� ��

���������������� ��

1. Rationale

Nowadays, English is an international language and has been widely used in many

countries in the world. In Vietnam, English is also considered the most important foreign

language and taught as a compulsory subject in most schools throughout the country. It has

also become an important need of the Vietnamese as a means of communication. As a result,

there have been a lot of changes in English teaching in order to meet the need. One of the

changes relates to new English language teaching syllabus and new textbooks, which have

arrived at high schools since 2006. The new textbooks change from a grammar and vocabulary

focus into a skill focus: listening, writing, speaking and reading. This, therefore, has

advantages as well as disadvantanges in teaching and learning English.

In the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” ,which refers to "English 10", reading is the

first skill presented in each unit. This proves the important role of reading. This is

understandable as generally speaking, reading provides students with the abilities to

understand the written materials. Reading has become not only an important means to gain

knowledge but also a means by which further study takes place.

This is the second year I have taught the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” to the 10th

form

students. I have met a lot of difficulties. The biggest challenges emerge from teaching reading

comprehension. My colleagues in my school have the same problems. We usually find it

difficult and hard to teach in reading lessons. Despite the teachers’ efforts, the students’

reading skills are disappointing. Most of the students do not understand the texts and do not

complete the reading tasks well. If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions to

overcome are given, it is certain that reading lessons cannot be successful and it even becomes

worse. This has a great effect on students’ learning result. On the other hands, students will be

fed up with learning English if they find it worthless to study this subject.

For all these reasons, it is necessary to find out difficulties in teaching reading

comprehension to the 10th

form students at my school and the solutions. The author has been

encouraged to carry out the study on “difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the

new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) to the 10th

form students

� ��

at Ke Sat High School”. Once the difficulties are identified, some solutions to overcome them

will be suggested.

2. Aims of the study

The specific aims of the study are:

- to investigate the areas of difficulty that the teachers at Ke Sat High School are coping with

in their daily teaching reading comprehension to the 10th

form students with the textbook

“Tieng Anh 10”.

- to suggest some solutions to overcome these difficulties .

The study is carried out with a hope that the findings from the study will be of some benefits

to the teachers at Ke Sat High School.

3. Scope of the study

This study is limited to:

- the 10th

form students at Ke Sat High School

- the teachers of English at Ke Sat High School

- reading comprehension in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh10”.

4. Methods of the study

With the aim of finding out the difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the new

English textbook "Tieng Anh 10" to 10 - form students at Ke Sat High School, this study

adopts quantitative and qualitative methods. To achieve the above aims, the study has been

carried out with the data collected from different instruments:

- interview questions for teachers of English at Ke Sat High School to investigate their

perceptions of reading difficulties.

- questionnaire for the 10th

form students at Ke Sat High School to collect information about

their views of reading difficulties and causes of them.

Beside these instruments, classroom observation is used to record information from teachers.

5. Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts:

- The first part is the Introduction, which presents the retionale for the study, the aims,

methods, scope of the study as well as the design of the thesis.

� ��

- The second part is the Development of the study, divided into five chapters:

+ Chapter 1 is for Literature review, which provides the theoretical background.

+ Chapter 2 gives an overview of the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” and current

situation of teaching the textbook at Ke Sat High School.

+ Chapter 3 deals with the study: context of the study, research questions, the participants, the

data collection methods and data analysis.

+ Chapter 4 is for findings and discussion of findings.

+ Chapter 5 suggests some solutions to overcome difficulties.

- The last part is the Conclusion of the study, which summarises the study, states the

limitations of the study and recommendation for further research.

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

� ��

��������������������

������������ ������������ ���

1.1. The nature of reading

1.1.1. Definition of reading and reading comprehension

Definition of reading

Goodman (1971: 135) considers reading as “a psycholinguistic process by which the

reader, a language user, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded by

a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical process of

sampling, predicting, testing and confirming”.

According to Rumelhart (1977) “reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction

between reader and text”. It means the roles of learners and reading text are placed an

important position in reading act.

Harmer (1989: 153) views reading from a different perspective. In his definition, “reading

is an exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive the message and the brain

has to work out the significance of the message”. Smith (1985: 102) shares the same view on

reading when he defines “reading is understanding the author’s thought”. It means that the

readers “read the author’s mind not the author’s words”.

Attempts to define reading have been numerous. However, the act of reading is not

completely understood nor easily described. The definitions have been drawn from different

reading theories and models by various scholars. However, they all try to find out the nature of

reading and reading act, in which the readers, reading process and reading message are

emphasized.

Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension plays an important role in teaching and learning reading a foreign

language. It can be understood as the ability to obtain the information as required in the

reading text as efficiently as possible.

According to Swam (1975: 1). “a student is good at comprehension” if “he can read

accurately and efficiently, so as to get the maximum information of a text”.

� ��

Acording to Grellet (1981: 3) “reading comprehension or understanding a written text

means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible”

Though these opinions are different, they all have a common point, that is, reading

comprehension is the process in which the readers, as they read, can recognize the graphic

forms of the reading text and understand what is implied behind these forms.

1.1.2. Effective reading comprehension

Cook (1989: 14) shows that effective reading comprehension would be best reflected if we

bring distinct cognitive behaviors of good versus poor readers before, during and after reading

an assignment into a comparison.

Stage Good or mature readers Poor or immature readers

Before

reading

- Active prior knowledge

- Understand task and set purpose

- Choose appropriate strategies

- Start reading without preparation

- Read without knowing why

- Read without considering how to

approach the material

During

reading

- Focus attention

- Anticipate predict

- Use fix-up strategies when lack of

understanding occurs

- Use contextual analysis to assist

comprehension

- Self-monitor comprehension by :

+ knowing comprehension is

occurring + knowing what is

understood

- Are easily distracted

- Read to get done

- Do not know what to do when lack

of comprehension occurs

- Do not recognize important

vocabulary

- Do not see any organization

- Add on rather than integrate new

information

- Do not realize they do not

understand

After

reading

- Reflect on what was read

- Feel success is a result of effort

- Summarise major ideas

- Stop reading

- Feel success is s result of luck

� ��

- Seek additional information from

outside sources

On the other hands, Ur (1996: 148) considers effective reading comprehension as a process

combining such elements as:

- a clear purpose in mind

- an enhanced motivation

- appropriate reading comprehension strategies based on the purposes and motivation

- good prediction

- sufficient background information and vocabulary

- close attention to the significant bits

- fairly high speed

1.2. Stages of teaching reading

It is common knowledge that a reading lesson consists of three important stages: Pre -

reading (Before you read), While - reading (While you read) and Post - reading (After you

read). Obviously, each stage has its own chatacteristics and time allocation.

1.2.1. Pre - reading (Before you read)

This stage is carried out before the students begin reading the text. It plays an essential part

in the whole process of a reading lesson, because it is difficult to ask students to read the text

without the preperation that involves such activities as pre - reading questions, pre - teaching

vocabulary. According to William (1984: 37), the purposes of the pre - reading stage 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

Normally, pre - reading stage often makes up about one-tenth of the time allocation for the

whole lesson. However, depending on each lesson, it may last shorter or longer. Before

delivering activities for this stage, the teacher needs to pay careful attention to the objectives

of the lesson, the situation of teaching and learning, the students’ needs into account.

1.2.2. While - reading (While you read)

� ��

William (1984: 38) states that while - reading stage is the main part of a reading lesson

with the following specific aims:

- to help understanding of the writer’s purpose

- to help understanding of the text structure

- to clarify text content.

The teacher, at the while - reading stage, needs to help their students comprehend the text

thoroughly while the students have to apply to the best their reading skills like skimming,

scanning, guessing, etc. to understand the text as well as the writer’s purpose conveyed

through the reading text. Apparently, time allocation for this is nearly two-thirds of the whole

lesson.

1.2.3. Post - reading (After you read)

It is the last step of a reading lesson. It is the time for students’ reproduction. What they

reproduce will reflect how well they comprehend the text. In William’s view (1984: 39), the

post - reading stage is aimed at consolidating or reflecting upon what has been read and

relating the text to the learners’ own knowledge, interests or views. Normally, it takes ten or

fifteen minutes to complete all activities at this stage.

