A study on the techniques for improving reading skill for non-major students of English at pre-intermediate level at the Foreign Language Center at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: . M.A Thesis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST- GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

DUONG THI LAN HUONG

A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING READING SKILL
FOR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH
AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AT THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER
AT THE MINNISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC THỦ THUẬT NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC
CHO CÁC HỌC VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TRÌNH ĐỘ B
TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ BỘ NÔNG NGHIỆP VÀ PTNT
MINOR MA THESIS

Field: English methodology
Code: 601410

HÀ NỘI-2013

1


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY , HANOI
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST- GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

DUONG THI LAN HUONG

A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING READING SKILL
FOR NON-MAJOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH

AT PRE-INTERMEDIATE LEVEL AT THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER
AT THE MINNISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC THỦ THUẬT NÂNG CAO KỸ NĂNG ĐỌC
CHO CÁC HỌC VIÊN KHÔNG CHUYÊN TIẾNG ANH TRÌNH ĐỘ B
TẠI TRUNG TÂM NGOẠI NGỮ BỘ NÔNG NGHIỆP VÀ PTNT
MINOR MA THESIS

Field: English methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: Nguyen Quynh Trang-PhD candidate

HÀ NỘI-2013

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STATEMENT
I certify that this thesis is the result of my own study and it hasn’t been submitted to
any other institutions or universities.
Hanoi, September, 2013
Student

Duong Thi Lan Huong

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Quynh
Trang - PhD candidate, for her valuable guidance, encouragement and constant support

to the fulfillment of my thesis.
I also would like to thank my colleagues in the English Faculty of the College of
Management for Agriculture and Rural Development and non-major students of
English at pre-intermediate level at the Foreign Language Center at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development for their cooperation during the rearch.
Last but not least, I am indebted to my parents, whose constant love and care
greatly contributes to the completion of my study.

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ABSTRACT
English is becoming more and more popular in Vietnam and it has an important
role in the developing of economy, politics, culture, science, technology. In the
teaching and learning English, reading has always received great attention. Civil
servants at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development take reading into
consideration because of their job requirement. However, they still face a lot of
difficulties in reading. It is urgent to carry out “A study on the techniques for
improving reading skill for non-major students of English at pre-intermediate level at
the Foreign Language Center at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development”.
Reading problems the teachers and learners experienced are presented and some
suggestions are given. However, the findings of the study is somehow limited due to
time limitation and further studies can apply some other methods to cross check.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study .............................................. 1
1.2. Aims of the study.................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Significance of the study ........................................................................................ 2
1.4. Methods of the study .............................................................................................. 2
1.5. Scope of the study................................................................................................... 2
1.6. Design of the study ................................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Definitions of reading ............................................................................................. 4
2.2.Definition of reading comprehension ...................................................................... 5
2.3. Classification of reading ......................................................................................... 6
2.3.1. Classification according to manner ..................................................................... 6
2.3.2. Classification according to purpose..................................................................... 8
2.4. Effective reading comprehension ........................................................................... 10
2.5. Reading comprehension techniques ....................................................................... 10
2.6. Reading purpose of second language learners........................................................ 12
2.7. Factors in teaching and learning reading ............................................................. 12
2.7.1. Teachers’ role .................................................................................................... 12
2.7.2. Students’ role ..................................................................................................... 13
2.7.3. The reading texts................................................................................................. 13
2.7.4. Reading motivation ...................................................................................................... 13
2.8. Stages of a reading lesson ..................................................................................... 14
2.8.1. Pre-reading stage ................................................................................................ 14

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2.8.2. While-reading stage ............................................................................................ 14

