Using the web in teacher esp reading to seconds year english non majored students at the peoples police university ma

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY
University of Social Sciences and Humanities

NGUYEN THI THU

USING THE WEB IN TEACHING ESP READING
TO SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS
AT THE PEOPLE’S POLICE UNIVERSITY

A Thesis Submitted to
The Department of English Linguistics & Literature
in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL
Code number: 601410

Supervised by: DENNIS F .BERG, Ph.D. Associate Professor.
Supported by:

DINH DIEN, Ph.D. Associate Professor.

Ho Chi Minh City – 2010


i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:
USING THE WEB IN TEACHING ESP READING
TO SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH NON-MAJORED STUDENTS
AT THE PEOPLE’S POLICE UNIVERSITY

in terms of the statement of Requirements of the Theses
in Master’s Programs
Issued by the Higher Degree Committee.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2010

NGUYEN THI THU


ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyễn Thị Thu, being a candidate for the
degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating
to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis
deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and
research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library
for care, loan or reproduction of theses.

Ho Chi Minh City, July 2010

NGUYEN THI THU


iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A thesis is never successfully completed in isolation. I received help,
cooperation, encouragement, critique, consolation and advice from many people who
should be acknowledged.
First of all, I owe my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dinh Dien, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, who spent a lot of time reading my draft with great care and gave
me valuable advice on the thesis.
Special thanks go to my former supervisor, Dennis F Berg, Ph.D. Associate
Professor, who gave me initial suggestions on carrying out the research.
I would like to heartily express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to a very
special teacher of mine, who worked very hard to give her expert guidance,
knowledge, insight and time with enthusiasm and kindness.
I am indebted to M.A Pham Thi Tuyet, the Dean of Faculty of Foreign
Languages and many of my colleagues at the People’s Police University, who gave
me a great deal of encouragement and were willing to take on my work while I did
my research.
The thesis would not have been possible without the cooperation of 22 students
in Class B2C1-D18, the People’s Police University, who were always eager and
active in doing the questionnaires and taking part in the ESP reading course. I
heartfeltly acknowledge their contribution to my research.
I am particularly grateful to my beloved elder sister, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, for
giving me innumerable spiritual and material support during the time I took the
TESOL course and did the M.A research.
Finally, my sincere thanks would go to my parents and my husband, who
always take care of me, give me endless love and empowered me to complete the
thesis.


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ABSTRACT
Whereas the benefits of the Internet to the learning and teaching of ESP have
been acknowledged by many researchers, educators and teachers, and the use of
WebQuest or WebBlog has been applied for educational purposes; there exists little
empirical research which demonstrates how to make full use of these two Web-based
tools in ESP instruction in a sound pedagogical way.
This thesis, therefore, was aimed at finding out how effective the integration of
WebQuest and WebBlog in the ESP reading course to second-year students at the
People’s Police University (PPU) was in enhancing the students’ reading competence.
First, an action research which utilizes both quantitative and qualitative method was
used to fulfill the aims of the study. Data from questionnaires, pre-test, post-test and
teacher’s observation sheet were analyzed and discussed. It was found that most
students’ reading skills were improved after the course. Furthermore, they generally
had positive attitude towards the employment of the Web-based course in their ESP
program, and did not face serious problems during the course. Based on the findings,
it is suggested that WebQuest and WebBlog should be utilized in the ESP reading
course at the PPU. Moreover, for an effective and successful Web-based ESP reading
program; students’ background, needs and expectations; the aims and objectives of
the reading program, the teaching facilities, and WebQuest and WebBlog hosting, etc.
should be seriously taken into consideration. Finally, recommendations for the
teachers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, for the Board of Directors at the PPU,
and for further research were given.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Certificate of originality

i

Retention and use of the thesis

ii

Acknowledgements

iii

Abstract

iv

Table of contents

v

List of tables and abbreviations

x

List of figures

xi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
1.1.1 Rationale

1
1

1.1.2 A brief overview of the ESP teaching at the People’s Police University 3
(PPU)
1.2 Statement of purpose

6

1.3 Research questions

6

1.4 Significance of the study

7

1.5 Scope of the study

7

1.6 Method of the study

8

1.7 Assumptions

9

1.8 Organization of the study

9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

10

2.1 Introduction

10

2.2 The nature of reading

10

2.3 Intensive Reading (IR) and Extensive Reading (ER)

13

2.3.1 Intensive Reading (IR)

13

2.3.2 Extensive Reading (ER)

14


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2.4 Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
2.4.1 A brief introduction of CALL

