


Example: English 12, Unit 2: Urbanisation, pp. 23

The teacher writes a few questions on the board related to the main ideas of the reading text and then
asks the students to work in groups of 3 to answer the questions:
1. How has your hometown changed for the last ten years?
2. What are the causes of urbanisation?
3. What are the consequences of urbanisation?
- Using visual aids such as map, diagrams, figure, photographs etc related to the topic.
It cannot be denied that visual aids are of great help in stimulating the learning of a foreign language.
As a result, using visual aids is considered to be one of the most efficient techniques used in teaching
new items since it is a way to show the meaning of the words visually through real objects, drawing,
pictures, gestures and facial expressions. The teacher asks students to look at visual aids and discuss
content related to the topic of the text.


Example: English 12, Unit 1: Life stories, pp.11

21


The teacher prepares some simple pictures to describe a story, and sticks them on the board randomly.
The teacher asks her students to work in groups to rearrange the pictures and think of a story based on
their pictures order.
In order to help to prepare pre- reading work, useful questions that the teacher can ask himself

are:
-

What knowledge, idea or opinions might the learners already have on the topic and how
can this knowledge help them with the reading?

-

Why should anyone want to read this text, and can learners be motivated by the same or
similar reasons.

-

How many grammatical items and vocabularies should be explained?

-

How much time is possible for the pre- reading activities?

The answers to these questions will help the teacher decide the ways of introducing the text,
motivating the learners, and at the same time will incorporate language preparation. Moreover, they
also help the teacher carry out pre- reading activities successfully.
+ While – reading stage
 Reading for general understanding
To help students to gain general understanding about the text, the teacher teaches students skimming
technique. The skimming technique is an important technique in reading comprehension directs
students to a global understanding of reading texts.
The teacher instructs the students to read a few important sentences and recognize certain words or
expression as clues to ideas of what follows. It is advisable to ask the students to pay attention to the
title, the beginning, the end as well as the topic sentence of each paragraph that usually conveys the

main ideas of the text. After teaching new vocabulary or introducing the text, etc. the teacher asks his
students to read the text silently for the first time to gain the global understanding of the text, identify
main ideas before going into the details of the text.


Information questions

While the students are reading, they are given some questions which help them know what they are
expected to read. Information questions used while students are skimming direct them to the general
idea of the text. The teacher can use the questions in the text book, change or replace the poor ones,
or he can design some extra questions. It is worth using Wh- questions to draw the students’ attention
to the whole text. If Yes/ No questions are used, he must his students to explain their answers.
For example, in Unit 4: “The Mass Media ” (English 12: 50), the students may be asked to
answer the questions after skimming the text:
1. What is the main idea of this passage?
2. What are the roles of mass media?
3. Do mass media affect people’s lives?
22




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 Unit 4: “The Mass Media ” (English 12: 50) 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.

The history of print media

B.

Forms of mass media

C.

The advent of the Digital media Age

D.

Means of mobile communication

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.


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.
In all the provided statements, some of them are right, some are wrong, and some are not
mentioned in the text. The students must write true (T) or (F) or not given (NG) next to each
statement according to what they get from the text.

For example, in the text “Urbanisation” (English 12: 23), 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)
1. Urbanisation happens first in more economically developed countries, then in less
economically developed countries.
2. Urbanisation has increased in rich countries since 1950s.
3. The standard of living in cities and rural areas is more or less the same.
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.
 Reading for specific information
After the students complete some exercises focusing on the main point or general understanding of
the text, depending on the kinds of task, the teacher divides class into pairs or small groups of 4-5
students to scan the text again and search for or locate some particular pieces of information in the
23


text. The teacher should remind his students that when they are trying to locate specifically required
information, they do not need to read the whole text carefully but pay more attention to the paragraph
in which the information they need is likely to be embedded. It is advisable to limit the time of
scanning since this can save the time and make the students try their best to develop the scanning
skill. Depending on the text, the teaching and learning condition or the students’ language level, the
students are asked to answer information questions, multiple choice questions or True/ False
questions.


Information questions

The information questions can be used to focus the students on specific information of the

text.
For example, in the text “Cultural Identity” (English 12: 63), the teacher may ask his students
to answer the following questions
1. How do individuals define themselves?
2. What language do the British speak?
3. What is the traditional costume of the Vietnamese?


Multiple choice questions

This kind of question is also widely used to draw the students to “just one word of the text” or
specific information of the text.
For example, for the text “Artificial Intelligence” (English 12: 22 ),

students may be

instructed to choose the best answers for each sentence according to the text.
1. Artificial Intelligence is the intelligence displayed by ________.
A.

machines or software.

B.

only machines

C.

only software

D.

human

2. Many A.I. experts believe that A.I. technology will soon make even greater ________ in
many other areas.
A.

advances

B.

efforts

C.

devices

D.

things

+ Post – reading
This stage is carried out after the students have completely read the text. In order to have a
successful reading lesson, it can not end in while – reading stage. Techniques applied in this stage are
very helpful because they do not only consolidate what students have learnt, provide them with
further information relating to the text but also improve their language skills.
24

Dealing with the role of post reading stage, Durkin (1986:486) stages that: “ one reason for
post – reading discussion in classroom is to give students the chance to see in what way their reading
did or did not succeed and why.”
Post – reading is the way to check the students’ reading comprehension, the teacher can
involve the students in many different kinds of activities. During this stage, the teacher plays an
important role, as he is the person who motivates and attracts the students to the activities. Each kind
of text also requires the teacher to have different approach.
The teacher may get ideas for post – reading work by asking himself the following questions:
-

Do the learners know of a similar situation to that presented in the text?

-

Does the text present a situation that calls for recommendations?

-

Does the text present a situation that invites completions?

-

Does the text present views that might need to be counter – balanced?

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then there is an opportunity for post – reading
work. The work that the questions lead to may be writing, interaction drawing a diagram, or any
combination of these.
+ Adjusting Teaching Time and efforts
Findings from the survey reveal that teachers at Yen Lac High School have already provided
different techniques to help their students read effectively. However, the teachers also need to notice

that not enough time and efforts have been spent to help their students deal with new words or
phrases, or come – up problems of cultural knowledge. The teachers need to save more time and
efforts identifying what difficulties their students are coping with in each stage of reading. For
example, if their students find it hard to start discussion about the topic to read, it is essential that the
teachers guide them with interesting questions, or theme- based topics. If that is the problem of
working out the gist, asking them to have skim read is the task of the teachers and this is certain to
facilitate the students. Time and efforts are also necessary for the teachers to tabulate their students’
level of proficiency so that appropriate reading exercises can be ended punctually.
In short, using the time and efforts wisely is one technique to help teachers improve their
students’ reading skills.
+ Creating Interest and Enhancing Motivation
Ways for creating interest and enhancing motivation for the students at Yen Lac High School will
vary significantly according to personal preferences, experiences, background, and subject matter. For 12h
- form students of English at Yen Lac High School, it would be helpful to suggest some ways for creating
the students’ interest and enhancing their motivation before reading.
Group discussion is an activity that can be appropriate for situations in which texts are
difficult, sometimes contain unfamiliar concepts or words that may be not exist in the students’
minds. Group students in three or four with an efficient reader to create an exciting reading
atmosphere since reading alone is conventional and sometimes rather boring and not effective.
25