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Trong việc giảng dạy ngôn ngữ thứ hai hay tiếng nước ngoài, đọc nhận được chú trọng đặc biệt. Trong quá trình dạy và học tiếng Anh như một ngoại ngữ, đọc đã luôn luôn được cung cấp rất nhiều sự chú trọng từ cả giáo viên và học sinh. Đọc không chỉ được coi như một phương tiện để đạt được kiến thức mà còn là một phương tiện để tiếp tục nghiên cứu sâu hơn. Luận văn này là có liên quan với việc nâng cao kỹ năng đọc hiểu của học sinh thông qua các bài tập trọng điểm. Những lợi ích của việc sử dụng các bài tập trọng điểm trong các tiết học đọc được khẳng định một lần nữa trong luận văn này thông qua các nghiên cứu và tác giả đã tiến hành tại trường THPT Ngô Quyền, tỉnh Nam Định . Những lợi ích mang lại hiệu quả đáng kể cho giáo viên và học sinh trong việc dạy và học đọc . Đây cũng là mục đích chính của luận văn và mong muốn của tác giả. Để đạt được mục tiêu và mong muốn này, tác giả đi vào xem xét các tài liệu liên quan và sau đó tiến hành quan sát các lớp học , đưa ra câu hỏi cho họ , vv để có những phát hiện và phân tích cần thiết . Đồng thời, tác giả cũng đưa ra một số bài tập trọng điểm phù hợp để áp dụng trong dạy và học những tiết học đọc trong sách Tiếng Anh 11.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study has, in many senses, been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people. Therefore, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them. Firstly, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc.Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Do, for his invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time I tried to complete this thesis. I am grateful to all lecturers of the Department of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their lectures, especially Mr. Le Van Canh, Ph.D. for his helpful and practical suggestions. I am also grateful to Ms. Le Thu Ha, the librarian at the Resource Centre, who is willing to lend me a lot of interesting books and valuable materials for my thesis. I also thank my colleagues and students at Ngo Quyen High School for their cooperation in completing the survey questionnaires as well as their willingness to share their ideas on this study. Last but not least, I also own a great debt of gratitude to my family, my friends for their support in bringing this study to a success. i ABSTRACT In many second or foreign language teaching situations, reading receives a special focus. In process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language, reading has always been offered a great deal of attention both from the teachers and the students. Reading is not only considered as a means to gain knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place. This study is concerned with improving students’ reading comprehension skills through focused tasks. The benefits of using focused tasks in reading lessons are affirmed again in this thesis through the studies and the researcher carried out at Ngo Quyen High School, Nam Dinh province. These benefits bring considerable effectiveness to teachers and students in teaching and learning reading. This is also the main aim of the study and the researcher’s wish. In order to achieve this aim and wish, the researcher enters into consideration of the relevant literature and then carries out observing classes, giving questionnaires to them, etc. to have necessary findings and analysis. At the same time, the researcher also suggests the suitable reading tasks to apply in teaching and learning reading lessons in Tieng Anh 11. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of abbreviations vii List of tables and charts viii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 1 3. Scope of the study 2 4. Methodology of the study 2 5. Design of the study 2 PART II DEVELOPMENT 4 Chapter I: Theoretical Background 4 I.1. Definitions of reading, reading comprehension and purposes of reading 4 I.1.1. What is reading? 4 I.1.2. What is reading comprehension? 5 I.1.3. The purposes of reading 6 I.2. Classification of reading 7 I.2.1. Classification of reading according to manner 7 I.2.2. Classification of reading according to purposes 8 I.3. Stages in a reading lesson 9 I.3.1. Pre-reading stage 9 I.3.2. While-reading stage 10 iii I.3.3. Post-reading stage 10 I.4. Factors in teaching and learning reading 11 I.4.1. The role of the teacher 11 I.4.2. The role of the student 11 I.4.3. The role of reading texts 12 I.5. Factors determining successful reading comprehension 12 I.5.1. Considerations for students 12 I.5.1.1. Reading strategies 12 I.5.1.2. Background knowledge 13 I.5.2. Considerations for teachers 13 I.5.2.1. Steps in teaching reading 13 I.5.2.2.Ways to select materials 14 I.6. Focused tasks and using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14 I.6.1. Focused tasks 14 I.6.2. Using tasks to develop reading comprehension skills 14 I.6.2.1. Skills involved in reading 14 I.6.2.2. Questions and tasks in a reading lesson 15 Chapter II: Methodology 16 II.1. Situation analysis 16 II.1.1. Setting of the study 16 II.1.2. Participants 16 II.1.3. Reading materials 17 II.2. Instrumentation 