M IN IS T R Y OF ED U C ATIO N AND T R A IN IN G
H A N O I U N IVE R S ITY
L A T H I T H U Y DUNG
AN IN V ESTIG A TIO N INTO TH E REA LITY
O F TEACH ING AND LEA R N IN G REA D IN G FOR
NO N - ENGLISH M A JO R S AT TH AI NG UYEN
TE A C H E R S1 TR A IN IN G CO LLEG E
SU BM ITTED IN P A R T IA L F U LF ILM E N T
OF REQUIREM ENTS OF TH E DEGREE OF M ASTER IN TESOL
Supervisor: M .A . Pham T h i Hong Thuy
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:
TÀW1
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w m m w jm n I
Ha Noi - June, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
T a b le o f c o n te n ts ..................................................................................................................................... i
A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s ...................................................................................................................................................... i v
A b s t r a c t ................................................................................................................................................................................. V
L i s t o f t a b l e s ...................................................................................................................................................................... v i
List o f fig u r e s....................................................................................................................................... vii
List of abbreviations.............................................................................................................. viii
C H A P T E R 1: IN T R O D U C T IO N ...........................................................................1
1Л. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY................................................................................................................1
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................... .......................... 3
1.3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE S T U D Y ...............................................................................................................3
\л. ORGANIZATION OF THE TH ESIS............................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE R E V IE W ..................................................... 5
2. . READING .....................................................................................................................................5
2 . 1 .1. D e f in it io n s o f R e a d in g ..........................................................................5
2.7.2.
T h e t r a d it io n a l a n d in n o v a tiv e v ie w s o f te a c h in g r e a d in g ................
7
2.1 APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING ................................................................................. 8
2.1. STAGES OF A READING L E SSO N .......................................................................................................................... 1 1
2 . 3 . 1. T h e P r e - r e a d in g s ta g e
.........................................................................11
2 .3 .2 . T h e W h ile - r e a d in g s t a g e
....................................................................12
2.3.3. The P ost-reading stage ......................................................................................... 14
2.Հ IMPACTS O F A TTỈTUDES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING READING ....................................15
2.:. FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS' READING COMPREHENSION....................................... 16
2 .5 .1 . L e a r n in g s tr a t e g ie s ............................................................................. 17
2 .5 .2 . V o c a b u la r y ...........................................................................................
18
2 .5 .3 . B a c k g r o u n d k n o w le d g e ...................................................................... 19
2 .5 .4 . M o t iv a t io n
............................................................................................20
2 x PREVIOUS STUDIES .............................................................................................................20
2 /. SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES........................................................................................... 69
A PPEN D IX 1: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 1 ........................................................................... 7 7
A PPEN D IX 2: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 2 ............................................................................ 81
A PPEN D IX 3: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 3 ............................................................................8 3
A PPEN D IX 4: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 4 ........................................................................... 8 9
A PPEN D IX 5: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 5 ........................................................................... 9 2
A PPEN D IX 6: C LA SSR O O M OBSERVATION 6 ........................................................................... 9 5
APPENDIX 7A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT T N T T C .........................................9 8
APPENDIX 7B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT T N T T C .......................................1 0 0
APPENDIX 8A: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT T N T T C .......................................1 0 2
APPENDIX 8B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS AT T N T T C ....................................... 103
A PPEN D IX 9: Q U E ST IO N S FOR THE IN TERV IEW ...................................................................1 0 4
A PPEN D IX 10: PR E V IE W IN G SHEET .......................................................................................... 1 0 5
A PPEN D IX 11 : PO ST-R EA D IN G SH E E T ....................................................................................... 1 0 6
A PPEN D IX 12: G R A PH IC O RG A N IZERS SPIDER M A P .......................................................... 1 0 7
A PPEN D IX 13: G A PH IC O R G A N IZE R S.........................................................................................1 0 8
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First o f a ll，I would like to express my deepest thanks to my thesis supervisor,
Mrs Pham Thi Hong Thuy for the wholehearted guidance she gave me while I
was doing this thesis. Her insightful instructions, helpful comments, considerate
assistance and valuable criticism as well as her kindly encouragement and
correction help me a lot for the completion o f my dissertation.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the Post-Graduate
Department, especially D r Vu Van Dai, Mrs Nguyen Thai Ha, M r Nguyen Quoc
M inh, Mrs Dang Thi Lan for their help during the time o f studying and writing
m y thesis at Hanoi University.
