Tài liệu Difficul ties the reading comprehension skill for the second year students of batf at hpu no.2 and suggested solutions

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Mr. Dang Ngoc Nam for the wholehearted guidance he gave me while I was doing this research. I am truly grateful to him for his ideas, comments and instructions, as well as encouragement and constant support. Without these, the thesis could not have been completed. Also, I would like to express my particular thanks to all the lectures of Foreign Language Faculty whose lectures have my academic knowledge of English in the past. Especially, I would like to show my sincere thanks to Mr. Tran Thang Long who helped me with much advice as well as materials. My special thanks are expressed to my friends for their great help and comments. Also, my attitude goes to eighty students taking part in my research. Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents and my brother for their support, encouragement and love, which were extremely important for the completion of this thesis. i ABSTRACT The reading comprehension skill is an interesting aspect of English. In order to address this issue, many authors have documented different management methods to improve the reading comprehension skill. However, the reading comprehension skill reffered to in some books have not been deal with in full and sometimes cause confusion to learners of English. As a result, students of English especially non-English major students often have difficulties in reading comprehension skill. Therefore, a research with the eighty second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 was carried out. The data was collected using questionnaires and classroom observation. This research work entails studying the reading comprehension skill and conducting a survey for difficulties analysis. Based on the results of the survey, the types of difficulties and causes have been found, and solutions to the problems have been suggested. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HPU N 2: Hanoi Pedagogical University N BATF: Biology and Agricultural Technology Faculty FLF: Foreign Language Faculty iii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: DIFFICULTIES IN THE READING COMPREHENSION SKILL FOR THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF BATF AT HPU N 2 AND SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS (Graduation paper submitted in particular fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English) I certify that no part of the above report has been copied from any other person’s work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally written by me under instructions of my supervisor. Date submitted: May 2013 Student Supervisor Pham Hong Loan Dang Ngoc Nam iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ ii Abstract .......................................................................................................... iii List of abbreviations ...................................................................................... iv Statement of authorship ................................................................................ v Table of contents ........................................................................................... vi PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. Rationale .................................................................................................... 1 II. Research presupposition .......................................................................... 2 III. Research objectives.................................................................................. 2 IV. Research scope ........................................................................................ 3 V. Research tasks .......................................................................................... 3 VI. Research methods ................................................................................... 3 VII. Significance of the proposed research .................................................. 3 VIII. Design of the research work ................................................................ 4 PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. Literature review in brief ........................................................................ 5 I.2. Reading comprehension skill................................................................... 6 I.2.1. Definition of reading comprehension skill ........................................... 6 v I.2.2. Types of reading comprehension skill .................................................. 7 I.2.2.1. Skimming ....................................................................................... 7 I.2.2.2. Scanning.......................................................................................... 7 I.2.2.3. Intensive reading ............................................................................. 8 I.2.2.4. Extensive reading ............................................................................ 9 I.2.2.5. Reading aloud ................................................................................. 9 I.2.2.6. Silent reading ................................................................................. 10 I.2.2.7. Recognizing ................................................................................... 10 I.2.2.7.1. Recognizing definitions and examples ....................................... 11 I.2.2.7.2. Recognizing enumerations ......................................................... 11 I.2.2.7.3. Recognizing headings and subheadings ..................................... 11 I.2.2.7.4. Recognizing signal words .......................................................... 12 I.2.2.7.5. Recognizing main ideas in paragraphs and short selections ........ 13 I.2.2.8. Understanding ..................................................................................... 14 I.2.2.9. Outlining ........................................................................................ 15 I.2.2.10. Summarizing ................................................................................ 17 I.2.3. Processes of reading comprehension skill............................................. 