Tài liệu Effective methods for further reading improvement of first year english majors at hpu

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ------------------------------- ISO 9001:2015 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ Sinh viên : BÙI THỊ HÀ Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Th.s NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN HẢI PHÒNG - 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ----------------------------------- EFFECTIVE METHODS FOR FURTHER READING IMPROVEMENT OF FIRST YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HAI PHONG PRIVATE UNIVERSITY KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP ĐẠI HỌC HỆ CHÍNH QUY NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ Sinh viên : BÙI THỊ HÀ Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Th.s NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN HẢI PHÒNG - 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG -------------------------------------- NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Sinh viên: Bùi Thị Hà Mã SV: 1412401252 Lớp: NA1901A Ngành: Ngoại Ngữ Tên đề tài: Effective methods for further reading improvement of first year English majors at HPU NHIỆM VỤ ĐỀ TÀI 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………………….. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày … tháng ….. năm ….. Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày …. tháng ….. năm …… Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày ...... tháng........năm 20.. Hiệu trưởng GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN HƯỚNG DẪN TỐT NGHIỆP Họ và tên giảng viên: ................................................................................................... Đơn vị công tác: ........................................................................ .......................... Họ và tên sinh viên: .......................................... Chuyên ngành: ............................... Nội dung hướng dẫn: .......................................................... ........................................ ............................................................................................................................ Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp ............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................. 1. Đánh giá chất lượng của đồ án/khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu…) ............................................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................................. 3. Ý kiến của giảng viên hướng dẫn tốt nghiệp Được bảo vệ Không được bảo vệ Điểm hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ...... Giảng viên hướng dẫn (Ký và ghi rõ họ tên) QC20-B18 CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT CỦA GIẢNG VIÊN CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN Họ và tên giảng viên: .............................................................................................. Đơn vị công tác: ........................................................................ ..................... Họ và tên sinh viên: ...................................... Chuyên ngành: .............................. Đề tài tốt nghiệp: ......................................................................... .................... ............................................................................................................................ 1. Phần nhận xét của giáo viên chấm phản biện .......................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... 2. Những mặt còn hạn chế ............................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... 3. Ý kiến của giảng viênchấm phản biện Được bảo vệ Không được bảo vệ Điểm hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày … tháng … năm ...... Giảng viênchấm phản biện (Ký và ghi rõ họ tên) QC20-B19 Table of contents DECLARATION ............................................................................................... 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................. 11 List of tables and charts .................................................................................... 12 PART 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1 1.1 Rationale for the study.................................................................................. 1 1.2 Aims of the study ........................................................................................... 2 1.3 Research questions ........................................................................................ 2 1.4 Methods of the study ..................................................................................... 2 1.4.1 Participants ................................................................................................... 2 1.4.2 Instruments ................................................................................................... 2 1.5 Scope of the study .......................................................................................... 3 1.6 Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3 1.7 Design of study ............................................................................................... 3 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................... 5 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................... 5 1.1 Theoretical background................................................................................ 5 1.1.1 Definition of reading .................................................................................. 5 1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension ....................................................... 6 1.1.3 Process of reading comprehension skill ................................................... 7 1.1.4 Types of reading skill ................................................................................. 8 1.1.4.1 According to purpose .............................................................................. 8 1.1.4.2 According to manner ............................................................................ 11 1.2. Importance of learning English reading skill .......................................... 12 1.3 Difficulties in learning the reading skill .................................................... 14 1.4 Factors affecting reading difficulties ......................................................... 