I wish to express m y appreciation and gratitude to all my colleagues and my
students at Thai Nguyen teachers’ training college for their cooperation,
kindness, enthusiasm.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge my great gratitude to my fam ily for their
priceless support and assistance and encouragement during my implementation
o f the study, w ithout which I could not complete this dissertation.
ABSTRACT
W ith
an investigation
o f the reality
o f teaching
and learning
reading
comprehension at Thai Nguyen Teachers’ Training College (TNTTC), the
purposes o f this research were: 1) to find out how the teachers taught reading at
TNTTC,
2) to survey the difficulties o f teachers and students encountered in
teaching and learning reading
and 3) to find out students，attitudes towards
teachers’ methods o f teaching reading in English periods.
The instruments used were the classroom observation, the semi-structured
interviews, the questionnaires. The researcher observed three classes to
investigate how teachers taught reading comprehension at T N TT C and the
frequency o f teachers’ activities in reading lessons. Results indicated that most
o f teachers still used the traditional method in reading periods and the students
had negative attitudes towards these teachers’ methods o f teaching. The results o f
the questionnaires also indicated that teachers faced many difficulties in teaching
reading such as students’ lim ited linguistic and background knowledge，large
classroom, students’ bad reading habit and low motivation; students were lack o f
vocabulary，background knowledge and reading strategies. For the lack o f
necessary strategies fo r teaching and reading comprehension，it was more likely
to have poor reading comprehension results.
Finally,
after
analyzing
the
results
from
the
classroom
observation ，
questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, some suggestions to improve the
quality o f teaching and learning reading comprehension at TN TTC have been
made.
LIST OF TABLES
T a b le 4 . 1.
T h e r e s u lt o f h o w te a c h e r s d e liv e r e d th e r e a d in g le s s o n s ....................29
’ a c tiv itie s
a t P r e - r e a d in g s ta g e ................................................. 30
T a b le 4 .3 . T e a c h e rs
’ a c t iv it ie s
a t W h ile - r e a d in g s ta g e ........................................... 31
T a b le 4 .4 . T e a c h e rs
’
T a b le
4. Հ . 1 e a c h e rs
T a b le 4 .5 . S tu d e n ts
a c t iv it ie s a t P o s t- r e a d in g s ta g e
’ a ttitu d e s
............................................33
to w a r d s te a c h e rs ' a c tiv itie s a t P r e -r e a d in g s ta g e ....... 37
T a b le 4 .6 . S tu d e n ts ，
a ttitu d e s to w a rd s te a c h e rs ,a c tiv itie s a t W h ile -re a d in g s ta g e ................ 39
T a b le 4 .7 . S tu d e n ts ，a ttitu d e s to w a r d s te a c h e r s 1 a c tiv it ie s a t P o s t- r e a d in g
stage ....................................................................................................................................... 4 0
T a b le 4 .8 . S tu d e n ts ' d if f ic u lt ie s in le a r n in g r e a d in g ................................................ 41
LIST OF FIGURES
F:gure 2.1.
T h e T h r e e D e f in it io n s o f R e a d in g b v W e a v e r ( 1 9 9 4 )
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESL
:
English as a Second Language
HUPS
:
Hanoi University o f People’s Security
LI
:
The first language.
MAS
:
M ilitary Academy o f Science
TNTTC
:
ThaiNguyen Teachers’ Training College
C H APTER 1: IN T R O D U C T IO N
1.1.Background to the study
Reading is one o f the 'most complex forms o f inform ation processing’
(Kolers, 1973， p. 29) and is probably the 'most extensively researched’
language s k ill (Bachman, 2000 ， p. X ). In the recent decades，theories and
models o f reading have changed, from prim arily receptive processes from text
to reader to interactive processes between the reader and the text (cf., Adams,
1990; Eskey and Grabe, 1988; Perfetti, 1985; Samuels, 1994; Stanovich,
1992; and Swaffar ， 1988). Approaches to teaching reading materials in a
foreign
language have attempted to reflect this development through
recommendations o f interactive exercises and tasks.