18 II.2.1. Instrument 1 18 II.2.1.1. The questionnaire for the students 18 II.2.1.2. The questionnaire for the teachers 19 II.2.2. Instrument 2-class observation 19 iv Chapter III: Data analysis and findings 20 III.1. Data analysis and findings 20 III.2.1. Survey for students 20 III.2.2. Survey for teachers 26 III.2. Classroom observation 28 Chapter IV: Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills and sample work 30 IV.1. Suggested some focused tasks in teaching reading skills 30 IV.1.1. Bases for reading tasks 30 IV.1.2. Suggested some focused tasks 33 IV.1.2.1. Suitability for students’ level 33 IV.1.2.2. Suitability for reading purposes 33 IV.2.Sample work 38 PART III: CONCLUSION 40 1. Summary of the study 40 2. Limitation and Suggestion for further study 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VI v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS N: Number CUP: Cambridge University Press OUP: Oxford University Press vi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Tables: 1. Students’ Attitudes towards reading in English 2. Students’ Attitudes towards purpose of reading English 3. Kinds of tasks students are often asked to do 4. Students’ strategies of doing reading tasks 5. Students’ strategies when coming across a new word 6. Students’ interest in doing supplementary tasks 7. Teachers’ attitudes towards students’ problems in reading Charts: 1. Students’ Attitudes towards reading materials 2. Students’ difficulties in doing reading tasks 3. Teachers’ attitudes towards reading texts and tasks in textbook vii PART I: INTRODUCTION I. Rationale Language itself plays an important part in our daily life and it is the most effective means of communication. Language distinguishes man from animals. That is because language is an effective means of information, transaction and interaction making experience so we can say that without language there would be no civilization, no culture, no intervention and no progress. Nowadays, the demand of communication among people in all countries is greater, therefore it is really necessary for everyone to learn at least one foreign language. In our country, English is widely taught and learnt because it is an international language used in all aspects of life such as tourism, technology, literature, commerce and so on. Especially, English has become a compulsory in high schools. That is why it is vital to find out to teach and learn English effectively. Teaching English involves four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Among them, teaching reading plays an important role for high school students in enriching their general knowledge, enlarging their vocabulary and in helping them with their further study later. Reading also contributes to the development of other language skills. When teaching reading, some issues may arise such as how to assess students’ reading ability, how to give tests to students, techniques to improve students’ reading skills and so on. Among these issues, I choose to do my research on the project entitled “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh” because I myself believe that reading can help learners to get information to the fullest, and that providing learners with useful techniques and tasks will motivate them in reading. II. Aims of the study The study is aimed at: 1 1) better understanding the concepts of reading, content reading, reading comprehension. 2) identifying some problems in teaching and learning reading English at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh. 3) providing the 11 th grade students at Ngo Quyen High School with useful focused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills. The study is the hope of the author to make some contributions to the improvement of reading comprehension skills for the 11 th form students . III. Scope of the study The study on reading in general is immense and covering every aspect of language theory and practice in this study is impossible. Due to the time limitation, only one small aspect of reading comprehension is mentioned to, that is reading comprehension tasks. Some focused tasks to help teachers and students better in teaching and learning reading comprehension would be recommended. IV. Methodology In seeking answers to the research questions, survey questionnaires and class observations were chosen to obtain relevant information for the study. The strategic method of the study is quantitative one. That is all remarks, considerations, and conclusions are made largely based on the analysis of the statistic data collected through the survey questionnaires. Class observations are carried out as a supplementary to the survey questionnaires. V. Design of the study The study consists of three main parts: the Introduction, the Development and the Conclusion. Part I introduces rationales, aims of the study, scope and methods of the study. 