1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ THƢƠNG DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT TUYEN QUANG SPECIALISED UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƢƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 CHUYÊN ANH TRƢỜNG THPT CHUYÊN TUYÊN QUANG MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 HANOI – 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐÀO THỊ THƢƠNG DESIGNING A SUPPLEMENTARY READING SYLLABUS FOR GRADE 10 ENGLISH GIFTED STUDENTS AT TUYEN QUANG SPECIALISED UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƢƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU BỔ TRỢ CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 CHUYÊN ANH TRƢỜNG THPT CHUYÊN TUYÊN QUANG MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: METHODOLOGY CODE: 601410 SUPERVISOR: Dr HOÀNG THỊ XUÂN HOA HANOI – 2010 List of abbreviations TQSS Tuyen Quang Specialised Upper Secondary School MOET Ministry of Education and Training List of Tables Table 1: Teachers‟ perception of students‟ difficulties in terms of reading exercises 23 Table 2: Teachers‟ perception of the necessity and interest in reading topics 25 Table 3: Teachers‟ perception of the necessity and interest in reading topics 26 Table 4: Students‟ perceptions of difficulties in terms of reading exercises 28 Table 5: Students‟ perceptions of the necessity and interest in reading topics 31 Table 6: Students‟ perception of grammatical items needed in a new syllabus 32 Table 7: Teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions of the students‟ difficulties in reading exercises 33 Table 8: Teachers‟ and students‟ perceptions of students‟ difficulties in reading comprehension 34 Table 9: Teachers‟ and the Students‟ perceptions of the necessity and the interest in reading topics 36 Table 10: Teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions of the necessity of grammatical items 37 Table 11: The proposed supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students (see Appendix 1) List of Figures Figure 1: Teachers‟ perception of students‟ difficulties in terms of reading comprehension 24 Figure 2: Teachers‟ attitudes towards a supplementary reading syllabus 24 Figure 3: Students‟ difficulties in terms of reading comprehension 29 Figure 4: Students‟ attitudes towards a supplementary reading syllabus 30 Figure 5: Teachers‟ and Students‟ perceptions of necessity of a Supplementary Reading Syllabus 35 table of contents Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of Abbreviation iv Lists of the tables v Part I: Introduction Rationale Aim of the study Research questions Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study Part II: Development Chapter 1: Literature review 1.1 Theoretical background to Syllabus design 1.1.1 Syllabus and curriculum 1.1.2 Definitions of syllabus 1.1.3 Steps in designing a language syllabus 1.1.3.1 Needs analysis 1.1.3.1.1 Definitions of Needs 1.1.3.1.2 The importance of needs analysis 1.1.3.2 Goals and objectives of the syllabus 1.1.3.3 Selection of content 1.1.3.4 The organization of syllabus 1.2 Theoretical background to Reading comprehension 1.2.1 Definitions of reading and reading comprehension 1.2.2 Models of reading process 11 1.2.3 Reading skills and strategies 12 1.3 Summary Chapter 2: Needs analysis of grade 10 English gifted students at 13 Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School 2.1 The context of the study 14 2.1.1 The school 14 2.1.2 The teaching staff 15 2.1.3 The students 16 2.1.4 Time allocation for English classes at TQSS 16 2.2 The study 17 2.2.1 The subjects 17 2.2.2 The instrument for data collection 17 2.2.3 Data collection procedures 18 2.2.4 Data analysis and major findings 19 2.2.4.1 Data from documents and the material 19 2.2.4.1.1 The requirements of the MOET on curriculum for gifted students 19 2.2.4.1.2 The requirements on tests for excellent students 20 2.2.4.1.3 The teaching materials 21 2.2.4.2 Data from survey questionnaires 22 2.2.4.2.1 Needs perceived by the teachers 22 2.2.4.2.2 Needs perceived by the students 27 2.2.4.2.3 Comparisons between the teachers‟ and the students‟ perceptions of needs 33 2.2.4.3 Major findings 38 Chapter 3: A proposed a Supplementary Reading Syllabus for grade 39 10 English gifted students at TQSS 3.1 Aims and Objectives of a reading syllabus for the English gifted students at TQSS 39 3.2 Content specification 39 3.2.1 Topics in the syllabus 40 3.2.2 Reading skills 40 3.3.3 Grammatical items 41 3.3 Time schedule 41 3.4 Syllabus organization 41 3.5 The Proposed Syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang 42 Specialized Upper Secondary School 3.6 Summary 42 10 Part III: Conclusion 43 References 45 Appendix 47 11 Part I: Introduction Rationale In the era of integration and globalization of the world economy, one cannot deny the role of English as a bridge to link closely the nations all over the world English is the language that has spread throughout the world most extensively and is dominating in a number of important fields international commerce, communication, tourism and science and technology English is both a means of and the latest achievement of science and technology That is the reason why at present, learning English is not only the interest but also the great and practical demand for many people, especially for students who are anxious to explore the modern world Therefore, English has become a compulsory subject to all the secondary school students in Vietnam In Vietnam, however, English is taught and learned in a non-native environment, so reading may be considered as the best way to help students to understand and use the upto-date information in their fields of study Carrel (1984: 1) points out: “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four macro skills, particularly in English as a second or a foreign language” (cited in Sao 2008) Indeed, reading is of paramount