17 I. 2.3.1. Bottom-up process ........................................................................ 17 I.2.3.2. Top-down process .......................................................................... 18 I.2.3.3. Interactive process .......................................................................... 18 I.2.4. Strategies of reading comprehension skill ........................................... 19 I.2.4.1. Definition of reading comprehension strategy ................................ 19 I.2.4.2. Types of reading comprehension strategy ....................................... 20 I.2.4.2.1 Metacognitive strategy .............................................................. 20 I.2.4.2.2 Cognitive strategy ..................................................................... 20 I.2.4.3. Elements to build and improve reading comprehension skill .......... 23 I.2.4.3.1. Vocabulary ................................................................................ 23 I.2.4.3.2. Patterns of organization ............................................................. 25 I.2.4.3.3. Transitions ................................................................................. 27 I.2.4.3.4. Main ideas ................................................................................. 28 vi I.2.4.3.5. Inferences ................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER TWO: THE METHODOLOGY II.1. Questionnaire survey (Appendix A) ...................................................... 30 II.1.1. Rationale of the use of questionnaire survey ..................................... 30 II.1.2. Population of the survey ................................................................... 31 II.1.3. Construction of the survey ................................................................ 31 II.1.4. Administration of the try-out ............................................................. 31 II.1.4.1. Preparation of the try-out ............................................................ 31 II.1.4.2. Try-out ........................................................................................ 31 II.1.5. Methods of data analysis ................................................................... 32 II.2. Classroom observation .......................................................................... 32 II.2.1. Rationale of the use of classroom observation ................................... 32 II.2.2. Observation sheet (Appendix B) ....................................................... 33 CHAPTER THREE: THE RESULTS III. 1. Results of the survey ........................................................................... 34 III.1.1. Difficulties of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill ............................................................................ 35 III.1.2. Expectations of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N in their reading comprehension skill ............................................................................ 36 III.1.3. Reasons for the difficulties of the the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill .............................................. 37 III.1.3.1. Difficulties in unfamiliar vocabulary ........................................... 37 III.1.3.2. Difficulties in the lack of background knowledge ........................ 37 III.1.3.3. Difficulties in grammatical structures .......................................... 38 III.1.3.4. Difficulties in making accurate inferences ................................... 38 III.1.3.5. Difficulties in unfamiliar topic ..................................................... 38 III.1.3.6. Difficulties in finding the main ideas and supporting ideas .......... 39 vii III.2. Suggested solutions ............................................................................. 39 PART THREE CONCLUSION Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 42 References ...................................................................................................... 45 Appendix A: Questionnaire survey .............................................................. 47 Appendix B: Observation sheet and checklist ............................................. 51 viii PART ONE INTRODUCTION I. RATIONALE It cannot be denied that English is very important since English is the most common language spoken everywhere. We need to know English language in order to not only communicate effectively among people from different countries but also study any science subject. As a result, English has become an international language. Nowadays, in Vietnam as well as other countries, English is taught as an obligatory subject at every educational level from primary school, secondary school, high school to college and university. In fact, English is a compulsory subject at all universities, especially involving in HPU N 2 where I have been studying. However, learning English is not easy to both English major students and non-English major students in my university. It may bring problems, especially non-English major students. In fact, there are many non-English major students having problems on understanding English text. It is difficult for them how to read the text, how to identify key words, how to find important information, how to understand the text correctly in order to do the tasks. This proves that the reading comprehension in learning English is complex and often causes embarrassment to them. They do not master definition, types and processes of the reading comprehension skill like skimming, scanning, reading aloud or silent reading and so on. In addition, strategies to build the reading comprehension skill including vocabulary, patterns of organization, transitions, inferences and main ideas are not improved. Due to not master the reading comprehension skill and no ways to improve reading comprehension skill, there are many difficulties to non-English major students. As a prospective teacher, I would like to make a contribution to the English teaching in Vietnam. For the reasons above, this study is conducted, which focuses ix on difficulties as well as solutions in the reading comprehension skill among the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013. II. RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION Reading comprehension is one of the most significant skills of the secondyear students of BATF at HPU N 2. During the research, some questions are raised: 1. What are difficulties in the reading comprehension skill that the secondyear students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic of 2012-2013 often have? 2. What are expectations of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in their reading comprehension skill in the academic of 2012-2013? 