To conclude, the above-mentioned stages are essential for a reading lesson. However, it is

not necessary to carry out all these stages mechanically on every occasion. Depending on the

purposes of a reading lesson, the teacher may apply these stages as well as allocate time for

each stage appropriately.

1.3. Difficulties in teaching reading

In reading, it is not easy for a student to be successful in learning reading, because there

are many factors affect the success such as students’ habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to

the target language , textual characteristics, the way reading is taught, and the teacher’s

classroom techniques or learning environment, etc. Yorio (1971), Jolly (1978), Coady (1979)

and others have grouped those factors into three types: Reading skill problems, Language

problems, and Cultural background knowledge.

1.3.1. Reading skill problems

� �

According to Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) and others, one’s first language reading ability

plays a more important role in reading success than his level of the target language does,

because foreign language reading requires the transference of old skills, not the learning of

new ones. They believe that if the reader has a poor reading ability in his mother tounge, then,

he cannot read well in a foreign language.

Students’ limited reading skills cteate many problems, such as reading slowly, failing to

understand and summarise main ideas of the reading text, unabling to guess or predict

meaning of the words or phrases used in that context, etc. Therefore, such students find it hard

to be successful in their reading. They cannot understand the text thoroughly and those are the

reasons why they do not want to keep on reading.

In addition, learner’s motivation towards reading is also an important factor in reading

process. It may effect on reading result such as good speed, enjoyment and comprehension.

Lack of motivation, the reader does not want to read any more.

1.3.2. Language problems

According to Yorio (1971: 108), reading problems of foreign language learners are due

largely to imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue interference in the

reading process. In his view, reading involves four factors: knowledge of the language, ability

to predict or guess in order to make the correct choice, ability to remember the previous cues,

and ability to make the necessary associations between the different cues that have been

selected. Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have

considerable difficulty when reading in the target language. Clarke (1980) and Alderson

(1984) share this view. They acknowledge that a lack of appropriate linguistic knowledge

constrains the transfer of reading skills and strategies from L1 to L2.

Dealing with the text, readers have to work with unfamiliar and difficult topics. These are

called “text problems”. The context of the text might be rather strange to the students, that

makes them unable to understand. Besides, another kind of problem is “vocabulary problems”.

Readers encounter a lot of difficulties in dealing with proverbs and idioms, synonyms and

antonyms, polysemantic and subtechnical vocabulary.

1.3.3. Cultural background knowledge

� �

Apart from language problems and reading skill problems, cultural background knowledge

also affects students’ reading ability as culture plays a central role for many topics. And that

comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text is more difficult than comprehension of a

culturally familiar text, because readers, facing up with unfamiliar cultural context, may

mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience.

For the text structure, the impact of culture is less outwardly evident but apperently still

present. They will greatly affect the reader’s comprehension. Sometimes, the implicit cultural

knowledge presupposed by a text or from different assumption about meaning and

comprehension held by the writer also causes difficulty to the reader.

From what has been discussed, it can be concluded that there are three main factors that

affect reading comprehension: reading skills, language knowledge, and cultural background

knowledge. Reading difficulties may be caused by a number of other factors. Whatever kind

of problems are, they are various in the reading process in a foreign language and great efforts

must be made to overcome them.

Summary

This chapter provides a theoretical framework for the study. First, it provides an overview

of the nature of reading, in which the definitions of reading and reading comprehension are

discussed. Then, effective reading comprehension is addressed. What is more, this chapter also

discusses stages of teaching reading. Finally, it provides an insight into reading difficulties.

Having looked at the literature review of reading, the textbook related to this thesis will be

presented hereby.

� ��

������������������� ����������������� ������� !�"# ��������

�$%�&#�������������������� !�'����������������� ���� ��

������� ����������� !����(��)���* ���)����

�

2.1. An overview of the new textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks)

2.1.1. Objectives

The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) was written by a

group of lecturers of College of Foreign Languages (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) and

published in 2006. The syllabus of the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is the continuation of that of

the textbooks at secondary schools. Therefore, the objectives for the 10th

form students to

achieve would be higher. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, by the end of

the 10th

form students should be able to:

- Listen for the main ideas or for specific information of a monologue or a dialogue with the

length of 120 - 150 words of the topics they have learnt.

- Exchange information in English at a simple level about the situations relating to the topics

they have learnt.

- Comprehend passages of appropriately 190 - 230 words about the topics they have learnt.

Understand the main ideas of the text or understand the text in detail. Develop vocabulary

comprehension: gap - filling, matching, ect.

- Write paragraphs (of about 100 - 120 words) relating to the topics they have learnt

according to a model or with prompts.

2.1.2. Content of the textbook

The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” is designed under theme- based approach with

16 units. Each unit is about a theme. The units are set up in the following order:

- Unit 1: A day in the life of .... - Unit 9: Undersea world

- Unit 2: School talks - Unit 10: Conservation

- Unit 3: People’s background - Unit 11: National parks

- Unit 4: Special education - Unit 12: Music

- Unit 5: Technology and you - Unit 13: Films and cinema

� ��

- Unit 6: An excursion - Unit 14: The world cup

- Unit 7: The mass media - Unit 15: Cities

- Unit 8: The story of my village - Unit 16: Historical places

These units cover six topics required:

- You and Me (Units 1, 2, 3)

- Education (Units 4, 5, 6)

- Community (Units 7, 8)

- Nature and Environment (Units 9, 10, 11)

- Recreation (Units 12, 13, 14)

- People and Places (Units 15, 16)

There are five parts in each unit arranging as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening,

Writing, and Language focus. Each part is carried out in a period (45 minutes). The aim of the

arrangement is to help students to practise four macro-skills as much as possible.

In addition, there exists a “Test yourself” after every three or two units. The objectives of

the “Test yourself” is to examine how well students have achieved in the previous units. The

“Test yourself” is constructed as follows: Listening, Reading, Grammar and Writing.

Reading is the beginning part of each unit. The aims of this is that through reading and

through developing reading skills such as scanning, skimming, etc. the students are provided

with language input. This can help them to be acquainted with the theme and the language

relating to the theme. From then, the students can speak, listen and write about the things

relating to the theme in the next parts.

2.2. Characteristics of reading passages and reading tasks in the textbook

2.2.1. Characteristics of reading passages

A reading passage in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has 190 - 230 words in

length. Each passage closely relates to the theme of the unit. It is divided into small

paragraphs. According to "Tai lieu boi duong giao vien " (2006: 60) ("Teacher Training

Manual"), the passage is written with simple and easily understandable style. However, some

passages are long and rather difficult for the students to understand, as there are a lot of

difficult new words. It takes time to elicit them. Moreover, in each passage, some sentences

� ��

with the new grammatical structures of the unit are also introduced. This requires the teacher

to explain them to the students (quick explanation).

2.2.2. Characteristics of reading tasks

In “While you read” (While - reading) there is always a requirement: “Read the passage

and do the tasks that follow”. In each unit, three kinds of tasks are designed. Each task has its

own aim.

- Task 1 helps the students to understand words or phrases in the passage (Vocabulary

comprehension)

- Task 2 helps the students to comprehend the content of the passage (Passage comprehension)

- Task 3 helps the students to have an overall understanding of the passage.

In task 1, the following exercises are included: Matching, Gap-filling. Students are asked to

guess meaning in context or finding words from context to match or to fill in the blank.

Matching is the most popular exercise in Task 1.

In task 2, to help students to comprehend the passage, the following exercises are dealt

with: - Deciding on True or False statement

- Scanning for specific information to fill in the sentenses or the table

- Answering the questions

- Multiple-choice questions

- Gap-filling (in “After you read”)

Among the exercises, answering the questions appears most.

To meet the requirement of Task 3, one type of exercise is designed: Multiple-choice. This

type is used to identify the main idea of the passage.

Normally, Task 1 and 2 are complicated and they require more time to do. These tasks

themselves cause a lot of difficulties for students.