Based on what successful reading is, many reading specialists have come to
agreement that reading lessons should follow such a framework as: pre-,
during-，and post-reading instruction (Barnett, 1989; Brown, 2001; Grabe,
1991; Grabe & Stoller ，2001; Wallace, 1992). Barnett (1989) and Grabe and
Stoller (2001) made a b rie f explanation about each type o f instruction. Pre reading instruction makes students interested in a text and predicts the content
o f it through accessing necessary inform ation or activating schema. W hilereading instruction helps students read strategically, m ainly focusing on
decoding skills. Post-reading instruction deepens students’ comprehension
into the text. It is also emphasized that the activities in this framework are not
lim ited to reading. "Reading is no longer isolated" (Eskey & Grabe, 1988，
P .2 3 1 ). As in real life, reading activities should be integrated w ith other skills
- speaking, listening, and especially w riting (Eskey & Grabe, 1988; Grabe,
1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001). Accordingly, some o f the activities should help
students to develop other skills beside the reading. Such kind o f integration o f
the four skills w ill enable students to use more varieties o f strategies more
often, generating more interaction between the reader and the text.
1
Teaching and learning reading comprehension have been identified by various
researchers in both second and foreign language contexts (Barnett, 1989; Brown ，
2001; Grabe, 1991; Grabe & Stoller, 2001; Wallace, 1992). However，little
empirical research has been conducted to uncover the methods o f teaching
reading comprehension used by Vietnamese teachers, especially by teachers at
Thai Nguyen Teachers’ Training College (TNTTC). To address this gap, the
present study investigates the reality o f teaching and learning reading at TNTTC.
A t Thai Nguyen Teachers’ Training College, undergraduate students in the four
faculties: Humanities, Sciences, Fine and Applied Arts and Music are required to
take an English course in three terms in the first two years. The aim o f this course
is to equip students the general English program, consisting o f four skills:
speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the first term o f the first year, the
students learned English in 60 periods o f the New Headway Elementary. After
fifteen weeks, the students had a final test which consisted o f four parts:
Vocabulary, Grammar and Reading comprehension and Writing. The result o f
the final test in the first term showed us a surprising number: 72 per cent o f all
the students (115 students) got bad marks in the reading comprehension section
o f the English test, although they had good marks in the other parts o f the test.
This result made teachers worried and thoughtful. The researcher tried to look
into different aspects，trying to find out the reasons leading to this bad situation.
One o f the main reasons lies in the fact that the teachers often simply give
students a text and require them to answer a series o f comprehension questions
when they have finished reading the text. The teachers do almost nothing to
provide them with the skills or strategies needed to become efficient and
independent readers. For the lack o f necessary strategies for teaching reading
comprehension，it is more lik e ly to have poor reading comprehension results.
The researcher therefore intends to carry out some research in the reality o f
teaching and learning reading comprehension fo r non-English major first year
students at TNTTC and basing on the findings to give some solutions to help
to increase the effectiveness o f teaching and learning reading comprehension
at college.
2
1.2. Aim s o f the study
The purpose o f this study is to investigate the reality o f teaching and learning
reading comprehension o f non-English major first year students at TNTTC.
Especially, it is aimed to answer the following questions:
1. How do teachers actually deliver the reading lesson at TNTTC?
2. What difficulties do teachers and students encounter while teaching and
learning reading comprehension?
3. What are students' attitudes towands teachers’ activities in a reading lesson?
1.3. Significance o f the study
This study is significant for several reasons. Firstly，investigating the reality o f
teaching and learning reading comprehension helps the researcher to understand
clearly how teachers taught reading and how students learned reading at TN TTC ，
the difficulties the teachers and students experienced while teaching and learning
reading and students9 preference towards the teachers’ methods o f teaching.
From this result，the study w ill make some important suggestions to improve the
quality o f teaching and learning reading in the target college. Moreover，these
instructions are also hoped to help teachers o f English at TNTTC in their
teaching careers.
1.4. O rganization o f the thesis
The thesis consists o f five chapters. Chapter I - Introduction, presents the
background to the study, states the aims o f the study and lists the research
questions that intend to guide the investigation. The significance o f the study is
also discussed. Chapter II - Literature review provides theoretical basis for the
study. This chapter consists o f the definitions o f reading，approaches to teaching
reading，the impacts o f attitudes on learning and teaching reading, the factors
affecting reading comprehension as well as some studies related to the thesis
issue. Chapter 3 ， Methodology, focuses on the methods used to gather and
analyze data. First，the researcher addresses the setting o f the study. Second, the
researcher gives the research questions. Then, the instruments for data collection,
3
the subjects o f this study and the procedure to carry out the study are described.