3. What are the causes of difficulties in reading comprehension skill that the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic of 2012-2013 often have? 4. What are effective ways to help the second-year students of BATF at HPU N in the academic of 2012-2013 overcome difficulties in the reading comprehension skill? Based on the questions above, I am eager to find out the problems and make an analysis so that the major difficulties in reading comprehension skill may be found. III. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The research focuses on the reading comprehension skill of the second-year students of BATF at HPU 2. The study is aimed at the following goals: 1. To find out the common difficulties in reading comprehension skill that the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013 often have. 2. To find out the common expectations of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013. x 3. To find out the causes of those difficulties in reading comprehension skill that the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 20122013 have. 4. To find out the most effective ways to overcome the difficulties through the survey. The solutions might be concentrated on both theory and practice, in which some elements or techniques are also introduced with the goal of minimizing students’ difficulties at HPU N 2. IV. RESEARCH SCOPE The research is limited about reading comprehension skill of the second-year students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013. The reading comprehension skill is carried out at the classroom. The population involved in the study is eighty students of BATF at HPU N 2 in the academic year of 2012-2013. V. RESEARCH TASKS The study involves fulfilling the following tasks: 1. To overview the reading comprehension skill such as the definition, classification and processes. 2. To study the strategies of improving the reading comprehension skill. 3. To conduct a survey to find out expectations, difficulties and causes. On the basis of the findings, possible solutions to the problems are found to minimize the students’ difficulties. VI. RESEARCH METHODS To achieve the objectives of the study, the following methods have been applied: 1. Observing some reading comprehension lessons at class. 2. Collecting documents from books listed in the references. 3. Consulting the supervisor, experienced teachers and friends. 4. Conducting a survey and analyzing the results. VII. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH xi After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful to provide: 1. Input for learners of English in order to minimize their difficulties in the reading comprehension skill. 2. Input for teachers of English with information on expectations, difficulties and solutions to the problems so that they can choose good methods of teaching the reading comprehension skill. The study is also beneficial to anyone who is interested in the reading comprehension skill. VIII. DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH WORK The research work has three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion. The “Development” consists of three chapters. Chapter one is entitled “Theoretical Background”. It consists of two sections. Section one reviews literature review in brief. Section two deals with things related to overview of reading comprehension skill such as definition, types, processes, strategies. The chapter two is named “The Methodology”. It describes the research method. It is composed of the description of the subjects and the data collection instruments. Detail information about the research procedures is also provided. Chapter three is named “The Results”. It has two sections. Section one is devoted to the survey. The other presents solutions to the problems on the reading comprehension skill. PART TWO xii DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. LITERATURE REVIEW IN BRIEF Reading comprehension skill is one of the most important parts of English. Therefore, reading comprehension skill has been researched by many authors like John Langan (2002), Grellet (1981), Nuttall (1982), Patricia Glenn (1995), Doff (1988), Cambourne (1979), Nell K. Duke (2003) and so on. They each have their own way to describe the reading comprehension skill. John Langan (2002) in the book Reading and Study Skills deals with some types of reading comprehension skill to help students know how to recognize definitions and examples, enumerations, headings and subheadings, main ideas in paragraphs and short selections; know how to outline, summarize and understand graphs and tables. Grellet, F (1981) in the book Developing reading skills gives definition of reading comprehension skill and also deals with some main types of reading comprehension skill including scanning, skimming, intensive reading and extensive reading. In addition, the book helps students know some ways to develop reading comprehension skill. In the book Teaching reading skills in a foreign language, Nuttall (1982) also focuses on definition and some types of the reading comprehension skill consisting of intensive reading, extensive reading and reading aloud and so on. Besides, Nuttall (1982) mentions the processes of the reading comprehension skill such as bottom-up process, top-down process and interactive process. Cambourne, B (1979) in the book “How important is theory to the reading teacher?” also shows that there are three processes of the reading xiii comprehension skill combining bottom-up, top-down and interactive process. Moreover, the author provides theories to the reading teacher. Doff, A (1988) in the book Teaching: A Training Course for Teachers focuses on types of reading comprehension, especially reading aloud. Nell K. Duke (2003) in the book Comprehension Difficulties decribes the number of detailed difficulties that learners have in the reading comprehension skill, main causes and solutions for the reading comprehension skill. To sum up, much research has been done on the reading comprehension skill but only Nell K. Duke (2003) points out difficulties on the reading comprehension skill. In fact, there are far more difficulties that learners of English often make. Therefore, it is essential to have a really full study of difficulties in the reading comprehension skill. I.2. READING COMPREHENSION SKILL I.2.1. Definition of the reading comprehension skill According to Wikipedia, a reading comprehension skill is defined as the level of understanding of a text or a message. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text or the message. Limor Cohen Naftali – The IACC, Department of Learning in the book Reading Comprehension Workshop shows that the reading comprehension skill is understanding a written text by extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible. According to Johnson (1998) in the material Teaching Comprehension Skills, reading comprehension skill is the act of constructing meaning with text. The reader plays an active role – filtering, organizing, interpreting and generating relationships with incoming information. Reading comprehension is an interaction between word identification, knowledge and comprehension skills. xiv Karlin and Kartin (1982, p.2) in the book Teaching of Elementary Reading states that reading without comprehension is meaningless. I.2.2. Types of the reading comprehension skill I.2.2.1. Skimming Skimming is a very useful reading skill for students to locate a specific item of information that they need. Grellet (1981, p.19) in the book Developing Reading Skills stated: “When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points out the intension of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions.”. Because of its nature, the key to skim is to know where to find the main idea of paragraphs and to be able to synthesize them by way of generalization. Nuttall (1982, p.36) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language says “by skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through the text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about materials that are not of great importance to us.” When skimming, students should go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gift of it, to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intension of the writer. According to Mickulecky and Jeffries (1992, p.8), skimming is high-speed reading that can save time and help the readers get through lots of material quickly. By skimming, the readers can get general sense of passage or book, not specific details. The goal in skimming is not to read the text throughly, but it is used to find out the kind information that the readers seek, and if it does determine what to read more closely. Thus, in skimming the text, a reader needs to practice in order to learn the key words and phrases which can cover all the materials. I.2.2.2. Scanning Scanning is another useful skill to locate a specific item of information that students need. Williams (1986, p.100) in the book Reading in the language classroom says: “scanning occurs when a reader goes through a text very quickly xv in order to find a particular point of information”. In contrast with skimming, scanning is far more limited since it only means retrieving need information. This kind of reading is widely used in the reading comprehension skill. Grallet (1981, p.19) in the book Developing Reading Skills states: “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so”. Scanning occurs when a reader goes through the text quickly searching for a specific piece of information or seeing if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose. Brown (2000, p.308) states that scanning is quickly searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in a text. Scanning is quickly reading to find the specific information. By scanning, a reader means to glance rapidly through a text either to search a specific piece of information (e.g. name, date) or to get an initial impression of whether the text is suitable for a given purpose. When scanning the reader lets his or her eyes wander over the text until he or she is looking for, whether it is a place, a kind of food, a kind of verb, or specific information. To enable the student to scan effectively, he or she should know what kinds of information he or she needs. I.2.2.3. Intensive reading Intensive reading means the careful reading of shorter, more difficult foreign language texts with the goal of complete and detailed understanding. The objective of intensive reading is to understand not only what the text means but also how the meaning is produced. Nuttal (1982, p.36) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language defines: “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus on the text”. Grellet (1981, p.4) in the book Developing Reading Skills states: “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information. This is an accuracy activity involving reading for details”. To this kind of reading comprehension, readers are required a profound and detailed understanding of the text. They have to know every idea, every piece of xvi hidden information in the text. They also have to pay attention to the area of the words in the passage through which some hints may be conveyed. In short, intensive reading is reading in detail for a complete understanding of every part of the text. I.2.2.4. Extensive reading Extensive reading means to read widely and in quantity. According to Grellet (1981, p.4) in the book Developing Reading Skills, extensive reading means “reading longer texts usually for one’s own pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding”. Harmer (1989, p.497) in the book The Practice of English language teaching also has the same view. He states: “extensive reading would normally start with reading for the main idea or for general comprehension and finally, after much practice, for detailed comprehension”. The purpose of extensive reading is to train students to read directly and fluently in a foreign language for their own enjoyment, without the aid of the teacher to achieve a general sense of the text, skimming for the gist and scanning for the