2.3. The current situation of teaching the textbook at Ke Sat High School

2.3.1. Introduction to Ke Sat High School and students

Ke Sat High School is located in Binh Giang district, Hai Duong province. This is a small

school. It has 21 classes. It has been in operation for over 20 years. The school is surrounded

by villages. Like other high schools, its duty is to train students from the 10th

form to the 12th

� ��

form. Every year the school admits about 300 students for the 10th

form. After leaving the

school, our students are provided with knowledge of English which is good enough for them

to take the entrance exams to colleges or universities, or to begin working for their own living.

In our school, Maths, Physics and Chemistry are chosen by most of the students who wish to

take the exams to colleges or universities. English is one of the compulsory subjects at high

school and in the school-leaving exam. However, few students choose the colleges or

universities which require an English exam.

The students at Ke Sat High School are approximately 16 - 18 years of age. They come

from the villages surrounding the school. Most of their parents are farmers. Their main work is

doing farming. Besides, they do extra work in cities. Some of them do not take good care of

their children.

What is more, the students are of different learning abilities and have different attitudes

towards learning English: some are learning for the entrance exams to colleges or universities,

some are learning only for graduating exam, and others are learning for nothing, i.e. they

cannot identify what they learn English for. They consider it as a subject they have to learn at

school.Thus, the teachers in our school cope with the difficulties which come from our

students’ different motivations.

Moreover, most of our students have low English level. They have learnt English for four

years at secondary schools. However, their English background knowledge has been remained

a little. When they come to the 10th

form, it is surprising that they have limited vocabulary and

grammatical structures. For some students, the things they have learnt at secondary school

seem to be completely new at the moment. Some students want to go to English in order to

improve their English. However, it is impossible for them to go to the English centres, because

they are too far from the school. So they attend the extra English classes which are held by the

English teachers of our school.

Another problem of the students is that most of them do not have the habit of learning

independently and tend to depend on the textbook or the textbooks with the available answers

(namely “De hoc tot Tieng Anh” i.e." To learn English well"), and on the teachers for

� ��

knowledge. This fact calls for suitable teaching methods to help the students become more

active in learning English.

2.3.2. Teachers and teaching methods

Our school has got five English teachers, aged from 30 to 45. Three of them took full- time

ELT training courses at the College of Foreign Languages (VNUH), and two of them took in-

service ELT course at the same college. The oldest teacher has more than 20 years of teaching

experience and the yougest teacher has got 7 years. All of us have never participated in any

training course abroad. However, we have been to some domestic workshops in language

teaching and some summer workshops on changes in English textbooks.

Each teacher has to teach approximately 12 periods a week. Each has the responsibility to

teach 3 periods in each class. Three of the teachers also have to teach in two forms , and two

of the teachers are in charge of two classes.

As far as the methodology is concerned, the teachers are aware of the new trend in teaching

method nowadays: Learner - centered approach. They try to give their students independence

in studying by asking them to work through the text or discuss subject matters in groups or in

pairs, after giving the some instructions. However, not all of the teachers can do that and the

amount of time spent on such activities is not much. Furthermore, most of the 10th

form

students cannot do these themselves. Therefore, the teachers often employ the traditional

method of teaching in reading lessons. The teachers play the key role in the classroom, being

the main speakers working through the text. The teachers explain new words, new structures,

even give the answers to some difficult exercises. The students are passive. And the success

depends on how flexible and adaptable the individual teacher is to respond to the requirement

of the teaching situation.

2.3.3. Teaching facilities

Teaching facilities are considered significant and may affect the teaching process

positively or negatively. According to the Ministry of Training and Education, the changing

teaching methods are closely related to the changing teaching facilities. In teching

competitions between high schools, lessons with modern teaching facilities are highly

appreciated, because they bring great results. In general, the teaching facilities at Ke Sat High

� ��

School are poorly equipped. There is no English laboratory, there is only one library which

provides books on different subjects, mainly on Maths, Physics and Chemistry. There are not

any projectors. The equipment in classrooms is very simple and traditional. A board, chalk, a

cassette player (which is in bad condition) and a textbook are main teaching equipments in

every class.

2.3.4. Syllabus of teaching English and time allocation for a reading period

At the moment, the 10th

form and the 11 form students are using the new textbooks,

published in 2006. The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has totally 16 units and 6 Tests

yourself. The units and tests are divided into 105 periods. Each week has 3 periods and each

one lasts 45 minutes. Each unit is taught within 5 periods. This is shown very clearly in the

textbook, under the macro-skills: Reading, Speaking, Listening and Writing. Language focus is

the last part of the unit in order to introduce the new grammatical structures.

In each reading lesson, three stages have been applied, but more time is spent on While -

reading than two other stages, as students have to read the passage and do the tasks that

follow. It does take time to read and correct the tasks. Normally, While - reading stage

accounts for half of the time allocated (or even two-thirds of the time if the text is long and

difficult for the students).

� ��

��������+���#���)��,�

�

This chapter deals with the research methodology that has been employed for the

achievement of the aims of the study. Data were obtained by means of a survey questionnaire

for the students and interview with the English teachers at Ke Sat High School. Besides,

additional data were gathered by classroom observation to provide more in-depth information.

3.1. Context of the study

The study is carried out at Ke Sat High School, Hai Duong and limited to the 10th

form

students.

3.2. Research questions

As it has been stated, this study was carried out to provide insights into the areas of

difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”

(the set of standard textbooks) to the 10th

form students at Ke Sat High School. Thus, it was

designed in an attempt to seek answers to the following questions:

- What are the difficulties experienced by teachers who are teaching reading comprehension

with the new English textbbok “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks) to the 10th

form

students?

- What are feasible solutions to overcome those difficulties?

In order to find out the answers to the research questions, a lot of sub-questions will be

dealt with:

+ What are teachers’ and students’ opinions on the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”?

+ What are difficulties in learning reading comprehension in this textbook revealed by the

students and is there any relation between students’ difficulties and their teachers’ teaching

methods?

+ What are difficulties in teaching reading comprehension in this textbook revealed by

teachers?

Once the difficulties are found, appropriate solutions to overcome those difficultis will be

suggested.

3.3. The participants

� ��

In order to achieve the aims of the thesis and answers to the above research questions, the

participants of the study include: a group of 3 teachers of English at Ke Sat High School. All

of them are female. Two of them are teaching the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, one

of them taught it in the last school year.

Besides, in order to get more information supporting the answers to the research questions,

100 students of the 10th

form were surveyed. 67% of them are female. They were selected

from seven classes of the 10th

form at Ke Sat High School.

3.4. The data collection instruments

In order to get the most exact information for the study, the following instruments were

employed :

- survey qestionnaire to students.

- informal interview with teachers of English.

- classroom observation.

Each instrument has its purposes:

- Classroom observation was employed to know the purpose of reading class (What the

teachers focus most on in teaching reading comprehension?), teaching methods (How and

When the teachers often explain new words and grammar structures in a reading lesson?

Why?) and difficulties frequently met in reading class (What problems arise during reading

class? and How to solve them?).

- 4 interview questions were carried out with the teachers of English (see Appendix 1).

+ Question 1"Do you think the new English textbook "Tieng Anh 10" is suitable to your

students? Give your opinion on reading passages and reading tasks." is aimed at investigating

the teachers’ comment on the textbook they are teaching.

+ Question 2 "What problems are you coping with in teaching reading with the textbook in

preparation of the lesson, "Before you read" stage, "While you read" stage, and "After you

read" stage?", and Question 3 "What do you think is the most difficulty when teaching reading

comprehension with the textbook?" are aimed at investigating difficulties the teachers are

coping with in teaching reading comprehension.

� �

+ Question 4 "What have you been doing to overcome these difficulties" are aimed at

investigating solutions the teachers are using to overcome the difficulties.

- Questionnaire for students was designed in order to get more information supporting other

instruments to find out teachers’ difficulties (see Appendix 2)

+ Question 1: students’ comment on the textbook.

+ Question 2, 3: students’ areas of difficulty.

+ Question 4 - 14: causes of difficulty and students' expectation from the teachers.

3.5. Data collection procedure

As being described in the previous part, various instruments were designed. Classroom

observation was the first instrument for this study. It was carried out during my colleagues’

reading lessons. In addition, after class hour we normally sat together aduring the short break

to discuss the lessons. At that time difficulties arised were recorded during the lessons as well

as the solutions the teacher made to overcome the difficulties.