Chapter 4. Results and discussions, reports the results o f classroom observations,
questionnaires and the semi-structured interview, and finally discusses the major
findings. Chapter 5, Recommendations and conclusion, provides suggestions for
teaching and learning reading at TN TTC give limitations and directions for
future research and make a final conclusion.
4
C H A P T E R 2: L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W
This chapter discusses the theory and research into the areas that are basic for
this study. The first section provides the definitions o f reading. The second
section discusses approaches to teaching reading. The third section gives the
impacts o f attitudes on learning and teaching reading. The fourth sections concerns
factors affecting students9 reading comprehension. The chapter concludes with a
review o f previous studies on the reality o f teaching and learning reading.
2.1. Reading
2.1.1. D e fin itio n s o f R eading
According to Weaver (1994), the first definition o f reading is being able to
pronounce the words. Phonemic awareness is the ability to segment, delete, and
combine speech sounds into abstract units. While students w ill be able to hear
phonemes, they may not be able to conceptualize them as units. Phonemic
awareness must be based upon a growing understanding o f the alphabetic
p r in c ip le o f E n g lis h ; th e r e is s u f f ic ie n t e v id e n c e th a t m a n y c h ild r e n b a s ic a lly
understand this before they have mastered the set o f letter to sound
correspondences (Adams, 1990). This definition supports the bottom-up theory
o f reading where the reader decodes the text by referring to the smallest unit
(letters to words to phrases and to sentences).
The second definition on reading by Weaver (1994) pertains to the ability to
identify words and extract meanings from words. Knowledge o f phonics or basic
letter-sound relationship is necessary but not sufficient when reading to extract
meaning from a text. Fundamental questions remain about how much, how,
when, and under what circumstances knowledge o f phonics should be included in
instruction. Just teaching the letter and the associated sound does not develop
good readers. The teaching o f phonics should be contextualized and the students'
learning ability needs to be taken into consideration.
5
The third definition on reading as posited by Weaver (1994), supports the
interactive model o f reading. In the interactive reading model, the reader
interacts with the text. The level o f depth o f text processing depends on the
reader's background knowledge ， language proficiency level, motivation,
strategy used and culturally shaped beliefs about reading (Aebersold and
Field, 1997). The ultimate goal o f reading w ill be to enable the readers to
understand what they have read. Good comprehension readers have good
vocabularies. They are able to understand and describe words. They use the
word in the text to unravel its meaning. They ask questions, predict and
extract main ideas. They are also facile in employing sentence structures
w ith in the text to enhance their comprehension. Therefore, one can conclude
that the three definitions o f reading by Weaver ( 1994) encompass three
elements: the a bility to recognize and pronounce words, the a b ility to extract
meaning and to interact w ith the text. The three definitions o f reading by
Weaver (1994) are illustrated in the follow ing diagram:
LK A R K IN G T O
B R IN G
M E A N IN G T O A
TEX T IN
O R D ER T O GET
M EA N IN G
FR O M r r
L E A R N IN G TO
ID EN TIFY W O RD S
^ v ID GET T H EIR
M EA N IN G
F ig u re 2. Լ T h e T h r e e D e f in it io n s o f R e a d in g b y W e a v e r (1 9 9 4 )
6
For the purposes o f this study, reading can be defined as 'reading
u n d e r s ta n d in g \
m eans
(Ur. 1996，p.138). A foreign language learner who says, CI can
read every words but I don’t know what they mean’ is not, therefore, reading，in
this sense. He or she is merely decoding-translating written symbols into
corresponding sounds’.
2.1.2. The tra d itio n a l an d innovative views o f teaching reading.
Reading has been “ viewed as a twofold phenomenon involving process
(comprehending) and product (comprehension)” (Silberstein, 1987，P.30). In brief，
there are two main outlooks on reading. The first, a product oriented approach to
reading, assumes meaning exists in the text itself, and it is text-based factors that
determine meaning. In this view pre-reading activities rely mostly on clarifying the
meaning o f difficult words or complex structures. Whereas, for the second, processoriented approach to reading, meaning is obtained through a successftil interaction
between the reader and the text, and it is inside-the-head factors that play an
important role in comprehension. Accordingly, background knowledge w ill be o f
primary importance for ESL readers, and schema-based pre- reading activities
should be used for activating and constructing such background knowledge.
