A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to non-Major students of English at Haiphong foreign language center, haiphong university

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale English has experienced its popularity in teaching and learning in Vietnam over the last few decades. Demand for learning English even gets stronger when Vietnam fosters its international relations. English, in parallel with the knowledge of some other fields, turns out to be a key to open the door into the bustling world. In any walk of life in Vietnam, you can find people use English; from the big cities to mountainous areas; from the international conferences to daily conversations, or just few pidgin words with the foreign tourists. People learn and use English with different purposes, but there is a fact that they are trying to learn English with the hope that they can use it effectively. In Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University (HFLC), English is the foreign language dominating the teaching and learning programs for nearly 30 years. Despite a prejudice that learning English at a center is less effective than that at some universities, colleges, or international schools, learners at HFLC, regardless of their ages, always strive for a good command of English as they are well aware of their learning purposes. Learners of English, naturally and obviously, want to become the masters of all the four skills, and those at HFLC are not exceptions. Though there are some who propose what they need is speaking a fluent English, therein they consider listening a tool for the realization of their goal, there also are some who say writing is necessary because documenting reports, letters, memos, etc is what they daily deal with in their office, learning to read effectively remains the top in the targets of most learners here. However, most of them say they find it difficult to focus on reading, and especially to have effective reading. Some even say it is boring to start reading because there are piles of new words, and lengthy reading texts. From this fact, we teachers of this center have to do something new to promote reading skill among learners. Thereby, if the learners do not know how to gain the reading fruits, we need to show them the way; if they do not realize the importance of reading or simply they do not like it, it is our duty to light them up, set fire to them, and add fuel. With this in mind, the researcher wishes to give a hand in promoting reading skills among these learners, and as a result, the thesis title goes as: “A study on the techniques for improving reading skills to non-major students of English at Haiphong Foreign Language Center, Haiphong University.” 2. Aims of the study The purpose of this study is to examine the areas of difficulties in reading encountered by non-major students at HFLC so that techniques can be given to help them improve this skill. The specific aims are: to investigate the learners’ attitude in HFLC to find out the difficulties encountered by non-major learners at HFLC to suggest techniques to help learners better their reading skill 3. Methods of the study To achieve the aims mentioned above, quantitative method is used, and the following tasks are involved: Collecting data for the analysis from 240 learners of C level classes in 2005 Assessing what difficulties are dominant Evaluating what techniques are best fit 4. Scope of the study Though the study focuses on techniques to improve reading skills of the non-major students at HFLC, due to the limit of time, the researcher can just conduct survey on learners of C level to investigate reading problems experienced by these learners, then suggest certain techniques to help them better their reading skill. Also, such follow-up activities after reading are left untouched. 5. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts. The first part, ‘introduction,’ outlines the impetus from which the author decided to conduct this study as well as the boundary within which the study is realized. This part moreover presents feasible methods for the fulfillment of research objective. The second part, ‘Development,’ consists of three chapters: Chapter one presents various linguistic concepts most relevant to the research topic such as definition of reading, classification or reading, reading comprehension, effective reading, etc. Chapter two deals with analyses on general learning situation at HFLC, learning requirements, teachers and their teaching methods, materials as well as material assessment, this chapter also focuses on data collections – findings and discussion. Chapter three emphasizes the implication of the study in which certain techniques for improving reading skills to non-major students at HFLC are suggested. The last part of the study, ‘Conclusion,’ summarizes what is addressed in the study, points out the limitations, and provides some suggestions for further study. PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT Chapter one: Literature Review Introduction To provide a theoretical background to the study, this chapter is devoted to the re-examination of concepts most relevant to the thesis’s topic. They are nature of reading and reading comprehension, reading process, classification of reading. Moreover, what is effective reading comprehension and the techniques for reading comprehension will also be discussed. An Overview on the Nature of Reading Definition of Reading Attempts have been made to give a definition of what reading is. However, the act of reading is not completely understood nor easily described. Rumelhart (1977) defines “reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction between the reader and the text”. It means the role of learners and reading texts are placed an important position in reading act. According to Goodman (1971:135), reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which the reader, a language users, 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.” William (1986:3) shares the same view on reading when he argues that “written texts, then, often contain more than we need to understand them. The efficient reader makes use of this to take what he needs, and no more, to obtain meaning.” Harmer (1989:153) views reading from a different perspective. He considers reading as a mechanical