16
17

2.4.2 The need for a better combination of Intensive Reading (IR), 20
Extensive Reading (ER) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
2.5 The Internet and Second Language Learning

20

2.5.1 An introduction of the Internet and the World Wide Web (www)

20

2.5.2 The advantages of the Internet in Second Language Learning

21

2.6 WebQuest and WebBlog
2.6.1 WebQuest

23
23

2.6.1.1 Definition

24

2.6.1.2 Structures of a WebQuest model

25

2.6.1.3 WebQuest – a pedagogical perspective

27

2.6.1.4 WebQuest for Content-based language learning

31

2.6.1.5 WebQuest creation

32

2.6.2 WebBlog

34

2.6.2.1 Definition, basic features and types of WebBlog

34

2.6.2.2 WebBlog design and creation

36

2.6.2.3 WebBlog and Second Language Learning

38

2.7 Summary

41

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

42

3.1. Introduction

42

3.2 Research questions

42

3.3 Research design

42

3.3.1 Methodology

43

3.3.1.1 Action research

43

3.3.1.2 Action research in this study

46

3.3.1.2.1 Step 1: Planning

47

3.3.1.2.2 Step 2: Acting

57


vii

3.3.1.2.3 Step 3: Observing

71

3.3.1.2.4 Step 4: Reflecting

72

3.3.2 Research instruments and participants
3.3.2.1 Research instruments

73
73

3.3.2.1.1 Pre-questionnaire

73

3.3.2.1.2 Pre-test and Post-test

74

3.3.2.1.3 Observation sheet

74

3.3.2.1.4 Post-questionnaire

75

3.3.2.2 Research participants
3.3.3 Procedures of the study

77
80

3.4 Summary

84

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

85

4.1 Introduction

85

4.2 Results

85

4.2.1 The effect of the use of WebQuest and WebBlog in the ESP reading 85
course on the students’ reading competence
4.2.2 Students’ attitude towards the WebQuest and WebBlog-based learning 88
and teaching of ESP reading
4.2.3 Difficulties of the students and the teacher at the PPU in the 99
employment of WebQuest and WebBlog in the ESP reading course
4.2.3.1 Analysis of students’ responses to Question 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 on 99
the online questionnaire
4.2.3.2 Teacher’s Observation and Reflections

103

4.2.3.2.1 Teacher’s Observation

103

4.2.3.2.2 Reflections on Teacher’s Observation

106

4.3 Discussion

108

4.3.1 Discussion on the findings

108

4.3.2 The revised plan for the next circle of the action research

109


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4.4 Summary

113

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

114

5.1 Introduction

114

5.2 Conclusion

114

5.3 Pedagogical Implications

116

5.4 Limitations

119

5.5 Recommendations

120

5.5.1 Recommendations for ESP teachers and Faculty of Foreign Language 120
(FFL) at the PPU
5.5.2 Recommendations for the Board of Directors at the PPU

121

5.5.3 Recommendations for further study

121

REFERENCES

122

APPENDICES

132

Appendix A: Pre-questionnaire

137

Appendix B: Pre-test

158

Appendix C: Post-test

146

Appendix D: A typical weekly worksheet

154

Appendix E: Student List

159

Appendix F: Post-questionnaire

161

Appendix G: Pre-test and Post-test scores

163

Appendix H: Teacher’s observation sheet

165

Appendix I: Plan for the whole Web-based ESP reading course

169

Appendix J: Link of the WebQuest

176

Appendix K: A brief overview of Action Research

177


ix

LIST OF TABLES AND ABBREVIATION

TABLES
Table 2.1:

Characteristics of IR and ER

Table 2.2:

Different types of blog

Table 3.1:

Students’ needs and expectations

Table 3.2:

Outline of the reading course

Table 3.3:

A summary of all instruments and participants used in
the action research

Table 3.4:

Procedures of the action research inn the study

Table 3.5:

Differences between action research and traditional
research

Table 4.1

Comparison of pre-test scores and post-test scores 1

Table 4.2

Comparison of pre-test scores and post-test scores 2

Table 4.3

Classification of pre-test scores and post-test scores

Table 4.4

Students’ responses to Question 1 to Question 13 on
the post-questionnaire

Table 4.5

Students’ responses to Question 14 on the postquestionnaire

Table 4.6

Students’ responses to Question 15 to Question 18 on
the post-questionnaire

Table 4.7

Students’ responses to Question 19 on the postquestionnaire

Table 4.8

Students’ responses to Question 19 on the postquestionnaire


x

ABBREVIATION
CALL

Computer-Assisted Language Learning

CBI

Content-Based Instruction

ER

Extensive Reading

ESL

English as a Second Language

ESP

English for Specific Purposes

IR

Intensive Reading

IT

Information Technology

PPU

People’s Police University

PBL

Project-Based Learning

TESOL

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

WWW

World Wide Web


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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1:

Screenshot of the WebQuest for International Law Students

Figure 2.2:

Structure of a blog

Figure 2.3:

Screenshot of a blog on Yahoo!360 Plus

Figure 3.1:

Kemmis’s model (1985) of Action Research

Figure 3.2:

Beatty’s model (2003) of Action Research

Figure 3.3:

Susman (1983)’ model of Action

Figure 3.4:

The model of Action Research in this study

Figure 3.5:

Students’ gender

Figure 3.6:

Students’ English proficiency

Figure 3.7:

Students’ computer and Internet experience

Figure 3.8:

Students’ computer and Internet experience (continued)

Figure 3.9:

Screenshot of the WebQuest’ homepage

Figure 3.10:

Screenshot of the ‘Introduction’ page

Figure 3.11:

Screenshot of the ‘Task’ page

Figure 3.12:

Screenshot of the ‘Process’ page

Figure 3.13:

Screenshot of a typical worksheet in the WebQuest

Figure 3.14:

Screenshot of the ‘Resource’ page

Figure 3.15:

The screenshot of a weekly schedule in students’ blog

Figure 3.16:

The screenshot of the online post-questionnaire on
www.surveymonkey.com

Figure 3.17:

The screenshot of the questions on the online questionnaire

Figure 3.18:

The screenshot of the ‘Survey Results’ page

Figure 3.19:

The taxonomy of Action Research Data Collection Techniques


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

1.1.1 Rationale

The current globalization of trade and economy and the continuing increase in
international communication in various fields have resulted in greater demand for
English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Among all the four skills and knowledge
integrated in ESP curriculum, reading skill is often the priority in the ESP curricula at
universities throughout the country. Besides, reading authentic materials is of great
importance for those who have the desire for further study and for their future careers
as it is one of the best ways to improve their English, understand and use the
information in up-to-date sources in their respective fields of study.

To develop reading, one of the most useful resources is the Internet, with a
large amount of varied authentic materials and easily accessible. One of the main
reasons for using authentic materials in the classroom is that once outside the
controlled language learning environment; the learner will encounter the real world
and the real language. The role of the teacher is not to delude the language learner but
to prepare him the awareness and necessary skills so as to understand how the
language is actually used.
There is no denying that the scene of education is changing quickly and
significantly. Educators are trying to keep up with new developments which result in
the change. Nowadays, in the era of Information Technology (IT), teachers of ESP
use computers and the Internet more and more frequently to facilitate teaching and
enhance learning experience. The Internet is blooming into a huge source of
information which can be freely and easily accessed by both students and teachers.


