Developing 12th graders’ text summarizing skills in reading through the use of mind mapping techniques

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NGOAN

DEVELOPING 12TH GRADERS’ TEXT
SUMMARIZING SKILLS IN READING THROUGH THE USE OF
MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUES

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghe An, 2019


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI NGOAN

DEVELOPING 12TH GRADERS’ TEXT
SUMMARIZING SKILLS IN READING THROUGH THE USE OF
MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUES

Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching
Code: 8.14.01.11

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. NGO DINH PHUONG

Nghe An, 2019

i
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and findings
discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published
elsewhere.
Nghe An, August 4th, 2019
Author

Nguyen Thi Ngoan


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ABSTRACT
This research investigated the effectiveness and the perception of students to the
use of mind-mapping techniques in post reading to develop 12th graders’ reading text
summarizing skills. This research employed the quasi-experimental design. This
research involved two classes of 12th graders at Quang Trung high school in Quang
Binh Province in which one class as the experimental group and the another one as
the control group. The experimental group received mind mapping techniques in
teaching and learning process during treatment, while control group received
conventional techniques without using mind- mapping. The instruments used were
pre-test, post-test and questionnaire of the experimental students’ perception of
reading text summarizing skills through the use of mind mapping techniques. The
pre-test and post-test scores of the two groups were analyzed by using Microsoft
Excel (descriptive statistics) while the questionnaire was analyzed by using
percentages. The findings revealed that the use of mind mapping techniques in the
post - reading stage is effective. There is a significant difference between the posttest scores of experimental class and control class after the treatment. The use of

mind mapping techniques to summarize the text in post - reading stage can make the
experimental students more progress than control students because mind mapping is
easier to comprehend the reading text. On the other hand, the research of the
questionnaire showed that students had positive perception of reading text
summarizing skills through the use of mind mapping techniques. Most of students
highly appropriated the creative and stimulating change in teaching approach during
the experiment. They evaluated the reading text summary more interesting and
effective. Many students agreed that using mind mapping techniques helped them
memorize the lesson better and develop their summarizing skills.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of many individuals in
assisting me to accomplish this research.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my beloved supervisor
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ngo Dinh Phuong for his valuable time, suggestions, guidance, and
assistance in this study. Without his help, the thesis would not have been completed.
Secondly, I would also like to thank the students of the classes I taught in order
to collect information for my study. Without their help, this study could not have
been successful.
Finally, my thanks go to my colleagues, friends and especially my beloved
family. I feel greatly indebted to them for their necessary help and encouragement.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ....................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ viii
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ ix
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION......................................................................................... 1
1.1 Rationale .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 The aims of the study ........................................................................................... 2
1.3 Scope of the study ................................................................................................ 3
1.4 Research questions ............................................................................................... 3
1.5 Method of the study ............................................................................................. 3
1.6 Structure of the study ........................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 5
2.1 Overview .............................................................................................................. 5
2.2 Reading comprehension ....................................................................................... 5
2.2.1 Reading .......................................................................................................... 5
2.2.1.1 Definition of reading ................................................................................ 5
2.2.1.2 The purpose of reading ............................................................................ 6
2.2.1.3 The model of reading ............................................................................... 7
2.2.1.4 The kind of reading .................................................................................. 8
2.2.1.5 The principle of teaching reading ............................................................ 9
2.2.2 Definition of reading comprehension .......................................................... 11
2.2.3 The stages of reading lesson ........................................................................ 13
2.2.3.1 Pre – reading .......................................................................................... 13


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2.2.3.2 While – reading ...................................................................................... 14
2.2.3.3 Post – reading ......................................................................................... 14
2.2.4 Techniques to teach reading comprehension .............................................. 15
2.3 Reading text summary ....................................................................................... 17