To collect more information, 4 interview questions for the teachers were designed. All the

answers to the questions were recorded to analyze.

It is noted that in order to make it easy in analyzing data, 100 students of the 10th

form were

surveyed. Instead of randomly selecting the individual, the researcher randomly selected the

groups or classes for investigation. The questionnaires were delivered to the students at class

meeting hour on Saturday under the permission and help of the head teachers of the classes.

� �

��������-���. � �������� ����� ��

�

4.1. Discussion of the data collected by means of questionnaires

In this part, the data collected from survey questionnaires will be presented in the tables

according to the purposes of the study.

4.1.1. Students’ opinion on the new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (Table 1)

No Statement Yes No answer No

1 The new English textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (in terms of

the topic, the reading passage and the reading task) is

suitable to me.

19 10 71

The table shows that 71% of the students find the new textbook unsuitable to them. Why

not? Most of the students said that although they found the topics in the textbook were very

interesting and attractive, they were long and had a lot of new words. This caused the students

diffuculty in understanding the content of the reading passages. As a result, they could not

complete the reading tasks easily.

4.1.2. Difficulties faced by the students (Table 2)

No Statement Yes No answer No

2 I have most difficulties in:

- Pre - reading stage

- While - reading stage

- Post - reading stage

9

81

53

8

5

11

83

14

36

Obviously, “While - reading” is the main stage in a reading lesson. It takes most of the

time of a reading period. It is understandable that 86% of the students have most difficulties in

this stage, because they have to read the reading passage and do the reading tasks to

comprehend the text. How about Pre - reading and Post - reading stages? Most of the students

(83%) said that they did not have any difficulties in this Pre - reading as in this stage they

often have to answer some easy questions, which aim to introduce them to the topic of the

text. However, 53 of the students find Post - reading difficult because they are asked to retell

� ��

or summarise the content of the text in their own words or to connect the things in the text

with their real life.

(Table 3)

No Statement Yes No answer No

3 I have difficulty in:

a. understanding the main idea of the whole reading

passage.

b. understanding the details of reading passages.

c. doing reading tasks, especially the task of guessing

vocabulary through context or definition.

d. understanding the teacher's explanation in English.

38

64

86

72

9

10

4

7

53

26

10

21

According Table 3, the areas of difficulty the students have to face with are: (c) doing

reading tasls, especially the task of guessing vocabulary through context and definition (86%),

(d) understanding the teacher's explanation in English (72%), (b) understanding the details of

reading passages (64%). The students said that they had most difficulty in doing the tasks,

especially the task relating to vocabulary comprehension. It means that most of difficulties are

related to vocabulary. Many of the students cannot guess the meaning of words through

context or definition. The fact is that the teacher wants to improve students’ predicting ability,

they give concrete examples or context which describes the words and ask students to work

out the meaning of them, but the students fail to do so. Only a number of students who are

good at English can do that. Most of them hardly did them well.

In addition, understanding the teacher's explanation in English is the threat to the students.

They cannot understand all the things the teacher explains in English. That is the reason why

the teacher has to use both English and Vietnamese in lecturing. After explaining in English,

she has to translate into Vietnamese in order to help the students understand thoroughly.

The result also shows that there are more students who have difficulty in understanding the

details of reading passages (64%). It may due to the long texts with a lot of words which the

students do not know or they cannot memorise although they have already learnt. That makes

the students unable to interpret.

� ��

It is noted from the result of the survey that in each area of difficulty, there are number of

students who do not give their answers. They cannot decide whether that issue is their

difficulty or not, because it depends on many factors such as the topic, the requirements of

each reading lesson (whether the topic is easy to understand or not, and/ or the requirements of

the reading lesson are simple or not).

4.1.3. Causes of difficulties and the students' expectation from the teacher (Table 4)

No Statements Yes No answer No

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

The reading passages are too long and full of new words.

The reading passages are full of new and complex

grammartical structures.

I lack English knowledge to understand the teacher's

explanation in English.

I have limited vocabulary and grammartical structures.

I lack interest and motivation in reading .

The teacher's explanation on reading tasks is not

sufficient and clear enough.

The teacher does not correct reading tasks carefully.

The teacher does not always give Vietnamese equivalent

for long and difficult words.

The teacher’s lecture is not interesting and efficient.

The teacher uses the same teaching method in every

reading lesson.

The teacher is too strict and demanding.

78

47

61

82

72

15

7

19

5

70

12

2

7

4

5

10

7

6

3

9

8

5

20

46

35

13

18

78

87

78

86

22

83

The information in the statements above has two sides: In one hand, it shows the causes of

difficulty and on the other hand, it also indicates that those difficulties must be solved with

the teacher's help.

It can be recognized that the difficulties are from three causes: (1) from the students

themselves (6 - 8), (2) the textbook (statements 4 - 5); and (3) from the teacher’s lectures

(statements 9 -14).

� ��

First, looking at the first and second group of factors, most of the difficulties come from the

students themselves: 82% of the students’ dificulties are due to the lack of vocabulary and

grammatical structures and 61% are due to the lack of English knowledge to understand the

teacher's explanation in English. In addition, a factor that causes difficulty for students is that

the reading passages are too long and full of new words (78%). It means it also relates to

vocabulary. Regarding attitude to learning, 72 % perceived that they lack interest and

motivation in reading.

How about the second group of factors? Surprisingly, most of the students do not complain

their teacher’s lectures. Vice-versa, they highly assess their teacher’s lectures. In teaching, the

teacher always gives Vietnamese equivalent for long and and difficult words (78%). Dealing

with the reading tasks, the teacher's explanation on reeading tasks is sufficient and clear

enough (78%), and they correct them carefully (87%). The students also find their teacher’s

lecture interesting and efficient (86%). About the teacher’s attitude, 83% of the students did

not think that their teacher was too strict and demanding. When being asked why they thought

that, they said that their teachers understood their difficulties. As a result, the teachers simplify

complicated requirements to make them understandable to students. Some of the students

revealed that their teachers were sympathetic with them.

Regarding the teaching method, it is not simple and easy at all. Although the teacher’s

lectures make the students satisfied, the teaching method is not diversified. 70% of the

students claim that the same teaching method is used in every reading lesson, and 35%

revealed that they do not lack English knowledge to understand the the teacher's explanation in

English. In order to help the students understand the lecture in English easily and maintain

their interest in reading class, improvement should be made regarding the teaching method.

In conclusion, through the survey questionnaire to the students, various difficulties in

learning reading, the causes of those difficulties as well as their expectation from the teachers

have been revealed. Those comments from the students on their teacher’s lectures reflect the

existing problems of the English teachers in teaching reading comprehension. It is eligible for

the students to claim the need for efficient learning, without which the students’ and teachers’

difficulties in teaching and learning may remain unsolved. And as a result, the students find no

� ��

interest in what they need to achieve, and the teachers fail to become successful and efficient

teachers.

4.2. Discussion of the data collected by means of the interview and classroom observation

The result presented below will be grouped in terms of different purposes of the study.

4.2.1. Teacher’s opinion on the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” (the set of standard textbooks)

The first question of the interview is about teacher’s opinion on the textbook they are

teaching. The result shows that all the teachers (3/3) like the textbook because its topics and its

content are various. Each unit is concentrated on a topic. This partly attracts the students'

attention and interest. It also interests the teacher. In addition, a new thing of the textbook the

teachers like is that in each unit the students practise macro-skills: Reading, Speaking,

Listening, Writing regarding a topic. It is easy for the teachers to teach. They cannot confuse

this skill with other skills. Thanks to the skill devision, the teacher can focus on each skill and

help the students improve it.

In terms of reading passages, they contain various contents. As presented in the previous

part, each passage is concentrated on a topic. This interests both teachers and students. To

make reading lessons more interesting, teachers sometimes have to read more about the topics.

However, some topics are difficult for the students, such as “Special education”, “Technology

and you”, “Conservation”. The students’ vocabulary is limited, and they do not have much

knowledge about these topics. The teachers have to spend a lot of time to explain them.