2

Charupan, Soranastaporn & Suwattananand (2001) believed that technology can be
used to facilitate classroom instruction. The Internet is a learning tool that fits well in
a content-based ESP syllabus.
Furthermore, the Internet-based activities can take advantage of integrated
teaching approaches. To illustrate, collaborative and cooperative learning occurs
when computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is used in language teaching and
learning, (McCabe, 1998). Learners use websites on the Internet to perform
cooperative tasks with their peers to complete work assigned by the instructor. It is
the learning and teaching on the Internet that enables the learner-centred approach
(Kumari, 1998). Alexander & Elana (2005:129) also claimed, “The Internet helps to
make ESP lessons more rewarding and encourages opening the new way to bring
about creativity and enthusiasm for learning”.
Another reason for the study was Krashen’s Input Hypothesis and Frank

Smith’s slogan “learn to read by reading” (Krashen, 2002a), from which extensive
reading approach, was developed and has been widely applauded.
Moreover, when confronted by pedagogical questions, teachers seek answers
to the questions through various types of research and practice. A recent trend in the
research and practice is the creation or employment of innovative approaches that
respond to the need for an underlying pedagogical framework to support the use of the
Internet into the teaching and learning process. In reality, the previous ESP-related
studies in the context of Vietnam revolve mainly around paper-based syllabus
designs, course designs, or syllabus valuation, etc. There has been a lack of researches
on the integration of reading approaches and the Web to facilitate ESP learning. As an
instructor of ESP for several years, the author of this thesis personally feels the need
and has the desire to integrate Internet-based projects in her ESP teaching. Moreover,


3

the researcher, in her Master program in TESOL1, was deeply impressed by the
lessons of Instruction Technology given online by Dennis F Berg, Ph.D – a visiting
lecturer at the USSH in which he highlighted the benefits of using websites including
WebQuest in ESL teaching; and some WebBlogs available on Yahoo360 and
Yahoo360!Plus by ESL2 teachers for English teaching and learning. The idea of
making Web-based course supplements (Krajka, 2001a; Krajka, 2002) was also
justified by the necessity of finding alternative ways of providing language input and
materials for ESP instruction due to the inaccessibility of published commercial ESP
materials for police students.
All the above mentioned urged the writer to think of incorporating WebQuest 3
- “an interesting development and a way to exploit the Internet for good language
learning practice” (Stoks, 2002) and WebBlog 4– a Journal Writing used in the
language classroom as a tool to enhance learning (Boswood, 1997) in the teaching of
ESP reading to students at The People Police University. The research is entitled:

Using the Web in teaching ESP reading to second-year English non-majored
students at The People’s Police University.

1.1.2 A brief overview of ESP teaching at the People’s Police University (PPU).
At one of the main Centers for Police Training like the PPU, the teaching and
learning of ESP have the following characteristics.

The Students
There are often 7 ESP classes at the PPU in an academic year. The number of
students in each ESP class varies from 35 to 45. The students’ ages range from 20 to
25. Most of them studied 3-7 years of General English in secondary school or/and
1

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
ESL: English as a Second Language
3
WebQuest or Web Quest can be used interchangeably
4
WebBlog or Weblog can be used interchangeably
2


4

high school. A placement test was carried out before the English course in order to
classify students into their actual level of English proficiency.
The police students often take an ESP course for the second semester of the
second or the first semester of the third year depending on the flexible curriculum for
each year. 90 periods out of the total 120 periods allotted for ESP is for ESP reading.
The ESP course lasts 6 weeks (3 days a week) or 9 weeks (2 days a week).

In addition, as the PPU belongs to the armed forces, all the students here have
to live in the dormitory during the five-year period except for summer holidays and
Tet holidays. Thus, it is the learning environment that supports students’ teamwork
and project work.

The ESP Course book
The ESP course book used at the PPU is “English for Police”, which was
written by Phung Viet Hoa (1997). This book has been in use since 1997. The topics
in this course book revolve around police-related knowledge and activities in which
reading skill is mainly treated among the four skills.

The Teaching Facilities
Each classroom at the PPU is spacious and well-equipped with neon lights,
electric fans, a blackboard, chalks, a computer and a projector. There has been a
strong movement in the renovation of teaching methodology and the application of IT
in the teaching and learning at the PPU for the past five years. Thus, an Internet wifisystem, two laps with 40 computers each and an electronic library with 30 Internetconnected computers have been provided to facilitate the teaching and learning.
English teaching aids also include cassette players and microphones for teachers. It
can be therefore concluded that the teaching facilities were in favor of the
employment of a Web-based course in the teaching and learning of English in general
and of ESP in particular.


