Solutions to teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade 10th students at Quang xuong II high school, Thanh Hoa province

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA
TRƯỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƯƠNG III 
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
TÊN ĐỀ TÀI
SOLUTIONS TO TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN TEACHING READING SKILLS TO GRADE 10TH STUDENTS AT QUANG XUONG II HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA PROVINCE
 Người thực hiện: Ngô Thị Khuyên
 Chức vụ: Giáo viên
 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Quảng Xương III
 Sáng kiến thuộc lĩnh vực (môn): Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ 2016
TABLE OF CONTENT
Part I: Introduction
1
1.
Rationale of the Study
1
2.
Aims of the Study
1
3.
The Participants
1
4.
Scope and Significance of the Study
2
5.
Method of the Study
2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
3
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
3
1.1.
The Nature of Reading
3
1.2.
Teaching Reading Comprehension
3
1.3.
Difficulties in Teaching Reading
3
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
6
2.1.
The Current Situation of Teaching and Learning the Textbook at Quang Xuong 3 High School
6
2.2. 
Research Instruments
7
2.3.
Data Collection Procedure
8
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
9
3.1.
 Classroom Observations and Interview
9
3.2.
 Questionnaire
9
 CHAPTER 4: SOLUTIONS
13
4.1.
Improving Students’ Reading Interest and Motivation and making Reading Lessons Funny
13
4.2.
 Promoting Students with a Variety of Reading Strategies
14
4.3.
Varying Reading Activities
14
4.4.
Improving Teacher’s Classroom Techniques
15
4.5.
Adapting the Textbook
17
4.6.
Equipping Teaching Facilities
17
PART III: RESULTS (Reached result)
18
 PART IV: CONCLUSION
 19
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the Study
English has experienced its popularity in Vietnam over the last few decades. The demand for 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 the door into the bustling world. That is why English is now widely taught in almost all education institutions, at every level.
At Quang Xuong 3 High School, where the author works, all of the English teachers have the same problems. They have to confront some major obstacles in reading, such as: students’ habits of word-by-word reading, excessive focus on details rather than main ideas, poor vocabulary and limited background knowledge, etc. If those difficulties are not found out and no solutions to overcome are given, it is certain that reading lessons can not be successful and it even becomes worse.
In this situation, the teachers need to take a serious look at the teaching and learning of English in general and the teaching and learning of the reading skills in particular so as to suggest suitable techniques to enable the teaching and learning of the reading comprehension at high school to be more effective. Being a teacher of English at Quang Xuong 3 High School, the researcher wishes to give a hand in promoting reading skills for her tenth-form students. This matter of fact has offered her a chance to conduct a study on “ Solutions to teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills to grade 10th students at Quang Xuong 3 High School”. It is hoped that this study may offer the English teachers at schools in general and the English teachers at Quang Xuong 3 high school in particular the ways to teach reading skills more effectively.
2. Aims of the Study
The specific objectives of the study are:
● To investigate the Grade 10th students’ attitude towards speaking skills in their English learning.
● To examine the activities and techniques applied by the teachers at Quang Xuong 3 high school
● To identify the teachers’ major difficulties in teaching reading skills and examine the causes.
● To offer possible solutions to the difficulties.
3. The Participants 
The research was undertaken with the participation of 5 teachers (excluding the researcher) and 85 students. 
- There were 2 classes of grade ten at the time of studying. To have reliable variables, more than half of the classes should be included in the survey. To be objective, judgmental sampling was not possible because these classes were not at the same level. So, the classes must be picked by random sampling. The 2 classes chosen were: 10D2, 10D4.
4. Scope and Significance of the Study
This study is limited to:
the 10th form students at Quang Xuong 3 High School;
the teachers of English at Quang Xuong 3 High School; and
reading comprehension in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”.
The findings and suggested solutions most appropriately applied to the teachers of English as well as 10th grade students at Quang Xuong 3 High School. That is, the teachers and the students will be able to find ways to improve their process of teaching and learning reading skills.
5. Method of the Study
The study was designed to use a number of methods to achieve its aims. Firstly, classroom observation was carried out to investigate the reality of difficulties the teachers confronted in their teaching reading skills. Then, two types of survey questionnaire were conducted with informants of teachers of English and students randomly selected from 2 classes at Quang Xuong 3 High School. In addition to questionnaire, informal interviews with the informants were also employed.
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is aimed at providing a theoretical background to this study. The review of issues most relevant to the focus of the study will be included: concepts of reading and reading comprehension, reading process, reading difficulties for foreigner learners.
1.1. The Nature of Reading. 
Reading comprehension
According to Grellet (1981: 3): “Reading comprehension or understanding a written text means extracting the required information from it as efficiently as possible.” The author means that reading comprehension is an activity which aims at decoding the meaning of word combination in the text in the most efficient way.