2.3.1 Definition of reading text summary ............................................................ 17
2.3.2 Steps to write a reading text summary ........................................................ 17
2.3.3 Types of reading text summary ................................................................... 18
2.3.3.1 Descriptive summary ............................................................................. 18
2.3.3.2 Informative summary ............................................................................. 18
2.3.3.3 Evaluative summary............................................................................... 19
2.4 Mind - mapping.................................................................................................. 19
2.4.1 Definition of mind- map .............................................................................. 19
2.4.2 Steps to create a mind map .......................................................................... 20
2.4.3 Definition of mind -mapping techniques .................................................... 25
2.4.4 The classification of mind- mapping techniques......................................... 27
2.4.4.1 Network tree........................................................................................... 27
2.4.4.2 Event chain............................................................................................. 27
2.4.4.3 Cycle concept map ................................................................................. 28
2.4.4.4 Spider concept map ................................................................................ 29
2.4.5 Parts of mind mapping technique ................................................................ 30
2.4.6 Advantages and disadvantages of mind- mapping techniques .................... 31
2.4.6.1 Advantages of mind mapping techniques .............................................. 31
2.4.6.2 Disadvantages of mind mapping techniques ......................................... 33
2.4.7 Steps to summarize the reading text through the use of mind-mapping
techniques ............................................................................................................. 33
2.4.7.2 Read ....................................................................................................... 34
2.4.7.3 Mind map ............................................................................................... 34


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2.4.7.4 Study ...................................................................................................... 34
2.4.7.5 Personalize ............................................................................................. 34
2.5 Related studies of mind mapping....................................................................... 34
2.6 Summary ............................................................................................................ 35

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY..................................................................................... 36
3.1 Research approach ............................................................................................. 36
3.1.1 Rationale for using quasi-experiment.......................................................... 36
3.1.2 Experimental design .................................................................................... 37
3.1.3 Research variables ....................................................................................... 38
3.1.3.1 Independent variable .............................................................................. 38
3.1.3.2 Dependent variable ................................................................................ 38
3.2 Participants ......................................................................................................... 38
3.3 Data collection instruments................................................................................ 40
3.3.1 Questionnaires ............................................................................................. 40
3.3.2 Pre- test and post- test.................................................................................. 41
3.3.3 Textbook ...................................................................................................... 41
3.3.4 Lesson plans ................................................................................................ 43
3.4 Data collection procedure .................................................................................. 45
3.5 Data analysis instruments .................................................................................. 45
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................... 47
4.1 Data analysis ...................................................................................................... 47
4.1.1 Tests ............................................................................................................. 47
4.1.1.1 Results of the pre-test ............................................................................ 47
4.1.1.2 Results of the post-test ........................................................................... 48
4.1.1.3 The difference between pre-test and post test........................................ 50
4.1.2 Questionnaires ............................................................................................. 52
4.2 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 61


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4.2.1 The effectiveness of mind mapping technique in develop 12 th graders’
reading text summarizing skills at Quang Trung high school. ............................. 61
4.2.2 The students’ perception of reading text summarizing skills through the use
of mind-mapping techniques. ............................................................................... 62

4.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 62
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 63
5.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 63
5.2 Limitations ......................................................................................................... 64
5.3 Further research.................................................................................................. 64
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................... 66
APPENDIX A: THE TOPICS OF READING SCHEDULE OF THE RESEARCH IN
THE POST READING STAGE ......................................................................................... 71
APPENDIX B ...................................................................................................................... 73
APPENDIX

C:

THE

POST

PROGRAM

QUESTIONNAIRE

FOR

THE

EXPERIMENTAL STUDENTS ........................................................................................ 82
APPENDIX D: THE PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST....................................................... 84
APPENDIX E: RUBRICS FOR PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST .................................... 86
APPENDIX F: RESULTS OF THE PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST.............................. 90
APPENDIX G: SOME STUDENTS’ MIND MAPS ....................................................... 93