How about the reading tasks? The reading tasks are designed to help students comprehend

the passages. There are differents types of exercise in the reading tasks. It has advantages as

well as disadvantages for the teachers and the students. The teachers do not need to design

tasks. However, available tasks cause difficulty. The teachers said that some of the tasks are

unsuitable for their students. They are rather difficult. Their students cannot do them by

themselves. So teachers have to simplify or adapt the tasks to make them suitable for the

students.

4.2.2. Teacher’s difficulties in teaching reading comprehension to the 10th

form students

The result from survey questionnaire indicates that the causes of the students’ difficulties

are related partly to the students and partly to the teachers. The teachers’ performance sounds

� ��

good in the eyes of the students. So what are their real difficulties in teaching reading

comprehension?

From the answers to the questions 2, 3 of the interview and classroom observation, typical

difficulties the teachers at Ke Sat High School are coping with were found out.

The first difficulty belongs to the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” itself. Because this is a newly

designed textbook, it has caused difficulty for the teachers and the students. As mentioned in

the previous part, the English level of the students at Ke Sat High School is low. As a result, it

takes the teachers a lot of time to explain new words and to instruct how to do the tasks. In

addition, the teachers have to observe the procedure of a reading lesson: Pre, While and Post-

reading. In fact, they rarely carry out all the three stages. They often focus on While-reading

stage. One teacher said that she tried to teach in three stages, but at the end of the lesson, her

students did not comprehend the reading passage well, and they did the reading tasks

embarrassingly. All the teachers said that they often miss Post-reading stage. The exercises in

this stage are done at home by the students. It means that they become their homework. In the

next lesson (Speaking lesson), the teachers do not have time to check the homework. They do

not know how well/ badly their students do it. All the teachers wish a reading lesson were

taught in two periods in order that they could have more time to help their students

comprehend the reading passage better.

The second difficulty, the most typical difficulty, the teachers at Ke Sat High School are

coping with is the English level of the students. It is asserted that the English level of the 10th

form students at my school is rather low. In the previous part, 82 out of 100 students said they

have limited vocabulary and grammartical structures. When going around to observe the class,

the teachers realize that some students have already looked up most of the words of the

reading passage. Or after explaining new words, some students ask the teachers for the

meaning of the words they have learnt. Moreover, when doing Task 1, which is vocabulary

comprehension task, they often seem to be embarrassed. The students are asked to guess the

meaning of the given words through the context in the reading passage or through the given

definitions. Due to the vocabulary limitation, in some cases, most of the students cannot

understand even the context or definition, so they are unable to guess the new words.

� ��

Besides, all the teachers have difficulty when correcting the answering questions task. Due

to the low English level, many students do not understand the questions, so the teacher often

helps them to understand the questions. With the questions whose answers are selected from

the sentences in the reading passage, the students can answer without much difficulty.

However, the answer which requires the choice from many ideas in the reading passage, most

of the students cannot do. They choose the way of taking all the sentences to make their

answer. Some of the students try to express the answer with their own words, but their

expressions contain the wrong grammartical structures or vocabulary. Many of the students

are dependent on the books with available answers. They answer the question by reading the

answer in those books without understanding anything. For all these reasons, many students

are passive in reading lessons. They often sit quietly. The teacher does most of the speaking

during the lesson and the students do most of the listening. Therefore, although teachers

recognize the importance and benifits of the learner-centered approach in foreign language

teaching and learning, they can not make use of that approach in their daily work. They still

play the central role in delivering reading lessons. They have to explain new words, give the

anwsers to the questions to their students, or the students will fail to understand the reading

passages.

The reason why the students are in bad condition is that they lack the basic knowledge of

English at the secondary school. They did not pay attention to learning English. They did not

try to enrich their vocabulary and master grammartical structures . At present, the knowledge

they should have learnt seems to be new. The teachers said that they sometimes felt surprised

when they found that some of their students forgot the simplest grammartical structure. As a

result, it is not easy for them to gain the knowledge in the new English textbook “Tieng Anh

10”, because the higher class, the more difficult knowledge. Therefore, the students often find

English difficult, and they mind learning it. They are not interested in it. Those cause the

difficulty for the teachers. After the lesson, the teachers are not satisfied with students'

learning result.

The reading passages and reading tasks are long and difficult. The students have the low

English level. However, many students’ attitude towards learning English is negative. They do

� ��

not try to learn to improve their knowledge. They are rather lazy. They do not do their

homework and learn new words after each lesson. Beside that, they also have a bad habit of

learning: being too dependent on the teacher’s lecture. They find it hard to work with the

reading passage and the reading task without their teacher’s careful explanation. Many of them

do not have a habit of reviewing and preparing lessons at home. Moreover, reading word-by-

word and tranlating are existing and they become the students' habits. Making the students get

rid of these habits is not easy.

The third difficulty is the limitation of teaching equipments. During a reading lesson, the

teacher and the students use only the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, chalk and board. They do not

have other equipments to interest their lessons. One teacher said that sometimes, to make the

lesson more interesting, she had pictures drawn by her students. Moreover, in the school

library, there are not many English books for the students to improve their vocabulary and

grammartical structures. The students’ knowledge is provided only by their teachers.

Summary of the chapter

Through the findings from survey questionnaire to students, interview with English teachers

and classroom observation, the difficulties met by the students and the teachers have been

revealed frankly. The analysis of the data and the interpretation of the information collected

have been presented carefully including some discussion on the issues.

The students’ difficulties in learning reading comprehension include:

- The lack of vocabulary and grammartical structures.

- The lack of effective reading methods (predicting ability, independent reading

habit).

The difficulties of the students are partly due to themselves and partly due to their teachers.

Hence, what are the teachers’ problems in teaching?

The teachers of English at Ke Sat High School cope with characterized problems. Their

major difficulties include:

- The long and difficult reading passages and reading tasks.

- The low English level of the students.

- The students’ negative attitude towards learning reading.

� ��

- The lack of teaching aids

Therefore, it is necessary to have solutions to overcome these problems. If not, ineffective

classroom performance exists forever and it even bocomes worse.

� �

��������/������ ������� ���

�

Basing on several difficulties of the teachers of English and the students analyzed in the

previous part, basing on the opinions about the solutions of the English teachers at Ke Sat

High School (answers to question 4 in the interview) and on the author’s study on the theory

of teaching and learning, some suggestions to overcome these difficulties will be presented

below. The suggestions include making reading lessons useful, training students to become

efficient readers, improving teacher’s techniques in reading lessons, equipping facilities, and

adapting materials.

5.1. Making reading lessons useful

One of the English reading difficulties is that a considerable number of the 10th

form

students in our school have a negative attitude, low interest and motivation in reading. In order

to enhance the students’ reading interest and better motivate the students to read, it is

important for the teacher to help the students realize how useful reading is. First, reading is

one of the four language skills, which are integrated. So reading will help students get

adequate knowledge of vocabulary, structures or ideas to speak and to write. Second, once the

students are efficient readers, they can find reading the most effective way of getting

information and enriching their knowledge, and the most meaningful way of relaxation.

Through the passages in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, the students can enlarge their

knowledge. They can understand the special education, the history of films and of World Cup,

the roles of music, etc. When the students have high motivation to reading, they will be more

studious and will manage to overcome difficulties. It is more important that after

comprehending the passage, the students have added vocabulary and grammartical structures

about the theme they are learning and they can use them to speak, to listen and to write in the

next lessons.

To help the students to understand the usefulness of reading lessons, the teacher should

introduce it to the students at the beginning of the school year, at the first lesson. After each

reading lesson, the teacher should show the students what language knowledge and what

� �

social knowledge they can get from the reading passage. This can get the students’ interest in

reading.

5.2. Training students to become efficient readers

The students will never achieve their goals in learning reading if they are not efficient

readers. In addition, students' greatest difficulties in learning reading reflected in the study are

the lack of vocabulary, the lack of appropriate reading method to understand the reading text

(predicting ability and independent reading habit). In order to help the students overcome

these difficulties, it is, therefore, an important responsibility of the teacher to help the students

to become efficient readers. What and how to do this task?

5.2.1. Making students aware of their purpose of reading

When the students have a purpose in mind, they know how to channel their energy in the

right direction, thus, helping the students to identify the purpose of the reading text is a useful

aid in their reading process. Glancing at titles, subtitles can give students the clues for the

reading purpose. Moreover, we should teach the students to look for purpose in the light of the

situation and the type of material. Effective reading involves clearly identifying the purpose of

reading with which the students know what they are looking for and can weed out potential

distracting information.