1.2. Teaching Reading Comprehension
1.2.1. Relationship between Reading and Other Skills
In the process of teaching and learning English, it is very crucial for learners to realize the integration of language. That is the possibilities of other aspects of foreign program. Therefore, reading skill is closely related to writing, listening and speaking skills. Understanding relations will help learners succeed.
1.2.2. The Roles of the Teacher and the Students in a Reading Lesson
1.2.2.1. The Roles of the Teacher
So far there have been various approaches to teaching reading, such as the traditional approach, process-based approach and task-based approach (Pham, 2005 cited in Hoang et al., 1005: 517). In all these approaches, apart from the evident roles of learners in the process of reading comprehension, the roles of teachers in an EFL reading lesson are also significant and worth mentioning. Discussing the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Richard and Amato (1988) emphasize:
“The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and text. The second role is to act interdependent within the learning teaching group.”
Being concerned with the roles of the teacher in teaching reading, Harmer (2001: 213) gives an opinion that the teacher needs to create interest in the topic and task. He also needs to work as an organizer, observer, feedback organizer and prompter.
	▪ An observer
	▪ A feedback organizer
	▪ A prompter
In general, the teacher must be aware of what they need to do in a reading lesson. Playing their roles well will certainly helps the teacher lead successful reading lessons.
1.2.2.2. The Role of the Students
In communicative language teaching, the learners are regarded as the centre of the lesson. It is true in every reading lesson. During the reading process the students play the roles of an active and creative listener and as well as reader.
1.2.3. The Three Stages of a Reading Lesson
Although the role of reading activities in teaching reading is made apparent, how they are organized and sequenced in a lesson varies among different approaches to language teaching. In the light of recent and widely accepted communicative approach, it is a common practice that a reading lesson includes three stages: pre-, while- and post-reading. (William, 1984; Dubin and Bycina, 1991 cited in To et al., 2006: 158) (Hoang et al., 2005). 
1.2.3.1. Pre-reading Stage
1.2.3.2. While-reading Stage
1.2.3.3. Post-reading Stage
In conclusion, 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 each reading lesson, the teacher may apply these stages as well as allocate time for each stage appropriately.
1.3. Difficulties in Teaching Reading
As being mentioned above, no one can deny the important role of reading skill. However, it is uneasy for a language learner to be successful in learning reading because there are many factors affecting the success such as reader’s reading habits, attitude, motivation, exposure to the target language, textual characteristics, the way reading skill is taught and the teacher’s classroom techniques or learning environment, etc. Jolly (1978), Coady (1979) and others grouped those factors into three types: reading skill problem, language problem, and cultural background knowledge.
1.3.1. Reading Skill Problems
According to Jolly (1987), 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 tongue, then, he can not read well in a foreign language.
Students’ limited reading skills create many problems, such as reading slowly, failing to understand and summarize main ideas of the reading text, unable to guess or predict the 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.
1.3.2. Language Problems
Yorio (1971: 108) argues that reading problems of FL learners are due largely to the imperfect knowledge of the target language and to mother tongue inference in the reading process. Therefore, learners with limited knowledge of the target language might have considerable difficulties when reading in the target language. 
1.3.3. Cultural Background Knowledge
Apart from language problems and reading skill problems, cultural background knowledge can also affect students’ 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 context, may mistranslate or misinterpret the text according to their own cultural experience.
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. The Current Situation of Teaching and Learning the Textbook at Quang Xuong 3 High School
2.1.1 Introduction to Quang Xuong 3 High School and its Students
Quang Xuong 3 High School is located in Sam Son town, Thanh Hoa province. This shool has been in operation for 33 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.
The students at Quang Xuong 3 High School are approximately 16-18 years old. Lots of them come from comparatively poor families so their learning condition is low. Their parents can hardly afford to pay extra expenses for their children’s schooling such as a dictionary, a cassette player or even some English reference booksMoreover, most of the students have low English level
In addition, their lack of awareness on the importance of English as well as motivation makes them not interest in English. As a result, most of them do not have the habit of learning independently and tend to depend on the textbooks and on the teacher for knowledge.
2.1.2. An Overview of the Textbook “Tieng Anh 10”
2.1.2.1Contents of the Textbook
The textbook “Tieng anh 10” is designed under a theme-based approach with 16 units. Each unit is about a theme. There are five parts in each unit arranged as follows: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Language Focus. 
Reading is the beginning part of each unit. The aim of this is that through reading and through developing reading skills such as skimming, scanning, etc. the students are provided with language input. 
2.1.2.2. Characteristics of Reading Passages and Reading Tasks in the Textbook
Characteristics of Reading Passages
A reading passage in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10” has 190-230 words in length. Each passage is closely related to the theme of the unit. It is divided into small paragraphs. Some passages are long and rather difficult for the students to understand, as there are a lot of difficult new words and grammatical structures. It takes time to elicit them.
Characteristics of reading tasks
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.
- Task 2 helps the students to comprehend the content of the passage.
- Task 3 helps the students to have an overall understanding of the passage.
