Some effective methods in teaching reading skill for the 12th grade students at Thach Thanh 4 High School to prepare for the national competition

 INDEX PAGE APPENDIX ............................................................................................................
I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................1
1. Reasons for the research.................1 
2. Purposes ...1
3. Subjects ............1
4. Methods.....1
II. CONTENT ...1 - 19 
1. Theoretical background ...1 - 2
2. Reality before applying the research..2 
3. Researches and solutions that have been used to solve problems....2 
3.1. Reading comprehension skills.2 - 4
3.1.1 Skimming ....2
3.1.2. Scanning..3 
3.1.3. Paraphrasing.3 - 4
3.1.4. Kinds of basic question in reading comprehension skills.4 -15
3.1.5. Example for all the types of questions of reading comprehension skills
.....15-19
4. Effectiveness of research....19
III.CONCLUSION.....20
1. General conclusion ....20
2. Recommendation....20
REFERENCES... 
 I. INTRODUCTION
1. Reasons for the research
 Today English is regarded as a global language that anyone in the world needs to be fluent this foreign language as a way of communication and integration. So, learning English becomes one compulsory subject for the schools. However, the characteristics of the school where the majority of students are from ethnic minorities, many students do not have access to English courses, and many parents do not see the importance of it. Moreover, conditions of school facilities is limited, these reasons prevent students from learning for English well to ethnic high school students as well as students of Thach Thanh 4 high school
2. Purposes
 From my point of view, I noticed that students often have some difficulties such as impatience, the rules of pronunciation, new words and grammar etc. Of the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, the reading comprehension skill always makes my students lost patience .The reading passages are too long for them to understand because there are many new words and inferential questions which makes any students downhearted Furthermore, this skill contains a lot of points in the exams .Therefore, I have given my own experiences to help students overcome the difficulties of this skills
3. Subjects
 To help students figure out all the detailed method, the form of questions in the comprehension exercises. The teacher should help students to know where the answer in the reading is, what the way to do the type of questions is. In this way, the students will find the method which they have to use with the types of question; it is most effective way for them to avoid confusion between them with different ones
4. Methods
 Firstly, reading comprehension skills do not only require knowledge of grammar but also have abundant vocabulary. To do a comprehension exercise, students need to understand at least 60-70% of the vocabulary, meaning of reading. If students do not understand this, the reading will often provide too little information. Therefore, students cannot find the answer to choose the multiple questions. Before reading, students should be equipped with a quantity of vocabulary about 3000 words and some fixed grammatical structure. For national exams, the new words are wide and quite diverse. In this case, we need to learn words from basic to advanced Instructure students to learn new words through film, picture or in the process of doing comprehension exercises
 II.CONTENT
1. Theoretical background
 Reading comprehension skill is one of the most difficult skills because it needs many factors such as vocabulary, grammar to answer the question. Students are not often easy to get an answer quickly, translate the meaning of it. Even though they have found the passage that relates to the answer but in some case, they cannot find out the answer. Maybe they do not know the closest meaning, opposite meaning, the way to move from specific nouns into common nouns, change part of speech and use other structures
2. Reality before applying the research 
 Understanding the student’s difficulties , teacher must know how to simplify the types of questions in order that the students can increase their interest, help them see that this skill is not too difficult as they thought, make students feel passion for all types of questions as well as for English subject
3. Researches and solutions that have been used to solve problems 
 Teacher must find the measures to solve the difficulties of reading comprehension skills, provide many examples from easy to difficult, ask students to look up and learn by heart all kind of words that concern vocabulary or the structure as a source of examples for the following exercises. Besides, teacher need to ask them to do this one for each topic to realize what kind of vocabulary is used for that topics, help them increase vocabulary for other skills, such as filling in the blanks, etc; Show students that they have to understand certainly the skill of each type, practice more and more to be abundant experience for themselves
 As the student’s difficulties I see, through researching and teaching, I have given some interesting methods for this skill, here are some experiences myself so as to help students cope with the difficulties of reading comprehension skills
3.1. Reading comprehension skills
 Before doing reading comprehension exercises, students have to understand clearly some basic skills .There are three basic skills that often appear in reading
3.1.1 Skimming
 ● Definition 
 Skimming refers to the process of reading only main ideas within a passage to get an overall impression of the content of a reading selection
 ● When is skimming skill used?