16 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ............................................................................. 22 2.1 Participants .................................................................................................. 22 2.2 Data collection instrument ......................................................................... 23 2.3 Procedures of data collection ..................................................................... 23 2.4 Data analysis and Findings ......................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 3: SOME SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING SKIll................. ...................................................................... 36 3.1 Suggestions for teachers ........................................................................................ 36 PART 3: CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 57 1. Conclusion of research .................................................................................. 57 2. Limitations of study ...................................................................................... 57 3. Recommendations for further study .......................................................... 57 REFERENCE .................................................................................................... 58 APPENDIX ........................................................................................................ 61 DECLARATION I certify my authorship of the study report entitle “Effective methods for further reading improvement of first year English majors at HPU”. This graduation paper is the result of my own research and the substance of this thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other university and that if this declaration is found to be false disciplinary measures and penalties can be taken and imposed in accordance with university policies and rules. Signature Ha Bui Thi Ha ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of doing this graduation paper, I have received many necessary assistances, precious ideas and timely encouragements from my teachers, family and friends. This paper could not have been completed without the helps, encouragement and support from number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation. First of all, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Huyen. Her kindly support and continuous advices went through the process of completion of my thesis. Her encouragement and comment had significantly enriched and improve my work. Without her motivation and instructions, the thesis would have been impossible to be done effectively. I would like to thank my friends at Hai Phong Private University for their kind assistance during the time I collected data for the study, especially the students of K23 at the Faculty language for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful. I would like to acknowledge my thanks to all the authors of the books, magazines, and all the material listed in the reference part for their ideas that have been reflected and developed in this study. I would like my particular thanks are given to my parents for their encouragement and support which played important role in my graduation paper. Finally, I wish to thank my readers for their interest and comments on this study. Again I sincerely thank! List of tables and charts Table 1: Comparison between intensive and extensive reading Table 2: Students’ interest in learning reading skill Table 3: How students deal with new words Table 4: Students’ reading skill Table 5: The students’ attitudes towards the present course book taught in the class Table 6: The students’ opinions on techniques in pre-reading used in reading lesson Table 7: The students’ opinions on activities in while-reading used in reading lesson Table 8: The students’ opinions on activities in post-reading used in reading lesson Table 9: The students’ opinions on form of practice Table 10: The students’ expectations toward teachers’ reading techniques Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of English reading skill Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards benefits of reading Chart 3: Students’ remarks on the reading lessons Chart 4: Reading-related problems faced by students PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Along with the development of society and the world’ economy, the exchange between countries in the world is becoming more and more important. Therefore, studying foreign language is necessary. It is true that there are more and more people learning and speaking English these days. The most widely spoken English in the world, approximately 1.5 billion people around the world speak English in 53 countries ether as their native tongue or as a foreign language, and this number is still growing.. This is not only as a global language but also as the language of science, technology and advanced research. That is reason why it is one of the most important foreign languages taught in universities in Viet Nam. Besides, development of reading skill opens up a wider perspective on foreign language teaching. Reading in English has become a critical skill in terms of learning and academic and career success. Moreover, with rapid development of technology and a vast amount of information on the internet available in English, reading skill is extremely important. To sum up, the importance of reading in English involves its role in the development academic competence, interpersonal communication, exposure to culture, learning about technological development and scientific discoveries, providing input in the form of printed books and journals, computer and the internet, in non-academic contexts, the role of reading in English involves interpreting signs, directions, product labels, emails, and news. According to Carrel (1981:1), “for many students, reading is by far the most important of the four skills in a second language, particularly in English as a second or foreign language”. As a consequence, research in the area of reading skill development in English is becoming increasingly important and is constantly growing. Besides, realizing the importance of learning English, many students go to the foreign center which are opened everywhere. However, both teachers and students at Haiphong Private University do not feel satisfied with the results of the students in reading skill during the process of learning English. The teachers often find their students reading performance disappointing. And in fact, most of students read less understanding than on 1 e might expect them to. Many of them could not understand the meaning of reading text. Also, they could not complete the reading text in the course book. Why do students fail to learn reading English? What are the factors that affect them in reading? What are their difficulties in reading? How do we improve their reading? For these reasons, I decide to choose the subject: Effective methods for further reading improvement of first year English majors at HPU. This study will propose some methods, especially that exploration of factors that may have adverse effects. 