In the traditional methodology, the teacher explains a text sentence by sentence，
analyzing the structure o f the sentence, elaborating on the language points (i.e.,
d ifficu lt words and idiomatic expressions). Then translation o f the sentence is
followed, which is mainly done by the teacher. To sum up，the methodology is
thoroughly based on grammar and translation and it is obvious that classes are
totally teacher-centered.
Follow ing is a typical procedure for a product oriented approach to reading
(Silberstein, 1987， p. 30): 1) the teacher presents new vocabulary，often at
length; 2) the teacher reads the text aloud to the class (who has not yet seen it).
S/he asks them what it is about; 3) the teacher reads it aloud again while the
students fo llo w it in their books. Then she may ask them one or two more
questions; 4) Individual students read the text aloud (“ reading around the
7
class，
，
) and the teacher interrupts to correct pronunciation; 5) the students read
the text silently and try to remember as much as they can for the questions the
teacher may ask afterwards; 6) the teacher asks oral questions on the text and
students answer orally.
It can be seen that none o f the above activities involved are what the learner
needs. Clearly, there is little here to help students become efficient readers.
Therefore, the question is that how to teach learners to read effectively.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the emergence o f classroom procedures that give
practice in useful sub skills o f the reading and-comprehending process. Jeremy
H armer sets out guidelines for this in the form o f a five-stage model (Harmer,
1983， P.151): 1) the teacher introduces the topic and explores the students’
previous knowledge o f it; 2) the teacher sets the tasks that the students w ill have
to perform during or after reading. (The nature o f the task determines which
specific sub skills o f reading are practiced.) ； 3) the students read silently and
perform the task，e.g., answer the questions set beforehand; 4) the teacher gives
feedback on the students’ performance o f the task. (Stages 2 to 4 can be
repeated); 5) the teacher gives follow-up tasks.
Stage 2 ensures that the learners have a reason for reading-which they know,
before they even begin to read, what they w ill have to get out o f the text. This
means that they read in a certain way, i.e., practice a particular sub skill o f
reading. The teacher (or materials writer) chooses tasks for the students to
perform while they read，in light o f the type o f text, its organization, its content,
the new language it contains and-most importantly -the reading styles that are
appropriate for the act o f comprehending (W illiam s ， 1984， p.38). Classroom
reading activities are designed to
process, not just to
te s t
te a c h
students the reading comprehension
their ability to come up w ith the right product.
2 .2 . A p p r o a c h e s t o t e a c h in g r e a d in g
“ How do we read?” To this question, which seems simple but is really profound,
many researchers have tried to find an answer. A t present, there are three main
models o f how reading occurs based on various reading theories.
8
The first and oldest approach to the reading process is the bottom-up processing,
which can be said to be a traditional view o f the reading process. According to
Eskey and Saville-Troike (as cited in Carrell, 1988a), it has existed since before
reading research began to be recognized as an independent scholastic field. This
processing goes from the smaller units o f text to the larger units o f it (Carrell，
1988b; Frehan, 1999). After the readers recognize the letters and know what word
the combinations o f these letters are, they extract its meaning from their lexicon.
Next，they construct the meaning o f a phrase or a clause by gathering the meaning
o f each word. Finally，they build up the meaning for a sentence by assembling o f
each phrase or clause. In short, the meaning o f a sentence consists o f the
combinations o f the smaller units o f the sentence. In other words, meaning was
considered to be burned in the text (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983). What is
emphasized in this processing, Segalowitz, Poulsen and Komoda (as cited in
Anderson, 1999) described, is linguistic knowledge such as:
Word recognition and include visual recognition o f letter features, letter identification,
the generation o f grapheme-phoneme correspondences, unitization o f orthographic
redundancies such as regularities in letter sequences, the association o f words to words
to their semantic representations, possibly the identification of basic syntactic structures
within the portion o f the text currently being read, and with the generation o f
prepositional units, (p.3)
It follows that good readers are regarded as those who have an extensive
vocabulary and can analyze the sentences by making excellent use o f their
grammatical
knowledge
with
rapidity
and
efficiency.