- Skimming to find the significance of readings in order to determine where is the important information; to determine the main keywords
- After skimming a passage, you will determine whether you need to read this skill then 
 ● How to skim
- Read the title and the introduction or the first paragraph
- Read the first sentence of every other paragraph and any heading and sub-heading
- Notice any pictures, charts or graphs, any italicized or boldface words or phrases
- Read the summary or last paragraph
3.1.2. Scanning
● Definition 
 Scanning is a reading technique to be used when you want to find specific information quickly. In scanning you have a question in your mind and you read a passage only to find the answer, ignoring unrelated information
● When is Scanning skill used?
 Scanning is often used when searching for data such as names, dates, parameters or words in texts without reading and understanding all the other parts of the questions or for students, after completing skimming they can apply Scanning to find the exact answer
● How to Scan
- State the specific information you are looking for
- Try to anticipate how the answer will appear and what clues you might use to help you locate the answer
- Use heading and any other aids that will help you identify which sections might contain the information you are looking for
- Selectively read and skip through sections of the passage
3.1.3. Paraphrasing
● Definition
 Paraphrasing is using your own words to express someone else’s ideas whilst still preserving the main ideas of the original source
 For example: 
* Original: Her life spanned years of incredible change of women
* Paraphrases: Mary lived through an era of liberating reform for women 
 ● Some paraphrase’s technique
 This technique consists of the following ways:
 ♦ Using synonyms 
For example: 
* A car exhibition → An auto show
* To identify problems in the system → To expose defects in the system
 ♦ Using antonyms
For example:
* The public school is opened to Monday through Saturday →The public school is closed on Sunday 
* To encourage better attendance → To have fewer absences
 ♦ Moving from a specific noun into common noun
 For example:
* They are buying some apples →they are buying some fruits
* She has bought a microwave oven for two days → She has bought a kitchen 
♦ Moving from a common noun into a specific noun 
For example:
* Fossil fuels → coal, oil, and gas
* Transportation → bus, subway, train and airline service
♦ Word class conversion
For example:
* He cycles very slowly → He is very slow cyclist
* To take occasional walks →To walk occasionally
♦ Using other structures
For example:
* High salary based on the level of prior experience →Pay depends on how much experience the employee has
* Public parking is available, but limited → Visitors aren’t easy to find a place to park
3.1.4. Kinds of basic question in reading comprehension skills
 There are nine questions that usually appear in reading comprehension .It is divided into three main groups: the question of main idea, the question of specific information and reference, the question of vocabulary
● The questions of main idea
 - Question 1: Finding the main idea of the reading
 - Question 2: Finding the purpose of the reading
 In general, the readings are at least a question of this type, it can be asked in many different forms but finally, it will ask students to identify “topic”, “title”, “ subject” “main idea”. Here is a main ideas questions table which helps students understand exactly for this ones
 Main ideas questions
Some kinds of main ideas questions 
-what is the topic/subject of the passage?
-what is the main idea of the passage?
-what is the author’s main point in the passage?
-what is the author’s main purpose in the passage?
The answer
-The question is usually located the first or last of each paragraph. If the main idea isn’t the first or last of each paragraph, we will do it after completing all other questions
The method 
-Read the first line of each passage
-Find the most common idea in the first line and the relationship between them
-while reading, pay attention to the keywords that is repeated several times
-skim all passage to check the correct content
-Eliminate wrong answers certainly, normally, the main idea isn’t too general, too specific or not mentioned
-Choose the best answer in other options
♦ Give the example to explain this method
 An air pollutant is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such qualities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or material adversely .Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled- a far cry from the extensive list of harmful substances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions
 Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides, are found in nature. As the earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities
 However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as a city .In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need to be large for a substance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerical value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over the concentration that would occurs naturally in the area. For example , sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm) , which is about 400 times its natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm
Question: what does the passage mainly discuss?
A. the economic impact of air pollution
B. what constitutes an air pollutant
C. how much harm air pollutants can cause
D. the effects of compounds added to the atmosphere
Explain the answer.
Skimming the first and last each paragraph to find the main idea the passage. Then, we can use elimination to find the best answer
A. the economic impact of air pollution is not mentioned
B. the passage refers to the pollutants in the 14th century in England until now
C. the passage is not mentioned about how much harm air pollutants can cause
D. the effects of compounds added to the atmosphere .this isn’t main idea the passage ►The correct answer is B (what constitutes an air pollutant)
-Question 3: Identify organizational ideas, general organization or attitude
 This kind of question, we are often asked to identify passage’s organization or author’s attitude. For question about organization, we should pay attention to the connection words between paragraphs. For the question about author’s attitude, we should notice the adjective expression 
 Organization question
 Signal
Time order/chronological order
Firstly, secondly, finally, next, then.