2 Part II comprises four chapters. Chapter I deals with an overview of the theoretical background of the research. It is concerned with the issues relevant to the topic of the research: reading and reading comprehension, classification of reading, the importance of improving reading skills, roles of reading teachers and those of reading students, focused tasks in reading . Chapter II describes the participants and instruments of the study. Chapter III is data collection and data analysis. Chapter IV offers some focused tasks to improve reading comprehension skills and a sample work. Part III summarizes the issues addressed and presents recommendations for further improvements and some suggestions for further research. 3 [...]... of both teachers of English (8 teachers) and grade 11 students (155 students) who are teaching and learning at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh as follows: 16 * The Students Participants who were drawn from a high school in Nam Dinh, aged 17, both male and female have learnt English for 5 years, 4 years at lower secondary school and one year at high school They all have similar background Lots of them... at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh The instruments used to gather the information for the study will be described as follows: II.2.1 Instrument 1- Survey Questionnaire Two set of survey questionnaire were completed with the assistance of 155 students in grade 11 and 8 teachers at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh This method allowed the researcher to collect the data needed in “quantitative form”... Quyen High School in Nam Dinh English is a compulsory subject and one of the core subjects at high schools Reading is a skill of major concern in teaching-learning English in Vietnam During a reading lesson, the teacher asks students to read a text and then he or she explains new words or structures to help students understand the text The reading lesson sometimes turns out to be an English-Vietnamese translation... under the author’s observation have been teaching English at this school for at least nine years There are some differences between the teachers’ age Consequently, their teaching experience must be different Four units were chosen to be observed are unit 4, unit 9, unit 11 and unit 12 The purpose for choosing these units was that they contained rather long reading passages with many unfamiliar words,... level III.1.1.2 Learning reading skills of the 11th form students Question 4: Which kinds of tasks are you often asked to do? Items A B C D E F Results N 79 37 20 16 123 46 % 51 24 13 10 79 30 Table 3: Kinds of tasks students are often asked to do We can see from the table that all options are chosen Questions and answers, True or False statements and multiple choice items are often given to students However,... more interesting texts and tasks to encourage them to study better Question 2: Which kinds of tasks do you give to your students? Among these kinds, 100% teachers choose B and 75% for true or false items Next comes multiple-choice (50%) and 25% choose the rest If teachers give questions and answers, true or false items in every reading text, students will lose their interest, so they should give various... reading for language development Reading for pleasure is considered as a purpose of reading because some people only read for entertainment, especially when getting stressed or after their hard working hours They read funny stories, jokes, newspapers and articles to entertain 6 themselves In language classroom, reading for pleasure is used to lessen tension in class through funny stories, spicy stories,... reading, Grellet defined that “Intensive reading means reading short texts to extract specific information This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details” (Grellet,1981:41) The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning is produced Under the guidance of the teacher or a task, students have... small expenses required for their children’s schooling; a dictionary, a cassette player or even some English books are beyond their reach In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interest in learning English Although most of them have already learnt English for at least four years at lower secondary school, their knowledge of English is still... Question 6: How do you do reading tasks? Items A B C Results N 32 67 68 % 21 43 44 Table 4: Students’ strategies of doing reading tasks Considering the data, we find that a number of students choose B and C are nearly equal However, the right way in doing reading tasks is A It is clear that many students do not have the right strategies of doing tasks They often look up new words and structures immediately . Among these issues, I choose to do my research on the project entitled “Improving Grade 11 Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills through Focused Tasks at A High School in Nam Dinh” because I myself. teaching and learning reading English at Ngo Quyen High School in Nam Dinh. 3) providing the 11 th grade students at Ngo Quyen High School with useful focused tasks to improve reading comprehension. Post-reading stage 10 I.4. Factors in teaching and learning reading 11 I.4.1. The role of the teacher 11 I.4.2. The role of the student 11 I.4.3. The role of reading texts 12 I.5. Factors determining