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The teachers
Among 16 English teachers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, the PPU, 12
have taught ESP. They are aged from 27 to 49, 4 of which have M.A degree and 3
others are going to finish the M.A TESOL course. These teachers have experience in
teaching both General English and ESP, and have basic knowledge of laws and
professional activities of the police force.

Apart from the above mentioned advantages, there exist some problems
hindering the success of the teaching and learning of ESP reading at the PPU. The
main things can be mentioned here are: (1) There was a lack of authentic and updated materials available in the ESP textbook; (2) the ESP instruction at the PPU is
still limited to specialized lexicon, sentence structures or translating reading texts an approach which fundamentally ignores the learners’ personal interests; (3) most of
the teachers do not have the habits of utilizing the Web and the available modern
facilities provided in their ESP teaching; (4) Not enough attention is paid to
developing interaction between teachers and students and among students themselves.
There is a lack of pair work and teamwork in an ESP lesson. These factors often lead
to low motivation in students’ English studies and, in turn, poor performance later
when they use English in their future profession. Not surprisingly, the English
professional communication skills of future police officers do not meet the
requirements that are conditioned by their growing needs in the field of
policing through reading professional journals or attending professional workshops at
regional or international level.
In the light of what has been cited above, together with the language needs and
expectations of ESP students at the PPU, it seems justified to design, develop and
apply a Web-based course in the teaching of ESP reading at the PPU.


6

1.2 Statement of purpose
The study gears to investigate the employment of WebQuest and WebBlog in
the teaching of ESP reading to second-year students at The PPU. The specific
purposes, thus, are:
- To determine if the WebQuest-based and WebBlog-based reading course has
effect on the reading competence of the second-year students at the PPU.
- To investigate the students’ attitude towards the integration of WebQuest and
WebBlog in teaching English for Police students at the PPU.
- To discover any possible difficulties of the students and teachers in the

employment of this Web-based program and finally suggest some pedagogical
implications for the teaching and learning of ESP reading.

1.3 Research Questions

In order to fulfill the research aims, this study is conducted based on the
following questions:
1. Does the utilization of WebQuest and WebBlog help improve reading skills
of second - year students at the PPU?
2. What is the students’ attitude towards the WebQuest and WebBlog-based
learning and teaching of ESP reading?
3. What are the difficulties of the students and teacher at the PPU in the
employment of WebQuest and WebBog in the reading course?


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1.4 Significance of the Study

The study helps to investigate the effectiveness of using WebQuest and
Weblog in the teaching of ESP reading at The PPU, which will encourage teachers to
employ WebQuest and WebBlog in their ESP teaching.
In addition, the study is expected to lay foundation for further utilizations of
WebQuest and WebBlog in ESP teaching in particular and in language teaching in
general at the PPU.

1.5 Scope of the Study

Within the scope of the thesis, the author focuses the study on intensive
reading and extensive reading, which aim at enhancing students’ accuracy and fluency

in ESP reading, not to follow all the reading approaches in the literature of reading.
Furthermore, the role of WebQuest and WebBlog in the study is to enhance students’
reading and motivate students rather than directly intervene with the reading process.
Due to the time limit and work constraints, out of 398 second-year students
doing the questionnaire, the study was done on a small scale, which involved only one
group of 22 students of Criminal Investigation major, who the researcher was in
charge of. The reason for choosing such a small sample was accounted by the fact that
doing an individual action research is a hard job, which requires a great deal of time
and efforts of the researcher in different phases of the study. The researcher and also
the teacher, in her study, at the same time played different roles as an investigator in
the preliminary stage; a planner and a designer in the planning stage; an organizer, a
manager, an observer, a facilitator and an advisor during the action stage; and a
reflector in the reflecting stage.


8

The 22 participants of the study had finished two courses of General English
before taking this ESP course. Their English proficiency generally scattered from preintermediate to upper-intermediate. The research covered 90 periods allotted for ESP
reading in the academic year of 2009-2010 for one group of 22 non-majored students
at the PPU
In addition, the action research applied in this study was only restricted to the
scope of the PPU as ESP teaching at the PPU has its own characteristics depending on
the ESP textbook, the ESP curriculum, the ESP instructors and students and the
teaching facilities. Therefore, the recommendations will be the most appropriate in the
setting of the PPU. However, they may be useful to ESP teachers at different
universities or foreign language centers in Vietnam.