Cause and Effect
Because, since, as, as a result
Definition and example
Define, mean, indicate
Comparison and contrast
On the other hand, more, less, most
Problem-solution
Cause, result in/ deal with
♦ Provide the example for this kind’s question
 Increasing numbers of parents in the US are choosing to teach their children at home .In fact; the US department of education has estimated that in 1999, about 850.000 children were being homeschooled. Some educational experts say that the real number is double this estimate, and the ranks of homeschooled children seem to be growing at the average rate of about eleven percent every year. At one time, there was a theory accounting for homeschooling: it was traditionally used for students who could not attend school because of behavioral or learning difficulties. Today, however, more parents are taking on the responsibility of educating their own children at home due to their dissatisfaction with the educational system. Many parents are unhappy about class size, as well as problems inside the classroom. Teacher shortages and lack of funding mean that, in many schools, one teacher is responsible for thirty or forty students. Escalating classroom violence has also motivated some parents to remove their children from school
 Although there have been a lot of arguments for and against it, homeschooling in the U.S has become a multi-million dollar industry, and it is growing bigger and bigger. There are now plenty of websites, support groups, and conventions that help parents protect their rights and enable them to learn more about educating their children .Though once it was the only choice for troubled children, homeschooling today is an accepted alternative to an educational system that many believe is failing
Question: The attitude of the author towards homeschooling can be best described as..
A. acceptable B. favorable C. remarkable D. unfavorable 
Explain the answer:
For this kind of question, we should do after skimming all passage to understand the passage’s main content to find the attitude of author. In this passage, the author gives the thesis about the trend of increasing numbers parents for homeschooling in the USA. 
The reasons for this trend are taking place and developing, so the author’s attitude is positive ►The best answer is B (favorable)
● Stated detail questions
-Question 4.Determining information that appears in the reading
The question about determining information in reading always asks little detailed information in reading. Answer for the question is available information in the reading. Normally, the correct answer is only “restatement” again the information by using different expression words. Below is the table’s stated detail question
 Stated detail questions
The questions
-According to the passage,
-It is stated in the passage
-The passage indicates that.
-Which of the following is true..
The answer
It is located in the reading
The methods
-Underline main word, important idea in the reading
-Use scanning skills to find appropriate passage to read carefully information
-Read carefully sentences which contain the key and idea in the question
-Eliminate the mistake options and choose the best answer
♦ Provide the example for this stated detail questions
 An air pollutant is defined as a compound added directly or indirectly by humans to the atmosphere in such qualities as to affect humans, animals, vegetation, or material adversely .Air pollution requires a very flexible definition that permits continuous change. When the first air pollution laws were established in England in the fourteenth century, air pollutants were limited to compounds that could be seen or smelled- a far cry from the extensive list of harmful substances known today. As technology has developed and knowledge of the health aspects of various chemicals has increased, the list of air pollutants has lengthened. In the future, even water vapor might be considered an air pollutant under certain conditions
 Many of the more important air pollutants, such as sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides, are found in nature. As the earth developed, the concentration of these pollutants was altered by various chemical reactions; they became components in biogeochemical cycles. These serve as an air purification scheme by allowing the compounds to move from the air to the water or soil. On a global basis, nature’s output of these compounds dwarfs that resulting from human activities
 However, human production usually occurs in a localized area, such as a city .In such a region, human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles. The result is an increased concentration of noxious chemicals in the air. The concentrations at which the adverse effects appear will be greater than the concentrations that the pollutants would have in the absence of human activities. The actual concentration need to be large for a substance to be a pollutant; in fact, the numerical value tells us little until we know how much of an increase this represents over the concentration that would occurs naturally in the area. For example , sulfur dioxide has detectable health effects at 0.08 parts per million (ppm) , which is about 400 times its natural level of 0.1 ppm and is not usually a pollutant until its level reaches about 15 ppm
Question: According to the passage, human –generated air pollution in localized regions..
A .can be dwarfed by nature’s output of pollutants
B .can overwhelm ( lấn át )the natural system that removes pollutants
C .will damage areas outside of the localized regions
D .will react harmfully with natural pollutants
Explain the answer:
“Key words” in the question is “human-generated” “air pollution” “localized regions”. So, we have to use scanning skill to find where key word located in the passage is. We can see the information in sentence: “human output may be dominant and may temporarily overload the natural purification scheme of the cycles”
►The correct answer is B (can overwhelm the natural system that removes pollutants)
●Unstated detail questions
-Question 5: Determining information that is not mentioned in the passage
It means that you find the answer which its content isn’t mentioned. It often appears the words such as: “not mentioned” “not stated” “all the following options are true Except” or “not true”. This kind of ques