2.8.3. Post-reading stage .....................................................................................15
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Participants ............................................................................................................. 16
3.2. Material ................................................................................................................... 16
3.3. Data collection instrument ..................................................................................... 18
3.4. Data analysis ........................................................................................................... 19
3.4.1. Data analysis of the students’ survey questionnaires .......................................... 19
3.4.1.1. Students’ aims of learning English ................................................................... 19
3.4.1.2. Students’ attitude to the reading texts in the book More Reading Power ........ 19
3.4.1.3. Students’ attention to the language aspects taught at MARD .......................... 20
3.4.1.4. Students’ attitude to the importance of reading comprehension ...................... 20
3.4.1.5. Students’ attitude to the benefit of reading ...................................................... 21
3.4.1.6. Students’ attitude to the activities in 3 stages of reading ................................. 21
3.4.1.6.1. Students’ attitude to pre-reading activities .................................................... 21
3.4.1.6.1.1. The frequency of using Pre-reading activities by the teachers responded
by the students ................................................................................................... 21
3.4.1.6.1.2. Students’ enjoyment of pre-reading activities ........................................... 22
3.4.1.6.2. Students’ attitude to while - reading activities .............................................. 23
3.4.1.6.2.1. Students’ activities to look for specific information .................................. 23
3.4.1.6.2.2. Students’ activities to look for the main idea of the text ............................ 23
3.4.1.6.2.3. Students’ activities when meeting new words ........................................... 23
3.4.1.6.3. Students’ attitude to post - reading activities ................................................ 24
3.4.1.7. Students’ difficulties when learning reading .................................................... 24
3.4.1.8. Students’ expectation towards teachers’ teaching of reading techniques
to overcome difficulties when learning reading ................................................. 25
3.4.1.9. Students’ effort for improving their reading comprehension ........................... 26
3.4.2. Data analysis of the teachers’ survey questionnaires .......................................... 26
3.4.2.1. Teachers’ aims of teaching reading ................................................................ 26
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3.4.2.2.Teachers’ attitude to the reading texts in the book More Reading Power ........ 27
3.4.2.3.Teachers’ attention to the language aspects taught at MARD .......................... 27
3.4.2.4. Teachers’ attitude to the importance of reading comprehension ..................... 28
3.4.2.5. Teachers’ attitude to the benefit of reading ...................................................... 28
3.4.2.6. Teachers’ difficulties when teaching reading ................................................... 29
3.4.2.7. Teachers’ activities to help students to overcome difficulties ......................... 29
CHAPTER 4: SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONs
4.1.

Suggested techniques ....................................................................................... 31

4.1.1. Techniques for reading motivation and interest ............................................... 31
4.1.1.1. The students are free to choose books of their own interest. ........................ 31
4.1.1.2. The reading should be easy for them. ........................................................... 31
4.1.1.3. Gradually escalating the level of difficulty of the texts. ............................... 31
4.1.1.4. Role – playing ............................................................................................... 31
4.1.1.5. Diversifying pre-reading techniques............................................................. 31
4.1.1.5.1. Using visual aids ........................................................................................ 32
4.1.1.5.2. Brainstorming ............................................................................................ 32
4.1.1.5.3. Pre - questioning ....................................................................................... 32
4.1.2. Techniques for dealing with vocabulary........................................................... 32
4.1.2.1. Techniques to deal with unknown words ...................................................... 32
4.1.2.2. Techniques to enrich vocabulary ................................................................... 33
4.1.2.2.1. Using word games ...................................................................................... 33
4.1.2.2.2. Using word lists .......................................................................................... 33
4.1.2.2.3. Encouraging students to have extensive reading habit ............................... 33
4.1.2.2.4. Students need to read a lot .......................................................................... 33
4.1.2.2.5. The reading material is at an appropriate level ........................................... 34
4.1.2.2.6. There is a variety of reading materials on a wide range of topics .............. 34

4.1.2.2.7. Students are allowed to choose books that interest them ........................... 34
4.1.2.2.8. Reading is individual and silient................................................................. 34
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4.1.2.2.9. Teachers advise students to find a regular time and place in the day
for reading so that it can become part of their daily routine........................... 34
4.1.2.2.10. Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower ................................... 34
4.2. Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 34
4.3. Limitations and recommendations for further study .......................................... 35
REFERENCES
APPENDIX