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

C

Control class

E

Experimental class

N

Number

SD

Standard deviation

Ss

Students


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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 The design of the research (Adapted from Hopkins &Antes, 1990) ........ 37
Table 3.2 Background information about the participants ..................................... 39

Table 3.3 The reading topics of sixteen units in Tieng Anh 12 ............................... 43
Table 3.4 The time proportion for the reading lesson ............................................. 44
Table 4.1 Means and SD of control class and experimental class in pre-test ......... 47
Figure 4.1 Pie chart of pre-test results for both classes.......................................... 48
Table 4.2 Means and SD of control class and experimental class in post-test ....... 49
Table 4.3 Pre-test and post-test scores of experimental class and control class .... 51
Table 4.4 Students’ attitudes towards teaching reading text summarizing skills
through the use of mind mapping techniques .......................................................... 53


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 Pie chart of pre-test results for both classes.......................................... 48
Figure 4.2 Pie chart of post-test results for both classes ........................................ 50
Figure 4.3 Column chart of pre-test and post-test scores of control and
experimental class .................................................................................................... 52
Figure 4.4 Pie chart of item 1 about enjoying mind maps because they were
interesting and easy to understand. ......................................................................... 54
Figure 4.5 Pie chart of item 2 about summarizing the reading text through the use
of mind mapping techniques in post reading stage is effective ............................... 55
Figure 4.6 Pie chart of item 3 about mind mapping techniques make me
comprehend the reading texts more quickly ............................................................ 56
Figure 4.7 Pie chart of item 4 about using mind maps helps prompt me more what
we learned ................................................................................................................ 56
Figure 4.8 Column chart of item 5 and item 6 about using mind maps helps me
recognize the main ideas in the reading and using mind maps helps me remember
my vocabulary better................................................................................................ 57
Figure 4.9 Pie chart of item 7 about using mind maps demands me to look at the
reading in more depth .............................................................................................. 58

Figure 4.10 Pie chart of item 8 about using mind mapping is only suitable for
students who learn well. ........................................................................................... 59
Figure 4.11 Pie chart of item 9 about it is difficult for me to use mind maps. ........ 59
Figure 4.12 Pie chart of item 10 about using mind maps doesn’t help them
summarize reading text better than the conventional method ................................. 60


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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
Nowadays, English is commonly used for communication in the world. English
is used in many fields such as Information technology, Science, Economy, Education
and politics, etc. Science and technology develop more and more rapidly, thus
learners need to improve their ability in many fields in order not to be left behind. To
reach it, learners has recently paid great attention to teaching and learning English.
However, there are many factors that cause the students’ difficulties in learning. One
of them is the method given by the teacher. Teaching English as a foreign language
requires the use of effective learning method.
Besides, English is a compulsory subject in the national curriculum in school in
Vietnam. In English, learners have to learn four skills: listening, speaking, reading
and writing. These skills are significant in teaching and learning process. However,
reading is an important skill that students should have in learning English as foreign
language.
Kenneth Beare (2013) states that reading is important part of learning English. It
is important because students always deal with the texts that they have to understand.
In other words, student's reading skill effect their success in school. In order to
achieve an understanding in reading, students should have an ability of reading
comprehension. In the other hand, reading is a skill by which students can learn many
things, increase the knowledge and comprehend the text. Reading is a necessary skill
for further learning. Especially, reading text summarizing skills after reading is very

helpful to students to get better comprehending and memorizing of the text. As a
result, students can review what has been read and relate it to their own knowledge.
In addition, reading text summary contributes tremendously to develop listening,
speaking and writing skills. However, it is not easy for students to summarize the