In the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, the title of a unit partly helps the students understand the

topic of the reading passage. For example, in Unit 1, the title of the unit is “The day in the life

of. ...”. Glancing at the title and looking at the enclosed picture, the students can identify what

they are going to read. They are going to read about the day in the life of a couple of

Vietnamese farmers. From then, the students can use their prior knowledge to comprehend the

passage. The teacher can do that in “Warm - up” or in “Before you read” stage.

Besides, before students read, the teacher should make signpost questions. These questions

can help students read more purposefully, direct students' attention to the important points in

the text, prevent them from going off along a false track.

5.2.2.. Flexible application of a variety of reading skills

One of the causes of reading difficulties is the students unsufficiently understood reading

skills. So helping them understand and practise efficient skills while reading is very useful.

� ��

Some common reading skills which are offten used in reading lessons in the textbook"Tieng

Anh 10" include: Skimming, scanning, and predicting. Different texts need different skills, so

it is helpful to point out for the students one or two pertinent skills for each text type and to

help them practise those skills directly.

a. Skimming: This skill helps readers to get general, overall ideas of the whole text.

Therefore, the readers must know where to find the main ideas of different paragraph and be

able to synthesize them into an organic whole. The best way to teach skimming is to ask

students to read the first and the last paragraph in full, the first and the last sentence of each

paragraph in between and pick up the main ideas.

In the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”, although the tasks which relate to skimming are not many,

this skill is often used to find the main ideas of each paragraph. That helps the students do

answering questions task more quickly and easily. I myself often use this skill in my reading

lessons. I find it useful. My students are shown how to skim the paragraphs and the whole

passage. They are acquainted with this skill in the first reading lessons of the textbook.

E.g. 1. Task 3 in Unit 13 "Films and Cinema" requires students to skim to decide which of the

options below is the best title for the passage:

A. The story of a film maker.

B. A brief history of cinema.

C. The history of the film industry.

The teacher instructs students to use some strategies for this kind of task:

- First, students read the options A, B and C and find out the differences between them

- Then, they go back to the passage, and read the first and the last sentence to decide the main

idea.

E.g.2. Task 3 in Unit 10 "Conservation" requires students to skim to choose the most suitable

main idea for each paragraph:

A. We cannot live without water.

B. Let's do something to save the earth.

C. Forests give us a lot of valuable things.

D. Vegetation can help conserve water.

� ��

The teacher instructs students to use some strategies to do the task:

- Read the first paragraph and try to sum up, in the students' own words, what it is about.

- Then, search through the list of main ideas provided in the task to find the most suitable

answer.

- Make sure the main idea chosen sums up the entire paragraph and not just one idea within it.

- Continue with the rest paragraphs.

b. Scanning: In this skill, readers have to locate a specific item of information needed. They

pass quickly over irrelevant information and focus only on the wanted information. A useful

way to teach this skill is to ask students to search for some specific information like dates,

time, definition or figures in a certain time allowance.

There are some tasks in the textbook, which require this skill. For example: In task 2 of Unit

14 "The World Cup", students are required to scan the text and complete each of the following

sentences with a word or a number.

1. Only .... teams competed in the first World Cup.

2. Today the final tournament of the World Cup has .... teams.

....................

The teacher instructs students some strategies to do the task:

- First, students read through all the sentences to work out what information they are to look

for and underline the key words.

- Then, students go back to the text and scan it until they see the first instance of the key

words. Students should read around the key words. If they cannot find the answer in the first

instance, then they should keep on reading until they can find it in the second or in the third

instance and so on.

c. Predicting: Students can learn to make prediction on the basis of the title, subtitle,

linguistic context or non-linguistic context, such as graphs, tables, diagrams, maps and their

knowledge of the topic. This strategy not only activates their mind but also gives them a

strong motivation to proceed to the next step of the lesson.

The teachers at Ke Sat High School said that they often use predicting in their reading

lessons. They use this skill in Warm-up stage of the lessons. They ask their students to make

� ��

prediction on the basis of the title of the unit, the pictures enclosed the passages, the students'

background knowledge about the topic they are reading.

5.2.3. Giving homework and checking the previous lesson frequently

After each reading lesson, the students are often given homework. Frequently, the exercise

in "After you read" becomes their homework. Depending on each lesson and on the level of

the students, the exercise in this stage will be done at home by the students themswlves

without the teacher's instruction, or it will be adapted in order to make it simple.

As mentioned in the previous part, the lessons in the textbook "Tieng Anh 10" are

considered to be long . The teacher often has to take most of the time of the lesson to teach

new lesson. She hardly has time to check the previous lesson. One of the teachers said that she

overheard some of her students' talk that they liked English lessons bacause they did not have

to do anything at home , as the teacher did not check the previous lesson. Rarely checking the

previous lessons results in students' laziness, therefore, their learning result will go worse.

Thus, teachers should help their students to form a habit of frequent study by giving them

homework. The given exercises should be checked as warm-up activities in the next class. In

this way, students would become more responsible for their learning.

One of our teachers gives a way of checking the previous lesson. Because of the limitation

of time, she asks her students to do homework on paper sheets. Then, in the next class, she

collects the sheets and corrects them at home.After having corrected, she gives them back to

the students. By this way, the students have to do homework, and the teacher can know how

well/ badly they do it.

5.3. Improving teacher's techniques in reading lessons

5.3.1. Employing three stages in reading lessons

According to the result of the study, one of the students' difficulties is the lack of

vocabulary and grammatical structures. In addition, their expectation from their teachers is

various teaching techniques. The repeated teaching method in every class hour may bore the

students. In order to overcome these problems, some suggestions are offered below:

Basing on characteristics of different groups of students, the teacher should use appropriate

techniques or even in the same class, the teacher also has to employ various techniques in

� ��

different reading lessons in order to refresh the classroom atmosphere and make reading class

more interesting and different. However, whatever to change, whatever to employ, the teacher

cannot omit any of the three stages in the reading lesson: Pre, While and Post-reading. In each

stage, various techniques should be employed.

* First, in Pre-reading stage (Before you read), the teacher should activate their background

knowledge. The most important things for the teacher to do in this stage include: giving/

eliciting basic information about the text topic, text structures, text genre and text's author,

providing necessary background information about unfamiliar cultural content, pre-teaching

vocabulary and explaining unfamiliar/ difficult grammatical structures.

One of difficulties in teaching reading comprehension the teachers at Ke Sat High School

are coping with is the long and difficult passage. To reduce this difficulty , in Pre-reading

stage, the teacher shouls make the passage easily understandable for students by introducing

the passage and presenting new vocabulary.

The teacher should introduce the topic of the passage by asking Ss to discuss the title of the

unit (frequently, the title of the unit is the title of the paasage), or to look at and discuss the

picture enclosed the passage. In addition, the teacher can use the available questions in pre-

reading stage in the textbook to ask students to have short discussion. From then, the teacher

leads into the text.

In this stage, the teacher cannot forget to pre-teach vocabulary. This is an important duty in

each reading lesson, because one of the students' difficulties is the lack of vocabulary. The

teacher can elicit or teach some vocabulary depending on each text. Here, the teacher should

teach the words which do not appear in Task 1 (Vocabulary comprehension task). And the

teacher should teach key words, which help the students to comprehend the text. What are the

key words? How many words are needed to teach? How are the words introduced to the

students? All the answers should be prepared by the teacher before the class. One thing the

teacher should remember is that a long list of key words is a warning that the text is too

difficult.

* Second, in While- reading stage (While you read), the teacher develops students' reading

skills, comprehension and makes use of their background knowledge. The teacher can do this

� ��

by employing the following activities: reading for general understanding, reading to extract

specific information, reading for detailed comprehension, predicting continuous events and

then reading to verify these predictions.