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LIST OF TABLES
FOR STUDENTS
Table 1: Students’ aims of learning English
Table 2: Students’ attitude to the reading texts in the book More Reading Power
Table 3: Students’ attention to the language aspects taught at MARD
Table 4: Students’ attitude to the importance of reading comprehension
Table 5: Students’ attitude to the benefit of reading
Table 6: The frequency of using Pre-reading activities by the teachers
responded by the students
Table 7: Students’ enjoyment of pre-reading activities
Table 8: Students’ activities to look for specific information
Table 9: Students’ activities to look for the main idea of the text
Table 10: Students’ activities when meeting new words
Table 11: Students’ post – reading activities

Table 12: Difficulties students face in reading
Table 13: Students’ expectation towards teachers’ teaching of reading techniques to
overcome difficulties when learning reading
Table 14: Students’ activities to improve their reading comprehension
FOR TEACHERS
Table 1: Teachers’ aims of teaching English
Table 2: Teachers’ attitude to the reading text in the book More Reading Power
Table 3: Teachers’attention to the language aspects taught at MARD
Table 4 : Teachers’attitude to the importance of reading comprehension
Table 5: Teachers’ attitude to the benefit of reading
Table 6: Difficulties teachers encounter when teaching reading
Table 7: Teachers’ activities to help students to overcome difficulties

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
MARD: the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
N: number of students/ teachers

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study
English is the most widely spoken language in the world and it has
become more and more important in the development of science, technology,
politics, culture and international relations in Vietnam. The demand of teaching
and learning English is increasing throughout the country for different
purposes. In a second language classroom, reading plays a significant role in

building both linguistic and background knowledge for other language skills.
Hoang et al (2006:191) considers reading the most effective means of improving
students’ language competence. Carrell (1989) argues that “For many students,
reading is by far the most important of four skills in a second language”.
Anderson (1999) has the same opinion: “Reading is an essential skill for English
as a second/ foreign language student; and for many, reading is the most
important skill to master”. This is true for non-major students of English at
pre-intermediate level at the Foreign Language center at the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). They are civil servants working
at different departments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development
and their job more or less concerns English. They learn English with the
enthusiastic help of the teachers coming from the College of Management for
Agriculture and Rural Development. However, most of them find effective
reading difficult. 5 major obstacles they confront in reading, as Hoang et al
(2005) specifies, are: the habits 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. Despite its importance, it
is urgent to conduct “A study on the techniques for improving reading skill for
non-major students of English at pre-intermediate level at the Foreign Language
Center at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development”.
1.2. Aims of the study
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The purpose of the thesis is to identify reading problems experienced by
teachers and learners at the Foreign Language Center at MARD so that some
suggestions for improving their reading skill are presented. Therefore, the
study aims at answering the following research questions:
1. What are the teachers and students’s attitudes towards the teaching and
learning of reading skill ?

2. What difficulties do the teachers and students encounter in teaching and
learning reading?
3. What are suggested techniques to improve the students’ reading skill?
1.3. Significance of the study
The study is carried out for a more effective way to improve reading
skills for non-major students of English at pre-intermediate level at MARD.
Further more, the findings of the study are hoped to be useful for teachers of
English at the College of Management for Agriculture and Rural Development
to better develop their learners’s reading skill. Hopefully, the researcher wish
to provide any other researchers who are interested in the study with reliable
and useful implications to improve learners’ reading skill.
1.4. Methods of the study
The study is carried out on the basis of qualitative approach: 2 survey
questionnaires involving 115 learners and 11 teachers are used to collect data
for the study.
1.5. Scope of the study
The study pays attention to improving reading skill for non-major
students of English at pre-intermediate level at MARD, but due to time
limitation, only a survey is conducted to identify what difficulties the teachers
and students encounter, what matters most to them in reading lessons, then
some techniques are suggested to help them better in teaching and learning
reading skill.
1.6. Design of the study
The study is composed of the following parts:
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Chapter 1 (Introduction) provides rationale, aims, significance, scope,
methods, and design of the study.
Chapter 2 (Literature review) conceptualizes the study’s theoretical

background, presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: definition
of reading and reading comprehension, classification of reading, reading
comprehension techniques, reading purpose of second language learners,
factors in teaching and learning reading, stages in a reading lesson.
Chapter 3 (Methodology) includes the participants, teaching material,
instrument of data collection, data collection and data analysis.
Chapter 4: (Suggestions and conclusions) consists of some suggested
techniques, a review of the study, the limitations of the study and
recommendation for further research.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides a theoretical background to the study with
relevant concepts to the thesis as follows:
2.1. Definitions of reading
Reading is a natural part of human beings’ life, for example we read
books, magazines, newspapers, stories, notices, medicine leaflets. Reading has
been the subjects of research for over a century (Cheng, 1985). However, points
of view on the definition of reading are different.
In Ur’s definition, “Reading means reading and understanding” (Ur, P.
1996:138). Harmer J. (1989:153) considers reading as a mechanical process that
“eyes receives the message and the brain has to work out the significance of the
message”. Rubin, J. and Thompson, I. (1994: 91) defines reading in an other
way “Reading is an active information seeking process in which readers relate
information in the text to what they already know”. It can be understood that
the readers’s knowledge of the language and the world is of important to the
success in reading. One more satisfying definition is given by Rumelhart (1977).
He states “Reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between

the reader and the text”. Aebersold and Field (1997:15) have the same point of
view: “Reading is what happen when people look at a text and assign meaning
to the written symbol in that text”. Sharing the same opinion, Richard and
Thomas (1987:9) describe reading 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 stimulates ideas, experiences and responses that are unique to an
individual”.

Allen

and

Valletta

(1977:249)

consider

“Reading

is

a

developmental process”. Learners read not only to master the sound, the
language, the grammar used in the text but also to understand the ideas, the
information expressed in that text or to develop the ability of reconstructing the
content using their own words. According to Goodman (1971:135), reading is
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“a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language user, reconstructs,
as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by a writer as a graphic
display”. Anderson (1999:1) explains reading very neatly “Reading is an active,
fluent process which involves the reader and the reading material in building
meaning. Meaning doesn’t reside on the printed page or occurs in reading,
which combines the words on the printed page with the reader’s background
knowledge and experiences”. Smith (1985:102) has the same opinion that
“Reading understands the author’s thought. It means that we – the reader –
read the author’s mind, not the author’s words. Roe, Stood and Burns (1987:2)
describes reading in a more extensive way. In their opinion, “reading is
understanding written language”, “reading is a complex mental process”,
“reading is thinking’.
To sum up, it can be seen that no definition can capture all the ideas and
features of what reading is. Each linguist’s definition reflects what reading
means from his own point of view. What they share is that they try to find out
the nature of reading, in which the reader, the text, and the interaction between
these 2 factors are emphasized.
2.2.Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension plays a key role in teaching and learning a
foreign language in general and teaching reading in particular. Reading activity
is often considered a means of communication between the writer and the
reader.
According to Roe, Stood and Burns (1987:2),“Reading comprehension is
reconstruction, interpretation and evaluation of what author of written content
means

by

using

knowledge

gained

from

life

experience”.

Reading

comprehension can be affected by world knowledge, and those whose
knowledge about the reading topic is richer will understand the reading better.
Anderson and Pearson (1984:255) state that when readers make a critical
evaluation of the text, “they are making connections between the new
information on the printed page and their existing knowledge”. Lee and
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Vanpatten (1995:191) share the same view “Comprehension, by definition, is
the process of relating new or incoming information to information already
stored in memory. Readers make connections between the information on the
printed page and their existing knowledge. They must allow new information to
enter and become a part of their knowledge store”.
Richard and Thomas (1987:9) concentrate on the readers’ understanding
of the message basing on each individual’s background knowledge.They point
out that “Reading comprehension is best described as an understanding

between the 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 pages stimulate ideas, experiences and
responses that are unique to an individual”.
Grellet