process that “eyes receive the message and the brain has to work out the significance of the message.” Though definitions of reading are numerous, none can certainly capture all the ideas and features of what reading is. However, what they all share is that they 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 a key 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 lessons as efficiently as possible. Thus, three elements - reading text, background knowledge of the reader, and the contextual aspects relevant for the interpretation of the text - are involved in the reading process. Swam (1975:1) proposes “a student is good at comprehension we mean that he can read accurately and efficiently so as to get the maximum information of a text with the minimum of understanding.” Grellet (1981:3) considers “reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as effectively as possible.” Richard and Thomas (1987:9) points out “reading comprehension is best described as an understanding between the author and the reader.” Though these opinions are not exactly the same, what comes up as a common point is that 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. Reading Process Bottom-up Models have been long known, and as for Cambourne (1979), it became the basis of a large number of reading schemes. In Bottom-up models, the reader begins with the written text (the bottom), and constructs meaning from letters, words, phrases, and sentences found within, and then processes the text in a linear fashion. In the process of meaning interpretation, the language is translated from one form of symbolic representation to another (Nunan, 1991). Clearly, these are text-driven models so the reader plays a relatively passive role as s/he builds comprehension by moving eyes from letters to letters, words to words, phrases to phrases, and sentences to sentences to identify their exact meaning. Samuels and Kamil (188:301), in which the shortcomings of these models are stated, says the lack of feedback makes it “difficult to account for sentence-context effects and the role of prior knowledge of text topic as facilitating variables in word recognition and comprehension.” Next come Top-down models in which the reading process moves from the top, the higher level of mental stages down to the text itself. This approach emphasizes the reconstruction of meaning rather than the decoding of form, the interaction between the reader and the text rather than the graphic forms of the printed pages. The readers proves his active role in the reading process by bringing to the interaction his/her available knowledge of the subject, knowledge of and expectations about how language works, motivation, interest and attitudes towards the content of the text. Apparently, the strong points of top-down models outnumber those of the bottom-up as the reader – the central of the reading process as we personally assume – proves his active role. However, to some researchers, these models still reveal certain shortcomings because it sometimes fails to distinguish adequately between beginning readers and fluent readers. Moreover, a purely top-down concept of the reading process makes little sense for a reader who can be stymied by a text containing a large amount of unfamiliar vocabulary. What is more, in top-down models, the generation of hypotheses would actually be more time-consuming than decoding (Stanovich, 1980). The third type – interactive models of the reading process – is proposed in the thought of the perceived deficiencies of both bottom-up and top-down models. Interactive theorists appreciate the role of prior knowledge and prediction, and at the same time emphasize the importance of rapid and accurate processing of the actual words of the text. Hayes (1991:7) proposes “in interactive models, different processes are thought to be responsible for providing information that is shared with other processes. The information obtained from each type of processing is combined to determine the most appropriate interpretation of the printed pages.” To sum up, the appearance and popularity of interactive models show that interactive models can maximize the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses of the separate use of either bottom-up or top-down models. Classification of Reading Classification according to Manner Reading, according to manner, is divided into reading aloud and silent reading in which “reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it.” (Doff, 1988:70). Though reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessary information to the others, it is an unpopular activity outside classroom. In fact, reading aloud proves itself to be advantageous for the learners because it helps them make the connection between sounds and spelling of letters and words, and assists the teachers to check learner’s pronunciation. However, there are contradictory opinions about it. While Nuttal (1996) says reading aloud is an aid for beginners to improve their pronunciation, Greenwood (1985) criticizes the overemphasis of the purpose of “teaching pronunciation” through reading aloud. Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is more often used in both real life and classroom, and “it is the method we normally use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and most efficient” (Lewis, 1985:110). Because reading is a very personal skill so silent reading is a more effective skill for reading comprehension because firstly learners do not need to read all the words in the text, secondly they can read at their own speed and if they do not understand the sentence, they can go back, thirdly students can not only attain the main ideas in a short time but also understand its details thoroughly to answer the questions, and finally the teacher can check his/her learners’ understanding easily and add reading materials and exercises suitable to their ability. Classification according to Purpose According to purpose, reading is categorized into four types: skimming, scanning, extensive reading, and intensive reading. Skim-read and scan-read are necessary reading techniques for general sense or the gist of a reading text. Nuttal (1982:36) says “by skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through the text to determine whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about