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reading text. It needs more practical techniques to help students to summarize reading
texts easily.
In my experience as a teacher in Quang Trung high school, I noticed the fact that
teaching and learning reading comprehension here still concentrate on vocabulary
and grammatical structure. In fact, it is difficult for students to understand the content
of the reading text, to find the main idea and most of them lack of stimulus to read.
Besides, many teachers who seem not to pay enough attention to the importance of
teaching reading text summarizing skills in post reading because of limited time.
Moreover, techniques to teach reading text summarizing skills in Quang Trung high
school is conventional teaching methods and similar activities days by days.
Therefore, students cannot remember and sum up the text after reading. Beside, the
interesting techniques to teach reading text summarizing skills are necessary to help
students to summarize the reading text better, they also attract students’ interest on
English. One of the interesting techniques is mind- mapping. According to Stanley
(2004) affirmed that mind- mapping techniques can help students generate their ideas
and summarize the reading text more easily.
From above reasons, I would like to choose the study “ Developing 12 th
graders’ text summarizing skills in reading through the use of mind- mapping
techniques ” with the hope to help students read the text effectively and can
summarize the reading text easily.
1.2 The aims of the study
This study aims to
- study the perception of students to the use of mind-mapping techniques in post

reading to develop 12th graders’ text summarizing skills
- test the effectiveness of mind-mapping techniques in developing 12th graders’
text summarizing skills in reading at Quang Trung high school.


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1.3 Scope of the study
This study is conducted with 12th graders at Quang Trung High School in Quang
Binh province. It mainly tests the hypothesis that it is possible to teach text
summarizing skills in reading presented in the textbook through the use of mindmapping. Because of the limited time, the survey of research takes place in small
scale, the researcher could just carry out an experimental research upon a small
sample of 12 graders who were not randomly chosen to an experimental class and a
control class, (40 students for each class) at Quang Trung high school. The pre-test
and post-test scores were used to measure both groups’ text summarizing skills in
reading before and after the treatment during twelve weeks of second semester of the
2018-2019 academic year. The questionnaire was designed to get more feedback
from experimental class.
1.4 Research questions
This study is carried out to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the students’ perception of reading text summarizing skills through
the use of mind-mapping techniques?
2. To what extent does mind-mapping techniques effect 12th graders’ text
summarizing skills in reading?
1.5 Method of the study
The main method used in this study is quasi- experimental research with pretest, post-test, and questionnaire in order to determine the causal relationship between
teaching text summarizing skills in reading through the use of mind mapping
techniques and the improvement of students’ summarizing skills. All comments,
remarks, recommendations and conclusion were based on the data analysis. The
combination of different instruments used in this research helped to gain reliable data.
1.6 Structure of the study

The structure of the study includes five chapters:


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Chapter 1 is the introduction, which presents the rationale of the study, the aims
of the study, the scope of the study, the research questions, the method of the study
and the structure of the study.
Chapter 2 is the literature review, which reviews the literature relevant to the
study which consists of reading, reading comprehension, reading text summary, mind
mapping techniques, based on theoretical and practical evidence.
Chapter 3 is the methodology, which describes the methodology used in this
thesis including research approaches, participants, and data collection and analysis
instruments, data collection procedure.
Chapter 4 is the findings and discussion, which reports the findings of the
research to answer the research questions. The researcher’s opinions and reflections
on them will be presented.
Chapter 5 is the conclusion, which gives the conclusions, the limitations of the
study and the suggestions for future research.


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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview
In this chapter, the researcher will present some notions of teaching and learning
text summarizing skills in reading through the use of mind- mapping techniques.
Moreover, she will provide the definition of reading, the purpose of reading, the
model of reading, the kind of reading, the principle of teaching reading, reading
comprehension, the stages of reading lesson, definition of a reading text summary,
steps to write a reading text summaries, definition of mind map, definition of mindmapping techniques, the classification of mind- mapping techniques, parts of mind
mapping technique, advantages and disadvantages of mind-mapping techniques, steps

of summarizing the reading text through mind mapping techniques.
2.2 Reading comprehension
2.2.1 Reading
2.2.1.1 Definition of reading
Reading is an important skill that students should have in learning English as
foreign language besides the other three skills: listening, speaking and writing. It is
obviously one of important skills in life. It becomes more essential, especially for
students who have to read in order to get information from textbooks, researches,
reports, etc. Even, Anderson (1984) states that reading is a basic life skill which is a
cornerstone for child’s success in school and throughout life. In addition to the reason
that reading takes part in almost all written tests, including National Examination in
Vietnam, the students should have a good reading ability. “Reading” has been
defined in many ways.
Nuttall (1982) defined that reading is the process of the interaction between not
only language perception and the readers’ language skill, cognitive skill and the
knowledge of the words but also the reader and the information which consists of the
text.