(1981:3)

points

out

that

“Reading

comprehension

or

understanding written text means extracting the required information from it
as effectively as possible”. Similarly, Swan (1975:1) argues 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”
In spite of different points of view, it can be drawn to conclusion that
reading comprehension is the process in which readers can recognize the
graphic forms of the reading text and understand the ideas implied behind
these forms.
2.3. Classification of reading

2.3.1. Classification according to manner
According to Doff (1988), reading is divided into two main types: reading
aloud and silent reading.
Reading aloud involves “looking at the text, understanding it and also
saying it” (Doff, 1988:70). Though reading aloud is considered a way to convey
necessary information to someone else, very few people are required to read
aloud in daily life. Reading aloud is unpopular outside the classroom as Doff
17


(1988: 67) said, “reading aloud is not an activity we engage in very often outside
the classroom”.
Reading aloud has both advantages and disadvantages. Nuttal (1966) sees
reading aloud as an important aid for beginners to improve their
pronunciation. It helps to connect between sounds and spelling of letters and
words and also assists the teacher to check students’ pronunciation. Moreover,
it is a technique to keep the class under control, since when one student reads
aloud, the others are asked to listen in case they may be required to continue
the reading.
However, Greenwood (1985) criticizes the overemphasis of teaching
pronunciation through reading aloud. According to him, students may unable
to focus adequately on the text’s meaning when they highly concentrate on
pronouncing the words. He implies that there are also some negative effects
that should be taken into account in the process of teaching and learning that
involves reading aloud. First, when reading aloud, students only focus on the
pronunciation not on the meaning of the text. Second, when students take turn
to read a text aloud, only one student is active; the others will do something
else, since they do not have to read. In addition, it is often a waste of time
because students have to wait one after one when reading in turn. It can be
inferred that there is little value in reading aloud if we want to improve the

readers’ reading skills. Therefore, teachers should identify the level of their
students and decide whether to apply reading aloud or not in teaching reading
to their students.
Silent reading is widely used in both real life and classrooms. Lewis
(1985: 110) states that silent reading is “the method we normally use with our
native language and on the whole quickest and most efficient”. Sharing the
same idea, Doff (1988:67) defines: “Silent reading involves looking at sentence
and understanding the message it conveys, in other words making sense of a
written text. It does not normally involve saying the words we read nor even
silently in our heads”. It can be seen that silent reading is an effective skill for
18


reading comprehension since we can best understand the reading material at
our own speed and we can go back to read again if there is something we don’t
understand clearly, and the most important is that it isn’t necessary to read
what we don’t want. When reading silently, we not only obtain the main ideas
in the shortest length of time but also deeply understand the details and can
answer the questions as well.
For teachers, silent reading is helpful for controlling the class because
students concentrate on the text, obtain the meaning and extract what they
need as quickly as possible. It is useful to develop students’s reading ability, and
teachers should often adjust the reading materials and exercises to suit the
students’ improvement. Therefore, it should be applied in teaching and
learning a foreign language.
2.3.2. Classification according to purpose
According to purpose, reading is categorized into 4 types: Skimming,
scanning, extensive reading and intensive reading.
Skim read and scan read are necessary techniques for general sense or
the gist of a reading text.

Nuttal (1982:36) says “By skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through
the text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or
in order to keep ourselves superfically informed about matters that are not of
great importance to us”.
Grellet (1981:19) states that “when skimming, 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”
Hedges, T. (2000:195) gives one more definition that “skimming is used
to get a global impression of the content of a text. An example would be
previewing a long magazine article by reading rapidly, skipping large chunks of
information, and focusing on headings and first lines of paragraphs”.
Skimming appears when we glance at newspapers to get the general news of the
19