some key details. Extensive reading is a relatively rapid and efficient process of reading a text for global or general meaning. In fact, most of extensive reading is done silently and out of the classroom and it gives the students opportunities to use their target language knowledge for their own purpose. I.2.2.5. Reading aloud According to Doff (1988, p.70) in the book Teaching English: a training course for teachers states that reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it. Though reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessary information to the others, it is unpopular activity outside classroom. For the teacher, reading aloud is more of a speaking exercise of pronunciation. Nuttal (1996) in the book Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language sees reading aloud as an important aid for beginners to improve their pronunciation. However, Greenwood (1985) in the book The Teaching of English as an International Language criticizes this idea. He fears that students may be xvii unable to focus adequately on the text’s meaning when they concentrate too hard on pronouncing the words. As for Doff (1988, p.58) in the book Teaching English: a training course for teachers mentions, reading aloud is not very useful technique for some reasons below: - Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all or listening to a bad model. - Students’ attention is focus on pronunciation, not on understanding the text. - It is an unnatural activity, most readers do not read aloud in real life. - Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class. By whispering the words while reading, reading aloud slows the readers down and forces them to read every word so it can distract them from understanding the text. I.2.2.6. Silent reading Lewis (1985, p.110) in the book Practical Techniques for Language Teaching states that silent reading is the method we normally use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most efficient. Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is often used in both real life and classroom. With silent reading, readers can best understand the reading material in the shortest possible time because they do not need to read all the words in the text, they can read at their own speed and if readers do not understand what they are reading, they can read again or slow down for intensive reading. For the teachers, silent reading is helpful for controlling the class. In silent reading, students are in fact concentrating on the text, obtaining the meaning and extracting what they need. In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop the students’ reading ability. However, it is more beneficial when the teacher sometimes combines it with reading aloud to improve students’ pronunciation and intonation because reading also has its own advantages. I.2.2.7. Recognizing xviii John Langan (2002) in the book Reading and Study Skills has list of recognizing skill: Recognizing definitions and examples; Recognizing enumerations; Recognizing headings and subheadings; Recognizing signal words; Recognizing main ideas in paragraphs and short selections. I.2.2.7.1. Recognizing definitions and examples Definitions are often among the most important ideas in a selection. They are particularly significant on introductory courses, when much of your time is spent mastering the specialized vocabulary of the subject. You are, in a sense, learning the “language” of sociology or biology or whatever the subject might be. Most definitions are abstract, and so they are usually followed by one or more examples that help clarify their meaning. I.2.2.7.2. Recognizing enumerations Enumerations are keys to important ideas. Enumerations are lists of items that may actually be numbered in a text. More often, however, a list of items is signaled by such words as first of all, second, moreover, next, also, finally, and others. Typical phrases that introduce enumerations are: “There are three reasons why...”; “The two causes of...”; “Five characteristics of...”; “There are several ways to...”; and so on. I.2.2.7.3. Recognizing headings and subheadings Headings and subheadings are important visual aids that give readers a quick idea of how the information in a chapter is organized. The model below shows a typical use of heads in a selection. CHAPTER TITLE The chapter title is set off in largest print in the chapter. The title represents the shortest possible summary of what the entire chapter is about. THIS IS A MAIN HEADING Appearing under the chapter title are a series of main headings. Main heads may be centered or may start at the left margin; they are often set off with capital letters and, sometimes, a different color of ink. They represent a breakdown of the main xix topics covered in the chapter. This is a subheading Set off under the main headings are subheadings. They are in smaller type; sometimes they are underlined, italicized, or set in from the left margin. The subheadings represent a breakdown of the different ideas that are explained under the main heading. I.2.2.7.4. Recognizing signal words Signal words help readers follow the direction of a writer’s thought. They are like signposts on the road that guide the traveler. Common signal words show emphasis, addition, comparison or contrast, illustration, and cause and effect. + Emphasis words: Among the most valuable signals for readers to know are emphasis words, through which the writer tells readers directly that a particular idea or detail is especially important. Look over the following list of emphasis words. important to note especially valuable the chief factor most of all most noteworthy a vital force a significant factor remember that above all + Addition words: Addition words tell readers that the writer’s thought is going to continue in the same direction. The writer is going to add on more points or details of the same kind. Look over the following addition words. also first of all last of all and another for one thing next second finally furthermore moreover the third reason + Comparision or contrast words: - Comparision words signal that the author is pointing out a similarity between two subjects. They tell readers that the second idea is like the first one in some way. Look over the following comparision words. xx