1.2 Aims of the study Investigating reading difficulties of learners learning English as a foreign language and finding out appropriate techniques for students are the general aim of this study. To summarize the above, the aims of this study are: - Cover background knowledge of reading skill - Find out reality of teaching and learning English and factors affecting to English reading skill at HPU - Giving some solutions for students to improve their reading skill The fundamental concepts and result of this study will help them to improve their reading skill and to prepare for them to the basic knowledge of reading skill with higher requirement for the next graders. 1.3 Research questions In studying period, to complete the aim of this study, there are some questions mentioned below: - What’s situation of students about reading skill? - Which factors do students meet when dealing with a reading text? - How do students improve their reading skill? 1.4 Methods of the study 1.4.1 Participants Due to the limitation of resources, knowledge and time as well as other conditions I only focus on reading skills, common problems, some suggestions to improve learning of reading English. That is the reason why I chosen this topic:” effective methods for further reading improvement of first year English majors at Haiphong private university. 1.4.2 Instruments 2 This study has used the qualitative research method including questionnaire The instruments utilized in the research study focused on strategies, and difficulties, as well as attitudes and motivation, viewed from the learners and the teachers at HPU with the hope to find out the causes of difficulties in reading skill in English experienced by them and some suggested solutions to their problems. Besides, to make the data survey is more reliable, qualitative, the study was applied other instruments: informal interview 1.5 Scope of the study The study is about effective reading improvement for first year student in English Faculty at HPU. Because of the limitations of time and knowledge, the shortage of reference materials, this study cannot cover the whole issue of reading skill. It only focuses on exploring common difficulties student get in reading skill. 1.6 Significance of the study According to OCED’s report on reading for change, program for International Student Assessment (PISA): “Reading for pleasure is more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socioeconomic status”.(copy from A series of reports on the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment's (PISA) periodic testing program on student performance) Not only speaking, reading skill is an important part of learning English. Because of most of the teaching - learning materials are at the written form, either in the form of books or computer based materials. So that present research aims to present a country case study of reading difficulties and factors causing them 1.7 Design of study The dissertation is divided into some parts above: Part 1: Introduction: provides the ration able to the study, aims, research questions, methods, scope, significance and design of the study. Part 2: Development: consists of three chapters: Chapter 1: Literature review: theoretical background, it consists of two sections. Section one reviews literature review, and section two deals with things related to overview of reading comprehension such as definition, types, roles, factors that affect learner’s reading. Chapter 2: is named the study, it has 4 parts: participant, instrument, procedure of data 3 collection and data analysis and finding. Chapter 3: some suggestions to improve students’ reading skill Part 3: Conclusion: conclusion of research, limitations of study, recommendations for further study. 4 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 Definition of reading Reading is a receptive skill - through it we receive information. It is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them so that understanding the author’s massages. There are so many definitions of reading that cause much confusion. Traditionally, reading is a passive activity, but in fact, it should be active. According to Block (1992:319-343) mentions that “reading is such a hidden process that is often unnoticed in the language classroom. Teachers often believe that reading classes should be teacher – centered”. Another author Bedir (1998), however, teachers must focus not only on language development, but also on reading strategy practice. Learners are usually expected to tackle comprehension difficulties by themselves. Water R. Hill (1979:4) briefly defines reading as “what the reader does to get the meaning he needs from contextual resources”. And Hedge (1985:77) says: “through extensive reading learners advance their ability to guess the meanings of unknown words and phrases from clues in the context”. According to Harmer, it is the eyes and the brain to dominantly participate in the reading process. The eyes are on massages and the brain then have to identify the meanings of those massages (Hammer, 1992). Reading means "reading and understanding", is a foreign language student says ‘I can read it but I do not know what it means' this still does not reflect the true meaning of the word read. According to William (1984): “The role of reading when learning a foreign language is as follows: learners are able to practice language that they have encountered through listening and speaking; language gained from reading can be reused in writing, or learners can learn how to make sense of text in order to get right information for them.” Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information. Clark and Simanjuntak (Simanjuntak, 1988:15) define reading as an active cognitive 5 process of interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. Reading is instantaneous recognition of various written symbols, simultaneous association of these symbols with existing knowledge, and comprehension of the information and ideas communicated. It means that when a reader interacts with print, his prior knowledge combine with and the visual information result in his comprehension the massages. Therefore, reading actually a conversation of sorts between a writer and a reader. Reading is a dynamic process in which the elements interact with other factors outside the text: in this case, most particularly with reader’s knowledge the experiential content of the text (Nunan, 1991:70). From the opinions above, the writer come to summary that reading is process to understand the massages available in the text. In other words, reading is process of getting meaning intended by the author from written information. 1.1.2 Definition of reading comprehension Reading comprehension takes a really important part in teaching and learning reading a language as well as a foreign language. It is defined as the level of understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text/ message. According to Dechant (1991) cited by Macceca (2007,p4), it refers to understand what is read, so readers must be able to cognitively process the words by drawing meaning from their own experience and knowledge to understand the author’s massage. According to Olson and Diller (1982:42), reading comprehension is a term used to identify those skills needed to understand and apply information contained in a written material. This statement it is supported by Harris and Sipay (1980:179), who say that reading comprehension ability is taught to be a set of generalized knowledge acquisition skill that permits people to acquire and exhibit information gained as a consequence of reading printed language. Grellet (1981:34) define reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible. The author focuses on reader’s ability of understanding the meaning of written text base on the individual’s background knowledge. Having the same point of view, a student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently, so as to get maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding. So that the student can show their 6 understanding by answering questions or summarizing the main topic, etc. Other different definition of reading comprehension, Richards and Rodgers say that reading comprehension is the best described as an understanding between the author and the reader (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). Consequently, reading is an active and interactive activity to reproduce the word mentally and vocally and try to understand the content of reading text. It plays an important part, and to improve these skills we need to increase reading motivation, be able to progress assignment faster and to retain more information, improving spelling, and grammar skills…. 1.1.3 Process of reading comprehension skill 1.1.3.1 Bottom –up approach Bottom-up strategies or process (in which the reader analyzes text in small pieces and builds meaning from these), incorporate the lower-level reading processes that teach students to construct meaning from the most basic units of language, including letters, letter clusters, and words. Students make meaning of a text by building on a foundation of analyzing the smallest units of meaning. Bottom-up reading strategies begin with letter-sound correspondences (the bottom) to achieve comprehension (the top). Bottom-up processing begins with letters and sounds, building to morpheme and word recognition, and then gradually moving to grammatical structure identification, sentences, and longer texts. A phonics approach to teaching reading supports bottom-up processes. Phonics is a method to facilitate students' access to text to ultimately lead to comprehension. 1.1.3.2 Top-down approach Top-down process (in which the reader makes "guesses" about the content of a passage), instruction focuses on activities that construct meaning rather than on mastering bottom-up skills. Students generate meaning by employing background knowledge, making predictions, and searching the text to confirm or reject the predictions that are made. According to supporters of this approach, comprehension resides in the reader. The reader uses background knowledge, expectations, assumptions, and questions and engages in pre-reading strategies, such as previewing the text, predicting, and activating background knowledge. 7 1.1.3.3 Interactive approach The interactive approach is considered the most comprehensive description of the reading process. The best readers use an interactive reading approach. An interactive approach to reading combines elements of both bottom-up and top-down reading processes simultaneously. For example, a reader may begin reading a text using topdown strategies to comprehend the text, and then shift to bottom-up strategies when he or she encounters an unfamiliar word. The reader then uses bottom-up strategies to decode the new word before moving on. Another way to illustrate the interactive approach to reading is as follows: Recognition of letters (bottom-up processes) leads to recognition of words, which leads to comprehension (bottom to top). Conversely, context, inferences, and world knowledge (top-down processes) can influence lower-level processing strategies, affecting readers' expectations about words and meanings and thus helping readers recognize words faster (top to bottom). 1.1.4 Types of reading skill 1.1.4.1 According to purpose Connecting the ideas on the page to what you already know is the purpose of reading. If you don't know anything about a subject, then pouring words of text into your mind is like pouring water into your hand. People do not read unless they have purpose for reading. According to reason, we have five types of reading: skimming, scanning, intensive, extensive, and detailed study reading. 1.1.4.1.1 Skimming It also known as rapid study reading; fastest type of reading; paying close attention to the illustrative aspects (such as headlines and titles) of the reading material to get a general understanding of the whole text. It is a rapid reading and you are only focusing on the TITLE, HEADINGS, TOPIC SENTENCE, SIGN POSTS to get the main idea. Grellet claims that “when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions” (Grellet, 1981:19). When seeing the text what is the most important information, useful or not, interesting or uninteresting. 1.1.4.1.2 Scanning 8