day, at magazines to discover quickly which articles we would like to read in
more detail, at businesss and travel brochures to get informed quickly.
According to Williams (1986:100), “Scanning occurs when a reader looks
quickly through the text searching for a specific piece of information or to see if
the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose”. Hedges, T. (2000:195) points
out that “Scanning involves searching rapidly through a text to find a specific
point of information, for example, the relevant times on a timetable, items in a
directory, or key points in a academic text”. Grellet (1981:19) shares the same
view “When scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we
do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so”. So, scanning is very
high speed reading. When we scan, we often have a question our mind and we
read only the words that answer that question. Scanning is widely used in daily
life, such as scanning the lists of names in a telephone directory to find a phone
number, or scanning what we need in dictionaries, indexes, advertisements,
magazines, newspaper articles, labels, reference materials and so on.

It can be understood that skimming is a useful reading skill which is
often applied at the first stage of reading to give readers an overview of the
reading material. A reader skims through the text to see what it is about before
scanning for specific information he is looking for. Though these 2 reading
techniques are important for quick and efficient reading, they shouldn’t be
selected separately because a text can be best tackled by a combination of
strategies. Davies, F. (1995:137) argues that “It is difficult to draw clear
boundaries between the types of reading termed skimming and scanning; in
real life, scanning inevitably involves some skimming (and skipping) of large
sections of text, and skimming, reciprocally, must embrace some scanning”.
Intensive reading, in Nuttall’s (2000:38) opinion, “involves approaching
the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the students to
focus on the text”. Brown (1990:297) considers intensive reading “a classroom oriented activity in which students focus on the linguistic or semantic details of
a passage”. Grellet, F. (1981:4) states that “Intensive reading means reading
20


short texts to extract specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving
reading for detailed.”
Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity to obtain a
general understanding of a subject including reading longer texts for pleasure
as well as business books. Grellet, F. (1981:4) defines “Extensive reading means
reading longer texts, usually for one’s pleasure. This is a fluency activity,
mainly involving global understanding”. Additionally, according to Nuttal,
C.(2000:127), “Getting students to read extensively is the easiest and most
effective way of improving their reading skills”. Carrell and Carson (1997:
49,50) state that “Extensive reading generally involves rapid reading of large
quantities of material or longer reading for general understanding, with the
focus generally on the meaning of what is being read than on the language.”
It can be drawn to conclusion that both intensive reading and extensive

reading are of great importance because they help to gain knowledge and they
should be paid equal attention to.
2.4. Effective reading comprehension
Ur (1996:148) considers effective reading comprehension process with
the following elements:
- A clear purpose in mind
- An enhanced motivation
- Appropriate reading comprhension strategies based on the purposes and
motivation
- Good prediction
- Sufficient background information and vocabulary
- Close attention to the significant bits
- Fairly high speed
2.5. Reading comprehension techniques
Grellet (1990) provides 3 groups of techniques:
2.5.1. Sensitizing
- Infering
21


Good readers in fact make inferences all the time when they read, which
means using using all the information from the text as well as from their own
store of knowledge to make guesses about meaning that is not explicitly stated,
so that they will be more willing to depart from literal interpretation when
reading.
- Understanding relations within sentences
- Linking sentences and ideas
2.5.2. Improving reading speed
Readers in most academic settings and many work situations face a large
quantity of reading in English. This can be a problem for many English

language learners who read so slowly that they often have little time to reflect
on and assimilate what they have read. Therefore, it is important for learners to
develop reading habits that will allow them to deal with a large amount of
reading. Furthermore, being able to read faster can make a big difference in
extensive reading. Simply, learners who can read faster can get through more
books in less time. In addition, they will also probably enjoy their reading more,
so they are liky to read more.
2.5.3. From skimming to scanning
- Predicting
One way to stimulate learners to reflect on what they are reading and to
use their imagination is to ask them to make predictions about the book when
they are part way through. Prediction is a key aspect of the reading process.
The more quickly and accurately learners can make prediction and confirm,
the more fluently they will read.
- Previewing
Previewing is a very useful skill that good readers often make use of and
we often preview in daily life, for example we preview:
 The newspaper by reading the headlines - to decide which articles to
read.
22