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Goodman (1971, p153) views reading as “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” and the act of reconstruction is considered
as “ a cyclical process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming”
According to Anderson (1984), reading is a process in which information from
the text and other aspects possessed by the reader, such as background of the reader
and the purpose of the reading act together to produce meaning.
Harmer (1989, p153) observes reading from a different perspective. He stated
that “reading is an exercise controlled by the eyes and the brain. The message is
received by the eyes and the brain has to work out the significance of the message”.

Reading can also be defined as the process in which readers learn something
from what they read and involve it in academic context as a part of education (Grabe
2009, p5)
In conclusion, from the text, reading can help the readers to get information and
knowledge. It is also an exercise dominated by eyes and brain to get message that is
conveyed by the writer in written symbols.
2.2.1.2 The purpose of reading
Everyone has a reason for their actions. Even something like reading is an action
someone has willfully chosen. The purposes of reading are various from one to
another. According to Smith (2004, p2), people read to make sense of everything that
they experience in the world. The purpose of reading is also to help the reader
achieve some clear information and also for pleasure. For example, people read the
instruction on a recipe book to know how to cook specific dishes. Moreover, Harmer
(2007,p201-202) stated that reading can be done for some purposes such as
identifying a topic, predicting and guessing, getting general understanding, getting
specific information, and interpreting the text. In addition, Grabe and Stoller (2002,
p13-15) stated some purposes of reading which are explained as follow:


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a. Reading to search for simple information
This is the very common reason of reading a text. Reading to search for
information is a process that aimed to get specific information by scanning through
the sentences and words related to the searched information without reading every
pieces of the words.
b. Reading to skim quickly
This is similar to reading to search for simple information. In reading to skim,
the readers guess where on the text the information they need are purposed to be, then
they read that part on the text until they get the main idea.
c. Reading to learn from texts

Reading to learn from text usually occurs in academic and professional situation.
The process is usually longer than reading to skim and search for information,
because it requires more complex ability to get a deeper understanding and often
require repetition to remember detail information from the text.
d. Reading to integrate information, write and critique texts
Reading to write and critique text are part of reading to integrate information, in
which reading process requires critical evaluation about which information that
should be integrated or not by composing, selecting and criticize the information on
the text.
e. Reading for general comprehension
Gaining general comprehension of a text is the most basic purpose of reading.
General reading information is actually more complex than what people may think
which requires more understanding to the whole big ideas instead of understanding
one or two specific ideas in the text.
2.2.1.3 The model of reading
Reading model is theory that happens during reading and comprehending a text
of what is going on in the reader’s eyes and mind. It tries to explain and predict


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reading behavior and focused on two main models of reading, which are bottom-up
and top-down model.
a. A bottom-up model, based on Dr. Zaidah (2003,p15), suggests that reading
begins with a reader processing the visual information showed on a written text.
While Grabe and Stoller (2013, p25) stated that “Bottom-up models suggest that all
reading follows a mechanical pattern in which the reader creates a piece-by-piece
mental translation of the information in the text, with little interference from the
reader’s own background knowledge. In the extreme view, the reader processes each
word letter-by-letter, each sentence word-by-word and each text sentence-bysentence in a strictly linear fashion”.
b. A top-down model presents reading as a process of four cycles: optical,