1.6 Method of the Study

This study applies the method of action research, which combines both
qualitative and quantitative method.
Unlike qualitative, quantitative or experimental methods, this type of research
is not popularly used in the setting of Vietnam concerning EFL teaching, the theory of
action research and the reasons for choosing action research for the study will thus be
described in more details in Chapter 3 and in Appendix K.
In her action research, the author played the role as the practitioner who
designed the WebQuest, guided students to use blogs, carried out the ESP program,
observed and reflected it. The instruments including (1) pre-questionnaire in the
preliminary research, (2) pre-test and (3) post-test respectively before and after the
Web-based course, (3) teacher’s observation sheet during the course and (5) postquestionnaire after the employment of the Web-based program helped to collect
quantitative and qualitative data.


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1.7 Assumptions
The research was based on the following assumptions:
- The sample of students was representative of the vast majority of students at
the PPU.
- The research method and data collection was appropriate and reliable, which
helped to find out the answers to the research questions.
- The respondents understood all the items in the questionnaires and were
honest in giving responses.

1.8 Organization of the Study
The thesis is structured as follows:
Chapter 1 deals with the rationale of the study, the significance, the purposes,
the research questions, the scope, the method and the structures of the study.
Chapter 2 describes previous studies related to the study. It also discusses the

background of the research involving intensive reading and extensive reading;
WebQuest and WebBlog, the definitions, characteristics and their benefits to language
teaching and learning.
Chapter 3 presents provides insight into the research design and methodology
used in the study. The methodology is described in details of how the data will be
provided and presented.
Chapter 4 reports the results of the study through data collected and gives a
discussion on the findings in order to address the research questions. The quantitative
data results are presented in the form of statistical tables and discussions and the
qualitative data are presented in the form of a discussion.
Chapter 5 consists of the conclusions drawn out from the study, the
pedagogical implications for ESP teaching, the limitations of the study and some
recommendations.


10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction

This chapter aims at presenting the literature related to the research in order to
understand how the researcher's perspectives relate to research and theory on the use
of WebQuest and WebBlog in the teaching of ESP reading. It consists of two main
parts. The first part deals with the nature of reading and is followed by an overview of
intensive reading and extensive reading approaches.
The second part discusses CALL and the advantages the Internet brings to
second language learning. WebQuest and WebBlog and the use of these tools in
second language learning are also presented. Finally is the summary of previous
studies which are relevant to the use of WebQuest or WebBlog in teaching ESP
reading.

2.2 The nature of reading

Reading is an integral part of people’s daily lives, taken very much for granted
and generally something that everyone can do. The definition of reading can be
varied. Reading was claimed as ‘comprehending what writers say and mean’ (Karllin,
1984: 2), ‘a matter of decoding a series of written symbols into their aural equivalents
in the quest for making sense of the text (Nunan, 1991: 64) or simply the
‘psycholinguistic guessing game’ (Goodman, 1967). Generally speaking, whatever
reading is defined, its fundamental goal is to extract information from writing or print
(Phirie, Tsimanyana & Masendu, 2000: 8). The central ideas behind reading are:
- the idea of meaning;
- the transfer of meaning from one mind to another;
- the transfer of a message from writer to reader;


11

- how we get meaning by reading;
- how the reader, the writer and the text all contribute to the process.
(Nuttall, 1996)
Reading means different things to different people depending on the purposes
of reading. Reading can have three main purposes, for survival, for learning or for
pleasure. Reading for survival is considered to be in response to our environment, to
find out information and can include street signs, advertising, and timetables. It
depends very much on the day-to-day needs of readers and often involves an
immediate response to a situation. In contrast, reading for learning is considered to be
the type of reading done in the classroom and is goal- orientated. While reading for
pleasure is something that does not have to be done.
Readers process texts in two ways, either top-down (letter recognition, word