matters that are not of great importance to us.” Grellet (1981:19) states that “when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to specific questions. … When scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so.” Though these two reading techniques are important for quick and efficient reading, they should not be selected separately because a text can be best tackled by a combination of strategies. So after skimming and scanning, students need to have the products of critical reading, which would be “chewed and digested” as stated in Francis Bacon (1992:386) that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Unlike skim-read and scan-read which to some extent still have something in common, extensive and intensive reading are viewed differently. While extensive reading is associated with reading outside the classroom and fluency and pleasure in reading are expected as reading fruits while intensive reading, also called study reading, involves the close guidance of the teacher and require great attention to the text. Students need to “arrive at a profound and detailed understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning is produced” (Nuttal, 1989:23) Effective Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension techniques What is Effective Reading Comprehension? Ur (1996:148) considers effective reading comprehension a process with the elements that follow: 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 Cook (1989:14), nevertheless, suggests effective reading comprehension would be best viewed from the cognitive behaviors of good versus poor readers in different reading stages: before-, during- and after-reading. Techniques for Reading Comprehension What constitutes effective reading comprehension has been unveiled. Mature readers not only convey their clear purpose, close attention, prior knowledge and sufficient vocabulary but also appropriate techniques for effective reading. Grellet (1990) provides three groups of techniques: Sensitizing Inference Understanding relations within the sentences Linking sentences and ideas Improving reading speed From skimming to scanning Predicting Previewing Anticipation Skimming Scanning Nuttal (1982) provides a list of reading skills which consist of macro-skills with Word-attack skills and Text- attack skills. While the former compose of morphological information, structural clues, inference (or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words) from context, active, receptive and throw-away vocabulary, learning to ignore difficult words, and using dictionary, the latter include two subgroups: significance and cohesion with understanding sentence syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, interpreting discourse markers, and discourse with recognizing functional value, tracing and interpreting rhetorical organization, recognizing the presuppositions underlying the text, recognizing implications and making inferences, prediction, and integration and application. The techniques are actually various, and in each case and for different purposes of reading, one proves to be more advantageous than the other. However, hereby are some suggested approaches which the researcher personally expects to help readers get better reading fruits. Establishing a purpose for reading Activating and building background knowledge Previewing the text to build expectations Rereading activities for lower levels of language proficiency Building and monitoring comprehension of the text Adjusting reading strategies when necessary Reviewing reading information in the text Summary In short, this chapter focuses on the concepts useful for the accomplishment of the study. First comes an overview on the nature of reading in which the definition of reading and reading comprehension is focused. Then, dominant groups of models of reading process are stated. Actually, each has its own strong points and drawbacks, so what should be done is combining these models to make full use of the advantages offered and minimize the shortcomings revealed so that reading process with its models is always perceived as a “developmental process”(Vallette, 1977). What’s more in the first chapter is the classification of reading into reading aloud and silent reading in terms of reading manner and skimming, scanning, extensive reading, and intensive reading in terms of reading purposes. Last comes in the first chapter is an insight into what is effective reading comprehension and the techniques for effective reading comprehension. Chapter two: An Investigation into the Current Situation of Teaching and Learning Reading at Haiphong Foreign Language Center – Haiphong University Introduction To realize the objectives of this study, this chapter first starts with an overview on Haiphong Foreign Language Center, in which background, facility, trend of development of the Center is briefly presented. Then for a better understanding about the Center, some information about the learners and learning requirements are addressed. In addition, an analysis on teachers, teaching methods, materials, and material assessments will be very important for the realization of the study, for without it the researcher will find it impossible to sort out reasonable techniques to improve reading skill for his students. An Overview on Haiphong Foreign Language Center Haiphong Foreign Language Center (HFLC) was established in 1976 and has become a reliable address for those who are eager to learn foreign languages. In this center, the scale of study is widely expanded for learners, from children aged 8 to adults aged over 50, from school pupils to city authorities. In this center, English has been taught with different levels: elementary (A level), pre-intermediate (B level), intermediate (C level), and upper-intermediate (tertiary level). Currently, HFLC has over 170 classes with nearly 7,000 students. Students come here desiring to have a good faculty of English with four fluent skills. Generally, in the Center, students at A level classes occupy the largest proportion, next come students at B level, and the smallest is students at C level. In the last few decades there has been an increasing number of learners attending tertiary education. In 1990, the number was about 6 classes annually, but it doubled in 2000 with 12 classes,