DECLARATION I, Nguyen Thi My Hao, certify that this thesis is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution. Hanoi, May 2008 Nguyen Thi My Hao - - i - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Le Van Canh, M.A for his invaluable comments and suggestions, generous assistance and continual encouragement in completion of this research. Secondly, my special thanks go to all the teachers and students of the classes I have visited in order to gather information for my survey questionnaire and classroom observations. My gratefulness is to my husband, who has given me so much love, patience and encouragement, who spent hours working with the computer to help me with computer entry and processing. In addition, I am in debt of my mother-in-law, who has constantly supported and encouraged me to carry out this thesis, who has shared with me all the housework so that I could concentrate on doing research. - - ii - ABSTRACT Reading is a very important skill because together with listening, reading provide indispensable input for students. However, the teaching and learning reading in many schools in Viet nam in general and at Phan Boi Chau specialized school in particular is still far from satisfactory. Students’ satisfaction with the reading lessons is of great concern. In fact, there are many factors affecting the students’ satisfaction that are worth considering such as students’ interest, needs teachers’ activities, the topic of the text, the text type…This thesis only aims at investigating the students’ level of satisfaction with the teachers’ reading activities because reading activities play a key role in making students satisfy with their reading lessons. A set of survey questionnaire and classroom observations are used to explore the 11 th non - English majors’ attitudes towards the teachers’ reading activities, situation o f using reading activities by the teachers at Phan Boi Chau school and students’ preferences for these activities in order to narrow the gap between teaching styles and learning styles as a goal of learner-centredness in language education. From that, some recommendations from using reading activities to better the situation of teaching and learning reading at Phan Boi Chau school would be made. The findings from the study indicates that almost all the students are fully aware of the sheer importance of reading activities. A great variety of reading activities are reported to have been used during reading lessons. Among them, activities such as giving some pre- reading questions to think before reading, pre-teaching new vocabulary and structures, asking students to do tasks in limited time are found to be the most frequently used but not interesting ones. Using visual aids and games is rarely applied by the teachers despite the fact that they are in greatest favour by the students. The students also enjoy taking part in many other activities such as predicting, brainstorming and translating….Besides, the teachers’ characteristics also play an important role in motivating students to learn the lessons. The data from the classroom observations highlight the importance of using activities in encouraging and satisfying the students in reading lessons. - - iii - Finally, the study recommends that to better the situation, the teachers should vary and apply reading activities flexibly and appropriately, focus on students’ personal factors, provide the students with a variety of extra tasks, material and activities and be helpful, enthusiastic and humorous as well. Hopefully, the thesis can be considered a small contribution to the teaching and learning reading at the school. - - iv - TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i i DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS viii PART ACHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 I.1. Rationale of the study 1 I.2. Aims of the study 2 I.3. 2 Research questions 2 I.4. Scope of the study 2 I.5. Methods of the study 3 I.6. Significance of the study 3 I.7. Design of the study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5 CHAPTER II. 5 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1II.1. Introduction 5 5 II.21. Learner- centred approach 5 II.23. Teaching styles and lLearning styles: The need to narrow the gap between the teachers’ teaching styles and the students’ learning styles 7 II.23.1. Learning styles: 7 At this point you need to discuss further how the issue of learners’ statifaction is related to teaching styles and learning styles 9 - - v - II.23.2. The need to narrow the gaps between the teacher’s teaching style and the learners’ learning styles: 9 Again, how this is related to learners’ satifaction? Clarify 12 I.3. Learners’ perceptions/satisfaction in language education 12 II.4. Reading and reading activities 12 II.4.1. Definition of reading 12 II.4.2. Reading activities: 12 II.4.2.1. Pre-reading questions 13 II.4.2.2. Using a class discussion 13 II.4.2.3. Pre-teaching new vocabulary and structures 13 II.4.2.4. Giving a simple and short introduction about the text 13 II.4.2.5. Asking students to tasks in a limited time 14 II.4.2.6. Using games 14 II.4.2.7. Using visual aids 14 II.4.2.8. Giving feedback 14 II.4.2.9. Writing a summary after reading 14 II.4.2.10. Applying rewards and punishment policy 15 In what way is the discussion of this related to the issue of learners’ satisfaction.? 15 Have a CONCLUSION section: What are the major points from the literature review that is connected to your topic of investigation – learners’ satisfaction with reading lessons? 15 II.5. Conclusion 15 CHAPTER III. THE STUDY 17 Introduction 17 III.1. Situation Analysis 17 II.1.1. The setting of the study 17 III.1.1.1. The school 17 III.1.1.2. The teacher and the students: 18 III.1.1.3. The TIENG ANH 11 textbook 18 III.1.2. Subjects 19 III.23. Instruments: 20 IHow was observation carried out? And how was the data analysed? 21 - - vi - Hopefully, with four different teachers, four different classes and four different units, the researcher can get a lot of choice for the reading activities and can get involved in various classroom settings 22 II.34. Data analysis process 22 CHAPTER IIIIV 23 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 23 IVIII.1. Survey questionnaire 23 IIIIV.1.1. Students’ attitudes towards the teacher’s reading activities 23 26 IIIV.1.2. The current situation of using reading activities in a reading lesson at Phan Boi Chau school 26 IIIV.1.3. Students’ preferences for reading activities 30 IIIIV.1.4. Students’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the teacher’s ways of teaching reading 31 IIIV.2. Classroom observations 33 CHAPTER IV. 38 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 38 FOR USING READING ACTIVITIESFOR MAKING STUDENTS SATISFIED WITH THE READING LESSONS 38 IV. 1. Findings: Most important in this is WHAT ARE YOUR ANSWERS TO THE TWO RESEARCH QUESTIONS? 38 IV.1.1. The students’ attitudes towards the teacher’s reading activitiesThe importance of reading activities: 39 IV.1.2. The current situation of using reading activities at Phan Boi Chau school 39 V.1.2.1. The frequency of reading activities used by the teachers at Phan Boi Chau school 40 IV.1.32.2. Reading activities that can help to increase the students’ satisfaction: 41 IV.1.43. Students’ preferences for reading activities 42 IV.1.54. Students’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the teacher’s way of teaching reading 43 IV.2. Recommendations for making students satisfied with the reading lessonsusing reading activities in a reading lesson 43 - - vii - V.3. Sample work 46 CHAPTER VI. 48 CONCLUSION 48 VI.1. Summary of the study 48 VI.2. Limitations and suggestions for further study 49 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1. SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE I APPENDIX 2. OBSERVATIONAL PROTOCOLS III LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS TABLES Table 1: The frequency of using reading activities Table 2: Students’ preferences for the reading activities used by the teachers CHARTS Chart 1: The role of teachers’ reading activities in reading lessons. Chart 2: Factors affecting the students’ satisfaction with the reading lessons Chart 3: Activities that can help to increase the students’ satisfaction - - viii - PART ACHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I.1. Rationale of the study One of the tenets of a learner-centered approach to language teaching is student satisfaction. If it is true that we cannot teach the language to the students , but just create conditions for the learning to happen, it is crucial to make our students satisfied with their lessons. This is because students cannot be sufficiently motivated to learn without feeling satisfied with what they are provided for In teaching and learning English as a foreign language, reading has always received a great deal of attention. This is understandable because where English is learnt and taught inis a non-English environment, so reading is not only an important means to get knowledge but also a means of further study. According to Richard (1993:9), “Becoming an effective and fluent reader in another language has a number of important benefits for the learner”. In order to motivate learners to learn and become fluent readers, it is necessary for teachers to understand students’ degree of satisfaction with the way the reading skills are taught so that improvements can be made on the part of the teachers. Despite the need of understanding how students evaluate the lessons teachers teach, there has yet been a single study that looks into this matter in my school. When dealing with a reading lesson, the teachers always try to their best to make the reading lesson a success. However, because of the differences between the teachers and the students with regard to the experience in using the language and expectation as well as to cognitive styles, teachers’ satisfaction with their teaching does not necessarily mean students’ satisfaction. it seems that some of them are not satisfied with their learning. Actually, satisfaction is a very necessary element in learning in general and in learning reading in particular but helping students to be satisfied with their reading lessons is a challenging task. There are many factors that are worth considering such as students’ needs, interest, teachers’ reading activities, the topic of the text, the text type. As said above, the issue of students’ satifactionsatisfaction remains unexplored in my school, this study was an attempt to fill the gap. However, with the limitation of the time, the author only intends to pay more attention to investigate the students’ satisfaction with the teachers’ reading activities because reading activities play an important role in - - 1 - making students satisfy with their reading lessons. Suitable reading activities can enhance the students’ interest in reading. Needless to say, it is necessary for the teachers to know what reading activities their students would like to take part in. At Phan Boi Chau school, teachers have used a variety of reading activities in the classroom. Despite their great effort, the students are sometimes not satisfied with their reading lessons and the reading lessons are said to be boring. This issue has brought the author a desire to conduct a research study on how far the students are satisfied with their reading lessons and to give some suggestions for using and choosing suitable reading activities. I.2. Aims of the study The study aims at: - examining the 11 th non-English majors’ attitudes towards the teachers ’ reading activities. - investigating the current situation of using reading activities by teachers at Phan Boi Chau school. - exploring the students’ satisfaction with the teachers’ reading activities. - giving some recommendationssuggestions for teachers to employemploying reading activities to satisfy the students by satisfy non-English to improve their reading skills. I.3. Research questions - What are the 11 th non-English majors’ attitudes towards the teachers’ reading activities? - What is the current situation of using reading comprehension activities at Phan Boi Chau school? - What reading comprehension activities do students most and least prefer? - To what extent are they satisfied with their reading comprehension lessons in general? I.4. Scope of the study - - 2 - [...]... teaching and learning style, studies on learners’ satisfaction in language education reading and reading activities Chapter III,:, The study, provides the setting of the study, subjects, instruments and data analysis process Chapter IV:, Data analysis and discussion, analyses and discusses the data collected from the survey questionnaire and classroom observations Chapter IIIV,:, Major findings and suggestionsrecommendations,... language learning as well as insights into language and into the process of language learning have changed The second reason is that learner-centredness is not a theory about teaching, but rather a theory about learning Each individual decides what is important and what is relevant to construct a meaningful concept According to Nunan Nunan (20001988 :11) , learner-centred classrooms are the places where... prove comfortable and effective for another It can result in the assumption that any teacher is likely to confront mismatch between teaching and learning This gap can be narrowed only when it’s necessary to narrow the gap between the teacher’s teaching style and the learners’ learning styles This can only be done when all students’ needs, expectation, habits….are met To understand and respect each student’s... classes are male Many of them come from districts of Nghe An province They are good students at the secondary school and therefore are selected after an entrance exam to Phan Boi Chau school They have three periods of English each week and each period lasts only 45 minutes which is rather short The problem is that most of the students from districts don’t have a good command of English and this number... all the teachers to organize, arrange and apply some new activities to avoid boredom in the classroom III.1.2 Subjects The study was carried out with the participation of 150 11 th form students from four classes 11C2, 11A1, 11A4, 11A5 which are specialized in history, mathematics, chemistry and biology respectively The students under investigation are in the second term of grade 11 They ages between... include the consultation and input of learners and that do not presuppose objectives in advance - techniques that enhance a learner’s sense of competence and self-worth - techniques that allow for learner creativity and innovation It is clear that if the learner-centred approach is fully applied to any teaching and learning process, the learners will be more dynamic, more active and more self-confident... from Vinh city are not good at English at all Meanwhile some other students are very excellent at English Therefore, it’s very difficult for the teachers to make a balance in teaching these classes As a result, some of the students are not satisfied with their lessons III.1.1.3 The TIENG ANH 11 textbook The TIENG ANH 11 textbook consists of 16 units organized broad topics: friendship, personal experiences,... English The reading texts in TIENG ANH 11 are various Many of them are not very difficult at all and very interesting ( Unit 1: Friendship; Unit 2: Personal experiences; Unit 3: A party; Unit 6: Competitions; Unit 8: Celebration; Unit 12: Asian Games; Unit 13: Hobbies; Unit 14: Recreation) However, some reading texts are difficult and have too many new words, which can sometimes not be covered within... current situation of teaching and learning the reading skill at Phan Boi Chau school as well as the setting for the study The subject and instruments are also mentioned in this chapter Then, the author analyses the data collectedthe data analysis process will be discussed III.1 Situation Analysis II.1.1 The setting of the study III.1.1.1 The school The study was conducted at Phan Boi Chau specialized school,... They come from many districts of Nghe An province and were selected after an entrance exam in Mathematics, Literature and Specialized subject The reason why the researcher chose these students is that the classes have been assigned with a relatively equal proportion of good, average and poor English proficiency students and these classes are at different levels of English From observation and interviews . instruments and data analysis process Chapter IV:, Data analysis and discussion, analyses and discusses the data collected from the survey questionnaire and classroom. individual decides what is important and what is relevant to construct a meaningful concept. According to Nunan Nunan (20001988 :11) , learner-centred classrooms