perception, syntactic and meaning construction cycles. A reader moves from one
sequence of a cycle to another and start making hypotheses about the conceptual
meaning of the text. Top down models assume that reading is primarily directed by
the reader goals and expectation, said Grabe and Stoller (2013, p25-26), they then
added “Top-down models characterize the reader as someone who has a set of
expectations about text information and samples enough information from the text to
confirm or reject these expectations. To accomplish this sampling efficiently, the
reader directs the eyes to the most likely places in the text to find useful information”.
2.2.1.4 The kind of reading
Reading can be divided into two kinds which are intensive and extensive
reading. Here are the explanations:
a. Intensive reading
Intensive reading, according to Harmer (2007, p99-100), refers to the detailed
focus on the construction of reading texts that usually takes place in classroom and
accompanied by study activities where the teachers encourage the students to reflect
on different reading skills and may ask them to work out what kind of text they are


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reading, look at particular uses of grammar and vocabulary, tease out detail of
meaning, and then use the information in the text to move on to other learning
activities.
b. Extensive reading
Extensive reading, according to Harmer (2007, p99), refers to reading which
students usually do outside the classroom, for example reading novels, web pages,
newspapers, magazines, etc which involve reading for pleasure or joyful reading.
According to Gebhand (1996, p208), the goal of extensive reading is to improve
reading skills by processing a quantity of materials that can be comprehended and
pleasurable where the teacher’s job is to guide the reader to comprehensible materials
and to let the students make their own choices what they want to read.

2.2.1.5 The principle of teaching reading
Teaching reading is not as simple as the theory. To be successful in teaching
reading, a teacher should know the basic rule of it. According to Nunan (2003, p7478), there are eight principles of teacher reading which will be explained as follow:
a. Exploit the reader’s background knowledge
Background knowledge is information that the readers get by experience or
study which is started from the first day of their life. It can be built from the readers’
personality, surroundings, people they meet, or even from the television shows that
they watch. As Carell said on his journal, interpretation of the text is influenced by
schemata or reader’s background knowledge. Every readers have different schema
which affect them in interpreting the text that they read. So, a story may be
understood differently from one reader to another. The teacher can help the students
activating their background knowledge by setting goals, asking questions, making
predictions, teaching text structures, and starting reading process by building up the
students’ background knowledge if they are reading on an unfamiliar topic.
b. Building a strong vocabulary base


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Vocabulary teaching is really important as Nation stated that vocabulary
teaching has positive effects for students as it can be really helpful when learners,
especially non-native speakers feel it is most needed. The students will have to spend
too much time figuring out the unknown words and will not be able to understand the
passage as a whole if there are too many words that a reader does not know. In other
words, the teacher should help the students to strengthen their vocabulary base as it
will bring some advantages for the students lie improving their reading
comprehension and making reading time more efficient. So, basic vocabulary should
be taught clearly and the students should be taught to use context to guess the
meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary effectively.
c. Teach for comprehension
Teachers should focus on teaching the students how to comprehend the text

instead of focus on testing reading comprehension by verifying that the students get
familiar to the reading material when they don’t get the meaning. By teaching the
students how to comprehension will increase as they predict the meaning of the text
correctly during reading activity.
d. Work on increasing reading rate
Teachers should understand that the focus of reading class is not to develop
speed readers, but fluent readers. Teachers can help students become more fluent by
engaging them in repeated readings for real purposes and modeling fluent reading by
reading aloud to students daily so that the students realize what fluent reading sounds
like. Teachers also have to find out the way to balance both assisting students to
improve their reading rate and developing their reading comprehension skills by
reducing students’ dependence on a dictionary, telling the students to not focus on
move through the passage one word at a time but spend more time analyzing and
synthesizing the content of reading.
e. Teaching reading strategies


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Reading strategies is associated with a conscious and strategic plan to improve
one’s performance in reading. One good technique to make the students aware of the
reading strategy they use that match their purpose for reading is to get them
verbalizing their thought process as they read such as listening to the verbal report of
another reader who has just read the same material.
f. Encourage readers to transform strategies into skills
As learners consciously learn and practice specific reading strategies, the
strategies which is defined as conscious actions that learners take to achieve desired
goals move to become a skill, a strategy that has become automatic. It means that
reading strategy that have been mentioned on the previous point is purposed to
increase students’ ability in reading by changing conscious action into unconscious.
When the students succeed to achieve this, reading activity and comprehension will

be easier to achieve.
g. Build assessment and evaluation into your teaching
Quantitative assessment such as information from reading comprehension tests
as well as reading rate data and qualitative assessment activities such as reading
journal responses, reading interest surveys, and responses to reading strategy
checklists should be included in reading classroom.
h. Strive for continuous improvement as a reading teacher
The success of students at school cannot be separated from the quality of the
teacher as an individual. Reading teachers need to be passionate about their work,
view themselves as facilitators, and helping each reader discover what works best,
because those can lead to more effective reading instruction in the classroom.
2.2.2 Definition of reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is derived from the words reading and comprehension.
In teaching and learning reading a foreign language, reading comprehension
plays a vital position. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the nature of reading


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comprehension. There are many different definitions of reading comprehension.
According to Roe, Stood and Burns (1987, p2) “reading comprehension is
clarification, rebuilding and valuation of what author of written content means by
using knowledge achieved from experience and life”
Another definition of reading comprehension by Grellet (1981, p3) is that
reading comprehension is an activity which focuses on interpreting the meaning of
word combination in the text in the most efficient way.
Richard and Good (1978, p9) states that reading comprehension is best
described as a sympathy between the writer and the reader. Reading is the process
whereby the printed pages motivate ideas, experiences and responses that are unique
to an individual.
Nuttall (1982) defines reading as the meaningful interpretation of printed or

written verbal symbols. It is a result of interaction between the perception of graphic
symbols that represent language and the language skills, cognitive skills and
knowledge of the world of the readers.
Richards and Schmidt (2010 p483) define reading as the processes by which the
meaning of a written text is understood. This uses many different cognitive skills,
including letter and word recognition, knowledge of syntax, and recognition of text
types and text structures.
Barchers (1998 p14) further explains that the reading process begins with the
registration of the printed words in the brain by visual and perceptual processes, with
the brain converting the written symbols to language, and with cognitive and
comprehension processes, adding meaning by relating the symbols to the prior
knowledge of the readers.
According to the above authors, it can be understood that reading comprehension
is a process of understanding what is conveyed in the text. The reader needn’t
understand every single word in the text but the reader must actively work on the text


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and extract the required information efficiently.
Reading is a construction of meaning derived from written texts. It involves the
connection between the previous knowledge of the readers and the information
gained from the written text in order to obtain the meaning or the messages in the
text. Readers use many things during the process of reading including prior
knowledge, knowledge of text structure and an active search for information as well.
The degree by which they understand what they have read is called reading
comprehension.
2.2.3 The stages of reading lesson
A reading lesson consists of three stages: pre-reading stage, while-reading stage
and post-reading stage. Each of these stages has its own objectives and features and
demands different techniques and activities.

2.2.3.1 Pre – reading
Pre- reading stage in a reading lesson is an important one because of the
following purposes according to Williams (1984)
- To recommend the topic of the reading text.
- To help students to brainstorm on the topic, activate their own knowledge,
explore the type of text and get involved in the reading lesson.
- To prepare students for language, vocabulary and even grammar.
- To encourage them to want to read.
- To increase their stimulus to read.
Thus, students are to do the activities such as variety of lead-in techniques,
setting the sense; variety of presenting vocabulary, grammar points, structures:
pictures, realia, paraphrase, context…Besides, some pre-reading activities are used
as true/false statements prediction, brainstorming, ordering statements or pictures,
multiple choice questions, questions and answers, matching, etc.