2.1.3. Teachers and Methods of teaching
Our school has got nine English teachers, aged from 33 to 42. 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 them some instructions. However, not all of the teachers can do that and the amount of time spent in such activities is not much. Furthermore, most of the 10th form students can not do these themselves. Therefore, the teachers often employ the traditional method of teaching in reading lessons. Most of the time, the teachers play the key role in the classroom, being the main speakers working through the text. 
2.2. Research Instruments
Three measurement instruments were developed for data collection: (1) classroom observation, (2) questionnaire, (3) interview. Those appear in the appendixes.
2.2.1. Questionnaire 
These two types of questionnaire included both closed and open-ended questions. Questionnaire for teachers was written in English, while the one for students was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the students properly understood the questions.
Questionnaire designed for teachers aimed at seeking information of work experience, teachers’ attitudes towards the reading sections in the textbook English 10, and the problems they confronted with in the process of teaching reading skills.
Questionnaire for students tended to survey on their perception about the importance of reading skills in learning English as a compulsory subject at school, their evaluation of their current speaking competence, and difficulties they encountered in learning reading skills.
2.2.2. Class Observation
The researcher carried out classroom observations by visiting 3 classes in reading periods and recording all activities occurred in each class: the teacher’s presentation on the reading lessons, the teacher’s questions and explanations, the students’ performance in English. The observation checklists for reading class were made. The checklists included five criteria:
Teacher’s preparation
Teacher’s presentation
Teacher’s method
Teacher’s/ students’ personal characteristics
Teacher-student interaction
2.2.3. Interview
The interview, which were semi-structured, and 20-25 minutes in length each, focused on the critical issues arising from the observed lessons as well as issues related to teachers’ difficulties in teaching reading skills. 
All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese in order for the participants to fully articulate their views without being constrained by the use of a second language. They were then fully transcribed, translated and analyzed by the researcher to uncover the emerging themes.
2.3. Data Collection Procedure
Data collecting methods used for the study comprised survey questionnaire, classroom observations, and interviews.
Classroom observations were conducted for one lesson for each class in three weeks for three teachers. Because the teachers were not comfortable with their lessons being video- or audio- recorded, the researcher took extensive field notes of all the observed events in the classroom. Each teacher was interviewed once on the last day of classroom observation.
Then, based on the classroom observations, the questionnaire was designed for the students and teachers.
It is noted that in order to make it easy in analyzing data, 82 students of the tenth form were surveyed. In stead of randomly selecting the individual, the researcher randomly selected the classes for investigation. 
Totally 85 copies of the questionnaire were delivered to students and 5 teachers and all of the copies were returned and respectively used for analysis. 
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Presentation of Statistical Results
3.1. Classroom Observations and Interview
The classroom observation results reflected the reality of the difficulties that the teachers encountered in teaching English reading skills.
3.2. Questionnaire
3.2.1. Questionnaire for teachers
3.2.1.1. Methodology
To elicit a reply for the difficulties the teachers at Quang Xuong 3 High School encountered in teaching reading skills to 10th graders and solutions to overcome those difficulties, 13 closed and open-ended questions are formulated:
Questions 1, 2, 3 (part I) request the matter concerning the teachers’ education and work experience
Questions 1 and 2 (Part II) aim at finding out the teachers’ opinions on the importance of reading skill and the sections for reading skills in the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”.
Questions 3, 4, 5 relate to the way the teachers often do in a reading lesson.
Questions 6, 7, 8 aim at finding out the problems the teachers face in reading teaching process with the textbook “Tieng Anh 10”.
Questions 9, 10 focus on teachers’ suggested solutions to difficult situations they meet.
3.2.1.2. Results
Problems Teachers Often Faced in Teaching Reading Skills
Question 3: 
Categories
Number of teachers
Percentage
New words 
5
100%
New grammatical structures	
4
80%
Ideas in the reading texts
2
40%
Cultural knowledge
1
20%
All of the above
1
20%
Table 1: Teachers’ focus when teaching a reading text.
As can be seen from Table 4, when conveying the reading text to the students, all of the teachers focused on new words and most of them paid attention to new grammatical structures (80%) whereas cultural knowledge and ideas in the reading texts were paid very little attention to. 20% of them focused on cultural knowledge and 40% focused on ideas in the reading texts.
Question 5: 
1. From the beginning to the end, then the reading tasks
2. Each paragraph, stop and see the meaning of the new word, then continue
3. Read and base on the context to guess the general ideas of the text.
Chart 1: The way teachers ask their students to read.
Chart 1 reveals that, 40% of the teachers asked their students to read the text from the beginning to the end, and then did the reading tasks. 20% of them asked the students to read each paragraph, then stop and see the meaning of new words, then continue. 40% of them encouraged the students to read and based on the context to guess the meaning of new words, or to guess the true message of the author. However, predicting from the context was sometimes very difficult for their students; therefore, they often helped them