Therefore,
many
researchers thought that problems o f reading comprehension were almost
exclusively attributed to deficiency in linguistic knowledge or some decoding
skill (Carrell， 1988a). Some researchers such as Nicholson and Perfetti (as cited
in Hudson, 1998) wrote that reliance on the context instead o f using linguistic
knowledge was viewed as poor readers’ strategy.
The second type o f reading processing is top-down, which arose from
psycholinguistics (Frehan，1999). The greatest difference between this processing
and the bottom - up processing is that, according to Goodman (as cited in Carrell
9
& Eisterhold, 1983) ，readers do not use every piece o f on formation in the text.
That is to say, the readers select some parts o f text according to their current
purpose and use them only so as to predict meaning and to confirm the predicted
meanings by relating the readers own previously acquired knowledge (Carrell,
1988 a). Many researchers have insisted that “ the concepts which a reader brings
to a text are actually more important than text itself for comprehension，，
(M ikulecky ， 1990， p. 4). Among those concepts that the readers use in the
process o f comprehension, the knowledge about the content o f the text, rather
than the knowledge o f the language o f the text, is emphasized. As for linguistic
knowledge, Segalowitz，Poulsen and Komoda (as cited in Anderson，1999) stated
that focus is mainly put on “ higher-level” reading skills, such as “ integrating
prepositional units across sentences, generating and updating a schema or
representation o f the text as a whole, and integrating textual information with
prior knowledge” (p.3).
The third and newest reading process is currentlv most accepted (Anderson,
1999). The process which comes from schema theory is called “ interactive
processing” (Carrell，1988b; Chia ，2001). Rumelhart (as cited in Carrell，1988b)
defined is as “ a combination o f top - down and bortom-up processing，，(p.101).
Rumelhart (as cied in M ikulecky ， 1990) explained how these two types o f
processing works as follows: In trying to comprehend a text, the reader is in the
bottom-up mode when she “ relies prim arily on textual information” ，and she is in
the top-down mode when she “ focuses prim arily on what is already known ，，(p.2).
M ikulecky (1990) and Chia (2001) insisted that both kinds o f processing are
employed simultaneously complement one another，which means that what is
important in the interactive processing is both “ second language proficiency and
background knowledge about the topic for deficiencies w ith each other (as cited
in Anderson ，1999). So good
readers are those who have “ both decoding and
interpretation skills ， (Anderson, 1999，p. 3) and, in Spiro’ s (as cited in Carrell，
1988b) words, “ constantly shift their mode o f processing, accommodating to the
demands o f a particular text and a particular reading situation” (p. 1이 ).
10
The notion that reading is the interactive process, which means a kind o f “ whole，，
process because o f any other kind o f knowledge other than linguistic knowledge, w ill
change the way for teachers to teach and the way for students to read English.
Reading English becomes a little more similar to reading native language.
Interactive models o f reading describe what readers do in three basic stages o f
the process: as they begin to read, while they are reading and after they have
read. Following is the process o f a reading lesson with three stages.
2 .3 . S t a g e s o f a r e a d in g le s s o n
The process o f a reading lesson usually consists o f three stages: pre-reading
(lead-in), while-reading (skimming and scanning) and post-reading (Brown,
1994). It is affirmed that the pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading stages
are very important when teaching any reading text. Each o f these stages has its
own characteristics, although they are related to one another. That is, the pre
reading stage leads to the while-reading stage and finally to the post-reading one.
Going through all the three stages respectively, the reader gets a better
understanding o f any text s/he has already tackled and ultimately becomes
r e s p o n s ib le f o r h is /h e r o w n le a rn in g .
2.3.1. The P re-reading stage
According to W illiams (1984, p. 37), the purposes o f Pre-reading are to introduce
and arouse interest in the topic; to motivate learners by giving a reason for
reading; to provide some language preparation for the text.
Schema theory research provides strong evidence for the effectiveness o f prereading activities that include both providing the outline for reading the text and
teaching cultural key concepts. According to Chastain (1988)， pre-reading
activities motivate readers to read the text and when they are motivated-prepared
for the reading activity - they complete the activity better and with less effort and
are eager to participate in the activity since they have gained confidence. Lewin
(1984) recommends that language teacher- like other course teachers - should
encourage learners to evaluate what they read. Pre-reading activities may help the
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