While-reading is the main stage of a reading lesson with the textbook "Tieng Anh 10". In

this stage, the teacher has to help the students to read the passage, do the reading tasks to

comprehend the passage. This stage often takes a lot of time. So it is important that the teacher

should clearly explain the requirements of the tasks and instruct students to use suitable

strategies to do the tasks quickly. Moreover, the teacher should let the students do the tasks by

themselves first by asking them to work in groups, in pairs or individually. While the students

are working, the teacher should go around to observe or to provide help when necessary. At

last, the teacher should check and give the correct answers.

* Third, in Post-reading stage (After you read), the teacher may ask their students to do

exercises individually, or in pairs, or in groups; role-play; further discussion on the subject

matter they have learnt. The teacher should try to create more exercises for students to do after

each lesson in order to enhance the knowledge they have just been taught. One important point

in this stage that the teacher must remember is giving feedback on students' performance.

Students have right to know what they do is right or wrong, good or bad. The teacher's

positive feedback is considered essential to sustain students' motivation and to prevent

fossilization.

Theoretically, those are the things the teacher should do in Post-reading stage. However, in

fact, at Ke Sat High School, with the 10th form students, the teachers have difficulty in

completing the exercise in Post- reading stage. They just give instructions how to do. And the

exercise often becomes homework for the students to do at home. The teachers in our school

are trying to manage lesson time in order to employ enough three stages in a reading lesson.

5.3.2. Adjusting time and imposing time limits

It would be advisable for the teacher to impose time limits on reading assignments besides

to teaching students the effective reading strategies. The teacher should encourage students to

abandon their word-by-word reading habit by introducing timed reading which help students

read faster and to read in meaningful "chunks". Another way to impose students' reading speed

� ��

is to make reading activities a class race or to give students passages to read and ask them to

time themselves.

One of bad habits of our students is word-by word reading. This habit takes a lot of time.

Giving up this habit at once is not easy. And teachers encourage them to get rid of it, and to

read faster. To do these, in reading lessons, the teachers give instructions clearly and time

limits for the students to read and to do the tasks. Teachers can check the students' reading,

and give marks to motivate them.

In addition, adjusting time among the reading stages, spending time reading the passage and

doing the tasks sensibly are important. The teachers said that they did not do these things very

well. While- reading stage often takes most of the time.They are trying to manage time in

reading lessons better in order to assure not only the time of a lesson but also the thing that the

students comprehend the text well.

5.4. Equipping facilities

The poor classroom equipment is also part of poor reading lecture. Therefore, besides the

existing teaching facilities (board, chalk, textbook), it is necessary to equip classroom with

modern facilities, such as computer or projector, and to equip the library with various

reference books. The modern facilities will make the lecture more effective as the teacher can

explain the subject matter lively and efficiently and save a lot of time in writing down

everything on board as usual. Saving more time, the teacher may arrange time to carry out

enough stages in a reading lesson. The library is not only useful for students but also for the

teachers as they can read more to make their lessons more interesting. All the teachers said

that they would like the school library to buy more English reference books, such as funny

stories, basic grammar in use and supplementary books for the 10th form students. And the

teachers also would like to use computers with Internet to make teaching plans, to assign tests,

or to get information. Hopefully, with such facilities, teaching and learning reading will be

more effective.

5.5. Adapting materials

The textbook "Tieng Anh 10" is designed for the 10th form students in all over the country.

Thus, its content should be adjusted to adapt our students' level. The adaptation should be

� ��

done with reading tasks. And it is important that the adaptation always closely connects to the

objectives of each lesson. It means that although the materials are adapted, the objectives of

the lesson are assured. This process may include:

a. Omitting unnecessary tasks.

E.g. Task 2 in Unit 1 "The day in the life of .... " (see Appendix 4) can be omitted , because

the answers in this task is the same as those in Task 3.

b. Omitting unnecessary questions in a task.

E.g. Task 3 in Unit 8 "The story of my village" has 5 questions (see Appendix 5). The last

two questions can be omitted, because they are not necessary. They belong to grammar which

will be learnt in Language focus lesson.

c. Simplifying the tasks given in the textbook.

E.g. The teacher can simplify Task 1 in Unit 13 "Films and Cinema" (see Appendix 6) in

order that the students can easily to find the needed words. The teacher can give the first letter

of the needed words.

d. Modifying/ Adjusting the requirements of the tasks.

E.g. In "After you read" in Unit 8 "The story of my village", the requirement of the task can

be adjusted as below ".... how can people with an education help make the life of their

community better" instead of ".... of their village better". It is easily understandable for Ss.

Those suggestions for adaptation help to reduce the students' difficulty in doing the tasks in

the textbook "Tieng Anh 10".

In a reading lesson, T employs three stages and uses variety of skills and strategies

alternatively to help Ss to understand the passage and to do reading tasks

For example: This is the design of the reading period of Unit 8 "The story of my village"

(Time: 45') (see Appendix 7)

* The aim of the lesson: Reading about the changes in the country life.

� ��

* The objectives of the lesson: By the end of the lesson, Ss will be able to better their reading

skills through vocabulary Matching and Table completion exercises, and enlarge vocabulary

about country life such as bumper crops, cash crops, brick house, straw, mud, ...

* Anticipated problems: Ss may lack vocabulary about the country life.

* Procedure:

1. Warm - up (7') : Networks

- Ask Ss to work in groups of three or four and make a list of words related to the country. The

group with the longest list and right words will be the winner.

2. Before you read (10')

• Picture description:

- Have Ss to look at the picture and work in pairs to discuss the questions in the book.

- Call on some Ss to read their answers aloud in front of the class.

- Feedback and give suggested answers.

1. The farmers are harvesting the crop.

2. They are working very hard.

3. It's a good/ bumper crop. (Explain: a bumper crop)

4. Good farming methods, modern technology, fertilizers,.... (Explain: Farming methods)

Note: T may ask other questions to make full use of the picture. Some simple questions may

be used: - What do you see in the picture? - Who are they? - What are they using? .....

• Vocabulary pre-teach:

Choose some new key words, which help Ss to understand the passage and do the tasks. T can

give Vietnamese equivalents for some difficult words.

- straw (n): the dry part of rice after harvesting and is used to cook in farmers' kitchens (� ���

����mud (n): wet, soft soil (b����

����technical high school (n): tr������������������������

����brick houses (n):�houses made of bricks��������� !��

� �

��- thanks to (prep): owing to, because of������� ��

Note: The words in pre-teaching are not the words in Task 1.

3. While you read (20')

• Set the scene: You going to read a passage about life changes in the country. You read it

and do the following tasks.

• Task 1 - Vocabulary Matching (6')

- Ask Ss to work individually.

- First, ask Ss to look at all the words in A and their definitions in B. Make sure that the Ss

identify the part of speech of the given words in A, and there are not new words in the

definitions in B.

- Then, ask Ss to read the passage quickly and underline the given words in A.

- Encourage Ss to guess the meaning of the words in the context.

E.g. Toguess the meaning of make ends meet, Ss should pay atention to the words: work hard,

hardly in the same sentence.

- Call on some Ss to explain their answers in front of the class.

- Give correct answers: 1.b 2.d 3.a 4.e 5.c

- Give Vietnamese equivalents if necessary.

• Task 2 - Table Completion (8')

In this task, Ss have to work individually and scan the passage to get specific information to

complete the table. T instructs Ss some strategies to do.

- Let Ss study the table carefully before doing the task.

- Ask Ss to read the passage again and scan the information about each area of change.

(Note: It is easy to recognize that the first paragraph is about the village many years ago, the

second - the village now)

- Go around and provide help when necessary.

- Check the answers in front of the class

- Give correct answers:

Areas of change Before Now

houses made of straw and mud made of brick

� �

radio and TV few families had a radio or a TV

set

many families have a radio or

a TV set

farming methods old new

crops poor good/ bumper

travel by cart/ on foot by motorbike

• Task 3 - Answering questions (6')

- Ask Ss to work in pairs and answer the questions.

(Note: The two last questions can be omitted, because they belong to Reported speech, which

is difficult for many students. These questions will be seen again when learning Reported

speech in Language focus lesson.)

- Tell Ss to underline the key words in each question. Make sure that Ss understand all the

questions.

- Ask Ss to answer and compare their answers with another pair.

- Call on some Ss to read their answers aloud in front of the class.

- Give feedback and correct answer:

1. It was poor and simple.

2. Because they hope that with an education of science and technology their children could

find a way of bettering their lives.