 A letter by looking at the envelop - to decide whether to open it or throw
it away (junk mail).
 A book by reading the front and back covers - to decide if it is interesting
and whether to read it.
The benefits of previewing as a regular habit help the readder:
- Get a general idea of what the text is about;
- Place it in a general context or within a mental frame work;
- Activate background knowledge about the subject;

- Judge the difficulty of a text and calibrate the approach.
Previewing also help learners to gain confidence in their ability to extract
information and ideas from a text without reading every word. In fact, it is
sreally a form of skimming, but compared with skimming, the aim of
previewing is more limited. Readers preview for information about the title,
author, subject area, genre, type of information, level of difficulty and length;
whereas when skimming, we look for the main ideas or gist, which requires
more processing and comprehension of the text.
- Anticipation
Anticipation provides a good way to increase reading comprhension. It is
a strategy used before reading to activate students’ prior knowledge.
- Skimming
- Scanning
As mentioned from the above section, skimming and scanning are also
key components to the reading technique.
2.6. Reading purpose of second language learners
In real life, second language learners read in another language for the
following purposes:
- To obtain information for some purposes or because we are curious about
some topic.
- To obtain instructions on how to perform some tasks for our work or daily
life.
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- To act in a play, play a game, do a puzzle.
- To keep in touch with friends by correspondence or to understand business
letters.
- To know when or where something will take place or what is available.
- To know what is happening or has happened.

- For enjoyment or excitement.
(Rivers and Temperley, cited in Nunan, 1989:34)
2.7. Factors in teaching and learning reading
2.7.1. Teachers’ role
Nuttall (2000:32-33) considers teachers’ role, some of which are
choosing reading texts, designing tasks, facilitating reading process and
monitoring progress important. Teachers’ tasks consist of 6 major
principles, namely exploit students’ background knowledge; build a strong
vocabulary base; teach for comprehension; teaching reading strategies;
encourage students to transform strategies into skill; set criteria to select
reading texts (Anderson (2003) and Hedge (2000), cited in To et al. ,
2006:153-154).
2.7.2. Students’ role
Nuttall (2000:33) mentions several main roles for the students in a
reading lesson, such as:
-

Taking an active part in learning

-

Monitoring comprehension

-

Learning text talk

-

Taking risk

-

Learning not to cheat oneself
2.7.3. The reading texts
No one can deny the important role of reading texts in teaching and
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learning reading, through which new grammar, phonetic and lexical items
of the target language are introduced. So, it is advised that teachers pay
attention to language content, vocabulary, grammatical structures, types of
reading activities, though “Providing suitable texts is not a simple matter. It
takes time, effort and some expertise” (Buck, G, 2001)
2.7.4. Reading motivation
Kleinginna (1981: 6) defines motivation as “a desire or want that
energizes and directs goal-oriented behavior”. Reading motivation refers to the
desire to read, even when not required to do so. Redneck and Lester, (2000: 5)
state that: “motivation is one of the most important ingredients in skilled
reading”. Reading motivation involves seeking out opportunities to read for
curiosity, knowledge, and involvement. The teachers should aware of their
students’ needs, including their motivation for reading to provide suitable
techniques to help the students to develop their competence as readers during
the reading lessons.
2.8. Stages of a reading lesson
How reading activities are organized and sequenced depends on
different approaches to language teaching. Commonly, a reading lesson are
divided into 3 stages: pre-, while-and post-reading (William, 1984; Dubin
and Bycina, 1991 cited in To et al., 2006:158) (Hoang et al., 2005). Each
stage has its own aims and procedures.

2.8.1. Pre-reading stage
In this stage, teachers motivate students to read, activate or build
students’background knowledge of the subject. According to Williams
(1984:37), the purposes of the pre-reading stage are:
- To introduce and arouse interest in the topic.
- To motivate learners by giving a reason for reading.
- To provide some language preparation for the text.
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