recognition, etc.) or bottom-up (prior knowledge, reader characteristics, etc.), and a
combination of the two approaches (orthography, semantic knowledge, texts, content,
organization, etc.). Bottom-up reading is often associated with poor or slow readers,
but can sometimes occur when the readers own schema knowledge is inadequate.
Top-down processing is the opposite, where a global meaning of the text is obtained,
through “clues” in the text and the reader’s good schema knowledge. This is often
associated with a good reader, who does not read word for word but quickly and
efficiently. The most comprehensive description of the reading process is interactive
models, “…in which every component in the reading process can interact with any
other component…” (Alderson, 2000:18), combining elements of both bottom-up and
top-down models. Reading is considered to be an interactive process (a conversation
between writer/reader, even though the writer is not present) and for it to occur both
processes are necessary, top-down to predict the meaning and bottom-up to check it.
The two approaches are therefore complementary ways of processing a text.
When a third variable is added, technology, the L2 reading process becomes
even more sophisticated. Our knowledge and experiences of the world around us also


12

influence how a text is processed; this is known as schema theory (Bartlett, 1932). A
common and simplified definition of schemata is "knowledge already stored in
memory" (Anderson, 1984:255). Schema theory is an important consideration when
integrating technology into L2 reading. It operates actively and constructively, with
our knowledge of the world being a continuous process that upon receiving new
information interprets it on the basis of what is already known. Good readers also
have expectations or make predictions before reading that are reinforced, challenged
or modified after reading. Schemata have also been described as “…cognitive
constructs which allow for the organization of information in the long term
memory…”(Widdowson, 1983:34). It can be said that content schemata influences

second language (L2) reading comprehension. With the use of technology, prior
knowledge can be activated before reading via visuals, graphics, and even streamlined
videos. Hyperlinks can be created to connect the reader to online information about
authors, historical periods, geography, and more before the text is read.
A number of reading approaches and strategies have been developed so as to
help enhance students’ reading competence. A part from schema theory, according to
Grabe (1991), the other four most important areas of currently prominent research in
reading are language skills and automaticality (i.e. fast, effortless, and accurate word
recognition/identification), vocabulary development, comprehension strategy training,
and reading-writing relations. He also claimed that component skills and knowledge
areas in reading that many researchers attempt to understand and explain include
automatic recognition skills, vocabulary and structural knowledge, formal discourse
structure knowledge, content/world background knowledge, synthesis and evaluation
skills/strategies. As there is a variety of viewpoints in reading approaches, it is
impossible to decide which one is the best.


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2.3 Intensive reading (IR) and extensive reading (ER)

IR and ER are two major approaches that have been used to develop reading
skills. The two approaches have their advantages to offer different stages of reading
instruction. In this research, WebQuest and WebBlog is used to teach ESP reading,
which involves IR and ER. An overview of the IR and ER is thus required.

2.3.1 Intensive Reading (IR)

IR is commonly considered ‘text-based or skill-based’ reading. The work of
Palmer (1921) noted that “IR” means that the readers take a text, study it line by line,

and refer at very moment to the dictionary about the grammar of the text itself or
Haarman et al. (1988) described IR as “the style we employ when we wish to have a
very clear and complete understanding of the written text”. Similarly, IR was pointed
as “reading a passage or a book slowly and carefully, paying attention to each word
and every idea”. (Seanan, 1997; Tsimanyana & Masendu, 2000: 31-32). Nuttall
(1996: 38) claimed that “IR involves approaching the text under guidance of a teacher
or a task which forces the student to focus on the text”.
IR activities include skimming a text for specific information to answer true or
false statements or filling gaps in a summary, scanning a text to match headings to
paragraphs, and scanning jumbled paragraphs and then reading them carefully to put
them into the correct order. The IR intentionally focuses on essential care vocabulary,
patterns of text organization and types of text processing needed to adequately
comprehend any text. Thus, in IR, students are supposed to comprehend as fully as
possible the text which is chosen by the instructor or in the reading course. And IR
deals with comprehension mostly at lexical and syntactic level. According to Paran
(2003: 40), IR is needed for four main reasons: to help learners comprehend written
texts, to become more aware of text organization to better comprehend, to learn how