importance in making extensive use of academic materials written in English Reading these materials on different subjects is one of the best ways to help students improve their English Therefore, developing reading skills is very essential for all the students, especially for the gifted students Training and nurturing the gifted require a special education that differentiates from the regular students This differentiated education is composed of a lot of factors, among which curriculum and syllabus are the most crucial On discussing about the materials, O‟Neill (1982: 81) states: “each group is so unique that its needs cannot be met by the materials which are designed for another group” The Ministry of Education and Training also suggests that the curricula used for the aptitude students are not similar to those for the regular students but more advanced, flexible and open Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has been implementing the renovation to textbooks on English on a large scale The two new textbooks for upper secondary school level are officially called “Tiếng Anh ” (i.e standard English textbooks) used for students pursuing Ban (i.e the non-specialization program) and Ban tự nhiên (i.e specialization in sciences), and “Tiếng Anh 10 nâng cao” (i.e the advanced English textbooks 10) used for Ban xã hội (i.e specialization in humanities) in general and for the 12 aptitudes in particular Since 2006- 2007 academic year, the advanced English textbook 10 has been used to teach gifted students in nationwide schools However, according to the MOET, this textbook has not properly satisfied the talents‟ demand as well as met the requirement of the national exam for the excellent Hence, on November 6th, MOET issued -a regulation No12856/BGDĐT- GDTrH - “A guideline in the contents for specializing subjects taught for grade 10 at specialized upper secondary schools” (2006) According to this regulation, gifted students are provided with 70 extra periods (including reading, listening, speaking, writing and language focus) except for 140 compulsory periods in order to enhance their level of English proficiency This 70-period syllabus has not been designed by MOET but it has been done by teachers themselves in each school who teach the talents In addition, MOET suggests that “the specific time allotment for each expanded and advanced part depends on students‟ proficiency level as well as the real condition of each school.” (A guideline in the contents for specializing subjects taught for grade 10 at specialized upper secondary schools, 2006: 6) The flexibility and openness offer teachers at specialized school in general and at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School (TQSS) in particular more chances to select relevant materials to their class situation Because, however, the English supplementary materials specifically developed for the gifted are inadequate, this flexibility also brings a lot of challenges to teachers of English when making an attempt to find, select and adapt materials suitable for their students‟ needs In order to help language teachers surmount the aforementioned difficulty and provide students with a relevant supplementary reading syllabus, I have carried out a study on “designing a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School” Aims and objectives of the study The general aim of this study is to design a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School Specifically, the main objectives of this study are: + To find out the students‟ needs in terms of reading skills + To identify the objectives and contents of a supplementary reading syllabus Research questions of the study As a basis of the study, the following research questions are to be answered: What are the students‟ needs in terms of reading skills? What are the objectives and contents of the supplementary reading syllabus? Scope of the study 13 In this thesis, the author only centers on designing the supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School Method of the study In order to achieve the aims mentioned above, a survey questionnaire is used as one of the tools to collect information about the students' difficulties in terms of reading skills and their needs and interest regarding topics and language items Also, document analysis is aimed at finding out the requirements of the MOET for the gifted students and for the excellent students' tests At last, informal interviews with the teachers and the students are also touched on in order to clarify information collected from survey In this study, therefore, both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed Design of the study The study is divided into three parts:  Part I is the introduction including the rationale, the aim, the scope, the method and design of the study  Part II is the development that consists of chapters: - Chapter is about literature review of Syllabus design and of Reading theories - Chapter gives descriptions of context, instruments, data collection and analysis of the results - Chapter proposes a supplementary reading syllabus for grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School  Part III is composed of concluding ideas and limitation of the study ... grade 10 English gifted students at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School In this chapter, the situation of teaching English at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School and that... GIFTED STUDENTS AT TUYEN QUANG SPECIALISED UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL THIẾT KẾ CHƢƠNG TRÌNH ĐỌC HIỂU BỔ TRỢ CHO H? ??C SINH LỚP 10 CHUYÊN ANH TRƢỜNG THPT CHUYÊN TUYÊN QUANG MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD:... taught for grade 10 at specialized upper secondary schools, 2006: 6) The flexibility and openness offer teachers at specialized school in general and at Tuyen Quang Specialized Upper Secondary School