3. They introduced new farmimg methods which resulted in bumper crops. They also helped

grow cash crops for export.

4. After you read (5')

- Here, T can change the question " How can people with an education help make the life of

their community better?" into ".... of their village better?". This is easily understandable for Ss.

- Let Ss base on the passage and write a paragraph of 5-7 sentences at home.

- Suggest some phrases: Introduce new farming methods, Grow cash crops for export, Apply

modern technology, Raise awareness about safety food, Keep the environment clean, ....

5. Wrapping (3')

- Summarise the main points of the lesson:

+ Social knowledge: the changes in the country life

� ��

+ Language knowledge: some words about the country life

- Assign homework: Write a paragraph of 5-7 sentences about " How can people with an

education help make the life of their village better?"

Summary of the chapter

This chapter has made some suggestions to reduce difficulties that the teachers of English at

Ke Sat High School encounter when teaching reading comprehension with the texrbook

"Tieng Anh 10". It is really not easy to overcome the difficulties. In order to become a good

teacher in teaching reading, the teacher must work really hard and have appropriate teaching

mothod. Besides, they must be flexible and adaptable to respond to the requirements of the

new textbook, and to improve students' reading skill.

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

� ��

����������������� �

�

In this part I would like to make a brief summary of the issues discussed in the study and

offer some suggestions for further study.

1. Summary of the study

This study provides an analysis of some difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with

the textbook "Tieng Anh 10" (the set of standard textbooks). The sources of these difficulties

are perceived by the teachers of English and the 10th form students at Ke Sat High School.

The study is done with the purposes of identifying difficulties of the teachers, and then

offering some suggestions to overcome those difficulties.

The study was carried out in terms of both theory and practice. The study started with some

concepts on reading and reading comprehension. The next chapter described important

features about the textbook used in this study, and the current situation of teaching at Ke Sat

High School.

In order to find out the problem, several instruments were employed to collect the data: a

survey questionnaire to students, a list of interview questions to the teachers of English in

combination with classroom observation. The ultimate goal of all these instruments is to find

out difficulties that the teachers of English at Ke Sat High School are coping with in teaching

reading comprehension with the textbook "Tieng Anh 10" to the 10th form students.

Why were the students' difficulties intended to find out? That is because difficulties of the

students must be in any relation with their teachers' teaching. The students, as being indicated

in the findings, have some problems related to vocabulary and grammatical structures, i.e.

understanding and predicting new words, and to understanding the text.

In combination with other research instruments, the result of the study has pointed out some

typical problems that the teachers face with in their daily teaching reading comprehension

with the textbook:

- The long and difficult reading passages and reading tasks.

- The low English level of the students.

� ��

- The students’ negative attitude towards learning reading.

- The lack of teaching aids.

After indicating the difficulties, the solutions have been suggested to overcome them. They

include: the ways to make reading lessons useful, the ways to train students to become

efficient readers, the ways to improve teacher’s techniques in reading lessons, the ways to

equip teaching facilities, and the ways to adapt materials.

It is hoped that what has been discussed in the study might be beneficial to both the teachers

of English and the students as it helps them learn about their strength and weaknesses, and

thus, identify room for future improvement and development of teaching and learning reading

comprehension. It is also hoped that the study will prove worthwhile to those who want to

conduct in this area and who are concerned with the problem.

2. Limitations and suggestions for further study

In most research projects, limitations are inevitable. The study presented in this thesis is of

no exception.

First, in terms of methodology, the study is limited in the fact that the data may not fully

reflect all aspects of difficulties in teaching reading comprehension with the textbook "Tieng

Anh 10".

Second, the author's practical experience in teching reading comprehension with the

textbook is limited, the suggestions to overcome difficulties are likely to be subjective and

incomplete.

Third, within the scope of the thesis, the study cannot indicate concrete application in

adapting the textbook. In addition, the study has no chance to deal with other three skills in

language teaching: Listening, Speaking and Writing. All the existing limitations of this study

call for further research.

� ��

0����������

�

�"��#$%&�'(�)�*"+�,�-�.�/�/��)�#"0"�����"������������������������ ���"�1''&23�4(���/��

5�(�6�4!�!�&%"�

�"��7!��)�+���8�/��"�������"��������������������������������"��'��&%"�9�/�:�/��7/��0/�9(!"�

�"��7(�5!/(�;���</�;/(�=/("�������"�������� ����� ������������������������"�9�/�:�/��

7/��5!/(�;��"�

�"� 7�(>�)� 0";"� ����"� ����������� �� ��������� ���� ��������"� ?�&��!�&� 0/$$� @&�&��'� 9&>�

*&�'&A"�

�"� +/��&$$)� ?"4"�,�+/�'(�)� *"5"� ����"� 12�&�'!<&� /�%� B��&�'!<&�@&/%!��� !�� /��1#?� '&��!��"�

����������� ��������� �����)���)������"�

�"�;(CC)�#"����"�����������������3�#�=�/!�!���+(��'&�C(��=&/��&�'"�+/�D�!%�&3�+/�D�!%�&�

-�!<&�'!�A�?�&''"�

�"� �E!&$%)�F"4"�,�#&D&�'($%)�*"#"�����"��!�����������������������������"�+/�D�!%�&3�

+/�D�!%�&�-�!<&�'!�A�?�&''"�

"� E�/�&��&!)� *"@"� ,� G/$$&�)� 9"1"� ����"� "#� �� ������� ���� �$�� ���� ��������� ���

�� �����"�9&>�H(��"�

"��5�&$$&�)�E"�����"���$��������������� %����"�F�5�/>�0!$$)�B��"�

��"��0/��&�)�*"����"���������������������������� ������������"��'��&%"�4(���/�"�

��"��0/��&�)�*"�������"���������������������������� ������������"���%�&%"�4(���/�"�

��"� � 4&>!')�F"�,�0!$$)� *"� ����"���������� ������& ��� ��� ���� ���� ��������"� +/�D�!%�&3�

+/�D�!%�&�-�!<&�'!�A�?�&''"�

��"��F!��)�9��A&��=��A"�,�=�/��)�4�(���8�A��"�������"��������������������������������"�

��%�&%"�9�/�:�/��7/��0/�9(!"�

��"���F((�&)�I";"�����"�'�����!���������� %����"�F�5�/>�0!$$"�B��"�

��"��9��/�)�;"�����"����� �������������(�������)"�JA%�&A3�9/�!(�/$�+&��&��C(��1��$!'��

4/���/�&�=&/��!��"�

��"� 9���/$$)� +"� ����"� ��������� �������� %����� ��� �� ������ ���� ���"� �'�� &%"� K2C(�%3�

0&!�&�/��"�

� ��

��"� 9���/$$)� ;"� ������"� ��������� �������� %���� ��� �� ������ ���� ���"� ��%� &%"� K2C(�%3�

0&!�&�/��"�

�"��?�&'$&A)�F"����"�������������� ����������#�%�3�=�&��/'&�C(��D/$/��&%��&/��!��"�9&>�

H(��3�5�!$C(�%�?�&''"�

�"���@!��/�%�@"�;/A"�����"�*�#�+�)���������������������"�B$$!�(!'3�7$((�!���(�"�

��"��=��A)�?"="="�������"�L�������������� ���������������������$���,)�������������������-)����

�� ��������������������������!���.�'������������������ ����)��*/M"�-�6�D$!'�&%�F#�

;!''&��/�!(�"�

��"��-�)�?"�����"���' ����������� ������������"�+/�D�!%�&3�+/�D�!%�&�-�!<&�'!�A�?�&''"�

��"��N/�)�0(/���N/�"�0(/)�0(/���=�!�:�/�"�F!��)�;(�=�/�"�?��(��)�9��A&��=��"�,�=�/�)�

9��A&��8�(�"�������"�������������"�9�/�:�/��7/��5!/(�;��"�

��"��G/''�/�)�@"�,�@!�'�A)�#"4"�����"��������$���������������'�����������+���0�?�&��!�&�

0/$$"�

��"��G!$$!/�')�1"�����"�������������������� ����'�����!"�9&>�H(��3�F/��!$$/�"�

�

�

