MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG THAM A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG THAM A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60.14.01.11 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Supervisor: Ngo Dinh PhuongAssoc. Prof., Ph.D. Nghệ An, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify my authorship of the M.A thesis submitted today entitled: A study on student interaction in learning English reading comprehension at Vinh University I hereby acknowledge that this study in mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere. Author NGUYEN THI HONG THAM i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have helped me make this thesis possible. First, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof Doctor Ngo Dinh Phuong, who generously supports my work by giving directions, priceless advice and enthusiastic encouragement during the completion of the study. I would like to express my special thanks Dr. Tran Ba Tien, the FDL’s Dean, who gave me the chance and the time to come to the end of this study. I would also like to express my thanks to the teachers and students at Vinh University who helped me in providing the materials, answering the survey questionnaire, taking part in the interviews actively and making constructive comments in the process of writing this thesis, without their help the thesis would not have been successful. Finally, my special appreciation goes out to all the teachers who taught me during the two year course, my colleagues who are very hearty to give opinions and suggestions for my research, and to all my friends, my students, and my family who help me in different ways. ii ABSTRACT This research aims to find out how classroom interaction effects on improving students’ English reading skill. Firstly, it defines the importance of interaction in reading classes. Secondly, it seeks to answers what types of interaction patterns have been used in language classroom at Vinh University. Thirdly, it investigates how these interaction patterns affect the students’ participation and learning outcome. The thesis involves 20 teachers and 100 students from two non-English major classes at Vinh University. The data are collected by questionnaires, classroom observation, and interview and then statistically analyzed by tables and charts. The findings of study show that both teachers and students at Vinh University think that interaction in class are important and useful. The findings also show that there are three types of interaction patterns in reading classroom: teacher-student, student-student and student-content. The data from questionnaire, observation and interview shows that the teacher-student mode is frequently used in pre-reading stage and student-student and student-content modes are used more frequently in while-reading and post reading stage. The teachers applied many appreciate types of activities and interaction patterns increase students’ interest in reading and interaction in classes depending on different reading tasks, students’ English levels. Students can improve their reading skill and language knowledge through these activities. The effectiveness of classroom interaction described in the test result of two classes. Finally, the researcher gives some suggestions with the hope that the students’ English will be improved through promoting classroom interactions by teachers. iii LIST OF TABLES iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELT: English Language Teaching EFL: English Foreign Language ESL: English as Second Language VU: Vinh University v THE LIST OF TABLES vi THE LIST OF CHARTS vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationales Nowadays, English is spoken all over the world. People use it as an effective means of international communication in many fields of life, for example economics, politics, science, sports, etc. Because of this reason, more and more people are aware of the importance of English so that they have paid more attention on learning this international language. In Vietnam, English has been brought into the school curriculum as a compulsory subject, and the teaching and learning of that international language has been recently paid great attention to. When teaching English, the teacher teaches his students not only the English language but also its usage. And under the right guidance, right help of the teacher, the students have to try their best to master 4 language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking in order to communicate in English successfully. Among these four skills, reading plays an important role in enriching the students’ general knowledge and in helping them with their further study later. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a written passage of text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/message (wikipedia.org). Reading comprehension is important because without it reading doesn’t provide the reader with any information. It allows the readers to interact with the text in a meaningful way. It helps learners to gain new knowledge and improve many other language skills such as writing, speaking and listening. For this reason, learners and teachers of English language should pay more attention on this skill. However, some interviewed students at Vinh University say that they are not able to understand what they read and teachers complain that most students do not like to read, they only read the required text book in order to set for the achievement routine exams. Students lack of motivation to read, even if they read, they show negative attitudes. These difficulties in reading may come from many causes. For example, students lack or poor use of reading strategies, lack of relevant prior knowledge, lack of reading engagement, etc. Another reason is reading lessons 1 [...]...usually take place in quiet classroom, so that I have recognized that interaction in reading class is really important Interaction means any communication taken place in class Interaction can motivate learning and created the relationship in class Classroom interaction is one of the most effective ways to improve students’ reading comprehension It is where students and teacher exchange their... of information between participants and prevent communication breakdowns (Ellis, 1990) There are two types of classroom interaction: non-verbal interaction and verbal interaction When students use non-verbal interaction, they can use head nodding, eye contact, hand raising, etc By contrast, verbal interaction includes written interaction and oral interaction Written interaction is the way students interact... two classes at preintermediate level at Vinh University 1.4 Research questions In order to meet the aims of the study, the following research questions are generated: - What reading strategies have been used in non -English major classes at Vinh University? - How do student interactions effect on reading comprehension in non -English major classes at Vinh University? - What suggestions can be made to improve... class, the main mode of interaction is still studentstudents as primarily there is only one presenter at one time For the need of interaction, Sutton (1999) said that, classroom interaction results in positive attitudes and higher achievement Increasing interaction creates higher learning motivation and attention for students Interaction among members or group in class is highly valuable recourse and... controlled practicing of certain language structures or vocabularies This type of practice is also referred to as a drill’ 2.3.2 Students’ interaction 9 Students’ interaction occurs among learners In this form of interaction, the teacher plays a role as a monitor and students are the main partakers Studentstudent interaction occurs in groups called group interaction, in pairs called pair interaction. .. teaching and learning Interaction builds up communicative environment in class This is a good way for students to enhance the learning through collaborative learning Classroom interaction provides the vehicle for communication and creates a good and active motivation 8 .3 Types o Classroom interaction is a crucial feature of communicative language teaching It can take place between the teacher and students,... organizing and controlling activities) 2.6 Definitions of reading, reading comprehension, and reading strategy 6.1 What It is stated that reading is a kind of culture that people regardless of age, sex, or class should learn and have Although no one can deny the high frequency of 13 reading in everyday life, to understand thoroughly what reading or reading comprehension is may not be well aware by many... theoretical background, interactive teaching and learning is different from the traditional methods The application of this approach in teaching English reading was carried out for EFL learners at VU The survey was conducted on the second year students and teachers of English to find out the reality of teaching and learning in reading classes, the reality of applying interactive reading lessons as well as... which takes place in a student and students’ environment It aims to respond to the student in a way intended to change his or her behavior toward educational goals Thus interaction can create a good environment for both teaching and learning According to Joan Kelly (2000), in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), interaction has long been considered important in language learning Other researchers... finding information, breaking down barriers, learning about the cultural knowledge and so on Even when a lesson is focused on developing reading or writing skills, interactive activities should be integrated into the lesson Moreover, study on second language acquisition (SLA) suggests that more learning takes place when students are involved in related tasks in a active learning environment rather than in . MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG THAM A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ. EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG THAM A STUDY ON STUDENT INTERACTION IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION AT VINH UNIVERSITY Major: Teaching English. class is really important. Interaction means any communication taken place in class. Interaction can motivate learning and created the relationship in class. Classroom interaction is one of the